Hrotsvit's Apostolic Mission

31 Pages·2016·0.42 MB·English

Santa Clara University
Scholar Commons
English College of Arts & Sciences
10-2012
Hrotsvit's Apostolic Mission: Prefaces, Dedications,
and Other Addresses to Readers
Phyllis Brown
Santa Clara University, [email protected]
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Recommended Citation
Brown, Phyllis "Hrotsvit's Apostolic Mission: Prefaces, Dedications, and Other Addresses to Readers." In Hrotsvit of Gandersheim (fl.
960): Contextual and Interpretive Approaches. Ed. Phyllis R. Brown and Stephen L. Wailes. Brill's Companions to the Christian
Tradition 34. Brill, 2012. 235-64.
Copyright 2012 Brill. All Rights Reserved.http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004234390
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Hrotsvit’s Apostolic Mission:
prefAces, DeDicAtions, AnD otHer ADDresses to reADers
phyllis r. Brown
Hrotsvit’s Apostolic Mission
the most complete manuscript of Hrotsvit’s writings, Bavarian state
library clm 14485 (the Munich codex), includes prefaces, dedications, and
other addresses to readers in which Hrotsvit names herself and provides
information about her education, writing practices, and purposes. if this
manuscript had not survived, we might have some of her plays and poems
extant in other manuscripts, but we would know little or nothing about
Hrotsvit, and we would likely not be able to imagine that such a scholar
and writer could have existed.1 By naming and identifying herself as an
author and addressing readers in the first-person, not only in the prefatory
texts but also within the poems, Hrotsvit presents herself as an important
actor throughout the manuscript and creates significant parallels between
her actions and those of the characters in her poems and plays. she also
invites readers to see parallels between herself, her characters, christ’s
apostles, and John the Baptizer. furthermore, in the world created by
Hrotsvit’s writings, all words and actions are always relevant to one of
the main themes of her poems and plays: conversion. readers, writers,
and characters in her writing have two choices (which in a sense is one
choice): they can turn toward God and be saved by grace, or they can turn
away from God. some, like the apostles, choose in response to christ’s
mandate; others, like John the Baptizer, are pre-cursors of christ. for all,
whether already christian or pagan, conversion involves the Augustinian
“turning” of the mind and will toward God. And all have a shared respon-
sibility not only to welcome grace “as a free gift that elevates us to a new
and unmerited level of existence”2 but also to use their God-given talents
to contribute to the redemption of the world.
1 see Walter Berschin’s account of the surviving manuscripts in the introduction to his
edition and, translated into english, in “Hrotsvit and her Works,” in this volume.
2 richard p. McBrien, Catholicism, new edition (san francisco, 1994), p. 169.
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236 phyllis r. brown
While the idea that the gifts of free will and grace require all humans
to take responsibility for their daily actions is central to catholic teach-
ing, Hrotsvit’s writings present the theological ideas in especially powerful
ways. As stephen Wailes argues in Spirituality and Politics in the Works
of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, Hrotsvit dramatizes in her poems and plays
“the age of Grace and of apostleship, the age in which she and her fellows
lived. in this age, all christians must serve God as they are particularly
able; such service may include (in the author’s case) the activity of liter-
ary composition.”3 in other words, Hrotsvit’s writings emphasize that the
responsibility christ assigns to his disciples applies to every christian. for
example, in Hrotsvit’s poem about the Ascension, christ says (in a para-
phrase of Matt. 28:19 and John 20:2):
As the father has sent Me forth, His dearly beloved son, into the world,
so do i also send you, my cherished friends. But you, going speedily to all
nations, teach them the commandments of eternal life, purifying forthwith
with the sacred water those who believe in the name of the father, and
likewise of the son, and also of the Holy Ghost, that thus they may put off
the stains of ancient guilt.4
While in the Bible christ addresses his 11 disciples, Hrotsvit’s narrative
introduction of christ’s speech invites readers to imagine themselves as
among the “cherished friends” whom christ addresses before his ascension.
Her action and mode of recounting christ’s speech in her poem effectively
broadens the audience of “cherished friends”—and by extension the task
with which they are charged—to include all of Hrotsvit’s readers.
Hrotsvit was not alone in understanding the apostolic mission to extend
to all christians. for instance, Alan thacker has shown that the venerable
Bede’s “later writings were permeated with a vision of reform in church
and society which was to leave its mark on more than his own genera-
tion.” thacker demonstrates that Bede “was much preoccupied with the
role of those whom he variously called the spirituales magistri, the sancti
praedicatores, the rectores or doctors ecclesiae” and that Bede understood
preaching to have “a pre-eminent, even a sacramental, significance,” con-
cerned not only with conversion of pagans but also with “promoting the
3 Wailes, Spirituality, p. 55.
4 Wiegand, p. 75; “Ut pater in mundum me promisit sibi carum, / sic ego mitto meos
dilectos vosmet amicos. / At vos in gentes citius cunctas abeuntes / illas perpetuę vitę
mandata docete / credentes sacra purgantes ocius unda / in patris et nati pariter quoque
flaminis almi / nomine, quo veteris deponant crimina sordis,” pp. 36–37, lines 23–29. All
latin citations to Hrotsvit’s works are from Berschin, Opera.
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hrotsvit’s apostolic mission 237
moral well-being or theological understanding of the faithful.” According
to thacker, Bede’s teachers and preachers were the spiritual leaders and
guides of the people of God, the successors of the prophets and apostles,
to whose ordo they belonged and whose role they fulfilled in the contem-
porary church.5 significantly, Bede “even envisaged women preachers” in
his Homilies, De Templo, and In Ezram.6 equally significant, Hrotsvit uses
the verb “to preach” (praedicare) not only to denote her action as a writer
but also to identify herself with the saints. for example, in the preface to
the plays, she concludes her address to hypothetical critics who might
charge her with presumption for imitating the classical playwright ter-
ence by specifying that she knows herself not to be “the equal of those
who by far are my betters in learning,” not even to be in that category of
“these scholars’ pupils.” rather, she writes:
this alone i strive for with humble and devoted heart /—even if aptitude is
lacking on my part—/ that i may return the gift i received to its Giver again. /
for i am not such a lover of myself nor so vain / that in order to avoid cen-
sure i would refrain / from preaching christ’s glory and strength as it works
through His saints to the extent He grants me the ability to do so.7
in the guise of this humility topos, articulating her unwillingness to com-
pare herself positively with even the least of her critics’ pupils, Hrotsvit
suggests that her critics may fall into the category of christians who turn
away from God, toward terence’s plays, which they find stylistically supe-
rior, while she, “with a humble and devoted heart,” uses her God-given
gifts to preach “christ’s glory and strength as it works through His saints.”
5 Alan thacker, “Bede’s ideal of reform,” Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-
Saxon Society: Studies Presented to J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, ed. patrick Wormald with Donald
Bullough and roger collins (oxford, 1983), p. 130. r.A. Markus’ “Gregory the Great’s
pagans,” in Belief and Culture in the Middle Ages: Studies Presented to Mayr-Harting, ed.
richard Gameson and Henrietta leyser (oxford, 2001), pp. 23–34, addresses the issue of
preaching in later periods when the need for conversion is among baptized christians. see
especially pp. 33–34. the 10th century witnessed many reform-minded monks and priests,
such as Abbo in france and Aelfric and Wulfstan in england.
6 thacker, “Bede’s ideal of reform,” p. 131.
7 Wilson, Plays, pp. 3–4; non enim dubito mihi ab aliquibus obici · quod huius vilitas
dictationis multo inferior · multo contractior · penitusque dissimilis eius quem proponebam
imitari · sit sententiis · concedo · ipsis tamen denuncio · me in hoc iure reprehendi no
posse · quasi his vellem abusive assimilari · qui mei inerciam · longe praecesserunt in
scientia sublimiori · nec enim tantę sum iactantię · ut vel extremis me presumam con-
ferre auctorum alumnis · sed hoc solum nitor · ut licet nullatenus valeam apte · supplici
tamen mentis devocione acceptum in datorem retorqueam ingenium · ideoque non sum
adeo amatrix mei · ut pro virtanda reprehensione christi qui in sanctis operator virtutem
quocumque ipse dabit posse cessem praedicare ·, p. 133, lines 3–16.
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238 phyllis r. brown
Hrotsvit seems to align herself with 10th-century monastic reformers
even as her message emphasizes an equality of women not present in the
agenda of some reformers.8
While Hrotsvit is particularly specific about her role as a preacher in
the preface to the plays, in the plays themselves she never speaks in her
own voice. rather, both first-person narration and third-person narration
are supplanted by dialogue. frequently, however, that dialogue addresses
the theme of conversion. scholarly interest in the plays since the first
print edition in 1501, in which conrad celtis reordered Hrotsvit’s writing,
placing the plays before the hagiographic poems, suggests her experiment
in dramatizing the theme of conversion at the very least has engaged the
attention and interest of her readers. other essays in this volume, espe-
cially Michael Zampelli’s, explore some of the ways in which the plays
allow Hrotsvit to preach “christ’s glory and strength as it works through
His saints.” this essay will focus on ways her first-person addresses to
readers both prepare for and participate in her preaching, whether it is
specifically about christ’s glory or about conversion, the human respon-
sibility to turn toward christ and God and contribute to the redemption
of the world.
Three Kinds of Addresses
Hrotsvit addresses her readers in a variety of ways. five of her prose
addresses have received the most critical attention. three of these—the
first preface, the preface to the plays, and a brief discussion of sources
and authority placed between what she calls Book one and Book two—
are addressed to readers in general. the fourth prose address, called a
letter in the manuscript, names her learned patrons as audience; the fifth
names her abbess Gerberga as audience. in the two prose addresses to
very specific audiences—her learned patrons and Gerberga—Hrotsvit
also names herself as author, giving both the quality of a letter.
Hrotsvit’s poetic addresses to readers have received less critical atten-
tion than the prose addresses, yet they speak eloquently about Hrots-
vit’s sense of herself as an author and also contribute to the overarching
theme of christian responsibility. the first instance is a 12-line poem in
8 Helene scheck devotes two chapters to Hrotsvit’s career in the context of monastic
reforms in Reform and Resistance: Formations of Female Subjectivity in Early Medieval Eccle-
siastical Culture (Albany, 2008).
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hrotsvit’s apostolic mission 239
elegiac distichs addressed to Gerberga, placed on the same manuscript
page as the concluding lines of the first preface. Hrotsvit addresses
Gerberga again, with six elegiac distichs, between the end of “theophilus”
and the beginning of “Basilius.” A ten-line address to readers in the same
verse form follows immediately afterward, on the same manuscript page.
Both of these poems continue themes introduced in the first preface and
developed in the hagiographic poems. Hrotsvit also addresses otto i and
otto ii in poems placed between the prose address to Gerberga and the
beginning of the Gesta. Although not included in the Munich manuscript,
a six-line prefatory poem in hexameters addresses the readers of the Pri-
mordia, which only survives in post-medieval manuscripts.
occasional authorial insertions, often in the form of prayers, in the
narrative poems have received even less critical attention in discussions
of Hrotsvit’s prefaces and dedications. these insertions include the first
four instances of Hrotsvit’s naming herself in the manuscript: in a prayer
addressed to Mary placed between the title of the first narrative poem,
Maria, and the beginning of the narrative; at the end of Ascensio, in a
request for readers to “say with a pitying heart: ‘Gentle King, have mercy
on poor Hrotsvitha and spare her, and grant that she may with grace from
heaven continue to sing thy divine praises, who in verse has set forth thy
marvels’ ”;9 in an 18-line prayer on the following manuscript page, intro-
ducing Gongolfus; and in a prayer to pelagius, the martyr celebrated in
Pelagius, in which she asks for his gracious regard and assistance so that
she will be able to sing worthily of his triumphs and fame. other autho-
rial insertions draw readers’ attention to the difficulty of articulating the
wondrous events and praising adequately the characters of her poems. Yet
others invite readers to join her in prayer and songs of praise and/or sug-
gest parallels between actions and beliefs of her characters and of herself
as a christian and a writer.
The Prose Addresses
less well-known than the first preface, which introduces what Hrotsvit
calls Book one and the manuscript collection of her works as a whole, and
the preface to the plays, introducing Book two, is a briefer prose address.
9 Wiegand, p. 83; Haec quicumque legat, miseranti pectore dicat: / ‘rex pie, Hrotsvithe
parcens Miserere miselle / et fac divinis persistere caelitus odis / Hanc, quę laudando
cecinit tua facta stupenda, p. 41, lines 147–50.
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240 phyllis r. brown
this seems an appropriate place to begin because it is the first of only
two prefatory texts in the Munich manuscript with a title or heading and
because it provides information about the structure of the manuscript.
the heading or title reads, “the first book ends; the second begins, ordered
in a dramatic series.”10 After this heading, eight manuscript lines of prose
distinguish between “this little work,” the collection of dramas, and “the
former one,” the collection of sacred stories, and assert that she has drawn
on written authorities as sources of information for all but one poem:
All the material of this little work as well as the former one i have taken
from ancient books written under the names of certain authors, except for
the passion written above of st pelagius. A certain inhabitant of the city in
which he suffered related to me the history of his martyrdom. He attested
that he saw the most beautiful of men and that he knew the outcome of
the affair truly. Hence if i have included anything of falsity in relating each
account, i have not deceived on my own account but incautiously was imi-
tating the deceived ones.11
these lines extend the discussion of sources introduced in the first pref-
ace, where Hrotsvit writes that she learned after she completed Maria that
parts of her poem were based on written sources considered apocryphal:
When, however, the charge is raised /—or at least by some so appraised—/
that parts of this work’s discourses / are based on apocryphal sources, / then
i must reply / and hereby testify / that it was not a misdeed of presump-
tion / but the innocent error of flawed assumption, / because when i first
started to weave the strands of these works, i was not aware that some of
my sources met with doubt; / and when i did find this out, / i still decided
not to suppress them because what appears to be false today / may perhaps
be proven true another day.12
10 My translation; explicit liber primus · incipit secundus dramatica serie contextus,
p. 131.
11 My translation; Huius omnem materiam sicut et prioris opusculi sumsi ab antiquis
libris sub certis auctorum nominibus conscriptis · excepta superius scripta passione sancti
pelagii · cuius seriem martirii quidam eiusdem in qua passus est indigena civitatis mihi
exposuit · qui ipsum pulcherrimum virorum se vidisse et exitum rei attestatus est veraciter
agnovisse · Unde si quid in utroque falsitatis dictando comprehendi · non ex meo fefelli
sed fallentes incaute imitate fui, p. 131, lines 1–9.
12 Wilson, Florilegium, p. 19; si autem obicitur quod quedam huius operis · iuxta quo-
rundam estimationem sumpta sint ex apocrifis · non est crimen presumptionis inique sed
error ignorantię quia quando huius stamen seriei · ceperam ordiri · ignoravi dubia esse
in quibus disposui laborare · At ubi recognovi pessumdare detrectavi · quia quod videtur
falsitas · forsan probabitur esse veritas, p. 1, lines 10–16.
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hrotsvit’s apostolic mission 241
this brief prose text between the sacred stories and the plays also antici-
pates attention to sources and authority in the texts introducing the Gesta.
Hrotsvit recognizes the difficulty in distinguishing truth from falsehood,
and, like Bede, she understands the importance of acknowledging and
evaluating sources. Yet she trusts her own judgment, whether her source
is considered apocryphal or is the oral account of a witness, and she seems
aware that she herself may be an authority for writers in the future.
Hrotsvit also draws attention to the absence of authority—other than
that from God—in her conclusion to the first preface, when she writes:
therefore, reader, whoever you may be, / if you live rightly / and are wise
in God, don’t withhold the favor of your benign goodwill from these flawed
pages / that are not built on the authorities of precedent or the wisdom of
sages. / if, by chance, you find here something well wrought, give all the
credit to God’s grafting / but for all the flaws, assign the blame to my poor
crafting.13
embedded in the humility topos is a rather extraordinary statement of
her originality.
the first preface, the preface to the plays, the “epistle,” and the third
Address to Gerberga that introduces the Gesta have received consider-
able scholarly attention, often with a focus on their value as sources of
information about Hrotsvit and the cultural milieu in which she thrived.
indeed, nearly everything we know about Hrotsvit’s life, education, and
intentions as a writer has been gleaned from Hrotsvit’s addresses to read-
ers. for example, in her first preface, which seems to address all catho-
lics, she names two teachers, rikkardis and her abbess, Gerberga, who was
younger than Hrotsvit “but as befits the emperor’s niece, more advanced
in learning.” Hrotsvit also specifies that Gerberga introduced her to “the
works of those writers whom she herself studied with learned men.”14
in her “epistle,” Hrotsvit refers to the difficulty of continuing her study
independently after her formal education ended; yet other evidence in
the manuscript indicates extensive familiarity with the Bible, exegetical
writings (especially commentaries of Augustine, Gregory, Alcuin, and Hra-
banus Maurus), other ecclesiastical writers (such as tertullian, venantius
13 Wilson, Florilegium, p. 20; Unde quicumque lector si recte et secundum deum sapias ·
egenti paginę · que nullius praeceptoris munitur auctoritate opem tue rectitudinis ne pigri-
teris abhibere deo videlicet si quid forte probetur recte compositum, p. 2, lines 23–26.
14 Wilson, Florilegium, p. 19; quę aetate minor · sed ut imperialem decebat neptem ·
scientia provectior aliquot auctores quos ipsa prior a sapientissimis didicit me admodum
pie erudivit ·, p. 2, lines 9–12.
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242 phyllis r. brown
fortunatus, and cassian), hagiography, pagan and christian writers (such
as terence, the only one she names, vergil, ovid, seneca, prudentius,
sedulius, Boethius, and Aldhelm), grammatical and metrical reference
books, and pedagogical commentaries and glossaries. thus readers must
be wary of a too literal reading of Hrotsvit’s prose addresses, which Katha-
rina Wilson has shown to be richly rhetorical.15
in the prose prefaces Hrotsvit also provides details that guide the dat-
ing of the sacred stories, plays, and historical poems. for example, because
Hrotsvit identifies her abbess, Gerberga ii, as niece of the emperor (impe-
rialem neptem) in the first preface, scholars conclude that the book of
sacred stories was completed after 962, when otto i was crowned emperor.
However, the first preface may have been written some time after the
sacred stories themselves were completed.16 similarly, Hrotsvit must have
completed the third Address to Gerberga, which introduces the Gesta,
before 968, since she specifies that she awaits Gerberga’s judgment and
the judgment of Wilhelm, Archbishop of Mainz, who died in 968.17
in Hrotsvit’s addresses to her readers, scholars have also discerned
information about her writing practices and awareness of audience expec-
tations. for example, in the first preface, Hrotsvit informs her readers
that she initially worked in secret because she feared she might otherwise
be forced to stop. scholars frequently note that Hrotsvit introduces her-
self to her readers in the first preface by emphasizing her initial lack of
confidence, her rusticity, and her struggle “to put together a text—be its
merit ever so slight.”18 she articulates her fears that critics will focus on
flaws in her writing, “in the handling of meter, style, and diction,” and in
her choice of sources, and that they will consider her presumptuous.19 she
also informs her readers that she destroyed earlier drafts when she was
not satisfied with her work, and read all the source material she could
gather at Gandersheim.
Hrotsvit’s open admission of her fears and insecurities in the first pref-
ace likely had the intended rhetorical effect: as various Greek and roman
15 Wilson, Ethics, pp. 3–27.
16 if the first preface is understood as introducing a three-part “little book”—the entire
manuscript—as well as the sacred stories, this date is less significant.
17 see Walter Berschin’s account of the dates in the preface to his edition of Hrotsvit’s
Opera Omnia, pp. vii–x, translated in “Hrotsvit and her Works,” in this volume.
18 Wilson, Florilegium, p. 1; iuxta meum posse licet minime necessarium aliquem tamen
conficere textum, p. 2, lines 3–4.
19 Wilson, Florilegium, p. 1; in dinoscendis syllabarum naturis verum etiam in dictioni-
bus componendis, p. 1, lines 6–7.
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hrotsvit’s apostolic mission 243
authorities on rhetoric explain, the aim of a preface is to gain the audi-
ence’s attention and good will. Hrotsvit draws attention to supposed inad-
equacies before any reader can do so and asks for a sympathetic reading
that takes into account the difficulty of the writing tasks as well as the
purposes and motivations for writing. As Katharina Wilson notes, “she
repeatedly asks her readers for stylistic correction instead of censure.”20
in doing so, Hrotsvit not only uses the rhetorical strategies she has been
taught; she also draws the attention of similarly educated readers to her
rhetorical knowledge and the skill with which she weaves the rhetorical
formulas through her writings. thus Hrotsvit’s first preface not only pro-
vides tantalizing details about her education; the writing itself provides
ample evidence that she has studied rhetoric as well as “the handling of
meter, style, and diction” and that she can put all she has learned into
practice. that evidence is confirmed and amplified by all the writing that
follows in the manuscript.
the first preface also introduces Hrotsvit’s purpose in writing. the
expression of her purpose suggests the ordering mind of an interpreter
who sees the Bible, biblical exegesis, and christian literature as exemplars
for her own creative and interpretive writing. Hrotsvit explains:
However difficult and arduous and complex / metrical composition may
appear for the fragile female sex, / i, persisting / with no one assisting / still
put together my poems in this little work / not relying on my own powers
and talents as a clerk / but always trusting in heavenly grace’s aid / for which
i prayed, / and i chose to sing them in the dactylic mode / so that my tal-
ent, however tiny, should not erode, / that it should not lie dormant in my
heart’s recesses and be destroyed by slothful neglect’s corrosion, / but that,
struck by the mallet of eager devotion, / it bring forth a tiny little sound of
divine praise / and, thus, if for no other purpose but for this case, / it may
be transformed into an instrument of some utility / regardless of the limits
of my ability.21
Hrotsvit sees herself as enacting the lesson of christ’s parable of the tal-
ents (Matt 25:14–30) in her own life and writings: her talents will not
20 Wilson, Ethics, p. 4. Wilson provides a thorough and illuminating discussion of
Hrotsvit’s uses of classical rhetorical strategies in the prefaces, pp. 3–16.
21 Wilson, Florilegium, pp. 19–20; Quamvis etiam metrica modulatio femineę fragili-
tati difficilis videatur et ardua · solo tamen semper miserentis supernę gratię auxilio non
propriis viribus confisa · huius carmina opusculi dactilicis modulis succinere apposui ·
ne crediti talentum ingenioli sub obscuro torpens pectoris <antro> rubigine neglegentię
exterminaretur · sed sedule malleo devotionis percussum aliquantulum divine laudationis
referret tinnitum · quo si occasio non daretur negociando aliud lucrari · ipsum tamen in
aliquod saltim extreme utilitatis transformaretur instrumentum, p. 2, lines 13–22.
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