Visio Sancti Pauli. The History of the Apocalypse in Latin, together with nine texts

240 Pages·1935·11.33 MB·English

by  Theodore Silverstein

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Ill. THE DuRA. FRAGMENT OF THE DuTEBSARON OF TATUN
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EDITED BY
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IV
VISIO SANCTI PAULI
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CAMPBELL BONNER
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H. A. SANDERS
VISIO SANCTI PAULI
THE HISTORY OF THE APOCALYPSE IN LATIN
TOGETHER ~TH NINE TEXTS
BY
THEODORE SILVERSTEIN, Pn.D.
J,ONDON: CHRISTOPHERS
ii BERNERS STREET. W. I
CAPE TOWN MELBOUIL'IE SYDNEY WELLINGTON TORONTO

PREFACE
The limits of the present work are indicated by its sub-title. With the
non-Latin Long versions and their descendents, and with the Western
vernacular Redactions which flourished in the centuries just preceding
the Renaissance, it deals only incidentally and as they help to bridge
the gaps in the Latin history. Chapters One and Two in Part One
attempt to recount what may be called the external history of the book
in the West. The rest of this part treats in detail the growth and
relationship of the Latin texts and the sources and meaning of the more
important interpolations.
Of the nine texts published in Part Two only three have appeared
previously in print: the 'Vienna Fragment' and Redactions I and v.
Redaction I and the Vienna Fragment are extant in the same manu
script, written continuously as if they were a single work. AB a result
Brandes, in his edition of 1885, partly confused the two. They are here
studied anew from the codex and separated. The third text, Redaction
v, was printed from a single Berlin codex by Sepelevic, and excerpts
from an English manuscript appear as an appendix to Jones and RhY's,
The Elucidarium, in Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval and Modem
Series, vol. VI. It is now edited from a more complete text in MS.
Rawlinson C 108, with the variants from the Berlin codex and the Jones
and RhY's fragments recorded in the notes. The other six Latin forms
of the Apocalypse are published for the first time.
It will be observed that no text of the highly important Redaction IV
is printed here. Representative versions have already been published
five times, it is true, by Brandes, Meyer, van Os, and in Migne's Patro
logia latina; but this is not the reason for its omission. None of these
editions uses more than a few of the extant codices: a complete and
critical edition of it is much needed. However, the problems of the
Redaction are so extensive that it seemed best to reserve the printing of
such a text for a separate work. In the meantime Redaction IV has not
been entirely neglected. Most of its manuscripts have been consulted
for this study, pertinent textual variants being recorded in the proper
places throughout; and its place in the general scheme of the Latin
Redactions is fully considered in Part One.
The terms used to distinguish the various forms of the Apocalypse
vii
viii PREFACE
need some explanation. 'Long texts' is used for all those versions, both
Latin and non-Latin, which approximate, in the fullness and the nature
of their contents, to the third-and fourth-century originals. This name
is applied also to the St. Gall Text a.nd the Vienna Fragment, which,
though in reality abbreviations, are most conveniently grouped with the
completer forms of the book. 'Redaction' is used specifically to refer
to the body of late mediaeval abbreviations, descendents of the Long
Latin, which circulated in the West beginning with the ninth century.
For the individual Redactions I have followed the numerical designa
tions of Bra.ndes, adding the letters a, b, c, and d to distinguish the vari
ant versions of Redaction m, most of which he did not know, and the
numbers VII and VIII for the two new Redactions. This is inconsistent,
since I-V (and now VII and vm) indicate relationship and to some
extent relative chronology, whereas VI is given to a text older than any
other of the Redactions and unconnected with them. But Brandes's
terminology has become established among students of the Apocalypse,
and to disturb it would only add confusion to an already complicated
subject.
The large debt of this monograph to previous works in the same field
is indicated in the body of the book. I wish here to acknowledge obliga
tions of a more personal nature. Professor Rudolph Willard of Yale
first called my attention to the M1 and CC texts of Redaction III and
furnished me with transcripts of them and of a fragmentary Old English
version of the Long Latin. Professors Leo Wiener and Samuel H.
Cross of Harvard have provided translations of the Old Russian Long
text; and Professor Harry Wolfson has answered many questions
concerning Hebrew lore. I am indebted to Professor George Lyman
Kittredge for many things: amongst others for encouragement and
guidance when, five years ago, I began my investigation of this subject
and for the care that he has spent on the proofs. To Professor and Mrs.
Lake, the editors of the series in which the book appears, I am grateful
first of all for a kindness and understanding that have gone far beyond
the limits of mere editorial duty. And I am grateful for all their meticu
lous scrutiny of manuscript and proofs. I wish also to thank the
Committee of the Fund for Research in the Humanities of Harvard
University for the grants of money that have made possible the present
publication.
THEODORE SILVERSTEIN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE • • • • • . • • vii
I
THE HisTORY oF THE APocALYPSE
CHA1'TER ONE: THE WESTERN TRADITION • • • • • • • • 3
Origin and literary relations of the Apocalypse, 3. Origen's
evidence of its circulation in the third century, 3. Disapproval
of Church authorities: Augustine, Sozomen, Samuel of Ani,
3-4. Its early spread; the reasons for its popularity, 4-5. Its
continuous career in the West: the Paris and St Gall copies of
the chief Long Latin text; references in Aldhelm, the Blickling
Homilies, 'Wulfstan' and Aelfric, 5-9. Rise of the Redactions
and their connection with the Long Latin: indebtedness to Is
lamic tradition denied; evidence of the mss and of the Blickling
homilist and 'Wulfstan,' 9-12. Influence of Long texts on
mediaeval vision literature: the Body and Soul legend, the
Sabbath-day respite from torment, and the graduated immer
sion of sinners in the river of Hell, 12-14. Influence of the
Redactions: their popularity compared with that of Tundale
and St. Patrick's Purgatory, 14.
CHAPTER Two: PROBLEMS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 15
I. Modem Discovery and Criticism: Tischendorf's Greek and
the other Long texts; problem of the primitive form of the
Apocalypse, 15. Modem history of the Redactions, 15-16.
Contributions of Brandes, Sepelevic and Wieber, 16-17. II.
The Problem of the Latin Texts: Ms. authorities for the pres-
ent study, 17. Interpolations in the Redactions; refutation of
Asin Palacios's theory of Arabic influence, 17-19.
CHAPTER THREE: THE LoNG LATIN VERSIONS . • . • . • • 20
The three authorities, P, St G and F; problems of the Western
tradition, 20-21. I. The Evidence of P, 21-33. II. The Evi
dence of St G, 33-35. III. The Evidence of F, 36-37. IV.
Conclusion: summary history of the Long Latin versions,
37-39.
CHAPTER FoUR: THE LATIN REDACTIONs: THEIR DEVELOPMENT
AND RELATIONSHIP . . . . . . . 40
ix
X TABLE OF CONTENTS
Common traits of Redactions I-v, VII and vm: their difference
from Redaction VI, 40. I. Redactions I and u: contents and
relations; lost Redaction a, 41-43. II. Redaction III: its
sub-groups a, b, c and d, 43-45. Inter-connection of these
groups; reconstruction of original Redaction m, 45-51. Rela
tion to I and n and non-extant {J, 51-52. III. Redactions IV
and vn: summary of IV, 52-53; relations of IV and vu with
Redactions m, I and the hypothetical -y, 54-56. IV. Redac
tions v and vm: their connection with IV, III and 1, 56-58. V.
Redaction VI: its independence and its peculiar contents, 58-
59. VI. Conclusion: Relationship of all the Latin Texts,
59-61. Appendix: development of the versions of Paul as re
constructed by Brandes, Sepelevil! and Wieber, 61-63.
CHAPTER FIVE: THE REDACTIONS: HISTORY AND MEANING OF THE
INTERPOLATIONS 64
o • o • • • • o • • • • • • •
The seven chief interpolations requiring elucidation, 64-65. I.
The Rivers of Hell and the Men with Tongues of Iron-Ver
gilian Influence, 65-66. II. The Dragon Parthemon: rela
tionship with various monsters in Scriptures and elsewhere in
Western lore, 66-68. Analogy between Parthemon and Pha
raoh, Herod, Antiochus as symbol of pride and its tormentor:
the apocryphal Apocalypse of Esdras; Behemoth-Leviathan in
Gregory's M aralia in Job, 68. Conjectured origin of the name
Parthemon, 68-69. III. The Hanging Sinners: distinctive
features of this motif in Paul, 69-70. Relationship with Greek
Acts of Thomas and a fragmentary Latin Apocalypse of Elias,
70. Origin of the fiery trees on which sinners hang; the figure
of the Tree of Sin in Gregory's Moralia, 71-72. Significance of
the interpolation, 72. IV. The Furnace: its seven flames in
Redactions vn, v and IV, connected with the Seven Deadly
Sins, a late emendation; four flames of Redaction m conjec
tured to be original, 72-73. Connection of interpolation with
the Graeco-Roman 1rd871 and the Christian lore of the Fire of
Doom, 73-74. The four colors of the flames and the color
symbolism of vice and torment: Plutarch's Vision of Thespe
sius, the canonical Book of Revelation, the Shepherd of Her
mas, and the Christian allegorization of the rainbow colors,
74-75. V. The Wheel of Torment: its origin illuminated by a
fragmentary Priscillianist apocalypse; significance of the
phrase 'angelus tartareus,' 76-77. VI. The Bridge of Hell:
its popularity in late Middle Ages contrasted with its non
occurrence in the earliest Christian apocalypses, 77-78. The
TABLE OF CONTENTS xi
bridge in Gregory's Dialogues, the Historia Francorum of Greg-
ory of Tours, and the Vision of a Monk at Wenlock Abbey, 78.
Proof that the Dialogues is source of the interpolation in Paul,
78-79. VII. The Sunday Respite: Was the respite originally
annual or weekly? ambiguity of the Long texts, 79-80. Con
trasting explicitness of the Redactions; their transformation
by the developing Sabbatarianism of the West, 80-81.
CHAPTER SIX: THE INTERPOLATIONS: REDACTION VI • . • • • 82
Radical modification of original Apocalypse by VI; its major
interpolations related to and explained by the Apocalypse of
Peter and a group of early Irish visions and voyages to the
other-world-Laisren, Adamndn, the Ui Corra, and the Celtic
TransitU8 M ariae, 82. I. False Witnesses and the Abusers of
Iron Tools (§§3 and 10), 82-84. II. Spiritual Parents Who
Did Not Keep Their Trust (§4), 84. III. The Idolaters and
Sorcerers (§8), 85-86. IV. The Horse-Thieves (§9), 86. V.
The Intercession Episode (§12): inconsistency of VI; its juxta
position of the Western distinction between, and the pre
Gregorian blending of, Hell and Purgatory, 87-88. The
uniqueness of its use of the camel as instrument of deliverance,
88-89. VI. Conclusion: the main sources of VI, and the
interests of its author, 89-90.
NOTES • 91
II
TEXTS
NOTE . . . . . . . 130
THE ST GALL TEXT (St G) 131
THE VIENNA FRAGMENT (F) 149
REDACTION I 153
REDACTION II . • . • 156
REDACTION Ill (a, b, c, d) 160
REDACTION v 196
REDACTION VII • 204
REDACTION Vlll • 209
REDACTION VI . 214
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . • . • . . . • . • • • • • • • • 219
I. The Apocalypse of Paul: List of Texts and Manuscripts-A.
The Non-Latin Versions, 219. B. The Latin Texts, 22Q-222.
II. General Bibliography, 223-229.