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Rewarding Devotion: Indulgences and the Promotion of Images
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
The indulgence is one of the Church’s mechanisms for encouraging pious practices which has generally had a bad press. This paper is concerned with its use in the veneration of three images: the Veronica, the arma Christi or instruments of the Passion, and the Man of Sorrows with the indulgence referring to the Mass of St Gregory. It addresses in particular the circumstances of the original grant of indulgence (whether real or spurious) and the role played by the indulgences in the transmission of these images in devotional manuscripts in England. The earliest of these indulgenced images, the Veronica, is also the most famous, and the one whose origin is most clearly attested. The Chronica maiora of Matthew Paris tells how the Veronica suddenly reversed itself while being carried in procession in 1216. Innocent III responded by composing a prayer in its honour, with an associated indulgence of ten days for each time the prayer was recited. It is noteworthy that although Innocent’s indulgence is commonly referred to as creating the new category of indulgenced image, the indulgence is attached to the prayer, and there is no suggestion that it was necessary to view the image. As is made clear in the Chronica, the addition of a representation of the image (plate 1) was prompted by the fervour of devotion: people did it for themselves. Thus two related, but not identical, impulses joined together to produce the indulgenced prayer to be said before the image, the model for all other indulgenced images. An early example of the prayer used as part of an exercise in devotional propaganda is found in the Revelations of Mechtild of Hackeborn. These normally followed the liturgical year, and on the day of the exposition of the relic she had a vision, aimed at arousing piety towards the image, in which she saw Christ in Majesty, with those who honoured the holy face with a special prayer approaching him,
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1992
References
1 The standard work is N. Paulus, Geschkhte der Ablasses im Mittelalter, 2 vols (Paderborn, 1922-3). A sympathetic account is Orme, N., ‘Indulgences in the diocese of Exeter 1100-1536’, Reports and Transactions of the Devonian Association for the Advancement of Science, 120 (1988), pp. 15–32 Google Scholar. I owe this reference to Nicholas Kingwell.
2 This paper is based on material from my thesis, ‘Devotional Images and their dissemination in English manuscripts, £.1350-1470’ (London Ph.D. thesis, 1989), where the manuscripts and their iconography are discussed in greater detail with a full bibliography.
3 Lewis, F., ‘The Veronica: image, legend and viewer’, in Ormrod, W., ed., England in the Thirteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1984 Harlaxton Symposium (Woodbridge, 1985), pp. 100–6 Google Scholar.
4 De veneratane imaginis Christi, Liber Specialis Gratiae, bk I, eh. io = Revelationes Gertrudianae ac Mechtildianae, ed. L. Paquelin, 2 vols (Poiriers and Paris, 1875-7), 2, p. 31.
5 Gould, K., The Psalter and Hours of Yolande of Soissons (Cambridge, Mass., 1978), p. 85 Google Scholar.
6 See Thurston, H., The Holy Year of Jubilee (New York, 1900), pp. 34–5 Google Scholar, 58; Endres, J. A., ‘Die Darstellung der Gregoriusmesse im Mittelalter’, Zeitschrift fir christlichc Kunst, 30 (1917), p. 153 Google Scholar.
7 See The Stations of Rome, ed. Furnivall, F.J., EETS, os 25 (1867), pp. 1–2 Google Scholar. For an unrraced indulgence for the Veronica granted by Clement VI and dated from Avignon, 28 May 1350, see W. Grimm, ‘Die Sage vom Ursprung der Christusbilder’, in Heinrichs, G., ed., Kleinere Schriflen von Wilhelm Crimm, 3 vols (Berlin, 1883), 3 Google Scholar, p. 159.
8 Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS 4459–70.
9 Ibid., fol. 152V: ‘Quicunque intuebitur hec arma domini nostri ihesu christi quibus nos redemit de peccata suis contritis habet tres annos a beato petro apostolo. Item a triginta summis pontificibus a quilibet centum dies. Item a viginti octo episcopis a quilibet xl dies. Item a domino leone papa xl dies. Item ab Innocencio papa qui in quodam concilio erat con-Pirmans omnia predicta superaddidit quatuor annos et ducentos dies indulgencie. Item a Veronica xl dies. Item qui cotidie devota mente inspexerit nonquam mala morte peribit. Item mulieribus in parru laboranribus prestat optimum remedium.’
10 See Evans, M., ‘An illustrated fragment of Peraldus’s Summa of Vice: Harleian MS.3244’, JWCI, 45 (1982), p. 25 Google Scholar, n. 75. The manuscript is published in facsimile by K. Stejskal and E. Urbánková, Pasional Pfemyslovny Kunhuty (Prague, 1975).
11 London, BL, MS Royal 6.E.VI, fol. 15V: ‘Post hos Innocentius quartus papa decensius / Lugduno confirmanda ducentos dies addidit’: noted by Evans, ‘Illustrated fragment’. A later short prose indulgence, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 537, fol. 49V, also refers to a con firmation by Innocent at the Council of Lyons.
12 Comte de Riant, ‘Des Depouilles religieuses enlevées a Constantinople’, Mémoires de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France, 36(1875), pp. 1-214.
13 Gould, K., ‘The sequences De Sanctis Reliquiis as Sainte-Chapelle inventories’, Medieval Studies,43(1981), pp. 315–41 Google Scholar.
14 Morand, S.J., Histoire de la Sainte-Chapelle Royale du Palais (Paris, 1790)Google Scholar, pièces justificatives, 2-3; for the bull see also Gould, ‘Sequences’, p. 316, n. 4.
15 The German examples (not from manuscripts) were published by Endres, J. A., ‘Die Darstellungder Gregoriusmesse im Mittelalter’, Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, 30 (1917), pp. 146–56 Google Scholar. The English group are London, BL, MSS Addit. 33381, fol. cor, and 37787, fol. 64V; Boulogne, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 93, fol. 9v; Bristol, Central Public Library, MS 14, fol. iov; and Rennes, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 22, fol. iiv. London, BL, MS Addit. 18213, fol. 8 ir, though not of Saram use, has strong English links: see Rogers, N.J., ‘Books of Hours produced in the Low Countries for the English market in the fifteenth century’ (Cam bridge MXitt. thesis, 1982), 1, pp. 118–19 Google Scholar.
16 BL, MS Addit. 33381, fol. 2or: in ilio tempore quo sanctus Gregorius erat in magna Roma presul, una die quando missam celebravit in ecclesia que vocatur Partacros, quando voluit consecrare corpus domini nostri, apparaît sibi dominus noster ihesus christi in tali effigie sicut videtur hic depicta. Et ex magna compassione quam habuit idem sanctus Gregorius quando vidit eum in tali figura, concessit omnibus illis qui ante istam figuram ponunt genua sua in terra dicendo cum devocione quinqué Pater noster et quinqué Ave maria omnes indulgencias que sunt in omnibus ecclesiis de Roma, que sunt xiiii milia annorum, et omnes istas indulgencias concessit dicta figura dicto sancto Gregorio. Et ultra hoc duodecim alii summi ponrifices quilibet eorum concessit vi annos de indulgencia. Et adhuc xxx alii pontifices quilibet eorum concessit ducentos dies indulgencie. Similiter ultra hoc alii lxvi episcopi quilibet eorum concessit lx dies indulgencie. Summa omni indulgenciarum xxvi milia annorum et xxx dies de vera indulgencia.’
17 C. Bertelli, ‘The Image of Pity in Sancta Croce in Gerusalemme’, in Fraser, D. et al., eds, Essays in the History of Art presented to Rudolf Wittkower (London, 1967), p. 54 Google Scholar.; Breitenbach, E., israhel van Meckenem’s Man of Sorrows’, Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, 31 (1974), pp. 21–6 Google Scholar. The print exists in three states, of which two are described as reproducing the vision of St Gregory, and one identifies the church.
18 BL.MS Addit. 29433, fol. 107v, and Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS Rice. 466, fol. 140r.
19 R: Berliner, ‘Arma Christi’, Münchnerjahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst, 6 (1955), p. 132, n. 336.
20 Bertelli, ‘The Image of Pity’, p. 50.
21 Richmond, C., ‘The Sulyard papers: the rewards of a small family archive’, in Williams, D., ed., England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium (Woodbridge, 1987), p. 222 Google Scholar.
22 Sold Sotheby’s 22 June 1982, lot 59.
23 Woodruff, C., A Fifteenth Century Guide-Book to the Principal Churches of Rome, compiled c.1470 (London, 1933), p. 57 Google Scholar.
24 The image is not large, but forms the centrepiece of an imposing reliquary triptych (see Bertelli, ‘The Image of Pity’, fig. 4).
25 By the beginning of the fourteenth century Passion relics from the Sainte-Chapelle were heldin France, Spain. Italy, Sicily, Scotland, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and Bohemia. See Riant’s tables, ‘Des Dépouilles religieuses’, pp. 152-3.
26 Sotheby’s Sale Catalogue, 24 June 1980, lot Si.
27 A rare surviving example is Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS lat. hist, a.2, from Glastonbury Abbey, which acted as a guidebook to the church, and included a list of the indulgences offered there.
28 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Laud. lat. 5, fol. ior, and Douce 231, fol. 71r; London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 36, fol. $r; Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College, MS 36, fol. 35r; and Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, MS 105, fol. 14V.
29 Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS 4450-70, fol. 152v ‘Summa annorum indulgenciarum de veneracione armarum passionis ihesu christe trecenris sexaginta quinqué diebus pro anno computatis extendit semper unum diem ad xviii annos et dimidium cum tribus diebus. Item pro ebdomadam centum et xix annos cum dimidio. Item pro mensem quingentos xviii annos cum duodecim septimanis. Item pro annum sex milia septingenti quinquaginta anni cum dimidio et tribus diebus.’
30 For example, Paris, BN, MS lat. 10527. Though Omne bonum is slightly earlier it omits some lines of the rhyming couplets which are present in the Paris manuscript.
31 London, BL, MS Royal 6.E.VI, fol. 15V (see n. 6 above), and Sandler, L. F., ‘Face to face with God: a pictorial image of the beatific vision’, in Ormrod, W., ed., England in the Fourteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1984 Harlaxton Symposium (Woodbridge, 1986), pp. 224–35 Google Scholar.
32 The only differing figures are the three days for daily viewing, missing in the English manu scripts, and the addition of an extra five years in the indulgence for twelve months’ viewing.
33 IMEV no. 2577, printed in Legends of the Holy Rood, Symbols of the Passion and Cross Poems, ed. R. Morris, EETS, os 46 (1871). See also Robbins, R. H., ‘The Arma Christi rolls’, Modem Language Review, 34 (1939), pp. 415–21 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The indulgences are found in four copies, including the two earliest manuscripts, Blairs College, MS 9, and Esopus, Mount St Alphonsus Seminary, MS 1.
34 The only exception is the Gregory indulgence in Manchester, John Rylands Library, MS 20, p. 16, which contains other unusual texts and images, suggesting that it was personally ordered. Indulgenced prayers are also quite frequent in English manuscripts, whereas in the imported Flemish Hours the only indulgenced prayer is the common Deus qui liane sacratissimam camem.
35 Laud MS lat. 5 specifies the circumstances of recital as before the Cross, and Sidney Sussex MS 36 as at the Elevation.
36 Boulogne, MS 93, and Trinity College, MS O.3.10.
37 See Rogers, ‘Books of Hours’.
38 In some ways the situation was reversed in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, where the printed Sarum Hours produced in France and England form a third group, differing in content from both the English and the French manuscript Hours. They have greater links with the English manuscripts in the extreme interest of some editions in indulgences, but this is mainly confined to indulgenced prayers, and their iconography owes much more to standardized combinations developed in French manuscript Hours.
39 See Corbin, S., ‘Les Offices de la sainte face’, Bulletin des Etudes Portugaises, ns 11 (1947), pp. 37–8 Google Scholar.
40 They were found in English manuscripts, particularly the arma Christi rolls (see n. 33 above), but even there the new poem in their honour was the important element, and the indulgence was soon dropped.
41 For example. Omnibus consideratisi London, BL, MS Sloane 2683; Penitential Psalms, Cam bridge, University Library, MS li.6.2; Fifteen O’s, Harvard College Library, MS Widener 2.
42 For the Seven O’s see Ringbom, S., Icon to Narrative (Abo, 196$), p. 25 Google Scholar. They are printed in Home Eboracenses, ed. C. Wordsworth = SS, 132 (1920), p. 81. The prayers occur in the Hours of Marguerite de Clisson, Paris, BN, MS lat.10528, fol. 23V, from the second half of the four teenth century, headed “Ceste oroison est bonne a dire devant le crucifix.’
43 A similar pattern is seen in the printed books. The Man of Sorrows (with an indulgence shorter in text if not in liberality) had a new vogue as a separately circulating woodcur, which contributed to its introduction into printed books. The latter kept the indulgence, but again it became associated with a devotional text, the same Seven O’s.