The Papacy and Communication in the Central Middle Ages by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Medieval
ISBN: 9781000346947
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2021-05-13T04:00:00+00:00

Figure 3. Rome, S. Agnese fuori le mura, apse mosaic.

Source: Photo, author.

In the eighth and ninth centuries the papal doctrine of images was adapted to respond to the growing cult of icons and to Byzantine and Frankish attempts to suppress it.52 Further adaptations were made in the twelfth century.53

Idiotae became laymen (laici), literates became clerici, and it was acknowledged that pictures could benefit both groups, teaching one and inspiring love of Scripture in the other. There are no known papal contributions to this later literature, but Herbert Kessler has attempted to distil a ‘Gregorian Reform theory of art’ from two Italian sources: a letter of Peter Damian (d. 1072) concerning representations of Peter and Paul (1069), and some parts of De laudibus ecclesiae by Bruno, bishop of Segni (d. 1123).54 Peter Damian's letter reveals how carefully thinkers in the circle of Pope Gregory VII studied old images like the Traditio legis and how much they respected their authority. Responding to the question why some picturesshow the Apostle Paul on the favoured right side of Christ and Peter on the left, when Peter might be expected to take precedence, Damian concluded that the anomaly must have been intended to provoke speculation.55 He found that it hints at the ‘mystery of a mystical symbol in Benjamin’ (Genesis 35:18), which he unpacked with the help of St Jerome's exegesis on Hebrew names and abundant citations from the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of St Paul.56 Peter's rather beautiful demonstration of St Paul's spiritual superiority is a caution. Complicated, dense and seemingly idiosyncratic, it illustrates the near impossibility of recreating any learned eleventh-century interpretation of images using only the disciplinary methods of our own time.

Bruno of Segni's De laudibus ecclesiae is devoted to the allegoresis of the ritual of church consecration and its relation to the eschatological Church. According to Louis Hamilton, it was intended for the instruction of the clergy.57 The importance of Bruno's teaching for apse mosaics lies in the principle that no word, gesture or object is to be taken literally, including the consecrated building. ‘The basilicas which are now everywhere dedicated by bishops openly signify the Church of God.’58 Every basilica is at once the Temple, the heavenly Jerusalem and the bride of Christ. These were not new ideas, but Bruno was a prominent figure in the papacy of Paschal II (1099–1118) and his expositions presumably were familiar to viewers in Rome.

The first known mention of an apse mosaic by a medieval pope occurred in the thirteenth century, in a sermon by Pope Honorius III (1216–27) for the feast of the dedication of the Lateran Cathedral.59 It shows no interest in interpretation. Following a nod to Old Testament types of the Church, including the queen ‘in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety’ of Psalm 44, the sermon shifts quickly to history.60 It recounts a legend that after Pope Sylvester consecrated Constantine's basilica – the first church, successor to the Temple – an image of the Saviour that had been depicted in the apse invisibly was revealed to the Roman people.

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