Medieval Saints: A Reader
Edited by Mary-Ann Stouck
Number of quotes: 10
Book ID: 151 Page: 43
Section: 2A3,3C
6. THE TRIALS AND EXECUTION OF CYPRIANCyprian was an important theologian and bishop of Carthage at the time of the persecution under the emperor Decius (250), which he spent in hiding. After the death of Decius in 251 there was a period of peace, only to be followed by renewed persecution under the emperor Valerian, whose edict in 257 forbidding Christians to assemble together for any reason, including burials at cemeteries, was especially damaging to the community of converts. Cyprian was first arrested and sent into exile.
Quote ID: 3250
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 151 Page: 46
Section: 2C
Galerius Maximus the proconsul said: “Have you taken on yourself to be pope a term originally applying to all bishops of persons holding sacrilegious opinions?”Cyprian the bishop answered: “Yes.”
Quote ID: 3251
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 151 Page: 368
Section: 2A3
Writings of the cult of relics make up a small minority of extant documentation, perhaps because, like other expressions of heterodoxy, they tended to be out of favor or were suppressed. Claudius, bishop of Turin from about 816, was a sharp critic of the cult.
Quote ID: 3252
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 151 Page: 370
Section: 2E1
Against them we must reply that if they wish to adore all wood fashioned in the shape of a cross because Christ hung on a cross, then it is fitting for them to adore many other things which Christ did in the flesh. He hung on the cross scarcely six hours, but he was in the Virgin’s womb nine lunar months and more than eleven days, a total of two hundred and seventy-six solar days, that is, nine months and more than six days. Let virgin girls therefore be adored, because a Virgin gave birth to Christ. Let mangers be adored, because as soon as he was born he was laid in a manger. Let old rags be adored, because immediately after he was born he was wrapped in old rags. Let boats be adored, because he often sailed in boats, taught the throngs from a small boat, slept in a boat, from a boat commanded the winds, and to the right of a fishing boat ordered them to cast the net when that great prophetic draught of fish was made. Let asses be adored, because he came to Jerusalem sitting on an ass. Let lambs be adored, because it was written of him, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” (But those infamous devotees of perverse doctrines prefer to eat the living lambs and adore only the ones painted on the wall!)Still further, let lions be adored, because it was written of him, “The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered.” Let stones be adored, because when he was taken down from the Cross he was placed in a rock-hewn sepulcher, and because the apostle says of him, “The Rock was Christ.”
Quote ID: 3253
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 151 Page: 395/396
Section: 2A3
Rodolphus Glaber, who tells a similar story, was born c.980 near Auxerre and became a monk, spending time in a number of abbeys influenced by the Clunaic reforms, as well as at Cluny itself. ‘The Five books of the Histories,’ written mostly while he was at the abbey of St-Germain-d’ Auxerre.. . . .
The false relics of St. Justus of Beauvais remained in the monastery but were under strong suspicion that by the end of the eleventh century, in a move to quench the controversy, the relics received a new identity, and became known as those of St. Justus of Oulx.
. . . .
In those days there was a common fellow, a cunning pedlar whose name and country of origin were unknown because in the many lands where he sought refuges he took false names and lied about his origins lest he be recognized. Furthermore, in secret he dug bones out of graves, taking them from the remains of the recently dead, then put them into coffers and sold them widely as the relics of holy confessors and martyrs.
. . . .
They brought the sick, gave miserable little presents, and kept watch all night expecting sudden miracles, which, as we have said evil, evil spirits are sometimes allowed to perform, tempting men because of their sins. In the present case we find a clear example. Frequent indeed was the healing of limbs witnessed at that place.
Quote ID: 3254
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 151 Page: 398
Section: 2A3
…the following account taken from the autobiography of Guibert, abbot of the nearby monastery of Nogent. Guibert was also the author of a treatise ‘On the Relics of the Saints,’ in which he criticized the cult of such corporeal relics as Christ’s milk-tooth, which the monks of St-Médard at Soissons claimed to possess.. . . .
Guibert confined his attack largely to relics whose dubiety was indicated by the frequent claims of rival institutions to possess them – such as the two heads of St. John the Baptist.
Quote ID: 3255
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 151 Page: 568
Section: 1B
Source: trans. From Middle English by M.A. Stouck, The South English Legendary, ed. Charlotte D’Evelvn and Anna J. Mill, EETS 235 (rpt. 1967; London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1956), I, 1-3 and 340-348.
Quote ID: 3257
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 151 Page: 569
Section: 1B,2C
In this way our sweet Lord was born on earth,To begin Christianity,
Quote ID: 3258
Time Periods: 17
Book ID: 151 Page: 569
Section: 1B,2C
He was twenty-nine years old before he armed himself for it,And started to do battle for Christendom.
Quote ID: 3259
Time Periods: 17
Book ID: 151 Page: 571
Section: 1B,2C
Well ought we to love Christendom that has been bought at such a price,With the heart’s blood of our Lord, pierced by the spear.
Quote ID: 3260
Time Periods: 17
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