Cambrai Homily
Encyclopedia
The Cambrai Homily is the earliest known Irish homily
, dating to the 7th or early 8th century. It is evidence that a written vernacular
encouraged by the Church
had already been established alongside Latin
by the 7th century in Ireland. The homily is also the oldest single example of an extended prose
passage in Old Irish. The text is incomplete, and Latin and Irish are mixed. Quotations from the Bible
and patristic
sources are in Latin, with the explication in Irish. It is a significant document for the study of Celtic linguistics
and for understanding sermons as they might have existed in the 7th-century Irish church. The homily also contains the earliest examples in written Irish of triads
, a form of expression characteristic of early Irish literature
, though the text taken as a whole is not composed in triads.
The homily expounds on with a selection from the Homilia in Evangelia by Pope Gregory I
and an explanation of three modes of martyrdom
, designated by the colors red, blue (or green, Irish glas), and white.
's classic grammar
of Old Irish. It exhibits some distinctive orthographical
features; for instance, a long vowel
is sometimes indicated in the manuscript
not with a diacritical mark, but by doubling or writing out the vowel twice.
to his disciples
, calling upon each of them to follow his example and "take up his cross
." The homily takes an inclusive view of penitence as combining self-mortification
with compassion for others:
Christ
is to be regarded as a model not only of meaningful suffering, but of relations to others: "everyone's sickness was sickness to him, offence to anyone was offence to him, everyone's infirmity was infirmity to him."
, was rarely obtainable after the establishment of Christian hegemony
in the Roman Empire
. Blood martyrdom was not a regular feature of early Christian life in Ireland, despite narratives that depict conflict between missionaries and traditional religious authorities such as the druid
s. Irish saints had to forgo the bloody "crown of martyrdom" until the Viking invasions at the end of the 8th century.
St. Jerome had used the term "white martyrdom" for those such as desert hermit
s who aspired to the condition of martyrdom through strict asceticism. The Cambrai homilist elaborates also on a distinction made by Gregory between inward and outward martyrdom. White martyrdom (bánmartre), he says, is separation from all that one loves, perhaps on a peregrinatio pro Christo or "pilgrimage
on behalf of Christ" that might be extended permanently; blue (or green) martyrdom (glasmartre) involves the denial of desires, as through fasting
and penitent labors, without necessarily implying a journey or complete withdrawal from life; red martyrdom (dercmartre) requires torture or death.
The Irish color word glas for the third way of martyrdom can be translated as either "blue" or "green." Its symbolism in regard to martyrdom has been explained variously but not definitively. Glas has a figurative meaning of "fresh, raw, sharp" (in regard to weather) and "harsh" (morally); it also applies to complexion ("wan") or the discoloration of a corpse as "bluish, livid." The Irish treatise De arreis prescribes "fearsome penances" such as spending the night immersed in water or on nettles or nutshells or in the presence of a corpse. In one 12th-century Irish poem, the speaker Suibne Geilt, a dweller in the wilderness, says "My feet are wounded; my cheek is glas." In a much-referenced analysis of the Irish colors of martyrdom, Clare Stancliffe presented comparative textual
evidence to suggest that glas martyrdom was so called because its austerity produced a sickly pale complexion.
One of the primary means of achieving glas martyrdom is fasting, a common penance which gained special significance from the practice of fasting as codified in early Irish law. A person with an unanswered claim against a social superior might threaten or enact a hunger strike (trocsad) against him, taking up a position outside his residence and potentially polluting his house and family with the responsibility of the faster's death. Irish saints fasted not only to mortify the flesh, but to coerce secular authorities and even to convince God himself. According to the Betha Adamnáin and some Irish annals, for instance, St. Adomnán fasted and immersed himself every night in the River Boyne
as a protest against the kingship of Írgalach mac Conaing
. D.A. Binchy has argued that the trocsad, a term that came into use also for hagiography
, had a distinctively Irish character, leading perhaps to the use of the Celtic color word.
The Irish triad
appears with a Latin fragment at the end of the Cambrai text: castitas in iuventute, continentia in habundantia. This fragment corresponds to a triad in the Prebiarum de multorum exemplaribus
, a didactic
florilegium
of 93 questions. The Prebiarum supplies the missing third element as largitas in paupertate: "What are the types of martyrdom other than death? That is, three. Self-control in abundance, generosity in poverty, chastity in youth." Later examples of similar triads also exist.
in the vernacular. Gatch holds that Irish canonical
and penitential
literature shows scant interest in preaching, and that homilies represent "a peculiarly English effort to assemble useful cycles of preaching materials in the native tongue." The so-called Cambrai Homily, he says, lacks the opening and close that is characteristic of the genre, and was probably just a short tract
or excerpt for a florilegium
.
of the Bibliothèque Municipale (Cambrai, MS. 679, formerly 619, fos. 37rb–38rb). The manuscript was copied in the period 763–790 by a Carolingian
scribe
working in northern France for Alberic, bishop of Cambrai and Arras
. The language of the homily itself, however, dates it to the late 7th century or the beginning of the 8th. It was inserted into the text of the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis
, apparently from a stray leaf that had been slipped into the Latin exemplar. The scribe's knowledge of the Irish language appears to have been limited or nonexistent. An edition was published in 1903 by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan
, with some aspects now considered outdated.
Homily
A homily is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture. In Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox Churches, a homily is usually given during Mass at the end of the Liturgy of the Word...
, dating to the 7th or early 8th century. It is evidence that a written vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
encouraged by the Church
Christian Church
The Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἐκκλησία that in its appearances in the New Testament is usually translated as "church" basically means "assembly"...
had already been established alongside Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
by the 7th century in Ireland. The homily is also the oldest single example of an extended prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
passage in Old Irish. The text is incomplete, and Latin and Irish are mixed. Quotations from the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and patristic
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...
sources are in Latin, with the explication in Irish. It is a significant document for the study of Celtic linguistics
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
and for understanding sermons as they might have existed in the 7th-century Irish church. The homily also contains the earliest examples in written Irish of triads
Triads of Ireland
The title Trecheng Breth Féne "A Triad of Judgments of the Irish", more widely known as "The Triads of Ireland", refers to a miscellaneous collection of about 214 Old Irish triads on a variety of topics, such as nature, geography, law, custom and behaviour...
, a form of expression characteristic of early Irish literature
Early Irish literature
-The earliest Irish authors:It is unclear when literacy first came to Ireland. The earliest Irish writings are inscriptions, mostly simple memorials, on stone in the ogham alphabet, the earliest of which date to the fourth century...
, though the text taken as a whole is not composed in triads.
The homily expounds on with a selection from the Homilia in Evangelia by Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
and an explanation of three modes of martyrdom
Christian martyrs
A Christian martyr is one who is killed for following Christianity, through stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake or other forms of torture and capital punishment. The word "martyr" comes from the Greek word μάρτυς, mártys, which means "witness."...
, designated by the colors red, blue (or green, Irish glas), and white.
Linguistic significance
The Cambrai Homily is one of the few surviving written sources for Old Irish in the period 700 to 900. As such, it was an important source for Rudolf ThurneysenRudolf Thurneysen
Eduard Rudolf Thurneysen was a Swiss linguist and Celticist.Born in Basel, Thurneysen studied classical philology in Basel, Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. His teachers included Ernst Windisch and Heinrich Zimmer...
's classic grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of Old Irish. It exhibits some distinctive orthographical
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
features; for instance, a long vowel
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
is sometimes indicated in the manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
not with a diacritical mark, but by doubling or writing out the vowel twice.
Penitence and suffering
The passage from Matthew is addressed by JesusJesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
to his disciples
Disciple (Christianity)
In Christianity, the disciples were the students of Jesus during his ministry. While Jesus attracted a large following, the term disciple is commonly used to refer specifically to "the Twelve", an inner circle of men whose number perhaps represented the twelve tribes of Israel...
, calling upon each of them to follow his example and "take up his cross
Christian cross
The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...
." The homily takes an inclusive view of penitence as combining self-mortification
Mortification in Roman Catholic teaching
The Roman Catholic Church has often held mortification of the flesh , as a worthy spiritual discipline.-Mortification in Catholic history:In the second millennium, St...
with compassion for others:
Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
is to be regarded as a model not only of meaningful suffering, but of relations to others: "everyone's sickness was sickness to him, offence to anyone was offence to him, everyone's infirmity was infirmity to him."
The colors of martyrdom
The homily outlines three categories of martyrdom, designated by color. This triad is unique, but draws on earlier distinctions between "red" and "white" martyrdom. "Red" martyrdom, or violent death as a result of religious persecutionPersecution of Christians
Persecution of Christians as a consequence of professing their faith can be traced both historically and in the current era. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith, at the hands of both Jews from whose religion Christianity arose, and the Roman Empire which controlled much of the land...
, was rarely obtainable after the establishment of Christian hegemony
Cultural hegemony
Cultural hegemony is the philosophic and sociological theory, by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, that a culturally diverse society can be dominated by one social class, by manipulating the societal culture so that its ruling-class worldview is imposed as the societal norm, which then is...
in the Roman Empire
Decline of the Roman Empire
The decline of the Roman Empire refers to the gradual societal collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Many theories of causality prevail, but most concern the disintegration of political, economic, military, and other social institutions, in tandem with foreign invasions and usurpers from within the...
. Blood martyrdom was not a regular feature of early Christian life in Ireland, despite narratives that depict conflict between missionaries and traditional religious authorities such as the druid
Druid
A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age....
s. Irish saints had to forgo the bloody "crown of martyrdom" until the Viking invasions at the end of the 8th century.
St. Jerome had used the term "white martyrdom" for those such as desert hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
s who aspired to the condition of martyrdom through strict asceticism. The Cambrai homilist elaborates also on a distinction made by Gregory between inward and outward martyrdom. White martyrdom (bánmartre), he says, is separation from all that one loves, perhaps on a peregrinatio pro Christo or "pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
on behalf of Christ" that might be extended permanently; blue (or green) martyrdom (glasmartre) involves the denial of desires, as through fasting
Fasting and Abstinence in the Roman Catholic Church
For Roman Catholics, fasting is the reduction of one's intake of food to one full meal a day. This may or may not be accompanied by abstinence from meat when eating....
and penitent labors, without necessarily implying a journey or complete withdrawal from life; red martyrdom (dercmartre) requires torture or death.
The Irish color word glas for the third way of martyrdom can be translated as either "blue" or "green." Its symbolism in regard to martyrdom has been explained variously but not definitively. Glas has a figurative meaning of "fresh, raw, sharp" (in regard to weather) and "harsh" (morally); it also applies to complexion ("wan") or the discoloration of a corpse as "bluish, livid." The Irish treatise De arreis prescribes "fearsome penances" such as spending the night immersed in water or on nettles or nutshells or in the presence of a corpse. In one 12th-century Irish poem, the speaker Suibne Geilt, a dweller in the wilderness, says "My feet are wounded; my cheek is glas." In a much-referenced analysis of the Irish colors of martyrdom, Clare Stancliffe presented comparative textual
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
evidence to suggest that glas martyrdom was so called because its austerity produced a sickly pale complexion.
One of the primary means of achieving glas martyrdom is fasting, a common penance which gained special significance from the practice of fasting as codified in early Irish law. A person with an unanswered claim against a social superior might threaten or enact a hunger strike (trocsad) against him, taking up a position outside his residence and potentially polluting his house and family with the responsibility of the faster's death. Irish saints fasted not only to mortify the flesh, but to coerce secular authorities and even to convince God himself. According to the Betha Adamnáin and some Irish annals, for instance, St. Adomnán fasted and immersed himself every night in the River Boyne
River Boyne
The River Boyne is a river in Leinster, Ireland, the course of which is about long. It rises at Trinity Well, Newbury Hall, near Carbury, County Kildare, and flows towards the Northeast through County Meath to reach the Irish Sea between Mornington, County Meath and Baltray, County Louth. Salmon...
as a protest against the kingship of Írgalach mac Conaing
Írgalach mac Conaing
Írgalach mac Conaing Cuirre , also called Írgalach ua Conaing, was a King of Brega from the Uí Chonaing sept of Cnogba of the Síl nÁedo Sláine branch of the southern Ui Neill. He was the son of Conaing Cuirre mac Congaile and brother of Congalach mac Conaing Cuirre , previous kings of Brega...
. D.A. Binchy has argued that the trocsad, a term that came into use also for hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
, had a distinctively Irish character, leading perhaps to the use of the Celtic color word.
The Irish triad
Triads of Ireland
The title Trecheng Breth Féne "A Triad of Judgments of the Irish", more widely known as "The Triads of Ireland", refers to a miscellaneous collection of about 214 Old Irish triads on a variety of topics, such as nature, geography, law, custom and behaviour...
appears with a Latin fragment at the end of the Cambrai text: castitas in iuventute, continentia in habundantia. This fragment corresponds to a triad in the Prebiarum de multorum exemplaribus
Prebiarum de multorum exemplaribus
The Prebiarum de multorum exemplaribus is a Hiberno-Latin interrogatory florilegium of the mid-8th century, written as a dialogue in a series of 93 short questions and answers...
, a didactic
Didacticism
Didacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art. The term has its origin in the Ancient Greek word διδακτικός , "related to education/teaching." Originally, signifying learning in a fascinating and intriguing...
florilegium
Florilegium
In medieval Latin a florilegium was a compilation of excerpts from other writings. The word is formed the Latin flos and legere : literally a gathering of flowers, or collection of fine extracts from the body of a larger work. It was adapted from the Greek anthologia "anthology", with the same...
of 93 questions. The Prebiarum supplies the missing third element as largitas in paupertate: "What are the types of martyrdom other than death? That is, three. Self-control in abundance, generosity in poverty, chastity in youth." Later examples of similar triads also exist.
Contrarian view
The identification of the text as a fragment of a homily has been criticized by Milton Gatch, who maintains that early Christian Ireland lacked a homiletic movement aimed at sharing the teachings of the Church FathersChurch Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...
in the vernacular. Gatch holds that Irish canonical
Biblical canon
A biblical canon, or canon of scripture, is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community. The term itself was first coined by Christians, but the idea is found in Jewish sources. The internal wording of the text can also be specified, for example...
and penitential
Penitential
A penitential is a book or set of church rules concerning the Christian sacrament of penance, a "new manner of reconciliation with God" that was first developed by Celtic monks in Ireland in the sixth century AD.-Origin:...
literature shows scant interest in preaching, and that homilies represent "a peculiarly English effort to assemble useful cycles of preaching materials in the native tongue." The so-called Cambrai Homily, he says, lacks the opening and close that is characteristic of the genre, and was probably just a short tract
Tract (literature)
A tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former. They are...
or excerpt for a florilegium
Florilegium
In medieval Latin a florilegium was a compilation of excerpts from other writings. The word is formed the Latin flos and legere : literally a gathering of flowers, or collection of fine extracts from the body of a larger work. It was adapted from the Greek anthologia "anthology", with the same...
.
The text
The Cambrai Homily appears in a manuscriptManuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
of the Bibliothèque Municipale (Cambrai, MS. 679, formerly 619, fos. 37rb–38rb). The manuscript was copied in the period 763–790 by a Carolingian
Carolingian minuscule
Carolingian or Caroline minuscule is a script developed as a writing standard in Europe so that the Roman alphabet could be easily recognized by the literate class from one region to another. It was used in Charlemagne's empire between approximately 800 and 1200...
scribe
Scriptorium
Scriptorium, literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes...
working in northern France for Alberic, bishop of Cambrai and Arras
Arras
Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
. The language of the homily itself, however, dates it to the late 7th century or the beginning of the 8th. It was inserted into the text of the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis
Collectio canonum Hibernensis
The Collectio canonum Hibernensis is a systematic Latin collection of canon law, scriptural and patristic excerpts, and Irish synodal and penitential decrees...
, apparently from a stray leaf that had been slipped into the Latin exemplar. The scribe's knowledge of the Irish language appears to have been limited or nonexistent. An edition was published in 1903 by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan
John Strachan (linguist)
John Strachan was a scholar of Sanskrit, Ancient Greek and the Celtic languages. He was a professor at Owens College and the University of Manchester...
, with some aspects now considered outdated.
- Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus: A Collection of Old-Irish Glosses Scholia Prose and Verse. Edited by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan. Cambridge University Press, 1903, vol. 2, pp. 244–247. Full text downloadable.
Selected bibliography
- A New History of Ireland: Prehistoric and Early Ireland. Edited by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín. Oxford University Press, 2005, vol. 1. Limited preview online.
- Follett, Westley. Céli Dé in Ireland: Monastic Writing and Identity in the Early Middle Ages. Boydell Press, 2006. Limited preview online.
- Stancliffe, Clare. "Red, white and blue martyrdom." In Ireland in Early Mediaeval Europe. Studies in Memory of Kathleen HughesKathleen Hughes (historian)Kathleen Winifred Hughes, born 8 September 1926 in Middlesbrough, died 20 April 1977, was an English historian, her specialisation was Irish ecclesiastical history, particularly the early Christian Church in Ireland....
. Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Further reading
- Ó Néill, Pádraig P. "The Background to the Cambrai Homily." Ériu 32 (1981) 137–148.