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The Virgin, the Bride, and the Church: Reading Psalm 45 in Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

David G. Hunter
David G. Hunter
Affiliation:
David G. Hunter holds the Monsignor James Supple Chair of Catholic Studies in the religious studies department at Iowa State University.
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Extract

Within the past decade or so, historical studies of early Christianity have been affected by what has been called the “linguistic turn.” This development has entailed a new appreciation of the varied forms of Christian “discourse” and their importance in shaping the cultural, political, and social worlds of late antiquity. For example, historians of religion and culture, such as Judith Perkins and Kate Cooper, have drawn attention to the way in which narrative representation in early Christian literature functioned to construct Christian identities and to negotiate power relations both within the church and in society at large. It has become increasingly difficult for historians to ignore the power of rhetoric in shaping the imaginative (and, therefore, real) worlds of late ancient Christians.

Type
Biblical Interpretation and the Construction of Christian Sexualities
Information
Church History , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , June 2000 , pp. 281 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 2000

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References

An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the University of Notre Dame as part of the symposium “The Harp of Prophecy: The Psalms in Early Christian Exegesis,” October 16–18, 1998. I am grateful to Brian E. Daley, S.J. for his kind invitation to the symposium and his generous support of it. A somewhat different version was delivered at the annual meeting of the American Society of Church History, January 7–10, 1999, as part of the session, “The Bible in North Africa and Maureen Tilley's The Bible in North Africa.” I have also benefited very much from the comments of the anonymous reviewers for Church History.

1. For an explication of the theoretical influences on this development and a helpful exploration of its practical implications for church historians, see Clark, Elizabeth A., “The Lady Vanishes: Dilemmas of a Feminist Historian after the ‘Linguistic Turn,’” Church History 67 (1998): 1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. Averil Cameron has been a notable proponent of this perspective. See Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: The Development of Christian Discourse, Sather Classical Lectures 55 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991);Google Scholarand her essay, “Virginity as Metaphor: Women and the Rhetoric of Early Christianity,” in eadem, , ed., History as Text: The Writing of Ancient History (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 181–205.Google ScholarBehind many of the current developments stands the work of Michel Foucault. See Cameron, , “Redrawing the Map: Early Christian Territory after Foucault,” Journal of Roman Studies 76 (1986): 266–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. Perkins, Judith, The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian Era (London: Routledge, 1995);CrossRefGoogle ScholarCooper, Kate, The Virgin and the Bride: Idealized Womanhood in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996).Google ScholarFor a somewhat different application of the same approach, see Burrus, Virginia, “Reading Agnes: The Rhetoric of Gender in Ambrose and Prudentius,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 3 (1995): 25–46;CrossRefGoogle Scholarand “‘Equipped for Victory’: Ambrose and the Gendering of Orthodoxy,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 4 (1996): 461–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. Clark, “The Lady Vanishes,” 27, with reference to Brown, Peter, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), 153.Google Scholar

5. See, for example, the important cautions expressed by Clark, “The Lady Vanishes,” 24–30.Google Scholar

6. Perkins, , The Suffering Self, 5.Google Scholar

7. A notable example in early Christian studies is Maureen Tilley, The Bible in Christian North Africa: The Donatist World (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997). Adopting insights from the sociology of religion, Tilley charts changes in the Donatist use of the Bible over several generations and correlates these changes with alterations in the social and political environment of the Donatist community.Google Scholar

8. The Virgin and the Bride, 55. Cf. Cooper, “Insinuations of Womanly Influence: An Aspect of the Christianization of the Roman Aristocracy,” Journal of Roman Studies 82 (1992): 150–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. Clark, Elizabeth A., “The Uses of the Song of Songs: Origen and the Later Latin Fathers,” in eadem, , Ascetic Piety and Women's Faith: Essays on Late Ancient Christianity (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 1986), 386–427, esp. 401–6.Google Scholar

10. “The Uses of the Song of Songs,” 407–10.Google Scholar

11. See Jerome, , Adversus Jovinianum 1.37, 2.19, 2.30;Google ScholarPatrologia latina, ed. Migne, J.-P. (Paris, 1844–1865; hereafter PL), 23: 275–76, 328, 341.Google ScholarA fuller discussion of Jovinian's arguments can be found in Hunter, David G., “Resistance to the Virginal Ideal in Late-Fourth-Century Rome: The Case of Jovinian,” Theological Studies 48 (1987): 45–64;CrossRefGoogle Scholarand “Helvidius, Jovinian, and the Virginity of Mary in Late Fourth-Century Rome,” journal of Early Christian Studies 1 (1993): 47–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. I will cite the verses of Psalm 45 according to the enumeration in the Vulgate edition, which differs slightly from that found in contemporary English versions. See Weber, R., ed., Biblia Sacra iusta vulgatam versionem (Stuttgart: Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1975), 824.Google Scholar

13. Clark, “The Song of Songs,” 404. The treatises in question are De virginibus (ca. 377), De virginitate (possibly ca. 378), De institutione virginis (ca. 391–92), and Exhortatio virginitatis (ca. 393–95).Google ScholarI have followed the dating of these treatises proposed by Maria Grazia Mara in di Berardio, Angelo, ed., The Golden Age of Latin Patristic Literature, vol. 4 of Patrology, trans. Solari, P. (Westminster, Md.: Christian Classics, 1986), 167–69;Google Scholarsubstantially confirmed by Boniface Ramsey, Ambrose (London: Routledge, 1997), 60–61, 71.Google Scholar

14. For a discussion of the dating and composition, see Duval, Y.-M., “L'Originalité du De virginibus dans le mouvement ascétique occidental,”Google Scholar in idem, ed., Ambroise de Milan: XVIe centenaire de son élection episcopale (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1974), 11–12.

15. De virginibus 1.22 (Gori 1:28). I am citing Ambrose's ascetic writings from the critical edition by Franco Gori, Verginità e vedovanza 1–2, Opera omnia di sant'Ambrogio 14.1–2 (Rome: Città Nuova Editrice, 1989).Google Scholar

16. De virginibus 1.31 (Gori 1:132).Google Scholar

17. De virginibus 1.31 (Gori 1:132): “Nostra virum non habet, sed habet sponsum, eo quod siue ecclesia in populis siue anima in singulis dei uerbo sine ullo flexu pudoris quasi sponso innubit aeterno effeta iniuriae, feta rationis.”Google Scholar

18. De virginibus 1.36 (Gori 1:136).Google Scholar

19. De virginibus 1.36 (Gori 1:136).Google Scholar

20. De virginibus 1.37 (Gori 1:138).Google Scholar

21. De virginibus 1.37 (Gori 1:138).Google Scholar

22. De virginibus 1.38 (Gori l:138–40): “Quibus indiciis ostenditur perfecta et inreprehensibilis virginalis animae pulchritudo altaribus consecrata diuinis inter occursus et latibula spiritalium bestiarum non inflexa mortalibus et intenta mysteriis dei meruisse dilectum, cuius ubera plena laetitiae.”Google Scholar

23. De virginibus 1.37–38 (Gori 1:138–40): “spiritu consecrata divino … dicatur domino, consecratur deo … altaribus consecrata divinis.” In another work, De institutione virginis, composed as a homily for the consecration of the virgin Ambrosia, Ambrose again invoked Psalm 45 and the Song of Songs to speaking of virginal consecration. See De institutione virginis 1.2–5 (Gori 2:110–12).Google Scholar

24. For the ceremony of virginal consecration, see Metz, René, La Consécration des vierges dans I'église romaine (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1954);Google Scholarand D'Izarny, R., “Mariage et consécration virginale au IVe siécle,” La Vie spirituelle, Supplément, 6 (1953): 92–107.Google Scholar It has recently been argued that the liturgy of virginal consecration in Ambrose's day actually included the formal recitation of the Song of Songs. See Henry, Nathalie, “The Song of Songs and the Liturgy of the velatio in the Fourth Century: From Literary Metaphor to Liturgical Reality,” in Swanson, R. N., ed., Continuity and Change in Christian Worship: Papers Read at the 1997 Summer Meeting and the 1998 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1999), 18–28.Google Scholar

25. Canonical literature from the later fourth century frequently contains instructions for bishops on how to handle cases of consecrated virgins who lapsed from their profession. In a decree of Pope Siricius, for example, the consecrated virgin who subsequently married was considered excommunicated until the death of her (human) spouse. See Siricius, ep. 10.1.3 Ad Callos episcopos, PL 13: 1182.Google Scholar

26. De institutione virginis 107 (Gori 2:186): “Quam sacerdotali munere offero, affectu patrio commendo.”Google Scholar

27. See, for example, De virginibus 3.1 (Gori 1:206), where Ambrose cites the words of Pope Liberius in his sermon on the veiling of Marcellina.Google Scholar

28. Canon 31, in Concilia Africae, a. 345–a. 525, ed. Munier, Charles, Corpus Christianorum, series latina (hereafter CCSL), vol. 149 (Turnholt: Brepols, 1974), 42.Google Scholar According to Ambrose it was also the bishop's responsibility to decide whether a virgin was mature enough to receive the veil and whether the circumstances of her home were conducive to the success of her vow.See De virginitate 7.39 (Gori 2:38).Google Scholar

29. McLynn, Neil, Ambrose of Milan: Church and Court in a Christian Capital (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 60–68.Google Scholar The actual candidates for consecration, McLynn suggests, were imported from outside of Milan by episcopal allies of Ambrose, since he himself had failed to elicit much interest in the virginal life at Milan. Cf. Williams, Daniel H., Ambrose of Milan and the End of the Nicene-Arian Conflicts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), 128: “Ambrose was acutely aware of his own deficiencies upon assuming the reins of ministry at Milan, referring to himself as ‘indoctus’ (unlearned) and an ‘initiate in religious matters.’ ”CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30. See, for example, Brown's discussion of the importance of clerical celibacy in generating the power of the clergy in The Body and Society, 357–58;Google Scholarand Hunter, David G., “Clerical Celibacy and the Veiling of Virgins: New Boundaries in Late Ancient Christianity,” in Klingshirn, W. and Vessey, M., eds., The Limits of Ancient Christianity: Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture in Honor of R. A. Markus (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1999), 139–52.Google Scholar

31. This is not to say that Jerome was completely uninterested in the ritual of virginal consecration. For example, in ep. 130, written in 414 on the occasion of the veiling of the virgin Demetrias, Jerome could describe her consecration at the hands of the bishop with a string of verses from Psalm 45 and the Song of Songs. See ep. 130.2, in Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, ed. Hilberg, Isidorus, Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum (hereafter CSEL), vols. 54–56 (Vienna: Verlag der osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996), 55: 176–77. Nevertheless, the ritual does not seem to have had the same significance for Jerome as it did for Ambrose.Google Scholar

32. Ep. 22.1.1 (CSEL 54: 143–14).Google Scholar

33. Ep. 54.3 (CSEL 54: 468).Google Scholar

34. Ep. 54.3 (CSEL 54: 468).Google Scholar

35. It is virtually certain, for example, that a charge of immorality was made against Jerome and that this was the primary reason for his departure from Rome after the death of Pope Damasus. See the discussion in Kelly, J. N. D., Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (New York: Harper and Row, 1975), 111–14. The primary source of evidence is Jerome's ep. 45.Google Scholar

36. Ep. 65.1 (CSEL 54: 618).Google Scholar

37. Ep. 65.2 (CSEL 54: 619).Google Scholar

38. For example, ep. 65. 12, 14.Google Scholar

39. Ep. 65. 15 (CSEL 54: 637).Google Scholar

40. Ep. 65.16 (CSEL 54:639). Here Jerome interprets Psalm 45:11–12 as the soul abandoning its vices and putting away its past way of life.Google Scholar

41. Ep. 65. 20 (CSEL 54: 642).Google Scholar

42. Ep. 65. 20 (CSEL 54: 643).

43. Ep. 14 extra collectionem, ed. M. Zelzer, CSEL 82/3 (Vienna, 1982). In this letter Ambrose makes extensive use of the image of the church as a virgin bride in order to argue for the superiority of virginity over marriage.Google Scholar

44. See Augustine's comments on De bono coniugali in his Retractationes 2.22, ed. Mutzenbecher, Almut, CCSL 57: 107–8 (Turnholt: Brepols, 1984). It is significant in this context that Augustine's arguments in De bono coniugali were directed as much against the excesses of Jerome's Adversus Jovinianum as they were against Jovinian's positions.Google Scholar

45. See Jerome, epp. 48–50.Google Scholar

46. Kelly, , Jerome, 195–209;Google Scholarcf. Clark, Elizabeth A., The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 121–32, who stresses the connection between the Jovinianist and Origenist controversies.Google Scholar

47. Clark, , “The Uses of the Song of Songs,” 407–10.Google Scholar

48. Contra Faustum Manichaeum 15.11, ed. Zycha, J. (Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1891; CSEL 25/1:438–39).Google Scholar

49. De civitate dei 17.16, ed. Hoffmann, E. (Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1900; CSEL 40/2:249–50);Google Scholartrans. Bettenson, H., Augustine: Concerning the City of God against the Pagans (New York: Penguin, 1972), 747.Google Scholar

50. Tilley, , Bible in North Africa, 148–49.Google Scholar

51. Sermo 138.8 (PL 38:767).

52. Sermo 360A. 1. Text in Dolbeau, François, Vingt-six sermons au people d'Afrique (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1996), 42.Google Scholar

53. Sermo 360A.2 (Dolbeau, 43).Google Scholar

54. Enarratio in ps. xliv 23, ed. Dekkers, E. and Fraipont, J. (Turnholt: Brepols, 1956; CCSL 38:510).Google Scholar

55. Enarratio in ps. xliv 24 (CCSL 38: 512).Google Scholar

56. Enarratio in ps. xliv 25 (CCSL 38: 512).Google Scholar

57. Enarratio in ps. xliv 30 (CCSL 38: 515).Google Scholar

58. Enarratio in ps. xliv 31–32 (CCSL 38: 515–16).Google Scholar

59. In De bono coniugali and De sancta virginitate, for example, there are no references to the Song of Songs. In De sancta virginitate Augustine alludes to Psalm 45:3 on three occasions, but does not develop the theme of the consecrated virgin as bride of Christ at any length. See De sancta virginitate 11.11,37.38, 44.55.Google Scholar

60. De bono viduitatis 10.13, ed. Zycha, J. (Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1900; CSEL 41:319). Cf. 3.4 and 6.8.Google Scholar

61. Enarratio in ps. xliv 32 (CCSL 38: 516).Google Scholar

62. Enarratio in ps. xliv 32 (CCSL 38: 516).Google Scholar

63. At the end of ep. 65 (CSEL 54:644) Jerome presents several different interpretations of the “fathers” and “sons” of Psalm 45:17. One possible reading he offers is that the “sons” begotten by the church are those who have become teachers (magistros): “O, church, your sons, to whom you have given birth, are turned into your fathers, when you make into teachers those who were formerly disciples and when you establish them in the priestly order (in sacerdotali gradu) by the testimony of all.” Jerome, however, develops this interpretation no further.Google Scholar

64. Cameron, , Rhetoric of Empire, 175.Google Scholar

65. See the stimulating discussion of this problem in Markus, R. A., The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), especially 19–83.Google Scholar

66. Cf. Brown, , The Body and Society. who thus characterizes Ambrose's concern with perpetual virginity: “What was at stake was the absolute nature of the boundaries that separated the Catholic Church from the world, as well as those which rendered individual virgins irrevocably ‘sacred’ by reason of their vocation, and separate from their families.”Google Scholar

67. See, for example, the conclusion of Enarratio in ps. xliv (CCSL 38:517), where Augustine contrasts the final destiny of the church with its current state in which her full identity is unknown even to herself.Google Scholar