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The Origins of Purgatory through the Lens of Seventh-Century Irish Eschatology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Marina Smyth
Marina Smyth*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
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Extract

Many of the surviving texts associated with seventh-century Ireland deal with eschatology. In general, these texts convey assumptions on the fate of the soul after death that are consistent with the traditional Christian view in late antiquity in the West, namely, that the ultimate destiny of most Christians will not be determined till the great universal judgment at the end of time. To illustrate this point I will adduce the theological treatise Liber de ordine creaturarum and the moral treatise De XII abusiuis saeculi, as well as religious poetry and hagiographical works, and set them in their likely liturgical context. In contrast, the Vision of Fursey and Adomnán's Life of Columba stand out as revealing the strong influence of concepts originating in the early Christian ascetic circles of Egypt. Irish Christians were thus also exposed to the idea that the fate of all individual souls will be determined immediately after death. Awareness and even endorsement of this point of view will have prepared the way toward accepting the novel teaching that a finite period of painful purification immediately follows the death of most Christians. The survival of these two texts demonstrating the presence in seventh-century Ireland of the belief that the final determination of an individual's fate occurs at the time of death draws attention to the radical change in perspective that must have been an essential initial step in the very formulation of the doctrine of purgatory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Traditio , Volume 58 , 2003 , pp. 91 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Fordham University 

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References

1 It was not until the end of the Middle Ages that the Roman Catholic Church issued formal statements on the doctrine of purgatory, such as the 1336 decree Benedictus Deus of Pope Benedict XII.Google Scholar

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3 Most early creeds affirmed that Christ will come back to judge the living and the dead and thereby confirmed the assumption that the all-important judgment will take place at the end of time. See, e.g., “ascendit in coelis, seditque ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis, exinde venturus judicare vivos ac mortuos,” in the Antiphonary of Bangor (ed. Warren, F. E., Henry Bradshaw Society, 10 [London, 1895], 2:21).Google Scholar

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5 In Ps. 1.20–23 (CSEL 22:33–36).Google Scholar

6 Tractatus 1.35 (CCL 22:89–91) = 2.21 (PL 11:458–62).Google Scholar

7 In Ps. 1.51–57 (CSEL 64:43–46). See also Daley, Brian, The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology (Cambridge, 1991), 98.Google Scholar

8 Carmen 7 (CSEL 30:18–20).Google Scholar

9 Moralia 26.27.50–51 (CCL 143B:1304–6): “Duae quippe sunt partes, electorum scilicet, atque reproborum. Sed bini ordines eisdem singulis partibus continentur. Alii namque iudicantur et pereunt, alii non iudicantur et pereunt. Alii iudicantur et regnant, alii non iudicantur et regnant. Iudicantur et pereunt quibus dominica inclamatione dicitur: ‘Esuriui et non dedistis mihi manducare; sitiui et non dedistis mihi potum….’ Quibus praemittitur: ‘Discedite a me, maledicti….’ Alii uero in extremo iudicio non iudicantur et pereunt, de quibus propheta ait: ‘Non resurgent impii in iudicio.’ Et de quibus Dominus dicit: ‘Qui autem non credit, iam iudicatus est.’ Et de quibus Paulus ait: ‘Qui sine lege peccauerunt, sine lege peribunt.’ Resurgunt ergo etiam omnes infideles, sed ad tormentum, non ad iudicium. Non enim eorum tunc causa discutitur, qui ad conspectum districti iudicis iam cum damnatione suae infidelitatis accedunt. Professionem uero fidei retinentes, sed professionis opera non habentes, redarguuntur ut pereant. Qui uero nec fidei sacramenta tenuerunt increpationem iudicis in extrema examinatione non audiunt, quia, praeiudicati infidelitatis suae tenebris, eius quem despexerant inuectione redargui non merentur…. Ex electorum uero parte alii iudicantur et regnant, qui uitae maculas lacrimis tergunt, qui mala praecedentia factis sequentibus redimentes, quicquid illicitum aliquando fecerunt ab oculis iudicis eleemosynarum superductione cooperiunt. Quibus iudex ueniens … dicit: ‘Esuriui et dedistis mihi manducare…. Venite, benedicti….’ Alii autem non iudicantur et regnant qui etiam praecepta legis perfectionis uirtute transcendunt, quia nequaquam hoc solum quod cunctis diuina lex praecipit implere contenti sunt, sed praestantiori desiderio plus exhibere appetunt quam praeceptis generalibus audire potuerunt. Quibus dominica uoce dicitur: ‘Vos qui reliquistis omnia uestra et secuti estis me … sedebitis et uos super duodecim thronos, iudicantes duodecim tribus Israel …’ Hi itaque in extremo iudicio non iudicantur et regnant, quia cum auctore suo etiam iudices ueniunt.” The translation is slightly modified from that offered by Martin McNamara (“Some Aspects of Early Medieval Irish Eschatology,” in Irland und Europa im früheren Mittelalter: Bildung und Literatur = Ireland and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: Learning and Literature, ed. Ní Chatháin, P. and Richter, M. [Stuttgart, 1996], 42–75, at 58–59), where the English text is taken from The Morals on the Book of Job by S. Gregory the Great, Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, 3 (Oxford, 1847), 171–73.Google Scholar

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12 Ntedika, Joseph, L'évolution de la doctrine du Purgatoire chez saint Augustin (Paris, 1966). In De civitate Dei 21.26, Augustine did not reject the possibility that this “fire” might take effect in the interval between death and the final resurrection, but he also accepted the possibility that it will occur at the end of time, or even that it refers to suffering and tribulation in this life on earth.Google Scholar

13 Sermo 179 (CCL 104:724–29).Google Scholar

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15 De ordine creaturarum depends extensively on De mirabilibus sacrae scripturae, a treatise written in Ireland in the 650s (Lapidge, and Sharpe, , Bibliography , no. 291). Given the content of the credal statements adduced by Díaz y Díaz to support his claim that De ordine depends on the eleventh council of Toledo, there is no reason to assume with him that this text must have been written after 675, the year in which that council was held (see Marina Smyth, “The Date and Origin of Liber de ordine creaturarum,” forthcoming in Peritia 17 [2003]).Google Scholar

16 “Ego enim bonis et catholicis lectoribus consentiens, inuidorum non curo querellas qui sine pinnis in terra reptantes uolatu ranarum auium nidos inridunt” (De ordine creaturarum 15.14). See Augustine, , De Gen. ad litt. 1.20.40. The reading of this phrase found in De ordine creaturarum is characteristic of a family of the manuscripts of Augustine's text; see Gorman, Michael, “Augustine Manuscripts from the Library of Louis the Pious: Berlin Phillipps 1651 & Munich Clm 3824,” Scriptorium 50 (1996): 98–105.Google Scholar

17 The call of the elect that will take place after the Last Judgment. Emphasis on this call is a recurring theme in early Irish works.Google Scholar

18 “At uero hii qui aeternae uitae solacia percipiunt, bino et ipsi modo largitoris munere regni caelorum beatitudinem sument. Quibusdam namque ex his adhuc in terra positis, dum pro Christo pauperes efficiuntur, regnum caelorum promittitur; sed absens licet in labore et fatigatione perseuerantibus iterum donatur, cum dicitur: ‘beati pauperes spiritu quia ipsorum est regnum caelorum.’ Similiter et qui persecutiones hominum propter iustitiam sustinent, eadem mercedis retributione gaudent, dum subinfertur: ‘beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter iustitiam quia ipsorum est regnum caelorum’; non dixit quia erit ipsorum ut uocationem futuram sperarent, sed cum a corporibus exibunt uelut per semetipsos recepturi sunt quod in corporibus conmorantes interim dono largitoris possedent…. Quorum gratia et aliqui post purgationem uocabuntur, solacium sine fine possedebunt, quibus post examinationem dicitur: ‘uenite, benedicti patris mei, possedete regnum quod uobis praeparatum est ab origine mundi’” ( De ordine creaturarum , 14.1–2, 14.4).Google Scholar

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21 N. 9 above.Google Scholar

22 CCL 145:279–80; Lapidge, and Sharpe, , Bibliography , no. 293.Google Scholar

23 McNamara, , “Some Aspects” (n. 9 above), 57–60, 70, 74.Google Scholar

24 Did the author ascribe a dreamless sleep to these souls in the interval between death and the final resurrection, as early Syriac tradition had assumed for all souls? See Edsman, Carl-Martin, Le baptême de feu, Acta seminarii neotestamentici upsaliensis, 9 (Leipzig and Uppsala, 1940), 122.Google Scholar

25 Perhaps these souls in the middle group were assumed to be waiting in hell, where the souls of the holy people of the Old Testament were believed to have been waiting until their release by Christ at the harrowing of hell. While such a scheme would agree with assumptions of the church in late antiquity — assumptions that were perpetuated in the liturgy — the author of De ordine seems to think of hell exclusively as a place of punishment and intense suffering. It is therefore very strange that the text says nothing about the whereabouts and the condition of the souls in the middle group.Google Scholar

26 “Aliqui post purgationem uocabuntur, solacium sine fine possedebunt, quibus post examinationem dicitur: ‘uenite, benedicti patris mei, possedete regnum quod uobis paratum est ab origine mundi’; propter solacia pauperum, immo Christi in pauperibus, possedere merebuntur, dum esurienti cibum, sitienti potum, nudo uestitum, uaganti domum, infirmanti et in carcere posito Christo in suis fratribus minimis ministratio praebebatur” (14.4).Google Scholar

27 These capital sins were identified in De ordine creaturarum 13.3–4.Google Scholar

28 “Quidam uero ad extremum diuini examinis iudicium, qui his capitalibus criminibus non inuoluuntur, reseruati de hoc saeculo uadunt, et tamen sententia superni iudicis aeternae dampnationis sortem subibunt; qui misericordiae opera condamnantes Christum in pauperibus nec cibo nec potu reficiunt, nec uestibus induunt, nec hospitio recipiunt, nec ullis infirmantibus et alligatis in metallis et carceribus uisitationis solacia ferunt, propter quod ab ipso audiunt: ‘ite maledicti in ignem aeternum, quem praeparauit pater meus diabulo et angelis eius’” (13.5).Google Scholar

29 Hellmann, Sigmund, ed., Ps.-Cyprianus de XII abusiuis saeculi, Texte und Untersuchungen, 34.1 (Leipzig, 1909), 1–62; Breen, Aidan, “De XII Abusiuis: Text and Transmission,” in Ireland and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: Texts and Transmission = Irland und Europa im früheren Mittelalter: Texte und Überlieferung, ed. Ní Chatháin, P. and Richter, M. (Dublin, 2001), 78–94; Lapidge, and Sharpe, , Bibliography (n. 14 above), no. 339.Google Scholar

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31 It should be noted that the author of De ordine creaturarum accepted without question the Gospel's assertion that the rich man who would not even let poor Lazarus eat the crumbs from his table was already damned when he died. Though the Gospel describes the suffering of this rich man in very physical terms (Luke, 16:24), De ordine states explicitly that the rich man's soul is in hell before the Last Judgment: “But since that fire is said to be prepared for the devil and his angels, what is the nature of its corporeality that it can torment angels and the soul of the rich man after it had left his body? For he was clearly stating that the fire of hell was tormenting him when he said: ‘for I am tormented in this flame’” (13.9).Google Scholar

32 Strecker, Carl, ed., “De die iudicii,” in Poetae Latini aevi Carolini 4.2: Rhythmi aevi Merovingici et Carolini , MGH (Berlin, 1923), 507–10. The poem is included in Raby, F. J. E., The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse (Oxford, 1959), 14–15 (13) and in Walpole, A. S., Early Latin Hymns (Cambridge, 1922; repr. Hildesheim, 1966), 380–84. See Schaller, D. and Könsgen, E., Initia carminum latinorum saeculo undecimo antiquiorum. Bibliographisches Repertorium für die lateinische Dichtung der Antike und des früheren Mittelalters (Göttingen, 1977), 46, no. 945.Google Scholar

33 Stevenson, Jane, “Irish Hymns, Venantius Fortunatus and Poitiers,” in Aquitaine and Ireland in the Middle Ages , ed. Picard, Jean-Michel (Dublin, 1995), 81–110, at 96 n. 64; eadem, “Altus prosator,” Celtica 23 (1999): 326–68, at 327 n. 10. Franz Brunhölzl mentions Apparebit repentina at the end of his chapter devoted to pre-Carolingian literature in Gaul, but emphasizes that nothing is known of the origin of such eschatological hymns, of which this is the earliest (Histoire de la littérature latine du Moyen Age. Tome 1: De Cassiodore à la fin de la renaissance carolingienne. Volume 1: L'époque mérovingienne, trans. Rochais, H. [Turnhout, 1990], 152).Google Scholar

34 Norberg, Dag, “L'origine de la versification latine rythmique,” Eranos 50 (1952): 83–90, at 86.Google Scholar

35 Idem, Les vers latins iambiques et trochaïques au Moyen Age et leurs répliques rythmiques, Filologiskt Arkiv, 35 (Stockholm, 1988), 97.Google Scholar

36 Idem, Introduction à l'étude de la versification latine médiévale, Studia Latina Stockholmiensia, 5 (Stockholm, 1958), 114, and idem, Les vers latins, 97–98.Google Scholar

37 Bede, , De arte metrica 24 (CCL 123A:139). Josef Szövérffy singled out Apparebit repentina as particularly difficult to date (Die Annalen der lateinischen Hymnendichtung. Ein Handbuch. I: Die lateinischen Hymnen bis zum Ende des 11. Jahrhunderts [Berlin, 1964], 8), but suggested that the well developed rhythmical pattern argued against a very early date of composition. Raby had opted for the early fifth century, though he allowed that “it may be later” (The Oxford Book, 176–77).Google Scholar

38 As exemplified in the passage of the Moralia cited above (n. 9), the usual perception was that almsgiving and other acts of mercy might somehow cover up the earlier evil deeds of the repentant sinner. This does not apply in Apparebit repentina, however, since there is nothing in the hymn to indicate that repentant sinners are being judged.Google Scholar

39 Witness, for example, the selection from a sermon by Caesarius of Arles cited by Szövérffy, Joseph in “Tuba mirum spargens sonum … Some Peculiarities of a Holy Cross Hymn,” Aevum 32 (1958): 38–50, at 50, in which the Son of Man reproaches the sinner for his sins: “Non te ego de morte mea quaero; redde mihi uitam tuam, quam uulneribus peccatorum indesinenter occidis. Cur habitaculum, quod mihi in te sacraueram, luxuriae sordibus polluisti? … Cur me grauiore criminum tuorum cruce, quam illa in qua quondam pependeram, afflixisti?” [I do not ask you about my death, but give account of your life, which you have continuously killed with the wounds of sin. Why did you pollute with the filth of luxuriousness that dwelling place which I sanctified for myself in you? … Why did you inflict upon me with your sins a cross more dreadful than that upon which I once hung (for you)?] (PL 39:2207–8; see also Sermo 57.4 [CCL 103:253]).Google Scholar

40 See De ordine creaturarum 14.4–5, cited above.Google Scholar

41 This would presumably apply also to a hymn which Strecker assigned to the same author, namely Almo fulget in caelesti perpes regno ciuitas, which describes the glorious New Jerusalem in terms compatible with the final chapters of De ordine creaturarum. See Strecker, C., in Poetae Latini aevi Carolini 4.2: Rhythmi aevi Merovingici et Carolini , MGH (Berlin, 1923), 512–14.Google Scholar

42 Lapidge, and Sharpe, , Bibliography (n. 14 above), no. 580. This hymn was edited from the earlier continental manuscripts by Clemens Blume in AH 51:275–83 and translated in Clancy, Thomas Owen and Markus, Gilbert, Iona: The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Monastery (Edinburgh, 1995), 50–53. For a discussion of the date and content, see Stevenson, J. B., “Altus prosator: A Seventh-Century Hiberno-Latin Poem” (Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1985); eadem, “Altus prosator,” Celtica 23 (1999): 326–68; eadem, “Hiberno-Latin Hymns: Learning and Literature,” in Irland und Europa (n. 9 above), 99–135. For a discussion of the cosmological content of this poem see Smyth, , Understanding (n. 14 above).Google Scholar

43 For this motif, see Heist, W. W., The Fifteen Signs before Doomsday (East Lansing, Mich., 1952). For the later Irish tradition, see McNamara, Martin, The Apocrypha in the Irish Church (Dublin, 1975), 128–38, and Irish Biblical Apocrypha: Selected Texts in Translation, ed. Herbert, Máire and McNamara, Martin (Edinburgh, 1989), 153–59 and 188–89; see also McNamara, , “Some Aspects” (n. 9 above), 74–75.Google Scholar

44 Muirchú, , Vita Patricii 2.1; Bieler, Ludwig and Kelly, Fergus, The Patrician Texts in the Book of Armagh, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, 10 (Dublin, 1979), 114; see Lapidge, and Sharpe, , Bibliography (n. 14 above), no. 303.Google Scholar

45 Bieler, and Kelly, , The Patrician Texts , 116 and 188.Google Scholar

46 Ibid., 164: “Hae sunt tres petitiones Patricii, ut nobis traditae sunt Hibernensibus, rogans .i. ut suscipiatur unusquisque nostrum poenitentiam agens licet in extremo uitae suae iudicii die, ut non claudetur in inferno: haec est prima.” See also pp. 44 and 233–34.Google Scholar

47 The author is preparing a study of Insular eschatology during the seventh century.Google Scholar

48 “Vt et ostenderetur quod post terrorem tam terribilis huius quam diximus sententiae nulla poenitudine iudex flecteretur, in fine cunctae disputationis ita subinfertur: ‘tunc hi ibunt in ignem aeternum’ (Matt. 25:46)” (13.6).Google Scholar

49 Tirechán, , Vita Patricii 40; Bieler, and Kelly, , The Patrician Texts, 154; see Lapidge, and Sharpe, , Bibliography (n. 14 above), no. 301. If one-upmanship can be applied to hagiography, one might say that Patrick was a more powerful saint than Martin! According to Sulpicius Severus, Martin resurrected a candidate for baptism almost immediately after his death so that he could baptize him, whereas Patrick resurrected a pagan years after his death and converted him on the spot! See Vita sancti Martini 3.3 (SC 133:266–69).Google Scholar

50 Tirechán, , Vita Patricii 41; Bieler, and Kelly, , The Patrician Texts, 154–56. See also Muirchú, , Vita Patricii 2.2 (at p. 114).Google Scholar

51 Stevenson, Jane, introduction to The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church , 2d ed., Studies in Celtic History, 9 (Woodbridge, U.K., 1987), lviii–lxxi. The eighth- or ninth-century author of the Catalogus sanctorum Hiberniae (Lapidge, and Sharpe, , Bibliography [n. 14 above], no. 363) noted that the saints of both the “second” and the “third” order were reported to have had “different rules and different masses” — as opposed to the “one mass” of Patrick. He was apparently aware that various liturgies had existed simultaneously in Ireland during the sixth and seventh centuries.Google Scholar

52 Capelle, B., “L'introduction du symbole à la messe,” in Mélanges Joseph de Ghellinck , 2 vols. (Gembloux, 1951), 2:1003–27.Google Scholar

53 Bede stated that Apparebit repentina was sung as a hymn ( De arte metrica 24 [CCL 123A:139]).Google Scholar

54 See, e.g., the Commentary of Pseudo-Hilary on the Epistle of James (see Lapidge, and Sharpe, , Bibliography [n. 14 above], no. 346; ed. McNally, R., Scriptores Hiberniae Minores 1, CCL 108B [Turnhout, 1973], 67, lines 488–89), referring to the alleged date (March 25) of the sacrifice of Isaac: “quia in octauo kalendas Aprilis in qua mundus traditur constitutus, et in die iudicii reaedificandus, a patre offertus erat.” See also Stevenson, , “Altus prosator” (n. 42 above), 346–47 and also eadem, “Hiberno-Latin Hymns” (n. 42 above), 120 n. 84, pointing to the Jewish origin of such beliefs.Google Scholar

55 Warren, F. E., The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Oxford, 1881; repr., intro. Stevenson, Jane, Studies in Celtic History, 9 [Woodbridge, 1987]); more recently, Schneiders, Marc, “The Origins of the Early Irish Liturgy,” in Irland und Europa (n. 9 above), 76–98.Google Scholar

56 No attempt has been made to standardize the grammar and spelling presented in the editions of these texts.Google Scholar

57 Stuiber, Alfred, Refrigerium interim: Die Vorstellungen vom Zwischenzustand und die frühchristliche Grabekunst, Theophaneia, 11 (Bonn, 1957).Google Scholar

58 The Veronese Sacramentary represents Roman liturgy as adopted in Verona at the beginning of the seventh century, perhaps even earlier. From the mass Super defunctos : “Hanc igitur oblationem illius famuli tui, quam tibi offeret pro animam famuli tui illius, quaesumus, domine, propitiatus accipias, et miserationum tuarum largitate concedas, ut quidquid terrena conuersatione contraxit, his sacrificiis emundetur, ac mortis uinculis absolutis transitum mereatur ad uitam” ( Sacramentarium Veronense , ed. Mohlberg, L. C., Rerum ecclesiasticarum documenta, Series maior: Fontes 1, 3d ed. [Rome, 1978], 144).Google Scholar

59 From the anniversary mass in the Gelasianum: “Hanc igitur oblationem, domine, quam tibi offerimus pro anima famuli tui illius, cuius deposicionis diem VII uel XXX celebramus, quod deposito corpore animam tibi creatori reddidit quam dedisti; pro quo petimus diuinam clemenciam tuam, ut mortis uinculis absolutus transitum mereatur ad uitam” ( Liber sacramentorum romanae aeclesiae ordinis anni circuli [Sacramentarium Gelasianum] , ed. Mohlberg, L. C., Rerum ecclesiasticarum documenta, Series maior: Fontes 4, 3d ed. [Rome, 1981], 247). While the Gelasian Sacramentary combines Roman usage during the seventh century with later additions from Gaul, the formulae for the masses for the dead are of Roman origin (see Ntedika, J., L'évocation de l'au-delà dans la prière pour les morts: Etude de patristique et de la liturgie latines [IVe–VIIIe S.], Recherches africaines de théologie, 2 [Louvain, 1971], xviii). The phrase “ut mortis uincolis absolute transitum meriatur ad uitam” also occurs (twice) in the fragment identified by de Bruyne of a mass pro defuncto which was most likely from seventh-century Gaul (Missale Gallicanum Vetus , ed. Mohlberg, L. C., Rerum ecclesiasticarum documenta, Series maior: Fontes, 3 [Rome, 1958], 97).Google Scholar

60 See Missale Gothicum (Vat. Reg. lat. 317) , ed. Mohlberg, L. C., Rerum ecclesiasticarum documenta, Series maior: Fontes 5 (Rome, 1961), 44 (in the Post nomina prayer of the mass of St. Peter). The Missale Gothicum is a Gallican sacramentary from the end of the seventh or early eighth century.Google Scholar

61 Also from the mass of St. Peter in this Gallican sacramentary of the eighth century ( The Bobbio Missal: A Gallican Mass-Book [MS. Paris. Lat. 13246] , ed. Lowe, E. A., Henry Bradshaw Society, 58 [London, 1920], 36).Google Scholar

62 Le Liber ordinum en usage dans l'église wisigotique et mozarabe d'Espagne du cinquième au onzième siècle , ed. Férotin, M., Monumenta ecclesiae liturgica, 5 (Paris, 1904), col. 113. See also col. 423: “erepti etiam a penis omnibus et miseriis inferorum, cum sanctis omnibus et electis tecum glorientur in celo.” According to the editor, this collection relays the ritual in the Spanish church before the Islamic conquest in 712, and the funeral formulas in particular would predate the invasions.Google Scholar

63 Ntedika, , L'évocation , 127–28, 133–34.Google Scholar

64 Reference to the future judgment is sometimes explicit. Thus, one of the prayers in the Visigothic Ordo de defunctis reads as follows: “Ne conperdas, Domine, animas famulorum tuorum cum iniquitatibus eorum, nec mala ipsorum indignando reserues ultionis future uindicte, nec eos cum impiis punias; sed uera fides, que illos dum hic aduiuerent ueraciter in te credere fecit, ipsa eos celestis possessores efficiat paradisi” and the Conpleturia requests: “Christe, uera redemptio mundi, cuius morte et resurrectione sumus redemti, animas quiescentium ne patiaris eterno baratro demergi: sed quesumus, ut quos de manu hostis tui sanguinis pretio redemisti, ab eterna eos liberes damnatione iudicii” (Le Liber ordinum, 400 and 401 [my italics]).Google Scholar

65 Ntedika, , L'évocation , 114–35. Augustine, , Enchiridion 110, speaking of masses offered for the dead, said: “Quibus autem prosunt, aut ad hoc prosunt, ut sit plane remissio, aut certe ut tolerabilior fiat ipsa damnatio” (my italics). See also, e.g., Veronense 1138 (from the mass Super defunctos): “Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui contulisti fidelibus tuis remedia uitae post mortem: praesta, quaesumus, propitius ac placatus, ut anima famuli tui illius a peccatis omnibus expiata[m] in tuae redemptionis sorte requiescat” (see Veronense 1147 and Gelasianum 1667). Another example is the request in the offertory prayer from Arles: “ut eis, domine deus noster, peccatorum tribuas ueniam et requiem largiaris aeternam” (Missale Gallicanum Vetus, ed. Mohlberg, L. C., Rerum ecclesiasticarum documenta, Series maior: Fontes 3 [Rome, 1958], 93).Google Scholar

66 Variations in the early readings of Acts 2:24 explain the ambiguity of the phrase mortis uinculis absolutus, which might equally refer to the netherworld (or to the pains of hell) and to death itself (see Ntedika, , L'Evocation , 123 n. 138). From sixth-century Arles, there is for example the following prayer for a deceased virgin: “Te domine sancte pater omnipotens aeterne deus supplices deprecamur pro spiritu famulae tuae ill. quam de uoraginibus huius saeculi ad te arcersire praecepisti. ut digneris domine dare ei locum refrigerii et quietis. Liceat ei transire portas infernorum et uias tenebrarum. maneatque in mansionibus sanctorum. et in luce sancta. quam olim Abrahae promisti et semini eius. nullam laesionem sustineat spiritus eius. sed cum magnus dies ille resurrectionis ac regenerationis aduenerit. resuscitare eam digneris domine una cum sanctis et electis tuis. deleas ei delicta atque peccata. usque ad nouissimum quadrantem. tecumque immortalitatis uitam et regnum consequatur aeternum” (S. Caesarii Arelatensis Episcopi Regula Sanctarum Virginum aliaque opuscula ad sanctimoniales directa, ed. Morin, G., Florilegium patristicum, 34 [Bonn, 1933], 30–31) = Gelasianum 1617 = Bobiense 539. The Offertory prayers in the Mone masses from mid-seventh-century Burgundy are also relevant here. Mass 2, Post nomina: “sperantes de potentiam trinitatis inminse, ut et superstitum confirmit uota et defunctorum laxit ergastola: ut uiuis praestans gratiam pariter et sepultis, et os [sic, = eos] exaudiat cum inuocauerint, et illus quia condam inuocauerunt non condemnet” (Missale Gallicanum Vetus, 77); Mass 6, Post nomina: “Defunctorum fedilium animae quae beatetudinem gaudent nobis opetulentur, quae consolatione indigent eclesiae praecibus absoluantur” (ibid., 87).Google Scholar

67 Dold, Alban and Eizenhöfer, Leo, Das irische Palimpsestsakramentar in Clm 14429 der Staatsbibliothek München , Texte und Arbeiten, 53/54 (Beuron, 1964), 30∗–40∗. Lowe, E. A. (Codices latini antiquiores: A Palaeographical Guide to Latin Manuscripts to the Ninth Century, Part 9, Germany: Maria Laach-Würzburg [Oxford, 1959], 19, no. 1298) dated it a little later, to the end of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth century. For a brief description of this sacramentary, see Schneiders, , “The Origins” (n. 55 above), 79–82; also Stevenson's introduction in Warren, , The Liturgy (n. 55 above), lxvii. Both these authors accept that the palimpsest sacramentary is a witness to liturgy in Ireland during the seventh century, as did Dumville, D. N. in “Biblical Apocrypha and the Early Irish Church: A Preliminary Investigation,” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C, 73, no. 8 (1973): 299–338, at 329.Google Scholar

68 E.g., “pro caro no. 1. cuius hodie depossitionem facimus depraecamur” (Dold, and Eizenhöfer, , Das irische Palimpsestsakramentar , 177, no. 158).Google Scholar

69 See Botte, B., “Prima resurrectio: Un vestige de millénarisme dans les liturgies occidentales,” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 15 (1948): 5–17.Google Scholar

70 “Primae resurrectionis beatitudinem mererentur” (Dold, and Eizenhöfer, , Das irische Palimpsestsakramentar , 106, no. 83); “ut eum in sinu abrachae isaac et iacob collocare digneris et in prima anastasi cum sanctis tuis facias suscitan” (ibid., 177, no. 158); “partem primae resurrectionis obtineat uitamque mereatur aeternam” (ibid., 174, no. 155).Google Scholar

71 “Ut si quid inpurum carnis fragilitate diabolo insidiante peccauit, pietas domini nostri Iesu Christi resoluere ac redonare dignetur et in locum quietis ac refrigerii sanctorum suorum intercessione transferre orantibus nobis” (ibid., 173, no. 153).Google Scholar

72 These liturgical texts might well have been composed with full awareness that all events are present to God at all times, and that past, present, and future are irrelevant to the afterlife. In seventh-century Ireland, as elsewhere, it was commonly understood, however, that up until the Second Coming time will continue to unfold in the otherworld as it does on earth.Google Scholar

73 See e.g., the Mone Mass 4, Post nomina : “Spiritibus quoque karorum nostrorum laetis sedibus conquiiscant et primi resurrectionis gaudia consequantur” ( Missale Gallicanum Vetus , 83). The same request is less obvious in Mass 5, Post nomina: “Propiciatorem nostris facinoribus, fratres amantissimi, uenerabiliter suppliciis exoremus, ut recitatis nominibus defunctorum dignanter munera respiciat offerentum, ut suae potestatis sanctificationem largita haec oblatio in Christi corpore et cruore conuersa proficiat defunctis ad requiem” (ibid., 85) and Mass 6, Collectio post nomina: “Oremus, fratres karissimi, ut hanc oblatio nostra accepta sit domino, et quos in honorem summi sacerdotis sui Germani epyscopi uidet esse deuotus, ita sibi beneplacito esse concedat, ut defunctorum spiritibus et requiem tribuat et beatitudinem largiatur” (ibid., 90).Google Scholar

74 The MGH edition of the Vita sancti Fursei , edited by Krusch, B. (MGH Scriptores Rerum Merovingiarum, 4 [Hannover, 1902], 423–51), does not include the Visio. Google Scholar

75 Ed. Ciccarese, M. P. in “Le visioni di S. Fursa,” Romanobarbarica 8 (1984–85): 232–303 (with Italian translation in Visioni dell' aldilà in Occidente: Fonti, Modelli, Testi, ed. eadem, Patristica, Biblioteca [Florence, 1987], 184–229) and more recently and independently by Carozzi, Claude, Le voyage de l'âme dans l'Au-delà d'après la littérature latine (Ve-XIIIe siècle), Collection de l'École française de Rome (Rome, 1994), 677–92, which is cited here.Google Scholar

76 Carozzi, , Le voyage , 685: “In omni uero contradictione daemonum praeualida nimis extitit pugna, donec iudice Domino triumphantibus angelis, contritis deuictisque aduersariis, immensa claritate uir sanctus circumfusus est sanctorumque angelorum choris concinentibus.” Google Scholar

77 When the angels affirm that the mercy of the Lord accompanies man so long as there is hope for repentance (“Quamdiu speratur paenitentia, comitatur hominem diuina misericordia”), the demons are happy to point out that there is no opportunity for repentance in the otherworld (“sed nullus tamen hic locus paenitentiae”; this phrase is apparently borrowed from Visio Pauli, where the use of the word locus has no spatial connotations; see n. 89 below). The angels then reply that the profound mystery of God may well make this possible (“Profunditatem mysteriorum Dei ignoratis. Fortasse enim erit” [Visio sancti Fursei 9; see Carozzi, , Le voyage , 684]). The Visio Fursei therefore allows for the possibility of effective repentance after death, a concept that was current in Ireland at that time, as noted earlier.Google Scholar

78 For the Hebrew background of this concept, see Edsman, , Le baptême de feu (n. 24 above), 27–29. Carozzi, (Le voyage, 111) argues that since the fire is burning a soul which has received absolution, it must be a purgatorial fire. For Carozzi, already at this early stage in the Irish Church, confession to a priest — certainly deathbed confession — seems to imply absolution (“poenitentia…. a sacerdote suscipienda [est] usque ad extremam horam” [16.8]). In other parts of Europe during the seventh century, absolution may have been assumed for deathbed repentance in the presence of a priest, or rather when a dying sinner submitted to penance (accipere poenitentiam; see, e.g., Garvin's, J. commentary on pp. 301–3 in The Vitas sanctorum Patrum emeretensium [Washington, 1946]). The early Irish penitentials, on the other hand, make it clear that even when the penance assigned by the confessor is completed, there is no guarantee of divine forgiveness. The Epilogue to the Penitential of Cummian, for example, states that performing the appropriate penance might merely predispose God to overlook the committed offenses (see The Irish Penitentials , ed. Bieler, L., Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, 5 [Dublin, 1963], 134), so that the concept of absolution is irrelevant to this early period in Ireland.Google Scholar

79 For evidence from Ireland for belief in an upper zone of fire, see Smyth, , Understanding (n. 14 above), 176–77. It should be noted, however, that it was commonly assumed that after the fall of Satan, the devils had been confined to the lower layer of turbulent air (ibid., 223–24), so that it is unexpected to find them active in this upper layer of fire.Google Scholar

80 “Uniuscuiusque opus manifestum erit dies enim declarabit quia in igne reuelabitur et uniuscuiusque opus quale sit ignis probabit. Si cuius opus manserit quod superaedificauit, mercedem accipiet. Si cuius opus arserit, detrimentum patietur, ipse autem saluus erit sic tamen quasi per ignem” (Vulgate). [The work of everyone shall be manifest; for the day shall declare it because it will be revealed in fire and the fire shall determine the quality of everyone's work. If someone's work abides (which he has built upon the foundation of Christ), he will receive a reward. If someone's work burns, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved as though by fire.] Google Scholar

81 E.g., Carozzi, , Le voyage , 127–37. The key text is in Visio sancti Fursei 8: “Cui respondit angelus: ‘quod non accendisti, non ardebit in te. Licet enim terribilis est et grandis iste ignis, tamen secundum merita operum singulos examinat, quia uniuscuiusque cupiditas in isto igne ardebit. Sicut enim corpus ardet per inlicitam uoluptatem, ita et anima ardebit per debitam poenam’” (Carozzi, , Le voyage, 683). Carozzi combines trial by fire with the concept of a baptism by fire, which purifies Fursey for his future mission to preach to church leaders remiss in their duties and in their priorities.Google Scholar

82 As Clement of Alexandria characterized this fire which burns through the soul (φρόνιμον; see Stromata 7.6.4 [GCS 17:27, line 7; SC 428:128–29]).Google Scholar

83 “Dies enim declarabit quia in igne reuelabitur” (1 Cor. 3:13).Google Scholar

84 Sims-Williams, Patrick, Religion and Literature in Western England, 600–800 (Cambridge, 1990), 249–52. The similarity is especially striking in the account of the ascent of the soul under guidance of an angel who then tells it to look back down upon the earth engulfed in flames.Google Scholar

85 Most recently edited in parallel columns from several manuscripts by Silverstein, Theodore and Hilhorst, Anthony, Apocalypse of Paul: A New Critical Edition of Three Long Latin Versions , Cahiers d'Orientalisme, 21 (Geneva, 1997). The long Latin version was first edited from the Paris manuscript (BN, nouv. acq. lat. 1631) by James, M. R., Apocrypha Anecdota: A Collection of Thirteen Apocryphal Books and Fragments (Cambridge, 1893), 1–42 (reprinted in the second volume of Texts and Studies Contributing to Biblical and Patristic Literature , ed. Robinson, J. A. [Nendeln, 1967]); translated by Elliott, J. K., The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation (Oxford, 1993), 616–43.Google Scholar

86 Silverstein, and Hilhorst, , Apocalypse of Paul , 11.Google Scholar

87 We know from Aldhelm that the work was at least fairly well known in Anglo-Saxon England not too long after 675. It is clear from his scathing comment on the long Latin version of the Visio Pauli that Aldhelm assumed that the nuns of Barking Abbey were familiar with the work (Prose, De uirginitate 24; in Aldhelmi opera , ed. Ehwald, , MGH, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15 [Berlin, 1919], 256; Aldhelm, The Prose Works, trans. Michael Lapidge and Michael W. Herren [Cambridge, 1979], 81). The verse version was written after the prose version and does not include the condemnation of the Visio Pauli. Both versions were composed sometime between 675 and 705 (when Aldhelm became bishop of the diocese of Sherborne), but this time span cannot be narrowed further (see Aldhelm: The Poetic Works , trans. Lapidge, Michael and Rosier, James [Cambridge, 1985], 12–14).Google Scholar

88 This is the scheme assumed in the account of St. Martin's resurrection of the monk of Ligugé. The monk had already heard the Lord condemn him to hell when he was saved by Martin's prayer (Severus, Sulpicius, Vita sancti Martini 3.3 [SC 133:268]).Google Scholar

89 Christ's initial response to the sinners' plea for a reprieve from the torments of hell contains a phrase that was taken up again in the Visio sancti Fursei 9 (see n. 77 above): “What did you do that you should feel you can ask for a reprieve? I shed my blood for you, and you did not repent…. I bore a crown of thorns for you, I received blows for you, and you did not repent. As I was hanging upon the cross I asked for water and they gave me vinegar and gall, and they pierced my side with a lance. Because of me, the prophets and righteous men who served me were killed. In all these things, I gave you the opportunity to repent and you would not” [“Et in his omnibus dedi uobis locum penitencie et noluistis” (my italics)] (Visio Pauli 44, from the Paris manuscript; Silverstein, and Hilhorst, , Apocalypse of Paul , 160; see also the St. Gall and Arnhem versions).Google Scholar

90 “Et mitat eum in tenebris exterioribus, ubi est fletus et stridor dencium, et sit ibi usque in diem magnum iudicii” (16; Silverstein, and Hilhorst, , Apocalypse of Paul , 102–3); “Anima ista in manibus tartari tradatur. Educe deorsum ad inferos debet. Ducat eam in carcere inferiorum et mittatur in tormentis et reliquatur illic ad magnum iudicii diem” (18; ibid., 108–9); “haec est terra repromissionis…. Anime ergo iustorum cum exierint de corpore, in hunc locum interim dimituntur” (21; ibid., 114–15 [my italics]). On the other hand, the heretics cast into the fiery bottomless well will be forgotten forever: “Si quis misus fuerit in hunc puteum abyssi et signatum fuerit super eum, numquam comemoracio eius fit in conspectu patris et filli et spiritu sancti et sanctorum angelorum” (41; ibid., 154–55).Google Scholar

91 It certainly remained popular in Ireland during the Middle Ages: witness the various versions in the Irish language. See McNamara, , The Apocrypha (n. 43 above), 105–9, and Irish Biblical Apocrypha (n. 43 above), 132–36 and 185.Google Scholar

92 “Concupiscentias enim inlicitas in hac tribulatione superasti, ut uetera contra te non praeualeant” ( Visio sancti Fursei 17). See n. 75 above.Google Scholar

93 See Rivière, Jean, “Rôle du démon au jugement particulier chez les Pères,” Revue des sciences religieuses 4 (1924): 43–64.Google Scholar

94 Daniélou, Jean, “Les démons de l'air dans la ‘Vie d’Antoine',” in Antonius magnus eremita, 356–1956: Studia ad antiquum monachismum spectantia , ed. Steidle, B., Studia Anselmiana, 38 (Rome, 1956), 136–47. See also, with particular emphasis on the role of angels (good and bad) as the soul rises to heaven: Recheis, Athanas, Engel, Tod und Seelenreise: Das Wirken der Geister beim Heimgang des Menschen in der Lehre der alexandrinischen und kappadokischen Väter, Temi e Testi, 4 (Rome, 1958).Google Scholar

95 Vita Antonii 66 (SC 400:308–11; 38 in PL 73:155–56).Google Scholar

96 Vita Antonii 65 (SC 400:304–7; 37 in PL 73:155).Google Scholar

97 Theophilos 4 (PG 65:200). Similarly, both angels and devils are present at the death scenes in Visio Pauli. Google Scholar

98 Homily 11 (PG 77:1073–76).Google Scholar

99 These ideas may or may not have been partly transmitted by Visio Pauli. Google Scholar

100 While the ascent of the soul is generally presented as rather brief — though it may well seem otherwise to the soul involved — one of the souls in Visio Pauli says that it wandered about for seven days before arriving at the judgment throne of God (Visio Pauli 17).Google Scholar

101 Sharpe, Richard, trans., Adomnán of Iona: Life of St. Columba , Penguin Classics (London, 1995), 18–19; see Lapidge, and Sharpe, , Bibliography (n. 14 above), no. 305.Google Scholar

102 Anderson, Alan Orr and Anderson, Marjorie Ogilvie, Adomnán's Life of Columba , rev. ed. (Oxford, 1991). See also the translation by Sharpe, , Adomnán. Much of the material in this section was first presented at the conference Columba and his Churches, AD 597–1997. A Conference to Mark the 1400th Anniversary of Columcille's Death, University of Ulster, Derry, July 4–7, 1997.Google Scholar

103 See Vita Columbae 1.1, 3.7, 3.9–14, and 3.16; see also 3.23.Google Scholar

104 See ibid., 3.22.Google Scholar

105 See ibid., 3.11, 3.23.Google Scholar

106 See ibid., 1.1, 1.35, and 1.39.Google Scholar

107 Ibid., 3.6; Sharpe, , Adomnán , 210. “Tum uir praedicabilis in plateola sui deambulans monasterii porrectis ad caelum oculis diutius ualde obstupescens ammirabatur. Quidam uero frater Aidanus nomine filius Libir, bonae indolis et relegiosus homo, qui solus de fratribus eadem adfuit hora, flexis genibus rogare coepit, ut sanctus eidem tantae ammirationis causam intimaret. Cui sanctus: ‘Nunc sanctos angelos in aere contra aduersarias potestates belligerare uidi. Christoque agonithetae gratias ago, quia uictores angeli animam huius peregrini, qui primus apud nos in hac insula mortuus est, ad caelestis patriae gaudia euexerunt’” (Anderson, and Anderson, , Adomnán's Life of Columba, 190).Google Scholar

108 Vita Columbae 3.10; Sharpe, , Adomnán, 213. “Alio itidem in tempore uir sanctus in Ioua conuersans insula quadam die subito oculos ad caelum diregens haec profatus est uerba: ‘Felix mulier, felix bene morate, cuius animam nunc angeli dei ad paradisum euehunt.’ Erat autem quidam relegiosus frater Genereus nomine Saxo, pistor, opus pistorium exercens, qui hoc audierat uerbum ex ore sancti prolatum. Eademque die mensis eodem terminato anno sanctus eidem Genereo Saxoni: ‘Miram rem uideo’, ait. ‘Ecce mulier de qua te praesente praeterito dixeram anno nunc mariti sui relegiosi cuiusdam plebei in aere obuiat animae, et cum sanctis angelis contra emulas pro ea belligerat potestates; quorum amminiculo eiusdem homuncionis iustitia suffragante a daemonum belligerationibus erepta ad aeternae refrigerationis locum anima ipsius est perducta’” (Anderson, and Anderson, , Adomnán's Life of Columba, 196).Google Scholar

109 Vita Columbae 3.13; Sharpe, , Adomnán, 215. “Alio in tempore uir uenerandus cum in Ioua conuersaretur insula quadam subitatione incitatus signo personante collectis fratribus: ‘Nunc’, ait, ‘oratione monacis abbatis Comgilli auxiliemur, hac in hora in stagno dimersis uituli. Ecce enim hoc momento in aere contra aduersarias belligerant potestates, animam alicuius hospitis simul cum eis dimersi eripere conantes.’ Tum post lacrimosam et intentam orationem cito ante altarium surgens inter fratres pariter in oratione prostratos, laetificato uultu: ‘Christo’, ait, ‘grates agite; nunc enim sancti angeli sanctis obuiantes animabus et ipsum hospitem ereptum a daemonum belligerationibus quasi uictoriales liberarunt belligeratores’” (Anderson, and Anderson, , Adomnán's Life of Columba, 200).Google Scholar

110 As noted earlier, this is consistent with the presuppositions embedded in the liturgical formulas for prayer for the dead, at a period when the concepts of death, devil, and hell were intimately intertwined.Google Scholar

111 See Vita Columbae 3.6, 3.10, and 3.13. If the visitor was not a pious person, with a good share of works of mercy to his credit, he was certainly very fortunate to drown as the guest of the monks of Bangor, a monastery founded in 555 or 559 by Columba's friend and fellow-saint Comgall (Vita Columbae 1.49). This account of how Columba came to the assistance of Comgall's monks, as well as that in which Comgall and three Irish monastic founders came to visit Columba (ibid., 3.17), suggest that Adomnán believed his hero to be more powerful than these other Irish holy men.Google Scholar

112 Vita Columbae 2.25. In that passage God is seen as the righteous judge who restores the proper order of society in this world by severely punishing a serious lack of respect for a senior ecclesiastic (see Sharpe, , Adomnán , 329 n. 268). In the Visio Pauli, on the other hand, the phrase deus iudex iustus is used repeatedly in the context of God's individual judgment of the soul of the recently deceased.Google Scholar

113 See n. 107 above.Google Scholar

114 Conlationes 7.20 (SC 42:262–63) and De institutis coenobiorum 6.9 (SC 109:272–73).Google Scholar

115 See Confessio 41 (SC 249:114).Google Scholar

116 Muirchú, , Vita sancti Patricii 1.1: “post frequentias angelici Victorici a Deo ad illum míssi”; 2.15: “Anguelus ad eum in omni septima die septimanae semper uenire consuerat et sicut homo cum homine loquitur ita conloquio angueli fruebatur Patricius”; 1.2: “Eadem uero nocte dormiens temptauit satanas grauiter, fingens saxa ingentia et quasi comminuentia membra; sed inuocato Helia bina uoce ortus est ei sol” (Bieler, and Kelly, , The Patrician Texts [n. 44 above], 68, 80–82, 68).Google Scholar

117 See Herbert, Maire, Iona, Kells, and Derry: The History and Hagiography of the Monastic Familia of Columba (Oxford, 1988), 13–26 and 34–50. Also Sharpe, , Adomnán (n. 101 above), 59: “Principally, then, Adomnán's, Life retells the stories of St. Columba that were handed down, by word of mouth and in writing, within his own community.” Google Scholar

118 Brüning, Gertrud, “Adamnans Vita Columbae und ihre Ableitungen,” Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 11 (1917): 213–304; Picard, Jean-Michel, “Structural Patterns in Early Hiberno-Latin Hagiography,” Peritia 4 (1985): 67–82; Sharpe, , Adomnán (n. 101 above), 17–19.Google Scholar

119 PL 73:125–70.Google Scholar

120 Sulpice Sévère: Vie de Saint Martin , ed. Fontaine, J., SC 133–135 (Paris, 1967–69).Google Scholar

121 Grégoire le Grand: Les Dialogues , ed. de Vogüe, A., SC 251, 260, 265 (Paris, 1978–80).Google Scholar

122 Francis Clark's lengthy justification of his conviction that Pope Gregory the Great could not be the author of the Dialogues, as we know that work, remains unsatisfactory (Clark, F., The Pseudo-Gregorian Dialogues , 2 vols. [Leiden, 1987]). This line of thought has recently been given a tantalizing new twist, postulating a Northumbrian origin for the Dialogues (Dunn, Marilyn, “Gregory the Great, the Vision of Fursey, and the Origins of Purgatory,” Peritia 14 [2000]: 238–54, including, on p. 239, a very convenient overview of the reception of Clark's work). While it will be clear from the present study that eschatological concerns were at the forefront in Insular circles during the seventh century, it should be remembered that Clark's argument that the Dialogues were written toward the end of the seventh century depends on the alleged author's intimate knowledge of facts and dates associated with Pope Gregory, a familiarity which could only have been acquired in Rome.Google Scholar

123 Epistula 3.16 (SC 133:342).Google Scholar

124 The phrase is borrowed from Jacques Fontaine's introduction to his edition of the Vita sancti Martini in the series Sources Chrétiennes (SC 133:118–19). It refers to “l'ensemble des traditions orales, des récits et des biographies, touchant les moines d'Egypte et les exploits ascétiques à demi fabuleux de ceux que notre siècle a appelés ‘des hommes ivres de Dieu.’” Petersen, Joan M. has emphasized the influence on Gregory of what was then a common Mediterranean culture with a strong Eastern component (The Dialogues of Gregory the Great in Their Late Antique Cultural Background, Studies and Texts, 69 [Toronto, 1984], esp. 151–91). Gregory's familiarity with this latter component would have been reinforced during his stay as apocrisarius in Constantinople.Google Scholar

125 Homiliae in Euangelia 39:8–9 (CCL 141:387–90, at 389; PL 76:1299).Google Scholar

126 See Dialogues 2.35.2–3; 4.8; 4.19–20, and 4.40.6–9.Google Scholar

127 See ibid., 4.12–13; 4.17–18.Google Scholar

128 See ibid., 4.31.Google Scholar

129 In Vita Columbae , the angels are habitually said to descend to meet (obuios, obuiantes) the soul, indicating that Adomnán believed that souls naturally tend to rise up towards heaven.Google Scholar

130 Vita Columbae 3.11; Sharpe, , Adomnán (n. 101 above), 214; see Anderson, and Anderson, , Adomnán's Life of Columba (n. 102 above), 198: “Hac enim nocte praeterita uidi subito apertum caelum, angelorumque choros sancti Brendini animae obuios discendere, quorum luminosa et inconparabili claritudine totus eadem hora inlustratus est mundi orbis.” See also O'Loughlin, Thomas, “The Tombs of the Saints: Their Significance for Adomnán,” in Studies in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, ed. Carey, J., Herbert, M., and Riain, P. Ó (Dublin, 2001), 1–14, at 4–5.Google Scholar

131 Dialogues 2.35.2–7 (SC 260:236–41); see also 4.8.Google Scholar

132 See Dialogues 4.37.12–13; 4.38.Google Scholar

133 Vita Antonii 65 (SC 400:304–7). For the translation by Evagrius, see PL 73:155, sec. 37.Google Scholar

134 Luned Mair Davies has indicated that such a florilegium might well have been the source used in the composition, possibly at Iona, of the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis in the interval between 716 and 747. See “The ‘Mouth of Gold’: Gregorian Texts in the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis,” in Ireland and Europe (n. 29 above), 249–67.Google Scholar

135 O'Loughlin, Thomas, “The Library of Iona in the Late Seventh Century: The Evidence from Adomnán's De locis sanctis,” Ériu 45 (1994): 33–52, esp. 41; idem, “The Gates of Hell: From Metaphor to Fact,” Milltown Studies 38 (1996): 98–114.Google Scholar

136 I am not aware of evidence for earlier knowledge of the Vita Antonii in Ireland.Google Scholar

137 Bede, , Historia ecclesiastica 5.21.Google Scholar

138 A recent study interprets these vision accounts to mean that in Adomnán's view, prayer for the dead is ineffective at all times since the fate of the dead is completely determined by their actions in life (Stalmans, Nathalie, “Le jugement de l'âme dans la Vie de Columba,” in Studies in Irish Hagiography [n. 130 above], 41–48).Google Scholar

139 It is clear from the characteristic passages of Vita Columbae adduced by Gertrude Brüning (“Adamnans, Vita Columbae” [n. 118 above], 249–52) to show Adomnán's dependence on the Dialogues, that he used both the content and the vocabulary of book 4.Google Scholar

140 See Dialogues 4.42; see also 4.57.3–7.Google Scholar

141 See ibid., 4.57–58.6; 4.62.3.Google Scholar

142 Columba's request in Vita Columbae (3.12) to insert the name of bishop Colman into “that prayer which mentions the name of St. Martin” (“deprecatio in qua sancti Martini commemoratur nomen”) is not a request for prayer for the soul of the recently deceased Irish bishop, but rather an affirmation that Colman had joined the company of the saints. Columba is consistently presented as assuming that the death of a saint marks his dies natalis into heaven: for both St. Colman and St. Brendan, he ordered a festive mass to be celebrated on Iona on the very day they died (3.11–12).Google Scholar

143 It should be noted that Gregory himself did rather confuse the issue with the example of the soul trying to cross the bridge to Paradise (Dialogues 4.37–38), mentioned above. That particular representation of events immediately following death suggests that once the “middling” soul has succeeded in crossing the bridge, it will have gained access to Paradise.Google Scholar

144 Taionis Caesaraugustani episcopi sententiarum libri quinque 5.21 (PL 80:727–990, at 975).Google Scholar

145 Prognosticorum futuri saeculi libri tres , ed. Hillgarth, J., Sancti Iuliani Toletanae sedis episcopi opera , CCL 115 (Turnhout, 1976), 9–126, at 55–60.Google Scholar

146 Vita Columbani , ed. Krusch, B., MGH, Scriptores rerum merovingicarum, 4 (Hannover, 1902), 61–152; Jonas de Bobbio: Vie de saint Colomban et de ses disciples, ed. de Vogüé, A. (Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1988). See also de Vogüé, A., “La mort dans les monastères: Jonas de Bobbio et les Dialogues de Grégoire le Grand,” in Mémorial Dom Jean Gribomont (1920–1986), Studia ephemeridis “Augustinianum,” 27 (Rome, 1988), 593–619.Google Scholar

147 The Vitas sanctorum patrum emeretensium , ed. and trans. Garvin, J. N., Catholic University of America Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Latin Language and Literature, 19 (Washington, 1946); Vitas sanctorum patrum emeretensium, ed. Maya Sánchez, A., CCL 116 (Turnhout, 1992).Google Scholar

148 The visions are recorded in Dicta Valerli ad Beatum (PL 87:431–36). See also Ciccarese, , Visioni (n. 75 above), 276–301, and Carozzi, , Le voyage (n. 75 above), 72–90. For a recent edition, see Díaz y Díaz, M. C., Visiones del Mas Alla in Galicia durante la Alta Edad Media (Santiago de Compostela, 1985), 33–61.Google Scholar

149 Visio Baronti monachi Longoretensis , ed. Levison, W., MGH, Scriptores rerum merovingicarum, 5 (Hannover, 1910), 368–94. See Ciccarese, , Visioni (n. 75 above), 236–75, and Carozzi, , Le voyage (n. 75 above), 139–86.Google Scholar

150 To be sure, as Carozzi has noted, these works were intended for a monastic or even eremitical audience for whom there were no half measures, so that Christianity was a question of “all or nothing” (Carozzi, , Le voyage [n. 75 above], 89). Carozzi conjectured that in the vision of Bonellus, the platforms along the wall of the precipice into hell might be places of punishment from which laymen may be released (ibid., 90).Google Scholar

151 See the summary of Gregory's works that Bede presented at the beginning of the second book of his Historia ecclesiastica, written ca. 730.Google Scholar

152 Bede, , Historia ecclesiastica 5.12.Google Scholar

153 For a survey of such visions associated with Ireland before the eleventh century, see Grogan, Brian O'Dwyer, “The Eschatological Doctrines of the Early Irish Church” (Ph.D. diss., Fordham University, New York, 1973), 273–76.Google Scholar

154 Jean Cassien: Conferences , ed. Pichery, E., SC 42, 54, and 64 (Paris, 1955–59).Google Scholar

155 Jean Cassien: Institutions cénobitiques , ed. Guy, J.-C., SC 109 (Paris, 1965).Google Scholar

156 Driver, S. T., John Cassian and the Reading of Egyptian Monastic Culture (New York, 2002).Google Scholar

157 van Uytfanghe, Marc, Stylisation biblique et condition humaine dans l'hagiographie mérovingienne (600–750), Verhandelingen van de koninklijke academie voor wetenschappen, letteren en shone kunsten van België, Kl. der letteren, Jaarg. 49, Nr. 120 (Brussels, 1987), 102–8. See also for Sulpicius Severus, e.g., Petersen, J. M., The Dialogues of Gregory the Great (n. 124 above), 103, or Jacques Fontaine's introduction to his edition of the Vita sancti Martini of Sulpicius Severus (especially SC 133:92–95, 162–64). For Gregory of Tours, see Petersen, , ibid., 126 and 133, where references are given to episodes involving demonic possession.Google Scholar

158 See Vita Columbae 3.8.Google Scholar

159 While De ordine creaturarum (2.13) refers to the expected battle between the archangel Michael and Antichrist at the end of time, there is no mention of Michael's traditional role as psychopomp (see, e.g., Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum 6.29, ed. Krusch, B. and Levison, W., MGH, Scriptores rerum merovingicarum, 1, part 1 [Hannover, 1951], 296).Google Scholar

160 As noted above, the Dialogues, which were written in Italy toward the end of the sixth century, were influenced by lore and beliefs associated with Egyptian monasticism.Google Scholar

161 Brown, Peter, “Vers la naissance du purgatoire: Amnistie et pénitence dans le christianisme occidental de l'Antiquité tardive au Haut Moyen Age,” Annales – Histoire, Sciences Sociales 52 (1997): 1247–61. The idea was already present in Atwell, R. R., “From Augustine to Gregory the Great: An Evaluation of the Emergence of the Doctrine of Purgatory,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 38 (1987): 173–86, at 177 and 180, where it was applied to Gregory the Great.Google Scholar

162 There was always the possibility that God might forgive altogether the sins of a truly repentant sinner and expunge the stain of all sins committed, as had happened for the Good Thief who was promised instant access to Paradise. As indicated earlier in this study, this might occur in response to the prayers of the living.Google Scholar

163 See Davies, Luned Mair, “The ‘Mouth of Gold’” (n. 134 above), 249. Thomas O'Loughlin sets its origins even earlier: “it seems to belong to the milieu that produced the Synod of Birr and men like Adomnán and Muirchú” (“The Collectio canonum hibernensis: Marriage and Sexuality,” in Celtic Theology: Humanity, World, and God in Early Irish Writings [London, 2000], 109–27, at 109).Google Scholar

164 Wasserschieben, F. W. H., Die irische Kanonensammlung, book 15: De cura pro mortuis (Leipzig, 1885; repr. Aalen, 1966), 42–45. See, e.g., paraphrasing Augustine (see n. 65, above), “pro non ualde bonis, ut plena remissio fiat, pro non ualde malis, ut tolerabiliter fiat damnatio ista” (15.2a, p. 42), where damnatio means punishment rather than eternal damnation; “Item Gregorius: Pro medico suo XXX sacrificia per XXX dies obtulit, et libertus est de poena semetipso monstrante” (15.3c, p. 43; see Dialogues 4.57); see also the summary account of the story of bishop Germanus in 15.4a (see Dialogues 4.42).Google Scholar

165 Grogan, Brian, “The Eschatological Doctrines” (n. 153 above) and idem, “Eschatological Teaching in the Early Irish Church,” in Biblical Studies: The Medieval Irish Contribution, Proceedings of the Irish Biblical Association, 1 (Dublin, 1976), 46–58.Google Scholar

166 Bieler, Ludwig and Binchy, D. A., The Irish Penitentials , Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, 5 (Dublin, 1963), 278.Google Scholar

167 See Vogel, Cyrille, “Deux conséquences de l'eschatologie grégorienne: la multiplication des messes privées et les moines-prêtres,” in Grégoire le Grand. Chantilly, 15–19 septembre 1982 , Colloques internationaux du CNRS (Paris, 1986), 267–76.Google Scholar

168 See also the wide range of texts presented by Grogan for the period ending with the church reforms of the eleventh century in Ireland, in “The Eschatological Doctrines” (n. 153 above). Similarly, terrifying scenes of the Last Judgment remained a favorite theme in western art and literature during the later Middle Ages and beyond, long after the doctrine of purgatory had become well established. Indeed, the Dies irae, the well-known late-medieval hymn referring to the terrors of the Last Day, continued to be part of the funeral liturgy well into the twentieth century.Google Scholar

169 “Tres turmae in iudicio erunt: id est ualde boni, id est angeli Dei et sancti; ualde mali, id est daemones et impii; nec ualde boni nec ualde mali et hi tales per ignem purgabuntur.” See Lapidge, and Sharpe, , Bibliography (n. 14 above), no. 778.Google Scholar

170 In his overview of The Birth of Purgatory, Jacques Le Goff paid no attention to this essential preliminary step ( La naissance du purgatoire [Paris, 1981; trans. Chicago, 1984]). It should also be noted that the early Insular material is not well represented in that work.Google Scholar

171 Augustine, , In Evangelium Iohannis tractatus 98.8 (CCL 36:581). The ideals of Egyptian monasticism and in particular the Life of Antony had played an important part in Augustine's conversion (Confessions 8.6).Google Scholar

172 We have seen earlier that the turnaround was by no means instantaneous even for authors familiar with the Dialogues. Google Scholar