"Wurrþlike Shridd": Cossmós, Mycrocossmós , and the Use of Greek in Orrm's Exegesis of John 3:16 Samuel Cardwell Early Middle English, Volume 1, Number 2, 2019, pp. 1-12 (Article) Published by Arc Humanities Press For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/732815 [ Access provided at 27 Sep 2021 08:15 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] “WURRÞLIKE SHRIDD”: COSSMÓS, MYCROCOSSMÓS, AND THE USE OF GREEK IN ORRM’S EXEGESIS OF JOHN 3:16 SAMUEL CARDWELL Orrm has not received a great deal of praise from either literary critics or historians.1 Scholars have lined up to heap abuse on Orrm’s idiosyncracies,The TwelfTh­ centheT uglinessury poe Tof his autograph manuscript and the dullness of his poetic style.2 One historian even used the Orrmulum lengthy work of Middle English verse homilies, as evidence that Augustinian canons rarely, if ever, preached to lay audiences, since “it is doubtful, Orrm’s whether unfinished regular but clergy still could have produced anything better calculated to induce widespread somnolence in their congregation.”3 on the spelling of English, It is had true no that imitators; Orrm had no littlecopies if anyexist contemporary of his work, which influence. only His unique system of orthography, which attempted to impose a rigid consistency of the Orrmulum: is it a collection of homilies, a biblical commentary, or a para- phrase?survives Itin is his tempting, own autograph. then, to Itsee is thedifficult Orrmulum even to as define sui generis the genre, occupying and purpose a “no man’s land all of its own.”4 However, no author exists in a vacuum. Orrm was, like anybody else, a person of his time. In his exegesis he reveals his intellectual back- ground, and his intellectual background opens a window on the cultural history of late twelfth-century England.5 This essay explores Orrm’s theological background 1 Some scholars favour the spellings “Orm” and Ormulum; I adopt the author’s own spelling (“Orrm” and Orrmulum) throughout, unless citing a secondary source. In what follows, all translations from Middle English, Latin, and Greek are mine unless otherwise stated. I would like to acknowledge Prof. Stephen Pelle of the University of Toronto for his invaluable comments on an early draft of this paper. 2 The Vulgar Tongue: Medieval and Postmedieval Vernacularity, ed. Fiona Somerset and Nicholas Watson (University Park: PennsylvaniaMeg Worley, State “Using University the Ormulum Press, 2003), to Redefine 19–30 Vernacularity,”at 19–20. in 3 J. C. Dickinson, The Origins of the Austin Canons and their Introduction into England (London: S. 4 Bella Millett, “The English Sermon before 1250,” in The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature P. C. K., 1950), 228n1. in English, ed. Elaine Treherne and Greg Walker (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 221–39 at 232. 5 Laura Ashe has recently defended Orrm as an original and creative thinker, who was deeply between Benedictine and Augustininian approaches to preaching and lay experience (Laura Ashe, “Theengaged Originality not only of with the Orrmuluma broad range,” Early of Middletheological English debates 1, no. but1 (2019): also with 35-54). contemporary Similarly, Adrienne conflicts Williams Boyarin notes that “[Orm] creatively mixes sources, translates loosely, makes independent author as sophisticated as many to whom we give more credit” (in Saming the Jew: Jews and the and unique connections between disparate texts, and writes much original content […] [he] is an 2 Samuel cardwell through an analysis of his use of Greek words, particularly in relation to his exegesis of John 3:16. By closely studying a small slice of Orrm’s vast work, his originality and thoughtfulness becomes apparent. His choice of sources—especially the Glossa Ordinaria and Eriugena’s commentary on John—placed him at the “cutting edge,” or even the “avant-garde,” of twelfth-century exegesis. Moreover, he used these sources thoughtfully and independently. Orrm is therefore to be considered not as a provincial eccentric, but as a serious exegete. Orrm’s Greek There is no evidence that Orrm knew Greek himself. He only shows an interest in Greek in three passages of the Orrmulum on Luke 2, he develops a numerological argument around the letters of Jesus’s name, which is “iss writenn o Grickisshe .boc” At lines ΙΕΣΟΥΣ 4302–83,.6 These in letters his commentary add up in end).Greek7 numeralsThis exegesis to 888, appears which to Orrm have interprets ultimately as derived referring from to Christ’sBede’s commentaryresurrection on“o þehhtenndeLuke, whether daʒʒ directly affterr or þe via wukess an intermediate. ende” (on the eighth day after the week’s 8 The second significant use9 Here of OrrmGreek againappears uses in numerology,his commentary this ontime John on 2:20the name (“dixerunt “Adam” ergo which Iudaei amounts quadraginta to 46 et sex annis aedificatum est templum hoc et tu tribus diebus excitabis illud”). second Hebrew temple but also the number of days before Christ was “all shap- in Greek numerals; this signifies not only the number of years it 10took He tothen build inter the- enn rihht” (completely formed, or quickened) in Mary’s womb. Jewess in Medieval English Literature, forthcoming 2020). My thanks to Prof. Williams Boyarin for providing a pre-publication draft of a chapter of her forthcoming book, as well as an advanced copy of Ashe’s article for the inaugural issue of this journal. 6 Robert Holt, ed., The Ormulum: With the Notes and Glossary of Dr. R. M. White Orrmulum, 2 vols. research projects at Stockholm University and the Archive of Early Middle English aim to produce new(Oxford: editions. Clarendon, 1878), vol. 1, lines 4302–83. Holt’s edition remains standard, although ongoing 7 Holt, Ormulum, vol. 1, lines 4341–42. 8 Holt, Ormulum, vol. 2, p. 361; Bede, In Lucam, 1.2.21, for which see D. Hurst ed., Bedae Venerabilis Opera , vol. 2, Opera Exegetica 3, CCSL 120 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1960), 58: “Sex quippe litteris apud Graecos scribitur ‘IECOYC uidelicet I et H et C et O et Y et C quorum numeri sunt X et VIII et CC et 9 Holt, Ormulum LXX et CCCC et CC qui fiunt simul DCCCLXXXVIIII.” Weber and Roger Gryson, eds., Biblia Sacra Vulgata, 5th ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007), available online, vol. at2, www.academic-bible.com/en/home/scholarly-editions/vulgate/.lines 16328–495. All references to the Vulgate are taken from Robert 10 in the womb until the forty-sixth day may be based on a misreading of Augustine, De Trinitate 4.5, whichThe states idea that Christ’sChrist (and body presumably was fully formed by extension in forty-six all human times sixfoetuses) days. However, was not thequickened idea of ensoulment at forty days (rather than forty-six) has a long history: it derives from Aristotle, Historia animalia 7.3, and appears in England in the seventh-century Penitential of Theodore. It is also echoed in the Old Testament prescription of a forty days’ wait (seven days’ “uncleanness” and thirty-three Cossmós, myCroCossmós 3 , and The uSe of Greek in orrm’S exeGeSiS of John 3:16 prets the individual letters “affterr Gricclandess spæche” (Allfa, Dellta, Allfa, My) as the four corners of the Earth: Anatole (East), Dysiss (West), Arctoss (North) and Mysimmbrión (South).11 dæledd” (driven and scattered This throughout in turn signifies this earth, that which Adam’s is divided offspring into would four regions).be “todrifenn12 annd toskeʒʒredd inn all þiss middellærd tatt issOracula o fowwre Sibyllina daless, a collection of Hellenised Jewish prophecies in Greek dactylic hexameters, collected This exegesis has a long history, first appearing in the - ond century CE.13 Deby aduobus Byzantine montibus scholar Sina in the et Sionsixth (Oncentury the Twobut probablyMountains, dating Sinai to and the Zion).first or14 secIt is picked up by Augustine This tradition in his Infinds Evangelium its way into Joannis Christianity Tractatus via Pseudo, which­Cyprian’s is most likely Orrm’s source.15 Orrm’s exegesis of these passages is essentially mystical; both rely on the belief that God leaves echoes of salvation history in the most min- ute and arcane details of scripture. Orrmulum is less arcane and more etymological. In his homily (lines 17493–905) on John 3:16 (“sic enim The third significant discussion of Greek words in the non pereat sed habeat vitam aeternam”), Orrm devotes eighty-seven lines to the singledilexit wordDeus mundummundum (whichut Filium he suum translates unigenitum as werelld daret). He ut explainsomnis qui that credit in eum Þe werelld iss uss here sett To tacnenn mannkinn ane. Annd forr þatt manness bodiʒ iss Off all þe werelld feʒedd, child (Leviticus 12:1–5). Forty-six days was also suggested by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, writing a days’ purification) before entering the tabernacle/temple for women after giving birth to a male Existance of Christ in Medieval Literature and Thought,” Medium Aevum generation or two after Orrm. See Jacqueline Tasioulas, “Heaven and Earth in Little Space: The Foetal 11 Holt, Ormulum, vol. 2, lines 16400–25. 76, no. 1 (2007): 24–48. 12 Holt, Ormulum, vol. 2, lines 16446–49. 13 Johannes Geffcken, ed., Die oracula Sibyllina, Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1902), 47–48: αὐ�τὸ�ς δὴ� θεὸ�ς ε�σθ’ ὸ� πλα� σας τετραγρα� μματὸν Ἀ�δα� μ / τὸ�ν πρῶτὸν “West,”πλασθε �ντα“South,” καὶ� οὔand� νὸ “North”).μα πλὴρώ�σαντα For the /context α� ντὸλὶ �ofὴν theτε, δOraculaὐ� σὶν τε, Sibyllina μεσὴμβρ, seeὶ�αν H.τε W.καὶ� Parke, α� ρκτὸ Sibylsν (This and is Sibyllinethe same Prophecy God who informed Classical four Antiquity­lettered Adam, the first­formed one, and filled his name with “East,” 14 Anni Maria Laato, Jews and Christians in De duobus montibus Sina et Sion: An Approach to Early , ed.