inimici mei. tam visibiles quam invisibiles. tam presentes quam absentes. tam potentes. quam impotentes. Amen." The picture of the Saviour on the Cross is on the fourth side of a double leaf, which has been inserted after the body of the manuscript was written.1 The Crucified Saviour wears round his loins a cloth, the folds of which reach to the knees; the feet rest upon a projecting corbel of rectangular form. St. Mary and St. John stand beside the Cross with uplifted heads, rayed about with a beaded or dotted nimbus, while that of the Saviour is disk-like, with a cross pattée and studs or dots upon its outer circumference. Overhead is the Hand of the Almighty Father issuing from the clouds in the act of benediction, pointing to the tablet over the head of Jesus, which bears the usual inscription. The most interesting parts of the picture are the classical treatments of the sun and moon:Two three-quarter length figures draped, and each holding a flaming torch or lamp of shape like a horn. The personification of the Sun has an antique crown of five radiated points upon his head, and holds in his right hand a full orb inscribed Sol. The figure of the Moon has the crescent of the moon overhead, the word Luna being written between the cusps. The upper ground of this remarkable picture has two verses inscribed upon it which identify this volume with Elfwine, abbot, dean, literateur, philosopher, astronomer, magician, political economist, and artist of Newminster : "Hec crux consignet Ælfpinum corpore mente. In qua suspendens trax[it] d[eu]s omnia secum." 1 See a photograph and description in Early Drawings.... in the British Museum, by W. de G. Birch and H. Jenner, 1879, p. xix; pl. xi, p. 278. 31.-A series of prayers known as the "Offices of the Cross" commencing with the introductory rubrics "Si vis fol. 66] orare ad crucifixum Hos Psalmos canta." 32. On a similar leaf, inserted after making up the volume, in a later handwriting, a prayer addressed by a fol. 74] female suppliant to a guardian angel : "Credo quod sis angelus sanctus a Deo omnipotente ad custodiam mei deputatus, propterea peto et per illum que te ad hoc ordinavit humiliter imploro ut me miseram fragilem atque indignam semper et ubique in hac vita custodias, protegas a malis omnibus atque defendas, et cum Deus hinc animam meam migrare jusserit, nullam in eam potestatem demonibus habere permittas sed tu eam leniter a corpore suscipias, et in sinu Habraæ suaviter usque perducas jubente ac juvante creatore ac salvatore Deo nostro qui est benedictus in secula seculorum. Amen." The same inserted leaf on its fourth side contains a drawing by the same hand as the one already described. The subject is a representation of the Holy Trinity, in which the Virgin, bearing in her arms the Infant Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit as a Dove settling upon her head, stands on the left of the seated figures of the Father and the Son. Beneath the feet of the Son, Satan chained is being thrust into the open jaws of Hell. Arrius and Judas in chains fill the lower corners. The outlines fol. 756] of this drawing are tinted with red and green. It forms a very beautiful example of Anglo-Saxon fine arts, and indicates the elevated taste of the inmates of New Minster at the beginning of the eleventh century. fol. 766] fol. 80b] 33.-Offices of the Holy Trinity. 34-Prayers to the Cross. 35. Various prayers to, and concerning, St. Mary the Virgin, the Person of the Father, the Person of the Son; the Person of the Holy Ghost; Jesus Christ; St. Peter; the Salutation of the Cross; St. Benedict; St. Gregory; fol. 816] St. Augustine; St. Cecilia; and other Saints. APPENDIX F Lives of Saint Thancred and Saint Torhtred. DE SANCTIS THAN CREDO. ET TORHTREDO . SANCTI et electi Dei interna animi consideratione seculum respuentes huius fragilitatis. simplici intentione ad illud future beatitudinis gaudium promerendum aciem fixerunt cordis. Si qua vero huic sancto proposito accessere contraria. deliberatione strenua posponentes meliori mentis oculo libera concessére repudia. ne antiquus hostis de eis triumphare se posse solita putaret fallacia. Vnde accidit propitio Deo annuente. sanctos confessores domini Thancredum atque Torhtredum quos hodierna venerantur celebritate. post mundi contemptum tanto virtutis culmine divinitus erectos in theórica solidari contemplatione. ut in Thornensi heremo humani generis hostem singulari certamine expeterent. et eádem Dei gratia favente turpiter fallentem pulchra acclamatione triumpharent. Horum siquidem sanctorum genus siue continuam vitę conversationem nobis nulla commendat historia. nulla ueterum relationis reserat pagina. Intuentes tamen Dei omnipotentem gratiam in omni gente se timentes iustificantem. que de eis pauca comperimus. latére non patimur nostram posteritatem. Incoluere diuisis ab inuicem non longe habitaculis heremum predictam. frater a fratre. sacerdos idem a sacerdote remotam habentes cellam. in qua meditatione celestium preceptorum omnem exegerunt corporis uitam. Quis aestimare. quis referre ualeat eorum. in tanta solitudine labores. uigilias. inedia. animi patientiam. corporis incommoda . animę Deum assidue suspirantis decoras lacrimas et pia desideria ? Inter hęc duorum sanctorum fratrum sancta preconia. nequit latére perlucidum splendoris Dei margarita. eorum scilicet soror et socia gloriosa Christi virgo Tóua. Que sicut beatus Christi presul et eiusdem loci primus constructor et abbas sanctissimus Aetheluuoldus in suis testatur scriptis non solum erat tantorum sanctorum soror carnali propinquitate. sed etiam uirtutum sedula imitatione. Hęc itaque longius et quasi miliario uno remótius in silua uirili pectore sibi singulare delégerat tugúrium. ut scilicet terréna consolatione et societate éminus deserta. diuinum familiarius optineret amminiculum. Triumphato mundi tyranno in tali agone. menbrum Christi facta caput meruit Christum habere cui unita est in compage corporis ecclesię in illa uidelicet celesti sanctorum communione. Prędicamus digne sanctos in seculo contemptu tamen seculi sublimes . predicare quoque nichil próhibet eos qui talia pro Dei amore contempnentes solitudinis petiere quietem . ut in sola divinorum exequutione omnem sui infunderent intentionem. Exulati enim ab actibus hujus mundi. quasi in continua astiterunt acie contra inpugnationem diaboli. nec unius diei uel mensis siue prolixioris anni martirio, sed potius totius uitę suę triumpho meruerunt honorari a domino. Nec temporalis sane gladiator eorum defuit coronis . quia éadem pestis pyratica que legitur Angliam depopulasse tempore beati Eadmundi regis et martiris. diuersa passim loca inquiétans ad eandem etiam heremum peruenit. ibique in cella sua repertum beatum Christi antistitem Thancrédum martirem fecit. longiorisque luctę pugnam tandem glorioso fine decoráuit. Frater vero eius Torhtredus aeque antistes domini ut predictus Dei pontifex Atheluuoldus éadem scriptis suis édocet. in confessonis 1 Sic, MS. |