this division treats specifically of the eternal generation of t Son from the Father. This is the exclusive theme of the Prefa in question. Moreover, the close connection of Division X wi the Doxology immediately following it confirms the theory whi accepts the Christmas Preface as its source. Although t second part or the petition of this division does not seem to tre exclusively a theme distinctly connected with the feast of Chris mas, the central thought underlying it, the captivity of the so is found in the Prayer used in the third Mass and throughout t Divine Office of Christmas day. It must be remembered th the petition in Cynewulf's paraphrases is commonly built up his own personal reflections and often does not give a cle indication of the principal source employed in the respecti portion of the poem. The place which Division X holds in t Church use is, however, plainly that of Christmas day itself. (3) The Doxology, or Division XI, in its first portion (lin 378-402, is based upon two Antiphons to the Holy Trinity, exce perhaps lines 385-402 which can be looked upon as an expansi of the omnes creaturae tuae of the second Antiphon. It was b natural for the poet to turn to the Office of the Holy Trinity f the sources of his Doxology, no matter how far removed th Office may have been from the Christmas Office in the Antipho ary. Yet, in the days of Cynewulf there was no special feast the Holy Trinity as we have it today. As a matter of fact, the feast of the Trinity was not extend to the whole Church until the pontificate of Pope John XX (1316-1334), although it had been observed in local church before that time. Bishop Stephen of Liège (903-920) compos an Office of the Holy Trinity, and the Micrologies 64 writt kind in use. The Antiphonary of Hartker 67 has an Office after the Sundays and ferias post Theophaniam, and it is there called Ystoria de sca. Trinitate. The two Antiphons used by Cynewulf are contained in this Office, being the first and fifth Antiphon respectively of Lauds.68 The Leofric Collectar 69 likewise has the two Antiphons used by Cynewulf. In it they are assigned to the Sundays after the feast of the Epiphany, being used for Prime and None respectively. Cynewulf therefore found the sources for the first half of the Doxology much nearer to the Christmas Office than they are in the Breviary used today. He did not need to turn many leaves to find them. The second half of the Doxology (lines 403-415) was seen to be a faithful transcription of the Angelic hymn Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus which, in the Mass, follows the Preface and is introduced by it. In Church use this part of the Doxology consequently belongs to the same Preface upon which the preceding division (Division X) is based. (4) The final division, Division XII, of Christ I is based upon the Antiphon O admirabile commercium. This is not an Advent "O," and as such would have been out of place after the Doxology. It is the outstanding Antiphons in the Office of the Octave of the Nativity, now commonly called the feast of the Circumcision. In this place we find it in the Antiphonary of Hartker, in the Antiphonaries of Lucca and Toledo, in the Leofric Collectar, and many others. In later times, the use of the O admirabile commercium was extended to the feast of the Purification on February 2, as well as to the Saturday Votive Office and the Officium Parvum (or "Horae," "Book of Hours," "English Prymer") of the Blessed Virgin." 70 Division XII of Christ I accordingly represents in Church use the Octave of Christmas and, as being a paraphrase of the principal Antiphon of that Octave, it might well be considered a later addition to the poem. This does not mean that Cynewulf did not himself compose this portion of Christ I, but some time must have intervened between its composition and the writing of the last lines of the Doxology. Since lines 416-439 do not fit well into the scheme of Christ I, and since their source is removed by one week from the sources of the other O-paraphrases, a theory of this kind does not seem altogether wanting in evidence. Yet, with the O admirabile commercium as its basis, this final paraphrase, even if a later addition, fittingly closes the great theme carried out in Part I of Cynewulf's Christ, for it is with the Octave of Christmas to which the source belongs, that the Christmas Office finds its close. The foregoing outline of the sources of Christ I as found in actual Church use was necessarily limited to those practices in the medieval Church which promised to give a better understanding of the order of succession taken by these sources in the Divine Office of that time. A comprehensive survey of those sources was not attempted and did not come within the purview of my study. It was found that a proper estimate of the sources employed by Cynewulf requires a detachment from the verbal setting of these sources in the Church books, and a corresponding regard for their liturgical setting in the actual chanting of the Divine Office. Mindful of the wide liberties enjoyed in liturgical matters by the Church of the early Middle Ages, and of the adaptability of the conventional list of Advent O's to the practices and 70 Thus in the "English Prymer" ("Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis secundum usum Sarum," ca. 1410), the Antiphon for Lauds and Prime is: "O the wondirful marchaundise (or: exchaunge), the maker of mankynde takynge a bodi with a soule of a maide, fouchide saaf to be born, and so goyn forth man withoute seed gaf to us his godhede."-cf. Maske!!, Monumenta Ritualia, ii. 15, 23, 44. the Vigil to the Octave of Christmas. The O Rex Pacifice falls to the Vesper service of Christmas Eve, the O mundi Domina to the celebration of the solemn Christmas Matins, the Preface of Division X to the midnight-Mass immediately following the chanting of Matins. The Doxology appears as the conclusion of the preceding Preface as well as of the great poetic hymn of O's in praise of the coming of Christ to mankind. The appended paraphrase of the O admirabile commercium represents the Octave of Christmas which closes the narrower celebration of Christ's Nativity. The result of this study of the sources of Christ I should throw some light upon the plan or outline maintained in the poem. We can therefore proceed to bring these sources as found in actual Church use into relation with the twelve divisions of Christ I. IV 1. THE DEPENDENCE OF CHRIST I UPON THE ANTIPHONARY In the preliminary to this study we have seen that the manuscript divisions of Christ I, which have latterly been largely disregarded, retain their significance in regard to the construction of the poem. In the new valuation given them above they support a theory of structural unity which I have called the hymnic unity, since the whole of Christ I, with the exception of the Passus and of the last section, bears a striking analogy to the structure of some of the most common Church hymns. If the theory of structural unity is thus given secure probability, this probability, in the later discussion of the sources of Christ I, is raised to what seems to me almost a certainty. My review of the sources of Christ I as found in actual Church use, moreover, proves that the poet's method of securing structural unity was one of close adherence to the sourcebooks from which he drew his material, provided this material is not taken from its proper setting in the Divine Office of the Church. For, if the material upon which the twelve divisions are based is collated with that part of the Advent and Christmas Office from which it is taken, the order of sequence found in Christ I will be seen to conform closely to the service of the medieval Church as Cynewulf is most likely to have known it. In order to facilitate a summary survey of the whole subject. as outlined in this study, the following table is appended: |