De Tenebris

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1 e BLJ 2004,Article 1

A New Parallel to the Prayer

De tenebris in the Book of Nunnaminster (British Library,Harl. MS. 2965, f. 28rv)Barbara Raw

As is well known, many of the prayers in the Book of Nunnaminster are related to prayersin the Book of Cerne and an alphabetical series of prayers in the Royal Prayerbook, thoughthe precise nature of the relationship between Royal and Nunnaminster is unclear.1 Jennifer Morrish considered that the prayers in the two manuscripts were derived from a commonsource which had been adapted differently in the two manuscripts but she also argued thatthe prayers in the Nunnaminster manuscript lack the thematic element present in theprayers of the Royal manuscript and therefore represent an earlier stage in the developmentof collections of prayers for private use.2 Michelle Brown, on the other hand, finds nocompelling argument for giving precedence to one or the other.3

The twenty-six prayers common to the Book of Nunnaminster and the RoyalPrayerbook occur in virtually the same order in the two manuscripts, suggesting that theyderive from an existing collection.4 However, the Nunnaminster series interweaves prayers

found in the Royal manuscript with others, some of which occur also in the Book of Cerne, while the alphabetical series of prayers in the Royal manuscript includes one prayer (Te fortissime )5 which does not occur in the Nunnaminster collection. The sixteen prayersfound in the Book of Nunnaminster and in the Book of Cerne are identical or nearly so

1 BL, Harley MS. 2965, ff. 18v-32v (Book of Nunnaminster) and BL, Royal MS. 2 A. xx, ff. 29r-38v (RoyalPrayerbook). For a complete list of the parallels between Nunnaminster,Cerne and Royal,see Barbara Raw,Alfredian Piety: the Book of Nunnaminster in J.Roberts,J.L. Nelson and M. Godden (eds.), Alfred the Wise:Studies in Honour of Janet Bately on the Occasion of her Sixty-fifth Birthday(Cambridge, 1997), pp. 145-53, at pp.151-3. For editions of the prayers see W. de G.Birch (ed.), An Ancient Manuscript of the Eighth or Ninth CenturyFormerly Belonging to St Marys Abbey, or Nunnaminster,Winchester , Hampshire Record Society (London, 1889),pp. 61-81, and A. B. Kuypers (ed.),The Prayerbook of Aedeluald the Bishop, Commonly Called the Book of Cerne (Cambridge, 1902), which includes Royals alphabetical series of prayers at pp. 213-17.

2 Jennifer Morrish, An Examination of Literacy and Learning in England in the Ninth Century, unpubl.D.Phil. dissertation (Oxford, 1982), pp. 201-18; Jennifer Morrish,Dated and Datable Manuscripts Copiedin England During the Ninth Century: A Preliminary List,Mediaeval Studies, i (1988),pp. 512-38,at p.521.

3 M. P. Brown,The Book of Cerne: Prayer, Patronage and Power in Ninth-Century England (London,1998), p.153.See also Leslie Webster and Janet Backhouse (eds.),The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900 (London, 1991), pp. 208-11, nos. 163 and 164.

4 The differences are as follows: Nunnaminster 23 (De iudicio presidis) and 24 (De diversis passionibus Domini )correspond to Royal F and E; Nunnaminster 29 (Oratio de collo) corresponds to Royal P; Nunnaminster 33(De tenebris) corresponds to Royal O.

5 Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 36rv, Kuypers, p. 216


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6 Harl. MS. 2965, f. 28rv, Birch, p. 74; translation taken from Peter Clemoes, King and Creation at theCrucifixion: the Contribution of Native Tradition toThe Dream of the Rood 50-6a, in L. Carruthers (ed.),Heroes and Heroines in Medieval English Literature: A Festschrift Presented to Andr Crpin on the Occasion of hisSixty-Fifth Birthday (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 31-43, at pp. 34-5.

7 Harl. MS. 2965, ff.18v-19r, Birch, p. 61; A.Wilmart (ed.),Precum libelli quattuor aevi Karolini (Rome, 1940),p. 59,no. vii.2.

8 Cambridge, UL, Ll.1.10, ff. 69v-70r,Kuypers, pp. 138-9, nos. 39, 40 and 41; Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 20v-21r (De

natale Domini ) and 21v-22r (De epiphania), Birch, pp. 63-4.

A New Parallel to the Prayer De tenebris in the Book of Nunnaminster


in both manuscripts; the prayers found in the Book of Nunnaminster and the RoyalPrayerbook, by contrast, sometimes vary considerably and it is clear that the relationshipbetween the two series is not a matter of one manuscript having been copied from the other or of both manuscripts deriving in a straightforward way from a single exemplar. In somecases the difference amounts merely to odd words, but in other cases one version or theother is considerably longer, raising the question of whether one or the other text hascombined material from more than one source. In the case of the Nunnaminster prayer De tenebris it is now possible to say what this source was.

The text of the Nunnaminster prayer is as follows:

O misericordia simul et potentia,qui es in omnibus honorifice laudandus, Quia in tuapassione cuncta commota sunt, et eventum dominici vulneris elimenta tremuerunt,Expavit dies non solita nocte, et suas tenebras mundus invenit, Etiam lux ipsa visa estmori tecum, ne a sacrilegis cernere videris, Clauserat enim suos oculos caelum ne tein cruce aspiceret, Propter ea gratias agendo tuamque pietatem deposco, Et obsecro tesalvator mundi per passionem tuam et per redemptionem salutiferae crucis tuae, Utquandocumque iuseris me ab hac lutea corporis habitatione exire, dirigas angelumpacis et consolationis, Qui me ab adversariorum potestate et innumerosa catervainimicorum animas iugulare cupientium te iubente defendat, Et custodiat animammeam et pertransire faciat intrepidam principatus et potestates, Et ad sedes lucidas quasper meritum meum non requiro sed per tuam misericordiam adipisci non dispero teprotegente perducat, Domine Ihesu Christe, Amen.[O simultaneous mercy and might, you who are to be praised honourably in all thingsbecause in your passion all things were disturbed and the elements quaked at the eventof their lords wound, the day became afraid at the unaccustomed night and the worlddiscovered its shadows, even light itself seemed to die with you lest you should bediscerned by the sacrilegious, indeed heaven had closed its eyes lest it should see youon the cross, in rendering thanks on account of those things I earnestly ask for your

mercy and beseech you, saviour of the world, through your passion and through theredemption of your cross which brings salvation that, whenever you will have orderedme to depart from this mean habitation of the body, you may direct an angel of peaceand consolation who, under your protection, may conduct me to the shining seatswhich I do not request through my merit but do not despair of attaining through your mercy, O Lord Jesus Christ, amen.]6

The format of the prayer is similar to that of many of Nunnaminsters prayers: recall of someevent or characteristic, followed by a petition related to it. The phrase,propter ea gratiasagendo tuamque pietatem deposco is typical of the Nunnaminster prayers, in which phrasessuch as gratias tibi reffero,gratias et laudes tibi dico,gratias tibi ago ac per hoc deprecor,gratias tibi ago et per hoc adiuro,gratias tibi ago et per hoc piissime peto appear regularlyat the division between the two parts of the prayers. Phrases of this kind are not specific tothe Nunnaminster series, however. The prayer of St Augustine,Deus dilecti et benedicti filii tui , found also in one of the Carolingian prayerbooks,7 includes such a phrase, as do threeprayers in the Book of Cerne, two of which also appear in the Book of Nunnaminster.8


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9 Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 29r, Kuypers, p. 213; the Nunnaminster prayers areOratio sancti Agustini, In Natale Domini and De baptismo, Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 18v-19r, 21r and 22r, Birch, pp. 61, 63 and 65.

10 Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 34r, Kuypers, p. 215.11 Clemoes, King and Creation, and Barbara C. Raw, Anglo-Saxon Crucifixion Iconography and the Art of the

Monastic Revival , CSASE, i (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 135-7.12 Raymond taix (ed.),Gregorius Magnus Homiliae in Evangelia, CCSL, cxli (Turnhout, 1999), pp. 66-7, I.x.2.13 Raw, Crucifixion Iconography,pp. 135-7 and pls.X and XVI.14 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, CLM 13601, f. 3v; see Adam S. Cohen,The Uta Codex: Art, Philosophy

and Reform in Eleventh-Century Germany (University Park, PA, 2000), pp. 65-75, pl. 4.

A similar phrase occurs in Royals Altus auctor , a prayer which combines part of NunnaminstersDeus dilecti with parts of two prayers from later in the Nunnaminster series,though this is the only example of such a phrase in Royals alphabetical series.9

The second part of the Nunnaminster prayer, from Et obsecro onwards, is close to theprayer beginningO unigenitus in the Royal manuscript,10 though each of the two includesphrases not in the other. The first part of the prayer is very different, however. The imageof the elements trembling at Christs death, light itself seeming to die, and heaven closingits eyes lest it should see Christ hanging on the cross, has been compared several times to apassage in the Old English poemThe Dream of the Rood , which describes the created worldas joining in Christs sufferings:

pystro hfdonbewrigen mid wolcnum wealdendes hrw,scirne sciman, sceadu foroeode,wann under wolcnum. Weop eal gesceaft,cwiodon cyninges fyll. Crist ws on rode.(Dream of the Rood 52-6)[Darkness had covered with clouds the Lords corpse, the shining light, ashadow went forth, black beneath the clouds. All creation wept, lamentedthe kings death. Christ was on the cross.]11

The theme is not specifically Anglo-Saxon, however, for the belief that the created worldacknowledged Christs kingship by sharing in his sufferings is common in early mediaevalwritings. Pope Gregory the Great listed the signs of Christs dominion over creation: thestar which announced his birth, the sea over which he walked, the earth which hid its lightand the rocks torn apart at his death.12 Tenth- and eleventh-century representations of thecrucifixion sometimes included figures hiding their faces to symbolize the darknessmentioned in the gospel accounts of Christs death (Matt. XXVII.45, Mark XV.33, Luke

XXIII.44) and, by an extension of this, the grief of the created world.13

The gospels of Utaof Niedermnster, produced at Regensburg c. 1025, include a painting of the crucifixionwith figures symbolizing the sun and moon and accompanied by inscriptions reading:

Igneus sol obscuratur in aethere, quia sol iusticiae patitur in cruce.Eclypsin patitur et luna, quia de morte Christi dolet ecclesia.[The fiery sun is darkened in the sky because the sun of justice suffers on the cross;the moon suffers an eclipse because the church mourns the death of Christ.]14

The motif of creations grief at Christs death appears again in theRegularis concordia, in anantiphon sung during the Good Friday adoration of the cross: Dum fabricator mundimortis supplicium pateretur in cruce, clamans voce magna tradidit spiritum; et ecce velumtempli scissum est, monumenta aperta sunt, terre motus enim factus fuerat magnus, quiamortem filii Dei clamabat mundus se sustinere non posse [While the creator of the world

p


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was suffering the punishment of death on the cross, crying with a loud voice, he gave uphis spirit; and behold, the veil of the temple was torn apart, the graves were opened, therewas a great earthquake,because the world cried out that it could not bear the burden of thedeath of the Son of God].15 But the author of the Nunnaminster prayer had a more precisesource for the part of the prayer De tenebris not found in the Royal manuscript.

Three Frankish sacramentaries of the late eighth or early ninth century the Sacramentaryof Gellone, the Sacramentary of Angoulme, and the Bobbio Missal include a mass-preface, part of which corresponds word for word to the first section of the Nunnaminster prayer.16 The parallels between Nunnaminster, Gellone and Royal are as follows:

Book of Nunnaminster 17 Sacramentary of Gellone18

Vere dignum [et iustum est, aequum etsalutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratiasagere, Domine sancte Pater, omnipotens

aeterne Deus, per Christum Dominumnostrum]

O misericordia simul et potentiaqui es in omnibus honorifice laudandusQuia in tua passione cuius passionecuncta commota sunt cuncta commota suntet eventum dominici vulneris et eventum dominici vulneriselimenta tremuerunt, elementa tremuerunt,Expavit dies non solita nocte Expavit dies non solida nocteet suas tenebras et suas tenebrasmundus invenit, mundus invenit.

Stetit sub incerte lumine dies clausus,

Etiam lux ipsa visa est etiam lux ipsa visa estmori tecum mori cum Christo.Ad hoc enim omnis claritasmigravit in noctem

ne a sacrilegis ne sacrilegiumcernere videris, cernere videretur.Clauserat enim suos oculos caelum Clauserat enim suos oculus celumne te in cruce aspiceret, ne in cruce aspiceret salvatorem,

Et mundus ipse testis esse non potuitut solus aspicerit qui percussitcuius dolore plaga nostra curata estet lapsus nostros aliena ruina suscepit.

15 Kassius Hallinger (ed.),Regularis Concordia Anglicae nationis, CCM, vii.3 (Siegburg, 1984), p. 116,VI.73; seealso R.-J. Hesbert (ed.),Corpus antiphonalium officii , 6 vols, Rerum ecclesiasticarum documenta,Series maior,Fontes, vii-xii (Rome, 1963-79), vols ii, p. 316 (no. 73c) and iii, p. 177 (no. 2453).

16 A. Dumas and J. Deshusses (eds.),Liber Sacramentorum Gellonensis, CCSL, clix-clixA (1981),vol. clix, p.80, no.606; Patrick Saint-Roch (ed.),Liber Sacramentorum Engolismensis, MS BN lat. 816 . Le Sacramentaire GlasiendAngoulme , CCSL, clixC (1987), p. 84, no. 612; E.A. Lowe (ed.),The Bobbio Missal. A Gallican Mass-book(MS Paris lat. 13246) , HBS, lviii, lxi (1920-24, repr. as one vol, 1991),p. 62,no. 200. The Gellone Preface isquoted by Celia Chazelle,The Crucified God in the Carolingian Era: Theology and Art of Christs Passion(Cambridge, 2001), p. 35, n. 72, but she was unaware of the Nunnaminster text, or of the presence of thesame Preface in the Sacramentary of Angoulme and the Bobbio Missal.

17 Harl. MS. 2965, f. 28rv (De tenebris), Birch, p. 74.18

Dumas (ed.),Liber Sacramentorum Gellonensis, p. 80,no. 606.


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Tremuerunt elementa mundi sub uno percussocuius vulnere captivitas resoluta est.Dum enim occiditur Christuscuncta renata sunt,et dum moritur omnia surrexeruntper ipsius maiestatem quem laudant angeli

Propter ea gratias agendotuamque pietatem deposco,

Royal Prayerbook19

O unigenitus Dei filius,qui mihi murus es inexpugnabilis,et custos numquam obdormiens,ac defensor numquam deficiens,Christe qui sursum es firmitas angelorum,tu ipse deorsum estu propitiator meus

hic et in futuro,Mediator Dei et hominum

Et obsecro te salvator mundi obsecro teper passionem tuam per passionem tuamet per redemptionem salutiferae crucis tuae, atque redemtionem salutiferae crucis tuaeUt quandocumque iuser is me Ut quandocumque digner is me adsumere,ab hac lutea corporis habitatione exiredirigas angelum pacis dirigas angelum paciset consolationis,Qui me ab adversariorum potestateet innumerosa caterva inimicorumanimas iugulare cupientium

te iubente defendat,Et custodiat animam meam qui custodiat animam meamet perducat eam in locum refrigerii,

et pertransire faciat intrepidam et pertransire faciat intrepidamprincipatus et potestates, principatus et potestates tenebrarum,Et ad sedes lucidasquas per meritum meum non requirosed per tuam misericordiamadipisci non disperote protegente perducat,

Et omnes orantes supplicantesquepro me in illa horaaures misericordiae tuae apertas invenient,

Domine Ihesu Christe, Amen. Domine mi Ihesu Christe.

In all three sacramentaries the text in question is found under the Maundy Thursdayceremonies but there are differences: in Gellone, it is theContestatio or Preface for thereconciliation of penitentsad mortem; in Angoulme it is the preface for reconciliation of penitents,but notad mortem; in the Bobbio Missal it is theContestatio for the ordinaryMissain Cena Domini .The text in the Sacramentary of Angoulme omits part of the text found

19 Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 34r, Kuypers, p. 215.


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in the other two sacramentaries.The texts of Gellone and Bobbio, however,are so close thatthey must go back to the same source,even though the Bobbio Missal does not derive fromthe Frankish Gelasian sacramentary which was the ultimate source of Angoulme andGellone.20 Since the mass-preface in question appears in three separate continentalsacramentaries, the borrowing is likely to have been from a sacramentary to the source of Nunnaminster, rather than the other way round.

This is not the only example of liturgical borrowing in the Nunnaminster manuscript.Whereas the Old English headings added to the prayers in the Royal manuscript in thetenth century describe the content of the prayers21 many of the Latin headings to the prayersin the Book of Nunnaminster refer to liturgical feasts.22 At least nine of the Nunnaminster prayers include phrases borrowed from the liturgy, though on a smaller scale than in theprayer De tenebris.23 In most cases, as in the prayer De tenebris, the liturgical material occursat the beginning of the prayer and is followed by words of thanksgiving to God and apetition which develops the theme of the opening phrase. Two of these prayers De Epiphania and Oratio in Caena Domini occur with virtually identical wording in theBook of Cerne, implying that the Nunnaminster scribe copied his source without addingor subtracting material.24 The copyist of the Royal manuscript or of its exemplar, on theother hand,constantly omitted and combined material, probably in order to fit the limits of an alphabetical series. The prayer beginningDeus dilecti et benedicti filii tui in the Book of Nunnaminster corresponds word for word to a prayer in one of the Carolingianprayerbooks;25 the corresponding prayer in the Royal manuscript ( Altus auctor ) combines thecentral section of the Nunnaminster prayer with parts of NunnaminstersIn natale Domini and the whole of NunnaminstersDe baptismo.26 Four other prayers in the Royal manuscriptcombine material from texts found separately in the Book of Nunnaminster. The prayer Domine Deus meus combines material from NunnaminstersOratio de lacrimis Domini and De

flectu genium.27 RoyalsIhesu Domine Deus combines material from NunnaminstersDe veste eiusdemand Item de passione crucis.28 RoyalsPrinceps paciscombines parts of NunnaminstersOratio de collo, Tradidit spiritum and De luminibus clausis.29 Finally, RoyalsVerus largitor

combines material from NunnaminstersDe sepulchro,Ad inferosand De pentecosten.30

Threeof these prayers include phrases borrowed from liturgical texts: the opening of the prayer

20 For a diagram showing the relationship between Gellone and Angoulme see Saint-Roch (ed.), Angoulme ,p. xvi.

21 For the text of these headings see J. Zupitza,Mercisches aus der Hs. Royal 2 A. xx im Britischen Museum,Zeitschrift fr deutsches Alterthum, xxxiii, n.s. xxi (1889), pp. 47-66.

22 E.g. Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 20r-21r (De natale Domini ), 21r (In natale Domini ), 21v (De circumcisione ), 21v-22r (De epiphania), 22r (De baptismo), 22rv (De quadragesimo), 24rv (Oratio in caena Domini ), 32r (De ascensione Domini )and 32rv (De pentecosten), Birch, pp. 62-5, 67-8 and 79-80.

23 Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 21r (In natale Domini ), 21v-22r (De epiphania), 24r (In Caena Domini ), 25r-v (De auriculoabsciso), 26r-v (De inrisione Domini ), 26v-27r (De veste eiusdem), 28v (De latrone ), 30v (De sepulchro), and 31v(Item de resurrectione ), Birch, pp. 63,64, 67-8, 69, 71,71-2, 74-5, 77-8 and 79.

24 Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 21v-22r (De epiphania) and 24r (In Caena Domini ), Birch,pp. 64 and 67-8; CUL, Ll.1.10,ff. 69v-70r, Kuypers, pp.138-9, nos 40 and 41.

25 Wilmart,Precum libelli , p. 59, no. vii.2.26 Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 21r (In natale Domini ) and 22r (De baptismo), Birch, pp. 63 and 65; Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f.

29r, Kuypers, p. 213.27 Royal MS. 2 A. xx, ff. 29v-30r, Kuypers, p. 213; Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 23v and 24v-25r, Birch pp. 67-9.28 Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 32r, Kuypers, p. 214; Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 26v-27r and 27v-28r, Birch, pp. 71-3.29 Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 34v, Kuypers, p. 215; Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 27r, 29r-v and 29v, Birch, pp. 72 and 75-6.30 Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 36v, Kuypers, pp. 216-17; Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 30v, 30v-31r and 32rv, Birch, pp. 77-8

and 80.


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De sepulchroincludes words taken from a collect for Pentecost found in the Sacramentary of Gellone,31 while the beginning of the prayer Ad inferos is borrowed from a prayer adaptedfrom a passage in theVita Julianae and preserved in AlcuinsDe laude ;32 the central part of NunnaminstersDe veste eiusdemis paralleled in the mass-preface for the Wednesday after Palm Sunday in the Sacramentary of Angoulme.33 In all cases, the Royal manuscript omitsthe liturgical phrases.

The precise relationship between the Nunnaminster and Royal manuscripts and their sources clearly needs further study, but the evidence set out above suggests that the sourceof Nunnaminsters series on Christs life and passion, and of Royals alphabetical series of prayers, is best represented by Nunnaminsters prayers. The composer of these prayers seemsto have been sufficiently familiar with the public liturgy of the church to incorporatephrases or complete sentences from it in his compositions. It seems likely, therefore, thatNunnaminsters source for theDe tenebris prayer included the section based on theContestatio of the Sacramentary of Gellone, and that Royal omitted this, using only the later part of the prayer.

31 Harl. MS. 2965, f. 30v, Birch, pp. 77-8; Dumas (ed.),Liber sacramentorum Gellonensis, p. 135, no. 1011.32 Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 30v-31r, Birch, p. 78; R. Constantinescu, Alcuin et les Libelli precum de lpoque

carolingienne,Revue dhistoire de la spiritualit , l (1974), pp. 17-56, at pp. 26-7.33 Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 26v-27r, Birch, pp. 71-2; Saint-Roch, Angoulme , p. 76, no. 583.


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Fig. 1. BL, Harl. MS. 2965, f. 28r


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Fig. 2. BL, Harl. MS. 2965, f. 28v

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