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 prayers in the Book of Cerne and an alphabetical series of prayers in the Royal Prayerbook, though the 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 common source which had been adapted differently in the two manuscripts but she also argued that the prayers in the Nunnaminster manuscript lack the thematic element present in the prayers of the Royal manuscript and therefore represent an earlier stage in the development of collections of prayers for private use.2 Michelle Brown, on the other hand, finds no compelling argument for giving precedence to one or the other.3 The twenty-six prayers common to the Book of Nunnaminster and the Royal Prayerbook occur in virtually the same order in the two manuscripts, suggesting that they derive 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 prayers found 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 (Royal Prayerbook). 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 Century Formerly 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. 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 Copied in England During the Ninth Century: A Preliminary List, Mediaeval Studies, i (1988), pp. 512-38, at p. 521. 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. 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. Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 36rv, Kuypers, p. 216

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in both manuscripts; the prayers found in the Book of Nunnaminster and the Royal Prayerbook, by contrast, sometimes vary considerably and it is clear that the relationship between 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 some cases the difference amounts merely to odd words, but in other cases one version or the other is considerably longer, raising the question of whether one or the other text has combined 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 tua passione cuncta commota sunt, et eventum dominici vulneris elimenta tremuerunt, Expavit dies non solita nocte, et suas tenebras mundus invenit, Etiam lux ipsa visa est mori tecum, ne a sacrilegis cernere videris, Clauserat enim suos oculos caelum ne te in cruce aspiceret, Propter ea gratias agendo tuamque pietatem deposco, Et obsecro te salvator mundi per passionem tuam et per redemptionem salutiferae crucis tuae, Ut quandocumque iuseris me ab hac lutea corporis habitatione exire, dirigas angelum pacis et consolationis, Qui me ab adversariorum potestate et innumerosa caterva inimicorum animas iugulare cupientium te iubente defendat, Et custodiat animam meam et pertransire faciat intrepidam principatus et potestates, Et ad sedes lucidas quas per meritum meum non requiro sed per tuam misericordiam adipisci non dispero te protegente perducat, Domine Ihesu Christe, Amen. [O simultaneous mercy and might, you who are to be praised honourably in all things because in your passion all things were disturbed and the elements quaked at the event of their lords wound, the day became afraid at the unaccustomed night and the world discovered its shadows, even light itself seemed to die with you lest you should be discerned by the sacrilegious, indeed heaven had closed its eyes lest it should see you on 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 the redemption of your cross which brings salvation that, whenever you will have ordered me to depart from this mean habitation of the body, you may direct an angel of peace and consolation who, under your protection, may conduct me to the shining seats which 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 some event or characteristic, followed by a petition related to it. The phrase, propter ea gratias agendo tuamque pietatem deposco is typical of the Nunnaminster prayers, in which phrases such 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 regularly at the division between the two parts of the prayers. Phrases of this kind are not specific to the 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 three prayers in the Book of Cerne, two of which also appear in the Book of Nunnaminster.8
6

Harl. MS. 2965, f. 28rv, Birch, p. 74; translation taken from Peter Clemoes, King and Creation at the Crucifixion: the Contribution of Native Tradition to The 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 his Sixty-Fifth Birthday (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 31-43, at pp. 34-5. Harl. MS. 2965, ff.18v-19r, Birch, p. 61; A. Wilmart (ed.), Precum libelli quattuor aevi Karolini (Rome, 1940), p. 59, no. vii.2. 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.

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A similar phrase occurs in Royals Altus auctor, a prayer which combines part of Nunnaminsters Deus 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 the prayer beginning O unigenitus in the Royal manuscript,10 though each of the two includes phrases not in the other. The first part of the prayer is very different, however. The image of the elements trembling at Christs death, light itself seeming to die, and heaven closing its eyes lest it should see Christ hanging on the cross, has been compared several times to a passage in the Old English poem The Dream of the Rood, which describes the created world as joining in Christs sufferings:
pystro hfdon bewrigen 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, a shadow went forth, black beneath the clouds. All creation wept, lamented the kings death. Christ was on the cross.]11 p

The theme is not specifically Anglo-Saxon, however, for the belief that the created world acknowledged Christs kingship by sharing in his sufferings is common in early mediaeval writings. Pope Gregory the Great listed the signs of Christs dominion over creation: the star which announced his birth, the sea over which he walked, the earth which hid its light and the rocks torn apart at his death.12 Tenth- and eleventh-century representations of the crucifixion sometimes included figures hiding their faces to symbolize the darkness mentioned 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 Uta of Niedermnster, produced at Regensburg c. 1025, include a painting of the crucifixion with 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 the Regularis concordia, in an antiphon sung during the Good Friday adoration of the cross: Dum fabricator mundi mortis supplicium pateretur in cruce, clamans voce magna tradidit spiritum; et ecce velum templi scissum est, monumenta aperta sunt, terre motus enim factus fuerat magnus, quia mortem filii Dei clamabat mundus se sustinere non posse [While the creator of the world
9

10 11

12 13 14

Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 29r, Kuypers, p. 213; the Nunnaminster prayers are Oratio sancti Agustini, In Natale Domini and De baptismo, Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 18v-19r, 21r and 22r, Birch, pp. 61, 63 and 65. Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 34r, Kuypers, p. 215. 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. Raymond taix (ed.), Gregorius Magnus Homiliae in Evangelia, CCSL, cxli (Turnhout, 1999), pp. 66-7, I.x.2. Raw, Crucifixion Iconography, pp. 135-7 and pls. X and XVI. 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.

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was suffering the punishment of death on the cross, crying with a loud voice, he gave up his spirit; and behold, the veil of the temple was torn apart, the graves were opened, there was a great earthquake, because the world cried out that it could not bear the burden of the death of the Son of God].15 But the author of the Nunnaminster prayer had a more precise source 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 Sacramentary of Gellone, the Sacramentary of Angoulme, and the Bobbio Missal include a masspreface, 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 Nunnaminster17 Sacramentary of Gellone18 Vere dignum [et iustum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere, Domine sancte Pater, omnipotens aeterne Deus, per Christum Dominum nostrum] O misericordia simul et potentia qui es in omnibus honorifice laudandus Quia in tua passione cuncta commota sunt et eventum dominici vulneris elimenta tremuerunt, Expavit dies non solita nocte et suas tenebras mundus invenit, Etiam lux ipsa visa est mori tecum

ne a sacrilegis cernere videris, Clauserat enim suos oculos caelum ne te in cruce aspiceret,

cuius passione cuncta commota sunt et eventum dominici vulneris elementa tremuerunt, Expavit dies non solida nocte et suas tenebras mundus invenit. Stetit sub incerte lumine dies clausus, etiam lux ipsa visa est mori cum Christo. Ad hoc enim omnis claritas migravit in noctem ne sacrilegium cernere videretur. Clauserat enim suos oculus celum ne in cruce aspiceret salvatorem, Et mundus ipse testis esse non potuit ut solus aspicerit qui percussit cuius dolore plaga nostra curata est et lapsus nostros aliena ruina suscepit.

15

16

17 18

Kassius Hallinger (ed.), Regularis Concordia Anglicae nationis, CCM, vii.3 (Siegburg, 1984), p. 116,VI.73; see also 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). 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 Glasien dAngoulme, 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 is quoted 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 the same Preface in the Sacramentary of Angoulme and the Bobbio Missal. Harl. MS. 2965, f. 28rv (De tenebris), Birch, p. 74. Dumas (ed.), Liber Sacramentorum Gellonensis, p. 80, no. 606.

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Tremuerunt elementa mundi sub uno percusso cuius vulnere captivitas resoluta est. Dum enim occiditur Christus cuncta renata sunt, et dum moritur omnia surrexerunt per ipsius maiestatem quem laudant angeli Propter ea gratias agendo tuamque 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 obsecro te per passionem tuam atque redemtionem salutiferae crucis tuae Ut quandocumque digneris me adsumere, dirigas angelum pacis

Et obsecro te salvator mundi per passionem tuam et per redemptionem salutiferae crucis tuae, Ut quandocumque iuseris me ab hac lutea corporis habitatione exire dirigas angelum pacis et consolationis, Qui me ab adversariorum potestate et innumerosa caterva inimicorum animas iugulare cupientium te iubente defendat, Et custodiat animam meam et pertransire faciat intrepidam principatus et potestates, Et ad sedes lucidas quas per meritum meum non requiro sed per tuam misericordiam adipisci non dispero te protegente perducat,

qui custodiat animam meam et perducat eam in locum refrigerii, et pertransire faciat intrepidam principatus et potestates tenebrarum,

Domine Ihesu Christe, Amen.

Et omnes orantes supplicantesque pro me in illa hora aures misericordiae tuae apertas invenient, Domine mi Ihesu Christe.

In all three sacramentaries the text in question is found under the Maundy Thursday ceremonies but there are differences: in Gellone, it is the Contestatio or Preface for the reconciliation of penitents ad mortem; in Angoulme it is the preface for reconciliation of penitents, but not ad mortem; in the Bobbio Missal it is the Contestatio for the ordinary Missa in 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 that they must go back to the same source, even though the Bobbio Missal does not derive from the Frankish Gelasian sacramentary which was the ultimate source of Angoulme and Gellone.20 Since the mass-preface in question appears in three separate continental sacramentaries, 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 the tenth century describe the content of the prayers21 many of the Latin headings to the prayers in 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 the prayer De tenebris.23 In most cases, as in the prayer De tenebris, the liturgical material occurs at the beginning of the prayer and is followed by words of thanksgiving to God and a petition 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 the Book of Cerne, implying that the Nunnaminster scribe copied his source without adding or subtracting material.24 The copyist of the Royal manuscript or of its exemplar, on the other hand, constantly omitted and combined material, probably in order to fit the limits of an alphabetical series. The prayer beginning Deus dilecti et benedicti filii tui in the Book of Nunnaminster corresponds word for word to a prayer in one of the Carolingian prayerbooks;25 the corresponding prayer in the Royal manuscript (Altus auctor) combines the central section of the Nunnaminster prayer with parts of Nunnaminsters In natale Domini and the whole of Nunnaminsters De baptismo.26 Four other prayers in the Royal manuscript combine material from texts found separately in the Book of Nunnaminster. The prayer Domine Deus meus combines material from Nunnaminsters Oratio de lacrimis Domini and De flectu genium.27 Royals Ihesu Domine Deus combines material from Nunnaminsters De veste eiusdem and Item de passione crucis.28 Royals Princeps pacis combines parts of Nunnaminsters Oratio de collo, Tradidit spiritum and De luminibus clausis.29 Finally, Royals Verus largitor combines material from Nunnaminsters De sepulchro, Ad inferos and De pentecosten.30 Three of these prayers include phrases borrowed from liturgical texts: the opening of the prayer
20

21

22

23

24

25 26

27 28 29 30

For a diagram showing the relationship between Gellone and Angoulme see Saint-Roch (ed.), Angoulme, p. xvi. 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. 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. Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 21r (In natale Domini), 21v-22r (De epiphania), 24r (In Caena Domini), 25r-v (De auriculo absciso), 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. 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. Wilmart, Precum libelli, p. 59, no. vii.2. 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. Royal MS. 2 A. xx, ff. 29v-30r, Kuypers, p. 213; Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 23v and 24v-25r, Birch pp. 67-9. Royal MS. 2 A. xx, f. 32r, Kuypers, p. 214; Harl. MS. 2965, ff. 26v-27r and 27v-28r, Birch, pp. 71-3. 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. 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 sepulchro includes 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 adapted from a passage in the Vita Julianae and preserved in Alcuins De laude;32 the central part of Nunnaminsters De veste eiusdem is paralleled in the mass-preface for the Wednesday after Palm Sunday in the Sacramentary of Angoulme.33 In all cases, the Royal manuscript omits the 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 source of 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 seems to have been sufficiently familiar with the public liturgy of the church to incorporate phrases or complete sentences from it in his compositions. It seems likely, therefore, that Nunnaminsters source for the De tenebris prayer included the section based on the Contestatio of the Sacramentary of Gellone, and that Royal omitted this, using only the later part of the prayer.

31 32

33

Harl. MS. 2965, f. 30v, Birch, pp. 77-8; Dumas (ed.), Liber sacramentorum Gellonensis, p. 135, no. 1011. 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. 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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