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The ‘Malleus’ Metaphor in Medieval Characterization
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2017
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The metaphor of St. Augustine as a hammer against the heretics occurs twice in the writings of John Capgrave, the learned English Augustinian friar of the fifteenth century. In his Life of St. Augustine which, in substance, is a free translation of Jordan of Saxony's Vita S. Augustini into English, Capgrave devotes chapter 40 in its entirety to the relentless war St. Augustine waged against the Donatists, Manichaeans, and Pelagians, and it is in this connection that he calls the Saint ‘an hard hambyr', euyr knokkyng up-on hem.’ Again, in his Chronicle of England, speaking of the Priscillianists and Pelagians, he says that ‘these heresies were beten and knokked be the myty hambir of God, whech was called Augustine.’
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1 Cf. Sanderlin, G., ‘John Capgrave speaks up for the Hermits,’ Speculum 18 (1943) 358–362; Arbesmann, R., ‘Jordanus of Saxony's Vita S. Augustini the source of John Capgrave's Life of St. Augustine,’ Traditio 1 (1943) 341–353.Google Scholar
2 Ed. by Munro, J. J., Early English Text Society Publications 140 (London 1910) 52.Google Scholar
3 Ed. by Hingeston, F C., Rolls Series 1 (London 1858) 83.Google Scholar
4 Loc. cit. 362.Google Scholar
5 Serm. in Cant. 80, 7 (PL 183, 1170).Google Scholar
6 The Milleloquium was begun by the Augustinian friar Augustinus Triumphus (1243–1328), and completed by Bartholomew (died 1350). We used the edition by Joannes Collierius, Sancti Aurelii Augustini Milleloquium Veritatis (2 vols. Paris 1672). There is no pagination for the Elogia. MSS and other editions of this work are listed by Perini, D. A., Bibliographia Augustiniana cum notis biographicis.—Scriptores Itali 1 (Firenze 1929) 203f. Google Scholar
7 Cf. Arbesmann, loc. cit. 352f.Google Scholar
8 Cf. ibid. 344.Google Scholar
9 The Gradual of the Mass for the feast of St. Augustine (August 28), as now in use in the Augustinian Order, has, after Os iusti meditabitur sapientiam and Lex Dei eius in corde ipsius (taken from the Commune Doctorum of the Roman Missal), the following verse: ‘Augustine, lux Doctorum, firmamentum Ecclesiae, malleus haereticorum, summum vas scientiae, pro tuis filiis roga Deum, quaesumus.’ However, we are not able to trace this verse further back than 1557, when it appears in the Mass of the Saint among the Missae propriae of the Saints of the Order, inserted on their proper places in the Roman Missal printed at Venice ‘in officina haeredum Lucaeantonii Iuntae.’ See Analecta Augustiniana 16 (1937) 111–112. MS 267 of the Municipal Library of Assisi, which belongs to the fifteenth century and carries the title: Ordo Missalis fratrum heremitarum sancti Augustini secundum consuetudinem romane Curie, reads on fol. 259: ‘In festo gloriosissimi doctoris patris nostri Augustini episcopi et confesoris.’ In the place of the verse quoted above, the Gradual has the following: ‘Augustine, flos praesulum, qui clausa reserasti, qui sacre nobis poculum doctrine propinasti et hereses dampnasti, nos visita, nos suscita qui vitam predicasti’ (cf. Anal. Aug. 16, 79f.). The middle of the sixteenth century, therefore, seems to be the most probable date for the introduction of the verse, which celebrates the great Father of the Church as ‘the hammer of the heretics,’ into Augustinian Liturgy. In the art of the later Middle Ages, St. Augustine occasionally appears in the act of disputing with heretics and convincing them of their errors. As an example may serve one of the bas-reliefs of the tomb of St. Augustine in the basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro at Pavia, an exquisite production of the fourteenth century, adorned with fifty bas-reliefs and ninety-five statuettes. The artist represents two heretics with claw-shaped feet, usually reserved in iconography for the prince of darkness (cf. R. Majocchi, L'arca di S. Agostino in S. Pietro in Ciel d'Oro [Pavia 1900] 45; plate 22). However, St. Augustine triumphant with the figure of Heresy prostrate at his feet did not become a favorite art subject until the baroque era with its liking for forceful expression (cf. Stückelberg, E. A., ‘Zur Ikonographie St. Augustins,’ in Egger, A., Der heilige Augustinus [Kempten and München 1904] Appendix).Google Scholar
10 Commonitorium adversus haereses Pelagii et Caelestii vel etiam scripta Juliani, in: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum, ed. Schwartz, E., I, 5 (Berlin and Leipzig 1924–25) 6f. Google Scholar
11 Contra Julianum haeresis Pelagianae defensorem libri sex (PL 44, 641–874), written about 421.Google Scholar
12 Libri quattuor ad Turbantium, written in 419. Cf. Bardenhewer, O., Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur 4 (Munich 1924) 477; 517Google Scholar
13 Libri octo ad Florum, written in 421 or 422. Cf. Bardenhewer, op. cit. 4, 478; 517Google Scholar
14 Contra secundam Juliani responsionem imperfectum opus sex libros complectens (PL 45, 1049–1608), written by St. Augustine shortly before his death in 430.Google Scholar
15 Continuatio Chronicorum Hieronymianorum (MGH, Auct. ant. 11, 19).Google Scholar
16 Contra Eutych. 5, 7 (PL 62, 138).Google Scholar
17 Dialogi contra Nestorianos, Praefatio,—Acta Conc. Oecum. IV, 2 (Strassburg 1914) 14.Google Scholar
18 Commonitorium 21 (PL 50, 666).Google Scholar
19 Historia Rerum Anglicarum 3, 10; 4, 30; cf. 5, 14 (ed. Howlett, R., Rolls Series 82, 1 [London 1884] 241; 381; 451).Google Scholar
20 Alexandreis VII (PL 209, 538B).Google Scholar
21 Carmen de gestis Ludovici VIII Regis 102 (ed. Bouquet, M., Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et dc la France 17 (nouvelle édit. Paris 1878) 314.Google Scholar
22 Chronica Maiora, a. 1239 (ed. Luard, H. R., Rolls Series 57, 3 [London 1876] 551).Google Scholar
23 Penrhyn Stanley, Arthur, Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey 1 (5th ed., New York 1882) 168.Google Scholar
24 Tschackert, P, Peter von Ailli (Petrus de Alliaco).—Zur Geschichte des grossen abendländischen Schisma und der Reformconcilien von Pisa und Constanz (Gotha 1877) 76.Google Scholar
25 Synonyms of malleus are tudites and martellus. Well-known is the surname of Tudites and Martellus given to Charles, the Austrasian Mayor of the Palace under the last Merovingian kings and grandfather of Charlemagne. The origin of Charles’ surname has bee discussed by Waitz, G. (‘Kleine Beiträge zur fränkischen Geschichte.—Über den Beinamen “der Hammer”,’ Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte III [Göttingen 1863] 147ff.; the results of Waitz have been summarized by Th. Breysig, Jahrbücher des fränkischen Reiches. 714–741. Die Zeit Karl Martells [Leipzig 1869] 8 n. 3). Waitz has not only collected the source material but also corrected and supplemented previous studies on this subject. The Monachus Sangallensis (Notker the Stammerer), De gestis Karoli imperatoris 2, 14 (MGH, Script. 2, 757), tells us that the Normans had given the surname of Martellus also to Charlemagne. In the genealogical table of the Saxon dynasty in the Codex Steinveltensis (MGH, Script. 3, 215) Henry the Fowler (918–936) is listed as Heinricus Martellus, the surname probably being connected with the King's victory over the Hungarians in 933; finally, if Hélinand of Froidmont says in his Chronicon (PL 212, 984) that Count Geoffrey of Anjou was given the surname of Martel, ‘quia videbatur omnes sibi obsistentes felicitate quadam contundere;’ his interpretation is essentially the same as that of earlier historians regarding Charles Martel.Google Scholar