Abstract
After the apostolic period, in which miraculous healings announced the coming of the kingdom of God, the Christian communities of antiquity developed two modes of response to the presence of sickness among their members.1 They prayed directly to God for the recovery of the sick and they performed rituals of healing, either through the laying on of hands or through anointing with oil. Both activities had their roots in Judaism, which distinguished itself among the belief systems of antiquity in the depth of its faith in the one God as the source of all sickness and cure. But Yahweh was not the only healing god of antiquity, and appeal to divine intervention was a common recourse in the lands bordering the Mediterranean. Similarly, both Jews and non-Jews had long used oil in a variety of medical and ritual circumstances.2 Thus, for those who saw a structural connection between sinfulness, ritual impurity, and sickness, bodily health could follow upon ritual purification with water, blood, or oil. Although Jesus sometimes criticized such attitudes within Judaism, his healing miracles often comprised a forgiveness of sins as well as a restoration of health. The apostle James, moreover, by mentioning the forgiveness of sins in the context of a recommendation to anoint the sick with oil (James 5:14–15), inextricably linked the two. Consequently, some later Christian prayers and rituals for the sick emphasized the forgiveness of sins, others the cure of the body, and still others both.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
On miraculous healing in early Christianity, see H.C. Kee, Medicine, Miracle, and Magic in New Testament Times (Cambridge 1986).
See Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Enzyklopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. XVII (Stuttgart 1937), cols 2013–14 s.v. Ölbaum, DC. “Medezinische Verwendung”;
P. Hofmeister, Die heiligen Öle in der morgen- und abendländischen Kirche: Eine kirchenrechtlich-liturgische Abhandlung, Das östliche Christentum, Abhandlungen, n.s. 6/7 (Würzburg 1948).
A. Chavasse, Etude sur l’onction des infirmes dans l’église latine du IIIeau XIesiècle, I: Du IIIesiècle à la réforme carolingienne (Lyon 1942), pp. 40–51.
On Caesarius, see A. Malnory, Saint Césaire: Evêque d’Arles 503–43 (Paris 1894, repr. 1978),
and W.M. Daly, “Caesarius of Arles, a Precursor of Medieval Christendom”, Traditio 26 (1970) 1–18.
Caesarius’s thoughts on the anointing of the sick can be found in his sermons, ed. G. Morin, Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis sermones, 2 vols, Corpus Christianorum series Latina 103–04 (Turnhout 1963), esp. sermons 50, 52, and 184.
L. Thorndyke, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, vol. I (New York 1923), pp. 566–93.
Editions of these rites can be found in F. E. Warren, The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Oxford 1881; repr. with intro. and bibliography by J. Stevenson, Woodbridge, Suffolk and Wolfeboro, NH 1987), pp. 164–73, and The Stowe Missal (Ms. D.II.3 in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin), ed. G.F. Warner, Henry Bradshaw Society 32 (London 1915), pp. 33–36.
Lev. 21:1–12. On the influence of Mosaic law on Irish canon law, see P. Fournier and G. Le Bras, Histoire des collections canoniques en occident, 2 vols (Paris 1931), I, 62–64;
P. Fournier, “Le Liber ex lege Moysi et les tendances bibliques du droit canonique irlandais”, Revue celtique 30 (1909) 221–34;
and R. Kottje, Studien zum Einfluss des alten Testamentes auf Recht und Liturgie der frühen Mittelalters (Bonn 1970).
For a comparable discussion of Irish influence on the use and meaning of anointing in eighth-century political rituals, see M.J. Enright, Iona, Tara, and Soissons: The Origin of the Royal Anointing Ritual, Arbeiten zur Frühmittelalterforschung 17 (Berlin 1985).
L.C. MacKinney, Early Medieval Medicine: With Special Reference to France and Chartres, Publications of the Institute of the History of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, 3rd ser., The Hideyo Noguchi Lectures 3 (Baltimore 1937, repr. New York 1979), pp. 24–25, 61–68;
P. Brown, “Relics and Social Status in the Age of Gregory of Tours”, in his Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (Berkeley 1982), pp. 222–50. For a recent assessment of Gregory that takes serious issue with MacKinney’s findings,
see Jerome Kroll and Bernard Bachrach, “Sin and the Etiology of Disease in Pre-Crusade Europe”, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 41 (1986) 405–06.
On unity and diversity in Carolingian Francia, see R.E. Sullivan, “The Carolingian Age: Reflections on its Place in the History of the Middle Ages”, Speculum 64 (1989) 267–306.
J. Deshusses, “Le ‘Supplément’ au sacramentaire grégorien: Alcuin ou Saint Benoît d’Aniane?” Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft 9 (1965) 48–71; cf. Vogel, Medieval Liturgy, pp. 85–86.
J.J. Contreni, “Masters and Medicine in Northern France during the Reign of Charles the Bald”, in Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom, ed. M. Gibson and J. Nelson, BAR International Series 101 (Oxford 1981), pp. 333–50.
J. Deshusses, “Chronologie des grands sacramentaires de St.-Amand” and “Encore les sacramentaires de St.-Amand”, Revue bénédictine 87 (1977) 230–37 and 89 (1979) 310–12;
R. McKitterick, “Charles the Bald (823–877) and his Library: The Patronage of Learning”, English Historical Review 95 (1980) 42–46. For a detailed discussion of the rites for the sick and the dying in these MSS, see ch. 5 of my Christianizing Death.
Vatican MS. Pal. lat. 485, fols 58r-v; on the MS as a whole, see F.S. Paxton, “Bonus liber: A Late Carolingian Clerical Manual from Lorsch (Bibliotheca Vaticana MS Pal. lat. 485)”, in The Two Laws: Studies in Medieval Legal History Dedicated to Stephan Kuttner, ed. L. Mayali and S.A.J. Tibbets, Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law 1 (Washington, DC 1990).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1992 Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Paxton, F.S. (1992). Anointing the Sick and the Dying in Christian Antiquity and the Early Medieval West. In: Campbell, S., Hall, B., Klausner, D. (eds) Health, Disease and Healing in Medieval Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21882-0_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21882-0_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-21884-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-21882-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)