Reading John Scottus Eriugena’s Carmina as Devotional Poetry

ABSTRACT

This paper advocates for a reading of John Scottus Eriugena’s Carmina that situates his collection of poems within the genre of devotional poetry. Although the Carmina has recently benefited from scholarship on Eriugena’s theology, typologies of his poems consistently overlook the significance of their theological themes. Most instead attribute more significance to their political themes, since Charles the Bald commissioned many of Eriugena’s poems for special occasions at his royal court. This paper argues that a textual analysis which compares the significance of theological and political themes in the Carmina reveals several reasons why Eriugena’s poems should be read as devotional poetry. First, it explains how typologies of Eriugena’s poems overlook the significance of their theological themes by overstating the significance of Charles and his royal court. Then, it offers a close reading of three poems in the Carmina to show how Eriugena uses theological themes to frame political ones.

KEYWORDS:

• John Scottus Eriugena
• Carolingian poetry
• Christology
• Christian mystical theology
• apophatic theology
• Carmina

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For examples of this, see Gavin S.J., ‘A Theological Itinerary,’ 134–53; Guiu, ‘Eriugena Reads Maximus Confessor,’ 296–325; Gavin S.J., A Celtic Christology; Hawtree, ‘Christ on the Cross in Eriugena’s Carmina for Charles the Bald,’ 125–40.

2 Dutton, ‘Eriugena, the Royal Poet,’ 65.

3 O’Meara, Eriugena, 178.

4 Raby, A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages, 238; Sheldon-Williams, introduction to Periphyseon, Liber Primus, 4; Floss, Patrologia Latina, 122, xviii.; Traube, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini iii.2, 523. For an account of how Eriugena’s Greek poetry may have influenced later royal poets, see Lapidge, ‘L’influence stylistique de la poésie de Jean Scot,’ 441–42.

5 Godman, Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance, 10.

6 Ibid., 60.

7 Dutton, ‘Eriugena, the Royal Poet,’ 55.

8 According to Dutton, the personal poems include Carmina (hereafter Carm.), 12b, 18, 19, App. 7, and App. 9. All citations of Eriugena’s Carmina are from Eriugena, Carm.

9 For more on the doubts surrounding the authenticity of some of Eriugena’s poems, see Dutton, ‘Eriugena, the Royal Poet,’ 55–9, and Herren, ‘Johannes Scottus Poeta,’ 94–7; Herren, introduction to Carmina, 27–41.

10 This is not the only instance of Eriugena’s association with medicinal practice. A charter from 845 references a ‘Johannes medicus’ leading some to speculate that Eriugena may have begun his career on the European continent as a physician. For more, see Contreni, ‘The Study of and Practice of Medicine in Northern France during the Reign of Charles the Bald,’ 43–54.

11 Dutton, ‘Eriugena, the Royal Poet,’ 61. According to Dutton, the occasional poems include Carm. 1–10, 17, and 25.

12 These two manuscripts are Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. lat. 1587 and 1625. The only one of Eriugena’s occasional poems not included in these two manuscripts is ‘Aulae sidereae’ which comes to us from Corpus Christi College MS. 223. We know that there are poems of Eriugena which are lost because Martin of Laon, who was also of Irish descent, preserved a gloss of Greek terms used in these poems in Laon MS. 44.

13 Herren, ‘Johannes Scottus Poeta,’ 94, and Herren, introduction to Carmina, 25.

14 These poems include Carm. 2–9, 13, and 14.

15 Herren, ‘Johannes Scottus Poeta,’ 105.

16 Carm. 1.47, 2.71, 4.4, 4.29, 6.38, 10.9, 10.11 11.1, 22.3, 25.98, and App. 10.1.

17 Ibid., 2.67, 4.26, and 17.2.

18 Ibid., 7.0, 11.1, 11.3, 14.1, and 17.1.

19 Ibid., 2.68, 11.0, 17.0, 22.1, and App. 8.4.

20 Ibid., 17.3.

21 For more on this, see Paul E. Dutton, ‘Eriugena, the Royal Poet,’ 70.

22 Carm, 8.19, 17.5, and 25.95.

23 Ibid., 2.61, 4.29, 6.36, 8.83, 17.6, 25.78, 25.100, and App. 10.10.

24 Ibid., 1.68, 17.5, 20.3, 22.2, and App. 10.11.

25 Ibid., 17.4–5. All English translations of Carm. are from Eriugena, Carmina.

26 Ibid., 1.47–48, 10.6, 11.3, 17.7.

27 Ibid., 10.6–8.

28 Ibid., 17.11–12.

29 Ibid., 2.67.

30 Ibid., 1.20, 1.82, 2.54, 3.27, 3.53, 9.29, 9.71, 14.4, 21.4, 25.34, and App. 2.10. Remarkably, Eriugena never refers to Charles as dominus.

31 Ibid., 1.21, 2.57, 6.21, 8.26, 8.47, 8.49, 9.19, 9.21, 16.2, 25.22, 25.69, and App. 2.11.

32 Ibid., 2.57, 8.28, 8.47, 25.67.

33 Ibid., 3.59, 8.25, 8.36, and 8.41

34 Ibid., 1.39.

35 Ibid., 1.1–12.

36 Ibid., 1.17–28.

37 Eriugena, Periphyseon, 449A-B.

38 Ibid., 904D.

39 Carm., 1.37–48.

40 Ibid., 63–67 … 75–82.

41 For more examples of this, see Ibid., 2, 4, and 5–7.

42 Hawtree, ‘Christ on the Cross in Eriugena’s Carmina for Charles the Bald,’ 134.

43 Notably, a number of Eriugena’s poems focus on Christ’s harrowing of hell which suggests that at least a few may have been written for an Easter celebration. For more on this, see Carm. 3, 5–9, and 13.

44 Ibid., 2.1–14.

45 Eriugena, Periphyseon, 445B, 581A, 620C, 685C, 728B, 823B, 913B. It is also worth noting that the Periphyseon is a dialogue between a teacher (Nutritor) and a student (Alumnus), both which names are derived from terms that connote natural growth.

46 Ibid., 2.57–68.

47 Ibid., 8.1–15.

48 Gavin, A Celtic Christology, 46–61.

49 While a full discussion of Eriugena’s interpretation of Dionysian apophaticism is beyond the scope of this paper, it is worth mentioning that Eriugena does not take negative theology to be a simple form of negation. Instead, negative theology brings forth what is at work in both cataphasis and apophasis in order to refer to the excessive or superabundant nature of the Divine Essence. Eriugena, Periphyseon, 462A-D; 521C-522C.

50 Eriugena, Periphyseon, 446C-D.

51 Carm., 8.43–62

52 Gavin, A Celtic Christology, 105–38.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Connor M. Ritchie

Connor Ritchie received a B.A. in philosophy and humanities from Villanova University in 2017 and a M.A. in philosophy from Boston College in 2019. Currently, he is a doctoral student in the Theology and Religious Studies department at Villanova University. His research interests lie at the intersections of Christian mysticism, apophatic theology, and continental philosophy of religion.