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Grimm's TM - Chap. 4 Chapter 4
A poem of Herricus composed about 876 gives a fuller description
of the idolatrous peartree: altoque et lato stabat gratissima quondam urbe pirus media, populo spectabilis omni; non quia pendentum flavebat honore pirorum, nec quia perpetuae vernabat munere frondis: sed deprensarum passim capita alta ferarum arboris obsoenae patulis haerentia ramis praebebant vano plausum spectacula vulgo. horrebant illic trepidi ramalia cervi et dirum frendentis apri, fera spicula, dentes, acribus exitium meditantes forte molossis. tunc quoque sic variis arbos induta tropaeis fundebat rudibus lascivi semina risus. It was not the laughter of the multitude that offended the christian
priests; they saw in the practice a performance, however degenerate and dimmed,
of heathen sacrifices. (23) Thus far we have dwelt on the evidences which go to prove that
the oldest worship of our ancestors was connected with sacred forests and trees.
At the same time it cannot be doubted, that even in the earliest
times there were temples built for single deities, and perhaps rude images set
up inside them. In the lapse of centuries the old forest worship may have declined
and been superseded by the structure of temples, more with some populations
and less with others. In fact, we come across a good many statements so indefinite
or incomplete, that it is impossible to gather from them with any certainty
whether the expressions used betoken the ancient cultus or one departing from
it. The most weighty and significant passages relating to this part
of the subject seem to be the following (see Suppl.): Tac. Germ. 40 describes the sacred grove and the worship of Mother
Earth; when the priest in festival time has carried the goddess round among
the people, he restores her to her sanctuary: satiatam conversatione mortalium
deam templo reddit. Tac. ann. 1, 51: Cæsar avidas legiones, quo latior populatio foret,
quatuor in cuneos dispertit, quinquaginta millium spatium ferro flammisque pervastat;
non sexus, non aetas miserationem attulit: profana simul et sacra, et celeberrimum
illis gentibus templum, quod Tanfanae (24)
vocabant, solo aequantur. The nation to which this temple belonged were
the Marsi and perhaps some neighbouring ones (see Suppl.). Vita S. Eugendi abbatis Jurensis (d. circ. 510), auctore monacho
Condatescensi ipsius discipulo (in Actis sanctor. Bolland. Jan. 1, p. 50, and
in Mabillon, acta Ben. sec. 1, p. 570): Sancta igitur famulus Christi Eugendus,
sicut beatorum patrum Romani et Lupicini in religione discipulus, ita etiam
natalibus ac provincia extitit indigena atque concivis. ortus nempe est haud
longe a vico cui vetusta paganitas ob celebritatem clausuramque fortissimam
superstitiosissimi templi Gallica lingua Isarnodori, id est, ferrei ostii indidit
nomen: quo nunc quoque in loco, delubris ex parte jam dirutis, sacratissime
micant coelestis regni culmina dicata Christicolis; atque inibi pater sanctissimae
prolis judicio pontificali plebisque testimonio extitit in presbyterii dignitate
sacerdos. If Eugendus was born about the middle of the 5th century, and his
father already was a priest of the christian church which had been erected on
the site of the heathen temple, heathenism can at the latest have lingered there
only in the earlier half of that century, at whose commencement the West Goths
passed through Italy into Gaul. Gallica lingua here seems to be the German spoken
by the invading nations, in contradistinction to the Romana; the name of the
place is almost pure Gothic, eisarnadaúri [[iron-door]], still more exactly
it might be Burgundian, îsarnodori. [[iron-door]] (25) Had
either West Goths or Burgundians, or perhaps even some Alamanns that had
penetrated so far, founded the temple in the fastnesses and defiles of the Jura?
(26) The name is well suited to the strength of the position
and of the building, which the christians in part retained (see Suppl.). A Constitutio Childeberti I of about 554 (Pertz 3, 1) contains
the following: Praecipientes, ut quicunque admoniti de agro suo, ubicumque fuerint
simulacra constructa vel idola daemoni dedicata ab hominibus, factum non statim
abjecerint vel sacerdotibus haec destruentibus prohibuerint, datis fidejussoribus
non aliter discedant nisi in nostris obtutibus praesententur. Vita S. Radegundis (d. 587) the wife of Clotaire, composed by
a contemporary nun Baudonivia (acta Bened. sec. 1, p. 327): Dum iter ageret
(Radegundis) seculari pompa se comitante, interjecta longinquitate terrae ac
spatio, fanum quod a Francis colebatur in itinere beatae reginae quantum miliario
uno proximum erat. hoc illa audiens jussit famulis fanum igne comburi, iniquum
judicans Deum coeli contemni et diabolica machinamenta venerari. Hoc audientes
Franci universa multitudo cum gladiis et fustibus vel omni fremitu conabantur
defendere. sancta vero regina immobilis preseverans et Christum in pectore gestans,
equum quem sedebat in antea (i.e. ulterius) non movit antequam et fanum perureretur
et ipsa orante inter se populi pacem firmarent. The situation of the temple
she destroyed I do not venture to determine; Radegund was journeying from Thuringia
to France, and somewhere on that line, not far from the Rhine, the fanum may
be looked for. 23. St. Benedict found at Montecassino vetustissimum fanum, in quo ex antiquo more gentilium a stulto rusticano populo Apollo colebatur, circumquaque enim in cultum daemoniorum luci succreverant, in quibus adhuc eodem tempore infidelium insana multitudo sacrificiis sacrilegis insudabat. Greg. Mag. dialogi 2, 8. These were not German heathens, but it proves the custom to have been the more universal. (back) 24. An inscription found in Neapolitan territory, but supposed by Orelli 2053 to have been made by Ligorius, has 'Tamfanae sacrum' (Gudii inscript. antiq. p. lv. 11, de Wal p. 188); the word is certainly German, and formed like Hludana, Sigana (Sequana), Liutana (Lugdunum), Râbana (Ravenna) &c. (back) 25. Yet the Celtic forms also are not far removed, Ir. iaran, Wel. haiarn, Armor. uarn (ferrum); Ir. doras, Wel. dor (porta): haearndor = iron gate, quoted in Davie's Brit. Mythol. pp. 120, 560. (back) 26. Frontier mountains held sacred and made places of sacrifice
by some nations; Ritters erdkunde 1, aufl. 2, 79. vol. 2, p. 903. (back)
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