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 In the lapse of centuries the old forest worship may have declined and been superseded by the structure of temples, more with some populations and less with others.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.  



ENDNOTES:

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)