CHRIST IN THE MIDDLE AGES
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of human nature as such, ajid attributed to it a capacity for the Divine tliat enabled it through tlie Word to gain an intuitive view of creation that may be said to be infinite in its scope. In tlie Incarnation the infinite etliical suscejjtibility of the human soul was filled by the infinite God. He did not regard the humanity as merely passive and instrumental. In joining itself with the will of tiie Son that was .seeking union with humanity, the human will of Jesus was not passive, but being- wrought upon by the Divine it determined itself to increasing susceptibility to the Divine. He attributes to tiie humanity of Christ growth in knowledge and volition, and suffering of soul and body. He regards as miraculous and inexplicable the fact that the Divine nature did not swallow up the human so as practically to annihilate it, but rather caused it to retain its true humanity. The necessity of .supposing the humanity of Christ active in the Incarnation, doubtless had to do with the stress that Scotus laid on the immaculate con- ception of Mary in whom this activity could be assumed. In some respects Scotus advanced be- yond any of the Scholastic theologians in his efforts to solve the mysteries of the Incarnation.
19. The Chi'istology of the Evangelical sects of the mediaeval time (Petrobrusians, Henricians, Arnoldists, Waldenses, Taborites, Lollards, and Bohemian Brethren) may be characterized in general as naively Biblical, and accordant with that of the orthodox teachers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Much of the mediaeval Evangelical Christology, as well as much of the Anabaptist Christology that was its outgrowth, savoiired strongly of Adoptianisra. This was no doubt due in part to the widespread influence of the Paul- icians, who were transported in large numbers from Armenia to Bulgaria by the Eastern Empire during tlie early Middle Ages. All the Evangelical sects of that era laid the utmost stress upon obedience to the precepts of Christ, especially the Sermon on the Mount, and on following the example of Christ. While they kept the humanity of Christ constantly before them, they worshipped Him as God, repudi- ating utterly all Mariolatry, and all woi'ship of images, holy places, saints, martyrs, etc. They seem not to have concerned themselves at all about the relations of the Divine and the human in the Person of Christ, but to have been content with the NT representations accepted in a devout and simple-minded way. It is probable that nearly all of them would have accepted without hesitation the so - called Apostles' Creed, but would have hesitated to accept the so-called Athanasian Creed. The incjuisitors frequently charge the Waldenses and related parties with denying the true Deity of Christ, although they had the profoundest rever- ence for Him and gladly gave their lives for Him. The Catharistic sects, following the Gnostics and Manichaeans of the earlier time, denied the true Deity of Christ (regarding Him as one of many angelic beings or emanations), and tlie reality of His Incarnation and suffering.
Cliiliastic views were widely prevalent among the heretical offshoots of the Franci.scans, Joachim- ites, Olivists (followers of Peter Olivi), Taborites, etc.
20. The idolatrous disposition of the Greek and Konian Catholic Churches in the mediaeval times created an insatiable demand for holy objects con- nected witli the Person and the life of Christ (articles of clothing, fragments of the cross, etc.), and especially for portraits and statuettes pro- duced from lire by contemporaries or miraculously formed. In the East the ilcons, as they existed at the beginninnj of the Middle Ages (close of the Iconoclastic Controver.sy), which had long before become conventionalized, furnished the models for
all later productions, and little scope was given to the imagination of the artist or the exploitation of fraudulent antiquities. In the West unlimited license was given to both. The Abgar picture (see Abgar), whether what purported in the 4th cent, to be a contemporary portrait had been preserved or not, was sure under the circumstances to re- appear in the mediaeval West, and it could hardly have been expected that one church Mould be allowed to enjoy a monopoly of an object at once so desirable and so easily made. There is no suffi- cient foundation for the story that the handker- chief-portrait remained in Edessa till 944, whence it was taken to Constantinople by Imperial order, and thence went to Italy in the 14th cent., pre- sumably in connexion with the Crusades. It is not likely that so perishable an article would have lasted for six centuries, to say nothing of the thousand years that have elapsed since its suj)- posed removal from Edessa, and the ecclesiastics of the mediaeval time were so unscrupulous in pro- viding themselves with revenue - producing holy objects that no dependence can be placed on their accounts of their sources. It may safely be assumed that neither the Roman, tlie Genoese, nor the Parisian handkerchief - portrait is tliat which long abode in Edessa, and that all alike are of mediaeval or later origin, though the Genoese enjoys the honour of having been pronounced genuine by Pius IX. Even more manifestly spuri- ous and lacking in antiquity is the so - called Veronica portrait, said to have been transferred by Boniface Vlll. , in 1297, from the Hospital oi" tiie Holy Spirit to St. Peter's in Rome. Those who have been vouchsafed a glimpse of the sacred ob- ject represent it as almost completely faded out. The legend is that a pious woman (according to some the woman cured of the issue of blood), moved with compa.ssion for Jesus, as, bleeding and sweating. He was going to the cross, gave Him her head-cloth to Avipe His face with, and that Jesus imprinted His features upon it and returned it to her as a token of love. The name Veronica was by some suppo,sed to be the Latin equivalent of the name of the woman ; but by others it is taken to mean ' true image,' as etymologically it might. The Roman Church has canonized this purely mythical woman as St. Veronica. The i^icture, according to copies made before it faded out, re- presents an oval bearded face with thin hair reaching to the temples, eyes closed, and a some- what agonized expression. This inartistic picture became a model for Correggio and other artists of the later Middle Ages. The stories about the sweat - cloth image, and probably pictures pur- porting to be the original, may have found place as early as the 7th or 8th cent. ; but those exhib- ited in the mediaeval and later times were prob- ably of purely mediaeval origin, and were no doubt freely produced as they were needed. Rome was not allowed to monopolize the ' original ' Veronica portrait, Milan and Jaen having put forth rival claims. Many other pictures, equally lacking in authenticity and with similar claims to antiquity, were produced and exhibited during the Middle Ages, portraits of the earlier time (4th cent, onward) being for the most part taken as models. The symbolical representation of Christ as a fish was perpetuated from the earlier time. Christ as the Good Shepherd, with the face of a beardless youth, was a common form of representation during the Middle Ages, as earlier. It is the opinion of many that the artists of the Renaissance, while influenced to some extent by the older portraits, drew freely on pagan materials, using especially the earlier representations of i^Csculapius to aid their imagin- ations in depicting the ideal Christ. Crucifixes with agonized face and bleeding wounds were