MARCH 2007

ISSUE 9 - ISSN 1448 - 6326

ILLUMINATIONS OF THE TRINITY: ILLUMINATING THEOLOGY

KERRIE HIDE

O Trinity, light of lights,

you illuminate the heart of humanity

reforming your likeness to reflect the image.[1]

Abstract

Uncovering the history, development, intricacy and beauty of medieval illuminations of the Trinity gives insight into the power of Christian art to transform human faith and hearts. Far from being an esoteric study of the doctrine of the Trinity, the author demonstrates how this “theology in colour” engages the imagination, lures the viewer to bathe in the mystery of the “light of lights” and restores the image of the triune God of love in human nature. [Editor].

This opening verse of a prayer to the Trinity, from the “Hours of the Trinity”[2] in the De Bois Book of Hours, is recited at Compline[3], the final prayer of the day.  The prayer abounds in allusions to light and illumination, giving those who recite it comfort and hope as dusk settles into night.  The imagery presents the Trinity as “the light of lights”, who illuminates the hearts of human beings.   It expresses how the radiant, illuminating light of the Trinity transforms the human heart into a likeness (tuam similitudinem reformans) that reflects the image (as ad imaginem) of the Trinity.  In this glorious book, the radiant colour, delicate pen work and illuminating decoration of the sacred page draw the reader to rest the eyes and gaze at its beauty. The intricate design lures the viewer to enter mystery, to bathe in the light of lights and be enlightened.  The versicle celebrates the Christian experience of the trinitarian nature of divine love participating in and transforming human lives.

In this paper I will explore how the development of illuminations of the Trinity in  English manuscripts (1200-1500) such as Missals, Psalters and Books of Hours expresses  the lived experience of the doctrine of the Trinity and facilitates trinitarian contemplative prayer.  After setting the production of these illuminations in their historical context and giving a brief explanation of the way of integrating trinitarian theology expressed in literature of the period, I will show how medieval illuminations are theology in colour because they engage the imagination of the viewer in seeing how the Trinity is faithfully involved in restoring the image of God in human nature.  I will then examine a series of miniatures of images of the Trinity, and distinguish which aspects of the complex doctrine of the Trinity artists emphasized in order to affirm the faith of the beholder. Consequently, I will point to how illuminations of the Trinity can engender a trinitarian awareness of the mystery of God and become an icon into the mystery today.  

Historical Context

The decoration of liturgical books such as Missals for public use,[4] and Psalters[5] Breviaries[6] and Books of Hours[7] for private use was commonplace in England from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries.  During this time illuminating that was once confined to monastic scriptoriums expanded to a variety of workshop centres in towns throughout England.[8] A vibrant liturgical community and a flourishing of lay spirituality meant that a growing number of people[9] sought to live a sanctified life according to the Church’s liturgical calendar, and in the monastic tradition of reciting the Liturgy of Hours or Divine Office,[10] desired to “pray without ceasing” (1 Th 5:18).[11]  This interest in living a prayerful life instigated the proliferation of decorated books that illustrated scriptural texts and prayers and expressed in colour foundational doctrine that could sanctify the life experience of the viewer and enable them to feel part of salvation history.[12]  Because the doctrine of the Trinity - the holy blessed and undivided unity of three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit - was a foundational belief, the presence of the Trinity was often indirectly signified in illuminations for the Hours of the Virgin, Hours of the Cross or Hours of the Holy Spirit, or explicitly made a feature page or historated initial, when Trinity Sunday was celebrated as a solemnity in the liturgical calendar.  Giving expression to the doctrine of the Trinity was a fundamental task of artists. 

Beholding the Illuminations: A Way of Interpretation

Illuminations of the Trinity act like icons in that beholding or gazing at their illuminating beauty enables the viewer to enter the realms of the sacred.[13] In the tradition of the four sense of scripture where reading scripture involves a fourfold movement of first reading a text literally, then allegorically, until it opens out into moral and anagogical-unitive implications, the illuminations engage the intellect, memory, conscience and spirit.  They impart moral and anagogical meaning.[14]  They inspire in the beholder a moral response of contrition, compassion and longing for God,[15] as well as love joy and hope for the beatific vision.  Ultimately they point to a future one with God.  They act analogically in that they picture for the viewer the Church’s vision of the mystery of God, the face of Christ truly God and truly human, crucified and glorious risen in union with God, and the Holy Spirit.

This traditional fourfold deepening in interpretation finds fuller expression in the monastic tradition of praying the scriptures through lectio divina: lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio.[16]  First, in lectio the reader recites the text.  They begin to interiorize through meditatio, meditating over the words of scripture, allow them to ruminate within their being.  Through meditation, the external image enters the personal world and space of the reader until a natural organic oratio, or prayer of the heart evolves and the one who is beholding is touched, stilled and silenced more deeply within.  Finally, in the gift of contemplatio, the light of lights illuminates the heart as the one who prays comes home to the indwelling presence and rests in peace and love in an enlightenment that takes them beyond words and images.  Because these natural fourfold ways of interpreting and embodying experience were so prevalent in the culture, it is not inconceivable that beholding an illumination sparked a similar organic movement that enables the vision of the Trinity to be interpreted visually and doctrinally, to then enter into the interior heart space of the viewer, to incite prayer of the heart and lead to a contemplative unitive space beyond words and images that is indeed a oneness with the Trinity.

Trinitarian Theology

The predominant expression of the doctrine of the Trinity in fourteenth and fifteenth century England was of doxology, of praise and glory to the Holy Trinity, one God now and forever.  The Augustinian expression of the filioque clause that stressed the unity of the Father and Son, with the love of the Holy Spirit coming from them both and in turn uniting all three had widespread influence.[17]  Furthermore, as we saw expressed in the trinitarian versicle, the image of God in humanity was interpreted in trinitarian terms as human beings made in the image and likeness of the Trinity.  Yet, along with this awareness that human beings possess the imago Dei, was the haunting knowledge that often, human behaviour is not true to this inheritance.  Influenced by Anselm of Canterbury’s seminal question, Cur Deus Homo? Why did God become human? [18], a variety of soteriologies surfaced that sought to make sense of the human experience of being the image of God, and yet at the same time, not being true to this potential. Two predominant schools emerged, neither of which is mutually exclusive.  The first, and most influential explanation, accentuates that justice requires that a member of the Trinity, Jesus the God-human to become human and be crucified in order to make amends to God the Father and thus restore the image of the Trinity defaced by sin.  The second, and equally important for a balanced understanding of salvation, that God in Christ, was always going to become human as an expression of trinitarian love, making unifying and healing trinitarian love present in all human suffering. The Austin Canon, Walter Hilton in his Scale of Perfection, (d.1396) is a representative example of the emphasis on the tarnished image of the Trinity and the need for Christ to die in order to restore the imago Dei, while the anchoress, Julian of Norwich (1342-c1420) gives voice to the emphasis on trinitarian love and the oneing of Christ with all creation, entering human suffering for love, drawing all humanity into the dynamic of transformation into  trinitarian joy.   We will consider each of these in , and then see how illuminations give powerful expression to facets of these theologies in a way that is transforming. 

Reforming Your Likeness into Your Image

Walter Hilton

Hilton’s vision of how the Trinity illuminates the heart of humanity reforming the human likeness into an image of the Trinity presents the enlightened soul, reflecting the radiant light of the uncreated Trinity contrasted against the tarnished soul giving but a faint reflection.  The original spiritual lightness of the soul radiates trinitarian wholeness. :[19]

He explains:

The soul of a man is a life made of three powers – memory, reason and will – the image and likeness of the blessed Trinity: whole perfect and righteous. The memory has the likeness of the Father, in as much as it is made strong and steadfast by the Father’s omnipotence…The reason is made clear and bright without error or darkness, as perfectly as a soul could have in an unglorified body and so it is the likeness of the Son who is infinite wisdom.  And the love and the will were made pure, burning toward God…and it is the likeness of the Holy Spirit, who is blessed love.  So that man’s soul which may be called a created Trinity was filled with memory, sight and love by the uncreated blessed Trinity who is our Lord.[20]

This is a captivating portrait of the initial splendour of the human soul at the first creation,[21] strong and steadfast like the Father, clear and bright without error or darkness, an expression of the wisdom of the Son with love and a pure will burning toward God like the Holy Spirit.  In essence human beings are like the Trinity and consequently have the potential to reflect an image of the Trinity, but due to the fall, the image of God is deformed and changed into another likeness.  Hilton continues:

…the image of God in the first creation was wonderfully bright and fair, full of burning love and spiritual light, but through the sin of the first man Adam, it was deformed and changed into another likeness…it fell from that spiritual light and that heavenly food into the painful darkness…[22]

In the tradition of Romans 5, Hilton describes how through the sin of Adam the soul that was wonderfully bright and fair, full of burning love and spiritual light, fell into a painful darkness, and continues to exist with the unfulfilled desire of burning love longing for a restoration of the original image but unable to leave the suffocating darkness. Within a discussion on contemplation, Hilton then explains how God is the only one who can transform darkness into light:

So it was necessary if man’s soul was to be reformed and the trespass made good that our Lord God himself should reform this image and make amends for this trespass, since no man could.  But that was impossible for him in his divinity; for her ought not and could not make amends by suffering punishment in his own nature.  He therefore had to take the same human nature that had trespassed, and become man…And so it was done: for our Lord Jesus, God’s Son became man, and through his precious death that he suffered made amends to the Father in heaven.[23]

Hilton expresses a common feeling that we see in many of the illuminations of the Trinity.   The passion and death is the greatest expression of the generosity of Jesus becoming human to make amends for human sin and thus restore the defaced image of the Trinity.  In becoming human Christ transformed the weakness of the memory, the darkness of reason, and the fickleness of the will into their original trinitarian likeness.

Julian of Norwich

Though we do not know if Julian read Hilton’s Scale of Perfection, her Revelations of Divine Love has a similar trinitarian flavour with some significant differences.  Like Hilton, Julian explicitly links Christ’s work for human redemption to the Trinity.  She explains: 

For the Trinity is God and God is the Trinity.  The Trinity is our maker, the Trinity is our keeper, the Trinity is our everlasting lover, the Trinity is our endless joy and bliss by our Lord Jesus Christ and in our Lord Jesus Christ.[24]

The Trinity is our maker, keeper and everlasting lover by and in Christ.  And again like Hilton she describes the human soul as “made like the Trinity in our first making.[25]  Human beings are: a made trinity like an unmade blessed Trinity known and loved without beginning.”[26]  Yet, without denying the lasting consequences of the fall, and the need for transformation in the human condition so that human beings may truly be “a made trinity like the unmade blessed Trinity”, Julian gives fuller expression to the centrality of love in Christ’s work of redemption and restoration of the image of God in human nature than we see in Hilton.  Julian emphasises an interpretation the crucifixion as the greatest expression of divine love entering human suffering for love, drawing all suffering humanity and creation, into the body of Christ, and transforming suffering into everlasting joy and bliss.  She highlights three ways of beholding, or seeing and holding in her heart the fruit of understanding the reason for the passion, that resembles the movement of lectio divina.[27]  She observes: First is the hard pain he suffered with contrition and compassion.[28]   Christ feels the hard pain of creation.  He takes all that creates suffering into his being.  He sorrows for human sin and becomes an expression of divine compassion.  Julian then describes how the suffering Christ is eternal, uncreated love working for love:

And this I saw as the second way of beholding his blessed Passion.  The love which made him suffer surpasses all his sufferings, as much as heaven is above earth; for the suffering was a noble, precious and honourable done in time by the working of love.  And love was without beginning it is and shall be without end.[29]

Love is the centre and informing principle of Christ’s passion and death.  Christ’s work, far from being a necessary act that makes amends for human trespass, is an expression of eternal love in time. This sharing of love delights Christ.  In her third description of beholding of the crucifixion Julian affirms the joy, bliss and delight of Christ.  The conversation reveals an extraordinary shift in the reason for why God became human:

Are you well apayd (satisfied, pleased or at peace)[30] that I suffered for you?  I said: Ah, good Lord, mercy; Yes, good Lord, blessed may you be.  Then Jesus our good lord said: If you are apayde, I am apayde.  It is a joy, a bliss, and endless delight to me that ever I suffered my passion for you; and if I might suffer more, I would suffer more. If you are apayed, I am apayed. [31]

Here Christ is not responding to the justice of God.  Christ enters the impoverished human condition and becomes one with human beings in suffering. Christ expresses joy, bliss, sheer delight in restoring what was lost in the fall, enabling the transformation of human nature into the image and likeness of the Trinity. Ultimately, the crucifixion reveals the endless joy and bliss of trinitarian love actively transforming the human heart from a likeness into an image.  

These examples from Hilton and Julian reveal how words stress and strain as they  struggle to give expression to the role of the Trinity in creation and redemption and the reason for the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. We will now see how these ideas become theology in colour through the visual expression in the illumination of manuscripts for both private and public liturgical use.  We will focus on how beholding or gazing at illuminations of the Trinity can activate the memory of the human original likeness to the Trinity, and realize the depth of trinitarian love and the limitless extent the Trinity will go to restore the image.  Gradually through years of viewing these images the beholder comes to integrate a trinitarian vision of reality.   We will now see how the implicit link between the crucifixion, the Trinity, and redemption was a favourite subject for medieval illuminators.

The Trinity Illuminations

Crucifixion Gorleston Psalter Norwich

The predominant image in medieval illuminations is of the crucifixion.  Linked compositionally and thematically to the crucifixion scene in the Gospel of John, crucifixion scenes give visual form to the suffering of “the Word made flesh” and create compassion in the heart of the viewer.  The full-page Crucifixion illumination from the East Anglian, Gorleston Psalter (c.1320-1330)[32] is a sophisticated example. The illumination has a fine geometric boarder that frames the heavy elongated body of a sensitive wounded Jesus hanging from a central cross.  Jesus is supported by Mary, standing on his left weeping, and John, the beloved disciple, mourning on his right.[33]  Mary Magdeline clings lovingly to the foot of the cross.  The figures are draped in elegant, flowing robes that impart a sense of grace and serenity.  Even the skulls on the rock ledge of Golgotha seem to be at peace.  The image engenders compassion and hope in the viewer as it expresses with pathos the transformation of suffering through the passion.  Though there is no overt symbol of the Trinity, the illuminating, gold background punched with an intricate diaper pattern, imparts the uncreated light of the Trinity and a sense of holiness and transcendence of the Godhead, revealed in Jesus. 

Crucifixion Abingdon Missal

At the same time, the crucifixion scene became a more overt statement about the role of each person of the Trinity in the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.  The Crucifixion, from the Abingdon Missal, painted by William Abel (1461) [34] is a powerful illustration of this transition.  As in the Gorleston Psalter, this crucifixion scene has the same wounded Jesus on a central cross with his eyes closed and his hallowed head lulled to one side. Mary is on the left and John on the right. But lacking the grace of the Gorleston Crucifixion, the drapery of their garments is sharp, angular and heavily outlined.  Their faces are solemnly remorseful and unattractive. And in contrast to the lightness of gold background in the Gorleston crucifixion, the deep orange star spangled sky emphasizes the darkness of a world where Christ had to die.  What is significant for our understanding of trinitarian theology is the way Abel creates a sense of the presence of each person of the Trinity at the crucifixion.  The Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, is perched on the arm of the cross.  Like a beckon of white light, illuminating the darkness of this somber day, the Spirit’s wings and turning head, point towards a roundel of the first person of the Trinity, who seems to be looking down from heaven. Imaged as an elderly, kind and generous Lord, his soft features and wide, sad eyes impart the depth of his sorrow for the suffering of Christ. Though he is bearded, there is feminine quality to his face.  His outstretched hands point towards the Holy Spirit with an open gesture of both giving and receiving Christ.  He wears a red cloak, the same colour as the blood that flows from Christ’s wound and showers Christ’s lifeless body.  The S-shaped movement from God, to the Holy Spirit, to the head of Christ, suggests that the Holy Spirit plays a central role in uniting the Father and the Son.  The scene captures the moment when God looks on with compassion and waits to receive Christ, the God-human on the completion of his task.  Hilton’s words resonate: “And so it was done: for our Lord Jesus, God’s Son became man, and through his precious death that he suffered made amends to the Father in heaven.”  An adoring Abbot Ashendon kneels amidst a wide elaborate boarder of decorative flowers and acanthus leaves, linking the universal nature of this salvific event to the life of the Abbot, the patron of the manuscript, and thus all human beings. 

The Seven Requests of the Holy Trinity with Christ Crucified with Scenes from the Passion Story Bedford Book of Hours

Even more explicit reflection on the role of the Trinity in redemption occurs in

“The Seven Requests of the Holy Trinity with Christ Crucified with Scenes from the Passion Story” [35] from the Bedford Book of Hours (1400’s) illuminated by the anonymous Master of the Duke of Bedford.  In this vision of redemption, the beholder no longer interprets the meaning of the crucifixion from an earthly perspective through the eyes of Mary and John at Calvary, but from the perspective of heaven.  An elaborate margin, densely foliated with flourishing flowers, vines, leaves, birds and angels creates, as Smith observes:  “ a semi-permeable membrane between the world of the page and the world of the viewer”.[36]  This swirling mass of the beauty from the natural world supports five miniatures of critical moments in the life of Christ leading to his crucifixion.  A dominating arched window frames the first person of the Trinity, who is portrayed as a courteous and benevolent Lord enthroned in heaven.  He holds the cross that still supports the crucified body of Christ.  The Lord’s left hand is extended in a sign of blessing.  His two erect joined fingers point to the humanity and divinity of Christ.  The clean, thin, hanging body of Christ on the cross is open, the wound in his side visible. It is a visible expression of what Julian describes as “the hard pain Christ suffered with contrition and compassion”, but unlike Julian, the placement of the cross on the lower step accentuates the distance between God and humanity and the need for Christ the God- human to satisfy God’s desire for justice through suffering for humanity.  Like the Abington Missal crucifixion, the illumination resonates with Hilton’s vision of how “through Jesus’ precious death he made amends to his Father”. The dove-like Holy Spirit’s swooping wings form a white cross, and create a still point that draws the viewer within and beyond the sacred page.  The illumination creates a sense of anticipation at what Christ’s work for human salvation will mean for human peace. 

The Letter D for None of the Trinity De Bois Book of Hours

The theme of the redemptive nature of Christ’s death and the role of the Trinity in salvation reaches the heights of artistic expression in a series of illuminations known as the Throne of Grace.  As the title suggests, these illuminations focus not so much on the suffering of Christ inspiring sorrow for sin, or satisfaction to God, as on the grace that humanity receive because of Christ’s work for redemption.  “The Letter D for None of the Trinity” from the De Bois Book of Hours is an archetypal example.[37]  The None Hours traditionally marks the moment of Christ’s death, so a trinitarian exposition on the crucifixion seems particularly apt.  The decoration of the letter D highlights adorns the word Deus (God) highlighting the involvement of the whole Godhead in tragedy of the None hour. The slender lines of the letter flow gracefully creating an almost circular centre.  As the reader gazes, the intricate composition leads the eye to rest and gaze at its centre, which has as its focus the crucified body of Jesus superimposed on the regal cruciform body of a youthful first person of the Trinity, his Father.  The Father’s face has an iconographic quality, very like icons of Christ Pantocrator.  His demeanor is steadfast and trustworthy.  Double the size of all other figures in the composition, and majestically attired in a swirling cloak, he rules with unyielding might. His outstretched arms and enfolded fingers easily hold the horizontals of the cross so that Christ’s wounded body can rest in his lap like a fetus in a womb. Christ’s heart seems to rest on the heart of the Father. It is as if the body of the Father contains the crucified body of Christ.  This illumination, in contrast to the Abington and Bedford depictions of the Trinity, conveys a sense of the first person of the Trinity really participating in the crucifixion. 

In the tradition of Acts 1, a dainty burning flame placed between Christ’s head and the neck of the Father imparts the presence of the Holy Spirit.  The delicacy of the flame suggests a need for wisdom to see the flame. The superimposed nature of the composition of trinitarian figures imbues a firm conviction that through Christ, the Trinity is sharing love, showering grace throughout creation. Julian’s words seem apt: “for the suffering was a noble, precious and honourably done in time by the working of love.  And love was without beginning it is and shall be without end.” Significantly the Trinity is not elevated and disconnected from humanity but intimately present as the cruciform trinitarian composition shelters and encloses four kneeling laymen. Their sparkling eyes and the wonder and serenity on their faces evoke Hilton’s image of the enlightened soul.  They hint that their memory of God’s participation in human redemption is strong and steadfast.  They have clear bright vision.  The love of their will is burning towards the Trinity. This throne of grace reveals the unconditional love of the Trinity.   Adoration at this throne of grace seems the only response. 

Trinity Sunday: Father Son and Holy Spirit Adored Sherborne Missal

The role of the Trinity in the whole of salvation history is made even more explicit in manuscripts scribed and decorated to mark the great feast of Trinity Sunday, that draws the story of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit reach a climax.[38] “Trinity Sunday: Father Son and Holy Spirit Adored” from the Sherborne Missal, (c 1400) [39] scribed by Benedictine John Whas and illuminated by the Dominican John Siferwas is a spectacular exemplar. This exuberant brightly coloured vellum page illuminates the heart of the viewer, as it gives glory and praise to the wonder of a trinitarian God.  Densely figured margins of choruses of angels with decorative wings adorn the top and bottom of the page. The four evangelists guard the corner and holy prophets, saints, Church hierarchy and abbots give witness at the sides of the page. A male and female peacock symbolizing light, immortality and the joy of the afterlife[40] give expression to human hope. The margins present the mystery of the universal in the particular linking the story of the redemptive love of the Trinity to all created things.

The historated letter B, created with architectural stems of angels predominates.  Compound patterns of three ornament and intensify the celebration of trinitarian love: three angels create the main stem of the letter, three flowers have blue centres that radiate the light of sapphires, their six petals reflect the perfection of pearls.  The top of the letter is a perfect circle where the first person of the Trinity resides peacefully.[41]  Cloaked in dark blue, the colour of transcendence, with a white mantle, the first person is portrayed as a handsome Lord who looks warm and at home amongst kneeling souls of heaven.   He gazes directly at the viewer with arms open in the orans position. His right hand holds the world, while his left hand is in a traditional mudra.  His outstretched three fingers refer to the Trinity.  There is a delicate tongue of fire resting on his heart, identical to the tongues of fire that symbolize the presence of the Holy Spirit in the “Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Virgin and Apostles” that marks the feast of Pentecost earlier in the missal.  Four adoring figures frame the underneath roundel of the underworld.  Tiny black figures try to escape the yellow and red consuming flames of hell.  An open white book connects heaven to the underworld where a lamb reclines with a cross in the shape of a sword piercing his body.  Blood flows from an open wound in his side indicating that this is the Johanine image of Christ the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:26).    The whole composition creates an aura of praise, glory, power and might as it draws the viewer to adore the one holy and blessed Trinity. 

Corpus Christi Sherborne Missal

The ensuing major feast in the missal, Corpus Christi, [42] builds on the preceding illumination of the Trinity, situating trinitarian presence even more solidly within contemporary experience.   Surrounded by architectural margins where the figure of Abbot Bunning dominates, a slender, plain acanthi leaved[43] historated letter C, the initial for both Corpus and Christi, summons the viewer to gaze and reflect on its meaning.  The red and blue thistle like acanthi expresses the union of Christ’s humanity (red) and divinity (blue) present in the Eucharist.  The background of the C has a recurring pattern of open doorways reminiscent of Church pillars. At the top of the composition Christ and his Father preside over a communion scene, though their gaze seems disconnected from each other and from the scene below. As they are now together in heaven, they are identically dressed in blue, though the wounds on Christ’s hands still look sore and bleeding.  A wooden cross with three nail holes grounded in a brown circular world rests between their laps.  Below, two altar servers look on in delight as they clutch a beautiful white lace cloth and create an altar.  A priest holds the perfect white circle of a consecrated host, before a kneeling smiling lay-woman (possibly a donor) who is dressed in a blue dress covered in a repetitive dainty pattern of three white circles, that evoke trinitarian unity.  Her open hands, with fingers in patterns of three, touch the altar cloth. She has an expectant posture of waiting to receive.   She is opposite the priest but rests  on the same tiled surface as the priest.[44]  The joy and peace on her face suggest that the love of Christ now made present in Eucharist illuminates her heart. 

In contrast to the delicate flame of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity Adored illumination, on this feast of Corpus Christi, the Holy Spirit is large and vibrant.  The flamboyant Spirit gracefully unites the celebration of the consecration to the resurrected Christ glorified in heaven now sitting at the right hand of the Father.  The elongated open feathers of the Spirit’s wings clip the throne in heaven. Its beak pecks at the host, as if it is eating.  The Spirit’s presence unites heaven and earth as it showers beams of golden light over a dark background.    There is a joyful sense of the ongoing presence of the Trinity in human lives in the celebration of the Mass, where Julian’s words seem apt: The Trinity is our maker, the Trinity is our keeper, the Trinity is our everlasting lover, the Trinity is our endless joy and bliss by our Lord Jesus Christ and in our Lord Jesus Christ.  The whole composition expresses the joy of this wonderful mystery.

Initial B Introducing the Introit of the Votive Mass of the Trinity Carmelite Missal

The endless joy and bliss the love of the Trinity creates in human lives is also evident in “Initial B Introducing the Introit of the Votive Mass of the Trinity[45]”(c.1393) in the Carmelite Missal.  This exquisite illumination was painted for a missal donated to the English Carmelite House White Friars London.  Again like the mass for the Trinity in the Sherborne Missal, the stem of the letter B is studded with angels, but the formation of the letter is more fluid and the angels are more emotive and life like, almost popping out of the page in awe. St Catherine of Alexandra is on the left and an unknown woman on the right.  Christ and God imaged as a Father, sit on a rainbow, the traditional symbol of the connection between heaven and earth and sign of new life and hope. Both are dressed in a blue cloak with red lining, though Christ wears his cloak differently to the Father.  Christ is in the orans position displaying the wounds in his hands and the wound near his heart.   With one hand, the Father holds the world pierced with a sword-like red cross in his lap that rests near his heart.  The finger position on the other hand signifies the Trinity.   Positioned at the very top of the composition, the Holy Spirit gracefully hovers above the pair creating an ambiance of a presiding presence over the whole event.  It is noteworthy that here the artist incorporates both the image of the dove and the tongues of fire into his depiction of the Spirit’s presence, as streams of fire pour from the beak of the dove. The Spirit’s expansive wings reach out and unite the Father and Son.   Again as in the other illuminations we have observed, the Father and Son are clothed identically in dark blue and red colours uniting the red of humanity and the blood of the cross with the blue of transcendence and divinity.   Behind the Holy Spirit, a scroll inscribed with Oba Trinitas, exudes praise.  Directly under the rainbow, a glorious Mary stands dressed in the same colours as Christ and the Father, emphasizing the key role Mary played in human redemption.  She has an ornate crown on her head and a glowing sun at her heart, reminiscent of the woman clothed with the sun with a crown of twelve stars on her head described in the Book of Revelation (Rev 12:11).  She holds scrolls of text that paraphrase the verses and antiphons used in the Carmelite liturgy.  A kneeling man and woman, who are probably the donors, look on in awe.  Like Mary, they wear the same colour blue as the cloak of Jesus and the Father suggesting that they reflect the divine image. The composition of the figures create triangles within triangles: Jesus, the Spirit and the Father create a triangle; Jesus, the Spirit the Father and Mary create a larger triangle; while Mary, Jesus and the Man; Mary, the Father and the Woman also form a triangle.  .  The illumination is a dramatic celebration of humanity truly participating in trinitarian life. It festive ambiance celebrates the eternal love of the Trinity involved in the whole of salvation history from gifted origins to graced fulfilment.  The human response is to long to participate more fully in this mystery to contemplate and to become one in trinitarian love. The celebration of human redemption evokes Julian’s sense of joy, bliss, and endless delight that God became human.  It is a graceful expression of the eternal love of the one holy, blessed Trinity.

A Trinitarian Way of Prayer

These illuminations are not simply decorative works of art secondary to the text they surround. They are theology in colour.  They illuminate theology, communicating layers and layers of insight that words struggle to capture, into the mystery of trinitarian loving.  They are prayers in colour that rejoice with their authors in praise of the wonder and glory of the three persons, yet one holy blessed Trinity.  Though insights abound, I will draw out five ways in which I consider these illuminations engender a trinitarian way of prayer that can nourish our prayer life today. 

First, the illuminations have an iconographic quality.  They are windows to the sacred that draw the viewer to rest the eyes and gaze at their beauty.  Gazing engenders a stillness and silence.  It unlocks hidden meaning.  It evokes a sense of God beckoning human beings to enter mystery, to bathe in the light of lights, to be enlightened and to participate fully in trinitarian life.  The illuminations powerfully unite the gaze of the viewer in the immanent and the transcendence of the Godhead, instilling peace, healing and hope. 

Second, these visions of trinitarian love enable the viewer to remember the initial splendour of the human soul at the first creation, strong and steadfast like the Father, clear and bright without error or darkness, an expression of the wisdom of the Son with love and a pure will burning toward God like the Holy Spirit, and to be reassured that now because of the Trinity’s presence within the suffering of the human condition through, with and in Christ and the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit, the imago Dei is being restored.  Human beings are like the Trinity and consequently have the potential to reflect an image of the Trinity.

Third, these illuminations are an intensely inspirational mediation on how the Trinity shares love with humanity through Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension into glory and the ongoing presence of the Spirit.  They assist the viewer in pondering various interpretations of why God became human and in formulating an appropriate response for today reconciling the contradictions of opposites perspectives.  They remind us that the experience of human beings effects the being of the Trinity.

Fourth, even if the illuminator portrays the grotesque, or the darkness of evil, there is an over-riding sense of life, wholeness, harmony and hope that ultimately all will be one.   All that is distorted and dysfunctional in the human condition is never isolated from the illuminating light of the love of the Trinity.  The illuminations skillfully present both sides of the spectrum of life: the anguish, loneliness and emptiness of Christ’s crucifixion and the healing freedom and love of relationship in the Trinity.  Each portrayal of trinitarian involvement in human suffering engenders compassion and hope.

Fifth, the celebrations of theology in colour invite the viewer beyond words and letters, beyond reasoning and thinking, to enter the world of images and the imagination, to reach out for what is eternal and to envisage the timeless reality of everlasting trinitarian love. In this timeless reality we know in head, heart and body, with every part of our being, that God is a communion of persons that is essentially relational, ecstatic, fecund and alive as passionate love. This divine life is actively conforming us to be true to our original image of the Trinity.  This divine life is our life. The heart of Christian life is to live in union with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit and to live in communion with one-another and all creation.

Conclusion

These exquisite medieval illuminations reveal how the Trinity is the “the light of lights”, who illuminates the hearts of human beings.  They give a timeless expression of how the radiant, illuminating light of the Trinity transforms the human heart from a likeness into an image of the Trinity.  So as we face the ensuing darkness of our times in hope we pray: 

O Trinity, light of lights,

you illuminate the heart of humanity.

Reform your likeness into your image.

They communicate how “the light of lights” illuminates the hearts of human beings.  They transform of the human heart into the subject of its gaze. 

Footnotes:

[1] Trinitas lumen luminum illumines cor hominum tuam similitudinem reformans as ad imaginem.  Prayer to the Trinity in De Bois Hours of the Trinity (fol.108r II.12-14).  Kathryn A. Smith, Art, Identity and Devotion in Fourteenth-Century England: Three Women and Their Books of Hours. London: The British Library and University of Toronto Press, 2003, 105.  This is my “poetic” translation, hopefully capturing the spirit of the prayer.   The Latin “as” is associated with a unit, unity as a standard for different coins.  So there is an implicit hint of reforming human nature to reflect or mirror the image of the Trinity as on a coin or in a mirror.  Lewis, Charlton T. A Latin Dictionary: Founded on Andrew's Edition of Freund's Latin Dictionary Revised, Enlarged and in Great Part Rewritten. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), 170. Hilton, we will see, gives an example of the traditional interpretation that through the sin of the first human the image of God was deformed and changed into another likeness.

[2]             In the liturgical calendar the Hours of the Trinity celebrates Trinity Sunday, the solemnity that follows Pentecost.

[3]           The hours of the day are Matins (Vigil between midnight and dawn), Lauds (Morning prayer at daybreak), Prime (The first hour of the Roman day), Terce (Mid-morning prayer, the third hour), Sext (Midday prayer, the sixth hour), None (Mid afternoon prayer, the ninth hour), Vespers (Evening prayer, dusk), Compline (Night prayer, before bed). For an explanation of how these were set out in Books of Hours see Roger S. Wieck, Painted prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art. (New York: George Braziller, 1997), 39-98.

[4]             A Missal is a text for the celebration of mass and a liturgical calendar.

[5]             A Psalter is a book of Psalms that often included canticles.  Because it was arranged for recitation during the Liturgy of Hours, the formal daily prayer of the Church, the psalms were accompanied by antiphons, versicles and responses.  It was prefaced by a liturgical calendar. 

[6]             Breviaries contain the text used for the recitation of the Office, with a liturgical calendar.

[7]             The Book of Hours is prefaced by a liturgical calendar and contains a selection of short offices, prayers and devotions.  The Hours was originally an edition to the end of a Psalter.  The earliest example of a Book of Hours, as a book in itself, is attributed to William de Brailes of Oxford, dated between 12 30 and 1260. 

[8]             Large centres of craftsmen developed in Oxford, London, Winchester, Salisbury, East Anglia ( Cambridge and Norwich), Linconshire and Yorkshire.  See Marks and  Morgan. The Golden Age of English Manuscript Painting, 8.  As well, the interest in the English - French alliance made workshops in Paris and its surrounds influential in England.  See for example Janet Bakehouse. The Bedford Book of Hours. London: The British Library, 1990, 5-12.

[9]             For example aristocratic patrons, secular canons (Austin Canons) and a growing merchant class.

[10]          Matins (Vigil between midnight and dawn), Lauds (Morning prayer at daybreak), Prime (The first hour of the Roman day), Terce (Mid-morning prayer, the third hour), Sext (Midday prayer, the sixth hour), None (Mid afternoon prayer, the ninth hour), Vespers (Evening prayer, dusk), Compline (Night prayer, before bed).

[11]          See Richard Marks and Nigel Morgan. The Golden Age of English Manuscript Painting 1200-1500. New York: George Braziller, 1981, 7.

[12]           Wieck, Painted Prayers, 22-24 notes how this became more and more the case in from the fifteenth century onward as artists embellished their pictures and made their cycles of prayers more extensive to attract greater patronage.

[13] Beholding includes the sense of the Old English behaldan, to keep, to stay with, to hold in the heart.  Essential to this process of beholding is the space and time spent gazing, contemplating, entering into the meaning of the mystery, becoming more and more one with it, so that deeper levels of understanding may emerge. See The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Vol. 1. ed. Lesley Brown. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, 208.

[14]          The application of the four senses of scripture was common-place in these times.  First the passage is read literally, in its historical context, the Literal or Historical sense.  Second, the passage is taken to have a symbolic meaning, the Typological or Allegorical sense. Then the spiritual meaning is discerned in terms of our moral behaviour, the Moral or Tropological Sense followed by the Eschatological, Mystical or Unitive Sens that incites hope for transforming union in this life and final fulfilment in the beatific vision.  See Michael Casey. The Art of Sacred Reading. North Blackburn: Dove, 1995, 54.

[15]           As we see expressed by Julian of Norwich when she beholds the crucifix.  See Edmund Colledge, and James Walsh. Revelations of Divine Love a Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich Studies and Texts - Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies 35. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1978, 285-292.

[16]          For a good exlanation of lectio divina see Thelma Hall, Too Deep for Words: Rediscovering Lectio Divina. ) New York: Paulist Press, 1988).

[17]        Filioque means literally "from the Son."  This is the traditional Latin formula that designates how the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son as a single principle.  This was added to the Nicene-Constantinople creed at the end of the seventh century.  See Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700).  vol. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 183-198.  See Augustine, Trinitate: The Trinity. Vol. 18. Writings of Saint Augustine. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1963, 15.17.27-31.491-496.  I am not suggesting that generally people read Augustine, but that this Latin way of interpreting trinitarian relations permeated Church teaching

[18]          Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) wrote Cur Deus Homo? in 1090. It became the classic doctrine of salvation.  See Joan Nuth for a very enlightening exposition on the influence of Anselm. Joan Nuth, "Two Medieval Soteriologies: Anselm of Canterbury and Julian of Norwich." Theological Studies 53 (1992): 611-645. 

[19]           In this context it seems that the soul would have the same resonance as the heart, in the prayer at Compline.

[20]           Walter Hilton. The Scale of Perfection 1991, 1.43.113-114. 

[21]           This idea of a first creation and recreation echoes Romans and Corinthians.  Envisioning the soul as memory, reason and will has its source in Augustine.  See The Literal Meaning of Genesis: A Commentary in Twelve Books, vol.1, trans. John Raymond Taylor (New York: Newman Press, 1982), 5.11.162.

[22] Scale of Perfection 2:1.193.

[23] Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, 2.2.194-195.

[24]           1:4.11-14, 295.

[25] 2:10.53,330. 

[26] Edmund Colledge, and James Walsh. Revelations of Divine Love a Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich Studies and Texts - Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies 35. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1978, 14:55.40-41.568. 

[27]          See Kerrie Hide "The Showings of Julian of Norwich as a Lectio Divina." Tjurunga 49 (1996): 39-50.

[28] 8:20, 33-36.377-378.

[29] 9:22.45-49.386-387.

[30]          I argue in Gifted Origins to Graced Fulfillment: The Soteriology of Julian of Norwich. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2001, Chapter 5 that the translation at peace seems more in keeping with the whole of Julian’s thought. 

[31]          9:22.2-7,382. 

[32] “The Crucifixion” London British Library Ms Additional 49622 fol.7 Marks, Richard and  Morgan, Nigel. The Golden Age of English Manuscript Painting 1200-1500. New York: George Braziller, 1981, 78-79.

[33]           It is noteworthy that John’s gospel, written late in the first century, is a work of art itself, carefully composed to create layer upon layer of symbolic meaning about the salvific nature of the mystery of the Word made flesh.  It is by far the most theological and conceptual of the four gospels.  This suggests that the Medievals were not simply interested in the humanity of the historical Jesus but in the theological and spiritual implications of his humanity for all humankind. 

[34]          Oxford Bodleian Library Ms. Digby 227 vol.11 fol.113v.  This missal was written and decorated for the Benedictine monastery at Abingdon.  See Marks, and  Morgan. The Golden Age of English Manuscript Painting, 96.

[35]          The Bedford Book of Hours f.204b.  See Bakehouse, The Bedford Book of Hours, figure 34, 45. Though this is a French illuminator, I include the Bedford Book of Hours as it was commissioned by English patrons to mark a French/English marriage arrangement.

[36]          Kathryn Smith.  Art, Identity and Devotion, 174.

[37] Throne of Grace Trinity Adored by Kneeling Laymen Historated Initial for None of the Trinity by the De Bois Master De Bois Book of Hours. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library ms M.700, fol.10iv. in Kathryn Smith,  Art, Identity and Devotion in Fourteenth-Century England, 106.

[38]           Trinity Sunday was an important feast that was often given a full page illumination. 

[39]          Backhouse, Janet. The Sherborne Missal. London: The British Library, 1999, 30.

[40]         The Herder Symbol Dictionary. Translated by Boris Matthews. Wilmette: Chiron Publications, 1986, 146.

[41]          This is traditional imagery repeated in many icons.  See Solrun Nes. The Mystical Language of Icons. London: St Pauls, 2000.

[42]         Backhouse, Janet. The Sherborne Missal. London: The British Library, 1999, 31.

[43] The Herder Symbol Dictionary, 2

[44]         This is striking given the sense of hierarchy that marked the period.

[45]          The Carmelite Missal. London British Library Mss. Additional 29704, 29705,44892. See Marks, and  Morgan. The Golden Age of English Manuscript Painting, 119.

Author

Dr Kerrie Hide is the former Head of Theology at ACU’s Signadou Campus in Canberra. She is now involved in Retreat Work and Spiritual Counselling at St Mary’s Towers Retreat Centre, Douglas Park.

© Copyright is retained by the author

This article has been peer reviewed, and is deemed to meet the criteria for original research as set out by the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training.