Amalarius of Metz and the Meaning of Place

Abstract

Carolingian biblical commentators were assiduous readers of Bede. His exegetical works, De templo not at all least among them, held a privileged place alongside the fathers as authorities on the meaning of scripture. Early medieval exegesis was, of course, a profoundly conservative genre, and for all the innovations of Bede’s commentaries on the sacred buildings of the Old Testament, Bede operated inside a long tradition of scriptural commentary. The head of this tradition, in the Latin west at least, was Augustine.1 The salient feature of this style of exegesis was Augustine’s careful balance of approach, which avoided both the pure allegories favored by the Origenists and the rigid literalism of the school of Tertullian.2 This attractive Augustinian middle ground meant that the events of biblical history could remain literally true while still carrying allegorically-coded meaning beyond themselves. Augustine and the commentators who followed him sought prefigurations of the present and the future written, often obscurely, in the record of the real events of the sacred past. I know of no more clear and succinct statement of the spirit of this exegetical project than a passage from Confessions XI, deep into Augustine’s investigation of the nature of Christian time: Lord my God, “hear my prayer” (Ps. 60:2), may your mercy attend to my longing which burns not for my personal advantage but desires to be of use in love to the brethren… At your nod the moments fly by. From them grant me space for my meditations on the secret recesses of your law, and do not close the gate to one who knocks. It is not for nothing that you have willed so many pages to be written in veiled secrets… O Lord, bring me to perfection (Ps. 16:5) and reveal to me the meaning of these pages.3 KeywordsNinth CenturyCircular LetterScriptural CommentaryDivine TruthBiblical ExegesisThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.