Abstract: In 1639 bishop James Ussher reviewed all of the evidence relating to the tonsure worn by clerics belonging to the British, Scottish, Pictish and Irish churches from the fifth to the ninth century, and concluded that it was semicircular in shape. In 1703 the Benedictine scholar Mabillon, citing only a portrait of uncertain provenance found in a St. Amand manuscript proposed that the Insular tonsure consisted of ‘entirely denuding of hair the front part of the head, while the back was unshorn’. Whilst Mabillon’s hypothesis was unsupported by any evidence and in complete conflict with all of the sixth, seventh and eighth century evidence, some coming from eye-witnesses, nevertheless it has largely prevailed in modern times. This paper carefully reviews the early medieval evidence and proposes that the tonsure was triangular in shape, resembling a Greek delta. This hypothesis is tested against graphic portrayals of tonsures found in some Insular Gospel texts and it emerges that texts associated with Columban monasteries, where the tonsure is known to have been worn, do indeed confirm this triangular shape.
Introduction: In the early decades of the eighth century at least three Northumbrian authors referred to the tonsure worn by clerics or monks in such a way as to show that it carried for them powerful connotations of Christian orthodoxy or unorthodoxy, depending upon its shape. As well as this all three correlated orthodoxy or unorthodoxy in tonsure with orthodoxy or unorthodoxy in Paschal observance. The earliest of these authors, Ceolfrid, abbot of Jarrow and later also Wearmouth, in a letter written to Nechtan, king of the Picts in c. 710, discussed both the Paschal and tonsorial issues at great length, whose details we shall examine below. In chronological order the next was Eddius Stephanus, who, in his Life of St Wilfrid written c. 720, explicitly stated that Wilfrid’s tonsure was coronal, i.e. circular, and emphasised its association with St Peter and hence the Roman Church, writing:
Advertisement
Wilfrid, the servant of God, in accordance with his own desire, gladly received from the holy Archbishop Dalfinus the form of tonsure of the Apostle Peter in the shape of the crown of thorns which encircled the head of Christ.
On the shape of the Insular tonsure
By Daniel P. Mc Carthy
Celtica, Vol.24 (2003)
Abstract: In 1639 bishop James Ussher reviewed all of the evidence relating to the tonsure worn by clerics belonging to the British, Scottish, Pictish and Irish churches from the fifth to the ninth century, and concluded that it was semicircular in shape. In 1703 the Benedictine scholar Mabillon, citing only a portrait of uncertain provenance found in a St. Amand manuscript proposed that the Insular tonsure consisted of ‘entirely denuding of hair the front part of the head, while the back was unshorn’. Whilst Mabillon’s hypothesis was unsupported by any evidence and in complete conflict with all of the sixth, seventh and eighth century evidence, some coming from eye-witnesses, nevertheless it has largely prevailed in modern times. This paper carefully reviews the early medieval evidence and proposes that the tonsure was triangular in shape, resembling a Greek delta. This hypothesis is tested against graphic portrayals of tonsures found in some Insular Gospel texts and it emerges that texts associated with Columban monasteries, where the tonsure is known to have been worn, do indeed confirm this triangular shape.
Introduction: In the early decades of the eighth century at least three Northumbrian authors referred to the tonsure worn by clerics or monks in such a way as to show that it carried for them powerful connotations of Christian orthodoxy or unorthodoxy, depending upon its shape. As well as this all three correlated orthodoxy or unorthodoxy in tonsure with orthodoxy or unorthodoxy in Paschal observance. The earliest of these authors, Ceolfrid, abbot of Jarrow and later also Wearmouth, in a letter written to Nechtan, king of the Picts in c. 710, discussed both the Paschal and tonsorial issues at great length, whose details we shall examine below. In chronological order the next was Eddius Stephanus, who, in his Life of St Wilfrid written c. 720, explicitly stated that Wilfrid’s tonsure was coronal, i.e. circular, and emphasised its association with St Peter and hence the Roman Church, writing:
Wilfrid, the servant of God, in accordance with his own desire, gladly received from the holy Archbishop Dalfinus the form of tonsure of the Apostle Peter in the shape of the crown of thorns which encircled the head of Christ.
Click here to read this article from Celtica
Related Posts
Subscribe to Medievalverse