Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

WATEE. HEILAWAC. 589
visited at Whitsuntide, and the water drunk in jugs of a peculiar
shape. Still more important is Petrarch s description of the
annual bathing of the women of Cologne in the Rhine : it de
serves to be quoted in full/ because it plainly proves that the
cult prevailed not merely at here and there a spring, but in
Germany s greatest river. From the Italian s unacquaintance
with the rite, one might infer that it was foreign to the country
whence all church ceremonies proceeded, and therefore altogether
unchristian and heathenish. But Petrarch may not have had
a minute knowledge of all the customs of his country ; after his
time at all events we find even there a lustration on St. John s
day [described as an ancient custom then dying out]
de Falco s Descrizione de luoghi antiqui di Napoli (Nap. 1580)
. Benedict
has the statement : in una parte populosa della citta giace la
chiesa consegrata a S. Giovan battista, chiamata S. Giovan a
mare. Era una antica usanza, hoggi non al tutto lasciata, che
la vigilia di 8. Giovane, verso la sera e 1 securo del di, tutti
huomini e donne andare al mare, e nudi lavarsi ; persuasi pur-
garsi de loro peccati, alia focchia degli antichi, che peccando
andavano al Tevere lavarsi. And long before Petrarch, in
Augustine s time, the rite was practised in Libya, and is de-
1 Franc. Petrarchae De rebus familiar, epistolae, lib. i. ep. 4: Aquis digressum,
sed prius, unde ortum oppidi nomen putant, aquis bajano more tepentibus ablutum,
excepit Agrippina Colonia, quae ad sinistrum Kheni latus sita est, locus et situ et
flumine clarus et populo. Mirum in terra barbarica quanta civilitas, quae urbis
species, quae virorum gravitas, quae munditiae matronarum. Forte Johannis
baptistae vigilia erat dum illuc applicui, et jam ad occideiitem sol : vergebat confestim
amicorum monitu (nam et ibi amicos prius mihi fama pepererat quarn
meritum) ab hospitio traducor ad nuvium insigne spectaculum visurus. Nee
fallebar; omnis enim ripa praeclaro et ingenti mulierum agmine tegebatur. Obstupui,
dii boni, quae forma, quae facies, quis habitus ! amare potuisset quisquis
eo non praeoccupatum animum attulisset. In loco paullum altiore constiteram,
unde in -ea quae gerebantur intenderem. Incredibilis sine offensione concursus
erat, vicissimque alacres, pars Jierbis odoriferis incinctae, recluctisque post cubitum
man-ids, Candidas in gurgite man us ac brachia lavabant, nescio quid blandum peregrino
murmure colloquentes. [A few lines omitted.] Unum igitur ex eo [amicorum]
numero admirans et ignarus rerum percunctatus vergiliano illo versiculo : Quid
vult concursus ad amnem, quidve petunt animae? responsum accepi : pervetustum
gentis ritum esse, vulgo persuasum, praesertim femineo, omnem totius anni calamitatem
imminentem fluviali illius diet ablutione purgari, et deinceps laetiora succedere;
itaque Imtrationem esse annuam, inexhaustoque semper studio cultam colendanique.
Ad haec ego subridens : nimium felices inquam Rheni accolae, quoniam ille
miserias purgat, nostras quidem nee Padus unquam purgare valuit nee Tiberis. Vos
vestra mala Britannis Eheno vectore transmittitis nos nostra libenter Afris ;
atque
Illyriis mitteremus, sed nobis (ut intelligi datur) pigriora sunt flumina. Commoto
risu, sero tandem inde discessimus. [A few lines omitted.] The letter is of 1330,
and addressed to Card. Colonna. We find it quoted so early as by Kaisersberg
C 35 ).
(Orneiss