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64 Chapter 1
have children who are foolish or evil; and if they are good, they are
short-lived.’
Aldobrandino de Toscanella has in e·ect located the marriage
of the soul to God in heaven. Once again, the di·erent kinds of
symbolic marriage prove to be imperfectly distinct. With Pierre de
Saint-Beno^§t the eternal marriage in heaven is a continuation of
the marriage of Christ and the Church. In the present, the feast is
the Eucharist, compared to a midday meal. In the future, that is in
eternity in heaven, there is the evening feast.
The marriage feast of the lamb in the Book of Revelations, or
Apocalypse, is a favourite motif for this ultimate marriage. The
problem of representing heaven is overcome by using such scripturally
inspired imagery. Another example: ‘[The Lord] satiates
them with the flood of his pleasure, and he inebriates them with the
wine of his plenty’ (derived from Ps. 35: 9).
One could give much more detail about marriage symbolism in
preaching, but the argument does not require it. It should be sufficiently
clear that it is important in model sermon collections of the
thirteenth century (and the same could be demonstrated for model
sermons circulating in the last two medieval centuries). That needs
to be taken together with the previous demonstration that model
sermons were a form of mass communication, so that they can be
called a social force.
Symbolism’s literal foundation
The next stage of the argument is that the symbolic use of marriage
in these sermons rested securely on a literal-sense idea of marriage
as good and holy: an idea propagated by the same sermons that
transmitted marriage symbolism to the masses. The marriage symbolism
was not dissociated from marriage in its mundane literal
sense. A positive evaluation of ‘real’ marriage and the enthusiasm
for marriage symbolism were complementary.
The fact that many marriage sermons bring instruction on marriage
in the literal sense within the same frame as marriage symbolism
has implications. One could have envisaged a genre of marriage
Ibid. 1. 12. 7. This passage sounds as though it could have been lifted from an
earlier writer, but if so I have failed to find the source.
D’Avray, Medieval Marriage Sermons: Pierre de Saint-Beno^§t, para. 9.
Ibid., para. 24; G‹erard de Mailly, para. 37; Konrad Holtnicker: Document 1.
10. 10; Servasanto da Faenza: Document 1. 11. 25.
Servasanto da Faenza: Document 1. 11. 24.