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The Prognosticon:
A Witness to the Catholic Doctrines of Oral Tradition, Purgatory and Baptism in 7th Century Spain
By:Matthew James Bellisario 2008
Prognosticon futuri saeculi, or “Foreknowledge of the world to come.”
The Prognosticon was composed in the late 7th century by the Spanish Archbishop Julian of Toledo (642—690). It was written primarily to comfort those dealing with death and the afterlife. Julian was a scholar of Latin patristic literature, and also knew the Greek Fathers, which was rare in the western world of his time. Although he had heated confrontations with the Papacy in Rome, he was later congratulated and welcomed the Pope himself. The Prognosticon that he penned was based on a much earlier version passed down by oral Tradition. As Nancy P. Stork writes in her work, “The Prognosticon offers a very literal embodiment of the contradictions and interplay between oral and literate culture and shows how memory is truly the key to composition in pre-modern cultures.” It is the modern West that has over emphasized written work over oral. This is precisely how the error of Sola Scriptura came to be. It is no surprise that Sola Sctiptura could not have come to be until the invention of the printing press. In Julian's introduction to the Prognosticon we can se that he emphasizes two important points. The first being that the teaching he was about to give was already being taught by other Catholic teachers, and secondly that it is written from memory, and not copied or dictated from other written sources. He feels it is important to emphasize not the copying of other written texts, but to pass on a living voice. This of course falls perfectly into the Catholic teaching on Sacred Tradition.
“But since we did not wish merely to collect a brief answer to these questions, we both agreed that whatever question had arisen among us concerning these things, ought to be written down with a stylus quickly (stilo percurrente annotari deberet) and that whatever reason itself proferred in response or whatever was well defined by the good sense of Catholic teachers, we should express from the memory of our sacred reading, so that the work of recording might be done not by the turning over of many books, but with the living voice (vivae vocis).”
Nancy also points this out when she writes, “Julian and Idalius’ mode of composition seems to be almost conversational: they consider questions and draw upon their remembered readings of sacred writings and scripture to resolve difficulties in interpretation. Certainly at some point during their conversation (collatio) Julian becomes aware that they will turn their conversation into a book. Nonetheless, his and Idalius’ initial act of composing is an entirely oral endeavor, in which they search not through books, but through their own memories.” This modern idea that all things must be written down in a systematic form is foreign to those before the age of the printing press was well underway. This is why Protestantism is so far removed from the true Spirit of Christianity. It is because it denies the oral passing on of the Gospel. The Sacred Scriptures were understood to be only a portion of God's Divine Revelation.
In the following prayer proceeding the work we also find another Catholic doctrine attested to by Julian. He seems to understand that salvation is not predestined, nor is it guaranteed as most Protestants today argue. In fact if we read his prayer closely we can see a Catholic mentality, in that he recognizes that sin can indeed separate him and the person he is praying for from eternal life. He actually prays that he would not be divided by impediments that may separate him from God. It is quite clear also as we will note later that he understands baptism to be the means to justification and the washing away of sins.
Prayer from Julian before the Prognositcon
“A dweller and inhabitant of the desert of Idumeus, blind and near death, I call to you, O son of David, to have mercy on me. I seek my homeland, the heavenly Jerusalem, I desire to see its citizens, but a leader to take me there I do not find. You, therefore, who in your very self are worthy to show me the way, reach out your hand to me, that, thus, no longer blind but seeing, I may come there without encountering any thieves. You indeed are the only pathway along which there lies no thief in wait. Behold my anxious heart, desiring for a long time the return to your homeland, is filled with great cares for the future, wishing that before it is illuminated it might contemplate the future joys of blessedness. Seeking thus to know what reward remains for the defunct spirits after the death of this body and what glorification they may attain after the return of their bodies, in the small measure of my strengths and insofar as I was able to discern from the disputes of those greater than I, I have collected together certain things useful for these purposes.
I have spoken these things insofar as they can be spoken by mortals; I have not however, told of all things that will happen in the future since the narrow paths of your judgment are inscrutable. I however wish to fly to the bosom of that fatherland of which many things are spoken, so that through you, who are the way, I may ascend to you, who are the truth, that I may not offend, yet may come to you, who are the life. I would be divided from you for no cause, you who are the way of the highest felicity, I would be separated by no impediments, that ascending towards you, about to die, I will not suffer the thief, dead I will not arrive at the accuser. Protect me, as I die, with guardian angels and when I have called to you, console me in the bosom of your protecting piety so that I, coming to you without confusion, may see the good things that are in Jerusalem. Already, Lord, it is enough that I, clouded by such shadows of sin, should perish. So that this may not come to pass, I am preparing a remedy for myself and my brothers, that if it be offensive to you in anyway I beseech, I pray you, through the glorious intervention of your sacred blood and the venerable and undefeated sign of your cross, that for these offenses I be not shown to be rash, nor waste away as one in error, nor be punished or judged as one of those who speak of great things from their own heart rather than your spirit.
Behold me, Lord, thus, your servant, begging and urging, neither defining things not to be known in pride, but humbly wishing to understand those things that ought to be known. Feed me thus, from all the promises of your grace, those things that cannot be touched by the senses, things thought to be true, thought to be perfected in the true firmness of faith, so that you may grant me that joy that cannot be xpressed by the mere stylus of any man, what the eye has not seen nor has entered into the heart of man [that is, the things which God hath prepared for them who love him] (1 Corinthians 2:9). I pray you grant a wretch like me to enjoy the proof of these things on earth and also to behold them there more fully in heaven.”
Does the prayer sound anything like the Protestant who assumes arrogantly his position in heaven. Does it sound like Julian was assured that he was predestined? No, in fact the prayer sums up Catholic theology quite well, in that we must always be on guard against sin and the evil of Satan.
Julian also understands Baptism as the Catholic Church defines it. It is proven to be understood in Catholic terms by Julian. This is no surprise since he understands it the same way as Saint Augustine did 3oo years before him. Many try and twist Augustine's writings to this day and say that he did not support the Catholic teaching on Baptism. We can see that if one abandons the oral passing on of Augustine's teachings in favor of only the written, that one is held captive to their own opinions and fancies which lead them into error. He writes in his work cited by Stork the following, “he poses an argument against those who assert that if baptism removes our sins then baptized men should not die. Julian quotes Augustine here, who argues that if we were to attain immortality with baptism and the absolution of our original sin, inevitably our faith would be weakened and it is for this purpose that we must still suffer death.” So we can see that Julian understands that baptism is taught as removing sin from the soul. He is explaining to his audience why men who receive baptism still die physically. He was giving a catechetical treatise on the subject of death and the afterlife. We can see here that the proper understanding of Baptism is passed on from generation to generation by oral teaching. It was also of course often accompanied by the written. But the written text is never separated from the oral. This is how we now know what St. Augustine understood baptism to mean. This is how Julian attested to understanding it as well. Julian needed no systematic catechism to know his faith. In fact he was writing this to help him to compile the oral traditions passed on to him to help him compile these oral teachings. Knowing that this would itself be inadequate he wrote, “What divine savor touched our spirits? What sweetness of supernal charity, cast forth from heaven, diffused into our mortal minds? Who may explain this in writing?” This goes back to what Nancy Stork wrote in her essay on Julian. ““The Prognosticon offers a very literal embodiment of the contradictions and interplay between oral and literate culture and shows how memory is truly the key to composition in pre-modern cultures.” And so Julian is making the best of both worlds in that oral traditions are passed down, and accompanied by the written. So it is with Divine Revelation. It is the Word of God being kept free from corruption by both the oral and written elements.
Finally we can see an understanding of the existence of purgatory from this work as well, since the work contains a substantial amount of information on it. We know that purgatory was not an invention of Julian since he freely admits he is passing on an older oral tradition. Julian is writing from the late 600s and he is passing on oral teaching from earlier generations. Here we can see three doctrines of the Church being lived in the 7th century. Oral Tradition, Baptism and Purgatory all are witnessed here as being in the thoughts of the 7th century Christian. I eagerly await new edition of the Prognosticum futuri saeculi (entitled Foreknowledge of the World to Come) which will be released by Paulist Press in early 2009.
Sources:
A Spanish Bishop Remembers the Future:
Oral Traditions and Purgatory in Julian of Toledo
Nancy P. Stork
TOMMASO STANCATI, O.P., STD
www.prognosticum.info
A Witness to the Catholic Doctrines of Oral Tradition, Purgatory and Baptism in 7th Century Spain
By:Matthew James Bellisario 2008
Prognosticon futuri saeculi, or “Foreknowledge of the world to come.”
The Prognosticon was composed in the late 7th century by the Spanish Archbishop Julian of Toledo (642—690). It was written primarily to comfort those dealing with death and the afterlife. Julian was a scholar of Latin patristic literature, and also knew the Greek Fathers, which was rare in the western world of his time. Although he had heated confrontations with the Papacy in Rome, he was later congratulated and welcomed the Pope himself. The Prognosticon that he penned was based on a much earlier version passed down by oral Tradition. As Nancy P. Stork writes in her work, “The Prognosticon offers a very literal embodiment of the contradictions and interplay between oral and literate culture and shows how memory is truly the key to composition in pre-modern cultures.” It is the modern West that has over emphasized written work over oral. This is precisely how the error of Sola Scriptura came to be. It is no surprise that Sola Sctiptura could not have come to be until the invention of the printing press. In Julian's introduction to the Prognosticon we can se that he emphasizes two important points. The first being that the teaching he was about to give was already being taught by other Catholic teachers, and secondly that it is written from memory, and not copied or dictated from other written sources. He feels it is important to emphasize not the copying of other written texts, but to pass on a living voice. This of course falls perfectly into the Catholic teaching on Sacred Tradition.
“But since we did not wish merely to collect a brief answer to these questions, we both agreed that whatever question had arisen among us concerning these things, ought to be written down with a stylus quickly (stilo percurrente annotari deberet) and that whatever reason itself proferred in response or whatever was well defined by the good sense of Catholic teachers, we should express from the memory of our sacred reading, so that the work of recording might be done not by the turning over of many books, but with the living voice (vivae vocis).”
Nancy also points this out when she writes, “Julian and Idalius’ mode of composition seems to be almost conversational: they consider questions and draw upon their remembered readings of sacred writings and scripture to resolve difficulties in interpretation. Certainly at some point during their conversation (collatio) Julian becomes aware that they will turn their conversation into a book. Nonetheless, his and Idalius’ initial act of composing is an entirely oral endeavor, in which they search not through books, but through their own memories.” This modern idea that all things must be written down in a systematic form is foreign to those before the age of the printing press was well underway. This is why Protestantism is so far removed from the true Spirit of Christianity. It is because it denies the oral passing on of the Gospel. The Sacred Scriptures were understood to be only a portion of God's Divine Revelation.
In the following prayer proceeding the work we also find another Catholic doctrine attested to by Julian. He seems to understand that salvation is not predestined, nor is it guaranteed as most Protestants today argue. In fact if we read his prayer closely we can see a Catholic mentality, in that he recognizes that sin can indeed separate him and the person he is praying for from eternal life. He actually prays that he would not be divided by impediments that may separate him from God. It is quite clear also as we will note later that he understands baptism to be the means to justification and the washing away of sins.
Prayer from Julian before the Prognositcon
“A dweller and inhabitant of the desert of Idumeus, blind and near death, I call to you, O son of David, to have mercy on me. I seek my homeland, the heavenly Jerusalem, I desire to see its citizens, but a leader to take me there I do not find. You, therefore, who in your very self are worthy to show me the way, reach out your hand to me, that, thus, no longer blind but seeing, I may come there without encountering any thieves. You indeed are the only pathway along which there lies no thief in wait. Behold my anxious heart, desiring for a long time the return to your homeland, is filled with great cares for the future, wishing that before it is illuminated it might contemplate the future joys of blessedness. Seeking thus to know what reward remains for the defunct spirits after the death of this body and what glorification they may attain after the return of their bodies, in the small measure of my strengths and insofar as I was able to discern from the disputes of those greater than I, I have collected together certain things useful for these purposes.
I have spoken these things insofar as they can be spoken by mortals; I have not however, told of all things that will happen in the future since the narrow paths of your judgment are inscrutable. I however wish to fly to the bosom of that fatherland of which many things are spoken, so that through you, who are the way, I may ascend to you, who are the truth, that I may not offend, yet may come to you, who are the life. I would be divided from you for no cause, you who are the way of the highest felicity, I would be separated by no impediments, that ascending towards you, about to die, I will not suffer the thief, dead I will not arrive at the accuser. Protect me, as I die, with guardian angels and when I have called to you, console me in the bosom of your protecting piety so that I, coming to you without confusion, may see the good things that are in Jerusalem. Already, Lord, it is enough that I, clouded by such shadows of sin, should perish. So that this may not come to pass, I am preparing a remedy for myself and my brothers, that if it be offensive to you in anyway I beseech, I pray you, through the glorious intervention of your sacred blood and the venerable and undefeated sign of your cross, that for these offenses I be not shown to be rash, nor waste away as one in error, nor be punished or judged as one of those who speak of great things from their own heart rather than your spirit.
Behold me, Lord, thus, your servant, begging and urging, neither defining things not to be known in pride, but humbly wishing to understand those things that ought to be known. Feed me thus, from all the promises of your grace, those things that cannot be touched by the senses, things thought to be true, thought to be perfected in the true firmness of faith, so that you may grant me that joy that cannot be xpressed by the mere stylus of any man, what the eye has not seen nor has entered into the heart of man [that is, the things which God hath prepared for them who love him] (1 Corinthians 2:9). I pray you grant a wretch like me to enjoy the proof of these things on earth and also to behold them there more fully in heaven.”
Does the prayer sound anything like the Protestant who assumes arrogantly his position in heaven. Does it sound like Julian was assured that he was predestined? No, in fact the prayer sums up Catholic theology quite well, in that we must always be on guard against sin and the evil of Satan.
Julian also understands Baptism as the Catholic Church defines it. It is proven to be understood in Catholic terms by Julian. This is no surprise since he understands it the same way as Saint Augustine did 3oo years before him. Many try and twist Augustine's writings to this day and say that he did not support the Catholic teaching on Baptism. We can see that if one abandons the oral passing on of Augustine's teachings in favor of only the written, that one is held captive to their own opinions and fancies which lead them into error. He writes in his work cited by Stork the following, “he poses an argument against those who assert that if baptism removes our sins then baptized men should not die. Julian quotes Augustine here, who argues that if we were to attain immortality with baptism and the absolution of our original sin, inevitably our faith would be weakened and it is for this purpose that we must still suffer death.” So we can see that Julian understands that baptism is taught as removing sin from the soul. He is explaining to his audience why men who receive baptism still die physically. He was giving a catechetical treatise on the subject of death and the afterlife. We can see here that the proper understanding of Baptism is passed on from generation to generation by oral teaching. It was also of course often accompanied by the written. But the written text is never separated from the oral. This is how we now know what St. Augustine understood baptism to mean. This is how Julian attested to understanding it as well. Julian needed no systematic catechism to know his faith. In fact he was writing this to help him to compile the oral traditions passed on to him to help him compile these oral teachings. Knowing that this would itself be inadequate he wrote, “What divine savor touched our spirits? What sweetness of supernal charity, cast forth from heaven, diffused into our mortal minds? Who may explain this in writing?” This goes back to what Nancy Stork wrote in her essay on Julian. ““The Prognosticon offers a very literal embodiment of the contradictions and interplay between oral and literate culture and shows how memory is truly the key to composition in pre-modern cultures.” And so Julian is making the best of both worlds in that oral traditions are passed down, and accompanied by the written. So it is with Divine Revelation. It is the Word of God being kept free from corruption by both the oral and written elements.
Finally we can see an understanding of the existence of purgatory from this work as well, since the work contains a substantial amount of information on it. We know that purgatory was not an invention of Julian since he freely admits he is passing on an older oral tradition. Julian is writing from the late 600s and he is passing on oral teaching from earlier generations. Here we can see three doctrines of the Church being lived in the 7th century. Oral Tradition, Baptism and Purgatory all are witnessed here as being in the thoughts of the 7th century Christian. I eagerly await new edition of the Prognosticum futuri saeculi (entitled Foreknowledge of the World to Come) which will be released by Paulist Press in early 2009.
Sources:
A Spanish Bishop Remembers the Future:
Oral Traditions and Purgatory in Julian of Toledo
Nancy P. Stork
TOMMASO STANCATI, O.P., STD
www.prognosticum.info