Title: The Heart of the Final Struggle: More's Commentary on the Agony in the Garden
Abstract: One of the most priceless objects featured in the 1977-78 Thomas More exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London is More's own manuscript of the last work he wrote. In the Tower of London, on June 12, 1535, less than a month before his martyrdom, More's long and varied literary career came to an end. On that day, when his last worldly comfort, his books and writing materials, were removed from his cell in the Tower, More had almost finished his last major work: De tristitia, tedio, pavore, et oratione Christi ante captionem eius (the Sadness, Weariness, Fear, and Prayer of Christ before his Capture). It is an exegetical commentary, sometimes brief and quite traditional, sometimes unfolding into long and more personal essays, on the gospel accounts of Christ's agony in the garden of Gethsemani, ending with the words manus injectas in jesum (they laid hands on Jesus). Apart from one, or perhaps two, short letters, this is the last work we have from More's hand. Unlike any of his other long works, we have this one from his hand in a very literal sense. We have his own draft, written and heavily revised by his own hand, the so-called Valencia holograph. Some fifteen years ago, by a fine combination of alertness and good luck, Geoffrey Bullough rediscovered this invaluable manuscript at the Royal College and Seminary of Corpus Christi in Valencia, an institution usually called the Patriarca after its founder San Juan de Ribera, who was the Patriarch of Antioch, as well as the Archbishop and Viceroy of Valencia. During the two decades before his death in 1611, San Juan devoted considerable time, energy, and money to establishing this liturgical center where the worship of God, and especially the Blessed Sacrament, was to be conducted with great reverence and solemnity according to his own detailed regulations. The noble church and cloister, which have the grandeur of the Escorial without its chilling immensity, are still splendidly preserved, as in San Juan's liturgy, so that the Patriarca provides an unparalleed example, not merely in stone but in living ceremony, of the intensity fostered by the Council of Trent. Hidden away behind the apse of the main church is the
Publication Year: 1978
Publication Date: 1978-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot