Gripla - 20.12.2011, Side 94

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tension towards heavenly life;77 bi- or tri-chromatic sardonyx (white/red
vs. dark/white/red [to brownish-red]) as a sign both of the human com-
plexity, made up of body, soul, and mind (corpus – spiritus – mens), and of
earthly life, where passion (red) and chastity (white) are balanced success-
fully through humility;78 amethistus, which is of purple, as a sign of the
humble and precious death of the holy men,79 and also sarnius, which is
bloody red, as a sign of martyrdom.80
The colours of the trichromatic rainbow – hyacinth-blue; dark (brown
or black), but possibly brownish-yellow, as onyx calcedonium was for the
Romans; and purple-red – signify here three stages or events on the way
to individual redemption, Bede overtly places in ratione baptismi. Baptism
within the Church is in fact the only possibility for men to be saved (as
within Noah’s ark during the flood), given that in penitential terms it
represents the so-called poenitentia prima (God’s forgiveness of Adam’s
sin), a protection against the everlasting infernal flames in Tertullian’s
(ca. 150/170-ca. 230) view.81 The scandalum poenitentiae, then, may allude
directly to baptism via that public and solemn rite of penance that in Bede’s
lifetime was still strongly linked to baptism itself, having been in use since
the first centuries as the only possible repetition of the baptismal cleans-
ing of sins.82 What converts will do after baptism in their lifetime is to be
cautiously guarded, and atonement for one’s own sins through penance
is in fact a second opportunity offered by God (what the early Christian
writers called poenitentia secunda), not to be missed;83 what exactly Bede
means by actualis vita or ‘active life’ is impossible to say in this context,
77 Ibid., col. 201 D: Indicat autem animas coelesti semper intentioni deditas, atque angelicae quo-
dammodo, quantum mortalibus fas est, conversationi propinquantes.
78 Ibid., col. 199 C: Sunt autem genera ejus plurima. Alius enim terrae rubrae similitudinem tenet.
Alius, quasi per humanum unguem sanguis eniteat, bicolor apparet. Alius tribus coloribus, sub terius
nigro, medio candido, superius minio, consistit. Cui comparantur homines, corporis passione rubi-
cundi, spiritus puritate candidi, sed mentis sibimet humilitate despecti...
79 Ibid., col. 202 B: Amethistus purpureus est permisto violaceo colore, et quasi rosae nitore, quas-
damque leniter flammulas fundens, sed et quiddam in purpura illius non ex toto igneum, sed quasi
vinum rubens, apparet. Purpureus ergo decor coelestis regni habitum, [...] humilem sanctorum
verecundiam pretiosamque mortem designat.
80 Ibid., col. 199 D: Sardius, qui ex integro sanguinei coloris est, martyrum gloriam significat...
81 Cf. Tertullian, De poenitentia, 12, in PL 1, col. 1358 B.
82 See also below, notes 84, 104–105 and related contexts.
83 See again Tertullian, ibid: Igitur cum scias adversus gehennam post prima illa intinctionis
Dominicae munimenta, esse adhuc in exomologesi secunda subsidia, cur salutem tuam descris?