The Dependence of Part I of Cynewulfs Christ Upon the Antiphonary

earlier investigations been cleared away, but a way was broken into the comprehension of that spirit of religious fervor with which the whole poem is pervaded. Only through a deeper knowledge of the influences of the Greater Antiphons and the celebration of Advent in the mediaeval Church upon the poet, can we arrive at a true valuation of his work and find spiritual enjoyment in the study of such a masterpiece as the Christ represents. The addition to the knowledge of the sources of Christ I made by Moore, and the further discoveries by myself, as pointed out in the last chapter, give us a wider field in which to extend our knowledge of the true relation existing between the Christ and the sources employed in it. If an appreciation of the spiritual meaning of the sources and of their influence in the life of the Church reveals to us the spirit out of which the poetic version of those sources was born, does the connection between sources and poem end there? Is there not perhaps a connection also between the very external structure or plan of Christ I and the Latin originals as Cynewulf found them? That is precisely the field still lying unexplored. For a mere knowledge of the text of the O-Antiphons and other sources in Christ I can lead us no farther than to regard them simply as the bases of the individual paraphrases in the poem, and nothing more. The plan of the poem will still retain its chaotic structure. Cynewulf will still be considered arbitrary i...