So I made it a footnote.
With coding large parts of the damn comp. sci. project myself, this is all I got done on the diss. so far this week. I don't know why, but I am inordinately proud of this stupid little piece of pedantry, so I am sharing it:
The Latin phrase that introduces the concept in Jacobus, which he takes from Ambrose, is: “que a monumento discipulis recedentibus non recessit, cui Christus resurgens primo apparuit et apostolorum apostolam fecit.” [“[She is the one] who, when the disciples left the tomb, did not go away, to whom the risen Christ first appeared, making her an apostle to the apostles” (Ryan 376)]
Likewise, La legende dorée renders the phrase as “qui ne quitta pas le sépulcre quand les disciples se retirèrent; ce fut à elle la première que J.-C. apparut lors de sa résurrection, et il la fit l'apôtre des apôtres,” (Roze 245) but the Gilte Legende removes the disciples from the phrase, rendering it as “she that […] parted not fro the sepulcre, to whom Ihesu Crist appered furst whan he arose from dethe to lyff, and she was felawe to the aposteles” (Hamer 470) [emphasis mine]. Caxton’s 1483 (ccxvi v.) edition of the Legenda changes it to “[she] wold not departe fro the monumente whan hys descyples departed / To whom Ihesu cryst appyered first after his resurectione / and was felawe to the appostlys, and made of our Lord apostolesse of the apostles” [emphasis mine], a wording that carried through (with minor orthographic changes) his 1487 (ccxvi v.) edition and Wynkyn de Worde’s 1493 (clxxxv r.), 1498 (clxxvii v.), and 1527 (clxviii r.) editions.
Apostelesse, as mentioned last chapter, was introduced into English with Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Christ, which was submitted to Bishop Arundel in 1410. Furthermore, since Arundel commanded it to be propagated throughout England it is fair to think that the author of the Gilte Legende would have had access to it and to the introduction of the new word at the time of his translation of La legende dorée. Because of this, I feel that the use of the word “felawe” in the Gilte Legende suggests an anxiety about the implications of granting Mary Magdalene the quasi-apostolic status implied by the use of the term apostelesse.
“Felawe” implies a level of equality with the apostles (definitions 3, 6a, 11 and especially 8a in the Middle English Dictionary), rather than the implied hierarchy of apostelesse. Moreover, “felawe” can also have connotations of an inferior position (definition 5) and the use of “to” rather than “of” suggests that the notion of equality is the best position the writer of the Gilte Legende is willing to give her. Caxton, admittedly rendering his version of the Legenda in the latter portion of the fifteenth century, appears to be attempting to split the difference by not only using the phrase “felawe to the appostlys” but also “made of our Lord apostelesse of the apostles.” This may be representative first of the shifting perceptions of Mary Magdalene’s position that undergirds this dissertation, and second of differing interpretations of the term between the capital and East Anglia. It may be that East Anglia was ahead of the London literary public in how they perceived Mary Magdalene’s position as an apostelesse, and that Caxton was attempting to adjust to multiple tastes in the production of his translation.
The Latin phrase that introduces the concept in Jacobus, which he takes from Ambrose, is: “que a monumento discipulis recedentibus non recessit, cui Christus resurgens primo apparuit et apostolorum apostolam fecit.” [“[She is the one] who, when the disciples left the tomb, did not go away, to whom the risen Christ first appeared, making her an apostle to the apostles” (Ryan 376)]
Likewise, La legende dorée renders the phrase as “qui ne quitta pas le sépulcre quand les disciples se retirèrent; ce fut à elle la première que J.-C. apparut lors de sa résurrection, et il la fit l'apôtre des apôtres,” (Roze 245) but the Gilte Legende removes the disciples from the phrase, rendering it as “she that […] parted not fro the sepulcre, to whom Ihesu Crist appered furst whan he arose from dethe to lyff, and she was felawe to the aposteles” (Hamer 470) [emphasis mine]. Caxton’s 1483 (ccxvi v.) edition of the Legenda changes it to “[she] wold not departe fro the monumente whan hys descyples departed / To whom Ihesu cryst appyered first after his resurectione / and was felawe to the appostlys, and made of our Lord apostolesse of the apostles” [emphasis mine], a wording that carried through (with minor orthographic changes) his 1487 (ccxvi v.) edition and Wynkyn de Worde’s 1493 (clxxxv r.), 1498 (clxxvii v.), and 1527 (clxviii r.) editions.
Apostelesse, as mentioned last chapter, was introduced into English with Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Christ, which was submitted to Bishop Arundel in 1410. Furthermore, since Arundel commanded it to be propagated throughout England it is fair to think that the author of the Gilte Legende would have had access to it and to the introduction of the new word at the time of his translation of La legende dorée. Because of this, I feel that the use of the word “felawe” in the Gilte Legende suggests an anxiety about the implications of granting Mary Magdalene the quasi-apostolic status implied by the use of the term apostelesse.
“Felawe” implies a level of equality with the apostles (definitions 3, 6a, 11 and especially 8a in the Middle English Dictionary), rather than the implied hierarchy of apostelesse. Moreover, “felawe” can also have connotations of an inferior position (definition 5) and the use of “to” rather than “of” suggests that the notion of equality is the best position the writer of the Gilte Legende is willing to give her. Caxton, admittedly rendering his version of the Legenda in the latter portion of the fifteenth century, appears to be attempting to split the difference by not only using the phrase “felawe to the appostlys” but also “made of our Lord apostelesse of the apostles.” This may be representative first of the shifting perceptions of Mary Magdalene’s position that undergirds this dissertation, and second of differing interpretations of the term between the capital and East Anglia. It may be that East Anglia was ahead of the London literary public in how they perceived Mary Magdalene’s position as an apostelesse, and that Caxton was attempting to adjust to multiple tastes in the production of his translation.