Racial Ideology and Symbolism in Premodern Christianity

March 31, 2007 on 1:59 pm | Friedrich Braun | Christianity | | Email This Post | Print this Post

The Devil is personified as the “Black One” in the Epistle of Barnabas, 4:9 (70–117 CE).

In The Acts of Peter (180–200 CE) a disciple of Peter, Marcellus,

…turned to sleep for a short space, and awoke and said unto Peter:
O Peter, thou apostle of Christ, let us go boldly unto that which
lieth before us. For just now when I turned myself to sleep for a
little, I beheld thee sitting in a high place and before thee a great
multitude, and a woman exceeding foul, in sight like an Ethiopian
(Aethiopissimam) , not an Egyptian, but altogether black (nigram) and
filthy, clothed in rags, and with an iron collar about her neck and
chains upon her hands and feet, dancing. And when thou sawest me thou
saidst to me with a loud voice: Marcellus the whole power of Simon
and of his God is this woman that danceth; do thou behead her. And I
said to thee: Brother Peter, I am a senator of a high race, and I
have never defiled my hands, neither killed so much as a sparrow at
any time. And thou hearing it didst begin to cry out yet more: Come
thou, our true sword, Jesu Christ, and cut not off only the head of
this devil (daemonis), but hew all her limbs in pieces in the sight
of all these Whom I have approved in thy service. And immediately one
like unto thee, O Peter, having a sword, hewed her in pieces: so that
I looked earnestly upon you both, both on thee and on him that cut in
pieces that devil, and marvelled greatly to see how alike ye were.
And I awaked, and have told unto thee these signs of Christ. And when
Peter heard it he was the more filled with courage, for that
Marcellus had seen these things, knowing that the Lord alway careth
for his own. And being joyful and refreshed by these words, he rose
up to go unto the forum.

Clement of Alexandria (150-215): Following Xenophon, Clement observes
that the gods the blacks make for themselves have apelike features in
accordance with the principle of anthropomorphic likeness:

Now, as the Greeks represent the gods as possessing human forms, so
also do they as possessing human passions. And as each of them depict
their forms similar to themselves, as Xenophanes says, “Ethiopians as
black and apes, the Thracians ruddy and tawny;” so also they
assimilate their souls to those who form them: the Barbarians, for
instance, who make them savage and wild; and the Greeks, who make
them more civilized, yet subject to passion. Stromata 7.4

Tertullian (160-220): “When God threatens Egypt and Ethiopia with
extinction, he pronounces sentence on every sinful nation. Thus every
sinful nation is called Egypt or Ethiopia (Isa. 11:11, 14:24-27) a
specie ad genus.” De spectaculis 3.

Legend of Sts. Felicitas and Perpetua: …Another apparition, in
which she saw herself fighting with a savage Ethiopian, whom she
conquered, made it clear to her that she would not have to do battle
with wild beasts but with the Devil.

http://www.newadven t.org/cathen/ 06029a.htm

Origen (circa 185-c. 254): “As long as we adopt Egyptian and barbaros
morals, we do not merit to be counted before God among the holy and
consecrated. ” Hom. in Num. 1.3

“As the saints will receive those bodies in which they have lived in
holiness and purity in the habitations of this life, bright and
glorious after the resurrection, so the wicked also, who in this life
have loved the darkness of error and the night of ignorance, may be
clothed with dark and black bodies after the resurrection, that the
very mist of ignorance which had in this life taken possession of
their minds within them, may appear in the future as the external
covering of the body.” De Principiis, 2.10.8

“We are black when we begin to believe. Therefore it is said at the
beginning of Song `I am black but beautiful.’ At first our soul is
compared to an Ethiopian. Then we are cleansed and become all white
(bright), as it says `Who is she who comes up having been made white’
(Song 8:5 in the Old Greek).” Homilies on Jeremiah 11.5

“Among the whole of the Ethiopian race. . .there is a certain natural
blackness because of seminal inheritance, that in those parts the sun
burns with fiercer rays, and that having once been scorched, the
bodies remain darkened in the transmission of the inborn defect
[infuscata corpora genuini vitii successione permaneant]. ” Commentary
to Song of Songs 2:1, 2:2; See also Homilies to Song 1.6.

“For the Egyptians are prone to a degenerate life and quickly sink to
every slavery of the vices. Look at the origin of the race and you
will discover that their father Cham, who had laughed at his father’s
nakedness, deserved a judgment of this kind, that his son Chanaan
should be a servant to his brothers, in which case the condition of
bondage would prove the wickedness of his conduct. Not without merit,
therefore, does the discolored posterity imitate the ignobility of
the race [Non ergo immerito ignobilitatem decolor posteritas
imitatur].” Homilies on Genesis 16.1

The Apocryphal Life of Xanthippe, Polyxena and Rebecca (c. 270): “I
thought I was standing in a certain unknown and strange country, and
that there sat there an Ethiop king, who ruled over all the earth and
seemed never to have any successor. There stood beside him multitudes
of servants, and all hastened to destruction and had mastery far and
wide. And when that Ethiop seemed to have gained his purpose, there
arose a raven and standing above him croaked with a pitiful
voice. … The king whom you saw is the Devil, and the multitudes of
his servants are the demons, and the throngs about him are they that
worship the gods.”

St. Peter of Alexandria (Patriarch of Alexandria, 300-311): “Those
who are altogether reprobate, and unrepentant, who possess the
Ethiopian’s unchanging skin. . .” Epistola canonica 4

St. Athanasius (circa 293-373): In “Vita Antoni”, St. Athanasius
relates how the Devil tried to tempt Anthony by appearing as a black
boy, representing his true nature:

http://www.newadven t.org/fathers/ 2811.htm

At last when the dragon could not even thus overthrow Anthony, but
saw himself thrust out of his heart, gnashing his teeth as it is
written, and as it were beside himself, he appeared to Anthony like a
black boy, taking a visible shape in accordance with the colour of
his mind. And cringing to him, as it were, he plied him with thoughts
no longer, for guileful as he was, he had been worsted, but at last
spoke in human voice and said, `Many I deceived, many I cast down;
but now attacking thee and thy labours as I had many others, I proved
weak.’ When Anthony asked, Who art thou who speakest thus with me? he
answered with a lamentable voice, `I am the friend of whoredom, and
have taken upon me incitements which lead to it against the young. I
am called the spirit of lust. How many have I deceived who wished to
live soberly, how many are the chaste whom by my incitements I have
over-persuaded! I am he on account of whom also the prophet reproves
those who have fallen, saying , “Ye have been caused to err by the
spirit of whoredom.” For by me they have been tripped up. I am he who
have so often troubled thee and have so often been overthrown by
thee.’ But Anthony having given thanks to the Lord, with good courage
said to him, `Thou art very despicable then, for thou art black-
hearted and weak as a child. Henceforth I shall have no trouble from
thee, “for the Lord is my helper, and I shall look down on mine
enemies.”‘ Having heard this, the black one straightway fled,
shuddering at the words and dreading any longer even to come near the
man.

St. Ephraim of Edessa (306-378): “He that gave light to the Gentiles,
both to the Ethiopians and unto the Indians did his bright beams
reach. The eunuch of Ethiopia upon his chariot saw Philip: the Lamb
of Light met the dark man from out of the water. . . The Ethiopian
was baptized and shone with joy, and journeyed on. He made disciples
and taught, and out of black men he made men white. And the dark
Ethiopian women became pearls for the Son; He offered them up to the
Father, as a glistening crown from the Ethiopians. The Queen of Sheba
was a sheep. . .the lamp of truth did Solomon give her. . . She was
enlightened and went away.” Hymnen de Fide 83/The Pearl 3

“It was to a land of dark people [the Apostle St. Thomas] was sent,
to clothe them by Baptism in white robes. His grateful dawn dispelled
India’s painful darkness. It was his mission to espouse India to the
One-Begotten. The merchant is blessed for having so great a treasure.
Edessa thus became the blessed city by possessing the greatest pearl
India could yield. Thomas works miracles in India, and at Edessa
Thomas is destined to baptize peoples perverse and steeped in
darkness, and that in the land of India.” Hymni et Sermones, IV

“Abel was bright as the light, / but the murderer (Cain) was dark as
the darkness.” Tryggve Kronholm, Motifs from Genesis 1-11, pp. 135-42.

“Mar Ephrem the Syrian said: When Noah awoke and was told what Canaan
did. . .Noah said, `Cursed be Canaan and may God make his face
black,’ and immediately the face of Canaan changed; so did of his
father Ham, and their white faces became black and dark and their
color changed.” Paul de Lagarde, Materialien zur Kritik und
Geschichte des Pentateuchs (Leipzig, 1867), part II

St. Gregory of Nazianzus (325-389): “I am Philip; do you be Candace’s
Eunuch (Acts 8:36). Do you also say, `See, here is water, what does
hinder me to be baptized?’ Seize the opportunity; rejoice greatly in
the blessing; and having spoken be baptized; and having been baptized
be saved; and though you be an Ethiopian body, be made white in
soul.” Oration 40 (The Oration on Holy Baptism)

It is sweet to see a white form among the Ethiopians. Carmina moralia
10.824.

Life of St. Bartholomew: And then he showed to them an Ethiopian more
black than thunder, the face sharp, the beard long, his hairs hanging
unto his feet, his eyes flaming as hot fire, and cast out sparkles of
fire, and casting out of his mouth flames of sulphur, and his hands
bound with chains of fire behind his back.

http://www.catholic -forum.com/ saints/golden258 .htm

St. Gregory of Nyssa (circa 335-394): “Christ came into the world to
make blacks bright”; when the Ethiopians, dark with sin, accept
Jesus, they “become light in color”; “the Ethiopians, however,
hastened to the faith. . .having washed off their darkness by a
mystical washing.” Commentarius in Canticum Canticorum 1.5

The call of the eunuch to Christianity lifts the curse that hung over
the race of Chus and Nimrod, a stain washed away by baptism
voluntarily received as a right due to faith alone. De vita Moysis
(PG 44.385)

St. Ambrose (339?-397): “We, namely, sinners of the Gentiles,
formerly black with sins, and once fruitless, have brought forth from
the depth the words of prophecy. . . And so it is written: `Ethiopia
shall stretch out her hands to God.’ In this a figure of Holy Church
is signified, which says in the Canticle of Canticles: `I am black
but beautiful O ye daughters of Jerusalem’; black through sin,
beautiful through grace.” De spiritu sancto 2.10.112

On the darkened maiden of Song 1:5, “The soul has been darkened by
her union with the body. . . The passions of the body have attacked
me and the allurements of the flesh have given me my color.” De Isaac
vel anima 4.13

“The meaning of Ethiopia in Latin is `lowly and vile (abiecta et
vilis).’ What is more lowly, what is more like Ethiopia, than our
bodies, blackened, too, by the darkness of sin?” De Paradiso, 3.16

In “De Noe”, St. Ambrose relates how Ham laughed at his father’s
nakedness, and his fault fell on his son Chus, and all of the
latter’s posterity were condemned. St. Ambrose identified Nimrod, the
monstrous “hunter against the Lord” (Gen. 10:8-12) and builder of the
Tower of Babel, with Aethiops: “Nembroth autem per interpretationem
Aethiops dicitur.” Nimrod was black like his father Chus and by
nature irrational; Nimrod is the personification of the guilty
adversarial soul: “The color of the Ethiopian signifies darkness of
the soul and the squalor which is opposed to light, dispossessed of
brightness, covered in darkness, and more similar to night than day.”
De Noe 34.128

St. Didymus the Blind (313-398): “These foreigners.. .have a place in
the glorious city of God only after they have turned away from
impiety and the worship of demons. . . Therefore, one hears him say
to those who are taken by surprise by his divine power, `You,
Ethiopians, are wounded by my sword’ (Zeph. 2:12). For, having been
wounded by the one saying these things, and having cast aside the
life of Ethiopians, they will receive immortality, so that they say
in thanksgiving, `Let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us’
(Ps. 89[90]:17), since, having been washed clean by the author of all
goods, we have been shown to be bright and white, according to the
one who speaks with confidence, `Wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow’ (Ps. 50[51]:9). How is it that they became Ethiopians, those
who are wounded by the good so that they might die to impiety? Is it
not because they have been born from the devil (cf. Jn. 8:44) and
want to perform his desires? He is assumed to be black because of the
darkness in which his ignorance of God and his perversity establish
him, as it is made clear in the Book of Repentance, called The
Shepherd, and in the Epistle of Barnabas.” Sur Zacharie 3.195-197

The Devil is black “because he fell from the splendor, virtue, and
spiritual whiteness which only those who have been whitened by God
can possess.” “Those who fall beneath the stroke of God’s sword are
the Ethiopians, because they all share in the malice and sin of the
Devil, from whose blackness they take their name.” Sur Zacharie 4.312

Apocryphal History of Philip: And on the Sunday Philip went up from
the ship to enter the city of Carthage, and to drive out thence the
ruler of Satan, as the Lord had commanded him. And as he was entering
the gates of the city, he signed himself with the sign of the Cross,
and sighed before the Messiah. And he saw an Indian man (i. e., a
black man), who was sitting on a throne, with two serpents twined
round his loins, and a wreath of vipers placed on his head; and his
eyes were like coals of fire, and blazing flames issued from his
mouth; and from the place where he was sitting a smell of smoke went
up, and troops of Indians (blacks) were standing on his right hand
and on his left. And when he saw that the Apostle had entered the
gate and crossed himself, the ruler was overturned and fell
backwards, and all his troops upon him. The Apostle says to the
ruler: “Fall and rise not, thou portion of the fire and child of
Gehenna, accursed from of old; (thou) bitter (one), who in (all) thy
days didst never sweeten; (thou) hater of the just and enemy of all
righteousness; deceiver of Adam, bringer of death upon Eve and upon
all her children.”

The Eastern Christian work, the Cave of Treasures (4th century),
explicitly connects slavery with dark-skinned people: “When Noah
awoke. . .he cursed him and said: `Cursed be Ham and may he be slave
to his brothers’. . .and he became a slave, he and his lineage,
namely the Egyptians, the Abyssinians, and the Indians. Indeed, Ham
lost all sense of shame and he became black and was called shameless
all the days of his life, forever.” La caverne des trésors: version
Géorgienne, ed. Ciala Kourcikidzé, trans. Jean-Pierre Mahé, Corpus
scriptorium Christianorum orientalium 526-27, Scriptores Iberici 23-
24 (Louvain, 1992-93), ch. 21, 38-39 (translation) .

In an Eastern Christian (Armenian) Adam-book (5th or 6th century) it
is written: “And the Lord was wroth with Cain. . . He beat Cain’s
face with hail, which blackened like coal, and thus he remained with
a black face.” The History of Abel and Cain, 10, in Lipscomb, The
Armenian Apocryphal Adam Literature, pp. 145, 250 (text) and 160, 271
(translation) .

St. John Chrysostom (347-407): Wouldest thou not much prefer to have
beauty depending on the nature of thy person, than on the raiment
with which thou art clothed? And wilt thou choose this in the case of
thy body, but the contrary in the case of thy soul; and, when thou
hast that ugly and unsightly and black, dost thou think to gain
anything from golden ornaments? What madness is this! Shift this
adorning within, put these necklaces about thy soul. The things that
are put about thy body help neither to its health nor to its beauty,
for it will not make black white, nor what is ugly either beautiful
or good looking. But if thou put them about thy soul, thou shalt soon
make it white instead of black, instead of ugly and unsightly, thou
shalt make it beautiful and well-favored. Homily 69 on the Gospel of
John

For as those women are naturally of odious appearance and black, and
awkward and gross, and formless and ill-shaped, and in all respects
disgusting, such do the souls of these men become, not able to
conceal their deformity by their outward paintings. Homily 15 on
Hebrews

Hence grudging beareth sway, hence haughtiness, hence covetousness,
the mother of evils. For the swarm of domestics, and the black
servants liveried in gold, and the hangers on, and the flatterers,
and the silver-tinselled chariots, and the other absurdities greater
than these, are not had for any pleasure’s sake or necessity, but for
mere vanity. Homily 17 on Romans.

The 5th century Syriac Christian Euphemia and the Goth, where
Euphemia’s appearance as “fair and comely” is “witness that she is
not like the slave-girls” (F.C. Burkitt, ed. and trans., Euphemia and
the Acts of Martyrdom of the Confessors of Edessa, London, 1913, pp.
137 of translation and 53-4 of the text.

Melania the Younger argues theology with the Devil disguised as a
young black, Vie de sainte Mélanie 54 (ed. and trans. D. GORCE, S.C.,
no 90 [Paris, 1962]), pp.234-235

St. Jerome (347?-419 or 420): “People of the Ethiopians means those
who are black and cloaked in the filth of sin. At one time we were
Ethiopians in our vices and sins. How so? Because our sins had
blackened us. But afterwards we heeded Isaiah (1.16)–`Wash
yourselves, be clean’–and we said, `Thou shalt wash me, and I shall
be made whiter than snow’ (Ps. 50[51]:9). Thus we, Ethiopians that we
were, transformed ourselves and became white.” Tractatus in Psalmos
86.4

“The children of God who plunge into sin become Ethiopians.” In Amos
3.9.7-8

On the Ethiopian as the Devil: “Chus in Hebrew means Ethiopian, that
is, black and dark, one who has a soul as black as his body.” (The
Homilies of Saint Jerome, vol. 1, trans. Marie Liguori Ewald, Homily
3, 28). The Ethiopian represents the devil, a roaring lion, the enemy
prowling Christians to destroy them: “The devil is a snake … the very
serpent who spoke to Eve.” “He is called a snake because the whole of
his body moves on the ground.” “Because Chusi, that is, our
Ethiopian, is himself the lion. . . . Because he is pregnant with
iniquity and has brought forth failure . . . he has been sent into
hell, and so `his mischief shall recoil upon his own head; upon the
crown of his head his violence shall rebound.’” (Ibid., 34)

The devil is black like the night, in which “all the beasts of the
forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey and seek
their meat from God … the devil’s strength is in the loins; in his
attacks on women his force is in the navel.” Letter 22, To Eustochium

The barbarous, bloody ways of the Ethiopians earned them their name.
Excerpta de psalterio Prologus.

St. Augustine (354-430): “The Catholic Church has been foretold, not
as to be in any particular quarter of the world, as certain schisms
are, but in the whole universe by bearing fruit and growing so as to
attain even unto the very Ethiopians, to wit, the remotest and
foulest of mankind.” Enarrationes in Psalmos 71/72.12.

“How do I understand `the Ethiopian peoples’ (LXX Ps 74/73:14)? How
else than by these, all nations? And properly by black men [nigros]:
for Ethiopians are black [nigri]. They are those called to the faith
who were black [nigri]; the very same indeed, so that it may be said
to them: `You were sometimes darkness but now you are light in the
Lord’ (Ephesians 5.8)” (ibid., 73/74.16).

“‘Let us love, because He first loved us’ (1 John 4:19). For how
should we love, except He had first loved us? By loving we became
friends: but He loved us as enemies, that we might be made friends.
He first loved us, and gave us the gift of loving Him. We did not yet
love Him: by loving we are made beautiful. If a man deformed and ill-
featured love a beautiful woman, what shall he do? Or what shall a
woman do, if, being deformed and ill-featured and black-complexioned,
she love a beautiful man? By loving can she become beautiful?” Homily
9 on First John

“And Ham (i.e., hot), who was the middle son of Noah, and, as it
were, separated himself from both, and remained between them, neither
belonging to the first-fruits of Israel nor to the fullness of the
Gentiles, what does he signify but the tribe of heretics, hot with
the spirit, not of patience, but of impatience, with which the
breasts of heretics are wont to blaze, and with which they disturb
the peace of the saints?. . . But the wicked brother is, in the
person of his son (i.e., his work), the boy, or slave, of his good
brothers, when good men make a skillful use of bad men, either for
the exercise of their patience or for their advancement in wisdom.”
The City of God, 16.2

“A gouty doctor of [Carthage], when he had given in his name for
baptism, and had been prohibited the day before his baptism from
being baptized that year, by black woolly-haired boys who appeared to
him in his dreams, and whom he understood to be devils, and when,
though they trod on his feet, and inflicted the acutest pain he had
ever yet experienced, he refused to obey them, but overcame them, and
would not defer being washed in the laver of regeneration, was
relieved in the very act of baptism, not only of the extraordinary
pain he was tortured with, but also of the disease itself, so that,
though he lived a long time afterwards, he never suffered from gout.”
The City of God, 22.8

St. Paulinus of Nola (354-431): “The dragon devours the peoples of
Ethiopia, who are not burnt by the sun, but are black with vice, sin
giving them the color of night. These are the Ethiopians the serpent
devours, being condemned to make them his food, for God used the
single word earth to designate both the sinner and the food of the
serpent.” Carmina 28.249-51

Sulpitius Severus (360-420): “But Ham, because he had mocked his
father when senseless with wine, incurred his father’s curse. His
son, Chus by name, begat the giant Nebroth [Nimrod], by whom the city
of Babylon is said to have been built.” Chronica (Sacred History) 1.4

John Cassian (360?-433?): In his “Conferences” (1.21.1), John Cassian
tells of the Devil appearing in the form of a “filthy Ethiopian” to
the misguided ascetic John of Lycopolis:

http://www.newadven t.org/fathers/ 350801.htm

IN this manner we have heard that Abbot John who lived at Lycon, was
recently deceived. For when his body was exhausted and failing as he
had put off taking food during a fast of two days, on the third day
while he was on his way to take some refreshment the devil came in
the shape of a filthy Ethiopian, and falling at his feet,
cried “Pardon me because I appointed this labour for you.” And so
that great man, who was so perfect in the matter of discretion,
understood that under pretence of an abstinence! practised
unsuitably, he was deceived by the craft of the devil…

Cassian gives additional accounts of the figure of the demonic
Ethiopian (Conferences, 2.13):

http://www.newadven t.org/fathers/ 350802.htm

And when he had ended his prayer with tears, he sees a filthy
Ethiopian standing over against his cell and aiming fiery darts at
him, with which he was straightway wounded, and came out of his cell
and ran about hither and thither like a lunatic or a drunken man, and
going in and out could no longer restrain himself in it, but began to
hurry off in the same direction in which the young man had gone. And
when Abbot Apollos saw him like a madman driven wild by the furies,
he knew that the fiery dart of the devil which he had seen, had been
fixed in his heart, and had by its intolerable heat wrought in him
this mental aberration and confusion of the understanding.

Conferences, 9, Chapter VI:

http://www.newadven t.org/fathers/ 350809.htm

Of the vision which a certain Elder saw concerning the restless work
of a brother.

And that this is not done without the prompting of devils we are
taught by the surest proofs, for when one very highly esteemed Elder
was passing by the cell of a certain brother who was suffering from
this mental disease of which we have spoken, as he was restlessly
toiling in his daily occupations in building and repairing what was
unnecessary, he watched him from a distance breaking a very hard
stone with a heavy hammer, and saw a certain Ethiopian standing over
him and together with him striking the blows of the hammer with
joined and clasped hands, and urging him on with fiery incitements to
diligence in the work: and so he stood still for a long while in
astonishment at the force of the fierce demon and the deceitfulness
of such an illusion.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (376?-444): “Ethiopia signifies all nations
that are black in sin”; “Ethiopians” of Ps 72/71:9 and 74/73:14
means “those who have dark and unenlightened minds that are not yet
illumined and do not have divine light.” Explanatio in Psalmos 67.32

The monastic “Life of Aphou” (5th century) depicts Bishop Theophilus
of Alexandria questioning whether an Ethiopian, a leper, a cripple,
or a blind person can be said to be “the image of God”: to be
Ethiopian represents, like leprosy, lameness or blindness, a defect
that obscures Adam’s original creation in God’s image.

Story of Hilaria (Long Karshuni Version): After three prostrations
Satan left the girl, shrieking and flying, like a slave, more black
than soot.

http://www.tertulli an.org/fathers/ hi…ngkarshuni. htm

Rufinus of Aquileia: The voice of God came to [the holy monk
Apollonius] again: “Put your hand down your throat, pluck out what
you find there and bury it in the sand”. Without delay he groped down
into his throat and pulled out what appeared to me a tiny Ethiopian.
Immediately he thrust it into the sand as it cried out: “I am the
spirit of pride”. Historia Monachorum Chap. 7

Macarius of Alexandria received the gift of seeing the demonic at
work in monastic worship services: the diverse virtues of the praying
monks were apparent in how they responded to the “little black
Ethiopian boys” that harassed them and were visible only to Macarius.

Victor of Vita reports (484 AD) that the Vandal persecution had been
foreshadowed in this way: a brightly lighted church is suddenly
plunged into darkness and filled with a foul stench, while Ethiopians
drive out the crowd of the blessed (Victor of Vita, Historia
persecutionis Africanae provinciae 2.18).

Mar Jacob (452-521): “Black was I in sins, but I am comely: for I
have repented and turned me. I have put away in baptism that hateful
hue, for He hath washed me in His innocent blood who is the Saviour
of all creatures.” Canticle on Edessa

St. Ennodius (474-521): “Keep your chastity constant. Don’t let the
body of a black girl soil yours, nor lie with her for her Hell-black
face.” (Sic tua non maculent nigrantis membra puellae, Nec jaceas
propter Tartaream faciem.) Epistulae 7.21

Cassiodorus (484-585): “We must interpret the Ethiopians as sinning
people, for just as the Ethiopians are covered in the foulest
[teterrimo] skins, so the souls of transgressors are enshrouded in
the darkness of wicked deeds.” Expositio in Psalterium 71.9

The Kebra Nagast (6-7th century), the Christian Ethiopian national
epic, has the queen of Ethiopia speak to King Solomon concerning
their son: “Thy son whom thou hast begotten, who springeth from an
alien people into which God hath not commanded you to marry, that is
to say, from an Ethiopian woman, who is not of thy color, and is not
akin to thy country, and who is, moreover, black.” E.A.W. Budge, The
Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelek, p.102.

The Ethiopian Synaxarion describes how the Devil appeared as an old
man to two men in order to distract them from their duty; but their
holiness, and the help they had from Christ, unmasked him, and he
resumed his “normal” shape. ” `O Being filled with evil, father of
lies,’ the two men exclaim, `begone from us, for you are going
against the way of God!’ Immediately his appearance was transformed
and he became like a black slave.” Le Synaxaire ethiopien, fasc. 1,
Mois de Sane (Patrologia Orient 1.580)

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (6th century):

It was said of Abba Moses that he was ordained and the ephod was
placed upon him. The archbishop said to him, “See Abba Moses, now you
are entirely white.” The old man said to him, “It is true of the
outside, lord and father, but what about Him who sees the
inside?”. . .Wishing to test him the archbishop said to the
priests, “When Abba Moses comes into the sanctuary, drive him out and
go with him to hear what he says.” So the old man came in and they
covered him with abuse, and drove him out saying, “Outside black man
(Aethiops)!” Going out he said to himself, “They have acted rightly
concerning you, for your skin is as black as ashes. You are not a
man, so why should you be allowed to meet men?” Benedicta Ward,
trans., The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical
Collection, Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, 1975, p. 139.

The high-born Athanasia, after years of wandering through the desert
as a monk, “recognized her husband, but he could not recognize her;
so much her beauty had disappeared, to the point where she looked
like an Ethiopian woman.”

An ugly, evil-smelling Ethiopian woman appears to a troubled monk who
makes a retreat before abandoning the religious life and declares, “I
am she who seems so sweet to the hearts of men, but because of your
obedience and the trials you have borne, God would not allow me to
lead you astray. All I can do is to let you smell my foul odor.”
(Vitae Patrum, 5.5)

A monastic saying preserved in Armenian: “Abba Avita saw a dragon
that had penetrated into the desert; a black was seated on it. He
heard a voice which said, `Darkness has come into the desert, and the
sun of righteousness has departed.’ He understood that the works of
excellence had become lacking in the desert.” Lucien Regnault. The
Day-to-Day Life of the Desert Fathers in Fourth Century Egypt.

John Philoponus, Greek Christian philosopher (6th century): “The
Scythians and Ethiopians are distinguished from each other by black
and white color, or by long and snubbed nose, or by slave and master,
by ruler and ruled,” and again, “The Ethiopian and Scythian. . .one
is black, the other white; similarly slave and master.” A. Sanda,
Oposcula Monophysitica Johannes Philoponi (Beirut, 1930), pp. 66,96
(Sanda’s Latin translation) .

St. Gregory of Tours (538-594): “The first-born of Ham was Cush. He
was the first inventor of the whole art of magic and of idolatry,
being instructed by the devil. He was the first to set up an idol to
be worshipped, at the instigation of the devil, and by his false
power he showed to men stars and fire falling from heaven. . . Since
men had multiplied and were spreading over all the earth they passed
out from the East and found the grassy plain of Senachar. There they
built a city and strove to raise a tower which should reach the
heavens. And God brought confusion both to their vain enterprise and
their language, and scattered them over the wide world, and the city
was called Babyl, that is, confusion, because there God had confused
their tongues. This is Babylonia, built by the giant Nebron, son of
Cush.” Historiae ecclesiasticae Francorum libri decem 1.

The Coptic “Life” of the 6th century monk Moses of Abydos has the
devil appear to Moses, a vigorous opponent of the pagan religion,
in “the likeness of a tall Ethiopian with many demons following him
and carrying lances like the Blemmyes.”

St. Gregory the Great (540?-604): “Many weak ones fall from the
condition of faith and, after they fall, persecute the faith. What
else is exposed other than the blackness of their skin, so that which
first seemed beautiful, now appears foul.” Moralia 20.40. “They had
been white and became black because having lost God’s justice they
trust in themselves and fall into sins that they do not even
understand.” Ibid., 32.22

On the bride of Song of Songs: “Black by her own deserts but
beautiful through grace; black by her former life, beautiful by her
coming conversion. . .” Expositiones in Canticum Canticorum 32

Gregory the Great reports how a certain monk was unable to keep his
mind on prayers. The abbot watched him, and “he noticed that a little
Negro was tugging at the cloak of the monk who could not stay at
prayer. . .” The monk is given the punishment prescribed by the Rule
and is beaten with rods, whereupon his black tempter leaves him in
peace, and, says Gregory, “thus the ancient Enemy, as if he himself
had been whipped, no longer dared to disturb the monk’s thoughts.”
Dialogi 2.4

St. Isidore of Seville (560-636): “Cham (i.e. Ham) means `warm’, and
he was so named as a presaging of his future, for his posterity
possessed that part of the land which is warmer because the sun is
near. . . Canaan the son of Ham is translated `their movement’—and
what is this other than `their action’?—for because of the `motion’
of his father Ham, that is, because of his action, he was cursed
(Gen. 9:25)…Cush in Hebrew is interpreted `the Ethiopian’; his name
was allotted him from the posterity of his family, for from him
issued the Ethiopians.” Etymologiae 7.6.

Anon. 9th century Saxon: Matthew made the Ethiopians snow-white by
baptism. Annalium de gestis Caroli Magni Imperatoris libri quinque
5.685

Audradus Modicus, Carolingian writer: To the shades of hell the
iniquitous rabble of the Ethiopians led me. Carmina

Ishodad of Merv (Syrian Christian bishop of Hedhatha, 9th century):
According to some, when Noah cursed Canaan, “instantly, by the force
of the curse. . .his face and entire body became black [ukmotha].
This is the black color which has persisted in his descendents. ” C.
Van Den Eynde, Corpus scriptorium Christianorum orientalium 156,
Scriptores Syri 75 (Louvain, 1955), p. 139.

Eutychius, Alexandrian Melkite patriarch (d. 940): “Cursed be Ham and
may he be a servant to his brothers… He himself and his descendants,
who are the Egyptians, the Nigritae, the Ethiopians and (it is said)
the Barbari.” Patrologiae cursus completes…series Graeca, ed. J.P.
Migne (Paris, 1857-66), Pococke’s (1658-59) translation of the
Annales, 111.917B (sec. 41-43)

The Irish Saltair na Rann (The Versified Psalter, AD 988), records
Gabriel announcing to Adam: “Dark rough senseless Cain is going to
kill Abel.” D. Greene and F. Kelly, The Irish Adam and Eve Story from
Saltair Na Rann (Dublin, 1976), 1:91, lines 1959-1960.

The “Nestorian History” tells of the conversion of al-Nu`man, son of
al-Mundhir, by Christ: he fell asleep, and two figures seen in vision
assailed him, one of them being that of a black man whose physiognomy
struck terror and whose odor was repulsive.

St. Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022): “The bodies of sinners will
rise…as black as they can be, for having done the works of
darkness. … They too, however, will arise immortal and spiritual,
but like to darkness; and the unhappy souls united to them, dark and
impure also, will become like to the devil because they imitated his
works.” Hymnes 50.315

Ibn al-Tayyib (Arabic Christian scholar, Baghdad, d. 1043): “The
curse of Noah affected the posterity of Canaan who were killed by
Joshua son of Nun. At the moment of the curse, Canaan’s body became
black and the blackness spread out among them.” Joannes C.J. Sanders,
Commentaire sur la Genèse, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum
Orientalium 274-275, Scriptores Arabici 24-25 (Louvain, 1967), 1:56
(text), 2:52-55 (translation) .

Orderic Vitalis (Anglo-Norman historian, b. 1075): “Then Taurinus
entered the temple of Diana and compelled Zabulon to appear visibly
before the people, who, being seen, was greatly dreaded by the
heathen folk. For he plainly showed himself as a black, grimy
Ethiopian, having a full beard and emitting sparks of fire from his
mouth. The demon went forth often in the same town, appearing in many
forms, yet injured no one. The common people called him Goblin, and
declare that by the merits of Saint Taurinus be was withheld from
doing harm.” Hist. Eccl. v. 556

The Song of Roland (12 century): Marsilla [the pagan adversary of the
Christian Franks] flees, but there is still his uncle, Marganice, who
held Alfrere and Garmalie and Carthage and Ethiopia, a land accursed.
He has the black race under his command; their noses are quite broad,
their ears are thick; in all, they number more than fifty
thousand … As soon as Roland sees this outlaw race, whose members
are all blacker than is ink and have no white about them, save their
teeth, the count says: “Now I’m absolutely sure, beyond a doubt, that
we shall die today. Lay on, Franks! I’ll attack once more for you!”
Olivier exclaims: “God damn the slowest!” And at these words the
French go wading in.

The Vienna Genesis (11-12th century) shows black skin as the
externalized sign of internal sin: some of Adam’s
offspring “completely lost their beautiful coloring; they became
black and disgusting, and unlike any people. . . [They] displayed on
their bodies what the forebears had earned by their misdeeds. As the
fathers had been inwardly, so the children were outwardly.” John B.
Friedman, The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought (Cambridge,
1981), p. 93.

Bar Hebraeus (Syrian Christian scholar, 1226-86): “`And Ham, the
father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and showed [it] to
his two brothers.’ That is…that Canaan was cursed and not Ham, and
with the very curse he became black and the blackness was transmitted
to his descendents…. And he said, `Cursed be Canaan! A servant of
servants shall he be to his brothers.’” Sprengling and Graham,
Barhebraeus’ Scholia on the Old Testament, pp. 40-41, to Gen 9:22.

A medieval Armenian apocryphal work, The History of the Creation and
Transgression of Adam 27 says of Eve: “Even though she had been
stripped of the heavenly light, she was nonetheless beautiful, for
her flesh was dazzling white like a pearl because she was newly
created.” William Lipscomb, The Armenian Apocryphal Adam Literature,
pp. 112 and 122.

Gomes Eannes de Zurara (official royal chronicler of Portugal,
1453): “These blacks were Moors like the others, though their slaves,
in accordance with ancient custom, which I believe to have been
because of the curse which, after the Deluge, Noah laid upon his son
Cain [read: Cham], cursing him in this way: that his race should be
subject to all the other races of the world.” C.R. Beazley and E.
Prestage, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea in
the Hakluyt 1st series, no. 95 (London, 1896), 1:54.

Francisco de la Cruz (Dominican, 1575): “The blacks are justly
captives by just sentence of God for the sins of their fathers, and
that in sign thereof God gave them that color.” Bartolomé de Las
Casas in History (DeKalb, Ill., 1971), p. 417.