Supersessionist Time and the Turn of Synagoga in the Northern Homily Cycle and Rawlinson Versions of the Theophilus Legend

Abstract:This article explores three understudied Middle English versions of the popular anti-Judaic Marian miracle tale of Theophilus. I demonstrate how these versions of Theophilus draw upon widely known medieval imagery of Ecclesia and Synagoga to depict Theophilus's journey as one of soteriological regression. A comparative analysis of the two related Northern Homily Cycle versions of Theophilus demonstrates how Synagoga is evoked in the portrayal of Theophilus's despair, which is shown to be a supersessionist issue in his misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit and Trinitarian theology. These two versions then depict Theophilus engaging with Davidic lineage in relation to Marian power, the manner of which unsettles the Christian supersessionist project of the texts and, I argue, earns him physical retribution. I show how these insecurities are resolved in the later Rawlinson version of Theophilus with an invocation of Synagoga in her "return" to Christianity, taken from eschatological readings of Song of Songs 6:13.