‘Bless, O Lord, This Fruit of the New Trees’: Liturgy and Nature in England in the Central Middle Ages
Tamsin Rowe
In Bede’s dialogue on the book of Genesis, a pupil asks his master, ‘Why did [God] bless man and animals, but not trees or plants?’ And master replies: ‘He blessed these things in order to increase their generation. [But] do have sense perceiving understanding … Therefore he say trees: Come forth multiply.’ This raises important issues about benediction different elements natural world. While God plants at Creation, nevertheless during time liturgical compilers were producing body material for just such purpose. By tenth century, benedictional texts trees, fruits, nuts, seeds herbs from traditions routinely included service-books western Church, petitioning multiply number else bestow physical spiritual well-being those who used them.
Studies in Church History