Crozier Head, Saint Michael Trampling the Serpent Essay Example

side as the serpent or dragon side with evil. It is also found in the English crozier head from Bargello in late twelfth century that it was showing about the battle between the good and evil which in this crozier it was between Saint David and goliath.

This point has been argued before that it is particularly appropriate that a pastoral staff or crozier of office whether combine scenes from the Latin should word Psycomachia, which means battle of souls in English (Campbell 369). CRITICAL POINTS Crozier was best characterized by a pastoral staff which:

• Ending in a crook shape (Beck 335)
• Made by a France’s copper and enamel
• It’s head told a story between two opposing force

CULTURE

A pastoral staff has been used by high ranking prelates inside the Catholic church for more than a century. Beside its purpose to show the greatness and authority of the person who holds it, pastoral staff also shows a deep symbolic significance of an art. It is found that pastoral staff was not crook shaped in the first time. In early fifth century, high ranking catholic church prelates used a pastoral staff that was shaped like the Greek letter tau. At that time, the pastoral staff itself did not use any luxurious material such as copper or enamel, and as the result its style did not show any richness of an art, it was just simply a walking stick made of ordinary material such as plain wood to support in a journey.

In the late ninth century, pastoral staff was starting to have a little ornament on the top of it. Pastoral staff with a ball

on the top often used by bishops. It was called a bourdon pastoral staff. There was also a pastoral staff with a small cross on the top. It was called a ferula pastoral staff. This ferula was only used by the pope in a certain rare occasions, while every day he used the bourdon pastoral staff. After the late tenth century, all those kind of pastoral staff would not be used anymore.

A pastoral staff with crook head shape on the top was starting to emerge. This kind of pastoral staff was called a crozier. This luxurious material made type of pastoral staff was used until nowadays. Most of this kind of pastoral staff often carved with biblical character and always show two opposing force when they were fighting to each other. Saint Michael battling the demon serpent was the most popular decoration to be carved on the crozier because it was the perfect representation of good and evil.

It may be true that “In art, he is most frequently shown with a sword, either battling with or standing in triumph over a dragon or the prostrate Satan” (Jones 178). Saint Michael is one of three archangels (the other two are Gabriel and Raphael) that was mentioned in the Holy Bible. He was known as the general of heaven, protector of chosen people in earth. In early Catholic church, people considered him as the defender of Christianity. He was also charged with the guidance of souls here below, to protect them from devil’s snares and to lead them to the eternal light (Englebert, 369).

Saint Michael is a famous character among all Christian figures. He

often gave vision to people and give solution to every problem. An appearance of him once occurred among the monks in French, who built a monastery under his name, Mont-Saint-Michael. He also appeared in the cave of mount gargano, southern Italy on may 8th 492 and until now that cave is a very famous place of pilgrimages. The most famous appearance of Saint Michael was in Rome during its plague, he appeared himself to Pope Gregory the Great with his flaming sword showing that he would put the plague to an end.

The other popular representation of good and evil is the battle between David and Goliath in English crozier head from Bargello in late twelfth century. According to the Christian bible, David is the most famous king of Israel and the ancestor of Jesus Christ the saviour. David became famous among his people when he defeated Goliath, the giant philistine army. The crook shaped of the crozier was inspired by shepherd’s crook. In early Christianity, shepherd used this kind of stick to organize their sheep, while in church it represents the authority which was given by God to organize human beings with peace.