1 When the fyftith daye was come they were all with one accorde togeder in one
place. 2 And sodenly ther cam a sounde from heaven as it had bene the comminge
of a myghty wynde and itfilled all the housse where they sate. 3 And ther
apperedvnto them cloven tonges lyke as they had bene fyre and it sate vpon
eache of them: 4 and they were allfilled with the holy goost and beganne to speake
with other tonges even as the sprete gave them vtteraunce.^27Here wefind imitation transposed into something greater, an act of imper-
sonation, meaning not counterfeiting as it often did in this period, but more
profoundly having a person inhabited by the spirit. The moment described in
Acts signifies a superior inspiration and transformation, happening not in
texts but in hearts and mouths, and, as you will soon hear, according to
Tyndale, this was indeed a fundamentally transformative happening.‘And
all that beleved’, we read toward the chapter’s end,‘had all thinges comen.’^28
The entire chapter of Acts invites classical parallels. Recall, for example, that in
Virgil’sAeneidbook 2, asfire destroys the city of Troy, a different tongue of
flame, as Robert Fitzgerald translates it, points the way to Trojan hope in a
Roman future:‘A point on Iulus’head seemed to cast light, / a tongue offlame
that touched but did not burn him, / licking hisfine hair, playing round his
temples’(2.891–3).^29 This is Aeneas’son. While his father Anchises begs
Jupiter for a new sign, soon a star glides across the sky turning the night
into day. Rabelais memorably inserts theflame metaphor into a Renaissance
humanistic context when he has Gargantua send a letter encouraging the
Greek, Latin, and liberal arts pursuits of his son Pantagruel. After receiving
and reading this letter,Pantagruel plucked up his heart, took a fresh courage to him, and was inflamed
with a desire to profit in his studies more than ever, so that if you had seen him,
how he took pains, and how he advanced in learning, you would have said that
the vivacity of his spirit amidst the books was like a greatfire amongst dry wood,
so active it was, vigorous, and indefatigable. (2.8)^30
And the metaphor of creative minds being afire remains salient to today’s
poets as well.‘Poetry is either a language lit up by a life or life lit up by
language,’says Peter Porter.^31 Similarly, for Hugh Maxton,‘Poetry is afire well
banked down that it may warm survivors in the even colder nights to come.’^32(^27) William Tyndale,New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour(1526 edition) (Andover: Gould
& Newman, 1837).
(^28) Tyndale,New Testament.
(^29) Virgil,The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fitzgerald (New York: Random House, 1983).
(^30) François Rabelais,Gargantua and Pantagruel, trans. Sir Thomas Urquhart and Peter
Motteux, Great Books of the Western World, vol. 24 (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press, 1952), 83.
(^31) Peter Porter, BBC Radio 3, May 1995.
(^32) Hugh Maxton,Dedalus Irish Poets, ed. Robert Greacen and Conleth Ellis (Dublin: Dedalus,
1992), 92.
Christian Humanism’s Legacy in Renaissance Poetry 183