CHERUBINI
648
CHERUBINI
abstract ideas, the Catholic Church undoubtedly holds
thai there are actually existing spiritual beings corre-
sponding to the name. That Old Testament writers
used the word cherubim to designate angels, not merely
to express ideas, can be best gathered from Gen., iii, 24,
where God sets cherubim at the entrance of Paradise.
This sentence would bear no sense at all if cher-
ubim did not stand for ministerial beings, differing
from man, carrying out the behest of God. Likewise,
it is difficult to read Ezechiel and to persuade oneself
that the Prophet does not presuppose the actual
existence of real personal beings under the name of
Cherubim; in chaps, i and x he speaks again and
again of nvn "living beings", and he says riTin rvn
the Spirit of Life was within them, and repeatedly
points out that the bodily forms he sees are but ap-
pearances of the living beings thus manifested. The
living beings (fwa) so often mentioned in St. John's
Apocalypse can only be taken as parallel to those of
Ezechiel, and their personal existence in St. John's
mind cannot be doubted. The frequent sentence
also: "who sittest upon the Cherubim" (I Sam., iv,
4; II Sam., vi, 2; IV Kings, xix; Is., xxxvii, 37, 16;
Pss. lxxix, 2, and xcviii, 1), though no doubt referring
to Jehovah's actual dwelling in the Holy of Holies,
yet is better understood as referring to the heavenly
throne-bearers of God. There can be no doubt that
the later Jew-s — that is from 200 B.C. onwards — looked
upon t he cherubim as real angelic beings ; the angelology
of the Book of Enoch and the apocryphal Books of
Esdras give us an undeniable testimony on this point.
So the Christian Church from the first accepted
the personality of the cherubim and early adopted
Philo's interpretation of the name. Clem. Alex.:
"The name Cherubim intends to show much under-
standing (ato-Bvaiv TroW-qv)." (Stromata, V, 240.)
Though counted amongst the angels during the first
centuries of Christianity, the cherubim and seraphim
were not mentioned in the lists of the angelic hier-
archy. At first but seven choirs of angels were reck-
oned, i. e. those enumerated (Eph., i, 21, and Col., i,
l(i), with the addition of angeli cl archangeli. Thus St.
Irenanis, Hser. II, xxx, and Origen, liepl dpxuv, I, v.
But soon it was realized that the Apostle's list was
not intended to be a complete one, and the Old Testa-
ment angelic beings mentioned by Ezechiel and Isaias,
the cherubim and seraphim, and others were added, so
th.it we have eight, nine, or ten, or even eleven ranks
in thai hierarchy. The cherubim and seraphim were
sometimes thought to be but other names for thrones
and virtues (Gregory of Nyssa, "Contra Eunom.", I;
Augustine in Ps., xcviii, 3). Since Pseudo-Dionys.,
I >e I 'ilesti Ilier. (written about A. D. 500), the nine-
fold division of the angelic order has been practically
universal; and the cherubim and seraphim take the
highest place in the hierarchy, a rank which was
ascribed to them already by St. Cyril of Jerusalem
(370) and by St. Chrysostom (about 400), and which
Pope i iregory the Great, once aprocrisarius or nuncio
at Constantinople, made familiar to the West. Pope
Gregory divided the nine angelic orders into three
choirs, the highest choir being: thrones, cherubim,
and seraphim. Of the cherubim he says (Horn, in
Ev., xxxiv, 10), thai cherubim means "the fulness of
knowledge, and these most sublime hosts arc thus
called, because they are filled with a knowledge which
i i the more perfecl as they are allowed to behold the
glory of ( loci more closely". This explanation of St .
Gregory is ultimately derived from Philo's similar
statement, and was already combined with the Old
I. i imiii function of the cherubim by St. Augustine
in his sublime comment on Ps., bnrix, 2, "Whositteth
upon the Cherubim": "Cherubim means the Seal oi
the ( ilory of ( led and is interpreted: Fulness of Knowl- edge. < lod then has Mis scat upon Fulness of Know 1- rhough we realize thai cherubim are exalted elv powers and virtues; yet if thou wilt, thou
too shalt be one of the cherubim. For if cherubim
means, Seat of God, remember what the Scripture
says: The soul of the just is the Seat of Wisdom."
Keil, Commentary on Ezechiel, I, 20-46. in Clark's Foreign Lib. (Edinburgh, 1ST6\ IV; Knabenbacer, i , Ezechielem (Paris, 18U0), 21-41: Zschokke, Theologie der Prapheten (Freiburg im Br., 1877), 250 sqq.; Bareille in Diet, ile thiol, cath., s. v. Angus, 1206-11: WuLFF, Cherubim, Throne und Seraphim i Altenl.urs. lsiu : Pehrot am> Chipiez, Le temple tie Jerusalem (Paris, 1889); Yigouroux, La E les dicouverteB modernes, IV, 35S-409; Rvi.e in Hastings, Bible DM., s.v. j p ARENDZEN.
Cherubini, Maria Ltjigi Carlo Zenobio Sai.va- tore, composer, b. in Florence, 14 September, 1760; d. at Paris, 15 March, 1842. His instruction in music began at the early age of six, his father being a musi- cian, and at thirteen he had composed a Te Deum, a Credo, a Miserere, a Mass, and a Dixit. When he was eighteen he attracted the attention of the Grand Duke, afterwards the Emperor Leopold II of ( ier- many, who al- lowed him a pen- sion. Thisenabled Cherubini tostudy counterpoint and the Roman School under Giuseppe Sarti (1729-1802) in Bologna. Sarti advised his pupil to abandonthe Ne- apolitan School, and take Pales- trina and his con- temporaries as his models. It was part of Sard's plan of instruc- tion to have his pupils copy the scores of the mas- ters of the Roman schools, a practice which Cherubim kept up throughout his life and enforced when he became director of the Paris Conservatoire, for he held that, while text books are good, analysis is better. While still under the influence of his master he wrote music to liturgical texts, but soon yielded to the trend of the time by turning his attention to the operatic stage. In 1780 his first opera, "Quinto Fabio", was produced at Alessandria. This was followed by six other operas brought out in various Italian cities. In 1 784 Cheru- bini was invited to visit London, where he composed and had represented two operas, "La 1'inta Prin- cipessa" and "Giulio Sabino", works which brought him the appointment of composer to the ( ourl In, year 1786-87 he spent in Paris, returning to Italy for the winter of 17,87-88. He then definitely took up his abode in Paris, at that time the scene of the operatic war between Gluck and Piccini, the former representing the principle that music should be the ex- pression of dramatic truth, and the latter the pre\ ail- ing notion of the Italian school, that music is mainly ai external ornamental addition to the dramatic situa- tion, an opportunity of display for vocal virtuosi.
From 1788 to 1805 were trying years for Cherubini. All through this period of political change and unrest he underwent many hardships and humiliations and laboured for recognition and an artistic existence in Paris without permanenl success. Bis operas, "D6-
tnophon", "Lodoiska", " 1'lisa ". " Medee. " 1. letel-
lcrie portugaise", "La Punition", "Emma" (La prisonniere)," Les deux jouri i I icure", 'Ana
creon", written during litis time, had to be performed
in the small Theatre de la I oin Saint Germain (where
he direeted the ] ,erforinanees from 1789
cause the grand opera house was closed to him.
