cover next page >

title: The Envy of Angels : Cathedral

Schools and Social Ideals in Medieval
Europe, 950-1200 Middle Ages
Series
author: Jaeger, C. Stephen.
publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
isbn10 | asin: 0812232461
print isbn13: 9780812232462
ebook isbn13: 9780585199849
language: English
subject  Education, Medieval--Europe--
Philosophy, Church schools--
Europe--History, Education,
Medieval--Social aspects--Europe--
History.
publication date: 1994
lcc: LA95.J34 1994eb
ddc: 370/.94/0902
subject: Education, Medieval--Europe--
Philosophy, Church schools--
Europe--History, Education,
Medieval--Social aspects--Europe--
History.

cover next page >

< previous page_i next page >
page
Page i

The Envy of Angels

 

< previous page_i next page >

page
< previous page_ii next page >
page
Page ii
University of Pennsylvania Press
MIDDLE AGES SERIES
Edited by
Edward Peters
Henry Charles Lea Professor
of Medieval History
University of Pennsylvania
A listing of the available books in the series appears at the back of this volume
 

< previous page_ii next page >

page
< previous page_iii next page >
page
Page iii

The Envy of Angels

Cathedral Schools and Social Ideals in Medieval Europe, 950-1200

C. Stephen Jaeger

University of Pennsylvania Press

Philadelphia
 

< previous page_iii next page >

page
< previous page page_iv next page >
Page iv
Permission is gratefully acknowledged to reprint illustrations in Appendix A (a
noted) from:
Hans Reinhardt, La cathédrale de Strasbourg. (Strassburg: Arthaud, 1972).
Otto Schmitt, Gotische Skulpturen des Strassburger Münsters (Frankfurt am
Main, 1924), volume 2.
The "Orpheus" sections of Chapter 5 appeared originally in Mittellateinisches
Jahrbuch 27 (1992): 141-68. They appear here revised by permission of the
editor.
Chapter 9, "Humanism and Ethics at the School of St. Victor;' appeared
originally in Mediaeval Studies 55 (1993): 51-79. A revised version appears here
by permission of the publisher. Copyright © 1993 by the Pontifical Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, Toronto.
Copyright © 1994 by the University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jaeger, C. Stephen.
The envy of angels: cathedral schools and social ideas in medieval Europe, 950-
1200 /
C. Stephen Jaeger.
p. cm.(Middle Ages series)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8122-3246-1
1. Education, MedievalEuropePhilosophy. 2. Church schoolsEuropeHistory. 3.
Education, MedievalSocial aspectsEuropeHistory. I. Title. II. Series.
LA95.J34 1994
370'.94'0902dc20                          94-16677
                                                                   CIP
 

< previous page page_iv next page >

< previous page_v next page >
page
Page v

This book is dedicated to
KATIE JAEGER
 

< previous page_v next page >

page
< previous page_vi next page >
page
Page vi
O, how composed does discipline render every posture of your girlish body,
and even more so, of your mind! It sets the angle of the neck, arranges the
eyebrows, composes the expression of the face, directs the eyes, restrains
laughter, moderates speech, suppresses appetite, controls anger, arranges the
gait . . . What glory can compare to virginity thus adorned? The glory of
angels? An angel has virginity, but no body; he is happier for it certainly, but
not stronger. The best and most desirable is that ornament which even angels
might envy.
Bernard of Clairvaux, Letter to the virgin Sophia
. . . those meant to be formed by artist's hand from wet and malleable clay into
vessels of glory on the wheel of discipline . . .
Goswin of Mainz, Letter to Walcher, ch. 27
Why do you suppose, brothers, we are commanded to imitate the life and
habits of good men, unless it be that we are reformed through imitating them
to the image of a new life? For in them the form of the image of God is
engraved, and when through the process of imitation we are pressed against
that carved surface, we too are moulded in the likeness of that same image . . .
We long to be perfectly carved and sculpted in the image of good men, and
when excellent and sublime qualities . . . stand out in them, which arouse
astonishment and admiration in mens' minds, then they shine forth in them like
the beauty in exquisite statues, and we strive to recreate these qualifies in
ourselves.
Hugh of St. Victor, De institutione novitiorum ch. 8
 

< previous page_vi next page >

page
< previous page page_vii next page >
Page vii

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xiii
List of Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
Part One: The Old Learning
1
Two Models of Carolingian Education 21
21
Ecclesiasticae disciplinae
27
Court Education: Civiles mores/aulicae disciplinae
2
Court and School in Ottonian Times 36
36
A New Model: Disciplina Brunonis
43
The Imperial Church
44
Court and Cathedral
44
Courtier Bishops
46
Cathedral Schools
48
Humanist Learning at the Schools
48
Letters and Manners
3
The New Education Institutionalized: Schools of Manners 53
53
Cologne
54
Liège
56
Rheims
62
Chartres
62
Speyer
63
Bamberg
64
 Würzburg

< previous page page_vii next page >

< previous page page_x next page >
Page x
4
Cultus Virtutum 76
76
Part 1: Teaching Virtue
76
Charismatic Pedagogy
83
Part 2: Embodying Virtue
83
The Civil Life as Productivity: Disciplina vivendi
85
The Statesman
87
Part 3: Two Views of Bishop Licinius
92
Natural Talent
94
Elegance of Manners
96
Part 4: The Virtues of G's Father
97
Humanitas
102
Lepor and hilaritas
103
Friendship: amicitia
106
Virtue made Visible: decor
111
 Gestures, Gait, Bearing, and Carriage
5
Ethics Colonizing the Liberal Arts 118
118
Philosophy and Ethics
120
Logic and Ethics in the Regensburg Letters
124
Ritualized Learning
126
Style and Substance
128
The Trivium
128
Grammar
131
Rhetoric
139
Poetry
164
The Quadrivium
165
Music
172
Cosmology
6
Conclusion to Part I: Outbidding the Gods 180
180
A Ridiculous Mouse?
181
Sigebert's Passion of the Theban Legion
 182
Vivacia tempora nostre vite
184
Mind over Nature
186
Conquering Fate
188
Founding the Arts
188
Restless, Fervid Hearts
189
"Who Needs Examples? You Are the Example"

< previous page page_x next page >

< previous page page_xi next page >
Page xi
190
Charismatic BodyCharismatic Text
193
Peace and Friendship
193
Classicism
Part Two: The Decline of the Old Learning
7
Two Crises 199
200
Henry III
202
First Crisis' Wazo of Liège
210
Second Crisis: Bishop Azelinus Reforms Hildesheim
8
Old Learning Against New 217
217
Teacher Insulting
219
Magisterial Authority and Its Mood Music
Early Retirement and the Collapse of Discipline:
221
The Letter of Goswin of Mainz
226
Guibert of Nogent
229
Peter Abelard
Part Three: The Twelfth Century: Seeking New Homes
 Introduction to Part 3 239
9
Humanism and Ethics at the School of St. Victor 244
244
Schola Virtutum: Venustas morum as Curriculum
247
The Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris and Other Rules
254
Hugh of St. Victor
262
De institutione novitiorum and Cathedral School Traditions
264
Discipline as Crisis Control
10
Bernard of Clairvaux 269
269
Beauty of Soul
272
Authority and Human Greatness
275
Charismatic Bodies and Charismatic Texts

< previous page page_xi next page >

< previous page page_xii next page >
Page xii
11
Twelfth-Century Humanism 278
278
Compendia of the Arts
279
The Cult of Friendship
280
The Ideal Man
281
Bernard Silvester's Cosmographia
284
Alan of Lille's Anticlaudianus
12
Court Society 292
292
Court and School
294
Court Education
297
Moral Philosophy in the Lives of Thomas Becket
310
Courtly Love
Conclusion 325
Appendix A: Moral Discipline and Gothic Sculpture: The Wise and
Foolish Virgins of the Strassburg Cathedral 331
Appendix B: The Letter of Goswin of Mainz to His Student
Walcher 349
Notes 377
Bibliography 479
Index 507
  

< previous page page_xii next page >

< previous page_xiii next page >
page
Page xiii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My work on this book began in a sabbatical year made possible by a fellowship
from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. I am grateful to the foundation
for its support on both the research and the printing of this book. An invitation
from Professor Marianne Wynn of Westfield College, University of London,
gave me the opportunity to work out the general shape of the study. My
particular thanks are due also to the Fulbright Commission, which supported my
work with a fellowship in 1991-92. I had help with difficulties in the Latin
school poetry from Peter von Moos, Peter Godman, and Anders Winroth.
Sieglinde Pontow rendered invaluable aid by checking and correcting my
translation of the letter of Goswin of Mainz with the kind of acumen and
patience without which no one could read that author's prose. It is especially
gratifying to be able to thank Dianne Zimmer and Dale Johnson of the Graduate
School Fund of University of Washington for support that invariably came with
charm, good humor, and a sense of faith in my work and in research in the
humanities generally. The chapter on Gothic style in sculpture would not have
been possible without the materials of the Princeton Index of Christian Art which
Adelaide Bennett of Princeton University sent me in quantities that left the
embarrassed beneficiary awe-struck. My thanks also to Shirley Wargon for
materials from the Index of Christian Art at UCLA. A lecture on Boethius by my
colleague JoAnn Taricani at University of Washington inspired the section on
music and morality. Robert Benson and John Baldwin read the finished
manuscript and made many valuable suggestions. Sheila Prieur, Peter Dy-Liacco,
and Lisa Eschenbach helped with the preparation of the manuscript.
For their encouragement and kindness over the past years I am grateful to
Gerhild Scholz Williams, Joe Voyles, Charles Barrack, Hans Bäziger, Wolfgang
Harms, Horst Wenzel, Ursula Peters, Joachim Bumke, Klaus Speckenbach, and
Michael Curschmann. My deepest gratitude is due to my wife Alison for her
faith and support, and to my daughters Rosalind, and Katie, to whom this book is
dedicated.
 

< previous page_xiii next page >

page
< previous page page_xv next page >
Page xv

ABBREVIATIONS
AHDLMA Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge.
AKG Archiv für Kulturgeschichte
AHR American Historical Review
BAR British Archeological Reports
Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des
BGPTMA Mittelalters
CCCM Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis
CHFMA Classiques de l'histoire de France au moyen âge
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
Collection de textes pour servir à l'étude et à l'enseignement
CTSEEH de l'histoire
DA Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters
DGQ Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter
Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und
DVJS Geistesgeschichte
HJb Historisches Jahrbuch
HZ Historische Zeitschrift
JEGP Journal of English and Germanic Philology
Lebensbeschreibungen einiger Bischöfe des 10.-12.
Jahrhunderts. Trans. Hatto Kallfelz. Ausgewählte Quellen zur
deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters: Freiherr vom Stein
LB Gedächmisausgabe.
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica
MGH SS MGH Scriptores
MGH SS
rer. Germ.
in us.
schol. MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum
Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische
MIÖG Geschichtsforschung
 NLH New Literary History
PBB Beitrüge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur

< previous page page_xv next page >

< previous page page_xvi next page >
Page xvi
PL Patrologia Latina, ed. J.P. Migne
RHE Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique
RS Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores: Rolls Series
RTAM Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale
ZfdPh Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie
ZRPH Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie

< previous page page_xvi next page >

< previous page_1 next page >
page
Page 1

INTRODUCTION
The humanist strain in twelfth-century culture represented by figures like
Bernard Silvester, John of Salisbury, and Alan of Lille has its roots in the late
tenth and eleventh centuries. C. H. Haskins knew very well that the movement
he called the ''Renaissance of the twelfth century" grew out of developments in
the preceding age, and he called the eleventh century "that obscure period of
origins which holds the secret of the new movement." 1
What especially favors that obscurity and guards that secret is the apparent
poverty of intellectual and artistic achievement in the centers of worldly
learning, the cathedral schools. Those schools produced no great works of
philosophy or imaginative fiction, very little poetry worth reading, no
autobiography or personal reminiscences, and no compendia of learning like
those of Hugh of St. Victor and Thierry of Chartres from the twelfth century.
The scholarship on education in the earlier Middle Ages has drawn a picture of
the arts curriculum based largely on the seven liberal arts2 and scriptural studies
in monastic learning.3 The logic of looking for something where there is light
even when you have lost it in the dark has turned monasteries and continuing
Carolingian traditions into the measure for cathedral schools in the era of their
rise, 950-1100. The scholarship on education in the period does not distinguish
clearly between monastic and secular learning, or between the learning of the
eleventh century and its Carolingian predecessors, or for that matter between the
eleventh and the twelfth centuries.
In terms of availability of sources, the eleventh-century cathedral schools are
hemmed in on all sides by comparatively well documented institutions, and in the
middle is a blank. There are critics of whatever was in that blank: Peter Damian
and Otloh of St. Emmeram in the eleventh century, and Peter Abelard in the
twelfth. A number of young men at monastic schools in the late tenth century left
them to go off to study in that blank space, and they emerged again as prominent
bishops, as advisors to kings, as saints.
 

< previous page_1 next page >

page
< previous page_2 next page >
page
Page 2
The obscurity of the cathedral schools is hard to dispel given the dearth of
sources. Writings from the monasteries are abundant, and writings from the
cathedrals are scarce. From the late tenth to the late eleventh century, some very
vital schools produced remarkably few written documents. We have letters and
letter collections, some lists of auctores, some library catalogues, 4
schematizations of studies, and discussions of them. There are some descriptions
of education in history and biography, and a handful of mediocre commentaries
and tracts. There is also a body of learned poetry, generally in a Latin so obscure
as to thwart interest rather than reward it.
That is the best we can do for primary documentation of the cathedral schools in
the period roughly from 950 to 1070. Given the privilege that modern historians
of culture grant to the "monuments" an age creates for itself, the period appears
extremely threadbare. But that privilege directs us where there is no path and
blocks the one that is open.
In odd contrast to the dearth of monuments is the enthusiastic praise by
contemporary observers of whatever was happening in the blank. The centers of
learning are regularly referred to as "a second Athens," "a second Rome"; the
masters are called "our Plato," "our Socrates," ''a second Cicero." There are
many expressions of fervent love of student for master and master for student.
We hear about great crowds of students and a flourishing school life, and we can
observe keen competition between schools (see below, Chapter 3). Something
was going on at the early cathedral schools that is not transmitted dearly by the
sources or set in intelligible structures by current frames of explanation. The
result of this unfavorable array of sources is that the school life of the period
often seems like an enclosed garden protected from exploration, and the would-
be-explorer stands before it like an Alice in Wonderland, who fits through none
of the available doors and can only get oblique looks through undersized and
inconveniently placed windows into a vivid and alluring world. And there are no
documents labeled "eat me;' or "digest me," or "include me in the discussion."

"Eat Me": Letters and Manners

For this study the entry into the world of the schools is the phrase "letters and
manners." What essentially happened at cathedral schools has its formula in that
phrase. Students acquired mores along with letters. I translate litterae throughout
as "letters," though "literature" would be an appropriate rendering, a field of
meaning still held firm in our phrases "letters and
 

< previous page_2 next page >

page
< previous page_3 next page >
page
Page 3
sciences" or "humane letters." The meaning of the word mores, and the way they
were taught and studied, are the subject of most of what follows. The quotations
at the beginning of the introduction are good idealizing statements of the
conception and goal of this learning. Goswin of Mainz (Gozechinus) used the
image of the teacher as potter, forming students "by artist's hand from wet and
malleable clay into vessels of glory on the wheel of discipline." 5 The discipline
of mores turned them into living works of art by teaching them conduct. The
mode of behavior cultivated was based largely on classical models: on Cicero
and Seneca, on the Roman orator and statesman. This educational model
privileged eloquence and "wisdom," the former the concern of letters, the latter
of mores. But as we will see, the two assimilated so closely to each other that
sharp distinctions are not possible. Essentially a students and teacher's time was
spent in the discipline of conduct and the study of prose and verse composition
based on classical models. The liberal arts likewise assimilated to mores, which
was also called ethica, moralis disciplina, moralis philosophia or moralitas.6
Given this orientation of studies an inventory of the books read and the
intellectual goals pursued has only a secondary value. We have to put aside the
conception of school learning as primarily the transmission of knowledge:
lecturing, note-taking, book-learning, the generating of understanding, the
cultivation of critical thought. Studying the "scholarly," "intellectual" side of
cathedral school learning is like writing history of the theater from lists of plays
performed and from theoretical treatises by actors. If in a particular period the
repertoire does not change much and there are no theoretical treatises (and there
never areactors do not ordinarily theorize), then we might conclude that that
period was not original or productive. And if from the same period that we have
just judged unoriginal and unproductive we have many rave reviews from critics,
then we might say that given the lack of originality and productivity in the
theater, such reviews must be taken as an indication of the low expectations and
bad taste of the period.
Of course, that interpretation is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of
what a theater is and what it does. This is the predicament of historians of
education for the eleventh century. There is a great deal of talk about flourishing
schools and great teachers. But there are no intellectual achievements, and
therefore the schools are judged to "show little vitality from within."7
The apparent poverty of the age is misleading. The vitality and continuity in
secular learning in the period 950-1100 are not to be found in
 

< previous page_3 next page >

page
< previous page_4 next page >
page
Page 4
texts and artifacts, but in personalities and in the cultivation of personal qualifies.
Its real accomplishment was what came off the "wheel of discipline." Its works
of art are men whose "manners" are "composed." This composition, the well-
tempered man, was a major contribution of the eleventh century to "philosophy"
(as defined in Chapter 5) and to culture. It is the best answer to the question how
the age could have been glorious while inhabiting a blank spot in intellectual
history.
Our education and intellectual life are based on texts. We do not have a model of
learning and philosophy that is not oriented to the written word. The result is that
written monuments exercise a jealous tyranny in the writing of intellectual and
cultural history, telling us that they are the thing itself and we shall have no other
criteria before them. But the culture of the cathedral schools was what I will call
a charismatic culture. It cannot be assessed by weighing and measuring its
documentation, which by its very nature it tends not to produce; such texts as are
produced are only recorded by chance, not because documentation and
representation are the media of cultural productivity.
I want to sketch in the following comments an explanatory framework that will
accommodate the available sources on eleventh-century school culture better
than the current model of schools as educators of intellect in a textualized
culture. This model will also help us to see the eleventh century in its relation to
the twelfth. 8
The culture of the early cathedral schools was complex and sophisticated. It
cultivated the Latin language to the highest degree of complexity it attained in
the Middle Ages. A particular kind of intentionally obscure Latin poetry was its
dominant literary form. It was a poetry that produced its effect in performance
with music, and the written form is a petrified artifact that can give virtually no
clues of its vital social function. The culture was highly literate but at the same
time more or less indifferent to textuality. To call the cathedral schools "oral"
would be misleading, especially in analogy to oral-formulaic literature. The
"sacred simplicity of the illiterate" has nothing to do with this culture, and to
associate it with the "rusticity" of orality as opposed to the "urbanity" of written
Latin is not possible.

Charismatic Culture Versus Intellectual Culture

The transition from the eleventh to the twelfth century plays out a contest
between two stages of culture which is not restricted to one historical
 

< previous page_4 next page >

< previous page_5 next page >
page
Page 5
setting but recurs at various points in western history: in fifth- and fourth-century
Athens, in Rome from the republic to the empire, in the European Middle Ages
from the eleventh to the twelfth centuries, and again from the late Middle Ages
to the Renaissance. We can call the two stages charismatic and intellectual. The
shifts from the one to the other are not linear; it is possible for charismatic
culture to supersede intellectual. The new stage always appears wrapped in the
aura of "rebirth;' "renaissance;' and renewal, and the older stage always laments
the advent of the new with complaints of the collapse of culture and civilization.
This model regards the two stages as engaged in a productive, dynamic contest.
It allows us to avoid the blinders of a progressive model of historical
development. It takes seriously the sense of superiority of the old and its feeling
that culture suffers diminution and trivializing from the new, and it is as much
concerned with what is lost as with what is gained in historical and cultural
change. It makes it possible to deal with the "return" of charismatic culture, an
event that took place, for instance, when Renaissance humanism confronted
scholasticism in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Finally, the model is
useful, I believe, in part as an answer to a basic fallacy that hovers around the
discussion of the shift from an oral to a literate culture: that idea that growing
literacy represents improvement, increasing sophistication, a move from an
archaic and primitive to an advanced culture.
"Charismatic versus intellectual culture" is the embracing category that contains
the problem, oral versus written. We can define and authenticate this antinomy
by starting with Cicero's scheme of the development of Roman philosophy. He
had a dear conception of the poles of culture I have called charismatic and
intellectual, and presented them as distinct but related contexts of philosophy. He
formulated this opposition and gave it a historical framework in the Tusculan
Disputations. He observed that philosophy was a fairly new discipline in the
Rome of his time, although the Greeks had long since developed it to a high
level of sophistication. He explains this "deficiency" to the advantage of his
countrymen: it may be, he says, that the philosophy of the early Romans was
Pythagorean, and the Pythagoreans were careful to transmit their wisdom
secretly, hermetically, in the form of poems and songs. 9 The early Romans also
used to sing songs at banquets in praise of the merits of illustrious men.
Therefore it is clear that they had a culture of poetry, and this may have
accommodated some aspects of philosophy. He can point to some written
monuments: laws, orations, family traditions. But for the most part the early
Romans, either
 

< previous page_5 next page >

page
< previous page_6 next page >
page
Page 6
because of the grand undertakings of state they were caught up in, or because
they sought to guard their knowledge from the ignorant, practiced "the most
bountiful of all arts, the discipline of living well." 10 They preferred to do
thisand here is the main pointin the conduct of life and public affairs rather than
in written words (vim magis quam litteris).
After this period in which philosophy and life were identical came a period of
writings. The first Roman to publish his writings, Cicero says, found many
students, in part because the crowd found him "easy to understand" (cognitu
perfacilis). And soon after, many teachers followed his example and "took Italy
by storm," a development of which Cicero disapproves (cf. Tusc. Disp. 4.3.6-7).
Cicero's view of Roman intellectual history is based on a scheme in which a
poetic, hermetic, elitist culture, whose "philosophy" is based on "virtue,"
personal merit, and physical presence, gives way to one which communicates
and teaches numbers of people through writings aimed at generating
understanding (cognitu perfacilis). This model applies well to the eleventh
century and the transition to the twelfth.
The example of fifth- and fourth-century Athens is also useful to fill out this
model. Socrates is a good representative of a charismatic culture. He wrote
nothing. He taught by dialogue and question. He mistrusted the written word,
and regarded writing as lethal to the mind's highest faculty, memory. Texts
represented the rigidifying of thought, which develops in the living dialogue
through assertion, challenge, and response. Writing everything down mummifies
thought and threatens the death of the mind.11 The fragmentary nature of pre-
Socratic philosophy shows a similar disregard of the written word as the medium
of philosophy. The charismatic teaching central to Greek Stoicism is embedded
in the same matrix.
Two opposing lines of influence follow from Socrates12: on the one hand there
are Aristotle and the peripatetics; on the other Plato, Xenophon, Antisthenes, and
Aeschines of Sphettus. The first is a rationalist reaction against the masters
doctrine. It speaks a simple language aimed at communicating, not evoking and
creating; employs myth and poetry only as objects of study, not as bearers of
doctrine, and relocates reality in things and in created nature, not in transcendent
ideas. The second commemorates the master and continues his traditions in
biography, memoirs, dialogues, histories. A variety of new forms develop around
the attempt to reproduce the incomparable presence of Socrates (see n. 11
above). The first abolishes charisma by demystifying the process of cognition
and depersonalizing the art of teaching (put everything in writing); the second
 

< previous page_6 next page >

page
< previous page_7 next page >
page
Page 7
attempts to restore charisma and physical presence by textualizing it. The first
tends towards the condition of empirical natural science; the second tends toward
the condition of imaginative literature.
The humanism and pre-scholasticism of the twelfth century reproduce these two
trends in their reaction to eleventh-century cathedral school learning.

Charismatic Culture
The major areas in which transition registers from the eleventh to the twelfth
centuries are well known and much discussed 13: in theology the move from
authority to reason; in the understanding of the eucharist, from real to symbolic
presence; in philosophy, from realism to nominalism; in literature, from oral to
written. An essential shift in the exercise of political power is the move from
itinerant to "administrative" kingship,14 and in church administration from what
Gerd Tellenbach and Hayden White have called "charismatic leadership" to
canonical procedure in the election of bishops and abbots.15 The shared
characteristic is the shift from real presence to symbolic, from performance to
representation.16 "Real presence" is the essential feature of a charismatic culture.
I will use the term in the generalized sense of a defining and legitimizing factor
in charisma, not just in the conventional sense of Christ's presence in the
eucharist.
The charismatic presencewhatever the historical settingtries to root itself in the
supernatural, to indicate that a god is present in the living flesh. This is evident in
the case of political charisma. The king is charged with a force instilled directly
by God: his authority is God's, his will is the will of God. In the context of
cathedral school learning, the teacher is the bearer and conveyor of real presence.
His person is the lesson; it communicates "knowledge," wisdom, and eloquence.
Charismatic teaching also appeals to a higher realm of which the master is the
emissary or at least the interpreter. The ideas mediated are not his own: they
exist independently in a higher realm of immutable Truth and are given to the
master as an exclusive gift, the way heil is given to the ruler. Both charismatic
rulers and teachers bind their disciples by strong emotional ties that grant them
god-like authority over the individual.
A charismatic culture makes the body and physical presence into the mediator of
cultural values. The controlled body with all its attributesgrace, posture, charm,
sensuality, beauty, authorityis the work of art of
 

< previous page_7 next page >

page
< previous page_8 next page >
page
Page 8
the eleventh century. The human presence was the raw material ready to be
shaped and formed like the clay on the potter's wheel or the sculptor's marble
block; the end product a disciplined human being.
It is useful to think of the eleventh century as a "heroic" age of culture. To do so
is not to glorify the period or turn its representatives into titans, but rather to
clarify its relationship to the twelfth century. "Heroic" suggests action and not
reflection; presence and not representation; the glorifying of the lived moment,
the kairos, and of the elegant human response to it, not art and the symbolic
representation of the human being. The glorifying of representation is a
phenomenon of the next age, a restorative phase when real and present charisma
is passing out of existence and artists and poets are straggling to rescue and
preserve it in texts, pictures and statues, as the disciples of Socrates and Christ
strove to hold firm the physical and spiritual presence of the dead master.
The irreplaceable center of the cult of charisma is the body. The mind and soul
of Socrates and Christ are certainly the more precious parts, but the impact on
students, disciples, and lovers is inseparable from the unique physical presence.
The effect of the master is deepest and most abiding when the charismatic body
is tortured, mutilated, destroyed. The love of the living master may be a strong
inducement to live according to his model; his martyrdom is stronger yet. The
elegance of Socrates's death and the agony of Christ's had equally wrenching
impacts on their followers. These masters' deaths by violence established their
cult as much as did their teaching. The tragic demise in each case laid
foundations deep in the souls of the disciples, cemented them in place with an
emotional force beyond tragedy, a force far more lasting than anything as
comparatively trivial as knowledge and understanding.
Physical presence is accordingly the anchor of charismatic culture. The body of
the virgin Sophia, not her virginity, is what the angels envy in the passage from
Bernard of Clairvaux that begins this book and furnishes its tide. Angels, frozen
in their state of everlasting spirituality, have all the virtues, as well as the
condition from which they all derive. Those are things that any angel can have.
What they can never have is a body shaped into the work of art and staging
ground of those qualities. Sophia is heroic ("strong"), while the condition of the
angels is merely "happy." Their "envy" suggests a sense of living in trivial
felicity, a wan eternal goodness, barred from ever attaining the condition Sophia
has attained in heroic struggle against temptation and vice. They can never
become physical presence, and they long for the state that is denied to them.
 

< previous page_8 next page >

page
< previous page_9 next page >
page
Page 9
In this study I develop the angels' "envy" into a historical principle: it refers to a
certain posture of the twelfth century toward the eleventh. The greatness of its
art, its sculpture and architecture, its literature, its learned humanist allegories, is
in part a response to nostalgic desire, the testimony to a vast project aimed at
capturing in symbolic representation the fading charisma that the previous age
enjoyedreal, full, vital, embodied, and functioning as bearer of cultural ideals.
The humanist educational ideals of the eleventh century did not register in
sculpture, art or fiction because that age had or sought the thing itself. The
twelfth century sensed its passing and strove to restore it. The results of that
striving in the intellectual and artistic realm are what we call the "twelfth-century
renaissance."
"Envy" as a historical principle is a response to the shift from charismatic to
intellectual culture. The humanists of the twelfth century wrote out of nostalgia,
not out of the vaulting self-confidence of an age of Renaissance. Their works are
shoring to stave off the inevitable collapse of a culture passing out of existence.
Inner and Outer
The identification of physical appearance and bearing with the character and the
state of the inner life is a defining feature of cathedral school culture, one which
registers clearly in language. One of the problems in writing this book has been
translating into modern English a number of Latin terms from moral philosophy
that do not distinguish the inner from the outer world. Here are some of them:
Mores: the range of the word is indicated in the English words "morals" and
"mores." It includes an internal disposition to the good and the outward behavior
that brings it to expression. Any English translation of this term (and of those
that follow) represents a narrowing of its meaning: "character" and "morals" are
common translations; likewise "manners,'' "conduct," and "behavior." There is no
term that accomplishes the bridging, or rather fusing, of inner and outer world
that occurs in the Latin mores. I translate it ordinarily with "manners." "Proper
conduce" and "good" or "elegant conduce" are paraphrasing translations that
approximate the sense of it.
Habitus: The word can mean "attitude," "inner posture;' "frame of mind," or
"[physical] posture," "stance," "position." At its most external, it means
"clothing," as in the "habit" of a monk or nun. It has the range of
 

< previous page_9 next page >

page
< previous page_10 next page >
page
Page 10
meaning of the English word "posture" understood as both the position taken on
an issue and the position in which the body is held.
Motus: The range of the word is indicated in the two English cognates, "motion"
and "emotion." The Latin of the schools tends to distinguish between motus
corporis ( = gesture, carriage) and motus mentis or animi ( = emotions,
impulses). But often it stands by itself and only the context indicates a more
specific reference. The blurring of boundaries that (for the modern reader) occurs
here is especially significant for the discipline of mores. The motion of the body
is perhaps the most visible means of registering the inner state: the way of
gesturing and walking (external motus) indicates the way of feeling or the inner
state (motus animi, status animi). Identifying motion with impulse sets a
pedagogic imperative. The education in manners aims precisely at the
governance of impulse, and if this is identical with the way of carrying the body,
then control of the body means control of mind, and the body in motion is the
locus for the contest of reason and nature.
One of the results of this identification of inner with outer world was a highly
sophisticated external culture. This took two directions. The first was pedantic
caution in the regulating of behavior. The customary of the community of St.
Victor at Paris spins every moment of the day into a web of regulations,
seemingly trivial ones: how to hold the soup bowl, what direction to swing the
legs when climbing into bedalong with minute prescriptions for greater issues
like receiving and training novices, welcoming guests, and arranging the liturgy.
The second was overrefinement, luxury, cultivated fashion in dress, gait, posture,
speech.
Both tendencies are implicit in the assumptions of moral discipline, the
identification of inner and outer behavior. The first is the extreme to which it
tended in a non-monastic religious community; the second in worldly and
ecclesiastical courts. In both of these contexts, the cultivators of external
refinement would appeal to their clothes, gestures, their whole modus of
carriage, as outward signs of an inner virtue.

The Body and the Text

The body consequently is meant to be "read." The well-composed body is itself a
text-book of virtue; it is the curriculum for beginners in the study of mores.
Hugh of St. Victor described this relationship with the image of the seal
impressing its carved surface into wax. The teacher is the seal and the
 

< previous page_10 next page >

< previous page page_11 next page >
Page 11
student the wax. In another work he talks about the two books written for man in
Christ: the one is within him, the book of contemplation; the other is his outward
form, "to be read for the purpose of imitation." 17 Education becomes a process
of transmitting personal qualities through the charismatic effect of a well
disciplined, well "composed" teacher, and this can be described in the metaphor
of "reading" the text of the outer man. Herbert of Bosham played on this idea to
make a witty transition in his biography of Thomas Becket:
Let us turn back the pages of our new exemplar [= Thomas himself] and
continue to read in it. For acts of virtue are certainly read more fruitfully in
men themselves than books, just as deeds speak more effectively than
words.18
Masters and students of mores oriented teaching and learning to an "aesthetic of
the body" and a "hermeneutic of the body."19 In the man composed according to
this aesthetic the outer presence relates to the inner word as literal level to
meaning in a poem. A person's carriage is the symbol, the narrative and the lyric
poem conveying his character.
The sense of the physical presence as a text is preserved in the language of the
period.20 Some of the basic concepts of older poetics are borrowed terms for the
human body and its postures. Quintilian pointed to this in defining the rhetorical
"figures of speech" against the model of the grace and vitality of the human
body:
A body held stiffly upright possesses virtually no grace; the eyes stare
straight ahead, the arms hang down straight, the feet are as though tied
together, and the entire form makes an impression of rigidity. But a certain
curve and, if I may put it that way, motion, confer vitality and force. Nor
are the hands held to a single posture, while the face has a thousand moods
. . . This same gracefulness and charm are conferred on speech by the
rhetorical figures.21
The fluid borders between body and text are evident in the middle Latin term,
documentum. In modern usage a "document" is a piece of paper with a text on it.
For the earlier Middle Ages it was also the human presence charged with
pedagogical force. Here are a few examples, some of which defy translation into
a language that no longer can convey the sense of living presence as text book
and curriculum:
. . . inter alia vivendi documenta along with other "documents" of the
saluberrimum abstinentiae vel good life, he left the clerics a most
continentiae clericis exemplum salubrious example of abstinence and
reliquit. selfcontrol.22

 
< previous page page_12 next page >
Page 12
veluti maternis ab eius
colloquio documentis By her manners in conversation, as though
venustatis habitum et by a mother's teachings [documentis], she
honestatis gravitatem shed lustre on her beauty of posture and
moribus. . . exornabat. the dignity of her conduct. 23
. . . exemplum et documentum he became an example and a "document"
factus est omnibus . . . . . . for all. . .24
We are not so much stirred to emulation
His vivendi documentis non as trained and disciplined fully by these
tantum initiatus, sed ad documents of the good life [ = the lives of
plenitudinem institutus. the abbots ]25

The word can also mean "example" or "teachings."26 The blurring of the borders
between physical presence of a teacher and the contents of a lesson is the
important point. By the later Middle Ages, the word's predominant meaning is
the one known to us.27
The same movement from physical to textual is also evident in the rhetorical
terms "scheme," "trope," and of course "figure."

From Disciplined Body to Virtue

In the disciplined person the body is the perfect mirror of the soul. That means
that learning to walk and gesture elegantly, to speak persuasively, to hold the
head and the body in dignified, grave, modest postures, and to compose facial
expressions appropriate to any given emotion, are the first steps in the cultivation
of virtue. Hugh of St. Victor spoke for school practice of the previous century
when he claimed:
The members of the body are to be restrained . . . through discipline, so
that the condition of the mind may be firmed up within and strengthened to
the point where exterior vigilance is set against interior flightiness. . . .
Little by little, as it becomes habitual, that same image of virtue is
impressed on the mind which is maintained through outward discipline in
the disposition of the body. . . . The perfection of virtue is attained when
the members of the body are governed and ordered through the inner
custody of the mind.28
Defined in this way, virtue is accessible through training. Hugh's definition
presupposes two stages in the process: one where discipline is imposed from
without, by a teacher; the other where it is imposed from within, by the
individual. The lessons of mores become internalized and form part of
 
< previous page_13 next page >
page
Page 13
the character of the mature student. In this way the process of discipline
continues throughout life within the self-contained classroom of the individual.
The discipline of the body is preparation for the true job of teaching, the
"composing" of the inner man. Like a musical instrument, the inner world can be
"tuned" through adjusting the outer. In the apparently mechanical procedure of
tuning a stringed instrument, highly sophisticated laws of harmonics and musical
proportion are at work, even when the instrument tuner does not know and
master them, and when the instrument sounds in tune its physical presence
becomes a medium of those laws. The "tuning" of the body works similarly. If
the student walks and gestures gracefully, speaks confidently and persuasively,
and holds his head and eyes in a moderated and controlled way, then the inner
world will be held to the laws of grace, restraint, moderation that are in force in
the outer. This musical metaphor was well known in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, and it seems probable that in Rheims, Chartres, and Bamberg, as in
fifth-century Athens, music as an ethical discipline played an important part in
the formation of character (see below, Chapter 5).

From Virtue to Social Ideal

The virgin Sophia described by Bernard has many of the qualities that
"cultivation of virtue" promises. She walks beautifully, and the tilt of her head
and the position of her eyes, her voice, her expression all beam virginity, or
rather domination of desire and impulse. Here the classroom is self-enclosed, but
the first stage is bypassed. She has no teachers of self-control. She just is an
ideal. She comes that way. This attitude of Bernard's would appear to any
remaining representatives of the old discipline (the letter was written some time
prior to 1145) as wishful thinking. Bernard in turn would appear as a kind of
moral Cornifician, who represents virtue as a thing that comes by nature and
grace and is obtainable without discipline. By 1145 no cathedral school
mastersor very few, perhaps in Germany and far in the provinces of Francewere
whipping virtue into their students and turning vessels of perfection off the
wheel of discipline. But virtually all of aristocratic society recognized, credited,
andto an extent that it is now hard for us to assessactually strove for the qualities
that had constituted the curriculum of mores from the previous century. What had
been an educational goal had transformed itself into a social value, and this
transfor-
 

< previous page_13 next page >

page
< previous page_14 next page >
page
Page 14
mation took place just at the time when the institutions of that learning were
being radically transformed and mores and ethica were being thrown overboard.
When the virtues cultivated in moral training no longer had formal educational
institutions to convey them, they survived as widely admired social values.

Charismatic Texts
A prominent development in the transition from the eleventh to the thirteenth
century was the gradual fictionalizing and aestheticizing of ethica. This is the
fate of charisma in the transition to an intellectual culture: it becomes
enfabulated, an object for study and reading. The real presence is no longer the
bearer of culture, but rather the symbolic presence. Moral discipline registers in
artifacts, not in human beings. This development follows the course of the
memorializing of Socrates: the master was bottled and packaged in various kinds
of texts. The "heroic age" when philosophy was inseparable from presence
passed away, and was supplanted by an age of texts, often highly impressive,
refined, and sophisticated, but created out of "envy," lacking the force and
vitality of what had preceded. It is that nostalgic urge to recapture the
incomparable personality and moral heroism of the eleventh century out of which
many of the great artifacts of the twelfth were born. Viewed in this way, the
twelfth century relates to the eleventh as Plato to Socrates.
The evidence for the survival of the old learning is accordingly very different
from that provided by the age in which it was alive. The documents are not
letters and portraits of real people, but rather fiction, sculpture, and didactic and
imaginative literature. Ethica is much more prominent, but somehow also much
less real. As a practiced discipline it is mainly present in complaints about its
absence. The discipline has moved out of real life and has become thoroughly
"textualized."
The "perfect man" occurs as a grand philosophical abstraction in Bernard
Silvester's and Alan of Lille's allegorical poems, and both of them draw on ideas
from "moral" instruction of the previous century.
We also have a variety of manuals of instruction for princes whose content owes
much to the moral discipline of the eleventh-century cathedral schools: John of
Salisbury's Policraticus, Gerald of Wales's De principis instructione, and a work
that is an amalgam of ethica and what comes to be known as courtly ideals,
Thomasin von Zirclaere's Der welsche Gast.
 

< previous page_14 next page >

page
< previous page_15 next page >
page
Page 15
A new genre of fictional narrative becomes a prominent bearer of "ethical"
ideals: the courtly romance. It shows idealized knights and ladies behaving with
sublime courtesy, charm, humanity, restraint, polisheven when shaken with
passion. The Arthurian romance was a charismatic text in the highest degree. It
provoked imitation.
***
This introduction gave a sketchy frame of the education which this book studies.
It is a wholly unintellectual, even anti-intellectual discipline, transmitted above
all by a kind of body-magic that I have called charisma; it makes the teacher's
presence into a seal and the student into wax receiving his imprint.

GermanyFranceItaly
In defining the sources appropriate to this study, again, "letters and manners"
were my guide. I have followed this formula as extensively as I could. The result
is a large body of evidence that suggests common foundations of the cathedral
schools of Germany and France. There are no doubt local differences, but those
do not become evident until an overview of the spread of this learning is
available and it is possible to compare one center with another. In any case, my
purpose is to define common features, not local ones.
I was guided by the scholarship on particular centers, and could have gotten
nowhere without it. But research has concentrated on local influences and has
tidily separated Germany from France. The intellectual history of twelfth-century
France and the early history of schools and universities have been written largely
without any reference to German sources. 29 And that seemed to an earlier
generation both good methodology and common sense.
The value of local historical studies is obvious. But an overview of the larger
relationships has oddly not seemed necessary. Some of the most important
figures and works of the period are totally unlocatable, and that could not be the
case if local or national differences were at all sharply definable. Here are some
questions for the advocates of carefullyespecially nationallynarrowed bases of
sources.
(1) Who is the author of the long, learned didactic poem "Quid suum
 

< previous page_15 next page >

page
< previous page_16 next page >
page
Page 16
virtutis"? It is central to the study that follows and comes up in a number of
chapters. The attempts at attribution show an erratic spread. The abbot Thierry of
St. Trond was one of the candidates for authorship, Hildebert of Lavardin
another. The poem was accordingly dated ca. 1100. The most recent editor dates
it reliably to ca. 1043-46. 30 She also suggests the author was possibly a member
of the chapel of emperor Henry III writing for the instruction of the prince.
These conjectures pretty much sweep the social and geographic spectrum of the
learned world north of the Alps: the author was from the lowlands, France, or
Germany; he was a monk, a bishop or a court cleric. Paravicini's dating also
broadens the spectrum of time: from mid-century to the end of the century.
Barthélémy Hauréau found this poem "the most interesting and admirable work
of Hildebert," and E. R. Curtius saw in it "the true, genuine and consistent
statement of Hildebert on the nature of poetry."31 I know of no better
confirmation of the unity of learning in the eleventh century than the
identification by these eminent scholars of a poemwritten probably before
Hildebert's birth and possibly by a Germanwith the core of Hildebert of
Lavardin's poetics.
(2) Who was Master Manegold, teacher of William of Champeaux and Anselm
of Laon and "master of the modern masters"? A Frenchman or a German? Or a
conservative anti-imperial reformer from Alsace?
(3) Who was Honorius Augustodunensis? A German from Augsburg? Or from
Regensburg? Or was he a Frenchman from Autun? Or perhaps an Englishman or
Irishman? What place does Augustodunensis refer to? Did he study at Chartres,
Laon, St. Victor, or Canterbury? Or at all these schools?
(4) Who was Hugh of St. Victor? Was he from Saxony, the low countries, or
Lorraine?
These personalities are not obscure and mute figures concealing their identities
by their silence. They are prolific and central players in the school life, and the
fact that their large body of writings does not supply the clues to their
backgrounds underscores my point: local background and national origins played
no significant role in their writings. The perspectives of local history have severe
limits for our period. The cathedral schools formed a cultural unity and need to
be studied from that perspective as well as from that of local and national history.
An important factor in the formation of the northern schools were those south of
the Alps. The Italians Stefan and Gunzo of Novara were important influences in
the early formation of cathedral schools. Adelman
 

< previous page_16 next page >

< previous page_17 next page >
page
Page 17
of Liège indicates that students of Fulbert of Chartres regularly traveled to Italy
in search of instruction. Anselm of Besate and Benzo of Alba are also witnesses
to a rich culture in Italy in the tenth and eleventh centuries, one which has left
few traces, and those mainly when Italians moved to the north. I have not found
access to those schools, and they remain an obscure factor in the education
described here. 32
Most of the following chapters are structured as commentaries on particular
texts. The literature of the cathedral schools is little known, and it has seemed to
me important to include many excerpts in English translation. I hope this will
serve to some extent to encourage a rescue operation for that rich but neglected
culture.
 

< previous page_17 next page >

page
< previous page_19 next page >
page
Page 19

PART ONE
THE OLD LEARNING
 

< previous page_19 next page >

page
< previous page_21 next page >
page
Page 21

1.
Two Models of Carolingian Education
Carolingian education is oriented to the practical and spiritual needs of two
institutions: the royal/imperial court and the church. The first looks toward civil
administration, the second toward the religious life. Court education is a minor
subject in Carolingian times. It affects few people at the highest level of lay
society and is badly documented. The church and religious education virtually
monopolize the records. The phrase ''Carolingian educational revival" refers to a
broad program of learning whose content is Christian but whose beneficiaries are
both lay and clergy. 1 We begin with a look at this dominant and better
understood model.
Ecclesiasticae disciplinae
An education in a cathedral or a monastery served a limited range of purposes:
the rudiments of letters and the liberal arts, the reading and understanding of the
Bible within the traditions of patristic scholarship2; preaching and converting; a
Christian life according to the Benedictine rule; other more specific purposes
within the sphere of church functions, among which music and the performance
of the liturgy were especially prominent. The liberal arts occupied an important
position, but were ancillary to the study of scripture. The description of the
education of Sturmi, founder and first abbot of Fulda and a student of Boniface,
in his biography by Eigil (written in the 790s) illustrates some of these concerns:
. . . this holy priest strove to instruct the lad Sturmi for the service of God
Almighty. . . .Having committed the Psalms to memory, and having
learned a great many readings in incessant study, the boy began to
understand sacred scripture in its spiritual sense; he also took pains to learn
with the utmost diligence the mysteries of the four gospels of Christ. He
strove to the limits of his capacity to store in the treasure chamber of his
heart both the new and the old Testament through assiduous reading. Night
and day his thoughts were, as it is written, on the law of the Lord.3
 

< previous page_21 next page >

page
< previous page_22 next page >
page
Page 22
The list of texts holds no surprises. The biographical literature corroborates what
is common knowledge about Carolingian education, that "sacred letters" are its
main object. 4 The summary is useful for showing something of the spirit of
scriptural studies at Fulda. Everything is memorized, not only the Psalms
(memoriae traditis), but also the spiritual meaning of scripture, absorbed through
the incessant memorization of interpretations; the mysteries of the gospels are
"added on through learning" (addiscere). Eigil's idea of learning is memorizing a
fixed body of knowledge. "Mysteries" are learnable texts, as are Psalms and
gospels. The working of some creative faculty of understanding or intuition is
not even postulated. The basic requirement of learning is effort, for which
Sturmi certainly received an A plus. His memory is "tenacious''; the
interpretations memorized are "as many as possible", his study "incessant"; his
learning of the mysteries studiosissime; his "assiduous" reading of both
testaments at the limits of his capacity, his meditations on the law continue "day
and night." Brute memorization fueled by a zeal for the service of God is the
essential orientation of Sturmi's education.5 The passage shows us the great
strength of Carolingian learning: energy and robustness; and its great weakness:
uncritical acquiring of a fixed body of knowledge.6 We may imagine Sturmi and
the Carolingian student in general accumulating knowledge through the exertion
of strong intellectual muscles. If there is deftness and versatility of genius in
writings from the period, it is borrowed, with few exceptions, from an earlier age
when penetration and dialectical sharpness were weapons of the Christian thinker
against a pagan intellectual tradition daunting in its sophistication. The church in
Carolingian times needed new books, reliable texts, a clergy who commanded
the rudiments of learning, not intellectuals on the cutting edge of European
thought. Mental muscle served these needs, and genius might have seemed an
irrelevant luxury. There are times when a blunt instrument is just right to provide
the cutting edge.7
If eloquence is praised in Carolingian vitae, it is ordinarily in the context of
preaching and converting. Liudger's Life of Abbot Gregory of Utrecht (ca. 800)
gives a good example. Gregory, like Sturmi a student of Boniface, is reading one
day under the master's supervision. The master asks his pupil for an explanation
of the text, but stops him when he starts in Latin, and asks him to use his native
language. Gregory protests he cannot; Boniface then does it for him, and his
eloquence flows miraculously (through his stomach) over into Gregory, who
preaches to his teacher and his whole family. Knowing that the Holy Spirit had
come over Boniface, Gregory becomes a disciple and follows him "to study the
sacred books."8
 

< previous page_22 next page >

page
< previous page_23 next page >
page
Page 23
This is a text book example of the Carolingian concern for letters and preaching
in the vernacular and its religious purpose of conversion. 9 These concerns
helped form the Carolingian educational ideal of the Christian orator, formulated
for instance in Hrabanus Maurus's De institutione clericorum. When in addition
to the liberal arts and knowledge of scripture the student has acquired the four
cardinal virtues, then he is prepared to fulfill the duty of orator worthily in the
church:
The ancient definition affirms this: [the orator] ought to be a good man,
skilled in speaking. If then this definition was observed in the orators of
the pagans, then it is appropriate that it be observed so much the more in
orators of Christ, who must make not only their speech, but the conduct of
their entire life into a course of instruction in the virtues.10
For Hrabanus the wisdom of the orator stands in direct relation to his knowledge
of the Bible:
A man speaks more or less wisely to the degree that he is proficient in
sacred scripture.11
The liberal arts were part and parcel of this ecclesiastical education.12 This role
is so well known, it would hardly deserve more than a mention here, except that
the relation of secular to divine studies changed in certain areas in post-
Carolingian education, and it is important to point here to their good relations in
all areas so as to emphasize the later contrast. In Carolingian sources hints of a
conflict between secular and divine studies are uncommon. They emerge in the
course of the tenth century. The norm is a conciliatory climate, evident in the
Life of Aldric of Sens (d. 836):
When after some time he was sent by his parents to be educated in the
liberal arts . . . he began . . . to receive in addition instruction in religion
according to the course of doctrinal studies, so that he was learned not only
in liberal disciplines, but also in spiritual ones.13
Aldric was a pupil of Alcuin, and this course of studies can be taken as
consistent with the ideals of Carolingian educational policy, conceived and
formulated in large part by his teacher. It aimed at literacy, and grammar,
rhetoric and dialectic were the necessary foundation.
ConversatioConvictus
The "moral" side of this education interests us by contrast to the Ottonian model,
the main object of our inquiry. The young student learned conver-
 

< previous page_23 next page >

< previous page_24 next page >
page
Page 24
satio according to the norma vivendi. The biography of Aldric of Sens continues
from the passage quoted above,
Recalling, as the word of Wisdom has stated, that character is formed by
the shared life of teacher and pupils [mores ex convictu formari], he took
pleasure in continued discussions with his fellow monks and delighted in
the colloquies of religious men. (PL 105, 800C)
The formation of character through a life shared by students and master is part
and parcel of education in antiquity and the earlier Middle Ages. 14 This
principle applies whatever the locus of education: royal courts, monastery,
cathedral. Convictus is the arrangement within which moral/ethical formation
takes place. The church in the Carolingian period had its own vocabulary of
sancta conversatio and its own concepts of the virtues appropriate to a monk and
cleric. A few examples will serve to contrast with the notions which later
supplanted them.
Bishop Rimbert of Hamburg (d. 888) as a young man at school had advanced
through his studies to maturity "in both knowledge and in virtue" (PL 126,
993B). Pope Leo IV. was sent to school "for the study of letters . . . where he not
only learned letters, but persisted in the study [or zeal for] a holy way of life, not
in the manner of a boy . . . but like a perfect monk."15 Walafrid Strabo praises
the learning of St. Otmar in similar terms: "raised aloft in the knowledge of
letters, this pursuer of virtue and possessor of praiseworthy manners advanced to
the level of the priesthood."16 Alcuin wrote to the monks of Murbach in 804
urging them to educate the young boys of the community "in chastity and
sanctity and ecclesiastical discipline, so that they may be worthy to assume your
position after you."17 Late Carolingian descriptions of education tend to fall into
a slightly mechanical rehearsal of the areas: letters, sacred scripture,
ecclesiastical disciplines.
Bishop Stephen of Laon gives the education of St. Lambert in some detail (the
Vita from 920). As a boy he was sent to "highly skilled men for an education."
He distinguishes himself in "ecclesiastical religion," and "down to his very heart
he is inflamed with the burning love of divine mysteries," and he drank from the
streams of the liberal arts all the more swiftly for being filled with the love of
God. At length he is thoroughly trained in "divine teachings" and is strengthened
by mastery of "monastic rules.'' Striving with all his might to become a "perfect
man," Lambert is finally sent by Theodard of Utrecht to the royal court for
further education, since the bishop observes Lambert's "high nobility and the
most elegant form of his body."18
 

< previous page_24 next page >

page
< previous page_25 next page >
page
Page 25
The Carolingian edicts on education give some clear insights into the
relationship of these two branches of learning, letters and conversatio. The
Epistola de litteris colendis takes for granted the learning of honestas morum and
introduces the study of letters as the cure for what ails the church and kingdom:
. . . we consider it useful that it be incumbent on the cathedrals and
monasteries given into our rule by the favor of Christ to strive to teach,
along with the order of the regular life and the mode of conduct
appropriate to holy religion, also the discipline of letters, to those who are
able to learn, each according to his own capacity. Just as the rule of living
ordains and embellishes upright behavior, so also let the activity of
teaching and learning order and embellish the flow of our speech, so that
those who seek to please God by right living may not neglect to please
Him by right speaking. 19
This two-fold thrust of learning dominates in the letter. The recipients are
praised as "men inwardly dedicated and outwardly learned, chaste through living
well and scholarly through speaking well."20 But the wording makes clear that
subject is not De religiosa conversatione colenda. The reform of morals among
the clergy had been the project of an earlier generation.21 Now it is the study of
letters that is lacking and is commended to the church as an addition to the
discipline of good behavior.22 Moral instruction here may be little more than the
teaching and enforcement of the monastic or canonical rule of life. But it is
presented as a part of an old and established curriculum that now has to expand
to include a new element, letters.23 Letters are patched on to the established
curriculum in conversatio.
The Perfect Man
The ideal that emerges from Carolingian vitae is that of the vir perfectus. It has a
long history in Christianity,24 but a few portraits from Carolingian vitae will
allow us to distinguish the notion of the perfect man of the ninth century from
that of the twelfth. Recall that Bishop Rimbert of Hamburg matured in gravitas
at the same time as he advanced in liberales disciplinae. In a few years time he
distinguished himself for perfection of learning and of virtues.25 The portrait of
the young Sturmi gives some of the desirable virtues:
. . . his understanding was profound, his thoughts wise, his speech prudent,
his appearance handsome, his gait composed, his manners upright, his life
unspotted. Through his charity, his humility, his gentleness and versatility,
he won the love of all men.26
 

< previous page_25 next page >

page
< previous page_26 next page >
page
Page 26
Liudger was popular and beloved while in school at Utrecht as a "man of
marvelous gentleness, of cheerful countenance though restrained in his laughter,
combining in all of his acts prudence and temperance." But the explanation of
his amiability is not charm or any qualities of character, but only his diligent
culling of God's praise from scripture: ". . . he was an assiduous student of Holy
Scripture and especially of whatever pertained to the praise of God and to
catholic doctrine." 27 He was "in his accustomed way dear to all, because he was
adorned with good manners and saintly striving."28 Good manners, affability,
gentleness, saintly striving and popularity have a context in social life in general;
but the critical problem for the Carolingian church was to maintain the balance
between the worldliness and the saintliness of these qualities in favor of the
saintly. Agobard of Lyon cautioned monks and clerics not to cultivate them for
the sake of advancement:
Anyone placed in charge of others, be he cleric or monk, if he strives to
appear benevolent, gentle and affable in order to win the hearts of his
subjects to exalt himself and his own praise, is a deceiver, and ought never
to undertake the care of souls.29
It was important that popularity should result from holiness, not ambition, all the
more so since "perfection" was indeed a means of advancement in a career. The
much quoted anecdote of Charlemagne reproving the lazy aristocrats and
praising the diligent poor boys of his palace school shows at least Notker's
acceptance of this qualification. According to his life of Charlemagne, the
emperor promised the diligent students "magnificent bishoprics and abbacies" if
they would "attain to perfection."30
Monastery and Cathedral
If there are differences between education at cathedral and monastic schools
during this period, they are negligible. One of the striking features of the
program of education conceived by Charlemagne and Alcuin is its universality.
The whole range of social contexts in which learning could have a place is
included in their pronouncements on education. The kinds of men who attend
school in a monastery certainly varied from those who received their learning at
a cathedral or at the royal court, but at all three the dominant goal of education
was ecclesiasticae disciplinae as described earlier.31 Monks educated in the
cloister might be called to court service and eventually made bishop; courtiers
educated clerically at court might become abbots or bishops. A virtually
complete interchange among these
 

< previous page_26 next page >

page
< previous page_27 next page >
page
Page 27
three dominant centers of intellectual and civil/administrative life seems to be
one result of the universality of education. It is not likely in this earlier period
that a diocese would complain at receiving a monk as its bishop (as the diocese
of Mainz did in 1031 when Bardo, formerly abbot of Hersfeld, became its
bishop), or that the imperial courtiers would object to the installation of a
monkish bishop who had not learned the art of governing at the royal court (as
they did when the ascetic Wazo was elected Bishop of Liège in 1042 32). The
Carolingian capitularies on education do not make distinctions between cathedral
and monastery schools; they enjoin the same education on both. The Epistola de
litteris colendis is directed to Abbot Baugulf of Fulda, who is to send copies to
all bishops and monasteries.33 The differences in rules of life of monks and
clerics will have guaranteed some differences in the discipline of mores and
conversatio. But any differences that may distinguish the two in the teaching of
letters do not register in the main sources on education. The unity and uniformity
of the Carolingian reform were one of its great strengths, a trend toward cultural
unification of the empire one of its great accomplishments.
Court Education: Civiles Mores/Aulicae Disciplinae
An education in ecclesiasticae disciplinae was available at the royal court under
Charlemagne.34 This sharply distinguished the Carolingian "palace school" from
the court schools of the Merovingians, whose sole purpose was training in
military and civil disciplines.35
Ecclesiastical education was available at the court, and it probably differed little
from that offered in Alcuin's school at St. Martin's of Tours, at Fulda, or at St.
Gall. But we also find reference to something called aulicae disciplinae. It is not
easy to form a picture of what the phrase indicates. It is a minor subject in the
history of education in the period, but its small rivulet swells into the mainstream
of the eleventh century.
Schools at Court/The Court as a School
Hincmar of Rheims wrote a letter of instruction for Louis the German, in which
he described the "palace school" under Charlemagne:
The king's court is properly called a school, that is a course of discipline
[schola, id est disciplina], not because it consists solely of schoolmen, men
bred on learning and well trained in the conventional way, but rather a
school in its own right, which we can take to mean a place of discipline,
that is correction,
 

< previous page_27 next page >

page
< previous page_28 next page >
page
Page 28
since it corrects men's way of dressing [or behaving: habitus] and walking,
their speech and actions, and in general holds them to the norms of
restraint appropriate to a good life. 36
Hincmar was far from regarding the main object of education at court as sacred
or divine letters. On the contrary, he sets the discipline of behavior against the
usual school disciplines (non tantum scolastici id est disciplinati . . . sicut alii),
and the passage implies that it is this other kind of discipline that makes the
court a school.
The idea of a "court school" is open to misunderstanding. The source of this
misunderstanding is our conception of a school as an institution devoted
exclusively to a kind of instruction where some people teach and lecture and
others learn and read.37 To recover the earlier notion it is useful to remove from
the word "school" the suggestion of learned instruction. What remains is the
sense of membership in a group with common characteristics, habits, and
interests In Merovingian times schola commonly refers to the court entourage.38
It is useful to take this definition of the word as our point of departure: a group
with common characteristics, customs, and interests.
Monastery, cathedral, and court all have their individual institutional identities,
even if the special concerns of education do not register them. But the court is
distinguished from the other two in that it combines the center of political power
with the center of social life Under Charlemagne it also became the center of
intellectual activity and continued as such in varying degrees with successive
emperors That peculiar constellation accounts for tensions in the life of the court
that tend toward the creation of an etiquette of behavior Indeed, our vocabulary
of politeness is still strongly marked by reminders of its origins at worldly
courts: "courtesy," "curtsey," to "pay court." A code of refined manners seems to
be a constant of life at a prince's court. The courts of Europe, the orient, Arabia,
and India all produced ideals of courtly behavior.
The curriculum of institutional identity and the pedagogy of individual charisma
were as strongly in force at worldly courts as in monasteries or cathedrals. The
possibilities for diversity were far greater at court, however. There is no ideal of
uniform dress and behavior (aequalitas morum). On the contrary, there is a
tendency toward personalized and individualized forms of behavior that grew
stronger in the course of the high and late Middle Ages, and became a striking
feature of Renaissance courts. Fashion and a tendency toward the aestheticizing
of behavior, hence toward artificiality,
 

< previous page_28 next page >

page
< previous page_29 next page >
page
Page 29
are features of European court life that distinguish it from customs of religious
communities.
Hincmar stated that the king's court is itself a school, which "corrects men's way
of dressing and walking, their speech and actions, and in general holds them to
the norms of restraint appropriate to a good life." In part the language is that of
ecclesiastical disciplines: disciplina, correctio, bonitatis continentia. 39 It
departs from that language by omitting any reference to sacred learning,
scripture, or divine law. Habitus, incessus, verbum, and actus are not common
among the topics of praise of Carolingian clergy,40 but they will loom large in
the eleventh century.
The education of the royal family under Charlemagne included behavior, mores.
We learn this from Einhard who tells that the emperor arranged for the education
of his children
first in liberal studies, to which he himself was devoted. Then, as soon as
their age permitted, he had his sons instructed in horseback riding,
weapons, and hunting, as is the custom of the Franks, while his daughters
learned spinning and weaving . . . and he ordered them instructed in every
element of good behavior.41
A witness to the training at the court school is Ermenrich of Ellwangen, who
wrote a letter to his teacher, Grimald, former member of the palace academy,
associate of Alcuin and Paulus Diaconus, and Abbot of St. Gall from 841 to 872.
It praises him as
dressed in the seven-fold garment Sophia wove, adorned with the gems of
all virtues [humility, justice, fortitude, prudence, temperance, zeal for God,
patience and lenience, good cheer in adversity, humility in prosperity]. And
you well deserve to fly above others on the wings of these virtues, since
from the first flower of youth you were nurtured in excellent manners
among the courtiers of the blessed emperors [Charlemagne and Louis the
Pious]. From them you learned not only the whole range of school
subjects, but also the norm of right living . . .42
From this description we learn at least that the education of an imperial courtier
excited extravagant praise in ornate language, which pares down in the above
passage to liberales disciplinae and decentissimi mores. The list of virtues is
consistent with other descriptions of Carolingian clergy (Hrabanus Maurus'
treatment of the virtues in De institutione clericorum comes close) and with
writings on the virtues by Grimald's teacher, Alcuin. This catalogue of virtues
has a more worldly cast than some: it dwells on the
 

< previous page_29 next page >

< previous page_30 next page >
page
Page 30
four cardinal virtues, and Grimald's patience and twice-mentioned humility are
Stoic as well as Christian virtues, not specific to a social context. Descriptions
cited earlier combining liberal arts, sacred scriptures, and ecclesiastical discipline
highlight this worldliness somewhat by contrast, but they do not show one set of
virtues specific to the court and another specific to the monastery/cathedral.
While the worldly setting of the court and the emperor's presence impress this
writer particularly, little in the passage suggests a distinction between the pattern
of Grimald's education and that common to Carolingian programs generally,
except that Ermenrich did not mention ecclesiastical disciplines.
Paschius Radbertus's Vita of Adalhard, Abbot of Corvey (d. 826) shows a similar
admiration for courtly upbringing. The nephew of King Pipin, cousin of
Charlemagne, Adalhard was educated at court along with "the neophytes of the
palace," assigned to the same masters as the young prince. The biographer gives
nothing more than a hint at the nature of that education: he was "instructed in
every form of worldly wisdom" (omni mundi prudentia eruditus). 43 The only
conclusions we can draw from this phrase are that prudentia mundi formed part
of the instruction at the palace, and that Paschasius Radbertus's description of
Adalhard's education is fragmentary. "Worldly prudence" does not emerge as a
course of studies separable from "ecclesiastical disciplines." The fact that
Adalhard eventually became Abbot of St. Gall attests to his mastery of, or at the
very least his extensive exposure to, the latter.
This is the context in which we turn to Alcuin's writings for the court. We know
that students of the palace school received the whole range of education
available in the period: instruction in liberal disciplines, sacred letters, and some
form of moral/ethical formation. A formulation like "worldly wisdom" or morum
honestas gives us no entry into the contents of ethical instruction.
Alcuin's work De rhetorica et virtutibus is singular among his writings in that its
ethical vocabulary and concepts are clearly distinguishable from that of
conversatio and mores in the majority of Carolingian texts. The work is one in a
series of dialogues between Alcuin and his pupils: De grammatica, De rhetorica
et virtutibus, and De dialectica.44 They form a sequence that aims at a
comprehensive course on the trivium. There are references in one dialogue to
questions disputed in the previous one (cf. PL 101, 951D). The work De
orthographia forms a part of this sequence, but its form is purely expository, not
dialogic, and it lacks the general philosophical framework in which each of the
others is situated.
 

< previous page_30 next page >

page
< previous page_31 next page >
page
Page 31
The De rhetorica operates squarely in the context of civil administration, and
this is its most distinctive feature. The introductory verses explain that it was
written by Charlemagne and Alcuin together while they carried on the business
of the court. 45 Charlemagne begins the dialogue by asking Alcuin for
instruction:
I recall your once mentioning that the entire thrust of this art is directed at
civil questions. But, as you know better than anyone, the affairs of the
kingdom and the concerns of the palace place us in constant contact with
this sort of question, and it seems ridiculous to have remained ignorant of
the precepts of an art so necessary to my daily occupations.46
This stress on the practical application of the art of rhetoric in secular
government continues throughout.47 The work is about civiles mores, and the
introductory verses invite all interested in this art to learn its precepts:
Whoever wishes to learn civil manners, I say,
        Let him read the precepts in this book.48
The dialogue begins with a definition of rhetoric and its application: "[rhetoric]
is concerned with civil questions" (p. 68, 1.57). The particular form in which
Alcuin conceives the art excludes administrative tasks in the church, as
Charlemagne states outright late in the dialogue: "Those who are deemed
destined for civil matters and secular affairs must cultivate the art of oratory
with great diligence from youth on."49 This shows the social-political context
for Alcuin's dialogue on rhetoric: its lessons apply to men at the royal court who
will use the art of oratory in their public life, and who ideally will receive
training in the discipline from their youth.
We should be careful not to confuse this with "lay education." Alcuin's view of
the education of a layman is dearly expressed in his "breviary" for Count Wido,
the letter-tract, De virtutibus et vitiis, basically a guide to piety.50 By contrast,
the De rhetorica et virtutibus provides us with a glimpse of a rarity in
Carolingian education: a purely secular discipline.
Alcuin's work is central to a sociology of rhetoric in the Carolingian period.51 It
borrows so heavily from Cicero's De inventione as to appear in places a cento of
quotations. Its other sources are ancientQuintilian and the fourth-century writer
Julius Victor, through whom Cicero's De oratore reached Alcuin. Earlier
suggestions of strong influence from Cassiodorus and Isidore have proven
unfounded.52 Its rhetorical doctrine is so close to that of Cicero that the search
for peculiarly Alcuinian elements is not
 

< previous page_31 next page >

< previous page_32 next page >
page
Page 32
rewarding. Its general conceptual framework is an abbreviated version of
Cicero's philosophy of the orator. Alcuin lifts Cicero's myth assigning the origins
of civilization to eloquence, from the beginning of De inventione, and places it
without change at the opening of De rhetorica. The ethical thrust of Cicero's
work, inseparable from that myth, is also part and parcel of Alcuin's work. It is
about rhetoric and the virtues. Appending "the virtues" to his title served the
author's purposes, even though they are the subject of only the final section.
Cicero's point of departure was that eloquence has two faces: good and evil.
When the orator is a good man, whose eloquence is allied with wisdom, then
oratory is a civilizing force, uniting men in harmony and guiding the state
rationally. 53 Speech and conduct are linked in Cicero's scheme of the discipline
of oratory, and the training of a statesman requires long exercise in both.54
Alcuin leads into the ethical aspect of the orators education with his discussion
of the fifth and last division of rhetoric, delivery (pronuntiatio, p. 138. ll.
1088ff). It is defined as "dignity of phrasing, the congruence of meaning and
expression, and the control of the body." Proper delivery requires long and
arduous training of voice and body. This training must begin in youth; it
cultivates a confident voice, an even flow of speech, and decorous movement of
the body. The court is the appropriate place for this exercise and training; it is to
the orator what the military camp is to the soldier.55 The law of speech and of
conduct is moderation and temperance; it governs speech and conduct alike:
. . . let your words be well chosen, proper, lucid, simple, let your speech be
full, your demeanor serene, your face well composed. Do not laugh
immoderately, and speak without raucousness. For there is a law of the
golden mean [bonus modus] in speech as in carriage, in walking calmly,
without springing, without hesitating, allowing every move to show forth
temperance and moderation, which is one of the four cardinal virtues, from
which the others procede as from their roots. In these are located nobility
of mind, dignity of conduct, probity of manners and praiseworthy
discipline.56
This discourse brings home to Charlemagne the meaning of the philosopher's
saying, "nothing in excess": it applies no less to conduct than to speech (non
solum moribus, sed etiam verbis, l. 1177). Then follows a brief treatment of the
four cardinal virtues, ending with the reminder that God and salvation are the
goals of all human striving.
These quotations give some of the major themes of the orator's education
inherited from Cicero, Quintilian, and the entire Roman tradition
 

< previous page_32 next page >

< previous page_33 next page >
page
Page 33
which flowed into Alcuin's work. They also state the major themes of training in
mores in the cathedral schools of the eleventh century. The ideals of "nobility of
mind," "dignified conduct," and moderation in speech and bearing, move from
these traditions into a scene dominated by "ecclesiastical" education.
In Alcuin's work we find discipline of manners linked to eloquent speech. The
two are inseparable, since an eloquent speech loses its effectiveness when
delivered with inappropriate and undisciplined gestures (cf. pg. 139. ll. 1093ff. ).
Disciplined conduct and bearing are then an indispensable part of an orator's
education. In ecclesiastical education the linking of letters and conduct was much
looser. The two elements were separable, and Charlemagne's efforts first to add
letters to conduct, then to reinforce conduct when it was neglected in favor of
letters, show the tendency of the two to separate. No pressing social need held
them together; no philosophical coherence was threatened with rupture by their
separation. The same was not true of civil rhetoric. Well composed manners
were as much a part of it as well composed speeches.
The type of the virtuous orator, then, comes across in Alcuin as part of the
discipline of delivery and oratorical training in general: one requires the virtues
for effective delivery. Virtue had been part of the overarching philosophical
framework of oratory and public service: in Cicero virtue makes the orator good;
in Alcuin it makes him effective. But the requirement of training in mores for the
statesman remains the same in both.
Classical, not ecclesiastical, models provided the guidelines for Alcuin's orator.
He is at pains to argue the legitimacy of the ancient philosophers as authorities
on conduct. 57 One particular phrase in Alcuin's dialogue will prove useful later
in locating and defining classical ideals of behavior. At the end of the work a few
lines of verse are appended corresponding to the verses with which the work
opened.58 They urge young men to put the days of their youth to good use,
learning good speech and cultivating the virtues, learning to treat their "cases"
(causas) with eloquence, so that they can provide their people defense,
protection, and well-being. The poem ends with the lines,
Disce, precor, juvenis, motus moresque venustos,
        Laudetur toto ut nomen in orbe tuum.
"Learn, I beg you, young man, beauty of gestures and of manners, so that your
name will be praised throughout the land." "Beautiful gestures and manners" is a
classical ideal. I have not found an occurrence of it in personal
 

< previous page_33 next page >

page
< previous page_34 next page >
page
Page 34
descriptions from the period. The phrase is uncommon in Alcuin, though not
completely isolated. 59
Alcuin's dialogue on rhetoric in general is a work so isolated in the Carolingian
period that it appears anomalous. Its focus on secular administration isolates it
within Alcuin's own works on the trivium. It lacks the distinctive feature of
Carolingian learning, the submersion of classical models in Christian ones. This
absence is evident if we compare the dialogue with a Carolingian presentation of
rhetoric that does show that feature, that of Hrabanus MaurusAlcuin's pupilon
rhetoric in the De institutione clericorum. The chapter begins,
Rhetoric, as the masters agree, is the science of speaking well in secular
letters and in civil questions.
This could have been a lesson learned from Alcuin's rhetoric.60 But immediately
there follows the element lacking there:
But this definition, though it seems to pertain to worldly knowledge, still it
is not wholly foreign to ecclesiastical discipline. For whatever an orator
and preacher of divine law profers eloquently and decorously, or whatever
he puts forward aptly and elegantly in speech, is in accord with the dictates
of this art; nor should it be considered sinful for a student to practice this
art at an appropriate age.61
The taint of sin clung to rhetoric in the first generation of students following
Alcuin, and Hrabanus had to free the art of this taint and pronounce it legitimate
as an early stage in the education of a preacher. We noticed earlier that Hrabanus
adapted the figure of the orator and its classical definition to the purposes of the
Christian preacher.62 He clearly understood the position of rhetoric in the arts
and appropriated a classical model for ecclesiastical purposes; he indicates that
this art, ancient and pagan though it may be, has a modern application in ''secular
letters and civil questions."
The civil education of a prince is an obvious necessity of rule, and the silence of
sources should not be taken as proof of its absence, particularly in a period as
conscious of both lay and clerical education as the Carolingian. Eloquence was
of practical value to the ruler. Sedulius Scottus makes it into one of the "eight
pillars which . . . uphold the kingdom of a just king . . .": "the fourth [pillar] is
persuasiveness or affability in speech," and a line of verse restates the thought,
"the fourth, eloquence, utters pleasing words."63 The description of
Charlemagne's education in Einhard's biography points to his study of rhetoric
with Alcuin,64 and that gives some minor corrobora-
 

< previous page_34 next page >

< previous page_35 next page >
page
Page 35
tion to the program of the De rhetorica et virtutibus as a practiced curriculum of
rhetoric. But again, we are limited to the figure of Charlemagne himself and his
teacher Alcuin. If Alcuin's introductory verses to those who "desire to learn civil
manners" applied to many courtiers, the traces of this wider instruction are lost.
The picture of lay literacy in Thompson's study shows no signs of
rhetorical/oratorical training among the Carolingian laity generally 65; their
education is not essentially different from that of the clergyat least it is described
in formulae that are not essentially different. Alcuin's tract represents training in
rhetoric and civil manners as actually available at the Carolingian court, but it
was probably restricted to Charlemagne and the narrow circle around him. On
the other hand, the manuscript tradition shows that the work was popular and
fairly widely distributed in the ninth century.66 What we can conclude from it is
that there was an awareness of the classical model of the orators education at the
center of power and educational reform in the late eighth/early ninth century.
Since no Carolingian statesman was actually described in the terms that
traditionally convey this form of education, however, we must at least consider
whether it existed mainly on paper. We can say with some certainty that when
educational programs were translated into practice, the ideal of the statesman/
orator was subordinated to that of the Christian prince or the preacher and
converter.
If the program suggested in the De rhetorica was a reality in the palace school of
Charlemagne, it must have been a kind of "underground" project. Long and
arduous training in "beautiful manners and gestures" may have existed, but it
would have been pulled constantly into the orbit of Christian recastings of bona
conversatio and bonestas morum. The training of a secular statesman/orator in
civiles mores would have been in a constant state of assimilation to the far more
powerful force in educational reform, ecclesiasticae disciplinae.
This picture was to change radically in the middle of the tenth century.
 

< previous page_35 next page >

page
< previous page_36 next page >
page
Page 36

2.
Court and School in Ottonian Times
A New Model: Disciplina Brunonis
Brun of Cologne, brother of Otto the Great, archchaplain and imperial chancellor
(ca. 939-953) and Archbishop of Cologne (953-965), was an educator and
statesman. That the two roles are hard to separate from each other is a symptom
of a new model of education that emerges in the mid-tenth century and comes to
dominate in the eleventh.
We approach it via two texts that describe Brun's activity as teacher. The first is
from his biography, written around 968-969 by Ruotger, a cleric of Cologne and
his former student. He tells of Brun's life at the imperial court, to which his
brother summoned him from his studies at Utrecht. The court in Ruotger's
idealized picture is a kind of philosopher's academy that reached its highpoint
through Brun's influence. He describes it as a place where "through studies,
whatever was obscure in the world could be illuminated." The court attracted
anyone with a sense of his own worth; men oppressed by calumny received
asylum. In Brun they found an exemplar of wisdom, piety, and justice beyond
anything in human memory. Those who came with notions of their own learning
went forth again chastened and convinced of their ignorance. God made Brun his
vessel, and filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding. Brun
stimulated thought on philosophical questions, common and abstruse, and he
restored the seven liberal arts, which had long since fallen into neglect, to a place
of prominence. Whatever new and grand things the historians, orators, poets, or
philosophers bruited about, he diligently scrutinized with learned men of
whatever language, and if one of them distinguished himself for his
understanding, Brun humbly made himself that man's pupil. Debates took place
between the most learned of the Latin and Greek doctors on the most subtle and
highest questions of philosophy, and Brun served as mediator. He raised the level
of Latin eloquence at court, not only his own, but that of many others, and he did
this with no arrogance, but with courtly grace and urbane gravity. He was a
diligent reader, even carrying a portable library with him when the court
traveled. 1
 

< previous page_36 next page >

page
< previous page_37 next page >
page
Page 37
Ruotger considered the subject of Brun as a learned courtier important enough to
devote three chapters of his biography to it. His description stresses intellectual
activities. Philosophical debate focuses on obscure and difficult questions; the
seven liberal arts loom large, and Ruotger sees this as a renewal of a neglected
subject; reading and eloquence appear as autonomous subjects, not as applied
and practical aspects of a statesman's activities. "Letters" in the general sense
predominate. The idea of an ethical formation is not absent, merely
inconspicuous. Ruotger says that Brun himself provides an exemplar of wisdom,
piety and justice. On questions of behavior, Brun was the text that others studied.
This two-fold orientation of teaching activity at court is indicated in the two-fold
gift that Brun received from God: sapientia and intellectus. A court "education"
means absorbing the double light of these two beams that illumine the "student"'s
mind and manners.
The second text presents more fully the ethical thrust of Brun's pedagogy, only
hinted at in his biography. It also shows us that something essential has changed
from Carolingian to Ottonian times. This text describes the education of one of
Brun's pupils at the cathedral school of Cologne, Dietrich, first bishop of Metz
by that name (965-984). The informant is Sigebert of Gembloux, who wrote a
biography of Dietrich around 1050-60. Dietrich, born of high Saxon nobility, had
his first education at the cathedral school of Halberstadt. From his efforts there
he began to show the rich fruits of "inborn nature and manners" resulting from
his "sublime education." 2 After his early studies, he follows his cousin Brun to
Cologne, and becomes the pupil and inseparable companion of the archbishop.
Now begins his "education" by Brun; it is worth quoting the passage in full:
And because he was destined one day to do civil battle in the militia of the
church, he was exercised now over long periods beneath [Brun's] tutelage
in an apprenticeship of liberal studies at the school of the holy church of
Cologne, and laudably stood the test in lengthy exercises. He who would
one day have many, men subject to him to their own utility, learned now
humbly to subject himself; he learned to benefit his subjects, governing
most usefully with humility and discretion. There were in each of these
men talents that each embraced in the other, and, as steel sharpens steel,
the one was edified in emulation of the other's good qualities.3
In the following lines Sigebert stresses the friendship that bound the two men to
each other and strengthened the ties of blood that joined them. This relationship
had its higher significance:
 

< previous page_37 next page >

page
< previous page_38 next page >
page
Page 38
. . . a man destined to so great and important a role in Christ and in the
church, whom mother church had educated as an ornament and a
firmament [foundation] to itself, whom natureor rather the creator of nature
himselfhad provided with the native gift of genius: such a man well
deserved to be instructed and polished in the study and the tutelage of such
a master. As a certain poet puts it,
Learning promotes inborn talent,
And the right exercises strengthen the muscles,
But when manners falter,
Failings mar native virtue. [Horace, Ode 4,4]
The two texts give us a picture of Brun active as a teacher at both court and
cathedral school. The first feature of this picture we should notice is the absence
of Carolingian educational goals. The understanding of Holy Scripture is never
mentioned; preparation for pastoral care and the edification of religion is
nowhere in evidence. Dietrich's "role in Christ and the church" will be "civil
battle." The motives and goals of education in the two texts are secular.
Ruotger's description places the stress on reading and intellectual activity in
itself, not on any religious motive, and if he praises Brun as an exemplar of
justice, wisdom, and piety, the lack of any dramatization of this last quality
shows the small corner into which it shrinks in this biography 4 as opposed to
virtually any Carolingian vita. Likewise Brun's instruction as school master and
bishop of Cologne prepares Dietrich of Metz above all for the worldly affairs of
the empire and the church of Metz.
Here we do learn the goals and motives of education. The long and demanding
discipline imposed on Dietrich by Brun aims at the preparation of one who is to
do "civil battle" on behalf of the church: civiliter militaturus is a key phrase. We
have seen the role of education in civil matters in Carolingian times. It was
present, but minimal, restricted to an education in rhetoric at court for the
emperor and those (apparently few) who wished to learn civiles moresan
education that had little profile in itself, but lived a life borrowed from its source,
Cicero. In Brun's pedagogy preparation for "civil" activity is located in the
cathedral. Dietrich is to administer the church and govern many subjects, and
again the civil life is more in the biographer's eye than the religious. Sigebert
stresses the "utility" of Dietrich's destined rule: "he was to govern many for their
own utility and to benefit his subjects most usefully." The civil causes of the
church are also the end of liberal learning: ''because he was to exert himself in
civil causes, he was exercised in an apprenticeship of liberal studies" (". . . quia
erat . . . civiliter militaturus . . . liberali tyrocinio est exercitatus"Vita Deod.,
 

< previous page_38 next page >

< previous page_39 next page >
page
Page 39
p. 464, l. 48). In the next chapter he describes Dietrich as "a man born for the
utility of many" ("vir ad utilitatem multorum nat [us]"p. 465, l. 17 ); his
stewardship of the church of Metz was given him "for the profit of many"
("profectui plurimorum"p. 465, l. 19). This education subtly shifts the
relationship of praeesse and prodesseruling and doing goodas received from the
Benedictine Rule. The role enjoins the abbot to attempt "to do good rather than
govern.'' 5 The relation between "governing" and "benefiting" is particularly
important here. Christian tradition prior to the Ottonian period continues the
priority given to benefiting as against commanding.6 From Ottonian times on,
"governing" or ruling rises in importance: praeesse in equal measure with
prodesse becomes the formula for a bishop's authority; not so much praeesse as
prodesse the abbot's.
The essential point in the passage from Sigebert's Life of Dietrich is that
governing becomes part of an education preparing more for statesmanship than
for pastoral duties. Insufficient training in "governing" was to be invoked against
the nomination of Wazo to the bishopric of Liège: he had neither learned to
govern, nor had he served the emperor in his chapel. This training in praeesse
was clearly in the context of imperial service, and Wazo's election shows us the
imperial tradition asserting itself against a monastic one intruding into episcopal
elections (see below, Chapter 7).
The learning of human qualities predominates in the description of Dietrich's
education. This element was present in Carolingian education, of course, but
there it was more appropriate to speak of "spiritual formation" than of ethics.
Two features of Brun's influence are especially striking. First is the role of his
personal presence. This is not disciplina regularis. He is not instructing his
cousin in some textbook curriculum of manners. He is shining on him the beam
of his personality. His personal charisma is a course of studies, and his mere
presence is the textbook. This is the thrust of Sigebert's metaphor, "as steel
sharpens steel, the one was edified in emulation of the other's gifts." Brun's
person was exemplary: this is an observation Sigebert shared with Ruotger. The
latter showed Brim as a mirror of justice, piety and wisdom at the emperor's
court "beyond anything human memory can recall," and throughout he stresses
this quality in Brun.7 The motive of writing his biography is to retain the force
of his personal presence in the written word: "We believe that many others can
be taught by the example of his way of living if we recount it summarily from
his youth" (ch. 2, p. 3). Ruotger was trying to capture and preserve in the form of
the written word the transforming effect of Brun's personality.
It is worth noting that Sigebert describes this relationship not only
 

< previous page_39 next page >

< previous page_40 next page >
page
Page 40
with the metaphor of steel sharpening steel but also with vocabulary borrowed
from Neoplatonic conceptions of the creation. Not nature but its auctor gives
Dietrich his inborn genius; God makes him in his own image, transforming him
in turn into an opifex who is to shape good works in the workshop (officina) of
the bishopric (line 18). Brun has the power to imprint himself on others like a
Platonic archetype on raw matter.
The second striking feature is Sigebert's stress on the role of natural talent.
Dietrich is a product of nature, or of the creator of nature, from whom he has
received the native gift of genius:". . . quem natura, immo ipsius auctor naturae,
nativo ingenii bono ditabat. . . ." God of course has more gifts at his disposal to
give future bishops, and we might intuitively expect some of these as well as
ingenium to fall to Dietrich's lot: powers of prophecy, sanctity, contempt for
worldly vanity and so forth. Instead, he receives not any particular characteristic
but rather intellectual potentiality, a tabula rasa of high quality material.
But here we have touched on what was no doubt a major influence of the figure
of Brun. Suddenly the stress on the supernatural in the making of men gives way
to the natural. The talents inborn in men had provided Ruotger with the opening
of his biography. He tries to deal with the mysterious process by which divine
grace parcels out its gifts. On the one hand, man has nothing he has not received
(1. Cor. 4:7); on the other, man in some way deserves what he receives. It is a
theocratic view of man juxtaposed with an aristocratic one. For the apostle, all
gifts are given, and the man without them is dust. For the aristocracy such a
democratizing of privilege is absurd; merits must be inborn and course in the
blood, and the elect of noble birth develops them by discipline. The compromise
position for the Christian is that inborn merits lure divine grace more strongly
than inborn faults. And this is Ruotger's explanation for Brun's talents:
The ineffable providence of God's goodness confers on the elect the
abundant and free gifts of grace. And yet in some sense they merit what
they receive, the one more, the other less. The one and unique spirit
follows its own will in parcelling out to individual men whatever it wishes,
according to the force at work in each. 8
Well might Ruotger call the diversity of human talents "an amazing problem"
(admirabilis questio). His own formulations can do nothing to resolve the
paradox with which it confronts him; they only heighten it. They show divine
grace both operating by its own free will and compelled by the forces at work in
its beneficiaries.
 

< previous page_40 next page >

page
< previous page_41 next page >
page
Page 41
The recurrence of this stress on natural talent in Sigebert's Vita of Dietrich is no
coincidence but an important part of the new model. Sigebert is well informed
about Brun. In a sense, Brun is the leading character of Dietrich's biography, and
Dietrich stands somewhat in his shadow. Brim made Dietrich what he is through
education, made him in the image and likeness of himself. Sigebert praises one
quality especially in Brun: his eye for men of talent and his success in employing
them in the administration of the empire:
To the other skills in which he abounded there is this to add: that he
bestowed his favor and friendship on princes of whatever rank, in whom he
perceived the innocence of the dove, the cunning of the serpent, and
especially the simplicity of sound faith. For men like this he . . . sought and
won the favor of the king two- and three-fold. If perchance a private life
had kept any such man out of the limelight, he perceived the apt moment
for raising him into positions vacated through the death of illustrious men,
and urged them on to good action. He truly became all things to all men . . .
9
The description fluctuates between Brun as proselytizer and Brim as talent scout,
though the man with the eye for religious charisma is clearly overlay and
decoration, and the man with the eye for administrative talent and usefulness in
the affairs of the empire clearly the essential point. He commended his "finds"
not to God's but to the king's favor.
Dietrich's promotion to Bishop of Metz is reported as one such find, and the
lengthy praise of Brun's talents preceding it places the student in the shadow of
his teacher.
The idea of natural talent became part of the tradition of memorializing Dietrich
I of Metz. It was not Sigebert's invention. Alpertus, a monk of St. Symphorian,
writing a history of the bishops of Metz ca. 1006, half a century before Sigebert,
testifies to Dietrich's inborn talents in turns of thought not far from Ruotger's.
After reciting the swashbuckling story of Dietrich's rescue of Otto II near
Rossano in 982,10 he defends Dietrich against the reproach of disloyalty to Otto
III, arguing his superiority to any of his contemporaries:
When I ponder the affairs of all the eminent men of our church, I find
nothing in them that is not surpassed by the elegance of his life. And
anyone who presumes to compare his own conduct favorably to Dietrich's
brings down on himself the charge of arrogance; for many are rendered
rich or illustrious by what others give or steal for them, not by their own
merits. But Dietrich had far more to commend him than high birth and
illustrious ancestors: his fame rested also on the great wealth of
endowments he was born with.11
 
< previous page_42 next page >
page
Page 42
There is one further point to make before we try to locate these texts in a social
and historical setting. The education of Dietrich of Metz shows us clearly a new
goal of learning, but not its content. The textbook is Brun himself; "learning" it
makes a good governor of the church. But what is written in it? The only answer
Sigebert provides is "humility": "There he learned to subject himself humbly and
to benefit his subjects through a humble and judicious administration" ("Discebat
ibi humiliter subesse . . . et subiectis humili et discreta praelatione utillime
prodesse"). Both parts of the sentence place this virtue in the context of
administration, and both make it clear that it is a virtue of a ruler and governor,
not that of a saint; it is a lesson that applies particularly to a man ''destined to be
placed above many" ("qui debebat multis aliquando utiliter praeesse"). It is a
virtue closer to aristocratic deference than to Christian self-denial. 12 It is in a
sense less valuable in itself than as a counterbalance to the pride inevitably
generated by the "great man's" sense of self-worth (Ruotger's epithet for Brun,
Vita Brun., chapter 3, LB, p. 184: magnus vir).
Sparse as this indication of Brun's discipline is, it remains consistent with our
reading of Dietrich's education as a preparation for statesmanship.
***
These passages show us some important features of a new model of education. It
is by and large secular though given and received by clerics; it is for the civil
administration of the church; it integrates the liberal arts into the formation of
mores; its ethical side relies on the charisma of the "great man"; it focuses more
on the development of human talent than the acquisitions of normative, rule-
imposed qualities; notions of supernatural intrusion into the process of education
function more as metaphor than as literal exposition of that process; it aims at
the preparation of administrators and statesmen; it makes great men greater for
civil purposes; its context is the imperial church, the secular and episcopal court.
The texts discussed do not give us a paradigm of that education. They are too
selective. Their information is suggestive of grand lines. They give us the
general contours of this new education, which we can draw in sharper detail by
reference to other texts.
Some readers will have wondered about the value of Sigebert of Gembloux's
testimony to Brun's teaching. He lived and wrote nearly a century after Brun, but
it is easy to validate his testimony. The biography was written during his tenure
as school master at St. Vincent of Metz
 

< previous page_42 next page >

page
< previous page_43 next page >
page
Page 43
(1050ca. 1070/75). While he had grown up in the reformed community of
Gembloux, his years at Metz clearly brought him into close contact with an
imperial see. We have already seen that he shares a number of concerns central
to Ruotger's biography: the role of natural talent, the humility appropriate to the
great man, the importance of statesmanship and exemplary teaching. Virtually
every feature of his description of Brun's teaching finds corroboration in
Ruotger's biography. But after all Brun "as he actually was," or as his
contemporaries actually observed him, is not at issue. At issue is the model of
education we can infer from these texts.
Another work by Sigebert is helpful on this score. In the section he wrote of the
history of the abbots of Gembloux (Gesta abbatum Gemblacensium), 13 he
describes the education of his own teacher, Abbot Olbert. It is very different
from the education of Dietrich of Metz. Olbert was educated from his early
youth "in the discipline of monks according to the rule" ("in disciplina
monachica regulariter"chapter 26, p. 536). Also he was "excellently educated in
the disciplines of letters" (''in studiis litterarum adprime eruditus"loc. cit.). He
studied the seven liberal arts for the sake of later scriptural studies. His own
teaching was directed at the liberal arts, sacred scripture, and moral
improvement. The latter is described at length.14 It is a glimpse at "spiritual
formation" in an eleventh-century monastery. There is not a single echo of
Brun's teaching as presented in Sigebert's Vita Deoderici.
Sigebert distinguished clearly between an education appropriate to the monastery
and one appropriate to the cathedral, a distinction it was not possible to make
sharply in Carolingian times. The two passages from Sigebert show us two
directions in education: one older, monastic, a survival from Carolingian
reforms; the other a new direction, recently emerged. The latter was placed by
Sigebert squarely in a historical/political context he revered and idealized: the
Ottonian empire.
The Imperial Church
The term, "imperial church system," describes the integration of the church into
the administrative apparatus of the empire that occurred as part of a program
implemented by Otto I and his successors.15 The Saxon emperors benefited in
the establishment of an imperial church from two bequests of Carolingian rule: a
quasi-divine aura surrounding the king, and the conception of the king/emperor
as the heir and continuator of the Roman empire and of Roman traditions of rule.
This latter pillar of imperial ideology was
 

< previous page_43 next page >

page
< previous page_44 next page >
page
Page 44
developed and articulated in Ottonian times beyond what was possible in the
Carolingian period. The Ottos also transformed the administrative apparatus in
ways that led them well beyond their Carolingian predecessors. They took a
more aggressive role in the selection and seating of bishops, and they did not
shrink from placing their own relatives and friends in vacant sees, men strictly
loyal to the emperors and to imperial interests. In this way the Ottos built up a
network of political alliances in the kingdom that served as a buffer against the
traditional political opposition of the nobility. And they created an ecclesiastical
institution with an entirely new and much more worldly cast: the ecclesia regni
or ecclesia imperii.
Court and Cathedral
The royal/imperial court played a significant role in this transformation of the
power structures in the empire. A dose personal relationship to the emperor
became one of the decisive elements in determining a man's suitability
(idoneitas) for the office of bishop. Young men were groomed at court, under
the eye of the emperor, for service later in the kingdom. In this way the court
chapel became a training ground and a "school for imperial bishops." 16 The
emperors sought men of talent in monastic and cathedral schools, invited them to
court, and eventually promoted them to the bishopric. This was a common
sequence in the career of an Ottonian bishop: from cathedral school to court
chapel to bishopric.
Courtier Bishops
This development brought a new figure onto the political and cultural scene, the
"courtier bishop," or, in the pithy German phrase, "geistlicher Fürst," "spiritual
prince."17 Brun of Cologne is the prototype of this figure.18 His brother Otto
singles him out (in Ruotger's version of events) for an important diplomatic
mission in time of political crisis, and explains his choice to Brun:
What consoles me most in my present straits is that I see a royal priesthood
sent by the grace of God Allmighty to the aid of our empire. For you
combine in your person the religion of a priest and the strength of a king. .
. .And I have long noted that the mother of all noble arts and the virtue of
true philosophy is yours, and it is she who has educated you to modesty
and greatness of soul.19
 

< previous page_44 next page >

page
< previous page_45 next page >
page
Page 45
An extraordinarily illuminating speechwhether Otto actually spoke it or Ruotger
invented or embroidered it. It gives us one of the dominant political conceptions
of Ottonian rule: the "royal priesthood," borne by the clerical prince who
combines his ecclesiastical duties with obligations to the state (res publicae), and
who requires a wisdom and virtuosity gained in the study of "philosophy." It was
a combination of activities that was not unproblematic for his contemporaries.
Ruotger is at pains to legitimize this mingling of pastoral duties with secular
ones and to protect Brun's name against reproaches leveled at him of excessive
worldly preoccupations. He refers to Old Testament figures who were both priest
and judge and shows all the good that Brun accomplished in the service of the
state: "All that he did was for the good and the benefit of our republic"
(''Honestum namque et utile nostre rei publice fuit omne, quod fecit"chapter 23,
p. 214). This formulation states one of the major goals of clerical political
activity (we have already seen it in passing in Dietrich of Metz's biography:
utilitas ecclesiae, utilitas rei publicae), and it draws on categories borrowed from
Cicero's work on statesmanship, De officiis. The two ethical spheres, honestum et
utile, structure Cicero's work; the task of the statesman is to reconcile them.
The discussion of Otto's letter ordinarily focuses on the phrase regale
sacerdotium. But what interests us here is the role of "philosophy." It is evident
from the above that education plays a major role in the office Otto has mapped
out for his brother. He admires both his priestly princehood and his education
through philosophy; again, as earlier in Ruotger and later in Sigebert of
Gembloux, the result of this education is an array of virtues that combines
deference with greatness, modestia and magnitudo animi. Ruotger said earlier
that Brun "remained meek and gentle, though placed at the very pinnacle of
nobility" ("in maximo nobilitatis fastu humilis et mansuetus erat"ch. 11, p. 11);
and Dietrich learned from Brun how to remain humble while ruling over many
subjects. Probably there is a reflection of the same ideal in Sigebert's observation
that Brun had an eye for men who combined "the meekness of the dove with the
cunning of the serpent" (cf. Matt. 10: 16). At least it shows a similar tension
between skill and a virtue restraining and tempering it. Is this combination then
an individual characteristic of Brun? Since it is repeated by various sources in
formulations that owe nothing to each other, the historian is tempted to believe
it. But it is one of those perplexing situations where the rules for critical reading
of texts are not adequate to the task at hand. Otto the Great (or Ruotger putting
words in his mouth), in praising the influence of
 

< previous page_45 next page >

page
< previous page_46 next page >
page
Page 46
philosophy on Brun, has borrowed another formulation from Cicero, who wrote
of philosophy's influence in the Tusculan Disputations, ". . . philosophy, the
mother of all arts . . . instructed us first in their worship [i.e., the gods] . . . then
in modesty and greatness of soul . . ." 20 Whether or not this is a personal
characteristic of Brun described by Ruotger in a classical formulation does not
matter. It is one of the central educational ideals of the Ottonian courtier bishop:
greatness tempered by humility. It becomes a common formula in praise of
courtier bishops.21 Ruotger's testimony allows us to trace it to the figure of
Brun, who was instrumental in creating, embodying, and transmitting the ideals
of this office, and to observe its literary source in Ciceronian ideals of the
statesman. Other sources show its diffusion to men in the same milieu. It is one
of many ideals of the office of imperial bishop. It is instructive in this context
because it shows us the importance of humanist educational tradition (Cicero)
and of educational practice (Dietrich of Metz's education) in the making of a
courtier bishop. There is a form of education peculiarly tailored for the
political/cultural circumstances of the Ottonian empire. Sigebert names precisely
Brun's pedagogy as the factor that made the next generations of bishops
distinguished: they were "rendered illustrious through Brun's teaching" (ex
disciplina Brunonis).22 This new education was to exercise a powerful
transforming influence on European society and culture long after the political
circumstances that produced and nurtured it had passed from the scene. Brun was
in a position to assure its spread, since his influence in placing bishops was
immense.23
Cathedral Schools
The bearers of this new education were the cathedral schools in alliance with the
royal/imperial court.24 The transformation of the institutions of education
registers in the composition of the court chapel under Otto the Great. The chapel
tripled in size during his thirty-seven-year reign. A specific constituency
accounted for the increase: clerics of high nobility attached to a cathedral. The
number of monks in the chapel decreased. It is possible to observe clear stages
of this shift.25 Before 953, the year in which Brun assumed the archbishopric of
Cologne, Otto's policy with regard to the seating of bishops did not differ
markedly from that of his predecessor, Henry I. After 953 appointments,
particularly in Lorraine but also elsewhere in the kingdom, suddenly began to
fall predominantly to former
 

< previous page_46 next page >

page
< previous page_47 next page >
page
Page 47
pupils of Brun from the cathedral school of Cologne. In 967, two years after
Brun's death just as suddenly and dramatically, the chapel took over the task of
supplying candidates. It appears that Brim transformed the cathedral school of
Cologne into the testing and training ground for future bishops. Upon his death,
this function, which during his lifetime had proven its value, was taken over by
the court chapel. But from the middle of the tenth century on, there is a steep rise
both in the prominence of cathedral schools and in their role in providing royal
chaplains and bishops. A cathedral school education becomes virtually a
requirement for higher office in the imperial church. 26 Monastic education
plays a minor role; in fact it can be a negative factor (the case of Wazo of Liège).
Otto the Great and Brun of Cologne evidently found a consistent and sustaining
purpose for the institution of cathedral schools, and this gave those schools a
profile they had not had in Carolingian times. They take on the task of training
talented young men in statesmanship and administrative duties. Cathedral school
education becomes identical with preparation for service at court, be it secular or
episcopal. This development is of fundamental importance for our understanding
of the social and political context of the new model.
This view of the new purpose of cathedral schools is also borne out by the
observable growth of the schools in both Germany and France in the period. In
the mid-tenth century they begin to flourish dramatically. We hear praise of the
Magdeburg school in mid-century, of the great crowds of students there, of the
intense interest in secular studies aroused by the "second Cicero," Master
Ohtricus, a teacher of such distinction and learning that he was later to debate
with Gerbert of Aurillac in Ravenna before Otto II and his court.27 By 952
Würzburg is flourishing under an Italian master, Stefan of Novara, called to the
north by Otto the Great and Bishop Poppo of Würzburg. By 953 the Cologne
school comes into prominence under the episcopacy of Brun. This school will
produce some of the most illustrious intellectuals, statesmen, educators, and
bishops of the next generation. By 954 we hear Hildesheim praised as a center of
learning; by 956 Trier. In the last quarter of the century, under the guidance of
the next generation of scholarsmany of them students of BrunWorms, Liège,
Mainz, Speyer, Bamberg, and Regensburg come to life. In France Rheims
experiences a renewal under Gerbert, and some decades later Chartres comes to
prominence under Gerbert's pupil, Bishop Fulbert (1006-1028). These schools
are regularly referred to as "a second Athens," the better loved teachers as
"noster Plato," "noster Socrates,'' "alter Cicero." In a commem-
 

< previous page_47 next page >

page
< previous page_48 next page >
page
Page 48
orative poem from around 1012, Bamberg is praised as the "city of letters [or
learning], [its citizens] no wit inferior to the Stoics, greater than the Athenians."
28
In short, some twelve major cathedral schools arosewith the direct impetus of
imperial patronagein the comparatively brief space of sixty years, and others that
had existed in varying degrees of obscurity emerged into the light. This is just
the first generation of foundations. The students of Gerbert and Fulbert of
Chartres founded or revived the major cathedral schools of France in the middle
and later eleventh century.29 This sudden and dramatic renewal is consistent
with the other developments in the kingdom mentioned earlier. It represents the
institutionalizing of the education developed to serve a church integrated into the
system of imperial administration.
Humanist Learning at the Schools
Ottonian politics required the transmission of ideals of an office that proved so
useful to the emperor's interests. The institutionalizing of this task has to be
reckoned one of the great accomplishments of Ottonian times. The new or
renewed cathedral schools now taught a new curriculum. Certainly learning in
itself remained an object of interest and admiration, but the fundamental purpose
was the formation of men who would work well at court and in the episcopate
and serve the utilitas ecclesiae et rei publicae, the kind of men Brun was praised
for seeking: "energetic and industrious men, who with loyalty and all their might
will look after the republic, each in his own place" (Vita Brun., chapter 37, LB,
p. 234).
This goal of caring for the state and defending its interests commended the model
of classical education to these new institutions. Indeed, there was no other model
for the education of statesmen than a classical one, formulated most prominently
by Cicero, Seneca, and Quintilian. Christianity, understandably, had responded
only very sluggishly to this need. Statesmanship required an affirmation of
worldly values such as the active life, secular affairs, and service of the state. It
also required education of a kind that Christian orthodoxy never could fully and
unreservedly affirm. Virtually the only canonical work of a Christian author that
attempted such a resolution of classical education with the Christian life was
Ambrose's De officiis ministrorum ecclesiae, which itself appropriated large parts
of its model, Cicero's handbook of statesmanship, De officiis. Bernard of Clair-
 

< previous page_48 next page >

page
< previous page_49 next page >
page
Page 49
vaux's De consideratione is the closest the High Middle Ages came to
combining orthodoxy with statesmanship. The role of Christian orthodoxy was
to limit, never to extend, the bounds of what could legitimately be rendered unto
Caesar; it tended to subordinate the art of governing (praeesse) to the pastoral
duty of helping (prodesse). But when policy imposed such an extension the
stocks of Cicero, Seneca and the Roman classical tradition invariably rose.
Letters and Manners
Our entry into the new education is the formula mentioned in the Introduction,
letters and manners. Carolingian education had also been two-fold. If the formula
occurred, it was not programmatic, just descriptive. But the intention and nature
of this combination of intellectual and ethical learning changed in Ottonian
times. The two became closely and logically knit. The nature of "manners"
changed radically compared with the "ecclesiastical disciplines" of the earlier
period, and the influence of ''manners" on letters in the new model is another
strong distinguishing factor. After the mid-tenth century the phrase "letters and
manners" became the bearer of a program.
It occurs in a variety of forms in descriptions of cathedral school education:
litterae et mores, sapientia et mores, ingenium et mores. As school master at
Trier (ca. 957) Wolfgang, later Bishop of Regensburg, taught not only "liberal
learning" but also "moral doctrines." 30 Wazo as school master at Liège (1008-
1042) is said to have given instruction in the disciplines "of manners as well as
letters."31
The education of Bernward of Hildesheim (d. 1022) gives us an interesting
insight into the social context of the formula. In his youth he was sent to school
"to be imbued with letters and trained in manners" (litteris imbuendus, moribus
etiam instituendus). Later he entered the imperial court during the regency of
Theophanu, and became the favorite of the empress. She entrusted her son, the
future emperor Otto III, to Bernward, "to be imbued with letters and trained in
manners."32 For this biographer it was possible without any qualifications to
describe a future bishop's and a future emperor's education with the same terms.
This indicates the process of assimilation that took place between education at
court and at cathedral school in the period.
These phrases are certainly not topoi without much content cribbed
 

< previous page_49 next page >

page
< previous page_50 next page >
page
Page 50
from ancient notions on the education of an orator. Examples that occur outside
the standard topical section of a vita on the subject's education show clearly the
vitality of the formula. A student, or several students, at Würzburg wrote a poem
in 1031 in answer to an attack on their school by the scholars of Worms. The
poem praises the virtues of their school at length and calls it a flowing spring out
of which one drinks the "doctrine of eloquence and of proper conduct of life"
("recte vivendi et dogma loquendi"). 33 That is, their school teaches rhetoric,
oratory and poetry (proper speaking), and ethics (proper living), clearly a variant
of "letters and manners.'' In the context of an answer to an attack the phrase had
to convey something of substance. Whether or not the school of Würzburg
poured forth this two-fold doctrine as abundantly as its students claimed, such a
doctrine had to exist. The students of Worms could not have been answered with
an empty phrase.
A more telling example is from a letter written around 1060 by the Bamberg
school master Meinhard, later bishop of Würzburg (1085-1088). The letter must
be considered an important text in the history of education in the eleventh
century. Meinhard answers a request from his bishop, Gunther of Bamberg, for a
book on the Christian faith. He begins,
First you entangle me in all the busy cares of a headmaster, and now you
are after me . . . for another work, a task not just arduous but downright
impossible.
He goes on with this interesting complaint:
If the only task placed in my care were the instruction of young minds in
the liberal artsand many earlier writers argue for this single curriculumthen
the rigors of the task and the reputation gained by it would be sufficient
pay for me. Now however, those placed at the head of schools are taxed in
a dual function for the profit of the church: for they spend the first part of
their fortunes in forming manners and squander the second part in teaching
letters.34
Here "letters and manners" cannot be an empty topos. School masters do not
groan under the burden of meaningless formulae, certainly not when they explain
to their bishops why they lack the time to write books. And bishops cannot be
persuaded how hard their staff is working by the appeal to non-existent schemes
of studies, any more than deans and provosts now can. Meinhard actually taught
something called "manners," and it took much of his time, time he would rather
have devoted to liberal
 

< previous page_50 next page >

page
< previous page_51 next page >
page
Page 51
studies. He teaches this "subject" as part of a required curriculum, one not of his
own design but imposed on him by considerations of the "church's profit" (usus
ecclesiae). Meinhard's sense of the history of this double instruction within other
schemes of studies is also interesting. It is comparatively recent. He can refer to
a time when masters got along without it. And while it is, unfortunately, not
clear who or what is meant by the studia veterum, Meinhard knew Cicero and
Quintilian well enough not to include them among the earlier writers who argued
for a curriculum in the liberal arts alone. In any case it is the school masters of
the present ("Verum nunc qui prefecti scolarum habentur") who are taxed
doubly, not just in Bamberg but at schools generally. The passage shows us
"letters and manners'' as a program and imposed curriculum of studies, the two
inseparable from one another. It shows us a school master complaining about the
problems of maintaining the union of the two. It also tells us a goal of this
"double instruction": it is given pro ecclesiastico usu, for the profit of the
church.
All this is good testimony to the institutionalizing of a program of studies and to
its applied goal. Ethical instruction is not given pro scholarium usu alone, but for
the service of the church. But apparently this instruction has next to nothing to
do with Christian doctrine and scriptural studies. These are not, as in Carolingian
times, the content of an education useful to the church; at least they are not
specifically mentioned as such. After all, Meinhard is protesting that this
instruction is preventing him from writing his work, "On the Faith" (De fide,
which eventually got written). In this letter he is far from seeing common ground
between his teaching duties and his interest in the faith. Also we have it from a
contemporary of Meinhard, Goswin (Gozechin), school master first at Liège,
later at Mainz, that Meinhardalong with Hermann of Rheims and
otherseventually gave up his worldly studies to devote himself to theology. 35
The passage does not tell us the content of those "ambitions abandoned, labors
and studies abdicated," but it does show us a constellation common in the
eleventh century: "studies" at the schools are something different from what
Goswin calls theologia. Usus ecclesiae and utilitas ecclesiae are served by
studies, and the pursuit of theology means a kind of retirement from the life of
the schools.
Meinhard gives us a second piece of testimony to the reality of this formula. In
another letter he commiserates with an unknown recipient on the death of the
master of his school: now studies have died, the "light of letters" (lumen
litterarum) is snuffed out, and "the moral discipline most excellently established
and of long standing" is dead and buried. But Meinhard acknowledges with
gratitude the arrival at Bamberg of a youth from
 

< previous page_51 next page >

< previous page_52 next page >
page
Page 52
this bereaved diocese, who has been sent to the Bamberg "workshop" for an
education, so that those two marks of the school's former excellence, "letters and
manners", may be revived upon his return. 36 Again, this is an extraordinarily
clear example of the real existence of "letters and manners" as a scheme of
studies. The diocese seeking a new master clearly feels an obligation to retrain
its candidate according to this program. The scholar does not shape the
curriculum; the curriculum shapes the scholar.
The choice of the Bamberg school as a "workshop" to prepare a master of
"letters and manners" made good sense. Bamberg gained a reputation for
precisely this orientation of studies. In 1115 the canons of Bamberg received a
letter from their colleagues at Worms commending their bishop elect, Burchard
II, and requesting Bamberg's support for his appointment. Burchard is a former
student of Bamberg, they say (vestris institutis fundatus a puericia), a "son of
Bamberg . . . in the science of letters, in skill for practical affairs, in good
manners, in the gift of good judgment."37 Whether this is flattery, panegyric, or
a deserved reputation, it shows a desirable curriculum for a school of future
bishops: letters and manners, skill in governing or administering (rerum
agendarum pericia), and good judgment, presumably the kind a
bishop/administrator, not an intellectual, requires.
 

< previous page_52 next page >

page
< previous page_53 next page >
page
Page 53

3.
The New Education Institutionalized: Schools of Manners
The cathedral schools of Germany and France became the institutional locus of
this program in our period This Chapter surveys the major schools and the
sources that indicate instruction in mores. The arrangement is roughly
chronological, starting from the earliest documents that mention ethical training
This will allow us to scan the descriptions of studies and form an idea of
common educational programs, of their development, and of the conceptual
vocabulary of mores.
Cologne
Brun and his school at Cologne were the center from which civil education
radiated. The main documents from the second half of the tenth century were
discussed in the previous Chapter For the eleventh the sources are not rich. They
suggest that the reputation of Cologne as a center of learning was maintained, but
that the actual accomplishment was small and little noted. The school did not
produce a single bishop in the period 1002-1125. 1 It nonetheless offered the full
range of studies, as we see in the description of Wolfhelm of Brauweiler's
education during the episcopacy of Heribert (999-1021):
. . . in addition to the pages of sacred scripture, he penetrated all that the
poet sang, all that the eloquent orator declaimed, all that the philosopher
thought out, borne on the wings of higher understanding. . . . There was
such gravity and maturity of manners [gravitas, maturitas morum] in him
that all who saw him recognized in him a chosen man. . . . He ignored the
foolish stories and wanton pastimes of other youths, he abhorred the
venomed tongues of flatterers. His gravity was like an anchor, holding him
safe from foolish speech and a wanton gaze, and controlling all the
gestures and stirrings of his body [totius motus corporis anchora cohibebat
gravitatis]. The master of the schools, seeing his progress in the disciplines
of all the virtues [in omnium virtutum disciplinis],
 

< previous page_53 next page >

page
< previous page_54 next page >
page
Page 54
rejoiced to have imposed studies on him, since he saw him attaining the
pinnacle of perfection. 2
As a result of these qualities, the school master made Wolfhelm his assistant,
and the school attracted many students.
While he studied scripture, literature, and "philosophy," his progress in virtue is
what predominates in the passage; his personal qualities account for his
advancement. The passage contains a phrase of considerable importance for our
purposes: "His gravity was like an anchor holding him safe from foolish speech
and a wanton gaze, and controlling all the gestures and stirrings of his body."
Virtue is a force that controls the motions and gestures of the body. In other
words, he walked, spoke, and gestured well, and these are the visible signs of his
inner "gravity and maturity of manners." It is a short step from this to the
pedagogic conclusion that the disciplining of the body to ideals of grace,
moderation, and self-control is a means of cultivating virtue.
Wolfhelm's biography was written between 1110 and 1123. The author was a
monk of Brauweiler, Konrad, whose personal acquaintance with Wolfhelm dates
from 1070 (see DGQ 2.645-46). It seems fairly likely therefore that his
conception of Wolfhelm's education derives from the eleventh century, even if it
cannot be taken as an infallible witness to the actual education of Wolfhelm in
the first half of that century. The least we can conclude is that Konrad of
Brauweiler was familiar with this pedagogy at the latest by 1123, and that
probably it was functioning at the school of Cologne considerably earlier.
Liège
Liège, not Cologne, is the crucial center for the diffusion of the new model of
education developed under Brim. Bishop Eraclius (959-971) was the first to
restore learning to Liège after the decline in late Carolingian days.3 He was a
Saxon, a student of Brun and Rather of Verona. Eraclius was appointed bishop
through the direct intercession of Brun of Cologne.4 Anselm of Liège's
comments about his influence on the schools are often referred to but seldom
read in context. The passage in Anselm's Gesta reads as follows:
Because Eraclius was firmly grounded in elegant probity of manners and
the liberal learning of virtue [or good behavior: honestas], and because he
had long
 

< previous page_54 next page >

page
< previous page_55 next page >
page
Page 55
since completed from beginning to end the course in liberal studies and
memory with our countrymen from that time, he took pains to establish
schools throughout the churches. 5
It not only credits him with founding schools, but gives his credentials, which
are two-fold: "elegant probity of manners and knowledge of virtue" on the one
hand, and liberal studies on the other.6 The passage is instructive. We learn from
it that Eraclius brought "elegant manners and virtue" to Liège from the royal
chapel and court. "Liberal studies" were what he received "long since" from
masters in or near Liège (aput nostrates). On the origin of the Liège school the
passage is unambiguous: it was established on the basis of a two-fold learning:
elegant manners or probity (honestas) and liberal studies.
The successor of Eraclius was Notker of Liège (972- 1008), a Swabian, who is
generally credited with establishing Liège as a great city and center of
education.7 Notker's biographer, writing at the end of the eleventh century, gives
the lines of his early career:
And so from his studies of letters he also received ornaments of his
manners and, having progressed laudably in both disciplines, he deservedly
was called from the schools to the palace. There among wise and good
menonly wise and good men attended the king at that timehe shone so
brightly for the strength of his counsel and his action, that because of his
gift of honestas he passed from the palace to the leadership of the church
of Liège, having been chosen by the vows and demands of clergy and
populace and by the favor of the prince. There at long last this most
illustrious man found the place in which his virtue would become
effective. . . .8
Anselm praises Notker as "highly distinguished for the elegance of his manners,
though a German."9 Again, virtue and learning are the moving forces in his
advancement to the court chapel and the bishopric of Liège. Unfortunately we do
not know where Notker took his early studies.10
Wazo was school master under Notker (ca. 1005-ca. 1030) before becoming
bishop (1042-48). Anselm describes him as "imbued with the example [of
Notker] and instructed in his learning, but also adding his own virtues, received
as a divine gift."11 Anselm was in awe of Wazo and described how the bishop's
presence could bring him out of countenance:
Woe to me, miserable as I amI hardly dare admit itso unworthy and filled
with confusion, when he would deign to speak to me with his sweet
speech, excellent knowledge and elegant genius.12
 

< previous page_55 next page >

< previous page_56 next page >
page
Page 56
As school master Wazo taught both letters and manners, and he favored those
who excelled in manners over those who were merely skilled in letters. Students
left his school instructed in letters, manners and religion. 13
Anselm wrote around 1056 and complained about the collapse of discipline in
the schools. He praised the "golden age" of Bishop Notker, "when in the chapels
of the emperor no less than in those of bishops nothing more was pursued than
the discipline of manners along with the study of letters!"14 We learn from this
that "letters and manners" had been the curriculum alike of emperor's chapel and
bishops' schools, and that by the mid-eleventh century a member of the Liège
community could lament its passing from the schools.
Anselm's contemporary Gozechin or Goswin taught at Liège between 1044 and
1057.15 In his letter to his former student at Liège, Walcher, he contrasts the
schools of the present (i.e., ca. 1065) with Liège in its heyday: "[Liège] guides,
educates and instructs [its students] in all things civil, and in manners."16 That
was in the past. Nowadays, he continues, the schools suffer from rejecting mores
and disciplina; young students flee instruction in "the gravity of moral
discipline" (XXVII, p. 31). He looks back on the golden age of the schools, when
the gravity of discipline ruled and all studies were for the utility of the republic
and of honestas, when the beauty of virtues and the liberal arts flourished. He
laments the passing of this age (chapter XXXIV,, pp. 36-37). Goswin located all
that was good in the schools in Liège, and clearly "moral discipline," civil
matters, and the study of virtue loomed large.
Rheims
The learning of Rheims in our period has its beginnings in the efforts of
Archbishop Adalbero to revive the school, beginning in 969. But the flowering
of these efforts occurs under Gerbert of Aurillac.17 The sources that describe his
teaching say nothing about instruction in mores.18 The priorities of the sources
may have filtered out the subject of mores. But there can be no doubt that
Gerbert exerted influence in this area, even if we have no reports of it in the
narrower context of his teaching at Rheims. Otto III's letter inviting Gerbert to
his court in order to banish their "Saxon rusticity"19 may indicate the emperor's
perception of his usefulness in regard to manners and conduct, though the only
areas of instruction expressly men-
 

< previous page_56 next page >

page
< previous page_57 next page >
page
Page 57
tioned are composition and mathematics. But the emperor also says he is to
exercise the studium correctionis and advise him in state affairs, and this
indicates areas closer to mores (though "correction" applies as well to
composition as to behavior).
In Gerbert's answer the teacher's concern with the discipline of conduct is
evident when he praises the dual studies of his future pupil, mathematics and
moral philosophy: ". . . unless you embraced the gravity of moral philosophy,
humility, guardian of all virtues, would not thus be impressed upon your words."
20 It is worth noting in this connection that Gerbert described himself as a "a
faithful executor of the precepts of Cicero in both state affairs and in leisure,"21
and claimed that he always strictly identified the "study of living well" with the
"study of speaking well," in accordance with the precepts of philosophy and of
Cicero.22 This dual study became programmatic for the schools, and the
Ciceronian formulation, studium bene vivendi, was taken over directly. Gerbert's
mention of moral philosophy and studium bene vivendi in relation to his state
affairs and tutoring of the emperor reminds us again that the new education had a
dual context: court and cathedral school.23
These are the few clues to a teaching of mores through Gerbert, and it is curious
that the testimony is sparse and indirect. But we can complement them with
accounts from the Rheims community more or less contemporary with Gerbert.
A poem by a monk of St. Remi of Rheims written in the mid-980s gives us a
good introduction to the ethical vocabulary and concepts at the disposal of a
learned member of the Rheims community contemporary with Gerbert. It also
shows us the intellectual atmosphere of that community very clearly. It is a
fulsome panegyric on Constantine, school master of Fleury and later Abbot of
Micy, a close friend and correspondent of Gerbert. Its diction and grammar are
abstruse; its dense and hermetic learned allusions and its many Greek words
make it hard to read. But its description of Constantine speaks the language of
cultus virtutum.24
Constantine is a man of great merit, not only for his high birth (he descends from
the long-haired Frankish kings-2-3), but also because of nature's gifts. His
character is of high distinction: he is made "all things to all men" (26); Wisdom
herself was his educator from youth on; she has built herself a temple in this
"man magnificent above others and always loveable" and has ornamented it with
"the excellent light of virtues" (33-40); he combines the chastity of the dove with
the cunning of the serpent (44-47); he beams "nobility of merits" like a light, and
is famed for his
 

< previous page_57 next page >

page
< previous page_58 next page >
page
Page 58
"probity of manners" (morum probitate celebris7071); he is a "mirror of justice,
hosanna of kings, 25 illumination of the learned, an ornament and model for
monks" (90-91). He is also impressive physically, and his beauty is the visible
symbol of his inner excellence (Vultu conspicuus, mentis pietate decorus87).
The point is stressed, and it is an important element of portraits of men in this
milieu:
Since, finally, it is regarded as true that the body's acts are the sign of the
mind, and the intellect displays itself in action, you are, in our judgement,
worthy of that great praise of your body that fame bruits about the whole
world.26
Constantine is also distinguished for his learning and mental acumen.27 He
searches the peaks of high heaven (25); he is the "light of the study of rhetorical
speech" (fandi/Rethorici cultus lumen53); the poet claims that his own wit and
skill come entirely from Constantine (54); he is the "light of the learned" (91).
The skill given the highest profile is the composition of poetry: the phrase
psalmatio regum (90), which I translate as "hosanna of kings," probably makes
him into a harpist on the model of David before Saul; he has written "many an
ode" for the poet, who promises to cherish them perpetually since they allude to
their happy love: ''These pages will bring happiness when your presence cannot"
(106-8). The poet imagines himself climbing up Parnassus and conjuring from
there the words and matter of praise for his song: "Ah, dear lyre, sing songs,
flowing forth in apt tones, for the man who deserves worship for the probity of
his manners, but only such [songs] as are worthy of the Sophoclean stage" (62-
64).28
Nothing indicates that his learning is in the area of sacred scripture. There are
scriptural reminiscences in the poets diction, but the classical tradition
predominates in his conceptualizing of poetry and composition.
The poem shows a cult of friendship in full blossom. Constantine is a "beloved
companion" and "sweetest doctor" (52). Anyone who had loved him happily for
ages must wish to have him as "patron, constant companion, lord" (84-85). These
lines indicate a courtship in progress. Perhaps Constantine is a candidate as
bishop or abbot. The writer stresses that the "brothers of the Remigian cottage"
are his faithful friends (75), who miss him, and jokingly complains that he has
not fulfilled his promise to visit them (99-105); if he were to become their
"greatest part" he would receive love and devotion equal to his honor (95-98).
But the language of friendship is not explainable just in terms of
 

< previous page_58 next page >

page
< previous page_59 next page >
page
Page 59
Constantine's candidacy for the abbacy. This language is establishing itself at the
imperial court and the cathedral communityor the community of the educated
clergy at Rheims more generallyat just this time. This cult of love and friendship
is an important characteristic of the cathedral schools of the period. 29 Gerbert
himself may be its prime mover, or one of them. At least the tone of love that
characterizes the poem to Constantine is present in Gerbert's letters and tracts
and at the court of Otto III.30
One final observation: The poem came from the monastic community of St.
Remi in Rheims, not the cathedral. It was written by a monk for the school
master of Fleury (also a monastic community) and future abbot of Micy. But the
worldliness of its tone is evident. None of the themes of reformed monasticism
are in evidence. On the contrary, it is clearly a community of men who define
themselves as scholars, poets and statesmen/administrators (Constantine is
among those who "wish to function well and laudably in the world through their
actions"; "Qui . . . vigere cupit seclo laudabilis actu"18).
Though the testimony to Gerbert's influence on the teaching of manners is scant,
it is certain that the subject was prominent at the cathedral school of Rheims in
the late tenth and early eleventh century.
Bishop Gerhard I of Cambrai (1012-1051) had his early education there and
probably was a student of Gerbert.31 The author of the Gesta episcoporum
Cameracensium describes his education there as follows:
Beneath the liberal teaching [of his relative Archbishop Adalbero of
Rheims (969-989)] he would experience both the norm of religion
appropriate to the church and the discipline of worldly ethics.32
The passage is valuable for showing the "norm of religion" as distinguishable
from "worldly ethics" (mundana honestas), and for showing both as subjects of
"liberal'' education.
Hugh of Flavigny, writing at the turn of the eleventh to the twelfth century, gives
a broader picture of the subjects taught at Rheims in the early eleventh century.
Virtue, manners, behavior loom large:
At that time this church flourished so brilliantly in religion, and it did itself
such honor in the virtuous multitude and seemly virtuousness of the men of
nobility and of religion whom it educated, that in respect to religion it
outshone all other churches of Belgium, and it was for all a model of the
virtuous life and of proper behavior [forma honeste vivendi recteque
conversandi], in chastity, in learning, in discipline, in the correction of
behavior, in its display of good works.33
 
< previous page_60 next page >
page
Page 60
The education of Richard of St. Vannes, described by his biographer at the
beginning of the twelfth century, is consistent with this picture. Richard was sent
to Notre-Dame of Rheims as a young boy, "to be taught letters and to be
instructed in the canonical rule." The result of his learning was that he advanced
so far, "both in the gift of learning and in the elegance of his life and manners"
that he was appointed precentor and deacon in the church of Rheims. 34
Elegance and learning appear here as qualifications for office acquired in a
cathedral school education. It may be that Richard also was a student of Gerbert
(Lèsne, Les écoles, 1: 280). But a few formulations in the above passages caution
us against reading them straight. At the Rheims cathedral school he is said to
have received "instruction in the canonical role." This is a technical term in the
training of novices (see below, Chapter 9), something different from mores or
honestas, which are distinguishable from anything called regula. Probably both
Hugh of Flavigny and the biographer of Richard looked back from the
perspective of a religious reform whose more ascetic ideals had become
entrenched and had in part dislodged the more worldly ethical training, at least in
the imaginations of biographers writing the lives of the movement's leaders. The
atmosphere of St. Remi of Rheims, as represented in the poem to Constantineits
focus on poetry, friendship, and personal virtueis not in evidence in the
descriptions of Richard's education at Rheims. But that is a bias of the texts, not
a reliable insight into moral training under Gerbert and his successors.
The texts described below were written several decades earlier (though they
describe a period a few decades later) and they are not subject to that bias.
In 1023 Archbishop Ebalus of Rheims (1021-33) received a letter from Fulbert
of Chartres commending his former student Hubertus, presently studying at the
school of Rheims. He transferred to Rheims, Fulbert says, "for the sake of
learning proper behavior" (causa discendae honestatis),35 and he adds that this
was the same subject that had brought him to Chartres. Apparently the form of
honestas taught at Rheims was different enough from that of Chartres that the
transfer seemed sensible to Fulbert.36
Rheims clearly excelled in the subject. Meinhard of Bamberg wrote a letter (ca.
1057-67), reminiscing nostalgically about his own studies. It probably refers to
his two years at Rheims under master Hermann:
That way of living [convictus] into which you received me in so
profoundly humane a manner was more free and noble, more effective and
practical [ad utilitatem efficacius], more scrupulous in the cultivation of
elegance [ad elegan-
 

< previous page_60 next page >

page
< previous page_61 next page >
page
Page 61
tiam accuratius], more conducive to the highest a man can attain [ad
sublimitatem exquisitius] than any other whatsoever, even if my thickness
of mind deprived me of its richer fruits. 37
Meinhard is not recollecting challenges of the mind or intellectual activity of any
kind. This learning cultivates a personal quality, called here "elegance," through
a shared life of master and pupil. Its practical benefits are indicated directly in
utilitas, and less directly, though still distinctly, in sublimitas, which may mean
both the perfect life and the highest rank or office a man can attain. It does not
indicate piety and the religious life, though that undoubtedly formed part of the
teaching at Rheims, as other sources have indicated. The secular nature of the
shared interests that still bound the Bamberg master to his former teacher is
underscored by his request in the same letter for a copy of Cicero's Verrine
orations and a commentary on Terence.
Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order, probably succeeded Hermann as
magister scholarum.38 One of his epitaphs says of him, "Bruno both possessed
and transmitted the true knowledge and prudence of the liberal arts and the other
cardinal virtues."39
Godfrey of Rheims succeeded Bruno as chancellor and school master in 1076 or
1077.40 He represents the highpoint of humanist poetry at Rheims and is
mentioned alongside Hildebert, Baudri and Marbod as one of the highpoints of
Latin poetry of the Middle Ages.
Baudri of Bourgueil wrote a poem in praise of Godfrey, in which he includes a
brief survey of the schools.41 He praises the Rheims school as the most
flourishing of all the flourishing schools of France, a second Rome. He describes
Bruno as "a mirror of the study of the Latins" (l. 100). Herimannus was a "bright
beacon of study" (l. 102). Godfrey himself is praised as a resident in the home of
the muses; the spirit of the ancient poets lives in him; he possesses the gravity of
Virgil and the lightness and wit of Ovid (cf. ll. 5-8, and Williams, p. 31). He
praises mainly Godfrey's poetic gift: he has the power to immortalize those he
sings of. Baudri hopes to receive some of the immortality he has to bestow. The
poem aims at knitting the friendship between the two men, and only touches in
general reflections on the moral power of poetry (cf. ll. 159-62, 181-82, 197-98).
Godfrey's own poems give us a much richer picture of the cultivation of mores,
but they appear to convey the ideals of mores as general social values, useful in
poetic portraits, and not specifically learned habits taught in school (see below,
Chapters 4 and 5). The problematic figure of Manas-
 

< previous page_61 next page >

page
< previous page page_62 next page >
Page 62
ses I of Rheims, whose person and manners contradicted much that moralitas
aimed at, may have something to do with the sparsity of references to the school
training in the subject in the late eleventh century at Rheims (see below, Chapter
5).
Chartres
Fulbert studied at Rheims with Gerbert. The student he recommended to Ebalus
of Rheims had originally come to Chartres to study honestas (p. 60 above). The
biographer of Angelran of St. Riquier calls Fulbert Angelran's "guardian and
instructor in both manners and letters." 42 Adelman of Liège praised his former
teacher Fulbert, in his poem De viris illustribus sui temporis in telling phrases:
Ah, with what dignity and diligence in questions of mores,
With what gravity in subject matter,
What sweetness in words
He explained the mysteries of higher knowledge.43
The praise is directed to the teacher's manner: dignity, gravity and eloquence are
qualities of Fulbert, not of the text he discusses. Here again the person of the
teacher, his virtues and his carriage rouse students' enthusiasm. Eloquence and
noble bearing were what students wanted from Fulbert, probably as much as
illumination of the "mysteries of higher knowledge." Fulbert's student Hildegar is
praised in the same poem for having taken over and made his own the masters
facial expression, tone of voice, and manners.44 This same Hildegar who made
himself into a copy of Fulbert wrote a letter to the master with two requests: to
correct a little work of his (opusculum) and to correct his vice of anger.45
Hildegar clearly regarded both his literary and his moral improvement, his letters
and his manners, the province of his teacher. I find no references to the teaching
of mores from the time of Fulbert until Bernard of Chartres.46
Speyer
Walther of Speyer, writing in 984, describes liberal studies at Speyer in detail,
but makes no mention of instruction in mores.47 We can learn from
 

< previous page page_62 next page >

< previous page_63 next page >
page
Page 63
his Libellus scolasticus that that same artificial and overladen classicizing style
of poetry we observed in the poem to Constantine from Rheims was thoroughly
entrenched at Speyer in the same period. It may be that the strict adherence to
the seven liberal arts with no mention of mores is the continuing tradition of St.
Gall, which Walther's teacher, Bishop Balderich (970-986) introduced into
Speyer. 48
Speyer's role in imperial politics came not with the Ottonian, but with the Salian
dynasty, and its school grew in size and stature in the eleventh century. In the
major school text from Speyer in mid-century, behavior and manners suddenly
loom large. Onulf of Speyer in his Colores rhetorici subordinates the entire
discipline of rhetoric to "elegance of manners, composition of bearing and
dignity of behavior."49
Adelman of Liège was school master in Speyer between 1044 and 1050. Though
no sources testify to his activity there, we can assume that the influence of both
Liège and Chartres will have come with him.
Benno of Osnabrück studied at Speyer in this same period. His biographer makes
a remark that is worth pointing to in this context, if only to call for an
explanation. He says that at that time the "brilliant imperial study, including the
study of letters," burned bright everywhere, but nowhere so brightly as at Speyer,
and this attracted throngs of students.50 Speyer had close contacts with the
imperial court, and the term "school for diplomats" may not be altogether
appropriate, but the Speyer school educated prominent members of the court and
prominent imperial bishops.51
Bamberg
The school at Bamberg appears to have played an important part in the staffing
of imperial offices virtually since its founding in 100752 We have cited a
number of significant references to the teaching of mores by Meinhard, school
master from about 1060 until his appointment as Bishop of Würzburg in 1085
(pp. 50-52 above). The fundamental unity of educational purpose tying Bamberg
to Liège is evident in a letter from Bishop Hermann of Bamberg (written ca.
1065-1075 by Meinhard in the bishop's name) to the bishop of Liège, in which
Hermann commends a student of Bamberg to the school of Liège, "so that, once
tempered in the workshop of your school in regard to both manners and
discipline . . ., he may be resplendent as an ornament of our church," and he
closes by reminding his fellow bishop that the educational traditions of Bamberg
had their origins in Liège.53
 

< previous page_63 next page >

page
< previous page_64 next page >
page
Page 64
Bishop Otto of Bamberg is the embodiment of what an education in manners
aimed at. 54 We touch on him again in a later Chapter, since his biographies are
all from the mid-twelfth century. However we have a letter from Bishop Otto, at
least written in his name, offering a scholar (addressed only as F.) the vacant
position of school master. The letter, dated ca. 1103, begins,
Because the quality of your manners, the conduct of your life, and the
maturity of your liberal studies is known to us from the time of your stay
with us, we have decided unanimously on you and invite you to join our
community.55
This is not panegyric, but a list of qualifications for the office of school master.
It sets behavior before liberal studies. In this case no mention is made of
religion.
The canons of Bamberg received a letter around 1115 from the canons of Worms
requesting help in securing the confirmation of their bishop elect. They list
among his qualifications his studies at Bamberg, which have left their mark:
I see clearly [the letter is written in the first person singular] that he is a
son of the church of Bamberg in his knowledge of letters, in his skill in
administrative affairs, in the uprightness of his manners [in honestate
morum], and in his gift of good judgment.56
This passage is useful not only for showing the qualifies cultivated in education
at Bamberg, but also for putting these qualities forward as qualifications for the
bishopric. They are personal integrity, wisdom and practical skill, and they do
not include piety or knowledge of scripture.
Würzburg
We end this survey with a more detailed look at the school of Würzburg, one
made possible by some remarkable documents from the 1030s.
Würzburg's school was rescued from the obscurity of its Carolingian beginnings
when Otto the Great and Bishop Poppo summoned the learned Italian master
Stefan of Novara in the early 950s.57 The school flourished under his direction.
It attracted many students, among whom two were particularly distinguished,
Wolfgang of Regensburg (972-994) and Heinrich of Trier (956-964). Their move
to Würzburg is vividly recorded in Otloh of St. Emmeram's Life of Wolfgang,
and it is worth recounting.58
 

< previous page_64 next page >

page
< previous page_65 next page >
page
Page 65
Wolfgang excelled in the learning of letters as a young boy, mastering in a few
years not only the superficial historical meaning of texts but also their hidden
inner meanings. Not content with private studies, he sought learning in the place
where "in German lands at that time studies most flourished," and moved with
his father's blessing to Reichenau. Here he befriended Heinrich, later Archbishop
of Trier, who persuaded him to go with him to Würzburg, where Heinrich's
brother, Poppo, was bishop, and "a certain master Stefan from Italy . . ., who was
able to satisfy all who desired learning," directed the schools. Otloh's enthusiasm
for the monastic school and his faint praise of Stefan may have to do with his
own monastic background and mistrust of worldly learning, or with his good
relations with the monks of Reichenau and his not particularly happy period as a
canon in a rustic parish of Würzburg. 59
Wolfgang's own intellectual talent was a danger to his character. His teachers at
Reichenau kept a sharp eye out for signs of pride in one so gifted, but found
none. But at Würzburg it broke out. Master Stefan did not explain certain
problems in Martianus Capella to the satisfaction of his students, Otloh tells us,
and they turned to Wolfgang. His superior command of the text roused the envy
of Stefan, and Wolfgang eventually left to become school master at Trier. Here
he instructed his students "not only in liberal teachings, but also in moral
disciplines" (chapter 7, p. 529, ll. 3-4). This is the first mention of morales
disciplinae in a description that looks otherwise exclusively at the study of
letters. It is not unreasonable to assume that Wolfgang is teaching a discipline he
learned at Würzburg. Nothing encourages us to think he learned it at Reichenau.
Apart from this testimony, we have a vague reference in a poem Stefan wrote
when he left Würzburg in 970 to return to his homeland. He says that he had
given himself, in his years at Würzburg, to the "teaching and study of
wisdom."60 But the conventional phrase hardly even implies anything about the
teaching of mores.
Wolfgang's move from famous and flourishing Reichenau to Würzburg was
probably not motivated just by the arm-twisting persuasion of his friend
Heinrich, brother of the bishop of Würzburg. It is a move of some historical
significance. Promising young men heading for bishoprics were apparently better
served in Würzburg than in Reichenau. At least the role of education for bishops
passes in just this period from the monastic to the cathedral schools. Since there
is no reason to doubt that instruction in liberal arts was excellent at Reichenau, it
may well have been the morales disciplinae of the cathedral school that now
constituted the essential preparation.
 

< previous page_65 next page >

page
< previous page_66 next page >
page
Page 66
The roughly eighty years separating the departure of Wolfgang of Regensburg
from the next recorded events at the Würzburg school represented the school's
heyday. 61 But they are lost in the same silence that enfolds most of the life of
the cathedral schools prior to the twelfth century. Bishop Heribert of Eichstätt
(1022-1042) received his education there. Under Bishop Meginhard (1019-1034)
a school master named Pernolf emerges to figure in an episode that becomes one
of the few points of illumination from the schools of the period. The chronicler
of the Eichstätt bishops known as Anonymus Haserensis tells that the newly
elected Bishop Heribert found a master named Gunderam in charge of the
schools. He would have fired him, since he accounted anyone ill-educated who,
like Gunderam, had studied "at home, not along the Rhine or in Gaul."62 A visit
from Pernolf, "that famous master of Würzburg," is the occasion to test
Gunderam. Pernolf stands high in the esteem of the former student of Würzburg,
Heribert. Possibly the bishop had even studied in Pernolf's school. Gunderam's
lecture impresses the Würzburg master, who persuades Heribert to drop his
resolve to "throw him out and replace him with another."63
Nothing else is known about this "famous master of Würzburg;"64 and he would
remain a player in a minor anecdote from an all but unrecoverable epoch of
school history, were it not that one or perhaps several of his students wrote a
polemical poem glorifying the Würzburg school and its master. This poem was
at the center of a quarrel between the schools of Würzburg and Worms, which is
also addressed in several letters from the Worms letter collection. Suddenly, in
the darkness of documentation, these texts casts a brilliant light on the school, its
goals, its program, its self-conception, and its teacher.
The poem is available in several editions with good philological commentaries,
and it is surprising that it has not loomed larger in the history of cathedral
schools.65 In reading this poem and the scholarship on the schools of Worms and
Würzburg, the limits of the writing of local history become evident. Viewed as
local history, the dispute between the two schools appears as a historical
curiosity, isolated and anomalous. Viewed from the perspective of cathedral
schools in eleventh-century France and Germany, it illustrates some of the
characteristic features of those schools.
The poem is a response to some students of Worms, one of them evidently a
Würzburg alumnus, who wrote, in the autumn of 1030, a poem criticizing the
school at Würzburg and its master and extolling their own. The Worms poem,
now lost, may well have begun as an exercise in com-
 

< previous page_66 next page >

page
< previous page_67 next page >
page
Page 67
position, 66 as its originators claim, but it involved a taunt and quickly turned
serious. In the first months of 1031, the perpetrators from Worms write
nervously to some of their fellow students, possibly at the royal court and in a
position to pick up gossip, asking what they know about the progress of their
altercation. They strike a nonchalant posture: "If anyone is curious in what state
of mind they have done this [i.e., failed to answer until now], let anyone inquire
who is losing sleep over it. We care little about it" (Wormser Briefsammlung,
epist. 15, p. 32). But they care enough to pursue the rumor that the royal
chancellor Bruno (from Worms, later Bishop of Würzburg) has received an
answer from the Würzburg students, of which they have until now seen neither
hide nor hair. They ask their colleagues to send it along post haste, if they get a
copy.
They received their answer soon enough and surely did not sleep more soundly
for it. It is a poem in Leonine hexameters. Addressed to no one in particular, it is
a laudation of the Würzburg school, its master, its atmosphere of studies, and its
disdain for contention. It is crushingly lofty and towers from the moral high road
down upon the pranksters who were to rue provoking it. Here is a summary and
partial translation67:
Just as this city bears the name of health-giving herbs that restore the body,
so also it is the progenitor of perfect students. It administers teaching as
the medicine of the unlearned. It drives away the illness of vice. Let all
lepers, unclean, vice-ridden, and ignorant come to us: our learned
discourse will restore their minds better than herbs can restore their bodies.
Our rector is a man of no mean honor and a pillar of the church. This
prince of those primates who explain the secrets of the poets/prophets
[vatum] surpasses the pinnacle of all honors of this world. He shines with
the radiance of many a poet. His one care is the study of composition.68
He is a cultivator of virtue and of eternal salvation, who received from the
allmighty the gift of so great a mind. The model (or example or teaching)
of this man (huius documentum) is an ornament to us; his honors increase
constantly, like the springtime foliage. Bringing the light and acumen of
his mind to the unlearned, he instructs them in the elements of grammar
and in all the arts. Nor does he cease at night time to give forth the sayings
of the poets and grammarians (36). Demanding and just, laden with the
gems of virtue, this generous Argus provides throughout the night a feast
of his example [or his teaching (fercula documenti)]. With painstaking
care, he watches over his own flock. He never favors the more advanced
and skilled students over the beginners. He firms up the wisdom of the one
and corrects the ignorance of the other. By a common vow we are all
joined together into a single community. Our gathering is happy about its
prince; even the shrewdest, hardest working, brightest of us reveres him.
The word of such a teacher brings the joys of life. For his sake people
 gather here from diverse regions, not only from the vicinity. Many who
have wandered
 

< previous page_67 next page >

page
< previous page_68 next page >
page
Page 68
from afar seek him out (54). When the sons of the nobles win his love,
then submission to his tutelage does them no dishonor. Whoever works at
his side is shaped according to his paternal example, to his own benefit.
No mortal masters the arts as he does (pollet artificalis). While this sage
lacks not one of all eight virtues, yet he retains humility as the glory of a
mind so laden with ornaments. Replete with virtues, he is serene in his
prosperity. Harm stays away, and with sadness banished, he rejoices in the
security which surrounds him; the joys of true peace [enjoyed at
Würzburg] are widely celebrated (67).
He merits heaven by his marvelous virtue, and when God calls men to
account before His heavenly throne, he [the master] will shine like the sun
for the merits of a life so adorned with teachings, and he will lead in joy all
those students who have demonstrated the moderation learned from him
(78). This group will include among its number the highest pontiffs, his
followers, alumni of the school.
Before moving on to the rest of the poem, very different in tone, it is time to
analyse the concerns of its first third. The unnamed teacher is on center stage.
His stature, his rank and standing are foremost among the subjects of praise: he
is "of no mean honor" (18), he has set new standards of worldly honor (Mundi
cunctorum transcendit culmen honorum, 22). He is the "highest pillar of the
church" (19). The most persistent term of praise is "virtue": he is a ''cultivator [or
worshiper] of virtue" (cultor virtutis27), "laden with the gems of virtue" (40), he
"lacks none of the eight virtues" (61), he is "replete with virtue" (64), his
"marvelous virtue" will merit salvation (70).
The praise of his teaching stresses two areas: poetry (including grammar and the
arts), and virtue.
Poetry. The epithet "prince of primates who reveal the mysteries of the poets"
(Princeps primatum, qui pandunt abdita vatum, 21) suggests a teaching
hierarchy, mixed of equal elements of worldly ranks (princeps) and ecclesiastical
(primates). The explainers of the poets'/prophets' secrets are ranked along this
hierarchy, with the Würzburg master placed at the top. These vates are almost
certainly the Latin classical poets, as line 24, "the refulgence of many poets,"
implies. Christian poetry/prophecy and holy scripture are not mentioned in the
entire poem. We must read line 26 carefully: "His only concern is the study of
scriptura" ("Preter scripture studium nihil est sibi cure . . ."). The usage of this
poem and of the locale makes it evident that this means "the study of
composition." 69 It is certainly not correct to read the line, "the study of scripture
is his sole concern."
Classical learning plays a large part in the poem. The polemic which follows the
part just summarized is directed in part against the excessive
< previous page_69 next page >
page
Page 69
cultivation of pagan learning at Worms. 70 But while he is eager to hurl the
reproach of paganism against his adversaries, he does not hesitate to display his
own mastery of classical traditions. He invokes in passing Diana, Mars, Hercules
and the Hydra, Orpheus and Pluto's kingdom, Argus, the muses, Arethusa, and
Plato. In his practice of quoting he favors classical authors, though Biblical
reminiscences are not lacking. Horace is far and away his favorite source (cf.
Strecker's and Bulst's annotations). Also the display of poetic skill becomes itself
part of his advertisement for the school and a weapon against his foes. In one
important aspect the dispute is a contest of poetry. The Würzburg master is
praised for beaming forth "the light of many poets." It was a poem from Worms,
written possibly as an exercise in composition (exercitii causa) that started the
whole thing (102). Not only its contents, but its form are offensive. The
Würzburger calls his opponent the "composer of that repulsive verse, vehicle of
lies" (143), which,
discordant and pedestrian, dictated by some rustic muse, offends the [true]
muse by its deceitfulness and sets Arethusa to flight. Its mute syllables
show, as soon as they are spoken, that you are ignorant when it comes to
setting the correct rhythm in a song. I see you abandoning the laws of
grammar when you try your hand as a poet. (143-48)
The lying, ill-modulated verses are the very image of the heart of their maker, he
says (159-61). Finally, if they try to prolong the fight and do harm to Würzburg,
they will find their opponents "strong athletes and poets" (241). It speaks for the
standing of poetry in these schools that it can function alongside muscle as a
means of intimidation.
These polemics and the entire poem demonstrate the high cultivation of poetry in
the school. The "parts of grammar" and the "other arts" are mentioned in a single
line (34).
Virtue. The Würzburg school offers as the second prominent allurement to its
students the qualities of its master: his virtue. The opening lines praising the city
(and implying the identity of city and school) promise a healing and restoring
effect of study, parallel to the restorative effect of herbs, for which the "city of
herbs" is named (Herbipolensis = Würzburg). This effect derives from the person
of the teacher; hence the stress on his virtue and honor. He is an exemplar; he
stamps his own character on that of his students. Those who attend his lessons
"take after the father" (patrissare59). When he enters heaven he will take with
him those students "who have shown forth his moderation" (eius moderamine
functos78).
The master's virtues are praised but not enumerated. That is a pity. It
 
< previous page_70 next page >
page
Page 70
would give us some notion of the content of the "dogma of right living." We
know only that his "moderation" (moderamen), passed on to his students, gains
them entry into heaven. One other passage in the poem further illuminates the
question. The master, for all his virtues and his stature, has maintained his
humility, and that is the true glory of his mind: "His ornamentis humilis stat
gloria mentis" (62). The praise here strikes a familiar chord. It reminds us of that
quality of Bran of Cologne and other imperial bishops discussed in the previous
chapter: the humility appropriate to greatness.
The composing of poetry, then, predominates in the curriculum of Würzburg as
we can infer it from this poem. Virtue, honor, and salvation through the master's
personal qualities are indicated benefits, but if the poet had wanted to stress that
"virtue" is a course of studies, he could have done so. He does give a clear
indication toward the end of the poem that he conceives the curriculum of the
school within a two-fold scheme: a drink from the fountain of their learning
revives the senses and imbues them with "the doctrine of right living and
speaking." ("Istinc si discis, statim sensu resipiscis, / Recte vivendi potans et
dogma loquendi"264-65). These lines are clearly a variant of the formula ''letters
and manners."
The Sweet Life of Würzburg
Now we turn to the rest of the poem. At line 83 the tone changes from
commendatory to polemical:
The "distinguished child" [author of the offending poem] with his
slanderous muttering about the superiority of the Worms master is playing
with fire and now has kindled them. The slanderer himself is riddled with
vices and filthy habits, unworthy of his clerical standing. Those who have
seen his writings claim this at least. He wrote an abusive poem, they say,
because of his own crime, and he is now in trouble for it (102). He is a
sower of wrath and destroyer of friendships, sending messages of
contention. Does he not know of the sweet life at Würzburg? ["An nos
mellitam nescis hic ducere vitam"108]. It is peaceful and uncontentious.
Harsh words do not assail them, and if their opponent had ceased his
snarling, they would never have come looking for a fight. Even now the
words of this poem are spoken in hope of reconciliation. If he wants war,
he'll get war; if he wants peace, he'll get that: "You have felt, along with
me, the noble doctrine of our master, who educates and adorns us with his
elegant wit and his reason. Once you praised him, and that made me
deeply happy. Now let the discord and cruel anger between us fade. Let us
shun war and become joined as twins in our love. A bond like that of
David
 
< previous page_71 next page >
page
Page 71
and Jonathan will join us. No cruelty will disturb us now or ever more.
Those caught up in unending quarrels will marvel to see such a friendship
between us" (127-35) 71
After this extravagant offering of peace and reconciliation, the polemic continues
(again I am paraphrasing):
Tell me why you rage so, threatening us with wars, spurning peace, mad
with the love of Mars, composing that poem, a foul vehicle of lies?
Discordant to common sense and inspired by a rustic muse, you trouble the
[true] muse with your deceptions and set Arethusa to flight. Your written
verse, when spoken aloud, shows plainly your ignorance of how to arrange
the rhythm in a poem. You call yourself a poet but abandon the strictures
of grammar (148).72 Your voice is immense, but your mind is altogether
empty of learning. You are an example of the very crime of which you
accuse others. What your heart attempts to conceal, your verse reveals: it is
false and ill-composed (cf. ll. 141-161).
Now follows a lengthy rehearsal of the "divine wealth" of Würzburg, the saints
they venerate and who render them help, patronage, and "the joys of life" (178).
They provide supernal defense, and assure peace and security (cf. 167-205).
Turning from this sweeping picture of pious reverence for the saints at
Würzburg, he next depicts its negative counterpart at Worms: their paganism.
The saints revered there are Mars, Hercules, the gods of the underworld, the
"black demons." They all are fomenters of war and strife, and their false religion
assures their defeat (206-36). The poem ends with a repeated call for peace after
conjuring the certain defeat that awaits all foes of Würzburg. The sick man who
has attacked them is invited for a drink from the health-giving spring of their
learning with its two-fold fount, the doctrine of right living and speaking.
These passages paint the picture of an ideal landscape of education: peace, love,
happiness, affectionate and what our administrators call "supportive"
relationships among students and between students and teacher. The language
and metaphors depicting this ideal life draw persistently on the language of peace
as opposed to warfare. It seems probable that the movements for the peace and
truce of God, which were making headway into Germany at just this time, were
among the providers of that language (see below, Chapter 5, on "Orphic" poetry).
The proponents of that movement could not have wished for a more fully
institutionalized model of a life based on peace and friendship than that offered
in the Würzburg
 

< previous page_71 next page >

page
< previous page_72 next page >
page
Page 72
school, as this poet represents it. The happiness and joy that study brings is a
leitmotif of the work. The students are happy about their "prince" (= teacher; de
principe letus49). His word brings the "joys of life" (52; also mentioned later as
one of the gifts of St. Stephen178). Serene in his prosperity, the master has "shed
all sad things and rejoices" (66). Praise of the teacher "gladdens'' the writer
(129). The poet's offer of reconciliation to the man he is raging against
exemplifies the ideal of friendship and forgiveness. He and his school have been
wounded deeply, are turned as it were into an armed camp ready to ward off
further attacks. But no matter how grievous the provocation, they are ready at
any moment to end the contention and hold no grudges. No wrongs will rankle
once friendship and love are reestablished. This shows the virtue of "gentleness,"
mansuetudo, an aristocratic turning of the other cheek, a gesture that asserts
humility and superiority at the same time. 73
It is evident that the poem from Worms, which provoked the Würz-burg poem,
violated some sacred principle of the schools. It did not matter whether or not it
was written "for exercise." One element of that principle is the holy and
inviolable person of the master: this has been assailed, and that means war. The
squabble turns on the person of the teacher as much as it does on the composing
of poetry. The second element is the "sweet life" of study, the "celebrated peace"
of Würzburg. These things, the master's person and the atmosphere of untroubled
happiness, are ideals too central to the mission of the school to tolerate any
weakening of it. They are no joking matter, and their proponents lose their sense
of humor when these become the subject of exercises. The seriousness is evident
in the reaction at Worms. The perpetrator has gotten himself in trouble
straightaway,74 and his fellow students are still trying two years later to turn
down the heat and end the conflict, as we will see.
Needless to say, the poem gives a utopian vision. Würzburg is an Elysian realm,
an academy of poetry and virtue, its students a harmonious community of loving
friends, knit together as "by a single vow" (46). The poem's idealizing is
programmatic, not descriptive, and as such it gives us a uniquely clear insight
into the values and self-conception of the early cathedral schools. Its
documentary value is comparable to the advertising literature of American
colleges. They project institutional values. The vision of the Würzburg poet is
not an individual's fancy, but a set of widely shared values reflecting the social
and intellectual ideals of the schools of France and Germany.
Central to these values is a kind of cult of the teacher's person. He is a
 

< previous page_72 next page >

page
< previous page_73 next page >
page
Page 73
charismatic priest/wizard/teacher, a "prince of primates" in his capacity as
master. The light of learning flows in a living stream from his breast. His virtue
and his standing loom larger than his learning. Worldly honor and rank appear as
a major part of his contribution to the school. That is of course because the
masters standing is a factor in determining whether the school's students are to
join the ranks of summi pontifices. Accomplishing that goal requires that the
master's honor remain intact. It facilitates promotion in the church and entry into
heaven. Awe and reverence towards the teacher shore up his authority, and
respond to his honor and his rank. Students do not dispute with a pillar of the
church, 75 nor do they tolerate anything that could undermine him. Their own
interests are bound up with that inviolable authority.
The arts are important, but virtually the only facets of them mentioned in the
poem are reading, interpreting and composing poetry. We see the study of
classics in flail bloom, though in the same ambiguous light in which it would
remain throughout the Middle Ages: one could accuse an opponent of paganism,
but one could not omit a demonstration of the mastery of classical traditions
from one's own poetic diction.
***
This squabble has an epilogue. The student or students of Worms got much more
than they bargained for. The Würzburgers' threat to flex their muscles as athletes
and poets was not an idle one. Two years after it began, the students of Worms
are still embattled and are out looking for help. They write to students of the
Mainz cathedral school.76 The dispute between Würzburg and Worms has now
turned into "fierce hatred," they write. Both the authorities in Würzburg and now
the bishop and princes of Worms have been drawn in as judges, and are
evidently dealing with the guilty parties. Some of the Würzburg students have
given solemn oaths of their innocence. The writers of the letter are clearly
feeling under pressure, and amidst aspersions cast on unnamed culprits, they beg
information and advice from their peers at Mainz. The reply from Mainz (epist.
26, pp. 47-48) is a remarkable piece of letter writing; its subtlety is a caution
against overestimating the conventional and formulaic nature of medieval letters.
Its amicable and diplomatic tone (it greets the recipients with the offer of
"seamless friendship and unshaken fidelity") is undercut by an irony that is not
always subtle. The letter is marked also by an element of "Schadenfreude,"
barely concealed satisfaction at the predicament of the Worms students.
 

< previous page_73 next page >

page
< previous page_74 next page >
page
Page 74
The writer opens with a barbed greeting that must have bitten sharply into a
group of students still no doubt sensitive to the reproach of excessive devotion to
pagan studies: "To the distinguished youth of Worms, who labor in the studies
and the arts of the Athenians, R. of Mainz, no Greek, hardly even advanced in
Latin . . ." R. of Mainz's wish to win the "love and reverence of all and to
participate in the friendship of good men" urges him to write, and he assures
them respect and reverence in the same degree as they have "always striven
religiously and assiduously for the reverence of friends." The Worms students
have gotten themselves off the moral high road, and he sprinkles his letter with
snide reminders of the great community of peace-loving friends from which they
have cut themselves off, all the time appearing to include them in its ranks: "We
are gratified over and over again that you wish to receive us with such heart-felt
charity and such loving sincerity into the communion of your friendship." As for
their request for advice and counsel, however, he cannot comply with it for fear
of forfeiting the friendship of one or the other of the parties to the dispute. He
urges them at this late point in the conflict to seek the counsel of those whose
counsel led them into it. He assumes such advisors must exist, since wise men
like them do nothing without counsel. This response amounts to saying, ''You got
yourselves into this; now you can get yourselves out." The appeal to his scruples
barely conceals his scorn.
Isolated and with the bishop and local princes breathing down their necks, they
received in their colleague's letter a reminder of the intact world of friendship
and love from which a satiric poem got them banished. Such was the price paid,
in the 1030s, for criticism of a master and his school. 77
***
Neither the above survey of schools nor the citation of texts was intended to be
complete. They simply allow us to locate and identify mores joined to letters as
an important subject of instruction at the major schools of France and Germany
in the eleventh century. This education is regularly tied to advancement either in
the church or at the royal court or both. It is peculiar to the cathedral schools. I
have not found a single instance where the formula is applied to monastic
education.78
The education founded on "manners" joined to letters was the distinctive feature
of cathedral school education, and the program borne by that formula is an
essential unifying element in the life of the schools in France
 

< previous page_74 next page >

page
< previous page_75 next page >
page
Page 75
and Germany in the period. Religious studies are regularly mentioned and
scriptural learning commonly praised; the seven liberal arts still provide a
framework for the intellectual side of learning. But now an intermediate subject
swells to create a large territory between theology and the arts. That subject is
mores, acquired through disciplina and cultus virtutum.
 

< previous page_75 next page >

page
< previous page_76 next page >
page
Page 76

4.
Cultus Virtutum
Part 1: Teaching Virtue
Eleventh-century schoolmasters would have lined up solidly on the side of the
Sophist Protagoras, who argued against Socrates that virtue can be taught. But
how did they teach it? 1 The framework of instruction known to usreading,
commenting, memorizing, lecturing, interpretingexisted and was at work in
ethical instruction, but it was a minor element of a more embracing mode:
imitation of the teacher. Again it is more useful to set the eleventh century
cathedral school against the model of the theater than that of the classroom. If
we want to form a conception of what a ballet lesson or a rehearsal consists of,
written texts or director's notes will not be of much help. And if that is the only
kind of source we have, we will not learn from them what we want to know.
As in the ballet lesson, the physical presence of the teacher demonstrating the
subject through his own example is the essence of instruction in mores2; he is
the curriculum; his presence radiates a force to the students, dips them in its
magic aura and transforms them in his image and likeness. This quasi-magical
creation or transformation of character is reduced by the bald phrase, "teacher
imitation," but that was the main element of a pedagogy based on personal
charisma.
Charismatic Pedagogy
Imitation of the teacher is probably the most ancient form of pedagogy. It works
through the diffusion of personal charisma.3 A strong and impressive personality
has the quality of replicating itself, remaking others in its image. An inner force
called "virtue" creates this effect. The Renaissance was very aware of this force
field-like effect of virtue. Shakespeare had Lady Percy describe the dead Hotspur
in these terms:
[his honor] stuck upon him as the sun
In the grey vault of heaven, and by his light
 

< previous page_76 next page >

page
< previous page page_77 next page >
Page 77
Did all the chivalry of England move
To do brave acts; he was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
He had no legs that practiced not his gait;
And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant; . . .
He was the mark and glass, the copy and book
That fashion'd others. . . . O wondrous him!
O miracle of men! 4
Charisma stimulates imitation. It is to moral development what parental genes
are to embryonic development: a powerful principle by which like begets like. It
is an irrational principle, which is also the basis of demagogery, hero-worship
and cults of personality. But in the ancient world, the earlier Middle Ages, and
the Renaissance it provided the foundation of ethical instruction.
The Greek and Roman ideals of paideia were transmitted by a double system of
instruction that relied no less on the living model than on the literary.5 Seneca
turned a phrase that had a great future in medieval and Renaissance thinking on
education:
The living voice and a life shared by pupil and master [convictus] benefit
you more than any speech. . . . Long is the path through precepts; brief and
effective through examples.6
The fuel that propelled the student along the way of examples was fervent
attachment to the physical presence of the teacher: "Choose that man as tutor
whom you admire more when you see him than when you hear him."7 The
pedagogy of teacher imitation was particularly strong in Stoicism. Zeno the
founder of the school urged students to shape every act as if they had to account
to their teachers for it.8 Seneca formulates the precept as follows:
We must attach ourselves through love to some good man and hold him
constantly before our mind's eye, and we should live as if he observed us
constantly and do what we do as though he were observing.9
But the idea of a Stoic tradition founding this kind of pedagogy in the Middle
Ages is unnecessary and misleading. The practice of teacher imitation and the
pedagogy of personal charisma were far more widespread. We
 

< previous page page_77 next page >

< previous page_78 next page >
page
Page 78
find it in writings on the education of an orator in Roman antiquity. 10 Early
Christian tradition presents a particularly nuanced picture.11 Peter Brown sees
this mode of learning as founded on the conviction that the Christian life joins
men as links in a chain diffusing the charisma of Christ, first through saints, then
through monks and holy men, then bishops and priests, ending in laymen. The
internal receptacle of this force is the image of God within, and the presence of
the saint or holy man, the "Christ-carrying man," by itself brightens and partially
restores this image. This, according to Brown, is "the imitation of Christ" in its
early medieval aspect (Brown, "The Saint as Exemplar,'' pp. 1ff., see n. 11
above).
The classical tradition was another strand in a web of influences the ancient
world exercised on the Middle Ages. They are joined in Ambrose, whose De
officiis ministrorum formulates an ethic based on Cicero for ministers of the
church. He recommends that young men should follow wise and famous men,
since they form their lives in the likeness of those whom they follow.12
The practice was reinforced by Biblical and patristic precept13; it became
institutionalized in the Merovingian church14; and it is everywhere observable in
Carolingian education.15
In our period it is the foundation of education in mores. The biographer of Brun
of Cologne, writing just after the mid-tenth century, described Bran as an
exemplar of wisdom, piety and justice for the students at the royal court (p. 36
above). And Sigebert of Gembloux said expressly that Dietrich I of Metz learned
to govern from Bran in a process of observation and transference of personal
qualifies: "as steel sharpens steel, the one was edified in emulation of the other's
good qualities" (p. 37 above).
Willigis of Mainz rose to the archbishopric of Mainz (975-1011) through service
at the royal court in the period immediately following Brun, as chancellor of
Otto the Great and Otto II. His biographer, writing between 1019 and 1039,
made the educating effect of the archbishop's presence into the dominant motif
of his short vita:
He taught lovers of virtue to live according to moral perfection, in his acts,
not in his speech, more with the language of his behavior than that of his
words.16
The impressive phrase, "language of his manners" (lingua morum), makes the
person of the teacher into a learnable discourse. The Vita shows Willigis as a
living textbook of mores: he was "a mirror of the perfectly moral life"; from his
way of living "those who strive to live honestly can draw perfect
 

< previous page_78 next page >

< previous page_79 next page >
page
Page 79
examples of the moral life"; "through his example of faithful reading and honest
morality, he incessantly rendered the lives of others honest." 17
The continuator of Gesta episcoporum Verdunensium, writing in the mid-
eleventh century, says the same thing more succinctly of Richard of St. Vannes:
"The life of this remarkable man rendered the lives of many men remarkable."18
From the same period we have a number of witnesses to the effect of Fulbert's
presence on his students at Chartres (see Chapter 3, p. 62 above). It is worth
repeating two of them here. Adelman's portrait of Fulbert teaching the "mysteries
of higher knowledge" is permeated with praise of the masters personal qualifies:
dignity in questions of mores, gravity and eloquence. These constituted the
lesson, at least in part. We see this transference of personal qualities as a
pedagogic goal clearly in Adelman's praise of his fellow student Hildegar, who
succeeded in making himself into a copy of Fulbert "in his facial expressions,
tone of voice and manners."19 This was a major goal of instruction in mores: to
become like the teacher, better yet, to become the teacher, to transform oneself in
his image. Goswin of Mainz praised his student Walcher for his ability to do just
this: ". . . while others present at my instruction were hardly able to reproduce
their teacher's words in speech or writing, you seemed to transform yourself
altogether into your master."20
Teaching by example became the dominant pastoral duty in the new houses of
canons regular that burgeoned after the second half of the eleventh century.21
The author of the Moralium dogma philosophorum, presumed to be William of
Conches, urges imitation of good men in a passage based on the lines from
Seneca quoted earlier (p. 77). He defines "reverence" as
the virtue which accords the honor due to men of some gravity or men
elevated in a position of authority. It enjoins us to imitate prominent men.
The best course is to follow in the footsteps of men of eminence, if they
walked the fight path. We must choose a good man and hold his image
ever before our mind's eye, and thus we will live as if he were observing
our each and every act.22
And the Italian-German chivalric didactic poet Thomasin von Zirclaere (writing
ca. 1215) draws on both Seneca and William of Conches to say that "a child of
the nobility"
should mind that he observe the behavior of the best men, for eminent men
are and should be a mirror to youth. . . . Let him choose in his mind an
excellent
 

< previous page_79 next page >

< previous page_80 next page >
page
Page 80
man and arrange his behavior according to that pattern. . . . A youth should
always behave as if his every act were observed by a man of distinction. . .
. Let him willingly follow the man whose actions he can admire more than
his words. 23
Wibald of Stablo had his early education at Liège. The monastic milieu to which
he moved as abbot of Stablo was not as limiting in his case as in others. He was
"one of the most important statesmen of the twelfth century" (Manitius),
counselor to four kings. He wrote a letter to a young school master, Balderich of
Trier, which is a major statement of the kind of pedagogy we are dealing with.
He urges him,
let your mere presence be a course of studies for your students. . . . Your
position requires more than just teaching. You must exercise strict severity,
for you are, as you know, also one who supervises the correction of
conduct. This teaching and this exercise is more subtle and in its fruits
more important than any other.24
In another letter, Wibald praised Bernard of Clairvaux for what amounts to a
miraculous exercise of teaching through his mere presence: "You need only look
on him, and you are instructed; you need only hear the sound of his voice, and
you learn; you need only follow him, and you are made perfect."25
The physical presence of an educated man possessed a high pedagogic value; his
composure and bearing, his conduct of life, themselves constituted a form of
discourse, intelligible and learnable.26 And this form of pedagogy defined one of
the central tasks of cathedral schools: the formation of character according to the
model of the master or bishop or whoever was charged with the authority to
teach by example.27 A fundamental element of the life of the schools in the
period was a kind of cult of personality. The personal authority of the teacher
becomes the dominant criterion of pedagogy. This brings us a long way towards
understanding the nature and goal of cathedral school education and the role of
magister scholarum, a position of much greater stature than its modern
counterpart, school master. It is a striking fact that the position of master is
commonly a stepping stone on the way to the bishopric. A career followed by
many of the most distinguished imperial bishops since Ottonian times led from
student to school master to court chaplain to bishop, with perhaps stations in
between as provost or chancellor.28 The reason for the dose connection of
school master and high administrative positions is, above all, that the
 

< previous page_80 next page >

page
< previous page_81 next page >
page
Page 81
master had to embody the qualities he "taught," and those qualities were ones
that qualified a man for royal service, for administrative and diplomatic duties,
for the episcopacy. Therefore a good magister scholarum was an obvious
candidate for the royal chapel and the bishopric. The personal charisma of the
great man, the diplomat, the statesman, the follower of the great Roman
statesmen: this was the aura that surrounded the successful teacher at the
cathedral schools and it was the main curriculum of mores.
This cult of personality functioning pedagogically explains in part the exuberant
praise of masters from the period. Students were swept away by the personal
magnetism of the man suited for the service of the emperor and probably
destined for it. And it mattered less what they knew than what they were. What
they wrote did not matter at all, as long as they exuded qualities like dignitas,
gravitas, and elegantia. Peter Abelard, a teacher in a completely different stamp
from the masters of the old learning, was astonished that great crowds of
students lavished devotion on the venerable Anselm of Laon (whose school
offered instruction in litterae et mores). 29 Anselm spoke beautifully, but his
thought was obscure and he could not deal with the problems of philosophy he
raised: "He had a remarkable command of words, but their meaning was
worthless and devoid of all sense. The fire he kindled filled his house with
smoke but not with light."30 Here an intellectualized mentality looks back with
contempt on a master of the old learning, sees all the faults and weaknesses of a
cult of personality, and none of its strengths. Anselm's students understood
perfectly what made Anselm great; they felt it in his gestures and his voice. In
awe at the dignity of his presence, they could nurse the fiction that his
understanding of scripture was profound, confident that none of their circle was
vulgar enough to expose it as a fiction.
Another critical observer of cathedral school teaching shows us the same
weaknesses from the opposite perspective, that of monks. Guitmund of Aversa, a
student of Lanfranc and polemicist against Berengar of Tours in the eucharist
controversy, gave us this extraordinary glimpse of the lecturing style of his foe:
Whatever bespoke grandeur and distinction, he affected. This man, almost
wholly ignorant, claimed to be a doctor of the arts, and persuaded people
of it by virtue of his pompous posing, by elevating himself above others on
a platform, by simulating the dignity of a teacher in his manner rather than
by the substance of his teachings, by burying his head deep in his cowl,
pretending to be in profound meditation, then finally, when the
expectations of the listeners had been whetted by his long hesitation,
giving forth in an extremely
 

< previous page_81 next page >

< previous page_82 next page >
page
Page 82
soft and plangent tone, which was effective in deceiving those who did not
know better. 31
This text captures, more vividly than any other known to me, the peculiar blend
of clericalness and imperial/secular pomp that must have characterized masters
of the old learning. Guitmund illustrates Berengar's "grandeur" and garish
pomposity by an oddly monkish gesture, his theatrical emergence from deep in
his cowl with a kind of sung lecture. Guitmund's criticism amounts to a statement
that Berengar's grand self-presentation compensates for puny learning. Berengar
of Tours is a figure very much on the border between the old learning and the
new. His career took him between the cathedral schools and the courts of secular
lords,32 his learning and personal charisma won him many enthusiastic students,
but his use of reason and analytic thought set him sharply apart from masters like
Fulbert of Chartres (whose student Berengar had been), Hermann of Rheims and
Meinhard of Bamberg (both of whom retired out of annoyance with Berengar
and his influence, according to Goswin). He had the style of the masters of the
old learning, but he combined it with probing and exacting reason. We can put
aside Guitmund's criticism of Berengar's learning. It tells us more about the
categories of judgment applicable to secular masters in the second half of the
eleventh century. Here Abelard and Guitmund wouldin the abstractagree. There
is a shared structure of criticism: both Berengar and Anselm of Laon are
criticized for knowing little but speaking and acting grandly. Probably many
teachers could substitute personal style, intellectually unrigorous moralizing, and
grand self-presentation for scholarship: probably many of them "simulated the
dignity of a teacher in [their] manner rather than in the substance of [their]
teaching," and students were more than willing to accept their education on those
terms. Wibald of Stablo complains in the mid-twelfth century that students
defend the sayings of their masters, not because they are true, but because they
love the men who pronounce them, and he sees one school set against another,
not in the pursuit of truth through reason, but "in hate or love of individual
teachers."33
Personal authority was the basis of teaching manners, and this is starkly at odds
with the reasoning intellect. A cult of personality and learning by the magnetism
of presence require the numbing of critical judgment, not its sharpening.
Charismatic pedagogy has this (and much rise) in common with charismatic
demagogery.
We may well think that then as now the cult of personal authority was a
 

< previous page_82 next page >

page
< previous page_83 next page >
page
Page 83
substitute for genius and a sign of the mediocrity of the age. Certainly to read
what masters of the old learning wrote cautions against thinking them a lot of
mute, inglorious Miltons. Works of mediocrity and verbosity abound. The
Rhetorimachia of Anselm of Besate exemplifies grand, loudmouthed self-
inflation. Can the explanation of personal greatness possibly cover all the sins of
pedantry and self-congratulation this author commits? Henry III took Anselm
into the royal chapel, supposedly as a reward for the Rhetorimachia (though we
have only Anselm's word on it). Let us hope that the emperor did it because his
judgment was numbed by the spell of Anselm's personality.
Part 2: Embodying Virtue
But a fair number of men in Anselm's position and with his ambitions were mute
and glorious, whatever the quality of the unwritten works slumbering somewhere
in their minds. The problem for us in the twentieth century is to get from the
muteness to the glory. Silence means obscurity, and it is a pall over great men
and mediocrities alike.
The Civil Life As Productivity: Disciplina Vivendi
The forum in which learning, intellect and brilliance were to be expressed was
the active life, public service, not philosophical tracts. A cleric of Worms wrote a
letter to his bishop, Azecho, around 1030, in which he set forth an ideal of public
administration as the fulfillment of philosophy:
Divine providence, in foreseeing the necessity of installing you as the
governor of our republic, has placed you at the apex of pastoral care in
order that you may now translate into acts of public administration those
things you have learned in your private studies. The schoolmistress of all
virtues [philosophy] has taken up her abode in you, so that in all your
undertakings you may follow in her footsteps. 34
The letter was a job application, and the applicant was not only wheedling, but
also putting forward his credentials by showing his mastery of Boethius and of
the ideal of the learned administrator whose acts reveal the influence of
philosophy. Public administration as a form of philosophy: it is a topic that
would lead us back to Roman antiquity and into the heart of medieval humanism.
Philosophy in the service of the res publica is a much cultivated educational and
political ideal, one that required the alliance of schools with the apparatus of
government.35
 

< previous page_83 next page >

page
< previous page_84 next page >
page
Page 84
It is a major theme of the important letter collection, called by its editors Die
Regensburger Rhetorischen Briefe. It was written around 1090. The purported
narrative has a clerical administrator corresponding with friends and asking them
for advice and guidance in the trials and difficulties of public life. The situation
is fictionalized, but the sentiments surely are not. The problems treated and the
solutions proposed will have been of vital interest to a German clerical
administrator in the investiture controversy. The source of advice, consolation,
and statesmanly wisdom to which the writers regularly turn is, generally stated,
Philosophy. But the philosophy they draw on is almost exclusively Cicero's
Tusculan Disputations, quoted so often that the letters occasionally appear a
cento of passages from that work. It is a work of major importance for the
cathedral schools of the eleventh century. Meinhard of Bamberg had termed it
the most important work of philosophy from Roman antiquity, and commended
it to a young cleric as a guide through the perils of his new career as an
administrator at Cologne. 36 The great appeal lay in its combining of asceticism
and rejection of the world with a stoically courageous affirmation of state
service: persist, suffer through all the tribulations of the active life, and make the
cult of virtuesidentified with philosophyinto your guide. That is the thrust of
Tusculan Disputations, and the author of the letters makes it into his theme. The
appeal of this attitude to worldly clergy in the German empire in the second half
of the eleventh century should be evident: torn between the parties in the
investiture controversy, they could find in Cicero's work a rule of life, a
philosophy that lent dignity to administrative service while at the same time
casting serious doubt on it. It idealized imperial statesmen while placing the
emperor himself in the role of Nero, Herod, and Nebuchadnezzar (Regensburger
Rhet. Briefe, epist. 9, p. 314). It reconciled contemptus mundi with service of the
state. In one of the most remarkable of these letters the author sets the trials of
public life parallel with the sufferings of the martyrs and of Christ, and makes
the courageous facing of those trials into an act of Christian fortitude. Here is a
passage that shows especially clearly the odd mingling of Christian and Roman
heroism:
He himself [Christ] once fought for us. And should we now refuse to enter
the field of battle for his sake? And would we, seeing his wounds, not
suffer tribulations for his sake, having won salvation through the hate he
faced? Spartan boys face tortures inflicted on them without crying out.
Lacedaemonian youths in competitive fighting suffer blows and kicks and
even bites, but would sooner suffer death itself than admit defeat.
(Regensburger Rhet. Briefe, epist. 9, p. 319)
 

< previous page_84 next page >

page
< previous page_85 next page >
page
Page 85
I doubt that the sufferings of Christ have ever before or since been set parallel to
the training of Spartan and Lacedaemonian boys. But it shows us a central
concern of this author: to legitimize and sweeten a cleric's service to the state by
appeal to ancient Greek and Roman ideals, to transform the sufferings of state
service into acts of heroism.
But our point of departure was the combining of philosophy and the active life.
The Regensburg Letters find in the Tusculan Disputations a Roman model for
this combination, one which must have had a deep resonance in the schools and
courts of eleventh century Europe, at least among its statesman/intellectual class.
It is the passage from which we developed the opposition of charismatic to
intellectual culture in the introduction. The early Romans did not write works of
philosophy, Cicero says, because they were so taken up with the great tasks of
running the state, and they preferred to practice "that most bountiful of
disciplines, the discipline of living well" (bene vivendi disciplina). They pursued
this more in their lives than in their writings: "Vita magis quam litteris persecuti
sunt." 37 It is difficult to do justice in English to the phrase disciplina vivendi,
and one takes recourse to spelling out its implications. It makes the conduct of
public life into a form of philosophical discourse, a program of studies, a
textbook. Wibald of Stablo was speaking within this trope when he urged
Balderich of Trier to turn his mere presence into a discipline (p. 80 above). And
the example of the Roman statesman who turns public life into a philosophical
discipline gave allure to this substitute form of productivity: life itself could
become a work of philosophy, a composition analogous to an oration or to a
musical composition. This work of art, the man of composed mores, was a major
contribution of the eleventh century to "philosophy"38 and to culture. It is the
best answer to the question how that age could have been mute and glorious at
the same time.
The Statesman
By its very nature, then, the end product of cultus virtutum is lost to recovery: it
is the living administrator functioning at court, expressing philosophy through
acts of governing. But we can recover some literary representations of this ideal
type in portraits of bishops, in descriptions of an idealized education and of
particular virtues within that education. The courtier, administrator and bishop
embodied the ideals of a program of education in mores and ethica. Cultus
virtutum was a preparation for office. Richard of St. Victor wrote a letter to
Robert of Hereford congratulating him on his promotion from schoolmaster to
bishop:
 

< previous page_85 next page >

page
< previous page_86 next page >
page
Page 86
. . . all your students were filled with joyful hope [at the news of the
promotion], and the entire school was heartened and roused to the love of
letters and the cultivation of virtue through the example of your efforts and
your success. 39
The promotion of a former teacher to the bishopric would not animate students
ad amorem litterarum et cultum virtutum unless that were seen as the path to
office.
The content of that program of studies registers in the idealized portraits of men
pursuing that education and those ambitions. I have discussed the figure of the
court bishop, his virtues, and their social context elsewhere,40 and I will not
repeat here more than is necessary to lay the foundation for reading a few
portraits.
A high clerical administrator, court chaplain, and bishop had to be handsome,
preferably tall, at least impressive in appearance. At least these were highly
desirable qualifies, often mentioned in portraits. There are cases where unworthy
bishops or bishops under attack are reproached with their ugliness or puny
stature. Statura procerus, vultu venerandus are common terms of praise;
splendor or nitor personae sums them up. Lampert of Hersfeld described Bishop
Gunther of Bamberg (d. 1065) as "a man replete with all the good qualities of the
body, in addition to the glory of his manners and the wealth of his mind." So
preeminent was he among other mortals in respect to "elegance of form and
overall build of the body," Lampert continues, that on his crusade in Jerusalem
crowds of locals gathered in front of a church he was in and prevented him from
leaving, so eager were they to get a look at his fabled beauty.41
The force of personal presence tends to become a motif of episcopal
hagiography, one which humanizes the superpersonal miracles of popular
hagiography. William of Malmesbury tells of a bishop, the object of a murder
attempt, who turns and faces his assailants, and the splendor of his presence is so
dazzling to them that they drop their knives and flee. It is the atmosphere of the
saints life and of miracle, but the event is not strictly speaking miraculous. The
bishop is saved by his splendor; there is no supernatural interference.42
An important ideal of this milieu is borne by the phrase, "the greater we are," or
"the higher we are set above other men, the more we should bear ourselves as
their inferiors." The phrase is taken from Cicero, though the same ideal draws on
the Biblical "the greater you are, the more you should humble yourself before all
men."43 It is an ideal based more on aristocratic
 

< previous page_86 next page >

page
< previous page page_87 next page >
Page 87
deference than on Christian self-denial. Other qualities often praised are
gentleness (mansuetudo), affability and popularity. A frequent formula for the
latter is the Pauline "he is made all things to all men" though the context of
Paul's letter, proselytizing, plays virtually no role. The phrase designates an
adaptable, versatile, amiable personality.
Particularly prominent is a quality called "beauty" or "elegance of manners." It is
important for forming a bridge between the teachings of the schools and the
entrance into the service of bishop or king.
Part 3: Two Views of Bishop Licinius
Many texts show us the qualities associated with mores as a school curriculum.
We start with two that describe the education and early career of an obscure
Bishop, Licinius of Angers (d. ca. 610). The first is the Vita Licinii composed by
an anonymous monk some time in the eighth century (the work is not more
closely dateable). The second is the adaptation of this Vita by Marbod of Rennes,
written in the last decade of the eleventh century during Marbod's term as
Archdeacon of Angers and after long service as magister of the school at Angers.
Marbod read and used the older Vita. His changes represent a response to his
source and show us all the more clearly the conception he imposed on what he
received.
Marbod varied freely and modernized unhesitatingly. He changed the archaic
vita, written in clumsy and hardly translatable Latin (its style intentionally
unimproved in my translation), into an elegant and readable work, and changed
the archaic values and educational ideals of the original to reflect the
contemporary life of the cathedral schools. For that reason the two texts are a
good starting point. The comparison allows us to distinguish ideals of education
and courtiership of the eighth century from those of the eleventh.
The following excerpts juxtapose Marbod's version with passages he adapted 44:
1. Auctor anonymus Marbod
And so most blessed Bishop
Licinius, born of the royal line of And so Licinius, sprung from the
the kings of France, being highly highest lineage (he numbered kings
versatile [utilis] and noble and of France among his ancestors), and
abundantly supplied with the supplied by nature with all the gifts
possessions of this world, persisted of soul and body, increased his
in the felicity through the study of

< previous page page_87 next page >

< previous page page_88 next page >
Page 88
discipline and faith of Christ and
strove for even higher nobility
and sublimity. Hence he grew virtue. Ever since his boyhood, his
from day to day in faith and behavior had been such that in him a
maturity, better and more fully, pattern of future perfection and a
and was replete with the grace of model of extraordinary character
God. (678D) shown forth. (1495A-B)
2. Auct. anon. Marbod
In his youth . . . he was
handsome and noble, but choice
among his family; and within his
lineage, he grew amiable. And
among servants and friends he For apart from his gift of external
stood out for the eminence of his beauty and modesty of countenance,
countenance, which flashed forth which won the hearts of all observers,
with every glance he cast. And as through the working of some secret
when his father noted such talent, other qualities were judged
industry in his son and excellent in the boy: that, guided by
recognized how blessed he was the grace of God, he spurned those
with every good quality, he vices, which seem innate in early
rejoiced in his soul, and exulted youth and dominate all as if through
in his joy, sending infinite thanks some law of nature. For neither was he
to God, who had deigned to send excessive in playing games, nor crude
him so decorous a youth for his in his eating habits, nor garrulous in
consolation. (678E) speech. (1495B)
3. Auct. anon. Marbod
And when the time was at hand And when after learning the first
that he should be sent for an basics, he was sent, as children of the
education in letters, he is given nobility customarily are, to study the
soon enough to a preceptor and is discipline of letters, he distinguished
instructed by the most learned himself for the mildness of a noble
masters of sacred letters. Among nature and for an ample genius. What
his fellow students, for the he heard from his masters he easily
sharpness of his mind, for his grasped and retained in his memory.
ample memory, he distinguished Nor was it fear of the whip that made
himself as amiable. At the urging him attentive, but the love of learning.
of the Lord, he was the servant of He knew how to show reverence to his
all, but in respect to obedience, doctors, obedience to his pedagogues,
faith and charity, he was exalted benevolence to his fellow pupils, and
above others. Now when his humility to all alike. . . . The hostility
education with these most wise of his rivals he bore with equanimity
men was over, he returned to the and put an end to swiftly. He
 home of his father, and, leaving conquered anger with patience and
behind the mind of a boy, passed pride with humility. He lent neither his
his adolescence in industrious ear nor his tongue to the back-biting of
activity. The spirit of wisdom his fellows. He ignored abuse directed
and the grace of humility shone towards him, and reproved that
forth nobly from his deeds, and directed towards others. In short, while
he grew from virtue to virtue, still a disciple, he developed into a
performing daily good and saintly master of manners [magister morum].
acts. (678E-F) (1495C-D)

< previous page page_88 next page >

< previous page page_89 next page >
Page 89
4. Auct. anon. Marbod
When, thus thoroughly
educated, he had come to the
age of maturity, straightaway
his father commended him to
Clotharius, king of the
Franks, to whom he was
closely related by ties of
blood and loyalty. For the
father of Licinius was vassal
to the aforementioned King
Clotharius. For S. Licinius
was a wise youth, amiable in Having passed the years of his boyhood in
appearance, affable in this study, and having added no small
speech, correct in his amount to the knowledge of his masters in
behavior with the king divine and secular letters, he was forced to
himself, with holy faith and renounce philosophy at the command of
with every man who entered his father, who was second only to the
the court, so that he was king in the palace, and to leave his leisure
agreeable to all good men, for affairs of state, his studies for an active
but disagreeable to the evil life, the benefits of the schools for those of
and undisciplined. For he the palace. King Clotharius received him
was supreme in appearance, with open arms, as much because of their
strong and swift, agile, very close relationship, as for the dignity of his
wise and sweet, but excellent appearance and the elegance of
unshakeably chaste, loving manners in which the youth excelled.
and humble. (1495D-96A)
5. Auct. anon. Marbod
And when the . . . honoring him after a brief time with the
aforementioned king had girding on of the sword, he began to
found him tried and true in reckon him among his friends, having
this way, he prepared him for found him plainly worthy to serve as the
his service, and appointed man with whom he dealt on affairs of great
him Count and custodian of importance and the administration of the
his stable and all its horses. kingdom. For he possessed wisdom in
For he possessed in counselling, loyalty in defending, rigor in
abundance the strength and executing. Nor was he wanting in flowing
the power for waging war speech, nor in love of justice. Hence he
bestowed on him by God, was regarded as most useful both in
who watched over all his pronouncing and executing the law. He
acts. With his sword he put bore himself to his colleagues in such a
to flight many troops of the way that he sought to win the favor of each
enemy, through God's aid. by some act of service. He showed himself
 For he was diligent in prayer affable to all. . . . He helped whomever he
and fasting, and tireless in could with the king, and he was able to
his compassion for the poor. help whomever he wanted. Thus there was
In addition he very often no one to whom some benefit did not come
attended to his reading, and, through him. . . . He soon came to function
as it is written, he rendered as steward of the court. From there it came
unto Caesar the things which about that, at the urging of all, the king
are Caesar's, and unto the made him military tribune, which now we
Lord the things of the Lord. customarily call constable. (1496A-B)

< previous page page_89 next page >

< previous page_90 next page >
page
Page 90
The passages in 1. have a common theme. We might call it: nature improved by
nurture. But in the archaic Vita nature hardly is recognized as such; its gifts are
noble birth and possessions. Social class and wealth constitute identity. In the
eleventh-century version, there is a force named Nature who is the giver of the
personal gifts, along with those which come by physical inheritance. In other
words, Marbod has a conception of individual identity, at least of identity shaped
by some gift-bestowing force. Nature shapes his identity and pays no, or little,
attention to class and lineage.
In both, education improves this native state, and here the changes by Marbod
are striking. The older Life invokes only the ''discipline of Christ" which helps
him grow in faith and attain the grace of God. Marbod replaces this religious
conception of maturing with the "study of virtue," aimed at improving
"behavior" (conversatio) to the point where it realizes its original potential for
exemplarity. The formula for development in Marbod is "natural talent
heightened by the study of virtue."
Both excerpts in 2. stress his impressive appearance. Marbod again is at pains to
make this outer quality into the result of some inner gift (a "secret talent"occulto
quodam munereworking on him). Modesty of countenance is his addition. The
older writer wants him not only modest but also daunting. Here we see also the
change in, so to speak, the audience of this showpiece. The context in the earlier
Life is the family; in Marbod it is broadened to include "all observers." Marbod
includes a brief discourse on the vices of youth, specifically of students, which
his hero shunned. All of them are overcome by Licinius's restraint and
moderation.
The passages in 3. describe Licinius's elementary education. Both mention
letters, but the older Life places these in the service of God: he studies with
masters of "sacred letters"; his virtues are "obedience, faith and charity"; his acts
are "saintly" (bona et sancta opera). Marbod has consistently removed any
reference to the religious motive of studies. The letters he studies are not
qualified; his virtues (not the theological virtues of the older Life) are directed to
his teachers and schoolmates. His good deeds are strictly social; they aim at the
untroubled conduct of learning. It is the "sweet life" of peace, reverence, and
affability we encountered at Würzburg, that Licinius's good qualities look
toward. Friendship, affection and smooth social relations are not even hinted at
in the older Vita. The archaic Licinius relates to God and his father; Marbod's
relates to his teachers and schoolmates. The learning in letters receives short
shrift, and Marbod complements it with his mastery of mores. His patience, his
ability to ignore
 

< previous page_90 next page >

< previous page_91 next page >
page
Page 91
insults, accept hostility and disregard backbiting, are set in sharp profile. These
are not only the oil preventing friction in social life, but also talents of
diplomacy and survival in a court. 45 They are evidently the virtues appropriate
to the "kindness" or "mildness" (benignitas) of a noble nature (generosae
naturae).
4. describes the departure from school and entry into royal service. In Marbod
there is an element of reluctance: he was "forced" to "renounce" studies at his
father's "command.'' The listing of virtues that commend him for the king's
service in the older Vita suggest an author cramming alot in out of fear he may
leave something out. Affability and amiability are major virtues for this author,
along with wisdom and strength. Marbod reduces the list to two: the "dignity" of
his appearance and his elegance of manners (elegantia morum). He also omits
the mention of Licinius's "holy faith."
Finally, their active service of the king is described in excerpts 5. The older Vita
makes him into a warrior. His duties as constable are presumably central to
warfare, waged with God looking on benevolently. Marbod turns this divine
warrior into an administrator, a vir utilis. He becomes a knight through the
girding on of the sword (a ceremony the older author could not have known), but
he never uses his sword. He enjoys the kings familiarity, administers the state at
his side, and rises in honors. One of his offices is constable, but rather than
describing his activities as "military tribunal," Marbod immediately launches into
a description of his ascetic, monkish regimen while at court. The social context
in Marbod's version is the life of the court. His ingratiating acts of affability, his
granting of beneficia, have the odor of strategies of survival and success in a
tight knit court where many courtiers vie for favor, and envy and intrigue are
constant dangers.
This list of differences has considerable historical value in the greater context of
the development of institutions. The older Vita depicted a young hero doing
justice to family expectations. The only social category at work is family; even
the entrance into the court operates within it: the father passes him to his relative
the king. The element of blood relationships plays a part in Marbod's Vita, but
the institutional setting is schools and court, and family ties are submerged in a
host of qualities and considerations that derive from this broader institutional
setting.
The archaic Licinius is a hero; Marbod's is a courtier-philosopher.
The structure of personal development in the older Life has three stations: father-
king-God; Marbod's has twoschool and courtand presents the dichotomy in sharp
focus: "from leisure to state affairs, from
 
< previous page_92 next page >
page
Page 92
studies to the active life, from the schools to the palace" (cf. Marbod, excerpt 4).
The anonymous Life shows an archaic curriculum in letters and religion. In
Marbod, the curriculum is letters and manners. The religious life is important and
highlighted during Licinius' court service, but oddly enough it plays no role at all
in his education. Marbod worked purposefully in this direction, because he had
to eliminate so many references to religious training and the guidance of God
from his source. The "study of virtues" is central to his hero's education. It
culminates in his mastery of manners, such that he himself becomes a magister
of the subject (the double meaning of magister is clearly intentional: he mastered
them, he taught them). This mastery gained at school is answered by his entrance
into court, where his manners commend him along with his family ties. The
same was true of the older Life, where also a list of virtues explains his favor at
court. Marbod can eliminate the list, because he has a collective concept for the
entire range of virtues that qualify a man for court service: "elegance of
manners" ("propter egregiae formae dignitatem ac morum elegantiam . . .
suscepit"1496A). Those are some general insights we can glean from the
comparison. Two specific points deserve a more detailed treatment.
Natural Talent
Marbod's stress on nature-given talent developed through the study of virtue
recalls the biographies of Brun of Cologne and Dietrich I of Metz (pp. 36ff.
above). This is evident in details of wording:
Sigebert on Dietrich: ". . . whom nature, or rather the author of nature,
enriched with the native gift of genius . . ." (". . . quem natura, immo ipsius
auctor naturae, nativo ingenii bono ditabat . . .").
Marbod: ". . . Licinius, enriched with all the gifts of soul and body . . ." (". .
. Licinius . . . bonis omnibus animae et corporis a natura ditatus . . .").
Alpert of St. Symphorian had also praised Dietrich for his inborn talents, and had
distinguished sharply between inherited and nature-given gifts:
Dietrich had far more to commend him than high birth and illustrious
ancestors: his fame rested also on the great wealth of endowments he was
born with. 46
Here the distinction implicit in the older and newer Vitae of Licinius, has sharp
contours: nobility of birth counts less than nobility of soul. Marbod's
 

< previous page_92 next page >

page
< previous page_93 next page >
page
Page 93
Vita Licinii is symptomatic of the diffusion of that pattern of education we
observed in chapter 2: through cultivation of virtue, the talented man develops
into a civil administrator. Marbod's work presupposes the Ottonian educational
model institutionalized.
The idea that natural talent and not the mere chance of birth determines a man's
values has broad social and educational implications. It creates the possibility of
"nobility of soul" competing with or even supplanting nobility of birth as a
measure of human worth. 47 The cultivation of virtue has a vital role to play
when the contents of the soul and their expression in outward behavior become
the measure of man. Our period sees a proliferation of epithets referring to
human greatness. They work within the logic of this structure: native gifts
developed through cultivation of virtue bring forth greatness. A few examples:
Ruotger called Brun a "great man." His ancestors were of the highest nobility,
but he surpassed them all in "the grace of his figure, the greatness of his learning
and his versatile industry of mind."48 Notker of Liège is praised for his "the
endowments of his mind and his supreme virtue" received as a ''singular gift
from the spirit of God."49 Notker's biographer praises his "majesty of person."50
Meinhard of Bamberg, wishing for the advancement of Benno (later Bishop of
Osnabrück), tells him that a demotion in tide means nothing as long as there is
increase in "splendor of honor and of person."51 The biographer of Bishop
Godehard of Hildesheim praises Godehard's father as a man who "with the
elegance of a versatile ingeniousness outdid many puffed up with the arrogant
pride of empty nobility. For no one is noble whom virtue does not ennoble."52
This formula of praise had its context above all in administrative service. It is
perhaps indicative that Richer draws on the same logic in praising Otto II as "an
energetic and useful administrator of the republic, a man of great genius and all
virtue, distinguished for his knowledge of the liberal arts."53 Here again a
significant and typical constellation: genius, learning, virtue and "useful"
administration. In this case it refers to the highest secular "administrator of the
republic." Benzo of Alba draws on the logic of these formulae repeatedly in his
praise of members of Henry IV's court. He defines virtue as "dignity of mind,
nobility of soul, which makes man not just an object of wonder, but divine."54
He develops an idea of the dignity of man, established by his upright stature, his
reason and eloquence, and his lordship over all of created nature.55 A passage
discussing the emperor's obligation of choosing bishops carefully and
responsibly is worth quoting in full:
 

< previous page_93 next page >

page
< previous page_94 next page >
page
Page 94
I wish him [the emperor] to know that some men dare murmur against
him, saying that in the creation of bishops he draws too little on his
individual judgment (specialis discretio), whereas he should note that God
himself by His own act conferred on him the right to ordain men to
superior positions, just as He himself arranges the ranks of the citizens of
heaven. And because he is the vicar of the Creator, he is obligated to attend
daily to the duties of his overlordship. Raised to such lofty sublimity by
divine favor . . . he ought to exercise in all of his acts a judgment
instructed/nourished by the virtues, and thus render honor and glory to
Him who made him in His own likeness as a second Creator for human
beings. 56
Here a sentiment against the papal party in the investiture controversy is
nourished by the cult of virtues at the schools. The emperor is a second creator, a
demiurge of pontiffs, and the criterion of judgment is virtutes. This eliminatesat
least subordinatesother criteria: canonical procedure, the advice of clergy,
populace and pope, and miraculous selection. The emperor is to exercise his own
virtues in the recognition of virtue, and arrange the earthly hierarchy
accordingly. This is entirely consistent with the picture of Brun selecting men for
the high positions in the empire in terms of their talents and virtues. It also
shows the principle of charisma at work in the selection of bishops.57
Elegance of Manners
This quality or set of qualities apparently became a defining criterion for
selecting administrators at worldly and ecclesiastical courts. It has come up often
in previous chapters.58
Elegance, beauty, suaveness of manners (elegantia, venustas, suavitas morum)
are formulations inherited from classical Latin. As such they occur from the
early Middle Ages on.59 But the occurrence is sparse and the usage without
sharp profile until the end of the tenth century. Then the new educational and
social context raises the virtue into prominence. Anselm of Liège praised both
Eraclius and Notker of Liège for this quality (Chapter 3, p. 55 above), and he
praised Wazo for his elegant genius (p. 55 above). These references are from the
mid-eleventh century or later, though they refer to a period a hundred years
earlier. From the beginning of the eleventh century we have Alpert of St.
Symphorian's praise of Dietrich of Metz for his eligantia vitae (Chapter 2, p. 41
above). This quality set him above all his contemporaries, whose distinctions
were merely outward and inherited; his "elegance" derived from "great inborn
wealth of gifts." It appears as a personal quality here. It is worth noting that all
of these men (with the
 

< previous page_94 next page >

< previous page_95 next page >
page
Page 95
exception of Wazo) were close to Brun of Cologne: Dietrich as his student and
relative, Eraclius and Notker as royal chaplains.
From the mid-eleventh century on, numerous references make it clear that
"elegance of manners" looms large in the teaching of the cathedral schools and
plays a major role in advancement through the ranks of administrative service in
secular and ecclesiastical courts. We could infer from Anselm of Liège's praise
of Bishop Eraclius that the Liège schools were founded on this quality along with
the learning of letters: "Because Eraclius was firmly grounded in elegant probity
of manners and the liberal learning of honestas . . . he took pains to establish
schools throughout the churches." The studies of Richard of St. Vannes at
Rheims had the result that he advanced so far "both in the gift of learning and in
the elegance of his life and manners" that he became precentor and deacon at
Rheims (p. 60 above). Meinhard stated outright that his "studies" (i.e., convictus)
with his former teacher were valuable for their utilitas, elegantia, and sublimitas.
Here "elegance'' was imbedded in two terms that referred to administrative
service: the skilled and versatile exercise of it (utilitas) and high rank
(sublimitas).
This quality is learned at the schools and once mastered it leads to advancement.
Various references show that it was especially attractive to secular lords. 60
Agnes of Poitou, wife of Henry III, sought out Ulrich of Cluny (Zell) for her
service because she admired his "suaveness of charming manners" and sought in
him the "pattern of correct conduct."61 Meinwerk of Paderborn was taken into
the royal chapel on the strength of this quality:
Meinwerk, born of the royal family, is judged suited for the royal service
because of the elegance of his manners, and, called to the palace, he is
made a royal chaplain.62
John of Salisbury makes a comment worth noting in this context. He prefaces his
Pseudo-Plutarchan "Education of Trajan" with a letter from Plutarch to the
emperor. It begins:
I had known that modest as you are you did not seek high office, even
though you have always striven to merit it by your elegance of manners.63
Whether or not John of Salisbury invented the letter with no authentic model,64
he allowed this striking turn of thought to stand: a ruler merits sovereignty by
elegance of manners. Gerald of Wales describes "beauty of
 

< previous page_95 next page >

page
< previous page_96 next page >
page
Page 96
manners" (venustas morum) as not only "the chief quality useful and appropriate
to the individual's governing of his own life," but also claims, "no one requires it
more than he who governs the multitude." 65
Our point of departure was Marbod's comment that King Clothar welcomed
Licinius into court service willingly because of his family ties, his impressive
appearance, and his elegance of manners. The context of this quality should be
clear: it is a summation of what cultus virtutum aims at, and it is a preparation
and qualification for administrative service at church or court.
Part 4: The Virtues of G's Father
Meinhard of Bamberg wrote a letter to a former student, who was about to take
up a high position at the cathedral of Cologne. The master gives the student
advice on surviving and prospering in that dangerous city. The letter, in my
opinion, is one of the most important documents of eleventh-century humanism.
Meinhard refers to the recipient only as G. Erdmann conjectures that he is either
archbishop elect or a man being groomed for that position, but he is not able to
identify him with a particular archbishop of Cologne.66
Meinhard warns him of a war that is to be waged over his soul in Cologne. Two
courts will fight to gain his services and to make him a member of their retinue.
The one is the noble court of virtues, the other the ignoble court of vices. The
court of virtues summons him as its special favorite and places the entire
government of the court in his hands because of his perfect, exemplary manners
(specimen morum) and the sharpness of his mind (again, manners and letters or
intellect as the prerequisite to administrative service). The other court calls to
him with the allure of its "slippery, silky bodies," and tries to make him into a
citizen of the second Babylon, Cologne. The allegory is a sort of
psychomachia,67 but it is fabricated from the real situation of the competition
between courts for a gifted courtier.68 Meinhard reminds him of lessons he tried
to impress on him as a student:
You have often heard me dispute about nobility turning into one of two
paths, toward glory or toward ignominy. I stressed what a heavy burden
the distinguished service of our ancestors places on the shoulders of
descendants, to whom a morally upright life and careful custody of
manners is not so much a virtue as a necessity, and who, even if all their
acts were performed with the
 

< previous page_96 next page >

page
< previous page_97 next page >
page
Page 97
utmost perspicacity, seek not so much to merit praise as to avoid blame. . .
. For if they stray so much as an inch away from the path to the exalted
place of virtue, which the glory of their parents paved for them, what a
headlong plunge, 0 my G., their fame, reputation and honor will suffer!
This and many things like this . . . you have heard me lecture you on. 69
This provides a list of subjects on which Meinhard lectured and preached: the
necessity of following the examples of illustrious predecessors, the importance
of fame, reputation, honestas, the obligation to maintain glory in the active life.
This no doubt is a clear if limited glimpse into mores as a classroom subject. It
leads up to the example of G.'s own father, which Meinhard impresses on him
particularly. He describes him as
a man instructed in every kind of virtue, a man who enjoys to an
astonishing degree all the charm and grace of humanity, qualities visible
far and wide not only in his dazzling blaze of manners [flagrantia morum]
but also in the bright good humor which shone most graciously from his
eyes.70
Again, we have an excerpt from Meinhard's "curriculum" in virtues. The passage
supplies us with important concepts from that curriculum: grace and charm,
humanity, upright character and virtue that radiate like a fiery light from the
countenance, gracious good humor which is the sign of those rich inner qualities.
Humanitas
The phrase omni lepore humanitatis mirifice conditus is striking for the purity of
its Ciceronian pedigree, and since the virtues it conveys are received in an
education in virtue and are important in administrative service, the student of
medieval humanism is tempted to turn bright spotlights on it and reserve it a
place on center stage in future studies. Such an impulse should always arouse in
the same student the highest critical resistance. This is the place to discuss the
problem of medieval humanitas by way of establishing the context of Meinhard's
resonant comment.71
Meinhard had a Ciceronian phrase in his mind when he wrote this passage, not a
conventional and widespread usage in the Latin of the eleventh century cathedral
schools. Cicero had praised Cinna in the Tusculan Disputations (that work which
Meinhard commended to G. in the same letter) as an ideal of "humanity, wit,
grace (suavitas) and charm (lepor)."72 He also lauded Socrates for his "charm,
wit and humanity" (lepore et humanitate) in De oratore.73 Meinhard not only
used Cicero's phrase, com-
 

< previous page_97 next page >

< previous page_98 next page >
page
Page 98
bining lepor and humanitas but he clearly understood the import of both terms.
Humanitas here is a social quality, an amiable graciousness that shows itself in a
higher good humornot mere jocularity, but an inner warmth that flows outward
from virtue; it is gentleness and mildness based on strength, confidence,
optimism and a stable and self-assured character. The phrase and the concept are
both Ciceronian. 74 Meinhard used the term in this sense in other letters. The
letter to his former teacher cited above (pp. 60-61) praised the "most humane
manner" in which he had received Meinhard into his school, where his studies
set him onto a path of education "more liberal" than any other and highly
conducive to "utility, elegance and sublimity."75 Meinhard's reception, and not
the liberal studies themselves, are described as humane. The word humanus here
is close to "generosity,'' but in the context of receiving an outsider, there is
certainly also a suggestion of a humane spirit of kindness and friendship. The
fact that he is being admitted to "liberal" studies may be a chance connection. He
is being admitted humanely to liberal studies, not to the studia humanitatis.
Meinhard also praised the "humanity" of Cardinal Bishop Leopertus of
Palestrina:
No powers of eloquence suffice to explain how the most sweet savor of
your humane nature [condimenta humanitatis tue] reigns with its loving,
soft and imperious rule in our heart.76
Here again is a notion of humanitas which asserts a strong sense of the dignity of
man: "humanity" represents strong authority reined in and restrained by
gentleness, love, kindness.
These usages have their spiritual ancestors in Roman antiquity and Ciceronian
humanism. Let us see what if anything they owe to medieval and contemporary
usage.
We can quickly role out the patristic and medieval sense of humanitas as human
frailty, set against divine permanence, divinitas.77 But humanitas also took on a
more positive sense of human kindness, mercy, compassion that was Christian
and monastic. The Benedictine Rule was the major transmitter of the word in
this sense. It calls for a "humane" reception of guests: "[receive a guest by
reading the role to him] and after this let him be shown all humanity."78 This
early usage treads a narrow line between "human feeling of compassion for those
in need" and simply "what frail human nature requires to sustain itself." But it
came to mean clearly "what one owes out of human compassion to the hungry
and needy." Gerbert
 

< previous page_98 next page >

page
< previous page_99 next page >
page
Page 99
urged bishops to be hospitable out of a vision guided by humanitas. 79 Bishop
Radbod of Utrecht was praised for his kindness to paupers, such generosity
being among the studia et officia humanitatis et misericordiae.80 There we have
the major meaning and context of medieval humanity: compassion for those in
need. The specific context is ordinarily hospitality.81
But the Ciceronian ideal of affability and charm as defining elements of
humanity could find their way into the most ascetic usages. Ulrich of Cluny
(Zell) is praised for receiving even his enemy "with a joyous countenance,
offering him peace with an embrace and with the kiss of charity, charming him
with kind and sweet words, and refreshing him with all the attentive service that
humanity demands."82 Obsequium humanitatis does not mean service due to
human nature; but rather the service which humane behavior demands. The word
conveys here an ideal of benevolent conduct, not a conception of human frailty:
the sense of the word has passed from the suffering of the receiver to the
kindness of the giver.
The term can be released from its main context, hospitality, to signify
compassion and kindness in general. Bernard of Clairvaux was said by one of his
biographers to have great compassion with physical suffering, and indeed "his
humanitas was so great that he commiserated not only with human beings but
also with irrational creatures, birds and animals."83 It occurs commonly in
conjunction with misericordia, mansuetudo, and benignitas.84 In this connection
it becomes a royal virtue,85 one far removed from the obligatory gesture of
reminding the king in his majesty that he is mortal and burdened with frail
humanitas.86
Gerald of Wales tells an anecdote that is a rich picture of this concept in the
context of royal liberality. He proposes the Emperor Trajan as the supreme
example of humanitas et benignitas,87 and illustrates it with this story:
Once when he was about to set out on a journey to tend to some urgent
business, he had already gotten underway in a great hurry, when a
wretchedly poor beggar woman threw herself at his feet and importuned
him to restore the pension unjustly taken from her. And when the emperor
replied that it must wait for his return, she asked, "And if you never return?
What is to become of me?" Without a trace of exasperation, the emperor
put off his departure until the woman was provided with letters containing
the imperial mandate restoring her right. Because of these and other acts of
humanity and because of the infinite virtues conferred on him by nature . . .
[Gregory the Great attained redemption for him through prayer]88
 

< previous page_99 next page >

page
< previous page_100 next page >
page
Page 100
The strands of meaning are particularly rich here. "Humanity and kindness"
consist of royal condescension. The least and humblest of his subjects, the story
implies, is as important as the pressing affairs of state business. This is medieval
humanitas in its fullest formulation: the grand world of diplomacy and politics is
put on hold for a beggar woman.
But it is not exactly what the historian of humanism and the humanities looks
for: the meaningful connection of liberal studies with a conception of humanitas
taken over from classical Rome· This story and every other example cited, with
the possible exception of Meinhard, is quite separate from studies. The
Ciceronian notion that liberal studies are humane studies because they render the
student human has not yet reappeared. 89
It seems that the studia humanitatis were more vitally at work in the medieval
kitchen and refectory than in the classroom and library. The biographer of
Bernard of Tiron provides a charming if specious argument for that claim.
Writing around 1115, he praises the religious reformer's parents as honest and
religious people, who "pursued the studies of hospitality and humanity."90 The
phrase studia humanitatis was part of his vocabulary, but the concept has
shriveled to hospitality.
Were liberal studies excluded from medieval humanitas? Not entirely. Thierry of
Chartres uses the term at the beginning of his manual of the liberal arts, the
Heptateuchon. The seven arts are gathered together in a kind of synod, he says,
convoked ad cultum humanitatis.91 The phrase may have been borrowed from
his source, but Thierry would hardly have used it in so prominent a place if his
conception of humanitas were limited to the narrower medieval contexts.92 The
formulation ad cultum humanitatis is curious. "For the worship of mankind" is a
possible translation. Closer would be "for the enrichment and cultivation of that
ideal, humanitas." Whatever its specific contours, it must mean an ideal of
humanity acquired through study of the liberal arts.
William of Conches provides a gloss on studia humanitatis in his commentary on
the Timaeus. The gloss runs as follows:
. . . he commends Osium in this way: with his mind flourishing in the
studies of humanity. Study is the urgent and energetic application of the
mind to action with strong will. But studies are of two kinds, either of
humanity, as in practical studies [practica, i.e., ethics], or of divinity, as in
theoretical. But, while he flourished in both of them, he did best in
humanities, because the human being is human[e]. The studia humanitatis
may also refer to all things that the human being can know, in all of which
he flourished.93
 
< previous page_101 next page >
page
Page 101
This groping commentary strengthens the impression that a firm conception of
studia humanitatis did not exist in eleventh and twelfth century humanism, only
an inherited phrase whose meaning in antiquity had been forgotten. What we do
learn from this narrowed version of a classical concept is that William of
Conches connected studia humanitatis with ethical learning: "studia, alia sunt
humanitatis ut practice." The alternate meaning, "all that is knowable," leaves the
door open for liberal studies, but a meaningful connection of the two is lacking.
One final citation will firm up our understanding of the term without eliminating
the impression that the medieval studia humanitatis was different from the
ancient. Wibald of Stablo wrote a letter to an archdeacon of Liège in 1151
excusing himself from important peace negotiations. His presence is not
necessary, he says with a gracious and captious turn of phrase, because his
correspondent is far better trained and instructed in mores by that regal lady and
indoctrinatress of things human and divine, the Magistra and educatrix, Lady
Philosophy. She is umana philosophia, who does not hesitate to take counsel
with sworn enemies when the good of the state is at stake. With her support he
can undertake his task "with humanity and placidity of soul" (cure omni
humanitate et placiditate animi) and strive to guide it to a good conclusion. 94
Earlier in this chapter we quoted a passage from the Worms letter collection
written some hundred years earlier describing philosophy as the instructor of
men who guide the affairs of the state. This is that same figure, but considerably
enriched. She is a teacher of mores. The word "human[e]" is a leitmotif in the
passage: she teaches things human and divine; she is "human philosophy"; and
she looks on his efforts "with humanity." This is close to an allegorical
representation of philosophy as characterized by humanitas, precisely in her
capacity as teacher of the mores of statesmen.
This may give us a strong connection between philosophy and humanitas, but not
a medieval studia humanitatis modeled on ancient.
Now it is time to return to the passage from Meinhard's letter to G. His father's
lepor humanitatis was a learned quality, acquired in instruction in the virtues
(omni genere virtutis instructus), important in the war against the vices he will
wage in administrative service at Cologne. This whole web of ideas and contexts
has little echo in the other references cited from the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. It appears to be a case of a more or less pure Ciceronian conception of
humanitas appropriated by Meinhardone which did not take firm hold. A later
humanism will recreate a Ciceronian ideal of humanity broadly adapting
something approaching its original conception.95
 

< previous page_101 next page >

page
< previous page_102 next page >
page
Page 102
But it should also be clear that Meinhard's humanitas is not totally anachronistic
and isolated. On the contrary, the atmosphere in which he worked and taught
called forth this Ciceronian idea. It happened that the development of medieval
humanitas did not follow precisely this neoclassical track; it was a blind alleyin
terms of word history. That does not alter the fact that the ideal human being
who was kind, benign, gracious, charming, compassionate and well-lettered, and
who showed these qualities in his outer bearing, his facial expression and
motions, was a widely shared ideal of education in mores. Whatever name
contemporaries chose to apply to this ideal, it was alive and Vital in the cathedral
schools.
Lepor and Hilaritas
Charm, grace and wit (lepor) are attributes of humanitas. They are expressed not
only in the visible radiance of G's father's manners, but also in his serene good
humor (hilaritas).
Lepor is a courtly virtue. It is both a way of acting (gracious and winning) and a
way of speaking (witty and charming.) An eleventh-century glossator gives it as
a gloss on facetiae: facetiae: lepos, suavitas verborum, urbanitas. The twelfth-
century Glossarium Maii gives the adjectival form as a gloss on comis (amiable,
friendly): comis: facetus, urbanus, lepidus, curialis. 96 Ruotger praised Brun of
Cologne for raising the quality of Latin at the court of Otto the Great: "This he
did with no arrogance, but with both courtly grace [domesticus lepor] and urbane
gravity."97 Meinhard's letter to G. makes it clear that as early as the eleventh
century the term spanned both meanings: ironic wit (as in facetiae) and
amiability (as in comis, comitas).
One might well expect to equip a man setting out to do battle against vice with
more powerful weapons. But in fact charm and winning grace are qualities vital
to survival in the hothouse atmosphere of court life and administrative service.
Lepor and hilaritas have a distinct social context. They fit into a broad field of
concepts, virtues, social ideals that includes affability, gentleness, charm and wit.
A common formula to describe the successful exercise of these virtues is the
Pauline phrase, "all things to all men." It is a formula of success in the favor
relationships at court. The utility of this ideal of amiability is evident in
Ambrose's praise of the virtue, adapted from Cicero:
First we should know that there is nothing so useful as to be loved, nothing
as inexpedient as the opposite. . . . Goodness is popular and agreeable to all
men,
 

< previous page_102 next page >

page
< previous page_103 next page >
page
Page 103
and nothing impresses itself with such ease on humane sensibilities. And if
we bring this goodness to fruition through a gentle and polite manner,
moderation in commands and affability of speech, respectful choice of
words and unassuming form of address and a graceful modesty, it will
bring us amazed to the pinnacle of affection. 98
The same passage is quoted by Gerald of Wales in his tract on the education of
the prince, and that indicates the worldly context of this quality in the twelfth-
century. Virtually no biography of a clerical administrator that describes his early
career and rise to prominence omits mention of the man's winning charm, grace,
affability, good humor.99 The two biographers of Licinius treated in the previous
section both placed emphasis on the young man's affability, friendliness to his
fellow students and colleagues and to the king. The older vita described him as
"amiable" (three times), "affable in speech," "agreeable to all good men," "loving
and humble." Marbod said that "he won the hearts of all observers''; his
gentleness and patience allowed him to thwart the anger and intriguing of his
schoolmates; at the king's court he was "affable to all" and sought to win each
man's favor.
These virtues operate in a field of forces where they are set against intrigue,
envy, hate, anger, malice, treachery, betrayal of loyalty. Virtues that can
overcome these chief vices of court life, far from being light and flimsy
weapons, are the guarantors of success. For that reason they are prominent
among the manners cultivated in an education in mores. A passage that is
paradigmatic for the relation of cathedral school education to the virtues of
charm and amiability is in the Vita of Norbert of Xanten. His biographer praises
his education:
. . . enjoying the gift of nature in regard to the shape and suppleness of his
body, preeminent in eloquence through his knowledge of letters, adorned
with the ornament of his manners, he showed himself gracious to all who
knew him. 100
In this passage at least, letters and manners have the result of creating an amiable
man, and that will have been an important goal of the cultus virtutum in general.
Friendship: Amicitia
The grace and good humor of G's father may have been individual virtues, but
they were also representative. The atmosphere of amor and amicitia was an ideal
of the schools. We have seen this in the example of the Würzburg-
 

< previous page_103 next page >

page
< previous page_104 next page >
page
Page 104
Worms polemics. The jealousy with which friendship and amicability were
guarded and offenses against them punished suggests an ideal with a real power
to shape social intercourse in these institutions.
An atmosphere of loving friendship was praised and cultivated, at both schools
and court from the early Middle Ages on. Friendship and love were a form of
respect, and an atmosphere of loving friendship was the visible or palpable sign
of the virtue and high merit of the men who lived in it. This was a central ideal
of the most popular of all Cicero's works in the Middle Ages, De amicitia: only
good, strong and noble men are capable of friendship, because true friendship is
the love of virtue in another person. 101 It is not useful to distinguish the
philosophical from the social ideal, though amicitia is regularly regarded in
modern scholarship as some kind of abstract, philosophical notion realized in the
cases of some few gifted individuals, as it was in the cult of male friendship in
European romanticism in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century. In the
Middle Ages the social institutions of aristocracy were saturated with this ideal.
It governed social intercourse among clergy and at royal courts, and as a result it
also bore strongly on the curriculum of behavior at those schools that prepared
young men for service to church and state.
The language of favor relationships at court was the language of love.102 The
king "loves" his favored councilors passionately.103 The more passionate the
avowal of love the greater the virtue in both men. The declarations of love
common between kings and courtiers have beguiled some readers into thinking
that homoerotic relations could color the atmosphere of life at court. That may
be true, but it must not be read into the language of love and friendship, which
was spoken with no suggestion of physical love. On the contrary, if the love
expressed was not Platonic, then the claim of virtue implicit in it was
forfeitedand that claim constituted its major social value. The cultivation of
friendship at court has been overshadowed by the cult of spiritual friendship in
the monasteries since the late eleventh-century. This has to do mainly with the
richer documentation of the phenomenon: monks wrote tracts on spiritual love
and courtiers did not.104 A broad-based study of love and friendship in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries that regarded the social mores of monasteries,
cathedral communities and worldly courts would correct the one-sided notion of
a custom centered in and originating from monastic communities. It was a
practice and an ideal of aristocratic society generally.105
Brun of Cologne introduced an ideal of peace and tranquillity into diplomacy,
administration and studies. Ruotger says that Brun was born to
 

< previous page_104 next page >

page
< previous page_105 next page >
page
Page 105
be a peacemaker, not only in affairs of state, but in those of the schools. He
always cultivated peace, "as if it were the nourishing force and crown of all other
virtues." Tranquillity strengthens virtue, while strife weakens it. 106 His quality
of pietas made warriors timid; the fame of his name put an end to wars, ushered
in peace, and established the study of the arts. Ruotger places this peace-making
activity so clearly in the context of studies, displacing it from the normal context
of peacewarfare, we are justified in wondering whether the ideals of peace, love
and friendship were not introduced into the cathedral schools by Brun. We know
that he shaped the early curriculum of mores and placed the cultivation of virtue
in the foreground of studies, and Ruotger states clearly that Brun considered
peace the ideal atmosphere for the pursuit of virtue.
However the ideal entered the schools, it was firmly enshrined there. A mutual
love joining teacher and student is probably not restricted to any one period. But
it gained a sharp profile in the eleventh century and almost certainly was part of
a program. There are numerous pronouncements on the obligations of teacher
and students to love one another,107 and there are documents that attest to
extraordinarily close, passionate friendships.108 But it is also possible to form an
idea of the atmosphere of mutual reverence and respect, of restrained, modest
amiability that predominated in the instruction itself from the letters and poems
of the period. The Würzburg school was depicted as a peaceful kingdom, its
teacher and students bonded by a "single vow" of love and peace. "Joy" and
"happiness" predominated. A similar atmosphere is indicated in the letter of
admonition Adelman of Liège wrote to Berengar of Tours, recalling him from
his errant ways by invoking the memory of their golden days in the school of
Fulbert of Chartres:
I have called you my fellow suckling and foster brother in memory of that
sweetest and most pleasant life of studies [dulcissimum contubernium . . .
iocundissime duxi . . .] we spent together, you a mere youth, I somewhat
older, at the academy of Chartres under our venerable Socrates. We have
more cause to glory in the common life of studies [convictus] shared with
him than had Plato, who gave thanks to nature for bringing him forth as a
man rather than as an animal in the days when Socrates was teaching.109
The most acerbic exchanges cloak themselves in this idiom of mutual love and
admiration of students for each other and for their teacher. Studies in the
eleventh-century were by all accounts "sweet and pleasant." The letter of Goswin
(Gozechinus) of Mainz to his former student Walcher (see the
 

< previous page_105 next page >

page
< previous page_106 next page >
page
Page 106
translation of the letter in Appendix B) wraps the letter's real agenda in a cloud
of amiability and mutual love joining teacher and student. Some excerpts:
I. To his brother and son, united with him in soul, brother Goswin sends
his wish that the better part of existence may be a happy coexistence.
Since you have renewed the many tokens of good will you used to show
me so often, I in turn both cherish and pay out a wealth of favor to you,
dearest friend, not only for the sweet, pleasant and delectable memory of
times past, but also for the joyous receipt of this new gift . . . When I first
saw your gift . . . at the same moment my deep affection for you was so
fully rekindled as if I had never experienced it before. . . .
IV. How deeply I rejoiced in your company seeing your maturity of
character, your virtuous conduct. What was there in life more gratifying to
me, more cherished than you! . . . Our familiarity, in public or in private,
only served to enshrine you more deeply in my regard, and each passing
day rendered you dearer and fresher . . . V. How could I . . . fail to mention
your probity, your diligence, your kindness . . . and moreover, how could I
not love you, even if I wished to? 110
The schools nourished an ideal of amiability, charm, good humor, mutual love
and respect in the shared life of student and teacher. Administrative service was
the context in which these "virtues" became effective. The love of teacher and
students was preparatory to the love of king and court. This constellation was
present in Marbod's description of Licinius's school days: his amiability, his
talent for ending conflict and living in loving harmony with students and
teachers made him preeminently a magister morum. It also commended him to
the king.
Virtue Made Visible: Decor
The virtues of G's father shone forth from him, broke from him like a bright
light, a "dazzling blaze," in his manners and in the good humor which
illuminated his face.111
Virtue made visible and embodied in a living presence is a major goal of
education in manners. This conception impinged on the teaching of virtue in a
dramatic way, in fact constituted its foundation. The notion forced an
assimilation of the teaching of virtue to external culture. Dress, gesture, speech,
tone of voice, table manners, posture and gait are the point of departure for the
cultivation of virtue.
A history of external carriage manifesting virtue from Cicero (who insists that
outer decorum can never be present without inner honestas, nor honestas without
decorum) to Shakespeare (whose Ophelia asks Hamlet,
< previous page_107 next page >
page
Page 107
"Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?"), would be a
rewarding task. It would begin with Hellenic paideia and its ideal of
kalokagathia. 112 My intention here is just to observe this virtue in our period
and analyse it in the context of school instruction and administrative service. The
texts that follow are meant only to give an idea of the scope of this structure of
thought which makes the outer man an "epiphany of virtue and spiritual force"
(Herwig Wolfram's phrase).
Ambrose echoes Cicero in maintaining that physical beauty is a decoration of
inner virtue.113 The idea occurs in Carolingian panegyric.114 The anonymous
late tenth-century poem from Rheims honoring Constantine of Floury (above, p.
58) praises him as worthy of all the fame and honor the world heaps on him,
since "the action of the body is a sign of the mind, and the soul expresses itself
in deeds."115 Alpert of St. Symphorian, writing in the first decades of the
eleventh century, praised Count Ansfrid of Brabant for his eloquence:
His speech was so tempered with moderation and good judgment that he
did not disobey the dictum of that satiric writer, "Nothing in excess." But it
should also be added that those who heard him could infer from his
moderation of speech the composure and virtuousness hidden in his
heart.116
Bern of Reichenau has built this quality into the education of Bishop Ulrich of
Augsburg:
He then began a modest way of behaving to his fellow students . . . and in
his way of moving, his gesture, his gait, he began to show outwardly, to
the degree possible at that early age, what kind of mental posture was
being formed in him inwardly.117
At the synod of Mainz in 1049 Pope Leo IX (Bruno of Toul) confirmed the
election of Archbishop Hugo of Besançon in formulas that incorporate the logic
of "virtue made visible" significantly into the investiture of a bishop:
. . . with this document we concede and confirm also the archiepiscopal
insignia to this same Archbishop Hugh . . . so that he who displays
laudable dignity of merits, in the knowledge of virtue as in uprightness of
manners [morum honestate], may display also beauty of ornaments in all
plenitude of his high office. May he always be mindful to maintain inward
beauty along with the splendor of his outward trappings.118
This turn of thought indicates an ideology of outward splendor in the exercise of
office. The beauty and impressiveness of robes, staff, insignia, become the
guarantors of the inner virtue of the office-holder, and at the
 
< previous page_108 next page >
page
Page 108
same time they impose on him the obligation to maintain the beauty of virtue
along with the beauty of his robes. Those inner counterparts of external
magnificence are worth noting: "dignity of merits, knowledge of virtue and
honestas morum." These phrases and "knowledge of virtue" (scientia virtutum)
point directly to a kind of behavior acquired in learning.
Lampert of Hersfeld's description of Bishop Gunther of Bamberg (Meinhard's
first bishop) is worth referring to in this context, since it is built on the parallel of
the inner to the outer endowments of the man:
This was a man adorned with all the gifts of the body, in addition to the
glory of his manners and the wealth of his mind. . . . He was unhesitating
in speech and in council, learned in letters both divine and human, in
stature and elegance of figure and the overall build of his body, preeminent
among all other mortals. 119
William of Malmesbury has an interesting variant in the description of the
beauty of St. Wulfstan:
The beauty of his body heightened that of his mind, and while I do not
include beauty itself among the virtues, I do not altogether exclude it, for
just as the art of a craftsman shines forth in a more commodious material,
so virtue radiates more brightly in beauty of form.120
The notion looms large in the teaching of novices at St. Victor:
The fullness of virtue is attained when through the internal custody of the
mind the members of the body are governed in an orderly way.121
John of Salisbury sends a gift of a silver salt cellar decorated with gold to his
friend Peter of Celle with this elegant dedication:
It is an appropriate gift, since you . . . offer salt to God in the refined silver
of pure eloquence, and golden images of the virtues shine forth for all
beholders in the mirror of your words and deeds, and incite them to desire
that they by imitating those virtues may become mirrors for others to gaze
upon.122
In the thirteenth century Vincent of Beauvais made this relationship between
virtue and its outward expression into the basis of the education of nobles,
following Hugh of St. Victor's De institutione novitiorum. The composing
(composicio) of mores is accomplished by a two-fold discipline, he writes in De
eruditione filiorum nobilium, inward and outward. The inner "moral
composition" consists in the acquisition of virtues like humility,
 

< previous page_108 next page >

< previous page_109 next page >
page
Page 109
kindness, patience and charity; the outer in the "fitting composition of the
members of the body." The rest of the chapter consists largely of long quotations
from Hugh's De institutione, the basic thought of which is that the disciplining of
the body accomplishes the composed ordering of the mind. 123
The monastic appropriation of this complex is located between the miraculous
and the sumptuous. It sat more or less comfortably in the context of the
performance of miracles as manifestatio virtutis. But in cathedral schools and
administrative service, it represents the legitimation of certain kinds of external
refinements that can run the gamut from disciplined behavior in walking, speech,
table manners to material refinements: splendid clothing. Accordingly the
rehearsal of this motif in a saint's life can become the locus for a criticism and
rejection of worldliness. It becomes a structuring idea for the early part of
Jotsald's Life of Odilo of Cluny (written ca. 1051). Odilo's successor as Abbot of
Cluny, Maiolus, noting his "elegance of body and nobility of birth" recognizes
"something great and divine" in him with the gaze of his internal eye, and begins
to "fall in love with him altogether."124 Some quality of distinction shone forth
in him that made his fellow monks imitate and respect him. This was because
the inner state of his mind registered in his outer bearing, Jotsald writes, quoting
Ambrose, "Habitus mentis . . . in corporis statu cernitur."125 This is the occasion
of a chapter devoted to his appearance, followed by another devoted to the
"composition of his manners'' (chapters 5, 6). In physical appearance he was
of medium height. His face was full of authority and grace. To gentle
people he was cheerful and good-natured; but to the proud so terrible they
could hardly bear his presence. In his emaciation he was strong, in his
pallor ornate, in his greyness, beautiful. His eyes, radiating as it were some
sort of splendor were for the beholder both a source of terror and
admiration . . . Furthermore there shone forth from his motions, his
gestures, his gait, the form of authority, the weight of gravity, and the mark
of tranquillity.126
After praise of his beautiful, virile voice and his suave, gracious speech, he
closes with a reference to Ambrose's comment that physical beauty may not be
the locus of virtue, but gracefulness is. The next chapters treat the four cardinal
virtues with references to definitions by "the philosophers," but the author fills
them with a Christian content: Odilo showed his prudence by constant reading of
the bible and singing of hymns, the latter even in his sleep; his sermons and
letters bespeak a sweet eloquence and "the beauty of
 

< previous page_109 next page >

page
< previous page_110 next page >
page
Page 110
suaveness and grace" (901 D). This sampling of his eulogy shows the logic and
structure which grounds the first part of the Vita: his activities as a monk and
abbot of Cluny represent virtue made visible. A basically Ciceronian scheme is
filled with Christian-ascetic content. The vocabulary is by and large Ciceronian-
Ambrosian. He knows and draws most directly on Ambrose, De officiis. But the
received framework now accommodates concepts at odds with the original
Ciceronian intent, for instance the phrases "strong in his emaciation, ornate in his
pallor." The author stresses his influence, friendship and favor with worldly
potentates (chapter 7, 902), and again draws on Ciceronian vocabulary: he was
amicabilis et officiosus; powerful men magnified him with "friendships, offices
and imperial gifts" (amicitiis, officiis et imperialibus muneribus902B). And this
helps us locate the description: it shows us Odilo as the representative of a great,
illustrious, as it were imperial asceticism. By the mid-eleventh-century the
Cluniacs clearly commanded the idiom of "moral'' training at the cathedral
schools, 127 but they filled them with a specifically monastic-ascetic content.
However, they had long known the limits of this kind of expression of "virtue"
with its ambiguous stress on the exterior. Odo of Cluny takes his Life of Gerald
of Aurillac, ca. 935, (whom he praises for making his beauty of body into an
expression of beauty of soul) as the occasion for attacking an excessive stress on
externals. Some men who profess religion, he says, try to capture the reverence
and respect they lack by cultivating luxury of the body. They would spend their
time better by cultivating beauty of soul.128
At the end of the eleventh century Conrad of Hirsau mounts a polemic against
worldly clerics that draws on this idiom in his Dialogue on the Contempt and
Love of the World. In part it turns on the tensions between external and inner
cultivation. He brands the devotion to externals worthless if it is based on false
claims of pursuing virtue. External culture must be joined to disciplining of the
soul, so that animus and habitus conform to one another.129
Monastic writers became the policemen of virtue. They made themselves
wardens of an ideology highly open to abuse: the outward signs of virtue were
coveted even by men completely indifferent to inner beauty, composition and
discipline. In the early twelfth century Nicholas of Clairvaux mounted an attack
on Benedictine luxury in these terms. He accuses them of equating wealth with
merit and luxurious vestments with greater virtue.130
At the same time as Cistercians policed this scheme, they drew on it to define
their own ideals of discipline and behavior. It finds one of its high
 

< previous page_110 next page >

page
< previous page_111 next page >
page
Page 111
points in Bernard of Clairvaux. "Beauty of soul" which registers in outer carriage
is a prominent motif of his writings. 131 One especially powerful passage will
suffice to illustrate it. He is explaining the line from Psalm "The lord desireth
your beauty," which he takes to mean beauty of soul (decor):
What then is beauty of the soul? Is it perhaps that quality we call ethical
goodness [honestum]? Let us accept this for the moment until something
better occurs to us. . . . But to understand this quality [honestum] we must
observe a man's outward bearing, not because morality originates from
conduct, but because conduct mediates morality. . . . The beauty of actions
is visible testimony to the state of the conscience. . . . But when the
luminosity of this beauty fills the inner depths of the heart, it overflows
and surges outward. Then the body, the very image of the mind, catches up
this light glowing and bursting forth like the rays of the sun. All its senses
and all its members are suffused with it, until its glow is seen in every act,
in speech, in appearance, in the way of walking and laughing. . . . When
the motions, the gestures and the habits of the body and the senses show
forth their gravity, purity and modesty . . . then beauty of the soul becomes
outwardly visible.132
Bernard's decor animae has much in common with the virtues of G's father. Both
employ a Ciceronian ethical vocabulary; both use the image of a powerful light
breaking forth from within as the metaphor for inner virtue in its relation to
outward grace and composure. We see the sign of the monastic writer in
Bernard's slightly condescending treatment of honestas and his preference of
good conscience as the inner center which governs outer beauty. In Meinhard's
scheme, the outer man had brought lepor humanitatis to expression. But in both
we are in a conceptual environment where behaviorspeech, gesture, dress, gaitis
aestheticized and represented as a visible manifestation of inner beauty and
harmony.
Gestures, Gait, Bearing, and Carriage
"Virtue made visible" was more than a formula of praise. It registered a
pedagogic practice, one in many ways central to the cultivation of virtue. Outer
carriage was the staging ground of virtue, and this required a disciplining of gait
and gesture. The cultivation of virtue began with the body, with training in
gesture, gait, motions (emotions, impulses) of the body, attitude of body and
mind, facial expression, voice and speech (gestus, incessus, motus corpotis,
habitus corpotis et mentis, vultus, vox, sermo). The other meaning of habitus
comes to loom large in this discipline as well, namely dress. In the twelfth
century we will add table manners. I suspect that the
 

< previous page_111 next page >

< previous page_112 next page >
page
Page 112
table was as important a schoolroom in the eleventh as well, but the
documentation is scanty. The man who walks, talks, stands, and carries himself
perfectly is the magister morum. He shows in his every gesture what harmony
reigns within him; the composition of his body shows the composition of his
soul.
The roots of this discipline are classical. Its most influential formulation was in
Cicero's De officiis. In his discussion of temperance and decorum he says that the
pleasing motions of the body are an indication that body and soul are in harmony
with nature (1.100). After a long discussion of control of the passions (motus
animi) he commends constantia in all acts, and this brings him to the motus
corpotis:
. . . the propriety to which I refer shows itself also in every deed, in every
word, even in every movement and attitude of the body. And in outward,
visible propriety there are three elementsbeauty, order and embellishment
appropriate to the act it accompanies. 133
To achieve beauty, order and appropriate embellishment, we need to follow
nature in our motions:
. . . in standing or walking, in sitting or reclining, in our expression, our
eyes, or the movements of our hands, let us preserve this decorum. We
must avoid especially the two extremes: our conduct and speech should not
be effeminate and affected [effeminatum vel molle] on the one hand, nor
coarse and boorish on the other.134
The beauty of conduct is of two kinds, he continues. The one called "loveliness"
[venustas] is feminine; the other [dignitas] is manly. Let a man therefore avoid
any ornatus of dress that is not dignified, and the same applies to gesture and
motion. The golden mean is the ideal to follow [mediocritascf. 1.130-31]. This
means, we should walk and gesture neither too slow nor too fast, since this puts
us out of breath, distorts the face, and is a strong indication that inner constancy
is lacking.135 In these passages fitting gait and gesture into a philosophy of
"natural" behavior, Cicero represents beauty of gesture as a response to and
symptom of an inner harmony. Elsewhere he uses the image of the harmonically
composed soul playing inaudible music, a kind of visible melody, on the
instrument of the body (Tusc. Disp. 1.19-20), and here we see how the
disciplines of gesture and music overlap. But also gesture and eloquence. Cicero
represents the motions of the body as a kind of language or oratory of the
body.136 When inner constancy and harmony find their expression in natural
external gestures the result is grace, beauty and dignity.
 

< previous page_112 next page >

< previous page_113 next page >
page
Page 113
Ambrose picked up these ideas in his adaptation of De officiis and made proper
walking and gesturing into an important duty of the Christian statesman.
Composed gesture and movements are signs of verecundia, modesty and
reluctance to give offense:
Verecundia is to be maintained even in motion, gestures, and gait. The
attitude of the mind is perceived in the state of the body. . . And in this
way the motion of the body is a kind of voice of the soul. 137
He demands a kind of gesture and movement which bespeak authority, gravity
and tranquillity.138 Ambrose tells two anecdotes that illustrate the importance of
decorous movement: he rejected a friend for membership in the clergythough his
stringent performance of duties commended himbecause his gestures were in
very poor taste ("gestus eius plurimum dedecerat"). Another, a young cleric, he
ordered never to walk in front of him, because his gait offended his eyes, like a
slap in the face (49A). Both men met bad ends, which Ambrose believes he
could have predicted from their way of walking.
Good carriage occurs as a virtue in Vitae of Carolingian clerics and monks,139
but it is not common. The Roman ideal appears to have been restricted to the
court circle and "civil education."140 Alcuin gave Charlemagne extensive
instruction on gesturing and carriage in his dialogue on rhetoric (PL 101, 941-
43), and this subject was placed significantly before the final section on the
virtues. Hincmar of Rheims placed instruction in carriage and gait precisely in
the context of courtly schooling in his letter of instruction to Louis the German:
The kings court is indeed called a school . . . since it corrects others in
attitude, way of walking, speech and gesture [habitu, incessu, verbo et
actu], and in general holds them to the norms of a good life.141
The rules of the monastic and clerical life regularly point to bearing and gesture
as objects of disciplining, but without any reminiscences of the Roman sources
or the Carolingian court. They are plain admonitions to inoffensive behavior, not
indications of an ideal of elegant bearing.142
An ideal of walking and gesturing based on classical models came to prominence
from the second half of the tenth century on. We recall the lines of the
anonymous Rheims poet praising Constantine, the friend of Gerbert of Aurillac:
. . . if the common belief is true that the motions of the body are signs of
the mind, and the soul expresses itself in the gestures, then in our judgment
you
 

< previous page_113 next page >

page
< previous page page_114 next page >
Page 114
fully merit that praise of body which fame spreads about you through the
world. 143
Bern of Reichenau has a telling description of the education of Bishop Ulrich of
Augsburg. The future saint began to show his modesty and respectfulness at an
early age, and the gradual forming of virtuous patterns of behavior showed
themselves outwardly in "the motion of his body, his gestures, his way of
walking."144 The outward signals of inner virtue here are not just a given of the
future bishop's person, but a product of inner formation and development (qualis
habitus formaretur intus in mente).
Godfrey of Rheims wrote a poem between 1060 and 1095 to Odo of Orleans, in
which he represents his friend as he appeared to him in a dream. The description
of Odo's appearance makes clear that Godfrey mastered a highly sophisticated
and startlingly worldly idiom of external culture:
There was no mistaking the man:
Doubt not that his attitude, voice, speech, figure,
His gait and appearance all gave off signs of an integrating harmony.
["habitus, vox, sermo, figura, / Gressus et aspectus consona signa dabant"]
He was not austere with morose gravitywhich I hate
But rather serene with bright spirited countenancewhich I love.
His face was not twisted nor intimidating with grim glances,
Nor were his brows rigid and severe,
But rather mild, gentle and placid as a dove, [warming] as the summer sun.
Nor was he so gay and facile to look on
That he would have neglected a modest appearance.
Nor would he tempt shame by frivolous speech
Or turn his appearance into that of a petulant boy.
For vice is ill-shunned,
When the shunning yokes you to its opposite vice.
He has not bathed well who washes away riotousness and gluttony
Only to immerse himself in as indecent a fault, avarice.
Odo holds the middle road between both extremes,
And considers moderation safe from faults.
He adorns himself so with temperance that his mark is
Light good humor mixed with gravity.
        [A line missing in the manuscript]
 

< previous page page_114 next page >

< previous page page_115 next page >
Page 115
Temperance drives the swift horses of the sun,
Temperance forms the harvests, mixing heat and cold,
Temperance turns grapes to wine.
This posture, this attitude are decorous; let the wretch stray
Who swells with mendacious religion.
Let him live, mute, bitter and harsh, banished to the wilderness,
The companion of Hyrcanian tigers.
He who condemns joys and approves melancholy
Will be judged like winter and its frosty winds. . .
With such decorousness and such moderation of countenance
The poet's image [i.e., Odo] stood at our bed.
His form was not stumpy and puny,
It was the towering stature of a great man.
A sublime head set on a noble body
Magnified his appearance of height. 145
The fundamental concepts of this portrait are an "integrating unity" that renders
Odo's shape and countenance harmoniously suited to his motion, gestures and
speech; the virtues that integrate the parts into a whole are temperance and
moderation. This holds the extremes of vice in check, so that virtue becomes the
mean between two extremes. The poet creates a rich play on the word temperies,
which can mean both time, temper, temperament and temperance. He sees that
force working to fabricate the products of nature (harvests and wine), and
working equally to produce the harmonious balance in Odo's appearance.
"Decorousness" is the criterion which is satisfied when the ethical and the
aesthetic are in good balance; the body is the location of the visible traces of the
''decent": "hic status, hec habitudo decent" (51). The quality of bright, restrained
good humor was prized also in the father of G., and is widely held ideal of the
cathedral communities.
I included the lines on "mendacious religion" to show the worldly flavor of the
portrait. Here and in numerous statements of this ideal of moderated appearance,
we will see that the authors have barbs to direct at both extremes of the social
scale, against rigorous and extreme asceticism and against unrestrained and
affected worldliness.
The point is that the body has become the text in which virtues are read:
moderamen is a quality visible in facial expression (69). Apparently the art of
reading the appearance was of some interest in the French schools. A friend of
Marbod of Rennes named Walter (Gualterius) sent him a treatise
 

< previous page page_115 next page >

< previous page page_116 next page >
Page 116
on physiognomy, an ancient Roman work detailing the science of reading the character
from physical signs. 146 It is prefaced by a few lines of verse composed by Walter:
Well then, it may be small and no bigger than the hand,
But this is the sort of book that sweet France admires.
It is marked throughout by rich variety and honey-flowing rivulets.
To tell the truth, it opens the secrets of nature to view;
It notes certain things marked with the signatures of secret meanings,
Like stature, countenance, posture, voice, gestures, grooming.
It commends men even when you do not know their inner character [ and reveals ]
Whether this one is just, beautiful with the flower of virtues,
Or evil, false, and overly bold at any crime.147
These texts show the high level that the culture of the body reached in poetic and
personal ideals by the later eleventh-century. This culture is directly connected with the
cultivation of virtue, since bearing makes virtue visible. The cathedral schools practiced
a pedagogy aimed at creating the balanced, restrained, decorous, "well-tempered"
human being, and it is reasonable to assume that this began with the discipline of
walking and gesturing.
***
The texts treated in this chapter familiarize us with some of the ideals of cathedral
school education in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The presentation was not
comprehensive; it aimed only at being representative. These texts have brought us into
the core of the old learning, not its peripheries. An important concept only touched on is
honestas. It has come up so often that it should be mentioned 'at least. To give it the
kind of detailed treatment we gave other virtues would not be profitable, since it
represents a kind of collective and a summation of all individual virtues. It is the
overriding goal of an education in mores, as the educational aims of the student named
Hubert, who studied this "subject" at both Chartres and Rheims, indicate to us.
Humility, modesty, moderation and patience were mentioned frequently, and dearly
were important components of honestas and elegantia morum.
 

< previous page page_116 next page >

< previous page_117 next page >
page
Page 117
This education was oriented to human qualities, qualities that are effective in
regulating social and political life. This distinguishes it sharply from education
based on norms derived from dogma. Christian doctrine plays only an oblique
role in the descriptions of education from our period. The formula "he is made
all things to all men," is representative of this priority. "All things to all men" is
synonymous with "affable," "amiable," ''beloved of all." What was an ideal of
the Christian proselytizer when St. Paul formulated it, becomes a social ideal in
eleventh-century cathedral schools.
This is one sense in which that education was humanistic. Another is that the
social and ethical ideals were formulated in a discourse inherited most directly
from the education of the orator in classical antiquity. Cicero's Tusculan
Disputations is the work Meinhard commended to G. as he entered
administrative service, and that recommendation is paradigmatic for priorities at
the cathedral schools. The administrators were Christian pastors in their
overarching function, but in the details of their development and self-definition,
and in practical matters of administration, they identified with the Roman
statesman and senator. 148 Meinhard found Cicero a better guide to the active
life than St. Paul.
It has been possible to speak of humanistic education until now without any
reference to the other side of its formula: letters. Liberal studies took a major
expenditure of efforts from masters and students. Meinhard complained that he
squandered the first part of his fortune teaching manners, and the second part on
"letters." But letters and liberal studies were inseparable. A detailed look shows
them not as instruments to develop the intellect and intellectual skills, but as the
handmaidens of ethical training.
 

< previous page_117 next page >

page
< previous page_118 next page >
page
Page 118

5.
Ethics Colonizing the Liberal Arts
Learning for its own sake had no legitimate role in this period. Studies had to be
subordinated to a higher goal. For secular studies this goal was virtue and
"composed manners." These aimed at forming the human being, "attuning" the
inner to the outer world through discipline, exercise, rehearsal, and study.
Speech and gesture were the activities in which inner man and outer expression
met most closely, but all the disciplines and arts could serve that purpose and
ideally were pursued "for the sake of learning virtue,'' causa discendae
honestatis.
In its relations to the liberal arts and other classroom disciplines, ethics is always
at work directing the focus, the methods, the tone and atmosphere of study. A
frequently cited scheme of studies subordinates the liberal arts to ethics. 01 In
the eleventh century this was not an empty scheme, but pedagogic practice.
Ethics colonized the other disciplines. This chapter observes the process in the
major disciplines it came to govern.
Philosophy and Ethics
For classical antiquity ethics formed one of the branches of philosophy. Cicero's
definition made the formation of life through discipline the highest activity of
philosophy, which "promotes a good and happy life" (bene beateque vivendum).
Its end is virtue:
If there is really a way to learn virtue, where shall one look for it, when
one has turned aside from this field of learning [namely philosophy]?2
The Tusculan Disputations begins with the observation,
. . . the system and method of instruction in all the arts which have a
bearing upon the right conduct of life [ad rectam vivendi viam pertinerent]
are contained in the study of wisdom which goes by the name of
philosophy. (Tusc. Disp., 1.1)
 

< previous page_118 next page >

page
< previous page_119 next page >
page
Page 119
Philosophy is the magistra vitae, an epithet widely quoted in our period:
O philosophy, thou guide of life, o thou explorer of virtue and expeller of
vice! [O vitae philosophia dux, o virtutis indagatrix expultrixque
vitiorum!]. . . . Thou hast been the teacher of manners and of discipline
[magistra morum et disciplinae]. (Tusc. Disp., 5.5) 3
Ciceronian ideas and formulations on philosophy passed to the Middle Ages by
the well-known routes.4 Isidore of Seville defines philosophy as "the knowledge
of things human and divine joined to the study of living well" (cum studio bene
vivendi).5 Alcuin echoes this:
Philosophy is the investigation of natures, the knowledge of things human
and divine. . . . Philosophy is also proper conduct of life, the study of
living well [honestas vitae, studium bene vivendi], the meditation of death,
contempt of the world.6
Hrabanus Maurus gives an encyclopedic definition:
A philosopher is one who has knowledge of things human and divine. He
holds constantly to the path of the good life [bene vivendi tramitem tenet].7
He gives the well-worn derivation that makes Pythagoras the first to use the
name philosopher. The three kinds of philosophers are physici, ethici, logici. The
ethicists are so called because they deal with manners and morals (de moribus
tractant). Ethics is divided into four parts because the cardinal virtues are four.
He sums up, quoting Alcuin with slight variations:
Philosophy therefore is the investigation of nature, the knowledge of things
human and divine, to the extent it is possible for human beings to
investigate them. Philosophy is also the proper conduct of life, the study of
living well, the contemplation of death and the contempt of the world.
(ibid.)
Gerbert of Aurillac articulates this ethical conception of philosophy in a
comment that will come up often in this study. He claims to be a follower of
Cicero in his refusal to separate what is moral from what is useful, and makes
the connection into a law of philosophy:
Since philosophy does not distinguish between the rules of speaking and
the rules of conduct, I have always joined the study of eloquence to the
study of living well. And as good conduct by itself is superior to good
speech, it may be enough to choose the former over the latter for one freed
from the cares of administration. But for us who are caught up in the
affairs of state, both are necessary.8
 
< previous page_120 next page >
page
Page 120
The practical governance of life in the context of state service figures here as a
prominent element of "philosophy." This ideal of conduct joined to the study of
eloquence is both a way of life for the public man and a program of studies. In
the eleventh century philosophy was the imposition and exercise of discipline to
structure behavior and restrain impulse. 9 Studium bene vivendi was a form of
philosophizing; philosophy shaped mores.
We should recall the admonition of a student of Worms to his bishop around
1030, reminding him that public administration is the translation into the active
life of the lessons of philosophy: "The schoolmistress of all virtues (magistra
virtutum = Philosophia) has taken up her abode in you, so that in all your
undertakings you may follow in her footsteps."10 The formulation evokes two
models of Lady Philosophy: that of Cicero (magistra virtutum) and that of
Boethius.
In his complaint to Philosophy, Boethius reviewed their longstanding
relationship and showed Philosophy guiding his investigations of the heavens
and shaping his mores according to the pattern of celestial harmony; she taught
him Plato's dictum that the happy state would be governed by students of
wisdom, and brought him by that route to devote himself to the service of the
state.11
Philosophy makes the statesman, and the statesman is a kind of philosopher.12
This model registers in the usage of the word philosophus in the tenth and
eleventh centuries. Otto I justified his choice of Brim as chancellor and advisor
(in the letter transmitted by Ruotger, see p. 44 above) by pointing to his
"education" by philosophy: "The true virtue of philosophy has formed [erudivit]
you with modesty and greatness of soul."13 Otto III had likewise invited Gerbert
to his court as teacher and advisor, pointing to his philosophical skill as his
qualification (Gerbert, epist. 186, ed. Weigle, p. 221). Wipo, in the prologue to
the Gesta Chuonradi, gives examples of ancient (i.e., Old Testament)
"philosophers'' advising rulers. They instructed the prince by interpreting dreams
and by telling fabulous narratives, "since such figments are by no means adverse
to philosophy" (Die Werke Wipos, ed. Bresslau, p. 5). The Ruodlieb poet placed
among the retinue of the rex minor a "philosopher, wiser than all the rest, whom
neither fear nor favor could divert from the true path in rendering judgment"
(Ruodlieb, ed. Vollmann, 4.11ff.). It is irony, since this wise man, asked for
advice, turns to the king and says, in effect, "whatever you say."
Logic and Ethics in the Regensburg Letters
The previous references have the character of topoi. They transmit conventional
formulations. We can say with certainty that the formation of man-
 
< previous page_121 next page >
page
Page 121
ners was included in abstract schemes of philosophy and that wise men in
various capacities could be called philosophers, but they do not show us
philosophy practicing what all these sources preach about it.
The Regensburg Rhetorical Letters (ca. 1090) bring us close to philosophy at
work shaping conduct. The letters are themselves highly stylized and derivative.
Often they appear as a cento of quotations from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations.
Their conceptions of philosophy and education are saturated with Ciceronian
models. But the narrative plotif I may use that term for these epistolary
exchangesand the content of their debates are immediate and, while it would go
too far to call them original, they are unique and vivid sources on the practice of
philosophy as it was conceived in the eleventh century. The Ciceronianism is put
into practice in these letters in a way that brings us dose to the classroom of the
cathedral school. Probably they are the product of a single writer. The title
(given to them by Fickermann) is slightly misleading. They certainly are
exercises, but "rhetorical" does not do justice to their wide spectrum of interests
and intentions. They are loosely fictionalized in the sense that individual letters
maintain a single author's persona, distinguishable from that of the writer. My
references in the analysis to writer 1 and writer 2 should be understood in this
sense, as designations of the fictional persona. The basic situation is that a
clerical administrator corresponds with friends, debating, exchanging ideas, and
giving and receiving advice, guidance and consolation for the rigors of
administrative work.
The first letter is written in the person of a man busied in the affairs of
administration. 14 He identifies with Cicero. Caught up "in the labors of
advocacy and senatorial matters," he has grown unaccustomed to study and
discipline. It is the beginning of the Tusculan Disputations taken over into the
fictive life of the letter writer. Since "study and discipline are the way to living
rightly," he turns now to what he has neglected. He breaks out into praises of
philosophy, quoting Cicero: "O vite philosophia dux" and so forth. It is
philosophy as the "teacher of manners and of discipline'' whom he invokes. His
intention in taking up philosophy is to pursue virtue, and anything contrary to the
faith he would tread underfoot:
. . . to seek virtue, to cling to the study of virtue, to sweat and strain in the
exercise of virtue, these activities serve not only the Good but also the
Useful.15
Now he proceeds to a logical justification of philosophy:
All that expels vices ushers in virtues. But philosophy expels vices. It
therefore admits virtues. Philosophy, then, admits virtues. But whatever
admits virtues
 
< previous page_122 next page >
page
Page 122
is a thing to be sought after. Therefore philosophy is to be sought.
Whatever is to be sought has the approval of the learned. Therefore
philosophy has the approval of the learned. (p. 275)
The letter continues at the same level of penetration to prove that all that is good
derives from the highest good. This brings him to the source of evil in the world,
which he develops from the case of the good and the rebel angels. Superbia is
the root of all evil, as he proves by citing scripture.
Letter 2 (pp. 276-77) is a reply. The writer notes that his correspondent, taking
confidence in his genius, has undertaken things that he himself, mediocrity that
he is, has requested. Such things are difficult for great and distinguished men,
who are situated in the fortress of argumentative disputation, and whose
knowledge is manifold. The writer himself is not educated in that group and has
no intention of undertaking or even attempting such tasks. He prefers to amble
on the beach of philosophy than to risk drowning in the ocean. A man who
speaks like a barbarian should not be a teacher of grammar. It is a modesty
formula and at the same time a rebuke to his correspondent, not a very generous
position since he himself requested the philosophizing the writer of letter 1
provides. He urges him not to be counted among the philosophers who live
badly. And as if to serve notice that he is not incapable of a sharp reply, "Do not
judge me toothless until you find I can't bite." Having rebuked writer 1 for
philosophizing, writer 2 now criticizes the logic of his letter. The passage is
worth quoting at length:
You have discussed the Good in your letter. Perhaps you are unaware that
if you are compelled to train yourself thoroughly in this question, it can
happen that your eyelids become glued together with the rheum of doubt,
so that you require the help of doctors to cleanse them. But what am I
saying? I regret that I have fallen prey to the Charybdis of suspicion. I may
appear to envy you, wise man that you are, these profound things. . . . But
please do not think I wish to carry on polemics with you and thwart your
mind, accepting in myself what I reprove in you. You can turn back on me
the words [of Cicero] quoted earlier in defense of Q. Ligurius: "I do not
concede that you should attack in another those things that you prize in
yourself."
The original writer (1) replies in Epist. 3 (pp. 278-79). A brief paraphrase:
Everyone but a dunce will know what is right for each person, as long as
he knows himself. I did not want to suggest that you are a kind of Proteus,
gathering in yourself all the disciplines. It shows little judgment if a man
esteems himself wise when the perturbations of the mind trouble him. The
mind of the wise man is not inflated or swollen. He shuns vice and he
avoids
< previous page_123 next page >
page
Page 123
anger. First you urge me to virtue, then when I labor for virtue, you reject
it as though it were empty babbling. Perhaps you object to my mentioning
the Good. It was Augustine, not those philosophers you mentioned (the
Stoics, Epicureans, Carneades), to whom I was referring. May your teeth
remain healthy, but I prefer them blunted or pulled rather than biting me. I
may have said many superfluous things, but exercise is delightful even
when it does not bear fruit. Do not think I am nagging at you. I delight in
your words and embrace the bitter along with the sweet. Where perfect
fidelity reigns, danger cannot enter.
The most perplexing feature of this exchange is its evident shallowness,
pettiness, and insignificance. We should not exclude the possibility that a
contemporary reader would have shared that judgment. The apparatus of thought
is extremely skimpy. Its furniture are the syllogism and a handful of authorities.
The writer knows Cicero well (17 direct quotations) and clearly has a copy of the
Tusculan Disputations at his fingertips, possibly in his memory. 16 He knows
the De amicitia and some of the speeches. He borrows phrasing from the Bible
but does not quote it directly. Letter 1 contains a single quotation from
Augustine. The reference to Augustine in letter 3 is a reminiscence so general
that the editor, Fickermann, otherwise very scrupulous, has not identified the
source. Regarded as a "philosophical" disputation on the nature of Good and
Evil, there is no way to rescue these three letters from triviality. In content and
method they are puerile.17
Now we want to look at them on their own terms, not ours. To do so we need to
substitute for the conception of philosophy as "knowledge of things" the one at
work here, namely philosophy as "teacher of manners." The three letters are thin
on ideas and keen reasoning, but rich with postures, habitus, and that is what the
exchange is about.
Friendship is the overarching virtue of this exchange. It begins with the theme.
Writer 1 addresses writer 2 as "his second serf" (Cicero, De amicitia, 21.80), and
ends epist. 3 with reassurances aimed at restoring firm friendship after the
debate.
Christian preferred to pagan philosophy is another "virtue" embodied. The writer
argues the point shallowly, but strikes the posture forcefully:
Were I to find anything that impugns the sacred faith, I would not only
reject it with a shudder, but also, withdrawing my foot, I would turn my
back on the defective sentence. (p. 275)
Writer 2 begins his answer (epist. 2, pp. 276-77) with a display of modesty,
setting his own mediocritas against the ingenium of his correspondent. The
opening bristles with the kind of barbed reproaches we observed
 
< previous page_124 next page >
page
Page 124
in the WormsWürzburg polemics. He is checking and correcting the potential
vice of intellectual overweening. He holds up the "great and distinguished"
philosophers, but undercuts the praise by locating them in the "fortress of
argumentative disputation," bad words in the vocabulary of the schools. He
points to men who get in over their heads and violate the laws or misuse the
instruments of their own discipline, and leaves it to his friend to place himself in
their midst. But as if to let him know that the sensed prickliness is intended, he
launches the apparent non-sequitur, "Don't judge me toothless." In other words,
if you feel rebuked, you have understood my purpose.
The dangers of doubt produced by logical reasoning are touched on. This checks
and corrects in advance a sceptical, critical posture.
Writer 2 corrects his own behavior by deploring the envy and faultfinding he
might appear guilty of through his criticism.
These three letters contain not a single point of substance. They dissolve into
postures: "virtues," corrections, admonitions, some explicit, others insinuated.
They are a pattern book of the correct postures in intellectual debate and in life.
They are also a set of negotiations on personal relations. The writers come full
circle from friendship through disagreement back to friendship. Through
exemplary attitudes they encourage virtue and correct vice. This is philosophy as
Cicero defined it, a "teacher of manners and remover of vices."
Ritualized Learning
The biographer of Burchard of Worms, writing shortly after Burchard's death in
1025, has preserved a lucid example of Biblical studies instructing in mores. He
includes two chapters illustrating Burchard's teaching. 18 Bur-chard required
daily exercises in writing from the students. They prepared sermones et
quaestiunculas concerning scripture to present to the bishop. He quotes one of
these exercises, in which a student requests an explanation of the Bible's claim
that Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days. Lest he fall into the "labyrinth of
doubt" he turns to Burchard to receive through the master's erudition the "truth of
the thing itself." He reminds his teacher of the pitfalls that beset the student of
scripture, unless he has cleansed himself through a thorough confession. Out of
the deep sorrow at the wounds he has inflicted on his own conscience, and
fearing to hide them, he "confesses" to Burchard to make visible what is now
hiding within. He offers this inquiry to Burchard, not out of pride, but "so that
you may correct me and render me more certain in my investigation" (p. 841, ll.
14-15). He
 

< previous page_124 next page >

page
< previous page_125 next page >
page
Page 125
hopes that, having purified himself by his confession and having received
illumination from his bishop and teacher, he will participate in his sanctity. Then
follows the question: Did Moses and Elijah actually fast for forty days? "Many
of us doubt it" (or "are uncertain about it"l. 25); it seems beyond human power:
"I doubt that any man could do this" (l. 27). He pleads with Burchard to relieve
him of the burden of doubt on the question, "so that I may avoid the snare of evil
and receive the fruit of penitence and true confession" (ll. 35-36).
Burchard's reply is long, eloquent, and packed with scriptural quotations to
support his points. The substance of his answer amounts to, "The word of God
nourishes spiritual men." But here also the postures struck and the virtues
exemplified are the real substance of his answer, and they are represented
extensively. He answers the question his student has posed "as if doubting"
(quasi dubitandol. 39), because he does not want him to doubt: ". . . te . . .
dubitare nolo" (l. 40). He praises him for confessing his doubt as a potentially
grave sin. He is glad to answer, because "whoever converts a sinner from his
error saves his soul" (ll. 44-45). To wander in error is foolishness. Foolish men
do not shun vice and seek virtue. ''Therefore every vice is to be shunned. . . . And
by the same token every virtue is to be pursued. Wisdom certainly is to be
pursued, since it is the virtue of God" (p. 842, ll. 9ff.). He finishes his exposition
of the passage and perorates: "Let these few words of correction suffice" (p. 843,
1. 33).
The student regards the lengthy answer to his question as a spiritual feast so great
that he wishes to share it with others. He divides it among his fellow students,
and "'they devoured it, the head with the legs with the purtenance thereof'" (ll.
40-41; cf. Exodus
The exchange is about a biblical text and the pious habitus appropriate to the
study of it. It is from the school of Worms at the beginning of the century. The
other documentation on this school from the same period shows a preoccupation
with classical learning of which this letter has preserved no trace (see Chapter 3
above). But the illustration of Burchard's teaching shows us something that
biblical and secular studies had in common: their highly ritualized character.
Learning from Burchard is a sacramental event; student and teacher alike see it
as a form of confession, repentance, and absolution. The students joyous
reception of the master's letter becomes a eucharistic event: the students partake
of the holy meal of the teacher's words. The other framework is the cultivation of
virtue and correction of vice: the student poses a question; questioning means
seeking correction; teaching means imparting verba correctionis.
 

< previous page_125 next page >

page
< previous page_126 next page >
page
Page 126
The arch-villain of this intellectual world is clearly doubt. It is a sin into which
the student falls by wondering about the meaning of the text. It also seems to be
a role he plays to provoke correction (quasi dubitans), since of course the entire
exchange results from the daily assignment imposed by Burchard. The teacher is
there to dispel doubt with the benediction of the truth, with absolution and
consolation.
Style and Substance
The previous two sections reveal a fundamental feature of the intellectual life of
the schools in the eleventh century. Understanding is secondary and patterns of
conduct are primary. Probing, searching investigation, doubt aiming at truth,
have no place in this picture. They are prominent among the vices to be avoided.
This principle illuminates the teaching of Fulbert of Chartres. We recall that
Adelman's praise of his teaching did not distinguish sharply between the qualities
of the teacher and those of the text:
Ah! with what dignity in striving for mores,
With what gravity in subject matter,
What sweetness in words,
He explained the mysteries of higher knowledge! 19
Like Burchard, Fulbert exemplifies virtues in explaining scripture: dignity,
gravity, and "sweetness of words." Nothing is said about the object of his
explications; Adelman had his eye exclusively on personal style. The person of
the teacher is the curriculum. This is ritualized philosophy. Ideas and
interpretations are accepted as givens, and the process of learning the correct
attitudes to those givens is itself the purpose. The student enters into this process
the way he sings the liturgy: it is important for him to learn the modalities, but
the meaning of texts and the nature of ideas are fixed and unambiguous. At least
treating them as such has to be accepted as one of the modalities of learning.
Viewed through the eyes of critics, this is precisely the offending point of the old
learning: all style, no substance. That is what Guitmund of Aversa criticized in
Berengar of Tours (he "simulates the dignity of a teacher in his manner rather
than by the substance of his teaching"), and Abelard in Anselm of Laon (he was
able to generate admiration but not understanding). But for Fulbert and Burchard
these priorities were perfectly understandable (not for Berengar and Anselm of
Laon: the criticism is false or
 

< previous page_126 next page >

page
< previous page_127 next page >
page
Page 127
slanted): philosophising was demonstrating forma vivendi, and substantial
questions of interpretation were a forest of error.
***
Twelfth-century sources tend to create a hierarchy of studies, subordinating
philosophy to ethics rather than identifying the two, as the previous century had.
20 John of Salisbury claims trenchantly, "Amy pretext of philosophy that does
not bear fruit in the cultivation of virtue [cultus virtutis] and the guidance of
conduct is futile and false."21 John still insists on practical ethics as the sole
worthy element of philosophy (virtus unica via est philosophandi) and the goal
toward which all intellectual activity ought to tend. But the tone and intent are
polemical. His claims make it evident that he is defending an outmoded program
under attack, and not reporting soberly on a practiced course of studies.22
Thierry of Chartres calls philosophy "the study of wisdom." It is the
"comprehensive knowledge either of speculative and logical reason, or of duty,
which pertains to ethics."23 The language reveals the essentially new conception
of ethics: integra cognitio rationis . . . aut officii. Ethics moves to the status of a
school subject among others. It becomes an object of knowledge and inquiry, and
no longer the practical discipline of "living well."24
While it no longer structured the life of the schools, the idea of philosophy as a
force that primarily molds men's characters and guides them in public life
remained an important conception, as we learn from the letter of Wibald of
Stablo excusing himself from peace negotiations in Liège:
That teacher and liege-lady of yours, Philosophy, the magistra and
instructor of things human and divine, has not shaped and informed our
manners [mores] as she has yours.25
The aura of archaic ethical conceptions wafts from a portrait of Bishop Eraclius
of Liège (d. 971) by Reiner of Liège writing around 1180:
Sent to Cologne for instruction in the rudiments of letters, he later acquired
such knowledge in both divine and human studies that he justly was
considered the equal of the greatest philosophers, but especially because
his splendid manners served as an adornment to the beauty of his body,
and, as Solomon says, the face of the wise man shows forth his
prudence.26
 

< previous page_127 next page >

page
< previous page page_128 next page >
Page 128
More than his skill in "divine and human studies", the bishop's manners and
beauty, his carriage and physical presence, establish him as the equal of great
philosophers. By 1180 very few active "philosophers" would have agreed with
these priorities.
The Trivium
Eleventh- and early twelfth-century school life was a literary-poetic as opposed
to an analytical-philosophical culture of learning. That culture required a
literature of examples, not texts that posed problems for solving and for rational
penetration. Its dominant arts were grammar and rhetoric, not logic. 27 Of course
"literary-poetic" is a subcategory of the culture's overriding character: personal
charisma. The two elementspersonal presence and literaturemet and were
resolved in the example.28 The continuum joining the living example and the
literary formulation was an experienced reality of the life of the schools.29
Thus the connection of the trivium with ethics was not at all loose or random but
central to humanist learning. The combination of speaking well with living well
was the overriding justification for the reading and study of the pagan classics.30
Grammar
Delhaye has given many examples of the integrating of grammar and ethics.
Rather than stir through his material and Roll Köhn's once more, I will compare
in this section two descriptions of the teaching of grammar, one from 1031, the
other from 1159.
Here are the lines of the Würzburg poet praising Master Pernolf (see above,
Chapter 3):
He himself blazes bright with the beauty of many poets.
He spares the master's rod, as Christ commanded,
He cares for nothing but the study of composition,
He remains a cultivator of virtue and of eternal salvation.
He retains his power of mind by the gift of the Allmighty.
The living stream of learning flows from his breast,
The eternal divinity gives him his flow of speech.
His example [documentum] is an ornament to us,
Since his honors grow like springtime flowers.
 

< previous page page_128 next page >

< previous page page_129 next page >
Page 129
Bringing the light and acumen of his mind to the unlearned,
He instructs them in the elements of grammar and in all the arts.
Nor does he cease at night time, as during the day,
To give forth the sayings of the poets and grammarians.
To such a pastor no writings are difficult.
Every volume is as luminous to him as sunlight.
Making the earth's orb blossom with his genius,
Demanding and just, laden with the gems of virtue,
This generous Argus provides throughout the night a feast of his instruction [documentum . . 
He never favors the more advanced and skilled students over the beginners. 31
John of Salisbury's description of the teaching of Bernard of Chartres (Metalogicon, 1.24) is a
major document in the history of medieval education. It has formed our ideas of the teaching of
grammar and of the classroom methods of a famous teacher. Here are excerpts from the chapter:
Bernard of Chartres, the greatest font of literary learning in Gaul in recent times, used to
teach grammar in the following way. He would point out, in reading the authors, what was
simple and according to rule. On the other hand, he would explain grammatical figures,
rhetorical embellishment, and sophistical quibbling, as well as the relation of given passages
to other studies. He would do so, however, without trying to teach everything at one time.
On the contrary, he would dispense his instruction to his hearers gradually, in a manner
commensurate with their powers of assimilation. . . . In view of the fact that exercise both
strengthens and sharpens our mind, Bernard would bend every effort to bring his students to
imitate what they were hearing. In some cases he would rely on exhortation, in others he
would resort to punishments, such as flogging. . . . The evening exercise, known as the
"declination," was so replete with grammatical instruction that if anyone were to take part in
it for an entire year, provided he were not a dullard, he would become thoroughly familiar
with the method of speaking and writing. . . . Since however it is not right to allow any
school or day to be without religion, subject matter was presented to foster faith, to build up
morals [edificaret . . . mores], and to inspire those present at this quasicollation to perform
good works. This evening declination or philosophical collation closed with the pious
commendation of the souls of the departed to their Redeemer, by the devout recitation of the
Sixth Penitential Psalm and the Lord's Prayer. He would also explain the poets and orators
who were to serve as models for the boys in their introductory exercises in imitating prose
and poetry. Pointing out how the diction of the authors was so skillfully connected, and what
they had to say was so elegantly concluded, he would admonish his students to follow
 

< previous page page_129 next page >

< previous page_130 next page >
page
Page 130
their example. . . . He would also inculcate as fundamental, and impress on
the minds of his listeners, what virtue exists in economy; what is
praiseworthy in the beauty of things, what is praiseworthy in words; where
concise and, so to speak, frugal speech is in order, and where fuller, more
copious expression is appropriate; as well as where speech is excessive,
and wherein consists just measure [modus] . . . he diligently and insistently
demanded from each, as a daily debt, something committed to memory. . . .
A further feature of Bernard's method was to have his disciples compose
prose and poetry every day, and exercise their faculties in mutual
conferences, for nothing is more useful in introductory training than
actually to accustom one's students to practice the art they are studying.
Nothing serves better to foster the acquisition of eloquence and the
attainment of knowledge than such conferences, which also have a salutary
influence on practical conduct, provided that charity moderates enthusiasm,
and that humility is not lost during progress in learning. 32
The two passages have a number of common features. In both, grammatical
study is inextricably linked to reading, composition, and ethics. In both we have
the sense of intimate classes and close personal relations between master and
students. Both masters hold evening sessions, explaining the poets. Reading and
composition are the basis of both methods. Both masters are sensitive to the level
of their students. The use of the whip is mentioned in both cases; Pernolf spares
it, Bernard uses it when admonition fails.
The two grammar classrooms are not essentially different in their curriculum:
students learn to read and compose by studying classical texts. Pernolf "cares for
nothing but letters / composition [scriptura]"; Bernard is "the greatest font of
literary learning [fons litterarum] in Gaul." Both live and teach in a literary
culture of learning.
But apart from the bare subject matter, the two classrooms are two very different
worlds. The earlier work shows the cult of magisterial charisma in flail bloom.
Pernolf teaches by divine right. He has his genius from the Allmighty and his gift
of flowing speech from "the eternal divinity." And it is no doubt this conception
of a sacral professorship that generated the extravagant metaphor of learning
flowing from the master's breast "in a living stream." Also that puzzling, mystical
formulation, "he blazes bright with the beauty of many poets." Learning
translates into charismatic light. Pernolf is what he reads. Text and teacher fuse;
the teacher is a "document," teaching by luminosity and flood, and suffusing his
students with his qualifies. The earlier text stresses the transmission of virtue
from the person of the teacher much more than the later. He cultivates "virtue
and salvation''; he blossoms with honors; he is studded with "the gems of
virtues,"
 
< previous page_131 next page >
page
Page 131
and these qualifies become "ornaments" of his students. While the teacher's
virtues loom large in the earlier work, his methods are the focus of the later.
John of Salisbury's account is far more sober, almost scientific in its reportage.
There is no teaching by divine fight. The master is a trained man mediating skills
and a body of material well. The mysticism of the teacher is gone. In Bernard of
Chartres's classroom, virtue and charisma have passed over into texts. Poetic
language and diction have become the bearer of virtue: the poems themselves
show forth "virtue," "elegance," "economy," "moderation," The students arc
admonished to follow the example of the poets, not that of the teacher. Pernolf
was much more than a mediator. His eloquence, and not Virgil's or Lucan's, is
the model which made the students eloquent. The skill of the ancient poets came
to life and luminosity in him and poured forth from him like a stream. The
material and the technique of the teacher are far more important in John of
Salisbury's account than the person of the teacher.
About 130 years separate these two texts. They show us grammar and literary
studies in their ascendancy and in their decline. John was a conservative
advocate of a learning that was embattled and passing from the scene, and he is
attemptingfutilelyto reconcile old and new. His presentation of grammar is
overgrown with classifications, systematizing, and technical terminology that put
forward his credentials as a man in touch with the current developments in
studies. His presentation of Bernard's methods is a nostalgic look back. By 1159
it was no longer possible to commend a master by praise of his personal
authority, his virtues, his transforming charisma. On the contrary, John tells us
that two continuators of the methods of Bernard of Chartres, William of Conches
and Richard the Bishop, were forced into early retirement, and that Richard's
personal qualities could not prevent it.
Magisterial authority has shifted away from men and into texts; a document is
just a document and not a living being; virtue has relocated into language.
Bernard of Chartres is a skillful technician, not a charismatic wizard of diction.
His commentary merely illuminates texts; the texts do not illuminate him.
Rhetoric
Eloquence and Wisdom
The second of the seven liberal arts came to the Middle Ages from Roman
antiquity with ethics attached to it. The combination was part and parcel of the
idealized orator's education, 33 and medieval authors and teachers re-
 

< previous page_131 next page >

page
< previous page page_132 next page >
Page 132
ceived it in the major texts from antiquity on rhetoric. Cicero's De inventione,
widely read and commented on, 34 opens with a discussion of the significance of
joining eloquence with wisdom. The separation of the two leads to the harm of
the state and the stagnation of intellect. But joined together they are a powerful
force in human affairs. The combination accounts for the origins of civil society
in a myth which follows: it makes eloquence into the force that effected the
primal consent of pre-civilized men to forgo violence in favor of peace, friendship
and a sociable life (De inventione, 1.1-5). And the work ends with a detailed
presentation of the definition and nature of virtue as a topic of deliberative rhetoric
(2.157-65).
What was for Cicero one theme among many became for Alcuin the essential
division of the art of rhetoric. It had two parts: eloquence and virtue, the structure
evident in his title, De rhetorica et virtutibus. For Alcuin the study of rhetoric
leads to and is inseparably connected with the study of virtue.
Gerbert of Aurillac, explicitly following Cicero, drew an even closer connection
between the two by refusing to recognize a distinction between the art of speaking
well and the art of living well (epist. 44, ed. Weigle, p. 73). This was a
programmatic formulation for cathedral school education, and showed the central
role assigned to rhetoric: rhetoric joined to the cultivation of virtue restates the
general program, "letters and manners."
At the other end of the period, a poet writing some time in the last two decades of
the eleventh century produced a poem that is a summation of the learning of the
preceding century. It will occupy us at length in the next section of this chapter,
but a few comments on its presentation of rhetoric are in order now. The "De
nuptiis Mercurii et Philologie" was written by an anonymous French poet in or
near the Rheims circle probably around 1080.35 An allegorical survey of the
seven liberal arts ends in the Orpheus story. Wisdom presides as each of the arts is
presented, defined, and praised by one of the muses. The muse Calliope says
about rhetoric:
The art teaches this: it holds kings and laws to the rule of moderation,
It reforms the knighthood, who bear the weapons of Mars,
Teaching them the doctrine of vigilance and lordly ways.
It regulates the manners of youths [iuvenum mores] and instructs the mature,
Holding them to the civil laws in constant moderation.
 

< previous page page_132 next page >

< previous page page_133 next page >
Page 133
It is ornamented and beautified by the four virtues.
It moderates all things with good judgment, and quietly
Tempers everything. It is just in its strength and beautiful in its wisdom.
Firmly supported on these four columns [i.e., virtues]
It stands equal-sided as if perfectly squared. 36
This conception of rhetoric is Ciceronian, but it is anything but schematic. It
conceives of rhetoric above all as a civilizing force. Not a single line of the
passage has to do With an orators skills and the narrower "science" of learning
eloquent speech. It assigns rhetoric an educating force on society: the harshness
of the law is tempered, the knighthood restrained from violence, and the other
classes taught manners. Of course the Ciceronian vision of rhetoric establishing
the civil order informs the lines, but the poet has his own distinct social program,
in which rhetoric plays an important part. The four virtues are the foundation of
this rhetoric, but it is worth noting that temperance or moderation predominates.
Fortitude and prudence are only briefly mentioned, and justice is present largely
to receive the tempering influence of moderation. That influence is rhetoric's
main virtue, and it is qualified as "beautiful" (venuste prudens).
One of the Regensburg Letters (ca. 1090) gives us a portrait of the ideal
administrator who joins wisdom to eloquence in the context of his administrative
duties. The letter is worth citing for its joining of scriptural ideals and precepts
from the Benedictine rule with Ciceronian sentiments. The writer is consoling
his friend who is caught up in debilitating administrative affairs, scandals, and
intrigues. He is about to retire to a life of meditation, but his friend argues
stoutly for the importance of the active life:
You are in a position to govern [praeesse] others. This causes harm if you
do not strive also to do good [prodesse] for them. But you profit others,
and yourself especially if while speaking well you also behave well [si
bene cum loqueris, bene operaris] . . . if you adapt yourself to all men in
such a way that all are in agreement with you. . . if you reward vice with
odium and virtue with reverence. . . if you represent for all men an
example of chastity, a mirror of restraint, a model of discipline, so that
your words may themselves be composed manners [ut mores compositi
verba sint] and your words conform to your acts, so that all may see in you
what it is they should strive after. . . so that you wish more to be loved than
feared.37
The pairing of praeesse and prodesse is that important structure for formulating
governing inherited from the Benedictine rule and Gregory the Great.
 

< previous page page_133 next page >

< previous page_134 next page >
page
Page 134
Here, however, the formulation is closer to that given in Sigebert's biography of
Dietrich of Metz: the ideal of educating men to govern and do good in the same
degree, as against the more ascetic tradition that subordinates governing to doing
good. Parallel to this is the duty of speaking well and acting well in the same
degree.
We have encountered the passage's subordinate ideals: affability that creates
harmony among men, and the exemplary nature of the clerical administrator.
This statement is close to a comprehensive portrait summarizing ideals of the
cathedral schools. A particularly striking suggestion is that exemplarity of
behavior also makes speech into an assertion of "composed manners" (ut mores
compositi verba sint). Speech and ethical conduct coalesce in this dense
formulation. The word becomes a good and elegant deed. The formulation
restates the Ciceronian/Gerbertian ideal that makes eloquence a form of ethical
behavior and beautiful bearing a form of eloquence.
The short work of Honorius Augustodunensis (d. ca. 1156), De animae exsilio et
patria, is an allegorical pilgrimage through the arts. It follows the soul's progress
from ignorance to wisdom, from exile to homeland. The journey leads through
ten cities (the first seven are the liberal arts, the eighth "physics," the ninth
economics, and the tenth the mechanical arts). The second city is rhetoric. Its
gate is "concern for civil matters" (civilis cura). In the city itself the
administrators of the church compose decrees, while kings and judges issue
edicts. In some places synods are convoked, in others forensic laws are
promulgated. Cicero is the teacher:
In this city Tullius instructs pilgrims in the art of speaking ornately, and he
composes their manners through the four virtues. . . . This city is the home
of those books known as histories, fables, books of oratory and of ethics,
and through these the steps of the mind are to be guided toward the
fatherland. 38
The Cicero this writer evokes is still a teacher of eloquence joined to manners.
Honorius has essentially the same vision of the mission of rhetoric as the author
of "De nuptiis," though with a strong admixture of book-learning.
Wisdom and Eloquence in the Glosses
Two sets of glosses on De inventione a generation apart show us a shift in the
understanding of Cicero's myth of social origins. The influential glosses of
"Master Menegaldus," the teacher of Anselm of Laon and of William of
Champeaux, possibly Manegold of Lautenbach, give us a good example
 

< previous page_134 next page >

< previous page_135 next page >
page
Page 135
from the second half of the eleventh century. 39 The glossator refers in key
words to the myth, which shows how "the ignorant erred and men were wont to
act with arbitrary violence" in the primal state. They operated only on physical
strength, not rational counsel. They possessed neither religion nor knowledge
and did not know "what brother owed to brother and neighbor to neighbor. And
for this reason he says, [they lacked a sensei of human duty, i.e., the knowledge
of ethics." The gifted orator ended this:
A certain man possessing eloquence naturally joined with wisdom
reflected how much greater was man's dignity with this intellectual skill
than with the others. Having realized the value of this skill, he compelled
other men to unanimity. Thence arose cities. Once this was accomplished
he taught them to suppress wars, to cultivate friendship and social life. And
this he accomplished through wisdom and eloquence.40
This vision of progress out of a state of violence is paraphrased from Cicero, but
Master Menegaldus no doubt had good reason to highlight just this part of the
introduction to rhetoric. The transition from a reign of arbitrary violence to a
society based on friendship had deep resonance for the generation engaged in the
peace movement. And the vision of an end to violence through eloquence was
not just a received idea but an experience with powerful appeal.41 Eloquence is
the force that makes reasonable rule possible:
Hence it is clear that certain men could enlarge the republic because in
them resided the aforesaid virtus and authority, i.e., that dignity of person
amplified by the highest truth, i.e., eloquence. And this I want to stress
because it was an ornament to their authority and through this the
"governing of the republic" was possible. (Ward, Art. Eloquentia, p. 84)
Indicative of the word-centeredness of this culture is the formulation, summa
veritas, i.e., eloquencia.
Still in the context of a commentary on wisdom joined to eloquence, he makes an
interesting observation on Cicero's cautioning against glib eloquence with the
false appearance of wisdom:
This facile quality I call an imitator of the virtue of perfect men. . . . That is
why the authors call whatever they describe strong and beautiful, as if
virtue disdained to enter imperfect bodies. (Ward, pp. 77-78)
When we move to the glosses by Thierry of Chartres on De inventione and Ad
Herennium, we find a clearer focus on rhetoric and a weakened, or at
 

< previous page_135 next page >

page
< previous page_136 next page >
page
Page 136
least shifted, interest in its connection to virtue. We are in the same conceptual
world, but it has become intellectualized. Thierry stresses the beginning of
Cicero's work and the joining of eloquence with wisdom, but his definition of
wisdom is telling. It is "the thorough knowledge either of 'reason,' which pertains
to speculative thinking and logic, or of 'duty,' which pertains to ethics" (Latin
Rhetorical Commentaries, ed. Fredborg, p. 59). The definition of eloquence,
dour in its brevity, is "the study of speech." This statement harmonizes with
Thierry's introduction: "The utility of this book [De inventione] is the
composition of a rhetorical oration" (ed. Fredborg, p. 55). The qualification for
civil office is eloquence joined to wisdom, but wisdom is "knowledge of the
nature of things": ''Nisi enim quis et eloquens fuerit et naturas rerum bene
cognoverit" (p. 71; my emphasis). Thierry in fact insists on the restricted scope
of rhetoric and excludes facets of it that earlier writers would have included:
if some person skilled in all the arts should assign to the art of rhetoric the
duty of encompassing also questions of physics and ethics, this may be
possible to him who is perfect in the sciences, but not to the art of rhetoric.
(p. 75)
These are the comments of a master for whom studies have become more
specialized than they were for Master Manegold. Thierry's Cicero is no longer
the teacher in Honorius' second city, who "instructs pilgrims in the art of
speaking ornately and composes their manners through the four virtues."
Speech and Manners in Two Rhetorical Treatises
1. Onulf of Speyer. An earlier master of letters and manners, Onulf of Speyer
(mid-eleventh century), did not agree that questions of ethics fell outside of the
realm of rhetoric. This Speyer school master's Colores rhetorici, 42 like so many
works from the eleventh century, owes its origins and survival to chance, not to
any practical need of the schools to record the thought and teaching of their
masters. A friend of Onulf, a monk and teacher, requested instruction on the
"colors of rhetoric" along with citations from ancient authors, and since he lived
at some distance, Onulf could not give it to him in person. The result is a work
that is deeply representative for the intellectual-ethical orientation of the schools.
"Letters and manners" provides the background against which its representative
character becomes evident.43 He leads the reader through the ornaments of
speech (adapting Rhetorica ad Herennium, 4.19ff.) to
 

< previous page_136 next page >

page
< previous page page_137 next page >
Page 137
"ornaments of manners." The work begins with a statement of the subordinate
relationship of rhetoric to manners. Unfortunately the first words of the prologue
are lost. It opens with the sentence fragment, ". . . arti rethoricae: morum
elegantiam, compositionem habitus, vitae dignitatem amplectere" (ed.
Wattenbach, p. 369). A conjecture in harmony with the thrust of the work would
see this as completing the thought, "The art of rhetoric [is not confined to the
framing of speeches, but] embraces the cultivation of elegant manners, composed
bearing and dignity of conduct," or, more succinctly, "Manners are the higher
form of eloquence." The work is built on the transference of the rules of beautiful
speech to rules of elegant conduct. A passage close to the logic and structure of
the stunted prologue is the explanation of traductio:
What does such ornamentation [i.e, rhetorical] contribute to your salvation,
since the ornamentation of manners and of bearing solely, sole as it is,
merits solely the name of ornamentation? 44
Here and throughout, the rejection of rhetoric in favor of mores is the structuring
principle. But the same words that reject rhetorical ornament illustrate it. The
repetition of sola and exornatio illustrate the figure at hand.
The work has two parts. Each figure of speech discussed in prose in the first part
is repeated in verse in the second. Here is Onulf's definition of articulus, in
prose:
Do not exert yourself greatly in attaining knowledge of articulus,
concerning which orators claim an oration is polished by the staccato
setting apart of single words in a sequence. You however should seek to
show skill . . . in your manners, your bearing, your knowledge of divine
scriptures. (p. 373)
and in verse:
Manners, bearing and wisdom adorn your mind
So that you will please young, old, and the throng of youths.
God, His angel and the learned man himself command, love, and prove this.
Let man, woman, rich and poor revere, desire and love you.
Let every age, condition and both sexes revere and honor you.
Be sweet and amiable in tone of voice, attitude, facial expression.45
In rejecting rhetoric, he displays it, and in this way both complies with his
friend's request and strikes a virtuous posture. His self-abjuring virtuosity
 

< previous page page_137 next page >

< previous page_138 next page >
page
Page 138
fuses instruction in letters to instruction in manners. He combines the rules of
speech and the rules of living, adjuring the reader to "compose" himself
according to rhetorical precepts.
It is difficult to draw any clear conclusions about the sociology of this short
work. It is written by a teacher at a cathedral school for a teacher in a monastery.
The lessons given look toward the contemplative and solitary life, and we cannot
be certain that they were at home both in Onulf's school and in that of his
addressee. Concerns specific to the school of Speyer with its flourishing
"imperial study" emerge in Onulf's treatment of homoeoteleuton (similiter
desinens):
Similiter desinens occurs when the word endings are similar, although the
words are indeclinable. Perhaps you shrink from appearing unlearned, or
perhaps you blush to be thought uncultivated; you labor at your exercises
of composition in verse and prose, and at those rhetorical ornaments you
request of me; you suggest the reading of the authors to your pupils, you
strive to answer their each and every question, and unless you can respond
to all, you are deeply ashamed. But now listen to what Democritus said, a
philosopher and not the least among them. Called upon to play during a
banquet, he said he knew no songs on the lyre. To those who then asked
what he did know, since he did not know this, he replied, "I have learned
something far more excellent: I know how to govern the state wisely, and I
know how to make a small state large." And in the same way let the wise
knowledge of divine service be the magnifying glory of your learning. (p.
374, parag. 13)
This bit of wisdom from a Greek philosopher seems more apt for students like
Benno of Osnabrück (possibly a student of Onulf), a skilled administrator and
courtier, than for the monk to whom the work is addressed. The "divine service"
must include service of the state. No doubt Onulf's friend was living at an
unreformed religious house, the culture of which probably varied little from that
of the Speyer clerical community. It is a relationship like that of St. Remi of
Rheims to the Rheims cathedral school in the late tenth century (see above, p.
59).
We should not make much of Onulf's "rejection" of literary studies and their
classical models. This is the orthodox habitus we have observed elsewhere. The
masters and students cultivate a language saturated with classical models, and
their rejection of antiquity is a thinly disguised admission of a profound debt to
it. 46 Onulf himself was probably a student of Walther of Speyer, bishop of
Speyer from 1004-1027. Anyone who has struggled even partly through the
impenetrable Latin of his Libellus scholasticus will realize how large rhetorical
ornament and the Baroque diction of Martianus Capella loomed for the previous
generation of Speyer masters.
< previous page page_139 next page >
Page 139
2. Marbod of Rennes. Onulf's work has been compared with Marbod of Rennes'
Liber de ornamentis verborum. This work, written some fifty years later, cites
the definitions from the Rhetorica ad Herennium and appends a few lines of
verse to illustrate the figure. Here is Marbod's treatment of homoeoteleuton:
Similiter desinens occurs when the word endings are similar, although
 the words are indeclinable. In this way:
You seek increase of wealth, decrease of virtue is the result. But you
 will never be rich as long as you lack virtue.
You may speak sweetly, but you will deceive insidiously.
You may question glibly, but you will act abominably. 47
The structure is virtually identical with that of Onulf's work: rhetorical precepts
are followed by illustrative examples with some moral content. But there is a
clear shift in priorities: Onulf's concern is essentially ethical, Marbod's
essentially aesthetic. Both contain moral lessons: Marbod's are tags appended to
rhetorical lessons; Onulf's are fruit removed from the husk of rhetoric. What
Onulf "rejected" has become the main object in Marbod. His work ends with a
brief epilogue which shows the development of a sophisticated literary aesthetic:
If you wish to compose, then hold to
The natures of things as a mirror and poet's model,
Keep that as your exemplar, like one who wishes to learn to paint . . .
Since art emerges from nature when summoned by reason,
It strives to retain the form of its own origin.
        (1692C-D)
The grounding of Onulf's rhetorical teaching is man and the laws of his conduct;
that of Marbod's is nature and its representation. This difference is a distinction
not just of two thinkers, but of two generations of intellectuals. Art, or "the art,"
is tending to emancipate itself from its grounding in moral teaching. We will
observe this shift from man to art/nature in other contexts.
Poetry
"School poetry" had a role in learning and society in the eleventh century that is
easy to underestimate. A much quoted dictum of E. R. Curtius's makes poetry
into an assemblage of received learning: "Why did one write
 

< previous page page_139 next page >

< previous page_140 next page >
page
Page 140
poetry? One was taught to in school." 48 The tone in the master's voice here
brooked no contradiction and convicted the sensible question, "Why learn
poetry?" in advance of impertinence. Curtius notwithstanding, poetry was the
art, along with rhetoric, through which training in mores most immediately
engaged in eleventh-century society.
We can get some impression of the distance that separates the learned eleventh-
century poet from the "Vagant" of the twelfth in a satirical portrait of the perfect
worldly cleric by Peter Damian:
Even today there is a brother living in the city of Rome, sprung from the
highest French nobility, whose name I shall not mention, for I shudder at
the ignominy of a brother. I doubt that he is lacking in anything that
qualifies him for office [aliquid utilitatis]. He is radiant with the flowers of
external goods: noble as the emperor; beautiful to look on; he speaks like
Cicero; he writes poetry like Virgil; he is a sounding trumpet in the church;
he is learned and sharp in divine law. Disputing like a scholar, his speech
flows as though he were reading it from the page; speaking in everyday
language, he does not offend the rule of Roman urbanity. What can I say
about his mastery of the monastic rule? or of the regulated life of clergy?
He knows them equally so that he could teach them as an expert.49
This is a man who has covered all his bases. That means, for Peter Damian, a
master of speech, the law, and the mores of the two main divisions of church
communities, monastic and regular clergy. In addition he is of high nobility and
handsome appearance. That list touches the major forms of "usefulness." The
detail that gives pause is poetry: "ut Virgilius poetatur." Suspending our own
picture of alienated poets and deep abysses separating the word from the deed,
we could imagine poetry as one of the useful arts in the sense of advanced
rhetoric: an aid to speech and eloquent writing, the handmaid of rhetoric.
It was a great deal more than that. The status of poetry in the eleventh century
was extraordinary and not to be viewed or appreciated through the optics and
aesthetics of other periods. Peter Damian sets poetry parallel to high birth,
physical beauty, forensic eloquence, political influence, legal training, and
training in mores. That is closer to an accurate classification than "handmaid of
rhetoric." The learned poet of the eleventh century is more likely to be found in
furs and silks in high church positions than wandering homeless and hopeful of
patronage for the evening's bread.50
Poetry the Fulfillment of Learning
Far from being handmaiden to any art, poetry stood at the top of the hierarchy of
studies, it was in fact that skill toward which the other language
 
< previous page page_141 next page >
Page 141
arts tended. This extraordinary status of poetry is evident in the poem De mensa
philosophie from the Cambridge Songs. It sets a rich table of philosophical food
and drink, but serves only poetry:
Hasten to the table of philosophy, you who thirst,
And drink the seven streams of its threefold feast.
Flowing from a single fountain, they go separate ways.
Here flow the rudiments of grammar, here the stream of poetry,
Here the platter of the satirists, here the applause of the comics,
And the Mantuan flutes [ = Virgil's pastoral poetry] bring joy to the banquet.
51
This is not a niggardly "let them eat poetry!"; it is the best dish the host has to
offer. The age had a loose hold on the quadrivium, but it had a sense that in poetry
Virgil was not always its equal.52 We have seen much testimony to the fervid
devotion to poetry in school.53 The Würzburg poem from 103 1 (above, Chapter
3) shows its stature in that school. The master is praised as "the prince of those
primates who expound the poets' secrets" (ed. Bulst, l. 21). He is "refulgent with
the light of many poets," he "beams" poetry, as he might exude humanity, grace
and charm. Teaching by divine right, he devotes his entire attention to composition
(''Preter scripture studium nihil est sibi cure"26). He qualifies his students for
office, and himself and them for heaven, through learning and virtue (cf. ll. 75ff.).
Not only did poetry enjoy a high status, it was regarded as the end point and
fulfillment of studies. There is a grand statement of this conception in the
important school poem from around 1080 entitled, like the work of Martianus
Capella which it adapts, "De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologie."54 I would like to call
particular attention to this poem. It is a summation of learning at the eleventh-
century cathedral schools. Like Alan of Lille's Anticlaudian, though on less grand
a scale, it is an allegory of the ideal education.
As in the work of Martianus Capella, the poem begins with the marriage of
Mercury and Philology. The wedding feast is presided over by sapientia. Apollo
calls upon the nine muses, who "cling closely to study" (studio cohibente82). They
are to "magnify the arts." Then each of the muses sings the praises of one of the
arts. After the celebration of the arts, the "ethereal chorus of philosophy" sings a
song praising sapientia.
Next Orpheus appears with his wife Eurydice. No reason is given for his entrance.
He simply is "there": Ecce novus vates vatumque ferens novitates (242). He calls
for silence and begins to sing. The song he sings is of no particular importance,
though it goes on at some length (242-366). It is a
 

< previous page page_141 next page >

< previous page page_142 next page >
Page 142
series of "hymns" to gods and heroes, essentially the brief retelling of myths.
Eurydice follows and sings of some of the paramours of Jove, and is awarded the
laurel wreath, gems and gold for her song. 55 When she ends the feast is over
Now, with no transition, we are into the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. She is
bitten by the serpent; he descends to recover her, softens the flinty hearts of the
infernal beings, and, following the Ovidian "unhappy ending," loses the
redeemed Eurydice by looking back.
What does it mean that a poem celebrating the union of eloquence and wisdom
through the muses and the liberal arts ends in the story of Orpheus and Eurydice?
Essentially, the message is that education is fulfilled in poetry and music.56 For
this anonymous poet, what Orpheus stands for is what education is about.
Martianus Capella's work also ended with music. The ninth and final book of the
De nuptiis is devoted to Harmony. Banished from earth, she joins the wedding
party to celebrate the union in song. Orpheus is also present, along with
Amphion and Arion. His song and his failed rescue are mentioned, but with no
particular profile. He is one of several emblems of Harmony's working.
Martianus Capella's work ends with a long-winded rehearsal of the laws of
harmonics and metrics. The two works share the same structure: a survey of
studies ends in the art which fulfills them. But the eleventh-century poet
thoroughly changed his source to highlight Orpheus and his role.57
Toward the end of the period (ca. 1125), when poetry and learning had gone
very different ways in France, a learned German, Ulrich of Bamberg, could
make the skilled composition of verse and prose into the measure of learning:
I believe for my own part, my sweetest friend,
And hope you agree, that no one is thoroughly learned,
Nor perfect, who is unable to compose something
Worth hearing. What greater sign is there,
What stronger argument or more certain testimony
Of abundant genius, dearest brother, than when
A poet can soothe ears and minds gracefully?
Here is what we seek, or nowhere, here, I say,
Is the fruit of long studies.58
Just as the Cambridge poem could make poetry into the only drink at
Philosophy's banquet, this poem can make poetry into the measure, and,
 

< previous page page_142 next page >

< previous page_143 next page >
page
Page 143
more strikingly, the final goal, of learning. Ulrich states plainly what the
structure of "De nuptiis" implies: poetic skill gives the strongest argument "of
abundant genius" and "the fruit of long studies."
Orphic Poetry: A Civilizing Force
There is more here than puerile enthusiasm willing to rank poetasters with Virgil.
To get at it we need to study the figure of Orpheus in the period. 59 The age
made the Thracian bard into the representative of its lofty conception of poetry.
We can approach this conception through close readings of three Orpheus
poems, one from the mid-eleventh century, the other two from its last decades. In
all three, the underworld scene is the key to the guiding conceptions.
"De nuptiis": The Furies Plead for Clemency. In his visit to hell, as the poem
"De nuptiis" depicts it, Orpheus meets the harshest, cruelest, and most inflexible
beings God and nature have created, and his song softens their hearts and turns
them into advocates of compassion. The fates are present, but are no match for
Orphic song. Its force makes them into petitioners, begging the king, Dis, to
relent and spare Eurydice: "The fates are softened, and they say: 'O just king,
spare her!'" ("Flectuntur Parce, que dicunt: 'Rex pie, parce!'"571). The furies,
described as ''ferocious, cruel, grim" (ferva, trux, torva), reproach Dis for his
cruelty (574). The tortured in hell forget their sufferings (575).
Orpheus begins his plea to Dis. The dominant tone is sensual nostalgia:
"Hymen" has driven him to invade the land of hell (534); Orpheus is "a youth
bound by the reins of love" (535); his dead bride had "hardly even in her girlish
mind tasted the union with a man, still knew not how to love or be loved" ( 538-
9 ); Eurydice, roused from the dark regions by her lover's voice, "desires to
embrace him" (559).
The romantic pathos seizes the residents of hell and awakens love and
compassion in all of them. A chorus of the furies and the damned together plead
with Pluto for Orpheus: "Love presses them all with its urgings, from all sides
the clamor for forgiveness rings out" (Omnibus instat amor, venie sonat undique
clamor586).
The lord of the underworld was at first irritated and hardened his heart (Pluto
cor indurat neque vati parcere curat588). But this love-inspired plea for mercy
from a unanimous chorus softens and renders him "modest and placid" (Rex
prius infestus placida iam mente modestus617), and he "lightens the fatal law"
(618). But Orpheus violates his condition. Eurydice is
 

< previous page_143 next page >

page
< previous page_144 next page >
page
Page 144
lost forever, and the poet is left with only the consolation of his song, which
retains its power to console:
He mitigates with the art of his lyre the curses of sorrow and anger, And
whatever mourning beset him, art restores him. (642-43)
The essential moment in the scene is the conversion of the underworld, the
remarkable metamorphosis from cold, dead rage and vengeful fury to warmth,
compassion and love. This is the power of Orphic music. The love-inspired song
soothes and conquers the fury and anger of harsh and cruel beings and softens
the hard laws of nature.
A central thought of the poet emerges in the meeting of Orpheus and Dis. It is
modeled on a courtroom scene. Orpheus is pleading a case, the chorus of the
furies and damned speak in his support, Dis is a king sitting in judgment and
enforcing or relaxing laws. 60 This conceit of the poet's makes poetry and
judicial rhetoric into allies in legal dealings, and reiterates a remarkable passage
earlier in the poem, the praise of rhetoric by the muse Calliope (discussed above,
pp. 132-33 and note 36):
This art [rhetoric] teaches the following: it holds kings to moderation in
exercising the law, it reforms [or reeducates] the knighthood, who bear the
weapons of Mars, with the doctrine of vigilance and study of lordly ways;
it instructs youths in manners and guides the mature; it constantly holds
the civil laws close to the rule of moderation. . . . It moderates everything
wisely and gently tempers all things. (ed. Boutemy, p. 50, ll. 136-59)
The softening, taming effect of Orpheus's song is answered in this passage by the
moderating, tempering effect of rhetoric. In both, a king is "held to moderation
in exercising the laws" Judicial pleading and poetry meet in the function of
urging clemency by softening the emotions of the judge or king. This
correspondence shows us again that the first and second parts of the poem are
knit in a unified conception. It also shows us the remarkable symbolic staging
that is the high point of the underworld scene: poetry/ music joins forces with
judicial rhetoric to soothe, and this makes allies of Orpheus and the residents of
hell.
Orphic poetry has a civilizing mission like that of rhetoric as the educator of
warriors and temperer of royal judgment. It inspires mercy and "brings low
impious rage" (Carminibus vatis occidit furor impietatis600). It replaces cruelty
and vengefulness with love.
The conception of poetry as a softening and civilizing force has a long
 

< previous page_144 next page >

< previous page page_145 next page >
Page 145
history, and the story of Orpheus and Eurydice was frequently its vehicle. 61 But
the eleventh century gave a profile to this role that was not received from
classical or earlier medieval sources.62 Orpheus and Eurydice becomes a
defining myth for the mission of the educated man. That explains the logic of
concluding a survey of the seven liberal arts with the story of Orpheus in hell:
the object and applied goal of education is to exercise the softening, mitigating,
peace- and love-bringing effect of "Orphic" song.
"Quid suum virtutis": The Dance of the Monsters. The poem "Quid suum
virtutis" (''The Nature of Virtue") is a showpiece of the manneristic style of
eleventh-century poetry. It dates probably from ca. 1043-1046, and possibly was
written at or for the German royal court.63 The poem places the story of
Orpheus between an opening section castigating contemporary vices and the
decline of virtue (ll. 1-498) and a closing section offering lessons in virtue (1025-
1190). The placement of the myth again is significant. It is introduced to
illustrate the virtues that the present age has lost. Those are study and hard work
that develop "art":
By sweating and toiling in labor joined to native art,
Orpheus extricated Eurydice.
He would not have controlled the rivers or moved the stones
If he had wished to languish in wanton sloth,
But impelled by fervent study he composed the muses' own odes
And caressed and soothed all things with their beguiling tones.64
Orpheus is the representative of uncorrupted "study" leading to virtue, that is, the
embodiment of the instruction the poet offers, essentially, "what is the nature of
virtue" ("quid suum virtutis"). If "De nuptiis" shows the arts fulfilled in poetry,
"Quid suum" shows poetry fulfilled in virtue, actively rousing compassion and
saving lives.
The effects of Orpheus's music before the descent to the underworld are
described in terms familiar from the "De nuptiis." It "soothes with its
sweetness."65 His muse is "sweet."66 It delights and brings happiness.67 It can
create a variety of moods according to the temper of the mode, the "gravity of
the spondee" calms anger and brings peace to the soul,68 though harsher tones
stir rage and belligerence (795-96). The learned author integrates these effects
into Boethian ideas of cosmic and human music (see the discussion in the
section on music, below, pp. 165ff.). The dominant mode of music is
conciliating, soothing harmony:
 

< previous page page_145 next page >

< previous page page_146 next page >
Page 146
This man's muse, soothing and delighting the world with such sweetness,
shows clearly how the power of harmony tempers the essence of things,
reconciling dissonant things in a unanimous bond. . . . And this same law
of number in its moderating effect couples the nature of the greater world
[= macrocosm] with that of the lesser [=microcosm]. . . . She [Harmony]
joins body to soul, the things of the lower world to the supernal. She
ornaments manners [haec mores ornat] and relieves the body of its pain.
69
He goes on to derive the inner constitution of man from the effect of music:
Since the musical temper now soothes, now irritates, and again pacifies the
mood of the mind, it is more certain than certain that the totality of man is
aptly conjoined by the tempering effect of number.70
Man's harmonious constitution renders him susceptible to the tempering and
"educating" influence of music, since the "ornament of manners" registers the
body's harmonious coherence with the soul, for which song and number are
responsible.
The descent and journey through hell are powerfully described, and the
representation is based on a conception as distinct and as fundamental to our
topic as the corresponding scene of "De nuptiis." Everywhere are scenes of
sadness, suffering, cruelty and inhumanity. Orpheus passes through these dead
realms singing. His music casts a magic spell, transforming rage and
vengefulness into love and gentleness. The "sweetness" of his music softens hell,
"destroys the Stygian law" and brings streams of tears to the eyes of the
Eumenides:
Nor is it a wonder to tell, sacred Orpheus,
That your muse brought such sweet sounds to the gods.
You softened the realms of hell and destroyed the law of death.
At your singing the Eumenides wept.71
The stones themselves weep (817). The poet's ebullient imagination produced a
scene unique in the Orpheus myth: the music of Orpheus sets the monsters of
hell dancing:
All the monsters housed in the Stygian port
        Step from one leg to the other to the instruments' tone.72
They do not dance well (incompositas . . . choreas), but then they are not used to
music (931-32). The ferryman Charon, who has never experienced a happy day
in his life, grows joyful in his bitter old age, and works his pole
 

< previous page page_146 next page >

< previous page_147 next page >
page
Page 147
with renewed pleasure in the task (943-44). The raging waves themselves grow
glad (945). Hairy Cerberus now fawns on the poet with wags of his tail and nods
of his triple-throated maw; he turns sociable and becomes the companion of the
Hydra (951-52). The gloomy aspect of the shades grows cheerful (953), and at
the dulcet sounds of the lyre and the "nectar of the voice" pain loses its sting,
Rhadamanthus grows cheerful and festive, while cruel (trux) Eacus, deeply
moved, breaks into smiles (954-56). The "king" of the underworld (rex
Tartareus) himself sits, as though on a throne (In cuius medio maiestas fulta
tyranni965), in the middle of a black fire that overwhelms the vision 73 and
leaps as a sulfurous whirlwind into the heights. Attended by Agony, Lamentation
and Horror (the editor stresses the personification by capitalizing the names), he
feeds the guilty into his consuming fire.
At the sound of Orpheus's music the tyrant is astonished to see how his teeth-
gnashing fury is calmed, and he is transformed from his former self into a gentle
creature.74
This remarkable scene shows us the cumulative and outbidding impulse of
eleventh-century poetic "mannerism" not merely producing poetic flotsam, but
engaged in the crucial moment of the poem. The guiding idea is the magical
transformation of an entire society from savage inhumanity to courteous
sociability. One monster after another turns into a mild-mannered courtier, until
the entire underworld is a festive75 grand ballroom with the guests greeting each
other affably, walking arm in arm, dancing, smiling, and making charming and
blandishing comments and gestures. The disparity, comical to the modern reader,
is high seriousness for the eleventh-century poet. If the model for hell in "De
nuptiis" was the king's court dispensing law, in "Quid suum virtutis" it is the
king's court as social center.
Finally, in an anticlimactic single line, Orpheus' wish is granted: "Odis empta
viro redditur Euridice" (996). Orpheus leads her out, but in this case, as opposed
to the "De nuptiis," love works against him. It forces him to look back. And so
he whom no effort or exertion could conquer is thwarted by love (1008).76
Eurydice vanishes. Orpheus is eager to return and work his marvelous effect
again, taking courage from the power of his lyre, but is dissuaded by his
revulsion at the thought of petitioning evil.77 But the divine power of song has
already enabled him to win a great victory over Styx, and this shows how "art,
with the mediation of fervent study, conquers nature, proving that all things yield
to Lady Virtue"78
Once More: From Cruelty to Kindness. Our next text is a short poem (60 lines)
from the so-called "Liège Songs."79 It dates from the end of the
 

< previous page_147 next page >

< previous page_148 next page >
page
Page 148
century and was written by a certain "Gautier" who had ties to Marbod and
Baudri of Bourgueil and probably was himself active at Rheims. 80 The element
of study and education that played such a prominent part in both the other poems
is absent. The entire poem is given over to the effects of Orpheus's song on the
residents of the underworld. The ideas and the conceptiontransformation from
cruelty to mercy and kindnessdiffer little from what we have observed so far. But
a look at it confirms that these poems speak a widely shared language that we
can call from now on "Orphic discourse."
Here also, Orpheus's music is imagined as penetrating all of hell and working its
magic on all its denizens: "Orpheus holds the caves of hell spellbound and song-
softened. . . . Whatever evil they suffered was mollified by his song."81 Where
there was fury, at the sound of the song there is deep peace and quiet (4). Those
bound in chains forget their pain and anger at the love that the lyre spreads (7-8).
This Orpheus also changes the laws of hell: "Arte lireque sonis mutavit iura
Plutonis" (13). As he proceeds, the "dark faces and loathesome figures" he
passes "transform their grim countenances and greet him cordially" (41). Facing
the gods of the underworld, Orpheus ''takes away their raging fury and alleviates
the fierceness of their hearts" ("Sic rabiem demit, sic fera corda premit"56). The
god of the underworld is overcome, and his "imperial command" returns
Eurydice to the poet.
These poems show us that "Orphic" poetry has two major characteristics: it is the
fulfillment of learningliberal and ethicaland it transforms the cruel and vengeful
into gentle, loving, compassionate beings. That it "conquers nature" and is an
instrument in the pursuit of virtue, as the "Quid suum virtutis" depicts it, is for
the eleventh century part and parcel of cathedral school learning based on cultus
virtutum.
A Civilizing Mission
The eleventh-century poets show an interest in the conversion of the underworld
that is unprecedented in any tradition. The poets are far less concerned with the
fate of Eurydice than with the civilizing of hell. That mission is the basic
manifestation of Orphic poetry.
We know from sources outside the Orpheus poems that these two aspects of
poetry (it fulfills education, it soothes hard hearts and creates compassion) were
accepted views of its role in studies and life.82 In this light the lines on poetry by
Ulrich of Bamberg quoted earlier (p. 142 and n. 58) have programmatic
character:
 

< previous page_148 next page >

page
< previous page page_149 next page >
Page 149
        no one is thoroughly learned,
Nor perfect, who is unable to compose something
Worth hearing. What greater sign is there,
What stronger argument or more certain testimony
Of abundant genius, dearest brother, than when
A poet can soothe cars and minds gracefully?
Here is what we seek, or nowhere, here, I say,
Is the fruit of long studies. ("Bamberger ars dictaminis" ll. 32-39)
It is a pithy statement of the conclusion just formulated: poetry that can "soothe"
"charm" or "delight" (mulcere), attests to thorough learning (doctus ad unguem)
and virtue (perfectus). 83 Ulrich elaborates on the effects of poetry a few lines
later. His unnamed friend is known as a man of strong and kind genius:
. . . who is ignorant of your brilliance?
Who would deny the kind strain of your mind?
For in writing sweet verses you soothe breasts,
And you soothe as well when writing excellent prose.
With your manners you ornament these [verses],
Since your will is always bent to Good.84
The thought is essentially the same as in the previous passage: genius (subtilis)
and virtue (benignus, prona ad bonum) are shown forth in poems and prose
compositions that "charm and delight.,' Poetry and virtue are again closely joined
in the phrase, "moribus haec ornas." The statement is close to the basic idea of
both "De nuptiis" and "Quid suum virtutis." Ulrich is defining poetry as ''Orphic"
without any reference to Orpheus.
Orphic Discourse. Orphic poetry is not an aesthetic idea separable from social
circumstances and moral obligations. The concept as the eleventh-century
schools developed it analyses situations of conflict. That is, those who observed
and described conflict themselves called on the Orpheus myth for their
formulations.
The poem glorifying the Würzburg school calls on Orphic discourse to describe
the contention between the two parties. The passages that interest us juxtapose
the peace of Würzburg with the hell of contentiousness at Worms. The poet
depicts Würzburg as an Elysian realm of studies, an academy of poetry and
virtue, its students and master a harmonious com-
 

< previous page page_149 next page >

< previous page_150 next page >
page
Page 150
munity, knit together as if "by a single vow" (see above, p. 72). The Worms poet
has stormed into this citadel of love as a raging enemy of peace. He is a "sower
of wrath and destroyer of friendships" (sator irarum et destructor
amicitiarum105), filled with "frenzied rage, mad with the love of Mars"
(bacharis . . . Martis amore furendo141-42); he has fomented between them the
''discord of dire wrath" (dire discordia ire130); his "message of contention"
(nuncia litis107) disturbs the "sweet life of Würzburg" and the peace that rules
on all sides (105-9).
The peace-breaker s penchant to anger, rage and combat is consistent with the
studies at his school, the poet claims. At Worms they worship "spiritual
monsters" (206); they lack all art and put their faith in the quarrels of Mars
(207); they call back to life the gods of the underworld (Inferni divos . . .
redivivos213) and prefer their worship to the society of the living under the "law
of instruction" (ius documenti211); they worship the "black demons" who, while
they lived, engaged in "constant contentions" (224-27); they will never prevail in
the present combat, "even though the prince of the underworld himself should
leave hell to render them aid" (269-70).
We are suddenly in the underworld scene of the Orpheus myth, though there has
been no signal of it nor any reference to that story. The "sower of wrath" has
chosen to revive the gods of hell, those whom the law of Pluto has condemned to
the dragon's jaw, but there is no resonating lyre to soften his (Pluto's) anger. No
pleading can rescue those who enter his kingdom. 85 The Worms poet, in other
words, is caught in the hell of contention he has created, and has no soothing lyre
and no redeeming Orpheus to soften the rage of the beasts he consorts with.
Wrathful contentiousness is stylized as a descent to the underworld; hell is the
place of anger, fury and war. The poet could evoke the story without telling it;
the circumstances themselves called for an Orpheus.86
If there is an Orpheus in the poem, it is the Würzburg poet. His foe is in the
position of Eurydice, caught in hell and locked into the law of Pluto. It takes an
Orpheus with his "conciliating lyre" to redeem him. The poet has cast himself in
the role of peacemaker and reconciler. Having railed against the warlike posture
of Worms, he makes an extravagant offer of peace: "Now let the discord and
cruel anger between us fade. Let us shun war and become joined as twins in our
love. A bond like that of David and Jonathan will join us. No cruelty will disturb
us now or ever more. Those caught up in unending quarrels will marvel to see
such a friendship between us."87 This posture of unquestioning forgiveness of
wrongs, overlooking of
 

< previous page_150 next page >

page
< previous page_151 next page >
page
Page 151
insults, and forgoing vengefulness to restore peace and friendship, was an
admired one. The poet shows his "gentleness of spirit" (mansuetudo) 88 by
pouring forth reconciling oil to sooth the dispute. His own poem is the bringer of
it. The final lines represent the poet as the redeemer of his wrathful colleague at
Worms, sowing seeds of peace in the divine field by his song and praying for aid
from God, "by whose gifts I master the melody of reason."89
This poem shows us actual social circumstances that commended the figure of
Orpheus as a representative of peace and conciliation. Peace, friendship, love in
cathedral schools was a sacred law. To violate it was serious.90 It was important
to have people who, Orpheus-like, mastered the "melody of reason," not just in
the schools, but in the society generally.
The Würzburg poem is not the only case in which a breach of claustral
tranquility conjured Orpheus as the reconciler. Two letters from the Hannover
collection show us the same logic at work.
The first is written (between 1054 and 1079) to Bishop Hezilo of Hildesheim by
a group of students residing at the Hildesheim cathedral school, evidently as
guests (hospites), not members of the chapter. They are starving. In their
salutation, they sign themselves "famished men whose flesh barely clings to their
bones" and wish Bishop Hezilo "the satiety of celestial grace, full of the bread of
life"91 They play changes on their hunger, describing the physical effects in
detail. They compare themselves to the tortured in hell, except that their own
tortures are worse:
. . . we feel more wretched than Tantalus who dared not touch those regal
feasts set near him, more plagued than Ixion bound to the rolling wheel,
more damned than Sisyphus pushing his constantly falling stone back up
again and again, worse punished than Tition at whose ever replenished
liver an insatiable vulture gnaws, and altogether delivered over in body to
infernal suffering. (p. 62)
They beg the bishop to release them from "the jaws of hell" (p. 63). Having set
up the bishop for the role of either Pluto or Orpheus, they end discreetly by
casting themselves as Orpheus pleading for Bishop Hezilo before God. Just as
the lyre of Orpheus liberated Eurydice (whom they call "Erudicen") from hellish
creatures who know no forgiveness, they pray that "the cithara of their devotion''
will win from God whatever Hezilo wishes.92
A letter from Walo, abbot of St. Arnulf in Metz, to Archbishop Manasses of
Rheims, written in 1074, is not so discreet. The unhappy abbot heaps
vituperation on the Archbishop, who has wronged him. He grieves
 

< previous page_151 next page >

< previous page_152 next page >
page
Page 152
for the errors of Manasses, as is appropriate to anyone moved by the "affection
of true love" He has grieved far more for the "ragings" of his injurer than for the
injuries done himself. He shudders to recall the misery he has suffered under the
"barbarous rule" (barbaro dominio). He declines to enumerate the threats and the
curses he has received from Manasses. Had he been anything but a simple fool,
he would not have come to so ''ungentle, so cruel, so violent, so monstrous a
beast" (ad te tam inmitem tam trucem tam violentam tam inmanem bestiam). 93
Manasses has had the nerve to suggest that Walo, being a peaceful, humble and
quiet man (pacificum, humilem et quietum), and constantly given to reading, is
not comfortable with the "French manners" of Manasses. Only a monster barren
of all virtue, Walo says, could imagine a life tempered by peace, modesty and
sobriety to be lower in virtue than one given to harsh and bold combat. The
rehearsal of the archbishop's perverse ideas continues: peace weakens the spirits
of powerful men, while combat strengthens the weak and idle. But, Walo replies,
Cicero has shown the superiority of the toga to weapons. The opposition of
peaceful, gentle Walo to fierce and barbarous Manasses gives the structure that
invokes Orpheus. Walo says he has tried to mitigate the fury of Manasses by
citing scripture and "celestial words":
Oh how often have I administered to you the medicine of scripture! How
often I attempted to mitigate your fury, singing, as it were, the songs of
heavenly words! How often I strovenot with the Thracian but with the
Davidic lyreto expel or tame that demon that vexes you! (p. 183)
The rejection of the "Thracian cithara" only confirms the appropriateness of
Orpheus in the circumstances. It is a gesture, like the "rejection of the muses" in
invocations,94 that christianizes a domain legitimately occupied by the classical
tradition, and in so doing concedes a strong sense of obligation to what it rejects.
The reference to the harp of David demonstrates through its isolation how
accepted the jurisdiction of Orpheus in the correction of furor and saevitia was.
David curing Saul would have had a higher degree of legitimacy, but the Old
Testament singer is seldom invoked as a soother of royal anger, though his
poetry is often compared to that of Orpheus.95
Sigebert of Gembloux gives us a second example of Christian superseding
Orphic opposition to violence and rage in his Passio Thebeorum (ca. 1070).96
He represents Emperor Maximian as the raging king, "barely civil, no friend to
his friends, savage in his anger . . . a lion who is never meek at heart or relaxed
and gentle, fierce and cruel by nature, barbaric in feel-
 

< previous page_152 next page >

page
< previous page_153 next page >
page
Page 153
ings." 97 He orders the (Christian) Theban legion to slaughter the foe (a rebel
Gallic tribe and Christians) mercilessly: "Let no compassion soften you. / Show
no restraint, show no mercy."98 In a speech full of fine ironies (2.2.25-159, pp.
71-75), the emperor's speaker warns the (converted) legion against the dangers
of Christianity: their God is taking over, snatching the trident from Neptune, and
so on. Soon he will command the underworldrightly so, since Dis, harder than
stone, is deaf to the pleas and blind to the tears of the wretched (says the
spokesman of the cruel emperor). Dis could not even be softened by the tearful
songs of Orpheus and refused to grant the life of Eurydice:
Pluto, who is harder than stones of adamant, could not be softened by the
tearful songs of Orpheus, who softened the tigers, the mountains, the wild
forests and the rivers, to give the singer Eurydice's life as his payment.99
But "this new fellow Jesus" (hic novus Iesus) hears the pleas of all and has
compassion with all, even to the point of returning the dead to life.
This is the only version known to me in which Eurydice is not saved even once
and the song of Orpheus fails to soften Dis/Pluto. Sigebert obviously required an
inflexible king and a thwarted Orpheus in order to create a space for a Christ
whose redeeming mission overcame the ineffectual pagan means of arousing
mercy.100
The Orpheus story was a structuring myth for conflict in actual social-political
circumstances. Sigebert's Passio Thebeorum underscores this role, even though it
is an imaginative narrative poem. The same narrative metaphor was at the
disposal of any learned cleric who described conflict situations. It gave a
powerful analogue to the learned man of peace softening the rage of rulers, no
matter what the ultimate success.
Orphic Men
The soothing and civilizing role of verse was more than a conceit of school
poetry. Orphic discourse formulated important duties of secular clergy:
restraining and soothing the anger of princes and rulers, making peace, effecting
reconciliations. "Mitigating the fury of kings" is mentioned as a matter of praise
in Carolingian sources,101 though it is not common and Orpheus is not
associated with it. Gerbert of Aurillac formulated the task programmatically. He
strikes a Ciceronian posture insisting that the art of speaking well must be
inseparable from the art of living well. The necessity for combining good
speaking and good living is the "mitigating" task of the statesman:
 

< previous page_153 next page >

page
< previous page page_154 next page >
Page 154
. . . to us who are taken up with the governing of the republic both are
necessary. For there is the highest utility in the ability to speak
appropriately to persuade and to restrain the minds of the raging from
violence by gentle oratory. 102
The discourse of fury and anger mollified was present in the tenth century, and
the man whose charisma had peace-making force was an admired ideal. Ruotger
says that Brun of Cologne was born to be a peacemaker, just at the time when his
father had "tamed the savageness of the barbarians" (perdomita barbarorum
sevicia),103 "turned back the danger of internal strife," and proceeded to rebuild
a peaceful kingdom. Brun always cultivated peace, ''as if it were the nourishing
force and crown of all other virtues." The mere sound of his name put an end to
wars, ushered in peace and established the study of the arts. He believed that
tranquillity was the atmosphere that strengthens virtue, while strife weakens
it.104
The first abbot of Gembloux, Erluin (d. 987), was described by his contemporary
the monk Richarius, in verses transmitted by Sigebert of Gembloux, as the
embodiment of the peacemaking task:
Who could fully recount
How patient, how sweet and how kind he always was?
For with his own gentle ways he softened the hearts of the enraged,
Recalling them from ferocity to peaceful ways.
Charming in his speech, modest though marvelously dignified,
He was not abrasive, not cruel, not violent . . .
Those he saw mourning or sad or suffering
He succoured with a father's affection.105
It is not likely that this early portrait drew even indirectly on the image of
Orpheus doing with his song what the abbot did with his speech and his mere
presence. But the language dramatically shows the affinities between a clerical
ideal and the Orpheus myth. The "Orphic" personality was an embodied reality
first, and moved to take on the status of a poetic emblem. This conception of the
peace-bringing personality was probably formed in clerical-monastic circles
around the Cluny reform,106 and then appropriated in the cathedral schools with
their stress on poetry and classical learning, to describe the music of Orpheus.
Fulbert of Chartres seems to have radiated the effect of soothing tinged with
friendship and love implied in mulcere. He received a letter from his disciple
Hildegar asking that the master correct his student's vice of anger,
 

< previous page page_154 next page >

< previous page_155 next page >
page
Page 155
since Fulbert "emits the sweetest fragrance of mature holiness" through his
virtues. 107 We see Fulbert at work in this capacity in his letter to King Robert
the Pious restraining his anger against Bishop Odolricus of Orleans.108
In Fulbert this clerical obligation connects with engagement in the peace
movement. His poem in praise of peace shows how close the conception of a
new civilization based on law, moderation and restraint was to goals of the peace
movement.109 It would be surprising if that movement did not call on the image
of the soothing, calm-restoring man of peace mollifying the raging of barbarians,
but in fact this language is nowhere in evidence in the legislation of peace and
truce, though sermons and orations could draw on it.110
Archbishop Manasses I of Rheims with his rough warrior ways seems to have
brought out this quality in the gender clergy around him. One observer described
him as the raging barbarian tamed by clerical gentleness:
. . . by nature and by [acquired] manners he was more fierce than
appropriate, but he [Abbot Thierry of St. Hubert] behaved to him in so
laudable a way that he made him his friend . . . And so he put aside his
harsh ways to a great extent at his admonitions . . . and though to many
men he was frequently ungentle and truculent, to this man alone . . . he was
always gentle and placid.111
This complex of concerns comes together in Bern of Reichenau's letters to Henry
III praising him as peacemaker.112 In a letter written in 1044 he explained to the
king the significance of his royal tide:
The authority of the ancients attests abundantly that those who are now
called kings were once called tyrants because of the ferocity of their
manners. But as the pursuit of sacred religion increased they were called
"kings" from "right rule" [reges a recte regendo], since they restrained
their bestial impulses and showed themselves rational through the power of
judgment. (epist. 26, ed. Schmale, p. 55)
This is a result of clerical instruction of kings since it occurs "as the zeal of
religion grows" (crescente sacrae religionis studio).113 It is a significant
connection. It indicates the clergy's sense of being engaged in a mission of
civilizing the laity that registers in other sources in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries.114 Bern's letters in praise of Henry III as peace-maker show the
language of the peace movement and that of instruction in mores intersecting.
The obligation to soothe and calm the ruler registers in Ruodlieb and here again
is significantly connected with goals of the peace movement,
 

< previous page_155 next page >

< previous page page_156 next page >
Page 156
possibly with the amnesties of Henry III. 115 The rex major thanks his "kind and
gentle" courtier, Ruodlieb, for dispelling his anger:
. . . "far be it from me that a guest should be troubled
From whom I was never in any way stirred to anger,
But rather when angered, he rendered me gentle as a lamb."116
"Soothing the anger" of the king was was no minor bit of personal royal
psychological counseling, but rather a fundamental way of doing business,
accomplishing personal and political goals. Its role is underscored in Gerbert's
comment that the ability to soothe is "necessary and of the highest utility to us
who are engaged in governing the republic." There is good testimony to Orphic
discourse functioning in royal business.117 In this context it may be that the
king's ''anger" at its palest is little more than a circumscription for his refusing
requests. The language of royal favor or disfavor is a language of the emotions:
the king's favor is "love" his disapproval "hate" or "anger"118
The task of soothing, pacifying and instructing princes and moving the lay
nobility away from barbarity to mores compositi registered in tracts on the
obligation to shun anger and cultivate clemency. An early example is Wipo's
Tetralogus. The last two of the four admonishers of the king in this "tetralogue"
are the Law and Grace. Gratia urges the softening and moderating of the
precepts that Lex had urged on him:
After judgment is rendered, let gentle forgiveness follow . . .
The Law brings hate on the king who savages the guilty;
Grace urges the king to remain beloved.119
In showing mercy, Henry imitates Jove himself, who punishes crimes by
forgiveness (parcendo crimina punit! cf. 243-44). Wipo cites a consecration
formula for the girding on of the king's sword,120 built on the antithesis of the
killing weapon to the preserving mercy of the king:
Oh enraged king, turn calm through mercy.
When the law of moderate reason performs its duties,
It alternates between softening harsh things
and hardening the gentle in its flames.
Hence the hard diamond is softened in the soft blood . . .
And nature commands that sad things change to glad.121
 

< previous page page_156 next page >

< previous page_157 next page >
page
Page 157
This section of the poem is a verse tract on tempering justice with mercy. The
eleventh and twelfth centuries produced a fair number of prescriptive writings on
the subject. 122
The Orpheus figure became an emblem for a certain obligation of clergy in their
dealings with lords clerical and secular, and this obligation had wide social and
political resonance. But is it anything more than an emblem? Did poetry itself
actually function in this capacity? The testimony to learned men singing
Orphically in real circumstances is scarce, at least I have not found it in
abundance.123 Wipo's Tetralogus and "Quid suum virtutis" might qualify as
"orphic" poems in the sense we have given the word, also the Würzburg poem,
though its main purpose is polemical, and the "mitigating'' intent secondary.
Fulcoius of Beauvais, who lived into the first decade of the twelfth century,
wrote poetry advocating the cause of Manasses I of Rheims in his conflict with
Romeironically, since Manasses does not spring to mind as a deserving
beneficiary of Orphic song. Fulcoius has much in common with that ideal cleric
whose portrait Peter Damian drew (above, p. 140): both were French nobility,
lived in Rome, were skilled in law, rhetoric and poetry.124 Peter Damian died
too early to have had Fulcoius in mind, but he certainly would have recognized
in him a representative of the species. Fulcoius wrote several verse epistles to
Alexander II and Gregory VII seeking reconciliation. When Manasses was
excommunicated by Hugh of Die, Fulcoius wrote a conciliatory letter in verse
commending the many good qualities of his patron, arguing against the "hatreds"
which beset Manasses, and urging him to exercise mercy before justice and lift
the excommunication (epist. 3). Fulcoius is at work with his poetry mollifying
the anger of Manasses's foes. It is not improbable on this model to imagine
gifted and learned men serving the interests of their lords through poetry. It
certainly shows us why Peter Damian and others would have regarded poetry in
the eleventh century as utilis. It also suggests that a study of the role of poetry at
the eleventh-century schools would do well to consider the function of poetry in
the practice of law itself. It is certain that students and poets conceived of its
importance in advocacy, and the epistles of Fulcoius of Beauvais indicate its
actual use in that context.
***
This discussion sets forth the broader social context which drew the Orpheus
figure into its orbit and made of the ancient singer the prototypi-
 

< previous page_157 next page >

page
< previous page_158 next page >
page
Page 158
cal softener of royal anger. We know that learned clerics felt an obligation to
perform this function, and that poetic composition was part and parcel of their
education. A man showed his own mores compositi by mitigating the anger of
lords, bishops, brothers, and if he ornamented his mores with poetry (or vice
versa in Ulrich of Bamberg's formulation), then he gave testimony to excellent
moral training and powerful genius. Peter Damian's portrait of the perfection of a
worldly cleric virtually reiterates (though in a satiric mode) the educational
ideals of the poem "De nuptiis." The combination of judicial rhetoric, knowledge
of the law and poetic composition, was the best the cathedral schools had to
offer. This explains the prominence of the Orpheus figure in some of the major
"school" poems of the period.
This conception of the role of poetry virtually died out at the schools after the
end of the eleventh century. It hangs on as reminiscences. 125 A passage in the
fourth homily on the Virgin Mary of Bishop Amadeus of Lausanne (mid-twelfth
century) adapts the earlier view of Orpheus to describe creation, conversion and
moral training:
. . . by the sweetness of his wondrous song, [God] created the sons of
Abraham from stones, and the trees of the wild forests, that is the hearts of
the gentiles, he moved to faith. He also composed the wild beasts morally,
that is [man's] fierce impulses and uncultivated barbarity, and thus he
trained men educated out of their [mere] human state, to enter the ranks of
the gods.126
It is fairly clear that this is an Orphic God, though Orpheus is not mentioned.
The twelfth century dissolved the Orpheus of the eleventh into religious or
psychological allegories,127 and Orpheus's civilizing mission was absorbed into
the broader role of Orpheus/Christ or Orpheus/ Reason.
The fate of Orpheus in the twelfth-century schools does not show that the ancient
singer has at last reemerged and come into his own. It shows a concept which
had firm contours in the eleventh century losing them in the twelfth. In the
eleventh-century the Orpheus figure bore a vital educational ideal with broad
social and political significance, and maintained this role in competition with
Christ and King David.
Strong Poetry: Res valida ingenium
Poetry's humanizing power was in the foreground of the last section. That
function and its mythical emblem, Orpheus, had another aspect that developed
significantly toward the end of the century and emancipated itself
 

< previous page_158 next page >

< previous page page_159 next page >
Page 159
from the first: its force. Ulrich of Bamberg took poetic skill as a proof of genius:
What stronger argument or more certain testimony
Of abundant genius, dearest brother, than when
A poet can soothe ears and minds gracefully?
("Bamberger ars dictaminis" ll. 34-36)
The poet of "Quid suum virtutis" made the Orpheus story illustrate "the noble
acumen of the mind" (1025) and arts ability to overcome nature (1023). His
Orpheus found in the strength of the "conciliating lyre'' the courage to return a
second time to hell and the conviction that his genius would sweep all barriers
before it: "His skilled genius promises a positive outcome" ("Sollers effectum
nec negat ingenium"1018).
The poetic culture of the eleventh century envisioned poetry engaged in grand
moral enterprises: "Scale the ladder of art wherever arduous virtue summons
you!" exclaimed the poet of "Quid suum virtutis" (line 1033). Art civilizes the
individual and the society, and in this way overcomes nature. Nature is brutish
and contentious. It is not that morally organized place the twelfth century found
in it, a model for man's mind and character, but rather a place much like hell,
where the feudal nobles rob, rape and pillage. It is also the condition in which
human beings enter the world, a condition that could be greatly improved by
study.
But the conquest of nature calls for strong minds and hard study. Sigebert of
Gembloux's St. Victor looks back on a long life spent in the pursuit of
knowledge, and summarizes the accomplishments of his generation:
All that happens in the world in so great a variety
Either study recovers or the gradual passing of time reveals . . .
Our penetrating mind has increased the totality of nature.
Just as the frequent exercise of study has extracted many sharpenable
Mountain stones from the veins of nature,
So also it has hammered out and fashioned many arts
As from the mountain marble. 128
And Sigebert himself sets to work on his poem with the conviction that his
obligation is greater than the mass of men who praise God, "since mind and
reason render us god-like."129
 

< previous page page_159 next page >

< previous page page_160 next page >
Page 160
The idea of art overcoming nature and the gods implies an aesthetic. The brilliant
blossoming of poetry at Rheims and in the Loire valley at the end of the century
realized the aesthetic possibilities of strong poetry, but also tended to move art
away from its humanizing mission.
The "Liège Song" on Orpheus in the underworld articulates this strange faith in
poetry's power. It significantly removed from the Orpheus story its two functions
of fulfilling learning and embodying virtue. The theme of the poem is stated in
its proem-like first lines:
All things that grow will perish and whither after maturity,
Bronze and gold moulder, only poems remain. 130
The taming and softening effects of Orphic poetry are still a prominent concern.
But on the periphery is the theme of poetry itself and its power. Orpheus's visit to
hell was a confrontation, and he was the victor: "Facing the gods, Orpheus
conquered them with his song" ("Orpheus ante deos, carmine vicit eos"10). This
emerging theme alone makes the proem intelligible. It makes the Orpheus story
into a symbol of the power and permanence of art, a message it had not
conveyed earlier in the century. A new conception is representing itself in the
imagery of the old.
Godfrey of Rheims is beyond an obligation to the school tradition. In his
dialogue with Calliope he composes an episode of Orpheus from which any trace
of compassion and civilizing is absent. It is a display piece pure and simple, its
sole purpose to show what power Calliope has.131 Godfrey's poem to Odo of
Orleans evokes Amphion as the proper aid to Odo: "The stones obeyed his lyre
when called."132 The formulation is significant: it is not the lyra concilians and
permulcens, but the commanding lyre. In Godfrey's poem to Enguerrand of
Coucy the poet finds the idiom appropriate to his conception of poetry. He sets it
against physical force:
A powerful thing is genius and stronger than the sharp sword.
The eloquent tongue cuts through the armed duke.133
Enguerrand's poetry assured his fame, says the poet. If nature had given him only
this one gift, or if it took back all the wealth it had lavished on him, his name
would live on in his song, which gives him a kind of magical force over other
human beings:
 

< previous page page_160 next page >

< previous page page_161 next page >
Page 161
In song if you wish to raise the powerful to the heavens,
In song you can raise whomever you like to the heavens.
In song if you wish to make your friend famous,
In song your friend will become famous.
In song if you wish to do damage to your enemies,
Then your enemy will be damaged in song. 134
These lines with their tedious anaphoras can characterize Godfrey's magi-cal-
utilitarian conception of strong poetry. His verses are glib, overladen, and fiat. It
is a style consistent with a self-indulgent and self-seeking strain in his thinking.
He would seem to be an appropriate courtier for Archbishop Manasses of
Rheims, to whom Guibert of Nogent ascribed the quip, "The archbishopric of
Rheims would be a pleasant thing if it did not oblige one to be singing masses
constantly."135 The idea that Enguerrand would do quite well if he lost his other
qualities and retained his poetry cancels the close bond between poetry and
virtue on which Orphic song was based.
A magical, miraculous view of poetry is built into the Orpheus story: he uproots
trees and turns rivers back in their courses, he revivesor partially revivesthe dead.
The style of poetry in the eleventh century developed as if to convey this view.
The mannerism of eleventh-century poetry136 expresses an aesthetic that sets art
above nature. The elaborate flourishes, the heavy ornamentation, the slavish
regularity of grammar and metrics that overrides any obligation to clarity, and
the affected obscurity that seems to offer entry into "the hidden nature of things"
(abdita rerum): these instruments of virtuosity were the visible, audible
testimony to "powerful genius." They show the poet as wizard and word-master
exercising magical control over language. The age's love of catalogues; the long
lists of trees, birds and animals in "Quid suum virtutis"; the ability to marshal
and arrange many things with strange names in metrical orders show the
magician's domination of nature. Poets who see their art as superior to nature
need the effects that will demonstrate it, and what is above nature is unnatural.
"Outdoing the gods and nature'' translated stylistically into writing more
obscurely than Martianus Capella.
The naively exuberant conviction of genius's power was symptomatic of
intellectual energy and optimism, not of decadence, and if it produced much
obscure and futile verse-making, it also produced some of the best poetry from
the Middle Ages. The work of Hildebert of Lavardin is the high point of
eleventh-century poetry. He shares its optimism about poetry
 

< previous page page_161 next page >

< previous page page_162 next page >
Page 162
and education, but he escapes its excesses. The climactic lines from his Rome
poem, "Par tibi, Roma, nihil" are an expression of the received view that art can
outbid the gods and overcome nature 137:
Human skill could construct a Rome so great
That the skill of the gods could not destroy it.
Here the gods themselves look astonished on their carved forms,
And wish they were the equal of these sculpted faces.
Nature could not create gods as miraculous
As the images of the gods that man created.
Faces improve these gods, and they are better worshipped
For the sculptor's accomplishment than for their divinity.
The handwork of Naturegodsis compared with the art of man, to the advantage
of man; the gods are not as beautiful or sacred as their statues. In this way
human art conquers nature and outbids the gods. The statement is close to the
summation of the Orpheus story in "Quid suum virtutis": "Thus art conquered
nature with the mediation of diligent study" ("Sic ars naturam vicit, studio
mediante." But Hildebert's lines show only the superiority of human art, not that
"all things yield to Lady Virtue''138 The passage just quoted implies an
aesthetics released from its subordination to ethics.
The idea of a competition between art and nature, at least between art and the
reality it represents, takes an interesting turn in the poetry of Marbod of Rennes.
Marbod shares with the eleventh-century schools a high vision of the power of
poetry, but its relation to nature shifts notably.139 His poem "De molesta
recreatione" "Troubled Recreation" represents a real event: a young harpist plays
to Marbod in the evening to drive away his cares. But his song is of the death of
a knight and the lament of his beloved over her lover's dead body. The sweetness
of the song and the power of the narration evoke the fictive event with such
immediacy and such a strong illusion of reality, that Marbod's mood darkens and
his "recreation" is troubled.140
Gone are the mythological subject matter, the excesses of style, the obscurity.
The word order is nearly that of prose, the hexameter is fitted to the words in
rhythms nearly as natural as speech. The internal rhymes of the Leonine form are
a feature of external ornamentation that Marbod shares with early poetry, but the
clear diction comes like a fresh new wind.
The poem is about Marbod's reception of a song sung to entertain him. The
subject is not important. We do not know the identity of the girl
 

< previous page page_162 next page >

< previous page_163 next page >
page
Page 163
or the knight; they are not Priam and Hecuba or Hector and Andromache. 141
He is simply quidam miles, some knight. The poem is not about its fable; it is
about the song that transmits the fable, about poetry; it reflects on its nature and
its effect. It creates a doubled stage: on one the performance and on the other the
story performed can be observed.
The harpist's song is of the surpassing and outbidding kind the school poets
strove for. In its sweet melody, it surpasses the heavens for subtlety: "Cuius
dulce melos transcendit acumine celos" (l. 5). The competition between art and
nature likewise is played out, with a slightly different result: art does not
overcome nature; it creates a second nature. The harpist's song appears to
become reality: "quasi res non cantio fiat" (l. 22). It is a powerful illusion, a
cheating of the senses. The artificially produced sounds take the quality of the
described experience: "I seem myself to suffer everything I hear from the
harpist" ("Meque pati credo, quicquid sonat a citharedo"l. 27). This effect comes
from the artist's skilful imitation of reality: ''as he plays, the intertwining of lute
and voice imitates remarkably the girl's embraces" ("Dum citharizatur, plus
quam satis imitatur / Virginis amplexus fidium vocisque reflexus"ll. 24-25).
Bond connects this poem with Marbod's programmatic statement in the epilogue
of his De ornamentis verborum:
If you wish to compose, hold to the natures of things as the mirror and the
poet's model and exemplar, as does the student of painting. . . . Nature is
where art begins, Reason summons it [to nature], and it strives to maintain
the form of its true origin. (PL 171, 1692C-D)
Marbod's poem still represents a lyric of magical transformation, based on a
conception of divinely empowered poetry. But the poetry is not dark magical
mumblings, and the magic does not produce supernatural events: the rivers
continue to flow downstream, and the laws of Pluto remain in full force, since
the dead are not even partially revived. Neither the knight's lady nor the singer
who sings her lament is an Orpheus.142 The strength of poetry is now measured
by its ability to be or to seem reality (imitatio, quasi res non cantio), to maintain,
as Marbod put it, the first and true principle of art. This skill is now credited
with a kind of divinity, or something more than divinity.143 That means that
poetry now transcends nature by making words seem to be things.
In this sense (as in others) the eleventh and twelfth centuries meet in Marbod of
Rennes. He and Hildebert appear as poets significantly located at the turn of the
century. They were "naturalists" but they could still close
 

< previous page_163 next page >

page
< previous page_164 next page >
page
Page 164
their eyes to a cold and disenchanting empiricism to the extent of confiding to
language the task of conveying reality. 144 They no longer believed that words
really restored the dead, but words could seem to make fictions come to life, and
so retained the significant illusion of magical revival and transformation. Marbod
and Hildebert banish a crude Realism from the practice of poetry, and in this
regard have a role in poetics comparable to that of Hildebert's friend and teacher,
Berengar of Tours, in theology. Just as Berengar forced symbolic presence to the
center of a discussion of the eucharist and dislodged the accepted belief in a real
presence, so also the transforming power of poetry shifted under the influence of
poets like Marbod and Hildebert from governing to imitating reality. In this
sense the Loire poets retain a muted, aestheticized version of the earlier Orphic
poetic optimism in their new poetry.
The idea that words are adequate to things always has a nourishing effect on
eloquence. Viewed from within a post-structuralist critical atmosphere, the idea
seems like a child's dream and a fairy tale world of magic, an abandoned and
unrecoverable stage on the ladder of human cognitive development. It seemed
every bit as whimsical to the generation following Abelard, whose intellectual
mission involved dismantling the eleventh century's world view and in particular
the equation of words and things.
Gerald Bond has shown how this turn toward a poetics oriented to nature brings
poetry into line with the intellectual trends in the earlier twelfth century. He
makes the connection between Marbod's "reading" natural meanings from stones
and herbs and his orientation to nature as the criterion of poetry. What we learn
from looking back to the eleventh century is what is lost through the advent of
the new naturalism. The modern reader can be grateful for the loss of much
bombast. But that heavy ballast was the outward expression of a magical Orphic
view of the world, in which obscure, pretentious, slightly pagan poetry had a
critical role to play. It does not register well now, but neither would the
mutterings of a Delphic prophet sung to a reconstructed melody. The effect
depends on a world view utterly foreign to us.
The Quadrivium
Music and "physics" were the main loci of ethics in the quadrivium. Astronomy
and mathematics as ethical disciplines assimilated to the study of created nature.
The moral aspect of mathematics overflowed all bound-
 

< previous page_164 next page >

page
< previous page_165 next page >
page
Page 165
aries in numerical symbolism. It was a subject to which abundant moral
meanings and a lavish hermeneutic practice attached, but no discipline. Music is
the art in which mathematical concepts contribute to notions of human
perfection. In music proportion and harmony emerge as ethical ideals capable of
realization through disipline. For our purposes it is possible to collapse the
quadrivium into two subjects, music and physics or cosmology.
Music
Music had a central role in Greek education. Hellenic philosophy situated music
within paideia as the means of attuning the body to the soul in accordance with
the laws governing the harmonious motion of the cosmos. 145 Mind and body
can be "moulded and modulated by music to a pattern of graceful bearing."146
The relation of body to soul has a significant parallel in the relation of musical
instrument to harmony (e.g., Plato, Phaedo, 86). Cicero passed this notion to the
Middle Ages in the Tusculan Disputations:
Aristoxenus, musician as well as philosopher, held the soul to be a special
tuning of the body, like that which in instrumental or vocal music is called
harmony. In the same way, the various motions of the body through its
nature and its form are said to sing like the sounds produced in vocal
music.147
The major transmitter of Hellenic musical theory to the Middle Ages was
Boethius in his De institutione musica. The prologue to this work presented
music as a force that ennobles or corrupts human conduct.148 It is not only a
subject for speculation and performance, but also a means of moral instruction
(moralitati coniuncta1.1, ed. Friedlein, p. 179, l. 23). He cites Platonic ideas on
music's educating role: music is an important means of maintaining the republic,
since the introduction of "lascivious" modes brings about the corruption of
moralsp. 180, ll. 22ff.); children are to be instructed in the modes that are
"vigorous and simple"; the purity of the mode is to be rigorously maintained,
since the slightest changes sink into the soul. "Music of the highest moral
character and modestly composed" is a safeguard of the state's welfare as long as
it is ''temperate, simple and masculine, rather than effeminate, violent or fickle"
(ed. Friedlein, p. 181; trans. Bower, p. 4). He gives examples and anecdotes of
music inculcating moderation and virtue and calming anger. Its effectiveness in
calming and moderating action is rooted in the relation of body to soul; they are
joined by musical harmonies.149
 

< previous page_165 next page >

page
< previous page_166 next page >
page
Page 166
Boethius divided music into three classifications: musica mundana, musica
humana and musica instrumentalis (1.2, 1171Df.). The scheme became standard
in the Middle Ages. The music of the world is cosmic music, the music of the
spheres. It is inseparable from "human music"; the two are related as macrocosm
to microcosm 150:
The soul of the universe was joined together according to musical concord
. . . when we hear what is properly and harmoniously united in sound in
conjunction with that which is harmoniously coupled and joined together
within usand are attracted to it, then we recognize that we ourselves are put
together in its likeness. (trans. Bower, p. 2)
Musica humana is the force which unites the parts of the soul to each other and
the soul to the body. Harmony effects this joining. This is the "tuning"
(temperatiop. 188, l. 30) of body and soul. Boethius promised to elaborate on
this subject later in his treatise, but never got back to it.
The musical ideas of Greek paideia survived in a diminished form in the Middle
Ages.151 Musica humana was in part assimilated to instrumental music as the
particular form produced by the human voice,152 and that assimilation tended to
weaken the notion of music as an ethical force.
Music as an element in the cultivation of virtue emerges clearly in the eleventh
century. Bern of Reichenau wrote a letter to Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne
sometime between 1021 and 1036. It was a dedication of his Tonarius, which he
wrote at the request of the archbishop. In the letter he praises the prelate in terms
that indicate a vocabulary of musical ethics and a clearly formed conception of
musica humana. The honestas of moral discipline, so runs the opening of the
letter, has composed the "natural motions" of Pilgrim's soul to such an extent that
he is progressing rationally to supernal things, which in the present context refers
to his request for a work on music. This disciplining is evident in the "splendid
forms of the Christian faith" he displays, which show his soul to be a seat of
wisdom: "You, whom not only knowledge of the four disciplines of
mathematics, renders foursquare, but also the melody of celestial harmony
renders vigorously tuned [caelestis armoniae melos . . . reddit intentum] with
divine praises, you now command me who have only half a voice, who am
nearly mute and tongueless in the arts." Bern finds the archbishop's interest in
music fully logical and consistent with his character: ''your soul delights more
sweetly in the sweetness of this art, since the entire connection of our body and
soul is joined by a musical coaptation with nature instigating."153 These lines
give a portrait of a "composed" man. Of course the occasion, the sending of
 

< previous page_166 next page >

page
< previous page_167 next page >
page
Page 167
a tract on music, encouraged praise of the patron in musical terms, but the sender
could not have formulated it as he did without a sophisticated command of
conceptions of musica humana that go beyond what was available to him in
Boethius' tract on music. He understands the principle of grace and outward piety
as a musical "tuning" of the soul, and he understands the principle of the music
of the spheres providing the model for "human music,'
Likewise the author of "Quid suum virtutis" writing, according to the most recent
editor, at most one decade later than Bern of Reichenau, is familiar with these
concepts. In the passage on Orpheus's music referred to earlier, he represents the
power of harmony as a reconciler of differences. It is the force that knits "the
same and the different" the basic consituent forces of the soul and the universe in
Plato's Timaeus. The world soul unites the universe by the law of number, and
this same law joins the greater to the lesser world, the macrocosm to the
microcosm (cf. ed. Paravicini, ll. 749-64). Within the smaller world, man, music
joins the body to the soul, establishes the bond between man and universe,
ornaments mores, and relieves the pain of the limbs (764). A few lines later, the
poet observes the effects of music on the "motions of the soul'' and derives from
those effects man's basically harmonious, musical nature:
Since the musical temper now softens, now makes harsh, now pacifies the
mind's emotions, it is more certain than certain that it is man's nature to be
aptly conjoined by the tempering of number. 154
These Platonic-Boethian ideas are not new by the time Baudri of Bourgueil takes
them up at the end of the century. They have been in the air for some decades.
Baudri uses them in his description of the bedchamber of Countess Adela of
Blois.155 The headboard and ivory feet of the bed represent an allegory of
Philosophy and the seven liberal arts.156 Music is located next to Philosophy
herself. She "sits at her right hand" (l. 975) or at her feet: "Philosophy had made
her second only to herself and commanded her always to be present at her feet.
This is because she is the force which holds the other sisters in harmony with
each other"157 The stress in Baudri's allegory is decidedly on the ethical aspects
of music, that is, on musica humana, though he touches briefly on the other
Boethian types. Music has the power to "charm humans with such sweetness that
it can recreate the human soul itself. The human condition, the vigor and rhythm
[modulatio] of life is governed by a certain harmony, I know not which, and it
seems to
 

< previous page_167 next page >

page
< previous page_168 next page >
page
Page 168
arise from the form of a square." After a few lines on the perfection of the
number four he continues, connecting the four elements with the power of
music: "And thus the vivifying power corresponds to these four, so that by an
equal measure it may give vigor to all things." There is some bonding force in
the tetragon, he says, that strengthens it. This force is "the construct of harmony
as a visible image" [harmonie typicalis compotus]. Together with the celestial
rhythms, it governs our bodies. 158
Baudri's musica humana is a force that invigorates and gives order to life. It
recreates the soul and governs the body. It is also worth noting that for Baudri
music is the liberal art closest to philosophy itself. It performs by itself that
integrating function that each of the other disciplines aims at in a limited way.
For Baudri music governs the inner and outer conduct of man. In another poem
he takes the musical instrument as a metaphor of the harmoniously governed life.
The well-modulated life is one lived in a single mode, and this is the way that
God "harmonizes our manners and our bodies, so that the mystical symphony of
our life will be pleasing"159 This impressive phrase encapsulates the equation of
musical harmony with the governed life.
Bernard of Chartres presents music as part of a discipline of mores. In his glosses
on Timaeus he explains why the creator bestowed hearing on newly created man.
Hearing is important, because it serves to correct manners and behavior (ad
correctionem morum):
Upon hearing the harmonies of music, we ought to be reformed in our
conduct [mores] according to the harmony of virtues. For although the soul
is constructed according to consonances, yet those consonances turn
dissonant when joined to the body, and they must be reformed outwardly
through music. And this means: music as a whole is given to man not for
his delight but for the composition of his manners.160
Rhythm has a similar purpose:
. . . not only musical consonances are valuable for the composition of
manners, but also rhythm. Rhythm is an equal number of syllables and, in
accord with its equality, a similar equality is to be established in our
manners.161
Earlier in the work, talking about the two-fold character of the governor of the
republic, he makes some striking comments on music's role. Governors of the
state need to be both gentle and fierce, and this brings him to the subject of the
ruler's education:
 

< previous page_168 next page >

< previous page_169 next page >
page
Page 169
The country's wardens are to be educated in such a way that they will be
eager for labor and hardships and affable to their obedient subjects. This
eagerness is cultivated through exercise, such as running, hunting and
gymnastic games. Their gentleness and affability will be cultivated by the
solace of music, which through the harmony of its tones teaches harmony
of conduct. 162
In Honorius Augustodunensis's pilgrimage through the liberal arts the fifth city is
music. Here the pilgrims learn "to pass by the modulation of manners to the
harmony of the heavens."163
Hugh of St. Victor articulates Boethius's three kinds of music in his
Didascalicon and makes some interesting comments on musica humana. There
are three kinds of "human music": one in the body, one in the soul, and one in
the connection of the two. The kind in the body is a regulating force. It governs
the balance of the four humors, and it checks the operations of the body, holding
them within the bounds of moderation, "which is especially suited to rational
creatures:' The music of the soul is in the four virtues and the powers of the soul,
reason, anger, desire, and so forth. His last category is worth quoting:
The music between the body and the soul is that natural friendship by
which the soul is tied to the body, not by physical chains, but by affections
of a kind, whose purpose is to give motion and sensation to the body.164
We have already noticed the passage in Amadeus of Lausanne where the music
of an Orphic God is said to "compose morally the fierce impulses and the rude
barbarism" of men and introduce them into the number of the gods.165
Adelard of Bath's treatment of "human music" moves the subject toward the
discourse of natural science, without weakening the idea of music's educating
force. He pushes aside the legend of Amphion and Orpheus building buildings
and moving forests with song and argues that such fables are not necessary to
confirm the power of music: it calms the soul and disposes it to pietas. The
ethical force of music asserts itself most strongly in old age, when the hearer is
not content with mere concord of voices but calls for a corresponding music of
conduct: "[the hearer] rejoices and strives to bring manners [mores] and all acts
into ethical consonance" Music can move all ages from avarice to generosity and
from sickness to health. Therefore it is no minor subject for philosophers. It
seems to confirm the conviction of the ancients that the soul descended from
higher stars into the body, and that, once placed in a body, it still recognizes the
 

< previous page_169 next page >

page
< previous page_170 next page >
page
Page 170
"symphony" which it had heard in its celestial homeland. Adelard also
understands the coordination of world soul and individual soul through the
medium of music. Harmony and congruence of parts are qualities that the world
soul perceives as the highest and most dignified in creatures, and so it strives to
infuse this quality into bodies and so harmonize their parts. 166
The texts cited until now show us something we have not observed in following
the alliance between mores and the other liberal arts: a strong and consistent
tradition of musica humana from the eleventh through the twelfth century.
Different writers emphasize different aspects of the music of body and soul. But
the concept itself as received from Boethius retains firm contours and does not
detach from ethics. This continues beyond the twelfth century, and is enriched
from the early thirteenth century on by vernacular courtly literature, didactic, and
epic.
Gottfried yon Strassburg gives an extensive picture of an education in the arts
and in manners in the scenes in which Tristan tutors the young princess
Isolde.167 This passage deserves a prominent place in the history of medieval
education, and since it posits music as the culmination of learning, it can serve
both to summarize and to conclude this chapter. The princess, already having
received rudimentary instruction in foreign languages, music and composition,
learns various kinds of disciplines from her tutor Tristan, But she devotes most
of her attention to the one called moraliteit:
under aller dirre lere
gab er ir eine unmüezekeit,
die heizen wir moraliteit.
diu kunst diu leret schoene site. (8002-5)
Amidst all these forms of learning he included a discipline which we call
moralitas. This is the art which teaches beauty of manners.
All women, the passage continues, should occupy themselves with this "sweet
discipline" from youth on. It teaches them to please God and the world, and
without it they will attain neither wealth nor honor. The results of this instruction
for Isold:
hie von so wart si wol gesite,
schone unde reine gemuot,
ir gebaerde süeze unde guot. (8024-26)
 

< previous page_170 next page >

page
< previous page_171 next page >
page
Page 171
From this instruction she became well-mannered, of a beautiful and pure
temperament, her gestures charming and pleasing.
In the six months of her instruction she improved her "learning and
comportment" (lere unde gebare) to such an extent that the fame of her talents
spread throughout the land. When guests come to court she entertains them with
her arts: she sings, writes and reads.
As the culmination of this education, she performs her music before the Irish
court at Dublin. Her effect on the audience is stunning, "as often happens when
one sees such a miraculous combination of beauty and talent as Isold enjoyed"
(ll. 8081-84). The song she sang was two-fold, the poet says, the one song secret,
the other public. 168 The open and public song was the audible music produced
by instrument and voice. The "secret song" was her marvelous beauty. Her
physical presence is an inaudible song, whose instrument is her body. Her aura
with all the grace, harmony, and self-control acquired in the discipline of
moraliteit, comprises a "spiritual song" or ''mind song" (muotgedoene). Audible
and visible songs are parallel compositions, the one is performed music, the
other is lived and embodied music.
The passage is one of the most sublime statements of the human presence as a
work of art from the Middle Ages and beyond. Gottfried clearly had a
conception of the educated, disciplined and restrained physical presence as a kind
of music.169 It is a counterpart to Cicero's idea that music "tunes" the body and
makes its motions "sing" a kind of silent music. The virtuosity of conception is
in the play on the two types of music, instrumental and human. Isolde is
beautiful not only for the music she plays, but for the music she is. It is like
Baudri's formulation, "the mystical symphony of our conduct" But in the case of
Tristan, it occurs embodied in a human being, and that rescues the conception
from the abstractness of Baudri's and Bernard of Chartres's formulations.
There follows a final summary of the results of her studies with Tristan: it gave
her "sweetness of mind" (suoze gemuot), lent charm to her manner and her
bearing. She mastered all kinds of courtly games and pastimes, she could
compose letters170 and songs (cf. 8132-41).
This description is a vivid picture of a court education close to the old learning.
It combines letters with manners and culminates in music charged with an
ethicalaesthetic aspect. Furthermore, it is clear that Gottfried masters the
language and concepts of cultus virtutum. Many of his terms and his turns of
thought translate readily into that vocabulary: moraliteit corresponds to
moralitas; it teaches schoene site, that is morum venustas, morum
 

< previous page_171 next page >

< previous page_172 next page >
page
Page 172
elegantia. Lere unde gebare, which Gottfried also varies as rede unde gebare,
comes close to litterae et mores. The princess receives from the discipline of
moraliteit beauty of mind or temperament (schône gemuot, süeze gemuot; cf.
decor animi, compositio morum), and both references to this "well-tempered"
quality are followed by the statement that her manners and her comportment, her
gestures and bearing were pleasing and charming. The implication is that her
pleasant gestures are a result of her spiritual beauty; elegant bearing expresses
inner composure. And at its most sophisticated the passage shows the author's
mastery of a conception of the ethical force of music. In this case there is no
suggestion that the music rendered Isolde beautiful, graceful and so forth (though
nothing prevents us from inferring it from the parallel of performed and
embodied music). But it is evident that he has a conception of an aesthetic of the
human presence describable in terms appropriate to the aesthetic of music and
cultivated through training in moraliteit.
What we observed first as an ethical ideal taught to aspiring worldly clerics at
cathedral schools recurs here as an education in courtliness aimed at princesses
and other noble ladies. That education has shed all its religious trappings in this
passage and shows the educational goalrefinement of mind and mannersas a
means to wealth, honor, and reputation at court, as a prerequisite to
administrative skills (writing letters and reading) and court entertainments
(games, music, composing).
This idea of the ethics of music does not die out, in contrast to the ethical aspects
of the other arts. It would be possible to trace it into the thirteenth century and
beyond, 171 but that would take us beyond the scope of this study.
***
The idea of the human body, its motions and its action, as an expression of
inaudible musical proportions, was in the air in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. It provided a scheme of description of the ideally educated, composed
and ordered human being. The translation of the PlatonicBoethian idea into
practical pedagogy is not as much in evidence as are, say, the ethics of rhetoric
and poetry. But all the humanist sources on music cited testify to a widespread
conviction of music's ethical force.
Cosmology
The connection of ethics and cosmology is ancient and primitive. In its earliest
phase it will have had close ties to astrology. The Middle Ages had it
 

< previous page_172 next page >

page
< previous page_173 next page >
page
Page 173
most directly from Stoic philosophy. The connection is founded on the idea,
natura optima vivendi dux, Nature is the guide to human actions. A benevolent
and providential God has fashioned the world in such a well ordered plan that it
provides a pattern of order and harmony for men. Life according to nature leads
to the ideal states of apatheia or euthymia, spiritual peace and well-being. The
ultimate goal is eudaimonia, the condition of the soul when it resembles God.
The means to this end is virtue. The pursuit of virtue proceeds along two main
paths: physics and ethics. 172
For the Stoics the natural law was the primal law inherent in the cosmic order.
This was prior to any human legislation. They saw the introduction by men of
"positive" or "civil law" as a corruption of the original natural law. These notions
made the study of nature and the cosmic order into an ethical obligation. If the
chief good of man is life according to nature, then man must have a clear
knowledge of nature and of his place in it.
The idea looms large for Cicero, whose philosophical works were the main
conduit of Stoicism to the Middle Ages. In De legibus he argues that the natural
law dominates all moral conduct. The highest goal of man seeking that path is
"to follow nature and to live in accord with its law."173 All particular laws are
ultimately rooted in cosmic relationships. Cicero formulated the pithy phrase,
"Nature is the best guide to conduct" ("natura optima vivendi dux"De amicitia,
5.19). John of Salisbury is fond of quoting it.174 The pursuit of nature is for
Cicero an important obligation of the statesman. In the Tusculan Disputations he
traces the route by which public life leads distinguished men to philosophy, then
to astronomy, thence to the search for the causes and origins of things, and
ultimately to the good life (Tusc. disp., 5.24-25, 68-72).
These ideas are preserved for the Middle Ages in some of the major sources of
Neoplatonic thought, which made a comfortable accommodation with Stoic
ethics. In the Consolation of Philosophy Boethius thanked Lady Philosophy for
forming his mores in accordance with the celestial order and the movement of
the planets: "I searched the secrets of nature with you, when you described to me
the course of the stars . . . when you fashioned my mores and the manner of my
whole life according to the pattern of the celestial order."175 If the planetary
movements are seen as a pattern for man's morals, then the study of astronomy is
an object of ethics. Astronomy can form or reform man's character.
For Macrobius the search for the originating causes of virtue and the good life
takes the creation of the world as its point of departure. He presents the virtues
as rooted ultimately in the mind of God, but having
 

< previous page_173 next page >

page
< previous page_174 next page >
page
Page 174
their first embodiment in the planets and their motions. The Good proceeds in
progressive emanations from God to cosmic virtue to human virtue, and the
study of the former is requisite to the cultivation of the latter. As authority he
cites the maxim of Juvenal, also widely quoted in the Middle Ages, "From the
sky has come to us the saying, 'Know yourself.'" 176
It is entirely consistent with this direction of thought that the obligation to self-
knowledge come from the heavens. That is the place of origin of the virtues, and
their counterparts in the human soul are heaven-seeking qualities, which lift up
the souls of the dead into the skies. It was the common coin of Neo-platonist
thought that the soul underwent a kind of education during its descent through
the heavens toward its destination in an earthly body, taking on the qualities of
the heavenly spheres it passed on the way. The idea was passed on to the Middle
Ages in Macrobius's commentary on the Dream of Scipio, and in the Hermetic
Asclepius. It was to loom large in Bernard Silvester's Cosmographia177 and
Alan of Lille's Anticlaudianus.
The work which recorded most clearly the pattern of the natural law was Plato's
cosmological work, Timaeus.178 The laws of cosmic creation are also the laws
of man's harmonious functioning. Therefore the Timaeus was regarded as a work
of ethics. It was avidly studied in our period. Gunzo of Novara brought a copy of
the work with him from Italy to Germany.
The manuscript tradition of the Timaeus speaks clearly on its distribution.179 It
virtually begins for the Middle Ages in the eleventh century. From the period
850-900 one manuscript has survived; from 900-950, two; from 950-1000, four.
The first half of the eleventh century suddenly produces fifteen manuscripts,
most of them from Germany; the second half fourteen, also largely from
Germany.
It would be a mistake to form our judgment of the reception of the Timaeus in
the eleventh century from the "scientific" literature, glosses and commentaries. If
we did we would judge the level of understanding puerile, and the comparative
wealth of manuscripts would suggest that the Carolingian commentators had
used less material to better effect. The commentaries and glosses on both
Boethius's Consolation and the Timaeus are lifeless and derivative. Certainly it is
in the nature of glosses that they do not pulse with life and alluring models for
mores. But one wonders what: intellectual stimulation of any kind can be gotten
from their sterile logic and the pitter-patter of their syllogisms. Here is an
eleventh-century Timaeus gloss proving that the world was created:
 

< previous page_174 next page >

page
< previous page_175 next page >
page
Page 175
Let us pose the question whether the world was made. Everything
corporeal is visible. Everything visible is sensible. But everything sensible
was made. Ergo the world was made, insofar as it is corporeal. 180
But again, as in music, so in cosmology, the "scientific" literature shows no
particular interest in ethics, and we look to letters and poems for the best
evidence for the joining of cosmology and ethics. These sources show the
Timaeus, the Tusculan Disputations, and the Consolation of Philosophy
providing patterns for the structure and purpose of studies and a poetic-
cosmological language for describing the well-educated and well-formed human
being.
The poem "Quid suum virtutis" called on Timaean concepts to describe the
musical composition of man (749-64, see above, p. 146): the power of music
"reconciles dissonant things in a unified node"; it "knits the world soul from
same things and different by the fixed law of number"; the same law of number
"joins the nature of the greater to that of the lesser world by a moderating act"
The poet was a learned Platonist, who could combine Boethian ideas on music
with Timaean cosmology to conceptualize the harmonious construction of the
human being.
The Regensburg Letters show us Ciceronian ethical-cosmological ideas adapted
and understood. They place this complex of ideas in the context of court service
during the investiture controversy. The narrative voice in the following passage
is that of a man caught up in the busy duties of worldly administration. When he
considers the state of the worldsimony, court intrigues, false friendships, the
dangers of imperial servicehe decides to turn to the life of philosophy and
studies:
The world being what it is . . . I began to investigate the three-fold power
of the wise man's mind. One of these powers seeks to attain knowledge of
things and the explanation of nature; the second, to demonstrate which
things in life are to be sought and which are to be shunned; the third, to
judge what is suitable and what unsuitable for each and every man. . . .
What part of worldly studies could be more delightful, more ingenious,
more excellent, than to investigate the motions and revolutions of the
entire firmament, to observe the innumerable stars studding the heavens, to
be in harmony with that heavenly course. . . . My mind, exercising itself in
meditations of this kind, overcame the present age and outstripped many
times over the nature of those men whose god is the stomach, who in a
bestial way rob the mind of its due, which is the exercise of reason,
altogether refusing to exert themselves in the pursuit of virtue.181
 

< previous page_175 next page >

< previous page page_176 next page >
Page 176
The passage places the study of astronomy in the service of the pursuit of
virtues, and represents the courses of the planets as the pattern for human
harmony. But it is doubly useful for showing both these forms of "study" in the
context of administrative service. The troubled administrator looks to the
heavens to find the lost pattern of earthly, human harmony. His "studies" elevate
him above the mass of men who live without such a law. This vision of
cosmology in politics is directly adapted from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
(see Fickermann's detailed identification of quotations), but the adaptation is
genuine. The writer would not have looked to the heavens for an end to human
disorder unless he understood the ethical basis of the cosmos.
Marbod of Rennes composed a remarkable poem on the beauties of the
springtime, in which the vision of a graceful and beautifully ordered nature
provides him the model for his own mind:
Spring's grace forbids me to practice bestial manners.
I get my mind's model from the elements. 182
Gerald Bond's studies of Marbod and the Loire circle of poets and scholars show
the discovery of a nature that relates to the human being and no longer strictly to
some metaphysical reality, as the bestiaries do ("Natural Poetics" pp. 27-28). The
lines just quoted show us a poet looking at nature itself, not following some
Ciceronian model of investigating the heavens. The feeling toward nature in
Marbod's poem is a kind of reverse romanticism. Nature is not a projection of the
inner world of the poet, but rather man is the projection of nature. He remakes
himself in the image of nature's order and virtue.
The actual nature of Timaeus studies in the eleventh century is simply not
known. There are many indications of intense interest in the subject but few
indications of the results of its study. The discrepancy suggests that at present we
do not know what was going on.183 By the end of the eleventh century the
preoccupation with Plato's work was so intense that it provoked a polemic from
Manegold of Lautenbach, his treatise against Wolf-helm of Brauweiler.184 He
attacks opinions and interpretations of German philosophi, not just of Wolfhelm.
Some of these opinions turn up a few decades later in works of Peter
Abelard.185 The thrust of the teaching Manegold opposes is that the Timaeus is
reconcilable with Christian doctrine. This is of course a favorite idea of the
"school of Chartres" It provides the basis of Thierry of Chartres' Hexameron
commentary.186 And the more
 

< previous page page_176 next page >

< previous page_177 next page >
page
Page 177
general problem of reconciling the ancient philosophers with Christian doctrine
is the basic focus of Abelard's Theologia Christiana. Manegold's concern is that
the study of the Platonic work tends to release itself from the realm of morality
and reach over into theology, and so to claim a kind of scientific, ontological
truth for its view of creation and the universe. Manegold concedes the value of
the Timaeus in "moral judgments aside from questions of faith." The Timaeus is
legitimately used in the pursuit of virtues appropriate to the "rectors of the
church and governors of the divine republic." 187 Such a commentthe Timaeus is
to teach morals to church and state administratorsmakes no sense unless we
assume a thorough integration of cosmology and ethics in the schools of those
philosophers studying the work. Given the program of cathedral schools of
teaching manners and letters to future "rectors of the church and governors of the
republic" it makes sense.
Manegold's polemic is located at the watershed between the old and the new
learning, between a moralizing and a scientific orientation to the study of nature.
It is just beyond this stage where we encounter the study of the creation of the
world in the commentaries of the "school of Chartres" William of Conches
begins his glosses on the Timaeus by regretting that the many past commentators
have paid too much attention to sententia and too little to littera. He wants to
shift the emphasis from the moral sense of the creation mythits sententiousnessto
the literal level, from ethics to physics.188 Also Thierry of Chartres promises to
comment on the literal, historical and "physical" sense of Genesis in his
Hexameron commentary and to completely bypass the well-known moral and
allegorical readings.189 Cosmology is shedding its ethical aspects and moving in
the direction of natural science.
But some of the major works of twelfth-century cosmological speculation still
show distinct signs of the conviction that nature provides the pattern for human
mores. Hugh of St. Victor gave terse expression to the connection:
. . . in the meaning of things lies natural justice, out of which the discipline
of our own conduct [mores] arises. By contemplating what God has made
we realize what we ourselves ought to do. Every nature tells of God; every
nature teaches man.190
"Natural justice" is the core of the Timaeus's teachings for the early twelfth
century. William of Conches designates this as the purpose of Plato's work, and
comments that natural law is a subject best approached via the creation
 

< previous page_177 next page >

page
< previous page_178 next page >
page
Page 178
of the world. Plato's concern about justice in the Republic brought him to
cosmology, not vice versa:
Hence the subject of this book is natural justice, or the creation of the
world; for he treats the latter by way of investigating natural justice. 191
He classifies Plato's work under both practical and theoretical philosophy
(Glosae super Platonem, p. 60), and in his glosses on Boethius he assigned both
the Timaeus and the Consolation of Philosophy specifically to ethica.192
William gives an especially good example of the way the creation myth serves
ethics in his comments on Timaeus 47b, God giving man his eyes. He gave man
eyes so that man could pursue philosophy and study the natures of things.
Philosophy is given primarily to help man form his mores and shape his virtues.
The eyes form mores by serving "practical philosophy." With his eyes man
perceives the dual motions of the firmament and the planets. He connects these
to the inner motions of the spirit and the flesh, and arranges his own priorities in
accordance with the priorities of celestial motions. As the firmament moves
"rationally" and the planets "erratically" so also ideally and properly the spirit
moves in its relations to the flesh.193
Moralists and "scientific" philosophers alike from the eleventh to the earlier
twelfth century regarded the Timaeus as a work of ethics. This fact helps explain
its manuscript tradition. It became popular in the first half of the eleventh
century because it accompanied a new program of ethical education at cathedral
schools.
The root impulse for the study of the creation and of nature in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries lies in the "moral" perfection of the cosmos. Any "science"
based on this conception of the universe was necessarily a "humane" science,
directed toward self-knowledge and human perfection, toward good governance
of the self and the state. The idea of macrocosm-microcosm, and with it the
basic form of some of the most prominent works of twelfth-century humanism,
reveal this conception: William of Conches's Philosophia mundi, Bernard
Silvester's Cosmographia, and Alan of Lille's Anticlaudian. In each case the
point of departure is the cosmos and cosmic perfection, and following upon this,
man and human perfection. This form came from the Timaeus, but the idea it
proclaimed was shared by eleventh- and twelfth-century humanists. Cosmology
in the period is in its basic impulse humane and ethical. The progress of the
study of nature in the twelfth century toward Aristotelian empiricism, toward
new Arabic astronomy, toward "natural science" in a sense approaching our
understanding of
 

< previous page_178 next page >

< previous page_179 next page >
page
Page 179
the term, must be seen as a progress away from the study of nature in a
humanistic, Stoic-Ciceronian sense. 194
Cosmology was an easy subject at eleventh-century cathedral schools. Precise
instruments and data were not really necessary.195 The required materials were
the sky and the vision of a cosmos with perfectly ordered "manners." Equipped
through the Timaeus with the idea of celestial harmony and through self-
knowledge and magisterial correction with a sense of microcosmic inadequacy,
the student only had to meditate on the implications for the arrangement of his
own inner world. That was the reason God had given him eyesight, in the view
of Bernard of Chartres and William of Conches. Astronomy as meditation was
easy, pleasant, and intellectually warming. It had the feeling of productive
thought and "enrichment." Students pursued cosmology the way the governor of
the state, in Bernard of Chartres's view, should pursue music, to "tune" him to
affability. They did not need to master Pythagoras and Ptolemy to do it. Students
studied the heavens the way our undergraduates take courses in art history and
music appreciation. The intricacies of a rigorous discipline were less important
than the sense of participating in the life of the cosmic works of art and the hope
that their harmony and elegance contributed to one's own.
 

< previous page_179 next page >

page
< previous page_180 next page >
page
Page 180

6.
Conclusion to Part I:
Outbidding the Gods
A Ridiculous Mouse?
Adelman of Liège wrote a poem commemorating Fulbert and his students at
Chartres, and had the temerity to send it to one of his former schoolmates,
Berengar of Tours. The acerbic intellectual reformer, impatient with the
obsequious nostalgia and obscure language of the poem, responded with the line
of Horace, "a ridiculous mouse is born"
It would be easy to extend this quip to virtually any poem from the cathedral
schools of the day, because it is based on a wholesale rejection of their learning.
The eleventh century cannot be rescued as a text-producing age. Its strange,
baroque poetry needs apology and explanation. It cannot be enjoyed as poetry
and will never loom large in medieval studies. It is best regarded as a hermetic
code, hard to crack, rewarding because of what it points to, not because of what
it is, like those poems the early Romans wrote more to conceal than to reveal
their philosophy. The cathedral schools did not produce a scholar or philosopher
whose works are worth serious consideration alongside Anselm of Canterbury,
Abelard, John of Salisbury, or Hugh of St. Victor. 1 Seen from the vantage point
of these towering peaks, the mountains of the previous age appear foothills
whose difficult labor gave birth to nothing but ridiculous mice.
But this criticism should caution us against judging any period through the eyes
of the generation that superseded it. The eleventh century requires rescuing from
the perspectives of the twelfth (and for that matter, those of the fifteenth to the
twentieth). It is in this regard like the Middle Ages as a whole, which is
gradually being rescued from the judgment of the Renaissance humanists.
The eleventh-century cathedral schools had one big idea that organized studies.
That idea was mores: the well-tuned, well composed man. With the partial
exception of letters, the other areas of the liberal arts were
 

< previous page_180 next page >

page
< previous page_181 next page >
page
Page 181
not studied as rigorous, intellectually demanding disciplines. That would have
been contrary to the purpose of study. They were ancillary to self-discipline.
This goal commended the study of grammar, poetry, and eloquence. It accounted
for the revival of ancient poetry, philosophy, and mythology. It commended the
preoccupation with Neoplatonic ideas, with Stoicism, with Cicero and
Quintilian. These subjects, in themselves somewhat dubious, were justifiable as
the instruments of cultus virtutum.
By 1100 we see an impressive blossoming of neo-classical Latin poetry. The
study of the Timaeus flourished. The next fifty years produced some brilliant
philosophical poetry based on a Neoplatonic vision of man and his place in the
cosmos and on a poetic vision of cosmic and human harmony. It produced an
interesting body of commentary on classical poetry, dissolving it into allegories
of the human psyche and human destiny. It produced some compendia of liberal
studies and one defense of the arts of the trivium, John of Salisbury's
Metalogicon.
The disciplines of mores and ethica played a major part in the emergence of
twelfth-century humanism. They were like a rising tide that raised all the boats.
The tide stopped rising toward the end of the century and began to recede in the
first decades of the twelfth, leaving the arts it had raised up stranded on shifting
soil. They experienced a short but brilliant flourishing. Then the schools
abandoned them and went on to other things.
From this perspective, twelfth-century humanism is the last blossoming of a
program of studies that had preceded it by some one hundred and fifty years. The
most impressive written testimony to humanism surfaced well after the
establishment of humanist learning in the courts and cathedrals, the
administrative centers of Europe. The same is true of humanism in ancient Rome
and in fifteenth-century Italy: its ideals were formulated first in the active civil
life, then in written testimony. From this perspective also the role of the worldly
culture of the eleventh century can be seen more clearly in its relation to the
twelfth: it was one of the giants on whose back the ''renaissance" of the twelfth
century rode.
Sigebert's Passion of the Theban Legion
The excursuses in Sigebert of Gembloux's Passion of the Theban Legion (Passio
Thebeorum) capture the spirit of eleventh-century intellectual life in many of its
aspects, and they are good texts with which to conclude a
 

< previous page_181 next page >

page
< previous page_182 next page >
page
Page 182
treatment of the schools in the period. Sigebert wrote the work around 1075 as a
monk of Gembloux, but he had moved there recently from Metz, where he had
taught for some twenty years at the school of St. Vincent of Metz. The work has
the flavor more of the episcopal town with its imperial traditions than of the
reformed community of Gembloux. This narrative poem and other of his
writings make it clear that he was steeped in the traditions of the empire. 2 His
biography of Dietrich of Metz was one of our best sources on the instruction of
Brun of Cologne, Dietrich's teacher. His praise of the golden age of the Ottonians
in that work, and his polemical writings in favor of the imperial cause in the
investiture controversy, locate his political and to some extent his intellectual
obligations. The Passio Thebeorum was probably written for his colleagues back
at Metz, undoubtedly for clerical advisors to the Emperor Henry IV. He tells us
in the prologue that he is "serving the king's servants" in writing it.3
The work is a blend of the martyr legend and the heroic epic. It has direct ties to
the Latin heroic epic Waltharius.4 It borrows from Frontinus's (second-century)
manual of military strategy to describe the training of the Theban troops. It will
serve us as a paradigm text to summarize the eleventh century.
Vivacia Tempora Nostre Vite
A legion of Roman soldiers from Thebes in Egyptall of them converted
Christiansis sent by Emperor Maximian to attack the Gallic tribe of the
Bagaudes. The legion refuse the emperor's command to renounce their faith and
worship the pagan gods, and are martyred. The veteran soldier Victor enters the
scene at the end of the carnage, is filled with admiration for the martyrs, and
sensing the approach of his own death, gives a kind of résumé of his life and of
"what things are appropriate to a strong man and a wise man."5 At the end of his
magnificent "oration" or "prayer" he decides to join the Thebans in martyrdom6:
"Perhaps Nature is already counting my [remaining] years on her right
hand. The long-lived ravens, the long-lived stags, even the crow who
suffers death only after nine ages: these marvel at the vitality of our long
life. For me the justification of so long a life was to gather knowledge of
many things, all I have seen, its nature, its abundance. . . . As I scaled this
ladder of age step by step, Nature has enriched my mind in the same
degree as she impoverished my body.7
"All that happens in the world in so great a variety either study recovers or
the gradual passing of time reveals, [unless]8 unpredictable chance disturbs
 

< previous page_182 next page >

page
< previous page_183 next page >
page
Page 183
our activities. Our penetrating mind has increased the totality of nature.
Just as the frequent exercise of study has extracted many sharpenable
mountain stones from the veins of nature, so also it has hammered out and
fashioned many arts as from the mountain's marble. 9 It polished one stone
with another and refined one art with another, and these buffed our rough
minds of their dense rust, sharpened and refined them. Thus mighty Nature
exercises her power, placing in our breast for her own benefit the law of
our kingdom, which she has dominated through all things.
"But cursed be the changeable order of things that has substituted for
Nature's rule you, O Fortune, and enshrined you on the throne of
domination. This is the unjust and arrogant act of those who refuse to write
in their hearts that nothing in the nature of things happens without cause,
nothing is fortuitous, nothing random and arbitrary. This is why mutability
vexes earthly affairs.
"I have drunk new wine, felt the frosts of winter, seen springs flowers and
autumn's harvests mature; how many times have I seen Phoebus recapture
the diadem of Phoebe and watched the aging sun turn youth again. So
many hours have flowed through so many years, while I have noted the
many weights placed in the swaying balance of human affairs. The mind
in its natural state is given to vain cares and, abandoning reason's rudder,
bobs uncertainly in the stream and labors to reach either shore, its fate
hanging in the balance. When the four humors of the body . . . flowing
from one source, overflow the banks in the rising tide or struggle in the
ebb, they do not vex the heart so, do not trouble the body so, as the four
emotions stir and rouse the restless, fervid breast, scatter its impulses and
tear them from the hinges. . . . On this four-branching path [quadrivium],
having lost the guide to the true path, the rough roads exhaust you, the
swamps plunge you into dangers: here the brambles prick you, the
hindering tree-thinks wound you. Thus wretched, vagrant man is driven
about on the flux. . . . He who seeks what is worth wanting and he who
rejects what is worthless is rare. But the rarest bird of all is virtue. . . . The
false course snatches many onto its contrary path. . . . And sure enough the
whole world lies wrapped in a dense fog. Thus the darkness encrusts all, so
that the way of life is nearly obscured. And what moderation can exist in
such foul clouds? The light flowing from light and pouring light back
again from light shows us no spark of illumination. . . .
"Realizing these things and pondering them in my mature mind with flail
emotion and supreme desireOh, would that I, sighing and aspiring like an
athlete, Oh, would that I could die in a way commensurate with these holy
men! . . .
"My heart, my soul, my reason, my mind, my senses, my spirit, or rather
 the sum total of my soul sing out Christ, desire and love Him. In Christ I
live, Christ I worship, and now in Christ I die."
The passage represents a self-assessment of the life of "studies" in the eleventh
century. There is nothing of the classroom in it, but then there is
 

< previous page_183 next page >

page
< previous page_184 next page >
page
Page 184
little of the life of the warrior either. It is a description of a wise man's career. It
begins and ends with enormous vitality, and vitality is the quality that Victor
himself sees in looking back over his many years (nostre vivacia tempora vite).
There is something Faustian about the perpetual drivenness of this "restless,
fervid breast" in search first of knowledge and refinement, then of virtue and
wisdom, finally of the true path, from which his Faust-like quest diverges. In the
end the lost wanderer finds his redemption through Christ. Like Faust, he is a
striver after knowledge, who is saved in the last moments of his life. Even the
path of error he conjures has a quality of the earthly striving of Goethe's
wanderers.
The episode of a final heroic resolve of a wise aged warrior also bears
comparison with Tennyson's Ulysses. Both Victor and Ulysses hold their
dramatic monologues just before embarking on one last heroic enterprise. Both of
them are moved by a restless spirit that seeks experience in every realm, that
wants to "drink life to the lees." Answering to Victor's experience in human
affairs ("I have noted the many weights placed in the swaying balance of human
affairs") is Ulysses's "always roaming with a hungry heart, / Much have I seen
and knowncities of men / And manners." Both are moved by the thought of
sacrificing themselves at the end of their long lives in a final heroic deed:
Victor:
"Oh, would that I could die in a way commensurate with these holy men!"
and Ulysses:
Death closes all; but something ere the end
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming to men that strove with gods.
And both of them show how contemptible death itself is in the face of such
heroic spirits.
Mind Over Nature
Victor's life was spent in the pursuit of knowledge of many things. Three forces
have dominated it: nature, his own mind and desires, and chance or Fortuna.
Nature was his ally, fortune his enemy. Remarkable is the line, "the totality of
nature has increased, thanks to our penetrating mind" ("Nature columen per
nostrum excrevit acumen"2.598). It is not exactly the sense of "virtue conquering
nature" expressed in ''Quid suum virtutis," nor quite
 

< previous page_184 next page >

page
< previous page_185 next page >
page
Page 185
the experience of art outbidding nature and the gods in Hildebert's Rome poem,
but a related if more conciliatory position on the connection of nature and human
efforts. It posits a nature constituted by the human perception of it.
He sets the formation of the arts parallel to the mining of useful stones for tools
and the shaping of stones to tools and statues. Human skills in Sigebert's vision
are a contribution to nature, an increase of its potential.
What did "increasing nature" "overcoming nature" and "outbidding the gods"
mean for the eleventh century? This is a central question for understanding the
age's self-definition. We discussed it in the context of poetry in the last chapter,
and will add a few comments here. Overcoming nature is something that happens
in the process of education. Sigebert formulated the notion again in the Passio
Thebeorum in the remarkable section (Sigebert's contribution) describing the
military training of the legion. The description uses terms we are familiar with
from the schools: "All that the ancient ordering of war dictated, either as received
from nature or from you, Mistress Instruction, the Theban youth learned in
patient studies." 10 Natura and doetrina are the two teachers, and the eager
students task is to conquer nature, as the poet indicates when he sums up their
learning: ''When potent virtue strives to conquer nature, then it is necessary to
reach beyond the laws of nature."11 The lines speak the same language as the
conclusion of the Orpheus episode of "Quid suum virtutis": "Thus art conquered
nature with the mediation of study, proving that all things cede to Mistress
Virtue."12 "Conquering nature" is the task of virtue, and study equips it for the
struggle. Clearly this is a different nature from that norm-giving Natura of the
twelfth century and of Alanus's Complaint of Nature. "Nature" is the condition of
uneducated man. It is the world as it is prior to man's intervention, prior to
mining, tool-making, prior to the arts, and especially prior to training in mores. It
is nature unused and unformed, and "conquering" it involves applying art, study
and discipline to reach beyond its laws. Marbod of Rennes depicted the early
education of Licinius in these terms: he overcame the vices that seem planted "as
if through some law of nature" in youth,13 and we inferred from Marbod's Life
of Licinius the formula, "natural talent heightened by the study of virtue."
Thierry of Chartres formulated the educational ideal in a pithy gloss: "unde boni
naturaliter, sed meliores per doctrinam effecti"; "good by nature, men are
rendered better by learning."14
Overcoming nature is a pedagogic task, then. But the phrase has the ring of a
high ideal. It suggests a superhuman quality in the educated,
 

< previous page_185 next page >

page
< previous page_186 next page >
page
Page 186
restrained, disciplined man, a godlikeness. In Hildebert's Rome poem, the skill of
the artists of ancient Rome was sufficient to put the gods themselves to shame.
Hildebert represented the pagan gods as products of mere nature and constructed
a contest of skill between nature's and man's art: "Nature could not create gods as
miraculous / As the images of the gods that man created." 15
Godfrey of Rheims's phrase, "Genius is a powerful thing" (res valida ingenium)
is a kind of summation of the age's vaulting optimism, indicated also in the
formula, "overcoming nature." And Sigebert felt that his own ''godlike" gift
imposed on him the obligation of using it: "We whom mind and reason have
made godlike, let us, having the gift of greater praise, praise more greatly."16
This tendency to regard the educated human being as something godlike and
beyond nature persisted into the twelfth century, and received impressive
formulations. Amadeus of Lausanne said that the music of an Orphic God
"composed man morally" removing his "fierce impulses and uncultivated
barbarism" and "introducing him into the number of the gods."17 Bernard of
Clairvaux was still using the logic and concepts of the old learning when he
congratulated the Virgin Sophia on her self-control, which he set above the
angels, who have no body as the battle ground on which this string of glorious
victories over the self can take place:
Can the glory of angels compare to this? An angel has no body. He may be
happier, but not stronger. Excellent and most desirable is the adornment
which even angels might envy!18
Sophia's discipline "overcomes" or "outbids" the angels, and this thought
continues the logic of surpassing the divine well known in the previous
century.19
Conquering Fate
Sigebert's Saint Victor calls out against the perversion of the ideal order of
things. Fortune and chance have been enthroned in the place of nature and
reason. There is a whole generation of men "who refuse to write in their hearts
that nothing in nature happens without cause, nothing is fortuitous, nothing
arbitrary" Again, Victor exhibits vaulting optimism. He clearly opposes the rule
of fortune, and his martyrdom is in part a refusal to submit to it. The stance is
fairly straightforward Boethianism, though at the end, when Victor requires the
consolation of Philosophy, he receives the conso-
 

< previous page_186 next page >

page
< previous page page_187 next page >
Page 187
lation of Christ. The dramatic development of his oration is the move from the
pits and swamps of error, through which virtue is his guide, to the certain victory
over error through martyrdom. His martyrdom is a willed act of self-sacrifice. He
was not a member of the legion. He joins only when he sees what a community
of heroes he will be entering and what a glorious death he can choose.
Sigebert places Victor's martyrdom in the context of the strong and disciplined
mind overcoming fate and chance. It is clearly related to the motif of the
Orpheus poems, "Orpheus's music changes the laws of Pluto and bends the
resolve of the fates."
Bernard Silvester was to take up the theme a few decades later in his unfinished
poem "Mathematicus." 20 Its Roman hero, Patricida, is destined by a decree of
the oracle to be the murderer of his own father. Grown to manhood,
distinguished in war and politics, ruler of Rome, Patricida learns of the prophecy
and decides to take his own life, sacrificing all the titles and distinctions of his
splendid career, rather than commit an atrocity and concede a victory to fate:
For what purpose is our mind more closely related to the ethereal stars
If it must bear the dreary necessity of harsh Lachesis?
Senseless is the divine mind of Patricide
If our reason is unable to guard its own cause.
God has created the elements and the fiery constellations
Not so that man would be the plaything of stars and planets.
Rather the macrocosmic skill of a pure genius is given man the microcosm,
So that he may face all barriers successfully.21
The context is different from that of the death of Saint Victor. Bernard Silvester's
hero dies a noble, Roman, Stoic death (or would have if the poem fragment had
been completed), free of any trace of Christian martyrdom. But the principles at
stake are the same. Both men die so that fate will be denied its victory over the
human mind. What distinguishes both of them from their modelBoethius in
prisonis that all their options are open, whereas Boethius was making the best of
a hopeless situation. Parricide and Victor choose death over error in heroic acts
of the will that represent the ultimate gesture of overcoming fate. It should be
evident that Bernard Silvester is still thinking thoughts that have clear precedents
in the
 

< previous page page_187 next page >

< previous page_188 next page >
page
Page 188
intellectual world of the eleventh century, and he finds a striking and original
medium for them.
Founding the Arts
Sigebert's Victor has the sense that he and his generation created the arts in
analogy to a miner mining stones, and refined them like one stone sharpening
another: "It [studium] polished one stone with another and refined one art with
another." 22 The comment makes no sense as the reminiscence of a veteran
soldier, but it is intelligible as Sigebert's conception of his own and his
generation's intellectual mission. They created the arts. The great age of the
cathedral schools started with Brun of Cologne, whom Ruotger praised as the
reviver of the arts and whom Sigebert admired as an educator and connoisseur of
human talent.
Restless, Fervid Hearts
Victor's and Sigebert's generation is characterized by fervent enthusiasm; the
sense of having a mission to fulfill and of having built a civilization with poetry,
music, study; the sense that "We taught nature how to improve itself, we changed
the laws of Hell, we sent nature herself to school." It also carries a sense of
newness and new challengethe mentality of the innovator, not the reformer.
Again Sigebert gives us a passage that expresses the spirit of the cathedral
schools with a freshness and originality not typical in the poetry of the period. It
is his morning hymn at the beginning of Book 2. It introduces a more or less
conventional invocation, but it begins with an unconventional scene, the poet
waking up:
Now it's time to get up. The way lies before us, and this weighty poem
forces me to an early start. Long rest may revive my powers, but it is the
tinder of vice and the companion of sloth. The cock, who crows out the
hours, see how now he sings out the minutes, prodding me: "Get up now,
the day lies in front of you, be on your way!"
What a delight to get off the path of rest! The body is torpid, but the mind
alert. All things rejoice in the morning to shake off sleep. That's why the
Greek word for morning also means "good." Is there anyone who could
ignore the symphony of the birds, which they perform each morning with
rune-filled throats? A thousand species of birds give forth a thousand
sonorous voices, producing occasional harmony from such variety. That
same song-rest relieves you, o wayfarer, of your long tedium. Where that
concert plays, the labor of the road is cheated of its due. Here is your
singing school; it could teach you the six-voice mode, shrill at the top and
grave at the bottom of the register.
 
< previous page_189 next page >
page
Page 189
Therefore since all creatures praise the true God to the limits of their
godgiven skills, let us too praise Him, all the more able to praise, since
mind and reason render us god-like. I am stirred with all my heart to
sanctify the saint of all saints through his saints and to venerate Him.
(Pass. Theb., Prol. 2.1-24, p. 69)
Who Needs Examples? You Are the Example
Sigebert's St. Maurice begins his oration to the Thebans with Christ's urging to
passive resistance and martyrdom (2. 441-48), then interrupts his own flow of
speech to reject the Biblical example and exclaim: "There is no need for
examples [from books]. You yourselves are the example" ("Non opus exemplis:
exemplum vos magis estis"2.448). Sigebert develops the idea and the opposition
of written history to living history in what follows. Maurice cites Biblical
examples of heroic martyrdom, then again compares the living men he is
addressing with the heroes of the past:
"We have read this, we have heard that. So many triumphs of the saints are
reported throughout the world. But here I see with my very eyes those
deeds I have read about. Tell me, you wise men . . . is that faith more
certain which enters through the ears or through the eyes?. . . . Let others
believe in what they hear; I shall believe my eyes. 23 Are not those whom I
should imitate and those at whom I should marvel right here in front of
me!"24
This passage formulates a fundamental principle of eleventh-century culture.
Truth is in the immediate presence of a model human being. His personality, his
conduct, his bearing is the thing itself, is what study and learning are about. He
himself, and not books and texts, is the lesson. The living presence, equipped
with the weapons of virtue, outdoes even sacred history.
It is evident from an earlier chapter that the pedagogy of charisma played a
greater role than text-bound learning. The age developed extravagant formulae
of praise that derive from this faith in the charismatic force of living examples.
Constantine of Fleury was "magnificent above other men and always loveable"
illumined with "the light of many virtues" and beaming "nobility of merits."
Pernolf of Würzburg ''shone with the beauty of many poets." G. of Cologne
blazed forth all the "charm and grace of humanity" as well as the "bright good
humor which shone most graciously from his eyes." These formulae, which draw
on religious and imperial forms of representation, are the marks of charisma, of a
divine gift made visible in the physical presence of a talented human being. It is
the product of nature and education, and it has educating force. But it is located
in the human
 
< previous page_190 next page >
page
Page 190
body, lacking which it can have no expression. So marvelous is the force, angels
themselves might envy charismatic humans that theater of magnificence, their
bodies.
This preoccupation with embodied virtue expressed itself in the admiration of
saints' virtue as opposed to their miracles. Sigebert of Gembloux commended St.
Wicbert, "Let not his virtues be obscured by his miracles. His miracles merely
commended his virtues." 25 The biographer of Bernard of Clairvaux condensed
the same thought into an impressive phrase: "He performed innumerable
miracles, but the first and greatest miracle was the man himself."26
Charismatic BodyCharismatic Text
Miracles were the event that externalized the saint's charisma. For the
teacher/philosopher/bishop, his well-composed body, his presence, was the
medium that made his charisma communicable. Both media were perfectly
adequate for a charismatic culture, but they did not fare well in the advent of
twelfth-century rationalism. In a culture that became increasingly oriented to the
text, the real presence needed only a kind of fictional representative; in fact, in
that form it was far less vulnerable to the unmasking gaze of critical inquiry.
This is the general historical dialectic that pushed toward the charismatic text.
A symbiotic relationship exists between persons and texts, and it is worthwhile
to reflect briefly on the dynamic that governs this relationship, and to continue at
the same time the theoretical reflections begun in the Introduction. It illuminates
eleventh-century intellectual life in its relations to the twelfth. These reflections
will serve us as a theoretical guide through later sections of this study.
The eleventh century was oriented to personal presence; the twelfth tended more
and more toward texts. It is a development closely related to the transition from
an oral to a written culture. But the transition of media has received far more
attention and intelligent commentary than the more embracing category, the
transition from real to symbolic, from physical to textual presence, in the
intellectual life of the two periods.27
A lucid illustration of this change is pointed out by Guy Beaujouan. He shows
that, whereas the eleventh-century schools used the pupil's hand to teach
calculation and musical harmony, the twelfth used books.28 The earlier
instruction was oriented to the human body, the later to textbook
 

< previous page_190 next page >

page
< previous page_191 next page >
page
Page 191
formulations that made the fingers unnecessary. The shift in the intellectual
orientation of the two ages crystallizes in this example.
The relationship between person and text is basically agonal. They vie for each
other's prerogatives; each wants what the other has. Texts are lasting and
unchangeable; they lend permanence to persons, things, ideas. Real presence has
life, vitality, and that force which inspires imitation. Texts constantly want
injections of life, vitality, and charisma. Real presence, knowing it is mortal,
wants permanence, wants to become a book. Texts, knowing they can only
imitate, want the condition of life, being dry and empty without it; the living
being hopes to preserve its exemplarity by becoming a text.
The historical dialectic at work in the move from person to text is evident in the
life of any charismatic teacher. The effect of real presence in the case of Christ
and Socrates (neither of whom wrote texts) is immense, and the pupils want to
preserve that effect, to reproduce the man. The medium at their disposal is the
text. 29 Ruotger stated this as his basic intention in writing the life of Brun of
Cologne.30 And Wipo developed the thought in his prologue to the life of
Conrad II:
To hold firm the fugitive memory of passing things with the bonds of the
written word . . . I've thought it fitting to put forward the forma bene
vivendi, because a useful example renders the soul of him who imitates it
readier and firmer in rebus agendis.31
The disciple is always disappointed in the biography of the exemplary man,
since he finds the force of personality replaced by words and paper, desiccated,
robbed of its living energy and virtú. But gradually this disappointment is
replaced by the realization that words on paperrepresentation in any formhave
their own magic; one must only know how to make it work.32 This is the basic
impulse that creates the charismatic work of art. It originates when the means of
representation develop to the point where they can reproduce the qualities of the
living human being: immediacy, presence, voice, sensuality, body, force,
authority. They have to be able to stir and stimulate that urge to imitate that is
the essence of charismatic pedagogy. Don Quixote becoming a romance hero,
and Rilke feeling the admonition to change his life which beams from the
headless torso of Apollo, are in the forcefield of the charismatic work of art.
The parameters of this competition are the charismatic person, whose real
presence texts attempt in vain to capture, and the charismatic fiction, whose hero
corresponds to nothing in reality. The historical development
 

< previous page_191 next page >

page
< previous page_192 next page >
page
Page 192
of this aesthetic contest has representation first matching and then conquering
real presence. The gradual disappearance of personality behind representation is
a basic trend of the twelfth century.
The dethronement of real presence and the enthronement of representation has as
its inevitable result the advent of charismatic fiction. If the Bruns and Conrads
who inspire biography no longer exist in the flesh,or if the principle of personal
authority erodesthen the new master of the charismatic text has to invent his own
characters and inject them with artificial charisma. Moral philosophy came to
serve as the ethical basis for creating fictional heroes, and in this context ethica
became gradually textualized and fictionalized in the course of the twelfth
century.
From the end of the eleventh century to the thirteenth, moral philosophy passes,
as in a massive transfusion, from bodies to texts. By the end of the twelfth
century we no longer have the biographies of bishops and kings as a dominant
form. But we have the courtly romance, whose hero embodies forms of behavior
that were incarnated in the educated man of the previous century. We no longer
have charismatic teachers teaching the curriculum of their mere presence and
transforming loving students into little copies of themselves. But we have
fictional courtly ladies, whose mere presence is elevating and educating, and
whose love makes a man courteous, affable, gentle and wise, and we have
learned wizards and magicians who become the instruments and administrators
of virtue. 33 Virtue gradually becomes en-fabulated, projected into the realm of
the merveilleux, the fictional source of charisma par excellence. It becomes
accessible through aventiure.
The eleventh century was the period when lessons in mores were conveyed
through the body and personality of the teacher, just as lessons in mathematics
and music were stored on the hand of the pupil. Its literature and works of art
were the educated human being, the statesman/ administrator. But this figure,
like the charismatic personality, is perishable. It requires an act of antiquarian
restoration comparable to the discovery and re-editing of old texts. It died with
the men who embodied it, and what we gain from the reconstruction are
glimpses of its shaping ideals of humanity, deference and elegant comportment.
The following centuries create the "monuments" to those ideals in their lyric,
narrative, and sculpture.
***
Here we part company with Sigebert's Passio Thebeorum. It was representative
of a number of important trends and positions of the eleventh-
 

< previous page_192 next page >

< previous page_193 next page >
page
Page 193
century schools. But it does not lead us into two important ones that have to be
mentioned in summarizing the intellectual life of the period.
Peace and Friendship
A summary of the schools in the eleventh century would not be complete without
some reference to their social atmosphere. Love, friendship and peace were the
medium in which instruction took place. The temptation to call the cult of
friendship an "ideal" of the schools is best resisted, at least if the word is taken
to imply a reality at odds with the ideal. We recall that the students of Worms
got themselves into trouble by violating this "ideal" Naturally, wherever love,
reverence and friendship are imposed as obligatory forms of behavior, they will
also serve as a mask for intrigue and an instrument of hate, envy and anger,
which are not abolished by such an imposition. But friendship was an ideal of the
schools, just as honesty and respect for the rights of others are important ideals
of modern schools, however often they are violated.
Much of the teaching in mores in the eleventh century aimed at cultivating
personal qualities that inspired love and friendship. Cicero's dictum that
friendship is love of virtue in another man fit neatly a school scene which aimed
at acquisition of virtue. Adaptability, grace, charm and affability, being all things
to all men, were goals of study and training, and the ability to make and keep
friends was the visible sign of mastery of these qualities. It attested to the
presence of virtue in both parties to the friendship.
This clement of cultus virtutum was not disengaged self-realization. There was
also a social program behind it. This broader goal was to infuse secular society
with the ideals of gentleness, friendship and love. This goal is expressed most
clearly in the poetry of the age and the definitions of its goal. Orphic poetry was
the bearer of that softening, mollifying, civilizing mission that was by no means
only a poetic fiction of the age.
In the eleventh century it was perilous to contradict and argue with the teacher,
to doubt and to assert the value of one's own opinions over the authority of the
text and the teacher. It was a violation of the rule of love and peace. In the
twelfth century, it was a serious intellectual posture.
Classicism
The learning of the eleventh century was saturated with classical models. The
statesman and orator were central figures. The ideal leans heavily on
 

< previous page_193 next page >

page
< previous page_194 next page >
page
Page 194
Cicero's De officiis, and that model is only slightly veiled in its adaptation, the
manual of the Christian statesman, Ambrose's De officiis ministrorum. The
Tusculan Disputations likewise had a major role in shaping the statesman's
sensibility. Along with Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy it played an
important part in shaping the sensibilities of a class of clerical administrators
caught between conflicting parties in the investiture controversy.
The age's classical Roman cast is for us most evident in its literary style. The
elegant Ciceronianism of Meinhard of Bamberg is an exception. Normally it was
Martianus Capella who set the tone for composition in prose and, along with
Horace, also for verse. That priority ruined the poetry of the age for posterity,
even for its immediate heirs. The hermetic mannerism of school poetry must
have made an immediate impact in performance by lending the performer aura:
he is a man who knows more strange words than even his classical sources and
who can scramble syntax into all but insoluble puzzles. One of the results is that
a thorough knowledge of Latin poetry was obligatory. Poetry was the best
testimony to a thorough education (Ulrich of Bamberg), and no one who lacked a
knowledge of Horace, Virgil, Ovid, and Martianus could put forward that
testimony.
This kind of accomplishment must have turned up by several degrees the
brightness in the beam of poetry that broke from the poet, but it virtually
extinguished any illumination the text itself had to offer, or made it so
inaccessible that few would go looking for it. The effect of poetry was precisely
to make the poet himself (or the teacher/reader of poetry), and not the text, into a
monument: "he glows with the beauty of many poets." This lack of focus on the
text is surely one of the reasons why so little school poetry has survived of the
masses that must have been composed.
***
This summary has been a look at the eleventh-century cathedral schools intact,
so to speak, viewed from the point of view of their goals, their values, their
ideals, as expressed in an exuberantly idealizing literature, and there is much that
encourages us to think that idealizing and norm-giving were identical. These
institutions were humanistic in various senses of the word. They aimed at the
development of the articulate individual, his integration into society, his active
role in politics and administration. They aimed at humanizing the individual and
through the humane individual, society. They cultivated poetry, oratory and
conduct based on classical models.
 

< previous page_194 next page >

page
< previous page_195 next page >
page
Page 195
The picture we have drawn of the schools intact leaves us with an image of great,
modest, and amiable human beings in the masters' chairs, surrounded by talented
admirers disciplining their conduct on the model of great men, "as steel sharpens
steel"also with a vision of peace, love, and affability dominating intellectual and
social discourse.
But this whole alluring setting had frail foundations. Viewing the old learning
intact has allowed us to ignore for a while the forces that pulled it down. These
were present from the outset, both inside and outside the institutions, and they
gained strength in the course of the eleventh century. When we observe those
forces at work, the vivid picture of humanist institutes of learning appears more
like a grand house of cards, standing there like the old south at the beginning of
Gone with the Wind, about to be swept away.
 

< previous page_195 next page >

page
< previous page_197 next page >
page
Page 197

PART TWO
THE DECLINE OF THE OLD LEANING
 

< previous page_197 next page >

page
< previous page_199 next page >
page
Page 199

7.
Two Crises
The most visible of the forces that undermined and transformed the old learning
were the peace movement, the monastic reform, and the investiture controversy.
The changes produced by these developments and by whatever underlying forces
of change had crystallized them reshaped European society, politics, economy,
and intellectual life in the second half of the eleventh century and the first half of
the twelfth. They ended the imperial church system and dissolved the particular
relationship that had tied cathedral school to imperial courtand that spelled the
doom of cultus virtutum as a school discipline.
This and the next chapter observe the demise of this disciplinewhich from now
on I will refer to as "the old learning"at cathedral schools. The present chapter
focuses on the social forces, the next on the intellectual forces, which beset it.
Something happens to the mores of the aristocracy, lay and clerical, in the course
of the eleventh century. There is a restless pressing against and overstepping of
boundaries. The work of art that the schools producedthe well-composed
mansought new styles and new modes of self-representation. The trend toward
change was answered by a stubborn, conservative retrenching and hardening of
boundaries.
The study of this development is at a beginning stage. 1 Some of the basic texts
and forms of expression are available for analysis. But its underlying motive
forces, its connection with the peace movement and with the monastic reform
movement, and its implications for European social forms are far from clear.
Also a fundamental problem is the question whether the fashions themselves, or
their critics' willingness to voice their disapproval, are new.
There is a dynamic built into the nature of court life itself that drives it toward
extravagant forms of representation. These emerge at the imperial courts in
Ottonian times, stimulated at least in part by the competition of the western and
eastern emperors, both vying for the legitimate title of successor to the Roman
emperors.2
 

< previous page_199 next page >

page
< previous page_200 next page >
page
Page 200
"Novelties" of conduct break out in full force and blossom in Provence in the
early eleventh century. 3 They enter the court of Henry III of Germany
reportedly via Henry's marriage with Agnes of Poitou in 1043.4 The Provençal
retainers of Agnes, according to Abbot Siegfried of Gorze, are corrupting the
ancient and honorable customs of the kingdom with their obscene modes of dress
and behavior. They wear short and tight-fitting clothes, and they cut their beards.
Such men win the close favor of the king by their novelties. They escape
correction and thereby encourage others to "think up mad novelties on an even
greater scale"5
The Abbot of Gorze's criticism is based on the opposition of discipline to
laxness. The moral strength of previous emperors asserted itself in the strict
maintenance of custom, especially military custom. Now obscene novelty goes
unchecked, and it spreads like a disease.
This race for novelty among the aristocracy continues throughout the century,
and it is regarded and represented by its clerical observers as a corruption of
mores. Men make women of themselves. Their effeminization saps their moral
fibre and extinguishes their will to fight. They wear superfluously rich and soft
garments; they eat delicate and overly refined cuisine; they walk in a dainty,
effeminate manner, with tiny steps, swinging their hips from side to side.
Many at the cathedral schools observed this transformation of mores with
concern. Understandably so: the teaching of mores and discipline formed a large
part of the curriculum, and presumably the obligation to correct manners reached
beyond the classrooms to lay and clerical society generally. Innovation in the
codes regulating social behavior was bound to have unsettling effects in an
educational system based on authority and custom. The two crises of this chapter
open those effects to view. They led in various directions. For instance, the
resistance to new customs encouraged a severe, rigorous ordering of the religious
life in opposition to the new worldly ways, a trend which pulled cathedral and
canonical communities into the orbit of the church reformers (Liège). But the
worldly ways could also take over a diocese and themselves become an object of
instruction in its cathedral school (Hildesheim). Eventually, the reaction also
produced an amalgamation of cultus virtutum with ideals of the apostolic life.
Henry III
This chapter focuses on the court of Henry III (1039-56) in its relations to the
schools. It was one of the most remarkable and culturally rich courts of
 

< previous page_200 next page >

page
< previous page_201 next page >
page
Page 201
the earlier Middle Ages. Henry's reign became representative in later
historiography for the high point of the imperial church, an ideal balance of
church and state, and a golden age of peace and culture. 6 The king himself was
well educated,7 and he cultivated learning both at his court and in the kingdom.
Ekkehard of Aura's praise of Henry III's son shows that the father regularly
gathered learned men around him for readings and discussion:
Just as his father had, he valued the company of clerics and men of the
highest learning . . . and he himself occupied himself intensely with the
study of the liberal arts.8
He ushered in an unprecedented cultural flourishing, the result of his zeal for
studies:
With his active support and efforts a great many men flourished at that
time both in the arts, in architecture, in [the study of] the authors, in every
kind of learning. And everywhere studies at their finest arose.9
Many of the works that have been major sources for this study were written
either directly for or in the proximity of Henry's court: Anselm of Besate's
Rhetorimachia, Wipo's Life of Conrad and Tetralogus, the Sermones of
Amarcius Sextus, possibly the poem ''Quid suum virtutis." Many of the short
pieces that comprise Benzo of Alba's book of instruction, Ad Heinricum IV
imperatorem, look back to the author's days as chaplain at the court of Henry III.
The Latin romance-epic Ruodlieb, probably by a monk of Tegernsee, has been
dated as early as 1042 and as late as 1070.10 Its stress on courtesy, court
ceremonial, peace and love as the ideal atmosphere of life at court and in the
kingdom, may well be idealized reminiscences of the emperor's court.
Members of the king's court were placed in more than half of all German
episcopal sees vacated during Henry's reign, a percentage that surpasses any of
his predecessors or successors.11 That means that court influence was at an
unprecedented highpoint during Henry's reign.
His efforts at creating an institutionalized peace brought him the reputation of
pacifier and civilizer.12 Bern of Reichenau praises him in terms that echo
distinctly the peacemaking and civilizing role cultivated at cathedral schools
prior to the reign of Henry III. In a letter to the king from around 1-44, Bern
explains the significance of his royal rifle:
. . . those men who are now called kings once were called tyrants because
of the crude ferocity of their conduct [ob crudelem morum ferocitatem],
but when the zeal for sacred religion grew, they were called kings for
ruling rightly [reges. . .
 
< previous page_202 next page >
page
Page 202
a recte regendo], since they suppress bestial urges and prove themselves
rational through the force of good judgement. 13
He has framed his praise so as to make of Henry a kind of royal Orpheus, or at
least a Pluto/Dis fully under the influence of pacifying Orphic music.14 He says
that Henry fully merits his rifle, both for his lineage and for manners and conduct
(moribus et vita) worthy of his grand ancestry.
This king is the wish-dream of learned clergy, an embodiment of important goals
of cathedral schools: a ruler who is equal parts philosopher-king and prince of
peace, loving and forgiving, sensitive to the high value of learned clerics.
It is not easy to reconcile this image with the very different one we gather from
other sources. Siegfried of Gorze saw a real danger of the corruption of the
empire in Henry's marriage with Agnes of Poitou. He saw Henry III as a
plaything of flatterers and rewarder of turpitude.15 The reproach of moral
corruption threatened him doubly from his marriage to Agnes, since some critics
considered it incestuous.16 Hermann of Reichenau, a sober observer and near
contemporary, described a decline in the later years of Henry's reign:
At that time not only the great men of the kingdom but also the lesser
began to murmur ever more against the emperor. They say he is long since
falling away from his original posture of justice, love of peace, piety, fear
of God and manifold virtues . . . into avarice and a certain laxness.17
This harsh judgment comes from a younger contemporary of Bern of Reichenau,
who a decade before had praised him as David and Solomon combined in one.
Whatever else the reign of Henry III was, it was the period in which a crisis of
conduct (mores) emerged at court and in the schools. The ambivalent judgment
of his reign seems consistent with social/political divisions that are forming in
the empire.
First Crisis: Wazo of Liège
Anselm of Liège wrote his history of the bishops of Liège in the second half of
Henry's reign, approximately 1050-56. Liège still maintained its close
relationship to the imperial court (see above, Chapter 3, pp. 54ff.). But the court
chapel and the nature of court service had changedin Anselm's
 

< previous page_202 next page >

page
< previous page_203 next page >
page
Page 203
opinion at least. What he observed troubled him, and his comments give us some
of the clearest insights available into the close relationship between court chapel
and cathedral school in the reign of Henry III, its Ottonian roots and its
weakening in the mid-eleventh century. He expresses his concerns in his chapter
on Bishop Notker's (972-1008) influence on the school in the previous century,
and he compares the schools in their origins with those of the present day:
His [Notker's] care for the education of the young was very great, and he
saw to their instruction in the disciplines of the church. So great was this
concern that whenever he traveled, to places near or far, he took with him
young students, who would place themselves in the care of one of the
chaplains under the strictest discipline, in no way different from that of the
schools, and he had them carry along a great supply of books and other
weapons of learning. In this way it happened that many of the ignorant and
unlettered young men whom he snatched from cloistered walls returned
perfectly lettered and a match even for those who earlier had been their
teachers.
But I fear that this may provide a bad example for those who seek to break
forth from the halls of scholarship 18 into the courts of kings and bishops,
and, disdaining the yoke of discipline, strive to surrender their lives to
levity. I would judge such men fortunate if they never wandered so much
as an inch from the learning of which he [Notker] gave an example. For if
in the present age the study of the good arts, as plied amid the hurly-burly
of courts, is held equal in value to cloistered leisure, then we do not deny
that they ought to flee from the laxer and return to the more rigorous path
of learning.19 But if the opposite is the case, or rather because it is
[namely that cloistered learning is more rigorous than that at court], then
let this lascivious generation cease its empty pretense of reasons for its
unsteady character, since what it neglected in claustral tranquility, it will
never attain in the turbulent hustle and bustle of the court. Oh, if only
those golden ages could be restored in our times when in the chapels of the
emperor no less than in those of bishops nothing more was pursued than
the discipline of manners along with the study of letters!20
The cooperation of court and cathedral schoolpast and presentis so close that the
venues of education are interchangeable. Under Notker, students could get a
better education under stricter discipline while wandering with the court than in
the cloistral tranquility of the school. Both the court and the school taught, in
Notker's day, only "the discipline of manners along with the study of letters"
What has changed is not this close relationship, nor the availability of instruction
at both places, but rather the discipline at court. It is now laxer than at the
schools. It is breeding a "lascivious" generation given to "levity" This laxness of
discipline is attractive to students, because it encourages them to ''break forth
from the halls
< previous page_204 next page >
page
Page 204
of scholarship into the courts of kings and bishops and disdain the yoke of
discipline" There is now a group of men who chafe under this yoke 21 and
hasten to courts, where they may continue their learning relieved of it.
What irritates Anselm is not the double venue of education, but a new spirit of
levity and frivolity at the courts. The tensions are between discipline and laxness.
In Anselm's report those tensions play themselves out within the structure of
claustral quiet opposed to worldly confusion. Anselm gives us a suggestion of
something not hinted at in Siegfried of Gorze's letter (notes 5 and 15 above): the
court is drawing students away from the schools, since they can escape claustral
discipline there. The atmosphere of undisciplined turpitude continues, though
Provençal corrupters are no longer cited as the source of it.22
Anselm applies to the discipline of school and monastery interchange-ably the
term we found characteristic of Carolingian education: ecclesiasticae
disciplinae23 (see Chapter 2), and while it does not disappear from the
description of studies at cathedral schools in the eleventh century, it is
comparatively rare. He tends to stress the reforming activities of those who
studied at the Liège schools24 and does not dwell on their court activities or their
service to the emperor, except to illustrate opposition to him.
When he does mention the court it is ordinarily in a tone of condemnation.
Bishop Wolbodo, while serving at the court of Henry II, angered the king and
resolved to pay compensation in order to placate him. But then he considered
that it is "pointless to placate the prince of this earth if the ruler of heaven is
offended" (208, l. 14), and he gives all the money to the poor. This action
increases his fame at court, but makes him offensive to
other men in charge of administrative duties [praesules], who contend to
despoil the churches in their care and give their wealth to mimes and other
dogs of the court. They themselves do not blush to indulge in scurrilous
and obscene adulation toward the king by their inane speech.25
Bishop Wazo is mistrusted by the emperor for having favored the church of
Liège and is accused of allying himself with Godfrey of Lorraine against "the
imperial majesty and the well-being of the kingdom." The emperor is wrong for
mistrusting Wazo, Anselm claims, but what can you expect; the life at court
deprives a man of good judgment:
It is difficult for the mind's eye not to be blinded from the light of truth [at
court], since here are glory and wealth, here the many concerns of the
republic that require administering, here the tongues of a thousand
flatterers pulling in different directions.26
 

< previous page_204 next page >

< previous page_205 next page >
page
Page 205
In short, rigorous religious discipline is a frail and endangered thing for Anselm
of Liège, and the force that tends to undermine it are the worldly concerns of the
students, especially the ambition to enter that whirlwind of secular cares, the
court. "Laxness" and "lasciviousness" are general names for the offending modes
of behavior. He is not more specific on the offenses, unfortunately.
***
Two important events in the life and activity of Wazo of Liège give us a clearer
view of what is troubling Anselm. Both turn on administrative styles and the
styles of education behind them. Viewing these events from the perspective of
cultus virtutum and its application in public life allows us to see Wazo's
personality and influence as engaged directly in the imperial tradition of the
cathedral school of Liègeas a retarding force.
Wazo Versus Provost John
The first event is Wazo's conflict with a canon of Liège named John, who
advanced in 1021 to the office of provost and proceeded to destroy what had
been a close personal friendship with Wazo. 27 Wazo was not of noble birth, and
throughout his life he has trouble with men who are.28 The critical moment is
the debate over his appointment as bishop, but the brawl with Provost John
certainly was the most inflamed and dangerous conflict with powerful men of
high rank in Wazo's early career.
Anselm tells us outright that the principles at stake in this conflict were the same
Wazo defended later, first in his office as provost (Wazo was John's successor),
then as bishop.29 Anselm records Wazo's long letter of protest to Provost John,
in order show how consistently Wazo placed himself on the side of justice.
The events occurred between 1021 and 1025. The cause of the quarrel in Wazo's
version is that Provost John has regularly overstepped the boundaries of his
position. He has arrogated the property and income of the church to himself and
given it to whomever he chose. He has made many decisions without consulting
the brothers whose consent has made him provost. He has claimed that as
provost he also holds the office of prelate. At fault, says Wazo, are John's pride
and arrogance, his confidence in his own standing and power,30 his ambition,31
and above all his urge to dominate and rule.32 In setting provost and prelate
equal, John is said to set earthly things above spiritual, since the provost
administers the house's worldly goods, while the prelate administers the spiritual
life:
 

< previous page_205 next page >

page
< previous page_206 next page >
page
Page 206
Spiritual things are rightly set above secular, in the same way that the
rational soul rules over the stolid flesh. The cloisters of the west hold
unswervingly to this arrangement, as do all houses of monks wherever they
may be. 33
This ranking of spiritual above worldly becomes a dominant motif of Wazo's
thought and administration.34
One result of John's disordered administration is that discipline and the study of
letters decline.35 Wazo himself resigns his position as school master:
I have fled my duty of [maintaining] scholarly obediencethe only sensible
stepsince neither the zeal to learn nor the ability to compel is present.36
John's urge to dominate banishes "subjection, loyalty, humility and obedience"
(cf. 212, 35). The "Rule" calls on him to provide an example of canonical
behavior for his subordinates (212, ll. 48-49).37 Instead, John is lazy. He does
not visit the chorus, the refectory, the dormitory, in violation of the mandate of
the Rule. "Why?" asks Wazo rhetorically, "You are of sound mind, healthy and
have plenty of time on your hands'' (212, ll. 49ff.). Instead of attending to his
mandated duties, John labors from morning to evening over his secular business.
While he himself works not at all or only little, he collects all the fruits of others'
labors for his own use (213, 1ff.).
That is Wazo's case against Provost John. The issue is clear, and it is formulated
by Wazo trenchantly: "administration according to the Rule, not tyranny"
("administrationem secundum regulam, non dominationem"213, 38).
The Provost has his own say, and Anselm/Wazo obligingly record his defense.
John calls Wazo a troublemaker and hothead38 who acted out of deep-seated
obstinacy. The reproach has weight in itself. A few years later, the Worms
students who provoked the students of Würzburg would feel it turned against
them, to their consternation.
It also has weight in the particular circumstances. Provost John takes his
complaint to Bishop Durandus39 and persuades both him and the other superiors
of the church that Wazo was motivated by a contentious and litigious nature.40
The result is that Wazo and not John is forced to leave Liège, and apparently not
even Anselm's story that the provost had the dormitory set on fire by local wine-
suppliers in order to murder Wazo carried more weight with the bishop than
John's complaint against Wazo's contumacious nature.
Wazo was indeed an uncomfortable figure, stubborn, contentious, and
 

< previous page_206 next page >

< previous page_207 next page >
page
Page 207
given to confrontation. For all his humility and self-deprecation, he was a real
fighter, "a supremely bold defender of the pure truth" Anselm calls him
("audacissimus purae veritatis assertor"chapter 65, 228, 44). And he regularly
applies the metaphor of war, battle and contention to Wazo's activities. 41 Wazo
is not a mediator. Instances in his biography of his seeking compromise and
reconciliation are few and far between.42 He is very different from the smooth
men of peace and the middle road the imperial church cultivated, men like Brun,
Dietrich I of Metz, Gerbert of Aurillac, and Benno of Osnabrück, who worked
hand in glove with the emperor. On the contrary, his differences with the
emperor were not merely a difference of opinion that could be settled and
reconciled by holding to the golden mean, but rather a "war against the emperor"
and Wazo's role the "liberation" of his church.43 It is consistent with this
character that Anselm says Wazo ought to have lived in the times of the Roman
persecutions; he would have willingly offered his neck to the executioner, just as
he was prepared in the conflicts of Liège to arm himself with the cross and
''throw himself into the midst of the armed hosts."44 Wazo was an aspiring
martyr who needed a Nero to oppose him, and if some insufferable tyrant did not
exist, Wazo would invent him. He conceived his role as one who "threw himself
into the midst of hosts" armed or not. An abrasive defender of spiritual rights can
always find weapons turned against him in the hands of worldly men.
There are two sides to the story of the conflict between Wazo and Provost John.
The decision of the chapter to banish Wazo and keep John has weight. A provost
who was abusing his office in the atmosphere of Liège, as Anselm depicts it,
would surely have been out on his ear. The office lent itself to abuse. In the
comparatively lax Hildesheim (see next crisis) under Bishop Hezilo, the bishop
ejected a provost named Kuno for abusing his office in very much the way Wazo
accuses John of doing. In this case, neither Kuno's relatedness to the bishop nor
Hezilo's wish to maintain good relations with Bamberg, where Kuno had his
training, can rescue the provost.45
It is unlikely that the decision to keep John and dismiss Wazo was a frivolous
one. Wazo may well have been perceived by Durandus and the seniors of the
community as having violated that sacred rule of peace with outbursts of anger
and obstinate clamoring against his provost over minor infractions that a man
with more imperial values would have found easy to countenance.46
Provost John has one other defense. He points to his archdiocese,
 

< previous page_207 next page >

page
< previous page_208 next page >
page
Page 208
Cologne, and says, in effect, that he is not doing anything not done there. We can
assume he makes this argument, because Wazo refutes it: "Do not try to
strengthen the defense of your presumption by the example of Cologne" (214, ll.
9-10). Liège owed its traditions to Cologne, as did other dioceses of Lorraine,
not only as their archdiocese, but above all as the see of Brun. Brun of Cologne
had hand-picked both founders of the Liège school traditions, Evraclius and
Notker, and they had no doubt continued his tradition. Brun's education of
Dietrich of Metz had aimed at creating a prelate who would be adept at both
"governing and benefiting" (praeesse et prodesse). The man Brun educated was
destined for "civil battle.'' He would require humility because "he would be set
above many, to their own benefit" (see above, Chapter 2, pp. 38-39).
The proposed balance between praeesse and prodesse changes subtly the
priorities of church traditions. The Benedictine Rule stipulates that the abbot
should seek rather to "benefit" than to "preside." 47 Brun's education of Dietrich
sets them equal. Wazo lines up with the Benedictine Rule, and this alignment has
an edge against the imperial tradition.
Wazo had a deep mistrust of power. He resisted office every time it was thrust
on him; he repeatedly turned down vacant bishoprics. This stance gives weight
to Anselm's protestations, for instance, that Wazo served in Conrad II's court
"not out of any desire to receive a bishopric, nor any other ambition for
domination."48 This penchant of Wazo was to be confirmed from the side of his
opponents in his contested election to bishop of Liège, our second event.
Wazo's Election
When Bishop Neithard died in 1041, "clergy and populace" demanded Wazo as
bishop. He is ultimately appointed against the opposition of certain "flatterers" of
the king. These men claim that a bishop must be elected from the chaplains of
the king, but Wazo had never exerted himself in the royal service, hence had not
earned such an honor. It is wrong, they say, to make a man bishop who has not
"wandered around"49 with the king's court. More telling is their argument that it
is not appropriate to elect a man who has been trained to the subjection of
claustral obedience and who has learned not so much to rule (praesse) as to do
good (prodesse).50
The issue turns on questions of education, how the candidate is trained
(informatus) and what he has learned (didicerit).51 Wazo's opponents state
plainly that a bishop should be educated to govern (praeesse), and that monastic
training may well be contrary to this purpose. This is clearly an
 

< previous page_208 next page >

page
< previous page_209 next page >
page
Page 209
assertion of the imperial tradition against a monastic one that is injecting itself
into episcopal appointments. The kings chaplains want one of their own in the
see of Liège, and they are men who have both served at court and learned to
wield authority as befits a "spiritual prince."
Here Wazo's own principles are invoked and turned against him in order to
disqualify him for office. He devotes his life to the defense of obedience and
subjection against the ambition of domination, and on the occasion of his
election as bishop, the king's chaplains call for a candidate closer in character to
Provost John. Clearly the principle of "administration in accord with the Rule"
(administratio secundum regulam) could have little weight with the king's
advisors.
Wazo is not a spiritual prince; he is not a magnificent wielder of authority in the
tradition of Brun and Dietrich of Metz. Otto the Great had wanted men who
combined "the religion of a priest with the strength of a king" ("sacerdotalis
religio et regia fortitudo"). 52 Wazo's strength and magnificence were qualities
of a martyr, not of a king. He was anything but a successor to the ''regal
priesthood" (regale sacerdotium) of Brun.
Anselm formulated the opposition to Wazo's election in terms consistent with his
comments on education under Notker of Liège. He favored training in claustral
rigor; these "flatterers" demanded an apprenticeship at the royal court as
preparation for a bishopric, and the royal court had been for Anselm a whirlpool
of laxness and lasciviousness. The words of Wazo's opponents would seem to
encourage precisely those men "who seek to break out of the halls of learning
into the courts of kings and bishops." The new breed of students "wander" from
discipline, just as the chaplains demand of a legitimate candidate, "to wander
with the royal court" ("in curte regia evagari"); the students of the present seek to
"reject the yoke of discipline," and the king's chaplains reject candidates trained
in the "subjection of claustral obedience."
In Wazo's contested election we have a head-on opposition of disciplina
Brunonis, the education introduced by Brun, to monastic tradition.
***
The opposition of Wazo and Anselm to the values of the royal court sets Liège
at odds with the imperial tradition of education. That tradition was not one-
sidedly claustral. It never favored the goal of doing good over that of governing.
On the contrary, praeesse was set equal to prodesse. Far from shunning worldly
business, an imperial bishop saw to secularia negotia
 

< previous page_209 next page >

< previous page_210 next page >
page
Page 210
as one of his central activities, "civil battle" for church and state. Brim himself
was accused of excessive preoccupation with civil administration.
Liège moves away from that balance, favoring "doing good" and treating
"governing" as prideful and ambitious. Some hundred years after Brun's
influence asserted itself in cathedral school education, there are clear signs that
the close cooperation between court and school is becoming strained. Liège
cannot follow the emperor's court in its worldliness and its novelties, and this
strengthens a monastic posture toward learning· That is the crisis of Liège.
Goswin of Mainz considered the school of Liège to be on its way downhill by
the time he wrote his letter to Walcher (ca. 1065). Whatever it had retained of
the glory of its Ottonian traditions, it no longer supplied chaplains and had all but
ceased receiving its own bishops from the royal chapel. 53 By the early years of
the twelfth century it had lost its position of glory and influence, never to regain
it. Charlotte Renardy has studied this decline. She shows its cause to be the
church reform and the infiltration of its values into the cathedral school of
Liège.54
Wazo of Liège is located at the beginning of the decline of the Liège school, and
it is probably accurate to say that he is a major cause of it.
Second Crisis: Bishop Azelinus Reforms Hildesheim55
At Liège all the problems were at court, and the cure was cloister-like cathedral
schools. At Hildesheim in the same period the "problems" infiltrate the cathedral.
Bishop Azelinus (1044-54) was a chaplain in the court of Henry III, and when
the king appointed him bishop he brought with him the ways of the court.56 An
anonymous chronicler of the Hildesheim church, writing around 1080, makes
this bishop responsible for an infusion of "ambitious courtliness." The passage is
important, and I quote it here at length. It begins by praising the rigorous
discipline under bishops prior to Azelinus:
. . . the clergy gave itself over to the service of God with zealous piety and
pious zeal so great that though professed canons they rejoiced in monastic
strictness [districtio]. I shall not go into how severe the punishment was
for tardiness when entering the choir, the mensa, or the dormitorynot to
mention absence! Such presumption could only be excused by grave need
or special permission. Once relieved of the yoke of school discipline, they
were guided by yet tighter reins in the cloister. . . . So indifferent were they
to the
 

< previous page_210 next page >

page
< previous page_211 next page >
page
Page 211
more elegant clothing, which is now all the rage among the clergy, that
they knew nothing of gluttony or of fur collars, and they decorated their
sleeves with darkened rags and patches, not with robes. . . . In this way
they preferred rustic boorishness to courtly sophistication . . . they had no
pretenses to things higher than what the cloister provided, so that they who
had not yet renounced the world lived in claustral restraint, ignorant of
worldliness. This claustral state pleased Emperor Henry [II] . . . so well that
he chose for his own church of Bamberg the claustral rigor of Hildesheim
combined with the studies of Liège, since he knew that the highly
composed posture of the outer man showed forth the religion of the inner
man.
This claustral rigor persisted down to the times of our sixteenth bishop,
Azelinus. During his administration there crept in an ambitious courtliness,
whichbeing softer and gentler in dress, more elegant and refined in manner
of living, more scrupulous in every aspect of culture, seeking to inspire
love rather than fearled to the softening of monastic rigor. 57
The changes that came with Bishop Azelinus could only have been regarded by
this advocate of ascetic discipline as a form of corruption, though he is
remarkably reticent in branding them as such. Whatever the new forms of
conduct Azelinus imported, their result is to soften monastic rigor, a bad trend in
this man's eyes. Liège avoided the fate of Hildesheim, possibly because at the
critical moment the severe spokesman of discipline, Bishop Wazo, presided.
It is instructive to compare this report with what we know of the perils of Liège.
The Hildesheim writer shows strict discipline maintained especially in entering
the choir, refectory and the dormitory. At Liège, Wazo criticized Provost John
precisely for relaxing his vigilance over these areas. Driven by ambition and the
urge to rule and dominate, he neglected his visitations in choir, refectory and
dormitory, while he sweat over his "worldly business." Likewise the
"courtliness" of bishop Azelinus is "ambitious" a phrase that can only mean
aimed at pleasing the king, finding favor, winning an office through that favor.
The cutting issue at Liège also surfaces in the context of changed mores at
Hildesheim, praesse vs. prodesse. Immediately after describing the
administration of Azelinus, the author of the Fundatio praises his successor
Hezilo as ''a father more than a superior, since he wished to do good rather than
to rule."58 It confirms that bishops who are perceived as close to the emperor
are branded as men eager to "rule" rather than to "do good."
So the issues are in some ways the same: claustral rigor opposed to a laxer rule
of life that comes from the court. But the results are very different. Azelinus
introduces or permits the introduction of "courtliness." Not only
 
< previous page page_212 next page >
Page 212
does it "creep in" but there are good reasons for thinking that the relaxed and
softened style of life won the day. There is no resistance. Criticism is muted,
uncertain and indirect. If we removed the praise of claustral rigor from the report
in the Fundatio, we might well think the writer was praising and not criticising
the reforms of Bishop Azelinus. Hildesheim clearly is a very different kind of
place than Liège, where the bishop himself lined up squarely against the
incursions of manners from the imperial court.
This text is valuable for giving us some details of the phenomenon called here
for the first time "courtliness." What we know from this chronicler's report is that
fine clothing, delicate and abundant food, a refined form of speech and behavior
are the constituents of this new fashion. Like the bishop who brought it, it comes
from the court, and is called after its place of origin.
A puzzling feature of "ambitious courtliness" is that "it preferred to be loved
rather than feared": "amari quam timeri maluit.'' The phrase may refer to the
atmosphere of friendship, harmony, and love that other sources lead us to believe
predominated at the imperial court (see above, pp. 104ff.). It is clear that the
writer countenances a stern and rigorous asceticism. He regrets the passing of the
days when canons were whipped for appearing late at choir, and we can infer
that this did not happen under Azelinus. This writer may well regard the
affectionate affability of courtly manners as a form of laxness. But he seems
oblivious to the stipulation of the Benedictine Rule that the abbot should strive to
be loved rather than feared. 59 His extreme sternness does not countenance even
sanctioned forms of humane and pleasant social intercourse. We observed this
opposition from the other sideadvocacy of humane affability against monastic
rigorin the poem of Godfrey of Rheims quoted earlier. He praises his friend Odo
of Orleans:
He was not austere with morose gravitywhich I hate
But rather serene with bright spirited countenancewhich I love.
His face was not twisted nor intimidating with grim glances,
Nor were his brows rigid and severe,
But rather mild, gentle and placid as a dove, . . .
Godfrey opposes stern religious rigor, and banishes it to the wilderness to live
with the merciless tigers:
. . . let the wretch stray
Who swells with mendacious religion.
 

< previous page page_212 next page >

< previous page page_213 next page >
Page 213
Let him live, mute, bitter and harsh, banished to the wilderness,
The companion of Hyrcanian tigers.
He who condemns joys and approves melancholy
Will be judged like winter and its frosty winds. 60
The Hildesheim chronicler, writing a few years before Godfrey, idealizes
precisely rigor and rusticity, and it seems probable that the comparison taps into
a real social tension: the opposition of courtly affability to monastic severity.
The conditions the author of the Fundatio countenances would seem to be those
Godfrey banished to the "wilderness" and the company of fierce, untamed
animals. There is no disagreement on the forms of behavior, only on the
judgment of them.
If we had only the report of the Fundatio and other critics of court style to rely
on, we would judge Bishop Azelinus a corrupter of his diocese. Fortunately there
are other sources. It is curious that no historian of this church criticizes Azelinus
for his reforms (not even the author of the Fundatio, though his judgment is
implicit). In other reports, Azelinus comes across as a successful, well-connected
bishop,61 whose contribution to the diocese was limited only by the unfortunate
chance that the church burned down early in his administration and he did not
live long enough to complete the job of rebuilding.
The changes to a softer and gentler style of life were a reality at Hildesheim, not
the invention of a disgruntled advocate of severe order. Otloh of St. Emmeram is
probably the earliest writer to observe the change. He tells in one of his Visiones
(written ca. 1062-66) of an odd incident at Hildesheim. An angel appeared
repeatedly to one of the priests and warned him against the "extremely precious
vestments" worn by the clergy. The cleric places the blame on the bishop. He
tries to pluck up his courage and "correct" the bishop's ways, but hesitates.
Finally, overcoming his timidity, he warns the bishop and clergy, telling them of
the apparition. Still they refuse to give up their "noxious frivolity of voluptuous
ornament." The angel finally runs out of patience and sends lightning to destroy
the church. Thereupon they finally abandon "not only the superfluous ornaments
of clothing, but also the useless refinements of manners" (inutilia morum
fastigia).62
This story supposedly was told to Otloh while at Hersfeld, where he lived in the
1020s. But it could hardly refer either to the revered Bernward of Hildesheim
(993-1022) or to the saintly and severe Godehard (1022-
 

< previous page page_213 next page >

< previous page_214 next page >
page
Page 214
38). It seems reasonable to assume that it refers obliquely to the same
phenomenon the author of the Fundatio observed. It incorporates both the
known events of Azelinus's term of officethe importation of courtly ways and the
burning down of the church. Apparently Otloh projects the events into the past
in order to mute the criticism, to which the present bishop, Hezilo, may still be
sensitive.
An anecdote attached to a manuscript of the Translatio S. Epiphanii also refers
to the Hildesheim crisis. The person who penned it claims to have read it in the
Vita Bernwardi. It tells how the ghost of Empress Theophanu, dressed in
wretched rags, appears to a nun in her sleep, and begs her prayers. The nun asks
why she suffers, and the former empress tells her that she is doing penance for
having imported "many superfluous and luxurious ornaments for women,
common in Greece, but until then unknown in German or French lands." The
result of her innovations was that many women began to desire these vanities.
Then follows the story of the burning of the Hildesheim church as punishment
for vain and ostentatious clothing and the loosening of discipline, more or less as
in Otloh (MGH SS 4, 888).
Clearly the critics of worldly ways had their eyes on the Hildesheim reforms, but
the criticism is oddly indirect and muted. We are far from the atmosphere of
Liège, where no nonsense was tolerated, and blatant resistance against the
emperor and his minions was an admired stance.
The real nature of the Hildesheim reforms becomes apparent when we compare
Azelinus's social innovations with his educational measures, which the Vita of
Benno of Osnabrück reveals. Benno was an up-and-coming young talent in the
emperor's service when he came to the attention of Bishop Azelinus. The bishop
of Hildesheim was the winner in what Norbert describes as a competition of
prominent men for the services of Benno. 63 Azelinus lured him away "with
grand promises" and made him scholarum magister.
At Hildesheim he found the local clergy "educated in a rustic way, almost totally
illiterate and unlearned,"64 and he set to work with great energy to change that.
He soon had inspired them with the love of learning and transformed Hildesheim
to the point where no place in the kingdom could equal it. The level of the clergy
was raised so high, Norbert continues, that they distinguished themselves both in
the "honesty of claustral discipline" and in the "ardor for learning the science of
letters."65 Benno became known as "the enlightener (illustrator) of that place
and, as it were the new founder of an ecclesiastical order there"rightly so,
Norbert assures us.
This text, compared with the Fundatio, gives a clear picture of the cir-
 
< previous page_215 next page >
page
Page 215
cumstances which the team of Azelinus and Benno changed: both agree from
their very different perspectives that the diocese had been rustic, and ignorant. 66
For the chronicler this is praise; for the biographer blame. Both agree that the
advent of Azelinus and Benno brought important changes in the discipline of the
church: the Fundatio says it was relaxed and secularized; Norbert that it was
restored to "claustral discipline" claustrails honestas disciplinae. It is
indisputable that Hildesheim swerved toward courtly luxury in mid-century: the
historical traditions of Hildesheim agree unanimously on that. Why does Norbert
of Iburg make such a claim in his Vita of Benno? Because no doubt the reforms
of Azelinus aimed not only at letters but also at manners. What the anonymous
historian saw as corruption of discipline, Norbert saw as a program of civilizing,
and "claustral discipline" meant something different to him than to, say, Anselm
of Liège. The Vita of Benno was written, also in Saxony, at a time (1090-1100)
when the eleventh-century traditions of Hildesheim were still well known. I
would suggest that the importation of the ways of the court into a rigorously
monastic diocese might well have been seen in the imperial heartland as a major
improvement. That is the justification for referring to Azelinus's influence as
"reform." What the Fundatio sees as neglect, Norbert sees as a program.
This leaves us with a picture of Benno implanting in the rustics of Hildesheim a
"zeal for the study of letters" while Azelinus introduced courtly refinements of
manners: Benno, litterae, Azelinus mores et curialitas or curialis facetia. The
diocese was reformed according to a program of "letters and manners." The
imperial court was the source of this program, both in its social and its
intellectual thrust.
Clearly the Fundatio has given a biased picture of the influence of Bishop
Azelinus on the church. None of his fellow Saxons who commented on this
bishop shares the view of him as a corrupter. He was a serious reformer, whose
reforms aimed at instituting a program of court education. If he had been the
epicurean corrupter the Fundatio makes of him, he surely would not have gone
to the trouble of courting a sought-after and expensive young man like Benno of
Osnabrück. And conversely, a man like Benno with a brilliant career in front of
him would probably not have left the royal court at Goslar to follow a corrupt
bishop into the backwoods.
In the clash of novel customs with conservative resistance at Hildesheim, the
court and the imperial traditions won the day, the opposite result from Liège.
The reforms of Azelinus and Benno were sustained through the bishopric of
Azelinus's successor, Hezilo, and some of the fruits were a variety of historical
works and the Hildesheim letter collection.67
 

< previous page_215 next page >

< previous page_216 next page >
page
Page 216
The crisis at Hildesheim gives us contemporary perceptions of the two ways of
life struggling to dominate northern European dioceses. We see the fronts
between monastic rigor and imperial ways sharpened. The kind of reconciliation
that Brun of Cologne had found was no longer attainable to Azelinus. On the
contrary, what makes this situation into a crisis is precisely the extreme form of
behavior and dress that came with his reforms. Luxurious clothing had been
rejected by Brun, but Azelinus and Hezilo tolerated them. The extreme of luxury
called forth an extreme, if limited, reaction. But the handwriting is on the wall:
there is a serious division between the levels of clergy in northern Europe.
 

< previous page_216 next page >

page
< previous page_217 next page >
page
Page 217

8.
Old Learning Against New
Teacher Insulting
Gradually in the second half of the eleventh century and precipitously in the first
half of the twelfth, the old learning became threatened by a new kind of teacher
offering a new kind of studies: the disputatious philosopher-scholar-teacher in
the stamp of Peter Abelard. Both Italy and the north apparently bred this type,
because in reports from the monastic as well as the cathedral communities we
see the schools teeming with cavillers whose breasts swell with pride in their
knowledge, who dispute, cast doubt, redefine old usage, violate the laws of
reverentia and pietas right and left, and have the nerve to contradict and show up
their own teachers. 1
Some early examples of teachers insulted and authority defied help locate a
fundamental characteristic of the old learning and a fundamental weakness.
When Wolfgang of Regensburg was a student at Würzburg in the mid-tenth
century, his fellow students asked him for a commentary on Martianus Capella,
because they were not content with the reading of their teacher, Stefan of
Novara, the Italian master called to the north by Otto the Great. Wolfgang
complied, and he commented so astutely on Martianus that his erudition became
an affront to his teacher. Stung to anger and threatened with the loss of his
students, Stefan undertook to stifle Wolf-gangs further progress. But the inner
flame of divine erudition only burned the more brightly for the attempt to snuff
it out, "as a fire flares when fanned by blasts of wind."2 Wolfgang eventually
moved to Trier as school master; he progressed to the bishopric of Regensburg
(972-994), and ultimately to sainthood. But the future saint might have saved
himself a good deal of trouble by not giving offense at all, especially to this
sensitive foreigner.3 An important point of conduct was violated when Wolfgang
produced a commentary superior to that of the master. The circumstances in this
case are quite different from the offense given by the poet of Worms to the
Würzburg school master, Pernolf (see Chapter 3 above). Here the
 

< previous page_217 next page >

page
< previous page_218 next page >
page
Page 218
master's own student has the effrontery to understand more than his teacher and
to let the whole school know it. These circumstances are close to those in which
the young Peter Abelard outdid Anselm of Laon in biblical exegesis.
Abelard's intellectual arrogance is foreshadowed also in the insult dealt to the
clergy of Limoges by a Lombard grammarian, Benedict of Chiusa, who visited
Limoges in 1028 and disputed the claim that the local patron, St. Martial, was an
apostle. Our source, Ademar of Chabannes, tells the story by way of holding this
pompous windbag up to ridicule. He quotes a long speech, which he attributes to
Benedict. In it the latter boasts of his knowledge of grammar and claims that all
of Aquitaine and most of France are ignorant of this art, that after nine years of
study his own wisdom is so perfect no one under the sun can match him. 4 It is a
discrediting speech, fabricated to display intellectual arrogance. The monks of St.
Denis a century later would undoubtedly have liked to place such words in the
mouth of Peter Abelard, whom, out of the arrogance of his learning, they took to
be diminishing the authority of their patron.5
It may be that Benedict and Abelard were entirely right in disputing the beliefs
of the local monks. The validity of the claims against those beliefs, the historical
truths at stake, did not matter. Reasoning and proof, when pitted against
venerable authority, textual or personal, were pernicious instruments of pride that
invited discrediting and were seen as deserving it.
But gradually knowledge, reasoning, success in disputation and in proof become
ends in themselves. Grave and dignified orations, elegant gait and gestures, lose
their importance in the schools; thought frees itself from its subordination to
discipline. By the early twelfth century, the "discipline of manners" has been
largely displaced at the schools and replaced by definitions and systematizing,
frameworks of argumentation and harmonizing of inconsistencies.
The contest between old and new learning is as much a part of twelfth-century
intellectual life as is the clash between the new learning and monastic orthodoxy,
though the latter has commanded much more interest from historians. In many
ways the old learning and monasticism were allied in opposition to the new.
They had, it is true, a traditional antagonistic relationship in the eleventh century
(polemics of monks against worldly professors), but at the same time an easy
reciprocal relationship (many professors converted to monastic life). The rise of
the new learning brought their common interests and characteristics into clear
focus. Representatives
 

< previous page_218 next page >

page
< previous page_219 next page >
page
Page 219
of both joined forces against Berengar of Tours and Peter Abelard. The
intellectual world of the monasteries had much in common with that of the
schools. Philosophical Realism was fundamental to both, as was mistrust of
doubt, of skepticism, and of curiosity. Also common to both was authority as the
basis of thought, argumentation, and instruction. The basic intellectual
reorientation of the period has long been regarded, rightly I believe, as the clash
between reason and authority. 6 But some understanding of the old learning
helps us to see the nature of authority in a clearer light. It does not only reside in
texts and traditions: it is also a human quality.
Magisterial Authority and Its Mood Music
A letter from Adelman of Liège to Berengar of Tours cited in an earlier chapter
shows us this form of authority at work in the eucharist controversy. The letter is
a trenchant rejection of Berengar's position on the divine presence in the
sacrament, but it is written in a tone of loving correction from one former
student of Fulbert of Chartres to another. The body of the letter is a dossier of
arguments and texts against reasoning, novelties, and heresy. Of interest to us is
its introduction. Adelman evokes at length the figure of Fulbert, and in doing so
recreates vividly and emotionally the atmosphere of the old learning:
I have called you my fellow suckling and foster brother in memory of that
sweetest and most pleasant of times we spent together, you a mere youth, I
somewhat older, at the Academy of Chartres under our venerable Socrates.
We have more cause to glory in the common life of studies [convictus]
shared with him than had Plato, who gave thanks to nature for bringing
him forth as a man rather than as an animal in the days when Socrates was
teaching.7
Berengar and Adelman have experienced (experti sumus) the more saintly life
and sound doctrine of Fulbert, and now can hope to benefit from his prayers in
heaven, since the regard and Christlike charity in which he held them, as in a
maternal womb, still live on; indeed, his death has only intensified them.
Adelman conjures Fulbert looking down from heaven upon his two students and
calling on them with his vows and prayers,
entreating us through all those intimate evening colloquies he used to hold
with us in the little garden next to the chapel in the city . . . and beseeching
us, by the tears which broke forth and interrupted his lecture whenever the
force of divine ardor overflowed within him, to hasten thither with all
diligence,
 

< previous page_219 next page >

page
< previous page_220 next page >
page
Page 220
treading in a straight path the royal road, adhering with utmost observance
to the footsteps of the holy fathers, lest we should be detoured, turning
aside into some new and false path and succumbing to the snares of
scandal. (pp. 476-47, ll. 14-21)
In other words, Adelman conjures him by the person of their former teacher; if
Berengar holds the memory of Fulbert dear, he will not deviate from the path of
the fathers. These are arguments from authority: the personal authority of the
great man. He dissuades Berengar from "false" opinions by the force and
authority of Fulbert's personality, by pulling him back into the orbit of the
master's charisma. The nostalgia of the scene he paintsFulbert weeping during
evening colloquies, overcome by the force of divinity breaking forth in his
lecturesillustrates well the ideal atmosphere of the old learning. We see how true
the statement by Wibald of Stablo rings, that students defend what their teachers
say because they love the men, not the truth in their pronouncements. 8 "I
conjure you by the tears of our teacher": this is the poetry and the mood music of
the cathedral schools, unthinkable in a scholastic disputation, powerful in an
atmosphere where love of teacher substitutes for thought, where the teacher's
person constitutes a kind of orthodoxy. For Adelman there was more truth in
Fulbert's tears than in Berengar's logic.
This gives us the common strand in the examples of authority defied: the old
learning responded to conflict and intellectual challenge by asserting and
defending the authority of the masters. An ideal of demonstrable truth
approachable through arguments represented a powerful threat to men whose
instruction was based on eloquence and personality. This points up the
fundamentally irrational nature of an education based on the formation of
character. It relies on the personal moral authority of the teacher, and
reasoningcertainly critical, independent thoughtcan become an offense against
him and diminish his authority. The old learning made the masters into an image
of God, and the students goal was to fashion himself in that image.9 Disputation
and reasoning are fundamentally at odds with this goal. Awe and reverence are
appropriate to it.
Critical thought combined with the willingness to contradict was fateful for the
masters of the old learning. The combination of reason and impudence answered
their riddle and dissolved the magic spell of their authority. They were as
vulnerable as their aura of venerability: tarnish it and they fell, contradict them
convincingly and they faced early retirement. They had only faith, charisma, and
tradition to fall back on, not a systematically worked out philosophical position.
Stefan of Novara might have been pleased at having a talented student in
Wolfgang of Regensburg. But he was
 
< previous page_221 next page >
page
Page 221
not. He sensed that a systematic commentary by his own student on Martianus
Capella, one that satisfied the intellectual curiosity of his students, was a serious
threat to his authority as a teacher. The fate of William of Champeaux in the
early twelfth century shows such fears to be well founded: his teaching career
was seriously deflected because he lost to his student Abelard in their exchanges
on the nature of universals. The very foundation of the old learningpersonal
authoritywas its Achilles heel.
Early Retirement and the Collapse of Discipline: The Letter of Goswin of Mainz
Both Goswin of Mainz and Guibert of Nogent experienced and wrote down their
observations on the passing of the old learning and the advent of the new, but
they judged the development very differently. For Goswin the change spells the
end of religion and the disciplined life, for Guibert the beginning of serious
instruction.
Goswin decided to retire around 1065 after a full life of teaching and public
administration. 10 He had become master of the school at Liège in 1044 and
chancellor in 1050. Fairly soon thereafter he followed the invitation of
Archbishop Liutpold of Mainz (1051-59) to teach at the school of Mainz. But in
leaving Liège he had unwisely written an invective against the city, calling it a
"vile heap of slag" compared with Mainz.11 This indiscreet statement put him in
a difficult position when some fifteen years later he decided to retire to Liège
and wrote to his former student Walcherus to test the waters he had muddied.12
We know how sensitive students were to criticism of their towns and their
schools (the case of Würzburg). Goswin had created animosities that had to be
drowned in torrents of rhetoric.
That is fortunate for us. His letter is full of lively and vivid observations on the
schools around mid-century and their decline. It is a showcase of cathedral
school learning that may have dazzled its recipients but has to aggravate and
tantalize the modern reader by its endless sentences, heavy overlay of allusions,
and obscure diction. I include a translation of the letter in Appendix B. Here I
will deal only with those passages which relate to the decline of the old learning.
The New Teachers
"Liberal studies are now given over to mimes and actors, who seem to go
begging through taverns, where they hold forth in philosophical discourses on
money."13 These men set their students' ears itching with "vain and
 

< previous page_221 next page >

page
< previous page_222 next page >
page
Page 222
pestiferous novelties of phrasings and questions.'' 14 They are blown about like
light chaff in every wind of doctrine (628), and having seized a single scrap of
arcane knowledge they set out to wander like vagabonds through the fields of
learning discoursing to no one's satisfaction" but filled with the conviction of
their own expertise (XXVII.32.635ff.). He stresses their uprootedness: "Some
men, made pseudo-masters by instruction of a sort, wander about here and there
through villages, town and cities, since they know nothing of a fixed lodging"
(XXVIII.32.640ff.).
When he brings it down to cases, it is Berengar of Tours who is the source of
this new teaching:
Observe, if you will, how sane are the doctrines and how salubrious the
disciplines of the theologians who emerge from the academy of Tours. Its
headmaster is that apostle of Satan, Berengar. Observe, I say, how
pestilential, or rather how venomous are the scorpions and basilisks who
break forth from the caverns of our contemporary Babylon, what
heresiarchs, drunk on their must and smeared with their poison, introduce
sacrilegious novelties concerning sacred things, useful for nothing except
the subversion of the auditors, whose speech creeps like a cancer, because
knowledge which puffs up does not edify, it subverts. (XXIX.32.652ff.)
These teachers have no reverence (XXIX.32.663, 699). They refuse to recognize
anything beyond the grasp of reason. This is impudence and overweening. They
dissolve mysteries and reduce God to the boundaries of nature (cf. chapter
XXXI). They eat the paschal lamb raw or boiled (XXX.33.674ff.).
Complaints against this type of teaching are common from mid-century on.15
We hear similar complaints enriched by social barbs in the Regensburg
Rhetorical Letters (Regensburg. Rhet. Briefe, ed. Fickermann, epist. 6, p. 292),
and Meinhard of Bamberg places the decline of studies in the same context as
Goswin: the collapse of moral discipline (Weltere Briefe Meinhards, epist. 24, p.
221).
Discipline Fades
The new teaching is dearly in competition precisely with moral training.
Discipline in the broader and the narrower sense is the very thing caviling
logicians threaten. Liège in the golden age of Notker had had her students under
her maternal wing and made them models of civil conduct, says Goswin:
[Mother Liège] gathers her sons beneath her wings like a mother hen her
chicks, favors and nourishes them, and educates, informs and instructs
them in all that pertains to the conduct of life both personal or civil.16
 
< previous page_223 next page >
page
Page 223
But that age has passed. Now men cannot govern themselves, let alone the state,
with the rudder of reason, since the hurricane blast of worldliness throws them
off course. 17 When Henry III and Liutpold of Mainz were laid into the earth, all
religion, equity, justice, moral discipline and liberal studies were buried with
them, and the whole flourishing of the "manifold beauty of virtues and prolific
burgeoning of liberal letters" that they had experienced, passed from the face of
the earth (XXXIV.36-37.773-85). Now the pursuit of fame and vainglory have
superseded the "dignity and modesty of the religious life" (XXXV.37.795-96).
Avarice is at fault. From it is sprung "that fatal rejection of manners and of
discipline."18 Whipping students to maintain discipline has fallen completely out
of usage, and the result is that vices spring up like weeds in this newly created
laxity. Instead of submitting to "the scholars' rod" students give themselves to
stupidity, laziness and to their god, the stomach:
Fleeing instruction in the gravity of moral discipline, they are blown about
like light chaff in every wind of doctrine . . . those meant to be formed by
artist's hand from wet and malleable clay into vessels of glory on the wheel
of discipline leap off and take flight in trivialities, and are thus deformed
into vessels of contumely. (XXVII.31-2.627ff. )
The image of discipline the sculptor or potter turning young men into exquisite
works of art recurs in other documents of the old learning.19 But this aging
master imagines the moral sculptor working with the whip and deprived of his
tools by pernicious novelty, and this is a throwback to a cruder side of
discipline.20
Goswin comes dose to suggesting that the pseudo-masters' pied-piper effect on
students rests on the promise of laxer discipline:
The youths . . . they lure into their company and out of the refuge of
discipline, and guide them down the cliffs of voluptuousness. They put to
flight the reverence for discipline, the subjection to obedience, the
observance of religion, and in the end destroy all the fortifications of the
regulated life through a most pernicious corruption of manners.
(XXVIII.32.644ff.)
The same had been suggested by Anselm of Liège in his criticism of the new
license that students could find at "the courts of kings and bishops." This breed
also "disdained the yoke of discipline" in giving themselves over to levity (see
Anselm, Gesta, Chapter 6, p. 203 above). Goswin calls this trend a disease which
is poisoning the entire church (XXXII.34.708ff.).21
Others agreed that the trend was spreading. Meinhard of Bamberg also
polemicizes against the "inept insolence and insolent ineptness" of
 
< previous page_224 next page >
page
Page 224
certain teachers who, having hardly progressed beyond the rudiments of
grammar, fancy themselves sages. These men swarm everywhere like a plague of
frogs and bring down ruin on "manners and discipline" (moribus et disciplinae),
infecting them with the turpitude of their licentious lives. The occasion of the
letter is to announce to the recipient (not identified) that Meinhard is sending his
nephew to his school. He does this not for any lack of lettered men in Bamberg,
but "desirous of discipline, which I doubt not continues strong in your school,
though everywhere else it is virtually extinct." 22
The dying out of moral discipline in the stricter sense of a school subject is a
concern of a group of teachers we have studied: Anselm of Liège, Meinhard of
Bamberg, and Goswin of Mainz. Goswin seems to claim the near-extinction of
"discipline" elsewhere in the empire:
There is virtually no one who will either work for the true institutes of a
good life [vera bonae vitae instituta] or reward the one who does as befits,
and for this reason that handful of workers remaining is overcome by
exasperation and resigns from the labor. (XXXII.34.711ff.)
Two letters from Bishop Hezilo of Hildesheim throw some light on the crisis of
"discipline" both at Bamberg and Hildesheim. Some twenty years into his long
period of office (1054-79) Hezilo was forced much against his will to remove a
young man named Kuno from the provostship of St. Moritz of Hildesheim. Kuno
had looked like a perfect choice for the office. He was a relative of Hezilo, and
the bishop had sent him to the school of Bamberg (where he studied with
Meinhard), much the way Meinhard sent his own nephew to another school. A
well-educated relative must have been an ideal candidate for office. But Hezilo
had a particular purpose. Hildesheim needed a warden of discipline, as he
explained later to the Bamberg community:
The moral discipline of my house had either been altogether ignored, or
consigned to a status of neglect. Therefore I was desirous to reform and
revive it with your institutes, and so I appointed this same lord . . . provost
. . . believing him of that odor with which he had been imbued since
boyhood at Bamberg and therefore useful for the good of the brothers and
the education of the cloister.23
Hezilo could not have been more deceived. Kuno lorded it over the brothers with
an intolerable pride and made a comfortable life for himself, enriching himself
with the goods of the church. As soon as he ran into
 

< previous page_224 next page >

page
< previous page_225 next page >
page
Page 225
resistance, he bolted, stealing "piles of riches" from the church and heading for
the royal court, where he did his best to damage his relative and former
benefactor, Bishop Hezilo (cf. epist. 22, ed. Erdmann, p. 53). The incident
resonates with Goswin's complaints: discipline does indeed seem to be
dwindling. The bishop who has been in a position to observe for some twenty
years cannot claim that he inherited a mess from his predecessor (Azelinus, who
imported courtliness; see Chapter 7 above)· Very late in the game, he sets about
to appoint a teacher who will restore the teaching of discipline. But, as Goswin
said, avarice and self-interest are in the saddle. These and not moral discipline
were the forces that moved Provost Kuno. 24
Old Masters Retire
Why did Goswin of Mainz want to retire? He was old and tired enough:
. . . my career has drained my spent energy with the incessant demands of
its labors to the point where hardly any is left, and it has sprinkled my head
with early snow. I fear an untimely death will be the result, unless I retire
betimes into quiet and leisure. (XXXIII.35.730ff.)
But he also feels all but isolated in his efforts and watches as the "handful of
laborers remaining . . . retire" (713-14). He sees the best of his generation going
into early retirement:
With wise contempt many men of distinction and high authority have
observed all these circumstances: Hermann of Rheims, Drogo of Paris,
Huzmann of Speyer, Meinhard of Bamberg and many others. Having
abandoned their ambitions and resigned their labors, they have bid farewell
to studies.25
We may well imagine that the disappointment of these teachers was real, but
their moral disgust at the decline of the good life probably is Goswin's extension
of the real cause: "the collapse of moral discipline" means the fading of a certain
kind of teaching at the schools. It is a school subject, not just a personal
attainment. That subject is passing away as the dominant force in school
curriculum. If humanists in the late twentieth century complained that "humanity
is extinguished," and meant by the phrase that their classes were dwindling, we
would have a comparable situation. Meinhard of Bamberg apparently had
withdrawn from the school by around 1065, the date of Goswin's letter. But he
did not drift off to inactivity. In 1085 he was appointed bishop of Würzburg.
There can be many reasons for his leaving his teaching duties twenty years
earlier, but his own and others' complaints about students running off to new
teachers who do not whip
 

< previous page_225 next page >

< previous page_226 next page >
page
Page 226
them into vessels of perfection is the best attested of those reasons. "Manners"
are fading as a major course of studies at cathedral schools.
Guibert of Nogent
Guibert of Nogent gives a vivid and lively record of the old learning as observed
by a man who has moved on to the intellectual positions of the new. 26
Guibert's teacher, it is true, is as far from Brun of Cologne, Gerbert of Rheims,
or Meinhard of Bamberg as Ichabod Crane is from Leibniz and Gibbon, though
these three may also have made very different use of a common education.
Guibert's teacher had only one subject that he knew and taught with any
competence: manners. That subject at least he had in common with Brun,
Gerbert, and Meinhard.
Here is what Guibert tells us about his learning of manners:
1. His teacher was deficient in letters, having started his study of the subject at a
late age, but what he lacked in letters he made up for in "modesty" and
"propriety" or "moral excellence" (honestum).27
2. His tutor kept a close watch over the "vices which commonly spring up in
youth"28; he spent all his time in the teacher's company, who kept an
unrelenting vigilance on his carriage: "in everything I had to show self-control,
in speech, in the governance of my eyes, in my actions."29 Guibert takes this
rigor to be more monkish than clerical.30
3. His teaching in letters was a waste of time, but the profit in manners was
great:
[in six years of rigorous training] . . . I got no reward worth the time it
took. Yet otherwise, in respect to all that is associated with a foundation in
good conduct,31 he devoted himself completely to my improvement. Most
faithfully and lovingly he instilled in me all that was temperate and modest
and outwardly elegant.32
Guibert, it is clear, was under the tutelage of a teacher of honestas. Assuming
this master to be between 50 and 65 (he was already grandaevus when he began
the study of letters) at the time he taught Guibert (ca. 1070-1076), he would have
received his own education in France ca. 1015-1030. We know that just at this
time a student named Hubert received an education in honestas first at Chartres,
then at Rheims.33 We know also that at the same time Wazo taught both letters
and manners at Liège, but
 

< previous page_226 next page >

< previous page_227 next page >
page
Page 227
favored manners over letters. 34 In other words, Guibert's teacher provided his
pupil with an education that was prominent in the first half of the eleventh
century and may still have been in place at some cathedrals in the twelfth,35 and
what looks to Guibert like a serious pedagogic failureneglect of lettersmight at
least have been tolerated by some teachers. Wazo of Liege would have approved
of the priorities of Guibert's teacher (though no one would have approved of his
total ignorance of letters).
Finally, we know that, for the more intellectually inclined, "elegant but ignorant"
was a reproach that could be hurled at the representatives of the old learning.
Guitmund of Aversa criticized Berengar of Tours as "almost wholly ignorant,"
while affecting "grandeur and distinction" and ''simulating the dignity of a
teacher in his manner rather than by the substance of his teaching."36 Guibert
complains of the obscurity and nebulousness of his teacher's thought (chapter 5,
p. 36), as Abelard complained about the obscure thought and incompetent
philosophizing of the eloquent and elegant Anselm of Laon. Guibert's teacher
was on an uncomfortable footing with the intellect and its tasks, and in this he
embodied what was widely perceived as a weakness of the old learning.
The pedagogue tolerated no contradiction and taught garbled nonsense as
unquestionable truth ("sua omnia sensa autentica aestimans"; "pro certo
docere"chapter 5, p. 36). He knew next to nothing, but he gave his uninformed
utterances the weight of truths. That is, his teaching rested on personal authority,
and no doubt part of the lesson was to accept that authority unquestioningly. The
kinds of objections Guibert raised in his autobiography would undoubtedly have
been seen and treated by his teacher as pernicious violations of the laws of love,
reverence, and piety.
The whipping of Guibert is also approved pedagogy in the old learning. Goswin
of Mainz would not have had a bad word to say about the method in principle,
though one hopes he would not countenance turning students into scapegoats for
incompetent masters. Probably the rule applied: the greater the teacher's
ignorance, the greater the need for the whip (see n. 20 above).
"Love and fear" was another underpinning of the old learning, and whipping
operated at its negative pole. But its positive pole, love, is the dominant in the
relation between Guibert and his teacher. Their relationship starts with a dream
of the master. His dream represents a virtual contract drawn up on the basis of
love: a white-haired old man appears to him leading Guibert by the hand. "Go to
him," the apparition says to Guibert, "for he will love you very much." Guibert
kissed him repeatedly,
 

< previous page_227 next page >

page
< previous page_228 next page >
page
Page 228
and the master "conceived such affection" for the pupil, that he brushed aside all
other considerations and accepted him as his student (chapter 4, p. 28). This
affection sets the tone for their relationship: "Although he crushed me by his
severity . . . he loved me as well as he did himself"; "I conceived much love for
him"; "through a sort of love deeply implanted in my heart, I obeyed him in utter
forgetfulness of his severity." 37 The beatings clearly are presented throughout
as a factor that, dreadful as they were, could not damage so strong an affection.
The teacher's brutality has predominated in the modern view of this
pedagogue,38 but it is balanced and to some degree compensated for in Guibert's
mind by his love.
We know something about the status and previous employment of Guibert's
teacher. He belonged to the class of clerics attached to a noble house, responsible
for the religious life of a court and for the education of the lord's children.
Guibert's mother makes contact with him through some men called "chaplains,"
and it is not unreasonable to assume that he was called by the same title. He was
attached to the house of some of Guibert's relatives (referred to as nobilisp. 28, in
fact a distinguished family, a branch of the lords of Clermont), and "had been
educated at their court" (quorum innutritus curiae).39
This all adds up to a case distinctly classifiable in the categories and terms of
eleventh-century society and school life: a minor cleric who learned manners
without letters in his school daysspent at least in part at a court of high French
nobilityteaches Guibert what he himself has learned: how to behave
circumspectly, "honestly," with prudence, modesty, and "external elegance."
Guibert says his tutelage was more appropriate to a monk, and in severity and
constancy of surveillance40 this may be true. But the values of temperantia,
modestia, honestas, self-control in speech, countenance, and actions, are more at
home in cathedral schools, while exterior elegantia belongs exclusively to a
worldly education. The tutor's instruction relies on love and fear, enforced by
authority.
So what was Guibert's problem? He received a good education from a tough but
loving master of honestas. Why didn't he count his lucky stars and accept
happily training with which Thomas Becket and the favored students of Wazo of
Liege were content? Probably the answer is that Guibert wanted to learn: "I
would rather die than give up the study of letters" ("Si . . . proinde mori
contingeret, non desistam, quin literas discam et clericus fiam!"chapter 6, p. 40).
His famous statement that in his youth there were hardly any "grammarians," and
those there were had but meager learning (scientia), has to be read in this sense.
Scientia is the cutting edge that separated old from new: Guibert sought
knowledge, and the teachers
 
< previous page_229 next page >
page
Page 229
he might have found at Rheims, Chartres or Liège diluted it with ethics, since for
them knowledge was still a colony of honestas.
Guibert also says that the erudition of the teachers in his youth was not
comparable to that of the "wandering scholars of the present day." 41 This
phrase shows that Guibert is measuring the old learning against the standard of
the new. We have learned to evaluate "wandering clerics" from the point of view
of the old (Goswin and Anselm of Liège). For Guibert they have become the
measure of learning.
That does not mean that Guibert was a representative of the new. He is
notoriously difficult to categorize (see Benton's introduction to Self and Society).
In his commentary on Hosea he wrote against new grammarians, who revise the
opinions of God and the fathers (see Benton, Self and Society, p. 20). Still, in his
autobiography, the new learning was the perspective from which he viewed his
own early training.
The conventional reading of Guibert's education has created a misleading picture
of an educational scene in eleventh-century France that was a wasteland in his
youth and a blossoming garden in his maturity. That is true only from the point
of view of the new masters. What was available in Guibert's youth was
instruction in mores and honestas. It was not abundantly available. Guibert's
mother had to lure a dubious candidate away from her own relatives, and she
would presumably have taken an easier route, were such men readily available.
But we should be careful in generalizing from Guibert's autobiography on this
point. Guibert's mother wanted a private tutor, and the one she hired devoted six
years of his life to a single student night and day, weekends and holidays. Such
men are never available in abundance.
Peter Abelard
The opposition to the old learning had its sharpest edge in the teaching and
writing of Peter Abelard. My purpose here is not to describe the thought and
method of Abelard.42 I want to regard Abelard strictly in his relation to the old
learning. The point is to gain a clearer view of that education through the eyes of
a major player in its demise.
Substance Versus Style
Some of Abelard's most penetrating comments on teaching and learning are in
the poem he wrote for his son Astralabe. It is an ambling collection of proverbial
and personal wisdom.43 The first subject it treats is study:
 

< previous page_229 next page >

page
< previous page_230 next page >
page
Page 230
Care not who speaks but what the value of his words are. Things well said
give an author his reputation. Neither put your faith in the words of a
master out of love for him, nor let a learned man hold you in his influence
by his love alone. We are nourished not by the leaves of trees, but by their
fruits. The meaning is to be preferred to the mere words. The rhetoric of
ornate words may capture minds effectively, but true learning prefers plain
speech. A wealth of words conceals a poverty of understanding. If you see
that a man's teaching is inconsistent in itself you may take it that there is
nothing reliable for you in it. 44
With a few strokes of his pen, Abelard here cuts away some of the underlying
principles of the old learning. He rules out eloquence that substitutes for
understanding and rational consistency; he questions first love then authority as
the basis of the student-teacher relationship; and he calls for something
approaching systematic thinking in a teacher (doctrine that is not contradictory).
Some of the basic ideas of this passage recur in Abelard's criticism of the
teaching of Anselm of Laon in the Historia calamitatum:
Anyone who knocked at his door to seek an answer to some question went
away more uncertain than he came. Anselm could win the admiration of an
audience, but he was useless when put to the question. He had a
remarkable command of words but their meaning was worthless and
devoid of all sense. The fire he kindled filled his house with smoke but not
with light; he was a tree in flail leaf which could be seen from afar, but on
closer and more careful inspection proved to be barren. I had come to this
tree to gather fruit, but I found it was the fig tree which the Lord cursed.45
New confronts old here in as sharp an opposition as we could hope for. Anselm
is teaching by eloquence, charisma (he can command admiration) and inertia.
Abelard himself makes sense through plain speech and reasoning that addresses
the understanding more than the emotions. Abelard has genius, Anselm has
slowly acquired polish.46
Authority
Abelard's clash with authority had two phases: his opposition to his early masters
and their advocates, ending at the council of Soissons (1121), and his dash with
the Cistercians, ending at the council of Sens (1140). His account of his conflicts
with William of Champeaux and with his accusers at the council of Soissons also
make it dear that his opponents were dabbling in argumentation, but hoping
reverence would carry the day against the terrors of irreverent students and no-
holds-barred public disputation. But
 

< previous page_230 next page >

< previous page_231 next page >
page
Page 231
Abelard did not spare his opponents; he exercised the lethal weapons of
contradiction, intellectual consistency and plain speech; no mood music rescued
weak positions from attack, and no Orphic strains slowed the charge of the
rhinoceros.
An incident at the council of Soissons can help turn up a basic fallacy of
authority that weakened the old learning and its representatives.
Abelard had written a tract on the Trinity. His students were asking for "human
and logical reasons on this subject." They demanded "something intelligible
rather than mere words," because "nothing could be believed unless it was first
understood" (Historia, trans. Radice, p. 78). Difficult as the questions involved
were, the subtlety of Abelard's answers and proofs is up to the task (Abelard tells
us), and the book became popular. Called to account for his teaching at a church
council arranged by two former students of Anselm of Laon, now masters of the
school of Rheims, he put forward his book and explained his religion in public.
Nothing heretical could be found, and his explanations proved popular. His
enemies were suddenly in trouble; the tide of events threatened to turn against
them. Alberic of Rheims faced him in public and asked him to account for his
claim that God did not beget himself. Abelard was about to explain, when
Alberic interrupted: "'We take no account of human reasoning,' he answered, 'nor
of your interpretation in such matters; we recognize only the words of
authority.'" 47 Abelard immediately locatedin his tracta quotation from
Augustine on the Trinity that fully supported his position. Alberic was taken
aback and stammered something that made no sense but saved face. Abelard
offered to prove to Alberic that Alberic had himself fallen into a dangerous
heresy by claiming that God begets himself.
What was Alberic relying on in facing off with Abelard on a point that had been
addressed and answered satisfactorily in Abelard's own bookthe one at issue?
Hadn't he read the book? He asked for authorities that were there all the time.
Abelard outplayed him on his own grounds. Naturally, Abelard wrote the
scenario for the confrontation, and he cast himself in the role of winner. But even
if his version is badly skewed, it shows us the issues as Abelard conceived them.
Alberic's entire support in that confrontation was the false and wholly irrational
assurance that he would not be contradicted.
In facing a master of rational disputation armed only with that conviction,
Alberic committed a fundamental and representative error for any learning based
on authority: he confused his personal authority with the authority of texts and
ideas. The enthusiastic cry of Sigebert of Gembloux's
 

< previous page_231 next page >

page
< previous page_232 next page >
page
Page 232
St. Maurice, "Who needs examples? You yourselves are the examples" (see
above, p. 189) is good rhetoric but bad logic. The reverence for authority placed
personal and ancient authority on the same plane, and the slippage on this
spectrum always or ordinarily favored the living example. 48 When masters of
the old learning spoke about authority, it was easy for them to fall into the
illusion that it meant whatever they said. Guibert of Nogent's teacher, to take one
example, was the lesson: he had nothing else to teach but himself. Authority is a
comforting voice whispering to the old masters that they do not really have to
make sense and their positions will still prevail. That means, of course, a sloppy
and uncritical habit of mind secured against criticism by loving tyranny. In the
scene cited above, Abe-lard uses authority as an instrument of rational, critical
proof, and all Alberic has is the assertion: I don't care what you say. You're
wrong anyway.
Abelard, on the other hand, appears to have regularly underestimated the power
of irrational authority. It is a martyr-making fallacy whose results probably took
him by surprise. Abelard's fallacy is that nothing can resist the strength of a
powerful idea. The fallacy rests in failing to see that authority, which in its
mythical or hagiographical mode embodies supernatural force, is in its everyday
mode a mask for power. The comparatively harmless whip of the classroom is a
poor relative of torture instruments, the pyre, the stake and the cross. The next
move in the council of Soissons is the assertion of power behind authority. The
council deteriorates into intrigues and ends with Abelard forced to recite the
Athanasian creed and throw his book into the fire.
The development of the Paris schools, the university, and scholastic philosophy
proved Abelard the winner in the long run. Reason and ideas take their time;
they work slowly on the reshaping of consciousness and institutions. Authority is
for the moment. Like so much of the old learning, it was oriented to the body
and to personal presence. It is dramatically successful in controlling the
immediate present, but it extends only as far as it can reach. If truth is the
daughter of time, authority is the daughter of the present moment. Its gains are
dramatic but short-lived, especially when they involve the removal of
uncomfortable human beings like Abelard.
An incident that Bernard of Clairvaux tells in his Life of St. Malachy confirms
this analysis of the role of irrational, personal authority and has a strong
resonance with the events at Soissons. A certain learned cleric doubted the real
presence of God in the sacrament, the story runs. Malachy called a public synod
to debate the question. The cleric defended his viewpoint with great skill and
ingenuity and powerful arguments. But in
 

< previous page_232 next page >

< previous page_233 next page >
page
Page 233
the end Malachy won the debate, and his opponent called foul: "He claimed that
he had not been conquered by reason but pressured by episcopal authority." 49
The cleric continues, "You've confuted me without good reason, speaking
against truths and your conscience. You all curry favor with one man instead of
considering the truth. I shall not accept this person and so desert the truth."50
Bernard is remarkably accurate in formulating the position of the rationalist. He
opposes authority and the person. He claims truth for his own reasoning and sees
it obscured by personal authority: "veritas potius quam homo," to turn around
Bernard's phrase.
This is a generic confrontation. It applies well to the trials of Berengar of Tours,
Abelard at Soissons and Abelard at Sens. It applies generally to the forces of
authority opposing the forces of intellect in the century between Berengar's
emergence and Bernard's death. It shows authority opposing reason and
overwhelming it by no other instrument than authority itself. The story mystifies
authority, making a simple exertion of it appear like the working of a miracle.
The wish dream of an embattled mentality is that its forces will expand magically
to overwhelm the enemy pressing in on it. But the opposite was happening at the
schools. Authority was giving way to reasoned debate. One of the major effects
of Abelard's thought and method was to create a philosophy that removed the
element of personality and personal authority from teaching and thinking.
The Inner and The Outer Man
Abelard's ethical thinking likewise tends to undermine the idea that external
appearance is the guarantor of inner virtue, and that is one of the main pillars of
cultus virtutum.51 He says in the poem to Astralabe, "There is no idea that
learned men accept as a more certain truth than this: external things do not
commend us to God. Your habit may make you proud, but not saintly" (Ad
Astralab., ll. 301-3, p. 123). Virtually every cathedral school master and student
from the late tenth century on would have disagreed. All were at work making
their students and themselves works of art that beam piety, reverence, modesty,
and so on. The suggestion that God is indifferent to posture, gait, gestures,
speech, table manners, and clothing isgiven the presuppositions of cultus
virtutumoutrageous. A number of learned men in Paris contemporary with
Abelard would have disagreed also, and that certainly includes anyone at the
school of St. Victor. Hugh of St. Victor wrote his De institutione novitiorum to
show the way to god "through the discipline of virtue" (PL 176, 926B-C), which
he later defines as
 

< previous page_233 next page >

page
< previous page_234 next page >
page
Page 234
good and proper behavior, to attain which it is not enough just to avoid
evil. It strives also to appear above reproach in all things that it does well.
52
It probably is no coincidence that the discipline described by Hugh of St. Victor
is to a great extent designed by Abelard's former teacher, William of
Champeaux, in fact no doubt just in the early days of St. Victor when Abelard
was still his student. It is not possible that Abelard was ignorant of the fact that a
long tradition of moral discipline depended precisely on making virtue visible in
external things.53 If that discipline was not pleasing to God, then a great many
people were wasting their time.
The thrust of Abelard's ethical thought was to abolish the outer man as the
textbook and artwork of moral training. Defining sin as consent to evil rather
than commission of it makes the obligation to appear irreproachable
superfluous, in fact hypocritical.
The issues are strongly presented in Heloise's second letter to Abe-lard.54 She
paints the picture of herself as an unrepentant sinner, still sighing for the lost
state of sin more than for forgiveness and redemption. But outwardly she seems
penitent and chaste:
Men call me chaste; they do not know the hypocrite I am. They consider
purity of the flesh a virtue, though virtue belongs not to the body but to the
soul. I can win praise in the eyes of men but deserve none before God.55
The times are bad, she continues. There is hardly any religion that is not
hypocrisy. "Whoever does not offend the opinions of men receives the highest
praise" (trans. Radice, p. 133; ed. Muckle, p. 81). She could well cite Hugh of St.
Victor's definition of discipline that insists on "appearing" good, though the
importance of doing good in that definition does not serve Heloise's purpose, and
she says as much:
. . . perhaps there is some merit . . . if a person . . . gives no offence to the
church in his outward behaviour, . . . does not disgrace the order of his
profession amongst the worldly. And this too is a gift of God's grace and
comes through his bounty. (p. 134)
But outward show that receives praise is her object of attack.56 She musters
biblical support and formulates some attacks of her own: "No one with medical
knowledge diagnoses an internal ailment by examining only outward
appearance" (p. 135).
Heloise is the opposite of the virgin Sophia, whom angels envy as a receptacle of
visible virtue. No angels envy the unrepentant sinner Heloise, since her visible
virtue masks her desire for her lover.
< previous page_235 next page >
page
Page 235
Abelard's Morals
This ethic of extreme inwardness that declares outer acts morally indifferent may
be consistent with an ascetic strain in Christian moral thought, 57 but it is also an
ethic of a man (and woman) who have caused scandal, and suffered disgrace and
persecution as a result. It was comforting for Abelard to assure himself that the
outer world was morally indifferent. He transformed himself in the years
between the councils of Soissons and Sens into a kind of martyr figure, suffering
calmly and passively the blows of fortune that were his lot. His wordy defense at
Soissons compared with his Christlike silence nineteen years later at Sens signals
this change.58
But another interesting response to his ethical stumbling is in his own reasoning
about ethics. He shared much in common with St. Augustine. They both
developed the fine and subtle sense of morality and humanity peculiar to the
reformed sinner. There are probably few experiences that sharpen the sense of
right and wrong, justice and injustice, more than guilt and contrition. In this also
he is representative of a strong strain in the culture of the twelfth century. He
shares the sinner's heightened moral-ethical sense also with Hartmann von Aue's
Gregorius and Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival.
Abelard came to the ethics of the old learning by betraying them. The language
of the old learning occurs in the poem to Astralabe, and in all cases it occurs in
the form of self-castigation. He argues against himself and warns against his own
example:
This above all: do no damage to your reputation. Then you can do good to
many others and to yourself. Old sins make new ones plausible, and your
life until now bears witness to your life from now on.59
No man becomes wise by mere sharpness of mind. Character [or good
behavior: mores] and a good life make a man wise. Wisdom professes
itself in actions, not in words, and this gift is conferred only on good
men.60
Be careful first to live the Good and only afterwards to teach it. Otherwise
you will be at odds with yourself.61 It is proper for a just man to . . .
restrain the illicit impulses of a modest mind, especially in the midst of
wealth.62
Examine prudently what the nature of vice and of virtue is, and if you lose
that knowledge, you cease to be what you are.63
Strive with all your might to avoid scandals in the eyes of men, then you
will incur no scandals in the eyes of God.64
At St. Victor and other surviving bastions of the old learning, they would have
 found little to quarrel with in the rudimentary common sense of these precepts.
In fact one might almost imagine Abelard formulating lessons
 

< previous page_235 next page >

page
< previous page_236 next page >
page
Page 236
that Hugh of St. Victor had directed against him in the 1120s: "Unpraiseworthy
is learning stained by a shameless life. Therefore let him who would seek
learning above all take care not to neglect discipline." 65 But Abelard was an
ethical thinker, not a pious moralizer. He made allowances for the man of talent
that Hugh of St. Victor did not:
Do not fault a man's skills because of his failings: Many a bad man is a
good artist.66
Abelard forced a wedge between letters and philosophy on the one side and
manners on the other. In his thought philosophy emancipated itself from its
attachment to good behavior. The brilliance of his teaching and writing and the
strength of his personal and intellectual charisma stood in sharp contrast to the
scandals he caused and suffered.
***
There is a profound connection between Abelard's life and the general tendencies
in the schools of the time. An entire system of education was caught in a conflict
between a traditional kind of teaching that tended toward the acquisition of
human qualities and a new kind that tended toward knowledge and rational
inquiry. The representatives of the old warned that morals were going to the
devil67 and being replaced by irreverent caviling; representatives of the new
scorned the elegant mediocrity of the old masters, and wrangled for the
understanding that reverence had denied them. The clash between Abelard and
Anselm of Laon exemplifies these tendencies strikingly. It is as if whatever
forces of history shaped the general conflict designed Abelard and Anselm to
embody it: they brewed the intellect and character of Anselm with an
overbalance in favor of mores and eloquence (the products of the old learning),
and then, like chemists performing an experiment, exactly reversed the
proportions in brewing Abelard. Anselm and the type he represented may have
lacked penetration and analytical sharpness, but they were masters of the
discipline of living well. Abelard may have known a great deal and possessed a
keenly analytical mind, but he was a failure at the discipline of life.68
 

< previous page_236 next page >

page
< previous page_237 next page >
page
Page 237

PART THREE
THE TWELFTH CENTURY: SEEKING NEW HOMES
 

< previous page_237 next page >

page
< previous page_239 next page >
page
Page 239

Introduction to Part 3
Peter Abelard drew crowds. His friends and enemies alike agree on that:
What king or philosopher could match your fame? What district, town or
village did not long to see you? When you appeared in public, who did not
hurry to catch a glimpse of you, or crane his neck and strain his eyes to
follow your departure? 1
Otto of Freising says that Abelard drew a ''great crowd of followers" wherever he
went.2 This charismatic quality was one of the things that made him appear
dangerous to William of St. Thierry and Bernard of Clairvaux. Bernard wrote to
Cardinal Guido di Castello: "He comes forward not by himself, like Moses, to
the cloud hiding God, but with a great throng and with his disciples."3 Where he
could not go, his writings did: "His books fly everywhere. . . . In castles and
towns they replace light with darkness. . . . They pass from one race to another,
and from one kingdom to another"4; "His books cross the oceans, they leap over
the Alps . . . they spread through the provinces and the kingdoms, they are
preached as famous works."5 One of his epitaphs calls him "the light of the
student throng."6 It was no doubt partly due to his influence that the student
population of Paris swelled from whatever the cathedral of Notre Dame could
accommodate by itself in 1100 (certainly not more than about 100 students) to
2000-3000 by 1140.7
While these crowds ran after Abelard, the old fashioned humanistic masters
languished. A strain of stoic resolve on the part of the student-less teacher runs
through the work Philosophia mundi of William of Conches. He says that he
cares not for the multitude, but only for the probity and love of truth of the few.8
He says that the true teacher teaches from love of learning, not from an urge for
popularity, and that he continues his work "even when the crowd of followers
fails him."9 No-one was saying about William of Conches what the author of the
"Metamorphosis Goliae" said about the major philosophers of mid-century: "et
professi plurimi sunt Abaielardum" ("many of them are professed followers of
Abelard")10
 

< previous page_239 next page >

page
< previous page_240 next page >
page
Page 240
Manegold of Lautenbach in the previous century could have been writing for
William of Conches when he said in his Glosses on Cicero's De inventione: "The
dignity of a few good men excels by far the boundless multitude of the bad." 11
"A few good men" were always enough for the old learning. It was elitist and
exclusive, and elitism maintains itself in part by gestures of exclusion. But the
rush of the throng to other classrooms wounds even the firmest pride of the
elitist teacher. William of Conches's expansive attitude was surely a face-saving
accommodation to a crisis, not a confident posture of exclusion broadly available
to well-situated humanist masters. John of Salisbury tells us that William
"retired" along with his (John's) other teacher, Robert the Bishop, ''when the
onslaught of the ignorant crowd conquered" them.12 The wording is unclear, but
it certainly does not mean that they were "overwhelmed" by crowds of the
ignorant seeking their instruction. More likely the crowds were running past and
away from their schools and to teachers who promised greater success with
shorter terms of study.13
Not all teachers of humanistic subjects lost their students. Bernard of Chartres
maintained a high standing, and Thierry of Chartres was a famous teacher, called
by one of his students, "the anchor immovably fixed during these changing times
of fluctuating studies."14 But the handwriting is on the wall and its message is
clear.
What happened to mores as a school discipline in the flux of studies in the early
twelfth century? That is the subject of the next chapters. But we need to observe
at the outset that in the burgeoning French cathedral schools and the independent
schools of Paris mores is nowhere in evidence as a discipline in the sense in
which it appeared in the late tenth and eleventh centuries. We cannot do for
twelfth-century France what we did for eleventh-century Germany and France:
give an inventory of references to the teaching and learning of moral discipline at
the cathedral schools. No masters lament the time they spend teaching mores, as
Meinhard had done; no studentsor feware mentioned as seeking out the cathedral
schools of France causa discendae honestatis, as the pupil of Fulbert of Chartres
had done15; no masters are praised for favoring the teaching of mores over that
of letters, as was Wazo of Liège. The schools of Germany, however, appear to
have hung on to this discipline as handed down from the imperial cathedral
schools of the pre-investiture controversy period. Wibald of Stablo at least still
speaks the language of the old learning in urging Balderich, a schoolmaster of
Trier, around mid-century,
 

< previous page_240 next page >

page
< previous page_241 next page >
page
Page 241
Let your mere presence be a course of studies for your students. . . . Your
position requires more than mere teaching. You must exercise strict
severity, for you are, as you know, also one who supervises the correction
of manners. This teaching and this exercise is more subtle and in its fruits
more important than any other. 16
For the dialecticians of Paris, the entire plan of studies Wibald commends, but
especially the suggestion that the correction of conduct is the "subtlest" of the
arts, could have stirred only a snicker at such an impossibly backwoods attitude,
one that would have been laughed out of the Paris schools.17
The Paris schools had released themselves from their tie to the bishop's court. It
was possible to set up independent schools in which a single master could
accommodate large numbers of students.18 These circumstances made discipline
as the elementary introduction to studies impossible in the old form.
Crowds of dialecticians: the nightmare of Goswin of Mainz. It meant that ideals
like suave and gentle manners, loving correction, an aura of benign kindness
spreading over the whole school and fusing its members into a brotherhood of
love, were a thing of the past. In the catalogue of masters of the "Metamorphosis
Goliae" (ca. 1142), a very different view of teachers emerges:
There can be seen that doctor of Chartres whose sharp tongue cuts like a
sword. Here also stands that prelate of prelates of Poitiers, the true knight
and soldier of the wedding couple.
Among these and others . . . the resident of the Petit Pont . . . disputed with
i-shaped fingers.
Reginald the monk contended clamorously and with insinuating words
rebuked many a contender. No man of self-examination, he refutes this one
and that one, suspending our Porphyry himself in his snare.19
The days of loving and emotional colloquies in cloister gardens between a
revered master and a handful of socially and intellectually elite disciples were
past, and in their place was an atmosphere of strident contention idealized and
described in the language of military combat.20
There is another body of texts from and around the school milieu: criticism
directed by virtually every group of learned society against the new schools.
Stephen Ferruolo has studied these critics, and argues that they
 

< previous page_241 next page >

page
< previous page_242 next page >
page
Page 242
pointed to problems and conditions to which the new institution of the university
was the answer. 21 A leitmotif of many of the texts Ferruolo treats is the
collapse of moral discipline at the schools. The previous chapters suggest that
such criticism had a distinct historical context. It may well have been more than
topos-like calls for the restoration of a golden age. Their authors probably
recalled a day when moral discipline had dominated the schools.
Something called disciplina had to exist at a bishop's household and had to be
taught to new members of the community. Bernard of Clairvaux set out this
obligation in the language of ethical training in his De consideratione. He paints
the picture of a pope's or bishop's household dominated by the virtue of
honestas: the bishop himself must provide for disciplina. Moderation should
guide him between the extremes of austerity and frivolity, cruelty and laxness:
"Sanctity befits the house of a bishop [Ps. 92: 5], as do moderation and ethical
conduct [honestas]; discipline is their guardian." He must be strict in disciplining
the servants of the household:
Allow nothing disgraceful, nothing improper to remain in the appearance
of those who are around you, or in their deportment of their carriage ["In
vultu, in habitu, in incessu . . . nihil impudicum . . . indecens patiaris"]. Let
your fellow bishops learn from you not to have boys with luxuriously
curled hair and foppish young men in their retinue.22
He should preside with gravity but not austerity, moderation being the guide. His
servants should love him, and while he keeps a close guard on his own speech,
he should not exclude "gracious affability" (affabilitatis gratia). He should be
"serene in appearance and guarded in speech." In general, the bishop's own
example must provide the model for the entire household.23
Little has changed, it would seem, in the ideals of administration of a bishop's
household. We hear themes and motifs that were commonplace in the cathedrals
of the eleventh century.24 But the discipline at the schools of cathedrals has no
profile any longer in the twelfth century. Probably as a practiced discipline in
cathedral communities, it has been lowered from the status of the chief goal of
the school to a household discipline.
An odd situation: The language of ethica, its image of the ideal human being, is
present at the cathedrals of the twelfth century. But it has shifted its context
subtly. The medium is different. Lived ideals have been transformed into
discourse; the language of school discipline becomes the language of humanistic
poetry and philosophy. Gradually in the course of the century
 

< previous page_242 next page >

page
< previous page_243 next page >
page
Page 243
noble society generally begins to speak this language: it emerges in monastic
communities, in communities of canons regular, and especially at worldly courts
both in Latin and the vernacular. It is taken up into writings instructing in court
behavior, the training of noble children, the "honest" pursuit of courtly love. It
influences the iconography of the vices and virtues in Gothic sculpture.
The pressure exerted by the new trends on mores and ethica at the cathedral
schools pressed and compressed this malleable subject so that it disappeared
from the surface of instruction. But it leaked, seeped out at every edge, and
spilled out into other areas. It was fragile as pedagogy but durable as an ideal of
human perfection. The old learning had formulated a marvelous image of the
human being as a work of art, an exquisite sculpture and a "vessel of perfection"
turned on the artist's wheel: gentle, modest, affable, controlled, charming, and
graceful. And while the teaching that had developed at cathedrals in the tenth
and eleventh centuries no longer is visible in the new schools of the twelfth, its
contents gain a life of their own and are transformed into widely shared social
ideals and literary models.
This section observes that process of transformation, and we begin with a
community that offers the best documentation in medieval Europe on the
disciplina morum and its training. The school of St. Victor at Paris not only
retained the pedagogic practice of the eleventh-century schools in the training of
novices, it also recorded it in detail.
 

< previous page_243 next page >

page
< previous page_244 next page >
page
Page 244

9.
Humanism and Ethics at the School of St. Victor
William of Champeaux taught dialectic at the school of Notre Dame in Paris.
Abelard calls him the "supreme master" of this art, which "had long been
particularly flourishing." 1 Abelard may exaggerate both of these statements to
give highlight to his victory in the conflict that developed between the two. He
joined William's class and successfully challenged some of his arguments, an
event that evidently shook the master's authority as a teacher of dialectic. A
typical constellation ended in this case untypically: the master left the school of
which he had been head, and the irreverent student stayed and eventually took
over his position.
Whatever his motives,2 William of Champeaux "retired" in 1108 to an
abandoned hermitage on the south side of the Seine just outside of the city walls
of Paris and founded there a community of canons regular dedicated to St.
Victor. He continued to teach in the new community, which grew into one of the
most illustrious schools of the twelfth century, and this, according to Abelard,
irritated many people and cast doubt on the sincerity of his conversion.3
Schola virtutum: Venustas morum as Curriculum
What did he teach there? We know from Abelard that he taught rhetoric, since he
himself studied the subject with William at the new school. It was here that
Abelard dealt him his final defeat on the question of universals.4 Another
witness to William's teaching is a student from Bamberg who studied with him in
the early years of St. Victor. The student wrote a letter to his prior in Germany
basically asking for money, but also praising master William who "gave up all
his possessions to live in some miserable little church to serve only God. There
he showed himself kind and devoted to all who came to him, and he received
them gratis.,' The master's words, he says, were
 

< previous page_244 next page >

page
< previous page_245 next page >
page
Page 245
so sweet that he seemed more like an angel than a man. The student seeks bonum
sapientiae and scientia cum caritate from William. His doctrina et studium erase
vice, inculcate virtue, and arm the mind against the attacks of this life. 5 The
pious stance is somewhat suspect, since the writer has a financial incentive for
putting the best face on his studies. But the array of offeringseloquence and
virtueis a framework with which we are familiar.
More illuminating is a letter William received from Hildebert of Lavardin shortly
after his retirement to St. Victor. This letter helps us deal with the question of
what William taught at St. Victor. The occasion of writing is to oppose the
voices criticizing William for his continued teaching activity and to encourage
him to persist. It begins:
My soul rejoices and exults in your conduct and conversion [de
conversatione et conversione], giving thanks for these acts of grace to Him
from whose gift you have at long last decided to begin philosophy. For
what you have done until now did not savor of philosophy. You merely
gathered knowledge from philosophers; you did not bring forth in yourself
beauty of conduct [morum venustatem]. But now you begin to draw out
from it [ex ea, i.e., beauty of manners] the pattern of good behavior [bene
agendi formula] like honey from the comb.6
The philosophy abandoned is an ungenuine one, mere acquired knowledge; the
philosophy embraced is pressed out of the very self, like honey from the comb,
and is called "beauty of manners." This change occurs, Hildebert says, because
William has subjected himself to a new rule of the religious life, which makes
him into a true philosopher. Against the advice of those who urge William to
give up teaching, Hildebert says, "Virtue is to administer the material of virtue,
even to one who will not put it to good use" (142B).
The point is clear: he now has a new curriculum to administer, virtus and morum
venustas. Its content (bene agendi formula7) is the honey that flows from the
comb of beauty of manners. The letter is not an admonition to continue the
teachings of the schools, but to administer the rule of a new life, and the "new"
philosophy he urges him to teach is conduct. Hence his rejoicing both at his
conduct and conversion (conversatio et conversio).
It is fairly clear that William of Champeaux has retreated from new learning
back into the old. "Philosophy" regains its ancient and early medieval meaning of
bene vivendi disciplina, and some of the goals of ethica are represented in his
new curriculum: morum venustas and bene agendi formula.
 

< previous page_245 next page >

page
< previous page_246 next page >
page
Page 246
This testimony to the "philosophy" of behavior at St. Victor is not isolated. One
of the few witnesses to the teaching of Hugh of St. Victor is his student,
Lawrence of Westminster, who confirms the prominence of ethical discipline.
The student tells what drew him to the master:
With all possible despatch I chose that excellent and unique doctor, and I
embraced his teaching with supreme diligence, since the moral excellence
of his life [vitae honestas] decorates his learning, and the saintliness of this
teacher illuminates his polished doctrine with beauty of manners [morum
venustate] . 8
Godfrey of St. Victor entered the community around 1155 or 1160, after
completing ten years of study in liberal arts and sacred letters, and he explained
its attractions in his quasi-biographical poem, Fons philosophiae. The life of
canons regular drew him because it is a "faultless" norm learned from the "great
examples" of the fathers. They are men "instructed in the salutary ways of the
sacred rule, equal in manner of living, dressing, eating and gesturing" (Vita,
votis, habitu, victu, gestu pares). The ''master's elegance, the assessor's probity,
the minister's skill" drew him. The "mere appearance of things" (ipsa rerum
facie[s]) compels him to sit at the master's feet. After his entrance, he studied
ethica and theology. Ethics removed all childish emotions and impulses (pueriles
motus) from his mind and at the same time bathed him in "miraculous
newness."9 He learned to govern his tongue. Finally his mind was strengthened
and his vagrant body restrained to a fixed measure (figitur ut meta).10
These witnesses confirm that something called venustas morum was prominent
among the subjects that drew students to St. Victor, and Hildebert's letter
strongly suggests that this was the curriculum instituted originally by William of
Champeaux. It had powerful attractions, even for men like Godfrey and
Lawrence of Westminster, who had received an education in the arts elsewhere
prior to entering St. Victor.
We should stress that William of Champeaux's foundation was different from the
provincial communities of canons regular. It was an urban community, or at least
sub-urban. It attracted many noble clerics of high learning.11 It enjoyed royal
patronage.12 A visit from the king was as much to be reckoned with as a visit
from the local bishop, and the Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris makes provisions for
receiving him.13 It had excellent connections at the highest levels of church and
state administration.14 Its school was open to outsiders until approximately the
death of Hugh of St. Victor in 1141,15 and its traditions of ethical training
persisted at least until the death of Richard of St. Victor in 1173. According to
Jean Châtillon's
 

< previous page_246 next page >

< previous page_247 next page >
page
Page 247
formula that the more communities of canons tend to the monastic life, the more
their schools disappear, 16 the life of St. Victor prior to Hugh's death was non-
monastic, open to the exciting atmosphere of ideas in the other schools of Paris,
though in regard to method, intellectual orientation and ethical training,
conservative. Dialectic and disputation never found a home
The Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris and Other Rules
Important as ethical training was at cathedral schools of the eleventh century,
there are no primary texts describing it. We have no customary or tract setting
forth goals and methods. We have relied on peripheral evidence, and the result is
that some of the basic questions remain unanswered: how long did this training
take? At what age did it begin? How was it carried out in practice?
The houses of canons regular that burgeoned after the end of the eleventh
century did produce texts on the training of novices.17 These communities based
the instruction of novices on spiritual formation according to several documents
that went under the name "Rule of St. Augustine,"18 according to Carolingian
customs formulated in the Regula canonicorum of Aix from 816, and according
to customs formulated individually by communities for their own use, often
leaning on the previously mentioned documents and the Rule of St. Benedict.
The command of St. Augustine that each canon should make himself an example
for all others to imitate translated into formal arrangements and an ethos of life
in which virtually the entire house could regard itself as a school.19 The duty of
teaching through example was for canons regular what pastoral duties were for
secular clergy. It also distinguished them from monastic communities, where
teaching and learning had a very different status and could not be regarded as an
entirely legitimate activity of monks.20
These communities produced two kinds of documents that are evidence for
training in mores: the consuetudines of the house,21 which ordinarily include
detailed prescriptions for receiving, initiating and instructing novices; and tracts
that reflect on the nature and goals of the training of novices.22 The earliest of
these is Hugh of St. Victors De institutione novitiorum written probably in the
earlier twenties of the twelfth century.23
St. Victor has left the best documentation on ethical training from the period.
The combination of its richly detailed customary, the Liber ordinis
 

< previous page_247 next page >

page
< previous page_248 next page >
page
Page 248
Sancti Victoris 24 and Hugh's De institutione novitiorum gives us a uniquely
clear picture of this instruction from the early twelfth century. Reading these
works along with other tracts and letters from St. Victor shows us the life and
teaching in that community united by a common core of ethical thought and a
common ethical motive.25 It also helps fill out an important aspect of the
humanism of Hugh of St. Victor, easily overlooked, since it stands in the shadow
of his major work on liberal studies, the Didascalicon.26
The Liber was written around 1116 by Gilduin, William's disciple and first abbot
of St. Victor, probably with help from other members of the community.27 It is
longer and more detailed than any other customary known to me. Virtually every
moment in the daily round is densely circumscribed by rules: rising, eating,
communicating through signs, going to the choir, performing the liturgy,
reading, going to bed. The rules are reinforced by a set of officers assigned for
that purpose.
This closely examined life has a distinct style and flavor.
God's Mercy and Your Society: Receiving Novices
The reception and instruction of novices requires "the maximum of care and
affection."28 The house did not accept oblates. The minimum age was 15, and
the rules for accepting novices generally are aimed at mature men (cf. 22, 7-94;
97-100; Godfrey of St. Victor had studied the arts for ten years before entering).
All who are to be accepted should demonstrate "good manners" (boni mores),
especially "gentleness, willingness to learn and patience with correction" (22, 16-
19, 97). Once a brother is accepted, his perseverance and the sincerity, of his
profession tested, he is led by the hospitarius to the abbot in the chapter, at
whose feet he prostrates himself and seeks indulgence. "What is your request,
brother;' asks the abbot. "I seek God's mercy and your society.'' The abbot
responds, "May the lord grant you the society of his elect" (22, 95-107; 101).
When the first rituals of acceptance are performed, the novice is given into the
charge of the magister novitiorum, who provides new clothing and a place for
him in the dormitory. Once shaved and dressed, he is led by the master to the
scola, where the novices are taught. During his novitiate, he leaves the school
only to eat and sleep. His first instruction is in the immediate necessities of the
community life. This primary instruction is described into the minutest details:
where he is to stand, where to sit, where to keep silent; the master leads him to
the washroom having "diligently instructed him in the things to be done there"
(22, 162-63; 103). A novice goes nowhere without his master: ". . . the master is
always present with
 

< previous page_248 next page >

< previous page_249 next page >
page
Page 249
them to keep watch over their discipline, to lead them to and from wherever
necessity takes them" (22, 275 76; 108). The relationship of master to student is
extraordinarily close: "His master must tend to him with the utmost diligence,
giving him consolation in sickness and teaching and instruction in health" (22,
280-82; 108). In the school, the master
instructs him diligently in the bows, in walking and standing, in his every
gesture, how he should array his clothing in accordance with the particular
act he is performing, how to compose his members in an ordinate way,
keep his eyes lowered, speak gently and not too fast, swear no oaths . . .
how to speak to the abbot or to his other masters, to the brother, to
inferiors. 29
He is to learn his actions and his speech by hearing and observing the master,
who both speaks and acts in the appropriate way and then has the novice repeat
and re-perform. Behavior is rehearsed, in other words, like movement, gestures,
and speeches in a drama. The goal is to learn, by hearing and by practice, the
"good measure and appropriate moderation in all words and acts" (bonum
modum et competentem mensuram in omnibus verbis et actionibus22, 245; 107).
This sense of rehearsing life before living it clearly looms large in this
community:
all things which he is to do in public he should first try out in advance in
private and thus familiarize himself with them. (22, 247-48)
This kind of intensive teaching and custody continues for a month. At the abbot's
discretion the novice is then admitted to the chapter. After full admission to the
chapter, the novice remains in the custody of the master, but it is relaxed. The
master speaks with him regularly, attends to his needs, corrects and encourages
him; he "observes his daily behavior and his study," correcting and instructing
him privately (23, 2-7; 111). Whenever speech is permitted, the novice must be
in the master's presence, who maintains the same close scrutiny of his ward's
speech as in his first month.
This second stage continues also about a month, though the prohibition of
speaking except in the presence of the master continues up to a year.
The Liber does not specify the time the novice spends between admission to the
house and his profession, which makes him a full member of the chapter. In
other houses, the novitiate lasts approximately one year, and there is no reason to
assume it was less at St. Victor.30
This rule gives us, for the first time in this study, a clear look at disciplina as it
was taught. The context is a community of canons regular,
 
< previous page_250 next page >
page
Page 250
and this distinguishes it from cathedral communities. Reading, writing, and
learning in the sense in which Hugh of St. Victor describes it in the Didascalicon
is never mentioned. The Liber is about behavior appropriate to communal
activities, including the liturgy. I stress that the Liber is written out of this
narrower perspective of the needs of the community. The broader implications of
this training for general education of the Victorines will be clearer when we read
Hugh's De institutione novitiorum. of the next section.
The School
The apparatus of instruction as laid out in the Liber clearly is considerable. The
task of the magister novitiorum is arduous and demanding. The concern with
custody and surveillance is all the more striking since the novices were in no
small part mature men. The previous life is being sluffed off, and the creation of
a new man requires constant vigilance from the master. But at the same time it is
important to note that this watchful guard set on behavior never ends.
Surveillance and correction arc specified as duties of several of the officers. 31
Besides the magister novitiorum, the Liber also mentions a magister
puerorum.32 But while rigorous discipline was obligatory for novices, ordinary
school learning was not. Literacy played no part in the early training.33
Otherwise information about masters and pupils is scarce in the Liber.34 Clearly
learning from books and teachers went on, abundantly. But when the Liber
ordinis mentions the school, it is the schola novitiorum, and the only instruction
is in ethica.
The customary does convey the impression that reading is a frequent activity. It
devotes a long chapter to describing the duties of the librarian (armarius),35 and
refers to reading and books throughout. The librarian must receive a pledge for
every book lent, especially if the borrower is a stranger (19, 14; 79). This shows
that the school was not restricted to the Victorine community (see above, p. 246
and note 15). The librarian provides writing material to anyone who needs to
write (19; 79-80). The only function of the library deducible from the Liber is
religious and liturgical. The only kinds of books mentioned are "maiores
expositores et passionarii et vitae patrum et omeliarii" (19, 86-87; 82), but the
same passage refers to "others."
Silent hours are to be spent in reading or singing, the two activities separated so
as not to disturb the readers. The chapter dealing with silence (31) is in large part
devoted to instructions for getting and taking care of books.
 

< previous page_250 next page >

page
< previous page_251 next page >
page
Page 251
Caritas Et Humanitas: Victorine Courtesy
The Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris has a distinctive character compared with other
works of the genre. Its recent editor, Ludo Milis, characterizes the Victorines, as
they represent themselves in the Liber, as "plus originaux dans la formation de
leur genre de vie, plus courtois (même au sens littéral du mot) et plus urbains"
(Liber, avant propos, p. vi). To my mind this observation touches one of the
essential distinguishing features of this customary and the life it describes. What
follows in this section are a few footnotes on it. The qualities Milis describes are
evident in every chapter of the Liber. I believe William of Champeaux, Hildebert
of Lavardin, Hugh of St. Victor, and many others would have called them
venustas morum.
Virtually every act respecting another brother is to be performed "gently, affably,
considerately" (benigne, affabiliter). 36 These qualities are most evident in the
reception and treatment of guests.
The court yard gatekeeper (Portarius curiae) is the first to welcome arrivals. He
must be
a man of proven character, affable and kind-hearted, instructed in the
discipline of manners and speech, who can serve as an example to all and
embody the reputation of the entire house.37
Someone who troubles arriving guests with questions and delays is not suited,
particularly if his rejoinders are abrasive or wounding. If he turns people away
for any reason, he must beg their pardon humbly and explain himself, "lest they
be hurt by his repulse" (ne aliquatenus de repulsa sua perturbentur). Guests
arriving for the first time must be met cure magna benignitate et humanitate. If
they arrive on horseback the porter should approach the one he takes to be the
superior and with a smiling face (hilari vultu) receive his reins and stirrup and
say, "May our lords be welcome" (cf. 15; 55-57). The authors of courtly
romances were to depict welcoming scenes with manners, gestures, and emotions
close to those represented in the Liber. Here is the reception of the knight
Calogrenanz at an unknown castle in Chrétien de Troyes' gvain:
I saw the master of the castle with a moulted falcon upon his wrist. No
sooner had I saluted him than he came forward to hold my stirrup and
invited me to dismount. . . . Then he told me more than a hundred times at
once that blessed was the road by which I had come thither.38
There is a strong strain of courtesy and humanity in the Benedictine Rule and the
traditions it founded. A look at the welcoming ceremony in
 

< previous page_251 next page >

< previous page_252 next page >
page
Page 252
other rules and customaries gives the Victorine ritual sharper profile. The
Benedictine Rule also calls for a humane and compassionate reception of guests.
39 The virtue of caritas is also invoked, but the mood and gestures are different.
The ritual in the Rule has a liturgical cast. It prescribes that every guest be
received as if he were Christ. The priors or the brothers welcome him cum omni
officio caritatis. The welcomers and the newcomers then pray together. They
show their humility either by bowing their heads or by lying prone before the
guest. (Ben. Reg., 53).40
Interesting is the proximity of the Victorine customs to the influential
constitutions of Marbach,41 which stipulate,
The brother who serves guests should be sweet, kind, humane and discreet.
. . . Above all however, his inward feelings should be outwardly visible, a
good and generous will, a happy and handsome face, a lovely and honest
affability. He should take in wanderers and strangers even more humanely
and joyfully than his parents and acquaintances, since in them more than
others he receives Christ.42
These comparisons give us a clear focus on the peculiar character of the
Victorine ritual. The injunctions not to offend the feelings of guests, to receive
them hilari vultu, with great kindness, charity and humanity, and to represent in
their bearing inner virtues are best described with the terms Milis uses, "courtly
and urbane." The Victorine prescripts provide a little mirror of courtly ritual.43
The moment of reception, the mood of good humor and humane kindness, the
Liber explains, is especially important for reasons other than external etiquette:
We enjoin that all these things [the welcoming ritual] should be
scrupulously carried out, because those who come from outside are
especially to be received with great kindness and humanity from the first
moment of reception . . . so that from their first impressions of the outside
they form an estimate of the things concealed within.44
This comment strikes a rich chord. It recalls Godfrey of St. Victor's first
impression of the community: "The very appearance of things compelled me to
sit at the master's feet" ("Ipsa rerum facie cogor assidere"Fonsphil., l. 761). We
will encounter the idea in Hugh's De institutione in the context of ethical
training.
This ideal of putting that face on things which best registers the inner life of the
house is embodied also in the hospitarius. He is to be a man
 

< previous page_252 next page >

page
< previous page_253 next page >
page
Page 253
"educated in manners and discipline" who knows how to treat arrivals "as
religion and good behavior require" (religio et honestas17, 1-5; 59-60). Guests
arriving at mealtime are to be treated largiori humanitate (17, 118; 64). The
hospitaler should be present when anyone is sick and attend to their needs cum
omni humanitate et caritate (17, 177-78; 66-67). Finally, the obligations of the
hospitaler extend to all servants of the community, where guests are concerned:
they should show them a cheerful and kind face (hilarem ac benignam faciem
ostendant), do nothing to them or their servants that in any way violates
discipline, and if injured by them, bear it humbly and patiently (17, 197-205; 67-
68).
The courtesy of St. Victor must have been some of the honey pressed from
venustas morum. It was clearly part of the discipline of novices, and of the
communal life which that discipline prepared for. But it served the interests of
the house as well. It made it attractive to converts. Just as the monastic
communities put the cult of friendship to practical use in recruitment, 45 St.
Victor beckoned to those outside with the attractions of its courteous and affable
society. Odo of St. Victor wrote a letter to a brother living outside the
community, recalling him to the cordiality of their society, their dulce
consortium and dulce colloquium, and commending his brothers as
amiable as company and useful as models to imitate. They are amiable
company not only for the sanctity of their lives, but also for the suaveness
of their manners.46
The teaching of mores at St. Victor had another use. It was seen as a means of
promotion in the church. Elegantia morum, venustas morum, the result of a
discipline in ethica, were not only private virtues; they were also qualifications
for church office; they were among the constituents of idoneitas.47 The letter of
Richard of St. Victor to Robert of Melun congratulating him on his promotion to
Bishop of Hereford gives an interesting insight into Victorine attitudes on the
subject. Robert had taught briefly at St. Victor before his election. Richard
writes,
. . . all your students were filled with joyful hope [at the news of your
promotion] and the entire school was heartened and roused to the love of
letters and the cultivation of virtue [ad cultum virtutis] through the
example of your efforts and your success.48
Joined to the study of letters, disciplina and cultus virtutis were not entirely
disinterested personal ethical formation, not a kind of aesthetic-spiritual
 

< previous page_253 next page >

page
< previous page_254 next page >
page
Page 254
self-perfecting, but rather also a study that shaped men for the service of church
and state. 49
Hugh of St. Victor
Hugh of St. Victor is a truly universal scholar and teacher. His admonition to
young scholars to learn everything and disdain no knowledge (Didascalicon,
3.13) is a reflection of his own universalism, and this in turn has a basis in his
ethical thinking and that of his school. This is clear in a remarkable passage at
the beginning of the Didascalicon:
Wisdom illuminates man so that he may recognize himself. . . . It is written
on the tripod of Apollo: gnothi seauton, that is "Know thyself." . . . An
opinion approved among philosophers maintains that the soul is put
together out of all the parts of nature . . . thus it is that one and the same
mind, having the capacity for all things, is fitted together out of every
substance and nature by the fact that it represents within itself their imaged
likeness . . . the rational soul could by no means comprehend all things
unless it were also composed of all of them. . . . This then is that dignity of
our nature which all naturally possess in equal measure.50
It looks forward to similar pronouncements on human dignity and universality in
the Italian Renaissance, notably by Pico della Mirandola in his "Oration on the
Dignity of Man." For both the medieval and the Renaissance humanist there is a
cognitive and an ethical aspect to universal man. For Hugh this comprehensive
nature of the human mind is the image of God in man. But man has lost or
darkened it through sensuality and sense impressions, and there are two ways to
restore it:
Now there are two things which restore the divine likeness in man, namely
the contemplation of truth and the practice of virtue.51
In his major treatise on the sacraments, Hugh distinguished the two phases of
God's image within (imago and similitudo) by assigning one to knowledge and
one to ethics.52 Here we have learning and manners (Hugh's conception is too
broad to be encompassed by the old formula, "letters and manners") integrated
into theology, the three of them forming a grand program of attaining man's
dignity in earthly life.
De Institutione Novitiorum
Hugh's major work on the cultivation of virtue is his De institutione novitiorum.
This is one of his most popular works53 and one of his oddest. It is a
 

< previous page_254 next page >

< previous page_255 next page >
page
Page 255
tract of spiritual instruction, but it lacks the gravity, coherence, and systematic
conception of other representatives of the genre (like Hrabanus Maurus's De
institutione clericorum or Philip of Harvengt's work of the same title). Regarded
alongside comparable works, it appears positively eccentric. It reads like a first
draft. The organizing principle is a quotation from Psalm 118: 66 (AV 119: 66):
"Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge" ("Bonitatem et disciplinam
et scientiam doce me"). But the work is exclusively about disciplina. He treats
scientia briefly, essentially as a category of ethical learning, 54 and polishes off
bonitas with almost jocular brevity in the final line of the work: "We have said
these few things to you, brothers, concerning learning and discipline. As for
goodness, pray that God give it to you" (952B). From beginning to end the work
is about how to behave and how to learn good behavior.55 Typical of the work's
priorities is that the chapter on gesturing takes up six full columns in the
Patrologia edition (938A-943D), while the chapter on sacred scripture takes up
nineteen lines, barely half a column (933D-34A).
The work's religious intent deserves a more critical analysis than it has received.
The editors of the Patrologia edition placed it among Hugh's mystical works.
While this is not the place to treat the question in detail, an example or two can
characterize the problem. The purpose of the work as stated in the prologue is to
show the way to God through the "discipline of virtue" to men "to whom all
earthly glory and beauty is as a heap of dung" (926B-C). But this purpose is
almost wholly absorbed in matters of external conduct. The fervent conjuring of
contemptus mundi and the apostolic life in the prologue gives way to lessons on
walking, talking, gesturing, and table manners.
In its second half the work takes on a tone that Hugh himself describes as
"satirical." In a number of passages he shows a quality I have not found in any
other work of his, a sense of humor. Here he describes ill-disciplined gesturing:
Some men are incapable of listening without jaws agape, and as if meaning
entered the mind via the mouth, they open it wide to take in the words of
the speaker. And others (far worse!), when they do something or listen to
someone, stick out their tongue like a thirsty dog and revolve it around
their mouth like a millstone, twisting their lips from the effort. Others stick
out their finger while speaking, raise their eyebrows and roll their eyes; or
they stand rooted to the spot in profound meditation and an outward
pretense of some inner magnificence. (941C-D )
It goes on in this vein until Hugh interrupts to remind himself that he is teaching,
not writing satire and that modesty and restraint are called for.56
 

< previous page_255 next page >

page
< previous page_256 next page >
page
Page 256
But the satire persists and the modestia he conjures is put aside to make way for
it. 57
The work's stated intention is at odds with its tone and contents. In its
preoccupation with external decorum, it omits the major themes of the
Benedictine and Augustinian traditions. The work does not treat fasting,
penance, self-denial, and mortification of the flesh. Obedientia, the dominant
virtue in the Benedictine Rule, occurs only twice, in a single sentence (932A),
subordinated to the topic of following examples. Chastity, which looms large in
both the rules of Benedict and Augustine, is not mentioned. Nor is caritas. This
omission gains profile against a passage from another work of Hugh's accusing
the gentile ethical philosophers of "severing the members from the body of
goodness, which has no life apart from charity."58 This criticism of pagan ethics
can be turned against the De institutione: it deals with a few members from the
body of virtue and pays no attention to their source, caritas.
Disciplina
"Discipline" is the central ethical/pedagogical idea of the work. It occurs in a
variety of formulations: disciplina virtutis, morum disciplina; the abbey is the
schola disciplinae; custodia disciplinae is the maintenance of acquired virtue
through vigilant self-examination; the human face is the speculum disciplinae;
the end point of ethical learning is the forma disciplinae; disciplina vivendi is
another term for ethics. It designates both the content and the process of ethical
training.59
Throughout Hugh's works "discipline" is the process of learning virtue. The
word has no other general area of application60 except in the Didascalicon,
where it occurs in the conventional sense of disciplina = ars, and disciplinae =
"the disciplines."61 The singularity of Hugh's usage is apparent in the definition
he gives in the De institutione (and in the fact that he gives a definition at all,
which shows that the term requires explanation and is not part of a shared
conceptual vocabulary):
Discipline is good and proper behavior, to attain which it is not enough just
to avoid evil. It strives also to appear above reproach in all things that it
does well. Discipline is also the governed movement of all members of the
body and a seemly disposition in every state and action.62
This definition expressly limits its meaning to an etiquette of conduct, bearing,
control and governance of the body. It also insists that good is not
 

< previous page_256 next page >

page
< previous page_257 next page >
page
Page 257
constituted only in the performance of good and omission of evil acts, but also in
the appearance of goodness, its outward semblance. Goodness should be visible
in the governed movement of the body.
We need to supply a context for this definition. We should note at once that
Hugh's definition of disciplina has no roots in either monastic usage or the
traditions of canons regular. In monastic and canonical rules disciplina
commonly refers to the teaching and learning of the rule itself. Common
formulations are regularis disciplina, canonica disciplina, monachica disciplina,
disciplina ecclesiastica, disciplina claustralis, disciplina ordinis. 63 Its meaning
in the Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris is quite restricted. It ordinarily refers to a
restriction placed on behavior (e.g., 22, 318; 110). We can contrast Hugh's
definition with an instructive passage from the Constitutions of Springiersbach
on the reception and "discipline" of novices. It distinguishes between two kinds
of lay converts: the one fit by youth and mental aptitude to study letters and
become clerics; the other somewhat older and duller of mind. The latter should
imitate the canonical life and be governed under a rule by means of a discipline
appropriate to them.64 In a "tracking" system of teaching novices, the older and
duller of mind are assigned merely to discipline under "some rule." The
suggestion that "discipline" is the slow track was not thinkable at St. Victor,
where, on the contrary, ethics was a major attraction to recruits, in some cases
representing the fulfillment of an extensive program of liberal studies taken
elsewhere (the case of Godfrey of St. Victor).
Disciplina morum, disciplina vivendi, and other terms for ethical training from
the De institutione65 form part of the tradition of training inherited from
classical antiquity and taught in worldly courts at least since Carolingian times
and at courts and cathedral schools since Ottonian. Hugh of St. Victor and
presumably the community of St. Victor, were the beneficiaries of the disciplina
morum of the eleventh century cathedral schools. Elements of this tradition are
taken over by other canonical and monastic communities in the course of the
twelfth century and beyond.66 A good indication of its affinities with
court/courtly education is that the De institutione is appropriated in the thirteenth
century by courtesy books67 and "mirrors of princes."68
Disciplina vivendi and bene vivendi disciplina are originally Ciceronian
formulations.69 They have loomed large in earlier chapters and it can suffice
here to point back to the introduction and the beginning of Chapter five. But it
may be worthwhile to repeat the comment of Hincmar of Rheims in his letter of
instruction to Louis the German that the king's court is
 

< previous page_257 next page >

page
< previous page_258 next page >
page
Page 258
a place of discipline, that is correction, since it corrects men's behavior,
their bearing, their speech and actions [habitu, incessu, verbo et actu], and
in general holds them to the norms of a good life. 70
This passage brings us close to the context in which Hugh places discipline. Both
texts identify it with the teaching and correction of habitus, incessus, verbum et
actus. This gives us the two contexts of disciplina as Hugh defines it: ancient
philosophy and worldly ethics. One other passage will help locate the worldly
ethic which is the twelfth-century context for that definition. Otto of Bamberg
was praised by one of his biographers for his
. . . special gift of . . . elegant and urbane discipline. Never under any
circumstances, in eating, drinking, in word, gesture or dress, would he
tolerate anything indecorous . . . but rather in every act of the outer man he
manifested the harmony within him, conspicuous as he was for his
goodness, discipline, and farsighted wisdom.71
Here again the contents of discipline are table manners, speech, gesture and
dress, and Hugh's De institutione places discipline in just that context.
Imitation
The basic mode of learning for the cultivation of virtue and the discipline of
mores is imitation. De institutione is the most serious and extensive reflection on
teacher imitation known to me from the Middle Ages. The presupposition for
imitating good and holy men (as for the study of reading72) is humility, says
Hugh· It softens the obdurate mind and makes it receptive to the lessons of
others, as warmth softens wax prior to receiving the impress of the seal:
In them [i.e., good men] the form of the likeness of God is engraved, and
when through the process of imitation we are pressed against that likeness,
we too are moulded according to the image of that likeness. But you must
know that unless the wax is first softened, it cannot receive the form, and
thus also a man can not be kneaded to the form of virtue through the hand
of another's actions, unless he is softened and all pride and stiff-necked
contrariness removed. (De inst. nov. chapter 7, 932D-933A)
Hugh clearly thought of spiritual formation in terms of the model of human
handcraft. The model to imitate is the artist's conception, the finished man,
reformed to the image of a new life, is the work of art. The rest of the chapter
develops this comparison:
 

< previous page_258 next page >

page
< previous page_259 next page >
page
Page 259
. . . we who seek to be reformed through the example of good men, as
through some marvelously sculpted seal, perceive in them the traces of
actions, some of which are sublime and eminent, but others abject and
debased. . . . When [saintly men] act in such a way as to arouse the
admiration of human minds, then they appear as exquisite sculptures. What
stands out [is outstandingeminet] in them should be recreated inwardly in
us. 73
The other source of models to imitate is scripture. Hugh deals with this subject
in a few lines, perhaps feeling that he had already made his major statement on
divine reading in his Didascalicon written at approximately the same time as the
De institutione. He explains the process in some detail in his De area Noe. The
good in scriptures is useless, he says, unless the reader takes it as an example of
living. The inward contemplation of God's word is only effective,
if I work to know and to perform good and useful acts and make the
virtues of others, which I love and admire, into my own through the
exercise of discipline and the form of right living.74
But the basic locus of imitation is the lives of good men. The title of his chapter,
''De exemplis sanctorum" is misleading if read to mean the saints of the church.
It means the good men living in the community of St. Victor. This principle of
imitability was so prominent in the community of St. Victor that in his chapter
on treating each person in the appropriate way, he ranks the brothers in order of
imitatability (chapter 5, 929C-930A). In his De sacramentis he uses a rich image
depicting this imitatability of others' virtues as a book written in and on men: The
two books written in man are an outward and an inward one. The outer book is
to be read through imitation, the inner through contemplation.75
Hugh of St. Victor integrated moral discipline and the study of letters into man's
pursuit of God (cf. De inst. nov. prol., 925B-C). By claiming that the image of
God constitutes that principle of imitatability, he created a great scale of
discipline beginning in the training of the body and ending in similitude to God.
It is above all the imitation of good men through which we restore the likeness
of God:
Why do you think, my brothers, we are enjoined to imitate the life and
conduct of good men, unless it be that by imitating them we are reformed
to the likeness of a new life? For in them the form of the likeness of God is
expressed, and when we impress ourselves on them through imitation, then
we too are reshaped according to the image of that same likeness.76
 

< previous page_259 next page >

page
< previous page_260 next page >
page
Page 260
This became the theological grounding of moral training at St. Victor. Richard of
St. Victor articulates it often. 77
The Body and The Inner Life
The ethical vocabulary of De institutione deserves a detailed study. Its leading
terms and concepts are discretion or judgment (discretio)78; moderation and the
golden mean (mensuram et modum tenere, rationis moderamen); the examined
life (custodia, assidua inspectio operum et morum, facta sua circumspicere);
imitation of the examples of good men; renewal and reformation of the self (ad
novae vitae similitudinem reformari, se reformare in melius); gentleness and
modesty of mind which display themselves in speech, disposition, gestures and
carriage of the body. Here I will limit myself to what is far and away the
dominant concept of Hugh's tractand of the ethical thinking of the school of St.
Victor generally: the importance of outward display as the guarantor of inner
harmony and well-governed virtues. Gesture, carriage and speech are the media
in which inner virtue comes outwardly to expression. The composition of the
inner world is the job of ethica, and for Hugh of St. Victor the job begins with
the body:
Just as inconstancy of mind brings forth irregular motions of the body, so
also the mind is strengthened and made constant when the body is
restrained through the process of discipline. And little by little, the mind is
composed inwardly to calm, when through the custody of discipline its bad
motions [emotions] are not allowed free play outwardly. The perfection of
virtue is attained when the members of the body are governed and ordered
through the inner custody of the mind. (chapter 10, 935B)
This means that virtue is acquired through physical training and restraint. For a
teacher with this presupposition, exterior disciplina (935D) and usus corporis79
become identical with cultus virtutis, and indeed, Hugh states this outright:
The members of the body are to be restrained, therefore, through
discipline, so that the condition of the mind may be firmed up within and
strengthened to the point where exterior vigilance is set against that
interior flightiness which has to be controlled, so that in the end the mind
may be consolidated in peace. . . . Little by little, as it becomes habitual,
that same image of virtue is impressed on the mind which is maintained
through outward discipline in the disposition of the body.80
If the body becomes the locus of virtue, then it is possible to read it like a book
for the signs of virtue, an image Hugh himself used (see above, p.
 

< previous page_260 next page >

< previous page_261 next page >
page
Page 261
259). He infers for instance from various styles of gesture and carriage the virtue
or vice which governs each:
There are six kinds of reprehensible gesture and movement, namely, an
effeminate glide, a swagger, a listless shuffle, a hasty stride, a wanton strut,
and a turbulent dash. The effeminate step indicates lasciviousness; the
swagger, slovenliness; the shuffle, laziness; the stride, inconstancy; the
strut, pride; the dash, wrathfulness. 81
Hugh clearly has a sophisticated and articulated concept of the body as the
concern of ethical discipline· He applies the principle of political governance to
the command of the body: the body is "a kind of republic" (943A), each member
of which has its own duty. Vice is when one usurps the duty of another. The
ordinate functioning of all together produces concordia universitatis. Moderation
is the virtue that holds contrary vices, to which the body is prone, in check and
produces a particular grace:
. . . a man's gestures ought to be graceful without effeminacy, nonchalant
without swagger, grave without listlessness. . . . The turbulent dash
tempers the effeminate gesture, and the effeminate tempers the turbulent . .
. because the median line between opposing vices is virtue.82
When the entire body is governed through discipline and custody according to
the virtues of moderamen, modus, and mensura, then "harmony of the whole" is
attained (concordia universitatis943A) · This reiterates that striking comment
quoted earlier that "the perfection of virtue [integritas virtutis] is attained when
the members of the body are governed and ordered through the inner custody of
the mind" (935B).
This process of training, restraining, governing and inspecting takes place in four
contexts particularly: in dress, in gestures (including walking), in speech, and in
table manners. There is no point going through them in detail. We are now in a
position to judge the underlying conception of moral discipline that commended
these questions of etiquette as an introduction to the search for God. The first
step on the path to God is governance of the body: the mastery of external things
leads to mastery of the inner world, and the composed and mastered body gives
testimony to the virtuous soul.
Now we should recall the description of the porter's duty in which the authors of
the Liber say that a good humored, humane and kind conduct is especially
important, since "from their first impressions of the outside [the visitors] form an
estimate of the things concealed within" (above, p. 252).
 

< previous page_261 next page >

< previous page_262 next page >
page
Page 262
It recalls Hugh's "reading" of the body for signs of the state of mind in the De
institutione. This suggests a conceptual unity underlying the life of St. Victor,
Hugh's ethical thought, and no doubt also that of William of Champeaux. Just as
the exterior behavior of the disciplined man gives testimony to the virtues
composing his mind, so also the behavior of the "outer man"the man on the
outsidethe porter, symbolizes the interior ideals, benignitas, humanitas, caritas. I
would suggest that this conceptual unity also takes in aspects of Hugh's theology.
One could compare the duty of the porter with Hugh's definition of a sacrament:
Pupil: Why is a sacrament called a sign of something sacred?
Master: Because through that which one sees outwardly, something inward
and invisible is signified. 83
The congruence of inner and outer, and the hermeneutic it creates, was a widely
shared idea in the school of St. Victor. It forms something like a unifying
moral/ethical concept.84
Now we need to place this conception within the traditions of training in mores
we have observed until now.
De institutione novitiorum and Cathedral School Traditions
The fundamental ideas of the De institutione are indebted more to the secular
traditions of antiquity and the cathedral schools of the eleventh century than to
monastic and canonical traditions. The roots of that work are easy to locate. It is
full of echoes of ideas we have come across in the eleventh century. Clearly its
central idea is the one we put in the center of an earlier chapter, "virtue made
visible." At St. Victor it appears as the foundation of an actual discipline of
conduct, a role we can assume with some certainty it played also at the cathedral
schools of the previous century.
The idea of a harmony uniting the entire presence (concordia universitatis,
integritas virtutis) was present in Godfrey of Rheims' portrait of Odo of Orleans
("Trois oeuvres de Godefroid," pp. 345-46; Chapter 4, p. 114 and n. 145), in
whom "attitude, voice, speech, figure, gait and appearance gave off signs of an
integrating harmony." Also shared by both is the logic of opposed vices brought
to equilibrium by the moderating force of mensura: Godfrey of Rheims:
 

< previous page_262 next page >

page
< previous page page_263 next page >
Page 263
vice is ill-shunned when the shunning yokes you to its opposite vice . . .
Odo holds the middle road between both extremes. (ll. 40-45)
Hugh of St. Victor:
The turbulent dash tempers the effeminate gesture, and the effeminate
tempers the turbulent . . . because the median line between opposing vices
is virtue." (De inst. nov. chapter 12, PL 176, 943C-D)
The process of "reading" the body for signs of virtue and vice is another shared
idea of the Rheims school and Hugh of St. Victor. Recall Walter's dedication of
a book on physiognomy to Marbod of Rennes (Carmina, ed. Bulst, p. 18; see
above, Chapter 4, pp. 116 and n. 147):
. . . it opens the secrets of nature to view.
It notes certain things marked with the signatures of secret meanings,
Like stature, countenance, posture, voice, gestures, grooming.
It reveals the character of men of whom you know nothing [and reveals]
Whether this one is just, beautiful with the flower of virtues,
Or evil, false, and overly bold at any crime.
Clearly Hugh's De institutione and the life of St. Victor represent the diffusion of
the program of education in mores that we have followed in earlier chapters. The
comparison with the Moralium dogma philosophorum ascribed to William of
Conches is instructive. This is a kind of summa of Ciceronian ethics, 85 and at
the same time a prescriptive formulation of an ethic that had been at work in
cathedral schools for at least a century previous. The work dates from the first
half of the twelfth century. The only guide to a more specific dating is the
uncertain identification of the "Henricus" of the prologue with the young Henry
of Anjou, future Henry II of England. Lacking positive evidence of date and
authorship, the work cannot be fit into the dossier of connections between
William of Conches and Hugh of St. Victor.86 But the ethical language and
concepts shared by Hugh and this Ciceronian-Senecan compendium make the
comparison valuable. Here are a few passages that demonstrate proximity of
thought and language:
 

< previous page page_263 next page >

< previous page page_264 next page >
Page 264
Moral. dog. phil., p. 42: De inst. nov., 943b:
. . . the custody of
discipline in gestures [sees
to it that] each and every
member performs its
Modesty is the restraining of grooming and functions in just that
movement and our every occupation so that measure and degree of
there is neither too little nor too much. On moderation which is
this the poet says: "Things have their own appropriate, that is neither
measure, there are definite boundaries." too much nor too little.
Moral. dog. phil., p. 42: De inst. nov., 935B:
. . . from inconstancy of
An ill-ornamented exterior is the messenger mind is born inordinate
of an ill-composed mind. movement of the body . . .
Moral. dog. phil., p. 42: De inst. nov., 938A-C:
In the motions of the body one must take Gestures . . . are found
care lest through excessive sluggishness we reprehensible . . . when
use effeminate gestures . . . or lest in they are either effeminate
hastening, our speed becomes excessive· or swaggering or sluggish
When this happens, we gasp for breath, the or hasty. . . . When the
face is distorted, the mouth twisted; these mind is released inwardly
signs give a strong indication of the lack of from custody, then the
constancy. . . . Therefore care should be members are moved
taken that reason presides and restrains outwardly in an inordinate
impulsiveness. For if the impulses do not way at every action . . . in
obey reason . . . not only the soul, but the all that it does it ceases to
body too is disturbed. [Cf. Cicero, De be governed by any
officiis, 1.131] moderating force of reason.

These passages do not argue direct influence, but certainly indicate shared ethical
concepts. The debt to Cicero is obvious in the case of the Moralium dogma
philosophorum and not obvious but palpable in Hugh's work. Hugh is using
different words for the same ideas. 87 The comparison makes evident the veiled
Ciceronianism fundamental to Hugh's work.
Discipline as Crisis Control
We still face the puzzle why Hugh, in outlining a program of spiritual renewal,
placed so little stress on the apostolic life and so much on an ethic inherited
ultimately from antiquity and immediately from cathedral schools.
This is a problem for a study in greater depth carried out by an expert
< previous page_265 next page >
page
Page 265
in the history of religious movements. I will only point to some of the factors.
The crisis of the old learning had two causes: the new learning was one, the
"corruption" of lay and religious discipline was the other. The community of St.
Victor faced both. The origin of the house was connected with the victory of a
brash young dialectician over its founder, William of Champeaux. The residue of
antagonism registers in the veiled references to Peter Abelard in Hugh's
Didascalicon. 88 In order to observe its opposition to the "decline" of mores, we
need to take a look at the community's prescriptions on clothing and eating.
Hugh's De institutione is directed to nobles. It enjoins on them an aristocratic
ethicits canonical elements notwithstanding. The Liber ordinis is at pains to
stress the equality of all brothers and to remove ranking by birth as an element in
the life of the house. But it is also clear that the members received novitial
training aimed at equalizing them at the level of aristocracy, on the basis of
values at home at royal and episcopal courts.
The De institutione also warns against vices typical of the aristocracy, at least
vices imputed by other writers to the nobles. A passage warning against
excessively dainty dishes illustrates both the social level addressed and its vices,
and it gives another rare example of Hugh's sense of humor:
Caution is required in the choice of food, lest one request things
excessively lavish and delicate, or rare and unusual. Nor should one desire
things prepared in an excessively sumptuous or refined way. . . . But there
are some men whose gorges are afflicted with a quite laughable infirmity,
in that they cannot swallow anything that is not rich and delicate. And if on
occasion sparse and ordinary food is offered them, they pass it by, offering
frivolous excuses, as for instance, that it will cause them indigestion or
asthma or headaches. Others disdain culinary delicacies and luxuries with
great constancy, but at the same time despise altogether the common
cuisine in a way equally intolerable. They demand new and unusual kinds
of food, so that often for the sake of one man's stomach, a throng of
servants must run through all the nearby villages to return at length with
some rare roots plucked from distant desert mountains, or with a few little
fishies [pauculos pisciculos] fished through enormous effort from the deep,
or with strawberries plucked out of season from the thirsting bramble
bushes, all this to quell the petulance of one man's appetite.89
This warning presupposes men with delicate palates, sensitive nervous systems,
and finicky stomachs. It also presupposes numbers of servants at their disposal
whom they can send for the rare fish and berries that alone will satisfy their
tastes.90 Of course, there may not have been a single novice
 
< previous page_266 next page >
page
Page 266
or member of the community who really indulged in this vice after his entry into
the religious life. The satire does not require the actual abuse to have its impact.
But it does require the unfulfilled inclination. The barb would be blunted and the
humor diluted if none of them kept servants or if they were men to whom rude
and impoverished lives, or even ascetic lives of renunciation, were an accepted
norm.
The prescriptions on dress, gesture, and eating habits reject fashions of the
secular world which other clerics in many places in Europe were attacking
throughout the late eleventh and twelfth centuries. Hugh says that clothes should
not be nimis subtilia vel mollia, nor in any way "distorted according to worldly
vanity" (936A). 91 He numbers among the vanities clothes that flow too fully
and those pulled so tight as to reveal every curve of the body. This he calls
shameless turpitude and vain ostentation; such fashions make women, or rather
prostitutes, of men, who seem to change their sex along with their clothes (936C-
D). Men should show modesty and humility in their clothing. But there are
certain hard and rebellious souls, he continues, who can only be reined in with a
jagged bit.
The language that Hugh speaks here is widely shared and easy to locate. These
vanities and worldly ways are part of a broad wave of fashion that swept the
European aristocracy from the middle of the eleventh century on.92 Worldly
fashions may have been as extravagant before that time, but the church reform
produced a reaction against them that brought them into sharp profile. From the
mid-eleventh century, wherever men touched by the spirit of the reform come
into contact with worldly men, complaints like Hugh's surface. The De
institutione responds in no small part to the crisis discussed in an earlier chapter,
an infestation of bad manners among the European nobles, lay and clerical.
Hugh and the community of St. Victor looked at the continuing alteration and
distortion of manners that Anselm and the community of Liege had observed.
Liege withdrew into its shell, retreated into the comfort of monastic severity, and
the result was the swift decline of its school. Not everyone took this snail-like
posture. St. Victor took a position that represents a tendency to social reform, a
direct answer to the abusers of the law of moderation. The threat to religion and
conduct was answered not only by polemics, but by a moral discipline that made
moderated elegance into the sign of inner virtue. It is no coincidence that both
moral discipline and polemics against over-refinement make up the substance of
De institutione. It shows St. Victor engaged, through both criticism and
communal self-fashioning, in the project of rebuking and reforming a society
veering
 

< previous page_266 next page >

< previous page_267 next page >
page
Page 267
dangerously away from moderation in dress, gesture, table manners, and the
virtues that govern them. St. Victor did not reject refined and urbane manners, as
Liège did. It caught up the thrust toward extreme behavior inherent in the
dynamic of court manners, and blunted and refashioned it according to the law of
moderamen. This is a productive response to the "crisis of manners" developing
in Europe. At the same time as the school of Liège was declining to
insignificance, the school at St. Victor developed into one of the most illustrious
of the Middle Ages.
It should not be surprising if this project commended itself to a master
responsible for formulating the education of novices at an abbey near Paris
attractive to noblemen, a community whose rigorously structured life was
conceived as a curriculum and whose "teaching" was exercised in the very act of
living that life.
***
The humanism of St. Victor is fed by the diffusion of an ethic that spread from
the cathedral schools in the course of the eleventh century. It picks up ideals of
"beautiful manners" and the congruence of inner world and outer appearance.
The lives and customs of canons regular with their stress on humanity, charity,
and irreproachable appearance in external things provided an ideal context for
this ethic. The Ciceronian-Ambrosian ideals of beautiful conduct "sat" perfectly
in this context. A worldly ethic stressing fine manners and courtesy tended to
over-refinement and ostentation in secular and episcopal courts. But a canonical
community could be held to stricter standards of moderation. In the quasi-
cloistral atmosphere, it was possible to create an exemplary community as a
model and a reproach for worldly men. The founders and early teachers at the
school of St. Victor superimposed an ethic of gentle, refined, "courtly and
urbane" bearing onto the ideals of the apostolic life: equality of manners and
renunciation of possessions. This created a quasi-monastic courtesy, an ascetic
Ciceronian-ism, with a degree of legitimacy that the old imperial program of
cathedral school education with its more worldly Ciceronianism could never
again attain in the wake of the investiture controversy and religious reform. It
occupies a middle position between the worldly ethic of the secular courts and
the asceticism of the new monastic movements.
But apart from its social and historical context, Victorine humanism had its own
content. Acquisition of virtue through training of the body, self-presentation
made into a work of art, carriage and bearing as a symbolic
 

< previous page_267 next page >

page
< previous page_268 next page >
page
Page 268
code that conveys through outward elegance inner beauty and harmony: these are
what the training of novices at St. Victor promised, and they must have
represented powerful incentives to conversion. They spoke to worldly men of
high nobility and to others who without license of birth might want to acquire
noble manners. If men wanted asceticism, escape from the self, sainthood, they
went to monastic communities. St. Victor offered "letters," beautiful manners,
theological illumination, the "good"that is the ordained and regulatedlife, a life
that left open the possibility of advancement in the church.
The first two constituted its particular form of humanism. The two major works
that convey that humanism are Hugh's Didascalicon (letters) and De institutione
novitiorum (manners). Impressive as the former is in its breadth and coherence,
the eccentric and unevenly composed De institutione formulated the studium
vivendi, at least as attractive and important in the schooling at St. Victor as the
studium legendi.
 

< previous page_268 next page >

page
< previous page_269 next page >
page
Page 269

10.
Bernard of Clairvaux
The writings of Bernard of Chairvaux share many features of the language of
ethics spoken at St. Victor. But there are two big differences. If Hugh of St.
Victor believed that walking, gesturing, eating, and speaking well made men
virtuous, Bernard believed that indwelling virtue made men (and, at long last we
can add, women) walk, gesture, eat, and speak well. For Hugh of St. Victor
discipline began with the control of the body and moved inward. For Bernard the
cultivation of virtue begins in the conscience and moves outward. What for
Hugh is the result of long and careful training is for Bernard an act of grace or
genius.
That is the first difference. The second is that ethica has separated itself in
Bernard's language from the actual disciplining of behavior in a community and
has become a general discourse of human talents. For Hugh of St. Victor,
discipline was tied to instruction for the Victorine life.
In many ways Bernard despises the very discipline that has been the subject of
this study. But he also produced some of the most lyrical descriptions of the
disciplined human being.
Beauty of Soul
The letter to the virgin Sophia is our beginning point. 01 He writes to commend
her on her chastity and to strengthen her resolve to remain a virgin. The glory
and praise due her are all the greater because she is a noble and a woman. Those
are two inducements to vainglory and wantonness, says Bernard. Her strength in
overcoming the inborn vices of birth and gender is the greater, since virtue freely
chosen is worth more than virtue born of necessity. Humility and restraint are no
victory in an ugly and lowborn man; in a high-born beautiful woman they are
glorious. She has long-necked friends who walk and dress elegantly. If they
chide her, she should think of the bridegroom to whom she is betrothed, his gifts,
the bride's dowry, and the ''blessings of sweetness." Let this bridegroom,
 

< previous page_269 next page >

page
< previous page_270 next page >
page
Page 270
Christ, come into their midst dazzling in his beauty and dressed to make the
angels envious, and then ask the "daughters of Babylon" if their adornments can
compare. They dress in purple and fine linen, but their conscience is torn and
ragged; their necklaces dazzle and their morals disgust ("fulgent monilibus,
moribus sordent"). Sophia, however, is beautiful inwardly and would remain so
even dressed in rags: "What delights is within" (''Intus est quod delectat"). Her
silks, her purple, her cosmetics are not material ones; they consist in something
greater and more spiritual: the pure conscience, purified through confession.
Beauty that can be removed along with clothing belongs to the cloth, not the
clothed. "Inborn and internal beauty" suffices for Sophia. Innate modesty
suffuses her virginal cheeks with chaste ruddiness better than the earrings of
queens. Now follows that rhapsodical praise quoted earlier:
O, how composed does discipline render every posture of your girlish
body, and even more so, of your mind! It sets the angle of the neck,
arranges the eyebrows, composes the expression of the face, directs the
position of the eyes, restrains laughter, moderates speech, suppresses
appetite, controls anger, arranges the gait. . . . What glory can compare to
virginity, thus adorned? The glory of angels? An angel has virginity, but
no body; he is happier for it certainly, but not stronger. The best and the
most desirable is that ornament which even angels might envy. 2
Discipline does for Sophia what it did for Godfrey of St. Victor (and many
others): composes her body and gives her restraint and control. But there is in
this case no formal discipline, no masters, no whips, no period of the novitiate.
All this "beauty" and "ornament" come from virginity, that is, an internal quality
and inner state. To keep it requires strength and virtue, and the maintenance of
that strength confers beauty, grace, and all the qualities the foolish friends of
Sophia try to produce by material adornments.
This kind of virtue is not attainable in school rooms. Essentially, if you do not
have it, you will never acquire it. It is "innate" and "inborn;' a condition that
asserts itself outwardly by a kind of miracle of charisma. The master imposing
discipline has moved into the soul of the individual, and continues his activity
there. That makes a living teacher of the art of self-control superfluous.
Bernard had used the same logic to define "beauty of soul."3 His sermon 85 on
the Song of Songs turns on the themes of wisdom, virtue and outward beauty.
The former two are "gifts from the Word," and "spiritual goods" (85.4. 10;
Opera, 2: 314. 3). But Christ the bridegroom is said to
 

< previous page_270 next page >

page
< previous page_271 next page >
page
Page 271
love the bride specifically for her beauty, not her spiritual gifts. Bernard asks,
What then is beauty of the soul? Is it perhaps that quality we call ethical
propriety [honestum]? . . . But propriety concerns outward behavior. It
does not issue from it, but it is perceived through it. Its roots and dwellings
are in the conscience; and the evidence of a good conscience is its beauty.
4
Purity of conscience is a "light that shines in the mind." Its connection with
external conduct is a fact of nature, not a product of cultivation, since outward
grace and beauty are the overflowing of that inner light:
. . . when the luminosity of this beauty fills the inner depths of the heart, it
overflows and surges outward. . . . It makes the body into the very image
of the mind; [the body] catches up this light glowing and bursting forth like
the rays of the sun. All its senses and all its members are suffused with it,
until its glow is seen in every act, in speech, in appearance, in the way of
walking and laughing. . . . When the motions, the gestures and the habits of
the body and the senses show forth their gravity, purity, modesty . . . then
beauty of the soul becomes outwardly visible.5
It is essentially the same process of transformation experienced by Sophia: the
inner state orders the body. The results are precisely the same as the end point of
cultivation of virtue at St. Victor or the earlier cathedral schools: control of facial
expression, serenity and good humor, gravity and modesty, beauty in walking,
gesturing and "posing" (habitus). But the "discipline" from which this control of
the body derives is purely inward: resistance of sin, persistence in virtue,
strength of mind. It is also attainable through contemplation.6
"Discipline" in the sense we have encountered it in earlier chapters does not
loom large in Bernard's thinking. He mentions it; he is aware of it as a kind of
grooming necessary for novices, but it has a subordinate importance, comparable
to the subordinate role of learning letters.7 Teaching is a nuisance to a man with
these convictions. It is cultivation of externals, a necessary undertaking but
essentially a concession to the impurity of man:
How I wish that all had the gift of teaching: I should be rid of the need to
preach these sermons! It is a burden I should like to transfer to another, or
rather I should prefer that none of you would need to exercise it, that all
would be taught by God.8
 

< previous page_271 next page >

page
< previous page_272 next page >
page
Page 272
To some extent his thinking is directed against a Victorine conception of
discipline, against primping at the outer man with the hope of purifying the
inner. He gives us a disapproving glimpse of discipline as practiced in more
worldly schools in a letter to Thomas of St. Omer, who has ignored his vow to
enter the Cistercian community to continue his studies. By this failure, he shows
greater fear of the tongues of men than of the "devouring sword":
Is this then that most beautiful composition of manners [illa motum
pulcherrima compositio] for which you contract yourself to the pursuit of
that knowledge, for the study and love of which you burn so ardently that
you do not fear compromising a sacred vow? 9
For Bernard, the only true master of mores is Christ.10
Bernard of Clairvaux masters the discourse of cultus virtutum. His treatment of it
represents the monastic appropriation of that language and its values: the results
of inner purity are identical with the results of cultus virtutum. But it occupies a
low level on the ladder of perfection. No human pedagogy can have anything
more than a mediating role.11
Bernard is clearly adapting language inherited from the cathedral school
traditions. Many echoes are audible in the passage from Meinhard's letter to G.
discussed in an earlier chapter:
[G.'s father was] a man instructed in every kind of virtue, a man who
enjoyed to an astonishing degree all the charm and grace of humanity,
qualities visible far and wide not only in his dazzling blaze of manners, but
also in the bright good humor which shone most graciously from his
eyes.12
This passage has in common with Bernardine beauty of soul a basically
Ciceronian ethical vocabulary. Both writers believe that the body is or can be
made into "the image of the mind." Both employ the metaphor of the powerful
light breaking forth from within to express the relation of inner virtue to outward
grace. But for Meinhard this is the result of "instruction in every kind of virtue."
For Bernard it comes from within.
Authority and Human Greatness
In another sense Bernard of Clairvaux, as a personality and public figure,
represented the fulfillment of one aspect of the old learning.13 Like few others in
the Middle Ages, he was the embodiment of authority that
 

< previous page_272 next page >

page
< previous page_273 next page >
page
Page 273
transmitted itself through the aura of physical presence. He represents
charismatic pedagogy released from a particular curriculum. Hildebert of
Lavardin addressed him in this sense: ". . . we have learned that you are the one
in the church who is able to teach virtue by example and word." 14 Wibald of
Stablo was nearly ecstatic in praising this quality: "The mere sight of him
instructs you; the mere sound of his voice teaches you; following him perfects
you."15
Bernard's biographers confirm his charismatic presence. They describe him in a
language pre-formed in his own works. Geoffrey of Clairvaux observed his
"beauty":
In his flesh there was visible a certain gift [gratia], which was spiritual
rather than physical. His face radiated celestial brightness [beauty,
claritas], his eyes shone with angelic purity. So great was the beauty of the
inner man, that it must needs break forth outwardly in visible signs.16
His biographer introduced the portrait of Bernard with the comment that his
power of miracle working was remarkable, but it was minor compared to the
great miracle that he himself was: "Primum maximumque miraculum, quod
exhibuit, ipse fuit" (PL 185, 303B). The thought that miracles are subordinate to
the inner gifts and virtues that produce them is a convention of hagiography.17
Remarkable here is the stress this comment places on the personal presence of
the saint, rather than on an invisibly working inner power experienced in
supernatural deeds. It was possible to see in the man's outward presence the
"grace" or "gift" (gratia) from which his miracles derived.
In the passages cited above, observers of Bernard speak a language they learned
from Bernard himself. He had described St. Malachy with this phrase: [He
performed many miracles] "but in my judgment, the first and greatest miracle
was the man himself."18 The Life of Malachy is instructive for Bernard's own
values. He has projected himself into Malachy. He continues the above passage
by saying that he will pass over the inner man, his beauty, strength and purity,
and simply describe his mores and his way of living, since these gave abundant
testimony to his inner richness:
What was there in his way of walking, in his appearance, in his posture, in
his facial expression, that was not edifying? Finally the serene good cheer
of his face was not obscured by sadness, nor pushed to levity by laughter.
Everything in him was disciplined, everything was a sign of virtue, an
exemplar of perfection, grave but not austere in all things, occasionally
relaxed, but never lax.19
 

< previous page_273 next page >

< previous page_274 next page >
page
Page 274
Bernard makes Malachy into the representative of personal authority as the force
that produces justice. For such a man, external gifts, a "certain grace that shows
in the flesh," are instruments of authority. Bernard said this outright in
interpreting the line of the canticle, "Your name is as oil poured forth." It applies
to "any man who perceives that he is endowed with an exterior grace enabling
him to influence [i.e. in turn pour it forth to] other men." 20 Malachy had this
force of presence, according to Bernard. He "judged on ecclesiastical authorities
like one of the apostles, with complete authority. And no one said to him, 'By
what authority do you do these things?''' (14.32; Opera, 3: 340.2ff.). His
authority beamed from him. It was that short range authority which loses its
force when its personal embodiment is absent. Malachy at one point sends
another bishop to make peace among warring factions. The man he sends
declines the embassy, claiming that the parties will not listen to him; it requires
Malachy's own presence. Malachy sends him anyway. The peace is made and, as
the man predicted, broken. Malachy restores it through a miracle.21
Indwelling virtue also enables Malachy to conquer the learned cleric skeptical of
Christ's presence in the eucharist by mere force of episcopal authority, which
overwhelms the reasoning intellect (see above, Chapter 8).
Bernard's stress on charisma and personal authority lends a special weight to the
obligation of praeesse, wielding authority over others. It is a paradox of the
person of Bernard, the humble, meek ascetic. It reminds us generally of
Nietzsche's dictum that the will to power has its roots in asceticism. And
specifically it points us to the imperial tradition of training men "with the
strength of kings and the sanctity of priests" to govern and to do good in the
same degree. Undoubtedly Bernard's position in respect to governance of the
church is closer to imperial positions than to the church reform.22 Obedience to
precepts and commands, in Bernard's view, properly results from respect for the
person who gives them: "The gravity of the precept depends primarily on the
authority of him who issues it."23 The alien character of authority rooted in
person rather than in an abstraction is especially distinct in this definition. There
is no appeal to law or the will of God as the unchanging and impersonal basis of
authority. The subjective and personal in the law, far from diminishing its
authority, constitutes it.
It is possible to see this concept at work in Bernard's own wielding of authority.
Hayden White has cited examples of Bernard championing virtue and inner
grace as a factor in episcopal elections (both of the electors and the elected)
against the reform party's more rational program of can-
 

< previous page_274 next page >

page
< previous page_275 next page >
page
Page 275
onical procedure (note 22 above). If the electing bishops are good men, then
matters of procedure have only a minor importance. When God is working
through you, you do not have to consult law books on due procedure, cite
precedent and appeal to charters.
Virtue even overrides breaches of accepted procedures. In bringing Peter Abelard
to trial at Sens in 1140, he did not scruple to call a meeting of the presiding
bishops and the papal legate, on the evening prior to the hearing, at which the list
of charges was finalized and a verdict of guilty agreed upon in advance. The
verdict, in other words, preceded the trial. This action was so far from offending
anyone's sense of due process that the bishops refer to it without apology in their
report to the pope. 24 Clearly this is a case of Bernard replaying (or pre-playing)
the confrontation of Mal-achy and the sceptical cleric. He crushed Abelard by
the mere force of personal authority, against which the shrewdly reasoning
intellect was powerless.
Bernard of Clairvaux as public man was in many ways what the old learning
aimed at: mellifluous and persuasive eloquence (letters), backed by the force of
charismatic presence (manners); praeesse at least as important as prodesse.25
Whatever his attitude to the old learning, Bernard became in some sense its last
great representative. He did not represent its institutions or certainly its narrower
contents; the "miracle" that he was had little or no admixture of affability, charm,
bright good humor. In a peculiarly ascetic monastic configuration, he represented
eloquence and mores working with great effectiveness in the political and
religious life. He embodied ideals like praeesse along with prodesse and "virtue
made visible" at the point when these had ended their attachment to a particular
institution and become a general ideal of human greatness.
Charismatic Bodies and Charismatic Texts
I said in an earlier chapter that, from the end of the eleventh to the thirteenth
century, ethica and moralitas pass, "as in a massive transfusion;' from persons to
texts, and I tried to sketch the dynamic of interrelationships between charismatic
human presence and charismatic representation. Bernard of Clairvaux is situated
at an interesting stage in that transition: perfect balance. He distinguishes himself
from every other charismatic figure we have dealt with because he combines
charisma with writings. Texts were a major instrument of his effectiveness:
sermons, tracts, biogra-
 

< previous page_275 next page >

page
< previous page_276 next page >
page
Page 276
phy, letters. His writings are powerfully evocative; he uses a lyrical language,
charged with the imagery of the Song of Songs and so subtly overladen with the
words of Christ, St. Paul and the prophets as to suggest that they are speaking
through him. The power of his eloquence 26 is equal to that of his personal
presence.
His biographer, Geoffrey of Clairvaux, noticed this coinciding of charismatic
person and charismatic text. Chapter 8 of his biography has the rifle: "On St.
Bernard's writings and the effigy of his soul expressed in them." It is a deepened
and sharpened aesthetic sense that sees the silent and invisible presence of the
author in the fabric of the text, in its style, diction, impact. But there is also a
deepened sense of authorial identity and creativity that can activate this self-
injection: something quite different from the biographer's urge to inject the
personality and presence of the subject into the work.27 This is personal
charisma transfused into textual form by the skill of its possessor. Geoffrey of
Clairvaux recognizes the paltriness of his attempt to recapture the living man's
presence compared to the force of that presence in his writings:
We have said these few things concerning the saintly manners and
character [moribus] of our father. . . . But this is far more distinctly
expressed in his books, and it emerges so clearly in his own writings, that
it seems he had created an effigy and a mirror of himself in them.28
It is a peculiar feature of the exemplary life that it takes on literary forms, and
tends to create new ones adequate to the individual in its wake.29 "Life
experienced as literature" is an interesting phenomenon. Geoffrey of Clairvaux
seems to indicate that Bernard had this sense about his own life. He shows him
at one point musing why God has chosen him for sanctity and miracle-making:
Sometimes signs are made by holy and perfect men [perfectos], sometimes
also by fictional men [per fictos]. I for my part am not aware either of
being perfect or fictitious.30
The word play perfectosper fictos neatly reproduces the glide from charismatic
presence to charismatic text that is typical of Bernard as a figure active on the
border between these two conditions. "As far as I know, I am not literature": it is
the logic of the humility formula, affirming through negation his sense of being
lived fiction, the ultimate state of charismatic pedagogy and the exemplary life.
 

< previous page_276 next page >

page
< previous page_277 next page >
page
Page 277
Bernard shows the trend towards fictionalizing of moral philosophy in his letter
to the virgin Sophia with which this chapter began. This is evident if we ask,
who was the virgin Sophia? No historical person has turned up as the recipient of
his Epist. 113. It seems all but certain that Bernard invented her. The name itself
suggests fictionalizing: she is wisdom personified, and the juxtaposition of the
wise virgin to the foolish friends (non-virgins, we can assume) suggests
intentional schematizing. Jean Leclercq pointed out that the letter was
painstakingly revised in several drafts, worked over like a piece of fiction. 31
Sophia is most likely a "literary" creation. The "real presence" has passed out of
this particular textual representation of moral philosophy.
 

< previous page_277 next page >

page
< previous page_278 next page >
page
Page 278

11.
Twelfth-Century Humanism
From the end of the eleventh century on, a peculiarly medieval humanism
asserted itself in lyric poetry, in some grand allegorical-philosophical epics, in
Latin prose style, in architecture and sculpture, and in some of the vernacular
courtly romances. It is easy to imagine that this movement sprang out of nothing
with the spontaneity and historical illogic for which the term "renaissance" is the
facilitating code word. The school life of the eleventh century with its curriculum
of mores and poetry has played no part in forming our picture of twelfth-century
humanism and its sources. 01 But all that has been said until now makes it clear
that they need to be included in the discussion. Writing the history and
describing the profile of medieval humanism without the eleventh-century
cathedral schools misses at least one essential point in its historical development:
the humanism of the twelfth century reflects on that of the eleventh.
Compendia of the Arts
It is worth noting that some of its most important documents are compendia of
liberal learning. Hugh of St. Victor's Didascalicon and Thierry of Chartres's
Heptateuchon are summations of an education in the arts. But these are not fresh
and innovative works pointing in new directions; they are conservative attempts
to prop up an embattled form of education that is passing from the scene. The
fate of the arts curriculum in Paris and in the other schools of France makes that
evident.
The most important witness to the crisis of the arts education is John of
Salisbury's Metalogicon. John sees studies and all civilized life threatened by the
tendency of contemporary scholars and teachers to cultivate specialized subjects,
to privilege dialectic, to separate learning from ethics, and thus to end the fruitful
relationship between philosophy and state or church administration. Especially
dangerous, he believes, is the indifference to eloquence in the schools. It is
eloquence, he says, varying Ciceronian
 

< previous page_278 next page >

page
< previous page_279 next page >
page
Page 279
themes, that has created cities, allied kingdoms to each other in friendship, and
knit people together in "bonds of love":
One who would eliminate the teaching of eloquence from philosophical
studies, begrudges Mercury his possession of Philology. . . . Although he
may seem to attack eloquence alone, he undermines and uproots all liberal
studies, assails the whole structure of philosophy, tears to shreds
humanity's social contract, and destroys the means of brotherly charity. 2
The stakes in this conflict are immense, in John's opinion, and the hyperbole of
his rhetoric may well be an indication of the hopelessness of his position. In a
passage that is a touchstone for his concerns, he complains about the tendency to
regard dialectic as separable from other disciplines and from the active life. To
exercise dialectic without broad learning and a practical context for it is
senseless and harmful, like a pigmy trying to swing the sword of Hercules.
Learning must find its fulfillment in domestic life or at court or in the church,
not remain merely a "school" discipline. Dialectic is an exercise, not the object
of learning, and it is to be abandoned, along with other school exercises, when it
has fulfilled its purpose. Learning that remains merely verbal is "scholastic," and
necessarily sterile.3
The Metalogicon attempts what the other arts compendia do not: it aims at
reconciling the old with the new learning. This humanistic rear-guard action was
ill-conceived and destined to fail. The arts course was no longer the means of
entry into the active life, poetry and rhetoric no longer the vital instruments of
influencing kings and bishops. But the polemical edge of John's plea for the arts
brings out an aspect of the earlier arts compendia not evident in the works
themselves: their conservatism. An old program of learning is wrapping itself in
the funeral shroud of charismatic teaching, the treatise. The compendium of the
arts saves them from extinction, as a time capsule saves its contents. But they
would not have sought textual preservation if they had not been threatened with
extinction.
The Cult of Friendship
In one point I agree strongly with R. W. Southern's definition of humanism (see
n. 1 above): "Without the cultivation of friendship there can be no true
humanism" ("Medieval Humanism," p. 34). But Southern thought the cult of
friendship was monastic in origin and took Anselm of Canterbury's letters as an
early representative of it. We know now that the cult of
 

< previous page_279 next page >

page
< previous page_280 next page >
page
Page 280
friendship was not monastic, but worldly, in its origins and early practice. 4 It
appears in full blossom in Gerbert's letter collection from the late tenth century,
in the Worms letter collection (1030s), in the Hildesheim collection (1060-70).
The indications of these letters were reaffirmed in the panegyric to Gerbert's
friend Constantine, in the Würzburg poem, in Goswin's letter to Walcher. In
short, Southern was appropriating for late eleventh- and twelfth-century
monasticism a phenomenon that Anselm and Aelred of Rievaulx had received
from the earlier cathedral schools or secular courts or both.
The writings on friendship from the twelfth century do not have the character of
summarizing previous ideals, as do the arts compendia. They codify living and
practiced social ideals. But they do represent the continued diaspora of the
subjects and practices of the tenth- and eleventh-century schools following on
their exodus in the late eleventh and early twelfth century. The diffusion of the
cult of friendship was broad, and its history is still to be written. It had an
important impact on "courtly love,"5 and on monastic friendship. These are some
of the "new homes" sought and found by cathedral school ideals during their
transformation into general social ideals.
The Ideal Man
R. W. Southern claims that the greatest accomplishment of twelfth century
humanism was "to make God seem human" ("Medieval Humanism," p. 37). I
would argue the reverse: it made man seem godlike. Discipline and learning
deified the student. Sigebert of Gembloux felt a "god-like" power conferred on
him through nature and study, and he and his generation formulated one of their
highest intellectual goals as ''outbidding the gods" and "overcoming nature."
Benzo of Alba defined the first goal of cultus virtutumvirtueas "dignity of mind,
nobility of soul, which makes man not just an object of wonder, but divine."
Baudri of Bourgueil claims that the milk of mother Philosophy turns her
sucklings into "gods, not men." The Orphic God of Amadeus of Lausanne
"introduced men into the society of the gods" by "composing them morally" and
overcoming the impulsiveness of their "uncultivated barbarism." Alan of Lille's
"new man" is to be a divinus homo (1.236), who will transmit his own virtues to
others' characters by the strength of his human divinity.6
The two works generally regarded as the high point of medieval
 

< previous page_280 next page >

page
< previous page_281 next page >
page
Page 281
humanism, Bernard Silvester's Cosmographia and Alan of Lille's Anticlaudianus,
reap the harvest of this idealizing tendency. Both are based on the assumption of
man's essential dignity and perfectibility. Both are allegories of the creation of
the perfect man. The grand undertaking of creating man ends in his preparation
to enter life and engage in battle with vice (in the Anticlaudianus; the
Cosmographia is unfinished). That means they are also allegories of preparation
for the active life through education.
Bernard Silvester's Cosmographia
The structure of Bernard's work is given by the Timaeus: the creation of man is
preceded by the creation of the cosmos and relates to it as microcosm to
macrocosm. 7 The fashioning of the universe, however, is not creation in the
ordinary Christian sense, ex nihilo, from the mind and word of God. It is a
process of refining, reforming, and shaping a chaotic mass. In describing this
move from chaos to order, Bernard uses a richly articulated vocabulary of
formation. The cosmos is not magically evoked; pre-existing chaotic matter is
tamed and disciplined.
Macrocosm
The primal state is strife, contention, warfare.8 In the very depths of the primal
mass is an intractable evil.9 But Noys, the mind of God, combats this
strainthough it cannot remove it altogetherby "polishing," "disciplining,"
"refining" it:
. . . she resolved to separate mixed natures, to give order to their confusion
and to refine their unformed condition [informibus expolitione consuluit].
She imposed law and restrained their freedom of motion. Rude though they
were, she effected a balance of properties among her undisciplined and
recalcitrant [rudes . . . indisciplinatas reluctantesque] materials.10
The guiding metaphor is a move from hostility to friendship and love: "I will
instil amity [amiciciam] in the universe" (2.2, p. 99). The bonds of "reconciling
friendship" (federantis amicicie ligaminibus) force the "rough and undisciplined"
matter to convert from obstinacy to cooperation (2.7, p. 101). The "discordant
band" lays aside its weapons and is joined in a condition of ''peaceful unity" (ad
pacificam ingressus est unitatem2.10, p. 101). The reconciling force of number
and music contribute to create a universal harmony. When Bernard reflects on
the accomplishment of Noys at the beginning of Microcosmus, he summarizes it
in terms familiar from education in mores:
 

< previous page_281 next page >

page
< previous page_282 next page >
page
Page 282
Now . . . Silva had been reborn to her true beauty [decor], and was a
universe worthy of the name. If her ancient origin intruded any trace of
roughness, the artificers hand sought it out everywhere and banished it,
until, no longer resisting, Silva presented herself as well-mannered
[morigeratam]. (Microcosm, 2, adapting Wetherbee's trans., p. 93)
Whether or not these passages are in any direct way a reflection on the civilizing
process of the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, they unquestionably speak
the language of that movement. There is a great deal of the spirit of "Orphic
poetry" in the fashioning of this allegorical universe. The universe moves from
"evil," a litigious and contentious state, to amicability and love. The mind of
God, Noys, is a kind of magistra, who polishes, disciplines, and refines "rude"
and unformed matter, rendering it "well-mannered.'' The combating of strife and
imposition of harmony was the first step in creation. Matter is made malleable,
docile and ready for the second step, which is the creation of the world soul, its
wedding-like union with disciplined matter, and the creation of the forms of life
from that union. Matter and soul of course are resistant to union, and so there
must be a preliminary process of "tuning," which is accomplished by the
harmonizing force of number and music. Once their "manners are changed to
amicability" (moribus ad gratiam inmutatis), the figure called Endelechia is wed
to her husband, reformed matter, creating a bond of friendship and love which
fuses the spiritual and material substance of the universe (2.15, p. 103). From
this union the species of created life emerge. The process involves the imprinting
of forms on substance; matter is conformed to the life- and form-giving idea
appropriate to it; Endelechia is full of a vast number of archetypes, which stamp
themselves onto docile but yet-unformed matter.
This process in its entirety, whatever the precedents in classical science of its
individual elements, 11 is abstracted from the disciplining of mores. Unformed
matter plays the role of the student; Noys and Endelechia are the
masters/mistresses of discipline. This model is evident by comparison with some
texts discussed in earlier chapters. The metaphors of sculpting a block of marble,
turning a pot on a potter's wheel, sharpening steel by steel are closely related to
the initial harmonizing of discordant matter. The proximity of language and the
shared educational conception is evident in a passage quoted earlier from
Sigebert's Passio Thebeorum:
Just as the frequent exercise of study has extracted many sharpenable
mountain stones from the veins of nature, so also it has hammered out and
fashioned
 

< previous page_282 next page >

page
< previous page_283 next page >
page
Page 283
many arts as from the mountain's marble. It polished one stone with
another and refined one art with another, and these buffed our rough minds
of their dense rust, sharpened and refined them. 12
In the context of a process of personal formation, the early chapters of Hugh's De
institutione novitiorum offer similarly striking parallels. The over-arching
metaphor of Hugh's work is a seal imprinting its image on wax. But before the
wax can receive the impress, it must be softened. That is, the student must learn
humility, obedience, modesty and measure. Chapter 6 gives the preliminaries for
profiting from education ("Quales se debeant exhibere qui per doctrinam
proficere volunt"). They are that the student must give up contentiousness in
word and deed; he must avoid anger, shun contumely and malice, and keep to
"moderation and the golden mean" in speech, gesture, action, and dress
(mensuram et modum). Then follows the process of imitating good men (chapter
7), which Hugh describes in the image of the seal and wax. The student is to be
"re-formed for the better" (in melius reformari). Disciplina morum, then,
involves an initial phase of attunement to harmony, amicability, the removal of
"malice" and contentiousness, followed by the true act of creation where a higher
model is impressed on the now malleable raw substance of the character. This is
essentially the process by which primal matter is transformed into phenomena
and the forms of life, and it is fairly clear that Bernard Silvester has abstracted
from character formation the process of cosmic formation.
Microcosm
It should not be surprising if a model of human education suggested itself to
Bernardus as a model for the fashioning of the universe. For one thing, education
is one of the main subjects in his other works.13 And for another, the greater
world is a model for the smaller, and that means that the spiritual formation of
the human being must be answered by a corresponding process in nature. Indeed,
the newly formed man is to learn the composition of his exterior, as well as his
manners, from the heavens: "From the firmament let her learn a comely
appearance, spiritual grace, and the laws of her behavior [morum causas]"
(Micro., 4, trans. Wetherbee, p. 98).
Noys maps out the plan of man's creation (Micro. 3). He is to be the "worthy
consummation" of the universe, and therefore will receive the "distinctive
attribute of dignity" (trans. Wetherbee, p. 94). Nature seeks out the help of
Urania and Physis, and from the former receives a closer definition of her task:
 

< previous page_283 next page >

page
< previous page_284 next page >
page
Page 284
Let the work be perfect, let his beauty consist in the joining of his parts; it
is God's will that nothing be lacking in his composition. It is God's will
that the mixture be balanced, that balance effect a bond, that this divine
bond bestow harmonious relation. (4, trans. Wetherbee, p. 97)
Noys gives the final instruction to the team (10, ed. Dronke, p. 140-41; trans.
Wetherbee, p. 113). Man must be divine in mind, and his body must be
appropriate to his mind, so that a harmonious bond can be effected:
. . . man alone, his stature beating witness to the majesty of his mind, will
lift up his noble head toward the stars, that he may employ the laws of the
spheres and their unalterable courses as a pattern for his own course of life.
This is the last passage that speaks the language of the old learning. It is possible
to tease out other reminiscences, but the fact is that Bernard Silvester has no
interest in the details of ethical discipline: gait, gesture, speech. His work builds
on the fundamentals of cultus virtutum, but also takes leave from them. He has
created a universe with a moral base (macrocosm-microcosm), and a human
being capable of receiving the lessons of ethica, who is destined to replay in his
personal development the shift of primal chaos from evil and strife to "well-
mannered" and virtuous disposition, and thence to a productive and creative
engagement in the world. But Bernard's work is moving away from the particular
concerns of the old learning and toward natural science. He has no interest in the
virtues, but describes the physical constitution of the human body at length. It
may be that he planned a description of the education and moral formation of the
ideal man and never got to it. But not necessarily. His concerns are probably
closer to those of William of Conches, who likewise in his Philosophia mundi
progresses from the nature of the universe to the nature of man, but restricts his
interests to the physical constitution of both.
It suffices for our purpose to show how the general shaping of world and man is
set into the structure of an education of personal formation. 14
Alan of Lille's Anticlaudianus
In a grand allegory of man's creation or recreation written some forty years after
the Cosmographia, Alan of Lille moves in the opposite direction. He returns to
the immediate concerns of the old learning. This work might well be included
among the compendia of studies mentioned earlier. More directly than Bernard's
Cosmographia, the Anticlaudian is an allegory of education. As such it is
comprehensive. It covers the entire range of learn-
 

< previous page_284 next page >

page
< previous page_285 next page >
page
Page 285
ing starting with the rudiments of grammar, progressing through all the liberal
arts and ending in theology. But in its allegorical frame it comprehends central
ideas of the old learning, of which it is the fullest summation the Middle Ages
produced. The education mapped out in previous chapters is set in the embracing
framework of formation by the virtues, and this is of interest to the present study.
The work's central event is the creation of the perfect human being. In contrast
to the Cosmographia, human perfection is to be restored, not set new into the
world. Human nature is in a state of decline at the beginning of the work, and the
summit meeting of the virtues that begins the work is an emergency session
convoked by Nature to repair the ruin of her noblest creation.
The meeting takes place in the dwelling of Nature. On one of the palace walls is
a mural depicting "the characters of men" (hominum mores). 15 The author
introduces this mural with a comparison of the two arts, painting and logic. Both
"arts" have the power to make illusion appear truth, but the former does so more
successfully and impressively than the latter. The victory given to art as depicter
of mores against logic the simulator of truth is significant within the contest of
old and new. The medium appropriate to the oldrepresentation of moresis given
priority. The opposition of art and logic stands for the two lines of development
leading away from charismatic culture: the one, memorialization through art; the
other rational, intellectual inquiry that looks away from charisma and individual
authority to some kind of objective, discursive formulation of Truth (see above,
Introduction, pp. 6-7). That Alan of Lille gives priority to artistic representation
states his position clearly. Along with other old-guard humanists, he opposes
excessive reliance on logic. Unlike John of Salisbury, however, he prefers artistic
representation of human character to logical proofs.
Of course, it is Nature's house, and she prefers art because art imitates and
reproduces nature. Logic is indifferent to nature.
The pictures in the mural are in part of great representers of human mores (Plato,
Aristotleexpressly given second place to PlatoCicero, Seneca, Virgil), and
following the authors, their characters (figures from the story of the Trojan war
and from ancient mythology). The only contemporary poets present are
poetasters, included so that bad art will also be represented. It is striking how
"literary" the representation of mores has become. Alan does not show Socrates
and Aeneas as real and living presences, but rather as the products of the authors
who have represented them.
 

< previous page_285 next page >

page
< previous page_286 next page >
page
Page 286
It is textualized virtue, and the textualizers have the place of honor. If Sigebert's
St. Maurice set living examples above those in books ("What need of examples;
you yourselves are the examples!"), Alan might sympathize with the reverse:
"What need of you yourselves? We have examples from books!" The cult of
representation replaces the cult of the real presence, and the old learning
rigidities to artifacts. This mediated relation to virtue suggests that "envy" is at
work in the conception of Alan's poem. Alongside the main task of restoring the
ideal human being, the Anticlaudianus represents a subordinate task: evoking the
artistic means of recapturing and holding firm images of lost or fading human
greatness.
The congress of the virtues, presided over by Nature, decides to form a new man.
Here is the fundamental conception of the work: the perfect human being owes
its origin to Nature and to Prudence, Reason, and other virtues. The liberal arts
and theology are means to that end; God ultimately presides over the process, but
the idea, the will, and the effort are products of virtue consulting with nature and
reason. That places us squarely in the conceptual world of cultus virtutum. The
virtues are described as embodying the qualities they represent, and these
descriptionsalong with much in the poemconfirm the connection of the
Anticlaudianus with the discipline of mores. Prudentia is the main figure in the
allegory. Her appearance is described:
Girded about by moderation in her placid countenance and her modest
gestures, Prudence arises. 16
Moderation is the dominant theme in the description of her body. A few details.
Her golden hair is held in check by a pin, which "imposes its rule upon them"
(1.271-72, trans. Sheridan, p. 56). Her brows are "well-ordered" and arranged "in
proper balance" (loc. cit.). Her neck is the perfect length, not too long or too
short (1.287ff.). Her hips "unite the upper and lower parts of her body" in "fitting
restraint'' (modulo decenti1.292ff.). Her height changes, but at present she
"chastens herself with our rein" (1.302).
This is a portrait of a character made into what she appears by acts of restraint.
Nothing is natural; all is controlled and held in place by discipline and conscious
effort to achieve a mean. "Rule" is imposed on her every posture, gesture, and
expression. The external details are the signs of the inner nature of the virtue
they express: Prudence, discretion, good judgment. Prudence's appearance makes
virtue visible.
At the end of the work, the virtues return to give their qualifies to the
 

< previous page_286 next page >

page
< previous page_287 next page >
page
Page 287
New Man. Phronesis has completed her journey to God transported by the cart of
the liberal arts, drawn by the horses of the five senses, guided first by Reason,
then Theology. She returns with the archetype of the perfect man's soul. Soul is
joined to body, and the completed man is celebrated in a parade of the virtues.
Each virtue showers her gifts on the new man to prepare him for his battle with
the vices. This passage also must be read against the background of cultus
virtutum, strikingly present in the four virtues, Modesty, Constancy, Reason, and
honestas. Modesty gives her gifts abundantly, without forgetting due moderation:
She composes the whole man, moderates his actions, measures his speech,
determines his silences, weighs his attitudes, considers his postures and
curbs his impulses. . . . She outlines the correct posture for his head and
tastefully raises his face to an equally correct level, lest with face aloft,
turning toward the beings above, he seem to spurn our mortal race and
disdain to look upon our type of life, or with face turned overmuch to
earth, show the signs of an inactive and vacant mind. It is raised, then, to a
somewhat moderately controlled position and neither rises nor falls beyond
due measure. 17
The concerns are well known to us. The act of moral composition is so much the
clearer for occurring in a strictly fictional portrait. The poet is unhindered by any
sense of obligation to realistic portraiture. The "composition" is constructed to
be "read." The physiognomy speaks and bespeaks the author of its appearance,
Modesty.
The role of Constancy hardly differs from that of her sister virtue:
Constancy . . . forbids buffoonish gestures, rejects an excessively grave
gait. . . . She warns the man not to stoop to thrusting forth base arms like a
buffoon nor to work his forearms in unseemly gestures nor, in a display of
pride, so to position his elbows that something bow-like is produced. She
secures his gait with regular tread to prevent him from mincing his steps
and touching the earth with his toes but barely making contact with earth-
bound things. Lest hair, over-ornamented with excessive treatment, reach
the level of feminine excess and rob his sex of its honoured position, or
lest it hang dishevelled . . . she insists on a style between both extremes
and arranges the hair in a style of her own selection. She does not make the
style of his dress shine with excessive splendour or degrade it with
drabness: she observes the mean in all things . . . she disciplines the eyes
and ears and curbs the nose. She moderates the sense of taste. She arranges
the sense of touch.18
While the concern with external culture is evident, this passage strikes a different
note from the previous one. It touches on the topics of criticism of courtly and
aristocratic fashions. I will return to this point later.
< previous page_288 next page >
page
Page 288
Next comes Reason, who gives him good sense for making judgments in
practical affairs, prevents him from taking any course of action hastily, and
teaches him to prepare all undertakings carefully, to make few promises and give
many gifts wisely, and to distinguish flattery from due praise.
Honestas then gives him the affection of his fellow men (makes him "all things
to all men") while preserving the integrity of his inner life.
A series of recent studies has shown that the court and the civil duties of the
court administrator are the context in which these passages are to be located. 19
Michael Wilks calls the Anticlaudianus "a species of court poetry," and
compares it with the genre of tracts on the education of the prince. This
characterization seems to me to bring us much closer to the social context of
Alan's work than previous scholarship, which hardly recognized that the work
had a social context. But I doubt that Alan intended a specific reference to Philip
Augustus and a prediction of his victory over the Plantagenets, as Wilks and
Linda Marshall argue.20 The court and administrative activity are undoubtedly
what this ideal formation aims at. But instruction for the ruler narrows its object
too much. The virtues and intellectual powers of Alan's new man are a summing
up of the old learning. As a preparation for court life, it applied to courtiers no
less than to kings. It is an education through civil virtues for battle against civil
vices. The gifts of Reason associate the passage especially clearly with the
product of ethica, the ideal statesman/administrator. Alan's ratio is that force by
which both the composed human being, the state and the cosmos ("O, qui
perpetua mundum ratione gubernas") were governed. Her gifts are those
appropriate to the statesman, and have next to nothing to do with the schoolman,
with analysis, argumentation, or speculation.
Alan is evidently out of step with the life of the schools in Paris in the second
half of the twelfth century. The concept of ratio had undergone a fundamental
revaluation at the hands of the early scholastics, its meaning transferred from the
civic to the intellectual realm.21 Alan's ratio comes into effect in administrative
activity, and this shows him clinging to an older, PlatonicBoethianCiceronian
conception far from the cutting edge. Alan's new man receives no gifts or
instruction from Law. Legal training plays no role in the fashioning of the
perfect man, and rational argumentation, dialectic, is given a subordinate role
defined with hardly concealed scorn. Clearly the author is looking back in time
for his ideas, not forward.
None of the virtues that give the final polish to the newly created man are
abstract inner qualifies, cloistered, scholastic, or intellectual virtues. Their gifts
aim at good grooming. What Constancy gives is not loyalty, not
 

< previous page_288 next page >

< previous page_289 next page >
page
Page 289
faith to oaths and vows, not steadfastness, but an elegant gait, measured gestures,
correct clothes, and a fitting hairdo. The virtues do not bestow the inner qualities
they govern: rather they are themselves those qualities, and what they bestow are
the external signs of their presence. The logic at work is that of virtues made
visible, beauty or harmony of soul shining forth from every action, down to
dress, gesture, personal grooming and manner of walking.
Alan's allegory resonates clearly with the letter of Meinhard of Bamberg to G.,
former student and probably candidate for the archbishopric of Cologne (see
above, Chapter 4, p. 96). The purpose of the letter is to prepare G. for his
entrance into Cologne and for the victory of virtue in the battle between the court
of vice and the court of virtue. The court of virtue places its governance into his
hands because of the "perfection" or "exemplarity of his manners" (specimen
morum) and the sharpness of his mind. Meinhard reminds G. of the values he has
always taught him: following the examples of illustrious ancestors, the
importance of fame, reputation, honestas, and the obligation to maintain glory in
the active life. He sums it up by reference to the virtues of G's father,
a man instructed in every kind of virtue, a man who enjoys to an
astonishing degree all the charm and grace of humanity, qualifies visible
far and wide not only in his dazzling blaze of manners, but also in the
bright good humor which shone most graciously from his eyes. 22
Both this letter and the Anticlaudianus prepare gifted men for the battle with the
vices. In the case of Meinhard, the context is clear: the administration of the
church. In Alan's work the context is masked by abstraction. In both cases the
main preparation is the acquisition of virtue or the gifts of virtue. Alan of Lille
encloses within the outer borders of the new man's education in virtue an
extensive course of studies, including the liberal arts and theology, ending in the
vision of God. Meinhard hardly mentions letters and other studies, indicating
them only in praising G's mental acumen and commending the Tusculan
Disputations. Alan's work is incomparably richer. But that is a difference of
degree, not of kind. In both documents, the perfect, elegant, humane
gentleman/courtier receives his armor from civil virtues, does battle with civil
vices, and shows outwardly the beauty within.
What these common features suggest is that the fates of the old learning and
twelfth-century humanism were linked; the one was the bearer and transmitter of
the other, and the institutional basis of this humanism
 

< previous page_289 next page >

page
< previous page_290 next page >
page
Page 290
was the cathedral school in its relation to court service. The common features of
the Anticlaudianus and the many texts from the previous century cited earlier
also teach us to regard the humanism of the eleventh and twelfth centuries as a
more or less homogeneous phenomenon, held together above all by the element
of cultus virtutum, though sharing a fondness for classical literature as
illustratorpainter, to use Alan's metaphor, of mores. Meinhard and Alan produce
similar portraits of idealized future statesmen because they taught (or at least
knew and preached) programs of ethica that were not essentially different in
either content or purpose.
A difference closer to the concerns of this study is that whereas the letter of
Meinhard of Bamberg is addressed to and talks about human beings, Alan and
Bernard wrote allegories; their perfect men were abstractions. Meinhard wrote
out of real need; Alan wrote out of "envy." He was recapturing and restoring
something he admired which was lost or fading. In this the historical situation of
his work mirrors the condition of man which is its point of departure. The ruined
state of man requires repair, and there may be a nostalgic undertone in this motif
implying that the ruined state of education in the virtues likewise requires
restoration. Meinhard's medium was the letter, something written for an
immediate occasion, not first and foremost a monument. Alan's was a literary
composition with all sorts of predecessors, influences, topoi: literature turned
into an over-swollen, baroque display piece, its real concerns and human content
so submerged in its tides of rhetoric as virtually to drown in them. It is
monumentalizing on the grandest scale. Moving from the one to the other we
move from experience to abstraction, from charismatic presence to charismatic
text.
The shift from realism to symbolism is one of the features that distinguishes the
eleventh from the twelfth century. Alan of Lille appears as a high point of a
literary-philosophical symbolism. It is easy for us to read the bodies of his
abstract embodiments without a sense that both the "text" and its hermeneutic
were forged earlier in reference to the living body. The reading of the composed
body had developed to a high sophistication over the course of the previous age.
As early as the late tenth century, an anonymous poet was "reading" the
appearance of his friend Constantine for the visible symbols of virtue, 23 and
Walter, the friend of Marbod of Rennes, toward the end of the eleventh, was
summing up a rich hermeneutic of the body when he characterized the treatise on
physiognomy he sent to his friend:
 

< previous page_290 next page >

page
< previous page page_291 next page >
Page 291
It notes certain things marked with the signatures of secret meanings,
Like stature, countenance, posture, voice, gestures, grooming. 24
Alan of Lille's imagination populates a symbolic world whose characters are
"marked with the signatures of secret meanings" and whose "stature,
countenance, posture, voice, gestures, grooming" are the bearers of veiled
messages. A sophisticated sense of hidden meanings systematically readable
existed in the eleventh century, but it referred to the physical presence. From the
point of view of cultus virtutum, that is the essential shift from earlier to later:
from body to text.
***
The old learning flowed into and extensively informed some of the major works
of twelfth-century humanism. The common features urge us to regard that
humanism and the works that represent it as the last flowering of a movement,
based on the alliance of school and court, learning and government, that
preceded them by some two hundred years.
 

< previous page page_291 next page >

< previous page_292 next page >
page
Page 292

12.
Court Society
The major works of twelfth-century humanism did not provide a "new home" for
cultus virtutum. They provided some big, baroque funeral monuments. In its
search for new accommodations, the still living discipline of mores found it in
the institution that had originally accounted for its rise, or resuscitation, in the
tenth century, the prince's court.
The move of the old learning into monastic and canonical communities is minor
and piecemeal compared to its move to worldly courts. Its appropriation in what
can be called after about 1150 "courtly society" is a vast topic. 01 Each of the
areas I treat in this chapter could be the subject of a book in itself. A particularly
abundant and rich area is the literature of courtly education: handbooks of
courtesy and "mirrors of princes." Rather than brushing quickly over that topic, I
am openly capitulating before its scope. I will draw on the didactic literature of
courtesy peripherally, and hope that others will study it from the point of view of
its ties to the old learning.
Court and School
Courts secular and ecclesiastical had been the hidden context of the old learning
for the centuries of its prominence. The court of Charlemagne gave us our first
look at it in the Middle Ages. Alcuin taught civiles mores and mores venustos to
the emperor using Cicero's rhetorical and philosophical writings as the textbook.
Its nearest relative in Carolingian times was found only at the imperial court. It
did not extend into the teachings of cathedral and monastic schools (see above,
ch. 1 ). The distinction between "civil" and "ecclesiastical" mores was a sharp
one. It is possible that something like cultus virtutum had never died out but had
been maintained at worldly courts since antiquity, though it only registered dully
or not at all in documents.2
The remarkable change in Ottonian times was that cathedral schools
 

< previous page_292 next page >

page
< previous page_293 next page >
page
Page 293
entered the scene to share with the courts the task of civil education. The early
cathedral schools took up the overflow from the court chapel and along with that
the task of imparting civiles mores and preparing men for service in the chapel
and ultimately in administrative positions in the imperial church.
This education flourished at its new setting for a little more than a century. Then
orthodoxy began to reclaim its institutions. The old learning was forced out of
the cathedrals as church separated from state, as education changed from
personal discipline to reasoning, organizing, systematizing study. There was
always an inner contradiction in the old learning: it effaced the sharp Carolingian
distinction between civil and church disciplines and set "eclesiastical disciplines"
alongside the discipline of virtues. In practice the cultivation of virtue tended to
become a goal in itself and a requirement for advancement. That translated in
practice into external culture, elegance and grooming. What was essentially and
in origin the education of a Roman orator smuggled itself into the domain of
Christian education. This was the genial idea of Otto I and Brun of Cologne,
consistent with the integration of the church into the apparatus of state
government, consistent with a vision of renewing the Roman empire. When the
church was reclaimed for strictly ecclesiastical ends, the old cathedral schools
gradually declined and the moral discipline of the old learning returnedmuch
enrichedto the worldly courts, its original home.
The career of William of Conches is exemplary for this development. 3 He
began teaching in Paris, Chartres, or both around 1120 or 1125. His student John
of Salisbury tells us that he taught in the manner of Bernard of Chartres and that
he had to withdraw from the schools because his students left him for other
disciplines and for teachers who promised greater success with shorter studies.
That comment guarantees the representative nature of his career, since it
resonates so clearly with the careers of Goswin of Mainz, Meinhard of Bamberg,
Drogo of Paris, Hermann of Rheims, and William of Champeaux.
William of Conches left the schools and consoled himself with a position as tutor
to the young Plantagenet prince and future king Henry II of England. He had
written his work Philosophia mundi under the influence of the Timaeus for use
in the schools. Now he rewrote it for the instruction of the prince and gave it the
title Dragmaticon. It was probably William who composed the work Moralium
dogma philosophorum, which has stood in the center of the discussion of a
"ritterliches Tugendsystem." The intended audience of the work is uncertain. It is
dedicated to a "vir optimus atque
 

< previous page_293 next page >

page
< previous page_294 next page >
page
Page 294
liberalis Henricus;' who may be Henry II. 4 The work is located, like William
himself, between schools and secular courts. Whoever the "excellent and liberal
Henry" of the Moralium dogma was, the work was appropriated by secular
courts.
This is a case parallel to the departure of William of Champeaux from the
schools of Paris. He returned to a curriculum of venustas morum and instituted it
in the newly founded community of St. Victor. In comparable circumstances,
William of Conches took ethical training based on classical models with him in
his "retirement" to a secular court.
Brun of Cologne was representative of the shift of court education from the
chapel to the cathedral schools in the tenth century, William of Conches for its
return to the courts in the twelfth.
Court Education
There is an old controversy on the question whether actual schools existed at
worldly courts.5 The question is misleading, because as soon as we learn that in
the post-Carolingian period schools at court no longer existed as institutions, we
are also tempted to conclude that teachers and instruction had little role at court.
The Carolingians needed schools at court. The schools in the kingdom were
barely able to deal with the rudiments of a Christian education, let alone to serve
as adjunct institutions to propagate the comparatively sophisticated subject of
civiles mores. The idea of transferring the "civil" instruction to cathedral schools
would not have made any sense at a time when those institutions were attempting
to establish themselves at a more basic level of instruction. But we would over-
shoot the mark if we turned this around and said, the Ottonian and Salian kings
did not require palace schools, because the cathedral schools had taken over their
function. They did so, but without depriving the court of that task. More accurate
would be: from Carolingian times on there is no useful distinction to be made
between the court school and the life of the court itself, and the schooling in
civiles mores found an alternate venue in cathedral schools. After Otto I, the life
of the court, the court school, and cathedral schools were so closely allied that
Anselm of Liège in the mid-eleventh century could look back nostalgically to the
Ottonian days, when "in the chapels of the emperor no less than in those of
bishops nothing more was pursued than the discipline of manners along with the
study of letters!"6 Cathedral schools were annexed to the court school to instruct
in civiles
 

< previous page_294 next page >

page
< previous page_295 next page >
page
Page 295
mores, and this move made that kind of instruction available more broadly than
was possible as long as the court was its sole venue.
Hincmar formulated the ideal of the court as a school for Louis the German. The
passage has been quoted often in this study:
The king's court is indeed called a school, that is, a course of studies, not
because it consists solely of schoolmen, men bred on learning and well
trained in the conventional way, but rather a school in its own right, which
we can take to mean a place of discipline, that is correction, since it
corrects men's behavior, their bearing, their speech and actions, and in
general holds them to the norms of a good life. 7
Hincmar considered the court a school of mores to which might have been added
formal instruction in letters. This does not change in Ottonian times. The
statements of Ruotger that Brun of Cologne as chancellor at Otto the Great's
court rescued the seven liberal arts from their decline, attracted philosophers and
intellectual "refugees," held philosophical disputations, improved the Latin of the
court members, and served personally as a exemplar of wisdom, piety and justice
(Vita Brun, chapter 5) cannot be emptied of their content just because no traces
of an institutionalized court school can be found. Ruotger's words make perfect
sense when we understand the nature and goal of the old learning and distance
ourselves from a conception of education limited to notions of classroom and
textbook, learned lecturing and writing. Ruotger speaks the language of the old
learning clearly: letters combine with manners; the person of the teacher is a
large part of the curriculum; philosophy, learning, and public life are inseparable.
The masters of the old learning were courtiers in their capacity as teacher, and
teachers in their capacity as courtier. What need was there for institutionalized
schools at court? The court itself was a school, where the pedagogy of personal
charisma was at work more immediately than at formally constituted schools.
Every educated man at court was, ideally, philosophy embodied and translating
itself into acts of public administration. What changed around 950 was that this
education became more closely oriented to classical models of the statesman and
orator,8 and expanded into the adjunct institution of cathedral schools, where
hitherto secular and sacred letters and ecclesiastical disciplines had formed the
curriculum.
It may be that civiles mores were cultivated at royal courts and courts of lesser
nobility in various places in Europe in our period. The few references I have
found to court education in the period from 950 to 1100 indicate that
 

< previous page_295 next page >

page
< previous page_296 next page >
page
Page 296
this is the case. We recall that Guibert of Nogent's teacher had previously resided
at the court of the lords of Clermont, teaching honestas and exterior elegantia,
and that he had learned this curriculum at this or another secular court. Bishop
Azelinus of Hildesheim had been a courtier at the court of Henry III, and the
new customs he brought with him to the diocese of Hildesheim were so closely
associated with the imperial court as to be called curialitas. The biographer of
Wernher of Merseburg, writing shortly before 1150, gives us a picture of
education at the court of Henry IV in his portrait of Wernher's brother, the knight
Moricho:
. . . nurtured in the flower of youth at the court of emperor Henry IV, he
rose to a position of high trust and intimate favor with the emperor as a
man of nobility and a splendid administrator [liber et splendidae
administrationis homo]. . . . For he was impeccable in his conduct
[optimus moribus], firm in respect to justice, foresighted in counsel,
faithful in rendering aid, most liberal and of immaculate repute,
courtly/civil in manners [civilis in moribus]. While still in the flower of
manhood, he was steward of the royal table and most suited to all
administrative tasks. 9
The nature of court education in the period is an unanswered question. It
becomes easier to deal with in the middle decades of the twelfth century. The
fading of the old learning at cathedral schools coincides with the rise of an
education that we must now call ''courtly;' no longer merely "for the court."10
The example of William of Conches suggests that this was no coincidence. The
institutional basis of cultus virtutum had been eroded, but not its content. The
court valued the mores it cultivated; it appropriated them and transformed them
into courtliness, amalgamating them with the social ideals of lay nobles. The
sudden blossoming of courtly culture may well be directly connected with the
eroding of that discipline at cathedral schools. At least we know that it left some
teachers of the subject available for employment elsewhere. If William of
Conches, John of Salisbury, Andreas Capellanus, Wace, Benoit de St.-Maure,
Chrétien de Troyes, Gottfried von Strassburg, and all the other clerics engaged in
the formulation of court ethics and literature had found employment in the
schools of France, Germany, and Englandand not at the secular courtscourtly
society and literature would be very different from what they are, or from the
way we see them at present.
The following sections analyze two areas of twelfth-century court culture that
illustrate the flow of the old learning into court society.
 

< previous page_296 next page >

page
< previous page_297 next page >
page
Page 297
Moral Philosophy in the Lives of Thomas Becket
The biographies of Thomas Becket are some of the richest sources on court life
from the twelfth century. The earlier ones were written by the scholars and
courtiers who had been on Becket's administrative staff. 11 The Lives of Becket
are set apart from other bishops' Lives by their unshrinking representation of
Becket's splendor and courtliness. I quote from these works at length, partly to
recreate the atmosphere of court life they convey, which has not played the part
it deserves in forming our picture of contemporary aristocratic life, but especially
because of their peculiar relevance to our narrower topic. The major biographers
all draw to varying degrees on the concepts and ideals of moralis philosophia
and disciplina morum. Herbert of Bosham does this programmatically, and being
the most prolix of the biographers, he provides a rich picture of moral philosophy
functioning in the life of a high court official and archbishop. He presents his
subject from the outset as exemplary in terms with which we are familiar:
To you especially this exemplary man gave an example, such that whatever
he did ought to serve you as a guide to action. Whence throughout this
history I have described this exemplary man, not the man who should
cause astonishment by his miracles, but who should inspire imitation in
deeds.12
Herbert excuses his verbosity by explaining that he is not just rehearsing the
saint's deeds but "explaining their causes, not just describing acts but the mind of
the actor."13 In this and other Lives of Becket the narration is informed and in
some cases structured by the ideas of the old learning.
The Young Courtier
This influence is evident from the outset in the portraits of Becket that occur in
the early sections of the major biographies.14 According to John of Salisbury, he
was
tall of stature, handsome of form, keen of mind, sweet and jocund in his
speech, and amiable for the beauty of his manners [venustate morum]
given his age.15
William Fitzstephen observes some of the same qualities:
He was of a placid and beautiful countenance, noble in stature, his nose
long and straight, his body vigorous and adept; he was skilled in
eloquence, subtle
 

< previous page_297 next page >

page
< previous page_298 next page >
page
Page 298
in mind, great in soul, and because he tread the path of virtue in a higher
sense, he showed himself amiable to all men . . . generous and witty [or
sophisticated or courtlyfacetus]. 16
Herbert of Bosham has a long treatise on the virtues and vices of the young
Becket, too long to quote in full here. He describes the battle of virtue against
vice that the young must fight, and suggests that Becket, for all his juvenile
faults, fought this battle successfully because of his prominent virtue of physical
chastity (2.6.170). It was like an "integrating vessel," preserving all the "spiritual
aromata" and gifts of grace and nature from their natural admixture of vices.
Herbert reflects on the "two-fold gift" of some men, whereby they please both
God and the world. The young Becket pleased the world more than God, having
an overbalance of that virtue which is "civil, urbane, kind and gentle, sweet,
social, an invitation to affection, but more pleasing to the world and less to
God."17
Becket's impressive appearance and his mastery of virtue are leitmotifs of the
Vitae.18 Herbert describes an especially telling incident that occurs later in
Becket's life when he was traveling through England incognito, heading into
exile. The archbishop had entered an inn dressed as a monk, with the assumed
name Christianus. At table he took the last and least place among the traveling
companions. But the innkeeper noted the "style of eating and distributing food"
which distinguished "brother Christian," and this called for a closer look:
. . . then he observed the composition of the whole man and his way of
gesturing, the noble stature of his body, his broad forehead and grave
aspect, his long and handsome face, the shape of his large hands, the
harmonious and in a way exquisite fit and reach of his fingers.19
The innkeeper recognized the difference between him and the others, realized
that this must be "some great man" (magnum aliquem virum), and took him to be
the Archbishop of Canterbury. Herbert is at pains to make this recognition seem
explicable: he tells that a rumor was about that the Archbishop of Canterbury
was fleeing through the countryside. But he has obviously adapted the motif of
the miraculous recognition of a saint or king from hagiography. In this case the
charisma that beams from Thomas is located physically in the shape and form of
his body and his hands, and it registers in his table manners and his gestures.
Elegance and grace, the products of moral training, betray to the viewer a "great
man" and thwart concealment.
 

< previous page_298 next page >

page
< previous page_299 next page >
page
Page 299
As a young man Becket joined the court of a nobleman, Richer de l'Aigle, where
he devoted himself to worldly pursuits and learned hunting with dogs and birds.
Here also he "began to show excellent manners." 20 John of Salisbury observed
the same turn in his life. After his studies, he gave himself to "the pastimes of
the courts," but even in juvenile pursuits a certain zeal for the faith and
"magnificence of soul" were apparent in him. At the same time he was
immoderately fond of popularity. He was proud and vain, and "on occasion, he
foolishly took on the appearance and spoke the words of lovers," though for
chastity of body he was admirable.21
The biographers are perfectly willing to criticize the future saint as a young
courtier. His vices are exemplary, and are not glossed over. Herbert of Bosham
says forthrightly,
he was intent on the kinds of things that are sweet and familiar to that age .
. . courtiers' trifles, empty and vain pursuits. And so that he would stand
out among the others, he cultivated clothes and an appearance more refined
than that of others. . . . Nor would it be correct to imagine that this whole
mode of fashioning derived more from virtue than from prurience. (2.1.
165-66)22
The King's Chancellor
"Magnificence" recurs like a leitmotif in Herbert's work to characterize Becket as
kings chancellor.23 He had already shown royal manners while on Archbishop
Theobald's staff: he had thrown aside all priestly moderation and competed for
magnificentia with the king's servants (2.7. 172). And the same is true to an even
greater degree in the chancellor's office, where
he tended to grandeur and magnificence beyond what his officea heavy
enough burden, as many knowcalled for. He was extraordinarily lavish,
generous to all, excelling all in sumptuousness and grandeur, as great in
heart as he was grand in appearance. Nothing could be around him but
what was splendid and magnificent. (Herbert, Vita Thomae, 2.11.176)
Becket became an immensely successful courtier. He helped the king in
diplomatic and military undertakings, occasionally himself leading troops and
fighting. To court the daughter of the French king for young prince Henry, he
organized and conducted a splendid procession, which passed through England
and France and aroused admiration for the English king and his emissary by its
splendor.24 He maintained a household that rivaled that of the king for pomp and
magnificence. He loved and regularly took part in court games and pastimes like
chess and hunting with dogs and birds. He gave splendid banquets. He became
popular and beloved of the
 
< previous page_300 next page >
page
Page 300
courtiers, clergy, and populace because of his many virtues, his "greatness of
soul and the many merits inherent in his mind" (Fitzstephen, p.24, ch. 14). His
friendship with the king was so close that they "play together like boys once
their business is over" (loc. cit.). Fitzstephen relates a charming incident to
illustrate this friendship. It is worthwhile quoting in full to illustrate the
chancellor's "magnificence" and the atmosphere of personal and social relationsat
their bestat the kings court:
One day they rode together in a street of London. A biting winter wind
blew. The king spied an old pauper coming up the street in the distance,
dressed in a thin, tattered garment, and said to the chancellor, "Do you see
this man?"
"I see him," replied the chancellor.
"How poor, how wretched, how naked," said the king. "Would it not be a
great act of charity to give him a thick and warm cape?"
"Great indeed," replied the chancellor, "and it behooves you as king to
think and act so."
In the meantime they had reached the pauper. The king dismounted, and
the chancellor with him. The king took the old man aside gently and asked
if he would like a good cape. The pauper, not recognizing them, thought
some joke was being played on him.
"This great act of charity shall be yours," said the king to his chancellor,
and laying his hands on Becket's cape, which happened to be new and
splendid, of scarlet trimmed in grey fur, he strained to pull it off the
chancellor, who struggled to retain it. Soon there was a great pulling and
shoving. The potentates and knights in their train hurried up, wondering at
the cause of this sudden struggle between the two, and neither [the king
nor Becket] could tell them, since each thought only of his grip on the
cape. At last the chancellor reluctantly gave in and bending forward let the
king remove his cape, which he gave to the poor man. Then the king
turned to his courtiers and explained what had happened. Amidst
uproarious laughter, various of them offered their coats to the chancellor.
The pauper went off wearing the chancellor's cape, enriched beyond his
wildest hopes and giving thanks to God. (RS 67: 3, pp. 24-25, chapter 14)
The king plays a charming joke on his worldly chancellor. He forces Becket into
the dilemma of showing deference and generosity and parting with his splendid
coat, or keeping his coat and appearing niggardly and inhumanus. A man of
Becket's "magnificence" is reluctant to part with so fine a coat for a mere beggar.
Both the king and the chancellor, pretending deference to each other, do their
best to remain outside the strictures of obligatory generosity and to force the
 other into them. Becket is pushed or pulled into the role of St. Martin by main
force. This courtier who could make the king a gift of three ships fully equipped
and manned 25 now struggles with the
 

< previous page_300 next page >

page
< previous page_301 next page >
page
Page 301
king to deprive a freezing beggar of his mantle. Or makes the gestures of
struggling. It is all play, put on in the kind of jest that the court would have
called urbanitas and facetia. 26
Becket the Educator
Rich, popular, famous, and burdened with the tasks of chancellor, Becket takes
over the job of court tutor. The king places his own son and heir, Prince Henry,
in his care. This is the beginning of a close personal friendship between the
prince and Becket. Herbert says that the king made his chancellor the young
prince's "tutor and father through grace, as he [Henry] was his father through
nature" (2.11.176-77). Also many princes of the land send their sons to serve at
his court and receive education at his hands.27
What did he teach them? The passages from Herbert and Fitzstephen give us
only an oblique hint. Fitzstephen tells that Becket himself prepares the prince and
other young nobles for knighting, instructing them honesta nutritura et doctrina,
finally sending some of them as trained knights back to their fathers cum honore,
and keeping others in his own retinue. We learn from Fitzstephen also that
instruction at court and service there were identical ("they sent their children to
serve [servituros], and he himself instructed them"Fitzstephen, chapter 12, p. 22).
The prince at least, if not all the sons of nobles, may have received instruction in
letters and the liberal arts,28 but the busy chancellor surely did not dispense this
technical instruction himself29; nor presumably did he teach them the art of
combat, but left this also to subordinates. We are left with the question, what did
Becket ipse teach them? The answer is no doubt, mores. Becket's biographies are
about a man who had pursued mores and moralitas more than letters in his own
education, both at court and school, and who had excelled in this "subject"
(above, n. 18). What he taught at court was the sum total of what he was, and the
education received by the prince and his cohorts was no doubt gotten by
charismatic pedagogy enforced by "correction."
The best sources on the subject are the descriptions of Becket's banqueting
customs.
Living Well
The chancellor's and archbishop's table receives much comment from the
biographers.30 Table manners had been one of the contexts of disciplina morum
at St. Victor. Herbert of Bosham makes Becket's dining arrangements at the
archbishop's court into a schoolroom of "honest" behavior. It
 

< previous page_301 next page >

page
< previous page_302 next page >
page
Page 302
is a long and important passage, which I will partly paraphrase, partly translate.
The seating arrangements have Becket's scholars and learned clerics seated at his
right hand; at his left, monks and other religious. Knights, however, no matter
how famous or powerful, are seated at a separate table so as not to be disturbed
by the readings and learned discussions going on at the archbishop's tableor
embarrassed and irritated by not understanding them. But to compensate for their
exclusion, their table was especially sumptuous. After the benediction the meal is
served:
One of the older men, a knight, stood before the archbishop, received the
dishes brought by the others and set them before him. But many others of
high nobility, handsome youths well instructed in such things [in talibus
eruditi], stood by ready to serve. On one side stood adolescents, pink [of
skin] and purple [of dress] like spring-time flowers; on the other, however,
young boys, like the fresh and tender sprouts of noble gardens, as it were
ornamenting and beautifying the entire table, who served the pontiff and
those disposed at his right and left, all of them thoroughly prepared to
serve and often performing their duties on their own with no commands.
He had so many sons of the nobles at his disposal because by an ancient
law of his predecessors all the second-born sons of the nobility of the land
were sent, still in puberty and before receiving the belt of knighthood, to
the archbishop. . . . Whence it happened that many flooded to his service,
drawn by the man's magnificence, which was taught to them in so civil and
urbane a manner [propter viri magnificentiam tam civiliter eruditam et tam
urbane edoctam]. . . . Among and above all of whom the excellent boy
mentioned earlier took the first place, the son of the king and heir of the
realm, Henry, ward of the bishop himself, who would procede surrounded
by his fellows and attendants like a crown set with purple and violets. . . .
How shall I go on? This banquet was altogether splendid: the banqueters
splendid, the attendants splendid, the servants splendid, the food most
splendid of all. Everything, I repeat, was splendid, everything was
delicious and opulent. For to tell the truth . . . nothing in the bishop's house
could bring sadness like a meager table; nothing could bring joy like an
opulent one. For this reason he himself used to keep a close watch over the
proceedings . . . not in a conspicuous manner, but subtly and with courtly
breeding [modesto quodam modo et civiliter erudito] . . . . so that he could
observe the order of the guests and accord honor where honor was due.
And if perchance among so many someone should be seated in a low place
who deserved to preside, he compensated him with frequent gifts of his
own cup and of dishes, thus raising the honor of his place. (3.15.226-28)
The passage continues from this point for more than a page in the Rolls Series
edition, describing Becket's supervision of the table. What interests Herbert is
 the distribution of honors for guests and servants and the
 

< previous page_302 next page >

page
< previous page_303 next page >
page
Page 303
correction of incautiousness on the part of the servers. The secular meal is
watched over with a scrupulousness that would be appropriate for the liturgy and
the sacred meal, and that is in fact the frame in which Herbert himself places his
description: first the "spiritual table" (Becket performing the liturgy, ch. 13 ),
then the "corporal." This exacting custody of the latter is described as "civil and
courtly" [civilem et domesticam custodiam]. The narrator has his eye on the
awarding of honor and precedence, on behavior that is urbanum and civile, and
particularly on the archbishop, who is urbane edoctus (p. 229). The passage ends
with more enthusiastic praise and jubilant apologetics for the entire banqueting
rite:
But what is the purpose of all this? Why all these magnificent trappings
and so lavish a description of a table fit for an emperor? This seems more
like Caesar's table than a bishop's. . . . But you who think thus, whoever
you may be, stand here; go not away, judge not, but look upon this and
wonder and imitate, if you can, this beast of many eyes and man of many
faces. Behold the disciple made all things to all men on the model of his
master, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep,
rendering unto the world what is worldly and to God what is God's. . . .
"There is a time for all things," and the bishop's special gift is to obey the
times, to indulge them and conform himself to them. (p. 230)
The following chapter is an essay on the virtues the bishop displays at table. It is
one of the longest chapters in Herbert's long vita (pp. 231-38). Chief among his
virtues are temperance and sobriety. His sobriety was of a "civil," courtly kind
(civiliter sobrius, p. 232), and he joined abstinence to his sobriety, though he
tended to "conceal his abstinence for the sake of his table companions with a
courtly dissimulation, so that he might seem to rejoice with those rejoicing and
feast with those feasting" (p. 232). In other words, he pretended courteously to
indulge, so that his fellows would not take his abstention as a reproach. He
frequently interrupted the eating to discuss some passage in scripture, but he did
this in moderation. No music was allowed at the bishop's table. He presided over
everything "with a placid countenance and amiable good humor." Then follows
(p. 233) a brief discourse on "the three demands of abstinence": namely, what,
when, and how much we should take. 31 Lessons and examples of moderation in
eating illustrate the three points (pp. 233-34). "Nothing in excess'' is the upshot,
and "discretion is the charioteer of all the virtues" (p. :235).32 Thomas is the
magister of the table, showing moderation to his condiscipuli, a model for all
priests and pontiffs to imitate (pp. 235-36). He rehearses the qualities the "prince
of the table" embodies: he is magnificus, erudite
 

< previous page_303 next page >

page
< previous page_304 next page >
page
Page 304
circumspectus, curialiter eruditus, civiliter sobrius. He ends the entire chapter by
commending Becket's habits to all bishops: "And you, the bishops who sit at his
table by invitation, be apprised that it behoves you to do the same" ("Vos autem,
invitati pontifices qui sedistis ad mensam, scitote et vos similia debere
parare"238).
That is Herbert of Bosham's remarkable description of the archbishop's table.
The other biographers tend to underplay Becket's magnificence and stress the
piety and asceticism it conceals, but Herbert of Bosham hardly conceals his own
admiration and astonishment at the well-bred opulence of the scene. 33
Herbert's purpose in this long description is to recreate the educating force of the
archbishop's presence. In these passages we have the clearest and most vivid
representation of a "cathedral school" we have yet come across in this study of
cathedral schools. It is the court of the primate of England, not of some emperor
or worldly courtier, as Herbert stresses. And while it may be "magnificent,"
''splendid," and worldly, it is in the moral control and custody of the man at its
center, who is a veritable force-field of discipline, holding servants and guests
alike to the unwritten rules of the house by the radiation of his virtues. Education
in mores is the framework in which Herbert himself places the scene: Becket is
the magister, the guests are discipuli and condiscipuli.34
The boys on the staff35 are "pupils" in a direct and literal sense: their service is a
form of learning the "urbanity," "courtliness," and honestas of their master.
Herbert points out that they are all "well educated" in their tasks (in talibus
eruditi), and so well "prepared" that they carry out their duties with no
commands.36 They are getting what they came there for. They were drawn by
the man's magnificence, and it is taught to them in an "urbane and civil" or
"courtly manner.37 "Educated" is one of the predominant terms of personal
description in the passage.38 We are no doubt justified in seeing in the
banqueting scene a partial but distinct answer to the question, what Prince Henry
and other noble sons studied under Becket as tutor. They are learning civiles
mores and honestas.
They are not the only students in this school. Herbert twice holds up the scene as
a model for other bishops: Becket's moderate and sober use of wine was
"commendable and admirable, a model to imitate for any priest, but especially
for bishops" (p. 236); and he ends by admonishing all pontiffs to take Becket's
table arrangements as a model.
The "subjects" taught in this school pertain to the fourth cardinal virtue,
temperance. Becket is himself the model of restraint and modera-
 

< previous page_304 next page >

< previous page_305 next page >
page
Page 305
tion. The rule of "nothing in excess" is enjoined by precept and embodied in the
practice of the "master" and "prince of the table.''
The arrangements show a remarkably delicate and humane sensibility toward
guests and staff, and these certainly are part of the lessons in temperantia. The
knights (including all secular nobles) are seated at a separate table. This could be
seen as a hierarchic arrangement, or even as a rebuke to the unlettered and
perhaps less polished laity. But it is made to seem an act of humane
consideration: they should not be bored by the readings and discussions in Latin.
Nor should they be made to feel their own ignorance. And they are compensated
for any implied slight in the seating arrangement by having a table more
sumptuous than that of the clerics. This is the sensitive considerateness of a man
who is curialiter eruditus.
The same applies to Becket's own pretense of indulgence. He "concealed his
abstinence for the sake of his table companions with a courtly dissimulation
[civili dissimulatione]" (p. 232). The point of this seemingly arch gesture is that
his companions must not feel rebuked by their bishop's abstinence, and so he
forgoes the prestige of ascetic restraint and pretends to eat as much as they do.
Anyone who wishes to can see this as a case of license smuggled in under the
cloak of virtue, but whatever Becket's motives in indulging, the sensibility that
understood and approved feigned indulgence as an act of courteous consideration
was obviously alive and strong in his disciple, Herbert. 39 Respect,
consideration, courtesy, and deference are the ancillary virtues of temperance,
and for that reason they are appropriate at a banquet conceived as a school of
manners.
This then is a "cathedral school." Like many of its eleventh-century
predecessors, it integrates lessons in virtue and its cultivation into the practical
activities of a bishop's court; it exemplifies discipline; the bishop is the "master,"
teaching by the force of his person; he is surrounded by students, official, and
unofficial. Of course the more technical kinds of instruction do not register in
this scene, but we cannot doubt that they were offered, since waiting on tables is
not a full preparation for knighthood or court service. The curriculum in this
particular classroom we are allowed to look into is honestas.
What then distinguishes Thomas Becket's household from that of, say, Fulbert of
Chartres or Wazo of Liège? Probably not the religious elements, which are
strongly present at Becket's court, though not stressed in my description: the
meal begins and ends with readings and discussions of scripture. Nor is
worldliness by itself the distinguishing feature, since a
 

< previous page_305 next page >

page
< previous page_306 next page >
page
Page 306
bishop's court had to accommodate soldiers and nobles and customarily educated
their sons, in the eleventh no less than the twelfth century. Probably the
distinguishing feature is indicated in the words "courtly and urbane." If either
Fulbert or Wazo had been called urbanus or curialiter eruditus, he probably
would have taken it as an insult. 40 Azelinus of Hildesheim tried to import a
code named for its association with the emperor's court into his household in the
early 1050s, and was criticized for it. Now a code called by the same name is
fully integrated into cultus virtutum,and that is a distinct difference between
eleventh and twelfth century bishops' courts. The archbishop of Canterbury is a
man, like Azelinus, who is famed for winning the favor of worldly lords, and
who, also like Azelinus, brought some of the customs of the king's court with
him to a see previously known for its ascetic rigor. Becket may well have been
criticized for his "splendor" and "magnificence'' as chancellor and as archbishop,
but the dominant voice is praise. "Courtliness" has gained legitimacy. The
biographer himself admits that the scene he describes would do honor to an
emperor's court.
While the dominant in Herbert of Bosham's chapters on the archbishop's table is
imperial magnificence, he injects enough religious elements to raise the question
whether the conception of the banquet as a school of mores came from the
traditions of Canterbury or those of the royal court. There is an important text
that helps us answer it. It is John of Salisbury's Policraticus, dedicated to Becket
and finished in 1159, when Becket's term as chancellor was at its highpoint.
In five chapters (Book 8, chapters 6-10) John discusses and analyses ancient and
Christian banqueting customs, and develops some guidelines for the king's
chancellor. He distinguishes three kinds of banquets: the philosophical, the civil
and the popular (philosophica, civilia, and plebeia8.6, ed. Webb 2: 253; cited
henceforth as 8.6, p. 253). The kind he develops for Becket's edification
combines philosophical and civil. A whole raft of vices beckons to "those who
feast splendidly every day," and it is important to impose on these dangers the
virtues and discipline of modestia and temperantia:
The words of Portunianus were both elegant and true when he said that no
one banquets in a civil way who does not impose on himself the rule of
frugality and modesty in food and drink. Lack of moderation in food or
drink drives away that ordering minister of all duties, Temperance. (8.6, p.
257)
He praises the learned poet who reckoned it appropriate to the "dignity of the
ancients" that they "admitted nothing in the civil gathering which did
 

< previous page_306 next page >

page
< previous page_307 next page >
page
Page 307
not accord with nature or the instruction of manners. 41 The philosophical
should not be separated from the civil banquet, because "philosophy brings
moderation to all things [philosophia rerum omnium moderatrix]." Nothing is
either civil or in accord with duty unless Philosophy has paved the way for it,
and it is important that her ideas become realized in practice, because
What good does it do to huff and puff about duties in the schools of virtue,
if they are then not carried out in actions and in behavior. (8.6, p. 272)
That makes of the civil banquet the ideal stage for lived philosophy. Some may
think the convivia of Socrates and his disciples uncivil because of their austerity
and philosophical intensity, John says:
But civil banquets are . . . freer and less restrained, though not dissolute,
more opulent, and they tendwhile not neglecting modestymore to a general
cheerfulness and good humor than to philosophical rigor. (8.6, p. 273)
Civil banqueting involves an amiable face and generous hand lightening the
general atmosphere while diligently carrying out duties, serving individuals in
accord with a careful account of the person, the place, and the time; the
philosophical is altogether chaste, restrained, and subject to its rules, but:
These duties, sober and purified from any trace of turpitude, do not prevent
Socrates from expounding positive justice . . . do not forbid Timaeus to
explain the causes of all things, nor do they restrain anyone from the
display of any virtue. . . . Delights and pleasures are present without
turpitude; dignity is present without excluding good humor. (8.6, p. 273)
Later he sums up the purpose and essence of the philosophical banquet:
Finally, there is one goal at which the entire striving of the philosophical
gathering aims, namely an honorable conclusion [finis honestus] and a
happy and cheerful outcome, and philosophy will not accomplish this end
unless she imposes Considerateness [verecundiam] as the overseer in every
workshop and on all those who execute duties, for she is the parent . . . of
all honorable counsel, the ward of solemn duties, the mistress [teacher] of
innocence . . . who shows a favorable and approving countenance at all
times and in all places. (8.9, p. 283)
In chapter 9 John includes, almost apologetically, the testimony of holy scripture.
It may seem to pertain more to religion than to civility, he says, but for his part
he refuses to make a sharp distinction between the two, "since nothing is more
civil than the cultivation of virtue [cultui virtutis]"
 

< previous page_307 next page >

< previous page_308 next page >
page
Page 308
(8.9, p. 280). But after side tracks into Christian customs he apologizes to those
who may consider them "more superstitious than civil" (8.10, p. 284) and returns
to where his heart is, the classical tradition.
He develops at great length Macrobius's prescriptions for banqueting from the
Saturnalia. There is much material relevant to Becket's household in these
passages also, 42 but the passages just discussed establish my point: John's
discourse on banqueting for the chancellor virtually repeats the conceptual
framework within which Herbert of Bosham describes the archbishop's table. In
fact it raises the question whether Herbert consulted thePolicraticus in
describing Becket's table. The banqueting chapters of the Policraticus give us a
clear answer to our question: the archbishop's table, as described by Herbert of
Bosham, continues customs of the royal, not the episcopal court as prescribed by
John of Salisbury. Their provenance is distinctly classical, not Christian; their
social context worldly, not religious.
This book started by showing the limited role of civiles mores in Carolingian
education in contrast to "ecclesiastical disciplines." A little more than three
centuries later, the relationship has changed considerably: civiles mores are an
object of instruction at the episcopal court that can command most of the
attention of a bishop's/saint's biographer.
But there are severe limits on this comment. Few bishops' courts in the years
1155-60 will have reached the degree of sophistication and reflection of
Canterbury under Archbishop Thomas Becket, as Herbert of Bosham depicts it.
It may be that not even Canterbury attained it. We are dealing with a stylist
whose avowed purpose is to create in Becket an exemplum of honestas vitae.
But whatever really happened at Canterbury there can be no doubt that the
chancellor's "school of manners" was informed by ideals that fully integrated
cultus virtutum into a chivalric-courtly program of education.
Dying Well
The moment of death, particularly a martyr's death, makes all superfluous things,
thoughts, values, fall away as time gives way to eternity and the present to the
beyond. Herbert of Bosham represents Becket's death as such a reversion to the
essential. Becket showed fortitude and constancy, piety, devotion to church and
so on. Along with these the martyr retains his external composure as an essential
of this critical moment. Like most of Herbert's version, the chapter praising
Becket's patience in meeting death (6.9, pp. 507-13) is long-winded. Here is the
critical passage:
As up to this point [we have observed] not only the signs of inner virtue,
but also of outer polish [ornatus] and, as it were, of the beauty [decus] of
martyr-
 
< previous page_309 next page >
page
Page 309
dom granted to him as his special privilege, so also [in the moment of
death] our lord and patron embellished his martyrdom outwardly with a
fitting and decent composition of the outer man, as though he regarded it
as inappropriate to die for Christ if he did not die becomingly [decenter]
for Christ. 43
Among the elements appropriate for a martyr's death, Herbert of Bosham
includes decorum, good manners, a certain well-proportioned and seemly
posture, indicated in decenter. Even in the moment of deathperhaps especially
thenhis hero cannot do without that outward composition which bespeaks inner
virtue: "This very composition of his body was a prayer to the lord" ("ipsa
corporis compositio oraret Dominum"6.9, p. 508).
This insistent praise of virtue joined to decorum recalls a precept of disciplina
morum from Hugh of St. Victor: for discipline it is not sufficient merely to do
good things, but one must also appear impeccable while doing them; discipline
also requires "the governed movement of all members of the body and a seemly
disposition [dispositio decens] in every posture and act."44 And more distantly,
but distinctly, Herbert's vocabulary recalls the Ciceronian vocabulary of
decorum: ornatus, decus, decenti exterius membrorum compositione decoravit,
decenter.
The passage goes on at length, essentially repeating what was quoted above.
What C. S. Lewis said of Alan of Lille applies well to Herbert of Bosham: he
seems to feel that if a thing is worth saying once it is worth saying three times.
He ends with the observation that Becket's combination of virtue and decorum
will be a thing of admiration for ages to come, though few will be able to imitate
it, because this weak, tepid age produces only self-seeking, vain human beings
(p. 509).
For all its literary faults, Herbert of Bosham's Life of Becket is the first narrative
we have come across in this study in which the ethica of the cathedral schools
has consistently supplied the informing ethos of the work. Up to now we have
relied on particular passages in letters and biographies, personal descriptions
embedded in other contexts. In Herbert's Vita Thomae, ethica consistently guides
the representation of events and provides the terms and concepts that describe
education and human excellence.
***
From the later twelfth century on, lessons in manners become the primary
subject of works instructing in chivalric education. A new kind of literature
arises with a strong didactic cast to it: the courtly romance. At the same time as
the kings chancellor was training future knights in courtesy, the king himself and
his wife were avidly cultivating and patronizing a form of literature that made
the courtly knight a mythical, exemplary figure.
< previous page page_310 next page >
Page 310
To what extent did courtly romance arise as a vehicle for a chivalric
transformation of the old learning? We know that since the end of the eleventh
century clerics had felt it their obligation to teach knights and the lay nobility
civilized manners. The author of "De nuptiis" (ca. 1080) listed something like
this among the functions of Rhetoric:
This art . . . holds kings to the rule of moderation,
It reforms the knighthood, who bear the weapons of Mars,
Teaching them the doctrine of vigilance and lordly ways.
It regulates the manners of youths. . . .
Holding them to civil laws in constant moderation. 45
We know also that literaturepoetry at leastplayed a role in softening and
civilizing the manners of kings and princes. The Latin epic Ruodlieb represented
the ideals of forgiveness, deference, wisdom, courtesy, and courtship that were in
the air in the late eleventh century by projecting them onto a wandering knight
educated at a kings court.
The clerical concern to civilize the lay nobility found its most popular instrument
in the courtly romance. Whether King Arthur and his knights were fetched from
the prop-box of Celtic mythology in order to illustrate courtly social ideals, or
whether those ideals imposed themselves on what was already a popular form
among the knighthood, the symbiosis of the knightly life and the values of cultus
virtutum is a reality of European culture from ca. 1150 on. This point has been
made recently in Aldo Scaglione's important study, Knights at Court:
Courtliness, Chivalry and Courtesy from Ottonian Germany to the Italian
Renaissance. Scaglione connects chivalric-courtly ideals with the moral
discipline of the cathedral schools, and shows a consistent development of these
ideals from the knighthood of the high Middle Ages to the Renaissance. He also
demonstrates that courtly literaturelyric, narrative and didacticprovided important
links in this chain. Instead of repeating Scaglione's argument, I will refer the
interested reader to his book, and move to the final subject of this chapter.
Courtly Love
The music Isolde plays (see Chapter 5 above) did not bring tears to the eyes of
furies and soothe the raging spirit of kings. It inspired love. But there is a logical
progression from Orphic music in the eleventh century to Isoldean
 

< previous page page_310 next page >

< previous page_311 next page >
page
Page 311
in the twelfth and thirteenth. A certain kind of love takes over the function of
civilizing brutes and "reforming the manners of knights."
The study of courtly love 46 is in the same methodological bind as the study of
medieval education. The twelfth century brought startling innovations. These
were in effect the foundation of modern sensibilities and intellectual orientations.
It is a powerful constellation: both love and rational, critical thought appear on
the scene seemingly without precedent; ergo, study the twelfth century and we
study the beginnings of the way we love and think. It encourages us to declare in
many areas "the birth (or rebirth) of"; "the origins of"; "the discovery of"; and
many are the studies of twelfth-century culture and intellectual life with those
words or some variant in the title. But it also obscures the rich and complex
modes of thinking and feeling that preceded, flowed into, amalgamated with, and
ultimately were abandoned by the new, the original, and the reborn. Since
eleventh-century worldly culture appears to us as a blank spot, it is easy to
accept uncritically, or half-critically, the notion that the twelfth century was
created ex nihilo from the minds and hearts of a generation or two of original
geniuses. As with medieval humanism and courtly ethics, so also with romantic
love, there was something there before which flowed into, amalgamated with,
and ultimately was abandoned by it.
What Was There Before
The eleventh-century foundations of courtly love were, first, a conception of love
that defined friendship as love of virtue in another human being47; second, an
ethic and its discipline that aimed at the cultivation of virtue.
The phenomenon is more complex, but reducing it to these two factors
highlights two essential driving forces of love as a public discourse of aristocratic
society prior to the twelfth century, and while reduction means loss, it also
means focus. In this case it gives us a sharp focus on what was and remained one
of love's major features when cultus virtutum moved out of the schools and back
to the courts in the twelfth century: its ennobling force.
"Love" is the ideal mood at secular courts as at cathedral schools.48 The
relatedness of the two institutions is obvious: cathedral schools prepared young
clerics for court service. The atmosphere of peace and love at school prepared
for the ideal atmosphere of the court. The learned courtier transplanted and
maintained it in the worldly setting, partly in order to win the favor of the king
and his court, partly in order to civilize the unruly lay nobles, and the two goals
were closely connected. A standard Latin word for favor is amor. The many
descriptions of clerics "loved" by the king
 

< previous page_311 next page >

< previous page_312 next page >
page
Page 312
testify to the successful pursuit of that goal. Otto III so loved his cleric Tammo
that the two shared the same clothes and at table ate from the same bowl, joining
their hands together when they met in the dish. 49 Bishop Adalbert of Prague
shared the same room with Otto III night and day, because "he loved him."50
Such comments in bishops' and saints' lives are far from indicating any kind of
sexual preference. Interpreting them as signs of homosexuality tolerated has
some oblique validity,51 but it should not obscure the primary purpose of this
discourse of love: it is part of the economy of honor, prestige and standing at
court or in any community. If the king loves a courtier, it is because he has
shown particular virtue, or is able to mediate virtue to the king. This Ciceronian
conception of friendship was of course available to the Middle Ages through
Cicero's most popular work, De amicitia. But we should not imagine a
sensibility created by the reading of a classical work. It was certainly informed,
shaped, and structured by that work, but the sensibility had probably inhered in
aristocratic society since Greek antiquity. Love and refinement of feelings were
one of the many means at the disposal of the aristocracy of showing forth and
rewarding virtue. Passionate friendship distinguished nobles from non-nobles,
just as other codes of behavior did: warrior honor and a refined, cultivated way
of speaking, gesturing, dressing, and living. Passionate friendship is in many
ways the counterpart in peace of warrior honor in combat.
If the love of medieval kings prior to the late eleventh century signaled sexual
preference, then surely there would be some mention of kings who loved women,
and shared their food and bed with them. But there are none (as Dinzelbacher has
shown, "Entdeckung der Liebe"). For the earlier period a comment that a king so
loved such and such a woman that he shared his food, clothes, and bed with her,
would be as inappropriate as an announcement that the king had sexual relations
with men. It would represent a ludicrous intrusion of the private sphere into a
discourse and social custom that was essentially public and ceremonial.52
Women belonged to the private sphere, and they could not participate in a
discourse of love until they emerged into the public sphere. Things written
guaranteed the public and representative nature of the subject and gave any
statements the protection of discursive innocence.53
A suggestion of lust in love relations would deprive the discourse of that which
fueled it: the display of impulse mastered and disciplined. The king's love mixed
with his lust would confer no honor at all, just the opposite, and that means that
the libidinous had no part in ceremonial love
 

< previous page_312 next page >

page
< previous page_313 next page >
page
Page 313
relationships, which represent a claim of the mastery of libido. Needless to say,
behind the mask of ceremony the whole range of private love relationships
played themselves out. Raising the mask was a concern of later ages. How firmly
this discourse was still in place in the twelfth century is shown in the comment
of Roger of Howden, historian of the reign of Henry II, that King Philip
Augustus of France "so honored" Richard Lionheart of England that he "loved
him like his own soul," shared his clothes and his bed with him. 54
The letters and poems of friendship from the eleventh. century schools express
the idea of an exalting love, which makes common cause with discipline and
cultus virtutum.
A poem from the first half of the eleventh century (probably from the vicinity of
St. Emmeram), the "Satyra de amicicia," celebrates friendship based on virtue.55
It begins by lamenting the strife in the world. The poet conjures Amphion
singing to restore harmony and to soften pain and sorrow while his boorish foe
Zethus sows discord, unmoved by the music. Friendship is like music, the poem
continues. It composes men to like-mindedness (a Ciceronian strain) while the
harsh law causes discord. Virtue creates loyal friendships that bind men together,
since it constantly seeks the good (honesta) and repels evil. The poet's wish is
that virtue will hold him and his addressee together and join their hearts in firm
bonds, so that they may rejoice to be called brothers and comrades. Since the
occasion is the poet's joy at his lord's generous act of releasing him from his
unfree status, we can infer that friendship creates equality. Orphic music appears
as a relative of Ciceronian friendship in this early poem. It is a significant
parallel, since it shows friendship based on virtue as part of that civilizing
program borne by the medium of music, hence central to contemporary culture.
Both Orphic music and friendship appear here as the adversaries of rustic
boorishness and the "harsh law."
We see the cult of friendship keeping close company with moral discipline in a
number of the Hildesheim letters. One of the letters directed to a student from a
friend, begins:
When I heard about your safety and well-being, which I fervently desired .
. ., and when I received your greeting, my soul was so filled with joy that
the simple and undivided Easter celebration which others were intent upon
became for me a double festival: the one was the gross, palpable and
corporal festivity all were celebrating; the other, inspired by your letter, is
mine alone, private and unique: the festive and spiritual celebration of your
love. Departing from you was like a descent into grave and gloomy
Egyptian darkness
 

< previous page_313 next page >

< previous page_314 next page >
page
Page 314
where my mind was held captive. . . . But upon receiving your divine
letters, by which you deified me, I was as one led . . . into his own
promised land. . . .
But if the shadowed thought of you and your sun-like words gave me so
great a cause and occasion for joy, how much greater, how much fuller
when you enrich me with your bodily presence and I rejoice to embrace
you and speak with you, exult in this joy, and my whole body dances
inwardly! How long shall I be deprived of your presence with no
consolation? How long shall I be separated from you, my lord and most
beloved? . . . But think not that these tearful interrogations are the result of
despair . . . because the more I seek you with my constant desire, the
greater will be my satisfaction at the dear and sweet delight of some day
being with you. I consider our separation nothing other than the discipline
of conserving what is one day to be shared together [conservande olim
conservantie disciplinatio] . 56
All this was a prelude to the business of the letter. The recipient has asked the
letter writer for advice in finding a teacher appropriate for his studies. The writer
says that he has been hard at work, and has recommended him as "good and
glorious" to French, Normans and Germans. Indeed he has been so industrious
that his friend's fame now precedes him, and the faithful services of many are
promised to him. He assures him that, humble and lowly as he is, a mere nobody
in both letters and in the requisite virtue for the task, he nonetheless has striven
to raise his friend to the pinnacle of honors. He urges him for his part to further
his efforts by his own virtues:
You however, who have received as a gift of nature the highest nobility, an
impressive beauty of bodily shape, see to it, keep on your guard, and be
ever vigilant that your noble humility should make you beloved of all,
approved of all, the intimate friend of all, and that your probity of holy
manners [sanctissimorum morum probitas] should win you favor. (p. 77)
He warns his friend against a teacher at Beauvais, and asks for criticism of his
own unpolished letters:
They come to you unkempt like barefoot country girls to their boy friends,
having hastened in the middle of the night on their way to you their lover,
frivolously uncomposed, forgetting their cosmetics.
The words of love the letter is couched in all but swallow up its meager business,
to find a school for the wandering scholar.
Inseparable from their love is the writer's concern for his friend's reputation and
standing. With his own feeble efforts he works to raise them, but he also exhorts
him to guard his humility (to which his high nobility is presumably a danger).
 This urging is part and parcel of their friendship.
 

< previous page_314 next page >

page
< previous page page_315 next page >
Page 315
The teacher is protecting his friend, guiding him through dangers, by watching
out for his honor and his virtue. Successful study depends on virtue, and the love
of a friend is both a stimulus to heighten it and a medium for its cultivation. The
conserving of their mutual desire is a positive form of discipline.
Boudoir of Bourgueil wrote a poem to a young boy with similar strains. It plays
on themes of homosexual love poetry, 57 but it is a poem of moral correction
teaching essentially the same lesson as the Hildesheim letter. Baudri speaks to
the boy as teacher to disciple. The boy has every gift of nature outwardly: he is
beautiful, his hair is blonde, his skin is ivory, his voice is lovely and
indistinguishable from a girl's, his cheeks just receiving their first down, his body
"divinely" shaped. These features of the boy please Baudri, and he is also pleased
that, given these charms, he refuses "to be Ganymede to Jove." Baudri praises
this in him, and urges him not to be corrupted by false love. While everything
else in the boy pleases Baudri, the boy's manners do not. His problem is
arrogance, which Baudri castigates as improbitas morum: he hardly deigns to
look at others; when they greet him, he passes by silently. He acts as though he
thought he alone ruled on earth. God has created many more beautiful, more
decorous than he, and this outer form will fade soon, like the beauty of flowers.
He should soften his hard heart, give up his arrogance:
I love a humble appearance and despise a stiff neck.
Therefore, if you wish, boy, to please me,
Put aside these lofty airs,
Smile at him who smiles at you, make fitting responses.
Soften that stiff head and rigid eyes. (ll. 56-59)
There can be no question of Baudri courting a desirable boy. He is plainly
correcting his manners, making him fit for a worthy love. The master is tuning
the boy's mores to his body, his inner to his outer world, and imposing due
temperance and moderation all the more urgently the greater the physical beauty.
The "lesson" repeats the "moral" correction of the Hildesheim letter just
discussed: do not let the gifts of nature make you arrogant; study to win men's
affection. The boy is courting the teacher, not vice versa; he wants to please
Baudri, and is not doing so. There is a tinge of the erotic in the poem, of course,
but that was probably inherently present in studentteacher relations in the old
learning. It can be a useful pedagogic instrument. Love and affection were
precisely the medium in which
 

< previous page page_315 next page >

< previous page_316 next page >
page
Page 316
moral correction could take place without resentment. It must have been
particularly important when a teacher dealt with high nobility. It was the medium
in which Guibert of Nogent received instruction in mores. He received brutal
correction with gratitude because he loved his teacher so. It even neutralized
contempt for the teacher's ignorance.
Love in pedagogy means control of the students will: he surrenders his will to
his teacher, who puts his absolute control over the student to whatever purpose
he sees fit. Some no doubt took advantage of that dominance to ravish their
students. 58 Baudri is clearly putting his power over the boy to use to correct,
not to ravish him. His poem is about cultivation of virtue, and that reading must
be regarded as primary to any suggestion of homosexual courtship.59
The problem of whether homosexuality is concealing itself behind moral
instruction, or vice versa, is not easily answered, and the ''joke" (in Bond's
sensesee n. 47 above) may be on both homo- and anti-sexual readers. The
ambiguity of the discourse is part of its nature. For my point at present it is
enough to show that passionate love and correction of mores made common
cause. The correction of a youth's arrogance in the framework and through the
language of erotic love, is an arrangement of moral discipline. Whatever play
with erotic motives is present, the accepted, normative, legitimate discourse at
work here is that of cultus virtutum.
What Was New in the Twelfth Century
What does this have to do with courtly love? I would suggest that it opens to
view the foundations of its ethical aspects. These few texts show us clearly that
the schools practised a ceremonial love which demonstrated the presence of
virtue in the lovers and served as a medium to heighten the virtue and increase
the honor of both partners, but especially of the student partner. Cultus virtutum
took place in this mediumor was supposed to. It spoke the language of
passionate love and played on its erotic elements while accounting it the part of
virtue to control eros. The same language had played an important part also at
worldly courts at least since Carolingian times in describing favor relationships
between king and courtiers. Alcuin and Charlemagne, Adalbert and Otto III,
show that the love relation of king to tutor is present at early medieval courts.
Given the close connection between court and school from the mid-tenth century
on, we can assume a connection between court love or the kings love and cultus
virtutum.
Two essential innovations occur in this discourse at the end of the
 

< previous page_316 next page >

page
< previous page_317 next page >
page
Page 317
eleventh century: women are admitted to it and gradually assume the role of
educator (at least are represented in this role); and with them, private elements
enter what was previously a public, ceremonial discourse and begin to imbue that
discourse with an overtly masking character that previously it had only had
covertly. One of the symptoms of the shift is that Ovid supersedes Cicero as the
ancient authority on love relationships. 60
Hennig Brinkmann (n. 47 above) argues that courtly love in its origins was a
creation of learned clerical poets, like Marbod, Baudri and Hildebert, who
brought their classical learning to bear in letters and poems written to high
courtly ladies. Of the various theories on the origins of courtly love, this one has
the advantage of providing a social context for the phenomenon. The Loire circle
had close contacts to Duke William IX of Aquitaine, the first troubador.
What this study can add to Brinkmann's model is the insight that a pedagogy of
moral discipline had a major role to play in the formation of the ethical aspects
of courtly love.
Since the late eleventh century we can observe the tendency to transfer the
language of cultus virtutum onto a sphere of life that previously had been mute:
love relations between men and women.61 The poet of Ruodlieb (ca. 1070) has
his proto-chivalric hero seek a bride who "would not be unbefitting our noble
blood, but who would also ornament our nobility with her manners and with the
inborn nobility of her conduct." The hero's advisor then recommends a young
lady who is "your equal in probity of manners [moris honestate], virtue and
nobility." Such a woman could give Ruodlieb a son who would be "the heir of
your manners, your virtues, your goods.''62 Virtue and good manners register
here as important qualities in a woman regarded as potential lover and spouse.
This shows women admitted to the gentleman's club of a discourse on virtuous
love. It is generally agreed that the Ruodlieb anticipates and creates social values
rather than recording current practice among the aristocracy. If that is the case
with virtue and manners as a criterion of a good wife, then we have a fairly clear
case of a learned cleric imposing the neo-classical language of cultus virtutum
onto the representation of courtship customs.
Baudri of Bourgueil writes poems of courtship to women (in the mode of the
iocus amoris) which amalgamate the language of flirtatious wooing with the
practice of disciplina morum. To Lady Constance, he proposes a chaste love
(castus amor) which lacks all the dangers of erotic love.63 In his "song of love"
(carmen amoris) he pleads, "Let our hearts be joined, but our bodies remain
sundered; for all the play [iocus] in our
 

< previous page_317 next page >

page
< previous page page_318 next page >
Page 318
writing, let there be purity in our deeds." 64 Though Baudri claims not to be torn
by his passion, or titillated in his flesh and innards, yet he loves her:
I love you vehemently; all of me loves all of you.
You alone do I enfold in my bosom.
This kind of love, it is dear,
Is not common, but special,
A special love, not subject to the flesh,
Nor marked by illicit desire. (ll. 72-80)
Indifferent to her flesh, except its purity, he depicts her outward form with only
one end in mind, "that your outer shape should show forth the form of your
character." The "flowered" virgin puts forth "florid manners" so that she may
flourish inwardly more than outwardly (ll. 86-88). Many a young man has tried
to play Jupiter and Mars to her Juno, Danae, Io and Venus, but she remains a
chaste Diana. The two of them should take a new path, free of panderers: "Let us
take the path of virtues and climb to the stars'' (113).
Here a desirable woman, courted by many youths, receives an invitation to play a
"game" of love whose purpose is the cultivation of virtue and the attunement of
outer beauty to inner. It depends on a love seen as "special" and distinguished for
being chaste.65
Another poem by Baudri shows us courtship, with many affinities to courtly
love, practiced within the context of court society. Brinkmann points out Baudri's
long poem to Countess Adela of Blois as a bridge between learned Latin poetry
(there is an elaborate allegory of learning in the description of the countess's
bedchamber) and courtly love.66 The chaste, honest countess has many
handsome suitors distinguished for their probitas. But those who have tried to
tempt the countess have found their efforts fruitless, since her marriage bed is
protected by an inviolable pact. Baudri understands the efforts of her suitors:
Her unusual beauty and incomparable loveliness
Commend her, as does her pleasant conversation.
But who could soften her flinty resolve?
Their gazing on her is pointless, though delightful.
Nourished by empty hopes, they dream of grand rewards,
And strain their eyes with gawking. (ll. 67-72)
 

< previous page page_318 next page >

< previous page_319 next page >
page
Page 319
So here we have the distant domna drawing the men of court to her by her virtue
and beauty but thwarting their vain hopes by her chastity and loyalty. He does
not say that she sends them out to polish their manners and accomplish bold feats
before granting them any hope. It is the framework of courtly love without, for
the moment, its educating aspect. The educating force of love is present in other
poems of this circle to women, however. 67
The cult of love that finds expression in Provencal and Old French love lyric
from the early twelfth century on draws on the concepts and terminology of
cultus virtutum. There is massive testimony to this influence,68 but we can
observe it best by staying with expressions of courtly love in Latin. The classic
work on the subject was written by a learned cleric, chaplain of the king of
France, to a young man named Walter who wishes to learn the ways of worldly
love. Andreas Capellanus's De amore (ca. 1174), however one judges the nature
of its discourse and the attitude of its author toward its subject,69 is informed by
the language of moral discipline. The two aspects of love that predominate in the
work emerge in his chapter on "The Effects of Love."70 Love turns the
avaricious man generous; it makes the rough, uncultivated man blossom with
beauty; it enriches even the lowborn with "nobility of manners" (nobilitate
morum); it turns arrogant men humble, and it "decorates'' a man with the virtue
of chastity (because he seeks only a single lover). Andreas's summarizing praise:
"What a wonderful thing is love, since it makes a man shine with such virtues,
and teaches him to abound in good manners [docet . . . bonis moribus abundare]"
( 1.4.1-3, p. 38).
In opening the long chapter on "How love is won" (1.6), Andreas cites five
"modes": beauty of appearance, honesty of character, fluent and eloquent speech,
great wealth, and easy granting of favors. He at once excludes the last two from
serious consideration. That leaves the "modes": formae venustas, morum
probitas, and copiosa sermonis facundia. The latter two are of course goals so
central to cathedral school teaching as to be a variant of the formula, "letters and
manners." The first tends to keep close company with the other two in
descriptions of well educated men.71 And of course the logic of virtue made
visible commended both eloquent speech and physical beauty as outward
indicators of inner beautyin students no less than in lovers.
A distinctive feature of Andreas' conception is the image of love as an instructor
(docet), whose curriculum is virtue and good manners. Probitas
 

< previous page_319 next page >

page
< previous page_320 next page >
page
Page 320
morum is the common formulation in Andreas, though he also speaks of
honestas morum, nobilitas morum, cultura morum, boni mores, and simply
mores. Virtue appears now as a prerequisite and now as a result of love, and
those two contradictory roles can become the object of debate in the dialogues
between women and their suitors. It is worth wondering whether love's ability to
make a plain man handsome is a reminiscence of the old learning's ambition to
"overcome nature."
Andreas consistently depicts women as teachers and men as students. In a
passage of the dialogue between a man of the lower class (plebeius) and a
woman of the higher nobility (nobilior) the man admires the woman's
"comprehensive knowledge of the art of love" (omnino in amoris arte
instructam1.6.146, p. 80) and requests that she become his teacher (vestram in
amore deposco doctrinam). He is all the more urgent in pressing this request
since he knows that all urbanity (urbanitas), all good deeds, and all kindness
(bonitas) are due to love's teaching (147). The woman reproaches him for having
requested first her love, then her teaching, thus showing his first request
unworthy (velut indoctus in amoris petis disciplina doceri148). But she accedes
to his request, lest she set a miserly example if "experts" (periti) should refuse
their instruction (sua documenta) to the "less learned seeking instruction'' (minus
eruditis quum postulant edoceri).
Her instruction follows. A lover must show generosity through acts of charity,
particularly to impoverished nobles. He must be "humble to all and ready to
serve all." He must never speak ill of anyone, but where he sees evil men, he
should discreetly reprove their bad behavior. He should never mock someone in
distress. He should not be prone to quarrels and arguments (litigiosus vel ad
rixas faciendas promptus esse non debet ), but rather should strive to reconcile
disputes and arguments. He should moderate his laughter, especially in the
presence of women. The "governance of love" requires great wisdom: In amoris .
. . gubernatione prudentia grandis exigitur. He should "enthusiastically study
and aspire to the great achievements of the ancients." He must bear himself with
courage and wisdom in battle. He must not adorn his body excessively. He must
show himself as "prudent, sociable and pleasant to all" (sapientem atque
tractabilem et suavem . . . omnibus). He should avoid lying, excessive talking
and excessive silence. If anyone deceives him or treats him in an uncourtly
manner, he must "reciprocate with kindness and render him service in every way,
thus prudently forcing him to acknowledge his fault." He must be hospitable,
must honor clerics and the church (cf. 1.146-60, pp. 80-84).
Some of the main themes of cathedral school teaching are touched on
 

< previous page_320 next page >

< previous page_321 next page >
page
Page 321
here: a learned teacher of virtue passes on to her student admonitions to humility,
generosity, gentleness, deference, kindness etc. Virtually none of the lessons
would have been out of place in the moral discipline of the schools (bold combat
is the one exception), and some of them are central virtues of that discipline.
Two of the most common features of cultus virtutum are missing from this list of
virtues: the notion of virtue made visible, and well-disciplined gesturing and
walking. Both occur in the De amore, though they are not prominent features. 72
In their role as teachers women also take on charismatic functions, in Andreas as
elsewhere in the literature of courtly love. The vir nobilior opens his address by
saying that nothing a man does is of any value unless he acts to do the will of a
lady, since "all good things manifestly derive from women." This imposes on
women the obligation to heighten man's virtue by the power that flows from their
eyes: "To men who perform good deeds they must show themselves in such a
light that the worth of such men seems to grow in every way from virtue to
virtue under their gaze."73 This is like that charismatic radiation which flowed
''in a living stream" from the breast of Pernolf of Würzburg, also like the
transforming power of Bernard of Clairvaux: "You need merely see him and you
are edified, you need only hear his voice and you are learned." The force of
Isolde's presence is similarly charged: "Whoever gazes at Isolde, his heart and
soul are refined like gold in the white-hot flame; his life becomes a joy to live. . .
Her beauty makes others beautiful."74
One final point on De amore: Andreas (or the cleric of his dialogue) opposes
"pure love" to "mixed love" (amor purus, amor mixtus1.6.470-75, p. 180). "Pure
love" is preferable; it is the source of all goodness (totius probitatis origo) and it
is constantly growing. The woman doubts that such a love can exist, but
concedes that a man able to love thus would be "most worthy of all honor."
Marbod and Baudri had also propounded a castus amor of both women and men,
and opposed it to the carnal love which they rejected.
It would be possible to analyse the ethical language of the De amore in much
greater detail,75 but it would only underscore the point already made: the work
draws heavily on the vocabulary and concepts of cultus virtutum. Where else
should a learned worldly cleric have found the matter for a treatise on the art of
loving honeste than from the ethic of honestas of the cathedral schools? In place
of a loved, charismatic teacher, we now have a loved woman; in place of
"perfection," sublimitas, the granting of the lord's
 

< previous page_321 next page >

page
< previous page_322 next page >
page
Page 322
"love" and favor as consummating points of this curriculum, we now have the
granting of a woman's love. These affinities are present in Andreas's work
whatever ambiguities inform his presentation and his attitude toward courtly
love.
This is far from an argument that courtly love originates in the old learning. It
focuses on one aspect of a phenomenon that is richer and more complex. That
aspect is one of the many paradoxes of courtly love, perhaps its central one: it
subjects eros to rigorous ethical discipline. The discipline of the schools had
always sought to restrain the motus animi and the motus corporis, to sublimate
and channel them into "virtue." It had always striven to "overcome nature." But
the move of "honest love" from men/men to men/women relations made the
mastery of eros a virtuoso act, and no longer just a difficult one. It also made
women for the first time presentable as players and speakers in a public
discourse on love that granted virtue, prestige and honor.
***
A clear pattern emerges in the movement of disciplina morum into worldly
courts. Bad manners of the lay aristocracy provoke a response from learned
clerics (who regard it as one of their main duties to instruct and correct the laity);
abuses draw clerical values into the worldly sphere as civilizing, moderating
forces; the conflict of challenge (lay boorishness and brutality) and clerical
response eventually resolves itself in a new social ideal. Some instances:
1. The peace movement has been outside the scope of this study, but it appeared
on the periphery (Orphic poetry, Chapter 5). The violence, lawlessness, and
depradations of the French nobles are met by a program of social and spiritual
sanctions, and the conflict of lay violence with clerical pacification ends in the
ideal of the Christian militia. 76
2. The development of courtly manners: lay (and sometimes clerical)
aristocracyabstracting their social values from those appropriate to war-
fareidealize a harsh, militant, abrasive social persona, and this is answered by
clerical opposition (e.g., the conflict of Wall of St. Arnulf with Manasses of
Rheims), ending in a code of restrained, refined manners called "courtliness"
(curialitas, facetia).
3. The cult of woman in courtly literature: lay nobles treat women with brutality
and contempt, and an ideal of refined, gentle, submissive behavior in love,
appropriated at least in part from a clerical ideal of love and friendship, infuses
the representation of malefemale love relationships.77
 

< previous page_322 next page >

< previous page_323 next page >
page
Page 323
4. Conduct and etiquette: lay nobles dress extravagantly, eat crudely, speak
foully, walk in affected and exotic ways. Clerics protest, and lay nobles are soon
hedged in by ideals of "beautiful manners" and "discipline." 78
The phenomenon I referred to earlier as "crisis control" shows up any time the
mores of lay aristocracy assert themselves against the values of learned worldly
clerics. The laity's bad manners are met by clerical resistance motivated by a
civilizing impulse.
Learned men were at virtually every court. There had to be tutors of princes. As
polished manners became part of a code of the aristocracy, courtly education
became imperative. Learned men were present at court to spiritualize and civilize
courtly social norms, transforming them through their knowledge and experience
of ethical discipline. The biographers of Thomas Becket represented him as
injecting the learning of mores into a court which rather rose to his standards
than raising him to theirs. Just as Becket transformed the worldly banquet into a
school of urbanity and honestas, joining philosophy and civility, others will have
tried to reshape and transform carnal love and the pursuit of women in the same
direction. (We recall that Thomas Becket himself was not a stranger to court
love practices. John of Salisbury admitted it reluctantly.) Andreas Capellanus,
writing a Latin tract on refined courtship and seduction practices, subjects the
pursuit of the erotic to a pedagogy of fine manners, and this isapart from
Andreas's self-undermining discoursea good parallel to the biographers of
Becket.
At the end of this chapter it is important to raise the question whether courtliness
and courtly love were anything other than discourse. Have we just been
observing the enculturation of living social ideals, or the textualization and
imaginative transformation of dead or dying ones? It is at present impossible to
say. Some of the best scholarship on the question argues the unreality of courtly
ideals: Bumke, Höfische Kultur and Schnell, "Höfische Liebe als höfischer
Diskurs über die Liebe," to mention only two. I am skeptical about the wholesale
denial of the reality and institutionalizing of these codes and have suggested
some ways of falsifying or confirming the two opposed positions.79 What is
beyond doubt is that courtliness and courtly love experienced a discursive
explosion in the years after about 1150.
That places us in an odd situation: documentation seems to stand in an inverse
proportion to the reality of the phenomena documented. The attestation of cultus
virtutum for the late tenth and eleventh centuries was sparse but decisive: that
curriculum existed and was a practiced code at cathedral schools. The statements
of masters and students and the institu-
 

< previous page_323 next page >

< previous page_324 next page >
page
Page 324
tional accommodation assure us of its "reality." It was instrumental in creating a
human type demonstrably at work shaping men according to the requirements of
high administrative positions of church and state. From the second half of the
twelfth century on, we have massive testimony to similar ideals in court society,
but serious scholars can deny their reality as social practices.
The texts cited from Becket's biographies pose the problem clearly: modes of
behavior are brought to bear in describing the archbishop's habits that
demonstrably derive from cultus virtutum. The archbishop's table becomes a
school of moderation and temperance. But we cannot say for certain that those
descriptions represent actual practice at Becket's court. They may be responses to
John of Salisbury's banqueting sections of the Policraticus, cribbed from
Macrobius's Saturnalia, prescriptive and not descriptive. No other school in
Europe contemporary with Becket to my knowledge was a school of virtue
comparable to the Canterbury of the Becket biographies. But in the eleventh and
early twelfth century, such "schools" of virtue had existed in fact.
Given the current uncertainty about the reality of courtly ideals after courtly
literature, it seems prudent to put forward a model of development in the form of
probable surmise. We can identify two stages: from 950 to ca. 1100 a school
curriculum and a practice of schools and courts generated a discourse; whereas
from ca. 1150 to the end of the Middle Ages and beyond, a discourse generated
social ideals.
 

< previous page_324 next page >

page
< previous page_325 next page >
page
Page 325

CONCLUSION
This study ends with some general reflections on its subject rather than a
summary. The movement it has observed is the second of three major events in
the development of European education in the Middle Ages. Each produced
changes in western thought, culture, and institutions.
The first were the Carolingian educational reforms. They shaped or reshaped the
seven liberal arts as a school curriculum and as the basic framework of
education. They made rudimentary grammatical, rhetorical and scriptural
learning available on a broader scale and created a literate culture in Europe
where there had been virtually none before. 1 The institutional shift that made
the spread of learning possible on a large scale was the revitalizing of monastic
and cathedral schools.
The second began in the Ottonian educational innovations and flowed into the
intellectual trend I have referred to as medieval humanism. Its institutional basis
was the cathedral school as conveyor of "civil manners" (civiles mores) and
educator of future administrators in worldly and ecclesiastical courts. It
considerably broadened the basis on which court and civil education were
available. Its contribution to rational thought was minimal, in fact retarding,
since it was based on personal authority and discouraged skeptical, critical
thinking. Its cultural contribution, however, was the social values of the
European aristocracy, at least that side of their social values that set gentleness
and modesty against harshness and arrogance, the codes of behavior we know as
civility and courtesy.
The third change occurred in the course of the twelfth century. It represented a
shift to rational inquiry and systematic critical thought. Its institutional
foundation were the independent schools in Paris which emerged in the course of
the twelfth century as a result of the end of the bishop's monopoly on instruction.
Its intellectual contribution was scholasticism. Its cultural contribution was
minimal2; the individual schools evolved into the institution of the university,
and its bequest is that institution with its traditions of systematic, critical thought.
Monasticism gave Europe new ways of studying; humanism gave it
 

< previous page_325 next page >

page
< previous page_326 next page >
page
Page 326
new ways of behaving; scholasticism gave it new ways of thinking. Political
policy and patronage stood behind each of these shifts. The first was
Carolingian, the second Ottonian, the third Capetian.
The first and third of these movements have commanded the attention of
intellectual historians. The history of the second has still to be written. I have
tried to formulate a typology of its curriculum, an outline of its development and
a conceptual framework within which its history can be described. Its main
points are
in its origins:
1) The institutional move from royal/imperial court to cathedral schools.
2) A curriculum involving the broadening of the orator's education of antiquity to
a general medieval education in conduct, from civiles mores to civilitas.
in its development and decline:
3) A culture of personal charisma and authority ceding to an intellectual culture
based on systematized rational thinking that required the written text as its
ultimate medium, 3
4) The transformation of a charismatic school culture into a textualized court
culture, which in turn generated or helped generate social ideals and narrative
forms based on personal charisma (courtliness, courtly literature, courtly love).
The research for this study has made me skeptical of terms like "Christian
ethics," "medieval ethics," "the ethics of the Christian Middle Ages" as they are
currently used. Handbook accounts of these concepts ordinarily move from
Augustine to Abelard to Thomas Aquinas, and locate the subject within the field
of thought and influences set in place by those three figures; that is, they follow
the logical but misleading criterion of textual wealth. No history of ethics or
philosophy I know of takes into account the pre-Abelardian school discipline
known as ethica, moralis philosophia, moralitas. These terms have a clear and
distinct content. The curriculum and the concepts they express dominated the
cathedral schools from the late tenth to the early twelfth centuries. They deserve
a place in the history of thought and education.
 

< previous page_326 next page >

page
< previous page_327 next page >
page
Page 327
They are also useful in social, literary, and political analysis of the Middle Ages.
The conceptual and pedagogic apparatus of cultus virtutum provides categories
for understanding and judging behavior and conduct. They get us into the fabric
of human interrelationships; they equip us with the contemporary language of
friendship, love, and conflict, and with a vocabulary for describing a whole
spectrum of "attitudes" (habitus, status) that created and defined issues. They are
important in analyzing social and political conflict, for instance that of the
schools of Würzburg and Worms; of Wazo of Liège with the imperial court; of
Bishop Azelinus with the conservative clergy of Hildesheim; of Wall of St.
Arnulf and others with Archbishop Manasses of Rheims. They show the real
social issues at stake, for instance in a "school poem" as opaque and obscure as
the eleventh-century "De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae." That poem's Orpheus
sang in the underworld with essentially the same motive as Wall of St. Arnulf
"mitigating the fury" of Archbishop Manasses and the starving students of
Hildesheim pleading for mercy with Bishop Hezilo.
These are things that are as elusive as motives and sensibilities. They are
difficult to get at for the Middle Ages, since its historical sources tend to place
little stress on behavior and its analysis, and the literary-didactic sources that do
are stymied by hermeneutic indeterminism. In the current critical climate, very
few readers of courtly literature and courtesy books would venture an estimate of
the social reality to which the literature of courtesy refers. That climate for
medieval literary studies is dominated by the opposition of the real to the ideal. 4
This conceptual opposition banishes the conveyors of courtly ideals to a
detached aesthetic realm with no ties to social reality. The study of medieval
literature has been strongly under the influence of E. R. Curtius,5 and that means
it is haunted by the wan ghosts called "topoi." Curtius helped us look on
medieval literature as a composite of received forms, as texts generated by other
texts. But many of the "mere" topoi from antiquity on which Curtius based his
great study turn out to be the clothing for vital ideas, alive, powerful, and at
work transforming the society that produced them via the medium of literature.
A discipline of conduct was a reality at cathedral schools. We know some of its
central values and virtues: love, friendship and peace that make possible the
cultivation of gentleness and humane kindness; elegance and beauty of manners,
composed bearing, restrained and moderated conduct in gesturing, walking,
eating, laughing; joviality, charm, grace, and good humor. We know that these
concepts made their way outward from the schools to influence conduct and its
pedagogy in other areas of society:
 

< previous page_327 next page >

page
< previous page_328 next page >
page
Page 328
communities of canons regular, monks (though I have found no evidence that
monastic communities adopted them), and, above all, worldly courts. The
literature of the courts after ca. 1155 appears like a literature of pure fantasy and
high-flung fairy-tale ideals when read in isolation. But when read against the
background of cultus virtutum, it appears as the bearer of a long-established code
of refined manners.
The discourse of the old learning is the shadow and cipher of life. The virtue it
taught made no sense apart from embodied, lived and experienced virtue.
Compositio morum is an abstraction from the body, hence it has to have one. The
body of virtue can be either living or fictional. But the history of cultivating
virtue from the tenth to the twelfth century makes it clear that it began with
embodied virtue and moved to textualized. The letter of Meinhard to G. of
Cologne once again is paradigmatic for those priorities: the teacher says to his
student, in effect, think constantly of your father, what he was and what you owe
him, and, by the way, do not forget the Tusculan Disputations; the greatest work
of ancient philosophy can be helpful also. The textbook is fine, but it cannot
compare in immediacy of impact with the real or recollected presence of a
human being. Those priorities assure us that cultus virtutum had to be, in its
origins, lived and embodied ideals. They became abstract and cut themselves off
from real embodiment when they lost their institutional base. At that point ideals
were, so to speak, placed on their own. Their embodiment came to depend on the
charisma of their representation, though Thomas Becket is a possible exception,
if his charismatic presence inspired the texts which convey it to usand that is an
entirely reasonable assumption.
The history of cultus virtutum also tells us something about the way European
social values were made in the Middle Ages. They began as a school discipline,
one conceived and implemented at and around the royal/imperial court, initially
to serve it. This discipline drew on ancient social and political ideals. "Renewal
of the Roman empire" was a political program, and this influenced the
educational program that served imperial ends. Also, Roman writers had given
the most sophisticated formulations to some of the goals of cathedral school
education: the preparation for state service through training in eloquence and
civiles mores. Once this elite discipline moved from the court into the cathedral
schools, it trained far more people than the imperial and royal courts could
accommodate. But that was all right, because everybody wanted to behave the
way the king or emperor and his retinue behaved, and that behavior came to be a
desirable quality for administrative service at cathedrals as well. And so an
applied
 

< previous page_328 next page >

page
< previous page_329 next page >
page
Page 329
education became a general education. The training of a "splendid man of
administration" simply became the training of a "splendid man," and ultimately
also of a splendid woman. What began as applied educational goals developed
into social values.
Finally, this study provides a closer look at the worldly culture of the eleventh
century, especially in the schools but also to some degree in the courts. That
secret garden all but shut its doors to later generations, and its secretive
gardeners were oblivious to the problems that their silence and obscurity were
going to cause historians centuries later. They did not leave us texts, and modern
scholarship, its apparatus created to deal with texts and to process words, has
understandably asked what they read and what they wrote. When Pernolf of
Würzburg taught he had his voice, body, facial expressions, a few books, and a
memory filled to overflowing. That equipment was adequate. It allowed the
"beauty of many poets" to beam from him and the "living stream of learning" to
flow from his breast.
Insofar as historians have wondered about the eleventh-century school culture at
all, their evaluation was guided necessarily by the presuppositions of a book
culture. Those presuppositions make it hard to distinguish a great philosopher-
teacher who wrote nothing from a mediocrity who wrote nothing. The example
of Pernolf of Würzburg and others like him focuses our attention on the tyranny
of documentation to which the historian is subject. Tucked away in the modern
historical consciousness are a few embedded commands that say to the silent
"philosophers" and school masters of the eleventh century: Why can't you be
more like Peter Abelard, or Peter Lombard, or Alan of Lille?
Treating the early cathedral schools as institutions of a charismatic culture helps
judge the age by the criteria that apply to it. It urges us to regard the humanist
monuments of the twelfth-century renaissance as in part responses to the fading
vitality of the previous age, and it encourages us to ask to what extent the
eleventh century was the auctor absconditus or architectus absconditus of the
twelfth.
 

< previous page_329 next page >

page
< previous page_331 next page >
page
Page 331

APPENDIX A.
MORAL DISCIPLINE AND GOTHIC SCULPTURE:
THE WISE AND FOOLISH VIRGINS OF THE STRASSBURG CATHEDRAL
The move from hieratic stiffness to realism and plasticity that occurs in sculpture
in the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries poses a problem for the
historian of art and of ideas. Whose hieratic rigidity of thought and feeling
produced the stiffness of early Gothic? And whose humanism created the supple
nuanced humanity of high Gothic? When a certain conception of the human
figure is expressed in stone, where does it come from? It is a short-circuiting of
historical thought to say, "The late thirteenth century represented the human
figure so beautifully, so supplely, so individualisticallywhat a high concept of
humanity and individualism that age must have had!" Comparing moral
discipline at the schools with its representation in sculpture offers a model case
of the infusion of cultus virtutum into artand shows sculpture as a latecomer to
ideals of grace, beauty and restraint in the human figure.
The wise and foolish virgins on the south portal of the west façade of Strassburg
cathedral are our test case. These figures have stood in the shadow of the great
statues of Ecclesia and Synagoge, created in Strassburg some forty years earlier.
But along with their older sisters they are no doubt among the most beautiful
representations of women that remain to us from the Middle Ages. The statues
date from ca. 1290. They are products of high Gothic sculpture in its full
blossom, the height of its plasticity, dynamism, and realism (illustrations 1-8). 1
The extraordinary nuancing in posture and facial expression created a series of
portraits in which the sculptor's individualizing and idealizing impulses are in
perfect concord.
Perhaps their most striking feature is what we might call their moral
transparency. They are representations of vices and virtues, but this meaning has
to be read from their bodies, their posture, their facial expressions, the tilt of
their heads. It is a decisive break with tradition. The tradition of representing the
vices and virtues required some sort of emblem or external
 

< previous page_331 next page >

page
< previous page page_332 next page >
Page 332

Figure 1.
Christ and wise virgins. Source: Reinhardt, La cathèdrale 
de Strasbourg, Pl. 112.
 

< previous page page_332 next page >

< previous page_333 next page >
page
Page 333

Figure 2.
The tempter and foolish virgins. Source: Reinhardt, La 
catbé-drale de Strasbourg, Pl. 111.
 

< previous page_333 next page >

page
< previous page page_334 next page >
Page 334

Figure 3.
The tempter with foolish virgin. Source: Schmitt, Gotische 
Skulpturen des Strassburger Münsters, vol. 2, Ill. 134.
 

< previous page page_334 next page >

< previous page page_335 next page >
Page 335

Figure 4.
Foolish virgins. Source: Schmitt, Gotische Skulpturen, vol. 2, Ill. 135.
 

< previous page page_335 next page >

< previous page_336 next page >
page
Page 336

Figure 5.
Wise virgin. Source: Reinhardt, 
La cathédrale de Strasbourg, Pl. 109.
 

< previous page_336 next page >

page
< previous page page_337 next page >
Page 337

Figure 6.
Wise virgin. Source: Schmitt, Gotische Skulpturen, vol. 2, Ill. 144.
 

< previous page page_337 next page >

< previous page page_338 next page >
Page 338

Figure 7.
Wise virgin. Source: Schmitt, Gotische Skulpturen, vol. 2, Ill. 141.
 

< previous page page_338 next page >

< previous page_339 next page >
page
Page 339
narrative device to make the quality represented visible. 2 Facial expression,
stature and posture played no part in identifying the symbolic meaning of the
figure. In fact often enough the ''good" forces are identical with the
"evil""isocephalic," as the art historians sayand the difference is signaled only by
some patched-on device. The virtues and vices at Notre Dame of Paris (1210)
are virtually indistinguishable. Each figure holds a circle that contains an
emblem. These and not their physical appearance constitute their identity.3
The Strassburg virgins, by contrast, carry their emblems in the contours of their
bodies. They dramatize and enact virtue or vice rather than wearing its symbol as
a badge. The medium of representation has moved from the external narrative
device to the flesh; the mode of representation has shifted from abstract
signalizing to incarnation.
As long as virtue could be externalized in an emblem, individuality and plasticity
of representation had no role to play Once it was conceived as inherent in
posture and facial expression, the sculptor faced a new challenge and required
new techniques of realism to make the ideals of virtue visible in the flesh.
Each of the virgins is recognizable and distinct from each of the others. But it is
not apparent that they represent individual virtues. It is possible to recognize
them as individuals, but not as symbols. We cannot say that one shows chastity,
another humility, and another modesty. It seems rather that a whole complex of
virtues coalesces in each of the figures.
The beauty of the wise virgins is startling. Each has full swelling lips and a well-
shaped nose. The dimples in chin and checks lend realism to the portraits and
suggest that the sculpting is the observable molding that occurs in the human
body, not an artificial device of the sculptor in stone (cf. illustrations 6-7 and
frontispiece).
But the expressiveness of the group is constituted especially by posture and facial
expression. The tilt of the head is made to suggest extraordinary nuances of
character and mood. The round-faced wise virgin looking to her left (illustration
6) seems to be drawing back as though in questioning retreat, but also is
perfectly poised to respond to whatever she is facing. This tension is created by
angling the chin back very slightly from the forehead. The posture conveys
restrained strength and testing scrutiny, a quality conveyed in the human form in
reality when the head is tilted forward while the eyes fasten on something
straight ahead. The impression is strengthened in this figure by the narrowing of
her eyes. The Strassburg virgin exudes both wisdom and fortitude, and she seems
tensed to exercise those virtues in the
 

< previous page_339 next page >

< previous page_340 next page >
page
Page 340
imaginary moment in which the sculptor caught her. But for the figure as a
whole, any suggestion of tenseness and challenge is dissolved in the relaxed
poise of the body (illustration 5). The left hand drops limply from the mantle-
string, and the body is shifted slightly, its weight placed on the right foot. She is
at her ease and not on her guard. This backward tilt of the body answers the
forward tilt of the head. The over-all impression is of strength coupled with
restraint and of a mean struck between opposing tensions.
The figure third from Christ's left (frontispiece) has a nobly elongated nose. Her
full, sensual lips are set off by a distinct tuck from her dimpled chin. Her face is
narrower and longer than the others. What seems to me to give this figure her
extraordinary aura is the tension between sensuality and morality. The forward
tilt of the head expresses a range of qualities from humility to contemplativeness.
There is a suggestion of submissiveness, perhaps even shame, but it competes so
directly with serenity, that this figure too confronts us with complexity of
expression, and any analysis ends in ambiguity and questioning rather than in a
univocal interpretation. She conveys the sexual promise and erotic potential of
virginity, an impression that is strengthened rather than diminished by the
reverence expressed in the angle of the head. That conflict constitutes her
peculiar character: being the most beautiful and most sensual of the group, she is
also the most virginal. In the soft line of her lips there is the bemused early
awareness of sexuality. But the overall impression is of control and restraint. A
woman so in control of her feelings as to maintain this serene half-smile is also
the mistress of her own awakening sexuality. This figure shows the heroism that
Bernard of Clairvaux ascribed to the virgin Sophia, whose victory over
temptation was the greater since she was the more beautiful and noble. The
beauty of this wise virgin expresses both temptation and its mastery. Her face
shows forth the glorious victory that restraint and humility represent in a
beautiful and high-born woman. 4
The slight downward tilt of the head in illustration 6 and the frontispiece is not
programmatic for this group. This is not a monastic posture, nor are any of these
women nuns. The figure next to Christ (illustrations 1 and 7) does not look down
at all, but slightly to the right; the vertical of the head shows no angle. She is the
strongest of the group. She lacks the femininity and quizzical character of figure
6 and the sensuality of the frontispiece figure. She is somewhat plain and severe
by comparison with any of the others; her dominant qualities are strength and
resolve.
The wise virgins are realizations of virtue made visible. Abstract and
 

< previous page_340 next page >

page
< previous page page_341 next page >
Page 341
generalized as they are in their individuality, the entire group embodies serenity
and moderation. They bear the expression of the soul in their face, to use Otto
Schmitt's phrase (p. 18). Schmitt sees the statues of the Ecclesia master
characterized by "nobility of body and mind" (Schmitt, p. 16), and this applies as
well to the wise virgins. Their faces and figures show us not the battle ground of
virtues and vices, but the results of the peace arrangements; they are the
offspring of wedded antinomies. In their expressions various psychomachias
settle into composure.
The language to describe this group of statues is best supplied by the moral
discipline of the cathedral schools. Godfrey of Rheims's lines on Odo of Orléans
are a good formulation of the ideals they embody:
Doubt not that his attitude, voice, speech, figure,
His gait and appearance all gave off signs of an integrating harmony.
He was not austere with morose gravitywhich I hate-
But rather serene with bright spirited countenancewhich I love.
His face was not twisted nor intimidating with grim glances,
Nor were his brows rigid and severe,
But rather mild, gentle and placid as a dove, [warming] as the summer sun.
Nor was he so gay and facile to look on
That he would have neglected a modest appearance.
Nor would he tempt shame by frivolous speech
Or turn his appearance into that of a petulant boy. . .
Odo holds the middle road between both extremes,
And considers moderation safe from faults.
He adorns himself so with temperance that his mark is
Light good humor mixed with gravity . . .
This posture, this attitude are decorous . . .
A sublime head set on a noble body
Magnified his appearance of height. 5
Or in Bernard of Clairvaux's definition of beauty of soul,
When the motions, the gestures and the habits of the body and the senses
show forth their gravity, purity and modesty . . . then beauty of the soul
becomes outwardly visible.6
 

< previous page page_341 next page >

< previous page_342 next page >
page
Page 342
Whatever the degree of interdependence, it is evident that the formulators of
moral discipline and the high Gothic sculptor share a single idiom expressed in
different media. The art of the sculptor has accomplished in stone what
discipline, according to Bernard, has accomplished in the virgin Sophia: it
renders every posture of their girlish bodies composed, it sets the angle of the
neck, arranges the eyebrows, composes the expression of the face, directs the
eyes, restrains laughter, controls anger, arranges the gait. Discipline produces
moderation and an "integrating harmony" holding dissonant forces in balance.
The living and the sculpted virgins also share what I called moral transparency:
the outer appearance leads the mind to a perception of the inner state. About one
hundred and fifty years after Bernard of Clairvaux had praised the virgin named
for wisdomSophiafor those qualities, these stone artifacts at Strassburg are made
to embody something like the glory that even angels might envy.
The best argument that moral discipline provided the conceptual idiom of the
Strassburg virgins is in their smiles. Are the wise virgins smiling at all? It is hard
to say. They show hardly more than the faintest smile, just enough to suggest
serene good humor. It seems less a smile than a hovering state, a psychomachia
resolved between gravity and gaiety. Like Odo of Orléans, their faces hold the
mean between austerity and levity, which come to equilibrium in a person
"serene with bright spirited countenance . . ., mild, gentle, placid as a dove,
warming as the summer sun." Like Odo, their mark is "light good humor mixed
with gravity."
This is different from smiling and laughter. Hilarity has an important role in the
group, but it is decidedly in the realm of the foolish virgins and their leader, the
tempter (see illustrations 2 and 3). Both the tempter and the foolish virgin on his
left smile broadly. The man's smile almost turns down and this gives him a
sinister aura. His smile is without humor; it seems forced and hypocritical. The
virgin, however, smiles broadly, and there is little to read in her face besides
abundant good cheer. In fact her expression places her close to the famous
smiling angels of the annunciation and visitation scenes on Rheims cathedral. 7
Both have a puckish, full grin, and the comparison legitimizes the smile of the
Strassburg virgin, foolish though she is. The sculptor did not want to convey a
vice, but a virtue unrestrained and undisciplined.
What does a foolish virgin have to smile at? The overturned lamp at her feet, the
worms and snakes writhing in the back of the tempter, and the judgment scene
on the tympanum of the same porch are gloomy enough portents of the fate that
awaits her. This broad smile on the face of a foolish
 

< previous page_342 next page >

page
< previous page page_343 next page >
Page 343
virgin is unique in the tradition. No representation of this theme other than the
Strassburg figures and the statues dependent on it (Freiburg), show a foolish
virgin smiling and laughing. 8 The great predecessor of the Strassburg group, the
Magdeburg wise and foolish virgins from ca. 1250-60 is instructive.9 They show
the same plasticity as the Strassburg group, though in this case there is an
agitated restlessness of the garments and an extreme of passion in the faces. The
Magdeburg foolish virgins present a scene of unmitigated woe. They are
exemplary illustrations of mourning gestures: one wipes away her tears; another
holds her head in her hands, the ancient gesture of melancholy; another covers
her face; another beats her breast. The faces are twisted in grotesque
exaggerations of suffering. This argues the uniqueness of the smiling foolish
virgin at Strassburg. The smile did not come automatically with the techniques
that made greater expressiveness possible. It is there because of an idea of
foolishness that the sculptor/designer wanted to convey.
Conversely tradition has the wise virgins smiling. They smile, of course, because
they are received by the bridegroom, that is, redeemed at the final judgment. The
logic of the tradition depends on the symbols acting within the meaning to which
they are meant to refer. Their gestures are tropological, not natural. Wise virgins
smile because they are headed for heaven; foolish frown for the opposite reason.
In the Strassburg statues, the foolish virgin laughs because excessive laughter is
foolish in social practice. We see her in the grips of seduction, and there are few
better visual realizations of foolishness than the smile of the seduced. The
explanation of her expression is psychological, social, natural, not supernatural.
The presupposition of this group is human social life, that of the tradition,
apocalyptic symbolism. Frivolity is lived and embodied in the one; its moral and
historical endpoint is made visible in the other. In the Strassburg group, the
foolish virgin smiles and laughscontrary to the traditionbecause she is
undisciplined.
Again the vocabulary of this stance is available in the documents on moral
discipline. Odo of Orléans avoided precisely excessive gaiety in holding the
mean between extremes:
Nor was he so gay and facile to look on
That he would have neglected a modest appearance.
Hugh of St. Victor commended discipline as a means of restraining levity.10
Bernard of Clairvaux noted that discipline restrained excessive laughter in
 

< previous page page_343 next page >

< previous page page_344 next page >
Page 344
the virgin Sophia, and in his tract On the Steps of Humility and Pride he makes
"foolish happiness" (inepta laetitia) into the third step of pride. 11 The happy
fool behaves accordingly:
. . . over-cheerful in appearance, swaggering in his bearing, always ready
for a joke, any little thing quickly gets a laugh. . . . He is like a well-filled
bladder that has been pricked and squeezed. The air, not finding a free
vent, whistles out through the little hole with squeak after squeak.12
The foolish virgins are recognizable at first glance and distinguishable from the
wise by the posture of head and body. Their bearing is the emblem of their
foolishness. The tempter's partner (illustration 3 ) holds her head at a coquettish
angle, and her body arcs in an almost dance-like pose. The unnatural angle of the
fingers on her right hand shows affectation, and this is underscored by the
precious gesture of hooking the folds of her garment around her little finger.
The two figures standing on her left show anger and spoiled petulance
(illustration 4). They seem to embody those qualities Odo of Orléans rejected:
His face was not twisted nor intimidating with grim glances,
Nor were his brows rigid and severe.
Even if we did not see the extreme facial expressions, their bodies speak
eloquently. The tilt of the head is at odds with the angle of the body, and they
seem oddly cocked and awkwardly tensed. Some spring or inner tension has to
be released, it seems, before they can settle into a relaxed stance. They lack the
elegance and understated grace of the wise virgins altogether. Clearly their
bodies are speaking the language of mores, lingua morum, and we are meant to
read the state of their mind from the awkward angles of their posture. They
would have provided a good cautionary lesson for the novices of St. Victor,
where, 150 years before, students learned to read the irregular motions of the
body and its uncontrolled postures as signs of inconstancy of mind.
***
Historians of Gothic sculpture tend to study its development in terms of the
history of styles and techniques. It is generally agreed that a decisive
 

< previous page page_344 next page >

< previous page_345 next page >
page
Page 345
shift in style occurs around 1180. Sauerländer connects this change with
Nicholas of Verdun, in whose work we find "a hitherto unsuspected capacity to
animate the human figure, a new exuberance of movement, gesture, and facial
expression. It is as though medieval art had made its first encounter with the
antique, in all its radiant sensuality. The stylistic origins remain a mystery." 13 I
know of no other explanation of this change in recent work than the one
Sauerläder points to. Erwin Panofsky also sees the new style in these terms: "[the
schools of Laon, Senlis, Chartres, and Paris] reimparted to their figures a serene
animation as close to Graeco-Roman humanitas as mediaeval art could ever
come."14
For Panofsky and Sauerländer, Gothic sculpture becomes "humane" once it
comes under classical influence. The change is referred to the solution of a
problem of technique, a solution supplied by a model from an earlier period.
Unquestionably the rediscovery of antiquity had a role to play in the emergence
of the new style, but that rediscovery does not "explain" the shift to high Gothic,
as Sauerländer himself stresses: "The stylistic origins remain a mystery." The
problem of analysis is comparable to the role of ancient drama in French
classicism or of medieval chivalric culture and Don Quixote in romanticism. The
earlier model supplies the form, mood, and tone that the present age needs. But
no one would be content with an "explanation" of French classicism in its
appropriation of classical models or of Romanticism in its appropriation of
medieval ones. The nourishing forces of those movements are far more complex,
and the forces that nourished high Gothic sculpture were no doubt more
complex. The new style is more than the discovery of technique.
The "capacity to animate the human figure" and to imbue it with "exuberance of
movement, gesture and facial expression" may well have been first discovered by
Nicholas of Verdun as an artist's skill, but that capacity, far from being "hitherto
unsuspected," had existed in the schoolroom since the tenth century. That
expressiveness that emerges in Gothic sculpture responded to an earlier
awareness of the suppleness of human expression. Hugh of St. Victor shows a
subtle comprehension of the expressiveness of the human face:
There are thousands of masks, thousands of ways of flaring and contracting
the nostrils, thousands of twists and turns of the lips which deform the
beauty of the face and the harmony of discipline. For the face is a mirror
of discipline and it is to be shaped with so much greater vigilance, since
the sins which appear there cannot be concealed. . . Let it always have a
severe sweetness and sweet severity.15
 

< previous page_345 next page >

page
< previous page_346 next page >
page
Page 346
A discipline of forming the human body, its postures, facial expressions, modes
of standing, walking, dressing, gesturing and speaking, had been an everyday
experience of life in the cathedral schools. This discipline sculpted the living
human form to elegance, grace, modesty, restraint, and moderation. It made
"beauty of soul" and "beauty of manners" appear in the contours of the face and
body.
It seems very unlikely that the sculptors art, which sought to mold stone to these
ideals, developed independently and in ignorance of this disciplineespecially
since the sculptors graceful and elegant human figures decorated the very
buildings that had housed the old discipline of conduct.
It is not popular in medieval studies to appeal to experience or social practice as
a ground of explanation for anything in art and literature. Historians of literature
are uneasy at the thought of reality as a factor in imaginative fiction, and art
historians show a shyness toward "explanation" in general. 16 But it does seem
to me that the interrelatedness of moral discipline and Gothic representation of
the human figure calls for an integrating "explanation" and represents a case
where practical experience forms the imaginative capacities. The testimony in
histories of Gothic sculpture to ancient influences (Panofsky) pales in
confrontation with the spread throughout Germany and France of a discipline of
conduct to which at least some major works of Gothic statuary refer. When
Gothic sculptors discovered classical form and technique, it appealed to them not
only as technique and as an answer to problems they sought to solve, but also
because of that which its technique conveyed. Panofsky calls it something close
to "Graeco-Roman humanitas." But it should be evident that this ancient ideal
was borne first and foremost by its medieval counterpart, the humanitas and
venustas morum cultivated at cathedral schools and embodied by learned clerics
throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The rediscovery of the sculpture
of antiquity was decisively prepared by the moral discipline of the cathedral
schools.
The Strassburg wise and foolish virgins make dear that the plasticity of
conception of the human figure in moral discipline cannot be regarded as wholly
separate from the plasticity of representation in Gothic sculpture. In terms of the
legitimacy of a claim to influence, that discipline, for the group considered at
least, must have priority over classical models, which may have contributed
much, even decisively, to technique, but cannot claim exclusive title to the
conception.17
The formulators of the practice of moral discipline saw an analogy
 

< previous page_346 next page >

page
< previous page_347 next page >
page
Page 347
between their pedagogy and the artist's work and called on images from the
plastic arts to explain what they were doing: Goswin of Mainz imagined
discipline as analogous to the potter making pots, and Hugh of St. Victor used
sculpture as the metaphor for the shaping of moral-physical perfection:
We long to be perfectly carved and sculpted in the image of good men, and
when excellent and sublime qualities stand out in them, which arouse
astonishment and admiration in men's minds, then they shine forth in them
like the beauty in exquisite statues, and we strive to recreate these qualifies
in ourselves.
***
If the ideals of the cathedral schools deserve consideration in the history of
Gothic style, then the hard historical problem posed by its inclusion is this: the
rise of the new style coincides with, or rather postdates, the death of instruction
in moral discipline in cathedral schools.
So where did the "idea" of the Strassburg group come from? From an
anachronistically functioning school of moralis disciplina in the see of the
bishop of Strassburg? 18 Or was the discipline by this time so thoroughly
integrated into the life of the nobility, that we no longer need cathedral schools
to explain its spread? Whose thoughts did the sculptor think and whose feelings
did he feel? It would be possible to find a comparable conception of human
elegance, poise, "moral" balance in Vincent of Beauvais on the education of
noble children, more or less contemporary with the Strassburg group. But the
passages we could cite would by and large be borrowed from Hugh of St. Victor.
We could point to the late courtly romance in both France and Germany, which,
however, by 1290 had fallen into a mood of epigonal gloom at the passing of the
classical period of courtly narrative.
So if moral discipline deserves a place in the discussion of Gothic style, we are
faced with the odd disjuncture that the "spirit of Gothic art," its humanism and
plasticity, is a borrowing or adaptation from the preceding century.19 And to
bridge this disjuncture, I would suggest that we need the concept of "envy" as
defined earlier. The Strassburg group is a nostalgic reconstruction of an ideal
still mouthed and formulated by the sculptor's contemporaries but seldom
attained in reality. While still enjoying the magic license of the hypothesis, we
can construct a little drama of noble men and women looking at the Strassburg
group (or virtually any other
 

< previous page_347 next page >

page
< previous page page_348 next page >
Page 348
statue in the cathedral from the period), seized with an envious longing to be like
those wise virgins. This drama is not entirely fanciful, because Hildebert of
Lavardin staged and predicted it or something very like it in his poem "Par tibi
Roma nihil." He imagined the ancient gods alive and looking at the statues of
themselves carved by the Roman sculptors. He described the gods' unsettled
reaction:
Divinities themselves look awe-struck on divinities sculpted
And wish themselves the equals of those sembled forms.
Nature could not make gods as fair of face
As man created images of gods.
Carved likenesses improve these deities;
The sculptors art deserves worship more than their own divinity. 20
We know that several generations of living human beings had valued grace,
charm, serenity, beauty, striven for it in their own presence, had it beaten into
them by whip-wielding masters, and imagined such qualifies as constituting a
godlikeness of the human form. The experience of finding those qualifies better
represented in stone than in their own flesh was available to the European
aristocracy, educated and uneducated, as early as 1180-90. By that time, the
human grace and beauty that astonished gods and made angels envious has
passed out of the province of teachers and into that of sculptors.
 

< previous page page_348 next page >

< previous page_349 next page >
page
Page 349

APPENDIX B.
THE LETTER OF GOSWIN OF MAINZ TO HIS STUDENT WALCHER (CA.
1065)
Edition: Apologiae Duae: Gozechini epistola ad Walcherum; Burchardi . .
. apologia de barbis, ed. R. B.C. Huygens, intro. Giles Constable CCCM
62 Turnholt: Brepols, 1985. pp. 11-43.
Older edition: PL 143, 885-908.
Numbers in parentheses refer to line numbers in Huygens's edition. I have
identified only direct quotations. To identify allusions and indirect borrowings, I
refer the reader to the documentation in that edition.

The Letter of Gozechinus the school master to his former pupil, Valcherus,
likewise school master
To his brother and son, united with him in soul, brother Goswin sends his wish
that the better part of existence may be a happy coexistence. Since you have
renewed the many tokens of good will you used to show me so often, in turn I
both cherish and pay out a wealth of favor to you, dearest friend; not only for the
sweet, pleasant, and delectable memory of times past, but also for the joyous
receipt of this new gift. For you have sent me the book I sought, transcribed in
your own hand, in which you plainly show that you hold me in high regard and
consider my wishes not among the least important things. That book has recalled
so vividly to mind all those gifts of charity for which I am in your debt that the
present moment seems to restore to me in one gift the sum total of all previous
ones. (11)
Hence when I first saw your gift, when I first took it into my hands and
recognized your writing, or rather you yourself in it, at the same moment my
deep affection for you was rekindled as if for the first time. Truly my soul
rejoiced that I had once guided you with my own hand in forming those crude
characters and made you atone with strokes on your back for those ill-turned
lines and other sins of tender youth, since now I can rejoice in the
 

< previous page_349 next page >

page
< previous page_350 next page >
page
Page 350
rich harvest of fruit from our little tree, having [once] thought its luxuriant
growth of sheaves and leaves excessive. For who would plant a vine and not
accept its fruit? I at least have reaped again and again the sweet fruit of my
labor, for God has granted increase to those slips which I have planted and
irrigated. But however great the harvest from others, it was you who pleased me
with the greatest abundance of fruits. (24)
II. Would that I had nourished all the members of both my schoolrooms in the
same way! Would that I could find among them even one such as you as a crutch
for my old age! As the divine oracle laments through his prophet: nourish and
exalt your sons today, only to have themvery few exceptedspurn their exalter.
But let such men take care lest for contempt of the father who admonishes them
wisely, they should be deprived of the bequest of their eternal inheritance by the
father of fathers. (32)
III. But you, my dearest son, continue on the way you have begun; increase those
goods you have received from me, make them greater and better, nor ever stint in
your abundant goodness to me, for which he who sent you to me will reward you
with eternal inheritance. Nor, if you show yourself kind to me, will you be acting
in a new or unaccustomed way; but even though you have long wept beneath the
teacher's rod, still you served me with the same kindness. And that goodness
which fear alone sufficed to extort from others, you showed of your own free
will, as is natural for a man like you. You hung on the very motion of my lips,
lest any of my words should fall to the earth. I began to love you as a boy for this
and for certain other eminent signs of virtue; and now as you mature, I place yet
higher hopes in you with each passing day, seeing the strength of your industry
in clarifying obscure readings, your wisdom and vigilance, and the sharpness of
your acute mind in pursuing subtle points. While other auditors of our lessons
were not equal to the words of the teacher, be they spoken or written, you
seemed able to transform yourself altogether into the master. Whence I gloried,
along with your brother and other friends, to see so rich a spice spring up in that
little garden I plantedI mean you, a wise youth among mature men. (52)
IV. How deeply I rejoiced in your company seeing your maturity of character,
your virtuous conduct. What was there in life more gratifying to me, more
cherished than you! How could anyone or anything intervene to
 

< previous page_350 next page >

page
< previous page_351 next page >
page
Page 351
reduce you in my favor? It is said that the constant presence of many things and
of men is wont to produce satiety. But our intimacy, be it at home or in public,
only served to enshrine you more deeply in my regard, and each passing day
rendered you dearer and fresher. Rightly so. For in all things you showed
yourself of one mind with me. You not only rejoiced at my successes, but you
bore the burden of aggravation and indignation for my setbacks. Even then there
was occasion to test the value of your counsel: in good times you zealously
applauded, in adversity you bravely carried on, and often you guided our affairs
for the better. But if ever external business consumed my time, you carried out
the tasks of the absent master among the students in my care so well that if any
complex problems arose, be it in reading or disputing, in theological or
sophistical matters, you wisely unravelled them with your subtle mind, and in
bandying them about dealt with them to complete satisfaction. (71)
V. Since all this and much more is true of you, how, I pray, could I fail to
mention your probity, your diligence, your kindness and many other obligatory
features of circumspect conduct in you, and moreover, how could my love for
you fail, even if I wished it so? Rather ! now embrace with all my heart that
same mature youth and young man wise beyond his years in whom as a boy I
once recognized such brilliant promise. Nor does anything oppress me more than
that I am deprived of your sweet presence and seem to be living out my days as
it were in some desert solitude. Not that I lack for frequent companions and
dearest colleagues; but there is none among them, or hardly any, in whose lap I
may lay my head, or rather my soul, sweetly to rest. So it is that I would assail
the ears of divine pietywere it permissible and sensiblewith unending prayers,
and beg admission to that holy sanctuary where prayers are heard: that God may
settle me at length in some place where I may enjoy the kindness of you and
others with whom I have grown so close in mind or whom I once taught, and that
I may once again as in earlier days glory in a life shared with you and in that
same kindness that once brought such joy to me. (87)
VI. For while it is true that this noble city Mainz, this golden crown of the
kingdom, has rained on me liberal showers from those sweet flowing rivers of its
bounty which flow on all sides and has reserved for me a place of no humble
rank in the most splendid diadem of its sacred senate, still, I say it without
prejudice to Mainz: that corner of our land beckons to me above all
 

< previous page_351 next page >

page
< previous page_352 next page >
page
Page 352
others which Mother Liege in the strength and vigor of her virtues shows to be as
delightful as it is pleasant to its natives. Erected on the gentle inclines of her
western hills, nestled in the double bays of its Mons Publicus which nourishes
the four flocks of the regulated life [i.e., four monastic communities] on the
gently sloping pastures of its landward side, and in her double-bayed hill, as I
said, gathers her sons beneath her wings like a mother hen her chicks, she, as you
know, pampers and nourishes them, educates, informs and instructs them in all
that pertains to the conduct of life both personal and civil. And she always
provides the means either to govern abundance or to temper want. And the two
forked Meuse, so superior to our Belgian rivers, laps pleasingly and gently
against the city adding at once to its fortification and to its bounty. It brings a
rich abundance of fish not only to citizens but also to the peasants on nearby
lands, it conveniently provides various routes for merchants' goods, highly
conducive to all kinds of commerce, except (if with your leave I may speak
satirically, albeit not in verse) on those occasions when Meuse has sat at the
table of the gods, where Aeolus, raising his cup with wonted frequency, reigns as
king in the palace of Juno with his brothers the cloud-born rain showers, only to
return exhausted from its long labors [of caring and drinking], and inebriated
from snows and rains. And once swelled with the torrents of the rivers feeding it,
it rages like an assembled army in a mad course through the surrounding
countryside, trampling and ravaging whatever stands in its way. It punishes the
nocturnal poaching of fishermen, and so enforces the prohibition, often ignored
with impunity, of this much lamented practice. It tears up and washes away the
crops which avid farmers sprinkled, having violated with wanton furrows the
grassy banks where the river likes to nap at midday. And in its indignation at our
choosing to dwell in the seaside chambers of its watery court and at the frequent
annoyances it suffers from our serfs, it enters our houses without waiting for our
permission. And having expelled us all, it pays us violent visits, ignoring all
formalities. And because we are prone to supplicate frequently and intimately a
god inimical to it, it drives away the household gods of those whom it torments;
and all the relics of that envied divinity, cinders and ashes, it extinguishes and
washes away. And when at length our patience can take no more, and we give up
our futile resistance, it returns to its channel only half-placated, and, leaving
great scars behind, it betakes itself once more to its palace. (126)
All over our suburbs are sweetly fragrant olive groves and gardens filled with
rubicund fruits, and where they stretch their viny arms toward
 

< previous page_352 next page >

page
< previous page_353 next page >
page
Page 353
higher realms, the outer leaves of the grapes and their trunks receive the final
touches from rain showers.
While our Liège is bountifully enriched with many such blessings, still there are
far greater and more worthy ones. For that flower of tripartite Gaul and that
second Athens luxuriates nobly in the study of the liberal arts, and, more
excellent yet, the observance of divine worship flourishes. And, if I may say so
with the indulgence of the churches, where the study of letters is concerned,
Plato's Academy did not offer better; and in respect to the practice of religion,
Leo's Rome was not superior. (138)
VII. Hence spreading forth in every direction the good fragrance of Christ, it
attracts and receives a great multitude that flocks to it. No one who has applied
himself here has failed to advance and improve himself, except the lazy and
neglectful. Since our Liège is what it is, let anyone who maligns it, anyone who
does not love it having once known it, have the hate of God, to put it in the
rustic way. So it is, my dear friend, that I constantly strike out with oaths, for
though I may dwell elsewhere, yet in my soul I reside there with you. (146)
VIII. But perhaps you will accuse me of levity, as if I would now seek a place
where life is easy, leisure abundant and where I can rest on my laurels; for that is
the way of a vain mind, and your sharp reply is thus: that now from
homesickness and nostalgia I praise so fervently the location, the pleasantness,
the affluence, and the wisdom of our Liège, whom I earlier abandoned,
preferring the glory of Mainz. You will say that I vacillate with such inconstancy
of mind that once located in Liège I long for Mainz; and when planted in Mainz
I race back in my mind to Liège. And to strengthen your case you cite that
testimony of Horace, so that the tumor you think you are cutting away can be
rubbed all the sorer with the salt of satire:
Those who hurry to cross oceans change their location, not their mind.
[Horace, Epist. 1.2.27]
And again:
The mind that never escapes itself merits blame. [Epist. 1.14.13]
I don't mean to suggest that you would say dark things against me, nor by the
same token have I set myself up against you to stir up conflict. (160) It is just
that I know well those dogs who are always ready to snap at others
 

< previous page_353 next page >

page
< previous page_354 next page >
page
Page 354
from behind and gnaw at them with slanders, while they themselves attend the
banquet of vice in disguise and wallow in iniquity. I conjure these detractors to
oppose them face to face and put them behind me, and you are the occasion. I
prepare an answer to them in your name, though I suspect nothing sinister of
you. I do this so that by subtly introducing these cavillers now, I can deflect all
the arrows that these men have ever shot at me from the bow of envy and render
harmless the bitter slanders of their odious, serpent-like hissing. Please
remember one thing in the meanderings of this long discourse: that whatever I
have said in these polemics that is excellent, elegant, amiable, applies to you;
and whatever is harsh, abrasive, biting, to my detractors. (173)
IX. [continues attack on detractors ]
X. Perhaps I did once, in abandoning Liège, write a scurrilous attack on it,
perhaps I did prefer the glory of Mainz and seemed to regard Liege as a vile
heap of slag. (210) But now in pressing me with the enemy's weapon and asking,
what is Liège to me? you have wandered far from the path of truth, or rather you
have abandoned the truth altogether. Tell me now, I ask you, you who beneath
your sheep's clothing snarl like a wolf, tell me which of two men is preferable: he
who makes or he who receives a petition? Why do you hesitate to answer? Do
you imagine that a trap is being laid for you? Hence your silence? Of course you
must concede that he who is petitioned by others is held to be superior. Tell me,
then, whether I did not harvest a title of glory for Liège, when it received a
petition on my behalf from a city yet greater than itself. No, rather Liège was
exalted when at the invitation or command of the greatest men of that golden age
I was called to Mainz. Did I thus rebuff Mother Liège? Or did I show insolence
and contempt for her whom I never forsook but rather embraced with the loving
tenderness due a mother? I tell you it was not to divorce her that I left, as you
would have it in your carping, but to glorify her; not to place an epitaph on her
tombstone, but a crown of honor on her head. I spoke eloquently, but only what
rose to my lips from her [i.e. Liège's] heart; I contributed to the treasury of her
[i.e. Mainz's] affluence, but only what I had gathered from the treasures of her
[Liège's] wisdom. Nor will you ever elude me now by any means, even if you
are a second Proteus, until you admit honestly that a sensible change of location
does no injury, as long as it is not accompanied by a change of good intentions.
Admit too that it behooves the wise man to measure all of life's motives
according to time and place, and not to
 

< previous page_354 next page >

page
< previous page_355 next page >
page
Page 355
imagine, as did vain Diogenes, that all things hang upon a single center-point.
(230)
XI. That saying of Horace you would brand on me as a mark of vice, whether
you take it as poetry or philosophy, serves its author's argument and makes its
point well, but not necessarily when taken literally, because those who hasten to
cross oceans can change their minds along with the sky above them, as for
instance if some uneducated, insipid fellowif you will pardon the phraseshould
wander or sail to Athens, and there, infused with the salt of learning, should
transform his ignorance into wisdom. But that following passage, where he
remains silent about changing places and the sky above and reproaches the
changing of mind, he means in terms of reason: that a change of location in itself
is neither harmful nor beneficial in terms of leading the good life, unless it
occurs with a fixed and reasoned resolve. (240) However, that mind which does
not shun such a place as produces corruption and vice is much to be reproached,
The same applies to one who does not head toward self-knowledge on the
narrow path of moral discipline, as can be attained in the school of virtues.
But truly the pursuit of such subtle arguments is not my task either at leisure or
at work. Let us leave them for now, with your permission, to that tribe who are
consumed in body and mind, in leisure and in work, by verbose disputations, by
sophistic cavillings in their teaching or learning. (247)
XII. But we have testimony more ancient than these, which argues the idea that
the homeland or any place whatsoever neither confer nor detract anything from
the wise man's quest to live well. But rather virtue by itself suffices altogether for
a good and blessed life. When Teucer, for instance, was prevented from returning
home without his brother and had shunned the isle of Salamis and his own
father, he was asked by his homesick comrades where he would choose to stay
now, and he replied: ''Home is wherever life is good" [Cicero, Tusc. disp., 5. 37.
107]. I cannot see what could be said more to the point on this question of where
to live, if we take "where life is good" as it is meant. Socrates also, when asked
what citizenship he claimed, replied, "of the world;' that is, a citizen and resident
not of any one place, but rather of the entire world, indicating by this reply that
wherever he may be, he would be the same, since his commitment to virtue does
not change, and that he shares citizenship in common with all reasoning men in
the whole world. Moreover the most noble philosophers, as we
 

< previous page_355 next page >

page
< previous page_356 next page >
page
Page 356
read in the records of the ancients, chose for themselves no fixed place of
habitation for leading the good lifeXenocrates, Crantor and Crisippus, Aristotle,
Carneades, Panaetius, and others beyond numberbut rather having once set out
on the quest for that wisdom which eludes the whole world, they never again
returned home. Such is the life of the perfect and consummate wise man, that
neither torture nor the bull of Phalaris nor any change of place budge him from
the gravity of his resolve and the rigor of his purpose, since to him the entire
world is a single place for the good and blessed life. But why go on like this?
Only to demonstrate clearly that location and residence and change of them are
no obstacle to the wise man's resolve to remain constant in virtue wherever he
may be. (274)
XIII. But what do we care for these pagan examples? The holy apostles elected
by the creator of the world, first educated by the sound of the living voice under
the tutelage of the heavenly master in the school of Truth, then sent forth like the
rays of the true sun to spread light and dispersed like the salt of the earth as
purge and condiment: they possessed neither fatherland nor home, neither field
nor house, nor any sort of worldly possession, but rather for the saving of souls
they first devoted themselves to the extremely hard task of preaching in spite of
freezing and starvation, in spite of a host of dangers, finally they laid down their
lives for their brothers, following the example of their master, than which there
can be no greater love. But all that blessed posterity descended from this spiritual
procreation, that chosen people, which by God's choice succeeded as the race of
the elect and the royal priesthood having been adopted into Israelitic dignity by
martyrdom for Christ, all those, I say, entered onto the path of life, albeit with
varying distinction of rank and office. Since they toiled in an alien land not for
themselves but for others, since they sought the city of the future, lacking a
present one, they entered into the promised land of the sons of Israel through
Him who in his resurrection led captivity captive, and there they were made
citizens of the saints and servants of the lord. (293)
XIV. Nor should you think my vision blurred either by the blindness of
ignorance or by the fogs of forgetfulness, in that I ignore the ordained phalanges
of the Christian militia or imply some judgment against them with the petulant
arrogance of a man freed from duty and released to a vagrant state. This militia is
commanded to stand guard with the armor of God in the towers of New
Jerusalem to protect not only themselves but also
 

< previous page_356 next page >

page
< previous page_357 next page >
page
Page 357
the more frail members of the church with the armor of God and are forbidden to
alter the rule of a regular life or to change the guard post of their military vigil
by abandoning it. For we have seen in the divine edicts of the fathers that caution
is necessary lest anyone wander to alien places except for an excellent reason,
and lest anyone lure away a cleric from afar. (303)
Nonetheless we also are aware that it is freely permitted, if a church be lacking
in any of the various functions of its ranks and ministries, that its petition to
another church that is amply staffed may not be denied: in respect to ranks when
for instance it seeks the ordination of a bishop or a priest from another church; in
respect to ministries when it seeks the installment of a regular prelate or a master
of letters. We know too that among those flocks of the spiritual life there are
those to whom the sweet and happy leisure of the contemplative life appeals, and
others engaged in winning souls through the evangelical business of the active
dispensation. Some men are like circles of gold, others like staves, others yet
bearers of the new ark of the testament, who set it in eternal life to the praise and
glory of allmighty God. This is that distinction of ranks and ministries and
radiance of good works performed through them which the prophet saw in the
splendid accoutrements of the queen, who standing in her golden vestments at
the right hand of her spouse the king shines forth in the splendor of her various
garments. The same prophet viewed this same distinction in an enigma when,
wondering at the marvelous name of the lord through all the earth, seeing His
magnificence exalted above the heavens, wondering, I say, at the son of man
made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor [Ps. 8:6]
through the passion of death in the courtroom of the Father, he said, "You have
subjected all things beneath His feet, the sheep, the cattle, the flocks of the field,
the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea" [Ps. 8:8-9]. Blessed is he who has seen
such things, blessed also the church of the saints, which and for which and in
which he has predicted such things! For there beneath the feet of Christ he saw
the pious birds of heaven distinct from those which, with the hooked beak of
avarice, with the curved talon of rapacity, devour the more gentle birds in the air,
distinct also from those which plunge into the waters, submerging in the
profound depths of lust, to feed their insatiable maw with the rapacious capture
of wretched fish; distinct also are those gentle birds of the heavens, who, covered
with the bright plumes of good works and having too the feathers of the virtues
and the two wings of charity, fly like doves to their windows.
 

< previous page_357 next page >

page
< previous page_358 next page >
page
Page 358
There too are the stars of the heavens which Abraham referred to in his promise,
"I will multiply your seed like the stars of the sky and like the sands of the
seashore" [Gen. 22:17]. These stars, crystalline in the purity of their conduct,
shine out in the firmament of the church, radiant in words, brilliant in examples.
(338)
XV. But what are the birds of the sky to us, what to us are the stars of the
heavens? For we are the wretched fish of the sea, we are the sands of the
seashore, we are pounded by the waves of earthly life like the sands, we are
swept away in the tides of worldly incertitude. And so what comparison is there
between us and the pious birds of the sky? What correlation with the bright
stars? Only if we can compare nothing to something, and only then if it seems
reasonable to call it a comparison. (345)
O that we might rest together in some spiritual hollow far from tempests, that we
might hide away in some secret place beneath the cliff of life, where the winds
of fortune cannot blast us and make us their plaything! My choice and my desire,
then, as this grotto of rest and this refuge from the cliffs of life is our Liège,
though you may well rub away my levity in the salt of your abrasive Horace. I
say, then, I would choose Liège, the mother of studies, the font also of subtle
genius and the place fertile in divine wisdom, as the city which the finger of God
has favored many times over, and which by the grace of God will continue
forever to bring forth men of its own kind. (354)
But what have I said? As if, being insufficient in herself, she were in need of my
praise! She does not require anyone's painted praise and she needs not the
fictional effigy of a blessed city colored by the words of any man, because this
city is alive in reality and blessed in fact, living in the institutes and laws of
divine religion. (359)
Since therefore the august head of our nurse and mother radiates from its
venerable hair a whiteness of ancient wisdom whiter than snow, since she wears
in her turreted crown the diadem of divine religion, and since she shines in her
priestess robes woven with the gold of glorious deeds and is desirable in every
way, adorned everywhere with abundant virtues, are you, then, in your right
mind if you urge that I do not seek the shelter of her wingswhich is tantamount
to urging me to hate her? Not, surely, so that you might drink of her public and
general benefits and joys, keeping them for your private enjoyment? Far be it
from your modesty and probity, far be it from my soul that I should ever believe
this of you, whom I have known for so long. But so unlikely is it that I should
ever hold her in contempt,
 

< previous page_358 next page >

page
< previous page_359 next page >
page
Page 359
that I would love her most vehemently even if I were forbidden to do so. (369)
XVI. By saying this I do not claim that the bountiful city where I now live does
not show me the face of a father and the breasts of a mother. But rather I am
either bantering with you, or uttering the wish-dreams of one granted the grace
of God without the prejudice of honor. Nor ought you to set down as a failing of
mine what outstanding men did not hesitate to do if the situation called for it.
Antiquity and modern times alike provide plenty of examples of many highly
illustrious men who with good reason moved from one place to another, fleeing
not the places but that in them which was alien to their character and way of life,
or migrating to others where many could derive benefits from their presence.
Abraham the patriarch, for one, and his sons would certainly not have changed
places so often, would not have dug so many wells in search of living water, if
they had found in any one place all things which constituted a good life for them.
(381) Jacob too, no less prophet than patriarch, would never have descended into
Egypt with seventy people (a mystical number), finding first bounty then
servitude, unless he were fleeing the famine in Canaan. Joseph also, sold by his
envious brothers, did well to change his home, since in the time of want he saved
the lives of many. This man, first taught by the rod of temptation and purified in
the furnace of tribulations, rose up thence to become lord of Egypt, bending his
shoulder to the burdens of patience and setting his hands in servitude to the pots
of obedience. (369)
XVII. I could adduce innumerable examples of this kind, if I were not persuaded
that these suffice to chasten you. These few then will serve as a response to your
Horace with his comments about the sky and the mind, a response more
chastening than its quantity might suggest, and let him henceforth not rashly carp
at any other man's plans. Then cast aside this Horace with his sky and take up
the psalter with me. If this is not to your liking, love him and have him all to
yourself with no rival. But it has been shown above with the light of
unexceptionable arguments, though your Horace falls silent, that the place of the
good life is wherever you happen to be, and, if your equanimity fail you not, it
too is your Ulubris. (400)
XVIII-XIX, 400-419: [caution in the choice of traveling companions
commended]
 

< previous page_359 next page >

page
< previous page_360 next page >
page
Page 360
At any rate, brother, so it is. It belongs to the human condition generally, at least
to the condition of men, always to be in a state of combat testing them beyond
their strength, never to give the mind over to the sweetness of divine
contemplation, constantly to be buffetted by head-long assaults, never to enjoy
the peace of inner repose. (423) Now however, you will find a weapon in the
saying of that ancient sage, Musonius, piercing as an enemy's spear, "The soul's
leisure is the soul's loss," and your shield is the word of the Christian sage,
"Never is the good man spared combats and conflicts" [C. Musonius Rufus,
quoted from Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, 18.2.1] To these words I shall respond,
that indeed the soul's leisure is its loss, when it is given over to delights and
pleasures and released to indulge worldly desires and when it throws over those
things that work for its salvation and protection. But when the soul raises itself
aloft and transcends the hurly-burly of worldly affairsas much as man can be
freed from themwhen the storm clouds of cares are dissipated, the gusts and
hales of slandering tongues and the tempests and whirlwinds of false brothers
abate, when it is relieved of the rigorous discipline of the armed camp to give
itself over entirely to the most placid and lucid peace of divine contemplation,
then truly it is not lost but rather saved, or rather, far more important, it seems at
long last to come to life. (436)
But as to the saying of our theologian, that the Christian's duty is always to
struggle, I would not dare or seek to change a word of it. And yet the perfect
constancy of virtue may be allowed to call it quits and end its labors, if the wars
and seditions against false brethren cease outwardly, while inwardly the force of
our striving against the temptations of the ancient enemy press on until, having
conquered them with the battle gear of God, we accept the repose of eternal
peace as Christ's reward for our struggles. (443)
XX. Arguing up to this point in your vivacious way, you claim that both kinds of
struggle have taken place in the camps of the Christian militia and that
Augustine, Ambrose, Athanasius and innumerable fathers whose names are well
known have fought hard both outwardly against apostles and disciples of Satan
and inwardly against spiritual wickedness, persisting until crowned with victory.
And in fact, brother, I assent to these things which you argue, sometimes in truth
and other times in fancy, but you seem to me not quite to include every church
of the elect that deserves it in this stage of the struggle. For if you collect annals
of Christian soldiers from calendars and chronicles, or rather from the genuine
monuments of the
 

< previous page_360 next page >

page
< previous page_361 next page >
page
Page 361
scriptures, you will surely see that they have pleased God with theoretical as well
as practical virtues, that is with the virtues of leisure as well as with those of
public life. (455) And, if I may touch on a few of these and bring them into the
argument on faith, consider those living in the shadow of the law, Joshua,
Gideon, David, and the crown of the Maccabees, then Moses and Aaron, Elias
and Elijah and the choir of prophets, and finally, recall what Paul says of these
same ancient fathers: "who through faith subdued kingdoms" down to where he
says, "they wandered in deserts and in mountains;' until he at length concludes
having enumerated them all, "and these all were tested and proven through faith''
[Hebrews 11:33-39]. (462) If you direct your loving consideration to these and
others like them, you will surely see patriarchs involved most intensively in quite
practical affairs, while the prophets with serene mind bask in the quiet of
contemplation. For how else could the one group defend the well-being of their
people with might and main, or the other receive blessed visions with the calm
eye of the mind? Nor do I deny that in either order there were some committed
to the other, but as a general rule this distinction separates the two orders. (470)
When however the night of the old testament had passed, in the firmament of
which the above-mentioned fathers shone like the brightest stars, and when the
day dawned which the Lord ordained and the sun of justice, Jesus Christ, rose,
behold how Peter Bar-Jonah and that vessel of election Paul, persisted in the
battle until crowned with martyrdom, while John, the theologian of angelical
virginity and Luke the fire of the gospel, the first of whom warred powerfully
against the beast Domitian, the others against the antichrists, but then, once the
furies of these beasts were allayed, turned to theology in the ensuing quiet, and
dipping their reeds in the mysteries of the gospel, grew old together in peace.
(479)
But Luke, along with the peripatetic Paul and other messengers of the gospel,
labored early on in many places, later retired to the calm of theology and,
weaving the sacred history of the incarnate Word, at length died a peaceful and
blessed death. Here you see, then, how those Augustines and Ambroses you
allude to persisted successfully in both modes of battle, as you justly assert, but
note at the same time also how these Pauls and Antonys and innumerable other
martyrs of Christ lived virtually free of the turbulence of the active life and in
addition, with God's help, turned away from inner battles and struggles to live as
it were already among the citizens of heaven together with him, who said, "our
life is in heaven" [Phil. 3:20]. (490)
 

< previous page_361 next page >

page
< previous page_362 next page >
page
Page 362
XXI. Not only the theologians, radiant with the brilliance of evangelical light,
but also innumerable earlier philosophers and heroes, obscured though they were
in the clouds of paganismthe sun of justice had yet to risepassed their days in
highly astute cultivation of the Moral and the Beneficial [honestum et utile]. In
this they exercised the virtues of both private and public life, which they attained
partly as a gift of nature and partly as a result of liberal studies. On the one side
there were those devoted to the art of warfare and those engaged in public
administration. They gained a fame they supposed immortal by their wise actions
at home and in the public forum, or by their brave combat in the field or at sea.
On the other were those given to a noble leisure, having withdrawn, some as a
well earned retirement from their toils, others out of contempt for secular affairs.
They furnished guidance both for themselves and for the state either by their
writings or their discoursing. (502)
XXII. If now you who bubble over with arguments engage in staunch battle
against the line of thought just presented, Truth herself will join the fray, girded
about with the reserve troops of her wise sayings, and will support those in her
camp unstintingly. And to confirm the truth of our assertions with more reliable
testimony, She drafts into the guard troops of faith some figures from both
testaments: from the one, Rachel and Leah, from the other Martha and Mary. But
to what purpose? To this: that you should learn for certain that, just as has been
argued, the elect of God please Him as much through public as through private
virtues. He never favors the one over the other, for just as God embraces the
labors of the active life, he also does not banish from his favor the fruits of the
contemplative. (513)
XXIII. Marvelous to behold, oh brother, what a subtle web of arguments you
weave! Like a capped mushroom you cover yourself at every point. Just as I
began to think you were settling back and giving way either under pressure from
the speakers authority ormore importantlyfrom the gravity of the things said,
behold! again the trumpet sounds, again the call to arms rings out. Once more
your pleas impugn the mind that embraces leisure and quiet and issue a warning:
that you will force inactivity and apathy cloaking themselves in the mantle of
"reflection" to show their true colors and will drag them into the light of day
from the shelter which hides them. You go back to the aforementioned prophet
and make him into an example of unstinting labor at chastising perverters and
removing the poison of scorpions. The sharpness of his attack answers the fury
goading
 

< previous page_362 next page >

page
< previous page_363 next page >
page
Page 363
them on to repulse and destroy him. You also recall those words scourging the
indigent by which Horace, masking himself in the satiric comment of his
Damasippus, accuses himself of laziness: "You seek to placate envy by
abandoning virtue?! O contemptible wretch!" [Serm. 2.3. 13-14]. (527)
XXIV. Or you might do better yet by citing that greatest comfort to perseverance
uttered by Paul, that vessel of election and most solid anvil of ancient persecution
against the elect: "All who would live godly in Christ will suffer persecution" [2
Tim. 3:12], and "only he who struggles lawfully will wear a crown" [cf. 2 Tim.
2:5]. Moreover you may well call for that shield of divine protection by which
the lord sent comfort to his prophet in contention with his enemies: "Be not
afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the lord" [Jer. 1:8].
(535)
XXV. I certainly admit, dearest friend, even those things that you assert
concerning the rustic Minerva of the satirist Damasippus, where the poetic
figment has a philosophical argument, or those arguments you produce
concerning the divine oracle, where the truth of logical proof shines clear without
any fog of fable: I tell you they are true and altogether fitting, though not
altogether efficacious in persuading when the mind chooses with stubborn
persistence some proposition at odds with these.
For you have learned from the teachings of Cicero the function and end of the
orator: his function is to speak in a way suited to persuade; his end, to persuade
by speech. The first of these you fulfill admirably with your persuasive speech.
At the second however, you fail. Your speech does not persuade, and therefore
you miss your goal. You are well aware that a duty which remains without effect
is like seed unsown. Accordingly you fulfill your duty correctly when speaking
of labor, but when you turn to him who chooses quiet and leisure, you fail to
persuade and, as said above, miss your goal. (550)
For who in these days would not prefer leisure to the life of affairs. If you labor,
your work falls into a pit; if you cease, the result is the same. For who would not
grow cool to toils seeing the man of leisure more rewarded than the toiler, who
receives not even the coin he had come for. Well then let him put his leisure to
good use! But what man in his right mind would persist in seeding thorn fields at
such a time when the bad earth, shuddering at the thistles of genuine perversity,
spurns the ordering hand of the gardner and the good seed of the word? But
happy is the land where the word of God is sown through the word of man. This
land renders fruit hundredfold
 

< previous page_363 next page >

page
< previous page_364 next page >
page
Page 364
to the grainaries of the lord its God, when the clouds of teachers rain upon and
irrigate it. (560)
That land of lead, on the other hand, deserves its sky of bronze, which, accepting
the unfructified seed, gathers thorns and tares into its bundles at harvest time,
and is sent to the eternal fire. Finally, the pater familias grows angry at such a
land and such a vineyard which ignores the gardners, and threatens them in the
words of his prophet: "There shall be neither thinking nor digging, and I shall
command the clouds to withold their rain from it" [Is. 5:6]. He means those
predestined by the design of providence to hell, and separates them with this
word from those predestined to conform to the image of His son. Thence also, I
believe, the bringer of the law and lord of prophets in his gospel, on which the
law and the prophets depend, says, "give not what is holy to dogs nor cast pearls
before swine" [Mt. 7:6], separating by this word again the damned from the
blessed, lest by preaching to the deaf the pious fervor of the laborer should go to
waste. (574)
XXVI. Now at long last, my dearest one, you will confess, I believe, that my
choice of retirement at this point in time was neither fruitless nor lazynot for me,
for you, or for all good menespecially since the life of affairs satisfies neither the
Good nor the Beneficial, nor indeed their more ancient relative, salvation. And
so you concede, conquered, I believe, by true arguments and guided into our
camp by the allurement of peace and quiet, and, if you are wise, you will no
longer take the part of the opponent of leisure against its defender. (581)
But so that you may know for certain the main purpose of this lengthy missive, I
for one require this desirable leisure as an old soldier who has done his tour of
duty three and four times beyond the length of ordinary service. But not only for
myself, for you too, green and fresh though you may still be, and for all good
men. Because I fear, or rather see for a fact, that in your labors you revolve the
wheel of nativity in vain. It would be superfluous in disciplined discourse to
repeat my earlier argumentation in explaining why it is in vain. Besides, you
know that the levites are constrained by legal mandate to take up the ministry at
the age of 25 and beyond, and that at age 50the jubilaum year and a number
famed for its mystical meaningsthey become custodians of the vessels. (591)
And in more recent times young recruits for the military are enlisted by army
law for the same term of service. So also the professor's chair, like military
discipline, has its own term of basic training and preliminary instruction. But the
master's tenure of office lasts much longer and retire-
 

< previous page_364 next page >

page
< previous page_365 next page >
page
Page 365
ment comes much later. The proper term of this office has been set by wise men
at seven years, since there is no task more difficult under the sun and none that
more thoroughly saps the strength of its practitionerthe exception being one who
presides by his authority rather than by his labor. (599)
You, my dearest son, have reached some of these deadlines; I have reached them
all, and moreand still we groan beneath our burden, still we sweat at our toils,
while no distinctions and no honors of the emeritus smile upon us, which would
justly compensate us for so great a labor. If there are any at all who would now
take up that task, they are very few. For liberal studies are now given over to
mimes and actors, who seem to go begging through taverns, where they hold
forth in philosophical discourses on money. Mammon now rules in all ways over
kings and monarchs. In the end beastly avarice holds sway over all the rewards
of virtue and ambition takes inventory of its merchandise in the kingdom of
money. And what shall we believe is to be our part of such wretched leavings,
when the stones of the sanctuary are dispersed through all the streets? But what
ministry of dignities or custody of spiritual vessels could be hoped for or desired,
where not the vessels of compassion shaped for glory, but the vessels of wrath
leading to death, are seen everywhere, from vessels of the minor arts to every
vessel of the higher arts? (615)
XXVII. From this same poisoned root of avarice and from these barren tare-
seeds is sprung and is still sprouting abundantly today that fatal rejection of
manners and of discipline. Nowhere where the regulated life is taught is it
permitted to employ the solemn censure of the seniors or the rod. But where one
is willing to spare the twistings and turnings of vice and withdraw the hand from
the rod and the stimulus of discipline, there the seniors will find a multitude of
fellow vices springing forth as their champions, or money stepping forward as
their defender. For the minors, however, either ill-mannered license or flight, the
liberator, will intercede with her winged feet. But better to be silent about the
seniors, for telling the truth stirs hatred. (625)
But those who should still receive their training beneath the scholars rod give
themselves over to stupidity, laziness, and their god the stomach. Fleeing
instruction in the gravity of moral discipline, they are blown about like light
chaff in every wind of doctrine. And according to that same apostle, they do not
endure sound doctrine, but for their own desires accumulate masters who set
their ears itching. They do homage to vain and pestiferous novelties of phrasings
and questions, and those meant to be
 

< previous page_365 next page >

page
< previous page_366 next page >
page
Page 366
formed by artist's hand from wet and malleable clay into vessels of glory on the
wheel of discipline leap off and take flight in trivialities, and are thus deformed
into vessels of contumely. Also if they gather some scrap of arcane or verbose
knowledge, they wander like vagabonds through the fields of learning
discoursing to no one's satisfaction. Because questions of morals are either last
on their list or not present at all, they revert to their own kind; they shake off the
yoke of fear from their unbending necks, they tear the reins of discipline, they
charge the precipice, dragging themselves down by a perverse life and others by
the corrupting ferment of their malice. (640)
XXVIII. Some men, made pseudo-masters by instruction of a sort, wander about
here and there through villages, towns and cities, since they know nothing of a
fixed lodging and have no house of their own to retreat to, pass along novel
readings of the psalter, of Paul, of the Apocalypse. The youthsservitors of
levityfleeing from discipline, ever eager for novelty, they lure into their company
and guide them down the cliffs of voluptuousness. They undermine the
reverence for discipline, the subjection to obedience, the observance of religion,
and in the end destroy all the fortifications of the regulated life through a most
pernicious corruption of manners. (649)
XXIX. And lest you think I cast the weapons of detraction against this brood and
weave invidious affronts against things which are new, perhaps even better, you
need not believe my words alone. Believe rather your own eyes and ears.
Observe, if you will, how sane are the doctrines and how salubrious the
disciplines of the theologians who emerge from the academy of Tours. Its
headmaster is that apostle of Satan, Berengar. Observe, I say, how pestilential, or
rather how venomous are the scorpions and serpents who break forth from the
caverns of our contemporary Babylon, what heresiarchs, drunk, on their must and
smeared with their poison, introduce sacrilegious novelties concerning sacred
things, useful for nothing except the subversion of the auditors. Their speech
creeps like a cancer, because knowledge which puffs up does not edify, it
subverts. (660)
XXX. These men hammer out new and vagrant interpretations concerning things
sacrosanct, namely concerning the heavenly sacraments, which the holy fathers,
when they dared stretch their hands towards them, seeing that they surpassed not
only human language, but also human reason, approached reverently and, where
necessary, they had the key of David with the subtle judgment to open and close,
and they explained them in a
 

< previous page_366 next page >

page
< previous page_367 next page >
page
Page 367
catholic way and with the sobriety sufficient to the wise. The heavenly
sacraments themselves, which are consecrated at the altar, they claim to be
shadow and not truthat which the tongue balks and the hearing shudders. They
maintain that they are subject to the stomach and the privy in accord with
nature's necessity. These mysteries the lord of nature has, of course, created from
his omnipotence as a sacrament and a bond of human reconciliation and has
given them to the Christian soul as a spiritual nourishment, from which it may
live in eternal life. (674)
These men take that same paschal lamb, which prepared and consecrated those
same sacraments for us and transformed them in itself in a way that defies
explanation, and eat it raw or boiled in water, not roasted in fire. And they do not
burn in the fire that which remains (and always will, because no mortal, however
holy, has ever in this life been able or will ever be able to penetrate to the
mystery of the incarnate Word with full understanding). These men lay in wait
for incautious and simple-minded brothers and especially for those who
frivolously run after intellectual curiosities, and lure them with the bait of a new
teaching. For a start they explain the literal level of scripture as if to show them a
broad path to the home of seven-columned wisdom, and as if to guide them
down the right path to the haven of salvation. But then once snared in the toils of
sophistic disputation and blunted by the sharpness of carnal understanding, they
are lead through the captious labyrinth of necessary argumentation, until with a
superfluous novelty of questions alien to salvation they are elegantly instructed
to their own ruin, and they sink into the pit of destruction. (689)
XXXI. Since men like this do not acknowledge that the things of God defy the
speech of man and the world, and that honey should be eaten to satisfy and not to
cloy, they prop themselves up on their wisdom and investigate the profound
secrets of a majesty far beyond them. Hurled from those heights of glory, they
plunge into its abysses, and, striving with the impudence of carnal wisdom to fix
the fever-reddened eyes of the animal man, who sees not what is God's, on the
true sun, they are hurled back into the outer darknesses of their errors by the rays
of that unapproachable light. In the form of impious cavillings these same men
audaciously worship the divine mysteries of the sacraments, which merit
constant reverence and never are approachable through human senses or reason.
But they produce nothing worthy of a sane mind. They seek to encompass God
within the boundaries of nature, and to confine within human reason that which
surpasses the reason of any rational creature. In doing so they truly dash
 

< previous page_367 next page >

page
< previous page_368 next page >
page
Page 368
against the stone of offence and the rock of scandal, and they contend to press
from the pious breasts of sane doctrine not milk, but butter or blood. May Jesus
Christ eradicate this plague of lethal doctrine from his church before this crumb
of ferment infects the whole body. (708)
XXXII. In this way the entire church is being poisoned on all sides not just by
this toxin but also by the multiform corrupting force of malice and evil, while at
the same time the pure unleavened bread of sincerity and truth receives next to
no homage. There is virtually no one who will either work for the true institutes
of a good life or reward the one who does as befits, and for this reason that
handful of workers remaining is overcome by exasperation and resigns from the
labor. Who under these circumstances would not prefer the life of leisure to that
of public affairs? who would not prefer quiet and silence to futile toil and
unheeded shouting? "I have placed a guard upon my words;' he says, "since they
constantly sin against me; I fall mute, and I am humbled and remain silent from
good things" [Ps. 38:2-3]. And we learn from Jeremiah what behooves men thus
humbled and silent from the good, when he says: "He will sit in isolation and
will remain silent, because he elevated himself above himself" [Lam. 3:28].
(720)
XXXIII. With wise contempt many men of distinction and high authority have
observed all these circumstances: Hermann of Rheims, Drogo of Paris, Huzmann
of Speyer, Meinhard of Bamberg and many others. Having abandoned their
ambitions and resigned their labors, they have bid farewell to studies, and,
following wise counsel, have retired into the leisure of theological pursuits. But
as for me, what should I do? Why should I not for my part choose the same
course? Gladly! Even if the general lament of all the pious or the present
circumstances did not urge me to it, the course of my life and the outcome of all
my strivings would abundantly commend that decision to me. For my career has
drained my spent energy with the incessant demands of its labors to the point
where hardly any is left, and it has sprinkled my head with early snow. I fear an
untimely death will be the result, unless I retire betimes into quiet and leisure.
(733)
In my present circumstances I am blessed abundantly with the good things of
life, but impoverished of what is best, namely all that I mentioned earlier from
the golden age of our forefathers, those happier days of our memories which I
saw with my own eyes. Those things are genuine faith and impartial truth,
keeping the word of the lord one and all, preferring
 

< previous page_368 next page >

page
< previous page_369 next page >
page
Page 369
nothing to justice and equity, insisting on discipline and religion with all due
gravity, tolerating nothing which is not to the public honor and benefit, along
with all that goes with these concerns, which can edify the golden minds placed
in these mud baskets [i.e., the body] and restore the longed-for treasures in those
earthen vessels. These are the things that in those better days of our memories I
have rejoiced to Witness and to play a serious part in. But now, seeing them pass
almost altogether out of existence, I weep not so much for my own as for the
general misery. (747)
XXXIV. But enough of those earlierand therefore bettertimes. Now let us talk of
those things which in part we ourselves have seen and in part have learned
recently from faithful report. I mean from the days of Lord Notker [of Liège],
bishop of our city, and of those bishops, his contemporaries, who at that time
flourished as the most distinguished men in the church, including those two
luminaries, which by now have miserably faded away, compassion and truth. [In
those days] they were united, if I may put it that way, and justice and peace
kissed. But now truth has been removed from the earth and justice has returned
to heaven, and by a swift blow of fortune and a monstrous overturning of things,
all is turned inside-out and upside-down and, in short, just the contrary of what I
described earlier. Now if anyone should attempt to govern himself and the things
entrusted to him, steering through the tempests of worldly life with the same
rudder of reason and along the same path of commandments, following as it
were the guidance of celestial stars, such a man would be forced to abandon his
intention, once blasted by the violence of that whirlwind. (760) It is difficult for
anyone to explain how dreadful and monstrous this is. For we read that that
noble age of gold of an earlier time degenerated gradually and over long periods
into silver or other metals of inferior value, and that it did not lose at one stroke
the beauty of its color. But now, as I said earlier, by a monstrous and
unprecedented disturbance of order, all things are subverted as it were in a single
moment. Nor is there anyone left who tends to the legitimate pursuits of his
ordained status and duty. Now that desirable gold of our time has deteriorated,
not as in earlier times little by little, but at a single swift stroke, not into silver or
any other metal of whatever value, but into stubble and chaff, if not dust and
ashes. (772)
And now, let me recall in a compendious epilogue all that I earlier complained of
so bitterly in responding to your objections. When those two greatest lights of
the church, which God lit too late and extinguished too soon, sheltering them in
the darkness of his presence from the plottings
 

< previous page_369 next page >

page
< previous page_370 next page >
page
Page 370
of menI mean emperor Henry III and archbishop Liutpold of Mainz, in whom the
boundaries of the age of gold reached their outermost limits with the greatest
perfection of beautywhen these two brightest lights, I say, were lifted up (we
hope and pray) from these depths to the true light, from which even now they
shine down onto the orb of the earth, then all divine religion, all equity and
justice, all liberal studies and all moral discipline that had flourished anywhere,
as at that time the church flourished both with a variegated beauty of virtues and
with a manifold burgeoning of liberal lettersall this was buried with them, or
rather received into heaven, so that hardly any vestiges of them are left on earth
apart from a few wretched traces, and even those the mere empty shadow. (787)
XXXV. In the first place, virtually all those magistrates and leaders who hold the
place of rule among the people of God serve only their own interests, not the
common good or that of others. They do not respect the God who sees all, nor do
they fear correction from men. Since they know no fear of God, there is pain and
unhappiness in all their ways. And how should those who "devour my people
like nourishing bread" [Ps. 13:4] know the path of peace? But since there is no
one who will call them to account and reprove them, the interests of factions
have invalidated the study of divine scriptures; the pursuit of fame and vainglory
have superseded the dignity and modesty of the religious life, and while they
thrill to compete the one against the other for wealth and distinctions, these vain
minds also do not shrink from indulging in intrigues and contentions. Nor do
they care in the least that their rule is an exercise in tyranny, and not just rule at
all, an end to which such things are bound to tend, bringing destruction in their
wake. (800)
If some day this sort of majesty and this form of power should sit in the place of
the tribunal to examine the deeds of its subjects, ignoring the beam in its own
eye while removing the mote from that of others, then it would have Lady
Avarice as its assistant standing at its right hand to declaim law suits, toil at trials
and cases, deplore the fact that right and wrong, sacred and profane, are lumped
together, call with tears in her eyes upon the compassion of the judges, the
authority of the laws, on divine and human justice, and if perchance accusations
against a rich man should not lead to a fat fine, she complains that it means the
collapse of order in all courts. Then when all are struck with terror by this
thunderous speech, she inclines her head to defendant and plaintiff alike, who
whisper to her from each side, and scowling grimly invites bribes from each of
them. She stretches out her
 

< previous page_370 next page >

page
< previous page page_371 next page >
Page 371
rapacious hand to both of the promise-makers. Hardly has she finished accusing
him who has what she covets, at once she pardons him for giving what she
demands. Then when the case has been fully argued and she has assumed the
seat between Violence and Rapacity and other fellow lawyers, she reads from
her law book what is just, and, with the assent of the others, who confirm the
legality by oath, she issues judgment on the accused based on the money-lender-
law, and a man who has been in chains for however long is held guilty until the
God Mammon absolves him, and someone she has just crucified by Cecilian law
as a Labeo, she awards the seat of office to as a Cato in accord with the money-
law. But in every assembly of this court, the authority of the laws proposes this
one rule, and the court worthies agree in this one point: that he who cannot
release himself by an immense fortune, should do it with the moderate means he
has scraped together, and if he lacks means altogether, he should be mercilessly
crucified. (823)
XXXVI. Hence it is that we see the holy gospel displayed in the market places
and in the church [we see] doves for sale, vendors' booths, and not far from these
the tables of money-lenders. For these days nothing is received gratis and
nothing is given gratis. When we see these things, I say, we spend more time in
the market than the choir, more intent on usury than Scripture, more concerned
with merchandising than with religion, more given to filling large purses than
pursuing liberal studies. Putting aside all ecclesiastical disciplines which gospel
truth, apostolic teaching and the authority of the holy fathers have sanctioned, we
pant for the things of this world; we spend all our time accumulating wealth, as
if we might earn the purchase of eternal life at this price. Why? Because ''you are
what you own" [Horace, Serm. 1.1.62]. As that poet says whom you know well:
every thing,
virtue, fame, glory, things human and divine,
all bow to lovely riches. Famous is he
who attains them, courageous, just and wise
kings and everything else included. [Horace, Serm. 2.3.95-98]
Since, then, from this root of all evils, avarice, such a horrible thicket of
brambles grows, it is easynay rather terribleto see what fruit these thorns bear.
(843)
Hence while we languish in pursuit of acquisitions, vying for honors without
excelling in honor, having altered the ancient face of divine religion and having
nearly reduced the traditional institutes of moral discipline to
 

< previous page page_371 next page >

< previous page_372 next page >
page
Page 372
the level of fable, we are filled With envy one brother against another; we attack
one another with slander, we provoke civil wars with our accusations and stab
our brothers through the very heart with the sharp thorns of our words. With
deception in our heart and a false smile on our face, we proffer falsehood in our
words, and in utter iniquity we regard all the commandments of God as
insignificant in comparison with money. And in the end we are blown about like
reeds in the wind by levity and inconstancy of character, so that one can hardly
even remember today what one strove for vehemently yesterday. And what can
we hope for in the future? Only this: that the lord will drive all of this sort from
the temple with a scourge. (857)
Greatly to be feared is that three-fold scourge of divine reproach, which the lord
indicated to his sinning people when, through the mouth of his prophet, he said:
"Behold, I shall send forth a sword against them, hunger and pestilence, and I
shall disperse them to all the winds." [Cf. Ez. 6:3, and Jer. 24:10] But even now
we see as it were the first sprouts of this scourge rising slowly from the earth as
warnings, when bit by bit the lord grinds away the staff of the bread and
[banishes] the mirth from wine. And at the same time we hear of wars waged
and seditions launched among Christians, and of frequent incursions of pagans
against Christians. Whence it is easy to prophesy that what remains will not long
be postponed, unless God can be propitiated by our correction. (866)
XXXVII. Go now, brother, act against leisure and rest, and him who desires
them at this time call lazy and apathetic. (And o! would that, having despaired of
any rewards for our labors, we could obtain them in that longed-for and health-
giving quiet which admits no labor but enters the senate of the celestial court
with glory.) If, brother, you know a better state, then, honest friend that you are,
tell me openly. If not, then enjoy this one with me. If the noble strength of your
great soul has until now not given in to them [leisure and rest] and does not
flinch before any arduous task, seek then another fellow-in-arms than me,
because you shall not have me as your comrade in war at this time. Or seek
another Marius and entrust this task to him. But see that you can attribute to him
a better outcome of good beginnings than was the lot of that Roman. I for my
part, chained and sentenced to long internment as I am in that deadly prison, I
shall find solace for my spent forces to the extent possible in peace, and I hope
that at length my prayers will be heard and my deep sighs for the desired mission
will win for me retirement, if not with high distinction, then at least with honor,
and I shall transfer my sad realm to another. But placing no faith in my own will
or
 

< previous page_372 next page >

page
< previous page_373 next page >
page
Page 373
intention, I shall return to my potter all the clay from which he made me: let Him
fix me in the wheel of the world order as it suits his whim, and just as he turns
me on the lathe by his power, I shall add nothing except that solemn word of
obedience: "Thy will be done" [Matt. 6:10]. (885)
XXXVIII. But now, brother, why have we wandered off? Why have we
deflected our course from the straight line of the correct path? To what end have
you thus led unsuspecting me so far astray? To what diversions of speech have
you drawn me, intoxicated with the sweetness of your love? Behold and beware,
my brother, lest while we follow the fixed stars of scripture with insufficient
caution we suffer Charibdean shipwreck, having been lured to the cliffs and
sandy shores, beware, I say, even though unwillingly, lest more should be said
than appropriate, since the blow of the scourge makes only bruises, but the
scourge of the tongue crushes the body. (893)
Let our discourse therefore return now to its point of departure and come back to
you, that point whence its flow took its first source. It began in love, and now let
it end in love. Let charity never fade, but let it give a foretaste, once seeded and
rooted here, of its true plenitude in eternal life. What I said earlier in this letter
must suffice to praise your excellent character, your dignity, modesty and
constancy and other virtues of the good life, but your affection, kindness, and
other virtues of humanity can never be sufficiently praised, neither here not
elsewhere. (901)
This alone I beg of you: strive always for better and greater things, and finally,
strive for that plenitude of growth in which you need never fear diminution.
Indeed, because you serve this desirable treasure in its earthen vessel, I think it
not superfluous to remind you to guard it lovingly with constant vigilance. This
you would do if you would hold all the gates of your citadel and all the windows
of this earthen dwelling under the lock and bolt of humility, if also you would
equip all the entrances and exits of this clay vessel with the bars of virtues, lest
any opening appear either to those guarded within or those laying in ambush
without. For if frivolous pride should permit those things to flow out which the
busy hand of diligent labor has gathered up within, the wind of overweening will
blow and disperse them into vanities' perdition, never to be recovered again. But
if the door is open from without so that the malignant armies break through, they
will violently pillage and plunder those things which you have gathered up
within you with such great labor and leave nothing to the conquered but hell's
flames. (916)
 

< previous page_373 next page >

page
< previous page_374 next page >
page
Page 374
Accordingly let all the good talents God implanted in you, all the divine gifts
enshrined in the treasury of your conscience, be imputed neither to me who
planted and watered them, nor to you who bore fruit in this fertile earth, but let
them all be referred to the father of lights, from whom is every good present and
every perfect gift. (921)
XXXIX. I could certainly praise your perfect gifts more fully and completely,
were it not that dignity and modesty shun the mark of flattery. But I find in all
my worldly goods nothing adequate to return your great kindness and repay you
appropriately for the book which you wrote for me and which was the occasion
for this letter. Your book has stolen into my very soul and endeared all of you to
me, from the very joints of your fingers to your eyes and soul, the angle of your
neck and the labor of your mind. I can only ask Him from whom you have
received all these gifts to recompense you for such kindness by writing your
name in golden letters in the book of life. My willing devotion to you will know
no rest if the occasion to repay you should come aboutgiven the modest means at
my disposal- to the extent that it redounds to our mutual honor. (935)
XL.I have at long last said all that I have to say, to the extent that other
obligations permitted. Now let my reed-pen circumcise itself anew with the new
scalpel of the scribe, not as Jews, but as scholars do it, and let it [my letter]
prepare itself to receive you, to salute you, to celebrate you, not so much through
its size as through its elegance. I would not like to send you away, whom I hold
inwardly embraced in the bosom of Christ, unless you had enjoyed an elegant
reception. And you should know that you owe a debt of gratitude for a feast
whose festive table-mate and companion you have shown yourself to be. (943)
Of the many surrounding me, few join me in saluting you, either because the
residents of the city I serve who know with how great a gift of virtues you
ornament your untiring mind, are few, or because there are few good critical
minds able to judge things clearly. For those who have a trained and practiced
judgment would surely love you if they knew you and judged you according to
your merits. I salute you along with all our fellow workers who studied the good
life and ascended from our academy to claim the masters chair in the highest
places. I salute you along with our pupils who labor at present in the halls of
school, the most noble flower of talent, who ponder their subjects as my words
dictate even beneath the rod. If you were to read their names in writing you
would not recognize them, having
 

< previous page_374 next page >

page
< previous page_375 next page >
page
Page 375
never seen them. (I say this though I refute myself with my very words, because
if you measured recognition by the face, you would not know yourself, since you
yourself never see your own face.) Above all I salute you with that same charity
by which I suckled you in the cradle of discipline with the milk of elementary
learning, leading you to the solid food of higher subjects, so that you my
comrade in arms and my fellow toiler in the fields would be my heavenly
countryman and co-heir of the bequest of eternity. Thus greeted, greet also in my
humble name my brothers, not those related in flesh and blood, but reborn in
water and spirit and joined by adoption, that as co-heirs of Christ we should
receive the lot of eternal beatitude in the kingdom of God the father by the
testament of blood. Greet also fathers and lords, brothers and friends, fathers in
administering, lords in governing, brothers in God the father, friends in charity.
Greet each one of them, I say, as befits his place with me or with you. My
greeting be to you all, so that with the aid of Him in whom we believe, we will
all equally share eternal life.
 

< previous page_375 next page >

page
< previous page_377 next page >
page
Page 377

NOTES

Introduction
1. Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, p. 16.
2. Representative is the survey of cathedral schools, 800-1150, in Joseph H.
Lynch, The Medieval Church: A Brief History, pp. 243-46. See also Specht;
Clerval; Lèsne; Paré, Tremblay, and Brunet; Delhaye, "L'organisation scolaire";
Wallach, "Education and Culture"; Liebeschütz, "The Debate on Philosophical
Learning"; Gibson, "The Continuity of Learning''; Riché; Lutz; Zielinski and
Köhn (see bibliography). A number of essays bearing on the topic appear in the
two volumes of La scuola nell' occidente latino dell' alto medioevo. Contreni,
"The Tenth Century: The Perspective from the Schools,"pp. 379-87.
3. It is important to recognize the very minor role of scriptural studies at the
worldly schools before the investiture controversy. Beryl Smalley calls the tenth
and eleventh centuries "a dramatic pause in the history of Bible studies"(The
Study of the Bible, p. 44). She includes monasteries and cathedral schools in this
judgment. At cathedral schools, she says, "the masters were more interested in
the arts and sciences than theology"(p. 45). Lèsne agrees (Les écoles, p. 642).
The present study bears out this judgment.
4. See Glauche, Schullektüre and Köhn, "Schulbildung und Trivium,"in Schulen
und Studium, ed. Fried.
5. Goswin (Gozechinus), Epist. ad Walcherum, chapter XXVII, pp. 32, ll. 627-
635.
6. I will use the English of these terms interchangeably to refer to cathedral
school discipline, and in doing so am following eleventh- and twelfth-century
usage.
7. Haskins, Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, p. 16: "As we come into the
eleventh century, German culture shows little vitality from within."The same
must be said of French, of course, where the same conditions predominate.
8. The two major voices that have addressed the transition from the eleventh to
the twelfth century recently are those of Charles Radding, A World Made by
Men, and Brian Stock, The Implications of Literacy. Radding adapts a model of
historical development from Jean Piaget's studies of cognitive development. He
associates the evolution of mentalities with rising stages of cognition. Stock's
model operates on the opposition of orality to literacy. Both are progressive,
 evolutionary models, suggesting a rise from more to less primitive in social and
cognitive change. Both are formulated to analyze the new. Neither model comes
to terms with the sense of superiority of the old and contempt for that which
supersedes it, and neither can deal with "reversion"from a "higher"to a
"lower"stage.
 

< previous page_377 next page >

page
< previous page_378 next page >
page
Page 378
9. Tusc. Disp. 4.2.3: ". . . praecepta quaedam occultius tradere et mentes suas a
cogitationum intentione cantu fidibusque ad tranquillitatem traducere . . ."
10. 4.3.5: ". . . hanc amplissimam omnium artium, bene vivendi disciplinam, vita
magis quam litteris persecuti sunt."Here and throughout, I will translate vita in
this context as "conduct,""way of living."
11. Eric Havelock, Preface to Plato. Werner Jaeger, Paideia, 2: 17ff.
12. This comment leaves out the mainstream of Platonic influence,
Neoplatonism. While Neoplatonism is important to acknowledge, the two
branches of influence of interest to me are the memorializing of Socrates and the
opposition to his doctrine.
13. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages; Grabmann, Geschichte der
scholastischen Methode; Radding, A World made by Men; Stock, Implications of
Literacy.
14. On itinerant kingship, see the survey by Joachim Bumke in Höfische Kultur,
pp. 71-76; on administrative kingship, C. Warren Hollister and John Baldwin,
"The Rise of Administrative Kingship: Henry I and Philip Augustus."
15. Tellenbach, Church, State and Society, and White, "The Gregorian Ideal and
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux."Also below, Chapter 10, pp. 274-75 and n. 22.
16. On "performance"in the context of a shift from oral to written literature, see
Paul Zumthor, Oral Poetry: An Introduction.
17. Hugh, De Sacramentis 1.6.5., PL 176, 267A: [referring to the incarnation] ". .
. et positus est liber scriptus intus et foris; in humanitate foris, intus in divinitate,
ut foris legeretur per imitationem, intus per contemplationem . . ."
18. Herbert of Bosham, Vita Thomae 3.13, RS 67: 3, p. 208: "Sed novum
nostrum exemplar replicemus, et in ipso relegamus adhuc. Fructuosius quippe
virtutum opera leguntur in viris quam in libris, quanto efficacior est vox operum
quam sermonum."
19. Some thoughts on these problems in a number of essays in Materialität der
Kommunikation, ed. Gumbrecht & Pfeiffer.
20. See Zumthor, Oral Poetry, on voice and text.
21. Institutio oratoria 2.13.9: ". . . recti quidem corporis vel minima gratia est;
nempe enim adversa sit facies et demissa brachia et iuncti pedes at a summis ad
ima rigens opus. Flexus ille et, ut sic dixerim, motus dat actum quendam et
adfectum. Ideo nec ad unum modum formatae manus et in vultu mille species. . .
Quam quidem gratiam et delectationem adferunt figurae . . ."
 22. Bede s Ecclesiastical History of the English People 3.5, p. 226.
23. Das Leben der Liutbirg (880), chapter 8, ed. Ottokar Menzel, MGH
Deutsches Mittelalter, Kritische Studientexte 3 (Leipzig, 1937; rpt. Stuttgart,
1978), p. 15, lines 18-20. The passage is especially rich in translation problems
which derive from the identification of behavior and morality common to a
charismatic culture.
24. Ruotger, Vita Brun. chapter 21, LB, p. 210.
25. Sigebert of Gembloux, Gesta Abb. Gembl. chapter 4, MGH SS 8, p. 525. line
9.
26. Otto III writing to Gerbert of Aurillac, requesting instruction from his book
of mathematics, ". . . ut pleniter eius [= the book's] instructi documentis aliquid
priorum intelligamus subtilitatis."Briefsammlung Gerberts epist. 186, p. 222.
 

< previous page_378 next page >

page
< previous page_379 next page >
page
Page 379
27. English preserves the meaning "embodied lesson"well into the modem
period. Laertes calls Ophelia "a document in madness"(Hamlet 4.1.178.)
28. De institutione novitiorum chapter 10, PL 176, 935D. See below, Chapter 9.
29. Emil Lèsne's expansive work (Les écoles) on the schools from the eighth to
the twelfth century is an exception.
30. Paravicini can point to a passage in the "Ecbasis captivi,"currently dated
1043-1046, which quotes the "Quid suum virtutis."
31. Hauréau, Les mélanges poétiques d'Hildebert de Lavardin (Paris, 1882), p.
41; Curtius, "Die Musen im Mittelalter,"ZRPH 59 (1939), pp. 183-84.
32. Charles Radding and Ronald Witt are preparing studies of Italian schools in
the eleventh century.

Chapter 1:
Two Models of Carolingian Education
1. On education in the Carolingian period see Lèsne, Les écoles; Josef
Fleckenstein, Die Bildungsreform Karls des Grossen als Verwirklichung der
norma rectitudinis; M.L.W. Laistner, Thought and Letters in Western Europe
A.D. 500 to 900; Wolfgang Edelstein, Eruditio et sapientia: Weltbild und
Erziehung in der Karolingerzeit; Pierre Riché Les écoles et l'enseignement.
2. See Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, pp. 37ff.;
Laistner, Thought and Letters, pp. 189ff.
3. Die Vita Sturmi des Eigil von Fulda chapter 2, pp. 132-33: ". . . presbyter
sanctus puerum Sturmen ad Dei omnipotentis servitium instruere studuit. Psalmis
tenaci memoriae traditis, lectionibusque quam plurimis perenni commemoratione
firmatis, sacram coepit Christi puer scripturam spiritali intelligere sensu, quatuor
evangeliorum Christi mysteria studiosissime curavit addiscere, novum quoque ac
vetus testamentum, in quantum sufficiebat, lectionis assiduitate in cordis sui the-
sauro recondere curavit. Erat quippe, ut scriptum est, 'meditatio eius in lege
Domini die ac nocte'."
4. "Sacred letters"are one of the most common topics in descriptions of
education, frequently the only element mentioned. Cf. Altfrid, Vita Liudgeri,
MGH SS 2, 410 (chapter 19): "sacris litteris imbutum"; Pope Benedict III, Vita,
PL 115, 683A: "sacrorum voluminum didicit lectiones"; Pope Leo IV, PL 128,
1303: "quousque sacras litteras plenitus disceret . . ."; Vita vel passio S. Eulogii
PL 115, 707C: ''. . . litteris ecclesiasticis haerens . . ."; Ansgar, Vita Willehadi
MGH SS 2, 380, 1.4ff.: ". . . ab infantia sacris eruditus litteris, ac spiritalibus
instructus disciplinis . . ."; Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi, PL 101, 696A: "[W. sent to
 monastery] . . . religiosis studiis et sacris litteris erudiendum."
5. Eigil's own biographer (Candidus or Brun of Fulda) paints the same picture:
Eigil studied at Fulda (under Sturmi), where divine law was taught "in
inexhaustible exertions"(jugi exercitatione), and studied "with the utmost
industry"(cum summa industria, PL 105, 385B). The warning of Hrabanus
Maurus to students that it is better to memorize less and understand more
underscores the point (PL 107, 407A).
6. On this aspect of Carolingian education, see Heinrich Fichtenau, The
 

< previous page_379 next page >

page
< previous page_380 next page >
page
Page 380
Carolingian Empire, trans. Peter Munz, esp. pp. 90-103, and Smalley, The
Study of the Bible, pp. 37ff.
7. This is not to ignore the philosophical accomplishments of the period, those of
John the Scot for instance. Our concern is with the education instituted in
monasteries and cathedrals, which came as an innovation of the period, and a
view of this scene underscores the exceptional nature of the brilliant
accomplishment of a few Carolingian scholar-philosophers.
8. "ad discendos libros divinos."Vita Gregorii, chapter 2, MGH SS 15: p. 68. ll.
1ff.
9. Cf. Laistner, Thought and Letters, p. 194: "Charles repeatedly stresses the
need of good preachers, who, instead of always addressing their flock in the
language of the church, were permitted and even directed to use the vernacular,
if their hearers were unable to follow in Latin."
10. Hrabanus Maurus, De clericorum institutione 3.27, PL 107, 406B: ". . . quem
antiqua diffinitio affirmat, virum bonum et dicendi peritum esse debere. Si ergo
haec definitio in oratoribus gentilium observabatur, multo magis in oratoribus
Christi observari convenit, quorum non solum sermo, imo etiam tota vita
doctrina virtutum debet esse."On the definition of the virtues in the period, see
Edelstein, Eruditio et Sapientia and Sibylle Mähl, Quadriga virtutum: Die
Kardinaltugenden in der Geistesgeschichte der Karolingerzeit.
11. De inst. cler. 3.28, PL 107, 407A: "Sapienter autem dicit homo tanto magis
vel minus, quanto in scripturis sanctis majus minusve proficit."Scripture is the
basis of all wisdom, according to Hrabanus, 3.2, PL 107, 379B: "Fundamentum .
. . et perfectio prudentiae scientia est sanctarum Scripturarum . . ."
12. Laistner, Thought and Letters, pp. 207ff.
13. PL 1005, 800C: "Tandem a parentibus traditus in liberalibus artibus
erudiendus . . . coepit . . . juxta scientiae doctrinalis augmentum incrementum
religionis suscipere: ut non solum in liberalibus, verum etiam in spiritualibus
disciplinis efficaciter instrueretur."
14. On convictus in monastic communities in the early Middle Ages, see Detlef
Illmer, Formen der Erziehung und Wissensvermittlung im frühen Mittelalter, pp.
58ff.; Jean Leclerq, "Pédagogie et formation spirituelle du VIe au IXe siècle,"pp.
285-86. Among the clergy in general, Richard Stachnik, Die Bildung des
Weltklerus im Frankenreiche von Karl Martell bis auf Ludwig den Frommen, pp.
3-4.
15. PL 115, 629Af.: "Ubi non solum litteras didicit, verum etiam in studio
sanctae conversationis, non quasi puer . . . sed velut perfec tus monachus
mansit."
 16. MGH SS 2, 41-42: "litterarum scientia sublimatus, virtutum sectator
morumque laudabilium possessor sacerdotii gradum conscendit."
17. Ep. 271, Epist. 4, Karol. aevi 2, p. 430: ". . . erudite pueros et adolescentulos
vestros cum omni diligentia, in castitate et sanctitate, et disciplina ecclesiastica,
ut digni habeantur vestrum post vos tenere locum . . ."
18. Vita Lamberti, chapter 1, sec. 5-6, PL 132, 645-46: ". . . peritissimis viris
traditur educandus. Ecclesiastica religione admodum insignitur, et coelestium
mysteriorum igneo amore penetraliter inflammatur, tantoque celerius liberalium
fluenta artium epotavit, quanto ardentius in amore Dei totum se olim transfudit . .
. Instructus tandem divinis dogmatibus, et ubertim vigoratus monasticis
sanctioni-
 

< previous page_380 next page >

page
< previous page_381 next page >
page
Page 381
bus . . ."(645C); ". . . nitens totis viribus vir fieri perfectus . . ."(646B); "Huic
[= Bp. Theodard] . . . Lantbertus, nobilitate cluentissimus, forma corporis
elegantissimus commendatur, in aula regia educandus . . ."(646C). Cf. Vita . . .
S. Eulogii PL 115, 707Cf.: "Ab ipsis . . . incunabulis litteris ecclesiasticis
haerens, et quotidie per studia bonorum operum crescens, perfectionem
adeptus est . . . magistrorum doctor est factus."De Vita S. Odulphi, PL
133,857: ''. . . litterarum studiis traditus, et sanctis ac deo devotis hominibus,
ut ab illis canonica religione imbueretur, commendatus est. . . . aetatem suam,
licet annis necdum maturam, divinis disciplinis, et dogmatibus egregie
ornaret"; ". . . in virum perfectum . . ."(859A).
19. Epistola de litteris colendis, MGH Leges 2, Capit. regum Franc. 1, p. 79, ll.
9-15: ". . . consideravimus utile esse, ut episcopia et monasteria nobis Christo
propitio ad gubernandum commissa praeter regularis vitae ordinem atque sanctae
religionis conversationem etiam in litterarum meditationibus eis qui donante
Domino discere possunt secundum uniuscuiusque capacitatem docendi studium
debeant impendere, qualiter, sicut regularis norma honestatem morum, ita
quoque docendi et discendi instantia ordinet et ornet seriem verborum, ut, qui
Deo placere appetunt recte vivendo, ei etiam placere non negligant recte
loquendo."
20. Epist. de litt.col., p. 79, ll. 38-39: ". . . et interius devotos et exterius doctos
castosque bene vivendo et scholasticos bent loquendo . . ."
21. Cf. the resolution of the Council of Lestinnes (Liptinensis, near Lobbes) from
743 enjoining reform. MGH Leges 2, Capit. 1, p. 28, ll. 1-2: "[representatives of
the entire clergy] . . . promiserunt se velle ecclesiastica iura moribus et doctrinis
et ministerio recuperare."Stachnik, Die Bildung des Weltklerus, p. 24.
22. On the moral thrust of pre-Carolingian education in monastic communities,
see Illmer, Wissensvermittlung, pp. 51ff., and in early Christian education in
general, Joseph McCarthy, "Clement of Alexandria and the Foundations of
Christian Educational Theory,"History of Education Society Bulletin 7 (1971),
11-18.
23. Two decades after the emergence of educational reform, Charlemagne found
it necessary to issue an edict (in 811) cautioning against favoring study of letters
and the chant to the neglect of bona conversatio. Bishops apparently courted
large numbers of clerics, attending more to their literacy than to discipline and
institutional identity: ". . . plus studet [pastor vel magister] ut suus clericus vel
monachus bene cantet et legat quam iuste et beate vivat . . ."Both are to be
cultivated, but ". . . tolerabilius . . . ferendum nobis videtur inperfectione [sic]
cantandi quam vivendi"(MGH Leges 2, Capit. regum Franc. 1, p. 164, nr. 72).
The indication is clearly that the strong initial emphasis on letters and church
duties brought a neglect of the other side of the curriculum, personal discipline.
 See the comments of Stachnik, Die Bildung des Weltklerus, pp. 60-61.
24. See the article, "Perfection chrétienne", in Dictionnaire de théologie
catholique 12:1219
25. PL 126, 993B: ". . . in paucis annis omni maturitate et scientiae et virtutum
perfectus enituit."Vir perfectus is biblical (Luke 6:40): "Every disciple who
becomes like his master is perfect."But it is an ideal shared with Roman
antiquity (Quintilian, Inst. orat. 12.2.25 & 27), and not restricted to any period of
western Christianity, though the phrase runs like a leitmotif through Carolingian
biographies. One example that epitomizes the Carolingian educational tradition,
Vita Leonis 4, PL
 

< previous page_381 next page >

page
< previous page_382 next page >
page
Page 382
115, 629B: ". . . non solum litteras didicit, verum etiam in studio sanctae
conversationis, non quasi puer . . . sed velut perfectus monachus . . ."Alcuin
gives a definition with a classical flavor in his dialogue Grammatica, PL 101,
851A: [the master quotes the dictum, "nothing in excess,"and the pupils ask
how to judge proper moderation] "Discip: `Perfectorum esse arbitramus
hujusmodi rationis frenis animarum cursus coercere.'Mag.: `Ad hanc scilicet
perfectionem . . . vos cohortor.'"
26. Vita Sturmi, chapter 2, p. 133: ". . . profundus in sensu, sagax in cogitatione,
prudens in sermone, pulcro adspectu, gressu composito, honestis moribus, vita
immaculata, caritate, humilitate, mansuetudine, alacritate, omnium in se traxit
amorem."
27. MGH SS 2, p. 407, chapter 9: ". . . vir mirae mansuetudinis, vultu hilari, non
tamen facilis in risu, et in omnibus actibus prudentiam cum temperantia
amplectens. Erat enim assiduus meditator divinae scripturae, et eius precipue,
quae ad laudem Dei et ad doctrinam pertinebat catholicam . . ."
28. MGH SS 2, p. 407, chapter 11: "Erat consueto more omnibus carus, eo quod
esset ornatus moribus bonis et studiis sanctis."As a result of his studies with
Alcuin he became "in monasticis eruditionibus illustr[ior]"(p. 408, chapter 12).
29. Epistola ad clericos et monachos Ludgunenses de modo regiminis
ecclesiastici, PL 104, 195C: "Omnis ergo qui praeponitur caeteris, sive clericus
sive monachus, si ita videtur benevolus et mansuetus atque affabilis, ut
subditorum corda in sui amorem et propriam laudem convertat, adulter est, et
regimen animarum suscipere nunquam debet."
30. De Carolo Magno, I, 3, ed Jaffé, Bibl. rer. germ. 4, p. 633: "`Nunc ergo ad
perfectum attingere studete; et dabo vobis episcopia et monasteria permagnifica,
et semper honorabiles eritis in oculis meis.'"
31. There is general agreement on this point. Cf. Fleckenstein, Bildungsreform,
p. 23 and passim; Franz Brunhölzl, "Der Bildungsauftrag der Hofschule,"p. 32;
Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751-
987, pp. 147-48. Beryl Smalley treats Biblical studies at "Monastic and
Cathedral Schools"(the title of her second chapter) as if there were no
distinctions to make between the two.
32. Vita Bardonis, ed. Jaffé, Bibl. rer. germ., 3, p. 525. On Wazo's contested
election, MGH SS 7, p. 219, ll. 39-44 and below, Chapter 7.
33. Epist. de litt. colendis, MGH Leges 2, Capit. 1, Nr. 29, p. 79. 9: ". . .
episcopia et monasteria . . . docendi studium debeant impendere"; line 43:
"Huius epistolae . . . exemplaria ad omnes suffragantes tuosque coepiscopos et
per universa monasteria dirigi . . ."The Admonitio generalis commands,
"Psalmos, notas, cantus, compotum, grammaticam per singula monasteria vel
 episcopia et libros catholicos bene emendate."Recall also Charlemagne's words
to the diligent sons of poor men: ". . . dabo vobis episcopia et monasteria
permagnifica . . .''(above, n. 30). This suggests that the two institutions were
indistinguishable in terms of the education offered and that educated men were
prepared for pastoral care, administrative service and the religious life alike at
either.
34. Alcuin writes to the emperor describing his teaching activity at St. Martin's
(sacred scripture, "ancient studies,"grammar and astronomy). Its purpose: "ad
profectum sanctae Dei ecclesiae et ad decorem imperialis regni vestri"(MGH
Epist.
 

< previous page_382 next page >

page
< previous page_383 next page >
page
Page 383
4, Ep. Karolini Aevi 2, pp. 176-77, nr. 121), and he urges Charlemagne to
exhort the "youths in the palace"to achieve the same kind of wisdom (p. 177,
ll. 29-30). Fleckenstein argues that the court was the breeding and testing
ground of the educational program, and that from the court it spread to
cathedral and monastery (Bildungsreform, esp. p. 28). On the Carolingian
court or palace school in general see Lèsne, Les écoles, pp. 39ff.; Brunhölzl,
"Der Bildungsauftrag," who argues, against Albert Hauck, that there is no
meaningful distinction between court and ecclesiastical schools (pp. 29-30);
Fichtenau, Carolingian Empire, pp. 79 ff.; Fleckenstein, Bildungsreform; see
also his "Karl der Grosse und sein Hof,"and "Die Struktur des Hofes Karls
des Grossen im Spiegel von Hinkmars De ordine palatü"; Rosamond
McKitterick, "The Palace School of Charles the Bald.''
35. Pierre Riché, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West from the Sixth
Through the Eighth Century, p. 239. Riché refers to Waldregisil, trained at court
militaribus gestis et aulicis disciplinis.
36. Epist. Syn. Karisiac. XII, MGH Leges 2, Capit. 2, p. 436, ll. 2-6: "Et ideo
domus regis scola dicitur, id est disciplina; quia non tantum scolastici, id est
disciplinati et bene correcti, sunt, sicut alii, sed potius, ipsa scola, quae
interpretatur disciplina, id est correctio, dicitur quae alios habitu, incessu, verbo
et actu atque totius bonitatis continentia corrigat."Heiric of Auxerre praised the
court of Charles the Bald also as a school. MGH Poetae 3: 429, I. 37: ". . .
merito vocitetur scola palatium, cuius apex non minus scolaribus quam
militaribus consuescit cotidie disciplinis."
37. Stachnik had shown the pedagogic thrust of the religious life as early as the
sixth century and into the eighth ("Fritzlar ist also in erster Linie mehr Schule als
Kloster; Schule in klösterlichem Gewande, nicht Kloster mit Schule"p. 19).
Fleckenstein and his student Illmer take up the idea and point to the essentially
personal, charismatic nature of instruction in Carolingian times and before and to
the problems of applying the word "school"uncritically to this learning. Jean
Leclerq came to similar insights in his "Pédagogie et formation spirituelle,"esp.
p. 268: "Il n'y a pas d`'écoles monastiques' à proprement parler, il n'y a même
pas d'écoles dans les monastères . . . l'école, c'est tout le monastère."
38. Riché, Education and Culture, p. 238. "Schola palatina"designated the elite
troops attached to the royal court. Cf. O. Seeck, "Scholae Palatinae,"Pauly-
Wissowa, 2nd ser. 2, 261.
39. Cf. Alcuin to Bp. Eanbald of York, urging him to maintain the school there
as "totius bonitatis et eruditionis fons,"as a drinking fountain for those who thirst
for ecclesiastica disciplina (Epist. 114, MGH Epist. 4, Ep. Karol. Aevi 2, p. 169,
15ff.
40. Cf. n. 26 above: praise of Sturmi, gressu composito. See also J.-C. Schmitt,
 La raison des gestes, pp. 93-133. His only Carolingian examples are secular, and
he concentrates on interpreting the representation of gestures in illuminated
manuscripts.
41. Einbarti vita Caroli magni, chapter 19, ed. Jaffé, Bibl. rer. Germ. 4, 526: ". . .
primo liberalibus studiis, quibus et ipse operam dabat, erudirentur. Tum filios,
cum primum aetas patiebatur, more Francorum equitare, armis ac venatibus
exerceri fecit; filias vero lanificio adsuescere, coloque ac fuso, ne per otium
torperent, operam inpendere atque ad omnem honestatem erudiri iussit."
 

< previous page_383 next page >

page
< previous page_384 next page >
page
Page 384
42. Ermenrici epist. ad Grimaldum, MGH Epist. 5, Ep. Aev. Karol. Aevi 3, p.
536, ll. 10ff.: ". . . veste septemplici, quam Sophia sibi suis manibus texuerat,
indutus mirifice procedis, preter haec etiam gemmis omnium virtutum adornatus
. . . . Et non inmerito his virtutum alis ceteros precellis, qui a primo aetatis
flosculo inter aulicos beatorum augustorum mores decentissimos enutritus es.
Tam dogma totius discipline quam normam recte vivendi ab eis didicisti . . . "
43. Paschasius Radbertus, Vita Adalbardi, chapter 7, MGH SS 2, p. 525.
44. Grammatica PL 101, 849-902; De dialectica PL 101, 949-76; De rbetorica
et virtutibus, The Rhetoric of Alcuin and Charlemagne, ed. Howell (see
bibliography). See Liutpold Wallach, Alcuin and Charlemagne: Studies in
Carolingian History and Literature.
45. "inter curas aulae."The Rhetoric of Alcuin and Charlemagne, p. 66, I. 34.
46. The Rhetoric of Alcuin, p. 66, lines 12 ff.: ". . . te olim memini dixisse, totam
eius artis vim in civilibus versari quaestionibus. Sed ut optime nosti propter
occupationes regni et curas palatii in huiuscemodi quaestionibus assidue nos
versari solere, et ridiculum videtur eius artis nescisse praecepta, cuius cotidie
occupatione involvi necesse est."
47. For instance, chapter 3, p. 70, Il. 67 ff.: "rhetoricae disciplinae regulas pande
nobis: iam cotidiana occupationum necessitas cogit nos exerceri in illis."
48. PL 101, 919:
Qui, rogo, civiles cupiat cognoscere mores
Haec praecepta legat quae liber iste tenet.
49. p. 142, ll. 1149 ff.: ". . . illis sermocinandi ratio, qui causis civilibus et
negotiis saecularibus interesse aestimandi sunt, mox a pueritia multo studio
habenda est . . . "(emphasis added)
50. PL 101, 613-38. See Liutpold Wallach, "Alcuin on Virtues and Vices: A
Manual for a Carolingian Soldier."
51. See Samuel Jaffé, "Antiquity and Innovation in Notker's Nova rhetorica: The
Doctrine of Invention"and bibliography in that article on early medieval rhetoric.
52. See Howell's introduction, Alcuin's Rhetoric, pp. 22-33 and his notes.
53. Cf. Cicero, De inventione 1.1.1ff. See Jerrold Seigel, Rhetoric and
Philosophy in Renaissance Humanism, on the tradition in the Middle Ages, pp.
173-99, though with a tendency to underestimate its importance. Also see below,
Chapter 5.
54. Seigel denies the connection, but points to Alcuin's treatment of style. The
 joining of wisdom and eloquence is addressed mainly in the section on delivery.
55. The Rhetoric of Alcuin, p. 142, ll. 1156-57: "Nam ut in castris miles, sic in
domo orator debet erudiri, ut quod solus exercuerat, inter multos facere non
formidet."In domo in this context must be translated "at court"rather than "at
home", as Howell renders it (p. 143).
56. The Rhetoric of Alcuin, p. 142, ll. 1167ff.: ". . . verba sint lecta, honesta,
lucida, simplicia, plano ore, vultu quieto, facie conposita, sine immoderato
cacchino, clamore nullo prolata. Nam bonus modus est in loquendo, tamquam in
ambulando, clementer ire, sine saltu, sine mora, quatenus omnia medii moder-
 

< previous page_384 next page >

page
< previous page_385 next page >
page
Page 385
aminis temperantia fulgeant, quae est una de quatuor virtutibus, de quibus
caeterae quasi radicibus procedant virtutes, in quibus animae est nobilitas,
vitae dignitas, morum honestas, laus disciplinae."See Schmitt's commentary,
La raison des gestes, pp. 93-95.
57. See The Rhetoric of Alcuin, p. 144, ll. 1204ff.
58. These verses are not printed either by Howell or by Karl Halm in his edition
of Alcuin, Rhetores latini minores, 523-50. The editor of the Migne edition
comments that they occur in all the manuscripts he consulted (PL 101, 949A).
Neither Howell nor Halm comments on the lines or their omission. Wallach
takes them as genuine lines of Alcuin not originally attached to the De rhetorica
(Alcuin and Charlemagne, pp. 86-88).
59. Cf. Alcuin's Ep. 229, MGH Epist. 4, Ep. Karol. Aevi 2, 373. 2ff., urging
Charlemagne to become a philosopher-prince by practicing sapientia in which is
found decus, pulchritudo vitae praesentis and glory of perpetual beatitude.
Imbedded in Ciceronian/Alcuinian ideals is the use of "beauty"as a modifier of
conduct of the present life as opposed to eternal life.
60. But this definition is common: cf. in Halm, Cassiodorus, Isidor and Alcuin.
61. Hrabanus, De cler. inst. 3.19, PL 107, 396C-D: "Sed haec diffinitio licet ad
mundanam sapientiam videatur pertinere, tamen non est extranea ab ecclesiastica
disciplina. Quidquid enim orator et praedicator divinae legis diserte et decenter
profert in docendo, vel quidquid apte et eleganter depromit in dictando, ad hujus
artis congruit peritiam; nec utique peccare debet arbitrari, qui hanc artem in
congrua aetate legit . . . "
62. De cler. inst. 3.27, PL 107, 406B.
63. On Carolingian Fürstenspiegel, Jonas of Orleans, De institutione regia, ed. J.
Reviron, in Les idées politico-religieuses d'un évêque du IXe siècle: Jonas
d'Orléans et son De inst. reg. (Paris, 1930). Hans Hubert Anton, Fürstenspiegel
und Herrscherethos in der Karolingerzeit.
64. Einhard, Vita Caroli magni, chapter 25, pp. 531-32: "Erat eloquentia
copiosus et exuberans; poteratque, quicquid vellet, apertissime exprimere . . .
apud quem [=Alcuin] et rethoricae et dialecticae . . . ediscendae plurimum et
temporis et laboris inpertivit."On the position of rhetoric and an orator's
education in the ninth century see Laistner, Thought and Learning, pp. 217-18.
65. Thompson, The Literacy of the Laity in the Middle Ages, pp. 27-52.
66. See Howell, The Rhetoric of Alcuin, pp. 8ff.
 Chapter 2:
Court and School in Ottonian Times
1. Ruotgers Lebensbeschreibung des Erzbischofs Bruno von Köln, chapters 5-8,
LB, pp. 186-190. On Brun's influence as teacher, see Gunther Wolf, "Erzbischof
Brun I. von Köln und die Förderung der gelehrten Studien in Köln" with earlier
literature.
2. Sigebert of Gembloux, Vita Deoderici ep. Mettensis, MGH SS 4, p. 464, ll.
43ff.: ". . . in sanctae Halberstadensis ecclesiae gremio a primis annis maternae
 

< previous page_385 next page >

page
< previous page_386 next page >
page
Page 386
pietatis ubere ablactatus, et sublimiter ut competebat educatus, naturae et
morum dulces et uberes repromittebat fructus."On Dietrich see DGQ 1. 182-
85.
3. Vita Deoderici, pp. 464.48-465.16:
Et quia erat quondam in castris coelestis militiae civiliter militaturus,
sub eo in sanctae Coloniensis ecclesiae gimnasio per diutina diludia
liberali tyrocinio est exercitatus, et per diuturna proludia laudabiliter
probatus. Discebat ibi humiliter subesse, qui debebat multis aliquando
utiliter praeesse, et subiectis humili et discreta praelatione utillime
prodesse. Erat in utroque, quod uterque in alterutro amplecteretur; et
sicut ferrum ferro acuitur, sic alter alterius bona aemulatione
aedificabatur . . . .
Nec in vanum cedere poterat, quod vir, qui in Christo et in aecclesia
talis tantusque futurus erat, quem mater aecclesia ad ornamentum et
firmamentum sui nutrierat, quem natura, immo ipsius auctor naturae,
nativo ingenii bono ditabat, talis tantique magistri studio et doctrina
institui et expoliri meruerat. Ut enim ait quidam:
Doctrina vim promovet insitam
Rectique cultus pectora roborant,
Utcumque defecere mores,
Dedecorant bene nata culpae.
4. On the muting of sainthood in Brun's Vita, see Patrick Corbet, Les saints
ottoniens: Sainteté dynastique, sainteté royale et sainteté féminine autour de l'an
Mil, esp. pp. 51-58, 74-80.
5. Benedicti regula 64.8, ed. Hanslik, p. 149: "sciatque sibi oportere prodesse
magis quam praeesse."
6. Cf. Augustine, Sermo 340.1, PL 38, 1484; De civitate Dei 19.19, PL 41, 647;
Contra Faustum 22.56, PL 42, 436. Gregory the Great, Regula pastoralis 2.6, PL
77, 34C; Moralia 21.15 (22-24), CC 143A, 1082-83 (benefit others without
being set above them [praeesse]). Hincmar, De divortio, PL 125, 772 (everyone
should by "ruled and benefited"by episcopal authority and the royal office). I am
grateful to George Brown and Greg Rose for the first of these references. The
latter two are from John van Engen, "Sacred Sanctions"(forthcoming). Also
Sigebert, Passio Thebeorum 1.379-81, ed. Dümmler, p. 58: "His isti presunt
primatus ordine, prosunt / Exemplis vite fideique pari pietate. / Qui presunt
subsunt, qui subsunt hi quoque presunt."See also the discussion of the
importance of unquestioned authority in the running of the bishop's household in
 Bernard of Clairvaux, De consideratione 4.6.18, which gives particular stress to
praeesse. See below, Chapter 7 on Wazo of Liège.
7. Cf. Ruotger, Vita Brun., chapter 21, LB, p. 210: "exemplum et documentum
factus est omnibus . . . ."Also chapter 29, p. 220; chapter 30, p. 224; chapter 33,
p. 227. Pointed out and discussed by Hartmut Hoffmann, "Politik und Kultur im
ottonischen Reichskirchensystem: Zur Interpretation der Vita Brunonis des
Ruotger,"p. 49.
8. Ruotger, Vita Brun., chapter 1, LB, p. 180: "Ineffabili igitur providentia
bonitatis Dei collatum est electis eius, ut et gratis copiosis gratie muneribus
ditentur
 

< previous page_386 next page >

page
< previous page_387 next page >
page
Page 387
et tamen hoc ipsum, quo munerantur, quodammodo per gratiam mereantur,
alius sic, alius vero sic, unusquisque secundum quod in eo operatur unus
atque idem spiritus dividens singulis prout vult."
9. Vita Deoderici, chapter 3, p. 465, ll. 27ff.:
Nam caeteris quibus pollebat artibus etiam hoc addiderat, quod
principibus cuiusque ordinis, in quibus columbae innocentiam, serpentis
astuciam, et praecipue tutae fidei simplicitatem vigere videbat, his
adprime amicitiam suam accommodabat, his gratiam regis cumulatius
conciliabat. Si quos talium privata adhuc vita oscurabat, hos oportune in
loco defunctorum illustrium virorum sua opera suffectos, ad bene
agendum accendebat. Omnia quippe omnibus factus erat. . . .
Ruotger says as much of Brun, chapter 37, LB, p. 234:
Quesivit interea summa diligentia pius pastor Bruno . . . navos et
industrios viros, qui rem publicam suo quisque loco fide et viribus
tuerentur . . . hos ipse inter summos et familiares habebat, eisdem
imperatorem, germanum suum, adprime conciliabat. . . .
10. On the incident see Karl Uhlirz, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reiches unter
Otto II. und Otto III., 1: 178-79.
11. Alpert, De episcopis Mettensibus libellus, MGH SS 4, p. 699, ll. 41ff.
Verum dum omnium virorum nostrorum causas sublimium considero,
nihil in eis repperio, quod non eius vitae eligantia superet; et hoc
quisque etiam crimen arrogantiae subit, si existimet, se vitae Deoderici
cuiusque iudicio posse comparari. Multi namque non a se ipsis, set ex
aliorum beneficiis vel etiam rapinis, locupletes et clari effecti;
Deodericus vero longe aliter generositate parentum et excellentia
maiorum, ex innata quoque copia magna praediorum clarissimus
habetur.
12. See my Origins of Courtliness, pp. 35-36.
13. MGH SS 8, pp. 536-37 (chapters 26-29). On the text see Max Manitius,
Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 3: 340ff.
14. Cf. pp. 537.1ff.:
. . . ut prudenter indisciplinatos mores eorum corrigeret, pravas vias
eorum, quibus illicite vagando aberrare solebant, spinis regularis
disciplinae sepiebat; . . . exemplo evangelici Samaritani ulceribus eorum
vinum severitatis et oleum pietatis infundebat . . . Sciens quippe quia
otiositas inimica est animae, suos iam satis imbutos sancta religione,
studiis etiam litterarum docuit studiose insistere; ut dum per semitas
 scripturarum oculis atque animis relegerent patrum vestigia, scirent
indubitanter errorum cavere a via. . . .
Here discipline of conduct is a scourge to sinfulness and letters is a kind of
penal servitude in advance, a check on laziness.
 

< previous page_387 next page >

page
< previous page_388 next page >
page
Page 388
15. The term has survived a recent brush with opposition. See Timothy Reuter,
"The 'Imperial Church System' of the Ottonian and Salian Rulers: A
Reconsideration."Reuter was answered by Josef Fleckenstein, "Problematik und
Gestalt der ottonisch-salischen Reichskirche."For a survey of earlier research,
see Oskar Köhler, "Die Ottonische Reichskirche: Ein Forschungsbericht."In the
discussion here I am following Fleckenstein, especially "Problematik und
Gestalt.''
16. Hans-Walter Klewitz, "Königtum, Hofkapelle und Domkapitel im 10. und
11. Jahrhundert"; cited here from the 1960 reprint, p. 14.
17. See Oskar Köhler, Das Bild des geistlichen Fürsten in den Viten des 10., 11.
und 12. Jahrhunderts; and Jaeger, "The Courtier Bishop in Vitae from the Tenth
to the Twelfth Century,"and Origins of Courtliness, pp. 21ff.
18. See Hoffmann, "Politik und Kultur,"and Josef Fleckenstein, "Königshof und
Bischofsschule unter Otto dem Grossen."
19. Ruotger, Vita Brun., chapter 20, LB, p. 206:
. . . hoc est, quod in acerbis meis rebus me maxime consolatur, cum
video per Dei omnipotentis gratiam nostro imperio regale sacerdotium
accessisse. In te namque et sacerdotalis religio et regia pollet fortitudo. .
. . Nec abesse tibi iam dudum perpendi ipsam ingenuarum arcium
matrem et vere virtutem philosophie, que te ad hanc modestiam
magnitudinemque animi erudivit.
20. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, 1.26.64: "philosophia vero, omnium mater
artium . . . nos primum ad illorum [deorum] cultum . . . tum ad modestiam
magnitudinemque animi erudivit. . . ."Striking in Ruotger's borrowing is the
omission: Cicero named as Philosophy's first lesson the worship of the gods.
21. See Origins of Courtliness, pp. 35-36.
22. Sigebert names a number of eminent bishops from Brun's school, hand
picked by Brun himself: "It is easy to know what sort of men they were, since
they were colleagues of our Dietrich, rendered illustrious by the teaching of
Brun, in whose judgment they merited advancement to the bishopric"(". . . qui
quales fuerint, vel hinc potest sciri, quia collegae fuerunt huius nostri Deoderici,
ex disciplina Brunonis incliti, cuius etiam iudicio ad gradum pontificatus
meruerunt provehi"Vita Deod.,chapter 7, p. 467, ll. 46-48). Sigebert's praise of
Ottonian times and the "highly distinguished pastors"(pastores clarissimi) is
worth citing. He breaks into praise of the "happy times of Otto"(felicia tempora
Ottonis1. 36); the "famous prelates and wise men"taught and picked by Brun
"reformed the republic, restored the peace to the churches, recreated the honestas
religionis."It was the fulfillment of the possibilities of philosophers and kings
ruling the republic in common (ll. 37ff.).
 23. See the study by James H. Forse, "Bruno of Cologne and the Networking of
the Episcopate in Tenth-Century Germany,"pp. 267-68: ". . . the pontificates of
forty-seven bishops and archbishops fall within the period of Bruno's career.
Fortyfive of them can be linked directly or indirectly with Bruno's family,
tutelage, patronage, or activities as chancellor, archbishop of Cologne, duke of
Lorraine, or regent."
24. Cf. Fleckenstein, "Königshof und Bischofsschule."
 

< previous page_388 next page >

page
< previous page_389 next page >
page
Page 389
25. Fleckenstein, Die Hofkapelle der deutschen Könige, 2: 50-51.
26. See Herbert Zielinski, Der Reichsepiskopat in spätottonischer und salischer
Zeit (1002-1125), p. 99. He shows that of 75 bishops between 1002 and 1125
whose place of study is known, 13 studied in monasteries and 58 in cathedral
schools.
27. For references and bibliography on individual schools, see Jaeger, "Cathedral
Schools and Humanist Learning,"p. 572, n. 12, and ff.
28. The poem is by Abbot Gerhard of Seeon. MGH Poet. Lat., 5, p. 398 (ll. 33-
34): "Non minus ista Sepher Cariath [cf. Joshua 15: 15: Sepher Cariath - civitas
litterarum] cluit arte scienter, / Inferior Stoicis nequaquam, maior Athenis."
29. See Lèsne, Les écoles de la fin du VIIIe siècle and Specht, Geschichte des
Unterrichtswesens in Deutschland, on individual schools. The French schools
following Gerbert and Fulbert: Arles, Tours, Angers, Orléans, Toulouse,
Tournai, Troyes. Bayeux developed a school from the mid-eleventh century
under the influence of Liège (Lèsne, p. 109). The illustrious Carolingian schools
follow a consistent pattern: they maintain their traditions until the mid- or late
tenth century, then disappear from view until the late eleventh or twelfth: Lyon
(Lèsne, pp. 80-81); Autun (pp. 94-95); Auxerre (pp. 96-97); Soissons, (pp. 310-
311). For Tours two masters are mentioned between 909 and the advent of
Berengar ca. 1040; but Berengar, a student of Fulbert, had his early education at
Tours, so the school was alive, if ill-documented and no longer illustrious, in the
early eleventh century (Lèsne, pp. 137ff.). Clearly the Carolingian impulses
subsided by the late tenth century, and the new education exerted its influence
through Liège, Rheims, and Chartres in the course of the eleventh.
30. Otloh, Vita Wolfkangi, chapter 7, MGH SS 4, p. 529, ll. 3-4: "Juvenes . . .
non solum liberalibus exercebat doctrinis, verum etiam moralibus informabat
disciplinis."
31. Anselm of Liège, Gesta ep. Leod., chapter 40, MGH SS 7, p. 210, ll. 30ff.:
"In quarum [scolarum] studio tam morum quam litterarum vigilantissime
exercuit disciplinam, eos qui pro his moribus essent, licet minus litteratos, longe
his anteponens, quibus, ut in plerisque solet, scientia litterarum vanae gloriae
peperisset stulticiam."
32. Bernward at school, Vita Bernwardi, chapter 1, LB, p. 274: ". . . literis
imbuendus, moribus etiam instituendus deputatur."And as tutor to Otto III,
chapter 2, p. 278, he gained the empress's favor so greatly, ". . . ut domnum
regem fidei illius literis imbuendum moribusque instituendum consensu
cunctorum procerum commendaret."
33. Die ältere Wormser Briefsammlung, ed. Bulst, MGH Briefe der deutschen
Kaiserzeit 3, p. 127, ll. 264-65: "Istinc si discis, statim sensu resipiscis, / Recte
 vivendi potans et dogma loquendi."See the discussion, below Chapter 3.
34. Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., pp. 238-39:
Cum me negociosissimi magistratus cura implicueris, urgues tamen et
instas . . . ut novam operam, non tam arduam et difficilem quam plane
impossibilem suscipiam. . . . Equidem si excubie nostre solis
adolescentum ingeniis liberali erudicione excolendis assiderent, quod
unicum curriculum pleraque veterum studia sibi vindicarunt, laboris
mala fame nominisque momenta mihi pen-
 

< previous page_389 next page >

page
< previous page_390 next page >
page
Page 390
sarent. Verum nunc qui prefecti scolarum habentur, gemina pro
ecclesiastico usu functione multantur: primas enim partes formandis
moribus impendunt, secundas vero litterarum doctrine insumunt.
Erdmann takes the letter to be the dedication to Meinhard's work De fide. See
Erdmann's Studien zur Briefliteratur Deutschlands im elften Jahrhundert, p.
23.
35. Gozechini epistola ad Walcherum, ed. Huygens, p. 35, ll. 721-26: ". . .
precisis spebus et abdicatis laboribus, studiis valefecerunt et sapienti consilio usi
in theologiae otium concesserunt."
36. Briefsammlungen, Weitere Briefe Meinhards, epist. 19, ed. Erdmann, p. 213:
Verum inter alia gravia et luctuosa hunc dolorem quasi capitalem
deplorastis studium lumenque litterarum penitus apud vos occidisse nec
minus disciplinam moralem egregie apud vos antiquitus institutam situ
quodam et negligentia nunc dissolutam iam iamque obisse, immo
sepultam esse. Quas ob res adolescentem vestrum officine nostre
erudiendum informandumque tradidistis, ut duo pignora vestra, mores
dico litterasque [sic], per eum vobis . . . resuscitentur."
37. Udalrici codex, nr. 172, Bibl. rer. germ., ed. Jaffé, vol. V. Monumenta
Bambergensia, p. 305: "in litterarum sciencia, in rerum agendarum pericia, in
honestate morum, in gratia discretionum."

Chapter 3:
The New Education Institutionalized
1. Zielinski, Reichsepiskopat, p. 84.
2. Vita Wolfhelmi, chapter 4, MGH SS 12, p. 183, ll. 17-28:
. . . quicquid poeta cecinit, orator facundus disseruit, philosophus
excogitavit, quadam penna altioris sensus penetravit. . . . Tanta autem
gravitas, tanta morum illi inerat maturitas, ut palam cunctis daretur
intelligi, vas illum electionis exsistere. . . . Ineptas etiam fabulas
iuvenumque lasciviam declinabat, venenatas adulantium linguas
abhorrebat; vaniloquium, levitatem oculorum, totiusque motus corporis
anchora cohibebat gravitatis. Considerans itaque et perpendens magister
scholarum hunc illius in omnium virtutum disciplinis profectum,
gaudebat doctrinae illi impendisse studium, quem perfectionis cernebat
attigisse fastigium.
3. On Eraclius and the rise of Liège's schools, see Cora Lutz, Schoolmasters of
the Tenth Century, p. 21; Jean-Louis Kupper, Liège et l'église impériale, pp.
 375ff.; DGQ, 1.132-33; John van Engen, Rupert of Deutz, pp. 16ff, 42ff.
4. Anselm, Gesta ep. Leod., chapter 24, MGH SS 7, p. 201, ll. 26-27: "Everacrus
. . . 45. nobis constitutus est episcopus, annuente Brunone archiepiscopo,
eodemque ut aiunt duce."Cf. Folcuin, Gesta abb. Lob., chapter 27, MGH SS 4, p.
69, ll. 7-8: ". . . Evracrus ex Bonna decanus, Brunone concedente, efficitur
episcopus, vir inge-
 

< previous page_390 next page >

page
< previous page_391 next page >
page
Page 391
nuarum artium litteratus"(emphasis added). Kupper cautions against accepting
the twelfth-century biographer's claim of his Saxon origins uncritically (Liège
et l'église impériale, p. 115 & n. 26).
5. Anselm, Gesta ep. Leod., chapter 24, MGH SS 7, p. 201, ll. 30ff.:
Hic cum eleganti morum probitate, liberali adprime honestatis scientia,
cum iam pridem aput illius temporis nostrates funditus liberale studium
cum memoria absolvisset, ille scolas per claustra stabilire curavit.
Does the comment "iam pridem aput . . . nostrates . . . liberale studium . . .
absolvisset"show that "letters"and the arts were taught in Liège prior to
Eraclius, hence implying that his innovation is the introduction of elegans
morum probitas and honestatis scientia? The author of the Chronicon sancti
Laurentii Leodiensis claims that until Eraclius, Liège had no tradition of
learning:
Totam Leodiensem ecclesiam, immo totam provinciam, nullis hactenus
studiis illustratam, ad studium coaptavit, scholas constituit, per itos
quaquaversum clericos collegit, eosque magistros instituens sua ope
liberaliter pavit. (chapter 1, MGH SS 8, p. 262, ll. 41-43)
But see DGQ 2.658-59 & n. 76 on this source. It is hard to share Kupper's
conviction that "Penseignement dans cette terre d'Empire qu'est le pays
mosan, a ses sources vives en France et notamment dans les écoles de Reims
et de Chartres" (Liège et l'église impériale, p. 377). Both bishops credited
with founding the schools (Everacrus and Notker) were Germans, both were
closely associated with Brun of Cologne and the imperial court, and their
influence in Cologne precedes the blossoming of the Rheims school under
Gerbert. The school of Chartres is unknown prior to Fulbert. The sources
suggest (though not reliably) some "liberal learning"in Liège prior to
Everacrus, but make it clear that he and Notker imported honestas, probitas,
and elegantia as the foundation of the schools. There is no historical
justification for Kupper's claim of a French tradition.
6. The passage contains a few puzzles. What does the phrase "liberal learning of
virtue"(liberali honestatis scientia) mean? It suggests the assimilation of
honestas to the arts. The formulation liberale studium cum memoria is unique.
7. Cf. Sylvain Balau, Les sources de l'histoire de Liège au moyen âge, p. 118:
"Notger est le véritable créateur de la ville et de la principauté de Liège."The
standard work on Notker is Godefroid Kurth, Notger de Liège et la civilisation
au Xe siècle.
8. Vita Notgeri, ed. Kurth in Notger de Liège et la civilisation au Xe siècle, 2:
10:
 A litterali ergo scientia morum quoque ornamenta accepit et in utraque
disciplina laudabiliter promotus, de scolis ad palatium transferri meruit.
Ibi inter prudentes et bonos viros, qui eo tempore soli regalibus
obsequiis aderant, consilii et operationis virtute claruit, adeo ut
honestatis sue prerogativa de palatio ad regimen Leodiensis ecclesie
votis et petitione cleri et populi et favore principis transierit. Tunc
demum tamquam competentem materiam in qua virtus clarissimi viri
operaretur adeptus spem de se habitam ad rem perduxit.
 

< previous page_391 next page >

page
< previous page_392 next page >
page
Page 392
9. Anselm, Gesta ep. Leod., chapter 25, MGH SS 7, p. 203, ll. 1-2: ". . .
Notkerus, genere quidem Alamannus, sed admodum omni morum elegantia
insignitus . . ."The suggestion in "quidem . . . sed"that Anselm would not expect
this quality of a German, at least of an Alamannus, indicates a source of tensions
in Liège that surface in the context of Wazo's conflict with Henry III's court.
More on this issue in Chapter 7.
10. The isolated statement of the Hildesheim annalist for the year 1008 that
Notker was provost at St. Gall cannot be confirmed and has been rejected.
Annal. Hildesh. cont., MGH SS 3, p. 92, l. 25. Balau argues that the biographer's
comment that Notker progressed "from the schools to the palace"contradicts the
Hildesheim chronicle, and should be given priority. Balau, Les sources, p. 118.
See also Zielinski, Reichsepiskopat, p. 78, n. 25.
11. Anselm, Gesta ep. Leod., chapter 30, MGH SS 7, p. 206, l. 27:
Cuius exemplis inbutus et doctrinis instructus, adiectis insuper propriis
ex divino munere virtutibus, nostris quoque magistrum repraesentare
studuit temporibus.
12. Gesta ep. Leod., chapter 68, MGH SS 7, p. 230, ll. 50-51:
Miserum me, vix fateri audeo, cum me indignissimum et confusione
plenum dulcissimo illo suo excellentis scientiae et elegantis ingenii sale
condito dignaretur alloquio.
13. Gesta ep. Leod., chapter 40, MGH SS 7, p. 210-11, ll. 29 ff.:
In quarum studio tam morum quam litterarum vigilantissime exercuit
disciplinam, eos qui pro his moribus essent, licet minus litteratos, longe
his anteponens, quibus, ut in plerisque solet, scientia litterarum vanae
gloriae peperisset stulticiam . . . Discedebant alii litteris, moribus et
religione instructi . . .
On Wazo see Albert Bittner, Wazo und die Schulen von Lüttich.
14. Gesta ep. Leod., chapter 28, MGH SS 7, p. 205, ll. 16-17:
. . . o si nostris temporibus tam aurea possent revocari secula, ut in
capellis tam imperatoris quam episcoporum nil magis appeteretur quam
cum litterarum studio morum disciplina!
15. On the little that can be gleaned of Goswin as a personality see R. B. C.
Huygens in the introduction to his edition of the letter Gozechini epistola, pp. 3-
6.
16. Goswin, Gozechini epistola, chapter VI, ed. Huygens, p. 14, ll. 98-100: ". . .
filios suos . . . ad omne quod civile sit et moribus conducat informat et
 instruit."See below, Appendix B, p. 352.
17. On Gerbert as school master, see Oscar Darlington, "Gerbert the Teacher";
John R. Williams, "The Cathedral School of Rheims in the Eleventh Century";
Uta Lindgren, Gerbert von Aurillac und das Quadrivium: Untersuchungen
 

< previous page_392 next page >

page
< previous page page_393 next page >
Page 393
zur Bildung im Zeitalter der Ottonen; Hélène Gasc, "Gerbert et la pédagogie
des arts libéraux à la fin du dixième siècle."
18. The much-discussed passage in Richer's Histoire de France needs to be read
critically in the light of its conservatism. It is a throwback to Carolingian
educational values. It stresses the liberal arts and the zeal, energy and sweat
expended in the pursuit of them. Cf. Richer, Histoire de France, chapters 46-54,
ed. & trans. Robert Latouche, 2: 54 ff.: Aristotle on interpretation and Boethius
on rhetoric are studied by labor (chapter 47, p. 56). "Quantus sudor expensus
sit"is Richer's perspective on mathematics (chapter 49, p. 56); on geometry
Gerbert expended no less labor than on astronomy (chapter 54, p. 62). This
picture of an athlete in the liberal arts is the Carolingian muscular approach to
studies, though with no mention of religion. Richer's account now must be read
against the background of Charles Radding's study, "The Geography of Learning
in Early Eleventh-Century Europe: Lanfranc of Bec and Berengar of Tours
Revisited."
19. Die Briefsammlung Gerberts, ed. Weigle, epist., 186, p. 222.
20. Epist. 187, ed. Weigle, p. 224: ". . . nisi moralis philosophie gravitatem
amplecteremini, non ita verbis vestris custos omnium virtutum impressa esset
humilitas."
21. Epist. 158, ed. Weigle, p. 187: ". . . in otio et negotio praeceptorum M. Tullii
diligens fui executor."
22. Epist. 44, ed. Weigle, p. 73: "Cumque ratio morum dicendique ratio a
philosophia non separentur, cum studio bene vivendi semper coniuncxi studium
bene dicendi."
23. This context also evident in the fact that Robert the Pious was Gerbert's
pupil. Robert's biographer, Helgaud, says that Robert was sent to Gerbert (after
983) by his mother, Adelaide, to introduce him to the knowledge of the liberal
arts, and to make him agreeable to the lord through the practice of the holy
virtues (Vita Roberti, ed. Bautier, p. 65). Cited in Riché, "Les conditions de la
production littéraire: maîtres et écoles,"p. 419 and n. 37.
24. Edition by Ernst Dümmler, "Gedichte aus Frankreich."On the poem and its
subject see Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur, 2: 506-9; F. M.
Warren, "Constantine of Fleury, 985-1014"; Fritz Weigle, "Studien zur
Überlieferung der Briefsammlung Gerberts von Reims"; K. F. Werner, "Zur
Überlieferung der Briefe Gerberts von Aurillac,"pp. 99-100, 113-18.
25. I try to approximate the unintelligibility of the original here, psalmatio
regum (hapax legomenon, as far as I could determine). Either he sings the
praises of kings or they sing his.
26. ll. 48-51:
 Denique si verum constat, quod corporis actus
Signum sit mentis, animus quoque panditur actu,
Corporis es nostro tali tunc dignus honore
Iudicio, qualem suffit tibi fama per orbem.
27. Gerbert praises him as "nobilis scolasticus, adprime eruditus michique in
amicicia coniunctissimus"(epist. 92, ed. Weigle, p. 122). Gerbert dedicated no
 

< previous page page_393 next page >

< previous page_394 next page >
page
Page 394
fewer than five of his writings to Constantine; cf. Werner, "Zur Überlieferung
der Briefe Gerberts,"p. 113.
28. The second poem of the three edited by Dümmler, clearly written in the same
community, if not by the same monk, places a similar stress on the composition
of poetry with classical inspiration: the author is grateful to his adressee, a
scholar named Bovo, who has sung odes of praise to him ("Gedichte aus
Frankreich,"ed. Dümmler, p. 228, l. 19); physis, prudentia, poesis, and sophia are
his school masters (22, 23, 28); Bovo is "a constant friend of the Pieride muses,
since the Pierides have made you into a learned poet"(doctum poetam36ff.). The
poet himself complains that he has never bathed his lips in the well of Pegasus
(fons caballinus) nor has he received the dreams of Parnassus, snoring in his
sleep (cf. 44ff.).
29. See below, Chapter 4. Now the indispensable guide to the subject is
McGuire, Friendship and Community.
30. McGuire, Friendship, pp. 146-56.
31. See Williams, "Cathedral School of Rheims,"p. 662; Georges Duby, The
Three Orders, pp. 21-43.
32. Gesta ep. Camerac., 3.1, MGH SS 7, p. 465, ll. 32-33: "Sub cuius liberali
eruditione et normam aecclesiasticae religionis et mundanae disciplinam satis
viderat honestatis."
33. Hugh of Flavigny, Chronicon, MGH SS 8, p. 368, ll. 40-44:
Quae aecclesia tanto tunc vernabat religionis decore, tot personarum
nobilium et religiosarum, quas ipsa in se educaverat, sibi adplaudebat
honesta numerositate et decenti honestate, ut religione ipsa praemineret
omnibus aecclesiis Belgicae, formaque esset omnibus honeste vivendi
recteque conversandi in castitate, in scientia, in disciplina, in
correptione morum, in exibitione bonorum operum.
34. Vita Richardi, Chapter 2, MGH SS 11, p. 281, ll. 41ff.:
. . . in puerilibus annis ecclesiae beatae virginis Mariae Remis sacris
litteris erudiendus et canonica regula instituendus traditus fuit; ubi Deo
se gubernante secundum incrementa corporis morum et doctrinae
proficiens incrementis, in brevi ad summum apicem caelicae doctrinae
pertingere studuit. Deinde per singulos sacrae pro motionis gradus
conscendens . . . in ordinibus sacris, sic moribus dignis sese
conspicabilem reddidit. Unde factum est, ut tam scientiae gratia quam
vitae et morum elegantia, praecentoris et decani in ipsa ecclesia
sortiretur officia.
 35. The Letters and Poems of Fulbert of Chartres, ed. and trans. Frederick
Behrends, p. 136 (epist. 76): "[Hubertus] qui de patria sua causa discendae
honestatis egressus . . . Nunc vero eadem causa permotus, monasterium beati
Remigii . . . visitare disposuit."Behrends translates the phrase "for the sake of
acquiring a sound education,"but this obscures the intent. Clerval's rendering also
does not render the term: ". . . qui a quitté son pays pour venir étudier les lettres
chez nous"(Clerval, Les écoles de Chartres, p. 99).
 

< previous page_394 next page >

page
< previous page_395 next page >
page
Page 395
36. If there is anything to credit in the view of the author of the Gesta
episcoporum cameracensium, then the school of Rheims under Ebalus was a bad
choice on any score. He calls Ebalus "a man of no discipline whatsoever, who
knew nothing of letters apart from a few syllogistic arguments, by which he was
wont to dupe ignorant and simple-minded men"(Gesta, 3: 25, MGH SS 7, p. 473,
ll. 46-47). But there was probably not much worth crediting. As a check to this
criticism see Williams, "Cathedral School of Rheims,"p. 663, n. 13.
37. Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., Hannoversche Briefsammlung,
epist. 65, ed. Erdmann, pp. 112-13:
Neque enim convictu vestro, quo apud vos humanissime acceptus sum,
quicquam potest esse liberalius neque studio illo, tametsi mea ingenii
malignitas me uberiorem eius fructum defraudavit, studio inquam illo
nihil esse potest vel ad utilitatem efficacius vel ad elegantiam accuratius
vel ad sublimitatem exquisitius.
On the identification of the recipient with Hermann of Rheims, see Erdmann,
Studien zur Briefliteratur, pp. 38-39.
38. See Williams, "Cathedral School of Rheims,"pp. 665-66.
39. PL 152, 602, Epitaph no. 173.
40. Williams, "Manasses I"and "Godfrey of Rheims."
41. Baldricus Burgulianus Carmina, ed. Hilbert, nr. 99, pp. 112-18 (ed.
Abrahams, Les oeuvres poétiques de Baudri, nr. 161, p. 151-57).
42. Vita Angelranni, chapter 3, PL 141, 1406A.
43. The critical edition of Adelman's poem by J. Havet is printed by Clerval, Les
écoles de Chartres, pp. 59-61. Here, p. 59:
Eheu! quanta dignitate moralis industriae,
Quanta rerum gravitate, verborum dulcedine,
Explicabat altioris archana scientiae!
44. Ibid., p. 60: "Is magistrum referebat vultu, voce, moribus."
45. Fulbert, epist. 95, ed. Behrends, pp. 172-75.
46. Cf. the letters from Chartres edited by Lucien Merlet, "Lettres d'Ive de
Chartres et d'autres personnages de son temps."
47. Edition and analysis in Peter Vossen, Der Libellus Scolasticus des Walther
von Speyer: Ein Schulbericht aus dem Jahre 984; another edition by Karl
Strecker in MGH Poet. Lat. 5, 1:1-26.
 48. Specht, Geschichte des Unterrichtswesens in Deutschland, pp. 322, 334;
DGQ 1. 213.
49. Wilhelm Wattenbach provides an introduction and edition of Colores
rhetorici in his "Magister Onulf von Speier."The entire work skillfully combines
moral and rhetorical lessons. The prologue fragment begins, ". . . arti rhetoricae:
morum elegantiam, compositionem habitus, vitae dignitatem amplectere"(p.
369). It probably completes the thought, "The art of rhetoric is not confined to
the framing of
 

< previous page_395 next page >

page
< previous page_396 next page >
page
Page 396
speeches, but includes the cultivation of elegant manners, composed bearing
and dignity of conduct."See below, Chapter 5, pp.***
50. Vita Bennonis II., Chapter 4, LB, p. 378:
. . . plurima eodem tempore de toto regno illuc undique clericorum turba
concurreret, eo quod circumquaque flagrans imperiale studium studium
etiam litterarum inibi ardentissimum florere fecisset . . .
51. See Zielinski, Reichsepiskopat, p. 87, arguing against F. Weber, Die
Domschule von Speyer im Mittelalter, p. 65, who calls it a "Diplomatenschule."
52. See Zielinski, Reichsepiskopat, pp. 84-86. See Carl Erdmann, "Die
Bamberger Domschule im Investiturstreit"; and Claudia Märtl, "Die Bamberger
Schulen: Ein Bildungszentrum des Salierreiches."
53. Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., Weitere Briefe Meinhards, epist. 36,
ed. Erdmann, pp. 234-35: ". . . ut in officina scolari tam moribus quam disciplina
excoctus . . . intra nostre ecclesie ornamenta resplendeat."
54. See Origins of Courtliness, pp. 49-53.
55. Udalrici codex, epist. 114, Bibl. rer. Germ., ed. Jaffé, 5: p. 226:
Quia morum tuorum qualitatem, vitae conversationem, liberalium
studiorum maturitatem, cum adhuc nobiscum conversareris, exper
imento didicimus, in te unanimiter intendimus, utque unus ex nobis fias
invitamus.
56. Ibid., epist. 172, p. 305: "Comperi enim, eum esse filium Babenbergensis
ecclesiae in litterarum scientia, in rerum agendarum pericia, in honestate morum,
in gratia discretionum."
57. See DGQ, 1.7-8. Also on Stefan, see L. F. Benedetto, "Stephanus
grammaticus da Novara"; Fleckenstein, "Königshof und Bischofsschule,"pp. 53-
54.
58. Otloh of St. Emmeram, Vita Wolfkangi, chapters 4, 5, MGH SS 4, p. 528.
59. On Otloh in Würzburg, see Manitius, Geschichte, 2:83-84, 86.
60. MGH Poetae, 5. 555: "Ast Popo antistes hanc me perduxit in urbem, / Qua
sophie studiis dogmata crebra dedi."
61. On the Würzburg school, see Rudolf Blank, Weltdarstellung und Weltbild in
Würzburg und Bamberg, pp. 47-75; J. Kempf, Zur Kulturgeschichte Frankens
während der sächsischen und salischen Kaiser. Mit einem Excurs: Über einen
Schulstreit zwischen Würzburg und Worms im 11. Jabrbundert; Zielinski,
Reichsepiskopat, pp. 86-87.
 62. Zielinski takes "Gaul"to mean Lorraine. Reichsepiskopat, p. 81, n. 43.
63. Anonymus Haserensis, De episcopis Eichstetensibus, chapter 28, MGH SS 7,
p. 261.
64. A "Bernolf"appears as signatory on a document from the Würzburg cathedral
from 1057. See Georg Schepss, "Zu Froumunds Briefcodex und zu Ruodlieb,"p.
427 & n. 2.
65. The most recent edition is in Die ältere Wormser Briefsammlung, ed.
Walther Bulst, pp. 119-127 (references here are to this edition); also Die
Tegernseer Briefsammlung, ed. Karl Strecker, pp. 125-134. The earlier ascription
to Froumund
 

< previous page_396 next page >

page
< previous page_397 next page >
page
Page 397
of Tegernsee is not tenable. For commentary see Georg Schepss, "Zu
Froumunds Briefcodex und zu Ruodlieb"; Elisabeth Häfner, Die Wormser
Briefsammlung des 11. Jahrbunderts; and Kempf, Zur Kulturgeschichte
Frankens (n. 61 above).
66. Wormser Briefsammlung, epist. 15, p. 32: ". . . litem, quam cum
Herbipolensibus exercitii causa habuimus."
67. Würzburg poem ll. 1-82, Wormser Briefsammlung, pp. 119-21.
68. l. 25: scripture studium. On the translation see below, n. 69.
69. Cf. l. 160, where scriptura refers clearly to the Worms poem to which the
Würzburgers are responding: ". . . Quod cor non celat, quoniam scriptura
revelat/Versibus oblatis mendacibus inmodulatis."Cf. also the usage in Wormser
Briefsammlung, epist. 19, p. 36, l. 10: "De scriptura [= the outer shell, the written
form] non erit curandum, cum magis ad sententie nucleum . . . sit
respiciendum."And a poem in the Tegernseer Briefsammlung, ed. Strecker, nr.
XLI, p. 122: "Me bene scribentem faciat, precor omnipotentiam. / . . . / Artem
scripture sectandi sit tibi cure."
70. At Worms they pursue spiritualia monstra (206); they revive the gods of the
underworld to their peril, since they lack the lyre of Orpheus to soften their
anger (212ff.); they revive the cult of iniquitous gods (219) and of black demons
(225).
71. The last line is confusing. See Strecker's (p. 130) and Bulst's (p. 123)
puzzlement. But the sense is fairly clear: Many who can't end their disputes will
marvel at the model of conciliatory restraint and loving friendship these two
friends provide.
72. Anyone who wrestles his way through the Würzburg poem with its confused
grammar and forced rhymes will recognize this as a case of the pot calling the
kettle black.
73. See the study of this virtue in Origins of Courtliness, pp. 36-42, 149-50.
74. Cf. l. 102: "Quatinus in pena sis propter tale poema."
75. The story of Wolfgang of Regensburg correcting the teaching of Stefan of
Novara has to appear somewhat suspect against this background. Such
contradiction could not have gone without retribution. Otloh tells of Stefan's
failed attempts at revenge, which also do not harmonize with the picture of
utopian peace and sanctions on the breach of it painted in the Würzburg poem.
Wolfgang left Würzburg for Trier. But Otloh is a monk suspicious of worldly
learning. He is telling a story of an embarrassment dealt to a foreign school
master at a time when the north was experiencing an infestation of dialectics, in
 part imported from Italy. Furthermore Würzburg was not Otloh's favorite place.
This casts doubt on his story. It was more possible to spite a school master in
1070 than 100 years earlier.
76. Wormser Briefsammlung, epist. 25, pp. 46-47.
77. They were not all invulnerable. See Ludwig Gompf, "'Querela magistri
Treverensis': Das sogenannte 'Carmen Winrici'."(An Italian teacher at the Trier
cathedral school complains of being given humiliating duties in the kitchen in a
satirical poem written ca. 1042.) Wazo of Liège resigned his teaching position
and was forced out of Liège altogether because of conflict with the provost. The
particular constellation at Würzburg must have made the situation sensitive: the
distinguished head of the school is attacked by students of a competing school.
78. Some of the best known descriptions of monastic education in the period
 

< previous page_397 next page >

page
< previous page_398 next page >
page
Page 398
refer only to litterae. Abbo of Fleury was sent to school litteris imbuendus
(PL 139, 389A). At Ramsey Abbo is said to have taught litterarum scientia,
and in a long description of his teaching, no mention is made in any form of
mores (ibid., 392B). Otloh of St. Emmeram was sent to school pro litteris
discendis (PL 146, 38B); Cf. ibid., 56D: ''. . . scholari disciplinae traditus . . .
litterasque celeritus didicissem"; ibid., 357C: ". . . ad monast. Herveldense
scribendi causa transmissus fuissem."A good example of a monastic career is
that of Abbot Gervinus of St. Riquier. Hariulf tells that as a young man he
went to Rheims to study letters (litterarum studiis imbuendus), where he
managed with God's help to resist the seductive influence of the poets during
his grammar studies. Although he was a canon at the cathedral of Rheims, his
study of mores is not mentioned. However, when he seeks admission to the
community of St. Vannes under Abbot Richard, he is introduced to the Rule
of St. Benedict. The subjection to the rule is separable in the monastery from
the discipline of "beautiful"or "elegant"manners, but not in cathedral
communities. Some sifting on the biographer's part will have occurred here,
since he was interested in Gervinus' mastering of the rule at St. Vannes and
indifferent to any study of mores at Rheims. Hariulf, Chronique de l'Abbaye
de Saint-Riquier, 4.13-14, pp. 207-10.

Chapter 4:
Cultus Virtutum
1. The discipline of ethics in the earlier Middle Ages is normally approached
through the texts read: Cicero's De officiis and the adaptation of this work by
Ambrose; the Distichs of Cato, Seneca's letters, and medieval works like the
Moralium dogma philosophorum. The studies of Philippe Delhaye are the most
illuminating works in this direction, esp. "L'enseignement de la philosophie
morale au XIIe siècle"; "Grammatica et ethica au XIIe siècle"; "La place de
l'éthique parmi les classifications scientifiques au XIIe siècle."
2. On rehearsal of gestures and words at St. Victor of Paris, see below, Chapter
9, pp. 258ff.
3. Some comments on charismatic pedagogy in the early Middle Ages in Illmer,
Formen der Erziehung und Wissensvermittlung, p. 56ff. See also his index under
"Charisma."
4. Henry IV Part 2, II, iii, 18-33.
5. See Werner Jaeger, Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, passim, on the
transition from charismatic to textual pedagogy, 2: 13ff.; Eric Havelock, Preface
to Plato.
 6. Seneca, Epist. ad Lucilium, 6, 5: "Plus . . . tibi et viva vox et convictus quam
oratio proderit. . . . longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla."
7. Epist. ad Luc., 52, 8-9: "Illum elige adiutorem quem magis admireris, cum
videris, quam cum audieris."
8. Cited in Georges Pire, Stoicisme et pédagogie de Zénon à Marc-Aurèle, de
Sénèque à Montaigne et à J.-J. Rousseau, p. 24, with ref. to von Arnim,
Stoicorum veterum fragmenta (Leipzig, 1921), 1: Z233.
9. Epist, ad Luc., 11, 8: [quoting Epicurus] "'Aliquis vir bonus nobis dili-
 

< previous page_398 next page >

page
< previous page_399 next page >
page
Page 399
gendus est et semper ante oculos habendus, ut sic tamquam illo spectante
vivamus et omnia tamquam illo vidente faciamus."Cf. Ep. 25, 5.
10. Cicero, De oratore, II, 90.
11. See Illmer, Erziehung; Jean Leclerq, "Pédagogie et formation spirituelle du
VIe au IXe siècle"; Peter Brown, "The Saint as Exemplar in Late Antiquity";
Joseph McCarthy, "Clement of Alexandria and the Foundations of Christian
Educational Theory."
12. De off. min., 2.20, PL 16, 137B. The passage is quoted by Manegold of
Lautenbach in his Epistola ad Gebehardum chapter 9, MGH Libelli de lite 1:
327-28.
13. Luke 6: 40, "Every [disciple] that is perfect shall be as his master"; Ambrose,
De off. min., 2.20; Posidius, Vita Augustini, ch. 31, PL 32, 64: "ego arbitror plus
ex eo proficere potuisse, qui eum et loquentem in ecclesia praesentem audire et
videre potuerunt, et eius praesertim inter homines conversationem non
ignoraverunt"(cited in Illmer, Erziehung, p. 59). See the discussion of teacher
imitation among the desert fathers in Ph. Rousseau, Ascetics, Authority and the
Church in the Age of Jerome and Cassian (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1978), pp. 20ff. Especially worth quoting, the praise of one holy man: "Just by
remaining near him, you will gain instruction"(pp. 20-21).
14. Gregory the Great, Moralia, 24, 8, 16, PL 76, 295B: "Viva lectio est vita
bonorum."Cf. Illmer, Erziehung, pp. 101ff., 136ff.; Leclerq, "Pédagogie et
formation spirituelle,"p. 281.
15. Alcuin, epist. 280, MGH Epistolae 4, p. 437: "Non solum verbis ammoneant
iuniores suos, verum etiam bonis exemplis erudiant illos. Ergo magistri . . .
sapientia doctoris fulgeat in honestate morum."Cf. Alcuin, Vita Sancti Vedasti,
PL 101, 666Aff. Hrabanus Maurus, De clericorum instructione, 3. 27, PL 107,
406B: ". . . in oratoribus Christi . . . non solum sermo, imo etiam tota vita
doctrina virtutum debet esse."Wolfgang Edelstein, Eruditio und sapientia:
Weltbild und Erziehung in der Karolingerzeit, p. 69; Fleckenstein,
Bildungsreform, pp. 27ff.; and his "Struktur des Hofes Karls des Grossen,"p. 43.
16. Libellus de Willigisi consuetudinibus, chapter 4, MGH SS 15:2, p. 745, ll. 31-
32: "Amatores virtutis, qualiter honesta moralitate deberent vivere, docuit in re,
non ore, lingua magis morum quam lingua verborum."Cf. Marbod of Rennes,
Vita Magnobodi, PL 171, 1549D-50A: ". . . morum doctrinam etiam lingua
tacens poterat, vita loquens, minoribus exhibere."
17. On Willigis's person as an ethical curriculum: he was "vitae honestissimae
speculum"(p. 743, l. 35); "[from his life] possunt exempla vivendi honestissima
sumere qui student honestissime vivere"(p. 744, ll. 4-5); "per assiduae lectionis
honestaeque moralitatis [note the pair, letters and manners] exemplum
 honestissimum vitam non cessavit honestare multorum"(p. 744, ll. 42-43).
18. Gesta ep. Virdun., Contin., chapter 8, MGH SS 4, p. 48, l. 5: "Vita huius
spectabilis vitam multorum reddidit spectabilem."
19. Cited from Hauréau's edition in Clerval, Les écoles de Chartres, p. 60: "Is
magistrum referebat vultu, voce, moribus."
20. Epist. ad Walcherum, chapter III, p. 12, ll. 47-49: ". . . cum ceteri nostrae
cataceseos auditores verba magistri dictis vel scriptis nequiverint aequiperare, tu
etiam
 

< previous page_399 next page >

page
< previous page_400 next page >
page
Page 400
totum magistrum in te videreris transfundere."The image is of the master's
words bouncing off all the others, whereas the entire master, words, gestures,
body, soul and all, get transferred into Walcher. The translation, "You
transformed yourself into the master,"is not literal, but it gives the sense of
"digesting the master whole."
21. See the fundamental study by Carolyn Walker Bynum, Docere verbo et
exemplo: An Aspect of Twelfth Century Spirituality. See also below, Chapter 9,
on the school of St. Victor at Paris.
22. Das Moralium Dogma Philosophorum des Guillaume de Conches, p. 26, ll.
16ff.:
Reverentia est virtus personis gravibus vel aliqua prelatione sublimatis
debite honorificationis cultum exhibens. Huius officium est imitari
maiores. Optimum est enim maiorum vestigia sequi, si recta precedunt.
Eligendus est autem nobis vir bonus et semper ante occulos habendus,
ut sic tamquam illo spectante vivamus et omnia tamquam illo vidente
faciamus.
23. Der wälsche Gast des Thomasin von Zirclaria, ll. 617-20: "er sol ouch haben
den muot, / merke waz der beste tuot, / wan die vrumen liute sint / und suln sîn
spiegel dem kint"; 627-29: "In sînem muot man stille sol / einn vrumen man
erweln wol / und sol sich rihten gar nâch im"; 641-43: "Ein kint sol haben den
muot / daz in dunke, swaz er tuot, / daz in sehe ein biderbe man"; 647-49: "man
sol gern volgen dem man / der bezzer ist ze sehen an / denn ze hoeren."
24. Wibaldi epistolae, epist. 91, p. 165:
Presentia tua tuis auditoribus disciplina sit. . . . Plus habet locus tuus
quam docendi officium; nam et censoriam exhibere debes severitatem,
quoniam et corrigendis moribus prefectum te esse noveris. Quae
disciplina et exercitatio omnibus est subtilior et in fructu cunctis
propensior.
25. Epist. 167, p. 286: "Quem si aspicias, doceris; si audias, instrueris; si
sequare, perficeris."The addressee of the letter cited in the previous note,
Balderich of Trier, used the turn of thought to describe Hyacinth (presumably
Hyacinth Bobo, Cardinal, then Pope Celestine III, a supporter of Abelard in his
confrontation with Bernard of Clairvaux at Sens in 1140): ". . . qui omnem
iacinctum splendore suae virtutis vincebat . . . quem audire atque videre,
honestatem discere erat"(Vita Alberonis, chapter 23, LB p. 596).
26. Cf. Bynum, Docere verbo et exemplo, p. 41: "life almost becomes a form (a
more effective form) of speech."
27. The main "teacher"of a school may well not have been the magister
 scholarum. Brun of Cologne, Willigis of Mainz, and Fulbert of Chartres, for
instance, were influential as teachers in their capacity as bishop. This was
possible as long as personal authority carried a pedagogic charge. Goswin of
Mainz articulates the distinction between those who preside through auctoritas
and those who teach by labor. The latter should not stay in this occupation,
"than which there is none more arduous under the sun,"longer than seven years.
The former are not so limited. Epist. ad Walcherum, chapter XXVI, p. 30, ll.
596-99: "Cuius laboris
 

< previous page_400 next page >

page
< previous page_401 next page >
page
Page 401
tempus, quia nichil difficilius sub sole geritur vel quod magis operarii sui
vires exhauriat, a sapientibus prefinitum est septuenne, nisi de cetero is qui
preest auctoritate presideat, non labore."
28. Cf. Lèsne, Les écoles, pp. 511-12.
29. Helmold, Cbron. Slav., LXV, MGH SS 21, p. 47, ll. 8ff.: [Vicelin went to
Laon to study with Ralph, Anselm's brother, where] "ad ea solum enisus est, que
sobrio intellectui et moribus instruendis sufficerent."
30. Abelard, Historia calamitatum: Texte critique avec une introduction, p. 68.
English in text from The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, trans. B. Radice, p. 62.
31. PL 149, 1428B: "cujusdam excellentiae gloriam venari, qualitercunque
poterat, affectabat: factumque est ut pompatico incessu, sublimi prae caeteris
suggestu, dignitatem magistri potius simulans quam rebus ostendens, profunda
quodque inclusione inter cucullum, ac simulatione longae meditationis, et vix
tandem satis desideratae diu vocis lentissimo quodam quasi plangore incautos
decipiens, doctorem sese artium pene inscius profiteretur."
32. On Berengar's career as teacher, see Lèsne, Les écoles, 1: 121-23, 139-41;
also R. W. Southern, "Lanfranc of Bec and Berengar of Tours."
33. Wibaldi epistolae, epist. 167, p. 277: "Discipuli magistrorum sentencias
tuentur, non quia verae sunt, set quod auctores amant; scola adversus scolam
debachatur, odio vel amore magistrorum."Cf. William of Conches's observation
that students should love their teachers more than their parents: Philosophia
mundi, 4.30, pp. 114-15 (in the Migne ed., 4.38, PL 172, 100A-B). And
Abelard's, that students should not be duped by love of their teachers into
believing that they make sense: Peter Abelard, Carmen ad Astralabium, p. 107,
vv. 9-12: "nec tibi dilecti iures in verba magistri / nec te detineat doctor amore
suo. / Fructu, non foliis pomorum quisque cibatur, / et sensus verbis
anteferendus erit."
34. Wormser Briefsammlung, epist. 52, p. 89: "Hinc divina providentia, cum te
nostre rei publice regende necessarium previdisset, ad pastoralis cure apicem
perduxit, ut quod inter secreta otia didiceras, in actum publice administrationis
transferres. Magistra itaque Virtutum in te elegit sedem, ut in cunctis actibus tuis
illius vestigia sequi videaris."Cf. Boethius, De cons. phil., I. 4.7: "Quod a te inter
secreta otia didiceram, transferre in actu publicae administrationis optavi."
35. On the combining of the intellectual and civil life in the empire, see
Hoffmann, "Politik und Kultur im Ottonischen Reichskirchensystem"; Zielinski,
Der Reicbsepiskopat, passim. For England, R. W. Southern, "The Place of
England in the Twelfth Century Renaissance,"pp. 158-80, esp. pp. 174ff. Also
Beryl Smalley, The Becket Conflict and the Schools: A Study of Intellectuals in
Politics.
 36. Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., Weitere Briefe Meinbards, epist. 1,
ed. Erdmann, p. 193: "Unde hortor, ut Tusculanis tuis plurimus insideas, quibus
Latina philosophia Cicerone parente nichil illustrius edidit."
37. Tusc. Disp., 4.3.5-6. The turn of thought is quoted or referred to in
Regensburger rhet. Briefe, epist. 1, p. 275; epist. 11. p. 329; epist. 12, p. 331-32;
epist. 13, p. 333; epist. 16, p. 336; epist. 22, p. 348.
38. On the assimilation of philosophia to formation of mores, see the following
chapter.
 

< previous page_401 next page >

page
< previous page_402 next page >
page
Page 402
39. Richard of St. Victor, epist. 1, PL 196, 1225A: "Magnam de promotione
vestra concepit Ecclesia nostra laetitiam, et spe non modica hilarati sunt
auditores vestri, tum universi scholares animati ad amorem litterarum, et cultum
virtutum, vestri laboris et successus exemplo."On the connection between studies
and promotion to the bishopric, see Zielinski, Reichsepiskopat, pp. 110ff.
40. Jaeger, Origins of Courtliness, pp. 19-48; "The Courtier Bishop in Vitae
from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century."
41. Lampert, Annales (1065), p. 99: ". . . vir preter morum gloriam et animae
divicias corporis quoque bonis adprime ornatus . . . tum statura et formae
elegantia ac tocius corporis integritate . . . caeteris eminens mortalibus . . ."
42. William of Malmesbury, De gestis pontificum Anglorum 1.6, p. 14.
43. Cicero, De officiis 1. 26. 90: ". . . quanto superiores simus, tanto nos geramus
summissius."Cf. Ecclus. 3: 20, "quanto magnus es humilia te in omnibus."See
the discussion in Origins of Courtliness, pp. 35-36.
44. The older Vita Licinii is cited from AS Boland., Feb. XIII, 678D-679A;
Marbod from Vita Licinii, PL 171, 1495A-1496D.
45. See the discussion of mansuetudo, patientia, and modestia in Origins of
Courtliness, pp. 36-42.
46. Alpert of St. Symphorian, De ep. Mett. libellus, MGH SS 4, p. 699, ll. 45-46:
"Deodericus vero longe aliter generositate parentum et excellentia maiorum, ex
innata quoque copia magna praediorum clarissimus habetur."
47. See G. M. Vogt, "Gleanings for the History of a Sentiment: Generositas
virtus, non sanguis"; Karl Vossler, "Adel der Geburt und der Gesinnung bei den
Romanen"; M. L. Colker, "De nobilitate animi"; Karl Heinz Borck, "Tugend,
Adel und Geblüt: Thesen und Beobachtungen zur Vorstellung des Tugendadels
in der deutschen Literatur des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts"; William C. McDonald,
''The 'Nobility of Soul': Uncharted Echoes of the Peraldean Tradition in Late
Medieval German Literature."
48. Vita Brun., chapter 3, LB p. 184: ". . . rex, pater huius magni viri"; chapter 2,
p. 182: ". . . lineamentorum gratia, artium gloria et omnigena animi . . .
industria."
49. Folcuin, Gesta abb. Lobb., chapter 28, MGH SS 4, p. 70, l. 16: ". . . spiritus
Dei donum singulare . . . veritatis et fidei."
50. "It seemed to us that his bountiful eloquence gave him a style of speech
appropriate to the majesty of his person."Vita Notgeri, chapter 9, in Kurth, 2.14:
". . . visum est nobis, copia dicendi stilum ipsum magestati [sic] persone
convenire."
 51. Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., Hannov. Samml., epist. 106, ed.
Erdmann, p. 178: ". . . facile tolerabimus detrimentum nominis, nodo accedat
incrementum honoris et splendor persone."
52. Vita prior., chapter 1, MGH SS 11, p. 170, ll. 48-50: ". . . plerosque vanae
nobilitatis arroganti superbia elatiores, multimodae ingeniositatis elegantia
privatim ac publice praecesserit. Nemo enim nobilis nisi quem virtus nobilitat."
53. Richer, Historiae, 3.67, ed. Latouche, 2: 82: "Otto . . . rem publicam strenue
atque utiliter amministravit, vir magni ingenii totiusque virtutis, liberalium
litterarum scientia clarus adeo . . ."
54. Benzo of Alba, Ad Heinricum, 4.7.3, MGH SS 11, p. 673, ll. 20-21: "Virtus
est mentis dignitas, et animi nobilitas, / Quae homines mirificat, insuper et
deificat."
 

< previous page_402 next page >

page
< previous page_403 next page >
page
Page 403
55. Benzo, 4.12, p. 645, esp. ll. 33-36.
56. Benzo, 1.26, p. 609, ll. 34ff.
57. It is consistent with the idea of "charismatic leadership"opposing the
legalistic, office-sanctioned idea of authority pressed by the church reformers.
See Hayden White, "The Gregorian Ideal and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux"; also
John Sommerfeldt, "Charismatic and Gregorian Leadership in the Thought of
Bernard of Clairvaux"; also below, Chapter 10.
58. See also the discussion of elegantia, suavitas, venustas, pulchritudo morum
in Origins of Courtliness, pp. 32-34, 128-43.
59. Alcuin had commended mores venustos to those who wished to learn civiles
mores (see above, p. 33 and n. 59). The term occurs in the context of the
religious life. Cf. Hugeburc, Vita Willibaldi (ca. 778), ch. 5, MGH SS 15, p. 102,
ll. 21-25: "non solum verbis, sed morum venustatis [sic] visitando docebat et
recte constitutionis formam et cenobialis vitae normam in semet ipso ostendendo
prebebat."
60. Cf. Origins of Courtliness, pp. 32-33.
61. Vita posterior (ca. 1115-20), MGH SS 12, p. 254, l. 26: "delectabilium
morum suavitas"; and l. 29: "recte vivendi forma."
62. Das Leben des Bischofs Meinwerk von Paderborn, chapter 5, p. 7:
"Meinwercus autem, regia stirpe genitus, regio obsequiuo morum elegantia
idoneus adiudicatur evocatusque ad palatium regius capellanus efficitur."
63. John of Salisbury, Policraticus, 5.1, ed. Webb, 1: 281: "Modestiam tuam
noveram non appetere principatum, quem tamen semper morum elegantia mereri
studuisti."
64. On the debate over this intricate question, see recently Max Kerner,
"Randbemerkungen zur Institutio Traiani,"in The World of John of Salisbury, ed.
Michael Wilks (Oxford: Blackwell, 1984), 203-6. Kerner reviews the scholarship
on the question.
65. Gerald of Wales, De principis instructione 1.1, RS 21: 8, p. 9: "Cum autem
morum venustas cuilibet ad se regendum apprime in vita sit utilis et accommoda,
nulli tamen adeo ut illi qui multitudinem regit est necessaria."
66. Weitere Briefe Meinhards, epist. 1, ed. Erdmann, pp. 192-94. See Erdmann,
Studien zur Briefliteratur, p. 282. Erdmann's interpretation depends on the final
words of the letter: ". . . sic te age, ut qui hoc convictu Coloniam Christo
mediante tibi despondeas.""Make yourself the bridegroom of Cologne,""Become
engaged to Cologne."For our purpose it is worth noting that the behapior
enjoined on G. by Meinhard is the qualification for becoming the fiancé of
 Cologne: "sic te age, ut . . . hoc convictu.''
67. As E. R. Curtius suggested, privately to Erdmann. Studien zur Briefliteratur,
p. 282.
68. On the competition for "sought after men"(viri expetibiles) see Origins of
Courtliness, p. 52.
69. Weitere Briefe Meinhards, epist. 1, p. 193:
Sepenumero advertisti me de nobilitate in utramvis partem vel glorie vel
ignominie disputantem, quam grave scilicet onus insignis maiorum
industria humeris posterorum imponat, quibus vite honestas morumque
observantia
 

< previous page_403 next page >

page
< previous page_404 next page >
page
Page 404
non tam gloriosa quam necessaria, qui etsi vigilantissime egerint, non
tam laudem merentur quam vitant reprehensionem, utpote quibus in
maxima fortuna minima sit licentia. Nam si a via, quam eis gloria
parentum editissimo virtutis loco stravit, inde inquam si tantillum quid
exorbitaverint, o mi G., in quantum precipicium fame, nominis,
honorum ruituri sunt! Hec inquam vel et multa id genus et his similia . .
. me audistis predicantem.
70. P. 193:
Est enim vir ille omni genere virtutis instructus, omni lepore
humanitatis mirifice conditus, que in eo non solum flagrantia morum
latissime redolet, sed ex ipsa oculorum hilaritate gratiosissime renidet.
Atque sic in te animi ornamenta redundent, ut illa ocularis gratia
relucet.
71. Peter von Moos, Hildebert von Lavardin, 1056-1133: Humanitas an der
Schwelle des höfischen Zeitalters, is still the major study on humanitas in the
high Middle Ages. See esp. pp. 147ff. Von Moos locates Hildebert's humanitas
as a social and ethical virtue close to mansuetudo. My comments expand von
Moos's and show the foundation and context of Hildebert's idea in earlier texts.
See also Wolfram von den Steinen, "Humanismus um 1100,"p. 208, and Eckhard
Kessler, Das Problem des frühen Humanismus: Seine philosophische Bedeutung
bei Coluccio Salutati.
72. Tusc. disp. 5. 55: ". . . C. Caesaris, in quo mihi videtur specimen fuisse
humanitatis, salis, suavitas, leporis."
73. De oratore 2. 270: ". . . Socratem opinor in hac ironia dissimulantiaque longe
lepore et humanitate omnibus praestitisse."Meinhard did not know De oratore.
At least he never quotes from it.
74. See esp. Friedrich Klingner, "Humanität und Humanitas"; Wolfgang
Schadewalt, "Humanitas Romana"; Karl Büchner, "Humanitas in der römischen
Welt''; Heinz Haffter, "Die römische Humanitas"; Eckhard Kessler, Das Problem
des frühen Humanismus, pp. 56-62.
75. Weitere Briefe Meinhards, epist. 65, pp. 112-13. Quoted above, p. 60, n. 37.
76. Weitere Briefe Meinhards, epist. 14, p. 206: "Quam suavi et imperioso regno
caritas tua per dulcissima humanitatis tue condimenta cordi nostro dominetur,
vix ullis eloquentie viribus explicetur."
77. Some comments on this sense of the word in Rolf Sprandel, Ivo von
Chartres und seine Stellung in der Kirchengeschichte, pp. 24-28.
78. Benedicti regula, 53.9, ed. Hanslik, p. 124: "Legatur coram hospite lex
 divina, ut aedificetur. Et post haec omnis ei exhibeatur humanitas."
79. Gerbert, De informatione episcoporum, PL 139, 172D-173A: "Et post haec
addit: Hospitalem; ut humanitatis intuitu hospitio recipiat non habentem
hospitium, et egenum sine tecto in domum inducat suam . . ."
80. Vita Radbodi chapter 5, PL 132, 542C: "Ejusmodi studiis et officiis
humanitatis et misericordiae die noctuque . . . vacabat."Cf. Otloh, Vita
Wolfkangi, chapter 4, PL 146, 397C: ". . . omnem humanitatem, quae discendi ac
peregrinandi necessitas exigit, promitteret."Anselm of Liège, Gesta ep. Leod.,
MGH SS 7, p. 217, l. 52: "Sentiebant humanitatem eius egritudines
decumbentium, labores exulum."
 

< previous page_404 next page >

page
< previous page_405 next page >
page
Page 405
81. The arch-humanist John of Salisbury uses it in this sense (Policraticus, 8.13,
ed. Webb, 2: 325): "Qui vero humanitatem exhibet hospiti et caritatem implet,
nichil eorum subtrahit quae ratio permittit exponi . . . Est itaque in hospitem
peregrinum omnis humanitas et sobria liberalitas exercenda."
82. Vita Udalrici posterior (ca. 1115-20), MGH SS 12, p. 259, ll. 40ff.: ". . .
hilari vultu eum [aemulum suum] suscepit . . . Cui . . . ut filius pacis pacem
obtulit in amplexu et osculo caritatis, dulci illum demulcens alloquio, omnique
humanitatis refovens obsequio."
83. Vita Prima, 3.7, PL 185, 320A: "Et corporeas . . . necessitates piissimo
miserabatur affectu; cujus tanta erat humanitas, ut non modo hominibus, sed
irrationabilibus etiam animantibus . . . compateretur."Cf. ibid., 315C:
"Dulcissimis enim affectibus plenum pectus ipse gerebat . . . humanissimus in
affectione."In this sense, generalizing from hospitality and mercy, also Udalrici
Codex, epist. 202, ed. Jaffé, 5:368: [A canon who left the Utrecht community
returns and begs to be accepted again] ". . . cepit . . . misericordiam et
humanitatem postulare."Hugh of St. Victor, De institutione novitiorum, PL 176,
945D: ''Exhortemur . . . ad humanitatem parcos."
84. Goscelin of Canterbury, Vita Swithuni, PL 155, 58C: "humanitate et
mansuetudine studere"; Thomas Becket, epist. 246, RS 67: 6, p. 49: [The king of
France showed me] "benignissime et liberalissime . . . plurimam
humanitatem."Herbert of Bosham, Vita Thomae, 4. 21, RS 67: 3, p. 408: "Dulcis
[Francia] . . . propter eximiam gentis humanitatem et inolitam principum
benignitatem; dulcissima vero propter caelitus datam regibus terrae
mansuetudinem."
85. Otto of Freising, Gesta Friderici, 3.41, MGH SS 20, p. 439, ll. 50-51:
"Princeps pro regali mansuetudine, pro humanitate naturali cives civitati . . .
servare cupiens."Also Gerald of Wales, De princ. instr. 1. 2, p. 11:
"Principalibus viris induatur humanitas in conclavi."
86. See Lothar Bornscheuer, Miserae Regum: Untersuchungen zum Krisen- und
Todesgedanken in den herrschaftstheologischen Vorstellungen der ottonisch-
salischen Zeit, pp. 131-36.
87. De princ. instr., 1.5, p. 16: "Patientia Trajani . . . potissime in exemplum
humanitatis et benignitatis est trahenda."
88. Gerald of Wales, De princ. instr., 1.5, p. 16.
89. The classic definition of this conception is in Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights,
13.17. See Eugenio Garin, "Retorica e 'Studia humanitatis' nella cultura del
Quattrocento."Gerald Bond finds in Baudri of Bourgueil the idea that classical
literature creates or decorates mores ("'Iocus amoris,'"p. 190). Cf. Baudri,
Carmen 130, ed. Hilbert, p. 147, vv. 1-3 (ed. Abrahams, Carmen 192, p. 194): ".
 . . format tibi littera mores, / Moribus es, qualis clericus esse solet; / Scilicet
urbanus, alacer, iocundus, amicus."Bond's translation: "Classical letters shape
your character."Also Carmen 162, ed. Hilbert, p. 242, vv. 5-6 (ed. Abrahams,
Carmen 65, p. 69): "Ad decus hunc morum ditarat littera multa, / Copia quam
torrens extulit ingenii."And similarly Carmen 194, ed. Hilbert, p. 259, vv. 15-17
(ed. Abrahams, Carmen 232, p. 330).
90. Vita Bern. Tiron. chapter 1, PL 172, 1373A: ". . . honestis et religiosis
parentibus fuit oriundus, hospitalitatis ac humanitatis studia sectantibus."Parallel
to
 

< previous page_405 next page >

page
< previous page_406 next page >
page
Page 406
the praise of Radbod of Utrecht's kindness to paupers as among the studia et
officia humanitatis et misericordiae (n. 80 above).
91. Thierry of Chartres, "Prologue to Heptateuchon,"p. 174.
92. The word is fairly common in Thierry's works, but his usage has no ethical
aspect: humanitas = humankind in general. See Commentaries on Boethius by
Thierry of Chartres and his School, index.
93. William of Conches, Glosae super Platonem: Texte critique avec
introduction, notes et tables, ed. Jeauneau, p. 65:
commendat Osium sic: florente animo studiis humanitatis. Studium est
vehemens et assidua animi applicatio ad aliquid agendum cum magna
voluntate. Sed studia, alia sunt humanitatis ut practice, alia divinitatis ut
theorice. Sed, cum iste in omnibus floreret, maxime in studiis
humanitatis, quia humanus homo erat, floruit. Vel studia humanitatis
dicantur omnia que ab homine sciri possunt, in quibus omnibus iste
florebat.
Cf. ibid., p. 83: "Critiam scimus adprime . . . vigere . . . in omnibus studiis
humanitatis id est ethica, economica, politica, vel in omnibus studiis que
hominibus possunt inesse."Jeauneau elsewhere ("Deux rédactions des gloses
de Guillaume de Conches sur Priscien,"pp. 237-38, n. 89) discusses these
glosses in their possible conceptual relatedness to the studia humanitatis as
defined by Leonardo Bruni in his letter to Niccolo Strozzi, a locus classicus
for the definition of humanism.
94. Wibald, epist. 331, ed. Jaffé, p. 462: "Neque enim mores nostros ita instituit
et formavit illa vestra doctrix et domina, rerum divinarum et humanarum
magistra et educatrix, philosophia . . . vestra industria cum omni humanitate et
placiditate animi efficere curabit, ne spes pacis abrumpatur."
95. It is interesting to compare Meinhard's portrait of G's father with
Castiglione's of Duchess Eleanora Gonzaga, The Book of the Courtier 4. 3, trans.
Charles Singleton, (New York: Doubleday, 1959), p. 287: ". . . if ever there were
joined in a single person wisdom, grace, beauty, intelligence, discreet manners,
humanity, and every other gentle qualitythey are so joined in her that they form a
chain that comprises and adorns her every movement, uniting all these qualities
at once."Cf. Coluccio Salutati's portrait of Carlo Malatesta, Epistolario de
Coluccio Salutati, epist. 18, ed. Francesco Novati (Rome, 1896), 3: 534-36. A
strong argument for the validity of such comparisons is Aldo Scaglione's Knights
at Court: Courtliness, Chivalry and Courtesy from Ottonian Germany to the
Italian Renaissance.
96. For references see Origins of Courtliness, p. 143.
 97. Vita Brun. chapter 8, LB, p. 190: "Nullo autem hoc egit supercilio, sed cum
domestico lepore tum urbana gravitate."On the translation "courtly"for
domesticus, see Niermeyer, Med. Lat. Lex., pp. 347-48.
98. Ambrose, De off. min. 2.7.29, PL 16, 118B-C:
Ac primum noverimus nihil tam utile, quam diligi: nihil tam inutile,
quam non amari . . . Popularis enim et grata est omnibus bonitas,
nihilque quod tam facile illabatur humanis sensibus. Et si mansuetudine
morum ac facilitate, tum moderatione praecepti, et affabilitate sermonis,
verborum honore, patienti
 

< previous page_406 next page >

page
< previous page_407 next page >
page
Page 407
quoque sermonum vice, modestiaeque adjuvetur gratia, incredibile
quantum procedit ad cumulum dilectionis.
99. Cf. Edgar N. Johnson, The Secular Actipities of the German Episcopate, 919-
1024, p. 248: "Perhaps the adjectives most commonly applied to these bishops
are affabilis and hilaris."
100. Vita Norberti, chapter 1, LB, p. 452: ". . . forma et habilitate corporis
beneficio naturae gaudens et cum scientia litterarum eloquio praeminens, morum
ornatu cunctis qui eum noverant gratum se exhibebat."
101. Cf. Cicero, De amicitia, 9.30-31; 14.50; 14.51 and 21. On Ciceronian
friendship in the "Loire circle"of poets, see Bond, "Iocus amoris,"pp. 162ff.
102. See Jaeger, "L'amour des rois: Structure sociale d'une forme de sensibilité
aristocratique."
103. A few examples in Origins of Courtliness, p. 45. See also "L'amour des
rois."
104. See Brian P. McGuire, Friendship and Community: The Monastic
Experience, 350-1250.
105. The wealth of documentation in McGuire's work makes it clear that the
beginnings of a cult of monastic friendship in the late tenth and early eleventh
centuries lay in the cathedral communities and worldly courts, not the
monasteries. Cf. McGuire, p. 164: "The new learning of the eleventh-century
cathedral school and not tenth-century reformed monasticism first articulated
friendship as a conscious and important matter for men in the church."He shows
the vocabulary of friendship penetrating Cluny via two channels, Fulbert and the
community of Chartres, and the imperial court.
106. Cf. Vita Brun. chapter 2, LB p. 182-84.
107. See Edelstein, Eruditio et sapientia, p. 73 (Alcuin's letters); William of
Conches, Philosophia mundi 4.30, ed. Maurach, pp. 114-15 (students should love
their teachers more than their parents); also his Glosses on Priscian ("Deux
rédactions"), ed. Jeauneau, p. 224 (the first masters, loving their pupils like
fathers, composed works for them); p. 233 (the master in some sense has
begotten his pupil in wisdom and in this sense confers being on him more truly
than his father). John of Salisbury says (with ref. to Quintilian, Inst. orat., 2.9)
that the seventh key of learning is love of teacherPolicraticus, 7.14, ed. Webb, 2:
152: "In libro Quintiliani . . . septima discentium clavis ponitur amor docentium,
quo praeceptores ut parentes amandi sunt et colendi."As the parents create the
body, the teachers create the soul; pupils are glad to listen to those they love;
they believe them and desire to be like them; under the impulse of loyalty and
affection they are eager and glad to be among the throngs of students; eloquence
 cannot mature unless a spirit of harmony reigns between teachers and students.
Against this kind of attitude, Wibald of Stablo's complaint about students who
love their teachers and not the truth in their statements is understandable (epist.
167, ed. Jaffé, p. 277).
108. Numerous examples in the Worms letter collection (esp. epistolae 60 & 61)
and the Hildesheim collection, of which McGuire makes abundant use
(Friendship and Community, pp. 188-92). Guibert of Nogent's love for his
teacher developed in spite of the man's ignorance and brutality. Cf. De vita sua
1.4-6, ed. Labande, pp. 26-42. Also, below, Chapter 8, pp. 226ff.
 

< previous page_407 next page >

page
< previous page_408 next page >
page
Page 408
109. Adelman in "Textes latins du XIe au XIIIe siècle,"ed. Huygens, p. 476, II.
3-8: "Conlactaneum te meum vocavi propter dulcissimum illud contubernium,
quod tecum adolescentulo, ipse ego maiusculus, in achademia Carnotensi sub
nostro illo venerabili Socrate iocundissime duxi, cuius de convictu gloriari nobis
dignius licet quam gloriabatur Plato, gratias agens naturae eo, quod in diebus
Socratis sui hominem se et non pecudem peperisset."
110. Gozechini epistola, ed. Huygens, pp. 11-13.
111. The imagery of light and fire is not classical. If it does occur in
postclassical Latin, I suspect the eleventh-century had it most directly as an
appropriation from imperial forms of representation. Ralph Glaber uses the
language of virtue made visible in describing the royal insignia, Historiae 1.23,
ed. Bulst, pp. 38-40. See Herwig Wolfram, Splendor Imperii: Die Epiphanie von
Tugend und Heil in Herrschaft und Reich.
112. See Werner Jaeger, Paideia, 1.3-4 and 1.416, n. 4. Also Hermann Wankel,
Kalos kai agathos; Walter Donlan, The Aristocratic Ideal in Ancient Greece:
Attitudes of Superiority from Homer to the End of the Fifth Century B. C., esp.
pp. 129ff., summarizing his article, "The Origin of Kaloskagathos"; Robert
Philippson, "Das Sittlichschöne bei Panaitios."
113. De off. min., 1.19, PL 16, 52-53.
114. E.g., Poeta Saxo, 5, MGH Poet. Lat. 4, 1, p. 60, vv. 211-220. See Alexandru
Cizek, "Der 'Charakterismos' in der Vita Adalhardi des Radbert von Corbie,"p.
188 and n. 13.
115. "Drei Gedichte,"ed. Dümmler, p. 225-26, vv. 48-51: "Denique si verum
constat, quod corporis actus / Signum sit mentis, animus quoque panditur actu, /
Corporis es nostro tali tunc dignus honore / Iudicio, qualem suffit tibi fama per
orbem."
116. Alpert, De diversitate temporum 1.11, MGH SS 4, p. 705, ll. 41ff.: "Sermo
eius ita mediocritate et discretione temperatus, ut non comici nostri dictum:
'Nequid nimis,' supergrederetur. Sed et hoc adnectendum, quia ex moderatione
suorum verborum facile compositio et honestas eius occulti cordis ab audientibus
intellegi potuit."
117. Vita Udalrici, chapter 2, PL 142, 1186B: "Incipiebat enim tunc inter
coaevulos modeste conversari . . . ac . . . in corporis motu, gestu, incessu, foris
ostendere, qualis habitus formaretur intus in mente."
118. Leo IX, Epist. et decret. pontif. 22, PL 143, 623C-D: ". . . cum episcopali
officio, etiam archiepiscopalia insignia eidem Hugoni archiepiscopo per hanc
paginam concedimus et confirmamus, crucem videlicet et pallium et quidquid
antecessores ejus ab antecessoribus nostris constat promeruisse, ut qui pollet
 meritorum laudabili dignitate, tam in virtutum [emending from virtute] scientia
quam in morum honestate, polleat etiam ornamentorum pulchritudine in omni
archiepiscopalis culminis plenitudine, semper meminerit in exteriore decore
interiorem decorem procurare . . . virtutem pontificatus simul cum nomine
habens."
119. Lampert, Annales (a. 1065), ed. Holder-Egger, p. 99: ". . . vir preter morum
gloriam et animae divicias corporis quoque bonis adprime ornatus . . . lingua
promptus et consilio, litteris eruditus tam divinis quam humanis, tum statura et
formae elegantia ac tocius corporis integritate ita caeteris eminens mortalibus."
 

< previous page_408 next page >

page
< previous page_409 next page >
page
Page 409
The sentence is completed with a story of a crowd gathering around a church
in Jerusalem where Gunther stopped on his crusade, which prevented his
leaving until they had gotten a glimpse of his fabled beauty.
120. Vita Wulfstani, PL 179, 1740D: "Cumulabat pectoris gratiam speciosi tam
corporis; quam licet inter virtutes non numerem, non tamen omnino excludo,
quia sicut ars opificis in commodiore materia elucet, ita virtus in pulchritudine
formae splendidius eminet."Second part of the sentence adapted from Ambrose,
De off. min., 1. 19. 83, PL 16, 52B-C.
121. Hugh of St. Victor, De inst. nov., PL 176, 935C: "Integritas ergo virtutis est,
quando per internam mentis custodiam ordinate reguntur membra corporis."
122. The Letters of John of Salisbury, epist. 34, ed. Millor, Butler, rev. Brooke, I:
61: "Recte quidem, eo quod . . . illud [sal] Deo offertis examinato eloquii casti
argento, et aureae virtutum imagines in speculo verbi et operis renident
intuentibus eosque provocant, ut imitatione virtutum possint esse speculum
aliorum."
123. Vincent of Beauvais, De eruditione filiorum nobilium, chapter 31, ed.
Steiner, pp. 117-23.
124. Vita Odilonis, chapter 2, PL 142, 899C: "Qui considerans in eo praestantem
elegantiam corporis et nobilitatem generis, magnum quiddam et divinum oculis
interioribus in eo praevidens, totus in ejus amorem illabitur."
125. Chapter 4, PL 142, 900D. Cf. Ambrose, De off. min., 1.18.71, PL 16, 48D-
49A: "Est etiam in ipso motu, gestu, incessu tenenda verecundia. Habitus
enimmentis in corporis statu cernitur. . . . Itaque vox quaedam est animi corporis
motus."
126. Chapter 5, PL 142, 900D-901A:
Erat mediocris in eo statura. Vultus ipse plenus auctoritatis et gratiae;
mansuetis hilaris et blandus, superbis vero et offensis, ut vix sufferri
posset, terribilis. Macie validus, pallore ornatus, canitie decoratus. Oculi
illius veluti quodam splendore fulgentes, intuentibus et terrori erant et
admirationi. . . . Renitebat etiam in ipsius motu, gestu, incessu, species
auctoritatis, pondus gravitatis tranquillitatisque vestigium.
127. Hildebert of Lavardin's description of Hugh of Cluny presiding over the
baptism of the infant Henry IV in the presence of the imperial court may be
relevant here (see PL 159, 864B-C), though it is not clear whose ethical
language is being spoken in the passage, that of Hildebert, of Hugh, or of the
German court.
128. Odo of Cluny, Vita Geraldi, 1. 16, PL 133, 653D. His portrait of Gerald is
 set in opposition to this abuse; cf. 1.12, PL 133, 650.
129. Conrad of Hirsau, Dialogus de mundi contemptu vel amore, ed. R. Bultot,
Analecta Mediaevalia Namurcensia 19 (Louvain, 1966), pp. 62-63: ". . . nihil
vero prodesse cultum exteriorem virtutum gressus mentientem. . . . Iunge
utrumque, et habitum et animum, et summa voti perfectionis calculo constabit."
130. Nicholas of Clairvaux, Ep. 8, PL 196, 1603: ". . . apud vos, ubi plus est
auri, plus creditur et esse meriti; ubi plus palliorum, plus morum; ubi plus
epularum et vestium, ibi verior observatio mandato rum."See John van Engen,
"The 'Crisis of Cenobitism' Reconsidered: Benedictine Monasticism in the Years
1050-1150,"pp. 285ff. (attacks on idea of link between material and spiritual
among Benedictines).
 

< previous page_409 next page >

page
< previous page_410 next page >
page
Page 410
131. Walter Müller's study, Das Problem der Seelenschönheit im Mittelalter:
Eine begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung, draws largely on Bernard for his
treatment of the twelfth-century. This is useful as a collection of material, but not
for its analysis.
132. Super Cant. Sermo, 85.10-11, Sancti Bernardi Opera, 2: 314:
In quo ergo animae decor? An forte in eo quod honestum dicitur? Hoc
interim sentiamus, si melius non occurrit. De honesto autem exterior
interrogetur conversatio: non quod ex ea honestum prodeat, sed per eam.
. . . Siquidem claritas eius testimonium conscientiae. . . . Cum autem
decoris huius claritas abundantius intima cordis repleverit, prodeat foras
necesse est. . . . Porro effulgentem et veluti quibusdam suis radiis
erumpentem mentis simulacrum corpus excipit, et diffundit per membra
et sensus, quatenus omnis inde reluceat actio, sermo, aspectus, incessus,
risus. . . . Horum et aliorum profecto artuum sensuumque motus, gestus
et usus, cum apparuerit serius, purus, modestus . . . pulchritudo animae
palam erit.
133. De officiis, 1.126: ". . . decorum illud in omnibus factis, dictis, in corporis
denique motu et statu cernitur idque positum est in tribus rebus, formositate,
ordine, ornatu ad actionem apto."
134. De officiis, 1.128-29: "status incessus, sessio accubitio, vultus oculi
manuum motus teneat illud decorum. Quibus in rebus duo maxime sunt fugienda,
nequid effeminatum aut molle et ne quid durum aut rusticum sit."Of basic
importance for what follow is Jean-Claude Schmitt, La raison des gestes.
135. De officiis, 1.131: "Cavendum autem est, ne aut tarditatibus utamur in
ingressu mollioribus . . . aut in festinationibus suscipiamus nimias celeritates,
quae cum fiunt, anhelitus moventur, vultus mutantur, ora torquentur; ex quibus
magna significatio fit non adesse constantiam."
136. De oratore, 3.222: "Est actio quasi sermo corporis."Orator, 55: "Est enim
actio quasi corporis quaedam eloquentia."
137. De off. min., 1.18.71, PL 16, 48D-49A, quoted above, n. 125.
138. Ibid., 49C: "Est etiam gressus probabilis in quo sit species auctoritatis,
gravitatisque pondus, tranquillitatis vestigium."
139. Eigil, Vita Sturmi, Chapter 2, p. 133; "gressu composito."
140. See Chapter 1 above and Schmitt, pp. 93ff. The only sources Schmitt cites
with echoes of the classical sources are Alcuin's De rhetorica et virtutibus and
the "mirrors of princes."
141. Epist. syn. Karisiac., 12, MGH Leges 2, Capit. 2, p. 436, ll. 2-6: "Et ideo
 domus regis scola dicitur, id est disciplina; quia non tan tum scolastici, id est
disciplinati et bene correcti sunt, sicut alii, sed potius, ipsa scola, quae
interpretatur disciplina, id est correctio, dicitur quae alios habitu, incessu, verbo
et actu atque totius bonitatis continentia corrigat."
142. Cf. Rule of St. Augustine, Praeceptum, 4.2. (Règle de St. Augustin, ed.
Verheijen, 1: 423): "Quando proceditis, simul ambulate; cum veneritis quo itis,
simul state. In incessu, in statu, in omnibus motibus vestris nihil fiat quod
cuiusquam offendat aspectum."Regula canonicorum of Aix (816), in Concilia
Aevi Karolini, ed. Werminghoff, chapter 123, p. 403, ll. 20-21: ". . . intus,
forisque non
 

< previous page_410 next page >

page
< previous page page_411 next page >
Page 411
solum habitu et actu, sed etiam ipso incessu inreprehensibiles existant."Ibid.,
chapter 131, p. 408, ll. 4-5: [clerics should enter the church] ". . . non
pompatice aut inhoneste vel inconposite, sed cum reverentia."
143. "Drei Gedichte, ed. Dümmler, pp. 225-26, vv. 48-51: "Denique si verum
constat, quod corporis actus / Signum sit mentis, animus quoque panditur actu, /
Corporis es nostro tali tunc dignus honore / Iudicio, qualem suffit tibi fama per
orbem." See discussion above, Chapter 3, pp. 57ff.
144. Bern of Reichenau, Vita Udalrici, chapter 2, PL 142, 1186B: ". . . in
corporis motu, gestu, incessu, foris ostendere [incipiebat], qualis habitus
formaretur intus in mente."
145. "Trois oeuvres inédites de Godefroid de Reims,"ed. Boutemy. On Godfrey
and these three poems see John R. Williams, "Godfrey of Rheims, A Humanist
of the Eleventh Century."Williams characterizes the poetry as marked by a "truly
pagan spirit" (p. 44). The verses translated are 27-74 (ed. Boutemy, pp. 345-46):
Non poteram falli cognitione viri,
Quoque minus dubites, habitus, vox, sermo, figura,
Gressus et aspectus consona signa dabant.
Non erat austerus mesta gravitate, quod odi,
Sed, quod amo, leta fronte serenus erat.
Non obliqua sibi facies, nec lumine toruo
Horrida, nec rigidis seva superciliis,
Sed facies mitis, clemens placideque columbe
Instar et estiuis solibus equa fuit.
At non sic hilaris fuerat facilisque videndus
Ut neglecta sibi forma modesta foret.
Nec sic iocundo dampnarat in ore pudorem
Ut fieret pueri frons petulantis ei,
Nam male quisque fugit uicium cum sic fugit illud
Rursus ut opposito det sua colla iugo.
Non bene luxurie maculam lavat helluo cum se
Mergit in obscene crimen auaritie.
Odo tenens medium que sit uidet inter utrumque
Semita, nec culpas in mediata putat.
Temperie se sic decorarat ut esset eidem
Morosa mixtus cum grauitate iocus.
. . . . . .
Temperie rapidi solis aguntur equi,
Temperie messes formant calor atque pruina,
Temperie uitis uuaque vina parit.
Hic status, hec habitudo decent; inglorius erret
Qui de mendaci relligione tumet.
 Exulet in siluis taciturnus amarus et asper
Et comes Hircanis tygribus esse velit.
Par hiemi censendus erit Boreeque niuoso,
Gaudia qui dampnat tristiciamque probat.
 

< previous page page_411 next page >

< previous page page_412 next page >
Page 412
. . . . . .
Talis tamque decens et in hoc moderamine vultus
Adstiterat nostro uatis imago thoro.
Adstandis non forma fuit brevis atque pusilla.
Sed fuit ingentis ardua forma viri.
Nam sublime caput procero corpore tollens,
Altior ac soleat suspiciendus erat.
146. See Gerald Bond, "Natural Poetics: Marbod at Angers and the Lessons of
Eloquence"; Carmina Leodiensia, ed. Bulst; also Maurice Delbouille, "Un
mystérieux ami de Marbode: Le 'redoutable poète' Gautier."The physiognomic
treatise is published by Richard Foerster, Scriptores Physiognomonici (Leipzig,
1893), 2. 3-145. I could not find a study of physiognomy in the earlier Middle
Ages. On the subject in the later Middle Ages, see John Block Friedman,
"Another Look at Chaucer and the Physiognomists,"Studies in Philology 78
(1981), 138-52.
147. Carmina, ed. Bulst, p. 18:
Ergo librum talem, modicum licet ac manualem,
Distinctum flore per singula multicolore,
Mellifluis sulcis, miratur Francia dulcis.
Ut fatear verum: scrutentur ut abdita rerum,
Hic notat obscuris quedam signata figuris,
Ut status, ut uultus habitus uox motio cultus
Absque nota morum commendet quemque uirorum,
Utrum sit iustus, uirtutum flore uenustus,
An nequam, fallax et ad omne scelus nimis audax.
148. See Origins of Courtliness, chapter 7, pp. 113-26.

Chapter 5:
Ethics Colonizing the Liberal Arts
1. On this topic see the study by Marie-Thérèse D'Alverny, "La sagesse et ses
sept filles: recherches sur les allégories de la philosophie et des arts libéraux du
IXe au XIIe siècle."Other schemes set ethics parallel to the arts, for example,
Logic, Physics, Ethics (Conrad of Hirsau, Dialogus, ed. Bultot, p. 131). Also the
late eleventh-century poem "De nuptiis Mercurii et Philogiae,"ed. A. Boutemy,
esp. p. 49, ll. 77-85, where Wisdom presents the seven liberal arts in their two
parts, the trivium and quadrivium; ethics is the "special companion"of each.
2. De officiis, 2.5-6, trans. Miller, pp. 172-73. Cf. also In L. Pisonem, 71:
"Philosophia, ut fertur, virtutis continet et officii et bene vivendi disciplinam."On
Cicero's idea of philosophy, see Josef Mancal, Zum Begriff der Philosopbie bei
 M. Tullius Cicero, Humanistische Bibliothek 1.39 (Munich, 1982).
3. Also worth noting in this context is Seneca's virtual identification of
philosophy and ethics, to the exclusion of "science":
 

< previous page page_412 next page >

< previous page_413 next page >
page
Page 413
Philosophy . . . gives form and fabric to the soul, it orders life, governs
actions, points to what should and should not be done. (Epist. ad Lucil.,
16.3)
Neither can there be philosophy without virtue, nor virtue without
philosophy. Philosophy is the study of virtue. (89.8)
The commandment of philosophy is this: to remain cheerful, brave and
serene in the face of death and for that matter in any condition of the
body, nor to lose heart, even when all is lost. (30.3)
4. On the idea of philosophy in the earlier Middle Ages, see Leclercq, Études sur
le vocabulaire monastique, 39-79; idem, "Pour Phistoire de l'expression
'philosophie chrétienne'"; idem, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God,
pp. 107-8; E. R. Curtius, "Zur Geschichte des Wortes Philosophia im
Mittelalter,"pp. 304ff.; Peter von Moos, Hildebert von Lavardin, pp. 103-5.
5. Isidore, Etymologiae, 2.24.1, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1911) (unpaged).
6. Alcuin, De dialectica, chapter 1, PL 101, 952A. Cf. also De grammatica, PL
101, 849C, 852D.
7. De universo, 15.1, PL 111, 413.
8. Gerbert, epist. 44, ed. Weigle, p. 73:
Cumque ratio morum dicendique ratio a philosophia non separentur,
cum studio bene vivendi semper coniuncxi studium bene dicendi,
quamvis solum bene vivere praestantius sit eo, quod est bene dicere,
curisque regiminis absoluto, alterum satis sit sine altero. An nobis in re
publica occupatis utraque necessaria.
9. This definition is evident in monastic usage. See the studies by Leclercq in
note 4 above. The regulated life of the monastery could be called phylosophya
Benedicti. Cf. Brun. Vita Adalberti, chapter 27, MGH SS 4, p. 609, l. 25.
10. Wormser Briefsammlung, epist. 52, ed. Bulst, p. 89 (see above, p. 83).
11. Boethius, De cons. Phil., 1. Prose 4.15ff.
12. Sigebert of Gembloux alludes to Plato's idea of the philosopher king in
referring to the wise men serving Otto I: Brun, Dietrich of Metz, and others of
Brun's students: Vita Deoderici, chapter 7, MGH SS 4, p. 467, ll. 38ff.
13. Vita Brun., chapter 20, LB, p. 206: "Nec abesse tibi iam dudum perpendi
ipsam ingenuarum arcium matrem et vere virtutem philosophie, que te ad hanc
modestiam magnitudinemque animi erudivit."
 14. Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., Regensburger Rbet. Briefe, pp. 274-
76.
15. Regensburger Rbet. Briefe, ed. Fickermann, epist. 1, p. 275: ". . . virtutem
querere, virtuti studium adhibere, virtutis insudare exerciciis non solum
honestati, verum utilitati consulere est."
16. Meinhard of Bamberg had recommended the same work to G. as "the best
that Latin philosophy has produced"(Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV.,
Weitere Briefe Meinbards, ed. Erdmann, epist. 1, p. 193).
 

< previous page_413 next page >

page
< previous page_414 next page >
page
Page 414
17. No doubt a symptom of an educational scene barren of logic. See Charles M.
Radding, "The Geography of Learning in Early Eleventh-Century Europe:
Lanfranc of Bec and Berengar of Tours Revisited."
18. Vita Burchardi, chapters 18 and 19, MGH SS 4, pp. 840-43.
19. Clerval, Les écoles de Chartres, p. 59; quoted above, Chapter 3, n. 43.
20. See the passage from an anonymous twelfth-century commentary from Ms.
Pistoie, Archivio capitolare, C. 80, f. 72 cited in Leclercq, Études sur le
vacabulaire monastique du moyen âge, p. 60, n. 16.
21. John of Salisbury, Metalogicon, prol. ed. Hall, CCCM 98, p. 11, ll. 76-78;
trans. adapted from McGarry, p. 6.
22. A detailed exposition in Policraticus 7.8, ed. Webb, 2.118-22; trans. Pike,
pp. 240-43. Cf. Entheticus maior, part 2, ll. 1247ff. (Parag. 80), John of
Salisbury's Entheticus Maior and Minor, ed. and trans. van Laarhoven, 1.186-87:
"Nam quamvis linguam formet, componat et actus, / vivere praecipue
Philosophia docet. / Vivere sincere pars optima philosophandi est."Here as in the
Policraticus the intellectual side of learning has no role assigned to it in
philosophy, and where it does appear, its role tends to be negative. Cf. Epist.
185, Letters of John of Salisbury, ed. Millor and Brooke, 2.224-45. The synthesis
of the three arts of the trivium proposed in the Metalogicon has a more
conciliatory attitude to the intellectual.
23. The Latin Rbetorical Commentaries by Thierry of Chartres, ed. Fredborg, p.
59.
24. Cf. David Knowles, "The Humanism of the Twelfth Century,"p. 19. Also
Köhn, "Schulbildung und Trivium,"p. 248.
25. Wibald, epist. 331, ed. Jaffé, p. 462: "Neque enim mores nostros ita instituit
et formavit illa vestra doctrix et domina, rerum divinarum et humanarum
magistra et educatrix, philosophia."
26. Reineri Vita Eraclii chapter 1, MGH, SS 20, p. 562, ll. 9ff.: "Ipse apud
Coloniam Agripinensem ad litterarum dispositus rudimenta, tantam postmodum
in divinis aeque et humanis assecutus est scientiam, ut summis par esse
philosophis iure censeretur, presertim cum venustatem corporis mores etiam
inaurarent splendidi, et iuxta Salomonem in facie prudentis luceret sapientia."
27. Radding's study "The Geography of Learning,"has shown the rudimentary
nature of logic in the eleventh century. The same cannot be said of rhetoric and
poetry.
28. See von Moos, Geschichte als Topik.
 29. See the discussion of the school of St. Victor below, Chapter 9.
30. Delhaye's idea that the connection played the role of rescuing and
legitimizing the reading of the classics ("Grammatica et ethica,"pp. 91ff.) is
certainly true at some level. It was a secondary result of the programmatic thrust
of learning to maintain the strict coordination of letters and manners.
31. See the analysis above, Chapter 3. Wormser Briefsammlung, ed. Bulst, p.
120, ll. 24-44:
Ipse poetarum fulget decus omnigenarum.
Imperio Christi moderando sceptra magistri
Preter scripture studium nihil est sibi cure,
 

< previous page_414 next page >

page
< previous page_415 next page >
page
Page 415
Cultor virtutis manet eterneque salutis,
Vim talem mentis dono tenet omnipotentis.
Doctrine rivus fluit eius pectore vivus,
Eternum numen sermonum dat sibi flumen,
Est ornamentum nobis huius documentum,
Ut verni flores cui crescunt semper honores.
Indoctis lumen cum fert seu mentis acumen,
Grammaticas partes ac cunctas instruit artes,
Tempore nocturno neque vult cessare diurno
Dicta peritorum depromens orthographorum.
Tanto pastori numquam sunt scripta labori,
Ceu solis lumen sibi sed patet omne volumen.
Ingenio mundum faciens vernare rotundum,
Strennuus et iustus, gemmis virtutis onustus,
Dat pernox Argus documenti fercula largus . . .
Propter sollertes non umquam spernit inertes . . .
32. Metalogicon, ed. Hall, pp. 52-54; trans. McGarry, pp. 67-70.
33. It is the core of Ciceronian teaching. Cf. especially De inventione, De
officiis, and De oratore. Also the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium;
Quintilian, Inst. Orat., 2.1-5. On the connection in Hellenic education, Werner
Jaeger, Paideia, 1.293 94. In Roman education, H. I. Marrou, A History of
Education in Antiquity, pp. 196, 198; Stanley F. Bonner, Education in Ancient
Rome from the Elder Cato to the Rounger Pliny, pp. 172-73.
34. On the study of Cicero's De inventione in the Middle Ages see Karin
Fredborg, ''Twelfth-Century Ciceronian Rhetoric: Its Doctrinal Development and
Influences"; also the introduction to Fredborg's edition of The Latin Rhetorical
Commentaries by Thierry of Chartres.
35. "Une version médiévale de la légende d'Orphée,"ed. Boutemy. The title, "De
nuptiis Mercurii et Philologie,"is confusing, but is the one given the poem in the
two manuscripts preserving it. I put it in quotation marks to distinguish it from
the work by Martianus Capella, given in italics.
36. "De nuptiis,"ed. Boutemy, p. 50, ll. 136-45:
Ars docet hoc, leges tenet in moderamine reges,
Milicie gentem Mavorcia tela gerentem
Doctrina vigili studioque reformat herili,
Hoc iuvenum mores struit, instituit seniores,
Perpete mensura cohibens civilia iura.
Quatuor ornatur virtutibus et decoratur.
Omnia discrete moderatur, cuncta quiete
Temperat, est iuste fortis prudensque venuste.
 His veluti summis firme subnixa columpnis
Stat quasi quadrate satis eque collaterata.
37. Regensburger Rhet. Briefe, epist. 20, pp. 344-45.
38. Ch. 3, PL 172, 1244A: "Tullius itinerantes ornate loqui instruit, quatuor
 

< previous page_415 next page >

page
< previous page page_416 next page >
Page 416
virtutibus . . . mores componit. Huic urbi subjacent historiae, fabulae, libri
oratorie et ethice conscripti, per quos gressus mentis ad patriam sunt
dirigendi."
39. See Ward, Artificiosa eloquentia in the Middle Ages, pp. 65ff.; Mary Dickey,
"Some Commentaries on the De inventione and Ad Herennium of the Eleventh
and Early Twelfth Centuries,"pp. 12ff. Dickey identifies "Menegaldus"with
Manegold of Lautenbach. On the difficulty of this identification, see Wilfried
Hartmann, "Manegold von Lautenbach und die Anfänge der Frühscholastik,"pp.
49ff.
40. Cited in Ward, Artificiosa eloquentia, p. 70. Cf. De inventione, 1.2.
41. Anselm of Liège relates that Wazo prevented Henry I from invading Aix by
writing a persuasive letter, and Anselm comments that the wisdom and
eloquence of a single man can thus prevent undertakings that would consume
great armies. The incident has a Ciceronian model, De officiis, 1.79. Cf. Godfrey
of Rheims's poem to Enguerrand de Coucy, ll. 91-94 (referring to Cicero
thwarting Catiline): "Armed only with the toga, he subdued his weapons. A
powerful thing is genius, and stronger than the sharp sword. The [orator's]
skilled tongue cuts through the duke's armor.""Trois oeuvres inédites de
Godefroid de Reims,"ed. Boutemy, p. 342.
42. Onulf, ed. Wattenbach, "Magister Onulf von Speyer,"pp. 361-86.
43. Manitius understandably found the work "odd"(Geschichte, 2.715). On Onulf
see also L. Wallach, "Onulf of Speyer: A Humanist of the Eleventh Century,"pp.
35-56; and Carl Erdmann, "Onulf von Speyer und Amarcius."
44. Onulf, ed. Wattenbach, p. 370: "Quid enim tuae saluti conducet haec
exornatio, cum sola morum et habitus exornatio, sicut sola est, sic et appelari
sola debeat exornatio?"
45. Pp. 382-83, Verse parag. 11:
Ut placeas pueris, senibus juvenumque catervae,
Te mores, habitus, sapientia mentis adornent.
Mandat, amat, probat hoc Deus, angelus, ac homo doctus.
Te colat, optet, amet vir, femina, dives, egenus.
Aetas, condicio, sexus veneretur, honoret.
Vox, habitus, facies pia, dulcis, amabilis extet.
46. Cf. Curtius's observations on the "rejection of the muses"in his study, "Die
Musen im Mittelalter."The studies appear condensed in idem, European
Literature, pp. 228-46.
47. PL 171, 1690A (parag. 13):
Similiter desinens est, cum, tametsi casus non insunt, verbi tamen
 similes sunt exitus; hoc pacto:
Censu ditari, virtute petis vacuari.
Sed nec dives eris, donec virtute carebis.
Molliter affaris, fallaciter insidiaris.
Inquiris blande, prodis commissa nefande.
48. Curtius, European Literature, p. 468 (Excursus 7: "The Mode of Existence of
the Medieval Poet").
 

< previous page page_416 next page >

< previous page_417 next page >
page
Page 417
49. De sancta simplicitate chapter 7, S. Pier Damiani, De divina omnipotentia e
altri opuscoli, ed. Brezzi and Nardi, p. 188; in the Migne edition, PL 145,
Opusc. 45, 700C-D.
50. Rudolf Schieffer's case for identifying the Archpoet with a school master of
Cologne gains persuasiveness from this point of view, even though the stature of
poetry had been changing radically since the beginning of the twelfth century:
"Bleibt der Archipoeta anonym?"The evidence is not yet fully persuasive for this
identification. Johannes Fried takes up Schieffer's line of thought and comes to a
different identification, still in the milieu of the high clergy of Cologne: "Der
Archipoeta: Ein Kölner Scholaster?"
51. "Carmina Cantabrigensia,"nr. 37, ed. Bulst, p. 65:
Ad mensam philosophie      sitientes currite
et saporis tripertiti            septem rivos bibite,
uno fonte procedentes        non eodem tramite,
              Hinc fluit gramma prima,
              hinc poetica ydra,
              lanx hinc satiricorum,
              plausus hinc comicorum,
              letificat convivia
              Mantuana fistula.
52. The sense of outbidding antiquity is evident in much of the school poetry. It
imposed an obligation on the poet which had disastrous effects on his Latin style.
Cf. Anselm of Besate, dedicatory letter to Rhetorimachia, ed. Manitius, pp. 97
and 100. He associates the deeds of Henry with Augustus Caesar and himself
with Virgil, whose task was to praise the deeds of Augustus. Since Henry's are
more famous than Caesar's, it followsthough it is not stated outrightthat poetic
talents beyond Virgil's are called for, and Anselm is his manthat is stated
outright. Anselm was offered a position in Henry III's chapel, presumably as a
response to his Rhetorimachia. See Carl Erdmann, "Anselm der Peripatetiker,
Kaplan Heinrichs III."Two recent studies of Anselm's style, Beth S. Bennett,
"The Significance of the Rhetorimachia of Anselm de Besate to the History of
Rhetoric,"Rhetorica 5 (1987), 231-50; idem, "The Rhetoric of Martianus Capella
and Anselm de Besate in the Tradition of Menippean Satire,"Philosophy and
Rhetoric 24 (1991), 128-42. See Curtius's excursus on "Poetic Pride''in European
Literature, pp. 485-86.
53. Guibert of Nogent claimed that in his youth he had "immersed my soul
beyond all measure in poetry so I considered scripture ridiculous vanity."He read
Ovid and the bucolics, and composed love poetry himself. See Peter Stotz,
"Dichten als Schulfach: Aspekte mittelalterlicher Schuldichtung,"esp. pp. 9ff.
54. The poem is from someone either in or acquainted with the Rheims circle of
 poets. He knew the work of Godfrey of Rheims and Marbod of Rennes.
Boutemy's edition presents it as "Une version inconnue de la légende
d'Orphée,"and both that title and Boutemy's commentary tend to stress the
Orpheus section (second half only) and to conceal the programmatic thrust of the
poem read as a whole.
55. I know of no other version from any period in which Eurydice herself
 

< previous page_417 next page >

page
< previous page page_418 next page >
Page 418
performs as a singer. The extravagant reward seems to aim at legitimizing
praise of women. Cf. ll. 398-400: "Leta cohors superum laudes probans
mulierum / Euridicis totis referunt preconia votis, / Utque decet lauro, gemmis
redimitur et auro." Can anyone explain this untypical bit of feminist
advocacy? Possibly because some sources make her into a daughter of
Apollo? Cf. Mythographus Vaticanus I, 75, 1-2: "Orpheus Oeagri et Caliope
muse filius, ut quidam putant, Appolinis filiam habuit uxorem
Euridicen."Mythographi Vaticani I and II, ed. Peter Kulcsar, CCSL 91C
(Turnholt: Brepols, 1987), p. 33. This still doesn't explain laudes probans
mulierum. The article on Eurydice in Pauly-Wissowa (6.1.1322-27) does not
mention a singing Eurydice or a daughter of Apollo. It may have to do with
the cultivation of poems of women in the Loire circle. See Peter Dronke,
Women Writers of the Middle Ages, pp. 84-97.
56. The distinction between music and poetry is not always clear in the period. I
will deal with music in a later section, but here it is worth noting another
allegorical representation of the high status of song: Baudri of Bourgueil
assigned the same preeminent role to music. The headboard of the allegorical
bed in Countess Adela of Blois's bedchamber is inscribed with a representation
of Philosophy and the liberal arts. Music is located at the right hand (l. 975), or
at the feet (l. 1002) of Philosophy herself, because she is the force that keeps the
other sisters in harmony with each other. Baudri, ed. Hilbert, Carmen 134, ll.
999-1004, p. 175.
57. A few details confirm that the poet was working within a structure where
poetry fulfills the arts. The "ethereal chorus of philosophy"sings, in praise of
sapientia, "At hominum sensus, duce te, sapiendo remensus / Appetit internas
herebi penetrare cavernas, / Discutiens utique secreta polique solisque"(227-29).
This marks the catabasis as symbolic of the continuing quest for understanding;
to ''penetrate the caverns of the underworld"means to investigate the secrets of
the heavens. Boutemy points to the lines as foreshadowing the descent of
Orpheus (p. 52 and note), but he regards the Orpheus story as tacked on, not the
fulfillment of learning. Likewise the striking parallel between the role of rhetoric
as presented by Calliope (136-59) and the judicial pleading for Eurydice in the
underworld (593-616), discussed below.
58. "Eine Bamberger Ars Dictaminis,"ed. Bittner, p. 156, ll. 31-39:
        Fateor me iudice nemo,
Si concedis idem, carissime, doctus ad unguem
Nec perfectus erit, qui nil componere novit
Auditu dignum; quod maius dic rogo signum
Aut argumentum, quod certius est documentum
Divitis ingenii, frater dulcissime, quam si
Dictator mentes et grate mulceat aures?
Hic est aut nusquam quod quaerimus, hic erit inquam
 Fructus longorum, ni fallor ego, studiorum.
componere here refers to poetry as well as prose. Cf. ll. 58-59: "Nam versus
dulces scribendo pectora mulces,/ Mulces egregie scribens metri sine lege."On
Ulrich's so-
 

< previous page page_418 next page >

< previous page_419 next page >
page
Page 419
called ars dictandi and its two introductory poems, see I. S. Robinson, "The
'colores rhetorici' in the Investiture Contest."
59. For more details, see my study "Orpheus in the Eleventh Century"; also
McDonough, "Orpheus, Ulysses, and Penelope."On Orpheus, see Heitmann,
"Orpheus im Mittelalter"; J. B. Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages;
Wetherbee, Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth Century; Brinkmann,
Mittelalterliche Hermeneutik.
60. The judicial nature of the proceedings is quite apparent. The chorus gives the
"king"advice on the treatment of the accused and convicted in general: "Parcere
prostratis decus est et honor pietatis"(594). They invoke points of law: "ne modo
maiora pereant concede minora, / Ne vicio regis titubet sententia legis"(598-99).
They appeal to ''the law"itself (sententia legis599; lex tua604). The issue glides
from death versus life over into innocence versus guilt: "Innocuos dure non sit
tibi perdere cure / Sitque satis diram pretendere sontibus iram"(607-8).
Eurydice's plight is a casus (610) and a causa (611). They demand that
condemnation be based on proof: "Non bene dampnatur qui non meruisse
probatur"(609). A nearcontemporary text describing (satirically) legal procedures
and drawing on the same vocabulary: Goswin of Mainz, Gozechini epistola, ed.
Huygens, chapter XXXV, pp. 37-38, ll. 800-823.
61. See Heitmann, "Orpheus im Mittelalter,"pp. 267-69; for the Renaissance,
John Warden, "Orpheus and Ficino,"pp. 89-91, with some parallels to the
eleventh-century figure. Cf. p. 90: Orphic song in its civilizing capacity is "a
social and political program."
62. Ovid has no interest in this aspect of the myth (see Metam. 10.1-63, 11.1-66);
nor does Virgil, Georgics 4. 453ff.; Quintilian makes of Orpheus a musician,
philosopher and poet in one, who by the power of his song "rudes quoque atque
agrestes animos admiratione mulceret"; Horace presents him as the primal
civilizer: "Silvestres homines sacer interpresque deorum / caedibus et victu foedo
deterruit Orpheus, / dictus ob hoc lenire tigris rabidosque leones"(Ars Poetica,
391-93); Boethius mentions the softening effect of song with the casualness of a
received motif (De cons. phil., III m. 12), though he was to treat the civilizing
aspect of music at length in his De inst. musica. For classical authors, Orphic
song is a producer of mirabilia, not a force aimed at a widely accepted social
mission. The more detailed description of his civilizing power in Eusebius (see
Friedman, pp. 56-57) suggests that it is a product of Christian modeling of the
ancient myth. On Orpheus in Merovingian and Carolingian sources, see Peter
Godman, Poets and Emperors: Frankish Politics and Carolingian Poetry, pp. 1-
37, also Jaeger, "Orpheus."
63. "Quid suum virtutis": Eine Lehrdichtung des 11. Jahrhunderts, ed. A.
Paravicini. The poem has been attributed to Thierry of St. Trond and Hildebert
 of Lavardin (see above, Introduction, p. 16). The most recent editor suggests an
anonymous poet writing under the pseudonym of Mamucius (possibly also
Kalphurnius) and a date prior to 1043-46 (based convincingly on an allusion to
the poem in Ecbasis captiviParavicini, pp. 8-9). Its origin remains uncertain. The
distribution of manuscripts suggests that it was popular in southern Germany,
but also in Belgium and northern France (p. 14). Paravicini conjectures that it
may have
 

< previous page_419 next page >

page
< previous page page_420 next page >
Page 420
been written for the instruction of a prince, possibly for Henry III by a
member of his chapel (p. 10). (See above, Introduction, pp. ***.)
64. Ll. 499-504:
Arti materne iunctum sudando laborem
        Manibus extorsit Orpheus Euridicen.
Non hic frenaret fluvios, non saxa moveret,
        Vellet si blande se dare desidie,
Sed studio dictante sagax dum temperat odas
        Muse demulcens omnia blandiciis.
65. "Quem non invitat, que non precordia mulcet / Musica? . . ."(675-76); ". . .
dulcedine tali / . . . permulcebat . . ."(749-50); ''. . . ira resedit, / . . . pax et adest
animi"(781-82); "Exhilarant umbre frontem presente Megera, / Dum lira
permulcet, pena dolore caret. / Ad nectar cantus hilarescit ovans Rhadamantus, /
Ridet permulsus carmine trux Eacus"(953-56).
66. ". . . pisces muti vocis dulcedine capti"(677); "Dulcis eum Muse sola fames
tenuit"(692); "Sic Musa dulci dulcis fuit Orpheus orbi"(721); "Huius Musa viri
mundum dulcedine tali / Dum permulcebat . . ."(749-50); ". . . Musa tui, sacer
Orpheu, / Tanti dulcoris extiterat superis"(809-10).
67. "Tot res et tante letantur eo modulante, / Has et que vegetat musica
letificat"(723-24); "Leta . . . / Stix, qua nil umquam tristius esse potest"(829-30);
"Numquam leta prius, Charon, tua . . . senectus / . . . gaudet . . ."(943-44); ". . .
Parce / . . . hilares"(991-92).
68. "Mox, ut spondei succinuit gravitas, / . . . ira resedit, / . . . pax et adest
animi"(780-82).
69. Ll. 749-64:
Huius Musa viri mundum dulcedine tali
        Dum permulcebat, esse palam dederat,
Vis armonie quia rerum temperet esse
        Unanimi nodo dissona concilians, . . .
Et que maioris eadem moderando minoris
        Naturam mundi lex copulat numeri . . .
Hec anime corpus, hec federat ima supernis,
        Hec mores ornat, membra dolore levat.
70. Ll. 799-802:
Et cum nunc mulcet, nunc asperat et modo pacat
        Affectum mentis musica temperies,
Certo certius est hominis subsistere totum
        Apte coniungi temperie numeri.
 71. Ll. 809-12:
 

< previous page page_420 next page >

< previous page_421 next page >
page
Page 421
Nec mirum dictu, quod musa tui, sacer Orpheu,
        Tanti dulcoris extiterat superis:
Tartara flexisti, legem Stigis annichilasti,
        Te modulante madent Eumenides lacrimis.
72. Ll. 921-22:
Quelibet in portu Stigio stabulantia monstra
        Alternis gradibus membra movent fidibus.
73. Or "leaps out of sight"(Excedens visum niger estuat ignis in altuml. 963).
The urge to overwhelm is so prominent in the rest of the passage, the more
powerful reading seems preferable.
74. Ll. 989-90:
Miratur flecti frendens furor ipsius Orci
        Mansuescendo stupens se periisse sibi.
75. Ovans Rhadamantus (955). Ovans is the festive mood for the triumphal
entry: "ovans urbem ingrederetur"(Liv., 5.31); "ovans triumphavit"(P. Velleius
Paterculus, 2.96.3). Glosses from Lewis and Short, Latin Dictionary, p. 1285.
76. The motif is from Boethius, De cons. phil., III m. 12, 47-48.
77. "Muse confisus rursum fidicen generosus / Squalores imi mox repetens
baratri / Conciliante lira molliret saxea corda, / Placaret Parcas, flecteret
Eumenides, / Deflens pulsaret, pulsando preces iteraret, / Sollers effectum nec
negat ingenium" (1013-18). Orpheus's urge to return and engage hell again is
present in Ovid (Metamorphoses, 10.72), but is thwarted by the ferryman. The
eleventh-century poet makes the power of poetry into the motivating force,
frustrated by the poet's revulsion at the thought of hell's evil. The lines leave
some room for seeing here a second descent and successful rescue of Eurydice.
Cf. Peter Dronke, "Return of Eurydice,"p. 199. A successful return is an outcome
more consistent with the poet's faith in powerful song and genius. It would also
eliminate the awkward artifice of an Orpheus ready and willing to return but
repelled by the thought of dealing with such monsters, "even bearing gifts."But
the subjunctives (molliret, placaret etc.) followed by ''Sed fugit exosus Stigios . .
. / Indignans supplex nequitie fieri"seem clear, and the upbeat conclusion
("Fortiter extorsit a Stige, quod voluit. / Sic ars naturam vicit . . .") probably
looks backward past the poet's failure through love to the initial success through
song. Read this way, the conclusion states: "what powerful song accomplished,
ungovernable love undid."
78. "Numine sic artis fidens industria mentis / Fortiter extorsit a Stige, quod
voluit. / Sic ars naturam vicit studio mediante / Virtuti domine cedere cuncta
probans"(1021-24).
 79. Carmina Leodiensia, ed. Bulst, 11-12.
80. See Maurice Delbouille, "Un mystérieux ami de Marbode."
81. Ed. Bulst, ll. 1-3: "Carmine leniti tenet Orpheus antra Cocyti / . . . /
 

< previous page_421 next page >

page
< previous page_422 next page >
page
Page 422
Carmine placavit quod quisque mali toleravit."The seven-fold repetition of
carmine and carmina in the first eight lines suggests that the poet knew
Godfrey of Rheims's poem to Enguerrand of Soissons, in which an anaphora
with carmine is sustained over five lines; likewise the power of poetry is the
theme. See Godfrey, in "Trois oeuvres,"ed. Boutemy, p. 342, ll. 99-103.
82. Cf. "Satyra de amicicia . . . (Clm 29111): Das Freundschaftsideal eines
Freigelassenen,"ed. Raedle, p. 180, ll. 2ff). Also Froumund of Tegernsee, in
Tegernseer Briefsammlung, nr. 32, p. 81: "Nunc facito versus, omnis, qui
scribere nosti, / Ut modo pellatur mentibus ira suis."Hildebert still cultivated a
poetry aimed at calming, soothing and consoling. Cf. Peter von Moos, Hildebert,
pp. 26-27: "[H.] . . . sieht den höchsten Sinn der Dichtung in der Vermittlung
menschlicher Gunst im Freundesdienst . . . . Dichtung soll `erleichtern,' die
Sorgen vergessen lassen, das Dasein angenehmer machen . . . . [Der Dichter]
hilft den anderen, beschwichtigt, bringt Ruhe und Ordnung in bedrängte und
erregte Herzen.''
83. The vir perfectus is the fulfillment of moral training. Cf. Martin of Braga,
Formula vitae honestae, VI 1ff., p. 247; and the work of Hildebert dependent on
it, Libellus de quatuor virtutibus vitae honestae, PL 171, 1055-56C: "Quarum
[namely the four virtues] se formis si mens humana coaptet, / Perfectum faciet
integra vita virum"; ibid., 1063B: "His . . . formis virtutes commemoratas /
Perfectum constat reddere posse virum."Also PL 132, 645; PL 157, 671C; PL
207, 377B; Alan of Lille, Anticlaudianus passim.
84. Ll. 56-62:
        quis te subtilem nesciat esse?
Ingenii venam tibi quis neget esse benignam?
Nam versus dulces scribendo pectora mulces,
Mulces egregie scribens metri sine lege.
Moribus haec ornas, cum sit tibi prona voluntas
Semper ad omne bonum.
85. Ll. 213-16:
Inferni divos cur optabis redivivos?
Quos lex Plutonis damnavit fauce draconis,
Non resonante lira cuius mulcebitur ira,
Quicquid hic acceptat, nullius iam prece reddat.
86. The early date of the poem (1031) can put to rest any reservations about the
advent of the Orpheus figure in the capacity as restorer of peace and love. The
indirectness of the treatment suggests this interpretation of the myth is well
known.
87. Ll. 130-35:
 Inter nos ire fugiat discordia dire,
Expertes belli nos simus amore gemelli,
Fedus Davidis mecum Ionatheque subibis,
Nil nosmet sevum conturbet nunc et in evum.
 

< previous page_422 next page >

page
< previous page_423 next page >
page
Page 423
Multum mirantur nam, talia cum speculantur,
Sunt qui cum rixis nobis in pignore fixis.
The last line is confusing. See Strecker's (Tegernseer Briefsammlung, p. 130)
and Bulst's (Wormser Briefsammlung, p. 123) puzzlement. But the sense is
fairly clear: many who cannot end their disputes will marvel at the model of
conciliatory restraint and loving friendship these two provide, having been
transformed from bitter enemies to a David and Jonathan.
88. See Origins of Courtliness, pp. 36-42, 149-50, 198-99.
89. "Istic prescriptum metrico modulamine dictum, / Cum precor eius opem
necnon venerabile nomen, / De cuius donis modulo fungor rationis, / . . . / Nobis
ductores verbi dum posco satores / Agrum divinum plantantes semine
primum"(273-79).
90. The later letters addressing the conflict at Würzburg (Wormser
Briefsammlung, epist. 15, 25, 26) suggest some legal action was taken, at least
threatened, against the perpetrators, as we have seen. Another case is that of
Wazo of Liège. See below, Chapter 7.
91. Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., epist. 27, p. 61: "Domno patri et
episcoporum dignissimo H. famelici et vix herentes ossibus Hiltinisheimensium
scholarum hospites uberem celestis gratie sacietatem, plenam panis vivi, qui est
Christi, refectionem."The editors identify vix herentes ossibus as an echo of
Virgil, Eclogae, 3.102.
92. P. 63: "Si Erudicen ab inferis ignoscere nescientibus Orphei liberaverat lira,
quelibet optanda benedictissime tue anime apud Dominum impetrabit nostre
devotionis cythara."
93. Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., Hannoversche Briefsammlung,
epist. 109, p. 184. On Walo's conflict with Manasses, see Manitius, Geschichte
der lat. Lit., 2: 724-25; Williams, "Manasses I of Rheims and Gregory VII,"pp.
809-10.
94. See Curtius, "Die Musen im Mittelalter,"pp. 129-88.
95. On the frequent comparison of David and Orpheus see J. B. Friedman,
Orpheus in the Middle Ages, pp. 148-55; Peter Dronke, "The Return of
Eurydice,"esp. pp. 206ff.; E. Irwin, "The Songs of Orpheus and the New Songs
of Christ,"in Orpheus: The Metamorphosis of a Myth, ed. Warden, pp. 51-62 (a
dense and informative study). Walo is the only monk quoted so far. It may be
that in monastic communities the Old Testament figure was the preferred calmer
of rage. Also noteworthy for its omission in favor of Orpheus in hell: Christ
harrowing hell. Cf. Dronke, "The Return of Eurydice,"p. 208.
 96. Sigeberts pon Gembloux Passio Sanctae Luciae Virginis und Passio
Sanctorum Thebeorum, ed. Dümmler.
97. Passio, 1.12.613-27, pp. 65-66: "nec civilis multum, nec amicus amicis, . . .
Est trux ira animos . . . / Nunquam corde reses, ceu mansuescens leo deses . . . ;
ferax et naturaliter atrox, . . . barbaricus sensus."Cf. 3.2.204ff., pp. 101-3.
98. 2.2.36-37, p. 72: "nec vos miseratio flectat. / Non sit qui parcat, nullus sit qui
miserescat."
99. 2.2.67-70, pp. 72-73:
 

< previous page_423 next page >

page
< previous page page_424 next page >
Page 424
Pluto duritia vincens adamantina saxa,
Non potuit flecti lacrimosis cantibus Orphei,
Quis tygres, rupes, silvas flectebat et amnes,
Ut daret Euridicis vitam pretium modulanti."
100. This episode shows how casually variable and governed by authorial
intention the fate of Eurydice is. The purpose of the individual author can
override tradition and "Stoffzwang."
101. Cf. Walafrid Strabo, In Natalem S. Mammetis Hymnus, MGH Poetae 2:
296, 5-6: "Mitis domans immitia, / illisque promens mystica, / Vivebat inter
bestias, / quo cive gaudent angeli. / Adiutus armis spiritus / vicit furores
principum,/ saevi draconis conterens / sacris caput conatibus"(emphasis added).
102. Briefsammlung Gerberts, ed. Weigle, epist. 44, p. 73: ". . . nobis in re
publica occupatis utraque necessaria. Nam et apposite dicere ad persuadendum et
animos furentium suavi oratione ab impetu retinere summa utilitas"(emphasis
mine).
103. This phrase becomes the formula for describing victories over foreign
invaders or rebellious states. Cf. the dedicatory poem believed written by Brun
for Otto the Great: "Caeca secula barbaries / Seva premebat et error iners. / At
tua dextra ubi sceptra tenet, / Publica res sibi tuta placet"(MGH Poetae, 5:2.378,
ll. 23-27). Anselm of Besate, Rhetorimachia, ed. Manitius, epist. to Henry III:
"[it is matter of praise for him that] gentes feras et atrocissimas domuisti animos
crudos nefarios ab humanitate derelictos."
104. Vita Brun., chapter 2, LB, pp. 182-84: ". . . nominis quoque eius fama,
quousque pervenit, bella sedaret, pacem formaret, studium in omnibus bonis
artibus firmaret."Cf. also chapter 25, p. 216, Brun's pietas renders battle-
hardened men warshy and timid: ". . . quos nulla umquam acies, nulla inflexit
asperitas, hos huius viri pietas inbelles et timidos faciebat."Chapters 18 and 19
show Brun attempting to pacify and reconcile Otto the Great's rebellious brother
Liudolf. It is oratory (vir bonus, dicendi peritusp. 204) at its Ottonian best,
working to mitigate the fury (Liudolfis possessed by an "Erinye") of princes with
the suasions of eloquencethe ideal function of the statesman as Gerbert would
formulate it (above, pp. 153-54).
105. Sigebert, Gesta Abb. Gembl., chapter 3, MGH SS 8, p. 524, ll. 32-41:
Quam patiens et quam dulcis quantumque benignus
Iugiter extiterit, quis memorare queat?
Nam placidus degens lenibat corda furentum
In mores pacis de feritate vocans.
Alloquia blandus, mira gravitate modestus,
Non asper, non trux, non violentus erat . . .
Quem mestum vidit, quem tristem quemque dolentem,
 Affectu patris subveniebat ei;
Affatu dulci merentia pectora mulcens.
On the text see DGQ, 1.149 and n. 220. Cf. the commemorative lines by
Eugenius Vulgarius (southern Italy, ca. 911): "Iohannes / Inferior nulli
veterum probitate priorum, / Cuius in octonis mundus suffragia clamat /
Quatinus indomitas evi demulceat iras / Ingentesque animi curarum mitiget
estus."Paul Mayvaert, "A
 

< previous page page_424 next page >

< previous page_425 next page >
page
Page 425
Metrical Calendar by Eugenius Vulgarius,"Analecta Bollandia 84 (1966),
364, ll. 104-8.
106. Odo of Cluny praises Gerald of Aurillac for exercising this influence in
Aurillac in his Vita Geraldi, 4.8, PL 133, 700D: "Incolae autem regionis illius
mores valde ferinos habere solebant, sed aliquantulum exemplo vel reverentia
sancti hominis esse mitiores videntur."Passage cited in Thomas Bisson, "The
Organized Peace in Southern France and Catalonia,"p. 292.
107. Fulbert, epist. 95, Letters, ed. Behrends, p. 172: ". . . te propter mores tuos
matura sanctitate suavissime redolentes erga tibi subditos eo animo esse
intelligo, ut bonos sinceri amoris gratia conplectaris."
108. Epist. 94, ed. Behrends, pp. 170-71. Cf. also his poem to peace, ed.
Behrends, pp. 262-63. Peter Damian is going about the same duty in his tract
"De frenanda ira et simultatibus exstirpandis,"(Opusc. 40, PL 145, 649-60). Cf.
also the example of Thierry of St. Hubert and Manasses of Rheims (note 111
below).
109. Ed. Behrends, pp. 262-63: "Ad normam redigit qui subdita secla pravitati, /
Potens novandi sicut et creandi, / . . . / Iam proceres legum racionibus ante
desueti / Quae recta discunt strenue capessunt."
110. This observation is based on a reading of the sources in Ludwig Huberti,
Studien zur Rechtsgeschichte der Gottesfrieden und Landfrieden (Ansbach,
1892), and on the documents in MGH, Leges 4, Constit. 1, pp. 596-617. That the
contemporary commentary on peace, its legislation and its ends could draw on
Orphic discourse is evident in a speech of Archbishop Guido of Vienne in the
Council of Langres (1116) Concilium Lingonense, RHF 14. 223, and Mansi,
Collect. Suppl. vol. 2. 159. Guido's speech to open the council lamented the
depradations on the church. The effect of his speech, delivered in mellita
oratione: "His et huiuscemodi declamatis a viro facundissimo coepere
audientium mitescere pectora et in pacis modestiaeque velle concurrere
sacramenta."Cited in Huberti, Studien, p. 430. Also the speech of this same
Guido (now Pope Calixtus II) at the council of Rheims (1119), after hearing
much bickering and contention from a host of complainants: The Ecclesiastical
History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. Chibnall, p. 262 (12. 21). Cited in Huberti, pp.
431-32.
111. Vita Theod. Abb. Andaginensis, chapter 20, MGH SS 12, p. 49, ll. 9ff.:
. . . natura et moribus plus quam oporteret ferus, propter laudabilem
conversationem eius sibi amicum eum fecerat. . . . Multum ergo feritatis
ab eo admonitus deposuit . . . et cum pluribus esset frequenter immitis et
truculentus, huic uni . . . semper fuit mitis et placidus.
Writing ca. 1090, the biographer of Abbot Thierry of St. Hubert (Ardennes)
 wrongly takes Manasses's predecessor to be the object of this pacifying
activity. On the error, see Williams, "Manasses I,"p. 806, n. 7. Walo, in
accepting the abbacy of St. Remi, let his good judgment be overruled by the
prospect of "tempering the truculence"of Manasses (PL 150, 879-80) and
sought to transform his "canine manners,""savageness of mind,"and ''bestiality
of manners"into "most gentle charity and charitable
gentleness"(Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., Hannover Collect. epist.
108, p. 183).
 

< previous page_425 next page >

page
< previous page page_426 next page >
Page 426
112. Die Briefe des Abtes Bern von Reichenau, ed. Schmale, pp. 55-64. For a
commentary see Karl Schnith, "Recht und Friede."
113. Schmale cites Isidore as Bern's source for this etymology, but it is evident
from the passage in Etymologiae (9.3.19-20) that the idea of a transition from
barbarity to reason inspired by "sacred religion"is Bern's addition.
114. See Origins of Courtliness, pp. 211-35. I now believe that the peace
movement was a vital precursor of medieval courtliness. Se Georges Duby, "The
Laity and the Peace of God."
115. See Karl Hauck, "Heinrich III und der Ruodlieb."
116. Ruodlieb, ed. Vollmann, 5.405-7:
. . . "absit, ut is de me tribuletur <ut hostis,>
A quo sum numquam minimam commotus in <iram,>
Quin irascentem me mitem reddit ut ag<num> . . . "
Ruodlieb's personal qualities are tailored to this effect. He is mitis and
benignus (5.400), "ready to serve and in all things well mannered,"envious of
none, and dear to all, the king's "most beloved"and "dearest of all the retinue":
". . . promptus eras et in omni morigerebas; / Hinc habeo grates tibi,
dilectissime, grandes. / Invidus es nulli sed plebi karus es omni / . . . karissime
cunctigenorum''(5.419-22). (invidus seems to be preferable to Vollmann's
conjecture gravis in l. 421.) The atmosphere of the king's court is determined
by amor, mansuetudo, and clementia. See Helena Gamer, "Studien zum
Ruodlieb."Even the tamed wild animals that the court teems with become
representatives of the civilizing power of these virtues. Likewise the king's
generous and merciful treatment of his conquered adversary illustrates the
nobility of not seeking revenge but reconciling enemies through friendship
and love, and invites comparison with Henry III (see Chapter 8). These values
were represented as institutionalized at the school of Würzburg in the poem
from 1031 discussed in Chapter 3.
117. See my "Orpheus in the Eleventh Century,"pp. 161-67.
118. See my essay "L'amour des rois."
119. Die Werke Wipos, ed. Bresslau, ll. 225-27:
Et post iudicium veniae mulcedo sequatur . . . 
Lex odium regi generat feriendo nocentes;
Ut sit carus item rex idem, Gratia suadet.
120. Evidently Wipo's invention. Cf. Breslau's note, p. 83, n. 6. The admonition
to compassion does not occur in any preserved royal ordination.
121. Ll. 249-53:
 Dum rex iratus fueris, miserando quiesce.
Dura foventur agens, durescunt lenia flammis,
Alternatque vices moderatae ius rationis.
Hinc adamas durus solvetur sanguine molli . . .
Et natura iubet mutari tristia blandis.
 

< previous page page_426 next page >

< previous page page_427 next page >
Page 427
122. For instance, Peter Damian's tract on suppressing anger, De frenanda ira et
simultatibus extirpandis (Opusc. 40), PL 145, 649-60; Hildebert's letter to
Countess Adela of Blois (epist. 1.3, PL 171, 144-45), a little treatise on
clemency, drawing on Seneca and using the language of Orphic discourse;
Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermo super cant., 12, Sancti Bernardi Opera, 1.60-67;
Peter of Blois's fictional dialogue against royal anger between Henry II and the
abbot of Bonneval (PL 207, 975-88).
123. Adam of Bremen says that Bishop Adalbert (d. 1072), though not partial to
fidices, called on them to "relieve his anxieties": "Raro fidices admittebat quos
tamen propter alleviandas anxietatum curas aliquando censuit esse necessarios."
Hamburgische Kirchengeschichte, ed. Schmeidler, 3.39, p. 183, l. 2. But this is
probably standard medical practice with little evocation of the Orpheus figure.
124. Cf. Fulcoius's epitaph: "Legem, consilium, rationem, carmina, linguam /
Sparsa quis hospitio colligit huic simili? / Quis queat actorem titulare? Quis
anser olorem / Hunc pro tot titulis carminibusque suis?"Cited in "Fulcoii
Belvacensis Epistulae,"ed. Colker, p. 192. On Fulcoius, see also Williams,
"Manasses I,"pp. 808, 813-14. André Boutemy and Fernand Vercauteren,
''Fulcoie de Beauvais et l'intérêt pour l'archéologie antique au XIe et au XIIe
siècle."Manitius, Geschichte, 3:836-40 (p. 836 on the uncertainty of his dates),
and Bernt, "Fulcoius von Beauvais,"in Lexikon des Mittelalters.
125. Bernard Silvester's treatment in his commentary on Virgil's Aeneid is
instructive. He develops the myth in the interpretation that became shared by the
"School of Chartres": Orpheus is Reason, which combines wisdom and
eloquence, Eurydice is natural desire and so on. The only trace that remains of
the eleventh-century Orpheus is the comment on his lyre: "Lenimen huius ad
aliquod honestum opus pigros excitat, instabiles ad constantiam vocat,
truculentos mitigat."Commentary on the First Six Books of the Aeneid of Vergil
commonly attributed to Bernardus Silvestris, 6.119, ed. Jones and Jones, p. 54
(emphasis added). There is a clear reminiscence of the eleventh-century Orpheus
in John of Salisbury's Policraticus, 5.10, ed. Webb, 1.326, ll. 20-27.
126. Amadeus of Lausanne, Huit homélies mariales, ed. G. Bavaud, Sources
Chrétiennes 72 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1960), 4.17-22, pp. 110-12:
. . . suavitate mirificae cantilenae suscitavit [deus] de lapidibus filios
Abrahae, et ligna silvarum, id est corda gentilium ad fidem commovit.
Feras quoque, id est feros motus et incultam barbariem moraliter
composuit, et homines ab hominibus eductos in numerum deorum
instituit.
127. See Heitmann, "Orpheus im Mittelalter"; Wetherbee, Platonism and Poetry;
Brinkmann, Mittelalterliche Hermeneutik.
128. Passio Thebeorum 3.8, ed. Dümmler, p. 112, ll. 595-601:
 Omne, quod in mundo geritur variamine tanto,
Repperit aut studium, levis aut rotat orbita rerum . . . 
Nature columen per nostrum excrevit acumen,
Venis nature studii dum plurimus usus
Montis acutibiles tanquam de marmore cotes
Elicuit plures excudit et extudit artes.
 

< previous page page_427 next page >

< previous page page_428 next page >
Page 428
129. Prol. Bk. 2, p. 69, ll. 1-24, esp. 21-2: "Nos quoque laudemus, qui plus
laudare valemus, / Quos similes domino mens facit et ratio."
130. Carmina Leodiensia, nr. 3, ed. Bulst, p. 11, ll. 3-4: "Omnia que crescunt
pereunt et adulta senescunt, / Aes aurum squalent, carmina sola valent."On the
introductory lines see Bulst's comments, pp. 21-22.
131. Godfrey, "Trois oeuvres,"ed. Boutemy, p. 357, ll. 180-205.
132. "Trois oeuvres,"ed. Boutemy, p. 348, l. 126: "Te . . . Amphyon, rigidi
montes sequerentur / Parerentque tue saxa vocata lire."
133. "Trois oeuvres,"p. 342, ll. 93-94: "Res valida ingenium strictoque potentior
ense, / Percutit armatum lingua diserta ducem."
134. Ll. 99-104:
Carmine si libeat super ethera ferre potentes,
Carmine quemque super ethera ferre potes.
Carmine presignem fieri si intendis amicum,
Carmine presignis factus amicus erit.
Carmine si infensum lesisse paraveris hostem,
Infensus hostis carmine lesus erit.
135. Guibert, Autobographie, De vita sua 1.11, ed. Labande, p. 64: "Bonus . . .
esset Remensis archiepiscopatus, si non missas inde cantari oporteret."On
Manasses and Godfrey, see J. R. Williams, "The Cathedral School of Rheims in
the Eleventh Century,"esp. pp. 670-72; and idem, "Manasses I."
136. See Curtius's chapter on Mannerism in European Literature, pp. 273-301.
137. Hildebert, Carmina minora, ed. Scott, Carmen 36, p. 24, ll. 29-36:
cura hominum potuit tantam componere Romam,
quantam non potuit solvere cura deum.
hic superum formas superi mirantur et ipsi,
et cupiunt fictis vultibus esse pares.
non potuit Natura deos hoc ore creare,
quo miranda deum signa creavit homo.
vultus adest his numinibus, potiusque coluntur
artificum studio quam deitate sua.
For a commentary see Peter von Moos, Hildebert, pp. 240ff. and his exchange
with Otto Zwierlein in Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 11 (1976), 92-94 and 14
(1979), 119-26. The reading of l. 35, adest = "improves,""is advantageous to",
is von Moos's suggestion.
138. The proximity of these two comments on art surpassing nature shows why
the earlier poem might have been taken for the work of Hildebert. The
 difference is worth stressing. Lacking in "Quid suum virtutis"from the mid-
century is the nostalgia for the Roman past from which Hildebert's poem lives.
The earlier poet considered the overcoming of nature through art a goal fully
attainable by his contemporaries, at least those who pursue studies and virtue.
But in Hildebert's poem the Roman past is unrecoverable, and neither nature nor
presumably the present age is equal to it: "par tibi nihil."
 

< previous page page_428 next page >

< previous page page_429 next page >
Page 429
Nostalgia for the Roman past was a shared feature of the RheimsLoire poets.
Godfrey of Rheims looked back on ancient poetry as an unrecoverable goal.
Cf. "Trois oeuvres,"Poem 1, ed. Boutemy, p. 342, ll. 105-8: "Of course, the
writings of the ancients rise from a more dignified source, / nor does the
divine inspiration of Virgil have its equal; / but while you cannot rival them in
terms of genius, / it is good to stay close to them as men":
Scripta quidem veterum surgunt graviore camena,
Nec divina parem musa Maronis habet;
Sed licet ingeniis nequeas equare poetas,
Proderit a tantis haud procul esse viris.
Odo of Orléans writes poetry, so Godfrey claims, "stamped so with the mark
of the ancients, / it seemed true poetry reborn, / as if the ancient poets had not
yet passed away / and the golden age returned"(Poem 2, p. 347, ll. 107-10):
. . . veteri sic sunt impressa moneta
Ut sit visa mihi vera poesis agi,
Ut rear antiquos nondum occubuisse poetas
Et superesse modo secula prisca putem.
139. Here I am following the study by Gerald Bond, "Natural Poetics: Marbod at
Angers and the Lessons of Eloquence."Bond is one of the few readers to
comment persuasively on the poetry of the Loire circle from the point of view of
medieval poetics and the humanism of the twelfth century. See also Wolfram
von den Steinen, "Humanismus um 1100."
140. This and several other mildly erotic poems are not included in the Migne
edition of Marbod's poetry. See the texts in Walther Bulst's edition,
"Liebesbriefgedichte Marbods,"in Liber Floridus: Mittellateinische Studien Paul
Lehmann . . . gewidmet, ed. Bernhard Bischoff, "De molesta recreatione,"p. 296.
Latin text with translation in Bond, "Natural Poetics."English translation quoted
here is Bond's.
141. Hennig Brinkmann points to verbal reminiscences of Ovid's story of
Pyramus and Thisbe, whom he takes to be the lovers. Mittelalterliche
Hermeneutik, p. 206 and note 939. But if Marbod had wanted an explicit
identification, he could have made it. Quidam miles suggests he wanted
"any"knight.
142. It is worth noting that the two motifs prominent in the eleventh-century
Orpheus poemspartial or full revival of the dead and the softening, sweetening
effectare both negated here: the fictional knight remains dead and the real
listener is "troubled,"not soothed.
143. "To speak with the voice of the gods,"if not better, is a turn of thought I
know only from this period. It defies the logic of inspiration through a muse,
since it gives credit to the human artist and sets him equal to or above the gods.
 Cf. Hildebert (besides the Rome poem), verses in praise of the nun Muriel's
poetry (Carmina minora, ed. Scott, nr. 26, p. 17): "It is not human to be up to
such sacred accomplishments, and I can only believe that not you are speaking,
but divinities through you. The weight of your words, the dignity of meaning,
the beauty of
 

< previous page page_429 next page >

< previous page_430 next page >
page
Page 430
structure have the semblance of the divine."Sigebert's St. Exuperius rouses the
doomed Theban legion with "music"whose effect we can well assess: "Your
rhythm modulates their hearts like the music of an organ . . . you who with the
skillful sound of a single plectrum and the varied chords of the cithara tune
the dissonant hearts of the multitude and make dissimilar strokes produce
unified sound. Exuperius, filled with divine strength . . . rendered godly
voices in human speech . . . "Passio Thebeorum 11.2.643-50, ed. Dümmler, p.
89.
144. Ulrich of Bamberg, excerpting Cicero's De oratore, urges using words that
"are proper and correct, as though the very names of things were almost born as
one creature along with the things themselves"(Ars dictaminis, p. 157; cf. De
oratore 3.37.149).
145. For a survey of research on the subject, see R. P. Winnington-Ingram,
"Ancient Greek Music 1932-1957,"5-57, csp. pp. 48-55 ("Music and Education:
Ethos").
146. Plutarch, On Music, Moralia 1140B, with reference to Plato, Republic
3.401ff.
147. Tusc. disp., 1.19: "Aristoxenus, musicus idemque philosophus, ipsius
corporis intentionem quandam, velut in cantu et fidibus quae harmonia dicitur,
sic ex corporis totius natura et figura varios motus cieri tamquam in cantu
sonos."
148. The Latin text, Anicii Manlii Torquati Severini Boetii De institutione
Arithmetica libri duo, De institutione Musica libri quinque, ed. Godfredus
Friedlein (Leipzig, 1867). A recent English translation with commentary,
Fundamentals of Music: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, trans. Bower; a
general treatment with bibliography and review of research, John Caldwell, "The
De institutione arithmetica and the De institutione musica." Also D. S.
Chamberlain, "Philosophy of Music in the Consolatio of Boethius."
149. ". . . tota nostrae animae corporisque compago musica coaptatione
conjuncta"(p. 186, ll. 3-4); ". . . non potest dubitari quin nostrae animae et
corporis status, eisdem quoddammodo proportionibus . . . compositus, quibus
harmonicas modulationes posterior disputatio conjungi copularique
monstrabit"(p. 186, ll. 9-13).
150. See Rudolf Allers, "Microcosmus from Anaximandros to Paracelsus,"on
numbers and music esp. pp. 371-77.
151. Some studies in history of music that treat the survival of ancient
conceptions in the Middle Ages: Hermann Abert, Die Musikanschauung des
Mittelalters; G. Pietzsch, Die Musik im Erziehungs- und Bildungsideal des
ausgehenden Altertums und frühen Mittelalters; Heinrich Hueschen, "Antike
 Einflüsse in der mittelalterlichen Musikanschauung"; Leo Spitzer, Classical and
Christian Ideas of World Harmony; Hans Martin Klinkenberg, "Der Verfall des
Quadriviums im frühen Mittelalter"; Karl Gustav Fellerer, "Die Musica in den
Artes Liberales."Jean-Claude Schmitt cites a passage from Clement of
Alexandria that formulates the notion we want to pursue, La raison des gestes,
pp. 67-68: ''il donne au corps en mouvement une harmonie pensée sur le mode
musical. Le corps est comme un instrument de musique dont les cordes se
tendent et se relâchent: 'Il faut nous gouverner nous-même avec mesure,
accordant une détente harmonieuse au sérieux et à la tension de notre bonne
volonté sans les relâcher jusqu'à la dissonance . . . '."Passage cited from Le
pédagogue, ed. Cl.
 

< previous page_430 next page >

page
< previous page_431 next page >
page
Page 431
Moutdesert and Marrou, p. 70. Cf. also Augustine, De musica, PL 32, 1083
(1.2), 1085 (1.3, 1.4ff.) and book 6, passim. On Augustine and the ethics of
music, see Klinkenberg, "Verfall des Quadriviums,"p. 7. Cassiodorus took up
and elaborated a number of themes of Boethius's tract on music in his letter to
the author. He argued that music harmonizes thought and creates beauty in
speech, and measure in gestures: "Per hanc competenter cogitamus, pulchre
loquimur, convenienter movemus."For Cassiodorus music is the symbol of the
Christian life, since in the formal beauty of music we admire the sonorous
projection of a perfect, virtuous life (Letter to Boethius, MGH Auct. Antiq.
12, Var 2, epist. 40. Cited in Edgar De Bruyne, Études d'esthétique médiévale,
1:64.
152. See Alison White, "Boethius in the Medieval Quadrivium". On musica
humana see esp. De Bruyne, Études d'esthétique médiévale (see index, "musique
humaine"). On the assimilation of musica humana and instrumentalis see for
instance Adalbold of Utrecht, Epist. cum tractatu de musica instrumentali,
humanaque ac mundana, ed. Smits de Waesbrugge, p. 28; also John Cotto,
Gerbert 2, p. 134 A-B; De Bruyne, Études, 2:114. See Calvin M. Brown,
"Natural and Artificial Music,"p. 21.
153. Die Briefe des Abtes Bern von Reichenau, epist. 17, ed. Schmale, pp. 50-51.
Passage cited at note, p. 51: ". . . tota animae nostrae corporisque compago
musica coaptatione coniungitur, animus quoque tuus sonora artis huius dulcedine
suavius delectetur."On the letter, its origin and connection to Bern's Tonarius see
Manitius, Geschichte, 2:64, 69-70.
154. "Quid suum virtutis,"ll. 799-802: "Et cum nunc mulcet, nunc asperat et
modo pacat / Affectum mentis musica temperies, / Certo certius est hominis
subsistere totum / Apte coniungi temperie numeri."
155. Carmina, ed. Hilbert, Carmen 134, pp. 174ff. (ed. Abrahams, Carmen 196,
pp. 220-21.)
156. See d'Alverney, "La sagesse et ses sept filles,"p. 260.
157. Carmina, ed. Hilbert, p. 175, ll. 1001-3: "Fecerat hanc ideo sibi Philosophia
secundam, / Iusserat et pedibus semper adesse suis. / Quippe per hanc alie sibi
consensere sorores."
158. Carmina, ed. Hilbert, ll. 979-85, p. 175 (ed. Abrahams, ll. 978-84, pp. 221-
22): "Hec demulcebat homines dulcedine tanta, / Ut recreare hominis ipsam
animam valeat. / Nam status humane, vigor et modulatio vite / Quodam
concentu, nescio quo, regitur, / Ut de quadrata videatur surgere forma, / Que
formis reliquis amplius est solida / . . . / Hic harmonie typicalis compotus atque /
Celestis rithmus corpora nostra regit."The meaning of the phrase harmonie
typicalis compotus escapes me. A translation that retains the obscurity of the
 original would be "This construct [computation?] of type-bound
harmony"(though it may also be "construct"that is "type-bound''). Also
conceivable is "This type-bound [typical?] numbering of harmony." But none of
this makes sense, and I suspect that the original phrase also did not make sense.
The form typicalis occurs in no gloss or lexicon, medieval or modern, I was able
to consult.
159. Carmina, ed. Hilbert, nr. 218, pp. 287-88 (ed. Abrahams, nr. 251): "Organa,
que pariter concordi voce resultant, / Sunt quedam nostre concors modulatio
vite"(Thus we live in one mood [mode?] and go together): ". . . Sic Deus et
 

< previous page_431 next page >

page
< previous page_432 next page >
page
Page 432
mores et corpora nostra coaptet, / Ut placeat nostre symphonia mistica
vite."On the generalizing of organum to "musical instrument,"see Spitzer,
Classical and Christian Ideas, p. 48. Music became a circumlocution for
harmonious cooperation. Wibald writes, epist. 168, ed. Jaffé, p. 288: "Cum
haec persona illustrat aecclesiam et aecclesia ornat personam, dulcis armonia
est et salutaris utique rei simphonia."
160. The glosses were recognized as Bernard's and recently published by Paul E.
Dutton, Bernard of Chartres, Glosae super Platonem, pp. 216-17 (7.437-43): ". .
. valet [auditus] ad correctionem morum. Auditis enim consonantiis musicis,
debemus in moribus nostris virtutum consonantia reformari. Licet enim anima
secundum consonantias sit compacta, tamen ipsae consonantiae ex corporum
coniunctione dissonae fiunt et reformandae sunt per exteriorem musicam. Et hoc
est: tota musica data est hominibus non ad delectationem, sed ad morum
compositionem."
161. 7.449-52, p. 217: ". . . non solum musicae consonantiae valent ad morum
compositionem, sed etiam rithmus. Rithmus est aequalis numerus sillabarum et,
secundum eius aequalitatem, statuenda est aequalitas in moribus nostris."
162. 3.64-68, p. 147: ". . . ita nutriendi sunt tutores patriae, ut prompti ad
laborem et affabiles sint obedientibus. Quod prompti sint per exercitium, scilicet
cursum, venatum, et ludos gymnasii; quod mites et affabiles, per delinimenta
praeparatur musicae, quae per sonorum convenientiam morum docet
concordiam."
163. Honorius, De animi exsilio et patria, chapter 6, PL 172, 1244D: "In hac
urbe docentur viantes per modulamen morum transire ad concentum caelorum."
164. Didascalicon, 2.12, ed. Buttimer, pp. 32-33: "musica inter corpus et
animam est illa natauralis amicitia qua anima corpori non corporeis vinculis, sed
affectibus quibusdam colligatur, ad movendum et sensificandum ipsum
corpus."William of Conches repeats this scheme: "humane [musice] tres [sunt
species], humoralis in humoribus, virtualis in anime virtutibus, coniunctiva in
coniunctione corporis et anime"("Un brano inedito,''p. 27).
165. Amadeus of Lausanne, Hom., 4.19-20, ed. Bavaud: "Feras . . . id est feros
motus et incultam barbariem moraliter composuit."
166. Des Adelard von Bath Traktat de eodem et diverso, ed. Willner, p. 26, ll. 11
ff.:
Adeo haec vis animae imperativa est. Nam ut fabulosa
praetermittam, quae musicis instrumentis muros crevisse, silvas
artificem secutas esse asserunt: id saltem dubium non est, si quis
delectationis suae reminisci volet, quin et animum ex turbiditate in
quietem, ex quiete vero in pietatem haec ipsa constituat. In senectute
 vero tantam hoc decus efficaciam obtinet, ut non solum vocum
concordiam haec aetas exposcat, verum et mores et facta universa in
ethicam consonantiam redigere et gaudeat et nitatur.
167. Gottfried, Tristan, ed. Ranke, ll. 7969-8149.
168. Ll. 8112-31: si sanc in maneges herzen muot / offenlîchen unde tougen /
durch ôren und durch ougen. / ir sanc, dens offenliche tete / beide anderswâ und
an der stete, / daz was ir süeze singen, / ir senftez seiten clingen, / daz lûte und
offenlîche / durch der ôren kuenicrîche / hin nider in diu herzen clanc. / so was
der tougenliche sanc / ir wunderlichiu schoene, / diu mit ir muotgedoene /
verholne unde tougen / durch diu venster der ougen / in vil manic edele herze
sleich / und
 

< previous page_432 next page >

page
< previous page_433 next page >
page
Page 433
daz zouber dar in streich, / daz die gedanke zehant / vienc und vahende bant /
mit sene und mit seneder nôt.
[She sang to the very heart and soul of many a listener, both openly and
secretly, both through their ears and their eyes. The song which she sang
openly was her sweet singing, her gentle stroking of the strings, which made
its way audibly and publicly through the kingdom of the ears down into the
heart. The secret song was her miraculous beauty, which crept with its
spiritual strains into many a noble heart and smoothed on the magic salve that
in an instant seized and bound thoughts in the toils of love-longing and its
pain.]
169. Max Wehrli suggests the connection between this passage and musica
humana in his essay "Der Tristan Gottfrieds,"p. 117.
170. The standard translation for Gottfried's phrase brieve und schanzune (8139),
"words and songs"or some variation, is not tenable. Gottfried's meaning is clear:
she composed letters and songs; she was skilled at both administrative tasks and
courtly pastimes; she applied her talents in both otium and negotium.
171. See Hermann Abert, "Die Musikästhetik der Echecs amoureux." The
passages on music from this fourteenth century chess allegory show the
persistence of musica humana. The poet tells of the musical construction of the
universe and the inaudible music the heavenly bodies sing (p. 896). The
construction of the human body also rests on musical proportions. Its "delightful
harmonies"are visible signs of the soul's high dignity and excellence. Music
inclines individuals "to virtue, to good manners and to good acts."It restrains the
passions, foolish inclinations and evil leanings, and turns cowardly hearts
courageous (cf. p. 912, lines 1057ff.).
172. See Maximilian Forschner, Die stoische Ethik: Über den Zusammenhang
von Natur-, Sprach-, und Moralphilosophie im altstoischen System.
173. De legibus 1.21.56: ". . . certe ita res se habet ut <aut> ex natura vivere
summum bonum sit . . . aut naturam sequi et eius quasi lege vivere."For
Quintilian the study of nature and physics has become a principle of the orator's
education. Cf. Inst. orat. 12.2.4, and 12.2.20ff.
174. Policraticus, 4.1 (ed. Webb, 1:235), 6. 21 (ed. Webb, 2: 60). See the study
by Tilman Struve, "Vita civilis naturam imitetur: Der Gedanke der Nachahmung
der Natur als Grundlage der organologischen Staatskonzeption Johannes von
Salisbury."On the same subject generally in the twelfth century, Gaines Post,
Studies in Medieval Legal Thought, pp. 517ff. Alan of Lille has the virtue of
honestas teach the new man to "love nature"and to embrace whatever nature has
created (Anticlaudianus, 7.208ff., ed. Bossuat, p. 163). This is an allegorical
assertion of the connection between nature and morality.
 175. De cons. phil., 1, Prose 4, trans. Stewart, p. 142: ". . . mores nostros
totiusque vitae rationem ad caelestis ordinis exempla formares."
176. Juvenal, Satire 11.27. Quoted in Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of
Scipio 1.9.2. On the origin of virtue and the nature of souls see ibid., 1.9.1ff. Cf.
also ibid., 1.1.3 (reasons for Cicero's describing celestial circles, orbits and
spheres, and planetary motions to illuminate regulations of governing
commonwealths.
177. See Brian Stock, Myth and Science in the Twelfth Century: A Study of
Bernard Silvester, pp. 163-87. He calls the section describing the heavenly
journey "a type of Bildungsroman"(p. 164).
 

< previous page_433 next page >

page
< previous page_434 next page >
page
Page 434
178. See Margaret Gibson, "The Study of the 'Timaeus' in the Eleventh and
Twelfth Centuries"; also Tullio Gregory, "The Platonic Inheritance."
179. See the study of manuscripts in Waszing's edition of Chalcidius, Timaeus a
Calcidio translatus commentarioque instructus, Corpus Platonicum Medii Aevi,
Plato Latinus 4 (London, 1975), pp. CVI-CXXXI. The analysis of its distribution
given here is taken from R. W. Southern, Platonism, Scholastic Method, and the
School of Chartres, p. 14.
180. Quoted in Gibson, "The Study of the Timaeus,"p. 192.
181. Regensburger Rhet. Briefe, epist. 9, ed. Fickermann, p. 316.
182. PL 171, 1717A: "Moribus esse feris prohibet me gratia veris, / Et formam
mentis mihi mutuor ex elementis."Quoted and discussed in Bond, "Natural
Poetics."
183. On Macrobius see Wilfried Hartmann, "Manegold von Lautenbach und die
Anfänge der Frühscholastik"(with bibliography). On Plato, Tullio Gregory,
Platonismo medievale: studi e ricerchi, p. 20; idem, "The Platonic Inheritance";
P. E. Dutton, "'Illustre civitatis et populi exemplum': Plato's Timaeus and the
Transmission from Calcidius to the End of the Twelfth Century of a Tri-Partite
Scheme of Society"; and Dutton's introduction to Bernard's Glosae super
Platonem.
184. Liber contra Wolfhelmum, ed. Wilfried Hartmann, MGH Quellen zur
Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 8 (Weimar: Böhlau, 1972). See the studies of
this work in Hartmann's and Gregory's articles cited in the previous note.
185. This is one of the important findings in Hartmann's study of Manegold, pp.
77ff.
186. N. M. Häring, "The Creation and the Creator of the World according to
Thierry of Chartres and Clarenbaldus of Arras,"AHDLMA 22 (1955), 137-216.
The text of Thierry's tract is also printed in Häring's edition Commentaries on
Boethius by Thierry of Chartres and his School. See the comments of Southern,
Platonism, pp. 25ff.
187. Manegold, Liber contra Wolf., XXII, pp. 93-94: "ecclesiastici rectores et
gubernatores divine rei publice."Manegold himself was the author of a
commentary on the Timaeus, or at least a commentary was ascribed to him. See
Gibson, "The Study of the 'Timaeus,'"p. 185. In any case he knew the tradition
closely, and Hartmann's suggestion that he taught worldly philosophy before his
conversion is convincing ("Manegold,"pp. 49ff.).
188. William of Conches, Glosae super Platonem: Texte critique, ed. Jeauneau,
Prol. p. 57.
 189. Commentaries on Boethius by Thierry, ed. Häring, p. 555, parag. 1, ll. 2ff.:
". . . primam Geneseos partem secundum phisicam et ad litteram ego expositurus
. . . ut et allegoricam et moralem lectionem que a sanctis doctoribus aperte
execute sunt ex toto pretermittam."
190. Didascalicon, 6.5, trans. Taylor, p. 145; ed. Buttimer, p. 123: "in illa
[=significatione rerum] enim naturalis iustitia est, ex qua disciplina morum
nostrorum, id est, positiva iustitia nascitur. contemplando quid fecerit Deus, quid
nobis faciendum sit agnoscimus. omnis natura Deum loquitur, omnis natura
hominem docet."
191. Glosae super Platonem, ed. Jeauneau, p. 59 (parag. 3): "Unde possumus
 

< previous page_434 next page >

page
< previous page_435 next page >
page
Page 435
dicere quod materia huius libri est naturalis iusticia vel creatio mundi: de ea
enim propter naturalem iusticiam agit."
192. Cf. Delhaye, "L'enseignement de la philosophie morale,"p. 83, n. 13.
193. Glosae super Platonem, 151, ed. Jeauneau, p. 254. This is only a slight
variation from the position of William's master, Bernard of Chartres, who says
also that vision is necessary for moral discipline "because through vision we note
the rational movement of aplanos, which both moves itself without error and
tempers the erratic motions of the planets. Noting this we should educate the
aplanos of our own mind in such a way that it moves itself without error and
restrains the erroneous motions of the vices"(Glosae super Platonem 7.388-93,
ed. Dutton, p. 215). See also Dutton's comments on the moral thrust of Bernard's
Timaeus commentary, Glosae, intro. pp. 57-62.
194. An interesting study by Bernhard Dietrich Haage looks at trends in learning
in cosmology and medicine in the twelfth century and draws compelling parallels
to vernacular courtly literature: "Wissenschafts- und bildungstheoretische
Reminiszenzen nordfranzösischer Schulen."
195. The author of the entry on "astronomy"in the Dictionary of the Middle Ages
comments (1: 611) that the eleventh century had not been intellectually prepared
to meet the challenge of sophisticated measuring and calculating instruments.
This is on the whole right. To raise Hermann of Reichenau's treatise on the
astrolabe (PL 143, 390ff.) against it would be quibbling. But the author's
argument does not credit the ethical purpose of cosmology at the cathedral
schools.

Chapter 6:
Conclusion to Part I
1. The eleventh century merits only a few words in Dronke's History of Twelfth
Century Philosophy. The break between eleventh and twelfth century philosophy
is so great that the twelfth seems to have appeared out of thin air, neither
growing out of nor superseding the eleventh.
2. For recent literature, see Sigebert von Gembloux, Liber decennalis, ed.
Wiesenbach; Catalogus Sigeberti Gemblacensis Monachi de viris illustribus, ed.
Witte. In Manitius's judgment (Geschichte, 3.332-50), "Einer der vielseitigsten
und bedeutendsten Schriftsteller des 11. und beginnenden 12. Jahrhunderts"(p.
332). Nonetheless Sigebert is hardly mentioned in scholarship except as an
apologist for the imperial party in the investiture controversy.
3. Prol. ll. 5-6, ed. Dümmler, p. 44: "Est pars magna spei patronis officiari, / Nec
nihil est, regis si famuler famulis."
 4. See Robert G. Babcock, "Sigebert of Gembloux and the 'Waltharius.'"
5. 2.574-45, ed. Dümmler, p. 111: "Que deceant fortem vel que deceant
sapientem, / Pectore mellito declamat et ore perito."
6. The following is a partial translation of Pass. Theb., 3.8, ed. Dümmler, pp.
111-13. There are complications of phrasing in the passage that mock normal
Latin reading skills. I am thankful to Peter von Moos, Peter Godman, Sieglinde
Pontow and Anders Winroth for help with the translation.
7. Some elements of the preceding lines were adapted from Cicero, Tusc.
 

< previous page_435 next page >

page
< previous page_436 next page >
page
Page 436
Disp., 3.28.69: Theophrastus on his death bed complains to Nature for having
given the stags and crows a long life but letting man die comparatively early.
Men would use a long life to perfect all the arts and enrich human life,
whereas the gift is wasted on the animals. The differences are striking:
Sigebert shows the long-lived animals marveling at Victor's even longer and
more vital life; what was a lament on man's shortcomings turns into a praise
of his accomplishments.
8. I am emending the manuscript's vel to make the line logical. Chance clearly
disturbs the process of discovery, it does not aid it, as the formulation in
Dümmler's edition indicates.
9. The abbreviated thought is that the arts are hewed out of the raw matter of
learning as a statue is hewn from mountain marble.
10. Pass. Theb., 1.221-24, ed. Dümmler, p. 54: "Quicquid natura vel te, doctrina,
magistra / Omnis ab antiquo belli dictaverat ordo, / Edidicit docili studio Thebea
iuventus"
11. 1.260-61, p. 55: "Quando potens virtus naturam vincere gestit, / Hic opus est
ultra nature tendere iura."
12. "Quid suum virtutis,"ll. 1022-23: "Sic ars naturam vicit studio mediante /
Virtuti domine cedere cuncta probans."
13. Marbod, Vita Sancti Licinii, PL 171, 1495B. See above, pp. 92ff.
14. Commentaries on de inventione, in Thierry, Latin Rhetorical Commentaries,
ed. Fredborg, p. 62, l. 100.
15. In Carmina minora, ed. Scott, p. 24, ll. 33-34: "non potuit Natura deos hoc
ore creare, / quo miranda deum signa creavit homo."
16. Pass. Theb., Prohem. 2.21-22, p. 69: "Nos quoque laudemus, qui plus laudare
valemus, / Quos similes domino mens facit et ratio."The singer like a god: also
in the Pass. Theb., St. Exuperius oration to the legion: the speech of this rethor
et orator, dialecticus atque soritor (2.605, p. 87) has the effect of Orphic music
on the listeners: the spirit of the lord spoke through him, sending a single rhythm
pulsing through many hearts and "filling two flutes with one voice. Hearts that
went various paths are now tuned to a single chord,"and he commences his
speach "rendering divine voices in the human voice"(2.643-50, pp. 88-89). Cf.
Baudri's praise of Godfrey of Rheims's art: ''You could lure Jove himself out of
the heavens and make the mind of Jove be that of Caesar"(Baudri, Carmen 99,
ed. Hilbert, ll. 69-70).
17. Amadeus of Lausanne, Homily 4.19, ed. Bavaud, p. 110. See above, p. 158
and n. 126.
 18. Bernard, epist. 133, Sancti Bernardi Opera, 7: 290.
19. The variations on the theme in the twelfth century would make an interesting
subject. John of Salisbury's objection to the "Cornificians"in the Metalogicon is
in part that they find nature and natural talent sufficient, hence feel no need to
"conquer nature."The Archpoet may well have had the motif obliquely in mind
when he "confessed,""A difficult thing it is to conquer nature"("Res est
arduissima vincere naturam". Die Gedichte des Archipoeta, ed. Watenphul,
Krefeld, p. 74 ("Estuans interius,"St. 7.1).
20. PL 171, 1365-80. See the study by Peter Godman, "Ambiguity in the
'Mathematicus' of Bernardus Silvestris,"also on transmission, editions,
translations, and previous scholarship.
 

< previous page_436 next page >

page
< previous page_437 next page >
page
Page 437
21. Cantus 12, PL 171, 1377A-B: "Nostra quid aethereis mens est cognatior
astris, / Si durae Lachesis triste necesse ferat. / Frustra patricidam divinae mentis
habemus, / Si nequeat ratio nostra cavere sibi. / Sic elementa Deus, sic ignea
sidera fecit, / Ut neque sideribus subditus esset homo. / Sic puri datur ingenii
solertia major, / Possit ut objectis obvius ire minor."
22. Sigebert used a similar image to describe the effect of Brun's teaching on
Dietrich of Metz. See above, Chapter 2, pp. 37ff.
23. This is against the Pauline text "Fides per auditum"(Romans 10: 17).
24. Pass. Tbeb., 2.505-13, p. 85: "Legimus hactenus hec, audivimus hactenus
istec, / Sanctorum tanti recitantur in orbe triumphi, / Hic video coram fieri que
facta legebam. / Dicite prudentes . . . / Auriculis oculisne fides est certior istis. / .
. . / Me moveant oculis subiecta fideliter istis; / Auditis alii credant, oculis ego
credam. / En mihi quos imiter, sunt presto quos bene mirer"
25. Sigebert, Vita Wicberti, chapter 17, MGH SS 8, 515, ll. 6ff.: ". . . vir Dei
consummatus in virtutum gratia, quod maius est quam si claruisset miraculorum
gloriamiraculis quippe nonnumquam virtutes offuscantur, miracula vero solis
virtutibus commendantur."The cult of virtues could combine with that of
miracles. Gerhoh of Reichersberg says that a person can be healed by looking on
a citizen of Jerusalem, from whose example he is refreshed as from a fountain
(Liber de aedificatione Dei, PL 194, 1305C). On admiring miracles but imitating
virtues, see Benedicta Ward, Miracles and the Medieval Mind, p. 25, also the
general discussion in William D. McCready, Signs of Sanctity: Miracles in
Gregory the Great.
26. Vita prima, 3.1, PL 185, 303B: "primum maximumque miraculum, quod
exhibuit, ipse fuit."Bernard had used the phrase to describe St. Malachy, Vita
Malachiae, chapter 19.43, Opera, 3: 348. 13ff.
27. See above, Introduction, pp. 10ff.
28. Beaujouan, "The Transformation of the Quadrivium,"p. 464; also his study
"L'enseignement du quadrivium."
29. This process has been sharply analysed by Eric Havelock in his Preface to
Plato. See also Werner Jaeger, Paideia, 2: 18 where he argues that the dialogues
and memoirs by the members of Socrates's circle are "new literary forms
invented by the Socratic circle . . . to recreate the incomparable personality of the
master."Cited in Goody and Watt, "The Consequences of Literacy,"p. 63, n. 1.
30. Ruotger, Vita Brun., chapter 2, LB p. 182: "We believe that many can be
instructed by the example of his conduct, if we retell the essence from his
childhood on."
 31. Gesta Chuonradi, Prol., Die Werke Wipos, ed. Bresslau, pp. 4-5.
32. See the comments in the Introduction (above, pp. 11-12) on rhetorical
terminology abstracted from the human body. An interesting case of this
equation of human postures with literary style is the appropriation in Elizabethan
books of poetics of schemes and terms from books of courtesy. See Daniel
Javitch, Poetry and Courtliness in Renaissance England (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1978).
33. See the study by Stephan Maksymiuk, Knowledge, Politics and Magic: The
Figure of the Court Magician in Medieval German Literature, Dissertation,
University of Washington, 1992.
 

< previous page_437 next page >

page
< previous page_438 next page >
page
Page 438

Chapter 7:
Two Crises
1. See Henri Platelle, "Le problème du scandale: Les nouvelles modes
mansulines aux XIe et XIIe siècles"; Jaeger, Origins of Courtliness, pp. 176-94.
2. Brun of Cologne is praised for avoiding "soft and fine clothing"at royal courts,
where he was surrounded with "purple garbed courtiers and knights radiant in
gold"(Ruotger, Vita Brun., chapter 30, LB, p. 222). When he moved to the
cathedral of Cologne, he banished "excesses of dress, inordinate mores, and all
that was effeminate and indecent"("vestium superfluitas, morum inequalitas et
quicquid hoc modo effeminatum et indecens in eius ecclesia videretur"chapter
21, p. 210). Courtly excess prior to the polemics of church reformers goes under
the fairly neutral name of inaequalitas morum. Gebhard of Regensburg, chaplain
under Otto III, astonished Thietmar of Merseburg because of his exotic "conduct
and rare pomp and magnificence''(moribus et raris apparatibus) and his
cultivation of exotic foreign customs (Chronicon, 6.41, ed. Holtzmann, pp. 324-
26). It may well have been the Byzantine connection at the Ottonian courts that
generated this thrust toward exotic refinement. Cf. the anecdote of Theophanu in
hell (below, p. 214).
3. See Platelle, "Le problème du scandale,"pp. 1073ff. and Origins of
Courtliness, pp. 178ff. My earlier cautioning that such cries of alarm are topoi
on the occasion of the marriage of a king with a foreign queen is correct, but
should not be read to suggest that the customs observed and castigated by
William of St. Benigne of Dijon, Ralph Glaber, Siegfried of Gorze, and others
were not a real social phenomenon.
4. See Heinz Thomas, "Zur Kritik an der Ehe Heinrichs III. mit Agnes von
Poitou."Thomas is mainly concerned with the reproach of incest made by the
Abbot of Gorze.
5. Letter of Siegfried of Gorze to Poppo of Stablo, edited by Wilhelm von
Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit 5th ed., 2: 718.
6. See Fleckenstein, Hofkapelle 2:268ff. and Jaeger, Origins of Courtliness, pp.
122-26 and n. 34.
7. Chronic. Novalic. app., chapter 17: "Heinricus imperator bene pericia
litterarum imbutus"; Benzo of Alba, Ad Heinricum IV. MGH SS 11, p. 667:
"septem artibus ornatus ad instar Pompilii"; Goswin of Mainz, Epist. ad
Walcherum chapter 34, p. 37, ll. 783-85: "tunc temporis aecclesia et vario
virtutum decore et multiplici liberalium litterarum propagine florebat."On
Henry's learning and support of studies see James W. Thompson, The Literacy of
 the Laity in the Middle Ages, pp. 88-89; Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen
Kaiserzeit, 2: 632-33.
8. Eckehard of Aura. Chronicon (1106), MGH SS 6, p. 239: "More patris sui
clericos et maxime literatos adherere sibi voluit . . . liberalium artium
inquisitione secum familiarius occupavit."
9. Annales Augustani (Annals of Augsburg) for year 1041, MGH SS 3, p. 125, ll.
52-53: "Huius astipulatione et industria plurimi eo tempore in artibus, in
aedificiis, in auctoribus, in omni genere doctrinae pollebant. Studiumque ubique
famosissimum."Cited in Reto Bezzola, Les origines et la formation de la
littérature courtoise en occident (500-1200) (Paris: Champion, 1958), 1: 279.
10. The suggestion of Werner Braun, Studien zum Ruodlieb, of a dating ca.
 

< previous page_438 next page >

page
< previous page_439 next page >
page
Page 439
100 has not found acceptance. Still persuasive is Hauck, "Heinrich III und der
Ruodlieb."
11. See Friedrich Prinz, "Kaiser Heinrich III: Seine widerspruechliche
Beurteilung und deren Gründe"; Fleckenstein, Hofkapelle, 2: 234ff.
12. This is not to suggest that his peacemaking efforts were ultimately
successful. See Monika Minninger, "Heinrichs III interne Friedensmassnahmen
und ihre etwaigen Gegner in Lothringen"; Karl Schnith, "Recht und Friede: Zum
Königsgedanken im Umkreis Heinrichs III"; J. Gernhuber, Die
Landfriedensbewegung in Deutschland; Gerhard Ladner, Theologie und Politik
vor dem Investiturstreit, esp. pp. 70-78.
13. Briefe des Abtes Bern, ed. Schmale, epist. 26, p. 55:
. . . hi, qui nunc reges dicuntur, olim ob crudelem morum ferocitatem
tyranni vocabantur, sed crescente sacrae religionis studio reges appellati
sunt a recte regendo, dum bestiales motus comprimunt et per
discretionis vim se rationales ostendunt.
14. In a later letter he praises the king for uniting in his own heart mercy and
truth, justice and peace (an echo of Psalm 84: 11). These unions have "composed
such bonds of concord in the kingdom as are unheard of in all previous ages. No
traces of any discord, no frauds and intrigues remain; theft has fled, sacrilege
passed out of being. All things are pacified"(Briefe des Abtes Bern, epist. 27, p.
57). Henry is that "soft, humble, gentle"David who conquered the giant Goliath.
He loves his enemies and joins all in his kingdom "beneath one bond of love and
peace.''Far from seeking revenge against those who have wronged him, he favors
them with a miraculous feeling of charity (p. 59). He has recalled all to the
"unanimity of peace and concord"(p. 60). Henry's civilizing mission is evident
also in Anselm of Besate's praise for him in the dedicatory letter of his
Rhetorimachia to Henry: [his conquest of foreign peoples is the matter of great
praise] "vicisti enim gentes feras et atrocissimas, domuisti animos crudos,
nefarios, ab humanitate derelictos"(Anselm of Besate, Rhetorimachia, ed.
Manitius, p. 98). Conquest over foreigners stylized as a victory of civilization
over barbarism had been conventional since Ottonian times. In one of the
Visiones of Otloh of St. Emmeram, a cleric visits hell and sees the opponents of
Henry's peace efforts roasting in a metal bowl (Visio 11, MGH SS 11, p. 382, ll.
41ff.)
15. Siegfried of Gorze's letter, n. 5 above. Likewise Anselm of Liège pointed to
the flatterers as a bad influence on the king, Gesta ep. Leod., chapter 50, MGH
SS 7, p. 219, ll. 39-40; also Gerhard of Cambrai urging Henry to heed advice
from those nearest him, not from outsiders and peace-breakers (Gesta ep. Cam.,
ed. Bethmann, chapter 60, MGH SS 7, p. 488). Cf. Egon Boshof, "Lothringen,
Frankreich und das Reich in der Regierungszeit Heinrichs III,"pp. 123-24.
 16. See Thomas, "Zur Kritik an der Ehe Heinrichs III."
17. Hermann of Reichenau, Chronicon (1053), MGH SS 5, p. 132. ll. 32ff.
Quoted and analyzed in Prinz, "Kaiser Heinrich III,"pp. 539ff.
18. Koepke's text has e scolaribus alis (p. 205, l. 8), which can be emended to e
scolaribus aulis.
19. Did Anselm get confused in the course of this lengthy comparison? Or are
 

< previous page_439 next page >

page
< previous page_440 next page >
page
Page 440
there problems with the text? I have translated the text as is, but the antithesis
of the first "if . . . then"clause to the second is lost.
20. Gesta, chapter 28, MGH SS 7, p. 205, ll. 1ff.:
Maxima illi circa educandos pueros erat sollicitudo, eosdemque cum
aecclesiasticis disciplinis instruendos, adeo ut quocumque vel ad
proxima vel ad longinqua loca pergeret, scolares adolescentes, qui uni
ex capellanis sub artissima non aliter quam in scolis parerent disciplina,
secum duceret, cumque his librorum copiam ceteraque arma scolaria
circumferri faceret. Sicque fiebat ut quos plerumque rudes et illiteratos a
claustro abduxisset, et ipsos quos prius magistros habuerant, in
litterarum perfectione redeuntes superarent. Sed vereor, ne huiuscemodi
se tueantur exemplo, qui e scolaribus a[u]lis in curias regum et
episcoporum querunt erumpere, et disciplinae iugum detrectantes,
levitati animum dare contendunt, quos ego felices iudicaverim, si in
nullo ab istius exempli disciplina exorbitaverint. Nam si nunc temporis
inter strepitus curiarum studia bonarum arcium haut secus quam in
claustri quiete constiterit valere, de remissiori ad arciorem discendi viam
non negamus convolari debere. Sin autem longe est res e contrario,
immo quia est, cesset ultra lasciva aetas falsas instabilitati suae causas
praetendere, quia quod in tranquillitate claustri neglexit, verum est quod
nequaquam in tumultuantis seculi turbine possit assequi, quamque o si
nostris temporibus tam aurea possent revocari secula, ut in capellis tam
imperatoris quam episcoporum nil magis appeteretur quam cum
litterarum studio morum disciplina!
21. Goswin of Mainz, former school master under Wazo at Liège, agrees. Cf.
Epist. ad Walch., chapter XXVII, ed. Huygens, p. 31, ll. 625ff.: "instrui refugiunt
ad gravitatem moralis disciplinae."The golden age of Notker is past, he
complains, and now "holy religion, equity and justice, the liberal arts, and moral
discipline"are abandoned (p. 37, ll. 781ff.). In this case, the death of Henry III is
a symptom of the golden age's passing. Instead of "gravity and modesty,"men
pursue "glory and the glorification of vain pride"(ll. 795-96).
22. Anselm regularly holds up the bishops of Liège as examples of rigorous
discipline. Bishop Balderich founded a monastery, "where the more rigorous life
beneath the rule of blessed Benedict was led, so that the minds of the inhabitants
would be the more intent on prayer for being freed from the hurly-burly of
secular cares"(chapter 31, p. 207, ll. 6-7: ". . . ubi arcior vita sub beati Benedicti
regula duceretur, ut eorum mens qui ibidem inessent, eo magis studio orationis
esset intenta, quanto a saecularium curarum turbine esset libera"). Anselm
describes the monastic life with the same language as he does the school
discipline of Liège: artissima disciplina (Notker's school); arcior vita
(Balderich's foundation). In both cases he also opposes the quiet of the claustral
 life to the "whirlwind of the turbulent world"(tumultuantis seculi turbine) and
the "whirlwind of worldly cares"(saecularium curarum turbine).
Anselm praises Balderich's successor, Wolbodo, for studying the
"ecclesiastical disciplines of the claustral life"under "very religious fathers"in
Utrecht. His own students he "constrained in their years of laxness
[lasciviousness] under more
 

< previous page_440 next page >

page
< previous page_441 next page >
page
Page 441
rigorous discipline [arciori disciplina]"and permitted them no opportunity for
wandering and straying from the path of holy religion (chapter 32, p. 207, ll.
23-24: "nullus . . . alicui locus evagandi, aut quoquam a sanctae religionis
tramite exorbitandi sub eo locus erat"). Cf. the ironical description of the
chaplain's criterion for a good bishop: "it was wrong [they claim] to make a
man bishop who had not been accustomed to wander with the royal
court"("nisi quem constiterit in curte regia evagari"chapter 50, p. 219, l. 43).
His personal presence had an effect that cured precisely the ailment afflicting
the students of Anselm's day: "He converted many from the levity they were
previously given to, to dignity of conduct" (chapter 34, p. 208, ll. 35-37: ''. . .
erga subditos tam monitis quam exemplis aecclesiasticis rigorem auxit
disciplinis. Multique a levitate, quam retro fuerant sectati, ad gravitatem
morum conversi . . . ").
23. Chapter 28, p. 205, ll. 1-2; chapter 32, p. 207, l. 16; chapter 34, p. 208, l. 35.
24. The bishops who emerged from Notker's school are listed and praised for
"correcting as many churches as possible"("quam plurimae correctae sunt
aecclesiae"chapter 29, p. 205, ll. 26ff.). A certain Otbert is praised for "striving
to return the life of the clerics of Aix, who had been depraved once again by the
contagion of pernicious disorder [licentia], back to the norm of holy
religion"("Otbertus . . . vitam Aquensium clericorum, perneciosae contagio
licentiae retro depravatam, ad sanctae religionis . . . normam reducere studuit"(ll.
32-33).
25. Chapter 34, p. 208, ll. 27ff.: "Sicque magis celebre . . . effectum, quam
aliorum quorumque praesulum, qui creditas sibi spoliantes aecclesias, mimos
caeterosque palatinos canes ditare contendunt, ipsique scurrilibus stultiloquio et
turpissimis circa reges adulationibus inservire non erubescunt."
26. Chapter 57, p. 223, ll. 47ff.: ". . . difficile est, ut mentis oculus, hinc gloria et
divitiis, hinc variis dispensandae rei publicae curis, hinc mille adulantium linguis
in diversa raptatus, aliquando a veritatis luce non cecutiat . . . "Anselm gives a
vivid illustration of Bishop Wazo himself deprived of judgment by the
"whirlwind"of the court. Accused of conspiring with the Frisians while the
emperor is waging war against them, the aged and ailing bishop is summoned to
court and made to stand during a long consultation. Ready to defend himself, he
is unable to do so, assailed from one side "by the shouts and clamor of the party
of royal flatterers,"from the other by the admonishing cheers of his fellow
bishops: ". . . finding himself caught alone in such a whirlwind [in tanto
turbine],"and with "the insane din of the shouters"buffeting his ears ("insano
fragore obstrepentium"p. 229, l. 46), he resists the emperor's powerful will as
long as possible, then makes a false admission of guilt, just in order to end the
situationand regrets the admission for the rest of his life (cf. chapter 66, p. 229,
ll. 32-41).
 27. On the background to this conflict, see Bittner, Wazo und die Schulen, pp.
13ff. Charles Dereine pointed to the value of Wazo's letter to provost John as a
"commentaire des chapitres de la règle relatifs aux fonctions de doyen et de
prévôt."("L'école canonique liègoise et la réforme Grégorienne,"pp. 86-87 and n.
1).
28. His generosity in his days as school master to paupers and guests arouses the
envy of men who are "more noble and more wealthy,"indignant at seeing
themselves bested by the "virtue and glory of this less powerful man"(Anselm,
chapter 40, p. 211, ll. 16ff.).
 

< previous page_441 next page >

page
< previous page_442 next page >
page
Page 442
29. Chapter 42, p. 215, ll. 25-27: ". . . quae sua sunt non querens sed quae Iesu
Christi. Quod haut secus esse, patuit paulo post in propositurae et postmodum in
episcopatus amministratione."
30. The letter comprises chapter 41 of the Gesta. Cf. p. 211, l. 39: "plurimum
seculari potentiae confideres"; p. 211, l. 41: "Dicis te praepositum potenter esse
constitutum"; p. 212, l. 22: "pluris existimas opes religione"; p. 212, l. 23:
''gloriaris te praepositum esse"; p. 212, l. 42: ". . . ne solus praepositus . . . possit
superbire"; p. 213, l. 9: ". . . si gloriosissimus esses, per humilitatem hanc
dominationis ambicionem cavere deberes"; p. 213, l. 23: "contendis vocari
praepositus potens"; p. 214, l. 7: "quanto maiores sumus in seculi dignitatibus,
tanto nos humiliemus in omnibus"(quoting Eccles. 3:20 with Wazo's addition, in
seculi dignitatibus).
31. P. 212, l. 2: ". . . si tibi ambitionem michique lenieris invidiam"; p. 213, l. 10:
"hanc dominationis ambicionem cavere deberes"; p. 214, l. 22: "non ambitiosa
karitas quae Dei sunt, sed quae sua rimatur"[emending Koepke's "non quae sua
rimatur"].
32. P. 212, l. 45: ". . . tu solus singulariter tibi . . . vendicas dominium"; p. 213, l.
10: "dominationis ambicionem"; p. 213, l. 22: "cur tanto fastu queris dominari?";
p. 213, l. 25: "deposito dominationis fastigio fias parvulus"; p. 213, l. 38:
"administrationem secundum regulam, non dominationem collige"; p. 214, l. 8:
"Avariciae dominationisque altitudinem fugiamus."
33. P. 212, ll. 20ff.: "Spiritualia enim secularibus digne praeponuntur, quantum
stolido corpori racionalis anima principatur; hanc institutionem immobiliter
servant occidentalia claustra et monachorum quotquot sunt ubiubi coenobia."
34. Cf. Wazo's position in the dispute over the bishop of Ravenna some years
later (cf. chapter 58, p. 224). Also Wazo's comparison of his own consecration
and anointing with the emperor's: "There can be no doubt: as life surpasses death
in excellence, so far does my annointing surpass yours"("unde quantum vita
morte praestantior, tantum nostra vestra unctione sine dubio est excellentior"Cf.
chapters 65-66, 228-30. Passage cited, chapter 66, p. 230, ll. 6-7). See the
analyses of the events by Benson, The Bishop Elect, pp. 207-9; Gerd Tellenbach,
Church, State and Christian Society at the Time of the Investiture Contest, pp.
103-5; Ute-Renate Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy: Church and
Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century, pp. 87-89. Anselm casts the
emperor in the same role in which Wazo had earlier depicted John: "The
emperor however was the sort of man who sought to usurp power over bishops
prompted by the guidance of fleshly values, or rather by ambition"("Imperator
vero, utpote qui eiusmodi homo esset, qui sibi super episcopos nimis carnaliter,
ne dicam ambiciose, quereret usurpare"chapter 66, p. 229, ll. 49-50). In both
cases Wazo boldly and bravely opposed worldly men, men given to arrogant
 overstepping of the boundaries of their power, driven by fleshly considerations
and by ambition.
35. P. 212, ll. 25-26: "Hinc religionis divinae, pro dolor! ruina suboritur,
litteralis disciplinae studium penitus destituitur."The complaint finds an echo in
Adelman's poem on Fulbert's school (written between 1028 and 1033): "Legia,
magnarum quondam artium nutricula, / Non sic, o! nunc dominante virtuti
pecunia"(Adelman, De viris illust., in Clerval, Les écoles de Chartres, p. 61).
36. P. 215, ll. 11ff.: "Scolaris oboedientiae ministerium, cum nullum studium
 

< previous page_442 next page >

page
< previous page_443 next page >
page
Page 443
discendi, nulla facultas cohercendi . . . rationaliter subterfugi."His resignation
is also due to John's high-handed act of restoring to honor a student who had
confessed to twenty thefts and conspired against Wazo's life (p. 215, ll. 13-
14).
37. Anselm refers to the Benedictine Rule throughout as simply "the
rule"(regula). Cf. p. 212, l. 15.
38. P. 214, ll. 39ff.: [Wazo asks] ". . . quare . . . me soles iracundum vocare? . . .
imputas mihi propter iracundiae magnitudinem nostrique obstinationem penitus
hoc agere."
39. Bittner argues that the change in bishop from the comparatively strict
Durandus to the allegedly simoniac Reginhard in 1025 accounts for Wazo's fall
and John's success in turning the heads of the chapter against him (Wazo und die
Schulen, p. 25). This argument is not persuasive. We know that Wazo's letter
was written around 1021, still during Durand's administration. John would not
have waited some four years for a change in bishop to present his inflamed
reaction to Wazo's letter. If Wazo's departure had been the result of the bad
judgment of a corrupt bishop, Anselm surely would have mentioned it. Koepke,
editor of the Gesta, agrees (p. 215, n. 74). Anselm has high praise for Reginhard
and no blame. He polished off Durandus in a few lines.
40. Ch. 42, p. 215, ll. 28ff.: "Iohannes . . . persuasibilibus terrenae sapientiae
verbis episcopi caeterorumque priorum animos nichilominus in eius odium
accendit, quaeque fideliter ab eo gesta potius deputans studio litigii, quam
fidelitatis devotioni." Later the king's advisors raise the same objection to Wazo,
claiming he allied himself with Godfrey of Lorraine in his rebellion against
Henry "out of his customary contentiousness and arrogance"("Wazo, non . . .
imperatoriae fidelitatis gratiae, sed ex contentionis usu, propriae inservierit
arrogantiae"chapter 57, p. 223, ll. 51ff.).
41. Cf. chapter 50, p. 219, ll. 27ff. He conjures an angry God sending Wazo
before him as his soldier to the "stern field of contention."Also chapter 55, p.
221, ll. 47ff.: ". . . ecce bellator Christi inexpugnabilis et inperterritus lorica
iusticiae induitur, gladio spirituali accingitur, praevia cruce Christi . . . pro lancea
utitur."Chapter 56, p. 223, l. 31: "propugnator"; chapter 59, p. 224, ll. 47ff.: the
lord sent "his pugilist"to exhibit ''the virile strength of this fighter through the
hard labors of many a struggle"("per duros certaminum labores virile pugnatoris
robur . . . exponere voluit").
42. In the one case where Wazo capitulates to the King, he regrets his act of
submission the rest of his life, and, given the chance would rather have died than
repeat it. (Cf. chapter 66, p. 229, ll. 36ff.).
43. Cf. chapter 56, p. 223, ll. 38ff.
 44. Ch. 56, p. 223, ll. 25ff. Steindorff has read this passage as a report of an
actual event (Jahrbücher des deutschen Reiches unter Heinrich III 2: 23). But
Wazo says only that he was prepared to do this, not that he did it.
45. The controversy is recorded in three letters of the Hildesheim collection,
Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., ed. Erdmann and Fickermann, pp. 52-
61 (epist. 22, 24, 26).
46. Provost John was getting just the kind of support Bernard of Clairvaux
prescribes a century later to bishops in dealing with the provosts of their house-
 

< previous page_443 next page >

page
< previous page_444 next page >
page
Page 444
holds. He says that to rule successfully the provost must have unquestioned
authority: "Everyone must be subject to this man; let no one oppose
him."Bernard seems to be addressing just the issues operating in the
opposition of Wazo and John, and siding strongly with the provost: "Let there
be no one who says, 'Why did you do this?' Let him have the power to
exclude and to admit whom he wants."And Bernard also speaks the language
of the imperial statesman/administrator: "Let him be in charge of all [praesse]
so he may benefit all [prodesse] in every way."Bernard of Clairvaux, Five
Books on Consideration, 4.6.18, p. 132.
47. Ben. reg., 64.8, ed. Hanslik, p. 149. See above, Chapter 2, pp. 38-39. The
Regensburg Rhetorical Letters develop the theme of a necessary balance
between the two administrative duties, using Ciceronian terms (Regensburger
Rhet. Briefe, epist. 20, ed. Fickermann, p. 344).
48. Ch. 43, p. 216, ll. 8ff. On the death of Provost John, he was reluctant to
return to Liège, lest anyone think he coveted the provostship rather than claustral
peace (p. 216, ll. 38-39). He declined the bishopric of Liège in favor of his
student Neithard, "using the authority of his power to maintain his commitment
to humility, not to seize a position of importance"(chapter 49, p. 219, ll. 1ff.). He
tended to secular business not out of any wish to do so, but out of necessity, so
as not to displease God (chapter 56, p. 223, l. 20).
49. Ch. 50, p. 219, ll. 42f.: ". . . nisi quem constiterit in curte regia evagari."The
sense of aimless vagabondage is intentional. Cf. Anselm's earlier formulation:
the rigorous discipline of Bishop Wolbodo left his students no room for
"wandering or straying from the path of sacred religion"("nullus alicui locus
evagandi, aut quoquam a sanctae religionis tramite exorbitandi"chapter 32, p.
207, l. 23).
50. Ch. 50, p. 219, ll. 39-44: "Nec defuere adulantium linguae, qui electionem
sine regio favore factam asseverarent causam fore. Ex capellanis pocius
episcopum constituendum, Wazonem numquam in curte regia desudasse, ut
talem promereretur honorem; quod vero nefas sit alium episcopari, nisi quem
constiterit in curte regia evagari, ac non potius talem eligi oportere, qui
informatus subiectione claustralis oboedientiae, non tam praesse quam prodesse
didicerit."
51. See Zielinski, Reichsepiskopat, pp. 175-76; Bittner, Wazo und die Schulen, p.
18; Köhler, Das Bild, p. 72 with some discussion of Anselm's confused wording.
Steindorff, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reiches unter Heinrich III., 2:23,
interprets the passage to mean that Wazo has insufficient monastic discipline;
Köhler correctly reads past the confused syntax. The meaning is perfectly clear
when read against the background of the education of Dietrich of Metz.
"Governing"(praeesse) became a virtual requirement of an imperial bishop, as
 did service in the chapel. This is clearly Brun's tradition, which the chaplains
support and Wazo violates.
52. Otto I writing to Brun, in Ruotger, Vita Brun., chapter 20, LB, p. 206. See
Chapter 2, p. 44 and n. 19.
53. From Evraclius to Wazo (959-1048), six of eight bishops of Liège had
served in the royal chapel. From Wazo to Albero (d. 1128), one of five moves
from the chapel to the bishopric. See Series Episcoporum, ed. Weinfurter and
Engels, 1:66-76. Also Zielinski, Reichsepiskopat and Fleckenstein, Hofkapelle.
Bishop Durandus (1021-25) is an uncertain case, but Fleckenstein considers it
possible that he was a chaplain (Hofkapelle 2: 202-3).
 

< previous page_444 next page >

page
< previous page_445 next page >
page
Page 445
54. Charlotte Renardy, "Les écoles liégeoises du IXe au XII siècle: grandes
lignes de leur évolution,"pp. 320-26.
55. This section reinterprets and adds to materials I discussed in another context
in Origins of Courtliness, pp. 153-54. A fuller interpretation is useful not only
for the present topic, but also to keep the name of Azelinus of Hildesheim
visible. The abundant literature on courtliness and courtly culture in the past ten
years has taken no notice of him. His name is not mentioned in the collection of
studies whose title first occurs in connection with Azelinus: Curialitas: Studien
zu Grundfragen der höfisch-ritterlichen Kultur, ed. Fleckenstein. As far as the
historical sources are concerned, Azelinus is the first representative of medieval
courtesy. A second commendation of this set of texts and historical
circumstances to colleagues in history clearly cannot hurt.
56. For the general line of Azelinus's career, see Hans Götting, Das Bistum
Hildesheim 3, pp. 263-71. Götting shows no interest in the nature of Azelinus's
reforms (cf. p. 266).
57. Fundatio ecclesiae Hildesheimensis, chapter 4, MGH SS 30: 2, pp. 944-45
(on the text see DGQ 2: 576):
His igitur presidentibus . . . clerus tam districta religione et religiosa
districtione Dei obsequio se mancipaverat, ut in professione canonica
districtione gauderet monachica. Namut taceatur, quam severe
animadvertebatur si quis choro, mensae, dormitorio, non dico deesset,
sed vel tardius advenisset, nisi aut gravi necessitate irretitus aut licentia
munitus hoc facere praesumpsissetscholaris disciplinae iugo absoluti
strictiori habena in claustro servabantur . . . Delicatioris enim vestitus
tam nulla illis erat cura, ut gulas quibus nunc clerus ardet, nescirent,
linguas pelliciales ac manicas non pallio, sed nigrato panno ornarent . . .
. Sic ergo rusticalem stultitiam curiali facetiae pretulerant . . . nec
altiora, quam de claustro administrabantur affectando, ut tam interius
quam exterius claustrali restrictione clausi renunciato nondum seculo
seculum nescirent. Hunc ergo statum claustri Heinrico imperatori . . .
referunt in tantum placuisse, ut ab exterioris eorum hominis
compositissimo habitu interioris religionem sibi experto credendam
protestatus suae Bavenbergensi ecclesiae cum studio Leodicensi optaret
etiam rigorem Hildensemensis claustri.
Haec censura claustri permansit usque ad tempora Azelini episcopi
XVI. Eo enim presidente irrepsit ambitiosa curialitas, quae dum in
vestitu mollior, in victu lautior, in omni cultu accuratior amari quam
timeri maluit, disciplinae mollito rigore claustri claustra relaxavit.
58. Ibid., chapter 6, p. 945, ll. 25-26: ". . . magis . . . prodesse quam preesse
volens Hezilo, non tam presul quam pater . . . Hildensemensem suscepit
 ecclesiam."
59. Ben. Reg., 64.15, ed. Hanslik, p. 165: "studeat plus amari quam timeri."
60. "Trois oeuvres,"ed. Boutemy, pp. 345-46, ll. 30-56. See Chapter 4, pp. 114-
15 and n. 145.
61. Wolfhere, author of two Vitae of Godehard of Hildesheim, has high praise
for Azelinus as ". . . regius capellanus, in divinis scilicet et humanis feliciter
strenuus"(Vita posterior, ed. Pertz, chapter 33, MGH SS 11, p. 215, ll. 44ff.). He
even lauds his
 

< previous page_445 next page >

page
< previous page_446 next page >
page
Page 446
close relationship to the emperor: "Qui . . . apud imperatorem et primates ad
summum mundanae felicitatis apicem honorifice profecit"(ll. 51-52). This
testimony is the more valuable, since Godehard was undoubtedly the
originator of the monastic rigor that long dominated Hildesheim, and the
author Wolfhere was a canon at Hildesheim under both Godehard and
Azelinus. He wrote the Vita posterior shortly after 1068, and so is closer to
Azelinus than either of the chroniclers from around 1080. But he reproaches
Azelinus for "removing"much of the church's possessions and claims he "was
at fault in many ways"("multipliciter deliquit"chapter 33, p. 216, ll. 3ff.).
Norbert of Iburg calls Azelinus "venerabilis eiusdem loci Ezelinus
episcopus''(Vita Bennonis, chapter 5, LB, p. 380).
But the picture is not entirely rosy. The Chronicon Hildesheimense, written
ca. 1079, criticizes him for tearing down the destroyed church without
consulting the brothers, but otherwise has only good words for him
("Azelinus, regius capellanus . . . successit; qui pluralem utilitatem suae
ecclesiae diversa acquisitione contulit, veruntamen, ut veremur, ante Deum
reus extitit, quot monasterium nostrum igne consumptum inconsulte
deiecit"chapter 16, MGH SS 7, p. 853). This writer makes his successor,
Hezilo, either still alive or newly dead at the time of the writing, responsible
for tolerating if not introducing relaxed rigor and "superfluous
clothing"("institutionem nostri ordinis in abbreviatione divini officii, in
superfluitate vestium, in relaxando regularis vitae districtionem, non dico
mutavit, sed mutantibus non contradixit"chapter 17, p. 854). This passage and
the description of Azelinus from the Fundatio are repeated by the Saxon
Annalist, MGH SS 6, p. 690, ll. 3ff. (a. 1054).
62. Visio quinta, PL 146, 357-59.
63. Vita Bennonis, chapter 5, LB, p. 380.
64. Vita Bennonis, chapter 5, LB, p. 380: ". . . eatenus ecclesiae illius clerici
rusticano quodam more educati, pene sine litteris ac idiotae fuissent."
65. Vita Bennonis, chapter 5, LB, p. 380: "Egregius enim exinde ibi clerus
adolescere coepit cum claustralis honestate disciplinae, tum litterarum scientiam
ardore discendi."
66. Fundatio: "rusticalis stultitia"; Vita Bennonis: "rusticano more educati, pene
sine litteris ac idiotae."
67. Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., ed. Erdmann and Fickermann, pp.
15-106.

Chapter 8:
 Old Learning Against New
1. Contradicting the teacher is no minor breach of etiquette. Cf. William of
Conches's "Glosses on Priscian,"18.5, "Deux rédactions des gloses de Guillaume
de Conches sur Priscien,"ed. Jeauneau, p. 234: "magistri nostri quibus non fas est
contra dicere."The Pseudo-Boethian work De disciplina scholari, written in the
twelfth century and still formulating a conservative humanistic program against
the new, writes: "qui se non novit subjici, non noscat se magistrari"(PL 64,
1226D); 1227C: "Non est ergo dignus scientia qui scientiae insurgit praeceptori."
2. Otloh of St. Emmeram, Vita Wolfkangi, chapters 4-5, MGH SS 4, p. 528.
 

< previous page_446 next page >

page
< previous page_447 next page >
page
Page 447
3. One wonders whether Italian masters were fair game in the north. They
certainly were sensitive to contradiction. Stefan's countryman Gunzo of Novara
had his grammar corrected by the monks of St. Gall, and responded in dudgeon
with a long tract justifying himself.
4. Ademar, Epistola de S. Martiali, PL 141, 107-9. See H. E. J. Cowdrey,
"Anselm of Besate and some North-Italian Masters of the Eleventh Century,"p.
119.
5. Abelard, Historia calamitatum: Texte critique avec une introduction, ed.
Monfrin, p. 90, ll. 963ff.
6. Grabmann, Geschichte der scholastischen Methode, 1:215-34, and on Anselm
of Canterbury, 1: 265-339. Radding, A World Made by Men, pp. 153-99.
7. Adelman, Letter to Berengar, in "Textes latins du XIe au XIIIe siècle,"ed.
Huygens, p. 476, ll. 3-8. (For Latin quote, see above, Chapter 4, p. 105 and n.
109). On the letter, see Radding, A World Made by Men, pp. 165-66, and
Southern, Making of the Middle Ages, pp. 197-98.
8. Wibald, epist. 167, ed. Jaffé, p. 277: "Discipuli magistrorum sentencias
tuentur, non quia verae sunt, set quod auctores amant; scola adversus scolam
debachatur, odio vel amore magistrorum."
9. Cf. Hugh of St. Victor, De institutione novitiorum, chapter 6, PL 176, 932D.
10. On Goswin see the introduction to his letter by R. B. C. Huygens in his
edition, Apologiae duae: Gozechini epistola ad Walcherum, pp. 3-9; also the
article by F. J. Worstbrock, "Gozwin von Mainz,"in Verfasserlexikon, 2nd ed.;
Riché, Écoles et enseignement, p. 337; Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen
Literatur, 2: 470-78; S. Balau, Étude critique des sources de l'histoire du pays de
Liège, pp. 172-74; O. Holder-Egger, "Goswin und Gozechin: Domscholaster zu
Mainz."
11. Gozechini epistola ad Walcherum, chapter X, ed. Huygens, p. 18, ll. 207ff.:
"Perhaps I did once, in abandoning Liège, write a scurrilous attack on it, perhaps
I did prefer the glory of Mainz and seemed to regard Liège as a vile heap of
slag."
12. This conjecture seems the most probable explanation of the length and detail
of the letter. It does not require some thirty to forty pages of dense prose to
inquire whether he would be welcome. He must overcome strong barriers, no
doubt put in place by his ungracious exit. The long arguments against detractors
(among whom the recipient Walcher almost certainly numbers), who attack men
for changing their place of residence, does not make alot of sense without a
reason for pressing such arguments against Goswin himself. For whatever
reasons, he did not make it back, but lived out his life in Mainz and died in 1075.
 13. Epist. ad Walcherum, chapter XXVI, pp. 30-31, ll. 604ff. From now on I will
cite the letter in the form: XXVI.30-31. 604ff. (= chapter.page.lines).
14. XXVII.32.636: ". . . vanis et pestiferis inserviunt vocum vel quaestionum
novitatibus."The "novelty"of these teachings is repeatedly stressed: "novas
psalterii, Pauli, Apocalipsis lectiones tradunt"(XXVIII.32.643-44). The teachers
draw into their following "iuventutem novorum cupidam"(644-45); ''de sacris
sacrilegas introducunt novitates questionum"(657-58); "de his . . . rebus et
sacramentis et novas et peregrinas ducunt a fide intelligentias"(XXX. 33. 665-
66); "novo quodam docendi lenocinio"(682); "extranea et a salute peregrina
questionum novitate pulchre ad perniciem instructos"(687-89).
15. On opposition to worldly learning in general, see Grabmann, Geschichte der
 

< previous page_447 next page >

page
< previous page_448 next page >
page
Page 448
scholastischen Methode, 1: 215ff.; Riché, Écoles et enseignement, pp. 335-44.
On Otloh's opposition to worldly learning, Helga Schauwecker, Otloh von St.
Emmeram: Ein Beitrag zur Bildungs- und Frömmigkeitsgeschichte des 11.
Jahrhunderts, pp. 165ff. On Peter Damian, J. A. Endres, Petrus Damiani und
die weltliche Wissenschaft; A. Cantin, Les sciences séculières et la foi: Les
deux voies de la science au jugement de S. Pierre Damien.
16. VI.14.98-100: "haec filios suos . . . fovet et nutrit et ad omne quod civile sit
et moribus conducat informat et instruit."
17. XXXIV.36.760: "turbinis violentia,"referring to worldly affairs, is an image
of which Goswin's former colleague, Anselm of Liège, also was fond.
18. XXVII.31.618: "exitialis morum et disciplinae iactura."
19. Hugh of St. Victor, De inst. nov. chapter 7, PL 176, 932D-933D.
20. The whip was in common use (cf. Specht, Geschichte des Unterrichtswesens,
p. 75, 203ff., 209, 346; Lèsne, Les écoles, 2: 540-41; Köhn, "Schulbildung und
Trivium,"p. 242), but there were voices in favor of moderation, and no voices
advocating the use to which for instance Guibert of Nogent's master put it. The
Würzburg master, Pernolf, is praised around 1031 for his moderate use of the
whip (Würzburg poem, Wormser Briefsammlung, ed. Bulst, 1. 25). Rather of
Verona and Meinwerk of Paderborn argued for, Egbert of Liège against it. See
Louis Halphen, "Un pédagogue,"pp. 282-83. Whipping a student had legal
sanction. A Lombard truce of God contract forbids hitting anyone in anger
"except a master his student''("nisi magister discipulum"MGH Leges 4, Constit.
1, p. 598, Nr. 420, chapter 4).
21. A letter included among Meinhard of Bamberg's appeals to Rheims to return
a cleric who ran away from Bamberg because he could not bear the school
discipline. Weitere Briefe Meinhards, epist. 3, ed. Erdmann, p. 195.
22. Weitere Briefe Meinhards, epist. 24, ed. Erdmann, p. 221: "Non adeo
fortassis domestica litterarum inopia merces peregrinas persequimur, sed
discipline desiderium id nos sollicitat; que cum ubique fere sit extincta, non
dubitem illam in vestra calere officina."The suggestion that moral discipline has
died out at Bamberg would seem to date this letter considerably after Meinhard's
epist. 39 (Weitere Briefe Meinhards, pp. 238-39) complaining to Bishop Gunther
about the dual discipline of "letters and manners."See Chapter 4, p. ***). The
tone and content of this letter suggest that it was written shortly before his
"retirement"as school master.
23. Hildesheimer Briefe, ed. Erdmann, epist. 24, p. 57.
24. On Bishop Hezilo and Kuno, see Erdmann, Studien zur Briefliteratur, pp.
128-30. Kuno's career was advanced by fleeing his post at Hildesheim. He found
 support at the royal court and wound up as Bishop of Brescia. It is an odd
phenomenon: men of talent in trouble in their churches turn to the royal courts
and find safe haven and succor there. This is the case with Rather of Verona,
Gerbert of Aurillac, Wazo of Liège, Manasses I of Rheims, and William of
Conches. Ruotger called the court of Otto the Great under Brun's chancellorship
a haven for intellectual refugees. Vita Brunonis, chapter 5, LB, p. 186: ". . . ab
omnibus calumnia qualibet oppressis hoc asylum unicum petebatur."
25. XXXIII. 35. 721ff. On the teachers mentioned, see Erdmann, Studien zur
Briefliteratur, p. 22, n. 2; Riché, Écoles et enseignement, p. 180, 184.
26. R. T. Moore, "Guibert of Nogent and his World"; Edmond-René Labande,
"Guibert de Nogent, Disciple et Témoin de Saint Anselme au Bec"; Georg
Misch, Geschichte der Autogiobraphie 3, 1: 108-62; Louis Halphen, "Un
pédagogue";
 

< previous page_448 next page >

page
< previous page_449 next page >
page
Page 449
Paré, Tremblay, Brunet, La renaissance, pp. 22-23; Bernard Monod, "La
pédagogie et l'éducation au moyen âge d'après les souvenirs d'un moine du
XIe siècle"; Chris D. Ferguson, "Autobiography as Therapy: Guibert de
Nogent, Peter Abelard, and the Making of Medieval Autobiography";
Delhaye, ''L'organisation scolaire,"243-46; Auguste Mollard, "L'imitation de
Quintilien dans Guibert de Nogent"; idem, "Interpretation d'un passage du De
Vita sua."
27. Guibert de Nogent, Autobiographie, chapter 4, ed. Labande, p. 26: "Tantae
vero modestiae fuerat, ut quod deficiebat in literis, suppleret honesto."
28. English translations of Guibert taken in part from the revision of C. C.
Swinton Bland by John Benton, Self and Society in Medieval France: The
Memoirs of Abbot Guibert of Nogent (1064?-c. 1125), here p. 46.
29. Chapter 5, p. 30: "nihil non temperanter, non in verbo, non in respectu, non
opere, agere."
30. Chapter 5, p. 30: "ut non clericatum, quin potius monachatum a me videretur
exigere."
31. A vital point not conveyed by Bland's and Benton's rendering, "in all that is
supposed to count for good training."Guibert wrote: "ad totius honestatis
rudimentum"(chapter 5, ed. Labande, p. 32). Labande comes closer: "tout ce qui
regarde les principes du parfait honnête homme."
32. Chapter 5, p. 32: ". . . nihil quantum ad tantum temporis attinet inde extuli
operae pretium. Alias autem quantum ad totius honestatis rudimentum spectare
dinoscitur, nihil fuit quod non meis utilitatibus impendisset; quidquid modestiae,
quidquid pudicum ac exterioris elegantiae fuit, eo fidelissime et amanter me
imbuit."
33. Fulbert of Chartres, epist. 76, Letters and Poems, ed. Behrends, p. 136. See
above, Chapter 3, p. 60.
34. Anselm, Gesta Ep. Leod., chapter 40, MGH SS 7, p. 210, ll. 30ff. See above,
Chapter 3, p. 56 and n. 13.
35. Thomas Becket could still be mentioned as putting his efforts into mores and
moralitas, rather than letters, but the passage also shows less patience with his
unimpressive performance in letters. See below, p. 470, n. 18.
36. PL 149, 1428B. See above, Chapter 4, pp. 81-82 and note 31.
37. Chapter 6, p. 38; trans. Bland and Benton, p. 49.
38. See esp. Halphen, "Un pédagogue."
 39. Cf. chapter 4, pp. 26-28.
40. Lèsne gives examples of constant surveillance in monastic communities (Les
écoles, 2: 538-39). It was also the case at St. Victor of Paris.
41. Chapter 6, p. 40: "nec etiam moderni temporis clericulis vagantibus
comparari poterat."On the state of liberal learning in France in the eleventh
century, see Radding, "The Geography of Learning."
42. For a recent survey, see D. E. Luscombe, "Peter Abelard."
43. In the recent critical edition, Peter Abelard, Carmen ad Astralabium, J.
Rubingh-Boscher suggests a date in the mid-1130s.
44. Carmen ad Astralab., ed. Rubingh-Boscher, p. 107, ll. 7-18:
non a quo sed quid dicatur sit tibi cure:
        auctori nomen dant bene dicta suo;
nec tibi dilecti iures in verba magistri
 

< previous page_449 next page >

page
< previous page_450 next page >
page
Page 450
        nec te detineat doctor amore suo.
Fructu, non folüs pomorum quisque cibatur
        et sensus verbis anteferendus erit.
ornatis animos captet persuasio verbis;
        doctrine magis est debita planicies.
copia verborum est ubi non est copia sensus,
        constat et errantem multiplicare vias.
cuius doctrinam sibi dissentire videbis
        nil illam certi constet habere tibi.
45. Letters of Abelard and Heloise, trans. Radice, p. 62.; Historia cal., ed.
Monfrin, p. 68, ll. 165-76.
46. Anselm may not have been the mediocrity Abelard made him out to be (see
Marcia Colish, "Another Look at the School of Laon"), but he was no match for
Abelard, and the passage quoted makes it clear that he was aiming not just at an
individual, but at an entire education that offered, in his formulation, leaves but
no fruit.
47. Trans. p. 80, here with slight variations; ed. Monfrin, p. 84, ll. 757-59).
48. See the chapter of Hugh of St. Victor's De inst. novit. on imitating the
examples of saints (chapter 7, "De exemplis sanctorum imitandis,"PL 176, 932-
33). The title seems to indicate biblical models and Christian saints, but actually
refers to good and saintly men alive and active in St. Victor.
49. Vita Malachiae, Sancti Bernardi Opera, 3: 360.18-19: "Dicebat autem se non
ratione victum, sed episcopi pressum auctoritate."
50. Opera, 3: 360.25-361.1: "'Omnes,' inquit, 'favetis homini potius quam
veritati; ego personam non accipio, ut deseram veritatem.'"
51. See the introduction to Peter Abelard's Ethics, ed. and trans. Luscombe.
52. De inst. nov., chapter 10, 935A-B: "Disciplina est conversatio bona et
honesta, cui parum est mala non facere, sed studet etiam in üs qua bene agit per
cuncta irreprehensibilis apparere"(emphasis added).
53. His treatment of the philosopher in the Dialogue of a Philosopher with a Jew
and a Christian shows no interest in practical training in behavior. It is about
speculative ethics, the writings of the ancient philosophers and the definition of
the summum bonum.
54. Epist. 3 (4 in editions including Hist. cal. among the letters, PL 178), J. T.
Muckle, "The Personal Letters Between Abelard and Heloise."On the vexed
question of authorship, see the summary by Adalbert Podlech, Abälard und
Héloïse oder die Theologie der Liebe, pp. 476-77. Barbara Newman's case for
 Heloise as the author of the letters ascribed to her is patent good sensenot that
common in this authenticity dispute: "Authority, Authenticity, and the
Repression of Heloise."I will talk about the letter as if Heloise were the unique
and genuine author who has taken over ideas of her teacher-lover-husband and
analyzed her own situation using them.
55. Trans. Radice, p. 133; ed. Muckle, p. 81: "Munditiam carnis conferunt in
virtutem, cum non sit corporis, sed animi virtus."
56. The point is made strongly in Heloise's letter requesting a rule for nuns
(epist. 5 in Muckle's numbering, in that of PL 178, epist. 6), here pointed
distinctly
 

< previous page_450 next page >

page
< previous page_451 next page >
page
Page 451
against honestas as an ideal of outward comportment. See J. T. Muckle, ed.,
"The Letter of Heloise on Religious Life and Abelard's First Reply,"p. 250.
Also the commentary by Linda Georgianna, "Any Corner of Heaven:
Heloise's Critique of Monasticism,"p. 242.
57. See Luscombe, intro. to Abelard's Ethics and Jaeger, "Peter Abelard's Silence
at the Council of Sens,"esp. pp. 44-45.
58. See "Abelard's Silence,"previous note.
59. P. 107, ll. 33-36: "Detrimenta tue caveas super omnia fame / ut multis possis
et tibi proficere. / que precesserunt, credi nova crimina cogunt / et prior in testem
vita sequentis erit."
60. P. 109, ll. 55-58: "ingenii sapiens fit nullus acumine magni; / hunc pocius
mores et bona vita creant. / factis, non verbis sapiencia se profitetur; / solis
concessa est gracia tanta bonis."
61. P. 109, ll. 71-72: "Sit tibi cura prior faciendi, deinde docendi / que bona sunt,
ne sis dissonus ipse tibi."
62. P. 111, ll. 85-88: "Est iusti proprium . . . / illicitos animi motus frenare
modesti / tunc cum succedunt prospera precipue."
63. Ll. 93-94: "quid vicii, quid sit virtutis discute prudens; / quod si perdideris,
desinis esse quod es."
64. P. 113, ll. 107-8: "Scandala quam possis hominum vitare labora, / ut tamen
incurras scandala nulla dei."
65. Didascalicon, 3.12, trans. Taylor, p. 94. On Hugh of St. Victor's oblique and
"quiet"criticism of Abelard's doctrine, see D. E. Luscombe, The School of Peter
Abelard: The Influence of Abelard's Thought in the Early Scholastic Period, pp.
183-97.
66. Ll. 425-26: "Ex hominis vicio ne culpes illius artem: / est homo sepe malus
qui bonus est opifex."The editor gives three further passages in Abelard's works
where the idea occurs. On Abelard as a rigorous moral thinker, see Georgianna,
"Heloise's Critique,"pp. 248-49.
67. Massive documentation of the resistance to change and complaints about the
collapse of mores in Stephen C. Ferruolo, The Origins of the University: The
Schools of Paris and Their Critics, 1100-1215, pp. 47-277.
68. I do not mean this to blame and indict Abelard, but in the strict sense of
violating the disciplina and ars bene vivendi idealized and cultivated at the major
schools of his contemporaries. His later life was evidently irreproachable
(though his fateful penchant to make enemies abated very late), his last days
 were, according to Peter the Venerable, a model for others, and in his own
words, "A good death pays all debts"("Cum bene quis moritur persolvit debita
cuncta"Carmen ad Astralab. p. 141, l. 615). The point is, whatever good can be
said of the mature and old Abelard was lost in the perceptions that had been set
in his earlier life and the enmities he had aroused.

Introduction to Part III

1. Heloise to Abelard, epist. 1, Letters, trans. Radice, p. 115; "Personal
Letters,"ed. Muckle, p. 71.
 

< previous page_451 next page >

page
< previous page_452 next page >
page
Page 452
2. Otto, Gesta Frid., 1.48, MGH SS 20, p. 337, ll. 21-22: "maximamque post se
sociorum multitudinem traheret . . ."
3. Bernard, epist. 332, Opera, 8.271.12ff.: "Accedit non solus, sicut Moyses, ad
caliginem in qua erat Deus, sed cum turba multa et discipulis suis."
4. Bernard, epist. 189, Opera, 8.13.18ff.
5. William of St. Thierry to Bernard and Geoffrey of Chartres (among Bernard's
letters), epist. 326, PL 182, 531B. Ed. Jean Leclercq, Revue Bénédictine 79
(1969), 376-78.
6. PL 178, 105: "turbae lucerna scholaris."
7. See R. W. Southern, "The Schools of Paris and Chartres,"in Renaissance and
Renewal, p. 128.
8. William of Conches, Philosophia mundi, ed. Maurach, II. prol., p. 41: ". . .
nihil de multitudine, sed de paucorum probitate gloriantes soli veritati
insudamus."Similarly Thierry of Chartres in his commentary on Cicero's De
inventione: "I have carried out my resolve to shut out, at my whim, the ignorant
mob and the mish-mash of the schools."Quoted in Dronke, "Thierry of
Chartres,"in History of Twelfth Century Philosophy, p. 362 (Dronke's
translation).
9. Phil. mundi, ed. Maurach, 4.30, p. 114: "nec, si deficiat multitudo sociorum,
deficiet [alt. desinet]."
10. "Metamorphosis Goliae,"ed. R. B. C. Huygens, "Mitteilungen aus
Handschriften,"Studi Medievali Ser. 3, 3 (1962), p. 771, stanza 50, 4.
11. Cited by John Ward, Artificiosa Eloquentia, 2: 61: "dignitas paucorum
bonorum longe excellit infinitam multitudinem malorum."
12. John of Salisbury, Metalogicon, 1.24, ed. Hall, p. 54: ". . . impetu
multitudinis imperitae victi cesserunt."
13. In this sense also William's attack on teachers who fawn on students and on
students who pass judgment on their masters (Phil. mundi, 4.Prol., ed. Maurach,
p. 88). The loss of students puts him on the defensive.
The statement of Everard of Ypres that he had heard Gilbert of Poitiers
lecture in Chartres to an audience of four and in Paris to an audience of some
three hundred must surely be a reflection of these priorities. Cited in N. M.
Häring, "Chartres and Paris Revisited,"in Essays in Honour of Anton Charles
Pegis, p. 283 and note 41.
14. On the popularity of Chartrian masters, see Häring, "Chartres and
 Paris,"passim, and Peter Dronke, "Thierry of Chartres,"in History of Twelfth
Century Philosophy, p. 363.
15. An exception: the education of Vicelin, described in Helmold's Chron. Slav.,
chapter 65, MGH SS 21, 47, 1.8ff. He went to Laon to study with Ralph, the
brother of Anselm, where ". . . ad ea solum enisus est, que sobrio intellectui et
moribus instruendis sufficerent."
16. Wibald, epist. 91, ed. Jaffé, p. 165: "Presentia tua tuis auditoribus disciplina
sit. . . . Plus habet locus tuus quam docendi officium; nam et censoriam exhibere
debes severitatem, quoniam et corrigendis moribus prefectum te esse noveris.
Quae disciplina et exercitatio omnibus est subtilior et in fructu cunctis
propensior."Cf. also his epist. 167 to Manegold of Paderborn, ed. Jaffé, pp. 276-
88. The letter is a sophisticated presentation of a liberal education, with stress on
classical learning. Mores are mentioned as the ultimate goal (p. 281f., p. 283),
but
 

< previous page_452 next page >

page
< previous page_453 next page >
page
Page 453
receive no more than a mention. See also the study by Wilhelm Hemmen,
"Der Brief des Magisters Manegold an Abt Wibald von Corvey (1149)."
17. On what was laughed out of the Paris schools, see John of Salisbury,
Metalogicon, 1.3, trans. McGarry, p. 15: "Poets who related history were
considered reprobate, and if anyone applied himself to studying the ancients, he
became a marked man and the laughingstock of all."
18. On this development see Southern, "Schools of Paris and Chartres,"p. 120.
For Southern the breaking of the chancellor of Paris's monopoly on teaching is
the decisive moment in the development of the independent schools.
19. Ed. Huygens (n. 10 above), p. 771 (stanzas 48-51): "Ibi doctor cernitur ille
Carnotensis, / cuius lingua vehemens truncat velud ensis, / et hic presul presulum
stat Pictaviensis, / proprius nubencium miles et castrensis. / Inter hos et alios in
parte remota / Parvi Pontis incola, non loquor ignota, / disputabat digitis directis
in iota / et quecumque dixerat erant per se nota. / . . . / Reginaldus monachus
clamose contendit / et obliquis singulos verbis reprehendit, / hos et hos redarguit
nec in se descendit, / qui nostrum Porphirium laqueo suspendit."
20. John of Salisbury describes this transition in Metalogicon 1.3.
21. Ferruolo, The Origins of the University.
22. Bernard of Clairvaux, Five Books on Consideration: Advice to a Pope, trans.
Anderson and Kennan, Book 4, chapter 6, paragraph 21. Opera, 3: 464.23-26.
23. This was a summary of De consideratione, 4.6.21-22. Opera, 3: 464-65, and
trans. Anderson and Kennan, pp. 130-37.
24. Cf. the comment on Vicelin's study at Laon (note 15 above) with the statutes
of Laon (ca. 1190), one of the few "rules"of a twelfth century cathedral
community. On the doctrina et officia to be taught to junior members of the
church: PL 199, 1117A: [The servant of the church] "verecundiam in omnibus
debet servare, in motu corporis, in actu operis, in gestu omnium membrorum, in
incessu ut mature incedat . . . in loquendo. . . . Pulchrae igitur virtutes sunt
verecundia, patientia, et remissio injuriarum, et suavis est gratia."1117B:
"Speculum mentis . . . refulget in verbis."1117C: "Verecundia bene
morigerati."1118A: "in ipso motu, gestu, incessu, tenenda verecundia omnibus
clericis . . . quia habitus mentis in corporis statu cernitur. . . . Vox quaedam est
animi motus.''1118D: "Sunt . . . qui . . . ambulando imitantur histrionicos gressus,
et quasi quaedam fercula pomparum et statuarum status imitantium . . . gressus
suos probabiles ostendere."

Chapter 9:
 Humanism and Ethics at the School of St. Victor
1. Historia calamitatum, trans. Radice, p. 58; ed. Monfrin, p. 64, ll. 31-34.
2. The tendency of scholars to advocate William of Champeaux by denying
Abelard's account of a resounding defeat has persisted since Fourier Bonnard,
Histoire de l'abbaye royale et de l'ordre des chanoines reguliers de St.-Victor de
Paris, 1: 4-5. Cf. also J. C. Dickinson, The Origins of the Austin Canons, p. 85
and Jean Châtillon, Théologie, spiritualité et métaphysique dans l'oeuvre
oratoire d'Achard de Saint-Victor, p. 55. Since Abelard is the only one to report
it, this scepticism might have some credibility, but seen against parallel
examples of the demise of established masters at
 

< previous page_453 next page >

page
< previous page_454 next page >
page
Page 454
the hands of young turks, Abelard's report does not seem just a product of his
ego, however much he may have favored himself in the account. Discussion
of the political background to these shifts; see Robert-Henri Bautier, "Paris au
temps d'Abelard,"in Abélard en son temps, ed. Jolivet; Podlech, Abälard und
Heloise, pp. 83-87.
3. Historia calamitatum, trans. Radice, p. 61; ed. Monfrin, p. 65, ll. 78ff.
4. Debate on the philosophical subject was possible because William evidently
tended to mix questions of dialectic into his teachings on rhetoric. See Karin
Fredborg, "The Commentaries on Cicero's De inventione and Rbetorica ad
Herennium by William of Champeaux,"esp. p. 16.
5. Codex Udalrici, epist. 160, ed. Jaffé, p. 286. Southern interprets the writer's
phrase magnum studium ("The Schools of Paris and Chartres,") as meaning large
crowds. The meaning of the phrase is not clear, however.
6. Hildebert, Epistolae, PL 171, 141A. On the letter, see Châtillon, Achard de
St.-Victor, pp. 56-57.
7. Hildebert's poem, Formula vivendi, gives an idea of his conception of the
meaning of that term. See Carmen 16, Carmina minora, ed. Scott, p. 5: ". . .
pauca loquaris, / plurima fac: sit utrisque comes modus, utile, pulchrum."
8. Bernard Bischoff, "Aus der Schule Hugos von St. Viktor,"in Aus der
Geisteswelt des Mittelalters: Studien und Texte Martin Grabmann . . . gewidmet,
ed. Lang et al.; edition of letter and passage cited on p. 250.
9. See Giles Constable, "Renewal and Reform in Religious Life: Concepts and
Realities,"on "newness"and "renewal"as topoi of entry into a religious
community.
10. Godfrey of St. Victor, Fons philosophiae, ed. Michaud-Quantin, ll. 741-84.
Further comments on ethical training in ll. 401-4. The Victorine masters identify
the "path of morality"with "beautiful manners"(pulchri mores). These distinguish
the individual, help govern the family and the state. This is the threefold division
of practica in Hugh's Didascalicon 3.1, ed. Buttimer, p. 48: "practica dividitur in
solitariam, privatam, publicam."Fons phil., ll. 413-16 place among the masters
of practica (meaning ethics) some whom probity has made kings of the church,
dukes (i.e. leaders) of souls, and even secular princes of lands, who govern many
people. Clearly practica aims at administering and governing.
11. Robert of Torigny, De immutatione ordinis monachorum, chapter 5, PL 202,
1313B: "Sub cuius [i.e. Abbot Gilduin's] regimine multi clerici nobiles
saecularibus et divinis litteris instructi, ad illum locum habitaturi convenerunt."
12. Bonnard, Histoire (n. 2 above), chapters 1, 2, and 3.
 13. Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris, chapter 33, ed. Jocqué and Milis, p. 162, l. 168:
"Si rex vel episcopus vel abbas in capitulum adducitur, fratres assurgentes omnes
ei inclinent . . ."
14. Dickinson, Austin Canons (n. 2 above), p. 86: "Favoured by the highest
officials of Church and State, esteemed all over the Western world, the haven of
scholars and nursery of bishops, St. Victor's displayed perhaps more than any
other house the potential of the regular canonical life."
15. Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, p. 83-84; Ferruolo,
Origins of the University, p. 32.
 

< previous page_454 next page >

page
< previous page_455 next page >
page
Page 455
16. Jean Châtillon, "Les écoles de Chartres et de Saint-Victor,"p. 812.
17. See the fundamental works by Charles Dereine, Les chanoines réguliers au
diocèse de Liège avant Saint Norbert; art. "Chanoines,"in Dictionnaire d'histoire
et géographie ecclésiastique (1953), 12: 353-405; "Vie commune, règle de S.
Augustin et chanoines réguliers au XIe siècle"; "Les origines de Prémontré."Also
Dickinson, Austin Canons; Caroline Bynum, Docere verbo et exemplo; eadem,
"The Spirituality of Regular Canons in the Twelfth Century: A New Approach";
Jean Châtillon, ''La crise de l'église aux XIe et XIIe siècles et les origines des
grandes fédérations canoniales"; M.-D. Chenu, "Monks, Canons, and Laymen in
Search of the Apostolic Life"; Ludo Milis, "Ermites et chanoines réguliers au
XIIe siècle"; Barbara Newman, "Flaws in the Golden Bowl: Gender and Spiritual
Formation in the Twelfth Century."
18. On the so-called rule of St. Augustine, see La règle de Saint Augustin, ed.
Luc Verheijen.
19. Bynum's Docere verbo et exemplo is the major study of this phenomenon
and the works that express it.
20. See for instance, Bynum, Docere verbo et exemplo, pp. 4-5, 18-21; Ph.
Delhaye, "L'organisation scolaire au XIIe siècle,"pp. 225ff.
21. On customaries see Ch. Dereine, "Chanoines,"pp. 386-91; idem, "Coutumiers
et ordinaires de chanoines réguliers"; idem, "Les coutumiers de Saint-Quentin de
Beauvais et de Springiersbach"; idem, "Saint-Ruf et ses coutumes aux XIe et
XIIe siècles"; Josef Siegwart, Die Consuetudines des Augustiner-
Chorberrenstiftes Marbach im Elsass (12. Jahrhundert), pp. 4-14.
22. The subject of Bynum's study, Docere verbo et exemplo, the best guide to
sources. Now also Newman, "Gender and Spiritual Formation"(n. 17 above), pp.
144-46, expanding Bynum's list to include nuns.
23. On the date of the work, see Damien Van den Eynde, Essai sur la succession
et la date des écrits de Hugues de Saint-Victor, pp. 113ff. Van den Eynde places
it just after the Didascalicon, that is, prior to 1125. But Roger Baron is sceptical
about a specific dating: Études sur Hugues de Saint-Victor, pp. 69-89, esp. p. 71.
24. On this work see, besides the introduction to the edition of Jocqué and Milis,
Bonnard, Histoire, 1: 47ff.; Châtillon, Achard de Saint Victor, pp. 63-67. Jocqué
is preparing a monographic study of the liber.
25. On the school of Saint Victor see Bonnard, Histoire, 1: 85-140; Smalley, The
Study of the Bible, pp. 83-195; Jean Châtillon, "De Guillaume de Champeaux à
Thomas Gallus: Chronique d'histoire littéraire et doctrinale de Pécole de Saint-
Victor"; idem, "Les écoles de Chartres et de Saint-Victor"; idem, Achard, pp. 53-
85; M.-D. Chenu, "Civilisation urbaine et théologie: L'école de Saint-Victor au
 XIIe siècle"; Jean-Pierre Willesme, "Saint-Victor au temps d'Abélard"; Ferruolo,
Origins of the University, pp. 27-44. The earlier works by E. Michaud,
Guillaume de Champeaux et les écoles de Paris au XIIe siècle and Martin
Grabmann, Geschichte der scholastischen Methode, 2: 229-322, are still
valuable.
26. R. Baron in his Science et sagesse chez Hugues de Saint-Victor defines
Hugh's humanism in terms of thought, not behavior. Cf. p. 95: "L'humanisme de
Hugues est essentiellement un humanisme de pensée. Il est à la recherche de la
verité."
27. See Milis's introduction to the Liber.
 

< previous page_455 next page >

page
< previous page_456 next page >
page
Page 456
28. Liber, chapter 22, ll. 1-2, p. 96. Since Milis and Jocqué have numbered lines
within chapters (i.e., not pages), I will cite brief references as 22, 1-2; 96 (=
chapter, lines; page).
29. 22, 229-36; 106: "In scola diligenter instruendus est de inclinationibus, de
incessu et statu, et omni gestu suo, et quomodo vestimenta sua in omni actione
circa se coaptare debeat, et membra sua ordinate componere, oculos demissos
habere, submisse et non festinanter loqui, iuramenta non facere . . . quomodo ad
abbatem vel ceteros magistros suos loqui debeat, quomodo ad fratres vel alios
compares, et quomodo ad inferiores."
30. The Benedictine Rule stipulates one year (Ben. Reg., 58.9-13, ed. Hanslik,
pp. 134-35).
31. Cf. chapter 8: the subprior sees to it that the brothers stand and sit ordinate
when in the choir, and "quicquid corrigendum perspexerit corrigere [debet]"(8,8-
11; 29-30). The circator, a kind of ombudsman, circulates throughout the
monastery observing the brothers, looking for neglects and breeches of the order.
Where brothers talk, he checks lest they speak inordinate (chapter 41; pp. 194-
95).
32. Chapter 25, 124; p. 130.
33. Cf. the comment that the novices write their own profession, "or, if they
cannot write, they call on some one else"(24, 15-17; p. 113). But it need not
mean much. It is borrowed from Ben. Reg., 58.20, ed. Hanslik, p. 136.
34. Châtillon, Achard, pp. 72-73, notes that the Liber is interested only in the
instruction of novices, not philosophy and the arts: "Cet enseignement . . . n'avait
rien de scolaire."
35. Chapter 19; 78-86. The Marbach customs mention a librarian only once for
his functions in the burial ritual. He writes the dead brother's name in the
memorial book (Consuetudines, chapter 154, parag. 352, ed. Siegwart, p. 258).
Arrouaise has books and an armarium, evidently just a place where books are
kept, but no armarius (Constit. Arroas., chapter 7, ed. Milis and Becquet, pp. 43-
44). The customs of Springiersbach mention neither library nor librarian. By
contrast the Liber with its details of a check-out system and descriptions of the
librarian's duties, is exceptional.
36. The vestiarius should admonish anyone requesting superfluous clothing
amicabiliter et caritative that such clothing is good for his body but bad for his
soul (18, 114-19; 75). If any brother meets a guest of other members of the
community, he should show them good cheer (laetam faciem demonstret) and
speak to them courteously (benigne eos alloquatur17, 218-22; 68). If anyone
sees that a brother needs something at table, he should indicate by a nod to the
head of the refectory (35, 124-26; 171-2). Any and all conflict is proscribed (16,
 27-29; 59).
37. 15, 1-5; 55: "Portarius unus de conversis fratribus eligi debet, probatus
moribus, affabilis et benignus, qui, morum atque verborum disciplina instructus,
cunctis quasi exemplum et titulus tocius domus proponatur."
38. Yvain, ll. 197ff. Cited from Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, trans.
W. W. Comfort (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1975), p. 182.
39. Cf. Ben. Reg., 53.
40. The Rule of St. Augustine gives no precepts for receiving guests. The rule of
Chrodegang of Metz calls for a porter who is probabilis vitae, sobrius, patiens et
 

< previous page_456 next page >

page
< previous page_457 next page >
page
Page 457
sapiens, a man who knows how to receive and render a response, who does
his job summa obedientia et humilitate. He should not be drawn into any
nonsense by outsiders, but should receive guests cum charitate and close the
door well (Chrodegang, Regula canonicorum, chapter 12; Amort 1: 248). The
Decreta of Lanfranc are dry and practical: the brother who receives guests
should have various kinds of equipment ready: beds, towels, etc. (The
Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc, ed. Knowles, p. 87). The
Premonstratensian custom is positively dour: when a guest knocks, the porter
opens, asks humbly who it is and what he wants (Instit. Praemonstrat. 2. 15,
in De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus, ed. Martène, 3: 913). The Regula clericorum
("Petrus de Honestis") is more concerned with the porter's character, but is
not very interested in the reception of guests (PL 163, 747-48). The customs
of Springiersbach (Consuet. Springersb., ed Weinfurter) and Arrouaise
(Constitut. Arroas., ed. Milis and Becquet) give no rules for receiving guests.
41. The customs of Marbach are the earliest rule to show a strong influx of the
vocabulary of courtesy. Cf. ed. Siegwart, chapter 149, p. 254 (on the prior): "Sit
sermo edificans, vita imitabilis. Sit caritate eminens, mansuetus, humanus,
hilaris, severus, largus, cunctis affabilis atque amabilis."On the Latin vocabulary
of courtesy, see Origins of Courtliness, pp. 127-75. It is tempting to pursue this
lead and a possible connection with the urbane humanity of St. Victor, since the
author of the earliest sections of this rule is Manegold of Lautenbach, possibly
the same as that Manegold, modernorum magister magistrorum, who was the
teacher of William of Champeaux. The Bamberg student who studied with
William in the early days of St. Victor (see n. 5 above, Udalrici Codex, p. 286)
said that the founder of St. Victor "showed himself kind and devoted to all who
came to him, and he received them gratis . . . in the manner of Master Manegold
of blessed memory" (emphasis mine). This student was in a good position to
observe William's cordiality and liberality and to judge them as the continuing
influence of Manegold. Of course his comment does not tell us whether this was
the same as that Manegold of Lautenbach, author of the core of the Marbach
customs. Both this connection and the dating of the Marbach customs are too
uncertain to allow any easy conclusion. Manegold's contributions to the rule date
from around 1103; other sections were added between 1122 and 1136. See J.
Siegwart in the introduction to the Consuetudines Marbacenses, p. 31. On
Manegold and the problems of identifying him in his relations to William of
Champeaux, see Wilfried Hartmann, ''Manegold von Lautenbach und die
Anfänge der Frühscholastik."
42. Consuet. Marbach, ed. Siegwart, chapter 127, p. 231. "Frater qui hospitibus
servit dulcis debet esse, benignus, humanus et discretus . . . .Super omnia vero
debet apparere affectus animi, voluntas bona et larga, vultus hilaris et clarus,
affabilitas pulchra et honesta . . . .Peregrinos autem et extraneos majori
humanitate et hilaritate quam etiam parentes et notos colligere oportet, quia in
 his maxime Christus suscipitur."This last sentence neatly combines values of
courtesy with the prescription of the Benedictine Rule to receives guests as
Christ. On the influence of the Marbach customs, see Dickinson, Austin Canons,
p. 46.
43. The precepts for receiving guests bear comparison with Andreas Capellanus's
advice to women for the courtly reception of their lovers. See Andreas
Capellanus on Love, ed. and trans. Walsh, pl. 160, l. 410: ". . . hilari scilicet facie
et
 

< previous page_457 next page >

page
< previous page_458 next page >
page
Page 458
urbanitatis quemlibet receptu suscipiant"; p. 162, l. 414: "hilari vultu in suo
quemlibet adventu suscipere et suavia sibi responsa praestare"[= opus
curialitatis]; p. 162, l. 414: "ad vos venientes hilari receptione suscipitis et
curialitatis verba secum adinvicem confertis."
44. 15, 18-22; 55-56: "Haec omnia ita diligenter exequenda praecipimus, quia
hii, qui deforis adveniunt, praecipue primo occursu cum magna benignitate et
humanitate recipiendi sunt . . . ut ex his, quae extrinsecus vident, eorum, quae
intrinsecus latent, existimationem colligant."
45. Jean Leclercq, Monks and Love in Twelfth-Century France, pp. 8-23.
46. Odo of St. Victor, epist. 2, PL 196, 1403C: "ad societatem amabiles, ad
imitandum utiles. Sunt inquam amabiles ad societatem, tum pro vitae sanctitate,
tum pro morum suavitate."For some commentary on his letters, see Bynum,
Docere verbo et exemplo, 44-45, 81-82.
47. See Origins of Courtliness, pp. 32-34.
48. PL 196, 1225A. Perhaps somewhat revealing on the connection between the
life of canons regular and promotion in the church is Abelard's accusation that
William of Champeaux converted "ut quo religiosior crederetur ad majoris
prelationis gradum promoveretur"(Abelard, Hist. calam., ed. Monfrin, p. 65, ll.
74-75). The suggestion that the canonical life had this effect must have weight
whether or not that was William's intention.
49. See the discussion in my "Cathedral Schools,"pp. 594ff.
50. Hugh, Didascalicon, trans. Taylor, pp. 46-47.
51. Didasc., 1.8, tr. Taylor, pp. 54-55, ed. Buttimer, p. 15: "Duo vero sunt quae
divinam in homine similitudinem reparant, id est speculatio veritatis et virtutis
exercitium."Cf. 1.1, trans. Taylor, p. 47: ". . . we are restored through instruction
so that we may recognize our nature."Also 2.1, p. 61: "This then is what the arts
are concerned with, this is what they intend, namely, to restore within us the
divine likeness . . . "
52. De sacramentis, 1.6.2, PL 176, 264C-D: "Factus est homo ad imaginem et
similitudinem Dei . . . . Imago secundum rationem, similitudo secundum
dilectionem; imago secundum cognitionem veritatis, similitudo secundum
amorem virtutis."
53. 172 manuscripts have survived as compared to 125 for the Didascalicon. See
Rudols Goy, Die Überlieferung der Werke Hugos von St. Viktor, pp. 340-66 (De
Inst.), pp. 14-34 (Didasc.).
54. Cf. chapter 1, PL 176, 927A: ". . . scientia[m] (quae ad institutionem recte et
honeste vivendi pertinet)."
 55. I believe Jean-Claude Schmitt is the first to recognize the work as essentially
concerned with comportment: La raison des gestes dans Poccident médiéval. He
also suggests the proximity of Hugh's comments on gestures to humanism (pp.
193-94) and to courtly manners (p. 197). He points out the importance of the
"aesthetic dimension"to Hugh's ideas (p. 178). Roger Baron, coming at the work
from the point of view of Hugh's intellectual achievement, has trouble locating it
among his other works: "On pourrait se demander si le contenu de cet ouvrage
(qui traite surtout du comportement extérieur) est en accord avec ce que nous
savons de Hugues"(Science et sagesse, p. xxix, n. 48). Baron excuses the work
referring to
 

< previous page_458 next page >

page
< previous page_459 next page >
page
Page 459
Hugh's comment that everything is worth learning. But the suggestion of an
inferior work qualifying for Hugh's authorship by a generous extension of
boundaries does it an injustice. It is in a sense the heart of Hugh's and of
Victorine thinking.
56. Chapter 12, 942C: [after quoting Horace] "Sed ne forte satiram potius quam
doctrinam edere videamur . . . modestiae hic quoque oblivisci non debemus."
57. An especially rich satirical passage is against delicate table manners: chapter
19, 950A-B. Quoted below, p. 265 and n. 89.
58. De scripturis et scriptoribus sanctis, PL 175, 9f.
59. 946A: "Sunt . . . loca . . . pro disciplina et instructione morum"; 946B: "in
illis locis ubi de disciplina agendum est."
60. Even in Didasc. the major area of reference of disciplina is ethical. Cf.
Didasc., ed. buttimer, Praef. pp. 2-3: ". . . legentibus vitae suae disciplinam
praescribit"; 3.3, p. 61: ". . . cavendum ei qui quaerit scientiam, ut non negligit
disciplinam"; 1.11, p. 22: "practica, quae morum disciplinam considerat"; 3.6, p.
57: [the three things necessary to study: natura, exercitium, disciplina]
''disciplina, ut laudabiliter vivens mores cum scientia componat"; same passage
in De modo dicendi et meditandi, PL 176, 877C. Cf. also Epitome Dindimi in
philosophiam, 2.19, ed. Baron, p. 195: "Ethica . . . ordinem modumque virtutum
ac morum disciplinam, que ad probitatem et religionem spectant, instituit";
Epitome Dindimi, 2.22, p. 196: "Ethica moralis interpretatur, ex re nomen
sumens, quia morum disciplinam instituit"; Expositio in Hierarchiam Coelestem
Sancti Dionysii, 1.1, PL 175, 927B: ". .ethica . . . quae modum vivendi rectum, et
disciplinae formam secundum virtutum instituta disponit"; De arca Noe morali,
2.6, PL 176, 640A: [mere knowledge is not useful in itself, unless one strives to
imitate the virtues he admires in others and to make them his own] "per
exercitium disciplinae et formam recte vivendi."Didasc. trans. Taylor, p. 213, n.
49, refers to Cicero, Quintilian, Augustine, and Boethius as sources for the idea,
but qualifies it, "Note, however, that in the words which follow Hugh gives his
own definition to each term, altering particularly the sense of disciplina from
"art"to moral excellence."See also Ferruolo, Origins, pp. 37-38, on the
unconventional narrowing of disciplina: "Hugh defines discipline not as
academic training but as moral excellence. This definition seems intended to
suggest the clear advantage of studying at St. Victor, where the rules of learning
were inseparable from the rules of the canonical life."
61. Didasc., 1.11, ed. Buttimer, p. 20: "logicae peritia disciplinae"; 1.11, p. 22:
[the invention of the arts =] "disciplinae exordium"; 2.1, p. 23: "artes et
disciplinae"; 2.1, p. 24: "disciplina [est] quae in speculatione consistit et per
solam explicatur ratiocinationem"; 2.6, p. 30: "astronomicae disciplinae peritia."
 62. Chapter 10, 935A-B: "Disciplina est conversatio bona et honesta, cui parum
est mala non facere, sed studet etiam in iis quae bene agit per cuncta
irreprehensibilis apparere. Item disciplina est membrorum omnium motus
ordinatus, et dispositio decens in omni habitu et actione"(emphasis added).
63. Fairly standard is Sigebert of Gembloux's description of the education of his
teacher, Abbot Olbert: "in disciplina monachica regulariter nutritus"(Gesta,
MGH SS 8, p. 536, 1. 4). Ulrich of Cluny is talking about "the rule"plain and
simple, when he says, "Since we are treating the training of novices . . . let us
now
 

< previous page_459 next page >

page
< previous page_460 next page >
page
Page 460
take in proper sequence the discipline to which those are strictly held who
wish to share our life."This usage (disciplina = the rule or the learning of it) is
consistent with patristic usage. Cf. Walter Dürig, "'Disciplina'"; M.-D. Chenu,
"Disciplina.''
64. Consuetudines Springirsbacenses-Rodenses, chapter 40, ed. Weinfurter, p.
124, parag. 233:". . . alii provectiores et natura hebetiores in eo, quo sunt statu,
imitantur vitam canonicam et sub quadam regula positi reguntur per congruam
sibi disciplinam."
65. disciplina virtutis (925B); scientia vere discretionis (926A); scientia . . . ad
institutionem recte et honeste vivendi (927A); schola virtutum (931B); schola
disciplinae (933D); peritia bene agendi (932C). A useful comparison with the
last formulation: a letter from the canons of Worms to their colleagues at
Bamberg ca. 1115 asking for support of their newly elected bishop, who had
studied in Bamberg and acquired "litterarum scientia, rerum agendarum pericia,
honestas morum, gratia discretionum."Udalrici codex, epist 172, ed. Jaffé, p.
305.
66. Cf. Adam of Perseigne, Lettres, ed. Bouvet, epist. 5.59, p. 124: "'Bonitatem,'
inquit, 'et disciplinam et scientiam doce me,' [Psalm 118:66] . . . Maturum
quippe reddit hominem disciplina quae est membrorum omnium motus ordinatus
et compositio decens in omni habitu et actione"; ibid., p. 122: "elegantia
disciplinae."Cf. Pseudo-Hugh of St. Victor, Expositio Regulae S. Augustini, PL
176, 898C: "Tunc enim religiose vivimus, si membra et sensus nostros
studeamus restringere, ut non possint lasciviae et levitati deservire, ut aspectus
noster sit simplex et humilis . . . ut sit . . . in incessu gravitas, status cum
reverentia, motus cum maturitate, habitus cum religione, quatenus ubique
resplendeat sanctitas, superemineat honestas"; ibid., 897C: "Nostrae divitiae,
nostra pulchritudo boni mores sunt."Adam of Dryburgh (ca. 1170) has
appropriated the discourse of cultus virtutum though he is more indebted to St.
Ambrose, De off. min. than to Hugh of St. Victor. Cf. De ordine praemonst.,
Sermo 2.11, PL 198, 459B. The Pseudo-Vincent of Beauvais compendium,
Speculum morale (late thirteenth century), 1.3.42, Speculum maius (Douai, 1624;
rpt. 1964), 3.307-8, quotes Hugh's definition of discipline in full. For further
references, see Dilwyn Knox, "The Origins of European Civility,"pp. 113-15.
67. Thomasin of Zirclaere unmistakably appropriates Hugh's definition in
prescribing the education of courtly damsels, Der Wälsche Gast, ll. 199-208: "A
woman may perform good acts, but if her gestures are not appropriate and her
speech not elegant, her good deeds remain uncrowned. For elegant gestures and
appropriate speech are crowns on a woman's actions. I tell you that her good
deeds can never remain constant, if she is unable to comport herself well and
speak as is appropriate" ("swâ ein vrouwe reht tuot, / ist ir gebaerde niht guot /
und ist ouch niht ir rede schône, / ir guot getât ist âne krône, / wan schoene
 gebaerde und rede guot / die kroenent daz ein vrouwe tuot. / ich sagiu daz ir guot
getât / mac ouch nimmer wesen stat, / kan si niht gebâren wol / und reden daz si
reden sol.") My thanks to Elke Brüggen for this reference.
68. Vincent of Beauvais borrows wholesale from De inst. nov. in his De
eruditione filiorum nobilium, ed. Steiner. His chapter 31 is a cento of quotations
from Hugh's work, including his definition of disciplina word for word. The De
inst. is quoted and adapted in many other passages. Aegidius Romanus adapts
Hugh's
 

< previous page_460 next page >

page
< previous page_461 next page >
page
Page 461
work in his influential De regimine principum. E.g., 2.2. 13: "Gestus autem
dicuntur quilibet motus membrorum ex quibus iudicari possunt motus animae
. . . . Disciplina autem, quae est danda in gestibus, est, ut quodlibet membrum
ordinetur ad opus sibi debitum. Homo enim non audit per os, sed per
aurem."D. Aegidii Romani . . . De regimine principum libri III (Rome, 1556),
192r-193v. My thanks to David Fowler for pointing out this passage to me.
69. See Tusc. Disp., 4.3.5. and the discussion of this passage, above,
Introduction.
70. Epist. Syn. Karisiac., XII, MGH Leges 2, Capit. 2, p. 436, 4-6. See above,
Chapter 1, note 36.
71. Herbordi dialogus, 2.16, p. 90. The last line raises the question whether the
influence of Hugh's De institutione shows in this biography written ca. 1155.
The resonance between Herbord's bonitas, disciplina et prudenci[a] and Hugh's
bonitas, disciplina et scientia is worth noting. The Psalm quotation is probably
not the mediator, since the ethic of elegance and "virtue made visible"is the
prominent factor pointing to Hugh. On the diffusion of the De institutione see R.
Goy, Die Überlieferung, pp. 340-67, 496-500. Bavaria was an interested
recipient of the work (Goy, p. 367). But of course the echoes do not require the
explanation of direct influence, just a shared ethical language and curriculum in
mores.
72. Cf. Didasc. 3.13. This also reiterates the stipulation of the Liber ordinis
Sancti Victoris that the first requirement for the acceptance of novices, prior to
their novitial training, is that they be "mansueti ac tractabiles . . . correctionisque
suae non impacientes"(22, 16-19; 97).
73. 933B-C. The passage depends on elaborate word plays on the raised and
depressed areas on the surface of a seal. The former are "eminent, sublime,
outstanding,"the latter "depressed and abject"in Latin the meaning is both moral
and spatial. The eminences of the model become the interior of the copy, its
depressions become his eminences.
74. De arca Noe morali, 2.6, PL 176, 640A.
75. De sacramentis, 1.6.5, PL 176, 267A.
76. De inst. nov., chapter 7, PL 176, 932D: "Quare putatis, fratres, vitam et
conversationem bonorum imitari praecipimur, nisi ut per eorum imitationem ad
novae vitae similitudinem reformemur? In ipsis siquidem similitudinis Dei forma
expressa est, et idcirco cum eis per imitationem imprimimur, ad ejusdem
similitudinis imaginem nos quoque figuramur."Richard of St. Victor took over
the idea and developed it, clearly in the context of ethical training, into a means
of mystical union with God; cf. Explicat. Cant., PL 196, 412D-413B: ". . . a
perfectis primo quaerit exempla. Considerat quam arcta se lege vivendi
 constrinxerunt . . . . Cum enim in istis imago Dei et magna ex parte similitudo
resplendeat, et quantum hos imitari potuerit, eisque assimilari, tantum Deo
meritur uniri tantumque Deum in se suscepit, quantum similitudinem ejus
assumpserit."Cf. also ibid., 443D: "in eorum vita et conversatione formam ei,
quam imitetur ostendit."A major statement of the connection of judgment, self-
knowledge and the image of God in his Benjamin minor, chapters 71 and 72, PL
196, 51-52.
77. Explicat. Cant., chapter 2, PL 196, 412A-413C (paraphrasing): Through its
struggles to seek quiet and tranquility, the soul arrives at humility. Once this
 

< previous page_461 next page >

page
< previous page_462 next page >
page
Page 462
happens, it can turn away from worldliness and "look about through the
congregation of good men, so that in he may find examples of a better life and
instructions in the virtues."Then he strives "to transfuse them through
imitation into his own manners and to ornament the house of his mind with
them."He bends all his efforts to cultivating their virtues (excolendis
virtutibus operam dat). Through these men, he seeks God, "Since the image
of God is in them, and to a great extent, that likeness shines forth . . . therefore
you form the image of God in yourself by forming the virtues."He cautions
this God-seeker not to despise the examples of those who have won fame in
secular life (413C).
78. Also the subject of Richard of St. Victor's Benjamin minor.
79. Hugh gives three contexts for "propriety in every act"(927A): worship and
the liturgy, human duties (humana officia), and the governance of the body
(quae ad usum corporis pertinent927B). The focus of De inst. nov. is exclusively
on the latter two.
80. Chapter 10, 935D: "Liganda ergo sunt foris per disciplinam membra
corporis, ut intrinsecus solidetur status mentis, quatenus dum undique exterior
custodia interiori mobilitati coercendae opponitur, tandem mens ad pacem in
seipsa colligatur. . . . Paulatimque eadem virtutis forma per consuetudinem menti
imprimitur, quae foris per disciplinam in habitu corporis conservatur."
81. Chapter 12, 938A-B: ". . . sex modis reprehensibilis invenitur, scilicet, si est
aut mollis, aut dissolutus, aut tardus, aut citatus, aut procax, aut turbidus. Mollis
significat lasciviam, dissolutus negligentiam, tardus pigritiam, citatus
inconstantiam, procax superbiam, turbidus iracundiam."Jean-Claude Schmitt has
interpreted this passage and the entire set of concerns in Hugh's treatment of
gestures in his La raison des gestes, pp. 179ff., and in his essay, "The Ethics of
Gesture."
82. Chapter 12, 943C-D: ". . . gestus hominis in omni actu esse debet gratiosus
sine mollitie, quietus sine dissolutione, gravis sine tarditate . . . . Mollem gestum
temperat turbidus, et turbidum mollis . . . quia inter vitia contraria medius limes
virtus est." On the presence of this Aristotelian definition of virtue in the earlier
Middle Ages, see C. J. Nederman, "Aristotelian Ethics before the Nichomachean
Ethics: Alternate Sources of Aristotle's Concept of Virtue in the Twelfth
Century."
83. De sacramentis legis naturalis et scripturae, PL 175, 34B. Cf. De
sacramentis, 9.2, PL 176, 317C. Here the comparison between sacrament and
significatum, the human body and soul, and scriptural letter and meaning,
suggests a common symbolic structure uniting theology (sacraments), ethics
(body-soul), and textual studies (Scripture).
 84. Cf. Richard of St. Victor, Explicat. in Cant. PL 196, 461C-463D; 462A: ". . .
custodia et disciplina loquendi mentem decorat . . . et foris pulchram animam
demonstrat . . . composita verba . . . testimonium dant constantiae mentis."Also
Hugh, De sacramentis, 1.6.21, PL 176, 276D; 1.8.5, 309D; 1.9.2, 317C.
85. Das Moralium Dogma Philosophorum des Guillaume de Conches:
Lateinisch, Altfranzösisch und Mittelnieder-fränkisch, ed. Holmberg, p. 77:
"intentio . . . est summatim docere ethicam Tullianam et Tullium et Senecam
imitari."
86. Taylor's notes to the Didascalicon, which constitute an important study of
Hugh's intellectual obligations, suggest strong connections between him and
William of Conches. Cf. esp. intro. pp. 6-7 and notes 15, 16.
 

< previous page_462 next page >

page
< previous page_463 next page >
page
Page 463
87. One example where the reader wonders if Hugh read the work: the Moral.
dog. phil. (Mdp) treats providentia and circumspectio one after the other (pp. 9-
10). Hugh's chapter 9 urges: ". . . homo sit circumspectus et providus" (934B);
these virtues foresee futurum eventum and rerum exitus (Mdp); in De inst. it is
the finis actionis and finis operis (934C, D). The Mdp commends caution:
"Cautio est discernere a virtutibus vitia virtutum speciem preferentia"; it helps
the cautious avoid deception through occultiores insidie (pp. 10, ll. 18ff.). Cf. De
inst. nov., 934C: [through circumspection] ". . . plane vitium esse dignoscitur, in
quo prius sibi animus falso de virtute blandiebatur"and it helps him avoid future
deception if once he has succumbed to insidiis inimici (934D).
88. Cf. 3.13, the chapter on humility, part of which is clearly directed against
Abelard (see also Taylor's note, p. 215, n. 68).
89. Chapter 19, 950A-B. This passage has the flavor of Roman satire, but I have
not been able to turn up a model for it, even with the help of the Argus computer
concordance of Latin literature.
90. Bonnard, Histoire, 1: 68, says that the Liber ordinis forbids guests to send
their servants out for special dishes. I could not find the passage and Bonnard
gives no reference. It does forbid guests to bring their own cooks with them:
"Just as all guests receive our care, so all must eat our fare"(Liber, 17, 243ff.;
69).
91. This is again consistent with the Liber, which enjoins the vestiarius to permit
no clothes that are "too long, or hang down in differing lengths, or flowing out
too far, or in any way distorted or inappropriately fashioned"(18, 14-15; 70:
"nimis longa . . . vel inaequaliter dependentia, aut fluxa nimis, sive quolibet alio
modo distorta, vel inepte composita"). It is the duty of the prior of the cloister to
examine all clothes issued to those with duties outside of the house, and this is
followed by an extensive list of current fashions that are not permitted (18, 18ff.;
70ff.). The linen vestments may not be "nimis subtilia aut pretiosa"(18, 37; 71).
92. See the studies by Platelle ("Le problème du scandale") and Jaeger cited
above, Chapter 7 and the discussion of the Hildesheim "crisis,"above, pp. 210-
16.

Chapter 10:
Bernard of Clairvaux
1. Bernard, epist. 113, Opera, 7: 287-91. The character Bernard addresses is a
beautiful woman of high nobility living in the world, not a nun. See Jean
Leclercq, La femme et les femmes dans l'oeuvre de Saint Bernard, pp. 57-62.
Also M. D'Elia Angiolillo, "L'Epistolario femminile de S. Bernardo,"Analecta S.
 Ordinis Cisterciensis 15 (1959): 46.
2. Epist. 113.5; Opera, 7: 290:
O quam compositum reddit omnem puellaris corporis statum, nedum et
mentis habitum, disciplina? Cervicem submittit, ponit supercilia,
componit vultum, ligat oculos, cachinnos cohibet, moderatur linguam,
gulam frenat, iram sedat, format incessum. . . . Istiusmodi circumdata
varietate virginitas, cui gloriae merito non praefertur? Angelicae?
Angelus habet virginitatem, sed non carnem, sane felicior quam fortior
in hac parte. Optimus et optabilis valde ornatus iste, qui et angelis possit
esse invidiosus.
 

< previous page_463 next page >

page
< previous page_464 next page >
page
Page 464
3. Decor animae. See Müller, Das Problem der Seelenschönheit.
4. Serm. Cant., 85.10-11; Opera, 2: 314. See Chapter 4 above, p. *** and n. 132.
5. Serm. Cant., 85.11; Opera, 2: 314:
Cum autem decoris huius claritas abundantius intima cordis repleverit,
prodeat foras necesse est. . . . Porro effulgentem et veluti quibusdam
suis radiis erumpentem mentis simulacrum corpus excipit, et diffundit
per membra et sensus, quatenus omnis inde reluceat actio, sermo,
aspectus, incessus, risus. . . . Horum et aliorum profecto actuum
sensuumque motus, gestus et usus, cum appareverit serius, purus,
modestus . . . pulchritudo animae palam erit.
The translation in the text is freely adapted from Bernard of Clairvaux on the
Song of Songs IV, trans. Irene Edmonds, pp. 206-7. Edmonds renders
honestum as "honor,"which invites confusion with the warrior ideal honos. I
have translated it "propriety"or "ethical propriety."
6. De consideratione, 1.7.8, Opera, 3: 404.1ff.: Consideration purifies the mind,
stirs affection, directs acts, corrects excess, composes manners, "vitam honestat
et ordinat."
7. This kind of insight is facilitated by the concordance to Bernard's works:
Thesaurus Sancti Bernardi. A basic statement on discipline is in Serm. Cant.,
86.1.1-2. But even here discipline aims at strengthening and maintaining "inborn
purity."Also significant, Serm. Cant., 23.3.5-6: the king's three chambers are
"discipline,""nature,"and "grace."One is guided to the first chamber by moral
principles, and one discovers there one's inferiority to others. The purpose of
discipline is ''to tame wilfulness of character by submission."The disciplined man
"becomes pleasant and temperate."But here too discipline as pedagogy is inferior
to spontaneous acts of a pure will: ". . . to curb with firm discipline the flesh's
immoderate appetites, is by no means as easy . . . as to live in the harmony of
spontaneous affection with our companions; to live agreeably with them at the
prompting of the will is different from a life where the rod is the check on
manners"(trans. Killian Walsh, pp. 30-32). Cf. also Serm. Cant., 63.6.
8. Serm. Cant., 22.1.3, trans. Walsh, pp. 15-16. Cf. also Serm. Cant., 63.6 (the
disciplined appearance and proper deportment of novices are pleasant, but they
are mere flowers, not fruits of the spiritual life).
9. Epist. 108, Opera, 7: 278.3ff.: "Haeccine est illa morum pulcherrima
compositio, qua informari te scribis scientiae huius apprehensione, cuius studio
et amore sic ferves, ut non verearis sancto proposito praeiudicium facere?"
10. Cf. Serm. Cant., 21.2.3; Opera, 1: 124.4ff.: the bridegroom is the "leader and
teacher."He is the "exemplar of her moral life, preparing the way of
 virtue"("praeiret in via morum, et praepararet iter virtutum"). He teaches the
bride to "become like himself."He gives her "the law of life and discipline,"thus
renders her beautiful, and is then attracted by her beauty.
11. On Bernard's ambiguous attitude to external beauty, see the sermons on the
"blackness of the bride", esp. Serm. Cant., 25.
12. Weitere Briefe Meinhards, epist. 1, Briefsammlungen, ed. Erdmann, p. 193.
See Chapter 4, p. 97 and n. 70.
 

< previous page_464 next page >

page
< previous page_465 next page >
page
Page 465
13. See Glenn W. Olsen, "Twelfth-Century Humanism Reconsidered: The Case
of St. Bernard,"who argues a development in Bernard away from an early
asceticism toward positions close to humanist.
14. Hildebert, epist. 18, PL 171, 294C: ". . . didicimus, te in Ecclesia cum esse,
qui ad eruditionem virtutis et exemplo sufficias et verbo."
15. Wibald, epist. 167, ed. Jaffé, p. 286: "Quem si aspicias, doceris; si audias,
instrueris; si sequare, perficeris."
16. Vita prima, 3.1, PL 185, 303C: "Apparebat in carne ejus gratia quaedam,
spiritualis potius quam carnalis. In vultu claritas praefulgebat . . . coelestis; in
oculis angelica quaedam puritas. Tanta erat interioris ejus hominis pulchritudo,
ut evidentibus quibusdam indiciis foras erumperet."Also quoted in Vita secunda,
chapter 5, PL 185, 479D.
17. A good point of comparison is Sigebert of Gembloux's Vita Wicberti. The
biographer praised Wicbert's "gift of virtues, which is something greater than if
he had shone with the glory of miracles. Miracles can often . . . obscure virtues,
but miracles derive their value only from virtues."Chapter 17, MGH SS 8, p. 515,
ll. 6ff.: "Vir Dei consummatus est in virtutum gratia, quod maius est quam si
claruisset miraculorum gloriamiraculis quippe nonnumquam virtutes offuscantur,
miracula vero solis virtutibus commendantur."See Benedicta Ward, Miracles and
the Medieval Mind, p. 25; William D. McCready, Signs of Sanctity: Miracles in
Gregory the Great, esp. pp. 84-110.
18. Vita Malachiae, chapter 19.43, Opera, 3: 348.13ff.
19. Vita Malachiae, chapter 19.43, Opera, 3: 348.18ff.
20. Serm. Cant., 18.1; Opera, 1: 104.5f.; trans. Walsh, p. 133. Walsh has
translated refundere as "influence,"which is a good interpretation. In the original,
Bernard is speaking within the metaphor of "pouring forth" (fundere), which
occurs in a chain, so that the one who receives the "oil"of grace "repours"it to
others, that is, reshapes and ''influences"them.
21. Chapter 27.58-59; Opera, 3: 361-63. This recalls the discussion of authority
in the bishop's household in De consideratione. (See above, Introduction to Part
3, p. 242, n. 22.)
22. See especially Hayden F. White, "The Gregorian Ideal and Saint Bernard of
Clairvaux"; also John Sommerfeldt, "Charismatic and Gregorian Leadership in
the Thought of Bernard of Clairvaux"; Bernard Jacqueline, Episcopat et papauté
chez Saint Bernard de Clairvaux.
23. De praecepto et dispensatione, 7.15, Opera, 3: 263-64; Bernard of Clairvaux,
Treatises I, trans. Greenia, p. 116.
 24. Among Bernard's letters in the Migne edition, Epist. 337, PL 182, 542B. See
Jaeger, "Peter Abelard's Silence,"p. 32 and n. 19.
25. I cannot agree with Bernard Jacqueline that the priority of the Benedictine
Rule ("prodesse magis quam praeesse") looms large (Episc. et papauté, pp.
150ff.). Jacqueline's references are all to dominium, a bad word in the abbot's
vocabulary. Praeesse is something else; it designates an important obligation,
never to be separated from prodesse, but also not to be subordinated to it.
26. On Bernard's style, see Jean Leclercq, "S. Bernard écrivain,"in his Recueil
d'études sur Saint Bernard et ses éccrits (Rome, 1962), 1: 321-35; also Christine
 

< previous page_465 next page >

page
< previous page_466 next page >
page
Page 466
Mohrmann, "Observations sur la langue et le style de Saint Bernard,"Intro. to
Opera, 2: ix-xxxiii.
27. Cf. the cases of Ruotger/Brun and Wipo/Conrad. Above, p. 191.
28. Vita Prima 3.8, PL 185, 320C: "Haec nos quidem de sacris moribus Patris
nostri . . . perstrinximus. Caeterum longe eminentius in suis ille libris apparet, et
ex litteris propriis innotescit, id quibus ita suam videtur expressisse imaginem, et
exhibuisse speculum quoddam sui . . . "
29. Cf. Christ and Socrates. W. Jaeger, Paideia, 2: 17.
30. Vita Prima 3.7, PL 185, 314D-315A: "facta sunt aliquando signa per sanctos
homines et perfectos: facta sunt et per fictos. Ego mihi nec perfectionis conscius
sum, nec fictionis."
31. Leclercq, La femme et les femmes, p. 58. He infers its "caractère hautement
littéraire."

Chapter 11:
Twelfth-Century Humanism
1. Current and past views on the nature and history of medieval humanism are
widely divergent. On the one hand David Knowles, Wolfram von den Steinen,
and Peter von Moos see it as a revival of classicism and ideals of human dignity
in Hildebert, Bernard Silvester, John of Salisbury, and Alan of Lille's
Anticlaudianus, which died out soon after the mid-twelfth century. On the other
hand, Étienne Gilson and R. W. Southern argue that the early twelfth century
represents fledgling beginnings, which come to fruition in the great achievement
of high scholasticism. Southern sees the beginnings of humanism in monastic
communities and in the cult of friendship, and takes Anselm of Bec/Canterbury
as its earliest representative. Gilson and Southern include Aristotle as a
representative of classicism, and take theology as the high point of humanism.
See Knowles, "The Humanism of the Twelfth Century"; Wolfram von den
Steinen, "Humanismus um 1100"; von Moos, Hildebert, passim; Étienne Gilson,
"L'humanisme médiévale"; R. W. Southern, "Medieval Humanism.''See the
recent trenchant criticism of Southern along with an original rereading of
medieval humanism by Glenn W. Olsen, "Twelfth Century Humanism
Reconsidered: The Case of St. Bernard,"with extensive bibliography.
2. Metalogicon, 1.1, trans. McGarry, p. 11; ed. Hall, p. 13.
3. Metalogicon, 2.9, ed. Webb, p. 77; trans. McGarry, p. 94; ed. Hall, p. 69.
4. Southern had no thorough study of medieval friendship at his disposal. In the
meantime, B. P. McGuire's work, Friendship and Community, has made it clear
 that the monastic cult of friendship is an appropriation from the schools.
5. Some thoughts on this in my study, "L'amour des rois."
6. Sigebert of Gembloux, Pass. Theb., prohem, 2.21-22, ed. Dümmler, p. 69
(above, Chapter 6. p. ***); Benzo of Alba, Ad Heinricum IV., 7.3, MGH SS 11,
p. 673; Baudri, ed. Hilbert, nr. 153, p. 204. ll. 49-50 (ed. Abrahams, nr. 215, p.
272): "Sunt dii, non homines, quos lactat philosophia, / Nec deberent dii vivere
sicut homo"; Amadeus of Lausanne, Homélies 4.22, ed. Bavaud, p. 112 (above,
Chapter 5, p. ***, n. 126); Alan, Anticlaudianus, 6.366-67: "Sic ad nos divinus
homo descendat, ut upsis / Virtutum titulis aliorum moribus instet."Cf. 1.240-41:
"Sic
 

< previous page_466 next page >

page
< previous page page_467 next page >
Page 467
homo sicque Deus fiet, sic factus uterque / Quod neuter mediaque via
tutissimus ibit."
7. The same structure occurs in a discursive mode in William of Conches's
Philosophia mundi.
8. Bernard Silvester, Cosmographia, ed. Dronke. Cf. p. 100 ("Megacosmus,"2.6):
the seeds of contrary qualities in Silva's womb are at war (repugnantia sibi
semina); and they move about "with the clash of contradictory tendencies"
(contrariis motibus). English translations from The Cosmographia of Bernardus
Silvestris, trans. Wetherbee, p. 71.
9. Hyle's condition is "two-faced"or "ambiguous"(anceps), inclined to good and
evil, but favoring evil (preponderante malitiaCosmographia, 2.2, ed. Dronke, p.
99). Rooted in her seedbed is an inborn strain of malice (quaedam malignitatis
antiquior nota2.6, p. 100).
10. Trans. Wetherbee, p. 71; ed. Dronke, 2.7, p. 100.
11. Closely analysed in Brian Stock, Myth and Science in the Twelfth Century: A
Study of Bernard Silvester. Stock clearly has found the source for the
"evil"(malitia and carentia) inherent in unformed matter and its need to receive
"cultivation and beauty"(cultum ornatumque): it is Chalcidius's reception of
Aristotle's Physics on matter (Stock, pp. 114-17). But that passage gives no
antecedents for the transformation of matter from rudis, indisciplinatus, to
expolitus, morigeratus, and disciplinatus; from contentious, litigious, and
warring to pax, amor, and amicitia, a change described as moribus ad gratiam
inmutatis. These conceptions and their vocabulary are abstracted from education.
12. Sigebert, Pass. Theb., 3.8, ed. Dümmler, p. 112, ll. 599-604. See above,
Chapter 6, p. 183.
13. For instance, the commentary on the first six books of the Aeneid, and, if the
ascription is correct, the commentary on Martianus Capella.
14. Brian Stock calls the work "a type of the Bildungsroman"(Myth and Science,
p. 164).
15. Anticlaud., 1.119: "Hic hominum mores picture gracia scribit."Latin
references to Alan of Lille, Anticlaudianus: Texte critique avec une introduction
et des tables, ed. Bossuat, here p. 60. English from Alan of Lille Anticlaudianus,
or The Good and Perfect Man, trans. Sheridan.
16. My translation. Sheridan's is accurate but oblique. 1.270-71, p. 65: "Surgit ad
hoc placidi vultus gestusque modesti / Circumscripta modum Prudencia."
17. 7.121-38, trans. Sheridan, pp. 176-77, ed. Bossuat, pp. 160-61:
Totum componit hominem, contemperat actus
 Verbaque metitur, libratque silencia, gestus
Ponderat, appendit habitus sensusque refrenat . . .
Describit gestum capitis faciemque venuste
Suscitat ad recti libram, ne fronte supina
Ad superos tendens, videatur spernere nostros
Mortales, nostram dedignans visere vitam,
Vel nimis in faciem terre demissus, inhertem
Desertumque notet animum; moderancius ergo
 

< previous page page_467 next page >

< previous page_468 next page >
page
Page 468
Erigitur, nec enim surgit vel decidit ultra
Mensuram. . . .
18. 7.138-63, trans. Sheridan pp. 177-8, ed. Bossuat, p. 161:
. . . Constancia vultus
Scurriles prohibet gestus nimiumque severos
Abdicat incessus . . .
Et ne degeneres scurrili more lacertos
Exerat et turpi vexet sua brachia gestu,
Aut fastum signans ulnas exemplet in arcum,
Admonet illa virum, vel ne delibet eundo
Articulisque pedum terram, vix terrea tangens,
Eius legitimo firmat vestigia gressu.
Ne cultu nimium crinis lascivus adequet
Femineos luxus sexusque recidat honorem,
Aut nimis incomptus iaceat . . .
. . . tenet inter utrumque
Illa modum proprioque locat de more capillos.
Non habitum cultus nimio splendore serenat,
Non scalore premit, mediocriter omnia pensat.
Ne vitanda foris oculus venetur et auris,
. . . visum castigat et aurem,
Frenat odoratum . . .
        sensus gustus contemperat, usum
Tactus componit.
19. Linda Marshall, "The Identity of the `New Man' in the `Anticlaudianus' of
Alan of Lille"; Michael Wilks, "Alan of Lille and the New Man."Also of interest
for our topic is P. G. Walsh, "Alan of Lille as a Renaissance Figure."
20. Cf. also John Baldwin's skepticism on this point, The Government of Philip
Augustus, p. 571.
21. Cf. Grabmann, Geschichte der scholastischen Methode, 1: 272-336.
22. Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV., ed. Erdmann, Weitere Briefe
Meinhards, epist. 1, p. 193.
23. "Gedichte aus Frankreich,"ed. Dümmler, ll. 48-51. See above, Chapter 3, p.
58.
24. Marbod, Carmina, ed. Bulst, p. 18. See above, Chapter 4, p. 116.

Chapter 12:
 Court Society
1. Bumke's Höfische Kultur is an important study. See also his recent, extensive
survey of research, "Höfische Kultur: Versuch einer kritischen
Bestandsaufnahme."
2. On the Merovingian palace school see Riché, Education and Culture, pp. 238-
39. Riché's treatment of early medieval court education does not suggest that
 

< previous page_468 next page >

page
< previous page_469 next page >
page
Page 469
the neo-classical curriculum observable at Carolingian, Ottonian and many
later courts played any prominent role.
3. On William's career, see R. L. Poole, Illustrations of the History of Medieval
Thought and Learning, 2nd ed., pp. 106-12; J. M. Parent, La doctrine de la
création dans l'école de Chartres (Paris, 1938), esp. pp. 11-25; Manitius,
Geschichte, 3: 215ff.; Jeauneau, Glosae super Platonem, pp. 9ff.; Bradford
Wilson in his edition, Guillaume de Conches, Glosae in Iuvenalem, pp. 75ff.
John Newell, "William of Conches,"in Dictionary of Literary Biography. The
article by Dorothy Elford on William in the History of Twelfth Century Western
Philosophy, ed. Dronke, is a good summarizing of his thought and influence, but
is not interested in his biography.
4. The editor of the Moralium dogma, John Holmberg, takes this to be Henry II
(pp. 6-7) against the skepticism of Manitius, Geschichte, 3: 219.
5. See Lèsne, Les écoles, pp. 39ff.; Fleckenstein, "Königshof und
Bischofsschule,"pp. 40f.; idem, Die Bildungsreform Karls des Grossen, pp. 24ff.;
Brunhölzl, "Der Bildungsauftrag der Hofschule,"pp. 28f.; Rosamond
McKitterick, "The Palace School of Charles the Bald."
6. Anselm of Liège, Gesta ep. Leod., chapter 28, MGH SS 7, p. 205. See above,
Chapter 7, p. 203 and n. 20.
7. Epist, syn. Karisiac. 12, MGH Leges 2, Capit. 2, p. 436, ll. 2-6. See above,
Chapter 4, p. 113 and n. 141.
8. A recent article by Louis Holtz shows that one of the distinct changes in the
teaching of grammar in the course of the tenth century is the swell of classical
authors read in the second half: "Les nouvelles tendances de la pédagogie
grammaticale au Xe siècle."
9. MGH SS 12, p. 245. ll. 9ff. See the discussion of this and other texts on court
education in Origins of Courtliness, pp. 215-18.
10. The contemporary terms are aulica or curialis nutritura, or aulicae/curiales
disciplinae. See Origins of Courtliness, pp. 215-16.
11. The Vitae I treat are by John of Salisbury, Edward Grim, William of
Canterbury, and especially William Fitzstephen and Herbert of Bosham. They
are published in Rolls Series 67: 1-3. For brief biographies of the biographers,
see David Knowles, Thomas Becket, pp. 172ff.; also Frank Barlow, Thomas
Becket. On Becket and the climate of ideas, see Beryl Smalley, The Becket
Conflict and the Schools. Another recent biography is by Pierre Aube, Thomas
Becket. See also H. Vollrath, "`Gewissensmoral' und Konfliktverständnis:
Thomas Becket in der Darstellung seiner Biographen"; A. Duggan, "John of
Salisbury and Thomas Becket,"in The World of John of Salisbury, ed. Wilks, pp.
 427-38.
12. Herbert of Bosham, Vita Thomae, 1.Pref; RS 67: 3, p. 156 (Prefatory letter to
Baldwin of Canterbury):
Vobis enim praesertim exemplum dedit exemplaris iste vir, ut,
quemadmodum fecit ipse, et vos similiter faciatis. Unde et per totam
historiam hanc virum descripsi exemplarem, non quidem mirandum in
signis, sed imitandum in operibus.
(I will cite this Vita in the form, Herbert, 3.13.208 = Book 3, chapter 13, p.
208.) Several times Herbert draws on this significant conceit: Becket is or was
in his own
 

< previous page_469 next page >

page
< previous page_470 next page >
page
Page 470
person a book which we can read. Cf. 1.Pref.156: "I have wished to restore to
you . . . the uncorrupt exemplar [i.e., the man himself], by which you should
live and govern, and in which you should read every day"("exemplar restitui
vobis desidero; exemplar quippe hoc incorruptum, secundum quod vivere,
secundum quod regere, in quo et quotidie legere debeatis"). Also 3.13.208:
"Let us now fold back anew the pages of our exemplar [= Thomas himself]
and continue to read in it. For acts of virtue are certainly read more fruitfully
in men themselves than books, just as deeds speak more effectively than
words"(Latin text given above, Introduction, p. 11 and n. 18).
13. 3.18.248: ". . . non solum pontificis opera, sed et causas operum . . . non
solum facta, sed et animum facientis . . ."
14. A brief portrait of the young man's mores, virtues and physical appearance
was an obligatory topic of a bishop's biography. See Origins of Courtliness, pp.
32ff.
15. RS 67: 2, p. 302 (chapter 1): "statura procerus, decorus forma, ingenio
perspicax, dulcis et jucundus eloquio, et venustate morum pro aetate amabilis . .
."
16. RS 67: 3.7.17 (the chapter heading is "De statura illius et moralitate"): "Erat
siquidem placido vultu et venusto, statura procerus, naso eminentiore et parum
inflexo, sensibus corporeis vegetus, eloquio comptus, ingenio subtilis, animo
magnus, virtutum iter jam altius ingrediens, omnibus amabilem se exhibens . . .
munificus et facetus . . . statim prudens hujus saeculi filius."
17. 2.1.163: "Duplex enim est in hominibus gratia; est quippe civilis quaedam
gratia, urbana, benigna, dulcis, socialis et ad sui dilectionem invitans, qua homo
plus placet saeculo, sed Deo minus."
18. Cf. William Fitzstephen, RS 67: 3, chapter 5, p. 16, comparing Becket to the
other men of high learning at the court of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury:
"Thomas was less a man of letters; but far superior is the rule of manners to that
of letters [ratio morum quam litterarum], and he strove to pursue moral training
[moralitas] and prudence."Also ibid., chapter 28, pp. 39-40 ("Reason the queen
reigned within him, commanding lusts and base impulses of the mind. Led by
Reason he progressed in virtue, possessing the four cardinal virtues. This
`fourfold chord' [diatessaron] is the highest harmony attainable on earth"). In the
next chapter he says that Becket "took pains to perform all his duties with
constancy, splendor, dignity, honesty [constanter, splendide, graviter, honeste];
to consult wisdom in all things, to govern himself . . . to believe himself born not
for himself, but for all in need of his help"(chapter 29, p. 40). Edward Grim says
that the young Becket was worldly and ambitious of honors. He "poured his soul
into external things.''"There was in him a mature wisdom unique in one so
young. His counsels were those of an experienced man. He had a charm and
 dignity of manners [morum jocunditas, gravitas] that won him the admiration
and love of all men"(RS 67: 2, p. 361, chapter 11). Also William of Canterbury,
RS 67: 1, p. 3, chapter 1.
19. Herbert 4.4.327: ". . . totius hominis compositionem intuebatur et gestum,
corporis videlicet proceritatem egregiam, frontem amplam et aspectum severum,
faciem oblongam et venustam, formam manuum oblongarum, et articulorum in
manibus congruam et quasi exquisitam his protensionem."
20. Edward Grim, RS 67: 2, p. 359, chapter 8: "optimis coepit pollere moribus."
 

< previous page_470 next page >

page
< previous page_471 next page >
page
Page 471
21. RS 67: 2, p. 303, chapter 3: ". . . etsi superbus esset et vanus, et interdum
faciem praetenderet insipienter amantium et verba proferret, admirandus tamen
et imitandus erat in corporis castitate."
22. This penchant continues, Herbert asserts, even when Becket entered the staff
of Theobald of Canterbury and rose to the position of archdeacon (2.7.172).
23. Cf. 2.8.173: "in apparatu magnificum"; 2.11.175: [the king favors him]
"tantam cernente magnificentiam"; 2.11.175: his favor rises in relation to his
magnificentia; 2.11.176: ''ad ipsius revertar magnificentiam"; 2.11.176: "supra
omnes et prae omnibus apparebat magnificus, sicut magnus corde magnus et
corpore, magnus et apparatu. Nihil circa eum nisi magnum, nihil nisi
magnificentia."See Barlow, Becket, pp. 43ff. and n. 4.
24. William Fitzstephen, RS 67: 3, pp. 29ff., chapters 19-20. See Barlow, pp. 55-
57; analyzed in Brown / Jaeger, "Pageantry and Court Aesthetics."
25. Fitzstephen, RS 67:3, p. 26, chapter 16. On his generosity see also ibid., pp.
22-23, chapter 12.
26. See Origins of Courtliness, pp. 143-47, 162-65.
27. Fitzstephen, chapter 12, p. 22. On the education of pages in general, see Lutz
Fenske, "Der Knappe: Erziehung und Funktion."On Becket as teacher of pages,
pp. 60-61.
28. See Fenske, "Der Knappe,"pp. 64-65.
29. Fitzstephen tells us that Becket as chancellor had fifty-two learned clerics in
his service, most of whom were attached to his household staff (chapter 18, p.
29). There was no lack of learned tutors at court.
30. William of Canterbury RS 67: 1, p. 5, chapter 4. John of Salisbury, 67: 2, pp.
307-8. John of Salisbury has left the most extensive commentary on Becket's
banqueting in the Policraticus. Fitzstephen on the chancellor's table, chapter 11,
pp. 20-21; he describes the archbishop's table in describing his ascetic practices,
but he indicates that the asceticism was behind the scenes, and leaves us to
reconstruct a sumptuous foreground (chapter 26, pp. 37-38).
31. It sounds very much like one of those classifications Hugh of St. Victor is
fond of, though the wording does not suggest that Herbert used the De
institutione novitiorum as a model. Cf. De inst. nov. chapter 19, PL 176, 950A:
"Sequitur triplex observatio disciplinae in cibo, observatio in eo quid sumat, . . .
in quanto sumat, . . . in eo quomodo sumat."
32. In a later chapter Herbert castigates Thomas for excessive abstinence in
eating. Asceticism, he argues, is itself a temptation, which one must resist no less
than indulgence. The wise man follows the path of reason, restraint and
 moderation, governs his will with discretion. As a result of this lesson, Becket
moderates his asceticism (Herbert 4.14.376-77).
33. A scene in Fitzstephen's biography gives us some insight into Herbert's
character. In 1169 Henry received two emissaries from Becket. One of them was
John of Salisbury, the other Herbert of Bosham. As Herbert entered the king's
presence, Fitzstephen reports, the king whispered to his retinue, "Look now, how
arrogant this next fellow is,"and Fitzstephen explains, Herbert was "of noble
stature, a handsome shape, dressed perhaps in an overly splendid manner"(RS
67: 3, p. 99, chapter 97: "Rex ait de eo, `En videbitis quendam superbum intrare.'
Ipse
 

< previous page_471 next page >

page
< previous page_472 next page >
page
Page 472
quidem, statura ut erat procerus et forma venustus, etiam satis splendide erat
indutus").
34. Throughout the vita, Herbert refers to Becket as magister and to himself as
discipulus.
35. On Herbert's enthusiastic praise of their beauty, recall that Bernard of
Clairvaux had reproached bishops for attracting "boys with luxuriously curled
hair and foppish young men"to their retinue (De consideratione, 4.6). Otherwise
Becket's household in Canterbury fits the picture Bernard draws of a well
disciplined bishop's court. See above, Introduction to Part 3, p. 242.
36. P. 227: "ad obsequendum paratissimi, et saepius obsequentes injussi."
37. P. 227: "propter viri magnificentiam tam civiliter eruditam et tam urbane
edoctam."I read this as indicating that instruction in magnificence passes from
Becket to the boys, not as a comment on Becket's own education. The feminine
adjective endings confirm this reading: eruditam, edoctam. The
"magnificence"and not Becket is referred to.
38. Becket is erudite circumspectus, curialiter eruditus, civiliter sobrius. He
observes and corrects the household "subtly and with courtly breeding"[modesto
quodam modo et civiliter erudito].
39. In several of the biographies Becket is made to appear as a master of "courtly
dissimulation,"and that includes the business of the church. This is the formula
by which in part the biographers transform Becket's apparent worldliness into
secret service of the church. See esp. Herbert of Bosham, 2.9.173-74. Also the
discussion in my Medieval Humanism in Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan und
Isolde, pp. 91-94.
40. On the gradual move of curialitas from abuse to praise see Origins of
Courtliness, pp. 155-57.
41. 8.6.259: ". . . eleganter innuit in cantico citharedi poeta doctissimus veterum
gravitatem, qui in cetu civili nichil admittebant nisi quod naturae aut morum
instructione polleret."
42. Janet Martin is preparing a study of John of Salisbury's use of Macrobius on
banqueting.
43. Herbert 6.9, p. 508:
Et ut adhuc, quod non solum ad virtutem sed et ad ornatum attinet, et
velut ad privilegiatum quoddam martyrii decus, quadam decenti exterius
membrorum compositione exterioris hominis patronus hic noster
paratum sibi decoravit martyrium, quasi indecens pro Christo mori
judicans, nisi etiam decenter moreretur pro Christo.
 44. De inst. nov., chapter 10, PL 176, 935A-B. See above, Chapter 9, p. 256 and
n. 62.
45. "De nuptiis,"ed. Boutemy, p. 50, ll. 136-45. See above, Chapter 5, pp. 132-33
and n. 36.
46. It would not be useful to summarize the debate on courtly love here or its
literature. For a recent study with earlier literature see Bumke, Höfische Kultur,
pp. 503-82 and Schnell, "Die `höfische Liebe' als `höfischer Diskurs' über die
Liebe."
47. Hennig Brinkmann, Entstehungsgeschichte des Minnesangs, pp. 18-44, and
 

< previous page_472 next page >

page
< previous page_473 next page >
page
Page 473
Gerald Bond, "`Iocus amoris': The Poetry of Baudri of Bourgueil and the
Formation of the Ovidian Subculture,"have opened access to the eleventh-
century roots of courtly love by pointing to the Loire circle of poets, Marbod,
Baudri, Hildebert. Brinkmann argues that the vernacular poetry of courtly
love emerges from the interchange among these poets and noble ladies at
courts and in monasteries. Bond suggests that the poems and letters to men
formed part of a public discourse of love that moved over to women. These
insights produce three shifts in perspective that position us to see "what was
there before": (1) Latin and not vernacular is its language; (2) men and not
women were its original object; (3) public and ceremonial, not private
discourse characterizes its mode. Some observations in my "L'amour des
rois."
48. See Jaeger, "L'amour des rois,"pp. 549ff.
49. Peter Damian, Vita Romualdi, chapter 25, PL 145, 975C. Further examples in
"L'amour des rois,"pp. 547-49.
50. Vita Adalberti, chapter 23, MGH SS 4, p. 591, ll. 32ff. This early work (ca.
997) already shows distinctly that the love of two men is the medium for moral
instruction, not for sex. Adalbert shared the emperor's room night and day so that
"with his sweet sayings, he could inflame the emperor with love of the celestial
fatherland . . . instructing him also not to imagine he is great because he is
emperor."See McGuire, Friendship and Community, p. 154, and "L'Amour des
rois,"p. 549 and n. 13.
51. John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality. On the
ambiguity of the discourse see Bond, "Iocus amoris."
52. That is the main reason, I believe, why Peter Dinzelbacher can find no traces
of love defined as romantic, private emotion between men and women, prior to
the twelfth century. See his "Über die Entdeckung der Liebe im
Hochmittelalter"; also idem, "Sozial- und Mentalitätsgeschichte der Liebe im
Mittelalter."
53. Baudri of Bourgueil states this principle outrightno doubt an indication that
the innocence of discourse is erodingin a poem to Godfrey of Rheims (ed.
Hilbert, nr. 99; ed. Abrahams, nr. 161): "Carminibus meis sexus uterque placet. /
Nam si quid vellem, si quid vehementer amarem, / Esset amoris tunc nescia carta
mei. / Non promulgetur confessio carmine nostra; / Solus cum solo crimina
confitear. / Non est in triviis alicuius amor recitandus"(ll. 187-94: ". . . both
sexes are pleasing to my verse. . . . If I wanted something, if I loved something
ardently, my parchment would be ignorant of this love. Let no confession be
publicized in my poem; let me confess my crimes alone to a confidant. No one's
love is to be recounted in public"). See Bond, "Iocus amoris,"pp. 183-84. Bond's
translation is cited here.
 54. Gesta regis Henrici secundi, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Henry II and
Richard I, ed. W. Stubbs, RS 49: 2.7. "L'amour des rois"is an analysis of this
passage.
55. "Satyra de amicicia . . . (Clm 29111): Das Freundschaftsideal eines
Freigelassenen,"ed. Raedle.
56. Hildesheimer Briefe, epist. 36, ed. Erdmann, Briefsammlungen der Zeit
Heinrichs IV., pp. 76-79. Neither writer nor addressee has been identified. The
letter was written prior to 1085 and probably after 1073the span of the datable
letters in the collection.
 

< previous page_473 next page >

page
< previous page_474 next page >
page
Page 474
57. Ed. Hilbert, nr. 3, p. 15-17, "Ad iuvenem nimis elatum."See Boswell,
Christianity, p. 245
58. As did Abelard. He says that precisely the license to whip and beat Heloise
served as a convenient camouflage of their love making.
59. The parallel to a poem by Marbod of Rennes underscores this interpretation,
but also the problems of this discourse. It purports to retell a poem of Horace,
describing a beautiful but arrogant boy. He is cruel and inhuman (impius). He
kills others with his coldness and laughs at their suffering. Marbod comments
that this fault of his mores takes all value from the beauty of his body: "a
beautiful face seeks a good and patient mind / Not puffed up with pride, but
ready for this and that."Beauty of the flesh fades soon. Therefore while in the
bloom of youth, "take on the manners of a mature man."(PL 171, 1717D-18B).
See the conflicting interpretations of Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance,
and Homosexuality, p. 248 and McGuire, Friendship and Community, p. 247.
Bond's suggestion that the contradiction of physical and spiritual love is resolved
in the joke persuades me; see "Iocus amoris."Marbod is playing, writing a satyra
(which means here only a happy, playful poem, not a "satire''), when he says the
boy's problem is that he will not consent to love. Speaking the language of illicit
love, he corrects the boy's arrogance. John Boswell's point remains, and is
perhaps strengthened by this interpretation: a discourse of male love was so
accepted that it could serve as the vehicle of moral correction.
60. See Ralph Hexter, Ovid and Medieval Schooling; John W. Baldwin, "L'ars
amatoria au XIIe siècle en France: Ovide, Abélard, André le Chapelain et Pierre
le Chantre."
61. The point of departure for Dinzelbacher's study, "Die Entdeckung der
Liebe"(n. 52 above), is the near total silence of earlier medieval sources on the
love of men and women.
62. Ruodlieb, ed. Vollmann, 16.55ff.: [tell me where I can find a wife] "Quae
non indecor et nostrum genus, id sed inauret / Moribus ingenita vel vitae
nobilitate". The advisor replies, ". . . dominam . . . unam scio, quae tibi par fit /
Moris honestate virtute ve nobilitate."
63. Baudri, "Ad Dominam Constantiam,"ed. Hilbert, nr. 200, pp. 266-71.
Constance is a woman of high nobility and broad education, a nun at the time of
their exchange, probably in the monastery of Le Ronceray at Angers. See Bond,
"Iocus,"p. 168 and n. 74.
64. Ll. 45-46: "Pectora iungantur, sed corpora semoveantur; / Sit pudor in facto,
sit iocus in calamo."
65. "Chaste love"which is honestus opposed to destructive carnal love is also the
theme of the "Parce continuis,"a poem of love consolation from the late eleventh
 century. See David A. Trall, "`Parce continuis': A New Text and Interpretative
Notes."The poet urges a friend, who is weeping in the bonds of carnal passion, to
a love which seeks only honestas and whose sole passion is utilitas (i.e.,
Ciceronian amicitia). He cites examples of friends joined by "a venerable
bond"opposing them to lovers destroyed by passion. The image of Pyramus and
Thisbe separated by the wall offers a metaphor for carnal passion controlled and
forced into the strictures of spiritual love. The wall permitted only the passage of
their souls, and restricted their
 

< previous page_474 next page >

page
< previous page_475 next page >
page
Page 475
intercourse to colloquia intima (St. 4a, ll. 47ff.). Passion and desire controlled
are an ideal.
66. Ed. Hilbert, nr. 134; ed. Abrahams, nr. 196. Abrahams dates the poem
between 1099 and 1102 (p. 232). See Brinkmann, Entstehungsgeschichte, pp.
21ff. and Bond, "Iocus amoris,"pp. 180-81.
67. See, for instance, Brinkmann, Entstehungsgeschichte, p. 25.
68. See Scaglione, Knights at Court, esp. pp. 89-111.
69. Cf. Alfred Karnein, De Amore in Volkssprachlicher Literatur:
Untersuchungen zur Andreas Capellanus-Rezeption in Mittelalter und
Renaissance; Rüdiger Schnell, Andreas Capellanus: Zur Rezeption des
römischen und kanonischen Rechts in De Amore.
70. References to Andreas Capellanus on Love, ed. and trans. P. G. Walsh.
71. E.g., Peter Damian on the perfect worldly cleric: "pulcher aspectu
quodammodo, sicut Tullius loquitur"(PL 145, 700C.); Lampert of Hersfeld on
Gunther of Bamberg: "vir preter morum gloriam et animac divicias corporis
quoque bonis adprime ornatus . . . tum statura et formae elegantia ac tocius
corporis integritate . . . caeteris eminens mortalibus"; Lampert, Annales (1065),
p. 99; Godfrey of Rheims on Odo of Orleans: "habitus, vox, sermo, figura, /
Gressus et aspectus consona signa dabant'' ("Trois oeuvres,"ed. Boutemy, p. 345,
ll. 28-29); Norbert of Xanten: "forma et habilitate corporis beneficio naturae
gaudens et cum scientia litterarum eloquio praeeminens, morum ornatu cunctis
qui eum noverant gratum se exhibebat"(Vita Norberti, chapter 1, LB p. 452).
72. In the dialogue between a man and woman of the high nobility, the man
praises the woman for the youthful glow in her face, and comments, "Exterior
enim habitus manifeste demonstrat qualis sit intus dispositio mentis"(1.6.446, p.
172). In enumerating the means of increasing love in book 2, he says, "Multam
praeterea intensionem praestat amori gestus et incessus placabilis coamanti atque
facundia pulchra loquendi suavitasque sermonis"(2.2.6, p. 228).
73. ". . . incumbit ut tales se debeant bona facientibus exhibere, ut eorum
probitas earum intuitu de virtute in virtutem modis omnibus crescere
videatur"(1.6.403-4, p. 158).
74. Gottfried, Tristan, ll. 8290-97; trans. Hatto, p. 150 (here with minor
variations).
75. For instance, in the dialogue of plebeius with plebeia (1.6.49 - 55, pp. 52-4):
a young boy courts an experienced woman, who turns him down as lacking
either the "signs of probity"or fame of good deeds. He requests schooling from
her (bonis moribus informari), arguing that a teacher (doctor) receives greater
 honor from the improvement of an inexperienced pupil (discipulum imperitum)
through his teaching (doctrina), hence he seeks her teaching: ". . . in amore rudis
te mihi peto magistram et tua doctrina plenius erudiri."She turns him down and
suggests that he should go to the schools of Paris if he wants schooling. It is
sarcasm, not a sober comment that women don't teach. On the contrary, she says
she can get a learned lover (doctus amator), being herself a trained woman
(instructa mulier). Cf. the case in the courts of love where a woman teaches a
man courtesy (in probis moribus propria . . . doctrina). Her teaching renders him
"decorous in every virtue of courtliness"(in . . . qualibet curialitatis decorato
virtute2.13.28-30, p. 260).
76. This is not to suggest that the peace movement (or the clerical response in
 

< previous page_475 next page >

page
< previous page_476 next page >
page
Page 476
any of the following conflicts cited) "resolved"the problem once and for all,
established peace and courtesy as the dominant reality of aristocratic life; just
that they established peace and restraint as the dominant social ideals. See the
analysis by Georges Duby, "The Laity and the Peace of God"; also Gerd
Althoff, "Nunc fiant Christi milites, qui dudum extiterunt raptores: Zur
Entstehung von Rittertum und Ritterethos"; and my study of this dynamic of
social transformation, "Courtliness and Social Change."
77. See Bumke's treatment of courtly love and the position of women in court
society in Höfische Kultur, pp. 451-582.
78. See the criticisms of the knighthood in Peter of Blois's epist. 94 (PL 207,
293-97), analysed in "Courtliness and Social Change."
79. In "Courtliness and Social Change."

Conclusion
1. This is not to ignore the important findings of Pierre Riché on pre-Carolingian
education. It was more extensive than had been believed. But Riché's studies
have not changed the accepted view that Carolingian reforms accomplished a
spread of learning not imaginable previously.
2. There are some imaginative readings of the connections between scholasticism
and the culture in which it flourished, for instance Erwin Panofsky, Gothic
Architecture and Scholasticism; Charles M. Radding and William W. Clark,
Medieval Architecture, Medieval Learning: Building and Masters in the Age of
Romanesque and Gothic; also Ullrich Langer, Divine and Poetic Freedom in the
Renaissance: Nominalist Theology and Literature in France and Italy. But these
have in common that they look at underlying shared mentalities, not direct
connections. There are, however, direct and demonstrable historical connections
between Carolingian education reforms and European literacy; between Ottonian
reforms and European civility.
3. The disputation, one of its basic pedagogic arrangements, required presence
and authority of a very different kind from the old learning.
4. See my "Courtliness and Social Change."
5. See the introduction to the most recent American edition of European
Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1990), by Peter Godman: "The Ideas of Ernst Robert Curtius and the Genesis of
ELLMA,"pp. 599-653.
 Appendix A:
Discipline and Sculpture
1. On the Strassburg sculptures, Georg Dehio, Das Strassburger Münster
(Munich, 1922), esp. 25ff. Dehio cannot identify the source of the statues on the
three west portals with any French school but considers them undoubtedly of
French provenance (p. 32). On the sculpture of the Strassburg cathedral in
general, Otto Schmitt, Gotische Skulpturen des Strassburger Münsters, 2 vols.
(Frankfurt/Main, 1924) with an analysis of the Wise and Foolish virgins, pp. 22-
26. Schmitt
 

< previous page_476 next page >

page
< previous page_477 next page >
page
Page 477
points to Rheims and Paris for lines of influence, though he also sees those
lines as vague. Schmitt also stresses the later influence of the west portal
statues of Strassburg. Also Willibald Sauerländer, Von Sens bis Strassburg:
Ein Beitrag zur kunstgeschichtlichen Stellung der Strassburger
Querhausskulpturen (Berlin, 1966); Hans Reinhardt, La cathédrale de
Strasbourg (Strassburg: Arthaud, 1972).
2. On the representation of vices and virtues see Emil Mâle, The Gothic Image:
Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century, trans. Dora Nussey (New
York, Evanston, London, 1958), pp. 98-130; Adolf Katzenellenbogen, Allegories
of the Virtues and Vices in Mediaeval Art (New York, 1964); Jennifer O'Reilly,
Studies in the Iconography of the Virtues and Vices in the Middle Ages (New
York and London: Oxford University Press, 1988).
The Strassburg virgins carry the conventional emblem of the upright and
overturned lamps, but this portrayal only shows their traditional function in
the context of Christ's parable (Matt. 25:1-13). They are ordinarily
represented in early Gothic art in that context, as the damned and the elect at
the last judgment. Strassburg changes this context decisively. The reference to
the last judgment remains in the tympanum of the same portal. But the second
and unconventional context is moral philosophy and the Christian life (Christ
leading into the church) as opposed to the life of pleasure (the tempter leading
away from it).
3. See Katzenellenbogen, Virtues and Vices, pp. 57-81.
4. Dehio's description of the EcclesiaSynagoge figures applies to her as well:
"Überzarte Gebilde, doch nicht aus weichlichem Stoff; in ihrer binsenschlanken
Biegsamkeit spannkräftig wie feiner Stahl; adlig geborene Mädchen vom
Scheitel bis zur Sohle. Das Gewand liegt über ihnen wie ein zarter Hauch, aber
ein Geist der Keuschheit und Strenge macht es fest wie einen Panzer"(Das
Strassburger Münster, p. 30).
5. "Trois oeuvres,"ed. Boutemy, pp. 345-46, ll. 28-74. For full text and Latin, see
above Chapter 4, pp. 114-15 and n. 145.
6. Bernard, Super Cant. Sermo, 85.10-11, Sancti Bernardi Opera, 2: 314. See
above, Chapter 4, p. 111 and n. 132.
7. Rheims exterior, west façade, central portal, right jamb, ca. 1245-55.
8. I owe a very large debt of gratitude to Adelaide Bennet of the Princeton Index
of Art, Princeton University, and to Shirley Wargon who consulted the Princeton
Index for me at UCLA. Between the two of them I was able to survey some
three hundred representations of the theme of the wise and foolish virgins in
various media from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries.
 9. Exterior, north transept portal, left jamb. See James Snyder, Medieval Art:
Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, 4th-14th Century (New York, 1989), p. 416
and fig. 541.
10. De inst. nov., chapter 10, PL 176, 935B: "levitatem ligat."
11. Bernard, De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae, XII.40., Opera, 3: 47.
12. Bernard of Clairvaux, The Steps of Humility and Pride, trans. M. Ambrose
Conway, p. 68.
13. Willibald Sauerländer, Gothic Sculpture in France 1140-1270, trans. Janet
Sondheimer (London, 1972), p. 50. Classical influence is for Sauerländer the
regular grounding of explanation. He juxtaposes works from the older and the
 

< previous page_477 next page >

page
< previous page_478 next page >
page
Page 478
newer style and concludes: "Such comparisons make clear what deep
significance lay behind the new interest in models from antiquity"(p. 51).
14. Erwin Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art (New York
and Evanston: Harper and Row, 1972), p. 62.
15. De inst. nov., chapter 12, PL 176, 942A.
16. Ernst Gombrich, Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial
Representation, 2nd ed., Bollingen Series 35. 5 (New York, 1961), pp. 118-19.
17. Sauerländer insists on the distinction between "borrowing from antiquity in
the visual arts and antique tradition in other areas of intellectual life."W.
Sauerländer, "Architecture and the Figurative Arts: The North,"p. 671 (emphasis
in original).
18. O'Reilly, Iconography of the Virtues and Vices (note 2 above), devotes a
chapter to the "didactic context"of the representation of vices and virtues in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. She locates it in lay education following
upon the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. The sermon literature offers the
closest parallels to the cycles of virtues and vices she studies. But by way of
extending her perspective it should be noted that the aristocracy had its own
values and art media quite different from those O'Reilly considers. The context
of popular religious instruction can hardly have much to do with the moral
complexity and social sophistication of the high aristocratic ladies to whom the
virgins are closest. A world of sensibility separates them from the figures in the
book illuminations O'Reilly cites, which served to instruct the general populace.
19. Gombrich dealt with a similar problem and came up with a similar solution
in his essay "Reflections on the Greek Revolution,"in Art and Illusion, pp. 116-
45. In the case of Greek sculpture the emergence of realistic representation had
been treated by scholars as a matter of technique and of the overcoming of
Egyptian models. Gombrich points to conceptions in Homeric narrative as
peedecessors of the revolution in sculpture. That is, the ideas and feelings of
classical humanism were available in a narrative medium several centuries prior
to their emergence in sculpture.
20. Ed. Scott, ll. 29-36.
 

< previous page_478 next page >

page
< previous page_479 next page >
page
Page 479

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources
This list includes the major sources used in this study for the period from the
tenth through the twelfth century. It also includes frequently cited works from
classical antiquity and the Carolingian period.

Biographical Works
The subject of the biography is listed first, the biographer (if known) second.
Adalbert of Prague. Johannes Canaparius. Vita antiquior S. Adalberti episcopi.
Ed. G. H. Pertz. MGH SS 4, 581-95.
. Brun of Querfurt. Vita secunda S. Adalberti episcopi. Ed. G. H. Pertz. MGH SS
4, 596-612.
Balderic of Liège. Vita Balderici episcopi Leodensis. MGH SS 4, 724-738.
Benno of Osnabrück. Norbert of Iburg. Vita Bennonis II. LB, 372-441.
Bernard of Clairvaux. William of St. Thierry. Vita prima, liber primus. PL 185,
225-68.
. Geoffrey of Clairvaux. Vita prima, liber tertius. PL 185, 301-68.
Bernward of Hildesheim. Thangmar. Vita Sancti Bernwardi. LB, 272-361.
Brun of Cologne. Ruotger. Vita Sancti Brunonis. LB, 178-261.
Burchard of Worms. Vita Burchardi episcopi Wormatiensis. Ed. D. G. Waitz.
MGH SS 4, 829-46.
Dietrich of Metz. Sigebert of Gembloux. Vita Deoderici episcopi Mettensis.
MGH SS 4, 461-83.
Eraclius of Liège. Reiner of Liège. Reineri Vita Eraclii. Ed. W. Arndt. MGH SS
20, 561-65.
Gerald of Aurillac. Odo of Cluny. Vita Geraldi. PL 133, 639-704.
Godehard of Hildesheim. Wolfher of Hildesheim. Vita Godehardi prior. Ed. G.
H. Pertz. MGH SS 11, 167-96.
 . Vita Godehardi posterior. Ed. G. H. Pertz. MGH SS 11, 196-218.
Guibert of Nogent. Autobiographie: de vita sua. Ed. Edmond-René Labande.
CHFMA 34. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1981.
. Self and Society in Medieval France: The Memoirs of Abbot Guibert of Nogent
(1064?-c.1125). Trans C. C. Swinton Bland, rev. with commentary by John F.
Benton. New York and Evanston: Harper and Row, 1970.
Heribert of Cologne. Lambert of Deutz. Vita Herberti archiepiscopi Coloniensis.
MGH SS 4, 740-53.
Licinius of Angers. Vita Licinii. Acta Sanctorum Boland. Feb. XIII.5.2, 678-82.
 

< previous page_479 next page >

page
< previous page_480 next page >
page
Page 480
. Marbod of Rennes. Vita Sancti Licinii. PL 171, 1493-1505.
Magnobod of Angers. Marbod of Rennes. Vita Sancti Magnobodi. PL 171, 1547-
62.
Malachy of Armagh. Bernard of CLairvaux. Vita Sancti Malachiac. In Sancti
Bernardi Opera, 3: 307-78.
Meinwerk of Paderborn. Das Leben des Bischofs Meinwerk von Paderborn. Ed.
Franz Tenckhoff. MGH SS rer. germ. in us. schol. 59. Hannover: Hahn, 1921.
Norbert of Xanten. Vita Sancti Norberti. LB, 452-541.
Notker of Liège. Vita Notgeri. Ed. Godefroid Kurth. Also in Kurth, Notger de
Liège et la civilisation au Xe siècle. Vol. 2. Paris: A. Picard, 1905.
Otto of Bamberg. Herbord of St. Michel. Herbordi dialogus de vita S. Ottonis.
Ed. Jan Wikarjak and Kazimierz Liman. Monumenta Poloniae Historica n.s. 7,
fasc. 3. Warsaw: Pañstwowe Wydawn, 1974.
Richard of St. Vannes. Vita Richardi. Ed. Wilhelm Wattenbach. MGH SS 11,
280-90.
Robert the Pious. Helgaud of Fleury. Vie de Robert le Pieux: Epitoma vitae regis
Rotberti Pii. Ed. Robert-Henri Bautier and Gillette Labory. Sources d'Histoire
Médiévale 1. Paris: Editions de CNRS, 1965.
Sturmi. Eigel von Fulda. Die Vita Sturmi des Eigil von Fulda. Ed. Pius
Engelbert. Veröffentlichung der Historischen Kommission für Hessen 29.
Marburg: Elwert, 1968.
Thierry of St. Hubert. Vita Theoderici abbatis Andaginensis. Ed. Wilhelm
Wattenbach. MGH SS 12, 36-57.
Thomas Becket. Edward Grim. Vita et passio Sancti Thomae. Ed. James Craigie
Robertson. RS 67: 2, 353-450. London: Longman, 1875-77.
. Herbert of Bosham. RS 67: 3, 155-534.
. John of Salisbury. RS 67: 2, 299-322.
. William of Canterbury. RS 67: 1, 1-136.
. William Fitzstephen. RS 67: 3, 1-154.
Ulrich of Augsburg. Bern of Reichenau. Vita Udalrici. PL 142, 1183-1203.
. Gerhard of Augsburg. Vita Sancti Oudalrici episcopi Augustani. LB, 46-167.
Ulrich of Cluny (Zell). Ex vita Sancti Udalrici priorensis Cellensis. Ed. Roger
 Wilmans. MGH SS 12. Vita prior, 251-53; Vita posterior, 253-67.
Wernher of Merseburg. Vita Wernheri. Ed. Roger Wilmans. MGH SS 12, 244-
48.
Wicbert of Gembloux. Sigebert of Gembloux. Vita Wicberti. MGH SS 8, 507-16.
Willigis of Mainz. Libellus de Willigisi consuetudinibus. Ed. D. G. Waitz. MGH
SS 15: 2, 742-45.
Wolbodo of Liège. Reiner of Liège. Vita Wolbodonis. Ed. Wilhelm Arndt. MGH
SS 20, 565-71.
Wolfgang of Regensburg. Otloh of St. Emmeram. Vita Wolfkangi episcopi. Ed.
D. G. Waitz. MGH SS 4, 521-42.
Wolfhelm of Brauweiler. Conrad of Brauweiler. Vita Wolfhelmi. Ed. Roger
Wilmans. MGH SS 12, 181-95.

Other Works
Abelard, Peter. Carmen ad Astralabium: A Critical Edition. Ed. José M. A.
Rubingh-Boscher. Groningen: J.M.A. Rubingh-Boscher, 1987.
 

< previous page_480 next page >

page
< previous page_481 next page >
page
Page 481
. Historia calamitatum: texte critique avec une introduction. Ed. J. Monfrin.
Paris: J. Vrin, 1959.
. Peter Abelard's Ethics. Ed. and trans. David. E. Luscombe. Oxford: Clarendon,
1971.
Abelard, Peter and Heloise. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Trans. Betty
Radice. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.
. "The Personal Letters Between Abelard and Heloise."Ed. J. T. Muckle.
Mediaeval Studies 15 (1953), 47-94.
. "The Letter of Heloise on Religious Life and Abelard's First Reply."Mediaeval
Studies 17 (1955), 240-81.
Adalbold of Utrecht. Epistola cum tractatu de musica instrumentali, humanaque
ac mundana. Ed. Joseph Smits van Waesbrugge. Divitiae Musicae Artis, ser. A,
Liber 2. Buren: F. Knuf, 1981.
Adam of Bremen. Hamburgische Kirschengeschichte. Ed. Bernhard Schmeidler.
3d. ed. MGH rer. germ. in us. schol. Hannover and Leipzig: Hahn, 1917; rpt.
1977.
Adam of Perseigne. Lettres: Texte latin, introduction, traduction et notes. Ed.
Jean Bouvet. Sources Chrétiennes 66; Textes Monastiques de l'Occident 4. Paris:
Éditions du Cerf, 1960.
Adelard of Bath. Des Adelard von Bath Traktat de eodem et diverso. Ed. Hans
Willner. BGPMA 4, 1. Munich: Aschendorff, 1903.
Adelman of Liège. Letter to Berengar of Tours. "Textes latins du XIe au XIIIe
siècle."Ed. R. B. C. Huygens. Studi Medievali 3d ser. 8 (1967), 476-93.
. De viris illustribus sui temporis. Ed. J. Havet. In Clerval, Les écoles de
Chartres, 59-61.
Ademar of Chabannes. Epistola de apostolatu S. Martialis. PL 142, 87-112.
. Historiarum libri tres. PL 141, 19-80.
Alan of Lille. Anticlaudianus: Texte critique avec une introduction et des tables.
Ed. Robert Bossuat. Paris: Vrin, 1955.
. Anticlaudianus, or The Good and Perfect Man. Trans. James J. Sheridan.
Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1973.
Alcuin. The Rhetoric of Alcuin and Charlemagne: A Trunslation with an
Introduction, the Latin Text, and Notes. Ed. and trans W. S. Howell. New York:
Russell, 1965.
 . Letters. MGH Epist. 4, Ep. Karol. aevi 2. Ed. E. Dümmler.
Alpert of St. Symphorian (Metz). De diversitate temporum. MGH SS4, 700-723.
. De episcopis Mettensibus libellus. MGH SS 4, 697-700.
Die ältere Wormser Briefsammlung. Ed. Walther Bulst. MGH, Briefe der
deutschen Kaiserzeit 3. Weimar: Böhlaus, 1949.
Ambrose. Sancti Ambrosii Mediolanensis episcopi De officiis ministrorum libri
tres. PL 16, 23-194.
Andreas Capellanus. Andreas Capellanus on Love. Ed. and trans. P. G. Walsh.
London: Duckworth, 1982
Annales Augustani. MGH SS 3, 123-36.
Annales Hildesheimenses continuatio. MGH SS 3, 90-103.
Anonymus Haserensis. De episcopis Eichstetensibus. Ed. L. C. Bethmann. MGH
SS 7, 189-234.
Anselm of Besate. Gunzo Epistola ad Augienses und Anselm von Besate
Rhetorimachia.
 

< previous page_481 next page >

page
< previous page_482 next page >
page
Page 482
Ed. Karl Manitius. MGH Quellen zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 2.
Weimar: Böhlau, 1958.
Anselm of Liège. Gesta episcoporum Leodiensium. Ed. R. Koepke. MGH SS 7,
189-234.
Antiqua statuta ecclesiae Lugdunensis. PL 199, 1091-1120.
Archpoet. Die Gedichte des Archipoeta. Ed. Heinrich Watenphul and Heinrich
Krefeld. Heidelberg: Winter, 1958.
Baudri of Bourgueil. Baldricus Burgulianus Carmina. Ed. Karlheinz Hilbert.
Editiones Heidelbergenses 19. Heidelberg: Winter, 1979.
. Les oeuvres poétiques de Baudri de Bourgueil (1046-1130). Ed. Phyllis
Abrahams. Paris: Champion, 1926.
Bede. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Ed. Bertram Colgrave
and R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
Benedicta regula. Ed. Rudolph Hanslik. CSEL 75. Vienna: Hölder, 1960.
Benzo of Alba. Ad Heinricum IV. imperatorem libri VII. Ed. K. Pertz. MGH SS
11, 591-681.
Bern of Reichenau. Die Briefe des Abtes Bern von Reichenau. Ed. Franz-Josef
Schmale. Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für geschichtliche Landeskunde
in Baden-Württemberg, Reihe A, Quellen 6. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1961.
Bernard of Chartres. Bernard of Chartres, Glosae super Platonem. Ed. Paul E.
Dutton. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Studies and Texts 107.
Toronto: The Institute, 1991.
Bernard of Clairvaux. De consideratione. Sancti Bernardi Opera 3: 93-493.
. Bernard of Clairvaux on the Song of Songs. I, II, trans. Killian Walsh; III, IV,
trans. Irene Edmonds. Cistercian Fathers Series 4, 7, 31, 40. Kalamazoo, MI:
Cistercian Publications, 1979, 1980.
. Epistolae. Sancti Bernardi Opera, vols. 7, 8.
. Five Books on Consideration: Advice to a Pope. Trans. John D. Anderson and
Elizabeth T. Kennan. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1976.
. Sancti Bernardi Opera. Ed. J. Leclercq, Charles H. Talbot, H. M. Rochais.
Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1957.
. The Steps of Humility and Pride. Trans. M. Ambrose Conway. Kalamazoo, MI:
Cistercian Publications, 1989.
 . Treatises I. Trans. Conrad Greenia. Cistercian Fathers Series 1.1. Dublin etc.:
Irish University Press, 1970.
Bernard Silvester. The Commentary on the First Six Books of the Aeneid of
Vergil commonly attributed to Bernardus Silvestris. Ed. Julian Jones and
Elizabeth Jones. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977.
. The Commentary on Martianus Capella's De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii
attributed to Bernardus Silvestris. Ed. Haijo Jan Westra. Pontifical Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, Studies and Texts 80. Toronto: The Institute, 1986.
. Cosmographia. Ed. Peter Dronke. Leiden: Brill, 1978.
. The Cosmographia of Bernardus Silvestris. Trans Winthrop Wetherbee. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1973.
Boethius. Anicii Manlii Torquati Severini Boetii, De institutione Arithmetica
libri duo,
 

< previous page_482 next page >

page
< previous page_483 next page >
page
Page 483
De institutione Musica libri quinque. Ed. Godfredus Friedlein. Leipzig, 1867;
rpt. Frankfurt am Main: Minerva, 1966.
. De consolatione philosophiae. Trans, H. F. Stewart. Loeb Classical Library 74.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968.
. Fundamentals of Music: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. Trans. with
introduction and commentary by Calvin M. Bower. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1989.
Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV. Ed. Carl Erdmann and Norbert
Fickermann. MGH, Briefe der deutschen Kaiserzeit 5. Weimar: Böhlau, 1950.
Carmen Winrici. "`Querela magistri Treverensis': Das sogenannte `Carmen
Winrici.'"Ed. Ludwig Gompf. Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 4 (1967): 91-121.
Carmina Cantabrigiensia. Ed. Walther Bulst. Heidelberg: Winter, 1950.
Carmina Leodiensia. Ed. Walther Bulst. Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger
Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil-Hist. K. Abh. 1. Heidelberg: Winter, 1975,
5-47.
Chronicon episcoporum Hildesheimensium. MGH SS 7, 850-54.
Cicero. De officiis. Trans. Walter Miller. The Loeb Classical Library 30.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.
. De amicitia. Trans. William Armistead Falconer. The Loeb Classical Library
154. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979.
. De inventione. Transl H. M. Hubbell. The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1960.
. Tusculan Disputations. Trans. J. E. King. The Loeb Classical Library 141.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.
Conrad of Hirsau. Dialogus de mundi contemptu vel amore. Ed. R. Bultot.
Analecta Mediaevalia Namurcensa 19. Louvain: Nauwelaerts, 1966.
Constitutiones canonicorum regularium Ordinis Arroasiensis. Ed. L. Milis and
J. Becquet. CCCM 20. Turnhout: Brepols, 1970.
Consuetudines canonicorum regularium Springirsbacenses-Rodenses. Ed. Stefan
Weinfurter. CCCM 48. Turnhout: Brepols, 1978
Consuetudines des Augustiner-Chorherrenstiftes Marbach im Elsass (12.
Jahrhundert). Ed. Josef Siegwart. Spicilegium Friburgense 10. Freiburg:
Universitätsverlag, 1965.
Le coutumier de Saint-Quentin de Beauvais. Ed. L. Milis. Sacris Erudiri 21
 (1972/73), 435-81.
"De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae.""Une version médiévale inconnue de la
légende d'Orphée."Ed. André Boutemy. In Hommages à Joseph Bidez et à Franz
Cumont. Collection Latomus 2. Brussels: Latomus, 1941, 43-70.
"Drei Gedichte aus Frankreich."Ed. Ernst Dümmler. Neues Archiv 2 (1877).
Poem to Constantine, 222-30.
Folcuin of Lobbes. Gesta abbatum Lobiensium. Ed. D. G. Waitz. MGH SS 4,
52-74.
Fulbert of Chartres. The Letters and Poems of Fulbert of Chartres. Ed. and trans.
Frederick Behrends. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
Fulcoius of Beauvais. "Fulcoii Belvacensis Epistulae."Ed. Marvin L. Colker.
Traditio 10 (1954), 191-273.
Fundatio ecclesiae Hildesheimensis. Ed. A. Hofmeister. MGH SS 30:2, 939-46.
 

< previous page_483 next page >

page
< previous page_484 next page >
page
Page 484
Gerald of Wales. De principis instructione liber. Ed. George F. Warner. RS 21:
8. London, 1891
Gerbert of Aurillac. Die Briefsammlung Gerberts von Reims. Ed. Fritz Weigle.
MGH Briefe der deutschen Kaiserzeit 2. Weimar: Böhlau, 1966.
. De informatione episcoporum. PL 139, 1169-78.
Gesta episcoporum Cameracensium. Ed. L. C. Bethmann. MGH SS 7, 402-500.
Gesta episcoporum Virdunensium. Ed. D. G. Waitz. MGH SS 4, 36-51.
Godfrey of Rheims. "Trois oeuvres inédites de Godefroid de Reims."Ed. André
Boutemy. Revue du Moyen Âge Latin 3 (1947): 335-66.
Godfrey of St. Victor. Fons philosophiae. Ed. Pierre Michaud-Quantin. Analecta
Mediaevalia Namurcensia 8. Namur-Louvain-Lille: Nauwelaerts, 1956.
Gottfried von Strassburg. Tristan. Ed. Friedrich Ranke. 11th edition. Dublin and
Zurich: Weidmann, 1967.
. Tristan with the `Tristran' of Thomas. Trans. A. T. Hatto. Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1985.
Gozechin (Goswin) of Mainz. Apologiae duae: Gozechini epistola ad
Walcherum; Burchardi, ut videtur, Abbatis Bellevallis apologia de barbis. Ed.
R. B. C. Huygens. CCCM 62. Turnhout: Brepols, 1985.
Hariulf. Chronique de l'Abbaye de Saint-Riquier. Ed. Ferdinand Lot. CTSEEH
17. Paris: A. Picard, 1894.
Hildebert of Lavardin. Epistolae. PL 171, 135-311.
. Hildeberti Cenomannensis Episcopi Carmina minora. Ed. A. Brian Scott.
Leipzig: Teubner, 1969.
. Libellus de quatuor virtutibus vitae honestae. PL 171, 1055-67.
. Les mélanges poétiques d'Hildebert de Lavardin. Ed. Hauréau. Paris, 1882.
Honorius Augustodunensis. De animi exsilio et patria. PL 172, 1241-46.
Hrabanus Maurus. De clericorum institutione ad Haistulphum libri tres. PL 107,
293-419.
Hugh of Flavigny. Chronicon. MGH SS 8, 280-503.
Hugh of St. Victor. Hugonis de Sancto Victore Didascalicon De Studio legendi:
A Critical Text. Ed. Charles Henry Buttimer. Catholic University of America
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Latin 10. Washington, DC: Catholic
 University Press, 1939.
. The Didascalicon of Hugh of St. Victor: A Medieval Guide to the Arts. Trans.
Jerome Taylor. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961.
. De institutione novitiorum. PL 176, 925-92.
. Epitome Dindimi in philosophiam. Hugonis de Sancto Victore opera
propaedeutica. Ed. Roger Baron. University of Notre Dame Publications in
Mediaeval Studies 20. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1966.
Insitutiones patrum Praemonstratensium. In De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus. 3 vols.
Ed. Edmond Martène. Antwerp, 1737; rpt. Hildesheim: Olms, 1967.
Ivo of Chartres. "Lettres d'Ive de Chartres et d'autres personnages de son
temps."Ed. Lucien Merlet."Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes 16 (1854/55):
443-71.
John of Salisbury. John of Salisbury's Entheticus Maior and Minor. Ed. and
trans. Jan van Laarhoven. 4 vols. Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des
Mittelalters 17. Leiden: Brill, 1987.
 

< previous page_484 next page >

page
< previous page_485 next page >
page
Page 485
. The Letters of John of Salisbury. Ed. W. J. Millor and C. N. L. Brooke. 2 vols.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979; rev. 1986.
. Metalogicon. Ed. J. B. Hall. CCCM 98. Turnhout: Brepols, 1991.
. Policraticus. Ed. C. J. Webb. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909.
. The Metalogicon of John of Salisbury: A Twelfth-Century Defense of the
Logical and Verbal Arts of the Trivium. Trans. Daniel D. McGarry. Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1962.
Lampert of Hersfeld. Annales in Lamberti monachi Hersfeldensis Opera. Ed. O.
Holder-Egger. MGH SS rer. germ. in us. schol. Leipzig: Hahn, 1894.
Lanfranc. The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc. Ed. David Knowles. New
York: Nelson, 1951.
Lateinische Dichtungen des X. und XI. Jahrhunderts: Festgabe für Walther
Bulst. Ed. W. Berschin and R. Düchting. Heidelberg: Winter, 1981.
Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris Parisiensis. Ed. Lucas Jocqué and Ludovicus Milis.
CCCM 61. Turnhout: Brépols, 1984.
Manegold of Lautenbach. Liber contra Wolfhelmum. Ed. Wilfried Hartmann.
MGH Quellen zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 8. Weimar: Böhlau, 1972.
Marbod of Rennes. ''Liebesbriefgedichte Marbods."Ed. Walther Bulst. In Liber
Floridus: Mittellateinische Studien Paul Lehmann . . . gewidmet. Ed. Bernhard
Bischoff. St. Ottilien: Eos Verlag, 1950, 287-302.
. Carmina varia. PL 171, 1692C-D 1717-36.
Martin of Braga. Formula vitae honestae. Martini ep. Bracarensis opera omnia.
Ed. Claude Barlowe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1950.
Meinhard of Bamberg. Letters. In Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs IV. Ed.
Carl Erdmann and Norbert Fickermann. MGH Briefe der deutschen Kaiserzeit 5.
Weimar: Böhlau, 1950.
"Metamorphosis Goliae."Ed. R. B. C. Huygens. "Mitteilungen aus
Handschriften."Studi Medievali 3d ser. 3 (1962), 764-72.
Onulf of Speyer. "Magister Onulf von Speier."Ed. Wilhelm Wattenbach.
Sitzungsberichte der Preussichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin, 1894,
361-86.
Orderic Vitalis. The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis. Ed. and trans.
Marjorie Chibnall. 6 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969-80.
Otloh of St. Emmeram. Visiones. Ed. Roger Wilmans. MGH SS 11, 378-87.
 Otto of Freising. Gesta Friderici. Ed. Roger Wilmans. MGH SS 20, 338-496.
Papias. Vocabulista. Venice: Phillipus di Pinci, 1496; rpt. Torino: Bottego
d'Erasmo, 1966.
"`Parce continuis': A New Text and Interpretative Notes."Ed. David A. Trall,
Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 21 (1986), 114-24.
Peter Damian. De sancta simplicitate. De divina omnipotentia e altri opuscoli,
ed. P. Brezzi and B. Nardi. Florence: Vallecchi, 1943.
Peter of Blois. Epistolae. PL 207, 1-560.
Petrus de Honestis (so-called). Regula clericorum. PL 163, 691-748.
Pseudo-Boethius. De disciplina scholari. PL 64, 1223-38.
Pseudo-Hugh of St. Victor. Expositio in regulam Beati Augustini. PL 176, 882-
924.
"Quid suum virtutis": Eine Lehrdichtung des 11. Jahrhunderts. Ed. B. A.
Paravicini. Editiones Heidelbergenses 21. Heidelberg: Winter, 1980.
 

< previous page_485 next page >

page
< previous page_486 next page >
page
Page 486
Die Regensburger Rhetorischen Briefe. In Briefsammlungen der Zeit Heinrichs
IV. Ed. Norbert Fickermann. MGH Briefe der deutschen Kaiserzeit 5. Weimar:
Böhlau, 1950.
La règle de Saint Augustin. Ed. Luc Verheijen. 2 vols. Paris: Études
Augustiniennes, 1967.
Regula canonicorum of Aix (816). In Concilia Aevi Karolini, ed. Albertus
Werminghoff. MGH Legum sec. 3, vol. 2, part 1. Hannover and Leipzig: Hahn,
1906; rpt. 1979.
Rhetores latini minores. Ed. Karl Halm. Leipzig: Hahn, 1863; rpt. Frankfurt:
Minerva, 1964.
Richard of St. Victor. Explicatio in cantica canticorum. PL 196, 405-523.
Richer of St. Rémy. Historiae (Histoire de France). Ed. and trans. Robert
Latouche. CHFMA 17. Paris: Didier, 1937.
Ruodlieb: Faksimile-Ausgabe des Codex Latinus Monacensis 19486 der
Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München und die Fragmente von St. Florian. Ed.
Benedikt Vollman. Wiesbaden: L. Riechart, 1985.
Rupert of Deutz. Ruperti Chronicon Sancti Laurentii Leodiensis. Ed. Wilthelm
Wattenbach. MGH SS 8, 261-79.
"Satyra de amicicia . . . (Clm 29111): Das Freundschaftsideal eines
Freigelassenen."Ed. Fidel Raedle. In Lateinische Dichtungen des X. und XI.
Jahrhunderts: Festgabe für Walther Bulst. Ed. Walther Berschin and Reinhard
Düchting. Heidelberg: Winter, 1981.
Sigebert of Gembloux. Catalogus Sigeberti Gemblacensis Monachi de viris
illustribus. Ed. Robert Witte. Lateinische Sprache und Literatur des Mittelalters
1. Bern and Frankfurt: Herbert and Peter Lang, 1974.
. Gesta abbatum Gemblacensium. MGH SS 8, 523-42.
. Liber decennalis. Ed. Joachim Wiesenbach. MGH Quellen zur
Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 12. Weimar: Böhlau, 1986.
. Sigeberts von Gembloux Passio Sanctae Luciae Virginis und Passio Sanctorum
Thebeorum. Ed. Ernst Dümmler. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, Phil-
Hist. Kl. Abh. 1. Berlin, 1893.
"Some Commentaries on the De inventione and Ad Herennium of the Eleventh
and Early Twelfth Centuries."Ed. Mary Dicky. Mediaeval and Renaissance
Studies 6 (1968), 1-41.
Die Tegernseer Briefsammlung. Ed. Karl Strecker. MGH Epistolae selectae 3.
 Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1925.
Thierry of Chartres. Commentaries on Boethius by Thierry of Chartres and His
School. Ed. Nikolaus M. Häring. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies,
Studies and Texts 20. Toronto: The Institute, 1971.
. The Latin Rhetorical Commentaries by Thierry of Chartres. Ed. Karin M.
Fredborg. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Studies and Texts 84.
Toronto: The Institute, 1988.
. "Prologue to Heptateuchon."Ed. Edouard Jeauneau. Mediaeval Studies 16
(1954), 171-75; also in Jeauneau's "Note sur l'école de Chartres."Studi
Mediaevali 3d ser. 5 (1964), 821-65.
Thietmar of Merseburg. Die Chronik des Bischofs Thietmar von Merseburg. Ed.
Robert Holtzmann. 2nd ed. MGH SS rer. germ., N.S., vol 9. Berlin: Weidmann,
1955.
 

< previous page_486 next page >

page
< previous page_487 next page >
page
Page 487
Thomasin of Zirclaere. Der wälsche Gast des Thomasin von Zirclaria. Ed.
Heinrich Rückert. DNL vol. 30. Quedlinburg: Basse, 1852; rpt. Berlin: De
Gruyter, 1975.
Ulrich of Bamberg. "Eine Bamberger Ars Dictaminis."Ed. Franz Bittner.
Historischer Verein für die Pflege der Geschichte des ehemaligen Fürstbistums
Bamberg 100 (1964), 145-71.
. Udalrici codex. Ed. Philipp Jaffé. Bibliotheca rerum germanicarum 5:
Monumenta Bambergensia.
Ulrich of Cluny. Antiquiores consuetitudines Cluniacensis monasterii. PL 149,
635-778.
Vincent of Beauvais. De eruditione filiorum nobilium. Ed. Arpad Steiner.
Mediaeval Academy of America Publications 32. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1938.
Walther of Speyer. Der Libellus Scholasticus des Walther von Speyer: Ein
Schulbericht aus dem Jahre 984. Ed. Peter Vossen. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1962.
Werner of Basel. "Warnerii Basiliensis Paraclitus et Synodus."Ed. P.-W.
Hoogterp. ADHLMA 8 (1933), 261-429.
Wibald of Stablo. Wibaldi epistolae. Ed. Philipp Jaffé. Bibliotheca rerum
Germanicarum 1: Monumenta Corbeiensia. 1864; rpt. Aalen: Scientia, 1964.
William of Champeaux. "The Commentaries on Cicero's De inventione and
Rhetorica ad Herennium by William of Champeaux."Ed. Karin Fredborg.
Cabiers de PInstitut du Moyen Âge Grec et Latin 17 (1976), 1-39.
William of Conches. Glosae in Iuvenalem. Ed. Bradford Wilson. Textes
Philosophiques du Moyen Âge 18. Paris: J. Vrin, 1980.
. Glosae super Platonem: Texte critique avec introduction, notes et tables. Ed.
Edouard Jeauneau. Textes philosophiques du moyen âge 13. Paris: J. Vrin, 1965.
. Das Moralium Dogma Philosophorum des Guillaume de Conches: Lateinisch,
Altfranzözisch und Mittelniederfränkisch. Ed. John Holmberg. Paris, 1929.
. "Deux redactions des gloses de Guillaume de Conches sur Priscien."Ed.
Edouard Jeauneau. RTAM 27 (1960), 212-47.
. Philosophia mundi. Ed. G. Maurach. Pretoria: University of South Africa,
1980.
William of Malmesbury. De gestis pontificum Anglorum. Ed. N. E. Hamilton.
RS 52. London, 1870.
 Wipo. Die Werke Wipos. Ed. Harry Bresslau. 3d ed. MGH Script. rer. Germ. in
us. schol. Hannover and Leipzig: Hahn, 1915; rpt. 1956.
Würzburg poet (anonymous). Poem against the school of Worms. In Die ältere
Wormser Briefsammlung, ed. Bulst, 119-27; also in Die Tegernseer
Briefsammlung, ed. Strecker, 125-34.

Secondary Sources
Abert, Hermann. "Die Müsikästhetik der Echecs amoureux."Romanische
Forschungen 15 (1904), 884-925.
. Die Musikanschauung des Mittelalters und ihre Grundlagen. Halle 1905; rpt.
Tutzing: H. Schneider, 1964.
 

< previous page_487 next page >

page
< previous page_488 next page >
page
Page 488
Allers, Rudolf. "Microcosmus from Anaximandros to Paracelsus."Traditio 1
(1943), 319-407.
Althoff, Gerd. "Nunc fiant Christi milites, qui dudum extiterunt raptores: Zur
Entstehung von Rittertum und Ritterethos."Saeculum 32 (1981), 317-33.
Anton, Hans. Fürstenspiegel und Herrscheretbos in der Karolingerzeit. Bonn: L.
Röhrscheid, 1968.
Arts Libéraux et philosophie au moyen âge. Actes du Quatrième Congrès
International de Philosophie Médiévale, Université de Montréal, 27 août-2
septembre 1967. Montreal: Institut d'Études Médiévales, 1969.
Aube, Pierre. Thomas Becket. Paris: Fayard, 1988.
Auty, Robert, ed. Lexikon des Mittelalters. Munich and Zürich: Artemis Verlag,
1977.
Babcock, Robert G. "Sigebert of Gembloux and the
`Waltharius'."Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 21 (1986), 101-5.
Balau, Sylvain. Les sources de l'histoire du pays de Liège au moyen âge.
Brussels: F. Hayez, 1903.
Baldwin, John. The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of Royal
Power in the Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
. "Masters at Paris from 1179 to 1215: A Social Perspective."In Benson and
Constable, eds., Renaissance and Renewal, 138-72.
. "Five Discourses on Desire: Sexuality and Gender in Northern France Around
1200."Speculum 66 (1991), 797-819.
. "L'ars amatoria au XIIe siècle en France: Ovide, Abélard, André le Chapelain et
Pierre le Chantre."In Histoire et société: Mélanges offerts à Georges Duby, 1:
19-29. Aix-en-Provence: Université de Provence, 1992.
Barlow, Frank. Thomas Becket and His Clerks. Berkeley and London: University
of California Press, 1986.
Baron, Roger. Science et sagesse chez Hugues de Saint-Victor. Paris:
Lethielleux, 1957.
. Études sur Hugues de Saint-Victor. Paris: Desclée, De Brouwer, 1963.
Bautier, Robert-Henri. "Paris au temps d'Abélard."In Jolivet, ed., Abélard en son
temps, 21-77.
Beaujouan, Guy. "The Transformation of the Quadrivium."In Benson and
Constable, eds., Renaissance and Renewal, 463-87.
 . "L'enseignement du quadrivium."In La scuola, 2: 639-723.
Benedetto, L. F. "Stephanus grammaticus da Novara."Studi Medievali 3 (1908-
11), 499-508.
Benson, Robert L. The Bishop Elect: A Study in Medieval Ecclesiastical Office.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968.
Benson, Robert L. and Giles Constable, eds. Renaissance and Renewal in the
Twelfth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Benton, John. Self and Society in Medieval France: The Memoirs of Abbot
Guibert of Nogent (1064?-c.1125). New York and Evanston: Harper and Row,
1970.
Bernt, G. "Fulcoius von Beauvais."In Auty, ed., Lexikon des Mittelalters, 4:
1019.
Berschin, Walter, ed. Lateinische Kultur im X. Jahrhundert. Akten des I.
Mittellateinerkongresses, Heidelberg 12.-15. IX. 1988. Mittellateinisches
Jahrbuch 24/25 (1989/90).
Bischoff, Bernhard. "Aus der Schule Hugos von St. Viktor."In Aus der
Geisteswelt des
 

< previous page_488 next page >

page
< previous page_489 next page >
page
Page 489
Mittelalters: Studien und Texte Martin Grabmann . . . gewidmet, ed. Albert
Lang et al., eds. BGPTMA, Supplement vol. 3, 246-50. Munich, 1935; rpt. in
his Mittelalterliche Studien: Ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Schriftenkunde und
Literaturgeschichte, 2: 182-186. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1967.
Bisson, Thomas. "The Organized Peace in Southern France and Catalonia, ca.
1140-ca. 1233."AHR 82 (1977), 290-307.
Bittner, Albert. Wazo und die Schulen von Lüttich. Dissertation, Breslau, 1879.
Blank, Rudolf. Weltdarstellung und Weltbild in Würzburg und Bamberg vom 8.
bis zum Ende des 12. Jabrbunderts. Bamberg: Selbstverlag des Historischen
Vereins, 1968.
Blumenthal, Ute-Renate. The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy
from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1991.
Bond, Gerald. "Composing Yourself: Ovid's Heroides, Baudri of Bourgueil and
the Problem of Persona."Mediaevalia 13 (1987), 83-117.
. "'Iocus amoris': The Poetry of Baudri of Bourgueil and the Formation of the
Ovidian Subculture."Traditio 42 (1986), 143-93.
. "Natural Poetics: Marbod at Angers and the Lessons of Eloquence."Chapter 3
of The Loving Subject: Desire, Eloquence and Power in Romanesque France.
Forthcoming.
Bonnard, Fourier. Histoire de l'abbaye royale et de l'ordre des chanoines
réguliers de St.-Victor de Paris. 2 vols. Paris: A. Savaeta, 1904-1907.
Bonner, Stanley F. Education in Ancient Rome from the Elder Cato to the
Younger Pliny. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.
Borck, Karl Heinz. "Tugend, Adel und Geblüt: Thesen und Beobachtungen zur
Vorstellung des Tugendadels in der deutschen Literatur des 12. und 13.
Jahrhunderts."PBB (West) 100 (1978), 423-57.
Bornscheuer, Lothar. Miserae Regum: Untersuchungen zum Krisen- und
Todesgedanken in den herrschaftstbeologischen Vorstellungen der ottonisch-
salischen Zeit. Arbeiten zur Frühmittelalterforschung 4. Berlin: De Gruyter,
1968.
Boshof, Egon. "Lothringen, Frankreich und das Reich in der Regierungszeit
Heinrichs III."Rbeinische Vierteljahrsblätter 42 (1978), 63-127.
Boswell, John. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People
in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth
 Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Boutemy, André and Fernand Vercauteren. "Fulcoie de Beauvais et l'intérêt pour
l'archéologie antique au XIe et au XIIe siècle."Collections Latomus 1, 173-86.
Brussels: Latomus, 1937.
Braun, Werner. Studien zum Ruodlieb. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1962.
Brinkmann, Hennig. Mittelalterliche Hermeneutik. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1980.
. Entstehungsgeschichte des Minnesangs. Halle/Saale: Niemeyer, 1926; rpt.
1971.
Brown, Calvin M. "Natural and Artificial Music: The Origins and Development
of an Aesthetic Concept."Musica Disciplina 25 (1971), 17-33.
Brown, Peter. "The Saint as Exemplar in Late Antiquity."In Richard Trexler, ed.,
Persons in Groups: Social Behavior as Identity Formation in Medieval and
Renais-
 

< previous page_489 next page >

page
< previous page_490 next page >
page
Page 490
sance Europe, 183-94. Binghamton, NY: Mediaeval and Renaissance Texts
and Studies, 1985. Appeared in slightly different form in Representations 1
(1983).
Brown, Margaret and C. Stephen Jaeger. "Pageantry and Court Aesthetics in
Tristan."In Roy Wisbey, ed., Gottfried von Strassburg and the Medieval Tristan
Legend, 29-44. London: D. S. Brewer, 1990.
Brunhölzl, Franz. "Der Bildungsauftrag der Hofschule."In Bernhard Bischoff,
ed., Karl der Grosse: Lebenswerk und Nachleben, Vol. II: Geistiges Leben.
Düsseldorf: Schwann, 1965.
Bruyne, Edgar de. Études d'esthétique médiévale. 3 vols. Bruges, 1946; rpt.
Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1975.
Büchner, Karl. "Humanitas in der römischen Welt."In his Studien zur römischen
Literatur, 5: 47-65. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1965.
Bumke, Joachim. Höfische Kultur: Literatur und Gesellschaft im bohen
Mittelalter. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1986.
. "Höfische Kultur: Versuch einer kritischen Bestandsaufnahme."PBB
(Tübingen) 114 (1992), 414-492.
Bynum, Caroline Walker. Docere verbo et exemplo: An Aspect of Twelfth
Century Spirituality. Harvard Theological Studies 31. Missoula, MT: Scholars
Press, 1979.
. "The Spirituality of Canons Regular in the Twelfth Century: A New
Approach."Medievalia et Humanistica n.s 4 (1973), 3-24.
Caldwell, John. "The De institutione arithmetica and the De institutione
musica."In Gibcon, ed., Boethius: His Life, Thought, and Influence, 135-54.
Cantin, A. Les sciences séculières et la foi: Les deux voies de la science au
jugement de S. Pierre Damien (1007-1072). Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi
sull'alto Mediovo, 1975.
Chamberlain, D. S. "Philosophy of Music in the Consolatio of
Boethius."Speculum 45 (1970). 80-97.
Châtillon, Jean. "La crise de l'église aux XIe et XIIe siècles et les origines des
grandes fédérations canoniales."Revue de l'Histoire de la Spiritualité 53 (1977),
3-46.
. "Les écoles de Chartres et de Saint-Victor."In La scuola, 2: 795-840.
. "De Guillaume de Champeaux à Thomas Gallus: Chronique d'histoire littéraire
et doctrinale de Pécole de St. Victor."Revue du Moyen Âge Latin 8 (1952), 139-
 162 and 247-272.
. Théologie, spiritualité, et métaphysique dans l'oeuvre oratoire d'Achard de
Saint-Victor. Etudes de Philosophie Médiévale 58. Paris: J. Vrin, 1969.
Chenu, M.-D. "Civilisation urbaine et théologie: L'école de Saint-Victor au XIIe
siècle."Annales ESC 29 (1974), 1253-64.
. "Disciplina."Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques 25 (1936),
686-92.
. "Monks, Canons, and Laymen in Search of the Apostolic Life."In his Man and
Society in the Twelfth Century: Essays on New Theological Perspectives in the
Latin West, 202-38. Trans. Jerome Taylor and Lester Little. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1968.
Cizek, Alexandru. "Der 'Charakterismos' in der Vita Adalhardi des Radbert von
Corbie."Rhetorica 7 (1989), 185-204.
 

< previous page_490 next page >

page
< previous page_491 next page >
page
Page 491
Classen, Peter. "Die hohen Schulen und die Gesellschaft im 12.
Jahrhundert."AKG 48 (1966), 155-80.
Clerval, A. Les écoles de Chartres au moyen-âge du Ve au XVIe siècle. Paris,
1895; rpt. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1977.
Colish, Marcia. "Another Look at the School of Laon."AHDLMA 61 (1986), 7-
22.
Colker, Marvin. L. "De nobilitate animi."Mediaeval Studies 23 (1961), 47-79.
Constable, Giles. "Renewal and Reform in Religious Life: Concepts and
Realities."In Benson and Constable, eds., Renaissance and Renewal, 37-68.
Contreni, John J. "The Tenth Century: The Perspective from the Schools."In
Claude Lepelley et al., eds., Haut Moyen Âge: Culture, éducation et société:
Études offertes à Pierre Riché, 379-87. La Garennes-Colombes: Éditions
Européennes, 1990.
Corbet, Patrick. Les saints ottoniens: Sainteté dynastique, sainteté royale, et
sainteté féminine autour de l'an Mil. Beihefte der Francia 15. Sigmaringen:
Thorbecke, 1986.
Cowdrey, H. E. J. "Anselm of Besate and Some North-Italian Masters of the
Eleventh Century."Journal of Ecclesiastical History 23 (1972), 115-24.
Curtius, Ernst Robert. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Trans.
Willard Trask. New York and Evanston: Harper and Row, 1963.
. "Zur Geschichte des Wortes Philosophia im Mittelalter."Romanische
Forschungen 57 (1943), 291-309.
. "Die Musen im Mittelalter."ZRPH 50 (1939), 129-88; also 63 (1943), 256-88.
D'Alverny, Marie-Thérèse. "La sagesse et ses sept filles: recherches sur les
allégories de la philosophie et des arts libéraux du IXe au XIIe siècle."In
Melanges dédiés à la mémoire de Félix Grat, 1: 245-78. Paris: Perqueur-Grat,
1946
Darlington, Oscar. "Gerbert the Teacher."AHR 52 (1946/47), 456-76.
Delbouille, Maurice. "Un mystérieux ami de Marbode: Le 'redoutable poète'
Gautier."Moyen Âge 57 (1951), 205-40.
Delhaye, Philippe. "L'organisation scolaire au XIIe siècle."Traditio 5 (1947),
211-68.
. "Une adaption du De officiis au XIIe siècle: Le Moralium dogma
philosophorum."RTAM 16 (1949), 227-58; and ibid. 17 (1950), 5-28.
 . "L'enseignement de la philosophie morale au XIIe siècle."Mediaeval Studies 11
(1950), 77-99.
. "La place de l'éthique parmi les classifications scientifiques au XIIe siècle."In
Miscellanea moralia in bonorem E.D.A. Janssen, 79-94. Bibliotheca
Ephemeridum theologicarum Lovaniensium, Ser. I, vols. 2-3. Louvain:
Nauwelaerts, 1949.
. "Grammatica et ethica au XIIe siècle."RTAM 25 (1958), 59-110.
Dereine, Charles. "Chanoines."In Dictionnaire d'histoire et géographie
ecclésiastique (1953), 12: 353-405.
. Les chanoines réguliers au diocèse de Liège avant Saint Norbert. Mémoires,
Académie Royale de Belgique, 2nd ser., vol. 47. Brussels, 1952.
. "Coutumiers et ordinaires de chanoines réguliers."Scriptorium 5 (1951), 107-
13.
 

< previous page_491 next page >

page
< previous page_492 next page >
page
Page 492
. "Les coutumiers de Saint-Quentin de Beauvais et de Springiersbach."RHE 43
(1948), 411-42.
. "L'école canonique liégoise et la réforme Grégorienne."Annales du XXXIIIe
Congrès de la Fédération Archéologique et Historique de Belgique 2 (1951), 79-
94.
. "Les origines de Prémontré."RHE 42 (1947), 352-78.
. "Saint-Ruf et ses coutumes aux XIe et XIIe siècles."Revue Bénédictine 59
(1949), 161-82.
. "Vie commune, règle de S. Augustin et chanoines réguliers au XIe siècle."RHE
41 (1946), 365-406.
Dickey, Mary. "Some Commentaries on the De inventione and Ad Herennium of
the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries."Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies 6
(1968), 1-41.
Dickinson, J. C. The Origins of the Austin Canons and Their Introduction into
England. London: S.P.C.K., 1950.
Dinzelbacher, Peter. "Über die Entdeckung der Liebe im
Hochmittelalter."Saeculum 32 (1981), 185-208.
. "Sozial- und Mentalitätsgeschichte der Liebe im Mittelalter."In Ulrich Müller,
ed., Minne ist ein swaerez spil: Neue Untersuchungen zum Minnesang und zur
Geschichte der Liebe im Mittelalter, 75-110. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1986.
Donlan, Walter. The Aristocratic Ideal in Ancient Greece: Attitudes of
Superiority from Homer to the End of the Fifth Century B.C. Lawrence, KN:
Coronado Press, 1980.
. "The Origin of Kaloskagathos."American Journal of Philology 94 (1973), 365-
74.
Dronke, Peter, ed. A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
. "The Return of Eurydice."Classica et Mediacvalia 23 (1962), 198-215.
. Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua (d.
203) to Marguerite Porete (d.1310). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1984.
Duby, Georges. "The Laity and the Peace of God."In his The Chivalrous Society,
123-33. Trans. Cynthia Postan. Berkeley and London: University of California
Press, 1977.
 . The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Duggan, A. "John of Salisbury and Thomas Becket."In Wilks, ed., The World of
John of Salisbury, 427-38.
Dürig, Walter. "'Disciplina': Eine Studie zum Bedeutungsumfang des Wortes in
der Sprache der Liturgie und der Väter."Sacris Erudiri 4 (1952), 245-79
Dutton, P. E. "`Illustre civitatis et populi exemplum': Plato's Timaeus and the
Transmission from Calcidius to the End of the Twelfth Century of a Tri-Partite
Scheme of Society."Mediaeval Studies 45 (1983), 79-119.
Edelstein, Wolfgang. Eruditio und sapientia: Weltbild und Erziebung in der
Karolingerzeit: Untersuchungen zu Alcuins Briefen. Freiburg: Rombach, 1965.
Elford, Dorothy. "William of Conches."In Dronke, ed., History of Twelfth
Century Philosophy, 308-27.
 

< previous page_492 next page >

page
< previous page_493 next page >
page
Page 493
Endres, J. A. Petrus Damiani und die weltliche Wissenschaft. BGPMA 8, 3.
Munich: Aschendorffsche Buchhandlung, 1910.
Erdmann, Carl."Anselm der Peripatetiker, Kaplan Heinrichs III."In his
Forschungen zur politischen Ideenwelt des Frühmittelalters, 119-24. Ed. Fr.
Bäthgen. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1951.
. "Die Bamberger Domschule im Investiturstreit."Zeitschrift für Bayerische
Landesgeschichte 9 (1936), 1-46
. "Onulf von Speyer und Amarcius."In his Forschungen zur politischen
Ideenwelt, 124-34.
. Studien zur Briefliteratur Deutschlands im elften Jahrhundert. MGH, Schriften
1. Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1938.
Evans, Gillian. Old Arts and New Theology: The Beginnings of Theology as an
Academic Discipline. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
Fellerer, Karl Gustav. "Die Musica in den Artes Liberales."In Koch, ed., Artes
Liberales, 33-49.
Fenske, Lutz. "Der Knappe: Erziehung und Funktion."In Fleckenstein, ed.,
Curialitas, 55-127.
Ferruolo, Stephen C. The Origins of the University: The Schools of Paris and
Their Critics, 1100-1215. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1985.
Fichtenau, Heinrich. The Carolingian Empire. Trans. Peter Munz. Oxford:
Blackwell, 1957.
Fleckenstein, Josef. Die Bildungsreform Karls des Grossen als Verwirklichung
der norma rectitudinis. Freiburg: Herder, 1953.
, ed. Curialitas: Studien zu Grundfragen der höfisch-ritterlichen Kultur.
Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 100. Göttingen:
Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1990.
. Die Hofkapelle der deutschen Könige. 2 vols. MGH Schriften 16, 1 & 2.
Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1959-66.
. "Karl der Grosse und sein Hof."In Bernhard Bischoff, ed., Karl der Grosse:
Lebenswerk und Nachleben, Vol. 2: Geistiges Leben, 24-50. Düsseldorf:
Schwann, 1965.
. "Königshof und Bischofsschule unter Otto dem Grossen."AKG 38 (1956), 38-
62.
. "Problematik und Gestalt der ottonisch-salischen Reichskirche."In Karl
 Schmid, ed., Reich und Kirche vor dem Investiturstreit: Gerd Tellenbach zum
80. Geburtstag, 83-98. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1985.
. "Die Struktur des Hofes Karls des Grossen im Spiegel von Hinkmars De ordine
palatii."Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsvereins 83 (1976), 5-22; rpt. in his
Ordnungen und formende Kräfte des Mittelalters: Ausgewäblte Beiträge, 67-83.
Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1989.
Forschner, Maximilian. Die stoische Ethik: Über den Zusammenhang von Natur-
, Sprach-, und Moralphilosophie im altstoischen System. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta,
1981.
Forse, James H. "Bruno of Cologne and the Networking of the Episcopate in
Tenth-Century Germany."German History 9 (1991), 263-77.
Fredborg, Karin. "Twelfth Century Ciceronian Rhetoric: Its Doctrinal
Development and Influences."In Vickers, ed., Rhetoric Revalued, 87-97.
 

< previous page_493 next page >

page
< previous page_494 next page >
page
Page 494
. "The Commentaries on Cicero's De inventione and Rhetorica ad Herennium by
William of Champeaux. Cabiers de l'Institut du Moyen Âge Grec et Latin 17
(1976), 1-39.
Fried, Johannes. "Der Archipoeta: Ein Kölner Scholaster?"In Klaus Herbers et
al., eds., Ex Ipsis Rerum Documentis: Beiträge zur Mediävistik: Festschrift für
Harald Zimmermann, 85-90. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1991.
. "Die Bamberger Domschule und die Rezeption von Frühscholastik und
Rechtswissenschaft in ihrem Umkreis bis zum Ende der Stauferzeit."In Fried,
ed., Schulen und Studium, 163-201.
, ed. Schulen und Studium im sozialen Wandel des hohen und späten Mittelalters.
Vorträge und Forschungen 30. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1986.
Friedman, John Block. Orpheus in the Middle Ages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1970.
Gamer, Helena. "Studien zum Ruodlieb."ZfdA 88 (1957/58), 249-66.
Ganz, Peter, R. B. C. Huygens, and Friedrich Niewöhner, eds. Auctoritas und
ratio: Studien zu Berengar von Tours. Wolfenbütteler Mittelalter-Studien 2.
Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1990.
Garin, Eugenio. "Retorica e `Studia humanitatis' nella cultura del
Quattrocento."In Vickers, ed., Rhetoric Revalued, 225-39.
Gasc, Hélène. "Gerbert et la pédagogie des arts libéraux à la fin du dixième
siècle."Journal of Medieval History 12 (1986), 111-21.
Georgianna, Linda. "Any Corner of Heaven: Heloise's Critique of
Monasticism."Mediaeval Studies 49 (1987), 221-53.
Gibson, Margaret, ed. Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence. Oxford:
Blackwell, 1981.
. "The Continuity of Learning circa 850-circa 1050."Viator 6 (1975), 1-13.
. "The Study of the 'Timaeus' in the Eleventh and Twelfth
Centuries."Pensamiento 25 (1969), 183-94.
Giesebrecht, Wilhelm von. Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit. 5th ed. Vols. 2,
3. Leipzig: Duncker and Humblot, 1885, 1890.
Gilson, Étienne. "L'humanisme médiévale."In his Humanisme et renaissance.
Paris: J. Vrin, 1986; rpt. from Les idées et les lettres, 171-96. Paris: J. Vrin,
1955.
Glauche, Günter. "Die Rolle der Schulautoren im Unterricht von 800-1100."In
 La scuola, 2: 617-36.
. Schullektüre im Mittelalter: Entstehung und Wandlungen des Lektürekanons bis
1200 nach den Quellen dargestellt. Münchener Beiträge zur Mediävistik und
Renaissanceforschung 5. Munich: Arbeo, 1970.
Godman, Peter. "Ambiguity in the 'Mathematicus' of Bernardus Silvestris."Studi
Medievali 3rd ser. 31 (1990), 583-648.
. "The Ideas of Ernst Robert Curtius and the Genesis of ELLMA."Introduction to
European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1990.
. Poets and Emperors: Frankish Politics and Carolingian Poetry. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1987.
Gompf, Ludwig. "'Querela magistri Treverensis': Das sogenannte `Carmen
Winrici'."Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 4 (1967), 91-121.
 

< previous page_494 next page >

page
< previous page_495 next page >
page
Page 495
Goody, Jack. The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Goody, Jack and I. P. Watt. ''The Consequences of Literacy."Comparative
Studies in Society and History 5 (1963), 304-45.
Götting, Hans. Das Bistum Hildesheim 3: Die Hildesheimer Bischöfe von 815 bis
1221 (1227). Germania Sacra N.F. 20. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1984.
Goy, Rudolf. Die Überlieferung der Werke Hugos von St. Viktor: Ein Beitrag
zur Kommunikationsgeschichte des Mittelalters. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1976.
Grabmann, Martin. Geschichte der scholastischen Methode: nach den
gedruckten und ungedruckten Quellen. Berlin: Akademie, 1957.
Gregory, Tullio. Platonismo medievale: studi e ricerchi. Rome: Istituto storico
Italiano per il Medio Evo, 1958.
. "The Platonic Inheritance."In Dronke, ed., History of Twelfth Century Western
Philosophy, 54-80.
Gumbrecht, Hans U. and K. L. Pfeiffer, eds. Materialität der Kommunikation.
Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 750. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1988.
Haage, Bernhard Dietrich. "Wissenschafts- und bildungstheoretische
Reminiszenzen nordfranzösischer Schulen bei Gottfried von Strassburg und
Wolfram von Eschenbach."Würzburger medizinbistorische Mitteilungen 8
(1990), 91-35.
Haffter, Heinz. "Die römische Humanitas."In hans Oppermann, ed., Römische
Wertbegriffe, 468-82. Wege der Forschung 14. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1974.
Häfner, Elisabeth. Die Wormser Briefsammlung des 11. Jahrhunderts, Erlanger
Abhandlungen zur mittleren und neueren Geschichte 22. Erlangen: Palm and
Enke, 1935.
Halphen, Louis. "Un pédagogue."In his A travers l'histoire du moyen âge, 277-
85. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1950.
Häring, N. M. "The Creation and the Creator of the World According to Thierry
of Chartres and Clarenbaldus of Arras."AHDLMA 22 (1955), 137-216.
. "Chartres and Paris Revisited."In J. Reginald O'Donnell, ed., Essays in Honour
of Anton Charles Pegis, 268-329. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval
Studies, 1974.
Hartmann, Wilfried. "Manegold von Lautenbach und die Anfänge der
Frühscholastik."DA 26 (1970), 47-149.
 Haskins, Charles H. The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. 1927; rpt. New
York: New American Library, 1972.
Hauck, Albert. Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands. Leipzig: J. C. Heinrichs'sche
Buchhandlung, 1920 (Vol. 3), 1913 (Vol. 4).
Hauck, Karl. "Heinrich III und der Ruodlieb."PBB 70 (1948), 372-419.
Havelock, Eric. Preface to Plato. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1963.
Heitmann, Klaus. "Orpheus im Mittelalter."AKG 45 (1963), 253-94.
Hemmen, Wilhelm. "Der Brief des Magisters Manegold an Abt Wibald von
Corvey (1149)."In Klemens Honselman, ed., Von der Domschule zum
Gymnasium in Paderborn, 79-105. Paderborn: Bonifatius, 1962.
Hexter, Ralph. Ovid and Medieval Schooling: Studies in Medieval School
Commentaries
 

< previous page_495 next page >

page
< previous page_496 next page >
page
Page 496
on Ovid's Ars amatoria, Epistulae ex Ponto and Epistulae Heroidum. Munich:
Arbeo, 1986.
Hoffmann, Hartmut. "Politik und Kultur im ottonischen Reichskirchensystem:
Zur Interpretation der Vita Brunonis des Ruotger."Rheinische
Vierteljahresblätter 22 (1957), 31-55.
Holder-Egger, O. "Goswin und Gozechin: Domscholaster zu Mainz."Neues
Archiv 13 (1887/88), 11-21.
Hollister, C. Warren and John Baldwin. "The Rise of Administrative Kingship:
Henry I and Philip Augustus."AHR 83 (1978), 867-905.
Holtz, Louis. "Les nouvelles tendances de la pédagogie grammaticale au Xe
siècle."Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 24/25 (1989/90), 163-73.
Huberti, Ludwig. Studien zur Rechtsgeschichte der Gottesfrieden und
Landfrieden. Ansbach: Brugel, 1892.
Hüschen, Heinrich. "Antike Einflüsse in der mittelalterlichen
Musikanschauung."In Paul Wilpert, ed., Antike und Orient im Mittelalter, 80-95.
Miscellanea Mediaevalia 1. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1962.
Illmer, Detlef. Formen der Erziebung und Wissensvermittlung im früben
Mittelalter: Erziehung und Wissensvermittlung im früben Mittelalter: Beiträge
zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Schule. Kastellaun/Hunsrück, 1979.
Jacqueline, Bernard. Episcopat et papauté chez Saint Bernard de Clairvaux.
Thesis, University of Paris 1971; Lille: Université de Lille; Paris: Champion,
1975.
Jaeger, C. Stephen. "L'amour des rois: structure social d'une forme de sensibilité
aristocratique."Annales ESC 46 (1991), 547-71.
. "Peter Abelard's Silence at the Council of Sens."Res Publica Litterarum 3
(1980), 31-54.
. "Cathedral Schools and Humanist Learning, 950-1150."DVJS 61 (1987), 569-
616.
. "The Courtier Bishop in Vitae from the Tenth to the Twelfth
Century."Speculum 58 (1983), 291-325.
. "Courtliness and Social Change."In Cultures of Power: Lordship, Status and
Process in Twelfth Century Europe. Ed. T. Bisson. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1995, forthcoming.
. Medieval Humanism in Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan and Isolde.
Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1977.
 . Origins of Courtliness: Civilizing Trends and the Formation of Courtly Ideals,
939-1210. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985.
. "Orpheus in the Eleventh Century."Mittellateinisches Jabrbuch 27 (1992), 141-
68.
Jaeger, Werner W. Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture. Trans. Gilbert Highet.
3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
Jaffe, Samuel. "Antiquity and Innovation in Notker's Nova rhetorica: The
Doctrine of Invention."Rhetorica 3 (1985), 165-81.
Jolivet, Jean, ed. Abélard en son temps: Actes du colloque international organisé
à l'occasion du ge centenaire de la naissance de Pierre Abélard. Paris: Belles
Lettres, 1981.
Johnson, Edgar N. The Secular Activities of the German Episcopate, 919-1024.
University of Nebraska Studies 30. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1932.
 

< previous page_496 next page >

page
< previous page_497 next page >
page
Page 497
Karnein, Alfred. De Amore in Volkssprachlicher Literatur: Untersuchungen zur
Andreas Capellanus-Rezeption in Mittelalter und Renaissance. Heidelberg: Carl
Winter, 1982.
Kempf, J. Zur Kulturgeschichte Frankens während der sächsischen und
salischen Kaiser. Mit einem Excurs: Über einen Schulstreit zwischen Würzburg
und Worms im 11. Jahrhundert. Programm d. k. Neuen Gymnasiums Würzburg
1914/15. Würzburg, 1915.
Kessler, Eckhard. Das Problem des frühen Humanismus: Seine philosophische
Bedeutung bei Coluccio Salutati. Munich: W. Fink, 1968.
Klewitz, Hans-Walter. "Königtum, Hofkapelle und Domkapitel im 10. und 11.
Jahrhundert."Archiv für Urkundenforschung 16 (1939), 102-56; rpt. Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1960.
Klingner, Friedrich. "Humanität und Humanitas."In his Römische Geisteswelt:
Essays zur lateinischen Literatur, ed. Karl Büchner, 704-46. Stuttgart: Reclam,
1979.
Klinkenberg, Hans Martin. "Der Verfall des Quadriviums im frühen
Mittelalter."In Koch, ed., Artes Liberales, 1-32.
Knowles, David. "The Humanism of the Twelfth Century."In his The Historian
and Character and Other Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1963.
. Thomas Becket. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1971.
Knox, Dilwyn. "Disciplina: The Monastic and Clerical Origins of European
Civility."In John Monfasani and Ronald G. Musto, eds., Renaissance Society and
Culture: Essays in Honor of Eugene F. Rice, Jr., 107-35. New York: Italica
Press, 1991.
Koch, Josef, ed. Artes Liberales von der antiken Bildung zur Wissenschaft des
Mittelalters. Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 5. Leiden
and Cologne: Brill, 1959.
Köhler, Oskar. Das Bild des geistlichen Fürsten in den Viten des 10., 11. und 12.
Jahrhunderts. Abhandlungen zur mittleren und neueren Geschichte 77. Berlin:
Verlag für Staatswissenschaften und Geschichte, 1935.
. "Die Ottonische Reichskirche: Ein Forschungsbericht."In Josef Fleckenstein,
ed., Adel und Kirche: Gerd Tellenbach zum 65. Geburtstag, 141-204. Freiburg:
Herder, 1968.
Köhn, Rolf. "Schulbildung und Trivium im lateinischen Hochmittelalter und ihr
möglicher praktischer Nutzen."In Fried, ed., Schulen und Studium, 203-84.
 Kupper, Jean-Louis. Liège et l'église impériale XIe-XIIe siècle. Bibliothèque de
la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l'Université de Liège 228. Paris: Belles
Lettres, 1981.
Kurth, Godefroid. Notger de Liège et la civilisation au Xe siècle. 2 vols. Paris-
Brussels-Liège: A. Picard, 1905.
Ladner, Gerhard. Theologie und Politik vor dem Investiturstreit. Vienna: Rohrer,
1936.
Laistner, M. L. W. Thought and Letters in Western Europe A.D. 500 to 900. 2nd
ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1957.
Langer, Ullrich. Divine and Poetic Freedom in the Renaissance: Nominalist
Theology and Literature in France and Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1990.
 

< previous page_497 next page >

page
< previous page_498 next page >
page
Page 498
Leclercq, Jean. "Deux opuscules sur la formation des jeunes moines."Revue
d'Ascétique et de Mystique 33 (1957), 387-99.
. Études sur le vocabulaire monastique du moyen âge. Studia Anselmiana 48.
Rome: Orbis Catholicus, Herder, 1961.
. La femme et les femmes dans l'oeuvre de Saint Bernard. Paris: Tequi, 1983.
. The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture.
Trans. Catherine Misrahi. New York: Fordham University Press, 1962.
. Monks and Love in Twelfth-Century France: Psycho-Historical Essays.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979.
. "Pédagogie et formation spirituelle du VIe au IXe siècle."In La scuola, 1: 255-
90.
. "Pour l'histoire de l'expression 'philosophie chrétienne.'"Mélanges des Sciences
Religieuses 8 (1952), 221-26.
. Recueil d'études sur Saint Bernard et ses écrits. 2 vols. Rome: Edizione di
Storia e Letteratura, 1962.
Lèsne, Emil. Les écoles de la fin du VIIIe siècle à la fin du XIIe siècle. Vol. 5 of
his Histoire de la propriété ecclésiastique en France. Lille: Faculté Catholique,
1940.
Liebeschütz, Hans. "The Debate on Philosophical Learning During the
Transition Period (900-1080)."In Arthur H. Armstrong, ed., The Cambridge
History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, 587-610. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1970.
. "Kosmologische Motive in der Bildungswelt der Frühscholastik."Vorträge der
Bibliothek Warburg 1923/24 (1926), 83-148.
Lindgren, Uta. Gerbert von Aurillac und das Quadrivium: Untersuchungen zur
Bildung im Zeitalter der Ottonen. Sudhoffs Archiv, Beiheft 18. Wiesbaden:
Steiner, 1976.
Luscombe, David E. "Peter Abelard."In Dronke, ed., A History of Twelfth
Century Philosophy, 279-307.
. The School of Peter Abelard: The Influence of Abelard's Thought in the Early
Scholastic Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
Lutz, Cora. Schoolmasters of the Tenth Century. Hamden, CT: Archon Books,
1977.
Lynch, Joseph H. The Medieval Church: A Brief History. London and New
 York: Longman, 1992.
Mähl, Sibylle. Quadriga virtutum: Die Kardinaltugenden in der
Geistesgeschichte der Karolingerzeit. Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau, 1969.
Maksymiuk, Stefan. Knowledge, Politics and Magic: The Figure of the Court
Magician in Medieval German Literature. Dissertation University of
Washington, 1992.
Mancal, Josef. Zum Begriff der Philosophie bei M. Tullius Cicero.
Humanistische Bibliothek 1. 39. Munich: Fink, 1982.
Manitius, Max. Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, Handbuch
der Altertumswissenschaft 9, 2. 3 vols. Munich: Beck, 1923; rpt. 1973.
Marrou, H. I. A History of Education in Antiquity. Trans. George Lamb.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1956.
Marshall, Linda. "The Identity of the 'New Man' in the 'Anticlaudianus' of Alan
of Lille."Viator 10 (1979), 77-94.
 

< previous page_498 next page >

page
< previous page_499 next page >
page
Page 499
Märtl, Claudia. "Die Bamberger Schulen: Ein Bildungszentrum des
Salierreiches."In Stefan Weinfurter, ed., Die Salier und das Reich. 3: 327-46.
McCarthy, Joseph. "Clement of Alexandria and the Foundations of Christian
Educational Theory."History of Education Society Bulletin 7 (1971), 11-18.
. Humanistic Emphases in the Educational Thought of Vincent of Beauvais.
Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 10. Leiden: Brill, 1976.
McCready, William D. Signs of Sanctity: Miracles in Gregory the Great.
Toronto and Leiden: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1989.
McDonald, William C. "The 'Nobility of Soul': Uncharted Echoes of the
Peraldean Tradition in Late Medieval German Literature."DVJS 60 (1986), 543-
571.
McDonough, Christopher. "Orpheus, Ulysses, and Penelope."Studi Medievali 3rd
Ser. 31 (1990), 85-121.
McGuire, Brian P. Friendship and Community: The Monastic Experience 350-
1250. Cistercian Studies Series 95. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications,
1988.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Carolingians and the Written Word. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1989.
. The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751-987. London and New
York: Longmans, 1983.
. "The Palace School of Charles the Bald."In Margaret T. Gibson and Janet L.
Nelson, eds., Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom, 385-400. BAR International
Series 101. Oxford: BAR, 1981.
, ed. The Uses of Literacy in Early Mediaeval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1990.
Michaud, E. Guillaume de Champeaux et les écoles de Paris au XIIe siècle.
Paris: Didier, 1867.
Milis, Ludo. "Ermites et chanoines réguliers au XIIe siècle."CCM 22 (1979), 39-
80.
Misch, Georg. Geschichte der Autobiographie. Vol. 3, parts 1 & 2.
Frankfurt/Main: Schulte, Bulmke, 1959.
Monod, Bernard. "La pédagogie et l'éducation au moyen âge d'après les
souvenirs d'un moine du XIe siècle."Revue Universitaire 13 (1904), 25-36.
Moore, R. T. "Guibert of Nogent and His World."In Henry Mayr-Harting and R.
 T. Moore, eds., Studies in Medieval History Presented to R.H.C. Davis, 107-17.
London: Hambledon Press, 1985.
Müller, Walter. Das Problem der Seelenschönheit im Mittelalter: Eine
begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung. Bern: Haupt, 1923.
Nederman, Cary J. "Aristotelian Ethics Before the Nichomachean Ethics:
Alternate Sources of Aristotle's Concept of Virtue in the Twelfth
Century."Parergon n.s. 7 (1989), 55-75.
. "Nature, Sin and the Origins of Society: The Ciceronian Tradition in Medieval
Political Thought."Journal of the History of Ideas 49 (1988), 3-26.
Newell, John H. Jr. "Grammaticus et Ethicus: William of Conches' Search for
Order."In Simo Knuuttila, Monika Asztalos, John Murdoch, and Illka Nuniluoto,
eds., Knowledge and the Sciences in Medieval Philosophy: Proceedings of the
Eighth International Congress of Medieval Philosophy, Helsinki 24-29 August,
1987, 2: 275-84. Helsinki: Yliopistopaino, 1990.
 

< previous page_499 next page >

page
< previous page_500 next page >
page
Page 500
. "William of Conches."In Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 115, Mediaeval
Philosophers. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992, 353-59.
Newman, Barbara. "Flaws in the Golden Bowl: Gender and Spiritual Formation
in the Twelfth Century."Traditio 45 (1989/90), 111-46.
. "Authority, Authenticity, and the Repression of Heloise."Journal of Mediaeval
and Renaissance Studies 22 (1992), 121-57.
Olsen, Glen W. "Twelfth-Century Humanism Reconsidered: The Case of St.
Bernard."Studi Medievali 3rd ser. 31 (1990), 27-53.
Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London
and New York: Methuen, 1982.
Panofsky, Erwin. Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism. New York: Meridian,
1957.
Paré, Gérard, P. Tremblay, and A. Brunet. La renaissance du XIIe siècle: Les
écoles et l'enseignement. Publications de l'Institut des Études Médiévales
d'Ottowa 3. Paris and Ottowa: J. Vrin, 1933.
Philippson, Robert. "Das Sittlichschöne bei Panaitios."Philologus 85 n.s. 39
(1930), 357-413.
Pietzsch, Gerhard. Die Musik im Erziehungs- und Bildungsideal des
ausgehenden Altertums und frühen Mittelalters. Halle, 1932; rpt. Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1969.
Pire, Georges. Stoicisme et pédagogie de Zénon à Marc-Aurèle, de Sénèque à
Montaigne et à J.-J. Rousseau. Liège and Paris: Dessain, 1958.
Platelle, Henri. "Le problème du scandale: Les nouvelles modes masculines aux
XIe et XIIe siècles."Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 53 (1975), 1071-96.
Podlech, Adalbert. Abälard und Héloïse oder die Theologie der Liebe. Munich
and Zürich: Piper, 1990.
Poole, Reginald L. Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought and
Learning. 2nd ed. New York, 1920; rpt. New York: Dover, 1960.
. "The Masters of the Schools at Paris and Chartres in John of Salisbury's
Time."English Historical Review 139 (1920), 321-42.
Post, Gaines. Studies in Medieval Legal Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1964.
Prinz, Friedrich. "Kaiser Heinrich III: Seine widersprüchliche Beurteilung und
deren Gründe."HZ 246 (1988), 529-48.
 Radding, Charles M. "The Geography of Learning in Early Eleventh-Century
Europe: Lanfranc of Bec and Berengar of Tours Revisited."Bullettino
dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo e Archivio Muratoriano
(forthcoming).
. A World Made by Men: Cognition and Society, 400-1200. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
Radding, Charles M. and William W. Clark. Medieval Architecture, Medieval
Learning: Builders and Masters in the Age of Romanesque and Gothic. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.
Renardy, Charlotte. "Les écoles liégoises du IXe au XIIe siècle: grandes lignes
de leur évolution."Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 57 (1979), 309-28.
Reuter, Timothy. "The 'Imperial Church System' of the Ottonian and Salian
Rulers: A Reconsideration."Journal of Ecclesiastical History 33 (1982), 347-74.
Riché, Pierre. "Les conditions de la production littéraire: maîtres et
écoles."Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 24/25 (1989/90), 413-22.
 

< previous page_500 next page >

page
< previous page_501 next page >
page
Page 501
. Les écoles et l'enseignement dans l'occident chrétien de la fin du Ve siècle au
milieu du XIe siècle. Paris, 1979.
. Education and Culture in the Barbarian West from the Sixth Through the
Eighth Century. Trans. J. Contreni. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina
Press, 1978.
. "L'enseignement de Gerbert à Reims dans le contexte européen."In Gerberto:
Scienza, storia, et mito: atti del Gerberti Symposium, Bobbio 25-27 Iuglio, 1983.
Archivum Bobbiense, Studia 2. Bobbio and Piacenza: Editrice degli A.S.B.,
1985.
Robinson, I. S. "The 'colores rhetorici' in the Investiture Contest."Traditio 32
(1976), 209-38.
Ruh, Kurt and Gundolf Keil, eds. Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters:
Verfasserlexikon. 2nd ed. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1977-
Scaglione, Aldo D. Knights at Court: Courtliness, Chivalry and Courtesy from
Ottonian Germany to the Italian Renaissance. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1991.
Schadewalt, Wolfgang. "Humanitas Romana."In Hildegard Temporini, ed.,
Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt I: Von den Anfängen bis zum
Ausgang der Republik, 4: 43-62. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1973.
Schauwecker, Helga. Otloh von St. Emmeram: Ein Beitrag zur Bildungs- und
Frömmigkeitsgeschichte des 11. Jahrhunderts. Dissertation, Würzburg, 1962.
Schepss, Georg. "Zu Froumunds Briefcodex und zu Ruodlieb."ZfdPh 15 (1883),
419-33.
Schieffer, Rudolf. "Bleibt der Archipoeta anonym?"Mitteilungen des Instituts für
Osterreichische Geschichtsforschung 98 (1990), 59-79.
Schmitt, Jean-Claude. "The Ethics of Gesture."In Michel Feher, ed., Fragments
for a History of the Human Body, 128-47. New York: Zone, 1989.
. La raison des gestes dans l'occident médiéval. Paris: Gallimard, 1990.
Schnell, Rüdiger. Andreas Capellanus: Zur Rezeption des römischen und
kanonischen Rechts in De Amore. Munich: W. Fink, 1982.
. Causa amoris: Liebeskonzeption und Liebesdarstellung in der mittelalterlichen
Literatur. Bern: Francke, 1985.
. "Die 'höfische Liebe' als 'höfischer Diskurs' über die Liebe."In Fleckenstein,
ed., Curialitas, 231-301.
 Schnith, Karl. "Recht und Friede: Zum Königsgedanken im Umkreis Heinrichs
III."HJb 81 (1962), 22-57.
La scuola nell' occidente latino dell' alto medioevo. Settimane di studio del
centro Italiano di studi sull' alto medioevo 19. 2 vols. Spoleto: Presso la sede del
Centro, 1972.
Seigel, Jerrold. Rhetoric and Philosophy in Renaissance Humanism: The Union
of Eloquence and Wisdom, Petrarch to Valla. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1968.
Siegwart, Josef. Die Consuetudines des Augustiner-Chorherrenstiftes Marbach
im Elsass (12. Jahrhundert). Spicilegium Friburgense 10. Freiburg:
Universitätsverlag, 1965.
Silvestre, Hubert. "Notice sur Adelman de Liége, évêque de Brescia
(+1061)."Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique 56 (1961), 855-71.
 

< previous page_501 next page >

page
< previous page_502 next page >
page
Page 502
Smalley, Beryl. The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. 2nd ed. Notre Dame,
IN: Notre Dame University Press, 1970.
. The Becket Conflict and the Schools: A Study of Intellectuals in Politics.
Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1973.
Sommerfeldt, John. "Charismatic and Gregorian Leadership in the Thought of
Bernard of Clairvaux."In Bernard of Clairvaux: Studies Presented to Dom Jean
Leclercg, 73-90. Washington, DC: Cistercian Publications, 1973.
Southern, R. W. "Lanfranc of Bec and Berengar of Tours."In R. W. Hunt, W. A.
Pantin, and R. W. Southern, eds., Studies in Medieval History presented to
Frederick Maurice Powicke, 27-48. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948.
. The Making of the Middle Ages. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1966.
. "Medieval Humanism."In his Medieval Humanism and Other Essays, 29-60.
New York: Harper and Row, 1970.
. "The Place of England in the Twelfth Century Renaissance."History 45 (1960),
201-16; rpt. in his Medieval Humanism and Other Essays, 158-80.
. Platonism, Scholastic Method, and the School of Chartres. The Stenton Lecture
1978. Reading: University of Reading, 1979.
. "The Schools of Paris and Chartres."In Benson and Constable, eds.,
Renaissance and Renewal, 113-37.
Specht, Franz Anton. Geschichte des Unterrichtswesens in Deutschland von den
ältesten Zeiten bis zur Mitte des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart: Cotta,
1885.
Spitzer, Leo. Classical and Christian Ideas of World Harmony: Prolegomena to
an Interpretation of the Word "Stimmung". Ed. A. G. Hatcher. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1963.
Sprandel, Rolf. Ivo von Chartres und seine Stellung in der Kirchengeschichte.
Stuttgart: Hiersemann,, 1962.
Stachnik, Richard. Die Bildung des Weltklerus im Frankenreiche von Karl
Martell bis auf Ludwig den Frommen: Eine Darstellung ihrer geschichtlichen
Entwicklung. Paderborn: F. Schöningh, 1926.
Steindorff, Ernst. Jahrbücher des deutschen Reiches unter Heinrich III. Leipzig,
1874-81; rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1963.
Steinen, Wolfram von den. "Humanismus um 1100."In his Menschen im
Mittelalter: Gesammelte Forschungen, Betrachtungen, Bilder, 196-214. Ed.
Peter von Moos. Bern and Munich: Francke, 1967.
 Stock, Brian. The Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of
Interpretation in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1983.
. Myth and Science in the Twelfth Century: A Study of Bernard Silvester.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Stotz, Peter. "Dichten als Schulfach: Aspekte mittelalterlicher
Schuldichtung."Mittellateinisches Jabrbuch 16 (1981), 1-16.
Strayer, Joseph, ed. Dictionary of the Middle Ages. New York: Scribners, 1982.
Struve, Tilman. "Vita civilis naturam imitetur: Der Gedanke der Nachahmung
der Natur als Grundlage der organologischen Staatskonzeption Johannes von
Salisbury."Historisches Jahrbuch 101 (1981), 341-61.
Tellenbach, Gerd. Church, State and Christian Society at the Time of the
Investiture Contest. Trans. R. F. Bennett. Oxford: Blackwell, 1940.
 

< previous page_502 next page >

page
< previous page_503 next page >
page
Page 503
Thomas, Heinz. "Zur Kritik an der Ehe Heinrichs III. mit Agnes von Poitou."In
Kurt-Ulrich Jäschke and Reinhard Wenskus, eds., Festschrift für Helmut
Beumann zum 65. Geburtstag, 224-35. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1977.
Thompson, James W. The Literacy of the Laity in the Middle Ages. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1939; rpt. New York: B. Franklin, 1963.
Uhlirz, Karl. Jahrbücher des deutschen Reiches unter Otto II. und Otto III. 1902;
rpt. Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1967.
Van den Eynde, Damien. Essai sur la succession et la date des écrits de Hugues
de Saint-Victor. Spicilegium pontificii Athenaei Antoniani 13. Rome: Pontificum
Athenaeum Antonianum, 1960.
Van Engen, John H. "The 'Crisis of Cenobitism' Reconsidered: Benedictine
Monasticism in the Years 1050-1150."Speculum 61 (1986), 269-304.
. Rupert of Deutz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Vickers, Brian, ed. Rhetoric Revalued: Papers from the International Society for
the History of Rhetoric. Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Early
Renaissance Studies, 1982.
Vogt, G. M. "Gleanings for the History of a Sentiment: Generositas virtus, non
sanguis."JEGP 24 (1925), 102-24.
Vollrath, H. "'Gewissenmoral und Konfliktverständnis: Thomas Becket in der
Darstellung seiner Biographen."HJb 109 (1989), 24-55.
von Moos, Peter. Geschichte als Topik: Das rhetorische Exemplum von der
Antike zur Neuzeit und die historiae im Policraticus Johanns von Salisbury. Ordo
2. Hildesheim-Zürich-New York: G. Olms, 1988.
. Hildebert von Lavardin, 1056-1133: Humanitas an der Schwelle des böfischen
Zeitalters. Pariser Historische Studien 3. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1965.
. "Par tibi, Roma, nihil: Eine Antwort."Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 14 (1979),
119-26.
Vossen, Peter. Der Libellus Scolasticus des Walther von Speyer: Ein
Schulbericht aus dem Jahre 984. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1962.
Vossler, Karl. "Adel der Geburt und der Gesinnung bei den Romanen."In his Aus
der romanischen Welt, 44-52. 2nd ed. Karlsruhe: Stahlberg, 1948.
Wallach, Luitpold. Alcuin and Charlemagne: Studies in Carolingian History and
Literature. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1959.
. "Alcuin on Virtues and Vices: A Manual for a Carolingian Soldier."Harvard
 Theological Review 48 (1955), 175-95.
. "Education and Culture in the Tenth Century."Mediaevalia et Humanistica 9
(1955), 18-22.
. "Onulf of Speyer: A Humanist of the Eleventh Century."Medievalia et
Humanistica 6 (1950), 35-56.
Walsh, P. G. "Alan of Lille as a Renaissance Figure."Studies in Church History
14 (1977), 117-35.
Wankel, Hermann. Kalos kai agathos. Dissertation, Würzburg, 1961; rpt. New
York: Arno, 1979.
Ward, Benedicta. Miracles and the Medieval Mind: Theory, Record, and Event,
1000-1215. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
Ward, John. Artificiosa eloquentia in the Middle Ages, Dissertation, Toronto,
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1972.
 

< previous page_503 next page >

page
< previous page_504 next page >
page
Page 504
. "The Date of the Commentary on Cicero's 'De inventione' by Thierry of
Chartres (ca. 1095-1160?) and the Cornifician Attack on the Liberal Arts."Viator
3 (1972), 219-73.
Warden, John. "Orpheus and Ficino."In John Warden, ed. Orpheus: The
Metamorphosis of a Myth. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1982.
Warren, F. M. "Constantine of Fleury, 985-1014."Transactions of the
Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 15 (1909), 285-92
Wattenbach, Wilhelm. "Magister Onulf von Speier."Sitzungsberichte der
Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (1894), 361-86.
Weber, F. Die Domschule von Speyer im Mittelalter. Dissertation, Freiburg,
1954.
Wehrli, Max. "Der Tristan Gottfrieds von Strassburg."In Alois Wolf, ed.,
Gottfried von Strassburg, 97-134. Wege der Forschung 320. Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1973.
Weigle, Fritz. "Studien zur Überlieferung der Briefsammlung Gerberts von
Reims."DA 14 (1958), 158-64
Weinfurter, Stefan, ed. Die Salier und das Reich. 3 vols. Sigmaringen:
Thorbecke, 1991.
and Odilo Engels. Series Episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae Occidentalis, Ser. s:
Germania, Bd. 1: Archiepiscopatus Coloniensis. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1982.
Werner, K. F. "Zur Überlieferung der Briefe Gerberts von Aurillac."DA 17
(1961), 91-144.
Wetherbee, Winthrop. Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth Century. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972
White, Alison. "Boethius in the Medieval Quadrivium."In Gibson, ed., Boethius:
His Life, Thought and Influence, 162-205.
White, Hayden F. "The Gregorian Ideal and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux."Journal
of the History of Ideas 21 (1960), 321-48.
Wilks, Michael. "Alan of Lille and the New Man."Studies in Church History 14
(1977), 117-35.
, ed. The World of John of Salisbury. Studies in Church History, Subsidia 3.
Oxford: Blackwell, 1984.
Willesme, Jean-Pierre. "Saint-Victor au temps d'Abélard."In Jolivet, ed., Abélard
en son temps, 95-105.
 Williams, John R. "The Cathedral School of Rheims in the Eleventh
Century."Speculum 19 (1954), 661-77.
. "Manasses I of Rheims and Gregory VII."AHR 54 (1949), 804-24.
. "Godfrey of Rheims: A Humanist of the Eleventh Century."Speculum 22
(1947), 29-45.
Winnington-Ingram, R. P. "Ancient Greek Music 1932-1957."Lustrum 3 (1958),
5-57.
Wolf, Gunther. "Erzbischof Brun I. von Köln und die Förderung der gelehrten
Studien in Köln."In Albert Zimmermann, ed., Die Kölner Universität im
Mittelalter: Geistige Wurzeln und soziale Wirklichkeit, 299-311. Miscellanea
Mediaevalia 20. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1989.
Wolfram, Herwig. Splendor Imperii: Die Epiphanie von Tugend und Heil in
Herrschaft und Reich. MIÖG Ergänzungsband 20, 3. Graz and Cologne: Böhlau,
1963.
 

< previous page_504 next page >

page
< previous page_505 next page >
page
Page 505
Worstbrock, Franz Josef. ''Gozwin von Mainz."In Ruh, ed., Verfasserlexikon,
2nd ed., 3: 205-7.
Zielinski, Herbert. Der Reichsepiskopat in spätottonischer und salischer Zeit
(1002-1125). Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1984.
Zumthor, Paul. Oral Poetry: An Introduction. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1990.
. "The Text and the Voice."NLH 16 (1984), 67-92.
Zwierlein, Otto. "Par tibi, Roma, nihil."Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 11 (1976),
92-94.
 

< previous page_505 next page >

page
< previous page_507 next page >
page
Page 507

INDEX
A
Abelard, Peter, 1, 81, 82, 126, 164, 176, 218, 219, 221, 227, 229-36, 239, 244,
265, 275, 326, 329, 400, 451, 458, 463, 474;
"Carmen ad Astralabium," 229, 233, 449;
Dialogue of a Philosopher with a Jew and a Christian, 450;
Historia calamitatum, 230, 401, 447, 453, 454;
Theologia Christiana, 177
Abbo of Fleury, 398
Adalbero of Rheims, 56, 59
Adalbert of Prague, 312, 316;
Vita Adalberti, 473
Adalbold of Utrecht, 431
Adalhard of Corvey, 30
Adam of Bremen, 427
Adam of Dryburgh, 460
Adam of Perseigne, 460
Adela of Blois, 167, 318, 418, 427
Adelard of Bath, 169, 170;
De eodem et diverso, 432
Adelman of Liège, 17, 63, 79, 105, 126, 180, 219, 220, 408, 442;
"De viris illustribus sui temporis,"62
Ademar of Chabannes, 218, 447
Aegidius Romanus, 460;
De regimine principum, 461
Aelred of Rievaulx, 278
Aeneas, 285
Agnes of Poitou, 95, 200, 202, 438
Agobard of Lyon, 26
Alan of Lille, 1, 14, 280, 309, 329, 433, 468;
Anticlaudianus, 141, 174, 178, 281, 284-91, 422, 466, 467, 468;
De planctu naturae, 185
Alberic of Rheims, 231
Albero of Liège, 444
Alcuin, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 33, 34, 113, 292, 316, 382, 383, 384, 385, 399, 407,
410, 413;
De rhetorica et virtutibus, 30, 32, 35, 132;
De grammatica, 30, 412;
De dialectica, 30, 412;
De virtutibus et vitiis, 31
Aldric of Sens, 23, 24
Alexander II (Pope), 157
Alpert of St. Symphorian, 41, 92, 94, 107, 402, 408
Amadeus of Lausanne, 158, 169, 186, 280, 427, 432, 466
Amarcius Sextus, 201
Ambrose of Milan, Saint, 48, 102, 107, 109, 360, 361, 398;
De officiis ministrorum, 48, 110, 113, 194, 406, 409, 460
Amphion, 142, 160, 169, 313
Andreas Capellanus, 296, 323, 457, 474, 475;
De amore, 319-22
Angelran of St. Riquier, 62
Anonymus Haserensis (De episcopis Eichstetensibus), 66, 396
Anselm of Besate, 17;
Rhetorimachia, 82, 201, 417, 424, 439
Anselm of Canterbury (Bec), 279, 280, 447, 466
Anselm of Laon, 16, 81, 82, 126, 134, 218, 227, 230, 231, 236, 452
 Anselm of Liège, 54, 55, 94, 202, 205, 215, 223, 224, 229, 266, 294, 389-92,
404, 416, 439, 440, 441, 442, 443, 444, 448, 449, 450, 469;
Gesta episcoporum Leodiensium, 389, 390, 392, 404, 469
Ansfrid of Brabant, 107
apatheia, 173
Apollo, 141, 418
Apostolic life, 200, 255, 267
Aquinas, Thomas, 326
Archpoet, 417, 436
Arion, 142
Aristotle, 6, 285, 356, 393, 462, 466, 467;
Nichomachean Ethics, 462
Aristoxenus, 165
Art and nature. See Nature overcome by art
Arthur (Legendary king of England), 310
Asclepius, 174
 

< previous page_507 next page >

page
< previous page_508 next page >
page
Page 508
Astralabe (Son of Peter Abelard), 229, 233, 235
Astrolabe, 435
Athanasius, 360
Augustine of Hippo, Saint, 123, 231, 235, 247, 326, 360, 361, 386;
De musica, 431
Aulus Gellius, 360, 405
Authority, 113, 230-33, 272-75, 326
Azecho of Worms, 83
Azelinus of Hildesheim, 210-16, 225, 296, 306, 327, 445, 446
B
Balderich of Liège, 63
Balderich of Trier, 80, 85, 240, 400, 440
Baldwin of Canterbury, 469
Bamberg, Cathedral school of, 47, 48, 63-64
Banquets, 301-8, 472
Bardo of Mainz, 27
Baudri of Bourgueil, 61, 148, 167, 171, 280, 315, 317, 318, 321, 405, 418, 436,
473, 474
Baugulf of Fulda, 27
Beauty, 112
Beauty of gestures, 35
Beauty of manners (venustas morum), 33, 35, 87, 96, 112, 172, 244-47, 253, 292,
294, 297, 323, 327, 346, 403
Beauty of soul (decor animae), 110, 269-72
Becket, Thomas, 11, 228, 297-310, 323, 324, 328, 405, 449, 469, 471, 472
Benedict of Chiusa, 218
Benedictine Rule, 21, 39, 133, 208, 212, 247, 251, 252, 256, 386, 398, 404, 440,
443, 444, 445, 456, 457, 465
Benoit de St. Maure, 296
Benno of Osnabrück, 93, 138, 207, 214
Benzo of Alba, 17, 93, 280, 403, 438;
Ad Heinricum IV imperatorem, 201, 402, 466
Berengar of Tours, 81, 82, 105, 123, 164, 180, 217, 219, 220, 222, 227, 233, 366,
389, 401, 447
Bern of Reichenau, 107, 114, 155, 167, 201, 202, 426, 431, 439;
Tonarius, 166;
Vita Udalrici, 411
Bernard of Chartres, 62, 129, 130, 131, 171, 179, 240, 293, 432, 435;
Glosae super Platonem, 168-9, 434
Bernard of Clairvaux, 8, 13, 48, 99, 111, 186, 190, 233, 239, 436, 443, 452, 453,
463, 466;
De consideratione, 49, 242, 453, 464, 465, 472;
De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae, 344, 477;
De praecepto et dispensatione, 465;
Sermones super cantica canticorum, 270, 464, 465, 477;
Vita Malachiae, 232, 273, 437, 450, 465
Bernard of Tiron, 100
Bernard Silvester, 1, 14, 427, 433, 436, 466, 467;
Cosmographia, 174, 178, 281-85, 467;
"Mathematicus,"187-8
Bernward of Hildesheim, 49, 213, 389
Biblical studies, 124, 377
Boethius, 83, 120, 166, 167, 169, 170, 187, 393, 413, 419, 430, 431, 434;
De consolatione philosophiae, 173, 174, 175, 178, 194, 401, 421;
De institutione musica, 165, 430
Boniface, 21, 22
Brun of Cologne, 36-48, 53, 54, 70, 78, 92, 93, 95, 102, 104, 105, 120, 154, 182,
188, 191, 207, 208, 209, 216, 226, 293, 294, 295, 385, 386, 400, 413, 424, 438,
444, 448, 466
Bruno the Carthusian, 61
Bruno of Toul (Pope Leo IX), 107
Bruno of Würzburg, 67
Burchard of Worms, 124-26
Burchard II of Worms, 52
C
Calixtus III, 425
Calliope, 132, 144, 160, 418
Cambridge Songs ("De mensa philosophie"), 141
Cardinal virtues, 23, 30, 32, 470
caritas, 251-54, 262
"Carmen Winrici,"397
Carneades, 356
Carolingian education, 21-35, 308
Cassiodorus, 31, 431
Castiglione, Baldesar, 406
Cerberus, 147
Chalcidius, 434, 467
Charisma, 7, 9, 28, 39, 41, 42, 76, 77, 81, 275
Charismatic culture, 4-9, 326, 329
Charismatic pedagogy, 76-83
Charismatic texts, 14-15, 190-93, 275-77
Charlemagne, 26-35, 113, 292, 316, 381-85
Charles the Bald, 383
Charon, 146
Chartres, cathedral school of, 47, 62
Chastity, 256, 298, 299
Chaucer, 412
Chivalric education, 309
Chrétien de Troyes, 251, 296;
Yvain, 251
 Christ, 8, 11, 191, 466
 

< previous page_508 next page >

page
< previous page_509 next page >
page
Page 509
Cicero, 3, 38, 45, 48, 49, 51, 57, 61, 86, 106, 107, 119, 124, 134, 136, 138, 152,
171, 180, 193, 264, 285, 292, 317, 363, 475;
De amicitia, 123, 173, 312, 407;
De inventione, 31, 32, 132, 135, 240, 384, 415, 452;
De legibus, 173, 433;
De officiis, 45, 48, 112, 194, 398, 399, 402, 410, 412, 415, 416;
De oratore, 31, 399, 404, 410, 415, 430;
Tusculan Disputations, 5, 6, 46, 84, 85, 97, 112, 117, 118, 121, 123, 165, 173,
175, 176, 194, 289, 328, 355, 377, 388, 401, 404, 430, 435, 461
Civil administration, 42
Civil education, 293
Civil law, 173
Civil manners (civiles mores), 27-35, 38, 292, 293, 294, 295, 304, 308, 325, 326,
328, 403
Civility (civilitas), 325, 326
Clarenbaldus of Arras, 434
Clement of Alexandria, 430
Cluny reform, 154
Colluccio Salutati, 406
Cologne, cathedral school of, 53-54
Conrad II, 191, 208
Conrad of Hirsau, 110, 466;
Dialogus de mundi contemptu vel amore, 409, 412
Considerateness (verecundia), 113, 307
Constance (nun, possibly of Le Ronceray at Angers, recipient of a poem by
Baudri of Bourgueil), 317, 474
Constancy, 287, 308
Constantine of Fleury, Abbot of Micy, 57-59, 63, 107, 113, 189, 280, 290, 393
Constitutions of Marbach, 252
contemptus mundi, 255
Cosmology, 173-9
Cotto, John, 431
Council of Langres, 425
Court chapel, 46-47
Court society, 292-324
Courtesy, 28, 310, 325
Courtliness (curialitas), 304, 306, 322, 323, 326, 472, 475
Courtly education, 292, 294-97, 308
Courtly ethics, 311
Courtly literature, 326, 328
Courtly love, 280, 310-24, 326, 473
Courtly manners, 458
Courtly romance, 15, 309, 347
Courtly social ideals, 310
Crantor, 356
Crisippus, 356
Cultivation of virtue (cultus virtutum), 57, 76-117, 127, 148, 171, 180, 193, 199,
200, 205, 233, 253, 254, 272, 280, 284, 286, 287, 290, 291, 292, 296, 306, 307,
308, 310, 311, 312, 316-19, 321, 323, 324, 327, 328, 331
D
Damian, Peter. See Peter Damian
David (psalmist), 150, 152, 361
"De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologie"(anonymous, late eleventh-century poem),
132, 134, 141, 142-45, 149, 158, 310, 327, 412, 415
decor, 106-111, 282
decor animae. See Beauty of soul
decorum, 309
decus, 308
Dietrich I of Metz, 37-42, 43, 45, 78, 92, 94, 95, 134, 182, 207, 208, 209, 386,
388, 413, 437, 444
 Dignity (dignitas), 32, 62, 81, 93, 112, 126, 137, 254, 280, 283, 466, 470
Diogenes, 355
disciplina morum, 243, 309, 322
Discipline (disciplina), 12, 13, 56, 83, 242, 249, 253, 255, 256-58, 280, 306, 311,
313, 323, 342, 459
discretio, 260
Distichs of Cato, 398
Divinity of man, 158, 159, 186, 280, 436, 466-67
documentum, 11-12
domesticus, 406
Drogo of Paris, 225, 293, 368
Durandus of Liège, 206, 207, 443, 444
E
Eanbald of York, 383
Ebalus of Rheims, 60, 62, 395
"Ecbasis captivi,"379, 419
EcclesiaSynagoge, 477
ecclesiasticae disciplinae, 21-27, 308
Edward Grim, 469, 470
Egbert of Liège, 448
Eigil of Fulda (Vita Sturmi), 21, 22, 379, 410
Einhard (Vita Caroli Magni), 29, 34, 383, 385
Ekkehard of Aura, 201, 438
Elegance (elegantia), 41, 54, 60, 61, 81, 327
Elegance of manners (elegantia morum), 91, 94-96, 116, 137, 172, 253
 

< previous page_509 next page >

page
< previous page_510 next page >
page
Page 510
Eloquence and wisdom, 131-6
Enguerrand of Coucy, 160
Enguerrand of Soissons, 422
Epistola de litteris colendis, 25, 27
Eraclius (Evraclius) of Liège, 54, 94, 95, 127, 208, 390, 391, 444
Erluin of Gembloux, 154
Ermenrich of Ellwangen, 29
ethica, 3, 14, 85, 309, 326, 406
Eucharist, 7
eudaimonia, 173
Eumenides, 146
Eurydice, 141-3, 417, 418, 421, 424, 427
Eusebius of Caesarea, 419
euthymia, 173
Everard of Ypres, 452
F
facetia, 301
Folcuin of Lobbes, 402
Fortitude, 308, 339
Friendship (amicitia), 58-59, 70-73, 103-106, 123, 193, 279-80, 311, 313, 327,
474
Frontinus, 182
Froumund of Tegernsee, 396, 422
Fulbert of Chartres, 17, 47, 60, 62, 79, 82, 105, 126, 154, 155, 180, 217, 219,
220, 240, 305, 306, 389, 391, 394, 395, 400, 407, 425, 442, 449
Fulcoius of Beauvais, 157, 427
G
Ganymede, 315
Gautier (Gualterius). See Walter.
Gebhard of Regensburg, 438
Genius, 38, 40. See also ingenium
Gentleness (mansuetudo), 72
Geoffrey of Chartres, 452
Geoffrey of Clairvaux, 273, 276
Gerald of Aurillac, 110
Gerald of Wales, 95, 99, 103;
De principis instructione, 14, 403
Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II), 47, 56, 59, 60, 62, 98, 113, 119, 120,
132, 134, 153, 156, 207, 226, 280, 378, 389, 391, 392, 393, 394, 404, 413, 425,
448
Gerhard I of Cambrai, 59, 439
Gerhoh of Reichersberg, 437
Gervinus of St. Riquier, 398
Gestures, gesturing, 10, 111-116, 271, 286, 321, 327
Gilbert of Poitiers, 452
Gilduin of St. Victor, 248, 454;
Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris, 246, 247-54, 454, 461, 463
Godehard of Hildesheim, 93, 213, 445, 446
Godfrey of Lorraine, 204
Godfrey of Rheims, 61, 114, 160, 186, 212, 262, 341, 416, 417, 422, 428, 429,
436, 473, 475
Godfrey of St. Victor, 248, 252, 270;
Fons philosophiae, 246, 454
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 184
Golden mean (mediocritas), 112, 260
Good manners, 309
Goscelin of Canterbury, 405
Goswin (Gozechinus) of Mainz, 3, 51, 56, 79, 82, 105, 210, 221-26, 227, 229,
241, 280, 293, 347, 349-75, 377, 390, 392, 400, 408, 419, 438, 440, 447, 448
Gothic sculpture, 331-48
Gottfried von Strassburg (Tristan und Isold), 170-71, 296, 432, 475
Gozechin See Goswin of Mainz
Grace (gracefulness, gratia), 54, 97, 112
Grammar, 128-31
gravitas, 53, 62, 81, 113, 114, 126, 271, 470
Greatness of soul (magnitudo animae), 44, 45, 298, 299
Gregory VII, 157
Gregory the Great, 99, 133, 386;
Moralia, 399
Gregory of Utrecht, 22
Grim, Edward. See Edward Grim
Grimald of St. Gall, 29, 30
Gualterius. See Walter
Guibert of Nogent, 161, 221, 226-29, 296, 316, 407, 417, 448, 449;
Commentary on Hosea, 229, 232;
De vita sua, 428
Guido di Castello, 239
Guitmund of Aversa, 81, 82, 126, 227
Gunderam of Eichstätt, 66
Gunther of Bamberg, 50, 86, 108, 448, 474
Gunzo of Novara, 16, 174, 447
H
Hamlet, 379
Halberstadt, cathedral school of, 37
Hariulf of St. Riquier, 398
Harmony, 142
Hartmann von Aue (Gregorius), 235
Heinrich of Trier, 64, 65
Heiric of Auxerre, 383
 Helgaud of Fleury, 393
Heloise, 234, 450, 451, 474
 

< previous page_510 next page >

page
< previous page_511 next page >
page
Page 511
Henry (Prince, son of Henry II of England), 304
Henry I (German king), 46
Henry I (French king), 416
Henry II (King of England), 204, 211, 263, 293, 294, 296, 313, 427, 469, 471
Henry III (German emperor), 16, 83, 95, 155, 156, 200-202, 203, 210, 223, 370,
392, 417, 424, 426, 438, 439, 440
Henry IV (German emperor), 93, 182, 296, 409
Herbert of Bosham, 11, 297-309, 378, 405, 469, 470, 471, 472
Herbord of St. Michel, 461
Heribert of Cologne, 53
Heribert of Eichstätt, 66
Hermann of Reichenau, 202, 435, 439
Hermann of Rheims, 51, 60, 61, 63, 82, 225, 293, 368, 395
Hezilo of Hildesheim, 151, 207, 211, 214, 215, 216, 224, 327, 446, 448
Hildebert of Lavardin, 16, 61, 161, 163, 164, 185, 186, 245, 246, 251, 273, 317,
409, 419, 422, 427, 428, 429, 454, 465, 466, 473;
"Par tibi, Roma, nihil,"162, 348
Hildegar (student of Fulbert of Chartres), 62, 79, 154
Hildesheim, cathedral school of, 47, 151, 210-16
Hildesheim letter collection, 313, 315
Hincmar of Rheims, 27, 28, 29, 113, 295, 383, 386
honestas, 25, 54, 55, 56, 60, 97, 106, 111, 116, 166, 228, 229, 241, 246, 287, 288,
289, 296, 304, 305, 308, 313, 321, 323, 433, 451, 470, 474
honestas morum, 35, 64, 107, 108, 320
honestum et utile, 45
Honorius Augustodunensis, 16, 134, 136, 169, 432
Horace, 38, 180, 194, 353, 355, 358, 359, 363, 371, 418, 474
Hotspur, 76
Hrabanus Maurus, 119, 255, 379;
De institutione clericorum, 23, 29, 34, 380, 385, 399
Hubertus (student at Chartres and Rheims), 60, 116
Hugh of Cluny, 409
Hugh of Die, 157
Hugh of Flavigny, 59, 60, 394
Hugh of St. Victor, 1, 10, 12, 16, 176, 234, 236, 246, 251, 254-62, 269, 283, 309,
343, 345, 347, 378;
De arca Noe, 259, 459, 461;
De institutione novitiorum, 108, 109, 233, 247, 248, 250, 252, 254-56, 283,
405, 409, 447, 448, 450, 460, 461, 462, 471, 472, 477, 478;
De modo dicendi et meditandi, 459;
De sacramentis, 259, 458, 461, 462;
Didascalicon, 169, 248, 250, 254, 256, 259, 265, 268, 278, 432, 434, 451, 454,
455, 458, 459, 461, 462;
Epitome Dindimi in philosophiam, 459;
Expositio in Hierarchiam coelestem Sancti Dionysii, 459
Hugo of Besancoçn, 107
Humanism, 5, 7, 100, 101, 248, 268, 278-91, 311, 325, 429, 453, 458, 466
Humanity (humanitas), 97, 251-54, 262, 345, 346, 404, 405, 406
Humility, 42, 43, 46, 57, 116, 258, 269, 283, 463
Huzmann of Speyer, 225, 368
Hyacinth Bobo (Pope Celestine III), 400
I
Imitation (as pedagogic principle), 11, 258-60
Imperial administration, 48
Imperial church, 42, 43-44, 199
ingenium, 49, 123. See also Genius
Intellectual culture, 4-7
Investiture controversy, 175, 182, 194, 199
Isidore of Seville, 31, 426;
 Etymologiae, 413
Isolde, 170, 171, 310, 321
Ixion, 151
J
John (Provost) of Liège, 205-8, 209
John of Salisbury, 1, 95, 108, 127, 131, 173, 240, 285, 293, 296, 297, 299, 307,
323, 409, 427, 469, 471, 472;
"Education of Trajan," 95;
"Entheticus maior," 414;
Metalogicon, 129, 181, 278, 279, 414, 415, 436, 452, 453, 466;
Policraticus, 14, 306-8, 324, 403, 405, 407, 414, 427, 433
John the Scot (Johannes Scotus Eriugena), 380
Jonathan, 150
Jotsald of Cluny, 109
Jove, 142, 315
Julius Victor, 31
Juvenal, 174, 433
K
Kalokagathia, 107
Konrad of Brauweiler, 54
 

< previous page_511 next page >

page
< previous page_512 next page >
page
Page 512
Kuno (provost) of Hildesheim (later Bishop of Brescia), 224-25, 448
L
Lachesis, 187
Lampert of Hersfeld, 86, 108, 408;
Annales, 402, 475
Lanfranc of Bec (Canterbury), 81;
Decreta, 457
Lawrence of Westminster, 246
lepor, 102-6, 111
Leopertus of Palestrina, 98
Letters and manners (litterae et mores), 2-4, 15, 49-52, 70, 92, 103, 132, 172,
215
Liberal arts, 1, 3, 21, 23, 24, 30, 37, 42, 43, 50, 61-65, 75, 93, 100, 118, 119-79,
180, 285, 286, 295, 325, 353, 362, 393, 418
Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris. See Gilduin of St. Victor
Licinius of Angers, 87-92, 96, 103, 106
Liège, cathedral school of, 39, 47, 54-56, 63, 202-10, 349-75
Liège songs (Carmina Leodiensia), 147, 160
Liudger of Münster, Saint, 22, 26
Liutpold of Mainz, 221, 223, 370
Louis the German, 27, 113
Louis the Pious, 29
Love, 58-59, 70-73, 103-6, 310-22, 327
Lucan, 131
M
Macrobius, 173, 434, 472;
Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, 174, 433;
Saturnalia, 308, 324
Macrocosm, 178
Magdeburg, cathedral school of, 47
Magnificence, 299, 471
Mainz, cathedral school of, 47
Maiolus of Cluny, 109
Malachy, Saint, 273-75, 437
Manasses I of Rheims, 61, 151, 152, 155, 157, 161, 322, 327, 423, 425, 428, 448
Manegold of Lautenbach, 16, 176, 177, 416, 434, 452, 457;
Epistola ad Gebehardum, 399;
Glosses on De inventione, 134-36, 240;
Liber contra Wolfhelmum, 176-77, 434
Manners (mores), 3, 9, 14, 29, 33, 42, 53, 56, 60-62, 74, 78, 79, 81, 85, 97, 101-
3, 108, 116, 178, 185, 229, 240, 247, 253, 278, 281, 451
mansuetudo. See Gentleness
Marbod of Rennes, 87, 96, 103, 106, 115, 148, 162-64, 176, 185, 263, 290, 317,
321, 399, 402, 412, 417, 429, 436, 473, 474;
Liber de ornamentis verborum, 139;
Vita Licinii, 87-92, 185, 402
Martianus Capella, 65, 138, 141, 161, 194, 217, 221, 417, 467;
De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, 142
Martin of Braga, 422
Martin, Saint, 300
Mathematics, 57, 164-65
Measure (mensura), 261, 262, 283
Medieval humanism, 1-2, 97, 278-91
Meginhard of Würzburg, 66
Meinhard of Bamberg, 50, 60, 63, 82, 84, 93, 95-98, 100-102, 108, 111, 117,
194, 222-26, 240, 272, 289, 293, 328, 368, 403, 404, 406, 413, 448, 464, 468
Meinwerk of Paderborn, 95, 403, 448
"Metamorphosis Goliae,"239, 241, 452
Microcosm, 178
 Moderation (moderamen), 32, 54, 70, 114-16, 132, 169, 241, 249, 260, 261, 264,
267, 286, 306, 307, 310, 324, 341, 342, 471
Modesty (modestia), 44, 45, 113, 116, 256, 271, 283, 287, 306
Monastic reform, 199
Moral discipline (moralis disciplina), 3, 10, 14, 65, 234, 240, 241, 310, 319, 331-
48, 355, 448
Moral philosophy (moralis philosophia), 3, 9, 57, 192, 277, 297-310, 326, 477
moralitas, 3, 62, 171, 326, 449
moraliteit, 170-1
Music, 13, 112, 164-72, 418
musica humana, 166-70, 433
musica mundana, 166
Muses, 132, 141, 142, 394, 418
N
Natural justice, 176
Natural law, 173, 174
Natural talent, 40-43
Nature, 38, 40, 173, 178, 184-88, 283, 285, 286
Nature overcome by art, 147, 159-64, 184-86, 421, 427-28, 436
Neithard of Liège, 208
Neoplatonism, 40, 378
Nicholas of Clairvaux, 110, 409
Nicholas of Verdun, 345
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 274
Nobility of soul, 280
 

< previous page_512 next page >

page
< previous page_513 next page >
page
Page 513
Nominalism, 7
Norbert of Iburg, 214, 215, 407, 446
Norbert of Xanten, 103, 475
Notker of Liège, 26, 55, 93-95, 203, 208, 209, 222, 369, 391, 392, 402, 440
O
Obedience (obedientia), 256
Odilo of Cluny, 109, 110, 409
Odo of Cluny, 110, 409, 425;
Vita Geraldi, 409
Odo of Orleans, 114-15, 160, 212, 262, 341-44, 429, 475
Odo of St. Victor, 253, 458
Odolricus of Orléans, 155
Ohtricus (school master of Magdeburg), 47
Olbert of Gembloux, 43
Onulf of Speyer, 63, 136, 395, 416;
Colores rhetorici, 63, 136-38
Orator, 50, 410
Orpheus, 132, 141, 142, 143-64, 169, 185, 202, 327, 417, 418, 419, 421, 423,
427, 429
Orphic music, 143-48, 167, 169, 202, 310
Otloh of St. Emmeram, 1, 64, 389, 396, 397, 398, 404, 439, 446, 448;
Visiones, 213-14;
Vita Wolfkangi, 64-66, 389, 396, 404, 446
Otto I (The Great, German emperor), 36, 43-47, 64, 78, 102, 120, 209, 217, 293-
95, 413, 424, 444, 448
Otto II (German emperor), 41, 47, 78, 93
Otto III (German emperor), 41, 49, 56, 59, 120, 312, 316, 378, 438
Otto of Bamberg, 64, 258
Otto of Freising, 239;
Gesta Friderici, 405, 452
Ovid, 61, 194, 317, 417, 419, 421, 429, 474
P
paideia, 77, 107
Panaetius, 356
"Parce continuis," 474
Parnassus, 394
Paschasius Radbertus, 30, 384
Patience (patientia), 116
Patricida, 187
Paulus Diaconus, 29
Peace, 71-72, 149-57, 193
Peace movement, 199
Perfect man, 14, 25-27, 280-91
Pernolf of Würzburg, 66-73, 128, 130, 189, 217, 312, 329, 448
Peter Abelard. See Abelard, Peter
Peter Damian, 1, 140, 157, 425, 448, 475;
De frenanda ira et simultatibus exstirpandis, 427;
Vita Romualdi, 473
Peter Lombard, 329
Peter of Blois, 427, 476
Peter of Celle, 108
Peter the Chanter, 474
Peter the Venerable, 451
Philip Augustus (French king), 288, 313
Philip of Harvengt, 255
Philosophy, 44, 45, 46, 54, 83, 84, 101, 118-28, 167, 175, 178, 307, 418
Physics, 173-79
Physiognomy, 116
Pico della Mirandola, 254
Pilgrim of Cologne, 166
Pipin, 30
Plato, 6, 14, 120, 165, 285, 430, 434;
Republic, 430;
Timaeus, 167, 168, 174-77, 179, 181, 281, 293, 434
Plutarch, 95;
Moralia, 430
Poeta Saxo, 408
Poetry, 5, 68, 139-64, 194
Poppo of Stablo, 438
Poppo of Würzburg, 47, 64, 65
praeesseprodesse, 37-39, 48-49, 133-34, 205-11, 274, 275, 386, 444
probitas morum, 58
Prudentia, 286
Pseudo-Cicero (Rhetorica ad Herennium), 135, 136, 138, 415
Pseudo-Hugh of St. Victor (Expositio regulae S. Augustini), 460
Pseudo-Plutarch, 95
Pseudo-Vincent of Beauvais (Speculum morale), 460
Ptolemy, 179
Pyramus and Thisbe, 429, 474
Pythagoras, 119, 179
Q
"Quid suum virtutis," 15, 145-47, 148, 149, 157, 159, 161, 162, 167, 175, 185,
201, 379, 419, 428, 431, 436
Quintilian, 11, 31, 32, 48, 51, 181, 407, 415, 419;
Institutio oratoria, 378, 381
R
Radbert of Corbie, 408
Radbod of Utrecht, 99, 406
 Ralph Glaber, 408, 438
Ralph of Laon, 452
Rather of Verona, 54, 449
Realism, 7, 164
 

< previous page_513 next page >

page
< previous page_514 next page >
page
Page 514
Real presence, 7
Regensburg, cathedral school of, 47
Regensburg Letters (Die Regensburger rbetorischen Briefe), 84, 85, 120-24, 133,
175, 222, 413, 415, 434, 444
Reginhard of Liège, 443
Regula canonicorum (Aix, 816), 247
Reiner of Liège, 127
Renaissance of the twelfth century, 1, 278, 329
Renewal of the Roman empire, 328
Rheims, cathedral school of, 47, 56-62
Rhetoric, 31, 32, 34, 131-39, 144, 418
Rhetorica ad Herennium. See Pseudo-Cicero
Richard Lionheart, 313
Richard of St. Vannes, 60, 79, 95, 394, 398
Richard of St. Victor, 85, 246, 253, 260;
Benjamin minor, 462;
Explicatio in cantica canticorum, 461, 462
Richarius of Gembloux, 154
Richer de l'Aigle, 299
Richer of St. Remi, 393, 402
Rimbert of Hamburg, 24, 25
Robert of Melun (Bishop of Hereford), 85, 253
Robert of Torigny, 454
Robert the Bishop, 240
Robert the Pious, 155, 393
Roger of Howden, 313
Rule of St. Augustine, 247, 256, 410, 455, 456
Rule of St. Benedict. See Benedictine Rule
Ruodlieb, 120, 155, 156, 201, 310, 317, 397, 426, 438, 439, 474
Ruotger of Cologne, 36, 38-41, 43-45, 93, 102, 104, 105, 120, 154, 188, 191,
295, 385, 438, 444, 448, 466;
Vita Brunonis, 42, 48, 378, 386, 388, 406, 407, 437
S
St. Victor (Paris), school of, 10, 108, 244-68, 453
sapientia, 37, 49, 339. See also Eloquence and wisdom
"Satyra de amicicia,"313
Saxon Annalist, 446
Scholasticism, 5, 325, 326
School of Chartres, 176, 177, 427
Scriptural studies, 1, 30, 38, 43, 377
Sedulius Scotus, 34
Self-control, 54. See also Temperance
Seneca, 3, 48, 49, 77, 79, 285, 398, 412, 427
Shakespeare, William, 76, 106
Siegfried of Gorze, 200, 202, 204, 438, 439
Sigebert of Gembloux, 37-42, 46, 78, 92, 134, 153, 154, 159, 231, 280, 286, 388,
413, 423, 430, 435, 437, 465;
Gesta abbatum Gemblacensium, 43, 378, 424, 459;
Passio Thebeorum, 152, 181-90, 282, 386, 466;
Vita Deoderici, 37-43, 385;
Vita Wicberti, 465
Sisyphus, 151
Socrates, 6, 8, 14, 97, 191, 219, 285, 307, 378, 404, 437, 466
Sophia (recipient of letter from Bernard of Clairvaux), vi, 8, 13, 186, 234, 269,
270-71, 277, 340, 341, 344
Speech and manners, 136-39
Speyer, cathedral school of, 47, 62-63
Stefan of Novara, 16, 47, 64, 65, 217, 220, 397
Stephen of Laon, 24
Stoicism, 6, 77, 123, 173, 181
Strassburg cathedral, 476
studia humanitatis, 98, 100-101
Sturmi of Fulda, 21, 22, 25, 383
sublimitas, 61
T
Table manners, 265-66, 301-8
Talent. See Natural talent
Tantalus, 151
Temperance (temperantia), 32, 114, 304-6, 324
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 184
Terence, 61
Theobald of Canterbury, 299, 470, 471
Theology, 285, 286, 287
Theophanu, 49, 214, 438
Thierry of Chartres, 1, 127, 135, 136, 177, 185, 240, 406, 414, 415, 434, 436,
452;
Glosses on De inventione and Rhetorica ad Herennium, 135-36;
Heptateuchon, 100, 278;
Hexameron commentary, 176
Thierry of St. Hubert, 155, 425
Thierry of St. Trond, 16, 419
Thietmar of Merseburg, 438
Theodard of Utrecht, 24
Thomas Becket. See Becket, Thomas
Thomas of St. Omer, 272
Thomasin of Zirclaere (Der Welsche Gast), 14, 79, 400, 460
Timaeus. See Plato
Tition, 151
 
< previous page_515 next page >
page
Page 515
Trajan, 99
Trier, cathedral school of, 47
Tristan, 170
Trivium, 34, 128-64
U
Ulrich of Augsburg, 114, 408
Ulrich of Bamberg, 142, 148, 158, 194;
"Bamberger ars dictaminis," 142-43, 149, 159;
Udalrici codex (Bamberg letter collection), 460
Ulrich of Cluny (Zell), 95, 99, 459
Ulysses, 184
University, 325
Urbanity (urbanitas), 301, 304, 306, 323
utilitas, 45, 60, 61
utilitas ecclesiae, 48, 51
V
venustas morum. See Beauty of manners
verecundia. See Considerateness
Vicelin, 452-3
Victor, Saint, 182-89
Vincent of Beauvais, 108, 347, 409;
De eruditione filiorum nobilium, 407, 460
Virgil, 61, 131, 138, 143, 194, 285, 417, 419, 429;
Aeneid, 427
Virtue, 6, 12, 13-14, 54, 59, 60, 61, 68, 69-70, 76-87, 147, 260
W
Wace, 296
Walafrid Strabo, 24, 424
Walcher (Student of Goswin of Mainz), 79, 105, 210, 221, 280, 349-75, 390, 400
Walking (gait, carriage), 111-16, 321, 327
Walo of Metz (Abbot of St. Arnulf), 151-52, 322, 327, 423, 425
Walter (Gautier, Gualterius, poet, friend of Marbod of Rennes, author of
introductory poem to treatise on physiognomy), 115, 148, 263
Waltharius, 182, 435
Walther of Speyer, 62, 138, 395;
Libellus scolasticus, 63, 138
Wazo of Liège, 27, 39, 47, 49, 55, 94-95, 202-16, 227-28, 240, 305-6, 327, 392,
397, 416, 423, 440, 441, 442, 443, 448
Wernher of Merseburg, 296
Whipping (as aid to pedagogy), 223, 227, 448
Wibald of Stablo, 80, 82, 85, 101, 127, 220, 240, 241, 273, 400, 401, 406, 407,
414, 447, 452, 465
William Fitzstephen, 297, 300-301, 469, 470, 471
William IX of Aquitaine, 317
William of Canterbury, 469, 470, 471
William of Champeaux, 16, 134, 221, 230, 234, 244, 246, 251, 262, 265, 293-94,
453, 454, 457, 458
William of Conches, 101, 131, 177, 179, 240, 296, 400, 432, 446, 448;
Dragmaticon, 293;
Glosae super Platonem, 100, 178, 406, 434, 435;
Moralium dogma philosophorum, 79, 263-64, 293-94, 462, 463, 469;
Philosophia mundi, 178, 239, 284, 293, 400, 401, 407, 452, 467
William of Malmesbury, 86, 108;
De gestis pontificum Anglorum, 402
William of St. Benigne of Dijon, 438
William of St. Thierry, 239, 452
Willigis of Mainz, 78, 400
Wipo, 191, 426, 466;
 Gesta Chuonradi, 120, 201, 437;
Tetralogus, 156-7, 201
Wise and foolish virgins, 331-48, 476, 477
Wolbodo of Liège, 204, 440, 444
Wolfgang of Regensburg, 49, 64-66, 217, 220, 397
Wolfhelm of Brauweiler, 53-54, 176, 390
Wolfhere of Hildesheim, 445-46
Wolfram von Eschenbach (Parzival), 235
Worms, cathedral school of, 47, 50, 64-74, 149
Würzburg, Cathedral School of, 47, 50, 64-74, 149
X
Xenophon, 6
Xenocrates, 356
Z
Zeno, 77
 

< previous page_515 next page >

page
< previous page_517 next page >
page
Page 517
University of Pennsylvania Press
Middle Ages Series
Edward Peters, General Editor
F. R. P. Akehurst, trans. The Coutumes de Beauvaisis of Philippe de
Beaumanoir. 1992
Peter L. Allen. The Art of Love: Amatory Fiction from Ovid to the Romance of
the Rose. 1992
David Anderson. Before the Knight's Tale: Imitation of Classical Epic in
Boccaccio's Teseida. 1988
Benjamin Arnold. Count and Bishop in Medieval Germany: A Study of Regional
Power, 1100-1350. 1991
Mark C. Bartusis. The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society, 1204-1453. 1992
J. M. W. Bean. From Lord to Patron: Lordship in Late Medieval England. 1990
Thomas N. Bisson, ed. Cultures of Power: Lordship, Status, and Process in
Twelfth-Century Europe. 1995
Uta-Renate Blumenthal. The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy
from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century. 1988
Daniel Bornstein, trans. Dino Compagni's Chronicle of Florence. 1986
Maureen Boulton. The Song in the Story: Lyric Insertions in French Narrative
Fiction, 1200-1400. 1993
Betsy Bowden. Chaucer Aloud: The Varieties of Textual Interpretation. 1987
Charles R. Bowlus. Franks, Moravians, and Magyars: The Struggle for the
Middle Danube, 788-907. 1994
James William Brodman. Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain: The Order of
Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier. 1986
Kevin Brownlee and Sylvia Huot, eds. Rethinking the Romance of the Rose:
Text, Image, Reception. 1992
Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner. Shaping Romance: Interpretation, Truth, and
Closure in Twelfth-Century French Fictions. 1993
Otto Brunner (Howard Kaminsky and James Van Horn Melton, eds. and trans.).
Land and Lordship: Structures of Governance in Medieval Austria. 1992
Robert I. Burns, S.J., ed. Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile
and His Thirteenth-Century Renaissance. 1990
 David Burr. Olivi and Franciscan Poverty: The Origins of the Usus Pauper
Controversy. 1989
David Burr. Olivi's Peaceable Kingdom: A Reading of the Apocalypse
Commentary. 1993
Thomas Cable. The English Alliterative Tradition. 1991
Anthony K. Cassell and Victoria Kirkham, eds. and trans. Diana's Hunt/Caccia
di Diana: Boccaccio's First Fiction. 1991
John C. Cavadini. The Last Christology of the West: Adoptionism in Spain and
Gaul, 785-820. 1993
 

< previous page_517 next page >

page
< previous page_518 next page >
page
Page 518
Brigitte Cazelles. The Lady as Saint: A Collection of French Hagiographic
Romances of the Thirteenth Century. 1991
Karen Cherewatuk and Ulrike Wiethaus, eds. Dear Sister: Medieval Women and
the Epistolary Genre. 1993
Anne L. Clark. Elisabeth of Schönau: A Twelfth-Century Visionary. 1992
Willene B. Clark and Meradith T. McMunn, eds. Beasts and Birds of the Middle
Ages: The Bestiary and Its Legacy. 1989
Richard C. Dales. The Scientific Achievement of the Middle Ages. 1973
Charles T. Davis. Dante's Italy and Other Essays. 1984
William J. Dohar. The Black Death and Pastoral Leadership: The Diocese of
Hereford in the Fourteenth Century. 1994
Katherine Fischer Drew, trans. The Burgundian Code. 1972
Katherine Fischer Drew, trans. The Laws of the Salian Franks. 1991
Katherine Fischer Drew, trans. The Lombard Laws. 1973
Nancy Edwards. The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland. 1990
Margaret J. Ehrhart. The Judgment of the Trojan Prince Paris in Medieval
Literature. 1987
Richard K. Emmerson and Ronald B. Herzman. The Apocalyptic Imagination in
Medieval Literature. 1992
Theodore Evergates. Feudal Society in Medieval France: Documents from the
County of Champagne. 1993
Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Before Columbus: Exploration and Colonization
from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, 1229-1492. 1987
Jerold C. Frakes. Brides and Doom: Gender, Property, and Power in Medieval
Women's Epic. 1994
R. D. Fulk. A History of Old English Meter. 1992
Patrick J. Geary. Aristocracy in Provence: The Rhône Basin at the Dawn of the
Carolingian Age. 1985
Peter Heath. Allegory and Philosophy in Avicenna (Ibn Sînâ), with a Translation
of the Book of the Prophet Muhammad's Ascent to Heaven. 1992
J. N. Hillgarth, ed. Christianity and Paganism, 350-750: The Conversion of
Western Europe. 1986
 Richard C. Hoffmann. Land, Liberties, and Lordship in a Late Medieval
Countryside: Agrarian Structures and Change in the Duchy of Wroclaw *. 1990
Robert Hollander. Boccaccio's Last Fiction: Il Corbaccio. 1988
Edward B. Irving, Jr. Rereading Beowulf. 1989
Richard A. Jackson, ed. Texts and Ordines for the Coronation of Frankish Kings
and Queens in the Middle Ages. 1994
C. Stephen Jaeger. The Envy of Angels: Cathedral Schools and Social Ideals in
Medieval Europe, 950-1200. 1994
C. Stephen Jaeger. The Origins of Courtliness: Civilizing Trends and the
Formation of Courtly Ideals, 939-1210. 1985
William Chester Jordan. The French Monarchy and the Jews: From Philip
Augustus to the Last Capetians. 1989
William Chester Jordan. From Servitude to Freedom: Manumission in the
Sénonais in the Thirteenth Century. 1986
 

< previous page_518 next page >

page
< previous page_519 next page >
page
Page 519
Donald J. Kagay, trans. The Usatges of Barcelona: The Fundamental Law of
Catalonia. 1994
Richard Kay. Dante's Christian Astrology. 1994
Ellen E. Kittell. From Ad Hoc to Routine: A Case Study in Medieval
Bureaucracy. 1991
Alan C. Kors and Edward Peters, eds. Witchcraft in Europe, 1100-1700: A
Documentary History. 1972
Barbara M. Kreutz. Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth
Centuries. 1992
Michael P. Kucsynski. Prophetic Song: The Psalms as Moral Discourse in Late
Medieval England. 1995
E. Ann Matter. The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western
Medieval Christianity. 1990
A. J. Minnis. Medieval Theory of Authorship. 1988
Lawrence Nees. A Tainted Mantle: Hercules and the Classical Tradition at the
Carolingian Court. 1991
Lynn H. Nelson, trans. The Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña: A Fourteenth-
Century Official History of the Crown of Aragon. 1991
Barbara Newman. From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval
Religion and Literature. 1995.
Joseph F. O'Callaghan. The Cortes of Castile-León, 1188-1350. 1989
Joseph F. O'Callaghan. The Learned King: The Reign of Alfonso X of Castile.
1993
Odo of Tournai (Irven M. Resnick, trans.). Two Theological Treatises: On
Original Sin and A Disputation with the Jew, Leo, Concerning the Advent of
Christ, the Son of God. 1994
David M. Olster. Roman Defeat, Christian Response, and the Literary
Construction of the Jew. 1994
William D. Paden, ed. The Voice of the Trobairitz: Perspectives on the Women
Troubadours. 1989
Edward Peters. The Magician, the Witch, and the Law. 1982
Edward Peters, ed. Christian Society and the Crusades, 1198-1229: Sources in
Translation, including The Capture of Damietta by Oliver of Paderborn. 1971
 Edward Peters, ed. The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and
Other Source Materials. 1971
Edward Peters, ed. Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe. 1980
James M. Powell. Albertanus of Brescia: The Pursuit of Happiness in the Early
Thirteenth Century. 1992
James M. Powell. Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221. 1986
Susan A. Rabe. Faith, Art, and Politics at Saint-Riquier: The Symbolic Vision of
Angilbert. 1994
Jean Renart (Patricia Terry and Nancy Vine Durling, trans.). The Romance of the
Rose or Guillaume de Dole. 1993
Michael Resler, trans. Erec by Hartmann von Aue. 1987
Pierre Riché (Michael Idomir Allen, trans.). The Carolingians: A Family Who
Forged Europe. 1993
Pierre Riché (Jo Ann McNamara, trans.). Daily Life in the World of
Charlemagne. 1978
 

< previous page_519 next page >

page
< previous page_520 next page >
page
Page 520
Jonathan Riley-Smith. The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading. 1986
Joel T. Rosenthal. Patriarchy and Families of Privilege in Fifteenth-Century
England. 1991
Teofilo F. Ruiz. Crisis and Continuity: Land and Town in Late Medieval Castile.
1994
James A. Rushing, Jr. Images of Adventure: Ywain in the Visual Arts. 1995.
Steven D. Sargent, ed. and trans. On the Threshold of Exact Science: Selected
Writings of Anneliese Maier on Late Medieval Natural Philosophy. 1982
Pamela Sheingorn, ed. and trans. The Book of Saint Foy. 1995.
Robin Chapman Stacey. The Road to Judgment: From Custom to Court in
Medieval Ireland and Wales. 1994
Sarah Stanbury. Seeing the Gawain-Poet: Description and the Act of Perception.
1992
Robert D. Stevick. The Earliest Irish and English Bookarts: Visual and Poetic
Forms Before A.D. 1000. 1994
Thomas C. Stillinger. The Song of Troilus: Lyric Authority in the Medieval
Book. 1992
Susan Mosher Stuard. A State of Deference: Ragusa/Dubrovnik in the Medieval
Centuries. 1992
Susan Mosher Stuard, ed. Women in Medieval History and Historiography. 1987
Susan Mosher Stuard, ed. Women in Medieval Society. 1976
Jonathan Sumption. The Hundred Years War: Trial by Battle. 1992
Ronald E. Surtz. The Guitar of God: Gender, Power, and Authority in the
Visionary World of Mother Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534). 1990
William H. TeBrake. A Plague of Insurrection: Popular Politics and Peasant
Revolt in Flanders, 1323-1328. 1993
Patricia Terry, trans. Poems of the Elder Edda. 1990
Hugh M. Thomas. Vassals, Heiresses, Crusaders, and Thugs: The Gentry of
Angevin Yorkshire, 1154-1215. 1993
Ralph V. Turner. Men Raised from the Dust: Administrative Service and Upward
Mobility in Angevin England. 1988
Mary F. Wack. Lovesickness in the Middle Ages: The Viaticum and Its
 Commentaries. 1990
Benedicta Ward. Miracles and the Medieval Mind: Theory, Record, and Event,
1000-1215. 1982
Suzanne Fonay Wemple. Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the
Cloister, 500-900. 1981
Kenneth Baxter Wolf. Making History: The Normans and Their Historians in
Eleventh-Century Italy. 1995.
Jan M. Ziolkowski. Talking Animals: Medieval Latin Beast Poetry, 750-1150.
1993
 

< previous page_520 next page >

page
< previous page_521
page
Page 521
This book has been set in Linotron Galliard. Galliard was designed for
Mergenthaler in 1978 by Matthew Carter. Galliard retains many of the features
of a sixteenth-century typeface cut by Robert Granjon but has some
modifications that give it a more contemporary look.
Printed on acid-free paper.
 

< previous page_521
page