Download Dr John R Gibbins

Dr John R Gibbins


WESTERN CIVILISATION: From the
Ancient Greeks to the Present. An
intellectual and cultural history of
the West
Part III
The Aristotelian revival and the High Medieval - St
Thomas Aquinas and Scholasticism, John of Salisbury,
Marsilus of Padua, William of Ockam, Dante and
Petarach
Questions




What had happened to learning – science,
history, literature and philosophy?
How did the battle between Church and
Empire go?
How did theologians argue in this battle?
Why and where did the new learning of
Dante and Petrach emerge?
Answers




Learning only just survived – Gallen in science; Bede
and Saxon Chronicles in history; Dante, Petrach,
Chaucer in literature; Marsilius in philosophy
The Papacy held their own against the Germanic
kings (Diet and Treaty of Worms), rose in power then
declined – from the rise of Hierocratic Doctrine to
Conciliar Theory and Practice, Nobles divide
Kingdoms
Theologians discovered imagery e.g. the – The
Hierocratic Doctrine’, Organic Analogy, Sun/Moon
In Cities and Towns, by the emerging middle classes,
burgers, lawyers, clerks, envoys, Courts and
Gentlemen – decline of Castles and Abbeys
Reflective Review





Medieval economy, military and social life witnessed
new stages of development up to 1300
But political, artistic and intellectual thinking had
lagged behind
The weight of Church Doctrine and institutions
hampered thought and its expression
This led to critique, opposition and a new balance
with Families fighting for control of Kingdoms e.g. the
Plantagenet's in England; War of the Roses
We have to explore how civilisation developed and
advanced between 1300-1500 – the period known as
the High Medieval and how intellectuals faired.
Dominance of Church Ideas




Papacy, Clerical Orders of Archbishops, Bishops,
Rectors, Cathedrals, Monasteries, Churches etc
controlled all of learning – few alternatives e.g. Celts,
Muslim and Judaic Scholars
Their Libraries were closed and used censorship to
control circulation of ideas – plus Latin Rules
Papacy by C11th had invented Papal Infallibility to
ensure no proper challenges could be made
Excommunication for rule breakers and crimes of
sacrilege, heresy, sacrilege
Some Survivals







In medicine even the Papacy wanted advances and adopted
new ideas and practices – even from the East
Rule of Galen (131-201AD) Born in Roman Greece he studied
medicine in Alexandria and became physician to Gladiators at
Pergamon. His success was reported to Marcus Aurellius who
invited him to Rome and he became official Court doctor
Wrote numerous Texts in use for 1500 years after on neurology,
organic structure, physiology, pharmacology, philosophy
Learned of Humours and Pathology from Hippocrates
Created methodology of observation, trial, revision
‘The Best Physician is a Philosopher book (a Stoic and Platonist)
Image of Galen who reused divination explanations and cures
Life









Travelled around all major Polis
Most famous doctor and surgeon in his time
Travelled to Gaul and Germany with Marcus Aurellius
Served Commodus and family
Observed the Antonine Plague that destroyed 10% of the
population and maybe the Empire eventually
Found forms of treatment but 3-4 million died - Emperor
Like Smallpox – it killed him after infection via obsevation
Performed cataract operations like today
Medicine as multi – disciplinary, used complementary methods
Gallen inventions








Humours – the idea that there were several forces in the body
(fluids) that had to be kept in balance otherwise illness would
follow – Holistic medicine
Melancholics/ia black bile – creative and kind
Phlegmatics phlegm – dependable and honest
Sanaguine blood – extrovert and social
Choleric – yellow bile – passionate and energetic
Neurology – advanced that the brain controlled the body by
nerves likened to pulleys, and ropes
Anatomy – dissected animals and operated on humans and
drew precise images
Good blood from heart/ bad blood from Liver (ok until Harvey
1656)
Cosmopolitan influences






Far east and Asia
Middle east – Babylon
Africa
Balkans, Turkey and Byzantium
Spain and Italy
Gaul, Germany and Britain
Pagan Plato and Cicero



Plato because he directed attention to the
Soul; to Reality not observable; to Forms and
Ideals not Particulars and Actuals; for his
moderation and sense of justice
Cicero because of his Stoic and anti Epicurean
ethics – based upon duty, virtue, excellence,
perfectability
Both identified transcendental origins to laws
Arts survived in some form




Art survived but as servant to the Church and
Emperors
Dominant ideology of iconograpy not representation;
of Christian narratives only; of two dimensionality;
of repetition, reinforcement and expected
genuflection
Only in pagan art and on inaccessible places did
creativity, satire, humour and irreverence survive
Gargoyles from Cathedrals in Europe
New Thinking and Philosophy
Questions
 How can we settle the Duality problem?
 What shall we do with Aristotle’s
Works?
Answers
 Carry on arguing or fighting
 Bring in Thomas Aquinas
The Hierocratic Doctrine






Several solutions were tried and hotly contested to
the point of Wars with the Papacy and a Dual Papacy
with one seated at Avignon, France from 1305:
Two Swords – one each for Pope and Emperor
Auctoritas/Church v Potestas/Emperor – Gelasius
Divine Right of Papacy – Kings as Defenders of Pope
Divine Right of Kings – Pope as Spiritual partner
Cataclysm – German Emperors v Popes (1070-1122)
Pope’s Version







Pope Gregory VII, Nicholas II, Boniface II & III
Pope is Peters descendent, ‘Thou art the rock on
which I will build my church’ Vicar of the Earth
Pope is Gods representative on earth not a king – his
authority is Divine
Pope has control of both swords and delegates the
secular one to Kings
Popes are infallible – invented in 1179 Boniface III
Cannon and Divine laws trump Statute and Custom
Popes have sacerdotium and regnum
Manegold of Leutenbach
C11th






A Saxon Cleric and thinker – Augustinian
Ad Gebehardum Liber – role of kings – legitimate if
they keep to the social contract with their people
from whom they get authority. Can be deposed if the
break the contract, become heretic or tyrants
Popes are like shepherds and kings are like swine
Pope is the father and the king is a son, the citizens
the family
God appointed the Pope to rule on all earthly matters
and hence kings should obey
The Pope can advise, admonish, teach, warn and
direct kings.If disobedient kings should be
excommunicated as with King John of England;
John of Salisbury 1115-1176










Advised Thomas Beckett and opposed Henry II
Well connected at Paris ending as Bishop of Chartres
Adviser to Pope Hadrian IV the only English Pope
Humanist, author or Policratus and Metalogicon (Uses Greek
and Classical sources on Gods and Myths)
The Organic Analogy Pope is the controlling force
There is one Realm – the Christian Commonwealth
The Commonwealth is one body
The brain and soul are the Church and Pope
The body is ruled by the heart (kings), flanks (courtiers) nobles
(muscles) and hands (managers) for the good of the body
politic
Tyranicide is just in God’s eyes e.g Emperor Julian
Emperors Version C11th






Henry III; Henry IV; Phillip I France – supported by
anti Papal Catholic thinkers fed up with censorship
God never mentioned the Papacy or Bishops
Emperors have always selected which religion and
elected its leaders ‘Render unto Caesar what is his..’
Popes are illegitimate, false ‘(a false man’), corrupt
and acting as a king not a devout deferential
Christian (1076 Diet of Worms)
Wars against Gregory VII led to him fleeing into exile
and being replaced by Henry’s appointment
1176 Treaty of Worms calls it a draw again - duality
Aquinas and the New Solution







1225-1274, Aquino, Sicily rich and related to leading
Bishops and Holy Roman Emperors
Chose Dominican order not the family Benedictines,
fled to Paris but captured and imprisoned by parents
Dominican, Priest, Papal Adviser, Philosopher of
Thomism and founded Scholasticism still supported
Summa Theologica; Summa Contra Gentiles
‘The Church has declared Thomas doctrines to be her
own’ Pope Benedict XV
He baptised Aristotle and Hellenism and made then
handmaidens of Christianity and the Church
Normal image of Aquinas, one using perspective
The Problem





Papyrus texts of Aristotle found in the ruins of an
Averroist Monastery in C11th, translated and
interpreted in North Africa and then brought to Rome
in early 1200’s
The Pope called for Albert then Aquinas to advise
He studied the texts and was massively impressed
with Aristotle’s learning, methods, his system of ideas
and ethical advice – mostly incontrovertible
He re-read the Athenian philosophers in this light and
context and re-estimated their value
But they were Pagans. So what to do?
How?




To argue that the Ancient authors were right so far
as they went, but as they failed to identify the true
God and the Divine Cosmos, they did not go far
enough
Aristotle is the Master of all that can be known by
reason and Jesus of the divine and all beyond reason
Aristotle is right on metaphysics, epistemology, logic,
science, politics and most of ethics, but Jesus
completes him, makes knowledge and truth Absolute
Aristotle is treated like John the Baptist – great but
not perfect; crucial but not the missing link to God
Comparisons of Jesus and Aristotle











Both believe in the unity of soul and mind
Both agree the soul is immortal, but differing on the afterlife
Both agreed God was the ‘Prime Mover’ or the First Cause of
every natural force
But here are Contrasts
No ideal of original sin – human nature is good to A
No state of innocence/fall just human moral choice
Faith and Doxa rule while Reason knows all to A
No idea of Respublica Christiana – just the Polis
Social and political life are an evil necessity to Augustine while
they are natural and fulfil mans excellence and virtue to A
Life is for the Polis to A and for God to Christians
Virtue leads to happiness here - the Telos to A while to
Augustine the telos is death and salvation in the after life
Averrhoes versus the Pope



Averrhoes Cordova (1126-98) in North Africa,
commentaries on Aristotle’s works offered a new
global synthesis of not only the Hellenist writers with
Christianity but also Islamic thinkers: Pantheistic
One world intellect; linking the heavens to earth;
historical development; no assured providence with
development determined by human endeavours;
immortality of the soul; a Cosmopolitan global order
Imagine if Averroe had triumphed over Aquinas –
now Crusades, now Islamic wars
Conservative reaction





Both Aristotle and Averrhoe were to be feared. Papal power was
based on maintaining difference not similarity; on
exclusion not inclusion; on antithesis to pagans and the infidel
- not synthesis
To Averrhoists Faith and Reason; Religion and Philosophy are
two distinct spheres and perspectives
They do not have to coincide nor one defer. To the Pope
everything had to defer to faith and religion
Averrhoism became very popular at Paris and Bologna from
1265-77 Brabant and Boethius led to John of Paris and Marsilius
later
Aquinas deals more with attacking the Averrhoist Aristotle as
dealing with Aristotle himself. The Papacy was in defensive
mode
Incorporation

Aquinas mentor, Albert the Great (1206-1250) began
the Papal task then handed it to Aquinas



His idea was to set the division of reason and faith on
a vertical axis and place faith above reason as higher
Faith is fuelled by Revelation not Reason, and
Reason/Logic can never trump faith
So Averrhoist Dualism is supplanted by a hierarchy
placing faith above reason and, ‘the metaphysics
which treat of the divine, is the last point of
philosophy to be learned’ SG 1.4 Aquinas
The Thomist Knowledge
Paradigm




Divine Revelation – what revelation can tell, and so
faith fulfils theology – the Order of Grace
^
Theology – Philosophy of religion (induction) meets
deductions down from Revelation
^
Philosophy and Mathematics– what knowledge and
reason can tell
- The Order of Nature
^
Sciences – what observation of the senses can tell us
by induction
Revelation and Grace Power




Aquinas point is that belief and faith in God allows
you to ‘outrun reason’ Hierocratic Doctrine
Supernatural vision takes you where knowledge of
this world cannot – to ‘the after life
The acquisition of Grace allows you glimpses of and
some contact with God, in the sense that you can
love him here and now even if you cannot know him
What is significant though is that while Aquinas treats
philosophy as true but incomplete he becomes a
philosopher and does not reject it in favour of simple
faith and fundamentalist belief. In the Church he is
called ‘The Philosopher’
Thomism as a Complete
System



Not a set of scattered sayings as with most at the
time but a complete system from foundations to
hierarchy, from matter to the mind and the
transcendental things it reveals
Nothing is left out of philosophies compass and
coverage. Philosophy can go anywhere now and be
revealed not repressed, precisely because of faith
that it can never undermine foundational beliefs and
Revelation (Like a Tom Cat it can be let out because
it has been neutered)
What is revolutionary is that all Catholics are allowed
to study and express the result of Philosophy without
fear of accusations of heresy
Reforming Catholicism









Grounding Catholicism on Philosophy
Putting Aristotle ahead of Plato – Why?
Aristotle advances historical development or teleology
He sees the Telos in Perfect Being Excellence
He has a hierarchy from dumb to rational nature, onto human
nature from basic to perfected
Aristotle advances ethical life of virtue as the fulfilment of man’s
potential
He recognises man is a social and public being (not individual or
private) who excels in these spheres
He opposed tyranny, despotism, selfishness and injustice
Jesus accounts of these is very thin, Aristotle fleshes them out
Hierarchy of Existence


Heaven with God
Church with Grace on earth



^
Mind with Reason - Mind
Material Nature - Body
Hierarchy of Law and Politics


‘If we are to perfect the science of human wisdom,
or philosophy, it is necessary to give an explanation
of all that can be understood by reason. It is
necessary then, for the completeness of philosophy,
to institute a discipline which will study the city: and
such a discipline is called politics or the science of
statecraft’ Commentary of the Politics of Aristotle
Aquinas not only engages with political theory, but
with the entire political process and language, even
using earth politics to throw light on heaven via
analogy
Consequences






Aquinas and the Papacy sought to unite the Church
Conservatives and Reformers divided the Church
Conservatives tried 1267 to ban Averrhoism and
Aristotle teaching in Europe as heretical – especially
the Augustinians whose leader revered Plato
Thomas tried to synthesise but had a breakdown
Called to advise on how to heal the Schism with the
Eastern Church (2nd Council of Lyon, 1274),
travelling on a donkey he hit his head, and died
shortly after
Dante argues he was poisoned by his opponents
Implications of Averoism








God becomes the Prime Mover – not Reasoner
Suggestions of Pantheism – God is in nature
No state of innocence or fall of man
No determination of sin from Adam and Eve
Only God and animals live outside society and state
Can survive without Revelation on Earth at least
Man’s fate is in his own hands on Earth
Dualism of Heaven/Earth and Grace/Reason not
healed
Controversy





In 1277 his opponents listed 219 propositions
advanced that questioned the omnipotence of God
and the Pope and wanted him condemned and listed
1327 Pope John XXII in Avignon pronounced Thomas
a Saint after lengthy investigations
By 1567 Pius V ordains he is ‘Doctor of the
Church’
Council of Trent Duns Scotus placed the Summa next
to the Bible on the Alter
1879 Encyclical of Leo XIII ordains Thomism as the
‘definite exposition’ of Catholic Doctrine’ – Feast Day
What does Thomas say?





On the Order of Nature Aquinas follows Aristotle
totally – all of science, medicine, he follows
Nature he agrees is governed by knowable physical
Laws, and organic nature by biological Laws
He adds only that God ordained it this way, not some
Prime Mover as for Aristotle
Human nature likewise, he follows Book 1 of The
Politics, adding only the capacity for Grace
Politics is natural, a way to the Good Life and
excellence. But The Church, by offering the Sacra
ments, allows communion with another world
Human Nature




He accepts that man is a rational, social and political
animal – centrally they have free will and have
responsibility for their actions
Reason and capacity for imagination of ideals, given
by God, brings humans into conflict
Ethics and Politics are the best human ways to
resolve such conflicts, violence, force and
oppression being evil
Because it deals with human perfection not lowly
nature it is ‘The Master Science’ , ‘the keystone’
God Works via Human Nature





Men are left to complete God’s plan for them, and in
this life humans have to arrange their own solutions
Political life is no longer an evil; necessitated by sin;
and ordained to reduce sin via oppression, as with
Augustine, but an ethical and practical art
Rulers and all citizens are obliged to participate and
create the Good Life via Public Activity
Reason can deliver this, but only Will and Faith can
deliver us Grace and Salvation in our private lives
Aquinas has no need for the Fall narrative, sin was
error not predestination
Hierarchy in the Order









The higher trumps the lower in the Natural and Divine Orders
Rulers should have more authority and power then the ruled
Intelligent people should rule the less intelligent SG Bk3 Ch 81
The unintelligent and irrational should be excluded from rule
Divine Law trumps civil law but he introduces the concept of a
moral law analogous to physical laws – the Natural Law divined
by God to direct our affairs
On earth men get authority from other men not from God – he
compares Types of Acquisition as Good or Bad
Only rulers with good or legitimate acquisition is legitimate
Bad or illegitimate rulers can be excommunicated and removed
He does not flesh out cases of each unfortunately
Best Form of Government





That most natural for men – mmmm?
That which succeeds in maintaining peace, unity and
good government
Normally Monarchy is best at unity, but a good
monarch will rule for the common good not himself
In exception he promulgates as the practically best Mixed Government, praising the Judaec tribes whose
rulers ‘were elected from the people’
Just War if 1) your aim is just, 2) you can succeed,
3) the benefit is less than the cost
Law







To be legitimate a law must be rational and obeyed
A rulers, ‘Will must be subject to reason when it
commands’ ‘without reason ‘the will of the Prince
becomes an evil rather than law’
Four levels of Law:
Eternal Law of Gods reason in Revelation
Natural Law or Gods law in nature
Divine Law – Clergy’s interpretation of Gods will
Human Law – application of Natural Law in local
contexts
Revelation








Revelation to Thomas was certain and sure but
utterly unprovable on rational or scientific grounds
Natural Revelation plus Rational Revelation
Via connection to Saints, Prophets, Scripture, and
Magisterium
Likened to knowing Jesus as Christ – seeing anew
Revelation could neither be disproved or proved
Only the recipient of Gods revelation can be sure
False revelations should be unveiled
Saints to be made only after rigorous testing
Pandora’s Box Opened




These authoritative propositions and theories opened
Pandora’s Box for churchman and their opponets
By the late C13th until C14th challenges emerged
thick and fast, at the same time nobles and cities
were challenging kings and clerics; and taxes were
making the monastic world unpopular
Passivity was not an option for the church – to defer
or retreat into Abbeys would lead to decline – so it
became overtly political and military
By so doing the Church lost its status as Umpire
Giles of Rome 1246-1316






Italian, intellectual, traveller
Belonged to a break away community called the
Herodians
The Pope has jurisdiction over the whole world
because Christ was an earthly king with a kingdom
No property was legitimately inherited unless
approved by the Church
The non Baptised could not own property or wealth
(hence exclusion of Jews)
Church law is not prior in time but in hierarchy
John of Paris 1255-1306







A French Dominican defended Phillip the Fair from
Pope Boniface VIII – first a defence then challenge
The Church gets and gives property for and by men
without divine say so
French kings property preceded the existence of the
Papacy
The church cannot deny inheritance to anyone
The Pope is not a King nor an Emperor
The Donation of Constantine was between two
Romans and does not bind Frenchmen
Thomas is right in saying the Regnum has its own
rules and authority. Only in the after life dies God
decree – not this one
The Conciliar Movement





This new theory replaces the Hierocratic Doctrine into
the C15th – In England led by William of Ockham
God gave reason, grace, authority and power to all of
his faithful – the Papacy has stolen these
Guidance of the Church should lie in a College of
Cardinals, with regional and elected representatives
Authority ascends to the Pope from the people and
Church, his power is conditional upon good behaviour
Now the Pope has no swords, one belongs to kings
and prices, the other to the Church as Council
Dante and the New Order




Dante 1265-1321, Born in Florence and lived latter in
Ravenna. Suffered, like John, from being undermined
by Pope Bonniface VIII who had Dante banished
from Florence after a Papal coup d’etat in 1302
A true citizen of Florence, a Guelf, he defended the
independence of emerging City-States from Papal
control. He wrote political and philosophical as well
as poetic and allegorical tracts
Most Famous the Divine Comedy, but more
effectively De Monarchie attacking Papal claims
Image of Pope Bonniface VIII
Unrequited Love




The existential tragedy that accompanied the political
tragedy for Dante was his epic unrequited love, aged
9, Chivalric in quality, for a noble woman aged 8
named Beatrice – smitten when seen one day in a
street
Speaking to her only twice, he poured out his love
and longing, admiration and worship, in epic love
poems worthy of reading today
As in the Greek Tragic and Ovidian traditions, the
drama takes precedence over the meaning
She died young, probably by plague, and as in
Chaucer, the loss of love and beauty in youth is
valorised (Dante by Giotto his friend Bargello Palace)
Father of Italian Writing






‘The Supreme Poet’
Suffered exile, fines, threats
Invited home to Florence but refuses
After Death Florence repents and builds a grand
tomb in Sainte Croce white church on the hill – still
empty. He lies in Ravenna
‘Honour the most exalted Poet’
It makes you weep to look on it – even on muse
hangs her head in loss
The Divine Comedy





Ironically, the Guelfs were pro-Papal and their
enemies the Ghiberlens (Gibbins) pro Holy Roman
Emperor in political wars
He was a devout Christian, but called himself Roman.
He sought to moderate the conflict by moderating
Papal claims from inside their camp – and failed
The Comedy of contemporary politics, social life, and
his personal life are written up in the 3 volumes of
his Divine Comedy, Hell/Inferno; Purgatory; Paradise
We all suffer because of cupidity, lust and greed –
the solution is a new order based upon love and
reason
Significance








Build on Greek and Roman antiquity – Virgil his Guide
Built upon Ciceronean ethics and ideas
In the old Epic Tradition – but Comic as well
The figures he meets are identifiable as past and
present villain’s and hero’s known at the time ie the
Popes; Bishops, kings, Greek Gods and Hero’s,
Part of a wider ideas movement the Dolce Stil Nuvo
Widely read and influential
Pope Boniface ordered all copies of this and other
works burned in the Cathedral Square Bologna
Inspirational ever since – on Chaucer, Bunyan Milton
and Shakespeare – a romantic inspiration
Political Writings De Monarchia








Books 1-2 critique of Hierocratic Doctrine – effective
Book 3 – the correct relationship between Church
and State, Pope and Emperor
Claim 1 – the Pope is Peters successor – not true
Claim 2 – God ordained kingship – not true
Claim 3 – one or the few should rule each sphere –no
All of the great theories – Two Swords; Donation,
Hierocratic; Sun and Moon analogy are critiqued
Used Later by Machiavelli to go even further
No mention of any of these during the Creation nor in
the 10 Commandments
His theory







God is like the sun, but other celestial bodies are
independent of it (before Gallileo)
Popes need Grace, rulers need authority (not power)
Earthly Authority has many sources from the
Emperor above, from Council here and the citizens
below
Bringing the separate spheres into order (like the
planets) is the solution – Ordering of the separate
His Universal Order would confer peace and justice
It must be European in scale and authority
Image of Dante between Purgatory and Florence,
Dominico di Michelino, Florence, 1465
Quotations



"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those
who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their
neutrality."
“O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a
little wind dost thou so fall?"
"The more a thing is perfect, the more if feels
pleasure and pain."
"Love insists the loved loves back"
“Remember tonight, for it is the beginning of always“
The experience of this sweet life.“
"If you follow your natural bent;you will definitely go
to heaven"
Marsilius of Padua 1280-1343







From Padua a cleric who suffered attacks from
Boniface – he was a Doctor
Served Louis of Bavaria who protected him as did
William of Ockham in England
Aristotle is right – the Order of Nature is autonomous
Each person, body and realm must seek ‘self
sufficiency’
Defender of the Peace is the first Christian Book to
defend the idea of life conducted upon Earth in
purely human terms
The State evolved from previous social units with no
divine inspiration or involvement – it was natural
Louis took Rome and exiled the Pope John XII as a
Government





Natural and needed because of plurality and conflicts
Every social body is a Natural Organism made up of
plural separate parts linked into the body whole
Health requires balance as Galen tells, disease
follows from in-balance – the Papacy has created this
by his interference with the activities of kings,
lawyers, property holder, churches, cities, guilds
To get Balance you need Order and Peace – only
Kings and Councils can give this – hence the name
Conciliar Movement
The ‘Human Legislator’ is key to the Good life not the
Papacy and this is the Body Politic or People
Wow



Marsilius is identifying the Polity as sovereign, and
within that the People as a whole, with the various
powerful bodies deriving authority from them, and
their power limited to their specific spheres – as in
the body
So Thomism is challenged – the Papacy and Church
are not above Society and State, but one small but
significant organ within the Body Politic that should
keep to its own tasks and not seek to interfere with
others doing their rightful and important jobs
The Church should be run by a Council of the Faithful
not one man (Marsillius, window Padua Cathedral)
J D Morrall quote



With the widespread acceptance of Marslius
agreement, outside the elite Papal precincts, we have
the ‘transfer of final power in both Sacerdotium and
Regnum to the sovereign people (which)
foreshadows the end of the distinctive political role
which western Europe had conceded to the Church in
varying degrees since the conversion of Constantine’
We can now say that with Marsilius we can identify
the birth of the Modern State as a new sovereign
political entity without bounds. Dualism is over
Marsilius and Dante also mark the emergence of
intellectuals as the arbiters of power and authority in
Europe, and cultural movements as foci of cultural
and political change
Petrach 1304-1374






Poet, author, intellectual leader
Father of Humanism – invented the term ‘Dark Ages’
Rivalled only by Dante and Boccaccio
Born Arezo, near Florence; moved to Avignon,
Provence, with Pope Clement V in 1309 lived at
Carpentras nearby.
Studied law at Montpellier and Bologna, but
submerged himself in Hellenistic literature and Latin
Revived Roman history as epic, writing books on
Roman Africa and Scipio Africanus
The First Flanneur, or Tourist




Loved to travel, idling in streets and towns, looking,
enjoying and soaking up the atmosphere
He was also an Antiquarian Collector – he identified
and recovered lost mss texts of Homer, Virgil, Cicero,
Seneca and many other classical authors, then
translated and edited them with friends
The first modern Climber, scaling mountains for fun
and excitement – eg Mount Ventoux (6263 ft) read
Augustine on the summit and wrote a book on it and
a guide book to Israel the Itinerarium (Rough Guide)
A Sportsman and Aesthete – a model for Byron
Re discovery of the inner life





On the summit he redirected his ambitions towards
the inner world – lost since the Greek and Roman
writers had be silenced
Supposedly not to marry for clerical reasons, he did
secretly and fathered a loved daughter
Like Dante he had an unrequited love for Laura
which created the idea of romantic chivalric love and
he a courtier
Hiding from the plague he created an aesthetes
dream at the Palazzo Molina, Venice before moving
to Padua
The Paduans stole his library on death, and sold it,
when it was promised to Venice, in payment for the
Books and Influence





Canzoniere – Songbook of Triumphs
Secretum – Secret Confessions in a dialogue with St
Augustine
De Remedius Utriusqua Fortuna – Remedies for
Fortune Fair and Foul (like Erasmus In Praise of
Folly)
Letters, diaries, Mss, Edited Collections, poems
Image the Frontispiece to Petrach’s edition of Virgils
Works, by Simone Martin, Ambrosiane Biblioteca,
Milan, 1340
The Medieval World Ending




With these authors, we can see that the beliefs and
ideas that had dominated the medieval world were
coming to an end – the beginning of the end perhaps
While the medieval lasted into the C19th in rural
Russia and Ireland, and survived in some form until
the C16th in central Europe, its institutions of
feudalism, church, barons and Emperors are in
decline
The new order is emerging from freed intellectuals,
lawyers, merchants, clerks, Princes and artists – as
represented in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
That is where we will begin again on 13 th June
Next week


Chivalry and Nobility
Professor Anthony Pollard

Meet again after the break on 13 th
June at the Methodist Cottage

Wharram Percy as it may have looked