The Twenty-Third Method: the Scholastic Method

On the Scholastic Method — The Twenty-Third Method

The Scholastic kind of exposition is twofold: ¹ Old and New. Now the Old is that which, in expounding the holy letters, those most eloquent Fathers once used, who — after a long exercise of eloquence, coming from the schools of the Rhetoricians to sacred studies — [made] their expositions

…their expositions with the rhetorical ornaments which they had brought with them, for the sake of delighting — mingling in also the weightiest affections for the stirring of minds, so that the things they said might not only be understood by the hearers, but also loved. And in this signification Bede the presbyter, in the book On the Metrical Art, called Prudentius the most noble Scholastic of the Spaniards; ² and Gennadius, in his catalogue of illustrious writers, reckoned Musaeus, Julian, Eucherius, and very many others among the Scholastics — that is, among the highest professors of Scholastic eloquence. Jerome too writes that he, while still glowing in the very studies of the Rhetoricians, painted many things about sacred matters with a scholastic flower [of style]; and in his Commentaries on the epistle to Titus he says that the Apostle Paul, when he was preaching in the Areopagus, drew the argument of his sermon from the inscription of the Altar of the Athenians, with a certain scholastic elegance.

The New Scholasticism

The other kind of scholastic explanation — which we now have, compounded from sacred Theology and Philosophy, especially the Peripatetic — is recent and new, ³ born about four hundred years ago, a little after the times of the Emperor Lothair II, who in the year of the Lord 1130 found the books of the Roman laws covered over with dust, brought them back to light, and commanded that they be publicly read in the schools, and that law be pronounced according to those laws. And so, by this occasion, the treasury of the laws was recalled into use, whence many wrote many commentaries on the laws. But, the studies of the laws now flourishing everywhere, and being embraced by all the most learned (as is wont to happen in a new thing), certain devout clerics and monks, perceiving that the knowledge of sacred scripture was growing cold and being despised in comparison with the study of the laws, themselves also undertook the Theological study, and, by the example of the Jurisconsults, began to expound the holy books and to publish their expositions in writing. Of these, those which up to this day have been more in use in their schools are distributed into ten orders: ⁴

• The first embraces Concordances;
• the Second, Dictionaries;
• the Third, Histories;
• the Fourth, Postils;
• the Fifth, Question-books;
• the Sixth, Lectures;
• the Seventh, Compendia;
• the Eighth, Sermon-books;
• the Ninth, Metrical [works];
• the Tenth, Meditations.

1. In the Concordances, ⁵ then, they first digested all the words — both declinable and indeclinable — contained in the divine volumes into alphabetical order, all and every one of the books, chapters, and lines being noted, in which any words are found similar and concordant to the word sought.

2. In the Dictionaries ⁶ (which they also called Distinctionaria, on account of the manifold distinctions of the words that are in them), they expounded all the words of divine scripture, disposed in alphabetical series, in a manifold sense both literal and spiritual — dividing, distinguishing, defining, and dilating the significations of the individual words, and treating diverse matters according to the nature of each word.

3. In the Histories, ⁷ they reduced all the historical books of both Testaments into one body of continuous and complete history, interspersing (wherever the series of things seemed to require it) many histories not only external — borrowed from undoubted writers — but also apocryphal narrations, received rather by the tradition of the ancients than by any writing; adding besides, for explaining the obscure places of the history, brief little annotations gathered from the sayings of the holy Fathers.

4. In the Postils, ⁸ they elucidated the divine Scriptures according to the literal and spiritual understanding most simply and most briefly, all subtlety of disputations being entirely omitted.

5. In the Question-books, ⁹ on the contrary, almost all expositions of Scripture being set aside, they proposed obscure doubts and questions out of various places of the scriptures, and, with contraries brought in on both sides (both Philosophical and Theological arguments), disputed most subtly and most fully about the places proposed.

6. In the Lectures, ¹⁰ embracing both parts, they expounded the manifold senses of the Scriptures more broadly and more fully than they had done in the Postils, restricting into a narrow compass the questions which they had treated most amply in the Question-books, and mingling them with their own explanations.

7. In the Compendia, ¹¹ they divided the books of divine Scripture (either all, or some) by a certain general partition into parts and members, and, thus divided member by member, compressed them into brief summaries.

8. In the Sermon-books, ¹² they set forth popular sermons and discourses upon diverse places of divine Scripture, woven together out of scholastic doubts and moral instructions.

9. In the Metrical [works], ¹³ they expounded the holy books with a manifold variety of new verses and Rhythms first invented by themselves.

10. In the Meditations ¹⁴ (which are also called affective contemplations), they explain the divine letters by certain imaginary representations, which they devised for the moving and inflaming of minds.

Moreover, as regards the phrase — that is, the manner of speaking — it is the same for all of them. ¹⁵ They use no coloring of secular eloquence, no choice of accurate elocution; inasmuch as they desire neither to delight nor to sway, but only to teach. They have a simple, brief, and compressed narration; but a lowly, open, and most common, worn-out speech — stuffed, according to the custom of the vulgar, with barbarisms and solecisms; yet in the Lectures, and especially in the Question-books, obscure and abstruse, both on account of the subtlety of the most difficult Questions, and on account of certain new and Barbarous words, unheard by Latin ears, and lately sprung up in their own Schools. Whereby it happens that some of the Rhetoricians, devoted to eloquence, ¹⁶ not only abstain from reading them, but also [reject] the very name “scholastic” as Barbarous, unlearned,

…unlearned, and abhor it as worthy of no esteem — who indeed seem to me gravely to err in this, and to despise the judgment of their own Cicero, which they so greatly admire. For he requires of a philosopher not eloquence, but erudition. ¹⁷ For in the book On the Ends of Goods and Evils, making mention of Epicurus, he says: “The style of that Philosopher does not offend me; for he both embraces in words what he wishes, and says plainly what I understand. And yet from a Philosopher, if he brings eloquence, I accept it; if he has it not, I do not much demand it.” Since, therefore, Cicero does not at all require eloquence of philosophers, I do not see why the same should be so greatly demanded of the Scholastic Theologians — who, though (according to Paul’s saying) they be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; ¹⁸ but the more they are destitute of elegance of elocution, the more they excel in erudition, setting forth things not painted but solid, teaching the things that most profit and that pertain to the intended end, and teaching thus, as is fitting, both with the rude and with the learned. But of these things elsewhere; for I have not undertaken, in the present place, to take up the defense of the Scholastics (in whose schools I was educated and advanced), but only to explain their manner of expounding.

The Five Props of the Scholastic Method

As, then, regards the manner of teaching, the whole Method of their explanation rests chiefly upon five props ¹⁹ — namely: Division, Distinction, Definition, Argumentation, and Allegation (Citation) — according to the custom of the Peripatetics and the Jurisconsults. In Divisions they so abound ²⁰ that they explain no period of divine scripture, however brief, unless they first divide and distribute it into diverse parts and members. Of Distinctions so great is the force among them ²¹ that they distinguish almost every single word of the passage taken up into various and diverse significations of words and things, and explain each distinct one by its own definitions and descriptions. Of Allegations they are so copious ²² that in any matter proposed they bring forward a numerous multitude of witnesses and testimonies, the name of the authors being always cited, with the title of the books and the number of the chapters, from which the testimonies are drawn.

The prefaces of their commentaries — whether these be Postils, Lectures, Compendia, or whatever else — they always begin ²³ from some sentence of the holy scriptures, but taken from outside the book which they are about to expound, and from some other sacred volume; and from the words of that sentence they draw out the argument of the whole book (which they call the subject), together with the four causes of the work, which they call Material, Formal, Efficient, and Final. These being explained, they divide the whole work into two principal parts ²⁴ — namely, the Preface (Proœmium) and the Treatise — and again subdivide each of these into three or four less-principal [parts], and these again they dissect into yet smaller particles; and in this manner, now dividing, now explaining what is divided, they reach at last the end of the book.

In almost this manner they treat that part which pertains to popular discourses, which they call Preachings, dividing them into Exordium and Narration. ²⁵ The Exordium they begin from some sentence, taken almost always either from the Gospel reading or from the epistle read that same day in the sacred mysteries — which they call the Theme. ²⁶ Then, the argument of the sermon being briefly proposed, they divide the things to be said by a partition chiefly threefold or fourfold, into three or four parts — which some call Mysteries, some Doctrines, some Truths, some Advisements — terminating each member of the partition in a rhythmic consonance, that they may be more easily apprehended by the mind and more tenaciously retained in the memory. Then, in the Narration (which they call the Familiar part), following the order of the proposed partition, at the beginning of each Mystery or truth they accommodate to the exposition of the proposed passage certain scholastic doubts — taken either from the theological summae of St. Thomas, Albert, Alexander, Bonaventure, and Scotus, or from the dogmas of the Peripatetics — confirmed most copiously from many testimonies (of divine scripture and of the ecclesiastical Fathers, as well as of poets, orators, and Gentile writers, gathered either from the Manipulus Florum [Handful of Flowers] or from the Polyanthea, and cited by name and by number). These being explained, at last, at the end of the Mystery, they turn to the detestation of vices — which they call the Practical part, and Fervor — using worn-out and most common reproofs, chidings, and rebukes.

The Chief Masters of the Scholastic Method

This, then, is the scholastic Method, described according to its orders and parts; in which the more excellent were: ²⁷ as regards the Concordances, Hugh of St-Cher and Conrad of Halberstadt; in the Dictionaries, Pierre Bersuire the Frenchman, and Marcus of Ulm; in the Histories, Peter Comestor, author of the Scholastic History; in the Postils, Hugh of St-Cher and Nicholas of Lyra; in the Lectures, Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas; in the Sermon-books, St. Vincent the Spaniard [Ferrer] and Robert of Lecce; in the Metrical [works], Godfrey of Viterbo and Peter Riga of Reims; in the scholastic Meditations, Bonaventure the Cardinal and Landulph the Carthusian, John Gerson, and Denis the Carthusian. From these, therefore, we have thought fit to insert in this place certain more notable examples of the scholastic variety, for the exact knowledge of the present artifice.

An example of an exposition taken from the Concordances you may see above, in the Third Method.

An Example of a Dictionary Exposition

From the Dictionary of Pierre Bersuire, the Frenchman by surname.

Of the Dictionary. — Exposition on the letter A, or, concerning the letter A.

In the first place we may note that this letter, or syllable, A, can be taken in three ways; for it is taken as an initial letter (litera principiativa); as an interjection of grieving and lamenting

…of lamenting; and as an ablative preposition. By the first [sense] I can understand the Author-of-all-beginnings of all things; by the second I can take the wretched man and wayfarer; but by the third, the impious man and sinner.

For, in the first way, A is the first letter of the alphabet, signifying him who is first in the order of things — namely God, who says of himself in Apocalypse 1: I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. ²⁸ For “Alpha” in Greek is the same as “A” in Latin. In the second way, A is the interjection of one grieving; and so it can signify the human condition, which is doleful and empty (vain) — whence this is that first cry which the boy, coming into this misery, at once utters, saying “A, A,” as if grieving for the misery into which he has entered; of which it is written in Wisdom 7: I, being born, drew in the common air, and, weeping, sent forth my first voice, like all others. ²⁹ In the third way, A is an ablative preposition, serving the Ablative — that is, the princes of the world; and so it can signify to me proud men, who always wish to be set before others — and especially prelates and bailiffs, who serve “the ablative,” that is, the princes of the world, who cease not to take away the goods of their subjects. 2 Corinthians 11: At Damascus the governor of the nation of King Aretas wished to seize me, etc.; ³⁰ whence of such an “A” can be said that which is written in Psalm 140: From the wicked man deliver me. — Again, of the first “A,” the initiative, can be said whatever is said of God, or of a beginning; of the second “A,” the lamentative, whatever is said of human misery; of the third “A,” whatever is said of evil princes, etc. I pass over, for brevity’s sake, the other significations of this letter, which the same author pursues at length, with many words, at the beginning of his Dictionary.

An Example of Scholastic History

…which, for brevity’s sake, we here omit; you may see it in the history of Peter Comestor, who by a certain excellence is called by the Scholastics the Master of the Scholastic History.

An Example of a Scholastic Question, on Psalm 66

[so printed; the objections and reply that follow work with Psalm 116, whose text is cited in the sed contra*.]*

It is asked: whether God is to be praised, and especially with the praise of the mouth?

Objection 1. And it seems that [he is] not. For the Philosopher says in the first [book] of the Ethics: “Of the best things there is not praise, but something greater and better.” But God is above all the best things; therefore praise is not owed to God, but something greater than praise. Whence in Ecclesiasticus 43 it is said that God is greater than all praise. ³¹

Objection 2. Moreover, the praise of God pertains to his worship, for it is an act of religion; but God is worshipped more with the mind than with the mouth — whence the Lord, in Matthew 15, against certain persons adduces that saying of Isaiah: This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. ³² Therefore the praise of God consists more in the heart than in the mouth.

Objection 3. Moreover, men are praised with the mouth to this end, that they may be provoked to better things; for as the wicked grow proud from their praises, so the good are provoked by their praises to better things — whence it is said in Proverbs 27: As silver is tried in the melting-pot, so a man is tried by the mouth of them that praise him. ³³ But God is not provoked to better things by the words of men, both because he is immutable and because he is supremely good and has nothing whereby to grow; therefore God is not to be praised with the mouth.

But on the contrary is that which is said in Psalm 116: Praise the Lord, all nations, etc.; ³⁴ and in Psalm 62: My mouth shall praise thee with lips of exultation. ³⁵

I answer that it must be said that we use words toward God for one reason, and toward man for another. ³⁶ For toward man we use words that we may express to him the conception of our heart, which he cannot know except by our words; and therefore we use the praise of the mouth toward man, ³⁷ that it may be made known either to him or to others that we hold a good opinion of the one praised — so that by this we may both provoke him who is praised to better things, and lead others (before whom he is praised) into a good opinion, reverence, and imitation of him. But toward God we use words — not indeed that we may manifest our conceptions to him who is the inspector of hearts, but that we may lead ourselves, and others who hear, to his reverence; and therefore the praise of the mouth is necessary, ³⁸ not indeed for God’s sake, but for the sake of the one praising, whose affection is stirred up toward God by praising him — according to that of the Psalm: The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me. ³⁹ And in so far as a man ascends toward God in affection through divine praise, in so far by this is he drawn back from those things which are against God — according to that of Isaiah 48: For my praise I will bridle thee, lest thou perish. ⁴⁰ The praise of the mouth also profits toward this, that the affection of others may be provoked toward God — whence it is said in the psalm, His praise shall be always in my mouth, and afterward is subjoined, Let the meek hear and be glad. Magnify the Lord with me. ⁴¹

Reply to Objection 1. It must be said that we can speak of God in two ways: in one way, as regards his essence; and thus, since he is incomprehensible and ineffable, he is greater than all praise — but according to this comparison there is owed to him reverence, and the honor of latria (adoration). ⁴² Whence also in the psalm, according to Jerome’s translation, it is said: To thee praise is silent, O God ⁴³ — as regards the first; and to thee shall the vow be rendered — as regards the second. In another way, [we speak of God] according to his effects, which are ordained to our benefit; and according to this, praise is owed to God — whence it is said in Isaiah 63: I will remember the mercies of the Lord; the praise of the Lord over all things which the Lord hath rendered to us. ⁴⁴ And Dionysius says, in the first chapter On the Divine Names: “Every holy hymn of the theologians (that is, divine praise) thou shalt find dividing the manifestative and laudative namings of God unto the blessed processions of the Thearchy — that is, of the divinity.”

Reply to Objection 2. It must be said that the praise of the mouth is useless to the one praising, if it be without the praise of the heart; ⁴⁵ for then [only] does he speak praise to God, when he ponders the great works of his deeds with affection. Yet the exterior praise of the mouth avails to excite the interior affection of the one praising, and to provoke others to the praise of God, as has been said.

Reply to Objection 3. It must be said that we do not praise God for his own benefit, but for our benefit, as has been said.

An Example of a Scholastic Lecture, on Psalm 116

A shortened word (verbum abbreviatum) hath the Lord made upon the earth — Isaiah, chapter 10, and to the Romans, chapter 9. ⁴⁶ In this sentence of Isaiah are touched the four causes of this Psalm — namely, the Material, the Formal, the Agent [Efficient], and the Final. And first the Material is intimated by the word “VERBVM” (Word), because the matter treated in this psalm is the mercy and truth of God, shown forth in the incarnate Word

…incarnate. The Formal is touched in the word “ABBREVIATVM” (shortened), because the form of this psalm is a compendious brevity, comprehending all the divine praises that are dispersed throughout the whole book of psalms. The Agent [cause] is touched there, “FECIT” (hath made): “DOMINVS” (the Lord) — for God was the agent cause, who made this Psalm through the mouth of David. ⁴⁷ The Final is touched in the words “SVPER TERRAM” (upon the earth), because the end which moved God to send the incarnate Word, and to pronounce this Psalm concerning the incarnate Word, was the benefit of the whole earth. Now the present psalm is divided, after the manner of the other psalms, into two parts — namely, into Title and Treatise (which begins, “Praise the Lord,” etc.). The Title is “Alleluia,” in which it is intimated that this Psalm is hallelujatic — that is, laudatory — inviting the whole world to praise God for the mercy obtained in the coming of the incarnate Word. But in the Treatise the author carries out what he had proposed in the title; and it is divided into two parts: in the first he invites all men to praise God; in the second he renders the cause of the invitation, there: “For his mercy is confirmed.” The first part is again divided into two: the second begins there, “Praise him, all peoples”; the first there, “Praise the Lord, all nations” — in which he invites the Gentile nations (which are called “nations”) to the praise of God. But a difficulty arises: whether God is to be praised? And it seems not; for the Philosopher says, in the first [book] of the Ethics, that of the best things there is not praise, but something greater and better; but God is above all the best things; therefore praise is not owed to God, but something greater than praise — whence in Ecclesiasticus 43 it is said that God is greater than all praise. ⁴⁸ But on the contrary is that which is here said in the Psalm, “Praise the Lord, all nations.” I answer, it must be said that we can speak of God in two ways: in one way, as regards his essence; ⁴⁹ and thus, since he is incomprehensible and ineffable, he is greater than all praise — but according to this comparison there is owed to him reverence, and the honor of latria. In another way, according to his effects, which are ordained to our benefit (such as mercy and justice); and according to these, God is to be praised, and in fact is praised in the present psalm, etc.

On the Scholastic Compendium

The Scholastic Compendium is divided into Prose and Metrical; ⁵⁰ and of these, the Prose is twofold: the one Universal, which divides, enumerates, and gathers only the chief heads of the whole work; the other Particular and more distinct, elaborated with greater industry, which divides the primary parts of the whole work into smaller particles, and the particular members even down to the least articles and the incisions of the articles — enumerating them, and summarily touching upon them, for the easier convenience of the apprehensive faculty and for the help of memory. This [Particular kind] is again distinguished into two, namely into Tree (Arboreum) and Column (Columnare): of which the Tree ⁵¹ is so called because, digested through many deductions and divisions of lines and branches proceeding from one trunk, it represents the appearance and figure of a branching tree. But the Column ⁵² is so named because it is wont to be written in two columns of the same page: in the first of which the individual clauses, members, and incisions of the compendium are fitted, in fitting order, one under another; but in the other column, the words or sentences of holy Scripture, corresponding to the individual members of the compendium, are collocated over against them (è regione). Examples of both are these:

An Example of a Universal Scholastic Compendium

From the compendium of Pierre Auriol, the Cardinal, on the whole of Scripture.

Divine Scripture can be divided into eight principal parts, according to the eight modes of teaching which it assumes. ⁵³ For it teaches politically and legislatively in its first part, namely in the Pentateuch; it teaches, secondly, chronicle-wise — or historically and narratively — in its second part, namely in the ten books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Tobit, Judith, and the rest that follow (in which the author briefly pursues the division of the other parts). These being finished, he again undertakes the division of the first part, in these words:

And so the first part, which is Political and legislative, is contained under five books. For it treats: first, of the quality of the Lord who enjoins the law; secondly, of the quality of the servant who proposes the law; thirdly, of the quality of the assembly that contains the law; fourthly, of the quality of the people that admits the law; and fifthly, of the brevity of the epilogue that expounds the law. Genesis, then, begins the political part, and treats of the Lord who enjoins the law — describing his omnipotence, in that he was the creator of all things from the beginning (which it declares in five chapters); in that he was the savior of men in the flood (which it declares in four other chapters); in that he was the disperser of all nations, their lip being confounded, throughout the whole world (which it declares in two chapters). Describing also his benevolence and friendship toward men, especially toward the spiritual fathers of Israel — which it shows from the segregation of Abraham: as to place, Go forth out of thy land ⁵⁴ and out of thy kindred; as to the sign of circumcision; as to the deed of the son of oblivion — and this from the twelfth chapter to the twenty-fifth. Likewise from the keeping of Isaac, whom he preserved and guarded among those wicked nations — and this from the 25th chapter to the twenty-ninth. Likewise from the predilection and multiplication of Jacob, from the twenty-ninth chapter to the thirty-ninth. Likewise in the exaltation of Joseph, from the thirty-ninth chapter to the end. As if that book wished to argue thus: “The laws of that Lord who is most omnipotent, and the only benevolent God, are to be observed by men; but that Lord who instituted and enjoined the laws which shall be set down in this political treatise is the only most omnipotent God, supremely benevolent to the human race, and especially to the holy fathers; therefore his laws are to be observed by men.” So that, as the political [sciences] humanly invented begin from the end of all human acts, so this political [science], divinely revealed, may begin from the productive beginning of all things — from whom, as from the one enjoining, all laws, and goodness, and rectitude, take their lot. Thus far Genesis; to which is joined Exodus, as a second book, and it treats, etc.; and so onward it runs through the individual volumes of divine scripture, even to the last.

EXEM [PLVM → p197]

## An Example of a Particular Scholastic Compendium (the Columnar form)

On the beginning of the epistle to the Romans; from the compendium which we gathered on that same epistle in the year 1557, in favor of the most eminent Cardinal Giovanni Battista Cicada, of Genoa, titular of St. Clement.

The First Part of this epistle, serving for the salutation, comprehends three things, which render the epistle worthy of faith and acceptable — namely, the Salutant (one saluting), the Saluted, and the Greeting (salus):

EXEM [PLVM → p198]

## An Example of a Particular Scholastic Compendium (the Tree form)

From the exposition of the gospels of John, Abbot of Vincelles, which is entitled Vade Mecum (Go-with-me).

Luke 21: “Look up, and lift up your heads.” In these [words] three things are touched.

• For the first (Luke 18): Look up, thy faith hath made thee whole [Luke 18:42] — namely, the faith also of the sacrament.
• For the second (1 Tim 2): I will that men pray in every place, lifting up pure hands [1 Tim 2:8] — that is, without crime.
• For the third (Ps 110): He shall crush heads in the land of many [Ps 110:6] — namely, of the humbled.

• For the first (Luke 1): He hath regarded the humility of his handmaid [Luke 1:48] — namely, powerfully.
• For the second (Luke 22): The Lord, turning, looked upon Peter [Luke 22:61]; there follows, And he wept bitterly — namely, [by repenting].
• For the third (Ps 103): Who looketh on the earth, and maketh it tremble [Ps 104:32] — namely, because of guilt.

On the Last Mode of the Scholastic Compendium (the Metrical)

The Metrical Compendium ⁵⁶ is a most strict sum of the sacred volumes, comprehended in very few words, in whose individual words the arguments of the individual chapters of divine scripture are compressed with a most artificial brevity. Such is that brief little summary of the whole Old and New Testament, most briefly concluded by Alexander of Villedieu, of Dol, in a hundred and twelve hexameters ⁵⁷ — in which the individual words touch upon the arguments of the individual chapters of the sacred scripture. And, lest the narrowness of the brevity should take away the understanding of the verses, to each word is subscribed, by an arithmetical mark, the number of the chapter whose sum is contained in it — interlinear little glosses of smaller writing being also added, indicating the signification of each word. An example of this compendium, taken from Alexander himself, is this:

### A Metrical Compendium on the Book of Genesis

Each tag-word is one hexameter’s-worth of a chapter; beneath each is subscribed the chapter number and a brief gloss of what it recalls.

— and the rest, that follow.

On the Metrical Explanation of the Scholastics

I am not unaware that the Poetry of the Scholastics is despised by all the learned, ⁵⁸ and utterly hissed off as inept, superstitious, and worthy of laughter; yet, lest I seem to be wanting to the plan of the work I have undertaken — in which I proposed to indicate all the varieties of exposition, whatever they be — I shall not be reluctant to explain this part too, briefly, whose occasion was this: ⁵⁹ When throughout all Europe the custom had already grown up that Rhythms (that is, unpolished verses, ending in the same consonance of the final syllable, composed in the vernacular idiom of each province) should be sung, the poetry of Vernacular Rhythms began to be held in such price that no poem seemed worthy of any applause or praise which was destitute of rhythmic harmony. Wherefore, when the Scholastics desired to allure the men of their age (given to rhythms) to the studies of the sacred letters, taking occasion from this, they too devised a new method of the Metrical art, compounded from the old Latin and the recent vernacular poetry. From the old they took the quantity of syllables, the number of feet, and the laws and measures of the whole verse, most diligently to be observed; but from the new and vernacular they took the consonances of rhythms, the like endings of syllables, and sometimes an equal number of syllables and letters in the diverse verses. And they distinguished this new Poetry — or Metrical exposition of divine scripture — into two species: ⁶⁰ namely, into the Prose-Verse (Prosocarminea), which is composed of verses with prose intermingled, and into the Verse (Carminea), which consists of verse alone. This latter they again divided into two parts — that is, into the Rhythmic and the Leonine — of which we shall here set down both the descriptions and the examples.

On the Rhythmic Explanation

The Rhythmic Exposition ⁶¹ consists of unpolished and rude verses, which answer to one another by an equal number of syllables and by the likeness of the final syllables. An example of it, taken from the exposition of the Carthusian [Denis the Carthusian] on the beginning of the gospel according to John, is thus:

On the Leonine Exposition

The Leonine [exposition] — so called from Leo, its first inventor ⁶² — is that which, the metrical laws of the Latin poets being preserved, adds a rhythmic consonance (rhyme) to the verses. And this is bipartite: namely, Heroic, consisting of hexameter verse, and Elegiac, running in hexameter and pentameter verses. Again, the Heroic is distinguished by a threefold division: namely, into Monorhythmic, Dirhythmic, and Isogrammatic — of which the definitions and examples here follow.

On the Monorhythmic

The Monorhythmic ⁶³ is when each two hexameters, in similarly-ending syllables

…syllables, terminate the last foot of the verse, they make a rhythmic symphony. An example of it, contained in the exposition of Peter Riga [Petrus Rigensis] on the beginning of the book of Job, is this: ⁶⁴

Some masters ascribe the book of Job to Moses, as its author; but the opinion is false, of a perverse judgment it proceeds. Others have held the little books to have had no author born [i.e. no single named author] — but these things too are refuted, as falsehood is wont to be, etc.

On the Dirhythmic

The Dirhythmic exposition ⁶⁵ is when, in two hexameter verses, a rhythmic consonance (rhyme) is kept both in the middle of the verse and at its end. Of which sort there are many in the same Peter Riga, especially in his exposition of the fourteenth chapter of Job, where the author expounds that sentence, Who can make clean that which is conceived of unclean seed, save thou, who alone art? [Job 14:4] in these verses: ⁶⁶

Scripture unfolds the pure mysteries of Christ, Concerning the sacred Breath [Spirit] who came forth without guilt, Not out of the unclean, proceeding from clean seed, Cleansing the unclean — through whom mind and flesh are made clean.

Such also is the postillary exposition of Alexander of Villedieu [Alexander Dolensis] on the Acts of the Apostles, thus beginning:

If thou wouldst know the transacted Apostolic deeds, This Postil shall handle those for thee in verses.

On the Isogrammatic

The Isogrammatic — that is, the Equal-letter — exposition ⁶⁷ is that in which any two hexameters, succeeding one another, together with the consonance of rhyme have also an equal number of letters, and as many letters are counted in the one verse as in the other. This they are wont to divide into the Simple and the Pictured, or Figured.

On the Simple Isogrammatic

The Simple ⁶⁸ is that to which, beyond the rhyme and the equal number of letters, no further artifice is added. Of this sort there are many verses in Peter Riga, in his exposition of the book of Job, especially upon those words of the third chapter, Let the day perish wherein I was born [Job 3:3], which are expounded in these verses: ⁶⁹

Let that day perish, which brought me forth to birth, ⎫ Nor let that night behold the rising of the noble Dawn, ⎬ 34 Let that night be heavy, nor worthy of the favor of praise, ⎫ Let it stand sundered, far from the honor of the true light. ⎬ 36

If you count the letters of these verses, you will find in each verse of the former distich 34 letters, and in each verse of the latter distich 36 letters. ⁷⁰

On the Figured Isogrammatic

The Figured exposition ⁷¹ is that which, beyond the rhythmic consonances and the equal number of letters, adds yet another new artifice to the verse — of most curious subtlety and of immense labor and time. For by the arrangement and placement of the letters set within the verses it expresses various images of figures — such as angels, men, birds, quadrupeds, trees, crosses, rings, and other figures like these: which letters of the verses, marked out in red-lead [minium] or any other color, both form the figure and unfold the history and mystery of that same figure. The scholastic poets borrowed this invention — which may appear rather the vanity of men at play than of expositors — from Rabanus Maurus, bishop of Mainz, whose poem, elaborated with a like skill of industry, still survives, entitled On the Praises of the Holy Cross [De sanctae crucis laudibus]. From it we set before you the following example, expressed in the figure of a cross:

[Figured poem in the shape of a cross (carmen figuratum). Each hexameter is split into a left arm-part, a central stripe of letters (printed colored, tracing the cross), and a right arm-part; the whole is read across in the ordinary way, while the central stripe read down the axis, and again from right to left, yields the two hidden verses given below. Transcribed exactly as printed:]

Upper arm of the cross

Cross-beam

Lower arm of the cross

[The outer hexameters, read straight across (left + center + right), come out — where legible — as e.g.: “Arbor odore potens frondoso vertice nata” (A tree, mighty in fragrance, born on a leafy crown); “Hortus ditatus, & par cui nullus in orbe est” (An enriched garden, whose equal is nowhere in the world); “Floribus & folijs milleno germine dives” (Rich in flowers and leaves with a thousandfold seed); “Arbor sola tenens varios virtute colores” (A tree alone holding, by its power, colors of many kinds). The lines are contrived to force the letters of the central stripe, so several read stiffly.]

If you notice, all these verses consist of an equal number of letters; and, reading down through the middle of them, this verse is read:

Forma sacrata crucis venerando fulget amictu. (The sacred form of the cross shines in venerable vesture.)

And again, while you move from right to left, this other:

Magnus vestit honor, latus loquor hoc nationi. (A great honor clothes it; broadly I speak this to the nation.)

## An Example of a Sermon, or of a Scholastic Discourse

From Robert, bishop of L’Aquila [Roberto, episcopus Aquilanus]. A sermon on the wrath of God, upon that text, “The wrath of God cometh upon the sons of unbelief.” Ephesians ch. 5. ⁷²

The wrath of God cometh upon the sons of unbelief: these are the words of the Doctor of the Gentiles [Paul], originally at Ephesians ch. 5, and in the epistle of the present Lord’s day.

I have judged it the most effective remedy for sinners, that they may return to repentance, to set before their face beforehand the terribleness and horror of the wrath of God. For, as Augustine says in the 4th book On Christian Doctrine, the merciful, long-suffering of God makes very many unbelievers sin without fear, because they do not reckon God to be the avenger of their sins. ⁷³ We therefore, wishing to provide against this danger, shall in the present sermon make our discourse on the wrath of God; and although to many who have an infected taste such words are grievous, yet to the humble and devout they will seem the medicine of languishing souls. For Augustine says (23, q. 4, ch. Piety itself): The physician is troublesome to the raging madman, and the father to the undisciplined son; yet not for that reason is medicine to be denied to the sick, nor discipline to be withdrawn from the son. To this we are called, that we may cry out, and reprove, and detest offenses, and proclaim the dread judgments of God — for by Isaiah, ch. 58, the Lord says: Cry aloud, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto my people their crimes [Isa 58:1]. For the salvation, then, and the correction of sinners we speak securely of the wrath of God: concerning which three principal mysteries are to be contemplated. ⁷⁴

The first is called Contemptibility [the despising of it]. The second, Terribleness. The third, Nearness. But let the Virgin Mary first be saluted: Hail Mary, full of grace, etc.

The first mystery to be contemplated concerning the wrath of God is called Contemptibility. In which it is worth seeing why it is that many, when they hear men speak of the dread wrath of God, do not fear it, but rather, as experience teaches, despise it with laughter. And three principal reasons for this error can be gathered. ⁷⁵

The first is called [the reason] of foolish thinking. The second, of false opinion. The third, of long-continued expectation [i.e. delay].

The first reason why the wrath of God is not feared by many is called [that] of foolish thinking: because they suppose that in God there is no wrath. Concerning whom we ask, whether in God there is wrath? ⁷⁶ Some argue that there is not — because no passion befalls God, but wrath is a certain passion; therefore it does not befall God. And they confirm their error: because every sin is to be removed from God, but wrath is one of the seven capital vices; therefore it is to be removed from God.

Nevertheless, against those who hold thus there are authorities and sayings, whether of Sacred Scripture or of the Gentile and moral philosophers. Whence Exodus 15: In the multitude of thy glory thou hast put down all our adversaries; thou didst send forth thy wrath, which devoured them [Exod 15:7]. ⁷⁷ And in ch. 32, Moses, praying to God, says: Let thy wrath cease, and be appeasable over the wickedness of thy people [Exod 32:12]. ⁷⁸ And 2 Kings 22: Great is the wrath of the Lord kindled against us [2 Kings 22:13]. ⁷⁹ And Deuteronomy ch. 11: The Lord, being angry, shut up heaven, and the rains descend not [Deut 11:17], ⁸⁰ and the rest that follow — divine testimonies of Scripture. And Valerius Maximus, book 1: For with slow step does the divine wrath proceed to its vengeance, and it compensates the slowness by the gravity of the punishment. ⁸¹ And Ovid, in the Art of Loving:

An angry god is bent [appeased] by a beseeching voice.

And Augustine, book 18 On the City of God, ch. 12: For Delphic Apollo, musical games were instituted that his wrath might be appeased — the wrath by which they thought the regions of Greece were afflicted with barrenness, because they had not defended his temple, which king Danaus, when he had invaded those same lands, burned in war. And in book 1, as above, ch. 2, it is said of Juno, who was worshipped as a goddess among the Gentiles: For in Virgil, Juno is brought in as hostile to the Trojans, saying to Aeolus, king of the winds, to stir him up against them:

A race hateful to me sails the Tyrrhenian sea, carrying Ilium into Italy, and its vanquished household gods.

thus he. And the same Virgil relates, at the beginning of the 1st book of the Aeneid, that on account of the wrath of Juno Aeneas was made a fugitive with the rest of the Trojans, saying: ⁸²

Arms and the man I sing, who first from the shores of Troy, an exile by fate, came to Italy and the Lavinian shores; much was he tossed both on lands and on the deep, by the force of the gods above, on account of the mindful wrath of savage Juno, etc.

For the solution, then, of the objections, three things are first to be noted — according to Bonaventure on the 3rd [book] of the Sentences, dist. 33, and Richard [of Middleton] on the 4th, dist. 26, and Thomas [Aquinas], part 1, q. 20: that whenever anything is said of God which in us denotes a passion, it is said of God according to the effect, and not according to the defect of passion. ⁸³ Hatred therefore, love, wrath, and the like, which in us are passions, are said in God according to the effect as regards us: so that He is then said to hate, when He shows us the effect of hatred; then to be angry, when He displays to us the effect of wrath. But God Himself remains stable, without passion — and the rest that follow.

We say therefore that God, who is most merciful, without change of Himself, without passion, without sin, becomes angry when His own justice requires it, often trampling down sinners obstinate in [their] wrath when He shows them the effect of [His] wrath. Hence come wars, pestilences, tempests, hailstorms, barrenness of the earth, famines, earthquakes, terrors from heaven, and great signs. O presumptuous sinners, you have now heard that your opinion is false: for you were saying that God is not angry; and behold, so many proclamations of the Scriptures cry out that the wrath of God is to be feared by all — and not only to be feared, but that it is also most grievous and most near. O, if I could ascend into such a watchtower, from which I might behold all Italy, and all could hear my voice — truly I would cry out: O Italy, weep! O Italy, fear! O Italy, beware, lest on account of thy obstinacy the wrath of God rage against thee! He Himself has called thee for many years; He has endowed thee with ampler benefits; He has sent to thee His preachers; He has terrified thee with signs and prodigies; thou hast felt earthquakes, pestilences, and the barren state of the seasons; God has threatened thee. Thus surely He did this, that He might lead thee to repentance — and thou art made harder day by day in [thy] sins; and, persevering in malice, now everywhere public usury is practiced, all things are defiled with the filthiest vices of the flesh and with shameful Sodomy; the pride of pomps has now seized all cities and lands; blasphemy, perjuries against God, lies, injustices, violences, oppressions of the poor, and the like superabound. O comely Italy, O region full of riches! Do not despise God, do not exasperate His majesty. I exhort therefore all peoples that they cease from their evil way, lest perchance, if they persevere in it, the wrath and indignation of God suddenly come upon them — from which may He Himself free us, who is blessed and praiseworthy through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

On Scholastic Meditation

Of scholastic Meditation there are two kinds: the Lowly [Plain] and the Sublime. ⁸⁴ The Lowly, which for simple and humble read[ers]

…read[ers] it is the more accommodated: it is occupied chiefly about the historical contemplation of the matter, setting before the eyes the things said and done in the past as if they were present; and, that it may make a greater impression on the mind, it represents to the imagination of the reader not only those things which are written in the divine letters and which certainly happened, but also those things which, according to the variety of places, persons, and times, could have happened concerning the matters narrated in the Holy Scriptures. Yet those who use this form of meditating advise that their thoughts be not so taken as things undoubtedly asserted and firmly defined, but as the pious and devout contemplations of the meditating mind.

But the Sublime kind of meditation, which is also called Mystical Theology, ⁸⁵ and is known only to those who have been worn [practiced] in Scholastic theology, is occupied almost always in the anagogical explanation of the Scriptures. It contains certain abstruse and sublime thoughts, drawn from the inmost recesses of Scholastic theology and expressed in scholastic language — by which those men are chiefly moved, and are excited to admiration and love of the divine goodness, who have been consumed in scholastic studies by long exercise. Of both kinds the examples are these. ⁸⁶

An Example of a Lowly Meditation

From the Meditations on the Life of Christ of Ludolph the Carthusian [Ludolphus/Landulphus Carthusianus], upon the words of Matthew, ch. 2.

He withdrew into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, etc. [Matt 2:14–15]

They went, therefore — Mary and Joseph, with the child — to a certain city of Egypt which is called Heliopolis; and there, renting some little house, they dwelt for seven years as strangers and pilgrims, poor and needy. But here there occurs a beautiful, pious, and very compassionate meditation. For whence, and how, did they live for so long a time? Did they beg? But it is read of the Lady [Mary] that with distaff and needle she sought for herself the necessaries by [her] thread. She sewed, then, and spun — the Lady of the world, the lover of poverty. In every way these greatly loved poverty, and kept faith with it perfectly unto death. But did she go about through the houses asking for cloth, and other things on which she might work? For this had to become known through the neighborhood; otherwise she would have sat idle from such works, because those women could not divine [guess her need]. But also, when Jesus began to be five years old, or thereabouts — did not He too carry His mother’s errands, seeking for her those things on which she could work? For she had no other squire [attendant]. And did He not carry back the finished works, asking on His mother’s behalf the payment and the price? Was not the boy Jesus, the Son of the most high God, made to blush at such things — and the mother too, in sending Him? But what if sometimes, when He had delivered the work and asked the price, some proud, quarrelsome, and talkative woman answered insultingly, took the finished work, drove Him out without payment, and so He returned home empty? O how many and how great are the injuries done to strangers — which the Lord came not to avoid, but to undergo! What also, if sometimes, returning home and suffering hunger, after the manner of children He asked for bread, and the mother had nothing whence to give it? Were not her inward parts shaken at these and similar such things? She consoled her son with words, and provided by work as she could, and perhaps sometimes withheld from her own food to reserve it for the son. And if it was necessary to seek food from the work of the hands, what shall we say of clothing? What of the utensils — namely beds, and other things needful within the house? Did she have double sets? did she have superfluous ones? did she have curious [fancy] ones? These are against poverty; and even if she could have had them, she, the lover of poverty, would not have wished them. But did the Lady, in sewing or doing other works, make curious [fancy] works after the manner of certain women? Far be it — for this is dangerous, and a very great fault. Behold, then, now the Lady, busy in her labors and works — spinning, cutting, sewing, weaving — how she does them faithfully and humbly, with diligence, and nonetheless keeps the governance over her son and her house, and, according to her power, always attends to vigils and prayers, and to have compassion on Him with all her affection. And consider that she, the Lady of the kingdom, did not have the kingdom of God altogether for free. But holy Joseph too, the carpenter [worker in wood], himself works something in the craft of wood.

Whence, since matter for compassion presents itself, at last, when you have spent some delay with them, ask leave to depart; and, having received a blessing — first from the boy Jesus, then from the mother, afterward from Joseph, with knees bent — with tears and great compassion bid them farewell: for like exiles from their fatherland without any cause, and banished men, they remain to sojourn there for seven years, destined to live in the sweat of their brow, etc.

These things Ludolph [takes] from St. Bonaventure, who in his book of Meditations on the Life of Christ, ch. 14, admonishing the reader not to despise the humility of meditations of this kind, thus writes: These things, and things like these, in this place concerning the exile of the boy Jesus you can meditate; and become a little one with the little one Jesus, nor lightly esteem such humble things, and to meditate about Him in things which seem childish. For they seem to give devotion, to increase love, to kindle fervor, to induce compassion, to confer purity and simplicity, to nourish and preserve the vigor of humility and poverty, to make familiarity and conformity, and to lift up hope. For to ascend to sublime things we are not able; but that which is foolish of God is wiser than men, and that which is weak, is mightier [1 Cor 1:25]. The meditation of such things seems also to take away pride, to enervate cupidity, and to confound curiosity. You see how many good things come thence? Be therefore, as I said, a little one with the little one, that you may grow with Him as He grows, and follow Him whithersoever He goes, and gaze upon His face always. Thus he.

The ancient expositors seem not to have shrunk from this form of explaining — especially those more eloquent ones, whose chief care was to bring in a clearer and more delightful elucidation of the divine scripture, [feigning], according to the laws of the Rhetoricians, certain sayings or deeds which — according to the diversity of the characters described in the sacred letters — might seem able to have been said or done. Among these, Philo the Jew, wonderfully delighted with the composition of this kind of explanation, very often fashioned little speeches of various kinds, put forth in the person of those whose virtues or vices he especially strove to express. Of these we have decided to set down one here for the sake of example, that from the comparison of it it may appear what likeness, and what difference, there is between the artifice of the ancient Rhetoricians and of the recent scholastics.

## An Example of a Rhetorical Meditation

From the book of Philo the Jew, On the Life of the Civil Man, upon that [text] of Genesis 37: They took Joseph’s tunic; which when the father had seen, he said: “It is my son’s tunic; a most wicked beast hath devoured him”; and, rending his garments, he mourned for a long time. [Gen 37:31–33] ⁸⁷

But when it was brought to the father — not what was true (that the son had been sold), but that fabrication about his being consumed by beasts — the news struck his ears, and at the same time the spectacle struck his eyes; for the tunic had been brought torn, and foully bloodied. Troubled with grief, he was struck dumb for a long space of time, not even able to lift his head, overwhelmed by so great a calamity. At last, suddenly bursting into tears which poured out as from a fountain, he beat his breast and, tearing his face, rending his garments [cried]: Not so much do I grieve for thy death, my son, as for the loss of a tomb. For if a tomb had befallen thee in thine own land, and consolation were not lacking to me, I would dutifully have sat by thee, sick, before death; I would have bestowed the last kisses on thee, dying; I would have closed thine eyes; I would have bathed thee, dead, with tears; I would have borne thee out magnificently; I would have omitted nothing of the just funeral rites. And even if thou hadst died abroad, I would have said to myself: The debt of nature has been paid, grieve not. The living have their own fatherlands; of the dead, all the earth is a tomb; all men are of brief span — for he who was most long-lived, how little time did he live, if you compare it to eternity? Or, if thou wert altogether slain by violence and treachery, it would have been a lighter thing to be destroyed by the hands of men who at least, pitying the dead, would have covered him with earth and entombed the corpse — or, [even] had they been most cruel, what more could they have done than to cast him out unburied? Whom soon some passing traveler, mindful of the common nature and touched by mercy, would have buried. But now, as it is reported, thou hast fed the savage and carnivorous beasts, and hast glutted them with my [own] bowels. Hitherto I have drained many unlooked-for labors; in these miseries I am abundantly practiced — wandering, sojourning, serving for hire, bearing hard commands, harassed even to the peril of life by those from whom I least ought [to have suffered it]. Many things I have seen, many I have heard, many grievous things I have suffered, by which, schooled to patience, I have endured. But nothing is more intolerable than the present chance, which has overturned and cast down all the strength of my mind: for what mourning can be greater, or more miserable? The boy’s garment has been brought to the father — of him[self] not a limb, not a fragment, not even the least remnant: the beasts have devoured the whole; nothing is left to be carried to the tomb; nor have I even received a garment, save that at the sight of it the memory of grief may break out afresh, that never can forgetfulness of so great a calamity creep in. Thus did he bewail his lot.

An Example of a Sublime Meditation

On that saying of Exodus, ch. 3, “I am who I am,” from the meditations of Denis the Carthusian [Dionysius Carthusianus]. ⁸⁸

O Being [Ens], in every genus of beings the first and the supreme — uncreated Being, uncaused, fountal Being, in the highest degree simple, most sincere [pure], formally infinite, and totally perfect: to Thee alone truly, fully, and properly does it belong to be in a perpetual and unfailing eternity. Whence, to Moses asking what Thy name was, Thou rightly didst answer, I AM WHO I AM. Truly, O superblessed, O infinite and uncircumscribed Being, Thy being — like an immense sea flowing into itself — comprehends in itself most eminently all the perfection and eminence of every being; and to all beings it grants to each its own being and existence. Thou, O most superglorious fountal Being, dost so subsist, pure in Thy purity and immense simplicity, that nothing of the imperfect is mingled to Thee: Thou art [Thy] being, and the same is [Thy] essence, nor is there any difference of the two in Thee. Thou who art ideal Being, subsisting through Thyself, first, one, and altogether simple. So great is the excellence of Thy most-praiseworthy being that created essence, compared with it, is as though it were utterly nothing and empty, and our subsistence is as a most vain shadow that passes away. Thou who art always the same Thyself, O final Being, into whom all beings are finally resolved — [beings] led by Thee from non-being to being — fulfill the imperfect [portion] of our entity, take from us the non-being of our defects, pour into us the true being of Thy grace: that after this mortal being shall have been laid aside by us, we may rest in the beatific object of Thine essence — to whom [be] praise and glory. Amen.