Ziolkowski 2009 Cultures of Authority

8/20/2019 Ziolkowski 2009 Cultures of Authority

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Joural of Eglish ad Germaic Philolog—October© 2009 b the Board of Trustees of the Uiversit of Illiois

Cultures of Authorit i the

Log Twelfth Cetur 1

Jan M. Ziolkowski, Harvard University

Aciet ad medieval usages of the Lati ou auctoritas displa a itrac-tabilit that iduced oe leicographer ot ft ears ago to war blutlagaist trig eve to traslate it:

The word auctoritas belogs to the most sigicat ad lastig coiages ofthe Lati laguage. Its meaig is ot alwas eas to ascertai, ad attempt-ig to traslate it causes eve more trouble. A wise perso will do better torefrai from the effort.2

To guard agaist such difculties, I will ot ufold a full histor of auctoritas ad auctores from the begiig of the Lati laguage dow to the pres-et da. Furthermore, I will ot attempt to address sstematicall the vastscholarship o authorship, as distict (sometimes) from auctoritas, i theMiddle Ages.3 Istead, I will aim mail to sketch attitudes toward authorit,

ad authors, that prevailed amog rhetoricias, grammarias, ad eegetesthrough the earlier Middle Ages ad to offer a partial list of ew staces thatdeveloped afterward. I so doig, I will trai m sights o literar auctoritas ad auctores, those implicated i readig ad writig. Eve withi this re-stricted ambit, I accept the impossibilit of attaiig ehaustive complete-ess. The period I will seek evetuall to elucidate ma be called the logtwelfth cetur. Ceturies are arbitrar slices of time, ad major trasitiosma refuse willfull to take place just as the iet-ith ear ields to thehudredth. I m deitio, the log twelfth cetur eteds from after

the Great Schism of 1054 that divided the Greek ad Lati braches ofChristedom to aroud the Fourth Latera Coucil i 1215.

1. For wise cousel o earlier drafts I thak C. Stephe Jaeger, Michael McCormick, Rosa-mod McKitterick, Arjo Vaderjagt, ad Charles D. Wright, all of whom—as m authorities—should be held full liable for athig still wrog with this article. 2. Wolfgag Heßler, “Auctoritas im deutsche Mittellatei. Eie Zwischebilaz im mit-tellateiische Wörterbuch,” Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 47 (1965), 255: “Das Wort auctoritas gehört zu de bedeutugsvollste ud achhaltigste Präguge der lateiische Sprache.Sei Ihalt ist icht immer leicht zu ergrüde, ud och mehr Mühe bereitet der Versucheier Übersetzug. Wer klug ist, wird bisweile lieber darauf verzichte.” Uless otherwise

specied, all traslatios are m ow. 3. O authorship, the foremost stud is Alistair J. Miis, Medieval Theory of Authorship:Scholastic Literary Attitudes in the Later Middle Ages (Lodo: Scolar Press, 1984; 2d ed., Phila-delphia: Uiv. of Peslvaia Press, 1988).


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Whe pursuig a topic that ca be summed up i a sigle keword, vari-ous pitfalls eed to be avoided. I the rst place, a cocept ma maifestitself i practice, ad that practice ma i tur be reported or discussed

i a tet without the use of the correspodig word or words. I our par-lace, authorit ma be at stake or the authorities ivolved eve whe theou “authorit” is ot euciated. To skirt this dager, I will cocetrateupo istaces i which auctoritas is amed eplicitl. Aother caveat isparticular to cases i which the specic word at the heart of a give topicboasts a log histor, sice the term ma have differet uaces ow from what it oce did. I this case, although the Lati auctoritas ad Eglishauthority have bee applied to matters political, philosophical, theological,ecclesiastical, liguistic, ad poetic, the earl twet-rst-cetur ou

covers a rage that overlaps ol partiall with related aciet ad Me-dieval Lati words.4 Thus to grasp what authors ad authorities coveedas words ad ideas i the twelfth cetur requires disetaglig the pastfrom the preset as well as the Lati from veraculars such as Eglish.The associatios these words carr i our ow times ma color ad distortour perceptios of what lies eight hudred ears ad more behid us.

I. THE WAxInG OF AUTHORITy

A eamiatio of auctoritas that is at oce philological ad comparat-ist ca shed light o the log twelfth cetur ad perhaps also eve othe preset da. Etmologicall, authorit is ver much a Lati cocepti origi. Dio Cassius (ca. 155–235), writig his Roman History i Greek,commets that auctoritas caot be traslated ito Greek b a sigle word.5 Although Dio Cassius ma ot be saig that the Lati word is utraslat-able ito Greek, he at least ackowledges that the Romas have a wordthat subsumes a spa of meaigs ot captured i a idividual Greek

equivalet, ad he ma hit that the eistece of a word with such a se-matic rage ma speak to a uiquel Lati qualit about it.6

4. Albert Russell Ascoli, “‘nemiem ate os’: Historicit ad Authorit i the De vulgarieloquentia,” Annali d’Italianistica, 8 (1990), 186–87. 5. Dio, Roman History, 55.3.5, ed. ad tras. Earest Car, 9 vols. (Cambridge, MA: HarvardUiv. Press, 1968), VI, 386 (Greek) ad 387 (Eglish): “their [the seators’] actio was what

was termed auctoritas, the purpose of which was to make kow their will. For such is thegeeral force of this word; to traslate it ito Greek b a term that will alwas be applicableis impossible.”

6. Pace Giorgio Agambe, State of Exception, tras. Kevi Attell (Chicago: Uiv. of ChicagoPress, 2005), p. 75: “What Dio has i mid, therefore, is ot somethig like a Roma speci-cit of the term but the difcult of leadig it back to a sigle meaig.” For the fulleststud of Dio Cassius’s thoughts o the word auctoritas, see Marie-Laure Freburger-Gallad,

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Most of the prestige ad ma of the debates surroudig authorsad authorit date from the Middle Ages, particularl the log twelfthcetur. Or, to state the case differetl, a costituet feature of medieval

civilizatio seems to have bee recourse to auctoritas. Ideed, it is etirelreasoable to describe medieval culture as beig a “culture of authorit.”7 But cautio is i order whe dealig with cultures as remote from ourow as the Middle Ages. Rather tha beig a cultural moolith, medievalauctoritas is a vast edice that was costructed ear b ear, cetur b ce-tur, b the cooperatio ad iteractio of tets ad readers. Like maRomaesque ad Gothic cathedrals, its basic structure remaied fairlcostat for log stretches of time, but its e poits were redesiged tomeet ew demads from ew users. All was work i progress. Cosequetl

the apt phrase “culture of authorit” becomes eve apter whe made aplural. The dearth of uiformit (which could be costrued as a triumph ofmultiplicit) is particularl evidet agaist the backdrop of differecesbetwee prited books ad mauscripts. The authorit of a tet which isreproduced i hudreds or thousads of copies stads apart from mau-scripts, where each redactio is uique.8 Although the trasitio has takeceturies, pritig has evetuated i otios of itellectual propert,copright, authorship, ad hece authorit which differ emphaticall

from those i the mauscript culture. That culture rested upo tets, rstad foremost Scripture ad liturg but also caoical tets draw fromboth aciet ad medieval literature. Those fudametal tets had tobe trasmitted i readable form ad had to be authetic, which is to sa,sufcietl i agreemet with a stadard or orm so as to carr authorit.9 Ad so, paradoicall, the absece of a moolithic “authorit” ad thedesire for, ad eve isistece upo, authorit wet had i had. If a of m observatios o these topics do tur out to have author-it, it will be owig to the sigicace of authorit i the ceturies we

“Dio Cassius et l’étmologie: auctoritas et Augustus,” Revue des études grecques, 105 (1992),237–46. 7. Albert Russell Ascoli, “Authorit,” i The Dante Encyclopedia, ed. Richard Lasig (new

york: Garlad, 2000), p. 73. 8. Beradette A. Masters, “The Distributio, Destructio ad Dislocatio of Authorit iMedieval Literature ad Its Moder Derivatives,” Romanic Review, 82 (1991), 270: “no oedeies ultimatel that MS redactios are alwas uique, but the implicatios of the edemicsuppleess of medieval literar traditios for a appreciatio of how authorit for tets wasdistributed i the Middle Ages ted ot to be eplored.” 9. Pierre Riché, “ Divina Pagina, ratio, et auctoritas das la théologie caroligiee,” i

Nascita dell’Europa ed Europa carolingia: Un’equazione da verificare, 2 vols., Settimae di studiodel Cetro italiao di studi sull’alto medioevo,27 (Spoleto: Presso la sede del Cetro, 1981),II, 720. This essa has bee reprited, with its origial page umberig, i Pierre Riché,

Education et culture dans l’Occident médiéval (Aldershot: Variorum, 1993).

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medievalists happe to stud. That importace relates more tha a littleto the promiece of authorit i Wester Christia culture, which helpsto eplai wh authority is ot a headword i the Oxford Classical Diction-

ary but is oe i the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.10 But let uslook at thigs sstematicall, sice the saliece of authorit i Lati cabe documeted readil b trackig the histor of it ad its derivatives. Ithis histor four traits warrat special attetio:11 rst, augeo is cogate with ‘to wa’ (‘wa poetic’); secod, aug- deotes ‘vegetal growth i adiviized ature’: augustus derives ultimatel from *augus, a b-form ofaugur ; third, aug- + -tor becomes auctor; ad fourth, auctor + -tas becomesauctoritas. Each of these four features merits eplaatio. The stor begis with

the verb augeo. The Lati is cogate with the Eglish verbs “to eke” ad “to wa,” as i the waig ad waig of the moo or, b oe of those coi-cideces that makes laguage so fasciatig, the idiom “waig poetic.”12 The vegetal implicatios of the root aug- eplai its possible coectio with the augur, who obtais divie favor or icrease b iterpretig sacredsigs. What has bee marked b such augmetatio qualies as beig au- gust ad is closel related to auxilium (‘aid, resource, reiforcemet’).13

From augeo derives the ou auctor, from which i tur umerous wordshave bee geerated, of which the foremost is auctoritas. Auctoritas is e-

ceptioal morphologicall i two was. First, it has the suf -tas attachedto a ou rather tha a adjective. Secod, withi this small group, it issui geeris i beig based o a ou of aget that eds i -tor.14 Beod word-formatio, auctoritas is uusual i oscillatig i its meaigs betweethe abstract ad the cocrete, betwee a qualit that empowers deed ada deed itself.15 As a derivative of a derivative, the word might ecourage

10. See The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. F. L. Cross, 3d ed., ed. E. A. Livig-stoe (Oford: Oford Uiv. Press, 2005), pp. 135–36, ad The Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed.

Simo Horblower ad Ato Spawforth, 3d ed. (Oford: Oford Uiv. Press, 2003). 11. See Émile Beveiste, Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes, 2 vols. (Paris: LesÉditios de miuit, 1969), II, 148–51; tras. Elizabeth Palmer, Indo-European Language andSociety (Lodo: Faber ad Faber, 1973), pp. 420–23; Alfred Erout ad Atoie Meillet, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine. Histoire des mots, 4th ed. (Paris: Klicksieck, 2001),pp. 56–58; ad Alois Walde, Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3d ed., ed. J. B. Hofma,3 vols. (Heidelberg: C. Witer,1938–1955), I, 80, 82–83. 12. See The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, ed. C. T. Oios (Oford: ClaredoPress, 1985), p. 995. 13. See Georges Dumézil, “Remarques sur ‘augur, augustus,’” Revue des Etudes Latines, 35 (1958), 126–51. 14. Richard Heize, “Auctoritas,” Hermes, 60 (1925), 348–66, reprited i Richard Heize,

Vom Geist des Römertums: Ausgewählte Aufsätze, ed. Erich Burck, 3d ed. (Darmstadt: Wisse-schaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1960), p. 44. 15. Jea Collart, “A propos du mot ‘auctoritas,’” Helikon: Rivista di tradizione e cultura classica, 1 (1961), 216.

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the iferece that it is ot as old or well-established as auctor itself. Such aimpressio would be misleadig, sice auctoritas has its ow ver log li-eage, beig attested alread (as is auctor ) i the earliest Lati law code, the

so-called Lex duodecim tabularum (Law of the Twelve Tables). The composi-tio of these laws is covetioall dated 451–450 BCE, their raticatio449 BCE.16

I the classical Lati usage of both auctor ad auctoritas, juridical adpolitical seses occupied ceter stage. The auctor stood as guarator ofa truth that he aouced or a right that he held or trasferred, whileauctoritas represeted the guaratee itself or the credibilit of such a witess. For istace, i commo law a seller was a auctor with regardto a buer. More broadl, “a auctor i commo law was a perso who

trasferred to aother perso, subject to liabilit of some sort, a rightfor which he could vouch.”17 Evetuall the term auctorabilis (‘capableof guarateeig’) came ito eistece, to characterize the auctor. I atiquit auctoritas was ofte paired with other words, such as potestas.18 I Roma law, auctoritas had stature as a validatig force i publicad private alike. I the public sphere auctoritas beloged to the Seate,as opposed to potestas ad imperium, which were held b the magistratesad people. I the private domai auctoritas beloged to the pater famil- ias, who could legitimate certai bods ad statuses. Giorgio Agambe

(1942–), a Italia philosopher, has traced i a provocativel eruditead polemical book a lie that leads back i Wester societies to acietRoma coceptios of auctoritas.19 This auctoritas, i cotradistictio to potestas, has bee elisted to permit the “state of eceptio” which allowsfor fascist leadership, ideitel suspeds law, ad elides the boudarbetwee the private ad the public. The pairig of auctoritas ad potestas remaied curret i the Middle Ages, but the valeces attached to the words shifted cosiderabl. Auc- toritas was applied more ofte to the church, potestas to the civic pow-

ers.20 Sice ecclesiastic authorit rested ultimatel o God through the

16. See Table 3.7 “adversus hostem aetera auctoritas ” (Agaist strager, title ofowership shall hold good for ever), i E. H. Warmigto, ed. ad tras., Remains of OldLatin, 4 vols., Loeb Classical Librar (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uiv. Press, 1956–1961),III, 440–41. Compare Table 6.3, “Usus auctoritas fudi bieium est . . . ceterarum rerumomium . . . auus est usus” (The lapse of time i order to establish title to possessio adejomet lasts oe ear ol [i order to establish the right]), III, 460–61. 17. Marie-Domiique Cheu, Toward Understanding St. Thomas, tras. A.-M. Ladr adD. Hughes (Chicago: Her Reger, 1964), p. 130. 18. O the relatioship betwee the two, see Jesús Fueo, “Die Idee der ‘auctoritas’:

Geesis ud Etwicklug,” i Epirrhosis. Festgabe für Carl Schmitt, ed. Has Bario et al., 2 vols. (Berli: Ducker & Humblot, 1968), I, 213–35. 19. Agambe, State of Exception, pp. 74–88. 20. See especiall Robert L. Beso, “The Gelasia Doctrie: Uses ad Trasformatios,”



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medium of Scripture, this cotrast was also implicitl oe betwee thepowers of the pe o the oe had ad the sword o the other. I theed the juridical ad political seses of the Lati still uderlie the most

widespread meaigs of authorit toda, as whe we speak of eecutiveauthorit, local authorities, health authorities, postal authorities, ad theproper authorities.21

Juridical ad political uses cotiued to be kow ad applied i Latithroughout the Middle Ages, but the applicatio of auctoritas i both clas-sical ad Medieval Lati eteded to ecompass rhetorical ad literardimesios.22 Thus auctores ca be deed as ‘writers who brig icreasethrough authorit,’ ‘writers who are masters or authorities,’ ad ‘poets’;auctoritas as ‘impressiveess of stle’ or ‘ormative literar usage,’ ‘people

of authorit,’ ad ‘etracts from tets that cofer authorit.’ The juridi-cal ad political itersect with the rhetorical ad literar i auctoritas, thequalit b which the perso who guarateed a truth was deemed worth ofdoig so. From this usage developed the practice of emploig auctoritas tosigif rst the auctores themselves ad the the phsical epressio of theirguaratees, which i the case of writig could be a documet or tet.23

I referece to literature, a auctor became i oe sese ‘a writer whois regarded as a master of his subject or as providig reliable evidece, aauthorit.’ The author brigs icrease or augmets through his author-

it. A ice demostratio of this applicatio is foud i Cicero’s phrase“igeiosus poeta et auctor valde bous” (a poet of geius ad a ver reli-able authorit).24 Cicero was particularl presciet i his usage here, sice

i La notion d’autorité au Moyen Age: Islam, Byzance, Occident: Colloques internationaux de LaNapoule, session des 23–26 octobre 1978, ed. George Makdisi, Domiique Sourdel, ad Ja-ie Sourdel-Thomie (Paris: Presses uiversitaires de Frace, 1982), pp. 13–44. Besofollows the doctrie of a distictio betwee auctoritas ad potestas that was epressed bPope Gelasius I (492–496) ad that held swa ito the twelfth cetur. For a stud of the

relatioship betwee the two cocepts at the ed of the Middle Ages, see James Muldoo,“Auctoritas, potestas ad World Order,” i Plenitude of Power: The Doctrines and Exercise of Authorityin the Middle Ages. Essays in Memory of Robert Louis Benson, ed. Robert C. Figueira (Aldershot:

Ashgate, 2006), pp. 125–39. 21. A succict accout of the evolutio of auctoritas i its political seses from Romatimes o is Fueo, “Die Idee der ‘auctoritas.’” A more recet attempt alog similar lies hasbee made b Rafael Domigo, Auctoritas (Barceloa: Editorial Ariel, 1999). 22. For a epositio of the pricipal sigicatios that auctoritas had i classical Lati,see nikolaus Härig, “Auctoritas i der soziale ud itellektuelle Struktur des zwölfte

Jahrhuderts,” i Soziale Ordnungen im Selbstverständnis des Mittelalters, ed. Albert Zimmer-ma ad Gudru Vuillemi-Diem,2 vols., Miscellaea Mediaevalia: Veröffetlichuge desThomas-Istituts der Uiversität zu Köl, 12/2 (Berli ad new york: Walter De Gruter,

1980), II, 517. 23. Cheu, Toward Understanding, p. 130 24. Cicero, Pro Murena 30, ed. ad tras. C. MacDoald, Loeb Classical Librar, Cicero , x(Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uiv. Press, 1977), pp. 224–25.

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auctor graduall acquired a special meaig as ‘poet.’25 He also provideda ecellet attestatio of auctoritas i a related sese, to sigif the impres-siveess or authorit of words or stle: “Commemoratio autem atiquitatis

eemplorumque prolatio summa cum delectatioe et auctoritatem oratioiaffert et dem” (Moreover, the metio of atiquit ad the citatio ofeamples give the speech authorit ad credibilit as well as affordig thehighest pleasure to the audiece).26 This quotatio ot ol liks auctoritas with atiquit but also places it squarel i a rhetorical framework ofmemor, eemplum, ad speech, just where the word’s ceter of gravitla throughout the Middle Ages. The most frequetl cited authors are subsumed uder the geeralrubric of auctoritates. To be uderstood b this equivalece is the credit

accorded to authors, whether it is a matter of the people themselves orthe tets of their works. I the itese tetualit of the medieval period,auctoritates made a trasitio from beig pricipall the people of author-it to beig the tets themselves, or etracts from the tets themselves,that cofer authorit. It has bee observed pertietl that: “The twoterms are related i a almost circular wa: a auctor was the creator of abook worth readig, ad a auctoritas was a book worth readig, writteb a auctor.”27

The avowed goal of aciet ad medieval grammar was verball correct

speech ad writig, while that of rhetoric was persuasive speech ad writ-ig. The sources of such correct ad persuasive speech ad writig wereot alwas see to be the same, but authorit was alwas oe of them. Foristace, Varro (116–27 BCE) regarded good Latiit as origiatig fromfour sources, of which auctoritas was the most recet: natura ‘atural mea-ig of words,’ analogia ‘similarit i iectios ad derivatives,’ consuetudo ‘ormal usage i speech,’ ad auctoritas ‘authorit.’28 To Varro, authoritafforded the most trustworth recourse whe o support was forthcomig

25. See Marie-Domiique Cheu, “Authetica et magistralia,” Divus Thomas, 28 (1925),257–85, as reprited i La théologie au douzième siècle, Etudes de philosophie médiévale, 45 (Paris: J. Vri, 1957), p. 352. This chapter was ot icluded i the Eglish traslatio asNature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century: Essays on New Theological Perspectives in the LatinWest, ed. ad tras. Jerome Talor ad Lester K. Little (Chicago: Uiv. of Chicago Press,1968). 26. Cicero, Orator 34.120, ed. ad tras. H. M. Hubbell, Loeb Classical Librar, Cicero , V(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uiv. Press, 1962), pp. 394–95. 27. Marike Teeuwe, The Vocabulary of Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages, Etudes sur le

vocabulaire itellectuel du Moe Age, 10 (Turhout: Brepols, 2003), p. 222. 28. As quoted b Diomedes (late fourth- or earl fth-cetur), Ars Grammatica 2 “Delatiitate,” ed. Heirich Keil, Grammatici Latini, 7 vols. (Leipzig, 1855–80; repr. Hildesheim:

Georg Olms, 1961), I, 439, lies 15–17 ad 25–26. Cited b Isidore de Varee, “Conve- nationes, I: auctoritas,” Bulletin du Cange: Archivum Latinitatis Medii Ævi, 34 (1964), 105,ad discussed b Jea Collart, “Aalogie et aomalie,” i Entretiens sur l’antiquité classique, 9 (Vadœuvres, Geeva: Fodatio Hardt, 1963), pp. 125–26.



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from aalog ad custom.29 The Varroia schema resouded i istruc-tio i the verbal arts for ma ceturies to come, especiall as i the earlMiddle Ages grammar absorbed much of the attetio to laguage that

had beloged to rhetoric i Roma atiquit.30 I the so-called modes ofgrammar, auctoritas cotiues to be set agaist natura, analogia (uderstoodto be the mechaical applicatio of a rule), ad consuetudo (depedet othe whim of speakers), but it is also sometimes cotrasted to ratio.31

Oe parado is that such modes furished a basis ot ol for stabiliz-ig the foudatioal rules of grammar but also for destabilizig them b violatio. For istace, a aomous teth-cetur mauscript trasmitsthe questio ad respose: “Quae sut quae fragut regulas grammati-corum? Tria, carme poetarum, auctoritas Scripturae, cosuetudo stulto-

rum” (What factors break the rules of grammarias? Three: the sog ofpoets, the authorit of Scripture, ad the usage of the iept).32 Aotherremarkable developmet is that b trasferece this basis for determia-tio of proper laguage was pressed ito service i establishig maother tpes of orms. Thus Peter Abelard, whe accedig to Heloise’srequest that he formulate a moastic rule for her ad the other womeof the Paraclete, reveals that he has draw up oe o foudatios like themodes cited so ofte b the grammarias.33 Similarl, Idug of Prüfeig, writig aroud 1144–1145, ivokes the same modes i framig a respose

to a iquir about whether us eed to be coed more strictl tothe cloister tha moks.34

29. See Varro o auctoritas ad exemplum, as quoted b Diomedes, i Grammaticae Romanae fragmenta, ed. Hgius (Gio) Fuaioli (Leipzig: B. G. Teuber, 1907), p. 289, fragmet268: “amque ubi omia defecerit, sic ad illam quem ad modum ad acoram decurritur”(for whe all other elemets have failed, oe turs to it as to a achor [which is to sa, asto a lifesaver]): compare pp. 192 ad 291, fragmets 12 ad 269. 30. Compare the late fourth-cetur grammaria Flavius Sosipater Charisius, Artis grammaticae libri V, Book 1.15, ed. Karl Barwick (Leipzig: B. G. Teuber,1925), p. 62, lies 14–15:“costat ergo Latius sermo atura aalogia cosuetudie auctoritate,” ad the fourth- or

fth-cetur rhetoricia Chirius (also desigated as Cosultus) Fortuatiaus, Ars rhetorica 440, ed. Lucia Calboli Motefusco, Edizioi e saggi uiversitari di lologia classica, 24 (Bologa: Pàtro, 1979). 31. For eample, see Augustie (354–430), Ars breviata, ed. Keil, Grammatici Latini, V,494, lies 3–7; Marius Victorius (mid fourth cetur CE), Ars grammatica, ed. Keil, Gram- matici Latini, VI, 189, lies 3–7; Alcui (ca. 730–804), Ars grammatica, i PL 101, 857D; adErchabert of Freisig, Tractatus super Donatum (rst half of ith cetur), ed. Wedell

Vero Clause, Ph.D. diss., Uiv. of Chicago (Chicago, 1948), p. 3. 32. Charles Thurot, Notices et extraits de divers manuscrits latins pour servir à l’histoire desdoctrines grammaticales au moyen âge, notices et etraits des mauscrits de la Bibliothèqueimpériale et autres bibliothèques, 22/2 (Paris: L’istitut impérial de Frace, 1869), p.523.

33. Peter Abelard, Letter 8 to Heloise, ed. T. P. McLaughli, “Abelard’s Rule for Religious Wome,” Mediaeval Studies, 18 (1956), 242; The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, tras. BettRadice, rev. Michael T. Clach (Lodo: Pegui Books, 2003), p. 130. 34. Argumentum super quatuor questionibus 7, ed. Robert B. C. Huges, “Le moie Iduget ses deu ouvrages,” Studi medievali, 3d series, 13 (1972), 359; An Argument on Four Ques-

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I our terms, auctoritas i its stock grammatical ad rhetorical sese mightbe deed as ‘ormative literar usage’ attested i recogized writers.35 Ithe Middle Ages these caoical authors came graduall to be, rst ad

foremost, poets.36 O the basis of this iitial usage developed the furthercoceptios of auctoritas as both a saig of great importace ad a modelor orm.37 Authorit evolved ito the qualit that stamps a idividual, aperformace, or a tet as authoritative. Authorit arises from the eample(exemplum ) purveed b a illustrious writer. Or, to epress the relatioshipslightl differetl, the composer of a ew tet (or other work of art) ratiesit b modelig it upo a earlier oe.38 Accordigl, auctoritas ad exemplum become closel related, as ca be detected still i the rough equivalece ofthe epressios “imitate a eample” ad “follow a authorit.”39

I the Middle Ages auctor was thought to owe somethig ot ol toaugere but also to other Lati ad Greek words that would ever be groupedi a etmological dictioar toda. Hugutio of Pisa (d. 1210), i a ec-clopedia of word origis composed i the earl thirteeth cetur, adducesthree differet origis for auctor ad auctoritas. First, ad most cosoatl with preset-da etmologizig, he traces the political seses of these wordsto the verb augere, sice emperors have as their task to epad the state.Thus a auctor is trul a augmentator. Hugutio the derives a itellectual sese of autor ad autoritas —both

of which he spells o purpose without a c—from the Greek authentes.40 Like ma other Latiists of the Middle Ages, he assumes that the famil

tions, tras. Joseph Leahe, i Cistercians and Cluniacs, tras. Jeremiah F. O’Sulliva, JosephLeahe, ad Grace Perrigo, Cistercia Fathers Series,33 (Kalamazoo: Cistercia Publicatios,1977), p. 173: “Reaso, authorit, precedets, the veilig of the head, the cosecratio, thebetrothal itself . . .” 35. Heirich Lausberg, Handbook of Literary Rhetoric: A Foundation for Literary Study, tras.b Matthew T. Bliss, Aemiek Jase, ad David E. Orto, ed. David E. Orto ad R. Dea

Aderso (Leide: Brill, 1998), p. 611, auctoritas II, C.

36. O auctor i referece to poets, see Otto Priz, Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zumausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (Muich: Beck, 1967–), colum 1168, lies 34–39. Futurerefereces will also be to colum ad lies. 37. For the rst, see Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch, 1180, 62–1181, 29; for the secod, 1181,30–46. 38. For a eploratio of the authorit of models i literature, music, ad art, see ThomasCramer, “Die Autorität des Musters: Mittelalterliche Literatur als Variatioskust ud dieFolge für ihre Ästhetik,” i The Construction of Textual Authority in German Literature of theMedieval and Early Modern Periods, ed. James F. Poag ad Claire Baldwi, Uiversit of northCarolia Studies i the Germaic Laguages ad Literatures, 123 (Chapel Hill: Uiv. ofnorth Carolia Press, 2001), pp. 9–30. 39. Collart, “A propos du mot ‘auctoritas,’” p. 216.

40. Although the Greek verb authenteo ad several of its derivatives are most aturalltraslated b words such as authorit, authoritative, ad authetic, the ou authentes hasthe primar meaig of “murderer” ad deotes “author” mail i the sese of “author(e.g., of a crime), perpetrator, doer.” See A Greek-English Lexicon, ed. Her George Liddellad Robert Scott, rev. Her Stuart Joes (Oford: Claredo Press, 1968), p. 275.



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of words associated with author ad the oe coected with authentic areidetical: “homo auteticus vel autorizabilis, idest autoritatis cui credideberet” (oe ‘havig authorit’ or ‘made authoritative,’ that is, ‘of au-

thorit,’ to whom credece should be give).41 To take a cosiderablearlier eample, Haimo of Auerre (d. ca. 860) draws the same equatio, whe he refers to “Libris authenticis, id est auctoritate pleis” (I autheticbooks, which is to sa, full of authorit).42 The cla of author ad autheticgrows eve larger whe we realize that authenticus was sometimes writteas or coated with the forms enthenticus ad entheticus.43

The paramout represetatives of the seve liberal arts were held tobe auctores, from Priscia at the most elemetar level of grammar (adgrammar school) through Plato as well as Aristotle for dialectic, logic, ad

metaphsics i higher educatio.44 The themselves could be regarded asauthentici, the essetial compoet of which i itself implied their statusas masters edowed with authorit.45 Accordigl, their utteraces wereat oce authoritative ad authetic.46 I this wa it became possible torefer to the authorit of a give author as shorthad for the authorit ofa tet b the author i questio.47 Hugutio’s al etmolog of auctor withthe spellig of autor is meat to clarif wh the word served to describe

41. Uguccioe da Pisa, Derivationes, A 1.1–18, ed. E. Cecchii, 2 vols., Edizioe azio-

ale dei testi mediolatii 11, Serie 1: 6, (Tavaruzze [Florece]: SISMEL edizioi del Gal-luzzo, 2004), I, 5–7. See also Michel Huglo, “Grudlage ud Asätze der mittelalterlicheMusiktheorie vo der Spätatike bis zur Ottoische Zeit,” i Die Lehre vom einstimmigenliturgischen Gesang, ed. Michel Huglo et al., Geschichte der Musiktheorie,4 (Darmstadt: Wis-seschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2000), p. 68, who quotes a gloss “autheticus = auctoritassive testametum.” 42. Commentarius in Genesim, i PL 131, 53B. The last part of this formulatio belogs to atraditio that goes back to glosses of the Greek. See Thesaurus Linguae Latinae 2.1598.44–45 “auteticum: auctoritate pleum.” 43. Alba Dold, “‘Etheticus-autheticus.’ Ei Termius im St. Galler Palimpsest 908 ud seie Stellug i der Liturgiegeschichte,”Münchener Theologische Zeitschrift, 11 (1960),262–66, ad Huglo, “Grudlage ud Asätze,” pp. 67–69.

44. Uguccioe, Derivationes, A 1.2, ed. Cecchii, I, 5, ad Cheu, Toward Understanding, p. 128. 45. Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch, 1282, 20–24. 46. This circumstace makes especiall apt efforts to traslate words with the authent- root

with words such as “authoritative,” “authorit,” ad “authorized”: see Dictionary of MedievalLatin from British Sources, fascicule 1 “A-B,” ed. R. E. Latham (Lodo: Published for theBritish Academ b Oford Uiv. Press, 1975), p. 166, s. vv. authenticare “to autheticate,stamp as geuie or authoritative”;authentice “autheticall, authoritativel”; ad authenticus “authetic or authoritative, approved b authorit, authorized, havig authorit.”Authenticus ad authenticum are both borrowigs from Greek alread attested i Classical Lati, referrigto origial documets: see Oxford Latin Dictionary, ed. P. G. W. Glare (Oford: ClaredoPress, 1968–1982), p. 220. I Medieval Lati, authetic was somous with approbatus,

while its atoms were words that coveed the sese of “apocrphal”: see Gueée, “‘Au-thetique et approuvé,’” p. 219. 47. R. P. Marti Hubert, “Auctoritas,” Bulletin du Cange: Archivum Latinitatis Medii Ævi, 34 (1964), 116–122.

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aother revered set of school authors, amel, the poets. He relates thisdeotatio of autor to the verb avieo ‘to bid,’ sice poets such as Virgilad Luca bid poems together b usig metrical feet.

To complete his hadlig of auctor as autor, Hugutio derives autoritas i tur from autor ad dees it as “setetia diga imitatioe” (a shortstatemet worth of imitatio). B sententia he has i mid wordigs,culled from tets composed b autores, that deserve to be repeated, tobe ivoked as precedets, ad, last but ot least, to be made guidigpriciples i life. The Lati sententia leads logicall to both the Eglish“setece” ad “setetious.” The foremost avatar of such setece-legth‘opiios’ would be the Liber sententiarum (Book of Seteces) of PeterLombard (ca. 1095–1160), a distiguished cotributio of the twelfth-

cetur school traditio. Eve if a accout of auctor ’s rage i Medieval Lati were limited toits tripartite etmolog (from augere, authentes, ad aviere ), the word couldboast of a richl tagled histor. We have alread disclosed how prosper-ous a afterlife the derivative auctoritas achieved. But the ramicatio ofthe leical famil does ot stop there. Medieval Lati eteded the solidbut still modest iheritace of these two words through ew formatiossuch as auctoritativus (ad the associated adverb auctoritative ), auctorizabilis,auctorizabiliter, auctorizare, ad auctorizatio.48 Thik of the icogruit whe

et waitig for a bak trasfer or credit-card pamet to be authorized:the uderlig cocept is medieval.49

The complicatios multipl whe we realize that auctor, despite or be-cause of the wild vagaries see i medieval orthograph, was widel heldto be liked with two other words. Evrard of Béthue (d. 1212), i his verse grammar maual etitled the Graecismus, preseted a troika of auctor,actor, ad autor: “Auctor ab augedo ome trahit, ast ab agedo / Actor,ab autetim, quod Graecum est, ascitur autor” (auctor derives its amefrom augendo, but actor from agendo; from autentim, which is Greek, comes

autor ).50 We ca see the stage set for the itimac betwee auctor ad actor whe the two words are jutaposed i Isidore’s Etymologies: “Auctor abaugedo dictus. . . . Actor, ab agedo” (Auctor is so called from augendo.

48. Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, fasc. 1, p. 158. 49. Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch, 1182, 50–67, for auctoritativus. 50. Graecismus 9.107–108, ed. Johaes Wrobel, Corpus grammaticorum medii aevi, 1 (Vratislaviae: i aedibus G. Koeberi, 1887), p. 60. The classic citatio ad aalsis of thethreesome remais Marie-Domiique Cheu, “Auctor, actor, autor,”Bulletin du Cange: Archi- vum Latinitatis Medii Ævi, 3 (1927), 81–86. For a updatig, see Ja-Dirk Müller, “Auctor—

Actor—Author. Eiige Amerkuge zum Verstädis vom Autor i lateiische Schriftedes frühe ud hohe Mittelalters,” i Der Autor im Dialog: Beiträge zu Autorität und Autorschaft,ed. Feli Philipp Igold ad Werer Wuderlich (St. Gall: UVK, Fachverlag für Wisseschaftud Studium GmbH, 1995), pp. 17–31.



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. . . Actor is derived from agendo ).51 Medieval commetators make eplicitthat the two agets ca overlap i their activities. The foremost differeceis that a auctor vouched for the truth of the tet he or she produced,

whereas a actor made a object but did ot led it a special dimesioof truthfuless. From Roma times the auctor had bee tied up with truth, but majorchages i the coceptio of this bod took place i the sematic eldof the word whe the Christia uderstadig of God as “author” be-came a factor. I the Middle Ages auctoritas referred to the truth valueor power attributed to both tets ad ofcials. I the secular sphere, theemperor held utmost authorit. I the ecclesiastic ambit, the pope waspreemiet.52 I both cases the ultimate guarator of authorit was God,

supreme witess to supreme truth, possessor ad icreaser of all power,author of creatio ad ultimatel author of the Bible: Date (1265–1321)refers to him as “verace autore” i Paradiso 26.40. God’s surpassig authorit eplais wh from a Christia perspectivethe Gospels outstripped all other writigs i their authoritativeess—theirsimultaeous veritas ad veracit: “Iter omes divias auctoritates, quaesactis litteris cotietur, evagelium merito ecellit” (Amog all theauthoritative statemets of God, which are cotaied i Hol Scripture,the Gospel is deservedl preemiet).53 For this reaso, Hol Scripture

took precedece over all other tets as well as over all other realms ofhuma kowledge.54 Thus Smaragdus of St. Mihiel (d. ca. 830) was oloe amog ma, ragig from Pope Gregor the Great (590–604), whoispired him, ad his ear cotemporar Gottschalk of Orbais (806/8–866/70), through Peter Damia (1007–1072) to Abbot Araud of Bo-eval (d. ca. 1156), to declare that the would ot be costraied b thedictates of the grammarias Doatus (mid fourth cetur) or Priscia(ca. 500), but rather b the Lati of the Vulgate Bible: “. . . Doatum osequimur, quia fortiorem i diviis Scripturis auctoritatem teemus” (We

do ot follow Doatus, because we hold there to be a stroger authoriti Hol Scripture).55 The Gospels came close to beig direct trascriptiosof what the divie auctor himself willed. It is their truth that carries the

51. Etymologiae 10.2, ed. W. M. Lidsa, 2 vols. (Oford: Claredo Press, 1911). 52. Ascoli, “Authorit,” p. 73. 53. Augustie, De consensu evangelistarum libri IV 1.1.1, ed. Fraz Weihrich, Corpus ScriptorumEcclesiasticorum Latiorum [CSEL] 43/3–4 (Viea: F. Tempsk, 1907), p. 1, lie 6. 54. Miis, Medieval Theory of Authorship, pp. 33–39. 55. Ed. Thurot, Notices et extraits, p.81 (ad compare p. 69, . 2). See Jea Jolivet, Godescalc

d’Orbais et la Trinité. La méthode de la théologie à l’époque carolingienne, Etudes de philosophiemédiévale, 47 (Paris: J. Vri, 1958), pp. 23–29, ad Ja M. Ziolkowski, Alan of Lille’s Grammarof Sex: The Meaning of Grammar to a Twelfth-Century Intellectual, Speculum Aiversar Moo-graphs, 10 (Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academ of America, 1985), pp. 115–116, . 19.

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weight of authorit, ad that authorit is fertile: “Fecuda est eim veritatisauctoritas” (Abudat is ideed the authorit of the truth).56 Agaist theGospels—agaist their Gospel truth—all other thikig, speakig, ad

writig were measured. Because of this particular coectio with truth,the most reveretl esteemed authors, amel, those who were eshried ithe cao of school authors, were sometimes desigated as autores (spelledo purpose without the c), a term see as ecapsulatig orthographicallad etmologicall the qualit of autheticit. I the twelfth cetur the glamor of the auctores (ad the word glamor itself derives, b wa of Aglo-norma Frech ad Middle Scots, fromthe Lati grammatica ) reached such heights of prestige that a ew term was coied to characterize those who attaied epertise i the literature,

especiall the poetr, of the auctores ad who taught it.57 The auctorista was a specialist i grammar ad the eplicatio of the caoical authors. A locus classicus is Hugh of Trimberg (ca. 1230–1313), who (ot logafter qualifig himself as auctorista minimus ) ehorts a studet who ca-ot hope to become epert i all the liberal arts or eve i cao law:“saltem illud appetat, ut sit auctorista! sicque o iglorius erit latiista”(At least let him aspire to that, that he ma be a epert o the authors;ad thus he will be a distiguished Latiist).58

With all the stud came a heighteed awareess of ambiguities i the ver

authoritativeess of the auctores. nowhere is this ew isight more beauti-full evidet tha i the Lati rhthmic strophes kow as cum auctoritate (literall, “with authorit”).59 The auctoritas i questio is a setetiousquotatio from oe of the auctores (or the Bible) that caps the strophe,differig from it metricall but itegrated with it i rhme. The realiza-tio of ambiguit shows i the circumstace that the quotatios are oftedesiged to cut two was. The words ma led themselves to oe iterpre-tatio whe read for their most obvious meaig i their ew cotets, toaother whe scrutiized i the light of their origial oes. I effect, the

versus cum auctoritate ca be a kid of moophoic Sic et non.

56. Pseudo-Augustie, De assumptione beatae Mariae virginis liber unus, Chapter 1, i PL 40,1143. 57. See Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, p. 400. 58. Registrum 3 ad 45, i Das “Registrum multorum auctorum”: Untersuchungen und kom- mentierte Textausgabe, ed. Karl Lagosch, Germaische Studie, 235 (Berli, E. Eberig,1942), pp. 160–61. For further iformatio, see Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch, 1173, 57–64 (“auctorista”), ad Heirich Deie, Die Universitäten des Mittelalters bis 1400, I (Berli:

Weidma, 1885), p. 475, . 1039 (a quotatio from Pope Hoorius III i 1220, i whichhe uses auctorista to mea grammar teacher).

59. Paul Gerhard Schmidt, “The Quotatio i Goliardic Poetr: The Feast of Fools ad theGoliardic Strophe cum auctoritate,” i Latin Poetry and the Classical Tradition: Essays in Medievaland Renaissance Literature, ed. Peter Godma ad Osw Murra (Oford: Claredo Press,1990), pp. 39–55.



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II. AUTHORITy AnD AGE

Util this jucture m mai optic has bee the geeral etmological set-

tig i which auctor teded to be placed. I the remaider of the essa Ishall eumerate brie those oppositios ad appositios betwee auctor or auctoritas ad other words that poit to developmets especiall tpicalof the log twelfth cetur, which I have posited as a watershed betweeatiquit ad the earlier Middle Ages o the oe had ad the later Middle Ages ad earl moderit o the other. M suggestio is that the word adcocept of auctoritas, although importat from atiquit oward, took oheighteed sigicace whe a preemiet authorit was lackig or—totake a differet perspective—whe a multiplicit of competig authorities

held swa. The log twelfth cetur was such a cotet. I the Institutio oratoria Quitilia (ca. 35–100 CE) makes evidet thatthe ormative laguage with which the verbal arts were preoccupied isdetermied partl o the grouds of authorit: “Sermo costat ratioe vel vetustate, auctoritate, cosuetudie” (Laguage is based o reaso,atiquit, authorit, ad usage).60 This coceptio of laguage eercised aparticularl powerful iuece later, sice Boethius (ca. 480–524) devotesto a similar statemet i Cicero a commetar that trasmitted it to theMiddle Ages.61 I formulatig the passage Quitilia equates atiquit

with ratioal priciple rather tha with authorit. yet age, especiall ithe sese of atiquit, was also associated with authorit.62 Such terms asvetustas ‘atiquit,’ antiquus ‘old,’ ad maiores ‘acestors,’ which fulllapproimatel the same fuctios as did the Greek hoi palaioi (ot to becofused with hoi polloi ), appear so ofte i cojuctio with auctoritas i the rhetorical traditio as to make that traditio seem gerotocraticor palaeocratic. Perhaps ot coicidetall, the whole auctoritas sstem was aalogized tothe ages of ma: atiquit edows eamples with their authorit, just as age

bestows wisdom o huma beigs. I the words of Cicero, “Habet autemut i aetatibus auctoritatem seectus, sic i eemplis atiquitas” (Atiq-uit does carr authorit i the precedets it furishes, as old age does irespect of ears).63 The recogitio of the role that antiquitas or vetustas plaed i the establishmet of auctoritas acquired a added dimesio i

60. Quitilia, Institutio oratoria 1.6.1, ed. ad tras. H. E. Butler, Loeb Classical Librar,Quintilian, I (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uiv. Press, 1920), pp. 112–13. 61. In topica Ciceronis commentariorum libri sex, Book 5, i PL 64, 1167D. 62. Lausberg, Handbook of Literary Rhetoric, pp. 331 (“gurae auctoritate veterum recep-

tae”); 467 (“verba vetusta auctoritatem atiquitatis habet”); 479 (“vetus scriptorum vetu-stas”); ad 546 (“vetustatis auctoritas”). 63. Orator 50.169, ed. ad tras. H. M. Hubbell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uiv. Press,1939), pp. 446–47.

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a Christia cotet. Accordig to Augustie, faith takes precedece overreasoig i the acquisitio of belief i Christ.64 Faith ma develop as acosequece of authorit, which comes rst from Christ’s teachigs, the

from the Old Testamet, ad so o i a hierarch of sacred tets that wassubsequetl epaded to iclude secular tets as well. I the ceturiesthat succeeded Augustie, the supreme authorit came to reside i the patres ‘fathers,’ the most revered of earl eegetes who were regarded asthe iheritors of the apostles—ad amog whom was umbered Augus-tie himself.65 The auctoritas patrum costituted a tool for the cotrol ofiovatio, at the outset particularl i Biblical eegesis.66 Later it becamea cetral cocer amog caoists, such as Gratia, as the sought i themid twelfth cetur ad later to brig ito beig a ew jurisprudece to

replace the old cao law.67 Especiall from the twelfth cetur oward, writers of Lati took paisto differetiate betwee aciets ad a ew categor that the made theirow, moders.68 The famous metaphor of “We are dwarves stadig othe shoulder of giats,” with its miture of pride ad abjectio, requiredoppositios i ma elds of learig betwee past ad preset practi-

64. O Augustie’s outlook o the authorit of atiquit, see Zweder vo Martels, “The

Studia humanitatis ad the Studia divina: The Role of Ethics ad the Authorit of Atiquit,”iAntiquity Renewed: Late-Classical and Early-Modern Themes, ed. Zweder vo Martels ad Vic-tor M. Schmidt, Groige Studies i Cultural Chage, 4 (Leuve: Peeters, 2003), pp.200–5. 65. Berice M. Kacziski, “The Authorit of the Fathers: Patristic Tets i Earl MedievalLibraries ad Scriptoria,” Journal of Medieval Latin, 16 (2006), 1–27. 66. Edward M. Peters, “Trasgressig the Limits Set b the Fathers: Authorit ad Impi-ous Eegesis i Medieval Thought,” i Christendom and Its Discontents: Exclusion, Persecution,and Rebellion, 1000–1500, ed. Scott L. Waugh ad Peter D. Diehl (Cambridge: CambridgeUiv. Press, 1996), p. 347. The phrase log atedates Christia Biblical eegesis: patrumauctoritas is foud, for istace, i Cicero, De republica 2.30. 67. Stepha Kutter, “O ‘Auctoritas’ i the Writig of Medieval Caoists: the Vocabular

of Gratia,” i La notion d’autorité au Moyen Age, ed. Makdisi et al., pp. 69 ad 74–75. Lessclosel cocered with the specic term auctoritas tha with the cocepts of author adauthorities as the come ito pla i cao law is Gérard Giordaego, “Auctoritates et auctores das les collectios caoiques (1050–1140),” i Auctor et auctoritas: Invention et conformismedans l’écriture médiévale: Actes du colloque tenu à l’Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines,14–16 juin 1999, ed. Michel Zimmerma, Mémoires et documets de l’Ecole des chartes,59 (Paris: Ecole des chartes, 2001), pp. 99–129. 68. See Alessadro Ghisalberti, “I moderi,” i Lo Spazio letterario del medioevo. 1. Il Medioevolatino, ed. G. Cavallo, Claudio Leoardi, ad E. Meestò, vol. I “La Produzioe del testo”(Rome: Salero, 1992), pp. 605–31; E. Gössma, Antiqui und Moderni im Mittelalter: Einegeschichtliche Standortbestimmung, Mücheer Uiversitätsschrifte: Katholisch-TheologischeFakultät, Veröffetlichuge des Grabma-Istituts zur Erforschug der Mittelalterliche

Theologie ud Philosophie, .F.23 (Muich: F. Schöigh, 1974); ad Antiqui und Moderni:Traditionsbewusstsein und Fortschrittsbewusstsein im späten Mittelalter, ed. A. Zimmerma adG. Vuillemi-Diem, Miscellaea mediaevalia, 9 (Berli ad new york: Walter de Gruter,1974).



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tioers ad products.69 Thus auctor was sometimes applied to fathers ofthe church i poited cotrast to “ostri temporis theologi” (theologiasof our time).70

The readig of authoritative tets costituted the epiceter of medievalitellectual life. The twelfth cetur saw rapid evolutios i the hadligof those tets. I the actual phsical writig, chages occurred i puc-tuatio, page laout, ad other aspects of mauscript productio, maof them desiged to facilitate more efciet avigatio from oe part ofa tet to aother ad also from gloss ad commetar to the tet. Thesources of auctoritates quoted i commetaries had bee idetied imauscripts from the ith cetur, but the sstem was ow made moreprecise though red uderliig of lemmata ad ideticatio of auctores

i margial rubrics, with the further additio of dots or lies ad dotsthat fuctioed similarl to footote or edote umbers i moderscholarship.71 These alteratios i mauscript productio, though theoccurred less rapidl, were as mometous i their wa as the advet ofthe iteret has bee i our times. The ol big differece was that ithe twelfth cetur there were o Guillelmus Portae ad o MiimumMolle, that is, o Bill Gates ad o Microsoft. Developmets also took place i the compositio of tets. I the rsthalf of the eleveth cetur ad earlier the cao had still rested almost

eclusivel upo tets of atiquit ad late atiquit. Whe programs ofstud from the earlier Middle Ages, such as the Notatio de viris illustribus b notker Balbulus of St. Gall (ca. 840–912), had icorporated authorsfrom close to their time of compositio, the had doe so i Biblicaleegesis rather tha belles lettres.72 At a ideable poit afterward,the club of auctores was elarged beod the patres who iterpreted theBible as the cao broadeed to embrace the classics of secular litera-ture, especiall poetr. The, i the log twelfth cetur, a eve moreradical chage occurred, as the cao opeed to admit alogside tets

69. The image is ascribed to Berard of Chartres b Joh of Salisbur,Metalogicon 3.4. Thehistor of the image has bee described egagigl i Robert K. Merto, On the Shouldersof Giants: A Shandean Postscript (new york: Free Press, 1965). For a treatmet more eactlfocused o the twelfth cetur, see Édouard Jeaueau, “‘nai gigatum humeris isidetes’:Essai d’iterprétatio de Berard de Chartres,” Vivarium, 5 (1967), 79–99. 70. Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch, 1168, 31–34. 71. Malcolm B. Parkes, “The Iuece of the Cocepts of Ordinatio ad Compilatio o theDevelopmet of the Book,” i Medieval Learning and Literature. Essays Presented to R. W. Hunt, ed. J. J. G. Aleader ad Margaret T. Gibso (Oford: Claredo Press, 1976), pp. 115–41;repr. i Malcolm B. Parkes, Scribes, Scripts and Readers: Studies in the Communication, Presenta-

tion, and Dissemination of Medieval Texts (Lodo: Hambledo Press, 1991), pp. 36–37. 72. Erwi Rauer, “notker des Stammlers ‘notatio de illustribus viris,’” Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 21 (1986), 34–69. O this tet b notker, see Rosamod McKitterick, History andMemory in the Carolingian World (Cambridge: Cambridge Uiv. Press, 2004), pp. 221–23.

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from ma ceturies earlier to accommodate those from eve the mostrecet times.73 The roll call of auctores who were guarators of auctoritas legtheed to ecompass cotemporar Lati poets. If we ca sa toda

“The are the leadig authorities” i a give subject without hesitatigto put the verb i the preset tese, we are idebted to the log twelfthcetur i particular. Especiall i the secod half of the twelfth cetur, ew aspirats to thestatus of beig moder classics egaged i a acute rivalr with acietauthors. I the apt phrasig of Alastair J. Miis, “it would seem that theol good auctor was a dead oe.”74 I De nugis curialium Walter Map (ca.1140–1209) icludes the famousl misogamous Dissuasio Valerii ad Ruffinum philosophum ne uxorem ducat, which had earlier circulated pseudomousl.

He commets acerbicall upo the popularit the Dissuasio ejoed owigto its pseudo-atiquit, sice i his opiio it would ever have wo reowhad it bee published uder his ow ame, sice he was still alive. 75 yet Walter Map’s ostesible despair should ot blid us to the ew realitiesthat uderpi his complait, sice i earlier times it would have bee i-coceivable eve to rue the tra of past authors. Eve as Walter madehis observatio, poets who wished to write a bestseller had a chace to ghtfor a iche i the sllabus. For eample, tets such as the Alexandreis (after1171–b about 1181) b Walter of Châtillo (ca. 1135–ca. 1190), Anti-

claudianus (probabl after 1181) b Ala of Lille (ca. 1125/1130–1203),ad De bello Troiano (earl 1180s) b Joseph of Eeter became etrechedi the schools ad prompted the creatio of illustratios, commetaries,ad glosses.76

The ew authors maifested a kee awareess that the strogest assur-ace of success la precisel i makig their works suited for sstematic

73. O the cao, see Güter Glauche, Schullektüre im Mittelalter, Mücheer Beiträge zurMediävistik ud Reaissace Forschug, 5 (Muich: Arbeo-Gesellschaft, 1970), ad Birger

Muk Olse, I Classici nel canone scolastico altomedievale, Quaderi di cultura mediolatia, 1 (Spoleto: Cetro italiao di studi sull’alto Medioevo,1991). 74. Medieval Theory of Authorship: Scholastic Literary Attutudes in the Later Middle Ages (Lodo:Scolar Press, 1984), p. 12. 75. Walter Map, De nugis curialium. Courtiers’ Trifles, Dist. 4, chapt. 5, ed. ad tras. M. R.

James, rev. C. n. L. Brooke ad R. A. B. Mors (Oford: Oford Uiv. Press, 1983), pp.312–13. 76. Glosses o the Alexandreis have bee prited i Walter of Châtillo, Alexandreis, ed.Marvi L. Colker, Thesaurus Mudi, 17 (Padua: I aedibus Ateoreis, 1978), pp. 275–514.

A commetar o the De bello Troiano (Paris, Bibliothèque natioale, MS 15015, fols. 1r-11 v) was edited b Geoffre Bludell Riddehough, “The Tet of Joseph of Eeter’s BellumTroianum ” (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uiversit, Ph.D. diss., 1951). Fiall, rich iformatio

o the receptio of the Anticlaudianus ca be had i Christel Meier, “Die Rezeptio desAnticlaudianus Alas vo Lille i Tetkommetierug ud Illustratio,” i Text und Bild:Aspekte des Zusammenwirkens zweier Künste in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit , ed. Christel Meierad Uwe Ruberg (Wiesbade: L. Reichert, 1980), pp. 408–548.



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epositio i the schools of their das, ad so their poems are readil“commetatable.” I the earlier Middle Ages tets seem ofte to have beecomposed so as to ecessitate meditative or rumiative readig.77 Such a

emphasis ehaced the recurret favor of difcult stles (called obscure,hermeeutic, glossematic, ad so forth), i which writig was studded withrare ad obscure words.78 Rhetoric is the art of persuasio, ad i the logtwelfth cetur what authors ad readers regarded as persuasive appears tohave chaged. Ideed, the ature as well as the aim of persuasio chaged.I the process tets seem to have udergoe a shift, as the desired effect ofa compositio came to be ot rumiatio over leical difculties but ratheriterpretatio of cotets that required eplicatio. I stle the authorsof secular Lati tets that eared iches i the curricula of the twelfth

cetur strove sometimes for tetual authorit b classicizig, but b doigso without ackowledgig overt debts to particular classical models.79

To authorize ew tets, twelfth-cetur authors advace truth claimsthat ever more ofte rest o ivocatios of earlier authors whose amesca autheticate their ctios. Auctoritas was eeded ot ol for theo-logical opiios but also for stories ad compoets of stories. Thesetwelfth-cetur authors betra a greater willigess tha their predeces-sors to egage i deliberate msticatio b callig upo ctitious au-thors, tets, ad persoages.80 This alacrit reects the self-cosciousess

about ctioalit that itesied durig the same period.81 Eve whea author had o authorit, he could cojure up oe so as to dispel sus-picio. Thus Walter Map (ca. 1140–1210) ames a certai “Haibalor Meestrates.”82 Likewise, i the Historia regum Britannie Geoffre ofMomouth (ca. 1100–ca. 1155) metios “The Molmutie laws that thehistoria Gildas traslated from British ito Lati ad Kig Alfred fromLati ito Eglish.”83 nor were the sources ivoked alwas fabricated.

77. Rumiative readig is discussed beautifull i Jea Leclercq,The Love of Learning andthe Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture, tras. Catharie Misrahi, 3d ed. (new york:Fordham Uiv. Press, 1982), p. 73. 78. See Ja M. Ziolkowski, “Theories of Obscurit i the Lati Traditio,”Mediaevalia, 19 (1996 for 1993), 101–70. 79. Karste Friis-Jese, “‘Adherig to the Footprits of These Me as if to Books from

Atiquit . . .,’” i Text and Voice: The Rhetoric of Authority in the Middle Ages, ed. MariaeBørch (Odese: Uiv. Press of Souther Demark, 2004), pp. 121–37. 80. See H. L. Lev, “As m auctour seth,” Medium Ævum, 12 (1943), 26–27. 81. See Walter Haug, “Die Etdeckug der Fiktioalität,” i Die Wahrheit der Fiktion: Studienzur weltlichen und geistlichen Literatur des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit, ed. Walter Haug(Tübige: niemeer, 2003), pp. 128–44, ad Moika Otter, Inventiones: Fiction and Ref- erentiality in Twelfth-Century English Historical Writing (Chapel Hill: Uiv. of north Carolia

Press, 1996). 82. De nugis curialium, Dist. 5, cap. 1, ed. James, Brooke, ad Mors, pp. 406–7. 83. Historia regum Britannie 34 ad 39, ed. neil Wright, 5 vols. (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer,1985–1991), I, 24 ad 26–27: “legat Molmutias leges quas Gildas historicus de Britaicoi Latium, re vero Aluredus de Latio i Aglicum sermoem trastulit.”

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Sometimes real authors ad tets were cited, eve though the were otthe wellsprig for whatever was beig claimed. For istace, the poet ofthe Old Frech Roman de Thèbes (ca. 1150) cocludes a descriptio of a

cup b matter-of-factl citig his source “Just as the book b Statius sas,”eve though such a descriptio appears owhere i the Thebaid.84 Suchrefereces idicate a ostesible icogruit i the simultaeit of botha deep faith i auctores ad a willigess to tamper with the autheticitof those auctores. I the twelfth cetur we also otice a surge i a related pheomeo,a kid of udeclared metom, whe twelfth-cetur authors refer simplto mauscripts, without idetifig the specic tets withi them, upo which the claim to rel for authorit.85 Tets ad the mauscripts housig

them do ot merel cotai authorities but are authorities.86 A strikigreferece of this tpe is Geoffre of Momouth’s ivocatio of “quedamBritaici sermois librum uetustissimum” (a certai most aciet booki the British laguage).87

The log twelfth cetur is also a phase of etesive forger ad misat-tributio. Whereas i Medieval Lati literature the teth cetur couldbe dubbed the age of aomit, the log twelfth cetur teems withpseudomous tets ad pseudosources.88 The latter ecompass at leasttwo tpes of red herrig. Oe is real authors or tets cited i support of

words or assertios the do ot i fact cotai. The other is allegedl realauthors who are fabricated. Such pseudomit ad forger brought toa clima ceturies of cofusio betwee the otios of auctoritas ad

84. Lies 7823–7824: see Le Roman de Thèbes = The Story of Thebes, traslated b Joh SmarttCole, Garlad Librar of Medieval Literature Series B: 44 (new york: Garlad, 1986), p.. 85. Paul Zumthor, Toward a Medieval Poetics, tras. Philip Beett (Mieapolis: Uiv. ofMiesota Press, 1992), p. 16. 86. Cheu, Toward Understanding, p.131: “Alread, however, it ma be see that through a

ew metom, the tet itself was directl called a auctoritas; o loger was it just qualiedas havig authorit. The tet itself which was called to witess was a authorit.” 87. Geoffre, Historia regum 1, ed. Wright, I, 1. 88. A old stadard, but ot geared specicall to the twelfth cetur, is Paul Lehma,Pseudo-antike Literatur des Mittelalters, Studie der Bibliothek Warburg, 13 (Leipzig: B. G.Teuber, 1927). For a much more comprehesive ad aaltic, substatiall more recetstud, see Peter vo Moos, “Fictio auctoris: Eie theoriegeschichtliche Miiatur am Radeder Istitutio Traiai,” i Fälschungen im Mittelalter: Internationaler Kongress der MonumentaGermaniae Historica, München, 16.-19. September 1986, 6 vols., Schrifte der MoumetaGermaiae Historica, 33 (Haover: Hahsche Buchhadlug, 1988–1990), I, 739–80.The situatio i veracular literatures differs, but perhaps owig to differeces betweeLati ad veracular i regard to the comple of cosideratios that is ofte reduced to

the phrase “oralit ad literac”: see Erst Hellgardt, “Aommität [sic] ud Autoramezwische Müdlichkeit ud Schriftlichkeit i der deutsche Literatur des elfte ud zwölfte

Jahrhuderts. Mit Vorbemerkuge zu eiige Autorame der alteglische Dichtug,”i Autor und Autorschaft im Mittelalter: Kolloquium Meissen 1995, ed. Elizabeth Aderse et al.(Tübige: M. niemeer, 1998), pp. 46–72.



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antiquitas.89 I the ecclesiastic realm a decretal of Pope Aleader III(1159–1181) stipulated that the weight of authorit should lie ot witholder but rather with more recet potical documets, but i the cre-

ative realm it took much loger to reverse more tha a milleium ofacestor-worship. The cocepts of author ad authorit crossed paths repeatedl withthose of “master” ad “masterl.”90 To be authoritative ad to be masterl were closel related, but far from somous. Alread i Cicero we d jutaposed auctor ad magister: “Ego vero primum habeo auctores ac magis-tros religioum coledarum maiores ostros” (I the rst place, speakigfor mself, I look for authorit ad guidace i religious observace toour acestors).91 I the Middle Ages the most famous pairig of the two

desigatios would be from log after the twelfth cetur, i Inferno 1.85, where Date addresses Virgil as “lo mio maestro e ’l mio autore.” Althoughthe Italia ou autore here ca be see agaist the backdrop of God’sdivie authorit, i Convivio 4.6.5 Date states that the term “is uderstoodof ever perso worth of beig believed ad obeed.”92 I other words,“a auctor is oe whose formative iuece o others has bee so greatad so widespread that he has acquired authority i the strogest possible(positive) sese.”93 Commetators o Date have teded to dwell upothe word autore without saig much about maestro. yet it is a mistake to

leave a impressio that the two terms are idistict, sice masterliessad authoritativeess were similar but ot idetical traits. Furthermore,the decisive turig poit i the determiatio of their relatioship wasot i Date’s da but istead i the late twelfth cetur. I theological writigs of the greater twelfth cetur auctoritas was el-evated to the status of a “mode word.”94 Auctoritas ecompassed ot olScripture, the writigs of the church fathers, ad secular tets of classical

89. Gueée, “‘Authetique et approuvé,’” p. 229.

90. For a separate stud of the relatioship betwee masters ad authors i the twelfthcetur, see Ja M. Ziolkowski, “Masterig the Authors i the Log Twelfth Cetur,” iLatinitas Perennis, I “The Cotiuit of Lati Literature,” ed. Wim Verbaal, yaick Maes, ad

Ja Pap, Brill’s Studies i Itellectual Histor,144 (Leide: Brill, 2007), pp. 93–118. 91. De haruspicum responsis 9.18, ed. ad tras. n. H. Watts, Loeb Classical Librar, Cicero Ix (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uiv. Press, 1923), pp. 336–37. 92. “si prede per ogi persoa dega d’essere creduta e obedita,” cited ad traslated bCharles S. Sigleto, ed., Date Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, 6 vols. (Priceto, nJ: PricetoUiv. Press 1970), “Ifero,” II, 16. O God’s divie authorit, see Robert Hollader, iDate Alighieri, Inferno, tras. Robert ad Jea Hollader (new york: Doubleda, 2000),p. 18. 93. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, ed. ad tras. Robert M. Durlig, itroductio

ad otes b Roald L. Martiez ad Robert M. Durlig, 3 vols. (new york: Oford Uiv.Press, 1996–2003), I, 38. 94. O auctoritas as a mode word, see Härig, “Auctoritas i der soziale ud itellektuel-le Struktur,” pp. 519 ad 531.

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authors, as it had doe i the hierarch of precedig ceturies, but alsocotemporar ad ear-cotemporar tets of ma stripes. The moderni too had stadig sometimes as authorities. Cofusio developed over

which should be accorded greater auctoritas, Sacred Scripture or the mag- istri.95 The commetaries o older authors that the moder-da mastersassembled could ot aspire to eactl the same authoritativeess as theauthors themselves. The opiios of the masters acquired a uprecedeted swa. Theirascedac owed partl to the epadig quatit ad qualit i the um-ber ad importace of schools, partl to Peter Abelard ad the methodsof aalsis he popularized.96 The epasio of iuece posed problems,oe of which was gurig out who would have the abilit ad right to

determie which of the differig views would acquire ascedac. Twostatemets draw from the preface to the Sententie of Robert of Melu(ca. 1100–1167), a master active i both Eglad ad Frace, costituteideal auctoritates for the coservative side i this dispute, accordig to whichglosses o the Bible were ot t to be cited as authorities o a par withthe traditioal authorities. I the rst Robert states brie that: “no estglossa auctoritas, ec auctoritati aequipolles, licet e auctoritate assumpta videatur” (A gloss is ot a authorit, or does it carr the same weightas a authorit, eve though it ma seem to have bee draw from a

authoritative statemet).97 I the secod he epatiates:nulla amque earum glossarum auctoritas esse judicada est, que i verbisdistat ab ipsis auctoritatibus, licet etiam auctoritatis setetiam cotieat,eo quod o solum sesus auctoritas appellatur, sed verba i eodem acceptasesu quo ab auctore sut prolata.

(Certail the authorit of those glosses is to be rated as ull, which i word-ig diverge from the authorities themselves, eve though the ma cotaia opiio of a authorit, for the reaso that ot ol the meaig is calleda authorit but also the words received with the same meaig with whichthe have bee brought forth b the author.)98

95. M. M. Dav, “Les auctoritates et les procédés de citatio das la prédicatio médiévale,”Revue d’histoire franciscaine, 8 (1931), 346, ad Cheu, La théologie au douzième siècle, pp.351–65. 96. O these methods, see Jea Jolivet, “Le traitemet des autorités cotraires selo leSic et Non d’Abélard,” i Jea Jolivet, Aspects de la pensée médiévale: Abélard. Doctrines du langage (Paris: Vri-Reprise, 1987), pp. 79–92 [origial pagiatio, 267–80]. 97. Robert of Melu, Sententie, Prefatio de diversa cosuetudie legedi sacram scripturam,iŒ uvres de Robert de Melun, ed. Ramod M. Marti, Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaiese: Etudeset documets, 13, 18, 21, 25, 3 vols. i 4 parts (Louvai: Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaiese,

1932–1952), III (1947–1952), part 1 (=Spicilegium21, 1947), 19, lies7–8, cited b Cheu,La théologie au douzième siècle, p. 357. 98. Sententie, Prefatio, ed. Marti, III, part 1, 24, lies 4–8, cited b Cheu, La théologie audouzième siècle, p. 357.



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Iroicall, these prooucemets agaist the authoritativeess of glossesappear i a tet that is itself at best secodar ad could be cosid-ered tertiar, amel, Robert’s itroductio to his book of Sententie (ca.

1152–1160).99 Evetuall Pope Iocet III (1198–1216) asserted thatthe church had the decidig voice: that it held ultimate authorit admaster.100

Boud up with the masterliess of authorit, aother distictive trait ofthe twelfth cetur was a codece, i some quarters, that applicatioof ratioal priciples could eable prioritizig amog authorities whichoccasioall seemed to cotradict oe aother—ad sometimes ideeddid clash. Those who resisted the pateral ijuctios of the authorities(ad the church fathers are ot so called etirel b accidet) eeded to

be told the reasos, which i a Medieval Lati cotet were rationes, forobeig. Their refractoriess was ot mere willfuless but rather reecteda real crisis i the auctoritas sstem: what to do whe authorities coicted with oe aother.101

Sice ratio ad auctoritas rst came ito use, the relatioship of the twococepts had bee ambivalet. Cicero set the pair i oppositio, preset-ig a iterlocutor who allegedl rejected authorit ad preferred reasoas a meas of argumet: “Sed tu auctoritates cotemis, ratioe pugas”(But ou despise authorit, ad ght our battles with reaso).102 But the

relatioship betwee the two categories grew decidedl more embroiledafter the advet of Christiait, i which both auctoritas ad ratio acquiredew charges. Augustie sought both earl ad late i his writigs to elucidate therelatioship betwee philosophical speculatio ad Christia authorit,ad preseted authorit as a meas that helps lead to faith ad reasoalike.103 Whereas reaso is the prerequisite for uderstadig, authorit

99. Härig, “Auctoritas i der soziale ud itellektuelle Struktur,” p.523. 100. G. R. Evas, “Eegesis ad Authorit i the Thirteeth Cetur,” i Ad litteram:Authoritative Texts and Their Medieval Readers, ed. Mark D. Jorda ad Ket Emer, Jr., notreDame Cofereces i Medieval Studies,3 (notre Dame: Uiv. of notre Dame Press, 1992),p. 93 (cf. p. 97). 101. A visual represetatio of the dilemma ad oe respose ca be see i a pieceof margialia i Cambridge, Triit College, MS B. V. 5, fol. 33 v, i which Augustie isrepreseted adjacet to a tet i Peter Lombard’s gloss o the Psalms with which his ow

writigs clashed. With his left had the bishop of Hippo holds a spear that poits to thetet, with his right a baderole that proclaims “no ego” (colloquiall, “not me”—ot im opiio): reproduced i Michael Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uiv. Press, 1992), illustratio 5, p. 21.

102. De natura deorum 3.4.9, ed. ad tras. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Librar,268, Cicero ,xIx (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uiv. Press, 1933), pp. 294–94 (traslatio modied). 103. Ragar Holte, Béatitude et sagesse: Saint Augustin et le problème de la fin de l’homme dansla philosophie ancienne, Etudes augustiiees, 8 (Paris: Etudes Augustiiees, 1962), pp.

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is a ecessit for belief.104 Accordig to Augustie, ratio ad auctoritas operated i tadem to motivate those i quest of wisdom: “ulli autemdubium est gemio podere os impelli ad discedum auctoritatis atque

ratiois” (To o oe is it a matter of doubt that we are drive to learigb a double cosideratio, that of authorit ad that of reaso).105

Adaptig these categories from Augustie, some thikers of the Caro-ligia period set authorit over reaso.106 For eample, Florus of Lo (d.ca. 860) etitles oe of his treatises De tenenda immobiliter scripturae veritateet sanctorum orthodoxorum patrum auctoritate (O Retaiig Ialterabl theTruth of Hol Scripture ad the Authorit of the Orthodo Fathers).107 Eve those who struck out i their ow directio b elevatig reaso paidat least lip service to the supremac of authorit. Thus Joh Scot Eriugea

(about 810–877) declared i the De divisione naturae or Periphyseon that:“Sacrae Scripturae . . . i omibus sequeda est auctoritas” (The authoritof Hol Scripture is to be followed i all matters).108

But the most idepedet-mided philosophers also refused to abidecosistetl b the Augustiia priciple. Eriugea turs the tables laterb arguig that authorit takes precedece b virtue of time (b which hemeas the passage of time—b oldess or age), reaso b ature, ad thati philosophical eamiatios reaso must be applied rst ad authoritol later.109 I this wa of thikig, authorit is paramout, but its stature

must be udergirded b a truth that ca be reasoed. Eriugea’s dei-tio of authorit was appropriated i the twelfth cetur b Hoorius Augustoduesis (ca. 1080–ca. 1137): “nihil est aliud auctoritas, quamper ratioem probata veritas” (Authorit is othig other tha the truth whe it has bee validated b reaso).110 Before Hoorius, Aselm of

303–27, ad James J. O’Doell, “The Authorit of Augustie,” Augustinian Studies, 22 (1991), 9–10.

104. Augustie, De vera religione 24.45, ed. K.-D. Daur, CCSL 32 (Turhout: Brepols, 1962),pp. 187–260, “auctoritas dem agitat et ratioi praeparat homiem”; ad Augustie, Deutilitate credendi 11.25, ed. J. Zcha, CSEL 25/1 (Viea: Tempsk, 1891), p. 32, lie 22:“quod itellegimus igitur, debemus ratioi, quod credimus, auctoritati, quod opiamur,errori.” 105. Augustie, Contra academicos 3.20.43, i De beata vita. De ordine, ed. W. M. Gree,CCSL 29 (Turhout: Brepols, 1970). 106. O the relatioship betwee authorit ad reaso i the Caroligia period, seePierre Riché, “ Divina Pagina, ratio, et auctoritas das la théologie caroligiee.” Dated butstill etremel useful is a broader stud, A. J. MacDoald, Authority and Reason in the EarlyMiddle Ages (Lodo: Humphre Milford for the Oford Uiv. Press, 1933). 107. The full title, as give i PL 121, 1083–1134.

108. De divisione naturae, or Periphyseon, 1.64, i PL 122, 509 A. 109. De divisione naturae, or Periphyseon, 1.69, i PL 122, 513C. See Varee, “Convena- tiones,” p. 115. 110. Libellus octo quaestionum de angelis et homine 1, i PL 172, 1185B. Compare Albert



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Caterbur (1033–1109) had questioed theological authorit i rela-tio to reaso.111 Takig Aselm cosiderabl further, i the Collationes (Dialogues betwee a Philosopher, a Jew, ad a Christia) Peter Abelard

has the Christia iterlocutor allege of the philosopher: “Tecum uerotato mius e auctoritate agedum est, quato amplius ratioe iiteriset scripture sacre auctoritatem mius agoscis” (There is all the less causeto use authorit with ou, the more ou rel o reaso ad the less ourecogize the authorit of Hol Scripture).112 This iferece cocedes thatuder ormal circumstaces the use of auctoritates was a regular clausei the Christia social cotract, but it also imagies a philosophical dis-course i which reaso takes precedece over authorit. Those thikers who proceeded to the purel philosophical discourse ad who privileged

reaso without paig the lip service due to authorit put themselves othe fast track toward codematio as heretics: Beregar of Tours (ca.1000–1088) is a case i poit.113

Would it be eaggeratio to hold that the groudwork for scholasticism was laid i the twelfth cetur through a struggle for domiio betweeauthorit ad reaso?114 Adelard of Bath (1075–1160) posed to his ephewthe rhetorical questio, “Quid eim aliud auctoritas diceda quam cap-istrum?” (For what is authorit to be called other tha a muzzle?).115 I

the Great, Commentarii in III Sententiarum, lib. 3, d. 23, a. 19, obj. 4 ad prologue, i Operaomnia, ed. Augustus Borget, 38 vols. (Paris: apud Ludovicum Vivès, 1890–1895), xxVIII(1894), 440: “nihil aliud est auctoritas isi ratiois reperta veritas, et ad posteritatis utili-tatem scripto commedata” (Authorit is othig other tha the truth of reasoig whefoud, passed dow i writig for the beet of posterit). The iterrelatioship amogthe three passages was draw b Cheu, La théologie au douzième siècle, p. 355, . 4. 111. Giles E. M. Gasper, Anselm of Canterbury and his Theological Inheritance (Aldershot:

Ashgate, 2004), pp. 36–42. For a stud devoted to Aselm, Abelard, ad Berard of Clair- vau that touches upo some of the same issues, see Burcht Prager, “Sic et non: Patristic Authorit betwee Refusal ad Acceptace: Aselm of Caterbur, Peter Abelard ad Ber-ard of Clairvau,” i The Reception of the Church Fathers in the West: From the Carolingians tothe Maurists, 2 vols., ed. Irea Backus (Leide: E. J. Brill, 1997), I, 165–93. 112. Abelard, Collationes 78, ed. ad tras. Joh Marebo ad Giovai Orladi, OfordMedieval Tets (Oford: Claredo Press, 2001), pp. 98–99. I have modied their “all theless reaso” to “all the less cause.” 113. See Adré Cati, “Ratio et auctoritas das la première phase de la cotroverseeucharistique etre Béreger et Lafrac,” Revue des Etudes Augustiniennes, 20 (1974),155–86; Auctoritas und Ratio: Studien zu Berengar von Tours, ed. Peter Gaz, R. B. C. Hu-ges, ad Friedrich niewöher, Wolfebütteler Mittelalter-Studie, 2 (Wiesbade: OttoHarrassowitz, 1990); ad Toivo J. Holopaie, Dialectic and Theology in the Eleventh Century, Studie ud Tete zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, 54 (Leide: E. J. Brill, 1996),pp. 108–18. 114. Edward Grat, Science and Religion, 400 B.C. to A.D. 1550: From Aristotle to Copernicus (Westport, Co.: Greewood Press, 2004), pp. 152–60. 115. Adelard of Bath, De quibusdam naturalibus quaestionibus, o. 6, i Conversations withhis Nephew: On the Same and the Different, Questions on Natural Science, and On Birds, ed. ad

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the twelfth cetur Peter Abelard is associated famousl with the effort to wiow discordat authorities through ratioal aalsis. The skirmishesbetwee Abelard ad those atagoistic to his sort of aalsis come to the

fore repeatedl i his Historia calamitatum, but perhaps most protechicalli the cofrotatio at the Coucil of Soissos i 1121 betwee Abelardad his log-time rival Alberic of Rheims (died1141). Abelard reports thatoe da Alberic came spoilig for a ght over a specic theological poitsupposedl foud i a treatise b Abelard, for which o auctoritas appearedto be provided:

Cui statim respodi: “Super hoc, si vultis, ratioem proferam.”—“no cura-mus, iquit ille, ratioem humaam aut sesum vestrum i talibus, sed auc-toritatis verba solummodo.” Cui ego: “Vertite, iquam, folium libri, et ive-

ietis auctoritatem”; et erat presto liber quem secum ipse detulerat. Revolviad locum quem overam, quem ipse miime compererat aut qui o isiocitura mihi querebat; et volutas Dei fuit, ut cito occurreret mihi quod volebam. Erat autem setecia ititulata Augustius De Trinitate libro I . . .Quod cum discipuli eius qui aderat audisset, obstupefacti erubescebat.Ipse autem, ut se quoquomodo protegeret: “Bee, iquit, est itelligedum.”Ego autem subieci hoc o esse ovellam sed ad preses ichil attiere, cumipse verba tatum, o sesum, requisisset; si autem sesum et ratioem at-tedere vellet, paratum me dii ei ostedere secudum eius setetiam quodi eam lapsus esset heresim secudum quam is qui pater est sui ipsius liussit. Quo ille audito, statim quasi furibudus effectus ad mias coversus est,

asseres ec ratioes meas ec auctoritates mihi i hac causa suffragaturasesse. Atque ita recessit.

(I said at oce that if the wished I would offer a eplaatio o this poit.“We take o accout of ratioal eplaatio,” he aswered, “or of ouriterpretatio i such matters; we recogize ol the words of authorit.”“Tur the page,” I said, “ad ou will d the authorit.” There was a cop ofthe book at had, which he had brought with him, so I looked up the passage which I kew but which he had failed to see—or else he looked ol for what would damage me. B God’s will I foud what I wated at oce: a seteceheaded “Augustie, On the Trinity, Book Oe.” . . . Whe his followers stad-

ig b heard this the blushed i embarrassmet, but he tried to cover uphis mistake as best he could b saig that this should be uderstood i theright wa. To that I replied that it was othig ew, but was irrelevat at themomet as he was lookig ol for words, ot iterpretatio. But if he was willig to hear a iterpretatio ad a reasoed argumet I was read toprove to him that b his ow words he had falle ito the heres of suppos-ig the Father to be His ow So. O hearig this he lost his temper ad

tras. Charles Burett (Cambridge: Cambridge Uiv. Press, 1998), pp. 102–3 (traslatigcapistrum as “halter”). A related passage i Adelard is discussed i Maria Lodovica Arduii,“‘Magistra Ratioe’: ‘Auctoritas,’ ‘Traditio,’ ‘Ratio’ vo Aselm bis Adelard vo Bath,” iBenedictione Culture 750–1050, ed. W. Lourdau ad D. Verhelst, Mediaevalia Lovaiesia,Series 1: Studia 11 (Leuve: Leuve Uiv. Press, 1983), p. 215.



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tured to threats, crig that either m eplaatios or m authorities would help me i this case. He the wet off.)116

The iteractio could be costrued as a real-life occurrece of a “tru-

cated quotatio” topos. The literar commoplace features a characer who distorts a tet b failig to tur the page, read to the ed of a lie,or the like, ad the foremost eample i medieval Eglish literature would be the Wife of Bath’s trucated quotatio from Paul i Chaucer’sCanterbury Tales.117 Abelard’s wa of recoutig the episode ma sigalthat he has ecoutered the topos i other tets, but eve so there cabe o questio that he is simpl espousig a covetio. Rather, theclash with Alberic speaks volumes about the chagig place of auctoritas i the twelfth cetur. At rst its mai thrust appears to be to demo-

strate Abelard’s superiorit to Alberic i kowledge of doctrie thatca be upheld b quotatio of authorities. But b the ed the aecdotereveals that Abelard, apparetl ulike Alberic, regards authorities asmeaigful ol whe the are cormed through reasoig. It is Abe-lard’s ratioale, or rather his ratiociatio, that Alberic refuses to hear,choosig istead to reject his oppoet’s authorities (ad his authorit)ad to leave. The most colorful ad oft-cited statemet about the idetermiac ofauthorities ad the ecessit of ratioal priciples emerges later i the

cetur, with the celebrated observatio of Ala of Lille (ca. 1130–1203):“Sed quia auctoritas cereum habet asum, id est i diuersum potest ectisesum, ratioibus roboradum est” (Because auctoritas has a wa ose, which meas that it ca be bet i a directio, it must be fortied withrationes ).118 The image of the wa ose seizes the imagiatio, i part forbeig the sole istace i the twelfth cetur i which Auctoritas is hpos-tatized. The metaphor is brilliat, sice, mirrorig the operatio of auctoritas itself, it sigles out ad separates ol part of the whole. Lad Reasoappears at the ed of a famous twelfth-cetur Lati debate poem about

Gamede ad Hele ad is a cetral plaer i the Roman de la Rose, buto comparable character eists who could be called Dame Authorit.119

The ature of twelfth-cetur literature was affected fudametall b

116. Abelard, Historia calamitatum, lies 751–81, i Abélard, Historia calamitatum, ed. Jacques Mofri, 3d ed. (Paris: Vri, 1967), pp. 84–85; Eglish i The Letters of Abelardand Heloise, tras. Radice, rev. Clach, pp. 21–22. 117. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, III, 154–60, i The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larr D. Beso,3d ed. (Bosto, Mass.: Houghto Mifi Co., 1987), p. 107. 118. De fide catholica contra haereticos libri IV 1.30, i PL 210, 333 A. 119. Joh V. Flemig, Reason and the Lover (Priceto, nJ: Priceto Uiv. Press, 1984),pp. 3–63.

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the debate over authorit ad reaso. Authors sought to support their tetsbeod the allusive, quotatioal meas that attached their tets to earlierauthoritative literature. This is ot to sa that people did ot cotiue to

cite ad eve live through the auctores. Eve Heloise, a perso iteselaffected b Abelard’s was of thikig ad also a proouced iueceupo them, ot ol paid homage to auctores but eve to a remarkableetet lived her life through them. Whe at Argeteuil, as she was othe verge of pledgig herself as a u, Heloise is said b Abelard to havequoted ve lies of Luca’s De bello civili (also kow as Pharsalia ).120

Here I have differetiated betwee auctoritas ad other cocepts asembedded i Lati terms. But i the twelfth cetur the cocepts thathappe to be preserved for us routiel i Lati writig were i ever-

da life ofte framed i veracular laguages.121 I closig it is worth atleast raisig the issue of the distictio betwee what could be calledauctoritas ad autorité —betwee a priciple of Lati culture that restedupo auctores of caoical school tets ad its adaptatios to the growig veracular cultures, betwee the auctoritas of Lati ad the authorit ofthe veracular. The authorit sstem, with all the subtle gradatios thatit acquired i the log twelfth cetur, was ot cast aside as the spokelaguages came to the fore. O the cotrar, i veracular literature theeed to attai authorit became all the more urget, sice at the outset

the spoke laguages lacked the authorit that was almost itrisic toLati b virtue of its beig leared from auctores. The Middle Ages has somethig particular to offer, i its itesit ofegagemet with a author- ad tet-based authorit, to those of us whoare cocered with literature toda. The etmologies of words ad thesematic elds of bgoe eras do ot ecessaril predict athig aboutthe future, but it is worth eplorig the otio that authorit relates totets (ad ot solel Scripture) ad truth, ad askig wh such euseshave abided ad whether or ot the will cotiue to survive. Pairigs of

authorit with autheticit, master, ad reaso ma ot be as relevatto life toda as i the twelfth cetur, but the agai such damics mastill warrat cosideratio. Tets face a chagig preset ad future, ot just i terms of the mediathrough which the will be trasmitted ad received, but also i the ver was i which the will be coceived ad costituted. Whatever happes,

120. Peter vo Moos, “Corelia ud Heloise,” Latomus, 34 (1975), 1024–59, reprited iPeter vo Moos, Abaelard und Heloise: Gesammelte Studien zum Mittelalter 1, ed. Gert Melville,Geschichte: Forschug ud Wisseschaft, 14 (Müster: Lit Verlag, 2005), pp. 129–62. 121. Heßler, “Auctoritas im deutsche Mittellatei,” p. 260.



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a medievalizig framework, i which auctoritas is boded to literac adcouterbalaces potestas, could costitute a mior but oetheless valu-able couterweight to authorit as it has grow to be i our postmoder

world. The twelfth cetur ma show us was to iteract with auth

Ziolkowski 2009 Cultures of Authority

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