Peter of Celle on Monastic Reading

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Matthew Phillips

“What should I say about reading? I consider a room without reading to be hell without consolation, a gibbet without belief, a prison without a light, a tomb without a vent, a ditch swarming with worms, a suffocating trap.  A room without reading is the empty house of which the gospel speaks, where the nocturnal and noonday devils assault the idle hermit with as many thrusts of the useless and harmful thoughts as there are hours and moments in the day and night.” Peter of Celle, On Affliction and Reading. 8. in Peter of Celle: Selected Works, trans. Hugh Feiss (Kalamazoo, 1987), pp. 133-134.

Peter of Celle came from minor nobility in the Champagne region of medieval France. He spent most of his adult life as an abbot at Celle, then later at St Remi in Reims.  Peter became bishop of Chartres in 1181, but he only served a short time since he died on February 19, 1182.  Although he remained a traditional Benedictine, Peter had good relations with the Cistercians and the Carthusians.  Additionally, he corresponded with the abbots of Cluny and Pope Alexander III.  He befriended John of Salisbury and supported Archbishop Thomas Beckett in the contest with Henry II of England.

 

 

 

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Nature, the Body, and Decency

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Matthew Phillips

“From the beginning nature itself seems to have been thoroughly rational concerning our bodies: she has placed in sight those parts of our form and features that have an honourable appearance, but has covered and hidden the parts of the body that are devoted to the necessities of nature and would have an ugly and dishonourable look.  Nature’s very careful craftmanship is mirrored in men’s sense of shame.  For everyone of sound mind keeps out of sight the very parts that nature has hidden, and makes an effort to obey necessity itself as secretly as possible.  Again, concerning those parts of the body that are used out of necessity, they refer by their own names neither to the parts themselves, not to their uses.  It is not dishonourable to do such things, provided one does them in secret, but it is indecent to speak of them.  Therefore, neither such activity, if it is public, nor indecency of speech, is free from scurrility.”  Cicero, On Duties I. 126-127. eds. and trans. M.T. Griffin and E.M. Atkins (Cambridge 1991), p. 49.

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Humanity as God’s Creation

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Matthew Phillips

“Nature, that is, God, made man a composite of two parts, one celestial and divine, the other most beautiful and noble among mortal things.  He provided him with a form and a body suited to every sort of movement, so as to enable him to perceive and to flee from that which threatened to harm and oppose him.  He gave him speech and judgment so that he would be able to seek after and to find what he needed and could use.  He gave him movement and sentiment, desire and the power of excitement, so that he might clearly appreciate and pursue useful things and shun those harmful and dangerous to him.  He gave him intelligence, teachability, memory and reason, qualities divine in themselves and which enable man to investigate, to distinguish, to know what to avoid and what to desire in order best to preserve himself.”  Leon Battista Alberti, On the Family in Perspectives from the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilizations, Vol. 1. 5th Ed. (Norton: New York, 2012), p. 390.

Leon Battista Alberti (d. 1472) was born in Genoa in 1404 as the illegitimate son of exiled Florentine man.  Alberti studied law at Bologna, took holy orders, and worked in service of the papacy.  As a Renaissance humanist Alberti wrote about painting, architecture, sculpture, and the nature of the family.  However, he is most well known for his architectural designs.  Here he describes God’s greatest earthly creation, humanity, as the perfect combination mind and body.

 

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History and the Orator

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Matthew Phillips

“He [the orator] should also be acquainted with the history of the events of past ages, particularly, of course, of our state, but also of imperial nations and famous kings….To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?  Moreover, the mention of antiquity and the citation of examples give the speech authority and credibility as well as affording the highest pleasure to the audience.” Cicero, “The Orator,” in The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, ed. Kenneth R. Bartlett, 2nd edition (Toronto 2011), pp. 8-9.  [Emphasis added]

Cicero understood the role of history and historical examples in an orator’s success.  In so doing, he coined the famous phrase that compared ignorance of history to immaturity.

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Erasmus on Reason, Speech, and Friendship

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Matthew Phillips

“Man possesses a unifying principle in the fact that he is molded to the same figure and form and endowed with the same power of speech.  Whereas beasts differ in the variety of their shapes, man is identical with fellow man in possessing speech and reason.  His ability to speak enables him above all to cultivate friendship.  We find in him the seeds of all virtue, a ready disposition toward mutual benevolence, and a delight in helping others.  Yet he appears to have been corrupted and to be prone to fall to the very level of beasts.”

Desiderius Erasmus, The Complaint of Peace in The Essential Erasmus, trans. John P. Dolan (New York 1964), p. 179.

Following Cicero and the Western tradition, Erasmus understands that human beings possess reason and language.  These allow human beings to become true friends, cultivate virtue, and act generously toward others.  Alas, Erasmus laments that corruption has led many human beings to act like beasts.

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The Miseries of the Republic

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Matthew Phillips

“Sallust has given a brief sketch of the miseries of the republic in that long period, in all the years down to the Second Punic War, troubled by incessant wars abroad, and at home by continued civil strife and disharmony.  Even Rome’s victories did not bring the substantial joys of happiness, but only the empty consolations of misery, specious allurements to tempt restless spirits to submit to more and more hardships, all of them unproductive.” Augustine of Hippo,The City of God III. 17. trans. Henry Bettenson. (New York: Penguin Classics, 1984), p. 111.

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The Difference between Human Nature and Beasts

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Matthew Phillips

“From the beginning nature has assigned to every type of creature the tendency to preserve itself, its life and body, and to reject anything that seems likely to harm them, seeking and procuring everything necessary for life, such as nourishment, shelter and so on.  Common to all animals is the impulse to unite for the purpose of procreation, and a certain care for those that are born.  The great difference between man and beast, however, is this: the latter adapts itself only in responding to the senses, and only to something that is present and at hand, scarcely aware of the past or future.  Man, however, is a sharer in reason; this enables him to perceive consequences, to comprehend the causes of things, their precursors and their antecedents, so to speak; to compare similarities and to link and combine future with present events; and by seeing with ease the whole course of life to prepare whatever is necessary for living it.” Cicero, On Duties I. 11. eds. and trans. M.T. Griffin and E.M. Atkins (Cambridge 1991), p. 6. [Emphasis added]

According to Cicero, how does reason differentiate human beings from other animals?  Humans share in reason that gives them the ability to perceive, comprehend and compare the interrelated nature of past, present, and future events.  Thereby, reasonable human beings prepare for living.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Divine Law

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Matthew Phillips

“One may well ask, ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘An unjust law is no law at all.’

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law.”  Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” (August 1963), p. 3.  http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote this letter to answer critics of the non-violent protests against Birmingham’s segregation laws.  He adhered to a long theological and legal tradition to justify violating unjust laws (in this case a court injunction against protests and demonstrations.)  In the late fourth century Augustine had written: “For a law that is unjust does not seem to me to be a law at all.” (On Free Will I. 5. 11. in Augustine: Earlier Writings, trans. John H. S. Burleigh (Philadelphia 1953), p. 118.

If this is so, how do we determine if a law is just or not just?  Later in the same work Augustine stated “…there is nothing just or legitimate in temporal law save what men have derived from eternal law.” On Free Will I. 6. 15. in Ibid., p. 121.  Rev. King followed Augustine here too when he states that human law must agree with the moral law, or law of God.  This leads us to King’s reference to Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica.  Aquinas, a 13th-century scholastic theologian, wrote “…laws may be unjust through being opposed to the Divine good: such are the laws of tyrants inducing to idolatry, or to anything else contrary to the Divine law: and laws of this kind must nowise be observed, because, as stated in Acts 5:29, ‘we ought to obey God rather than man.’ ” http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2096.htm#article4

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A Good Prince Must know Geography & History

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“Although the writers of antiquity divided the whole theory of state government into two sections, war and peace, the first and most objective is the instruction of the prince in the matter of ruling wisely during times of peace, in which he should strive his utmost during times of peace, in which he should strive his utmost to preclude any future need for the science of war.  In this matter it seems best that the prince should first know his own kingdom.  This knowledge is best gained from [a study of ] geography and history and from frequent visits through his provinces and cities.  Let him first be eager to learn the location of his districts and cities, with their beginnings, their nature, institutions, customs, laws, annals, and privileges.”  Erasmus,The Education of a Christian Prince, trans. Lester K. Born. (New York: Columbia, 1936), p. 205.

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Loyalty and Friendship

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“Now the support and stay of that unswerving constancy, which we look for in friendship, is loyalty; for nothing is constant that is disloyal.  Moreover, the right course is to choose for a friend one who is frank, sociable, and sympathetic–that is, one who is likely to be influenced by the same motives as yourself–since all these qualities conduce to loyalty; for it is impossible for a man to be loyal whose nature is full of twists and twinings; and, indeed, one who is untouched by the same influences as yourself is naturally unsympathetic cannot be either loyal or steadfast.  To this observation should be added a requirement tending to produce that steadfastness, which I have been discussing for some time: a friend must neither take pleasure in bringing charges against you nor believe them when made by others.  As so, the truth of what I said in the beginning is established: ‘Friendship cannot exist except among good men.’ ” Cicero, On Friendship XVIII. 65. Loeb Classical Library, trans. William A. Falconer (Cambridge, MA  1923), 174-78.

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