Lecture
Notes for Medieval Rhetoric (400
CE-1400 CE)
Historical
Context:
§
0-300
CE: Roman empire is disintegrating—war with tribes, persecution of Jews and
Christians as Rome attempts to maintain cultural traditions.
§
330 CE:
Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity and legalizes the religion
throughout his eastern empire.
§
4th
Century then produces eloquently trained rhetoricians speaking on behalf of
Christianity, their new religion. Origen: Christian teacher and
philosopher who develops the basic form of the Christian sermon--explaining
the meaning of a Biblical text and then using plain-spoken examples and
emotional language to encourage the audience to apply the meaning to their
lives. John Chrysostom: Christian orator who denounces classical learning because it stands against
Christianity. Conflict between Christian
and Classical learning develops.
§
The
best example of the conflict between Rhetoric and Christianity is in the
person of Bishop Jerome (important father of the Catholic church, a statue of
him in the chapel). He denounces
Rhetoric after his famous dream, in which a heavenly judge accuses him of
being a better Ciceronian than a Christian.
Still, Jerome includes classical learning in the curriculum of the
school he later establishes.
§
After
Augustine, the “Dark Ages”: 500-1000 CE.
Europe is sparsely populated, living under feudal nobility.
No one travels. No trade. Periodic
invasions—by Huns, Muslims, and Norsemen—reduce civilization even
further.
§
Islam
arises in the 600s, after Mohammed. In
800, Constantine pushes back Islamic invaders and establishes control over
western Europe. 962: the Holy
Roman Empire. 1095: Pope Urban II
starts the “Crusades,” sending Christian soldiers to Palestine, Spain, and
Sicily, to try to destroy Islamic cultures in the Christian holy land.
This goes on for 300 years.
§
One
result: the European tradition is re-introduced to Aristotle, whose work had
been preserved and prized by Islamic culture.
Developments
in Rhetoric:
§
Augustine
(354-430 CE): converted to Christianity.
His Confessions are widely
acknowledged as an early, important autobiography. Rhetorically, Augustine substitutes Christian wisdom for
Plato’s transcendent truth. However,
he sees Rhetoric as crucial in persuading people to Christian truth.
§
Martianus
Capella, 429 CE: describes seven “liberal arts” necessary to all
education: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and
music. The most important of
these are “the Trivium” of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.
§
Alcuin:
an English monk studying in Charlemagne’s school, composes a dialogue in
which he defends the study of rhetoric to Charlemagne, on the grounds that it
is civically useful and might be used to encourage Christian virtue.
§
New
religious orders: Franciscans and Dominicans in 1200s.
Many such movements were repressed as heretical by the power of the
papacy.
§
Peter
Abelard, 12th Centruy: uses Aristotelian dialectic to examine
apparent contradictions in Church doctrine.
This is controversial, but the practice of dialectic goes on to be
taught in schools, part of the movement called “Scholasticism.”
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, (circa 1250), uses dialectic in religious
contexts, furthering the scholastic movement.
§ Education at scholastic cathedral schools became somewhat widely available. Students lodged in private homes or early dormitories. Some schools gave teaching licenses. Women were admitted and sometimes went on to intellectual life in abbeys and nunneries which often maintained a library. Cathedral schools that also taught dialectic and classical philosophy are seen as the first Universities.
§
Hildegard
of Bingen (1098-1179) wielded great power with the papacy, because she
convinced superiors of the authenticity of her religious visions, i.e., she
had ethos straight from God.
§
2
methods of Scholastic teaching: lectio (lecture,
utilizing Rhetoric) and disputatio
(debate, utilizing Dialectic).
§
Art of
letter writing: letters were read aloud, overtly persuasive, formal.
For centuries, rhetorical education consisted of instruction in letter
writing, particularly because opportunities for meaning
§
Women’s
conduct books: how women should use language and behave in royal court, in the
mercantile, or in business transactions with a craftsman.
§ Christine de Pizan (1364-1430): the first "woman of letters" in the western tradition. She was born into privilege: her father was court astrologer and physician to French King Charles V. She learned several languages and studied the classics. She eventually married one of Charles's legal secretaries, so she was exposed to the art of letter writing.
Her own writing career began in 1390, when King Charles, Christine's father, and Christine's husband all died. Suddenly, she was a 25-year-old single mother, with no patron (she also supported her niece and her elderly mother). She began writing poems, and achieved some fame with her moral and romantic verses. She also wisely dedicated these poems to important French royals, and eventually earned a commission from the brother of Charles V.
A controversy arose over a popular poem, The Romance of the Rose, which depicted women as foolish slaves of court. Christine called this depiction unfair, and a flurry of letters and publications ensued. This "Quarrel of the Rose" resulted in a published collection of letters, and Christine became known as an advocate of women.
Much of her writing concerned her own intellectual development (these are considered precursors of the autobiographical, first-person essay, which would not fully develop until Montaigne, in the 17th Century), as well as arguments concerning the proper education and public role of women.
Historians view Christine de Pisan as an important early feminist. She took the offensive against patriarchal standards, and viewed gender roles as social constructs, not biological determinations.