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The Patristic Legacy in the Middle Ages (II) 16:00 - 18:30 Wednesday, 21St August, 2019 Room 8 Presentation Type Workshop

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The Patristic Legacy in the Middle Ages (II) 16:00 - 18:30 Wednesday, 21St August, 2019 Room 8 Presentation Type Workshop Politics and Society: The Patristic Legacy in the Middle Ages (II) 16:00 - 18:30 Wednesday, 21st August, 2019 Room 8 Presentation type Workshop 499 Side by Side: Augustine's supporting role in William of St. Thierry's attacks on Peter Abaelard Delphine Conzelmann University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland Abstract How far can a theologian go? What can, and more importantly, what can't he say? It was not merely a personal rivalry, but this very question, that drove William of St. Thierry (1080-1148) to consider the theology of Peter Abaelard (1079-1142) as a problem that needed to be dealt with. For him, the limits of the theological task as such were at stake. In William's eyes, Abaelard approached the Bible in a way too speculative and philosophical manner. In contrast, he understood his own theology as Biblical and true to the opinions of the Fathers, a sentiment he strongly expressed in his Expositio super Epistolam ad Romanos. In this paper I am going to discuss William's reception of Augustine, in order to present his own reading of Romans as firmly grounded in ecclesial tradition. Not only does he take up Augustine's thought, but he uses Augustine's biographical background – mainly his anti-Pelagian fervor – to support his own fight against heretical ideas, such as Peter Abaelard's or William of Conches'. This paper will explore how William introduced Augustine as a third player into his rising conflict with the school of Abaelard, both as authority in matters of theological content and methodology, and as a role model for his concrete political actions in the matter. It will do so on the grounds of his Commentary on the Romans. 611 How Gregory of Rimini Read Saint Augustine: New Evidence. With A Focus On Ecclesiology. Pascale BERMON CNRS, PARIS, France. PSL Université, PARIS, France Abstract Gregory of Rimini (†1358) is famous for his outstanding knowledge of saint Augustine. D. Trapp, E. L. Saak and others have underlined his thorough reading of the bishop of Hippo.This contribution will present, with a focus on ecclesiology, new evidence for this well known fact, allowing to draw new conclusions regarding Gregory's methods and attitudes towards Augustine's legacy. 608 Defining Heresy. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's use of patristic sources to define 'right belief' and his scholastic precedents. Jeffrey Witt Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, USA Abstract This paper will consider Giovanni Pico's use of patristic sources to define the boundaries of the faith community, namely to develop his definitions of faith, heresy, and infidelity. Amos Edleheit has argued that Pico's position and his assessment of patristic authors, as developed in his Apologia, "[represents] the evolution of a new humanist theology, which rejects most of the medieval tradition” (Ficino, Pico and Savonarola: The Evolution of Humanist Theology, 2008, p. 282). I will argue that this is not the case. On the contrary, Pico's position, and his interaction with patristic sources, has clear precedents in the preceding medieval scholastic tradition. 492 John Mair and Church Power: Patristic Authority and 16th-Century Conciliarism John Slotemaker Fairfield University, Stratford, CT, USA Abstract John Mair was the most influential theologian at the University of Paris in the first decades of the sixteenth century. In his theological writings he defended a version of conciliarism that he traced back to the long tradition of conciliarists at Paris (e.g., Pierre d’Ailly and Jean Gerson) and which he developed in his commentary on the book of Matthew (c. 1512) and in his commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences. The present paper will consider Mair’s engagement with patristic sources (and those of his student, Jacques Almain) in his response to papalism (in particular, Thomas Cajetan). This use of sources is important to trace methodologically, given that within two decades of the publication of Mair’s commentary on Matthew the same texts would be hotly debated again, this time between Protestant and Catholic theologians defending divergent views of what the Church ought to be. Thus, while the paper will focus on Mair, and to some extant Almain, it will also gesture at the way in which patristic authority would play a somewhat different role in the conflagration that engulfed the Church in the sixteenth century. 510 Augustinian theology in philosophical ethics: John Mair's use of Augustine in his commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics Ueli Zahnd Institut d'histoire de la Réformation, Geneva, Switzerland Abstract As one of the last books he gave into print, John Mair published in 1530 a huge commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Concerned with the challenges of his time – the discovery of the New World, the humanist critique of scholasticism, and the Reformation – he had delved into the writing of this commentary. He thought to be able to reassure the traditional world view and approaches when arguing for an almost perfect concordance of Aristotle, the champion of natural reason, and the traditional catholic faith. In doing so, an important resource to test Aristotle’s orthodoxy was Augustine, so that the commentary became an interesting conglomerate of philosophical and Patristic sources. In my paper, I'll analyze this use of Augustine in the context of philosophical ethics, examining also the question to what extent this might have fostered the reception of Augustine among Mair’s philosophical students, to which possibly pertained John Calvin..
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