Of Scholasticism and Canon Law: Narratives Old and New

chapter 6 Of Scholasticism and Canon Law: Narratives Old and New

John C. Wei

One of the oldest and most popular narratives concerning the relationship of scholasticism, i.e., the intellectual culture of the high and late medieval schools and universities, to the development of canon law in the twelfth century is a story about how a ‘great’ theologian (Peter Abelard) composed a ‘great’ book (the Sic et non) that expounded a ‘great’ idea (the scholastic method for reconciling contradictory authorities), which a ‘great’ jurist (Gratian) then applied to canon law in his own ‘great’ work (the Concordia discordantium canonum or Decretum). Both the appeal and the weakness of this narrative lie in its simplicity. Like intellectual history more generally, medieval intellectual history, including medieval legal history, has long loved to focus on great thinkers and their great books and great ideas. Yet, as is now widely recognized, history and important historical developments seldom involve just the thoughts and actions of ‘great’ men. ‘Lesser’ thinkers, anonymous works, and more mundane ideas also frequently play a significant role, as do philological accidents and developments in material culture and technology. This article explores the history of the aforementioned narrative (hence- forth the ‘old narrative’) and submits it to critical evaluation. Part I traces the origins of the old narrative and an early variation upon it. Part II then discusses developments that call the old narrative into question. The paper concludes with some thoughts on what a new narrative on the relationship between scholasticism and the development of canon law should provide.

1 The Origins of the Old Narrative

The old narrative of the relationship between scholasticism and canon law developed in two stages. The first stage, the rediscovery of the Sic et non around the 1830s, was the work of a French philosopher and historian of philosophy,

Victor Cousin (1792–1867).1 The second stage, the linking of the Sic et non to Gratian in the 1880s, was the work of Austrian medievalists, particularly Friedrich Thaner (1839–1915).2

1.1 The Rediscovery of the Sic et non Sometime before 1836, Victor Cousin rediscovered Abelard’s Sic et non.3 Previous scholars had known about this work from a letter written by William of Saint-Thierry to St Bernard of Clairvaux, as well as the reports of early modern French authors.4 However, scholars had never had access to the text or studied it in detail before. Cousin’s interpretation of the Sic et non made it foundational to the development of medieval theology. For Cousin, the essence of scholasticism lay in its method: the application of dialectic to theology.5 Cousin found the Sic et non significant for providing an early explanation of the scholastics’ method.6 While the body of the Sic et non simply collects and arranges conflicting texts on a wide variety of theological subjects, the prologue to the Sic et non sets forth interpretative principles and rules for reconciling these contradictions. The prologue, for example, notes that conflicts between authorities may be due to textual issues (e.g., a text may be apocryphal, corrupted, or poorly translated), literary issues (e.g., retractation of an issue by an author, citation of an opposing opinion), linguistic reasons (e.g., poetic usage), or moral or historical circumstances (e.g., whether a text is intended as a precept or merely a counsel), among other reasons.7 In Cousin’s opinion, the Sic et non was the earliest extant theological work by Abelard, dating to

1 On Cousin, see John Marenbon, “Victor Cousin,” in Medieval Scholarship: Biographical Studies on the Formation of a Discipline, 3: Philosophy and the Arts, ed. Helen Damico (New York, 2000), pp. 13–22. 2 On Thaner, see Heinrich Singer, “Friedrich Thaner,” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, kanonistische Abteilung 6 (1916), V–XI. 3 Peter Abelard, Sic et non, ed. Victor Cousin, Ouvrages inédits d’Abélard (Paris, 1836), pp. 1–169. The modern critical edition is Peter Abelard, Sic et non: A Critical Edition, ed. Blanche B. Boyer and Richard McKeon (Chicago, 1976). 4 For the details, see the discussion by Cousin, Ouvrages inédits (see above, n. 3), pp. CLXXXIV–CLXXXV. 5 See ibid., pp. III–IV. 6 Ibid., p. CXCVI: “un monument précieux de la première application de sa méthode théologique.” 7 For a more detailed discussion of the hermeneutical principles in the prologue to the Sic et non and their purpose, see Antonio Crocco, “Le cinque regole ermeneutiche del Sic et non,” Rivista critica di storia della filosofia 34 (1979), 452–58; Cornelia Rizek-Pfister, “Die hermeneutischen Prinzipien in Abaelards Sic et non,” Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie 47 (2000), 484–501; Guillaume Bady, “Le prologue du Sic et non d’Abélard,” in