MILtENNIUM A LatinReader/374�1374 F.E.H.ARRISON MILLENNIUM A LATIN READER A.D·374-1374 'Plurimi pertransibunt, et multiplex erit scientia' F. E. HARRISON OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1968 Oxford University Press, Ely Ho use, London W. I GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON CAPE TOWN SALISBURY IBADAN NAIROBI LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA PREFACE BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG TOKYO THIS book is intended fo r all who are interested in ex­ ploring the range of Latin literature well beyond the © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1968 confines of the 'classical' period. There is, perhaps fo rtunately, no single label to cover this thousand years, but the two dates are significant. In 374 Aurelius Am­ brosius, governor of Liguria, with his seat at Milan, by now an administrative capital of the Western Empire, a COVER: St. Jerome in his Study, layman and an unbaptized Christian, was acclaimed by by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Mansell Collection the populace bishop of Milan-and sixteen years later he excommunicated the Christian emperor Theodosius fo r his part in authorizing a massacre : an exaltation of the Church, and fu sion or confusion of Church and State, which would have been inconceivable a century earlier, on the eve of the last and most violent persecutions. In 1374 Petrarch died-and if the modern world is to be dated from the fifteenth-century Renaissance, he, more than most in the field of scholarship, heralded and helped to shape the coIning age. Between these two dates many fo rces were at work. This book concentrates on two of them: the leaven of Christianity, and the persistence and vitality of classical thought and literature-revolution and conservatism side by side. Ifits theme can be summed up in a few words, it is continuity in spite of unceasing change : an adventurous, exploring continuity. Its limitations are conspicuous. It leaves on one side the major problems of politics, and in particular the central issue of Church and State; it is concerned with literature, PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN not documents, with highlights rather than with shadows, and with monks and clerics more than with laymen, since it was they who for most of these centuries wielded the pen. vi PREFACE PREFACE vii Of twenty-one known authors only one seems to be a gives the period the charm of unfamiliarity, while at the layman-the author of the Gesta Francorum-and he is same time one sees the Latin classics in yet another light, nameless. Even within these limits the omissions are through the eyes of an Augustine, a William of Malmes­ glaring both in time and space : fo r example, the Carolin­ bury, a Petrarch. gians have been crowded out, and, apart fr om the First The Notes on Language sketch in outline its evolution, Crusade, there is no reference to the world that lay outside and provide a fr amework of reference fo r the Commentary. western Christendom. The compiler can only suggest The texts, according to their sources and period, exhibit that longer selections fr om fe wer authors, in spite of the different styles of orthography, but these changes are resulting lack of balance, are more valuable than snippets generally indicated, and after a preliminary dip this fr om a wider field. will not cause much trouble. Passages are grouped under seven main headings, each Where passages are shortened, summaries are sometimes of which spills over into the others, the first two in par­ given in English. With prose passages these may be in­ ticular colouring all the rest. cluded in the text but, with verse, in the commentary, so as not to spoil the appearance of the page. I. The Bible; 2. The Christian Life; 3. History and Biography; 4. The World of Learning; 5. Wine, Woman, and Song; 6. Satire and Complaint; 7. Ghosts and Marvels. Selections vary greatly in difficulty, but they have one thing in common: the ipsissima verba of a wide range of writers, with all the flavour and difficulty that involves­ the walking and climbing pace, compared with the chair­ borne ease of a translation. A small dictionary is taken fo r granted (Langenscheidt's Pocket Latin Dictionary-Latin­ English, by S. A. Handford (Methuen, London, 1962) has been used as a basis), and words and meanings not contained there are explained in the commentary. The historical and biographical introductions are deliberately full, on the assumption that most readers leave the Middle Ages behind at the age of twelve or so, and only returnto them a good deal later. But at least this ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I AM deeply indebted all round. First to the authors and editors who are listed in the Bibliography; but in addition to them to a wide range of scholars without whom this book could not have been written by a latecomer fr om the classics to medieval studies. Beyond them I owe special thanks to two societies : to the Benedictines of Qu arr Abbey, and to Brasenose College, Oxford, where I have long enjoyed the double fr eedom of a library and a home; and to these I should add the British Museum Reading Room, and that vener­ able institution, the Bodleian Library. Among individual scholars I am especially grateful to Dr. R. W. Hunt, Keeper of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian, to Professor Sir Roger Mynors, to Mr. L. D. Reynolds of Brasenose College, and to Professor R. W. Southern, fo r light in dark places, and fo r much personal kindness. I must not shelter unduly behind such names, and the proportions (or lack of proportion) and errors are all my own. I am most grateful to the Press fo r their patience and skill. Above and beyond all, to my wife, without whom ... I am also indebted to the fo llowing editors and pub­ lishers for permission to use copyright texts : to Messrs. Nelson & Sons fo r Gesta Francorum, edited by Rosalind Hill (Nos. 34-36), and Th e Chronicle ofJocelin of Brakelond, edited by H. E. Butler (Nos. 37-38) ; to Sansoni, Florence, fo r Francesco Petrarca, Le Familiari, edited by Vittorio Rossi (Nos. 46--49) ; to Ricciardi, Milan, fo r Francesco Petrarca, Prose, edited by G. Martellotti (No. 45) ; to Fiorentino, Naples, fo r Riccardo da Bury, Philobiblon, x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS edited by A. Altamura (No. 44) ; to the Oxford University Press fo r Th e Oxford Book ifMed ieval Latin Ve rse, edited by F. J. E. Raby (Nos. 25, 51, 55-57, 65-66) ; to the Uni­ CONTENTS versity of California Press fo r Sp eculum Stultorum, edited by J. H. Mozley and R. H. Raymo (No. 60) ; and to the LIST OF AUTHORS XVll Manchester University Press and V. H. Galbraith for SOME NOTES ON LANGUAGE xix No. 70, reprinted fr om the introduction to Th e Anonimalle SOME NOTES ON VERSE XXVll Chronicle. (It has not proved possible to trace the present ownership of the Ingilby MS.) PART ONE. THE BIBLE The motto on the title-page will be fo und in Daniel, 12. 4: 'Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall INTRODUCTION be increased.' I. Trust in God: Psalm go (St. Jerome's Vulgate) 3 F. E. H. 2. Wisdom: Proverbs 8. 22-36 (Vulgate) 4 PART TWO. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE INTRODUCTION 6 ST. JEROME (c. 345-420): Letters 3. Cicero or Christ? (XXII. 30) 7 4. Wars, and Rumours of Wars (CXXVII. 12) 8 ST. AUGUSTINE (354-430): The Confessions 10 5. Introduction (1. I) 13 6. Childhood and Schooldays (1. g) 13 7. Adolescence (II. 2, 10) 15 8. Conversion (VIII. 11-12) 16 g. Looking Back (X. 27) 18 ST. BENEDICT (c. 480-547): The Rule 18 10. Introduction (from The Prologue) 20 11. The Abbot (ch. 64) 20 12. The Cellarer (ch. 31) 21 ST. ANSELM (c. 1033-1 109): Proslogion 22 13. Faith seeks Understanding (ch. I) 23 xii CONTENTS CONTENTS xiii EADMER (c. 1055-C. 1124): The Life of Anselm WILLIAM RUFUS (1087-1100): William of Malmesbury (c. 1080- c. 1143), De Gestis Regum Anglorum 14. Monastic Life under Difficulties (Il. 8--g) 26 30. The Siege of Mont-Saint-MicheI, 1091 (IV, §§ 30g-1O) 65 15. St. Anselm and the Hare (Il. 18) 28 31. Back to Normandy, 1099 (IV, §§ 320-1) 67 29 ST. BERNARD (1090- 1153): Letters 32. His End, 1100 (IV, §§ 331-3) 68 16. Come to Clairvaux! (Letter 106) 31 17· Jerusalem Found (Letter 64) 33 THE FIRST CRUSADE (1095-9) 71 33. The Council of Clermont: Robert the Monk (ft. 1100), THE PAPACY: St. Bernard, De Consideratione (treatise for Hi storia Hierosolomitana (chs. I, 2) 73 Pope Eugenius Ill) 35 34. Bohemond takes the Cross: Anon., Gesta Francorum (I. iv) 75 18. Your Greatness (H. 15, 16) 35 35. The Battle of Dorylaeum: Gesta Francorum (Ill. ix) 77 19· Your Wretchedness (Il. 18) 37 36. Antioch: Gesta Francorum (IX. xxvi, xxvii) 80 20. Your Perils (I. 4, 13) 38 ,Postscript 82 VIRTUE AND VICE: Caesarius of Heisterbach (c. 1180- ABBOT SAMSON (1l35-1211): JoceIin of Brakelond c. 1240), Dialogus Miraculorum 39 (ft. 1200), Cronica de rebus gestis Samsonis Abbatis Mona- 84 21. Introductory (IV, concl.) 39 sterii Sancti Edmundi 22. Avarice (IV. 68) 40 37. Who would be an Abbot! (ed. H. E. Butler, p. 36) 86 23. Simplicity (Il. I, 2) 41 38. Portrait of Abbot Samson (pp. 3g-40) 86 THE FOUR LAST THINGS 44 24. The Death of Gerard: St. Bernard, Sermon 26, On the Song of Songs 46 PART FOUR. THE WORLD OF LEARNING 25. The Day of Judgement (Dies irae) : Thomas of CeIano (c.