Juan De Segovia and Medieval Hebdomadal Meditation on the Life of Christ

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JESSE D. MANN

JUAN DE SEGOVIA AND MEDIEVAL HEBDOMADAL MEDITATION ON THE LIFE OF CHRIST

SUMMARY — Systematic hebdomadal meditation on the life of Christ was a common and widespread practice in the late Middle Ages with roots in traditional medieval theology, spirituality and liturgy. This article outlines some of the more important features and examples of medieval hebdomadal meditation on the vita Christi and relates these to a specific fifteenth-century instance of this tradition, namely Juan de Segovia’s († 1458) little known Epistola ad Guillielmum de Orliaco. It is argued that Segovia’s letter shows striking similarities to the Pseudo-Bonaventuran Meditationes vitae Christi and to various works associated with the Devo- tio Moderna. It is further suggested that the devotional practices of the Devotio Moderna may have gained a wider audience at the Council of Basel (1431-1449), where Segovia was a major participant throughout the council’s long duration. Finally, this article argues that Segovia’s Epistola reveals an unstudied side of this important fifteenth-century theologian.

Unlike more renowned contemporaries, such as Jean Gerson and Nicholas of Cusa, the Spanish theologian, Juan de Segovia († 1458), is not known today as a ‘spiritual’ or ‘mystical’ author.1 Nor should he be. Segovia wrote little that could be described as spiritual or mystical. However, in one late work – a treatise-length letter to a Savoyard Dominican preparing to enter the solitary life2 – Segovia did address devotional subjects such as Bible-reading and prayer techniques. Perhaps

1 On Gerson and Cusanus as spiritual authors, one should consult the relevant volumes in the Classics of Western Spirituality series: Brian Patrick McGuire (Ed. & trans.), Jean Gerson: Early works, New York 1998; and H. Lawrence Bond (Ed. & trans.), Nicholas of Cusa: Selected spiritual works, New York 1997. On Juan (or John) of Segovia, see the biographical sketch in Rolf De Kegel (Ed.), Johannes von Segovia: Liber de magna auctoritate episcoporum in concilio gener- ali, Fribourg 1995, 31-50. 2 On this letter (dated 13 October 1456), see Benigno Hernández Montes, ‘Obras de Juan de Segovia’, in: Repertorio de la Ciencias Eclesiásticas en España 6 (1977), 321-323 [hereafter: OJS]; Jesse D. Mann, ‘Juan de Segovia’s Epistola ad Guillielmum de Orliaco de quatuor hostibus: Who was Guillielmus de Orliaco?’, in: Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 62 (1992), 175-193; and idem, ‘Duns Scotus, Juan de Segovia and Their Common Devil’, in: Franciscan Studies 52 (1992), 135-154. The Epistola survives in a single manuscript: Salamanca, Biblioteca Univer- sitaria MS 202, fols. 172r-184v. For a description of this MS, see Óscar Lilao Franca & Carmen Castrillo González (Eds.), Catálogo de manuscritos de la Biblioteca Universitaria de Salamanca, Salamanca 1997, Vol. 1, 160-163. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 114

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most interestingly, in this Epistola ad Guillielmum de Orliaco, Juan de Segovia outlined a hebdomadal method of meditating on the life of Christ arranged such that one would meditate on a different period or event in Christ’s life on each day of the week. Benigno Hernández Montes, one of the few scholars to have commented on this text, called this ‘a curious method of meditating on the life of Christ’.3 However, by the mid-fifteenth century, systematic hebdomadal meditation on the vita Christi as found in Segovia’s epistle was anything but a curios- ity. Rather, it was a common and flourishing devotional practice with a long and venerable tradition rooted in medieval theology, spirituality and liturgy. The purpose of this article is to outline some salient features and examples of this tradition and thereby to place Segovia’s letter in its proper context. In the early fifteenth century, the author (usually thought to be Thomas à Kempis) of the remarkably popular Imitation of Christ wrote that ‘to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ should be our most earnest study’.4 According to Segovia, the prospective solitary would find such earnest study an especially efficacious protection against evil spirits.5 Thus he advised his correspondent to meditate daily, notably in the morning and the evening.6 Stated briefly, Segovia arranged these daily meditations7 as follows:

3 OJS 322: ‘…una curiosa manera de meditar la vida de Cristo, distribuyendo para cada día de la semana…’. 4 Thomas à Kempis, De imitatione Christ 1.1, Paris 1823, 3: Summum studium nostrum sit in vita Jesu Christi meditari. The Imitation began to circulate around 1424-27, see André Rayez, ‘Humanité du Christ’, in: M. Viller, F. Cavallera & J. de Guibert (Eds.), Dictionnaire de spi- ritualité ascétique et mystique [hereafter: DS]. Vol. 7, Paris 1969, 1093. On this work, see Albert Hyma, The Christian renaissance: A history of the ‘Devotio Moderna’, Hamden (CT) 1965 (2nd ed.), 158-190; and Giles Constable, Three studies in medieval religious and social thought, Cam- bridge 1995, 239-243. For a brief discussion of the authorship question, see John Van Engen (Ed. & trans.), Devotio Moderna: Basic writings, New York 1988, 8-9, with n. 5. 5 Salamanca MS 202, fol. 182r: ‘…ne Christi servus ocio marceat devastandus innumeris spiritibus. Quod revera, Dei iuvante gracia, minime continget solitarie viventi, si Christi vitam familiarem sibi efficiat iugi meditacione…’. The notion that having Christ continually in one’s mind should serve to ward off sin or temptation is an ancient and recurrent one in Christianity. See, e.g., Apostolic Tradition 35: ‘And if you act so, all you faithful, and remember these things and teach them in your turn and encourage catechumens, you will not be able to be tempted or to perish, since you have Christ always in memory’ (cited by Robert Taft, The liturgy of the Hours in East and West: The origins of the Divine Office and its meaning for today, Collegesville (MN) 1986, 24). For a discussion of this idea from a rather different perspective, see Mary Carruthers, The craft of thought: Meditation, rhetoric, and the making of images, 400-1200, Cambridge 1999, 82-101. 6 Salamanca MS 202, fol. 182r: ‘…contemplatus mane precipue de seroque’. Of course, the Christian practice of praying at fixed times, especially at the start and end of each day, derives in large measure from Jewish practice as well as Biblical precedent (e.g., Ex 30:7-8). See Taft, The liturgy of the Hours, 11; and Jonathan Black, ‘The Divine Office and private devotion in the Latin west’, in: Thomas J. Heffernan & E. Ann Matter (Eds.), The liturgy of the medieval Church, Kalamazoo (MI) 2001, 45-71: 47. 7 It is noteworthy that Segovia usually refers to these meditations as considerationes. Here one might rightly think of Bernard of Clairvaux’s well-known definition of consideratio in De consideratione 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 115

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On Monday, one is to meditate on the events of Christ’s life from the Incar- nation to his encounter with the rabbis in the temple. Several specific events are mentioned: the circumcision, the adoration of the magi, the flight into Egypt and others. Special reference is made to the poverty and humility of Christ’s birth. On this day, one should compare the magnificence of the Incarnation with that of the Creation. In addition, one is to consider the first sin, namely vainglory or pride, and the first of numerous ecclesiastically-sanctioned hebdomads, such as the first of the seven sacraments and the first of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.8 On Tuesday, the servus Christi is to meditate on the period in Christ’s life from age twelve to age thirty, and on his thirtieth year up through his baptism. This is the longest consideratio, and it is replete, as one might expect, with extra- canonical material. The emphasis throughout is again on Christ’s poverty and humility. These are illustrated by examples from Jesus’ domestic life with Mary and Joseph. The events of Christ’s second year of public life constitute the subject of Wednesday’s meditation. Specific mention is made of Judas’s betrayal, and it is this association which has given us the tradition of ‘Spy Wednesday’.9 On Thursday the meditative menu includes the events in Jerusalem from Palm Sunday through Holy Thursday. Friday is, of course, dedicated to the Pas- sion, and Segovia notes that Friday is therefore ‘like a double feast’ (tamquam duplex sit festum) so the meditation actually begins at Vespers on Thursday.10

2.2.5 (S. Bernardi opera, 9 vols., ed. Jean Leclercq & H.M. Rochais, Rome 1957-, Vol. 3, 414): Et primo quidem ipsam considerationem quid dicam, considera. Non enim id per omnia quod contem- plationem intelligi volo, quod haec ad rerum certitudinem, illa ad inquisitionem magis se habent. Iuxta quem sensum potest contemplatio quidem diffiniri verus certusque intuitus animi de quacumque re, sive apprehensio veri non dubia, consideratio autem intensa ad vestigandum cogitatio, vel intensio animi vestigantis verum. Quamquam soleant ambae pro invicem usurpari. 8 On the symbolism and proliferation of such hebdomads in the Middle Ages, see Johan Huizinga, The autumn of the Middles Ages (trans. Rodney J. Paton & Ulrich Mammitzsch), Chicago 1996, 240-241. See also Eamon Duffy, The stripping of the altars: Traditional religion in England c.1400-c.1580, New Haven (CT) 2005 (2nd ed.), 248-256. On the importance of the number seven in medieval Christianity, see Annemarie Schimmel, The mystery of numbers, New York 1993, 133-137. 9 Of ‘Spy Wednesday’, the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. ‘spy’ (no. 5), giving a 19th century example, says: ‘In Irish use, the Wednesday before Easter (in allusion, it is said, to Judas)’. The Biblical reference is Mt 26:14-16. 10 Salamanca MS 202, fol. 184r: Tamquam necdum solempne sed tamquam duplex sit festum de Christi passione omni sexta feria celebrandum, ideoque consideracionis officium incipiat a primis vesperis ferie quinte, in completorio sexte ferie terminatum. On double feasts, see John Harper, The forms and orders of Western liturgy from the tenth to the eighteenth century: A historical introduction and guide for students and musicians, Oxford 1991, 53-54, 56-57. According to Harper, a duplex festum has two Vespers and usually begins at Vespers the evening before and concludes at Second Vespers of the feast-day itself. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 116

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On Saturday, one is to consider the pain and sorrow of Mary and the disciples.11 Likewise, one should meditate on Christ’s descent into Hell.12 Finally, Sunday is the day of the Resurrection when one is to meditate on Christ’s victory over death and the devil.

Obviously, this meditative schedule presupposes an interest in the ‘historical’ Jesus, in the humanity of Christ.13 It is a commonplace, though a not uncon- troversial commonplace,14 to trace such interest in the Latin West to the eleventh century when theology, art and religious lyric all began to witness an increasingly profound and transformative concern with Christ’s humanity and suffering.15

11 It is noteworthy that Segovia makes no mention here of the common medieval tradition that saw Saturday as Mary’s day, because she alone remained faithful then while all others, even the apostles, abandoned Christ. On this theme and Segovia’s opposition to the in sola Virgine tradition, see Johannes Helmrath, ‘Ecclesia enim parva esse potest, nulla esse non potest: Die soge- nannte Restlehre zwischen Mariologie und konziliarer Theorie, inbesondere bei Johann von Segovia’, in: Thomas Prügl & Marianne Schlosser (Eds.), Kirchenbild und Spiritualität: Dominikanische Beiträge zur Ekklesiologie und zum kirchlichen Leben im Mittelalter, Paderborn 2007, 291-317; Jesse D. Mann, ‘Non in sola Virgine remansit fides: A conciliarist’s opposition to a popular Marian devotion’, in: Gerald Christenson & Thomas Izbicki (Eds.), The Church, the councils and reform: The legacy of the fifteenth century, Washington, DC 2008 (forthcoming). 12 For an introduction to the large literature on this theme, see s.v. ‘Descent of Christ into hell, The’, in: The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Oxford 2005 (3rd rev. ed.). 13 Indeed, Segovia’s schema provides a fine example of what Ewert Cousins has called a ‘mysti- cism of historical event’ (cited by Constable, Three studies, 203). On the subject of Christ’s humanity, see the articles by Jacques Horlier and André Rayez in DS 7 (1969), s.v. ‘Human- ité du Christ’, 1053-1096. 14 Few scholars would dispute the dating of this transformation in these various disciplines, but some have raised questions about the interpretation and applications of this important shift. See most notably, Sarah Beckwith, Christ’s body: Identity, culture and society in late medieval writings, London 1993; and David Aers, ‘The humanity of Christ: Reflections on orthodox late medieval representations’ and ‘The humanity of Christ: Representations in Wycliffite texts and Piers Plowman’, in: Derek Pearsall (Ed.), Chaucer to Spenser: A critical reader, Oxford 1999, 1-41, at 2-4. It is noteworthy that Gertrud Schiller (Iconography of Christian art. 2 vols. [trans. Janet Seligman], Greenwich [CT] 1972, Vol. 2, 9), suggested that already the ninth-century Eucharistic controversies initiated by Radbertus produced a new understanding of Christ’s Passion, one that linked the historical and the sacramental body of Christ in influential ways. On the controversy between Radbertus and Ratramus regarding the Eucharist, see Jaroslav Pelikan, The growth of medieval theology (600-1300), Chicago 1978, 74-80. For an important recent interpretation that associates the view of Christ with changes in apocalyptic thought around the year 1000, see Rachel Fulton, From Judgment to Passion: Devotion to Christ and the Virgin Mary, 800-1200, New York 2002. 15 See Constable, Three studies, 179-181; and Aers, ‘Humanity of Christ’, 2 (citing the work of Richard Kieckehefer, James Marrow and Rosemary Woolf). Among other works, one might add Anne Derbes, Picturing the Passion in late medieval Italy: Narrative painting, Franciscan ideologies, and the Levant, Cambridge 1996, 7-11. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 117

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Indeed, as Richard Kieckhefer has noted, ‘throughout the high and late Middle Ages there was increasing attention and devotion to the humanity of Jesus, particularly to those moments in his life that aroused sentiments of love and compassion’.16 Christ’s life, and more importantly his death, received increased attention and acquired greater theological significance in the writings of Anselm of Canterbury in the eleventh century. According to R. W. Southern, ‘the theme of the tender- ness and compassion for the sufferings and the helplessness of the Saviour of the world was one which had a new birth in the monasteries of the eleventh century…’.17 Anselm, of course, played a crucial role in this development by providing, in his Cur Deus homo, a ‘theoretical justification for the new feeling about the humanity of the Saviour’.18 Although Anselm’s treatment of the God- Man did not win universal approval, it did open the way ‘for a fresh apprecia- tion of the human sufferings of the Redeemer’.19 After Anselm, the leading figure in the development of theological and, above all, devotional interest in the life and humanity of Christ was Bernard of Clair- vaux.20 As Southern again has put it, ‘the imaginative following of the details of the earthly life of Jesus, and especially of the sufferings of the Cross, became part of that programme of progress from carnal to spiritual love which [may be] called the Cistercian programme’.21 Not surprisingly, this ‘Cistercian programme’ bears the heavy imprint of St. Bernard, for whom the historical Jesus, notably the poor and humble infant of Bethlehem, was the principal model for the spiritual life.

16 Richard Kieckhefer, Unquiet souls: Fourteenth-century saints and their religious milieu, Chicago 1984, 90. For an excellent treatment of this trend in relation to the vita Christi tradition, see C.C. de Bruin, ‘Middeleeuwse levens van Jesus als leidraad voor meditatie en contemplatie’, in: Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis 58 (1977-78), 129-166; 60 (1980), 162-181; 63 (1983), 129-173. More generally, see Carl Richstaetter, Christusfrömmigkeit in ihrer historischen Entfaltung: Ein quellenmässiger Beitrag zur Geschichte des Gebetes und des mystischen Innenlebens der Kirche, Cologne 1949; and Elizabeth Salter, Nicholas Love’s ‘Myrrour of the blessed lyf of Jesus Christ’, Salzburg 1974, chap. 5. 17 Richard W. Southern, The making of the Middle Ages, New Haven (CT) 1978, 232. 18 Ibid., 234ff. See also, idem, Saint Anselm: A portrait in a landscape, Cambridge 1991, 197-227. For more on Anselm’s role in this development, see Fulton, From Judgment to Passion, 170-192. 19 Southern, The making of the Middle Ages, 236. 20 See Southern, The making of the Middle Ages, 232ff.; and Monica Hedlund (Ed.), Epistola de vita et passione Domini Nostri: Der Lateinische Text mit Einleitung und Kommentar, Leiden 1975, 19. 21 Southern, The making of the Middle Ages, 233. For more on the ‘Cistercian program’, see Basil Pennington, ‘The Cistercians’, in: Bernard McGinn, John Meyendorff & Jean Leclercq (Eds.), Christian spirituality: Origins to the twelfth century, New York 1986, 205-217. For some percep- tive comments on Bernard’s ‘attachment to the humanity of Christ’, see M. Corneille Halflants’s introduction to The works of Bernard of Clairvaux. Vol. 2, Spencer (MA) 1971, xix-xxi. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 118

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It is therefore particularly noteworthy that Juan de Segovia also sent Guillaume d’Orylé some excerpts from Bernard’s writings related to the Passion.22 Even more than Bernard and the Cistercians, however, Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan order did much to popularize interest in and devotion to the humanity of Christ.23 Francis himself was perhaps the quintessential imitator Christi and his devotion to the principal events in the life of Christ, namely the Incarnation and the Passion, is legendary.24 One of Francis’s most prominent followers, Bonaventure, also contributed substantially to the dissemination of ‘Franciscan’ devotion to the life of Christ, as works such as his Lignum vitae attest.25

While medieval meditation on the life of Christ clearly grew out of this theological and devotional context, hebdomadally-arranged meditation on the vita Christi was also connected to liturgical practice. One could perhaps even see such meditation as an off-shoot of developments in the Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office. As noted, Scripture itself provides precedent for regular prayer at set times.26 For example, Psalm 118(119):164, a frequently-cited text, commends prayer seven times a day.27 Drawing on such Biblical texts, as well as on Jewish practice, early Christians developed a program of prayer at definite times or ‘hours’

22 Salamanca MS 202, fol. 184r: Quo vero ad feriam sextam, prout iam a quadraginta quattuor annis habui, ex doctrina Bernardi, additis quibusdam paucis, consideraciones in illa habende per titulos parvissimos annotate sunt in alia destinanda scriptura. 23 See Southern, The making of the Middle Ages, 240; J.A. Wayne Hellmann, ‘Spirituality of the Franciscans’, in: Jill Raitt, Bernard McGinn & John Meyendorff (Eds.), Christian spirituality. Vol. 2: High Middle Ages and Reformation, New York 1987, 31-50; De Bruin, ‘Middeleeuwse levens’, (1977-78), 141-144. On the relative influence of the Cistercians and the Franciscans in one specific instance of devotion to the life of Christ, see Olivario Oliger, ‘Le “Meditationes vitae Christi” del Pseudo-Bonaventura’, in: Studi Francescani, NS 8 (1922), 165-168. 24 See Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus through the centuries: His place in the history of culture, New Haven (CT) 1985, 133-144. Constable, Three studies, 192-193, has noted the Franciscan focus not only on the earthly life, but also the physical body of Jesus. 25 See De Bruin, ‘Middeleeuwse levens’ (1977-78), 143; Hedlund, Epistola, 19-20; and Bonaven- ture, The soul’s journey into God, The tree of life, and The life of St. Francis (ed. & trans. Ewert Cousins), New York 1978, 34-37. According to Cousins (ibid., 35), ‘In the Tree of Life, however, Bonaventure provides a meditation that touches the very heart of Franciscan devotion to the humanity and passion of Christ’. The Latin text of Bonaventure’s Lignum vitae is found in: PP. Collegii a S. Bonaventura (Eds.), Sancti Bonaventurae opera omnia… 11 vols., Quaracchi 1882-, Vol 8, 68-87. 26 See above, n. 6. Relevant Biblical passages include Ex 29:38-42; and Dan 6:10,13. 27 Psalm 118:164 (references are to the Vulgate numbering): Septies in die laudem dixi tibi(…). Among other influential works, this text is cited in Ambrose, De virginibus 3.4.18; and John Cassian, Institutes 3.4. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 119

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of the day and night. In the sixth century, the enormously influential Rule of Benedict cited this same Psalm in setting the number of these hours at seven: The Prophet says: Seven times a day have I praised you. We will fulfill this sacred number of seven if we satisfy our obligations of service at Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline, for it was of these hours during the day that he said: Seven times a day have I praised you.28 As is well-known, the Liturgy of the Hours consisted largely, though not exclu- sively, in the recitation of the Psalms. Following Roman practice,29 the Regula Benedicti strongly advocated a hebdomadal arrangement of Psalm recitation such that the monks would complete the entire Psalter each week. As the Rule states: Above all else we urge that if anyone finds this distribution of the psalms unsat- isfactory, he should arrange whatever he judges better, provided that the full com- plement of one hundred and fifty psalms is by all means carefully maintained every week, and that the series begins anew each Sunday at Vigils. For the monks who in a week’s time say less than the full psalter with the customary canticles betray extreme indolence and lack of devotion in their service. We read, after all, that our holy fathers, energetic as they were, did all this in a single day. Let us hope that we, lukewarm as we are, can achieve it in a whole week.30 Thus, hebdomadally arranged prayer had roots in the most important monastic rule of Latin Christianity. An important subsequent variation on this theme is found in a mid ninth century text attributed to Alcuin († 804) and, significantly, addressed to a lay audience.31 In this work, entitled Officia per ferias, we find the hebdomadal organiza-

28 Regula sancti Benedicti 16.1-3. Timothy Fry (Ed.), The Rule of St. Benedict in Latin and Eng- lish with notes, Collegeville (MN) 1980, 211 [hereafter: RB]. On the use on this passage in the RB, see A. de Vogüé, ‘Septies in die laudem dixi tibi: Aux origines de l’interprétation bénédic- tine d’un texte psalmique’, in: Regulae Benedicti Studia 3-4 (1975), 1-5. In fact, Benedict’s Rule includes eight canonical hours, since he also counts Vigils among the hours; see RB 390. According to Harper, Forms and orders, 74: ‘The sixth-century monastic Rules set forth seven hours (i.e., times) of prayer, together with the night Office of Matins. The basic timetable and order of these services were adopted throughout the medieval Western Church, though some aspects of internal structure and details (i.e., distribution of psalmody) varied’. There was, in any case, more variety regarding the number of these hours than is sometimes assumed, see Thomas J. Heffernan, ‘Liturgy and the literature of saints’ lives’, in: Heffernan & Matter, The liturgy of the medieval Church, 73-105: 84-85. 29 See RB 398-400; Taft, Liturgy of the Hours, 130-140; Black, ‘Divine Office’, 58-59: ‘The recitation of all 150 Psalms in one week was peculiar to the Roman monastic Office’. 30 RB 18.22-25 (ed. Fry 215). 31 See Patrologiae cursus completus: Series latina (Ed. Jean-Paul Migne, Paris 1844-1890; hereafter: PL) 101, 509-612. See also Josef Stadthuber, ‘Das Laienstundengebet von Leiden Christi in seinem mittelalterlichen Fortleben’, in: Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 72 (1950), 283-284; and Black, ‘Divine Office’, 65-66. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 120

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tion of the Psalms together with other devotional material. Here, several psalms are closely associated with specific themes, and these specific themes are linked with particular days of the week. For example, on Friday, Ps. 34 is found under the heading Psalmus de passione Domini.32 Not only does this text illustrate how widespread hebdomadally arranged prayer had become by the early Middle Ages, it also points to another crucial element in the tradition we are following, namely the association of particular days with specific events or moments in salvation history. Before this association became commonplace, however, we find – as early as Tertullian († ca. 225) – a tendency to associate the canonical Hours, rather than the days of the week, with specific moments in Christ’s Passion or, more broadly, with other ‘mysteries of the Faith’.33 Here again Scripture provided precedent for such association and served to justify the establishment of hours such as ‘Terce’ and ‘Sext’.34 In this way, the Divine Office functioned as a daily reminder of the Passion and, more generally, of the entire Christian story. Helen P. Forshaw, who studied this practice from its origins through the late Middle Ages, has noted that ‘evidence for the persistent attractiveness of this idea of associating mysteries and events of the New Testament with the canonical Hours is not difficult to find in liturgical writings, Scriptural exegesis and monastic Rules of the centuries between the death of Isidore [† 636] and the life of St. Edmund of Abingdon [c. 1180-1240]’.35 Indeed, by the twelfth century a rather firmly established tradition had emerged linking each canonical hour with a Biblical event or events, most notably the events surrounding the Pas- sion.36 Parallel developments are also found in the illustration of late medieval Books of Hours.37 An important witness to the association between the canonical Hours and meditation of Christ’s Passion is the De meditatione passionis Christi per septem diei horas – a work included among the ‘dubious’ works of Bede in Migne’s

32 PL 101, 564-565. 33 See Marion Glascoe, ‘Time of Passion: Latent relationships between liturgy and meditation in two Middle English mystics’, in: Helen Phillips (Ed.), Langland, the mystics and the medieval religious tradition: Essays in honour of S. S. Hussey, Cambridge 1990, 141-160; and Sister Mary Philomena [= Helen P. Forshaw], ‘St. Edmund of Abingdon’s meditations before the canonical Hours’, in: Ephemerides Liturgicae 78 (1964), 33-57, esp. 36-37 (on Tertullian). 34 See, e.g., Mk 15:25 (Erat autem hora tertia et crucifixerunt eum) and Mk 15:33 (Et facta hora sexta tenebrae sunt…). See also Taft, Liturgy of the Hours, 23-24, 28 (on the connection between the ‘Little Hours’ and Mark’s Passion account). 35 Philomena, ‘St. Edmund’, 41. See also Helen P. Forshaw (Ed.), Edmund of Abingdon: Specu- lum religiosorum and Speculum ecclesiae, London 1973, 22. 36 Philomena, ‘St. Edmund’, 46. 37 See Robert G. Calkins, Illuminated books of the Middle Ages, Ithaca (NY) 1983, 246-247. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 121

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edition, but more recently attributed to Bernard.38 This brief treatise arranges the meditation on the Passion according to the Hours from compline to vespers. Subsequent authors, such as Pseudo-Bonaventure (Johannes de Caulibus) and Ludolf of Saxony, followed a similar schema when dealing with the Passion.39 With far-reaching implications, the De meditatione passionis demonstrated how increasingly private devotion could make use of traditional liturgical practice and how such devotion could, again following liturgical practice, seek to make the object of meditation immediately present.40

Seen against the backdrop of developments such as regular weekly Psalm recitation and meditation on specific Biblical events organized according to the canonical Hours, hebdomadal meditation on the entire life of Christ, while new, hardly appears a remarkable innovation. Rather, hebdomadal meditation on the vita Christi seems an expression of traditional liturgical piety combined with the new- found emphasis on the humanity of Christ outlined above.41 As Monica Hedlund has noted, ‘the organization [of meditation] according to the horae was common, and the way from this method of organization to one according to the seven days of the week was short’.42 One of the first authors to make this move was the anonymous twelfth-century monk whose meditations Jean Leclercq has analyzed and edited.43 In this

38 PL 94, 561-568. On this work, see Oliger, ‘Le “Meditationes vitae Christi”’, 153-154, where it is said to date from the second half of the thirteenth-century. For the attribution, which is not unqualified to Bernard, see Hedlund, Epistola 14 with n. 44. However, C.C. De Bruin, ‘Middeleeuwse levens’ (1977-78), 152 (who, like Hedlund, cites the authority of A. Wilmart) ascribes this work to a fourteenth-century Cistercian. Richard Kieckhefer has similarly dated this tract to ca. 1300; see R. Kieckhefer, ‘Major currents in late medieval devotion’, in: Raitt, McGinn & Meyendorff, Christian spirituality. Vol. 2, 75-108: 86. 39 See Hedlund, Epistola 14, n. 42. See also Mary Immaculate Bodenstedt, The ‘Vita Christi’ of Ludolphus the Carthusian, Washington, DC 1944, 97. 40 PL 94, 561-562: Et ita te habeas in dolendo, ac si Dominum tuum coram oculis tuis haberes patientem et ita ipse Dominus praesens erit, et accipiet tua vota. 41 See Constable, Three studies, 205: ‘There was a tendency to fit these meditations on the life of Christ into the liturgy and to organize them on the basis of the divisions of the day, week, month or year’. 42 Hedlund, Epistola, 14-15: ‘Die Aufteilung auf die horae war aber die gebräuchliche, und von ihr zu einer Aufteilung auf die sieben Wochentage ist der Weg kurz’. See also Walter Baier’s comments on these various organizational divisions, Walter Baier, ‘Flores et fructus arboris vitae Iesu Christi’ des Kartäusers Ludolf von Sachsen († 1378): Ein Horologium des Lebens Jesu für alle Horen an den sieben Tagen der Woche’, in: Heribert Rossmann & Joseph Ratzinger (Eds.), Mysterium der Gnade: Festschrift für Johann Auer, Regensburg 1975, 321-341, at 325- 326. 43 Jean Leclercq, ‘Les méditations d’un moine au XIIe siècle’, in: Revue Mabillon 34 (1944), 1-19. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 122

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short work, the connection between Scripture, liturgy and meditative practice is manifest.44 The author frequently cites both Scripture and liturgical sources while proferring his meditative advice. Perhaps more to our point, each day a specific event (or series of events) taken from the entire life of Christ is presented as the principal subject for the monk’s meditation: On Monday, the Annunciation; on Tuesday, the birth of Jesus; and so on. Here we see that the practice of linking specific Biblical (and extra-Biblical) moments with a canonical hour has evolved into a link between the Biblical moment and a particular day of the week. It is thus in the twelfth century that we encounter the more formal precursors (in structure and content) to the meditative method found in Segovia’s epistle. Roughly contemporary with these anonymous meditations is Honorius Augustodunensis’s Gemma animae (ca. 1130), which likewise includes a brief series of prayers or meditations on various events in Christ’s life arranged according to the days of the week.45 As Timothy Thibodeau has noted, Honorius ‘expressly linked liturgical actions and rites with the life of Christ’.46 Thus, it is no surprise that Honorius places his meditations in the context of the Divine Office and even suggests a connection with the officium sancti Benedicti.47 While not as detailed or elaborate as subsequent treatments, Honorius’s work nonetheless represents an important and influential contribution to the tradition we are considering. Significantly, Honorius also suggests that, since pagans dedicated specific days to the worship of their various gods, Christians should and could surely do the same in regard to Christ.48 About three centuries later, Juan de Segovia made a very similar argument.49

In the fourteenth century, hebdomadal meditation on the life of Christ appeared in several widely circulated and influential works, and began to

44 Ibid., 8: ‘Voici donc une démonstration par les faits, plus éloquente que ne le serait un exposé spéculatif, de l’union qui a existé, pendant plusieurs générations de moines, entre la liturgie et le méditation et de l’order qui s’etablissait entre elles…’. 45 On Honorius Augustodunensis, see Timothy M. Thibodeau, ‘The influence of canon law on liturgical exposition c. 1100-1300’, in: Sacris Erudiri 37 (1997), 185-202: 193 with nn. 33-34; and Baier, ‘Flores et fructus’, 326 with n. 28. The Gemma animae is found in PL 172, 541-738. The relevant passage is on pages 640-642. 46 Thibodeau, ‘Influence of canon law’, 193. 47 PL 172, 641. 48 PL 172, 640: Sicut olim dies a paganis erant idolis dedicati, ita sunt nunc singuli a Christianis Christo Deo dicati. 49 Salamanca MS 202, fol. 184r: Tempore namque gentilium singulo mense anni tocius dies octo erant deputati in veneracione Iovio, illi videlicet qui Idus appellantur; et sic in kalendario currenti de tempore illo designatur, ubi notata sunt festa, que a gentilibus colebantur. Haud igitur magni, si mense quolibet dies octo dedicati specialiter sint ad Christi cultum (…). 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 123

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attain what one might call ‘commonplace’ status. First, in the first prologue to Book 1 of his Arbor vitae crucifixae Jesu, written ca. 1305, the Spiritual Franciscan Ubertino da Casale (1259-ca. 1330) treats the hebdomadal method.50 Interestingly, Ubertino does not claim to have invented this method himself. Rather he suggests that he learned it while in the novitiate.51 He writes And thus I, an unworthy, was so forcefully filled with the spirit of Jesus that from the beginning of [my] novitiate, He sought to occupy my entire heart with the knowledge of His life, which He divided into seven parts for me according to the number of days in a week…52 Ubertino then outlines a series of meditations, beginning with the Incarnation on Monday and ending with the Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost on Sunday.53 These meditations are immediately followed by another series of hebdomadally-arranged scenes (vel scriptum vel imaginatum) in which, on each day of the week, the author imagines himself eating and sleeping with Jesus at a different moment in the latter’s life. For example, On Thursday, either I ate with Jesus in the house of the Pharisee, with the Magdalene weeping at his feet or in Martha’s house with the resuscitated Lazarus

50 On Ubertino, see P. Godefroy, ‘Ubertino da Casale’, in: Dictionnaire de théologie catholique (Ed. A. Vacant & E. Mangenot). Vol. 15, Paris, 2021-2034. For a useful study of the Arbor vitae, see Gian Luca Potestà, Storia ed escatalogia in Ubertino da Casale, Milan 1980. The Arbor vitae was first printed at Venice in 1485. For a modern reprint of the Venice edition, see Ubert- inus de Casali, Arbor vitae crucifixae Jesu (introd. & bibliog. Charles T. Davis), Turin 1961. Davis (p. i) states that Arbor vitae enjoyed an extensive diffusion. For a similar view, see Potestà, Storia ed escatalogia, 18-19, with n. 4. According to Frédégand Callaey, ‘L’influence et la diffusion de l’Arbor Vitae d’Ubertin de Casale’, in: Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique 17 (1921), 533-546, at 533, the popularity of this work was due largely to its meditations on Christ’s life rather than its critique of the contemporary church. Callaey (p. 535), also notes that the Arbor vitae was particularly popular in Spain and the Netherlands. Thomas Bestul, Texts of the Passion: Latin devotional literature and medieval society, Philadelphia 1996, 56, has downplayed the popularity of Ubertino’s work, although he notes (p. 190) that ‘numerous’ manuscripts of the Arbor vitae are extant. A Latin compendium of the First Prologue of Book 1 and part of Book 5 also circulated independently under the title Tractatus de septem statibus ecclesiae; see Davis, Arbor vitae, i; and Callaey, ‘L’influence’, 535. 51 Oliger, ‘Le “Meditationes vitae Christi”’, 163-164, notes that Ubertino entered the novitiate around 1273, probably in the province of Genoa. In his view, Ubertino’s remark about the novitiate indicates that hebdomadal meditation on the life of Christ was characteristic of ‘la pietá francescana’. 52 Arbor vitae, prologus I (Davis, 3): Sicque mihi indigno tam fortiter se immisit [spiritus Jesu] quod a novitiatus principio in totum cor meum occupare vellet in artibus vite sue, quam et mihi distinxit septenario iuxta numerum dierum septimane… 53 Ibidem. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 124

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reclining at table with Jesus. In the evening I took part in Jesus’ supper and was captured with him.54 As we will see, it is particularly noteworthy for our purposes that Ubertino’s prologue and his meditative method found a ready readership in the Low Coun- tries and among representatives of the Devotio Moderna.55 Decidedly more renowned and more influential than Ubertino’s Arbor vitae was the pseudo-Bonaventuran Meditationes vitae Christi (MVC), which its recent editor has dated, not without qualification, between 1346 and 1364, and has attributed, again not without qualification, to the Franciscan Johannes de Caulibus.56 To judge from the number of extant manuscripts, this work was a runaway best-seller in the fifteenth century,57 and it is possible that Juan de Segovia was familiar with it.58 In two places in the MVC the author describes a hebdomadal plan for meditating on the life of Christ. In chapter 61, he writes And since for meditating I put together a life of the Lord Jesus, which I am writ- ing down for you in this little book, I ran through it such that I completed it [i.e., the life] in about a week’s time, and I continued this for many years…59 And, even more explicitly, in chapter 108 the author advises,

54 Ibid., 4: Die iovis vel comedebam cum Iesu in domo pharisei magdalena plorante ad pedes: vel in domo Marthe resuscitato Lazaro cum Iesu discumbente. In sero inteream cene Iesu & capiebar cum ipso. 55 See Potestà, Storia ed escatalogia, 19, n. 4. 56 M. Stallings-Taney (Ed.), Iohannes de Caulibus: Meditaciones vite Christi, Turnhout 1997, ix- xi [hereafter cited: MVC ed. Stallings-Taney with page and line numbers]. See also, idem, ‘The pseudo-Bonaventure Meditaciones vite Christi: Opus Integrum’, in: Franciscan Studies 55 (1998), 253-280, at 253 (authorship), 258 (date); and Michael Thomas, ‘Zum religionsgeschichtlichen Standort der “Meditationes vitae Christi”’, in: Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 24 (1972), 209-226. For a different view of the authorship question, see Richard Kieckhefer, ‘Recent work on pseudo-Bonaventure and Nicholas Love’, in: Mystics Quarterly 21 (1995), 41- 50: 48 n. 3. Thomas Bestul, Texts of the Passion, 56, seems to have the chronology wrong, and thus he sees the MVC as a possible inspiration for Ubertino’s work. Finally, it is noteworthy that the Passion section of the MVC circulated as a separate work; see Stallings-Taney, ‘Pseudo- Bonaventure’, 255-257; and idem, Meditaciones de passione Christi olim sancto Bonaventurae attributae, Washington, DC 1965. 57 Columban Fischer, ‘Die “Meditationes Vitae Christi”’: Ihre handschriftliche Überlieferung und die Verfasserfrage’, in: Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 25 (1932), 3-35, 175-209, 305-348, 449-483, lists 217 MSS, most of which date from the fifteenth century. Subsequent scholars have added to Fischer’s list; see Stallings-Taney, ‘Pseudo-Bonaventure’, 255. 58 It should be noted, however, that Segovia does not seem to have owned a copy of the MVC. 59 Stallings-Taney, ‘Pseudo-Bonaventure’, 265-266 (I have altered her translation somewhat). See MVC 61 (ed. Stallings-Taney 222.88-91): Cumque enim uitam Domini Iesu quam hoc libello tibi transcribo meditando procurarem et circuibam quasi comprehensam quamlibet ebdomadam ut plurimum complerem, et hoc per plures annos continuarem… 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 125

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Divide the meditations so that beginning on Monday you run through the events up to the Lord’s flight into Egypt. When that period is completed, return to it on Tuesday and meditate on the events up to the opening of the book in the syna- goge. On Wednesday, go as far as the ministry of Mary and Martha. On Thurs- day, up to the Passion. On Friday and Saturday, up to the Resurrection. On Sunday, the Resurrection itself and all the way to the end. And do this for each and every week, so that these meditations will become familiar to you, because the more you do this, the easier and more joyfully these meditations will come together for you.60 This hebdomadal plan for meditating on the life of Christ actually affected the presentation of the MVC text. Although no division of the meditations according to the days of the week occurs in the early manuscripts nor in the earliest incunabula editions, some time after the invention of the printing press chapter headings were introduced into the text reflecting the hebdomadal organization.61 Thus, in Peltier’s edition – the ‘standard’ modern edition before Stallings-Taney’s critical text – the first ninety-nine chapters of the MVC were divided according to the days of the week.62 This division of the text, obviously encouraged by the passages cited above, was apparently common already in the fifteenth century. Among the numerous late medieval vernacular translations of the MVC,63 Nicholas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ is particularly noteworthy in this regard.64 In appar- ent contrast to the earliest example of the MVC, Love’s Mirror arranges the meditations according to the days of the week. Thus, for example, at the end of his poem, Love writes,

60 Stallings-Taney, ‘Pseudo-Bonaventure’, 266 (again I have altered her translation slightly). See MVC 108 (ed. Stallings-Taney 350.20-27): Meditaciones uero sic divide ut die Lune incipiens, percurras usque ad fugam Domini in Egyptum. Et eo ibi dimisso die Martis pro eo rediens, medi- teris usque ad apercionem libri in synagoga; die Mercurii exinde usque ad ministerium Marie et Marthe; die Iouis abinde usque ad passionem. Die Veneris et Sabbati, usque ad resurrecionem. Die uero Dominica, ipsam resurrecionem et usque in finem. Et sic per singulas ebdomadas facias ut ipsas meditaciones tibi reddas familiares quod quanto magis facies tanto facilius tibi concurrent, et iucundius. Fischer, ‘Die ‘Meditationes’, 320-321, suggested that this chapter (and thus the hebdomadal method of meditation) might have been a later interpolation. 61 See Stallings-Taney, ‘Pseudo-Bonaventure’, 265-266. 62 See Adolphus C. Peltier (Ed.), Sancti Bonaventurae opera omnia. 15 vols., Paris 1864-71, Vol. 12, 510-630. 63 On these vernacular translations, see Salter, Nicholas Love’s ‘Myrrour’, 44-45. Ibid., 46, states that Love’s translation was ‘probably the most important of all the vernacular translations of the Meditationes’. 64 For a critical edition of Love’s work, see Michael G. Sargent (Ed.), Nicholas Love’s ‘Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ’: A critical edition based on Cambridge University Library Addi- tional MSS 6578 and 6686, New York 1992. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 126

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And ∫us endi∫ ∫e proheme, & after folowe∫ ∫e contemplacion for Moneday in ∫e first partie, & ∫e first chapitre.65 Moreover, Love, who freely altered the text he was translating,66 did not trans- late the final chapter of the MVC in which the explicitly hebdomadal plan appears. Rather, he incorporated its message into his poem: And fo als mich as ∫is boke is dyuydet & departet in vij parties, after vij dayes of ∫e wike, euery day on partie or sume ∫erof to be hade in contemplacion of hem ∫at hauen ∫erto desire & deuocion’. ∫erefore at ∫e Moneday as ∫e first werke day of ∫e wike, bygynne∫ ∫is gostly werke (…) Also not onelych ∫e matire of ∫is boke is pertynent & profitable to be hade in contemplacion ∫e forseide dayes, to hem ∫at wolen & mowen.’ bot also as it longe∫ to ∫e tymes of ∫e Zere, as in aduent to rede & deuoutly haue in mynde fro ∫e bigynnyng in to ∫e Natiuite of oure lorde Jesu, & ∫ere of after in ∫at holy feste of Cristenmesse, & so for∫ of o∫er matires as holy chirch make∫ mynde of hem in tyme of ∫e Zere.67 Importantly, Love himself does not seem to have endorsed the hebdomadal method. At the end of his translation, he appears to prefer a ‘seasonal’ method for meditation, ∫us ende∫ ∫e contemplacion of ∫e blessede life of oure lorde Jesu ∫e which processe for als miche as it is here ∫us writen in english tonge lengir in many parties & in o∫ere manere ∫an is ∫e latyne of Bonauenture.’ ∫erfore it seme∫ not conuenient to folowe ∫e processe ∫erof by ∫e dayes of ∫e wike after ∫e entent of ∫e forseide Bonauentur, for it were to tediouse as me ∫inke∫, & also it shulde so sone be fulsome & not in confortable deynte∫ by cause of ∫e freelte of mankynde ∫at ha∫ likynge to here & knowe newe ∫inges. & ∫oo ∫at bene seldome herde’. bene oft in ∫e more deynte∫. Wherefore it seme∫ to me beste ∫at euery deuout creature ∫at loue∫ to rede or here ∫is boke’. take ∫e partes ∫erof as it seme∫ moste confortable & stiryng to his deuocion, sumtyme one & sumtyme an o∫ere, & specialy in ∫e tymes of ∫e Zere & ∫e festes ordeynet in holy chirche, as ∫e matires bene perteynent to hem.68 This suggestion and the presence of Passion meditations arranged according to the canonical Hours in both MVC and Love’s translation should serve as a reminder (should one be needed) that the hebdomadal method was not the only organizational scheme available to late medieval meditators.

65 Love, Mirror (Ed. Sargent), 13.33-34. 66 See Sargent, Nicholas Love’s ‘Mirror’, xxix-xxx. See also Kieckhefer, ‘Recent work’, 45. 67 Love, Mirror (Ed. Sargent), 13.11-27. See also ibid., xxxviii. Salter, Nicholas Love’s ‘Myrrour’, 162, incorrectly suggests that this passage (and thus the hebdomadal division) refers solely to the Passion section rather than to the entirety of Love’s work. 68 Love, Mirror (Ed. Sargent), 222.28-43. See also ibid., xxxviii-xxxix. Relatedly, Duffy, The stripping of the altars, 40, has noted that ‘integration of personal devotional gestures into the seasonal pattern of the liturgy was a universal feature of late medieval religion’. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 127

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In any case, while MVC and Juan de Segovia both advocate hebdomadal arrangement, the similarities between the two are not confined solely to matters of structure. At times, the similarities in content are even more striking, as for example in their descriptions of Jesus’ youth. Here we find a common emphasis on Christ’s subservience to his parents, on the modest character of his home and family, and even on his illiteracy. More specifically, the pseudo-Bonaventure and Segovia describe Jesus’ domestic life in similar terms,69 and both recount the extra-biblical story of Jesus’ trips to a well outside Nazareth where he got water for his family.70 While I do not mean to suggest that the meditations in Segovia’s Epistola derive in any direct sense from MVC, although that may be possible, one can hardly deny that in form and content the meditations found in these works are remarkably similar. Importantly, in both cases the aim of the meditations is also the same: to make the life of Christ more familiar to the person meditating. According to MVC: Through frequent and habitual meditation on the life of Christ the soul is led to a certain familiarity, trust and love…71 While Segovia, for his part, writes:

69 Salamanca MS 202, fol. 183v: …quoniam persone ille tres eadem commorantes domo, non quidem uno, sed tribus lectis dormiebant seorsum (…) Felix ille, cui datum fuisset videre eos mensa una reficientes, seorsum autem tribus in locis orantes contemplantes quoque, interpollatis eciam opportunisque horis mutuo colloquentes, in hoc aliisque eorum accionibus honore invicem preve- nientes, attentissime item se audientes sicut ordinatissime alloquentes, scientes se esse in conspectu Dei. MVC 15 (ed. Stallings-Taney 71.173-181): Conspice fideliter qualiter tres ipsi simul come- dunt ad unam mensulam per singulos dies, non lautas et exquisitas, sed pauperes et sobrias cenas sumentes. Et qualiter simul postea colloquuntur, non inania et ociosa uerba, sed plena sapiencia et Spiritu Sancto (…) Et qualiter post aliqualem recreacionem ad oracionem se conuertunt in cubilibus suis; non enim erat eis domus ampla sed parua. Meditare eciam tria cubicula in aliqua camerula, scilicet unum pro quilibet eorum. 70 Compare Salamanca MS fol. 183r and MVC 13 (ed. Stallings-Taney 59.104-106). It should be noted that this same story also appears in Petrus Comestor’s Historia scholastica (PL 198, 1550) – a work used by pseudo-Bonaventure and owned by Segovia; see Benigno Hernández Montes, Biblioteca de Juan de Segovia: Edición y comentario de su escritura de donación, Madrid 1984, 86 (no. 4). 71 MVC, Prologus (ed. Stallings-Taney 7.18-20): Ex frequenti enim et assueta meditacione uite ipsius adducitur anima in quandam familiaritatem, confidenciam et amorem ipsius… On the theme of familiaritas in MVC, see Robert Worth Frank, Jr., ‘Meditationes vitae Christi: The logistics of access to divinity’, in: Partrick J. Gallacher & Helen Damico (Ed.), Hermeneutics and medieval culture, Albany (NY) 1989, 39-50, esp. 43-45; and Kieckhefer, ‘Recent work’, 42-43. For some interesting comments on the connection between ‘familiarity’, rhetoric and memory, see Carruthers, Craft of thought, 225. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 128

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[with God’s grace, the solitary will by no means be devastated by diabolic spirits], if he will make the life of Christ familiar to himself through continual meditation every day of the week…72 This same emphasis on ‘familiarity’ appears in one of the best known examples of medieval devotion to the life of Christ, namely Ludolf of Saxony’s volumi- nous Vita Jesu Christi – a work which owes much to pseudo-Bonaventure.73 While not arranged hebdomadally, Ludolf’s Life does seem to advocate hebdomadal meditation.74 And, of course, this work contains a wealth of material, much of it extra-biblical, on the life of Christ. Most importantly, we know that Juan de Segovia owned a copy of Ludolf’s work,75 and that he included selec- tions from it with his Epistola to Guillaume d’Orlyé.76 Ludolf’s influence on Segovia’s letter can thus be established with certainty. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, hebdomadally-organized meditation on the life of Christ or related subjects was also a prominent feature in the spirituality of the Brethren of the Common Life and the various groups associated

72 Salamanca MS 202, fol. 182r: Quod revera, Dei iuvante gracia, minime continget solitarie viventi, si Christi vitam familiarem sibi eficiat iugi meditacione singulo die tocius ebdomade… 73 The best modern edition of Ludolf’s Vita Jesu Christi is by L.M. Rigollot (Paris 1878) in 4 volumes. On this work, see Bodenstedt, The Vita Christi; and Walter Baier, Untersuchungen zu den Passionsbetrachtungen in der Vita Christi des Ludolf van Sachsen: Ein quellenkritischer Beitrag zu Leben und Werk Ludolfs und zur Geschichte der Passionstheologie. 3 vols., Salzburg 1977. On the connection between Ludolf’s work and MVC, see Oliger, ‘Le Meditationes’, 18-24 (on the familiaritas theme, see p. 20); Bodenstedt, The Vita Christi, 25-26, 30-31; Salter, Nicholas Love’s ‘Myrrour’, 45 (‘almost the whole of the MVC was incorporated into the lengthy Vita Christi compiled by Ludolphus of Saxony before 1377’); and Lawrence Hundersmarck, ‘Preach- ing the Passion: Late medieval “Lives of Christ” as sermon vehicles’, in: Thomas L. Amos, Eugene A. Green & Beverly Mayne Kienzle (Eds.), De ore Domini: Preacher and Word in the Middle Ages, Kalamazoo (MI) 1989, 147-167. Whether Juan de Segovia learned what he knew of MVC from Ludolf is an open question. 74 See Ludolf, Vita Christi, prohemium (ed. Rigollot 1:1): Caveat tamen provide, ne cursorie ipsam vitam legendo transeat; sed seriatim aliquid de ea per diem accipiat (…) Saepius tamen recurrat ad precipua Christi memorialia, videlicet: ad incarnationem, nativitatem (..) adventum ad judi- cium… Hedlund, Epistola, 14 with n. 41, also suggests that Ludolf recommended hebdomadal meditation, as did her source: Willem Moll, Johannes Brugman en het godsdienstig leven onzer vaderen in de vijftiende eeuw. 2 vols., Amsterdam 1854, Vol. 2, 59. However, Hedlund’s asser- tion (Epistola, 9 with n. 19) that Ludolf actually employed the hebdomadal method is sup- ported by a footnote that does not cite the Vita Christi itself and that appears to have little bearing on the matter at hand. 75 Hernández Montes, Montes, Biblioteca de Juan de Segovia, 102 (no. 78), 265. 76 Salamanca MS 202, fols. 183v-184r: Que vero magnalia illa sunt, ut calamo indulgerem, scribi feci, quos destino, titulos libri De vita Christi quomodo magni voluminis ita ab uno utique vestro Cartusiensi compositi… 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 129

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with the Devotio Moderna.77 For example, a customary for the Brethren which originated in Zwolle in the early fifteenth-century reads [I]t is expeditious for each of us to reflect untiringly on those matters which pro- voke a man to fear of God, namely, on sin, death, judgment and hell. But lest con- stant fear, unrelieved by the hope of the divine mercy, render a mind dejected and desperate, it is expeditious to intersperse other matters provoking hope and love of God such as the kingdom, the divine benefits, the life and passion of Christ. All these matters we are accustomed so to alternate that we meditate on sin on Saturday, the kingdom of heaven on Sunday, death on Monday, the benefits of God on Tuesday, judgment on Wednesday, the pains of hell on Thursday, and the passion of our Lord on Friday. It is also good to meditate on the passion each day during mass, beginning with the life of our Lord on Sunday and subsequently taking up some aspect of the passion each day, as we have mentioned.78 Moreover, one could cite several important works of the Devout, notably Florens Radewijn’s (1350-1400) Tractatulus devotus79 and the Parvum et simplex exercitium,80 in which the material for meditation is distributed over the seven days of the week. A particularly interesting example on this score is the anonymous Epistola de vita et passione Domini nostri, which dates from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth-century.81 According to its recent editor, this text may

77 See Henri Watrigant, ‘La méditation methodique et l’école des Frères de la Vie Commune’, in: Revue d’Ascétique et de Mystique 3 (1922), 134-155; M. Smits van Wanesberghe, ‘Origine et développement des exercices spirituels avant saint Ignace’, in: Revue d’Ascétique et de Mystique 33 (1957), 270-271; Hyma, The Christian renaissance; Mathias Goossens, De meditatie in de eerste tijd van de moderne devotie, Haarlem 1952, 198-200; Pierre Debongnie, ‘Exercices spirituels’, in: DS 4 (1961), 1923-1931; Regnerus Richardus Post, The Modern Devotion: Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism, Leiden 1968, chap. 8; and Hedlund, Epistola, 14-17. Examples of hebdomadal meditation in late medieval Dutch vernacular literature are cited in Franz Joseph Mone, Übersicht der niederländischen Volksliteratur älterer Zeit, Tübingen 1838, 177-178 (nos. 228, 231). For more on the spirituality of the Modern Devotion, see Otto Gründler, ‘Devotio Moderna atque Antiqua: The Modern Devotion and Carthusian spirituality’, in: E. Rozanne Elder (Ed.), The spirituality of Western Christendom. Vol. 2: The roots of the modern Christian tradition, Kalamazoo (MI) 1984, 27-45; and Van Engen, Devotio Moderna. 78 Van Engen, Devotio Moderna, 156. For the Latin text, see Hyma, The Christian renaissance, 442- 443. See also Hedlund, Epistola, 15 with n. 47. 79 See Hedlund, Epistola, 15. For the relevant section (meditation on the Passion) of Radewijn’s tract, see the edition in Goossens, De meditatie, 250-254. For more on Radewijn and his spirituality, see Hyma, The Christian renaissance, 49-58; and Post, The Modern Devotion, 317ff. 80 See Goossens, De meditatie, 198. This text has been edited by D.J.M. Wüstenhoff, ‘Florentii parvum et simplex exercitium’, in: Archief voor Nederlandsche Kerkgeschiedenis 5 (1895), 89-103. Wüstenhoff (p. 94), suggests that this work might have been composed by followers of Florentius Radewijn. 81 For the Latin text with a fine introduction, see Hedlund, Epistola. An English translation is available in Van Engen, Devotio Moderna, 187-204. 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 130

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be described as a ‘handbook for daily meditation’.82 It was very popular among the Brothers and Sisters of the renowned Windesheim Congregation.83 For our purposes, the important features of this work are, of course, its hebdomadally- arranged daily meditations on the life of Christ,84 and its epistolary format. Just like Segovia’s Epistola, this anonymous letter was apparently written in response to a request for some useful method of spiritual exercise.85 Without suggesting any direct link between these works, the Epistola de vita et passione thus provides an important, nearly contemporary precedent in form and content to Segovia’s letter to Guillaume d’Orlyé. In any event, Segovia’s own Epistola certainly may be associated with that complex of systematic, Christocentric, affective spirituality usually ascribed to the Devotio Moderna. Nor is this association as vague as it may sound. For it is quite possible that Juan de Segovia came into contact with representatives of the Modern Devotion while at the Council of Basel in the 1430s and 1440s. Such an argument has been advanced in regard to the Benedictine reformer Louis Barbo, whose For- mula orationis et meditationis also contains daily meditations on the life of Christ,86 and the same argument could be made in Segovia’s case as well. We

82 See Hedlund, Epistola, 5. 83 Ibidem. On Windesheim, see Hyma, The Christian renaissance, 136-157; s.v. ‘Windesheim’, in: Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed. 2005). 84 See, Hedlund, Epistola, 93-101; and Van Engen, Devotio Moderna, 190-196. 85 Hedlund, Epistola, 93.127-130: Verum, frater karissime, quoniam me rogasti, ut aliquam tibi reg- ulam bonorum exceciciorum ostenderem, idcirco tibi scribo, que sancti viri et homines bene exerci- tati mihi reliquerunt, non que ipsemet expertus sum. Van Engen, Devotio Moderna, 190: ‘But since, dearest brother, you asked me to set forth some rules for good exercises, I write to you what holy and well-exercised men have left me, not what I myself invented’. 86 See Henri Watrigant, Quelques promoteurs de la méditation méthodique au quinzième siècle, Enghien 1919, 9-10: ‘Nous ne savons pas si Louis Barbo assista au concile de Constance où se trouve l’auteur de la septaine de méditations employée a Windesheim, Jean Vos de Hues- den; mais nous savons qu’il assista au concile de Bâle, en 1432, et que là il eut de nombreux entretiens avec les divers réformateurs de l’Ordre bénédictin, en particulier avec Jean de Rode, abbé de saint Mathias de Trèves, grand ami de la méditation, et avec le réformateur de la Congregation de Bursfield, Jean Dederoth, qui avait étudié sur place à Windesheim les consi- titutions et usages des chanoins réguliers dont tous faisaient l’eloge’. On Louis Barbo at the Council of Basel, see Johannes Helmrath, Das Basler Konzil, 1431-1449: Forschungsstand und Probleme, Cologne 1987, 42 with n. 92; and Ildefonso Tassi, Ludovico Barbo (1381-1443), Rome 1952. More generally, see M. Mähler, ‘Barbo (Louis)’, in: DS 1 (1931), 1244-1245. For an edition of the Formula orationis et mediationis, which was written to the Benedictines of St. Justina’s in Padua around 1440, see Watrigant, Quelques promoteurs, 16-28. It should be noted that in his Formula, Barbo explicitly cites the hebdomadal method of Ubertino da Casale; see ibid., 10-11, 28. I do not know whether Watrigant ever realized his intention to study ‘toute la littérature des septaines hebdomadaires de méditation’ (ibid., 11). 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 131

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know that ideas and books, including spiritual works, were exchanged at Basel.87 Certainly council participants, all presumably devout Christians, might also have discussed and exchanged prayer and meditative techniques. At any rate, mention of Ludolf of Saxony and of the Modern Devotion should remind us that, in placing Segovia’s Epistola in the tradition of medieval sytem- atic meditation on the life of Christ, one must not only look backward, as I have attempted to do here, but forward as well. No doubt the most enduring monument to late medieval systematic, if not exactly hebdomadal, meditation on the vita Christi is Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises, a work whose debt to Ludolf and the Modern Devotion is well-known.88 The Exercises occupy a full month, divided into four weekly sections. In Weeks Two and Three we find daily meditations on events in Christ’s life outlined in a manner reminiscent of Segovia’s Epistola ad Guillielmum de Orliaco.89

There is no need to multiply examples or possible connections unnecessarily, but it is important to see Segovia’s letter in the proper context. As regards both form and content, the considerationes circum vitam Christi in the Epistola ad Guillielmum de Orliaco clearly belong to a well-established tradition which emphasized increasingly systematic meditation on the life of Christ. As we have seen this tradition did not originate with Francis of Assisi, but it nonetheless dis- plays a markedly Franciscan spirit.90 Hence, the Epistola provides a further point of contact between Segovia, an ardent supporter of the Immaculate Conception and other ‘Franciscan’ theological positions, and the Order of Friars Minor.91 As we have also seen, hebdomadal meditation on the life of Christ has signifi- cant connections to developments in medieval liturgy. While such meditation clearly suggests a move toward private, individual prayer,92 it need not be understood as

87 See Helmrath, Das Basler Konzil, 173-175. 88 Editions of the Ejercicios espirituales abound. An easily accessible English translation is found in Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises and selected works (ed. George E. Ganss), New York 1991, 113-214. On the connection between Ignatius’s Exercises and Ludolf’s Vita Christi, see ibid., 19-26; and Emmerich Raitz von Frentz, ‘Ludolph le Chartreux et les Exercices de S. Ignace de Loyola’, in: Revue d’Ascétique et de Mystique 25 (1949), 375-388. On Ignatius and the Modern Devotion, see Joseph de Guibert, The Jesuits. Their spiritual doctrine and practice: A historical study (ed. George E. Ganss, trans. William J. Young), St. Louis 1972, 156-158. 89 Ignatius, The spiritual exercises, Week 2 [102-161], 148-158; Week 3 [190-209], 167-172. 90 For some valuable comments on what is ‘specifically Franciscan’ about this tradition, see Kieckhefer, ‘Recent work’, 43-45. 91 On Segovia’s connection to the Franciscans, see Jesse D. Mann, ‘Duns Scotus, Juan de Segovia and their common devil’, in: Franciscan Studies 52 (1992), 135-154; and Santiago Madrigal Terrazas, El proyecto eclesiológico de Juan de Segovia, Madrid 2000, 128-129. 92 See Nicole Bériou, Jacques Berlioz & Jean Longère, Prier au Moyen Âge: Practiques et expéri- ences (V–XV e siècles), Turnhout 1991, 40: ‘Un trait frappe en effet, lorsqu’on parcourt les prières 1536-08_SIS18(2008)_06_Mann 30-10-2008 13:22 Pagina 132

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antithetical to communal, ecclesiastical worship. Rather, as Eamon Duffy has observed, the late medieval systematic meditative tradition, with its emphasis on the ‘spiritual value of vivid mental imagining of the events of the life of Christ, (…) evolved as part of an individual and intensely inner spirituality. But it came to be applied to the liturgy itself, and to be seen as the ideal way of participating in the Church’s worship’.93 Despite the evidence presented here, Juan de Segovia should probably still not be known as a ‘spiritual’ author. He is, however, known as the historian of the Council of Basel.94 He has also been studied as a forward-thinking exponent of inter-religious dialogue and as a political thinker who in some measure antic- ipated Locke and Rousseau.95 What Segovia’s Epistola ad Guillielmum de Orliaco, and especially the hebdomadally-organized meditations on the life of Christ contained therein, should remind us is that its author was not only a har- binger of modern ideas, but also an heir to deeply-rooted medieval traditions.

des livres d’Heures, c’est l’individualisme sous-jacent à la plupart des textes. Nous sommes à une époque où la dévotion priveé prend le pas sur la prière liturgique’. 93 Duffy, The stripping of the altars, 19. 94 See Uta Fromherz, Johannes von Segovia als Geschichtsschreiber des Konzils von Basel, Basel 1960. 95 On Segovia and the ‘Islamic Question’, see James Biechler, ‘A new face toward Islam’, in: Gerald Christianson & Thomas Izbicki (Eds.), Nicholas of Cusa: In search of God and wisdom, Leiden 1991, 185-202; Jesse D. Mann, ‘Truth and consequences: Juan de Segovia on Islam and Conciliarism’, in: Medieval Encounters 8 (2002), 79-90; and Anne-Marie Wolf, ‘Prece- dents and paradigms: Juan de Segovia on the Bible, the Church and the Ottoman threat’, in: Thomas Heffernan & Thomas Burman (Eds.), Scripture and pluralism: Reading the Bible in the religiously plural worlds of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Leiden 2005, 143-160. On Segovia as a precursor to Locke and Rouseeau, see Antony Black, Council and commune: The conciliar movement and the fifteenth century heritage, Shepherdstown 1979, 158, 203-207.