Theologians as Persons in Dante’s Commedia Abigail Rowson Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Leeds School of Languages, Cultures and Societies January 2018 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Abigail Rowson to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by Abigail Rowson in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 2 Acknowledgements Firstly, I am indebted to my supervisors, Claire Honess and Matthew Treherne, whose encouragement and support at the outset of this project gave me the confidence to even attempt it. I hope this work repays at least some of the significant amount of trust they placed in me; they should know that I shall be forever grateful to them. Secondly, this thesis would not have taken the shape it has without some wonderful intellectual interlocutors, including the other members of the Leeds/Warwick AHRC project. I feel fortunate to have been part of this wider intellectual community and have benefited enormously by being one of a team. I began to develop the structure and argument of the thesis at the University of Notre Dame’s Summer Seminar on Dante’s Theology, held at Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Jerusalem, 2013. The serendipitous timing of this event brought me into contact with an inspirational group of Dante scholars and theologians, whose generosity and intellectual humility was the hallmark of the fortnight. I thank the organisers and participants of that truly special event. Thirdly, I thank my friends and family for their unfailing support, particularly my Mum and Dad, and my husband, Will. He has been my biggest cheerleader, and has provided unending encouragement, without which I would not have come so far. Finally, writing this thesis has coincided with the arrival of our two children, Jacob and Heidi. They are the greatest gift. I dedicate this work to them, in the hope that one day they will be proud of their mother. 3 Abstract This thesis examines the roles of four major theologians in Dante’s Commedia: Augustine (354-430), Gregory the Great (c. 540-604), Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1275), and asks what their appearances as persons in the poem can tell us about Dante’s conception of theology. Dante chooses to represent theology through a series of personal encounters with individuals and individual theologians: the project asks how he transforms or incorporates these perceptions in the Commedia. My claim is that the character of Beatrice should be understood as a theologian within the poem, even though her claim to such status relies not on an established historical authority—on written treatises, sermons, works or reputation—but purely on the nature of the particular person which Dante constructed in his poetic career. 4 CONTENTS Abbreviations and notes on translations 6 Introduction Summary and Definition of Terms……………... 7 The Theologians within Dante Studies 13 Methodology 42 Overview of the Thesis 49 Chapter I The Person of the Theologian…………………… 51 1. Personhood in the Commedia 51 2 . The Theologians in Florence 64 Chapter II The Virtuous Theologian………………………… 87 1. Theology emerging from the shadows 87 2. Bernard’s Authentic Heart 90 3. Bernard’s Heart in the Commedia 100 4. Bernard and Aquinas: Loving and Knowing 115 Chapter III Narrating Turning Points………………………… 137 1. Changing Personhood 137 2. Persons Vulnerable to Error 157 Chapter IV Beatrice as Theologian……………………………. 177 1. Interpreting Beatrice through Augustine 177 2. Beatrice and Bernard 184 3. Beatrice and Gregory 197 4. Beatrice, Aquinas and Theological Discourse 201 5. The I am of Beatrice 217 Conclusion 225 Bibliography 233 5 Abbreviations, editions and notes on translations All quotations from the Commedia are taken from the following edition: La Commedia secondo l’antica vulgata, 4 vols, edited by Giorgio Petrocchi (Milan: Monadori, 1966-67). All translations from the Commedia are taken from the following, unless otherwise stated: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, edited and translated by Robert M. Durling; commentary by Robert M. Durling and Ronald L. Martinez, 3 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996-2011). All biblical quotations from the Latin Vulgate are taken from the Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem, edited by Robert Weber and Roger Gryson (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994). English translations in the footnotes are taken from the Douay-Rheims American Edition Version (Baltimore, MD: John Murphy Co., 1899). VN Vita nova Conv. Convivio Mon. Monarchia Ep. Epistole PL J.P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina ED Enciclopedia Dantesca EN Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Conf. Augustine, Confessions Civ.Dei Augustine, De civitate Dei Moralia Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob ST Aquinas, Summa Theologiae SG Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles BML Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Firenze BNC Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Firenze BR Biblioteca Riccardiana, Firenze 6 INTRODUCTION 1. Summary and definition of terms This study forms part of the AHRC-funded project, ‘Dante and Late Medieval Florence: Theology in Poetry, Practice and Society’, based at the universities of Leeds and Warwick. 1 It examines the roles of four major theologians in Dante’s Commedia: Augustine (354-430), Gregory the Great (c. 540-604), Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), and Thomas Aquinas (1225- 1275), and asks what their appearances as persons in the poem can tell us about Dante’s conception of theology. As case studies, they present rich opportunities for understanding Dante’s own views about theology, not least because their representations as characters within the poem are each very different. These theologians, in some senses exemplary of particular theological traditions, will be studied alongside their presence in the context of Dante’s Florence in the years between 1280 and 1300. Again, their presence here—in the sources through which they were perceived as persons—is markedly different. So, as Dante chooses to represent theology through a series of personal encounters with individuals and individual theologians, the project will ask how he transforms or incorporates these 1 The project, led by Professor Matthew Treherne, Professor Claire Honess and Professor Simon Gilson, casts light on the ways in which medieval theology was mediated and experienced within a specific historical and geographical context. Nicolò Maldina and Anna Pegoretti carry out post-doctoral work on the religious and learning contexts of Florence; Kevin Marples’s doctoral thesis examines the prophetic, political and theological intersections in Dante’s works; Ruth Chester’s public and cultural engagement work, which was assisted by Lois Haines, provides new guides for tourists in Florence, based on the outcomes of the research. https://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/info/125117/dante_and_late_medieval_florence It should also be noted that the volumes, Dante’s ‘Commedia’: Theology as Poetry, edited by V. Montemaggi and M. Treherne (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010) and Reviewing Dante’s Theology, 2 vols, edited by C.E. Honess and M. Treherne (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2013), form foundational entry points into the discussions that are found in this thesis. 7 perceptions in the Commedia. Finally, I make the bold claim that the character of Beatrice should be understood as a theologian within the poem, even though her claim to such status relies not on an established historical authority—on written treatises, sermons, works or reputation— but purely on the nature of the particular person which Dante constructed in his poetic career, beginning in the Vita nova, and supposedly based on a real woman whom the poet saw in Florence, and who died in 1290.2 Above all, I shall argue that by including these theologians as persons in his poem Dante gives us an opportunity to engage with theology in a way which moves beyond merely the analysis of theological texts and therefore enables us to see Dante’s theology in a new light. Aspects of their characters, how they appear in the poem and in the historical sources, will determine the thematic structure of the study, rather than an analysis of each theologian in turn. As I have already alluded to, as characters within the poem these five appear in very different ways. Augustine is hardly present at all: he is mentioned in passing in the Heaven of the Sun, Paradiso X, 120, and then later his seated position in the Empyrean is described at Paradiso XXXII, 35. Gregory’s name appears only twice in the poem at Purgatorio X, 75, and Paradiso XXVIII, 133, and together with an implicit reference to him at Paradiso XX, 109, he can hardly be described as a fully- formed character as such—especially as the mentions of him are twice found to be describing someone else, the Emperor Trajan. Aquinas, Bernard and Beatrice are different again, of course. Each has a role within the second and third cantiche which are substantial, speaking parts. 2 I am indebted to Professor Elena Lombardi who first suggested I should consider the character of Beatrice as a theologian, in response to my paper, ‘Bernard of Clairvaux in Late-medieval Florence’ which was given at ‘Dante’s Theology in Poetry, Practice and Society’ at University of Notre Dame’s London centre, 13-14 July 2013. Without Professor Lombardi’s helpful comments this thesis would have no doubt have taken a very different course. 8 Aquinas, beginning at Paradiso X, 82, introduces himself and the other ‘candles’ of the Heaven of the Sun—the dancing theologians, and then proceeds in the next canto, from line 19 onwards, to eulogise St.