University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2012 Substance and Providence in the Old French Theological Romance Ian Michael McConnon University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Medieval Studies Commons, and the Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons Recommended Citation McConnon, Ian Michael, "Substance and Providence in the Old French Theological Romance" (2012). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 545. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/545 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/545 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Substance and Providence in the Old French Theological Romance Abstract The doctrine of divine providence was considered fundamental to understanding the nature of reality in medieval Christian orthodoxy. One of our greatest modern impediments to proper understanding of this law are the radically different ontologies that flourished in the Latin estW through the recuperation of Ancient thought, most notably in the divisions between the Platonists and the Aristotelians. Whereas Biblical exegesis owed more to Augustine's Platonism, the rise of Aristotelian thought in the university curriculum entailed a serious threat to the doctrine of providence. The translation and dissemination of Islamic Aristotelians revealed an almost identical challenge to Islamic orthodoxy on the same matter. Philosophical, and especially ontological, speculation on the nature of substance (ontology) was therefore fertile ground for heresy. The main works under examination are the anonymous Queste del Saint Graal and the continuation of the Roman de la Rose by Jean de Meun. Deeply imbued with Augustinian figuralism and Biblical history, the Queste strongly distinguishes itself from the rest of the Lancelot en Prose, most notably La Mort le Roi Artu, in its theological purpose. It also shows a clever reworking of its source materials (Chrétien de Troyes and continuators, Robert de Boron, Perlesvaus) and an attempt to re-write the grail literature in its most sophisticated and orthodox formulation. By contrast, Jean de Meun's Rose continuation is fraught with heresy and obscenity as he denounces the corrupt practices of the mendicant orders and marks his clear preference for the University of Paris's secular masters (ca. 1270). Analyzing the question of ontology within the work, one notices heresies that originate in the Islamic reception of Aristotle, and which resulted in the large-scale condemnations within the decade of the continuation's composition. While strikingly different in tone and purpose, the Queste and the Rose are theological romances that use the concept of providence to explain the special place of man. While the former offers an explanation based on church sacramental practices, the latter offers an extreme naturalism with an Arab-inflected Boethius as its principal source. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Romance Languages First Advisor Kevin Brownlee Keywords allegory, grail, providence, romance, rose, substence Subject Categories Medieval Studies | Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/545 SUBSTANCE AND PROVIDENCE IN THE OLD FRENCH THEOLOGICAL ROMANCE Ian McConnon A DISSERTATION in Romance Languages Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2012 Supervisor of Dissertation Signature: ______________________________ Kevin Brownlee, Professor, French Graduate Group Chairperson Signature: ________________________________ Kevin Brownlee, Professor, French Dissertation Committee Kevin Brownlee, Professor, French Rita Copeland, Professor, Classical Studies, English, and Comparative Literature Sarah Kay, Professor, French SUBSTANCE AND PROVIDENCE IN THE OLD FRENCH THEOLOGICAL ROMANCE COPYRIGHT 2012 Ian McConnon ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am so grateful to my advisor, Kevin Brownlee, for having introduced me to the works in this study. His medieval French classes will always remain a source of inspiration. I would like to thank, in particular, Sarah Kay, for first teaching me to read Old French as an undergraduate and for making me conversant in literary theory. Rita Copeland’s class in medieval literary theory showed me a new way to look at literature and was unique in giving me a glimpse beyond my hitherto modern prejudices. They have provided invaluable suggestions and criticism on this dissertation. I am indebted to Charles Méla and Yasmina Foehr-Janssens for their great help with my grail chapter. Selma Feliciano- Arroyo also read and made suggestions for this chapter. Bryan Cameron deserves particular mention for having read and commented on every chapter of this dissertation. This dissertation would not have been possible without their help and support. Any failings within the dissertation are, of course, my own. iii ABSTRACT SUBSTANCE AND PROVIDENCE IN THE OLD FRENCH THEOLOGICAL ROMANCE Ian McConnon Kevin Brownlee The doctrine of divine providence was considered fundamental to understanding the nature of reality in medieval Christian orthodoxy. One of our greatest modern impediments to proper understanding of this law are the radically different ontologies that flourished in the Latin West through the recuperation of Ancient thought, most notably in the divisions between the Platonists and the Aristotelians. Whereas Biblical exegesis owed more to Augustine’s Platonism, the rise of Aristotelian thought in the university curriculum entailed a serious threat to the doctrine of providence. The translation and dissemination of Islamic Aristotelians revealed an almost identical challenge to Islamic orthodoxy on the same matter. Philosophical, and especially ontological, speculation on the nature of substance (ontology) was therefore fertile ground for heresy. The main works under examination are the anonymous Queste del Saint Graal and the continuation of the Roman de la Rose by Jean de Meun. Deeply imbued with Augustinian figuralism and Biblical history, the Queste strongly distinguishes itself from the rest of the Lancelot en Prose , most notably La Mort le Roi Artu , in its theological purpose. It also shows a clever reworking of its source materials (Chrétien de Troyes and continuators, Robert de Boron, Perlesvaus ) and an attempt to re-write the grail literature in its most sophisticated and orthodox formulation. By contrast, Jean de Meun’s Rose continuation is fraught with heresy and obscenity as he denounces the corrupt practices of the mendicant orders and marks his clear preference for the University of Paris’s secular masters (ca. 1270). iv Analyzing the question of ontology within the work, one notices heresies that originate in the Islamic reception of Aristotle, and which resulted in the large-scale condemnations within the decade of the continuation’s composition. While strikingly different in tone and purpose, the Queste and the Rose are theological romances that use the concept of providence to explain the special place of man. While the former offers an explanation based on church sacramental practices, the latter offers an extreme naturalism with an Arab-inflected Boethius as its principal source. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Signifying Power of Substance 20 Chapter 2: The Holy Grail and Providential Re-writings of the Prose Lancelot 85 Chapter 3: Epistemology and Theories of Reading the Rose 131 Chapter 4: Naturalism, Generation and Deliz : an allegory of the Species 185 Conclusion 236 Bibliography 243 ILLUSTRATIONS Arbor Porphyriana, from probable translation of Boethius 47 vi Introduction This dissertation will focus primarily on the interpretation of two theological romances of the thirteenth century in France, La Quête du Saint Graal and Le Roman de la Rose . The juxtaposition of two works, separated by some forty years in their completion and dissemination, under the same generic category might shock at first glance, for while the first work is obviously laden with much theological sermonizing, the theology of the latter is not foregrounded in the same fashion. And yet both romances are connected, to an extent, by their respective promotions of world-views that rely on conceptions of substance as this relates to providence. Both works elaborate on the position of man within a providential universe, and in their respective attempts to articulate such a position, they offer glimpses of their underlying ontology, or their perspective on being. 1 It is my contention that these works must be contextualized within their respective settings in order to understand how they could have been meaningful within the milieu from which they sprang. La Quête du Saint Graal , composed anonymously c. 1230, fits oddly into the Lancelot en prose or Vulgate series, given the extended theological glossing that occupies a large portion of the narrative. But without disregarding its narrative insertion into a larger work, it seems that the Quête is more concerned with its extra-diegetical truth 1 The link between allegory and ontology is brought to the fore in Peter Struck’s discussion of the Neoplatonist Plotinus’s theory of the intellects, emanating from the One, down to Mind (nous), Soul (Psyche), and eventually Substance (Hule).