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Ecclesiastical attitudes to novelty c. 1100 – c. 1250

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Beryl Smalley
Beryl Smalley*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Extract

Novelty in this paper refers to a new idea or institution. I shall not distinguish between religious, social and political novelties, since medieval churchmen did not do so. The church concerned herself with every aspect of Christian life: any change in men’s way of living affected her either directly or indirectly and generally the former.

I shall begin by quoting four examples of attitudes to novelty. My first two come from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. One will illustrate an attitude to new ideas, the second to a new institution. The distinction is artificial, but convenient. Men normally think up ideas in order to justify or criticise institutions. First listen to an anonymous opponent of Manegold of Lautenbach. Manegold contributed an extremist theory to papal polemic in the gregorian reform movement in order to explain and justify Gregory’s action in declaring the emperor Henry IV deposed and absolving subjects from their oath of allegiance (1085).

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 12: Church Society and Politics , 1975 , pp. 113 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1975

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References

1 MGH Lib de lit, 1, p 431. On Manegold see Hartmann, W., Manegold von Lautenbach Liber contra Wolfhelmum, MGH Quellen zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 8 (1972) pp 11–14 Google Scholar; Leyser, K.J., ‘The Polemics of the Papal Revolution’, Trends in Medieval Political Thought, ed Smalley, B. (Oxford 1965) pp 47–51 Google Scholar.

2 De vita sua iii, 7; trans by Benton, J.F., Self and Society in Medieval France (New York 1970) p 167 Google Scholar. Guibert was born 1065 (?) and died c 1125.

3 Analecta Franciscana 10, p 402.

4 … Quibus ego respondi: Omne novum, quod novum hominem instituit, promovet et consummat, veterem hominem corrumpit et destruit, benedictum novum est et omnino acceptum ei qui veterem hominem venit sua novitate renovare. See Gieben, S., ‘Robert Grosseteste at the Papal Curia, Lyons, 1250. Edition of the Documents’, Collectanea Franciscana 41 (1971) p 376 Google Scholar. On Grosseteste’s visitations see Srawley, J.H., ‘Grosseteste’s Administration of the Diocese of Lincoln’, Robert Grosseteste Bishop and Scholar, ed Callus, D.A. (Oxford 1955) pp 151-5Google Scholar; on royal objections to his procedure see Powicke, F.M., The Thirteenth Century (Oxford 1953) pp 454-6Google Scholar.

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9 Opera 5 (Quaracchi 1891) p 492: Dicit ‘ordo fictitius est, de novo institutus …’ … Carissimi! quantumcumque sit ordo fictitius et novus, est tamen bonus … Ibid 8 (1898) p 393, Expositio super Regulam: … Non est ergo haec Regula aut vita nova res, sed procul dubio renovara …

On the authorship of the Expositio see now Clasen, S., ‘Bonaventuras Expositio super regulam Fratrum Minorum’, S. Bonaventura 1274-1974 (Grottaferrata, Rome, 1974) 1, pp 531-70Google Scholar, where the contested ascription to Bonaventure is rejected in Bonaventure’s favour.

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22 Ed cit 3, pp 213-39; on the date see ibid p 207. On criticisms of the templars sec Leclercq, J., ‘Un document sur les débuts des Templiers’, RHE 52 (1957) pp 81–91 Google Scholar.

23 On William of St Thierry see DSAM 6, pp 1241-63. I quote the English translation of The Golden Epistle by T. Berkeley, Cistercian Fathers Series 12 (Spencer, Mass., 1971) pp 32, 11-12; for the latin text see PL 184 (1858) cols 317, 310-11.

24 Dialogues 1, ed with french translation and notes by Salet, G., SC 118 (1966)Google Scholar; Braun, J.W., ‘Studien zum Uberlieferung der Werke Anselms von Havelberg’, Deutsches Archiv 27 (1972) pp 133–209 Google Scholar.

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35 See above n 23. The theme of ‘withdrawal and return’ informs the De divisione naturae of John Scot Erigena; but this early ninth-century book was not widely read in the twelfth century; see Iohannis Scotti Erivgenae Periphyseon, ed I. P. Sheldon-Williams, 1 (Dublin 1968) pp 1-25, 32-3.

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39 Dufeuil pp 176, 183.