Since my studies focus on precisely this topic I hope that the following
is of some use.
It does indeed appear that the relationship between sanctity and leaned
activity has not been systematically investigated. What follows is a
short survey of some of the secondary works which pertain to the theme and
a brief mention of my own work which relates to the period c.1175-1340.
(I should add that it is with acquired, as opposed to innate, knowledge
that my interests lie).
Although not a sustained interest, monographs relating to later-medieval
sainthood do display a concern with the relationship between sanctity and
learning. M. Goodich, for example, has surveyed paradigms of
thirteenth-century sainthood and in so doing has addressed the
relationship between learned activity and the hagiographer. He posited
the existence of the *professional hagiographer*. This type of
hagiographer might simultaneously bemoan his own lack of skill and
eloquence and attack learned disciplines. Moreover, Goodich has noted
that whilst some philosophers, such as Bonaventure and Frances of
Meyronnes, did write hagiography, they constituted a minority amongst
university men. *Learned* hagiographers in general tended to be
dominicans. Finally, in his masterlist of C13th saints, Goodich has noted
those saints who received a university education (see Goodich, *Vita
perfecta* (Stuttgart, 1982), pp.59-64 and Appendix 1).
A few years later A. Vauchez added fresh insight into the topic when,
having investigated processes of canonisation, he argued that from the
thirteenth century a new emphasis was given to the intellectual activities
of saints in hagiographical literature. His conclusions to some extent
paralleled those of Goodich when he argued that twelfth-century
hagiographers had a tendency to downplay the value of a saint's
scholarship. Vauchez also noted that twelfth-century hagiographers
frequently upheld the notion of opposition between the sphere of the
school and that of the cloister. Yet he also pointed out that,
paradoxically, by the latter twelfth-century many of the higher clergy
were, to varying degrees and for varying time periods, engaged in the
pursuit of learning. Vauchez notes, for example, that all the
saint-bishops canonised after 1240 had been students at Paris. There was
increasingly an emphasis upon acquired learning in the canonisation
processes - to the extent that (to paraphrase the author) during the
Avignon papacy *studium* came to the point of becoming one of the
constituent elements of *sanctitas* (see Vauchez, *Sainthood in the Later
Middle Ages*, trans. J. Birrell (Cambridge, 1997), pp.293, 397-407).
It is also sometimes the case that investigations into the cults of
individual saints have a bearing upon the relationship between sanctity
and learning. A. H. Bredero, in his *Bernard of Clairvaux: Between Cult
and History*, trans. Wm. B. Erdsmans Publishing Co (Michigan, 1996), has
argued that it was increasingly Bernard's teaching activities (as opposed
to his role as abbot) which were stressed by those who sought his
canonisation (see pp.73-7). His conclusion thus supports Vauchez's
emphasis upon the increasing stress placed upon a saint's learning during
attempts to obtain canonisation. In addition B. Lavene also addresses
the topic (see her 'Two Short Sermons by Armand of Blevezer on Saint
Thomas Aquinas' in *La Predicatione en Pays d'Oc (XIIe-debut XVe siecle)
(Cahiers de Fanjeaux; Fanjeaux, 1997, pp.171-94). She argues that the
dominican preacher Armand chose to emphasise Aquinas' manner of living
rather than his miracles as a means of presenting an ideal portrait of a
doctor and preacher. Aquinas' doctrine had been the subject of recent
controversy and Armand was seeking to highlight both the master's virtue
as a defense for his doctrine and to implicitly criticise those doctors
whose mode of living was sinful.
Thus whilst the importance of the relationship between sanctity and
learning has been identified, treatment of this topic had tended to be
subsumed within studies of the nature of later medieval sainthood in
general or within studies relating to individual cults.
In my own work I have necessarily drawn a clear distinction between the
figure of the saint and those who venerated him (or her): to wht extent
was the saint engaged in intellectual activities and to what extend did
the saint's cult emphasise his learning? My focus is the University of
Paris and I am finding that investigation into the topic of learned
sanctity is enabling me to explore the self-image of the emerging figure
of the 'intellectual' in medieval society.
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