medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Stacey,
On Thursday, February 17, 2005, at 12:01 pm, you wrote, in response to
Meg Cormack:
> Interesting you mention Iceland, I think if there is
> anything that is every remotely secular in the middle
> ages it's Icelandic because of the historiographic
> charater that seems (and I would love a contrary
> opinion) removed from the exegetical mode. By secular
> I mean, not entirely ruled and guided by the Christian
> meta-narrative. Most of the continental vernacular
> literature in the 12th and 13th centuries from the
> Arthurian Material to the chanson de geste are ruled
> soteriological structures and could be considered as
> part of a bid for lay supremacy or at least
> participation in the discussion of spiritual matters
> -- so they are not secular -- i.e. they are not
> involved in establishing or promoting a consciousness
> removed from the prevailing christian world view. In
> fact, in many ways Alanus ab Insulus' oevre is more
> "secular" than Chretien's -- or how about this for a
> radical statement to discuss:
>
> Secular writing and reading could not exist in the
> European Middle Ages because they cannot be divorced
> from exegetical practice.
Your second definition of "secular" is at odds with what I perceive to
be common understandings of that term. These are exemplified by
definitions 1 and 2 of the _Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary_'s entry
for this word:
1 a : of or relating to the worldly or temporal <secular concerns> b :
not overtly or specifically religious <secular music> c : not
ecclesiastical or clerical <secular courts> <secular landowners>
2 : not bound by monastic vows or rules; specifically : of, relating
to, or forming clergy not belonging to a religious order or
congregation <a secular priest>
Full entry at:
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=secular
Neither of these definitions says or even implies anything
about "establishing or promoting a consciousness" or about that
consciousness' removal from a Christian world view. I find the former
difficult to conceive of, for example, in the case of the manufacture
of shoes -- ordinarily considered a secular activity -- and the
latter difficult to conceive of, for example, in the case of a secular
priest. Can you provide some instances of scholarly use of the term is
the way you define it here?
Your previous definition, "not entirely ruled and guided by the
Christian meta-narrative", is less troublesome. But also hard to apply
successfully to literary productions, which in the European Middle Ages
are ordinarily guided not only by the Christian meta-narrative (or
world view or conceptual paradigms or whatever) but also by other
considerations of a contextual or formal or linguistic nature (e.g.,
established practices of versification). So you might wish to re-think
that "entirely".
Granting, for the sake of argument, the quantitative and other accuracy
of your assertion that "Most of the continental vernacular literature
in the 12th and 13th centuries from the Arthurian Material to the
chanson de geste are ruled soteriological structures and could be
considered as part of a bid for lay supremacy or at least participation
in the discussion of spiritual matters", how do you get from there to
your final proposition, "Secular writing and reading could not exist in
the European Middle Ages because they cannot be divorced from
exegetical practice."? If you mean "Most" and not "All", then there
will of necessity be some vernacular literature than _can_ be divorced
from exegetical practices. Whereupon your proposition falls.
A couple of instances of vernacular literature from the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries that strike me as essentially secular are Eugenius
of Palermo's poem on the water lily and his invective against the fly
(_carm._ 10 and 15)and Giovanni Grasso's [Ioannes Grassos'] complaint
of Hecuba on the ruins of Troy (_carm._ 9). It would be interesting to
know how these are _not_ secular.
Finally, here are two instances (both Latin) of _non-vernacular_
literary writing that to me seem absolutely secular. As they're very
brief, I'll quote them:
1) the leonine hexameter said to have been inscribed on Roger II's
sword:
_Appulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi servit et Afer_.
("The Apulian and the Calabrian, the Sicilian and the African, they
serve me.")
2) the distich said to have been inscribed on the Angevin-period Porta
Regia at Naples:
_Egregiae Nidi sum regia porta plateae,
Moenia nobilitans hic urbis parthenopeae_.
("I am the royal gate of the district of Nido, ennobling here the walls
of the Parthenopean city.")
The first of these is a line of (political) lore, the second a
topographic epigram with political import. Both inscribe themselves in
lengthy literary traditions and are quite clearly specimens of
writing. In what way(s) are they not secular?
Best,
John Dillon
PS: If you're going to be at Kalamazoo this spring, session 213 will
be devoted to "The Myth of Secular Discourse". Scheduled speakers
include Steve Carey (Georgia State Univ.), Margaret Burrell (Univ. of
Canterbury), and Jeff Turco (Cornell University).
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