Chris Schabel

Place, Space, and the Physics of Grace in Auriol's Sentences Commentary

Historians of medieval science have not ignored Peter AurioPs physical theories, but they have not treated them in great depth either. Earlier in this century Pierre Duhem discussed AurioPs doctrine of place and his theory of the latitude of forms, two subjects of present interest, the latter of which Anneliese Maier later examined, closely following Duhem.1 Both historians pointed to novel and interesting elements in AurioPs opinions, but three things have impeded more accurate and extensive investigations since that time. First, Oxford ideas in natural philosophy have overshadowed Parisian science between 1315 and 1335 in the historio-

Pope Innocent III, the Fourth Lateran Council, and Frankish Greece and Cyprus.

Although the union between the Latin and Greek Churches was one of Pope Innocent III’s career-long ambitions, the limited provisions made by the canons of the Fourth Lateran Council regarding the eastern Churches have led most historians to assume that by the end of his pontificate this matter had been relegated to one of secondary importance and was treated only as an afterthought during the council. By collecting and re-examining the surviving sources, this article shows that considerable time and energy was in fact spent during the council in regulating the affairs of the Churches of former Byzantine lands. The ensuing decisions and legislation formed the basis of the organisation of the Church in much of the Greco-Latin East for at least another three centuries.

Of burning monks, unidentified churches and the last Cistercian foundation in the East: Our Lady of Camina in the principality of Achaia

The existence of the monastic church of Camina in Frankish Morea has long been noted by historians of Frankish Greece, but its history has never been thoroughly investigated and its location remains unknown. Moreover, some of the documents pertaining to this church have not been published while others have been published in faulty editions that have obscured their full significance. In the present study the surviving documents are edited and the churchs history is reconstructed and its location identified. It is suggested that some of the original Benedictine inhabitants of Camina were the only Latin religious to have been burnt at the stake for heresy in medieval Greece. It is also argued that Camina was the last Cistercian abbey to be founded in the Latin East, and that it may be identified as the present monastery of Our Lady of Blachernae near Glarenza (Killini).

Lucifer princeps tenebrarum … The Epistola Luciferi and Other Correspondence of the Cistercian Pierre Ceffons (fl. 1348-1353)

The famous Epistola Luciferi , written in late 1351 or early 1352, caused quite a stir in the Avignon of Pope Clement VI , quickly became a medieval best-seller, and thereafter remained topical, being copied and printed down to the present day. Traditionally ascribed to Nicole Oresme or Henry of Langenstein, the letter was attributed to the Cistercian Pierre Ceffons by Damasus Trapp in 1957. Trapp merely took Ceffons’ authorship for granted, however, and in the most thorough study of the Epistola Luciferi and of the entire genre of Devil’s letters, her 1982 PhD dissertation, Helen C. Feng rejected the attribution. Presenting codices and works of Ceffons of which Trapp was unaware, this article argues in favor of Ceffons’ responsibility for the Epistola Luciferi , while offering a new critical edition of the letter, an English translation, and a supplemental list of manuscripts and editions.

Bishop Benedetto of Cephalonia, 1207–post 1239

A fresh look at the few sources concerning Bishop Benedetto of Cephalonia, within the context of the recently revised history of the rule of Count Maio on the island, reveals that this first Latin bishop was a relative of the count who had an eventful and colourful rule lasting over 32 years. This chronological survey of Benedetto’s tenure illustrates the transition from a Greek to a Latin episcopacy in Frankish Greece, the restructuring of the Church following the Fourth Lateran Council, the shifting allegiances of the secular powers, and finally the problems caused by the frequently unlettered and scandalous resident prelates who ruled during the first decades after the Fourth Crusade: Benedetto was accused of simony, ignorance, negligence and sexual incontinence.

The "Quaestiones libri Physicorum" by Franciscus Marbres ("alias" Johannes Canonicus). Part II: Manuscripts, Printings and the Textual Tradition

This is Part II of a two-part study on the questions on Aristotles’ Physics by Francesc Marbres, the artist commonly known as “John the Canon.” Although written around 1330, only two fourteenth-century manuscripts preserve the work, but it became so popular around 1450 that dozens of fifteenth-century manuscripts containing the work survive and it was printed eight times from 1475 to 1520. Here the manuscripts and early prints are described, and then an attempt is made to trace the tradition of the text using structural differences, the colophons and variant readings in the question-titles and small passages. These three sets of data turn out to be insufficient for constructing a stemma; instead they provide evidence of extensive contamination, suggesting that many scribes and printers employed more than one witness. This conclusion reinforces what we learn from marginalia and from information about the Oxford curriculum: the questions on the Physics by the mysterious “John the Canon” played an active role in scientific education in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

The Myth of the White Monks' "Mission to the Orthodox": Innocent III, the Cistercians, and the Greeks

In the early thirteenth century, numerous Cistercian monasteries were founded in the former Byzantine territories conquered in the context of the Fourth Crusade. According to the standard narrative, put forth in the 1970s, Pope Innocent III sent the Cistercians on a “mission to the Orthodox,” but the mission was a failure, because the White Monks soon abandoned almost all of their houses in Frankish Greece and Constantinople without having “converted” the Greeks. In the light of recent research on the aftermath of 1204 and on the Cistercian Order, this paper argues that the Frankish rulers took the initiative to found Cistercian monasteries in the Greek East for the same reason that they did so in the Latin West: to cater to the Latin rite aristocracy. This Cistercian mission was a success, since the Cistercian establishments in Greece generally existed as long as the Western nobility survived to patronize and protect them. There is no evidence that Innocent intended the Cistercians to be missionaries in Romania since, contrary to a once common assumption, the papacy did not view the Greeks as requiring the same kind of missionary activity that was deemed necessary in lands inhabited by pagans or heretics.

Pope, Council, and the Filioque in Western Theology, 1274–1439

The doctrine of the Filioque was officially determined at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274 the determination was clarified, and this clarification was repeated in 1439 in the formulation of the Council of Florence. Yet the Filioque was already universally accepted in the Latin West by 1100, while the clarification at Lyon was the general teaching before 1274. Rather than establish doctrine, then, Innocent iii at Lateran iv and Gregory x at Lyon ii merely codified it, offering codifications that were later incorporated into canon law under Gregory ix and Boniface viii, respectively. A survey of several dozen university treatments of the procession of the Holy Spirit between 1274 and 1439 reveals that the conciliar pronouncements under the popes played little role in the discussion, and where they appear, it is usually as a brief statement of what was official. By the late fourteenth century, some theologians doubted that the Filioque as expressed in 1215 and 1274 could be defended rationally, an indication that convincing the Greeks at Florence to accept true dogmatic union would be impossible.

The "Quaestiones libri Physicorum" by Franciscus Marbres (alias Johannes Canonicus): Part I: Author, Text and Reception

This article examines the author, date, place, sources and reception of the Quaestiones libri Physicorum by the Catalan Augustinian Canon Francesc Marbres, usually attributed to “John the Canon.” The Quaestiones are perhaps the most influential philosophical work by an Augustinian Canon in the university era. From Barcelona, Marbres became a Canon of Tortosa Cathedral, a Master of Arts at Toulouse, and an advanced student in theology, probably at Paris, where he died. In his Quaestiones, compiled around 1330, his main sources were works, primarily Sentential commentaries, by Franciscan theologians active at Paris from John Duns Scotus to Gerald Odonis. The Quaestiones survive in only two fourteenth- century manuscripts, described here, but at least 37 manuscripts (most of them complete) and eight printings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries attest to its later reception, which is traced down to the present day. Appended to the article is an annotated question- and citation-list. In part II of this...

Matthew Of Aquasparta And The Greeks

This chapter clarifies the relative dating of Matthews written Sentences commentary, Quodlibet II, and the treatise on the procession of the Holy Spirit, with reference to Lyons II. It discerns clear Dominican and Franciscan positions on the Filioque controversy, with the Franciscans less antagonistic to the Greeks. The chapter shows that the Franciscans were more sympathetic to the Greeks in general, both in their actions and in their thought. Does this hold true for Matthew of Aquasparta, and on the issue of unleavened bread? Finally, since Matthews treatise on the procession of the Holy Spirit has long attracted the attention of scholars interested in Greek-Latin relations, the chapter provides a more complete picture of this important thinkers opinion on this topic. Keywords: Aquasparta; Dominican; Filioque ; Franciscan; Greeks; Holy Spirit; Matthew; Quodlibet