Chapter 6
Rhetoric in Christian Europe
Chapter Overview
Chapter Six considers rhetoric during the Middle Ages as it grew in significance in North Africa and Europe. The chapter also considers the medieval influence of Cicero’s De Inventione and a few other classical sources. Theorists explored include Augustine, Martianus Capella, and Boethius. The three medieval rhetorical arts explored include preaching, letter writing, and poetry writing. The centrality of letter writing is stressed, as it preserved social hierarchies. The need to teach Christian principles to an often undereducated and almost entirely Christian public called for a rhetoric of preaching. A rising demand for writing instruction, growing interest in the aesthetic potential of written language, as well as the recognition of poetry’s potential argumentative uses, contributed to the adaptation of rhetorical insights from antiquity to the writing of poetry.
Review Questions
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Cicero was the most influential classical rhetorician in the Middle Ages. Only a few classical rhetorical texts survived into the Middle Ages, and Cicero’s De Inventione was chief among them.
Cicero influenced Augustine, one of the greatest Christian rhetoricians of the early Middle Ages.
Cicero’s works also played a considerable role in the shaping of education, preaching, and governing.
Barbarian invasions resulted in much of the ancient Roman and Greek traditions being lost, including many rhetorical texts. This left only a few key texts to be studied, and even these were suspect by Christians for their connection to a pagan culture and their subject matter of persuasion.
The first dilemma was trying to express the infinite nature of God in finite language. Augustine argued that we are commanded to preach, regardless of the limits of language. The second dilemma Augustine faced was that rhetoric originated in a suspect pagan culture. He argued that rhetoric is necessary to defend Christian doctrine against heretics, and should not be yielded solely to the enemies of the faith.
Preaching was centered on improving the moral conduct of audiences. Robert of Basevorn writes that preaching was less about theological investigation than about moral instruction. Much of the populace was illiterate and unfamiliar with the scriptures.
Letter writing was widespread as a rhetorical practice because of the hierarchical nature of secular and ecclesiastical life. The highly systemized form of letter writing served as a method of navigating and maintaining this hierarchy. Letter writing assisted policymaking, governing, trade, forming treaties, and enacting laws.
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Essay Questions
- Overview the three rhetorical arts that developed in Europe during the period from 1100 to 1300. What were these arts? What social or artistic functions did each perform? What does each reveal about European culture during the late Middle Ages?
- Describe the uses of rhetoric by Christian educators and preachers in the medieval period. What, according to Augustine, were the various Christian uses of rhetoric? What aspect of classical rhetoric did Boethius emphasize in his presentation of rhetoric? What was the principal goal of the art of preaching, according to Robert Basevorn? What was “thematic preaching”?
Weblinks
Dive deeper with hand-picked online resources
Hermes statue uncovered in Bulgaria
Harrison Butker’s controversial commencement speech drawing on religious values to express his views
A comparatively recent article mirrors Augustine’s use of rhetoric in religious teaching
Compilation of openings and closings used in medieval letter writing
Blogpost highlighting the art of letter writing in today’s world
Scene from Legally Blond, “I recommend knowing before speaking.”
Dramatic reading of Marie de France’s “Lanval”
Recommended Readings
Want to learn more? Check out these bonus readings!
On Rhetoric in the Middle Ages
Medieval Eloquence: Studies in the Theory and Practice of Medieval Rhetoric. Ed. James J. Murphy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1978.
Readings in Medieval Rhetoric. Ed. J. Miller, M. Prosser, T. Benson. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1974,
Three Medieval Rhetorical Arts. Ed. James J. Murphy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1971.
On St. Augustine
W. R. Johnson, “Isocrates Flowering: The Rhetoric of Augustine,” Rhetoric and Philosophy 9(4) (1976): 220; James J. Murphy, ed., Three Medieval Rhetorical Arts (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1971), xiii.
James J. Murphy. “Saint Augustine and the Debate about a Christian Rhetoric.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 46 (December 1960): 400–410.
Calvin Troup, Temporality, Eternity, and Wisdom: The Rhetoric of Augustine’s Confessions (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1999), 1. Augustine, Confessions, 9.2.4.
By St. Augustine
On Christian Doctrine. Trans. D. W. Robertson. Indianapolis, IN: Library of Liberal Arts, 1976.
By Boethius
De Topicis Differentiis. Trans. Eleanor Stump. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Press, 1978.
On Women Writers in the Middle Ages
Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past. Patricia H. Labalme. New York: New York University Press, 1984.
Medieval Women Writers. Ed. Katharina M. Wilson. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1984.
Malcolm Richardson, “Women, Commerce, and Rhetoric in Medieval England,” in Listening to Their Voices: The Rhetorical Activities of Historical Women, ed. Molly Meijer Wertheimer (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1997), 133–149, p. 136.