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The Immoralities of the Patriarchs according to the Exegesis of the Late Middle Ages and of the Reformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2011

Roland H. Bainton
Roland H. Bainton
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Extract

The Old Testament has always been something of an embarrassment to the Christian church. The book was Scripture and its heroes were to be taken as examples. Nevertheless there was much in their conduct which ran counter to the prevailing Christian ethics. A problem thus arose both in exegesis and in ethics. Were the patriarchs to be justified? Should they be imitated? Marcion evaded the difficulty by simply rejecting the Old Testament, pointing out the complete antithesis, for example, between the precept, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,” and the conduct of Joshua, who kept the sun up till his wrath went down. In the main the fathers resolved such difficulties by allegory, but even this key did not suffice. There was no denying that Moses really slew the Egyptian, that the Israelites robbed them, that Abraham lied, that Jacob was polygamous, and that Samson committed suicide, not to mention the deeds which made it appropriate to attribute to David the penitential psalms. Origen, the prince of allegorists, admitted that the incest of Lot and the polygamy of Abraham and Jacob were “mysteries not understood by us.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , January 1930 , pp. 39 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1930

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References

1 Harnack, Marcion (Texte und Untersuchungen 45), p. 105.

2 De Principiis, iv. 9. Migne, P. G. XI, 360.

3 Migne, P. L. 182, cf. note 95 in Migne, 864,

4 Pluzanski, E., Essai sur la Philosophie de Duns Scot, 1888, p. 872.Google Scholar

5 Klein, J., Der Gottesbegriff des Johannes Duns Skotus, 1913, pp. 161 ff.Google Scholar

6 Pluzanski, p. 268 note 3.

7 H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, III, pp. 30, 79, 87, and 110.

8 Ibid., pp. 83, 97, 113.

9 Polycraticus viii, xx; Migne, P. L. 199, 794.

10 Dialogus, ed. 1494, pars 3, lib. ii, tract, i, cap. xxii–xxiv, fol. cci and verso.

11 Ibid., pars 1, lib. vii, cap. iv, fol. cxv.

12 Ibid., lib. vi, cap. c, fol. cx verso.

13 So Heinrich of Langenstein, cited by Friedrich Kropatscheck, Das Schriftprinzip der lutherischen Kirche, vol. I, Vorgeschichte, Die, Das Erbe des Mittelalters, Leipzig, 1904, p. 386Google Scholar note 3. See also Wenck, Karl, ‘Konrad v. Gelnhausen und die Quellen der konziliaren Theorie,’ Historische Zeitschrift, 76, 1896, pp. 44CrossRefGoogle Scholar f. He contends that the conciliarists took the doctrine of the έπιείκεια not from Occam but from Thomas. Cf. Schwab, J. B., Johannes Gerson, 1858, index under Epikie.Google Scholar

14 Migne, P. L. 192, 832.

15 Pluzanski, p. 276; cf. Klein, pp. 161–162.

16 Weimar ed., XI, 205, 8.

17 Weimar ed., XI, 261, 16 f.

18 Erlangen ed., VIII, 42.

19 Erlangen ed., LIII, 267.

20 Erlangen ed., LIII, 390.

21 Weimar ed., Tischreden I, p. 368, Nr. 768. Melanchthon, in Enders and Kawerau, IV, 79: Tune venient nobis inspirata consilia a Deo, quae nunquam cogitavimus.

22 Karl Holl, Gesammelte Aufsätze, Luther, p. 234.

23 Weimar ed., XVIII, p. 304; cf. 96–97 and Erlangen ed., LIII, 255.

24 Erlangen ed., XLVIII, 139–140.

25 On Luther's whole position see Müller, Karl, ‘Luthers Äusserungen über das Recht des bewaffneten Widerstandes gegen den Kaiser,’ Sitzungsberichte, Munich Academy, Philos., philol. und hist. Kl., 1915Google Scholar, Abh. 8, p. 8, and Karl Holl, Gesammelte Aufsätze, Luther, p. 227.

26 Corpus Reformatorum, Calvini opera, II, Instit. iv, xx, pp. 1115–1116, legitima Dei vocatio.

27 Opera, X, pp. 258–259.

28 Restitution rechter und gesunder christlichen Lehre (Neudruck deutscher Literaturwerke, Nos. 77 and 78), pp. 107 and 110. Rothmann says that they were taught “durch geistlike apenbaringe.”

29 Dialogi, xxx, ii, p. 227: Tum si id feceris ad quid te Deus impellet, dummodo diuinum esse instinctum exploratum habeas, non peccabis. I give citations from Ochino and from some of the following authors in the original, because their works are comparatively inaccessible.

30 Il Catechismo, Basileae, 1561, pp. 89, 91, and 123.

31 The saying is placed in the mouth of Paul IV; Dialogi, xxx, ii, p. 395: Si vobis exploratum fuisset, vos, dum ignem de coelo deuocare vultis, Dei spiritu impelli, nihil opus fuisset, vt a me consilium peteretis: sed quia de eo dubitabatis, ideo me interrogastis.

32 Prediche di Bernadino da Siena, Basileae, 1563, III, LXXVIII, IIi7-KKk, Bisogna adonque dire che se ben li precetti della seconda tauola quanto al non robbare, amazare, & altre opere estrinseche sieno dispensabili, nientedimeno quanto all' atto interno d' amare spiritualmente, et per gloria di Dio li prossimi nostri, il precetto e indispensabile. Tal che se ben possiamo per volonta di Dio tor la robba ai prossimi et anco la vita, non pero possiamo in modo alcuno non amarlo, & non desiderare & procurargli tutte quelle cose che piu gli seruano acio che illustri la gloria di Dio, etc.

33 Il Catechismo, p. 107: Perche se un fusse in estrema necessità, & hauendo tentati gl' altri giusti modi possibili, non potesse uiuere senza robbare, in tal caso, all' hora tollendo solamente quello che per la urgente & imminente necessità, gli fusse necessario, & non piu non peccarebbe, non sarebbe ladro, non douerebbe esser punito, ne sarebbe obligato a restituire, se ben di poi diuentasse ricco: & questo, perche non hauerebbe tolto quel d'altri, poi che la necessità haurebbe fatto, che quel che prese fusse suo: se gia quello dal qual prese non fusse prima di lui uenuto in necessità della medesima cosa.

34 Dialogi, xxx, ii, pp. 393–394; Prediche, III, LXXXVIII, KKk verso.

35 Responsio Bernadini Ochini Senensis ad Marcum Brixiensem, 1543, p. 88: Quod Dei consilio & spiritus sancti directioni tribuerim discessum meum, vehementer irascitur. … Quod autem Dei spiritus mihi consultor fuerit & dux itineris, conscientia mea fidelis testis est: neque ad eius rei certitudinem novum socratis demonium excitare opus est.

36 P. Piccolomini, ‘Due Lettere inedite di Bernadino Ochino,’ Arch. d. Soc. Rom. di Stor. Pat., vol. 28. pp. 201–207, Letter II: Moise, a tempo nutrito sotto l'ombra della figliola di Pharaone in amazare l'egytio monstro che in verita non li era figlio … fugi di poi … fu per volunta di Dio. … Diro similmente di me che non harrei possuto scientemente e voluntariamente eleger tante calumnie con tante mie mortificationi appresso il mondo se Dio non mi havessi mosso et governato lui. Piccolimini doubted whether this letter was really addressed to the Venetian senate. The question is settled by this statement in the Responsio ad Marcum Brixiensem B7: Quod Moisi exemplum pectat: scripsi in hunc modum clarissimi Senatui Veneto.

37 Müller, Karl, ‘Calvin und die Libertiner,’ Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, XL, N. F. III, 1922, pp. 83–129.Google Scholar On p. 112 he gives passages bearing on this point taken from the replies of Calvin and Farel. I have not had access to Farel's work. The following passage is taken from Schmidt, C., Les Libertins Spirituels, Traités Mystiques écrits dans les Années 1547 à 1549, Bâle, 1876, pp. 30–31Google Scholar: Il n'y ha plus ne loy ny Euangile qui ayt pouoir sur luy. … Il scait prendre le feu sans se brusler et scait entrer en l'eaue sans se noyer. … Il ne craint deffence ne commandement, sinon ce qui est conforme a celuy de son Dieu. Car il est le filz de Dieu mesme, ayant son Pere habitant et demourant en luy, lequel le rendt fort, puissant et immuable, ne pouant produire ne donner de son coeur et thresor, que ce qui est de Dieu, car Dieu mesme parle par luy.

38 Müller, p. 113 note 1.

39 Schmidt, p. 41: Mais lisez le text, qui diet qu'il ne le faisoit sinon pour les decepuoir, car il estoit esprit et elle chair.

40 Müller, p. 113 note 2. It is highly significant that Müller classes together the groups represented in Schmidt and Jaujard and the Libertins Spirituels of Calvin, and that he finds in all a quietistic mysticism of the type of the Theologia Germania. Müller, pp. 119 and 106. This judgment is of the greater interest because Müller did not know that the tracts used by Jaujard in his Essai sur le Libertins spirituels de Genève d'après de nouveaux documents (thèse), 1890, are in fact translations from the Dutch of David Joris. Using the notation of Van der Linde's bibliography of David Joris, Jaujard 1 is Joris 21; Jaujard 2, Joris 194; Jaujard 3, Joris 207; Jaujard 4, Joris 216.

40a Traité du droit des Magistrats sur leurs suiets, etc. in Mémoires de l'Estat de France, ed. by Simon Goulart, II, p. 489b: Et ce que telles delivrances ne sont advenues que par ceux que Dieu a extraordinairement employez, ne sert de rien contre mon opinion: ains monstre seulement la stupidité & fauts de coeur des Israelites, non sans un iuste iugement de Dieu sur eux à cause de leurs iniquitez.

41 Mémoires de l'Estat de France, III, 96b: Archon. Mais la pluspart de telles executions, se faisoyent par ordonnanee des revelations extraordinaires. … Politie. Nous avons en ce temps-ci au lieu de revelations l'extreme necessité qui nous enseigne.

42 Mémoires de l'Estat de France III, 294: ie demande si n'y ayant eu particuliere revelation la chose seroit pour cela iniuste, qui a esté autresfois executee par commandement de Dieu, & par la manifestee pour iuste et equitable? Je ne le croy pas.

43 Mémoires, etc., II, 491b; III, 105b.

44 Mémoires, etc., III, 294: Mais un tel y peut estre poussé avec cause & regards si urgens qu'en ce cas il n'est plus privé.

45 Cited by Paulus, Nikolaus, Protestantismus und Toleranz im 16. Jahrhundert, 1911, p. 196Google Scholar note 4.

46 Conseil à la France Désolée, pp. 36–38 (the only copy in this country, to my knowledge, is at Cornell): Mais la plus grande raison de toutes, c'est que nous sommes sous Christ, la doctrine & exemple duquel nous deuons ensuiure, quoy que autres ayent dit ou fait, ueu que le pere nous a dit que c'est son cher fils, & que nous le deuons escouter & luy obeir. C'est ce fils de Dieu, qui ne permit point à ses disciples de faire descendre le feu du ciel à l'exemple d'Elie, leur disant qu'ils ne scauoint de quel esperit ilz estoint, & qu'il n'estoit point venu pour oster la uie aux hommes, comme Elie, mais pour la sauuer. C'est ce filz de Dieu qui nous a dit que nous allions apres luy: & que tous ceux qui uont deuant luy, sont larrons & brigans: ce que sont ceux qui sans son commandement & exemple, uoire contre son commandement & exemple, forcent les consciences. Car ilz ne peuent dire qu'ilz uoisent apres Christ, mais si bien deuant: en quoy ilz se monstrent larrons & brigans.