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ERASMUS AND JUAN LUIS VIVES ON RHETORICAL DECORUM AND POLITICS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2021

KAARLO HAVU Open the ORCID record for KAARLO HAVU [Opens in a new window]
KAARLO HAVU*
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
*
Department of Philosophy, History and Art Studies, University of Helsinki, PO Box 24, 00014, Finland[email protected]
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Abstract

The article analyses the emergence of decorum (appropriateness) as a central concept of rhetorical theory in the early sixteenth-century writings of Erasmus and Juan Luis Vives. In rhetorical theory, decorum shifted the emphasis from formulaic rules to their creative application in concrete cases. In doing so, it emphasized a close analysis of the rhetorical situation (above all the preferences of the audience) and underscored the persuasive possibilities of civil conversation as opposed to passionate, adversarial rhetoric. The article argues that the stress put on decorum in early sixteenth-century theory is not just an internal development in the history of rhetoric but linked to far wider questions concerning the role of rhetoric in religious and secular lives. Decorum appears as a solution both to the divisiveness of language in the context of the Reformation and dynastic warfare of the early sixteenth century and as an adaptation of the republican tradition of political rhetoric to a changed, monarchical context. Erasmus and Vives maintained that decorum not only suppressed destructive passions and discord, but that it was only through polite and civil rhetoric (or conversation) that a truly effective persuasion was possible in a vast array of contexts.

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Article
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The Historical Journal , Volume 64 , Issue 5 , December 2021 , pp. 1151 - 1172
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Copyright © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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Footnotes

I thank Kari Saastamoinen, Simon Ditchfield, Brian Cummings, and two anonymous reviewers for reading drafts of the article and providing invaluable comments. I also thank Mikko Moilanen for his comments on style. For funding this research, I thank the Academy of Finland and the Alfred Kordelin Foundation.

References

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7 Marc Fumaroli, L’âge de l’éloquence (Geneva and Paris, 1980), pp. 92–113; Fumaroli, ‘Rhetoric’, pp. 262–4.

8 Chomarat, Grammaire, i, pp. 13–25; Remer, Humanism, p. 41.

9 For the classical background of decorum and the Greek kairos, see P. Sipiora and J. S. Baumlin, eds., Rhetoric and kairos: essays in history, theory, and praxis (Albany, NY, 2002); Robert Hariman, ‘Decorum’, in Thomas O. Sloane, ed., Encyclopaedia of rhetoric, i (New York, NY, 2001), pp. 199–209.

10 Horace, Ars poetica, in Horace, Satires, epistles: the art of poetry, trans. H. R. Fairclough (Cambridge, MA, 1926), pp. 442–90, at pp. 456–61 (1.81–119).

11 Cicero, De officiis, trans. W. Miller (Cambridge, MA, 2005), pp. 94–121 (1.27.93–1.32.117).

12 For a distinction between ethical decorum and more opportunistic kairos, see Paul, ‘Use of kairos’, pp. 43–4. For an interpretation that shows how Latin decorum combined meanings from prepon and kairos, see James Baumlin, ‘Ciceronian decorum and the temporalities of Renaissance rhetoric’, in Sipiora and Baumlin, eds., Rhetoric, p. 159; James Kinneavy, ‘Kairos: a neglected concept in classical rhetoric’, in J. Deatz Moss, ed., Rhetoric and praxis: the contribution of classical rhetoric to practical reasoning (Washington, DC, 1986), p. 82.

13 Cicero, De oratore I–III, trans. E. W. Sutton and H. Rackham (2 vols., Cambridge, MA, 1942), i, pp. 100–1, ii, pp. 166–9 (1.32.144, 3.60.210–12); Cicero, Orator, trans. H. M. Hubbell, in Cicero, Brutus – Orator (Cambridge, MA, 1939), pp. 306–509, at pp. 356–61 (21.69–22.74).

14 Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, trans. D. A. Russell (5 vols., Cambridge, MA, 2001), i, p. 341, v, pp. 8–59 (2.13.2–3, 11.1.1–11.1.93).

15 Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova, trans. Margaret Nims (Toronto, ON, 2010), pp. 72–4; David Mañero Lozano, ‘Del concepto del decoro a la “teoría de los estilos”’, Bulletin hispanique, 111–12 (2009), pp. 357–85, at pp. 369–72; David Scott Wilson-Okamura, Virgil in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 90–3.

16 Philipp Melanchthon, Institutiones rhetoricae, in Melanchthon, Opera omnia: Opera philosophica. Part 2, Principal writings on rhetoric, ed. William P. Weaver, Stefan Strohm, and Volkhardt Wels (Berlin, 2017), pp. 211–54, at p. 221; Philipp Melanchthon, Elementorum rhetorices libri duo, in Melanchthon, Opera, pp. 269–408, at p. 328.

17 Hermogenes, On types of style, trans. C. W. Wooten (Chapel Hill, NC, 1987), p. 101.

18 George of Trebizond, Rhetoricorum libri, in quibus quid recens praestitum, proxima facie indicabit liminaris epistola (Basel, 1522), fos. 164r–167r.

19 Hermogenes, Style, p. 101.

20 John Monfasani, ‘The Byzantine rhetorical tradition and the Renaissance’, in Murphy, ed., Renaissance eloquence, pp. 182–3; Juan Luis Vives, De disciplinis: savoir et enseigner, trans. and ed. T. Vigliano (Paris, 2013), pp. 388, 401, 402.

21 While the focus of De inventione dialectica is on the topical analysis of questions, Book 3 deals with the emotions and with the rhetorical goals of moving and pleasing; Rudolph Agricola, De inventione dialectica libri tres (Tübingen, 1992), pp. 228–98 (2.6–2.14), 280–3 (2.13), 440–1 (3.2.26–31), 446–7 (3.3.36–46). See also Mack, Renaissance argument, pp. 181–9, 203–18.

22 Peter Mack, ‘Vives's De ratione dicendi: structures, innovations, problems’, Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric, 23 (2005), pp. 65–92, at pp. 84–5; Peter Mack, ‘Vives's contributions to rhetoric and dialectic’, in Charles Fantazzi, ed., A Companion to Juan Luis Vives (Leiden and Boston, MA, 2008), p. 238.

23 Juan Luis Vives, Del arte de hablar, ed. J. M. Rodríguez Peregrina (Granada, 2000), p. 100: ‘Caput artis dicunt esse decere quod facias, atque id unum esse quod tradi non possit, quod non tam es huius artis proprium quam vitae totius; itaque prudentiae est, quae praeceptis contineri nequit, nempe sigularum rerum, quaeque spectat res, personas, loca, tempora.’ All the translations from Vives's De ratione dicendi are mine.

24 Vives, Hablar, pp. 101–4, 111–13.

25 Ad Herennium, trans. H. Caplan (Cambridge, MA, 1954), pp. 16–18 (1.5.8).

26 Vives, Hablar, pp. 116–23.

27 Ibid., p. 91: ‘Ante omnia considerandum qui nos simus, qui illi quos agitare volumus aut sedare, quod eorum iudicium de rebus, quibus plurimum tribuunt, quibus parum, in quos affectus sint proclives, a quibus alieni, ex quibus in quos leviter transeant, ex ingenio, persuasionibus, moribus, aetate, sexu, valetudine, habitudine, conditione…Induenda mens illorum et totum ingenium tantisper, dum quae ad rem nostram faciant excogitamus; ponamusque nos illorum loco.’

28 See for instance ibid., pp. 123–5.

29 Sowards, ‘Introduction’, CWE, xxv, pp. ix–lix, at pp. li–lii. All references to works by Erasmus follow the collected editions using the standard abbreviations: CWE, Collected works of Erasmus (72 vols., Toronto, ON, 1974– ); ASD, Opera omnia (9 vols. in parts, Amsterdam, 1969– ). All translations of Erasmus are from CWE.

30 CWE, xxv, p. 261 (Conficiendarum epistolarum formula).

31 ASD, i/2, p. 316 (De conscribendis epistolis, CWE, xxv, p. 74).

32 Juan Luis Vives, De conscribendis epistolis, ed. Charles Fantazzi (Leiden, 1989), pp. 34–5, 51–65; see also pp. 28–9.

33 James J. Murphy, Latin rhetoric in the middle ages (Aldershot, 2006), pp. i:13–16.

34 John D'Amico, Theory and practice in Renaissance textual criticism: Beatus Rhenanus between conjecture and history (Berkeley, CA, 1988), pp. 1–7; Luca Bianchi, ‘Continuity and change in the Aristotelian tradition’, in James Hankins, The Cambridge companion to Renaissance philosophy (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 54–9.

35 For Ciceronianus, see Knott, ‘Introductory note’, in CWE, xxviii, pp. 324–7.

36 See for instances ASD, i/2, p. 609 (Ciceronianus).

37 ASD, i/2, pp. 650 (Ciceronianus, CWE, xxviii, p. 400), 654. See also Eden, Hermeneutics, pp. 69–70.

38 ASD, i/2, pp. 654, 702–3 (Ciceronianus); ASD, i/2, pp. 222–3 (De conscribendis epistolis).

39 CWE, xxv, p. 261 (Formula).

40 Vives, De conscribendis, pp. 26–7.

41 Juan Luis Vives, Aedes legum, in Vives, Opera omnia, i (Basel, 1555), pp. 301–6, at pp. 305–6; ASD, iv/1, pp. 194–204 (Institutio principis Christiani).

42 See n. 5.

43 Andrew Pettegree, ‘Books, pamphlets and polemic’, in Andrew Pettegree, ed., Reformation world (London, 2000), pp. 110–11.

44 Peter G. Bietenholz, ‘The patristic controversy about Galatians 2.11–14 and the reaction of Erasmus of Rotterdam’, Shingaku-kenkyu, 50 (2003), pp. 171–83; Bietenholz, ‘Ethics’, pp. 142–7.

45 Allen, 1374, v, p. 304 (Wolfgang Capito to Erasmus, CWE, x, p. 46). All references to Erasmus's letters are taken from Erasmi Epistolae, ed. P. S. Allen and H. Allen (12 vols., Oxford, 1906–58), using the abbreviation Allen, the number of the letter, the volume, and the pages in question.

46 Allen, 1202, iv, p. 488 (Erasmus to Justus Jonas, CWE, viii, pp. 203, 204).

47 Allen, 1202, iv, p. 487 (Erasmus to Justus Jonas, CWE, viii, pp. 202, 203).

48 For more about Erasmus's choice of genre, see Marjorie O'Rourke Boyle, Rhetoric and reform: Erasmus’ civil dispute with Luther (Cambridge, MA, 1983); Remer, Humanism, pp. 81–4, 92–7.

49 ASD, v/5, pp. 288–308 (Ecclesiastes).

50 ASD, iv/1a, p. 22 (Lingua, CWE, xxix, pp. 259–60). See also ASD, v/5, p. 302 (Ecclesiastes).

51 ASD, iv/1a, pp. 116–17, 127, 130 (Lingua).

52 Ibid., p. 102.

53 Vives, Opera omnia, ed. Gregorio Mayans y Siscar (8 vols., Valencia, 1782–90) (hereafter Mayans), v, pp. 233, 247 (De concordia).

54 Enrique González González, ‘Vives: un humanista judeoconverso en el exilio de Flandes’, in Luc Dequeker and Werner Verbeke, eds., The expulsion of the Jews and their emigration to the Southern Low Countries (15th – 16th c.) (Leuven, 1998), p. 81; Enrique González González, Una república de lectores. Difusión y recepción de la obra de Juan Luis Vives (Mexico, 2007), pp. 54–6.

55 Vives, De consultatione liber I, in Vives, Rhetoricae, sive de recte dicendi ratione libri tres, Eiusdem de consultatione liber I (Basel, 1536), pp. 233–72, at p. 250.

56 Erasmus, ASD, i/2, pp. 653–5 (Ciceronianus, CWE, xxviii, p. 406). For the Christian dimension of the work, see esp. ibid., pp. 599–600.

57 Vives, De consultatione, pp. 244, 247.

58 ASD, iv/1, pp. 154–6 (Institutio principis Christiani, CWE, xxvii, p. 224).

59 Vives, De conscribendis, p. 22; ASD, i/2, pp. 210, 215–16 (De conscribendis epistolis).

60 Rose, Jacqueline, ‘Kingship and counsel in early modern England’, Historical Journal, 54 (2011), pp. 47–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at pp. 49–50; John Guy, ‘The rhetoric of counsel in early modern England’, in Dale Hoak, ed., Tudor political culture (Cambridge, 1995).

61 ASD, i/2, p. 488 (De conscribendis epistolis, CWE, xxv, p. 189).

62 ASD, iv/1a, pp. 60–2 (Lingua, CWE, xxix, pp. 294–5). See also David Rundle, ‘Erasmus, panegyric, and the art of teaching princes’, in Yun Lee Too and Niall Livingstone, eds., Ideology and power (Cambridge, 1998).

63 Allen, 179, i, p. 397 (Erasmus to Nicholas Ruistre); Allen, 180, i, p. 399 (Erasmus to Jean Desmarais); ASD, iv/1, p. 154 (Institutio principis Christiani).

64 ASD, i/2, pp. 310–11 (De conscribendis epistolis).

65 Ibid., pp. 315–16 (CWE, xxv, p. 73).

66 Ibid., pp. 324–5 (CWE, xxv, pp. 79–80).

67 ASD, i/2, pp. 325–7 (CWE, xxv, pp. 80, 81).

68 Vives, De conscribendis, pp. 50–1, 56–9.

69 Ibid., pp. 52–3.

70 Ibid., pp. 52–5.

71 For the classical tradition, see Ad Herennium, pp. 156–73 (3.2.2–3.5.9); Cicero, De inventione, trans. H. M. Hubbell, in Cicero, De inventione, De optimo genere oratorum, Topica (Cambridge, MA, 1949), pp. 1–346, at pp. 324–43 (2.52.157–2.58.176).

72 Mayans, viii, p. 465 (De communione rerum): ‘Ex dissensione opinionum ventum est ad dissidium vitae, coeptum est non jam ampliis linguis et calamis certari, sed hastis, gladis, bombardis.’ The translation is mine.

73 For Vives's reception, see Gallego, Valentín Moreno, La recepción hispana de Juan Luis Vives (Valencia, 2006)Google Scholar; González González, Una república.

74 Lawrence D. Green, ‘Aristotle's rhetoric and Renaissance views on the emotions’, in Peter Mack, ed., Renaissance rhetoric (London, 1994); Mack, A history of Renaissance rhetoric, p. 170.

75 Thomas, Civility, p. 18; Chartier, Roger, The cultural uses of print in early modern France (Princeton, NJ, 1987), pp. 76–9Google Scholar.

76 Lander, Jesse, Inventing polemic (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 6–19Google Scholar; Lake, Peter and Pincus, Steven, ‘Rethinking the public sphere in early modern England’, Journal of British Studies, 45 (2006), pp. 270–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

77 Bejan, Teresa M., Mere civility (Cambridge, MA, 2017), pp. 8–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 20–49.

78 Remer, Humanism, pp. 103–5; Kaplan, Benjamin J., Divided by faith: religious conflict and the practice of toleration in early modern Europe (Cambridge, MA, 2007), pp. 127–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

79 Banchoff, Thomas and Casanova, José, eds., The Jesuits and globalization: historical legacies and contemporary challenges (Washington, DC, 2015), pp. 7–8Google Scholar.

80 See Mayans, v, p. 288 (De concordia).

81 Pocock, John, Virtue, commerce, and history (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 49–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 115; Bryson, Courtesy, pp. 44–6, 181.

82 Vives, De disciplinis, pp. 469–72.

83 Ibid., p. 477.

84 Peltonen, Rhetoric, p. 2; Skinner, Reason.

85 Soarez, Cypriano, De arte rhetorica (Seville, 1569)Google Scholar, fos. 21r–22v; Nicolas Caussin, De eloquentia sacra et humana (Paris, 1657), pp. 145–6; Fumaroli, ‘Rhetoric’, p. 258. For John Rainolds's use of Vives's conception of decorum, see Pender, ‘Prudence’, pp. 363–5.