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Hellenism and the Sentences-Commentary of Giles of Viterbo, 1469–1532

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2015

DANIEL NODES
DANIEL NODES*
Affiliation:
Department of Classics, Baylor University, One Bear Place 97352, Waco, Tx 76738, USA; e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Giles of Viterbo (1469–1532), cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church during the High Renaissance, was not merely a scholar influenced by the humanism and renewed Platonism of his day but a phil-Hellene according to various associations of Hellenism ranging from literary to political, ancient to modern. He embraced Hellenism in its many senses despite his belonging to the generation born after the fall of Constantinople. This is significant, for although Giles's interest in ancient Greek language and letters is generally acknowledged, insufficient scholarly attention has been paid to Giles's inclusive interest in Byzantine Hellenism and Orthodox Christian doctrine.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 19 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

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31 Ficino, Marsilio, The Philebus commentary, ch. 37, ed. Allen, M. J. B., Berkeley 1975, 369–71Google Scholar, cited in CHRP at p. 352 n. 285.

32 Giles of Viterbo: the commentary xvii.53.

33 CHRP, 353.

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43 ‘Tamen cum quaeritur quid tres, magna prorsus inopia humanum laborat eloquium. Dictum est tamen tres personae non ut illud diceretur sed ne taceretur’: ibid.

44 ‘Itaque loquendi causa de ineffabilibus ut fari aliquo modo possemus quod effari nullo modo possumus dictum est a nostris graecis una essentia, tres substantiae, a latinis autem una essentia uel substantia, tres personae quia sicut iam diximus non aliter in sermone nostro, id est latino, essentia quam substantia solet intellegi. Et dum intellegatur saltem in aenigmate quod dicitur placuit ita dici ut diceretur aliquid cum quaereretur quid tria sint, quae tria esse fides uera pronuntiat cum et patrem non dicit esse filium, et spiritum sanctum quod est donum dei nec patrem dicit esse nec filium’: ibid. vii.4.7.

45 ‘Sed ne nobis uideatur suffragari hoc quoque requiramus, quamquam et illi si uellent, sicut dicunt tres substantias, τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις, possent dicere tres personas, τρία πρόσωπα. illud autem maluerunt quod forte secundum linguae suae consuetudinem aptius diceretur’: ibid.i.6.11.

46 ‘Longe vero illi signatius naturae rationabilis individuam subsistentiam ὑποστάσεως nomine vocaverunt, nos vero per inopiam significantium vocum translaticiam retinuimus nuncupationem, eam quam illi ὑπόστασιν dicunt personam vocantes; sed peritior Graecia sermonum ὑπόστασιν vocat individuam subsistentiam’: Boethius, Contra Eutychen iii, in Theological tractates and the Consolation of philosophy, ed. H. F. Stewart, E. K. Rand and S. J. Tester, London–Cambridge, Ma 1973, 72–128 at p. 86.

47 Summa theologiae i. 29, a. 2. See Hipp, Stephen, ‘Person’ in Christian tradition and in the conception of Saint Albert the Great: a systematic study of its concept as illuminated by the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, Muenster 2001Google Scholar, esp. pp. 93–6, 218–40.

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49 D'Onofrio, History of theology: Renaissance, iii. 51.

50 Giles of Viterbo: the commentary lxxii.240.

51 John. xv.26. See lib. 1, d. 11, cap. 1.

52 Matthew x.20.

53 Jn xiv.26.

54 Jn xv.26.

55 Lib. 1, d. 11, ch. 1.

56 Woodhouse, Gemistos Plethon, 279.

57 Giles of Viterbo: the commentary civ.419.

58 See O'Malley, Church and reform, 31–2.

59 Giles of Viterbo: the commentary civ.422.

60 D'Onofrio, History of theology: Renaissance, iii. 199–200.

61 Giles of Viterbo: the commentary cxviii.510–11.

62 Bonaventure, In I Sent. d. 11, q. 1, conclusion, in Commentaria in quatuor libros sententiarum Magistri Petri Lombardi; in primum librum sententiarum, Florence 1882.

63 In I Sent. d. 11, a.1, q. 2 conclusio.

64 In I Sent. D. 11, a.1, q.1 conclusio. See Nodes, Daniel, ‘Conciliatory reflections on the procession of the Holy Spirit in Giles of Viterbo's Sentences commentary’, Scottish Journal of Theology lxiv (2011), 140–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 Giles of Viterbo: the commentary cxviii.516.

66 Ibid. 515.

67 See Riga Wood, ‘Early Oxford theology, III: Understanding the third person of the Trinity’, in Rosemann, Mediaeval commentaries on the Sentences, ii. 308–9.

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69 Giles of Viterbo: the commentary cxviii.515.

70 See, for example, Sabellico, Marcantonio, De linguae latinae reparatione, ed. Messina, Guglielmo Bottari, Messina 1999, 143–4Google Scholar.

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72 Ibid.

73 Giles of Viterbo: the commentary cxviii.518.

74 ‘Uti est enim assumere aliquid in facultatem voluntatis; frui est autem uti cum gaudio, non adhuc spei, sed iam rei. Proinde omnis qui fruitur, utitur; assumit enim aliquid in facultatem voluntatis, cum fine delectationis. Non autem omnis qui utitur fruitur, si id quod in facultatem voluntatis assumit, non propter illud ipsum, sed propter aliud appetivit’: Augustine, De Trinitate x.11. Peter made this the keynote division for his First book of Sentences, and quotes the passage at bk i, d.1, ch. 3.

75 ‘Et quia ‘Deus caritas est’, et filius, qui ‘ex Deo’ est, ‘caritas’ est, sui simile aliquid requirit in nobis, ut per hanc caritatem, quae est in Christo Iesu, ‘Deo’, qui est ‘caritas’, velut cognata quadam per caritatis nomen affinitate sociemur’: Origen, Commentarium in Canticum Canticorum, trans. Rufinus, ed. W. A. Baehrens, Leipzig 1925, 70.

76 Kaldellis, Anthony, Hellenism in Byzantium: the transformations of Greek identity and the reception of the classical tradition, Cambridge 2007Google Scholar, 317.

77 O'Malley, Church and reform, 187, and ‘Egidio da Viterbo and renaissance Rome’, in Egidio da Viterbo, OSA, e il suo tempo, 81.

78 Idem, Church and reform, 129, citing Giles at ms Évora, Portugal, 116/1–30, fo. 64v.