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François De Meyronnes and Hierarchy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

David Luscombe
David Luscombe*
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
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Extract

François de Meyronnes, of the Order of St Francis, has long been respected as an important figure in the history of later medieval philosophy and theology, but Père de Lapparent, in 1940-2, first revealed in full the vigour and the extent to which François also devoted himself, in his teaching and publishing and in his other activities, to the cause of the Angevin Kingdom of Naples. François was born in Angevin territory, at Meyronnes, near Barcelonnette, in the valley of the Ubaye in Provence. He studied under Duns Scotus in Paris and taught there alongside Pierre Roger, later Pope Clement VI. On 24 May 1323 Pope John XXII wrote to the Chancellor of the University, at the request of Robert, King of Sicily (1309-43), to ask for the licentia docendi to be bestowed upon François, who was then Bachelor of Theology. John XXII also sought François’ opinion on the question of the poverty of Christ and of the Apostles before publishing the Bull Quia quorundam (19 November 1324), and in the same year, 1324, he sent François to Gascony with instructions to negotiate peace between King Charles the Fair and King Edward II of England.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 9: The Church and Sovereignty c.590-1918 , 1991 , pp. 225 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1991 

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References

1 Lapparent, P. de, ‘L’oeuvre politique de François de Meyronnes, ses rapports avec celle de Dante’, AHDL, XV-XVIIème années (1940-2), pp. 5–151Google Scholar. The most important general study of François remains that of Roth, B., Franz von Mayronis O.F.M. Sein Leben, seine Werke, seine Lehre von Formalunterschied in Gott = Franziskanische Forschungen, ed. Böhner, P. and Kaup, J., 3. Heft (Wed in Wesrfalen, 1936),Google Scholar which includes information on François’ pro-Angevin commitment, as does the study by Langlois, C., ‘François de Meyronnes, Frère mineur’. Histoire littéraire de la France, 36 (Paris, 1927), pp. 305–42Google Scholar. Caggese’s, R. Roberto d’Angio e i suoi tempi, 2 vols (Florence, 1922-30)Google Scholar mentions neither François nor Elzéar of Sabran, an important link between King Robert of Naples and François; much more surprisingly, Leonard’s, E. G. Les Angevins de Naples (Paris, 1954)Google Scholar does not appear to mention either Elzear’s mission to Paris in 1323 or François. A fresh edition of the works printed by de Lapparent would be worthwhile; see Baethgen, F., ‘Dante und Franz von Mayronis’, DA, 15 (1959), pp. 103–36Google Scholar. Wilks, Michael cited the writings of François de Meyronnes repeatedly in The Problem of Sovereignty in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1963)Google Scholar and Lagarde, G. de devoted several valuable pages to him in vol. 2 of the second edition of La naissance de l’esprit laīque au déclin du moyen âge (Louvain and Paris, 1958), pp. 265–74Google Scholar. But he does not always receive the attention he deserves. In the recent Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought, C.330-C.1450, ed. Burns, J.H. (Cambridge, 1988)Google Scholar his writings are mentioned only in the bibliography. He gained no entry in the recent thirteen-volume Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. Strayer, J. R. (New York, 1982-9).Google Scholar

2 Cf. Barbet, J., ed., François de Meyronnes—Pierre Roger, Disputatio (1320-1321) = Textes philosophiques du moyen âge, X (not IX as printed) (Paris, 1961), p. 13.Google Scholar

3 Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, ed. Denifle, H. and Chatelain, A, II, 1 (Paris, 1891), no. 823, pp. 272–3.Google Scholar

4 De Lapparent, ‘L’oeuvre politique de François de Meyronnes’, pp. 10-11.

5 See Léonard, Les Angevins de Naples, pp. 182, 256-7 on the pious, mystical, and pro-Spiritual leanings of the courts of Charles II and Robert.

6 Elzéar was canonized in 1369. See Langlois, ‘François de Meyronnes’, p. 308. In addition, as was noted by Roth, Franz von Mayronis, p. 38, King Robert’s brother, St Louis of Toulouse, was a Franciscan of the same province as François.

7 ‘Decrevi, auxiliante Domino nostro Jesu Christo colligere in hac tabula puncta sanctorum, in quibus vera residet divinitaris scientia propellente me ad istud exercitium illustrissimo domino meo Roberto Dei grada rege Ierusalem et Cecilie, cuius serenissimam animam adeo vere sapientie amor sublimiter allexit, ut non solum princeps inclitus sed edam verus philosophus non immerito possit dici…’: Prologue to the Puneta on the Mystical Theology, cited by Roth, Franz von Mayronis, pp. 39,169.

8 Baethgen, ‘Dante und Franz von Mayronis’, p. 108. See de Lapparent, ‘L’oeuvre politique de François de Meyronnes’, p. 12; on François and Dante, pp. 13-24; die quaestio is ed. at pp. 76-92. On Robert’s struggles against the Ghibellines in Italy, see Léonard, Les Angevins Je Naples, esp. pp. 210-11,230.

9 De Lappatene ‘L’oeuvre politique de François de Mcytonnes’, pp. 11-12. The treatise is ed. at pp. 94-116. Baethgen, ‘Dante und Franz von Mayronis’, pp. 108—9 is cautiously in agreement over the date.

10 De Lapparent, ‘L’oeuvre politique de François de Meyronnes’, pp. 11-12; ed. pp.58-74. Baethgen, ‘Dante and Franz von Mayronis’, p. 109, suggests that this tract was written earlier than the other two. On pp. 120-36 Baethgen gives a fresh edition of the work. The tide is not certain; the work is broadly about the superiority of spiritual lordship over temporal lordship.

11 The punela have not been published or fully studied. Roth, Franz von Mayronis, pp. 167-9 lists MSS of the work. Théry, G. contributed the briefest of comments to the article on François in the Histoire littéraire de la France, 36, p. 326Google Scholar, and Jeanne, Mile Barbet has presented the prologue, ‘Le Prologue du Commentane Dionysien de François de Meyronnes, O.F.M.’, AHDL; XXIXème année, 1954 (Paris, 1955). pp. 183–91Google Scholar (text, pp. 188-91); here François shows that Denis received from St Paul knowledge of Paul’s vision of God (II Cor. 3.18). Mlle Barbet has projected an edition of the whole work which has reached the stage of typescript. I have used a film of the puncti on the Celestial and Ecclesiastical Hierarchies as copied in the Vatican MS lat 900.

12 MS Vat. lat 900, fol. 15.

13 Ibid.

14 Punctus VI, fol. 21.

15 Punctus VI, fol. 21V. Cf. De principatu temporali, ed. de Lapparent, pp. 64-5;Baethgen, ‘Dante und Franz von Mayronis’, p. 126.

16 Punctus XIII, fol. 23r.

17 Punctus XV, fol. 25V.

18 Quaestio de subjectione, 1, ed. Lapparent, de, ‘L’oeuvre politique de François de Meyronnes’, pp. 77–8Google Scholar. A work by Denis entitled Liber de perfecto et uno is cited.

19 Quaestio, p. 81.

20 Quaestio, pp. 82-3.

21 Quaestio, p. 87.

22 Quaestio, p. 88.

23 Tractatus de principato regni Siciliae, ed. Lapparent, de ‘L’oeuvre politique de François de Meyronnes’, pp. 95–8. Cf. De principato temporali, ed. Lapparent, de, pp. 67–70Google Scholar; Baethgen, ‘Dante und Franz von Mayronnis’, p. 122.

24 Tractatus, p. 104.

25 Tractatus, p. 112.

26 John of Paris, De potestate regia et papali, ch. 18, ed. Leclercq, J. . Jean de Paris et l’Ecclésiologie du Xale siècle = L’Eglise et l’Etat au Moyen Age, 5 (Paris, 1942), pp. 232, 235Google Scholar. Also, Denis, letter 9.

27 De Lapparent, ‘L’oeuvre politique de François de Meyronnes’, p. 48. Cf. the opening of François’ putidi on the Mystical Theology: ‘Et Quia inter cetera Sanctorum documenta post dicta sacri Canonis doctrina bead Dionysii Areopagite est prior…’: cited by Roth, Franz von Mayronis, p. 170. For further details on angelic functions and on the mission of angels to guard provinces and cities, archbishops and parishioners, etc. see François’ sermons or treatises infesto sanctorum angelorum and de angelis, printed in François Meyronnes, de, Sermones de laudibussanctorum (Venice, 1493)Google Scholar, fols 112V-14V, 114V-16V. (184 sermons by François have been listed along with the MSS of these by Schneyer, J. B., Repertorium der lateinischen Sermona des Mittelalters für die Zeit von 1150-1300 (Autoren E-H) = Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie uni Theologie des Mittelalters, 43, 9 vols, 2 (Münster, 1970), pp. 64–79.Google Scholar

28 See especially Léonard, , Les Angevins de Naples, pp. 282ff. and Boccace el Naples (Paris, 1944)Google Scholar; also Caggese, , Roberto d’Angio, 2, esp. pp. 364–74.Google Scholar

29 Paradiso VIII.

30 On this Léonard, Les Angevins de Naples, insists firmly and righdy; see esp. pp. 209-337.

31 Léonard, Les Angevins de Naples, pp. 231,256—7.

32 Siragusa, G. B., L’ingegno, il sapere e gl’intendimenti di Roberto d’Angio (Palermo, 1891)Google Scholar laid the foundations for a study, of Robert’s writings by describing MSS and printing extracts. Siragusa, p. 46, conjectured that François’ Sermons were che model followed by Caggese, Robert., Roberto d’Angio, 2, pp. 364–7Google Scholar, reviewed Siragusa’s findings, but in 1954 Léonard, Les Angevins de Naples, p. 283, regretted that no detailed, competent, and impartial study had been prepared; this situation remains unchanged, to the best of my knowledge. The only work of Robert which 1 have been able to read is his Treatise on the Poverty of Christ and the Apostles (Paris, BN, MS lat 4046, fols 72v-82r). The ‘Liste alphabétique des mss. de François de Mayronnes’ printed in La France franciscaine XXII (jan.-mars 1939), pp. 57-68 has not been available. 270 sermons are listed by Schneyer, , Repertorium, 5 (1973), pp. 196–219.Google Scholar