Dissent and philosophy in the Middle Ages : Dante and his precursors

191 Pages·2002·10.17 MB·English

by  Dante Alighieri

Dissent and Philosophy
in the Middle Ages
ApPLICATIONS OF POLITICAL THEORY
J.
Series Editors: Harvey Mansfield, Harvard University, and Daniel
Mahoney, Assumption College
This series encourages analysis of the applications of political theory to
various domains of thought and action. Such analysis will include works on
political thought and literature, statesmanship, American political thought,
and contemporary political theory. The editors also anticipate and welcome
examinations of the place of religion in public life and commentary on
classic works of political philosophy.
Lincoln's Sacred Effort: Defining Religion's Role in American Self Government,
by Lucas E. Morel
Tyranny in Shakespeare, by Mary Ann McGrail
The Moral of the Story: Literature and Public Ethics, edited by Henry T.
Edmondson III
Faith, Reason, and Political Life Today, edited by Peter Augustine Lawler and
Dale McConkey
Faith, Morality, and Civil Society, edited by Dale McConkey and Peter
Augustine Lawler.
Pluralism without Relativism: Remembering Isaiah Berlin, edited by Joao
Carlos Espada, Mark F. Plattner, and Adam Wolfson
The Difficult Apprenticeship of Liberty: Reflections on the Political Thought of
the French Doctrinaires, by Aurelian Craiutu
The Seven Wonders of Shakespeare, by Michael Platt
The Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, by Maurice Joly,
translation and commentary by John S. Waggoner
Deadly Thought: "Hamlet" and the Human Soul, by Jan H. Blits
v.
Reason, Revelation, and Human Affairs: Selected Writings of lames Schall,
edited and with an introduction by Marc D. Guerra
Sensual Philosophy: Toleration, Skepticism, and Montaigne's Politics of the Self,
by Alan Levine
Dissent and Philosophy in the Middle Ages: Dante and His Precursors, by
Emest L. Fortin, A.A., translation by Marc A. LePain
Dissent and Philosophy
in the Middle Ages
Dante and His Precursors
Ernest L Fortin, A.A.
Translated by Marc A. LePain
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English translation copyright © 2002 by Lexington Books
Originally published under the title Dissidence et philosophie au moyen-iige by Editions
Fides, 165 rue Deslauriers, Montreal, Que., H4N 2S4, Canada
Excerpts from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Paradiso by Alien Mandelbaum,
copyright © 1984 by Alien Mandelbaum, used by permission of Bantam Books, a
division of Random House, Inc. Excerpts from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri:
Inferno by Allen Mandelbaum, copyright © 1980 by Alien Mandelbaum, used by
permission of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Ine. Excerpts from The Divine
Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Purgatorio by Alien Mandelbaum, copyright © 1982 by Allen
Mandelbaum, used by permission of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Ine.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Fortin, Ernest L.
[Dissidence et philosophie au Moyen Age. English]
Dissent and philosophy in the Middle Ages: Dante and his precursors / Emest L. Fortin
; translated by Marc A. LePain.
p. cm. - (Applications of political theory)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7391-0327-2
1. Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321-Philosophy. 2. Philosophy, Medieval. I. TItle.H.
Series.
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2001038806
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Foreword
Some of the early commentators on the Comedy of Dante Alighieri note that
the author was viewed variously: by his readers as a poet, by others as a the
ologian, and by yet others as a philosopher. Given such circumstances, it
stands to reason that a fruitful recovery in our time of Dante's medieval mas
terwork calls for a reader with a considerable command of the full range of
Dante's own intellectual foundations and poetic art. Such a command is to
be found in the author of this book.
A priest of the Augustinians of the Assumption, Ernest L. Fortin received
a classical liberal education, including theological training in Rome and ad
vanced studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he earned the D.-es-L. degree.
His subsequent studies with Leo Strauss at the University of Chicago have
equipped him to reflect on the relation of Christianity to the political order
in light of the recovery of political philosophy in our time. His work on
Dante is the fruit of a sustained meditation on the poet's art of writing in re
lation to the central themes of Western civilization.
Fortin's Dissidence et philosophie au moyen-dge: Dante et ses antecedents was
J.
published in 1981 by Vrin of Paris and Editions Fides of Montreal. The
book seeks to situate Dante's achievement in the context of medieval culture
understood in the fullness of its complexities that more often than not have
escaped the notice of Dante's modem readers. Appropriately, Dante's name
is hardly mentioned until the close of chapter 3, once the author has pro
vided the necessary background for a renewed understanding of his Comedy.
Only then does he engage the reader in a careful reading of the poem that
vii
viii ..--.. Foreword
encompasses Dante's philosophical pursuits, his political concerns, and his
relations to Christianity.
The present book is a translation of Fortin's French book of 1981. Profes
sional commitments and personal circumstances have not permitted him to
recast the book in an English version as he wished to do. Accordingly, this
translation without alteration of the French original will have to stand in
place of any such revision. The endnotes to each chapter are substantially
the same as in the French. Some notes have been abbreviated in the interest
of space but no references to subsequent scholarship have been added to the
author's own work.
Readers of this book seeking a broader acquaintance with the author's
thought may wish to acquaint themselves with the three volumes of his Col
lected Essays, edited by J. Brian Benestad and published in 1996 by Rowman
& Littlefield. Volume 1 includes four essays on the theme of Dante and the
Politics of Christendom, one of which, "Dante's Comedy as Utopia," is
reprinted in the present book as an appendix. Readers may also consult the
translator's essay on Dante's "Greyhound" and other contributions to the
Festschrift in honor of Fr. Fortin, Gladly to Learn, Gladly to Teach, edited by
Douglas Kries and Michael Foley and published by Lexington Books.
I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness in the first place to the author for
his friendship and guidance over nearly forty years. He has been for me, as for
many others, an incomparable mentor. I am grateful to Assumption College for
a faculty development grant that enabled me to complete the body of the
translation in the summer of 2000 and to the Office of the Provost for encour
agement and support at many turns. I owe a great deal to the long-standing
support and advice of my Assumption faculty colleagues, particularly Daniel
Mahoney and Marc Guerra. Serena Leigh and Jason Hallman of Lexington
Books handled my questions cheerfully and expertly, as have Mrs. Diane
McGuire, secretary of the Theology Department, and the staff of the college's
Computer Services. Finally, for their long-suffering patience and encouraging
support, I owe more than I can say to my wife, Patricia, and our children,
Maria, Julie, Joseph, and Sarah.
Marc A. LePain
Assumption College
9 June 2001
Throughout the book citations from Dante's Divine Comedy are taken from
the English translation by Allen Mandelbaum, by kind permission of the
publisher, Bantam Books.
Introduction
This modest work does not pretend to be exhaustive. It seeks to do no more
than draw attention to a specific problem which contemporary scholarship
has at times overlooked or has not always made sufficiently clear: the reac
tion of certain medieval thinkers whose orthodoxy was suspect to the threats
or censures that weighed on them.
Until recently the problem and the terms in which it was formulated were
almost completely unknown to us. Modern historians have been much taken
up with the innumerable doctrinal quarrels which engaged philosophers and
theologians in the Middle Ages. They have also been taken up with the great
political debates of the time and in particular with the acute struggles which
for centuries pitted the spiritual and temporal powers against one another.
They have devoted a great deal of attention to the measures the Church took
to uproot heresy or prevent the diffusion of teachings it deemed false and
harmful. On the other hand, to date they have shown little interest in the
way many philosophers and poet-philosophers were able, without abandon
ing their position, if not to resolve, at least to attenuate the conflict that op
posed them to their religious or social milieu. This oversight on the part of
historians is such that the true nature of this conflict remains in large part
obscure. It may be nonetheless that we have here one of the strangest and
most remarkable contributions of this entire period.
Among the authors we could have examined closely, there is one particu
larly suited to our inquiry-Dante, first of all because the problem that con
cerns us attained its greatest breadth in the Christian world during his time,
2 Introduction
.--J
and second because he supplies the most helpful information for understand
ing it. Some of the conclusions we have come to will seem daring, even im
plausible, to scholars formed according to different methods or accustomed
to more common ways of thinking. The reader can decide for himself what
to think, with the help of the information provided. Accordingly, it is in
cumbent to lay bare the general principles which have inspired our work,
even if in broad strokes and in a still provisional fashion.
In the wake of so many and such brilliant studies on the whole of the me
dieval tradition and its various representative figures, we must wonder
whether there could be anything new to discover in this domain. Yet it would
be unfair to the authors of the Middle Ages to think that their thought has
been exhausted and that for all practical purposes they have no further se
crets to yield. If, as happens from time to time, we feel out of place in their
presence, it is not just because their works are often subtle and call for inter
pretation, but above all because we no longer read them as they wished to be
read. Under the influence of Hegel it was long held that they had now been
assimilated; that our own perspective was much broader; that, coming as we
do after them, we knew more than they did on all the fundamental questions;
and that, consequently, we understood them better than they understood
themselves. 1
Our contemporaries show more reserve in this matter. In the wake of the
collapse of Hegelian historiography, many among them have renounced the
ideal of objectivity or have formed a quite novel conception of this ideal. Our
knowledge of authors of the past is neither identical nor superior to their own
knowledge, but always "other" than theirs.2 Each period would thus have its
own perspective which would allow it to interpret the works it examines in
an original or creative fashion. The intellectual content of these works would
not be limited to what the author himself consciously inserted: it would al
ready hold all the meanings that countless generations of readers could draw
out over time. No more is needed for us to think that we too have the right
to return to that content to examine its unmined riches from a point of view
that could only be our own.
This is not the kind of reasoning that justifies our inquiry, however. It was
premature to assert, in the name of the experience of history, that our un
derstanding of our predecessors is necessarily different from theirs, or that the
reader's thought is fatally confined to a hermeneutic circle from which it can
never escape. History teaches us that the interpretation of works of the past
often varies from one period to another, but it does not prove in any way that
none of the interpretations that have been given or that could be given do
not conform substantively to the thought of the author.3 To assert confidently