The Concordance of Scripture The homiletic and exegetical methods of St Antony of Padua

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The concordance of scripture : the homiletic and exegetical methods of St Antony of
Padua.
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The Concordance of Scripture
The homiletic and exegetical methods of St Antony of Padua
by
Stephen Ronald Paul Spilsbury
A thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
of Trinity College, Bristol
validated by the University of Bristol
March 1999
ABSTRACT
Antony of Padua (c.1195-1231) was a Portuguese Augustinian canon who joined the
Franciscan Order in the lifetime of the Founder. Commissioned by Francis to teach
theology to the friars, Antony exercised an itinerant preaching ministry in Italy and
France before encapsulating his experience in his Sermones Dominicales and
Sermones Festivi.
This thesis examines what we know from external evidence about Antony's practice,
and what we know from his written works about the models he followed and his own
vision of the preacher's work. It also examines briefly the tradition of Biblical
interpretation in which he stood, especially as regards the so-called 'four senses' of
Scripture (historical, allegorical, moral and anagogic).
The structure of the Sermones Dominicales is examined in some detail, and the
sources Antony drew upon, both theological and secular, are briefly surveyed.
The heart of the dissertation is the examination of Antony's use of the terms
concordare and concordantia to express the relationship between the liturgical
elements that underpin the Sermones-the Gospel, Introit and Epistle of the Mass,
together with the Office reading -and in particular between the Gospel and the Old
Testament.
The instances of these terms are enumerated and classified, and recent Antonian
scholarship is surveyed in so far as it touches on this subject. Suggestions are offered
regarding the origins of Antony's terminology, and an attempt is made to uncover the
theory underlying it, by means of an extensive analysis of the sermons for the
Sundays after Pentecost. Some conclusions are drawn.
Finally, the thesis traces Antony's influence on those who came after him, both
preachers and theologians, and suggests reasons for the apparent eclipse of his
approach, as well as reasons why it may be of renewed interest to theologians today.
ADGLORIAM
SANCTISSIMAE TRINITATIS
VERBIQUE INCARNATI IESU CHRISTI;
ET IN HONOREM
MAT RIS PAUPERCULAE EIUS~
NECNON S. ANTONII DE LISBOA ET PADOVA :
HOC OPUS
ALMAE PROVINClAE IMMACULATAE CONCEPTIONlS B.V. MARIAE IN ANGLIA
ORDINIS MINORUM
FRATRIBUS
VIVIS ATQUE DEFUNCTIS
PIE DEDICATUM EST
Author's Declaration:
The work contained in this dissertation is entirely my own;
The views expressed in it are those of the Author, and not of the University of Bristol
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish first of all to acknowledge with thanks the encouragement and friendly
criticism of Dr Carolyn Muessig and Dr Robert Forrest, without which the
inadequacies of this dissertation would have been even greater. Together with them, I
also thank the staff and fellow-students of Trinity College, and of the Department of
Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Bristol for their support.
I thank, too, the staff of the Franciscan Central Library and the Franciscan Study
Centre at Canterbury, for allowing me access to their facilities.
I express my heartfelt gratitude to my sister, Dr Sarah Spilsbury, for allowing me to
use her computer, and for making me numerous cups of tea and coffee which I often
forgot to drink.
Last, but by no means least, I am grateful to my wife Marilyn, and to our children
Thomas, John, Helen, Edward and Elizabeth, for their patience and love.
CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE: LIFE AND mSTORICAL CONTEXT 6
1.1 Antony's early life and education 6
1.2 The appointment of Antony to teach theology to the friars 12
1.3 The writing of the Sermones Dominicales and the Sermones Fesfivi 19
CHAPTER TWO: ANTONY THE PREACHER 29
2.1 Antony's own preaching 30
2.2 Antony's models 39
2.21 Augustine 40
2.22 Gregory 42
2.23 Bernard 45
2.24 'Paris style' 48
2.25 Innocent III 51
2.3 Antony'sprolog; consonantes 55
CHAPTER THREE: ANTONY AND THE EXEGETICAL TRADITION 62
3.1 Background 62
3.2 Augustine and Antony 65
3.3 The development of Allegory: Gregory 67
3.4 Hugh of St Victor 70
3.5 Antony 75
3.6 'Objective' allegory 77
CHAPTER FOUR: THE SERMONES DOMINICALES ET FESTIVI 79
4.1 The structure of the Sermones 79
4.11 The General Prologue 80
4.12 The Tabula thematum 83
4.13 The prolog; consonantes 84
4.14 The Gospel commentaries 85
4.15 Minor prologues and Epilogue 87
4.16 The Sermones Festivi 87
4.2 The theological sources of the Sermones 88
4.21 The Bible 88
4.22 Jerome and Isidore 89
4.23 The 'Gloss', 'Sentences', 'Historia Scholastica' 89
4.24 Possible Jewish influences 90
4.25 Augustine, Gregory and Bernard 90
4.3 Secular Sources of the Sermones: the 'Concordance of Nature' 92
4.31 'The Case of the Curious Curlew' 92
4.32 The Book of Creation 94
4.33 'Philosophus' and 'Poeta , 97
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCORDANT/A: EXTENT AND ORIGIN 99
5.1 The method and terminology of concordance 100
5.11 From Septuagesima to Easter 100
5.12 From Easter to Pentecost 101
5.13 From Pentecost to Epiphany 102
5.14 The Prologues; the Marian and Festival Sermons 103
5.2 The origins of Antony's use of concordare and concordantia 104
5.21 Augustine and Gregory 104
5.22 Joachim of Fiore and the Concordia nov; et veteris testamenti 108
5.3 Modem studies: the state of the question 114
CHAPTER SIX: CONCORDANT/A: ANALYSIS 121
6.1 Pentecost IX 121
6.2 Case study: the tructure of an Antonian •S ermo': Pentecost I 122
6.3 The Introits 126
6.4. The Epistles 129
6.5 Old Testament Concordances: Examples of three different types 132
6.51 Pentecost I, first clause 132
6.52 Pentecost XIV, first clause 134
6.53 Pentecost XXIV, first clause 137
6.6 Further case studies 138
6.7 Conclusions 146
CHAPTER SIX: AFTERMATH 150
6.1 Antony remembered: sermons on the Saint 150
6.2 Antony forgotten: the intellectual legacy 160
6.3 Antony recovered? Some modern theological approaches 168
CONCLUSION 175
APPENDIX
Table I Citations from Augustine, Gregory, Bernard and Innocent III 179
Table II Instances of concordantia, etc. in the sermons up to Pentecost 181
Table III Instances of concordantia, etc. in the sermons for the Sundays after
Pentecost; and from Advent to Epiphany III 185
Table IV Instances of concordantia, etc. in the Marian and Festival sermons 190
Addenda 191
Table V Sermons on Saint Antony 192
Abbreviations 194
BffiLIOGRAPHY 196
INTRODUCTION
Saint Antony of Padua is one of the most popular saints of the Catholic
calendar. His image is found in countless churches, and even the undevout invoke
him as a finder oflost property. In popular piety he is remembered above all as a
miracle worker:
'If, then, you ask for miracles:
death, error, all calamities,
the leprosy and demons fly,
and health succeeds infirmities.
The sea retires, and fetters break~
new life to broken limbs restore!
while what is lost returns again,
when young and old thy aid implore!'}
It was with some surprise, then, that in 1989 I came across the newly re-edited
and published Sermones Dominicales et Fe stivi of St Antony Until then, I had not
2.
realised that he had left any writings, let alone that they were still extant and
available. Even a brief study convinced me of their intrinsic interest, and this work
has grown from that initial encounter.
We are fortunate in now possessing a very fine critical edition of the certainly
authentic works of St Antony. It has been in the course of preparing an English
translation of them that I have been forced to ask a number of questions about
Antony's intentions and methods which I have tried to answer in this critique: in
particular, about the nature and scope of his method of concordance, the juxtaposition
and correlation of Scriptural passages, so that they illuminate and interpret one
another.
Responsory at Matins, Office of St Antony by Julian of Spires:
Si quaeris miracula,
mors, e"or, calamitos,
daemon, lepra fugiunt,
aegri surgunt sani.
Cedunt mare, vincula,
membra, resque perditas
petunt et accipiunt
iuvenes et cani.
Saneti Antonii Patavini Sermones Dominicales et Festivi (padua, 1979). For full reference,
2
see Bibliography, and notes to Chapter IV. Referred to throughout as SDF I,II,I1I and page number;
also by title of sermon and paragraph number.
\
We are fortunate, too, in that the primitive sources for the biography of St
Antony have also been edited and published in recent years. The neglect of these
sources over the centuries has been in proportion to the accretion of legendary
material that has gathered around his memory. We now seem better placed to put
Antony back again into his true historical context. This is because (a third piece of
good fortune) the earliest sources are very early indeed, and appear to be
conscientious in their effort to be accurate. An outline of these sources will be
appropriate in this Introduction.
The earliest, written within two years of Antony's death by a friar who had
been associated with him in his last years, is the' Vita Prima' or 'Assidua,3. The
author says that he consulted Sueiro, bishop of Lisbon, for information about Antony's
early life. Sueiro came to Italy for the canonization ceremony in 1232, and had
doubtless made sure he was equipped with the relevant facts. The accounts of
Antony's last years appear to be from the personal memories of the author. Where he
had no information (notably regarding Antony's time in France), he makes no attempt
to invent, but merely notes that the Saint visited many other provinces. He recounts in
circumstantial detail miracles attributed to Antony's prayers after his death (again,
probably, gained from the canonization proceedings), but when due allowance is
made for the conventions ofhagiographicallanguage, his account of Antony's life is
singularly free of the miraculous.
Not long after the' Vita Prima', friar Julian of Spires composed the rhyming
office for the Feast of St Antony which was still used in the Order until the Second
Vatican Council It was a companion to the Offices he composed for other
4
Franciscan feasts. He also paraphrased and abbreviated the 'Vita Prima " and
incorporated some material from Thomas of Celano's first 'Life' ofSt Francis. This
3 G.Abate, 'Le fonti della biographia di S. Antonio: I. La 'Vita Prima' di S. Antonio'
(1968, II Santo (padua) 8, 127-226) (abbreviated: 'Fontl L II', etc.)
4 G. Abate, 'Le fonti della biographia di S. Antonio: II. L' ufficio ritmico'
(1969,1S9,149-160)
2.