Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought and Learning/Appendix X
X. Note on Clarenbald of Arras.
Clarebaldus, archdeacon of Arras, is named in the continuation of [1]Henry of Ghent, just after Peter Lombard, as having written a commentary on the books of Boëthius On the Trinity, in which he argued against certain opinions of Gilbert of La Porrée, condemned Abailard, and favoured saint Bernard. In the [2]Gallia Christiana he appears as holding the office of provost of the church of Arras in 1152 and 1153; and since his successor emerges in the year 1160, it is presumed that he died before that date. His com mentary should therefore offer valuable contemporary evidence in regard to the controversies spoken of in my m vol. 12. 445. sixth chapter; but the [3]Histoire littéraire de la France says it is 'non imprimé et peut-être perdu.' It exists,[4] however, among the manuscripts of Balliol college, Oxford, in the very same volume, cod. ccxcvi, which contains some of Abailard’s most treasured writings.[5]
The Commentary was written after August 1153, since it speaks of iocunde recordacionis abbas Bernardus. We learn also from it that the author – his name is here spelled Clarenbaldus – was a disciple of Hugh of Saint Victor, and of Theodoric the Breton, no doubt the famous chancellor of Chartres.
Has causas mihi aliquantulum pertinaciter investiganti doctores mei venerabiles, Hugo videlicet de Sancto Victore et Theodericus Brito reddidcre. Magister vero Gillebertus Picta- vensis episcopus verbis perplexis hanc causam reddit. Que tametsi dispendiosa videri possunt, tamen in medium proferam, ne tam clarum doctorem cum famosis doctoribus ascribere videar invidere.
He therefore writes his criticism on Gilbert with the object, in part, of showing that his judgement of him is not influenced by any grudge against including the illustrious doctor in the same class with the famous doctors first named; so I understand the concluding words of the quotation. He charges Gilbert, as so many others did, with an excessive obscurity of style:
Exemplum huius lucidissime planitiei magister Gillebertus Pictavensis episcopus multo verborum circuitu tenebrosam obscuritatem inducit, liberatque verbis reni frivolam involventibus, ut credatur, etc.
Clarenbald even finds fault with Gilbert's logic, speaking of him as falsum sibi in logica fingens, aut certe male intelligens principium, quod est hoc, etc. In one place he describes some views of his as expressly heretical and as having been condemned at the council of Rheims:
Ex hoc loco episcopi Pictavensis error ortus esse videtur, ut tres personas numero differentes esse assereret. . . . Ergo nec numero tres persone inter se differunt. Quum vero in concilio Remensi sub Eugenio papa super aliis rebus liber eius reprehensus dampnatusque tam scolarium lectionibus quam claustralium ademptus est, et hic error, utpote heresibus eius aliis nullo modo preferendus, ibi commemoratus non est, commodum mihi visum est verba quibus hunc ipsum locum pertransire voluit, in medium revocare.
With respect to Abailard Clarenbald's language is still more hostile; he accuses him of virtually resuscitating the opinions of Arius:
Eandem pene heresim Petrus Abailardus nostris diebus, longo sopore antiquatam, renovavit; cum spiritu iactancie et impietatis plenus, divinitati ignominiam inferre, sibi gloriam conatus est parare.
- ↑ k
- ↑ l
- ↑ m
- ↑ [R. Peiper mentions another manuscript, at Valenciennes, theol. 185: pref. to Boet. Philos. Cons., 1871, p. 1.]
- ↑ Among them the Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans which Cousin stated to be found in no known manuscript, although he had a portion of this very volume transcribed for him for his edition of another work of Abailard. [There is also a manuscript in the Vatican, Reg. Lat. 242: see Denifle, Luther und Luthertum i. 2. Quellenbelege p. 49 (1905).]