John of Salisbury (1110-1180), on the other hand, while he recognises to the full the charm and value of the Consolation,' does not attempt to justify or explain the absence from it of the incarnate Word.1 The question lay dormant for a long while, such later commentators as Murmellius 2 and Grotius" making no effort to reconcile the apparent discrepancies existing in the different branches of Boethius's work, till at the beginning of the last century Gottfried Arnold, with scant ceremony, deprived him of all title to the authorship of the tracts, and dubbed him simply pagan. The flame which this spark kindled has burnt fiercely enough round the Boethiusfrage ever since-in Germany and France, at least; and Hand went even further than Arnold had gone, in denying to Boethius any outward connection with Christianity at all. Twenty years later Obbarius followed on the same side, defending this position at greater length. In our own time the chief combatant of Boethius as a theologian has been F. Nitzsch, who, while he denies the authenticity of the 1 Policratic., lib. vii. cap. 15. 2 See his commentary in Migne, lxiv. c. 1240. 4 Unparteiische Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie. 1700. 1823. tractates, admits the probability of at least an outward adherence to Christianity on the part of a Roman statesman who held high office under a Christian government, was hailed as friend by a circle of cultivated Christians, and, finally, was closely connected by marriage with a nobleman of conspicuous piety.1 To this formidable list of German learning and research must be added the names of Le Clerc, Judicis de Mirandol, Du Roure, and Jourdain. Of these four French writers, the only one that deserves our particular attention here is M. Charles Jourdain, who some thirty years ago endeavoured to cut the knot of the question by the ingenious hypothesis that the theological tractates attributed to the philosopher were the work of an African bishop of the same name-not an uncommon one, it would seem, in the sixth century-who was exiled to Sardinia under the persecution of the Arian king Thrasamund, suffered martyrdom there, but lost his identity in the more conspicuous personage of his Roman namesake.2 But the indiscreet zeal of M. Jourdain led him into the same error into which Hand and Obbarius had 1 Das System des Boethius. Berlin, 1860. 2 Mémoires présentées à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, tome vi. 1860. fallen. He did not see that by cutting off Boethius from all connection with Christianity, he put him outside the pale of political life at Rome in the reign of Theodoric-a heretic king, it is true, but one who always upheld the tradition of his predecessors from Theodosius onwards, that a profession of Christianity was the indispensable qualification for holding office, and who never repealed the stringent laws against paganism laid down in 390. In The first writer who made any systematic attempt to vindicate Boethius's Christianity was Glareanus.1 Unable to harmonise the philosophy of the Consolation' with the theology of the tracts, he adopted the simple if somewhat audacious expedient of exalting the latter at the expense of the former. other words, he challenged the authenticity of the 'Consolation.' It is almost unnecessary to say that this absurd supposition has not found favour with modern critics. The equally extravagant theory started by Gervaise, that in the person of Philosophy Boethius allegorically concealed our Lord; that the consolatory apophthegms addressed by her to the pupil, "whom she had nourished on all the learning of the Eleatic and Academic schools," are the utterance of the Word of God,-went no further than its author's 1 Preface to the Basle edition of 1546. 1 6 'Histoire de Boëce '1 and died a speedy death. Happily for Boethius, his orthodoxy has found more trustworthy though perhaps less ingenious champions. We may not, indeed, cite as such Berti or Francheville3 or Richter1 or Suttner or Schündelen, for they all considered the Consolation' an unfinished work, and the five books which have come down to us as nothing more than the foil against which Boethius intended by-and-by to set the immeasurable superiority of the consolations afforded by the Christian religion. The upholders of this theory take their stand on certain validiora remedia, which Philosophy at the very outset of the dialogue promises that she will presently apply to her suffering disciple, and which they maintain she has not yet applied when the book breaks off. It is undoubtedly true that the work is two-thirds over before she sees fit to fulfil her promise, and exclaims “Sed quoniam te ad intelligendum promptissimum esse conspicio, crebras coacervabo rationes ";" but from this point forward 7 1 Histoire de Boëce, sénateur romain. Paris, 1715. 2 Preface to the Leyden edition of 1611. 3 Nouvelle Traduction. A la Haye, 1744. 4 Translation of the Cons. Leipzig, 1753. 5 Programm des Eichstätter Lyceums. 1852. 6 Theologisches Litteraturblatt. Bonn, 1862, 1870, 1871 (different articles). 7 Cons., iv. pr. 2. But see p. 61, and cp. Cons., ii. pr. 5. her utterance continues to gain in vigour and authority the subjects attacked are more difficult, and consequently the arguments advanced are more elaborate, and demand a keener attention and a more robust intelligence, than those of the earlier books; the bursts of song with which her tired listener was wont to be refreshed are heard at rarer intervals, and the prose passages are of longer breath.1 Besides, the arrangement of the dialogue, its gradual growth from the merely rhetorical and apologetic to the speculative, the way in which the threads and they are many and perplexed—are gathered together in Philosophy's closing speech, appear to me irresistible evidence of the completeness of the whole. An interesting and very plausible explanation of Boethius's position was offered by G. Baur in 1841.2 According to him, Boethius was both philosopher and theologian, but philosopher first and theologian afterwards, taking in this last capacity a curious interest in subtle points of dogma, which he endeavoured to illustrate by the light of pagan learning. 1 Even before this, in Bk. iv. pr. 6, she says: quamquam angusto limite temporis sæpti tamen aliquid deliberare conabimur,"-words which show that Boethius had some suspicion how short his time was, and that what he had to say must be said quickly. 2 De Boethio Christianæ doctrinæ assertatore. Darmstadt, 1841. |