Docere Verbo et Exemplo: An Aspect of Twelfth Century Spirituality

by Caroline Walker Bynum

Contents: Introduction --
Monks and regular canons in the twelfth century: The state of the question --
A new approach --
Part 1: Regular canons and the concern for edification --
1. The sources --
Treatises of practical spiritual advice --
Two groups of sources --
Regular canons and the right to preach --
2. The individual treatises --
The compilation in MS Ottoboni Lat. 175 and the Regula Clericorum --
The Expositio in Regulam Beati Augustini, Odo of St. Vincent's letters, and Hugh of St. Victor's De Institutione Novitorum --
The commentary in MS Vienna 2207 and Philip of Harvengt's De Institutione Clericorum --
Richard of St. Victor's De Questionibus, the Bridlington Dialogue, and Adam of Dryburgh's Liber de Ordine --
3. The context --
The meaning of example --
The concern for edification in it context --
Conclusion --
Part 2: The Monastic focus on the individual as learner --
1. The sources --
Treatises of practical spiritual advice --
The Benediction Rule --
2. The early twelfth century: Individual treatises --
The eleventh-century background: John of Fruttuaria's De Vitae Ordine --
Rupert of Deutz's Super Quaedam Capitula Regulae, Abelard's Rule for Nuns, and Peter in the Deacon's Commentaries --
Bernard of Clairvaux's De Gradibus Humilitatis and De Praecepto et Dispensatione, and Aelred of Reievaulx's Speculum Caritatis --
3. The later twelfth century: Individual treatises --
Hildegard of Bingen's Explanatio Regulae, Joachim of Flora's Commentary, The De Novitiis Instruendis, the Commentary from Pontigny, and Adam of Perseigne's letters --
Peter of Celle's De Disciplina Claustrali, Arnulf of Boheries's Speculum Monachorum, and Stephen of Salley's Speculum Novitii --
Stephen of Paris's Expositio Super Regulam: The exception that proves the rule --
4. Differences and similarities --
Psychological subtlety, community, and monastic attitudes toward example --
The idea of the individual as learner in its twelfth-century context --
Conclusion.

226 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Caroline Walker Bynum is an American medieval scholar and University Professor emerita at Columbia University, as well as Professor emerita of Western Medieval History at the Institute for Advanced Study. She was the first woman appointed University Professor at Columbia, served as Dean of the School of General Studies, and led both the American Historical Association and the Medieval Academy of America. Her research focuses on how medieval people, particularly women, understood the human body and physicality within spiritual and theological contexts, highlighting female piety and the role of women in late-medieval Europe. She has received numerous honors and taught at Harvard, Washington, Columbia, and Princeton.