Cur homo?

A history of the thesis concerning man as a replacement for fallen angels

Vojtěch Novotný

KAROLINUM

Cur homo?

A history of the thesis concerning man as a replacement for fallen angels

Vojtěch Novotný

Reviewed by:

Prof. Dr. Achim Schütz (Pontificia Universitas Lateranensis, Vatican)

Prof. Dr. Fr. Emery de Gaál (University of St Mary of the Lake, Chicago)

Prof. Dr. Inos Biffi (Facolta Teologica dell’Italia Settentrionale, Milano)

English translation by Pavlína and Tim Morgan

Published by Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press

www.karolinum.cz

ebooks@karolinum.cz

Cover by Jan Šerých

First English edition

© Charles University in Prague, 2014

Text © Vojtěch Novotný, 2014

Translation © Pavlína and Tim Morgan, 2014

ISBN 978-80-246-2519-5

ISBN 978-80-246-2586-7 (pdf)

ISBN 978-80-246-3051-9 (ePub)

ISBN 978-80-246-3052-6 (Kindle)

To Tomáš Machula

In gratitude and friendship

Contents

1. Cover Page

2. Title Page

3. Copyright Page

4. Dedication

5. Contents

6. Introduction

7. I. Origins: the church fathers

1. 1. Sources

2. 2. Augustine of Hippo

3. 3. Before Augustine

4. 4. Between Augustine and Gregory

5. 5. Gregory the Great

8. II. Consolidation: the early middle ages

1. 1. Eph 1:10

2. 2. Luke 15:8–10

3. 3. Luke 2:14

4. 4. Mark 16:1–7

5. 5. Rev 11:13

6. 6. The Missal

7. 7. Canon law

8. 8. The tithe

9. 9. The number of the saved

10. 10. Other references

9. III. Crisis: the eleventh and twelfth centuries

1. 1. Anselm of Canterbury

2. 2. The school of Laon

3. 3. Rupert of Deutz

4. 4. Honorius of Autun

10. IV. Decline: the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

1. 1. Authors from the monastic tradition

2. 2. Hugh of St. Victor

3. 3. Summa sententiarum

4. 4. Alcher of Clairvaux

5. 5. Peter Lombard

6. 6. The influence of Lombard’s Sententiae

7. 7. Albert the Great

8. 8. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio

9. 9. Thomas Aquinas

11. Conclusion

12. Resume

13. Bibliography

1. 1. Abbreviations

2. 2. Electronic sources

3. 3. Primary sources

4. 4. Secondary literature

14. Index of proper names

Introduction

I. Origins: the church fathers

1. Sources

2. Augustine of Hippo

3. Before Augustine

4. Between Augustine and Gregory

5. Gregory the Great

II. Consolidation: the early middle ages

1. Eph 1:10

2. Luke 15:8–10

3. Luke 2:14

4. Mark 16:1–7

5. Rev 11:13

6. The Missal

7. Canon law

8. The tithe

9. The number of the saved

10. Other references

III. Crisis: the eleventh and twelfth centuries

1. Anselm of Canterbury

2. The school of Laon

3. Rupert of Deutz

4. Honorius of Autun

IV. Decline: the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

1. Authors from the monastic tradition

2. Hugh of St. Victor

3. Summa sententiarum

4. Alcher of Clairvaux

5. Peter Lombard

6. The influence of Lombard’s Sententiae

7. Albert the Great

8. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio

9. Thomas Aquinas

Conclusion

Resume

Bibliography

1. Abbreviations

2. Electronic sources

3. Primary sources

4. Secondary literature

Index of proper names

1. 1

2. 2

3. 5

4. 6

5. 7

6. 8

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1. Cover Page

2. Begin Reading

3. Copyright Page

4. Dedication

5. Contents

6. Introduction

7. Conclusion

8. Bibliography

9. Index of proper names

Introduction

The following pages aim to fulfil a modest goal: to examine, outline, elucidate, and supplement the existing body of knowledge concerning a seemingly minor area of patristic and medieval theology, and that is the assertion that man was created as a replacement for fallen angels. Yves Congar has suggested, however, that the significance of this idea cannot be overstated.[1]

We are going to build upon the prompt provided by Marie-Dominique Chenu, who in 1953 drew attention to this all-but-forgotten controversy of the twelfth century.[2] Chenu noticed that the school of Laon, in the collection Sententiae divinae paginate, gave consideration to the assertion of St. Anselm of Canterbury – concerning a subject somewhat “outside his field” – in Cur Deus homo that God decided that the number of fallen angels would be replenished from human nature. Anselm also stated, however, that human nature was created for its own sake. They noticed this matter in Laon and made it a subject of much debate and disputation. In De glorificatione Trinitatis, Rupert of Deutz then linked the question to reflections upon God’s mysterious intention for creation, which looks forwards to the incarnation, and claimed that not only angels but everything – including angels – was created for man (that is, for the God-man). According to Chenu, the most notable contribution to this question and the controversy surrounding it was made by Honorius of Autun, to whose work he therefore paid a significant amount of attention. Chenu also pointed out that the whole theme was somehow backed up by the authority of St. Gregory, according to whom human beings will make up a tenth order in the heavenly kingdom, thus completing the existing nine angelic orders (Homiliae in Evangelia II,34).

Since that period, man as a “replacement creature” (créature de remplacement) has all but vanished as a subject of theological instruction, being referred to only occasionally and even then as something of a token. This was the case in Peter Lombard’s Summa sententiarum, a work which nonetheless prompted a number of other authors, including Thomas Aquinas, to enter their opinion on the matter. But this was also a time of a new awareness of nature and of natures, including human nature, which appeared to be a synthesis of both a material and a spiritual entity (mikrokosmos) and so also the goal of the universe (makrokosmos). This is apparent not only in works from the school of Chartres but also in those of students of Gilbert de la Porrée, among whom featured Alain of Lille, whose view on our subject was not that man comes in order to replace fallen angels, but that through him all levels of creation should enter the heavenly Jerusalem and that matter itself should participate in the divine.

The whole discussion began at a time characterised by the awareness that man is, according to Louis Bouyer, a kind of ange de remplacement.[3] According to this anthropologie angélique, as Yves Congar put it, man is called, through resurrection, to become like the heavenly angels (Mark 12:25; Matt 22:30; Luke 20:36). This call is conditional upon his anticipating, here and now, the angels’ way of life by serving God through unceasing praise, gazing upon God in contemplation, and becoming like him in his sanctity and in the purity of a virtuous life in which the spirit has supremacy over the body. And so, man – who inhabits civitas terrenis – and the angels – who inhabit civitas caelestis – will be, here and now and for all time, one together in civitas Dei. The “model” man in this respect is an ascetic sexually chaste monk, who already, here on the earth, leads bios angelikos and thus anticipates the goal towards which all predestined, redeemed people are headed.[4]

The discussion concerning whether man was created as a replacement for fallen angels or was willed as an “original” being thus touched upon a key understanding of the day concerning spirituality, social order, and the concept of man. Ultimately, the discussion resulted in a fundamental modification of that concept, positing man as an “original” being, that is, as a being created for its own sake, and for whom, furthermore, God created this world, a world which together with – and through – man is to proceed towards the heavenly Jerusalem.[5] If we put the question another way and ask whether man would have been created if the angels had not sinned, we enter the realm of another controversy, the origins of which can also be traced to the twelfth century, and that is whether the Son of God would have become incarnate if man had not sinned.[6] Thus, those who entered the debate began to see a connection between the purpose behind creation and the purpose behind the incarnation, something which clearly applies to Rupert of Deutz. Chenu rightly, therefore, by analogy to the christological question cur Deus homo, encapsulated our subject in the anthropological question cur homo.

This question brings us to the title of our paper, the aim of which, as we have said, is to examine, outline, elucidate, and supplement the claims by which Marie-Dominique Chenu re-introduced the question of man as a replacement angel, and which the research community, barring a small number of clarifications of an evidential or hypothetical nature, accepted without fundamental reservations. We will show that our subject was originally introduced by St. Augustine, then taken on by his scholarly successors and by St. Gregory the Great, whose authority added further to the authority of the bishop of Hippo. We will identify the typical contexts in which the subject was raised by the authors of the early Middle Ages, but will dwell for longer on the discussion that developed during the twelfth century, which represents the high point of the ideas under consideration here. We will show that St. Anselm, who quite intentionally used the notion that man was created as a replacement for fallen angels in his reflections upon the reasons for the incarnation, also suggested the idea that human nature was created pro se ipsa. We will further show that independently of Anselm, although in a not dissimilar way, the school of Laon arrived at this same conclusion and had a significant impact on the subsequent fate of the theme we are following. We will demonstrate that Rupert of Deutz elevated the subject to the christological level, but also that he did not, sadly, find any worthy successors, among whom cannot therefore be numbered, despite everything, Honorius of Autun. We will show that the idea that man was created for his own sake ultimately won through, although among authors of the monastic tradition the original claim remained intact. In conclusion, we will point briefly to the surprisingly contemporary relevance of these reflections, which comes to light through a discussion concerning the statement in the pastoral constitution of the Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes 24, according to which the Creator desires human being propter seipsam.

The paper presents the genesis of the notion of man as a replacement angel in four main stages, which are addressed in four corresponding chapters. The first of these chapters seeks out the idea’s patristic roots. The second describes the journey through which the problem of the “replacement angel” passed during the early Middle Ages, thus arriving, as the third part will show, in the twelfth century, during which the subject became problematized. The fourth of these chapters shows how the subject begins to gradually fade away through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in both monastic and scholastic theology. The conclusion will summarize the findings and shed light on the contemporary relevance of the question as to whether and in what sense man is willed by God for his own sake.

Since our work is mainly expository in nature, the research method adopted consists of the exposition, analysis, and comparison of texts presented mainly diachronically.[7] Where necessary, we study the sources that the various authors drew upon, and also the immediate context of the ideas; wider contextualization is, however, avoided. It should be pointed out that although what we are exploring was only a marginal subject in the reflections of the church fathers and the thinkers of the Middle Ages, these reflections are set out in the middle of the paper in order to acquaint ourselves with them more fully; the major and pivotal theological themes are to be found elsewhere.

We do not, however, wish only to multiply findings about the sources of the thesis concerning man as a replacement angel, and its variants, or about the numerous ways in which it has been criticized. What we are doing here is devoting ourselves to the history of theology, and being led first and foremost by theological interests. We want to show that what we gained from the journey taken by the ideas we are investigating was a clearer – and still highly relevant – awareness that man was created for his own sake, since God wills him as an original being and not merely as a puppet in some divine drama or as a function of another creature. By this, we are not of course saying that man is not here for God. Although this is true, however, in the very particular sense that this finality is interpersonal and defined by free and selfless love – love that is not merely functional. All of the affection of the Father since the beginning of time came to dwell in the incarnate Son, which is why man is made for Jesus Christ. He, however, out of filial love, turns this directing of human being towards himself to the Father. This process too is not to be merely functional. Man is here as the very goal of Christ’s self-giving, and Christ is here as the One in whom man is to freely and selflessly recognise his Lord and brother, so that he can, together with him forever in the Holy Spirit, “praise the glory” of the heavenly Father (Eph 1:3–14).

Vojtěch Novotný, Prague, 31 August 2013

1 Yves CONGAR, L’Église chez S. Anselme, in Spicilegium Beccense, tome I, Congrès international du IXe centenaire de l’arrivée d’Anselme au Bec, Paris: J. Vrin, 1959, 372.

2 Marie-Dominique CHENU, Cur homo? Le sous-sol d’une controverse au XIIe siècle, Mélanges de sciences religieuses 10 (1953), 197–204. Included in ID., La théologie au douzième siècle, Paris: J. Vrin, 1957, 52–61. Before Chenu, who should be credited with noting the importance of this problematic subject and incorporating it into the wider horizon of the “twelfth century Renaissance,” the matter was noted only by scholars researching particular authors or texts in which it is alluded to. See, for example, Joseph Anton ENDRES, Honorius Augustodunensis: Beitrag zur Geschichte des geistigen Lebens im 12. Jahrhundert, Kempten-München: Verlag der Josef Kösel’schen Buchhandlung, 1906, 114–120; Ludwig OTT, Untersuchungen zur theologischen Briefliteratur der Frühscholastik, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Viktorinerkreises, Münster i. W.: Aschendorff, 1937, 456–484; Felix SCHEIDWEILER, Studien zum Anegenge, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 1/2 (1944), 33–35.

3 Louis BOUYER, Le Sens de la vie monastique, Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2008, 56 (orig. 1950).

4 Yves-Marie-Joseph CONGAR, Église et Cité de Dieu chez quelques auteurs cisterciens à l’époque des croisades en particulier dans le De Peregrinante civitate Dei d’Henri d’Albano, in Mélanges offerts à Étienne Gilson de l’Académie française, Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1959, 177. See Robert BULTOT, Christianisme et valeurs humaines: La doctrine du mépris du monde, en Occident, de S. Ambroise à Innocent III, tome IV, Le XI siècle, vol. 1, Pierre Damien, Louvain-Paris: Éd. Nauwelaerts, 1963, 40: “‘Angelic anthropology’ – we do indeed have to use this contradictory expression – perceives man much less as a ‘being-in-the-world’ who is inseparably carnal and spiritual (a biblical concept) than as a spiritual and acosmic being (a concept borrowed from Hellenistic philosophy), the data from Genesis which prevent this metaphysical interpretation being either overlooked or interpreted in such a way as to empty them of their actual anthropological content.” (Translated from the French.)

5 Marie-Dominique CHENU, La théologie au douzième siècle, 60: “Man is not a ‘replacement creature,’ but the demiurge of this world, which in revealing itself reveals man to himself. Consequently, the ‘antique’ reference to angelic life has lost its foundation and can no longer doctrinally define the monastic state; the comparison is no more than a matter of pious superiority, with neither bite nor structure, insufficient for sustaining such eschatological humanism.” (Translated from the French.)

6 See J. M. BISSEN, La tradition sur la prédéstination absolue de Jésus-Christ du VIIe au XIVe siècles, La France Franciscain 22 (1939), 9–34; J. F. BONNEFOY, La question hypothétique: Utrum si Adam non peccasset. . . au XIIIe siècle, Revista Española de Teología 14 (1954), 327–368; Werner DETTLOFF, Die Geistigkeit des hl. Franziskus in der Christologie des Johannes Duns Scotus, Wissenschaft und Weisheit 22 (1959), 17–28; Daniel HORAN, How Original Was Scotus on the Incarnation? Reconsidering the History of the Absolute Predestination of Christ in Light of Robert Grosseteste, The Heythrop Journal 52 (2011), 374–391.

7 Our research made use of electronic resources, especially the Patrologia Latina database (Chadwycks-Healey), the Library of Latin Texts, Series A (Brepols), and Digitale Monumenta Historiae Germanica (Bayerische StaatsBibliothek – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). The research was based on a detailed study of these databases using typically occuring phrases. This was complemented by the reading of a number of other published texts. Patristic and medieval texts and texts from the Middle Ages published in databases or in printed form that did not yield relevant findings are not mentioned in the bibliography.

I. Origins: the church fathers

The idea that man was created as a replacement for fallen angels originated in the patristic period, and research has identified a number of texts of St. Augustine (350–430) and St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604) in which these origins are believed to be located. We therefore need to examine these sources and see how the theme was established by each of these fathers. First, we will see how it was introduced by Augustine, and explore any earlier sources on which he may have drawn; we will then see how the subject was dealt with by others of the fathers, up to and including St. Gregory the Great.

1. Sources

Chenu believed that we need to look for the patristic origins of the medieval disputations in St. Gregory the Great, namely in Homiliae in evangelia II,34.[1] This opinion has since been corrected, however, with almost complete consensus. Although Gregory undoubtedly belonged to those fathers whose thinking exerted significant influence upon early medieval theology, our subject had already, before Gregory, been addressed by Augustine.[2]

Congar, therefore, offered an alternative list of the possible sources used by St. Anselm: Augustine’s Enchiridion c.19, c.56, c.61, c.62; De civitate Dei 22,1; and Sermones post Maurinos reperti (= Sermo 229/H = Sermo Guelferbytanus); and Gregory’s Homiliae in evangelia II,21,2; II,34,6–7.11.[3] Schmitt, in an edition of Anselm’s Cur Deus homo, noted Augustine’s Enchiridion c.29, c.61; and De civitate Dei 14,26; 22,1; and Gregory’s Homiliae in evangelia II,21,2; II,34,11.[4] Following Schmitt, Roques mentioned Augustine’s Enchiridion c.29; and Gregory’s Homiliae in evangelia II,21,2.[5] Lohse and Schmidt, in their studies on St. Augustine, referred to Enchiridion c. 9,29; and De civitate Dei 22,1.[6] Lamirande cited Augustine’s Enchiridion c.9,28; De civitate Dei 16,62; 20,14; 22,1; and Sermo Guelferbytanus 12,2.[7] Orazzo, who researched our subject in the work of St. Bernard, referred to Augustine’s Enchiridion c.29, c.56, c.61; and De civitate Dei 22,1; and Gregory’s Homiliae in evangelia II,21,2; II,24,11.[8] Marabelli, in an edition of one of Anselm’s lectures recorded by a student of his, referred to Augustine’s Enchiridion c.9,26; c.16,61; and De civitate Dei 14,26; 22,1–2; and Gregory’s Homiliae in evangelia II,21,2; II,34,6.11.[9] Judic, in an edition of Gregory’s homilies, mentioned Augustine’s Enchiridion c.9,29.[10] Finally, Fiedrowicz, in an edition of Homiliae in evangelia II,21,2, referred to elsewhere in Gregory: Moralia in Iob 28,34; and In librum primum Regum expositionum Libri VI 1,44; 3,166; 4,26.[11]

The research community therefore arrived fairly unanimously at an identification of the basic texts, although the lists were not always identical in scope. If we look beyond the obvious errors and the differences in the numbering in the various editions, it is clear that research has, to date, pointed to the following places: Augustine’s Enchiridion 9,29; 15,56; 16,61; 16,62; De civitate Dei 14,26; 22,1; and Sermo 229/H,2 (Sermo Guelferbytanus 22,1 = Sermones post Maurinos reperti); and Gregory’s Homiliae in evangelia II,21,2; II,34,6–7.11; and In librum primum Regum expositionum Libri VI 1,44; 3,166; 4,26.

These are therefore the texts that will form the basis of our investigation. With respect to Augustine’s texts, we will largely confirm the conclusions of our predecessors, but will attempt to offer a more detailed explanation of the question we are addressing; we will regard Enchiridion 15,56 as irrelevant to our research. From Gregory, we will add one further text, Moralia in Iob 31,49, but we will challenge the inclusion of Homiliae in evangelia II,34, and will reject In librum primum Regum expositionum Libri VI as inauthentic. In addition, we will attempt to answer the question concerning the sources from which both fathers drew, and will show how Augustine’s idea appeared in authors who predated Gregory, an area that is yet to be addressed in specialist literature.

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Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Contents

Introduction

I. Origins: the church fathers

1. Sources

II. Consolidation: the early middle ages

III. Crisis: the eleventh and twelfth centuries

IV. Decline: the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

Bibliography