Chapter II: Introduction

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, of the famous Praenestine family of the Anicii, was born about 480 A.D. in Rome. His father was an ex-consul; he himself was consul under Theodoric the Ostrogoth in 510, and his two sons, children of a great grand-daughter of the renowned Q. Aurelius Symmachus, were joint consuls in 522. His public career was splendid and honourable, as befitted a man of his race, attainments, and character. But he fell under the displeasure of Theodoric, and was charged with conspiring to deliver Rome from his rule, and with corresponding treasonably to this end with Justin, Emperor of the East. He was thrown into prison at Pavia, where he wrote the _Consolation of Philosophy_, and he was brutally put to death in 524. His brief and busy life was marked by great literary achievement. His learning was vast, his industry untiring, his object unattainable-- nothing less than the transmission to his countrymen of all the works of Plato and Aristotle, and the reconciliation of their apparently divergent views. To form the idea was a silent judgment on the learning of his day; to realize it was more than one man could accomplish; but Boethius accomplished much. He translated the [Greek: Eisagogae] of Porphyry, and the whole of Aristotle's _Organon_. He wrote a double commentary on the [Greek: Eisagogae] and commentaries on the _Categories_ and the _De Interpretatione_ of Aristotle, and on the _Topica_ of Cicero. He also composed original treatises on the categorical and hypothetical syllogism, on Division and on Topical Differences. He adapted the arithmetic of Nicomachus, and his textbook on music, founded on various Greek authorities, was in use at Oxford and Cambridge until modern times. His five theological _Tractates_ are here, together with the _Consolation of Philosophy_, to speak for themselves.

Boethius was the last of the Roman philosophers, and the first of the scholastic theologians. The present volume serves to prove the truth of both these assertions.

The _Consolation of Philosophy_ is indeed, as Gibbon called it, "a golden volume, not unworthy of the leisure of Plato or of Tully." To belittle its originality and sincerity, as is sometimes done, with a view to saving the Christianity of the writer, is to misunderstand his mind and his method. The _Consolatio_ is not, as has been maintained, a mere patchwork of translations from Aristotle and the Neoplatonists. Rather it is the supreme essay of one who throughout his life had found his highest solace in the dry light of reason. His chief source of refreshment, in the dungeon to which his beloved library had not accompanied him, was a memory well stocked with the poetry and thought of former days. The development of the argument is anything but Neoplatonic; it is all his own.

And if the _Consolation of Philosophy_ admits Boethius to the company of Cicero or even of Plato, the theological _Tractates_ mark him as the forerunner of St. Thomas. It was the habit of a former generation to regard Boethius as an eclectic, the transmitter of a distorted Aristotelianism, a pagan, or at best a luke-warm Christian, who at the end cast off the faith which he had worn in times of peace, and wrapped himself in the philosophic cloak which properly belonged to him. The authenticity of the _Tractates_ was freely denied. We know better now. The discovery by Alfred Holder, and the illuminating discussion by Hermann Usener,[1] of a fragment of Cassiodorus are sufficient confirmation of the manuscript tradition, apart from the work of scholars who have sought to justify that tradition from internal evidence. In that fragment Cassiodorus definitely ascribes to his friend Boethius "a book on the Trinity, some dogmatic chapters, and a book against Nestorius."[2] Boethius was without doubt a Christian, a Doctor and perhaps a martyr. Nor is it necessary to think that, when in prison, he put away his faith. If it is asked why the _Consolation of Philosophy_ contains no conscious or direct reference to the doctrines which are traced in the _Tractates_ with so sure a hand, and is, at most, not out of harmony with Christianity, the answer is simple. In the _Consolation_ he is writing philosophy; in the _Tractates_ he is writing theology. He observes what Pascal calls the orders of things. Philosophy belongs to one order, theology to another. They have different objects. The object of philosophy is to understand and explain the nature of the world around us; the object of theology is to understand and explain doctrines delivered by divine revelation. The scholastics recognized the distinction,[3] and the corresponding difference in the function of Faith and Reason. Their final aim was to co-ordinate the two, but this was not possible before the thirteenth century. Meanwhile Boethius helps to prepare the way. In the _Consolation_ he gives Reason her range, and suffers her, unaided, to vindicate the ways of Providence. In the _Tractates_ Reason is called in to give to the claims of Faith the support which it does not really lack.[4] Reason, however, has still a right to be heard. The distinction between _fides_ and _ratio_ is proclaimed in the first two _Tractates_. In the second especially it is drawn with a clearness worthy of St. Thomas himself; and there is, of course, the implication that the higher authority resides with _fides_. But the treatment is philosophical and extremely bold. Boethius comes back to the question of the substantiality of the divine Persons which he has discussed in Tr. I. from a fresh point of view. Once more he decides that the Persons are predicated relatively; even Trinity, he concludes, is not predicated substantially of deity. Does this square with catholic doctrine? It is possible to hear a note of challenge in his words to John the Deacon, _fidem si poterit rationemque coniunge_. Philosophy states the problem in unequivocal terms. Theology is required to say whether they commend themselves.

One object of the scholastics, anterior to the final co-ordination of the two sciences, was to harmonize and codify all the answers to all the questions that philosophy raises. The ambition of Boethius was not so soaring, but it was sufficiently bold. He set out, first to translate, and then to reconcile, Plato and Aristotle; to go behind all the other systems, even the latest and the most in vogue, back to the two great masters, and to show that they have the truth, and are in substantial accord. So St. Thomas himself, if he cannot reconcile the teaching of Plato and Aristotle, at least desires to correct the one by the other, to discover what truth is common to both, and to show its correspondence with Christian doctrine. It is reasonable to conjecture that Boethius, if he had lived, might have attempted something of the kind. Were he alive to-day, he might feel more in tune with the best of the pagans than with most contemporary philosophic thought.

In yet one more respect Boethius belongs to the company of the schoolmen. He not only put into circulation many precious philosophical notions, served as channel through which various works of Aristotle passed into the schools, and handed down to them a definite Aristotelian method for approaching the problem of faith; he also supplied material for that classification of the various sciences which is an essential accompaniment of every philosophical movement, and of which the Middle Ages felt the value.[5] The uniform distribution into natural sciences, mathematics and theology which he recommends may be traced in the work of various teachers up to the thirteenth century, when it is finally accepted and defended by St. Thomas in his commentary on the _De Trinitate_.

A seventeenth-century translation of the _Consolatio Philosophiae_ is here presented with such alterations as are demanded by a better text, and the requirements of modern scholarship. There was, indeed, not much to do, for the rendering is most exact. This in a translation of that date is not a little remarkable. We look for fine English and poetry in an Elizabethan; but we do not often get from him such loyalty to the original as is here displayed.

Of the author "I.T." nothing is known. He may have been John Thorie, a Fleming born in London in 1568, and a B.A. of Christ Church, 1586. Thorie "was a person well skilled in certain tongues, and a noted poet of his times" (Wood, _Athenae Oxon._ ed. Bliss, i. 624), but his known translations are apparently all from the Spanish.[6]

Our translator dedicates his "Five books of Philosophical Comfort" to the Dowager Countess of Dorset, widow of Thomas Sackville, who was part author of _A Mirror for Magistrates_ and _Gorboduc_, and who, we learn from I.T.'s preface, meditated a similar work. I.T. does not unduly flatter his patroness, and he tells her plainly that she will not understand the philosophy of the book, though the theological and practical parts may be within her scope.

The _Opuscula Sacra_ have never before, to our knowledge, been translated. In reading and rendering them we have been greatly helped by two mediaeval commentaries: one by John the Scot (edited by E.K. Rand in Traube's _Quellen und Untersuchungen_, vol. i. pt. 2, Munich, 1906); the other by Gilbert de la Porrée (printed in Migne, _P.L._ lxiv.). We also desire to record our indebtedness in many points of scholarship and philosophy to Mr. E.J. Thomas of Emmanuel College.

Finally, thanks are due to Mr. Dolson for the suggestion in the footnote on the preceding page, and also to Professor Lane Cooper of Cornell University for many valuable corrections as this reprint was passing through the Press.

H.F.S. E.K.R.

_October, 1926._

[1] _Anecdoton Holderi_, Leipzig, 1877.

[2] _Scripsit librum de sancta trinitate et capita quaedam dogmatica et librum contra Nestorium._ On the question of the genuineness of Tr. IV. _De fide catholica_ see note _ad loc_.

[3] Cp. H. de Wulf, _Histoire de la Philosophie médiévale_ (Louvain and Paris 1915), p. 332.

[4] See below, _De Trin_. vi. _ad fin_.

[5] Cp. L. Baur, _Gundissalinus: de divisione_, Münster, 1905.

[6] Mr. G. Bayley Dolson suggests with greater probability that I.T. was John Thorpe (fl. 1570-1610), architect to Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset. Cf. _American Journal of Philology_, vol. xlii. (1921), p. 266.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

_Editio Princeps_:

Collected Works (except _De fide catholica_). Joh. et Greg. de
Gregoriis. Venice, 1491-92.

_De consolatione philosophiae_. Coburger. Nürnberg, 1473.

_De fide catholica_. Ed. Ren. Vallinus. Leyden, 1656.

_Latest Critical Edition_:

_De consolatione philosophiae_ and Theological Tractates. R.
Peiper. Teubner, 1871.

_Translations_:

_De consolatione philosophiae_.

Alfred the Great. Ed. W.J. Sedgefield. Oxford, 1899 and 1900.

Chaucer. Ed. W.W. Skeat in Chaucer's Complete Works. Vol. ii. Oxford,
1894.

H.R. James. _The Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius_. London,
1897; reprinted 1906.

Judicis de Mirandol. _La Consolation philosophique de Boëce_.
Paris, 1861.

_Illustrative Works_:

A. Engelbrecht. _Die Consolatio Phil. der B._ Sitzungsberichte der
Kön. Akad. Vienna, 1902.

Bardenhewer, _Patrologie_ (Boethius und Cassiodor, pp. 584 sqq.).
Freiburg im Breslau, 1894.

Hauréan. _Hist. de la philosophie scolastique._ Vol. i. Paris,
1872.

Hildebrand. _Boethius und seine Stellung zum Christentum._
Regensburg, 1885.

Hodgkin. _Italy and her Invaders._ Vols. iii. and iv. Oxford, 1885.

Ch. Jourdain. (1) _De l'origine des traditions sur le christianisme de
Boëce_; (2) _Des commentaires inédits sur La Consolation de la
philosophie_. (Excursions historiques et philosophiques à travers le
moyen àge.) Paris, 1888.

Fritz Klingner. _De Boethii consolatione_, Philol. Unters. xxvii.
Berlin, 1921.

F.D. Maurice. _Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy._ Vol. i. London,
1872.

F. Nitzsch. _Das System des B._ Berlin, 1860.

E.K. Rand. _Der dem B. zugeschriebene Traktat de Fide catholica_
(Jahrbuch für kl. Phil. xxvi.). 1901.

Semeria. _Il Cristianesimo di Sev. Boezio rivendicato_, Rome, 1900.

M. Schanz. _Gesch. der röm. Litteratur._ Teil iv. Boethius. Berlin,
1921.

H.F. Stewart. _Boethius: an Essay._ Edinburgh, 1891.

Usener. _Anecdoton Holderi._ Leipsic, 1877.

BOETHIUS

THE THEOLOGICAL TRACTATES AND THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY

ANICII MANLII SEVERINI BOETHII V.C. ET INL. EXCONS. ORD. PATRICII

INCIPIT LIBER QVOMODO TRINITAS VNVS DEVS AC NON TRES DII

AD Q. AVRELIVM MEMMIVM SYMMACHVM V.C. ET INL. EXCONS. ORD. ATQVE PATRICIVM SOCERVM

Investigatam diutissime quaestionem, quantum nostrae mentis igniculum lux diuina dignata est, formatam rationibus litterisque mandatam offerendam uobis communicandamque curaui tam uestri cupidus iudicii quam nostri studiosus inuenti. Qua in re quid mihi sit animi quotiens stilo cogitata commendo, tum ex ipsa materiae difficultate tum ex eo quod raris id est uobis tantum conloquor, intellegi potest. Neque enim famae iactatione et inanibus uulgi clamoribus excitamur; sed si quis est fructus exterior, hic non potest aliam nisi materiae similem sperare sententiam. Quocumque igitur a uobis deieci oculos, partim ignaua segnities partim callidus liuor occurrit, ut contumeliam uideatur diuinis tractatibus inrogare qui talibus hominum monstris non agnoscenda haec potius quam proculcanda proiecerit. Idcirco stilum breuitate contraho et ex intimis sumpta philosophiae disciplinis nouorum uerborum significationibus uelo, ut haec mihi tantum uobisque, si quando ad ea conuertitis oculos, conloquantur; ceteros uero ita submouimus, ut qui capere intellectu nequiuerint ad ea etiam legenda uideantur indigni. Sane[7] tantum a nobis quaeri oportet quantum humanae rationis intuitus ad diuinitatis ualet celsa conscendere. Nam ceteris quoque artibus idem quasi quidam finis est constitutus, quousque potest uia rationis accedere. Neque enim medicina aegris semper affert salutem; sed nulla erit culpa medentis, si nihil eorum quae fieri oportebat omiserit. Idemque in ceteris. At quantum haec difficilior quaestio est, tam facilior esse debet ad ueniam. Vobis tamen etiam illud inspiciendum est, an ex beati Augustini scriptis semina rationum aliquos in nos uenientia fructus extulerint. Ac de proposita quaestione hinc sumamus initium.

[7] sed ne _codices optimi_.

THE TRINITY IS ONE GOD NOT THREE GODS

A TREATISE BY ANICIUS MANLIUS SEVERINUS BOETHIUS MOST HONOURABLE, OF THE
ILLUSTRIOUS ORDER OF EX-CONSULS, PATRICIAN

TO HIS FATHER-IN-LAW, QUINTUS AURELIUS MEMMIUS SYMMACHUS
MOST HONOURABLE, OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS ORDER OF EX-CONSULS, PATRICIAN

I have long pondered this problem with such mind as I have and all the
light that God has lent me. Now, having set it forth in logical order
and cast it into literary form, I venture to submit it to your judgment,
for which I care as much as for the results of my own research. You will
readily understand what I feel whenever I try to write down what I think
if you consider the difficulty of the topic and the fact that I discuss
it only with the few--I may say with no one but yourself. It is indeed
no desire for fame or empty popular applause that prompts my pen; if
there be any external reward, we may not look for more warmth in the
verdict than the subject itself arouses. For, apart from yourself,
wherever I turn my eyes, they fall on either the apathy of the dullard
or the jealousy of the shrewd, and a man who casts his thoughts before
the common herd--I will not say to consider but to trample under foot,
would seem to bring discredit on the study of divinity. So I purposely
use brevity and wrap up the ideas I draw from the deep questionings of
philosophy in new and unaccustomed words which speak only to you and to
myself, that is, if you deign to look at them. The rest of the world I
simply disregard: they cannot understand, and therefore do not deserve
to read. We should not of course press our inquiry further than man's
wit and reason are allowed to climb the height of heavenly knowledge.[8]
In all the liberal arts we see the same limit set beyond which reason
may not reach. Medicine, for instance, does not always bring health to
the sick, though the doctor will not be to blame if he has left nothing
undone which he ought to do. So with the other arts. In the present case
the very difficulty of the quest claims a lenient judgment. You must
however examine whether the seeds sown in my mind by St. Augustine's
writings[9] have borne fruit. And now let us begin our inquiry.

[8] Cf. the discussion of human _ratio_ and divine _intellegentia_ in
_Cons. v._ pr. 4 and 5.

[9] e.g. Aug. _De Trin._