John of Salisbury

John of Salisbury

John of Salisbury

Introduction

Given John of Salisbury's reputation as the most learned and literate man of his time, it is remarkable that John of Salisbury (ca.1120-1180) is not better known to the Western world. Granting the general “obscurity” of the Middle Ages, it remains strange that the man consistently identified as the “finest flower” of the twelfth-century renaissance has not captivated larger attention. Whead covering makes this state of activities doubly ironic is thead covering John is among the most readable of medieval authors. By widespread permission, he was a stylist of the first order, and as a humanist he talks in a language intelligible to the up to date reader. Indeed, it is difficult to identify another writer between Augustine and Chaucer with a greater appeal to modern sensibility than the Sage of Salisbury.2 Perhaps the root cause of the general neglect of John is the failure of modern scholarship to make his principal work, the Policraticus, readily available to teachers, students, and the reading public. To this day there is no complete English translation of the Latin original. This peculiarity is echoed in the relation shortage of studies dedicated to John. There has been only one biography to date, and that was published over seventy-five years ago. The only other full-length study is over a half-century old. Beyond these works (and a compilation of papers published in the mid- 1980s), the last century of scholarship has produced a mere two dozen articles and essays, many published in specialized journals.

Historical Background

The appearance of the Policraticus in 1159 was nearly linked to the high government and premier personages of the day. Its scribe had been collecting components for a number of years, but his conclusion to entire the work was occasioned by his opponents to Henry II's principle of levying the Church to investment a conflict of conquest in France, and his conviction that court humanity was subverting the devout and ethical bases of the realm. In the first instance, John answered to what he considered a direct assault on the self-reliance and sanctity of the place of worship; in the second, he discerned a pernicious risk to the lesson ideals and social standards of Christianity. Convinced that John harbored such sentiments, Henry and his court labelled the churchman an foe of the monarch and suspended him from his obligations at Canterbury.

While a last showdown with Henry was postponed, John took the event of his primary “disgrace” to entire the Policraticus, as well as the Metalogican, his other foremost treatise. Both works were dedicated to Thomas Beckett, Henry II's chancellor and boon companion. As Beckett was the king's nearest advisor and confidant (as well as the man to blame for enforcing the place of worship tax), John wanted to apply to the better angels of his mercurial nature. It was not that John had a poor attitude of the chancellor; the two men had been associates for over a ...