Rex illiteratus quasi asinus coronatus est.
("An unlettered king is like a crowned ass.")
John of Salisbury
John of Salisbury claimed humble origins: in reality he was probably born from an Anglo-Saxon family of modest Wiltshire gentry in about 1120. Regardless, his native intelligence and skill at Latin brought him as a youth to Paris, where he studied under some of the finest minds of his day, including Peter Abelard, Gilbert of Poitiers, William of Conches, and Thierry of Chartres. A letter of introduction from the famous Bernard of Clairvaux (probably obtained through the request of a friend) obtained for John a post as a clerk to Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1148. He soon became a trusted advisor and the archbishop's personal secretary.
One of the most remarkable things about this remarkable writer is that he composed his two greatest and most abiding works, the Policraticus and the Metalogicon, in the late 1150s, precisely the years in which his administrative duties were at their most pressing. It is primarily upon these two works, and upon his elegant and penetrating collection of letters, that John's reputation as one of the great humanist thinkers of the Middle Ages is based.
The Policraticus, subtitled De nugis curialium et vestigia philisophorum (On the Frivolities of Courtiers and the Footprints of Philosophers) combines political theory, social critique, psychological observation, and intellectual history in a consistently engaging and eloquent way. Though its overriding concern is for the reform of what John saw as lax courtly morals, the book is best known for its presentation of the medieval model of the Body Politic. Among the more audacious arguments that John presents in the Policraticus is there is a crucial difference between a legitimate king, who rules wisely with the approval of God, and a tyrant, who oppresses and whose rule encourages vice. John saw it as the duty of a faithful Christian to oppose, remove, and even execute a tyrant if necessary!
John's Metalogicon is an ardent defense of the medieval curriculum of the seven liberal arts, and especially of the verbal arts of the trivium (rhetoric, grammar, and logic). Logic, grammar, rhetoric, John argues, enable correct thinking and clarity of expression, values he hoped to encourage among kings and courtiers alike. The study of the Roman classics also supply numerous exhortations to and examples of virtuous behavior; John seems to have especially admired the great Roman orator, statesman, and philosopher Cicero, seeing him as someone who capably applied a deep understanding of moral behavior with the political life.
John of Salisbury's life would in fact become even more politicized with accession of the king's former Chancellor, Thomas Becket, to the archbishopric of Canterbury after Theobald's death in 1161. When Becket became estranged from the king a few years later, John accompanied him into exile in France, though Cary Nederman has shown that John's friendship with Becket may not have been terribly firm and that John worked behind the scenes trying to broker a compromise between the archbishop and the king. After Becket's murder in 1170, he remained in England and provided continuity after the appointment of Becket's replacement. He was rewarded for all his services with the bishopric of Chartres in 1176. He died in October 1180.
Further Reading
One of the most remarkable things about this remarkable writer is that he composed his two greatest and most abiding works, the Policraticus and the Metalogicon, in the late 1150s, precisely the years in which his administrative duties were at their most pressing. It is primarily upon these two works, and upon his elegant and penetrating collection of letters, that John's reputation as one of the great humanist thinkers of the Middle Ages is based.
The Policraticus, subtitled De nugis curialium et vestigia philisophorum (On the Frivolities of Courtiers and the Footprints of Philosophers) combines political theory, social critique, psychological observation, and intellectual history in a consistently engaging and eloquent way. Though its overriding concern is for the reform of what John saw as lax courtly morals, the book is best known for its presentation of the medieval model of the Body Politic. Among the more audacious arguments that John presents in the Policraticus is there is a crucial difference between a legitimate king, who rules wisely with the approval of God, and a tyrant, who oppresses and whose rule encourages vice. John saw it as the duty of a faithful Christian to oppose, remove, and even execute a tyrant if necessary!
John's Metalogicon is an ardent defense of the medieval curriculum of the seven liberal arts, and especially of the verbal arts of the trivium (rhetoric, grammar, and logic). Logic, grammar, rhetoric, John argues, enable correct thinking and clarity of expression, values he hoped to encourage among kings and courtiers alike. The study of the Roman classics also supply numerous exhortations to and examples of virtuous behavior; John seems to have especially admired the great Roman orator, statesman, and philosopher Cicero, seeing him as someone who capably applied a deep understanding of moral behavior with the political life.
John of Salisbury's life would in fact become even more politicized with accession of the king's former Chancellor, Thomas Becket, to the archbishopric of Canterbury after Theobald's death in 1161. When Becket became estranged from the king a few years later, John accompanied him into exile in France, though Cary Nederman has shown that John's friendship with Becket may not have been terribly firm and that John worked behind the scenes trying to broker a compromise between the archbishop and the king. After Becket's murder in 1170, he remained in England and provided continuity after the appointment of Becket's replacement. He was rewarded for all his services with the bishopric of Chartres in 1176. He died in October 1180.
Further Reading
- D. Bloch, John of Salisbury on Aristotelian Science (Brepols, 2012)
- Hans Liebeschütz, Medieval Humanism in the Life and Writings of John of Salisbury (Warburg Institute, 1950)
- Cary Nederman, John of Salisbury (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 2005)