Deck 6: Rhetoric in Christian Europe

Question 1

Which classical rhetorician had the greatest influence on the shape of rhetorical theory and practice in North Africa and Europe in the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

Cicero was the most influential classical rhetorician in the Middle Ages. Only a few classical rhetorical texts survived into the Middle Ages, and Cicero's De Inventione was chief among them. Cicero influenced Augustine, one of the greatest Christian rhetoricians of the early Middle Ages. Cicero's works also played a considerable role in the shaping of education, preaching, and governing.

Question 2

Why are the Middle Ages considered a period of fragmentation in rhetorical theory?

Answer 2

Barbarian invasions resulted in much of the ancient Roman and Greek traditions being lost, including many rhetorical texts. This left only a few key texts to be studied, and even these were suspect by Christians for their connection to a pagan culture and their subject matter of persuasion.

Question 3

What for St. Augustine were the two major functions of rhetoric within the Church?

Answer 3

De Doctrina Christiana discusses the modus inveniendi-using rhetoric as a means for understanding the Scriptures-and the modus proferendi or using rhetoric to express the ideas found in Scriptures. Rhetoric is useful for both interpreting and teaching the Bible's content.

Question 4

What dilemmas faced Augustine of Hippo regarding rhetoric? What was Augustine's response to these dilemmas?

Question 5

In what specific way did Boethius perpetuate an element of the classical tradition found in writers like Cicero?

Question 6

Which studies made up Martianus Capella's liberal arts?

Question 7

What were the three rhetorical arts that characterized the middle and later portions of the Middle Ages?

Question 8

What was the goal of preaching as a rhetorical art in the Middle Ages?

Question 9

What social functions did the art of letter writing serve in the medieval period?

Question 10

In which ways did letter writing also involve speaking?

Question 11

Which rhetorical form is Catherine of Siena best known for having employed?

Question 12

How does Augustine's approach to rhetoric resemble Plato's? In what ways is Augustine's relationship to sophistic rhetoric similar to Plato's?

Question 13

In what ways were adaptations of classical rhetoric used to maintain the hierarchical structure of medieval Europe? From your study of classical and medieval rhetoric, does it seem to you that rhetorical theory is often used to maintain existing social orders?

Question 14

Excluding preaching itself, which rhetorical practices of our own time seek goals like those of medieval preaching?

Question 15

Despite evidence of a shift from speech to writing during the period, rhetoric in the Middle Ages often involved speaking. Does writing play a more important social role today than does speaking? What important changes take place as a culture moves from oral to written expression?

Question 16

_________________ said, "For since by means of the art of rhetoric both truth and falsehood are urged, who would dare say that truth should stand in the person of its defenders unarmed against lying?" and argued that those who served the truth needed rhetoric because people who lie would also be using it.

Question 17

_________________ was a woman from the Middle Ages who mastered the rhetoric of letter writing, advocated for clerical reform, helped the poor, influenced Pope Gregory XI and received a sainthood.

Question 18

St. Augustine's _________________, is his major work on rhetoric, worked as a guide to preaching, and has been called the most influential book in the tradition of humanistic rhetoric.

Question 19

The art of _________________, which dealt with dictamen, was extensive during the later Middle Ages, and was incredibly important to civic, commercial, and clerical life.

Question 20

__________________ was the intellectual movement that became dominant in the Middle Ages that implemented a closed and authoritarian approach to education centered on disputing a fixed body of premises derived from Aristotle.

Question 21

Augustine attempted to use rhetoric within Christian culture for two purposes: modus inveniendi, which was the means of finding material for understanding Scripture, while _________________ was the means of expressing the ideas found in Scripture.

Question 22

Which of the following attributes of rhetoric posed a problem for Augustine when trying to describe and talk about God?

A) Its ability to deceive
B) It being a finite symbol system
C) Its association with the Second Sophistic
D) It not being divinely inspired

Question 23

Which of the following rhetoricians authored The Marriage of Philology and Mercury, a thoroughly pagan textbook which explored the seven liberal arts?

A) Augustine
B) Cicero
C) Martianus Capella
D) Boethius

Question 24

Which of the following was the name for the isolated statements from ancient authors, such as Aristotle, that were used for teaching in medieval education but lost their original meaning without proper context?

A) Dictatores
B) Dissendium
C) Epistolo
D) Sententiae

Question 25

Which of the following was the widely circulated manual on poetry written by Geoffrey of Vinsauf, which detailed a technique called conversio?

A) Ars Versifactoria
B) Poetria Nova
C) Ars Poetica
D) Forma Praedicandi

Question 26

Which of the following rhetoricians is seen as the bridge between Greek and late Roman culture, is credited as preserving the Greek and Roman topical systems, and whose translation of Aristotle was the only one in Europe for five hundred years?

A) Augustine
B) Cicero
C) Martianus Capella
D) Boethius

Question 27

Which of the following was the part of a letter that was crucial for gaining a hearing, establishing the correct relationship, and received a disproportionate amount of attention?

A) Salutatio
B) Narratio
C) Petitio
D) Conclusio

Question 28

The barbarian invasion and rise of the Christian Church led to a dismantling and fragmentation of the classical rhetorical tradition during the early middle ages.

Question 29

When Augustine taught as a professor of rhetoric in Milan, the rhetoric he taught was based on Cicero and the Second Sophistic, emphasizing delivery and style over substance.

Question 30

In The Marriage of Philology and Mercury the quadrivium consisted of the three fundamental studies of grammar, rhetoric, logic.

Question 31

Preaching in the Middle Ages focused on theological investigation, due to the fact that the majority of Europe was immersed in Christian culture and had an extensive knowledge of the Bible.

Question 32

Because most of the rhetorical secretaries in the Middle Ages were female, most letters in this era had a distinctly feminine style to which male scribes had to conform.

Question 33

Letters during the Middle Ages were expected to be read aloud to an audience, and therefore were constructed with a focus on rhythm and sound in order to appeal to the ear.

Question 34

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-A teaching method in which the structure of a sentence was varied so as to discover its most pleasing form.

Question 35

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-In St. Augustine, the Latin term for the use of rhetoric as a means of understanding scripture.

Question 36

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-In St. Augustine, the Latin term for the use of rhetoric as a means of expressing the ideas found in scripture.

Question 37

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-The four major studies in medieval schools, consisting of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

Question 38

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-In medieval preaching theory, a biblical text that provided the basis for developing a sermon.

Question 39

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Three minor studies of grammar, rhetoric, and logic in medieval schools.

Question 40

Comment on the contribution of Martianus Capella's The Marriage of Philology and Mercury to medieval thinking about education in general, and education in rhetoric in particular. Which classical rhetorical theorist had the most important influence on the presentation of rhetoric in Capella?

Question 41

St. Augustine held that rhetoric assisted Christian teachers in two ways, which he termed the modus inveniendi and modus proferendi. Briefly, what are the two functions of rhetoric Augustine identified by these terms?

Question 42

Provide the English names for the three rhetorical arts that developed in Europe during the period 1100 to 1300.

Question 43

What particular persuasive function did Robert Basevorn assert that the art of preaching ought to perform?

Question 44

What specific functions did the art of letter writing perform in medieval European culture?

Question 45

Overview the three rhetorical arts that developed in Europe during the period from 1100 to 1300. What were these arts? What social or artistic functions did each perform? What does each reveal about European culture during the late Middle Ages?

Question 46

Describe the uses of rhetoric by Christian educators and preachers in the medieval period. What, according to Augustine, were the various Christian uses of rhetoric? What aspect of classical rhetoric did Boethius emphasize in his presentation of rhetoric? What was the principal goal of the art of preaching, according to Robert Basevorn? What was "thematic preaching"?