Lidia Grzybowska

The main aim of the paper is to address the question of whether Mikołaj of Błonie (before 1400 – ca. 1448), a Polish doctor of canon law, was a supporter of the conciliarist movement. In the first half of the 15th century, the most prominent representatives of Poland’s intellectual elite were conciliarists. Initially, the Polish elite were moderately sympathetic towards conciliarism, but with the development of the situation during the Council of Basel (1431–1449), radical solutions started to be favoured.

This article analyzes selected fragments from two works by Mikołaj of Błonie in the broader context of the conciliarist discussion in order to determine to what extent the contemporary situation and the preacher’s personal opinion could be reflected in the preaching and pastoral texts. These texts are Tractatus sacerdotalis de sacramentis (known as Sacramentale), a pastoral manual written around 1430, prepared for the lower clergy, and two collections of sermons – de tempore and de sanctis – also intended for use by lower clergy and uneducated audiences, written probably around 1438. Mikołaj of Błonie strongly postulated the need for reforms of the Church in membris while maintaining great caution in formulating conclusions regarding the reform in capite. His approach to power in the Church places him more on the side of the papists, although in his texts one can see a distant echo of the writings of Jean Gerson, Stanisław of Skarbimierz, and the discussions by Polish theologians and decreeists. Mikołaj’s conservativeness can be explained in many ways: the preacher’s personal views, the specific purpose of the texts, which did not provide space for ecclesiological discussion, and the context of polemics with the Hussites as well as the need to

strengthen papal authority.

The main aim of this paper is to present the motif of a tree-shaped compositional scheme called arbor picta (arbor praedicandi) and to show it against the field of rhetorical elements such as dispositio and memoria as found in mediaeval sermons. The basic sources for the analysis of this question are two fourteenth-century theoretical treatises on the art of preaching (manuals: Libellus artis preadicatorie by Jacobus de Fusignano and Tractatulus solennis de arte et vero modo praedicandi by Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas), and one of the sermons from the collection de tempore of a fifteenth-century Polish preacher, Mikołaj of Błonie (Dominica sexagesime: sermo 39 “Semen est verbum Dei”). The problems of arbor praedicandi, which are part of a broader field of study on the structure of sermons, editorial methods of texts and mnemonics, were the subject of interest of many researchers such as H. Caplan, O.A. Dieter, S. Khan, S. Wenzel. In Poland, this issue has not yet become a subject of proper study.

In order to analyse this scheme in the treatises of Jacobus de Fusignano and Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas, as well as in the exemplary sermon, the paper briefly outlines the existence of topics and images of the tree in the writings of the Middle Ages (e.g. lignum vitae, arbor sapientiae, arbor amoris). Then fragments from the manuals of Jacobus de Fusignano and Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas are presented in which the authors discussed the scheme in question and explained its importance for the practice of preaching. An analysis of a practical example—here: sermo 39 from Mikołaj of Błonie’s collection de tempore—shows the creative use of the tree scheme in the sermon by the Polish preacher (with the speculative assumption that Mikołaj of Błonie knew Jacobus’s theory of preaching). Particular attention is also paid to the circumstances of the development of the art of preaching in the late Middle Ages in Poland. Finally, the importance of the concept of the sermon as a tree for the elements of rhetoric such as dispositio/divisio/partito and memoria is emphasised. In this study, it is shown that the use of the tree scheme in presenting abstract concepts and structuring texts allowed preachers and their audiences to visualise vague and often difficult ideas, as well as to describe their relationship within the subjects of the sermons. Therefore, the use of the scheme in the Middle Ages had great significance for ars memorativa and the didactic dimensions.

* The study is the result of research project No UM2013/11/N/ HS2/03506 funded by the National Science Centre. Polish text: L. Grzybowska, “Arbor praedicandi. Kilka uwag o dispositio w kazaniach średniowiecznych (na przykładzie sermo 39 «Semen est verbum Dei» Mikołaja z Błonia),” Terminus 3/ 16 (2014), pp. 259–283.

Arbor praedicandi. A few remarks on dispositio in medieval sermons (based on Nicholas of Błonie’s sermo 39 “Semen est verbum Dei”)

The main goal of the article is to present the motif of a compositional tree-shaped scheme called arbor picta (arbor praedicandi) and to show it against the field of rhetorical elements such as dispositio and memoria as found in medieval sermons. The basic sources for the analysis of this issue are two fourteenth-century theoretical treatises on the art of preaching (manuals: Libellus artis preadicatorie of Jacob of Fusignano and Tractatulus solennis de arte et vero modo praedicandi of Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas), and one of the sermons from the collection de tempore of fifteenth-century Polish preacher Nicholas of Błonie (Dominica sexagesime: sermo 39 “Semen est verbum Dei”). The problems of arbor praedicandi, which are a part of a broader field of study on the structure of sermons, editorial methods of texts and memorable techniques, were the subject of interest of many researchers such as H. Caplan, O.A. Dieter, S. Khan, S. Wenzel. In Poland, this issue has not yet become a subject of proper study.

In order to analyse the scheme in the treatises of Jacob of Fusignano and Pseudo- Thomas Aquinas, and in the sample sermon, the article briefly outlines the existence of topics and images of the tree in the writings of the Middle Ages (eg. lignum vitae, arbor sapientiae, arbor amoris). Then the essay presents fragments from the manuals of Jacob of Fusignano and Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas in which the authors discussed the scheme and explained its importance for the practice of preaching. Analysis of sample sermons – the article uses sermo 39 of Nicholas of Błonie’s collection de tempore – shows the creative use of the tree scheme in the sermon by the Polish preacher (with the specula- tive assumption that Nicholas of Błonie knew Jacob of Fusignano’s theory of preaching). The paper also pays particular attention to the circumstances of the development of the art of preaching in the late Middle Ages in Poland. Finally, the article focuses on the importance of the concept of the sermon as a tree for the elements of rhetoric such as dispositio /divisio /partito and memoria. It proves that the use of the tree scheme in presenting abstract concepts and structuring of text allowed preachers and audiences to visualise vague and often difficult ideas, as well as to describe their relationship within the sermons’ topics. Therefore the use of the schema in the Middle Ages had great significance for ars memorativa and the didactic dimensions.