The major theme in this chapter is that rhetoric may be used as defensively, to protect oneself or others, but it can also be used to attack, possibly innocent, others. St. Augustine was deeply committed to the church after he found Christ while he was teaching rhetoric and believed in the morality of all things and was concerned with the misuse of rhetoric due to his Preaching Dilemma. Martianus Capella, on the other hand, was not religious but demonstrated his understanding of the two sides of rhetoric through his analogy that represented rhetoric as a heavily armed woman with a sword. The armor represents the defensive capabilities of rhetoric while the sword presents clearly the ability rhetoric has in “destroying opponents.”
The later half of the chapter discusses the art of three different forms of rhetoric; preaching, writing letters, and poetry. While it provides background in each of the forms, this is also where nearly all of our key words (listed at the end) come from. It is right before and in this section that we learn briefly about a group of people that were ignored by the educated world up until this time; women. Albrecht Classen wrote, “. . . women since the early Middle Ages possessed a high degree of learnedness. . .” and we know that women had access to rhetorical education and were breaking out of the singular roles that the Ancient Greeks put them in.
Key Terms
- Pagan – religion that differs from main world religions
- quadrivium – (four roads) arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, harmonics
- trivium – (three roads) grammar, rhetoric, logic
- Scholasticism – authoritarian approach to education centered on highly structured disposition over premises
- sententiae – isolated statements from Aristotle and other sources
- disputatio – debating general topics drawn from authoritative statements
- ars praedicandi – Preaching
- thematic preaching – expanding on the meanings of brief biblical texts or themes
- dictamen – letter-writing treatises
- dictare – to dictate
- dictatores – any person skilled in rhetoric
- dictaminis – separate branch of rhetoric during the 10th century
- epistolo – the concealment of secrets
- manuals – instructions on writing letters
- salutatio [part of letter] – greeting
- captatio benevoluntatiae (exordium) [part of letter] – secured the goodwill of the recipient
- narratio [part of letter] – the body of the letter setting out the details of the problem to be addressed
- petitio [part of letter] – specific request
- conclusio [part of letter] – closing statements
- exordia – methods of securing a reader’s goodwill