Olsen The Ideal of The Ecclesia Primitiva

THE IDEA OF THE "ECCLESIA PRIMITIVA" IN THE WRITINGS OF THE TWELFTH-CENTURY
CANONISTS
Author(s): GLENN OLSEN
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Traditio, Vol. 25 (1969), pp. 61-86
Published by: Fordham University
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THE IDEA OF THE ECCLESIA PRIMITIV A IN THE
WRITINGS OF THE TWELFTH-CENTURY CANONISTS*
By GLENN OLSEN
Much recent scholarship on the period of the Investiture Struggle and the
reform of the Church in the eleventh and twelfth centuries has suggested
that the origins of these reforms lay not merely in the desire formoral regenera
tion, but in the conscious wish to return to the antique, Biblical, patristic, and
Roman models of the Christian life represented by the early, pre-feudal
Church.1 What modern historians have sometimes called 'Germanic Chris
tianity' or 'feudal Christianity' was felt to be a pattern of institutions which
had at least partly corrupted the life of the early Church.2 This explains the
* I wish for a Faculty Research

to thank Seattle University Grant, given for the academic
year 1965-66, which aided in the completion of research for this article. An abridged form
at the Fourth Biennial on Medieval Studies at Western
of this study was read Conference
Michigan University, March 15, 1968.

1 For introductions to the themes of reform this period see Augustin La
during Fliehe,
r?forme gr?gorienne (3 vols.; Paris 1924-37); Johannes Haller, Das Papststum: Idee und
Wirklichkeit (5 vols.; Stuttgart 2-3; R. W. Southern, The Making
1950-53) vols. of theMiddle
Ages (New Haven 1953) 118-69; Gerd Teilenbach, Church, State and Christian Society at the
Time of the Investiture Contest (tr. R. Bennet; Oxford 1959); Elizabeth Kennan, 'The "De
Consideratione" of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the Papacy in the Mid-Twelfth Century:
A Review of Scholarship,' Traditio 23 (1967) 73-115. The idea of reform, and its ancient,
and early medieval sources, is treated in great detail by Gerhart Ladner, The
patristic,
Idea of Reform: Its Impact on Christian Thought and Action in the Age of the Fathers (rev.
ed.; New York 1967). Professor Ladner has continued his study of reform, especially in its
ecclesiological aspects, into the Gregorian period in several important articles: see especially
'Die mittelalterliche Reform-Idee und ihre Verh?ltnis zur Idee der Renaissance,' Mitteilun
'
gen des Instituts f?r ?sterreichische Geschichtsforschung 60 (1952) 31-59, and Two Gregorian
Letters: On the Sources and Nature of Gregory VIFs Reform Ideology,' Studi gregoriani
per la storia di Gregorio VII e delta riforma (= Studi Gregoriani) 5 (1956) 221-42 (The seven
volumes in this series provide a useful guide to recent scholarship in this field. The series,
which ceased in 1960, is to be revived in a new series entitled Studi Gregoriani. Per la
'
storia delta libertas ecclesiae.' See the announcement in Rivista di Storia delta Chiesa in
Italia 21 [1967] 603-04). The idea of 'Church reform,' as well as reform of the individual,
is characteristic of the Gregorian Reform: on this and its contrast to the idea of reform in
the patristic period see Ladner, Idea of Reform 277 n. 147. A general history of the idea
of reform from the early Church to the Reformation may be found in John Dolan, History of
the Reformation: A Conciliatory Assessment of Opposite Views (New York 1965) 56-250. For
a theological of the nature
treatment of reform, see Yves
M.-J. Congar, O.P., Vrai et fausse
r?forme dans l'?glise (Paris 1950). Also M. H. Vicaire, The Apostolic Life (Chicago 1966).
2 On these terms see Geoffrey Barraclough, Papal Provisions (Oxford 1935) 38-54 for a
discussion of the extensive bibliography developed before 1935. For recent studies see

62 TRADITIO
great concern of the Hildebrandine Party to rid the Church of those abuses
which they felt had grown 'especially since the time when the government
of our church passed to the Germans. . . . But we, having searched out the
Roman Order and the ancient custom of our church, imitating the old Fathers,
have ordered things to be restored as we have set out above. '3 The reaction
against the immediate past in favor of a more perfect antique model manifested
itself in the notion, expressed throughout the period, that custom must al
ways be judged by natural law and by truth: 'the Lord said: "I am the Truth."
'4
He did not say: "I am the custom"; but "I am the Truth." The reformers
'
Cinzio Violante,'Prospettive e ipotesi di lavoro, La vita comune del clero nei secoli Xle
XII (Atti della settimana di studio. Miscellanea del Gentro di Studi Medioevali, III. 2 vols.;
Milan 1962) I, 1-15, at 6-13. The terms are perhaps not fully adequate or accurate, though
the various institutions they are meant to refer to are readily enough understood. Such
basic elements of 'Germanic
Christianity' as the proprietary church are of course not ne
cessarily in origin: see the studies of Eric John, Land

Germanic Tenure in Early England
(Leicester 1960) and Orbis Britanniae (Leicester 1966), which suggest a number of ways in
which the received opinions on the early history of the proprietary church must be modified.
A good bibliography on the modifications by later scholars of Ulrich Stutz's theory of the
exclusively Germanic origin of the proprietary church is found in Catherine E. Boyd, Tithes
and Parishes inMedieval Italy (Ithaca, New York 1952) Appendix One, 252-54. Miss Boyd
makes use of this bibliography throughout her book.
3 delivered in 1059, preserved in the Decretum
Speech by Hildebrand of Gratian (ca.
1140) De cons. D. 5 c. 15 (Corpus Iuris Canonici, ed. Emil Friedberg [2 vols.; Leipzig 1881]
I, 1416. All materials, such as this speech of Hildebrand, which were eventually gathered
by Gratian in his Decretum, have been quoted as they are found in the Friedberg edition of
the Decretum unless there is a significant variation between the original text and the text
as preserved in the canon law). This speech is translated and commented on by Southern,
Making of theMiddle Ages (supra n. 1) 140. At the Roman Synod of 1059, Hildebrand also
attributed the deviation of the regular canons from primitive ideals to interference by the
secular power, mentioning by name Louis the Pious (814-40). See Albert Werminghoff,
'Die Beschl?sse des Aachener Concils im Jahre 816/ Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft f?r
?ltere deutsche Geschichtskunde 27 (1902) 607-75, at 673, and Charles Dereine, S.J., 'Le
'
probl?me la vie commune
de chez les canonistes
d'Anselme de Lucques ? Gratien, Studi
Gregoriani 3
(1948) 287-98, at 296-7. On the ancient law of the Church as the canon of
right living within a Christian society see Walter Ullmann, The Growth of Papal Government
in theMiddle Ages (2nd ed.; London 1962) 360.
4 Idea of Reform (supra n. 1) 137-38 and 'Two Gregorian . . .'
Ladner, Letters (supra n. 1)
221 ff. traces the history of this formula from Tertullian to Gratian, who included the for
mula in the Decretum D.8 c.6 (ed. Friedberg I 14-15): 'Qui contempta ueritate presumit
consuetudinem sequi, aut circa fratres inuidus est et malignus, quibus ueritas reuelatur,
aut circa Deum ingratus est, inspiratione cuius ecclesia eius instruitur. Nam
Dominus
in euangelio: "Ego sum," inquit, "ueritas": non dixit: "ego sum consuetudo." Itaque uerita
'
te manifestata ueritati cedat consuetudo. . . . The phrase is found in a letter of
Gregory VII,
of uncertain date, which was also included in later canonical collections and in the Decretum
D.8 c.5 (ed. Friedberg I 14): 'Si consuetudinem fortassis opponas, aduertendum est, quod
Dominus dicit: "Ego sum ueritas." Non dixit: "ego sum consuetudo, sed ueritas." ?.I.
Et certe (ut B. Cipriani utamur sententia) quelibet consuetudo, quantumuis uetusta, quan

ECCLESIA PRIMITIVA 63
became impassioned to restore the ancient discipline, to rediscover the ancient

laws of the Church, to bring monasticism back to its original purity, and in
all this to use what they believed to be the ancient forms of the Christian
life as a model by which to compare and criticize the
Christianity of their
own times.5 An extensive and varied literature appeared
dealing with the
tumuis uulgata, ueritati est omnino postponenda, et usus, qui ueritati est contrarius, abo
lendus est.' The phrase from John 14.6 is taken up by later canonists commenting on the
Decretum D.8: see Paucapalea, Die Summa des Paucapalea ?ber das Decretum Gratiani
(ed. Johannes Friedrich von Schulte; Giessen 1890) 14; and Rufinus of Bologna, Summa
Decretorum (ed. Heinrich Singer; Paderborn 1902) 21. A brief discussion of the significance
of these last two passages, respectively from a.d. 1140-48 and 1157-59, is found in R. W.
and A. J. Garlyle, A History of Mediaeval Political Theory in the West (6 vols.; Edinburgh
and London 1903-36) II 106-07. See also J. Brys, De dispensatione in iure canonico (Bruges
1925) 80-3, 122-32, 198-201, 256-7. I hope to consider these texts in a separate study on
natural law and reform in the twelfth century. For an interesting parallel to this concept
of truth, see Richard of St. Victor's defense of his 'modern' attitude toward the letter of
the Scripture in Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Notre Dame,
Indiana 1964) 108-9. For all problems of authorship and chronology concerning the can
onists after Gratian, see Stephan Kuttner, Repertorium der Kanonistik (Vatican City 1937).
6 Besides the works referred to in n. 1 supra, see the following on the relation between the
restoration of ancient discipline and Church reform: on the regular canons the following
studies by Charles Dereine, S.J., 'Chanoines,' DHGE XII 353-405, 'La spiritualit? "apos
tolique" des premiers fondateurs d'Affligem (1083-1100),' Revue d'histoire eccl?siastique
= 'Vie commune,
( RHE) 54 (1959) 41-65, r?gle de Saint Augustin et chanoines r?guliers
au xie si?cle,' ibid. 41 (1946) 365-406, and also Cosimo Fonseca, 'Le canoniche regolari
riformate dell'Italia nord-occidentale; ricerche e problemi,' Monasteri in Alta Italia dopo
le Invasioni Saracene eMagiare (sec. X-XII), Relazioni e Comunicazioni Presentate al XXXII
Congresso Storico Subalpino (Turin 1966) 335-82, and John Dickinson, The Origins of the
Austin Canons and their Introduction into England (London 1950); on monasticism, among
the many works of Dom Jean Leclercq see The Love of Learning and the Desire for God (tr.
Catharine Misrahi; New York 1961) esp. 94-115, The Life of Perfection (tr. Leonard Doyle;
Collegeville, Minnesota 1961), and 'La crise du monachisme aux xie et xne si?cles,' Bul
lettino delVIstituto Storico Italiano per ilMedio Evo e Archivio Muratoriano (= Bull. dell'Ist.
St. It. per ilMedio Evo) 70 (1958) 19-41, and
also Ladner, The Idea of Reform (supra n. 1)
378-424 and M.-D. Chenu, O.P., Nature, and Society
Man, in the Twelfth Century (tr. Jerome
Taylor and Lester Little; Chicago 1968) 202-69 and (covering almost all aspects of reform)
these two studies of Herbert Grundmann, Religiose Bewegungen im Mittelalter: Unter
suchungen ?ber die geschichtlichen Zusammenh?ngen zwischen der Ketzerei, den Bettelorden und
der religi?sen Frauenbewegung im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert und ?ber die geschichtlichen Grund
lagen der deutschen Mystik (Historische Studien, vol. 267; Berlin 1935), 'Neue Beitr?ge
zur Geschichte der religi?sen Bewegungen im Mittelalter,' Archiv f?r Kulturgeschichte 37
1955) 129-82, as well as Pierre Mandonnet, O.P., St. Dominic and His Work (ed. M. H. Vicaire
and R. Ladner, tr. Mary Larkin, O.P.; St. Louis 1944); on popular and lay religion see
(Jeffrey Russell, Dissent and Reform in the Early Middle Ages (Berkeley and Los Angeles
1965), Ernest McDonnell, The Beguines and Beghards in Medieval Culture: With Special
Emphasis on the Belgian Scene (New Brunswick, N.J. 1954), Etienne Delaruelle, 'La vie
commune des clercs et la spiritualit? populaire au xie si?cle,' La vita comune (supra n. 2)
I 142-73 and discussion 174-85, Giovanni Miccoli, 'Per la Storia d?lia Pataria Milanese,'

64 TRADITIO
problem of what the ancient ideal of the Christian life had been, a litera
ture which began both to speak frequently of the ecclesia primitiva, and to
use this idea as a model by which to reform the Church.6 Often this litera
ture passed beyond the use of the idea of the ecclesia primitiva as a tool of
reform to the use of the idea as a basis for the discussion of the more basic
problem of what the perfect form of the Christian life had been or should be.7
Bull. dell'Ist. St. It. per il Medio Evo 70 (1958) 43-123, Raoul Manselli, Studi sulle eresie
del secolo XII (Rome 1953) and 'Per la storia dell'eresia nel secolo xn: Studi minori,' Bull.
dell'Ist. St. It. per ilMedio Evo 67 (1955) 189-264, and Raffaello Morghen, Medio Evo cris
tiano (Bari 1951) 212-86 and 'Movimenti religiosi popolari nel periodo della riforma della
'
chiesa, Relazioni del X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche, III (Florence 1955)
333-56.
6 Several studies have noted the use
idea of the primitive
of the Church in the period
from 1050-1140: Chenu, Nature,
Society (supra n. 5) 203-221,
Man, and 239-241; Hayden
V. White, 'The Gregorian Ideal and St. Bernard of Clairvaux,' Journal of the History of
Ideas 21 (1960) 321-348, at 327 (but see the criticisms of this article by Kennan, 'The "De
Consideratione". . . ,' [supra n. 1] 90 ff.); Charles Dereine, S.J. 'La pr?tendue r?gle de Gr?
goire VII pour chanoines r?guliers,' Revue B?n?dictine 71 (1961) 108-18 at 114-6, 'L'?labo
ration du statut canonique des chanoines r?guliers sp?cialement sous Urbain II,' RHE 46
546-55, 'Le probl?me . . .'

(supra n. 3) 287-98, 'Vie commune . . .' (supra n. 5)
(1951)
373, 392, 'Chanoines' n. 5) passim;
(supra Dickinson, Austin Canons (supra n. 5) 7, 27,
30, 53, 56, 60, 76, 172; Fonseca, 'Le canoniche . . .' (supra n. 5) 341, 348; Grundmann,
'Neue Beitr?ge . . .' (supra n. 5) 148-54; Mandonnet, St. Dominic (supra n. 5) 241-81 (285-87
list sources for the period after that studied in this paper which discuss the primitive Church);
Ernest McDonnell, 'The Vita Apostolica: Diversity or Dissent?' Church History 24 (1955)
15-31 at 15-18 (this article contains some rather eccentric historical perspectives, such as
the comment [p. 18] that 'Within the fold fragmentation of the Benedictine monolith was
called diversity: outside the pale it was heresy.' and [p. 20] 'Currency of the Rule of St.
Augustine for orders, congregations, and hospitals was an important symptom of the frac
turing of Benedictine unity. '), Beguines and Beghards (supra n. 5) passim (this work con
tains some material on the twelfth century, but concentrates on the thirteenth and four
teenth centuries, thus showing the later history of such ideas as the 'primitive Church,'
the 'common life,' 'apostolic poverty,' and the 'apostolic life.' Professor McDonnell
shows how these themes of the women's
influenced many orders, lay brotherhoods, and
new religious orders of the thirteenth
century. See especially his index under 'primitive
church' and 'vita apostolica.' In sum, the ideas treated in the present paper were carried
directly into the thirteenth century and widely influenced a great variety of orthodox and
heterodox movements); and above all Giovanni Miccoli, 'Ecclesiae primitivae forma,'
Studi medievali s. 3 I (1960) 470-98, 'Pier Damiani e la Vita
del Clero', La vita Comune
comune (supra n. 2) I 186-211. These last two
included, studies
the have
former in been
substantially expanded form, along with the article by Miccoli cited supra n. 5, in Giovanni
Miccoli, Chiesa Gregoriana (Florence 1966), which I received when this article was in page
proofs.
7 The relation between the idea of the primitive Church and the search for the complete
or perfect form of the Christian life is considered in many of the studies listed in note 6
supra. In addition, on the theme of Christian perfection see Ovidio Capitani, 'Motivi di
spiritualit? Cluniacense e Realismo Eucaristico in Odone di Cluny,' Bull. dell'Ist. St. It.
per ilMedio Evo 71 (1959)' 1-18 at 14-18; Giles Constable, Monastic Tithes from their Origins

ECGLESIA PRIMITIVA 65
' '
In this regard, reform signified not only the restoration and reestablishment
of the forms of the Christian life of the past, but also the search for the con
tinuing perfection of both the individual and the Church. The nexus of ideas
associated with the Augustinian reformatio inmelius was in this respect close
' '
to the idea of renewal. 8 Men not only returned to the forms of the past,
but also explored ways of introducing new structures and forms of life into
the Church.
The following pages will trace the history of the definition of the idea of
the primitive Church ? an idea which of course has had an immense in
fluence in the history of Church reform from the Middle Ages until our own
? in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, especially in the writings of
day
the canon lawyers of the twelfth century Through this itwill become obvious
that many ideas commonly associated with the Protestant Reformation
have themselves a great antiquity
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the idea of the primitive Church
was commonly associated with the following of the apostolic life and evangelical
poverty, and with the practice of the full common life.9 With the restoration
to the Twelfth Century (Cambridge 1964) 149-97, 232-3, 268-9; Leclercq, Love of Learning
(supra n. 5) 62-3, 197-8, 217-8, and The Life of Perfection (supra n. 5) passim. The search
for Christian perfection was of course rooted in the idea of reform, an idea which, especially
in the history of the Latin West, included both the perfection of the individual and the
reform of the Church and society. See the studies by Ladner cited supra n. 1.
8 On the of the Augustinian in melius see Ladner, Idea of Reform
meaning reformatio
(supra n. 1) index under 'Reform to the better.' On the idea of renewal see Chenu, Man,
Nature, and Society (supra n. 5) 1-3 and passim, and Percy Ernst Schramm, Kaiser, Rom
und Renovatio: Studien und Texte zur Geschichte der r?mischen Erneuerungsgedanken vom
Ende des karolingischen Reiches bis zum Investiturstreit (2 vols.; Leipzig and Berlin 1929)
I 238-50. Peter Damian was convinced that the Roman See, which had been the fundamen
tum nascentis salutis, would have to be the principium renovandae. In his Ep. 2, 19 (PL
144. 288) of 1045 he wrote: 'Nisi enim ad rectitudinis statum sedes romana redeat, certum
est, quia totus mundus in suo lapsus errore perdur?t. Et necesse est jam ut eadem sit re
'
novandae principium, quae nascentis humanae salutis exstiterat fundamentum. On this
see J. Joseph Ryan, Saint Peter Damiani and his Canonical Sources: A Preliminary Study
in the Antecedents of the Gregorian Reform (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Studies
and Texts 2; Toronto 1956) 23-24.
9 In
dealing with the history of the common life and of the regular canons, I have followed
the terminology adopted by Dickinson, Austin Canons (supra n. 5). Thus any degree of
communal living, worship, or sharing of property short of the prohibition of all private
property has been called the 'common life.' When it is definitely known that the pro
hibition of private property has been adopted by a community, the term 'full common life'
is used. The ideal of Peter Damian, Gregory VII and the reformers of the eleventh century
was of course the practice of the full common life by all monks and regular canons.

66 TRADITIO
of the full common life ofmonks and regular canons from the time of Greg
ory VII, the terms
'apostolic life' and 'common life' became practically
synonymous, and the idea of the 'primitive Church' was often used in con
junction with these other two terms to express the idea that the ideal of the
early, primitive, or apostolic Church had been a spiritual community of one
heart and mind, holding property in common, and practicing evangelical
poverty, sometimes for the specific purpose of the more effective performance
of the office of preaching.10 None of these ideas, however, was new in the
eleventh century. The notion that the vita apostolica is a standard once given
for Christian life goes back to the first days of the Church.11 The practice of
the common life has foreshadowings in the New Testament writings, and
had found institutional expression for the clergy and the monks since at
least the time of the Fathers, especially St. Augustine, though of course in
a form different from that found by the eleventh century.12 It is therefore
not surprising to find that the phrase ecclesia primitiva occurs occasionally
throughout the early Middle Ages.13

The writings of John Cassian (ca. 365-435), important in so many ways
in the development of Western monasticism, seem to contain the earliest
10 Onthe equation of the terms vita apostolica and vita communis see Dereine, 'Chanoines*
'
'Le de la vie commune. . . (supra n. 3) 287-96, 'La pr?ten
(supra n. 5) passim, probl?me
' '
due r?gle. . . (supra n. 'Vie commune. . . n. 5) 385-95; Grundmann, 'Neue
6) 116, (supra
'
. . (supra n. 5) 148-57; Chenu, Nature, Man, and Society (supra n. 5) 206-14;
Beitr?ge.
Ladner, Idea of Reform (supra n. 1) 400-02; Constable, Monastic Tithes (supra n. 7) 142;
A. Mouraux, 'La "Vie Apostolique" ? propos de Rupert de Deutz/ Revue liturgique et
21 71-8; and Miccoli, 'Ecclesiae primitivae forma' (supra n. 6)
monastique (1935-6)
470-98.
11 See above all Dereine, 'Chanoines' (supra n. 5) 353 ff., but also Leclercq, Life of Per
fection (supra n. 5) 63-80.
12 On the of the common life see Ladner, Idea of Reform
early history of the practice
n. Dereine, 'Chanoines' n. 5) 353 ff.; Dickinson, Austin
(supra 1) 248, 282-3, 319-424; (supra
Lesne, Histoire de la propri?t? eccl?siastique en France
Canons (supra n. 5) 7-25; ?mile (M?
moires et travaux ... des Facult?s catholiques de Lille, VI, XIX, XXX, XXXIV, XLIV,
XLVI, L, and LUI, 6 vols, in 8; Lille 1910-43) vols. 1-3 and 6 passim; Mandonnet, St. Dom
inic n.
5) 195-257; Ludwig Hertling, S.J., 'Kanoniker, Augustinusregel und Augus
(supra
tinerorden,' Zeitschrift f?r katholische Theologie 54 (1930) 334-59; Guy Ferrari, O.S.B.,
Roman Monasteries: Notes for the History of theMonasteries and Convents at Rome
Early
from the Vth through the Xth Century (Vatican City 1957) passim; Hans Feine, Kirchliche
Rechtsgeschichte: die katholische Kirche (4th ed.; Cologne and Graz 1964) 172-9, 196-200,
209-11, 256-63; John, (supra n. 2) 154-264.
Orbis Britanniae
13 No
study of the idea of the primitive Church exists for the
comprehensive period before
the eleventh century, but see now Miccoli, Chiesa Gregoriana (supra n. 6) 225-44. The
some of which are discussed by Miccoli, are taken from a study which
following examples,
I am preparing on 'The Origins of the Reform Idea of the ecclesia primitiva.' I will reserve
full analysis of these early materials, and a full bibliography, for this forthcoming study.

ecclesia primitiva 67
references to the idea of the primitive Church.14 Seizing upon a passage of

Scripture, Acts 4.32 ff., and an exegesis of the early history of monasticism
that was to have an immense influence on medieval monasticism, Cassian
used the idea of the primitive Church as a model by which to form and reform
the monastic life of his own day. The characteristically medieval association
of the idea of the primitive Church with reform, the practice of the common
life, and the search for Christian perfection is thus already found fully ex
pressed by Cassian. From such earlier writers on monasticism as Eusebius
of Caesarea, Pachomius, St. Basil the Great, and St. Jerome, Cassian fashioned
two versions of what has been called the 'myth of the apostolic origin of
cenobitism.' 15 One, the 'Alexandrian version,' traced the origins of Egyptian
monasticism to the apostolic community under the evangelist St. Mark at
' '
Alexandria, and the other, the Jerusalem version, ofmuch greater influence
in the Middle Ages, traced monasticism directly to the Christian community
at Jerusalem described in Acts 4.32 ff., thus 'monasticizing' the history
of the early Church. Cassian referred to both of these versions in his two
major works on monasticism. In the Institutes II, 5 (a.d. 417-18), the work
that actually used the phrase ecclesia primitiva, the 'Alexandrian version'
was presented.16 Although the 'Jerusalem version' was to be the more in
14 The best introduction to Gassian is Owen John Cassian

Chadwick, (2nd ed.; Cambridge
1968). See also Dom

Pichery'sE. introduction to his edition: Jean Cassien, Conf?rences
(Sources Chr?tiennes 42, 54, 64; Paris 1955-59) I, 7-72.
15 This is the terminology of Dom Adalbert de Vogu?, 'Monachisme et ?glise dans la
pens?e de Cassien/ Th?ologie de la vie monastique (Paris 1961) 213-40 (English trans. 'Mon
asticism and the Church in the Writings of Cassian/ Monastic Studies 3 [1965] 19-51). On
Cassian's use of the works of earlier writers on monasticism see his own comments in the
Preface, 5 to the Institutions

(Jean Cassien, Institutions C?nobitiques [ed. Jean-Claude
Guy, S.J., Sources Chr?tiennes 109; Paris 1965)27); and Jean Gribomont, O.S.B., Histoire
du texte des asc?tiques de s. Basile (Louvain 1953) 262-3; Hans-Oskar Weber, Die
Stellung
des Johannes Cassianus zur ausserpachomianischen M?nchstradition (M?nster 1960); Chad
wick, John Cassian (supra n. 14) passim; and Cassien, Conf?rences (supra n. 14) 58-63. Ladner,
Idea of Reform (supra n. 1) 341 ff. traces the origin of the idea of the derivation of cenobitical
monasticism from the Apostolic community at Jerusalem to St. Basil.
16 There follow the most from the Institutions
important passages (ed. Guy, 64-66):
'Nam cum in primordiis fidei pauci quidem sed probatissimi monachorum nomine cense
rentur, qui sicut a beatae memoriae euangelista Marco, qui primus alexandrinae urbi pontifex
praefuit, normam suscepere uiuendi, non solum ilia magnifica retinebant, quae primitus
? Multitudinis
ecclesiam uel credentium turbas in Actibus apostolorum legimus c?l?brasse
scilicet credentium erat cor et anima una, nec quisquam
possidebat aliquid suum
eorum quae
esse dicebat, sed erant Ulis omnia communia. Quotquot enim possessores agrorum aut domorum
erant, uendentes adferebant pretia eorum quae uendebant et ponebant ante pedes apostolorum:
diuidebatur autem singulis prout cuique opus erat ?, uerum etiam his multo sublimiora
cumulauerant.
'Etenim secedentes in secretiora suburbiorum loca agebant uitam tanto abstinentiae
districtam, ut etiam his, erant religionis externi, stupori esset tarn ardua co
rigore qui

68 traditio
fluential of the two versions in the Middle Ages, the two versions agree on
most important points. They both agree that Acts 4.32 ff. describes the
life of the believers of the early Church, while the 'Alexandrian version'
specifically associates the perfection of the practice of the common lifewith the
ecclesia primitiva. Both versions agree that shortly after the Apostolic Age
there began a falling away; that is, the primitive Church is primarily as
sociated with the Apostolic Age. Though in the Middle Ages, as will be seen
below, the primitive Church was sometimes extended in time beyond the
Apostolic period, there is already present in Cassian the notion, very common
in the later period, that the spread and success of Christianity destroyed or
injured the purity of her primitive practices.
Documents from the Merovingian period, perhaps reflecting St. Augustine
of Hippo's attempt to give the clergy as well as the monks a form of common
life, frequently speak of the cathedral clergy as living a common life and
having a type of common mensa for the canons, and as having no personal
property.17 Thus, probably referring to these practices, a disciple of St. Ken
tigern tells us that the Saint founded in his cathedral at Glasgow about a.d.
600 magnam congregationem secundwn formam primitivae Ecclesiae viventem.18
In the Ecclesiastical History of Bede (ca. 672-735) there are several passages
which refer to the ecclesia primitiva.19 To mention only the best known of
these, a passage from one of the famous responses by Gregory I to the queries
by the missionary to the English, St. Augustine, as to how the English Church
was to be governed, certainly suggests that Augustine did practice the com
nuersationis eorum professio. Eo enim feruore diuinarum scripturarum lectionibus ora
tionique et operi manuum diebus ac noctibus incubabant, ut ne escarum quidem adpetitus

uel memoria. . . .
'Ea igitur temptestate, cum ecclesiae illius perfectio
primitivae penes successores suos
adhuc recenti memoria inuiolata duraret feruensque paucorum fides necdum in multitu
dinem dispersa tepuisset, uenerabiles patres peruigili cura posteris consulentes, quinam
modus cotidiano cultui per uniuersum fraternitatis corpus decerni deberet, tractaturi co
nueniunt, ut hereditatem pietatis ac pacis etiam successoribus suis absolutam ab omni

'
dissensionis lite transmitterent. . . .
Since the phrase ecclesia primitiva does not occur in the 'Jerusalem version/ I give
only the introduction to the citation of Acts 4.32 from the Conf?rences, 5 (ed. Pichery, vol.
3, 14): 'Itaque coenobiotarum disciplina a tempore praedicationis apostolicae sumpsit

exordium. Nam talis extitit in Hierosolymis omnis ilia credentium multitudo, quae in Ac
tibus ita describitur:. . ./
apostolorum
17 n.
Dereine, 'Chanoines' (supra 5) 361.
18 is referred to by Dereine,
AS, January, vol. 2 (Paris 1863) 99. This 'Chanoines' (supra
n. 5) 361, where the citation is incorrect.
19 Book
Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book 1, ch. 26 and 27; 4,
ch. 23. See also Book 4, ch. 27, and the Epistle to Bishop Egbert, ??. 16-7 (Opera Historica,
2 vols., ed. Loeb; Cambridge, Mass. and London 1930) I, 112, 116-8; II, 128-30,170-2, 480-2,
486.

mon life with his regular clergy, and that this was the context in which the
idea of the primitive Church was understood. Gregory wrote that, being
under regular discipline, Augustine must not live apart from his clergy, and
that he must follow the mode of life used at the beginning of the Church in
which all things were held in common and nothing was privately owned.20
The usage of the idea of the primitive Church remained in Carolingian
times. The Vita Gregorii abbatis Trajectensis auctore Lindgero, composed
at the end of the eighth century, uses the phrase secundum formam primitivae
ecclesiae erat eis cor unum et anima una to describe the ardor of the mis
sionary to the Germans, St. Boniface.21 In the most important example of
the use of the idea of the primitive Church during the Carolingian Revival,
from the Collectio Isidori Mercatoris (the so-called Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals),
the first manuscript of which from the second quarter of the ninth
dates
century, once again the ecclesia primitiva was associated with the practice
of the common life.22 By entitling the letter which described the common
'
life of the early Church cDe primitiva ecclesia et sinodo nicena, Isidore
Mercator insured that all succeeding canonists who would use this work
would find the idea of the primitive Church associated with the practice of
the common life. Even in the tenth century, from which there survive at
least six manuscripts of this work, a few men must still have been aware of
these teachings. For, as will be seen shortly, when once again canonical
collections began to appear with the Decretum ofBurchard ofWorms (f 1025-26),
this chapter from the Collectio Isidori Mercatoris was included under the
rubric 'De primitiva ecclesia.'23 Succeeding collections, including the De
20 I 116-8). On the problem of the form of life practiced

Ibid., Book 1, ch. 27 (ed. Loeb,
at Canterbury in the time of Gregory I, and on the authenticity of the answers given by
Gregory, see Dom David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (2nd ed.; Cambridge
1963) 619-20, 758; Dickinson, Austin Canons (supra n. 5) 15; Ladner, Idea of Reform (supra
n. 1) 399-400, 497; Paul Meyvaert, 'Les "Responsiones" de S. Gr?goire le Grand ? S. Au
gustin de Cantorb?ry,' RHE 54 (1959) 879-94; and Margaret Deanesly, 'The Capitular
Text of the Responsiones of Pope Gregory I to St. Augustine,' Journal of Ecclesiastical
History 12 (1961) 231-34. For the influence of this passage in the eleventh century see
James H. Claxton, 'On the Name of Urban II,' Traditio 23 (1967) 489-95.
21 Vita auctore
Gregorii abbatis Trajectensis Liudgero (MGH, SS 15 part 1. 63-79 at 69).
22 of the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals is being completely revised by the work
Knowledge
of Professor Sch?fer Williams. For bibliography on this subject, see his article 'Pseudo
Isidore from the Manuscripts,' The Catholic Historical Review 53 (1967) 58-66. None of
the existing editions are adequate, but at present PL 130. 243-49 is closest to the medieval
manuscript tradition. The letter on the primitive Church itself, ascribed to Pope Melchiades,
may also be found in Mansi 2.600, where it is incorrectly identified. The text of this letter
is considered more fully below in the form in which it entered the Decretum of Gratian
(note 58).
23 Burchardi Wormatiensis Collectarium sive Decretum 3. 2, 4-5 in PL 140. 673-5. For

70 TRADITIO
cretum of Gratian, would retain variations of this chapter with its rubric.
In sum, by the Carolingian period the term ecclesia primitiva could be defined
either with specific reference to the practice of the common life, or in more
general terms as signifying the spiritual enthusiasm and ideals of the first
Christians. Starting from these two usages, Christians of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries would use the term to explore further what precisely it
meant to be Christian. From the middle of the ninth to the beginning of the
eleventh centuries, the idea of the primitive Church could hardly have been
used in a significant way. It would seem that when the term again began to
appear frequently in the middle of the eleventh century, its usage from the
first must have been consciously a reaction against the immediate past.
*
* *
Beginning with Peter Damian and Hildebrand, the idea of the primitive
Church received a wide currency.24 In the eleventh century especially, but
also throughout the twelfth century, the most common definitions of this
idea were the same as those already found in the Carolingian period, though
often these basic definitions were greatly expanded on.25 But by the middle
of the twelfth century, and especially in the writings of the canonists of the
second half of the twelfth century, the term was so frequently used that it
sometimes lost its special association with reform, the search for Christian
perfection, and the practice of the common life, and became simply the label
to describe anything which was thought to have existed in the first age of
the Church. Although the association with the idea of reform was hardly
ever fully replaced, simply because the reference to antiquity itself was gen
erally approved of, in some cases the expression ecclesia primitiva was little
more than a neutral term to describe the earliest period of Church history.
In a very few cases, the term ecclesia primitiva seems to have been used in a
condescending or pejorative sense, indicating an individual canonist's distaste
for what he considered to have been crude or rustic or undeveloped in the
early Church. A few examples can illustrate each of these senses of the term.
To turn first to those cases inwhich the term 'primitive Church' was used
simply as an historical label, the canonists were aware, although sometimes
a summary of the conflicting opinions on the spread and influence of the Decretum of Bur
chard in the eleventh century see Ryan, Peter Damiani (supra n. 8) 10-13, 21.
24 .
Miccoli, 'Pier Damiani. (supra n. 6) I 186-211 and 'Ecclesiae primitivae forma'
(supra n. 6) 470-98.
25 I the ideal of the com
hope to devote an additional study to the relationship between
mon life, Christian perfection, and the idea of the ecclesia primitiva in the writings of the
canonists.

their historical knowledge was of course not fully accurate, that with the
passage of time many institutions and practices within the Church had changed.
Often the term ecclesia primitiua was used, therefore, to describe practices
no longer existing, but known to have been approved in the early Church.
The canonists came to their knowledge of such ancient practices through the
fact that much of the materials in the canonical collections of the eleventh
and twelfth centuries came from papal decrees, conciliar decisions, and pa
tristic writings from the first six centuries of the history of the Church. When
these documents mentioned practices no longer existing, or failed to give
precedents for practices existing in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the
canonists characterized the earlier conditions by ascribing them to the primi
tive Church. It is often very difficult to discover whether in each case the
canonists literally believed these primitive institutions to date to the first
century, but it would seem, as we shall see, that implicitly the term was
sometimes used to refer to the whole patristic age, or at least to the pre
Constantinian It is also usually difficult to discern the canonists'
period.26
attitudes changes in Church custom. However,
toward these some cases
certainly suggest that they believed that there had been legitimate develop
ment beyond the primitive institutions of the Church. If one collects all the
references to the primitive Church by the best known canonist of the twelfth
century, Alexander III (1159-81), it becomes quite obvious that although
Alexander identified his basic spiritual ideals with the primitive Church,
he also felt that there had sometimes been a maturation
or greater fulfill
ment of ancient ideals in periods close to his own time.27 In sum, although
the idea of the primitive Church stood for a return to ancient practices some
times long abrogated, it did not generally stand for a 'classicizing' of early
Christianity to the detriment of all later developments.
Two good examples of the use of the term ecclesia primitiva as an historical
label are the canonistic discussions of the status of subdeacons, and the pos
sibility of clerical marriage. From the end of the eleventh century it became
increasingly common to consider that subdeacons, in addition to deacons and
26 On this and the later

history of this idea see note 59 infra.
27 See for instance the materials in notes 37 and 52, or for Stephen of Tournai the materials
in notes 33 and 34 infra. The lack of 'classicism' in describing the ancient Church cor
responds to the lack of 'classicism' which has been ascribed to twelfth-century humanism:
see Ernst Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (tr. Willard
Trask; New
York and Evanston 1953) 53 n. 54; and Leclercq, Love of Learning (supra n. 5) 94-151.
Those living before the revival of learning, or outside the influence of the cathedral schools
and universities, or in the first movements of the pre-Gregorian period of reform, seem to
have been more prone to take a literal approach to the forms and ideals of the early Church,
See, for instance, the descriptions of Peter Damian and the hermit Rainaud in Miccoli,
'Ecclesiae primitivae forma' (supra n. 6) 472-77, 484-7.

72 traditio
priests, possessed Holy Orders.28 In stating that no one could be elected to

the episcopate unless he possessed Holy Orders, Urban II (1088-99) noted
that in the primitive Church only priests and deacons possessed Holy Orders.29
However, Urban ruled that, with the permission of the pope or his archbishop
a subdeacon could be elected bishop, thus approving a change in ancient
custom. This decision was included in several succeeding canonical collec
tions, and in the Decretum of Gratian, and most of the canonists after Gratian
explained the status of the subdeacon by reference to it.30 Most explicit in
his description of the change in status was Rufinus of Bologna, who wrote
that while in the primitive Church there were only two Holy Orders, inmodern
times (secundum moderna tempora) the subdiaconate had been added to these
Orders.31 A similar contrast of early custom with present practice occurred
when the canonists discussed the possibility of clerical marriage. Writing
in the 1160s, Stephen of Tournai in treating of the continency of the clergy
pointed out that in both the primitive Church and the Eastern Church it
was licit to be married before receiving the ministry.32 The Western Church
had, on the other hand, accepted the vow of continency for its clergy, and
had enjoined it first on priests, then on deacons, and finally on subdeacons.
Stephen next referred to a chapter of the Decretum, dating from an earlier
time (a.d. 314) than the materials he had just been commenting on, which
allowed deacons to be ordained without taking a vow of continence, and then
28 See D.32 cc.1-16 I 116-21) and the canonists' comments on this distinc
(ed. Friedberg
tion.
29 This decision from the Council of Benevento in 1091 is the only chapter in the Decretum
which includes the term ecclesia primitiva within its text (as opposed to within its rubric
or the dicta Gratiani): D.60 c.4 (ed. Friedberg I 227). For a discussion of this chapter and
the materials in the preceding note see Robert L. Benson, The Bishop-elect: A Study in
Medieval Ecclesiastical Office (Princeton 1968) 64-5, 71, 91. This chapter (D.60 c.4) was
also included in a letter of Innocent III in the Third Compilation composed early in the
thirteenth century, and in the D?cr?t?tes of Gregory IX (1234), and the history of the idea
of the primitive Church could be continued into the thirteenth century by referring to the
comments of the later canonists on these chapters: 3 Comp. 1. 9. 6 in Quinque Compilationes
Antiquae (ed. Emil Friedberg; Leipzig 1882) 108; X 1. 14. 9 (ed. Friedberg II 128). In
nocent also repeated the teaching of this letter, and the use of the term ecclesia primitiva,
in X 1. 18. 7 (ed. Friedberg II 143).
30 See as an even to the retention
example, of the term primitiva ecclesia, The Summa
Parisiensis on the Decretum Gratiani (ed. Terence McLaughlin; Toronto 1952) 32 on D.32
c. 10 v. Eos. This anonymous Summa dates from about 1160: see McLaughlin, 'introduc
'
tion.
31 Summa
(ed. Singer 75) on D.32 c.ll v. Erubescant etc. See also Singer, p. lxi, and
Rufinus' comments on D.31 c.10 v. sive lector and on D.35 c.l v. Episcopus aut presbiter
etc. (ed. Singer 72, 83).
32 Die Summa des Stephanus Tornacensis ?ber das Decretum Gratiani (ed. J. F. von Schulte;
Giessen 1891) 41 on D.27 before c.l v. Quod a.

both to be married and to remain in their ministry.33 Without himself ac

cepting or rejecting this opinion, Stephen pointed out that this could be
understood by way of an exception for a specific time or place, that is for
the Eastern or primitive Church, and correctly suggested that this was Gra
tian's understanding of the matter.34 He concluded by remarking that in
any case continence was now in his day mandatory for all three Orders, even
if it had not been promised through a vow, and that if any cleric in these
Orders had contracted marriage he should be separated from his wife. In
both the matter of the status of subdeacons, and in that of the possibility of
clerical marriage, therefore, these canonists used the term ecclesia primitiva
essentially to contrast ancient with contemporary usage. They neither ap
proved nor disapproved of the changes made, and perhaps assumed that in
such matters there was no fixed standard such as the practice of the primitive
Church. It is interesting to note that Stephen of Tournai considered, along
with Gratian and most canonists of his time, the possibility of understanding
a particular practice of the primitive Church ? clerical marriage of those
who had not taken a vow of continence ? as perhaps an exception rather
than the rule for the Church. Again, this suggested the possibility of in
stitutional development beyond the primitive model.
33 Ibid. The
chapter Stephen was referring to was D.28 c.8.
34 See the dictum Gratiani after D.28 c.13 (ed. Friedberg I 105). The canonists frequently
explained differences from contemporary usage in this manner used by Gratian. Of course
at D.29 Gratian had dedicated a full Distinction to materials showing that the canon law
and the Scriptures must always be understood according to place, time, person, and case.
The medieval canon law is indeed full of materials pertaining to what later ages would call
'casuistry/ 'the development of doctrine/ and 'progressive revelation/ It would be most
profitable to study the canonists' 'exegesis' of the Scriptures, which seems to have placed
primary emphasis on the literal or historical meaning, rather than on the allegorical or
tropological. This same shift in emphasis was occurring in the twelfth century at such
centers of Biblical studies as St. Victor: Smalley, The Study of the Bible (supra n. 4) 83-195.
There followsome examples on the present point, the reference to the primitive Church
in order to explain a variation from present practice found in early materials contained in
the canon law. Roland Bandinelli, Die Summa Magistri Rolandi nachmals Papstes Alexan
der III. nebst einem Anhange Incerti Auctoris Quaestiones (ed. Friedrich Thaner; Innsbruck
1874) 124, 144-5, 155, 209-10 on C.27 q.l c.40 v. Ut lex continentiae etc.; C.30 q.l; C.31
q.l c.8 v. De his etc.; and G.35 qq.2 and 3 c.3 v. De propinquis etc. Rufinus, Summa (ed.
Singer 542) on Tertia pars D.l c.4 v. De locorum vero. Summa Parisiensis (ed. McLaughlin
65, 147, 175, 238, 257) on D.81 c.12 v. Presbyter.; C.ll q.l c.3 v. Clericum etc.; C.15 q.3
before c.l v. Mulieres autem etc.; C.31 q.l c.8 v. De his qui frequenter; and G.35 q.l before
c.l v. Quod consanguineas nostras. Stephen of Tournai, Summa (ed. Schulte 26, 30, 37,
43-4, 45, 46, 47, 53, 118, 232, 248, 263, 276) on D.17 before c.l v. Gen. cone; D.21 c.l v.
nec crismate.; D.25 v. epistolas
c.l ep.; D.28 c .10 v. conductor etc.; D.28 c.14 v. Si quis
doc; D.31 before c.l v. Tempus.; D. 31 diet. Gr. after c.7 v. de coniugio.; D.35 c.l v. sub
diaconus etc.; D.98 before cl; G.27 before q.l; C.35 q.l before c.l v. Quod cons.; Pars III
D.l c.4 v. de locorum etc.; and Pars III D.3 c.21 v. Nosse cet.

74 TRADITIO
There are many other examples of the use of the expression ecclesia primi
tive! as an historical label besides the two just given. We will consider im
mediately below the common belief that in the primitive Church all goods
were held in common, and that furthermore the Church did not accept gifts
of landed property until after the emperors had become Christian. These
were not simply ideas by which to reform the feudal Church, but were ap
parently literally believed of the early Church. Other things affirmed of the
early Church are the following. Pluralism and absolute ordination had been
forbidden.35 The degrees of consanguinity allowed in marriage law had been
different.36 Monks had been considered to be laymen, and not clergy, and
had not been allowed to baptize or to perform the offices of the priesthood.37
Having stated this fact, Roland Bandinelli (the later Alexander III) explained
that all those chapters of C.16 q.l which prohibited monks from performing
priestly offices, some of which are dated as late as the time of Gregory I (590
604), are to be understood to apply to monks considered as laymen. Again,
Roland does not seem to have disapproved of the change in the rules applying
to the monks, and seems to have identified the primitive Church with the
whole patristic period. Other canonists suggested that a monk in the primi
tive Church could be made a cleric, or even elected a bishop.38 Another prac
tice affirmed of the primitive Church was that, as contrasted to the twelfth
century, priests did not take oaths.39 Rufinus also stated that the forms of
oaths had varied in the Old Testament, in the primitive Church, and in
his own times, and listed the various forms.40 It was known that it had
not been customary to baptize before puberty in the primitive Church.41
Stephen of Tournai noted that in the primitive Church 'bishops' had
been called 'priests.'42
35 Thus an anonymous gloss in Bibl. Angelica (Rome) 1270, 136v, to be dated about 1200,
on G.13 q.l c.l v. singulas: 'ecce de primeva institutione ecclesie statutum est, ut singuli
prelati singulas haberent ecclesias.'
36 on G.35 3 c.3 v. De and
Roland, Summa (ed. Thaner 209) qq.2 and propinquis etc.;
Summa Parisiensis (ed. McLaughlin 257-8) on C.35 q.l before c.l v. Quod consanguineas
nostras.
37
Roland, Summa 36-7) on G.16 before q.l v. Quidam
(ed. Thaner abbas etc.; and Summa
Parisiensis (ed. McLaughlin 177) on C.l6 q.l before c.l v. Quod monachi etc.
38 See Summa and Stephen, Summa
Rufinus, (ed. Singer CLXXXII); (ed. Schulte 86,
98) on D.61 c.18 v. vel monachus and D.74 c.6 v. ex monacho.
39
Rufinus, Summa (ed. Singer 250) on C.2 q.5 c.l v. Sacramentum hactenus; Summa Pa
risiensis (ed. McLaughlin 201) on C.21 q.l c.7 v. Et jurabunt.; and Stephen, Summa (ed.
Schulte 169) on C.2 q.5 c.l v. exigi.
40
Rufinus, Summa (ed. Singer 389) on C.22 before q.l v. Quidam episcopus etc.
41
Stephen, Summa (ed. Schulte 102) on D.77 c.3 v. ante pubert.
42 Ibid. 115 on D.93 c.24 vv. Legimus and eosdem esse episcopos. Less uses
important
of the term ecclesia primitiva as an historical label may be found in: Summa Parisiensis

Before passing to the few instances inwhich the idea of the primitive Church
was used in a pejorative sense, two rather exceptional instances of the use
of the term as an historical label should be noted. First, with the simultaneous
growth of the emphasis on the apostolic life and Church and of the emphasis
on the primacy of the papacy in the eleventh century, in an interesting in
termingling of concepts the 'Roman Church' and the 'apostolic Church'

began to be used sometimes as interchangeable terms.43 As a result of this,
the idea of the papal plenitude of power was associated with the primitive
Church. The best example of this is a lengthy passage from the Quaestiones
Stuttgardienses (ca. 1154-79).44 Following the thought of Roland Bandinelli,
(ed. McLaughlin 82) on G.l q.l c.13 v. Cum, et post, ante omnes.; Stephen of Tournai, Summa
(ed. Schulte 94, 160) on D.68 c.3 v. Inter ep. and on C.2 q.l c.9 v. adeo ut
43 'Neue Beitr?ge. . .
See, for the reign of Gregory VII, Grundmann, (supra n. 5) 149.
Texts from this period which show the equation of the Roman with the Apostolic Church
and derive the powers of all other offices and churches from the papacy, in the manner
of the Quaestiones Stuttgardinenses given in the following note, may be found in Miccoli,
' '
Ecclesiae primitivae forma, (supra n. 6) 476 ff. This development was of course facilitated
by the enthusiasm of the reforming party for the imitation of the ancient Church. Pos
sessing documents dating back to the pontificate of Clement I, the successor of St. Peter,
which consistently asserted the authority of the Roman See ? some of the most important
of which were in fact eighth- and ninth-century forgeries, it seemed obvious to the reformers
that since the first days of the Church
all powers within the Church had been derived from
Rome: Southern, Making of the
Middle Ages (supra n. 1) 141-2. For the background of this
development see Yves Congar, 'S. Nicolas Ier (f 867): ses positions eccl?siologiques,' Re
vista di Storia delta Chiesa in Italia 21 (1967) 393-410; Robert L. Benson, 'Plenitudo Po
testatis: Evolution of a Formula from Gregory IV to Gratian,' Studia Gratiana 14 (1967)
193-218; and Walter Ullmann, Principles of Government and Politics in the Middle Ages
(London 1961) 29-114, and Growth of Papal Government (supra n. 3) passim. Much of the
relevant material is gathered in Dr. Ullmann's
books, although I find his interpretations
frequently implausible and insensitive to the obvious intentions and nuances of his sources.
Dr. Ullmann frequently glosses over the context and chronology of the development of
ideas in favor of illustrating certain basic themes which he assumes are always present in
the theory of papal government. A good criticism of his interpretation of the period of
interest in this paper may be found in Kennan, 'The "De Consideration". . .' (supra n. 1)
80 ff.
44 in Die Summa Magistri Rolandi
Quaestiones Stuttgardienses (ed. Thaner 237-303)
as an appendix titled Incerti Auctoris Quaestiones: see Kuttner, Repertorium (supra n. 4)
245. The most important section from Q. 30 of these Quaestiones (ed. Thaner 284-5) is
the following: 'Ad hoc Rolandus, quod in primitiva ecclesia omne ius et omnem auctoritatem
ligandi et solvendi solus summus pontifex habebat, unde habemus in tractatu consecrationis,
quod nulli liceat aedificare ecclesiam inconsulto Romano pontifice, dist. I. cap.: Praecepta
(c.5); habemus etiam in prima parte decretorum, ut nulli liceat convocare synodum eo
inconsulto vel absque legato Romanae
curiae. Sed processu temporis instituit Romanus
pontifex primates, quibus vices suas impertivit in partem sollicitudinis, non in plenitudinem
potestatis. Sub primatibus instituti sunt episcopi, episcopi vero instituunt sibi praelatos,
quorum unusquisque pro modo dignitatis suae tenetur amministrare ecclesiastical I have
not found these doctrines associated with the primitive Church in the Summa of Roland.

76 TRADITIO
the anonymous author of these Quaestiones stated that in the primitive Church
the Roman pontiff had all right and authority of binding and loosing. This
explains those materials in the canon law, our canonist continued, which
say that it is not licit to build a church without consulting the Bishop of
Rome. It also explains those canons which say that no synod may be called
without consulting the pope, or his legate. Then, obviously attributing to
the primitive Church the eleventh-century notion that the Pope is the Uni
versal Ordinary for the whole Church, our canonist stated that with the passage
of time the Roman Pontiff established the other primates to act as his deputies
(vices) that he might command them 'in partem sollicitudinis, non in ple
nitudinem potestatis.' Finally under the primates were established the
bishops, and under the bishops the other prelates. This extraordinary view,
which attributed to the primitive Church the idea that all powers within
the Church are derived of the pope, as well as the idea
from the authority
that the primates and bishops actually appeared later in time than the papacy,
is not known to be repeated in this degree of fullness by any other canonist
during the twelfth century. However, certain relatively unimportant points
made by our anonymous canonist are also associated with the primitive
Church by other canonists. Thus Stephen of Tournai suggested that in the
primitive Church synods were not held without the apostolic authority.45
The well known antithesis to the view expressed by the Quaestiones Stutt
gardienses had of course been expressed over half a century earlier by the
Norman Anonymous.46 This equally extraordinary writer completely denied
the authority of any tradition which would give the Roman Church the pri
macy over other bishops. He declared that in the primitive Church there
had been no primacy, and that if any church could claim a primacy it was
the church at Jerusalem. For Jerusalem is the true primitive Church, the
On the idea of the pope as the 'Universal Ordinary' present in this text, see Tellenbach,
. . see Brian
Christian Society (supra n. 1) 137-47. On the phrase 'in partem sollicitudinis
Tierney, Foundations of the Conciliar

Theory (Cambridge 1955) 29-36, 88-90, and Benson,
'Plenitudo Potestatis. .
(supra n. 43) 200-18. The idea that the pope actually preceded
the primates and bishops in time probably was based on the long standing tradition that
the West had been evangelized from Rome. On this see Pierre Batiffol, Cathedra Petri
(Unam Sanctam IV; Paris 1938) 47; Ryan, Peter Damiani (supra n. 8) 23-4, 65; and Benson,
The Bishop-elect (supra n. 29) 73.
45 Summa
(ed. Schulte 202) on C.5 qq. 3 and 4 c.l v. nisi in leg.
46 On the idea of the Church in the writings of the Norman see
primitive Anonymous
Tellenbach, Christian Society (supra n. 1) 146; Ullmann, Growth of Papal Government (supra
n. 3) 396-7; Heinrich B?hmer, Kirche und Staat in England und in der Normandie im XI.
und XII. Jahrhundert (Leipzig 1899) 252-4; and George H. Williams, The Norman Anonymous
of ca. 1000 A.D.: Toward the Identification and the Evaluation of the So-called Anonymous
of York (Harvard Theological Studies 18; Cambridge, Mass. 1951) 137-43.

EGGLESIA PRIMITIVA 77
mother of all churches.47 However, the Norman Anonymous meant simply

that the church of Jerusalem possessed a primacy of honor, because she was
the first, the primitive, church. All bishops are in fact directly under Christ,
not Rome. In sum, the idea of the primitive Church was also used during
the twelfth century as a means by which to discuss the place and powers
of the papacy in the history of the Church.
The second somewhat exceptional use as an historical label occurs in the
Summa of Rufinus.48 In discussing the superiority of natural law to human
constitutions, Rufinus suggested a problem. As natural law was defined
at this time, it was considered to be embodied in the books of the Old and
New However, Rufinus pointed out, it was well known that
Testaments.49
the exemplars of the scriptures often did not agree with one another, that
is, that there were different manuscript traditions. Sometimes the readings
were so varied that they led to conflicting interpretations, that is, to a conflict
with reason: the natural law, so to speak, became separated from itself. The
authority of Augustine (referring to D.9 c.6) suggests that if any of the ex
emplars seem to go against the truth, these must be compared to the oldest
exemplars. If anything seems doubtful in the Latin books, they should be
checked against the Greek; if anything seems doubtful in the Greek, it should
be checked against the Hebrew. However, Rufinus continued, this seems
directly opposed to the view of the greatest of translators, Jerome, who stated
that the Latin exemplars of the Bible are better emended than the Greek,
and the Greek than the Hebrew. Rufinus resolved this problem in the fol
lowing way. In the primitive period, before the Church had spread throughout
the world, the Greek and Hebrew versions of the scriptures were not corrupted.
But with the passage of time, Christianity grew and many heresies appeared.
The Hebrew and Greek versions of the scriptures were corrupted by the
heretics and the unseeing Jews, with the Hebrew corrupted the most, and
then the Greek and Latin. Augustine is to be understood as referring to
the ancient manuscripts before they were corrupted, and Jerome is to be
understood as referring to the modern manuscripts of his own day, which
had been greatly corrupted.
47 This was first edited in Tractatus Eboracenses 3 in MGH, Lib. de lite 3. 660.
passage
It is now found in the complete edition of the Norman Anonymous by Karl Pellens, Die
Texte des Normannischen Anonymus (Wiesbaden 1966) J4, p. 42. Another
reference to
the idea of the ecclesia primitiva is found in a passage edited by B?hmer, Kirche und
Staat n. 46) 457-62 and commented on by Williams, The Norman Anonymous
(supra (#12)
(supra n. 46) 142, and now in Pellens, Die Texte J12, pp. 84-90, at 89.
48 Summa
(ed. Singer 23) on D.9 c.6 v. Ut veter. etc.
49 of natural law during this period see Garlyle and Garlyle, Political
On the definition
Theory II (supra n. 4) 28-33, 96-113, 160-97; and Brys, De dispensatione (supra n. 4) 80-3,
122-32, 198-201, 256-7.

78 TRADITIO
Those in which the idea of the primitive Church was used in a

instances
pejorative sense may be dealt with briefly. To begin with an example in
which there was no explicit condescension expressed toward the primitive
Church, but in which there was simply the implicit assumption that modern
practice was better than ancient, Bernard of Pavia, writing at the end of
the twelfth century, stated that clerics inminor orders in the primitive Church
had been allowed to receive ecclesiastical stipends.50 Bernard approved of
the fact that, in his own day, except by way of dispensation, this ancient
custom was no longer allowed, and clerics inminor orders were, he said, justly
excluded from ecclesiastical benefices. Leaving aside the point that Bernard
apparently did not understand the nature of the ecclesiastical stipend re
ferred to by Gregory I in the letter on which Bernard was commenting, it is
quite apparent that on this question Bernard believed the practice of his
own day superior to that of the primitive Church.51 From this view one could
easily develop the perspective that the primitive Church was primitive in
the sense of lacking full development or maturity, and this seems to have
been the attitude of Roland Bandinelli when he discussed the problem of
the legitimacy of marriage among pagans, and the problem of the status of
a Christian convert married to a pagan.52 Some chapters of C.28 argued that
the convert ought to remain married to the pagan or Jew, others that the
pagan ought to be dismissed. Roland suggested that this conflict could be
resolved inmore than one way. The permission of separation from the pagan
could be understood by way of a dispensation so that the faithful would
not be subverted by the infidel. On the other hand, the idea that pagan
and convert should remain married might be understood as established by
the Apostles in the primitive and rude Church in order to avoid scandal and
to win the infidel. The strong implication here is that Roland preferred the
former to the latter position. This idea that the primitive Church lacked
fullmaturity had of course been stated very clearly by Gregory VII. Writing
to Wratislaw, Duke of Bohemia, Gregory forbade the use of the vernacular
in the celebration of the sacred offices in the following manner:53
50 Bernardi Summa Decretalium

Papiensis (ed. Ern. Ad. Theod. Laspeyres; Regensburg
1860) 68 on 1 Comp. 3. 3.
51 I am a study on the legal definition of the ecclesiastical benefice
preparing during
the twelfth century, which will consider the problem of who might hold a benefice. This
problem was closely related both to the ecclesiastical reforms of the twelfth century, and
to the definition of public law within the Church in the twelfth century. For now see my
study 'The Definition of the Ecclesiastical Benefice in the Twelfth Century: the Canonists'
Discussion of spiritualia,' Studia Gratiana 11 (Collectanea Stephan Kuttner I; 1967) 431-46.
52 Summa on C.28 q.l.
(ed. Thaner 139-40)
53 The Selected Letters
Correspondence of Pope Gregory VII: (tr. Ephraim Emerton; New
York 1932) 148. This letter of January 2, 1080 from the Register of Gregory Book 7, 11

EGCLESIA PRIMITIVA 79
It is evident to those who consider the matter carefully that it has pleased
God to make Holy Scripture obscure in certain places lest, if it were per
fectly clear to all, it might be vulgarized and subjected to disrespect or
be so misunderstood by people of limited intelligence as to lead them into
error. Nor can it be said in excuse that some pious persons have yielded
patiently to this demand of simple souls or let it go without reproof, since
the church passed over many things which later, when Chris
primitive
tianity had become established and religious observances had increased,
were corrected by the holy fathers after close examination.
Three after Gregory a contemporary of Roland, Anselm of

generations
Havelberg, expressed Gregory's attitude in a very forcefulmanner, suggesting
that beginning with the primitiva ecclesia the Holy Spirit had constantly
led the Church to form new and varied orders or forms of life in order to
renew itself constantly.54 Gratian himself had adopted a somewhat similar
perspective in an extended comment which he made on the problem of
consanguineous marriages, which is of considerable interest.55 Commenting
[ed. Erich Caspar; Berlin is discussed, along with

(Das Register Gregors VII. 1920] 473-75),
other examples of this attitude, by Miccoli, 'Ecclesiae primitivae forma' (supra n. 6) 479-81.
This single example does not do justice to Gregory's notion of the historical development
of the Church, and the role of God's providence in producing variety in the Church. See
6, 17 (ed. Caspar 423-4) for a letter to Hugo of Cluny in which Gregory traces the
Register
various orders in the Church to Providence, and on this see Miccoli, 'Per la Storia. . .'
(supra n. 5) 76 ff.
54 On Anselm '
see infra n. 56 and Georg Schreiber, Studien ?ber Anselm von Havelberg.
'
Zur Geistesgeschichte des Hochmittelalters, Analecta Praemonstratensia
(1942) 5-90; 18
Chenu, Nature, Man, and

Society (supra n. 5) 28, 174-5, 183-4, 191, 217-8, 316; Fran?ois
Petit, O.P., La des Pr?montr?s aux XIIe et XIIIe si?cles (Paris 1947) 56-64;
spiritualit?
and M. Van Lee, 'Les id?es d'Anselme de Havelberg sur le d?veloppement des dogmes,'
Analecta Praemonstratensia 14 (1938) 5-35. Without using the phrase ecclesia primitiua,
Gerhoh of Reichersberg expressed ideas similar to Anselm's: Liber de aedificio Dei 43 (PL
194. 1302). On this see Miccoli, 'Per la Storia. . .' (supra n. 5) 78-9.
55 Ed. I 1262-3. There follows the most section of this long dictum,
Friedberg important
which I have summarized in the text: ? 1. Est etiam alia causa, quare coniunctiones con
in populo Dei permissae primum, vel potius inperatae fuerint. Deus sic ab
sanguineorum
inicio salutem humani generis dispensauit, ut primitiuam ecclesiam in populo illo institueret,
qui sibi carnis consanguinitate erat propinquus. Unde de plebe Iudaica primum Apostolos
fundamentum ecclesiae instituit, quorum predicatione de eadem plebe
elegit, quos quasi
multi ad Deum conuersi, in se ipsis originem ecclesiae prestiterent. Deinde in cecitate suae
a Christo
perfidiae Judaica plebe relicta ad gentes, que tarn fide quam cognatione carnis
erant alienae,
predicatio euangelica translata est, et quasi consanguineae copulam Christus
de ali?na cognatione sibi uxorem elegit, ... In huius ergo rei sacramentum
aspernatus,
consanguineorum coniunctiones primum in populo permissae sunt, nunc autem prohibitae.
Et quia non in una tantum familia, sed in omni multitudine gentium fidelium populus
inuenitur, non de propria cognatione, sed de qualibet alia cuique uxorem ducere conceditur.
? 2. Illud autem quod precepta legis seruanda dicuntur, que nec euangelicis, nec apostolicis
institutis euacuata uerum quidem est; sed cum omnia figuralia Apostolus probet
probantur,
ad tempus esse data, atque ideo ueniente ueritate affirmet ilia non ultra esse seruanda,

80 TRADITIO
on C.35 q.l cl, a passage fromAugustine's City of God (Book 15, c.16), Gratian
argued that the early Jewish patriarchs because of necessity had been allowed
to marry their kin. With the children of Adam and Eve, of course, there
had been no alternative, and later consanguineous marriages had been allowed
because the Hebrews
had been surrounded by unbelieving peoples. God
had then established the primitive Church amongst the Hebrew people, and
the first Apostles had been Jews, who preached to and converted many of
their fellow Jews to Christianity. When however the bulk of the Jewish
people in their blindness
refused to recognize the evangelical message, the
Apostles turned to the gentiles, peoples who were foreign to both the faith
and the kin of Christ, the Jews. Christ, shunned by His own people, chose
His Wife (the Church), so to speak, from an alien people. Consanguineous
marriages, up to this time allowed, now had no further purpose, and were
prohibited. As the Christian faithful were now of all nations, marriage no
longer needed to be restricted to the narrower Hebrew family of faith. Chris
tians were no longer to be obligated by other than evangelical and apostolical
institutions. The Apostles were able to define what the Gospels had not
provided for, and the Church was able to add counsels of perfection to the
apostolic institutions. On this basis, such things as the continency of the
clergy were commanded, and such things as consanguineous marriages were
prohibited. Thus Gratian not only very clearly stated a notion of the develop
ment of doctrine and of canon law, always building on the evangelical and
apostolic institutions, but he equally clearly associated the primitive Church

with a period at which
Christianity had not received its fullest expression.
These examples manifest a relatively mild criticism of the primitive Church,
and there are no examples more critical than these. Their importance is
that they show that the idea of the primitive Church as the standard of Chris
tian life generally was not held to the detriment of the idea that there might
be developments after the period of the primitive Church which also should
command respect, and which might in fact perfect that which was unformed
in the early Church.
hoc autem, ut supra monstratum est, causa sacramenti a Deo institutum esse probetur:
et hoc cum ceteris figuralibus euacuatum certissime constat: quamquam, sicut Apostolus
quedam consulendo addidit, que euangelicis preceptis non inueniebantur diffinita, nec
ideo tarnen tamquam temeraria, uel superflua ab aliis Apostolis sunt repudiata; sic et ec
clesia post apostolica instituta quedam consilio perfectionis addidit, utpote de continentia
ministrorum, de confectione misteriorum, de celebratione offitiorum, que nullatenus sunt
repudianda, sed diligenti ueneratione suscipienda. Consanguineorum ergo coniunctiones,

quamuis euangelicis et apostolicis preceptis non inueniantur prohibitae, sunt tarnen fu
giendae, quia ecclesiasticis institutionibus inueniuntur terminatae.' For references to the

comments of the canonists on this passage see note 34 supra.

EGGLESIA PRIMITIVA 81
The to be asked in defining the idea of the primitive Church

final question
is to what period in the past this term was meant to refer. As suggested
by the above examples, there is no single answer to this. The idea most
commonly referred to the time and ideals of the New Testament Church,
though in the case of Anselm ofHavelberg it referred also to the period when
Christ Himself was present.56 However, it could refer to the whole period
of the persecutions down to the conversion of the first emperors to Chris
tianity; or it could refer to the time of the Fathers and early councils, ex
tending to the age of Gregory the Great. A few examples which define the
primitive Church as extending beyond the first century may conclude our
definition of the idea. Stephen of Tournai in referring to the persecutions
of the third century during the time of Cyprian labeled the Church then
existing as the primitive Church.57 In agreement with this perspective, at
C.12 q.l c.15 Gratian included the chapter from the Collectio Isidori Merca
toris already referred to above, now under the rubric 'Quare in primitiua
'
ecclesia predia uendebantur, followed by c.16, another chapter taken from
the same Collectio, under the rubric 'Quare predia fidelium hodie ab ecclesia
'
non alienentur. 58Taken together, these two chapters associated the primitive
56 See for the text with 'Ecclesiae forma' n. 6)

commentary Miccoli, primitivae (supra
491-3.
57 Summa
(ed. Schulte 71) on D.50 c.27.
58 C.12 cc.15-6 I See supra n. 22. The letters from the Collectio
q.l (ed. Friedberg 682-3).
Isidori Mercatoris had an extensive influence in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The
opening section of 'De primitiva ecclesia et synodo nicaena' from the Collectio (PL 130.243)
is given for purposes of comparison: 'Nemo qui Scripturas divinas legit ignor?t quod, in
principio nascentis Ecclesiae, discipulis in unum congregatis, cum multitudine credentium,

in quibus erat cor unum et anima una, quique vendentes praedia et possessiones suas af
ferebant, et dividebatur singulis, prout cuique opus erat [Act. IV, 32 et seq.], Futuram
namque Ecclesiam in gentibus apostoli praevidebant, maximeque quia Dominus illis praedix
erat: Euntes in mundum Universum, praedicantes evangelium [Marc. XVI, 15], vel quia
expellendi erant a Judaea, noverant se in gentibus dispergendos, Ecclesiamque congregan
dum ex rudi populo. Idcirco praedia in Judaeam minime sunt adepti, sed pretia tantummodo
ad fovendos egentes. At vero cum inter turbines et adversa mundi succresceret Ecclesia,
eo usque pervenit ut non solum
gentes, sed etiam Romani principes (qui pene totius orbis
monarchiam tenebant) ad fidem Christi et baptismi sacramenta concurrerent. Et quibus
vir religiossimus, Constantinus primus, fidem veritatis patenter adeptus, licentiam dedit
per Universum orbem suo degentes imperio non solum fieri Christianos, sed etiam fabricandas
ecclesias, et praedia tribuenda constituit. Denique idem praefatus princeps donaria im

mensa, et fabricam templi primae sedis beati principis apostolorum instituit, adeo ut sedem
imperialem, quam Romani principes possederant, relinqueret, et beato Petro suisque prae
'
sulibus profuturam concederet. See ed. Friedberg I 682 n. 218 for a list of the eleventh
and twelfth-century canonical collections that contained variations of this passage. It also
seems to have influenced the Liber de vita Christiana (ed. E. Perels; Berlin 1930) of Bonizo
of Sutri (ca. 1045-1096), although Bonizo showed a better historical understanding of how
the Church came to hold property. On his reference to Pope Urban I, see Claxton, 'On

82 TRADITIO
Church with the pre-Constantinian Church. According to the first, the Apostles
foresaw the expansion of the Church throughout the world. Therefore, they
did not build up landed estates in Judea, but rather supported their needs
through prayers and requests alone. In spite of adversity, the Church grew,
and not only the peoples of the world, but above all the Roman princes,
became Christian. Finally Constantine, the firstRoman prince, openly adhering
to the faith, permitted men throughout the Empire not only to become Chris
tians, but also to build churches and to receive landed property. He himself
donated an immense amount of land to the Church and constructed a church
for the successor of St. Peter at Rome. From that time the Church has had
possessions and landed property. The second chapter added that this develop
ment was only compatible with the ideal of the common life if these posses
sions were held in common and could not be alienated by individuals.
Although neither these nor other passages of the canon law and the writings
of the canonists express any distaste for the success of Christianity in the
Roman world resultant on the conversion
of Constantine, there is implicit
in the perspective of these two chapters a great concern over the integrity
of Christianity in a world which accepts her and makes her materially pros
perous. It is not surprising that in the twelfth century such moralists as
St. Bernard did go beyond this view of the canonists to develop a perspective
on the medieval Church that has lived until our own day. According to this
view, the primitive Church was the Church of the Apostles, living in evan
the Name of Urban n. 20) 489-95.

II' (supra The following passage, from 5, 17 (ed. Perels
203) is quoted and discussed

by Miccoli, 'Ecclesiae primitivae forma' (supra n. 6) 483:
'Omnibus, qui scripturas sacras legunt, credo notissimum, quod post Domini ascensionem
et post adventum Spiritus sancti paracliti apostolis necdum in orbe terrarum dispersis
multitudinis credentium in Iudea erat cor unum et anima una etc. Futuram enim ecclesiam
degentibus apostoli previdebant et se expellendos esse a Iudea sciebant et ideo in Iudea

ad fovendos maxime cum Dominus
predia non sunt adepti, set tantum pecuniam egentes,
eis precepissent dicens: "Ite in mundum Universum, predicate evangelium omni creaturae."
Romae vero temporibus Urbani pontificis tune primum cepit ecclesia
predia possidere.
Nam antea ad instar primitivae ecclesiae Romana ecclesia predia non suscipiebat, sed tan
tum pecuniam ad sustentandos egentes. . . Postquam vero Romani imperatores christianae
religioni se submisere, tune cepit ecclesia non solum predia et villas, set etiam civitates et
provincias et pene totum orbem possidere.' The version of the passage from the Collectio
Isidori Mercatoris included in the Decretum of Gratian was abridged by Gratian to about
one half length of the original
the Collectio passage, and omits the first sentence from
the Collectio text, thus emphasizing the association of the ecclesia primitiua with the whole
pre-Constantinian period, as opposed to only the period described in Acts 4:32 ff. (ed Fried
berg I 682): 'Futuram ecclesiam in gentibus apostoli preuidebant; idcirco predia in Iudea
minime sunt adepti, sed precia tantummodo ad fovendos egentes . . .' (from this point
Gratian omits some unnecessary words, but the rest of the section is almost the same as
that of the Collectio Isidori Mercatoris).

gelical poverty, and of the martyrs, refusing to be associated with the powers
of this world. With the appearance of Constantine and the Christianization
of the Empire, the Church became wealthy and made its peace with the
powers of this world. According to St. Bernard, by no longer struggling
against the world outside the Church, the powers of this world, of sin and
decay, were allowed to enter the Church.59 For, Bernard writes, in the primi
59 Bernard on the Song of Songs/

of Clairvaux, 'Sermons Sermon 33, ? 14 ff., Life and
Works of St. Bernard (4 vols., ed. J. Mabillon, tr. S. J. Eales; London 1896) IV 223-4. An
almost identical development of this idea of the primitive Church is found in several of
' '
the Sermons on the Song of Songs in the continuation of the work of St. Bernard by Gille
bertus de Hoilandia: see Sermon 10 ? 4; Sermon 13 ? 2; Sermon 34 ? 1; Sermon 38 ? 4;
Sermon ? 1; Sermon 45 ? 7 in PL
41 184. 58, 64, 177-78, 204, 214, 240. In the De conside
rations there occurs the only reference in Bernard's works to the Donation of Constantine.
Edouard Jordan, 'Dante et saint Bernard,' Bulletin du Jubil? (ed. Comit? Fran?ais Ca
tholique pour la c?l?bration du sixi?me centenaire de la mort de Dante Alighieri; Paris 1921)
267-330 at 299, has argued that this passage, in book four, is permanently enigmatic: see
Bernard, De consideratione 4. 3 (PL 182. 776; J. Leclercq and H. M. Rochais, edd., S. Ber
nardi Opera: Tractatus et opuscula [Rome 1963] 3. 453). P. De Vooght, 'Du De considera
tione de saint Bernard au De potestate papae de Wyclif,' Irenikon 25 (1953) 114-32 at 120,
on the other hand, has argued that the passage, with its depreciation of Constantine, traces
the worldliness of Bernard's own times to the new, non-Scriptural principles introduced
into the Church by the Donation. The scholarship on this problem has been
admirably
summarized 'The "De Consideratione. . ."
n. 1) 87 ff. Bernard's
by Kennan, (supra
use of the idea of the primitive Church not so much as a model of the perfect life as a polem
ical tool to attack practices of the present Church becomes very common in the twelfth
century: see Miccoli, 'Ecclesiae primitivae forma' (supra n. 6) 489-91. The contrast of
an austere primitive Church with a later Church, growing in wealth and declining in virtue,
is quite common: see Giraldus Cambrensis, De rebus a se gestis 2, 5 (ed. J. Brewer, Rolls
Series vol. 21 part 1, 51-2; London 1867). The contrast
between the austere pre-Constan
tinian Church and the post-Constantinian Church
declining in virtue goes back to patristic
times: see St. Jerome, Vita Malchi 23. 55),
(PL '. . . postquam ad Christianos principes
venerit, potentia quidem et divitiis maior, sed virtutibus minor facta sit.' On the impor
tance of this passage see Curtius, European Literature (supra n. 27) 410 n. 8; Ladner, Idea
of Reform (supra n. 1) 252 n. 57; and E. Seeberg, Gottfried Arnold: die Wissenschaft und
die Mystik seiner Zeit (Meerane 1923) 257 ff., 275 ff. Although not using the phrase ec
clesia primitiva, in the later-twelfth century a Florentine heretic, Diotesalvi, took a position
corollary to this view of the early Church when he declared that all the popes from the
time of Sylvester I, the bishop of Rome in the time of Constantine, were in hell. On this
and the influence of Diotesalvi in such towns of the Papal Patrimony as Orvieto and Viterbo
see AS, May 21, vol. 5, 86-99 and Horace Mann, Innocent III (The Lives of the Popes in
the Middle Ages, vol. 11, 2nd ed.; London 1925) 104. Otto of Freising, also not using the
phrase ecclesia primitiva, contrasted the poverty and humility of the Church before Con
stantine with its temporal power thereafter: The Two Cities (tr. Charles Mierow; New York
1928) Prologue of the Fourth Book, 271-4. In the thirteenth century, the Waldensians
and Joachites made this same contrast between the austere primitive Church and the later
more lax Christianity: see Bernard Gui, Manuel de l'inquisiteur (2 vols., ed. G. Mollat;

84 TRADITIO
tive Church the saints were slain by the persecutions. But then persecution
was stilled and the Church became illustrious and received worldly distinction.
The devil, frustrated by the failure of open persecution, turned to a much
more insidious form of attack. He raised up heretics, who were in turn put
down by the wisdom of the saints, just as the martyrs had formerly conquered
their persecutors. In his own day, Bernard continues, the Church is free from
these former enemies, but faces a contamination more universal than any
thing in the past. All seem friendly to her, and seem members of her house
hold; and yet all are really her enemies and are seeking their own interests.
Great splendor the Church has attained, and yet in the midst of this the
clergy traffic in benefices, the learned and the powerful have been seduced
by the devil, and only the simple and humble Christians remain to be led
astray. This historically naive view of the history of the Church, which was
of course to gather strength century by century, goes beyond the stated
views of the canonists, but more by way of completion of their thought than
by way of contradiction of it.60 For again and again the canonists stressed
Paris II 76-84, and also 88 for the use of the phrase ecclesia primitiva
1927) in another context.
Smalley, Study of the Bible (supra n. 4) 290-91 describes the division of history into four
ages by an anonymous Dominican writing about 1270. In this case the primitive Church
of the apostles and martyrs extended to Constantine, but was not considered morally superior
to the succeeding ages. Howard Kaminsky, A History of theHussite Revolution (Berkeley
and Los Angeles 1967) index under 'Primitive Church' has found that in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries the ideaof the primitive Church was used to refer to the pre-Con
stantinian Church. Indeed an examination of the Hussite use of the idea of the primitive
Church shows that almost every sense of the idea developed in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries existed in the fifteenth century. See also Howard Kaminsky, Dean Loy Bilder
back, Imre Boba, and Patricia Rosenberg, edd., Master Nicholas of Dresden: The Old Color
and theNew. Selected Works Contrasting thePrimitive Church and the Roman Church (Trans
actions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, vol. 55, part 1; Philadelphia 1965)
3-93. For the various ideas of the early Church in the Reformation, see in addition to See
berg, John Headley, Luther's view of Church History (New Haven and London 1963) esp.
106-94. This work contains much information on the idea of the early Church in the four
teenth through sixteenth centuries, but unfortunately is often not aware of the sources
of these ideas. See also Franklin Littell, The Anabaptist View of the Church (Boston 1958).
esp. 46-78.
60 On the still very common misunderstandings of the history of the Church during the
twelfth following centuries, due to the reliance by modern
and historians upon the writings
of such moralists as Bernard, see Barraclough, Papal Provisions (supra n. 2) 10-23; John
Yunck, 'Economic Conservatism, Papal Finance, and the Medieval Satires on Rome,'
Mediaeval Studies 23 (1961) 334-51; and Richard Vaughn, Matthew Paris (Cambridge 1958)
125-58. For some hesitations as to Barraclough's general views, however, see the introduc
tion to my doctoral thesis, which is being revised for publication, The Legal Definition
of the Ecclesiastical Benefice during the Period of the Appearance of Papal Provisioning
(1140-1230) (Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison 1965) 22-28. Much of

the differences in the Church before and after Constantine. for instance, Thus
Stephen of Tournai in trying to find the origin of divine law, which he defined
in several ways, sometimes as the equivalent of canon law, stated that the
origin had been variously traced.61 Some have said that the jus divinum
dates from Adam, some have said from Moses, but some have said from the
primitive Church. For when the persecutions ceased, Constantine and the
Fathers of the Church began to meet in Church councils and to enact canons
for the great diversity of ecclesiastical affairs they now faced. Though Stephen
would still date Constantine to the primitive Church, and as has been seen
above though some would continue the primitive Church down to the time
of Gregory I, with Constantine the essential change from simplicity to com
plexity and involvement in this world had taken place.
In concluding the definition of the idea of the primitive Church, the fol
lowing may be said by way of summary. The first known use of the term
dates from the fifth century, and occasional references to the idea may be
found in Merovingian documents. During the Carolingian period the idea,
used primarily to signify the ideals of the common and apostolic life, was
current among those groups interested in the reform of monastic and ca
nonical life. In the tenth century the term practically disappeared, but it
was widely revived in the middle of the eleventh century. From the time
of Gregory VII on, it was used to promote the ideals of monastic and ca
nonical
reform, and so remained associated primarily with the ideal of the
common life, either as an end in itself or as a basis for the performance of
the office of preaching. As men searched for right order in both political
and personal life, the idea was also associated with the search for the most
perfect form of the Christian life. The idea of the primitive Church became
so common by the middle of the twelfth century, however, that sometimes
it was found simply or mainly as an historical label used to describe the in
stitutions believed to have existed in the early Church. Very occasionally,
the accepted interpretation of the economic history of the medieval papacy seems to me
in need of extensive revision, because of excessive reliance by earlier generations of historians
on the testimony of medieval moralists, satirists, and writers committed to the cause of
nationalism. Besides Yunck, op. cit., see my article 'Italian Merchants and the Perfor
mance of Papal Banking Functions in the Early Thirteenth Century/ to be published in
a volume of Memorial Essays for Robert L. Reynolds, edited by Robert Lopez, Vsevolod
Slessarev, and David Herlihy. Although this last article is devoted to another topic, it
gives some notion of the materials which must be explored in order to obtain an idea of
what I believe will be found to be the relative poverty of the central government of the
Church, at least at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries.
61 Summa '
(ed. Schulte 1-2 Introductio'). See also the comments on this passage by
Carlyle and Carlyle, Political Theory (cit. supra n. 4) II 181.

86 TRADITIO
in this connection, the use of the idea implied that in the early Church Chris
tianity had not achieved the fullness of its development. The term ecclesia
primitiva most commonly referred to the apostolic Church of the New Tes
tament, but sometimes was extended to cover either the pre-Constantinian
Church or the whole patristic period. When so used, the idea often suggested
that the great divide in early Church history was the reign of the first Chris
tian Emperor, Constantine.
Seattle University


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THE IDEA OF THE "ECCLESIA PRIMITIVA" IN THE WRITINGS OF THE TWELFTH-CENTURY

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* I wish for a Faculty Research

Michigan University, March 15, 1968.

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cessarily in origin: see the studies of Eric John, Land

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became impassioned to restore the ancient discipline, to rediscover the ancient

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546-55, 'Le probl?me . . .'

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throughout the early Middle Ages.13

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references to the idea of the primitive Church.14 Seizing upon a passage of

14 The best introduction to Gassian is Owen John Cassian

1968). See also Dom

Preface, 5 to the Institutions

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nuersationis eorum professio. Eo enim feruore diuinarum scripturarum lectionibus ora

tionique et operi manuum diebus ac noctibus incubabant, ut ne escarum quidem adpetitus

nueniunt, ut hereditatem pietatis ac pacis etiam successoribus suis absolutam ab omni

3, 14): 'Itaque coenobiotarum disciplina a tempore praedicationis apostolicae sumpsit

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20 I 116-8). On the problem of the form of life practiced

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26 On this and the later

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priests, possessed Holy Orders.28 In stating that no one could be elected to

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both to be married and to remain in their ministry.33 Without himself ac

'casuistry/ 'the development of doctrine/ and 'progressive revelation/ It would be most

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termingling of concepts the 'Roman Church' and the 'apostolic Church'

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Tierney, Foundations of the Conciliar

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mother of all churches.47 However, the Norman Anonymous meant simply

122-32, 198-201, 256-7.

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Those in which the idea of the primitive Church was used in a

50 Bernardi Summa Decretalium

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Three after Gregory a contemporary of Roland, Anselm of

consanguineous marriages, which is of considerable interest.55 Commenting

[ed. Erich Caspar; Berlin is discussed, along with

Chenu, Nature, Man, and

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apostolic institutions, but he equally clearly associated the primitive Church

repudianda, sed diligenti ueneratione suscipienda. Consanguineorum ergo coniunctiones,

giendae, quia ecclesiasticis institutionibus inueniuntur terminatae.' For references to the

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The to be asked in defining the idea of the primitive Church

56 See for the text with 'Ecclesiae forma' n. 6)

principio nascentis Ecclesiae, discipulis in unum congregatis, cum multitudine credentium,

ecclesias, et praedia tribuenda constituit. Denique idem praefatus princeps donaria im

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the Name of Urban n. 20) 489-95.

203) is quoted and discussed

degentibus apostoli previdebant et se expellendos esse a Iudea sciebant et ideo in Iudea