John of Salisbury

Background

John was born in Old Sarum near Salisbury in 1120.

Education

In 1136 he began a career as student and then scholar in the schools of Paris (where he studied with Peter Abelard) and Chartres, then the center of humanistic studies of the arts and of the Latin classics. He became proficient in rhetoric, literary analysis, logic, and law, both ecclesiastical and Roman.

Career

In 1148 John probably entered the service of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, where he remained until 1150, when he went to Rome to assume a post of uncertain nature in the Papal Curia. From 1153 or 1154 he was again at Canterbury, as Theobald's private secretary. In 1159 John completed his first major work, Policraticus, or Statesman's Book. Policraticus was the first medieval study of the state and the prince; John's analyses of the conduct of good and bad princes testify to his understanding of the new power attained by centralized authority in the 12th century, thanks to the end of the Viking invasions and the development of stable feudal relationships.

The Metalogicon, written shortly after Policraticus, is a work of educational theory, assessing the role of the arts and defending them against narrow-minded critics. John utilized in Metalogicon the newly discovered works of Aristotle, which would dominate education in the following century.

About this time (1162), Thomas Becket, whom John had befriended while Becket was still chancellor of England, succeeded Theobald as archbishop. John sided with Becket in his controversy with Henry II of England and in 1164 went into voluntary exile because of his views. Early in 1170 he returned to England and was present at Becket's martyrdom on December 29. While in exile, he had written the Historia pontificalis (probably begun in 1164; Papal History), an unfinished but fascinating account of the papal court during the years 1148-1152.

John remained at Canterbury, at work on an unfinished biography of Becket, until 1176, when he was elected bishop of Chartres, an office he held until his death on October 25, 1180.

Achievements

• John of Salisbury is generally considered to have been the most cultured man of his day. He associated with great scholars, rulers, and churchmen, and his writings testify to the wide scope of his interests.

Works

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  • The Letters of John Salisbury: Volume I: The Early Letters (1153-1161) (Oxford Medieval Texts)

    (This unique collection of letters portrays the life and t...)

  • The Letters of John of Salisbury: Volume 2: The Later Letters (1163-1180) (Oxford Medieval Texts)

    (Edited with a facing-page translation from the Latin text...)

  • The Historia Pontificalis of John of Salisbury (Oxford Medieval Texts)

    (Edited and translated by: Chibnall, Marjorie;)

  • The Metalogicon of John of Salisbury: A Twelfth-Century Defense Of The Verbal And Logical Arts Of The Trivium

    (2015 Reprint of 1962 Edition. Full facsimile of the origi...)

  • John of Salisbury: Policraticus (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

    (John of Salisbury (c. 1115-1180) was the foremost politic...)

  • Anselm and Becket: Two Canterbury Saints' Lives (Mediaeval Sources in Translation)

    (John of Salisbury (d. 1180), a scholar, author and diplom...)

  • FRIVOLITIES OF COURTIERS AND FOOTPRINTS OF PHILOSOPHERS: BEING A TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD BOOKS AND SELECTIONS FROM THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH BOOKS OF THE POLICRATICUS OF JOHN OF SALISBURY
  • The Statesman's Book of John of Salisbury, Being the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Books and Selections from the Seventh and Eighth Books of the Policraticus. Translated Into English... By John Dickinson

Views

Quotations: "A man is free in proportion to the measure of his virtues, and the extent to which he is free determines what his virtues can accomplish. "

Personality

Charitable, honest, and reasonable, he appears in all his works as a model Christian humanist.

References

• John of Salisbury
• A Companion to John of Salisbury (Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition)
• John of Salisbury: Military Authority of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance (History of Warfare)
• The World of John of Salisbury