Authors/John of Salisbury/Metalogicon/Liber 1/Caput 3

Chapter 3

Latin	English
CAP. III. Quando, qualiter et a quibus fuerit institutus?	CHAPTER 3. When, how, and by whom Cornificius was educated.
Ego quidem omnino non miror si credulos auditores suos, multa mercede conductus et multo tempore aerem verberans, docuit nihil scire: cum et ipse sic [0828C] edoctus sit a magistris. Siquidem non facundus, sed verbosus, et sine fructu sensuum, verborum folia in ventum continve profert. Ea tamen est cautela hominis, cum aeque omnium dicta vituperet, ut in astruenda sua, aut aliena sententia destruenda, nunquam manum conserat, ratione nunquam innitatur, nunquam sustineat congredi in campo Scripturarum: nescio quid arduum et ignotum omnibus sapientibus, tumenti ventosi pulmonis folle concepit: unde alicui respondere, aut patienter audire quempiam, dedignatur.	I am not at all surprised that Cornificius, although he has been hired at a high price, and has been thrashing the air for a long time, has taught his credulous listeners to know nothing. For this was the way in which he himself was "untaught" by his own masters. Verbose, rather than eloquent, he is continually tossing to the winds verbal leaves that lack the fruit of meaning. On the one hand, he assails with bitter sarcasm the statements of everyone else, without any concern as to who they may be, in the effort to establish his own views and overthrow the opinions of others. On the other hand, he carefully shuns engaging in hand-to-hand combat, and avoids basing his arguments on reason or consenting to walk together in the field of the scriptures.Really, I cannot imagine what extraordinary thmg, hidden from all the wise, Cornificius has conceived in the swollen bellows of his windy lungs, wherefore he disdains to answer or to listen with patience to anyone else.
Si enim quidlibet proposueris, ille conviciabitur, aut ridebit. Si, ut ille propositum probet, exspectas, dilatio necessaria est; ut, cum dies cesserit, tu exspectationis fructu fraudaberis, eo quod margaritas suas, porcis alienis, ut ait, non [0828D] vult esse communes. Fabellis tamen et nugis, suos pascit interim auditores; quos, sine artis beneficio, si vera sunt quae promittit, faciet eloquentes, et tramite compendioso sine labore, philosophos. Nam et ipse accepit a doctoribus, quod nunc discipulis tradit, eosque sic instituit, sicut et ipse institutus est. Discipulos ergo in philosophia sibi faciet coaequales.	No matter what proposition is advanced, he rejects it as false, or laughs it to scorn. If you expect him to prove his propositions, he puts you off. and when the day has ended, you find you have been defrauded of what you were awaiting. For he does not want to cast his pearls, so he says, before strange swine. Meanwhile he pastures his [sheepish] listeners on fictions and foibles. He boasts that he has a shortcut whereby lie will make his disciples eloquent without the benefit of any art, and philosophers without the need of any work. He himself learned from his own teachers what he is today passing on to his pupils. He is ladling out the very same kind of instruction that he himself received. He will make his disciples his equals in philosophy.
Quid multa? nonne sic perfecti erunt, iuxta illud Evangelii: Discipulus omnis perfectus est, si sit sicut magister eius? (Luc. VI.) Eo autem tempore ista Cornificius didicit, quae nunc docenda reservat, audienda quidem felicibus, et, ut dici solet, auribus Iovis, quando in liberalibus disciplinis, littera nihil erat, et ubique spiritus quaerebatur, qui, ut [0829A] aiunt, latet in littera. Hylam esse ab Hercule, validum scilicet argumentum, a forti et robusto argumentatore potestates vocalium, quinque iura regnorum; et in hunc modum docere omnia, studium illius aetatis erat. Insolubilis in illa philosophantium schola tunc temporis quaestio habebatur, an porcus, qui ad Venalitium agitur, ab homine, an a funiculo teneatur. Item, an capucium emerit, qui cappam integram comparavit.	What more [could they wish] ? Will they not thus, in accordance with the saying, be perfect ? Do we not read in the Gospel: "Every disciple who becomes like his master is perfect?" What he now teaches, Cornincius learned at a time when there was no "letter"ai in liberal studies, and everyone sought "the spirit," which, so they tell us, lies hidden in the letter. He has carefully preserved this, to be heard only by the fortunate and by "the ears of Jove*' (as the saying goes)." When Cornificius went to school, it was a dominant principle that "Hercules begets Hyllus":namely, that the strength and vigor of the disputant add up to a valid argument, and that sovereignty resides in the five vowel sounds. At that time this was considered the proper way to teach everything. The philosophers of that day argued interminably over such questions as whether a pig being taken to market is held by the man or by the rope; and whether one who buys a whole cape also simultaneously purchases the hood.
Inconveniens prorsus erat oratio, in qua haec verba, conveniens, et inconveniens argumentum, et ratio non perstrepebat multiplicatis particulis negativis et traiectis per esse, et non esse, ita ut calculo opus esset, quoties fuerat disputandum, Alioquin vis affirmationis et negationis erat incognita. [0829B] Nam plerumque affirmationis vim habet geminata negatio, itemque vis negatoria ab impari numero convalescit. Siquidem negatio plerumque iterata, se ipsam perimit; et contradictioni, sicut regulariter proditum est, coaequatur.	Speech in which the words "consistent" and "inconsistent," "argument" and "reason'1 did not resound, with negative particles multiplied and transposed through assertions of existence and non-existence,21 was entirely unacceptable. So true was this that one had to bring along a counter whenever he went to a disputation, if he was to keep apprized of the force of affirmation or negation. For generally a double negative is equivalent to affirmation, whereas the force of a negation is increased if it is repeated an uneven number of times. At the same time, a negation repeated over and over usually loses its effect, and becomes equivalent to contradiction, as we find stated in the rules.
Ut ergo, pari loco an impari versetur, deprehendi queat, ad disceptationes, collectam fabam et pisam deferre, quae conveniebatur, consilio prudenti consueverat; ita quidem si intellectui rerum, quae videbantur in quaestione versari, operam dabat. Sufficiebat ad victoriam verbosus clamor, et qui undecunque aliquid inferebat, ad propositi perveniebat metam. Poetae, historiographi, habebantur infames, et si quis incumbebat laboribus antiquorum, notabatur, et non modo asello Arcadiae tardior, sed obtusior [0829C] plumbo vel lapide, omnibus erat in risum. Suis enim, aut magistri sui quisque incumbebat inventis. Nec hoc tamen diu licitum; cum ipsi auditores in brevi coerrantium impetu urgerentur, ut et ipsi, spretis his, quae a doctoribus suis audierant, cuderent et conderent novas sectas.	In order, therefore, to discriminate between instances of even and uneven numbers, it was then the custom of those who had prudent foresight to bring a bag of beans and peas to disputations as a reasonable expedient. Even though one might try to get to the root of a question, noisy verbosity would suffice to win the victory, regardless of the kind of arguments advanced. Poets who related history were considered reprobate, and if anyone applied himself to studying the ancients, he became a marked man and the laughingstock of all. For he was deemed both slower than a young Arcadian ass, and duller than lead or stone. Everyone enshrined his own and his master's inventions. Yet even this situation could not abide. Students were soon swept along in the current, and, like their fellows in error, came to spurn what they had learned from their teachers, and to form and found new sects of their own.
Fiebant ergo summi repente philosophi; nam qui illitteratus accesserat, fere non morabatur in scholis ulterius, quam eo curriculo temporis, quo avium pulli plumescunt.	Of a sudden, they blossomed forth as great philosophers. Those newly arrived in school, unable to read or write, hardly stayed there any longer than it takes a baby bird to sprout its feathers.
Itaque recentes magistri e scholis, et pulli volucrum e nidis, sicut pari tempore morabantur, sic pariter avolabant. Sed quid docebant novi doctores, et qui plus somniorum, quam vigiliarum, in scrutinio philosophiae consumpserant, et [0829D] facilius instituti, quam illi iuxta narrationes fabulosas, qui somniantes in Parnasso, repente vates progrediebantur, aut citius quam ii qui de Castalio Fonte Musarum munus hauriebant poeticum; aut quam illi qui, viso Phoebo, Musarum, nedum musicorum. meruerunt ascribi consortio? Nunquid rude aliquid, aut incultum, nunquid aliquid vetustum aut obsoletum? Ecce nova fiebant omnia, innovabatur grammatica, immutabatur dialectica, contemnebatur rhetorica: et novas totius quadrivii vias, evacuatis priorum regulis, de ipsis philosophiae adytis proferebant. Solam convenientiam sive rationem loquebantur, argumentum sonabat in ore omnium, et asinum nominare, vel hominem, aut aliquid operum naturae, instar criminis erat, aut ineptum [0830A] nimis, aut rude, et a philosopho alienum, impossibile credebatur convenienter, et ad rationis normam quidquam dicere aut facere, nisi convenientis et rationis mentio expressim esset inserta.	Then the new masters, fresh from the schools, and fledglings, just leaving their nests, flew off together, after having stayed about the same length of time in school and nest. These "fresh-baked" doctors had spent more hours sleeping than awake in their study of philosophy, and had been educated with less expenditure of effort than chose who, according to mythology, after sleeping on [Mount] Parnassus immediately became prophets. They had been trained more rapidly than those who after imbibing from the Castalian Fountain of the Muses, directly obtained the gift of poetry;30 or those who, after setting eyes on Apollo, merited not only to be classed as musicians, hut even to be accepted into the company of the Muses. What, now, did they teach? How could they allow anything to remain crude and unpolished, old and obsolete? Behold, all things were renovated. Grammar was [completely] made over; logic was remodeled; rhetoric was despised. Discarding the rules of their predecessors, they brought forth new methods for the whole Quadrivium from the innermost sanctuaries*" of philosophy. They spoke only of "consistence" or "reason," and the word "argument" was on the lips of all. To mention "an ass," "a man," or any of the works of nature was considered a crime, or improper, crude, and alien to a philosopher. It was deemed impossible to say or do anything "consistently" and "rationally," without expressly mentioning "consistence" and "reason."
Sed nec argumentum fieri licitum, nisi praemisso nomine argumenti. Ex arte et de arte agere idem erat. Docebunt hi forte, quod poeta versifice nihil dicet, nisi cognominet versum, quod faber lignarius scamnum facere nequeat, nisi scamnum aut lignum volvat in ore. Inde ergo haec sartargo loquendi in qua senex insulsus exsultat, insultans eis qui artium venerantur auctores, eo quod nihil utilitatis in eis reperit, cum se eis dare operam simularet.	Not even an argument was admitted unless it was prefaced by its name. To act with reference to an art and according to the act were (for them) the same. They would probably teach that a poet cannot write poetry unless he at the same time names the verse he is using; and that the carpenter cannot make a bench unless he is simultaneously forming on his lips the word "bench" or "wooden scat/'3* The result is this hodgepodge of verbiage,™ reveled in by a foolish old man, who rails at those who respect the founders of the arts, since he himself could see nothing useful in these arts when he was pretending to study them.