The Consolation of Philosophy - Part I

A Medieval Source Review (MSR)

It’s taken me a long time to write this MSR. Firstly, because Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy moved me in such a way that a year after reading it I’m still chewing on it. Secondly, because I hesitate to distill it into a single post written by a novice. I just can’t cover everything I want to or accurately convey its profoundness. I’ve tried for months to fit everything into a single post. But I just can’t. So, this Medieval Source Review will be a two-part series. Sorry, not sorry. In this post I will introduce you to my man Boethius and his Consolation. Then I’ll do another post going into detail on each of the five books it contains.

“You cannot impose anything on a free mind, and you cannot move from its state of inner tranquility a mind at peace with itself and firmly founded on reason.”¹

The Consolation of Philosophy is a brilliant work written in the mid-sixth century by a Roman named Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 480-524). It’s considered a philosophical work, but to me, it is so much more! The Consolation was so profound that it became required reading for a medieval education, from secular rulers to monks and priests, they all studied it. This means we cannot underestimate its significance in molding the medieval mind. If you want to better understand how medievalists thought, read the Consolation. C.S. Lewis said, “Until about two hundred years ago it would, I think, have been hard to find an educated man in any European country who did not love it. To acquire a taste for it is almost to become naturalized in the Middle Ages.”²

AUTHOR & HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Boethius was a scholar and politician in the Ostrogothic court in Italy. For those unfamiliar with them…the Ostrogoths were one of the “barbarian” (aka Germanic, post-Roman) groups that settled and established their own kingdom after the western Roman Empire withdrew/fell/declined/waned (this is not the post to debate semantics; you can read more about this in my 5th Century & 6th Century essays). Boethius was Roman, an aristocrat, a scholar, and a Christian, who grew up during a time when one empire was waning and new kingdoms were replacing it. It was a clash of peoples, cultures, beliefs, laws, customs, and identities. There was much upheaval and instability. This troubled Boethius. He had a grand and noble vision of translating the knowledge of the Greeks into Latin so that it could feed and illuminate the minds of his own time. He felt it was important for him to ensure this knowledge would continue into the medieval world to help guide them. For example, it is thanks to him we have the term quadrivium (composing the four mathematical areas: geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music). His translations and treatises on these subjects became the textbooks used in the Middle Ages. He was known as “the last of the Romans, the first of the Scholastics.” He dreamt of translating all of Aristotle and Plato’s works from Greek to Latin. Supposedly, he was one of the last to be able to translate Ancient Greek, so when he died, those great works were lost until about the twelfth century. The idea of that just baffles me.

As I mentioned, Boethius lived in the Ostrogothic kingdom of King Theodoric I. Though he was a scholar at heart, he became a favorite of Theodoric’s and rose higher and higher in his court, becoming a consul (a highly influential role) in 510 AD. He then became magister officiorum, then head of the civil service and chief of palace officials. In his Consolation, Boethius insists that his rise was not due to ambition, greed, or prestige. He was simply doing his duty. It was a noble calling he answered whole heartedly. Even though King Theodoric was known to bring peace between the Romans and Goths in his kingdom, there was still tension below the surface and Theodoric was perhaps a little insecure of his position on the map. He didn’t get to the throne in the most legitimate of ways (I will get into his story in more detail in another post, it makes for some good entertainment!). So when another Roman senator, Albinus, was caught colluding in some way through letters to Constantinople (the Eastern Empire) and Boethius simply dismissed the evidence as false, Theodoric saw it as a betrayal; Boethius must have been loyal to the Eastern Empire and not to him. Suddenly Boethius was a part of the scandal; he was arrested, condemned, and sent into exile in 523 AD. Boethius laments his wrongful imprisonment in his Consolation, writing them while he awaited his execution, where he was brutally tortured and killed in 524 AD.

“When wickedness rules and flourishes, not only does virtue go unrewarded, it is even trodden underfoot by the wicked and punished in the place of crime. That this can happen in the realm of an omniscient and omnipotent God who wills only good, is beyond perplexity and complaint.”

THE BASICS

The Consolation is a dialogue between the grieving Boethius and Lady Philosophy (the physical female embodiment of philosophy herself…which I just love). It’s a dance between prose and poetry as he bemoans his despairing situation and she reminds him of what matters, redirecting his downcast gaze upward to pursue higher things.

Divided into five books, Boethius and Lady Philosophy parry back and forth over several quite large existential questions: what to do with fortune (gained and lost), what is true happiness, vice versus virtue, good versus evil, whether the world is built upon chaos or order, providence versus fate…you know, just a few light discussions, nothing you can’t easily solve in an afternoon while awaiting your execution. It is his quest in answering these questions that allows him to rise above his predicament, his soul ascending higher.

“I will show you the path that will bring you back home. I will give your mind wings on which to lift itself; all disquiet shall be driven away and you will be able to return safely to your homeland. I will be your guide, your path and your conveyance.”

The Consolation is hard to label and compartmentalize. At face value, one would say it is a philosophical treatise written by a man attempting to find consolation in the philosophical axioms he had studied and translated over the course of his life. A quote from The Count of Monte Cristo comes to mind. “Philosophy cannot be taught. Philosophy is the union of all acquired knowledge and the genius that applies it: philosophy is the shining cloud upon which Christ set his foot to go up into heaven,” said by the beloved Abbé Faria to Edmund Dantes while in prison. Hmmm…another wrongfully accused man imprisoned and being consoled by a personified version of philosophy & wisdom (can I say Abbé Faria is like Lady Philosophy?). I digress, sorry. Others like to point out Boethius’ Christian belief and find elements of his religion in the Consolation, claiming it isn’t strictly philosophical, while others argue there are no Christian elements, but rather, Neoplatonic references. The debate is ongoing. No one can seem to agree on just what exactly Boethius’ agenda was or what he wanted to accomplish through it.

His vision of a canon of Ancient Greek wisdom accessible to the medieval world wasn’t realized. But I think once he knew that wasn’t a possibility, he did the next best thing. He wrote his Consolations. In it, he references Aristotle’s Physics and Plato’s Timaeus and Republic. Lady Philosophy references the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. He utilizes Cicero’s wheel of fortune and includes quite a few mentions of the Ancient Greek myths. There are also hints to biblical references and much mention of God (but again, it is debated on if these are Platonic/Neoplatonic references to the Divine or to the Christian God).

“But is there room in this chain of close-knit causes for any freedom of the will? Or does the chain of Fate bind even the impulses of the human mind?”

I wonder what Beowulf (who believed we are all beholden to fate) would say to this?!

For me, there is no debate on what Boethius was doing. In our attempts to understand something, we like to categorize and label things. So it’s tempting to try to find a place for Boethius, whether in the classical antiquity philosophy box or the Christian humanism box, or some other box. But in my understanding, albeit a novice one, this doesn’t work. From my studies of sixth-century writers and the context of their world, I’ve come to understand it was a time of transformation where there was more of a blending of identities, rather than a distinction between them. Therefore, it’s entirely feasible for Boethius—a Christian, classically trained, raised as Roman aristocracy, living in the Ostrogothic court—to create a work that was a blending of elements. It makes sense to me that he would dip into all of those differing pools of knowledge to find solace and understanding of his experiences and the world around him. And to intentionally fuse it all together to leave a legacy, a statement, that he deeply felt the medieval world would need. He crafted a brilliantly clever work that encompasses it all! He passed on the ancient wisdom of a world lost to the newly budding medieval one. Essentially, he was a bridge between two worlds.

“Reason belongs only to the human race, just as intelligence belongs only to divinity.”

SIGNIFICANCE & INFLUENCE

It is fitting that his Consolation became a consolation to the medieval mind. Many great leaders, thinkers, and writers saw the value in his work, translated it into their vernacular languages and passed on his legacy in their own writing. King Alfred, Queen Elizabeth, and Chaucer translated it. Dante actually placed Boethius in his Paradise. Chaucer’s discussions on fate come directly from Boethius. References to the Consolation can be found in Aquinas, Shakespeare, Milton, and so many more. Without him, I think the Middle Ages would have looked different. I love the way Edward Gibbon describes the Consolation as “…a golden volume not unworthy of the leisure of Plato or Tully, but which claims incomparable merit from the barbarism of the times and the situation of the author.”³

There is so much more to discuss about Boethius, the Consolation, and the historical context I wish I could have gone into. Hopefully I will write more on them in the future! In the meantime, I will post the second part of this review tomorrow and go into detail on each of the five books in the Consolation!

"Alas, what wretched ignorance leads
    Mankind from the path astray!
Who looks on spreading boughs for gold,
    On vines for jewels gay?
What man sets nets on mountain-tops
    For feasts of rich sea-food?
What huntsman has the wild goat
    Upon the sea pursued?
The very ocean's depths men know
    Beneath the waves so high;
They know which strand is rich with pearls,
    Which shores with purple dye;
They know the bays for tender fish,
    For shellfish where to try.
But in their blindness they do not know
    Where lies the good they seek:
That which is higher than the sky
    On earth below they seek.
What can I wish you foolish men?
    Wealth and fame pursue,
And when great toil wins false reward,
    Then may you see the true!"

RESOURCES & FURTHER READING

1. Consolation of Philosophy (Penguin Classic; translated by Watts), this is the version I have

2. Consolation of Philosophy (translated by Slavitt)

3. The Discarded Image, C.S. Lewis

4. Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology, and Philosophy, by Henry Chadwick

5. King Alfred’s Translation of Boethius’ Consolation

6. The Alfredian Boethius Project at The University of Oxford

1. All pulled quotes come from The Consolation of Philosophy, Penguin Classic, translated by Victor Watts.

2. The Discarded Image, C.S. Lewis, p 75

3. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon, Ch 39.