Origen and the History of Justification: The Legacy of Origen's Commentary on Romans

Chapter 4: William of St. Thierry’s Reception of Origen’s Exegesis of Romans

104 Chapter 4 William of St. Thierry’s Reception of Origen’s Exegesis of Romans The Medieval Landscape In the Middle Ages the stage was set for a favorable reception of Origen’s Pauline exegesis, to begin with, when St. Jerome (d. 420) had sanctioned it by integrating a substantial portion of it into his own. This certainly applies to Jerome’s commentaries on Ephesians,1 Galatians, and Philemon .2 Jerome never wrote a commentary on Romans, but it does not seem unjustified to suggest that a primary reason for this was that Rufinus ’s Latin translation of Origen’s CRm left Jerome with little to say.3 In addition to the example of Jerome, Cassiodorus (490–583), in his Institutiones , upon reaching the book of Romans, named Origen’s CRm as the first work to be recommended for those for whom he is indicating the ecclesiastical authors who can provide the safest guidance for understanding the individual books of the Bible: “Of [the epistles of] Saint Paul the first of all and the one destined to be more admired is known as the one ‘to the Romans,’ which Origen clarified in twenty books in the Greek language; which however the above-mentioned Rufinus translated very eloquently into Latin, reducing it to ten books.”4 This recommendation is very significant, since it comes from a man who was a vigorous oppo- nent of all heresies,5 and who was enormously influential for subsequent monasticism.6 Theologians during the Middle Ages essentially followed Jerome’s example and implemented Cassiodorus’s advice. To give a few samples, Notker the Stammerer (840–912) wrote, “On the Epistle to the Romans, Origen wrote many wonderful things.”7 This was recorded in a work in which he compiled a catalogue of the main theologians, to which he gave the following title: “Observations on the illustrious men who made a careful exposition of Sacred Scripture and gave opportune explanations of certain decisions on the part of divine authority.”8 The Glossa Ordinaria, a twelfth-century compilation of scriptural glosses traditionally attributed to Walafrid Strabo, cites Origen’s CRm on Rom 3.3, 4.15, and 8.3, though the influence is more extensive than these explicit citations.9 Origen’s work was also consulted by such Latin theologians as Peter Lombard, Bonaventure , and Thomas Aquinas.10 It is woven into the fabric of Peter Abelard’s Commentary on Romans.11 And in his study of the history of interpretation of Rom 1.17, Denifle found it noteworthy and significant that the two Western Scripture scholars who used Origen’s CRm very extensively were Sedulius Scottus (eighth–ninth centuries)12 and Augustinus Favaroni of Rome (1360–1443).13 This irenic usage of Origen’s Pauline exegesis during the Middle Ages suggests that the clouds of suspicion that hung elsewhere over Origen’s orthodoxy did not render suspect his CRm. As an exegete of Paul, he was normally cited as a Catholic authority of good faith.14 Introduction to William of St. Thierry’s Exposition on Romans This chapter will investigate in some detail the use of Origen’s CRm in the Exposition on Romans written by William of St. Thierry (1085–1148).15 William was a Cistercian16 monk and former Benedictine abbot whose Exposition is the only surviving Cistercian commentary on Romans from the twelfth century.17 The author became abbot of the monastery of St. Thierry at the age of thirty-four.18 He began the commentary at St. Thierry and completed it at Signy.19 William has been described as “one of the most attractive personalities of the twelfth century, one of its most profound and original spiritual thinkers, and perhaps its most outstanding theologian .”20 William borrows massively from the Origen-Rufinus commentary William of St. Thierry’s Reception of Origen’s Exegesis of Romans 105 in his own Exposition on Romans, in what amounts to copying, summarizing , amplifying, adapting, and plagiarizing.21 William was both an admirer of Origen’s exegetical abilities and a man completely committed to the Augustinian doctrines of original sin, grace, and predestination. The promise of this examination, then, is to offer a concrete example of how a medieval Augustinian theologian was able to receive Origen’s Pauline exegesis. William’s Exposition on Romans has been described as a monastic text from beginning to end. Anderson, the...