1. Conflict between
Christians and
Pagans revisited:
the modern
construction of
Christian Latin
literature
Dr. Francisco García-Jurado
Real Colegio Complutense
Harvard

2. When we evoke the past
• Benedetto Croce said that all History is
contemporary
• We evoke the past thanks to
Historiography
• We don’t realize we are building new
concepts to explain the past.

3. Historiography of
literature
• Modern construction of
concepts:
“Geschichte der
Römischen Litteratur”
(History of Roman Literature)
HISTORY + ROMAN +
LITERATURE
(F.A. Wolf 1787)

4. “Roman literature” (RL) is an
abstract concept
• “Roman authors” (as the result of adding
several authors: author + author + …)
• “Roman literature” (as a whole: It is
possible to establish the concept a priori)

5. RL is not a “natural concept”
• “Green tree”, for instance, is not equivalent
to RL:
• “Roman literature” (language = nation)
or
• “History of Roman literature”
(this complex concept implies History as a
method and the concept of Nation)

6. Moderns languages 1
Modern languages (specially German)
assume the role of giving new names to
the different disciplines:
“History of Roman Literature” (since 1787)
“Renaissance” (ca. 1850)
New meanings of “Classical” (/ “Romantic”):
“Classical philology” (/ “Modern philology”)
“Classical tradition” (since 1872)

7. Modern languages 2
• First in German, then in French:
-”Geschichte der Römische Litteratur”
-”Histoire de la littérature romaine”

8. The contents of Roman Literature
• What must we do with:
a) Christian authors?
b) Mediaeval authors?
c) Renaissance authors?
– Politics and literature

9. Christian Roman Literature (CRL)
or Christian Latin Literature (CLL)?
• CRL would not be possible without two previous
concepts: “Roman Literature” and “Decadence”.
• New problems:
-What is the relationship between CRL and
“Patrology” (since this last exists since the 17th
Century)?
-What kind of abstraction is implied when we say
that a Literature is “Christian”? A national
literature?

10. Between Pagans and Christians
• What kind of relationship can be established
between (Pagan) Roman Literature (RL)
and Christian Roman Literature (CRL)?:
-Is CRL part of RL? Is it a different concept?
-Are Christians and Roman Decadence
related?

11. Ideology and
aesthetics about
CRL
• Ideology: Christianism
vs. Paganism in 19th
Century. Chateaubiand or
Gaume vs. Michelet or
Burckhardt. Middle Ages
vs. Renaissance
• Aesthetics: Mediaeval
Art vs. Classical Art
(Ruskin vs. Pater).
“Decadence” and
modern literature:
Baudelaire, Gourmont,
Huysmams

12. Decadence of
Latin language
Decadence of Latin
Language is related to
the idea of Decadence
of the Roman Empire
(Gibbon, Montesquieu).
Funccius (1736), today
unknown, is the KEY to
understand this facts:

13. HISTORIOGRAPHIC MYTHS
• Why do we say
“Decadence”?
• Decadence or
“Evolution”?
• Is Decadence bad?
• Can “Decadence” be
a synonym of
“freedom”?
• “Decadence” or “Late
Antiquity”?

14. The complex construction of
“Christian Latin Literature” (CLL) as
a concept
• Christian Roman Authors in RL (Wolf, Harles, Schöll)
(1787-1815)
• “Christian Roman Literature” (CRL) as an appendix
of RL (Bähr, Teuffel). More about Decadence
(Nisard) (1834-1868)
• “Christian Latin Literature” (CLL) as the origin of
Mediaeval Literature (Ebert) (1874-1883)
• Christian Literature and Modern Decadents: “Latin
mystique” (1884-1892)
• “Early Christian Latin Literature” (ECLL) as an
independent field of study (Gudeman) (1897-1925)

15. Christian Roman Authors in RL
(Wolf, Harles, Schöll)
• In the first History of
Roman Literature (Wolf’s
Geschichte) there is no
reference to CRL as a
matter of study.
• It is possible to find
Christian authors among
pagans.
• Wolf wanted to be
“Philologiae studiosus”
and not “Theologiae”

16. Christian Roman Authors in RL
(Wolf, Harles, Schöll)
• Harles does not write about CRL in his
Brevior notitia Litteraturae Romanae
(1789), but Christians appear as one of
the reasons for the Decadence of RL:
Litterae praecipites ruunt, potissimum ob intestina bella,
praemiorum raritatem, superstitionem etiam doctorum
christianorum, barbarorum irruptionem et comfluxum
peregrinorum (p. 197)

17. Christian Roman Authors in RL
(Wolf, Harles, Schöll)
• Frédéric Schöll writes
about “Ecrivains
ecclésiastiques” in his
Histoire abrégé de la
litterature romaine
(1815), just at the
end, when Latin
language declines.
• Influences of
Funccius are evident.

18. Chateaubriand and the
Christians
“(…) through the fathers of the Church and
the ecclesiastical writers, Tertullian,
Cyprian, Ambrosius, Hilary of Poitiers,
Paulinus, Augustin, Jerome, Salvienus;
through the apologists, Lactantius,
Arnobius, Minutius Felix; through the
panegyrists, Eumenes, Mamertinus,
Nazairius; through the historians of the
decline, Ammianus Marcellinus and the
biographers of the august history; through
the poets of the decline and fall, Ausonius,
Claudian, Rutilius, Sidonius Apollinaris,
Prudentius, Fortunatus; (…)”
Influences of Funccius as well

19. Politics and History
• European Restoration vs. Liberalism
since 1815
• Christianity and Middle Age are seen by
Conservatives as a paradigm
(Chateaubriand or Gaume)
• Renaissance and Illustration is the
paradigm for liberals (Jules Michelet)

20. Desiré Nisard and Décadence
• Golden century of RL
against Decadence
• “Decadent poets”,
since Lucanus to
Baudelaire
• “Decadence” as an
unexpected form of
Modernity

21. “Christian Roman
Literature” (CRL)
as an appendix of
RL (Bähr, Teuffel).
• Relationships
between RL and CRL

22. Benhardy (1930)
• “Lateinischen Kirchenväter” (Latini
Patres Ecclesiae)
• Christian Latin authors (“Lateinischen
Kirchenväter”) do not belong to Roman
national literature (!!)

23. Bähr (1836)
A new name implies new
ideas:
“Die christlich-
römische Literatur”
• Christian + RL
• CRL as appendix of RL

24. Teuffel: Christians as a part of RL
• Christian Roman
Literature (CRL)
cannot be excluded of
RL.
• CRL is a branch of RL
since the 2nd
Century.

25. “Christian Latin Literature” as the
beginning of Mediaeval Literature
(Ebert)
• A New name:“Christlich Lateinische
Literatur” (CLL)
• “La littérature chrétienne latine est donc
envisagée ici en tant qu’elle nous fait
comprendre la littérature du moyen âge, et
comme une partie de cette littérature”
(Préface p. III)

26. From Roman Literature to
Weltliteratur
• Roman Literature – Christian Roman Literature
CRL as a National literature
Christian Latin Literature – Middle Age
CLL as European literature
It reminds of Curtius´ Europaische Literature und
Lateinisches Mittelalter
The role of Christianity in European Culture

27. Pagans
against
Christians
Classical literature vs. Christian literature
Renaissance literature vs. Mediaeval literature
A CONCEPTUAL BATTLE

28. Christian Literature
and Modern
Decadents
Le latin mystique (1892) by Rémy de Gourmont
and À rebours (1884) by Joris Karl Huysmans:
• A new approach to Christian language and
literature
The new aesthetics of the “Christian and Church
Latin”: “Decadence” is positive, not academic

29. “Early Christian Latin Literature” as
an new field of study: from
Decadence to Late Antiquity
Alfred Gudeman,
Geschichte der
altchristlichen lateinischen
literatur vom 2-6
jahrhundert, Berlin und
Leipzig, 1925
It was translated into Spanish
by Pascual Galindo Romeo
in 1928

30. A new
Century:
new
problems
• Gudeman died in the Theresienstadt concentration
camp. Some of his last manuscripts were acquired
by Columbia University and they remain still
unpublished .

31. Conclusions
• The construction of “Christian Latin
Literature”:
• Without specific name (1787)
• Christian Roman Literature CRL (1836)
• Christian Latin Literature CLL (1874)
• Early Christian Latin Literature ECLL
(1925)

32. Conclusions 2
• CLL goes
-From Theology to Philology
-From Roman Literature to Mediaeval
Literature
-From Decadence to Late Antiquity

33. Credits
• Prof. Dr. Francisco García Jurado
• Dpto. Filología Latina
• Facultad de Filología
• Universidad Complutense
• CIUDAD UNIVERSITARIA E-28049
Madrid
• http://www.ucm.es/info/hlge/indexeng.php