* H UMI L ITY AN D TH E SACRAME NTS O F FAITH I N W I L L I AM O F SAI NT-TH I E RR Y ' S SPECULUM FIDEI 1 good Like his great and friend Bemard of Clai:rvaux, Willimn of Saint-Thiercy was endcMed with a prodigious to ability assimilate and to own make his ideas and expressions borrowed from many different ces. Indeed, a certain amount of William 's literacy out-put consists of little nnre than patristic and biblical exoe:rpts to strtmg together so as fonn sane kind of a coherent The whole. De sacramento aUaris, for instance, ends with a to of such texts used by William florilegiwn undergird his own preceding treatise.2 So also, two of his ries on The Song of Songs, consisting respectively of texts J the by Ambrose and Gregm::y Great, oontributed massively 4 to his later and highly original Exposi tio altera super to Cantica Canticorwn; 5 and in the prologue his Expositio in ad William describes his role Epistolam Romanos, 6 as author-cnmpiler in tenns of a bird with borrowed 'plumage: if the ginal owners of the feathers were to demand back their be plumage, William would one bare little bird without a own.7 feather of his But even when William is less explicit as regards his sources, the knowledgeable reader is aware that whole paragraphs are sanet:i.mas cribbed straight from Augustine; or that William must have written this or that copy him folio with his of Gregocy of Nyssa open before on his work-des 8 and Etienne Gilson claims (a bit far-fetchedly, pe:rhaps) to that, the really perceptive ear, there are echoes of be Pseudo-Deni;> to found even in William 's literacy style.9 At times, one even has the impression that William of Saint-Thiercy is imitating William of
* H UMI L ITY AN D TH E SACRAME NTS O F FAITH I N W I L L I AM O F SAI NT-TH I E RR Y ' S SPECULUM FIDEI 1 Like his great and good friend Bemard of Clai:rvaux, Willimn of Saint-Thiercy was endcMed with a prodigious ability to assimilate and to make his own ideas and expressions borrowed from many different ces. Indeed, a certain amount of William 's literacy out-put consists of little nnre than patristic and biblical exoe:rpts strtmg together so as to fonn sane kind of a coherent whole. The De sacramento aUaris, for instance, ends with a florilegiwn of such texts used by William to undergird his own preceding treatise.2 So also, two of his ries on The Song of Songs, consisting respectively of texts by Ambrose J and Gregm::y the Great, 4 oontributed massively to his later and highly original Exposi tio altera super Cantica Canticorwn; 5 and in the prologue to his Expositio in Epistolam ad Romanos, 6 William describes his role as author-cnmpiler in tenns of a bird with borrowed 'plumage: if the ginal owners of the feathers were to demand back their plumage, William would be one bare little bird without a feather of his own.7 But even when William is less explicit as regards his sources, the knowledgeable reader is aware that whole paragraphs are sanet:i.mas cribbed straight from Augustine; or that William must have written this or that folio with his copy of Gregocy of Nyssa open before him on his work-des 8 and Etienne Gilson claims (a bit far-fetchedly, pe:rhaps) that, to the really perceptive ear, there are echoes of Pseudo-Deni;> to be found even in William 's literacy style.9 At times, one even has the impression that William of Saint-Thiercy is imitating William of
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