Medieval mottos to live by

One would think that a seasoned student like myself would be able to sit down (ok, lie down, I prefer the flat on the stomach approach to reading) and plough through a couple hundred pages, no sweat. Except, you see, I become intrigued by random details in the introdcutory essay by Keith Whinnom and begin pondering the essence of courtly love (as well as discovering myriad new uses for my fountain pen, but that is another story) even before I get to Cárcel de amor. Again I am confounded by how little the human animal has evolved.

On Concupiscience: Why we shouldn't feel so bad about our passionate enamorments, and why rationalization only sort of works. A tempered version of Jimmy Cliff's "You can get it if you really want" ?:

concupiscentia est naturalis homini inquantum subditur rationi; conscupiscentia non ligat totalitier rationem: nisi forte sit tanta quod faciat hominem insanire. Et tamen passio concupiscentiae dimiuit peccatum: quia levius est ex infirmitate quam ex malitia peccare.
---Santo Tomás de Aquinas (Summa theologica 2-2) .

But quite frankly, I liked this one even better (self-serving, I know)... aka, "sex: the anti-drug" or "just say yes: the war on conservative values" (debunk, debunk, debunk...)

perfecta abstinentia ab actu carnis corrumpit virtutem.

---Ok, so the author of this quote is unknown to me, but it serves as an example of the heterodoxy of the times, and mind you this line of thought was subsequently repressed as heretical (abstinence as sin?! How could this be?) by a French theologian, Esteban Tempier, in 1277.


Also quite useful are the three commonly held beliefs for the cure of the malaise that we like to call love (aka limerance)- a branch of melancholy or mental illness (we will forgive the phallocentric bent). Now, some medieval doctors felt that the first two were drastic measures only to be implemented in the most severe and hopeless cases. I think that maybe theirs was a wisdom which we no longer possess:

1) Easiest and most efficient cure: Give the man the girl he wants (only possible if said girl is available, lest the injury of love quickly be overcome by the injury inflicted by jealous spouse).

2) Reduce the "brain inflammation" by satisfying his sexual desire with another woman (sometimes even marrying her to him... seems a bit unfair, but hey.) Note that this is considered a temporary fix.

3) Distract the infirm man with a totally unrelated activity (and of course remove him from contact with the woman that has propitiated his illness). So terribly rational it hurts. Examples of such activities were: hunting, fishing, dice and other games of luck, the company of other happy young men, and rest in the country. Perhaps today's versions would be: hiking, camping, role-playing games, dinner parties (aka drunken stupors with one's age cohorts) and blogging. (Just a thought).