Texts in Context: The Secret of the Rose—Part I
Romantic love certainly existed before the eleventh century. What the troubadours invented was the idea that it was a good thing.
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Rhetorica: How to Do Ethos Good
A person is credible if they not only possess, but display honesty, courage, and clarity. How do we do that?
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Texts in Context: An Examination of the Holy Office
The Inquisition might be the single most faultily-understood institution in history; and yet there is a core of truth in all the errors about it.
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Rhetorica: The Rhetorical Appeals
As there are three temporal contexts for rhetoric, so there are three appeals it can make to a man: those to credibility, intelligence, and humanity.
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Texts in Context: The Apostolic Poverty Movement
One of the most potent forces throughout medieval society was the apostolic poverty movement, heretical and orthodox by turns; but what was it?
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Rhetorica: A Speech in Time Saves Nine
Persuasion aims at action, and action takes place in time. It follows that rhetoric looks in three directions: past, present, and future.
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Texts in Context: The Queen of the Sciences
“What great advantages would philosophy give us over other men, if by studying it we could learn to govern our passions?” — Peter Abelard
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Rhetorica: Of the Same Clay
What is essential to argument is not that both sides prove everything they say, but only that they begin from premises both parties accept.
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Texts in Context: The Real Renaissance
If there is an era that truly deserves to be hailed as possessing a new energy of civilization-spanning rebirth, it is the beginning of the High Middle Ages.
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Rhetorica: The Weakness of Magnanimity
An essential part of the secret of magnanimity is, knowledge is not a zero-sum game.
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