Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages by Zachary A. Matus

Abstract

Reviewed by: Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages by Zachary A. Matus Sybil M. Jack Matus, Zachary A., Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages (The Middle Ages Series), Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017; hardback; pp. 216; 2 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. US$59.95, £50.00; ISBN 9780812249217. Recognition that medieval alchemy was more than just a dream of transmuting metals has resulted in an upsurge of academic interest in the subject in recent years, with new information being discovered and published in multiple-language specialist literature. This, by putting alchemy in a wider intellectual, social, philosophical, technological, religious, and experimental context, has revised ideas about its position in the development of science and philosophy and its role in medieval culture. Zachary Matus, in this work that is a revision of his doctoral [End Page 223] thesis, considers one aspect of the medieval attitude to alchemy—its relationship to the material world—, through the works of three particular Franciscans. Roger Bacon and John of Rupescissa are the focus of many other studies, although his third friar—Vitalis of Furno—has been less frequently considered. The recent historical research on alchemy is divided into conflicting historiographical approaches depending on the background of the historian. Matus belongs to the mainly Catholic group, which sees the Church and theology as the key factor in comprehending the philosophers’ understanding of the topic. He is also concerned to demonstrate how the particular religious morality of the Franciscans ties into their ‘scientific’ ideas. He seeks to show how these friars’ thinking about the nature and role of God in the world explains their overall incorporation of ideas about the matter that God created: how it can be manipulated, and its potential for regeneration in a period where they, like many philosophers, were expecting the imminent arrival of the apocalypse. The specificity of Matus’s approach can be determined by comparing his views on the interplay of philosophy, theology, and alchemy in Bacon and Rupescissa with those of Athanasios Rinotas. The friars were concerned with medicine, hoping to produce a panacea for all ills. They drew on different approaches for their analysis, mainly from the Islamic treatises they had available. Matus, however, is not concerned with the practical details of their work and the medicinal products they created but with the way in which the quintessence, the elixir of life, in philosophical reasoning related to the essential goodness of creation. In many ways, and although there are some vital insights, for the nonspecialist this is a frustrating book. Indeed, Matus has chosen not to provide a chronological introductory setting, as a context against which his interpretation of these three individuals’ approaches can be estimated. Instead, each idea is housed in its own partial account, which is chronologically confusing and often repetitive. It is not assisted by his preference for technical language and unfamiliar, newly defined terms such as ‘subjunctive science’, which is a method of looking at rituals. In providing a setting for his chosen friars, Matus has to refer to their relationship with other Franciscans, in particular to Joachim of Fiore, Peter John Olivi, and Nicholas of Lyra, although Alexander Minorita and Peter Auriol are apparently ignored. Given the complexities of the internal divisions of the Order, this does not always clarify the issue at hand since there is no overall account of the intellectual development of Franciscan thought. Matus offers no explanation of what he chooses to include or omit, so that his omission of some aspects of thought normally seen as fundamental to the ideas of one of his subjects seems surprising. In discussing ritual as a formative part of Bacon’s philosophy, for instance, Matus does not discuss the function of music in Bacon’s thought, although this has usually been seen as critical to his concept of the Mass and the liturgy, and their function as part of human penitence. [End Page 224] This is a work for specialists which forms part of a substantial recent output of publications on abstruse aspects of the subject. It cannot be recommended for general reading, particularly...