Jonas d'Orleans: Instruction des laics. Tome I: Livres I-II, 16. Tome II: Livres II, 17-III. Introduction, text, translation, and notes by ODILE DUBREUCQ.

Abstract

Jonas, bishop of Orléans from 818 to around 842, moved in high circles. His De institutione laicali (the title is uncertain: vol. 1, pp. 43–4) was at least for a time dedicated to the local count, Matfrid; it played some part in shaping the Acts of the Council of Paris in 829. As Dubreucq’s interesting introduction explains, Jonas had to wheel and deal in the troubled times of Louis the Pious; and he also wrote a Primer for Kings (SC 407). Little of this background shows in the work under review (Dubreucq signals at vol. 2, p. 42, n. 1 the only allusion to a fact). It comes as a surprise when the author himself appears (Book ii. 3, 11–12: ‘what I say has often been brought up against me’), or a common touch (i. 17, 53–7: harmful thoughts are like filthy flies, and one must shake them off like dirt that has lodged on one’s clothes). His book is, indeed, largely a collection of extracts: ‘la compilation des “autorités” est la manière de composer commune à tous les auteurs carolingiens’ (vol. 1, p. 69). The net is cast very wide indeed, and, though Augustine predominates (an especially fine passage is cited in ii. 2, 46–64), Jonas displays a breadth of reading that rivals or surpasses that of Alcuin. But the introductions and conclusions that regularly frame the borrowed material are well worth reading in their own right, and reveal a man with strong views on (for instance) the forms of penance (i. 10), modern manners (i. 20), and various kinds of abuse in the Church. It is heartening to read him on double standards in sexual matters (ii. 4), and on the equality of all men (ii. 22, 107–8; iii. 14, 15): the poor deserve better than the scorn they encounter (ii. 22), denied as they are honest judgements (ii. 24), hospitality (ii. 29), and proper burial (iii. 15). It is another matter whether, for example, anyone might be deterred from the vice of curiosity by pondering the story of Dinah daugher of Jacob (iii. 10; Genesis 34).