Although the rise of Renaissance humanism is usually seen as a movement out of the Middle Ages toward modernity, Robert Black has cogently argued that much of the humanist platform was conservative in nature. The humanists wished to dethrone dialectic from its place of priority within the trivium, a place it secured in the twelfth century, as enthusiastic scholars poured over recently recovered Aristotelian treatises.

Enthusiasm was not the only sentiment among twelfth-century intellectuals. A few foresaw the coming domination of the trivium by dialectic and launched a valient, albeit fruitless, counter-attack. Among the foremost of these was John of Salisbury. Although he is better known for his larger works, Metalogicon and Policraticus, his agenda shines brightly in a curiously-titled lesser work, Entheticus. It features a number of poems, often satirical, written in elegiac couplets. He depicts an intellectual culture gone crazed over mere words and the logical, mechanical relationships between. Language becomes a kind of specialist sport while the weightier matters of good culture and morals go ignored. Such a critique would be perfectly at home in the mouth of Erasmus or Petrarch.

Logica quid valeat, aut cur placeat sapienti,

Dicturus, faciem philosophantis adi.

Qui sequitur sine mente sonum, qui verba capessit,

Non sensum, iudex integer esse nequit.

Cum vim verborum dicendi causa ministret,

Haec si nescitur, quid nisi ventus erunt?

Quae bonus auditor pensat de mente loquentis,

Non quovis sensu, quem sibi verba ferunt,

Ut tamen assistat verbis lex recta loquendi,

Qua sine non poterunt pondus habere suum!

Aucupium verbi iampridem iussit ab aula

Lex Romana, sed hoc praetor iniquus amat.

...

Philosophia quid est, nisi fons, via, duxque salutis,

Lux animae, vitae regula, grata quies?

Non equidem motus valet exstirpare molestos,

Sed nocuos reprimit et ratione domat;

Nec nocet assultus hostis leviter perituri,

Qui manet, ut noceat, bestia saeva minus.

Motion on the Use of Salisbury

This House recognises that:-

• Prior to its Establishment through the Acts of Supremacy passed by this House, the Church in England enjoyed rich traditions of local forms of Christian publick worship pre-dating the forms now Authorised for publick use by this parliament in the Act of Uniformity.
• The forms now Authorised hold significant literary, religious, and cultural significance to the English speaking world.
• The abolition of forms used by the English Church prior to those introduced by this parliament is just as grave a crime against their value and significance as it would be to abolish the PRAYER BOOK.

Therefore, this House calls for:-

• The forms known as the Use of SALISBURY or the Use of SARUM be restored as legal forms of publick Christian worhsip in the Established Church.
• The free and encouraged use of the SARUM Rite in publick worship for use by the Church in England, alongside the other legal forms of publick worship which hold strong tradition within this land.

This motion was submitted by the Rt Hon. The Lord of Newcastle-on-Clun.

Vote "Content", "Not Content" or "Present" only.

Division ends Thursday 6th June 2019 at 10PM BST. Results shall be posted on Friday 7th June 2019.