Aurea Gemma <Gallica> 1.9 
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[1.9] Post hec oportet induci exempla liberalium aliquorum, ut de Cesare, qui nichil obliviscebatur preter iniurias,1 hoc modo:2 Glorioso regi Francorum .L.3 a Deo ordinato .P.4 Iotensis ecclesie humilis ministra cum grege sibi commisso misericordie visceribus habundare. Gloria5 regum Francorum non ex tirannide, set ex pietate et mansuetudine celebratur. Et cum omnes reges Francorum ex pietatis gloria sint adepti, precipue reges vestre prosapie nomen pietatis quasi egregium et spirituale possederant. Summo itaque regi gloria, qui virtutem pietatis in vobis auxit, qui, quod a parentibus accepistis quasi | [61v]a natura, geminastis in vobis de industria. Ad vestram itaque mansuetudinem quasi ad aram misericordie confugimus, a qua non licet quemquam tristem recedere, apud quem intenditur rigor iustitie, ut non excludatur temperamentum misericordie. Semper quidem ecclesia nostra regie celsitudini permansit fidelis et devota, semper et in pace et in bello vestris iussionibus fuit obnoxia semperque pro vestra salute et incolomitate extitit sollicita. Licet ergo si res ita se habeat,6 nichil tamen de meritis nostris presumimus, set de innata vobis mansuetudine et iustitia confidimus. Aurem itaque vestre misericordie precibus accomodate et ecclesie nostre semper pro vobis oranti manum misericordie vestre clementer extendite, ut regni vestri celsitudinem conservare dignetur, qui dat salutem regibus.
L. om. B      ordinato] coronato B      Iotensis] Leodiensis B      ministra] minister B      regum] regni B      pietatis gloria] pietate B      sint] sint gloriam B      aram] ianuam B      recedere] discedere B      intenditur] sic prem. B      permansit] pertinet Aac      fuit om. B      semperque pro] semper B      incolumitate B      si legi: se A om. B      nichil] nil B      nostris om. B      Aurem] Aures B      precibus] nostris add. B      extendite] porrigite B

1 Cicero Pro Ligario 12, 35 (or here or here): spero etiam te qui oblivisci nihil soles nisi iniurias.  Perhaps the proximal source is Lactantius Div. inst. 6.18.34 (PL 7.703A, CSEL 19.553):  Denique Marcus Tullius contra suum praeceptum, de quo paulo ante dixi [ie, at 6.18.15 (CSEL 19.548), quoting De officiis 3.19, 76], oblivionem injuriarum in magnis laudibus posuit. "Spero," inquit, "Caesar, qui oblivisci nihil soles, nisi injurias."  For later use of this passage cf. Alexander Neckam In Ecclesiasten 1.16 (Cambridge, Trinity College, R.16.4, fol. 165rb): Reduco ad memoriam Ciceronis laudem Iulium Cesarem commendantis, quem nichil asserit oblivisci consuevisse preter iniurias and  Peter of Blois De amicitia Christiana (PL 207.894C) Cicero de laudibus Caesaris scribens: "Nihil, inquit, nisi injurias oblivisci solet."
    For Peter of Blois' De amicitia Christiana cf. also M. DAVY ed. and tr. Un traité de l'amour au XIIe siécle. Pierre de Blois (Paris 1932).  An edition of Alexander Neckam's In Ecclesiasten (De naturis rerum 3-5) is being prepared by Christopher McDonough (University of Toronto).  For the transmission of Ligario, see RICHARD H. ROUSE and TADEUSZ MASLOWSKI "The Manuscript Tradition of Cicero's Post-Exile Orations. Part I: The Medieval History" Philologus 128 (1984) 60-104.

2 The following fragmentary model appears in its entirety, as a letter from Guido of Noyers, archbishop of Sens (1176-1193) to Phillip Augustus, king of France (1180-1223), in Peter of Blois Libellus de arte dictandi rhetorice: Cambridge, UL, Ms. Dd. 9. 38., fols. 115ra-121ra) at fol. 117rb-va. Peter's dependance on the Aurea Gemma <Gallica> is overlooked by MARTIN CAMARGO Medieval Rhetorics of Prose Composition: Five English Artes Dictandi and Their Tradition Medieval & Rennaisance texts & studies 115 (Binghamton 1995): edition of the Libellus 37-87. For a full exposition of Peter's use of the Aurea Gemma <Gallica>, see Peter of Blois' Libellus de arte dictandi rhetorice.

3 Louis VII, king of France (1137-1180).

4 Praxedes, abbess of Jouarre, who also appears below, Aurea Gemma <Gallica> 1.21. According to the list of abbesses in L'abbaye royale Notre-Dame de Jouarre (Paris 1961), she was active in 1151. L'Abbaye Notre-Dame at Jouarre is listed in JEAN-LOUP LEMAITRE Repertoire des documents necrologiques francais Recueil des Historiens de France, Obituaires, tom. 7 (Paris 1980) 644; I have not seen H. THIERCELIN Le monastere de Jouarre, son histoire jusqu'a la revolution (Paris 1861).

5 HEINRICH FICHTENAU Arenga. Spätantike und Mittelalter im Spiegel von Urkundenformeln (Cologne 1957) 72 traces the renewal of the ancient idea of a ruler's gloria in preambles to king Louis VII's 1149 charter for S. Genevieve, Paris (ed. TARDIF Monuments historiques 268 no. 505). Two years earlier, 5 June 1147, a papal privilege granted by Eugene III for the cathedral church of Paris expressed the same nexus: Quanto nobilis et gloriosa Parisiensis ecclesia pro sede regis Francorum extitit famosior... (JL 9072, PL 180.1234). See also the idea of glory expressed above, Aurea Gemma <Gallica>1.1.

6 The original source of this phrase Si res ita se habeat was in papal rescripts answering questions of law to 'bracket' facts already supplied by the petitioner, which facts the papal chancery could not verify. For discussion, see Boncompagno Tractatus virtutum §12 and several works by ERNEST PITZ, the latest being his Papstreskripte im frühen Mittelalter. Diplomatische und rechtsgeschichtliche Studien zum Brief-Corpus Gregors des Grossen (Sigmaringen 1989).

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© Steven M. Wight, Los Angeles 1998
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