Prologue, Chapter 8: Using Pagan Philosophers and Poets as Sources

Vincent defends himself against the charge of taking information from ancint pagan authors as well as from sacred books deemed apocryphal by the Catholic Church. (In my mind, he's maybe a little too defensive!) But he says that he has scriptural authority on his side. If anyone disagrees with his approach, he says,

"he will otherwise be contradicting the apostles who, in their letters, made use of some evidence from both kinds of book. For, as an example, Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, placed a saying of the comic poet Menander's verse: Bad company corrupts good character. He does the same thing when writing to Titus, introducing a saying from the verses of the poet Epimenides: Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies. He also, when disputing in the Areopagus at Athens, makes use of the evidence of the poet Aratus, talking about God: For we too are his offspring.”

I had two thoughts when I read this. First, it's been a long time since I've read the Bible straight through and so I had forgotten Paul quotes several pagan poets in his teaching; I think that's fascinating. Second, I think it's very interesting that Vincent is implying some sense of equality between himself and Paul - "Paul quotes pagans, so it's OK for me to do so, too."


Later in the chapter, Vincent explains an important point regarding his methodology of using pagan authors. He acknowledges that philosophers often disagree with one another and present information that contradicts other philosophers (and, indeed, even the Bible and teachings of the Church). Therefore, he says,

"I follow the habit not of a treater of literature but of an excerptor. And so I have not particularly worked to bring the words of the philosophers into agreement but to recite as much as several of them know or write about each topic, leaving it to the judgment of the reader whose opinion he should rather adhere to."

 Vincent thus disavows responsibility of telling us as readers what to believe; he assumes we're intelligent enough to decide which expert opinion we should trust and accept.