A Study Of Hugh's Historical Thought In St. Victor

The 12th century is an era in which the Latin West is moving toward full Renaissance.A significant phenomenon in the ideological and cultural aspects is the enhancement of people's historical consciousness.Historians began to rethink history and time within the framework of the Bible.As a teacher,the outstanding theologian Hugh of St.Victor(ca.1096-1141)devoted a great deal of time and energy to teaching and research.He distinguished himself not only in Biblical hermeneutics,theological interpretation,individual religious experience and humanities education,but also in his unique understanding and interpretation of history.Hugh's historical thoughts touch upon the nature of history,the evolution of history,the epistemology of history,etc.,which can be said to be extensive and systematic.He is therefore also known as the “representative of the outstanding historical thinkers of the 12 th century” and was highly praised by later scholars.This article,through combing and interpreting Hugh's historical thoughts,highlights his contribution to the development of historiography in the 12 th century and his important position in the history of medieval historiography,and thus reveals the features of the Latin Western historiography in the period of transformation and even the characteristics of medieval historiography.This thesis consists of three parts: introduction,the main body and conclusion.The introduction mainly expounds the reasons for the selection of the topic,review of research both at home and abroad,the paper's writing ideas and the historical basis.The main body is divided into four chapters.The contents of each chapter are summarized as follows:The first chapter lays emphasis on the discussion of the 12th-century Latin Christian world,the Abbey and the school of St.Victor,as well as the study of the Hugh's life.It should be emphasized that a clear understanding of Hugh's living environment,religious beliefs,and academic circles is necessary before examining and analyzing his historical ideas.On the level of historical ontology,the second chapter analyzes how Hugh,under the high pressure of the 12 th century Christian thought,managed to break through the inertial thinking of medieval history as a record of God's activities in the world,and point out that the essence of history is an objective fact,thus reviving the historical tradition of objectivism of the classical period and the interpretation of the history of the visible world into that of the invisible world.This part also probes into Hugh's new breakthroughs in the concept of “history as a subordinate of grammar” and “history as ancilla theologiae ” formed during the early Middle Ages,thus clarifying the changes and renewal of historical positions in secular and sacred learning.Besides,giving insight into his transformation from the time course to the event process in the historical compilation practice,and his theoretical thinking towards that,together with Hugh's history teaching practice,which breaks Augustine's history teaching system,this paper gives full play to his inheritance,resistance and transcendence of past authority so that readers could appreciate better a historian's concern for reality.The third chapter begins with the concept of linear time in Christianity and explores Hugh's historical development concept,in which Hugh established his philosophy of history centering around creation and restoration by applying the continuity of historical narratives to cover up the rationality in theological interpretation.Through an analysis of the six historical evolution paths that Hugh built on the basis of thinking about the continuity of time and place,namely “six ages”,“three stages”,“two kinds of work”,“two kinds of troops”,“translatio imperii”and “from Hell to Heaven”,this part reveals his historical progress consciousness,optimist historiography concept,and new methods for the development of systematic theology hidden behind Hugh's speculative interpretation of the historical evolution path.The fourth chapter attaches more importance to Hugh's unique way of understanding history by illustrating how the relationship between rationality and belief changes from mutual repulsion to combination during the 12 th century.The focus is on explaining how Hugh,as an encyclopedia-style thinker,managed to reconcile the two,and elucidating the role played by the mystical contemplation method in theology and the empirical induction method and the deduction method in rational analysis in his understanding of history,and finally pointing out the defects and deficiencies in his historical epistemology.The concluding remarks put Hugh's historical thoughts within the context of medieval humanism and comprehensively,examine the awakening of people's self-consciousness under the revival of classical culture and foreign culture as reflected in Hugh's historical ideology and elucidate the influence of his historical thoughts on the formation of the whole ideological system and the development of medieval historiography and theology.