Medieval Hermeneutics

Learn first what you should believe, and then go to the Bible and find it there.

Hugo of St. Victor

Medieval Hermeneutics

The foundation is in the earth and it does not always have smoothly fitted stones. The superstructure rises above the earth, and it demands a smoothly proportioned construction. . . . Even so the Divine Page, in its literal sense, contains many things which seem both to be opposed to each other and, sometimes, to impart something which smacks of the absurd or the impossible. But the spiritual meaning admits no opposition; in it, many things can be different from one another, but none can be opposed. The fact, also that the first course of stones to be laid upon the foundation is placed flush with a tarut cord, and these are the stones upon which the entire weight of the others rests and to which they are fitted - is not without its meaning. For this is like a sort of second foundation and is the basis of the entire superstructure. This foundation both carries what is placed upon it and is itself carried by the first foundation. All things rest upon the first foundation but are not fitted to it in every way. As to the latter foundation, everything both rests upon it and is fitted to it. The first one carries the superstructure and underlies the superstructure. The second one carries the superstructure and is not only under the superstructure but part of it. The foundation which is under the truth as we have said stands for history, and the superstructure which is built upon it we have said suggests allegory.

Hugo of St. Victor, Didascalion VI.4. The Didascalion of Hugh of St. Victor, 2nd edition, trans. Jerome Taylor (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991): 140-141.