On Love

Book excerpt: The version of the Rule of St. Augustine used at the Abbey of St.Victor began with the command to love God above all things and ones neighbor as oneself. Not surprisingly, then, love was a pervasive theme in the writings produced there, many of which are introduced and translated here: (1)five lyrical essays by Hugh of St.Victor (d.1141): The Praise of Charity; The Betrothal Gift of the Soul; In Praise of the Spouse; On the Substance of Love; What Truly Should Be Loved?; (2)On the Four Degrees of Violent Love, by Richard of St.Victor (d.1173), which traces the likenesses and differences between romantic love and the love of God; (3)Achard of St.Victor (d.1170), Sermon5 and two of Adam of St.Victors sequences are examples of how these authors wove love into their writings; (4)excerpts from the Microcosmus by Godfrey of St.Victor (d.ca.1195), summarize the central place of love in his humanistic theological anthropology.