Editing Rhetoric (section)

===Medieval to Enlightenment===
After the breakup of the western Roman Empire, the study of rhetoric continued to be central to the study of the verbal arts. However the study of the verbal arts went into decline for several centuries, followed eventually by a gradual rise in formal education, culminating in the rise of medieval universities. Rhetoric transmuted during this period into the arts of letter writing ({{lang|la|[[ars dictaminis]]}}) and sermon writing ({{lang|la|ars praedicandi}}). As part of the {{lang|la|[[trivium (education)|trivium]]}}, rhetoric was secondary to the study of logic, and its study was highly scholastic: students were given repetitive exercises in the creation of discourses on historical subjects ({{lang|la|suasoriae}}) or on classic legal questions ({{lang|la|controversiae}}).

Although he is not commonly regarded as a rhetorician, [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]] (354–430) was trained in rhetoric and was at one time a professor of Latin rhetoric in Milan. After his conversion to Christianity, he became interested in using these "[[Paganism|pagan]]" arts for spreading his religion. He explores this new use of rhetoric in ''[[De doctrina Christiana]]'', which laid the foundation of what would become [[homiletics]], the rhetoric of the sermon. Augustine asks why "the power of eloquence, which is so efficacious in pleading either for the erroneous cause or the right", should not be used for righteous purposes.<ref>{{cite book|author=Augustine of Hippo|title=De doctrina Christiana|at=[https://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0137/__P3I.HTM IV.2]|quote={{lang|la|Cum ergo sit in medio posita facultas eloquii, quae ad persuadenda seu prava seu recta valet plurimum, cur non bonorum studio comparatur, ut militet veritati, si eam mali ad obtinendas perversas vanasque causas in usus iniquitatis et erroris usurpant?}}}}</ref>

One early concern of the medieval Christian church was its attitude to classical rhetoric itself. [[Jerome]] (d. 420) complained, "What has [[Horace]] to do with the Psalms, [[Virgil]] with the Gospels, Cicero with the Apostles?"<ref>{{cite book|author=Jerome of Stridon|title=Letters of St. Jerome|chapter-url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001022.htm|chapter=To Eustochium, on the preservation of Virginity|at=§29|translator-first1=W.H.|translator-last1=Fremantle|translator-first2=G.|translator-last2=Lewis|translator-first3=W.G.|translator-last3=Martley|series=Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series|volume=VI|editor-first1=Philip|editor-last1=Schaff|editor-first2=Henry|editor-last2=Wace|location=Buffalo, N.Y.|publisher=Christian Literature Publishing Co.|year=1893|orig-date=384|url=https://archive.org/details/selectlibraryofn06scha}}</ref> Augustine is also remembered for arguing for the preservation of pagan works and fostering a church tradition that led to conservation of numerous pre-Christian rhetorical writings.

Rhetoric would not regain its classical heights until the Renaissance, but new writings did advance rhetorical thought. [[Boethius]] ({{circa|480}}–524), in his brief ''Overview of the Structure of Rhetoric'', continues Aristotle's taxonomy by placing rhetoric in subordination to philosophical argument or dialectic.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Patricia|last1=Bizzell|first2=Bruce|last2=Herzberg|title=The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present|location=Boston|publisher=Bedford / St. Martins|edition=2nd|year=2001|page=486}}</ref> The [[Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe|introduction of Arab scholarship]] from European relations with the [[Caliphate|Muslim empire]] (in particular [[Al-Andalus]]) renewed interest in Aristotle and Classical thought in general, leading to what some historians call [[Renaissance of the 12th century|the 12th century Renaissance]]. A number of medieval grammars and studies of poetry and rhetoric appeared.

Late medieval rhetorical writings include those of St. [[Thomas Aquinas]] ({{circa|1225}}–1274), [[Matthew of Vendôme]] (''Ars Versificatoria'', {{circa|1175}}), and [[Geoffrey of Vinsauf]] ([[Geoffrey of Vinsauf#The Poetria nova|''Poetria Nova'']], 1200–1216). Pre-modern female rhetoricians, outside of Socrates' friend [[Aspasia]], are rare; but medieval rhetoric produced by women either in religious orders, such as [[Julian of Norwich]] (d. 1415), or the very well-connected [[Christine de Pizan]] ({{circa|1364}}–{{circa|1430}}), did occur although it was not always recorded in writing.

In his 1943 [[Cambridge University]] doctoral dissertation in English, Canadian [[Marshall McLuhan]] (1911–1980) surveys the verbal arts from approximately the time of [[Cicero]] down to the time of [[Thomas Nashe]] (1567–{{circa|1600}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last=McLuhan |first=Marshall |title=The Classical Trivium: The Place of Thomas Nashe in the Learning of His Time |publisher=Gingko Press |year=2009|orig-date=1943 |isbn=978-1-58423-235-3}}</ref> His dissertation is still noteworthy for undertaking to study the history of the verbal arts together as the trivium, even though the developments that he surveys have been studied in greater detail since he undertook his study. As noted below, McLuhan became one of the most widely publicized communication theorists of the 20th century.

Another interesting record of medieval rhetorical thought can be seen in the many [[medieval debate literature|animal debate poems]] popular in England and the continent during the Middle Ages, such as ''[[The Owl and the Nightingale]]'' (13th century) and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s ''[[Parliament of Fowls]]''.