Oculus Sacerdotis
| Author | William of Pagula |
|---|---|
| Country | Kingdom of England |
| Language | Latin |
| Subject | theology, canon law |
|
Publication date
|
between 1320 and 1323 |
The Oculus Sacerdotis was a 14th-century book by William of Pagula. Influenced by or possibly lifted from the Peckham Constitutions of 1281, they are divided into three volumes written between 1320 and 1323, the book sought to be a comprehensive manual for parish priests (many of whom were poorly educated), and covered the confessional, sacramental theology and preaching. Described as "deep, all-encompassing and quite encyclopaedic", sections of the book were in use up to the late Middle Ages, and approximately fifty copies are known still to exist in various libraries.
The title Oculus Sacerdotis translates as "priest's eye", and refers to a theory put about in the book Oculus Moralis by Petrus Lacepiera that the different eyes on a human saw and represented different things - the right eye was the eye of morals and actions, the left of knowledge. The idea of a "priest's eye", therefore, is that the book should show the things that a priest needed to know. The titles of the three volumes were linked to this - the pars oculi dealing with the confessional, the dextera pars oculi, a manual of practical preaching and the sinistra pars oculi, a set of theological questions and answers. The volumes were written in reverse order, with sinistra pars oculi appearing first in 1320 and the pars oculi appearing in around 1326.
Since the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, much effort was made to educate the clergy so that they could better help others understand and live essential Christian beliefs and practices. In Oculus Sacerdotis, William of Pagula wrote:
"For parish priests to rule well in this regard they should be discerning, knowing how to bind and loose sins, lest, out of ignorance, the blind take it upon themselves to lead others and they both fall into the pit. Hence the verse: 'If a blind man guide a blind man … [Matt. 15:14].' First the leader falls into the pit and then the follower."
The book was initially considered to be repetitive and badly ordered, but more modern research has suggested that the books were meant to be repetitive, with each volume dealing with the same problem in a slightly different way. The dextera pars oculi was used as a handbook until the 16th century, and a revision of it is said to have been produced by John de Burgh in 1384 as the Pupilla oculi (pupil of the eye), though it is known to have been in existence as early as 1368. The book is considered to have influenced almost all similar texts written within the next sixty years, but its lengthy prose meant that many of the parish priests it was meant to have helped could not actually read it. At least fifty copies are still known to exist in various libraries, despite the age of the book.
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