A quantitative-minded God: balance and judgement in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries

Abstract

This thesis examines how biblical references to weights and measures were interpreted by medieval thinkers in relation to penitential theology. Chapter One explores the evolving role of ‘balance’ in twelfth-century eschatology, transitioning from a virtue linked to Benedictine values of moderation and salvation to a concept associated with divine judgment after death, reflecting a shift toward a quantitative understanding of holiness.

Chapter Two analyses the phrase pondus et pondus from Proverbs 20:10, tracing its rise in prominence during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. It explores the phrase’s connection to fraud, particularly in commercial contexts, and examines how this idea of precise measurement in commerce was linked to divine judgment and individual punishment.

Chapter Three investigates the analogy between penance, purgatory, and debt repayment, considering whether this analogy was merely a rhetorical tool or if it influenced the development of doctrinal concepts of penance and purgatory.

These chapters collectively reveal how penitential theology was reimagined in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with judgment framed as a balancing of sin and good deeds. This theological shift coincided with economic growth and expanding mercantile practices. Though a tenuous link, drawing on Jacques Le Goff’s work on purgatory, it could be suggested that the reimagining of sin through a quantitative lens may have influenced the development of the doctrine of purgatory.