A Comparative Study on the Development of Vernacular Secularity in Late Medieval England

从12世纪中期开始，西欧世俗统治者的宫廷做出了各种努力，翻译或改编亚里士多德和西塞罗等古代哲学家的政治和伦理著作，并在此过程中，将当地语言提升为讨论世俗社会的政治结构和道德基础的适当工具。本研究将14世纪末和15世纪初产生的中世纪英语文学文本置于泛欧洲知识分子努力培养“白话文世俗性”的背景下。

From the mid-twelfth century onwards, various efforts were made in the courts of secular rulers in Western Europe to translate or adapt the political and ethical works of such ancient philosophers as Aristotle and Cicero and, in doing so, to elevate vernacular languages into proper vehicles for discussion of the political structures and moral foundations of secular society. This study resituates Middle English literary texts produced in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries within the context of such pan-European intellectual endeavors to cultivate "vernacular secularity."