Shortened information from the blog The Boethian Acolyte by Anthony G. Cirilla, Ph.D.

Boethius is a primary figure in establishing a liberal arts education. There were seven fundamental liberal arts. The trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric—the comprehensive arts of language. The next four arts were arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. Arithmetic was more than the basic subject we think of it now – it was the philosophy of number, and music was the philosophy of number expressed through time. Geometry was the art of studying number expressed through space, and astronomy was the art of studying number expressed through both space and time—a precursor to physics. Boethius and his friend Cassiodorus were not only trained to the limits of the knowledge in those disciplines in Rome, but wanted to expand that knowledge further, especially by translating and commenting on liberal arts works found in Greek. Boethius wrote treatises on all three arts of the trivium. Boethius also wrote a treatise on arithmetic and one on music, the second called On the Fundamentals of Music. We know from letters by Cassiodorus that Boethius had written a textbook on geometry, though unfortunately that was lost. And though there is no indication that Boethius wrote on astronomy, many things he says in The Consolation of Philosophy and other books suggest that he had studied the art carefully. In the liberal arts viewpoint, the different arts were not just separate boxes of knowledge about unrelated subject matter – they believed that the arts needed to be distinguished so that they could be studied clearly, but studying first the trivium, the arts of thought and communication, and then the quadrivium, the arts of conceiving order in the world around you, were necessary stages to learn before entering into larger fields of inquiry such as theology or practical efforts such as politics. The academic life of the mind was designed to prepare you for the public life of action. Boethius followed this path, even though he didn’t really want to be a politician, but his parents, who died when he was young, were aristocratic, and his stepfather Symmachus was also a public figure who had been preparing Boethius for the public life from the moment he adopted him.

Learn from this, Beowulf, be generous to your people. Do not seek quarrels. Beware of becoming proud.

It is easy when you are young and strong to forget that one day sickness or a sword will end your life. Your bright eyes will grow dim, you will be old. Or else fire, or a storm when your ship is at sea, will finish you.

Remember this and you will not be proud. For a proud lord does not enjoy the things he has. He thinks they are not enough. He wants more. He does not do what a lord must for his people. Believe me, Beowulf, for I am many winters old.’  –Beowulf

Brothers and sisters:
In regard to virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord,
but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.
So this is what I think best because of the present distress:
that it is a good thing for a person to remain as he is.
Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek a separation.
Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife.
If you marry, however, you do not sin,
nor does an unmarried woman sin if she marries;
but such people will experience affliction in their earthly life,
and I would like to spare you that.

I tell you, brothers, the time is running out.
From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.

1st Corinthians chapter 7

 

This book will make a traveler of thee
If by its counsel thou wilt be ruled;
It will direct thee to the Holy Land,
If thou wilt its Directions understand
John Bunyan, ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’

Some men a forward motion love;
But I by backward steps would move,
And when this dust falls to the urn,
In that state I came, return,
Henry Vaughan, ‘The Retreat’

The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also Invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God. –Articles of Religion of the English Church, 22 (1544)

Then is his pain more than his wit,
To walk to heaven, when he may sit!
John Heywood, ‘The Play Called the Four PP’

[A] lot of hermits with hooked staves went to Welsingham, their wenches following. These great, long lubbers, loth to work, clothed themselves in clerical garb to be known from laymen, and styled themselves hermits, so as to have an easy life.
Henry Vaughan, ‘The Retreat’

…the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Twentieth century English poet

Brothers and sisters:
Let no one deceive himself.
If anyone among you considers himself wise in this age,
let him become a fool, so as to become wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God,
for it is written:
God catches the wise in their own ruses,

and again:

The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you,
Paul or Apollos or Cephas,
or the world or life or death,
or the present or the future:
all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.

The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.
Among men, who knows what pertains to the man
except his spirit that is within?
Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.
We have not received the spirit of the world
but the Spirit who is from God,
so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.
And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom,
but with words taught by the Spirit,
describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.

Now the natural man does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God,
for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it,
because it is judged spiritually.
The one who is spiritual, however, can judge everything
but is not subject to judgment by anyone.

For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians

Poetry of Dogen Kigen

Bowing Formally

A snowy heron
on the snowfield
where winter grass is unseen
hides itself
in its own figure.

The Body Born Before the Parents

The village I finally reach
deeper than the deep mountains
indeed
the capital
were I used to live!

On the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

Waves recede.
Not even the wind ties up
a small abandoned boat.
the moon is a clear
mark of midnight.

Mountain Seclusion

I won’t even stop
at the valley’s brook
for fear that
my shadow
may flow into the world.

The Body Born Before the Parents

The village I finally reach
deeper than the deep mountains
indeed
the capital
were I used to live!

On the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

Waves recede.
Not even the wind ties up
a small abandoned boat.
the moon is a clear
mark of midnight.

Mountain Seclusion

I won’t even stop
at the valley’s brook
for fear that
my shadow
may flow into the world.