Karen Jambeck, Dept. A summa that treats typical encyclopedic subjects, the Breviari teaches about love according to orthodox Catholic doctrine. Matfre centers his discussion of love on the Tree of Love, in which he places varying types of love in a hierarchical order.
In order to provide a single origin for the different forms of love, Matfre formulates a genealogy for love: following the story of Genesis, God begins his creation of the world by creating, and subsequently reigning over, Nature.
(mh=qSUWJntyfdtq3njn)1.jpg "Babes Poitiers")
The children of Nature, dregz de natura and dregz de gens, provide the first ancestors of love: from dregz de natura arise the loves between humans between men and women, and between parents and children ; from the dregz de gens come the love for God and good men, and the love for worldly goods. Love and desire are thus characterized as natural; however, because they are born of dregz de natura, they are inscribed within a clear notion of law or rightness.
Love, in the divine plan formulated in the Breviari, thus has nothing to do with adulterous love. Matfre devotes much time to various discussions of marriage: he not only speaks of marriage as a virtue, but is careful to defend marriage by attacking those who denigrate it vv.
Moreover, he gives guidelines for how to prepare oneself for marriage vv. While Matfre does place human love within the Church-sanctioned institution of marriage, he also allows for a broader interpretation of human love. Because human love, for Matfre, is a natural desire arising from the wish to procreate, sexual desire is innately good. Moreover, because Matfre is not only a devotee of St.
