Christian theologians such as Gregory the Great and
Augustine of Hippo. At times closely related to ALLE-
GORY, medieval Christian exegesis was often marked by
the express attempt to situate all biblical content in its
proper relationship to Jesus Christ. This “typological”
approach would describe, for example, an Old Testa-
ment story, such as the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt, as
a prefi guration of Christ’s sacrifi ce, which liberated all
people from enslavement to sin. Such systems are called
the “Allegory of the Theologians.” The most widely
cited type of theologians’ allegory, though by no means
the only exegetical approach, is known as the quadriga,
or the fourfold system of exegesis. Through this inter-
pretive framework, biblical passages were revealed to
have not one but four “senses” of meaning: literal, alle-
gorical, tropological, and anagogical. A Latin COUPLET
often used in medieval schools clarifi es: Littera gesta
docet, quid credas allegoria, / Moralis quid agas, quo ten-
das anagogia (The literal teaches the deeds, the allegori-
cal what to believe, the moral what to do, and the
anagoge what to strive for). Such interpretation
addresses the act of reading Scripture and its proper
application to the individual life, both morally and in
shaping one’s eschatological outlook.
See also BIBLICAL ALLUSIONS.
FURTHER READING
McAuliffe, Jane Dammen, Barry D. Walfi sh, and Joseph
W. Goering, eds. With Reverence for the Word: Scriptural
Exegesis in Judiasm, Christianity, and Islam. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2003.
Muller, Richard A., and John L. Thompson, eds. Biblical
Interpretation in the Era of the Reformation. Grand Rapids,
Mich.: W. B. Eerdmans, 1996.
Lydia Newell
EXEMPLUM In its simplest form, an exemplum
(pl. exempla) is any narrative used to illustrate a point.
In medieval literature, however, the exemplum more
frequently refers to an example provided to teach some
truth, illustrate a religious principle, or convey a moral
lesson in sermons and didactic religious literature.
Pope Gregory the Great (540–604 C.E.) promoted the
use of exempla for moral instruction. Peter the Deacon,
Gregory’s interlocutor in the Dialogues, remarks in the
preface that many people respond better to virtuous
examples than to godly sermons, a tactic Gregory uti-
lizes in his Homiliae. Although Gregory himself
employed exempla in his sermons and encouraged
their use, their popularity did not become fi rmly
entrenched until the beginning of the 13th century
when preaching friars traveled throughout western
Europe. During this time, many religious fi gures advo-
cated using exempla to maintain the interest of their
mostly uneducated audience.
By far the most frequent use of exempla comes in
the forms of FABLEs, parables, tales, anecdotes, and
hagiographies (see HAGIOGRAPHY). Exempla can be
either positive or negative. Positive exempla serve as
models of behavior, while negative exempla effectively
demonstrate the consequences of wrong thinking or
actions. As the popularity of the exemplum spread
throughout the Middle Ages, many preachers turned
to collections such as the Vitae Patrum, the Alphabetum
Narrationum, the Alphabetum Exemplorum, the Legenda
Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, the Gesta Romanorum,
and Jacques de Vitry’s Exempla for their sources. The
exemplum continued to be a powerful rhetorical tool
from the 13th to 15th centuries; however, its effective-
ness began to decline as more and more preachers uti-
lized it strictly for humorous purposes. Notable
detractors such as Dante, John Wycliffe, and Erasmus
castigated the use of exempla to produce humor in
church and contributed to the decline in popularity of
the exemplum among preachers, but its use was never
completely eradicated and continues today. A famous
literary example of an exemplum is GEOFFREY CHAU-
CER’s “The PARDONER’S TALE.
Clinton AtchleyEXETER BOOK (CODEX EXONIENSIS,
LIBER EXONIENSIS) (before 1072) Exeter,
Cathedral Chapter Library, MS 3501—the formal
name of the Exeter Book—is one of the signifi cant sur-
viving four manuscripts containing Old English
(Anglo-Saxon) poetry along with the Vercelli Book, the
Junius Manuscript, and MS COTTON VITELLIUS A.XV. It
was a gift to the cathedral from Leofric, the fi rst bishop
of Exeter (d. 1072). He moved the Episcopal see from
Crediton to Exeter in 1050, and may have taken the170 EXEMPLUM