Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric: The Bridesmaids of the Divine

by Daniel Wilson

“In its essence, the Trivium today and yesterday are the same. Classical educators today employ the Trivium as a method by which we teach what is good, true, and beautiful. When we teach anything in the method of classical education, we mean to teach the things that will shape students into what they will be for eternity: married to the divine as the bride of Christ.”

Long ago there was a Roman god named Mercury, the master of eloquence and communication, who found himself searching for a wife. He had a love and admiration for Sapientia, the embodiment and essence of Wisdom, though she was untenable even for a god such as he. There was another he found, however. Though a mere mortal, she impressed Mercury for she loved Wisdom as much as, if not more than, himself. Her name was Philology—one who loves learning.

Philology impressed even Apollo, the head of the gods, when brought to his attention, so permission to court her was given to Mercury. Once proposed to, Philology eagerly accepted, for who could resist the allure of a god? In order that Philology might be worthy of such a marriage, it was determined however that she must undergo a transformation. On the eve of her wedding, her seven bridesmaids were to transform Philology into something worthy to marry a god.

These women, neither unequal in number nor lacking in beauty, adorned with the dignity of learning that few among the audience could match, had been nurtured in the inner sanctuaries of the virgin and in her most sacred secrets, so that she might be prepared for the heavens. – Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii

The first three of these bridesmaids were the Trivium: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric.

The first, Grammar, was an old woman with a blade used to carve the tenets of language and memorization out of her student. Grammar was ancient and often lacked eloquence but was necessary as the first step towards transformation into one worthy of marriage with a god.

The next of her bridesmaids was Logic, a beautiful woman who knew how to argue in both Greek and Latin. Her words proved to be too much for even Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, who had to plead with Logic to slow down, as she could not keep up with Logic’s reasoning.

Last of the Trivium to transform mortal Philology was Rhetoric. An elegant woman dressed in royal robes, Rhetoric taught Philology the art of persuasion, for it was not enough to simply know how things are and to reason them; one must further know how to persuade others to their way of thinking through language.

Once met by these three women, Philology had begun her journey towards divinity.

The above is an adaptation of the 5th century story De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, or On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury by Martianus Capella. This work is the oldest evidence we have of the formalization of the Trivium in the educated Western world. The Trivium was first developed by the Greeks, referenced to by Aristotle as the Liberal Arts, that is arts that may stand alone in learning.

Later Saint Augustine, a lover of antiquity himself, promoted the idea of the Trivium to be used by the learned in the church as it was a necessary tool for the understanding of Scripture despite its pagan origins. Within Augustine’s lifetime, however, the Empire of learning to which he belonged fell, and it wasn’t until the Carolingian Renaissance during the time of Charlemagne that the Trivium was fully solidified as the established method of learning amongst the collegiate bodies of the Carolingian Dynasty. Much of what was written and developed by Charlemagne's head educator, Alcuin, has been preserved for us.

In recent times, we have seen a revival of this method of teaching take the form of what we now call classical education. This is due in large part to the writings of Dorthy Sayers and Sister Miriam Joseph, both of whom are 20th century writers who wrote of the Trivium and its use in modern education. Such is the history of the development and implementation of the Trivium in education, but what is the Trivium to us now?

In its essence, the Trivium today and yesterday are the same. Classical educators today employ the Trivium as a method by which we teach what is good, true, and beautiful. When we teach anything in the method of classical education, we mean to teach the things that will shape students into what they will be for eternity: married to the divine as the bride of Christ.

The application of the Trivium takes its most apparent form in the naming of our levels of primary and secondary education. We call our elementary grades the school of Grammar. Our middle schools we call Logic. And high schools in classical education we refer to as Rhetoric.

This is not merely to place an air of sophistication upon our institution. It is to remind us what the passions of our students are in the ages that we have them.

When we say Grammar, what we mean is not only the learning of language itself but the learning of the pieces of things—not just the parts of speech, but the parts of science and the names of numbers and equations. Students in the Grammar stage of school not only learn these things because they are necessary for learning the later pieces of the Trivium, but because they actually love to learn Grammar. Children at this stage love to make lists and name things within categories.

Children in the Logic stage (as many of us I’m sure can recognize if we’ve spent time with them) love to argue. That is, they love to attempt to apply logic to figure out how things work together, though they likely won’t do it well, at least not without instruction and guidance.

Rhetoric students, in turn, love to express themselves through spoken and written words. What classical education ultimately does with these desires is to foster these natural inclinations in their developmental stages and teach them how to do each of them well.

We see then that where there is a long history of the development of classical education throughout the Western world; beginning with its origins in Greece, then Augustine in the latter part of the Roman Empire, and then adopted by the Carolingians in the Middle Ages, the reason we apply the Trivium remains the same.

We are looking to form students to become something joined in marriage to the divine. We want to form them into something that will last for all eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Mr. Daniel Wilson partners with Donum Dei Classical Academy as our Logic Humanities Teacher. Mr. Wilson has taught middle school-age children since 2009, in addition to over a decade of work in the para-education sector.