Desire to enjoy something thoroughly: The Use of the Latin affectus in Hugh of Saint Victor’s De archa Noe

For the twelfth-century theologian Hugh of Saint Victor, the human affectus is where the problem lies in the postlapsarian human quest for God. 1 In his treatise De archa Noe, often called the De archa Noe morali, and in his influential De sacramentis christianae fidei, Hugh explains the problem in detail, offering a definition of the word affectus, along with an explanation of its role within the linked domains of soteriology and human anthropology. 2 Hugh’s understanding of the affectus relies upon other closely related Latin language terms for what we today would call emotions or emotional states. Affectus is linked to love and desire, often appearing synonymous with appetitus. 3 Hugh’s affectus is also tied to the will (voluntas). A single will, either by seeking things out or by avoiding them, forms various affectūs. 4 For Hugh, the reorientation of the affectus from the temporal to the eternal constitutes the affective core of the religious life.