ABSTRACT
At the other extreme is the literary-generic application of 'dialogue' as a formal, rhetorical structuring device. A glance at the occurrence of the term in MED suggests that in the Middle Ages its most common reference was generic - to such works as the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, standing in the traditio~ that goes back to £-Jato and reaches out into the Renaissance. As J.W.H. Atkins has said of debate:
The debate had an extensive vogue: and it was known under a variety of names - the conflictus, certamen, contentio, disputatio, altercatio, estrif, plet, disputoison. But in every case, the essential element was the same: there was always a spirited contest in verse between two or more disputants, each ff whom claimed supremacy for the views he held.
