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Bernardus Silvestris

(166 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] The poet and natural philosopher Bernardus was a native of Tours, worked there as a teacher (e.g. of Matthaeus de Vendôme), and died probably after 1159. He presumably wrote a commentary on Aeneis I–VI and on Martianus Capella. His thinking reveals the early influence of the Arab transmission of Aristotelianism (Aristotle, Reception History), but remains determined by the Platonism of Chartres (Thierry). His main opus, the Cosmographia (1145/1153), is based on Plato's Timaios, as well as on Calcidius, Asclepius, Macro…

Eriugena, John Scotus

(391 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 810, Ireland – c. 880, West Franconia), philosopher. This teacher of the artes liberales taught at the court or cathedral school of Charles the Bald in Laon. He wrote a commentary on Martianus Capella's De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae, which he used as a textbook on the artes liberales. For him, logic was the formal foundation of all the six other liberal arts. Eriguena prepared the first useful translation of the Corpus Dionysiacum (Dionysius Areopagita), to which he added a commentary. In his testimonial requested to de…

Fulbert of Chartres, Saint

(173 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 960/970 – Apr 10, 1028, Chartres), was a student of Gerbert of Aurillac in Reims; he became chancellor in 1004 and bishop of Chartres in 1006, where he built the Romanic Cathedral. Influenced by Neoplatonism and Ps.-Dionysius Areopagita (Pseudo-Dionysius), he valued dialectics as a scientific method, but warned against overvaluing it in theology. Regarding the doctrine of the Eucharist (Communion: II, 2; III), he argued in support of transsubstantiation and real presence (in c…

Albertus Magnus

(707 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Albertus Alemanus, Colonien- sis, Teutonicus, de Lauing; c. 1200, Lauingen – Nov 15, 1280, Cologne) was from a knightly family (not from Bollstadt). After studies in Padua, where Jordan of Saxony induced him to enter the Dominican Order in 1223, he spent his novitiate in theological studies in Cologne, took his vows in 1224, and was ordained …

Bradwardine, Thomas

(318 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1290, Hartsfield (?), Sussex – Aug 26, 1349, Lambeth) studied and taught at Balliol and Merton Colleges in Oxford from 1321 to 1326. He was ordained priest in 1332 and became chancellor of the university of Oxford. He took his licentiate in theology in 1336 and his Master's degree in 1340. He became chancellor of St Paul's in London in 1337, and …

Lanfranc

(301 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1010, Pavia – May 28, 1089, Canterbury). After studying the artes liberales in Italy until 1030, Lanfranc taught in Burgundy and Normandy. In 1042 he entered Le Bec, a Benedictine abbey in Normandy, where he served as prior from 1045 to 1063. Anselm of Canterbury began studying at Lanfranc's monastic school in 1059. In 1049/1050, 1067, and 1071, Lanfranc resided at the papal court. In debate with Berengar of Tours over the nature of the Eucharist, he contributed to the …

Reihing, Jakob

(218 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Jan 6, 1579, Augsburg – May 5, 1628, Tübingen), born to a patrician family, attended the Jesuit college in Augsburg; in Ingolstadt he began studying philosophy in 1594 and theology in 1602. In 1597 he joined the Jesuit order in Landsberg am Lech and was ordained priest in 1604. In 1606 he began lecturing in controversial theology at the Jesuit college in Munich; in 1608 he became professor of philosophy in Ingolstadt. After receiving his doctorate in theology in 1613, he was appo…

Siger of Brabant

(242 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1240 – c. 1284, Orvieto), secular canon in Liège, M.A. at the University of Paris. His Aristotelian philosophy was suspected of heresy and was attacked by Bonaventura, Thomas Aquinas, and others. On Dec 10, 1270, the bishop of Paris, Stephan Tempier, condemned his teaching. Summoned before a court of the Inquisition on Nov 23, 1276, he fled from Paris. On Mar 7, 1277, Tempier once more condemned theses imputed to Siger. His rumored teaching concerning double truth in philosoph…

Artes liberales

(276 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] In contrast to the artes mechanicae, in the ancient world the artes liberales constituted the subjects in which a free man should be educated. The early attempts of Sophists to define them were elaborated by Plato; they were systematized by Varro in the 1st century bce. In Late Antiquity, the list of seven and its division into the trivium (linguistic disciplines: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic) and quadrivium (mathematical disciplines: arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy) became canonical. While Augustine of Hippo organized the artes liberales

Gottschalk of Orbais

(266 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (806/808 – 866/870, Haut-villers, France), entered the monastery in Fulda as the oblate of his noble family, became friends with Walahfrid Strabo in the Reichenau, and was, against his will, inducted as a monk by Rabanus Maurus, from which a synod in Mainz released him in 829. Nevertheless, he permitted himself as a monk from Orbais to be ordained to the priesthood. On his journey to Italy, his ¶ doctrine of double predestination caused a scandal so that Hrabanus had him condemned and expelled in 848 at a synod in Mainz. Following a renewed condemn…

Peter of Vienna (Petrus Wiensis)

(142 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1120/1130 – 1183, Zwettl [?]). In 1153 Peter, a disciple of Gilbert of Poitiers, engaged in an epistolary dispute with Gerhoch of Reichersberg. From 1158 to 1161 he was active as a magister in Vienna. Probably while still in France, he wrote the Zwettler Summa, the most important work on systematic theology of the Porretan school, in which he defended Gilbert’s distinction between the nature and the person of God. The work comprises four sections on the Trinity, the incarnation of God, and the sacraments. Peter had conta…

Michael Scot

(135 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Scotus; before 1200, Scotland – c. 1235). Michael was present as a magister at the fourth Lateran Council in 1215. Around 1217 he was in Toledo translating works on natural history and philosophy from Arabic into Latin; he acquainted the West with Averroes. In 1220 he was teaching in Bologna. In 1225 he turned down an appointment as archbishop of Cashel in Ireland. He was active at the court of Frederick the Great as a translator and astrologer. The Latin reception of Aristotle, Avicenna, and Averroes was inspired by him. Besides his translations, he wrote the works: Liber i…

Dominicus Gundissalinus

(310 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1110 – after 1181). The archdeacon of Segovia was a member of the Toledo School of Translation and translated works by Alkindi (Kindī), Alfarabi (Fārābī), Avicebron (S. Ibn Gabirol), Avicenna, Alghazzali (Ġazzālī), and I. Israeli into Latin. His own writings are, for the most part, compilations of Arabic and Latin works. In his doctrine of the soul, De immortalitate animae, he addresses various proofs of immortality that are based on the inner essence of the soul, such as its activity and…

Peter Aureol

(303 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Petrus Aureoli; c. 1280, Gourdon – Jan 10, 1322, Avignon). After becoming a Franciscan around 1300, Peter studied in Paris, possibly with J. Duns Scotus; in 1312 he was teaching in Paris, in 1314 in Toulouse, and from 1316 to 1318 in Paris. In 1318 he received his master’s degree in theology in Paris. In 1320 he became the Franciscan provincial in Aquitaine, and in 1321 archbishop of Aix. In 1311 his Tractatus de paupertate he dealt with the issue of Franciscan poverty (IV, 2). In 1312 he wrote a metaphysical Tractatus de principiis. In 1314 he defended the Immaculate Co…

Peter of Poitiers (Saint)

(175 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1130, Poitiers – Sep 3, 1205, Paris) studied at Paris before 1159 and was a student of Peter Lombard. In 1169 he succeeded Peter Comestor in the chair of theology. In 1193 he succeeded Hilduin as chancellor of Notre Dame. In his magnum opus, Sententiarum libri quinque, published before 1170, he applied the dialectical method to theology. His sermons have also survived. His theological methodology was criticized severely in 1180 by Walter of St. Victor, who attacked him along with Abelard as one the “four labyrinths of France.” Reinhold Rieger Bibliography Eds.: Allego…

Paschasius Radbertus (Saint)

(212 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 790 – c. 859 Corbie), abbot of Corbie from 843/844 to 851 and had a part in the founding of Corvey Abbey; he was a vigorous opponent of Ratramnus. In De partu virginis (c. 845), he defended the virginity of Mary at the birth of Jesus (Virgin birth), but he had reservations concerning liturgical celebration of Mary’s bodily assumption into heaven (Mary, Assumption of). In De corpore et sanguine Domini he supported the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the identity of the eucharistic body of Christ with his historical body. His methodology…

William of Auxerre

(191 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1150, Auxerre [?] – 1231, Rome), archdeacon of Beauvais. From 1229 to 1231, he was involved in the conflict between the University of Paris and the French king, acting on the bull Parens scientiarum (Apr 13, 1231) of Gregory IX confirming and expanding the rights of the university. The amendment of the Aristotelian natural sciences by a papal commission on which William sat had no effect. His Summa aurea (1215/1229), his major work, became the textbook of the early Dominican school of Paris. He considered theology a science as defined in Aristotle’s Analytica posterio…

Murner, Thomas

(327 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Dec 24, 1475, Oberehnheim [Obernai, Alsace] – 1537, Oberehnheim). After attending the Franciscan monastery school in Strasbourg, Murner entered the order in 1490, became a priest in 1494, and studied between 1495 and 1501 at the universities of Freiburg im Breisgau, Paris, Cologne, Rostock, Prague, Krakov, and Vienna. In Freiburg he became in 1506 doctor of theology, and in Basel in 1519 doctor of canon and civil law. He served his order ¶ as lector in Freiburg, Berne, Speyer, and Frankfurt am Main. In Vienna in 1505 he was crowned poeta laureatus. Following S. Brant h…

Arnold of Brescia

(312 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1100, Brescia – 1155, Rome). Arnold, who may have been a pupil of Abelard in Paris 1115–1120, was an Augustinian Canon and possibly provost of the monastery of San Pietro a Ripa in Brescia. There, in contact with Cathari and Waldensians, he supported the reform program of the Patarines, opposing …

Trutvetter, Jodocus

(190 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (born in Eisenach – May 9, 1519, Erfurt). As an M.A. (1484) Trutvetter was Luther’s teacher in Erfurt from 1501 to 1505, before Luther began his theological studies. He was a canon of Sankt Severin in Erfurt. In 1501 he became rector of the University of Erfurt, where he received is doctorate in theology in 1504. In 1507 he became a professor in Wittenberg and an archdeacon at the Allerheiligenstift. He served as rector of the University of Wittenberg in 1507/1508 and as dean of t…

Hugh of St. Victor

(424 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (d. Feb 11, 1141, Paris). Possibly born in Saxony, Hugh received his early education from the Augustinians at Halberstadt, but soon went to Paris to attend the school of St. Victor, whose most influential teacher he was to become. Before 1125 he wrote his Didascalion de studio legendi, a normative but also historically based theory of the sciences, of which he distinguishes four types: theoretical, practical, mechanical, and logical. Following Boethius, he divides the theoretical sciences into theology, mathematics, and physic…

Leuven, University

(362 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] The University of Leuven (Lovanium, Louvain), established by a bull of Martin V dated Dec 9, 1425, was opened on 7 Sep. 1426 by Duke John IV; the theological faculty was set up by Eugenius IV on Mar 3, 1432. The faculty of arts was organized in 1435 as four nationes (Brabant, Gaul, Flanders, Holland). In 1428 there was conflict between the university and the town over exemption from taxes. The university was dominated by the via antiqua (Universals controversy in the Middle Ages). In 1446 there was a dispute between Henry of Zomeren and Peter of Rivo over …

Peter of Spain

(149 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (or Peter of Portugal; 13th cent.). Long identified with Pope John XXI, the author of the widely disseminated Summulae logicales (c. 1240) is now recognized as a different person. His treatise on dialectics expanded the logica vetus, based on Porphyry together with Aristotle’s work on categories and his De interpretatione, and the logica nova, which included Aristotle’s Analytica and Elenchi sophistici together with the topics and syllogistics of Boethius, by adding the logica modernorum, the terministic logic that discusses the properties of terms, es…

Alain of Lille

(139 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] Alanus ab Insulis (1116/1130 near Lille– 1202/1203 as a Cistercian). Alain probably studied in Paris and Chartres around 1140/50 with Gilbert of Poitiers, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Thierry of Chartres. He then taught liberal arts and theology in Paris and Montpellier. On the one hand, he wrote poetical-philosophical pieces such as De planctu naturae and Anticlaudianus de Antirufino portraying his philosophy of nature and ethical views in allegorical form. On the other, his Regulae Theologicae or Regulae caelestis iuris initiated a new type of theology based…

William of Auvergne

(238 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1180, Aurillac – Mar 30, 1249, Paris). After receiving his master’s in theology and becoming a canon in Paris in 1225, William was ordained to the priesthood and became bishop of Paris in 1228. In 1229 he created a university chair for Roland of Cremona, the first Dominican to come to Paris; when Alexander of Hales joined the Franciscans in 1236, he occupied his first chair at the same university. In his own theology, William stood in the Augustinian tradition and criticized the growing favor of Aristotelianism, mediated through Arab scholars. His most important work, Ma…

Robert of Melun

(180 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1100 – Feb 2, 1167, Hereford), pupil of Abelard and Hugh of St. Victor in Paris; 1137, M.A. in Paris. Robert’s pupils included Thomas Becket and John of Salisbury. Robert was a theologian in Melun; he was an opponent of Gilbert of Poitiers and Peter Lombard. In 1160 he became arch-¶ deacon of Oxford and in 1163 bishop of Hereford. His magnum opus, the Sententiae, deals in its first book with the salvific events of the Old Testament, with the doctrine of God and the Trinity, and anthropology. Its second book deals with the salvific events of…

Lorichius, Jodocus

(185 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Lurkäs; 1540, Trarbach/Mosel – Sep 29, 1612, Freiburg im Breisgau), began his studies in Freiburg in 1562 and received his master's degree in 1566. From 1568, he studied theology, earned his doctorate in 1574, and became professor in 1575. Lorichius participated in the revision of the statutes of the faculty of theology and of the university of Freiburg (1578/1586, 1581/1583). He was dean of the faculty of theology and rector of the university several times. His lectures, Lectiones de casibus conscientiae (1595–1598), and his principal work, Thesaurus novus utrius…

Monte Cassino

(423 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] The abbey of Monte Cassino was founded in 539 by Benedict of Nursia in the area of the Roman Casinum. After its destruction by the ¶ Lombards in 577, its monks fled to Rome. In 718, Monte Cassino was refounded by Abbot Petronax from Brescia. In 744, the duke of Benevento, Gisulf II, donated land to the abbey, which was later extended. In 787, Charlemagne confirmed the abbey's possession. By papal privileges, Monte Cassino was made exempt from episcopal influence (Exemption). Abbot Girulf…

Stephen Langton

(216 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (1155, 1165, Langton, Lincolnshire – Jul 9, 1228, Slindon, Sussex), studied in Paris c. 1170, 1180; he may have been a canon at Notre Dame. In 1206 he became a cardinal priest in Rome and was elected archbishop of Canterbury in 1207 despite the objections of King John Lackland. He remained in exile in Pontigny, near Auxerre, until 1213. In England he mediated between the king and the barons (Magna Carta). He was suspended from office by Innocent III. He took part in the fourth Lat…

Latomus, Jacobus

(198 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Jacques Masson; around 1475, Cambron, Belgium – May 29, 1544, Leuven), studied the artes liberales in Paris and earned his master's after 1500 in Leuven. Awarded the Dr. theol. in 1519, he became rector of the University of Leuven in 1537. Latomus participated as a theological adviser in the ¶ proceedings of the Inquisition against Jacobus Praepositus and W. Tyndale. In his De trium linguarum et studii theologici ratione dialogus (1518), he attacked the philological method of Erasmus of Rotterdam and opposed it with the ecclesial tradition. In 152…

Dietrich of Freiberg

(327 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1240 – c. 1318/1320) studied in German Dominican colleges and in Paris from 1272 to 1274. In 1280, he became a lecturer in Trier, from 1293 to 1296 the provincial prior of the order's German province, and from 1294 to 1296 its vicar general. In 1297, he became magister of theology in Paris. In 1310, he temporarily governed the German sub-province of Teutonia. Dietrich primarily concerned himself with epistemology and the theory of the intellect, but also…

Abelard, Peter

(922 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Abailardus, Baiolardus; “Peripateticus Palatinus”) was born in 1079 in Le Pallet near Nantes, and died on Apr 21, 1142 in St-Marcel near Chalon-sur-Saône. In order to devote himself to scholarship, he renounced his rights as firstborn in his equestrian family. From 1095 to 1102, he studied logic under Roscelin of Compiègne and under …

Ratramnus

(172 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (died c. 870), monk at Corbie Abbey. He intervened in the first Eucharistic controversy with his writing De corpore et sanguine Domini (843), directed against Paschasius Radbertus; using dialectical method he opposed a sensory understanding of the Lord’s Supper, showing that the sacrament was always hidden as a mystery beneath a figura, and rejecting identification of the historical with the sacramental body of Christ. In this he influenced Berengar of Tours. In the books De praedestinatione (849/850), also commissioned by Charles the Bald, he opposed Hi…

Peter of Bruis

(181 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (died c. 1133, abbey of St. Gilles-les-Boucheries) was initially a priest in the French Alps but was removed from office in 1119. As an itinerant preacher in southern France, he criticized the church, rejected infant baptism, rebaptized adults, denied the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and rejected the mass, along with veneration of the cross and building churches. He acknowledged the authority of the Gospels alone, not other biblical books or the church fathers. During…

Durandus de Sancto Porciano

(314 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1275, St. Pourçain-sur-Sioule – Sep 10, 1334, Meaux), Dominican, possibly a student of James of Metz and Hervaeus Natalis c. 1300. In 1307/08 he lectured on the Sentences at St. Jacques, Paris; in 1312 M.Theol. in Paris; in 1313 lector sacri palatii in Avignon; in 1317 bishop of Limoux; in 1318 bishop of Le-Puy-en-Velay; in 1326 bishop of Meaux. His Commentary on the Sentences of 1308 called forth vehement criticism for its anti-Thomist tendencies (condemned several times by his order, esp. i…

Thierry of Chartres

(149 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Theodoricus Brito; died c. 1156). Thierry taught the artes liberales and theology in Paris c. 1130/1140 and for some time in Chartres. His students included Petrus Helias, Ivo of Chartres, John of Salisbury, and Clarembald of Arras. He wrote primarily commentaries on Cicero’s De inventione, the Rhetorica ad Herennium (c. 1130), and Boethius’s De trinitate (after 1148). His glosses and lectures on the latter have also survived. His doctrine of the Trinity was influenced by the Neoplatonic question of the relationship between one and many. His Tractatus de sex dieru…

John of Salisbury

(248 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (1115/1120, Old Sarum – Oct 25, 1180, Salisbury). John studied in Paris (1136–1147) with Abelard, William of Conches, Gilbert of Poitiers, Robert of Melun, Thierry of Chartres, and ¶ Robert Pullus. In 1154, he entered the service of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury, and in 1162 that of Theobald's successor, Thomas Becket. Because of Becket's conflict with Henry II, John was banished to Reims (1163–1170). In 1176, he became bishop of Chartres. His writings are marked by his classical education. The Entheticus (1155) is a didactic poem on philosophy. The Metalogicon (1…

Ivo of Chartres

(190 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (1040, Chartres? – Dec 23, 1115/1116, Chartres). Following studies in Le Bec (near Lanfranc) and in Paris, Ivo became canon in Nesle, then provost of the canons regular of St. Quentin in Beauvais, and finally bishop of Chartres in 1090. He contributed to the resolution of the Investiture Controversy by distinguishing between ecclesial and royal, unalterable and alterable, spiritual and wordly law. He supported the canons regular (Regulated clergy), whom he placed above the monks. …

Isidore of Seville (Saint)

(399 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 560 – Apr 4, 636, Seville). From a Hispano-Roman family who migrated from Cartagena to Seville, Isidore succeeded his brother Leander as archbishop of Seville" in 599/601. He was an adviser to King Sisebut, founded episcopal schools with libraries in Seville, Toledo, and Saragossa and chaired the synods of Seville (619) and Toledo (633). In many of his works, he endeavored to communicate, especially to the clergy, comprehensive religious and secular learning nourished by antiquity. The Differentiae contain an alphabetical list of words meant to elucida…

Honorius of Autun

(141 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] ( Honorius Augustodunensis; 1080/1090 – c. 1150, Weih St. Peter). A Benedictine friar, Honorius of Autun was probably a disciple of Anselm of Canterbury. Around the year 1100, he wrote the Elucidarium in Canterbury, a didactic theological dialogue that became widely circulated. His historico-theological exegesis of the Song of Songs was written in Regensburg, as was his world history Summa totius and the Clavis physicae, the latter being dependent on John Scotus Eriugena. Honorius was above all a ¶ compiler, but with popularizing and systematizing aims. Reinhold Ri…

Lyon, Councils of

(650 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] I. The first Council of Lyon was the renewed attempt of Pope Gregory IX to oppose Emperor Frederick Hohenstaufen after the emperor had forestalled a council convoked in Rome by Gregory in 1241. His successor ¶ Innocent IV succeeded in evading the power of the emperor and on Jan 3, 1245, convoked a council in Lyon to clarify the relationship between pope and emperor, take measures against the Tartars, and find help for the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Land. The council held three sessions from …

Guitmund of Aversa

(90 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (d. 1090/1095 in Aversa) was a monk in La-Croix-St-Leufroy who studied under Lanfranc of Bec. He declined appointments to bishoprics in England and Rouen, but agreed to become bishop in Aversa in 1088. As an opponent of Berengar of Tours, he did preliminary work on the doctrine of transsubstantiation with the concept of the mutatio substantiva. Reinhold Rieger Bibliography PL 149, 1427–1512 G. Macy, The Theologies of the Eucharist in the Early Scholastic Period, 1984 M. Dell'Omo, “Ricerche biografiche su Guitmondo,” Ben. 40, 1993, 9–34.

Buridan, Jean

(173 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1300–1359/1360). As teacher of the artes liberales , Buridan became rector of the University of Paris (II) in 1328 and 1340. Despite his nominalism imbued with Occamism (William of Occam), he partially distanced himself from radical Occamist doctrines, such as the doctrine …

Roscelin (Roscellin) of Compiègne

(167 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1050 Compiègne – 1120/1125) studied at Soissons and Reims; among the places he taught was Loches, where Abelard studied with him. His application of dialectics and semantics to theology made his teaching regarding the Trinity as a unity of the divine essence in three persons appear as tritheism, although his aim was to avoid Sabellianism and Arianism. He was forced to recant at a synod in Soissons (1090/1093). His critics, including Abelard in his Theologia summi boni, did not understand his concerns but objected that his writings did not use concepts …

Universals Controversy in the Middle Ages

(2,466 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] I. The Philosophical Problem The universals controversy concerns the nature of the general and its relationship to the particular (General/Particular). The fundamental ontological assumption that the world consists of objects with attributes is reflected in the subject-predicate structure of declarative sentences, based on the logical relationship of singular to general terms, elements to sets, individuals to general concepts. Can this logical and ontological dualism, governed by the …

Berengar of Tours

(181 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1000, Tours – Jan 6, 1088, St. Côme near Tours) studied with Fulbert in Chartres, and became the head and chancellor of the school of Tours, where he taught the Trivium ( Artes liberales ). He advised the count of Anjou and was archdeacon of Angers. His eucharistic doctrine, over which he became embroiled in a fierce dispute with Lanfranc of Pavia, was condemned in 1050 at synods in Rome and Vercelli…

Nicholas of Autrecourt

(218 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (1298/1299, Autrécourt – Jun 17, 1369, Metz). After studying law in Orleans (?) and theology in Paris, in 1335/1336 he received his first degree in theology and in 1339/1340 his licentiate. In 1340 he was appointed dean of the cathedral chapter of Metz. In 1340 Benedict XII summoned him to Avignon to stand trial for false teaching; in 1346 he was finally condemned by Pope Clement VI and had to recant. In his writings and correspondence (e.g. with the Franciscan Bernard of Arezzo),…

Hervaeus Natalis

(187 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (after 1250 – Aug 7, 1323, Narbonne). A Dominican friar who joined the order in Morlaix (1276), Hervaeus Natalis lectured in Paris from 1302 to 1309, was appointed Dominican provincial in 1309, and superior general in 1318. He defended Thomas Aquinas against Henry of Ghent, J. Duns Scotus, Peter Aureol, Jakob of Metz, and Durandus ¶ de Sancto Porciano. However, he criticized the assumption of a real difference between being and essence as well as Aquinas's psychological doctrine of Trinity. Reinhold Rieger Bibliography Works include: Quodlibeta XI, Tractatus, 1513, …

Simon, Richard

(236 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (May 13, 1638, Dieppe – Apr 11, 1712, Dieppe), studied at the Oratorian College in Dieppe and in 1657 at the Jesuit College in Rouen. In 1670 he became a priest of the Oratory. His Histoire critique du Vieux Testament (1678; ET: A Critical History of the Old Testament, 1682) was confiscated at the instigation of J.B. Bossuet but was published in a new edition in Amsterdam and Rotterdam in 1680. In it he attempted to counter the attacks of B. Spinoza on the authority of the Old Testament with the principle of the historical grow…

Gilbert of Poitiers

(259 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (de la Porrée, de Poitiers; c. 1080, Poitiers, France – Sep 4, 1154, Poitiers) studied with Hilary of Poitiers, Bernard of Chartres and Anselm of Laon. After canonries in Poitiers and Chartres, he taught in Paris and became bishop of Poitiers in 1142. In his commentaries on Boethius, Gilbert distinguished between speculative (physics, ethics, logic) and practical sciences (e.g. medicine). He divided physics into natural science, mathematics and theology. In order to understand the…

Adelard of Bath

(165 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] This English translator and natural philosopher was a Benedict, who lived between 1070 and 1160 and was probably from Bath, to which he returned in 1130; he studied in Tours, probably taught in Laon, and undertook extensive journeys in the Mediterranean region, where he became acquainted with Arab science. His chief merit consists in his mediation of ancient and Arab natural philosophy of Antiquity to the West. He translated Euclid's Elements, the introduction to astrology by Abu Mashar, and the astronomical tables of al-…

Albert von Sachsen

(158 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (1316, Helmstedt – Aug 8, 1390, Halberstadt), natural philosopher and logician. Albert studied at the University of Paris, where he became Master of Arts in 1351 and Rector in 1353. In 1362, he entered the service of Urban V; in 1365, he became the first rector of the University of Vienna and in 1366 bishop of Halberstadt. While in Paris, he wrote a commentary on the physical and logical works of Aristotle and a compendium of logic, Perutilis Logica, influenced by William of Occam, as well as the Sophismata. In natural philosophy and logic, his …

Anselm of Laon

(169 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1050 – Jul 15, 1117, Laon) was a student of Anselm of Canterbury in Bec, then canon and dean in Laon. From c. 1080, he and his brother Radulph led the cathedral school of Laon, which also included William of Champeaux. Under Anselm's leadership, the Glossa ordinaria, as they were later called, originated on the whole Bible based on statements by the Fathers and more recent theologians. The glosses on the Psalms, John and the letters of Paul…

Ailly, Pierre d'

(234 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (1351, Compiègne - Aug 9, 1420, Avignon) studied in Paris, took the M.A. in 1368 and the Mag. theol. in 1381; in 1375, he became canon in Soissons, in 1381 in Noyon, later also in Meaux, Amiens, Cambrai, Compiègne, Rouen and Paris; he was rector of the Collège de Navarre from 1384 to 1389 and became father-confessor to Charles VI in 1389. From…

Peckham, John

(291 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1230, Patcham, Sussex – Dec 8, 1292, Mortlake, Surrey). After joining the Franciscans in 1250, Peckham studied in Paris and Oxford. From 1269 to 1271 he taught as magister regens in Paris, lecturing on the Sentences of Peter Lombard; from 1272 to 1275 he taught at Oxford, where he introduced the disputatio de quolibet (Disputation: II). He defended the Franciscan ideal of poverty (IV) against the Dominican R. Kilwardby. In 1275 he was made provincial of the Franciscan order in England; in 1276 he attended the general chapter in P…

Duns Scotus, John

(1,682 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (“Doctor subtilis”; 1265/66 Duns?, Scotland – Nov 8, 1308, Cologne). There is great uncertainty on the biography of Duns Scotus. He came from Scotland, entered the Franciscan Order (Franciscans), and studied at Oxford and possibly Paris. He was ordained a priest in 1291. Whether he first taught at Cambridge is under dispute. Around 1300, he lectured ¶ at Oxford on the Sentences of Peter Lombard; likewise in Paris beginning in 1302. He was expelled from the country in 1303 for …

Amalrich von Bena

(117 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Amaury; born Bène, near Chartres, died 1206, Paris) studied and taught the artes liberales in Paris. He also was engaged in theology and developed a pantheistic Gnostic interpretation of history, inspired by Neoplatonism, based on John Scotus Eriugena and the natural philosophy of Aristotle. Our knowledge of his system depends entirely on works written by his opponents. His teachings were condemned in 1210 by a synod in Paris, along with the teachings of David, and in 1215 by the 4th Lateran Council. His followers were persecuted as heretics. Reinhold Rieger Bibliogra…

Raymond of Sabunde

(194 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Sebundus, Ramon Sibiuda; died Apr 29, 1436, Toulouse), taught philosophy, medicine, and theology in Toulouse, where he was also rector of the university. In his main work, Scientia libri creaturarum (1434/1435; in later eds., Theologia naturalis), he develops a natural theology based on experience, in the Franciscan tradition and oriented to Augustine and Anselm of Canterbury: since humanity is the center of creation, self-knowledge is the key to knowledge of God; theology is a practical science, necessary because…

William of Conches

(169 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1080, Conches – c. 1154). From 1120 on he taught at the cathedral school of Chartres. From 1144 to 1149 he was in the service of the duke of Normandy. He wrote commentaries on classical authors such as Boethius ( De consolatione philosophiae), Macrobius, Juvenal, Priscian, and Plato ( Timaeus). His primary interest was natural philosophy, which he explored cosmologically and anthropologically in his Philosophia mundi (c. 1124) and Dragmaticon philosophiae (1144–1149). He drew especially on Arabic medical sources. His copious use of classical and …

Lateran Councils

(2,427 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] The Lateran Councils, which were held in the papal palace in Rome, the Lateran, belong among the so-called “papal councils,” because they were convened and largely defined by the bishop of Rome. In the wake of the Counter-Reformation they were counted as the 9th-12th and the 18th ecumenical councils. First Lateran Council. Called in June 1122 by Pope Callistus II, this synod, which met Mar 27–28, 1123 and was attended only by Western representatives, set out to continue the Gregorian “reforms,” after the Concordat (Concordats) of …

Gerhoch of Reichersberg

(293 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (1092/93, Polling – Jun 27, 1169, Reichersberg). After his education in ¶ monastery schools in Polling, Moosburg, Freising and Hildesheim, Gerhoch was cathedral scholaster in Augsburg and joined the Augustinian Canons in Rottenbuch in 1124. There he unsuccessfully proposed the Vita communis for the secular clergy. From 1132 until his death, he was provost of the Canons Regular in Reichersberg. In efforts to reform the clergy, whose secularization (Simony) he criticized, he addressed letters and essays to Bernard of Clair…

Grosseteste, Robert

(291 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (c. 1170, Suffolk, England – Oct 8/9, 1253). After studying and teaching the artes liberales in Oxford, he studied theology in Paris and taught again at Oxford (c. 1225–1235) for the Franciscans. In 1229, Grosseteste became archdeacon in Leicester and in 1235 bishop of Lincoln. He participated in the Council in Lyon in 1245. He sought to execute reforms in the religious life of the clergy in his diocese. ¶ He translated works by John of Damascus, Dionysius Areopagita, Aristotle ( Eth. Nic. and Cael.) from the Greek. Grosseteste wrote commentaries on the Hexaemeron, the Te…

David of Dinant

(138 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (died 1206/1210) probably received the Master of Arts in Paris, and supposedly spent time at the court of Innocent III. He excerpted and translated Aristotle's works of natural philosophy from Greek, discovered his De problematibus, and developed, under neoplatonic influence, a pantheistic philosophy in which he identified God with the primary material and mind. He defended the worldview of Pythagoras ag…

Nicholas of Amiens

(108 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (1147 – after 1203). A student of Alain of Lille and Gilbert of Poitiers, Nicholas wrote the apologetic Ars fidei catholicae, in which, following the model of Euclid’s geometry and inspired by Aristotle’s Analytica posteriora, he tried to derive theological tenets from more fundamental nontheological statements having the character of definitions, postulates, and axioms, forgoing citation of authorities. His hope was to secure the position of theology as a science. The work follows the structure of Peter Lombard’s Sententiae. Reinhold Rieger Bibliography Ed.: Ar…

Richard of Mediavilla

(135 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold
[German Version] (Middleton; called doctor solidus; c. 1249 – c. 1308), gained his bachelor’s degree in theology between 1278 and 1284, and his master’s ¶ degree in 1284/85. Until 1286/1287 he was provincial of the Franciscans in France, and taught theology in Paris. In 1283 he participated in the condemnation of P.-R. Olivétan. From 1286 to 1297, Richard was tutorto the son of Charles II of Naples. Following Bonaventura, he criticized some of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas and the Averroists (Averroes). He held that t…

Chartres

(553 words)

Author(s): Rieger, Reinhold | Winterfeld, Dethard v.
[German Version] I. Bishopric and Cathedral School – II. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame I. Bishopric and Cathedral School The bishopric of Chartres probably goes back to the 4th century. The first documented bishop is Adventinus (511). The bishops Fulbert of Chartres (1006–1028), Ivo of Chartres (1090–1116), John of Salisbury (1177–1180), and Peter of Celle (1180–1183) engaged in scholarly activities. The see of Chartres was suffragan to Sens and, from 1622, to Paris. The cathedral sch…

Grace

(9,133 words)

Author(s): Filoramo, Giovanni | Spiekermann, Hermann | Sänger, Dieter | Rieger, Reinhold | Saarinen, Risto | Et al.
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Church History – V. Systematic Theology – VI. Law – VII. Judaism I. Religious Studies 1. The use of the term grace has been influenced strongly by the historically innovative Pauline conception. For Paul, grace is a gift, a unique fruit of God's salvific purpose and redemptive action. After the analogy of other redemptive religions, Paul employed this term to denote a fundamental aspect of the salvific action of the deity. In other religion…

Human Beings

(18,165 words)

Author(s): Gregersen, Niels H. | Grünschloß, Andreas | Figal, Günter | Janowski, Bernd | Lichtenberger, Hermann | Et al.
[German Version] I. Natural Sciences and Psychology – II. Religious Studies – III. Philosophy – IV. Old Testament – V. New Testament – VI. Church History – VII. Dogmatics and Ethics – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam I. Natural Sciences and Psychology 1. Evolution From the perspective of the natural sciences, the theory of evolution offers the most comprehensive framework for understanding human beings. It views the human species as a late product of a biogenetic process that began with the origin of life (VI) on earth some 3.8 billion …

Allegory

(3,568 words)

Author(s): Stolz, Fritz | Most, Glenn W. | Klauck, Hans-Josef | Bienert, Wolfgang A. | Rieger, Reinhold | Et al.
[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Classical Antiquity – III. Bible– IV. Church History – V. Systematics – VI. Practical Exegesis– VII. Religious Art I. History of Religions Allegory (from Gk ἀλληγορέω/ allēgoreō, “say something other [than the literal meaning]”), is a hermeneutical technique (Hermeneutics). The moment a religious message becomes fixed (esp. in writing), a need for interpretation arises. One way to meet this need is t…
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