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[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, …

[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…

[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…

[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-…

[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 …

[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…

[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…

[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…

[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 …

[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…

[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…

[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…

[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 …

[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 …

[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…

[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…

[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…

[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…

[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…