William of Auvergne (bishop)

Opera omnia, 1674

William of Auvergne (1180/90-1249) was a French priest who served as Bishop of Paris from 1228 until his death in 1249. He is also known as Guillaume d'Auvergne, Guilielmus Alvernus, or William of Paris.

Life

Very little is known of William's early life. He was born in Aurillac and the likely date range for his birth is reckoned from the fact that a professor of Theology normally needed to be at least 35 years old. If that holds good, then William could have been born as early as 1180 or as late as 1190.

He went to Paris to study and earned a master's degree in Theology at the University of Paris. A Scholastic philosopher, he was made a professor first in the faculty of arts and then in 1220 in that of theology. His theology was systematically Aristotelian, although not uncritically so, and he was the first theologian to attempt to reconcile Aristotle with Christian doctrine, and especially with the teachings of Augustine of Hippo.[1] The Aristotelian texts which were then available in Western Europe were few in number and mostly Arab translations. William sought to rescue Aristotle from the Arabians and worked to refute certain doctrines, such as the eternality of the world and the heresy of Catharism. His major work is the Magisterium Divinale, which has been translated as "Teaching on God in the Mode of Wisdom"[2]

By 1223, William was a canon at the Notre Dame cathedral. Upon the death of the bishop of Paris, Bartholomaeus (20 Oct 1227), the canons elected Nicolas as the next bishop. William was dissatisfied with this outcome and went to Rome to ask the Pope to intervene. Whilst in Rome he made such a strong impression on Pope Gregory IX that the pope chose William in 1228 to be the next bishop of Paris.[3]

As bishop of Paris William was a strong supporter of the university although his episcopacy was not without controversy in the eyes of the university. Following a heavy-handed use of royal force, which led to several students being killed in Paris, university staff turned to William expecting him to defend them. His failure to do so led to a university strike with many prominent masters and students leaving to go to other cities where they then founded new schools and universities. With the academic staff on strike William decided to appoint Roland of Cremona OP to a master's chair in theology, thus beginning a long and distinguished tradition in which Dominican and Franciscan masters taught at the university.

Whilst William was a strong advocate for the use of reason and academic study in theology, he also maintained that academic theology was at the service of the church and must conform to doctrinal requirements. As a result of this in January 1241 he published a list of 10 theological propositions which he condemned and ordered should not be taught at the university.[4]

During his episcopate he also took action against prostitution in the city. In 1248, he served on the Regency council during Louis IX's absence on the Seventh Crusade.

Works

Translations

Notes

  1. ↑ Philosophical Connections, William of Auvergne accessed on 23 August 2010
  2. ↑ William of Auvergne: On the Virtues, translated by Roland J Teske, Marquette Univ Press, 2009, p.9
  3. ↑ William of Auvergne by Roland Teske, on Bartholomew's World, William of Auvergne accessed on 23 August 2010
  4. ↑ Medieval Sourcebook, University of Paris condemnation of errors 1241 accessed on 23 August 2010

References

Further reading

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