Bernard of Auvergne was a French Dominican theologian and philosopher who was the bishop-elect of Clermont from 1304 to 1307. He is known for his defence of Thomism.
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Life
editBernard was a native of Gannat. He entered the Dominican Order at Clermont.[1][2]
As a Bachelor of Theology,[3] Bernard lectured on Peter Lombard's Sentences at the University of Paris at an unknown date.[4] It is unknown, however, he ever became a regent master. In 1302 or 1303, he became the prior of the convent of Saint-Jacques in Paris.[5] In 1303, he led the convent in opposing Pope Boniface VIII's bull Unam sanctam.[1][3] In 1304, he was elected to succeed Peter of Auvergne as bishop of Clermont. His election was disputed and ultimately quashed by Pope Clement V in 1307.[5]
Works
editBernard was a Thomist and a staunch defender of Thomas Aquinas against his critics, for which he earned the nickname Malleus (hammer).[1] His commentary on the Sentences is partially extant in a Prague manuscript copy covering only the first book.[6][7] It was printed at Lyon in 1519. Among his other works are five questions he answered in a public disputation and four sermons he preached between 1301 and 1305.[1] In addition, an anonymous impugnatio (attack) against Giles of Rome is often but not universally attributed to him.[6]
Bernard's most important writings are his three reprobationes, also called impugnationes or improbationes.[5] These were "hostile reviews" or "impugnments" responding to some of the quodlibetal answers of Godfrey of Fontaines, James of Viterbo and Henry of Ghent.[8] They were composed in that order. The reprobatio to Godfrey was written between 1298 and 1304 and that to Henry was finished by 1315.[6] The reprobationes were widely read, being cited by John Capreolus, Peter of Palude, Henry of Herford, James of Metz, Hervaeus Natalis, Durand of Saint-Pourçain, John Baconthorpe, Michael of Massa and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Two full and four fragmentary manuscript copies of the reprobatio to Godfrey are known; five copies of the reprobatio to James; and nine of that of Henry.[9]
Against Godfrey and Henry, Bernard defends Aquinas' metaphysical notion of the composition of essence and existence.[10] With Godfrey, he critiques James of Viterbo's notion of divine ideas whereby they have a separate existence from God himself while not actual existence until created.[11] On economic questions, Bernard rejects Henry of Ghent's defence of money-changing (campsoria) as too involved. The ethical money-changer (campsor) is justly compensated for his services and there is no more that needs to be said. He also rejects Henry's early view of rents, arguing that a rental contract created a transferrable "right to receive money" (ius percipiendi pecuniam). Henry himself eventual yielded to this view.[12]
References
editNotes
edit- ^ a b c d Glorieux 2003.
- ^ Langholm 1992, pp. 295.
- ^ a b Toste 2010.
- ^ Friedman 2007, p. 412. Glorieux 2003 places his lectures in the period 1294–1297.
- ^ a b c Friedman 2007, p. 412.
- ^ a b c Friedman 2007, pp. 412–413.
- ^ Courtenay 2015, p. 23.
- ^ Langholm 1992, pp. 295–296.
- ^ Friedman 2007, pp. 413–414.
- ^ Côté 2016, p. 152.
- ^ Côté 2016, p. 164.
- ^ Langholm 1992, pp. 297–298.
Works cited
edit- Courtenay, William J. (2015). "Peter of Auvergne, Master in Arts and Theology at Paris". In Christoph Flüeler; Lidia Lanza; Marco Toste (eds.). Peter of Auvergne: University Master of the 13th Century. De Gruyter. pp. 13–27. doi:10.1515/9783110228496.13.
- Côté, Antoine (2016). "Bernard of Auvergne on James of Viterbo's Doctrine of Possibles: With a Critical Edition of Bernard's reprobatio of James's Quodlibet 1, Question 5" (PDF). Augustiniana. 66 (1–4): 151–184.
- Friedman, Russell L. (2007). "Dominican Quodlibetal Literature, ca. 1260–1330". In Christopher Schabel (ed.). Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Fourteenth Century. Brill. pp. 401–491.
- Glorieux, Palémon (2003). "Bernard of Auvergne (Alvernia)". The New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2 (2nd ed.). The Catholic University of America Press. p. 304.
- Langholm, Odd (1992). Economics in the Medieval Schools: Wealth, Exchange, Value, Money and Usury According to the Paris Theological Tradition, 1200–1350. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004452428.
- Toste, Marco (2010). "Bernard of Auvergne". In Robert E. Bjork (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Oxford University Press.
- Zuckerman, Charles (1982). "Some Texts of Bernard of Auvergne on Papal Power". Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale. 49: 174–204. JSTOR 26188651.
Further reading
edit- Heynck, Valens (1963). "Die Kontroverse zwischen Gottfried von Fontaines und Bernhard von Auvergne OP um die Lehre des hl. Thomas von der confessio informis". Franziskanische Studien. 45: 201–242.
- Pattin, Adriaan (1962). "La structure de l'être fini selon Bernard d'Auvergne, O.P. († après 1307)". Tijdschrift voor Filosofie. 24: 668–737. JSTOR 40881023.
External links
edit- Bernardo di Alvernia, Dizionario di filosofia (2009)