Robert Holcot, OP (c. 1290 – 1349) was an English Dominican

scholastic philosopher Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories. Christian scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translat ...

, theologian and influential Biblical scholar.

Biography

He was born in

Holcot Holcot is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire in England. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 399 people. At the 2011 census this had increased to 438 people, living in 182 households. The villages ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. A follower of

William of Ockham William of Ockham, OFM (; also Occam, from la, Gulielmus Occamus; 1287 – 10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and Catholic theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small vill ...

, he was nicknamed the ''Doctor firmus et indefatigabilis'', the "strong and tireless doctor." He made important contributions to semantics, the debate over God’s knowledge of future contingent events; discussions of predestination, grace and merit; and philosophical theology more generally. Modern interest in Holcot has been limited. His influence in the

late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...

, however, was clearly great, as is evidenced by the number of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century manuscripts of his work that have survived. For example, there exist 48 manuscripts of Holcot’s ''Questions on the

Sentences ''The Four Books of Sentences'' (''Libri Quattuor Sententiarum'') is a book of theology written by Peter Lombard in the 12th century. It is a systematic compilation of theology, written around 1150; it derives its name from the ''sententiae'' o ...

'' (compared to 36 manuscripts of

’s ''

'' commentary). More impressive are the 175 manuscripts of his commentary on the ''

Book of Wisdom The Book of Wisdom, or the Wisdom of Solomon, is a Jewish work written in Greek and most likely composed in Alexandria, Egypt. Generally dated to the mid-first century BCE, the central theme of the work is "wisdom" itself, appearing under two p ...

'' (''Lectiones super librum Sapientiae''), a work that has been identified as a prime literary source for

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

's ''

Nun's Priest's Tale "The Nun's Priest's Tale" (Middle English: ''The Nonnes Preestes Tale of the Cok and Hen, Chauntecleer and Pertelote'') is one of ''The Canterbury Tales'' by the Middle English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Composed in the 1390s, it is a beast fable ...

''. Holcot was still read in the sixteenth-century when the Parisian theologian,

Jacques Almain Jacques Almain (died 1515) was a prominent professor of theology at the University of Paris who died at an early age. Born in the diocese of Sens, he studied Arts at the Collège de Montaigu of the University of Paris. He served as Rector of the ...

, wrote a work engaging Holcot's opinions. The commentary on the ''

'' was printed in 1480, and, subsequently, went through many editions. An edition of the questions on the Sentences was printed at Lyon in 1497, although it contained a cover letter stating that the manuscripts used to produce this edition were disorderly and unreliable. Unfortunately, this remains the only edition of Holcot’s Sentences available today. Holcot died of the

Black plague The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

in 1349. ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', "Robert Holkot"
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References

* Hester Goodenough Gelber (ed.), ''Robert Holcot. Exploring the Boundaries of Reason: Three Questions on the Nature of God'', Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1983. * Onorato Grassi (ed.), "Il 'De obiecto actus credendi' di Robert Holcot: introduzione e edizione", in ''Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale'', 5, 1994, pp. 487–521. * Paul A. Streveler and Katherine H. Tachau, (eds.), ''Seeing the Future Clearly: Questions on Future Contingents by Robert Holcot'', Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1995.
''Super sapientiam Salomonis''
Konrad Winters, Köln 1476. * ''In proverbia Salomonis Roberti Holcoti seu Thomae Gualesii (sive hic sive ille fuerit author) explanationes locupletissime''. Petit & Frellon, Parisiis 1510 .

Studies

* John L. Farthing (1988), ''Thomas Aquinas and Gabriel Biel: Images of St. Thomas Aquinas in German Nominalism on the Eve of the Reformation'', Durham, NC: Duke. * Fritz Hoffman, ''Die Theologische Methode des Oxforder Dominikanerlehrers Robert Holcot'', Münster: Aschendorff, 1972. * Leonard A. Kennedy, ''The Philosophy of Robert Holcot, Fourteenth-Century Skeptic'', (Lewiston, NY, 1993). * Paolo Molteni, ''Roberto Holcot, O.P.: Dottrina della Grazia e della Giustificazione'', Pinerolo: Alzani, 1968. *

Heiko Oberman Heiko Augustinus Oberman (1930–2001) was a Dutch historian and theologian who specialized in the study of the Reformation. Life Oberman was born in Utrecht on 15 October 1930. He earned his doctorate in theology from the University of Utrecht ...

, ''The Harvest of Medieval Theology:

Gabriel Biel Gabriel Biel (; 1420 to 1425 – 7 December 1495) was a German scholastic philosopher and member of the Canons Regular of the Congregation of Windesheim, who were the clerical counterpart to the Brethren of the Common Life. Biel was born in Spey ...

and Late Medieval

Nominalism In metaphysics, nominalism is the view that universals and abstract objects do not actually exist other than being merely names or labels. There are at least two main versions of nominalism. One version denies the existence of universalsthings t ...

'', Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001. * Heiko Oberman, 'Facientibus quod in se est Deus non denegat Gratiam: Robert Holcot, O.P. and the Beginnings of Luther's Theology', ''Harvard Theological Review'', Vol. 55, No. 4 (Oct., 1962), pp. 317–342 * Thomas Williams, 'Transmission and Translation', in A. S. McGrade (ed.), ''The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. * John T. Slotemaker and Jeffrey C. Witt, ''Robert Holcot'', (Great Medieval Thinkers) Oxford University Press, 2016

External links

* *Walter Senner (2000). "Robert(us) Holcot OP (auch: R. Haldecotus, Doctor firmus et indefatigabilis)". In Bautz, Traugott.
Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL)
' (in German) 17. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 1151–1155. .
''Robert Holcot'', by John T. Slotemaker and Jeffrey C. Witt, 2016, Published by Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2016
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holcot, Robert 13th-century births 1349 deaths English Dominicans Scholastic philosophers 14th-century philosophers English theologians

Biography

See also

References

Further reading

Works and translations

Studies

External links