Walter of Saint Victor (d. c. 1180) was a mystic philosopher and theologian, and an

Augustinian canon Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both Secular clergy, secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Nothing is known about Walter except that, in about the year 1175, he was prior of St. Victor's Abbey, Paris; that about the time of the

Third Lateran Council The Third Council of the Lateran met in Rome in March 1179. Pope Alexander III presided and 302 bishops attended. The Catholic Church regards it as the eleventh ecumenical council. By agreement reached at the Peace of Venice in 1177 the bitter ...

(1179) he wrote the celebrated

polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

, ''Contra quatuor labyrinthos Franciae''; and that he died about the year 1180.

Works

César-Egasse du Boulay in his "Hist. Univ. Paris." (1665) first called attention to Walter's treatise ''Contra quatuor labyrinthos Franciae'' (''Against the Four Labyrinths of France'') and published excerpts from it. The "four labyrinths" against whom the work is directed are four of the major masters of early scholastic thought:

Abelard Peter Abelard (; french: link=no, Pierre Abélard; la, Petrus Abaelardus or ''Abailardus''; 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician. This source has a detailed desc ...

Gilbert de la Porrée Gilbert de la Porrée (after 1085 – 4 September 1154), also known as Gilbert of Poitiers, Gilbertus Porretanus or Pictaviensis, was a scholastic logician and theologian and Bishop of Poitiers. Life He was born in Poitiers, and completed h ...

Peter Lombard Peter Lombard (also Peter the Lombard, Pierre Lombard or Petrus Lombardus; 1096, Novara – 21/22 July 1160, Paris), was a scholastic theologian, Bishop of Paris, and author of '' Four Books of Sentences'' which became the standard textbook of ...

, and

Peter of Poitiers Peter of Poitiers (Latin: ''Petrus Pictaviensis'') was a French scholastic theologian, born at Poitiers or in its neighbourhood about 1130. He died in Paris, probably in 1215. Life He studied at the University of Paris, where he became profess ...

. It is a bitter attack on the dialectical method in theology, and condemns the use of

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

in the elucidation of the mysteries of

faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...

. Walter is indignant at the thought of treating the mysteries of the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

and the

Incarnation Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...

"with scholastic levity". Discarding the best traditions of the School of St-Victor, he pours abuse on the philosophers, the theologians, and even the grammarians. "Thy grammar be with thee until perdition", he cries. This violence, however, defeated his purpose, which was to discredit the dialecticians. Not only did he fail to convince his contemporaries, but he very probably hastened the triumph of the method which he attacked. Four years after his polemic was published, Peter of Poitiers, one of the "labyrinths", was raised by the pope to the dignity of

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

of the

Diocese of Paris The Archdiocese of Paris (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Parisiensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Paris'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is one of twenty-three archdioceses in Franc ...

, and before the end of the decade Peter Lombard, another of the "Labyrinths", was recognized as an authority in theology, his method adopted in the schools, and his famous ''

Books of 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 ...

'' used as a text and commented on by all the great teachers — a distinction which it retained all through the thirteenth century. Some of Walter's sermons also survive.

On suicide

He has been credited with coining the term ''

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

'' (as the Latin ''suicida''). Alexander Murray, ''Suicide in the Middle Ages'' (1998), vol. 1 p.38: "At one point, punning with Latin terms, he compares the self-killer unfavourably with the ''fratricida'', an established Latin word." This is in ''Quatuor labyrinthos'', in a critique of the pagan

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

Notes

{{Authority control 12th-century French Catholic theologians Year of birth unknown 12th-century deaths Year of death unknown Canonical Augustinian theologians 12th-century Latin writers