Guillaume de Champeaux (18 January 1121 in
Châlons-en-Champagne
Châlons-en-Champagne () is a city in the Grand Est region of France. It is the capital of the department of Marne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims.
Formerly called Châlons-sur-Marne, the city was officially renam ...
), known in English as William of Champeaux and
Latinised to Gulielmus de Campellis, was a French
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
and
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
.
Biography
William was born at
Champeaux near
Melun
Melun () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region, north-central France. It is located on the southeastern outskirts of Paris, about from the centre of the capital. Melun is the prefecture of the Seine-et-Ma ...
. After studying under
Anselm of Laon and
Roscellinus
Roscelin of Compiègne (), better known by his Latinized name Roscellinus Compendiensis or Rucelinus, was a French philosopher and theologian, often regarded as the founder of nominalism.
Biography
Roscellinus was born in Compiègne, France. L ...
, he taught in the school of the cathedral of
Notre-Dame, of which he was made canon in 1103.
Among his pupils was
Peter 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 des ...
, whom he had a disagreement with because Abelard challenged some of his ideas, and because William thought Abelard was too arrogant.
Abelard calls him the "supreme master" of dialectic after he replaced his master as the new teacher.
In 1108 he resigned his positions as archdeacon of Paris and master of Notre Dame, and retreated to the shrine of St Victor, outside the city walls of Paris, where, under his influence, there formed what would become the
abbey of St Victor.
He was a friend of
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. ( la, Bernardus Claraevallensis; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templars, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through t ...
, having helped Bernard recuperate from ill-health; later he motivated Bernard to write some of his important works including the ''Apologia'', which was dedicated to William.
William left St Victor in 1113 when he became
bishop of Châlons-en-Champagne, at which time he took part in the dispute concerning
investitures as a supporter of
Pope Callixtus II
Pope Callixtus II or Callistus II ( – 13 December 1124), born Guy of Burgundy, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1 February 1119 to his death in 1124. His pontificate was shaped by the Investiture Controversy, ...
, whom he represented at the
conference of Mousson.
In 1114, he issued the ''
Grande charte champenoise'' (Great Champagne Chart) which defined the agricultural and viticultural possessions of the Abbey of
Saint-Pierre-aux-Monts, thus giving rise to the modern-day
Champagne wine region. After relinquishing his Benedictine Abbacy, he moved to a
Cistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint B ...
monastery in
Rheims
Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne.
Founded by ...
, where he also composed a number of spiritual books, such as his ''Vita Prima'', which were widely read in monastic circles.
His surviving works are a fragment on the
Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was institu ...
, inserted by
Jean Mabillon in his edition of the works of
St Bernard, and the ''Moralia A brevi ala'' and ''De Origine Animae''.
[in E. Martnes Thesaurus novus Anecdotorum, 1717, vol. 5] In the last of these he maintains that children who die unbaptized must be lost, the pure soul being defiled by the grossness of the body, and declares that God's will is not to be questioned. He upholds the theory of
Creationism
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 't ...
(i.e., that a soul is specially created for each human being). Ravaisson-Mollien has discovered a number of fragments by him, among which the most important is the ''De Essentia Dei et de Substantia Dei''; a ''Liber Sententiarum'', consisting of discussions on ethics and scriptural interpretation, is also ascribed to Champeaux.
He is considered the founder of an early version of moderate realism, a philosophy which held that
universals
In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For exa ...
exist in particular things as common substances individuated by accidents and in the mind as concepts.
Notes
Bibliography
* Cameron, Margaret. ''What's in a Name? Students of William of Champeaux on the Vox Significativa'', Bochumer Philosophisches Jahrbuch fur Antike und Mittelalter 9, 2004, pp. 93–114.
* Iwakuma, Yuko. ''William of Champeaux, On Aristotle's Categories'', in Joël Biard, Irène Rosier-Catach (eds.), ''La tradition médiévale des Catégories (XII - XV siècle)'', Louvain-Paris: Peeters, 2003, pp. 313–328.
* Mews, Constant. ''Logica in the Service of Philosophy: William of Champeaux and his Influence'', Rener Berndt (ed.), ''Schrift, Schreiber, Schenker. Studien zur Abtei Sankt Viktor in Paris und de Viktorinen'', Berlin, Aksademie Verlag, 2005, pp. 77–117.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:William Of Champeaux
1070s births
1121 deaths
People from Seine-et-Marne
12th-century French philosophers
12th-century French Roman Catholic bishops
Bishops of Châlons-sur-Marne
University of Paris people
French philosophers
12th-century French Catholic theologians
Augustinian canons
Scholastic philosophers
12th-century French writers
11th-century French Catholic theologians
French male writers
Canonical Augustinian theologians
12th-century Latin writers