William of Auxerre (1140/50–1231) was a French scholastic

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 ...

and official in the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. The teacher by whom William was most influenced was Praepositinus, or Prevostin, of Cremona, Chancellor of the University of Paris from 1206 to 1209. The names of teacher and pupil are mentioned in the same sentence by

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...

.''Haec est opinio Praepositini et Autissiodorensis'' (in I Sent., XV, q. 11). He was an Archdeacon of

Beauvais Beauvais ( , ; pcd, Bieuvais) is a city and commune in northern France, and prefecture of the Oise département, in the Hauts-de-France region, north of Paris. The commune of Beauvais had a population of 56,020 , making it the most popul ...

before becoming a professor of theology at the university in

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. Si ...

. In 1231, he was made a member of the commission appointed by

Gregory IX Pope Gregory IX ( la, Gregorius IX; born Ugolino di Conti; c. 1145 or before 1170 – 22 August 1241) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 March 1227 until his death in 1241. He is known for issuing the '' Decre ...

to examine

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...

's writings on the natural sciences and to offer amendments where religiously necessary. Consequently, William was one of the first theologians to be influenced by Aristotle. His ''Summa Aurea'' shows a debt still to

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 it advances the

ontological argument An ontological argument is a philosophical argument, made from an ontological basis, that is advanced in support of the existence of God. Such arguments tend to refer to the state of being or existing. More specifically, ontological argumen ...

, but it also shows novelty and an intellectual awareness and insistence on the physical that had not been seen earlier. ''Summa Aurea'' influenced John of Treviso.

Notes

External links

* Magistri Guillelmi Autissiodorensis Summa de officiis ecclesiasticis, ed. Franz Fischer, Cologne 2007-2013, onlin
guillelmus.uni-koeln.de
.

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:William Of Auxerre Scholastic philosophers 1230s in Europe 13th-century philosophers 13th-century French people