Odo of Tournai, also known as Odoardus or Odo of Orléans (1060–1113), was a

Benedictine monk The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, they ...

, scholar and

bishop of Cambrai This is a List of bishops and archbishops of Cambrai, that is, of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cambrai. Bishops For the first bishops of Arras and Cambrai, who resided at the former place, see Roman Catholic Diocese of Arras. On the death ...

(from 1105/6).

Biography

Odo was born at

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

to teach in that city, and there soon won a great reputation. He became a Benedictine monk (1095) in St. Martin's Abbey, Tournai, of which he became abbot later. In 1105 he was chosen

Bishop of Cambrai This is a List of bishops and archbishops of Cambrai, that is, of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cambrai. Bishops For the first bishops of Arras and Cambrai, who resided at the former place, see Roman Catholic Diocese of Arras. On the death ...

, and was consecrated during a synod at

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

. For some time after he was unable to obtain possession of his see owing to his refusal to receive

investiture Investiture (from the Latin preposition ''in'' and verb ''vestire'', "dress" from ''vestis'' "robe") is a formal installation or ceremony that a person undergoes, often related to membership in Christian religious institutes as well as Christian kn ...

at the hands of Emperor Henry IV, but the latter's son Henry restored the See of Cambrai to Odo in 1106. He laboured diligently for his diocese, but in 1110 he was exiled on the ground that he had never received the cross and ring from the emperor. Odo retired to

Anchin Abbey Anchin Abbey was a Rule of St. Benedict, Benedictine monastery founded in 1079 in the commune of Pecquencourt in what is now the Nord (French department), Nord department of France. Geography Aquicintum then Aquacignium , Anchin (or Chisho) is a ...

, near

Pecquencourt Pecquencourt () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Geography Climate Pecquencourt has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification ''Cfb''). The average annual temperature in Pecquencourt is . The average annual rai ...

, where he died without regaining possession of his diocese.

Works and translations

Many of his works are lost. His treatise ''De peccato originali'' in three books, composed between 1095 and 1105, discuss the problem of universals, and of genera and species from a realist viewpoint. * ''De peccato originali libri tres'' Migne, ''Patrologia Latina'', vol. CLX, col. 1071–1102. * ''On Original Sin and A Disputation with the Jew, Leo, Concerning the Advent of Christ, the Son of God. Two Theological Treatises'', Translated and edited by Irven M. Resnick, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994. According to

Herman of Tournai Herman of Tournai, Herman of Laon or Hériman of Tournai, (French ''Hériman'', Latin ''Herimannus''; 1095–1147), the third abbot of Saint Martin of Tournai, was a chronicler of his abbey and, in many anecdotal accounts connected with the abbey, ...

, Odo "delighted in the number of scribes that the Lord had given him, so that if you went into the cloister you would commonly see twelve young monks seated in chairs and writing in silence at carefully and skilfully made desks".P. D. A. Harvey
''Medieval Maps of the Holy Land''
(The British Library, 2012), pp. 40–41.

Bibliography

* I. M. Resnick (1997), ''Odo of Tournai, the Phoenix, and the Problem of Universals'', Journal of the History of Philosophy, Volume 35, Number 3, pp. 355–374. * Christophe Erismann, ''L’homme commun. La genèse du réalisme ontologique durant le haut Moyen Âge'', Vrin 2011. (Chapter VI: ''Odon de Cambrai'', pp. 331–362).

References

* French Benedictines Bishops of Cambrai 12th-century French Roman Catholic bishops Investiture Controversy 1060 births 1113 deaths Clergy from Orléans 12th-century French philosophers 11th-century French philosophers {{RC-clergy-stub

Biography

Works and translations

Bibliography

See also

References