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 ( la, Ordo Sancti Benedicti, abbreviated as OSB), are a Christian monasticism, monastic Religious order (Catholic), religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedic ...
, scholar and
bishop of Cambrai
The Archdiocese of Cambrai ( la, Archdiocesis Cameracensis; French: ''Archidiocèse de Cambrai'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France, comprising the arrondissements of Avesnes-sur-Help ...
(from 1105/6).
Odo was born at
Orléans
Orléans (;"Orleans" (US) and Tournai 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
The Archdiocese of Cambrai ( la, Archdiocesis Cameracensis; French: ''Archidiocèse de Cambrai'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France, comprising the arrondissements of Avesnes-sur-Help ...
, and was consecrated during a synod at Reims. 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 k ...
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, near Pecquencourt, where he died without regaining possession of his diocese. Many of his works are lost; those extant are in
Migne
Jacques Paul Migne (; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a ...
.
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.
Works and translations
* ''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.
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).