Robert of Courson or Courçon (also written de Curson, or Curzon;, ''Princes of the Church'', p. 173. 1160/1170 – 1219) was a scholar at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

and later a

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

and

papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the Pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title '' legatus'') is a personal representative of the Pope to foreign nations, to some other part of the Catho ...

Life

Robert of Courson was born in England some time between 1160 and 1170. Little is known about his family or early life. He may have been a member of an Anglo-Norman family originating from the village of Notre-Dame-de-Courson in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

. Robert was a student of the Parisian theologian Peter the Chanter - a reference to Peter's death in 1197 in Robert's ''Summa'' indicates that he must have studied with the Chanter near the end of his career in the 1190s. According to

Caesarius of Heisterbach Caesarius of Heisterbach (c. 1180 – c. 1240), sometimes erroneously called, in English, Caesar of Heisterbach, was the prior of a Cistercian monastery, Heisterbach Abbey, which was located in the Siebengebirge, near the small town of Oberdollend ...

, Robert taught theology at the

, probably starting sometime before 1200 and ending when he became a

cardinal priest A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. Ca ...

of Saint Stephen of Mount Celius in 1212. Prior to that time he had served as a judge delegate in Paris. In 1213, when

Innocent III Pope Innocent III (; born Lotario dei Conti di Segni; 22 February 1161 – 16 July 1216) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216. Pope Innocent was one of the most power ...

proclaimed the

Fourth Lateran Council The Fourth Council of the Lateran or Lateran IV was convoked by Pope Innocent III in April 1213 and opened at the Lateran Palace in Rome on 11 November 1215. Due to the great length of time between the council's convocation and its meeting, m ...

to take place in 1215, Robert was made a

to France to help prepare. In this capacity, Robert convened a number of local councils and preached a new

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

in the Holy Land. Robert also ordered new rules for his former university in August 1215, banning certain treatments of

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

and the pointed

pigache The pigache, also known #Names, by other names, was a kind of shoe with a sharp upturned point at the toes that 1100-1200 in European fashion, became popular in Western Europe during the Romanesque Period. The same name is also sometimes appli ...

shoes then in fashion. He further attempted to mediate between

King John of England John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...

and

Philip Augustus Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), also known as Philip Augustus (), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks (Latin: ''rex Francorum''), but from 1190 onward, Philip became the firs ...

of France in order to dissuade John from attempting to reconquer lost English possessions in France, eventually leading to a peace in 1215. Robert may also have participated briefly in the

Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade (), also known as the Cathar Crusade (1209–1229), was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, what is now southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted pri ...

in 1214. Robert was not popular as a legate in France and in 1215 the French clergy refused to attend a council he had summoned in

Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...

, after which Robert attempted to have them excommunicated. Robert's term as legate ended with the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, after which he was sent to Rome. Many of his decisions as papal legate were negated by Innocent or his successor

Pope Honorius III Pope Honorius III (c. 1150 – 18 March 1227), born Cencio Savelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 18 July 1216 to his death. A canon at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, he came to hold a number of importa ...

. In 1218, Robert was made a papal preacher on the

Fifth Crusade The Fifth Crusade (September 1217 - August 29, 1221) was a campaign in a series of Crusades by Western Europeans to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering Egypt, ruled by the powerful Ayyubid sultanate, led by al- ...

to Egypt, where he died during the Siege of Damietta on 6 February 1219.

Works

He is the author of several works, including a ''Summa'' devoted to questions of canon law and ethics and dealing at length with the question of

usury Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in e ...

. His interference in the affairs of the University of Paris, in the midst of the confusion arising from the introduction of the Arabian translations of Aristotle, resulted in the proscription (1215) of the metaphysical as well as the physical treatises of the Stagyrita, together with the summaries thereof (''Summæ de eiusdem''). At the same time, his rescript (Denifle, "Chartul. Univ. Paris", I, 78) renews the condemnation of the Pantheists

David of Dinant David of Dinant ( 1160 – c. 1217) was a pantheistic philosopher. He may have been a member of, or at least been influenced by, a pantheistic sect known as the Amalricians. David was condemned by the Catholic Church in 1210 for his writing of t ...

and Amaury of Bene, but permits the use, as texts, of

Aristotle's Ethics Aristotle first used the term ''ethics'' to name a field of study developed by his predecessors Socrates and Plato which is devoted to the attempt to provide a rational response to the question of how humans should best live. Aristotle regarded et ...

and the logical treatises. The rescript also contains several enactments relating to academic discipline.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * *

Denifle Henry Denifle, in German Heinrich Seuse Denifle (January 16, 1844 in Imst, Tyrol – June 10, 1905 in Munich), was an Austrian paleographer and historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an auth ...

, Chartul. Univ. Paris, I (Paris, 1889), 72, 78 *De Wulf, Hist. of Medieval Phil., tr. Coffey (New York, 1909), 252. * . * {{DEFAULTSORT:Robert Of Courcon 1160s births 1218 deaths 13th-century English cardinals Canon law jurists Christians of the Fifth Crusade Chancellors of the University of Paris