William of Champeaux
William of Champeaux
A twelfth-century Scholastic, philosopher, and theologian, b. at Champeaux, near Melun, in the neighbourhood of Paris, about the year 1070; d. at Châlons-sur-Marne, 1121. After having been a pupil of Anselm of Laon, he began in 1103 his career as teacher at the cathedral school of Paris. In 1108, owing chiefly to Abelard’s successful attempts to criticize his realistic doctrine of universals, he retired to the Abbey of St. Victor and there continued to give lessons which, no doubt, influenced the mystic school known as that of St. Victor. In 1114 he was made Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne. Portions of his work “De origine animae” and of a “Liber sententiarum”, as well as a dialogue entitled “Dialogus seu altercatio cujusdam Christiani et Judaei”, have come down to us. On the problem of universals William held successively a variety of opinions. All of these, however, are on the side exaggerated Realism and opposed both to the Nominalism of Roscelin and to the modified Nominalism of Abelard. In his treatise on the origin of the soul he definitely rejects the theory known as Traducianism and maintains that each and every human soul originates from the creative act of God. Among his contemporaries he enjoyed a very great reputation for learning and sanctity. Among his contemporaries he enjoyed a very great reputation for learning and sanctity. He was, moreover, looked upon by the conservative thinkers of that age as the ablest champion of orthodoxy. His creationist doctrine is his chief title to distinction as a Scholastic philosopher.
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LEFEVRE, Les variations de Guillaume de Champeaux, etc. (Lille, 1898); MICHAUD, G. de Champeaux et les ecoles de Paris au XII Siecle (Paris, 1867); GRABMAN, Gesch. der schol. Methode (Freiburg, 911), 136 sq.; DE WULF, Hist of Medieval Phil., tr. COFFEY (New York, 1909), 179; TURNER, Hist. of Philosophy (Boston, 1903), 279 sq.
WILLIAM TURNER Transcribed by Michael T. Barrett Dedicated to Fr. Francis X. Chun
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
William of Champeaux
(Lat. Campellensis), a French scholastic, was born in the village of Champeaux, near Melun, about the close of the 11th century. He studied at Paris under Anselm of Laon, became archdeacon of Notre Dame, and taught dialectics in the cathedral school for many years. Among his scholars was the famous Abelard, who eventually eclipsed him. In 1105 Champeaux retired to a suburb of Paris, and there founded, in 1113, the Abbey of St. Victor. He soon opened a school of philosophy, rhetoric, and theology, and was next raised to the episcopacy of Chalonssur-Marne. He became involved in the papal quarrel of the investitures (q.v.), and died in 1121. His principal published works are two treatises entitled Moralia Abbreviata and De Ofigine Animae, together with a fragment on the eucharist, contained in Mabillon’s edition of St. Bernard’s Works. For these philosophic speculations. see Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gneral, 9:626.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
William of Champeaux
(1070-1121) He was among the leading realists holding that the genus and species were completely present in each individual, making differences merely incidental. He was one of the teachers of Abelard. — L.E.D.