Petrus de Alvernia

Petrus de Alvernia ( Peter von Auvergne , also Petrus de Croco ; * around 1240 in Crocq in southern central France; † September 25, 1304 ) was a French scholastic philosopher and theologian.

Life

Petrus de Alvernia taught at the University of Paris for more than twenty years as a master of the arts faculty , namely from the early 1270s to the 1290s. He is one of the few masters of this period who are known by name. Around 1283 he began to study theology, and in 1296 he was promoted to doctor theologiae ; from 1296 to 1302 he taught as a master of theology in Paris. Otherwise there is little biographical information about him and it is partly uncertain. The date of his birth “around 1240” was indirectly deduced. In particular, it is not certain that all mentions of a "Petrus de Alvernia", that is, a Peter who came from the Auvergne , concern one and the same person. The Paris Magister we are talking about has been associated with numerous other mentions of this name over the centuries, the following of which are excluded in the more recent research literature: Peter from 1296 rector of the University of Paris for a second time, Peter as a troubadour, as a doctor of medicine, as a Franciscan or as a Dominican. Despite individual doubts, the following information is assigned to the Paris Magister: Peter was appointed rector of the University of Paris on May 7, 1275 by the cardinal legate Simon von Brion. According to Flüeler (2011) this is possible, but not certain. (Andrews ignores it altogether.) The new rector should settle a long-term dispute between two parties from the Paris Artistic Faculty. This dispute has been seen as an ideological dispute between the conservative party of Aubry of Reims and the radical party of Sigers since Pierre Mandonnet's investigation into Siger of Brabant ; in this view, Peter would have been chosen for his position as a "moderate" Aristotelian. René A. Gauthier objects that it was a quarrel between nations; Peter became chancellor because he was French. From 1286 on, Peter was a canon of Paris for a while . On January 21, 1302 Pope Boniface VIII appointed Peter Bishop of Clermont ; he held this office until his death on September 25, 1304. (Andrews considers the assignment of the episcopal office to the Magister to be uncertain and refers the indication "de Croco" to the Bishop of Clermont, that is, not directly to the Paris Magister.)

In the Historia ecclesiastica of Tolomeo of Lucca, Peter is referred to as the “most faithful student” ( fidelissimus discipulus ) of Thomas Aquinas . Mainly because of this, the misunderstanding arose that he was a Thomist in terms of his scientific position . He was influenced by Thomas - at least for a while - but thought further independently. Calling Peter a Thomist does not do justice to his meaning (especially when "Thomist" is meant in the sense of "Epigone of Thomas"). It is uncertain whether he heard lectures from him as a student of Thomas. Many of his works are not edited. His high reputation among his contemporaries meant that some works were erroneously ascribed to him.

Act

philosophy

Peter was one of the most influential Aristotle commentators of the Middle Ages. He wrote commentaries on almost all of Aristotle's works that were then taught at the Paris Artist Faculty. Some of them belong to the genus literal commentary ( expositio or sententia ), which consists of a structure of the text template ( divisio textus ) and the actual text explanation; some are quaestion comments that deal with the topic on the basis of selected questions and remain less close to the commented text template.

Two of the literal commentaries, on De caelo et mundo and politics , complete the corresponding incomplete commentary by Thomas Aquinas and were circulated together with Thomas' part. The text of the literary commentary on politics was falsified in the print edition from 1492 obtained by Ludovicus Valentia, and these falsifications were adopted in all editions up to the 20th century. Only the beginning of Book III of Peter's part of the commentary is critically edited. In the (as yet unedited) commentary on politics , Peter founds political science metaphysically. In this work he goes into detail on the justification of servitus ( slavery or servitude ). The comment had an influence on the Defensor Pacis of Marsilius of Padua . - Petrus' Quaestionenkommentar zur Metaphysik contains positions that were affected by the Paris doctrinal condemnation of 1277.

theology

After he had become a master of theology in 1296, the six Quodlibeta that have been handed down were created by 1301 as the result of those disputations that took place year after year in the Advent season. - In his theology he orients himself to his teachers Heinrich von Gent and Gottfried von Fontaines , whereby he often adopts their criticism of Thomas Aquinas; For example, under the influence of Gottfried, he revised his attitude to the principle of individuation .

literature

• Christoph Flüeler: Article Peter of Auvergne , in: Henrik Lagerlund (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy , Vol. 2, Springer, Dordrecht 2011, ISBN 978-1-4020-9728-7 , pp. 957-959.
• Christoph Flüeler: Reception and interpretation of the Aristotelian Politica in the late Middle Ages , Part 1, Amsterdam 1992, ISBN 90-6032-335-1 ; in particular Chapter 2 “The Questiones Supra Libros Politicorum by the Parisian Magister Petrus de Alvernia”, pp. 86-131.
• Christopher Schabel: The Quodlibeta of Peter of Auvergne , in: ders. (Ed.): Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages. The Fourteenth Century , Brill, Leiden 2007, ISBN 978-90-04-16288-4 , pp. 81-130.

See also the extensive bibliography under "Weblinks".

Web links

• Petrus de Alvernia, website of the University of Friborg (Switzerland)
• bibliography
• Continuation of the literary commentary by Thomas Aquinas on De caelo et mundo (Latin)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Christoph Flüeler: Article Peter of Auvergne , in: Henrik Lagerlund (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy , Vol. 2, Dordrecht 2011, p. 957.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Manfred Gerwing : Article Petrus de Alvernia , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Vol. 6, Munich 1993, Col. 1961.
3. ^ Gundisalvus M. Grech OP: Introduction , in: The commentary of Peter of Auvergne on Aristotle's "Politics". The Inedited Part , Rome 1967, p. 17ff.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Robert Andrews: Article Peter of Auvergne , in: Jorge JE Gracia, Timothy B. Noone (Ed.): A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages , Malden (USA) 2002, p. 504.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Christoph Flüeler: The reception of the “Politica” of Aristotle , in: Jürgen Miethke (Ed.): The audience of political theory in the 14th century , Munich 1992, p. 132f.
6. ↑ Bernhard Stengel: The commentary of Thomas Aquinas on the "politics" of Aristotle , Marburg 2011, pp. 57-60.
7. ^ Gundisalvus M. Grech OP (Ed.): The commentary of Peter of Auvergne on Aristotle's "Politics". The Inedited Part: Book III, less. I-VI , Rome 1967.
8. ↑ Christoph Flüeler: Ontology and Politics: Quod racio principantis et subiecti sumitur ex racione actus et potencie , in: Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie 41 (1994), 445-462 p. 456.
9. ↑ Christoph Flüeler: Reception and interpretation of the Aristotelian Politica in the late Middle Ages , Part 1, Amsterdam 1992, p. 55ff.
10. ↑ Christoph Flüeler: Reception and Interpretation of the Aristotelian Politica in the Late Middle Ages , Part 1, Amsterdam 1992, pp. 120ff.
11. ↑ Christoph Flüeler: Reception and Interpretation of the Aristotelian Politica in the Late Middle Ages , Part 1, Amsterdam 1992, p. 94 fn. 38.