Vital you four

Vital you four

Vital du Four , Vitalis de Furno , Jean du Four, ( OFM ) (* around 1260 in Bazas ; † August 16, 1327 in Avignon ) was a scholastic theologian, Franciscan philosopher and alchemist . From 1312 he was cardinal and from 1321 bishop of Albano .

Life

He began medical studies at the University of Montpellier and studied theology in Paris from 1285 to 1291 , first under Jacques du Quesnoy , later under Raimond Rigaut . He then taught in Montpellier and from 1297 to 1298 in Toulouse . He was awarded the master's degree in 1298.

From 1307 to 1312 he was Provincial of the Franciscans in Aquitaine . In August 1311 he replied to the Rotulus of Ubertinus de Casale . In 1312, at the request of the Pope , he rejected the theses of Bonagratia of Bergamo , which related to the poverty struggle . He was guardian of the monasteries in Saint-Mont and in Eauze .

On December 23, 1312 Pope Clement V elevated him to cardinal priest with the titular church Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti . He took part in the conclave 1314-1316 , from which John XXII. emerged as Pope. On May 27, 1319 he gave the opening sermon at the General Chapter of the Franciscan Order in Marseille at the invitation of General Minister Michael von Cesena .

In June 1321 he became bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Albano, he received episcopal ordination on June 14, 1321; Pope John XXII. organized a banquet for the occasion . From 1322 to 1323, however, he fell out of favor with the Pope, as he initially represented the position of Franciscan spiritualists in the poverty struggle , which ran counter to the views of the Pope; but finally he bowed to the authority of the Pope.

Vital du Four died on August 16, 1327 in Avignon and was buried in the local church of the Franciscan convent.

effect

Vital du Four is regarded as a pioneer of important ideas that were first carried out by other philosophers such as Duns Scotus and Wilhelm von Ockham . He emphasizes experience as the basis of all knowledge, which is especially true for inner experience.

In his collective work Liber selectiorum remediorum pro conservanda sanitate ad totius corporos humani morbos (printed in Mainz in 1521), created around 1310, he describes the medically valuable effects of alcohol distilled from wine (aqua ardens), explains the extraction of nitric acid , fragrances and vegetable oils the effect of aqua regia (dissolution of metals like gold), indicates the bleaching and disinfecting effect of sulfur gases, treats gold, silver (both in powder form) and copper salts as medicine, as well as arsenic sulfide against rashes. The work is a compilation of the knowledge of the time and contains excerpts from other authors.

Works

• Quodlibeta
• Quaestiones disputatae de rerum principio , incorrectly attributed to Duns Scotus . In: Quaestiones disputatae De rerum principio, tractatus De primo rerum omnium principio novis curis edidit Marianus Fernandez Garcia. Quaracchi, 1910, pp. 1-624.
• Liber selectiorum remediorum pro conservanda sanitate ad totius corporos humani morbos

literature

• J. Decorte: Vitalis de Furno (Jean du Four) OMin, Cardinal (approx. 1260-1327). In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages .
• Theo Kobusch: The philosophy of the high and late Middle Ages. Munich 2011, p. 306 f.
• Stephen F. Brown: Vitalis de Furno (Vital du Four) (approx. 1260-1327). In: Historical dictionary of medieval philosophy and theology. 2007, p. 291.
• Entry in: Winfried Pötsch, Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists . Harri Deutsch, 1989.

Web links

• You Four, OFM, Vital. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed July 25, 2016.
• Opac Regesta Imperii