Walter of Mortagne

Walter von Mortagne (lat. Gualterius de Mauritania ; * before 1100 in Mortagne; † July 16, 1174 ) was a teacher of theology and philosophy in Reims and Laon and bishop of Laon.

Life

Walter von Mortagne was born before 1100 in Mortagne, today's Mortagne-du-Nord , in Flanders as a scion of the local gentlemen's family. Walter's father was called like him, his mother Perona. He had 4 brothers who z. Some embarked on a spiritual career.

After his first studies in the schools of Tournai , Walter turned to Reims , where he soon fell out with the head of the cathedral school, Archdeacon Alberich, who later became Archbishop of Bourges . When Walter began to outshine his fame and set up his own school at the Saint-Remi monastery , he was expelled from Reims by the latter.

He then moved with a group of loyal students around 1120 to neighboring Laon , where he taught dialectics and theology . With the death of Anselm von Laon , the fame of the Laon School, probably the most important theological school at the beginning of the 12th century, at which Wilhelm von Champeaux , Alberich von Reims and temporarily Abelard and Gilbert de la Porrée received their theological training had received faded. Walter tried to reactivate it.

It is uncertain whether Walter also did a teaching job on the Genovefaberg in Paris between 1136 and 1148 . The same applies to a presence at the Council of Reims in 1148, to which Gilbert de la Porrée was condemned.

Around 1150 Walter held a canon at the Antoing Church . When the canons of Antiong in a dispute to Pope Eugene III. appealed, Walter von Mortagne was their spokesman and administrator. As such, he also seems to have made a trip to the Curia. Around the same time, Walter held the office of dean at Laon Cathedral , between 1142 and 1155.

In 1155 the highly respected scientist was elected Bishop of Laon to succeed Bishop Walter von Saint-Maurice (1151–1155), who came from the Premonstratensian Order . Under his aegis, the cathedral was built , which was built quickly and is today one of the most stylish early Gothic church buildings in France. Much information has been obtained about his other activities as Bishop of Laon, the detailed description of which would lead too far at this point. Walter took part in many synods, built churches and monasteries and settled many conflicts. Sometimes he came into contact with the Holy See and the royal family.

Walter remained in close contact with his home town of Tournai throughout his life. In a report on the founding of the Saint-Nicolas-des-Prés monastery , Bishop Walter is counted among the special benefactors of the new founding, he gave all his serfs to the chapter of Tournai the year before his death, and donated an annual memorial at the cathedral church.

Walter eventually had to give up his bishop's chair because of his frailty. In his place was a nephew of the same name, who had previously been treasurer of Laon Cathedral. Walter wanted to have this choice confirmed at the Holy See, when he died on the return journey.

Bishop Walter von Mortagne died on July 16, 1174, he was buried in Laon in the church of Saint-Martin in full honor.

plant

Despite his many years of scientific activity, only a few writings by Walter von Mortagne have survived:

• Treatise "De Trinitate"
• Tract "De Conjugio"
• 10 letters of theological content
• Commentary on the Isagogue of Porphyry (authorship likely, but not certain)

effect

In the universality controversy, after Johann von Salisbury, Walter took the standpoint of so-called indifferentism. In his view, the universal is inherently indifferent, but is determined as a predicative addition to a subject by assuming different statuses . Socrates as an individual is therefore a species , namely a person, or a genus , namely a living being - depending on the respective status or point of view that one makes one's own. The significance of this teaching lies in the fact that it ascribes everything that actually exists to an individual existence and everything universal - species or genus - to a thought product. With this, Walter von Mortagne turned against the exaggerated realism of Wilhelm von Champeaux and paved the way for the moderate realism of the 13th century.

literature

• L. Ott: Investigations on the theological letter literature of early scholasticism , Münster 1937, pp. 126–145 (reference work with numerous references)
• D. Drost: The additions to the marriage tract of Walter von Mortagne in the Cambridge manuscript Univ.Libr.Mm. V.32 , fol. 95r-113v, 1998.

Web links

• W. Robl: Walter von Mortagne - Life and Work (excerpts from L. Ott) ( online )
• W. Robl: Walter von Mortagne - Letter to Peter Abelard ( online )