Wilhelm de la Mare

Wilhelm de la Mare (also Gulielmus de la Mare , Gulielmus de Lamare , Guillermo de la Mare , in the English-speaking world also William de la Mare ; † around 1290), in the Middle Ages with the honorary title Doctor correctivus , was an English Franciscan theologian and philosopher , who represented the traditional Neoplatonic - Augustinian school. He was a prominent critic of the Aristotelian ideas revived by Thomas Aquinas .

Life

Little is known about Wilhelm's early years. Around the 1260s he gave a sermon in the Franciscan convent of Lincoln and wrote a "Sentences Commentary" (commentary on the Sentences of Petrus Lombardus ). He was probably influenced by the contemporary authors Johannes Peckham , who is considered to be his direct teacher, Walter von Bruges , Roger Bacon and the Dominican Petrus von Tarentaise . In his early works, the criticism of the Dominican Thomas Aquinas is not very pronounced and remains within the framework of the usual school disputes. The later, fundamental criticism of heterodox Aristotelianism and Averroes cannot yet be recognized.

As a member of the Franciscan Order, Wilhelm completed his master's degree in theology at the University of Paris around 1275 . As a professor in Paris he represented the Augustinian school as it had been continued by the renowned Italian Franciscan Bonaventure . In his Commentarium super libros sententiarum ("Commentary on the Books of Sentences" [of Petrus Lombardus ]) , written in Paris, and his Disputationes de quolibet , he also reflects on the cognitive process, which he understands as the operation of an intrinsic force in the human mind that affects the human being God was given at creation. The resulting human will to reunite with God and an inner enlightenment of the soul through which the eternal ideas and truths can be recognized, form the basis of the doctrine of the soul for Wilhelm. His epistemological views similar to those of Roger Bacon, with whom he interest in grammar , linguistics , logic and empirical shares ideas.

After teaching in Paris, he returned to England, probably to Oxford . There he wrote his well-known work Correctorium fratris Thomae ("Collection of corrections to Brother Thomas") in 1277/78 , which can be described as the manifesto of the New Augustinian Franciscan School. In it he criticizes the teachings of the Dominican Thomas Aquinas. From the beginning, Thomas's Dominican partisans attacked it as a Corruptorium (" Verderbnisschrift "). It sparked what was known as the proofreading dispute.

plant

The introduction of the Aristotelian ideas in the late Middle Ages , particularly by Thomas Aquinas, challenged the traditionally Neoplatonic scholars whose views had previously dominated. So it is also the aim of Wilhelm's writing Correctorium fratris Thomae to give followers of this direction instructions on how to deal with Thomas' ideas. To this end, Wilhelm took 118 articles from Thomas' writings, primarily from his Summa theologiae ("sum of theology"), to show how the Aristotelian ideas lead to interpretations that contradict church teaching.

Wilhelm's criticism of Thomas was accepted by the entire Franciscan order in 1282 when the Franciscan General Minister Bonagratia of Bologna forbade the study of the writings of Thomas Aquinas. In 1283 the Correctorium was also formally canonized at the General Chapter of the Franciscans in Strasbourg . Thomas' Summa theologiae were now only allowed to study the Minorites on the basis of the criticism expressed in the Correctorium .

Soon after its publication, the correctorium itself became the target of polemical publications by Thomists, who in turn "corrected" it. In particular, the English Dominicans Richard Clapwell and Thomas Sutton and the French Dominican John of Paris responded with counter- writings that were referred to as Correctoria corruptorii .

Inspired by Roger Bacon , Wilhelm de la Mare also dealt with a critical edition of the Bible , the Correctio textus bibliae ("Correction of the text of the Bible") and wrote a glossary for the Hebrew and Greek words, the De Hebraeis et Graecis vocabulis glossarum bibliae (" About the Hebrew and Greek Concepts of the Bible ”). The glossary is considered to be one of the most learned of the Middle Ages.

Wilhelm saw theology as a guide to right action and thus as a "practical science ". However, not in the strictly Aristotelian sense of the word science, but as ultimately dogmatic laws based on divine authority , which want to lead to faith and which should lead human action to salvation . With this, too, Wilhelm stands in the early Franciscan tradition that came from Augustine .

Even if Wilhelm's main work represented an important step for Franciscan theology, the aftermath of his criticism of Thomas Aquinas and the Aristotelian influence on theology was not permanent. His work on a critical edition of the Bible had a more lasting effect; they were u. a. received by Johannes Duns Scotus and Petrus Johannis Olivi .

Works

• Commentarium super libros sententiarum ("Commentary on the Book of Sentences")
• Disputationes de quodlibet
• Correctorium fratris Thomae ("Correction of Brother Thomas")
• Correctio textus bibliae ("Correction of the text of the Bible")
• De Hebraeis et Graecis vocabulis glossarum bibliae ("On the Hebrew and Greek terms of the Bible")

literature

• Louis J. Battalion: Guillaume de la Mare. Note sur sa regence parisienne et sa predication , in: Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 98 (2005) , pp. 367-422.
• Federica Caldera: Guglielmo de la Mare tra Bonaventura, Tommaso d'Aquino e Pietro di Tarantasia. Dipendenze testuali e originalità del Commento alle Sentenze , in: Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 98 (2005) , pp. 465–508.
• Heinrich Denifle : The manuscripts of the biblical correctories of the 13th century , in: Archive for literary and church history of the Middle Ages 4 (1888) , pp. 263-311, pp. 471-601.
• Hans Kraml: Introduction , in: Guillelmus de la Mare, Scriptum in primum librum sententiarum. Ed. Hans Kraml , (Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Publications of the Commission for the Editing of Unprinted Texts from the Medieval Spiritual World, Vol. 15). Munich 1989, 13 * -85 *.
• Hans Kraml: Explanations of the prologue of the sentence commentary by Wilhelm de la Mare , in: Bruno Niederbacher / Gerhard Leibold (ed.): Theology as Science in the Middle Ages. Texts, translations, comments . Münster 2006, pp. 312-324.
• Hans Kraml: The Quodlibet of William de la Mare , in: Christopher Schabel (Ed.), Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages. The Thirteenth Century . Leiden 2006, pp. 151-170.
• Hadrianus a Krizovljan: Primordia scholae franciscanae et thomismus , in: Collectanea Franciscana 31 , 1961, pp. 133-175.
• Detlef Metz:  Wilhelm de la Mare. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 13, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-072-7 , Sp. 1247-1250.
• Adriano Oliva: La deuxième rédaction du Correctorium de Guillaume de la Mare: Les questions concernant la I pars , in: Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 98 (2005) , pp. 423-464.
• Franz Pelster: The original correctorium Wilhelms de la Mare. A theological censorship on the teachings of St. Thomas , in: Gregorianum 28 , 1947, pp. 220-235.
• Franz Pelster: Some additional information on the life and writings of Wilhelm de la Mare OFM , in: Franziskanische Studien 37 , 1955, pp. 75–80.
• Theodor Schneider: The unity of man. The anthropological formula “anima forma corporis” in the so-called proofreading dispute and with Petrus Johannis Olivi. A contribution to the prehistory of the Council of Vienne , (Contributions to the history of philosophy and theology of the Middle Ages, New Series Vol. 8). Munster 1973.

Web links

• Literature by and about Guilelmus de Lamara in the catalog of the German National Library