ALCHERO of CHIARAVALLE (Alcherus; less accurately ALCHERIO or ALCHIERO). - Cistercian monk of Clairvaux, where he was a disciple of s. Bernardo. Little is known of his life: he seems to have died around 1180. To resolve a doubt of his concerning the intimate and mysterious union of soul and body, Isacco di Stella (v.) addressed to him the epistle or treatise De anima (PL 194, 1875-90). CELLA (v.) sent him the book De conscientia (PL 202, 1083-98) in reply to his question « quid sit bona conscientia » (PL 202, 1089). Only from these writings can elements be derived that define the spiritual profile of A.: a student and lover of “physics,” that is, medicine and the natural sciences (cf. PL 194, 1882), and a pious and diligent compiler (cf. PL 202, 1089). On account of these characteristics, several small works, previously circulated under the names of s. Agostino, Ugo di S. Vittore, and others, have been attributed to him.
I. Foremost among them is the De Spiritu et Anima (PL 40, 779-832: in the appendix to the works of s. Agostino), a treatise on psychology which summarizes the whole preceding tradition, drawing upon Agostino, Gennadio, Cassiodoro, Beda, Alcuino, Boezio, Ugo di S. Vittore, Isacco di Stella, and others. Composed around 1160 and circulated anonymously, it soon came to be attributed to s. Agostino, thus becoming, a century later—especially regarding the simplicity of the soul—a real bone of contention in the theological struggles between representatives of the Platonic-Augustinian current and those of the Aristotelian current. The former attributed it to s. Agostino and defended its authenticity, invoking it as an “auctoritas”; the latter instead attributed it to a Cistercian monk, who for some was a certain Guglielmo, « qui multa falsa dixit »: thus Alberto Magno (In I Sent., d. 8, a. 25, ad 1), who cites the small work some thirty times in his Sum. Theol. Tommaso d'Aquino also frequently cites it in his numerous works, for polemical reasons; but whereas in his commentary on the Sentences he places it under the name of Agostino, in the Sum. Theol. he uses the anonymous formula: « Sicut dicitur in libro de Spiritu et Anima »; noteworthy is what he states in IV Sent.: « Ad primum dicendum, quod liber ille negatur a quibusdam esse Augustini: dicitur enim fuisse cuiusdam cistercensis qui eum ex dictis Augustini compilavit et quaedam de suo addidit » (d. 44, q. 3, a. 3, sol. II, ad 1). Therefore, if in some editions of the works of s. Tommaso, such as that of Fretté (published by L. Vivès in Paris), the name of A. has entered the text, this does not conform to the manuscripts, which have Augustinus instead of Alcherus (cf. In IV Sent., d. 44, q. 1, a. 2, quaestiuncula 3, Sed contra, in the cited ed. of Fretté, XI, Paris 1874, p. 300).
As for the use of this writing in disputed questions, the Angelic Doctor concludes: « Nec multum curandum de his quae in eo dicuntur » (De Anima, a. 12, ad 1), since « liber ille auctoritatem non habet: unde quod ibi scriptum est, eadem facilitate contemnitur, qua dicitur » (Sum. Theol., I, q. 77, a. 8, ad 1).
In any case, the said small work was dear to s. Bonaventura, who, under the name of s. Agostino, cites it about fifty times (cf. Opera omnia, X, Quancchi 1902, p. 269, col. 3). From this same work (chapters 17, 49, and 50) were extracted, toward the end of the 12th century, the first two para-
graphs of Meditation VII in the series of Meditationes attributed to s. Anselmo (PL 158, 709-820).
A. Wilmart, examining the many manuscripts of the De Spiritu et Anima (in English libraries alone he counted some sixty), is of the opinion that the work was originally conceived in three books: this would explain the principal differences among the manuscripts. The first to attribute the small work to A. in modern times was the Benedictine P. Coustant (Admonitio in libr. de Spir. et Anima: PL 40, 779).
II. De diligendo Deo, likewise published by Coustant in the appendix to the works of s. Agostino (PL 40, 847-64): a book which, in Erasmus’s judgment, is “pious and not devoid of learning.” The ideas of which it consists are drawn largely from Ugo di S. Vittore, s. Bernardo, and s. Anselmo. Vincenzo di Beauvais (Speculum nat., XXIII, 1) cites it COMESTORE, PIETRO (v.); but the Benedictines prefer to regard it as the work of A.
III. The same Benedictines (Coustant and the Maurini, authors of the Histoire Litt. de la France) also attribute other small works to A.:
1. The Manuale, which appears in the appendix to the works of Agostino (PL 40, 951-68), compiled from extracts from Agostino, Cipriano, Gregorio M., Ugo di S. Vittore, etc.: a celebrated small work in the Middle Ages, which Wilmart—observing that Meditation XIV attributed to s. Anselmo derives from it—considers to have been composed by a pious compiler at the beginning of the 13th century.
2. The Soliloquiorum animae ad Deum liber unus, likewise in the appendix to the works of s. Agostino (PL 40, 863-98): dependent on Augustinian writings and on Ugo di S. Vittore; not to be confused with Agostino’s authentic Soliloqui.
3. The Liber Meditationum, likewise in the appendix to s. Agostino (PL 40, 901-42).
These three works are still widely circulated, both in Latin and in modern languages, under the name of s. Agostino.
4. Book I and Book III of the De Anima, published in the appendix to the works of Ugo di S. Vittore (PL 177, 165): books corresponding, Book I to the Meditationes piissimae de cognitione humanae conditionis (PL 184, 485-508), and Book III to the treatise De interiori domo, seu de conscientia aedificanda (PL 184, 507-52): writings published in the appendix to the works of s. Bernardo.
It must nevertheless be borne in mind that, at the present state of our knowledge concerning the manuscript tradition of these small works, every positive argument for guaranteeing all these attributions in favor of A. is still lacking.
Finally, we do not know whether A. fulfilled the wish of Isacco di Stella, who in his epistle De anima asked him to write to him about the “structure of the human body”; it is thought that at least the small work De Spiritu et Anima was a consequence of this request.