DURANDUS OF SAINT-POURÇAIN. - In the world Guillaume Durand, a celebrated Dominican theologian and writer known as the "doctor resolutissimus," b. at St-Pourçain in France c. 1275, d. at Meaux on 10 September 1334. A religious at Clermont-Ferrand, after studying at the University of Paris he became master in theology in 1312, then master of the sacred palace at Avignon, and on 16 August 1317 bishop of Limoux, whence he passed in 1318 to Le Puy and finally in 1326 to Meaux.

Of quick intelligence, vast culture and brilliant exposition, D. was also very independent in his judgments and in philosophy gave no value to authority. Fundamentally Aristotelian, he is in some points Platonic-Augustinian and feels the influence of his master James of Metz. Already in his Commentary on the Sentences of Lombard delivered at the University of Paris, he departed in many points from the doctrine of St. Thomas. He thus aroused a natural reaction throughout the Dominican Order, provoking a special ordinance of the General Chapter of 1309, in which all lectors were obliged to adhere to the doctrines of the Aquinate. The condemnation, which seemed at first to have been avoided, came nonetheless. A commission, presided over by Herveus Natalis, compiled a list of 93 erroneous propositions, 91 of which were condemned by the General Chapter of London of 1314. Subsequently various Dominican masters, with Herveus Natalis at their head, combated those errors through their writings. Reaffirming his positions with the third redaction of the Commentary on the Sentences, the polemic between D. and the Thomists was concluded by the writing of Durandellus (c. 1330): Evidentiae contra Durandum.

His most important works are: Commentarii in IV libros Sententiarum (Paris 1508, 1515, 1533, 1539, 1547, and subsequently various other editions at Lyon, Antwerp and Venice); De origine paretatum et iurisdictionum (Paris 1506); De visione Dei quam habent animae sanctorum ante iudicium generale (ed. in part in O. Raynaldus, Annales, ecclesiastici [ed. Mansi], IV, Lucca 1750, coll. 570-74); De paupertate Christi (ed. in part ibid., coll. 575-77).

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: Quétif - Echard, I, pp. 586-87; P. Godet, s. v. in DThC, IV, coll. 1964-66; I. Koch, Die Verteidigung der Theologie des hl. Thomas v. Aquin durch den Dominikanerorden gegenüber D. de S. P., in Xenia Thomistica, III, Rome 1925, pp. 327-62; id., D. de S. P. (Beiträge zur Gesch. der Philos. d. Mittelalter, 26, 1), Münster 1927; P. Glorieux, Répertoire des maîtres en théologie de Paris au XIIIe siècle, Paris 1933, pp. 214-20; J. Stuffer, Bemerkungen zur Konkurslehre des Dur. v. St.-P., in Aus der Geisteswelt des Mittelalters, II, Münster 1935, pp. 1080-90; G. Loretti, La dottrina della conversione e della presenza eucaristica in D. di S.-P., Rome 1948.

Alfonso D'Amato

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Durandus of Saint-Pourçain

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