Philip the Chancellor

PHILIP THE CHANCELLOR. - Theologian, b. in Paris ca. 1160-85, d. there on 25 Dec. 1236. He is not to be identified, as was done for a long time, with the poet Philip de Grève. From ca. 1206 he was magister theologiae and from 1218 until his death, chancellor of the University of Paris. He was involved in the academic crisis of the years 1229-31, which ended with a statute of Gregory IX, which is the true magna charta of the University of Paris. F., together with William of Auxerre, William of Poitiers and William of Auvergne, is to be regarded as the most important representative of the era of transition from early scholasticism to mature scholasticism.

He is the author of a Summa de bono (unpublished), oriented principally toward an Augustinianism of Neoplatonic tendency, but which already shows a notable knowledge of the new Aristotle; in it the entire theological doctrine is developed under the aspect of the good, both of the bonum naturae (creation of the angels, of the corporeal world, of man) and of the bonum Gratiae (theological and cardinal virtues, gifts of the Holy Spirit, Grace). This Summa exercised a great influence especially on the doctrine of the virtues and of sin, particularly within the old Franciscan school, and earned for F. the reputation of one of the greatest precursors of the great scholasticism. Among other things he is considered as the author of the treatise De syndoresi. Recent studies (Glorieux, v. bibl.) have however shown that F. transcribed his Summa almost literally from another, the so-called Summa Duocensis, older, preserved only in fragments (in ms. Douai 434). Therefore the importance of this thinker cannot yet be assessed with certainty. Studies of synthesis on his doctrine do not exist so far.

Anneliese Maier