JOHN OF SALISBURY. - Scholastic philosopher, a complex figure of philosopher, historian, and humanist, born at Salisbury ca. 1110-20, died at Chartres in 1180. He was educated in France (1136-48) and there had as his teachers, among others, Abelard and Gilbert of Poitiers. On his return to England, he became, on the recommendation of St Bernard of Clairvaux, first secretary to Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and then to his successor, St Thomas Becket. Employed on embassies to the Holy See, and because he was considered to have too papal sentiments, he incurred the displeasure of King Henry II. After the murder of St Thomas, he was forced to take up residence in France, where he occupied the see of Chartres (1176 until his death).
J. of S. occupies a prominent place in the history of philosophical and political thought of the 12th century. Trained also in the Latin classics and particularly in Cicero, his works, both in prose and verse, display a rare dignity and propriety of style. He wrote: *Entheticus seu de dogmate philosophorum* (in verse: PL 109, 965 ff.); *Polycraticus sive de nugis curialium et vestigiis philosophorum* (ed. C. J. Webb, 2 vols., Oxford 1909, and PL 109); *Metalogicon*, containing a complete treatise on logic (ed. Webb, Oxford 1929 and PL 109); *Letters* (in J. A. Giles, *Johannnis Salisberiensis opera omnia*, 5 vols., Oxford 1848, I and II: PL 109); *Historia pontificalis* (MGH, *Scriptores*, XX: only a fragment); *Vita Anselmi Cantuariensis* (PL 109, 1903-24); *Carmen de membris conspirantibus* (doubtful); J. A. Giles, op. cit., V).
Regarding the question of universals, J. of S. recounts the events of his time, noting that in it «laborans mundus iam senuit» and «plus temporis consumptum est quam in adquirendo et regendo orbis imperio consumpserit Caesarea domus» (*Polycr.*, VII, 12: ed. cit., II, p. 141). J. of S. adheres to a moderate realism. In logic his admiration goes to Aristotle, who was then making his entry into the Latin world with the «new logic»: an entry which he defended with such passion in Book IV of the *Metalogicon* against the reactionary Cornificius (a real or ideal name?) and his followers «content with Boethius almost alone» (ibid., IV, 27). Even J. of S.’s psychology, though inspired by Augustine, moves toward Aristotelian positions, deriving rational knowledge from sensible data through the three degrees of physical, mathematical, and metaphysical abstraction.
But where J. of S. occupies a unique place in the history of 12th-century thought is in his political doctrines, expounded in the *Polycraticus*, a work which, as C. Schaarschmidt explains in interpreting the title, was written «in usum civitatis regentium» (cf. A. J. Carlyle, *A history of mediaeval political theory*, III, London 1940, p. 102). He wants the prince to be learned, because «ex illiteratus est quasi asinus coronatus» (IV, 6); his power comes from God («omnis potestas a Domino Deo est», IV, 2; ed. cit., I, p. 236), and in the Christian world through the authority of the Church («hunc ergo gladium de manu Ecclesiae accipit Princeps»). But if the prince turns tyrant and thus harms the people, his authority ceases, and it is just and honourable to remove him, even by assassination. «Hoc tamen cavendum docent historiae, ne quis illius moliatur interitum cui fidei et sacramenti religione tenetur adstrictus... Sed nec veneni, licet videam ab infidelibus usurpatam, ullo unquam iure indultam lego licentiam» (VIII, 20). In the *Entheticus* J. of S. had sung: «libera philosophi vita est et libera lingua: est libertatis auctor utrique Deus» (PL 109, 1003). Perhaps the free tongue of the free philosopher did not here impose upon itself all the limits of the case.
Amato Masnovo
JOHN OF SAN FACUNDO or JOHN OF SAN PAUL.