JOHN OF STERNGASSEN. - Dominican theologian and mystic, d. in the first half of the 14th century.
He is found at Strasbourg from 1310 to 1316, in the last year as prior. In 1320 he is lector, that is "soldire" "regent," in the general studium at Cologne. Against M. Grabmann, who does not connect the presence of a friar Giovanni, head of the Cologne studium in 1333, with G. di S. G., Löhr inclines to the identification of this friar Giovanni precisely with Sterngassen. Although a contemporary of Eckhart, G. di S. does not follow him in doctrine, but remains attached to St. Thomas, except in a few opinions.
Of G. there exist fragments of sermons and of sentences (Sprüche) in German, published by Pfeiffer and Wackernagel.
Grabmann discovered by G. a commentary on the 4 books of the Sentences, preserved in two codices, namely cod. 102 of the Cistercians of Lilienfeld in Austria and cod. Vat. lat. 1092, both from the beginning of the 14th century. Grabmann likewise identified in cod. 2165 of the Hofbibliothek of Vienna a quaestio quodlibetalis of Sterngassen on the subject "utrum et angeli vel plures sint eiusdem speciei" and which is resolved in the sense of St. Thomas, that the angels are distinguished specifically from one another.
G.'s commentary on the Sentences is not a literal paraphrase, but a collection of questions posed on the occasion of the text of the Lombard. G. expounds and penetrates his theological questions with an original speculative spirit, though substantially faithful to the doctrine of St. Thomas, the doctor noster. When G. departs from the Aquinate, the manuscript notes it in the margin: "opinio haec contra Thomam." In the question "utrum in creaturis differat esse ab essentia" G. does not determine according to St. Thomas, but follows Henry of Ghent.
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Angelo Walz