WILLIAM OF AUVERGNE. - Medieval theologian and philosopher, b. at Aurillac after 1180, d. at Paris in 1249. He was a master of theology in the University of Paris and from 1228 bishop of that city.

His principal work is the Magisterium divinale (1223-40), divided into seven parts: De Trinitate, De universo, De anima, Cur Deus homo, De fide et legibus, De Sacramentis, De virtutibus.

Together with William of Auxerre and Philip the Chancellor, he belongs to that group of theologians who, after the condemnations of 1210 and 1215, found themselves having to confront Aristotle in order to correct him and combat him in the theses incompatible with Christianity, but who meanwhile studied him and brought about a first assimilation of Aristotelianism on the part of Catholic theology (F. Steenberghen). Of this group G. d'A. is the most notable philosophical personality. He felt strongly the influence of Avicenna, but did not let himself be dominated by him (Masnovo, I, p. 205). He demonstrates the existence of God as good and being per essence, the reason for the being of all goods and beings by participation (in which essence and being are distinguished), and he also makes use of the argument from motion (ibid., p. 262). Unlike William of Auxerre, Philip the Chancellor and Alexander of Hales, according to whom the concept that best makes known the nature of God is that of summum bonum, G. sees in the concept of "being per essence" the one that best characterizes God. Against Avicenna, G. vigorously affirms that God freely created the world and that the world had a beginning. In his voluntaristic conception of creation (opposed to the naturalism of Avicenna), he finds support in Avencebrol, whom he considers a Christian and holds in high esteem. He conceives the human soul as the form of the body, spiritual and immortal, but not as the sole form of man. He does not admit the distinction between agent intellect and possible intellect: there is neither a separate agent intellect, in the manner of Avicenna, nor an agent intellect as a faculty of the soul, because, according to G., there is no distinction between the soul and its faculties.

According to Gilson (Masnovo dissents), G. is a typical representative of Avicennizing Augustinianism. The theory of the man of Auvergne on the knowledge of first principles and of the causal nexus, which would require a habitus or mos infused by God, calls to mind, according to Masnovo, that of D. Hume.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: editions: The best and most complete (after that of Nuremberg 1496, and Venice 1501), is the one edited by B. Leferon: Guillelmus Alverni Opera Omnia, 2 vols., Orléans 1674. Studies: J. Kramp, Des Wilhelm v. Auvergne magisterium divinale, in Gregorianum, 1 (1920), pp. 538-74; 2 (1921), pp. 174-87; E. Gilson, Pourquoi st Thomas a critiqué st Augustin, in Arch. hist. doctr. litt. du m. a., 1 (1926-27), pp. 46-80; A. Masnovo, Da G. d'A. a s. Tommaso d'A., 3 vols., Milan 1930-46; F. van Steenberghen, Aristote en Occident, Louvain 1946, pp. 76-86, 113-30; P. Ancléus, Le sacrement de Pénitence chez Guillaume d'Auvergne, in Eph. theol. Lovanienses, 24 (1948), pp. 98-118; P. Glorieux, Le tractatus novus de poenitentia de Guillaume d'Aux, in Miscellanea moralis A. Janssen, II, Louvain 1948, pp. 551-65.

Sofia Vanni Rovighi

@incollection{ec6_guglielmo_d_alvernia, author = {Vanni, Rovighi Sofia}, title = {Guglielmo d'Alvernia}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {1252--1253}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/guglielmo-d-alvernia} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

William of Auvergne

About this entry