WILLIAM OF CONCHES. – Scholastic, born at Conches (Normandy) in 1080, died in 1145. He belongs to the School of Chartres.
His principal works are the *Philosophia mundi* and the *Dramaticon philosophiae*. The former went through several editions in which, however, it was attributed to other authors (Bede, William of Hirschau, Honorius of Autun; cf. PL 172 and 190); the latter was published under the title *Dialogus de substantiis physicis confectus a Willelmo Aneponymo* (Strasbourg 1567) and is sometimes entitled *Philosophia secunda*. An unpublished passage from the *Philosophia* (perhaps in a third recension) was published by C. Ottaviano (v. BIBLICA). He also wrote the *Moralinum dogma philosophorum* (Uppsala 1929) and extensive unpublished glosses on Boethius’s *Consolation* and on the *Timaeus*.
W. is a Platonist and is chiefly concerned with natural philosophy. His main source of inspiration is the *Timaeus*, which he interprets in a creationist sense. The Demiurge is identified with the Father, the Ideas with the divine Wisdom, and the Good with the Holy Spirit. He later attempted to interpret the world-soul as the Holy Spirit. Because of his Trinitarian doctrine, which tends to interpret the divine Persons as characteristics of the divine creative activity (power, wisdom, goodness), he was attacked by William of Saint-Thierry, a friend of St Bernard.