ROBERT OF COURSON. - Theologian and cardinal, b. near Eccleston (Derbyshire, England) ca. 1155-60, d. near Damietta on 6 March 1219. A disciple in Paris of Peter the Chanter (v.), he formed a friendship with the future Innocent III.

Master and regent in theology, canon of Noyon (1204), then of Paris (1210), in 1212 he was created cardinal by Innocent III, who appointed him his legate in France for the purpose of preparing the Fourth Lateran Council. R. therefore presided over various councils (Paris, 1213; Bordeaux, July 1214; Rouen, Dec. 1214); in the same year 1214 he took part in the crusade against the Albigensians, confirming to Simon of Montfort the conquests he had made. By a special mandatum of the Pope, in Aug. 1215 R. promulgated the new statute of the University of Paris, in which, among other things, it was forbidden to legere la metaphysica and the philosophia naturalis of Aristotle. Having become unpopular, he lost the favor of Innocent and especially of Honorius III. After attending the Lateran Council in Nov. 1215, he remained in Rome until 1218, when he set out for the crusade not as legate (that was Card. Pelagius) but as a preacher. As a Parisian master R. composed a commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, which is lost; there remains, in numerous codices, an extensive Summa Theologica, composed between 1204 and 1210, in which, following the practical orientation of Peter the Chanter, he deals predominantly with moral and sacramental theology.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: G. Lefèvre, Le traité - De natura - de Robert de Courçon, Lille 1902; Ch. Dikson, Le card. R. de C. Sa vie, in Arch. d'hist. doctrinale et littér. du moyen âge, 9 (1934), pp. 33-142; M. Grabmann, I divieti ecclesiastici di Aristotele sotto Innocenzo III e Gregorio IX, in Misc. Hist. Pontif.,

V. Rome 1941, pp. 37-42 and passim; P. Anciaux, La théol. du Sacrement de Pénitence au XIIe siècle, Louvain-Gembloux 1949 (v. index); Fliche-Martin, Hist. de l'Eglise, XIII, Paris 1931, pp. 191-94.

Antonio Piolanti

@incollection{ec10_roberto_di_courson, author = {Piolanti, Antonio}, title = {Roberto di Courson}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1037--1038}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/roberto-di-courson} }

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

Robert of Courson

About this entry