ROBERT OF COURÇON. - Theologian and cardinal, born near Kedleston (Derby, England) ca. 1155-60, died 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 with 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 made. By a special mandate of the Pope, in August 1215 R. promulgated the new statutes of the University of Paris, in which, among other things, it was forbidden to read the *Metaphysics* and *Natural Philosophy* of Aristotle. Having become unpopular, he lost the favor of Innocent and especially of Honorius III. After attending the Lateran Council in November 1215, he remained in Rome until 1218, when he departed for the crusade not as legate (who was Cardinal Pelagius) but as a preacher. As a Parisian master, R. composed a commentary on the *Sentences* of Peter Lombard, which is lost; remaining in numerous codices is a large *Summa Theologica*, composed between 1204 and 1210, in which, following the practical approach of Peter the Chanter, he treats above all of moral theology and sacramental theology.
ROBERTO DI COURSON
BIBL.: G. Lefèvre, *Le traité De usura de Robert de Courçon*, Lille 1902; Ch. Dikson, *Le card. R. de C. Sa vie*, in *Arch. d'hist. doctrinale et litt. du moyen âge*, 9 (1934), pp. 53-142; M. Grabmann, *I diritti 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 Sanctuaire de Pénitence au XIIe siècle*, Louvain-Gembloux 1949 (v. INDIA); Fliche-Martin, *Hist. de l'Eglise*, XIII, Paris 1951, pp. 191-94.