Roscelin of Compiègne

ROSCELIN OF COMPIÈGNE. - Theologian and philosopher, b. at Compiègne around the middle of the 11th century, d. around 1120. A renowned master of dialectic, cited at the Council of Soissons (1092), for his tritheistic theory, by rejecting the error he avoided condemnation. Having gone to England, he did not remain there long; he taught at Besançon and at Loches, where he had Abelard (v.) as a pupil.

Since the time of Otto of Freising (v.), who says of him: «primus nostris temporibus sententiam vocum instituit» (Gesta Friderici Imp., I, 47; MGH, Scriptores, XX, p. 376), R. has been considered the initiator of nominalism (v.); in nature nothing exists but the individual (v.), and general ideas are nothing but names (voces, flatus vocis). Applying this theory to the mystery of the Trinity, R. slipped into tritheism, which made him particularly famous: in the Most Holy Trinity there are three Persons and ab invicem separatae, sicut sunt tres Angeli, ita tamen ut una sit voluntat est potentia... et tres deos vere posse dici si usus admitteret: (St. Anselm, Ep. ad Fulconem: PL 158, 1192): since only individuals exist, the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity would have in common only will and power: a moral-dynamic unity of the three Persons, in opposition to the consubstantiality defined at the Council of Nicaea (325).

Antonio Piolanti