ROGER OF MARSTON. - English Franciscan, philosopher and theologian, born a little before the middle of the 13th century, died at Norwich c. 1303. A student in Paris between 1269 and 1272, he taught at Oxford (1277), then at Cambridge in 1285. He governed the French province, detached from England, from 1292 to 1298.
He left four Quodlibeta and some disputed Quaestiones. R. of M., on account of his doctrine on divine illumination and the active intellect, shows himself to have been influenced more by Roger Bacon (v.) and William of Auvergne (v.) than by Bonaventure. Gilson sees in this doctrine a case of Avicennian Augustinianism. Recently, his theory on intentional species, with its emphasis on the essential activity of the cognitive act, has also been highlighted as having an Augustinian inspiration. He reproached Augustine and Thomas with giving too much weight to philosophical arguments in demonstrating the immortality of the soul, which is a certainty only for Christian wisdom.