RUGGERO di MARSTON. – English Franciscan, philosopher and theologian, b. shortly before the middle of the 13th century, d. at Norwich ca. 1303. He studied in Paris between 1269 and 1272, taught at Oxford (1277), and then, in 1285, at Cambridge. He governed the English Franciscan province from 1292 to 1298.
He left four Quodlibeta and several Quaestiones disputatae. R. di M., in his doctrine on divine illumination and the agent intellect, shows that he was influenced more by Roger Bacon (v.) William of Auvergne (v.) than by Bonaventure. Gilson sees in this doctrine a case of Avicennizing Augustinianism. More recently, his theory of Augustinian inspiration concerning the species intentionales, tending to affirm the essential activity of the act of cognition, has also been brought to light. He reproaches St. Thomas for attaching too much weight to the arguments of the philosophers in demonstrating the immortality of the soul, which is a certainty only for Christian wisdom.