TOURNAI, Simone of. - Theologian, b. at Tournai ca. 1130, d. at Paris ca. 1201.
Probably a disciple, at Paris, of Eudes (Odo) of Soissons, when the latter retired among the Cistercians of Ourscamp (1165) he was recommended to Maurice of Sully as a «vir probatus scientia sed probatior vita» to succeed him in his Paris prebend. Bishop
Maurice conferred the benefice on others, and Eudes complained of it to Alexander III (letter in J. B. Pitra, Analecta novissima spicilegii Solesmensis, altera continuatio, II, Frascati 1888, p. xxix ff.). Having succeeded his master in teaching (1165), he was shortly afterwards granted a benefice at Tournai and sustained various controversies, for non-residence, until full recognition by Stephen bishop of Tournai (1192-1203). His chair was, for some time, the most brilliant in Paris, also because of the open character and wit of its holder, who thereby procured for himself several enmities.
He wrote: Summa theologica, or Institutio in sacra pagina (unpublished, in six manuscripts; cf. Glorieux [art. cit. in bibl.], col. 2126) divided into 8 parts, in which the whole of theology is set forth, with preference for the de sermone theologico, de Deo and de paenitentia; Expositio in symbolum Athanasii (ed. in Bibliotheca Casinensis: Florilegium, IV, Montecassino 1880, pp. 322-46); Abbreviatio in sententiis Petri Lombardi (ms. of Troyes 1371): a simple compendium of the Lombard; Disputationes (ed. J. Warichez, Les disputationes de Simon de Tournai, in Spicilegium sacrum Lovaniense, XII, Louvain 1932): his principal and most original work, in which in 102 discussions (the disputatio attained scientific dignity with S. of T.) he touches on almost all subjects of dogmatics and morals, with dialectical skill and with constant recourse to the sources, showing himself sincerely traditionalist and wholly orthodox (in contrast with the rumors circulated about him). An admirer of Aristotle, he made himself more independent of St. Augustine in controversial questions, but succeeded in determining in a happy formula the limits and the relations of reason with faith: «Apud Aristotelem argumentum est ratio faciens fidem, sed apud Christum argumentum est fides faciens rationem. Unde Aristoteles: intellige ut credas, sed Christus: crede et intelliges» (opening of the commentary on the Quicunque). His influence was notable at the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th: followed by Alan of Lille and by Martin de Fugeriis, he was cited with honor by William of Auxerre and by St. Albert the Great.
Bibliography6 works
Antonio Piolanti