HUGH OF SAINT-VICTOR. - Theologian and philosopher, b. ca. 1096, probably at Hartenham in Saxony (his descent from the family of the counts of Blanckenburg is uncertain), d. at Paris on 11 February 1141.
After a stay in the Augustinian abbey of Hamersleben (near Halberstadt), he arrived between 1115 and 1118 at St. Victor in Paris (received by Abbot Gilduin (v.)), where he was a disciple of William of Champeaux (v.) and, from 1125, a professor. Having become director of the school in 1133, shortly afterwards he also held the office of prior. Osbert, infirmarian of St. Victor, recounts the edifying details of the death of the theologian, then little more than forty years old (PL 175, 161-63), who was immediately regarded as a saint (miracles were attributed to him), although he never had a public cult.
Although passing over the notable writings De Grammatica (ed. J. Leclercq, in Archives d'hist. littér. et doctr. du moyen âge, 14 [1945], pp. 263-322), Epitoma Philosophiae (ed. B. Hauréau, Hugues de St-Victor, Nouvel examen de ses œuvres, Paris 1859, pp. 162-75), Chronica (ed. G. Waitz, in MGH, Scriptores, XXIV, pp. 86-97) and other similar works, which reveal his interest in the whole of knowledge, one must recall the numerous essays of biblical exegesis: De Scripturis et scriptoribus sacris praenotatiunculae (PL 175, 9-28), a treatise of hermeneutics; Adnotationes elucidatoriae in libros Regum (ibid. 95-114); In Salomonis Ecclesiastes homiliae 19 (ibid. 113-256); Adnotationes elucidatoriae in threnos Jeremiae (ibid. 255-322); Explanatio in Canticum B. Marie V. (ibid. 413-32); Orationis dominicae expositio (ibid. 774-89); a commentary on Heb. 4, 12-15, 2 is found in PL 177, 289-94. In the vast and confused Miscellanea, in 7 books (PL 177, 469-900), further critical investigation will be able to distinguish notable exegetical parts belonging to U. (cf. C. Spicq, Esquisse d'une histoire de l'exégèse au moyen âge, Paris 1944, pp. 120-22 and passim).
The wide fame as a mystic, which U. commonly enjoys at the expense of his more deserved fame as a dogmatic theologian, is founded on numerous and valuable writings. More than from the widespread commentary on Pseudo-Dionysius (Commentariorum in Hierarchiam caelestem s. Dyonisii Areopagitae: PL 175, 923-1154), the spiritual doctrine of U. emerges: a) from the works on monastic life: De institutione novitiorum (PL 176, 925-52), Expositio in Regulam s. Augustini (ibid. 881-924), where he manifests his spiritual balance in the interpretation of the letter and the spirit of the rule; b) from the treatises on prayer: De meditando (ibid. 993-98); De modo orandi (ibid. 977-88), on the conditions and degrees of prayer; Soliloquium de archa animae (ibid. 951-70); c) from the little works on the interior life, on which he composed an interesting trilogy: De vanitate mundi et rerum transeuntium usu (ibid. 703-40); De arca Noe morali (ibid. 617-80); he indicates in the soul as the temple of God, in the Church, in Wisdom the arca salutis; De arca Noe mystica (ibid. 681-704); he develops the same subject under the veil of symbolism, of which he progressively offers the explanation. The same motif of the mystical ark returns in the evocative contemplation De operibus trium dierum (ibid. 811-38). The mystical union is also described in the De amore Sponsi ad sponsam (ibid. 987-94) and in the De laude caritatis (ibid. 969-76).
In the dogmatic-moral field U. established himself with numerous and important works: Eruditio didascalica, or Didascalion (ibid. 739-812; critical ed. by Ch. H. Buttimer, Washington 1939); an introduction to the study of the liberal arts, written with breadth of views (=omnia disce: videbis postea nihil esse superfluum; coarctata scientia iucunda non est: ibid. 800 and 801), it constitutes one of the capital works of medieval pedagogy; Institutiones in decalogum legis dominicae (ibid. 9-18); De Verbo Incarnato collationes tres (ibid. 177, 315-24); De quatuor voluntatibus in Christo (ibid. 176, 841-46); De sapientia animae Christi an aequalis cum divina fuerit (ibid. 845-56); De B. M. virginitate (ibid. 857-76); De Assumptione B. M. sermo (ibid. 177, 1209-1222); De quinque septenis seu septenariis (ibid. 175, 405-14); there the 7 capital vices are related to the 7 petitions of the Pater noster, to the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit, to the 7 principal virtues and to the 7 beatitudes (nothing is said, however, of the 7 Sacraments).
With the name sacramentum U. generally indicates the holy things revealed by Scripture, that is, the whole of theology (dota divinitas: Eruditio didascalica, I, VI, cap. 4; PL 176, 803); such is the meaning of the title of the dialogue De sacramentis legis naturalis et scriptae (ibid. 17-42) and of the masterpiece De sacramentis christianae fidei (ibid. 173-618), with which he acquired imperishable fame. The author sets out to expound the theological content of the Bible and therefore divides the work into two books corresponding to the two Testaments: the first book studies the opus conditionis as a prelude to the Incarnation and accordingly in 12 treatises develops the material concerning God, the creation of the Angels, of the world and of man, original sin, reparations, the law. The second book speaks of the opus reparationis in 18 treatises: Jesus Christ, the Church, ecclesiastical Orders and Offices, Sacraments, virtues, the end of the world and the future life. In this broad and harmonious unfolding of theology shines the centrality of Christ, strongly felt by the author and indicated with verve from the prologue onward (PL 176, 183).
Unlike the school of Anselm of Laon (v.), which preferred anthropology and soteriology, U. develops by preference theodicy, Christology, ecclesiology and sacramental theology, without neglecting the rest. His diction is limpid, his Latin dignified, his erudition absent, yet underlying. This passionate cultivator of the Fathers, especially of St. Augustine, rather than repeating their words, assimilates their thought, which he fuses into a personal synthesis that, even in its fundamental fidelity to tradition, links itself to the new. U. feels the problems emerging from his age, in great ferment, and even if he does not solve them, he advances new proposals, sometimes naive, many times ingenious. Averse to the scholastic methods already in vogue in the school of Abelard (v.), he loves the spontaneous unfolding of ideas and problems, more Patrum. For these and other characteristics the admirable De sacramentis (which remains even today an irreplaceable introduction to dogmatic theology) enjoyed a deserved fortune. With it its author, already in correspondence with the highest personalities of his time, made his authority felt upon Peter Lombard and St. Thomas and, through the two founders of the School, definitively inserted himself into the development of the theological thought of the West. Extolled by Dante (Paradiso, XII, 133), admired by distinguished thinkers in the Renaissance, cited by the renewed Scholasticism of the 17th century, he still today enjoys universal sympathy. - See plate LXX.
Bibliography16 works
Antonio Piolanti