UGO METELLO. – Theologian, born at Toul toward the end of the 11th century, died c. 1150.
Anselmo di Laon (v.), he became a canon of the Church of s. Leone of Toul, distinguishing himself through his theological culture, despite his innate loquacity and the vain ostentation of his knowledge. His 55 Epistolae (ed. C. L. Hugo, Sacrae antiquitatis monumenta, II, Saint-Dié 1731, pp. 312–420), despite their verbosity and stylistic elaboration, are important because they provide valuable information about the theological movement of the period, about Abelardo (v.), about U. M.’s distrust of dialectic (cedat ratio fidei, ad hoc probandum non adducas sillogysmum, ibid., p. 386: concerning the parthenogenesis of Mary), and about his scientific method, little concerned with the literary property of others (accipe quod ex aliorum ormariis excrustavi... cum cornicola alienis pennis me ornavi, ibid., p. 380).
Particularly noteworthy is the Epistola ad Gerlandum (also published in PL 188, 1273–76), in which he refutes the Eucharistic errors of the canon Gerlando of Besançon (cf. A. Cordoliani, Note sur un auteur peu connu: Gerland de Besançon [m. dopo il 1148], in Revue du moyen âge latin, 1 [1945], pp. 411–19), Berengario di Tours (v.), offering felicitous interpretations (asseris quod ille [Augustinus] asserit, sed non sentis quod ille sentit) of certain
passages of s. Agostino (Serm., 77, 4: PL 38, 485). At the conclusion of the same letter he makes a strong affirmation of the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff. He also wrote several Carmina, among which one concerning the investiture controversy deserves mention (ed. Borhmer, MGH, Libelli de lite, III, pp. 714–19).