HUGO METELLO. - Theologian, b. at Toul at the end of the 11th century, d. ca. 1150.
A disciple of Anselm of Laon (v.), he became a canon of the Church of St. Leo of Toul, distinguishing himself by his theological culture, despite his innate loquacity and the vainglorious display of his learning. His 55 Epistolae (ed. C. L. Hugo, Sacrae antiquitatis monumenta, II, Saint-Dié 1731, pp. 312-420), even in their verbosity and stylistic affectation, are important because they offer valuable information on the theological movement of the period, on the successes and misfortunes of Abelard (v.), on U. M.'s distrust of dialectic (cedat ratio fidei, ad hoc probandum non adducas sillogysmum, ibid., p. 386: with regard to the parthenogenesis of Mary), on his scholarly 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 Gerland of Besançon (cf. A. Cordoliani, Note sur un auteur peu connu: Gerland de Besançon [d. after 1148], in Revue du moyen âge latin, 1 [1945], pp. 411-19), a follower of Berengar of Tours (v.), giving felicitous interpretations (asseris quod ille [Augustinus] asserit, sed non sentis quod ille sentit) of certain passages of St. Augustine (Serm., 77, 4: PL 38, 485). In the conclusion of the same letter he makes a strong affirmation of the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff. He also wrote certain Carmina, among which one concerning the investiture controversy is to be remembered (ed. Borhmer, MGH, Libelli de lite, III, pp. 714-19).
Bibliography7 works
Antonio Piolanti