William of Champeaux
| William of Champeaux | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1070 Champeaux, Kingdom of France |
| Died | 18 January 1121 Châlons-en-Champagne, Kingdom of France |
| Occupation | Bishop of Châlons-en-Champagne |
| Education | |
| Academic advisor | Anselm of Laon |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Medieval philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Scholasticism |
| Notable students | Peter Abelard |
| Main interests | Logic, metaphysics, theology |
| Notable ideas | Realist theory of universals |
Guillaume de Champeaux (French: Guillaume de Champeaux; c. 1070 – 18 January 1121),[1] known in English as William of Champeaux and Latinised to Gulielmus de Campellis, was a French philosopher and theologian.
Biography
William was born at Champeaux near Melun. After studying under Anselm of Laon and Roscellinus, he taught in the school of the cathedral of Notre-Dame, of which he was made canon in 1103. Among his pupils was Peter Abelard, whom he had a disagreement with because Abelard challenged some of his ideas, and because William thought Abelard was too arrogant.[2] Abelard calls him the "supreme master" of dialectic after he replaced his master as the new teacher.[3] In 1108 he resigned his positions as archdeacon of Paris and master of Notre Dame, and retreated to the shrine of St Victor, outside the city walls of Paris, where, under his influence, there formed what would become the abbey of St Victor.[4]
He was a friend of Bernard of Clairvaux, having helped Bernard recuperate from ill-health; later he motivated Bernard to write some of his important works including the Apologia, which was dedicated to William.[2]
William left St Victor in 1113 when he became bishop of Châlons-en-Champagne. At that time, he took part in the dispute concerning investitures as a supporter of Pope Callixtus II, whom he represented at the conference of Mousson. In 1114, he issued the Grande charte champenoise (Great Champagne Chart) which defined the agricultural and viticultural possessions of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre-aux-Monts, thus giving rise to the modern-day Champagne wine region. After relinquishing his Benedictine Abbacy, he moved to a Cistercian monastery in Rheims, where he also composed a number of spiritual books, such as his Vita Prima, which were widely read in monastic circles.[2]
His surviving works are a fragment on the Eucharist, inserted by Jean Mabillon in his edition of the works of St Bernard, and the Moralia A brevi ala and De Origine Animae.[5] In the last of these he maintains that children who die unbaptized must be lost, the pure soul being defiled by the grossness of the body, and declares that God's will is not to be questioned. He upholds the theory of creationism (i.e., that a soul is specially created for each human being). Félix Ravaisson has discovered a number of fragments by him, among which the most important is the De Essentia Dei et de Substantia Dei; a Liber Sententiarum, consisting of discussions on ethics and scriptural interpretation, is also ascribed to Champeaux.
He is considered the founder of an early version of medieval realism, according to which individuals of the same species share a common universal substance and are individuated by accidents; after criticism from Abelard, he adopted a weaker realist position.[6]
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
William of Champeaux — A twelfth-century Scholastic, philosopher, and theologian, b. at Champeaux, near Melun, in the neighbourhood of Paris, about the year 1070; d. at Châlons-sur-Marne, 1121. After having been a pupil of Anselm of Laon, he began in 1103 his career as teacher at the cathedral school of Paris. In 1108, owing chiefly to Abelard's successful attempts to criticize his realistic doctrine of universals, he retired to the Abbey of St. Victor and there continued to give lessons which, no doubt, influenced the mystic school known as that of St. Victor. In 1114 he was made Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne. Portions of his work "De origine animae" and of a "Liber sententiarum", as well as a dialogue entitled "Dialogus seu altercatio cujusdam Christiani et Judaei", have come down to us. On the problem of universals William held successively a variety of opinions. All of these, however, are on the side exaggerated Realism and opposed both to the Nominalism of Roscelin and to the modified Nominalism of Abelard. In his treatise on the origin of the soul he definitely rejects the theory known as Traducianism and maintains that each and every human soul originates from the creative act of God. Among his contemporaries he enjoyed a very great reputation for learning and sanctity. Among his contemporaries he enjoyed a very great reputation for learning and sanctity. He was, moreover, looked upon by the conservative thinkers of that age as the ablest champion of orthodoxy. His creationist doctrine is his chief title to distinction as a Scholastic philosopher.
LEFEVRE, Les variations de Guillaume de Champeaux, etc. (Lille, 1898); MICHAUD, G. de Champeaux et les ecoles de Paris au XII Siecle (Paris, 1867); GRABMAN, Gesch. der schol. Methode (Freiburg, 911), 136 sq.; DE WULF, Hist of Medieval Phil., tr. COFFEY (New York, 1909), 179; TURNER, Hist. of Philosophy (Boston, 1903), 279 sq.
References
- Back to citation Des Châlonnais célébres illustres et mémorables by Jean-Paul Barbier 2000
- Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 Edward Cletus Sellner (2008). Finding the Monk Within: Great Monastic Values for Today. Paulist Press. pp. 238–. ISBN 978-1-58768-048-9.
- Back to citation C. Stephen Jaeger (1 January 2011). The Envy of Angels: Cathedral Schools and Social Ideals in Medieval Europe, 950-1200. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 244–. ISBN 978-0-8122-0030-0.
- Back to citation G. R. Evans University Lecturer in History Cambridge University (7 January 2000). Bernard of Clairvaux. Oxford University Press. pp. 11–. ISBN 978-0-19-802899-4.
- Back to citation In E. Martnes Thesaurus novus Anecdotorum, 1717, vol. 5
- Back to citation Guilfoy, Kevin (2005). "William of Champeaux". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 21 June 2026.
Bibliography
- Cameron, Margaret. What's in a Name? Students of William of Champeaux on the Vox Significativa, Bochumer Philosophisches Jahrbuch fur Antike und Mittelalter 9, 2004, pp. 93–114.
- Iwakuma, Yuko. William of Champeaux, On Aristotle's Categories, in Joël Biard, Irène Rosier-Catach (eds.), La tradition médiévale des Catégories (XII - XV siècle), Louvain-Paris: Peeters, 2003, pp. 313–328.
- Mews, Constant. Logica in the Service of Philosophy: William of Champeaux and his Influence, Rener Berndt (ed.), Schrift, Schreiber, Schenker. Studien zur Abtei Sankt Viktor in Paris und de Viktorinen, Berlin, Aksademie Verlag, 2005, pp. 77–117.
External links
- Guilfoy, Kevin. "William of Champeaux". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISSN 1095-5054. OCLC 429049174.