Aegidius de Columna

ÆGIDIUS DE COLUMNA (Egidio Colonna): A pupil of Thomas Aquinas and reputed author of the bull Unam sanctam; b. at Rome 1245 (?); d. at Avignon 1316. He joined the Augustinian eremite monks, studied at Paris, and taught there for many years, being called Doctor fundatissimus. From 1292 to 1295 he was general of his order. In 1296 he was made archbishop of Bourges, but continued to reside in Rome. He defended the election of Boniface VIII. in his De renuntiatione papæ, showing that the abdication of Celestine V. was not against the canon law, and followed the court to Avignon. His numerous writings (mostly unpublished) deal with philosophy (commentaries on Aristotle), exegesis (In Canticum Canticorum; In epistolam ad Romanos), and dogmatics (In sententias Longobardi; Quodlibeta). A portion of his work on ecclesiastical polity, De potestate ecclesiastica, was published in the Journal de l’instruction publique (Paris, 1858).

K. Benrath.

Bibliography: C. E. du Boulay, Historia universitatis Parisiensis, iii. 671-672, Paris, 1666; W. Cave, Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum litteraria, ii. 339-341, Oxford, 1743; J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Latina, i. 19-20, Florence, 1858; F. X. Kraus, Ægidius von Rom, in Oesterreichische Vierteljahresschrift für katholische Theologie, i. 1-33, Vienna, 1862; F. L[ajard], Gilles de Rome, religieux, Augustin, theologian, in Histoire litteraire de la France, xxx. 421-566, Paris, 1888.