Alexander of Hales

ALEXANDER OF HALES (Halensis or Alensis, Halesius or Alesius; called Doctor Irrefragabilis and Theologorum Monarcha): Scholastic theologian; b. at Hales, Gloucestershire, England; d. in Paris Aug. 21, 1245. He was educated in the monastery at Hales, studied and lectured at Paris, and acquired great fame as a teacher in theology, and entered the order of St. Francis in 1222. His Summa universæ theologiæ (first printed at Venice, 1475) was undertaken at the request of Innocent IV., and received his approbation. It was finished by Alexander’s scholars after his death. It is an independent work giving a triple series of authorities—those who say yes, those who say no, and then the reconciliation or judgment. The authorities are chosen not only from the Bible and the Fathers, but also among Greek, Latin, and Arabic poets and philosophers, and later theologians. It treats in its first part the doctrines of God and his attributes; in its second, those of creation and sin; in its third, those of redemption and atonement; and, in its fourth and last, those of the sacraments. Among the doctrines which were specially developed and, so to speak, fixed by Alexander of Hales, are those of the thesaurus supererogationis perfectorum, of the character indelibilis of baptism, confirmation, ordination, etc.

Bibliography: J. B. Hauréau, De la philosophie scolastique, vol. i., Paris, 1850; A. Stöckl, Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. ii., Mainz, 1865; A. Neander, Christian Church; iv. 420-519; J. E. Erdmann, Geschichte der Philosophie, i. 133, 431, Berlin, 1877, Eng. transl., 3 vols., London, 1893; Moeller, Christian Church, 328, 414, 428.