William of Saint Amour

WILLIAM OF SAINT AMOUR: Professor at the Sorbonne, opponent of the mendicant orders; b. possibly at St. Amour (200 m. s.e. of Paris) about the middle of the thirteenth century; d. at Paris about 1272. About 1250 he was teacher of theology at the University of Paris, which he defended against the encroachments of the Dominicans and Franciscans. The university was then at the height of its fame, numbered thousands of students, and was a power in the state. It was therefore coveted by the monks who were aided by the pope; but the university, the existence of which was threatened, issued an ener getic appeal to all bishops. Innocent IV. was con vinced that he ought to interfere, and in a bull of 1254 guarded the privileges of the secular clergy and the bishops. He died, however, fourteen days after ward, and the friars avenged themselves by repre senting this sudden death as a judgment of God. They were protected by Alexander IV., the successor of Innocent, and also by King Louis IX.; but the university was in no way willing to give up the struggle, finding a brilliant protagonist in William of St. Amour. With caustic satire he opened his campaign against the "pappelards," as he called the monks. His wit and humorous style won him the favor of the public; the bishops, whose privileges were also in danger, secretly took his side. In 1256 William wrote his witty and biting Tractatus brevis de perieulis novissimorum temporum, Opera Const. (Paris, 1632), in which he applied the utterances of Christ against the Pharisees to the monks, the effects of which lasted for 300 years. But he had powerful opponents in the Dominican Thomas Aquinas and the Franciscan Bonaventura (qq.v.). His cause was tried before the pope in Anagni; the mendicant friars gained a complete victory, and William's wri ting was burned. The opposition of the university was broken for a long time. Only after the death of Alexander IV., in 1263, was William allowed to re turn to Paris and resume his lectures. Besides the work mentioned above he wrote Liber de Antichristo et ejasdem ministris.

(C. Pfender).

Bibliography: Hist. lingraire de la France, xix. 197 sqq., xxi. 468 sqq.; C. E. Du Boulay, Historia universitatis Parisiensis, vol. iii., Paris, 1666; Le Nain de Tillemont, Vie de St. Louis, vi. 143 sqq., ib. 1851; Corneille St. Marc, ,ttude sur Guillaume de S. Amour, Lons-le-Saunier, 1865; H. Denifle, Chartularium universitatis Parisiensis, vol. i., Paris, 1889; Neander, Christian Church, iv. 282-288 et passim; Lichtenberger, ESR, v. 786-788; KL, xii. 1580-1586. The reader may also consult the Opusculum contra impugnantes dei cultum et i'eligionem of Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventura's Libellus apologeticus in eos qui ordini fratrum minorum advertantur, and his De paupertate Christi.