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bility to devolve on Richard. Richard was an important figure in the struggle of Thomas a Becket with Henry II. of England. Together with a certain abbot of St. Augustine he recommended Thomas' cause to the pope, and, with Abbot Ervisius, sharply admonished Robert of Melun, bishop of Hereford, who had deserted his patron Thomas for the king.

Like his teacher Hugo, Richard was one of the theologians who sought to save traditional dogmas, imperilled by the dialectic methods of Aristotelian logic, by recourse to mysticism. Holding the objects of belief to be partly in accord with reason, partly transcending reason, and partly contradictory to reason, he taught that truth could be attained only by him who should immerse himself in them in believing mysticism, so that where reason failed, meditation and contemplation might lead to the truth. These views he advanced especially in his Benjamin minor, or De prmparatione animi ad contemplationem, and the Benjamin major, or De gratis contemplalionis, with the appendix Allegoria tabernaculi jcederis. These sources are supplemented by his De ezterminatione mali et promotions boni, De 8tatu interim is hominis, De eruditione interioris homini8, and De gradibus caritatis, as well as by his interpretations of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse, the Explicalio aliquorum passuum difcilium (Pauli) apostoli, Declarationes nonnullarum difeultatum scripturm, De Emmanuele, De superezcellenti baptismo Christi, Mysticte adnotationes in Psalmo8, Expo8itio cantici Habacuc, In cantica canticorum, Quomodo Christ= ponitur in signum populorum, and the Easter sermon De missione Spirit= Sancti.

In the Benjamin minor Richard traces the psychological development of man from his first dim longings for purer knowledge to the highest contemplation by an allegorical exegesis of the family of Jacob (Gen. xxix. 16 sqq.). The wives of Jacob represent the basal powers of the soul, Leah typifying affection and Rachel reason, the two operating through their handmaids sensuality and imagination (Zilpah and Bilhah). The births in Jacob's house symbolize the progress of the soul to contemplation, Leah bearing first because the primal impulse comes from affection. Reuben, the " son of vision," typifies the fear arising from careful consideration of faults; while the grief following fear wherein man is heard, is symbolized by Simeon, " hearing." To fear and grief are added the hope (represented by Levi, " addition ") which leads to forgiveness. The hope gained from fear and grief results in loving praises of God (Judah, " confessing "). Lest, however, one should now chink himself at his goal, Leah, or affection, now ceases to bear, and Rachel, or reason, longs for offspring, since reason is unable to think through mere intelligence, but begins with imagination. Bilhah, or imagination, accordingly bears two sons, Dan typifying the formation of a mental image on the basis of visible objects, and Naphthali symbolizing the endeavor to rise from the visible to a knowledge of the invisible. The success of reason now rekindles affection, and when Leah sees that Rachel bears children by her handmaid, she could not rest until Zilpah also bore, and. from sensuality thus controlled proceeded

temperate life (Gad) and patience in adversity (Asher). The way is thus prepared for new affection and Leah herself again bears. After departing from false joys and idle commotions, affection gives rise to true joy (Issachar), on which follows hatred of all evil (Zebulon). The series of virtues is completed by shame (Dinah), which proceeds from abhorrence of sin.

All these affections can not bring man to his goal, for virtues become vices unless controlled by meditation. God accordingly gives fertility to Rachel, since only through the interposition of divine grace can man realize his capabilities. Thus Joseph and Benjamin typify meditation and contemplation. But the birth of contemplation is accompanied by the extremest pangs, yet reason, though knowing that this birth transcends her powers, is insatiable in her longing. After the birth of contemplation, therefore, reason must die. Thus the goal is gained, but the soul must still press on until at the last all darkness shall vanish and eternal truth shall be revealed.

In the Benjamin major Richard, restricting himself to the intellectual factors, distinguished six grades of contemplation: imagination alone; imagination according to reason; reason according to imagination; reason alone; above, but not contrary to, reason; and above, and apparently contrary to, reason. The three first grades can not dispense with the imaginative faculty, though they gradually weaken it, so that in the second grade imagination receives reason, and in the third reason rises to an equality with imagination. The fourth stage is pure reason, which in the sixth is entirely transcended by true wisdom.

Richard appears in an absolutely different light in a series of writings on the Trinity: De Tranitate with its appendix, De tribus appropreatis personis in Trinitale; De Verbo inearnato; and Quomodo Spirit= Sanctus est amor Patris et Filii. The argument of the six books De Trinitate is conventionally scholastic, but there seems to be no reason to doubt its authenticity. In the philosophy and theology of the Middle Ages Richard exercised considerable influence, as on Alexander of Hales, Bonaventura, and Peter of Ailli (qq.v.), as well as on much later German mysticism. He is also interesting for culture history, as in his accounts of contemporary philosophy and monastic life. (FERDINAND COHRB.)

ther: Mist. liuhsaire de la France, xiii. 472-488; C. T. A. Liebner, Richardi a S. Victore de contemplatione doctrina, 2 parts, GBttingen, 1837-39; J. G. V. Engelhardt, Richard von St. Victor and Johann Ruysbroek, Erlangen, 1838; M. Laforet, Coup d'wil sur 1'hiat. de la theolopie dogmatique, Louvain, 1851; W. Kaulieh, Die Lehren des Hugo and Richard von St. Victor, Prague, 1864; W. Prever, Oewhichte der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter, i. 241 sqq., Leipsic, 1874; J. Bash, Dopmengewhichte des Mittelatters, ii. 367 sqq., Vienna, 1875; L. Stein, in Archiv far die Oeschichte der Philosophie, ii (1889), 193-245; B. Haur6su, Mist. de to philosophie acolastique, i. 509-514, Paris, 1872; idem, Notices et estraits iv. 258-259, ib. 1892; Harnack, Dogma, vi. 100, 103, 179, 182· the works on the history of philosophy, e.g., by J. E. Erdmann, 3 vols., London, 1893, and W. W. Windelband, ib. 1893; Schaff, Christian Church, v. 1, pp. 647-048; DNB, xlviii. 188-190.