William of Saint-Amour

William of Saint-Amour was a minor figure in thirteenth-century scholasticism, chiefly notable for his withering attacks on the friars.

William was born in Saint-Amour, Jura, then part of the Duchy of Burgundy, in c. 1200. Under the patronage of the Count of Savoy, he was active at the University of Paris from the 1220s, becoming master of arts in 1228. From a reference in a letter by Gregory IX, it is evident that he had become a doctor of Canon law by 1238. By 1250 he had been made master of theology.

The controversy on which his fame rests began in earnest in the 1250s. The gradual encroachment of the newly formed mendicant orders into the university was the immediate cause of this. The secular clergy had previously enjoyed unrivalled teaching privileges at Paris, but the friars presented a serious challenge to their monopoly, gaining a number of prominent lecturing posts: the career of Bonaventure is indicative of the friars' rising stature in academia. The seculars bitterly resented this incursion, and engaged in a prolonged conflict with the friars. According to Matthew Paris' Chronica Majora, this controversy brought the university to a point of near-collapse, 'exposed to danger, owing to the suspension of its lectures and disputations, and the dispersion of many of its scholars...owing to the insults and reproaches of the Preachers and Minors'. Particularly offensive was the friars' desire to increase the number of teaching positions, entirely against established custom. At length the dispute was brought before the papal curia. William had emerged as the mouthpiece of the secular party, and in 1254 he and five other masters directly petitioned Innocent IV. The pope proved sympathetic to their concerns: Innocent duly limited many of the friars' powers, and reduced the number of chairs they could legitimately occupy at the university. This victory, however, was short-lived. Innocent died in the December of the same year, and was replaced by Alexander IV. Alexander was cardinal protector of the Franciscans and therefore unlikely to side with the seculars: he promptly overturned the restrictions imposed by his predecessor, allowing the friars to be readmitted to Paris.

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