(ca. 1185–1245). Theologian. Alexander’s early life is conjectural: born probably in Hales (now Hales Owen), in the English Midlands, he studied arts, then theology, in Paris, from around the turn of the century. From 1226 to 1229, he was a canon of Saint Paul’s, London, although he remained in Paris. He was one of four masters sent to Rome by the University of Paris in 1230 to represent its case in the famous dispute (which led to strike and dissolution) with the French king. Gregory IX’s bull Parens scientiarum (1231), arising out of the dispute, was partly Alexander’s work. In 1231, he was made canon of Lichfield and archdeacon of Coventry. At the height of his career, in 1235, he joined the fledgling Franciscan order (apparently breaking off a sermon he was preaching, taking the habit, and returning to finish the sermon), thus giving the Franciscans their first holder of a magisterial chair in the University of Paris. He was active in teaching for the Franciscans and as an adjudicator of disputes until his sudden death, probably of an epidemic disease, in Paris in 1245.
The catalogue of Alexander’s works is unclear. He is best remembered today for introducing commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sententiae into the Paris theology syllabus. His own Sententiae gloss, the earliest we possess, survives in more than one version, apparently being student reportationes of his lectures. A set of Quaestiones disputatae “antequam esset frater” belongs to him, but a Summa theologiae begun by Alexander was finished by William of Melitona, John of La Rochelle, and other members of the “Franciscan school” that Alexander headed. It is thus a useful summary of 13th-century Franciscan ideas. The same group of friars was responsible for an exposition of the Franciscan Rule, in 1242.
With William of Auvergne, Alexander (known as Doctor irrefragibilis), was the first Paris master to use Aristotle in the service of theology; and, like William, he used Aristotle’s ideas in a framework of traditional Augustinian orthodoxy. Alexander’s main sources are Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Boethius, and the “moderns” of the 12th century: Bernard of Clairvaux, Gilbert of Poitiers, Anselm, and others.
Alexander’s prosaic style makes it difficult for us today to appreciate his enormous contemporary success, although his structured and ordered approach remains a key feature of his work. Bonaventure was of one of the succeeding generation who revered Alexander, suggesting that his teaching in person may have been more gripping than the remnant left to us.
Alexander of Hales. Glossa in Sententias, ed. P.Doucet. 4 vols. Florence: Ex Typographia Collegii S.Bonaventurae, 1951–57.
——. Questiones disputatae “antequam esset frater.” 3 vols. Florence: Ex Typographia Collegii S.Bonaventurae, 1960.
——. Summa theologica, ed. Bernardini Klumper. 4 vols. Florence: Ex Typographia Collegii S.Bonaventurae, 1924.
——. Summa theologica. Indices in tom. I-IV, ed. Constantini Koser. Grottaferrata (Rome): Editiones Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas, 1979.
Catania, F.J. Knowledge of God in Alexander of Hales and John Duns Scotus. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute, 1966.
Herscher, I. “A Bibliography of Alexander of Hales.” Franciscan Studies 5(1945):434–54.
Huber, Raphael M. “Alexander of Hales O.F.M. (ca. 1170–1245): His Life and Influence on Medieval Scholasticism.” Franciscan Studies 26(1945):353–65.
Principe, Walter H. The Theology of the Hypostatic Union in the Early Thirteenth Century. 4 vols. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1963–75, Vol. 2: Alexander of Hales’s Theology of the Hypostatic Union.
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