Medieval France
(ca. 1200–1272). William is now chiefly remembered for his ferocious campaign against the mendicant orders. We know nothing of his life until he became master of arts in Paris (by 1228). By No-vember 1238, he had received the doctorate in canon law and was also canon of Beauvais and rector of Guerville. He went on to study theology in Paris and ca. 1250 was a regent master.
From about this time, William began his attacks on the mendicant way of life, and it was through his influence that the Dominicans were suspended from teaching in 1254 for having in effect broken the closed shop of masters by ignoring the suspension of classes in the previous year and continuing to teach.
William never substantially amended his views on the mendicants, and his subsequent fate depended on who was pope at the time.
Innocent IV (r. 1243–54) was sympathetic, and he flourished. Alexander IV (r. 1254–61) was cardinal protector of the Franciscans, and William was deprived of his privileges and expelled from France. Clement IV, although disagreeing, allowed him to return to Saint-Amour, where he died. His most famous polemical work is De periculis novissimorum temporum (1256).
Lesley J.Smith
[See also: DOMINICAN ORDER; FRANCISCAN ORDER; UNIVERSITIES]
Douie, Decima L. The Conflict Between the Seculars and the Mendicants at the University of Paris in the Thirteenth Century. London: Blackfriars, 1954.
Dufeil, M.M. Guillaume de Saint-Amour et la potémique universitaire parisienne, 1250–1259. Paris: Picard, 1972.
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