Hugh of St Cher

Hugh of St Cher (c. 1200 – March 19, 1263) was a French Dominican cardinal and Biblical commentator.

He was born at St Cher, a suburb of Vienne, Dauphiné, and while a student in Paris entered the Dominican convent of the Jacobins in 1225.

He taught philosophy, theology, and Canon law. As provincial of his order, which office he held during most of the third decade of the century, he contributed largely to its prosperity, and won the confidence of the popes Gregory IX, Innocent IV and Alexander IV, who charged him with several important missions.

Created cardinal priest of S. Sabina in 1244, he played an important part in the council of Lyons in 1245, contributed to the institution of the Feast of Holy Sacrament, the reform of the Carmelites (1247), and the condemnations of the "Introductorius in evangelium aeternum" of Gherardino da Borgo San Donnino (1255), and of William of St Amour's "De periculis novissimorum temporum". Grand penitentiary 1256-1262. He was named Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia in December 1261, but resigned few months later and returned to his title of S. Sabina. He died at Orvieto on 19 March 1263.

He directed the first revision of the text of the Vulgate, begun in 1236 by the Dominicans; this first "correctorium," vigorously criticized by Roger Bacon, was revised in 1248 and in 1256, and forms the basis of the celebrated "Correctorium Bibliae Sorbonicum".

With the aid of many of his order, he edited the first concordance of the Bible ("Concordantiae Sacrorum Bibliorum" or "Concordantiae S. Jacobi"), but the assertion that we owe the present division of the chapters of the Vulgate to him is false.

Besides a commentary on the "Book of Sentences," he wrote the "Postillae in sacram scripturam juxta quadruplicem sensum, litteralem, allegoricum, anagogicum et moralem," published frequently in the 15th and 16th centuries. His "Sermones de tempore et sanctis" are apparently only extracts. His exegetical works were published at Venice in 1754 in eight volumes.

References

*Quétif-Échard, "Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum"
*Heinrich Seuse Denifle, in "Archiv für Literatur und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters", i.49, ii.171, iv.263 and 471
*"L'Année dominicaine", (1886) iii.509 and 883
*"Chartularium universitatis Parisiensis", i.158.
*CathEncy|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07521b.htm|title=Hugh of St-Cher
*1911