Jocelin of Soissons

Jocelin of Soissons [Gauslen, Gauslenus, Gauzelin, Goslen, Goslenus, Goslin, Jocelin, Jocelyn, Joscelin, Joscelinus, Joslain, Joslein, Joslin, Josselin; surnamed de Vierzy.] (died 1152) was a French theologian, a philosophical opponent of Abelard. He became bishop of Soissons, and is known also as a composer (commonly as Goslenus Suessionensis, or Magister Goslenus, episcopus Suessionensis), with two pieces in the "Codex Calixtinus" [ [http://phonoarchive.org/grove/Entries/S42492.htm Universities ] ] . He was teaching at the Paris cathedral school in the early 1110s"Cambridge Companion to Abelard" (2004), p. 310.] .

Bishop

He began work on the present Soissons Cathedral; it only took shape in the 1190s [ [http://www.pierre-abelard.com/itin-Soissons.htm Abelard condamne au concile de Soissons en 1121 ] ] .

Abbot Suger addressed his history of Louis the Fat to him [ [http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/prh3/408/texts/Sugervie.html SUGER's Life of Louis the Fat ] ] . In the papal politics of the late 1220s and 1230s, Suger counted on Jocelin, at Soissons from 1126, as a supporter of Pope Innocent II against antipope Anacletus II, along with other bishops of northern France [Mary Stroll, "The Jewish Pope: Ideology and Politics in the Papal Schism of 1130" (1987), p. 176.] [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14130c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Soissons ] ] .

As bishop he founded Longpont Abbey [ [http://lescherisey.free.fr/getperson.php?personID=I859&tree=cherisey Gérard II de CHERISY: LES CHERISEY histoire et généalogie de la famille de Chérisey ] ] in 1131, a Cistercian monastery supported by Bernard of Clairvaux [ [http://fr.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?id=s0012600 Structurae [fr: Ancienne abbaye Notre-Dame (1227) ] ] ; Bernard was a correspondent [http://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/StBernard/tome01/lettres/207-253/lettre222.htm#_Toc53287598, http://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/StBernard/tome01/lettres/207-253/lettre222.htm#_Toc53287599, in French.] . He favoured the Knights Templars, having participated in the Council of Troyes that gave them full standing [http://www.templiers.net/temple/index.php?page=les-premiers-pas-du-temple, http://www.insolite.asso.fr/templiers/montdesoissons.htm, in French.] . He was present at the 1146 Council of Arras, a probable occasion for the planning of the Second Crusade [Jonathan Phillips, "The Second Crusade" (2007), p. 82.] .

Works

The "De generibus et speciebus" has been attributed to him [ [http://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/hop32.htm Jacques Maritain Center: History of Philosophy, "Abelard"] ] . Now scholars call its author Pseudo-Joscelin [ [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mereology-medieval/ "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy", article "Medieval Mereology"] .] . It may be by a student of his. The "Metalogicus" of John of Salisbury attributed to him the view that universals exist only in the collection, not the individuals [http://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/homp171.htm, http://www.formalontology.it/universals-history.htm, http://www.granta.demon.co.uk/arsm/jg/abelard.html] .

References

*"Annales de la vie de Joscelin de Vierzi" in Achille Luchaire, "Quatrièmes mélanges d'histoire du moyen age" (1905)
*Desmond Paul Henry, "Medieval Mereology" (1991)

Notes