- Alcher of Clairvaux
Alcher of Clairvaux was a twelfth-century
Cistercian monk ofClairvaux Abbey . He was once thought to be the author of two works, now attributed by many scholars to an anonymous pseudo-Augustine of the same period [http://users.skynet.be/am012324/studium/oneil/bibper15.htm states that Alcher was at Clairvaux c.1150-1175, but the authorship as increasingly doubtful.] [Ioan P. Couliano, "Eros and Magic in the Renaissance" (1987) regards Alcher as more likely than Hugh of St Victor.] [Beryl Smalley , "Studies in Medieval Thought and Learning from Abelard to Wyclif" (1981), p. 91, agrees with Raciti that the "De spiritu et anima" is not by Alcher, but disagrees with his suggestion ofPeter Comestor as author.] .Thomas Aquinas made the traditional attribution of the "De spiritu et anima" [Also "Liber de anima et spiritu".] to Alcher [ [http://www.ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/XP/XP090.html Summa Theologica ] ] [ [http://www.newadvent.org/summa/5090.htm SUMMA THEOLOGICA: The form of the judge in coming to the judgment (Supplementum, Q. 90) ] ] . It is now reckoned to be a compilation of c.1170, taken fromAlcuin ,Anselm ,Bernard of Clairvaux ,Augustine of Hippo ,Cassiodorus ,Hugh of St Victor ,Isaac of Stella , andIsidore of Seville [Janet Coleman, "Ancient and Medieval Memories: Studies in the Reconstruction of the Past" (1992), p. 220.] ; alsoBoethius [http://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/hwp213.htm, giving Alcher as author.] . It is a source for medieval views onself-control [Louis G. Kelly, "The Mirror of Grammar: Theology, Philosophy, and the Modistae" (2002), p. 136.] , and the doctrine that "the soul rules the body" [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09580c.htm "Catholic Encyclopedia", article "Man"] ] ."De diligendo Deo" is a devotional work, also traditionally attributed to Alcher.
References
*Leo Norpoth, "Der Pseudo-Augustinische Traktat: De spiritu et anima" (Dissertation, Munich, 1924; Cologne, 1971)
*G. Raciti, "L'autore del De spiritu et anima", Rivista di filosofia neoscolastica 53 (1961) 385-401Notes
External links
* [http://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/homp185.htm Jacques Maritain Center page]
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