The Egidean Influence in Robert Orford’s Doctrine on Form

THE EGIDEAN INFLUENCE IN ROBERT ORFORD'S DOCTRINE ON FORM SOMETIME BETWEEN the years 1277 and 1279, the English Franciscan William de la Mare wrote a polemical work entitled: Correctivwni fratris Thomae.1 The purpose of this treatise was to safeguard the orthodoxy of those young Franciscans who might have been reading the writings of Thomas Aquinas. The Franciscan Chapter of Strasbourg held in 1282 ordered that the friars have this book before them while reading Aquinas. We know of three Dominican responses to William's Correctivum which were written at Oxford, each being identified by its opening word, viz., Quare, Sciendum and Quaestione.2 The second of these, whose full title is: Correctorium Corruptorii Sciendum is ascribed in MS. Madrid Bibl. Real. VII, H. 5 (now University Salamanca 1887) to a certain Guillelmus Torto Callo Anglici. On fol. 89v is the explicit statement: Here ends the correction of the corruptor by brother William of Torto Collo, an Englishman, Master of Theology, of the Order of Friars, Preachers. This same man, Torto Collo, also wrote a work against Henry of Ghent which is found in MS. Vat. lat. 987, fol. lr-128v, but in this work against Henry his name is written Colletorto. On fol. 128 in a contemporary hand are the words: 1 For a discussion of this work, its dates and the events surrounding its appearance , see my The Quaestio Disputata de Unitate Frirmae by Richard Knapwell, (Paris, 1982), pp. 165. 2 All these works are available in editions. Le Oorrectorium Corruptorii ' Qucire ', ed. Palemon Glorieux (Kain, 1927); Le Correctorium Oorruptorii 'Sciendum ', ed. Palemon Glorieux (Paris, 1956); Le Correctorium Oorruptorii ' Quaestione ', ed. Jean-Pierre Muller (Rome, 1954) . 77 78 FRANCIS E. KELLEY and here are notations in the margins of these titles or articles by Master Robert of Colletorto, so that one might see how he (i.e., Henry) contradicts himself. Despite the difference in the way the name appears, i.e., Torto Collo and Colletorto, internal evidence makes it clear that one and the same man wrote both works. We might note also that the author of contra dicta Henrici, viz., Robert Colletorto, made several references to a responsorium ad corruptorium, and in one of these references he said it was his own responsorium: but because Henry does not oppose what I have written concerning this matter in my response to the corruptor, I do not care to deal with what he says here.3 Colletorto or Torto Collo also wrote another treatise, against Giles of Rome, entitled Reprobationes dictorum a fratre Egidio in primum Sententiarum which is extant in one manuscript, viz., MS. Merton Q76.4 Although the latter work is anonymous in the Merton manuscript, a comparative examination of Reprobationes fratris Egidii, contra dicta Henrici and Sciendum shows that one man wrote the three works. A comparison of what we read in the three treatises in connection with the relationship of the intellect to the will makes it clear that Torto Collo is the author. Is the intellect the su., perior faculty in man; or is the will? If the question be set in these precise terms, it might have seemed an odd or perhaps trivial thing to he asking. But the implications of the question for the scholastic were far-reaching. The way he discussed the point depended largely on how he stood regarding the broader question of that time concerning the role of philosophy in the Christian scheme. The excessive rationalism of the so-called a " Sed quia Henricus non opponit se ad ea quae ego scripsi circa materiam istam in responsorio ad corruptorium, ideo non _curavi tractare quae sic recitat ", MS. Vat. lat. 987, fol. 122rb. P. Bayerschmidt shows that the respomcmum in question is Sciendum, Robert von Colletorto, Verfasser des Correctoriums •Bciendum ' ", Divus Thomas (Freiburg im Breis.) 17 (1939), pp. Sll-S!!6. 4 RobeTt d'Orford Reprobationes dictorum a fratre Egidio in Primum Sententiarum , ed. A. Vella (Paris, 1968). THE EGIDEAN INFLUENCE .IN ORFORD 79 radical Aristotelians brought on the strong counter-measures of the Church and University authorities. The debate over the. relative superiority of intellect and will did not reflect this conflict in its entirety, but it formed...