Godfrey of Fontaines on the Medieval Custom of Dividing the Bodies of Certain Prominent Persons for Burial in Separate Places

GODFREY OF FONTAINES ON THE MEDIEVAL CUSTOM OF DIVIDING THE BODIES OF CERTAIN PROMINENT PERSONS FOR BURIAL IN SEPARATE PLACES John Wippel* Godfrey of Fontaines served as a Master (Magister) in the theology faculty of the University of Paris from 1285 until ca. 1303/1304 and, along with Henry of Ghent, Giles of Rome and, to a lesser degree, James of Viterbo, was one of the most prominent members of that faculty from the time of Thomas Aquinas’s death in 1274 until the beginning of the fourteenth century.1 Godfrey and Henry are both well known for having made the quodlibetal question a major vehicle for disseminating their philosophical and theological thought. This distinctive type of disputation had developed to a high degree of sophistication within the theology faculty at Paris in the course of the thirteenth century, and was selected by Thomas Aquinas on twelve different occasions during his two teaching periods as a Master in theology there (1256–1259 and 1268–1272). Quodlibetal disputations are so named because, unlike other university disputations, their theme was not set by the presiding Master. Rather, questions could be raised by anyone who was present (a quolibet) and about any legitimate topic (de quolibet). Not surprisingly, the particular questions raised by those in attendance often reflected topics of great interest to the audience and at times were occasioned by well known historical events. Moreover, questions were sometimes raised which could be extremely sensitive from a religious or philosophical or political standpoint, and which might also be intended to embarrass the presiding The Jurist 67 (2007) 311–340 311 * School of Philosophy, Catholic University of America. 1 For still the most complete but necessarily dated study of Godfrey’s life and career see Maurice De Wulf, Un théologien-philosophe du XIIIe siècle. Étude sur la vie, les oeuvres et l’influence de Godefroid de Fontaines (Brussels: M. Hayez, 1904). For a general presentation of his metaphysical thought and for additional secondary literature see my The Metaphysical Thought of Godfrey of Fontaines: A Study in Late Thirteenth-Century Philosophy (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1981). On his life see pp. xi–xxi. For an update on more recent literature concerning his career see my “Godfrey of Fontaines at the University of Paris in the Last Quarter of the Thirteenth-Century ,” in Nach der Verurteilung von 1277. Philosophie und Theologie an der Universität von Paris im letzten Viertel des 13. Jahrhunderts. Studien und Texte, ed. Jan A. Aertsen, Kent Emery, Jr., andAndreas Speer (Berlin-NewYork: Walter de Gruyter, 2001) 359–389. 312 the jurist Master. Masters could refuse to entertain a particular question, but it was evidently not good form to do so unless the question was clearly frivolous or unless the Master had determined or would determine it elsewhere . Masters in theology were not obliged to conduct quodlibetal disputations (which were held twice in the academic year, in Advent and in Lent), and many of them rarely did so. But figures such as Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent (15 Quodlibets), and Godfrey (15 Quodlibets) obviously relished the challenge posed by them.2 Well before Godfrey’s time the custom of dividing the bodies of recently deceased prominent persons, especially royalty and nobility, had come to be practiced in Northern Europe (it was at times referred to as the mos teutonicus or gallicus), as well as in England.At times very practical considerations might lead to such a decision, such as the death of a prominent person in a distant land. Because of the difficulties involved in preserving and transporting an entire body for an extended period of travel, the practice had arisen of extracting the entrails and the heart from the body of the deceased, and then of boiling the body until the skin had been removed and the bones exposed. The bones would then be transported back to the person’s homeland for permanent burial. On some occasions the bones might be buried in one location, and the heart in another . One justification for separate burial of different parts of the body was the belief that by burying the remains of the deceased in two...