Geraldus Odonis: On the Univocity of the Concept of Being

GERALDUS ODONIS ON THE UNIVOCITY OF THE CONCEPT OF BEING Geraldus Odonis (c. 1285-1349), the Doctor Moralis, was a long time general of the Franciscan Order (1329-1342), and later patriarch of Antioch and bishop of Catania. Not without importance in the history of the Church, he is comparatively unknown as a commentator of Peter Lombard's Sentences. Yet, according to Anneliese Maier, who spent the better part of her life in the Vatican Library, studying fourteenth century scholastic authors, Gerald was one of the most original, one of the most brilliant, and also one of the most courageous philosophers of the fourteenth century.1 Geraldus was not a disciple of Duns Scotus, although some of his teachers had very likely heard the Subtle Doctor lecture. On the question regarding the univocity of the concept of being, Geraldus accepts Scotus's conclusions, but his discussion is worth studying, since in many ways his exposition is clearer and more orderly; some of his arguments are original. The question is proposed in the first part of distinction 3 of his Quaestiones in I Sententiarum Petri Lombardi.2 !"Die Pariser Disputation des Geraldus Odonis Über die Visio Beatifica Dei," first published in Archivio italiano per la storia délia pietà, 4 (Roma,1965) 213-51), and again in Ausgehendes Mittelalter, 3 (Roma 1977) 329: "Geraldus Odonis ist, wie wir in anderen Zusammenhängen mehrfach gesehen haben, einer der originellsten, geistesreichsten und auch mutigsten Philosophen des 14. Jahrhunderts, der sich nicht gescheut hat Ansichten auszusprechen, die den herkömmlichen diametral entgegegesetzt waren und eine dementsprechende Kritik erregen mussten."— Geraldus Odonis or Guiral Ot, was born in Camboulit, near Figeac, in the department of Lot, circa 1285. He entered the Franciscan Order in Figeac at an early age. He studied at the University of Paris. He was teaching first at the Franciscan Studium at Toulouse and later he lectured on the Sentences in Paris where in 1326 he became regent master of the Franciscan Studium. He was a friend and protégé of Pope John XXII. On June 10, 1329, at the General Chapter of Paris, he was elected minister general of the Franciscan Order, replacing Michael of Cesena, whom the Pope deposed and excommunicated. He ruled the Order for more than 12 years. Pope Clement VI, on November 27, 1342, appointed him patriarch of Antioch and entrusted him with the care of the bishopric of Catania, in Sicily, where he died of the plague in 1349. — On Gerald see L. Bartolomé, Fray Geraldo de Odón (Murcia, 1928); C. Schmitt, Un Pape réformateur et un défenseur de l'unité de l'Eglise: Benoit XII, et l'Ordre des Frères Mineurs (1334-1342) (Quaracchi , 1959); J. Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Orderfrom its Origins to the Year 1517 (Oxford, 1968). 2The copy I am employing at this time is preserved in codex 65 of the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid, with corrections from Sarnano, Bibl. comunale, cod. E 98. Other Franciscan Studies 52 (1992) 24 GEDEON GAL Geraldus opens the discussion by announcing that he plans to address four questions concerning the problem of the univocity of the concept of being: a) Is there some common term which we can predicate univocally both of God and creatures? b) Is there a univocal concept common to God and creatures? c) Is there some objective reality (ratio communis obiectiva) outside the mind signified by that common concept? d) Is there something univocally common to substances and accidents? In the first article Geraldus proceeds to state a short negative and affirmative answer to all four questions, making it clear on the outset how he intends to treat and resolve the problem. He intends to do it in four steps: first, he makes a number of preliminary distinctions; next, he recites a contrary opinion and its arguments; thirdly, he states and explains his own opinion; and finally, he answers the objections presented for the contrary opinion. Boethius in his commentary on the Categories of Aristotle3 distinguishes equivocation by chance (aequivocatio a casu) and intentional equivocation (equivocatio a consilio). Chance equivocation covers cases such as the name 'Alexander' predicated both of Alexander the Great and Priam...