Hugh of St

Abbey of St. Victor in Paris. Probably a student of William of Champeaux, he became a leading master in the abbey's school. His writings encompass a wide range of commentaries, treatises, and mystical works. The two most important are De sacramentis christianae fidei, the first theological summa, and Didascalicon, which proposed an influential framework for scientific inquiry and biblical interpretation. Hugh's works (along with some inauthentic works) can be found in Migne (P.L. 175-77) and are being critically edited at the Hugo von Sankt Viktor-Institut in the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt. Hugh was a master in a school and counts as a scholastic author, even though he comes before the rise of university scholasticism and before the Latin West's rediscovery of the integral Aristotle. A careful thinker, he often pauses to indicate which things are known, which things are matters for speculation, and which things cannot be settled. The greatest testimony to the breadth of his mind is that of Bonaventure in the De reductione artium ad theologiam (n. 5, ed. Quar. V 321b). According to Bonaventure (who introduces Hugh in Paradisio XII.133), the three branches of theology are doctrine, morals, and mysticism; their best practitioners were Augustine, Gregory, and Dionysius, and they were succeeded on account of their reason, preaching, and contemplation; " but Hugh had all of these. " Like most medieval authors, Hugh is more a theologian than a philosopher. His main categories and concerns are determined by the Christian faith, he appeals to revelation freely, and he seldom engages in independent philosophical inquiries. At the same time, however, he does distinguish philosophy from theology, and he sees a real (if secondary) role for reason acting without special guidance from faith in an attempt to grasp the works of institution (see below); we can, therefore, speak truly of his philosophical views. This article will focus on them, but not