Author
Aegidius Romanus
1243–1316
Giles of Rome (born c. 1243, –47, Rome [Italy]—died 1316, Avignon, Fr.) was a Scholastic theologian, philosopher, logician, archbishop, and general and intellectual leader of the Order of the Hermit Friars of St. Augustine. Giles joined the Augustinian Hermits in about 1257 and in 1260 went to Paris, where he was educated in the house of his order. While in Paris from 1269 to 1272, he probably studied under St. Thomas Aquinas, whose philosophical doctrines he defended against ecclesiastical condemnation (1277). He supported the Thomistic doctrine of substance in his Theoremata de esse et essentia (“Essays on Being and Essence”). A storm of opposition from other theologians forced Giles to take refuge in Bayeux, Fr. (1278–80).
Works
Texts currently available in the library.
De Ecclesiastica Potestate
1929Giles of Rome’s major treatise on ecclesiastical authority, written around 1302 amid the conflict between Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France. It presents a systematic account of papal plenitude of power, placing temporal jurisdiction and legitimate dominion within an order ultimately dependent upon the supreme authority of the Church.
Theoremata de Esse et Essentia
1930Giles of Rome’s Theoremata de esse et essentia offers a compact yet systematic presentation of some of the central principles of his metaphysics. Organized into twenty-two theorems, the work examines esse as a participated perfection, the metaphysical constitution of created beings, and the real distinction between essence and existence. It also considers the relation of esse to form, causality, and the dependence of creatures upon the first principle. The text follows Edgar Hocedez’s critical edition (Louvain, 1930).