Moral Theology: Its Method and Masters
Godfrey of Fontaines
Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.
In the Index: Godfrey of Viterbo
Added because Merkelbach classifies him among the moral systems (Summa II, excursus).
His Moral System, as Our Authors Report It
Every report quoted in the author's own words and linked to its place; point at a name to see his words. Haringer's signs give St. Alphonsus's judgment as Haringer found it in St. Alphonsus's works (his notice, Gury-Ballerini, 1884, p. XI); a sign on a writer the 1884 editor added to the list is the editor's own, and is said to be his.
| Probabilist | |
|---|---|
| Counted among them by one of our authors | Bucceroni, Commentarii, n. 111 |
Where Our Authors Discuss Him
Each read in its full passage; the words quoted are the author's own. Where several authors say the same thing, one is quoted and the others follow “in nearly the same words”; point at a name to see his words.
| “Thus Godfrey of Fontaines (Quodl. IX, a. 16), and Paludanus”Merkelbach: he prescribes to the confessor to respect the opinions of the penitent unless they are openly false | Merkelbach, Summa II, excursus on the moral systems |
In the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
“Godfrey of Fontaines”, vol. 6, by Peter Coffey. Public domain; transcription at New Advent (which expands some of the print's abbreviations).
(GODEFRIDUS DE FONTIBUS, DOCTOR VENERANDUS)
A scholastic philosopher and theologian; born near Liège within the first half of the thirteenth century, he became a canon of his native diocese, and also of Paris and Cologne, and was elected, in 1300, to the See of Tournai, which he declined. He taught theology at the University of Paris during the last quarter of the century, was a Magister, or doctor, of theology and a member of the Sorbonne, to which he left a valuable collection of manuscripts He is the author of a notable collection of disputations, "XIV Quodlibeta", which show him to have been not merely a distinguished theologian and philosopher, but also a canonist, jurist, moralist, and controversialist, who took an active part in the various ecclesiastical, doctrinal, and disciplinary disputes that stirred Paris at that period. In regard to the privileges of the mendicant orders, Godfrey opposed St. Thomas, but for the Angelic Doctor's teaching he professed a sincere admiration. The bold "innovations" of Thomism were just then on their trial; they were condemned by Tempier, Archbishop of Paris (1277), and opposed by Peckham and many others. Godfrey was a staunch supporter of Thomism, yet sufficiently original to differ in many things from the master's views, e.g., the principle of individuation, and the distinction between essence and existence in material things.
The "XIV Quodlibeta" of Godfrey, extensively studied and multiplied in manuscript form in the medieval schools, are at present in course of being published for the first time. A critical edition of the first four of them has already appeared in the series Les Philosophes Belges, Textes et Etudes" (II, "Les quatre premiers Quodlibets de Godefroidde Fontaines", by de Wulf and Pelzer, Louvain, 1904). The remaining Quodlibeta (V-XIV) will form vols. III and IV of the same series; vol. V is to contain studies on Godfrey by de Wulf, de Munnynck, and Van Roel.
Sources: DE WULF, Etudes sur la vie les Oeuvres et l'influence de Godefroid de Fontaines (Louvain and Paris, 1904); IDEM, Histoire de la philosophie médiévale (Louvain, 2nd ed., 1905); IDEM, Histoire de la philosophie scolastique dans les Pays-Bas, etc. (Louvain and Paris, 1895); TURNER, History of Philosophy (Boston, 1903).