Alexander of HALES

Alexander of HALES, the 'Irrefragable Doctor,' was originally an ecclesiastic in Gloucestershire, but having repaired to the schools of Paris, and become a noted professor of philosophy and theology, he suddenly, in 1222, entered the order of the Franciscans. He continued to lecture, however, till seven years before his death, in 1245. His chief and only authentic work is the ponderous Summa Universa Theologiæ (best ed., Venice, 1576, 4 vols.), written at the command of Pope Innocent IV., and enjoined by his successor, Alexander IV., to be used by all professors and students of theology in Christendom. Alexander gave the doctrines of the church a more rigorously syllogistic form than they had previously had, and may thus be considered as the author of the scholastic theology. Instead of appealing to tradition and authority, he deduces with great subtlety, from assumed premises, the most startling doctrines of Catholicism, especially in favour of the prerogatives of the papacy. He refuses any toleration to heretics, and would have them deprived of all property; he absolves subjects from all obligation to obey a prince that is not obedient to the church. The spiritual power, which blesses and consecrates kings, is, by that very fact, above all temporal powers, to say nothing of the essential dignity of its nature. It has the right to appoint and to judge these powers, while the pope has no judge but God. In ecclesiastical affairs, also, he maintains the pope's authority to be full, absolute, and superior to all laws and customs.