Hugh of Strasburg

Hugh of Strasburg

Theologian, flourished during the latter half of the thirteenth century. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. His prominence in the history of medieval theology is due to the fact that he is now considered to be the author of the famous "Compendium theologiae" or "Compendium theologicae veritatis", which, on account of its scope and style, as well as its practical arrangement, was for 400 years used as a text-book. By reason of its extensive use and wide circulation it was often copied and later more often printed and reprinted. The work consists of seven books which treat of the Creation, the Fall, the Incarnation, Grace, the Sacraments., and the Last Four Things.

In the entire medieval literature there is probably no work whose composition has, till very recently, been attributed to so many different authors. The incunabula of Venice, Lyons, Strasburg, Ulm, and Nuremberg enumerated by Hain (Repert. bibliogr.) are without the author's name. Some attribute it to the Dominican Ulrich of Strasburg. Bach in the "Kirchenlexicon" (I, 427) makes Albert of Strasburg the author, but recent reseraches go to show that such a person never existed. Thomas Dorinberg, who supplied the edition of 1473 with an index, was for a long time looked upon as the author; others attributed it to St. Thomas Aquinas. In the magnificent edition of Lyons (1557), furnished with notes and index by the Franciscan John of Combes, it is credited to the Dominican Albert the Great and is placed in the folio edition of the latter's works published at Lyons (1651). Again, some held St. Bonaventure to be its author, with the result that the "Compendium" found a place in the appendix of the eighth volume of his works (Rome, 1588-96).

Among other great theologians to whom it was ascribed are Hugh of Saint Cher, Alexander of Hales, Aureolus, the Oxford Dominican Thomas Sutton, Peter of Tarantasia and others. Recent investigations go to show, however, that the "Compendium" cannot be the work of any of these, but was most probably, if not certainly, written by Hugh of Stasburg. Other works attributed to him are: "Commentarium in IV libros sententiarum"; "Quodlibeta, quaestiones, disputationes et variae in divinos libros explanationes".

JOSEPH SCHROEDER