Albert the Great

Albert the Great (d. 1280, over 80 years old), Dominican theologian, philosopher, and scientist. He studied theology at Cologne, taught at various Dominican houses, and from 1245 to 1248 held one of the Dominican chairs in the university of Paris. In 1248 he was sent back to Cologne to take charge of the new international Dominican house of studies. Here he lectured on the works of Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite and on the new, complete translation of Aristotle's Ethics. In 1256 he visited the Papal Court and there conducted a disputation against the doctrine of the non-intellectual nature of the intellect attributed to Averroes. In 1260 he became Bp. of Ratisbon, but was allowed to resign in 1262. He was teaching at Cologne in 1277 when he intervened to prevent the condemnation in Paris of Thomas Aquinas, his former pupil.

Albert taught at a time when many theologians were reacting against the new Aristotelianism mediated by Arab and Jewish commentators, and particularly against some of the philosophical tenets of Aristotle himself. Albert's commentaries cover almost the whole Aristotelian corpus and some pseudepigrapha such as the Liber de Causis. He aimed at making the physics, metaphysics, and mathematics of Aristotle intelligible to the Latins. He exercised a profound influence on Thomas Aquinas and remained influential among philosophers. His popular fame rested largely on works falsely ascribed to him. Feast day, 15 Nov.