Pseudo-Grosseteste

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PSEUDO-GROSSETESTE

Pseudo-Grosseteste was the anonymous author of a Summa Philosophiae, written between 1265 and 1275. Because of the reference in the Summa to Simon de Montfort's death (1265), it could not have been written by Robert Grosseteste, who died in 1253. Bartholomew of Bologna, Robert Kilwardby, and a disciple of Roger Bacon have all been suggested as the author, but there is no consensus. It does seem probable, however, that he was English and was either a Franciscan or a secular.

The Summa, which begins with a history of philosophy similar to that found in Bacon's Opus Maius, is a work of considerable subtlety and sophistication, an advanced product of the so-called Augustinian school. It holds that there is a universal wisdom in which both ancients and moderns share, perfected however by Christian revelation. Those concerned with wisdom are theosophists, to whom truth is directly revealed; theologians, who systematize and make more clear what has been revealed to the theosophists; and philosophers. The first two groups are concerned with the infallibly true, and their proper study is of matters relevant to human salvation. Philosophy, on the other hand, while it may often be in error, is completely unrestricted in its scope and may undertake to explain the natures and causes of all things whatsoever.

The Summa then treats the whole range of metaphysical questions in separate treatises, beginning with truth and the necessary existence of an uncreated being and ending with psychology, light, the four elements, meteors, and minerals. Its characteristic metaphysical positions are derived largely from the author's explicit hylomorphism. Every created thing is composed of matter and form. Prime matter, the mark of contingency, is not corporeal but is unextended and has three inseparable properties: It is in potency to every form; it has a desire for form; and it is privation of form. Insofar as it is privation of form it is the cause of instability; but its desire for form is a tendency toward stability. It first receives universal form, that is, substance. Substance, or substantial form, is either corporeal or incorporeal and individuates matter. It receives further perfections from other forms, so that there is a plurality of forms in any given body. This leads the author to reject the distinction (except as one of reason) between essence and existence. It also leads him to insist that the Intelligences are compounded of matter and form and differ both according to species and individuality. The human soul, like the Intelligences, is an incorporeal intelligent substance, but unlike them is capable of being joined to a body as well as of existing separately; it too is composed of matter and form. In these points, as in many others throughout the Summa, the author seems to be correcting what he considers the errors of Thomas Aquinas.

Bibliography

The text of the Summa is printed in L. Baur, Die philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste, Bischofs von Lincoln (Münster in Westfalen: Aschendorff, 1912), pp. 275–643. Parts are translated in R. McKeon, Selections from Medieval Philosophers (New York: Scribners, 1929), Vol. I, pp. 290–314. An excellent analysis appears in C. K. McKeon, The Summa Philosophiae of the Pseudo-Grosseteste (New York, 1948). A good summary is in E. Gilson, History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages (New York: Random House, 1955), pp. 265–274.