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HENRY OF WILE (f 1329): A WITNESS TO THE CONDEMNATIONS AT OXFORD* In addition to an incomplete copy of Walter Burleigh's commentary on the De caelo et mundo, MS, Ox. Magd. Coll. 63 includes a commentary on the three books of the De anima.1 Containing a total of seventy-one questions, it is ascribed to master Henricus de la VyIe. A number of university and ecclesiatical lists and documents record a rather substantial number of variations of the same name, the simplest of which is Henry of Wile. There are several facts about this man and the circumstances in which he lived and taught that draw attention. He was a master whose scholastic career was bracketed by two extremely important events in the history of medieval thought: the condemnations of 1277, which were basically an attempt to check the advance of an autonomous secular science, and the Council of Vienna, which vindicated certain key doctrines embraced by the condemnations. Further, the Quaestiones that Henry authored concern Aristotle's psychology, which was the cause of much of the controversy. Finally, he was a secular master in Oxford 's faculty of arts. Very little is known about this institution and its membership before the fourteenth century, and the slightest contribution to our knowledge in this area takes on exceptional significance. Henry of Wile is an unknown from a little known milieu, but he is identifiable as a part of it. Records indicate that he served at least one term as proctor of the university. Almost all available data concerning Henry are listed by A. B. Emden in his A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford (Vol. I, pp. 565—6). Calling him Henricus de la VyIe or WyIy, Tanner says that he was born "in villa eiusdem nominis in agro Wilton".2 This would * This article is published as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the "Institut Supérieur de Philosophie ", University of Louvain. 1 H. O. Coxe, Catalogus Manuscriptorum qui in collegiis aulisque Oxoniensibus hodie adservantur, vol. II, Oxford 1852, p. 38. The De anima commentary is contained on folios 57ra—94vb. 2 T. Tanner, Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, London 1748, p. 744. 2i6JOSEPH P. ZENK, S. S. be the town of Wylye in Wiltshire, a short distance south-west of Stonehenge . It is located on the River Wylye between Trowbridge and Salisbury . The date of Henry's birth is not recorded. By counting back twentyone years from the date of the first document in which he is called a master of arts, we arrive at the year 1264. The document in question is a quit-claim of a tenement, covering the year reckoned from Michaelmas 1285 to the same feast of the year following. The building is deeded to "magistro Herueo de Seham tunc Cancellario Uniuersitatis Oxonie et magistro Henrico de la WyIe et magistro Roberto Marmiun tunc procuratoribus eiusdem ac toti Uniuersitati".3 He presumably spent the next dozen years or so teaching in Oxford's faculty of arts. Even though we are at present aware of only one work which bears his name, he is recorded to have lectured extensively on the treatises of Aristotle. In the year 1298 Henry was licensed to study theology for one year, and the permit was extended for two years in 1299. In the year 1309 he is first called a doctor of theology. Henry was appointed rector of Willingham-by-Stowe in 1286, a post which he possibly held until 1304 when he received the rectorship of MarnhuU. He was Chancellor of Exeter from 1308 to 1309, and Canon of Salisbury from 1309 to 1313. He then became ChanceUor of Salisbury, a position that he retained until his death in 1329. He bequeathed his extensive Hbrary to Merton and Balliol Colleges, and to Salisbury Cathedral. Among the authors represented are Aristotle, Augustine, Avicenna, Anselm, Peter Lombard, Robert Grosseteste, and, most prominently, Thomas Aquinas.4 During the time that we are certain that Henry was sojourning in its faculty of arts, both as student and master, the most controversial doctrinal issue at Oxford concerned the nature of the human soul as substantial...

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