In his literary portrait of Abbot Adalhard, written soon after the abbot's death in 826, Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie compared his subject's moral and spiritual progress to the method of the ancient painter Zeuxis as this had been described in Cicero's De inventione. According to Cicero, the people of Cortona commissioned Zeuxis to decorate a temple with the image of Helen, who was reputed to be the most beautiful of mortal women. Because nature withheld overall perfection from any individual, Zeuxis studied several handsome models and combined the best features of each in an image that was more perfect than the form of any actual maiden. Adalhard too was an artist who sought to realize a work that somehow went beyond nature, but in his case the objective was a reformation of the image of God in himself. To achieve this, Adalhard too used models, in his case the lives and deeds of the saints, whose examples of virtue he discerned with the mind's eye and assimilated in an effort to resemble the transcendent archetype.

Modern scholars of medieval philosophy have had access to the work of Abū Ḥâmid Muhammad al-Ghāzalī (1058–1111) since 1933, when Joseph T. Muckle published an edition of the great Muslim theologian's Maqāsid al-falāsifa (“The Opinions of the Philosophers”). In this work, al-Ghāzalī (known to the West as Algazel) summarized ideas proposed by Avicenna (940–1036) in his Danesh Nameh. Algazel's Maqāsid al-falāsifa was composed of three parts, the Metaphysics, Physics, and Logic; medieval authors read and referred to Algazel's work accordingly, as three separate works.

According to medieval legend, Gratian, Peter Lombard, and Peter Comestor were bro7thers. What united these men in the medieval imagination were the three great works they produced, respectively, over the course of the twelfth century: the Decretum, the Sentences, and the Historia scholastica. The two Peters, in particular, were connected. Stephen Langton, one of the most prominent teachers of Scripture and theology at Paris during the last decades of the twelfth century, praised both Peters for their mastery of Sacred Scripture. The joint ascendancy of the reputations of Peter Lombard and Peter Comestor can also be seen in the tradition of medieval chroniclers such as Otto of St. Blaise, who wrote that “in those days Peter Lombard and Peter Comestor shone forth as distinguished masters at Paris.”

The taking of vows in a military order, as in other religious foundations, created a lifelong obligation. The phrase stabilitas loci, which is encountered in some documents relating to these orders, did not imply an undertaking to stay permanently in the same convent, but signified that those who had made their profession should remain in the same order for life. This requirement found expression especially in papal decrees, although orders' regulations give information about the punishment of apostates. As in other religious establishments, a transfer to another order provided the sole permitted exception, but this was allowed only under certain conditions.

Si presenta qui l'edizione critica del breve testo De sigillis attribuito dalla tradizione ad Arnaldo di Villanova. Esso fu pubblicato insieme agli altri suoi scritti per la prima volta nell'Opera omnia Arnaldi a Lione nel 1504.

The only records to survive from the annual Lenten distribution of books in English Benedictine abbeys are four years' notes from Thorney abbey. Although not from consecutive years, all date from the period 1324 to 1330, during the early part of the abbacy of Reynold of Water Newton (1323–47). In the last years of his tenure the monks of Thorney were found to be reading material of a less pious character: two visitations discovered that a scandalous book was circulating among them during the years 1345 to 1347. Like the survival of the Lenten distribution records, this story is unique among English monastic archives. These sources provide two distinct, yet complementary, glimpses of the reading culture at Thorney in the time of Abbot Reynold, which are discussed in turn below.

The popular portrayal of John Wyclif (d. 1384) is that of the inflexible reformer whose views of the Church were driven by a strict determinism that divided humanity into two eternally fixed categories of the predestined and the damned. In point of fact, however, Wyclif's understanding of salvation is quite nuanced and well worth careful study. It may be surprising to find that Wyclif's soteriology has not received a thoroughgoing analysis, one that would pull together the many facets involved in medieval conceptions of the salvific process. Instead, one finds some insightful, but abbreviated, analyses that tend to focus more on specific aspects, rather than offering a comprehensive view. The best sources are Lechler, Robson, and Kenny, all three of whom offer valuable appraisals. Actually, Lechler comes the closest to a broad view within his study of Wyclif, but well over a century has passed since it was first published. Needless to say, there has been an enormous amount of research done on late medieval thought since then, research that enables us to situate Wyclif more thoroughly within the discussions of his day. Even Robson's work is more than forty years old by now. And, while Kenny's treatment is comparatively recent at twenty years old, he tackles the subject only as part of a more strictly philosophical discussion of necessity and contingency. We will, of course, consider the views of each of these scholars in the course of this essay, the purpose of which is to offer a full appraisal of Wyclif's soteriology in its many facets. This means that we will first discuss the related questions of divine will and human freedom, and their impact upon his soteriology. Then we will examine his views on sin, grace, merit, justification, faith, and predestination, all within the larger medieval context. What we should find is that Wyclif's soteriology makes quite a lot of room for human free will even as he insists on the leading role of divine grace in all good works. Futhermore, Wyclif will emerge as a subtle thinker who most often presents a God who is at once just and merciful, extending grace and the possibility of salvation to all.

Pierre d'Ailly war eine zentrale Gestalt für die Theologie und Philosophie an der Wende des vierzehnten zum fünfzehnten Jahrhundert. Er ist als Lehrer Johannes Gersons, als dessen Vorgänger im Amt des Rektors der Universität Paris, als bedeutender Kirchenpolitiker des Konstanzer Konzils und als Theologe untersucht worden, und in den vergangenen Jahren gerieten auch seine originellen philosophischen, vor allem logischen Ansätze in den Blick der Forschung. In seiner Bedeutung für die “via moderna” des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts kam er bislang aber nur wenig zur Sprache. Für diese Fragestellung sind die polemischen Werke Aillys von besonderem Interesse, vor allem der Traktat, den er im Auftrag der theologischen Fakultät der Universität Paris gegen den Dominikaner Johannes de Montesono geschrieben hat. Dieser lässt nicht nur auf deutliche Weise Aillys Modell einer von der Philosophie unabhängigen Theologie erkennen, sondern zeigt zugleich, wie die Ursachen gelegt wurden für die spätere polemische Auseinandersetzung zwischen “via moderna” und “via antiqua.”

During the troubled period of the Great Schism, the Hundred Years War, and the civil war in France, Jean Gerson (1363–1429), chancellor of the University of Paris, played an important part. However, his primary importance lies in the considerable corpus of writings that he left, rather than his role in political and ecclesiastical affairs. His theological writings are well known, and the literary aspects of his works have been pointed out, especially in relation to French humanism of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In particular, his Latin poems are important evidence of the cultural climate of these years and still survive in great number — we actually know of nearly six thousand verses. Unfortunately, there is currently no complete edition that satisfies modern critical criteria. In these circumstances, any critical work on these texts must begin with a study of the manuscripts.