Talk:William Vorilong

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENT LIFE THOMAS F. O'MEARA, O.P., Theological Studies 60 (1999).

The views of Guillaume de Vaurouillon (c. 1392-1463), a Franciscan, are of particular interest.[30] Whether God could or did create several worlds either simultaneously or temporally was treated by some medieval writers in the Franciscan School. They showed more openness to a positive conclusion than did the Dominican followers of Aquinas. Bonaventure, biographer of Francis of Assisi and author of speculative and mystical writings, asserted that God could have made others worlds: "He was able to make a hundred such worlds, and still one embracing all of them, and too one in a higher place than another. And too God could make a time before this time and in it make a world." [31]

A son of the friary of Dinan in Brittany, Vaurouillon lectured after 1427 on the Sentences of Peter Lombard in Paris and attained a doctorate. After teaching from 1429 to 1431 he attended the Council of Basel in 1433 and returned to Paris to become a professor only in 1448. In 1462 in the presence of Pope Pius II he debated with the Dominicans concerning the relationship of the dead Jesus to the hypostatic union. He was the author of a commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard and a commentary on the Opus Oxoniensis of Duns Scotus whom he viewed as his master; he also wrote a series of meditations. His professorships, his presence at Basel, and his role in papal disputations led to special praise from Pius II.[32] In the view of experts, there is little original or new in the Scotist commentary on Lombard, but it was highly regarded and printed five times in twenty years.[33] Vaurouillon was a typical figure in the late-medieval Franciscan School. "His principles for lecturing on the Sentences give access to various issues in scholastic education but at the same time carry a new humanistic spirit which will have some effect on scholasticism." [34] He was interested in history, paid attention to a pedagogical literary style, treated contemporary issues under an overarching goal: "to clarify, ground, and defend the teaching of Scotus." [35]

In terms of our theme, Crowe refers to Vaurouillon as "the first author who raised the question of whether the idea of a plurality of worlds is compatible with the central Christian notions of a divine incarnation and redemption." [36] In his commentary on the Sentences, Vaurouillon asked whether divine power surpasses limitations and whether the absolute power of God could have created a better world; he concluded that God could create an infinity of worlds, and an infinity of worlds better than this one. "Infinite worlds, more perfect than this one, lie hid in the mind of God. ... It is possible that the species of each of these worlds is distinguished from those of our world."[37] But he did not imagine knowledge of those worlds, far and separate, coming to earth except through angelic communication or some other special divine means.[38] The insightful theologian considered not only the nature of revelation but also sin and the role of a redeemer on another world. "If it be inquired whether people, existing on that world, have sinned as Adam sinned, I answer, No. They would not have contracted sin just as their humanity is not from Adam." [39] Vaurouillon's answer concerning the role of Christ was nuanced. His view of original sin as solely terrestrial removes the need of redemption, but apparently he wants Christ somehow to be a universal figure. "As to the question whether Christ by dying on this earth could redeem the inhabitants of another world, I answer that he was able to do this not only for our world but for infinite worlds. But it would not be fitting for him to go to another world to die again."[40]

Vaurouillon's theological distinctions concerning a wider universe makes him "an important intermediary between the writers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries who declared that God could create a plurality of worlds, and those of the sixteenth and later eras who asserted that God had created such a plurality." [41]

• [30] Vorilongus, Vaurillon, Vorrilon are common forms of the name; on the name and the facts of his life, see Ignatius Brady, "William of Vaurouillon, O. Min." Miscellanea Melchior de Pobladura 1 (Rome: Institutum Historicum O.F.M. Cap., 1964) 291-315.
• [31] Bonaventure, Commentarla in Quattuor Libros Sententiarum, Lib. 1, d. 44, a. 1, q. 4 [Opera Omnia 1.789] (Quaracchi: Collegium S. Bonaventurae, 1882).
• [32] See Erich Wegerich , "Bio-bibliographische Notizen über Franziskanerlehrer des 15. Jahrhunderts," Franziskanische Studien 29 (1942) 195.
• [33] On the edition of the commentary on the Sentences, see Brady, "The 'Declaration seu Retractatio' of William of Vaurouillon," Archivum franciscanum historicum 58 (1965) 394. Vaurouillon wrote a handbook of Scotist theology published in Strasbourg in 1501; those meditations on God, Mary, Francis, Paul, Bonaventure, Scotus, and angelic precepts (regrationem seriosam) had two editions in Lyons, 1489 and 1495; a work on the real presence is also mentioned (Bibliotheca universa franciscana [1732] [Farnborough: Gregg, 1966] 1.48-49). See Franz Pelster, "Wilhelm von Vorillon, ein Skotist des 15. Jahrhunderts," Franziskanische Studien 8 (1921) 48-66; P. Appolinaire, "Vorilongus, Guillaume," in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 15:2 (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1950) 3471-72; François Tokarski, "Guillaume de Vaurouillon: Le problème des idées divines dans son Commentaire des Sentences," École Pratique des Hautes Études, Annuaire,Ve section, 89 (1980) 595-98; see also Grant McColley and W. H. Miller, "Saint Bonaventure, Francis Mayron, William Vorilong, and the Doctrine of a Plurality of Worlds," Speculum 12 (1937) 388-89; Karl Werner, Die Scholastik des späteren Mittelalters All (Vienna: Braumüller, 1887) 304.
• [34] Pelster, "Wilhelm von Vorillon" 48.
• [35] Pelster, p.62
• [36] Crowe, "A History of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate" 149.
• [37] 37 Quattuor librorum Sententiarum Compendium venerabilis patris fratris Guill-ermi Vorrillonis Lib. 1, dist. xliv (Basel: Langerdorf, 1510) folio 105 [1], [2]
• [38] Ibid
• [39] Ibid
• [40] Ibid
• [41] McColley and Miller, "Saint Bonaventure, Francis Mayron, William Vorilong, and the Doctrine of a Plurality of Worlds" 389.

Editions

• Opus super IV Libros Sententiarum Venice 1496.
• https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c2zuYZ3G1LcC (Quattuor librorum Sententiarum Compendium, Guillermi Vorrillonis, Basel 1510)

Cf II D44 q1, f.232 "Narratur de Doctore subtili, quod in prato clericorum visa Generalis Ministri obedientia, dum actu Regens esset in Scholis Parisiensibus, aut pauca, aut nulla de rebus habita dispositione, Parisiis exivit ut Coloniam iret, secundum Ministri sententiam". "It is said of the Subtle Doctor that he was in the Prato of the clerics when he saw the orders of the Minister General, even though he was currently the Regent Master [in the Parisian Schools]. He left Paris and went to Cologne according to the Minister's directive, encumbered by few, if any, possessions". trans Frank/Wolter

Venice edition, f. 161va.

Cf https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0E1wx_JKWNUC p.27