Remigius of Auxerre - Biography

Biography

Remigius, likely born in Burgundy, was a disciple of Lupus of Ferrières and Heiric of Auxerre (d. 876), who was himself a disciple of Johannes Scotus Eriugena. He also borrowed heavily in his commentaries from the Irish teacher Dunchad of Reims, Eriugena, Sedulius Scottus, and Martinus Hiberniensis. "Usually, in accordance with Gresham's law of scholarship, Remigius' commentaries ultimately drove from the field those from which he had so generously borrowed," J. P. Elder has remarked. Putting the same phenomenon under a more positive light John Marenbon asserts that Remigius's extensive 9th century collection of commentary on classical texts (both his own and those of the authors upon which he drew), preserved for later academics not only the works of other early medieval thinkers, but also certain elements of the ancient Greek and Latin languages and philosophies. Later documentation shows that Remigius's collections were used across Europe in the later Medieval period, especially in the 12th century.

He taught at the monastery of Abbey of Saint-Germain en Auxerre, becoming the school master after Heiric's death in 876. In 883 he was called to teach at the Cathedral School in Reims by Archbishop Fulco, and made its headmaster in 893. Upon Fulco's death in 900, Remigius left to teach in Paris, where he remained until his own death. By this time he had earned the reputation of "egregius doctor" and "in divinis et humanis scripturis eruditissimus". As a teacher, Remigius interested himself in the problem of universals, and seems to have attempted a compromise between the extreme Realism of Eriugena and the Anti-Realism of his teacher Eric. In general, he sought to interpret both classical texts and Christian Scripture in a way that could be taught to his students, exploring the ways in which ancient philosophy could be applied to the Christianized world in which they lived. Although the texts he examined were numerous and varied, his main commentaries were on the works of the late Roman philosophers Boethius and Martianus Capella, in which he found flexible allegories that he felt could co-exist with Christian theology.