On Hervaeus
Hervaeus Natalis (Hervé de Nédéllec, Hervaeus Natalis Brito, 1260 ca. – 7/8/1323) was one of the leading Dominican philosophers and theologians of the fourteenth century, and an important authority in the Dominican Order: he was appointed Prior of the Dominican Province of France (1309-1318), then became the fourteenth Master General of the Order (1318-1323).
Often considered as a close follower and strenuous defender of the doctrines of Thomas Aquinas, recent studies have shown that Hervaeus did not disdain instead taking independent and innovative positions, at times departing from Aquinas. Known as Doctor Perspicacissimus, Hervaeus was a fierce opponent of the philosophy and theology of his confreres Durand of St.-Pourçain and James of Metz, and of the Franciscan Peter Auriol.
Hervaeus also reacted to the doctrines of important Parisian philosophers and theologians of his times such as Henry of Ghent and John Duns Scotus, while he finds source of inspiration in the doctrines of the Flemish philosopher and theologian Godfrey of Fontaines.
He promoted the canonization of Thomas Aquinas, which took place in the year of Hervaeus’s death (1323).
ife
Hervaeus Natalis was born in Brittany (France), in the diocese of Tréguier, around 1260. The exact date of birth is unknown and can be reconstructed only indirectly. On April 29, 1276, he joined the Dominican Order at the convent of Morlaix, thus becoming filius of the Province of France. We have no other certain news about Hervaeus until 1301 when we know that he assumed the role of definitor of the Provincial Chapter of Rouen.
On June 26, 1303, Hervaeus joined the Dominican convent of St.-Jacques at the University of Paris. Upon his arrival at St.-Jacques, he signed a petition in support of Philip the Fair's attempt to convene a council during his contrast with Pope Boniface VIII regarding the nature of papal jurisdiction (CUP, II, 101). He studied theology in Paris, where he became Sentences bachelor in 1302. Hervaeus was licensed in theology at Easter 1307, thus becoming master regent in Paris from 1307 until 1309 or early 1310, when he was substituted by Laurence of Nantes. Hervaeus was probably regent in Paris for a second time between 1316 and 1318. From 1309/1310 to 1318 Hervaeus was appointed Prior of the Dominican Province of France. In 1314 he chaired the Dominican commission (together with James of Lausanne) that censured ninety-one of the ninety-three articles of the second redaction of Durand of St.-Pourçain's Commentary on the Sentences indicted by the Dominican General Chapter of Metz (1313), a redaction Durand wrote after the condemnations of some articles of his first redaction by the Dominican General Chapter of Zaragoza (1309). A long controversy then ensued: Durand replied by writing his Excusationes to which Hervaeus counter-replied with his Reprobationes. Later, in 1318, Hervaeus was appointed fourteenth Master General of the Dominican Order, a position he held until his death in Narbonne on August 7, 1323.
orks
Hervaeus left us many works, of various kinds. As usual for a fourteenth-century theologian, his first theological work was the Scriptum super IV libros Sententiarum (a commentary on the collection of the Church Fathers' sententiae, organized in four books by the Italian theologian Peter Lombard in the twelfth century), which exposition (Lectura) dates to 1305-1307 and the final redaction (Ordinatio) to 1309. He also disputed a certain number of Quodlibeta, of uncertain date (probably, between 1308-1309 or 1309-1310 [Friedman 2007]). Early-modern printed editions includes eleven quodlibetal questions, but only the four (the so-called Quodlibeta maiora) are certainly authentic. Fifteenth-century editions of Quodlibeta often include also eight treatises or questions, probably not all authentic: De beatitudine; De verbo; De eternitate mundi; De materia celi; De relationibus; De pluralitate [or unitate] formarum; De virtutibus; De motu angeli, works likely belonging to 1307-1310. His first philosophical work was the polemical tratises against Henry of Ghent, the most important Parisian philosopher and theologian of the generation after Aquinas: De Quattuor Materiis sive Determinationes Contra Magistrum Henricum de Gandavo, which likely dates to the very beginning of the fourteenth century (ca. 1302-1307), some parts maybe to late 1280s, anyway some time before his Sentences Commentary [de Rijk 2011, de Rijk 2013]. His philosophical masterpiece was instead the Tractatus de secundis intentionibus, as far as we know the first extensive treatment of first and second intentions in the Latin Middle Ages, which dates to some time between 1309 and 1316 [Dijs 2012]. He also composed theological works against his confreres Durand of St.-Pourçain and James of Metz (Correctiones supra dicta Durandi in primo Quolibet Avenionensi; Correctorium Iacobi Mettensis; De articulis Durandi pertinentibus ad IV libros Sententiarum; Reprobationes excusationum Durandi; Evidentiae contra Durandum super quartum Sententiarum, all works belonging to the 1310s), a treatise on the Pope's authority (De potestate Papae, 1318-1319), works on the jurisdiction of the religious and on the sacrament of marriage (De iurisdictione et exemptione religiosorum, post 1312; Dicta de dissolubilitate matrimonii non consummati per susceptionem ordinis, 1322) and on the poverty of Christ and the Apostles (De paupertate Christi et apostolorum, 1322; De usu nudo, ca. 1316-1322), a work on the difficulties against the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas (Opinio de difficultatibus contra doctrinam fratris Thomae, 1308-1309 [Piccari 1995; Friedman 2007]), and a number of disputed questions on various issues. Some logical works and Aristotelian commentaries attributed to him are probably inauthentic.
See the entry Works for a complete list of Hervaeus’s works, editions and manuscripts.
