GUIBERT OF TOURNAI

Franciscan spiritual writer, teacher, preacher; b. Tournai, France, c. 1210; d. Tournai, Oct. 7 (?), 1284. He was born Guibert (Wibert) Aspiès de Murielporte and was of noble lineage. Guibert had only one brother, Henry, also a teacher, who died before him. After being brought up by Bp. Gautier (Walter) of Marvy (d. 1251), Guibert studied at Paris, where he eventually became a master in theology (c. 1256). Attracted to contemplation, Guibert became a Franciscan (c. 1235), but his superiors assigned him to teaching. He may have been a participant in the First Crusade of louis ix (1248–54), for it is known through the De viris illustribus, attributed to henry of ghent, that Guibert wrote a history of this Crusade in Hodoeporicon. Furthermore, several sermons addressed Ad crucesignatos are extant. If Guibert did go, he was back in France preaching (in Latin) before the clergy of Paris in 1250. He published his Sermones dominicales et de sanctis (ed. Paris 1518) some time before Aug. 27, 1255, when Pope Alexander IV congratulated him and asked him to give a copy to his penitentiarius, Mansueto of Castiglione. In October 1259, Guibert finished Eruditio regum et principum, which included three letters, the first dedicated to Louis IX [ed. A. De Poorter (Louvain 1914)]. From 1260 to 1262, Guibert produced Erudimentum doctrinae, a work on the four reasons for teaching, followed by De modo addiscendi [ed. E. Bonifaccio (Turin 1953)]. Succeeding Eudes of Rosny, Guibert was master regent at Paris from 1260 to 1263; in 1267, he asked Louis IX for a franchise for the city of Tournai. Guibert wrote the Collectio de scandalis ecclesiae [ed. A. Stroick, Archivum Franciscanum historicum (1931)] in 1274, the treatise De pace [ed. E. Longpré (Quaracchi 1925)] in 1275–76. One of his sermons for Ash Wednesday survives (March 3, 1283). His epitaph read: "Christo servivit qui totum scibile scivit."

Besides the above works, Guibert was also the author of a commentary on the Sentences, Quodlibeta, and Comm. in epistolas s. Pauli, but all are lost. Before 1258, he wrote De officio episcopali et ecclesiae caeremoniis (ed. 1571, 1677); Vita s. Eleutherii (Acta Sanctorum, Feb. 3:180–208) and De miraculis s. Blasii (lost). His homiletic production included the Ad varios status (London 1473), which completed the De modo addiscendi. His works on asceticism included Epistola exhortatoria ad b. Isabellam [ed. A. De Poorter, Revue d'ascétique et de mystique (1931)], De morte non timenda, De 7 verbis Domini in cruce, and De nomine Iesu (ed. E. Bonelli, 1774). He collected excerpts from the Fathers and Seneca in Pharetra (ed. 1866). Guibert's writings are effusive and wander from the main topic. A mystic, he often followed St. bonaventure, but was at times an original thinker.

Bibliography: l. baudry, "Wibert de Tournai," Revue d'histoire franciscaine 5 (1928) 23–61. c. berube, "Guibert de Tournai et Robert Grosseteste sources inconnues des Saint Bonaventure: Rudimentum doctrinae de Guibert de Tournai," in Sanctus Bonaventura 1274–1974, vol. 2 (Rome 1973), 627–654. p. glorieux, Répertoire des maîtres en théologie de Paris au XIII ^esiècle (Paris 1933–34) 2:56–59.

[j. cambell]