HEIRIC OF AUXERRE

Classicist and hagiographer; b. Héry, France, c. 841;d. Auxerre, c. 876. A Benedictine, Heiric played an important role in the revival and transmission of ancient learning through the palace and cathedral schools. He studied at auxerre, ferriÈres, and Laon, and through Lupus of Ferrières and the Irishman, Elias, came into contact with the classical learning of Greece and Rome. This explains the numerous excerpts in his works from later Latin authors such as Persius, suetonius, and Juvenal. At the same time he came under the influence of john scotus erigena. His successful teaching career was pursued mainly at Auxerre, where remigius of auxerre and possibly hucbald of saint-amand were his pupils. It is difficult to say exactly where Heiric stood on the question of universals, for although sections of his glosses on the pseudo-Augustinian Categoriae Decem have an Aristotelian ring, other sections sound more like Erigena. Heiric's hagiographical work is more widely known. In verse he wrote the Vita S. Germani Antissiodorensis (ed. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae, Lat. Carol. 3:428–517), in six books. This was followed by a prose work, the Miracula (ed. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, 13:401–404), in two books preceded by a prologue. Heiric also collaborated in the writing of the Gesta Episcoporum Antissiodorensium (ed. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, 13:393–400).

Bibliography: b. haurÉau, Histoire de la philosophie scolastique, 2 v. in 3 (Paris 1872–80) 1:188–191. Monumenta Germaniae Historica : Poetae (Berlin 1826–) 3:421–428. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 3 v. (Munich 1911–31) 1:499–504. f. ueberweg, Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie, ed. k. praechter et al., 5 v. (11th, 12th ed. Berlin 1923–28) 2:177–178, 694–695. d. m. schullian, "The Excerpts of Heiric 'Ex libris Valeriani Maximi"' Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 12 (1935) 155–184. j. de ghellinck, Littérature latine au moyen-âge, 2 v. (Paris 1939) 1:117–118. g. mathon, Catholicisme 5:651–652. j. wollasch, "Zu den persönlichen Notizen des Heiricus von S. Germain d'Auxerre," Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 15 (1959) 211–226.

[l. e. lynch]