SIBERT OF BEKA

Carmelite theologian; b. Beka, Gelderland (lower Rhineland); d. Cologne, Germany, Dec. 29, 1332. He entered the Carmelites at Cologne, c. 1280. Instrumental in founding the Carmelite house in Geldern (1300), he was prior there (1312–15) and then at Cologne (1315–17). He became a master in theology at the University of Paris (c. 1316–17), where he was regent of theology (1318–20). He served as provincial prior of Germany (1317; 1327–32), and of lower Germany (1318–27). While at the Curia in avignon, he had the bull Super cathedram extended to the Carmelites, granting them the privileges of preaching and hearing confessions (1326). He was head of the commission investigating the complaint of the archbishop of Cologne against Meister eckhart (1327). Active in the struggle between Pope john xxii and Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian, he composed a tract refuting the six errors of the Defensor pacis of marsilius of padua (1326–27). Other writings (mostly unedited) included an ordinal (c. 1312) adopted by the Carmelite general chapter in 1315 and in use for 200 years, Considerationes super regulam ordinis Carmelitarum, Summa censurarum novi juris, Bullarium ordinis sine privilegia Carmelitarum, two Quodlibeta, Commentarius in sententias, and Annotatio capitulorum generalium. Sibert's thought is, in general, traditional, often following thomas aquinas's, but more often similar to that of god frey of fontaines, whose influence may possibly have been transferred to Sibert through Guy Terrena of Perignan.

Bibliography: sibert of beka, Tract against Defensor in r. scholz, Unbekannte kirchenpolitische Streitschriften aus der Zeit Ludwigs des Bayern, 1327–1354, 2 v. (Rome 1911–14) 1:3–12; 2:3–15; Ordinaire de l'ordre de Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel, ed. b. zimmerman (Paris 1910). Chartularium universitatis Parisiensis 3:661. b. m. xiberta y roqueta, "Duo quolibet inedita Siberti de Beka," Analecta Ordinis Carmelitarum Calceatorum 4 (1922) 305–341; De scriptoribus scholasticis saeculi XIV ex ordine Carmelitarum (Louvain 1931) 142–166. p. glorieux, Répertoire des maîtres en théologie de Paris au XIII ^e siècle 2:344–345.

[d. andreini]