influenced subsequent exegetes: Peter Lombard’s biblical commentaries, for example,
rely heavily on Gilbert’s work.
Gilbert returned to Chartres as a canon and by 1126 was chancellor of the cathedral.
(There is no evidence to support the claim that he taught in Poitiers.) Though he certainly
taught in Chartres, most contemporary testimony associates Gilbert with Paris, where he
is reported teaching grammar, logic, and theology and where he helped promote the
biblical glosses that were developing into the Glossa ordinaria.
In his commentaries (ca. 1140) on the Opuscula sacra of Boethius, Gilbert
distinguishes between different aspects of a being: that which a thing is (id, quod est) and
that by which a thing is what it is (id, quo est). The resulting attempt to differentiate
among persons, natures, attributes, and essences, when applied to Trinitarian issues, led
Gilbert to the brink of disaster. In March 1148, after the Council of Reims, Gilbert’s
orthodoxy was examined on four counts: that God is not “divinity” or divine nature; that
the Persons of the Trinity are not “divinity”; that God’s properties are not God and are
not eternal; that the divine nature is not incarnate. The theologians present at the
consistory never got a chance to debate these propositions fully: when it became clear
that the curia sided with Gilbert, Bernard of Clairvaux (appointed to the prosecution)
drew up a “confession of faith” of sound spiritual instinct (but loose terminology) that he
presented to Eugenius III, in effect pressuring the pope to declare either Gilbert or
Bernard a heretic. Eugenius sidestepped the maneuver and made some token
pronouncements regarding theological language; Gilbert, acquitted of heresy, declared
that he “believed whatever Eugenius believed” and promised to correct any offending
passages in his writings. No such “corrections” were ever made, to Bernard’s chagrin.
Theresa Gross-Diaz
[See also: ANSELM OF LAON; BIBLE, CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATION OF;
CHARTRES; GLOSSA ORDINARIA; PETER LOMBARD; PHILOSOPHY;
THEOLOGY]
Gilbert of Poitiers. The Commentaries on Boethius, ed. Nikolaus M.Häring. Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1966.
Colish, Marcia L. “Early Porretan Theology.” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 56
(1989):59–79.
Gross-Diaz, Theresa. The Psalms Commentary of Gilbert of Poitiers: From lectio divina to the
Lecture Room. Leiden: Brill. Forthcoming.
Häring, Nikolaus M. “Handschriftliches zu den Werken Gilberts, Bishof von Poitiers.” Revue
d’histoire des textes 8 (1978):133–94.
Maioli, Bruno. Gilberto Porretano: dalla grammatica speculativa alla metafisica del concreto.
Rome: Bulzoni, 1979.
Nielsen, Lauge Olaf. Theology and Philosophy in the Twelfth Century: A Study of Gilbert of
Porreta’s Thinking and the Theological Expositions of the Doctrine of the Incarnation During
the Period 1130–1180. Leiden: Brill, 1982.
van Elswijk, H.C. Gilbert Porreta: sa vie, son œuvre, sa pensée. Louvain: Spicilegium Sacrum
Lovaniense, 1966.
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