similar mind are known as “Latin Averroists.” As is usual for the 12th and 13th centuries,
they knew Aristotle mostly through the interpretations of Averroes, Proclus, and
particularly Avicenna. This tendency made Siger suspect, and in 1270 he was involved in
bishop Étienne Tempier’s condemnation of thirteen theological errors at Paris. In the
same year, Thomas Aquinas wrote De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas, directed
chiefly against Siger and his followers.
The controversy continued until 1276, when Siger and two others were indicted for
heresy by the French inquisitor Simon du Val, but Siger had already fled the country,
apparently to make an appeal to the papal court. According to John Peckham, Siger was
killed at Orvieto ca. 1284.
Siger was an Aristotelian in believing that Aristotle’s meaning should not be
concealed, even if it conflicted with revealed truth. The two Aristotelian doctrines that
caused constant consternation for philosopher-theologians at this time were the eternity
of the world, which Aristotelians held to be true but theology knew to be false, and the
unity of the intellect, which denied the possibility of the resurrection of the individual,
since every mind was subsumed into one unified intellect after death. This did not endear
Siger to many, although he himself believed that truth was always on the side of faith and
that in cases of apparent conflict between faith and reason one should always decide for
revelation rather than reason. Critics accused him of holding to “double truth,” that is,
that some things were true in philosophy but false in theology. He himself may have felt
as confusion and uncertainty that which outsiders took for lack of belief.
His main works are commentaries and questions on Aristotle, especially on the De
anima, the Physics, and the Metaphysics, and shorter treatises on, for example, the
eternity of the world.
Lesley J.Smith
[See also: AQUINAS, THOMAS; ARABIC PHILOSOPHY, INFLUENCE OF;
ARISTOTLE, INFLUENCE OF; ÉTIENNE TEMPIER; PHILOSOPHY;
SCHOLASTICISM; THEOLOGY]
Steenberghen, Fernand van. Siger de Brabant d’après ses œuvres inédites. 2 vols. Louvain:
Éditions de l’Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, 1931–42.
——. Maître Siger de Brabant. Louvain: Publications Universitaires, 1977.
SILVACANE
. One of the “three sisters of Provence,” with Le Thoronet and Sénanque, the Cistercian
abbey of Silvacane (Bouches-du-Rhône) was founded in 1144 when the land was deeded
to St. Bernard, one of the order’s founders. It prospered until a devastating fire in 1357.
The Romanesque church, begun in 1175, is simple and austere in Cistercian fashion, with
a wide nave and transepts spanned by pointed barrel vaulting, and typically flat chevet.
The chapter house, armarium (book locker), and rectangular cloister were all constructed
in the Gothic style (13th c.). The large 15th-century refectory is ornate and well lighted
by a row of upper windows and a fine rose.
William W.Kibler/William W.Clark
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1666