ecclesiastica potestate (1301)—one of the principal sources for the papal bull Unam
sanctam (1302) and one of the broadest expressions of papal supremacy in the entire
controversy.
Following the death of Boniface, Giles returned to his duties in Bourges. He was
active in several controversies at the time, among them the disputes with the Templars
and with Peter Olivi. He was active at the Council of Vienne (1311–12) and died a few
years later in Avignon.
As a teacher, Giles lectured according to the prescribed course of study, commenting
first on the Bible and on the Sententiae of Peter Lombard; but his greatest love was
philosophy. He left commentaries on many of Aristotle’s works on logic, physics, and
metaphysics, including the Pseudo-Aristotelian Liber de causis. His works were held in
such high esteem that the general chapter of his order meeting at Florence in 1287
declared that his “opinions, positions, and conclusions [sententiae] both written and yet
to be written” were to receive the unqualified assent of all Augustinian teachers and
students. The Franciscan philosopher William of Ockham went so far as to speak of Giles
as the “Expositor” of Aristotle’s Physics.
Giles was an independent thinker, and though he shared many ideas with Aquinas he
disagreed markedly with him on the relationship between essence and existence. For
Giles, these are two separate things, the latter not necessarily implied in the former. In
this way, he stressed the contingency of all things on the will of God and enunciated a
theme that would become one of the hallmarks of later nominalism.
Mark Zier
[See also: AQUINAS, THOMAS; ARISTOTLE, INFLUENCE OF; AUGUSTINIAN
FRIARS/HERMITS; BONIFACE VIII; COURTESY BOOKS; PHILIP IV THE FAIR;
PHILOSOPHY; UNAM SANCTAM]
Giles of Rome. De ecclesiastica potestate, ed. Richard Scholz. Weimar: Böhlaus, 1929.
——.Errores philosophorum, ed. Josef Koch, trans. John Riedl. Milwaukee: Marquette University
Press, 1944.
——. Sermons. In Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters von 1150–1350, ed.
Johannes-Baptist Schneyer. 6 vols. Münster: Aschendorff, 1969–74, Vol. 1, p. 57.
Hocediz, E. “La condemnation de Gilles de Rome.” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale
4 (1932):34–58.
Luna, C. “La lecture de Gilles de Rome sur le quatrième livre des sentences: les extraits du Clm
8005.” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 57 (1992):183–255.
Nash, P.W. “Giles of Rome: Auditor and Critic of St Thomas.” Modern Schoolman 28 (1950):1–
20.
——. “Giles of Rome on Boethius’ Diversum est esse et id quod est.” Medieval Studies 12
(1950):57–91.
——. “The Accidentality of Esse According to Giles of Rome.” Gregorianum 38 (1957):103–15.
GILLES DE CHIN
(d. 1137). This chamberlain of Count Baudouin IV of Hainaut has left his trace in history
and legend. The literature he inspired records his adventures in the Holy Land, as well as
The Encyclopedia 753