HUGH OF AMIENS
(ca. 1080–1164). Born in the area of Ribemont in northern France, Hugh was
successively a student at the school of Laon, monk of Cluny, prior of Saint-Martial at
Limoges, prior of St. Pancras, Lewes, and the first abbot of Henry I’s foundation at
Reading, before being elected archbishop of Rouen by the cathedral chapter. He was a
strong believer in the rights of the episcopate, and he attempted to make newly elected
abbots take a written oath of obedience to him. During the civil war between King
Stephen and Empress Matilda, he was one of Stephen’s strongest episcopal supporters,
even defending him when he seized the castles of some of the English bishops, and he
remained on the king’s side until Rouen was captured by the Angevins.
In his youth, Hugh went to Rome to be a clerk in the papal curia, and he later served as
legate. He was a vigorous judge in ecclesiastical disputes and a generous benefactor of
numerous Norman monasteries. Though his personality remains elusive, he was admired
by his contemporaries for his knowledge, for he was the author of several works of
theology and (possibly) a defense of Cluny against the at-tacks of the Cistercians. He
carried out work on the cathedral at Rouen, and he introduced the feast of the Immaculate
Conception (December 8) into Normandy.
Thomas G.Waldman
HUGH OF SAINT-VICTOR
(d. 1141). A leading theologian, biblical interpreter, and mystic of the first half of the
12th century, Hugh was the effective founder of the important school of the abbey of
Saint-Victor at Paris. Hugh’s place of birth is uncertain—evidence supports both Saxony
and the Low Countries, with birth in one and early life in the other area a possibility. He
came to the new community of regular canons at Saint-Victor, probably in the early
1120s; by 1125, he was writing and teaching and beginning to gain a wide following
among students and peers. Hugh was instrumental in asserting the fundamental need to
understand the literal, historical sense of the biblical text before undertaking allegorical
and moral interpretation. Indeed, his whole exegetical and theological project was
founded on the premise that one must understand history, the unfolding of events in time,
as the fundamental category for God’s revelation in the history of the Jewish and
Christian peoples. Hugh sought contemporary Jewish interpretations for understanding
the literal sense of the Hebrew Scriptures, and he inspired others, especially Andrew of
Saint-Victor and Herbert of Bosham, to pursue more thoroughly the understanding of
Scripture through knowledge of the Hebrew language and consultation with Jewish
rabbis. In theology, Hugh composed the first summa of theology in the Parisian schools,
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