Huguccio 355Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua († 203) to
Marguerite Porete († 1310)(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1984); Katharina M. Wilson, Hrotsvit of
Gandersheim: The Ethics of Authorial Stance(Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1988).
Hugh Capet(941–996)king of France, founder of the
Capetian dynasty
Hugh was the son of Hugh the Great (d. 956) and of Hed-
wig, sister of Emperor OTTOI. Born in 941, on his father’s
death in 956 he became duke of the FRANKSand a power-
ful lord in FRANCE. In 978 he entered an alliance against
King Lothair (r. 954–986) with his cousin, Emperor Otto
II (r. 961–983), and Adalbero of Laon (ca. 955–1031),
archbishop of RHEIMS. After the death of Louis V the
Sluggard (r. 986–987), the nobles elected him king as
opposed to one of the last Carolingians, Charles of Lor-
raine (953–991). Crowned by Adalbero, he had to face an
invasion by Charles within the support of some of the
nobility and the church. He captured Charles and held
him prisoner. Hugh then reigned from 987 to 996 and
died on campaign on October 14, 996. He succeeded
because of his merits, but also because of the inability of
his rivals to unite against him. He was succeeded by his
son, Robert II the Pious (r. 987–1031).
See alsoCAPETIAN DYNASTY.
Further reading:Andrew W. Lewis, Royal Succession in
Capetian France: Studies on Familial Order and the State
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981);
Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev, Hugh Capet of France and
Byzantium(Cambridge, Mass.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1951).
Hugh of Saint Victor(ca. 1096–1141)theorist of the
organization of knowledge and approaches to teaching
Born in Saxony about 1096, Hugh of Saint Victor began
his education with the regular or Augustinian canons of
Saint Pancras in Hamersleben, who were supporters of
the GREGORIAN REFORM. He entered the convent of Saint
Victor at PARISas a young man, in about 1115. By 1127
his ideas and famous teaching had made him the founder
of a “School of Saint-Victor.”
His most famous work, the encyclopedic Didascali-
con,discussed the art of reading, learning, and teaching.
According to Hugh, the disciplines of the triviumand
quadrivium,or the SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS, were a scholastic
program intended to contribute to a better understand-
ing of God. Written around the same time, a manual on
cloistered living was influential for the later normative
literature and discipline in monastic life. He also wrote
the first Summaof THEOLOGYand a treatise on the SEVEN
SACRAMENTS.
Hugh reflected an organization of knowledge and a
exegetical science based on the doctrine of the three
senses of reading the Scripture: history, allegory, and
moral teaching or tropology. A modest person and an
attractive scholar, Hugh gained confidence of many of his
contemporaries and left a rich correspondence, notably
with BERNARD OFCLAIRVAUX. He warned his students
against the seduction of ABÉLARD’Sideas on ethics, as well
as contemporary theories of love and the “doctors of alle-
gory,” whose speculations lacked a historical foundation.
He died on February 11, 1141, in Paris.
See alsoBIBLE; MYSTICISM, CHRISTIAN.
Further reading:Hugh of St. Victor, The “Didascali-
con” of Hugh of St. Victor: A Medieval Guide to the Arts,
trans. Jerome Taylor (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1961); Hugh of St. Victor on the Sacraments of the
Christian Faith (De Sacramentis),trans. Roy J. Deferrari
(Cambridge, Mass.: The Medieval Academy of America,
1951); Giles Constable, The Reformation of the Twelfth
Century(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996);
Richard Southern, Scholastic Humanism and the Unifica-
tion of Europe,Vol. 2, The Heroic Age,with notes and
additions by Lesley Smith and Benedicta Ward (Oxford:
Blackwell, 2001).Huguccio (Hugh or Ugo of Pisa)(ca. 1150–1210)
teacher of theology and canon law
Born about 1150, Huguccio studied THEOLOGYand likely
CANON LAWat the University of BOLOGNA, before begin-
ning teaching there. Among his pupils was the future
Pope INNOCENTIII. He was elected bishop of FERRARAin
1190 and remained in this position until his death. He
wrote a study of the signs of the apostles, a dictionary of
etymology, and a celebrated Summa on Gratian’s Decretum,
all between 1180 and 1190. The latter was a synthesis of
the ideas of a school based on, among other themes, the
thought of the Decretalists, political practice, and ideol-
ogy as it had developed during the papacy of ALEXANDER
III, and the newly appreciated Roman law.
Huguccio’s work not only influenced an Anglo-
Norman school but also was fundamental for all later
canon law and the political and religious thought of
medieval Europe. He was an ardent defender of the inde-
pendence of the papacy and believed that the pope was at
the summit of the church’s hierarchy, though that still
consisted of the mass of believers. For him, the church
could not err. The pope could not be judged, save in
cases of HERESYas determined only by the College of
CARDINALS. Otherwise, the pope’s judgment prevailed
over that of any council.
Against most lay opinion, he asserted that clerics
could not be taken before a secular court even in feudal
matters. Nevertheless he granted some independence to
an emperor, king, and city, since their powers were also
derived from GOD. He believed that an emperor drew
legitimacy from a proper election and a coronation by a
pope. The pope might depose an emperor, but his impe-
rial subjects could not do so on their own. The emperor of
course did not have the same power against a pope. The