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Summa

Summa

1215·Latin·239 pages PDF (183.1MB) Source

An early thirteenth-century theological summa composed at Paris ca. 1213–1215 by Geoffrey of Poitiers (Gaufridus Pictaviensis), a master in the circle of Stephen Langton and Peter the Chanter. Following the order of Peter Lombard's Sentences, the work treats God, creation, the fall, the incarnation, the sacraments, and Christian ethics, drawing especially on Langton's lectures. BnF, MS Latin 3143 is a thirteenth-century manuscript copy in two-column gothic script with later modern foliation. The Summa has never been printed in full; only excerpts have appeared in print.

Author

Geoffrey of Poitiers

Geoffrey of Poitiers

Gaufridus Pictaviensis

Readings

On the Work of God

De opere dei

A three-column chain of quaestiones from Geoffrey of Poitiers' Summa working out, under the umbrella of Jeremiah 48:10 (maledictus qui facit opus dei negligenter), what it means to do God's work the wrong way. Geoffrey moves through three species — opus dei done negligently (folio 39ra), done fraudulently (39rb), and done for money (39va) — culminating in the celebrated quaestio on whether the master who teaches theology for fees falls under the curse of Micah 3:11, sacerdotes eorum in mercede docebant. There he draws the classic Parisian distinction that publicly licensed teachers (publice persone) are bound to teach freely as doctores verbi dei, lest they become venditores verbi dei.

Geoffrey of Poitiers Geoffrey of Poitiers·1215·Latin·De opere dei·fol. 39ra–39va