Richard of Middleton

Richard of Middleton (Medieval Latin: Richardus de Mediavilla; c. 1249 – c. 1308) was a member of the Franciscan Order, a theologian, and scholastic philosopher.

Life Richard's origins are unclear: he was either Norman French (from Menneville or Moyenneville) or English (from Middleton or Middletown). As a Bachelor of the Sentences of Peter Lombard at the University of Paris in 1283, he played a part in the Franciscan commission examining Peter Olivi. He was regent master of the Franciscan studium in Paris from 1284 to 1287, and, on 20 September 1295 in Metz, he was elected Franciscan minister provincial of France. He was also subsequently tutor to Louis of Toulouse, son of Charles II of Anjou. He died sometime between 1300 and 1308.

Theology and philosophy Commentarium..., c. 1250-1275, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence

His extant theological output is mainly contained in his two commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, which he edited between 1285 and 1295, three sets of quodlibetal disputations and some 45 disputed questions. His work is heavily influenced by his predecessors at Paris, including Bonaventure, Henry of Ghent and Thomas Aquinas. Although his philosophy owes much to the Franciscan school of thought, with regard to the plurality of forms in a single substance, for example, he also affirmed universal hylomorphism, thus following Aquinas. In this regard, he did not shy away from synthesizing Aristotelian thought into his own philosophical reasoning, in spite of the hostility surrounding the Averroist doctrines that were condemned at the University of Paris in 1270 and 1277. Along with other masters of theology, his quodlibetal disputations had resonance beyond the immediate milieu of the University. For example, in 1285, he was one of the masters who debated whether annuities were licit or illicit as a form of contract.

Works Richard of Middleton, Quodlibeta doctoris eximii Ricardi de Mediavilla ordinis minorum (Brescia, 1591; repr. Frankfurt am Main, 1963). Richard of Middleton, Super Quatuor Libros Sententiarum, 4 vols. (Brescia, 1591, repr. Frankfurt am Main, 1963).