Introduction

Henry of Ghent was born around 1217. He taught at Paris as a secular master in the Faculty of Theology from 1276 until his death in 1293. As a member of Stephen Tempier's commission of inquiry, he helped determine the 219 articles in theology and natural philosophy which were censured by the bishop in 1277. Henry's own particular fusion of Augustinian metaphysics and Aristotelian epistemology has left modern commentators both intrigued and perturbed by the tensions which such a combination produced. The core of Henry's teaching has been preserved in two major works, the Summa quaestionum ordinarium and a collection of fifteen Quaestiones quodlibetales. The quodlibet is the genre of academic inquiry which offers perhaps the most direct insight both into issues of contemporary intellectual concern and into a regent master's own opinions. Originally a penitential exercise at Easter and Christmas each year, it required a master to respond to a question on ‘any’ subject (de quolibet) and was often used to put him on the spot. Quodlibets can thus provide an index of those contentious issues which were dividing theologians at any given moment. In Henry's case, for example, this form of disputation provided the forum for his exchanges with Giles of Rome and Godfrey of Fontaines over the nature of the distinction between essence and existence. Henry's quodlibets also provide a commentary on issues of directly political and ethical import, such as the debate over the privileges of the mendicant orders, opposition to royal taxation, the connection between the moral and theological virtues, and the relationship between the individual good and the common good.