Two early Oxford Masters on the Problem of Plurality of Forms

Adam of Buckfield — Richard Rufus of Cornwall

In the thirteenth century perhaps no other problem aroused such heated controversy as the question of plurality of forms.

The origin of the debate is, however, still somewhat obscure. Dom O. Lottin, O. S. B., in an extremely suggestive study, published in this same periodical (1), threw much needed light on the beginning of the controversy in the Paris schools. He found the earliest account of it in Roland of Cremona, the first Dominican master in Paris (1229-1230), and in Philip the Chancellor's Summa de Bono (1228-1236). Two facts are established beyond doubt by Dom Lottin : (a) the Chancellor's approach to the question exercised a wide influence upon the theologians of the first half of the century ; (b) the pluralist view was not so current and familiar, at least in Paris, as often has been asserted. On the contrary, the leading masters, Philip the Chancellor and William of Auvergne, among the Seculars, Roland of Cremona and Hugh of St. Cher among the Dominicans, John de la Rochelle and the Summa of Alexander of Hales among the Franciscans, all accepted the thesis of unity of soul and substance in man.

One would like to know who were those pluralists, the quidam with whom Roland of Cremona, Philip the Chancellor, William of Auvergne and the other masters contended, and also