Jocelin of Soissons (died 24 October 1152) was a French theologian, a philosophical opponent of

Peter Abelard Peter Abelard (12 February 1079 – 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, teacher, musician, composer, and poet. This source has a detailed description of his philosophical work. In philos ...

. He became

bishop of Soissons The Diocese of Soissons, Laon, and Saint-Quentin (Latin: ''Dioecesis Suessionensis, Laudunensis et Sanquintinensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Soissons, Laon et Saint-Quentin'') is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The dioc ...

, and is known also as a composer, with two pieces in the ''

Codex Calixtinus The (or ''Codex Compostellus'') is a manuscript that is the main witness for the 12th-century ('Book of Saint James'), a pseudepigraph attributed to Pope Calixtus II. The principal author or compiler of the ''Liber'' is thus referred to as "Ps ...

''. He was teaching at the Paris cathedral school in the early 1110s.''Cambridge Companion to Abelard'' (2004), p. 310.

Bishop

He began work on the present

Soissons Cathedral Soissons Cathedral (French: ''Cathédrale Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais'') is a Gothic basilica church in Soissons, France. It is the seat of the Bishop of Soissons, Laon, and Saint-Quentin. The construction of the south transept was begun abou ...

; it only took shape in the 1190s.

Abbot Suger Suger (; ; ; 1081 – 13 January 1151) was a French abbot and statesman. He was a key advisor to King Louis VI and his son Louis VII, acting as the latter's regent during the Second Crusade. His writings remain seminal texts for early twelf ...

addressed his history of

Louis the Fat Louis VI (1 December 1081 – 1 August 1137), called the Fat () or the Fighter (), was King of the Franks from 1108 to 1137. Like his father Philip I, Louis made a lasting contribution to centralizing the institutions of royal power. He spent mu ...

to him. In the papal politics of the late 1120s and 1130s, Suger counted Jocelin, at Soissons from 1126, as a supporter of

Pope Innocent II Pope Innocent II (; died 24 September 1143), born Gregorio Papareschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 February 1130 to his death in 1143. His election as Pope was controversial, and the first eight years o ...

against

antipope Anacletus II Anacletus II (died January 25, 1138), born Pietro Pierleoni, was an antipope who ruled in opposition to Pope Innocent II from 1130 until his death in 1138. After the death of Pope Honorius II, the college of Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinals ...

, along with other bishops of northern France. As bishop he founded

Longpont Abbey Longpont Abbey (Abbaye Notre-Dame de Longpont) was a Cistercian monastery, in present-day Longpont, Aisne, France. It existed from 1131 to 1793, being founded by monks from the abbey of Clairvaux, at the behest of Jocelin of Soissons. There is n ...

in 1131, a

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

monastery supported by

Bernard of Clairvaux Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercians, O.Cist. (; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, Mysticism, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templar, and a major leader in the reform of the Benedictines through the nascent Cistercia ...

; Bernard was a correspondent. He favoured the

Knights Templars The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a military order of the Catholic faith, and one of the most important military orders in Western Christianity. They were founded in 11 ...

, having participated in the

Council of Troyes There have been a number of synods held at Troyes: Council of 867 The council was held on orders of Pope Nicholas I, to deal with Hincmar of Reims and his quarrels. The decrees were signed on 2 November 867. The Council ruled that no bishop coul ...

that gave them full standing. He was present at the 1146

Council of Arras A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nation ...

, a probable occasion for the planning of the

Second Crusade The Second Crusade (1147–1149) was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144 to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crus ...

Works

The ''De generibus et speciebus'' has been attributed to him. Now scholars call its author Pseudo-Joscelin. It may be by a student of his. The ''Metalogicus'' of

John of Salisbury John of Salisbury (late 1110s – 25 October 1180), who described himself as Johannes Parvus ("John the Little"), was an English author, philosopher, educationalist, diplomat and bishop of Chartres. The historian Hans Liebeschuetz described him ...

attributed to him the view that

universals In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For exa ...

exist only in the collection, not the individuals.

References

* ''Annales de la vie de Joscelin de Vierzi'' in

Achille Luchaire Denis Jean Achille Luchaire (; October 24, 1846November 14, 1908) was a French historian. Biography Luchaire was born in Paris. In 1879 he became a professor at Bordeaux and in 1889 professor of mediaeval history at the Sorbonne; in 1895 he bec ...

, ''Quatrièmes mélanges d'histoire du moyen age'', Paris: Alcan, 1905. * Desmond Paul Henry, ''Medieval Mereology'', Amsterdam: B. R. Grüner., 1991. * Pseudo-Joscelin, ''Treatise on Genera and Species'', edited and translated with an introduction by Peter King, ''Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy'', 2, 2014, pp. 104–210.

Notes

{{authority control 1152 deaths 12th-century French Catholic theologians Scholastic philosophers Bishops of Soissons Year of birth unknown