'Hugh of St Cher' (c.
1200 –
March 19,
1263) was a
French Dominican cardinal and
Biblical commentator.
He was born at
St Cher, a suburb of
Vienne,
Dauphiné, and while a student in
Paris entered the Dominican convent of the
Jacobins in 1225.
He taught
philosophy,
theology, and
Canon law. As
provincial of his order, which office he held during most of the third decade of the century, he contributed largely to its prosperity, and won the confidence of the popes
Gregory IX,
Innocent IV and
Alexander IV, who charged him with several important missions.
Created
cardinal priest in 1244, he played an important part in the
council of Lyons in 1245, contributed to the institution of the
Feast of Holy Sacrament, the reform of the
Carmelites (1247), and the condemnations of the ''Introductorius in
evangelium aeternum'' of
Gherardino da Borgo San Donnino (1255), and of
William of St Amour's ''De periculis novissimorum temporum''. He died at
Orvieto on
19 March 1263.
He directed the first revision of the text of the
Vulgate, begun in 1236 by the Dominicans; this first "correctorium," vigorously criticized by
Roger Bacon, was revised in 1248 and in 1256, and forms the basis of the celebrated ''Correctorium Bibliae Sorbonicum''.
With the aid of many of his order he edited the first concordance of the Bible (''Concordantiae Sacrorum Bibliorum'' or ''Concordantiae S. Jacobi''), but the assertion that we owe the present division of the chapters of the Vulgate to him is false.
Besides a commentary on the ''
Book of Sentences,'' he wrote the ''Postillae in sacram scripturam juxta quadruplicem sensum, litteralem, allegoricum, anagogicum et moralem,'' published frequently in the 15th and 16th centuries. His ''Sermones de tempore et sanctis'' are apparently only extracts. His
exegetical works were published at
Venice in 1754 in eight volumes.
References
★
Quétif-
Échard, ''Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum''
★
Heinrich Seuse Denifle, in ''Archiv für Literatur und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters'', i.49, ii.171, iv.263 and 471
★ ''L'Année dominicaine'', (1886) iii.509 and 883
★ ''Chartularium universitatis Parisiensis'', i.158.
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