7 - JAMES OF VITERBO: Does a Human Being Have a Greater Natural Love for God than for Himself, or Vice Versa?

Summary

Introduction

James of Viterbo was born around 1255. Having joined the Augustinian Order about 1270, he went to Paris to study theology ca. 1278–83. He became a regent master around 1293, succeeding Giles of Rome to the Augustinian chair and teaching there until 1297, when he left Paris to direct the Augustinian school at Naples. James was made Bishop of Benevento in September 1302 and Archbishop of Naples three months later. He died in 1308. He is better known, perhaps, for his pro-papal treatise De regimine Christiano (trans. R. W. Dyson, Woodbridge, 1995), written after, or just before, he became Bishop of Benevento. His teaching at Paris survives in the form of four quodlibets. The approach taken in these disputations is notable for its reserve and prudence. It is thus characteristic of James to clarify various alternative views before setting down his own answer to a question. In the debate over the relationship between essence and existence, for example, he referees between the positions already established by Giles of Rome, Henry of Ghent, and Godfrey of Fontaines (CHLMP, pp. 404–5). When he confronts the problem of self-love in Book IX of the Ethics, it therefore comes as no surprise to find him clarifying a range of different expositions before tentatively (‘as I think’) putting forward his own. At the same time, and as is also the case in De regimine Christiano, such studied moderation should not necessarily be taken at face value.