Richard of Middleton

A generic portrait of Richard de media villa, woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle

Richard of Middleton (Medieval Latin: Richardus de Mediavilla) (c. 1249–1302) was a member of the Franciscan Order, a theologian, and philosopher. He was Norman, and therefore it is impossible to tell whether he came from France or England originally. After studying at the Oxford Franciscan school he went to the University of Paris, where he was regent master from 1284 to 1287, and was with Saint Louis of Toulouse in 1296.

His theological output is mainly contained in his two commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, Quodlibeta and Quaestiones disputatae. His writing is very clear and well reasoned, and it is remarkable for moving away from a strict Augustinian theology to a more scholastic one. It is also interesting that he shows an awareness of hypnosis in his Quodlibeta.

Sources

• PORTALIE, L'hypnotisme au moyen age: Aricenne Avicenne et Richard Middletown in etudes relig. hist. Litt., LV (1892)

External links

• Franciscan schools of thought
• His argument against the ordination of women
• "Richard of Middletown". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13045b.htm.