Heymeric was born approximately in 1395 in Zon (Brabant), in the vicinity of Eindhoven in what is now the Netherlands, and died on August 11, 1460 in Leuven, Belgium. Between 1410 and 1420 he studied in Paris, where he came under the tutelage of John de Nova Domo. From 1420 to 1422 he taught philosophy in Diest (vicinity of Leuven), where he composed his first major work, the Compendium divinorum, a handbook on the subject of metaphysics. In 1422, he entered the Theology faculty at Cologne. Works belonging to Heymeric’s theological studies include a Sentences commentary, the Quadripartitus quaestionum supra libros sententiarum, and commentaries on Aristotle, including the Quaestiones supra libros philosophiae rationalis, realis et moralis Aristotelis, Compendium logicae, Compendium naturalis philosophiae, and Compendium ethicorum. He became Master of theology at Cologne in 1428 and was appointed professor of theology shortly thereafter. In 1432, Heymeric was made rector of the university, and between 1432 and 1435 he represented the university at the Council of Basle. During this time, he composed a lengthy conciliar tract, the Disputatio de potestate ecclesiastica, a defense of the revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden (Dyalogus super reuelacionibus Beate Birgitte), as well as a number of important philosophical works. From 1435 to 1453, Heymeric served as professor of theology at the University of Leuven.
His early philosophical work, the Compendium divinorum, which presents an emanation model of reality whereby creation is a hierarchical unfolding into plurality of the divine first principle, already manifests the strongly Neoplatonic orientation of Heymeric’s thought. He maintains in this work that, by virtue of its emanation, the inner structure of everything in the universe bears a Trinitarian structure which is an image, or assimilation, of its divine principle. Accordingly, each substance is a unity, but with an inner Trinitarian structure — the most fundamental of which is determined as esse, posse, and operari — that corresponds to the divine persons. This Trinitarian model of reality is further developed in a later work, entitled the Theoremata totius universi, where the divine Trinity is mirrored in creation through triadic structures such as unitas, veritas, and bonitas. Although Heymeric does not explicitly identify his approach as Albertist in these works, his trinitarian theory is heavily marked by the influence of Albert the Great, especially the latter’s commentary on the Divine Names of Pseudo-Dionysius.
In his Tractatus de sigillo aeternitatis (1432-1435), the central figure is that of an encircled, equilateral triangle with lines extending inward from each corner to the center of the circle. The circle symbolizes the unity of God, the triangle symbolizes the Trinity, and the radiating lines stand for the external working of the divine power in creation. Heymeric maintains that this divine symbol is the best means for making the trinitarian structure of reality apparent, due to its ability to communicate traces in the lower echelons of the human understanding (ratio) to its upper echelons (intellectus). In this way, the symbol is not only the key to all scientific knowledge, but will lead one to the first principles of that knowledge, that is, to their divine archetypes.
The Colliget principiorum iuris naturalis, divini et humani philosophice doctrinalium, written during his Basle years, is Heymeric’s largest work next to the Disputatio, and comprises a wide-ranging survey of philosophical principles. The Ars demonstrativa, written around the same time, develops a method of demonstration through a peculiar application of the Aristotelian principle of non-contradiction, whereby a series of philosophical as well as theological truths are shown to be true via a process of demonstrating the absurdity resulting from the assertion of their opposite.
De signis notionalibus (1435-1460), a treatise written most probably during Heymeric’s professorship at Leuven, revisits the question of how observation of aspects of creation can in a stepwise manner lead to knowledge of the divine Trinity, and belongs to the tradition of vestigia trinitatis treatises of the likes of Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum. In this work, he brings forth many examples of such vestigia found in nature, including the Trinitarian structure of the four elements, whereby each is seen to be comprised of a triad of characteristics interrelated in a manner that mirrors the divine Trinity. So, for example, fire is alleged to consist of the characteristics of warmth, dryness, and lightness, such that warmth is the primary characteristic, out of which is generated dryness, and out of these both proceeds lightness. Another of Heymeric’s late works is the Centheologicum (c. 1454), a compendium of 100 different philosophies, including sections on Nicholas of Cusa and Ramon Llull.
All of Heymeric’s speculative works are concerned with finding a universal form of knowledge that will encompass both philosophy and theology. Trinitarian concepts play an important role in this universal knowledge. Because it is an image of the divine Trinity, the human soul is a thesaurus omnium scibilium, which can be unlocked through self-knowledge, and which therefore has the potential to grasp through natural means not only all human knowledge, but divine truths as well. In so affirming the ability of human reason to discover divine wisdom, Heymeric comes down firmly on the side of the via antiqua, as one who rejects the nominalist division of philosophy and theology.
World History
