Overview

According to one contemporary source - possibly written by a fellow Parisian scholar, Godfrey of Fontaines - by the mid-1280s Giles enjoyed a greater reputation in Paris than any other inhabitant. This reputation was primarily built upon his philosophical and theological works. Giles’ philosophical ideas were expressed in a series of commentaries, six quodlibeta held between 1286 and 1291 and in a number of collections of Disputed Questions (Quaestiones disputatae). Much of his theological thought was summarized and developed in the 76 sermons he preached in the course of his career. In the theological and metaphysical positions he adopted Giles was highly influenced by the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Despite an association with Thomist ideas that contributed, at least in part, to his censure in 1277, Giles was not, however, unwilling to criticize and modify Aquinas’ thought on numerous points. With regard to metaphysics, Giles was a particular exponent of the doctrine of the unity of substantial form and argued strongly in favor of a ‘‘real distinction’’ between essence and existence in opposition to the contemporary position of Henry of Ghent.

Giles’ exploration of what may be considered ‘‘political’’ topics represents a mere fraction of the verbose doctor’s literary output. The essence of his political thought appears in two works, although elements of it are also reflected in an oration - if a sixteenth-century tradition is to be given credence - that he preached at Philip IV’s coronation in January 1286 (Del Punta et al 1993), in his tract On the Abdication of the Pope (De renunciatione pape, c. 1297), in at least one of his sermons (Luna 1992) and in his later commentaries on the Sentences (c. 1309) (McAleer 1999). His thought may be divided into two distinct phases. In the 1270s and early 1280s, Giles considered the ideal organization of temporal power and the process by which a secular ruler capable of achieving the common good could be fashioned. From the late 1290s, he turned his attention to the nature of spiritual power and questions of the proper relationship that ought to exist between the temporal and spiritual powers and the nature - and limitations - of the keystone of the spiritual power, the pope.