- Jacques Almain
Jacques Almain (d. 1515) was a prominent professor of theology at the
University of Paris when he died at an early age. Born in the diocese ofSens , he studied Arts at theCollège de Montaigu of the University of Paris. He served as Rector of the university in 1507.Life
Beginning in 1508, he studied Theology with
John Mair at theCollege of Navarre . Almain received his license in Theology in January of 1512 and his doctorate in March of that year. When KingLouis XII decided to support the 1511 Council (or "conciliabulum", as it was called dismissively) of Pisa against PopeJulius II , the university was told to support this assembly. Almain was chosen by the university to answer a pro-papal polemic byThomas Cardinal Cajetan . He wrote a trenchant critique of that tract by Cajetan, but did not live to answer the "Apologia" the pope's defender wrote in reply. Nor did Almain comment directly on theFifth Lateran Council called by Pope Julius in response to the assembly inPisa .Works
He wrote in several academic genres. His earliest works were concerned with logic and the "Physics" of
Aristotle . His "Moralia" became a standard textbook of moral theology, presenting ethical issues in a dry Scholastic style. He also wrote texts discussing portions of the "Sentences" ofPeter Lombard .Apart from the reply to Cajetan, Almain wrote on political topics. Works included a discussion of the opinions of
William of Ockham about papal power and a disputation on the power of pope and councilConciliarism .Almain embraced the distinction between the absolute and ordained powers of God. His moral philosophy was Aristotelean, arguing for conduct in the middle ground between extremes. His political thought embraced the need for order but allow ed a community to restrain a ruler whose conduct had become dangerous to its survival. His critique of Cajetan's treatise argued that Church and State were parallel in nature, both able to act against an errant leader, whether pope or king. All of these teachings are found in the posthumous "Opuscula" (Paris, 1518).
References
*Burns, J.H., 1991, ‘Scholasticism: Survival and Revival’, in J.H. Burns and M. Goldie (ed.) "The Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450-1700", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Burns, J.H., 1994, ‘Jacques Almain on "Dominium": A Neglected Text’, in Adrianna E. Bakos (ed.) "Politics, Ideology and the Law in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of J. H. M. Salmon", Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1994.
*Kraye, J., 1988, ‘Moral Philosophy’, in C.B. Schmitt and Q. Skinner (ed.) "The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Oakley, F., 1998, ‘The Absolute and Ordained Power of God in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Theology’, "Journal of the History of Ideas" 59: 437-461.
*Oakley, F., 2003, "The Conciliarist Tradition: Constitutionalism in the Catholic Church 1300-1870", Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Further reading
*Jacques Almain, "A Book concerning the Authority of the Church", in J.H. Burns and T.M. Izbicki (ed. and transl.), 1997, "Conciliarism and Papalism", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Jacques Almain, "Question at Vespers", in J. Kraye (ed.), 1997, C"ambridge Translations of Renaissance Philosophical Texts", vol. 2: Political Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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