Gallus (or Gallo) Thomas
Gallus (Or Gallo) Thomas, a French theologian, who died December 5, 1246, was a member of the regular Augustines, canon of the congregation of St. Victor of Paris, and in 1223 was appointed abbot of St. Andrew of Verceil, by which latter title he is frequently exclusively designated. The name Gallus is regarded by some as only the Latinized form of his real name, Coq; by others as indicating his nationality; while others suppose that he was of Italian origin. Gallus taught at St.victor and other Augustine establishments, and, when abbot of Verceil, drew around him the best professors of Northern Italy, achieving for himself and his monastery a European reputation in theology and ecclesiastical learning. J. Gerson (q.v.), in the preface to his Commentary on the Canticles, praises highly Gallus' Explications du Cantique des Cantiques (published, with commentary, by Halgrin, Paris, 1521, and Lyons, 1571, fol.). This work was published at Rome in 1666 under the care of J. Magloire, together with a decree of the Congregation of the Index forbidding its publication under the name of Scotus, showing that it had been attributed to the celebrated Irish philosopher. Another work of Galls's (Traduction paraphrasees des livres sur la hierachie et la theologie mystique attribues a Saint Denys l'Areopagite) is found in the Theologia Mystica of J. Eckbhis (Ingolstadt, 1519), and in the Commentarius in S. Dionysii Areopagite Opera of Dionysius the Carthusian (Cologne, 1536). Leon Alacei (Apes urbane) erroneously attributes to Gallus some sermons (Sermones) which belong to John, abbot of Vincelles. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 19:345; Oudin, Comment. de. Scriptoribus ecclesiastics, 3:9. (J.W.M.)
