William of Conches

William Of Conches a philosopher of the 12th century, was a native of Conches, Normandy, and instructed at the cathedral-school of Chartres. William was famous as a grammarian, but took part in theological questions. His work, entitled Philosophia, in which he espoused Abelard's doctrine of the Trinity, was attacked after his master's condemnation by William of St. Thierry, and the author did not hesitate to recant his errors. William of Conches died in 1154.

His Philosophia was published three times, with different titles, and under the name of three different authors:

1. Philosophicarum et Astrono-micarum Institutionum Guilielmi, Hirsangiensis Olim Abbatis, Libri Tres (Basle, 1531);

2. sive Elementorum Philosophiae Libri IV, in Beda's Opera, 2:311-343 (Basle 1563); 3. De Philosophia Mundi, by Honorius of Autun, in the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, volume 20 (Lyons, 1667). Another work of William is Dragmaticon, in which he rejects the errors expressed in his Philosophia. The Dragmaticon, too, is extant under at least six different titles. William also wrote a commentary on Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae. See Werner, in Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch- historischen Classe der kaiserlichezn Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien (1873), 75, page 311 sq.; Haureau, in Comptes-Rendus de l'Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles-Lettres (eod.), 3d series, 1:75 sq.; Prantl, Geschichte der Logik, 2:127; Reginal L. Poole, Illustrations of the History of Mediaeval Thought, and the same in Plitt-Herzog, Real- Encyklop. s.v. (B.P.)