'''Alexander Hales'''
(also '''Halensis''', '''Alensis''', '''Halesius''', '''Alesius'''; called ''Doctor Irrefragabilis'' and ''Theologorum Monarcha'') was a [[scholasticism|scholastic ]] [[theology|theologian]]. He was born at [[Hailes Abbey|Hales]], [[Gloucestershire]], [[England]] ca. 1183, and died in [[Paris]] on [[August 21]], [[1245]]. He was educated in the monastery at Hales, studied and lectured at Paris, and by 1210 was a master of the sacred page in the faculty of theology. He entered the [[Franciscan|Franciscan order]] sometime around [[1236]] thus creating the first formal connection between the Order and the University of Paris.

While it is common for scholars to state that Alexander was the first to write a commentary on the ''[[Sentences]]'' of [[Peter Lombard]], it is not quite accurate. There were a number of "commentaries" on the ''Sentences'', but Alexander appears to have been the first magisterial commentary. In doing so, he elevated Lombard's work from a major theological resource to an authoritative text from which masters could teach. The commentary (or more correctly titled a ''Gloss'') survived in student reports from Alexander's teaching in the classroom and so it provides a major insight into the way theologians taught their discipline in the 1220s.

For his contemporaries, however, Alexander's fame was his inexhaustible interest in disputation. His disputations prior to his becoming a Franciscan cover over 1,600 pages in their modern edition. His disputed questions after 1236 remain unpublished. Alexander was also one of the first scholastics to participate in the ''Quodlibetal'', a university event in which a master had to respond to any question posed by any student or master over a period of three days. Alexander's ''Quodlibet'' also remains unedited. It is because of this questioning that he became known as the 'Doctor irrefragabilis'.

When he became a Franciscan and thus created a formal Franciscan school of theology at Paris, it was soon clear that his students lacked some of the basic tools for the discipline. Alexander responded by beginning a ''Summa theologiae'' that is now known as the ''Summa fratris Alexandri''. Alexander drew mainly from his own disputations, but also selected ideas, arguments and sources from his contemporaries. It treats in its first part the doctrines of [[God]] and his attributes; in its second, those of [[creation (theology)|Creation]] and [[sin]]; in its third, those of [[Salvation|redemption]] and [[atonement]]; and, in its fourth and last, those of the [[sacrament]]s. This massive text ([[Roger Bacon]] sarcastically referred to it weighing as much as a horse!) was unfinished at his death and his students, William of Middleton and John of Rupella, were charged with its completion. It was certainly read by the Franciscans at Paris, including [[Bonaventure]]. Bonaventure once referred to Alexander as "our father and master" (''noster pater et magister''), but it is unlikely that the Seraphic Doctor ever studied under Alexander.

Alexander was an innovative theologian particularly in terms of the sources he used in his work. He was part of the generation that first grappled with the writings of [[Aristotle]]. While there was a ban on using Aristotle's works as teaching texts, theologians like Alexander continued to exploit his ideas in their theology. Two other uncommon sources were promoted by Alexander: Anselm of Canterbury, whose writings had been ignored for almost a century gained an important advocate in Alexander and he used Anselm's works extensively in his teaching on [[Christology]] and [[soteriology]]; and, [[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]], whom Alexander used in his examination of the theology of Orders and ecclesiastical structures.

Among the doctrines which were specially developed and, so to speak, fixed by Alexander of Hales, are those of the ''[[thesaurus supererogationis perfectorum]]'', and of the ''[[sacramental character|character indelibilis]]'' of [[baptism]],
[[confirmation (sacrament)|confirmation]], and [[Holy Orders|ordination]]. That doctrine had been written about much earlier by [[Augustine of Hippo]] and was eventually defined a [[dogma]] by the [[Council of Trent]]. He also posed an important question about the cause of the [[Incarnation]]: would Christ have been incarnated if humanity had never sinned? The question eventually became the focal point for a philosophical issue (the theory of possible worlds) and a theological topic (the distinction between God's absolute power (''potentia absoluta'') and His ordained power (''potentia ordinata'').

John Gerson tells us “The doctrine of Alexander is of a wealth surpassing all expression. It is said that someone asked St. Thomas what was the best manner of studying theology; he replied that it was by attaching oneself to a Master. And to which Doctor? he was asked again. To Alexander of Hales, the [[Thomas Aquinas|Angelic Doctor]] replied." (Gerson, Opera omnia. Epistola Lugdunum missa cuidam fratri Minori, vol. 1, p. 554.)

Compare [[Hailes Abbey]], Gloucestershire, founded in 1245/6.

{{Medieval_Philosophy}}

[[Category:13th century philosophers]]
[[Category:1245 deaths|Alexander of Hales]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic philosophers|Alexander of Hales]]
[[Category:English theologians|Alexander of Hales]]
[[Category:Franciscans|Alexander of Hales]]
[[Category:Scholastic philosophers|Alexander of Hales]]
[[Category:People from Gloucestershire|Alexander of Hales]]

[[de:Alexander von Hales]]
[[es:Alejandro de Hales]]
[[fr:Alexandre de Hales]]
[[pl:Aleksander z Hales]]
[[sk:Alexander z Halesu]]
[[fi:Alexander Halesilainen]]
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