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RICHARD OF MIDDLETON, O. F. M. ON ESSE AND ESSENCE Richard of Middleton appears right in the middle of the original controversy on esse and essence in a creature. His was the second voice to be raised in opposition to the real distinction, the most persuasive of all in telling us that this was primarily a problem in predication. Richard's star is comparatively pale today alongside some of the other luminaries of the thirteenth century. Still, his competence is attested to by the epithets, clarissimus and eximius.1 His Commentary on the Sentences was a best seller in its day;2 that on the fourth book of those Sentences, a classic.3 "Scotus is the best for the first book; Giles for the second; Bonaventure for the third; Richard of Middleton for the fourth."4 Richard's authority was invoked at the Councils of Constance,5 of Basel,8 and of Trent.7 He was rated in this age of giants as among the foremost theologians of the second rank, i. e., among those who de1 Clarissimi theologi Magistri Richardi de Media Villa super Quattuor Libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi Quaestiones Subtilissimae, ed. Ludovicus Silvester, 4 V., Brixiae: apud Vincentium Sabbium, 1591 [Frankfurt am Main: Minerva, 1963] [St. Louis, Mo.: Manuscripta: microfilms of rare and out-of-print books, List 27, no. 24] ; at the end of Vol. IV1 Quodlibeta doctoris eximii Richardi de Media Villa ordinis Minorum. 2 Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, ed. H. Denifle, O.P. et A. Châtelain , 4 v., Paris: Fratres Delalain, 1889—97, II, pp.107—II2. n. 642, esp. p. 109. 3 Edgar Hocedez, S.J., Richard de Middleton, sa vie, ses oeuvres, sa doctrine, Louvain: Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, 1925, p. 112. 4 Prosper de Martigné, O.M.C., La Scolastica e le Tradizioni Francescane, 2 v., Foligno: F. Salvati, 1890, II, p. 21, nota 1 : "In primum excellit Scotus; in secundum Aegidius, in tertium Bonaventura, in quartum Richardus de Media Villa." For a similar tribute at the head of the Fourth Book in the Venice 1509 edition, see Hocedez, p. 122, n. 5. 6 Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio . . . ab initiis ad 1870, ed. Giovanni Domenico Mansi et alii, Florentiae: expensis Antonii Zatta Veneti, 1759—1798 (ed. novissima, 53 v. in 58; Parisiis: H. Welter, 1901—27), Vol. XXVIII, col. 59. 8 Ibid., Vol. XXIX, col. 758. 7 Concilium Tridentinum. Diariorum, actorum, epistularum, tractatum nova collectio, ed. Societas Goerresiana, 13 v., Friburgi Brisgoviae: Herder & Co., 1901—61, Vol. IX, pp. 118 and 664. 4 Franciscan Studies 1970 50F. A. CUNNINGHAM, S. J. parted in some measure from St. Thomas.8 His psychology has been studied assiduously; his doctrine on being, not nearly enough. Pierre Mandonnet, O. P. judged Richard in the terms of his departure from Henry of Ghent;9 Edgar Hocedez, S. J., in his addition of a logical distinction to Henry's real.10 Josef Lechner restricted his judgment to Richard's sacramental theology;11 Roberto Zavalloni, O.F.M., to his plurality of forms.12 This plurality of forms, of course, along with its offspring, universal hylomorphism, made up the famosissimum binarium Augustinianum, the twofold pillar of "Augustinianism,"13 which, I believe, is the source of the real distinction. All are agreed on Richard's calm and orderly manner in his analysis of a question, claro de fonte Richardi.14 It is this last feature, this calm and orderly manner, which I would single out in estimating Richard's contribution. It was this basic soundness in his approach that seems to have been the one common denominator of all his honorific titles. Richard is called the Doctor solidus et 8 Doctoris ecstatici D. Dionysii [Leuwis] Cartusiani Opera Omnia, 42 v., Tournai: Herder, 1896—1913, 1935, In I Sent., Proemium (XIX, p. 37) : "Petrus de Tarantasia et Richardus de Mediavilla, qui tamen in aliquibus recedunt a Thoma." 9 "Les premières disputes sur la distinction reelle entre l'essence et l'existence, 1276—1287," Revue Thomiste, XVIII (1910), 741—765, esp. p. 760. 10Op. cit., pp. 400—401. 11Die Sakramentenlehre des Richard von Mediavilla, (Münchener Studien zur historischen Theologie, Heft 5), München: Kösel u. Pustet, 1925. 12Roberto Zavalloni...
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