HUGH, St, of Avalon (c. 1135-1200), bishop of Lincoln, was born of a noble family at Avalon, near Pontcharra in Burgundy, about 1135. At the age of eight he entered along with his widowed father the neighbouring priory of canons regular at Villarbenoit, where he was ordained deacon at nineteen. Appointed not long after prior of a dependent cell, Hugh was attracted from that position by the holy reputation of the monks of the Grande Chartreuse, whose house he finally entered despite an oath to the contrary which he had given his superior. There he remained about ten years, receiving priest’s orders, and rising to the important office of procurator, which brought him into contact with the outer world. The wide reputation for energy and tact which Hugh speedily attained penetrated to the ears of Henry II. of England, and induced that monarch to request the procurator’s assistance in establishing at Witham in Somersetshire the first English Carthusian monastery. Hugh reluctantly consented to go to England, where in a short time he succeeded in overcoming every obstacle, and in erecting and organizing the convent, of which he was appointed first prior. He speedily became prime favourite with Henry, who in 1186 procured his election to the see of Lincoln. Forced sorely against his will to accept this responsible post, Hugh nevertheless set himself actively and piously to discharge its important functions, although at least once a year he retired to live for a short period as a simple monk at Witham. He took little to do with political matters, maintaining as one of his chief principles that a churchman should hold no secular office. A sturdy upholder of what he believed to be right, he let neither royal nor ecclesiastical influence interfere with his conduct, but ...fearlessly resisted whatever seemed to him an infringement of the rights of his church or diocese. But with all his bluff firmness Hugh had a calm judgment and a ready tact, which almost invariably left him a better friend than before of those whom he opposed; and the astute Henry, the impetuous Richard, and the cunning John, so different in other points, agreed in respecting the bishop of Lincoln. St Hugh’s manners were a little apt to be boisterous at times, and his early monastic discipline had left him rigid and harsh; but, though an ascetic to himself, “so that his whole life was a continued martyrdom,” he was distinguished by a broad kindliness to others, so that even the Jews of Lincoln wept at his funeral. He had great skill in taming birds, and for some years had a pet swan, which occupies a prominent place in all histories and representations of the saint. In 1200 Bishop Hugh revisited his native country and his first convents, and on the return journey was seized with an illness, of which he died at London, on November 16, 1200. Twenty years later he was canonized.
The chief life of St Hugh is the Magna Vita S. Hugonis (MS. in the Bodleian Library), written by Adam, the saint’s private chaplain, of which a number of abridgments have been made at various dates. A Metrical Life of St Hugh of Avalon is preserved in two MSS. in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library. Both these Lives have been edited by the Rev. J. E. Dimock. The best modern source for information as to St Hugh and his time is Canon Perry’s Life of St Hugh of Avalon, &c., 1879.
HUGH of St Cher, Hugo (Ugo) de S. Caro or Carensis (c. 1200-1263), a learned compiler of the 13th century, was born at St Cher, a suburb of Vienne, Dauphiné, about the year 1200, became a student of theology and canon law in Paris, and in 1224 entered the Dominican cloister of St Jacob there (whence hé is sometimes designated as Hugo de S. Jacobo). After having taught theology for upwards of twenty years, in the course of which his learning was frequently appealed to by those in authority for the solution of difficult questions, he was in 1245 created cardinal of St Sabina by Pope Innocent IV He died at Orvieto in 1263.
His principal works are Correctorium Biblice, a revised text of the Vulgate, prepared about 1236, hitherto unprinted, but forming the basis of the Correctorium Biblice Sorbonicum; Postilla in universa Biblia juxta quadruplicem sensum, first printed in 1487 (Basel) and often since, as for example at Cologne in 1621 (8 vols, fol.); Specillum Ecclesiae, a manual for the priesthood (ed. prin., Lyons, 1554); and Sacrorum Bibliorum Concordantice, in the preparation of which he was assisted by the members of the community to which he belonged, hence it is sometimes known as Concordantioe S. Jacobi (Lyons, 1540; Basel, 1543). See Hist. Litt, de la France, vol. xix.
HUGH of St Victor, Hugo a S. Victore, sometimes also known as Hugh of Paris (c. 1097-1141), was born, probably in the neighbourhood of Ypres, about 1097, and is known to have received his early education in the cloister of Hamersleben near Halberstadt; in 1115 he removed for the further advancement of his studies to the abbey of St Victor, which had recently been founded by William of Champeaux, the preceptor of Abelard, in the neighbourhood of Paris. There the remainder of his life was spent in teaching or in studious retirement. He died in 1141.
The works of Hugh of St Victor, who was the intimate friend of St Bernard, share all the learning, acuteness, and mysticism of the theological school which then sought to neutralize the opinions and the influence of Abelard. Of chief importance are— Institutiones Monasticce, including the treatises De arca morali, De arca mystica, and De vanitate mundi ; De Sacramentis Fidei, on the mysteries of the faith, and thus a complete exposition of Catholic theology; and De Eruditione Didascalica, in six books, which earned for its compiler the title of magister or didascalus. It forms a sort of encyclopaedia of the sciences as then understood, viewed of course merely in their subordination to theology. In his treatment of Biblical introduction, the sharpness with which he separates the apocryphal from the canonical books has been noticed; but in doing so it is important also to recollect that he seems to place on a par with the New Testament the canons, the decretals, and the writings of the fathers. An Augustinian in spirit and in language, so as to deserve the titles Alter Augustinus and Lingua Augustini, by which he is frequently designated, Hugo was still more eminently the disciple of Anselm and Abelard; he, however, had a strongly marked individuality of his own, which appears in his somewhat fully elaborated theory of knowing and being. All the knowable he assigns to one or other of three spheres, that of intelligence, that of science, and that of logic. That of intelligence embraces both theory and practice. Under theory fall to be classed theology, mathematics (arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy), and physics; practice is equivalent to ethics. Science has to do with the practical arts and industries, while logic embraces grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. In correspondence to the trichotomous division of man, as made up of body, soul, and spirit, he speaks of a threefold eye, that of the body, that of reason, and that of contemplation. The last of these, by which God is discerned, has been totally destroyed by sin; the second has been much impaired. Faith now takes the place of contemplation; but by oratio and operatio it can attain to real convictions and genuine love. The doctrine of the Trinity he illustrates by the analogy of the human personality as spirit, wisdom, and love. The collected works have been printed at Paris in 1528, at Venice in 1588, at Mainz and Cologne in 1617, and at Rouen in 1648. They occupy three volumes (175-177) in Migne’s Patrologice Cursus Completus. See Hist. Litt, de la France, vol. xii.; Liebner, H. v. S. Victor, (1832); Görres, Die christliche Mystik ; and other works bearing on this general subject.
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