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Hugo of Amiens, or of Rouen

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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a distinguished Roman Catholic divine, was born at Amiens, France, towards the close of the 11th century, and was educated at Laon under the celebrated Anseim. He entered the Benedictine monastery of Clugny, and became prior of the monastery of Limoges in 1113. On account of his great learning and uncommon talent he was transferred as prior to the monastery at Lewes, in England, and in 1125 was appointed abbot of Reading Abbey by Henry I, the founder. In 1129 Hugo was elected archbishop of Rouen, over which see he presided until his death, Nov. 11, 1164. He was quite prominent in the history of celibacy during his day. While archbishop of Rouen, he sought to convert an obscure sect in Brittany, in all likelihood a branch of the Petrobrussians, whose doctrines were "a protest against the overwhelming sacerdotalism of the period, by an elaborate denunciation of their tenets, among which he enumerates promiscuous licentiousness and disregard of clerical celibacy." Indeed, Hugo was distinguished among his contemporaries not only as a theologian, but also as a statesman. "It was he who, in 1139, at the Council of Winchester, saved king Stephen from excommunication by the English bishops." He wrote Dialogi de Summo Bono Libri 7 (published by Martene in his Thesaur. Anecdotum, 5, 895), a work of especial interest both to the theologian and the philosopher on account of the views which it sets forth on moral philosophy — De Haeresibus, printed by D'Achery as an appendix to the works of Guibert de Nogent, is a work leveled against the heretics of his day, and affording valuable materials on the history of the Church in the 12th century — De Fide Catholicae, containing an explication of the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer, published by Martene and Durand in their Thesaurmus Anecdotum, vol. 5, and in their l'eterum Scriptorum Collectio, vol. 9. See Schrö ckh Kirchengesch. 27, 409 sq.; Lea, Hist. of Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 372 sq.; Hoefer— Nouv. Biog. Gé neralé. 25, 439 sq.; Gorton, Biog Dic. s.v. — (J. H. W.)