Medieval Theologians
All categories › Church History › Medieval Church
Anselm of Canterbury
The Benedictine archbishop who sought “faith seeking understanding” and taught that Christ’s death made satisfaction to God.
Boethius
The Roman statesman and philosopher, “last of the Romans, first of the scholastics,” who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy in prison.
Gottschalk of Orbais
The Saxon monk who revived Augustine’s doctrine of predestination and died imprisoned for it.
John Duns Scotus
The Franciscan “subtle doctor” who taught the primacy of God’s will and championed the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
Maximus the Confessor
The monk who suffered mutilation and exile for confessing that Christ has a true human will as well as a divine one.
Paschasius Radbertus
The Carolingian abbot who wrote the first doctrinal book on the Eucharist and taught that the bread becomes the very flesh born of Mary.
Peter Abelard
The brilliant Paris teacher who pioneered scholastic method and taught the moral influence theory of the atonement.
Peter Lombard
The author of the Sentences, the textbook of medieval theology, who fixed the number of the sacraments at seven.
Ratramnus of Corbie
The Carolingian monk who answered Radbertus, teaching with Augustine that Christ is present in the Supper spiritually.
Thomas Aquinas
The greatest theologian of the Middle Ages, whose synthesis of Aristotle and Christian doctrine became Rome’s official theology.
William of Ockham
The English Franciscan whose nominalism shaped the late medieval schools and who held Scripture to be the only infallible authority.
