DURAND

durand, guillaume (d. 1334), french scholastic theologian, known also by the latin form of his name as durandus of st pourcain (_de sancto porciano_), and as _doctor resolutissimus_, was born at st pourcain-sur-sioule in the bourbonnois. he entered the dominican order at clermont, and in 1313 was made a doctor in paris, where he taught till pope john xxii. called him to avignon as master of the sacred palace, i.e. theological adviser and preacher to the pope. he subsequently became bishop of limoux (1317), of le puy (1318) and of meaux (1326). he composed a commentary on the sentences of peter lombard, in which, breaking with the realism of st thomas aquinas, he anticipated the _terminism_ of william of occam, and gave up the attempt to show that dogmas can be demonstrated by reason. in the question of the beatific vision, arising out of opinions promulgated by john xxii. (q.v.), he sided with thomas walleis, armand de bellovisu and the doctors of the faculty of theology in paris against the pope, and composed his _de statu animarum post separationem a corpore_. mention should also be made of his _de origine jurisdictionum quibus populus regitur, sive de jurisdictione ecclesiastica et de legibus_. see b. haureau, _histoire de la philosophie scolastique_ (2nd ed., paris, 1872); c. werner, _die scholastik des spateren mittelalters_, vol. ii. (vienna, 1883); h.s. denifle, in _archiv f. litteratur und kirchengeschichte_, ii. (1886); u. chevalier, _rep. des sources hist. du moyen age_, s.v. durand de st pourcain.