HENRY OF BLOIS

henry of blois, bishop of winchester (1101-1171), was the son of stephen, count of blois, by adela, daughter of william i., and brother of king stephen. he was educated at cluny, and consistently exerted himself for the principles of cluniac reform. if these involved high claims of independence and power for the church, they also asserted a high standard of devotion and discipline. henry was brought to england by henry i. and made abbot of glastonbury. in 1129 he was given the bishopric of winchester and allowed to hold his abbey in conjunction with it. his hopes of the see of canterbury were disappointed, but he obtained in 1139 a legatine commission which gave him a higher rank than the primate. in fact as well as in theory he became the master of the church in england. he even contemplated the erection of a new province, with winchester as its centre, which was to be independent of canterbury. owing both to local and to general causes the power of the church in england has never been higher than in the reign of stephen (1135-1154), henry as its leader and a legate of the pope was the real "lord of england," as the chronicles call him. indeed, one of the ecclesiastical councils over which he presided formally declared that the election of the king in england was the special privilege of the clergy. stephen owed his crown to henry (1135), but they quarrelled when stephen refused to give henry the primacy; and the bishop took up the cause of roger of salisbury (1139). after the battle of lincoln (1141) henry declared for matilda; but finding his advice treated with contempt, rejoined his brother's side, and his successful defence of winchester against the empress (aug.-sept. 1141) was the turning-point of the civil war. the expiration of his legatine commission of 1144 deprived him of much of his power. he spent the rest of stephen's reign in trying to procure its renewal. but his efforts were unsuccessful, though he made a personal visit to rome. at the accession of henry ii. (1154) he retired from the world and spent the rest of his life in works of charity and penitence. he died in 1171. henry seems to have been a man of high character, great courage, resolution and ability. like most great bishops of his age he had a passion for architecture. he built, among other castles, that of farnham; and he began the hospital of st cross at winchester. authorities.--original: william of malmesbury, _de gestis regum_; the _gesta stephani_. modern: sir james ramsay, _foundations of england_, vol. ii.; kate norgate's _angevin kings_; kitchin's _winchester_. henry of ghent [henricus a gandavo] (c. 1217-1293), scholastic philosopher, known as "doctor solennis," was born in the district of mude, near ghent, and died at tournai (or paris). he is said to have belonged to an italian family named bonicolli, in flemish goethals, but the question of his name has been much discussed (see authorities below). he studied at ghent and then at cologne under albertus magnus. after obtaining the degree of doctor he returned to ghent, and is said to have been the first to lecture there publicly on philosophy and theology. attracted to paris by the fame of the university, he took part in the many disputes between the orders and the secular priests, and warmly defended the latter. a contemporary of aquinas, he opposed several of the dominant theories of the time, and united with the current aristotelian doctrines a strong infusion of platonism. he distinguished between knowledge of actual objects and the divine inspiration by which we cognize the being and existence of god. the first throws no light upon the second. individuals are constituted not by the material element but by their independent existence, i.e. ultimately by the fact that they are created as separate entities. universals must be distinguished according as they have reference to our minds or to the divine mind. in the divine intelligence exist exemplars or types of the genera and species of natural objects. on this subject henry is far from clear; but he defends plato against the current aristotelian criticism, and endeavours to show that the two views are in harmony. in psychology, his view of the intimate union of soul and body is remarkable. the body he regards as forming part of the substance of the soul, which through this union is more perfect and complete. works.--_quodlibeta theologica_ (paris, 1518; venice, 1608 and 1613); _summa theologiae_ (paris, 1520; ferrara, 1646); _de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_ (cologne, 1580). authorities.--f. huet's _recherches hist. et crit. ... de h. de g._ (paris, 1838) has been superseded by f. ehrle's monograph in _archiv fur lit. u. kirchengeschichte des mittelalters_, i. (1885); see also a. wauters and n. de pauw in the _bull. de la com. royale d'histoire de belgique_ (4th series, xiv., xv., xvi., 1887-1889); h. delehaye, _nouvelles recherches sur henri de gand_ (1886); c. werner, _heinrich von gent als reprasentant des christlichen platonismus im 13ten jahrh._ (vienna, 1878); a. stockl, _phil. d. mittelalters_, ii. 738-758; c. brechillet jourdain, _la philosophie de st thomas d'aquin_ (1858), ii. 29-46; alphonse le roy in _biographie nationale de belgique_, vii. (brussels, 1880); and article scholasticism.