Cardinal Robert Pullen: An English Theologian of the 12th Century

It has often been remarked that the twelfth century was an age of intellectual ferment. The observation is certainly true of the study of theology which, under the impulse of teachers such as Anselm of Canterbury, Anselm of Laon, Peter Abelard, Hugh of St. Victor, Gilbert Porreta. Peter Lombard and many others, made greater progress in fifty years than it had in the whole period since the death of St. Augustine. Among the early scholastic theologians the first English name of note is that of Robert Pullen, who taught at Oxford and Paris and was the first Englishman to became a Cardinal. In the following account of Pullen’s theology the author has made use chiefly of his most important theological work, the Libri Sententiarum VIII, but have also, where it appeared relevant, appealed to the unpublished sermons, and de contemptu Mundi.