HONORIUS AUGUSTODUNENSIS

A theologian, philosopher, and encyclopedic writer who lived in the first half of the twelfth century. Honorius has been correctly described as one of the most mysterious personages in all the medieval period. All that can be stated with certainty is that he flourished between the years 1106 and 1135, that he spent the greater part of that time in Southern Germany, and that he wrote a very large number of works, most of which have come down to us. He is generally said to have been a native of Autun in Burgundy, and in one of his works (De Luminaribus Ecclesiæ) he styles himself "priest and head of the school (scholasticus) of Autun". On the other hand, his references to contemporary events in Germany, the frequency of German glosses in his writings, and the possibility of reading "Augustodunensis" to mean "a native of Augst" (near Basle) or "of Augsburg" (in Swabia), have induced some historians to conclude that he was a German.