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William of Auxerre, c.1150-1231.
A Scholastic theologian at Paris, sometimes also called William of Beauvais. He is not to be confused with his contemporary, the similar-sounding William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris.
William of Auxerre was a master in Paris and archdeacon of Beauvais. In 1230, William of Auxerre was dispatched to Rome to Pope Gregory IX to reach a resolution between the city of Paris and the university after the student strike of 1229, that eventually resulted in the Parens scientiarum decree of 1231, establishing the independence of the university under papal protection.
In 1231, Gregory IX appointed William of Auxerre at the head of a commission of three theologians (the others were Simon of Authie and Stephen of Provins, both canons of Rheims) to examine and "correct" the corpus of Aristotle and his Arab commentators (which had been banned at the university of Paris since 1210) and extirpate dangerous passages. The work of the committee was never completed, as William died shortly after.
William of Auxerre's principal work, the Summa Aurea, was a commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, that was an important precursor to Aquinas. It contains an ample disquisition on usury and the natural law basis of economic matters.
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