John of Segovia
Juan Alfonso de Segovia or John of Segovia (* um 1395 in Segovia, † May 14 1458 in Aiton, Savoy) campaigned as a Spanish theologian of the 15th century for the position of the Basel conciliarists and thus against the supremacy of the pope over the Council.
Life
Juan was born around 1395 in Segovia in Spain, and studied at the University of Salamanca Arts and Theology. After he had taken off his Master of Divinity in 1422, he soon rose to one of the most influential professors at the University of Salamanca. He represented these in the negotiation of their statutes in Rome. In 1432 he was sent by the University and King John II of Castile as their representative to the Council of Basel. There he proved to be a most capable defender of the rights of the council over the pope. In addition, he also defended the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, debated with the Orthodox Christians from Greece on the processio Spiritus sancti and with the Hussites on the communio sub specie utraque.
As a strong advocate of the conciliar movement, he first tried the conflict between Council and Pope Eugene IV, whom he had known in Florence about 1435, to calm down. But later he became one of the main supporters of the revolutionary faction of the Council. He was present when the Council was the pope as " insistent " designated ( 28th meeting, on 1 October 1437) and also when the Pope declared a heretic ( 33rd meeting, on 16 May 1439). In March 1439, Juan de Segovia represented the council in Mainz. After Pope Eugene IV had been dismissed by the council of his office, he was appointed to the committee, which should set the theologians who had to elect the new pope. And he was also one of 33 theologians on November 5, 1439 the Count Amadeus VIII " the Peaceable " of Savoy chose to historically recent so-called anti-pope Felix V.
For this Segovia appointed on October 12, 1440 cardinal. Segovia took Felix V. to the National Assembly of Bourges in the same year at the Imperial Diets in Mainz in 1441 and in Frankfurt 1442nd As the schism ended in 1449, he resigned from his cardinal office and was the new " common " Pope Nicholas V Titular of Caesarea, that is, without the task pane appointed. From Zurückgezwogenheit the Spanish monastery Ayton in Savoy Segovia written the majority of his writings preserved to this day, which he bequeathed to the library of the University of Salamanca. During these years he also corresponded with leading theologians and humanists of his time, among other Nicholas of Cusa, Jean Germain and Enea Silvio Piccolomini. Segovia died in Ayton in 1459th
Work and contribution to political theory
Segovia's most important work Historia generalis concilii Basiliensis is a comprehensive history of the Council of Basel. In this context are also a few writings in defense of the supremacy of a general council over the pope. His other works include a treatise on the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a confrontation with Islam based on the translation of the Qur'an by Robert of Ketton De gladio divini spiritus in corda mittendo Saraceno, the strong for a peaceful dialogue with Muslims advocates, and a defense of the " Filioque " against the Orthodox in De Sancti Spiritus PROcessu.
Segovia used traditional legal thinking models to prove that a single person, no matter how much he is able to outperform other individuals also to prudence and diligence, but not the entirety of which may be superior to him ruled as Emperor ( presidens ). Hence the Pope could not stand on the council.
Who becomes the leader of a crowd, " draws a public person to [ ..] Because he is two people, it is probably still a private person, due to a legal fiction but he is a public person. " One follows the commands of the ruler and his court judgments because of this fiction, and because this is in the common good. For the canonists and jurists of Roman law was the only person ficta support certain public rights. Segovia uses this legal fiction now for emphasizing a " ruler role that can rescind their support before another manifestation of the general will, the representative organ of the Council. " He saw the transition from the supremacy of the Pope to the supremacy of the Council, the now full judicial powers ( iurisdictio ), was also without and against the pope, granted, progress towards greater virtue.
The already to Segovia lifetime, by the feudal constitution fights erupting since the late Middle Ages, new problems facing the rule of justification, his work provides no suggestions. So had, despite the widespread use of his and other conciliar arguments in the 15th century, this hardly stands on the struggles of the 15th and 16th century.
Literal translation of the Qur'an
Together with the Muslim law and the Koran scholars YCA Gidelli, community leaders of the Muslim Mudejar church of Toledo, took Juan de Segovia from 1456, three years after the fall of Constantinople, a literal translation of the Qur'an. In the then three hundred years old Latin translation of Robert of Ketton Segovia translation errors and gaps were thrown open. In his translation Segovia did not want (more) interpretatio piously interpreted in the sense of Cusa pia, but intended to preserve the style of the Arabic original in Latin. The Koran was - and is still - because of the many ambiguities as untranslatable. Gidelli translated from Arabic into Spanish, Segovia from Spanish into Latin. To obtain the semantic word loyalty, Segovia, the philologist passed under the theologians - Reinhold F. sliding and Segovia himself in the preface - in places, the conclusions drawn from the Latin grammar syntactic boundaries. The trilingual work is considered - with the exception of Segovia sent to his friend Enea Silvio Piccolomini preface - to be lost. 2010 Bochum scientists published a newly discovered, long, handwritten marginalia Segovia (Sura 5.110-115 ).