Page "Alexander of Hales" Paragraph 11

At the beginning of 1236, he entered the Franciscan order ( he was at least 50 ) and was the first Franciscan to hold a chair at the University of Paris.

He held this post until shortly before his death in Paris in 1245.

When he became a Franciscan and thus created a formal Franciscan school of theology at Paris, it was soon clear that his students lacked some of the basic tools for the discipline.

Alexander responded by beginning a Summa theologiae that is now known as the Summa fratris Alexandri.

Alexander drew mainly from his own disputations, but also selected ideas, arguments and sources from his contemporaries.

It treats in its first part the doctrines of God and his attributes ; in its second, those of creation and sin ; in its third, those of redemption and atonement ; and, in its fourth and last, those of the sacraments.

This massive text, which Roger Bacon would later sarcastically describe as weighing as much as a horse, was unfinished at his death ; his students, William of Middleton and John of Rupella, were charged with its completion.

It was certainly read by the Franciscans at Paris, including Bonaventure.