ROSCOMMON
190
ROSCOMMON
personalitv is much discussed and who has not yet
been definitively identified. What constitutes the
"sententia vociim? To judge of it we have be-
sides the texts mentioned above which bear directly
on Roscelin an exposition of the treatise "De generi-
bus et speciebus" (.thirteenth cent.), wrongly attrib-
uted to Abelard by Victor Cousin. The "sententia
vocum" was one of the anti-Realist solutions of the
problem of universal accepted by the early Middle
Ages. Resuming Porphyr>-'s alternative (mox de
generibus et speciebus ilJud quidem sive subsistant
sive in nudis intellectibus posita sint) the first medie-
val philosophers regarded genera and species (sub-
stance, corporeity, animality, humanity) either as
things or as having no existence (see Nominalism).
and applying to this alternative a terminologj- of
Boethius.* the)' derived thence either res (things) or
voces (.words).' To the Nominalists universals were
"voces", which means: (1) above all that universals
are not "res", that is that only the individual exists:
"nam cum habeat eorum sententia nihil esse prseter
indi%-iduum . . ." (De gener. et spec, 524).
Nominalism was essentially anti-Realist. (2) that
universals are merely words, "flatus vocis", e. g.,
the word "homo", di'S'isible into syllables, con-
sonants, and vowels. "Fuit autem, nemini magistri
nostri RosceUini tam insana sententia ut nullam rem
partibus constare vellet, sed sicut solis vocibus
species, ita et partes ascridebat" (Abelard, "Liber
divisionum", ed. Cousin, 471). "Alius ergo con-
sistit in vocibus, licet haec opinio cum Rocelino suo
fere omnino evanuerit" (John of Salisbury,
"Metalog.", II, 17). The universal is reduced to
an emission of sound (flatus vocis), in conformity with
Boethius's definition: "Nihil enim aliud est prolatio
(vocis) quam aeris plectro Unguae percussio". Ros-
celin's universal corresponds to what is now called
the "universale in voce" in opposition to "universale
in re" and "universale in intellectu".
But this theor>' of Roscelin's had no connexion with the abstract concept of genus and species. He did not touch on this question. It is certain that he did not deny the existence or possibility of these concepts, and he was therefore not a Nominalist in the fashion of Taine or in the sense in which Nominal- ism is at present understood. That is why, in ref- erence to the modern sense of the word, we have called it a pseudo-Nominalism. John of Salisbury, speaking of "nominalis secta" (Metalog., II, 10) gives it quite another meaning. So Roscelin's rudimentar)', even childish, solution does not com- promise the value of universal concepts and may be called a stage in the development of moderate Reahsm.
Roscelin was also taken to task by St. Anselm and Abelard for the less clear idea which he gave of the whole and of composite substance. According to St. Anselm he maintained that colour does not exist independently of the horse which serves as its sup- prjrt and that the wisdom of the soul is not outside of the soul which is wise (De fide trinit., 2). He denies to the whole, such as house, man, real exis- tf?nce of its parts. The word alone had parts, "ita divinam paginam pcrvertit, ut eo loco quo Dominus part^-m pisois assi comedisse partem hujus vocis, qua- est pi.scis assi, non partem rei intelligere cogatur" (Oju.sin, "P. Aba.'lardi opera", II. 151). Roscelin was not without his supporters; among them was his ront<^'mporary Raimbert of Lille, and what the monk IK'-riman relat/;s of his doctrine agrees with the 8tat<-ments of the master of Compiegne. Universal Bubstanr-es, says Hi'iriman, are but a breath, which means "eos de sapientium numero merito esse ex- Hufflandos". He merely comments on the saying of An.'W'lm charact*!rized by the same jesting tone: "a spiritualium quacstionum disputatione sunt exsufflandi" (P. L., 256a), and says that to under-
stand the windy loquacity of Raimbert of Lille one
has but to breathe into his hand (manuque ori
admota exsufilans; "Mon. Germ. Hist.", XIV, 275).
II. Tritheism of Roscelin. — Roscelin considered
the three Divine Persons as three independent beings,
hke three angels; if usage permitted, he added, it
might truly be said that there are three Gods. Other-
wise, he continued, God the Father and God the Holy
Ghost would have become incarnate with God the
Son. To retain the appearance of dogma he admit-
ted that the three DiAnne Persons had but one will
and power [Audio . . . quod Roscelinus clericus
dicit in tres personas esse tres res ab invicem separa-
tas, sicut sunt tres angeli, ita tamen ut una sit
voluntas et potestas aut Patrem et Spiritum sanctum
esse incarnatum; et tres deos vere posse dici si usus
admitteret (letter of St. Anselm to Foulques)]. This
characteristic Tritheism, which St. Anselm and
Abelard agreed in refuting even after its author's
conversion, seems an indisputable application of
Roscehn's anti-Realism. He argues that if the three
Divine Persons form but one God all three have become incarnate, which is inadmissible. There are
therefore three Divine substances, three Gods, as
there are three angels, because each substance con-
stitutes an individual, which is the fundamental
assertion of anti-Realism. The ideas of the theo-
logian are closely linked with those of the philosopher.
Roscelin's letter to Abelard has been re-edited by Reiners, Der Numinalismiis in der Friihscholastik in Bcilrage zur Gesch. der Phil, der Mittelalt. (Munster, 1910); De Wulf, Hist, of Medieval Phil. (New York, 1909), 157-60; Tatlor, The Mediaeval Mind (London, 1911), I, 303; II, 339; Barach, Zur Gesch. des Nominal, tor Roscelin (Vienna, 1866) ; Picavet, Roscelin, phil. et theologien (Paris, 1911); Reiners, op. cit.; Adlhoch, Roscelin und S. Anselm in Philos. Jahrbuch, XX (1907).
M. De Wulf.
Roscommon, capital of County Roscommon, Ire- land, owes origin and name to a monastery founded by St. Coman in the first half of the eighth century on a "ros" or wooded point amidst marshes. Ware and his copiers make Coman author of a monastic rule observed throughout three-fourths of Connaught; but this statement is wrongly deduced from annalis- tic records of the collection of dues by St. Coman's successors, under the title of "Lex Comani", from the Teora Connachta, tribes occupying a portion of the province. The records indicate, indeed, that with support from the King of Connaught St. Coman's foundation had some pre-eminence, if not jurisdic- tion. He himself may have been, as Colgan believed, a bishop; some of his earliest successors certainly were. Whilst the tribal system prevailed the bishops at Roscommon, as pastors over the patri- monial territory of the provincial king, would hold in the Church a position analogous to his in the state, and through this analogy would be the "high" or "noble bishops of the Connaughtmen". Roscom- mon became a seat of learning as well as of authority, and had scholars and scribes celebrated in the na- tional annals. From the middle of the tenth cen- tury, if not earlier, it was closely united with Clonmac- noise and shared with that great school the fame of Cormac O'Cillene and Tighernach O'Braoin, the annalist. It shared also in the prosperity of the Connaught kings, after they had risen to the mon- archy of Ireland. 'I'oirdhealbhach O'Conchubhair's son, Maol-Iosa, was Abbot of Roscommon, and he himself was a liberal benefactor; he bestowcfl on the monastery a piece of the true cross brought liim from Rome in 1123, and had it enshrined in the famous Bachal Buidhe, lately named the Cross of Cong, a masterpiece of design and workmanship, now one of the greatest treasures in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. When the Irish monasteries exchangefl their primitive rules for those of the great orders rtf the Church, the monks at Ros- common became Augustinian canons, but remained
