by John E. Lynch, CSP, PhD
edited by Stephen F. Brown, OFM
French Franciscan Vital Du Four was a counselor to two popes, Clement V and John XXII, and was a central figure in the poverty controversy of the early fourteenth century. Vital du Four (Bazas, 1260-Avignon, 1327) was a French Franciscan theologian and scholastic philosopher. He became Cardinal in 1312 and bishop of Albano in 1321. This book is principally concerned with the eight disputed questions - De cognitione - which were written at Toulouse between 1297 and 1300; during the time of the great poverty controversy. A number of Vital du Four's works were historically and erroneously attributed to John Duns Scotus. Writing in the period between Bonaventure and Duns Scotus, Vital du Four reflects the influence of Bonaventure and, in turn, influenced Scotus. In Vital du Four, one finds a Franciscan who - even before Scotus - was powerfully affected by the philosophy of Henry of Ghent. He accentuated the primacy of intuition and the importance of the individual in his writings which had a profound affect upon the history of philosophy and theology when they were articulated in the writings of a next-generation philosopher and Franciscan, William of Ockham.