AEGIDIUS DE COLUMNA (Egidio Columna): A pupil of Thomas Aquinas and reputed author of the
bull Unam sanctam; b. at Rome 1245 (?); d. at Avignon 1316. He joined
the Augustinian eremite monks, studied at Paris, and taught there for many
years, being called Doctor fundatissimus. From 1292 to 1295 he was
general of his order. In 1296 he was made archbishop of Bourges, but continued
to reside in Rome. He defended the election of Boniface VIII. in his De
renuntiatione papae, showing that the abdication of Celestine V. was
not against the canon law, and followed the court to Avignon. His numerous
writings (mostly unpublished) deal with philosophy (commentaries on Aristotle),
exegesis (In Canticum Canticorum; In epistolem ad Romanos), and
dogmatics (In sententia Longobardi; Quodlibeta). A portion of his
work on ecclesiastical polity, De potestate ecclesiastica, was published
in the Journal de l'instruction piblique (Paris, 1858).
K. BENRATH.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. E. du Boulay, Historia universitatis Parisiensis,
iii, 671-672, Paris, 1666; W. Cave, Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum
litteraria, ii. 339-341, Oxford, 1743; J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca
Latina, i. 19-20, Florence, 1858; F. X. Kraus, Aegidius von Rom,
in Oesterreichische Vierteljahresschrift für katholische Theologie,
i. 1-33, Vienna, 1862; F. L[ajard], Gilles de Rome, religieux ,
Augustin, theologien, in Histoire litteraire de Ia France, xxx.
421-566, Paris, 1888.