Alexander of Hales

Alexander of Hales was so named either from his place of origin, said to be Hales Owen in Shropshire, England, or from his place of education, said to be the monastery of Hales in Gloucestershire. He was born shortly before 1186 of a well-to-do though not noble family. As a young man he went to Paris to study, and before 1210 he had become a Regent Master of Arts. At some time between 1210 and 1215, when he was between twenty-five and thirty years old, Alexander left the Faculty of Arts and, it seems, immediately entered the Faculty of Theology. There he passed through the prescribed stages until he became a Regent Master, perhaps about 1220 or 1221. In 1229, during the university disputes, he left Paris and went with one group of dissatisfied scholars to Angers. From there in August of 1230 he proceeded to Rome as member of a commission seeking to settle the university disputes; he remained in Rome until May, 1231. After a year's stay in England in 1231-1232, he returned to his teaching at Paris. In 1236 or early in 1237, when he was already at least fifty years old, Alexander caused a considerable stir by entering the Franciscan Order. At once he became Regent of the first Franciscan school at Paris, a post he seems to have retained until, shortly after taking part in the Council of Lyons, he died at Paris on August 21, 1245.

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