175. Gilbert de la Porrée. -- GILBERT DE LA PORRÉE (Porretanus) was born at Poitiers in 1076, followed the lectures of Hilary of Poitiers and Anselm of Laon, and was intimately acquainted with Bernard of Chartres, having lectured himself for over twelve years at the famous schools there. Subsequently he became Scholasticus at Paris (1141), and John of Salisbury, who followed his lectures there, assures us of the high esteem in which he was held at the great metropolis of learning. In 1142 Gilbert was appointed to the see of Poitiers, where he died in 1154. He did not abandon his professorial work immediately on assuming the duties of the episcopate.^{1}

Among the numerous theological and philosophical works of Gilbert the most important are the Liber Sex Principiorum and two commentaries on the supposed Boëthian treatises De Trinitate and De Duabus Naturis in Christo. He is not the author of the book De Causis, attributed to him by Berthaud and Clerval.

{1} Among those who espoused Gilbert's solution of the Universals question were OTTO OF FREISING (1115-1158) and the anonymous author of the Liber de Vera Philosophia also NICHOLAS OF AMIENS, author of a summa against the Mahometans, De Arca Fidei, free from all trace of excessive realism. On Otto, cf. J. HASTAGEN, Otto von Freising als Geschichtsphilosoph und Kirchenpolitiker (Leipzig, 1900). The author examines the influences bearing on Otto's philosophy, pp. 6-22. Also J. SCHMIDLIN, Die Philosophie Ottos von Freising (Philos. Jahrb., 1905).