§ 1. THE PRECURSORS.

242. Who are the Precursors? -- The title of precursor, in the doctrinal sense in which we use it, may be fitly applied to Gundissalinus, whose philosophy is a connecting-link between the Arabian and the scholastic philosophies; and to William of Auvergne, the first scholastic, we may say, to avail himself, in his writings, of the new ideas. In both these authors there are frequent incoherences and unsuccessful attempts at compromise between irreconcilable theories. A place of minor importance belongs to Alfred of Sereshel.