John of Cornwall

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John of Cornwall, in Latin Johannes Cornubiensis or Johannes de Sancto Germano was a Christian scholar and teacher, who was living in Paris about 1176.

Little is known of his life. From his names, it is surmised that he was a native of St Germans in Cornwall. He studied with Peter Lombard in Paris, and wrote Eulogium ad Alexandrum Papam III, quod Christus sit aliquis homo, a treatise refuting Abelard's doctrine that the humanity of Jesus was only a garment clothing the Logos.

The Eulogium (dated 1176 or later) was printed by Edmond Martène in Thesaurus novus anecdotum (Paris, 1717), and by Jacques Paul Migne's in Patrologiae Latinae Cursus Completus (1844-1855), vol. CXCIX. Other books attributed to him are:

Apologia de Christi Incarnatione (disputed authorship; perhaps by Hugh of St. Victor).
Summa qualiter fiat Sacramentum Altaris per virtutem sanctae crucis et de septem canonibus vel ordinibus Missae. Migne, Patrologiae Latinae, vol. CLXXVII.
Merlini prophetia cum expositione. Magdalen College, Oxford (a poem).
De diuersa consuetudine legendi Sacram Scripturam. See Friedrich Stegmüller, Bibl. 4419; Richard Sharpe, Latin Writers, 229.

[edit] Homonyms

There was an archdeacon of Worcester called John of Cornwall around 1197, who probably was a different person. In the 14th century there were a John of Cornwall who wrote a Speculum Grammaticale, and a Benedictine monk John of St. Germans who wrote a Commentarius in Aristotelis libros duo analyticorum posteriorum (now at the Magdalen College, Oxford); it is not clear whether these were the same person. Jean de Cournouaille was a son of king Charles VIII of France who built the Chateau of Hénan in 1426.