Robert of Courcon (DE CURSONE, DE CURSIM, CURSUS, etc.), cardinal, b. at Kedleston England; d. at Damietta, 1218. After having studied at Oxford, Paris, and Rome, he became in 1211 Chancellor of the University of Paris; in 1212 he was made Cardinal of St. Stephen on the Caelian Hill; in 1213 he was appointed legate a latere to preach the crusade, and in 1215 was placed at the head of a commission to inquire into the errors prevalent at the University of Paris. He took an active part in the campaign against heresy in France, and accompanied the army of the Crusaders into Egypt as legate of Honorius III. He died during the siege of Damietta. He is the author of several works, including a “Summa” devoted to questions of canon law and ethics and dealing at length with the question of usury. His interference in the affairs of the University of Paris, in the midst of the confusion arising from the introduction of the Arabian translations of Aristotle, resulted in the proscription (1215) of the metaphysical as well as the physical treatises of the Stagyrite, together with the summaries thereof (Summae de eisdem). At the same time, his rescript (Denifle, “Chartul. Univ. Paris“, I, 78) renews the condemnation of the Pantheists, David of Dinant, and Amaury of Bene, but permits the use, as texts, of Aristotle‘s “Ethics” and logical treatises. The rescript also contains several enactments relating to academic discipline.
WILLIAM TURNER