Stephen of Tournai

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

Stephen of Tournai, canonist, born at Orléans, 1128; died at Tournai, September, 1203. He entered the Order of the Canons Regular at Saint-Euverte in Orléans about 1150, then studied canon and Roman law at Bologna, returning to his monastery in 1160. He was elected abbot of Saint-Euverte in 1167 and of Sainte-Geneviève at Paris in 1177. The latter monastery he almost entirely rebuilt, establishing a monastic school in connexion with it. In 1192 he became Bishop of Tournai, but was greatly hampered in the exercise of his episcopal functions by the opposition of the people as well as by the interdict placed on France on account of the divorce proceedings of Philip II. He is the author of "Summa in decretum Gratiani" (1159), which is to a great extent based on the similar works of Paucapalea, Rufinus, and Rolandus (Alexander III). It was first edited by Schulte (Giessen, 1891). His letters, edited by Molinet (Paris, 1679), are printed in P. L., CXI, 309-625.

BERNOIS, Etienne de Tournai, 1128-1203 (Orléans, 1906); SCHULTE in the introduction to his edition of the Summa; WAUTERS in Biog. belgique, VI (Brussels, 1878), 719-25.

MICHAEL OTT.