SOURCE: Maurer, Armand. “Siger of Brabant on Fables and Falsehoods in Religion Mediaeval Studies.” Mediaeval Studies 43 (1981): 515-30.

In the following essay, Maurer discusses Siger's understanding of the role of fables in philosophy and religion.

While Siger of Brabant was teaching philosophy at the University of Paris in the early 1270's, it was obligatory for him to lecture on the Metaphysics of Aristotle. Reading and commenting on book 2, he had to deal with a subject warmly debated since antiquity by both pagan and Christian writers—the role of fables or myths in religion and philosophy.¹ His comments on this topic are of interest not only for the general interpretation of his views on the relation between philosophy and religion, but also as a possible background for several propositions condemned by the bishop of Paris in 1277 as attacking the Christian religion and theology on the ground that they contain fables...