Alexander of Hales, "Doctor Irrefragabilis," friar minor, was an English Scholastic at the University of Paris. He was born in Hales Owen, Shropshire, and died in Paris.

Alexander was a student at Paris about 1200 and received his M.A. before 1210. He joined the faculty of theology, becoming a master regent about 1220. After 1222 Alexander made an innovation in the university by using the Book of Sentences of Peter Lombard as the basic text for theological courses. His newly published Glossa (identified only in 1945) was the result of this work. At the height of his career, about 1236, he became a Franciscan, "edifying the world and giving new status to the Order" (in the words of Roger Bacon). After he was put in charge of the school at the Paris friary, he continued his teaching, especially through his Disputed Questions, and had some...