Gregory of Rimini

d.1358. Augustinian philosopher. Born at Rimini, he joined the Augustinian Hermits, studied in Italy, Paris, and England, and subsequently taught at Paris, Bologna, Padua, and Perugia. In 1340 he lectured on The Sentences in Paris, and in 1345 was made a doctor of the Sorbonne by Clement VI. He was elected vicar general of his order in 1357 and spent the last eighteen months of his life in Vienna. Considered by his contemporaries as one of the most subtle of philosophers, he furthered the Nominalist teaching of William of Ockham, though he was less skeptical. He held it was possible to demonstrate philosophically the spirituality of the soul, and he rebutted the Ockhamist assertion that God could cause a man to sin. He defended Augustinianism vigorously, teaching that works done without grace are sinful, and that unbaptized infants are damned. This last earned him the nickname tortor infantium (“infant torturer”).