Jocelin of Soissons[1] (died 24 October 1152) was a French theologian, a philosophical opponent of Peter Abelard. He became bishop of Soissons, and is known also as a composer, with two pieces in the Codex Calixtinus. He was teaching at the Paris cathedral school in the early 1110s.[2]
He began work on the present Soissons Cathedral; it only took shape in the 1190s.[3]
Abbot Suger addressed his history of Louis the Fat to him.[4] In the papal politics of the late 1120s and 1130s, Suger counted Jocelin, at Soissons from 1126, as a supporter of Pope Innocent II against antipope Anacletus II, along with other bishops of northern France.[5][6]
As bishop he founded Longpont Abbey[7] in 1131, a Cistercian monastery supported by Bernard of Clairvaux;[8] Bernard was a correspondent.[9][10] He favoured the Knights Templars, having participated in the Council of Troyes that gave them full standing.[11] He was present at the 1146 Council of Arras, a probable occasion for the planning of the Second Crusade.[12]
The De generibus et speciebus has been attributed to him.[13] Now scholars call its author Pseudo-Joscelin.[14] It may be by a student of his.[2] The Metalogicus of John of Salisbury attributed to him the view that universals exist only in the collection, not the individuals.[15][16][17]