Godfrey of Fontaines (Latin: Godefridus de Fontibus, born sometime before 1250, died 29 October 1306 or 1309), was a scholastic philosopher and theologian who was designated by the title Doctor Venerandus.
Aquinas' teaching was perhaps the strongest influence on Godfrey's own thought, though he differed on issues such as the principle of individuation, and the distinction between essence and existence in material things.
[1] A notebook from his student years has been dated around 1271 to 1274 demonstrating his familiarity with views proposed by Siger of Brabant and Boethius of Dacia, leading representatives of the radical Aristotelian movement in the Arts faculty at the time.
These were week-long sessions held before Christmas and Easter in which participating Masters were required to answer questions chosen by their students.
These and other writings show him to have been not merely a distinguished theologian and philosopher but also a canonist, jurist, moralist and conversationalist, who took an active part in the various ecclesiastical, doctrinal, and disciplinary disputes that stirred Paris during period.
In the Quodlibetal VIII, Godfrey argues against the Franciscan Christian order and lays an early groundwork of political philosophy where he discusses the ideas of natural rights.
As explained by Dumont, the intension and the remission of forms concern the problem of a change of degree within a given kind of quality like the shading of a color, adjustment of heat or even the altering of moral or cognitive habits.
That line of thought differs drastically from other thinkers around then like Thomas Aquinas and Henry of Ghent, who held that there was a variation of specific forms which are divisible extensions.
Godfrey's XIV Quodlibeta were extensively studied and multiplied in manuscript form in the medieval schools but were published for the first time only in the early 20th century.
Many significant writers lived during this period, but for the most part until the 20th century, only Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus received any recognition.