Albertus Magnus (before 1200–1280)

Albertus Magnus, also known as Saint Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, was a Dominican friar who achieved fame for his comprehensive knowledge and advocacy for the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. He is considered to be the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. He was the first medieval scholar to apply Aristotle's philosophy to Christian thought at the time. Catholicism honors him as a Doctor of the Church, one of only 33 men and women with that honor.

…. Among the last of his labours was the defence of the orthodoxy of his former pupil, Thomas Aquinas, whose death in 1274 grieved Albertus.

… Albertus is frequently mentioned by Dante, who made his doctrine of free will the basis of his ethical system. In his Divine Comedy, Dante places Albertus with his pupil Thomas Aquinas among the great lovers of wisdom (Spiriti Sapienti) in the Heaven of the Sun.

From Wikipedia 

…Albertus was both a student and a teacher of alchemy and chemistry. He isolated arsenic in 1250, the first element to be isolated since antiquity and the first with a known discoverer. He was alleged to be a magician, since he was repeatedly charged by some of his unfriendly contemporaries with communing with the devil, practicing the craft of magic, and with the making of a demonic automata able to speak. He was also one of the alchemists reputed to have succeeded in discovering the Philosopher's Stone.

See also:  
New Advent  
Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy  

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Please report any failed links to Richard. Thanks.