NICOLAUS

TAURELLUS (1547-1606)  , German philosopher and theologian, was born at Mompelgard . He read theology at Tubingen and medicine at Basel, where he lectured on physical science . He subsequently became professor of medicine at Altdorf, where he died in 1606 . He attacked the dominant Aristotelianism of the time, and endeavoured to construct a philosophy which should harmonize faith and knowledge, and bridge over the chasm made by the first Renaissance writers who followed Pomponazzi . Scholasticism he condemned on account of its unquestioning submission to Aristotle . Taurellus maintained the necessity of going back to Christianity itself, as at once the superstructure and the justification of philosophy . His chief works were Philosophiae Triumphus (1573) ; Synopsis Metaphysicae Aristotelis (1596); De Rerum Aeternitate (1604); and a treatise written in criticism of Caesalpinus entitled Caesae Alpes (1597) . See Schmid-Schwarzenburg, Nicolaus Taurellus (186o and 1864) .