CHAMPEAUX, WILLIAM OF (c. 1070-1121), French Scholastic, was born at Champeaux near Melun. After studying under Anselm of Laon and Roscelin, he taught in the cathedral school of Paris, where he opposed Roscelin and had Abelard as a pupil. In 1103 he became a canon of Notre Dame, but in 1108 retired to the abbey of St. Victor, where he resumed his lectures. He afterwards became bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne, and took part in the dispute concerning investitures as a supporter of Calixtus II. His theological works are the De Eucharistia (inserted by Jean Mabillon in his edition of the works of St. Bernard), and the De Origine Anirnae (in E. Martene's Anecd. nov. 1717 vol. v.) in which he upholds the theory of Creatianism (that a soul is specially created for each human being). In his De Generibus et Speciebus (printed by V. Cousin in Ouvrages inedits d' Abelard, 1836), William shows himself an excessive realist by declaring that the universal is the whole reality of the individual, but in his later Sententiae (extracts published in G. Lefevre : Les variations de G. de Champeaux, Lille, 1898), he adopts a moderate realism.
For his views and controversies with Abelard see SCHOLASTICISM and