Chapter II (2)

A universal chronicle, ‘_Flores temporum seu chronicon universale ab
urbe condita ad annum 1349_,’ is sometimes attributed to him; Leland,
e.g. says: ‘Catalogus quoque Franciscanorum scriptorum Chronicorum
Alaunovicani meminit’ (Tanner, Bibl. 515). See also MS. Arundel 371
(sec. xv). This is the chronicle of Hermann Gigas based on the
well-known chronicle of Martinus Polonus (printed 1750). In the
preface Hermann says that he has followed, ‘inter modernos, Martinum
Romane sedis penitenciarium (?) de ordine fratrum predicatorum’ (Ar.
MS. 371, f. 2).

Several philosophical treatises by _Martinus Anglicus_ are extant in
MS. Vienna:--Bibl. Palat. 4698 (sec. xiv).

33. =Robert of Beverley.=

34. =Richard de Coniton= or =Conyngton= (co. Cambridge or Huntingdon) was at Oxford in 1300 and was one of the friars to whom the Bishop of Lincoln refused the right to hear confessions[1113]. He became D.D. and lecturer to the Franciscans between 1300 and 1310. He was afterwards thirty-first master of the Minorites at Cambridge[1114]. He was sixteenth Provincial of England, and held the office in 1310[1115]. About this time the Order was disturbed by the violent antagonism of the two parties within it--the ‘Community,’ the lax or moderate party which comprised the majority and included the official heads of the Order, and the strict or ‘Spiritual’ party. A papal investigation into the causes of dispute and into the observance of Rule by the Order was instituted, and the leaders of each party summoned to the Curia. Richard Conyngton as Provincial was the official representative of the English Franciscans at Avignon and Vienne (1301-1313)[1116]. He was buried at Cambridge[1117].

He is said by Leland and Bale to have written a treatise _De Christi Dominio_ against Ockham in defence of the papal authority[1118].

Wadding states that he had seen Richard’s _Commentary on the Sentences_ in the Vatican[1119]. Bale mentions his exposition on the seven penitential psalms, _ex monasterio Nordovicensi_[1120].

_Tractatus Magistri Richardi Conygton Ministri Angliae de paupertate contra opiniones Fratris Petri Joannis (Olivi)._ _Inc._ ‘Beatus qui intelligit super egenum et pauperem. Ps. Praecedit actus meritorius.’

MS. Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. XXXVI, Dext.
Cod. xii (sec. xiv _exeuntis_).

35. =Thomas of Pontefract= was at Oxford in 1300; when the bishop of Lincoln refused to grant him license to hear confessions. He became D.D. and lecturer in theology some years after this. In July 1311 he was one of the inquisitors appointed to extort confession of heresy from twenty-four Templars in the Province of York[1121].

36. =Peter de Sutton=; ‘jacet Stanfordiae,’ i.e. Stamford, co. Lincoln[1122].

37. =Ralph of Lockysley=[1123] or =Lockeleye=[1124] was regent master at Oxford about 1310. He was buried at Worcester[1125]. According to Bale (I, 366) he wrote _De paupertate evangelica_, &c.

38. =William of Schyrbourne= (1312) was at Oxford in 1300; he was one of the friars presented by the Provincial for license to hear confessions, and rejected by the bishop of Lincoln[1126]. He was master of the Friars Minors in 1312, and in this capacity gave some support to the Dominicans in their controversy with the University[1127].

Leland says: ‘Ejus extant _Quodlibeta Theologica_, lib. i.’ (?)[1128].

39. =William of Nottingham= is confounded with the fourth Provincial Minister by Wadding, Bale, Pits, and the Register of Friars Minors of London[1129]. In a work attributed to him, but really composed by his namesake, occurs the following note, in a hand of the fifteenth century[1130]--

‘This Notyngham was secular canon and precentor of the Church of York’
(and in another hand), ‘afterwards he became a friar of the order of
St. Francis.’

In the absence of any confirmatory evidence, no weight can be attached to this statement. No William of Nottingham occurs in Le Neve’s _Fasti_. At the beginning of the fifteenth century a John of Nottingham held two prebends and was treasurer of York: and he may be the person referred to in the first part of the note; it is worthy of remark that the MS. originally came from York. William of Nottingham must have been reader to the Franciscans soon after 1312. While regent in theology at Oxford he was largely occupied in transcribing MSS., especially the works of Nicholas de Gorham, the expenses being defrayed by his brother _Dominus_ Hugh of Nottingham[1131]. He succeeded Richard Conyngton as seventeenth Provincial Minister[1132]. In 1322 he was at the General Chapter of Perugia, and, with the other ministers, signed the famous letter in which the Franciscans declared that the doctrine _De paupertate Christi_ was not heretical but sane and catholic; this was the beginning of the revolt of the whole Order (as distinguished from the Spirituals) against John XXII[1133]. According to Bale he died Oct. 5, 1336[1134]. He was buried at Leicester[1135].

Bale ascribes to him _Determinatio pro lege Christianorum_, lib. i. _Inc._ ‘Numquid deus posset revelare aliquam legem.’

‘Ex Redingensi Minoritarum cenobio.’ (MS. Seld. sup. 64, f. 215.)

40. =John de Wylton= lectured at Oxford in 1314: in February of that year he appears, as representative of the Minorites, in a list of twelve regent masters in theology (i.e. the theological faculty for the time being), who condemned as heretical eight articles, chiefly concerning the nature of the Trinity, in the convent of the Austin Friars[1136]. Wood[1137], Bale[1138], and Tanner[1139], call him an Austin Friar. Bale states that he studied and lectured as master at Paris, and says that John Baconthorpe, in his commentaries on Books I and II of the Sentences, speaks of him with high praise[1140]. His works seem to have perished[1141].

41. =John de Crombe= (Cott. MS.) or =Crombre= (Phil. MS.) was perhaps a native of Combs in Suffolk: he was buried at Oxford[1142].

_Compendium theologicae veritatis per fratrem Johannem de Combis_, lib. vii. _Inc._ ‘Veritatis theologie cum superni.’

MS. Cambridge:--Caius Coll. 193.

Anonymous in MSS. Charleville 19 (written A. D. 1337), and Metz 448
(sec. xv): generally ascribed to Albertus Magnus and printed at the
end of tom. xiii. of his works, Lyons 1651.

42. =William of Alnwick= is possibly identical with the friar called Roger of Alnwick in the list of Oxford Franciscans presented to the bishop of Lincoln in 1300[1143]. After lecturing at Oxford (c. 1315-1320?), he was sent to the University of Naples, as Doctor of Theology[1144]. He was present at the General Chapter of Perugia in 1322, and joined with the other leading men in the Order in declaring that the doctrine of Evangelical Poverty was not heretical[1145]. In 1330 he was made bishop of Giuvenazzo near Bari[1146]. He is said to have died at Avignon in 1332[1147]. Bartholomew of Pisa mentions him among the famous Franciscan theologians of the English nation[1148]; William Woodford places him among

‘inceptores ordinis Minorum qui egregie scripserunt super
sententias[1149].’

_Questiones Almoich super primum Sententiarum._

_Questiones Almoich in 1 et 2 Sententiarum_[1150].

MSS. Padua:--Bibl. S. Anton. (Tomasin, p. 61 b, 62 b.)

Cf. MS. Ball. Coll. 208 (sec. xiv), an abridgment of the commentary of
Duns Scotus on the 2nd book of the Sentences by ‘Master William of
Alnwick, Friar Minor.’

43. =William Herberd= or =Herbert=, if we may credit the Lanercost Chronicle, which is usually trustworthy at this period, was at Paris in 1290[1151]. From his place in the list of masters, it might be inferred that he lectured at Oxford about 1315-1320. But if the following works ascribed to him are genuine, he must have flourished not much later than 1250-60. They are preserved in a fourteenth-century MS. formerly in the library of Henry Farmer of Tusmor, Oxon, now in the Phillipps Library at Thirlestaine House[1152].

Sermo Fratris Willielmi Herebert in Ecclesia B. Mariae Virginis Oxon;
in haec verba: ‘Dixit mater Ihu ad eum, Vinum non habent.’

Sermo ejusdem Fratris in Ecclesia B. Mariae Oxon. in translatione S.
Edmundi Archiepiscopi in haec verba: ‘Homo quidam erat dives et
induebatur purpura,’ etc.

(St. Edmund was translated in 1247; the words however must mean _in
festo translationis_, i.e. June 9th.)

Ejusdem Fratris Epistolae summo Pontifici, Episcopo Coventrensi et
Lichfeldensi (Roger of Wesham?), Symoni de Montfort, etc.[1153]

Historica quaedam de Papis Romanis (_anon._).

Tractatus de Veneno et Antidotis (_anon._).

Hymns in old English[1154], quibus haec notula adjicitur: ‘Istos
Hympnos et Antiphonas transtulit in Anglicum non semper de verbo in
verbum, sed frequenter sensum aut non multum declinando, et in manu
sua scripsit frater Willielmus Herebert; qui usum horum autem
habuerit, oret pro anima dicti Patris.’

William Herbert was buried at Hereford, which was probably his native convent[1155].

44. =Thomas of St. Dunstan= (Kent?).

45. =John of Reading= (de Radingia) was buried at Avignon. He had probably gone to the papal curia in connexion with the revolt of Michael de Cesena and William of Ockham[1156].

Cf. MS. Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. XXXV,
Dext. Cod. xi, _Primus Fratris Joannis de Padingia (= Radingia?),
S.T.D. ord. Min. (super sententias?)_.

46. =John of Thornton=; the name is uncertain; it may be Jornton; the Phillipps MS. reads Zortone.

47. =Richard of Drayton=, was buried at Shrewsbury[1157].

48. =Robert of Leicester= seems to have been a protégé of Richard Swinfeld, bishop of Hereford, to whom he dedicated his first extant work in 1294[1158]. He was S.T.P. and in residence at Oxford in 1325, and probably lecturer to the friars about the same time. In this year he was associated with Nicholas de Tyngewick, M.D. and S.T.B. as ‘_Magister Extraneus_’ of Balliol College[1159]. The two were called upon to decide whether the statutes of the College allowed the members to attend lectures in any faculty except that of Arts, and ordained ‘in the presence of the whole community’ that this was not permissible. Among those present in the Hall of Balliol when the decision was proclaimed was Richard Fitzralph, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, the great opponent of the Mendicant Orders[1160]. Bale and Pits say that Robert died at Lichfield in 1348; ‘but,’ adds Wood, ‘I suppose ’twas sooner.’

_De compoto Hebreorum aptato ad Kalendarium_, four parts with prologue; composed A. D. 1294. _Inc. prol._ ‘Operis injuncti novitatem, pater meritis insignissime, magister et domine R. Dei gratia Herfordensis antistes ecclesie.’

_Compotus Hebreorum purus._ _Inc._ ‘Prima earum est a creacione mundi.’

_Commentariolus supra tabulas in tractatu primo supra recensito descriptas_ (or, _De ratione temporum_), written in 1295. _Inc._ ‘Ad planiorem et pleniorem prescripti tractatus intelligenciam.’

These three works are contained in MS. Bodl. Digby 212 (sec. xiv).

_Distinctiones._

MS. Cambridge:--Pembroke Coll. 220, § 1; ‘Enchiridion poenitentiale
... ex distinctionibus ... Rob. de Leycester (aliorumque).’

_De paupertate Christi._

Attributed to him by Leland[1161].

49. =Walter de Foxisley=, or =Ffoxle= in Phillipps MS. (Norfolk or Wilts?).

50. =Henry Cruche.= A sermon by ‘H. de Cruce, Minor,’ is in Merton Coll. MS. No. 248, f. 170. This name is omitted in the list given in the Phillipps MS.

51. =John de Ratforde= (cf. 63rd master).

See MS. Bodl. Digby 216, f. 40, containing three theological questions
to which the name ‘Ratforde’ is prefixed; the MS. dates from the
fourteenth century: the questions are: ‘_an quilibet adultus teneatur
laudare Deum; utrum ex sui meriti vel demeriti circumstantiis juste
debeat augeri vel minui pena; utrum ad omnem actum creature rationalis
concurrat necessario Dei efficientia specialis._’

52. =John de Preston=[1162].

53. =Walter de Chauton=[1163] is no doubt identical with =Walter de Chatton=, who with the warden was summoned to appear in the Mayor’s Court, to answer a charge, brought against the convent, of wrongfully keeping two books, in 1330[1164]; he evidently held some official position at this time, presumably that of regent master. He is said to have been warden of Norwich, probably his native convent, and to have taught theology there[1165]. He was one of the D.D.’s whom Benedict XII consulted in drawing up his Statutes for the Franciscan Order in 1336[1166]. This fact lends some support to Bale’s statement that he became papal penitentiary and died at Avignon in 1343[1167]. Bartholomew of Pisa mentions him among the famous writers of the Order; William of Woodford among those who entered the Order in their youth, and ‘wrote many works of great wisdom[1168].’

_Cathon sur les Sentences_ [W. Chatton[1169] or R. Cowton?].

MSS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 15886, 15887 (sec. xiv), two copies.

_Questio fratris Galtheri magistri ... de schaton, que est secunda in ordine primi sui in prologo._ _Inc._ ‘Utrum Deus possit creare.’ _Expl._ ‘Et ideo non est simile.’

MS. Cambridge:--Public Library, Ff. III, 26, f. 122, 123, 130 b.

Cf. MS. Harl. 3243, fol. 55, _Adam Wodham de divisione, etc. contra
Chatton_.

54. =John de Ridevaus=, =Rideval=, or =Redovallensis=, sometimes called John de Musca, according to Bale[1170], flourished about 1330. Of the works attributed to him, the Commentary on Fulgentius seems to be the same as that attributed to John Wallensis; similarly perhaps with the commentary on the letter of Valerius to Rufinus; the moral exposition of the Metamorphoses seems to differ from that ascribed to Thomas Walleys and Peter Bercherius.

_Lectura super Apocalypsi._

MS. Venice:--St. Mark, Class. I, Cod. 139, fol. 110-119 (sec. xiv),
‘Extracta de lectura fratris Joannis Rydelbast super Apocalypsi,
ordinis Minorum.’

‘_Commentarius super Fulgencium continens picturas virtutum et viciorum sub ymaginibus deorum et dearum quos colebat vana superstitio paganorum editus a fratre J. de Ridevall de ordine fratrum minorum._’ _Inc._ ‘Intencio venerabilis viri Fulgencii.’

MSS. Cambridge:--Pub. Libr. Ii II, 20, f. 121-162 (sec. xv); and Mm I,
18, § 6 (xv).

Worcester Cathed. Libr. 154 (= Bernard 829).

Venice:--St. Mark, Class. I, Cod. 139, f. 121-136 (xiv).

‘_Ovidii Metamorphoseos fabule ccxviii moraliter exposite._’ _Inc._ ‘In hujus expositionis initio.’

MSS. Cambridge:--Pub. Libr. Ii II, 20, f. 162-199 (anon. but in the
same writing as the _Comment. super Fulgencium_ which it follows).

Worc. Cath. Libr. 89 (= 764), ‘Jo. Risdevallus.’

_In Valerium ad Rufinum de uxore non ducenda._ _Inc._ ‘Loqui perhibeor.’

Cf. MSS. Cambridge:--Pub. Libr. Mm I, 18, § 5; and London:--Lambeth
Palace 330 (xv).

_Commentaries on St. Augustine’s De Civitate Dei._ _Inc._ ‘Magnus dominus et laudabilis nimis in civitate Dei.’

MSS. Oxford:--C.C.C. 186 and 187 (sec. xv _ineuntis_); on books 1, 2,
3, 6, and 7, by ‘Jo. Rydevallis’ or ‘Rydewall,’ Friar Minor[1171].

55. =Lawrence Briton= is perhaps the same as Laurentius Wallensis mentioned by Tanner, who wrote a dialogue on free will[1172]. A sermon by him is preserved in Merton College, MS. 248, f. 170. He flourished about 1340. A Dominican of the same name was S.T.P. of Paris in the thirteenth century[1173]. Among the MSS. mentioned in the old catalogue (1381) at Assisi[1174], is a ‘_Summa mag. fratris Laurentii Vualensis Anglici ordinis Minorum_;’ this is perhaps a mistake for Johannes Wallensis.

56. =John de Rudinton= or =Rodyngton= belonged to the custody of Oxford, and the convent of Stamford[1175]. He was D.D. of Oxford[1176], nineteenth Provincial Minister of England[1177], and is described in the Register of the Grey Friars of London as ‘vir sanctissimus[1178].’ He was buried at Bedford[1179]; Bale and his followers mention 1348, the date of the first great pestilence, as the year of his death.

_Joannes Rodinchon in lib. i. Sententiarum._

Included by Joannes Picardus in his _Thesaurus Theologorum_ (A. D.
1503)[1180].

_Johannis de Rodynton determinationes theologicae._

MS. Munich:--Bibl. Regiae, Cod. Lat. 22023 (sec. xiv).

_Quaestiones super quartum librum Sententiarum_ (by the same author?).

MS. ibid. fol. 18.

_Questiones super quodlibeta rodincon._

MS. Bruges, 503 (sec. xv).

57. =John de Howden= (c. 1340).

[John Hoveden of London, S.T.P. and author of many works, was not a friar; he died A. D. 1275: Tanner, _Bibl._ 415.]

58. =T. Stanschaw=, called by Brewer, G. Stanforth[1181], by others, Thomas Stanchaw, Straveshaw, &c., was a Minorite of Bristol[1182]. Bale says:

‘obiit Avenione A. D. 1346. Ex quodam Minoritarum registro[1183].’

Some sermons in MS. Merton Coll. 248 (sec. xiv _exeuntis_) are
ascribed to ‘Stanschawe.’

A number of works are attributed to him by Bale, ‘ex Bibliotheca
Nordovicensi,’ and ‘ex officina Roberti Stoughton[1184].’

59. =Edmund Grafton.=

60. =Stephen Sorel.=

61. =Adam Wodham= or =Godham= was one of the most famous of the later Franciscan schoolmen[1185]. He is said to have lived chiefly at Norwich, London, and Oxford[1186], and was probably reader in theology at several convents in succession. He was a follower of William of Ockham in philosophy and probably attended his lectures. He may be the Adam to whom Ockham’s _Summa logices_ was addressed[1187]. The date of his lecturing as regent master at Oxford is unknown; it must have been about 1340 or soon after. He was perhaps the ‘Frater Adam magister in sacra theologia de Anglia,’ who went to Basel in 1339 to consult Friar James de Porta on some miracles alleged to have been wrought there[1188]. He died, if we may believe Bale, at Babwell in 1358[1189].

_Comment. in IV libros Sententiarum_, abbreviated by Henry of Oyta. _Inc. prol._ ‘Ista est lex Adam.’

MSS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 15892 and 15893 (sec. xiv)[1190].

Bruges, 162, ‘Magistri Adae lecturae super IV. Sententiarum’ (?).

Toulouse, 246, the abbreviated version of the lectures of Adam Godham
or ‘Adam de Vodronio’ by Henry de Hoyta, written in the Franciscan
convent at Paris, A. D. 1399.

Rouen, 581 (sec. xiv-xv).

Printed at Paris, 1512. Perhaps some of the MSS. cited above contain
the original work of Adam Wodham. See Wadding, _Sup. ad Script._ 2-3.

_Quaestiones variae philosophicae et theologicae_, by Godham and others[1191].

MS. Brit. Mus.: Harl. 3243 (sec. xiv).

_Comment, super Cantica Canticorum._

MS. formerly in the Franciscan Library in London (Leland, _Collect._
III, 49).

_Postilla super Ecclesiasticum_, Lib. I.

‘Ex registro Decani Nordovicensis’ (Bale MS. Bodl. Seld. sup. 64).

_Determinationes_, or, _Determinationes XI_. _Inc._ ‘Utrum officina.’

Mentioned in _Catalogus illustrium Franciscanorum_, and by Bale (MS.
_ut supra_) ‘ex bibliotheca Nordovicensi[1192].’

62. =Robert de Redclive.=

63. =Thomas Radford= (cf. 51st master).

64. =John Went= or =Gwent= was a native of the Bristol custody[1193]. He probably incepted in theology and lectured to the Friars at Oxford about 1340 or soon after. His character for holiness was such that he was believed to have wrought miracles in his lifetime[1194]. He succeeded John de Rodyngton as Provincial Minister, being the twentieth in Order, probably between 1340 and 1350[1195]. Bale adds:

‘he died at Hereford A. D. 1348, as I have found in a register of the
Minorites[1196].’

It is however not improbable that he found only the first statement in the register and added the date. Both the catalogues of the Provincial Ministers state that he was buried at Hereford[1197].

65. =Thomas Oterborne= can hardly have written the chronicle generally ascribed to him. The chronicle itself bears no marks of having been written by a Franciscan; even the notices of the Order given in Walsingham and the Eulogium Historiarum are sometimes omitted, and usually shortened, in the so-called Otterbourne. But apart from this, the evidence of dates is fairly conclusive: the chronicle, as edited by Hearne, leaves off abruptly in the year 1420, and Hearne puts Otterbourne’s death at 1421. Pits and Wood suppose from MSS. which end in 1411 that the writer died in that year. Hearne says

‘there are not wanting MSS. which bring the history hardly beyond
Edward III.’

But even assuming the existence of such MSS. it is practically impossible that they can have been the work of the Franciscan doctor. Thomas Oterborne must have lectured at Oxford before 1350. It is true that the last nine names of lectors given in the list are in a more recent hand than the earlier ones; but the names of Went and Oterborne are in the same writing, and there can be no reasonable doubt that they were contemporaries. The dates of Oterborne’s two immediate successors at Oxford are unknown[1198], and the list of lectors here comes to an end. We cannot therefore know whether there were any more lectors before Simon Tunstede. Assuming that he was the sixty-eighth lector, we may naturally conclude that the sixty-fifth read several years before him, i.e. several years before 1351 when Simon was ‘regent among the Minorites at Oxford[1199].’ It is therefore most probable that Thomas was reader not later than 1345. The historian was perhaps the Thomas Otterburn who became rector of Chingford in 1393 and was ordained priest in 1394[1200].

66. =John Valeys=[1201] was perhaps the Friar John Wells who took a prominent part in the disputed election to the Chancellorship in 1349, as a supporter of John Wyllyot, fellow of Merton, whose conduct seems to have been of a peculiarly riotous and lawless character[1202]. He may possibly be the John Welle, S.T.P. and Friar Minor[1203], who was robbed by his servant in London in 1377; some curious details about this affair will be found in Appendix B.

67. =Richard Malevile= of the London Custody (c. 1350?); this name is added in a still later hand.