CHAPTER III.

FRANCISCANS WHO STUDIED IN THE CONVENT AT OXFORD, OR HAD SOME OTHER CONNEXION WITH THE TOWN OR THE UNIVERSITY.

=Agnellus= or =Angnellus of Pisa= was custodian of Paris before becoming first Provincial of England[1204]. He is said to have been made Provincial by St. Francis in 1219[1205]; the order as given by Francis a S. Clara[1206] is as follows:

‘Ego frater Franciscus de Assisio Minister Generalis praecipio tibi fratri Agnello de Pisa per obedientiam, ut vadas ad Angliam, et ibi facias officium Ministeratus. Vale. Frater Franciscus de Assisio.’

It may be doubted whether this letter is authentic, nor is the date beyond dispute. It may be considered as certain that Agnellus did not come to England till September 1224[1207]. He was then a deacon, and about thirty years of age[1208]. He landed with eight others at Dover, went to Canterbury, and thence to London, establishing houses and receiving novices. Such was his humility that he long refused the order of priesthood, and only at length consented, when the Provincial Chapter had procured a command from the General Chapter, that the order should be conferred on him[1209]. He was a zealous guardian of the primitive poverty of the Rule of St. Francis, and would only allow houses to be built or areas to be enlarged where it was absolutely necessary[1210]. He urged the demolition of a conventual building called _Valvert_ at Paris, and forbade the enlargement of the house at Gloucester: he had the infirmary at Oxford built so low that a man could scarcely stand upright in it. He built a school at Oxford of more generous proportions, and encouraged the love of learning in the Order[1211]. The choice of Grostete as the first master of the Minorites was due to Agnellus[1212]. He was, according to Matthew Paris, on familiar terms with the King, and was one of his counsellors[1213]. In December, 1233, he offered his services as peace-maker between Henry III and the rebellious Earl Marshall, though his efforts to induce the latter to submit were unavailing[1214]. It would seem to have been after this that he went to Rome on some business of the English prelates[1215], and he may also at the same time have attended a General Chapter in Italy[1216]. On his return, he was seized with dysentery at Oxford; it was believed that his health had never recovered from the severities to which he was exposed while labouring for peace in the winter of 1233[1217]. He recommended that the General Minister, Elias, should be requested to appoint Albert of Pisa, or Haymo, or Radulf of Rheims, as his successor. He constituted Peter of Tewkesbury his Vicar, and made his last confession to him. He died at Oxford in great pain, crying continually, ‘_Veni, dulcissime Jesu_.’ The exact date of his death is uncertain; it was probably early in 1235[1218]. He was, says Eccleston,

‘a man specially endowed with natural prudence and foresight, and conspicuous for every virtue[1219].’

He was buried in a wooden or leaden coffin in the choir of the chapel before the altar. When this chapel was superseded by the larger church, the friars came by night to remove the body; they found the coffin and the grave

‘full of the purest oil, the corpse with its garments incorrupt and smelling most sweetly.’

His bones were laid with due pomp in ‘a fair stone sepulchre’ in the new church, and the miracles which were wrought at his tomb were a source of honour and profit to the Convent at Oxford[1220].

=Richard de Ingewrthe= or =Indewurde= (Norfolk) is named second in the list of friars who came over with Agnellus in 1224. He was a priest and advanced in years; according to Eccleston he was the first Minorite who preached to the people ‘_citra montes_.’ With three other friars he established the first house of Franciscans in London (at Cornhill); he then proceeded to Oxford with Richard of Devon, hired a house of Robert le Mercer in St. Ebbe’s, and thus founded the original convent in the University town. The two companions then went on to Northampton, where they again hired a house and founded a friary. Richard of Ingewrthe afterwards became custodian of Cambridge, which was specially noted for its poverty under his rule. In 1230, when Agnellus attended the General Chapter at Assisi, he was associated in the Vicariate of the English Province with Henry de Ceruise or Treviso, a lay-brother from Lombardy. Soon after this he was sent by the General, John Parens, as Provincial Minister to Ireland. At length he was released from the office in General Chapter by Albert of Pisa (c. 1239), set out as a missionary to Palestine, and died there[1221].

=Richard of Devon=, a young acolyte, was the third of those who came over with Agnellus. He accompanied R. of Ingewrthe from Canterbury to London, Oxford, and Northampton;

‘and (in Eccleston’s words) left us many examples of longsuffering and obedience. For after he had traversed many provinces in obedience to commands, he was for fifteen years worn out by frequent quartan fevers and remained continually at Romehale[1222].’

=Adam of Oxford= was a master before he entered the Order[1223]. The account of his conversion given by Eccleston[1224] is as follows:

Master Adam of Oxford, of worldwide fame[1225], had made a vow that he would do anything he was asked to do ‘for the love of the blessed Mary;’ and he told this to a certain recluse, who was a friend of his. She revealed his secret to her friends, that is, to a monk of Reading, another of the Cistercian Order, and a Friar Preacher; telling them that they could gain such a man in such a way; not wishing that Adam should become a Friar Minor. But the Blessed Virgin did not permit anyone in his presence to make the needful request; but deferred it to another time. One night he dreamed that he had to cross a bridge, where some men were throwing their nets into the stream, endeavouring to catch him: but he escaped this with great difficulty and reached a very peaceful spot. Now when by the divine will he had escaped all others, he went casually to see the Friars Minors, and during the conversation Friar William de Colvile, the elder, a man of great sanctity, said to him: ‘Dear master, enter our Order for the love of the Mother of God and help our simplicity.’ And Adam immediately consented to do so, as if he had heard the words from the lips of the Mother of God.

He assumed the habit on January 25[1226], probably A. D. 1227. He was at this time assistant, or secretary[1227], to the great Adam Marsh, whom he soon afterwards induced to join the Franciscans. Shortly after this, Adam of Oxford went to Gregory IX, and was at his own desire sent to preach to the Saracens[1228]. From a letter of Grostete’s, addressed to Agnellus and the Convent of Friars Minors at Oxford, relating to this subject, and written in or before 1231[1229], we learn that Adam had formed the resolution of going to preach to the infidels before he entered the Order, and that he was induced to take this latter step partly because it was likely to add to his influence as a missionary. Grostete urges the Friars not to grieve for his loss:

‘for the light of his knowledge is so bright that it ought to be concentrated most there where it may dissipate the thickest darkness of infidelity.’ ‘Have no fear,’ the writer continues, ‘that he will be cut off from the “Sacred Page;” he has humility, and no “_haeretica pravitas_” will slip in.’

He died at Barlete, and miracles are said to have been wrought by his relics or his memory[1230].

=William of York=, ‘a solemn bachelor,’ was probably an Oxford man, as he entered the Order on the same day as Adam of Oxford[1231].

=Adam Rufus=[1232] studied under Grostete in the early part of the thirteenth century, presumably at Oxford. A letter from ‘Robert Grostete called Master,’ written perhaps before he held any preferments, i.e. before 1210, addressed to ‘Master Adam Rufus,’ is extant; it is a treatise on the nature of angels, and Grostete asks Adam to inquire diligently the opinions of the wise men, with whom he converses, on the subject. In another letter written about 1237, Grostete mentions having heard of Friar Ernulphus, papal penitentiary, from ‘Friar Adam Rufus of good memory,’ formerly his beloved pupil and friend. It may be inferred from his connexion with Grostete and Ernulphus or Arnulfus, Vicar of the Order of Minorites[1233], that the Order which he entered was that of the Franciscans.

=Henry de Reresby=, who entered the Order abroad, was vicar of the custodian of Oxford about 1235 or before. He was made first provincial of Scotland by Elias, but died before he could enter on his duties[1234]. According to Leland’s notes from Eccleston he died at Leicester; according to another account, at Acre in Norfolk[1235]. After his death he appeared to the custodian of Oxford, and said that,

‘if the friars were not damned for excess in buildings, they would at any rate be severely punished,’ and added, ‘if the friars said the divine service well, they would be the sheep of the Apostles[1236].’

=Walter=, a canon of Dunstable, and =John=, a novice of the same priory, escaped from their house through a broken window and joined the Franciscans at Oxford in 1233. Walter afterwards returned with three Minorites to the Chapter of Dunstable, seeking absolution. After submitting to corporal punishment, he was absolved; he was further ordered to restore the books and clothes (_quaternos et pannos_) which he had taken with him, and to deliberate for a year--i.e. during his noviciate--whether the discipline of the Order which he had entered was more severe than that of the Order he had left; if it were so, he was to remain a Minorite; if not, he was to return to Dunstable. John was found by the Prior of Dunstable at London and similarly absolved: he afterwards went to Rome[1237].

=John of Reading=, who became Abbat of Osney in 1229[1238], joined the Minorites in 1235, probably at Northampton[1239]. He is probably the Abbat to whom Bartholomew of Pisa refers as having assisted with his own hands at the building of the Franciscan Church at Oxford[1240]. He was certainly at Oxford about 1250, when Adam Marsh wrote to the Provincial that he was in ill-health and requested that Friar Adam de Bechesoueres, the physician of the Order, might be sent to Oxford to attend him[1241]. Another ‘Frater Johannes Anglicus de Redingis’ was Visitor of Germany in 1229, and Minister of Saxony 1230-1232[1242].

=Albert of Pisa= did not, as stated by Bartholomew of Pisa and others, accompany Agnellus to England. He was (according to Eccleston) Minister of Hungary, Germany (1223-1227), Bologna, the March of Ancona, the March of Treviso, Tuscany, perhaps of Spain in 1227[1243]. He was one of the three recommended by Agnellus as fit persons to succeed him as Provincial of England, but he was not appointed by Elias till almost a year after the death of the first Minister[1244] (c. 1236). He reached England on December 13, and celebrated a Provincial Chapter at Oxford on February 2[1245]. On another occasion Eccleston tells us--

‘Friar Albert was present at the sermon of a young friar at Oxford; and when the preacher boldly condemned loftiness of buildings and abundance of food, he rebuked him for vainglory[1246].’

Soon after his arrival, Albert appointed lecturers at London and Canterbury[1247], though he does not appear to have been a learned man himself. His connexion with Oxford was slight, and his acts as Provincial can hardly claim a place here. After remaining two years and a half in England, he went to Rome to take part in the proceedings against Elias[1248]. On the deposition of the latter (May 15, 1239), Albert was elected Minister General. He died in the same or the following year[1249] and was buried at Rome[1250].

=Ralph of Maidstone=, bishop of Hereford 1234-1239, resigned his see in December, 1239, and was admitted into the Franciscan Order by Haymo[1251]. He took this step in accordance with a vow, made perhaps before he became bishop[1252]. It is uncertain at which convent he took the habit. Bartholomew of Pisa states that he helped with his own hands to build the church at Oxford[1253]. It is not improbable that he was there for some time. He was a Master of Paris, noted for his learning, and was among the ‘famous Englishmen’ who left Paris owing to the disputes in 1229 and settled at Oxford on the invitation of Henry III[1254]. According to a later addition in one of the MSS. of Eccleston’s Chronicle, he lived five years after assuming the habit, staying for the most part in the convent of Gloucester[1255]. The Dunstable Annals state that he was, for a time at any rate, rendered incapable by a fall from a rock, but whether this took place before or after he became a friar is not quite clear[1256]. He died at Gloucester (c. 1245) and

‘was buried in the choir of the brethren, in the presbytery, on the north side under an arch[1257].’

A most interesting relic of the friar-bishop is now in the British Museum. Royal MS. 3 C. xi, a copy of the New Testament with gloss (sec. xiii), belonged to the Friars Minors of Canterbury,

‘_ex dono Fratris Radulphi de Maydenestane, quondam Episcopi Herefordensis_.’

He wrote a _Commentary on the Sentences_ when he was Archdeacon of Chester (c. A. D. 1220). This is mentioned in a treatise on the Sacraments, ‘_secundum Mag. R. de Maidinstan archidiaconum Cestrensem super Sententias_.’

MS. London: Gray’s Inn, 14, f. 28-32 (sec. xiii).

=William of Nottingham= was marked out by nature for a Mendicant Friar.

‘He told me,’ writes Eccleston, ‘that when he was living in his father’s house and some poor boys came begging alms, he gave them of his bread, and received the crust from them, because it seemed to him, that hard bread, which was asked for the love of God, was sweeter than the delicate bread which he ate and his companions; and so, to make their bread sweet like this, the little boys went and begged in their turn (_ab invicem_) for the love of God[1258].’

William’s brother, Augustine, was also a Minorite; he was first in the household of Innocent IV, accompanied the Patriarch of Antioch, the pope’s nephew, to Syria, and at length became bishop of Laodicea[1259]. William himself successfully championed the interests of his Order against the Dominicans at the Roman Curia[1260]. At one period he lived for some time in the Franciscan convent at Rome, where, though (to quote his own words)

‘the brethren had no pittance except chestnuts, he grew so fat that he often blushed[1261].’

He acted as vicar for Friar Haymo in England (1239), and in 1240 was himself

‘elected and confirmed Provincial Minister by those to whom the appointment had been entrusted[1262].’

He had never held any subordinate office, such as that of custodian or warden[1263]. He was a diligent student of the Scriptures, and seems to have attended Grostete’s lectures at Oxford[1264]. As minister, he was energetic in furthering the study of theology, and in developing the educational organization of the Franciscans in England[1265]. During his ministry, the friary at Oxford was greatly enlarged[1266]. Evidence of his popularity was given in the Chapter held at Oxford by the General Minister, John of Parma (c. 1248), when the friars unanimously refused to sanction his deposition[1267]. He was ‘absolved’ from the ministry in the General Chapter of Metz, and sent on behalf of the Order to the Pope[1268]. It was probably in this Chapter, that, with the assistance of John Kethene and Gregory de Bosellis, he carried a decree ‘almost against the whole Chapter,’

‘ut privilegium indultum a Domino Papa de recipienda pecunia per procuratores penitus destrueretur; et expositio Regulae secundum dominum Innocentium, quantum ad ea in quibus laxior esset quam Gregoriana, suspenderetur[1269].’

The cause of his deposition is unknown, but the event excited the displeasure of the English friars, who called a Provincial Chapter and unanimously re-elected him[1270]. A letter from Adam Marsh, congratulating him on this second election and urging him not to decline the office is extant[1271]. But William of Nottingham was already dead. When he reached Genoa on his mission to the Pope, his _socius_, Friar Richard, was struck down by the plague;

‘while others fled, he remained to comfort his companion, and like him he was struck down and died[1272].’

The date of the Chapter of Metz, and consequently of William’s death, is not quite certain; it was probably in the spring or early summer of 1251[1273]. A few extracts from the chronicle of Eccleston (who knew him personally) will illustrate the character of the man.

He sat very long in meditation after matins, and was unwilling to attend to confessions and consultations at night, as his predecessors had done.... Above all things, he was careful to avoid the vice of suspicion. Familiarities of great persons and of women he most studiously avoided, and, with wonderful magnanimity, thought nothing of incurring the anger of the powerful for the sake of justice. He used to say that great persons entrap those familiar with them by their advice, and women with their mendacity and malice turn the heads even of the devout by their flatteries. He studied with all diligence to restore the good name of those who were defamed, provided that he thought them penitent, and to comfort the hearts of the desolate, especially of those who held offices in the Order[1274].

He represented the tendency to a less strict interpretation of the Rule in regard to money than had hitherto obtained in England, holding that--

‘the friars might in a hundred cases lawfully contract debts, and might with their own hands dispense the money of others in alms. He said further that it was right after a visitation to amuse oneself a little in order to distract the mind from what one had heard[1275].’

The following story may be regarded as an instance of his cynicism or knowledge of human nature:--

‘He used to narrate that St. Stephen, the founder of the Order of Grammont, placed a chest in a secret and safe place, and forbade anyone to go near it during his life. The brethren were very inquisitive, and after his death could not refrain from breaking it open, and they found only a piece of parchment with the words; Brother Stephen salutes his brethren and prays them to guard themselves from the laity. For just as you held the chest in honour, as long as you did not know what was in it, so they will hold you in honour[1276].’

That the well-known _Commentary on the Gospels_, called also _Unum ex quatuor_, or _De concordia evangelistarum_, by Friar William of Nottingham, was by this William, and not by his namesake, the seventeenth provincial of the English Minorites[1277], is proved by Eccleston’s words (Mon. Franc. I, p. 70)--

‘... Verba Sancti Evangelii devotissime recolebat; unde et super unum ex quatuor Clementinis (Phillipps MS. f. 80 reads _Clementis_) canones perutiles compilavit, et expositionem quam idem Clemens fecit complete scribi in ordine procuravit.’

The commentary was founded on the work of Clement of Langthon[1278], and the number of MSS. of it still in existence attest its popularity in the Middle Ages.

The work comprised 12 parts. _Inc._ ‘Da mihi intellectum.’

MSS. Brit. Museum: Royal 4 E ii. (A. D. 1381); readers are asked to pray ‘pro anima Fratris Willielmi de Notingham, qui studio laborioso predictam Expositionem ex variis compilavit.’

Oxford:--Bodl.: Laud. Misc. 165 (sec. xiv ineuntis), Balliol Coll. 33 (sec. xiv exeuntis). Merton Coll. 156 and 157 (sec. xiv). Magdalen Coll. 160 (sec. xv). St. John’s Coll. 2 (sec. xv).

Cf. Merton Coll. 68, fol. 121 (sec. xv), ‘Questiones quas movet Notyngham in scripto suo super evangelia extracte secundum ordinem alphabeticum per Mag. Joh. Wykham.’ _Inc._ ‘Abel. Queritur super:’ Lincoln Coll. 78 (sec. xv), a similar work: _Inc._ ‘Abraham. Queritur super illo dicto.’

_Comment. in Longobardum_, perhaps by the other W. of Nottingham.

Mentioned in the Catalogue of Illustrious Franciscans (Leland, _Script._).

=A. of Hereford= (c. 1248) was assigned by the Provincial to Adam Marsh as his secretary. Adam thought him too able a man to be kept in this subordinate position; his learning and eloquence marked him out for a teacher and preacher; many of those appointed by the Provincial Chapter to lecture on theology were far inferior to him. In addition to this his health would not stand the constant strain to which the secretary of the indefatigable doctor was necessarily subjected. Adam therefore requested the Provincial to send him to London to pursue his studies, as A. of Hereford himself desired[1279].

=Laurence de Sutthon= was the friar whom Adam Marsh suggested to the Provincial as A. of Hereford’s successor. A ‘Friar Laurence’ was with Adam in 1249, and the latter wrote to Thomas of York, probably after 1250:

‘Friar Laurence sends you the books of the mother of philosophy (?) for which you sent[1280].’

=Hugo de Lyndun= seems to have been a weak brother at Oxford--weak in mind and body--whom Adam Marsh took under his especial care (c. 1253)[1281].

=John of Beverley= was a friar at Oxford when Martin was warden, and was known to Adam Marsh. Friar Thomas of York laboured for the salvation of the father of this J. of Beverley[1282].

=Gregory de Bosellis= was the first lecturer to the friars at Leicester[1283] (c. 1240?). He was at the General Chapter of Genoa (1244) or Metz when he supported W. of Nottingham, Minister of England[1284]; and he was Vicar of the Province at the time of the same Minister’s death[1285]. He was with the Earl and Countess of Leicester in Gascony[1286], and went to the papal court with the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1250[1287], when the rules of the Order against riding on horseback were relaxed in his favour[1288]. He had studied at some University, probably at Oxford, and was capable of filling Adam Marsh’s place as lecturer to the friars there, though it does not appear whether he ever actually did so[1289].

=Thomas of Maydenstan=, an invalid novice at Oxford, c. 1253; Adam Marsh hearing a rumour that he was to be sent away from Oxford begged the Minister to let him remain,

‘as it is believed that his removal would do injury to the souls of several persons of whose conversion no slight hope is entertained.’

The brethren at Oxford joined in the request[1290].

=Thomas Bachun= of the Convent of Nottingham was recommended by Adam Marsh as a suitable person to act as private secretary or amanuensis to Friar Richard of Cornwall, when the latter was about to proceed to Paris, 1252. It is however uncertain whether he was appointed or whether he studied at Oxford[1291].

=Adam de Bechesoueres= or =Hekeshovre=[1292] occurs several times in Adam Marsh’s letters as the chief physician among the early English friars. Thus at one time Adam writes to John of Stamford, custodian of Oxford, requesting him to allow a poor sick scholar named Ralph of Multon, a friend of the writer’s, to consult Friar A. de Bechesoueres, who has already done him good. The famous Walter de Merton went to him once with a letter of introduction from Adam Marsh. He was wanted again at Oxford to attend Friar John of Reading, formerly Abbat of Osney. Adam Marsh recommended Grostete to consult him about his health. At another time we hear of him going to the General Minister in France, with a ‘supplicatory letter’ from Adam Marsh;

‘he promised,’ adds the latter in a letter to the English Provincial, ‘to return to England soon and humbly submit in all things to the regular discipline.’

=N. of Anivers=, =Anilyeres= or =Aynelers=, a youth of ability, fair learning and great promise, was ordered by the Minister General to go to France, probably about the year 1248. Adam Marsh, anxious that the best should be done both for the young friar and the Order, after consultation with Peter of Tewkesbury, custodian of Oxford, obtained leave from the Provincials of England and France for him to stay for a year or two in England, the consent of the General being also secured:

‘it is thought,’ adds Adam in his letter to the Minister of France, ‘that he will at present find the requisite helps to the successful study of letters more easily obtainable in England than anywhere else.’

N. de Anivers was therefore allowed to spend a year in theological study at Oxford, Cambridge or London. Adam Marsh maintained his interest in his welfare, and, after the year was over, requested the Minister of France to allow him to continue his studies in England up to the ensuing Pentecost: it is probable that he was a pupil of Adam’s at Oxford[1293].

=William of Pokelington= (Yorkshire) entered the Order about 1250 and made his profession at Oxford in 1251[1294]. He was then a master. Shortly before this he had been ill and perhaps took the vows on his recovery[1295]. He was an intimate friend of Adam Marsh and at one period acted as his secretary[1296]. Adam employed him several times as messenger to Grostete[1297], who had a high opinion of him and liked to have him as a companion[1298].

=Walter de Madele=, =Maddele= or =Maddeley= studied in the Franciscan Convent at Oxford (c. 1235 seq.). While here, he ventured to disregard the custom which forbade the friars to wear shoes.

‘It happened,’ says Eccleston[1299], ‘that he found two shoes, and when he went to Matins, he put them on. He stood therefore at Matins, feeling unusually self-satisfied. But afterwards when he was in bed, he dreamt that he had to go through a dangerous pass between Oxford and Gloucester called “_boysaliz_” (?), which was infested by robbers; and when he was descending into a deep valley, they rushed at him from both sides, shouting, “Kill him!” In great terror he said that he was a Friar Minor. “You lie,” they cried, “for you do not go barefoot;” and when he put out his foot confidently, he found that he was wearing those same shoes: and starting in confusion from sleep, he threw the shoes into the middle of the courtyard.’

Walter was ‘_socius_’ or secretary to Agnellus and was at Oxford at the time of the latter’s death (1235)[1300]. Later he was in Germany with Peter of Tewkesbury, minister of Cologne, and returned to England in 1249 with Friar Paulinus, perhaps a German, in obedience to Peter[1301]. He enjoyed a considerable reputation as a theologian and was lecturer at a Franciscan Convent. Adam Marsh once sent for him to come and see him at Oxford.

‘I conferred with him as you desired,’ he writes to the Provincial[1302], ‘about investigating the meaning of Holy Scripture in the original books of the saints, and he professed himself very ready to do this or anything else which you thought fit to enjoin on him.’

This was not the only subject discussed at the interview. The English Minister suspected Walter of a desire to go abroad and of having obtained from the General the promise of a lectureship in some foreign convent or University. The Provincial had indeed just received an order from the General to send some English friars to teach at Paris, and perhaps Madele’s name was mentioned. Madele however denied the imputation, and Adam recommended the Provincial to keep him in England, sending other friars to Paris, and to remedy his grievances. Though he had long taught theology with success, no competent provision had been made for him; he had not only to exhaust his mind by studies but also to wear out his body by writing daily with his own hand, as he lacked the ‘great volumes and the assistance of companions,’ which had been provided for his predecessors in the office. Eccleston refers to him as dead when he wrote his chronicle[1303]. None of Madele’s writings[1304] have been preserved.

=G. of St. Edmund=: Adam Marsh wrote to the Provincial (W. of Nottingham) on behalf of Martin the warden and the other friars at Oxford, requesting him to order without delay

‘that Friar G. de Sancto Eadmundo be restored to the convent of friars at Oxford[1305].’

=Thomas of Eccleston=, the earliest historian of the Franciscan Order in England, was probably a native of Lancashire[1306]. All that is known of him is contained in his Chronicle. He was an inmate of the London Convent when William of Nottingham was minister (1240-1250), and speaks from his own experience of the poverty and hard fare of the brethren there[1307]. He was a student at Oxford in the lifetime of Grostete, whether before or after the latter became bishop is not clear[1308]. He knew the earliest converts to the Order in England, and enjoyed the intimacy of William of Nottingham[1309]. His history is dedicated to Friar Simon of Esseby--perhaps Ashby in Norfolk or Lincolnshire[1310]. In the preface he states that he had been collecting and arranging materials for twenty-five years, and explains his object in writing.

‘Every upright man ought to judge his life by the examples of better men, because examples strike home more directly than the words of reason.’

Other Orders have lives of their holy brethren; this Chronicle is intended similarly to edify the Franciscans by giving them some account of those who have sacrificed their all to enter the Order and observe the Rule of St. Francis[1311]. From this point of view, chronology was of little importance, and there is scarcely a date in the whole book. It is impossible to give the exact date at which the Chronicle was finished; the deaths of William of Nottingham and of Innocent IV are mentioned[1312]; and the work was probably not completed before 1260. It is certainly the narrative of a contemporary, often of an eye-witness, and, apart from the manifest sincerity of the author, the accuracy of the details can in some instances be tested by independent and trustworthy authority. To take one example; Eccleston’s account of the reception of the friars at Cambridge (pp. 17, 18) may be compared with the following entry in Close Roll 22 Hen. III, m. 12, (June 15 1238):

Rex ballivis suis de Cantebr’ salutem. Sciatis quod concessimus fratribus Minoribus de Cantebr’ domum illam cum pertinenciis in Cantebr’ que fuit Magistri Benjamin Judei et quam prius vobis concesseramus ad Gayolam nostram (_or_ vestram) inde faciendam, ad clausum domorum predictorum fratrum dilatandum, salvis domino feodi serviciis et redditibus ei inde debitis. Et idem vobis precipimus quod eisdem fratribus de domo predicta plenam saisinam habere faciatis.

The following MSS. of the Chronicle ‘_De adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam_’ are extant, all dating from the early fourteenth century.

(1) A mutilated MS. in the Chapter Library at York; Brewer’s text for the earlier portion of the Chronicle is founded on this.

(2) Brit. Mus.: Cotton Nero A ix was used by Brewer as the guide for the later part: this MS. begins with _Collatio IX_ (i.e. _Collatio VIII_ in the York MS.).

(3) A fragment of the earlier portion of the Chronicle is contained in a MS. at Lamport House; this has been printed by Howlett in Mon. Franc. II; it supplies most of the chapters wanting in the Cottonian MS., of which it probably formed a part.

(4) No. 3119 of the MSS. of Sir T. Phillipps (Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham), contains the whole Chronicle, though without many of the incidents which occur in the York and Cotton MSS. Neither Brewer nor Howlett knew of its existence. A short account of it will be found in ‘The English Historical Review,’ Oct. 1890, p. 754.

In the same volume of MSS. is the treatise _De impugnatione_, etc., printed in the Appendix C: Bale and Pits ascribe this to Eccleston, but without sufficient authority.

=Roger Bacon= is said on the authority of John Rous[1313] to have been born at or near Ilchester in Dorsetshire. He came of a wealthy perhaps noble family; he speaks of one brother as rich, of another as a scholar. He was probably nephew of Robert Bacon the Dominican. Roger’s family espoused the royal cause in the Barons’ war and suffered great losses[1314]. The year 1214 is usually given as the date of his birth. The date is an inference from the following passage written in 1267:

‘I have laboured much at sciences and languages, and it is now forty years since I first learnt the alphabet; and I was always studious; and except for two of those forty years I have always been _in studio_[1315].’

The last phrase probably means ‘at a University’ or some place of study. Boys of ten or twelve years frequently began their education at Oxford, and it is likely that Bacon went there at an early age[1316]. Roger of Wendover relates that Friar Robert Bacon preached before the King at Oxford in 1233, and fearlessly rebuked him for listening to evil counsellors, especially Peter des Roches. Matthew Paris gives the story with the following addition:

‘a clerk of the court of a pleasant wit, namely, Roger Bacun, ventured to make this joke: “My lord King, what is most harmful to men crossing a strait, or what makes them most afraid?” The King replied, “Those men know who occupy their business in great waters.” “I will tell you,” said the clerk, “_Petrae et Rupes_[1317].”’

It cannot be regarded as certain that this Roger Bacon was the famous friar. The name was not uncommon; e.g. a Roger Bacon, a Thomas Bacon, and a Peter Bacon occur in Pat. Roll 3 Edw I. On the other hand Roger was certainly in Oxford in or before this year. He states that St. Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, lectured at Oxford in his time, i.e. Edmund Riche who became Archbishop in 1233[1318]. At this period too, Roger attended Grostete’s lectures and made the acquaintance of Adam Marsh, for both of whom he always retained the greatest admiration. He found in them that sympathy with and understanding of his experimental method, which were denied him in later life[1319]. It was doubtless his connexion with these men that led Roger to enter the Franciscan Order. When or where this took place is unknown: perhaps at Oxford before the death of Grostete. He had clearly reached years of discretion when he took the step. This may be inferred from his denunciation of those who entered the Orders as boys and begun the study of theology before they had been grounded in philosophy[1320]. It is also implied in such passages as these:

‘When I was in another state, I wrote nothing on philosophy.’ ‘Men used to wonder before I became a friar that I lived owing to such excessive labour[1321].’

He began his studies on positive science before 1250[1322], and had by 1267 spent more than 2,000 _librae_[1323]

‘on secret books and various experiments and languages and instruments and tables.’

It is not necessary to assume that this sum was expended before he joined the Franciscan Order; he could, and undoubtedly did, obtain money by begging to carry on his experiments[1324]. Roger left Oxford for Paris some time before 1245; he states that he had seen Alexander of Hales with his own eyes[1325], and he heard William of Auvergne dispute on the _Intellectus Agens_ before the whole University: William died in 1248[1326]. Roger was in France in 1250 when he saw the chief of the Pastoureaux, and remarked that

‘he carried in his hand something as though it were sacred, as a man carries relics[1327].’

He is said by Rous to have been made D.D. of Paris and to have been incorporated as D.D. at Oxford[1328]. When he returned to Oxford is unknown; probably soon after 1250. He must have lectured at this time; he won some fame, as he says himself[1329], but without doubt made many enemies. About the year 1257 or 1258--when Adam Marsh could no longer protect his great pupil--Roger was exiled from England and kept under strict supervision in Paris for ten years[1330]. In 1263 he wrote an astronomical treatise called _Computus Naturalium_[1331]. Soon after this, a clerk named Raymund of Laon mentioned Bacon’s name to the Cardinal Bishop of Sabina and roused the latter’s interest in his discoveries[1332]. Bacon sent a letter in reply to the Cardinal’s communication: this has not been preserved. In 1265 the Cardinal became Pope Clement IV. On 22nd of June 1266, Clement wrote requesting Roger to send him a fair copy of the work which Raymond had mentioned, setting forth the remedies he proposed, ‘_circa illa, quae nuper occasione tanti discriminis intimasti_;’ the friar was to do this, in spite of any constitution of his Order to the contrary, secretly and without delay[1333]. The Pope’s supposition that the work was already written was erroneous;

‘for,’ writes Roger[1334], ‘whilst I was in a different state of life, I had written nothing on science; nor in my present condition had I ever been required to do so by my superiors; nay, a strict prohibition has been passed to the contrary, under penalty of forfeiture of the book, and many days’ fasting on bread and water, if any book written by us (i.e. the Franciscans) should be communicated to strangers[1335].’

However, although the book was not yet written, and notwithstanding endless difficulties, want of money, want of mathematical and other instruments and tables, the restrictions of the Rule, jealousy of his superiors and brethren who, he says,

‘kept me on bread and water, suffering no one to have access to me, fearful lest my writings should be divulged to any other than the Pope and themselves[1336]’--

the Opus Majus, the Opus Minus, and the Opus Tertium, were sent to the Pope within fifteen or eighteen months after the arrival of the papal mandate[1337]. ‘Such a feat’ says Brewer, ‘is unparalleled in the annals of literature.’ The Pope probably used his influence in behalf of Roger, as the latter seems to have returned to England about this time and to have been freed from annoyance[1338]. The works sent to Clement he regarded merely as handbooks; at the same time that he was writing them, he was engaged on a larger work which was to embrace the whole range of sciences as then understood[1339]. He was working at this in 1271[1340]. His attacks on all classes, including his own Order, became even more violent than hitherto. In 1277 and 1278 synods were held at Paris and Oxford to condemn erroneous doctrines. The repressive movement extended to the Franciscans; in 1278, Jerome of Ascoli, the Minister General, held a Chapter at Paris, and among other friars Roger Bacon was condemned ‘_propter quasdam novitates_[1341].’ He is believed to have remained in prison for fourteen years. Jerome of Ascoli, who became Pope Nicholas IV in 1288, died in 1292. Raymond Gaufredi, a man of liberal views, was elected General in 1289, and released many friars who had been imprisoned for their opinions by his predecessors. In 1292 he held a General Chapter at Paris, and it is probable that among the friars here set free was Roger Bacon[1342]. It is certain that the last work of Roger’s of which we have any notice was written in 1292[1343]. The date usually assigned for his death (1294) is a pure conjecture[1344]. John Rous says that he was buried among the Friars Minors at Oxford[1345].

Such then is the chronological outline of his life, as far as it can be ascertained. A list of his works will be more useful than a short account of his character or philosophy.

=Roger Bacon’s Works= were neglected and regarded with a pious horror in the Middle Ages[1346]. The result is that many of those which have survived at all have reached us in a fragmentary state. ‘It is easier,’ said Leland, ‘to collect the leaves of the Sibyl than the titles of the works written by Roger Bacon.’ The difficulty has to a considerable extent been removed by Mr. Brewer’s valuable preface to the _Opera Inedita_, and by the labours of M. Charles. The following account of Roger Bacon’s works is based chiefly on these two writers. Some additions have been made and some rearrangement attempted.

Miscellaneous works, lectures, &c., probably early:--

_Computus naturalium_, an astronomical treatise, is the earliest work of Bacon’s to which a date can be assigned; it was written A. D. 1263-4. _Inc._ ‘Omnia tempus habent.’

MSS. British Museum: Royal 7 F viii. fol. 99-191 (sec. xiii).

Oxford: University College, 48.

Douai 691, § 2.

Summary printed by Charles, _Roger Bacon_, pp. 355-8.

_De termino Paschali_, an earlier work, to which Bacon refers in the _Computus naturalium_; (Charles, p. 78).

_Questions on Aristotle’s physics._

MS. Amiens 406, f. 1-25; cf. MS. Bodl. Digby 150, fol. 42 (sec. xiii), ‘Summa Baconis.’

_Quaestiones super librum physicorum a magistro dicto Bacon._

MS. Amiens 406, fol. 26-73.

_De vegetabilibus_ (gloss on this work then attributed to Aristotle).

MS. Amiens 406 (intercalated in the preceding work).

_In Aristotelis Metaphysica._

MS. Amiens 406, fol. 74.

_Tractatus ad declaranda quaedam obscure dicta in libro Secreti Secretorum Aristotelis._ _Inc._ ‘Propter multa in hoc libro contenta qui liber dicitur Secretum Secretorum Aristotelis sive liber de regimine principum.’

MS. Bodl.: Tanner 116, fol. 1 (sec. xiii exeuntis); the same MS. fol. 16, contains Aristotle’s supposititious _Secretum Secretorum_ ‘cum glossa interlineari et notis Rogeri Bacon.’

_Questiones naturales mathematice astronomice_, &c. ‘Expliciunt reprobationes Rogeri Baconis.’

MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 16089, f. 93 (sec. xiii-xiv).

_Bacon in Meteora._ _Inc._ ‘Cum ad noticiam impressionum habendam.’

MS. Bodleian: Digby 190, fol. 38 (sec. xiv ineuntis).

_Processus fratris Rogeri Bacon ... de invencione cogitacionis_ (astrological fragment). _Inc._ ‘Notandum quod in omni judicio quatuor sunt inquirenda, scil. natura planetae.’

MS. Bodl.: Digby 72, fol. 49 b, 50 (sec. xiv-xv).

_De somno et vigilia._

MSS. Bodl.: Digby 190, f. 77: _Inc._ ‘De somno et vigilia pertractantes, Perypateticorum sentenciam potissime sequemur.’

Cambridge:--Publ. Library Ii, vi. 5, fol. 85 b-88 (sec. xiii). _Inc._ ‘Sompnus ergo et vigilia describuntur multis modis.’

Logic:--

_Summulae Dialectices_, an elementary treatise on logic, characterised by Charles, who expresses a doubt as to its authenticity, as very dry, unimportant, and intended for lecturing purposes. _Inc._ ‘Introductio est brevis et apta demonstratio.’ ‘Expliciunt sumule magistri Roberti (_sic_) Baccun.’

MS. Bodl.: Digby 205, f. 48 (sec. xiv).

_Syncategoremata._ _Inc._ ‘Partium orationis quaedam sunt declinabiles.’

MS. Bodl.: Digby 204, fol. 88 (sec. xiv).

_Summa de sophismatibus et distinctionibus._ _Inc._ ‘Potest queri de difficultatibus accidentibus.’

MS. Bodl.: Digby 67, fol. 117 (sec. xiii); fragment.

_Tractatus de signis logicalibus._ _Inc._ ‘Signum est in predicamento relationis.’

MS. Bodl.: Digby 55, fol. 228 (sec. xiii).

_Opus Majus_, written A. D. 1266-1267; 7 parts. _Inc._ ‘Sapientiae perfecta consideratio consistit in duobus.’

MSS. of the whole work: Oxford:--Bodl. Digby 235 (sec. xv and xiv).

Dublin:--Trinity Coll. 81 (= 221); a transcript of this is in Trinity Coll. Cambridge.

Paris:--Bibl. Mazarine 3488 (sec. xviii).

Rome:--Vatican 4086 (Montfaucon’s Catal. p. 114), ‘Rogerii Baconi causae universales in septem partes distinctae’; probably the _Opus Majus_.

Parts I-VI edited by Jebb, 1733: reprinted at Venice 1750.

The parts often occur separately.

I. _On the four causes of human ignorance_: authority, custom, popular opinion, and the pride of supposed knowledge.

MS. Brit. Museum: Cott. Jul. F vii. fol. 186.

II. _On the causes of perfect wisdom in Holy Scripture_, or, _On the dignity of philosophy_.

III. _On the usefulness of grammar._

This part, Charles points out (p. 62), is not perfect in Jebb’s edition: see _Opus Tertium_, cap. XXVI, XXVII.

IV. _On the usefulness of mathematics._

MSS. London:--British Museum: Cotton, Tib. C. V. (sec. xiv); Julius D. V. ‘De utilitate scientiarum’; Julius F vii. fol. 178 (sec. xv), ‘Declaratio effectus verae mathematicae.’ And fol. 180, ‘De moribus hominum secundum complexiones et constellationes.’

Royal 7 F vii, p. 1 (sec. xiii), ‘Pars quarta compendii studii theologiae’; pp. 82-125, ‘Descriptiones locorum’; pp. 133-140, ‘De utilitate astronomiae,’ or ‘Tractatus de corporibus coelestibus.’

Sloane 2629, f. 17, ‘De utilitate astronomiae.’

Also Lambeth Palace Library 200 (sec. xv), ‘De arte mathematica.’

Oxford:--Bodl. E Musaeo 155, p. 185 (sec. xv ineuntis), ‘Pars quarta in qua ostendit potestatem mathematicae in scientiis et rebus et occupationibus hujus mundi.’ Univ. Coll. 49 (sec. xvii).

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 7455 A (sec. xv), ‘De utilitatibus scientiae mathematicae verae.’

Cf. Bodl.: Digby 218, f. 98 (sec. xiii-xiv).

Printed, except the last two chapters, by Combach, Frankfurt 1614, under the title: ‘Specula Mathematica in quibus de specierum multiplicatione ... agitur,’ &c.

V. _Perspective and Optics._

MSS. London:--Brit. Mus.: Royal 7 F vii. p. 125 (sec. xiii), ‘De visu et speculis’; 7 F viii. f. 47 (sec. xiii), ‘Perspectiva quedam singularis,’ ‘Perspectiva R. Bacon, liber secundus.’ Sloane 2156, f. 1 (A. D. 1428), and 2542 (sec. xv): Addit. 8786, f. 84, ‘Incipit tractatus de modis videndi.’

Oxford:--Bodl. Digby 77 (sec. xiv) and 91 (sec. xvi).

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 2598, f. 57 (sec. xv).

Venice:--St. Mark, Classis XI, Cod. 10 (sec. xiv).

Rome:--Vatican (Cod. Lat.) 828, f. 49 (A. D. 1349).

Printed by Combach, Frankfurt 1614, under the title, ‘Rogerii Baconis Angli ... Perspectiva.’

VI. _Experimental Science._

MSS. Brit. Mus.: Sloane 2629 (sec. xvi), extracts.

Oxford:--Bodl.: Digby 235, p. 389; Canon. Misc. 334, fol. 53, ‘Alius tractatus ejusdem Fratris Rogeri extractus de sexta parte compendii studii theologiae.’ Univ. Coll. 49.

VII. _Moral Philosophy._ _Inc._ ‘Manifestavi in precedentibus quod cognitio linguarum.’

MSS. Brit. Mus.: Royal 8 F ii. f. 167-179 (sec. xv), three parts out of six.

Bodl.: Digby 235, p. 421[1347].

Omitted in Jebb’s edition: extracts printed by Charles, pp. 339-348. Printed at Dublin 1860 (?)[1348].

_Opus Minus_, written in 1266-7, was mainly an abstract of the _Opus Majus_ with some additions on the state of scholasticism, on alchemy practical and speculative, and on astronomy. Charles gives the following description of it. It consisted of 6 parts:

i. Introduction or dedicatory letter; ii. Practical alchemy; iii. Explanation of the _Opus Majus_; the order of the sciences inverted, i.e. they were arranged according to their dignity, moral philosophy first; iv. Treatise on the seven sins of Theology; v. Speculative alchemy, or, _De rerum generationibus_ (see below); vi. _De Coelestibus_.

Of this work only the fragment edited by Brewer (_Opera Ined._ 311-390) from MS. Bodl. Digby 218, has been discovered. This includes a few pages of Part ii., all of iii., most of iv., and part of v. Wood quotes a passage from the _Opus Minus_ which does not occur in this fragment (_Opera Ined._ xciv. n. 1). From this it has been assumed that he had access to a MS. of the _Opus Minus_ now lost; but the passage is quoted by Leland, and probably copied from him by Wood. It may perhaps occur in some other work of Bacon’s; thus the passage quoted in _Op. Ined._ pp. xcvii-xcviii, from which Brewer argues that ‘Wood must have seen some other copy of the _Opus Minus_ not now discoverable,’ occurs in Brewer’s edition of the _Opus Tert._ pp. 272-3.

Part of the blank on p. 375 is to be filled up from the _Opus Majus, Pars VI, Exemplum II_, where the passage ‘_Est autem--curabit et_’ occurs, word for word. How much of the _Opus Majus_ was here inserted is doubtful; probably to the end of _Exemplum II_. Thus MS. Bodl. Canonic. Miscell. 334, f. 53, begins with the words, ‘_Corpora vero Adae et Evae_,’ _Opus Minus_, p. 373, and leaves off with the words, ‘_et alibi multis modis_,’ which occur at the end of _Opus Majus, Pars VI, Exemp. II_.

The last part of the _Opus Minus_ is wholly wanting in Brewer’s edition. The subject of this part may be gathered from Bacon’s words in _Opus Tert._, cap. xxvi (p. 96):

‘Nunc igitur tangam aliquas radices circa haec quas diligentius exposui in Secundo Opere, ubi de coelestibus egi’: and (p. 99) ‘Sed in Opere Minore ubi de coelestibus tractavi, exposui magis ista.’

In Digby MS. 76, fol. 36 seq. (sec. xiii) is a treatise on this subject, forming part of the _Physics_ in the great _Compendium Philosophiae_ (see below). It is not improbable, that, before being incorporated in this larger work, it formed part of the _Opus Minus_ sent to the Pope; on fol. 42 are the words:

‘et est nunc temporis scilicet anno domini 1266.’

_Opus Tertium_, written in 1267 (see _Opera Ined._ p. 277), 75 chapters.

MSS. London:--Brit. Mus: Cotton Tiberius C. V. (sec. xiv); also Lambeth Palace Library, 200 (chapters 1-45).

Oxford:--Bodl. E Musaeo 155 (sec. xv ineuntis); and Univ. Coll. 49 (A. D. 1617).

Cambridge:--Trinity College, MS. Gale (transcript of the Cotton MS.).

Douai, 691 (sec. xvii), wanting chapters 38-52: this MS. has been described by Victor Cousin, _Journal des Savants_ for 1848 (5 articles).

Printed in Bacon’s _Opera Inedita_ (Rolls Series), pp. 3-310.

Charles has been misled by a passage in the work called ‘_Communia Naturalium_’ into thinking that this latter formed part of the _Opus Tertium_; Charles, _R. Bacon_, pp. 65, 83-4; his description of _Opus Tertium_ is consequently erroneous. The passage is from the Mazarine MS. of the _Communia Naturalium_ (i.e. No. 3576), fol. 85:

‘Quod est improbatum in secunda parte primi operis, deinde in hoc tertio opere explanavi hoc et solvi objectiones.’

These words refer to Bacon’s doctrine that the _intellectus agens_ is not part of the soul, but God and angels. This is insisted on in the _Opus Tertium_, cap. xxiii, and it is not likely that Bacon would do more than refer to it again casually in the course of the same work. The relation of the _Opus Tertium_ to the _Commun. Nat._ is probably as follows: the latter was written or begun first. Bacon repeatedly mentions that he was, while writing his three _Opera_ for the Pope, engaged on a larger work, _Scriptum Principale_, which he did not send to Clement[1349]. Much of this larger work naturally found its way, probably in a summarised form, into the _Opus Tertium_ as we know it, the treatise actually sent to the Pope.

_Tractatus de multiplicatione specierum_, or, _De generatione specierum et multiplicatione et corruptione earum_, is inserted by Jebb in the _Opus Majus_, pp. 358-445, between Part v and Part vi. The subject is however discussed in Part iv, which is often quoted or referred to in Part v. In the _De multiplicatione_, &c. (p. 368), are the words:

Ut tactum est in communibus naturalium.

Again (p. 358):

Recolendum est igitur quod in tertia parte hujus operis tactum est, quod essentia, substantia, natura, potestas, potentia, virtus, vis, significant eandem rem, sed differunt sola comparatione.

There is nothing about this in the third part of the _Opus Majus_; but it is found in the _Communia Naturalium_. The treatise _De multiplicatione specierum_ was therefore part of a work of which the _Communia Naturalium_ formed the third part. This large work was according to Jebb, the _Opus Minus_; according to Charles, the _Opus Tertium_[1350]; according to Brewer, the encyclopaedic _Compendium Philosophiae._ Brewer is no doubt right; the _De multiplicatione_ was intended as a sub-section of the great treatise on Physics.

How then did the treatise come to be regarded as part of the _Opus Majus_, and to be inserted in the MSS. of that work? There can be little doubt that it was, in its original form, the treatise on rays sent to the Pope with the _Opus Majus_, but as a separate work (_Opera Ined._ pp. 227, 230). The references to the _Communia Naturalium_ are not inconsistent with this hypothesis: (1) the treatise on rays does not seem to have been written specially for the Pope, and consequently references to works which he could not know were not unnatural; (2) Bacon had already begun the encyclopaedic work, but found it impossible to get it finished or send it to the Pope (_Opera Inedita_, pp. 60, 315).

_Inc._ ‘Primum igitur capitulum circa influentiam agentis habet tres veritates.’

MSS. London:--Brit. Mus.: Royal 7 F viii. f. 13; _inc._ ‘Postquam habitum,’ &c. Addit. 8786, fol. 20 b: _inc._ ‘Postquam habitum est de principiis rerum naturalium’: Sloane 2156, f. 40 (A. D. 1428); _inc._ ‘Postquam,’ &c.

Oxford:--Bodl. Digby 235, p. 305 (inserted in the _Opus Majus_).

Dublin:--Trinity Coll. 81 (in the _Opus Majus_).

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 2598 (sec. xv): _inc._ ‘Postquam,’ &c.

Bruges, 490 (sec. xiii), called _Philosophia Baconis_.

Printed in Jebb.

_De speculis_ (on burning mirrors). _Inc._ ‘Ex concavis speculis ad solem positis ignis accenditur.’

MS. Oxford:--Bodl. Ashmole, 440 (sec. xvi); cf. Digby 71.

Printed at Frankfurt 1614, in Combach’s _Specula Mathematica_, p. 168.

_Speculi Abnukefi compositio secundum Rogerium Bacon._ _Inc._ ‘Quia universorum quos de speculis ad datam distanciam.’

MS. Bodl.: Canonic. Misc. 408, fol. 48.

Cf. Brit. Mus. Cott. Vesp. A ii. f. 140.

_Compendium Philosophiae_, an encyclopaedic work, which if completed would have formed a kind of revised and enlarged edition of the _Opus Majus_, _Opus Minus_, and _Opus Tertium_. In the _Communia Naturalium_, cap. i. (MS. Bodl. Digby 70) Bacon gives a sketch of his plan. The work was to consist of four volumes, and to treat of six branches of knowledge, viz., vol. i. Grammar and Logic; vol. ii. Mathematics; vol. iii. Physics; vol. iv. Metaphysics and Morals. This _Compendium_ seems to have been known also as _Liber sex scientiarum_. The latter title is found in the collection printed at Frankfurt in 1603[1351] in MSS. Bodl. Canonic. Misc. No. 334, fol. 49 b; _ibid._, No. 480, fol. 33; and E Musaeo 155, p. 689. In each of these MSS. the same passage is quoted, as follows:

Dicta fratris Rogerii Bacon in libro sex scienciarum in 3{o} gradu sapiencie, ubi loquitur de bono corporis et de bono fortune et de bono et honestate morum. (_Inc._) In debito regimine corporis et prolongatione vite ad ultimos terminos naturales ... miranda potestas astronomie alkimie et perspective et scienciarum experimentalium. Sciendum igitur est pro bono corporis quod homo fuit immortalis naturaliter ... (_Expl._) ut fiant sublimes operaciones et utilissime in hoc mundo, etc.

Charles identifies the _Liber sex scientiarum_ with the _Opus Minus_; but this passage does not occur in the extant portion of the _Opus Minus_ which deals with the same subject and expresses the same ideas (_Opera Ined._, p. 370 _seq._). It seems probable therefore that this passage is an extract from the section on Alchemy in vol. iii. of the _Compendium Philosophiae_.

Vol. I. _Grammar and Logic._ A portion of this has been edited by Brewer, _Opera Ined._, pp. 393-519, under the title _Compendium Studii Philosophiae_. It was written in 1271, and contains an introduction on the value of knowledge and the impediments to it, and the beginning of a treatise on grammar.

MS. Cott. Tiberius C. V. (sec. xiv).

Two other treatises on grammar by Roger Bacon are extant, and probably formed part of the _Comp. Phil._[1352]:

(1) _Inc._ ‘Primus hic liber voluminis grammatici circa linguas alias a Latino.... Manifestata laude et declarata utilitate cognitionis grammatice’ (chiefly on Greek grammar).

MSS. Brit. Museum: Cotton Jul. F viii. f. 175 (sec. xv), a fragment.

Oxford:--Corpus Christi Coll. 148 (sec. xv); Univ. Coll. 47 (sec. xvii).

Douai, 691 § 1 (sec. xvii), copied from Univ. Coll. MS. 47.

(2) _Inc._ ‘Oratio grammatica autem fit mediante verbo.’ ‘Explicit summa de grammatica magistri Rogeri Bacon.’

MS. Cambridge:--Peterhouse, 1, 9, 5, James 3 (sec. xiv).

Vol. II. _Mathematics_; 6 books:

i. _Communia mathematicae_, ii-vi. Special branches of mathematics.

Liber i. _Inc._ ‘Hic incipit volumen verae mathematicae habens sex libros. Primus est de communibus mathematicae, et habet tres partes principales.’

MSS. British Museum: Sloane 2156, f. 74-97 (sec. xv), ending in the second part of the first book.

Bodl.: Digby 76, fol. 48 (sec. xiii), containing the remainder of the first book (?). _Inc._ ‘Mathematica utitur tantum parte.’

Libri ii-vi. An extant fragment of a commentary on Euclid by Bacon may have belonged to this part; in _De Coelestibus_ (_Comp. Phil._ vol. iii.) he often refers to his commentary on the Elements of Euclid (Charles, p. 85).

MS. Digby 76, f. 77-8 (sec. xiii).

A treatise, _De laudibus mathematicae_, expressing the same ideas as Part iv. of the _Opus Majus_, may have been intended as an introduction to this volume.

MS. Royal 7 F vii. fol. 141-152: cf. Digby 218, f. 98.

Vol. III. _Physics._ First came general physics (1 book), then particular sciences (3 books).

Liber i. _Communia Naturalium_, divided into 4 parts.

MSS. Brit. Mus.: Royal 7 F vii. f. 84 (sec. xiii), _Liber Naturalium_. ‘Hoc est volumen naturalis philosophiae in quo traditur scientia rerum naturalium, secundum potestatem octo scientiarum naturalium quae enumerantur in secundo capitulo; et habet hoc volumen quatuor libros principales, Primum scilicet _De communibus ad omnia naturalia_; secundum _De Coelestibus_; tertium _De Elementis, mixtis, inanimatis_; quartum _De vegetabilibus et generabilibus_.’ (This MS. ends at the third part of the first book).

Bodl.: Digby 70 (sec. xiv). _Communia Naturalium._ _Inc._ ‘Postquam tradidi grammaticam’ [Desinit ad init. cap. vii].

Cf. Digby 190, f. 29 (sec. xiv ineuntis). _De principiis naturae_; beginning illegible.

Paris:--Bibl. Mazarine 3576; olim 1271, f. 1-90 (sec. xiv). ‘Incipit liber primus Communium naturalium Fratris Rogeri Bacon, habens quatuor partes principales, quarum prima habet distinctiones quatuor. Prima distinctio est de communibus ad omnia naturalia et habet capitula quatuor. Capitulum primum de ordine scientiae naturalis ad alias. (_Inc._) Postquam tradidi grammaticam secundum linguas diversas.’

Extracts printed by Charles, pp. 369-391.

Libri ii, iii, iv. The special natural sciences, according to the Royal MS. just quoted, were treated in three books. They were seven[1353] in number, as Bacon enumerates them in the second chapter of the first part of the _Communia Naturalium_.

‘Praeter scientiam communem naturalibus, sunt septem speciales, videlicet perspectiva, astronomia judiciaria et operativa, scientia ponderum de gravibus et levibus, alkimia, agricultura, medicina, scientia experimentalis.’

Liber ii. (1) _Optics_ or _Perspective_ (a version of the _De multiplicatione specierum_). _Inc._ ‘Ostensum quippe in principio hujus Compendii Philosophiae.’

MSS. Brit. Mus: Royal 7 F vii. p. 221 (sec. xiii), fragment, called ‘Quinta pars Compendii theologiae’; and Addit. 8786, fol. 2 (fragment).

[Cf. Bodl. Digby 183, fol. 49 (sec. xiv)?] See the references under _Tract. de multiplicatione specierum_.

(2) _Astronomy_, or, _De coelo et mundo_.

MSS. Oxford:--Bodl. Digby 76, f. 1 (sec. xiii), _Compendium Philosophiae_. _Inc._ ‘Prima igitur veritas circa corpora mundi est quod non est unum corpus continuum et unius nature.’ _Ibid._ fol. 36, _De corporibus coelestibus, sc. de zodiaco, sole, etc._ _Inc._ ‘Habito de corporibus mundi prout mundum absolute constituunt’ (cf. _Opus Minus_). Cf. Ashmole 393 I, f. 44 (sec. xv), ‘Veritates de magnitudine ... planetarum. Tractatus extractus de libris celi et mundi,’ etc. Also, Univ. Coll. 49, De corporibus coelestibus.

Paris:--Mazarine 3576, _De coelestibus_ (five chapters). _Inc._ ‘Prima igitur veritas.’

(3) _Gravity_, _Scientia ponderum de gravibus et levibus_.

Cf. _Tractatus trium verborum_.

Liber iii. (4) _Alchemy_, or, _De elementis_[1354].

Liber iv. _De vegetabilibus et generabilibus_[1355].

(5) _Agriculture._

See note in Brewer, _Opera Ined._ p. li.

(6) _Medicine._

(7) _Experimental Science._

Vol. IV. _Metaphysics and Morals._

_Inc._ ‘Quoniam intencio principalis est innuere nobis vicia studii theologici que contracta sunt ex curiositate philosophie.’

MSS. Bodl.: Digby 190, fol. 86 b (sec. xiii-xiv). ‘Methaphisica fratris Rogeri ordinis Fratrum Minorum, de viciis contractis in studio theologie’ (25 lines).

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 7440 (sec. xiv), fol. 38-40, fol. 25-32. ‘Incipit metaphysica Rogeri Baconis de ordine praedicatorum’ (fragment).

It is, however, probable that these MS. fragments ought to be referred to Bacon’s last work, the _Compendium Studii Theologiae_, rather than to the _Compendium Philosophiae_.

_Compendium studii theologiae_, Bacon’s last work, bears the date 1292 (‘usque ad hunc annum Domini 1292’). Extracts from it are printed by Charles, pp. 410-416. This work consisted of six parts or more.

Part i. _On the causes of error._

Part ii. _Logic and grammar in reference to theology._

These two parts are extant (though not complete) in MS. British Museum, Royal F vii. pp. 153-161: there is a long gap between pp. 154 and 155.

According to this MS. the work consisted of two parts:

‘Incipit compendium studii theologiae et per consequens philosophiae ut potest et debet servire theologicae facultati, et habet duas partes principales; prima liberali communicatione sapientiae investigat omnes causas errorum, et modos errandi in hoc studio.... Secunda pars descendit ad veritates stabiliendas et ad errores cum diligentia exterminandos.’

Part v. is preserved in Royal MS. 7 F. viii. f. 2 (sec. xiii) (almost complete); it is a treatise on _optics_.

_Incipit_: ‘Acto prologo istius quintae partis hujus voluminis quam voco compendium studii theologiae, in quo quidem comprehendo in summa intentionem totius operis, extra partem ejus signans omnia impedimenta totius studii et remedia, nunc accedo ad tractatum exponens ea quae necessaria sunt theologiae de perspectiva et de visu.’

Part vi. is mentioned in Part v.: it is to be a treatise, ‘_De multiplicatione Specierum_.’

In Part iv. also the words ‘_in partibus sequentibus_’ occur.

_Alchemy_ was treated in the _Opus Minus_ and in the _Compendium Philosophiae_. Bacon divides it into (1) Speculative alchemy, ‘the science of the generation of things from elements’; (2) Practical alchemy, ‘which teaches us how to make noble metals and colours,’ &c., and the art of prolonging life (_Opus Tertium_, cap. xii). Wood mentions a treatise of Bacon’s _De rerum generationibus_, of which he had seen two copies varying much. These may have been the versions in the _Opus Minus_[1356] and the _Compendium Philosophiae_[1357]. A number of works on alchemy and medicine ascribed to Bacon have been preserved, some of them are undoubtedly genuine, others apocryphal.

_Epistolae fratris Rogerii Baconis de secretis operibus artis et naturae et de nullitate magiae_ [or, _De mirabili potestate artis et naturae_].

The work consists of a letter or collection of letters in ten or eleven chapters, the last five of which Charles considers doubtful, addressed perhaps to William of Auvergne (who died in 1248), or to John of London, whom Charles identifies with John of Basingstoke (d. 1252).

_Inc. cap._ 1. ‘Vestrae petitioni respondeo diligenter. Nam licet.’

MS. Brit. Mus: Sloane 2156, p. 117.

Printed at Paris 1542; at Oxford 1594; Hamburg 1613; in Zetzner’s _Theatrum Chemicum_, 1659; and by Brewer in _Rog. Bacon Opera Inedita_, App. I.

The three following treatises were printed at Frankfurt in 1603, under the title, _Sanioris medicinae magistri D. Rogeri Baconis angli de arte chymiae scripta_, &c., and elsewhere.

Summary of Avicenna’s _De anima_. _Inc._ ‘In illius nomine qui major est.’

MS. Bodl: Ashmole 1467 (sec. xvi). [Cf. Charles, _R. Bacon_, p. 59; _Opera Ined._ p. 39.]

_Breve Breviarium_, or, _De naturis metallorum in ratione alkimica et artificiali transformatione_, or, _Coelestis alchymia_, or, _De naturis metallorum et ipsorum transmutatione_.

Divided into two parts, speculative and practical alchemy; the work contains no doubt some of the ideas incorporated in the _Opus Minus_ and the _Comp. Philosophiae_. The date is uncertain.

_Inc._ ‘Breve breviarium breviter abbreviatum.’

MSS. Brit. Mus: Sloane 276, f. 4 (sec. xv-xvi).

Bodl.: Digby 119, fol. 64 (sec. xiv); and Bodl. E Musaeo 155, p. 513.

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. new Latin collection, No. 1153. (Abbey of St. Germain).

_Tractatus trium verborum_, or, _Epistolae tres ad Johannem Parisiensem_; namely:

i. ‘De separatione ignis ab oleo,’ or, ‘De modo projectionis’; ii. ‘De modo miscendi’; iii. ‘De ponderibus.’ _Inc._ ‘Cum ego Rogerus rogatus a pluribus.’

MSS. British Museum: Cotton Julius D. V.; Harleian 3528, f. 174; Sloane 1754, ‘Mendacium primum, secundum, et tertium.’

Oxford:--Bodl: Digby 119, f. 82 (sec. xiv ineuntis); Ashmole 1448, pp. 1-25 (sec. xv); Corpus Christi Coll. 125, f. 84{b}; University Coll. 49.

_Fragment on alchemy_, without title.

MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 2598, f. 138 (sec. xv), ‘Explicit de subjecto transmutationis secundum Rogerum Bachonis.’ It perhaps occurs in one of his larger works.

_Libellus Rogerii Baconi ... de retardandis senectutis accidentibus et de sensibus conservandis_ (11 chapters). This work is assigned by Charles to the year 1276. _Inc. prol._ ‘Domine mundi ex nobilissima stirpe originem assumpsistis.’ _Inc. cap._ 1. (De causis senectutis). ‘Senescente mundo senescunt homines.’

MSS. Brit. Museum: Sloane 2320, fol. 56.

Bodl.: E Musaeo 155, pp. 591-637 (sec. xiv-xv); Canonic. Misc. 334, fol. 1 (sec. xv); and 480, fol. 1 (sec. xv).

Printed at Oxford in 1596 (and in English, London 1683).

_Antidotarius_, a second part of this work. _Inc._ ‘Post completum universalis sciencie medicacionis tractatum.’

MSS. Bodl.: Canonic. Miscell. 334 (fol. 21{b} to 25), and 480 (fol. 16); E Musaeo 155, p. 645. Cf. MS. Canon. Misc. 480, fol. 38{b}-47, below.

_Liber Bacon de sermone rei admirabilis, sive de retardatione senectutis._ _Inc._ ‘Intendo componere sermonem rei admirabilis domino meo fratri E, cujus vitam deus prolonget.’

MSS. Bodl.: E Musaeo 155, pp. 655-666; Digby 183, fol. 45 (sec. xiv exeuntis); Canonic. Miscell. 334, fol. 25-31.

_De universali regimine senum et seniorum._ _Inc._ ‘Summa regiminis senum universalis est hoc ut dicit Avicenna.’

MSS. Brit. Mus.: Sloane 2629, fol. 57.

Bodl.: Canon. Miscell. 334, fol. 18{b}-21{b}; 480 (_explicit_ fol. 16); and E Musaeo 155, p. 638.

_De graduacione medicinarum compositarum._ _Inc._ ‘Omnis forma inherens.’

MSS. Bodl. Canon. Misc. 334, fol. 32; 480; fol. 23{b} (the author’s name is obliterated in the MS.).

_Tractatus de erroribus medicorum_[1358]. _Inc._ ‘Vulgus medicorum.’

MSS. Oxford: Bodl. Canon. Misc. 334, fol. 42; 480, fol. 30 (author’s name obliterated); E Musaeo 155, pp. 669-689. Corpus Ch. Coll. 127 (sec xv).

_Canones practici de medicinis compositis componendis_, ‘Cap. i. Extractum de libro septimo Serapionis qui est antidotarium suum et est theoricum capitulum.’ (13 chapters.) _Inc._ ‘Necesse est illi qui vult componere medicinas.’ ‘Explicit tractatus de compositione medicinarum per fratrem rugerium bacon editus.’

MS. Bodl. Canon. Misc. 480, fol. 38{b}-47.

_De leone viridi_ (on the manufacture of mercury); only the summary by Raymund Gaufredi is extant. _Inc._ ‘Verbum abbreviatum.’

MSS. Brit. Mus.:--Sloane 692, f. 46 (sec. xv). Oxford:--Corpus Chr. Coll. 277. Printed at Frankfurt, 1603 (_Sanioris medicinae_, p. 264), &c.

A number of works on alchemy are attributed to Roger Bacon erroneously or without any probability.

_De consideratione quintae essentiae_; 3 books.

The author was a Franciscan who entered the Order at Toulouse[1359]. _Inc. opus._ ‘Dixit Salomon sapientie cap. vii. Deus dedit mihi.’

MSS. Bodl.: Canonic. Misc. 334, fol. 59{b}. ‘Primus liber de consideracione quinte essencie omnium rerum transmutabilium. In nomine domini nostri Jhesu Christi. Incipit liber de famulatu philosophie ewangelio domini Jhesu Christi et pauperibus euangelicis viris Amen.’ Fol. 94{b}, ‘Explicit liber quinte essencie secundum fratrem Rogerium Bacun de ordine minorum.’

Bodl. E Musaeo 155, pp. 431-507. ‘Explicit liber tertius de consideracione 5{te} essencie secundum magistrum Rogerum Bacon, correctus et scriptus per Johannem Cokkes manibus suis propriis Oxon[1360].’

Brit. Museum: Sloane 2320, f. 73 (sec. xv-xvi).

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 7151 (xv).

Venice:--St. Mark, vol. IV. CI. XIV., Cod. 39.

_De expulsione veneni._ _Inc._ ‘Ista subscripta sequerentur post capitulum de hiis que expellunt venenum.’

MS. Bodl. E Musaeo 155, p. 507 (not expressly ascribed to Bacon in the MS.: see Brewer, _Op. Ined._ p. xl.).

_Speculum alchemiae._ _Inc._ ‘Multifariam multisque modis.’

MSS. Brit. Museum: Addit. 8786, f. 62; 15,549; Sloane 3506 (English translation).

Bodl.: Ashmole 1416, f. 101 (sec. xv).

Printed in Zetzner’s _Theatrum Chemicum_, vol. ii., A. D. 1659; in Manget’s _Theasurus_, vol. i., &c., &c.

_Speculum alchemiae._ _Inc._ ‘Speculum alchemiae quod in corde meo figuravi.’

MS. Brit. Mus.: Harl. 3528, fol. 185.

_Speculum secretorum_, or, _Liber secretorum_. _Inc._ ‘In nomine Domini ... ad instructionem multorum circa hanc artem.’

MSS. Brit. Mus.: Sloane 513, f. 178{b} (sec. xv).

Oxford:--Bodl.: Digby 28, f. 61 (sec. xiv); Digby 119, f. 90{b}; Ashmole 1467, f. 208{b}, and 1485, p. 117 (sec. xvi). Also Corpus Christi Coll. 125, f. 86.

Printed at Frankfurt, 1603 (p. 387).

_Secretum secretorum naturae de laude lapidis Philosophorum._ _Inc._ ‘Secretum secretorum naturae audiant secreti quae loquor.’

Printed at Frankfurt, 1603 (pp. 285-291).

_Rogerina major et minor_, two medical treatises; neither by Bacon: one is by a Roger Baron.

MSS. Bodl. 2626; Cf. MS. St. Omer 624 (sec. xiii); Charles, _R. Bacon_, p. 75, _note_.

Cambridge, Publ. Libr. Ii, I. 16 (sec. xiv) and Ee, II. 20.

Brit. Mus.: Sloane 342, f. 146 (sec. xiii).

_De Magnete._ _Inc._ ‘Amicorum intime, quamdam magnetis lapidis.’

MS. Bodl. E Musaeo 155, pp. 414-426 (anon.): Charles (p. 18) ascribes it to Peter de Maricourt.

_Calendar_, wrongly attributed to Bacon; made by a Minorite at Toledo 1297, and extracted from the _Tabulae Toletanae_.

MS. Cott. Vesp. A. II. f. 2; Cf. _Opus Majus_ p. 140 (ed. Venet, 1750).

_Semita recta alchemiae_ (or, _Liber duodecim aquarum_).

MS. Brit. Mus.: Sloane 513, f. 181{b}-188{b} (sec. xv): ‘Explicit semita recta alkemie secundum Magistrum Rogerum Bakun.’

Cf. MS. Sloane 276, f. 21, an anonymous work on the same subject, differing somewhat from the above.

Bodl.: Ashmole 1485, pp. 173-188 (sec. xvi), ‘Liber aquarum.’

_Thesaurus spirituum_, four treatises on the influence of planets, &c. _Inc._ ‘Hec est doctrina omnium experimentorum.’

MS. Brit. Museum: Sloane 3853, f. 3-40 (sec. xv). ‘Hec est tabula libri sequentis ... a quodam viro venerabili ordinis Minorum fratre summa composita et ordinata, et a diligencia M. Rogero Bakon ordinis Minorum nuper recognita, qui quidem liber pro omnibus hujus mundi experimentis sufficit,’ &c.

‘Explicit liber qui secundum Robertum Turconem et Rogerum Bakon fratrem Minorum Thesaurus spirituum nuncupatur.’

Cf. MS. Sloane 3850, f. 129{b}, _De nigromantia_, extracted from the above.

_De fistula._

MS. Sloane 238, f. 214{b}-216{b} (sec. xv). ‘Secundum Rogerum Bacon ut habetur in libro qui dicitur Thesaurus pauperum[1361].’

_Necromanciae._ _Inc._ ‘Debes mundare manus et pedes ante visionem characterum.’

MS. Sloane 3884, f. 44{b} (sec. xv-xvi): ‘Haec sunt quae Rogerus Bacon de pura necromancia dixit.’

Other worthless recipes, fragments, &c., attributed to Bacon will be found in MSS:--

Bodl. 3, 349, ‘Index simplicium’; Ashmole 1423, iv. pp. 1-7 ‘Opus,’ ‘Opus Commune,’ ‘De conclusionibus’; Sloane 692, f. 102, ‘Finalis conclusio’; Harl. 2269, art. I; Cott. Jul. D. V. ‘De colore faciendo’; Digby 196, f. 163{b}, ‘Septem virtutes naturae’; Ashmole 1485 (sec. xv), various.

_De intellectu et intelligentia_, and _De nutrimento_, which Charles considers genuine, are printed among the works of Albertus Magnus.

MSS. Bodl.: Digby 67, f. 107 (sec. xiv), anon: and Digby 55, f. 193, anon: Alb. Magnus, _Opera_, V. p. 239 and 175 (Lugd. 1657).

_Tractatus de veritate theologiae in septem partes distributus_, perhaps by Robert Bacon. _Inc._ ‘Flecto genua mea ad patrem domini nostri Jesu Christi.’

MS. Bodley 745 (= 2764) (sec. xiv) pp. 113-188: ‘Incipit tractatus fratris B.’ Part i. de trinitate dei; ii. de creatura dei; iii. de corruptela peccati; iv. de incarnacione verbi; v. de gratia spiritus sancti; vi. de medicina sacramentali; vii. de statu finalis judicii.

_Tractatus super Psalterium_, probably by Robert Bacon.

MS. _ibid._ pp. 193-497. ‘Incipit tractatus fratris R. Bacun, super psalterium. Beatus vir qui.’

_Excerptiones Rogeri Bacon ex auctoribus musicae artis_; or correctly, _Excerptiones Hogeri abbatis_, &c.

MS. Cambridge:--Corp. Chr. Coll. 260 (_olim_ 189).

Cf. MS. Milan:--Ambrosiana, _Rogerii de Baccono de generatione et corruptione, de Musica, de prospectiva_ (Montfaucon, p. 523). Cf. Opera Inedita, 295 _seq._

_De sacrae scripturae profundis misteriis authore Rogero Bacon._

MS. London:--Gray’s Inn, 17 (sec. xv); the title is in a later hand. It is probably a version of the Expositiones Vocabulorum de singulis libris Bibliae Rogeri compotistae monachi S. Eadmundi;

MSS. Oxford:--Bodl. Laud. Misc. 176 (sec. xiv); Magd. Coll. 112 (sec. xv).

=John=, Roger Bacon’s favourite pupil, was certainly not John of London[1362], or John Peckham[1363]. On the other hand it is impossible to identify him with any known scholastic doctor. It is not certain whether he was a friar or whether he was ever at Oxford. About 1260 Roger Bacon found him probably at Paris, as a poor boy of fifteen eager to learn, but forced to beg his bread and to serve those who gave him the necessaries of life[1364].

‘I caused him,’ says Roger[1365], ‘to be taken care of and instructed for the love of God.’

The boy repaid his master’s care. Wishing to send a fit interpreter of his works to the Pope, Bacon writes[1366],

‘I chose a youth whom for five or six years I have had instructed in languages and mathematics and optics, in which is all the difficulty of what I send; and I instructed him gratis with my own mouth after I received your command, feeling that I could not at present have another messenger after my own heart.’

There was no one at Paris who knew so much of the roots of philosophy as did _juvenis Johannes_; he was ‘a virgin, not knowing mortal sin,’ and ‘an excellent keeper of secrets[1367].’ John was sent to Clement with the _Opus Majus_ and other treatises[1368] in 1267, the other works, _Opus Minus_ and _Opus Tertium_, being sent later and probably by other messengers. From this time we have no authentic information about him, and do not know whether he fulfilled Bacon’s expectations:

‘he has that which will enable him to surpass all the Latins, if he lives to old age and builds on the foundations which he has[1369].’

=Robert de Ware=, in Hertfordshire[1370], entered the Order at Oxford between 1265 and 1268. In the prologue of his only extant work, addressed to his younger brother John, he gives the following account of his conversion[1371]:--

I was the eldest son of my father; at a tender age, tenderly beloved, I was designed for a life of study. At length I came to Oxford, and then I entered the Order of Friars Minors. At this my father was exceedingly grieved, and did all in his power to force me to leave the Order, sending my mother and brother and relatives and other friends to me, with intreaties and promises; and, I am told, with the help of some powerful persons, he made every exertion to secure my liberation in the court of Ottobon, who was then acting as legate in England[1372]. At length finding himself thwarted because I would not give my consent, he became so embittered against me that he absolutely refused to see me or speak with me, nor could any of my friends pacify him. One day even, when I had come to his gates with my companion-friar, and wished to enter, he refused me admittance by his servants, drew his sword, and swore with a mighty oath that he would kill me if I presumed to enter.

At length the father was stricken down by a mortal disease, and, warned in a vision, he relented towards his son. The latter was summoned hastily from London, and reconciled to his father, who before his death gave proof of his devotion to the Order of St. Francis.

_Twenty-five discourses on the Virgin Mary, by friar Robert de Ware._ _Inc. prol._ “Aue rosarium scripturarum per areolas.”

MS. London:--Gray’s Inn, 7, f. 62-138: (sec. xiii). No title; the name of the author is given in a hand of the fourteenth century.

=Walter de Landen=, =William Cornish=, =William de Wykham=, =Dyonisius=, and =Robert de Cap(e)ll=, were Franciscans at Oxford, and took part in the controversy with the Dominicans in 1269. All that is known about them will be found in Appendix C.

=Nicholas de Gulac= was at Oxford in 1269. Suffering from stone and despairing of life, he at length prayed the Lord

‘to cure him by the merits of his martyr Earl Simon de Montfort.’

On the next morning as he rose from his bed ‘_ut commingeret_,’ the stone fell at his feet, and he had no pain before or afterwards, being completely cured on Easter Tuesday, 1269; to this miracle witness was borne by the whole convent of Minorites at Oxford[1373].

=Laurence of Cornwall=, to whose miraculous recovery from fever, after prayer to Simon de Montfort, the same Friar N. de Gulac bore witness, was probably at Oxford about the same time[1374].

=Stephanus Hibernicus=, called also =Stephen of Exeter= and =Stephen of Oxford=, was born in 1246, and became a Minorite at ‘Mutifernana’ in 1263. These facts are contained in the _Annales Montis Fernandi (sive Minoritarum Multifernanae) ab a{o} 45 usque ad an. 1274_, the authorship of which is usually ascribed to Stephen[1375]. It is very doubtful whether he was at Oxford.

The _Annales_ are extant in ‘MS. Bibl. Arch. Armachani,’ according to Hardy; formerly MS. Clarendon 19, f. 32-44 (Bernard).

=William of Ware=, or =William Warre=, =Guaro=, =Varro=, &c., born at Ware in Hertfordshire, entered the Order in his youth, according to William Woodford[1376]. It is not improbable that he studied at Oxford, but there is no authority for the statement[1377]. He was S.T.P. of Paris, where most of his life was spent[1378]. He is said to have been a pupil of Alexander of Hales[1379] (d. 1245), and master of Duns Scotus[1380], who went to Paris in 1304. He was called _doctor fundatus_ by later writers[1381].

His _Commentaries on the Sentences_ were seen by Leland in the Franciscan Library, London[1382], and are now extant in the following MSS.:

Oxford:--Merton Coll. 103, 104 (sec. xiv). _Inc._ ‘Utrum finis per se et proprius theologie.’

Toulouse, 242, § 1 (sec. xiv), anon. _Inc. ut supra._

Troyes, 661, § 1 (xiv). ‘Questiones super I et III lib. Sentent.’ ascribed to Duns Scotus. _Inc. ut supra._

Troyes, 661 § 2 (xiv). ‘Questiones Wareti super tertium librum Sententiarum.’ _Inc._ ‘Queritur utrum incarnacio sit possibilis Quod non. Incarnacio est quedam.’

Vienna:--Bibl. Palat. 1424, and 1438 (xiv).

Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. xxxiii, Dext. Cod. i (sec. xiii).

Padua, Bibl. S. Antonii, _in Pluteis_ xxiv and xxii. (Tomasin, pp. 62{a}, 60{b}.)

=Richard Middleton= is said by Bale, Wood, and others, to have studied at Oxford, but they produce no evidence for the statement[1383]. He was B.D. at Paris in 1283[1384], when with other doctors and bachelors he was appointed to examine the doctrines of Peter Johannis Olivi. He appears to have incepted as D.D. soon afterwards[1385], and is reckoned among the masters of Duns Scotus. Like many other famous doctors of his Order, he is said by Wadding to have written on the Immaculate Conception[1386]. According to Willot he was known at Paris as _Doctor solidus et copiosus, fundatissimus et authoratus_[1387]: at the Council of Basel he was referred to as _Doctor profundus_[1388].

_Commentum super iv. Sententiarum._ _Inc. prologus_, ‘Abscondita produxit.’

MSS. Oxford:--Bodl. 2765 (now Bodley 744)--Balliol Coll. 198 (sec. xiv)--Merton Coll. 98, f. 118 (sec. xiv).

Cambridge:--Caius Coll. 303--Pembroke Coll. 111, 113.

Canterbury:--Cathedral Lib. 4.

Munich:--Bibl. Regia, 3549 (sec. xv) and 8078 (sec. xiii-xiv).

Printed at Venice 1489, at Venice _sine anno_, and Venice 1507-9, &c.

_Quaestiones quodlibetales_ (two parts). _Inc. Pars I._ ‘Queritur utrum Deus sit summe simplex.’

MSS. Oxford:--Merton Coll. 139, fol. 2 (sec. xiv).

Troyes, 142 (xiv); _Pars II incipit ut supra_.

Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. xvii, Sin. Cod. vi (sec. xiv _ineuntis_).

_Quodlibeta tria._ (The first contains 22 questions; the second 31; the third 27.) _Inc._ ‘In nostra disputacione de quolibet.’

MSS. Oxford:--Merton Coll. 139, f. 162 (sec. xiv).

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 14305 (sec. xiii) _Questiones de quolibet_; this may contain either the _Quodl. tria_ or the _Questiones Quodlib._, or both.

Toulouse, 738 (sec. xiii).

Florence:--Laurent. _ut supra_.

Printed at Venice 1509, Paris 1519, and Brescia 1591.

_De gradibus formarum._

MS. Munich 8723, fol. 175 (sec. xiv and xv).

_Quaestiones disputatae_, by R. Middleton and others.

MS. Assisi (see Fratini, p. 203).

_Sermo fratris Ricardi de dilatatione sermonum_ (?). _Inc._ ‘Quoniam emulatores estis.’

MS. Oxford:--Merton Coll. 249, f. 175 (sec. xiii).

=William de la Mare=, =de Mara=, or =Lamarensis=, may have studied at Oxford[1389] before he went to Paris, where he was a disciple of Bonaventura. In 1284 he published a criticism of Thomas Aquinas, called _Correctorium operum fratris Thomae_[1390], which afterwards won for him the title of standard-bearer of the Anti-Thomists[1391]. This treatise, which may perhaps be still extant in an Italian library, is generally known only through the reply to it, attributed sometimes to Aegidius Romanus, but with more probability to Richard Clapwell[1392]. ‘The serious part of the work of William de Lamarre,’ says M. Charles, ‘seems directly inspired by Bacon[1393].’ He had no doubt come under Roger’s influence either at Oxford or Paris. William de Mara appears also to have written in favour of a strict observance of the Rule of St. Francis. In a dispute on the interpretation of the Rule in 1310, Friar Ubertino de Casali, one of the leaders of the ‘Spiritual’ party, quoted, in support of his views,

‘the opinion of St. Francis expressed in his Rule, and of Pope Nicholas in his Declaration, of Friar Bonaventura in his Apologia, of Friars Alexander and Rigaldus ... and of Friar John de Peckham in his book on Evangelical Perfection, and of Friar William de Mara, who were all solemn masters of our Order[1394].’

From this it is clear that William died before 1310.

Some of his writings are extant in MS.

_Summa Fratris Gul. de Mara contra D. Thomam._

MS. Venice:--Bibl. S. Anton. _in Pluteo_ xix (Tomasin).

_Correctorium Fratris Gul. de Mera ... secundum dicta D. Thomae de Aquino contra correctorium Fratris Joannis (?) de Crapuel Ordinis Praedicatorum_--perhaps the printed _Defensorium seu Correctorium_.

MS. _ibid. in Pluteo_ xviii.

_Quaestiones de natura virtutis_, by ‘Gulielmus de le Maire, ordinis Minorum.’

MS. Brit. Museum:--Burney 358 (sec. xiv)--mutilated at the beginning.

_Sermo Fratris Guillermi de la Mare regentis in Theologia._ (On St. Peter.) _Inc._ ‘Precurrens ascendit in arborem sycomorum.... Fratres orate ut sermo Dei currat et clarificetur.’

MS. Troyes, 1788 (sec. xiv).

_Expositio libri Physicorum Aristotelis_; and _Comment. in libros 1, 2, et 3, Sententiarum_[1395].

MSS. Sta. Croce, Florence 380, 381, 382, 383; mentioned in Wadding, _Sup. ad Script._ These MSS. are now in the Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. xxxiv. Sin. Codd. iv, v, vi, vii, but they do not seem to contain the _Physics_.

_Quaestiones tres philosophicae per Gulielmum (de Mara?) de Anglia, fratrem ordinis Minorum._ _Inc._ ‘Est dubitacio utrum lineam componam ex punctis.’

MS. Bodl. Canon. Misc. 226, f. 76 (sec. xv). There seems no reason for attributing these to W. de Mara rather than to William of Ockham, or any English Minorite named William[1396].

=John of Oxford=, Friar Minor, was ordained priest by Peckham in 1284[1397].

=Richard de Slekeburne= (co. Durham), confessor of Devorguila, played an important part in the foundation of Balliol College: this has already been referred to[1398]. There is no direct proof that Friar Richard was himself at Oxford. Several documents relating to him are preserved in the Balliol College Archives, and described in the Reports of the Hist. MSS. Commission[1399].

(1) A letter of Devorguila to him, in which she speaks of

‘the alms of the poor scholars of our House of Balliol now studying at Oxford,’

and urges Friar Richard by all means in his power to promote the perpetuation of the said house, A. D. 1284.

(2) A grant by the executors of Sir John Balliol of sums to the scholars, with the consent of Devorguila and at the advice of Friar R. de Slekeburne (three deeds, 1285-1286).

(3) A confirmation by Friar Richard of another grant by Sir J. Balliol’s executors of debts due to Sir John: the confirmatory deed is dated Coventry, 1287.

=William of Exeter= was summoned in 1289 from Oxford by Deodatus, Warden of the Friars Minors of Exeter[1400], to assist him in choosing a new site for the convent[1401].

=William of Leominster= is placed among the Franciscans by Pits, but it is not certain that he belonged to this Order[1402]. He was a friar and master of Oxford in 1290; in this year his name appears as one of the masters who gave their consent on behalf of the University to the compromise, effected by the intervention of the King and his council, concerning the right of the bishop of Lincoln to confirm the Chancellor-elect[1403]. Bale states that he had seen this friar’s _Collationes Sententiarum_ and _Quaestiones Theologiae_, at London, ‘_in quadam officina_’[1404].

=John Bekinkham= appears to have been an Oxford Minorite; he was one of the friars to whom the royal alms of 25 marks was paid by the exchequer in 1289 or 1290[1405].

=John de Clara= was executor of Hugh de Cantilupe, Archdeacon of Gloucester, in 1285; he was at this time at Oxford[1406]. In 1289 or 1290 he appears, in conjunction with John Bekinkham, as receiving the royal grant of 25 marks in the name of the Oxford Convent[1407]. In 1299 he was entrusted with 10 marks out of the royal exchequer for the expenses of Hugh of Hertepol and William of Gainsborough, who were going to the General Chapter at Lyons[1408]. In 1301 he was sent with instructions to find the Provincial Minister with all speed, and received of the royal bounty 24_s._ 3_d._ for his expenses[1409].

=John Russell= was private chaplain to Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, in 1293. In a letter to Raymund, General Minister of the Friars Minors, dated Aug. 29, 1293[1410], the Earl thanks the Minister

‘pro vestris muneribus preciosis, cultellis vestris videlicet nobilibus de corallo atque insigni vase tiriaco, que in octavis virginis gloriose per manus dilecti et domestici nostri fratris Johannis Rossel ... recepimus.... Dat’ in manerio nostro de B. (Beckley?)[1411] prope Oxon’,’ &c.

Russell wrote about the same time to _dominus_ R. de M. (Roger de Merlawe):

‘Veni ad capitulum fratrum nostrorum Oxon’, proponens vos personaliter visitasse; sed jam istud iter impedivit debilitas corporalis[1412].’

This John Russell was contemporary, and probably identical, with the twenty-second master of the Franciscans at Cambridge[1413].

_Postilla in Cantica Canticorum._ _Inc._ ‘Cogitanti mihi Canticum.’

MS. London:--Lambeth Palace, 180, f. 1 (sec. xv).

_Lectura super Apocalypsim._ _Inc._ ‘Statuit septem piramides.... Accedens ad expositionem.’

MS. Oxford:--Merton Coll. 172, fol. 106 (sec. xiv), manu Will. de Nottingham.

_De potestate imperatoris et pape._

Formerly in the King’s Library, according to Bale (MS. Seld. supra 64, fol. 163b, 193): it is not mentioned in Casley’s Catalogue.

=Henry de Sutton= was warden of the Grey Friars, London, in 1302[1414], and 1307, when the King (Edward I) gave him 40 marks

‘pro pitancia fratrum Minorum in capitulo suo generali celebrando apud Tolosam in festo Pentecost proximo[1415].’

He procured a legacy of 2 marks annually from Henry Waleys, Mayor of London, for his convent[1416]. The evidence of his connexion with Oxford is very slight. His name occurs as the author of a sermon in a collection of sermons which were probably delivered at Oxford at the end of the thirteenth century[1417].

=William Mincy=, =William de Newport=, =Roger de Barton= (Cheshire), =Robert de Gaddestyn= or =Gaddesby=, =John de Westburg=, =Robert de Mogynton= (Derby), Franciscans at Oxford in 1300, were on the 26th of July in that year presented at Dorchester by Hugh of Hertepol the Provincial, and licensed by Dalderby, Bishop of Lincoln, to hear confessions, grant absolution, and enjoin penances, in the Archdeaconry of Oxford. They were not at this time, and probably never became, doctors of divinity[1418].

=John de Stapleton=, A. D. 1300, was similarly presented by the Provincial, but rejected by the Bishop. The Register of the Friars Minors at London says:

‘Friar John de Stapilton, heir to great wealth and lordship, spurning wife and heritage, became a Friar Minor.’

It is doubtful whether this refers to the same person[1419].

=Adam de Corf=, =Peter de Todworth=, =Walter Bosevile=, and =Roger de Alnewyck=, were in like manner presented by the Provincial and rejected by the Bishop, A. D. 1300. They were not at this time D.D’s. Nothing further is known of them, unless Roger de Alnewyck is to be identified with William of Alnwick, 42nd reader at Oxford[1420].

=John Duns Scotus=[1421] was a Franciscan at Oxford in 1300. In the list of friars presented to the Bishop of Lincoln he appears as ‘Johannes Douns’[1422]; the Bishop refused to grant him license to hear confessions. Soon afterwards Duns lectured on the four books of the _Sentences_ as B.D. at Oxford[1423]. At the end of 1304 he was called to Paris to incept as D.D. The letter of the General Minister recommending this choice is given by Wadding[1424], who however has misunderstood it. For this reason, and because it illustrates some points in the educational system of the Minorites, the letter may be quoted in full[1425].

In Christo sibi carissimis Patribus, Guillelmo Guardiano Parisiis, vel ejus Vicario et Magistris, Frater Gondisalvus gaudens in Domino.

Ad expeditionem dilecti in Christo Patris Aegidii de Legnaco, de quo per litteras vestras certificatus existo, cum de alio (ut moris est) eodem calculo praesentando providere oporteat, et cum, secundum statuta Ordinis, et secundum statuta vestri Conventus, Baccalaureus hujusmodi praesentandus ad praesens debeat esse de aliqua provincia aliarum a Provincia Franciae, dilectum in Christo Patrem Joannem Scotum, de cujus vita laudabili, scientia excellenti, ingenioque subtilissimo, aliisque insignibus conditionibus suis, partim experientia longa, partim fama, quae ubique divulgata est, informatus sum ad plenum, dilectioni vestrae assigno, post dictum patrem Aegidium, principaliter et ordinarie praesentandum. Injungo nihilominus vobis ad meritum salutaris obedientiae, quatenus praesentationem hujusmodi cum solemnitate solita sine multo dispendio facere debeatis; si tamen constiterit vobis, quod dominus Cancellarius velit duos simul licentiare de nostris, volo et placet mihi, quod frater Albertus Methensis, si ad Conventum redire poterit, cum praefato fratre Joanne debeat expediri. In quo casu mando et ordino, quod dictus frater Albertus antiquitatis merito prius incipere debeat, dicto fratre Joanne sub eo postmodum incepturo. Valete in Domino et orate pro me. Datum in loco Esculi provinciae Marchiae Anconitanae, XIV Kal. Dec. anno MCCCIV.

Duns probably taught at Paris till 1307. Wadding, indeed, asserts that he was sent to Cologne by the General Minister in 1305[1426]; but this is almost impossible, and the description which Wadding gives of the scene is derived from later and unhistorical tradition. The statement, however, that he was appointed Regent by the friars in the General Chapter at Toulouse in 1307 sounds more plausible[1427]; he may have been made the first Regent at Paris, or he may have been sent at this time as lector or Regent of the Franciscan schools at Cologne. At any rate there seems no reason to distrust the notice of his death which Wadding quotes from the list of friars who died at Cologne[1428].

‘D. P. frater Joannes Scotus, sacrae Theologiae Professor, Doctor Subtilis nominatus, quondam lector Coloniae, qui obiit anno MCCCVIII, VI Idus Novembris.’

This entry, though certainly not contemporary, was probably derived from some authentic record. Duns’ title of _Doctor Subtilis_, though it does not seem to have been given him in his lifetime, is of considerable antiquity. It is mentioned by Bartholomew of Pisa at the end of the fourteenth century[1429], and by the MS. Catalogue at Assisi, written in 1381[1430].

A collected edition of his works was printed at Lyons in 1639. Many of the works included in these twelve folio volumes are considered doubtful by the editors[1431].

Some few treatises not included in this edition are assigned to him.

_Johannis Scoti super Apocalypsin notulae._ _Inc. liber_: ‘Liber iste principaliter dividitur in tres partes.’ (Doubtful.)

MS. Bodl.:--Laud. Misc. 434, f. 1 (sec. xiv).

_[Ejusdem?] super S. Matthaei Evangelium notae._ _Inc._ ‘Liber generacionis,’ &c.: ‘Sicut fluvius de loco voluptatis egrediens.’ (Doubtful.)

MS. _ibid._ f. 75.

‘_Utrum pluralitas formalitatum possit stare cum simplicitate divine essencie._’

MS. Bodl.: Digby 54, f. 123 (sec. xv).

_De perfectione statuum_[1432]. _Inc._ ‘Quod status prelatorum sc. pastorum ecclesie.’

MSS. Oxford:--Merton Coll. 65, f. 119 (A. D. 1456).

Cambridge:--Public Library Dd. III. 47 (sec. xv); Corpus Christi Coll. 107, fol. 77-93a (sec. xv).

Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. xxxvi, Dext. Cod. xii, p. 101 (sec. xiv _exeuntis_).

_Opusculum Doctoris Subtilis super aliquos canones Arzachel._ (Doubtful.)

MS. Cambridge:--Public Library 1017, f. 14-15 (sec. xv). Cf. Tanner, _Bibl._ p. 689, _sub_ ‘Stantonus.’

_Tractatus Johannis Dons Scoti de lapide philosophorum._ (Apocryphal.)

MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 14008, f. 156.

=Robert Cowton=, or =de Couton= (co. York), according to W. Woodford, entered the Order when young[1433]. He was at Oxford in 1300, when the Provincial asked the Bishop of Lincoln to license him, among others, to hear confessions, but Robert was among the rejected[1434]. At this time he was not a doctor. According to Bale and Pits he studied philosophy at Oxford and theology at Paris: there can be little doubt that he obtained the degree of D.D. in the latter University. His title of ‘the pleasant doctor[1435]’ is not vouched for by any early authority.

If we may draw any inference from the number of MSS. preserved, few works by any Franciscan were more in demand in England[1436] in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries than the _Commentaries_ of Robert Cowton _on the Sentences_. The following MSS. contain them, or parts of them.

London:--Brit. Mus. Royal 11 B. i. 11 B. iv.--Gray’s Inn, 20.

Oxford:--Univ. Coll. 76, f. 455--Balliol 192, 199, 200, 201--Merton 91, 92, 93--New College 290--Exeter 43--Lincoln 36.

Cambridge:--Caius Coll. 281, 324--Peterhouse 73, 75--Pembroke 107.

=Malachias of Ireland= is said by Wadding to have been a Franciscan and B.D. of Oxford, c. 1310. According to the same writer, he preached before Edward II, and was not afraid to rebuke the King to his face[1437].

_Libellus septem peccatorum mortalium_, or, _Tractatus de Veneno_ (often wrongly ascribed to Grostete.)

MS. Brit. Mus.: Cott. Vitell. C. xiv, § 6.

Printed at Paris 1518.

=Walter Brinkley= or =Brinkel= (co. Cambridge), called by Willot ‘the Good Doctor,’ ‘the ancient Doctor and Sophist[1438],’ is said by Bale to have been a doctor of Oxford and to have flourished A. D. 1310. Bale and Pits give a list of his works, but nothing of a trustworthy nature appears to be known about him[1439].

=John of Winchelsea=, S.T.P. and Canon of Salisbury, a fellow of Merton in the reigns of Henry III (?) and Edward I, entered the Minorite Order in his old age at Salisbury, and died during the year of his noviciate, A. D. 1326[1440].

=John Canon= is said to have flourished c. 1320, and to have attended the lectures of Duns Scotus at Oxford and Paris[1441]. Wood, referring to the _regestrum Oriell_, says that his

‘philosophicall treatises were soe much esteemed among the students of this University that they were read to them by their tutors and by logick lecturers in each society[1442].’

_Comment. in libros octo Physicorum Aristotelis._ _Inc. prol._ ‘Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis.’ _Inc. opus._ ‘Utrum substancia finita.’

Of the MSS. of the work, which are very numerous, the oldest appears to be Lambeth MS. 100, f. 103, which Todd refers to the thirteenth century.

Printed at Padua 1475[1443], St. Albans 1481, Venice 1481, 1487, 1492, &c.

=John Stanle=, friar, was appointed to receive at the Exchequer the royal grant of 25 marks payable at Easter 1323 to the Friars Minors at Oxford[1444].

‘=Philippus a Castellione Aretino=’ (Castello near Arezzo) in the Tuscan province, is described by Wadding as, ‘_in theologia magister insignis apud Oxonienses_.’ He flourished 1316, and wrote treatises on the poverty of Christ[1445].

=William of Ockham=, ‘Auctor nominalium,’ ‘Doctor singularis,’ ‘Doctor invincibilis[1446],’ was born probably towards the end of the thirteenth century. Whether he was a pupil of Duns Scotus is doubtful. He studied at Oxford in the early years of the fourteenth century, and became B.D. there[1447]. After this he was called to Paris, where he incepted as D.D. Here he became acquainted with Marsiglio of Padua, over whom, according to Pope Clement VI, he exercised a powerful influence[1448]. It is probable that he was present at the famous Chapter of Perugia (1322), though he was not (as is usually asserted) Provincial of England[1449]. From the first he took a prominent part in the struggle against the Pope[1450]. He was imprisoned at Avignon about the end of 1327, and a process was instituted against him in the Curia

‘because of many erroneous and heretical opinions which he had written[1451].’

He remained in custody for seventeen weeks, and refused to modify his opinions. It is said that a ‘rich and noble lady,’ in admiring recognition of his staunch defence of ‘Evangelical Poverty,’ gave him 70 florins[1452]. On May 25, 1328, he fled from Avignon with Cesena, the General Minister, and Bonagratia, joined the Emperor in Italy, and was excommunicated[1453]. In Feb., 1330, he accompanied Louis to Bavaria, and lived henceforth for the most part in the Franciscan Convent at Munich[1454]. His literary activity was enormous, as may be seen from the list of his works. He took a direct part in the affairs of state, being present at the Councils of Rense and Frankfurt in 1338[1455]. From this time his writings, hitherto largely theological, became more distinctly political[1456]. In spite of excommunication, he continued to support the Emperor’s cause till Louis’ death in 1347, and even later[1457]. But now few only of the rebel friars were left: Cesena died in 1342, Bonagratia in 1347; and in 1349 Ockham sent back the seal of the Order to the orthodox General Minister, and professed his desire to be reconciled to the Church[1458]. Clement VI authorized the General Minister to absolve Ockham and his associates on their confessing in set form their errors and heresies, and promising to obey the Pope and his successors. Whether Ockham subscribed the papal formula, nothing remains to show. The date of his death is uncertain; it may however be concluded that he died at Munich not before 1349[1459].

PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL WORKS.

_Commentarii in Porphyrii librum: in Aristotelis Praedicamentorum librum_ (or _De decem generibus_): _in Aristotelis de Interpretatione libros duo: in libros Elenchorum._

MSS. Oxford:--Bodl. Canonic. Misc. 558, fol. 1, 24, 63{b}, 93 (sec. xiv).

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 14721.

Bruges 499, _olim_ 59 (sec. xiii?).

The first three of these works (and perhaps the last) were printed at Bologna in 1496, under the title _Expositio aurea super totam artem Veterem_.

In his Catalogue of the Bruges MSS., Haenel reads _ethicorum_ instead of _elenchorum_. Ockham seems to have written no distinct work on morals, though another is attributed to him by a careless blunder. Caius College MS. 200, § 3, contains, according to Smith’s catalogue, _Correcciones Occami_ (_Occani_ in the old catalogue of 1697) _in Oculum moralem_. The MS. really reads:

‘Correcciones octaui capituli de Ira. (_Inc._) nisi tibi iratus fuissem. Refert eciam Valerius. (_Expl._) et ei reuelauit archana. Cum igitur sobrietas.’

In other words, it is merely a fragment of chapter viii. of the well-known _Oculus moralis_ attributed to Grostete or Peter de Limoges. See e.g. MS. Bodl. Laud. Misc. 677, fol. 180 b, 2nd column.

_Summa logices_ (_ad Adamum_): 3 parts. _Inc._ ‘Dudum me frater et amice.... Omnes logicae tractatores.’

MSS. London:--Brit. Mus., Arundel 367 (sec. xiv).

Cambridge:--Caius Coll. 464[1460]: ‘Logica Gul. de Occham in sex tractatus divisa,’ viz. (1) de terminis, (2) de propositionibus, (3) de Sillogismo simplici, (4) de S. demonstrativo, (5) de S. topico, (6) de S. elenchorum, (written at Magdeburg, A. D. 1341): also Peterhouse 217.

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 6430, 6431, 6432 (sec. xiv); Bibl. Mazarine 3521 (sec. xiv).

Laon 431 (sec. xiv).

Basel F ii. 25 (written at Oxford, A. D. 1342).

Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. xii. Sin. Cod. ii (sec. xiv), six books.

Printed at Paris 1488, Venice 1522, Oxford 1675, &c.

_Quaestiones in octo libros physicorum._ _Inc._ ‘Valde reprehensibilis.’

MS. Oxford:--Merton Coll. 293 (sec. xiv). Cf. Vienna:--Bibl. Palat. 5460 (sec. xv).

Printed at Rome 1637[1461].

In the Bibl. Nat. at Paris, MS. 17841 (sec. xv) contains _Quest. Okam super lib. Physic. et quotlibeta_. The first leaf seems to have been misplaced; _inc._, ‘(U)trum deus sit super omnia diligendus: quod non.’ The second leaf begins: ‘Circa materiam de conceptu questio (?) utrum conceptus sit aliquid fictum’: the questions on the physics end on fol. 26. They appear to differ from the above[1462].

_Questiones Ockam super phisicam et tractatus ejusdem de futuris contingentibus._

MS. Bruges 469 (sec. xiv).

_Summulae in libros physicorum_ (called by Leland, _De introitu scientiarum_): 4 parts. _Inc. prol._ ‘Studiosissime saepiusque rogatus.’ _Inc. Pars. I._ ‘Solent ante preambula indagare sapientes ante scientie ingressum de ipsis scientiis.... Primo de ejus unitate.’

MS. Rodez, 56, p. 107 (sec. xv), ‘Philosophia naturalis.’

Printed at Venice 1506, and elsewhere.

_Quaestiones_ (or _Commentarii_) _in quatuor libros Sententiarum._ _Inc._ ‘Circa prologum primi libri Sententiarum quero primo utrum sit possibile intellectui viatoris.’

MSS. Oxford:--Balliol Coll. 299, f. 7 (sec. xiv); Merton College 100 (sec. xiv).

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 15561, f. 246 (sec. xv).

Basel A vi. 12.

Printed at Lyons 1495, &c.

Ockham’s commentary on the first book of the _Sentences_ was probably composed when he was B.D. of Oxford; it is longer than his commentaries on the other three books together, and is often found separate.

MSS. Oxford:--Merton Coll. 106 (sec. xiv).

Cambridge:--Caius Coll. 325.

Paris:--Bibl. Mazarine 894 (sec. xiv), ‘de ordinacione fratris Guillelmi de Okham de ordine fratrum Minorum Oxonie.’

Troyes 718 (sec. xiv).

Printed separately (at Strasburg) in 1483.

It is possible that the commentaries on the last three books exist in a fuller form in the following MSS. than in the printed editions:--

MSS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 16398 (sec. xv), books 3 and 4; Cf. ibid. 16708, f. 253{b} (sec. xiv), ‘Circa tertium Sententiarum secundum Okkam.’

Munich:--Bibl. Reg. 8943 (sec. xv), books 2, 3, and 4.

_Quodlibeta septem._ _Inc. quodl. i. qu. i._ ‘Utrum possit probari per rationem naturalem quod tantum unus sit deus: quod sic.’

MSS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 16398, f. 173 (sec. xv), and 17841, fol. 28 (sec. xv): the latter ends abruptly near the beginning of the fourth quodlibet.

Venice:--Bibl. S. Anton. (Tomasin, p. 11 b).

Printed at Paris 1487, Argentina 1491.

At the end of the edition of 1491: ‘Expliciunt quotlibeta septem venerabilis inceptoris magistri Wilhelmi de Ockam anglici, veritatum speculatoris acerrimi, fratris ordinis minorum, post ejus lecturam Oxoniensem (super sententias) edita.’

_De motu, loco, tempore, relatione, praedestinatione et praescientia Dei, et quodlibetum._

MS. Basel F ii. 24.

Cf. MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 14715, f. 82{b} (sec. xiv); 14909, f. 102{b}; 14579, f. 345; 14580, f. 110{b}. _Incipiunt_: ‘Quia circa materiam de predestinatione et prescientia sunt opiniones diverse.’

_De successivis._ _Inc._ ‘Videndum est de locis.’

MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 16130, f. 121 (sec. xiv). Cf. MS. Bruges, 500.

_Propositio an sit concedenda; essentia divina est quaternitas._

MS. Basel A vii. 13.

_De sacramento altaris_, and _De corpore Christi_: 2 treatises[1463]. _Inc. i._ ‘Circa conversionem panis.’ _Inc. ii._ ‘Stupenda super munera largitatis.’

MSS. Oxford:--Balliol Coll. 299, f. 196 (sec. xiv); Merton College 137 (sec. xiv).

Rouen, 561 (sec. xv).

Printed at Argentina 1491, at the end of the _Quodlibeta_; at Paris (1490?), and Venice 1516.

_Centiloquium theologicum._ _Inc. prol._ ‘Anima nobis innata eo potius naturaliter appetit cognoscere suum finem, quo pre ceteris appetentibus omnibus corruptibilibus creatis ratione ditata ad ymaginem et similitudinem dei celsius eminentiusque figuratur.’

Printed at Lyons 1495, at the end of the _Sentences_.

_Quaestiones Ocham in terminabiles Alberti de Saxonia._

MS. Padua:--Bibl. S. Joannis in Viridario (Tomasin, p. 37).

_Sermones Occham_, by William or Nicholas of Ockham?

MS. Worcester:--Cathedral Library 74 quarto (= Bernard, Tom. II. 918).

_Notes or disputations on theology and philosophy_, to which the name ‘Okam’ is appended.

MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 15888, f. 163, 174, 181.

_Gul. Ocham quedam scripta._

MS. Venice:--Bibl. SS. Joannis et Pauli (Tomasin, p. 25{b}).

POLITICAL WORKS.

The dates are taken for the most part from Riezler.

_Opus nonaginta dierum_ (written between 1330 and 1333). _Inc. prol._ ‘Doctoris gentium et Magistri Beati Pauli.’

MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 3387, fol. 1-163 b (sec. xv).

Printed at Louvain 1481, Lyons 1495, and in Goldast’s _Monarchia_, II. 993-1236.

This treatise corresponds to _Dialogus_, Part III, Tract vi. _de gestis fratris Michaelis de Cesena_ (see below).

_Epistola ad Fratres Minores in Capitulo apud Assisium congregatos_, A. D. 1334. _Inc._ ‘Religiosis viris fratribus minoribus universis A. D. Millesimo CCCXXXIIII. in festo Petri apud Assisium congregatis frater Guilhelmus de Ocham fidem defensare.’

MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 3387, fol. 262 b-265 a (sec. xv).

This has not been printed and is not mentioned by Riezler; it is distinct from the letter of Cesena to the Friars Minors about to assemble in Chapter at Perpignan or Avignon, dated April 25, 1331 (printed Lyons 1495), and the letter of Cesena to all the Friars Minors, dated Jan. 24, 1331 (printed ibid.; Goldast, II. 1238, and Riezler, 248, give 1333 as the date of this last letter).

_Dialogus[1464] inter magistrum et discipulum de Imperatorum et Pontificum Potestate_; 3 parts:

i. _De fautoribus haereticorum libri septem_ (written A. D. 1342 or 1343). _Inc._ ‘In omnibus rebus curiosus existis.’

ii. _De dogmatibus Johannis XXII, tractatus duo_ (A. D. 1333 or 1334). _Inc._ ‘Verba oris ejus iniquitas et dolus.’

iii. _De gestis circa fidem altercantium_, (A. D. 1342-3). (1) De potestate papae et cleri; 4 books. (2) De potestate et juribus Romani imperii; 3 books. _Inc._ ‘Discip. Salomonis utcumque sequendo vestigia.’

MSS. London:--Brit. Mus. Royal 7 F xii, §§ 1 and 2 (sec. xv), Parts I and II; Harleian, 33 (sec. xv), Parts I and II; Addit. 33243 (sec. xv), Parts I and II; also Lambeth Palace Library 168 (sec. xv), Parts II and III.

Oxford:--St. John’s College, 69 (sec. xv), Part I.

Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 3657 (sec. xiv) Part I, fol. 1-208; Part II, fol. 289-321; Part III, Tractatus ii, fol. 210-287, breaking off with the words _nec antedicte sedis scil. Romane antistitem_ in Lib. 3, cap. 16 of Tract. ii; also 14313 (A. D. 1389), Parts I and II; 14619, fol. 121-166 (sec. xv), Part III, Tractatus ii, breaking off in Lib. 3, cap. 16 of Tract. ii, as above; 15881 (sec. xiv), Parts I, II; and Part III, Tractatus ii, breaking off in Lib. 3, cap. 16, as above.--Bibl. de l’Arsenal 517, fol. 17-303, Parts I, II, and III, ending with the words ‘_Magister Hoc multis racionibus improbatur. Primo_ ...’, in Chapter 17 of the 3rd book of Tractatus ii of Part III[1465],--Bibl. Mazarine 3522 (sec. xiv), fol. 149-198, Part III, Tract. ii, ending in Cap. 16 of Lib. 3; fol. 200-246, Part III, Tract. i; fol. 246-297, Part III, Tract. ii, ending with Cap. 23 of Lib. 3, _passibilis et mortalis_.

Rome:--Vatican, Bibl. Regin. Sueciae, 90; cf. 79, ‘de potestate papae.’ (Montfaucon.)

Dijon 340 (sec. xv), Parts I, II, and III, ending with the words ‘_pro nunc tibi sufficiant_,’ in the printed editions.

Auxerre 252, f. 88 (sec. xiv), containing Part III, Tract. ii (3 books).

Avignon 185, containing Part I.

Toulouse 221 (sec. xiv), Parts I, II, and Part III, Tractatus ii, which is called Tractatus iii in the MS.

Basel A vi. 5, Parts I, II, and III.

Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. xxxvi. Dext. Cod. xi (sec. xiv), Parts I and II.

Venice:--St. Mark, Vol. I, Cl. viii. Cod. 7 (sec. xv), Part I, book 6.

Printed at Lyons 1495; reprinted in Goldast’s _Monarchia_ II, 398-957.

Part III, according to the scheme drawn up in the Prologue[1466], was to consist of nine treatises:

i. De potestate papae et cleri; ii. De potestate et juribus Romani Imperii; iii. De gestis Johannis XXII; iv. De gestis Domini Ludovici de Bavaria; v. De gestis Benedicti XII; vi. De gestis fratris Michaelis de Cesena; vii. De gestis et doctrina fratris Geraldi Odonis; viii. De gestis fratris Guilhelmi de Ockham; ix. De gestis aliorum Christianorum, regum, &c.

The edition of 1495, of which Goldast’s is a reprint, ends at the 23rd chapter of the 3rd book of Treatise II, with the words:

‘passibilis et mortalis. Et haec de tertia parte Dialogorum pro nunc tibi sufficiant.’

The last sentence Goldast surmises to be an addition of the editor, Ascensius; but it occurs at the end of the Dijon MS., and both Goldast and Riezler are probably mistaken in thinking that Ascensius had the whole work before him and arbitrarily omitted Treatises III-IX[1467]. These were probably never written. The Lambeth MS. (the only MS. in England which contains Part III) and one version in the Mazarine MS. end with the words ‘passibilis et mortalis,’ like the printed editions, with the colophon (in Lambeth MS.): ‘Dyalogorum venerabilis Guillermi Okam finis.’ The five other MSS. in Paris, which contain Part III, leave out the last seven chapters of the printed edition, and the Auxerre and Toulouse MSS. likewise do not go beyond the third book of Treatise II. It is possible that the Vatican and Basel MSS. may supply the remaining treatises; but this is unlikely. About the year 1400, Peter d’Ailly, who must have had exceptionally good opportunities for getting information[1468], wrote a summary of the _Dialogus_[1469]. In this he omits Treatise I of Part III, and concludes with the 16th chapter of the third book of Treatise II (like the Parisian MSS.), adding:

‘et non plus de hoc notabili opere potui reperire’[1470].

Several of Ockham’s other works correspond in substance to the projected treatises of Part III; these will be noted in due course.

_Defensorium (de paupertate Christi) contra Johannem XXII_ (written between 1335 and 1349). _Inc._ ‘Universis Christi fidelibus.... Primus error est quod Dominus noster.’

Printed at Venice 1513, and by Edw. Brown, Fascic. Rerum expetend. II, 439-464.

_De imperatorum et pontificum potestate_; 27 chapters or paragraphs. _Inc. prol._ ‘Universis Christi fidelibus presentem tractatulum inspecturis, frater Willelmus de Okkham.’ _Inc. cap._ i. ‘Si reges et principes ecclesiarum.’

MS. Brit. Museum: Royal 10 A, xv (sec. xiv).

_Tractatus adversus errores Johannis XXII_, or _Compendium errorum papae_ (written between 1335 and 1338). _Inc._ ‘Secundum Bokkyg (?) super sacram scripturam.’

MSS. London:--Lambeth 168, fol. 289-314 (sec. xv).

Paris:--Bibl. Mazarine 3522, fol. 298-310 (sec. xiv).

Printed at Louvain 1481, Lyons 1495, and in Goldast II, 957-976.

Cf. _Dialogus_, Part III, Tract. iii.

_Opusculum adversus errores Johannis XXII._ _Inc._ ‘Non invenit locum penitencie Johannes XXII.... Ut pateat evidenter, quod retractatio quam Johannes XXII fecisse refertur, ipsum ab hereticorum numero non excludit.’

MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 3387, fol. 175-213{b} (sec. xv).

_Tractatus ostendens quod Benedictus Papa XII nonnullas Johannis XXII haereses amplexus est et defendit_; 7 books (written c. 1338). _Inc. prol._ ‘Ambulavit et ambulat insensanter non re sed nomine Benedictus XII in viis patris sui Johannis vidz. XXII.’ _Inc. lib. i_, ‘Dogmatum perversorum que Johannes XXII pertinaciter tenuit.’

MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 3387, fol. 214{b}-262{a} (sec. xv).

Cf. _Dialogus_, Pars III, Tract. v.

_Tractatus oquā_ (sic) _de potestate imperiali._ _Inc._ ‘Inferius describuntur allegaciones per plures magistros in sacra pagina approbate per quas ostenditur evidenter quod processus factus et sentencia lata in frankfort per dominum lodowicum quartum dei gracia Romanorum imperatorem.’ The decree of Louis referred to is dated Aug. 6, 1338[1471].

MS. Rome:--Bibl. Apostol. Vaticana, Codd. Palat. Latin. No. 679. Pars I, fol. 117 (sec. xv).

Cf. Boehmer, Fontes rerum Germanicarum, Vol. IV, p. 592, ‘ex libro Nicolai Minoritae de controversia paupertatis Christi 1324-1338.’ _Inc._ ‘Subsequenter ponuntur articuli et describunter de juribus imperii.’

_Octo questiones super potestate ac dignitate papali_, or _De potestate pontificum et imperatorum_ (written between 1339 and 1342). _Inc._ ‘Sanctum canibus nullatenus.’ _Inc. quest._ 1. ‘Primo igitur queritur utrum potestas spiritualis et laicalis suprema.’

MSS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 14603, fol. 147-216 (sec. xiv): ‘Explicit tractatus venerabilis, theologi Guillelmi Okam de potestate pape.’--Bibl. Mazarine, 3522, f. 104-148 (sec. xiv).

Cf. MS. Rome, Vatican, Bibl. Reg. Sueciae, 79, _De potestate Papae_; and 375, _De potestate utriusque jurisdictionis_.

_De jurisdictione Imperatoris in causis matrimonialibus_, A. D. 1342. _Inc._ ‘Divina providentia disponente.’

Printed at Heidelberg 1598; and in Goldast I, 21. It is of doubtful authenticity; see Riezler, 254.

_De electione Caroli IV_ (written 1347-9). _Inc._ ‘Quia sepe viri ignari.’

See Riezler, p. 271, 303, who refers to Höfler, Aus Avignon, 13.

The following treatises by Ockham are mentioned by Leland, Wadding, and others, but have not been identified.

I. _Philosophical._

_De pluralitate formae_, contra Sutton (Leland, Tanner).

_De invisibilibus_ (Leland).

_Tractatus incip._: ‘Dominus potest facere omne quod fieri vult non includit contradictionem’:--

seen by Leland in the Franciscan Library, London (Collect. III, 49): Tanner identifies it with _Defensorium Logices_. Perhaps it is the same as _Dialectica Nova_: _inc._ ‘Contradictio in Deo non est.’ (Bale, Pits).

_Comment. in Metaphysicam._

Tanner refers to MSS. Peterhouse 217 (where however no mention of it occurs), and Caius Coll. K. 5 (?), perhaps a mistake for H. 5 = 464, which contains Ockham’s logic.

Leland adds:

Vidi etiam tres libros Ochami, quorum primus _De privatione, de materia prima, de forma_ quae est principium, et _De forma artificiali_; secundus vero _De causis materiali, formali, efficiente, finali_; tertius _De mutatione subita_ tractat.

[Cf. _Quaestiones in lib. Physic_?]

_De perfectione specierum_ (Wadding). _Inc._ ‘Quia Magister.’

II. _Political._

_De paupertate Christi et Apostolorum_ (Tritheim, Wadding).

This is probably incorporated in the Dialogus (see Wadding, Ann. Min. VIII, 81-2). Cf. MS. Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. xxxi. Sin. Cod. iii (sec. xiv).

_De actibus hierarchicis_, lib. i (Wadding).

Wadding, _Sup._: ‘citat Joan. Picus Mirandulanus in sua Apologia quaest. 1.’

_Errorum quos affinxit papae Johanni_, lib. i (Wadding). _Inc._ ‘Locuti adversum me lingua.’

(Probably identical with one of the extant treatises.)

_Defensorium_ (against the pope); mentioned by Leland, Bale, &c. _Inc._ ‘Omni quippe regno desiderabilis.’

This is the _Defensor pacis_ of Marsilius of Padua.

NOTE.--In his catalogue of Vatican MSS., Montfaucon mentions, among _Praecipui codices MSS. Bibliothecae Vaticanae_, ‘947, ad 956 Guill. Occhami opera.’ See Montfaucon, _Bibl. Bibliothecarum MSS._ p. 100.

=Henry de Costesey or Cossey= (Norfolk) is reckoned among the Oxford Franciscans by Bale and others, but without evidence. He was forty-sixth Master of the Minorites at Cambridge (c. 1336)[1472], and is said to have died at Babwell[1473].

_Commentarius super Apocalypsim._ _Inc._ ‘Apocalypsis Jhesu Christi quam.... Dividitur enim iste liber sicut alii libri in prohemium et tractatum.’

MSS. Bodl.: 2004 = *NE*. B. 3. 18, now Bodley 57. Laud. Misc. 85, fol. 67 b (sec. xiv).

Cambridge:--Pembroke Coll. 175.

_Comment. super Psalterium._ _Inc._ ‘Aperiam in psalterio.’

MS. formerly in the Franciscan library, London[1474]: quoted in MS. Bodl. Laud. Misc. 213, f. 192 (sec. xv).

=John de Hentham= was a Minorite in the Oxford Convent in 1340, when he acted as attorney for the warden[1475].

=Hugh de Willoughby= or =Wylluby=, S.T.P., was the Chancellor of the University in 1334. He held the prebend of Barnby, in the diocese of York, in 1338. It is not known when he became a Franciscan; but it was no doubt in his declining years[1476].

=Peter de Gaieta= was elected in the General Chapter at Assisi, c. 1340, to take the degree of B.D. and lecture on the _Sentences_ at Oxford. When the appointment of a friar to read the _Sentences_ at Paris was discussed in the General Chapter at Marseilles in 1343, Peter obtained many votes. In the same year the degree of Master in the University of Naples was conferred on him by the command of Pope Clement VI. He had previously lectured on the _Sentences_ there, and been Minister of the Provinces of Apulia and Terra Laboris[1477].

=John Lathbury= (Bucks), said to have been a native of the Reading friary[1478], was D.D. of Oxford and flourished about the middle of the fourteenth century[1479]. The evidence for the date is found in his own most famous work[1480]; the passage may be quoted as an authentic specimen of a subject of conversation between two Oxford Franciscans:

‘Item anno domini 1343 in capitulo provinciali Londoniis celebrato, et in Oxonia plurimis vicibus prius et post in studio secum commoranti, frater Hermanus de Colonia fratri Johanni de Latthebury retulit viva voce, quod in patria sua est quedam villa que vulgariter dicatur Enger, de qua Anglia vocaliter derivatur, et prope illam villam ad distanciam unius miliarii est quedam quercus, arbor ingens et antiqua, ad quam ipse cum esset puerulus ex more patrie cum reliquis concurrebat. Nam omni nocte nativitatis Christi, quasi nocte media, quercus illa glandes grandes et perfectas subita apparicione ex se profert et producit copiose. Unde et incole illius patrie annuatim illa nocte ad illum locum turmatim ex consuetudine concurrunt, et ibi cum luminibus et lanternis vigilantes, horam solitam expectant et explorant, bibentes, edentes, ludentes et noctem insompnem ducentes, habentes secum lapides, baculos et saculos pro fructu arboris excuciendo et asportando.’

There appear to have been two contemporary Minorites of the same name and family. Bale, after mentioning the commentaries of John Ridevaus on the letter of Valerius to Rufinus and the mythologies of Fulgentius, adds[1481]:

‘Hos libros cum multis aliis Joannes Lathbury senior contulit juniori Joanni Lathbury A. D. 1348. Ex cenobio Minorum Radinge.’

The elder died at Reading at an advanced age in 1362, the younger at Northampton in 1375[1482]. It is not clear which of the two was the author.

The best known work of John Lathbury is his _Commentary on Lamentations_, or _Liber moralium in Threnos Hieremiae_, or _Lectura super librum Threnorum._ _Inc._ ‘Juxta mores modernorum.’

MSS. Oxford:--Merton Coll. 189--Exeter Coll. 27, &c.

Printed at Oxford in 1482, being one of the first books issued by the Oxford press.

_Distinctionum liber theologicarum_, or _Alphabetum morale._ _Inc._ ‘Abstinendum est a carnalibus delitiis.’

MSS. Brit. Mus.: Royal 11 A xiii (sec. xv).

Oxford:--Exeter Coll. 26 (sec. xv), with the note ‘Johannes Latbury, doctor de ordine fratrum minorum, qui fecit lecturam super librum Trenorum, compilavit istum tractatum.’

Cambridge:--Peterhouse 96.

_De luxuria clericorum._

Extracts from this treatise of Lathbury’s are in MS. Bodl. James 19 (Cf. Bernard’s Catal. I, 260 b), from MSS. in Exeter College: the treatise itself seems to be extracted from the _Distinctiones_.

_De timore et amore Domini_, &c., _secundum Johannem Lathbury, Thomam de Alquino ... aliosque_.

MS. Oxford:--Magd. Coll. 93 (A. D. 1438); perhaps merely excerpts from some other work.

_Super Acta Apostolorum._ _Inc._ ‘Superedificati estis supra fundamentum apostolorum.’

Mentioned by Bale (MS. Seld. sup. 64, fol. 89) ‘ex musaeo Rob. Talbot.’

=Hermann of Cologne= was a contemporary and friend of John Lathbury at Oxford, c. 1343[1483]. It is impossible to identify him with any of the other Hermanns who belonged to the Minorite Order at this time: e.g. Hermann of Saxony, the lawyer (fl. 1337), or Hermann Gygas, the historian[1484].

=Robert= (or =John=?) =Lamborne=,

‘the son of a baron, and the last heir of that barony, entered the Order in London[1485].’

He became confessor to Queen Isabella in 1327[1486], and he still occupied this office, ‘though he was so attenuated that he was almost or quite blind,’ in 1343, when Clement VI granted him certain privileges[1487]. It is however very doubtful whether he was ever at Oxford. The name occurs in the Old Catalogue of Fellows of Merton College, under the reign of Edward III. If the two are identical, Lamborne ought to be placed in the Catalogue under Edward II, as he was clearly a friar in 1327; but there is no good reason for assuming their identity: Robert Lamborn of Merton may be a mistake for Reginald Lamborn[1488]. Friar John (?) Lamborne, confessor to Queen Isabella, was buried in the choir of the Grey Friars Church, London[1489].

=Reginald Lambourne= was B.D. of Merton College (c. 1350-1360), where he was a pupil of the famous mathematicians, William Rede and John Ashendon[1490]. He then entered the Benedictine Order, was at Eynsham Abbey in 1363/4 and 1367, and incepted D.D. as a monk[1491]. He afterwards took the Franciscan habit at Oxford, and died at Northampton[1492].

_Epistola a Reginaldo Lambourne, monacho simplici Eynshamensi, ad quendam Johannem London, de significatione eclipsium lunae ‘hoc anno instante, 1363.’_

_Epistola a Reginaldo Lambourne monacho Eynshamensi_ [ad. Gul. Rede ut videtur] _a{o} 1367, de conjunctionibus Saturni Jovis et Martis cum prognosticatione malorum inde in annis 1368-1374 probabiliter occurrentium._

MS. Bodl.:--Digby 176, fol. 50, and 40 (sec. xiv).

=Robert Eliphat= flourished in the middle of the fourteenth century; he is placed among the Masters of the English Province by Bartholomew of Pisa[1493]. Pits states that he was famous at Oxford and Paris[1494]. There can be little doubt that he is identical with =Robert Alifax= or =Halifax=, the fifty-sixth Master of the Franciscans at Cambridge[1495].

_Robertus Haliphax de sententiarum libris I et II._

MS. Assisi 161 (sec. xiv).

_Primus Eliphat super sententias._

MSS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 14514 (sec. xiv).

Vienna:--Bibl. Palat. 1511, f. 110-120 (sec. xiv).

_Quaestiones Rob. Eliphat._

MSS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 14576 (xiv), 15561, f. 243 (xv), 15880 (xiv), 15888, f. 181, (xiv)[1496].

=Gilbert Peckham=, fellow of Merton in 1324 and 1339, may be identical with the fifty-ninth Master of the Minorites at Cambridge[1497].

=William Tithemersch= (co. Northampton), ‘of the custody of Oxford,’ was sixty-first Master of the Minorites at Cambridge, and twenty-first Provincial, about 1350; he was succeeded by Roger Conway, and was buried at Bedford[1498].

=William Scharshille= (co. Stafford),

‘formerly a justiciary under Edward III, gave away all his temporal goods and entered the Order, with great honour, at Oxford[1499].’

The date is not specified. A William de Shareshull, who is no doubt the same person, was ordered to attend a parliament in Scotland for the confirmation of a treaty between Edward III and Edward Balliol, in 1333; he is mentioned as a justice of assize in 1337, and he was appointed one of the examiners of some ecclesiastical petitions to Parliament in 1351[1500]. In 1356 ‘Dominus Willhelmus de Scharshull’ appears among the witnesses to an indenture between the University of Oxford and Richard d’Amory[1501].

=Richard Lymynster= and =Giuliortus de Limosano= are mentioned in a University decree as ‘wax-doctors’ of the Mendicant Orders at Oxford in 1358. It is uncertain to which Order the former belonged. The latter was a Minorite from Sicily, who tried to obtain the degree of B.D. by means of letters from the king of England[1502].

=Jerome of St. Mark= is said to have been a Minorite and Bachelor of Oxford, and author of a treatise on logic. His date--or even the century in which he lived--is unknown[1503].

=John of Nottingham= was a member of the Oxford Convent in the middle of the fourteenth century: he was one of the witnesses to the will of Robert de Trenge, Warden of Merton, and perhaps his confessor; the will was executed 1351, and proved 1357[1504].

=Roger Conway=, of the convent of Worcester and D.D. of Oxford, in 1355 obtained papal license to live in the Franciscan Convent of London

‘for the spiritual recreation of himself and of the nobles of England,’

who were said to flock in great numbers to this friary; Roger was to be subject to the rules of the house like any other friar[1505]. In 1357 he came forward as the champion of the Mendicant Orders against the Archbishop of Armagh, and wrote and preached in London ‘on the poverty of Christ’ and the right of the friars to hear confessions[1506]. According to one account

‘he strenuously defended his Order in the Curia against Armachanus[1507].’

In 1359 Innocent VI issued a bull confirming the decree _Vas electionis_ of John XXII,

‘at the instance of Roger Coneway of the Order of Friars Minors, who asserts that he needs these letters on behalf of the said Order[1508].’

He was twenty-second Provincial Minister of England[1509], and perhaps held the office at the time of the controversy with Richard Fitzralph[1510]. Bale and Pits state that he died in 1360; it is not improbable that he lived several years longer. He was buried in the choir of the Grey Friars Church, London[1511].

A book formerly belonging to Roger Conway is preserved among the MSS. of Gray’s Inn; Codex 1, formerly 17 (= 1584 in Bernard)--

‘_Joannes Cassianus de Institutis Egyptiorum Coenobiorum._ Cui haec notula apponitur: “Iste est liber Fratris Rogeri de Coneway[1512]”.’

_Defensio Religionis Mendicantium_, against Armachanus, or _De confessionibus per regulares audiendis contra informationes Armachani_; known also by the opening words of the treatise (preface): ‘Confessio et pulchritudo.’

MSS. Oxford:--Bodl. sup. A I, art. 95; also Corpus Christi Coll. 182, fol. 37 (sec. xv).

Cambridge:--Public Library Ii. iv. 5. fol. 15 (sec. xv); also Corpus Christi Coll. 333 (sec. xv).

Paris:--Bibl. Nationale 3221, fol. 206-46 (see. xv); and 3222, fol. 117, under the title: ‘Quedam informacio contra intentionem domini Ricardi Archiepiscopi Armachani super decretali _Vas electionis_, edita a ffratre Rogero Conewey magistro in Theologia de ordine fratrum minorum.’

Vienna:--Bibl. Palat. 4127, f. 221 (sec. xv).

Printed at Lyons 1496; Paris 1511 (among the works of Armachanus); and in Goldast, _Monarchia_ II, p. 1410, (under the name ‘Chonoe’).

_Intellectus fratrum de constitutione Vas electionis quo ad Negativam ibidem definitam._ _Inc._ ‘Verumptamen quia iste dominus Reverendus dicit quod intellectus fratrum est erroneus.’

MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 3222, fol. 133{b}-158{b}: it is anonymous in this MS., but is attributed to Roger Conway by Bale, MS. Seld. sup. 64, fol. 157{b}, and Tanner, Bibl. 197. The same MS. contains the _Replicationes_ of Armachanus against this work, ff. 159 sqq.

_Quaestiones tres de Christi paupertate et dominio temporali._ _Inc._ ‘Questio est hic de mendicitate;’ or ‘Utrum Christus hominum perfectissimus.’

MS. Vienna:--Bibl. Palat. 4127, f. 249-269 (sec. xv).

Wadding (_Script._ p. 212) gives the second _incipit_ and says: ‘Habeo MSS.’ These may be now in some Italian library; perhaps in the Franciscan Convent at Rome, or MS. Vatican 3740, ‘Tractatus diversorum super quaestione de paupertate Christi et Apostolorum’ (Montfaucon, p. 110).

=Simon Tunstede=, =de Tunstude=, or =Donstede=, is said by Bale to have entered the Order at Norwich, where, according to Blomefield, he afterwards became Warden of the Franciscan Convent[1513]. He was Regent Master of the Friars Minors at Oxford in 1351[1514], and according to contemporary evidence was ‘skilled in music and in the seven liberal arts[1515].’ He wrote on the Meteorics of Aristotle[1516], and made some alterations in the horologe called _Albion_, invented in 1326 by Richard of Wallingford, Abbat of St. Albans, and in the book which the Abbat wrote about his invention[1517]. He became twenty-third Provincial Minister in succession to Roger Conway about 1360[1518]. He was buried among the Poor Clares of Brusyard in Suffolk[1519]; Bale and Pits mention 1369 as the year of his death.

A work on music, _Quatuor principalia musicae_, or _De musica continua et discreta, cum Diagrammatibus_, has been erroneously ascribed to Tunstede[1520]; it was composed by a Minorite during Tunstede’s regency at Oxford, and perhaps under his supervision.

MSS. London:--Brit. Mus. Addit. 8866 (sec. xiv).

Oxford:--Bodleian; Digby 90 (sec. xiv); Bodley 515 (= 2185) (sec. xv).

Printed in E. de Coussemaker’s _Auctores de Musica_, &c. Paris 1876.

=Robert de Wysete=, =Wyshed=, or =de Wycett=, D.D. of Oxford, succeeded Tunstede as twenty-fourth Provincial (c. 1370?)[1521]. He was buried in the choir of the Grey Friars’ Church in London[1522].

MS. Worcester Cathed. Library, fol. No. 35: ‘Wyneshed de motu de locali et aliis Physicis’ (?); but the name here is probably an error for _Swynshed_; see MS. Cambridge, Caius Coll. 499.

=John Mardeslay= or =Mardisle=[1523], probably a Yorkshireman, incepted as D.D. at Oxford before 1355. Early in this year he disputed with the Dominican, William Jordan, in the Chapter-house and Chancellor’s schools at York, _de conceptione B. Mariae Virginis_, upholding the Immaculate Conception[1524]. His manner of disputation gave offence, and the Chapter of York issued letters testifying to his good conduct (April 10, 1355)[1525]:

‘in putting forward his opinion he behaved amicably, modestly and courteously, without introducing any abuse or improprieties whatsoever.’

He was certainly an able debater. In 1374 he was summoned with three other Doctors of Divinity to a council at Westminster, over which the Black Prince and the Archbishop of Canterbury presided[1526]. The subject of discussion was the right of England to refuse the papal tribute. The Archbishop and bishops said: ‘The pope is lord of all, we cannot refuse him this tribute.’ A monk of Durham brought forward the old argument about the two swords. Mardeslay at once replied with the text ‘Put up again thy sword into his place,’

‘showing that the two swords did not mean temporal and spiritual power, and that Christ had not temporal diminion; which he proved by the scriptures and gospels, by quotations from the doctors, by the example of the religious who leave worldly goods, and by the decretals; and he related how Boniface VIII claimed to be lord of all kingdoms, and how he was repulsed in France and England.’

At the end of the day’s sitting, the Archbishop said, ‘There were good counsels in England without the friars.’ The prince answered, ‘We have had to call them because of your fatuity; your counsel would have lost us our kingdom.’ The next day the papal party yielded. Between this date and 1380 Mardeslay was twenty-fifth Provincial Minister[1527]. The date of his death is uncertain; he was buried at York[1528].

=Thomas of Portugal= studied at Oxford and Paris, c. 1360, and lectured at Lisbon and Salamanca. He was elected in the General Chapter to lecture on the _Sentences_ at Cambridge, and was promoted to the degree of D.D. in the University of Toulouse by Pope Gregory XI in 1371[1529].

=Philip Zoriton= (?), according to Wadding ‘professor in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge,’ received the insignia of the _magisterium_ at the hands of Friar Francis de Cardaillac S.T.P. in 1364[1530]. Zoriton appears to be a mistake for =Torinton= or =Torrington=. Philip Torrington S.T.P. was made Archbishop of Cashel in 1373[1531]. He was sent by Richard II as ambassador to Urban VI, and, on his return in 1379, urged the English king to invade France in support of the Pope, against the Antipope Clement VII. Philip died in 1380[1532].

=Dalmacus de Raxach= and =Franciscus de Graynoylles= of the kingdom of Aragon, friars Minors residing at Oxford for t