Richard FitzRalph in Oxford, Avignon and Armagh

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A FOURTEENTH-CENTURY SCHOLAR AND PRIMATE

RICHARD FITZRALPH IN OXFORD, AVIGNON AND ARMAGH by

KATHERINE vV ALSH

CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD 1981

Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP London Glasgow New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Wellington and associate companies in Beirut Berlin Ibadan Mexico City

© Katherine Walsh 1981 Published in the United States by Oxford University Press, New York All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data it'alsh. Katherine A fourteenth-century scholar and primate. 1. Fitzralph, Richard 2. Christian biography I. Title 2 70.5 '092 '4 ISBN 0-19-8 2263 7-3

Typeset by Anne Joshua Associates, Oxford Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Oxford by Eric Buckley Printer to the University

VIRO DOCTISSIMO AUBREY GWYNN S.J. OMNIUM QUI IN HIBERNIA RERUM MEDIAEVALIUM STUDIA PROFITENTUR PRINCIPI IIOC OPUS D.D.D. AUCTRIX

t

Preface Richard FitzRalph was a prolific writer on a range of issues which were crucial to late medieval European society. His ser­ mons, academic treatises, and polemical works were recognized almost half a century ago by Fr. Aubrey Gwy nn as a fundamen­ tal source for their author's long and varied career, for his pivotal role between the strife-torn world of the Anglo-Irish border and the intellectual and ecclesiastico-political milieu of Oxford and Avignon. These writings also ensured him a place in the wider intellectual-cultural history of the period: his part in the Greek and Armenian debates attracted attention in centres as diverse as Cracow and Cesena, while his acknowledged influ­ ence on Wyclif and Hus and consequently on the ecclesiological turmoil in central Europe guaranteed the survival of his works in an extraordinarily large number of manuscripts in circles close to the universities of Prague and Vienna, as well as in the monastic and cathedral centres of the Germania Sacra. Fitz­ Ralph is primarily remembered as the impetuous 'Armachanus', who pursued a vendetta against the mendicant friars and in doing so developed the - subsequently notorious - doctrine of dominion by grace. It is a partial aim of the present study to correct this perspective and to allow a more complex personality to emerge. Hence we meet the 'iron chancellor' who filled Oxford jail to bursting point with recalcitrant students, the lazy letter-writer in Avignon pursuing private intellectual interests and nearly driving his canons in Lichfield to despair, the advo­ cate of missionary activity and reconciliation with the eastern Christians, and the zealous reforming prelate who built his pastorate on the example of Becket, the martyred archbishop of Canterbury. FitzRalph experienced a problem not unknown to many who exchange the relative freedom of academic specula­ tion for the episcopal mitre: the theologian and biblical scholar could afford the luxury of high ideals concerning an unstructured, apostolic church, but the prelate-administrator was confronted with the sheer impracticability of those ideals. Also in Ireland he was faced with a range of moral issues, from the perennial problem of the high level of violence in his ecclesiastical province

vm

Preface

to natural methods of birth control and clerical celibacy. Al­ though on the one hand he defended the rights of the Gaelic population and on the other denounced the 'immorality' of their clergy (the social and legal explanation for whose practices he would scarcely have understood), he clearly had little direct pastoral experience of the Gaelic elements among �is flock. Hence the legend that he was the first to translate the Bible into Irish, doubtless created by exponents of 'sola scriptura' and with Lollard overtones, must be dismissed as a pious fiction. Despite the considerable body of archival material which is used, the core of this study is based on FitzRalph's own writings, whose internal contradictions and occasional confusion, as in the dialogue De Pauperie Salvatoris, can be seen as a barometer of his own developing reactions to new situations. As individual writings frequently have a sign ificance for more than one set of problems, the combination of a chronological with a thematic approach has made some repetition unavoidable. l\1ost of Fitz­ Ralph's writings are available only in manuscript form or in unsatisfactory early printings, hence research for this book in­ volved much travelling. In the course of these travels I have incurred many obligations, and it is a pleasure to acknowledge them here. Above all the generosity of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, which elected me to a research fellowship for the period 1976-78, made possible the pursuit of the scat­ tered manuscript material. Prof. Dr. Horst Fuhrmann, President of the l\1onumenta Germaniae Historica in l\Iunich, and Prof. Dr. Reinhard Elze, Director of the German Historical Institute in Rome, provided optimal facilities for a wandering scholar. Miss Beryl Smalley, Dr.Jeremy I. Catto and Dozent Dr. Alex­ ander Patschovsky gave constructive and critical advice at all stages of preparation and each undertook the considerable bur­ den of reading the penultimate draft in its entirety. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Don Alfons 1\1. Stickler, SDB, and Msgr. Jose Ruysschaert, Prefect and Vice-Prefect of the Biblio­ teca Apostolica Vaticana, and to Msgr. Dr, Hermann Hoberg, Vice-Prefect of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, while Prof. Agostino Paravicini Bagliani of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana provided valuable codicological information. Sir Richard Southern, P. Dr. Marc Dykmans S.J., Prof. Dr. Isnard W. Frank O.P., Prof. Dr. Paul Handel, the late Dr. Richard Hunt, Prof. Dr. Achim Masser, l\fr. Charles l\·lorgenstern, Prof. Dr. Hans Martin Schaller, and Prof. Dr. Paul Uihlein answered

Preface

1x

queries on various topics. The Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College Cambridge gave permission for the manuscript in their care from the collection of Archbishop Matthew Parker to be used for the frontispiece. To all I am most grateful. How­ ever my greatest debt is to the dedicatee, Fr. Aubrey G wy nn, without whose initiative and constant encouragement this study of FitzRalph would scarcely have been written. Innsbruck, January 1981

Contents Abbreviations I

OXFORD

I.

IV.

Anglo-Irish background, youth, and early education Oxford at the time of FitzRalph Commentator on the Sentences Chancellor of Oxford University

II

AVIGNON

II. lll.

I.

11. 111.

III I.

11. lll.

IV I.

11. lll. IV.

V I. II.

111.

The beatific vision controversy Dean of Lich field Armenian debates: the Summa de Questionibus Armenorum THE PREACHER AND HIS SERMON DIARY

Avignon Lichfield Ireland

ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH

Xlll

1 15 36 64 85 107 129 182 188 22 1 232

The Irish Church and the primatial question The Black Death in Ireland The cult of St. Patrick and 'Ritter Georg' Pastoral care and Church reform in a divided society

239 278 304 3 18

THE MENDICANT CONTROVERSY Initial stages: the Proposicio of 1350 Dominion and grace: De Pauperie Salvatoris FitzRalph v. the Friars at the papal court

349 377 406

EPILOGUE Lollard saint and the cult of 'St. Richard of Dundalk'

45 2

APPENDIX Notes on some FitzRalph manuscripts

469

BIBLIOGRAPHY

476

xu

Contents INDEX OF MANUSCRIPTS CITED

501

GENERAL INDEX

503

Abbreviations AA Acta /oannis XIII

Acta Benedicti XII AFH AFP AIIC AHDLMA AHP Archbishop Alen 's Register Arch. Hib. ASOC ASV A usgehendes Mittelalter

B BAV BF

BL Boyle, Vatican Archives BRUG BRUO

Analecta Augustiniana (Citta del Vatican 0 , 1905 ff.) Acta loannis XXII {1317-1334), ed. Aloysius L. Tautu (Pontificia Commissio ad Redigendum Codicem Iuris Canonici Orientalis, Fontes, Series III, vol. vii, Tom. ii, Rome, 195 2) Acta Benedicti XII (1334-1342), ed. Tautu, ibid., vol. viii (Rome, 1958) Archivum Franciscanum Historicum (Quaracchi, 1908 ff.) Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum (Rome, 1931 ff.) Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum (Paderborn, 1969 ff.) Archives d'histoire doctrinale et litteraire du moyen age (Paris, 1926 ff.) Archivum Historwe Pontzficiae (Rome, 1963 ff.) Charles McNeill (ed.), A Calender of Archbishop Alen 's Register, c.11 72-1534 (Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Dublin, 1950) Archivium Hibernicum (Dublin, 191 2 ff.) Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis (Rome, 1945 ff.) Archivio Segreto Vaticano Anneliese Maier, Ausgehendes Mittelalter. Gesam­ melte A ufsiitze zur Geistesgeschichte des 14. jahr­ hunderts, 3 vols. (Storia e Letteratura 97, 105, 138, Rome, 1964-7 7). First printings of each article are cited in the bibliography Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodi. 144 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Bullarium Franciscanum (i-iv, Rome, 1759-68; v-vii, Rome, 1898-1904; n.s. Quaracchi, 1929 ff.) British Library (formerly British Museum) Leonard E. Boyle, A Survey of the Vatican Archives, and of its Medieval Holdings (Toronto, 1972) Alfred B. Emden (ed.), A Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to A.D. 1500 (Cam­ bridge, 1963) Alfred B. Emden (ed.), A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1957-9)

xiv

Abbreviations

Cal. Reg. Fleming Cal. Reg. Sweteman

CCR Chart. Univ. Paris. CLM Clyn, Annals of Ireland Colledge, Richard Ledred Courtenay, Adam Wodeham CPL CPL Petitions I

CPR CVP DHGE Dowdall Deeds

DNB DPS DTC

Dulaurier, Do cs. armeniens EETS EHR

Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Friedberg FS

Henry J. Lawlor (ed.), 'A Calendar of the Register of Archbishop Fleming', PR/A 30 C (1912), 94-190 Henry J. Lawlor (ed.), 'A Calendar of the Register of Archbishop Sweteman', PR/A 29 C (1911), 213-310 Calendar of Close Rolls Heinrich Denifle and Emile Chatelain (eds.), Chartu­ larium Universitatis Parisiensis, 4 vols. (Paris 1891-9) Codex Latinus Monacensis (= MS collection, Bayer­ ische Staatsbibliothek, Miinchen) Annals of Ireland by Friar John Glyn, ed. R. Butler (Irish Archaeological Society, Dublin, 1849) Edmund Colledge, The Latin Poems of Richard Ledred, OFM Bishop of Ossory, 1317-1360 (Toronto, 1974) William J. Courtenay, Adam Wodeham. An Intro­ duction to his Life and Writings (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought, vol. xxi, Leiden, 19 7 8) Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Papal Letters (London, 1893 ff.) Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Petitions to the Pope (London, 1896) Calendar of Patent Rolls Codex Vindobonensis Palatinus (MS collection, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien) Dictionnaire d'histoire et de geographie ccclesiast­ iq ues (Paris, 1912 ff.) Charles McNeil} and Annette J. Otway-Ruthven (eds.) Dowdall Deeds (Irish Manuscripts Commis­ sion, Dublin, 1960) Dictionary of National B iography (London, 191 7 ff.) De Pauperie Salvatoris, FitzRalph 's dialogue in seven books (completed 1356) Dictionnaire de theologie cathulique (Paris, 1930 ff.) Recueil des historiens des Croisades. Documents armeniens, ed. Edouard Dulaurier, 2 vols. (Paris, 1869-1906) Early English Texts Society (London, 1864 ff.) English Historical Review (London, 1886 ff.) Conradus Eubel et al. (eds.), Hierarchia Catholica medii et recentioris aevi (Munster-Padua, 1913 ff.) Corpus Juris Canonici, ed. E. L. Richter and E. Friedberg, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 18 79-81) Franciscan Studies (1941 ff.)

,

Abbreviations Goldast, Monarchia Grandisson 's Register

Gwynn, English A us tin Friars Gwynn, 'Sermon Diary ' Gwynn, Studies

Hammerich, FitzRalph and the Mendicants

HBC 2

Hoberg, Einnahmen

Hoberg, Servitien­ q uittungen /HS ITQ

J ]EH ]RSA/ ]TS

Kaeppeli, Script O.P. Kleine Schrzften

xv

Melchior Goldast von Haiminsfeld, Monarchia sancti Romani imperii, 3 vols. (Frankfurt, 1610-14) F. C. Hingeston-Randolph (ed.), The Register of john de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter 1327- 1369,

3 vols. (London-Exeter, 1894-9) Aubrey Gwynn, The English Austin Friars in the Time of Wyclzf (Oxford, 1940) Idem, 'The Sermon Diary of Richard FitzRalph, Archbishop of Armagh', PR/A 44 C (1937), 1-57 Idem, 'Richard FitzRalph, Archbishop of Armagh', Studies 22 (1933), 389-405, 591-607; 23 (1934), 395-411; 'The Black Death in Ireland', 24 (1935), 2 5-42; 'Archbishop Fitz Ralph and George of Hungary', 24 (1935), 558-72; 'Richard FitzRalph, Archbishop of Armagh', 25 (1936), 81-96; 'Arch­ bishop FitzRalph and the Friars', 26 (1937), 50-6 7 Louis L. Hammerich, 'The Beginning of the Strife between Richard FitzRalph and the Mendicants, with' an edition of his autobiographical prayer and his Proposition "Unusquisque" ', Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser, 26, 3 (Copenhagen, 1938) Frederick M. Powicke and Edmund B. Fryde (eds.), Handbook of British Chronology, 2nd edn. (London, 1961) Hermann Hoberg, Die Einnahmen der apostolischen Kammer unter Jnnocenz VI., I. Die Einnahmen­ Register des pii.pstlichen Thesaurars (Vatikanische Quellen zur Geschichte der papstlichen Hof- und Finanzverwaltung, vol. vii, Paderborn, 1955) Idem, Die Einnahmen der apostolischen Kammer unter Jnno cenz VJ., II. Die Servitienquittungen des piipstlichen Kamerars (ibid., vol. viii, Pader­ born, 1972) Irish Historical Studies (Dublin, 1938 ff.) Irish Theological Quarterly (Dublin, 1906-22, 195lff.) Oxford, St.John 's College, MS 65 Journal of Ecclesiastical Hi;tory (London, 1950 ff.) Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (Dublin, 1849 ff.) Journal of Theological Studies (London, 1899 ff.) Thomas Kaeppeli, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum Medii Aevi (Rome, 19 70 ff.) Joseph Koch, Kleine Schriften, 2 vols. (Storia e Letteratura 127-8, Rome, 1973). First printings of each article are cited in the bibliography

xvi

A b breviations

L Leff, FitzRalph Commentator LTK 2 Medieval Religious Houses. England and Wales Medieval Religious Houses. Ireland Mohler, Einnahmen

MOPHist. MPG MPL MS Obl. et Sol. OCP OHS Owst, Literature 2 Owst, Preaching p PBA Perini, Bib/. Aug. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. Proc. /CHG PR/A Rashdall's Universities Raynaldus, Ann. Eccl. RB Reg. Burgh. Lincoln

BL, MS Lansdowne 393 Gordon Leff, Richard FitzRalph, Commentator on the Sentences. A Study in Theological Orthodoxy (Manchester, 1963) Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche, 2nd edn. (Frei­ burg i. Br., 1957 ff.) David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock ; Medieval Religious Houses. England and Wales (London, 1953) Aubrey Gwynn and R. Neville Hadcock , Medieval Religious Houses. Ireland (London, 1970) Ludwig Mohler (ed.), Die Einna hmen der aposto­ lischen Kammer unter Klemens VI. (Vatikanische Quellen zur Geschichte der papstlichen Hof- und Finanzverwaltung, vol. v, Paderborn, 1931) Monumenta Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum His­ torica (Louvain-Rome, 1896 ff. ) Patrologia Graeca, ed.J. P. Migne (Paris, 185 7 ff.) Patrologia Latina, ed.J. P. Migne (Paris, 1878 ff.) Mediae val Studies (Toronto, 1939 ff.) Obligationes et Solutiones, in ASV, Fondo camerale Orientalia Christiana Periodica (Rome, 1935 ff.) Oxford Historical Society Gerald R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England, 2nd edn. (Oxford, 1961} Gerald R. Owst, Preaching in Medieval England (Cambridge, 1926) Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, Lat. 15853 Proceedings of the British Academy (London 1904 ff.) David Perini, Bibliographia A ugustiniana , 4 vols. (Florence, 1929) Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia, 1840 ff.) . Proceedings of the Irish Catholic Historical Com­ mittee (Dublin, 1955 ff.) Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin, 1840 ff.) The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages by the late Hastings Rashdall, Frederick M. Powicke and Alfred B. Emden (eds.), 3 vols. (Oxford, 1936) Odericus Raynald us, Annales E cclesiastici, 3 8 vols. ( Lucca, 1738-59) Revue Benedictine (Lille, 1884 ff.) Register of Henry Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln 1320-40 (Lincoln Cathedral Archives)

.

A b breviations R eg. jo hn Swa y n e R eg. La t. Reg. Northburgh R eg. Suppl. R eg. Va t. R HE RS Rymer's Fo edera

s Salter, Snappe 's Fo rm ulary SB Miln chen SB Wien Schafer A usga b en . . . Johann X XI I Schafer, A usgab en . . . B enedik t XII, Kle mens VI, Inno cen z VI Smalley, English Friars Sta tuta A n tiq ua Studies Summa Tr. A m. Phil. So c.

xvn

David A . Chart, Register of Jo hn Sway ne, A rch ­ b ishop of A rmagh and Primate of Ireland (Belfast, 1935) Registra La teranensia, ASV, Dataria apostolica (1389 ff.) Register of Roger Northburgh, B ishop of Coventry and Lichfield (1 322-58) (LichHeld Cathedral Archives) Registra Supplication u m, ASV, Dataria apostolica ( 1 342 ff.) R egistra Va ticana , ASV ( 1 0 73 ff.) R e vue d 'histo ire e c clesiastiq ue (Louvain, 1 900 ff.) Rolls Series (London, 1858-96) Tho mas Rymer (ed.), Fo ed era, Co nven tio n es et L itterae , 6 vols. (London, 1 8 1 6-69) Summa Do mini Richardi Radulph i A rchiepiscopi A rmachani . . . in Questio nib us A rmenorum (i.e. Summa de Questionib us A rme norum), ed. Johannis Sudoris (Paris, 1 5 1 1 ) Herbert E . Salter (ed.), Snappe 's Fo rmulary and o th er R e cords (OHS, 1 923) Sitz ungsb erichte der Bay eris chen A kad emie der Wissens chaften zu Miln chen, h istoris ch -philo ­ so phis che Klasse (Munich, 1 8 7 1 ff.) Sitz ungsberic hte der (sin ce 1 9 4 7: Osterreich is chen) A kademie der Wissenschaften, philo soph isch-h isto r­ ische Klasse (Vienna, 1831 ff.) Karl E. Schafer, Die A usgaben der apo sto lischen Ka m mer un ter Jo hann XXII., nebst den Ja hres­ b ilanzen vo n 1 3 1 6-1 3 75 (Vatikanische Quellen zur Geschichte der papstlichen Hof- und Finanzver­ waltung, vol. ii, Paderborn, 1 9 1 2) Idem, D ie A usga b en der apo stolischen Ka mmer un ter Benedik t XII., Klem ens VI. und Jnno cenz VI. (ibid., vol. iii, Paderbo m, 1 9 1 4) Beryl Smalley, English Friars and A ntiq uity in the Early Fo urteen th Cen tury (Oxford, 1960) M. Stickland Gibson, Statuta A n tiq ua Un iversita tis Oxoniensis (Oxford, 193 1) Studies - an Irish Quart erly R e vie w (Dublin, 191 1 ff.) Summa de Questio nib us A rmenorum Transa ctions of the A merican Philo sophical So cie ty (Philadelphia, 1 769 ff.)

xvm

Abbreviations

TRHS

VCH Walsh , ' F itzRalph and the Friars ' Walsh, 'Hardeby '

ws

ZBLG

ZKG ZK T

Transactions of the R o yal His torical So ciety (Lon­

don, 1 8 7 1 ff.)

Vic toria History of the Co unties of England Katherine Walsh , 'Archbishop Fitz Ralph and the Friars at the Pap al Co urt in Avignon , 1 3 5 7 - 6 0 ' , Traditio 3 1 ( 1 9 7 5 ) , 2 2 3-45 Idem , 'The "De Vita Evangelic a" of · Geo ffrey Hardeby, O ESA (C. 1 3 20-c. 1 3 8 5 ) . A study in the mendic ant controversies o f the fo urteenth century ' , AA 33 { 1 9 7 0 ) , 1 5 1 -2 6 1 ; 34 ( 1 9 7 1 ) , 5-83, and sep arate ( Rome, 1 9 7 2 ) Wyclif Society ( Londo n , 1 8 84 ff.) Zeitsch rift fur Bayerische Landesges chichte (Munich , 1 9 2 8 ff. ) Zeitsch rift fur Kirch engeschichte (Gotha-Stuttgart , 1 8 7 6 ff.) Zeitschrift fur Ka th o lis che Th eo logie ( Inn sbruc k, 1 8 7 7 ff.)

I Oxford i. A nglo -Irish b ackground, y outh , and early edu cation C OMMENCIN G with the period which he spent as a student of theology at Oxford University, the career of Richard FitzRalph is documented with a wealth and precision of detail remarkable for a man of his epoch. However, the details of his background, parentage, and birth have remained more obscure. FitzRalph himself, despite his voluminous writings on a wide range of topics which permit us to draw a well-rounded picture of his personality and temperament, gives few precise details of an autobiographical nature. One such detail is nevertheless, in view of the doubtful state of the evidence from other sources and of the claims made in older English historiography, 1 a most impor­ tant clue as to his place of birth. During a sermon preached in the Franciscan convent at Avignon on the feast of St. Francis, 4 October 1349, he told the audience of his family's close links with their order, informing them that the only religious commu­ nity in his native town was a Franciscan one and that at any given time at least one i.f not more of his relatives were friars in that community . 2 That FitzRalph was a native of the arch­ diocese of Armagh, whose archbishop he was to become, is made plain by the earliest reference to him in the papal registers when for the first time he received a benefice by papal provision 1 John Pri nce, Dam no nii Orienta tes Illu stres: or The Wo rthies of Devon ( E xete r , 1 70 I ) , p p . 294-8 , claimed Fitz Ral ph as a nati v e of D evon, a mem b er o f the Fitz Ralph family of N o r ral near Widecom b e, in spite o f th ose who 'tell us, that he was an I ri sh­ man , and b orn in the Town o f Dundalk in that Kingdo m ' (p. 294 ). The claim was b ased on the fac t that FitzRalp h sought episco pal co nsec r ation in Ex eter Cathedral , and o f the su b sequent presence of a fam ily of the same name in De v on. Prince att r i­ b uted the latter's coat-o f-arms, B arule of 6 A r g. and Azu r e 3 Buckles Gui. , to the arch b ishop on the b asis of this alleged identificati on. Alth ough Reginald L. Poole co rrected the pictu r e (DNB vii. 1 94 ) , this erro r was repeated b y Workman , Jo h n Wy c lzf, i, 1 26 . 2 B , fol . 1 9 4 v ; J , fol. l 4 2 rb _ A furthe r indication i n t h e diary that FitzRalph was a nati v e o f Dundalk is pro v ided b y a p assage in a se r mon preached in that city on 24 Ap r il 1 34 8 . It was the first sermon p r eached by him upon his r eturn as a r ch b ishop, and he stated that h e was add r essing it to those 'de sanguine meo', B, fo l. 4 2 v ; J , fol . 34 v a- b _

2

Oxford

on 2 7 September 13 31, 3 and Fr. Gwynn used gleanings from a range of calendared record material to work out that he was of Anglo-Norman burgess stock from the north-east comer of the Pale. 4 This detail concerning the Franciscans confirms that the town in question cannot have been Drogheda, which containe d communities of all four mendicant orders within o:r;- near its walls, but must have been Dundalk, the only other reasonable possibility in the archdiocese which also lay within the confines of the Anglo-Irish lordship. 5 The probability that Dundalk was his birthplace is further strengthened by the testimony of the annalist who recorded FitzRalph's death at the papal curia the various sources differ as to the exact day of hi s death, whether 10, 14 , or 1 6 November 13 6 0 - and added 'cujus ossa per venerabilem patrem Stephanum, Episcopum 1\fidie, in Hiber­ nie dilata sunt ad recondendum in eccle sia Sancti Nicolai de Dondalk, uncle fuit oriundus'. 6 De spite the annalist's further laconic comment, 'sed dubium est aliquibus si sunt ossa illius vel alterius', the tradition is recordable within a generation of his death that the tomb in his native city was the scene of 'many great miracles' and that he was venerated locally as S t. Richard of Dundalk. 7 Consequent upon this swiftly established cult, a papal commission was appointed during the pontificiate of Urban VI (13 78-89) to examine the case for his canonization, while under the succeeding pope, Boniface IX (1389-1404) , these investigations had made sufficient progress for FitzRalph's canonization to have been seriously under consideration. 8 The actual date of FitzRalph's birth cannot be established 3 AS V, Reg. Vat. 1 0 1 , fol . 2 2 5 f , in which he is desc r ibed as a cleric of th e arch­ diocese of Armagh who has p reviously held no bene fice. 4 Do wdall Deeds, ad indiccm, for the fam ilies of Rauf ( or Row e ) and D owdall , who were prominent in the Dundal k area in the fou rteenth centu r y . 5 Medieval Religious Ho uses. Ireland, p p . 2 24 , 2 4 7-9 , 2 8 8 , 2 9 8 . 6 Th ere i s a consensus among olde r au thori ties fo r 1 6 November ; s e e Prince, p . 2 9 8 , who may have taken h i s information from S ir J ames War e, D e Praesulib us Hib erniae Co mmen tarius ( D ublin, 1 66 5 ) , p. 2 1 . For the account o f the tran sfer o f th e remains to Ireland see J. T. Gilbert ( ed . ) , Chartulan·es of St. Mary 's A b bey, Dub lin : with the Register of its House a t Dun bro dy, and A nnals of Ireland, 2 vols. ( RS , London, 1 8 84 ) , i . 39 3 . This transfer cannot have taken place befo re 19 February 1 3 69 when Stephen Val e (Wal l ) was t ranslated fr om Lim erick, nor afte r his death 10 Novemb e r 1 3 7 9 , HBC 2 , 3 2 0 . 7 This local veneration i s summed up in t h e l ines o f Engl ish ve r se co pied into the manusc r ipt of the Martyro logium Dungallense: 'Manny a mile have I go ne I and manny did I wal k I but neuer sawe a h ollier man I than Richard of D undal k ' , in B r us­ sels, Bibi. nat. MS 5 0 6 , fo l. 1 1 5 r_ 8 ASV, Indice 3 20 , fo l. 4 2 r ( 1 1 Novemb er 1 3 89 ) , and Reg. L a t. 69 , fols. 1 8 l v r 1 8 3 ( 2 8 January 1 39 9 ) , reco rd the successive stages of this investi ga tion.

Anglo-Irish background, youth , and early education

3

precisely, and one can only infer by working backwards from the known milestones of his academic career that he must have been born around 1 3 0 0 or slightly earlier. Since he came to Ox­ ford as a secular student of arts and did not, as was usually the case with members of religious orders who had undergone a philosophical training in their own schools, seek ' gr aces' or dis­ pensations from the normal progr ession of studies through the arts faculty, we can for purposes of computation assume that FitzRalph followed the then accepted procedures. The first piece of concrete information about his Oxford career estab­ lishes him on 2 5 July 13 2 5 as a master of arts and fellow of Balliol Hall. On that date the chancellor of the university, Henry Gower, formally ratified a ruling made by two external masters conce1ning the college statutes of Balliol. 9 By statute Balliol was then reserved for students in the arts faculty, and under the terms of this ruling those members of the college who were students in the higher faculties, including theology ) were required to leave. Four members of the college were thus affected and obliged to resign their fellowships: Richard Campsall and Walter Horkestaw, both doctors of theology, and Richard Radford and Richard 'filius Radulphi', both masters of arts. 1 0 The sources give no indication of the length of FitzRalph' s residence at Balliol, nor how he came to be there. In the traditional division of students between northerners and southerners for academic purposes the Welsh and Irish came to be grouped together with the southerners, while Balliol Hall was something of a strong­ hold for the northern elements. 1 1 Nor can it be established definitely whether FitzRalph was subsequently admitted to a fellowship elsewhere. It has been suggested that he became a fel­ low of the Hall which later became University College, but Merton is also, in view of its strong associations with theology in the university and of FitzRalph's own links with Mertonian circles, a distinct possibility. 1 2 The enforced resignation of his Herb ert E . Salter ( ed . ) , Th e Oxford Deeds of Ballio l Co llege (OHS 1 9 1 3 ), p . 2 8 5 . See respectively BR VO I, 344-5 (supplemented by James A. Weisheipl, ' Reper­ torium M ertonense', MS 3 1 ( 1 9 69 ) , 208-9 ) ; BR UO II, 9 6 3 ; ibid ., III, 1 54 1 -2 ; II, 692-3. 11 Al fred B. Emden, 'Northerners and South erners in the Organization of th e Uni­ versity to 1 5 09 ', Oxfo rd Studies presen ted to Daniel Callus (OHS 1 9 6 4 ) , p. 2 . 12 Gwynn, Stu dies, 22 ( 1 9 3 3 ), p. 400, suggested University Coll ege , but h e was unaware o f the extent o f Fitz Ralph 's M erton connections. On the Merto nians see Weisheipl, ' Repertorium Mertonense', 1 7 7- 244, and his detailed examination of their works and surviving manuscripts in ' Early Fourteen th-Century Physics of the Merton " sch ool " ' (MS D.Ph il . , d. 1 7 7 6 , O x ford, 1 9 5 6 ). 9

10

4

Oxford

Balliol fellowship may have compelled him to seek other sources of financial support and on 2 6 April 13 2 6 he was collated by Edward II to the church of Athboy in the diocese of l\.'Ieath. 1 3 However, although this church was located within the confines of the Anglo-Irish lordship where the king's writ ran, there is no definite evidence that FitzRalph ever actually got posses­ sion of the church or its revenues, and the argument used by Grandisson in his later attempts to secure papal patronage for his protege to the effect that FitzRalph held no benefice already would suggest that the Irish collation did not take effect. The registers of Bishop John Grandisson of Exeter, a power­ ful patron who subsequently smoothed the path of FitzRalph's rise to prominence at Avign on, contain several e�tries which throw light on the young Anglo-Irishman's progress towards the doctorate in theology . Grandisson had studied in Paris from 1313 to 131 7 under the Cistercian master, Jacques Fournier, who became pope as Benedict XII on 16 December 1 3 3 4, and appears also to have spent a period of study in Oxford, probably before his departure for Paris. 14 He was provided to the see of Exeter by John XXII on 12 August 13 2 7 , was consecrated in Avign on, and enthroned on 2 2 August 13 28 in Exeter. The register for his first year as bishop contains a letter in which Grandisson addressed FitzRalph as 'magister Ricardus', but not yet as 'bachalarius' , while in a further letter a year later he is mentioned as 'in Sacra Pagina Egregius bachalarius', 1 5 and finally in the summer of 13 31 we can date with certainty his inception as doctor of theology. 1 6 In view of the statutory requirements for candidates in theology proceeding to the doctorate at Oxford in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a procedure which required nine years to complete, FitzRalph must have begun his studies in theology no later than 1 3 2 2 , i.e. three years before he resign ed his fellowship at Balliol. 1 7 It is conceivable that he car­ ried out the mandatory two years' teaching as regent master in 13

CPR 1 3 24 - 2 7 , 2 5 8 , but th ere is no evidence that he ever go t possession o f th e church or its revenues. 14 BR UO II, 800- 1 , but the dating of G randisson 's sojourn at O x ford remains a problem. 15 Grandisso n 's Register, i. 1 7 3 , 2 3 3 . 16 24 May 1 3 3 1 Grandisson ad dressed Fitz Ralph as bachelor of theology , ibid., ii. 6 1 6 , wh ereas by 2 7 September of the same year the papal letter co nferring up0n him a benefice in the diocese of Exeter ad dressed h im as doctor. The entry in Grandis­ son 's Register, i. 1 06- 7 , recording the b ish op's petition to John XXII for this bene fice has been incorrec tly dated in the printed register to c. 1 3 28-9 . 17 Statu ta A ntiqua, pp. 4 8 - 5 1 .

Anglo-lrish background, youth , and early �ducation

5

arts concurrently with the initial stages of his theological studies and may have been teaching Balliol students in arts until his resignation. However, he was obliged to have completed his own arts courses and incepted as master of arts before emb arking on the study of theology , hence by 1 3 22 he must have followed courses in the seven liberal arts and the three philosophies : natural philosophy , moral philosophy , and metaphysics, and participated in the necessary disputations, all of which normally required about seven years. 1 8 This chronology would place his arrival at Oxford no later than c. 1 3 1 4- 1 5 , and it could have been several years earlier. The initial stages of university training in arts then corresp onded to what in modem terms might roughly be described as ' gr ammar school education' and students came corresp ondingly younger to university , usually aged about fourteen or fifteen ; thus we can arrive at a hypothetical date of birth for Fitz Ralph around 1 3 00 , possibly slightly before , but definitely not later. The next question to be considered concerns the conditions of Anglo-Irish urb an society at the beginning of the fourteenth century , which provided the back gr ound to FitzRalph's forma­ tive years. His native archdiocese of Armagh can be regarded as a microcosm o f the tensions and racial divisions then endemic in Irish society as a whole. Within a generation o f the 'invasion' of Ireland by the Cambro -N ormans under the leadership of the Earl o f Clare (Strongb ow) this area had felt the effect of the Norman presence, 1 9 and almost half of its territory had been permanently occupied by the new settlers. Town life had developed largely along English lines in the eastern coastal parts of the diocese (mo dem County Louth) , especially in Drogheda and Dundalk. 20 By the early fourteenth century both the secular and ecclesiastical administration had been forced to recognize that the diocese was irrevocably divided into two almost evenly balanced parts. The northern half still clung to the old order, the ancient kingly family of the O,N eill ruled and gave judge­ ment according to Gaelic law; Gaelic speech and customs 1 8 For the curriculum and regul ations governing it see Weisheipl , 'The Curriculum of the F aculty of Arts at O x ford i n the Early Fourteenth Century ', MS 2 6 ( 1 9 64 ) , 1 43 -8 5 ; ide m , 'Developments i n t h e Arts C urriculum a t Ox ford in the Early Four­ teenth Century ', MS 28 ( 1 9 6 6 ) , 1 5 1 - 7 5 . 1 9 See Annette J. Otway-Ruthve n, A His tory of Medieval Ireland ( London, 1 9 6 8 ) , p p . 7 0- 1 0 1 . 20 Th ere is no comprehe nsive treatment in English of the rise and growth of towns in medieval Ireland , but see Gearoid MacNiocaill, Na Buirgeisi, 2 vols. ( Dublin, 1 9 64 ) ; J . J . Web b , Municipal Go vernment in Ireland ( Dublin, 1 9 1 8 ) .

6 Oxford prevailed, even the clergy were regarded as a race apart and referred to in official diocesan records as 'clerus inter Hiber­ nos'. 2 1 In the southern half of the diocese, dominated by the towns of Drogheda and Dundalk and lying close to the Pale and the nerve-centres of government of the English lordship, the rule of law was that of the j usticiar's court, and the c�ergy here were design ated 'clerus inter Anglos'. This cleavage was given what amounted to official recogn ition with regard to ecclesiasti­ cal administration in that the northern part of the archdiocese, together with the primatial city of Armagh, was ruled by a native-born dean who resided in Armagh with some of the Gaelic Irish canons of the chapter. Visitation in those dioceses within the metropolitan jurisdiction which lay 'inter Hibernos' - in this case the vast majority - was entrusted to native commis­ saries, or even in some cases to the bishop of the diocese in question. The primate resided at one or other of his two manors of Termonfechin and Dromiskin in County Louth, was assisted in the government of the 'English' half of his diocese by an Anglo-Irish archdeacon, used the parish church of St. Peter in Drogheda as his pro-cathedral, and only rarely ventured to his cathedral city of Armagh. 22 Furthermore there were ominous signs, becoming increasingly evident, that the rule of law in the Anglo-Irish lordship was breaking down, that racial tensions on the borders of the Pale were becoming so acute that government officials were either unable or unwilling to discharge their duties. 23 Above all, the parliamentary legislation of 129 7 , 1310, and 13 2 0 illustrated how serious the problem had become by the early fourteenth century, while the Scottish invasion led by Edward Bruce, 1315 -18, which came to be reco gn ized by the English govern­ ment, Anglo-Irish settlers, and native Irish alike, as an unmiti­ gated disaster, highlighted these tensions even though it did not 21

For relations between the Gaelic lordship in Ulster and the archbishops of Armagh see Katharine Simms, 'Gaelic Lordships in Uls ter in the Later Middle Age s ' (unpublished Ph .D. thesis, University o f Dublin , 1 9 7 6 ) ; idem, ' T h e Archbishops of Armagh and the O 'Neills 1 34 7 - 1 4 7 1 ', /HS 19 ( 1 9 7 4 ) , 38-5 5 ; Michael Glancy , 'The Primates and the Church Lands of Armagh ', Seanchas A. rdhmacha, 5 ( 1 9 7 0 ) , 3 7 0-9 6 . 22 See Aubrey Gwynn, The Medieval Pro vince of A rmagh 14 70- 1 545 ( D undalk, 1 946 ) , pp. 7 3 - 7 . Although attention here is primarily focused on the last hu ndred years before the Refo rm ation, the situation was b asically the same in the fourteenth century . 23 James F. Ly don, Ireland in the Later Middle Ages (Dublin, 1 9 7 3 ) , p. 4 8 . For a reinterpretation of the 'Gaelicization ' o f the Anglo-Irish see Robin F rame, 'Power and Society in the Lordship of Ireland , 1 2 7 2- 1 3 77 ', Past and Presen t , 76 ( 1 9 7 7 ), 3-3 3 .

A nglo-Irish b ackground, y outh , and early education

7

actually cause them. 24 It certainly underlined the increasing weakness of the central government of the lordship and its failure to implement the most crucial objective in its policy, i.e. to 'keep the peace'. 25 This tension between the two nations was evident in every sphere, in the industrial and trading life of the towns as in ecclesiastical organization and religious communities. The guilds , which by the fourteenth century were an accepted feature of trades and crafts in all urban communities through­ out western Europe, practised in Ireland their own particular form of 'closed shop', usually by excluding the native Irish from membership, a practice which was to be strongly condemned by FitzRalph when he returned to Ireland as archbishop of Ar­ magh. 26 Such condemnation might seem surprising, coming as it did from a member of the Anglo-Irish burgess section of the population , but FitzRalph was indisputably a conscientious and pastorally-minded prelate, whose sermons provide ample testi­ mony to his constant efforts to promote justice, fair dealing, and peace among his divided flock. One of the areas of tension in later medieval Ireland which is most amply documented and which has a definite relevance for the formation of FitzRalph's personal attitudes as well as for the problems which he had to face during the penultimate stages of his career is that of Irish ecclesiastical life. Here the problem was made more acute by the dominant role played by the regu­ lar clergy , and strife between the two nations in communities of monks, canons, and friars was a constant feature of religious life. Not only did episcopal authority, diocesan life, and the quality of pastoral care in the parishes suffer from these political and racial tensions which had developed in the course of the thirteenth century and were to divide Irish society irretrievably for the remainder of the medieval period, 2 7 but they also affected communities of religious, most intensely Cistercians and Franciscans. The orders of mendicant friars were to be the special target of FitzRalph's criticisms during the last years of his life, when he had been forced to cope with their activities in the pastoral context, and it will be a contention of this study that his volte-face from cordial relations with the friar-scholars 24

Lydon, 'The B ruce Invasion of Ireland ', Histori"cal Studies , 4 ( 1 9 6 3 ) , 1 1 1 -2 5 ; Otway- Ruthven, Medieval Irelan d, pp. 2 24-5 1 . 25 Ly don, Ireland in the Later Middle Ages, p. 5 0 . 26 FitzRalp h preache d in D rogh eda on this subject, 2 8 June 1 3 5 5 . 27 Vividly described in john A. Watt, The Church and the Two Nations in Medieval Ireland ( Cambridge, 1 9 7 0 ) , esp. pp. 1 7 3 - 8 3 , 1 89 -9 1 .

8

Oxford

whom he knew at Oxford and Avign on to total opposition to the mendicant way of life can be most satisfactorily explained in terms of this confrontation, made more acute in the highly­ charged Anglo-Irish situation. The concentration of anti­ mendicant criticism among Anglo-Irish churchmen in the late Middle Ages was striking, and if FitzRalph received l�ttle more than lukewarm support from his brother bishops throughout western Christendom, this may at least partly be explained by a failure - even on the part of English prelates - to appreciate the dimensions of his problem. The mendicant orders had come to Ireland from England and had settled initially in the Anglo-Irish towns. Even though all four orders soon drew substantial support from the native race as well, there was little evidence of tension among Domini­ can, Carmelite, and Augustinian friars. But by the later thir­ teenth century the Franciscans were coming to be regarded by the Dublin government as a potentially subversive element, 'a political risk', and it was being advocated that they, like the Cistercians, should be subjected to careful screening with a view to securing control of the houses in the marcher districts in the hands of sound, hand-picked English religious, a policy for the implementation of which Edward II finally secured the support of John XXII. 28 By 13 0 7 the Cistercian abbey of Mellifont, which contained a large proportion of native Irish monks, was in a state of chaos, strife over the choice of the next abbot had reached such proportions that private armies were being employed to back the claims of the rival contenders, and at this point the situation was brought to the attention of the justiciar. It is scarcely a coincidence that the next parliament, which sat at Kilkenny three years later, passed legislation which illustrated the thinking of the colonial authorities about native Irish religious, and subsequent events in the course of the Bruce invasion only served to reinforce these impressions in the minds of English ecclesiastical and royal servants. 2 9 A statute was promulgated forbidding the profession or reception of any native Irish religious, whether monk, canon, or friar, in com­ munities among the colonists. Though the statute was soon recognized as inappropriate and hastily revoked, the very fact of its promulgation revealed the extent of estrangement between 28 29

Ib id., pp. 1 8 1 -2 . Ibid ., pp. 1 7 6 , 1 83 .

Anglo-Irish background, y outh , and early edu cation

9

the two nations, even among members of supranational religious corporations. 30 Although gravam ina from all over Christendom were heard by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne, including the complaints of the ec clesia Hibernica, concerning oppression of the Church by secular powers, this was mainly a question of a Church/State clash and the problem of the two nations was not specifically brought to light. That this was so is not surprising when one considers that the gravam ina were prepared and pre­ sented by Archbishops John Lech of Dublin and Walter Jorz of Armagh, the latter being subsequently accused by Domhnall O 'Neill, in the Remonstrance presented to the papal legates in England on behalf of the native Irish, of responsibility for the partisan legislation of 1 3 1 0 . 3 1 This Remonstrance, which can be dated to the spring of 1 3 18, was a somewhat belated justifica­ tion for the rejection of English lordship in Ireland and support for Edward Bruce, and it listed among the gravamina of the Gaelic Irish in ecclesiastical and civil law the complaint that it was not regarded as a crime for an Englishman to deprive an Irishman of his property or even to take his life. 32 It further alluded to an episode which took place shortly after Bruce had landed in northern Ireland in May 1 3 1 5 . In the presence of Bruce a disputation had taken place concerning the rights and 'WTongs of the Anglo-Irish situation, and a Franciscan, who has been tentatively identified as Simon Mercer of the Drogheda convent, 33 took part. When the argument became heated Friar S imon maintained that it was not a sin to kill an Irishman, and if he had done so himself he would not hesitate to say Mass the following morning. In retaliation for such sentiments, Irish ° For the text o f the statute passed at Kilkenny see Statu tes and Ordinances and 3

A c ts of the Parliament of Ireland, King Jo hn to Henry V, ed. H. F. Berry ( D ublin, 1 9 0 7 ) , pp. 2 7 0- 7 . 31 For the La tin text see John Ford un, Sco tichronico n, ed. T . Hearne , 5 vols. (Ox­ ford, 1 7 2 2 ) , iii. 9 0 8- 2 6 , an d Eng. trans. in E dmund Curtis and Robert B. McDowell, In:sh Historical Do cu ments 1 1 72- 1 922 ( London, 1 943 ) , pp. 3 8 -4 2 . For Walter Jorz's difficul ties as arch bishop of Arm agh see BR UO II, 1 0 23-4 . 32 ' For n o t only their laymen and secular clergy but also some o f their regular cl ergy dogm atical l y assert the heresy that it is no more a sin to kill an Irish man than a dog or other ani mal ', Curtis-McDowel l , p. 43 . The e ffect of such teach ing, and the operation o f the lex marchie in justification o f the murder of Irishmen and plunder of their pro perty, was roundly condem ned by FitzRalph in h is sermons forty years later. 33 The Remons trance re ferred to him as ' frater Simon', and a Simon Mercer is recorded as a member of the Drogh eda convent in 1 3 1 7 , when he visited England on a mission to Edward II, E. B. FitzMaurice and A. G. Li ttl e , Materials fo r the History of the Franciscan Pro vince of Ireland, A . D. 1 230- 1 450 ( Manchester, 1 9 2 0 ) , p. 1 0 1 .

Oxford

10

forces who took and sacked the town of Dundalk later that summer burned the Franciscan friary to the gr ound and mas­ sacred the entire community of twenty-two friars. 34 If Fitz­ Ralph's statement concerning his family connections with the convent is taken literally, then it is virtually certain that at least one of his relatives perished as a result. There is a cert_ain tragic irony in the situation that nearly forty years later he would have to accuse the Franciscans of Gaelic origin within his arch­ diocese of abusing the confessional to excuse similar partisan crimes when committed against those of his own race. 3 5 Yet a further indication of the divisions within the Irish Fran­ ciscan province is provided by the counter-accusation of the following year. Armed 'With letters dated 2 0 August 13 16 from Edward II, the provincial in Ireland, Thomas Godman and an English Franciscan, Geoffrey of Aylsham, who was the royal candidate for the vacant see of Cashel, 36 went to Avignon to seek the intervention of their minister-general, l\ Iichael of Cesena, against those Irish friars who were working up support for Edward B ruce and thereby fomenting reb ellion against the rightful lordship of the English Crown in Ireland. 3 7 At the same time Edward II was proving reasonably successful in his attempts to persuade John XXII of the urgent need for politically reliable episcopal appointments at such a time of crisis for royal power in Ireland. 38 During these turbulent years of FitzRalph's youth the lack of any university or studiu m generale in the country made it im­ perative for an Irishman, whether secular or religious, in pursuit of higher studies and of the career opportunities open to uni­ versity gr aduates to go elsewhere, and from the thirteenth century onwards the most usual place for Irish students of both Gaelic and Anglo-Norman back grounds to choose was Ib id., p. 93 ; Medieval R eligious Houses. Ireland, p. 249 . FitzRalph 's statement rings tru e , especially as a member o f the Rauf family , Joannes Radulphi, was Franciscan prior-provincial until t h e chapter a t Kil kenny in May 1 3 3 2 , FitzMaurice-Littl e , pp. 1 3 5 , 209. 36 This disputed election is discussed in John A. Watt, 'Negotiati ons b e tween Edward II and John XXII concerning Irelan d ' , /HS 10 ( 1 9 5 6 ) , 2 -3 . For evidence o f the king's intervention see FitzMaurice-Littl e , p p . 9 7-8. 3 7 On 20 August 1 3 1 6 the Franciscan minister-ge neral issued letters from Avignon, ordering his friars in Ireland not to m ake common cause with the Scots, nor to foment rebellion, FitzMaurice-Little, pp. 9 8-9 . 38 Edward II recommended to J ohn XXII, 2 5 March 1 3 1 7 that for the duration of the pol itical unrest no Irish m an be ap pointed to a b ishopric in Ireland without royal ap proval , Rymer's Foedera, ii. 3 1 8- 1 9 . Watt, 'N egotiations', 1 - 1 6 , shows the extent to which John XXII complied with th is request. 34

35

A nglo-Irish background, y outh , and early education

11

O xford, 39 though the great wave of university expansion on the Continent during the later fourteenth and fifteenth centuries took Irish students further afield. The problems caused by the lack of facilities for higher studies in Ireland were set out in considerable detail in a petition addressed to Pope Clement V when Archbishop John Lech of Dublin attended the Council of Vienne in 1 3 1 1 - 1 2 , and as a result that pontiff issued a bull on 1 3 July 1 3 1 2 authorizing the establishment of a university in Dublin with all the privileges usually accorded by the papacy to a studium generale. 40 The new university was to be located in St. Patrick's Cathedral, whose chapter was the largest and richest in Ireland, the only one comparable with those of English cathedrals. 4 1 The next step was taken by Lech' s succes­ sor in the see of D ublin, Alexander de Bicknor, who appears to have brought the university de facto into being in 1 3 2 0 , and on 1 0 February 1 3 2 1 he issued the Ordinatio pro Universitate Du b ­ linensi, thereby giving statutory implementation to the papal decree. 42 The Avignonese popes, including John XXII ( 1 3 1 6 34) who had more extensive contacts with Ireland than any other medieval pope, 4 3 were outstanding patrons of universities and the reasons for the failure of the Dublin enterprise lay not in the lack of papal patronage but in conditions nearer home. Fr. Gwynn has argued that the entire scheme for a university in Dublin was the work of Alexander de Bicknor, that as the king's treasurer in Ireland and the unanimous choice of the chapters both of St. Patrick's and Holy Trinity to succeed as archbishop 39

BR VO, passim, pro v ides numerous examples o f Gaelic Irish students in O x ford during the 1 3 th and 1 4 th centuries, many of whom sub seque ntly b ecame bish ops in Irish sees, e.g. in the early 1 4 th century , Maurice MacCarwell, Cash el, 1 3 0 3- 1 6 (BR VO I I I , 2 1 9 3 ) ; Dav id MacMah on, Killaloe, 1 299- 1 3 1 7 ( II I , 2 1 9 4) ; Alan Ahem, Ard fert , 1 3 3 1 -4 7 ( III, 2 20 3 ) . 40 ASV, R eg. Vat. 5 9 , fo l. 1 9 6 v , inaccurately printed in W. H. Monck Maso n, His­ tory and A ntiquities of the Collegia te and Cathedral Church of St. Patrick, near Du b lin ( D ublin , 1 8 2 0 ) , Appendix, pp. ix- x . See also Heinrich Denifle, Die En tstehung der Universitiiten des Mittelalters ( B erlin, 1 8 8 5 ), p p . 6 39 -43 ; Aubrey Gwynn, 'Th e Medie v al Uni v ersi ty of S t. Patrick's, Dublin', S tudies , 2 7 ( 1 9 3 8 ) , 1 9 9-2 1 2 , 4 3 7 - 54 ; most recently, Fergal McGrath , Educatio n in A ncient and Medieval Ireland ( D ublin, 1 9 7 9 ) , pp. 2 1 6 - 2 0 . 41 S e e Geo ffrey J. Han d, 'The Mediev al Chapter o f S t . Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin ', Reperto rium No vum, 3 ( 1 9 64 ), 2 2 9 -4 8 . Only the first part : 'The early period ( c. 1 2 1 9 -c. l 2 7 9 ) ' was published . 42 Also printed i n Monck Mason, Appendix, p p . x-xi, and Eng. trans ., ibid., p p . 1 00- 1 n . For B ic knor see BR UG I, 1 86 - 7 ; HBC 2 , 3 3 6 ; on Bicknor's election , G e o ffrey J . Hand, 'The Ri v alry o f the Cathedral Chap ters in Medie v al Dublin ', JR SA / 9 2 ( 1 9 6 2 ) , 2 0 5 . 43 Gwynn , 'The Medie val Uni versity ', 20 7 -8 .

12

Oxford

of Dublin in 1310 -11 ( though Clement V provided another royal servant instead) , he had been the master-mind behind the original petition presented by Archbishop Lech to the pope. 43 When Bicknor finally returned to Dublin as archbishop in 1 3 18 he set about implementing the plan. William Rodyard, dean of St. Patrick's since 1310 , was named as the first chancel�or of the new university, and at the same time appointed to the professor­ ship of canon law. 44 However, Bicknor's own subsequent finan­ cial troubles, disgrace, and excommunication in the years between 1 3 2 2 and his death on 14 July 13 49 ruined whatever slender hope there might otherwise have been for the survival of an infant university based on St. Patrick's in Dublin. The statement drawn from Lech's petition to Clement V, 'quod licet nonnulli doctores seu baccalarii saltim in' theologica facultate, aliique in grammatica sive artibus magistri legente s, in terra Ibernia habeantu r, . . . scolarium universitas vel studium generale propter quod pauci reperiuntur in terra ipsa viri decori scientia litterarum'45 invites some consideration of the educa­ tional opportunities and facilities available in early fourteenth­ century Ireland. Where, for example , could FitzRalph have received an elementary education in preparation for his studies at Oxford? In his remarks to the Franciscans at Avign on in 1349 he did not explicitly say so, but it is possible that he re­ ceived his early education at their convent in Dundalk. Although we know from Bicknor's Ordina tio that both the Franciscans and Dominicans had schools of theology in Dublin, whose posi­ tion alongside the new university was to be safeguarded and from which it was clearly envisaged the university would be supplied with teachers of theology, probably in analogy to uni­ versity procedures elsewhere, 46 it is doubtful whether the prescriptive legislation of the mendicant orders concerning the establishment of provincial and conventual schools of theology

44 Monck Maso n, p. 1 0 1 . Rod y ard is described as doctor o f canon law, but it is not known where he ob tained th is degree. Of the remaining 'd octors of divini ty ' appointed pro fessors of theology - William Hard ite OP, Henry Cogry O FM, and Ed­ ward Kermerd yn OP �· only the latter has a reco rd ed university career, BR VO I I , 1 040. Rodyard was still dean of S t . Patrick ' s and vicar-general of the archd iocese o f Dublin during Bicknor's absence o n 2 July 1 3 2 8 , b u t then disappeared from the records, A rch bish op A len 's Register, pp. 1 99 - 2 0 0 , though acco rding to Monck Maso n, pp . 1 1 8-2 2 , he remained dean until after 1 3 3 5 . 45 lb id . , p. 1 00 . 4 6 Ib id. , p p . 1 00 - 1 . They were t o provide t h e regent masters, w h o could elect th e chancellor, and two proctors, who were al so to be regent. The lector on the Bible, who was to lecture at S t. Patrick's, was ap parently also to be recruited from the men­ dicant commun it ies.

Anglo-Irish background, youth, and early ed'ucation

13

and philosophy were fulfilled in every case in Ireland. However, it is to be expected that the Franciscans in a busy trading town such as Dundalk would have had the facilitie s for imparting a rudimentary or elementary education, and for the relative of a me mber of the community doubtless a little Latin grammar could have bee n provided. 4 7 If we turn from the general background of Irish society during FitzRalph' s youth to the more particular situation of his home town of Dundalk , we are in a more fortunate position with regard to sources than is the case for most Anglo-Irish towns of this period . Before the end of the twelfth century the town had become the most important urban centre in the lordship grante d in 1185 by Prince John as dominus Hibernie to his seneschal Bertram de Verdon. The original borough of Dundalk was founded before Bertram 's death in 119 2 and by the middle of the thirteenth century it was sharing in the general prosperity of the Anglo-Irish towns on the eastern seaboard . 48 Despite Fitz­ Ralph's subse quent disclaimer before the Franciscans in Avign on that his family was of lowly birth - 'licet de humili loco nati' 49 - and pre sumably had therefore a particular affinity ..Nith the followers of St. Francis, the evidence indicates other­ wise . The family of Rauf, to which Richard FitzRalph ( 'Fyrauf, filius Radulphi') belonged , was a burgess family of reasonable prominence by the first half of the fourteenth century. It was connecte d with the more distinguished family of Doue dale (Dowdall) , whose surviving collection of 'Deeds' - an unbroken series of records from the thirteenth to the sevente enth centurie s - contains valuable information about the personal history of FitzRalp h's family in Dundalk. In the Balliol deed of 1 3 2 5 FitzRalph had already changed his name from plain 'Rauf' to the more aristocratic sounding filius Radulphi. Consequently it doe s not become conclu sively establishe d until the 1340s that he is to be identifie d with the D undalk family of Rauf which suddenly sprang to prominence in the early 1 3 2 0s, appearing fre quently both in the Dowdall Deeds and the Calendars of 4 7 Fo r Franciscan legislation co ncern ing the appointment o f teach ers see John Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order ( O xfo r d , 1 96 8 ) , pp. 3 6 5- 8 , with guide to sou rces. 48 Dowdall Deeds, pp. x-xi. In the years after F i tzRal ph 's death the area around Dundal k was h ard pressed b y the Gaelic Iri s h , especially the O 'Neill. I n J une 1 3 69 owners of th e De Ve r don lands p e ti tioned for a reduc ti on o f scutage because large parts of the manors of Dundal k and Lough sewdy we r e in enemy hands, O tway· Ruth v en, Medieval Ireland, p . 3 0 1 n. 54. 49 B, fol . 1 94 v ; J , fol. 1 4 2 rb _

14

Oxford

Patent and Close Rolls. s o The name of John Rauf occurred regularly as witness to various grants from 13 2 2 onwards, and there are other indications that he was a man of substance : on 2 3 April 13 3 0 he received exemp tion for life from Edward III from being put on assizes, jurie s, or recognizances, and from service as mayor, sheriff, coroner, or other officer of the Crown against his will, while on 3 0 June of the same ye ar he admitted to a debt of 3 0s. which he owed to a cleric named Thomas Bann­ burgh . In default of payment the sum was to be levied from John's goods and lands. 5 1 From a further deed concerning family lands dating from the year 1345 we learn that this John Rauf had both a son and a grandson of the same name , 52 of whom the son may possibly be identical with that John Rauf who acted as attorney for local familie s during the 1 3 3 0 s and in the same capacity for FitzRalp h after the latter had be come archbishop of Armagh but was still detaine d in England on business. 53 Yet another of the same name is to be found, as Johannes Radulphi, who held office- as Franciscan provincial minister until the chap ter held at Kilkenny in i\Iay 13 3 2 . Yet the first conclusive piece of evidence linking FitzRalp h with this family complex is to be found in a petition which he laid before Clement VI on 8 May 1344 , when he sought and obtained a benefice in Ireland for each of his three nephews, Richard and Edmund ' Radulphi' and John Brisbon, all clerics of the archdiocese of Armagh and all at that date app arently studying at Oxford. 5 4 From this accumu lation of evidence it is clear th at the Rauf family had emerged as persons of some substance in the first half of the fourteenth century, were able to send some of their sons to avail themselves of th e benefits of a university edu cation in Oxford, and, through the career of Richard FitzRalp h , op en for them the channels to eccle siastical p refe rment. Apart from his namesake , the you nger Richard Radulphi, none of these clerical members of the archbishop's family le ft any further record of th eir existence , 55 but the lay members continued to s o John Rauf firs t appears as witness in se v eral grants 1 3 2 2 -3 , Do wdall Deeds, pp. 3 1 -5 , for six such occasions, 1 6 April 1 3 2 2- l 0 J unc 1 3 23 . 51 CPR 1 3 2 7 -30, 5 1 4 , 5 2 9 , 5 3 l ; CC R 1 3 3 0-3 3 , 1 4 2 . 52 2 0 July 1 34 5 , Do wdall Deeds, p p . 6 7 - 8 . 53 C P R 1 34 5 -4 8 , 2 7 2 , 3 5 6 ; CCR 1 3 46-49 , 4 7 7 ; CPR 1 34 8- 5 0 , 1 1 8. 54 ASV, Reg. Suppl. 6, fo l. 343 v ; CPL Petitio ns l , 5 3 . 55 l 0 September 1 3 6 0 , shortly before his deat h , FitzRal ph secured a canonry and preb end in Ferns for h is relati v e Walter Dow dall, Reg. Suppl. 3 3 , fol. 2 5 2 v , CPL Peti­ tions l , 3 5 9 . Another mem ber of the Dowdall family , George, b ecame arch b ish op of Armagh during the Marian restoration, 1 5 5 3 - 8 , HBC 2 , 3 8 3 .

Oxford a t the time of FitzR alph

15

figure, if less p rominently than b efore, in the life of the area, a factor which doubtless contributed to the cult of 'St. Richard of Dundalk' and the drive for his canonization in the decades immediately after his death. Although his change of name was clearly accep ted for pur­ poses of college records and by his patron, B ishop Grandisson of Exeter, 56 the change, did not go completely unnoticed and this information was passed on to the next generation of irrever­ ent but perspicacious students. While FitzRalph was chancellor of O xford University in 13 3 2 -4 he was, as we shall see, faced with a major university crisis generally known as the Stamford Schism, and in this context he was the subject of a set of satiri­ cal verses composed by one of the students who had seceded to S tamford and who alluded quite unequivocally to the recent improvement in the chancellor' s social status. 57 If indeed Fitz­ Ralph made the change in the belief that such an elegant Latin­ ization would help rather than hinder his career in the academic hierarchy, he certainly succeeded in his p urpose and opened even wider horizons for the future. ii. Oxford a t the time of FitzRalph Oxford during the first half of the fourteenth century, when FitzRalph spent some twenty of the formative years of his life there, interrupted as far as we know only by his visit to Paris in the academic year 13 29-3 0 , 1 was intellectually one of th e most exciting and stimulating places in Europe. This was a particularly brilliant period for the university, one in which it could rival the schools of Paris in distinction and originality. It was not merely the chauvinism of a proud English prelate and servant of the Crown which led Richard de Aungerville ( de B ury) , bishop of Durham and the most learned book-collector and patron of scholars in fourteenth-century England, to boast in his Philo­ biblon that 'admirable Minerva . . . has passed by Paris, and has now happily come to Britain', and to reflect that the whole academic world was then fascinated by English subtleties and 56 They may not have regarde d the Latinization as a change o f status. In academic debates at Ox ford he was frequentl y referred to as ' Firau f', or ' Phyrau f', see Co ur­ tenay , A dam Wodeha m , pp. 79 ff. 5 7 Ed. in Herbert E. Salter, 'The Stam fo rd Schism', EHR 3 7 ( 1 9 2 2 ) , 249-5 3 . 1 A s tutor t o Grandisso n 's nephew , John Northwode, Grandisso n 's Register, i. 23 3 . Fo r Northwod e, BR UG II, 1 3 7 1 -2 .

16

Oxford

calculations. 2 He considered Paris as solidly conservative , even a little sleepy by comparison, and was immensely proud of the way in which his Alma Mater was forging ahead and making new discoveries in the various fields of scholarship . Both Wil­ liam of Ockham 's innovations in the realm of logic and the developments in natural science , esp ecially physics and mathe­ matics, emanating from the l\lertonian sch ool3 had con"tributed much to this new situation, and both of these influences in their different ways underlined the fact that the great scholastic syn­ theses of the previous century were breaking down . Similar tendencies were still fu rther illustrated by renewed emphasis among the friars, in Oxford and elsewhere , on biblical rather than systematic theology , and th e mendicant doct9rs working in English universitie s during these years produced much b ib li­ cal commentary of quality and distinction. 4 This was the period which Etienne Gilson had in mind when he made the oft-quoted remark that the marriage between theology and p hilosop hy was being dissolved and that each p arty was making claims on the other. 5 If one may b e forgiven for push ing his metaphor a step further, it may reasonably be argued that , whereas this marriage had originally been solemnized in Paris, Oxford was more active in providing grounds for initiating divorce proceedings. FitzRalph's autob iograp hical prayer, for which there is sub­ stantial evidence that he composed it at Avign on during his case against the friars and that it should therefore b e dated to within a year or two of his death in 1 3 6 0 , is something of an 'apologia pro vita sua', and it p rovides valuab le insights into the author's view of his own intellectual development. It has survived in a large number of manuscrip ts b ecause it was invariably cop ied as an appended chap ter to the last book of th e Su m m a de Qu es­ tionib us A rm enoru m . It pertains more properly to th e later phases of the archbish op 's career and will be considered in the app ropriate context. However, one passage in th e prayer is relevant to the progress of Fitz Ralph's earlier studies at Oxford 2 Philo biblo n, ed. and trans. , E . C. Thomas ( Londo n , 1 8 8 8 ) , cap. 9 , pp . 2 1 2- 1 3 . For Bury, BR UO I, 3 2 3-6 ; Wieland Schmid t , ' Rich ard de Bury - ein anti-hofischer Hofling', Philo bib lon, 19 ( 1 9 7 5 ) , 1 5 6- 8 8 . On the dispute wheth er Philo biblon was composed by Bury himself, or was largely the work o f h is protege Robert Holcot, see Smalley, English Friars, pp. 6 7 - 8 . 3 Gordon Leff, William of Ock ham. The /Hetamorphosis of Scho lastic Discourse (Manch ester, 1 9 7 5 ) ; Weisheipl, Early Fo urteenth-Centu ry Physics. 4 Th ese are stu died in S malley, English Friars. 5 Etienne G ilson, La Ph ilosophie au moy en age. Des origines pa tristiques a la fin du X/ Ve siecle ( Paris, 1 9 5 2 2 ) , p . 6 0 5 .

Oxford at th e tim e of FitzR alph

17

and the influences to which he was exposed there: he related how in those days 'p utab am enim antea per Aristotelica dogmata ct argumentationes quasdam profundas', whereas he now looked back on this scholastic period as one in which he was croaking like a frog or a toad in the swamp : 'q uomodo cum ranis et bufonis in paludib us crocitabam'. 6 We shall have to consider sub sequently the reasons, both practical and intellectual, for FitzRalph's 'conversion' from a scholastic meth od of theologi­ cal proof to a stronger reliance on the Bible, a change which became strikingly clear in the sermons and treatises belonging to the Avign on and Irish periods of his life. There is no reason to doubt the veracity of FitzRalph' s state­ ment that he had formerly been influenced by 'Aristotelica dog­ mata'. Not merely does the only surviving work from his years at Oxford, his Com mentary on the S entences, provide ample evidence in support of this claim, but the central position of the corpus of Aristotle's works in the teaching of logic and natural science in the arts faculty made it almost inevitable that this should have been the case. The two disciplines which dominated the arts faculty at Oxford during the first half of the fourteenth century were logic and natural philosophy or science. In the former case, which occupied almost half of the arts curriculum in p ractice , all the b ooks of the old and new logic of Aristotle had to b e heard at least once and in the case of the Prior Ana­ lytics, Top ics, and Sophistic i Elenchi a second reading was obligatory before the student was admitted to determinations. 7 Equally in the case of natural philosophy, teaching was founded in the libri naturales of Aristotle, with the greatest emphasis being p laced on his Physics as the philosophical foundation of all academic speculation. 8 Although Fitz Ralph does not ap pear to have joined in with the young masters of arts, many of them Mertonians, who revelled in the academic exercises of the logic schools and left numerous treatises 'de sophismatibus' and 'de obligatoriis' , 9 determinations in logic were a statutory part of his arts course. Logic was primarily an instrument to further inquiry into other areas, notab ly natural science and theology, and it was in these areas that the new logic which emerged in the Oxford 6 Edited Hammerich, Fitz Ralph and the Mendicants, pp. 1 8-22 , at p . 20. The MSS upon which this edition was b ased are frequently defective. 7 Weisheipl, ' Curriculum', 1 7 4 ; S tatuta A n tiq ua, pp. 26, 1 -6 . 8 Weisheipl, 'Curriculum', esp. 1 7 3-5. 9 e.g. Richard Kilwington, BR VO II, 1 0 50 - 1 ; William Sutton, BR VO III, 1 8 26 .

18

Oxford

schools, especially in the lectures of William of Ockham in the years following 1 3 1 7 1 0 was to make the most profound impact, above all in the 1 3 3 0s and 13 40s. However, an investigation into the intellectual foundations of FitzRalph's Commentary on th e Sentences will reveal the c rucial role which the libri na turales, and especially the Phy sics and De anima, played in the forma­ tion of his thought. De anima was of p articular importance in the medieval study of human psychology , especially as it also involved confrontation with the Averroist interpretation of Aristotle. However, whereas it is true to argue that such prob ­ lems received more attention on the Continent, as the Paris condemnations of 12 70 and 12 7 7 reveal, than in Oxford, there are some in dications of a Latin Averroism in Oxford which, largely through the influence of Walter Burley , was �so to leave its mark on FitzRalph. 1 1 Oxford discussions of psychological problems and especially of Averroist teaching on the intellect tended to take place within the context of commentaries on the Sentences and therefore within the faculty of theology, whereas problems in physics such as quantity and matter, motion , and the intension and remission of forms, were more usually dis­ cussed in the course of lecturing in arts , though they might also come up for discussion in commentaries on the Sentences . 1 2 To a large extent Oxford masters were concerned with specific problems raised in Aristotle 's Physics, including those of the continuum and the nature of the infinite which were also attracting the attention of their Paris contemporaries. 1 3 This interplay of logic and physics owed much to the nominalism of 1 0 The chronology of Ockham's writi ngs has long been the subject of controversy , and a definitive solution is particularly difficult because many of h is works were com­ posed simultaneously over a number of years. It is generally accepted that h e w as lecturing on the Sentences in Oxford by 1 3 1 7 , BR UO II, 1 3 84- 7 , and despite con­ siderab le advances in the study of individual works and their internal relationship since Emden wro te, th e ge neral chronological picture has ch anged little. See Leon B au d ry , Guz"llaume d 'Occam: sa vie, ses reuvres, ses idees sociales e t politiques ( Pari s , 1 949 ) , supp lemented by Leff ( as n. 3 ) and Arthur S. McGrade , Th e Po litical Th ough t o f Wil­ liam of Ockham ( Cambridge , 1 9 7 4 ) . 11 Burle y 's Averro ism has been much disp uted . See A nneliese l\laier, 'Ein unbeach­ teter "Averroist" des 1 4 . Jahrhunder t : Wal ter Burley ', A usgehendes Mittelalter, i. 1 0 1 -2 1 , and opposing her, M . J ean Kitchel, 'Wal ter B urle y 's Doctrine of the S o ul : ano ther view', MS 39 ( 1 9 7 7 ) , 3 8 7 -40 1 . 1 2 Maier, Die Vorliiufer Galileis im 14. Jahrhu ndert. Studien zur Naturphilosophie ( R ome, 1 9 66 2 ) ; idem, ' D iskussionen iiber das aktuell Unendliche in der ersten Hal fte des 1 4 . J ah rhunderts', A usgehendes Mittelalter, i. 4 1 -8 5 ; idem, 'Das Problem der Evidenz in der Philosophie des 1 4. J ah rhunderts', ib id., ii. 3 6 7 -4 1 8 . 13 Maier, 'Diskussionen iiber das aktuell Unendliche', 6 2 ff., drew attention to these parallel devel opments.

Oxfo rd at th e tim e of FitzRalph

19

Ockham, but was really developed into a valuable scientific contribution by Thomas Bradwardine and the other l\I ertonians who tried to study physical problems in terms of mathematical principles. In doing so , they developed a method of arguing which has been termed 'letter-calculus' and which became widely used also in theology, especially in commentaries on the Sentences. 1 4 Although few commentaries on Aristotle's Physics have survived from early f ourteenth-ccntury Oxford, apart from the majo r contributions of Ockham and Burley, such commen­ taries must have been common currency among the regent masters in arts. Cases in po int were FitzRalph and his slightly younger contemporary, Richard Kilwington, who as regent master at Oriel took issue with him on the questions o f infinity and eternity, but neither of their commentaries or lectures on the topic survive. Having established that FitzRalph was at least for a time under the influence of 'Aristotelica dogmata', one must consider the problem : what or who were the sources of his understand­ ing of Aristotle? Who were his teachers and guides? The most influential commentator on Aristotle in Oxford during the early fourteenth century was unquestionably Walter B urley, who has been the subject of a substantial amount of recent research. 1 5 Born c. 1 2 74-5 , he was already a master o f arts and fellow of Merton by 1 3 0 1 . 1 6 As that college had b een founded with the intention (apart fro m the education of the founder's relatives) of enabling bachelors of arts to become masters, after which they might remain beyond their statutory three years as regent masters in arts or proceed to study theology, 1 7 it is possible Originally sugge sted by Arist o tle in h is Phy sz"cs, its applicati on by the Mertonian 'Calculators', including B radwardine, is discussed in Weisheipl, Early Fourteen th­ Cen tury Phy sics, pp. 1 74-2 74. See also John E. Murdoch , 'Mathesis in Philosophiam Scholastic am Intro ducta: The rise and development o f the application of mathematics in fo urteenth-century p h ilosophy and theology ', A rts liberaux e t philosoph ie au m oy en age ( Paris, 1 96 9 ) , 2 1 5-54. 15 BR UG I , 3 1 2- 1 4 ; S tephen F. B rown, 'Wal ter Hurleigh 's Treatise ' 'De supposi­ tionibus " and its influence on William of Ockham ', FS 32 ( 1 9 7 2 ) , 1 5-64 ; idem, 'Walter Burley 's "Quaestiones i n librum Perihermeneias " ', FS 34 ( 1 9 74 ) , 200-9 5 ; Agustin Una Juarez, 'Arist6teles y Averroes en el sigl o XIV. Las Au toridades "May o res" para Wal ter Burley ', A nto nianum, 52 ( 1 9 7 7 ) , 3 2 6-5 8 , 6 80-9 4 ; M. J ean Kitchel , 'The "De Potentiis Animae " of Wal ter B urle y ', MS 33 ( 1 9 7 1 ) , 85- 1 1 3 ; 1\1. L. Roure, 'Insolubilia Wal teri Burlei', AHDLMA 3 7 ( 1 9 7 0 ) , 26 2-84 ; H erman Shapiro, ' A N o te o n Walter B urley 's E xaggerated Realism', FS 2 0 ( 1 9 60 ) , 205 - 1 4 ; idem, 'More on the "E xaggerati o n " o f Burley 's Realism ', Manuscrip ta, 6 ( 1 9 6 2 ) , 94-8. 16 BR UG I, 3 1 2 . 11 Rashdall 's Universities, iii. 1 9 2 . Merton graduates in arts were obliged to spend 14

Oxford

20

that he had already begun his theological studies while at the same time continuing to teach in the arts faculty. He moved to Paris c. 1310 and is recorded as still at the Sorbonne, now regent master in theology in 13 24. 1 8 While he continued to write politi­ cal and philosophical commentaries almost until the end of his life, his subsequent care er was primarily that of a 'court cleric'. He was special envoy on a number of occasions from Edward III to the French court and to Avign on, chaplain to Edward's queen, Philippa of Hainault, and subsequently appointed tutor to their son, the B lack Prince, as soon as young Edward was of an age to 'learne his booke' . 1 9 At court, in Avignon, and above all in the circle of intellectuals who gathered at the London residence of Bishop Richard de Bury , and which included secular and mendicant scholars alike 20 - the Dominican Robert Holcot , several Mertonians including Walter B urley and Thomas Brad­ wardine , Richard Kilwington the future dean of St. Paul's and FitzRalph's principal ally in the anti-mendicant campaign , as well as civil servants and lawyers - FitzRalph would have had ample opportunity to meet B urley in person. B ut here we are more concerned with the influence exercised at Oxford by B ur­ ley's Aristotelian commentaries while their author was absent in Paris. Burley began to comment on Aristotle no later than 1 3 0 1 and continued a t least until 1 3 3 7 , if not later. By the then pre­ vailing standards he taught for a remarkably long time in the arts faculty and was in the habit of revising at frequent intervals his various commentaries, for example he commented on the Perih ermeneias four time s. Burley dealt with both the libri naturales and Aristotle ' s logical treatises, and the quality of his work earned him the title 'doctor planus et perspicuus'. Even though his long absence in Paris c. 13 10-24 makes it improbable that FitzRalph heard him lecture in person while he was a student in the arts faculty, the influence of B urley 's commen­ taries on the teaching of that faculty in these years should not be underestimated. Oxford scholars were kept we ll informed about new developments in Paris and elsewhere on the Conti­ three years as regents in that faculty instead of two, as required in th e rest o f th e uni­ versity, Merto n Co llege Inju nctions of Archbish op Kilwardby 1 2 76, ed. H. W. Garrod (O xford , 1 9 2 9 ) , p. 1 5. Pierre Feret, La Facu lte de th eologie de Paris, iii ( Paris, 1 89 6 ), p . 2 4 3 . Rymer's Foedera, iv. 2 6 9 , 4 2 2 ; Raph ael Holinshed, Chro nicles, iii ( London, 1 5 8 6 ) , 4 1 4 , 464. 20 Described by W illiam de Chambre, Co ntinua tio Histon·e Dunelmensis, p rinted in Henry Wharton, A nglia Sacra, i ( London, 1 69 1 ), 7 6 6 . 18

19

Oxford at th e tim e of FitzR alph

21

nent, largely through the mobility o f the friars, and the speed with which Burley began to take issue with Ockham's new logic indicates that the reverse was also true. 2 1 Hence i t may be suggested that in Burley we have one o f the principal sources for that Aristotelianism tinged with Averroism which is reflected in Fitz Ralph 's Comm entary on th e Sentences and which , above all in relation to problems concerning the will and intellect, was criticized by some of Fitz Ralph's contem­ poraries in Ox ford and Paris. 22 Recent work on the chronology of the Ockham-Burley debate is significant for any considera­ tion of the thorny problem of FitzRalph's attitude to the new logic and its implications for theology . The first part of Burley's De puritate artis logic ae tractatus longior was devoted to an explicit attack on Ockham's teaching concerning simple suppo­ sition and the reality of universals, and has been dated after the completion of Ockham 's own Summ a logicae in mid- 1 3 24. 23 Recent research has tended to confirm the impression that Ock­ ham had left Oxford before th e end of 1 3 2 0 and that the bulk of his non-political writings were comp osed in the London Grey­ friars between his departure from Ox ford and his delation to Avi gn on on heresy charges in 1 3 24. Among these writings was the revised version of his lectura on the Sentences, which aroused the opposition of Burley, and the latter's Tractatus de Universalibus R ealibus contained the first indications of that opposition which would govern the subsequent debate. Before this work Burley had a long list of Aristotelian commentaries and treatises to his credit, all of which were found by Weisheipl to be free from any reaction to Ockham's new logic , and for which we thus have a terminus ad quern of ab out 1 3 2 3 . 24 Although Burley was working in Paris when he published his first reactions to the new teaching, he adopted the practice which became common among its Ox ford critics : he rejected Ockham' s teaching, b u t without mentioning him by name. Perhaps due t o 21

That Ockham 's views were already b eing attacked in Paris c. 1 3 1 9- 2 0 has been demonstrated b y Maier, ' Zu einige n Problemen der Ockhamforschun g', A usgeh en des Mittelalter, i. 1 7 5- 20 8 . 22 Above all by Adam Wodeham in Ox ford and Gregory of Rimini in Paris, respec­ tively a Franciscan and an Augustinian friar, but there is no ind ication at this stage o f an ti-mendicant antagon is m . 23 The terminus ad q u ern fo r Ockham ' s Summa L ogicae i s n o w h eld to be prior t o h i s departure for Avignon in mid- 1 3 24 ; see modern edition b y Philotheus B oehner ( S t. B onaventure, N. Y., 1 9 5 7 - 6 2 ) . Leff, William of Ock ham, p. xvii, follows the older view that Ockham wrote it in A vignon, i.e. between I 324 and 1 3 28 . 24 BR UO I, 3 1 2- 1 3 .

22

Oxford

a spirit of collegiality , even though the colleague was no longer physically among them, the tendency was to take issue with the doctrines but not to conduct polemic against the man. FitzRalph, as we shall see, followed this practice, b ut the former chancellor of the University , John Lutterell, who denounced Ockham in Avign on as a propagator of heresy, did not. 25 However, these developments belong to the period after FitzRalph had com­ pleted his arts courses and was already a student of theology, though possibly still regent in arts. Before the reaction to Ock­ ham gathered momentum we can presume a sub stantial body of 'conservative' Aristotelian commentaries were circulating in Oxford, reflecting the attitudes which were b asic to most of the teaching in the arts faculty and which would have � een readily absorb ed by all but the most original minds, a situation which might help to explai� FitzRalph's oft-cited indifference to the exciting new teaching when he himself b egan to lecture on the Sentences in 13 28. 26 Nevertheless, the problem of FitzRalph's attitude to Ockham remains a complex one. When he came to deal with topics in his Com mentary on the Sentences, where he had at least to take cognizance of Ockham's views, his own opinions were expressed only in the most cautious and guarded of terms. He was clearly aware of Ockham's teaching and of those implications for theology which the events of 13 24-8 had brought to the fore­ front of the deb ate, hence his lack of involvement in these controversies cannot be explained by lack of opportunity. In purely intellectual terms, and considering only the interplay of influences and opportunities, a satisfactory explanation for FitzRalph's attitude is difficult to find, and one is tempted to think also in terms of the young scholar's own personality, his amb itions, his profound respect for authority , and desire to remain on the side of orthodoxy. Ockham first emerged in Oxford records c. 131 7 when he was admitted a b achelor in the faculty of theology, apparently having begun his theological studies around 13 0 7 -8 and previously studied philosophy at a Franciscan studium , whether in London, Oxford, or elsewhere 25 For Lutterell, BR VO II, 1 1 8 1 -2 , and Fritz Ho ffmann, Die Schr�ften des Ox/o r­ der Kanzlers Johannes lutterell ( Leip zig, 1 9 59 ) . For his opposition to Ockham see J osef Koch, 'Neue Aktenstiicke zu dem gegen Wilhelm Ockh am in Avignon gefiihrten Prozess', Kleine Schrzften, ii . 27 5 - 3 6 3 . 26 e. g. Leff, Fitz. Ralph Co m mentator, p p . 4- 1 8 , argued fo r FitzRal ph 's complete indi fference to co ntemporary theological deb ates.

Oxford at th e tim e of FitzR alph

23

is not clear. 2 7 He spent considerably longer than the statutory minimum period commenting on the Sentences, and even in the first version of his lectura, which have been tentatively dated 1 3 1 7 - 19, they presented a ch-allenge to older and more con­ servative theologians. The revised version of his lecture manu­ script, dated around 1 3 2 1 -3 , showed a bolder development of his new logic and a rejection of the modes of thought of his predecessors. 28 By now the main features were clear which were to mark him out as the chief spokesman of the 'modemi' or ' nominalist' school that was soon to make such a decisive impact on the studia in France and the German lands as well as in England. But not even the brilliance and influence of the Franciscan school at Oxford in the early fourteenth century , where Scotist tradition of opposition to strict Thomism and of commenting on both Aristotle and St. Augustine was being con­ tinued by Ockham's slightly older contemporary and confrere at Oxford, Robert Cowton, 29 could protect Ockham from the watchdogs of orthodoxy once the implications of his logic and of his theory of knowledge in the sphere of theology became apparent. In view of the fact that there were usually several 'formed bachelors' at the Oxford Greyfriars awaiting their turn for the single chair allotted to the Franciscans, it is tempting to consider the possibility that Ockham was regarded by his superiors as a slight embarrassment and made to wait his turn in the years after 1 3 2 0 . Hence his inception was delayed and his ultimate failure to incept may be linked with the summons to Avign on in 1 3 24 to answer charges arising out of his teaching. 30 By 1 3 2 4 John Lutterell was active at the curia in his attempts to secure the condemnation of Ockham's entire teaching as 'doctrina pestifera'. Lutterell's career has certain parallels with that of FitzRalph, and there is consequently some justification for looking at the issues here more closely. Lutterell had been elected chancellor in October 1 3 1 7 in place of Henry Harclay, 27 28

BR UO II, 1 3 84-5.

See comb ined evidence of Augus te Pelzer, ' Les 5 1 articles de Guillaume Occam censures en Avignon , en 1 3 26 ' , RHE 1 8 ( 1 9 2 2 ) , 240 - 7 0 , and Koch (as n. 2 5 ) , for the revised version of the Sentences as the subject of Lutterell 's denunciation of Ock­ ham for heresy . 29 BR UO I, 50 7 ; Little, Grey Friars a t Oxford, p. 2 2 2 . See also Michael Schmaus, ' Zu r Diskussion i.iber O s, wh ( ) i n ce p ted i n I :, :, I . 7 0 Trcvct . , ' a tru e poly math ' , 7 1 was rege n t. i n Ox f() rd from I :W :1 to I Y, 0 7 , wh c t 1 h e par t. i c : i pa t.cd in var i o u s th eol og i c al d i s­ pu t a t i o n s an d p u l ,l isl 1 cd a series o f r1 1. uullilH: la. Fol l o wi n g a period o f s t ud y i 1 1 Par i s from I :1 0 7 to I :1 I 1 , h e rct . u rrJ