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Robert Bacon and the Early Dominican School at Oxford
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
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ROBERT BACON is the first Dominican master at Oxford about whom anything certain is known. Prof. J. C. Russell has collected those details about his life which can be found in chronicle and record sources. To summarize:—Bacon was already a master in 1219, when he was presented to a living at a church in Oxfordshire. He resigned in 1227, probably in order to become a Dominican; he is said to have received the habit from Jordan of Saxony, who was in Oxford in 1229/30. Bacon continued his teaching until his death in 1248. He was a friend of Grosseteste and a friend and schoolfellow of St. Edmund Rich, and he seems to have shared their views on politics. Matthew Paris tells us that Bacon preached an outspoken sermon before the king and certain bishops in 1233, when the barons had refused to meet Henry at Oxford. The king would never have peace, Bacon said, until he removed the bishop of Winchester and Peter des Rievaux from his counsels. Paris couples Bacon with another English Dominican, Richard Fishacre, who died in the same year, in a glowing tribute to the two friars. Both had a great reputation for scholarship, ‘in theologia et in aliis scientiis’, and for preaching: ‘populis gloriose praedicaverunt verbum Domini’. Bacon served on a number of commissions and was active in connexion with the Oxford Jewry. Professor Russell concludes that ‘these tasks show him a man of business ability often entrusted with responsibility’.
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References
page 1 note 1 ‘A Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth-Century England’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Special Suppl., iii (1936), 130–1Google Scholar.
page 1 note 2 Chronica maiora (Rolls Series), iii. 244–5.
page 1 note 3 Ibid., v. 16.
page 2 note 1 See the correction of earlier notices by Callus, D. A., ‘Introduction of Aristotelian Learning to Oxford’, Proceedings of the British Academy, xxix (1943). 31, n. 3Google Scholar.
page 2 note 2 The incipit is: ‘Exurge psalterium et cithara …’. See Glorieux, P., Répertoire des mâitres en thěologie de Paris au XIIIe siècle (Paris, 1933), no. 119bGoogle Scholar.
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page 3 note 2 Glorieux, op. cit., no. 305k.
page 3 note 3 Smalley, B., The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1941). pp. 198–218Google Scholar.
page 4 note 1 I used the copy of Grosseteste's commentary on the Psalms in MS. Eton College 8, and the notes ascribed to Edmund, St. in MS. Worcester Cathedral Q. 67, fos. 128–37Google Scholar.
page 4 note 2 I also compared Bacon's commentary with another popular work on the Psalms by Master Odo of Châteauroux, who was teaching at Paris about 1230. MS. Balliol College Oxford, 37, is a copy of his commentary (see Glorieux, , op. cit., 137bGoogle Scholar). It seems to be practically identical with Philip the Chancellor's.
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page 5 note 1 Mon. Germ. Hist., Scriptores, xxiii. 916. John, and the future Gregory, Pope IX were fellow students at Paris, according to an unsupported statement in Gattia Christiana, xv (1860), 64Google Scholar. Gregory writes of him warmly in a letter to the dean and chapter of Besançon, 1229: ‘Nos … venerabilem scil. fratrem nostrum episcopum Sabinensem, quondam pastorem ipsius ornatum virtutibus quasi lapidibus pretiosis, transferentes ad Romanam Ecclesiam … ut ibi quanto excellentius tanto clarius eniteret, …‘ (Auvray, L. Les Registres de Grégoire IX, i. 165, no. 274Google Scholar).
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page 5 note 3 The arguments for the authorship of John of Abbeville are given by Callebaut, A., ‘Les sermons sur les psaumes imprimés sous le nom de saint Antoine restitués au cardinal Jean d'Abbeville’, Archivum franciscanum historicum, xxv (1932), 161–74Google Scholar. This paper has a full notice of John's life and a list of manuscripts. See also a review of the paper by Scaramuzzi, D. and the writer's reply, Studi francescani, xxix (1932), 603–14Google Scholar, and Inguanez, M., ‘I codici cassinensi 386 et 388’, Bibliofilia, xxxvii (1935), 221–4Google Scholar.
page 6 note 1 For the characteristics of the student reportatio of lectures on Scripture, see Smalley, B., op. cit., pp. 161–7Google Scholar.
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page 7 note 1 I have transcribed a passage from all three versions of John of Abbeville, and from Bacon, in parallel passages, in Appendix II (below, pp. 18–19).
page 7 note 2 For Peter of Poitiers, I used MS. Laud misc. 499; see Moore, P. S., The Works of Peter of Poitiers (Catholic University of America, 1936), pp. 78–96Google Scholar; for Peter the Chanter, MSS. Bodley e Mus. 30 and Oxford, Corpus Christi College, 49; both contain incomplete versions of the Chanter's commentary, but there is enough to show that John of Abbeville did not use it as his principal source. No copy of Prepositinus on the Psalter was available. to me; so I had to limit the comparison to the transcript of his commentary on Ps. iv printed by Lacombe, G., La vie et les oeuvres de Prévostin (Bibliothèque thomiste, xi, 1927), pp. 106–11Google Scholar. The commentary of Michael of Meaux has been printed among the works of St. Bonaventure, (Vatican edition, 1588, i, 76–162); for the authorship, see Fanna, Fidelis a, Ratio novae collectionis operum omnium S. Bonaventurae (Turin, 1874), pp. 179–83Google Scholar. As I shall have to refer to this commentary later, it is worth pointing out a few facts which have hitherto escaped notice. The prologue quotes Michael, of Meaux, : ‘Hoc dicit Meldensis, vel sic legatur littera … vel, ut dicit Parisiensis …’ (p. 90Google Scholar of the printed edition; MS. Oxford, New College, fo. Ir). This may explain the ascription in a number of manuscript copies, noted by Fanna: ‘Finis distinctionum post Meldensem collectarum’. Either the work is a reportatio, which refers to the lecturer in the third person, by his name; reporters did this occasionally; or it is not by Michael of Meaux, but by an unknown scholar, perhaps a pupil of his, who refers to his teaching. The date can be fixed approximately by a topical allusion. On Ps. cxvii, 24: Haec est dies, quam fecit Dominus, the commentator says: ‘Nota ad litteram, secundum legem debuit esse annus iubileus in anno resurrectionis Christi, et vere tune fuit annus iubileus nobis … Dicitur etiam quod in anno quo rex Philippus debita Iudeorum condonavit, debuit esse annus iubileus’(p. 154). This must refer to the expulsion of the Jews by Philip II of France in April 1182. Rigord, says: ‘Iste annus potest merito vocari iubileus; quia sicut in veteri lege iubileo omnes possessiones libere revertebantur ad pristinos possessores, et omnia debita remittebantur, ita, tanta relaxatione debitorum a christianissimo rege facta, christiani in regno Francie manentes perpetuam libertatem a debitis Iudeorum sunt consecuti’ (Gesta Philippi Augusti, ed. Delaborde, , Paris, 1882, p. 27)Google Scholar, see Cartellieri, A., Philipp II August, i. 124Google Scholar. Unfortunately the reference to the Jews, which is contained in the printed edition of Michael's commentary, is lacking in the only manuscript available to me at present, MS. Oxford, New College, 36. It may therefore represent a later gloss, but even so it is unlikely to have been made long after 1182, when memory of the episode was fresh. The only other possibility would be that it was copied from Rigord's chronicle, but this was very rare (see Delaborde, , op. cit., p. ivGoogle Scholar), and the reference to the Jubilee year does not reappear in the relevant passages in William le Breton, whose works were more widely diffused. Michael became dean of Meaux in 1166/7, dean of Laon in 1191, dean of Paris in 1192, archbishop of Sens in 1194, and he died in 1199 (Histoire littéraire de la France, xv. 324).
page 8 note 1 callebaut, , op. cit., pp. 171–2Google Scholar.
page 9 note 1 MS. Bodley 745, p. 365: ‘Vera paupertas est in religione, ubi non est substantie nee corporis proprietas, nee operis nee quietis libertas, et talis quedam maior, quedam vero minor: maior ut in illis qui nichil habent proprium et etiam tenues sunt in communi, minor ut (in) illi(s), qui nichil habent proprium et tamen habent divitias in communi.’
page 9 note 2 Michael, of Meaux, (see ante, p. 7)Google Scholar, Opera S. Bonaventurae, i. 134 ‘Vera paupertas consistit ibi, ut non sit substantiae vel corporis proprietas, nee operis nee quietis libertas, ut illi qui sunt in claustro, quia nee habent substantiam nee operis libertatem, nee laborem, quando volunt, nee quietem.’
page 9 note 3 Wood-Legh, K., ‘Some aspects of the history of chantries in the later middle ages’, ante, xxviii. 48Google Scholar.
page 9 note 4 Salisbury Charters (Rolls Series), p. 136; Wilkins, , Concilia, i. 635Google Scholar. See Cheney, C. R., English Synodalia of the Thirteenth Century (1941), pp. 65–7Google Scholar.
page 10 note 1 The passage, which I have abridged in translation, reads: ‘Alii cantantes manus suas levant in nomine nummi, ut illi qui sacramentum altaris … vendunt pro aliquo questu temporali et (ut in MS.) illi qui pascuntur pro una vel pro pluribusvel in annalibus vel tricennalibus, sicut sacerdotes conductivi sive conductitii, qui pascuntur pro officio suo … Quidam peccant in intentione, ut illi qui cantant tantum ut placeant mulieribus. Alii peccant contra institutionem misse, ut illi qui cantant sequentias in quadragesima, vel ut illi qui faciunt annalia vel tricennalia pro nummis (? unus in MS.). Iterum alii peccant contra canones, ut illi qui nolunt sequi usum cathedralis ecclesie.’ (MS. Bodley 745, pp. 328–9). Neither this text nor Ps. xxviii. 8 is expounded by John of Abbeville.
page 10 note 2 Bonniwell, W. R., A History of the Dominican Liturgy (New York, 1944), p. 92Google Scholar. I have to thank Fr. Gy of Le Saulchoir for this reference.
page 10 note 3 Prima pars, dist. xii, c. 13; Tertia pars, de cons., dist. ii, c. 31.
page 10 note 4 MS. Bodley 745, p. 365: ‘Hie aperte reprehunduntur qui in magnis solempnitatibus conquinationes faciunt et non credunt se bene facere festum nisi ingurgitantur et inebrientur, ut fortius possint clamare in ecclesia. …‘ John of Abbeville merely mentions ‘peccata et vitia in eis (solemnitatibus) facta, luxuriam et gulam et huiusmodi’.
page 10 note 5 MS. Bodley 745, p. 264 (on PS. xxxiii. 14): ‘Per idola designantur inutilia iuramenta de Deo facta et contumeliose iurationes in opprobrium Dei facte, sicut iurant ribaldi, qui Deum membratim ore impudentissimo lacerant et discerpunt.’ John of Abbeville makes a less particularized reference to swearing here. Ribaldi was used in a technical sense for mercenaries in the earlier thirteenth century; see Rigord, , Gesta Philippi Augusti op. cit., p. 95Google Scholar, and Statuta capitulorum generalium ordinis cisterciensis (ed. Canivez, J-M., Louvain, 1933–1936), i. 509Google Scholar: the Prior of Cour-Dieu insulted a party of lay brothers on their way to a general chapter in 1219 by calling them ribaldi.
page 11 note 1 Smalley, B., ‘Two biblical commentaries of Simon of Hinton’, Recherches de Théologie ancienne et médiévale, xiii (1946), 63–4, n. 10–11Google Scholar.
page 11 note 2 MS. Bodley 745, pp. 226–7: ‘Moraliter tamen nomine leonis intelligitur princeps. Sed nota quod quidam est leo domitus, per quem intelligitur bonus princeps, quidam vero indomitus, per quem intelligitur malus princeps, quattuor de causis. Leo enim rugit, ita et malus princeps per superciliosa et crudelia dicta. Item leo rapit, ita malus princeps bona pauperum … Item leo in estate febricitat et sanus est in hieme, ita et malus princeps impatiensest tempore estatis et prosperitatis, sed in hieme, i.e. in adversitate, sanus est, i.e. patiens.’
page 11 note 3 Migne, , Pat. lat., cxci. 717–18Google Scholar.
page 11 note 4 MS. Bodley 745, p. 352: ‘… Esse in patre est eiusdem esse substantie cum patre, et hoc (Christus) semper fuit. Esse ad patrem est frui potioribus bonis patris in quantum homo. Sed hoc prius fuit in se quam esset ad patrem. Iterum sicut lumen ostendit se et alias res, et sicut naturaliter prius est in oculo ante comprehensionem, et ita in quantum ostendens prius, et in quantum ostenditur posterius, ita Christus prius naturaliter fuit in via veniendi ad patrem quam esset ad patrem. Merito ergo Deus, pater, in sancto via tua. …’
page 12 note 1 Pat: lat. xxxvi. 1026.
page 12 note 2 MS. Bodley 745, p. 368: ‘Ad hoc respondendum quod hii qui peccant ex timore, ideo faciunt que non deberent, quia esse in pace volunt, et hoc appetunt. Similiter in dolore nimio est appetitus contra dolorem, ut pacem haberet ipse dolens, sensus impatiens. …”
page 12 note 3 See his introduction to the Quaestiones disputuatae of Aquinas, St. Thomas (Lethielleux, 1925) i. 4 ffGoogle Scholar.
page 13 note 1 See Callus, D. A., ‘Introduction of Aristotelian learning to Oxford’, Proceedings of the British Academy, xxix (1943), 32Google Scholar.
page 13 note 2 MS. Oxford, Balliol College 57, fo. 4r: ‘Verumptamen altefa pars, scil. de moribus instruendis, a magistris modernis cum legentur sancti libri docetur; alia, tanquam difficilior, disputationi reservatur. Hec autem pars difficilior, de canone sanctarum scripturarum excerpta, in isto libro qui sententiarum dicitur ponitur.’
page 13 note 3 Little, A. G., ‘The Franciscan School at Oxford in the Thirteenth Century’, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, xix (1926), 808Google Scholar.
page 13 note 4 Little, A. G., ‘Thomas Docking’ in Franciscan Papers (1943), pp. 98–121Google Scholar; Smalley, B., op. cit., pp. 77–8Google Scholar.
page 13 note 5 Opus minus (corrected text quoted by Little, A. G., Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, xix [1926]. 809Google Scholar); Opus tertium (Rolls Series), p. 82.
page 13 note 6 Quaestiones occur in the Chanter's commentary on the Psalter, as in his other commentaries; see Smalley, B., The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, pp. 171–3Google Scholar. I have found three quaestiones in the commentary of Michael, of Meaux, , Opera S. Bonaventurae, i. 146, 149–50Google Scholar, and MS. Oxford, New College 36, fos. 45v, 46r, 62v, 63r.
page 14 note 1 MS. Bodley 745, p. 243: ‘De qua lege dicit philosophus: hos nobis posuit terminos lex nature, non esurire, non sitire, non algere.’ Cf. Seneca, , Ep., 4. 10Google Scholar.
page 14 note 2 Ibid., p. 377: ‘Unde philosophus: cum utraque fortuna sit timenda, magis timenda est prospera quam adversa.’ Cf. Boethius, , Philos. Cons., ii. 8Google Scholar.
page 14 note 3 Ibid., p. 252: ‘Quod autem vita hominis sit quasi umbra testatus (est) philosophus, dicens: umbra vero quasi transitus vite nostre.’ Cf. Sap. ii. 5.
page 14 note 4 Ibid., pp. 341–2: ‘Sunt oves validi et fortes, quarum valitudinis signum est, ut dicit Aristoteles in libro de natura animalium, quod valide oves in tempore nimis frigoris non portant super se stillicidia nee nivem in dorso, sed fortiter se excutientes nivem a se repellunt. Eodem modo spiritualiter se fortes. …’ Cf. Hist, anim. viii. 10, and Michael Scot's translation, MS. Oxford, Balliol College 252, fo. 46r.
page 15 note 1 See Thomson, S. Harrison, The Writings of Robert Grosseteste (1940), pp. 68–9Google Scholar, and Marchesi, C., L'Etica Nichomacea nella tradizione latina medievale (Messina, 1904), p. xxvGoogle Scholar.
page 15 note 2 Callus, D. A., op. cit., p. 27Google Scholar.
page 15 note 3 Lottin, O., ‘Un commentaire sur l'Ethica vetus des environs de 1230–1240’, Recherches de Théologie ancienne et médiévale, vi (1934), 84–8Google Scholar.
page 15 note 4 See Appendix I (below, p. 17).
page 17 note 1 De anima, ii. 5, 417b.
page 17 note 2 Ps. xi. 5. See Glossa Qrdinaria, ad loc.: ‘lactant se de potestate labiorum, quasi non a Deo acceperint.’ The boast was traditionally referred to pagan philosophers; cf. Michael, of Meaux, , Opera S. Bonaventurae, i. 146Google Scholar: ‘Quidam attribuunt sibi temporalia… quidam naturalia, ut philosophi, qui dicunt: labia nostra a nobis sunt.’
page 17 note 3 Augustine, , Libri Retractationum duo, i. 12Google Scholar. The text is from Mt. xxiii. 8–10. The chapter number given in the manuscript is probably a copyist's mistake, since Bacon normally uses approximately the modern chapter division.
page 17 note 4 Glossa Ordinaria, ad Mt. xxiii. 9.
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