{"id": "front/lectori", "url": "https://bradwardine.wrootpress.com/front/lectori/", "site": "bradwardine", "collection": "front", "title": "De causa Dei: Savile to the reader (Lectori)", "title_alt": [], "author": "Thomas Bradwardine", "languages": ["la", "en"], "source_edition": {"title": "Thomae Bradwardini archiepiscopi olim Cantuariensis De causa Dei contra Pelagium, et de virtute causarum, ad suos Mertonenses, libri tres", "editor": "Henry Savile", "place": "London", "year": 1618, "volume": null, "locator": null, "scan_url": "https://archive.org/details/decausadeicontra00braduoft"}, "source_text": "LECTORI.\n\nDE auctore mihi pauca praefari volenti occurrit primo loco Nomen, quod in veteribus libris nostris varie scribitur: Thomas de Bradwardina et de Bredewardina, quomodo constanter scribitur in Actis Publicis. Exteri homines fere omnes, deflexo nomine euphoniae, vt puto, gratia, Brauardinum nominant: Gerson lib. 3. de vita spirituali Bragwardinum: Autor Catalogi Testium, et Gesnerus Branduardinum. Apud Joannem Baconem (siue Baconthorpium, vt alijs placet) super 4. Sentent. Distinct. 1. Quaest. 4. fol. 86. Editionis Venetae 1527. Bradinkardin appellatur, flagitioso Typographi errore, non ipsius Baconis, qui cum fuerit ⟨gap: ⟩ Bradwardino (ex eodem quippe alueari vterque profecti, Collegio scilicet Mertonensi) rectam nominis contubernalis sui scripturam ignorare non potuit. De loco Natiuitatis putabam aliquando apud Bradwardin castrum et vicum natum fuisse (situm est castrum illud, attestante doctissimo et diligentissimo Camdeno Nostro, ad ripam Vagae fluminis aliquot supra Herefordiam milliarijs) sed me ab hac sententia non improbabili reuocarunt expressa verba ipsius Bradwardini lib. 3. cap. 22. pag 559. huius editionis, vbi non obscure, vt mihi videtur, innuit se Cicestria oriundum. Verba sunt; Per similem etiam rationem quicquid nunc scribo Oxonniae, scriberet pater meus Cicestriae, quia genuit me scribentem, imo auus, et proauus, etc. Vt non multum aberrasse videantur Balaeus, et Antiquitatum Britannicarum Auctor, qui Hartfeldiae natum asserunt in Dioecesi Cicestrensi, quibus auctoribus, aut quibus permoti argumentis, nescio. Apud me certe illa Auctoris verba praeponderabunt, dum aliquid certius ab alijs afferatur. Interim certe verisimile mihi est ipsius maiores apud castrum, vicumue Bradwardin natos, inde cognomentum sibi, posterisque etiam alio commigrantibus (quod apud nostrates frequentissimum) acquisiuisse: ac horum Bradwardinensium forte aliquem sic nouis sedibus in Cicestria defixum in filium suum Thomam hunc nostrum nomen illud iam tum obtinens ac gentilitium transfudisse. Quo anno natus sit, quemadmodum nihil pro certo asseuerauerim, (vt sunt magnorum saepe virorum principia obscura, quorum sunt notissimi exitus) ita cum Procuratorem fuisse constet Vniuesitatis Oxoniensis, Anno 1325. circa annum Domini 1290. natum crediderim, medijs temporibus Regis Edwardi Primi. Post emensa puerilia studia admissus est in Collegium Mertonense Oxonij tempore Edwardi Secundi, vbi Procurator Vniuersitatis fuit, vt dixi; sic enim in Catalogo Cancellariorū et Procuratorū eiusdē Vniuersitatis scriptum reperi: An. 1325. Willielmus de Alburwike Cancellarius Oxoniensis, et Richardus de Kamshall Commissarius eius; Procuratores Willielmus de Harington, et Thomas de Bradwardina. In qua Vniuersitate, maturiore iam aetate, tempore, vt puto, Roberti Trenge Custodis, ad tantum, inquit Balaeus in prima editione (quam totam putant quidam ex Lelando descriptam) doctrinae peruenit incrementum, vt supremae facultatis magister, ac summus demum Cancellarius (de quo mihi liceat bona cum Balaei et Lelandi venia ⟨gap: ⟩ ) constitueretur, in quo officio ita se gessit, inquit, vt ab omnibus magnam commeruerit laudem. In hoc curriculo literario solidam ex Aristotelis et Platonis fontibus hausit Philosophiam, sed in artibus Mathematicis ac Theologia eius potissimum eluxit industria; ac in Mathematicis quidem ita excelluit, vt parem illa aetas tulerit fortasse neminem. Testes sunt tabulae Astronomicae exquisite descriptae aequationum Planetarum, et coniunctionum ac oppositionum luminarium, quas penes me habeo magna cum diligentia manu exaratas volumine satis crasso. Testes libellus de proportionibus velocitatum; alius de Arithmetica speculatiua; alius de Geometria speculatiua (quem librum libr. 4. de tradendis disciplinis laudat Viues) omnes iam olim Parisijs excusi. In Theologia vero palmaris est (nam plurimos alios conscripsit in omni disciplinarum genere, si credimus Balaeo, mihi non tractatos) palmam facile, inquam, obtinet liber iste, quem iam ex manulcriptis sex edimus contra Pelagianorum perfidiam, haeresim omnibus subin de aetatibus, vt experientia docet, in Ecclesia succrescentem; quem ex lectionibus Oxoniensibus magnam partem concinnatum, et contextum (vt ipse in prooemio docet) ad petitionem suorum Mertonensium limauit, et edidit in lucem, cum esset Cancellarius Londinensis. ⟨gap: ⟩ est ea, quam praeposui, in omnibus fere, quos vidi, manuscriptis; in libro tamen Collegij Noui \"Oxon. titulus est; Summa Doctoris profundi de causa Dei contra \"Pelagianos, et de virtute causarum, virtute Dei causae causarum. In Bibliotheca Vaticana ad eundem fere modum; Summa \"Doctoris Profundi Thomae Bradwardini de causa Dei contra \"Pelagianos, et de virtute Dei causae causarum. Fuit hic liber, statim atque editus est, tanto omnium Doctorum exceptus applausu, vt per omnes fere Bibliothecas totius Europae describeretur. Gerson, vt ad notum auctorē, saepe remittit in libris de vita spirituali: Gregorius Ariminensis super 2. Sent fol. 96. col. 3. et fol. 114. col. 2. et 3. vt taceam de Pico Volaterano, Cassandro, Auctore Catalogi Testium (qui totam huius libri praefationem in suum transfudit syntagma) et ex recentioribus Lutio, Perkinsio, alijs, dum tamen adhuc in Bibliothecarū situ, et puluere delitesceret. Nam de Galfrido Chaucero illorum fere temporum aequali, poetarum nostrorum principe, acris iudicij, non lepidi tantum ingenij, viro, qui de Thoma hoc nostrate non tacuit, nobis nefas sit hic tacere. Is, cum esset Philosophicis Theologicis que haud mediocriter imbutus, ac hasce Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi lucubrationes iamtum recens emissas, vt videtur, peruoluisset, pro more suo iocis seria intertexens, in fabella quadā Cantuariensi, arduam de Dei praescientia, rerumque contingentia quaestionē obiter attingit; ac Augustino Bradwardinum annumerat, ex ijs vnum scil. qui in difficili hac controuersia exagitanda farinā vsque ad furfures (sic enim familiariter, eleganterque ille noster) excusserunt, hoc est veritatem in profundo demersam elicuerūt. Ipsum, si placet, (placet autem antiqua Anglicana, etiam styli, simplicitas) socco suo indutum in medium deducamus.\n\nAd nostrum vero Bradwardinum vt redeamus; Profundi cognomen, siue a Papa impositum, vt est in antiquo registro Mertonensi, siue communibus Doctorum per orbem Christianum suffragijs receptum, adeo de illo eualuit, vt non minus Doctoris profundi cognomine notus sit Bradwardinus quam Doctoris Subtilis, Scotus, aut Doctoris Angelici, Aquinas. Atque, vt huius libri genius Lectori melius innotescat, non abs re fuerit pauca praemonuisse: Primo Thomam nostrum, cum summus esset Mathematicus, vt ex praecedentibus apparet, etiam in Theologicis tractandis non recessisse ab arte. Itaque primus, quod sciam, et solus hanc viam tentauit in Theologicis, vt filo Mathematico Theologica contexeret, ponendo scilicet primo loco duas hypotheses, quasi principia, et ex ijs proxima quaeque demonstrando, et corollaria deducendo, petitis etiam ex Euclide probationibus; deinceps ex hypothesibus, et praedemonstratis reliqua omnia perpetua serie ad finem vsque operis attexendo, quo fit vt conclusiones eius cuipiam fortasse nimis alte petitae videantur. Quod si in lemmatibus, et propositionibus non semper ⟨gap: ⟩ illam Mathematicam potuit vsquequaque assequi, meminerit Lector non id Auctori imputandum, sed subiecte, quam tractat, materiae. Nam, vt rectissime docet Philosophus, ⟨gap: ⟩ Aliud quoque est quod delicatas aures fortasse nonnihil offendat, librorum quorundam apocryphorum, aut plane ⟨gap: ⟩ , citatio; Qualia sunt Aristotelis Secreta Secretorum, Vacca Platonis, Ouidit libellus de Vetula, Hermetis Poemander, et aliae id genus quisquiliae. Sed nimirum hoc magnis Nostri Bradwardini virtutibus, ipsisque adeo temporibus, vt erat illa aetas minime omnium Critica, condonandum. Huc adde, quod librorum istorum fidem etiam ipse non semel in dubium reuocet. Quod si cui tantum ab re sua otij fuerit, vt loca ex Patribus passim citata inspiciat, et ex fontibus emendet, locisque ex Aristotele, et Platone desumptis, vel adscriptis graecis, vel apposita alia translatione paulo tolerabiliori lucem inferat, nae is Bradwardino Nostro bonam, et vtilem nauauerit operam, magnam certe a studiosis eius Lectoribus inierit gratiam. Sed ea res ijs, qui denuo hoc opus edituri sunt, curae esto; sat mihi sit, hac ingrauescente aetate, qualem in scriptis codicibus reperimus Bradwardinum, talem fide optima posteritati non inuidisse. Iam, vt ciuilem, publicamque eius vitam paucis attingam, post gestum in Vniuersitate Oxoniēsi Procuratoris munus, et (si Balaeo credimus) summi Cancellarij ibidem magna cum laude administratam dignitatem, post professionem Theologicam Oxonij per annos bene multos, adhaesit Richardo de Bury, Episcopo Dunelmensi, viro illius aetatis facile doctissimo, et doctorum omnium Patrono singulari, et, quod ipse de se in libello quodam a se edito, cui titulus Philobiblos, testatur, librorum vndique, prout illa aetas ferebat, corrogandorum insano quodam amore impotenter abrepto. In huius itaque, vt dixi, familia vixit Bradwardinus per aliquod tempus, vna cum alijs septem ex sodalitio fere Mertonensi profectis, maximi ingenij, maximae doctrinae viris: de qua re operaeprecium erit verba Dunelmensis historiae audire non vna de causa memoratu dignissima; Plures semper Clericos habuit (Richardus de Bury Episcopus Dunelmensis) in sua comitiua, de quibus fuit Thomas Bradwardin postea Cantuar. Episcopus, et Richardus Fitzraufe postea Archiepiscopus Armachanus, Walterus Burly, Johannes Manduit, Robertus Holcot, Richardus Kilwington (alias Kilmington) omnes Doctores in Theologia: Richardus Bentworth postea Episcopus London, et Walterus Seagraue postea Episcopus Cicestrensis. Et quolibet die in mensa solitus erat habere lectionem, nisi forte per aduentum Magnatum impediretur; et post prandium singulis diebus disputationem cum clericis praenominatis, nisi maior causa impediret. Factus est deinde Bradwardinus Noster Cancellarius London (quod fortasse ansam errori praebuit Balaei) tantaeque fuit integritatis, et innocentiae, vt huic non sane opimo beneficio vix et aegre Canonicatum Lincoln passus sit adiungi. Quo tempore non ob eruditionem solum, sed multo magis ob morum vitaeque sanctimoniam a Stratfordo Archiepiscopo Cantuar delectus est, vt regi Edwardo Tertio a sacris confessionibus esset; cui cum comes esset assiduus in bello Gallico, quod tantis duorum potentissimorum Regum opibus, tantis animis, tanta euentuum varietate gestum est, rebus plerunque ad Anglos inclinantibus, ita et Regis ferocientes victorijs spiritus temperauit, et militarem insolentiam compescuit, habitis saepe coram exercitu concionibus ea prudentia, et verborum lenitate, vt non defuerint inter scriptores temporum illorum, qui insignes illas Edwardi victorias huius potius sanctitati, ac virtutibus acceptas ferendas existimarint, quam cuiusquam siue fortitudini, siue prudentiae. Post Stratfordi mortem Monachi Cantuarienses Thomam nostrum postularunt in Archiepiscopum: quae tamen postulatio frustra fuit, Edwardo Rege talem virum de suo comitatu dimittere recusante. Sed renuntiato Johanne Vffordo, eoque statim defuncto, cum Monachi Bradwardinum iterata electione postulassent, annuente Rege, Papa que , summa omnium ordinum consensione, sine ambitu, ac nemine refragante, quod illis moribus rarum, Archiepiscopus declaratus, in Ecclesia Fratrum minorum Auenione sacratus est, vbi, cum mores Curiae non satis nosset, homo in Scholis ab ineunte aetate castrisque versatus, ab illis comptulis Aulae asseclis, non tamen siue stomacho virorum grauium et modestorum, irrisus est, vt ⟨gap: ⟩ . Post consecrationem domum reuersus, habuit temporalia sibi restituta, et fecit Regi pro more fidelitatem, vt ex Actis constat 22. Augusti anno 1349. Edw. 3.23. nec multas postea septimanas superstes moritur Lambethae Octobri sequente, non expletis inthronizationis caeremonijs, vir longiore vita dignissimus, siue morum probitatem spectemus, siue eruditionem, vt in illo saeculo, singularem.", "english": "TO THE READER.\n\nAs I set out to say a few words in preface about the author, the first thing that meets me is his Name. In our old books it is written in various ways: Thomas de Bradwardina and de Bredewardina, which is the form constantly written in the Public Records. Foreigners, almost all of them, bend the name, for the sake of euphony, as I suppose, and call him Brauardinus. Gerson, in book 3 of his On the Spiritual Life, has Bragwardinus; the author of the Catalogue of Witnesses and Gesner have Branduardinus. In John Bacon (or Baconthorpe, as others prefer), on the Sentences 4, Distinction 1, Question 4, fol. 86 of the Venice edition of 1527, he is called Bradinkardin. That is the printer's shameful error, not Bacon's own. Bacon was […] [n1] Bradwardine, since both set out from the same hive, namely Merton College, and so could not have been ignorant of the correct spelling of his companion's name.\n\nAs to the place of his birth, I once thought he was born at Bradwardin, castle and village. That castle stands, as our most learned and painstaking Camden attests, on the bank of the river Wye, some miles above Hereford. But I was called back from this not improbable view by Bradwardine's own express words, book 3, chapter 22, p. 559 of this edition, where he hints, not obscurely as it seems to me, that he came from Chichester. The words are: \"By a similar reasoning, whatever I now write at Oxford, my father would write at Chichester, because he begot me writing; indeed my grandfather and great-grandfather, etc.\" So Bale and the author of the British Antiquities seem not to have strayed far from the mark when they assert that he was born at Hartfield in the diocese of Chichester; on what authorities, or moved by what arguments, I do not know. For me, at any rate, those words of the author will carry more weight until others bring forward something more certain. Meanwhile it seems likely to me that his forebears were born at the castle or village of Bradwardin and took their surname from it, for themselves and also for descendants moving elsewhere (which is very common among our countrymen). Perhaps one of these Bradwardines, settled thus in a new home at Chichester, handed that name, already held and now hereditary, on to his son Thomas, this man of ours.\n\nIn what year he was born I would not assert for certain, since the beginnings of great men are often obscure although their ends are very well known. But since it is established that he was Proctor of the University of Oxford in 1325, I would believe him born about the year of the Lord 1290, in the middle of the reign of King Edward I.\n\nAfter finishing his boyhood studies he was admitted to Merton College at Oxford in the time of Edward II, and there he was Proctor of the University, as I said. For so I found it written in the Catalogue of the Chancellors and Proctors of that same University: \"A.D. 1325. William de Alburwike, Chancellor of Oxford, and Richard de Kamshall, his Commissary; Proctors William de Harington and Thomas de Bradwardina.\" In that University, at a more mature age, in the time, as I think, of Robert Trenge the Warden, he reached, says Bale in his first edition (which some think was copied entirely from Leland), \"such growth of learning that he was appointed master of the highest faculty, and finally supreme Chancellor\" (on which point may I be permitted, with the good leave of Bale and Leland, […] [n2]); \"in which office,\" he says, \"he so conducted himself that he earned great praise from all.\"\n\nIn this literary career he drew a solid Philosophy from the fountains of Aristotle and Plato. But his industry shone above all in the Mathematical arts and in Theology. In Mathematics he so excelled that that age perhaps produced no equal. Witness the astronomical tables, carefully drawn up, of the equations of the planets and of the conjunctions and oppositions of the luminaries, which I have by me, copied out by hand with great diligence in a fairly thick volume. Witness the little book on the proportions of velocities; another on speculative Arithmetic; another on speculative Geometry (which book Vives praises in book 4 of On Handing On the Disciplines), all printed long ago at Paris.\n\nIn Theology, however, the palm is carried off (for he wrote very many other works in every kind of discipline, if we believe Bale, which I have not treated), easily carried off, I say, by this book, which we now publish from six manuscripts against the perfidy of the Pelagians, a heresy which in every age, as experience teaches, springs up again in the Church. He composed and wove it for the most part out of his Oxford lectures (as he himself says in the proem); at the request of his fellows of Merton he polished it and brought it out into the light when he was Chancellor of London [n3].\n\n[…] [n4] is the one I have put at the head, in almost all the manuscripts I have seen. In the book of New College, Oxford, however, the title is: \"Summa of the Profound Doctor on the cause of God against the Pelagians, and on the power of causes, the power of God, cause of causes.\" In the Vatican Library it is much the same: \"Summa of the Profound Doctor Thomas Bradwardine on the cause of God against the Pelagians, and on the power of God, cause of causes.\"\n\nAs soon as this book was published it was received with such applause from all the Doctors that it was copied out in almost all the libraries of Europe. Gerson, as to a well-known author, often refers to him in his books On the Spiritual Life; so does Gregory of Rimini on Sentences 2, fol. 96, col. 3, and fol. 114, cols. 2 and 3. I say nothing of Pico of Volterra and Cassander, or of the author of the Catalogue of Witnesses (who poured the whole preface of this book into his own compilation), or, among more recent writers, of Lutius, Perkins and others, although the book still lay hidden in the mould and dust of the libraries.\n\nFor we must not pass over here in silence Geoffrey Chaucer, a near contemporary of those times, prince of our poets, a man of keen judgment and not only of charming wit, who did not pass over this countryman of ours, Thomas, in silence. Chaucer was no mean master of philosophy and theology, and had, as it seems, read through these labours of the Archbishop of Canterbury, then newly issued. In his usual way, weaving jests together with serious matter, in a certain Canterbury tale he touches in passing on the arduous question of God's foreknowledge and the contingency of things. He counts Bradwardine alongside Augustine, as one of those who, in sifting this difficult controversy, \"sifted the flour right down to the bran\" (so familiarly and elegantly does our man put it), that is, brought up the truth sunk in the depths [n5]. Let us bring him before the public, if you please (and the old English plainness, even of style, does please), dressed in his own comic shoe.\n\nBut to return to our Bradwardine. The surname \"Profound\" was either imposed by the Pope, as stands in the ancient Merton register , or received by the common vote of the Doctors throughout the Christian world. It so prevailed in his case that Bradwardine is no less known as the Profound Doctor than Scotus as the Subtle Doctor, or Aquinas as the Angelic Doctor. [n6]\n\nAnd so that the character of this book may be better known to the Reader, it will not be out of place to give a few forewarnings. First, our Thomas, being a supreme Mathematician, as appears from what precedes, did not depart from his art even in treating theological matters. He was therefore the first, so far as I know, and the only one, to attempt this way in theology: to weave the theological matter on a mathematical thread. He sets down first two hypotheses, as principles; from these he demonstrates each nearest consequence and draws corollaries, with proofs also fetched from Euclid; and then from the hypotheses and what has already been demonstrated he attaches everything else in an unbroken series to the end of the work. Hence it happens that his conclusions may perhaps seem to someone fetched from too far up. But if in the lemmas and propositions he could not always attain […] [n7] that mathematical [rigour], let the reader remember that this is not to be charged to the author but to the subject-matter he treats. For, as the Philosopher most rightly teaches, […] [n8]\n\nThere is another thing which may perhaps somewhat offend delicate ears: the citation of certain apocryphal books, or plainly […] [n9]. Such are Aristotle's Secret of Secrets, the Cow of Plato, Ovid's little book On the Old Woman, the Poemander of Hermes, and other such rubbish. But this must surely be pardoned to the great virtues of our Bradwardine and to the times themselves, since that age was the least critical of all. Add that he himself more than once calls the credibility of those books into doubt. If anyone has so much leisure from his own affairs as to examine the passages cited from the Fathers here and there and correct them from the sources, and to throw light on the passages taken from Aristotle and Plato, either by adding the Greek or by setting beside them some other, rather more tolerable translation, he will have done our Bradwardine a good and useful service and will earn great gratitude from his studious readers. But let that task be the care of those who will edit this work afresh. It is enough for me, now that my age is growing heavy [n10], that I have not begrudged to posterity Bradwardine as we found him in the written codices, and in the best faith.\n\nNow to touch briefly on his civil and public life. He discharged the office of Proctor in the University of Oxford and (if we believe Bale) administered with great praise the dignity of supreme Chancellor there; he then professed theology at Oxford for a good many years. After that he attached himself to Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, easily the most learned man of that age and a singular patron of all learned men, who, as he himself testifies of himself in a little book published by him, entitled Philobiblon, was carried away beyond restraint by a mad love of collecting books from every quarter, as that age allowed. In his household, then, as I said, Bradwardine lived for some time, together with seven others who came almost all from the fellowship of Merton, men of the greatest talent and learning. On this matter it will be worth hearing the words of the history of Durham, most worthy of record for more than one reason. \"Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, always had many clerics in his company. Among them were Thomas Bradwardine, afterwards Bishop of Canterbury; Richard Fitzralph, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh; Walter Burley, John Maudit, Robert Holcot, Richard Kilvington (also called Kilmington), all Doctors in Theology; Richard Bentworth, afterwards Bishop of London; and Walter Segrave, afterwards Bishop of Chichester. [n11] And every day at table he used to have a lecture, unless perhaps he was prevented by the arrival of great men; and every day after dinner a disputation with the clerics named above, unless a greater cause prevented.\"\n\nOur Bradwardine was then made Chancellor of London (which perhaps gave Bale the occasion for his error). He was a man of such integrity and innocence that he hardly and with difficulty allowed a canonry of Lincoln to be added to this far from rich benefice. At this time he was chosen by Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, to be confessor to King Edward III, not only for his learning but much more for the sanctity of his character and life. He was the king's constant companion in the French war, which was waged with the great resources of two most powerful kings, with such great spirit, and with such great variety of events, matters inclining for the most part to the English side. In it he both tempered the king's spirits, grown fierce with victories, and checked the insolence of the soldiery, by sermons often delivered before the army with such prudence and gentleness of speech that there were not lacking among the writers of those times some who thought that Edward's famous victories should be credited rather to this man's holiness and virtues than to anyone's courage or prudence.\n\nAfter Stratford's death the monks of Canterbury postulated our Thomas as Archbishop, but the postulation was in vain, since King Edward refused to let such a man leave his company. But John Offord was proclaimed and died at once; and when the Monks had postulated Bradwardine in a second election, the King assenting, and the Pope [n12] too, he was declared Archbishop with the greatest consent of all ranks, without canvassing and with no one opposing, which was rare in those days. He was consecrated at Avignon in the church of the Friars Minor. There, since he did not sufficiently know the ways of the Curia, being a man who had been busy from his early years in the Schools and in camps, he was laughed at by those spruce hangers-on of the Court, though not without [n13] the indignation of grave and modest men, so that […] [n14]\n\nAfter his consecration he returned home, had his temporalities restored to him, and did fealty to the King in the usual way, as is established from the Records of 22 August in the 23rd year of Edward III, 1349. Not many weeks afterwards he died at Lambeth in the following October, the ceremonies of enthronement not yet completed: a man most worthy of a longer life, whether we look to uprightness of character or to learning, singular for that age.", "apparatus": {"notes": [{"n": 1, "text": "The keyed text has a gap here (`cum fuerit ⟨gap⟩ Bradwardino`). No page image was available to me in this pass, so the gap has not been checked against the print and I translate around it. The sense evidently requires something like \"a close associate of\". The same applies to every gap flagged below (note 2, note 4, note 7, note 8, note 9, note 14), and to the unmarked space at note 12; all need checking against the image."}, {"n": 2, "text": "Gap after bona cum Balaei et Lelandi venia. The sentence probably announces a disagreement with Bale and Leland over the Chancellorship, which Savile rejects in prelims ¶3 (\"which perhaps gave Bale the occasion for his error\"). The missing verb is not recovered."}, {"n": 3, "text": "Cancellarius Londinensis: the chancellor of St Paul's cathedral, London, not a university office."}, {"n": 4, "text": "Gap before est ea, quam praeposui: evidently a noun such as \"the title\" or \"the inscription\". The following sentence confirms the sense: the title is the one placed at the head of this edition. The quotation marks at the start of the lines in the keyed text are the print's marginal quotation marks."}, {"n": 5, "text": "Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale (Canterbury Tales, VII 3240–42): \"I ne kan nat bulte it to the bren / As kan the holy doctour Augustyn, / Or Boece, or the Bishop Bradwardyn.\" Savile renders \"bulte it to the bren\" (sift the flour to the bran) as farinam usque ad furfures. The Chaucer passage was apparently printed on the following page. Socco suo indutum is a theatrical image: the soccus is the low shoe of comedy, as opposed to the tragic buskin, so \"in his own comic shoe\", in his own homely dress."}, {"n": 6, "text": "The margin note belongs to the register mentioned here. It is keyed as a variant, but it offers no alternative reading; it is a marginal testimony in the form of a quotation from the Merton register, and I have translated it as such. It does not alter the main text."}, {"n": 7, "text": "Gap in non semper ⟨gap⟩ illam Mathematicam. I supply \"attain\" and \"[rigour]\" from the sense only; the keyed text breaks off before the infinitive."}, {"n": 8, "text": "The sentence is broken off at the gap, after \"the Philosopher most rightly teaches\". The reference is evidently to Aristotle's doctrine that precision is not to be sought equally in every subject (Ethics I.3), and the omitted text is probably a Greek quotation (see the convention on the 34 Greek omissions). Not recovered."}, {"n": 9, "text": "Gap in aut plane ⟨gap⟩: something like \"spurious\". The pseudepigrapha named are: Secretum secretorum (pseudo-Aristotle); the Liber vaccae (\"Cow of Plato\"); De vetula (pseudo-Ovid); and the Hermetic Poemander."}, {"n": 10, "text": "Hac ingrauescente aetate: read as Savile's own advancing age (\"now that my age is growing heavy\"), the commonest sense of ingravescere aetate."}, {"n": 11, "text": "Spellings normalized to the usual English forms (Savile has Fitzraufe, Burly, Manduit, Kilwington, Seagraue). The list is quoted from the Durham history, so the titles are the history's, not Savile's. It gives \"Bishop of Canterbury\" for Bradwardine, although he died Archbishop-elect and consecrated."}, {"n": 12, "text": "Keyed Papa que , shows an unmarked space before the comma; a word (a verb of consent or approval) may have dropped out. I translate \"the Pope too\" for the evident sense. Unchecked against the image."}, {"n": 13, "text": "The keyed text reads non tamen siue stomacho. Siue cannot be construed here. The evident sense requires sine, \"not without\", and I translate so. If the print also has siue, it is a misprint in the 1618 edition (rule 10); to be checked against the image."}, {"n": 14, "text": "Gap after vt at the end of the sentence. The result clause is not recovered; presumably it described the outcome or Bradwardine's reaction to the mockery."}], "errata": []}, "segments": [{"anchor": "b1", "url": "https://bradwardine.wrootpress.com/front/lectori/#b1", "locator_display": "prelims", "source_text": "LECTORI.", "english": "TO THE READER.", "margins": []}, {"anchor": "b2", "url": "https://bradwardine.wrootpress.com/front/lectori/#b2", "locator_display": "prelims", "source_text": "DE auctore mihi pauca praefari volenti occurrit primo loco Nomen, quod in veteribus libris nostris varie scribitur: Thomas de Bradwardina et de Bredewardina, quomodo constanter scribitur in Actis Publicis. Exteri homines fere omnes, deflexo nomine euphoniae, vt puto, gratia, Brauardinum nominant: Gerson lib. 3. de vita spirituali Bragwardinum: Autor Catalogi Testium, et Gesnerus Branduardinum. Apud Joannem Baconem (siue Baconthorpium, vt alijs placet) super 4. Sentent. Distinct. 1. Quaest. 4. fol. 86. Editionis Venetae 1527. Bradinkardin appellatur, flagitioso Typographi errore, non ipsius Baconis, qui cum fuerit ⟨gap: ⟩ Bradwardino (ex eodem quippe alueari vterque profecti, Collegio scilicet Mertonensi) rectam nominis contubernalis sui scripturam ignorare non potuit. De loco Natiuitatis putabam aliquando apud Bradwardin castrum et vicum natum fuisse (situm est castrum illud, attestante doctissimo et diligentissimo Camdeno Nostro, ad ripam Vagae fluminis aliquot supra Herefordiam milliarijs) sed me ab hac sententia non improbabili reuocarunt expressa verba ipsius Bradwardini lib. 3. cap. 22. pag 559. huius editionis, vbi non obscure, vt mihi videtur, innuit se Cicestria oriundum. Verba sunt; Per similem etiam rationem quicquid nunc scribo Oxonniae, scriberet pater meus Cicestriae, quia genuit me scribentem, imo auus, et proauus, etc. Vt non multum aberrasse videantur Balaeus, et Antiquitatum Britannicarum Auctor, qui Hartfeldiae natum asserunt in Dioecesi Cicestrensi, quibus auctoribus, aut quibus permoti argumentis, nescio. Apud me certe illa Auctoris verba praeponderabunt, dum aliquid certius ab alijs afferatur. Interim certe verisimile mihi est ipsius maiores apud castrum, vicumue Bradwardin natos, inde cognomentum sibi, posterisque etiam alio commigrantibus (quod apud nostrates frequentissimum) acquisiuisse: ac horum Bradwardinensium forte aliquem sic nouis sedibus in Cicestria defixum in filium suum Thomam hunc nostrum nomen illud iam tum obtinens ac gentilitium transfudisse. Quo anno natus sit, quemadmodum nihil pro certo asseuerauerim, (vt sunt magnorum saepe virorum principia obscura, quorum sunt notissimi exitus) ita cum Procuratorem fuisse constet Vniuesitatis Oxoniensis, Anno 1325. circa annum Domini 1290. natum crediderim, medijs temporibus Regis Edwardi Primi. Post emensa puerilia studia admissus est in Collegium Mertonense Oxonij tempore Edwardi Secundi, vbi Procurator Vniuersitatis fuit, vt dixi; sic enim in Catalogo Cancellariorū et Procuratorū eiusdē Vniuersitatis scriptum reperi: An. 1325. Willielmus de Alburwike Cancellarius Oxoniensis, et Richardus de Kamshall Commissarius eius; Procuratores Willielmus de Harington, et Thomas de Bradwardina. In qua Vniuersitate, maturiore iam aetate, tempore, vt puto, Roberti Trenge Custodis, ad tantum, inquit Balaeus in prima editione (quam totam putant quidam ex Lelando descriptam) doctrinae peruenit incrementum, vt supremae facultatis magister, ac summus demum Cancellarius (de quo mihi liceat bona cum Balaei et Lelandi venia ⟨gap: ⟩ ) constitueretur, in quo officio ita se gessit, inquit, vt ab omnibus magnam commeruerit laudem. In hoc curriculo literario solidam ex Aristotelis et Platonis fontibus hausit Philosophiam, sed in artibus Mathematicis ac Theologia eius potissimum eluxit industria; ac in Mathematicis quidem ita excelluit, vt parem illa aetas tulerit fortasse neminem. Testes sunt tabulae Astronomicae exquisite descriptae aequationum Planetarum, et coniunctionum ac oppositionum luminarium, quas penes me habeo magna cum diligentia manu exaratas volumine satis crasso. Testes libellus de proportionibus velocitatum; alius de Arithmetica speculatiua; alius de Geometria speculatiua (quem librum libr. 4. de tradendis disciplinis laudat Viues) omnes iam olim Parisijs excusi. In Theologia vero palmaris est (nam plurimos alios conscripsit in omni disciplinarum genere, si credimus Balaeo, mihi non tractatos) palmam facile, inquam, obtinet liber iste, quem iam ex manulcriptis sex edimus contra Pelagianorum perfidiam, haeresim omnibus subin de aetatibus, vt experientia docet, in Ecclesia succrescentem; quem ex lectionibus Oxoniensibus magnam partem concinnatum, et contextum (vt ipse in prooemio docet) ad petitionem suorum Mertonensium limauit, et edidit in lucem, cum esset Cancellarius Londinensis. ⟨gap: ⟩ est ea, quam praeposui, in omnibus fere, quos vidi, manuscriptis; in libro tamen Collegij Noui \"Oxon. titulus est; Summa Doctoris profundi de causa Dei contra \"Pelagianos, et de virtute causarum, virtute Dei causae causarum. In Bibliotheca Vaticana ad eundem fere modum; Summa \"Doctoris Profundi Thomae Bradwardini de causa Dei contra \"Pelagianos, et de virtute Dei causae causarum. Fuit hic liber, statim atque editus est, tanto omnium Doctorum exceptus applausu, vt per omnes fere Bibliothecas totius Europae describeretur. Gerson, vt ad notum auctorē, saepe remittit in libris de vita spirituali: Gregorius Ariminensis super 2. Sent fol. 96. col. 3. et fol. 114. col. 2. et 3. vt taceam de Pico Volaterano, Cassandro, Auctore Catalogi Testium (qui totam huius libri praefationem in suum transfudit syntagma) et ex recentioribus Lutio, Perkinsio, alijs, dum tamen adhuc in Bibliothecarū situ, et puluere delitesceret. Nam de Galfrido Chaucero illorum fere temporum aequali, poetarum nostrorum principe, acris iudicij, non lepidi tantum ingenij, viro, qui de Thoma hoc nostrate non tacuit, nobis nefas sit hic tacere. Is, cum esset Philosophicis Theologicis que haud mediocriter imbutus, ac hasce Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi lucubrationes iamtum recens emissas, vt videtur, peruoluisset, pro more suo iocis seria intertexens, in fabella quadā Cantuariensi, arduam de Dei praescientia, rerumque contingentia quaestionē obiter attingit; ac Augustino Bradwardinum annumerat, ex ijs vnum scil. qui in difficili hac controuersia exagitanda farinā vsque ad furfures (sic enim familiariter, eleganterque ille noster) excusserunt, hoc est veritatem in profundo demersam elicuerūt. Ipsum, si placet, (placet autem antiqua Anglicana, etiam styli, simplicitas) socco suo indutum in medium deducamus.", "english": "As I set out to say a few words in preface about the author, the first thing that meets me is his Name. In our old books it is written in various ways: Thomas de Bradwardina and de Bredewardina, which is the form constantly written in the Public Records. Foreigners, almost all of them, bend the name, for the sake of euphony, as I suppose, and call him Brauardinus. Gerson, in book 3 of his On the Spiritual Life, has Bragwardinus; the author of the Catalogue of Witnesses and Gesner have Branduardinus. In John Bacon (or Baconthorpe, as others prefer), on the Sentences 4, Distinction 1, Question 4, fol. 86 of the Venice edition of 1527, he is called Bradinkardin. That is the printer's shameful error, not Bacon's own. Bacon was […] [n1] Bradwardine, since both set out from the same hive, namely Merton College, and so could not have been ignorant of the correct spelling of his companion's name.\n\nAs to the place of his birth, I once thought he was born at Bradwardin, castle and village. That castle stands, as our most learned and painstaking Camden attests, on the bank of the river Wye, some miles above Hereford. But I was called back from this not improbable view by Bradwardine's own express words, book 3, chapter 22, p. 559 of this edition, where he hints, not obscurely as it seems to me, that he came from Chichester. The words are: \"By a similar reasoning, whatever I now write at Oxford, my father would write at Chichester, because he begot me writing; indeed my grandfather and great-grandfather, etc.\" So Bale and the author of the British Antiquities seem not to have strayed far from the mark when they assert that he was born at Hartfield in the diocese of Chichester; on what authorities, or moved by what arguments, I do not know. For me, at any rate, those words of the author will carry more weight until others bring forward something more certain. Meanwhile it seems likely to me that his forebears were born at the castle or village of Bradwardin and took their surname from it, for themselves and also for descendants moving elsewhere (which is very common among our countrymen). Perhaps one of these Bradwardines, settled thus in a new home at Chichester, handed that name, already held and now hereditary, on to his son Thomas, this man of ours.\n\nIn what year he was born I would not assert for certain, since the beginnings of great men are often obscure although their ends are very well known. But since it is established that he was Proctor of the University of Oxford in 1325, I would believe him born about the year of the Lord 1290, in the middle of the reign of King Edward I.\n\nAfter finishing his boyhood studies he was admitted to Merton College at Oxford in the time of Edward II, and there he was Proctor of the University, as I said. For so I found it written in the Catalogue of the Chancellors and Proctors of that same University: \"A.D. 1325. William de Alburwike, Chancellor of Oxford, and Richard de Kamshall, his Commissary; Proctors William de Harington and Thomas de Bradwardina.\" In that University, at a more mature age, in the time, as I think, of Robert Trenge the Warden, he reached, says Bale in his first edition (which some think was copied entirely from Leland), \"such growth of learning that he was appointed master of the highest faculty, and finally supreme Chancellor\" (on which point may I be permitted, with the good leave of Bale and Leland, […] [n2]); \"in which office,\" he says, \"he so conducted himself that he earned great praise from all.\"\n\nIn this literary career he drew a solid Philosophy from the fountains of Aristotle and Plato. But his industry shone above all in the Mathematical arts and in Theology. In Mathematics he so excelled that that age perhaps produced no equal. Witness the astronomical tables, carefully drawn up, of the equations of the planets and of the conjunctions and oppositions of the luminaries, which I have by me, copied out by hand with great diligence in a fairly thick volume. Witness the little book on the proportions of velocities; another on speculative Arithmetic; another on speculative Geometry (which book Vives praises in book 4 of On Handing On the Disciplines), all printed long ago at Paris.\n\nIn Theology, however, the palm is carried off (for he wrote very many other works in every kind of discipline, if we believe Bale, which I have not treated), easily carried off, I say, by this book, which we now publish from six manuscripts against the perfidy of the Pelagians, a heresy which in every age, as experience teaches, springs up again in the Church. He composed and wove it for the most part out of his Oxford lectures (as he himself says in the proem); at the request of his fellows of Merton he polished it and brought it out into the light when he was Chancellor of London [n3].\n\n[…] [n4] is the one I have put at the head, in almost all the manuscripts I have seen. In the book of New College, Oxford, however, the title is: \"Summa of the Profound Doctor on the cause of God against the Pelagians, and on the power of causes, the power of God, cause of causes.\" In the Vatican Library it is much the same: \"Summa of the Profound Doctor Thomas Bradwardine on the cause of God against the Pelagians, and on the power of God, cause of causes.\"\n\nAs soon as this book was published it was received with such applause from all the Doctors that it was copied out in almost all the libraries of Europe. Gerson, as to a well-known author, often refers to him in his books On the Spiritual Life; so does Gregory of Rimini on Sentences 2, fol. 96, col. 3, and fol. 114, cols. 2 and 3. I say nothing of Pico of Volterra and Cassander, or of the author of the Catalogue of Witnesses (who poured the whole preface of this book into his own compilation), or, among more recent writers, of Lutius, Perkins and others, although the book still lay hidden in the mould and dust of the libraries.\n\nFor we must not pass over here in silence Geoffrey Chaucer, a near contemporary of those times, prince of our poets, a man of keen judgment and not only of charming wit, who did not pass over this countryman of ours, Thomas, in silence. Chaucer was no mean master of philosophy and theology, and had, as it seems, read through these labours of the Archbishop of Canterbury, then newly issued. In his usual way, weaving jests together with serious matter, in a certain Canterbury tale he touches in passing on the arduous question of God's foreknowledge and the contingency of things. He counts Bradwardine alongside Augustine, as one of those who, in sifting this difficult controversy, \"sifted the flour right down to the bran\" (so familiarly and elegantly does our man put it), that is, brought up the truth sunk in the depths [n5]. Let us bring him before the public, if you please (and the old English plainness, even of style, does please), dressed in his own comic shoe.", "margins": []}, {"anchor": "b3", "url": "https://bradwardine.wrootpress.com/front/lectori/#b3", "locator_display": "prelims", "source_text": "Ad nostrum vero Bradwardinum vt redeamus; Profundi cognomen, siue a Papa impositum, vt est in antiquo registro Mertonensi, siue communibus Doctorum per orbem Christianum suffragijs receptum, adeo de illo eualuit, vt non minus Doctoris profundi cognomine notus sit Bradwardinus quam Doctoris Subtilis, Scotus, aut Doctoris Angelici, Aquinas. Atque, vt huius libri genius Lectori melius innotescat, non abs re fuerit pauca praemonuisse: Primo Thomam nostrum, cum summus esset Mathematicus, vt ex praecedentibus apparet, etiam in Theologicis tractandis non recessisse ab arte. Itaque primus, quod sciam, et solus hanc viam tentauit in Theologicis, vt filo Mathematico Theologica contexeret, ponendo scilicet primo loco duas hypotheses, quasi principia, et ex ijs proxima quaeque demonstrando, et corollaria deducendo, petitis etiam ex Euclide probationibus; deinceps ex hypothesibus, et praedemonstratis reliqua omnia perpetua serie ad finem vsque operis attexendo, quo fit vt conclusiones eius cuipiam fortasse nimis alte petitae videantur. Quod si in lemmatibus, et propositionibus non semper ⟨gap: ⟩ illam Mathematicam potuit vsquequaque assequi, meminerit Lector non id Auctori imputandum, sed subiecte, quam tractat, materiae. Nam, vt rectissime docet Philosophus, ⟨gap: ⟩ Aliud quoque est quod delicatas aures fortasse nonnihil offendat, librorum quorundam apocryphorum, aut plane ⟨gap: ⟩ , citatio; Qualia sunt Aristotelis Secreta Secretorum, Vacca Platonis, Ouidit libellus de Vetula, Hermetis Poemander, et aliae id genus quisquiliae. Sed nimirum hoc magnis Nostri Bradwardini virtutibus, ipsisque adeo temporibus, vt erat illa aetas minime omnium Critica, condonandum. Huc adde, quod librorum istorum fidem etiam ipse non semel in dubium reuocet. Quod si cui tantum ab re sua otij fuerit, vt loca ex Patribus passim citata inspiciat, et ex fontibus emendet, locisque ex Aristotele, et Platone desumptis, vel adscriptis graecis, vel apposita alia translatione paulo tolerabiliori lucem inferat, nae is Bradwardino Nostro bonam, et vtilem nauauerit operam, magnam certe a studiosis eius Lectoribus inierit gratiam. Sed ea res ijs, qui denuo hoc opus edituri sunt, curae esto; sat mihi sit, hac ingrauescente aetate, qualem in scriptis codicibus reperimus Bradwardinum, talem fide optima posteritati non inuidisse. Iam, vt ciuilem, publicamque eius vitam paucis attingam, post gestum in Vniuersitate Oxoniēsi Procuratoris munus, et (si Balaeo credimus) summi Cancellarij ibidem magna cum laude administratam dignitatem, post professionem Theologicam Oxonij per annos bene multos, adhaesit Richardo de Bury, Episcopo Dunelmensi, viro illius aetatis facile doctissimo, et doctorum omnium Patrono singulari, et, quod ipse de se in libello quodam a se edito, cui titulus Philobiblos, testatur, librorum vndique, prout illa aetas ferebat, corrogandorum insano quodam amore impotenter abrepto. In huius itaque, vt dixi, familia vixit Bradwardinus per aliquod tempus, vna cum alijs septem ex sodalitio fere Mertonensi profectis, maximi ingenij, maximae doctrinae viris: de qua re operaeprecium erit verba Dunelmensis historiae audire non vna de causa memoratu dignissima; Plures semper Clericos habuit (Richardus de Bury Episcopus Dunelmensis) in sua comitiua, de quibus fuit Thomas Bradwardin postea Cantuar. Episcopus, et Richardus Fitzraufe postea Archiepiscopus Armachanus, Walterus Burly, Johannes Manduit, Robertus Holcot, Richardus Kilwington (alias Kilmington) omnes Doctores in Theologia: Richardus Bentworth postea Episcopus London, et Walterus Seagraue postea Episcopus Cicestrensis. Et quolibet die in mensa solitus erat habere lectionem, nisi forte per aduentum Magnatum impediretur; et post prandium singulis diebus disputationem cum clericis praenominatis, nisi maior causa impediret. Factus est deinde Bradwardinus Noster Cancellarius London (quod fortasse ansam errori praebuit Balaei) tantaeque fuit integritatis, et innocentiae, vt huic non sane opimo beneficio vix et aegre Canonicatum Lincoln passus sit adiungi. Quo tempore non ob eruditionem solum, sed multo magis ob morum vitaeque sanctimoniam a Stratfordo Archiepiscopo Cantuar delectus est, vt regi Edwardo Tertio a sacris confessionibus esset; cui cum comes esset assiduus in bello Gallico, quod tantis duorum potentissimorum Regum opibus, tantis animis, tanta euentuum varietate gestum est, rebus plerunque ad Anglos inclinantibus, ita et Regis ferocientes victorijs spiritus temperauit, et militarem insolentiam compescuit, habitis saepe coram exercitu concionibus ea prudentia, et verborum lenitate, vt non defuerint inter scriptores temporum illorum, qui insignes illas Edwardi victorias huius potius sanctitati, ac virtutibus acceptas ferendas existimarint, quam cuiusquam siue fortitudini, siue prudentiae. Post Stratfordi mortem Monachi Cantuarienses Thomam nostrum postularunt in Archiepiscopum: quae tamen postulatio frustra fuit, Edwardo Rege talem virum de suo comitatu dimittere recusante. Sed renuntiato Johanne Vffordo, eoque statim defuncto, cum Monachi Bradwardinum iterata electione postulassent, annuente Rege, Papa que , summa omnium ordinum consensione, sine ambitu, ac nemine refragante, quod illis moribus rarum, Archiepiscopus declaratus, in Ecclesia Fratrum minorum Auenione sacratus est, vbi, cum mores Curiae non satis nosset, homo in Scholis ab ineunte aetate castrisque versatus, ab illis comptulis Aulae asseclis, non tamen siue stomacho virorum grauium et modestorum, irrisus est, vt ⟨gap: ⟩ . Post consecrationem domum reuersus, habuit temporalia sibi restituta, et fecit Regi pro more fidelitatem, vt ex Actis constat 22. Augusti anno 1349. Edw. 3.23. nec multas postea septimanas superstes moritur Lambethae Octobri sequente, non expletis inthronizationis caeremonijs, vir longiore vita dignissimus, siue morum probitatem spectemus, siue eruditionem, vt in illo saeculo, singularem.", "english": "But to return to our Bradwardine. The surname \"Profound\" was either imposed by the Pope, as stands in the ancient Merton register , or received by the common vote of the Doctors throughout the Christian world. It so prevailed in his case that Bradwardine is no less known as the Profound Doctor than Scotus as the Subtle Doctor, or Aquinas as the Angelic Doctor. [n6]\n\nAnd so that the character of this book may be better known to the Reader, it will not be out of place to give a few forewarnings. First, our Thomas, being a supreme Mathematician, as appears from what precedes, did not depart from his art even in treating theological matters. He was therefore the first, so far as I know, and the only one, to attempt this way in theology: to weave the theological matter on a mathematical thread. He sets down first two hypotheses, as principles; from these he demonstrates each nearest consequence and draws corollaries, with proofs also fetched from Euclid; and then from the hypotheses and what has already been demonstrated he attaches everything else in an unbroken series to the end of the work. Hence it happens that his conclusions may perhaps seem to someone fetched from too far up. But if in the lemmas and propositions he could not always attain […] [n7] that mathematical [rigour], let the reader remember that this is not to be charged to the author but to the subject-matter he treats. For, as the Philosopher most rightly teaches, […] [n8]\n\nThere is another thing which may perhaps somewhat offend delicate ears: the citation of certain apocryphal books, or plainly […] [n9]. Such are Aristotle's Secret of Secrets, the Cow of Plato, Ovid's little book On the Old Woman, the Poemander of Hermes, and other such rubbish. But this must surely be pardoned to the great virtues of our Bradwardine and to the times themselves, since that age was the least critical of all. Add that he himself more than once calls the credibility of those books into doubt. If anyone has so much leisure from his own affairs as to examine the passages cited from the Fathers here and there and correct them from the sources, and to throw light on the passages taken from Aristotle and Plato, either by adding the Greek or by setting beside them some other, rather more tolerable translation, he will have done our Bradwardine a good and useful service and will earn great gratitude from his studious readers. But let that task be the care of those who will edit this work afresh. It is enough for me, now that my age is growing heavy [n10], that I have not begrudged to posterity Bradwardine as we found him in the written codices, and in the best faith.\n\nNow to touch briefly on his civil and public life. He discharged the office of Proctor in the University of Oxford and (if we believe Bale) administered with great praise the dignity of supreme Chancellor there; he then professed theology at Oxford for a good many years. After that he attached himself to Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, easily the most learned man of that age and a singular patron of all learned men, who, as he himself testifies of himself in a little book published by him, entitled Philobiblon, was carried away beyond restraint by a mad love of collecting books from every quarter, as that age allowed. In his household, then, as I said, Bradwardine lived for some time, together with seven others who came almost all from the fellowship of Merton, men of the greatest talent and learning. On this matter it will be worth hearing the words of the history of Durham, most worthy of record for more than one reason. \"Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, always had many clerics in his company. Among them were Thomas Bradwardine, afterwards Bishop of Canterbury; Richard Fitzralph, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh; Walter Burley, John Maudit, Robert Holcot, Richard Kilvington (also called Kilmington), all Doctors in Theology; Richard Bentworth, afterwards Bishop of London; and Walter Segrave, afterwards Bishop of Chichester. [n11] And every day at table he used to have a lecture, unless perhaps he was prevented by the arrival of great men; and every day after dinner a disputation with the clerics named above, unless a greater cause prevented.\"\n\nOur Bradwardine was then made Chancellor of London (which perhaps gave Bale the occasion for his error). He was a man of such integrity and innocence that he hardly and with difficulty allowed a canonry of Lincoln to be added to this far from rich benefice. At this time he was chosen by Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, to be confessor to King Edward III, not only for his learning but much more for the sanctity of his character and life. He was the king's constant companion in the French war, which was waged with the great resources of two most powerful kings, with such great spirit, and with such great variety of events, matters inclining for the most part to the English side. In it he both tempered the king's spirits, grown fierce with victories, and checked the insolence of the soldiery, by sermons often delivered before the army with such prudence and gentleness of speech that there were not lacking among the writers of those times some who thought that Edward's famous victories should be credited rather to this man's holiness and virtues than to anyone's courage or prudence.\n\nAfter Stratford's death the monks of Canterbury postulated our Thomas as Archbishop, but the postulation was in vain, since King Edward refused to let such a man leave his company. But John Offord was proclaimed and died at once; and when the Monks had postulated Bradwardine in a second election, the King assenting, and the Pope [n12] too, he was declared Archbishop with the greatest consent of all ranks, without canvassing and with no one opposing, which was rare in those days. He was consecrated at Avignon in the church of the Friars Minor. There, since he did not sufficiently know the ways of the Curia, being a man who had been busy from his early years in the Schools and in camps, he was laughed at by those spruce hangers-on of the Court, though not without [n13] the indignation of grave and modest men, so that […] [n14]\n\nAfter his consecration he returned home, had his temporalities restored to him, and did fealty to the King in the usual way, as is established from the Records of 22 August in the 23rd year of Edward III, 1349. Not many weeks afterwards he died at Lambeth in the following October, the ceremonies of enthronement not yet completed: a man most worthy of a longer life, whether we look to uprightness of character or to learning, singular for that age.", "margins": [{"id": "lectori·1", "kind": "variant", "text": "(variant) Bradwardine was named the Profound Doctor by the Pope, and so he is called to this day."}]}], "provenance": {"method": "Machine translation drafted with Claude (Anthropic) under a set translation convention; the image of each Savile page was supplied to the translator, who logged differences between the keyed Latin and the print as errata. Not yet reviewed by a human scholar.", "corrected_against_scan": true, "verified_on": null, "status": "draft"}, "license_source": "CC0 1.0 (EEBO-TCP A16626); the underlying text is public domain", "license_translation": "CC BY-NC 4.0", "license_apparatus": "CC BY-NC 4.0", "credits": [{"name": "EEBO-TCP (Text Creation Partnership), A16626: the Latin", "license": "CC0 1.0", "url": "https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A16626.0001.001"}, {"name": "Internet Archive: the Minerva facsimile page images (linked, not hosted)", "license": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/decausadeicontra00braduoft"}], "generated": "2026-10-28", "version": "0.1-draft"}