In the absence of any confirmatory evidence, no weight can be attached to this statement. No William of Nottingham occurs in Le Neve’s Fasti. At the beginning of the fifteenth century a John of Nottingham held two prebends and was treasurer of York: and he may be the person referred to in the first part of the note; it is worthy of remark that the MS. originally came from York. William of Nottingham must have been reader to the Franciscans soon after 1312. While regent in theology at Oxford he was largely occupied in transcribing MSS., especially the works of Nicholas de Gorham, the expenses being defrayed by his brother Dominus Hugh of Nottingham[1131]. He succeeded Richard Conyngton as seventeenth Provincial Minister[1132]. In 1322 he was at the General Chapter of Perugia, and, with the other ministers, signed the famous letter in which the Franciscans declared that the doctrine De paupertate Christi was not heretical but sane and catholic; this was the beginning of the revolt of the whole Order (as distinguished from the Spirituals) against John XXII[1133]. According to Bale he died Oct. 5, 1336[1134]. He was buried at Leicester[1135].
Bale ascribes to him Determinatio pro lege Christianorum, lib. i. Inc. ‘Numquid deus posset revelare aliquam legem.’
‘Ex Redingensi Minoritarum cenobio.’ (MS. Seld. sup. 64, f. 215.)
40. John de Wylton lectured at Oxford in 1314: in February of that year he appears, as representative of the Minorites, in a list of twelve regent masters in theology (i.e. the theological faculty for the time being), who condemned as heretical eight articles, chiefly concerning the nature of the Trinity, in the convent of the Austin Friars[1136]. Wood[1137], Bale[1138], and Tanner[1139], call him an Austin Friar. Bale states that he studied and lectured as master at Paris, and says that John Baconthorpe, in his commentaries on Books I and II of the Sentences, speaks of him with high praise[1140]. His works seem to have perished[1141].
41. John de Crombe (Cott. MS.) or Crombre (Phil. MS.) was perhaps a native of Combs in Suffolk: he was buried at Oxford[1142].
Compendium theologicae veritatis per fratrem Johannem de Combis, lib. vii. Inc. ‘Veritatis theologie cum superni.’
MS. Cambridge:—Caius Coll. 193.
Anonymous in MSS. Charleville 19 (written A. D. 1337), and Metz 448 (sec. xv): generally ascribed to Albertus Magnus and printed at the end of tom. xiii. of his works, Lyons 1651.
42. William of Alnwick is possibly identical with the friar called Roger of Alnwick in the list of Oxford Franciscans presented to the bishop of Lincoln in 1300[1143]. After lecturing at Oxford (c. 1315-1320?), he was sent to the University of Naples, as Doctor of Theology[1144]. He was present at the General Chapter of Perugia in 1322, and joined with the other leading men in the Order in declaring that the doctrine of Evangelical Poverty was not heretical[1145]. In 1330 he was made bishop of Giuvenazzo near Bari[1146]. He is said to have died at Avignon in 1332[1147]. Bartholomew of Pisa mentions him among the famous Franciscan theologians of the English nation[1148]; William Woodford places him among