See also fol. 42b, ... and fol. 99b of the same MS.
Bodl. Digby 88 (sec. xv), ‘An extracte of freer John Somerys Kalender, of ille days in the yere,’ fol. 62b.
Cf. Digby 119, fol. 25b.
Hugh Karlelle (Carlisle) and Thomas Bernewell, Oxford Minorites, were among the Doctors of Theology who condemned Wiclif’s twenty-four conclusions at the council held at Blackfriars, London, on May 21st, 1382[1552].
William Woodford or Widford was one of the most determined opponents of the Wicliffites. Wadding’s desire[1553] to claim this ‘extirpator of heretics’ as a fellow-countryman has led him to identify William Woodford with the comparatively unknown Friar William of Waterford. There is no ground for this identification, and dates make it almost impossible[1554]. In his earlier days at Oxford, probably when he was B.D., Woodford was on friendly or even intimate terms with Wiclif. When the two were lecturing on the Sentences, they carried on a courteous interchange of arguments and opinions on Transubstantiation[1555].
Woodford’s earliest extant work, of which the date is known, was composed in 1381; it consists of theological lectures under the title, ‘72 questiones de Sacramento Altaris,’ in answer to Wiclif’s ‘Confession,’ and was written in great haste; these lectures were delivered, perhaps at the Grey Friars London, within five weeks of the publication of the ‘Confession[1556].’ He does not seem to have been D.D. at this time. On the subject of his inception, a curious piece of information has been preserved in a MS. of the 15th century;
‘when he was going from London to Oxford to incept in theology he fell among robbers, who took from him £40[1557].’
In 1389 he was regent master in theology among the Minorites at Oxford, and as such lectured in the schools of the Minorites against the adherents of Wiclif[1558]. In 1390 when he also lectured at Oxford on the same subject, he was vicar of the Provincial Minister[1559]. Among his pupils was Thomas Netter of Walden, afterwards Provincial of the Carmelites and reputed author of the Fasciculi Zizaniorum[1560]. Woodford appears now to have resided mainly at the Grey Friars, London: in 1396 he obtained from Boniface IX a papal sanction of the special privileges and graces which he enjoyed in this convent; the chief of them was the right to a private chamber or house[1561]. According to Bale and Pits he died, and was buried at Colchester in 1397[1562]. His name however appears among those buried in the choir of the Grey Friars Church, London.
‘Et ad ejus (sc. Willelmi Goddard) dexteram sub lapide cruce exarato Jacet bone memorie et hereticorum extirpator Acerimus frater Willelmus Wydford doctor Egregius et minister[1563].’
The date of his death is uncertain; but one of his works seems to have been written in the reign of Henry IV[1564].