‘we alone,’ the Archbishop wrote afterwards, ‘stood by him, defending him to the best of our power, saving the truth[1024].’
He was at Paris during the troublous times which followed William of St. Amour’s attack on the Mendicants, and wrote a defence of the latter[1025]. He returned to England probably about 1270 or soon after, and was admitted at Oxford to the same degree as he held at Paris[1026]. He now became lecturer to the Franciscans. On May 2, 1275, he was with Friar Oliver de Encourt Prior of the Dominicans, appointed, by the King’s writ, to decide a suit in the University which had long been under consideration in the Chancellor’s court[1027]. It was probably soon after this that he was elected ninth Provincial Minister and confirmed by Bonaventura[1028]. He did not hold this office long, being in 1277, summoned by the Pope (Nicholas III?) to lecture on theology in the schools of the Papal Court at Rome[1029]. After lecturing here for something less than two years, he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Papal bull in January 1279, and consecrated by the Pope in the following March[1030]. His official connexion with the Order did not cease; he was deputed by the Pope
‘protector of the privileges of the Order of Minors in England,’
and frequently used his powers for the benefit of the Franciscans[1031]. His relations to the Oxford Franciscans, as well as his condemnation of erroneous doctrines at the University, have already been noticed. While enforcing to the uttermost his legal rights, the Archbishop evinced a special solicitude for the poor, feeding them in time of famine, remonstrating with covetous abbats and careless landlords[1032]. He himself is said to have travelled on foot, to have surpassed all in watchings and fastings and prayer, to have used none but vile garments and bedding—in fine to have lived as became one who held perfection to consist in the contempt of riches and the search for truth[1033]. He died on December 8, 1292, and was buried ‘among the monks’ of Canterbury near Becket’s tomb[1034]. His heart was buried in the choir behind the High Altar at the Grey Friars of London[1035]. He named as his executors the Friars Minors of Paris[1036]. The Dominican Nicholas Trivet sums up his character in these words[1037]:
‘He was a zealous promoter of the interests of his Order, an excellent maker of songs, of pompous manner and speech, but of kind and thoroughly liberal heart.’
A careful and valuable account of his works will be found in Mr. Trice Martin’s preface to Peckham’s Register, Vol. III[1038].
A few additions may be made to Mr. Martin’s list of his extant writings.
Constitutiones Ottoboni cum expositione Peccham.
MS. Cambridge:—Pembroke Coll. 145 (= 2073). Cf. Wilkins, Concilia, II, 50-51.
Quaestiones ordinariae. Inc. ‘Utrum theologia ex duobus.’