Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/201

 Bradwardine declined to appear and lodged a counter suit against the archdeacon in the king's court. The king, Edward III, compelled the archdeacon to submit to the arbitration of English judges, and the controversy ended in favour of the university, which was exempted from all episcopal jurisdiction.

During his residence in Oxford, Thomas Bradwardine obtained the highest reputation as a mathematician, astronomer, moral philosopher, and theologian. At the request of the fellow's of Merton he delivered to them a course of theological lectures, which he afterwards expanded into a treatise. This work earned him the title of Doctor Profundus: in his own day it was commonly called 'Summa Doctoris Profundi,' but in later times it has been entitled 'De Causâ Dei contra Pelagium, et de virtute causarum ad suos Mertonenses libri tres.' This treatise was edited by Sir Henry Savile in 1618 in a folio volume of nearly 1,000 pages. It continued to be for ages a standard authority amongst theologians of the Augustinian and Calvinistic school. Dean Milner gives a summary of its contents in his 'Church History' (iv. 79-106). According to Bradwardine the whole church had in his day become deeply infected with Pelagianism. 'I myself,' he says, 'was once so foolish and vain when I first applied myself to the study of philosophy as to be seduced by this error. In the schools of the philosophers I rarely heard a word said concerning grace, but we were continually told that we were the masters of our own free actions, and that it was in our own power to do well or ill.' He endeavours to prove, with much logical force and mathematical precision, that human actions are totally devoid of all merit, that they do not deserve grace even of congruity, that is as being meet and equitable - the most specious form of Pelagianism, and one which was most commonly entertained in that day. He maintains that human nature is absolutely incapable of conquering a single temptation without a supply of divine grace, and that this grace is the free and unmerited gift of God, whose knowledge and power are alike perfect. If God did not bestow His grace freely, He could not foresee how He would confer His gifts, and therefore His fore-knowledge would not be absolute; so that the doctrine of God's foreknowledge and free grace are linked together. Underlying all the hard and dry reasoning, however, of this treatise, there is a deep vein of warm and genuine piety which occasionally breaks out into fervent meditation and prayer, full of love, humility, and thankfulness.

The estimation in which Thomas Bradwardine was held as a theologian in his own century is indicated by the way in which Chaucer refers to him. In the 'Nun's Priest's Tale' the speaker, touching on the question of God's foreknowledge and man's free-will, is made to say:

About 1335 Bradwardine was, with seven other Merton men, summoned to London by Richard of Bury, who had been made bishop of Durham in 1333 and chancellor in the following year, and who surrounded himself with a large retinue of esquires and chaplains, partly from a love of splendour, partly from a love of the society of men of learning who could assist him in the formation of his library. In 1337 the Bishop of Durham obtained for his chaplain Bradwardine the chancellorship of St. Paul's Cathedral with the prebend of Cadington Minor attached to it. He soon afterwards accepted also a prebendal stall in Lincoln Cathedral, although not without some scruples and hesitation, owing to the objections then becoming prevalent against the non-residence of beneficiaries.

On the joint recommendation of Archbishop Stratford and the Bishop of Durham he was appointed one of the royal chaplains. Although the title of confessor was borne by all the king's chaplains, the language of Birchington seems to imply that Bradwardine actually received the confession of Edward III, which, considering what the life of the king then was, must have been a very difficult and unpleasant office if it was conscientiously discharged. He joined the court in Flanders and accompanied the king, 16 Aug. 1338, in his progress up the Rhine to hold a conference at Coblenz with his brother-in-law Lewis of Bavaria.

At Cologne Bradwardine reminded the king that Richard Coeur de Lion had offered public thanksgiving in the cathedral for his escape from the Duke of Austria. That cathedral had been destroyed by fire, but the new structure, which has not been completed till our own day, was in course of erection. The plans were submitted to the king, and after consultation with Bradwardine he subscribed a sum equal to 1,500l. according to the present value of money. Bradwardine continued to be in attendance upon the king up to the date of the victory of Cressy and the capture of Calais. He was so diligent in his exhortations to the king and the soldiers that many attributed the successes of the English arms to the favour of Heaven obtained through the wholesome warnings