Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/120

 this learned society we do not know, unless he be, as there are some grounds for believing, the author of Bury's ‘Philobiblon,’ which bears the date 24 Jan. 1344–5. In the end he returned to the active work of teaching, apparently at Oxford, and made himself a great name among the divines of his century by his expositions of the Bible. In 1349, according to Trithemius, while he was engaged in lecturing on Ecclesiasticus (his commentary on which extends only to the seventh chapter), he was stricken by the plague and died. Since Leland states that he was buried at Northampton (if this be what he means by ‘Avonæ mediterraneæ’), it is presumed that he had for some time retired from Oxford to that place, but positive evidence is wanting.

As a divine Holcot held generally to the tradition of his order as laid down by its greatest representative, St. Thomas Aquinas, though in some points (for instance in his doctrine of predestination) he has been observed to deviate from it. He maintained the Dominican view with respect to the immaculate conception so decidedly that his text (in the edition of the commentary on Wisdom, Basle, 1586) was amended by his discreet editor. A special matter on which he differed from his famous contemporary, Bradwardine, was his insistence upon the necessity of free will as an antecedent to merit. In his logical position Holcot followed Ockham, except that he devised a ‘logica fidei’ (or ‘logica singularis’), side by side with the ‘logica naturalis,’ in order to meet the dialectical difficulties presented by the doctrine of the Trinity, which Ockham placed wholly outside the sphere of logic. Holcot is also interesting as one of the first logicians with whom the doctrine of the ‘obligatoria’ has grown into a formulated school system (‘ars’).

Holcot's bibliography is beset with pitfalls. Many of his writings have been cited under more than one title; some (for instance, the commentaries on Wisdom and Proverbs) have been attributed to other authors, and one (the ‘Determinationes quarundam quæstionum’) is believed to be a compilation by his pupils. It is probable that in consequence of his sudden death his papers were left in disorder, so that even in his commentary on the ‘Sentences’ the sections appear in some manuscripts (e.g. Merton College, Oxford, No. 113) in a different order from that of the printed texts, which of course follow the arrangement of Peter Lombard. In the subjoined list a large number of duplications and other errors have been set right, but to aim at complete accuracy it would be necessary to collate the very numerous manuscripts and early editions of Holcot's works, which attest the authority he held among students abroad as well as in his own country far into the sixteenth century.

His published works are: 1. Commentaries on Proverbs, Paris, 1510, 1515, &c. 2. On Canticles, s.l. aut a., Venice, 1509. 3. On Wisdom, s.l. aut a., s.l. 1480, with about seventeen later editions; and 4. On Ecclesiasticus, i–vii., Venice, 1509. The last lecture in the commentary on Wisdom is entitled ‘De studio sacræ scripturæ,’ and has sometimes been wrongly taken for a separate work (cf., Ann. Typogr. iii. 481). 5. ‘Quæstiones’ on the ‘Sentences’ of Peter Lombard, Lyons, 1497, 1510, 1518, to which are generally appended the three following works: 6. ‘Conferentiæ’ (sometimes entitled ‘Super articulis impugnatis’). 7. ‘De imputabilitate peccati.’ 8. ‘Determinationes quarundam quæstionum’ (or ‘Determinationes quæstionum xv.’). 9. ‘De origine, definitione, et remedio peccatorum’ (probably the work also described as ‘De peccatis mortalibus et eorum remediis’), Paris, 1517. 10. ‘Moralitates historiarum’ (also known as ‘Moralizationes’), Venice, 1505; Paris, 1510; Basle, 1586, &c. To these should perhaps be added the well-known ‘Philobiblon sive De amore librorum,’ usually attributed to Bishop Richard of Bury (printed at Cologne, 1473; Spires, 1483; Paris, 1500, &c.), the authorship of which has been much disputed. Probably the truth is represented by the title found in several manuscripts ‘Incipit prologus Philobiblon Ricardi Dunelmensis episcopi, quem librum compilavit Robertus Holcote de ordine predicatorum sub nomine dicti episcopi.’ In other words, Holcot wrote the book at the request and in the name of the bishop, apparently to celebrate his fifty-eighth birthday, 24 Jan. 1344–5 (p. 151, ed. Thomas), while the bishop's supervision and co-operation need not be excluded. The form of the title might easily lead to the ascription of the book to Bury, but it is difficult to understand how, if it were Bury's own work, it could have come to be attributed to Holcot. At the same time too much stress should not be laid upon the evidently malicious account of Bury's small literary attainments and great pretensions given by A. Murimuth, ‘Continuatio Chronicarum,’ p. 171, ed. E. M. Thompson, 1889.

Holcot's unpublished works are: 1. Postils on the twelve Minor Prophets. 2. A commentary on the four Gospels (and perhaps a separate one on St. Matthew). 3. ‘Moralizationes scripturæ pro evangelizantibus verbum Dei’ (or ‘Allegoriæ utriusque Testamenti,’ possibly the same work as the ‘Exempla scripturæ’ said by Tanner to have