John Foxal, O.F.M.: His Life and Writings

STUDIES JOHN FOXAL, O.F.M.: HIS UFE AND WRITINGS I. LIFE. John Foxal, more commonly known as Ioannes Anglicus , is unlike many other medieval philosopher-theologians in that the historical data concerning his life are relatively abundant .1 We know he was an English Franciscan who was orFor biographical data on Foxal, see Luke Wadding, Scriptores Ordinis Minorum (Roma: S. Michaelis ad Ripam, 1806) 420; Jo. H. Sbaralea, Supplementum et castigatio ad scriptores trium Ordinum S. Francisci, 3 vols. (Roma: Attilio Nardecchia, 1908-36) 2: 74-75; and Celestino Piaña, ed., Chartularium Studii Bononiensis S. Francisci (Saec. XIH-XVI), Analecta Franciscana [AF] 11 (Quaracchi: Collegium S. Bonaventurae,1970) 97, sec. 175. The last mentioned reference reads as follows: Post a. 1465, Fr. Ioannes Anglicus lector. Ut ipsemet de se testatur: "Ego etiam alias in nostro tractatu maiori, quern edidi de formalitatibus et octo speciebus distinctionis, cum Bononiae legebam, prolixe dixi." [q. 13 in Qq. Scoti De universalibus] — Idem censetur ac Ioannes Foxal, die 16 dec. 1471 electus archiepiscopus Armachanus ac Hiberniae primas. De tempore lectoratus statuere possumus mag. Ioannem de Anglia die 28 dec. 1470 Bononiae exstitisse et, qua doctorem Collegii theologorum, licentiam contulisse fr. Thomae de Caravaggio ord. Carm. Terminus "post quem', quem proposuimus, supponit identitatem praefati lectoris cum Ioanne de Anglia, commentatore lib. I Operis Oxoniensis Scoti, in cod. 1560 Bibl. Univ. Patavii, in quo legitur: "Dicitur secundum legem communem, quoniam Deus ex speciali dono potest infundere notitiam sui, sicut fecit Paulo in raptu et abbatissae sororum nostrarum hic in Bononia (scilicet S. Catharinae de Bononia, + 1463) . . . sicut ego legi ex scripture propria illius mulieris, ubi dicit se vidisse Trinitatem benedictam et intellexisse earn, et penúltimo anno mortua est, scilicet 1463." Note 6 to sec. 175 of the Chartularium reads: Nescimus quo fulciatur fundamento subsequens nota in eodem cod. Patavino, item relata a Pergamo, 31s. Ad abundantiam referimus quod mense maio 1467 per fr. Baptistam de Levanto, vicarium generalem fr. Min. de Observantia, data est fr. "Ioanni Anglico obedientia eundi Romam ad legendum'" (Arch. Vatican, Franciscalia I, Registum ord. Min. de Observantia cismont., fol. 86v). And on page 117" of his introduction to Chartularium Piaña states: ". . . circa a. 1465 fr. Ioannes Anglicus edidit tractatum 'de formalitatibus et octo speciebus distinctionis." " 18GIRARD J. ETZKORN dained subdeacon at the friary in Litchfield on June 2, 1436, ordained priest on September 23, 1441, and was resident at Oxford in 1450.2 According to one manuscript, he was a Friar Minor of the Observance.3 We also known that, around the middle of the fifteenth century, he was a member of the theological faculty at the University of Bologna,4 and in all probability was the same "Ioannes" who spoke of having read the "visions" of St. Catherine of Bologna, and who referred to her as having died in 1463.5 Finally we know that Foxal was nominated Archbishop of Armagh on December 16, 1471 and died on December 5, 1475.6 Foxal should not be confused with Ioannes Canonicus, author of an important set of questions on Aristotle's Physics. It is most likely that Canonicus was a Spanish Franciscan.7 An examination of the manuscript Vat. lat. 9402 has allowed me to uncover what seems to be new bio-bibliographical data concerning Foxal.8 Because this manuscript contains John Duns Scotus' In artem veterem,9 it has attracted attention as a Scotus manuscript, whereas, as we shall see, there is considerably more justification for regarding it as a Foxal manuscript. 2 See Andrew G. Little, The Grey Friars in Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892) 261-2; and Alfred B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxfofrd to AD. 1500, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957-59) 2: 720. Of all the Iohannes Anglici listed by Hubert Elie ("Quelque maîtres de l'université de Paris vers l'an 1500," Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littérarire de Moyen Age 18 [195051 ] 235) the "commentator" on the De universalibus Scoti is clearly John Foxal. 5 See below entry 5 under "Writings." It is a matter of speculation, but one may legitimately wonder whether Foxal may, at some point in time, have 'switched over' to the...