Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/393

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Badby
381
Badcock

laborious interpreters of his teachings, and amongst the numerous treatises devoted to his philosophy special mention may be made of the seven bulky folios of Joseph Zagalia (Ferrara and Parma, 169()-1706), and the three smaller volumes of H. Aymers (Turin, 1667-9).

[Leland, Bale, and Pits's Catalogue; Tanner; Harleian MSS. 3838, i. 27, 28, ii. 51-53; Alegre de Casanate's Paradisus Carmelitici decoris, 294-5; Zabarella's De Rebus Nuturalibus, edit. Frankfort, 1617, p. 466; St. Etienne's Biblioth Carmel. 745-53; Zagalia's Liber Prœmialis; Vaninus's Amphitheatrum, 17, and De Naturis Admirandis, 350; Vossius De Qnat. Scient. 363; Wharton's Cave, App. 27; Renan's Averroës et l'Averroïsme, 318, 420. 421; Hauréau's Philosophie Scolastique, 441-3; Fuller (Church History iii.) seems to have gone beyond his authorities; Lezana's Annales Sacri, vol. iv., apparently contains much information concerning Baconthorpe's life which is not to be found elsewhere.]

T. A. A.

BADBY, JOHN (d. 1410), Lollard, was a blacksmith, or, according to other accounts, a tailor in Worcestershire, whose Lollard opinions involved him in the persecution of heresy which marked the clerical reaction on the accession of Henry IV, and the passing of the statute 'de hæretico comburendo.' Badby seems to have been a man of parts, of unflinching courage and resolution, and possessed of both ingenuity and dialectical power. He carried out to extreme rationalistic consequences that denial of transubstantiation which had become characteristic of the more hardy Wycliffites. The host, he maintained, was in no sense the body of Christ, but something inanimate, and less worthy therefore of honour than a toad or a spider, which at least had the gift of life. Such outspoken heresy insured his condemnation before the diocesan court at Worcester; but the case came for final decision, probably by way of appeal, before Archbishop Arundel, in the spring of 1410. Arundel strengthened his court by the addition of numerous ecclesiastical and lay assessors; but Badby's heresy admitted of no doubt. He was condemned and delivered to the secular arm for execution, and met his fate on 1 March at Smithfield. Henry, Prince of Wales, already conspicuous for the fervour of his orthodoxy, was among the spectators, and offered Badby a free pardon if he recanted. The Lollard refused, but his piteous groans after the fire was lighted again excited Henry's hopes of his conversion. He ordered the extinction of the fire, and offered the half-burnt wretch life, liberty, and a pension as the price of conformity. But with unflinching constancy Badby refused. The fire was rekindled, and death soon ended his sufferings. His was the second martyrdom to Lollardy.

[Walsingham's Historia Anglicana, p. 282 (Rolls edition); Foxe's Book of Martyrs, i. 593-5, is very circumstantial if not very trustworthy; Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, iv. 507-10, gives a good modern account.]

T. F. T.

BADBY, WILLIAM (d. 1380), Carmelite and theological writer, was a native of East Anglia, and educated at one of the Carmelite monasteries (probably Norwich) of that district. Later in life he proceeded to the Carmelite schools at Oxford. These were situated in the northern suburbs of that town, and as they were open not only to the brotherhood but to all comers, his career as a doctor of theology here was so pleasing to the people that they are said to have flocked, as to a show, to hear his discourses (Bale, Heliades, Harley MSS. 3838, 2, 67). His popularity in this position seems to have recommended him to John of Gaunt, always a great supporter of the Carmelite order, and we are told that Badby was accustomed to hold forth in the presence of this prince and the nobility of England. According to Bale (Harl. MSS. i. 31) he was, next to Ralph Kelly, archbishop of Cashel, one of the glories of his age. Bale hints yet further that it was in some degree due to his influence, as one out of a long list of Carmelite monks whose names are given as confessors to John of Gaunt, that this prince interested himself in attempting to counteract the slanders that were about that time beginning to be levelled against this order, then in the height of its reputation, and possessing over a thousand brothers in England alone. With Badby the appointment of confessor to John of Gaunt was but the stepping-stone to the bishopric of Worcester, which, however, he held for so short a time that his name does not appear, according to Tanner, in any list of the occupants of that see. He died on 14 April 1380. Badby's writings consisted of a 'Liber Sacrarum Contionum,' 'Liber Determinationum Scripturæ;' Tanner adds certain 'Conciones Celebres,' which, however, are probably the same as the 'Liber Sacrarum Contionum.' Bale adds another work, entitled 'De Penitentia.'

[Tanner; Bale; Pits; Heliades Balæi, MSS. Harley, 3838, i. 31, ii. 67; Stubbs's Reg. Sac]

T. A. A.

BADCOCK, JOHN (fl. 1816–1830), a sporting-writer, whose birth and death are alike unknown, published between 1816 and