Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/71

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RICHARD


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RICHARD


ing Lingard, and which was only finally exposed by Woodward in 1866-67. This spurious chronicle, how- ever, still appears under Richard's name in Giles, "Six English Chronicles" (London, 1872).

Ricardi Cicentrensis Speculum Historiale, ed. Mayor, Rolls Series (London, 1863-69); Stukeley, An Account of Richard of Cirencester and his works (London, 1757) ; Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue (London, 1871); Hunt in Did. Nat. Biog., s. v.; Bol- LANDI8T8, Catalogus cod. hagiog. Lot. B. N. (Paris, 1893).

Edwin Burton.

Richard of Cornwall (Richard Rufus, Ruys, Rosso, Rowse). — The dates of his birth and death are unknown, but he was still living in 1259. He was an Oxford Franciscan, possibly a Master of Arts of that university, who had studied for a time in Paris (1238), and then returned to Oxford. He was chosen with Haymo of Favcrsham to go to Rome to oppose the minister-general Elias. In 1250 he was lecturing at Oxford on the "Sentences", till he was driven away by the riots, w'hen he returned to Paris and continued lecturing there, gaining the title Philosophus Admira- bilis; but according to Roger Bacon his teaching was very mischievous, and produced evil results for the next forty years. He was again at Oxford in 1255 as regent-master of the friars. Several works, all still in MS., are attributed to him. These are: "Com- mentaries on the Master of the Sentences", a work formerly at Assisi; "Commentary on Bonaventure's third book of Sentences" (Assisi); and a similar com- mentary on the fourth book (Assisi). Pits ("De illustribus Angliai scriptoribus") denies his identity with Richard Rufus on the ground that Rufus was born at Cirencester in Gloucestershire, and not in Cornwall.

Monumenta Franciscana, ed. Brewer and Howlett in R. S. (London, 18.58-82); Wadding, Annales Minorum, IV (Lyons and Rome, 1650); 2nd ed. (Rome, 1731-45); and supplement by Sbaralea (1800); Parkinson, Collectanea Anglo- Minoritica (London, 172C); Little, The Grey Friars in Oxford (Oxford, 1892); tiEtiiFLi, Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis (Paris, 1889); see also tr. of Thomas of Eccleston by Fr. Cuthbert, The Friars and how they came to England (London, 1903), and The Chronicle of Thomas of Eccleston (London, 1909).

Edwin Burton.

Richard of Middletown (a Media Villa), flour- ished at the end of the thirteenth century, but the dates of his l)irth and death and most incidents of his life are unknown. Middlcton Stoncy in Oxford.shire and Middlcton Cheyney in Northamptonshire have both been suggested as his native place, and he has also been claimed as a Scotsman. He probably studied first at Oxford, but in 12S3 he was at the University of Paris and graduated Bachelor of Divinity in that year. He entered the Franciscan order. In 1278 he had been appointed by the general of his order to examine the doctrines of Peter Olivus, and the same work was again engaging his attention in 1283. In 1286 he was sent with two other Franciscans to Naples to undertake the education of two of the sons of Charles II, Ludwig, afterwards a Franciscan, and Robert. After the defeat of Charles by Peter of Arragon the two princes were carried as hostages to Barcelona and Richard accompanied them, sharing their captivity till their release in 1295. The rest of his life lies in obscurity. A new point of interest at the present day lies in the fact that, medieval scho- lastic though he was, he knew and studied the phe- nomena of hypnotism, and left the results of his investigations in his "Quodlibeta" (Paris, 1519, fol. 90-8) where he treats of what would now be termed auto-suggestion and adduces some instances of tele- pathy. His works include "Super sententias Petri Lombardi", written between 1281 and 1285, and first printed at Venice, 1489; "QusestionesQuodlibetales" in MS. at Oxford and elsewhere; "Quodlibeta tria" printed with the Sentences at Venice, 1509; "De gradibus formarum" in MS. at Munich; and "Quse- stiqnes disputatae" in MS. at Assisi. Other works which have been attributed to him are: "Super


epistolas Pauli"; "Super evangelia"; "Super distinc- tiones decreti"; "De ordine judiciorum"; "De cla- vium sacerdotalium potestate"; "Contra Patrem Joannem Olivum"; a poem, "De conceptione im- maculata Virginis Marise"; three MS. sermons now in the Bibliotheque Nationale (MS. 14947, nos. 47, 69, 98), and a sermon on the Ascension, the MS. of which is at Erlangen. Works erroneously ascribed to him are a treatise on the rule of St. Francis; the "Quadragesimale" which was written by Francis of Asti; the completion of the "Summa" of Alexander of Hales, and an "Expositio super Ave Maria", probably by Richard of Saxony. His death is as- signed by some to 1307 or 1308, by Pits to 1300, by Parkinson to some earlier date on the ground that he was one of the "Four Masters", the expositors of the Rule of St. Francis.

Wadding, Annales Minorum (2nd ed., Rome, 1731-45), and supplement by Sbaralea (1806) ; Papkinson, Collectanea Anglo- Minoritica (London, 172G); de Martigne, La Scolastigue et les traditions Franciscaines: Richard de Middletown in Revue, scien., eccles., II (1885); Portali^, L'hypnotisme au moyen Age: Avicenne el Richard Middletown in Etudes relig. hist, lilt., LV (1892); Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques du Moyen Age (Paris, 1905) ; Kingsford in Diet. Nat. Biog. s. v. Middleton.

Edwin Burton.

Richard of St. Victor, theologian, native of Scotland, but the date and place of his birth are un- known; d. 1173 and was commemorated on 10 March in the necrology of the abbey. He was professed at the monastery of St. Victor under the first Abbot Gilduin (d. 1155) and was a disciple of the great mystic Hugo whose principles and methods he adopted and elaborated. His career was strictly monastic, and his relations w-ith the outer world were few and slight. He was sub-prior of the monastery in 1159, and subsequently became prior. During his tenure of the latter office, serious trouble arose in the com- munity of St. Victor from the misconduct of the English Abbot Ervisius, whose irregular life brought upon him a personal admonition from Alexander III, and was subsequently referred by the pope to a com- mission of inquiry under the royal autliority; after some delay and resistance on the part of the abbot his resignation was obtained and he retired from the monastery. A letter of exhortation was addressed by the pope to "Richard, the prior" and the comuumity in 1170. Richard does not appear to have taken any active part in these proceedings, but the disturbed condition of his surroundings may well have accen- tuated his desire for the interior solace of mj'stical contemplation. Ervisius's resignation took place in 1172. In 1165, St. Victor had been visited by St. Thomas of Canterbury, after his flight from North- ampton; and Richard was doubtless one of the auditors of the discourse delivered by the archbishop on that occasion. A letter to Alexander III, dealing with the affairs of the archbishop, and signed by Richard is extant and published by Migne. Like his master, Hugo, Richard may probably have had some acquaintance and intercourse with St. Bernard, who is thought to have been the Bernard to whom the treatise "De tribus appropriatis personis in Trini- tate" is addressed. His reputation as a theologian extended far beyond the precincts of his monastery, and copies of his writings were eagerly sought by other religious houses. Exclusively a theologian, unlike Hugo, he appears to have had no interest in philosophy, and took no part in the acute philosophi- cal controversies of his time; but, like all the School of St. Victor, he was willing to avail himself of the didactic and constructive methods in theology which had been introduced by Abelard. Nevertheless, he regarded merely secular learning with much suspicion, holding it to be worthless as an end in itself, and only an occasion of worldly pride and self-seeking when divorced from the knowledge of Divine things. Such learning he calls, in the antithetical style which char-