Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/382

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Clapwell
374
Clapwell

buctoo and revisit Bornu. Civil war, however, was 'between Sultan Bello and the sheikh of Bornu, and the sultan, having inveigled Lander to bring the baggage from Kano to Sokota in November, seized the presents intended for his enemy and refused to let the travellers journey to Bornu. Clapperton's journal now breaks off abruptly in the midst of a conversation as to the best means of returning home. Lander tells us from that time his master never smiled again; he felt so keenly the failure of the enterprise. He gradually broke down and was attacked by dysentery on 12 March 1827. His strength was broken, and he died in a small circular clay hut at Chungary, near Sokota, on 13 April 1827. His body, carried on camelback, was followed to the grave by Lander and five slaves only, and a wooden hut built over it. Lander returned to England after much difficulty in 1828. In 1830 was published ‘Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa,' by Richard Lander, with the author's subsequent adventures, London, 2 vols. 8vo.

Clapperton had a noble figure; he was six feet high and broad-chested. Lander gives a curious account of the amorous persecution of his master by the rich widow Zuma at Wau, with the best house in the town and a thousand slaves; she had determined to marry ‘the handsome white man,' and, dressed in scarlet and gold, on a white horse, with bands of barbaric music, followed him from town to town, until Sultan Bello fetched her back, fearing a diminished revenue.

'The Travels and Discoveries ... in 1822-4' were also published ‘with a Short Account of Clapperton and Landers Second Journey in 1825-7',’ London, 1831. The best edition is the 4to one of 1829, ‘Journal of a Recent Expedition ... to which is added the Journal of Richard Lander,' &c. This work has fine plates, with Clapperton's portrait, painted by Manton and engraved by Lupton. The 'Travels' will also be found in Fernandez Cuesta’s ‘Nuevo Viajero Universal’ (vol. i.), 1859, 8vo; E. Schauenburg’s ‘Reisen in Central Africa' (vol. i.), 1859, 8vo; and in R. Huish’s ‘Book on African Travels generally,' London, 1836, 8vo.

[Clapperton and Lander's Works; Ann. Reg. 1810, p. 263. and 1828, pp. 210, 495; Gent. Mag. 1828, pt. i. p. 568; Nelson`s Memoirs of Oudney, &c. p. 45 ; McDiarmid`s Sketches from Nature, p. 322; and a Short Sketch by his uncle. Lieutenant-colonel Samuel Clapperton, in the 4to edition of the Travels, 1829.]

J. W.-G.

CLAPWELL or KNAPWELL, RICHARD (fl. 1286), Dominican, was a doctor of theology at Oxford and the author of various scholastic works. In 1286 he was accused of maintaining opinions contrary to the catholic faith, and cited by the Franciscan archbishop, John Peckham, to answer before him and his suffragans at a council to be held in London. At this council, which met at the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, 20 April 1286, eight heresies were condemned; but, according to the document printed by Wilkins, without naming the offender: all who held those doctrines were declared excommunicate. The Osney and Dunstable annalists, however, expressly state that the condemnation was directed Clapwell, and the latter gives in full a list of twelve heresies of which he was found guilty, differing somewhat from Wilkins's. The heresies are scholastic positions relating chiefly to the often vexed question of the ‘form’ of the body of Christ, a question which, of course, had a bearing on the doctrine of the eucharist. Clapwell was a follower of the Dominican, St. Thomas Aquinas, of whom the Franciscans were jealous as of a successful rival. Consequently the sentence had no sooner been delivered than Hugh of Manchester, the provincial of the Dominican order, intervened, alleging that no one whatsoever had jurisdiction over friars preachers save the pope only, to whom on Clapwell’s behalf he made appeal. Clapwell unfortunately did not prosecute his cause until 1288, when Nicholas IV, the first Franciscan pope and former general of his order, had succeeded to the pontificate. The Dominican was promptly condemned to perpetual silence with respect to the obnoxious opinions which he had maintained. He withdrew to Bologna, but there he again ventured to avow his doctrines. In the end, according to the Dunstable annalist, he lost his reason (‘incidit in desipientiam et miseriam magnam valde'), tore out his eyes, and so died in misery.

Clapwell’s works are enumerated as follows: 1. Four books of commentaries on the ‘Sentences,' a portion of hich, entitled ‘Notabilia super primum Sententiarum, usque ad distinctionem xix., secundum magistrum Ricardum de Clappervelle,’ is preserved in the library of Magdalen College, Oxford (Cod. lvi. f. 184; Coxe, Cat. of Oxford MSS., Magd. p. 35 a). 2. ‘Correctorium Corruptorii Thomæ de Aquino,’ an answer to the criticisms of William de Mara upon St. Thomas. The authorship of this work is disputed, since it is only ascribed in a single manuscript to ‘John Crapuel’ (Quétif and Echard, Scriptures Ordinis Prædicatorum, i. 503 b). 3. ‘De Unitate Formarum.' 4. ‘De immediata Visione divinte Essentiæ.’ To these mentioned by Boston of Bury (ap. Tanner,