# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walsingham, John

The ODNB strongly suggests this person never existed.
​WALSINGHAM or WALSINGAM, JOHN (d. 1340?), theologian, is said to have been educated at the house of the Carmelites or White Friars at Burnham, Norfolk. Having proceeded to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, where was a house of his order, he became a student of philosophy. From Oxford he went to the university of Paris, and studied theology at the Sorbonne. At Paris he is said by Tritheim, who is uncorroborated by any other authority, to have acquired great celebrity in theological disputation. After returning to England he was elected in 1326 the eleventh provincial of the English Carmelites. According to Bale, he occupied this post for two years only, after which he attended a synod held at Albi, where he distinguished himself so greatly that John XXII invited him to Avignon. No mention of this synod occurs in Fleury or in other authorities on ecclesiastical history. According to Pits and the ‘Paradisus Carmelitici Decoris’ he was summoned to Avignon that John XXII might have the benefit of his talent in disputation against William Ockham's attacks on the papal authority [see Ockham or Occam, William]. It is expressly stated by the ‘Paradisus’ that Ockham did not venture to appear against him. This fixes the incident as occurring in May 1328, in which month Ockham escaped from Avignon. Walsingham remained in favour with the papal court at Avignon. Possibly by way of magnifying the Carmelite order, the ‘Paradisus’ describes Walsingham as held in distinguished honour by Pope Benedict, the successor of John XXII; but Leland remarks that neither from Benedict nor from any other pope does he appear to have received preferment.
According to Pits and the ‘Paradisus,’ Walsingham died in 1330 at the Carmelites' house at Avignon. But this is inconsistent with their statement that he was highly esteemed by Benedict XII, who did not become pope till 1334. Indeed, Pits and the ‘Paradisus’ are so little accurate that they call Benedict XII Benedict XI. Bale, probably sensible of the discrepancy, associates the year 1330 with the acme of Walsingham's reputation, ‘claruit.’ He assigns no date to Walsingham's death, while Leland roundly admits that he knows nothing of certainty about it. A clue to the date of Walsingham's death, harmonising with the assertions of all the writers that he enjoyed the patronage of Benedict XII, may perhaps be found in the statement of Pits and the ‘Paradisus’ that he disputed with Ockham ‘de potestate summi pontificis.’ In 1328 the controversy convulsing the religious world was that concerning ‘evangelical poverty’ [see Ockham, William]. Presumably, therefore, notwithstanding the words of Pits, this was the topic upon which Walsingham was deputed to dispute against Ockham when Ockham failed to appear. It was not till a later period, between 1339 and 1342, that Ockham produced his treatise ‘Octo quæstiones super potestate ac dignitate papali,’ also intituled ‘De potestate pontificum et imperatorum.’ Benedict XII died on 25 April 1342, and as we hear nothing of any relations between Walsingham and Clement VI, Benedict's successor, it may be inferred that Walsingham died before the accession of the latter pope. The ‘Paradisus’ expressly states that he died under Benedict XII. The date 1330 is probably therefore a mistake, on the part either of compiler or of printer, for 1340. This year is given, associated with the word ‘claruit,’ by the Carmelite Petrus Lucius in 1593, with a reference to Trithemius.
Tritheim or Trithemius, who died in 1516, and erroneously calls Walsingham Walsgram, assigns to him two treatises: 1. ‘Super Sententias libri 4.’ 2. ‘Quæstiones Variæ liber 1.’ He adds, ‘Other works which he is said to have composed have not come to my knowledge.’ Leland, writing a generation later after ransacking the contents of the monastic libraries of this country, intitules No. 2. ‘Quæstionum libri 3.’ ‘Utrum relationes,’ and adds 3. ‘Determinationum liber 1.’ 4. ‘Quodlibeta liber 1. In Disputatione.’ 5. ‘In Proverbia Salomonis liber 1. Viam sapientiæ monstrabo tibi.’ Bale, who had himself been a Carmelite, amplifies the subtitles or catchwords of Leland, which shows ​that he had probably seen the original manuscripts. In his list No. 1 is ‘Super Sententias Lombardi, lib. 4,’ with the catch words ‘Utrum theologia sit scientia,’ of which Leland only gives ‘Utrum theologia.’ No. 2 is ‘quæstiones ordinarias, lib. 1.’ This is apparently identical with Leland's ‘Quæstionum libri 3,’ for while Leland gives the catchwords ‘Utrum relationes,’ Bale adds to those words ‘in divinis.’ Leland's No. 3 is intituled by Bale ‘Determinationes theologiæ lib. 1.’ To this work Leland appends no catchwords, but Bale ‘Utrum efficaci ratione possit.’ The catchwords of No. 4 run in Bale, ‘In disputatione de quolibet.’ In No. 5 both agree. Bale then adds 6. ‘Conclusiones Disputabiles, lib. 1.’ ‘Quod Quidditas Rei Naturalis.’ 7. ‘Pro cursu Scripturæ Sacræ, lib. 1.’ 8. ‘De Ecclesiastica Potestate, lib. 1.’ 9. ‘Sermones 60, lib. 1.’ 10. ‘Lecturas in Theologia, lib. 1.’ 11. ‘Contra Ockamum quoque in gratiam Romani pontificis aliqua scripsisse dicitur.’ Pits apparently appropriates Bale's list, with the exception that he identifies the treatise ‘De Ecclesiastica Potestate’ with the writings ‘contra Ockamum.’ The ‘Paradisus’ evidently borrows from Pits. The silence of his contemporaries attests that Walsingham's writings exercised no influence on his age.
Among the manuscripts in the possession of C. C. C. Oxon. is one intituled ‘Joannis Walsyngham quæstiones octo disputatæ apud Cantabrigiam et Norwicum.’ It begins ‘Utrum sola via fidei certificat.’ It is apparently in two hands. Possibly the first of these is the handwriting of Walsingham himself, for it follows, and is in the same hand as, a sermon of Richard Fitzralph [q. v.], a contemporary of Walsingham, preached at Avignon during Walsingham's residence in that city.
[Tritheim's Catalogus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum sive Illustrium Virorum, 1531. Id. Carmelitana Bibliotheca, per Petrum Lucium, Florence, 1593. Id. De Laudibus Carmelitanæ Religionis, Florence, 1593. Leland's Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis, ed. Antony Hall, Oxon. 1709; Bale's Scriptorum Illustrium Maioris Brytanniæ, quam nunc Angliam et Scotiam vocant, Catalogus, Basle, 1559; Pits's Relationum Historicarum de Rebus Anglicis tomus primus, Paris, 1619; Casanate's Paradisus Carmelitici Decoris, Leyden, 1639.]
I. S. L.