William of Nottingham I

The Franciscan Order supposedly reached Nottingham in 1230,{{sfnp|Mellors|1924}} settling in the Broad Marsh.{{citation |last=Bramley |first=J. |date=1948 |title=A Short History of the Religious Houses of Nottinghamshire to the Time of The Dissolution |contribution=The Friaries |contribution-url=http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/bramley1948/abbeys11.htm }}. The son of well-off parents, William entered the order early in life{{sfnp|Little|1895}} and may have attended Robert Grosseteste's lectures at Oxford.{{sfnp|Smalley|1981|p=249}} His brother Augustine also joined the Franciscans. He served under Pope Innocent IV and followed the pope's nephew Opizzo east when he was appointed Latin Patriarch of Antioch. While there, Augustine served as bishop of Laodicea.{{harvp|Cuthbert|1903|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S4kQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA224 224]}}.

Without holding lesser offices,{{harvp|Cuthbert|1903|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S4kQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA218 218]}}. William was appointed vicar of Haymo of Faversham, the third Minister Provincial of England in 1239,{{harvp|Cuthbert|1903|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S4kQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA242 242]}}. and was elected to succeed him upon Haymo's promotion to Minister General of the Order in 1240.{{sfnp|Little|1895}} As Minister Provincial, he appears in the chronicle of his friend Thomas of Eccleston as a helpful and wise cleric with good humor and strong force of character, "thinking nothing of incurring the anger of the powerful for the sake of justice".{{sfnp|Little|1895}} He was a contemporary of William of Esseby{{harvp|Cuthbert|1903|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S4kQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA134 134]}}. and enlarged the Franciscan houses at York, Bristol, and Bridgwater.{{harvp|Cuthbert|1903|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S4kQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA182 182]}}. He resisted other proposed expansions, however, with the admonition "I did not become a friar for the purpose of building walls".{{harvp|Cuthbert|1903|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S4kQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA183 183]}}. He had the roof removed from the London chapel and the embossments on its cloister scraped away but provided lecturers from the universities to visit all the larger convents.{{sfnp|Little|1895}} He resisted inroads by the Dominicans, traveling to the papal court in 1244 to obtain a letter restraining their proselytizing. (He probably attended the general chapter at Genoa{{harvp|Cuthbert|1903|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S4kQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA179 179]}}. during this trip,{{sfnp|Little|1895}} although Eccleston's account of its activities seems to have been mistaken.) In 1250, John of Parma held a chapter at Oxford, taking a referendum as to whether William should be confirmed in or deposed from his post; the vote was unanimous in his favor.{{sfnp|Little|1895}}

Little states that he was supported by the general chapter at Metz the next year and, probably at the same time, carried a decree rejecting Pope Innocent IV's laxer {{lang|la|Expositio Regulae}} in favor of Gregory IX's {{lang|la|Expositio}}.{{sfnp|Little|1895}} Mellors states that he was deposed by the Council of Metz nine years after taking office.{{sfnp|Mellors|1924}} En route to the papal court, his {{lang|la|socius}}{{clarify|date=October 2015}} contracted the plague at Geneva{{sfnp|Mellors|1924}} or Genoa. William remained and tended to him, catching the infection himself and dying around July{{sfnp|Little|1895}} 1254.{{sfnp|Lawrence|2004}} Mellors claims he was buried in Marseille.{{sfnp|Mellors|1924}}

The English Franciscans, indignant at his deposition,{{when|date=October 2015}} had meanwhile reëlected him unanimously.{{sfnp|Little|1895}} He was succeeded in his position by the Minister Provincial of Germany, Peter of Tewkesbury.[https://books.google.com/books?id=S4kQAAAAIAAJ The Friars], [https://books.google.com/books?id=S4kQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA242 p. 242].

"A Good Sermon on Obedience" ({{langx|la|Sermo Bonus de Obedentia}}),Cambridge Pembroke MS 265 fol. 192–6. copied in the style of the 3rd quarter of the 13th century, is attributed to William.{{sfnp|Smalley|1981|p=251}} On the authority of Eccleston, he is also responsible for A Concordance of the Four Gospels{{refn|12 {{abbr|MSS|manuscripts}} at Oxford's Trinity College and Cambridge's Pembroke College.{{harvp|Parkinson|1726|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=WkU_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA63 63]}}}} or Concordance to the Evangelists.{{citation |last=Wilson |first=John Marius |contribution=Nottingham |title=Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales |date=c. 1870 |contribution-url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/975640 |accessdate=31 October 2015 }}.

This William is also often credited with a Commentary on the Gospels which remained well known for centuries,{{refn|group=n|As, for instance, by A.G. Little.{{sfnp|Little|1895}}{{sfnp|Smalley|1981|p=287}} The misattribution relied on a passage in Thomas of Eccleston whereby this William was said to have compiled "thoroughly useful canons" from Clement of Llanthony's work One from Four and (separately) had one of Clement's commentaries recopied at his scriptorium.{{sfnp|Smalley|1981|pp=250–251}}}} but it should be properly attributed to the later English Minister Provincial also known as William of Nottingham.{{sfnp|Smalley|1981|p=287}}

{{reflist|group=n}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{citation |last=Lawrence |first=C.H. |contribution=William of Nottingham |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford }}.
• {{citation |last=Little |first=Andrew George |contribution=William of Nottingham |title=Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XLI |editor-last=Lee |editor-first=Sidney |display-editors=0 |location=London |publisher=Smith, Elder, & Co. |date=1895 }}
• {{citation |last=Mellors |first=Robert |date=1924 |title=Men of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire |contribution=The Church: Bishops and Distinguished Ecclesiastics |contribution-url=http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/monographs/mellors1924/bishops.htm }}.
• {{citation |last=Parkinson |first=A. |date=1726 |title=Collectanea Anglo-Minoritica, or, A Collection of the Antiquities of the English Franciscans, or Friers Minors, Commonly Call'd Gray Friers, Vol. I |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WkU_AAAAcAAJ |location=London |publisher=Thomas Smith }}.
• {{citation |last=Smalley |first=Beryl |title=Studies in Medieval Thought and Learning: From Abelard to Wyclif |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uu1IrliuIyoC |publisher=Antony Rowe for the Hambledon Press |date=1981 |location=London |isbn=0-9506882-6-6 |series=History, No. 6 |contribution=Which William of Nottingham? |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uu1IrliuIyoC&pg=PA249 |pages=249–288 }}.
• {{citation |author=Thomas of Eccleston |title=The Friars and How They Came to England, being a Translation of Thomas Eccleston's "De Adventu F.F. Minorum in Angliam" Done into English with an Introductory Essay on the Spirit and Genius of the Franciscan Friars |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S4kQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PR3 |editor=Fr. Cuthbert |ref={{harvid|Cuthbert|1903}} |date=1903 |publisher=Sands & Co. |location=London }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:William of Nottingam 01}}

Category:English Franciscans

Category:Ministers Provincial of England

Category:1254 deaths

Category:Year of birth unknown