Holcot, Robert of (DNB00)

From Wikisource

HOLCOT, ROBERT OF (d. 1349), divine, is said to have been a native of Northampton, but the statement seems a mere
inference from his surname, Holcot being a village in Northamptonshire. It has been conjectured that he was a kinsman of
Robert of Holcot, who sat, according to Bridges (Northamptonshire, i. 9 b), as a knight of the shire in the parliament of 13289;
but the latter appears in the parliamentary return (Accounts and Papers, 1878, vol. xviii. pt. i. p. 88) as Hotot, and the
correctness of this name is supported by other evidence (PALGRAVE, Parliamentary Writs, 1834, ii. 1024). Holcot's own
derivation of his name is given in his commentary on the book of Wisdom (Prlect. i. 4, ed. 1586): Sicut enim nomen a robore
derivatum, ita cognomen habeo a foramine cas datum; et ideo, sicut nomen meum Robertus in robore, ita Holkot cognomen
intueor in foramine petr, in allusion to Cant. ii. 14.

Wood states, without citing his authority, that Holcot was primo iusticiarius, postea frater prdicator (Antiq. of the City of
Oxford, ii. 320, ed. A. Clark, 1890), which may possibly mean that he was a student of law, or a lawyer, before he entered the
Dominican order. He was brought up probably in the house of his order at Oxford, and became a doctor in theology of the
university, for the statement cited from two Paris manuscripts by Qutif and Echard (Scriptt. O. P. i. 629 a, 630 a) that he
belonged to Cambridge is unsupported by other evidence. On 23 March 13312, fr. Rob. Holcote ordinis minor. (if this be the
same person) was admitted to hear confessions by the Bishop of Lincoln. Richard of Bury, presumably after his appointment to
the see of Durham in 1333, entertained, according to William Chambre, a number of clerks in his household, whom he chose
for their theological attainments, and among those named are Bradwardine, Fitzralph, and Holcot. How long Holcot remained
in this learned society we do not know, unless he be, as there are some grounds for believing, the author of Bury's
Philobiblon, which bears the date 24 Jan. 13445. In the end he returned to the active work of teaching, apparently at Oxford,
and made himself a great name among the divines of his century by his expositions of the Bible. In 1349, according to
Trithemius, while he was engaged in lecturing on Ecclesiasticus (his commentary on which extends only to the seventh
chapter), he was stricken by the plague and died. Since Leland states that he was buried at Northampton (if this be what he
means by Avon mediterrane), it is presumed that he had for some time retired from Oxford to that place, but positive
evidence is wanting.

As a divine Holcot held generally to the tradition of his order as laid down by its greatest representative, St. Thomas Aquinas,
though in some points (for instance in his doctrine of predestination) he has been observed to deviate from it. He maintained the
Dominican view with respect to the immaculate conception so decidedly that his text (in the edition of the commentary on
Wisdom, Basle, 1586) was amended by his discreet editor. A special matter on which he differed from his famous
contemporary, Bradwardine, was his insistence upon the necessity of free will as an antecedent to merit. In his logical position
Holcot followed Ockham, except that he devised a logica fidei (or logica singularis), side by side with the logica naturalis,
in order to meet the dialectical difficulties presented by the doctrine of the Trinity, which Ockham placed wholly outside the
sphere of logic. Holcot is also interesting as one of the first logicians with whom the doctrine of the obligatoria has grown
into a formulated school system (ars).

Holcot's bibliography is beset with pitfalls. Many of his writings have been cited under more than one title; some (for instance,
the commentaries on Wisdom and Proverbs) have been attributed to other authors, and one (the Determinationes quarundam
qustionum) is believed to be a compilation by his pupils. It is probable that in consequence of his sudden death his papers
were left in disorder, so that even in his commentary on the Sentences the sections appear in some manuscripts (e.g. Merton
College, Oxford, No. 113) in a different order from that of the printed texts, which of course follow the arrangement of Peter
Lombard. In the subjoined list a large number of duplications and other errors have been set right, but to aim at complete
accuracy it would be necessary to collate the very numerous manuscripts and early editions of Holcot's works, which attest the
authority he held among students abroad as well as in his own country far into the sixteenth century.

His published works are: 1. Commentaries on Proverbs, Paris, 1510, 1515, &c. 2. On Canticles, s.l. aut a., Venice, 1509. 3. On
Wisdom, s.l. aut a., s.l. 1480, with about seventeen later editions; and 4. On Ecclesiasticus, ivii., Venice, 1509. The last lecture
in the commentary on Wisdom is entitled De studio sacr scriptur, and has sometimes been wrongly taken for a separate
work (cf. PANZER, Ann. Typogr. iii. 481). 5. Qustiones on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, Lyons, 1497, 1510, 1518, to
which are generally appended the three following works: 6. Conferenti (sometimes entitled Super articulis impugnatis). 7.
De imputabilitate peccati. 8. Determinationes quarundam qustionum (or Determinationes qustionum xv.). 9. De
origine, definitione, et remedio peccatorum (probably the work also described as De peccatis mortalibus et eorum remediis),
Paris, 1517. 10. Moralitates historiarum (also known as Moralizationes), Venice, 1505; Paris, 1510; Basle, 1586, &c. To
these should perhaps be added the well-known Philobiblon sive De amore librorum, usually attributed to Bishop Richard of
Bury (printed at Cologne, 1473; Spires, 1483; Paris, 1500, &c.), the authorship of which has been much disputed. Probably the
truth is represented by the title found in several manuscripts Incipit prologus Philobiblon Ricardi Dunelmensis episcopi, quem
librum compilavit Robertus Holcote de ordine predicatorum sub nomine dicti episcopi. In other words, Holcot wrote the book
at the request and in the name of the bishop, apparently to celebrate his fifty-eighth birthday, 24 Jan. 13445 (p. 151, ed.
Thomas), while the bishop's supervision and co-operation need not be excluded. The form of the title might easily lead to the
ascription of the book to Bury, but it is difficult to understand how, if it were Bury's own work, it could have come to be
attributed to Holcot. At the same time too much stress should not be laid upon the evidently malicious account of Bury's small
literary attainments and great pretensions given by A. Murimuth, Continuatio Chronicarum, p. 171, ed. E. M. Thompson,
1889.

Holcot's unpublished works are: 1. Postils on the twelve Minor Prophets. 2. A commentary on the four Gospels (and perhaps a
separate one on St. Matthew). 3. Moralizationes scriptur pro evangelizantibus verbum Dei (or Allegori utriusque
Testamenti, possibly the same work as the Exempla scriptur said by Tanner to have been published at Paris in 1500). The
manuscript at Magdalen College, Oxford (No. lxviii.), referred to as containing this work really contains the Moralitates
historiarum (see COXE, Cat. of Oxford MSS., Magd. Coll., p. 40 a), but another manuscript in the same library (No. clviii.,
clix.) seems to present the text of the former under the title Reductorium morale, with a note that in Avinione fuit factum,
Parisiis vero correctum et tabulatum, A.D. 1342 (ib. p. 74), which suggests that it is a compend by a disciple. 4. De
prdicatoris officio. 5. De prscientia et prdestinatione (once preserved at Merton College, see Bale, MS. Selden, supra,
64, f. 208). 6. De fautoribus, defensoribus, et receptoribus hreticorum libri xiv. 710. Four books of sermons. 11.
Determinatio Oxoniensis. 12. Dictionarium quoddam. 13. De motibus naturalibus. 14. De effectibus stellarum. 15. De
ludo scaccorum libri iv. Of all these the incipits are recorded, and many of them are preserved in known manuscripts. The
following have only their titles quoted, with no further means of identification. 16. A commentary on Ecclesiastes. 17. De
immortalitate anim. 18. De libertate credendi. 19. Lectur scholastic. 20. Super quinque universalia. 21. De amore,
which can hardly be other than the Philobiblon.

[Meyer, De illustr. Viris de O. P., printed by Denifle, A rchiv fr Litt.-und Kirchen-Geschichte des M.A., ii. 191, 1886; T rithemius's Catal. Scriptt.
Eccles., f. cxv . a, Cologne, 1531, 4to; Leland's Comm . de Scriptt. Brit. cdxi. pp. 370 seq.; Bale's MS. (Bodl. Libr .) Selden, supra 64, f f. 155 b, 164 b,
208; Scriptt. Brit. Catal. v . 84, pp. 433 f.; Pits, De Ang li Scriptt. pp. 463 f f.; Qutif and Echard's Scriptt. O rdinis Prdicatorum, i. 62932;
Fabricius's Bibl. Lat. med. et. inf. t. iii. 254 f., ed. Florence, 1858; T anner's Bibl. Brit. pp. 407 f.; the Rev . W. E. Buckley in Northamptonshire
Notes and Queries, ii. 2530, 47 f., 1886; C. von Prantl's Geschichte der Logik im Abendlande, iv . 69, Leipzig, 1870; The Philobiblon of Richard
de Bury, ed. E. C. Thomas, 1888.]

R. L. P.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Holcot,_Robert_of_(DNB00)&oldid=4371683"

Categories: 1891 works DNB biographies

This page was last edited on 2 April 2013, at 16:29.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.