John Peckham studied optics and astronomy - his studies in those subjects were particularly influenced by Roger Bacon and Alhazen.
37 Facts About John Peckham
2.
Around 1270, John Peckham returned to England, where he taught at the University of Oxford, and was elected the Franciscans provincial minister of England in 1275.
3.
John Peckham served King Edward I of England in Wales.
4.
John Peckham came from a humble family, possibly from Patcham in East Sussex.
5.
John Peckham was born about 1230 and was educated at Lewes Priory.
6.
John Peckham then went to the University of Paris, where he studied under Bonaventure and became regent master, or official lecturer, in theology.
7.
For years John Peckham taught at Paris, where he was in contact with many of the leading scholars of his time, including Thomas Aquinas.
8.
John Peckham famously debated Thomas on at least two occasions during 1269 and 1270, during which Peckham defended the conservative theological position, and Thomas put forth his views on the soul.
9.
John Peckham studied other fields, however; and was guided by Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon's views on the value of experimental science.
10.
Where John Peckham met Bacon is not known, but it would have been at either Paris or Oxford.
11.
John Peckham did not long remain in that post, being summoned to Rome as lector sacri palatii, or theological lecturer at the papal palace.
12.
John Peckham laid stress on discipline, which often resulted in conflict with his clergy.
13.
The only exception John Peckham was prepared to make on non-residence was if the clerk needed to go abroad to study.
14.
However, John Peckham worked hard to reorganise the estates of the diocese, and held an inquiry in 1283 through 1285 into the revenues of the see.
15.
John Peckham set up administrative structures in the manors that divided them into seven administrative groups.
16.
John Peckham, though, was almost continually in debt, and because he was a Franciscan, he had no personal property to help with his living expenses.
17.
John Peckham had inherited the diocesan debts that his predecessor had allowed to accumulate, and never managed to clear them.
18.
In service to King Edward, John Peckham formed a low opinion of the Welsh people and laws.
19.
John Peckham visited the Welsh dioceses as part of his tour of all his subordinate dioceses.
20.
John Peckham found the Welsh clergy to be uneducated, although he did order a Welsh-speaking suffragan bishop to be appointed to help with pastoral duties in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield.
21.
John Peckham criticised the Welsh people as a whole, contrasting their pastoral economy with the farming-based economy of England, and finding the Welsh to be lazy and idle.
22.
John Peckham was particularly offended that Welsh laws sought to get parties to homicides or other crimes to settle their differences rather than the process of English law which condemned the criminal.
23.
John Peckham had problems with his subordinate Thomas Bek, who was Bishop of St David's in Wales.
24.
Bek did not manage even the four-year fight that Gerald had managed, for John Peckham routed him quickly.
25.
John Peckham was very strict in his interpretations of canon law, and once wrote to Queen Eleanor that her use of loans from Jewish moneylenders to acquire lands was usury and a mortal sin.
26.
John Peckham felt that Welsh laws were illogical and conflicted with Biblical teachings.
27.
John Peckham mandated that the clerical tonsure worn by the clergy should not just include the top of the head, but have the nape and over the ears shaved, which allowed the clergy to be easily distinguished from the laity.
28.
John Peckham forbade an effort by the Benedictine order in England to reform their monastic rule, to allow more time for study and for more education for the monks.
29.
At an ecclesiastical council held at Lambeth in 1281, John Peckham ordered the clergy to instruct their congregations in doctrine at least four times a year.
30.
John Peckham's main method of fighting these was a system of visitation of his subordinate dioceses and religious houses, which he used with an unprecedented frequency.
31.
John Peckham fought with Thomas de Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford over the right to visit subordinate clergy.
32.
John Peckham decreed that the clergy should preach to their flocks at least four times a year.
33.
John Peckham often was in conflict with his subordinate bishops, mainly because of his efforts to reform them, but John Peckham's own attitude and handling of his clergy contributed to the problem.
34.
John Peckham's conflicts started because his own ideals were those of a Franciscan, but most of his clergy were concerned with more mundane and materialistic affairs.
35.
John Peckham's heart was buried with the Franciscans under the high altar of their London church, Greyfriars, London.
36.
John Peckham founded a college at Wingham, Kent in 1286, probably a college of canons serving a church.
37.
John Peckham is the earliest Archbishop of Canterbury to have his registers, the principal records of archiepiscopal administration, held at Lambeth Palace Library.