William of Littlington or Ludlington (died ) was an English Carmelite friar and theological writer.Copsey 2004. He became a Carmelite of Stamford, and took the degree of Doctor of Theology at Oxford. He opposed the division of England and Scotland into two Carmelite provinces which had been ordered at the Council of Narbonne in 1303, and was excommunicated. After four years' penance in Paris, he was made provincial of the Carmelite Order in the Holy Land and Cyprus in 1309.

Life

William was, according to Leland, a native of Lindsey; according to

Bale Bale may refer to: Packaging * Cotton bale * Hay or straw bale in farming, bound by a baler * Paper bale, a unit of paper measurement equal to ten reams * Wool bale, a standard-sized and -weighted pack of classed wool Places * Bale Zone in ...

, of Littlington in Cambridgeshire. Richard Copsey, however, thinks his surname may have derived from Lyddington. He probably joined the Order of Carmelites in Stamford, which is close to Lyddington. He had taken the degree of

Doctor of Theology Doctor of Theology ( la, Doctor Theologiae, abbreviated DTh, ThD, DTheol, or Dr. theol.) is a terminal degree in the academic discipline of theology. The ThD, like the ecclesiastical Doctor of Sacred Theology, is an advanced research degree equiva ...

at Oxford by 1301. On the death of Henry de Hanna, in 1300, he succeeded him as provincial of the order; and in 1303 when Gerard of Bologna arranged the separation of the Irish and Scottish Carmelite houses into a separate province from England at the Council of Narbonne in 1303, he opposed it. He was deposed and excommunicated, and subjected to a four years' penance to 'fast and study the holy scriptures',Bale, BL, Harley MS. 3838, fol. 27''v''. which time he spent in teaching at Paris. In 1309 he was made provincial of the Holy Land and Cyprus at the Council of Genoa.Bateson 1900, p. 377. He died at the Stamford friary in about 1310 or 1312 and was buried there.

Works

He wrote a ''Commentary on St. Matthew'' (''St. Matthew's Gospel'') which survives at New College, Oxford (MS. 47). Bale and Pits mention other commentaries and theological works by him which are not known to be extant.

References

Sources

* Attribution: *

* Page, William, ed. (1906)
"83. The White Friars of Stamford"
''A History of Lincolnshire''
Vol. 2
London: Archibald Constable & Co. p. 229. * Pits, John (1619). ''Relationum historicarum de rebus Anglicis''
Vol. 1
Paris: Rolinum Thierry & Sebastianum Cramoisy. p. 394. * Staring, A. (1988)
"Guillaume Ludlington"
In Baudrillart, A., et al. (eds.). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques''. Vol. 22. Paris: Letouzey & Ané. p. 945. * Villiers, C. de S. E. de (1752). ''Bibliotheca Carmelitana''
Vol. 1
Orléans: M. Couret de Villeneuve & Joannes Rouzeau. p. 603. {{Authority control 13th-century births 1310s deaths 14th-century English Roman Catholic priests 14th-century English writers Carmelites

Life

Works

References

Sources

Further reading