BACONTHORP, JOHN (Bacco, Bacho, Bakonius, Johannes de Bacone, etc.). - Philosopher and theologian, born in the last decades of the 13th century at Baconthorp (Norfolk). As a young man he entered the Carmelite convent of Blakeny. After obtaining, perhaps in 1321, a degree in theology at Paris, he certainly taught at the University of Cambridge and probably at that of Oxford. In the years 1327-33 he held the office of prior of his Order for the province of England.
B. was a critical rather than a constructive mind. In theology, where his thought excels in particular questions such as the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, he was, as one would now say, an adherent of the positive method, thus opposing not only the Latin Averroists but also the Thomist school. Nevertheless, B. was called by L. Vanini (Amphitheatrum aeternae providentiae), “Princeps averroistarum,” but more because of his knowledge of Averroes and because he gave a new interpretation of him than because he followed his theories. He wrote a commentary on the Sentences, Quodlibeta I-III; various commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle, almost all lost (autograph ms., Paris, Nat. lat. 9540); on the Gospel, on St. Paul, on St. Augustine, on St. Anselm, as well as various minor works, including three on the history of his Order.