Enciclopedia Cattolica

Pecham, John (Ioannes Pecham, Peckham, Peccamus, Pechamus)

PECHAM, JOHN (IOANNES PECKAM, PECKHAM, PECCAMUS, PECHAMUS)

Volume IX · p. 643 · 1952

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

PECHAM, JOHN (IOANNES PECKAM, PECKHAM, Peccamus, Pechamus). - Franciscan theologian and philosopher, b. at Patcham (in Sussex, England) c. 1215-20, d. 8 Dec. 1292. Around 1250 he entered the Order of Friars Minor at Oxford. In Paris he became «magister in theologia» and then «regens in scholis» (1269-71); he was associated with s. Tommaso d'Aquino and took an active part in the struggle between the secular clergy and the Mendicant Orders through the apologetic work De perfectione evangelica, directed against Gerardo di Abbeville and, in its final chapter, against Guglielmo di St-Amour.

Having returned to England, in 1272 he introduced at Oxford, apparently for the first time, the de quodlibet disputations. Elected provincial minister by the English Franciscans in 1274, he took part in the General Chapter of Padua (1276) and in the same year or shortly thereafter became, the first among the Franciscans, master of the Sacred Palace. Promoted to the archiepiscopal and primatial see of Canterbury on 28 Jan. 1279, he carried out intensive pastoral activity by convening councils, reforming convents, preaching the Crusade, and strenuously defending the liberty of the Church against the interference of civil power. In scholasticism he is called Doctor ingeniosus.

His writings are very numerous. Among his scriptural works are: Collectanea Bibliorum (Paris 1513, 1514; Cologne 1541); Postilla in Cantica Canticarum (unpublished); Postilla in Lamenta, Ieremiae (ed. in Opera omnia s. Bonaventurae, VII, Quaracchi 1897, pp. 615-51); De numeris or De mystica interpretatione numerorum in S. Scriptura (the first five chapters are edited in Tractatus de anima Ioannis P., Florence 1928, pp. 138-44), and several other biblical commentaries. More interesting are his philosophical and theological works: Perspectiva communis, which had many editions, having been adopted as a university text (an illustrated Italian edition [Venice 1593] was edited by G. P. Gallucci); Tractatus spheræ; the commentary on Book I of Pietro Lombardo's Sentences (unpublished, except for certain questions); Summa de esse et essentia (Florence 1928); four Quodlibet (only the one called the Roman is edited [Rome 1938]); among the many disputed questions, those of a psychological character are edited (Münster 1918), to which, by subject matter, the Tractatus de anima (Florence 1948) is related. Of particular interest for Franciscan spirituality, in addition to the already mentioned De perfectione evangelica, are the Canticum pauperis (in Bibliotheca ascetica franciscana medii aevi, IV, Quaracchi 1905, pp. 133-205); the Tractatus contra R. Kilwardby (Naples and Aberdeen 1910); and the questions De pueris oblatis (Quaracchi 1925) and De paupertate (Münster 1917), and, according to F. Delorme (cf. Studi francescani, 3rd series, 4 [1932], p. 49, and more extensively Collectanea Franciscana, 15 [1945], pp. 7-12), also the Explicatio regulae Fratrum Minorum, formerly attributed to s. Bonaventura and edited among his works (VIII, Quaracchi 1898, pp. 391-437). Besides various poetic compositions and the records of his episcopate (Registrum Ioannis P., ed. in The Canterbury and York Society, London 1908), the three volumes of his Registrum epistolarum (ibid. 1882-85) are of interest for the history of the period.

P. is recognized as one of the best representatives of the Augustinian current in scholasticism, faithful to the principles of Alessandro di Hales and s. Bonaventura. In 1284 he reaffirmed the condemnation, already issued by his predecessor R. Kilwardby, against Thomistic Aristotelianism, and on 30 Dec. 1286 in London he censured other «errores damnati». In theodicy P. admits the immediate evidence of God's existence, acknowledges the validity of s. Anselmo's ontological argument, and denies the possibility of eternal creation.

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PECHINO, ARCIDIOCESI di - Temple of Heaven. Dome of the New Year Pavilion.
(phot. Fides)
In psychology he gives particular prominence to illumination: «Acquiritur animae scientia occasione per sensus praestita, sed causa scientiae est lux aeterna» (Tract. de anima, cap. 3); he posits a double active intellect: one uncreated (God) and the other created (the active faculties of the soul); he defends the possibility of demonstrating the immortality of the soul by means of «argomenti irrefragabili»; he upholds the self-determination of the will and its primacy over the intellect. In these and other parts of his system, there is evident a constant effort to remain faithful to traditional Augustinianism while accepting the best elements of Aristotle and Avicenna.

BIBL.: among the numerous studies by H. Spettmann, who was among the first to reassess P.'s work and thought, the following should be noted: Quellenkritisches zur Biographie des J. P., in Franz. Studien, 2 (1915), pp. 170-207, 266-85; id., Die Psychologie des J. P. (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, 20, vi), Münster 1919; id., Der Sentenzenkommentar des Franziskanerbischofs J. P., in Divus Thomas (Friburgo), 5 (1929), pp. 327-45; moreover F. Ehrle, J. P. über den Kampf des Augustinismus u. Aristotelismus in der zweiten Hälfte des XIII. Jahrhunderts, in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol., 13 (1889), pp. 172-93; the same author adds further discussions and documents in L'agostinismo e l'aristotelismo nella scolastica del sec. XIII, Roma 1925; C. L. Kingsfor - A. G. Little, Bibliography of J. P.'s writings, in British Society of franciscan studies, II, Aberdeen 1910, pp. 1-12; A. Callebaut, J. P. et l'augustinisme, in Archivum Franciscanum historicum, 18 (1925), pp. 441-72; I. Rohmer, La théorie de l'abstraction dans l'école franciscaine d'Alexandre d'Hales à J. P., in Archives d'hist. doctr. et litt. du moyen âge, III, Parigi 1928, pp. 178-84; A. Teeter, s. V. in DThC, XIII, cols. 100-44, with bibliography; V. Doucet, Notulae bibliographicae de quibusdam aperibus Fr. I. P., in Antonianum, 7 (1933), pp. 307-28, 425-59; P. Glorieux, Répertoire des maîtres en théologie de Paris au XIIIe siècle, II, Parigi 1934, pp. 93-98, with indications of manuscripts and editions, to be supplemented by V. Doucet's supplement in Archivum Franciscanum historicum, 27 (1934), p. 458 ff.; G. Melani, La predicazione di G. P., in Studi francescani, 3rd series, 13 (1941), pp. 198-220; id., Tractatus de anima J. P., Firenze 1948, with bibliography; D. L. Douie, Archbishop P. sermons and collections, in Studies in medieval history presented to F. M. Powicke, Oxford 1948, pp. 269-82; I. Smith, The attitude of I. P. toward monastic houses under his jurisdiction, Washington 1949. Gaudenzio Melani
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“PECHAM, JOHN (IOANNES PECKAM, PECKHAM, PECCAMUS, PECHAMUS).” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX (1952), p. 643. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/pecham-john-ioannes-peckam-peckham-peccamus-pechamus.