PECHAM, John (Ioannes Pecham, Peckham, Peccamus, Pechamus). - Franciscan theologian and philosopher, b. at Patcham (in Sussex, England) ca. 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), was in contact with St. Thomas Aquinas and took an active part in the struggle between the secular clergy and the mendicant Orders with the apologetic work De perfectione evangelica, directed against Gerard of Abbeville and, in the last chapter, against William of St-Amour.

Having returned to England, in 1272 he introduced at Oxford, it seems as the first, 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 that same year or shortly after became, the first of the Franciscans, master of the Sacred Palace. Promoted to the archiepiscopal and primatial see of Canterbury on 28 Jan. 1279, he carried out an intense pastoral activity, convening councils, reforming convents, preaching the Crusade and strenuously defending the freedom of the Church against the interference of civil power. In scholasticism he is called Doctor ingeniosus.

His writings are very numerous. Among the scriptural works are remembered: Collectanea Bibliorum (Paris 1513, 1514; Cologne 1541); Postilla in Cantica Canticarum (unpublished); Postilla in Lamenta, Ieremiae (ed.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 o 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 the philosophical and theological works: Perspectiva communis, which has had many editions, having been adopted as a text in the universities (an illustrated edition in Italian [Venice 1593] was edited by G. P. Gallucci); Tractatus spheræ; the commentary on Book I of the Sentences of Peter Lombard (unpublished, except for some questions); Summa de esse et essentia (Florence 1928); four Quodlibet (only the one called the Roman is edited [Rome 1938]); of the many disputed questions those of a psychological character are edited (Münster 1918), to which the Tractatus de anima (Florence 1948) is connected by subject. Of particular interest for Franciscan spirituality are, besides the De perfectione evangelica already noted, 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 fully Collectanea Franciscana, 15 [1945], pp. 7-12) also the Explicatio regulae Fratrum Minorum, previously attributed to St. Bonaventure and edited among his works (VIII, Quaracchi 1898, pp. 391-437). Besides various poetic compositions and the acts 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 interesting for the history of the period.

P. is recognized as one of the best representatives of the Augustinian current of scholasticism, faithful to the directives of Alexander of Hales and of St. Bonaventure. In 1284 he reconfirmed the condemnation, already issued by his predecessor R. Kilwardby, against Thomist Aristotelianism, and on 30 Dec. 1286 in London he censured other "errores damnati." In theodicy P. admits the immediate evidence of the existence of God, recognizes as valid the ontological argument of St. Anselm, and denies the possibility of eternal creation

In psychology he gives particular prominence to illumination: "Acquiritur animae scientia occasione per sensus praestita, sed causa scientiae est lux aeterna" (Tract. de anima, ch. 3); he posits a double agent intellect: one uncreated (God) and the other created (the active faculties of the soul); he defends the possibility of demonstrating with "irrefragable arguments" the immortality of the soul; he maintains the self-determination of the will and its primacy over the intellect. In these and in other parts of his system, one notes a constant effort to remain faithful to traditional Augustinianism and to welcome the best elements of Aristotelianism and of Avicenna.

Bibliography15 works

BIBL.: among the numerous studies of H. Spettmann, who was among the first to reassess the work and thought of P., are 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 (Freiburg), 5 (1929), pp. 327-45; furthermore 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, Rome 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, Paris 1928, pp. 178-84; A. Teeter, s. v. in DThC, XIII, coll. 100-44, with bibl.; 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, Paris 1934, pp. 93-98, with the indication of the codices and editions, to be completed with the supplement of V. Doucet 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., Florence 1948, with bibl.; 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 Pecham, Peckham, Peccamus, Pechamus)

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