PECOCK, REGINALD. - Theologian, b. in Wales around 1395, d. at Thorney around 1460. He was bishop of St. Asaph (1444) and of Chichester (1450) and one of the most remarkable prose writers of fifteenth-century England.
A famous controversialist, his fame rests on The Repressor of overmuch Blaming of the Clergy (1455), a polemical work against the Lollards (v.). His tendency to justify orthodoxy and authority with arguments that were sometimes paradoxical earned him the accusation of treating authority with little respect and of setting up reason as the criterion of religious faith. Forced to disavow his works, he spent the rest of his life in the abbey of Thorney.
His importance as a stylist and prose writer is equal to that of Wyclif (v.). While the latter had used mainly Latin in his early theological works, P. used the vernacular and attempted to adapt it to the needs of a precise prose. His vocabulary is more technical and sometimes more archaic than Chaucer's, with a strong prevalence of Saxon and vernacular forms over Latin ones. His experiment remained unique in the English language, because of the classicist reaction of the Renaissance. Among his works, The Book of Faith (1456) is also to be remembered.
Bibliography6 worksedd.: The Repressor of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy, in Rolls Series, 2 vols., London 1860; Book of Faith, edited by J. L. Morison, Glasgo
BIBL.: edd.: The Repressor of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy, in Rolls Series, 2 vols., London 1860; Book of Faith, edited by J. L. Morison, Glasgow 1906; Other editions cited in F. W. Bateson, The Cambridge Bibl. of English Literature, I, Cambridge 1940, p. 261. Studies: J. Lewis, The life of dr. P., 2nd ed., Oxford 1830; F. Schmidt, Studies in the Language of P., Uppsala 1900; E. A. Hanneck, R. P., Washington 1922; V. H. H. Green, Bishop R. P., Cambridge 1945.
De, Angelis Giulio. “Pecock, reginald.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX, col. 1046. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952. https://azioneromana.com/article/pecock-reginald.
MLA
De, Angelis Giulio. “Pecock, reginald.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952, col. 1046. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/pecock-reginald.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec9_pecock_reginald,
author = {De, Angelis Giulio},
title = {Pecock, reginald},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IX},
pages = {1046},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1952},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pecock-reginald}
}
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