WALEYS, THOMAS. — Dominican theologian, born in England in the second half of the 13th century, died after 21 February 1349.
A master of theology and professor at Oxford (1314) and Bologna (1327), he took a stand against the Spirituals in the question of poverty. Regarding the problem of the beatific vision, he declared himself opposed to the opinions of John XXII. His adversaries therefore accused him before the inquisitor Guglielmo di Montrond, who extracted six erroneous propositions from a discourse he had delivered at Avignon on 3 January 1333. These, examined by a commission of theologians in the light of the doctrine of Durando di St-Pourçain, were declared suspect of heresy. W., dissatisfied because he had not been allowed to discuss his position, appealed to the Holy See (12 October), accusing the inquisitor of having acted contrary to law. The appeal was accepted through the intervention of the King of France, and W. was on the point of being released when his adversaries circulated a libellus fumosus, composed specifically against the De instantibus et momentis, which W. had written in prison and in which it was maintained that the Resurrection and the Last Judgment would take place at the same instant. When the trial was resumed before a commission of cardinals (28 February 1334), W., perhaps because he had been weakened by imprisonment, proved much more submissive; but the matter was not settled, and it seems that W., without having been condemned, died in prison.
He left many writings; besides the De instantibus et momentis (ed. in Th. Käppeli, Le Procès, V. BIBLICA.), there are a Commento on the Sentences, Commenti on various books of Sacred Scripture with moral interpretations, Metamorphosis Ovidiana moraliter explanata (Paris 1509, 1521), In decem primas libras de Civitate Dei (Mainz 1473, Freiburg 1494, Lyon 1520).