John Peckham quotes
Light from a concave luminous body is received most powerfully at the centre. The reason for this is that, for every point of a concave body, perpendicular rays, which are stronger than others, converge in the centre. Therefore the virtues of celestial bodies are incident most powerfully in and near the centre of the world.
John Peckham
Among all the studies of natural causes and reasons, light most delights the contemplators; among the great things of mathematics, the certainty of its demonstrations most illustriously elevates the minds of its investigators; perspective must therefore be preferred to all human discourses and disciplines, in the study in which radiant lines are expounded by means of demonstrations and in which the glory is found not only of mathematics, but also physics: it is adorned with the flowers of one and the other.
John Peckham
There were many natural philosophers, particularly in the West, who looked to al-Kindi for support in their defense of a combined intromission-extramission theory. Grosseteste, an early defender of such a combined theory, was in all likelihood familiar with al-Kindi's De aspectibus and probably had al-Kindi in mind when he wrote: "However, mathematicians and physicists, whose concerns is with those things that are above nature, ...maintain that vision is produced by extramission." Later in the thirteenth century Roger Bacon and John Pecham also appealed to the authority of al-Kindi to support their contention that rays issue from, as well as enter, the observer's eye.
John Peckham
[There was a] long standing contention between the sees of York and Canterbury as to the right of either metropolitan to bear his cross erect in the province of the other. ...Peckham, on hearing that his brother [ William of Wickwane, Archbishop] of York had returned from abroad, and was intending to pass through his province with his cross erect, wrote a letter forbidding the clergy to show him any mark of respect, ordering them to shut the church-doors in his face, and threatening all persons, clerical and lay, with excommunication, who ventured to supply him with food, or render him the slightest service.
John Peckham
Peckham, with Roger Bacon, contended against the narrow views of certain of the superiors of the order, who dreaded learning, and forbade the formation of a library. A library was eventually formed, in spite of their opposition, and the room to contain it was erected at the expense of the far-famed Whittington.
John Peckham
Although Peckham affected much humility, discharging for himself many acts, which his predecessors had hired servants to perform; and although, to mark his humility, he still called himself Friar John; he was, nevertheless, a pompous little man, both in his gait, and in his manner of expressing himself.
John Peckham
When the General of the Franciscans [ Nicolas IV ] ascended the papal throne, one of the first things he did, was to name as cardinal, Matthew Aquasparta, General of the Dominicans. No advantage of a personal character accrued to brother John from this event. But Matthew of Westminster sarcastically remarked, that the brothers of the Franciscan or Minorite order, regarded the pope as the sun, and the Archbishop of Canterbury as their moon. They thus set up their horn on high, and spared no order or rank in the Church of England.
John Peckham
In his ecclesiastical administration Peckham applied himself with much zeal to the correction of abuses in the church. ...statutes were passed ...forbidding the holding of livings in plurality or in commendam. ...Much of Peckham's episcopate was taken up with systematic and searching visitations of various dioceses of his province, for the most part conducted by himself in person. ...His insistence on his visitatorial rights had involved him in 1280 in a dispute with the king, and two years later the suffragans of Canterbury presented him with twenty-one articles complaining of his procedure and of the conduct of his officials.
John Peckham
Peckham's visitations naturally included the monastic houses, and his 'Register' contains a considerable number of injunctions and ordinances for the correction of abuses. ...The charge that he was actuated by enmity to the monks had perhaps no better ground than the fact that he was a friar.
John Peckham
Peckham's other relations with Oxford were friendly. ...he wrote to the chancellor confirming the privileges of the university. ...he remonstrated with the bishop of Lincoln on his interference with the of the privileges of the university, but he was unable to support the masters entirely, and on 27 Jan. 1281 advised them to submit. As archbishop, Peckham was patron of Merton College, and on several occasions intervened in matters concerning its government.
John Peckham
Even when archbishop, he confined to style himself 'frater Johannes humilis,' was assiduous in prayer and fasting, and wore only the poorest clothing. When, as provincial prior, he attended a general council at Padua, he travelled all the way on foot rather than break the rule which forbade friars to ride. When... he visited Lewes priory, he showed his affection for the monks and his own humility by sharing their simple fare in the refectory. The Franciscans styled him moon of their order, Pope Nicholas IV being the sun; both died in the same year, and the Worcester chronicler commemorates the event in verses:
Sol obscuratur, sub terra luna moratur,
Ordo turbatur, stellarum lux hebetatur.
The sun darkens, below earth moon abides judgement,
The order is disturbed, starlight dims.
John Peckham
