John Walsham (or John of Walsham) was an English Franciscan theologian and philosopher. Born at Walsham, John obtained a doctorate in theology from the University of Cambridge. He became the lector at the Franciscan studium in Cambridge and around 1350 became the lector at their studium in Norwich.[1] He was licensed to take confession in the diocese of Canterbury in 1358.[2]
All of John's surviving works are found in a single manuscript, Oxford, Corpus Christi College, 182.[1][2] It is a collection of nine questions that were disputed sometime between 1344 and 1349. John takes the position, rare for his time, that there are valid a posteriori arguments for the existence of God, but none valid a priori. He distinguishes between the task of proving the existence of a first being and the more difficult one of proving the existence of a supremely and infinitely perfect being who created the universe. In dismissing a priori proofs, like that of Thomas Bradwardine, he refers to another work of his, which has not survived.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c Leonard A. Kennedy (1982), "John Walsham, O.F.M., on the Existence of God", Franciscan Studies, 42: 115–134, doi:10.1353/frc.1982.0001.
- ^ a b John Moorman (2009) [1952], The Grey Friars in Cambridge, 1225–1538, Cambridge University Press, pp. 86, 89, 100, 145, 220.