Thomas Bradwardine
It is rumoured that this move to Durham helped put him into contact with King Edward III, which would lead to his eventual appointment of Chaplain of Old St Paul's Cathedral in London.[4] Bradwardine was a precocious student, educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a fellow by 1321; he took the degree of doctor of divinity, and acquired the reputation of a profound scholar, a skilful mathematician and an able theologian.Bradwardine was an ordinary secular cleric, which gave him intellectual freedom but deprived him of the security and wherewithal that the Preaching Orders would have afforded; instead he turned to royal patronage.From being chancellor of the diocese of London as Dean of St Paul's, he became chaplain and confessor to Edward III, whom he attended during his wars in France at the Battle of Crécy, where he preached at the victory Mass, and at the subsequent siege of Calais.The implications of the infinite void were revolutionary; to have pursued them would have threatened the singular relationship of man and this natural world to God (Cantor 2001); in it he treated theology mathematically.[9] Merton College sheltered a group of dons devoted to natural science, mainly physics, astronomy and mathematics, rivals of the intellectuals at the University of Paris.Almost immediately, Giovanni di Casale and Nicole Oresme found how to represent the results by geometrical graphs, introducing the connection between geometry and the physical world that became a second characteristic habit of Western thought ...In Tractatus de proportionibus (1328), Bradwardine extended the theory of proportions of Eudoxus of Cnidus to anticipate the concept of exponential growth, later developed by the Bernoulli and Euler, with compound interest as a special case.Mathematician and mathematical historian Carl Benjamin Boyer writes, "Bradwardine developed the Boethian theory of double or triple or, more generally, what we would call 'n-tuple' proportion".[13] Bradwardine rejected four opinions concerning the link between power, resistance, and speed on the basis that were inconsistent with Aristotle's or because they did not align with what could be easily observed regarding motion."[15] Aristotle's calculation of average speed was criticized by Bradwardine for not examining "the whole question of how moment-to-moment velocities are related within the whole time of the movement.[17] Gerard of Cremona's Latin translation of Quia primos (or De Gradibus) would have been available to Bradwardine, but Roger Bacon seemed to be the only European philosopher to have had a direct connection to the book, but not to the degree of Arnald of Villanova.[20] She states, "Bradwardine's art is notable for its detailed description of several techniques for fixing and recalling specific material through the use of graphically detailed, brilliantly colored, and vigorously animated mental images, grouped together in a succession of pictures or organized scenes, whose internal order recalls not just particular content but the relationship among its parts."[20] She acknowledges this being similar to active imaging described by Cicero, along with the memory devices for things and words being changed in rhetoric, but are distinct since the imagery Bradwardine uses is decidedly medieval in nature.
Archbishop of CanterburyJohn de UffordSimon IslipChichesterHartfieldMerton College, OxfordBalliol College, OxfordMedieval philosophyWestern philosophySchoolScholasticismOxford CalculatorsTheologynatural philosophyInsolubiliaEnglishclericmathematicianphysicistscholastic philosopherdoctor of theologymedieval epithetFellowMerton CollegeSt Paul's CathedralKing Edward IIIOld St Paul's Cathedraltheologianlogicianinsolublesliar paradoxWilliam of Ockhamdiocese of LondonDean of St Paul'sEdward IIIBattle of Crécysiege of CalaisprebendaryBlack DeathClement VIRochesterChaucerThe Nun's Priest's TaleAugustineBoethiusPelagiansinfluences of the planetsSir Henry SavileBritish MuseumAugustinian TheologycontingenciesAugustinian soteriologymonergismdouble predestinationpredestinationprovidencepredeterminismcompatibilismUniversity of ParisWilliam HeytesburyRichard SwinesheadJohn Dumbletonkinematicsdynamicsmean speed theoremGalileoClifford TruesdellFranceEuropeGiovanni di CasaleNicole OresmegraphsgeometryEudoxus of Cnidusexponential growthBernoullicompound interestCarl Benjamin BoyerBoethian theoryAristotle's description of the physical universe.AverroesErnest MoodytrigonometryMuslimAl-KindiDe GradibusGerard of Cremona'sArnald of Villanovaart of memoryCicero'sJean BuridanReformationLutherCalvinJohn WycliffeDallas Medieval Texts and TranslationsMary CarruthersList of Roman Catholic scientist-clericspublic domainCousin, John WilliamA Short Biographical Dictionary of English LiteratureWikisourceNorman F. CantorW. F. HookQuétifÉchardHeiko ObermanAugustinianCambridge University PressLogica UniversalisCatholic Church titlesArchbishops of CanterburyList of archbishops of CanterburyConquestLaurenceMellitusJustusHonoriusDeusdeditWighardTheodore of TarsusBerhtwaldTatwineNothhelmCuthbertBregowine