§ IV. His Studies And University Career.

Richard Fitz-Ralph went to Oxford, and was entered of Balliol College (then recently founded), where he remained until he had taken his degree of Master of Arts. The statutes in force at that time required him to leave Balliol. As soon as he received his degree in Arts, he accordingly passed to what is now known as University College, but which after 1332 was called Magna Aula Universitatis, and which owed its origin to the liberality of William de Durham, who dying in 1249, bequeathed a sum of money for the benefit of ten or twelve poor masters. By a decision of congregation in 1280, four masters, “whoever might be considered fittest for promotion in Holy Church”, were to be chosen to enjoy these funds, each master being entitled to fifty shillings sterling yearly for his maintenance. The same document enjoins that the abovementioned masters, living together, shall attend lectures on theology, and shall be able, at the same time, to hear lectures on the decrees and decretals. As to their way of living and learning, they shall behave as they are directed by some fit and experienced men appointed by the Chancellor.37

His residence at Balliol gave him special opportunities to become proficient in arts. The college had been endowed to enable sixteen scholars to study in arts, each scholar receiving a yearly revenue of twenty-seven marks. His residence in University College enabled him to cultivate theology. Thus all the materials of knowledge then existing were brought within his reach. At that date the course of studies had changed a good deal from the ancient narrow limits of the Trivium38 and Quadrivium.39 Out of the logic of the Trivium the new philosophy was developed, and the sciences of the Quadrivium became mere preparatory studies to the Facultas Artium.40 It is mentioned by Tanner and others, that Richard Fitz-Ralph attended the theological lectures of the famous Carmelite John Baconthorpe. This remarkable man was one of the most illustrious scholars of the day, and exercised a powerful influence on the mind of his pupil. It has been observed, that when the latter had become Archbishop of Armagh, and had entered upon his controversy with the friars, he ever showed a marked affection for the Carmelites.

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The early half of the fourteenth century was a season of much agitation in philosophical and theological opinions. The ancient struggle between the Nominalists and the Realists entered at this time upon a new phase. The Realism of St. Thomas of Aquin was opposed by the Nominalism of Occam, and Fitz-Ralph found Oxford still agitated by the controversies that master had excited. The Franciscans were generally Nominalists; the secular clergy, as a body, were Realists. The entire university was divided into two opposite camps. The “Northern men” declared for Realism, the “Southern men” for Nominalism.41 Fitz-Ralph became a leading Realist, and the marked divergence between his views and those of the Franciscans was probably not without its influence on the controversy to which hereafter we shall have occasion to refer.

How deep and how extensive were the studies of Fitz-Ralph shall best be learned from the list of his works at the conclusion of this notice. It will be enough for our present purpose to state here, that his labours cover almost the entire field of Catholic controversy with the Greeks and Armenians, as well as (by anticipation) with the Reformers. A remarkable element in his writings, and one the presence of which reveals the form of scepticism current in his age, is the contribution he has made to the literature of the Christian Demonstration. He defends the Christian religion against the Jews by contrasting the sacraments and ceremonies of the New Law with those of the Jewish dispensation. This line of defence was called for by the altered method of attack which the Jews about the twelfth century began to employ against the Church. In the early ages the controversy turned upon the question whether our Lord was the Messiah. In the middle ages they had recourse to the scriptural defence of their own position, and calumnious attacks on Christianity. It is not strange that he should have combated Mahometanism. It should be borne in mind that the age of Frederic II. had witnessed the birth of a strange admiration for Mahometan literature; that Pope Gregory IX. had fought against this novel danger; that against the Arabian Averroes and his philosophy St. Thomas of Aquin himself had entered the lists. It is not surprising therefore that the archbishop's zeal urged him to provide a remedy for the evil by proving that the Saracenic law itself confirmed the authority of the books of the Old and New Testament.

Before 1333 he proceeded to his degree of Doctor of Theology.