Nicholas Bayard (theologian)

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Nicholas Bayard (

.

Biography

Bayard was, according to Bale, a Dominican theologian at Oxford, where he obtained his doctor's degree.

Pits's account tends in the same direction, and both biographers praise their author for his knowledge of

by "allegorical inventions and leisurely quibbles."

Bayard's principal work appears to have been entitled "Distinctiones Theologiæ," and, according to the last-mentioned authority, this book was largely calculated to corrupt the simplicity of the true faith, as it consisted, like

, and Tanner gives a list of other writings of this author that are to be found in English libraries.

The date assigned to Nicholas Bayard by his English biographers is about 1410; but this can hardly be correct if Mr. Coxe is right in assigning the handwriting of the Merton manuscript to the previous century. The whole question of the era in which this writer lived, and his nationality, is minutely discussed by

's "Liber de Conscientiâ".

Quétif does not, however, adduce any indubitable evidence that Bayard was a Frenchman. But if he was the writer of the "Summa de Abstinentia," which Quétif unhesitatingly assigns to him, and does really, as Quétif asserts, mingle French words with the Latin text, the fact of his French residence, if not of his French birth, may perhaps be considered as proved. Lastly, as regards the order to which Bayard belonged, Quétif observes that there is no certain evidence whether he was a

Franciscan

or a Dominican. In all the manuscripts excepting one he appears to be called simply Frater Nicholas de Bayard, and in the only one which is more precise he is called a Minorite.

Only one of Bayard's works seems to have been printed, and that one of somewhat doubtful authenticity, the "Summa de Abstinentia," which was published under the title of "Dictionarius Pauperum" by John Knoblouch at Cologne in 1518, and again at Paris in 1530. A longer list of Bayard's works is given by Bale.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Archer, Thomas Andrew (1885). "Bayard, Nicholas". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.