Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Palmer, Thomas (fl.1410)

673688Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 43 — Palmer, Thomas (fl.1410)1895Mary Bateson

PALMER or PALMARIUS, THOMAS (fl. 1410), theological writer, was a friar of the house of Dominicans in London. He took the degree of doctor of theology, and assisted in 1412 at the trial of Sir John Oldcastle (Foxe, Acts and Monuments, iii. 329, 334). He was a friend of Richard Clifford [q. v.], bishop of London; was skilful in disputation, and wrote orthodox works to repair the schisms of the church. These were: 1. ‘Super facienda unione,’ which Leland saw at Westminster (Coll. iii. 48). 2. ‘De Adoratione Imaginum libellus,’ beginning ‘Nunquid domini nostri crucifixi,’ now in the Merton College MS. lxviii. f. 18 b. The second part is entitled ‘De Veneratione Sanctorum,’ and begins ‘Tractatum de sanctorum veneratione.’ 3. ‘De originali peccato’ (MS. Merton, ib.), beginning ‘Ego cum sim pulvis et cinis.’ Tanner ascribes the rest of the manuscript to him—‘De peregrinatione,’ on the pilgrimages to Canterbury—but the manuscript does not name Palmer as the author. 4. ‘De indulgentiis.’

[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Pits, De Illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 591.]

M. B.