Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simon of Faversham

613070Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 52 — Simon of Faversham1897Alice Margaret Cooke

SIMON of Faversham (fl. 1300), philosophical writer, studied theology at Oxford, but afterwards turned to philosophy. He was ordained sub-deacon at Croydon in September 1289 (Regist. Epist. Peckham, Arch. Cant., iii. 1051, Rolls Ser.), and deacon probably in the September of the following year at Bocking (ib. p. 1053). In the same year he was presented by Archbishop John Peckham [q. v.] to the church of Preston, near Faversham (ib. p. 1011), and probably at a later period was rector of Burton, also in Kent (Bale, Script. Illustr. Brit. Cat. i. 471). In 1303, as prebendary of Hereford, he was attached to the church of Hampton Bishop (Le Neve, Fasti Eccles. Angl. i. 505, ed. Hardy), and about 1304 was chancellor of Oxford (Wood, Fasti, App. p. 17). In September 1305 he was made archdeacon of Canterbury (Le Neve, l. c. p. 39), but in November the pope appointed Bernard de Eyci to this office, and Simon was ousted.

Several philosophical treatises are very doubtfully attributed to him. Among them is one on the ethics of Aristotle, extant in Balliol College Library, Oxford (Tanner, Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 673).

[Authorities cited; see also Leland's Commentarii de Script. Brit. ii. 368, ed. 1709; Pits, De Illustr. Angl. Script. p. 505; Fabricius's Bibl. Lat. Med. et Infim. Ætat. vi. 531.]

A. M. C.-e.