Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oswald (d.1437)

1429834Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 42 — Oswald (d.1437)1895Charles Lethbridge Kingsford

OSWALD (d. 1437), Carthusian, whose full name seems to have been Oswald de Corda, was, according to Bale, an Englishman who became a Carthusian at Paris, and afterwards propagated his order in England, Ireland, and Scotland. Bower, who calls him 'prior Alemannæ' (or 'Alemannus'), says that he was a man of great learning and sanctity. In 1429 James I of Scotland made him first prior of the Charterhouse at Perth. Oswald died on 15 Sept. 1437. A variety of works are attributed to him; among them are letters to Jean Gerson, who was his friend, and some of whose writings he is said to have translated into Latin. The Portiforium mentioned by Tanner as extant in MS. C.C.C. Cambridge, 391, is really an eleventh-century manuscript which was presented by St. Oswald (d. 972) [q. v.] to Worcester (Nasmith, Catalogue).

[Bower's Continuation of Fordun's Scotichronicon, iv. 1291; Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, iv. 640, and Preface, p. cxiv; Bale's Cent. viii. 16; Dempster's Hist. Eccl. xiv. 976; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 566.]

C. L. K.