Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wetherset, Richard

757861Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 60 — Wetherset, Richard1899Mary Bateson

WETHERSET, RICHARD (fl. 1350), theological writer, was a native of Wetheringsett, Suffolk, and became chancellor of the university of Cambridge in 1349–50 (Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 598). He wrote: 1. A ‘Summa’ or ‘Speculum Ecclesiæ,’ in which William de Monte [see William] is largely used. It is copied in the Digby MS. 103 without indication of the author's name, in the Cambridge University Library, Ii. iv. 12, and Addit. MS. 3471 (formerly Phillipps 22339 and 7402), and in the New College MS. 145. This is the work which Boston of Bury names under the title ‘De Vitiis et Virtutibus et de Sacramentis’ (Tanner, p. xxxvii). 2. In MS. ccclvi. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is a ‘Tractatus qui dicitur Numerale’ by him, probably taken from William de Monte's ‘Numerale,’ which is largely quoted in the ‘Summa.’ 3. The jesuit manuscripts of Louvain contain, besides the above, ‘Sermones de Sanctis,’ under the name of Ric. Wedringler (Sanderus, Bibl. Belg. MSS. p. 327). Wetherset also appears to have written against the power of the mendicants to hear confessions, for Adam Wodham or Godham replied to him (Little, Grey Friars at Oxford, p. 173 n.)

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M. B.