Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/William of Littlington

1009578Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 61 — William of Littlington1900Mary Bateson

WILLIAM of Littlington (d. 1312), theological writer, was, according to Leland, a native of Lindsey; according to Bale, of Littlington in Cambridgeshire. He became a Carmelite of Stamford, and took the degree of doctor of theology at Oxford. On the death of Henry de Hanna, in 1300, he succeeded him as provincial of the order; and in 1303 when Gerard of Bologna arranged the division of England into two provinces at the council of Narbonne in 1303, he opposed it. He was excommunicated, and subjected to a four years' penance, which he spent in teaching at Paris. In 1309 he was made provincial of the Holy Land and Cyprus at the council of Genoa. He died and was buried at Stamford in 1312. He wrote a ‘Commentary on St. Matthew,’ which seems at one time to have been extant at New College, Oxford (Tanner; but cf. Coxe, Cat. MSS. in Coll. Aulisque Oxon.) Bale and Pits mention other commentaries and theological works by him which are not known to be extant.

[Bale's Scriptores, iv. 79; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. pp. 357–8; Pits, p. 394; Villiers de St. Étienne's Bibliotheca Carmel.]

M. B.