ADAM WODHAM

English Franciscan theologian; b. c. 1295; d. Babwell, England, 1358. Also known as Adam Wodeham. He seems to have studied at Oxford (c. 1317–19), for he attended disputations given by william of ockham and walter of chatton. He lectured on the Sentences in the Franciscan friary in London (1328–30) before presenting a revised version at Oxford (1330–32). A marginal note in manuscript Vat. Latin 955, folio 1v, refers to a collection of the lectures made at Oxford in 1331. Later Adam prepared a definitive text (Ordinatio ) and a shorter version (Editio media ). He also lectured on the Sentences at Norwich (1332–34). The Editio media was abbreviated by Henry (Totting) of Oyta c. 1373 (ed. Paris 1512). Adam is also credited with a revised text of disputed questions (Determinationes ); however, there is no manuscript evidence for the writings on Scripture attributed to him by L. Wadding and others. Adam is frequently called an Ockhamist. Not only did he accept the dedication of Ockham's Summa logicae, but he seems to have written the prologue to the work, stating that he was not ashamed to have been under the rod of such a master. Because of this intimacy, he is often called the "imitator of Ockham." However, Adam belonged to no one school, for he criticized Ockham as well as duns scotus. He was an independent thinker, quoted by Peter of Candia as on par with thomas aquinas, Duns Scotus, Ockham, and john of ripa.

Bibliography: w. j. courtenay, "Ockhamism Among the Augustinians: The Case of Adam Wodeham" in Scientia Augustiniana (Wurzburg 1975), 267–275; Adam Wodeham: An Introduction to His Life and Writings (Leiden 1978). r. wood, ed. Lectura Secunda in Librum Primum Sententiarum (St. Bonaventure, New York 1990).

[i. c. brady]