Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Finingham, Robert de
FININGHAM, ROBERT de (d. 1460), a brother in the Franciscan or Greyfriars' monastery at Norwich, where he was also educated, was born at Finingham in Suffolk, and flourished in the reign of Henry VI. He was a very learned man, skilled, as Pits expresses it, in all liberal arts, excelling especially in canon law, end was the author of numerous Latin works. The chief purpose of his writings was in defence of the Franciscans against the common accusation that their profession of poverty was hypocritical. The titles given of his works are as follows: 1.'Pro Ordine Minorum.' 2.'Pro dignitate Status eorum.' 3. 'Casus Conciliorum Angliæ.' 4. 'De Casibus Decretorum.' 5. 'De Casibus Decretalium.' 6. 'De Extravagantibus.' 7. 'De Excommunicationibus.' Tanner describes a manuscript of the last in Bishop Moore's library, now in the Cambridge University Library (E. e. v. 11).
[Pits, De Angliæ Scriptt. p. 652; Bale's Scriptt. Brit. cent. viii. § 23; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 280; Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, iv. 113; Wadding's Scriptt. Min. Ord. (1650), p. 308.]