Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jorz, Thomas

by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford ‎

JORZ or JOYCE, THOMAS, also called Thomas the Englishman (d. 1310), cardinal, is said to have been born of a good family in London, although he was perhaps, as has been sometimes suggested, a Welshman by descent (cf. Thoroton, Notts, iii. 19 sq.). He was one of six brothers, who all entered the Dominican order. Two of them, Walter [q. v.] and Roland, were successively archbishops of Armagh. Thomas is said to have studied both at Oxford and Paris, and also to have been a fellow-pupil of St. Thomas Aquinas under Albertus Magnus; the latter statement is unlikely, though Jorz may probably enough have been a pupil of Albertus at a later date, and have been acquainted with St. Thomas at Paris. Jorz taught at Paris, London, and Oxford, and rose to be prior of the Dominicans at the last-named town. Trivet describes him as ‘sacræ theologiæ doctor’ (Ann. p. 406, Engl. Hist. Soc.) He eventually became provincial of England in succession to William of Winterburn [q. v.], and held the post for seven years. This fixes the date of his appointment in 1296, for he vacated this office at Besançon in 1303. As provincial he attended the councils of his order at Marseilles in 1300, and at Cologne in 1301. On 27 Oct. 1305 Edward I, whose confessor he was, sent him on a mission to Pope Clement V at Lyons (Fœdera, ii. 971). He was there created cardinal-priest of the title of St. Sabina on 15 Dec. 1305 (Trivet, Ann. p. 406; cf. Fœdera, ii. 1031). He was never, as has sometimes been stated, cardinal-bishop of Sabina. The remainder of Jorz's life appears to have been spent at the papal court, where he frequently acted as the representative of the English king. On 6 Sept. 1306 Edward I wrote to ask Jorz to keep him informed as to events there (ib. ii. 1024), on 6 May 1307 to urge on the canonisation of Grosseteste (ib. ii. 1054), and on 5 July as to his relations with the king of France (ib. ii. 1058). On 24 Dec. 1307 Edward II asks him to protect his rights against papal bulls, on 20 Jan. 1308 complains to him of the pope's action with regard to Walter Reynolds [q. v.], and on 17 April 1308 urges him to press on the canonisation of Thomas de Cantelupe (ib. iii. 45, 56, 77). On 1 Oct. 1309 order was given for the payment of fifty marks to Thomas Jorsce, being his allowance for six months (ib. iii. 181). Jorz was one of the cardinals appointed by Clement V to hear the evidence brought against the late pope, Boniface VIII, by Philip IV of France, and was also one of the judges to decide certain disputes as to the poverty of the Franciscans. In 1310 he was charged with the discussion of the doctrine held by the Franciscan Petrus Johannis Olivi (Wadding, Ann. Ord. Min. vol. iii. sub anno). In the autumn of the same year he was sent by the pope on a mission to the Emperor Henry VII, and, being taken ill on the way, died at Grenoble 13 Dec. 1310. His body was brought to England, and buried in the church of the Dominicans at Oxford. Jorz held the prebend of Graham South in Lincoln Cathedral at the time of his death (Reg. Joh. Dalderby ap. Tanner, p. 749).

Jorz has been often confused with Thomas Walleys [q. v.], and Ambrosius de Altamura distinguishes him from four other entirely imaginary persons, viz. Frater Thomas Anglicus (fl. 1321); Frater Thomas Anglicus (fl. 1375); Frater Thomas de Theobaldis Anglus, created cardinal by the title of St. Peter ad Vincula by Urban VI in 1379, a cardinal for whom there is no early authority, and who is no doubt identical with Jorz, who has also been called Theobaldus; Thomas Jorzius II, who Touron (Hommes Illustres de l'Ordre de Saint Dominique, ii. 576) says was cardinal of the title of St. Peter ad Vincula, and confessor to Richard II.

Jorz wrote:

1. ‘Commentarii super quattuor libros Sententiarum.’ Quétif and Echard say that there had been a manuscript at Paris which they could not find. The commentary on the first book was printed at Venice, 1523, fol., ‘Reuerendi et laudatissimi doctoris ordinis Prædicatorum Fr. Thomæ Anglici liber propugnatorius super primum librum Sententiarum contra Joannem ordinis Minoritani.’
2. ‘Quodlibeta;’ manuscript in house of Dominicans at Toledo.
3. ‘Liber de visione beata.’
4. ‘De paupertate Christi,’ a subject much discussed in the time of Clement V.
5. ‘Commentarii super logicam Aristotelis, super philosophiam naturalem et moralem.’
6. ‘Quæstiones cum tractatibus multis.’
7. ‘Super Psalterium;’ left unfinished at his death.

This list is given by Quétif and Echard on the authority of Ludovicus Valleoletanus. Sextus Lambertus, a Dominican of Lucca, believed that he had discovered the last, and published it at Venice, 1611, fol., ‘Commentarii super Psalmos F. Thomæ Anglici ordinis Prædicatorum, Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalis et episcopi Sabinensis;’ but this is undoubtedly the commentary of Thomas Walleys. To Walleys also belong the commentaries on Genesis, Proverbs, and Song of Songs, on St. Augustine's ‘De Civitate Dei’ and ‘De Statu Animarum post mortem,’ as well as a treatise, ‘Adversus Iconoclastes,’ and some other tracts given by Cave to our author. Of less certain authorship are:

1. ‘De Conceptione beatæ Virginis.’
2. ‘Super Boethium de Consolatione Philosophiæ et de Doctrina Scholarium.’ These commentaries have been falsely assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas. Ceillier attributes them to an Englishman named Thomas, and says that the ‘Consolation’ was printed with these notes at Louvain in 1484, 1487, 1495, and 1499, and at Lyons in 1514.
3. ‘De Concordantia Librorum S. Thomæ de Aquino;’ possibly the treatise printed among St. Thomas's minor works, and which is certainly not by him. Cave also gives, with other certainly spurious works,
4. ‘Interpretatio Metamorphoseos Ovidianæ secundum Sensum Moralem,’ Paris, 1509. 5. ‘De Quattuor Prædicabilibus ad omne Genus Humanum’ (MS. Pemb. Coll. Cambr. 87).

[The only good account of Jorz is in Quétif and Echard's Script. Ord. Præd. i. 508–10. But see also Ceillier's Hist. des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques, x. 665; Ciaconius, Vit. Pont. ii. 376–7; Cave's Script. Eccl. II. ii. 11; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. 709, s.v. ‘Thomas Anglicus,’ and 749, s.v. ‘Walleys;’ Rymer's Fœdera, orig. ed. The notices in Dupin's Bibl. Aut. Eccl. ii. 519, Touron's Hommes Illustres de l'Ordre de Saint Dominique, ii. 576, and Cardella's Memorie storiche de' Cardinali, ii. 79, are either worthless or inaccurate.]

C. L. K.

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.170
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

Page	Col.	Line
203	ii	21 f.e.	Jorz, Thomas: for Altamum read Altamura