Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paul, William de
PAUL, WILLIAM de (d. 1349), bishop of Meath, is said to have been a native of Kent by Villiers de Saint-Etienne, but of Yorkshire by Cogan (Diocese of Meath, i. 76). He entered the Carmelite order, and studied at Oxford, where he graduated D.D., and subsequently at Paris. In 1309, at a congregation of the order held at Genoa, he was elected provincial of the Carmelites in England and Scotland, and in 1327 was provided by John XXII to the see of Meath, and consecrated at Avignon, his temporalities being restored to him on 24 July. He held the see for twenty-two years, and died in July 1349.
By Bale, Pits, Fabricius, Leland, and Ware, Paul is confused with William Pagula [q. v.]; he is also stated to have written several theological and other works, none of which are known to be extant, and most of which have also been attributed to Pagula (see Villiers de Saint-Etienne, Bibl. Carm. i. 605–6, for a list of them, and discussion as to their supposed authorship).
[Authorities quoted; Cal. Patent Rolls, 1317–1330, p. 139; Pits, p. 363; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hibern.; Ware's Irish Bishops and Writers, ed. Harris; Cotton's Fasti, iii. 113; Paradisus Carmelitici Decoris a Alegre de Casanate, p. 270; Lezana's Annales Carmel. iv. ad annos 1280, 1309, 1313; Possevin's Apparatus Sacer; Cogan's Diocese of Meath, i. 76.]