Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ringstead, Thomas de
RINGSTEAD, THOMAS de (d. 1366), bishop of Bangor, perhaps a native of Ringstead in Norfolk, was educated at Cambridge, where he became doctor and professor of theology. He subsequently became a Dominican, studied in France and Italy, and was appointed penitentiary to Innocent VI, who, on 21 Aug. 1357, provided him to the see of Bangor. He died in the Dominican monastery at Shrewsbury on 8 Jan. 1365–6, and was buried in Blackfriars, London, or in the Dominican monastery at Huntingdon, where, according to Tanner, his parents also were interred. Ringstead is said to have been the author of a work which is extant in Balliol College MSS. xxxiv., Lincoln College MSS. lxxxvi., and Trinity College (Oxford) MSS. xxxv. Its title is variously given as ‘Expositio super Parabolas Salomonis,’ ‘Super Salomonis Proverbia,’ and ‘Postilla super 29 capitula Parabolarum.’ These have generally been considered separate works, without good ground, as the opening words of two of the manuscripts are identical. A note, added by a later hand, to one of the manuscripts, stating that it was written in London in 1461, points to the author being a later Thomas de Ringstead, who was collated to the prebend of Moreton-cum-Whaddon in Hereford Cathedral, and held the prebends of Bampton and Castor in Lincoln Cathedral between 1440 and 1452. Wood erroneously states this commentary to have been the work of Richard de Ringstead, who was prior of Gloucester Hall, Oxford, and vice-chancellor of the university in 1450. Both Thomas and Richard are credited by Pits with various other theological works, which are not known to be extant.
[Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Anglicanæ, i. 99, 513, ii. 472, iii. 117, 127; Richard's Scriptt. Ord. Præd. i. 652–3; Fabricius, Bibl. Latin. Med. Æt. vi. 260; Pits, De Ill. Scriptt. 1619, pp. 507–8; Godwin, De Præsulibus Angliæ, pp. 621–2; Leland's Collectanea; Wood's Fasti, i. 41; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 633; Bernard's Cat. MSS.; Coxe's Cat. MSS. in Coll. Aulisque Oxon.]