Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mykelfeld, William
MYKELFELD, MAKELSFELD, MACLESFELD, or MASSET, WILLIAM (d. 1304), cardinal, was born, according to the 'Dictionnaire des Cardinaux,' at Coventry, during the pontificate of Innocent IV, that is to say, between 1243 and 1254. He is said by some to have been born at Canterbury; there is no evidence to show that he belonged either to the family of Macclesfield of Macclesfield in Cheshire (cf. Ancient Parish of Prestbury, Chetham Society, pp. 168 sq.), or to that of Watford (cf. Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, Rolls Ser. i. 480). He became a friar-preacher at Coventry and completed his education in the 'gymnasium sanjacobeum' at Paris, where he proceeded B.D. Returning to England he was elected fellow of Merton College, Oxford, in 1291, and proceeded D.D. He lectured in Oxford and was a great authority on the Bible; mingling also in the controversies of the time and confuting the heresies of William Delamere. In clerical politics he was a disciplinarian, and probably was no friend to the laxity which prevailed under Boniface VIII. In 1303 he represented his order on the nomination, it is supposed, of Edward I, at the synod of Besançon. Benedict XI nominated him cardinal priest with the title of St. Sabina on 18 Dec. 1303, but it is doubtful whether the news reached him, as he died while on his way to England early in 1304 (Migne cannot be right in dating the appointment of his successor 1303). Walter Winterburn (d. 1305), confessor to the king and also a friar-preacher, was at once made cardinal of St. Sabina in his stead. The following works are attributed to Mykelfeld by Echard: 1. 'Postillæ in sacra Biblia.' 2. 'In Evangelium de decem Virginibus.' 3. 'Questiones de Angelis.' 4. 'Questiones Ordinariæ.' 5. 'Contra Henricum de Gandavo, in quibus impugnat S. Thomam de Aquino.' 6. 'Contra Corruptorem S.Thomseæ.' 7. 'De Unitate Formarum.' 8. ' De Comparatione Statuum.' 9. 'Orationes ad Clerum.' 10. 'Varia Problemata.'
[Echard's Scriptores Ord. Praed. i. 493-4; Brodrick's Memorials of Merton (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), p. 182; Folkstone Williams's Lives of the English Cardinals, i. 432-3; Migne's Dictionnaire des Cardinaux; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. (s.v. 'Massetus,' 518); Rishanger's Chron. (Rolls Ser.), p. 221.]