Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shirwood, William

by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford

SHIRWOOD, WILLIAM (fl. 1260), schoolman, held the prebend of Ailesbury, Lincoln, in 1245, and was treasurer of that church in 1258 and 1267 (Le Neve, Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii. 88, 95). Roger Bacon, in the preface to his ‘Opus Tertium,’ challenges a comparison between his own writings and those of Albertus Magnus and Shirwood, to whom he refers as the most celebrated of Christian scholars, describing Shirwood as even greater than Albert, and without equal in common philosophy (Opera Inedita, p. 14, Rolls Ser.). Shirwood, who was presumably an Oxford scholar, is credited with:

1. ‘Super Sententias,’ which Leland saw in the Dominican Library at Exeter.
2. ‘Distinctiones Theologicæ.’
3. ‘Conciones.’ Leland confuses Shirwood with William, archdeacon of Durham, whose benefactions were the beginning of University College, Oxford.

[Leland's Comment. de Scriptt. Brit.; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. pp. 668–9; other authorities quoted.]

C. L. K.