Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stokes, Peter
STOKES, PETER (d. 1399), Carmelite, became a Carmelite friar at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and, afterwards proceeding to Oxford, graduated there as doctor of divinity before 1382. During the religious troubles of that year Stokes acted as the representative of Archbishop Courtenay in the university. During Lent he had made an ineffectual complaint against Nicholas Hereford [see Nicholas], and in May he had a statement of Hereford's heresies drawn up by notaries (Fasciculi Zizaniorum, pp. 296, 305). On 28 May the archbishop sent him a list of twenty-four heresies extracted from Wiclif's writings, and directed him to publish it in the university. Robert Rygge [q. v.], the chancellor, opposed Stokes in the matter, and on 5 June, when Philip Repington [q. v.] preached at St. Frideswide's, Stokes was prevented from publication by fear of violence. On 10 June Stokes determined against Repington, but on the following day left Oxford at the summons of the archbishop. He had already reported what had happened in a letter to Courtenay on 6 June, and was now present in the council on 12 June, when Rygge was condemned. The royal letter of 13 July specially forbade Rygge to molest Stokes further. Stokes, however, appears to have withdrawn from Oxford to Hitchin, where he died on 18 July 1399. A contemporary rhymester describes Stokes as
Rufus naturaliter et veste dealbatus,
Omnibus impatiens et nimis elatus.
(Pol. Songs, i. 267, Rolls Ser.). Stokes is credited with various quæstiones, conclusiones, and lecturæ. He also wrote a work in defence of William Ockham [q. v.], which Leland says was extant in his days, and ‘Præconia Sacræ Scripturæ,’ which the same writer describes as ‘opus non contemnendum.’ But the only one of Stokes's writings which seems to have survived is his letter to Archbishop Courtenay on 6 June 1382; it is printed in ‘Fasciculi Zizaniorum,’ pp. 300–1.
[Fasciculi Zizaniorum; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 674; Villiers de St.-Étienne's Bibl. Carmelitana, ii. 601–2; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of Univ. Oxon. i. 502–5, 508, 510.]