5 - John Waldeby (WA)

Summary

Judging by the number of extant manuscripts as well as his own words, John Waldeby was one of the most popular preachers surveyed in this book, and he has deservedly drawn some scholarly attention. He entered the convent of the Austin friars in Lincoln in the early 1330s and then studied at Oxford, where he had became a doctor of theology by 1354. In 1354 he was at the convent in York and licensed to hear confessions. Except for a brief journey to the General Chapter of the Austin friars at Perugia in 1354, he stayed in York until his death shortly after 1372. Perhaps he served as prior provincial of the English Austin Friars in 1366. As he tells us himself, his preaching in York drew such large crowds that, in order to get some writing done, he had to withdraw to the quieter convent of Tickhill. He was highly esteemed by Thomas de la Mare, the powerful and well-known abbot of St Albans. The latter, during his nine-year tenure as prior of Tynemouth, in the 1340s, spent three years “studying how to preach the word of God, in both English and Latin,” for which he surrounded himself with “clerics and masters, both secular and mendicants” who were to teach him.