WILLIAM DE GAYNESBURGH

12th provincial minister of the Friars Minor in England, bishop of worcester (1302–07); date of birth unknown; d. Beauvais, France, Sept. 17, 1307. He was elected provincial of the Franciscans Sept. 8, 1285, and served until c. 1292; he was then lector, i.e., regent master in theology, to the Franciscans at Oxford c. 1292 to 1294. A member of the king's council in 1295, he was from 1292 to 1300 employed by edward i on various diplomatic missions of which the most important was the negotiation of the peace treaty with philip iv of France, 1295 to 1298. In 1300 he was summoned by boniface viii to lecture in theology at the university of the papal Curia. Appointed to the See of Worcester by papal provision on Oct. 24, 1302, he was consecrated at Rome Nov. 25, 1302, and enthroned June 9, 1303. The king continued to use him as an envoy, and he was on a royal mission to the papal Curia when he died at Beauvais, where he was buried. J. Leland lists Quaestiones as William's, but neither these nor any other scholastic writings of his have been traced.

Bibliography: a. b. emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500 2:750–751. a. g. little and f. pelster, Oxford Theology and Theologians, c. A.D. 1282–1302 (Oxford 1934) 185–186. a. g. little, Franciscan Papers, Lists, and Documents (Manchester 1943) 193–194. The Register of William de Geynesborough, ed. j. w. willis bund, 2 v. (Oxford 1907–29).

[c. h. lawrence]