Peter Quesnel

Peter Quesnel (or Quesuel) (d. 1299?), Franciscan, was warden of the Franciscan house at Norwich, and died about 1299. He enjoyed a high repute as "theologian and doctor of the canon law," and was author of Directorium Juris in Foro Conscientiæ et Juridiciali.

Works

His work is divided into four books: (1) De summa Trinitate et fide Catholica, et de septem Sacramentis; (2) De iisdem Sacramentis ministrandis et accipiendis; (3) De Criminibus quæ a Sacramentis impediunt et de pœnis iisdem injungendis; (4) De iis quæ ad jus spectant ordinate dirigendis.

There is a manuscript at Merton College, Oxford (No. 223), in which, however, books ii. and iv. are imperfect. The proœmium opens with the words, "Si quis ignorat ignorabitur;" the treatise itself commences "Dignus es Domine aperire librum." Luke Wadding says of this work, "Volumen ingens et stylus elegans." There was formerly a copy at Norwich, and Wadding also mentions that there were manuscripts in the Vatican and in the Franciscan library at Toledo. There were also copies in the library of the Santa Croce at Florence (two manuscripts), in the Colbert collection at Paris (two copies), and in the libraries at Padua, Clairvaux, and St. Martin of Tours (Montfaucon, Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum, ii. 1337). In the library of the Santa Croce there is an anonymous epitome. In one edition (Padua, 1475) of the Commentarii in libros Physicorum Aristotelis, ascribed to John Canonicus, the first and second books of the "Questiones are ascribed to ‘Doctor Canonicus Magister Petrus Casuelis ordinis minorum’ (Little, Greyfriars at Oxford, p. 224 n. 1, Oxf. Hist. Soc.).^[1]

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Quesnel, Peter". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.