Pecham, John (c.1230–92)

John Pecham, an English Franciscan, taught at Paris and Oxford, and died as Archbishop of Canterbury. His philosophical career represents a concentrated effort to defend the traditional views of Augustine and Anselm (among other theologians) against what was perceived as a growing tendency toward heterodox Aristotelianism, exemplified in such doctrines as the eternity of the world, a single intellect for all humankind and a divinity that had no knowledge of individual beings.