Robert Kilwardby

c.1210-1279. Archbishop of Canterbury from 1273. One of the foremost theologians of his time, he studied at Oxford and Paris and taught in both universities. In 1240 he became a Dominican and in 1261 prior provincial for England. Vigorous and respected as a theologian, his tenure of the former post was marked by controversy with the Franciscans as to whether interior poverty was not more spiritual than material poverty, and by increasing confrontation with the Aristotelian influences in his own order. In 1273 he became archbishop of Canterbury and was energetic in visitations. In 1277, after an Oxford visitation, he condemned several Thomist doctrines, but Thomist support was powerful at the papal court, and Kilwardby was summoned to Rome and “promoted” to the cardinalate. He resigned as archbishop and died shortly afterward.