GEOFFREY HARDEBY

Augustinian theologian; b. England; d. May 21, 1385. He entered the augustinians at Leicester and studied at Oxford. Appointed master regent at the Oxford monastery in 1357, he engaged in the controversy caused by Abp. richard fitzralph's De pauperie salvatoris. Both in his lectures and in his posthumously published De vita evangelica (1385), Hardeby not only ably and courteously answered Fitzralph's arguments on the nature of poverty, property, and jurisdiction, but also defended the Augustinian Friars against the charges of the Augustinian canons regular. Bale credited him also with the authorship of Quodlibeta Oxoniensia, Ordinariae questiones, Determinationes, Postillae Scripturarum, Lectiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti, Sermones de tempore and de sanctis, and a historical record of the Augustinians. Hardeby was also active in the affairs of his order. He served as a delegate for the English province to the general chapter at Padua in 1359. Having been granted a papal dispensation for illegitimacy, he was elected prior provincial of England in 1360, and it would seem that he served in this office for six years. After being out of office for three years, he was reelected in 1369. Hardeby was favored by King edward iii with pensions and acted as confessor to Richard, Prince of Wales, 1376–77. On his death he was buried at the Austinfriars in London.

Bibliography: r. l. poole, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 v. (London 1885–1900; repr. with corrections, 21 v., 1908–09, 1921–22, 1938; suppl. 1901–) 8:1213–14. a. gwynn, The English Austin Friars in the Time of Wyclif (London 1940). a. b. emden, A Biographical Register of the Scholars of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 v. (Oxford 1957–59) 2:869, xviii.

[e. j. smyth]