Alexander Carpenter

Alexander Carpenter
Residence England
Nationality English
Citizenship English
Known for religious philosopher and author

Alexander Carpenter, Latinized as Fabricius (fl. 1429), was the author of the Destructorium viciorum, a religious work popular in the 15th and 16th centuries.[1][2][3] Some published editions of the work bear the author's name as "Alexander Anglus" ("Alexander the Englishman"), but he is further identified in a 1496 edition which states that the work was compiled "a cuiusdam fabri lignarii filio" -- "by a certain son of a worker of wood," i.e., a carpenter's son.[4] This identifier also states that the work was begun in 1429, which rules out authorship by Alexander of Hales (ca. 1185-1245) which had by some scholars been considered a possibility. Alexander Carpenter authored other works, termed Homiliae eruditae ("Learned Sermons"), but they are not at present known.

Carpenter is thought by some to have been a follower of the English theologian John Wycliffe (ca. 1328-1384), but that is disputed.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Gerald Robert Owst: The Destructorium viciorum of Alexander Carpenter, Church Historical Society, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1952, 40 pp.
  2. ↑  Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Carpenter, Alexander". Dictionary of National Biography 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 153.
  3. ↑ George Watson (ed.): The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, Volume 1, 600-1660. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974, p. 803.
  4. ↑ Ludwig Hain: Repertorium Bibliographicum in Usum Scholarum ["Bibliographic Directory for Scholarly Use"], J. G. Cottae Stuttgartiae et Jul. Renouard Lutetiae Parisiorum, 1826, Vol. I, Pt. I, p. 72.
  5. ↑ John Bale, Scriptorum illustrium maioris Britanniae, quam nunc Angliam et Scotiam vocant, catalogus ["Catalogue of the Famous Writers of Great Britain, now called England and Scotland"], Basel: 1557-1559, vol. II, p. 566.