This book originated some years ago as the result of a conversation with Julian Deahl at the Leeds Medieval Congress. Julian was convinced that the time was ripe for such a book as this on FitzRalph and encouraged us to take it on. We did so and here it is, thanks to the support of associate editor Ivo Romein and series editor Chris Belitto at Brill.
There has never been much doubt, among historians at least, of the importance of Richard FitzRalph, Armachanus, probably one of the best known protagonists of various controversies at the papal court in Avignon up to his death there in 1360. The facts of his life are well-known and documented and he seems to have been someone who just had the knack of being at the right place at the right time, wherever and whenever controversy simmered. He also seems to have managed to meet and to talk to all the right people and to have left his mark in such a way that he was still remembered centuries later. His personal thought, influences, together with the ideas and events which lay behind many of his public pronouncements and polemics has proved up to now, in many cases, to be somewhat more difficult to access and comprehend. However, thanks to the many new insights to be found here in innovative and groundbreaking studies, we are now much better placed to appreciate this important fourteenth-century thinker’s life, thought and influence.
We are grateful to all of the contributors for their dedication and patience as the book went through its different stages. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers and for their helpful criticism.
Finally, we remember Jean-François Genest who died in 2021 before the book was finalized.
Michael W. Dunne
Simon Nolan O.Carm.
Feast of St Richard of Dundalk,27 June 2023