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Thomas Bradwardinefact that the friars and monks were disputing over such topics aspredestination and free will, which discussions became so heatedthat the Bishop of Canterbury imposed silence on the men in1368. 30W. A. Pantin notes another interesting fact from fourteenthcentury England. Manuals for parish priests included the RegimenAnimarum. In this manual, the second section deals with theinstruction that the parish priest ought to give to his people. In thechapter on the virtue offaith is inserted the whole ofSt. Anselm'streatise on God's foreknowledge and free will. Pantin wonders ifthis might "be an echo ofthe controversies that were being raisedabout this time by Bradwardine and Buckingham, and does itrepresent the intellectual preoccupation ofthe schools rather thanthe practical needs of the average parish? But possibly the fourteenth-centurylayman was worried by such questions." In supportof this, Pantin points to Chaucer's reference to Bradwardine onpredestination and free will in The Canlerbll1)' Tales. 31Another interesting question 'is the relationship betweenBradwardine and a contemporary, Gregory of Rimini. Gregorywas born in the 1280s at Rimini. He later lectured in the Universityof Paris. He too was an avowed Augustinian. maintaining doublepredestination from eternity not based on any merit ofman. WithBradwardine, he rejects the existence of merits ofcondignity.He apparently knew Bradwardine's work because he didcriticize it twice in his commentary on the Sententiae, and that atpoints where Bradwardine was in fact weak, especially on theimportance of the Fall and the character of sin. 32 Both mencombated Pelagianism, but Oberman concludes that they did soindependently ofeach other.Thus it seems that Bradwardine's The Cause ofGodproduceda sharp reaction, but realized no significant or lasting effect on thechurch or her doctrine. Two reasons may be adduced for this fact.30. Pantin, W. A. The English Church in the Fourteenth Century,(Cambridge: University Press, 1955), pp. 168-169.31. Pantin, The English Church. p. 205.32. Oberman, Archbishop Bradwardine, pp. 213-214.November, 200 I 23