c. 1174–1240 · Oxford teacher & Archbishop of Canterbury
Edmund of Abingdon (c. 1174–1240) was one of Oxford’s earliest masters of arts, lecturing on mathematics and dialectics, and was reputedly the first to teach Aristotle’s philosophy there. The site where he lived and taught later became St Edmund Hall, still part of the University of Oxford. He was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1233 and consecrated in April 1234, and was canonised soon after his death. The saying is credited to him as a classroom maxim — advice to students — which is exactly the register the line still carries today, long after Gandhi’s name was pinned to it.