Reginald Lane-Poole

“ BRINTON or BRUNTON, THOMAS (d. 1389) , bishop of Rochester, was a monk of the Benedictine house at Norwich. He is said to have studied both at Oxford and Cambridge, and is variously described as bachelor of theology and as ‘doctor decretorum’ of the former university. Having taken up his residence in Rome, he was made penitentiary of the holy see, and on 31 Jan. 1372–3 was appointed bishop of Rochester by Gregory XI, in the room of John Hertley, prior of Rochester, whose election was set aside by the pope. ”

“ If his efforts to promote a reconciliation with the Armenian church redounded to Fitzralph's fame abroad as a champion of catholic orthodoxy, in England he had already won a position of high eminence as a divine, both by solid performances as a teacher and writer on school theology, and by sermons, many of which are extant, preached at various places in England and Ireland. ”

“ In Oxford he was a benefactor of the college which had existed for the use of monks from Durham since the last years of the thirteenth century, and whose buildings stood on the site of the present Trinity College. The scheme which Bishop Richard of Bury had drawn out for the foundation of a regularly established college was elaborated by his successor, who provided for the maintenance of eight monks and eight secular students. ”

“ BRIT, BRYTTE, or BRITHUS, WALTER (fl. 1390) , was a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and the reputed author of several works on astronomy and mathematics, as well as of a treatise on surgery. He has also been described as a follower of Wycliffe, and as author of a book, 'De auferendis clero possessionibus' (see Bale, Script. Brit. Cat. vi. 94, p. 503 ; J. Simler's epitome of C. Gesner's Bibliotheca, 248 b, Zurich, 1574, folio ; Wood, Antiquities of Oxford, i. 475) . ”

“ CANON or CANONICUS, JOHN (fl. 1329) , schoolman, studied at Oxford, and became a member of the Franciscan order. Afterwards he attended the lectures of Duns Scotus at Paris, but appears to have returned to Oxford, and to have proceeded there to the degree of D.D. He is distinguished by the biographers for his eminence in philosophy, theology, and law, both canon and civil, and four books of commentaries on the ‘Sentences’ of Peter Lombard, some ‘Lecturæ magistrales,’ and ‘Quæstiones disputatæ,’ are ascribed to him. ”

“ CHESTERFIELD, THOMAS (d. 1451 or 1452) , canon of Lichfield, was the author of a chronicle of the bishops of Coventry and Lichfield, extending from the foundation of the see to 1347, and printed in Henry Wharton's ‘Anglia Sacra,’ i. 423–43 (1691) . From the date at which the work terminates it was presumed by William Whitlocke, who continued it to 1559, that Chesterfield flourished about the middle of the fourteenth century ”

“ Cawston was chancellor of his university. He is famous as one of its benefactors; and it was enacted by the ancient statutes ‘that each year for ever in the three general processions a special recommendation should be made of [his] soul’ (Anc. Stat. 172, James Heywood's Collection of Statutes for Cambridge, p. 175) . Cawston's munificence is also said to have extended to all the colleges that subsisted at his time in the university, his gifts to their libraries being specially commemorated. ”

“ When Despenser then proposed to invade Picardy, he was firmly withstood by his principal officers, who established themselves apart at Bergues and Bourbourg. The bishop, after entering Picardy for some distance, was obliged to fall back upon Gravelines. At this juncture, in the totally demoralised state of the English forces, numbers of the soldiers being attacked by disease, the arrival, about the end of August, of a French army headed by the king was decisive. ”

“ CLAPWELL or KNAPWELL, RICHARD (fl. 1286) , Dominican, was a doctor of theology at Oxford and the author of various scholastic works. In 1286 he was accused of maintaining opinions contrary to the catholic faith, and cited by the Franciscan archbishop, John Peckham, to answer before him and his suffragans at a council to be held in London. At this council, which met at the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, 20 April 1286, eight heresies were condemned; but, according to the document printed by Wilkins, without naming the offender: all who held those doctrines were declared excommunicate. ”

“ The respect in which Gascoigne was held at Oxford is shown by the frequency with which he was called upon to fill the offices of chancellor of the university, of commissary (or vice-chancellor) , and of ‘cancellarius natus.’ Mr. Rogers's suggestion (intr. lxxxiii) that this last title, which designates simply the senior doctor of divinity acting as chancellor during a vacancy (cf. Munim. Acad. Oxon. ii. 553) , was an ‘exceptional title’ conferred on Gascoigne, is put forth in ignorance of the university system of the time. ”

“ EASTON, ADAM (d. 1397) , cardinal, was born of humble parentage, perhaps at Easton, six or seven miles north-west of Norwich, at which city he entered the Benedictine order. He studied at Oxford, became doctor in theology, and was famous for his attainments both in Greek and Hebrew. ”

“ As a divine Holcot held generally to the tradition of his order as laid down by its greatest representative, St. Thomas Aquinas, though in some points (for instance in his doctrine of predestination) he has been observed to deviate from it. He maintained the Dominican view with respect to the immaculate conception so decidedly that his text (in the edition of the commentary on Wisdom, Basle, 1586) was amended by his discreet editor. A special matter on which he differed from his famous contemporary, Bradwardine, was his insistence upon the necessity of free will as an antecedent to merit. ”

“ Fitzralph's own account, in the 'Defensio Curatorum,' is that in 1356 he visited London on business connected with his diocese, and there found a controversy raging about the question of 'evangelical poverty.' On this subject he at once preached a number of sermons, laying down nine propositions, which centred in the assertion that poverty was neither of apostolic observance nor of present obligation, and that mendicancy was without warrant in scripture or primitive tradition. ”

“ The muniments of Lincoln Cathedral include a number of injunctions which he addressed to them. The best known act of his episcopate belongs almost exactly to the time when he was planning his foundation for the overthrow of heresy. The old man believed that the movement which he had seen strong at Oxford in his youth was still vigorous. It was in 1428, after an urgent reminder from the pope, 9 Dec. 1427 (Raynald. Ann. ix. 55 seq.) , that he gave effect to the vindictive sentence of the council of Constance of 4 May 1415, by exhuming the bones of John Wycliffe from Lutterworth churchyard ”

“ Despenser next subdued the neighbouring country, including the towns of Bourbourg, Bergues, Poperinghe, and Nieuport, and was persuaded by his followers to attempt the siege of Ypres (9 June) . In the meantime the success of the expedition had roused such enthusiasm in England that crowds of people, armed and unarmed, crossed the Channel, more, it is said, in the hope of booty than from any nobler motive; so that the bishop was reputed to have sixty thousand men under his command. ”

“ Bishop Edington himself is credited only with the west front, the two first bays on the north side, and one on the south; and even here the porches and the details of the windows are more recent insertions. The completion of the nave was due to his successors, Bishops Wykeham, Beaufort, and Waynflete. The only other work in the cathedral assigned to Edington is the building of the chantry bearing his name, in the second bay from the choir on the south side of the nave. Next to Winchester, Edington devoted himself to the interests of his native village in Wiltshire. ”

“ FITZALAN, BERTRAM (d. 1424) , Carmelite, said to have been a member of the great family of the Fitzalans, entered the Carmelite fraternity at Lincoln, and studied at Oxford, presumably in the house of his order, where William Quaplod, also a Carmelite, who became bishop of Derry (not of Kildare, as Bale has it) in 1419, was his friend and patron. ”

“ At North Walsham he found the rebels intrenched and defended by rude fortifications. But the bishop himself led an assault, rode through their outworks, and overpowered them in a hand-to-hand fight. Many were slain and many captured, including the leader of the insurrection, John the Lister, who was at once put to death. Throughout Despenser, 'episcopus martius,' took the lead, not only 'imperatoris circumspecti ubique gerens officium,' but also as a good soldier at close quarters ”

“ BROME, THOMAS (d. 1380) , Carmelite divine, was brought up in the monastery of his order in London, whence he proceeded to Oxford and attained the degree of master, and also, as it seems, of doctor in divinity. There he seems to have distinguished himself as a preacher. Returning to London, he was made prior of his house, and at a general chapter of the order, held at Cambridge in 1362, was appointed its provincial in England. This office he resigned in 1379, and died in his monastery a year later. ”

“ GREY, WILLIAM (d. 1478) , bishop of Ely and high treasurer, was a member of the family of Lord Grey of Codnor (H. Savage, Balliofergus, p. 109, Oxford, 1668; Godwin, De Præsulibus, ed. Richardson, i. 268) , possibly a son of Richard de Grey (d. 1419) [q. v.] , and a younger brother of John and Henry Grey, who succeeded in turn to the barony, and who were born respectively about 1399 and 1406. William Grey was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and in due course became a doctor of divinity in that university. His powerful family connections early secured him ecclesiastical preferment. ”

“ King Henry, says the ‘Peterborough Chronicle,’ was on his way to the continent when he was detained at Burne (Eastbourne) by stress of weather. While waiting there he sent for the abbot of Peterborough to come to him in haste, and on his arrival urged him to accept the bishopric of Rochester. ”

“ The materials for its earlier portions are chiefly derived from Henry of Huntingdon and Florence of Worcester—of the latter Gervase seems to have used a continuation no longer extant—together with perhaps the chronicle of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and the ‘Historia Pontificalis’ of John of Salisbury. Afterwards his authorities are the lives of St. Thomas and the ‘Gesta regis Henrici,’ attributed to Benedict of Peterborough; and by degrees the work acquires the character of an independent chronicle, though its interest is to a great extent limited to the affairs of the author's monastery. ”

“ Possibly the founder of Queen's College purposely withdrew from Merton College those fellows whom the scrutiny shows to have constituted a malcontent minority of their body. The only remaining notice of Heytesbury's life is that he (William Heighterbury or Hetisbury) was a doctor of divinity and chancellor of the university in 1371 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Gutch, p. 28) , at which date he was evidently advanced in years, so that the date (1380) given by Bale for his ‘floruit’ is too late. ”

“ HAXEY, THOMAS (d. 1425) , treasurer of York minister, was probably a native of Haxey, in the isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire, to which village he left benefactions in his will. In 1384 he became rector of Pulham in Norfolk, which he exchanged in the same year for the living of St. Nicholas Cole-Abbey in the city of London. Early in 1386 he was presented by the king to the rectory of Toppesfield in Essex, but resigned it after half a year on becoming rector of Crawley in Buckinghamshire. In 1387 he went back into Essex as rector of Dengie, but resigned this benefice early in the following year. ”

“ The English troops were driven out of Bergues, and concentrated themselves in Bourbourg. The mediation of the Duke of Brittany put an end to the war, but this was not effected without humiliating circumstances. Large bribes were sent to the English commanders, and they surrendered Bourbourg. Despenser himself came to terms with the French, quitted Gravelines, and shortly after returned to England. The town was burned to the ground by the English, but, according to one account (Froissart, x. 270 n.) , not until the bishop had made good his escape. ”

“ The confidence which he still enjoyed among the monks of Canterbury is shown by the appeal they made to him in 1123 to support their protest against the appointment of any one but a monk to be their archbishop (Gervase of Canterbury, ii. 380) . But Ernulf was already declining in health, and died not long after (15 March 1124) , being eighty-four years of age. ”

“ CLEMENT Scotus II (fl. 820) , grammarian, arrived, according to the old tradition, from Ireland on the coast of Gaul, in company with another scholar of his nation, about the time when Charles the Great 'began to reign alone in the west,' that is, after the death of Carloman in 771. The two men were warmly received at the Frankish court, and Clement was entrusted with the education of a number of pupils, apparently at the royal court. ”