►w
*4
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
A CHRONICLE OF THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY
A CHRONICLE OF
THE ARCHBISHOPS OF
CANTERBURY
BY
A. E. McKILLIAM, M.A.
author or "chronicles of the popes," "makers of history,' " THE highways of the world," etc., etc.
LONDON
JAMES CLARKE & CO., 13 & 14, FLEET STREET
1913
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
Microsoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/chronicleofarchbOOmckiiala
College Library
5ft S
IDebicateb
BY SPECIAL PERMISSION TO
HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
2072406
Prefatory Note
The prominent part played in English history by the arch- bishops of Canterbury is a striking proof of the dominating influence exercised by the Christian Church in the making of our state and nation. Throughout many centuries few political or social crises occurred in our history in which the ruling successor of St. Augustine did not take a leading part. Though in this long line of illustrious prelates stretching from the sixth to the twentieth century many were justly accused of being led through ambition to neglect ecclesiastical for state affairs, yet of few can it be said that they died faithless at heart to the Church they served.
Within the scope of this volume it is of course impossible to treat the subject in detail, and no attempt has been made to write a history of the Church of England. But as no work in one volume has hitherto appeared giving a simple chronicle of the chief facts and events connected with the lives of all the primates of Canterbury from St. Augustine to Dr. Randall Davidson it is hoped that the present com- pilation may prove of value both to the general reader and to the student of history.
Dr. Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, after reading some of the proof sheets writes : — " I think the book is likely to be of genuine value, and I shall welcome its appear- ance. Obviously the more important part of it will be that which contains the lives of those Archbishops who have not had Dean Hook as their biographer — i.e., from the Restoration to the present day. There is no handy volume containing these lives in any adequate form."
The author desires to acknowledge valuable help rendered during the preparation of the work by the Rev. Claude Jenkins, Librarian Lambeth Palace, who very kindly suggested many sources whence information was derived concerning the lives of individual archbishops.
A. E. McK.
Contents
PAGI
i. Augustine .... 9
2. Laurentius - - - - 17
3. Meixitus - - - - 21
4. Justus - - - - 25
5. Honorius 28
6. Deusdedit - - - - 32
7. Theodore 36
8. Brihtwald 43
9. Tatwin - - - - 47 io. nothelm .... 49 ii. cuthbert 52
12. Bregwin 56
13. Jaenbert (or Lambert) 59
14. Ethelheard - - - - 63
15. WULFRED 67
16. Feologeld (or Theologild) - - - 71
17. Ceolnoth - - - - 72
18. Ethelred (or Athelred) - - - 75
19. Plegmund 78
20. Athelm - - - - 81
21. wulfhelm 82
22. ODO .... 84
23. DUNSTAN 89
24. Ethelgar (or Algar) ... 101
25. Sigeric (or Siric) ... 103
26. Elfric (or Alfric) ... 105
27. Elphege (or Alpheah) - - - 108
28. Lyving (or Elstan) - - - 114
29. Ethelnoth (or Egelnodus) - - - 116
30. Eadsige (or Eadsine) - - - 119
31. Robert (or Champart) - - - 121
32. Stigand - - - - 124
Contents
PAGE
33. Lanfranc - - - - 130
34. Anselm - - - - 139
35. Ralph D'Escures - - . ^9
36. William de Corbeil - - - 155
37. Theobald - - - . j$g
38. Thomas A Becket - - . 165
39. Richard .... x^
40. Baldwin - - - - jgj
41. Hubert Walter - - - 186
42. Stephen Langton - - - 192
43. Richard Wethershed (or Grant) - - 198
44. Edmund Rich of Abingdon - - 201
45. Boniface of Savoy - - - 206
46. Robert Kilwardby - - - 211
47. John Peckham - - - - 214
48. Robert Winchelsea - - - 218
49. Walter Reynolds - - - 223
50. Simon Meopham (or Mepeham) - - 227
51. John De Stratford - - - 231
52. Thomas Bradwardine - - - 235
53. Simon Islip .... 238
54. Simon Langham ... 242
55. William Whittlesey - - - 245
56. Simon Sudbury ... 247
57. William Courtenay - - - 251
58. Thomas Arundel - - - 255
59. Roger Walden ... 26o 6b. Henry Chicele ... 263
61. John Stafford ... 268
62. John Kemp .... 272
63. Thomas Bourchier - - - 276
64. John Morton - - - 281
65. Henry Deane - - - - 286
66. William Warham ... 290
67. Thomas Cranmer ... 295
68. Reginald Pole .... 306
69. Matthew Parker - - - 314
70. Edmund Grind al - - - 320
Contents
PAGE
71. John Whitgift .... 324
72. Richard Bancroft - - - 330
73. George Abbot - 333
74. William Laud - - - 339
75. William Juxon ... 347
76. Gilbert Sheldon - - - 351
77. William Sancroft - - - 355
78. John Tillotson - - - 361
79. Thomas Tenison ... 365
80. William Wake .... 369
81. John Potter .... 373
82. Thomas Herring ... 3^5
83. Matthew Hutton ... ^g
84. Thomas Secker - - - 381
85. Frederick Cornwallis - - - 386
86. John Moore .... 389
87. Charles Manners-Sutton - - 392
88. William Howley - - - 395
89. John Bird Sumner ... ^qq
90. Charles Thomas Longley - - 404
91. Archibald Campbell Tait - - 408
92. Edward White Benson - - - 418
93. Frederick Temple ... ^27
94. Randall Thomas Davidson - - 437
A CHRONICLE OF THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY
i.— AUGUSTINE, d. 604 (?) S.
Ethelbert, King of Kent, 560 to 616. Ethelfrith, King of Northumbria, 593 to 617. Sabert, King of Essex, c. 603 to 616.
Concerning the early life of the prelate to whom belongs the proud title of first Archbishop of Canterbury history reveals nothing. All we know is that when Pope Gregory the Great determined to carry out a long cherished dream, and send Christian missionaries to Saxon England, he chose as the leader of the little band his friend Augustine, probably a Roman, prior of the monastery of St. Andrew, on the Cselian Hill.
Events had already prepared the way for the success of this missionary enterprise. Though Christianity had been established in Britain during the Roman occupation, the fierce Saxon tribes, on taking possession, had restored paganism throughout the country. The Christian Britons who escaped slaughter, stripped of everything save their faith, had taken refuge in the distant regions of the west. There, for more than a century and a half, they were cut off from all com- munication with the Church in Rome.
Meantime, in Rome itself, the Christian Church had remained unshaken, amidst the general wreck involved in the downfall of the great Roman Empire. In 590 the hold of Christianity on Rome was strengthened still further by the elevation to the papal chair of Gregory I., the greatest statesman of his age.
The story is well known of how, some years before his elevation to the papacy, Gregory had been moved to com- passion by the sight of English children in the slave-market
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in Rome, and had resolved that to so noble a race Christianity must be preached. But it is scarcely probable that the momentary enthusiasm roused by such a sight was Gregory's sole motive for engaging in this work. It is more in keeping with his character to suppose that the duty of organ- izing a mission to the English had long occupied his thoughts. While abbot of the monastery of St. Andrew, Gregory had determined to carry the Gospel message to Britain himself. Having obtained permission from Pope Pelagius II., he set out on his journey northward. But so great was the devotion of the Roman people to the noble abbot that they rose in revolt, and forced the pope to send hasty messengers after him to bring him back.1
Gregory did not, however, abandon his purpose to convert Britain. One of his first acts after his elevation to the papal chair was to employ an agent in France to buy English youths sold as slaves between the ages of seventeen and eighteen. These were to be brought to Rome and trained as missionaries to the English.2 But before this scheme could be carried out he received news which determined him to adopt a more direct course.
The exact date is uncertain, but probably about twenty years before Gregory became pope, Ethelbert, the noble and liberal-minded king of Kent, had been united in marriage to a Christian princess, Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of Paris. In the marriage treaty it had been stipulated that Bertha should be permitted the free exercise of the Christian religion, and she accordingly brought with her from Gaul, one Luidhard, a French bishop. Luidhard had retired from the bishopric of Senlis, and was probably well advanced in years at the time of his arrival in this country, for he died in the same year as Augustine landed in England. Though he appears to have laboured with great zeal and considerable success, his single efforts were insufficient to overtake the vast work that lay waiting to be done.
Meantime Ethelbert had been acknowledged as Bretwalda by the Saxons of Middlesex and Essex, as well as by the men
1 Vita S. Gregorii Magni, Auctore Johanne Diacono, I. 23.
2 Greg. Ep. VI. 7, in Councils and Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Haddan and Stubbs.
10
Augustine
of East Anglia, and part of Mercia ; and his overlordship extended as far north as the Humber.3 His political impor- tance began to be felt by the Frankish princes on the other side of the Channel, while intercourse with Gaul and acquaintance with Roman customs had by this time exercised a civilizing influence on the pagan Saxons. Luidhard did not fail to perceive that many of the Saxons were disposed to receive Christianity, and he accordingly despatched a messenger to Rome, begging the pope to send missionaries to England. According to some accounts it was in response to this appeal that in the year 596, Gregory despatched Augustine, with a band of forty monks, to carry the message of Christianity to the English.
In the month of June, the little company set out on their long journey, furnished with letters from Gregory to the bishops and Christian princes of the countries through which they were to pass. They were also instructed to provide themselves with interpreters before landing in Britain.4
The missionaries crossed the Alps and reached Aix in Provence. Here the difficulties of the journey or tales of the uncouth islanders among whom they were going seems to have chilled their enthusiasm. Some of the number proposed that they should turn back. In face of this difficulty, Augustine apparently showed himself lacking in moral courage and strength of purpose. Instead of dispelling their fears and boldly continuing his way, he offered to return to Rome to beg Pope Gregory that they might be excused from undertaking so difficult an enterprise.
So Augustine returned to Rome, and laid the matter before Gregory, explaining the difficulties and dangers of the way. But the famous pope, whose whole life had been spent in meeting difficulties and overcoming them, refused to sym- pathize with such fears. He ordered Augustine to return without delay to his faint-hearted brethren, bearing with him a letter in which the pope commended them to the pro- tection of God and exhorted them to go forward to the work they had undertaken, fearing nothing.
This letter is dated July 23, 50.6.5 Augustine must have
3 Bede's Eccles. Hist., Bk. L, Chap. 25. 4 Ibid.
5 Ibid I. 23.
II
A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
reached Gaul on his return journey some time in August. The missionaries now continued their way, no further delays being recorded, and landed in the Isle of Thanet, in Kent, some time in the autumn. Soon after their arrival, Augustine sent messengers to King Ethelbert to ask for his protection, and also to beg for liberty to preach Christianity in Kent. The king replied by sending orders that the monks should be kindly treated, and supplied with all they required by the inhabitants of the district, until he could come in person to hold an interview with them. A few days later, Ethelbert, probably accompanied by Queen Bertha, came from Canterbury, his capital, which was only about twelve miles distant. Augustine and the monks advanced to meet him in procession, bearing a silver cross, and a picture of the cruci- fixion— crucifixes had not yet been invented — and chanting a litany. The interview took place in the open air, for the king feared that the missionaries might otherwise practise magic arts on him.6
Augustine addressed the king by means of an interpreter, explaining the purpose of their coming and the message they brought. When he had ended, Ethelbert replied in a manner which showed his good sense and tolerance : " Your words and promises are very fair, but they are new to us and of un- certain meaning. I cannot approve of them so far as to forsake what I have so long followed, with the whole English nation. But because you are come from far into my kingdom, and as I conceive are desirous to impart to us those things which you believe to be true and most beneficial, we will not molest you, but give you favourable entertainment and take care to supply you with your necessary sustenance, nor do we forbid you to preach, and gain as many as you can to your religion."7
With the king's permission the monks proceeded to Canter- bury, which they entered in procession chanting the litany. They were allowed to take possession of St. Martin's Church, on the east side of the city, a Roman or British building which had been assigned to Queen Bertha, and reconsecrated by Luidhard.8 The self-denying and pious life led by the Italian monks rapidly influenced the people of Kent and
0 Bede's Eccles. Hist., I. 25. » Ibid. 8 Ibid.
12
Augustine
disposed them to receive the Christian message. When it became clear to King Ethelbert that his subjects were not likely to oppose Christianity, he decided to declare himself a Christian, and was baptized on June 2, 597, this being the festival of Whitsuntide. Though he made no attempt to force Christianity on his subjects, a large number of them followed his example, and on the following Christmas Day, no less than 10,000 persons are said to have been baptized.
This large increase in the number of converts neces- sitated more church accommodation, and more clergy. On the site of the old Roman basilica Augustine founded the Benedictine monastery of Christ Church. The church of this monastery was either burnt, or much damaged by the Danes in 1011 (vide Elphege), but was rebuilt by Cnut. It was destroyed by fire in 1067, and the present cathedral of Canterbury built on the same site was begun by Lanfranc in 1070. The other foundation of Augustine was the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, built outside the city.9 To this a cemetery was attached.10 It came to be known later as the monastery of St. Augustine. On its site now stands the missionary college of St. Augustine. King Ethelbert gave up his own palace at Canterbury, to be a residence for the missionaries, and retired to Reculver," at the north-west end of the Isle of Thanet.
Augustine applied to the pope for more clergy, and in 601, other missionaries arrived from Rome. They brought with them valuable gifts, including altar-cloths, vestments, relics and books. Meantime, Augustine, acting under directions received from Pope Gregory, had journeyed to the South of France, and had been ordained " bishop of the English " by Virgilius, Archbishop of Aries, the only French metropolitan then in direct communication with the see of Rome. After his consecration, Augustine received from Gregory the Roman pallium, which was brought with other gifts by the new missionaries from Rome.
9 Bede's Eccles. Hist., I. 33.
10 Vita Augustini byGosselin in Anglia Sacra, chapter 15, Wharton's edition.
" Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, Vol. I., p. 454, note ; cf. Stanley's Memorials of Canterbury, pp. 38-42.
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Though Augustine might have rested content with the con- version of the Kentish kingdom, the pope had greater projects in view. From his letters to Augustine, we learn that he had prepared a scheme of complete ecclesiastical organization for England, under twenty-four bishops, twelve of whom were to be subject to Augustine.13 London and not Canterbury was to be the chief diocese, and Gregory intended to create another archiepiscopal see at York. But the great pope did not live to carry out these projects.
In 604, a see to which Justus was consecrated the first bishop was established at Rochester.13 Shortly before this, news had reached Augustine that Sabert, King of Essex, the nephew of Ethelbert, desired that the Christian faith might be preached in his kingdom. Missionaries were accordingly sent thither, and one of them named Mellitus was afterwards consecrated by Augustine to the see of London.14
It was the earnest desire of Augustine and Ethelbert that the Kentish Church should unite with the Church already existing in Britain in order to spread Christianity through- out the country. Augustine accordingly journeyed across Wessex to the borders of the Hwiccas, and summoned the Welsh clergy to a conference at a place afterwards called Augustine's Oak, which is generally identified with Aust in Gloucestershire.15
The usage of the British Church differed from the Roman in the time of keeping Easter, in the ritual used at baptism, and in certain other points. Augustine demanded that the Welsh bishops should conform to the Roman usage, but he appears to have shown little capacity for conciliating them. At the first meeting he called on them to unite with him for the conversion of the heathen, but as a condition of the union, he insisted that they should keep Easter at the same time as the Roman Church. A long discussion took place, but the British bishops were disinclined to give way to Augustine. At length, to put an end to the tedious contention, Augustine is said to have proposed that some infirm person be brought, and that the faith and practice of those by whose prayers he was healed should be looked upon as acceptable to God.
" Bede's Eccles. Hist., I. 29. 1 Ibid, Bk. II., 3.
M Ibid. '5 Ibid, II. 2, and note.
14
Augustine
To this the British bishops consented, though with some reluctance.
A blind man, an Anglo-Saxon, was accordingly brought and having been presented to the British priests, found no benefit or cure from their ministry. Augustine then prayed earnestly to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that sight might be restored to the blind man, so that " by the corporal enlightening of one man the light of spiritual grace might be kindled in the hearts of many of the faithful." Immediately, the blind man received sight, and the truth of Augustine's doctrine was acknowledged.16
It is highly probable that this story is a fabrication, derived from some monkish tradition. Though the British bishops are said to have been much impressed by the miracle, they still declined to depart from their own customs without the consent of their people. It was therefore, agreed to hold a second conference at which more of their number should be present.
The second synod was attended by seven British bishops and many learned monks from the celebrated monastery of Bangor Iscoed in Flintshire, over which Abbot Dinooth is said to have presided at that time. Before repairing to the place of meeting the British bishops went to consult a wise and holy hermit regarding their plan of action. They inquired whether he would advise them to forsake their ancient traditions in order to obey Augustine. The hermit replied that if Augustine was a man of God, it would be wise to follow him. " How shall we know if he be a man of God ? " they asked. The hermit replied, that a man of God would be known by his meekness and lowliness of heart, and that they would be wise to reject the words of one who was proud and haughty. The British bishops accordingly agreed that they would permit Augustine to arrive first at the place of meeting. If he rose up to receive them they would agree to his proposals and accept him as their leader. But if he remained seated, they would reject him.
When they approached Augustine was seated in a chair, where he calmly remained throughout the meeting. The bishops, justly indignant, refused to yield to him in any way, believing that if he could thus treat them while they were
,6 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 2.
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his equals, he would show them still less respect if he were acknowledged as their superior.17 Augustine denounced their disobedience, and after warning them that they might expect to be visited by the Divine wrath, he returned in great indignation to Canterbury.
In his letters to Pope Gregory, Augustine addressed a number of queries concerning doubtful points of Church discipline. The questions raised represent him as a pains- taking official, who found difficulty in adapting his principles to his altered circumstances, rather than as a prelate of ability. The wise and sympathetic replies sent by Pope Gregory to the these queries are quoted at great length by Bede.18
The last of Augustine's recorded acts is his ordination of the two bishops already mentioned, Justus and Mellitus. The exact date of his death has been disputed by recent writers, but it is generally given as May 26, 604, a few months after that of his distinguished friend and patron, Pope Gregory the Great. He was buried in the cemetery attached to the Church of SS. Peter and Paul. His festival occurs in the Roman calendar on May 28.
Though his history shows him to have been in no way remarkable, and to have been singularly wanting in tact and conciliatory power, he was much beloved and reverenced by his contemporaries, and his memory was cherished long after his death.
In Bede's time, the following epitaph existed on the tomb of St. Augustine in the church of SS. Peter and Paul, Canter- bury :
Hie requiescit dominus Augustinus Dorovernensis Archi- episcopus primus, qui olinVhuc a beato Gregorio Romanae urbis pontifice directus, et a Deo operatione miraculorum suffultus, ^Ddilberctum regem ac gentem illius ab idolorum cultu ad Christi fidem perduxit, et completis in pace diebus officii sui, defunctus est, septimo Kalendas Junias, eodem rege regnante.19
«? Cf. Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 3. l8 I. 27.
«» Ibid., II. 3-
16
2.— LAURENTIUS, 604 to 619.
Ethelbert, King of Kent, to 616. Eadbald, King of Kent, 616 to 640.
A few months before his death, Augustine had ordained as his successor one out of the faithful band who had accom- panied him from Rome. This step had been doubtless taken in order to prevent the danger which would have arisen to the newly founded Church through the jealousies involved in a new election. His choice had fallen on Lauren tius who, in one of Pope Gregory's epistles to the bishops of Gaul, is described as a presbyter, in contrast to a certain Peter, who is described as a monk.1 That he occupied a position of some prominence among the missionaries is proved by his having been chosen by Augustine in 601 to carry important letters to Rome. On his return, he brought with him a band of new missionaries.
The choice of Augustine seems to have been fully approved by his colleagues, and on his death, Laurentius was immedi- ately consecrated as their archbishop. It is recorded that he lost no time in engaging with indefatigable zeal in the work committed to him.
It was his earnest desire, as it had been that of Augustine, to unite with the British Church, in the work of evangelizing Britain. Towards the British bishops he was apparently disposed to adopt a more conciliatory attitude than that of his predecessor (q.v.), but continued to urge on them the necessity of conforming to the customs of the Roman Church. He wrote to the Irish, or Scots as they were then called,2 in his own name and in that of his colleagues, the bishops of London and Rochester, complaining of the intolerant attitude shown by one of their number towards himself and his followers. The beginning of his epistle is thus quoted by Bede :
" To our most dear brethren the Lords bishops and abbots
1 Cf. Bede's Eccles. Hist., I. 27.
* The Scots were originally an Irish tribe who conquered the Picts and settled in North Britain.
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A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
throughout the kingdom of the Scots, Laurentius, Mellitus and Justus bishops, servants of the servants of God. When the apostolic see, according to the universal custom which it has followed elsewhere, sent us to these western parts to preach to the pagan nations, and it was our lot to come into the island which is called Britain, before we knew them we held the Britons and Scots in great esteem for sanctity, believing that they walked according to the custom of the universal Church. But becoming acquainted with the Britons we thought that the Scots had been better. Now we have learned from Bishop Dagan, who came into the aforesaid island, and from the abbot Columban in Gaul that the Scots in no way differ from the Britons in their walk ; for when Bishop Dagan came to us not only did he refuse to eat at the same table, but even to eat in the same house where we were entertained."3
Laurentius also wrote letters to the British bishops exhorting them to conform to the Roman usage at least in the keeping of Easter. But his attempts to unite with them appear to have been fruitless. The British bishops continued to regard the newcomers as aliens and foreigners, the attitude of Augustine having offended them too deeply to leave any hope of a reconciliation.
Though one eminent writer declares that Mellitus (q.v.) on his return from Rome in 610 brought the pallium to Laurentius,4 there is no authentic evidence that the arch- bishop ever received this symbol of his archiepiscopal office.
In 613, the church of SS. Peter and Paul, founded by Augustine at Canterbury was at length completed, and was solemnly consecrated by Laurentius. King Ethelbert and many of the people of Kent attended the consecration ceremony. After a solemn service in the church the remains of Queen Bertha, Augustine and Luidhard (vide Augustine) were brought from the cemetery and laid to rest within the building.5 This is the last public appearance recorded of the noble King Ethelbert, to whom the English Church owes so
3 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 4. 1 Cf. Anglia Sacra, ed. Wharton, pt. 2, p. 678.
s The name of St. Augustine was gradually attached to the Church and adjoining monastery in place of those of the two great Apostles.
18
Laurentius
much. He died on February 24, 616, and was buried in St. Martin's chapel in the church of SS. Peter and Paul. His death was a severe blow to the Kentish Church, which through his generous protection had been hitherto free from persecution. With the succession of his son Eadbald, who was still a pagan, trouble began.
Ethelbert had left a young widow, and according to a custom of the country Eadbald married his stepmother. The severe rebuke which this marriage drew on him from Laurentius roused his enmity against the archbishop. A party opposed to the missionaries was formed with the king as head, and Laurentius now found his designs thwarted on every side. To add to the misfortunes of the Church, the death of Sabert, the Christian king of Essex, also occurred about this time. Sabert left three sons, who were all pagans, to inherit his kingdom. They were not slow to find a cause of quarrel with Mellitus, Bishop of London. According to Bede6 the three princes claimed the right to attend mass and to partake of the holy sacrament of the altar, although they had not been baptized as Christians. On being refused the consecrated bread they drove Mellitus from his see, and ordered him to quit the country.
Mellitus made his way to Kent, and took counsel with his fellow bishops Laurentius and Justus (of Rochester). The prelates were not disposed to suffer martyrdom, and after due deliberation they decided to leave England. Justus and Mellitus set out for Gaul, and Laurentius prepared to follow them.
On the night before his departure from England, the archbishop kept vigil near the tomb of his predecessor in the church of SS. Peter and Paul. There with tears he poured forth many prayers for the safety of the Church which he was about to desert. Exhausted by weeping he at length fell asleep. In the dead of night there appeared to him in a dream the chief of the apostles, who sternly rebuked and scourged him for his purposed desertion of his flock. " Hast thou forgotten my example," said St. Peter, " who for the sake of the little ones committed to me by Christ endured bonds, stripes, imprisonments and even death on the cross that I might at last be crowned with Him ? "7
6 Eccles. Hist., II. 5. ^ Ibid., II. 6.
A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
When morning broke, Laurentius, deeply moved by the vision, went to Eadbald and showed the marks of the stripes inflicted on him by the Apostle. " Who has dared to inflict scourging on so great a man ? " asked the astonished king. On learning that the archbishop, for his soul's salvation, had suffered these cruel blows at the hands of the Apostle of Christ, he was greatly afraid. Abjuring the worship of idols, and renouncing his unlawful marriage, he received Christian baptism and promoted the interests of the Church to the utmost of his power.8
Modern writers suggest that this story of the scourging is probably a legendary exaggeration of a dream, in which Laurentius imagined himself to have received such discipline from his heavenly visitor, and in compunction he perhaps afterwards inflicted it on himself. The recital of the dream and the visible marks of the penance may have produced a salutary effect on the mind of the king.9
But whatever be the true interpretation of the story, it is certain that the decision of Laurentius to remain in England was followed by the conversion and baptism of Eadbald. The king now gave his support and protection to the Kentish Church, and sent messengers to Gaul to recall Justus and Mellitus.10 The fugitive bishops returned after a year's absence. Justus was restored to the see of Rochester, but the Londoners refused to receive Mellitus. Eadbald had insufficient authority over the people of Essex to force them to receive the bishop against their will, and the see of London remained vacant for nearly forty years.
The last years of the episcopate of Laurentius appear to have been uneventful. He died on February 2, 619, and was buried near the tomb of his predecessor in the north porch of the Church of SS. Peter and Paul11 at Canterbury.
8 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 6 ; cj. Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, a.d. 616.
9 Cf. Bright's Chapters of Early Church Hist., pp. 118-119.
10 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, a.d. 616.
11 St. Augustine's.
20
3.— MELLITUS, 619 to 624. Eadbald, King of Kent, 616 to 640.
Mellitus, who had been driven from the see of London (vide Laurentius), and who had probably resided at Canterbury after his return from Gaul, was chosen archbishop on the death of Laurentius. Of his early life nothing is known save that he was of noble family.1 His designation as abbot in one of Pope Gregory's epistles has led some writers to suppose that he may have succeeded Augustine as abbot of the monastery of St. Andrew on the Caelian Hill in Rome.2 He was leader of the second band of Italian missionaries who were sent by Pope Gregory to Britain, and who accompanied Laurentius (q.v.) on his return from Rome in 601. Those of his companions whose names have been preserved were Justus, who succeeded him as archbishop of Canterbury, Paulinus, who became archbishop of York, and Rufinianus who became the third abbot of St. Augustine's Abbey.
Bede records that with this second band of missionaries, Pope Gregory sent many things that were necessary for the service of the Church, namely, sacred vessels, church orna- ments, vestments for the clergy and relics of martyrs, besides many books.3 Thomas of Elmham, a monk and treasurer of St. Augustine's monastery at Canterbury, writing in the fifteenth century, gives a catalogue of the original library of the monastery brought to England by Mellitus, and states that the books were still preserved at St. Augustine's in his time.4
Pope Gregory showed special interest in the welfare of Mellitus and his associates, for no less than sixteen letters
1 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 7.
2 Cf. Stubbs, art. on Mellitus in Diet, of. Christ. Biog.
3 Bede's Eccles. Hist., I. 29.
•» Historia Monasterii, S. Augustini Cantuariensis, by Thomas of Elmham, ed. Hardwick, p. 96.
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are extant addressed by him on their behalf, to the bishops and rulers of the provinces through which they were to pass. The pope seems to have been longer in hearing from them than he had expected. Some time after their departure he wrote to Mellitus expressing anxiety as to their welfare, and instructing him how to reply to a question of Augustine's concerning the propriety of using heathen temples as places for Christian worship. He advises that after the idols have been destroyed, the buildings, duly consecrated, should be so used.5
The date given on this letter — June 17, 601, is obviously an error, as the letters which Mellitus carried with him to Britain bear the date of June 22 of the same year.
Mellitus, as already recorded, was consecrated bishop of London by Augustine some time before 604. An episcopal see had existed in London in Roman times. Some years before the arrival of Augustine the British bishop of London is said to have fled from the persecution of the heathen English, and to have taken refuge in Wales.
When Christianity had been to some extent established in the Kingdom of the East Saxons through the preaching of Mellitus, King Ethelbert founded the church of St. Paul, in London, on the site of the present cathedral.6 The story that a church was also founded by Ethelbert at Westminster at the same time has insufficient evidence to support it, though it is possible that a British church existed there at an even earlier period.7 About the year 609, Mellitus returned to Rome to consult with Pope Boniface IV. concerning the affairs of the English Church. He was honourably received by the pope and assisted at a council which was then siting in Rome to settle certain questions as to the rule of monasteries. The genuine decrees of this council have not been preserved, those extant being generally considered spurious.8
On his return to England, Mellitus took with him two letters from Pope Boniface, one being addressed to the arch- bishop of Canterbury and the English clergy, and the other to King Ethelbert and the English people. The original
s Bede's Eccles. Hist., I. 30. 6 Ibid., II. 3.
7 Cf. Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, Vol. I., p. 265.
8 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 4.
22
Mellitus
decrees and letters were probably all lost. A fictitious copy of the letter to Ethelbert is extant, in which the pope orders monks to be associated with the clergy of the cathedral church at Canterbury.9 This letter was produced for the first time in the eleventh century in order to support the claims of Canterbury to supremacy over York.
After his election as archbishop of Canterbury in 619, Mellitus laboured with great zeal to spread the gospel message throughout Britain. Though he suffered constantly from gout, he was of a cheerful disposition, and ever despising earthly honour fixed his mind on heavenly things.
Pope Boniface V. addressed letters of exhortation to Mellitus and to Justus, Bishop of Rochester, but the letter to Mellitus appears to have been lost. The extant copy of this letter is believed to be spurious, as are also a number of charters in which the name of Mellitus occurs. Most of these profess to convey grants of land and privileges, from Pope Boniface IV., Eadbald and others to the monastery of St. Augustine.10
It is recorded that one day an alarming fire broke out in Canterbury, and spread with such rapidity that the whole city was in danger of being consumed. Mellitus, who was unable to walk, ordered his servants to carry him to a certain part of the city known as the place of the Four Crowned Martyrs, where the fire raged most fiercely. The archbishop, on being brought thither prayed earnestly and by this means was able to accomplish what strong men had failed to perform by much labour. For the wind which had been blowing from the south and thus spreading the fire through- out the city, suddenly veered to the north, in which direction there were no buildings, so that the flames were extin- guished.11
Mellitus is also recorded to have consecrated a church or chapel, which had been founded by King Eadbald at Canterbury in honour of the Blessed Virgin.12
» Councils and Eccles. Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Vol. III., p. 65.
10 Ibid., p. 71 ; Hist. Monast. S. Augustini Cant., by Thomas of Elmham, ed. Hardwick, p. 129.
11 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 7.
" Hist. Monast. S. Augustini Cant., p. 144.
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In spite of the archbishop's zeal Christianity seems to have made little progress in Britain during this episcopate. Mellitus died on February 24, 624, and was buried near his predecessors in the church of SS. Peter and Paul, at St. Augustine's monastery.
24
4-— JUSTUS, 624 to 627. S.
Eadbald, King of Kent, 6i6^to 640.
The successor of Mellitus in the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury had already attained prominence as bishop of Rochester. As previously recorded, Justus had been one of the second band of missionaries sent by Pope Gregory to Britain, and had been ordained bishop of Rochester by Augustine (q. v.) shortly before the death of the latter. During the persecution under Eadbald of Kent, he had fled to Gaul in company with Mellitus, but returned to his see after the conversion of the king to Christianity (vide Laurentius).
The question whether Justus was a monk or a priest at the time of his arrival in Britain has been debated by certain writers. In the list of donations made by King Ethelbert to the church of St. Andrew, founded by him at Rochester, there is mention of a piece of land called Priestfield, and " all the land between the Medway to the east gate of the town on the south part, and other lands between the wall of the city towards the north part."1 The name of Priestfield has led some writers to infer that Justus was a priest and not a monk (cf. Stubbs in " Diet, of Christ. Biog.," Art. on Justus), though this is contrary to the opinion of Thomas of Elmham, and the other early historians of Canterbury. Justus was probably an aged man at the time of his elevation to the archbishopric.
A letter dated 624 is extant, addressed by Pope Boniface V. to Justus, and was evidently sent along with the pallium, Justus being the first archbishop since Augustine to receive this symbol of the episcopal office. In this letter, which is undoubtedly genuine, the pope commends Justus for the share he had taken in the conversion of Eadbald (vide Laurentius), and gives him the right to ordain bishops.2
1 Wharton's Anglia Sacra, Vol. I., p. 333.
2 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 8.
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Another letter from Boniface V. to Justus is extant, in which the pope gives the primacy of the whole English Church to Canterbury. This letter belongs to a series of ten spurious documents, forged in the interests of the see of Canterbury, and produced for the first time by Lanfranc (q.v.) in 1072, at the Council of London.3
It was doubtless after receiving the first letter from Boni- face that Justus ordained Romanus his successor in the see of Rochester. Romanus was afterwards sent by Justus as his legate to Rome, but was drowned on the way, and thus the see of Rochester again became vacant.4
The great event of Justus's episcopate was the conversion of the Northumbrians to Christianity. Eadbald of Kent had consented to give his sister in marriage to Edwin the powerful pagan king of Northumbria, on condition that she should be allowed the free exercise of her religion. On July 21, 625, Justus ordained as bishop Paulinus, who had accompanied him from Rome, and it was agreed that this prelate should go with the princess Ethelburga to Northumbria.
The first of the Northumbrians to be baptized by Paulinus was Eanfled, the infant daughter whom Ethelburga bore to King Edwin. She with twelve others of her family was baptized on Whitsunday, 626.5 Although in his youth Edwin is said to have come under the influence of Paulinus, whom he met while an exile at the court of Redwald, an East Anglian king, it was not until about two years after his marriage that he decided to accept Christianity. In 627, he summoned a great meeting of his Witan, and asked his counsellors their opinion about the worship of Christ. Strangely enough, Coin, a priest of the pagan worship, is said to have been one of the speakers at this assembly, and to have boldly urged the destruction of the heathen temples.
The beautiful and eloquent speech of an English chief, another speaker at this meeting, has come down the long stream of ages to us. " The present life of man, O king," he said,
3 William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorutn, ed. Hamilton, pp. 49-51 ; cf. Haddan and Stubbs, in Councils and Eccles. Documents relating to Gt. Britain and Ireland, III., 66.
4 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 20. s Ibid. II. 9.
26
Justus
" seems to me in comparison with the time which is unknown to us, like the swift flight of a sparrow through the room where you sit at supper, in winter, with your guests, and a great fire in the midst, and rain and storm without. So the life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before or what is to follow after we are ignorant. If, there- fore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed."6 The result of this meeting was that King Edwin and his counsellors received Christian baptism at York, on Easter day, 627.
The news of Edwin's baptism must have gladdened the heart of the aged archbishop, whose end was approaching. Justus died on 10th November, 627, and was buried in the church of St. Augustine's monastery, by the side of his friends and fellow-labourers, Augustine, Laurentius, and Mellitus.
6 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 13.
27
5.— HONORIUS, 627 (?) to 653.
Eadbald, King of Kent, 616 to 640. Earconbert, King of Kent, 640 to 664.
We have seen that it was originally the intention of Pope Gregory the Great to appoint two English archbishops, one for London and the other for York. Each of these was to have jurisdiction over twelve suffragan bishops, and when a vacancy occurred the new prelate was to be consecrated by his own synod. It was, however, found impossible to carry out this arrangement, For reasons already stated, Canterbury remained the metropolitan see of the south, and in the time of Augustine and his immediate successors only three bishoprics were established in England.
When it became necessary to consecrate Honorius the successor-elect of Justus, there was no bishop in his own diocese to perform the ceremony, the sees of London and Rochester being both vacant (vide Justus). He therefore applied for consecration to Paulinus of York, who was then the only bishop in the English Church. The prelates met at Lincoln, where Honorius was consecrated fifth archbishop of Canterbury. The ceremony took place in a stone church, erected by Blecca, the governor of Lincoln, who had been converted to Christianity by the preaching of Paulinus.1 The exact date of the consecration of Honorius has not been ascertained, but it was probably early in the year 628.
Of the early life of Honorius nothing is known, save that he was a pupil of Pope Gregory the Great, and had accom- panied Augustine from Rome. A letter dated 634 was addressed by Pope Honorius I. to Archbishop Honorius, and was sent to England along with two pallia, one for Honorius and the other for Paulinus, who was thus recognized as first bishop of York. In this letter, which is undoubtedly genuine, the pope granted equal authority
1 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 16.
28
Honorius
to the two bishops, and the right of each to appoint the other's successor in case of a vacancy.2 The pope also wrote at the same time to Edwin of Northumbria, congratula- ting the king on his conversion, and mentioning that he had bestowed pallia on Honorius and Paulinus.3 Another letter from Pope Honorius I. to Archbishop Honorius is quoted by William of Malmesbury,4 but, like others of the same series, its authenticity is questionable (Vide Justus). In this letter the pope grants the supremacy to Canterbury, though it is obviously improbable that he should have thus contradicted the regulations made in his first letter.
King Edwin never received the pope's letter, for, though news of his death had not reached Rome, he had been slain by Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, at the battle of Hatfield in Yorkshire, in the previous year. His death involved the downfall of the Christian Church in Northumbria. Penda marched through the country with his pagan army burning and slaying with horrible barbarity. The Christian churches were destroyed and Paulinus, in company with the widowed Queen Ethelburga and her children, fled to Kent.5 There the queen remained for the rest of her days, and died abbess of the convent of Lyminge, which she had founded, seven miles from Folkestone. Honorius received Paulinus with much honour, and soon afterwards, with the consent of King Eadbald, consecrated him to the vacant see of Rochester.6
Fortunately, however, Christianity had not become wholly extinct in Northumbria. A certain deacon named James, who had been associated with Paulinus in his missionary work, remained faithfully at his post, and risking death at the hands of the pagan conqueror, continued to teach and baptize, rescuing many from the power of evil. James was a skilful musician, and after the re-establishment of Chris- tianity in Northumbria, introduced singing in the churches, according to the Roman custom.7
In the year following the death of Edwin, a Christian king named Oswald, who had spent his youth in the Scottish
1 Bede's Eccles. Hist. II. 18. 3 Ibid.
* De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, ed. Hamilton, pp. 49-51.
s Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, a.d. 633.
6 Bede's Eccles. Hist., II. 20. » Ibid.
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A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
monastery of Iona, succeeded to the throne of Northumbria. Oswald having sent to Iona for a missionary, a Celtic monk named Aidan came in the year 635. Aidan established his see in the little island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland, afterwards known as Holy Isle. Of his unselfish and loving labour there are many records carefully preserved even by the monks and clergy of the English Church, though the Celtic bishops still refused to communicate with the former or to adopt their customs. Aidan and King Oswald laboured together as devoted friends for eight years, until Oswald's defeat and death at the hands of the merciless Penda. An ancient legend tells that Oswald's right hand, which had been blessed by Aidan for its almsgiving to the poor, was found on the field of battle, was kept as a relic, and remained for ever uncorrupted.8 The truth underlying this legend is that the memory of Oswald's gentle charity is with us to-day undimmed by time.
Meantime, Christianity had been established in East Anglia, Sigebert, King of the East Angles, when in exile in France, had been converted to the Christian faith. With his approval, Felix, a bishop from Burgundy, was consecrated by Archbishop Honorius, and sent to preach to the East Angles. A see was assigned to Felix at a place called Dunwich, which no longer exists, having been overwhelmed by the sea. The town of Felixstowe, " the dwelling of Felix," on the Suffolk coast,9 is said to be named after him.
In the year 633, with the sanction of the Roman see, a new mission under an Italian named Birinus arrived in England. Communication with Rome seems at this time to have been customary only at rare intervals, and the idea may have existed in Italy that the Canterbury mission had been a failure. There is indeed strong evidence that the first Italian missionaries were lacking in courage and energy and, having little in common with the rude English among whom they laboured, were apt to over-estimate the difficulty of enlarging the boundaries of the Kentish Church. None the less, in spite of their errors, their genuine piety, charity and devotion were long remembered with gratitude by the English people.
8 Bede's Eccles. Hist., III. 6.
9 Cf. Note to Bede's Eccles. Hist., ed. Bohn, p. 99.
30
Honorius
Birinus had received consecration from Asterius, Bishop of Genoa, and had landed in Britain with the intention of preach- ing Christianity in the midland regions. On finding, however, that the gospel had not yet been preached in Wessex, he deter- mined to remain there. In a short time, Cynegils, King of Wessex was baptized, King Oswald of Northumbria, who had come to Wessex on a visit, being present at the ceremony and standing as his godfather. To Birinus was assigned the see of Dorchester10 (eight-and-a-half miles from Oxford) from which afterwards arose the bishopric of Lincoln. The see of Winchester was founded in the time of Agilbert, the successor of Birinus."
In 640, occurred the death of Eadbald, King of Kent, who since his conversion had proved a true friend to the English Church. His son and successor, Earconbert, was the first English king to issue a degree for the destruction of idols within his kingdom. He also commanded that the Lenten fast of forty days should be strictly observed, and imposed penalties on those who neglected it.12
On the death of Paulinus, in 644, Honorius consecrated to the see of Rochester, Ithamar, a native of Kent, the first Englishman to be made a bishop.13 It is recorded of Honorius that he ordained two East Anglian bishops, the successors of Felix, but there is no evidence that he otherwise exercised jurisdiction beyond Kent. He was probably an aged man at the time of his death, which occurred on September 30, 653. He was buried in the church of St. Augustine's monastery at Canterbury.
10 Bede's Eccles. Hist., III. 7.
" Ibid.
12 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, a.d. 640.
«J Bede's Eccles. Hist., III. 14.
31
6.— DEUSDEDIT, 655 to 664.
Oswy, King of Northumbria, 643 to 671. Earconbert, King of Kent, 640 to 664.
The death of Honorius was followed by a vacancy of eighteen months in the see of Canterbury. The difficulty in appointing a new archbishop was doubtless due to the state of disunion which then existed among the English churches. Until the beginning of 664, the whole of Christian England, except Kent, East Anglia, Wessex and Sussex, remained attached to the Celtic communion. Wessex, which had been Christianized by a mission from Gaul (vide Honorius), was still under bishops ordained abroad, who were in communion with the Celtic Church. Sussex meantime was still heathen. Thus Kent and East Anglia alone were completely in com- munion with both Rome and Canterbury.1
This state of matters rendered impossible the choice of an archbishop who would satisfy all parties. The vacancy continued until March 655, when the clergy and monks of Canterbury, with the consent of King Earconbert, chose as their archbishop a West Saxon named Frithonas,2 the first English- man to occupy the chair of Augustine. Of his previous life nothing is known, but it seems probable that he had been converted to Christianity by the mission under Birinus (vide Honorius). On his election, he took the name of Deusdedit, probably in the hope of avoiding any offence that might be caused by the choice of an Englishman. His consecration took place at Canterbury, on April 26, 655, the ceremony being performed by Ithamar, Bishop of Rochester, who was also an Englishman.
Of the acts of Deusdedit, very little is recorded and it seems evident that he had no great share in the general life and work
1 Councils and Eccles. Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, III. 106.
2 Hist. Monast. S. Augustini Cant., by Thomas of Elmham, p. 193.
32
Deusdedit
of the Church. Bright describes the primacy of this time as "a force lying dormant until the epoch that was to awake it into energy."3
In the year 657, Deusdedit, at the invitation of Wulfhere, King of Mercia, went to Medeshamstede (Peterborough), and consecrated the new monastery which had been founded there by the king's brother Peada, and by King Oswy of Northumbria. The bishops of Rochester, London, Lindis- farne, and Mercia, were present at the ceremony, as well as the king and royal family of Mercia, and a large number of clergy and nobles from all parts of the country.4
It is also recorded that Deusdedit consecrated a convent with seventy nuns in the Isle of Thanet,5 but certain legendary details given in connection with this story have caused modern writers to doubt its authenticity.
Of the six or seven bishops elected in England, in the epis- copate of Deusdedit, only one, Damianus of Rochester, was consecrated by him, the others receiving the rite from Celtic or French bishops.6 When Wilfrid, the most famous church- man of his age, was elected bishop of Northumbria, he journeyed to Gaul to receive consecration, refusing to receive it from Deusdedit on the ground that he had been in connection with the Celtic party.7
The synod of Whitby was held towards the close of Deus- dedit's episcopate, but there is no evidence that he was even represented at this important conference. As his death occurred shortly afterwards he may have been prevented by illness from being present. The synod was convened chiefly through the zeal of Wilfrid, then abbot of Ripon, the object of it being to consider the questions which divided the Celtic and English Churches, and if possible, to put an end to the schism. The conference was held at the convent of Streons- halch, afterwards called Whitby, over which the Abbess Hilda presided. It was almost entirely a Northumbrian gathering, except for Cedd the Celtic bishop of London, who had been attracted thither by his connection with the north. King
3 Chapters of Early Church Hist., p. 199. < Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 657.
s Simeon of Durham, De Gestis Regum Ang. ; cf. Monumenta Historica Britannica, ed. Petrie and Sharpe, p. 649.
6 Bede's Eccles. Hist., III. passim. 7 Ibid.
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Oswy, of Northumbria, and his son Aldfrid, were present. The Celtic side was represented chiefly by Cedd and by Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne ; the opposite side by Agilbert, Bishop of Dorchester in Oxfordshire, and by Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon. Agilbert deputed Wilfrid to speak for him, and the eloquence of the young abbot won the votes of the assembly in favour of the Roman system.8
Wilfrid was the son of a Northumbrian nobleman, and had been educated in a Celtic monastery. A journey which he made to Rome, and a residence of some years at Lyons had influenced him strongly in favour of the superior culture and civilization of the Roman church. As the chief difference between the Celtic and Roman Churches related to the date of keeping Easter, Wilfrid in an eloquent speech urged that the Roman custom had the authority of St. Peter. The question was then raised whether the date observed by St. Peter was not the one which ought to be kept. After a prolonged discussion, it was finally conceded by the Celtic party that St. Peter being the prince of the Apostles, and the bishop of Rome St. Peter's successor, they were bound to obey the commands of the bishop of Rome. This was an important victory for the Italians. Colman alone refused to comply with the Catholic usage, and withdrew to Scotland. His successor Tuda died a few months later of the pestilence, and Wilfrid was appointed in his place as bishop of North- umbria.
It was probably the same pestilence which had carried off Tuda that caused the death of Deusdedit. He and Earcon- bert, King of Kent, are said to have died on the same day — July 14, 664. He was buried in the porch of St. Augustine's monastery, at Canterbury.
Shortly after the death of Deusdedit, Wighard, an English- man, who had been educated in the monastery at Canterbury, and had acted as chaplain to the late primate was elected arch- bishop. As it was found impossible to select his consecrator without giving offence to one or other of the parties within the church, King Egbert, with the approval of King Oswy of Northumbria, sent him to Rome for consecration by Pope Vitalian.
■ Ibid., III. 25.
34
Deusdedit
Wighard arrived in Rome, but before his consecration could take place he was seized with the plague, and died along with many of his companions. Pope Vitalian then wrote to King Oswy of Northumbria, informing him of the death of Wighard, and stating that he himself would choose a new archbishop for the see of Canterbury.9
9 Ibid., III. 29.
35
7.— THEODORE, 668 to 690.
Egbert, King of Kent, 664 to 673. LoTHAiR, King of Kent, 673 to 685. Oswy, King of Northumbria, 643 to 671. Egfrid, King of Northumbria, 671 to 685. Wulfhere, King of Mercia, 657 to 675. Ethelred, King of Mercia, 675 to 704.
The prelate chosen to succeed Deusdedit is distinguished from his predecessors as being the first able and eminent churchman to occupy the chair of St. Augustine. Though the see had been hitherto filled by prelates of blameless life, their mediocre talents and limited capacity had caused them to sink into the position of provincials, with little or no authority beyond Kent. With the advent of Theodore, Canterbury was to assume a national importance which the see never again wholly lost.
During part of the vacancy of nearly five years, which followed the death of Deusdedit (q.v.), Wilfrid of North- umbria, who had returned from Gaul after a prolonged absence to find his see occupied by Chad, was permitted to exercise episcopal functions in Kent and Mercia. Meantime, Pope Vitalian had taken steps to fill the vacant see, fixing his choice on a certain African named Hadrian, abbot of a Niridian monastery, near Naples. The abbot, however, begged to be excused from accepting so great a dignity, and proposed as a substitute a monk named Theodore, who was then in Rome.1 It was with some reluctance that the pope agreed to Hadrian's choice.
Theodore was a native of the Greek city of Tarsus, in Cilicia, and was born in or about the year 602. He had studied at Athens, and was an excellent Greek and Latin scholar. His knowledge of sacred and profane literature, and of philosophy, had obtained for him the surname of " Philosopher." That he was a man of considerable experience and extraordinary
■ Bede's Eccles. Hist., IV. x.
36
Theodore
energy, in spite of his sixty-six years, is amply proved by his later career. His presence in Rome at that time has not been explained, but modern writers have suggested that he may have come thither in the train of the Emperor Constans II., who visited the pope in 663.*
As the Greek Church was at this time much infected by the Monothelite heresy, Pope Vitalian was somewhat doubtful of the orthodoxy of Theodore, and stipulated as a condition of the arrangement that Hadrian should accompany him to Britain. Theodore was ordained sub-deacon, and as his whole head had been shaven after the Greek manner, he was obliged to wait four months for his hair to grow before receiving the Roman tonsure. He was then rapidly advanced to the higher clerical orders, and on Sunday, March 26, 668, was consecrated archbishop by Pope Vitalian.3
It was not until May 27 of the same year, that Theodore set out for Britain. He was accompanied by Hadrian and by Benedict Biscop, a Northumbrian monk, who was then on a pilgrimage to Rome, and who, at the pope's desire, had con- sented to act as interpreter to the party. They proceeded by sea to Marseilles and thence to Aries, where they delivered commendatory letters from Pope Vitalian to John, Arch- bishop of that city.
John applied to Ebroin, the mayor of the palace, for per- mission for his guests to proceed on their journey. But Ebroin seems to have suspected that they were envoys from the Greek Emperor, engaged in carrying on political intrigues with the kings of Britain. He accordingly detained Hadrian, while permitting Theodore and Benedict Biscop to proceed to Paris. There Theodore was honourably entertained by Agilbert, Bishop of Paris, who had formerly been bishop of the West Saxons (vide Deusdedit). With him, Theodore remained during the winter. At length King Egbert of Kent, hearing that the archbishop was in Paris, sent his high reeve Raedfrith, to conduct him to Britain. Theodore, with his escort, reached the port of Etaples, where he was detained for some time by illness, and it was not until May 27, 669, that he reached Canterbury.4 He was received with great joy by the people
J Cf. Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, vol. L, p. 343.
3 Bede, ibid., IV. 1. « Ibid.
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A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
of Kent who for nearly five years had been without a bishop.
The task which lay before Theodore was no light one. Though the English and Celtic Churches had been nominally reconciled at the synod of Whitby (vide Deusdedit), the jealousies and petty strife which their disputes had originated had not yet died out between the different parties. Theodore at the age of sixty-seven began his work with a vigour and energy which would have been remarkable even in a man in the prime of life. His first work was to visit all the Christian churches in England. On the journey he was accompanied by Hadrian, who had been permitted to join him soon after his arrival in England. Benedict Biscop, whom he had appointed abbot of St. Augustine's, remained in Canterbury.5
Wherever he went the archbishop was well received, and honourably entertained. The fact that he had been sent directly from the pope served to increase his authority. He insisted that the Roman usages should be observed everywhere, and refused to recognize bishops who had been consecrated by Britons or Scots, unless they consented to receive re-con- secration from himself. He found all the English bishoprics vacant except London and Northumbria, and in the latter Chad and Wilfrid were rival claimants for the see. He, therefore, consecrated a number of new bishops, and as the existing dioceses were very large he determined to sub-divide them.6
Theodore's experience in ecclesiastical government had taught him the importance of synodical action for promoting unity in the Church. On September 24, 673, he convened at Hertford, the first council, properly so called, of the English Church. This meeting was attended by bishops from all parts of England and is of extreme importance as being the first of our national gatherings for general legislation. National unity thus became possible first in the Church, for it was not until a much later time that the men of Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex, learned to come together in the Witenagemot of all England.7
s Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, a.d. 669.
6 Bede, ibid., IV. 2.
i Cf. Green's Making of England, Vol. II., p. 97.
38
Theodore
At the council of Hertford, ten canons were drawn up by Theodore, and nine of these were unanimously passed and signed by the assembled bishops. They decreed (i) that the Roman Easter should be kept. (2) That no bishop should interfere in the diocese of another. (3) That monasteries should be free from episcopal interference. (4) That monks should not wander from their own monasteries, (5) nor clergy from their own dioceses. (6) That clergy should not offi- ciate in dioceses other than their own, without the consent of the bishop. (7) That synods should meet at least once a year, and if possible twice, at a place called Clovesho, which has not been identified, but which was probably either in Kent or on the borders of Mercia. (8) That bishops should take rank according to the date of their consecration. (9) That new bishoprics should be created as the number of Christians increased. The decision on this point was deferred, as Theodore was unable to obtain the general consent of the bishops to a division of their dioceses. (10) That divorce should be granted only according to the rules laid down in the Scriptures.8 With the passing of these canons a general system of discipline commenced in the English Church.
Theodore had determined to sub-divide all the English dioceses except Kent and London. Although in this work he met with considerable opposition, he succeeded in carrying it out, except in Wessex, which, for some reason not clearly stated, remained undivided until the time of his successor. He appears to have made the divisions which he saw to be necessary entirely on his own authority. The difficulties which he had to overcome have not been fully recorded, but it is evident that he came into conflict with several bishops over the question, and we learn that, on one occasion at least, he did not hesitate to depose a bishop for insubordination.9
Though Theodore was a born organizer he sometimes carried out his reforms in an arbitrary and inconsiderate fashion. This appears to have been the case in Northumbria. In 669, Theodore had translated Chad to Mercia and restored Wilfrid to the bishopric of Northumbria. For a time Wilfrid enjoyed the favour of King Egfrid of Northumbria, and became the spiritual adviser of Queen Etheldreda, whom
8 Bede, ibid., IV. 5. 9 ibid. IV.. 28.
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A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
he unwisely encouraged to live as a virgin apart from her husband. In 672, he gave her the veil. This caused him to lose favour with Egfrid, who had long been jealous of his power and wealth, and whose second wife, Irminburga, became his formidable enemy.
In 678, Egfrid invited Archbishop Theodore to visit him, and without consulting Wilfrid they decided to divide North- umbria into four dioceses, namely Bernicia, Deira, Lindsey, and York — Wilfrid retaining York only. Wilfrid, justly indignant that he had not been consulted with [regard to the division, refused to agree to it, and was forced to leave the country. He journeyed to Rome to make his appeal to pope Agatho against Theodore. The Pope decreed that Wilfrid should be reinstated in the see of York only, but that he should be permitted to chose the bishops himself for the new dioceses of Northumbria. He returned to England, but owing to the enmity of King Egfrid the pope's order was not carried out until the year 686. I0
In Easter week, 680, Pope Agatho held a council in Rome, to confer concerning the Monothelite heresy. Archbishop Theodore had been invited to attend this council but declined to undertake the journey, probably on account of his advanced age. The fact that his enemy Wilfrid was then in Rome, may have also deterred him from accepting the invitation. At this council the pope decided to send as his envoy to England the Abbot John, in order that he might elicit from the English churches, a declaration of their orthodoxy.11
Though Theodore had seen fit to ignore the pope's orders with regard to Wilfrid, he was anxious to prove to His Holiness that the English churches were entirely free from any taint of heresy. In September of the same year he assembled, at the pope's desire, a council at Hatfield, in Herts, at which the papal envoy was present. The assembled bishops were unanimous in solemnly declaring full adherence to the Catholic faith, and John was given a copy of their profession to carry back to the pope.12
In 679, Theodore succeeded in bringing about a reconcilia- tion between King Egfrid of Northumbria and King
10 Bede, IV., passim. " Bede, ibid. IV., 18.
12 Hadden and Stubbs, Councils, Vol. III., p. 141.
40
Theodore
Ethelred of Mercia, thus putting an end to the war which had long raged between the two kingdoms.13
Concerning Theodore, an anecdote has been preserved, which serves to show that his somewhat arbitrary character was tinged with kindliness and humour. The holy and venerable Bishop Chad, whom Theodore made bishop of Mercia after deposing him from Northumbria, was accustomed to make long journeys on foot throughout his diocese. As in this res- pect he disobeyed the archbishop's kind command, Theodore on one occasion with his own hands lifted him on horseback, and afterwards obliged him to ride wherever he had need to go.14
In 686, after the death of King Egfrid, Theodore caused Wilfrid to be reinstated in the bishoprics of York and Hexham, and in the abbacy of Ripon. According to Eddius, the bio- grapher of Wilfrid, Theodore acknowledged himself to have been in the wrong, and nominated Wilfrid his successor in the see of Canterbury.15 But this and many other statements made by Eddius, who was one of Wilfrid's clergy, and his devoted admirer, are open to doubt.
The reconciliation with Wilfrid is the last recorded act of Theodore. He died on September 19, 690, and was buried in the church of St. Augustine, Canterbury.
It would be difficult to overestimate the debt which our Church owes to Theodore. " He was," says Dr. Stubbs, " the real founder of the diocesan system in the English Church, and in that work laid the foundation of English national unity."16 His educational reforms were equally important, for he introduced into the English monasteries the learning and culture of the East. With the aid of Benedict Biscop, and of Hadrian who succeeded the former as abbot of St. Augustine's, he established a school in that monastery which became famous throughout Europe, and in which he himself taught. Latin, Greek, music, theology, astronomy, and even medicine, were among the subjects of instruction. Many of Theodore's scholars afterwards rose to eminence in the Church, and others proceeded as missionaries to carry the message of
'3 Bede, ibid., IV., 21. «i Ibid., IV., 3.
•3 Vita. Wilfridi, c. xlii.
,5 Art. on Theodore in Diet, of Christian Biog.
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the gospel to the unconverted parts of France and Germany. Under the influence of Benedict Biscop a great monastic movement took place in England, at this time, and the monas- teries at Wearmouth and Jarrow were founded.17 The state- ment made by Thomas of Elmham, that Theodore established the parochial system in England18 is erroneous, though he certainly paved the way for it.
A remarkable work known as the " Penitential of Theodore " has been preserved. This can only be considered his work in so far as it was drawn up under his eyes and published with his authority. According to the preface, it is a collection of answers given by him to persons questioning him on the sub- ject of penance. In Book II. are added answers to questions on the whole range of ecclesiastical discipline. Most of these were received by a priest named Eodi " of blessed memory," of whom nothing is known. They were edited by a person who gives himself the title of Discipulus Umbrensium, meaning thereby either a native of Northumbria, or more probably an Englishman, of southern birth, who had studied under northern scholars.19 The Penitential of Theodore has been printed in " Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland," Vol. III. pp. 173-213, edited by Haddan and Stubbs.
•* Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, a.d. 682.
18 Hist. Monast. S. Aug. Cant., p. 285.
'9 Cf. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., p. 173.
42
8.— BRIHTWALD, 692 to 731.
Withred, King of Kent, 694 to 725. Eadbert, King of Kent, 725 to 748. Ina, King of Wessex, 688 to 728. Aldfrid, King of Northumbria, 685 to 705. Osred, King of Northumbria, 705 to 716. Ethelred, King of Mercia, 675 to 704.
After the death of Theodore, the see of Canterbury remained vacant for nearly two years, and it was not until July, 692, that Brihtwald or Berctwald, an Englishman, whose name has been variously spelt by different writers, was elected archbishop. At the time of his election he was abbot of the monastery of Reculver, which had been originally a palace of the Kentish kings {vide Augustine). A charter dated 679 has been preserved, in which Hlotheri, King of Kent, granted lands to Abbot Brihtwald and to his monastery.1
William of Malmesbury states that he had been abbot of Glastonbury, but this is evidently an error due to the confusion of Brihtwald with an abbot of similar name, who lived at a later period.2
For some reason which has not been explained, Brihtwald journeyed to France to receive consecration. This was not for lack of bishops in England, but may have been due to the belief that his consecration would have greater weight if performed by the primate of a continental Church.3 The ceremony was performed by Godwin, Archbishop of Lyons, on June 29, 693, and on August 31 Brihtwald was enthroned at Canterbury.
William of Malmesbury quotes two letters of Pope Sergius I.( both dated 693, one being addressed to the kings of Northum- bria, Mercia and East Anglia, and the other to the bishops of Britain. In these Sergius grants the supremacy to Canterbury
1 Kemble, Codex, Dip., I. 16.
1 Cf. Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit., Vol. I., p. 180.
3 Cf. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 228.
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and exhorts the English bishops to obey Brihtwald as they would the pope himself.4 The letters belong, however, to a series already mentioned, of which the authenticity is doubtful (vide Justus).
Brihtwald is recorded to have been present at a Mercian Witanagemot held in 693 at which he attested a grant of land given by Oshere, underking of the Hwiccas, for a nunnery at Penitanham in Worcestershire. The grant was witnessed by Ethelred, King of Mercia, by Brihtwald, and by seven other bishops.5 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that King Withred of Kent, soon after his accession, held a council at Baccancelde (probably Bapchild near Sittingbourne in Kent), at which Archbishop Brihtwald and Tobias, Bishop of Rochester, were present, together with many abbots, clergy and great men of the kingdom. The council was convened for the purpose of promoting certain ecclesiastical reforms, and also to confirm grants made by previous kings to the Kentish churches.6 The archbishop was authorized to fill vacant abbeys. A copy of the document containing the decrees of this council has been preserved and is known as the *' Privilege of Withred."7
In 702, Brihtwald was invited by King Aldfrid, of North- umbria, to preside at a council held at a place called Estrefeld or Onestrefield, probably near Ripon, at which Wilfrid of York was condemned and excommunicated (vide Theodore). Wilfrid had opposed a new subdivision of his diocese and, refusing to submit to the judgment of the king and archbishop, again appealed to the pope. The stubborn old man of seventy once again took the long and perilous journey to Rome, and returned with a second papal mandate for his restoration. But Aldfrid refused to annul the decision of the synod.8
After his return, Wilfrid visited Archbishop Brihtwald at Canterbury. The gentle character of the archbishop dis- posed him to mediate on Wilfrid's behalf, for he desired above
4 Will, of Malmesbury, De Gestis, Pont. Attg., ed. Hamilton,
PP- 53-54-
s Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III. 229. 6 a.d. 694.
"> Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III. 238. 8 Eddius, Vita Wilfridi, c. xlviii.
44
Brihtwald
all things to secure peace for the Church. No steps were taken, however, to reinstate Wilfrid until after the death of King Aldfrid, which occurred in 705. Brihtwald then convened another synod on the east side of the river Nidd, at which Osred, the eight-years-old king of Northumbria, was present. Through the tactful management of the archbishop a com- promise was arranged by which Wilfrid agreed to accept the see of Hexham and the abbey of Ripon.9 He died bishop of Hexham in 709.
Brihtwald showed much zeal for missionary enterprise, and during his episcopate many missionaries went from England to labour among the pagans of Germany. In 692, Wilbrord, who had been trained in Wilfrid's monastery at Ripon and in Ireland, undertook amission, with eleven others, to Frisia. There his labours were very successful, and he was afterwards consecrated archbishop of Utrecht by Pope Sergius I.10
About the same time, an Irish mission under Hewald the White and Hewald the Black went to the mother country of the Saxons.11 Winfred, a young West Saxon monk, better known as Boniface, the name under which he was afterwards consecrated bishop, also began his labours in Germany. In letters of Boniface, which have been preserved, he mentions the encouragement that he received from Brihtwald in his early life.
The Christians of Devon and Cornwall still retained the customs of the Celtic Church. At a West Saxon synod, Brihtwald appointed Aldhelm, Abbot of Glastonbury, to urge conformity to the Roman Easter on the Cornish churches. Aldhelm addressed to Gerunt, Prince of Cornwall, a tactful and courteous letter on the subject. He was the first English- man to write books in Latin, and was the author of a notable work dealing with the error of the Britons in not celebrating Easter at the proper time. This work induced many to conform to the Roman custom."
In 705 Brihtwald carried out a work which had been long deferred, namely the sub-division of the diocese of Wessex. According to one account his predecessor, Theodore (q. v.), had
9 Ibid. I0 Bede's Eccles. Hist. V., 11.
" Ibid., V. 9. " Ibid., V. 18.
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promised that the diocese should remain undivided until after the death of Bishop Hedda. Hedda died in 703, and two years later, Brihtwald divided the diocese, creating a new bishopric at Sherborne, to which Aldhelm was consecrated. To Winchester he appointed a bishop named Daniel.13
An interesting letter has been preserved, written by Brihtwald to Forthere, who succeeded Aldhelm as bishop of Sherborne. In this letter, the archbishop begs Forthere to induce Beorwald, the abbot of Glastonbury, to accept the ransom of one hundred shillings offered for a slave girl by her brother.14
At this time it became the custom for English kings and nobles to make pilgrimages to Rome. In 688, Caedwalla, King of the West Saxons, had set out for Rome, being desirous of receiving baptism in the Church of the Blessed Apostles- There he was baptized on Easter Day, 689, by Pope Sergius I. " And being still in his white garments he fell sick and departed this life to dwell for ever with the blessed in heaven."15 His successor Ina also went to Rome where he embraced the monastic life, and Ethelred, King of Mercia, became a monk in 704.
The famous monastery of Evesham was founded about this time, probably in the year 706.
Brihtwald died of old age in January, 731, having presided over the English Church for the long period of thirty-eight- and-a-half years from the time of his election. He was buried in the abbey church of St. Augustine, Canterbury. Bede states that though Brihtwald could not be compared to his predecessor, the great Theodore, he was learned in the Scrip- tures, and well instructed in ecclesiastical and monastic discipline. He deserves high praise for his missionary zeal, for his love of peace, and for his wise government of the Church during a difficult period of her history.
»i Ibid.
»•» Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury, Vol. I., p. 187,
's Bede's Eccles. Hist., V. 6.
46
9.— TATWIN, 731 to 734.
Eadbert, King of Kent, 725 to 748. Ethelbald, King of Mercia, 716 to 755. Ceolwulf, King of Northumbria, 729 to 737.
Shortly after the death of Brihtwald, Tatwin, an English priest from the Mercian monastery of Bredon, in Worcester- shire, was chosen archbishop. His consecration seems to have been attended with more ceremony than had hitherto been usual in England. It took place at Canterbury on June 10, 731, and was performed by four bishops, namely, Daniel of Winchester, Ingwald of London, Aldwin of Lichfield and Aldwulf of Rochester.1
Dr. Stubbs suggests that as Ethelbald of Mercia was by far the most powerful king in England at this time, he may have had some influence on the appointment of Tatwin, especially as the monastery at Bredon had been endowed by his cousin Eanwulf, grandfather of King Offa.3
Tatwin was probably already aged at the time of his conse- cration. By Bede, whose contemporary he was, he is described as a man renowned for religion and wisdom, and notably learned in sacred writ. Hook in more bombastic language writes of him as a distinguished scholar, poet and divine, a description which the meagre account left of him by his con- temporaries scarcely justifies.
It is probable that Tatwin wrote to Pope Gregory III. informing him of his election to the see of Canterbury, for in 733 he received the pallium from Rome.3 The statement made by certain writers that he journeyed to Rome to receive the pallium rests solely on the authority of a letter quoted by William of Malmesbury, which belongs to the series already mentioned and of which the authenticity is doubtful (vide
1 Bede's Eccles. Hist., V. 23.
3 Art. on Tatwin, in Diet. of. Christ. Biog.
I Bede's Eccles. Hist., Appendix.
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Justus). This letter purports to have been written by Gregory III. to the English bishops. The pope expresses great joy on account of the arrival in Rome of Tatwin, whom he finds to be a man of religion and of the highest integrity. He announces the investiture of Tatwin as Archbishop of Canterbury, and commands all the bishops and clergy of England to be subject to him. He further appoints him primate and guardian of the whole island of Britain, and decrees that the church of Canterbury shall be the mother church.4 The statements made in this letter are inconsistent with the fact that Gregory III. soon afterwards sent the pallium to Egbert, Bishop of York, who was of the royal house of Northumbria.5 (vide Nothelm). It was after the reception of the pallium that Tatwin consecrated two new bishops, Alwig to the see of Lindsey, and Sigfrid to Selsey. The name of Archbishop Tatwin appears attesting a charter dated February 20, 532, by which Ethelbert II., King of Kent, who appears to have ruled along with his brother Eadbert, grants lands to the Abbot Dun at Limanee for the establishment of salt mines.6 From Thomas of Elmham we learn that Tatwin was a dear friend of Albinus, Abbot of St. Augustine's, Can- terbury (vide Nothelm).
A book of forty enigmas written by Tatwin in Latin hexameters is extant — one manuscript copy being preserved in the British Museum, and another in the public library at Cambridge. The work has also been published by Dr. Giles in his " Anecdota Baedae." The forty enigmas are in one com- plete series, the first and last letters of the first line of each forming a double acrostic. Such writings were not uncommon at this period, and seem to have occupied the lighter leisure hours of the Anglo-Saxon monks.7 Wright considers that Tatwin's verses though in no way remarkable, are superior to those of his contemporary Bede. During Tatwin's epis- copate Bede concluded his famous " Ecclesiastical History."
Tatwin died on July 30, 734, and was buried in the abbey church of St. Augustine. His body, with those of other arch- bishops, was transferred to the new cathedral in 1091.
4 De Gestis Pont. Ang., pp 85, 56.
s Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 735. 6 Kemble, Codex Dip., 77.
i Biog. Brit. Lit., Wright, Vol. I., p. 180.
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io.— NOTHELM, 735 to 739.
Eadbert, King of Kent, 725 to 548. Ethelbald, King of Mercia, 716 to 755. Ceolwulf, King of Northumbria, 729 to 737.
The claim of Nothelm, the successor of Tatwin, to be remem- bered by posterity rests chiefly on his connection with the venerable Bede, who, in the preface to his "Ecclesiastical History," makes the following statement : " My principal authority and aid in this work was the learned and reverend abbot Albinus, who, educated in the church of Canterbury, by those venerable and learned men, Archbishop Theodore of blessed memory and the Abbot Hadrian, transmitted to me by Nothelm, the pious priest of the church of London, either in writing or by word of mouth of the same Nothelm, all that he thought worthy of memory that had been done in the province of Kent or the adjacent parts by the disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory, as he had learned the same either from written records or the traditions of his ancestors. The same Nothelm, afterwards going to Rome, having with leave of the present Pope Gregory searched into the archives of the holy Roman Church, found there some epistles of the blessed Pope Gregory and other popes ; and returning home, by the advice of the aforesaid most reverend father Albinus, brought them to me to be inserted in my history."
From this statement we may infer that Nothelm had enjoyed personal intercourse with Bede previous to setting out for Rome. The exact date at which he went to Rome has not been ascertained, but it was evidently during the pontificate of Gregory II., and therefore between the years 715 and 731.
There can be little doubt that Nothelm was in some way specially qualified for the important work of searching and copying the papal documents, though certain errors which appear in Bede's History have been attributed to him by
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Lingard, notably the statement that Augustine (q.v.) was consecrated by Etherius, Bishop of Aries.
Nothelm addressed to Bede thirty questions on the Books of Kings, and Bede's reply is contained in a treatise which is still extant. Of Nothelm's early life nothing is known, but he was certainly of English birth. At the time of his election to the see of Canterbury, he was arch-presbyter of the Church of St. Paul in London.1 The name of his consecrator has not been recorded, but Dr. Stubbs suggests the proba- bility that the ceremony was performed by Egbert of York, who in the same year (735) received the pallium from Pope Gregory III.
Nothelm was to some extent responsible for the erection of York into an archbishopric, for his researches in the Roman archives had revealed the fact that Pope Gregory the Great had fully intended to take this step (vide Augustine). Among Bede's minor works is preserved a long letter which he addressed to Bishop Egbert, giving advice as to the administration of his diocese. As a means of restoring discipline Bede urged him to forward the scheme of Pope Gregory I. to invest the see of York with metropolitan authority. Acting on this advice, with the approval of the kings of Mercia and North- umbria, Egbert applied to Rome for the pallium, which, as already stated, he obtained from Pope Gregory III. in 735. 2 He thus became the second archbishop of York, for since Paulinus none of his predecessors had held a higher title than that of bishop. From Egbert's time there have been two archiepiscopal sees in England.
After receiving the pallium from Pope Gregory III., in 736, Nothelm consecrated three bishops, namely Cuthbert to the see of Hereford, Herewald to Sherborne, and Ethelfrith to Elmham.3 An interesting letter addressed to Nothelm by the English missionary Boniface (vide Brihtwald) who had been made archbishop of Mentz, has been preserved.4 In spite of the favours heaped on him by the pope, Boniface maintained a warm attachment to the English Church. ' ' When
1 Hist. Monast. S. Aug. Cant., by Thomas of Elmham, p. 312.
2 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 735.
3 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III. 330. < Ibid., pp. 335-336.
50
Nothelm
I quitted my native land," he writes, "I went supported by the prayers of your predecessor Archbishop Brihtwald, whose memory will ever be dear to me, and in my wanderings with my brother missionaries I would fain be associated with you in the unity of the Catholic faith, and in the bond of spiritual love." He begs Nothelm to send him a copy of the questions addressed by Augustine to Gregory the Great, with the pope's replies to the same. A document with these questions and replies (vide Augustine) appears to have been brought by Nothelm from Rome.
In 736 or 737, Nothelm held a council attended by nine bishops, at which he ordered the restoration of a charter, conveying certain lands to the Abbess Hrotwari, of the con- vent of Withington, in Gloucestershire.5 The name of Nothelm appears attesting a charter of Eadbert, King of Kent, in 738. 6 Nothelm died on October 17, 739, and was buried near his predecessors, in the abbey church of St. Augustine, Canterbury.
Thomas of Elmham, writing of Nothelm's well-known sanctity, indulges in the following play of words : " Eximiae sanctitati optime convenit nomen suum. Dicitur enim Nothelmus, quasi notus almus." Tanner, quoting from Leland declares that Nothelm made use of materials which he brought from Rome to write many books, and gives a list of seven works attributed to him.7 Modern research, how- ever, has proved that these works are supposititious.
5 Ibid. 6 Kemble, Codex. Dip., No. lxxxv.
» Bibliotheca, p. 552.
51
ii.— CUTHBERT, 740 to 758.
Eadbert, King of Kent, 725 to 748. Ethelbald, King of Mercia, 725 to 755. Offa, King of Mercia, 755 to 796.
From the period of the conclusion of Bede's History (734) we are indebted to less trustworthy chronicles for the subsequent history of the Anglo-Saxon Church. For the next hundred years the records are in some cases so meagre and incomplete that the successors of Augustine appear from time to time only as dim and shadowy figures. The register of their suc- cession has, however, been carefully and accurately kept.
A vacancy of some months in the see of Canterbury followed the death of Nothelm. The date is variously stated by differ- ent writers, but it was probably early in the year 740, that Cuthbert, a Mercian of noble birth, was elected archbishop. He had been abbot of the monastery of St. Mary at Lyminge in Kent, from which position he was elected to the see of Hereford in 736, through the favour of King Ethelbald of Mercia. His taste for architecture led him to improve and beautify the cathedral of Hereford, and to complete a magnifi- cent wooden cross begun by his predecessor, Bishop Walstod. Of this cross he afterwards wrote a description in Latin verse, and caused other verses, which he had composed, to be inscribed on a monument erected in memory of his predecessors in the see of Hereford.1 On his translation to the see of Canterbury, he determined for some reason not explained, to proceed to Rome for confirmation of his election. If the statement that he received the pallium from the hands of Pope Gregory III. be correct, he must have reached Rome before November 27, 741, the date of Gregory's death.
The pomp and splendour of the Roman Church made a deep impression on Cuthbert, and he returned to England, imbued with a profound veneration for all things Roman. Shortly
1 Will, of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pont. Ang., p. 299.
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Cuthbert
after his return, he held a synod at Clovesho (vide Theodore), at which Ethelbald, King of Mercia, who then held supremacy over Kent, was present, together with many clergy and wise men of the kingdom. The grant known as the " Privi- lege of Withred" (vide Brihtwald), was confirmed at this meeting, to the churches and monasteries of Kent.3
Another synod, of which the decrees were of considerable importance to the English Church, was convened by Cuthbert at Clovesho, in the year 747. It was attended by eleven bishops, many abbots and other clergy. The archbishop opened the proceedings by reading letters from Pope Zachray, who advised reform in certain matters of ecclesiastical dis- cipline. A list of thirty-one decrees passed at this council have been preserved. They are directed chiefly against the negligence of the clergy, and the secular monasteries, which were at that time in much need of reform. It was decreed that the Paternoster, the Creed and the office of the Mass should be explained in English, and that priests should not take fees for the baptism of infants. The festivals of St. Gregory the Great and St. Augustine were ordered to be kept in England.3 The general result of this council was to bring the English Church into closer union with Rome.
Certain writers, including Thomas of Elmham, declare that this synod was held on the advice of Boniface (vide Brihtwald), the English missionary who had been appointed papal legate for Germany, and who had convened a similar meeting in that country. Recent research, however, has revealed that the German council, to which Boniface refers in a letter addressed to Cuthbert, was held after the council at Clovesho. From the evidence adduced, and considering Boniface's general attitude of humility towards the English Church, it seems more probable that he adopted the articles of the council of Clovesho than that he dictated them.4 He appears, how- ever, to have exercised some influence on the English churches, through his friendship with Cuthbert and other bishops, whom he supported in the desire for closer union with Rome.
- Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 742.
3 Will, of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pont. Ang., p. 8.
« Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, Vol. III., p. 383.
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A letter has been preserved, addressed by Boniface and the bishops of Germany to Ethelbald, of Mercia, in which the king is urged to repent of his profligate life. Boniface also wrote to Egbert, Archbishop of York, thanking him for gifts received, and begging him to urge King Ethelbald to comply with his advice.5
In June, 755, Boniface was martyred by the Frisians, for whose sake he had in his old age resigned his see of Mentz in order to go among them as a simple missionary. On receiving the news of his friend's death, Cuthbert convened a synod at which he decreed that the anniversary of the martyrdom of Boniface should be solemnly kept in the English churches. Cuthbert also wrote to Lullus, the successor of Boniface in the the see of Mentz, informing him of the decision of this synod.6
Up to this time the church of St. Augustine's monastery, which lay outside the city walls, had remained the burial- place of the archbishops of Canterbury, and of the kings of Kent (vide Augustine). This privilege was much valued by the monks of St. Augustine's, as the visits of pilgrims to the shrines, and the miracles said to be wrought there, brought considerable wealth and importance to the monastery. The cathedral of Christ Church had meanwhile been regarded as scarcely equal in dignity to the church of the monastery.
Cuthbert's interest in architecture had, however, led him to enlarge and beautify the cathedral of Christ Church. At the east end he erected a baptistery dedicated to St. John the Baptist. After carrying out these improvements he deter- mined to make the cathedral the burial place of himself and future archbishops. Certain early writers declare, how- ever, that when in Rome Cuthbert had obtained permission from the Pope for him and his successors to be buried within the cathedral of Christ Church.7
He was well aware that such an innovation would meet with violent opposition from the monks of St. Augustine's. One of the later historians of St. Augustine's describes Cuthbert's scheme to deprive the monastery of its privileges as " most deadly, serpentine and even matricidal."8
» Ibid. « Ibid.
7 Gervase of Canterbury's Chronicle, Twysden's edition, p. 1295.
8 Thorn's Chronicle, Twysden's edition, p. 1771.
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Cuthbert
When Cuthbert felt death approaching he summoned the clergy of the cathedral, and revealed to them his design which, however, he advised them to keep secret. A stone coffin was conveyed into the palace, and kept in readiness to receive his remains.
Cuthbert died on October 28, 758, [but his death was not made known until three days later, when the cathedral bell tolled out its solemn knell for the departed spirit. On hearing it, the monks of St. Augustine's, led by their abbot, came as was their custom in slow procession, chanting litanies for the dead, to convey the body of the archbishop to the cemetery. But on reaching the palace they were informed that the archbishop had been buried three days previously, in the cathedral.9 Their rage and dismay drew shouts of triumph from the cathedral clergy. The monks found their threats and storming to be of no avail, and with one exception the archbishops of Canterbury were henceforth to be buried in Christ Church until the Norman Conquest.
9 Ibid, p. 1774.
55
12.— BREGWIN, 759 to 765.
Ethelbert II., King of Kent, 748 to 760. Offa, King of Mercia, 755 to 796.
On the festival of St. Michael, 759, Bregwin, or Bregowine, the son of noble parents living in Old Saxony, was consecrated archbishop in Canterbury Cathedral. He had come to England in his youth to study in one of the schools founded by Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Hadrian.1
There he became a distinguished scholar and teacher, winning respect by his blameless life, and popularity by his courteous and conciliatory temper. On the death of Cuthbert, he was chosen by Ethelbert, King of Kent, to fill the vacant see, and, with the full consent of the clergy, was afterwards unanimously elected in the presence of a large and rejoicing crowd.2 He is said to have received the pallium from Pope Paul 1.3
Though two eleventh century biographies of Bregwin have been preserved, one written by Eadmer and the other by Osbern, both monks of Canterbury, they give no particulars of his life and acts, but consist of the usual stereotyped eulogies concerning his learning and sanctity, and of records of miracles wrought at his tomb. At the time of his election to the archbishopric, Bregwin was probably already aged, and he is said to have pleaded in vain to be excused from undertaking the burden of so high an office. From an extant letter written by him to Lullus, Archbishop of Mentz, it appears that the two prelates had met in Rome, and there enjoyed friendly intercourse.4 But at what period of his life or with what purpose Bregwin visited Rome are unknown.
His name appears attesting certain charters of the period, and he is recorded to have held a synod, at which complaint
1 Vita Bregwini, by Eadmer, in Anglia Sacra, p. 184.
1 Ibid. 3 Ralph de Diceto, in Anglia Sacra, p. 681.
1 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, p. 398.
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Bregwin
was made of the unjust detention of an estate belonging to Christchurch.5 The length of his episcopate is variously stated by different writers, but according to the most reliable anthorities he died on August 25, 765.
There is poetry in Eadmer's description of his death. He tells that the last winter of the old archbishop's life was unusually severe. Snow lay deep and all things were bound hard in the frost, so that plants and animals died in great numbers. " And lo ! when the winter was past, when the rain was over and gone, when the flowers appeared on the earth, and the time of singing of the birds was come, and the voice of the turtle was heard in the land, and the fig-tree was putting forth her green figs, and the vines with their tender grapes gave a pleasant scent, even then a voice came to Bregwin, ' Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, come with me from Lebanon, and receive thy crown.' And the soul of the happy father left this mortal body, and borne by angels ascended to the heavenly Jerusalem, where crowned with the glories pur- chased for him by the Lord Jesus Christ, he abideth for ever."6
Thorn declares that Bregwin in choosing the place of his burial " followed in the vulpine footsteps of his predecessor." Like Cuthbert (q.v.), he ordered that his death should be kept secret until after his burial in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, in Christ Church Cathedral. When the cathedral bell tolled, the Augustinians, who had been on the watch, led by their abbot Jaenbert, and accompanied by a band of armed men, hastened to the palace to secure the body of the deceased prelate. On discovering that they had been again outwitted by the cathedral clergy, for Bregwin's body had already laid in the grave for three days, their indignation knew no bounds. Abbot Jaenbert solemnly declared that he would uphold the rights of his monastery by an appeal to Rome, and steps were immediately taken to carry this into effect7 (vide Jaenbert).
Eadmer solemnly states that though Bregwin wrought no miracles during his life, he could certainly have done so had the necessity arisen, as is proved by those afterwards wrought
s Ibid. 6 Vita Bregwini, p. 186 (Hook's trans.)
7 Hist. Monasti S. Aug. Cant., by Thomas of Elmbam, p. 328.
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at his tomb. In the reign of Henry I., an attempt was made, by a monk named Lambert, to remove Bregwin's remains from Christ Church, but was frustrated by the sudden death of Lambert. It is not surprising to read that Archbishop Bregwin afterwards appeared in a vision to express his indignation at this attempted sacrilege.8
Vita, by Eadmer, p. 188.
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i3.~ JAENBERT (or LAMBERT) 766 to 791.
Off a, King of Mercia, 755 to 796. Cynewulf, King of Wessex, 755 to 784.
The threat of Abbot Jaenbert to uphold the rights of his monastery by an appeal to Rome (vide Bregwin), did not fail to produce some apprehension in the minds of the cathedral clergy. The abbot had shown himself to be a person of unusual capacity and resolution, who would undoubtedly leave no stone unturned to gain his case. It was therefore considered advisable to come to some understanding with him. No details of how this was effected have been preserved. We only know that the quarrel ended with the election of Jaenbert himself to the archiepiscopal see. He was consecrated at Canterbury, on February 2, 766. * The name of his conse- crator has not been recorded. The ceremony may have been performed by Egbert, Archbishop of York, who died on November 19 of the same year. It was probably in the year after his consecration that Jaenbert received the pallium from Pope Paul I.
During the early part of his episcopate he appears to have been on friendly terms with Offa, King of Mercia, who had now gained supremacy over a great part of England, and who was gradually effecting the subjugation of Kent. From a charter dated 774, we learn that Offa bestowed on Jaenbert a grant of land at Higham in Kent.*
For some reason, however, Offa began to look with suspicion on the power wielded by Jaenbert in Kent. At this period the archbishop enjoyed privileges in common with the monarch, for his word, like that of the king, was received in courts of justice as equivalent to his oath, and he had the power to grant a nine days' grace to the offender whose life was sought by the family of a murdered man. In all other respects he
1 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, a.d. 763.
2 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 402.
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was on the same footing as princes of the blood.3 He was the ruler of great estates, which had been granted to his see, and within which he had the right to hold courts, to try, and to execute thieves. He also coined money, with his own name and effigy impressed on it. Though Jaenbert is the first archbishop of Canterbury of whose coinage specimens have been preserved,4 the right probably belonged to archbishops before his time.
The supremacy of Offa was deeply resented by the Kentish nobles, and it seems highly probable that Jaenbert supported them in their schemes for revolt. The story that he was in correspondence with Charlemagne, whom he invited to come to England, to restore liberty to Kent by the overthrow of Offa is, however, founded on insufficient evidence. But whatever may have been the real grounds of his suspicions, Offa determined to limit the arch- bishop's power, by taking the bold step of establishing a new archiepiscopal see in Mercia. This measure was to some extent justified by the fact that Mercia was at least as impor- tant a kingdom as Northumbria, which had become possessed of an archiepiscopal see in the year 735 (vide Nothelm). If the Northumbrians had refused to be ruled by a Kentish bishop, why should the Mercians submit to this indignity ?
The accounts given by different writers of Offa's proceedings in founding the archbishopric of Lichfield, are vague and con- tradictory. He was aware that the foundation of a new archbishopric would be held invalid without the sanction of the Roman see, and it is generally believed to have been in consequence of his application to Pope Hadrian I., that in 786 or 787, two papal legates, George, Bishop of Ostria, and Theophylact, Bishop of Todi, arrived in England.5
They came accompanied by Wighed, an ambassador of Charlemagne, and on their way to the court of Offa visited Jaenbert at Canterbury. What happened during their visit has not been recorded, but as envoys from the pope they were honourably received, not only in Kent, but in the other parts of England whither they journeyed. After spending
3 Lingard, Hist, of the Anglo-Saxon Church, Vol. I., p. 100. * Hawkin's Silver Coins of England, p. 102. 5 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 403.
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Jaenbert (or Lambert)
some time at the court of King Off a, Bishop George proceeded to Northumbria, where he was hospitably entertained by the king and by the archbishop of York. There a synod was held, at which certain ecclesiastical decrees, approved by the legate, were passed.6
After the return of Bishop George to Mercia, King Offa convened a council at a place called Cealchyth, supposed to be Chelsea, near London, which was then held to be within the province of Mercia.7 This council was attended by King Offa and certain of his aldermen, the papal legates, Arch- bishop Jaenbert, twelve bishops, and other clergy. The decrees passed at the Northumbrian council were confirmed. The election of a prelate named Higbert to the new archi- episcopal see at Lichfield was then announced by King Offa. After an angry debate, it was resolved that Higbert should have jurisdiction over all the dioceses hitherto ruled by Canterbury, except Rochester, London, Selsey, Winchester, and Sherborne. Egfert the son of Offa, was then crowned king of Kent.8 The part taken by the legates in these pro- ceedings has not been recorded, but it is certain that after their return to Rome, the pallium was sent by Pope Hadrian I. to Archbishop Higbert. The report which the legates drew up for Pope Hadrian of their proceedings in England has been preserved, and is a document of considerable interest.9
In addition to being deprived of his jurisdiction over a considerable part of Mercia, Jaenbert appears to have been dispossessed of certain lands belonging to his see. At a synod, of which the date is uncertain, he complained of injuries done to Christ Church by the detention of an estate, granted by Ethelbald of Mercia. As we do not hear of Jaenbert's having taken any action for the recovery of his jurisdiction over Mercia, we may infer that he was reluctantly forced to consent to Offa's arrangement. Thus there were for the time being three metropolitan sees in England. Charters exist of the year 788, attested by the archbishops of Canterbury and of Lich- field. During this episcopate the Danes made their first descent upon Britain. In 787 they landed with three ships
6 Ibid., p. 443. 7 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 785.
8 Ibid. 9 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 447.
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in Wessex, and killed the governor of a town, who had endeavoured to defend the citizens.10
The date of Jaenbert's death is uncertain, but it probably occurred on August n or 12, 791. When he felt his end approaching, he requested that he might be carried to the monastery of St. Augustine of which he had been abbot, and to which he desired to restore the ancient privilege of being the burial place of the archbishops (vide Cuthbert). He was, however, the last Anglo-Saxon archbishop to be buried there.
10 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 787.
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14— ETHELHEARD, 791 to 805.
Offa, King of Mercia, 755 to 796. Egfert, King of Mercia, 796 (ruled for 141 days). Kenulf, King of Mercia, 796 to 821. (?) Eadbert Pren, King of Kent, 795 to 798.
Of the early history of Ethelheard or Athelard, who was elected to the see of Canterbury in the year of his predecessor's death, nothing is known. Simeon of Durham states that he was abbot of Hlud, a place which cannot now be identified with any certainty, but which was probably in Mercia. The fact that he owed his promotion to the influence of King Offa, shows that he was either a Mercian, or at least attached to the Mercian interests. William of Malmesbury attempts to identify him with a person of similar name, who was ninth bishop of Winchester and third abbot of Malmesbury, but no reliance can be placed on this statement1.
His consecration was delayed until July 21, 793, probably owing to the unsettled condition of the Kentish Church. The name of his consecrator has not been recorded. Higbert of Lichfield, who, as we have seen had been promoted to the dignity of an archbishop (vide Jaenbert), probably performed the ceremony.
There is evidence that Ethelheard was regarded with favour by Offa, of Mercia, for a letter has been preserved addressed to him by Charles the Great, requesting him to use his influence with the Mercian king on behalf of certain English exiles.2 At the council of Frankfort, convened by Charles the Great, in 794, clergy from Britain were present, though the English Church had taken no share in the iconoclastic con- flict, concerning which the council conferred. It was decreed that neither worship nor adoration was to be given to the images of saints.
In the decrees of a council, held at Clovesho (vide Theodore)
' Cf. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 468. 2 Ibid.
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in the same year, the signature of Archbishop Ethelheard appears after that of Higbert, Archbishop of Lichfield.
On the death of Offa, in 796, the Kentish nobles, who had revolted in the previous year against the supremacy of Mercia, chose a king of their own named Eadbert Pren. Ethelheard, who was attached to the Mercian interests, soon found his position in Kent to be precarious. Fearing that he would be put to death by the Kentish nobles, he deserted his see, and took refuge in Mercia.
The letters of Alcuin, the most remarkable English church- man of his age, throw much light on the history of this period. Alcuin was by birth a Northumbrian, and had been educated in the school of Egbert, Archbishop of York. His distin- guished qualities had attracted the attention of Charles the Great, who invited him to his court, and made him instructor at the palace school, where the king himself was a pupil. Several admonitory letters have been preserved, addressed by Alcuin to Archbishop Ethelheard, and to the clergy and nobles of Kent.3 In one of these Alcuin implores Ethelheard not to desert his flock, and in another, written a year later (798), he advises him to labour to end the schism, and to do penance for having fled from Kent. While in Mercia, Archb shop Ethelheard used his episcopal authority to excommunicate Eadbert Pren, who was in holy orders, and who was declared ineligible to the throne of Kent, on account of his tonsure. In this the archbishop was supported by Pope Leo III., who confirmed the excommunication.
In the same year (798) Eadbert Pren was captured by Kenulf , the new king of Mercia, cruelly mutilated, and carried in chains to Mercia. On the overthrow of Pren, Ethelheard returned to Canterbury. After the death of Offa, the arch- bishop of Lichfield gradually lost his jurisdiction over Mercia, and many Mercian bishops began to return their allegiance to Ethelheard. Kenulf, King of Mercia, who desired to obtain the support of Ethelheard and the people of Kent, decided to restore to the see of Canterbury its original jurisd ction. He accordingly wrote to Pope Leo III. asking permission to take this step. The pope's reply to Kenulf is extant. In it he explains that Pope Hadrian's division of the archbishopric 3 ibid.
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was the result of a petition from the English bishops, which Off a had represented as unanimous. Pope Leo, however, annulled the decree of his predecessor, and declared that the primacy should henceforth belong entirely to Canterbury, as Pope Gregory the Great had decreed.4
King Kenulf then restored to the see of Canterbury the lands and property of which it had been deprived by Offa. Certain difficulties seem to have arisen, however, in restoring to the archbishop his former jurisdiction. On the advice of Alcuin, Ethelheard conferred with Eanbald, Archbishop of York, and it was decided that Ethelheard should go to Rome to make his appeal in person to Pope Leo III. He accordingly sent out in the year 8oi,5 accompanied by Kineberht, Bishop of Winchester, by another bishop whose name has not been recorded, and by two English thanes.
On receiving news that Ethelheard had set out for Rome, Alcuin, who had been made abbot of Tours, sent a servant with a horse and his own saddle, to meet the archbishop and his companions at St. Joss6-sur-mer, near Etaples. In a letter sent by Alcuin at the same time to Ethelheard, he advises him concerning his journey, and invites him to Tours on his return from Rome.6
The mission of Ethelheard to the papal court was attended with complete success. After he left Rome, Pope Leo III. wrote to Kenulf praising the character and ability of the archbishop, and stating that he had restored the rights of the see of Canter- bury. On his return to England, Ethelheard convened a synod at Clovesho, in October 802, when in accordance with the pope's decree the rights of Canterbury were fully acknow- ledged and the metropolitan dignity was withdrawn from Lichfield.7 The wording of the document in which the pope confirmed the primacy to Canterbury is remarkable : " We give this in charge, and sign it with the sign of the cross, that . the see archiepiscopal from this time forward never be in the monastery of Lichfield, nor in any other place but the city of Canterbury, where Christ's Church is ; and where the Catholic faith first shone forth in this island ; and where holy baptism
4 Ibid. s Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, sub arm. 798.
6 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 532. ■> Kemble Cod. Dip., 185.
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was first administered by St. Augustine. . . . But if any dare to rend Christ's garment and to divide the unity of the holy Church of God contrary to the apostolical precepts and ours, let him know that he is eternally damned, unless he make due satisfaction for what he has wickedly done contrary to the canon."8
Ethelheard died on May 8, 805, having enjoyed for nearly three years full jurisdiction south of the Humber. He was buried in Christ Church cathedral, in the chapel of St. John the Baptist. He appears to have been a prelate of considerable energy and resolution. The history of the period during which he governed the see may be considered the most important in our ecclesiastical annals between the death of Bede and the age of Dunstan. Owing to the number of charters, letters, and synodical decrees preserved, it is singularly well illus- trated by documentary evidence.9
8 Wilkin's Concilia, I. 166 (Hook's translation).
9 Cf. Art. on Ethelheard, by Stubbs, in Diet, of Christ. Biog.
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I5-— WULFRED, 805 to 832.
Kenulf, King of Mercia, 796 to 821. (?) Ceolwulf, King of Mercia, 822 to 824. Beornwulf, King of Mercia, 824 to 826. Egbert, King of Wessex, 800 to 839.
Of the early history of Wulfred, who succeeded Ethelheard in the see of Canterbury, nothing is known except that he had been archdeacon under his predecessor. Some writers suppose that the archdeaconry of Canterbury, of which there is no previous mention, was instituted by Ethelheard, and that Wulfred was the first to hold this important office. He was most probably a Kentish man, for extant charters show that he owned much property in Kent. His consecration appears to have taken place early in August, 805, when a synod was sitting at Acle or Oakley, a place supposed to have been about two miles from Canterbury. He was probably consecrated by the assembled bishops, who would go to Canterbury for the ceremony.
In the following year he received the pallium from Rome. According to some accounts he went to Rome to receive it, but this seems on the whole improbable.1 There is evidence that he wielded considerable power in Kent, and was attached to the Kentish interests. Specimens of his coins which have been preserved, show that they were not like those of his predecessor, stamped on the reverse with the name of the Mercian king, but had only the inscription " Dorobernia Civitas," and the name of the moneyer.
In the year 807 Cuthred, who had ruled Kent as viceroy of Mercia, died, and after his death the relations of Wulfred with the Mercian king appear to have become strained. In a letter written by Pope Leo III. to Charles the Great in 808, he remarks on the disagreement which had arisen between Kenulf and the archbishop.2 During the next few years,
■ Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 559. 2 Ibid.
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however, they appear to have kept up an appearance of friendliness on the public occasions on which they met, and business referring to certain grants of sales of land was trans- acted between them. At a Witenagemot held at London in 811, Kenulf sold land in West Kent to Archbishop Wulfred for 126 mancuses.3
In 814 Wulfred, in company with Wigbert, Bishop of Sherborne, set out for Rome "pro negotiis Anglicanae Ecclesise." It is generally supposed that the visit had reference to his disagreement with Kenulf, concerning which he desired to consult Pope Leo III. After his return his relations with the Mercian king appear for a time to have been more friendly.
In 816 an important council was held at Cealchyth or Chelsea (vide Jaenbert), at which Wulfred and Kenulf were present, together with all the bishops and aldermen of the southern province. Eleven canons of discipline were passed. Of these the first contained a declaration of the Christian faith, and the third ordered a stricter observance of the law of charity. The others referred chiefly to matters of ecclesias- tical discipline.4
It was shortly after this meeting that the final rupture took place between Kenulf and the archbishop. Its im- mediate cause was the seizure by Kenulf of the Kentish monasteries of South Minster and Reculver in Thanet. The grounds on which Kenulf based his claim to these monasteries are not stated. The archbishop indignantly resisted the king when he attempted to take possession of the revenues of the monasteries, and Kenulf in revenge is said to have brought false charges against him before the pope. A contemporary chronicle declares that in consequence of the quarrel " the whole English nation was deprived of primordial authority, and of the ministry of holy baptism for six years."5 Some writers have supposed this to mean that the pope placed England under an interdict. More probably, however, it simply implies that through the enmity of the Mercian king, Wulfred was for six years much hindered in the exercise of his episcopal functions.
Once during these years, Kenulf attempted at a council held at London to extort from the archbishop more lands and
3 Ibid. « Ibid. s ibid.
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Wulfred
payments on condition of making peace between him and the pope. To this Wulfred consented, but was again deceived by Kenulf , who retained for three years more the revenues of South Minster and Reculver.
On the death of Kenulf, the estates which he had seized passed to his daughter, the abbess Cwenthritha. After pro- longed litigation and discussion of the case at several councils, Cwenthritha agreed to accept four estates as full compensation for her claims, and a general reconciliation followed. The name of Wu>fred is found in a large number of charters, several of which show that he granted lands to the see of Canterbury. In 813 he caused Christ Church to be restored, and in the same year granted a privilege to the cathedral clergy by which they might have and enjoy the houses which they had constructed by their own labour, with the right to bequeath them at will to inmates of the monastery, on con- dition that they continued to use the dormitory and refectory according to rule.6
In the last charter of Wulfred, he grants for the good of his soul a part of his inherited property of Sheldford near Eastry, to be held after his death by the devout family of Christ Church, on condition that they commemorate him with alms and masses, and keep unchanged all his acts, while doing their best to improve on what he has done for good.7 A charter of Wernherd, the nephew of Wulfred, is also extant, in which, before his death, he restores to the cathedral monastery the lands held by the archbishop's gift. This charter states that Wulfred ordered masses to be said daily for all the benefactors of the monastery, and left a dole of bread and cheese, or bacon and a penny, for 1,200 poor people on his anniversary.8
The document known as the will of Wulfred is witnessed by his successor, and would hence appear to have been drawn up after his death, though the signatures may have been added later in order to confirm it.9
During this episcopate Egbert, King of Wessex, gradually gained the supremacy over all England, and assumed the title of Bretwalda. In 827, Mercia fell entirely into his power,
6 Ibid. 7 Kemble, Cod. Dip., ccxxv.
8 Ibid., ccxxiv. ' Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 577.
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and he was also acknowledged as overlord of Northumbria. Archbishop Wulfred probably welcomed the strong rule of the West Saxon king, for he appears to have been on friendly terms with both Egbert and his son Ethelwulf.
Wulfred died on March 24, 832, and was buried in the cathedral of Christ Church. He appears to have been a prelate of excellent business capacity and an able politician.
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i6.— FEOLOGELD (or THEOLOGILD), 832.
The shadowy figure of Feologeld, the successor of Wulfred, appears next on the page of history. As abbot of a Kentish monastery, Feologeld had attested many charters in the time of Ethelheard and Wulfred from 803 onwards. He was elected to the see of Canterbury, on April 25, 832, one month after the death of his predecessor, and was con- secrated on June 9.
Concerning him or his acts nothing is recorded. We only know that he died on August 30, having ruled the see of Canterbury only three months.1 The cause of his death is unknown.
Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pontificum, II. 348.
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17.— CEOLNOTH, 833 (?) to 870.
Egbert, King of Wessex, 827 to 839 (first overlord of all England). Ethelwulf, King of Wessex, 839 to 858. Ethelbald, King of Wessex, 858 to 860. Ethelbert. King of Wessex, 860 to 866. Ethelred I., King of Wessex, 866 to 871.
Ceolnoth, who succeeded Feologeld in the see of Canterbury, is believed, on slight evidence, to have been a West Saxon, and to have owed his appointment to Egbert of Wessex. The date of his promotion is variously given by different writers. According to Gervase of Canterbury, he was elected on June 29, and consecrated on August 27, 833, but the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" places his ordination in the year 830.
It is to be noted that in the best modern authorities, the chronology followed by the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," and Florence of Worcester has been altered two years at this period, in order to harmonize with the undisputed dates of documents and other certain authorities.
Ceolnoth is said to have been dean of Canterbury, and the statement, if correct, gives us the first mention of that office in the English Church. It is possible, however, that he has been confused with Archbishop Ethelnoth, who bore the title in the eleventh century.1 In the year after his con- secration, Ceolnoth received the pallium from Rome.
One version of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" states that at the election of Ceolnoth, Christ Church, Canterbury, had been visited by a grievous sickness, which carried off all the monks except five. Being unable to find others to replace them, he was forced to admit secular clerks into the monastery. Doubt has been cast on this statement by modern writers, who suppose that the story was invented at a later period to explain the presence of secular clerks in the monasteries.
1 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 610.
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Ceolnoth
In 838 an important council was held at Kingston under Egbert of Wessex and his son Ethelwulf. At this meeting a perpetual treaty of reconciliation and alliance was made between the see of Canterbury and the West Saxon kings. Ceolwulf obtained the restoration of certain lands at Mailing to the church at Canterbury. After the accession of Ethel- wulf this agreement was confirmed by a council of bishops, held at a place called " Astran," in 839. 2
In 857, the Danes seized Canterbury and London, and in 865 a Danish army wintered in Thanet.3 Dean Hook supposes that Ceolnoth induced the Danes to spare Christ Church and the monastery of St. Augustine by coining all the gold and silver in his possession, and giving it to the invaders as a bribe. This he infers from the fact that Ceolnoth was distin- guished for the quantity of money he coined, more specimens of his coins being extant than of any other Anglo-Saxon primate.
During this episcopate King Ethelwulf granted certain famous charters by which he bestowed great benefactions on the Church. These grants have been claimed to represent an endowment of the Church by the State. Modern research has, however, proved conclusively that the Anglo- Saxon king was only a landowner among many others, and Ethelwulf could not therefore have given what was not his to bestow. He appears to have made three separate grants at different times. By the first he released from all taxes except the " trinoda necessitas,"4 a tenth of the enfranchised lands, whether in the tenancy of the Church or of his t anes. Secondly he granted a tenth part of his own private estates to various thanes or to Church establishments. Thirdly, he commanded that on every ten hides of his own land, one poor man, whether native or stranger, should be maintained in food and clothing.
It is clear that none of these grants can be taken to repre- sent a gift of the tithe. He appears to have used the tithe chiefly as a convenient measure for his benefactions to churches and to various charities . The idea that the clergy had a certain claim to the tithe of increase is derived from the customs of
2 Ibid. 3 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
4 Army service, the repair of strongholds, and the repair of bridges.
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the Levitical priesthood, but there is no evidence that it was ever enforced in England in Anglo-Saxon times.5
The name of Ceolnoth appears, attesting over thirty char- ters and other documents of this period.6 Asser7 states that he died in 870, the same year in which King Edmund of East Anglia was martyred by the Danes. He was buried in the cathedral of Christ Church.
The famous St. Swithin, Bishop of Winchester, is recorded to have made his profession of obedience to Ceolnoth in 852.
5 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 636.
6 Kemble, Codex. Dip., Vols. I. and II. 1 Life of King A If red.
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i8.— ETHELRED (or ATHELRED), 870 to 889.
English Kings : Ethelred I, King of Wessex, 866 to 871. Alfred the Great, 871 to 901.
With the reign of Alfred the Great we reach the most eventful and stirring period in Anglo-Saxon history. The part played by the archbishops of Canterbury at this time is, however, obscured, partly on account of the many great events which had to be recorded, and partly because their power counted for little during the Danish wars. All the information we can gather concerning the early history of Ethelred, the successor of Ceolnoth, is that he had been a monk of Canter- bury, and afterwards bishop of Wiltshire.1 But even these statements are open to doubt, being found in a late insertion in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle."
The same passage states that Ethelred, on coming to Canter- bury, desired to dismiss the secular clergy whom he found in the monasteries (vide Ceolnoth), but he was forced to postpone doing so on account of the disturbed condition of the country, and the frequent battles with the Danes. He is said to have journeyed to Rome, to receive the pallium from Pope Hadrian II. Evidently it had now become the custom for archbishops of Canterbury to make this journey after their election.
One writer states that Ethelred consecrated two Welsh bishops, one to the see of St. David's and the other to Llandaff.2 This statement is probably correct, for the princes of South Wales acknowledged King Alfred as their overlord, and Asser, his intimate friend and biographer, was a Welsh bishop.
The news of eight great battles fought in succession against the Danes must have reached Canterbury soon after Ethelred's consecration. Then came the dark months during which the heroic king, a fugitive from his throne, was forced to seek a
1 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 780.
2 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, I., 207.
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hiding place in the marshes of Athelney, while his people believed him to be dead or fled over the seas. The great victory of Ethandune (878), which placed Alfred again upon the throne, was followed by the baptism of Guthrum, the Danish leader, and of the chiefs of his army. The ceremony took place at Aller in Somerset, and it is highly probable that Archbishop Ethelred assisted. He would almost certainly witness the famous treaty afterwards signed at Wedmore between Alfred and the Danish leader.
In the years of peace that followed, Alfred laboured to restore the Christian religion and the love of learning in England. During the Danish wars, many districts had fallen under the influence of paganism, while the influence of the Church was everywhere weakened and in some places had entirely ceased to exist.
The great monasteries which had been the centres of Christian life and learning were well-nigh all destroyed. In the few dioceses which had not disappeared, the bishops were men of scanty learning. With undaunted courage, the great king set himself to the work of restoration. He restored learning in the Church in Wessex by inviting scholars to come from Mercia, Wales, and even from the continent. He re- built the ruined monasteries and established schools. For the young nobles, he founded a court school similar to that which had been established by Charlemagne. To replace the libraries destroyed by the Danes he collected books at Winchester and translated many famous Latin works into English, for the use of his people. By his elaborate code of laws, the Church was guided and governed, and the whole conception of the work of her ministers raised.
Alfred had found his people ignorant, dejected and a prey to heathen enemies. He left them enlightened, delivered, inspired with courage and hope, and struggling upward on a path of progress from which they have never since wholly turned back. " When Alfred died," says Dean Spence, " the Church of England had once more risen from its ruins ; it had won the respect of foreign nations, and was playing an impor- tant and most influential part in the life and hopes of English- men."*
3 Cf. Spence's Hist, oj the Church oj England, I., 391.
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Ethelred
There is little doubt that Ethelred had the honour and privi- lege of assisting the noble-hearted king in carrying out his great designs. The archbishop's name appears attesting the famous document known as Alfred's will, which was first drawn up about the year 885. In 883, Alfred sent embassies with gifts to the Christian churches in Rome and in India. Archbishop Ethelred died on June 30, 889.
77
ig— PLEGMUND, 890 to 914.
English Kings : Alfred the Great, 871 to 901. Edward, the Elder, 901 to 925.
The death of Archbishop Ethelred was followed by a vacancy of some months in the see of Canterbury. King Alfred is said to have desired to promote to the archbishopric the famous scholar Grimbald, who had been a monk of St. Bertin in France, but he declined the honour. The king's choice then fell on Plegmund, who had lived for some years as a hermit on a remote island in Cheshire.
The parish of Plegmundham or Plemstol, about five miles from Chester, is held to have derived its name from this famous hermit.1 At that time the district consisted of an island or marsh land, which is said to have been given by King Ethelwulf to Christ Church, Canterbury. In that lonely spot, surrounded by swamps and stagnant waters, Plegmund, a native of Mercia, who had been driven from his monastery by the Danes, took up his abode. There safe from intrusion he was free to indulge his love for theological study. At what date he left this retreat we are not informed. Asser describes him as a venerable man, endowed with wisdom, and says that he was one of the Mercian scholars whom Alfred invited to his court (vide Ethelred). It therefore seems probable that he resided for some time in Wessex before his appointment to the archbishopric.
An attempt has been made to show that Plegmund was the compiler of the early part of the " Saxon Chronicle," or at least of so much of it as was written by King Alfred's direction, previous to the year 891. The MS. supposed to have been written by Plegmund is now in the library of Corpus Christ i College, Cambridge.8 The only evidence in support of this
1 Gervase of Canterbury's Actus Pontificum, II., 350.
2 Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit., I., 135.
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supposition is that the MS. is written in the Mercian dialect, and that there is a change of handwriting in the year 891.
After his election, Plegmund journeyed to Rome, and was consecrated by Pope Formosus, from whom he also received the pallium. In King Alfred's well-known preface to Pope Gregory's " Regula Pastoralis," he refers to Plegmund as " my archbishop," and acknowledges his help in the trans- lation of the work. A copy of the translation was sent by King Alfred to all the bishops in his kingdom. The copy sent to Plegmund is preserved, though in a much damaged state, in the British Museum.
After the death of Alfred in 901, Plegmund crowned his successor, Edward the Elder, at Kingston. William of Malmes- bury states that in the third year of King Edward's reign, Pope Formosus sent a bull of excommunication to England because for seven years the West Saxon sees had been without bishops. On receiving this document, Edward convened a Witenagemot at which the bull was read by Archbishop Plegmund. It was decided, in order to conciliate His Holi- ness, not only to fill up the three vacant sees, but to erect three new ones in the country of the West Saxons. Plegmund then journeyed to Rome to present this resolution to the pope, who was much gratified by the deference shown to his authority, and willingly withdrew the excommunication. On his return to England in 909, Plegmund consecrated seven bishops in one day, five for Wessex, and the other two for Selsey in Sussex and Dorchester in Mercia. The names of the seven bishops are given.3 This story is considered improbable on account of its anachronisms, for Pope Formosus died in 896, and there are errors in the list of bishops. Several writers, however, refer to Plegmund's second journey to Rome in 908, when he took with him offerings from the king and the people of England to the apostolic see. There is no reason to doubt that after his return he may have consecrated seven bishops in one day.
A more probable motive for his second visit to Rome, may, however, be suggested than that stated by William of Malmes- bury. There existed in the year 896 a party in Rome imbued with a deep and deadly animosity towards the deceased Pope
-1 De Gestis Regum Ang., II. 129.
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Formosus. Pope Stephen VI., his successor, ordered the dead body of the pope to be exhumed after it had lain in the grave for at least nine months, in order that it might be solemnly judged before an ecclesiastical council. The corpse, dressed in the pontifical vestments, was placed on a throne, and a deacon was appointed to act as counsel for the defence. After a mock-trial Pope Stephen ordered the body to be stripped of its sacred vestments. The three fingers of the right hand, with which popes are wont to bestow the benediction, were cut off, and the body was thrown into the Tiber.4 It was also decreed that all the ordinations made by Pope Formosus should be considered invalid.
It is therefore quite probable that Archbishop Plegmund, desiring to have his consecration confirmed by a true and lawful pope, journeyed to Rome for this purpose in the time of Pope Sergius III. On his return, Plegmund brought with him to England the relics of the holy martyr St. Blaise, which he had bought for a large sum of money, and caused them to be deposited in the cathedral at Canterbury.5
The abbey of New Minster, which had been founded by King Alfred at Winchester, was completed by his son Edward in 908, and was consecrated by Plegmund.
Plegmund died in extreme old age on August 2, 914, and was buried in his cathedral church.
* A. E. McKilliam, A Chronicle of the Popes, p. 181. 5 Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pontiftcum, II., 350.
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20. — ATHELM, 914 to 923.
English King : Edward the Elder, 901 to 925.
In the list of seven bishops said to have been ordained in one day by Plegmund (q. v.), appears the name of Athelm, who was consecrated first bishop of Wells. He is said to have been previously a monk of Glastonbury. Athelm belonged to a noble West Saxon family, being the brother of Hoerstan, the father of Dunstan (q. v.). Through the favour of King Edward the Elder, he was translated in 914 to the see of Canterbury, and received the pallium from Pope John X.1
Some confusion seems to have arisen between him and his successor, Wulfhelm, for he is said to have crowned King Athelstan at Kingston. The coronation of Athelstan did not, however, take place until after the death of Athelm. To this confusion is evidently due the statement that his nephew Dunstan resided with him for some time at Canterbury and was by him introduced to the notice of King Athelstan.2 It is certain that Athelm died in the year 923, and according to the majority of writers Dunstan was not born until the following year.
After his translation to Canterbury, Athelm consecrated Wulfhelm (q. v.), his successor in the see of Wells. Though Athelm occupied the metropolitan see for nine years, nothing is known of his acts. He died on January 8, 923.
Anglia Sacra., I., 99.
Vita Sancti Dunstani, by Adelard (Rolls series), p. 55.
8l
2i.— WULFHELM, 923 to 942.
English Kings : Edward the Elder, 901 to 925. Athelstan, 925 to 940.
Wulfhelm, who had succeded Athelm (q. v.) as bishop of Wells, was on the death of the latter chosen to be his successor also in the see of Canterbury. Concerning his early life nothing is recorded. In the year 925 he crowned Athelstan King of England. The ceremony took place at Kingston-on- Thames,1 and was celebrated with unusual magnificence.
Athelstan was the illegitimate son of Edward the Elder, by a woman of humble birth. Though he had been unani- mously elected king by the Witan at Winchester, the necessity for his recognition by the people may have made a splendid public coronation advisable,2 especially as a rival had already appeared in the person of his cousin, Elfred, son of Ethelred I. A Latin MS. of the Gospels, on which the ancient kings of England took their coronation oaths, and which is said to have been the property of King Athelstan, is still preserved in the British Museum.3
Before setting out for Rome to receive the pallium from Pope John X.,4 Wulfhelm is said to have officiated at the marriage of Edith, sister of Athelstan, to Hugh, Count of Paris, the son of Robert I. Concerning Wulfhelm's sojourn in Rome nothing is recorded. The Roman Church was then passing through the period known in history as the "Night of the Papacy," during which a succession of profligate prelates occupied the papal chair. It is remarkable in comparing the records of our Church with the Roman or other continental Churches at the same period, that against the character of the archbishops of Canterbury history brings not the shadow of a charge.
1 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 924.
2 Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, I., 338.
* Ibid. 1 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 927.
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During Wulfstan's episcopate Athelstan published at Grateley, in Hampshire, a code of ecclesiastical laws, which has been preserved. They relate to tithes, the trial by ordeal, and the penalties to be imposed upon false coiners. The code commences as follows : " I, Athelstan, by the advice of Wulfhelm my archbishop, and other my bishops, command all my reeves in the name of the Lord and His saints, that they do in the first place give tithes of all my estate, both of the like stock and of the fruits of the earth, and that all the bishops do the same in all that belongs to them, as also my aldermen and reeves."
At this time, strict laws were enforced with regard to the coinage. Though the archbishops were still permitted to have a mint, they could coin money only at Canterbury, and were not permitted to have it stamped with their effigies.
Wulfhelm died on February 12, 942, and was buried in St. John's Chapel, in Canterbury Cathedral.
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22. — ODO, 942 to 959. S.
English Kings : Athelstan, 925 to 940. Edmund I., 940 to 946. Edred, 946 to 955. Edwy, 955 to 959-
From the outset of his career romance hovers around the figure of Odo the Dane. That the son of a pagan, who belonged to the hated race of Northmen, the cruel enemies of England, should at this period have been deemed worthy to fill the chair of St. Augustine, is a fact sufficient to arouse unusual interest. His father is said to have been a Danish sea-robber, and to have accompanied the army of Hingwar the Dane, who conquered the north of England in 867. He afterwards settled with others of his race in Northumbria or East Anglia.2
It is probable that Odo was born in England, though the year of his birth has not been recorded. When still a youth he was attracted by the preaching of a Christian missionary, and began to attend mass in spite of the opposition of his father, who beat him unmercifully. But the boy, " exulting in the Lord, rejoiced that he was found worthy to suffer for His sake." He was at length disinherited and turned out of his father's house.
Odo found a protector in Athelm, one of King Alfred's nobles, who adopted him, caused him to be baptized, and provided him with an excellent education. He made rapid progress in Latin and Greek, and in the knowledge of divine things.2 At the desire of his patron, though with some reluctance on his own part, he was admitted to the priesthood.
About the year 887, Athelm obtained King Alfred's per- mission to visit Rome, and was commissioned by the king to deliver certain offerings to the pope. He accordingly set
1 Vita Odonis, by Eadmer, in Anglia Sacra., p. 78-81. * Ibid.
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Odo
out, accompanied by Odo, and by a great train of followers. On the way he was stricken with a fever, and became seriously ill. When the whole party had been delayed for some days on account of his illness, Athelm ordered the others to proceed on their journey, but retained Odo with him.
The young priest nursed his benefactor with loving and un- wearied devotion. On a certain night when the fever was at its height, and the soul of the good alderman seemed about to depart, Odo knelt in prayer, earnestly beseeching God to spare the life of his friend. He then administered to the sick man a cup of consecrated wine. To this medicine Athelm's recovery is said to have been due, and he afterwards believed that Odo had wrought a miracle.3 After his recovery the two proceeded to Rome, where they were honourably received by the pope. They visited the holy places of the city, and afterwards returned to England together.
After the death of Athelm, which seems to have occurred soon after his return to England, Odo obtained the favour of King Athelstan and, about the year 927 was made bishop of Ramsbury, in Wiltshire.4 This small diocese merged into that of Salisbury in the eleventh century.
In 936, when the French recalled to the throne Louis d'Outremer, the nephew of Athelstan, who had been brought up in England, the king sent him to France, under the care of Odo, Bishop of Ramsbury. In the following year Odo accompanied King Athelstan to the battle of Brunanburh. There can be little doubt that the bishop of Ramsbury, who was at heart more of a warrior than a priest, fought in that famous battle. William of Malmesbury attempts to prove that in the year 937 Odo had not yet taken orders but this seems on the whole improbable. During a skirmish with the enemy, on the eve of the battle, the king's sword suddenly broke at the hilt. Odo, seeing the king unarmed, rushed to his assistance, and, snatching up another sword, placed it in his sovereign's hand. A legend declares that Odo, hearing the king' s cry for help, approached him in the midst of the fight, and asked what he required. On learning that his sword was broken, the bishop pointed to the king's side. And lo !
3 ibid.
•» Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pontificum (Rolls Series) II., 351, note.
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Athelstan saw his own good sword hanging there unbroken. Thus encouraged in the Lord, Athelstan fought valiantly, and on the following day the battle ended in a great victory for the West Saxons.5
On the death of Archbishop Wulfhelm, in 942, King Edmund, who had succeeded his brother Athelstan, acting probably on the advice of Dunstan (q. v.), proposed to trans- late Odo to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Odo declined the honour, declaring that none but a monk should be made arch- bishop, for thus had Pope Gregory the Great and St. Augustine decreed. The king, clergy and people were unable to move him from this decision. At length, however, he yielded to their entreaties, and either went himself to the famous Benedictine monastery of Fleury in France, or according to another account, sent messengers to invite the abbot of Fleury to come to England.6 Among the stricter clerical party in the English Church, the idea was now gaining ground that no monk was worthy of the name except a Benedictine, and at this time no Benedictine monastery existed in England. In due time, the abbot of Fleury clothed Odo in the habit of a monk, and amid great rejoicing, he was afterwards appointed archbishop of Canterbury. He received the pallium from Agapetus II., who became pope in 946. Odo found the cathedral of Christ Church in a state of dilapidation, partly owing to neglect, and partly to the Danish wars. One of his first works was to cause the old roof to be stripped off, a higher one laid on, and the whole re-covered with lead. The massive piers were also strengthened. These repairs occupied three years, during which time, according to an ancient legend, no rain fell within the cathedral, so that the services were conducted as usual. To the restored edifice the archbishop attracted large crowds of worshippers by his eloquent preaching.7
About the year 950, Odo accompanied King Edred on his expedition against the Danes of Northumbria, when the monastery and town of Ripon were destroyed. The arch- bishop does not appear to have taken any active part in the
I Vita Sancti Oswaldi, by Eadmer (Rolls series), p. 3. 6 William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pont. Aug., p. 20. 1 Vita, by Eadmer.
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campaign. On his return to Canterbury, he brought with him the bones of the famous Wilfrid, Archbishop of York. The historians of York declare, however, that the bones which Odo transported to Canterbury, were those of Wilfrid II., and that the remains of Wilfrid I. were never removed from Ripon. At Odo's request, Frithegode, a learned monk of Canterbury, wrote a metrical life of Wilfrid, which is still extant, with a preface written by Odo himself.
Among the bishops consecrated by Odo was the illustrious Dunstan, his successor, who was appointed to the see of Worcester in 958. Odo also crowned King Edred, and his successor King Edwy. The story of the unfortunate sequel to Edwy's coronation feast is related in the life of Dunstan (q. v.). In 958, Odo pronounced sentence of divorce between King Edwy and Elgifu on the ground that their relationship was within the forbidden degrees.8
It is probable that he had another motive for his action, inasmuch as Elgifu and her mother had used their influence against the Benedictine party in the English Church. The young queen was taken from her husband, and banished to Ireland. The story that Odo caused her face to be branded with a red hot iron, and that after her attempted escape he ordered the sinews of her legs to be cut is unworthy of credit. There is no doubt, however, that Odo's Danish blood showed itself in the harsh and stern manner in which he carried out his monastic reforms, and in the little regard he showed to the misery he inflicted on the secular and married clergy. With Dunstan, whose influence was very great, if not paramount, during the time of Odo's rule at Canterbury, the Danish prelate was in full accord.
A code of ecclesiastical constitutions drawn up by Odo has been preserved. The first part deals with the subject of taxes, which the archbishop declares ought not to be imposed upon the Church of God. In the second part he admonishes kings, princes and all in authority to be obedient to the archbishop and all other bishops, reminding these worldly rulers that to the bishops belong the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the power of binding and loosing. In the third part, he calls on the clergy to set a good example,
8 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
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and on the monks to be faithful to their vows, humble, obedient, and constant in prayer.9 Odo also published certain laws respecting marriage, and the right of widows to their deceased husband's property.10
From a life of Oswald, Archbishop of York, written by Eadmer, in the eleventh century, we learn many particulars concerning Odo. Oswald on his father's side was the nephew of Odo, and was therefore of Danish birth. He was brought up by his uncle, who appointed the learned monk Frithegode to be his tutor. Oswald was made a canon of Winchester, and later, dean. Being much troubled on account of the laxity of morals among the cathedral clergy, he sought the advice of his uncle, and revealed to him his desire to become a monk. At this Odo was overjoyed and advised him to go to Fleury to study. He accordingly went to France, and remained in the famous monastery for some years. In 959, when Odo felt his end approaching, he sent a message to Fleury, asking his nephew Oswald to come to him, Oswald set out, but, on landing in England, was met by messengers with the news of his uncle's death.
Odo died on June 2, 959. He was buried on the south side of the altar in the cathedral church, in a tomb that was built in the shape of a pyramid. Lanfranc (q. v.) translated his remains to the chapel of the Holy Trinity, and in 1180, they were placed beneath the feretory of St. Dunstan.
" The part played by Odo," says Bishop Stubbs, " in the government of the country has been obscured by the glory of the younger men, and by the fact that his life was not written until a century and a half after his death. It is, however., certain that he did nothing to thwart the policy of Dunstan, and enough of his ecclesiastical legislation remains to show that in a determination to enforce the observance of both monastic vows and the laws of marriage he came in no degree behind his more famous successor.""
9 Wilkin's Concilia, I., 212-214. I0 Ibid., 216.
" Memorials oj St. Dunstan, Introd. lxxxvii.
23 — DUNSTAN, 940 to 988. S.
English Kings : Athelstan, 925. Edmund L, 940. Eadred, 946. Edwy, 955. Edgar, 959.
Edward the Martyr, 975. Ethelred II., the Unready, 979.
To few places in England has historical interest been attached, for different reasons, throughout so many generations, as to Glastonbury in Somerset. The town lies in the midst of orchards and water-meadows, reclaimed from the fens which encircled Glastonbury Tor, a conical height, once an island, but now with the surrounding flats a peninsula washed on three sides by the river Brue.
According to a legend preserved by William of Malmesbury, Joseph of Arimathaea was sent to Britain by St. Philip, and, having been granted a small island in Somersetshire, there constructed with twisted twigs the first Christian church in Britain. On the site of this church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was to rise many centuries later the famous abbey of Glastonbury,1 The legend also relates that Joseph's staff planted in the ground became a thorn, flowering twice a year. The famous plant known as the Glastonbury thorn is still found in some parts of the country.
From the clearness of the water with which the island was surrounded, it is said to have derived its name of Glassy Isle. By the Romans it was called Avalonia, a name supposed to be derived from a Welsh word meaning " apple," in which fruit it abounded. Tradition declared it to have been the burial place of the great British King Arthur.
Later, the place became a favourite resort of Irish pilgrims, for it was believed, probably erroneously, to be the burial
' Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, Vol. I., p. 1.
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place of many Irish saints, including St. Patrick the younger. Irish scholars also took up their abode there, and built a school. To this ancient town of Glastonbury, hallowed by so many holy traditions, our present interest is attached by its being the birth-place of the famous prelate whose history we are about to relate.
The date of Dunstan's birth is uncertain, but it probably took place somewhat earlier than 925, the year usually assigned to it.2 He was the son of noble parents, Hoerstan and Cynsthryth, both closely connected with the royal house of Wessex. Hoerstan's estates, which were of considerable extent, lay in the valley of Glastonbury.
A mass of legend, carefully preserved by the monkish chroniclers of the middle ages, has gathered round the early history of Dunstan. One old legend relates that, shortly before his birth, his parents were in the church of St. Mary the Virgin on the festival of Candlemas, so called because all who attended walked in procession after the service carrying lighted candles. During this procession the lights and tapers were suddenly extinguished, and the church, though it was midday, was plunged in darkness. But shortly afterwards, a heavenly fire descended and rekindled the taper in Cynsthryth's hand, thus miraculously foreshowing that through her a great light should be born into the world.3
The childhood of Dunstan was passed with his brothers in his father's hall. The boy grew up fair and fragile and of diminutive stature. He was of a highly nervous and excitable temperament and passionately fond of music. To the legendary lore and romantic associations of his birthplace, which must have excited his youthful imagination, he probably owed his love of poetry. When still very young, he was committed by his father to the care of the Irish monks who then occupied Glastonbury. In their school he soon became distinguished as a scholar of unusual ability. He seems to have excelled in a variety of subjects, including profane and sacred literature, astronomy, drawing and music. Several beautiful ecclesiastical ornaments and illuminated
- Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
3 Vita S. Dunstani, Auctore Osberno, chap. 4, Stubbs' edition, (Rolls series).
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books, said to be his handiwork, were long preserved at Glastonbury Abbey.
Dunstan's intense ardour for study, which was encouraged by his parents and teachers, proved too much for his delicate frame and excitable temperament, and resulted in a brain fever which very nearly ended fatally. One night, in the height of his delirium, he eluded the vigilance of his nurses, and, rising from his bed, ran to the church. The doors were closed, but he found means of access, probably through a window, reached by scaffolding erected by some workmen who had been repairing the building. Next morning he was found sound asleep in the aisle of the church. How he got there he could not tell, and his friends attributed this, as well as his marvellous recovery which followed, to a miracle.4
The fame of Dunstan's learning having reached the court, he was summoned thither to become the companion of Edmund and Edred, King Athelstan's young step-brothers. Dunstan appears to have been extremely unpopular with the other young nobles, who may have been envious of his unusual gifts, and of the wonderful favour which his accomplishments secured him among the fair sex. He was accused to the king of studying heathen literature and magic, and is said to have practised the art of ventriloquism. Athelstan at length ordered him to leave the court, but he was not permitted to depart in peace. As he rode away he was pursued by some young nobles, who threw him from his horse and actually kicked him in the mire.5 Disfigured with mud and bruises, he crawled to the dry ground, but was immediately attacked by a pack of hungry dogs. The unhappy youth at length succeeded in escaping to the house of a friend, and thence to Winchester, where he sought the protection of his kinsman, Bishop Elphege the Bald.
A return of brain fever, probably caused by the cruel treat- ment he had received, followed. During his convalescence, he was pressed by Bishop Elphege to take orders, with a view to entering a monastery, but at that time he is said to have desired to marry a maiden whom he loved. On his recovery
■» Ibid, chapter 7 ; Hook's Lives of the Archbishops, Vol. I., p. 386. s Vita S. Dunstani, Auctore B., chapter 6, Stubbs' edition (Rolls series).
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however, he consented to receive ordination from his kinsman, and shortly afterwards returned to Glastonbury.6
Close to the church of St. Mary he built for himself a small cell, only five feet long, two-and-a-half feet wide, and not above four feet in height.7 There he lived the life of a hermit, occupying himself in prayer, study and various handicrafts. In his solitude he was haunted by strange fancies. To fly impure thoughts he wearied himself by labouring at a forge. It is related that while he was thus engaged the devil fre- quently appeared to him and tempted him. Dunstan is said to have put an end to these unwelcome visits by seizing the fiend by the nose with a pair of red hot tongs.8 In the late middle ages, St. Dunstan became the patron saint of the Goldsmith Guild, and a picture, in which he was represented seizing a naked figure of the devil with a pair of tongs, long hung in the Goldsmiths' Hall in London.
While Dunstan was living at Glastonbury, he became the friend and spiritual adviser of a widowed lady of royal blood named Ethelgiva. At her death, she left to him the whole of her great wealth.9 As his father died about the same time, leaving him his heir, Dunstan was now in possession of an ample fortune, which he determined to devote to the service of God.
When Edmund succeeded his step-brother King Athelstan, in 940, Dunstan was recalled to the court, which was then at Cheddar, near Glastonbury. The new king gave Dunstan a place among his counsellors, but it was not long before he again incurred the enmity of the courtiers. Accord- ing to some accounts the nobles refused to tolerate his arrogance, and he was once more ordered to leave the court. Dunstan's biographer records that at this time certain messengers from the Eastern kingdom (nuncii orientis) were at Cheddar with the king.10 Some writers suppose this to mean envoys from East Anglia, with the interests of which kingdom Dunstan was afterwards closely allied ; others declare that the words refer to ambassadors from Otto I. of Germany.
6 Vita S. Dunstani, Auctore Eadmero, chapter 6. Stubbs' edition (Rolls series). t Ibid. 8 Ibid, chap. 7. 9 Ibid, chapter 8.
10 Vita, Auctore B., ibid, chapter 13.
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In any case, the envoys, moved by compassion for Dunstan's friendless position, promised to protect him, and it was arranged that he should accompany them when they returned to their own country.
But Dunstan was not yet destined to go into exile. On a certain day, before the departure of the ambassadors, the king rode out to hunt. While following a stag on the Mendip Hills, he far outstripped his followers. The stag made for Cheddar cliffs, and rushing blindly over the precipice was followed by the hounds. While vainly endeavouring to stop his horse, Edmund is said to have made a vow that if his life was spared, he would restore Dunstan to favour. At that moment his horse stopped on the very edge of the cliff. Giving thanks to God, he returned to the royal palace, and immediately summoned Dunstan to his presence.
" Prepare forthwith to ride with me," said the king, " for I would go somewhither." The king, accompanied by Dunstan, rode straight to Glastonbury, the abbacy of which was then vacant. Entering the church the king gave Dunstan the kiss of peace, and then placing him in the abbot's chair, proclaimed him the new abbot of Glastonbury.11 Such is the story of Dunstan's promotion preserved by the old monkish chroniclers. It is certain that he was appointed abbot of Glastonbury in 945, so that if the date given of his birth is correct, he must have been only twenty-one years old at the time.
At Dunstan's installation the king confirmed the grants made by Ina and other kings of Wessex to the abbey of Glastonbury, and also gave unusual powers to the abbots " in causes as well known as unknown, in small and great, above and under the earth, in dry land and water, in woods and in plains, and that no bishop, duke, prince or their servants should exercise any authority, or even enter the precincts of the abbey, without permission from the abbots." "
What had previously been a poor foundation now became, through the wealth which Dunstan lavished on it, one of the
" Vita S. Dunstani, by William of Malmesbury, chap. 15. Stubbs* edition (Rolls series).
" Carta Edmundi Regis, num. VIII. in Dugdale's Monasticon Angli- canum, Vol. I., p. 26.
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richest.13 Close to the old church of St. Mary he built a new church dedicated to St. Peter, and caused the monastic buildings to be enlarged and rebuilt. Under him Glastonbury Abbey became a famous school. He did much to restore the desire for learning, which, since the days of Alfred the Great, had been on the decline, and inspired the pupils with his own love for poetry and music. Dunstan permitted secular clerks as well as monks to reside at Glastonbury, for the new Benedictinism, with its strict rule, had not as yet been introduced into England (vide Ethelgar). The new abbot of Glastonbury became one of the king's trusted counsellors, and was frequently at the court. To assist him in the management of his estates Dunstan appointed his brother Wulfere steward over his possessions.
Edmund's reign was disturbed by revolts of the Danes, who had settled in Northumbria. A defeat suffered by the king's troops at Tamworth, in Staffordshire, forced Edmund to cede certain provinces north of Watling Street to Anlaf the Dane, and also to sign a treaty by which it was agreed that Anlaf should become king of all England if he survived Edmund. This treaty was, however, annulled by the death of Anlaf in the following year. Acting on the advice of Dunstan, Edmund then made it his policy to conciliate the Danes.
Two years after Dunstan's appointment as abbot, Edmund was slain by a robber named Leofa. Dunstan conveyed the king's body to Glastonbury where he buried it with due honour. Edmund was succeeded by his younger brother, Edred, who was the same age as Dunstan, to whom he had been much attached from his youth. The young king suffered from a painful disease, which often rendered him unfit for the duties of ruler, and the affairs of the kingdom were left chiefly in the hands of Dunstan, and of the queen-mother Eadgifu. In 952 he ordered the imprisonment of Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, who had joined the Danes in a revolt against the king. When this revolt had been suppressed the whole of the Danelaw submitted to Edred. During this reign Dunstan twice refused a bishopric, that of Winchester
1 Vita, Auctore B., chap. 17.
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in 951, and Crediton in 953,14 declaring that he would not leave the king's side so long as he needed him.15
There is evidence however, that the abbot still had enemies. About this time, his brother Wulfere died, and was buried at Glastonbury. At the funeral a large stone was thrown at Dunstan by some unknown hand, knocking his hat from his head, though it did not injure him.16
Dunstan was at Glastonbury where the royal treasure was kept, when news reached him, in November 955, that King Edred lay dying at Frome. The guardian of the hoard was bidden to bring the treasures that the king might look on them before he died. But they arrived too late. Messengers met the abbot as he hurried onward with the news that the friend he loved was dead ; and the heavy treasure-laden waggons, toiling along the Somerset lanes, returned to Glastonbury.17 Dunstan found the corpse already forsaken, for the thanes had hastened to the presence of the new king, Edwy, the son of Edmund, brother of Edred. The body was conveyed by Dunstan to Winchester and there buried.
Edred's death brought about a change in the position of Dunstan, for the young king, a boy of sixteen, was much under the influence of Ethelgifu, a woman of noble lineage. In the midst of his coronation feast, Edwy withdrew from the hall to seek the company of Ethelgifu, and her daughter Elgifu. The offended nobles despatched Dunstan and the bishop of Lichfield to bring him back.
Dunstan appears to have used undue violence of language towards the ladies before dragging the unwilling youth back to the hall. This roused their bitter enmity, and Ethelgifu determined to take revenge on the haughty prelate. A few months later, she induced the king to banish Dunstan from England, and to confiscate all his property. Her triumph was completed by the marriage of her daughter Elgifu with the young king in 957. Some writers declare that the marriage took place before Edwy's coronation.
Dunstan sailed for Flanders, where he found a powerful
H Vita, Auctore B., chapter 19.
1 Vita, Auctore Osberno, chapter 22.
16 Vita, Auctore B., chapter 18.
*» Green's Conquest oj England, p. 300.
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protector in Count Arnulf, a grandson of Alfred the Great. In the monastery of St. Peter at Ghent, which had been restored by Arnulf, Dunstan was welcomed and honour- ably entertained. Here he had an opportunity of studying the reformed Benedictine rule, which beginning at Cluny, was now spreading over Flanders and France.
Meantime, a rebellion, due probably to the weakness of Edwy's rule, had taken place in England. Northumbria and Mercia withdrew from him their allegiance, and pro- claimed as king, his brother Edgar, a boy of thirteen. Wessex alone remained loyal to Edwy.18 In 958 Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury (q. v.), pronounced the sentence of divorce between the king and Elgifu on the ground that their relationship was within the forbidden degrees. She was banished to Ireland, and died soon after making an attempt to rejoin the king. Some writers declare that she perished by foul means (vide Odo). The death of Edwy which occurred soon afterwards restored the unity of the realm under Edgar.
Influenced by the party who favoured Dunstan, Edgar had meantime recalled that prelate to England. He was once more received with much favour at court and soon after his arrival was made bishop of Worcester. In 959, he also received the bishopric of London, and held it together with that of Worcester until the following year.19
The death of Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, having occurred before that of Edwy, the king had nominated Elfsin of Winchester, a prelate of royal birth, to the vacant see. Elfsin set out for Rome to receive the pallium, but perished of cold amid the Alpine snows.20 Byrthelm, Bishop of Wells, was then nominated, but before his translation Edwy died, and Edgar was induced to refuse his consent to the election.
Dunstan was then duly elected archbishop of Canterbury. In 960 he went to Rome, and received the pallium from Pope John XII. On his journey south, he was so lavish in alms- giving that on one occasion he left himself with insufficient money to pay for a night's lodging for himself and his suite. When his attendants remonstrated he assured them that
18 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, a.d. 957. * Ibid. 2° Ibid, 959.
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their Divine Master would provide for all their wants. That evening a friendly abbot offered them all hospitality in his monastery, and on their departure provided Dunstan with sufficient funds to continue the journey.21
On his return to England, he received a warm welcome at the court. For the next fifteen years Dunstan wielded, as the minister of Edgar, the chief secular and ecclesiastical power of the realm.
We have seen that in the time of Odo the Benedictine reforms had begun to stir the zeal of English churchmen. The chief outcome of these reforms was to dismiss married clergy from their benefices, and to replace secular priests by monks. Though Dunstan was a strong advocate of the celibacy of the clergy, and earnestly approved of these reforms, there is no evidence that he resorted to the harsh measures adopted by certain of his contemporaries in evicting the married clergy or the secular clerks.32 Though he held the see of Canter- bury for nearly twenty-eight years he appears to have per- mitted secular clerks to remain in Christ Church (vide Sigeric), and in spite of his enormous resources, he founded no Bene- dictine house in Kent. The chief promoters of the reform were Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, and Oswald, Archbishop of York.
Edgar, the young king, who was fond of his own pleasure, was not sorry to leave to Dunstan the weightier affairs of the state. On the advice of Dunstan, he adopted a concilia- tory policy towards the Danes, employing them in the royal service, and promoting them to high positions in church and state. He also allowed them to make their own laws. He encouraged commerce, and restored justice and order. Edgar delighted in pomp, and Dunstan encouraged him to make royal progresses through the land, holding courts of justice at different places. Dunstan also induced Edgar to improve the navy and to hold splendid naval reviews. Tradition ascribes to Edgar the foundation of forty monasteries.
Never had England been so strong and peaceful as in this reign. Thanks to Dunstan's skilful statesmanship the sove- reignty of the English king over the Scots was established,
11 Vita, Auctore B., chapter 7.
" Stubbs' Memorials of St. Dunstan, Introd., cxix.
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and to Dunstan is due the fact that this king is known to history as Edgar the Peace-winner.23 The story that Dunstan forbade the king to wear his crown for seven years as a penance for having carried off a nun from Wilton Abbey, is probably without foundation, though it is certain that Edgar led a profligate life. For whatever reason, however, the young king's coronation did not take place till 973, when he was solemnly crowned at Bath by Dunstan and the arch- bishop of York.
On the death of Edgar, in 975, the party opposed to Dun- stan returned to power. They were supported by Elphere, the powerful alderman of Mercia,24 and by the widow of the late king, who desired her son Ethelred to succeed to the throne. Dunstan managed to avert civil war by taking the question of the succession into his own hands, and, with the consent of the Witan, solemnly crowned Edward, king Edgar's son by a former marriage.
Shortly after Edward's coronation, a synod was held at Winchester, when the secular clergy appealed to the king, entreating that they might be restored to their former posses- sions. No decision was reached either at this council or at another held shortly afterwards. Dunstan summoned a third council at Calne, in Wiltshire, at which the young king was not present. At this meeting the archbishop's enemies assembled in great numbers. Boernhelm, a Scottish bishop, vehemently opposed the policy of monastic reform and pleaded the cause of the married clergy with much eloquence, quoting scripture on their behalf. His speech is said to have pro- duced a great effect, and Dunstan made no attempt to answer it, simply declaring that he appealed to Christ as Supreme Judge. Scarcely had he uttered these words when the floor of the room in which they were seated gave way with a fearful crash, and all except Dunstan and his friends who stood upon a solid beam were precipitated into the apartment below. Few escaped unhurt, and many were killed. Dunstan saved himself by clinging to the beam. His friends attributed his escape to a miracle, vouchsafed as a proof of the Divine judgment having been given in his favour.25 Many suspected
2-' Cf. Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 975.
2* Ibid. 25 Vita, Auctore Osberno, chapter 36.
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however, that the whole affair had been arranged beforehand, with Dunstan's consent, though this is scarcely probable.
In March 978, Edward was assassinated at Corfe Castle by order of his step-mother, whose son Ethelred (after- wards surnamed the Unready) succeeded to the throne. Ethelred's coronation took place on Low Sunday, 979, and was the last public act in which Dunstan took part. After the ceremony he is said to have solemnly addressed the young king in the following prophetic words : " Because thou hast been raised to the throne by the death of thy brother, whom thy mother has slain, hear now the word of the Lord : The sword shall not depart from thy house, but shall rage against thee, all the days of thy life, cutting off thy seed, until thy kingdom become the kingdom of an alien whose customs and tongue the nation which thou rulest knows not."26
Dunstan's influence at court was now ended, and he retired to Canterbury, where he spent the remainder of his life. He continued to labour for the spiritual and temporal welfare of his people, restoring churches, establishing schools, and providing for the poor. He also worked at the handicrafts he loved, and delighted in teaching the boys of the cathedral school. Often, he would entertain them with stories of his early days. Such was the tradition of his love for bis scholars that in later times children would often pray to St. Dunstan for protection against harsh teachers. He was an eloquent preacher and people flocked to hear him from all quarters.
In the spring of 988, the archbishop's health failed, and he became very feeble. He is said to have been warned by a vision of angels of his approaching death. He preached for the last time on Ascension Day, but had to pause many times during bis discourse for want of breath.27 On the following Sunday, May 19, he died. The news of his death was received with loud wailing by the crowds gathered in the streets of Canterbury.
He was buried near the altar in Canterbury Cathedral. In the reign of Henry VIII. the monks of Glastonbury declared that Dunstan's remains had been secretly conveyed thither when Canterbury Cathedral was in danger of being sacked by
26 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, a.d. 1016.
27 Vita, Auctore Osberno, chapter 39.
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the Danes. In order to prove this story false, Archbishop Warham (q. v.) caused the tomb of Dunstan to be opened. The skull and some bones were found, and also a piece of lead about a foot long with the words : " Hie requiescit Sanctus Dunstanus, Archiepiscopus."
No extant literary work can be assigned to Dunstan, though there is evidence that he wrote many tracts and treatises. Two specimens of his penmanship exist in old charters, one being in the possession of Canterbury Cathedral. He was canonized in 1029, and his festival is kept in England on May 19. Until his fame was overshadowed by that of Thomas a Becket (q. v.) Dunstan was the favourite saint of the English people. His shrine was destroyed at the Reformation.
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24— ETHELGAR (or ALGAR), 989 to 990.
King of England : Ethelred II., the Unready, 979 to 1016.
In the appointment of Ethelgar, the successor of Dunstan, we may discern a compromise between the Benedictines and the party of the secular clergy. Though a monk of the Bene- dictine order, he seems to have adopted a moderate policy towards his opponents.
We first hear of him as a monk of Glastonbury, where he had come under the influence of Dunstan and Ethelwold. In the reign of Edred, the monk Ethelwold was sent from Glastonbury to preside over the new monastery of Abingdon, in Berkshire, which had been rebuilt by order of the king. In this monastery, Ethelgar became one of the brethren.1 There the Benedictine rule was first introduced in England.
In 963, Ethelwold was appointed bishop of Winchester. His first act was to turn out the secular clergy from the cathedral church, and from the abbey of New Minster, and to replace them by monks. With the approval of King Edgar, Ethelgar was appointed abbot of New Minster.2 From the time of Edward the Elder, ill-feeling had existed between the cathedral clergy and the monks of New Minster, and this does not seem to have been lessened by the appointment of an abbot who had been one of Bishop Ethelwold's own monks. It is recorded that when Ethelgar wished to enlarge his monastery, he was forced to pay to Ethelwold one gold mark for every foot of land he purchased.3 On May 2, 980, Ethelgar was consecrated bishop of Selsey in Sussex, by Dunstan. This see he held for more than eight years, during which time he made no attempt to enforce the policy of Ethelwold by dismissing the secular clergy. In this he was probably supported by Dunstan, who, especially in the later part of his life, seems to have been opposed to severe measures.
1 Liber de Hyda (Rolls series), p. 182.
3 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 964.
3 William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pont. Ang., p. 173.
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On the death of Dunstan, in 988, Ethelgar was appointed to succeed him as archbishop, and set out to Rome for the pallium.
From an extant letter addressed by Odbert, Abbot of St. Bertin's, in France, to Ethelgar, we learn that the arch- bishop visited the abbot both on his way to Rome and on his return journey, and bestowed generous gifts on the monastery.4
After his return from Rome nothing is recorded of his acts. He died on February 13, 990, after a pontificate of only fifteen months.
< Memorials of St. Dunstan, p. 384.
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25.— SIGERIC (or SIRIC), 990 to 994.
King of England : Ethelred II., the Unready, 979 to 1016.
Sigeric, who succeeded Ethelgar as archbishop, probably owed his appointment to the fact that he had enjoyed the favour of Dunstan (q. v.). Like his predecessor, he had been a monk at Glastonbury, and afterwards abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury. In 985, he was consecrated bishop of Ramsbury in Wiltshire (vide Odo), by Dunstan.1
After his translation to the see of Canterbury in 990, he went to Rome for the pallium, and was honourably received by Pope John XV. It is probable that he reached the Eternal City in February or March, 991. An ancient MS. giving some interesting details concerning his journey has been preserved. On the day after his arrival he dined with the pope. In spite of his advanced age he is said to have visited twenty Roman churches in two days. The names of these churches are given. Possibly, the exhaustion caused by these exertions made it necessary for him to travel home by slow stages. No less than seventy-eight places are mentioned at which he stopped, between Rome and the point, probably near Calais, where he embarked for England.2
The character of Sigeric has been blackened on account of an accusation brought against him by several early writers. It is stated that after the battle of Maldon (991), in which there was much slaughter on both sides, the people of England despaired of driving out the Danes. By the advice of Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the aldermen, Ethelward and Alfric, King Ethelred was induced for the first time to pay tribute to the invaders, instead of fighting them valiantly. The sum of 10,000 pounds was paid to them on condition that they would conclude a settled peace, and cease
' Anglia Sacra., II., 682.
- Hook's Lives oj the Archbishops of Canterbury, I., 434.
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to burn, pillage and murder on the coasts.3 This payment was the origin of the tax known as the Danegeld, which afterwards came to be levied on all the inhabitants of England in order to raise money for the Danes, and which fell heavily on the poorer classes.
If Sigeric was responsible for this evil counsel he certainly deserved blame. As might have been expected, the only result of such a policy was to attract fresh swarms of the sea-robbers, who now came for the purpose of filling their pockets with English gold.
Sigeric appears to have been a learned man and a patron of learning. At his death he left a valuable library to Christ Church, Canterbury. Elfric " the Grammarian," supposed to be the same Elfric (q. v.) who succeeded Sigeric as archbishop, dedicated his " Homilies " to him.4
Sigeric is said to have followed the policy common among churchmen at this period and to have replaced the secular clergy of Christ Church by monks. Before his death he pre- sented seven pallia, probably those worn by his predecessors, to the church at Glastonbury with instructions that they should be displayed on his anniversary.5 He died of old age on October 28, 994, and was buried in Christ Church cathedral.
3 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 991.
» Anglia Sacra., L, 125. 3 Ibid, II., 682.
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26— ELFRIC (or ALFRIC), 995 to 1005. King of England: Ethelred II., the Unready, 979 to 1016.
The early history of Elfric, who succeeded Sigeric as arch- bishop, is involved in obscurity. This arises from the name having been extremely common among the Anglo-Saxons, and from the difficulty of identifying the archbishop among other churchmen of the same name.
His identity with Elfric the Grammarian (vide Sigeric), concerning whose early life many details have been preserved, is now considered improbable, for the Grammarian, in the second preface to his " Homilies," mentions the death of Ethelred the Unready, which did not occur until 1016.
A learned Latin treatise, by Henry Wharton is published in " Anglia Sacra " (I. pp. 125-134) under the title of " Dis- sertatio de Elfrico Archiepiscopo " its purpose being to piove that " the Grammarian " was Elfric, Archbishop of York. His arguments were attacked by Edward Mores who wrote a Latin work on the subject in 1789, to prove that the Gram- marian was the archbishop of Canterbury. This view was adopted by Dean Hook, and Freeman. Sir F. Madden in his preface to Matthew Paris's " Historia Anglorum " identifies Elfric with the eleventh abbot of St. Albans, though the account given by Paris of this abbot is inconsistent with any- thing we know of Archbishop Elfric, or of " the Grammarian."
All early historians agree that Archbishop Elfric had been a monk at Abingdon, and afterwards bishop of Ramsbury, in Wilts {vide Odo). It is possible that he continued to hold the latter see after his translation to Canterbury. The statement that he had some connection with St. Albans appears to be supported by the terms of his will, a copy of which is extant. In this he bequeaths lands to the monasteries of St. Albans, Abingdon, and Cholsey near Wallingford, and to Christ Church, Canterbury. He appoints as his executors a certain Bishop
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Wulfstan, probably of London, and Abbot Leofric, who is said to have been his brother, and to have succeeded him as abbot of St. Albans. To the king he bequeaths his best ship, and armour for sixty men. His other ships he leaves partly to the people of Kent, and partly to those of Wiltshire,1 who at that period were forced to provide ships for the war against the Danes.
A late and somewhat untrustworthy insertion in the " Anglo- Saxon Chronicle," under the year 995, gives the following account of Elfric. " In this year appeared ' cometa,' the star, and Archbishop Sigic died ; and Alfric Bishop of Wiltshire was chosen on Easter-day at Amesbury, by King Ethelred and by all his Witan. This Alfric was a very wise man, so that there was no sager man in England. Then went Alfric to his archiepiscopal seat ; and when he came thither, he was received by those men in orders who were most accept- able to him, that was by clerks." The " Chronicle " goes on to state that Elfric convened a council at which many nobles and wise men were present, and represented to them that in the time of St. Augustine and his immediate successors monks were placed in Christ Church by command of Pope Gregory the Great. To Elfric's great joy, the assembly unanimously approved his desire to replace the seculars by monks. The archbishop afterwards had an interview with King Ethelred, who advised him to proceed at once to Rome for his pallium, in order that he might ask advice of the pope concerning the matter. Meantime, the seculars had sent two of their party to Rome to beg the pope that the pallium might be given to them. The pope, however, refused their request. On the arrival of Elfric, the pope received him with much honour, bestowed on him the pallium, and commanded him to perform mass at St. Peter's altar. The pope then related to him how the priests had come and offered great gifts in order that he should give them the pallium, and how he had refused to do so. " And the pope said, ' Go now to England again with God's blessing, and St. Peter's and mine, and as thou comest home place in thy minster men of that order which St. Gregory commanded Augustine therein to place by God's command and St. Peter's and mine." On his return
1 Kemble, Cod. Dip., III., 716.
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to Canterbury, the archbishop did as the pope had com- manded, and having driven the clerks out of the minster, placed monks therein. Little credit can be placed on this story, as it was probably inserted to glorify the monks.
Concerning the acts of Elfric after he became archbishop, nothing more is recorded. He died on November 16, 1005, and was buried at Abingdon. In the reign of Cnut, his remains were removed to Canterbury. The anonymous writer B, author of a life of St. Dunstan, dedicated his work to Elfric, whom he begs in the preface to correct the grammatical errors and to refrain from too severe criticism.2
* Memorials of St. Dunstan (Rolls series), p. 3.
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27-— ELPHEGE (or ALPHEAH), 1006 to 1012. S. King of England : Ethelred II., the Unready, 979 to 1016.
The period at which we have now arrived is one of the darkest in English history. For the massacre of St. Brice's day — a crime due to the senseless policy of Ethelred the Unready — Sweyn, King of Denmark, had taken a fearful revenge. For four years he marched through the length and breadth of the land, lighting his war beacons as he went in blazing home- stead and town. Then for a heavy bribe he withdrew but only to prepare for a later and more terrible onset. Meantime his place was taken by some of the fiercest of the Norwegian jarls who ceased not to ravage the unhappy country, and to drain its resources by enforced tribute.
Such was the condition of affairs when Elphege, Bishop of Winchester, was called to the primacy of the English Church. Elphege was born of noble parents about the year 954. Though the heir to great estates, he decided, while still a youth, to enter a monastery, much against the wishes of his widowed mother ; for he believed that his soul's salvation depended on his taking this step. He accordingly retired to the small Benedictine monastery of Deerhurst, near Tewkesbury, in Gloucester. There he was remarkable for his great humility and became the servant of all.1
The rule of this monastery was less strict than that of many other religious houses at that period. The easy life led by the monks did not appeal to Elphege's ascetic temperament, and after a time he withdrew to Bath. There he built himself a hut in which he lived as a hermit.2
The fame of his sanctity spread abroad, and many came from afar to seek his counsel. Later he is said to have been made
1 Vita S. Elphegi, by Osbern, in Anglia Sacra., edition Wharton, part I., p. 125. « Ibid.
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abbot3 of the monastery which had been founded at Bath, by Edgar of Wessex. Certain wealthy people who had received spiritual benefit from him, became monks and lived under his rule, while others supplied him with money for his brother- hood.
Through the influence of Dunstan (q. v.) Elphege was chosen, in 984, to succeed Ethel wold as bishop of Winchester. During the twenty-two years that he held this see his life of exemplary piety won the admiration of the monks. Often he would rise from his bed in the middle of the night, and betake himself to prayer in the cold church, where he would remain with bare feet and scanty clothing until the break of day. He always ate sparingly, and fasted much. So attenuated did he become that when he raised his hands while celebrating the Holy Eucharist, the sunlight passed through them if a window was in front of him.4
Ten years after Elphege' s election to the see of Winchester, Olaf of Norway, and Sweyn of Denmark, attempted to seize London with a great fleet of ninety-four galleys. They were repulsed with considerable loss, but in revenge burned and wasted Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hants. King Ethelred, by the advice of the nobles, sent envoys to them with a promise of tribute and regular supplies if they would desist from their barbarities. Consenting to the king's proposal, they retired to their ships and wintered at Southampton. Their supplies were provided by the people of Wessex, but their tribute, consisting of 16,000 pounds, was levied on the whole of the English people. This roused much dissatisfaction, and it was agreed that a meeting should take place between Ethelred and Olaf, in order to try to arrange more favourable terms.5
As ambassadors to Olaf, King Ethelred sent Elphege, Bishop of Winchester, and Ethelred, the alderman. They were instructed to give hostages to the Norwegians for the safety of King Olaf, and to escort him to Andover, where the English court was then residing. Olaf was received by Ethelred with much honour. According to some accounts the Norwegian king had been baptized in his own land by a Christian
J Florence of Worcester, 984.
* Vita S. Elphegi, by Osbern, ibid, p. 127.
5 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 994.
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missionary. At Andover, he received the rite of confirm- ation from Bishop Elphege, Ethelred adopting him as his godson, and presenting him with a royal gift.6 The result of the meeting was that Olaf promised never again to invade England. At the beginning of summer he sailed to his own kingdom with his fleet, and faithfully kept his promise, for he never returned.7
On the death of Elfric, in 1006, Elphege was chosen archbishop of Canterbury. Immediately after his election he journeyed to Rome, and received the pallium from Pope J ohn XVI 1 1 . Some time after his return to England, he j oined Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, in persuading Ethelred to hold a council at Enham (probably Ensham in Oxfordshire), to deliberate concerning the affairs of the kingdom. The exact date of this meeting is not given, but it probably took place about the year 1009. It was attended by a large number of clergy and nobles, and the many important decrees drawn up have been preserved.8 While the council sat daily services were held in the church and prayers offered for peace in the distressed kingdom. Those assembled were called upon to abjure heathen lawlessness, and to take a solemn pledge of loyalty to the king. Directions were drawn up for the re-organisation of the fleet and of the army. Christian men were not to be sold out of the land, least of all to heathen purchasers. Many decrees were also passed concerning the church discipline, and the clergy were recommended to prac- tise continence and to abstain from marriage.9 In these statutes we can hardly fail to trace the hand of good Archbishop Elphege.10 Unfortunately, Elphege had to deal with a king very different from Edgar, and his wise decrees brought little improvement in the condition of the kingdom, which continued to get worse and worse. Soon after this, discord arose among the commanders of the fleet, which the king was consequently forced to disband after many ships had been lost."
In the same year (1009) there arrived in England a Danish
6 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 994. 7 Ibid.
8 Wilkin's Concilia, Vol. I., pp. 285 to 294. 9 Ibid.
10 Cf. Freeman Norman Conquest, Vol.1., p. 376.
11 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1008 ; Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1009.
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fleet under Earl Thurkill, who for the next twelve years plays a prominent part in English history. In the month of August Thurkill's fleet was followed by a still larger one under the command of Heming and Eglaf. The two fleets met at Sandwich, where the crews landed, and marching to Canterbury, stormed the city. The citizens, with the men of East Anglia, bought them off with payment of 3,000 pounds. The Danes then went back to their ships and sailed to the Isle of Wight, whence they made piratical descents on the coasts of Sussex and Hants.12 For the next two years the land had no rest from their depredations.
Early in the year ion, the Witan met and agreed to pay the large sum of 48,000 pounds to the Danes to buy them off.13 While this sum was being raised they continued their ravages, and perpetrated deeds of horrible cruelty. Their demand was ever for " Gold, more gold," and when this was refused they slaughtered the inhabitants and burned down the homesteads without mercy. Over the ashes of the depopu- lated villages, they continued their march through nine counties,14 until they again reached Canterbury on September 8.
Having dug a trench round the city they besieged it closely. On the twentieth day of the siege a priest named Elfmar, whose life Archbishop Elphege had previously saved, betrayed the city to the Danes. Some writers suppose the traitor to have been Abbot Elfmar of the monastery of St. Augustine. Colour is lent to this suspicion by the statement that the Danes allowed Abbot Elfmar to depart unharmed.15 But as he was afterwards made bishop of Sherborne, he may, as Freeman points out, have owed his escape to a similarity between his name and that of the real traitor.16 The traitor, whoever he was, set fire to one portion of the city, and when the alarmed garrison rushed to extinguish the flames, he admitted the Danes through a gate thus left unguarded.
Florence of Worcester gives a detailed account of the horrible butchery of the citizens.but as the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" makes no mention of slaughter, but only of capture, and plunder, his narrative appears to be open to doubt. Christ
11 Ibid. '3 Ibid, ion, 1012.
M Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ion. •» Ibid.
16 Norman Conquest, Vol. I., p. 385, note.
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Church, built on the site of the present cathedral, was plundered and burnt.17
Archbishop Elphege was seized along with other clergy, and was loaded with fetters, tortured and imprisoned. The Danes preserved his life, only in the hope that they might obtain for him a large ransom. When the whole city had been sacked, the Danes made for their ships carrying Elphege with them. For the next seven months he remained a prisoner, being carried with the army wherever it went.
His ransom was fixed at 3,000 pounds, and at first he agreed that this should be paid.18 But on finding that his people would have to suffer in order to raise the money, he determined that no one should have to pay anything for his life. During his captivity a plague broke out among the Danish soldiers, and Elphege took advantage of the opportunity thus afforded him to urge them to abandon their evil lives. Many of them showed every sign of repentance and were baptized by him.
Meanwhile, the archbishop's ransom was still unpaid. The Danish fleet now lay off Greenwich. On the Saturday after Easter (April 19, 1012), the Danes who had procured a large supply of wine from the south held a great feast. Having gorged themselves as was their wont and drunk deeply, they ordered the archbishop to be brought into the hall. Elphege was brought before them in chains, and they demanded that he should immediately pay the promised ransom. He replied that he refused to save his life at the expense of those who had already paid so much, and that he was quite ready to die. Roused to fury by his refusal, the Danes began to throw at him the bones of oxen and othei remnants of their savage feast with which the floor was littered.
Thurkill the Danish leader, learning what was about to happen, rushed in, and offered silver and gold, and all he had except his ship, if they would spare the life of the archbishop.19 But the Danes, in their drunken fury, refused to hearken to his offer, and continued to pelt the archbishop with stones, logs of wood, and the bones and skulls of oxen. At last one of them
■» Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1011.
j8 Chronicle oj Thietmar, Archbishop oj Merseburg, in Migne's Patrologice Cursus Computus, vol. 139, p. 1384. 19 Chronicle oj Thietmar, ibid.
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named Thrum, whom Elphege had confirmed only the day before, being moved to compassion, put an end to his sufferings by splitting his head with an axe.20 The Danes soon repented of the deed, committed in drunken rage. It was probably owing to the influence of Thurkill, who became a Christian shortly afterwards,21 and of other Danes whom Elphege had converted during his sojourn among them, that on the morrow his body was conveyed to London, where the citizens received it with all reverence. It was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, by the bishops of London and Dorchester.22
Eleven years later, Cnut, who had restored Christ Church, caused the body of Elphege to be translated with great pomp to Canterbury and buried there. On account of the tragic circumstances of his death, Elphege was looked upon as a martyr, and miracles are said to have been wrought at his tomb.23 The claim of Elphege to the title of martyr was after- wards disputed by his successor Lanfranc (q. v.). When Anselm visited England in 1078, he defended Elphege's claim to the title on the ground that though he did not die for any point of Christian belief yet he died for Christian justice, in refusing to plunder his people to obtain a ransom for himself.24 In this decision Lanfranc acquiesced.
Osbern, a monk of Canterbury, the author of a life of Dunstan (q. v.), wrote lives of Elphege in prose and verse, during the episcopate of Lanfranc. The prose life, already quoted, still exists, but is chiefly legendary. A more trust- worthy account is that given in the Chronicle of Thietmar, Archbishop of Merseburg (also quoted above), who states that he obtained his information from an Englishman named Sewald.25
The festival of St. Elphege is kept on April 19, the day of his death, and his translation on June 8. He is sometimes represented with an axe cleaving his skull.
20 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1012.
21 Cf. Freeman's Norman Conquest, I., pp. 388 and 391.
22 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1012. 23 Ibid.
24 Freeman's Norman Conquest, I., 390 ; cf. Vita Anselemi, by John of Salisbury in Anglia Sacra, Part II., p. 162.
« Cf. Art. on Elphege by Rev. William Hunt, D.Litt, in Diet. Nat. Biog.
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28.— LYVING (or ELSTAN), 1013 to 1020.
Kings of England : Ethelred II., the Unready, 979 to 1016. Edmund Ironside, 1016. Cnut of Denmark, 1017 to 1037.
It was not until nearly a year after the murder of Archbishop Elphege, that a successor was appointed to the see of Canterbury. The choice of King Ethelred, which fell on Lyving, Bishop of Wells, was approved by the monks and clergy. Of Lyving's early life nothing is known, save that he had been a monk at Glastonbury. After his translation he proceeded to Rome for the pallium, which he received from Pope Benedict VIII.1 He is described as a prelate eminent for energy, wisdom and sanctity.
The Danes had meantime made themselves so completely masters of the country that King Ethelred in despair fled to Normandy, and in 1013, Sweyn of Denmark was acknow- ledged king of England. Sweyn's rule was of short duration for he died suddenly about six weeks after he was proclaimed king. The Witan then invited Ethelred to return to his kingdom, declaring that they loved none better than their own lord, provided he would be willing to govern them more wisely. So during Lent, 1014, King Ethelred came home to his own people, and was gladly received by them all.2 Shortly after his return he summoned a council at Habam or Badam, where certain laws relating to the welfare of the kingdom were passed. All Christians were enjoined to invoke the mercy of God by alms, confession, and fasting before the great festivals of the Church. Judges were forbidden to take bribes, or to pass unjust judgments.3 These decrees were attested by Lyving, and must have been drawn up with his approval.
William of Malmesbury states that King Ethelred suffered
1 Gervase of Canterbury, Gesta Regum, II., 361. 1 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1014. 3 Wilkin's Concilia, I., 295.
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Lyving to be imprisoned for seven months. This statement, however, is believed to be due to a confusion between him and his predecessor.
The disastrous reign of Ethelred the Unready was closed by his death in 1016, and the Witan elected his son, known as Edmund Ironside, to succeed him. Edmund was crowned king at London, by Archbishop Lyving. The ravages of the Danes continued, but Edmund Ironside, unlike his father, proved a brave and distinguished warrior. He fought the Danes valiantly in five battles, until at length a compromise was made, and Cnut, the son of Sweyn, consented to divide the land with him. The death of Edmund occurred soon after this agreement, and Cnut of Denmark, at the age of twenty-one, was crowned king of all England by Archbishop Lyving.
Of Lyving nothing further is recorded, except that he beautified the church of Canterbury by noble ornaments. He died on June 12, 1020, and was buried in Christ Church cathedral.
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2Q.— ETHELNOTH (or EGELNODUS), 1020 to 1038.
Kings of England : Cnut, 1017 to 1037.
Harold I., 1037 to 1040.
Ethelnoth, surnamed the Good, a son of Alderman Ethelmar, of the Western shires, was appointed by Cnut to succeed Lyving in the see of Canterbury. He is said to have been a monk at Glastonbury, and afterwards dean of Canterbury. At the time of his nomination to the primacy he was chaplain to Cnut.1 It is to be noted that at this period, and until some time after the Norman Conquest, the appointment of archbishops was almost entirely in the hands of the sovereigns, and the approval of the clergy was merely nominal.
Cnut appears to have sent a message to Wulfstan, Arch- bishop of York, commanding him to consecrate Ethelnoth. The following reply from Wulfstan has been preserved : " Wulfstan, Archbishop, humbly greeteth King Cnut his lord and Elgiva (Emma?), the lady. And I inform you that we have done to Bishop Ethelnoth as came to us in the notice from you, and that we have consecrated him."2
After his consecration, Ethelnoth proceeded to Rome, and received the pallium from Pope Benedict VIII. On his return journey he stopped at Pavia, in order to buy a valuable relic, consisting of an arm of St. Augustine of Hippo, whose remains had been translated to that city. For this relic, which Ethelnoth afterwards presented to the newly founded monastery at Coventry, he is said to have paid a hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold.3
The archbishop was on terms of intimate friendship with Cnut, over whom he exercised much influence for good. Some writers declare it to have been largely due to Ethelnoth's influence that the king, who had at first embraced Christianity
' Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pontificum, II. 361.
2 Kemble, Cod. Dip., Vol. VI., 1314.
3 William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pont. Aug., p. 311.
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Ethelnoth
from political motives, became a true and earnest follower of Christ. Contrary to all expectation, Cnut ruled his English subjects so firmly and wisely that he soon won their affection. Acting on the counsel of Ethelnoth, he bestowed many gifts and privileges on English and Danish churches and monasteries, and also on the cathedral of Chartres in France. Several English churchmen were appointed by Cnut to Danish bishoprics, and were consecrated by Ethelnoth. This, however, led to a dispute with the archbishop of Hamburg, and Cnut promised that in future there should be no infringe- ment of that metropolitan's jurisdiction.
In 1023, Cnut caused the body of Archbishop Elphege (q.v.) to be translated from London to Canterbury Cathedral, which he had restored. Archbishop Ethelnoth accompanied the procession from London. On June 15 the remains were solemnly deposited in Christ Church in the presence of the king, Queen Emma, her son Harthacnut, and a great assembly of clergy and nobles.4
About the year 1026, Cnut journeyed to Rome as a humble pilgrim, with wallet and staff. His simple-hearted greatness is admirably expressed in a beautiful letter which he addressed from Rome to the archbishops and bishops and to all his English subjects, gentle and simple. He expresses an almost child-like wonder at the honourable reception accorded him in Rome, and states that he has obtained from the pope and the emperor exemption from tolls and taxes for such of his subjects as should in future pass through their territories, either as pilgrims or merchants. He, on his part, has promised that the payment of Peter's pence from England shall be continued. He tells them that he has prayed at all the great shrines, for which he is the happier, for since it has been taught him that in the hands of Peter is the power received from the Lord to bind and loose, it is of great avail to have with the Lord an advocate in the bearer of the keys of heaven. Lastly, he tells his subjects that he has resolved to rectify any wrongs or injustice which he may have done them in the past, and to atone for his errors by ruling them more justly in the time to come.5
« Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1023.
s William of Malmesbury, English Chronicle, ed. Bohn, pp. 199 to 202.
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Cnut died at Shaftesbury in 1037. He had married Emma, the widow of Ethelred the Unready, and on his deathbed is said to have made Ethelnoth promise to crown none but a son of Emma as king of England. After Harold Harefoot, the son of Cnut by a former marriage, had seized the throne, he summoned Ethelnoth to his coronation. The archbishop came, but placed the crown and sceptre on the altar, declaring that Harold might take them if he willed, but that while a son of Emma survived, he would crown none other. He also forbade any other bishop in the kingdom to perform the rite.6 The truth of this story, however, is doubtful.
Ethelnoth' was much beloved by both the clergy and laity. He died on October 29, 1038. A touching account is given in the " Anglo-Saxon Chronicle " of the devotion shown towards him by Bishop Ethelric of Selsey. " Ethelric desired of God that he would not let him live any while after his beloved Ethelnoth ; and accordingly, within seven days after, he departed."
6 Freeman's Norman Conquest, I., 488.
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30.— EADSIGE (or EADSINE), 1038 to 1050.
Kings of England : Harold I., 1037 to 1040. Harthacnut, 1040 to 1042. Edward the Confessor, 1042 to 1066.
Eadsige, known as the bishop of St. Martin's, was promoted to the see of Canterbury shortly after the death of Ethelnoth. Some obscurity exists about the period at which the church of St. Martin's in Canterbury {vide Augustine) gave its title to a bishop. As the names of only two bishops consecrated with this title are recorded, it was probably given only temporarily. Hook supposes that a bishop of St. Martin's was appointed as coadjutor to the archbishop, with authority to officiate during his absence. In the time of Cnut, Eadsige, who was then a secular priest, had acted as the king's chaplain. For some reason which is not explained, Cnut had desired him to become a monk. The probability of his election to the archbishopric as the successor of Ethelnoth, may have rendered this advisable {vide Odo). Cnut accordingly granted Folkestone to the monastery of Christ Church, on condition that his chaplain should be admitted to the com- munity, stipulating that Eadsige should have the land for life.1 At a later period Eadsige seems to have supported the claim of Earl Godwine of Wessex to Folkestone against Christ Church.
Two years after his election to the archbishopric, Eadsige journeyed to Rome and received the pallium from Pope Benedict IX. After the death of Harthacnut, Eadsige is said to have assisted Edward the Confessor to obtain the kingdom.2 At Easter, 1043, the Confessor was crowned with great pomp at Winchester by Archbishop Eadsige. After the ceremony,
1 Kemble Cod. Dip., 1327.
1 William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pont. Ang., p. 34.
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Eadsige delivered an impressive sermon, " admonishing the king as well for his own need as for that of the people."3
Shortly after the coronation, Eadsige was attacked by an illness which rendered him unfit for his duties. Fearing lest some unsuitable person should obtain his see through bribery or influence, he consulted the king and Earl Godwine on the subject, and it was decided that Siward, Abbot of Abingdon, should be appointed as his coadjutor. Siward was accordingly consecrated in 1044, with the title of bishop of Upsala.
During Eadsige 's illness Siward is said to have appropriated the greater part of the archiepiscopal income, and to have provided the sick prelate with insufficient funds for his maintenance, so that he was even deprived of his necessary food. On account of this injustice, Siward was not promoted to succeed Eadsige in the archbishopric, but was made bishop of Rochester.4 This story, however, is open to doubt, for other writers declare that Siward was himself attacked by illness, and returned to Abingdon, where he died before the archbishop. It is quite probable that Eadsige was dissatisfied with the allowance which he received during his illness, and that a dispute consequently arose between him and Siward, who was supported by the chapter of Christ Church. But as Eadsige again attests charters as archbishop from the year 1046, he appears to have recovered suffi- ciently to rule his see some time before his death, which occurred on October 29, 1050.
The ill-feeling due to the dispute concerning his allowance, probably continued to exist between him and the chapter at Christ Church until his death, for in his will he left land and a hundred marks to the rival monastery of St. Augustine.5
3 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1043.
4 William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pont. Ang., p. 34.
5 Thorn's Chronologia, col. 2247.
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3i.— ROBERT (or CHAMPART), 1051 to 1052.
King of England : Edward the Confessor, 1042 to 1066.
Since the accession of Edward the Confessor in 1042 the Norman influence had been gradually gaining ground in England. The sympathies and tastes of the king, who had spent twenty-seven years of his life in exile in France, were entirely Norman. In spite of the oath taken to the contrary at his coronation, he had surrounded himself with Norman favourites. By 1050 all the chief offices of state were filled by Normans, and the fear lest a Norman should be appointed to the primacy had frequently troubled the minds of English churchmen during the illness of Archbishop Eadsige. It was for this reason that, shortly after the death of the latter, the clergy and monks of Canterbury hastened to make a canonical election, without waiting to consult the wishes of the king. Their choice fell on a monk named Elfric, from the monastery of St. Augustine, who was much beloved by the whole community, and well skilled in ecclesiastical matters. As he was a kinsman of the powerful Earl Godwine, of Wessex, the monks begged the earl to use his influence with the king to confirm the election. This Godwine readily consented to do, as he was strongly opposed to the Norman influence at Court.1
The earl's petition was not granted, however, for the king had already decided to appoint a primate of his own choice. Among the Frenchmen brought to England by Edward, was Robert, Abbot of Jumieges, who since 1044 had held the see of London. Robert had been prior of St. Ouen, at Rouen, and in 1037 was chosen abbot of the monastery of St. Jumieges on the Seine. While holding this position he became intimate with the Confessor, who was indeed better fitted to be a monk himself than the ruler of England. Robert became Edward's spiritual adviser, and being a prelate of con-
1 Life of Edward the Confessor (Rolls Series), p. 399.
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siderable ability soon won much influence over his royal patron. It was commonly said at the English Court that if the bishop asserted a black crow was white, the King would believe him sooner than the evidence of his own eyes.2
On Robert, therefore, the king's choice fell. Much to the indignation of the clergy and people, the canonical election of Elfric was set aside, and Robert translated from London to the archbishopric of Canterbury. The feeling against the Norman archbishop was increased, when, on his return from Rome with the pallium, he refused to consecrate Spearhafoc, Abbot of Abingdon, to the see of London. The abbot came with the royal writ for his consecration, but Robert refused to perform the ceremony, saying that the pope had forbidden him to do so.3
As might have been expected, a quarrel soon arose between the archbishop and Earl Godwine, the immediate cause being a dispute concerning some property. Robert is said to have used his influence with the king against the earl, whom he accused of having been concerned in the murder of the king's brother Alfred, in 1036.
After the banishment of Godwine, Robert's power at court became supreme. The king had married Edgitha, a daughter of Earl Godwine. Robert, not content with the exile of the earl and his sons, attempted to bring about a separation between the king and Edgitha. Edward, who was naturally disposed to celibacy, sent her to Wherwell Abbey, where she had been educated, on the pretence that she should there await a return of more peaceful times in the kingdom.4 It was probably during Godwine's exile that King Edward sent the archbishop with an embassy to his cousin William, Duke of Normandy, who, soon after receiving it, visited the English Court.
In September, 1052, Godwine returned to England, and a reconciliation took place between him and the king. The archbishop, on hearing of the return of his most powerful enemy, knew that his reign was over. Without waiting to be dismissed, he fled from Canterbury, and, in company with
1 Freeman's Norman Conquest, II., 70.
3 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1048.
* Life of Edward the Confessor (Rolls series), p. 403.
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Robert
Ulf, Bishop of Dorchester, made his way by a circuitous route to the coast. On their way through London the Norman prelates and their followers slew and wounded many men. The " Chronicle" records that in his flight Robert left his pallium behind him, " as God would have it, inasmuch as he had before obtained the dignity as God would not have it."5 At Walton-on-Naze, in Essex, the two prelates embarked for France in a crazy fishing- vessel.
After his arrival in Normandy, Robert learned that the Witan had deposed him from the archbishopric and declared him an outlaw. He accordingly journeyed to Rome to lay his case before the pope. Leo IX. decided in his favour, but he did not regain possession of his see. He died at Jumieges shortly after his return from Rome, and was buried in the abbey church of St. Mary. The deposition of Robert was afterwards one of the many pretexts put forward by William of Normandy for the invasion of England.6
s Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1052.
6 Freeman's Norman Conquest, II., 71, 331.
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32. — STIGAND, 1052 to 1070.
Kings of England: Edward the Confessor, 1042 to 1066. Harold II., 1066. William I., 1066 to 1087.
The sorrowful figure of Stigand, the last Anglo-Saxon arch- bishop, now comes upon the scene. The {circumstances of his unfortunate career and the tragedy of its close are so full of pathos that the majority of his biographers have been led to deal gently with his many faults.
Of Stigand's birth and early career nothing is known. We first hear of him as a priest of the church of Assandun, in Essex, which had been erected by Cnut in memory of his victory over Edmund Ironside, and as an atonement for his earlier crimes. After the death of Cnut, Stigand became chaplain to Harold Harefoot, by whom he was nominated bishop of Elmham, in East Anglia, but for some reason which is not clear his nomination to this see was cancelled before his consecration, and Grimkytell appointed in his place. Later, however, Stigand was consecrated to the see of Elmham, and is said to have been afterwards translated to that of Selsey, in Sussex, his brother Ethelmaer being appointed to Elmham.1
At the commencement of Edward the Confessor's reign Stigand appears to have been restored to the see of Elmham and acted as chief councillor to Emma, the widow of Ethelred and Cnut. Since her marriage with Cnut, Emma had attached herself to the Danish interests. It seems probable that she had even intrigued with the Danes against Edward, her son by her first marriage, for soon after his accession he deprived her of most of her property, and sent her to live in seclusion at Winchester. Stigand shared in Emma's disgrace, because she had " acted in all things according to his counsel." The king therefore deprived him
1 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1048.
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Stigand
of the see of Elmham, and seized all his possessions,2 from which we may infer that even at this early date Stigand had opposed himself to the Norman influence. In the following year, however, he was reinstated in the see of Elmham, and in 1047 was made bishop of Winchester.
As Stigand had attached himself to the Saxon party, he was employed by Edward to conduct negotiations with Godwine, and is said to have been instrumental in bringing about the reconciliation between the king and the earl in 1052. We have seen that this reconciliation involved the overthrow of the Norman archbishop, Robert of Jumieges (q.v.). At the Witenagemot held at Winchester in September, 1052, sentence of deposition and outlawry was pronounced against Robert, and Stigand was appointed in his place as archbishop of Canterbury.
For some reason Stigand was permitted at his own desire to hold the see of Winchester along with that of Canterbury. Though the holding of more than one see was forbidden by the canons of the Roman Church, this prohibition was frequently disregarded. We have seen that in 959, St. Dunstan (q.v.) received the bishopric of London, and held it together with that of Worcester until the following year. His infringement of the canons in this respect was, however, one of the charges afterwards brought against Stigand. Though it is not clear in what respect his election had been less canonical than that of many of his predecessors, who had been nominated by ruling sovereigns, his ecclesiastical position was doubtful from the first, and many English bishops refused to receive consecration at his hands. The right of the popes to confirm the appointment of the arch- bishops of Canterbury was still recognised by English church- men, and as the pope had decided in favour of Robert of Jumieges, whom he declared to have been unlawfully deposed, it was vain for Stigand to look for recognition from the apostolic see. One chronicler declares that during his occupancy of the see of Canterbury, Stigand was excom- municated by no less than five popes.
Not until six years after his election as archbishop did Stigand receive a pallium from Rome. One of the charges
» Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1043.
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afterwards brought against him was that during these six years he had worn the pallium of his predecessor. About the year 1058, Earl Harold of Wessex, who after the death of his father, Godwine, had become the leader of the Saxon party, made a pilgrimage to Rome. Freeman supposes that Harold may have pleaded the cause of his friend Stigand to the pope, and that on his return to England, he brought with him the long-desired pallium for the archbishop. Unfortunately, for Stigand, the apostolic see was at that time occupied by an antipope who had assumed the name of Benedict X. As the usual policy of antipopes was to annul the acts of the true popes, it is not surprising to learn that Benedict sent the pallium to Stigand. Until some months after his election the insecurity of Benedict's position may not have been fully understood in England. Hence the arrival of the pallium may for a time have improved the unfortunate position of Stigand, and we hear of his consecrating two bishops, one to the see of Selsey, and the other to Rochester in 1058. 3
A few months later, however, Benedict X. was driven from the papal chair, and the recognition of Stigand by an antipope made his position worse than it had been before. Though he was permitted to sign documents as archbishop, his ser- vices were constantly rejected, even by the Saxon party to which he belonged. His friend Earl Harold, to whom he might have looked for support, seems to have shared the general feeling against him, for Harold caused his famous foundation, Waltham Abbey, to be consecrated by Kynsey, Archbishop of York, and we learn that, shortly afterwards, Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, refused to receive consecration from Stigand. Nor was the unfortunate archbishop invited by Edward the Confessor to consecrate Westminster Abbey in 1065.
During his last illness, the Confessor was troubled by strange visions, and predicted that after his death many calamities would overtake his kingdom. While the Norman courtiers and monks stood amazed around the bed of their dying sovereign, the Saxon archbishop, with blunt common-sense, declared his belief that the visions were but the idle ravings of a sick old man.4
3 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
* William of Malmesbury, Gesta Reg. Ang., p. 277.
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The majority of early English historians state that Earl Harold was crowned king not by Stigand, but by Aldred, Archbishop of York, and on the whole, this seems most prob- able. On the other hand, the Norman-French writers insist that Stigand officiated at the ceremony, their object evidently being to present Harold's coronation as uncanonical and invalid. The Bayeux tapestry does not show the actual coronation of Harold, but represents the king crowned, and seated on a throne after the ceremony, while Stigand stands by seemingly addressing the people.5
The hopes of all English churchmen were now centred on their Saxon king, who seemed eminently fitted to maintain their rights against Norman tyranny. But these hopes were only born to be finally and completely quenched by his defeat and death at the battle of Hastings, a few months later. With the advent of the Conqueror, Norman influence again reigned supreme.
After the death of Harold, Stigand had joined the Earls. Edwin and Morcar in electing Edgar Atheling to the English throne. But the Saxons were without a leader, and at this crisis none among them seem to have been capable of heroic action, least of all Stigand himself. On learning that William was marching on London, he accompanied the Atheling and other nobles to Wallingford, where they submitted to the Conqueror, and swore fealty to him.
On Christmas Day, 1066, William was crowned in London by Aldred, Archbishop of York, "having refused," says the French chronicler, " to be crowned by Stigand, whom the zeal of the apostolic see had struck with anathema."6 In the following March, when William returned to Normandy Stigand and a number of English nobles rode in his suite. Though Stigand had been forced against his will to accompany the Conqueror to Normandy, he was treated with much honour and respect at all places in the duchy through which he passed. It is probable that William, in taking Stigand to Normandy, had no other object than to add to the importance of his retinue.
s Freeman's Norman Conquest, III., 616.
6 William of Poitier's Vie de Guillaume le Conquer ant (edition Guizot), p. 414.
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After Stigand's return to England with the king, he is said to have joined a revolt of the Saxons against the Normans. There is however, no real evidence for the truth of this state- ment. The story that the archbishop took refuge in the fens of Lincolnshire, with Hereward and his followers, and was only captured after the surrender of the famous camp at Ely, is probably an invention. Nor is there any evidence to prove that William was at first inclined to show to the archbishop favours which he afterwards withdrew. The Conqueror's sole motive in deposing Stigand was probably that he might appoint an archbishop of his own choice, who was not under the papal ban, especially as he desired to keep on friendly terms with the apostolic see.
In 1070, Pope Alexander II. sent legates to England, at William's request, to regulate the affairs of the English church. The legates summoned Stigand to appear before them at a council held at Winchester. Various improbable charges were brought against him, including perjury and homicide, but these apparently were not proven, for only on the three following was he condemned : (1) Because he had occupied the archbishopric in the lifetime of Robert of Jumieges ; (2) Because for six years he had worn the pallium of his predecessor ; (3) Because he had received his own pallium from a schismatic. Had William chosen to support him it is evident that these charges would have been insufficient to condemn him. Stigand was deposed from both his sees, and condemned to imprisonment at Winchester.
Some writers declare that he was kept in chains and received the hardest usage until his death. Though nothing could have justified such treatment of the deposed prelate it would only have been in keeping with William's character for cruelty. At the same council, other English prelates were deposed from their sees, but were permitted to retire to monasteries.
During his captivity, Stigand lived very sparingly, often denying himself the barest necessaries. Queen Edgitha, the widow of the Confessor, and other friends of Stigand, frequently pressed him to live more comfortably, but he declared that he had not the means. After his death, how- ever, on his wasted body a small key was discovered, which
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opened a cave containing countless treasures.7 Charts were also found showing where gold and silver had been buried on his estates. He is said to have wrongfully held lands belonging to the monasteries of Ely and Abingdon, and it is probable that there may have been truth in the accusations of simony and of covetousness brought against him by his enemies. Records are, however, extant which show that he bestowed many rich gifts on different churches.8
Dean Hook suggests that the money and treasure hoarded by the captive prelate may have been intended for use in the event of a Saxon revolt against the hated Norman rule.
Broken down and disheartened by his many misfortunes and cruel imprisonment, Stigand lived but two years after his deposition from the see of Canterbury. He died in 1072, and was buried in the abbey church of St. Swithin at Winchester.
» Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pontificum, II., p. 363. 8 Ibid, Opera I., 70.
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33. LAN FRANC, 1070 to 1089.
Kings of England : William I., 1066 to 1087.
William II., Rufus, 1087 to 1100.
Some time previous to the deposition of Stigand, William the Conqueror had determined to place in the see of Canterbury, one eminently well fitted to rule the Church of the conquered island. This was the great scholar Lanfranc, Abbot of St. Stephen's at Caen, whose success as a teacher had won for him a European reputation, and who next to the great Hilde- brand himself was then the most prominent churchman in Western Christendom.
Lanfranc was born in the early years of the eleventh century, at Pavia in Lombardy, where his father Hanbald, held the rank of a magistrate. He was trained in the legal studies for which Northern Italy was then becoming famous, and excelled in all secular learning, including the knowledge of Greek. While yet a young man, he acquired such proficiency in jurisprudence that he was consulted by the most eminent jurists of his time.
After his father's death, he crossed the Alps, and was for some years a teacher in France. Among his pupils was one Paul, afterwards abbot of St. Alban's, whom tradition declared to be his son, though there is no evidence to confirm the statement. In 1039, we ^n<^ n^m settled at Avranches in Normandy, where he founded a school in which he taught for three years with conspicuous success. But at the height of his fame, he became dissatisfied with his life, and suddenly left Avranches with the intention, according to some writers, of entering a monastery. Others declare that he was undecided as to his next step, and was proceeding to Rome, when an unexpected event opened for him the career to which he was destined. While passing through one of the forests, with which the country was covered, he was stopped by a troop of brigands, who robbed him of his purse, and of all his belongings. They then tied him to a tree in the
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thickest part of the forest, and left him to his fate. During the night that followed, he sought comfort by attempting to repeat some of the prayers and offices of the Church. But though proficient in secular learning, he had neglected the things of religion, and could repeat none of the prayers from memory. He then made a vow that if his life were preserved, he would spend it differently.
The long night passed, and at daybreak, his cries were heard by some travellers in the forest, who released him, and led him back to the road. Before parting with his rescuers, he requested them to direct him to the poorest monastery in the neighbourhood. They directed him to Bee.1
In 1034, a small monastery had been founded near Bonne- ville by Herluin, a Norman noble, of Danish descent. A few years later, it was removed to a more suitable site two miles away in the valley of a small stream or bee, whence it derived its name. On the day of Lanfranc's arrival, Herluin was engaged, with the aid of a brother named Roger, in construct- ing an oven, for the use of the monks. Seeing a stranger approach he paused in his work. " God save you," said Lanfranc. " God bless you," replied the abbot, who had recognized the foreign accent of the stranger, " You are a Lombard ? " "I am." " What do you desire ? " " To enter the monastery." The abbot ordered brother Roger to bring the book of rules. When Lanfranc had read them, he declared that he was prepared to follow them with joy. Herluin, who is said to have been unable to read himself, recognized that the scholar had been sent by God to instruct the monks.2 Thus, at the age of thirty-seven, Lanfranc became a monk of the order of St. Benedict.
For the next three years, he lived in the humble seclusion of the monastery engaged in teaching the monks, and in the most menial work. Little did the monks suspect — so deep was his humility — that one of the greatest scholars of the age was dwelling among them. It is related of him that one day, when reading aloud in the refectory, the prior corrected his Latin pronunciation, ordering him to shorten the second syllable of docere. Lanfranc meekly obeyed.3
1 Vita S. Lanfranci, by Milo Crispin, cap. I. * Ibid.
3 Ibid, cap. 2.
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At length, however, he is said to have been disgusted with the low habits of the monks, and determined to become a hermit. From this Herluin dissuaded him, and made him prior of the monastery. To pay the expenses of the new buildings at Bee, the abbot opened a school in which Lanfranc taught. His fame soon spread abroad, and scholars flocked to him not only from France and Normandy, but from Gascony Flanders, Germany, and Italy. All the great men of Normandy now lavished gifts on the monastery. Many of his scholars afterwards attained high positions in the Church. Among the most noted were Anselm of Milan, who afterwards became Pope Alexander II., and another Anselm (q. v.), who was destined to become Lanfr an c's famous successor in the see of Canterbury. Lanfranc's fame as a theologian caused him to be called upon to defend the doctrine of Transubstantia- tion, against the attacks of Beranger of Tours, who had been his personal friend. This he did with marked ability and success, at councils held at Vercelli, Tours and Rome. Beran- ger was finally condemned, and the doctrine of Transubstan- tiation, which is said by Catholic writers to have been held by Christians from the earliest times, was declared to form part of the doctrine of the Church. Many years later (c. 1080) Lanfranc wrote his famous treatise " De Corpore et Sanguine Domini," a work which was considered conclusive, and became a text-book in the schools.
About the year 1058, a rumour reached the Norman court that the prior of Bee had dared to denounce the marriage of Duke William with Matilda of Flanders, on the ground of consanguinity. William, in great wrath, ordered the prior to leave his dominions. Lanfranc, with one servant, set out mounted on a lame horse, the only one with which the monastery could provide him. On the way he met Duke William, either by accident or design. " By your command, I am leaving your dominions," said Lanfranc, " but I could do so more quickly if you would provide me with a better horse." William, much amused, entered into conversation with him, and a reconciliation took place between them.4
Thus began between the two great men a friendship which lasted till death parted them. Shortly after this interview
* Ibid, cap. 4. 132
Lanfranc
Lanfranc was on his way to Rome to obtain the papal dis- pensation for William's marriage with Matilda. He was successful in his mission, and so won the life-long gratitude of the Conqueror. Pope Nicholas II. stipulated that, as a condition of the dispensation, William and Matilda should build two abbeys and four hospitals. The abbeys were built at Caen. Over that of St. Stephen's, the one built by William, Lanfranc was appointed abbot. At the same time he was made preceptor to the duke's children, and became William's most trusted counsellor. Without doubt he guided the policy by which William obtained the pope's consent to the invasion of England, and which gave to the expedition something of the character of a holy war.
In 1067, Lanfranc declined to accept the bishopric of Rouen, and some writers infer that at this date he already knew of William's intention to promote him to a still higher honour. In 1070, however, he appears to have accepted the arch- bishopric of Canterbury only with the greatest reluctance. Queen Matilda, her favourite son Robert and Lanfranc's old friend Herluin, all entreated him in vain, and it was only when two papal legates visited Caen, and laid on him the accep- tance of the archbishopric as a command from their master that he yielded. To rule the Church of a conquered country in the midst of a foreign people, who would naturally regard him with distrust, was indeed no easy task, and the idea held by certain writers that his reluctance was feigned has little to justify it. The following extracts from a letter which he afterwards wrote to Pope Alexander II. show how great was the burden laid upon him. " Ah, if you knew," he writes, " all the griefs and cares which overwhelm me ! If you could see with your eyes the torrent of vices that overflow on all sides, and that my feeble arm cannot check, you would under stand and excuse the distaste which I have for this life. Have pity on me, oh my father ! Deliver me, you who have bound me. Give back the poor monk to the cloister for which he was made, and which he ought never to have left."5
In 1071, Lanfranc went to Rome for the pallium, and was
received with much honour by his former pupil, Pope
Alexander II. He was accompanied to Rome by Thomas,
s Vie de Lanfranc, par M. A. Charma, p. 26.
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Archbishop of York, and Remigius, Bishop of Lincoln. A dis- pute had arisen concerning the supremacy of the see of Canterbury over York, and it had been decided to refer the matter to the pope.6 Alexander II., however, ordered that the dispute should be settled by a council of English bishops. The case was finally decided in favour of Canterbury, at a national synod held at London, at Whitsuntide 1072.
Lanfranc has been accused by certain modern writers of carrying his point by the use of forged documents. Refer- ence has already been made to a series of ten letters quoted by William of Malmesbury, which were produced for the first time by Lanfranc in 1072 (vide Justus). These purport to have been written in the seventh century by different popes, who give the primacy of the whole English Church to Canterbury.7
Though these letters are undoubtedly spurious, it is impossi- ble now to decide what share, if any, Lanfranc had in forging them. The upright character of the great prelate increases the difficulty of supposing that he could have been implicated in such a fraud. It is obvious that the supremacy of Can- terbury over York would at that period fall in with William's policy for the consolidation of the kingdom. Northumbria had been hard to subdue, and still lay open to Danish invaders. An independent archbishop of York, who might consecrate a king of the Northumbrians either native or Danish, would undoubtedly have been dangerous.8
Lanfranc's first work after his installation at Canterbury, was to commence the rebuilding of Christ Church, which had been destroyed by fire in 1067. The archbishop had been consecrated on his arrival in a temporary building, by nine of his suffragans. The new cathedral was rebuilt in seven years, and rendered nearly complete. Lanfranc took as his model the church of St. Stephen's at Caen, which was cruci- form in shape with two western towers. He raised the number of his chapter to one hundred and fifty, dismissing all the secular clergy and making it completely monastic. During
6 Anglo Saxon Chronicle, 1070.
> William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pont. Ang., p. 49-51 '. cf. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III., 66. 8 Freeman's William the Conqueror, p. 142.
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his pontificate many beautiful Norman churches were erected in different parts of England. At Canterbury, he also caused two hospitals to be built for the sick and poor.
With the Conqueror's approval, Lanfranc entirely re- organised the English Church on the model of the con- tinental Churches. We have seen that in the time of his predecessor English prelates had been removed to make way for foreigners, and by 1070, only two sees in England retained native bishops. The general result of the reforms of William and Lanfranc was to bring the Church of England into conformity with the doctrines and practice of the west, and hence into closer union with Rome. One of the most important changes made by Lanfranc was the separation of Church jurisdiction from the secular busi- ness of the courts of law. Henceforth the bishop presided over his own court. All the important sees were removed from villages to cities. Lanfranc has been called the " father of monks," and under his influence a sterner and more ascetic rule was gradually introduced in the English Church. To a considerable extent this was necessary on account of the laxity of morals which then prevailed among the clergy. Though his reforms were to some extent unpopular, he succeeded in winning the almost universal love and admira- tion of the conquered people, which proves that he possessed unusual tact and sympathy.
Only once do we hear of his employing force to carry out his reforms. This was when in the reign of Rufus he installed Wydo as abbot of St. Augustine's against the will of the monks. The brethren, who refused to receive the new abbot, were ordered to leave the monastery. They took refuge in the church of St. Mildred. Lanfranc sent them a message to say that if they returned to the monastery before the ninth hour, they would be received, but that if they delayed longer, they would be treated as renegades. Having received this message they doubted whether to return or to remain, but at the hour of refection, when they became hungry, many, repenting of their obstinacy, sent to Lanfranc, and promised submission. These he treated leniently, on condition that they professed obedience to the new abbot. The others, along with their prior, he caused to be imprisoned. A monk named Columban,
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who afterwards plotted the death of the new abbot, was by Lanfranc's orders tied naked to the gates of St. Augustine's, and flogged in the sight of the people. He was then driven from the city.9
Though the reforms of Lanfranc ultimately tended to bring the English Church into closer dependence on Rome, he faith- fully supported the imperial policy of William. While the majority of European princes acquiesced in rendering obedi- ence to the great Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII.), the Conqueror stoutly maintained his independence in secular matters. The following characteristic letter was sent back by William to Gregory by a papal legate, who had visited England : " Thy legate, Holy Father, hath called upon me in thy name to take the oath of fealty to thee and to thy successors, and to exert myself in forcing the more regular payment of the money [Peter's Pence], which my predecessors were accustomed to remit to the Church of Rome. One request I have granted, the other I refuse. Homage to thee I have not chosen nor do I choose to do. I never made a promise to that effect, nor do I find that it was ever performed by my predecessors to thine. The money in question, during the three years past, owing to my being frequently in France, has been negligently collected. Now, as I am by divine mercy returned to my kingdom, the money which has been collected is remitted by the aforesaid legate. As for the rest it shall be sent as opportunity shall occur, by the legates of our trusty Archbishop Lanfranc. Pray for us and for our kingdom, for we always respected thy predecessors, and we would fain regard thee with sincere affection, and be always thy obedient servant."10
With regard to the investiture question, William continued to the end of his reign to appoint bishops and abbots at his will, independently of the pope. In 1076, Lanfranc went to Rome, carrying rich gifts for the king to Gregory VII. On his return journey he visited Bee, and during his stay lived as one of the brethren of the house.
Some years later, the archbishop was again invited to Rome by Gregory, who had expressed displeasure with the independent policy of the Conqueror. A letter from the
9 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1070. I0 Hook's translation.
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pope is extant in which the invitation to Lanfranc takes the form of a command, but the archbishop does not seem to have complied with the summons. Some writers declare that he openly defied the pope by his refusal to go to Rome. But it seems probable that his advanced age was accepted as an excuse for his refusing to undertake the long journey. On the subject of the quarrel between the empire and the papacy, Lanfranc apparently desired to adopt a neutral attitude.
During the king's frequent absences in Normandy, Lanfranc acted as his vicegerent, and on more than one occasion was successful in quelling revolts against the royal authority. The treachery of Odo, the king's half-brother, whom he had made bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent, at length forced William to imprison him. The king is said to have hesitated to lay hands on the bishop, until Lanfranc gravely assured him that it was not the bishop of Bayeux whom he would arrest, but the Earl of Kent.
The archbishop is said to have often expressed fear lest he should outlive the king, his master. " So long as the king lives we will enjoy peace," he once said, " but after his death who knows what evils may overtake us ? " The calamity he dreaded befell the kingdom in 1087. From his deathbed in Rouen, the Conqueror dictated a letter to Lanfranc, " You will place my son William, who will remit to you this letter, on the throne of England, and you will sustain him with your influence and counsels."
Lanfranc loyally fulfilled the dead king's wishes, and crowned Rufus at Westminster. So long as the archbishop lived, he continued to support Rufus against his many enemies, and was to some extent a check on his evil inclinations. But his restraining hand was soon removed by death. His end is said to have been hastened by seeing his warnings despised, and his counsels set aside by the vicious king.
In 1089, Lanfranc was attacked by a fever, but delayed taking the potion which his physician prescribed for him, " preferring," says his biographer, "to fortify himself for the unknown journey from which he did not shrink by first par- taking of the sacrament of the altar." He afterwards took the medicine, but it was too late. He died on May 28, 1089, being then about the age of eighty-four, retaining
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to the last moment, as he had often wished he might do, his memory and his speech."
Considering his great reputation as a scholar the works left by Lanfranc are slight and disappointing. His most important work, the " Liber de Corpore et Sanguine Domini," written against the doctrine of Beranger, has been already mentioned. He also wrote " Decreta pro ordine S. Benedicti," a complete ritual for the Benedictine use in England, and a " Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul," consisting of short notes, probably used at lectures. Several other pamph- lets and treatises have been ascribed to him, most of them probably erroneously. About sixty of his letters have been preserved. Among his correspondents was St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, wife of Malcolm Canmore.
Though not endowed with lofty genius, Lanfranc possessed the rare talent and singular ability which marked him for a great man among his fellows. " No one," says Dean Spence, " in that age of change has left his mark upon the English Church like the great scholar statesman whom the Conqueror's unerring eye chose for his adviser." By many writers he is said to have been unscrupulous in the measures he employed in carrying out his reform, and indifferent to the suffering he caused, in which respect he and the Conqueror were accounted well-matched. Yet at his death Lanfranc was mourned by all, especially by those who knew him best.
11 Vie de Lanfranc, par M. A. Charma, p. 31.
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ST. ANSELM.
34- — ANSELM, 1093 to 1109. S.
Kings of England: William Rufus, 1087 to iioo Henry I., 1100 to 1135.
For nearly four years after the death of Lanfranc, Rufus kept the see of Canterbury vacant with the avowed purpose of appropriating its revenues to his own use. The prolonged vacancy was deeply resented by the English people, who earnestly desired to see the archbishopric occupied by a prelate on whom their choice had long been fixed, and whom alone they believed capable of stemming the torrent of vice which threatened to overwhelm Church and State. This was the beloved abbot of Bee, known in later times as St. Anselm.
Anselm was born in 1033, of a rich and noble Lombard family in the town of Aosta, which then belonged to Burgundy. His father Gundulf was a man of harsh and violent temper, who late in life repented of his errors and retired to a cloister. But the gentle piety of Anselm's mother, Ermenberga, exercised over him an irresistible influence. The boy was studious and gifted with a rare intellect. At the age of fifteen he sought admission to a monastery without the knowledge of his parents. But the abbot to whom he applied for the cowl, wisely refused to receive him.
The boy possessed an impetuous temper which led him to pass quickly from one extreme to another. As he had been refused admission to the cloister he surrendered himself to the pleasures of the world. His books once so dear to him lost their charm, and after the death of his mother he drifted like a vessel without an anchor. His father conceived for him a violent dislike which rendered his life unbearable. At length, at the age of twenty-two, he left his home with one faithful servant and set out to seek his fortune. For three years he travelled in Burgundy and France, giving lessons in literature, and studying under several eminent professors. After a short residence at Avranches, the fame of Lanfranc (q. v.) drew him
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to_.Bec. There he enjoyed intimacy with the great scholar. The influence of Lanfranc's friendship revived the seeds of -virtue which his mother had planted in his heart. Remem- bering the days of his boyhood, he regretted his lost innocence, and the desire to become a monk returned to him.
At this time his father died, leaving him a large fortune, which rendered him undecided as to the best course to pursue. In his uncertainty, he opened his heart to his master Lanfranc, who advised him to consult Maurilius, Archbishop of Rouen, and offered to accompany him on a visit to that prelate.1
The result of their consultation was that in 1060 Anselm became a monk at Bee, at the age of twenty-seven. On the appointment of Lanfranc to the abbacy of St. Stephen's at Caen, Anselm succeeded^him as prior of Bee.2 This office he filled for fifteen years/with conspicuous^success winning the love and esteem of the whole community.) Abbot Herluin being now aged, most of the business of the monastery devolved on the prior. Never had more eager or enlightened care been brought to bear on the direction of the house. The greater part of the day was spent by Anselm between the hours of prayer in giving instructions to the young men in the school. Many persons of all ranks came to him for counsel, and his letters show how widespread was his influence. In these he earnestly and with all dignity exhorts his correspondents to continuance in a holy course of life, and to faith in Christ. Part of the night he spent in literary labours and in the correction of books which had been corrupted through the fault of transcribers. Break of day often found him still at his desk. By his writings he soon obtained a reputation far excelling that of his master Lanfranc, whom he surpassed both morally and intellectually.3 "On the death of the aged Herluin, in 1078, Anselm was un- ; animously chosen abbot of Bee by the 136 monks who then composed the community. In vain he threw himself on his knees, and begged them to take pity on his unworthiness and his weakness. The monks also" prostrated themselves before him, and conjured him with sobs and tears not to betray the interests of the house by refusing to take the
1 Eadmer, Vita Sancti Anselmi (Rolls series), p. 319. • Ibid.
3 J. A. Mohler, Anselm, translated by Cox, p. 19.
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abbot's chair. Moved by their entreaties, he at last consented
As abbot the duty of looking after the property of the raonastery now devolved on him. This property was not only in Normandy and France, but on the other side of the Channel. The great house of Bee appears in four places in Domesday Book as the holder of lands in England.4 Soon after his election as abbot, Anselm crossed to England. During his stay in Canterbury he lived in close intimacy with his friend Lanfranc, who was now archbishop. From the time of Anselm's first visit., to. England, the English people seem to have reverenced him as a saint. Even the proud Conqueror himself, much to the astonishment of his courtiers, laid aside his haughtiness in Anselm's presence, and became mild and gentle.5 William's affection for the abbot of Bee was proved when in 1087, on his deathbed, at Rouen, he summoned him to hear his last confession. But the interview between them was postponed, as it was believed that the king might recover. Meantime, Anselm himself fell ill, and the king died without having seen him.
To Eadmer, a monk of Canterbury, we owe the tale of Anselm's early life. Eadmer was captivated by the kind words of the Norman abbot during one of the visits of the latter to England, and remained his faithful disciple through all the changes of his fortune.
After the death of Lanfranc in 1089, Anselm refused an invitation to visit England, as rumours had reached him of the desire to elect him archbishop. Meantime, the tyranny of Rufus spread misery throughout the kingdom. The king's indulgence in the foulest crimes was combined with a form of blasphemy which is said to have startled not only saints but ordinary sinners. Bishoprics were openly sold to the highest bidder, and vice of all kinds prevailed within the Church.
At length,. in the year 1092, on the invitation of Hugh, Earl of Chester, Anselm reluctantly crossed to England. On his way to Chester he visited the king and boldly reproved him for his evil Ufe. This only served to ernbitter Rufus against him. The [guileless simplicity of Anselm's character was incomprehensible to the vicious monarch? who believed or
4 Freeman's William Rufus, I. 375.
5 Eadmer, Vita Sancti Anselmi, p. 23, 355.
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pretended to believe that the abbot secretly desired the arch- bishopric, and might be induced to pay a large sum forjit.
Soon after Anselm's arrival in England, the kinff fell ill at Gloucester. The nnhlec seized j;h,e___nppnrtiiriify . i^-prpss on him. the duty of righting the many wrongs he had- done to Chnirh and filHlr. At length ho cppt^c f0 haYf; faacome convinced that his recovery depended on his appointing an archbishop. He accordingly sent for Anselm, ami nominated him to the see of Canterbury. Anselm pleaded with tears that he was an old man, unused to worldly affairs, .ancUvholly unfitted for the duties of so high an office. The bishops, deaf to his pleading, dragged him to the king's bedside. After a violent struggle, the king forced the crozier into his hand- He was then carried on the shoulders of the bishops to the nearest church where a joyful crowd had assembled. While the Te Deum was sung, Anselm, completely exhausted by the struggle, could only murmur, "It is nought, it is nought that ye do ! " He then fainted away.6 Though he afterwards predicted that the king would recover from his sickness, and assured him that he might, without scruple of conscience, undo what he had done, Rufus refused to release him from the archbishopric or to allow him to return to Normandy.
A few weeks later, Angplm rnn^ntH to do homage to the Vinpr fnr fko ffiTnpnrfl]ltifii nf *"'c see, in which lie was then invested, but declared that he accepted the archbishopric only on three conditions : (i) That the property of the see should be restored in full ; (2) That William should conform to his advice in all spiritual matters; (3) That he should acknowledge Urban II. as pope in opposition to the anti-pope Clement.7 Anselm only obtained a partial consent to the first of these conditions, and the last afterwards involved him in serious difficulty with the king.
On December 4, 1093, Anselm, at the age of sixty, was, consecrated at Canterbury by the archbishop of York, assisted by all. the bishops of his province except three. It was not long before discord arose between Rufus and the new archbishop. The king had declared war against his brother Robert, Duke of Normandy, and in 1094 prepared to invade the duchy. To pay the expenses of the expedition
6 Eadmer, Historia Novorum in Anglia, p. 37. 7 Ibid., p. 39.
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Anselm
he appealed to the crown vassals, wlio were forced to furnish him wiOi iiloiiey.' Anselm was asked to .give i.ooo pounds, but as he could not raise so much without ruining his church, he offered to give 50Q._ The kinfl in great indjgnatjpn mtastd
to accept this sum.8
Before setting out for Normandy the king was present at the consecration of Battle Abbey, which had been founded by the Conqueror. The ceremony was performed by Anselm in the presence of a great assembly of nobles and clergy. Anselm afterwards joined the prelates who assembled at Hastings to bless the expedition before its departure. He chose this opportunity of asking the king's permission to hold a coujicil for, the reform of morals throughout the **> kingdomJind also begged the king to fill the vacant bishoprics. But his demands were ill-timed, and William refused to listen to him.9
The expedition to Normandy proved a failure and William returned to England in December, 1094. Having exhausted his revenues he secretly determined to get those of the see of Canterbury again into his hands.10 Anselm had requested that he might go to Rome to receive the pallium from Pope Urban IT., but the king, who seems at this time to have contemplated giving his allegiance to the anti-pope Clement, refused the archbishop's request. William the Conqueror had declared his right to prevent any English subject from acknowledging a pope without his permission, and Rufus had no intention of relinquishing this claim. In March, 1095, a council of churchmen and nobles was held at Rockingham Castle, in Northamptonshire, to settle the dispute between Anselm and the king. Rufus, however, failed to overcome Anselm's patient constancy. The majority of the bishops who were the creatures of the king sided with him against Anselm, and would undoubtedly have deposed him had he not been loyally supported by the clergy and people. A decision on the matter was postponed until the following Whitsuntide.
Williarn now determined to gain the pope to his side. He accordingly despatched envoys to Rome to discover who was the true pope, and to obtain the pallium, which he intended
8 Ibid., p. 43. • Ibid., p. 48. ,0 M. A. Charma, Anselm.
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to bestow on an archbishop of his own choice. The envoys had no difficulty in ascertaining that Urban was the true pontiff. On their return to England they weie aCUUinpaiiied by Walter, Bishop of Albano, who brought the pallium. With him they proceeded immediately to the court, and Rufus is said to have offered Walter a large sum of money on conditions that Anselm should be deposed by papal authority- This the legate refused to do, and was successful in bringing about a partial reconciliation between the king and the archbishop.11 Qn Sunday, June io, IQQ5. the legale brought the pallium with great pomp to Canfffl-fmry anr* \?™ '+ nn the altar. Anselm then placed it on his own shoulders.
Little more than a year later fresh troubles arose through the king's tyranny, and Anselm determined to proceed to Rome to seek counsel of the pope. Rufus refused to grant permission for his departure, for he rightly suspected that / Anselm wished the pope to release him from his oath of fealty to his sovereign. The archbishop was informed that if he set out without the king's permission he would forfeit his see and all his property. Notwithstanding this threat, he determined to depart, and at length obtained reluctant permission to do so.
Before setting out, Anselm visited the king. " Will you permit me as your spiritual father to give you my blessing ? " he asked. The Red King was touched. He knelt humbly, while the archbishop blessed him.12 A strange picture it must have been — Rufus the debauched and godless tyrant kneeling before the great-hearted prelate of noble and saintly mien ! They never met again.
At Dover the archbishop's luggage was searched by a royal
order to see that he had taken nothing which could be seized
by the king. Anselm set out in October, 1097. . Immediately
after his departure William claimed the revenues of the see
and held them until his death. The archbishop journeyed
by slow stages to Rome, visiting Cluny, Lyons and other places
^ /n the way. In France, where the people reverenced him as
' - /a saint, he was greeted with continuous ovations. Soon after
' his arrival in Rome Anselm accompanied Pope Urban II. in
f a progress through Southern Italy. At a council held by the
" Ibid. ■ Eadmer, Historia Novorum, p. 87.
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Anselm
pQpe at Bari. several Greek bishops were present, and the old P^+r^VrArcy '-anrlirrnirigi,tfap ftrpffifflo*1 °1 W^ tlUly _Unost irom the Father n n j ttlfi ^"-""^rc^Yffi1 ttisuacordedTthat fofifTTTl nf ^"^it^ry ifigJagBMihid ^"i«elf at this council
by his wisdom and learning in the disputes with the Greeks.13 But Anselm's mission to Rome proved a failure. JJrban II. was either unwilling or unable to give a definite decision on the quarrel between the king and the archbishop. Many writers suppose that he feared to offend Rufus by siding openly with the primate. At a council held^at. Rjpjfle the excom-
mnnirafinr) nf T?nf""- ■»"« ^marukd. l^y iUiiitfjP- assp'rybjid
bishops, but was opposed by Anselm who was supported by
the pope :. . . /^ ^W
Anselm at length left Rome and returned to France there to await the pope's final decision. While there news reached him of the death of Rufus. On the morning of August 2, i ioo, the Red King had ridden forth to hunt in the New Forest with a great train of nobles and servants. The party scattered in different directions, and the king was seen to ride off with Sir Walter Tyrrel, a famous sportsman. That evening a poor forester was leading his cart home through the forest, when he stumbled over the king's body which lay among the ferns with an arrow in the breast. The forester lifted the body on his cart and brought it to Winchester, where it was buried.
The news was brought to Anselm by two monks, one from Canterbury and the other from Bee. q^y^ygjyjn^^yj^was at first stupefied by the shock, and then burst into a flood of tears.14
Henry I., who now ascended the English throne, was a very different man from his brother, and his strong rule brought peace to the kingdom. But though less. vicious than Rufus, he was equally unscrupulous, and more cunning in the methods he adopted to attain his ends... One of his first acts was to recall Anselm to England. The archbishop was received with great joy by the clergy and people and with much honour by the king.
Unfortunately, the harmony which at first reigned between Anselm and Henry was soon destroyed. The archbishop had
■J Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1098. H Historia Novorum, p. 118.
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returned from Rome fully determined to oppose lay investiture. It had been the custom for new bishops to do homage for the temporalities of their see to the reigning prince, and to receive the ring and crozier at his hands. As these symbols repre- sented spiritual jurisdiction, Pope Gregory VII. had refused to tolerate such a custom, and issued decrees that all who had been invested by lay persons should henceforth cease to be regarded as clerics. At a council held in Rome during the sojourn of Anselm in the city, these decrees of Pope Gregory had been confirmed-
Though the archbishop had previously received investiture from Rufus, he refused to receive it from Henry. The king, who seems to have been genuinely anxious to come to terms with Anselm, sent envoys to Rome to seek the pope's counsel with regard to the matter, but they brought back the most contradictory statements. Henry was unwilling to quarrel with the pope whom he suspected of a desire to support the claims of Robert of Normandy, his elder brother, to the throne of England. Robert had, moreover, won the favour of the pope by engaging in the first crusade. King Henry at length suggested that the archbishop should go himself to Rome " to try what he could do with the pope, lest the king by losing the rights of his predecessors should be disgraced." So Anselm at the age of sixty-nine once more set out for Rome.
He was received with much honour by Pope Pascal II., who had now succeeded Urban. Though Pascal refused to give way on the subject of investiture, he appears to have been ready ta agree to some kind of compromise with-£he king. But the straightforward character of the archbishop rendered this impossible. After the conquest of Normandy by. Henry his position became more secure, and he was more than ever determined not to give way on the subject of investiture. As the pope still hesitated to excommunicate King Henry, Anselm is said to have decided to do so on his own authority, and proceeded to Normandy for this purpose. But through the influence of Queen Edith, and of Henry's sister Adela, Countess of Blois, a meeting was arranged between the king and the archbishop, and a reconciliation effected.15 In
15 M. A. Charma, Anselm.
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Anselm
December, 1106, Anselm returned to England after an absence of more than three years.
Another council met in London on August 1, 1107, when King Henry flfifilarfo* bofnrp all the assembled people that in future no cleric should receive investiture from a layman . Anselm then consented to consecrate all the prelates who had done homage to the secular power.16 New bishops were now appointed to the vacant sees, and Anselm is said to hav£r CBfB^afeaa^many as five in one day. Measures were also fafrfil) tn ft"fnTCfi P rpfarmatipp of morals throughout the kingdom, and laws were passed. prohibiting the marriage or rnniwlHiHiflti nf Him jktfl "" The archbishop ' 6i Vork. after a supreme effort to maintain his independent position, submitted to the archbishop of Canterbury (vide Lanfranc).
Hftnry nnw ransiilteri Ansejffl w/ljfr flrfi f ° a^ important matters uiTEurcn and State, and when obliged to leave
England it was *o *^ p™flfl]frThaf h^ fnmTnittP^T the,
royal authority.
But the great archbishop did not long survive the termin- ation of the struggle. The austerities practised by him were greater than his aged frame could endure, and rin the spring of iioq his hgai+*j fpiwi On Palm Sunday when told Ty one of his attendants that his end was near, he replied, " If His will be so I shall gladly obey it." Later he expressed a humble desire to be permitted to live until he had finished a book which he was writing. Shortly before his death his attendants at his request placed him on a bed of ashes, where he breathed his last on April 21, 1109, a* the age of seventy- six. He was buried in Christ Church, near the tomb of his old friend and predecessor Lanfranc. Ii^was not until three centuries later that at the request of King Henry VII.., Anselm ,was canonized by Pope Alexander VI.
His large-he artedness and winning personality are much dwelt on by his biographers. His almost feminine tenderness appears in his love for animals,\vhom he could not endure to see ill-used. It is related that on one occasion, when he was out riding, a hare pursued by the hunters took refuge under the legs of his horse. The huntsmen, sure of their prey,
16 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1107. 1 Ibid., 1 108.
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gathered round, shouting with delight, but Anselm burst into tears and forbade them to touch the trembling creature. He declared that it resembled the soul of man, which when it has left the body is pursued by evil spirits.18
To his gentleness, simplicity and straightforward courage the long struggle of his life bears ample testimony. In bis 'determination to secure the independence of God's Church from the secular power he was in deadly earnest. But while the victory of Anselm secured spiritual privileges to the Church of England, it involved an acknowledgment of the supreme jurisdiction of Rome, and laid the foundation of claims on the part of the Roman pontiffs which were destined to grow with the years.
" We can hardly blame Anselm," says Freeman, " if at some later stages of his career he allowed himself to be swayed by scruples which he had never thought of at the beginning, and if in his zeal for eternal right he allowed himself to sin against the laws and customs of England. When England, Normandy, France and the Empire were as they were in his day, we can forgive him for looking on the Roman bishop as the one surviving embodiment of law and right, and for deeming that when he spoke, it was as when a man listened to the oracles of God."
A complete edition of Anselm's works, philosophical, theological and devotional, was first published in Paris in 1721 by Gabriel Gerberon. His fame as a philosopher and theologian rests chiefly upon three treatises: 1. "JHae- Monologion," an attempt to prove the . existence of God by pure reason without the aid of Scripture ; 2. "The Prosologion," written .in the form of an address to God, also an attempt to prove the existence of the Deity ; 3. " Cur Deus Homo ? " of which the aim is to prove the necessity of the Incarnation as the only means whereby the debt of obedience due from man to God might be discharged. Anselm's " Meditations " have been translated into many languages and are still used in England as a manual of devotion. Many pamphlets and minor treatises written by him have also been preserved, and four books of his letters are extant.
18 Vita Sancti Anselmi,
148
35-— RALPH D'ESCURES, 1114 to 1122.
King of England : Henry L, iioo to 1135.
After the death of Anselm the see of Canterbury remained vacant for five years. Though King Henry was frequently urged by the clergy and nobles to elect a new archbishop, he delayed doing so. Meantime the dispute concerning investiture continued in Rome, and Henry may have hoped for a settlement which would release him from the oath he had taken in 1107 {vide Anselm). During the vacancy the see of Canterbury was administered by Ralph, the affable and popular bishop of Rochester.
In the spring of 1114, Henry was at length persuaded to sum- mon a council at Windsor to elect an archbishop. The king's choice had fallen on Favricius, a pious monk of Abingdon. Many of the assembled prelates were of the opinion that Favricius possessed insufficient knowledge of the world to undertake the task of ruling the Church in these stormy times. They therefore declared that they would not consent to the election of a monk. As a compromise, it was suggested that Ralph, Bishop of Rochester, who had zealously upheld the rights of the Church during the vacancy, should be elected. To this proposal the king agreed.1
Ralph belonged to a noble family of Normandy, his father, Seffrid, having been lord of Escures, near Seez. In 1078 he became a monk in the abbey of St. Martin, at Seez, where his father had previously assumed the cowl. Though he appears to have been much addicted to joking and trifling, he combined wisdom with his wit, and was respected by the monks. In due time he became prior at Seez, and in 1089 was chosen abbot. This office he filled with distinction for nearly sixteen years.
During that time he occasionally visited England on
1 William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pont. Ang., p. 126.
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business connected with his monastery, and became intimate with many of the Anglo-Norman clergy. Anselm of Canterbury, and Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, were his friends. The abbot is also said to have enjoyed the patronage of the notorious Robert de Belleme, Earl of Shrewsbury, who is described as a monster for cruelty. He frequently refused ransom for his prisoners in order that he might have the pleasure of torturing them to death.2 William of Malmesbury states that Ralph afterwards sided with King Henry against the earl, and when the town and castle of Shrewsbury surrendered to the king, in 1102, the keys of the city were delivered into Henry's hands by the abbot of Seez. But this story is probably an invention.
It is certain, however, that this same Robert de Belleme afterwards greatly oppressed the church at Seez. Abbot Ralph, having refused to do homage to him for the lands of the Abbey, was forced to take refuge in England. There he seems to have lived for some years as a welcome guest in different monasteries. In 1104 he was present when the bodies of St. Cuthbert and other saints were disinterred by the monks of Durham, and were transferred to the new Cathedral in the presence of many of the Scottish nobility.3
On August 11, 1 108, Ralph was elected to succeed Gundulf as bishop of Rochester. It is related that during the last illness of Gundulf, Ralph visited him, and the two friends spent some time together " in sweet conversations on the heavenly life." As the abbot was departing Gundulf called him back to the room, and presented him with his episcopal ring. Ralph remonstrated, urging that it was unseemly for a monk to wear a ring, but the bishop replied, " Take it, you will one day require it." His words were held to have been prophetic, when shortly afterwards Ralph was chosen as his successor.
On April 26, 11 14, Ralph was elected to the see of Canterbury, and was enthroned on May 17. As he suffered from gout it was agreed to send envoys as his repre- sentatives to Rome for the pallium. His nephew, John, afterwards dean of Canterbury, and Ernulf, who at a later
2 Freeman's William Rufus, I. 183.
» Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1104.
150
Ralph D'Escures
period became bishop of Rochester, were chosen for the mission. On reaching Rome they were coldly received by Pope Pascal II., who complained of the independent spirit shown towards Rome by the English Church. According to one account the pope had already espoused the cause of Thurstan, Archbishop-elect of York, who had refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the see of Canterbury. The legates were forced to return to England without the pallium, but they had been fortunate in finding a friend in Anselm, Abbot of St. Sabas, a nephew of the late archbishop. Anselm interceded with the pope, who authorized him to set out for England with the pallium, in the capacity of a papal legate.* His real mission was to persuade the English Church to adopt a more submissive attitude towards the apostolic see. In this, however, he was unsuccessful, though cordially received by the king and the archbishop.
In the following year Abbot Anselm was again employed as papal nuncio to England, but was stopped in Normandy by order of King Henry and forbidden to cross the channel. A council had decreed that for a papal legate to visit the English Churches uninvited was contrary to the law of the land. King Henry being then at Rouen, Archbishop Ralph crossed to Normandy to confer with him on the subject, and it was decided that the primate should proceed to Rome. On the way he was taken seriously ill with gout, and with a carbuncle in the face, which made it necessary for him to keep his bed for a month, and his attendants despaired of his life.5 At length, however, he recovered sufficiently to proceed on his journey.
On reaching Rome he found that Pope Pascal II. had been driven from the city by his enemies, and had taken refuge in Benevento. From Rome Ralph entered into corres- pondence with Pascal, who replied only in general terms, stating that he had no intention of lessening the dignity of the see of Canterbury. As this was unsatisfactory, Ralph remained in Italy for some months in the hope that he might obtain an interview with the pope.6 Failing to succeed in this, he at length returned to France, and joined the king in
* Eadmer, Historia Novorum, p. 226.
s Ibid., p. 239. 6 Ibid., p. 242.
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Normandy. Henry appears to have been on excellent terms with the archbishop, whom he made one of his counsellors. In a council held by the king at Rouen in October, 1118, Ralph took a prominent part.
In the same year Pope Pascal was succeeded by Gelasius II., who warmly espoused the cause of Archbishop Thurstan against Ralph. Gelasius was, however, unable to maintain his position in Rome owing to the election of an anti-pope, and withdrew to France. There he convened a council to deal with the question of investiture, but he died before it met.
The council met at Rheims under his successor, Pope Calixtus II., in October, 1119. Archbishop Ralph had been summoned to attend, but was stricken with paralysis when about to set out from Rouen. The bishops of Durham, Exeter, St. David's and Llandaff attended the council, with King Henry's permission.7 Thurstan, Archbishop-elect of York, was also permitted to attend at his own request, after taking a solemn oath that he would not receive consecration from the pope. Ralph's half-brother Seffrid, who was abbot of Glastonbury, and afterwards bishop of Chichester, was also sent to warn the pope, not to consecrate Thurstan.
The council had been convened for October 20, but when the English bishops presented themselves on that date, they found that Thurstan had been consecrated by the pope on the previous day. John, Archdeacon of Canterbury, the nephew of Ralph, had vehemently protested against the consecration, but was told that the matter did not concern the see of Canterbury. On hearing what had taken place King Henry indignantly forbade Thurstan to enter England, Normandy or any of his dominions.8 In January, 1121, however, King Henry, after a prolonged correspondence with the pope, was induced to recall Archbishop Thurstan, who now took charge of his diocese. Shortly afterwards Ralph persuaded the king that he had acted unwisely in recalling Thurstan, and that another council must be called to deal with the matter. The council met, but Ralph was prevented by illness from being present and no decision was reached.
After his paralytic seizure Archbishop Ralph recovered the
1 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1119. s Ibid.
152
Ralph D'Escures
partial use of speech, and was able to conduct the business of his see. But his illness had seriously affected his temper, and the once affable prelate became irritable and severe.
During this episcopate the monk Eadmer, famous as the biographer of St. Anselm and St. Dunstan, was chosen bishop of St. Andrews, in Scotland, and proceeded thither on the understanding that he should return to Canterbury for his consecration. King Alexander I. refused to permit him to be consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury, and Eadmer preferred to resign his claim to the see of St. Andrews rather than to receive consecration from any other prelate.
On January 30, 1121, the marriage of King Henry I. with his second wife, the beautiful Adela, daughter of Godfrey, Duke of Louvain, was celebrated at Windsor. It was proposed that the bishop of the diocese (Salisbury), should be invited to perform the ceremony instead of the paralytic archbishop of Canterbury. But Ralph regarded this arrangement as an infringement of his rights, and his protest was supported by all the bishops of his province. The ceremony was accord- ingly performed by the bishop of Winchester, whom Ralph chose as his representative.9
On the day after the wedding, Queen Adela was crowned by Archbishop Ralph. Before the ceremony took place Ralph perceived with great indignation that the king was already wearing his crown. It appears to have been the custom for the archbishop to place the crown on the king's head before all important ceremonies. The aged prelate, wearing his archiepiscopal robes, tottered down the steps of the altar and approached the king, who rose respectfully to receive him. Ralph angrily inquired who had placed the crown on his head. The king, displeased by the interruption, answered evasively. " Whoever has done this, has done it against right and justice," said the archbishop, " nor as long as the crown remains on your head will I proceed with the office I have begun." Henry good-naturedly removed his crown, which was fastened by a clasp under his chin, and the archbishop, at the earnest request of the people, replaced it on the king's head.10 The ceremony then proceeded.
9 Ibid., 1 121.
10 Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pontificum, p. 379.
153
11
A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
Mention is made of several prelates whom the archbishop consecrated during the last year of his life. In 1122 he was again attacked by paralysis, and died on October 20. He was buried in Christ Church. Many of his letters are extant, and a. collection of his homilies is preserved in the Bodleian Library.
154
36.— WILLIAM DE CORBEIL, 1123 to 1136.
Kings of England : Henry I., 1100 to 11 35. Stephen, 1 135 to n 54.
About four months after the death of Archbishop Ralph, Henry I. summoned an ecclesiastical council to meet at Gloucester for the purpose of electing a new primate. After a violent altercation between the monks and the secular clergy, in which the king appears to have taken no share, William de Corbeil, a secular canon, was appointed to the archiepiscopal see. The monks disapproved of this choice, and the archbishop was consequently involved in quarrels with them during the whole of his episcopate.
William is believed to have been born at the small town of Corbeil on the Seine, between Paris and Melun, but nothing is known concerning his parentage. After studying at Laon, he became tutor in the family of Ranulf, the chancellor of King Henry I. Later, he was made chaplain to the infamous Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, to whose evil influence are imputed many of the misdeeds of Rufus. In this capacity, he was present, in 1104, at the translation of the body of St. Cuthbert to the new cathedral at Durham1 (vide Ralph d'Escures). Simeon of Durham states that notwithstanding his connection with Flambard, William was a friend of St- Anselm.
A house for regular canons of the order of St. Augustine had been founded by Richard de Belmeis, Bishop of London, at Chich in Essex, on the site of the old nunnery of St. Osyth. Of this house, William de Corbeil became the first prior.3 His election to the see of Canterbury took place on February 2, 1123.
Thurstan, Archbishop of York, offered to consecrate the primate-elect, but was informed that he would be permitted
1 Hook's Lives of the Archbishops, II., 303.
2 Henry of Huntingdon's Chronicle, 1122.
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to do so only on the condition that he acknowledged William as primate of all England. He refused, and the controversy concerning the supremacy of the see of Canterbury was renewed {vide Ralph d'Escures). William was consecrated by his own suffragans.3
Though certain writers state that he was very religious, learned and affable, Henry of Huntingdon declares that " nothing can be said of his merits because he had none. " The anonymous author of the " Acts of Stephen " charges him with greed and hypocrisy, but it is possible that these writers were prejudiced against him by the monks.
Early in Lent William set out for Rome to obtain the pallium ; but on his arrival found that Thurstan had got there three days before him, and had persuaded the pope to take his side in the controversy. The pope had been given to understand that William had received the archbishopric from the king in opposition to the monks of Canterbury, and against right. William is said to have been forced to pay a large sum of money before he could persuade the pope to bestow on him the pallium.4 The cause of Thurstan was fully in- vestigated, and though the recorded evidence is conflicting, he appears to have been unable to produce the necessary documents to prove that his see had equal rights with that of Canterbury.
After the return of both prelates to England a papal legate, Cardinal John of Crema, was permitted by Henry I. to pass through England on his way to Scotland. John had an inte- view with King David of Scotland at Roxburgh, and delivered to him a papal letter, announcing the triumph of Calixtus II. over the anti-pope Gregory. On his return to England, the legate presided at a great ecclesiastical council, held at Westminster on September 9, 1125. Seventeen decrees were passed, chiefly against simony, usury and the marriage of priests.5
The presidency of the papal legate at this council was deeply resented by many English churchmen, who held that England had thus received grievous offence in the humiliation of the
3 Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pont., p. 380. t Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1123.
4 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1125.
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William de Corbeil
see of Canterbury. After the legate's departure, it was decided that Archbishop William should again visit Rome, to consult with the pope concerning the legatine authority. William was honourably received by Pope Honorius II., who had succeeded Calixtus. The pope decided to confer legatine authority on William himself, and issued a bull which made him vicar-general and legate of the apostolic see in England and Scotland.6 This was a great triumph for the see of Canterbury, for, as papal legate, William would exercise authority over his rival at York. While this arrangement brought the English Church into closer union with Rome, it did not offend the English people as the presence of a foreign prelate had done.
Thurstan was not yet prepared, however, to resign his claims. At a court held at Windsor the following Christmas, he appeared dressed in his archiepiscopal robes, preceded by his cross-bearer, and declared that he had an equal right with the Archbishop of Canterbury to place the crown on the king's head. But King Henry, who invariably supported William, ordered Thurstan and his cross-bearer to be turned out of the royal chapel. A few years later, Thurstan seems to have been on more friendly terms with William, whom he consulted concerning the restoration of order in the abbey of St. Mary's, York.
The new cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury, which had been begun by Lanfranc, and enlarged by Anselm, was consecrated by Archbishop William on May 4, 1130. The ceremony, which was attended with great pomp, was compared by contemporary writers to that which took place at the dedication of Solomon's Temple.7 The kings of England and Scotland and a vast concourse of bishops, clergy and nobles were present.
King Henry I. having lost his only son, caused the bishops and feudal lords to take a solemn oath to support the succession of his daughter Matilda to the throne of England. Archbishop William had been one of the first to take this oath, but was easily persuaded after the king's death to desert the cause of Matilda and to crown Henry's nephew Stephen. Though he is recorded to have at first
6 Ibid. 7 Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pont., p. 382.
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shown some hesitation when required to break his oath, he weakly accepted the improbable statement, made by one of Stephen's partisans, that Henry on his deathbed had released the lords from their promise to support Matilda."8 A few months after Stephen's coronation, William is said to have withdrawn himself from the court, being offended because he was not placed in the position of honour at the king's right hand on the occasion of the Easter festival.
A serious quarrel arose between Archbishop William and the monks of Christ Church concerning the church of St. Martin at Dover, which had been given by the king to the new cathedral at Canterbury. William had turned out the secular clergy, who were accused of evil living, replacing them by Augustinian canons from Merton Abbey. A party led by one of the monks named Jeremias, violently opposed this change, declaring that St. Martin's belonged to the monks of Christ Church. William's death is said to have been hastened by his being suddenly summoned from his palace at Mortlake to Dover, in order to protect the new canons from the violence of the monks.9
The archbishop was also involved in quarrels with Hugh, Abbot of St. Augustine's, and Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln. On account of the almost continuous disputes which occupied his pontificate, he has been nicknamed by some writers, William of Turmoil.
He died at Canterbury on November 21, 1136, and was buried in his cathedral church. The author of the "Acts of Stephen" states that at William's death the king's officers found enormous sums secretly hoarded in his coffers, which would have been better distributed to the poor. The great keep of Rochester Castle was built by Archbishop William.
8 Acts of Stephen, Bohn's edition, p. 328. "* Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pont., I. 287.
158
37— THEOBALD, 1138 to 1161.
Kings of England : Stephen, 1135 to 1154.
Henry II., 1154 to 1189.
The prelate whose history we are now briefly to relate justly deserves the honour of being ranked among the best and ablest archbishops of Canterbury. Like two of his most illustrious predecessors, Lanfranc and Anselm, Theobald came from the abbey of Bee, where he had honourably held the offices, first of prior and afterwards of abbot. He belonged to a knightly family of Norman extraction, who had settled near Thierceville, in the neighbourhood of Bec-Hellouin.
Two years had already elapsed since the death of Arch- bishop William, when, at the invitation of King Stephen and his Queen Matilda, Theobald came to England. It was in December, 1138, that Stephen, at the request of a papal legate, Alberic, Bishop of Ostra, who was then in England, sum- moned a council to meet in London to deal with certain ecclesiastical reforms, and to appoint a new archbishop of Canterbury.1
The king's brother, Henry, Bishop of Winchester, who was then the most powerful churchman in England, hoped to secure the primacy, and had obtained the promise of the legate to further his designs in this respect. But Stephen, who had reason to distrust the loyalty of his brother, determined to appoint an archbishop of his own choice, and accordingly invited the abbot of Bee to come to England. The chapter of Canterbury approved the king's choice, and on December 24 Theobald was elected archbishop. He was consecrated by the legate on January 9, 1139, and a few weeks later set out to Rome to seek the pallium.
The schemes of Bishop Henry to obtain the primacy being
thus defeated, he determined to increase his own power by
other means. After considerable intrigue, he succeeded
in persuading the pope to confer on him legatine power in
1 Henry of Huntingdon's Chronicle, 1138.
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England. This division of authority increased the difficulty of Theobald's position. Henry now claimed supremacy in all ecclesiastical matters, and encouraged the monks to appeal to him against the primate, thus undermining the authority of the latter. He also held his own courts to deal with ecclesiastical disputes, permitting no appeal from thence except to Rome, and even consecrated bishops without the consent of Theobald. In September, 1143, Henry consecrated William Fitzherbert to the archbishopric of York, through Theobald had opposed his election.8
Jeremias, Prior of Christ Church, who had been deposed by Theobald for insubordination, went to Rome with the sanction of Bishop Henry to make his appeal against the archbishop. The pope ordered him to be reinstated in his office, and Theobald was forced to submit. Henry also attempted to convert Winchester into a metropolitan see, and is said to have obtained a pallium from the pope. The moderation and patience displayed by Archbishop Theobald in face of these humiliations was by no means due to weakness. He knew that Henry's legatine power would expire on the death of the pope who had conferred it, and he was meantime content to bide his time. Acting on his legatine authority Bishop Henry summoned his brother, King Stephen, before an eccle- siastical council to answer a charge of having confiscated the estates of three bishops who had been accused of treason. The decision of the suit was left to the Archbishop of Rouen, who came to England on purpose to hear the case, and who decided in favour of Stephen.3
The death of Pope Innocent II. in September, 1143, put an end to Henry's legatine authority, which the two succeeding popes wisely refused to renew. It was not long before Henry deserted the cause of his brother Stephen for that of Matilda of Anjou, the daughter of Henry II. (vide William de Corbeil). The English people had looked to Stephen to restore order in the kingdom, but this he was incapable of doing. Though a brave soldier he was lacking in determination, and constantly yielded when he ought to have been firm. The fierce barons, over whom he had no
2 Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pontificutn, p. 385.
3 William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella, p. 550.
160
Theobald
control, built strong castles throughout the country, and grievously oppressed the poor. Robbers infested the roads so that there was no safety for travellers, and even the churches were stripped of their treasures.
When, in the midst of this anarchy, Matilda of Anjou landed in England, the people who had previously refused to place a woman on the throne flocked to her standard. In 1141, after the battle of Lincoln, in which Stephen was defeated and taken prisoner, Archbishop Theobald was required to take an oath of fealty to Matilda, but he refused to do so until he had received the consent of King Stephen.4 Matilda was recognized not as queen, but as " Lady of the English." Soon however, her arrogant temper alienated from her many of her supporters. Theobald and other prelates who had joined her were besieged with her in Winchester by the king's party. Matilda, with her followers, escaped, and the prelates in headlong flight succeeded in reaching places of safety.5
After the restoration of Stephen, Theobald returned to his allegiance to the king, but openly declared that he would sanction no proceedings to secure the succession to Stephen's family.
Theobald took great pleasure in the society of learned men, and gathered around him at Canterbury a number of dis- tinguished scholars. John of Salisbury, afterwards bishop of Chartres, the most distinguished classical scholar of his time, was introduced to Theobald by Bernard of Clair- vaux, probably about the year 1148, and afterwards acted as the archbishop's secretary until the death of the latter. About the year 1142 Thomas a Becket (q.v.) was introduced to Theobald, and obtained a place in his household. The archbishop was not slow to recognize the merit of Thomas, whom he treated with the greatest confidence. Through Theobald's influence the study of civil and canon law was introduced into England. He invited to England the famous jurist, Vicarius of Mantua, and appointed him to teach juris- prudence at Oxford.6
In November, 1143, Theobald went to Rome, accompanied by Thomas a Becket, to consult the pope concerning his
* Ibid., p. 573. * Acts of Stephen, Bohn's edition.
6 Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pontificum, p. 385.
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quarrel with the monks of Canterbury. Pope Lucius II. espoused his cause, and, on his return to England, Jeremias was forced to resign the priorate of Christ Church.
In March, 1148, Pope Eugenius III. convened a great council at Rheims, to which he summoned the bishops of England, Germany, France and Spain. King Stephen forbade the English bishops to attend. Hearing that Theobald and certain other prelates proposed to go without his sanction, he ordered the sea-ports to be watched. Theobald and Becket made their way to the coast, and, eluding the vigilance of the king's officers, crossed to France in a crazy fishing-boat. On his arrival at Rheims the archbishop received a warm welcome from Pope Eugenius III., who laughingly declared that his manner of crossing the Channel had been "more of a swim than a sail" ("qui natando magis quam navigando dictus est advenisse").7
It was probably at this council, or shortly afterwards, that Pope Eugenius, on the advice of Bernard of Clairvaux, conferred on Theobald legatine authority in England. The pope is said to have intended to excommunicate Stephen at the council, but Theobald dissuaded him from doing so.
On his return to England Theodore found that the revenues of his see had been seized by the king, and he was ordered to leave the country. His banishment was not, however, of long duration. Pope Eugenius on hearing of it threatened to excommunicate Stephen, and to place England under an interdict, if the archbishop was not immediately recalled. This greatly alarmed Stephen, who was very devout, and when shortly afterwards Theobald returned to England, Stephen, on the advice of his Queen, Matilda, was easily persuaded to become reconciled with him.8 Theobald's position was now secure, and his power continued to increase during the remainder of Stephen's reign. He induced the weak king to found several monasteries, and to bestow many benefactions on the Church.
The archbishop's troubles with the monks were not yet ended, however. In 1152, he refused to give the benediction to Silvester, the new abbot of St. Augustine's, except in Christ Church. Silvester appealed to the pope,
* Ibid., Opera, I. 75. 8 Ibid., p. 136.
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who ordered Theobald to bestow the benediction in the church of St. Augustine's monastery. He was proceeding thither for the purpose when, by arrangement, he was met by the prior of Christ .Church, who claimed the right to forbid him to bless an abbot except in the cathedral. Another appeal was made to the pope, with the result that Theobald was ordered to give the benediction in St. Augus- tine's. Anastasius IV., the successor of Pope Eugenius, afterwards ordered Silvester to profess obedience to Theobald.9
A quarrel also arose between the archbishop and the monks of Christ Church, whose financial affairs had fallen into serious disorder. At their own request Theobald undertook the management of their revenues, but he was afterwards accused by them of parsimony and of appropriating part of the funds to his own use. Deeply indignant on account of this unjust charge, he ordered several of the monks to be im- prisoned, and sent the prior Walter to confinement in the abbey of Gloucester, where he remained until after the arch- bishop's death. In his place Theobald chose a worthier prior.10
In 1152 Stephen summoned a council at London, and com- manded Theobald to crown his son Eustace as his successor. Theobald refused on the ground that the pope had forbidden him to do so. The king in great wrath ordered Theobald and his partisans to be imprisoned, but the archbishop escaped and fled to Flanders. Again the pope threatened the king with excommunication and the kingdom with interdict if the archbishop were not recalled. Stephen was forced to yield, and Theobald was restored to his see."
In the following year Prince Henry, the son of Matilda of Anjou was invited by Archbishop Theobald to come to England to put an end to the disorder in the kingdom. Henry landed in England with an army, but no fighting took place, for the barons on both sides set on foot a treaty of peace. By the treaty of Wallingford, which is said to have been largely the work of Theobald, it was agreed that Stephen should continue to reign during his lifetime, and that after his death the English crown should go to Prince Henry.
9 Ibid., p. 76. ,0 Actus Pontificum, p. 386.
" Opera, p. 135.
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After the death of Stephen, in 1154, Theobald crowned Henry II. and his queen at Westminster. Soon after his accession Henry, on the primate's recommendation, bestowed on Becket the important office of chancellor. The archbishop hoped that Becket's influence would be exercised to support the extensive privileges which the Church had obtained from Stephen. But in this he was disappointed. Though Becket remained on friendly terms with his old patron, he subordin- ated the interests of the Church to those of the king. On more than one occasion, Theobald had reason to disapprove of Henry's policy with regard to ecclesiastical matters.
In the spring of 1161, Theobald became seriously ill. The king and Thomas were then in Normandy. Theobald wrote begging that Thomas might be sent to him, but the chan- cellor was occupied in the king's affairs and did not go. Theodore's last public appearance was at the consecration of Richard Peche, Bishop of Lichfield. The archbishop was too ill to officiate, but he was carried to his private chapel to witness the ceremony, which was performed by his brother Walter, Bishop of Rochester." He died on April 11, 1161. In his will he earnestly commended the church of Canter- bury to the care of King Henry, and the English people and requested that his private fortune might be distributed to the poor, if the king so permitted.
In 1787, some workmen who were engaged in levelling part of the old pavement in Canterbury cathedral came upon a coffin which contained a skeleton. An inscription found on a piece of lead inside proved that the bones were those of Archbishop Theobald.
As a statesman Theobald was possessed of unusual ability ; as a scholar he was quick to recognize scholarship and to protect talent wherever he found it ; as a churchman he was courageous, merciful and patient, even when deeply wronged. While remaining loyal to King Stephen, he did not scruple to oppose him at the cost of exile to himself, when such opposition was for the good of Church or State.
" Ibid, p. 168.
164
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SHRINE OF ST. THOMAS A BECKET. {Formerly in Canterbury Cathedral. Destroyed by order of Henry VIII. in 1538.)
38.— THOMAS A BECKET1 1162 to 1170. S.
King of England : Henry II., 1154 to 1189.
Thomas a Becket, better known in his own day as Thomas of London, was born in his father's house in Cheapside in the city of London on Tuesday, December 21, probably in the year 11 18. He was baptized on the evening of the same day in the church of St. Mary Cole, receiving the name of the Apostle on whose festival he was born. His parents, Gilbert and Matilda a Becket, who were both of Norman birth, had settled in London some years previously. The story that his mother was a Saracen is now proved to be legendary. Gilbert followed the trade of a merchant, first at Rouen and after- wards in London, where he held for some time the important office of portreeve.
Strange stories were afterwards preserved by the monks concerning dreams and visions which Matilda is said to have had before and after her son's birth. One night she went to look at the infant in his cradle, and found him sleeping beneath a blood-red quilt so large that England could not hold it.
At the age of ten, Thomas was sent to the Augustinians at Merton Priory, in Surrey, to learn letters and good behaviour. The boy was high-spirited, of a quick temper and devoted to outdoor sports more than to study. He, however, learned to write and speak fluent Latin. On leaving Merton he was sent to a school in London whence he proceeded to the Uni- versity of Paris, where he studied rhetoric and theology. Among the rough and boisterous youths who thronged the schools he was subjected to many coarse temptations, but then as in later days his worst enemies were unable to bring the shadow of a charge against the spotless purity of his life. At the age of twenty-one he was recalled to England, and
1 The contemporary authorities consulted are all to be found in Robertson's Materials for the History of Thomas Becket. 7 vols. (Rolls series).
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his parents being now in reduced circumstances he accepted the post of notary, first in the household of Richer de l'Aigle, lord of Pevensey, and afterwards to his kinsman Osbert Huitdeniers, one of the sheriffs of London.2 About the year 1 142 he was introduced by two friends of his father to Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and obtained a place in the primate's household. There in spite of the enmity of the archdeacon, Roger Pont l'Eveque, he soon won favour with Theobald, who recognized his capabilities and treated him with the greatest confidence. In 1143 he had the honour of being chosen to accompany the archbishop to Rome. It was probably shortly after their return that he was sent for a year, at Theobald's expense, to study canon law at Bologna and Auxerre.
In 1148, when Theobald, in face of the king's prohibition, escaped to Normandy in an open boat to attend the council of Rheims, Thomas was his companion. Two years later he was sent to Rome on an important mission, and succeeded in persuading the pope to enforce the arrangement by which Henry, son of Matilda of Anjou, should succeed to the throne of England.
His personal appearance at this time is described by one of his biographers. He was tall and slim of growth, with a pale complexion, dark hair, and straightly featured face. " Blithe of countenance was he, winning and lovable in all conversation, fluent of speech in his discourse, but slightly stuttering in his talk ; so keen of discernment that he could always make difficult questions plain after a wise manner, and of such wondrous strong memory that whatever he had heard of sentences and law, afterwards he could cite it at whatever time he chose to give it forth."
In 1 154, after taking deacon's orders, Thomas was appointed to the archdeaconry of Canterbury in succession to his old enemy Roger, who had been made archbishop of York. From this time honours were crowded on him. He was made dean of Hastings, keeper of the Tower of London, and warden of the castles of Berkhampstead and Eye. In the following year Henry II. on the primate's recommendation bestowed on him the important office of chancellor of England.
2 Edward Grim, Vita Sanctis Thomce, I. 361.
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The wealth attached to this position was enormous, and Thomas now became the most powerful man in England next to the king. Daily he entertained a crowd of guests in his palace. His table shone with gold and silver vessels, and was loaded with costly meats. Though the king was twelve years his junior a close friendship grew up between them. When their work was over for the day, they are said to have played together like two schoolboys. The king was fond of playing rough jokes on Thomas, who is said to have taken these in good part. There is a story that one day when the king and Thomas were out riding together, they met a ragged beggar. Henry snatched from his chancellor's shoulders a magnificent mantle of scarlet cloth lined with fur, and threw it to the beggar, saying in jest : " This time, Thomas, you will have the merit of clothing the naked."
Becket loyally supported the king in his work of judicial re- form and in his schemes to diminish the power of the barons . In 1158 when he was sent as ambassador to France, he amazed the French people by the magnificence of his retinue, and by the splendid procession of wagons and pack-horses required to carry his baggage, " If this be the chancellor, what must the king of England be like ? " they said.
In the following year, when Henry made an expedition to Toulouse, Thomas accompanied him at the head of a body of 700 knights armed at his own expense.3 The chancellor was foremost in the fight and unhorsed many French knights of great reputation. To pay the expenses of this expedition, Henry levied a tax known as scutage, which was payable both by the clergy and the laity. When the clergy rebelled on account of this tax, the chancellor supported the king against them.
In 1161 Archbishop Theobald died. Henry, believing that his friend the chancellor would support him as faithfully in reforming the Church as he had done in reforming the State, determined to make him archbishop. From the first Thomas drew back in alarm, and is said to have warned the king that his election to the primacy would put an end to their friendship. But Henry, who did not believe him to be in earnest, refused to be moved from his purpose.
1 Herbert of Boseham, Vita S. Thoma, III., p. 176.
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He was ordained to the priesthood by his friend Walter, Bishop of Rochester, on the eve of Whitsunday, 1162, and was consecrated eight days later by Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester. His first act was to appoint the day of his con- secration a festival in honour of the Holy Trinity. The feast of the Trinity had previously been kept at different periods of the year in different churches, but from Becket's time it has constantly been observed on the same day throughout the English Church.
At the king's request Thomas was permitted by the pope to send for the pallium instead of going to Rome to receive it, and on August 8, he went barefoot to meet the envoy who brought it. From the day of his appointment to the primacy he seems to have determined to serve the Church as faithfully as he had served the king, and to defend it at all costs against secular encroachments. Contrary to the wish of the king, he resigned the chancellorship. Henry, annoyed on hearing this, sent a message to ask why he had not also resigned the archdeaconry of Canterbury, and ordered him to do so. Thomas also laid aside all his magnificence, lived on the simplest fare, and clothed himself as a poor monk with a hair shirt next his skin.4
The first act of Thomas which aroused Henry's serious dis- pleasure was the excommunication of William of Eynsford, a tenant in chief of the crown, who had refused to present a nominee of the archbishop to a living of which he was the patron. Thomas also demanded the restoration of all the alienated property of his see, including the estates held by the crown. At a council held at Woodstock in 1163 he opposed a project of the king to transfer to the royal treasury a tax which had been hitherto payable to the sheriffs from their respective shires.5
But the chief subject of dispute between the king and Thomas concerned the ecclesiastical courts established in the time of William the Conqueror. Henry complained that in these courts clergy convicted of serious crimes were treated with too great leniency. The privilege of being tried in the church courts had been extended not only to the clergy but
* Edward Grim, Vita Sancta Thomce, II., 368. s Ibid., p. 373.
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to all scholars, and the ability to read and write was often sufficient to protect a man from being tried by the ordinary law.
Henry determined to put an end to this travesty of justice, and ordered all clerics convicted of crime in the church courts to be handed over to the king's officers for punishment. The archbishop seems to have given a verbal promise to agree to the arrangement, but Henry did not consider this to be sufficient. He accordingly summoned all the bishops to meet him at Clarendon, in Wiltshire, on January 13, 1164, to give their formal consent to his ecclesiastical reforms. Sixteen decrees, afterwards known as the Constitutions of Clarendon, all of which had been in force in the time of the Conqueror, but had fallen into disuse, were drawn up. Those which chiefly affected ecclesiastical privileges were as follows : (1) Disputes concerning presentation to benefices shall be treated and determined in the king's court. (2) Clergy accused of theft, violence or any such crime shall appear first in the king's court and afterwards in the ecclesiastical court. If convicted the Church shall not protect them. (3) Arch- bishops, bishops and other prelates shall not leave the kingdom without the king's consent. (This decree restricted appeals to Rome). (4) No tenant in chief of the king or officer of his household shall be excommunicated or his lands be placed under interdict without the king's consent. (5) Appoint- ments to archbishoprics, bishoprics, abbeys or priories shall be made by the bishops with the king's assent, and the elect shall do homage to the king as their liege lord for life and limb and for their temporal honours, saving their order, before they shall be consecrated.
Though the accounts given by different writers are con- tradictory, it appears that Thomas was supported by the assembled bishops in refusing to give his consent to the Con- stitutions. On this the barons, who were on the king's side, raised a great clamour, swords were drawn, and the bishops were threatened with violence if they refused to give way.
The archbishop asked leave to withdraw for a space to take counsel with himself. In the interval he had an interview with two Knights Templars who were said to have been envoys from the pope. On returning to the council Thomas declared
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that he was willing to accept the Constitutions. To the bishops be said : — " If it be my lord's will that I perjure myself for the present, I will venture perjury that I may do penance for it hereafter."
Certain writers suppose this to mean that the pope had advised Thomas to avoid a quarrel with the king by tem- porizing. The subsequent conduct of the archbishop does not, however, bear out this supposition. Though he had promised to consent to the Constitutions he refused to sign them, and departed from the council much depressed. On his return to Canterbury he suspended himself from the service of the altar as an act of penance, until the pope should absolve him from his sin. Twice he embarked for France without the king's consent, but the sailors, recognizing him and fearing Henry's displeasure, pleaded contrary winds and turned back.6
Meantime the king proceeded to enforce the Constitutions by punishing a number of clergy who had been convicted of crime. Thomas, on hearing of this, withdrew his consent to the Constitutions, and interfered on behalf of the condemned clerics.
The king now determined to depose Thomas from the arch- bishopric. In October he convened another council at Northampton Castle, at which he ordered the archbishop to appear to answer certain charges brought against him. Thomas came attended by a retinue of knights, and was entertained at St. Andrew's monastery. He was ordered to account for certain sums of money which had passed through his hands when he was chancellor. He requested that reasonable time should be given him to draw up a statement, but this was refused, and he was ordered to pay a sum of 30,000 marks.
The archbishop took these accusations against his honesty so deeply to heart that he fell sick,7 and the council was adjourned for three days owing to his illness. The bishops, who had now deserted his side, advised him either to throw himself unreservedly on the king's mercy or to resign the archbishopric. But Thomas refused to yield, and threatened to appeal against them to the pope.
* Edward Grim, Vita S. Thomce, II., 383, 389. 7 Ibid., p. 392.
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On the morning of the last day of the council he celebrated the solemn mass of St. Stephen in which are the words : " The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers took counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed." He then put on a black stole and cap, mounted his palfrey, and surrounded by a crowd of beggars rode at a foot's pace to the castle. Carrying his cross in front of him, he entered the hall where the bishops were assembled, and took a seat at the upper end of the room. The king had withdrawn with his barons to an inner chamber. Messages passed between him and the bishops, who again advised the archbishop to resign his see.
After a prolonged dispute Becket was impeached for high treason. Henry sent the Earl of Leicester to pronounce sentence on him. But the archbishop refused to hear him. " I will be judged under God and the pope alone, to whom, in your presence, I appeal," he said. " I forbid you under anathema to pronounce your sentence." Then having summoned the bishops to answer for their conduct before the pope, he passed through their midst, still carrying his cross, and so left the hall. To the many threats and insults flung at him as he went, he did not scruple to retort with fury, but he was permitted to depart unharmed.
That night, however, fear seized him, and he fled secretly from the monastery. As soon as his flight became known the king issued an order that he was not to be molested, but of this he knew nothing. Travelling only by night and in disguise, under the name of Brother Dearman, he at length reached Sandwich, where he embarked for Flanders on November 2.8 He was honourably received by King Louis VII. of France, who provided him with funds, and an escort with which he set out to visit the pope.
At the time of the archbishop's arrival in France Pope Alexander III. was at Sens, having been driven from Rome by the party of an antipope. Thomas proceeded to Sens, and on November 23, threw himself at the feet of the pope.9 Alexander condemned certain of the Constitutions of Clarendon, and refused to accept Thomas's resignation of his see. He was unwilling, however to quarrel with Henry II.,
8 Ibid., p. 399.
9 Ibid., p. 406.
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who had acknowledged him as lawful pope, and from whom he received supplies of money.
In the spring of 1166, the pope gave Thomas leave to to take whatever measures he might please against the king. Thomas then determined to excommunicate Henry, but on the evening of the day he had fixed for doing so, he received news that the king was ill. He, therefore, contented himself with excommunicating seven of Henry's counsellors, and publicly repeating his threat to excommunicate the king if he refused to give way.
Meantime the king had confiscated the property of the see of Canterbury, and had driven into exile all Becket's relatives, friends and dependents to the number of about four hundred persons. They arrived half-starving in France in the depth of winter, but through the kindness of the French king received shelter and the necessaries of life in different monasteries.10
For two years Thomas was hospitably entertained in the Cistercian monastery at Pontigny. At length Henry sent a message to the abbot informing him that if he continued longer to shelter the archbishop, all the Cistercians would be driven from England and Normandy.11 Thomas then removed to Sens, where he lived under the protection of the French king during the remainder of his exile.
For six years the archbishop remained in France. During that time several attempts were made by the king of France and the pope to mediate in the quarrel with Henry, but with little result. Many letters passed between Henry and Becket, and two meetings took place between them in Normandy in the presence of the French king. Thomas promised to submit to Henry in all things " saving God's honour," but these words served to irritate Henry and his nobles.
At length the pope threatened Henry with excommunica- tion if he refused to make peace with the archbishop. On July 22, 1170, another meeting took place between them at Freteval between Chartres and Tours.12 The subject of the Constitutions was not mentioned. Henry professed himself willing to be guided by the archbishop's counsel as to the
10 Herbert of Boseham, Vita S. Thomcs, III., 375.
11 Edward Grim, Vita S. Thomce, II., 413.
12 Herbert of Boseham, Vita S. Thomce, III., 465.
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amends due to the see of Canterbury, for the recent violation of its rights. A hollow peace was thus made between them, and it was arranged that Thomas should return to his see.
In the previous June Henry, with a view to consolidating his power in England, had caused his eldest son, Prince Henry, to be crowned as his colleague and successor by Roger, Archbishop of York, assisted by the bishops of Durham, London, Rochester and Salisbury. This violation of the rights of his see roused in Becket the strongest resentment. At Freteval no definite arrangement seems to have been made with regard to the amends due, and Becket is believed to have kept silence as to the steps he had already taken. Some writers state, how- ever, that the king had been informed of his intentions. On hearing of the prince's coronation the archbishop had lost no time in applying to the pope for letters ordering the suspension of Roger of York and the excommunication of the bishops who had assisted him. Before setting out for England Thomas secretly despatched a boy, in a small vessel which attracted no attention, with the letters of excommunication.13
On December i , the archbishop landed at Sandwich. He was met by the sheriff of Kent and other officials, who demanded that he should absolve the excommunicated bishops. Thomas haughtily replied that the letters had been issued with the king's permission. Next morning he set out for Canterbury. His ride through Kent was one long triumphal procession. " Old men, women and children lined the roads on their knees to beg his blessing. Clergy came at the head of their parishioners with garlands and banners, and with choirs chanting anthems. It was evening when he reached Can- terbury, and he went straight to the cathedral. His face shone as he entered like the face of Moses when he descended from the mount. He seated himself on the throne and the monks came one by one and kissed him. Tears were in all eyes." " My lord," Herbert of Boseham14 whispered to him, " it matters not now when you depart hence. Christ has
'3 Ibid., p. 471.
H Herbert de Boseham, who afterwards wrote a life of Becket, is said to have been his secretary.
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conquered. Christ is now king." " He looked at me," says Herbert, " but he did not speak."15
Thomas found that the king's promise to restore the property of his see had not been carried out, owing to the excom- munication of the bishops. His estates were in the hands of the De Broc family, men of evil repute who oppressed the people of Kent. One of the archbishop's first acts after his return was to excommunicate the De Brocs.
After spending a few days at Canterbury he set out to visit Prince Henry, who was then at Winchester. But on reaching London he received in the name of the prince a message from the courtiers ordering him to return to Canterbury.
On Christmas Day Becket preached in Canterbury Cathedral on the text : " Peace on earth to men of good will." There was no peace, he said, except to men of good will. He spoke passionately of the troubles of the Church and referred to the possibility of his own martyrdom. The congregation sobbed around him.16 At the close of the service he again solemnly excommunicated the De Broc family.
Meantime Archbishop Roger had crossed to Normandy to inform King Henry of the bishops' excommunication. On hearing the tale, Henry flew into one of the terrible passions of wrath to which he frequently gave way. " Are there none of the cowards eating my bread who will free me from this turbulent priest ? " he exclaimed. Four knights who heard him looked at each other, and then quietly left the hall. Their names were Reginald Fitzurse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville and Richard le Breton.
Without delay they set out for England, travelling secretly and by different routes. On the afternoon of December 29, they reached Canterbury, and forced their way into the monastery, where Becket was seated quietly conversing with his monks. They called on him to absolve the excommunicated bishops, but he haughtily refused. After a stormy altercation the knights withdrew, to return with an armed forced supplied by the De Brocs.
The monks urged Thomas to flee, but he scorned their
«* Herbert of Boseham, Vita S. Thoma III., p. 479 ; Froude's Short Studies, vol. IV., p. 139. «6 Ibid., IV., p. 159.
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fears. When the bell rang for vespers he proceeded as usual to the cathedral, and refused to allow the doors to be shut. " The church of God shall not be made a fortress," he said. Vespers had already commenced when the archbishop arrived. A few minutes later the knights with their armed followers entered the dimly-lit church. " Where is the traitor, Thomas a Becket ? " they shouted. There was silence. " Where is the archbishop ? " " Here am I, no traitor, but archbishop and a priest of God," said Thomas, as he came forward and faced them. Again they called on him to absolve the bishops, but he refused. All the monks and clergy forsook him and fled, except Edward Grim, a priest of Cambridge, who was severely wounded whilst attempting to defend him.
On the pavement beneath the steps of the altar the assassins slew him with their swords. " I am prepared to die for Christ and for His Church," were his last words.
On the following day the body of the murdered prelate was buried by the monks, without any religious service, in the crypt of the desecrated cathedral. There it remained until 1220, when it was translated to a magnificent shrine before the high altar.
A tremendous reaction followed this deed of blood. The news of the archbishop's murder filled all Europe with horror, and King Henry on receiving it was for a time completely stunned. Forgetting the bitter quarrel that had separated him from the archbishop, the passionate king wept for the friend of his youth. Fearing that his own excommunication and an interdict in his dominions would follow, he hastened to send ambassadors to the pope, protesting his innocence of any share in Becket's murder. In 1174 King Henry did penance at the archbishop's tomb, and in token of repentance for his share in the murder was publicly flogged by the monks.
Almost immediately after the murder the archbishop's tomb became a place of pilgrimage, and innumerable miracles are said to have been wrought there. For the next three centuries pilgrims from all parts of the world flocked to Canterbury. Phials containing a minute drop of the martyr's blood mixed with water were brought thence by the pilgrims and this " Canterbury water " is said to have had the power of working miraculous cures.
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On February 21, 1173, Thomas was canonized by Pope Alexander III. at the pressing demand of the English people. Kings, princes and pilgrims of all ranks lavished gifts on the shrine, and the offerings became an important source of revenue to Christ Church. The shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury was destroyed by order of Henry VIII. in September, 1538.
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39— RICHARD, 1173 to 1184.
King of England : Henry II., 1154 to 1189.
After the murder of Becket, the see of Canterbury remained vacant for two years and five months. It was proposed to elect Robert, Abbot of Bee, to the vacant see, but he declined to accept the burden of so high an office. At length, a council was held at Westminster on June 3, 1173, King Kenry being still absent in Normandy. The usual disputes arose between the monks and the bishops of the province concerning the right to elect a primate. The monks desired to chose one of their own order, who would uphold the principles of Becket, but the king's justiciar, who was present, refused to agree to this being aware that Henry greatly dreaded further disturb- ances in the Church. He, therefore, supported the bishops in their choice of Richard, Prior of St. Martin's, Dover, who was duly elected.1
Richard was a Norman of humble birth, and had received his early education at the monastery of Christ Church, where he afterwards became monk. While acting as chaplain to Archbishop Theobald he became intimate with Thomas a Becket. After Becket's return to England in 1170 he sent Richard on a mission to young Prince Henry, but the prior was coldly received by the prince's advisers. It would have been difficult to find a churchman whose character presented a greater contrast to that of his predecessor. Richard possessed a moderate and equable disposition, and was anxious to keep on good terms with the king. The monks, who looked on him with disfavour because he failed to uphold the prin- ciples of Becket, accused him of nepotism, and of wasting the property of the Church. On the other hand the king is said to have admonished him for his carelessness in maintaining discipline, and for his want of energy. It is evident that he did not entirely approve of clerical immunities which
1 Chronicle of Reign of Henry II., etc. (Rolls series), p. 256.
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frequently involved injustice even towards the clergy them- selves. In a letter which he wrote in 1180 to one of his suffragans, he complained that the murderer of a Jew or layman was punished with death, while he who killed a priest was only excommunicated by the Church.
Prince Henry, who had quarrelled with his father, refused to consent to the consecration of Richard, and sent com- plaints concerning him to Rome. Richard set out for Rome in company with Reginald Fitz-Jocelin, Bishop-elect of Bath. He found the pope at Anagni, but messengers from Prince Henry and from Louis VII. of France had arrived before him, in order to forbid his consecration. Richard was supported by ambassadors from Henry II., and was able to disprove the accusations that he was of illegimate birth and that his election had been uncanonical* On April 7, 1174, Pope Alexander III. consecrated him, and gave him the pallium.
In May, the archbishop set out on his homeward journey. Embarking at Astura, he landed at Genoa, and proceeded through Burgundy. At St. Jean de Maurienne he consecrated his companion Reginald to the see of Bath. At Barfleur he was met by Henry II., who gave him a cordial reception.
While Richard was reposing in London from the fatigues of his journey, news reached him that a great part of Canterbury Cathedral, including the famous choir of Conrad, had been destroyed by a fire.3 His first care, therefore, on arriving at Canterbury was to set on foot the rebuilding of his cathedral. The work was entrusted to a French architect, William de Sens.
On May 11, 1175, the archbishop held a synod at West- minster, which was attended by the king and his son Prince Henry. Many canons of ecclesiastical discipline were passed. The clergy were forbidden to wear their hair long, to carry arms, or to drink in taverns. It was decreed that the con- secrated wine should not be placed in tin vessels, and clergy were forbidden to buy livings.4 After the council Richard accompanied Henry and his son to visit the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. When the French King Louis VII. visited the shrine in company with Henry in 1179, Richard received the two kings at Canterbury.
2 Ralph de Diceto, Opera, I., 388. 3 Ibid., p. 390.
* Gervase of Canterbury, Opera, I., 251.
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The old quarrel concerning the supremacy of the see of Canterbury was now renewed by Roger, Archbishop of York, who claimed that the bishops of Lincoln, Chester, Worcester and Hereford were his suffragans. King Henry, after vainly attempting to settle the dispute, invited the pope to send a legate to England to give a decision concerning the rights of the sees. A council was accordingly held in St. Catherine's Chapel, Westminster, in March 1176, at which the papal legate, Cardinal Uguccione, presided. When Roger of York entered the chapel the legate had already taken his seat with Arch- bishop Richard at his right hand. Roger, who claimed precedence over Richard because he had been consecrated before him, attempted to place himself between the archbishop and the legate. Failing to succeed, he sat down in Richard's lap. The other bishops, greatly amazed at this proceeding, raised a loud clamour. The archbishop of Canterbury's men dragged Roger from his ill-chosen place, threw him on the ground, tore his vestments, and trod on him. It is certain that he would have been seriously injured by their violence, had Richard not interfered on his behalf.5
Roger, ragged, bleeding and covered with dust as he was, hastened to the king to make his complaint. Henry on seeing his condition was at first exceedingly angry, but on learning the truth of the matter laughed heartily, and declared that he had been treated as he deserved. Meantime the legate, terrified by this scene of violence, fled from the council, which was dissolved without any settlement of the dispute. In the following August King Henry held another council at Winchester, when he succeeded in arranging a truce of five years between the prelates. In the same year (1176), Arch- bishop Richard accompanied Joanna, the daughter of Henry, as far as St. Gilles, where she was met by the ships of her future husband, William II. of Sicily.6
A serious quarrel arose between Richard and Roger, Abbot- elect of St. Augustine's. Roger asked for benediction from the archbishop on condition of professing to him only conditional obedience, "saving the rights of his monastery." Roger was suspected of having agreed to pay a yearly tribute to the pope on condition that his monastery was freed from episcopal
5 Ibid., p. 258. 6 Ibid., 260.
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jurisdiction. The archbishop consequently refused his bene- diction, and Roger appealed to Rome. The pope espoused his cause and in 1178 summoned Richard to appear before him at a Lateran council. The archbishop set out, but on reaching Paris was advised by his friends to turn back. As this advice accorded with his own inclinations, he returned to Canterbury.7 Pope Alexander III. bestowed the bene- diction on Roger, and sent him back with a letter to Richard commanding that in future the primates of Canterbury should give their blessing to the abbots of St. Augustine's without requiring a profession of obedience. King Henry supported Richard against the abbot, and it was afterwards proved that the charters by which he had claimed freedom from episcopal jurisdiction were spurious. The monastery accordingly lost many of its privileges.
After the death of Prince Henry on June 11, 1183, Richard was sent to Le Mans, where the prince's body had been first buried, to convey it for burial to Rouen. The archbishop returned to England in the following August. In February, 1186, when on a journey to Rochester, he was suddenly taken ill at the village of Hailing or AUingham, in Kent, and died there on the 16th. His enemies the monks afterwards pretended that his illness was brought on by terror at a vision, in which the Lord appeared to him saying : " Thou hast wasted the property of my Church, and I will root thee out from the earth."8 He was buried in Christ Church in the oratory of St. Mary.
t Ibid., I., 276. 8 Roger of Hoveden's Annals, ill
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40.— BALDWIN, 1185 to 1190.
Kings of England : Henry II., 1154 to 1189. Richard I., 1189 to 1199.
Shortly after the death of Richard, King Henry II. convened a council at Reading for the purpose of electing a new archbishop. The monks of Christ Church claimed as usual the first voice in the election, and refused to submit to the choice of any candidate likely to be approved by the bishops. The council was accordingly dissolved without any election having been made. Nine months elapsed before the king summoned another council to meet in London. This time the bishops insisted on taking the matter into their own hands, and elected Baldwin, Bishop of Worcester, to the vacant see. Upon this the monks in great indignation withdrew from the council, and returned to Canterbury. Thither the king followed them, and after a prolonged dis- cussion succeeded in persuading them to choose Baldwin, on the understanding that his election by the bishops was declared null and void.1 The primate-elect received the pallium from Rome, and was enthroned at Canterbury on May 19, 1185.
Baldwin, the son of poor parents, was born at Exeter. He probably received his early education in the monastic school of his native city, where he afterwards became a schoolmaster. His zeal, learning and piety recommended him to the notice of Bartholomew, Bishop of Exeter, who made him an arch- deacon. Later he resigned his archdeaconry to enter the Cistercian monastery of Ford in Devonshire. Within a year of his arrival there, he was chosen abbot.2 While holding this position he produced several literary works. Two of his books, " De Commendatione Fidei, " and " De Sacramento Altaris," and sixteen short treatises or sermons have been preserved. Though they do not show great learning, they
1 Roger of Hoveden's Annals, 11 84.
2 Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pont., p. 400.
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bear evidence to his wide knowledge of the scriptures.
In 1180 Baldwin was consecrated bishop of Worcester. From the time of his leaving Ford, he appears to have joined the party of the secular clergy, in opposition to the monks, who consequently opposed his translation to Canterbury.
Giraldus Cambrensis, Archdeacon of Brecknock, who knew Baldwin intimately, gives the following description of him : " He was of complexion somewhat swarthy, his countenance open and like a plain-meaning man, but very comely ; he was of medium height, well-made and slender-limbed. In manner he was modest and sober, and abstemious in his diet ; of few words, slow to anger and very studious from his childhood. " His only fault was that he lacked severity and strength of purpose. For this cause the pope in a certain letter greeted him thus : " Urbanus servus servorum dei, monacho fer- ventissimo, abbati calido, episcopo tepido, archiepiscopo remisso." He appears to have been easily influenced by changes in his circumstances, and by the opinions of those who surrounded him.
The lavish expenditure and luxury of the monastery of Christ Church were displeasing to Baldwin. At this time seventeen different dishes are said to have been served daily at the prior's table. Though the archbishop as abbot of Christ Church was nominal head of the monastery, the prior had gradually come to adopt an independent position.
As the state tended to become more national the monasteries became colonies of Roman partisans, who looked for support to the pope rather than to the king. From the time of Anselm, the prior and convent of Christ Church had been granted separate jurisdiction over their own estates. The object of this had been, not to exempt the monks from the authority of the archbishop, but to prevent their estates from falling into the hands of the king during a vacancy. But the policy was easily interpreted by the monks as freeing them from subjection to either king or primate.3
Baldwin, weary of the quarrels and pretensions of the monks, determined to found a college for secular priests at Hackington, now commonly called St. Stephen's, the most northerly suburb of Canterbury, about three furlongs from the cathedral. To
3 Stubbs, Introduction to Epist. Cant., p. 377.
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the college he intended to attach an episcopal residence for himself, where he would be free from all interference. An institution of this kind is said to have been projected by both St. Anselm and St. Thomas of Canterbury, who intended it to be inhabited by men of learning. Baldwin obtained permission from the pope to build the college, and to endow it with one-fourth of the offertories bestowed on the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. The scheme met with determined opposition on the part of the monks of Christ Church, who suspected not without reason that Baldwin intended to transfer to his new foundation the right of electing the archbishops of Canterbury. Having appealep to Rome, they succeeded in obtaining a papal bull, ordering the buildings at Hackington to be destroyed.
Baldwin refused to obey the pope's mandate, and proceeded to install secular priests in the half-finished college. Again the prior and convent appealed to Rome, and the famous contest which now began occupied the energies of Baldwin during the remainder of his life. He was steadily supported by the king and by Ranulf de Glanville, the justiciary. In a letter to the pope King Henry declared that he would rather be driven from the throne than let the monks get the better of the archbishop. But the weight of all the great monasteries of Europe except those of the Cistercian order was thrown into the opposite scale. While the nobles supported the archbishop, the people sided with the monks.
The monks' defiance of the archbishop's authority provoked him to cut off all their supplies. For eighty-two weeks the monastery was in a state of blockade, and no food reached the inmates save what was brought them by friends or by pilgrims to Becket's shrine. So ample, however, were these con- tributions, some of which came even from Jews, that if one may believe the tale of Gervase of Canterbury, who was then an inmate of the monastery, the brethren were able out of their superabundance to give a daily meal to two hundred poor strangers.4 In spite of the king's prohibition, the prior with certain of the monks left England, and proceeded to Rome to complain to the pope of the treatment they had received. But in Rome they died of the plague which was then raging.
i Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings. II., 437.
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Baldwin then appointed a prior of his own choice, named Roger Norreys, and installed him in Christ Church, notwith- standing the opposition of the monks.
The dispute was not settled until the reign of Richard I. Baldwin was then desirous of making peace with the monks before setting out for Palestine. In November, 1189, Richard visited Canterbury, and arranged a compromise. It was agreed that the college of Hackington should be destroyed, and Roger Norreys deposed from the office of prior. The monks then made submission to Baldwin, and it was con- ceded that the archbishop had the right to build a collegiate church wherever he pleased. He accordingly exchanged certain estates belonging to his see for twenty-four acres of land at Lambeth belonging to the see of Rochester. He then caused all the stones, timber and building materials which he had collected to be transported by water from Hacking- ton to Lambeth, where he founded a new college,5 which, however, he did not live to complete.
Baldwin was the first archbishop of Canterbury to make a pastoral visitation through Wales. He first visited that country in the year 1187. In 1188, having himself taken the crusader's vow, he returned to Wales in company with the justiciar, Ranulf de Glanville, in order to preach a crusade there. He was successful in inducing large numbers of Welshmen, including many Welsh princes, to take the cross.
A vow to join in a crusade had been one of the conditions under which Henry II. had obtained absolution from the pope after the murder of Becket. The old king would un- doubtedly have set out for Palestine had he not been hindered by the rebellion of his sons, and by the invasion of his French dominions by Philip of France. Baldwin was Henry's constant companion during the last few months of his life, and attended him when, broken-hearted by the treachery of his favourite son, John, he lay on his death-bed at Chinon. He died on July 6, 1189. In the following September Baldwin crowned Richard I. King of England.
Richard had taken the crusader's vow during his father's life-time, and on December 14 he left England to proceed
5 J. Cave- Browne, Lambeth Palace, p. 5.
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by slow stages to Palestine. Archbishop Baldwin remained in England until the following March to settle the affairs of his see. He appointed Robert, Bishop of London, to ad- minister his diocese during his absence. On March 6 he set out in company with Hubert Walter, the popular bishop of Salisbury, and with Ranulf de Glanville the justiciar. Of these three famous men only Hubert survived to return to England. They proceeded straight to Palestine, leaving the king at Marseilles, and reached Acre on October 12. Baldwin had equipped at his own expenses a body of two hundred knights, and three hundred attendants who fought under his banner. During the attack on Acre in the following November, the archbishop guarded the camp in company with Frederick of Suabia, and Theobald of Blois. Before the attack began he absolved and blessed the host.
The aged prelate had expected to find a Christian army united in the defence of the holy places, and was sorely grieved by the licentiousness which prevailed in the camp. Sorrow and the hardships to which he was exposed brought on sick- ness. He was heard to pray that he might be taken away from the turmoil of the world, " for," said he, " I have remained long enough with this army."6
He died on November 19, 1190, and was buried at Acre.7 By his will, of which he had appointed Hubert Walter the executor, he left his private property to be devoted to the relief of the holy places, requesting that it might be spent chiefly in providing sentinels for the camp.
* Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, II., 568. 7 Gervase of Canterbury, Opera, I. 488.
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4i.— HUBERT WALTER, 1193-1205.
Kings of England : Richard I., 1189 to 1199. John, 1199 to 1216.
Hubert Walter, the son of a Norman baron named Hervey Walter, and of his wife Matilda de Valognes, was born at West Dereham, in Norfolk, where his family had settled soon after the Conquest. His mother was the sister of Bertha, wife of the famous justiciar, Ranulf de Glanville, in whose household Hubert and his brothers appear to have been brought up. After his ordination, Hubert became chaplain to his uncle Ranulf. In 1185 his name appears among those of the barons and justiciars before whom fines were levied in the Curia Regis.1 In the following year, he was made dean of York. Shortly after his coronation in September, 1189, King Richard I. held a council at Pipewell, in Northamptonshire, at which he chose prelates for all the vacant sees. Hubert was elected bishop of Salisbury, and the appointment of Geoffrey, the king's half-brother, to the archbishopric of York was confirmed. Hubert stood at the head of a party in the York chapter, who had disputed the validity of Geoffrey's election, and who had proposed the dean himself as a suitable candidate for the primacy. His election to Salisbury cleared this obstacle out of Geoffrey's way.2 Hubert was consecrated by Arch- bishop Baldwin on October 22, 1189.
Having taken the cross, he set out in the following spring for Palestine, in company with Archbishop Baldwin and his uncle, Ranulf de Glanville. Neither the archbishop nor the justiciar lived to return to England. Hubert tended and comforted them both in their last hours, and was appointed by Baldwin the executor of his will. On the arrival of Richard, he became the king's adviser, and most trusted diplomatic agent in Palestine. He also rendered
1 Foss, Judges of England, II., 123. ,
2 Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings, II., 277.
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great service to the army during the king's illness, and was chiefly instrumental in procuring a truce with Saladin, after the French king had deserted the field. It was Hubert who, in Richard's place, led the band of pilgrims admitted by the Turks to visit the holy sepulchre. Saladin received the bishop with much honour, and they conversed together for some time. Before they parted Saladin invited the bishop to request whatsoever he might wish. He asked that for the future two Latin priests, with two deacons, maintained by the offerings of the faithful, might perform divine service at our Lord's tomb, and that an equal number might be allowed at Bethlehem and at Nazareth. To this Saladin agreed.3
Hubert afterwards led back the remnants of the host from Palestine to Europe. On reaching Sicily he learned that King Richard had been captured in his passage through Germany. Hubert hastened to visit the imprisoned king, who instructed him to return to England without delay to raise money for his ransom.
Meantime the chapter of Christ Church, on receiving the news of Archbishop Baldwin's death, had elected Reginald Fitzjocelin, Bishop of Bath to the see of Canterbury. Immediately after his appointment Reginald went to Bath to make arrangements for the election of his successor. On his return journey to Canterbury he was stricken with apoplexy and died on December 26, 1192.
On hearing of the death of Reginald, Richard wrote from his captivity to the chapter at Christ Church and to his mother, Queen Eleanor, advising the election of the bishop of Salisbury to the archiepiscopal see. Hubert was accordingly elected by the chapter on May 29, 1193, and by the suffragans of the province on the following day. After receiving the pallium from Rome he was enthroned at Canterbury on Novenber 7, of the same year.
The new archbishop showed indefatigable zeal and energy in exerting himself to raise the 100,000 pounds required for the king's ransom.4
In September Hubert was appointed chief justiciar in
s Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, II., 584. + Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pont., p. 406.
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place of Walter de Constance, Archbishop of Rouen, who proceeded to Normandy with Queen Eleanor to negotiate concerning the release of Richard. The acceptance by the primate of a secular office under the crown was condemned by the clergy. But the great service which the archbishop rendered to the State while acting as justiciar justified him in accepting the office. He was chiefly instrumental in discovering and frustrating the conspiracy of the king's brother John against the English crown. An emissary sent to England by John to gain adherents to his cause was promptly arrested and his papers seized by Hubert's orders. The archbishop then demanded the surrender of all the castles held by John in England. He was engaged in besieging that of Nottingham when Richard landed in England.
A few months later (April, 1194) Hubert officiated at the king's second coronation at Winchester.5 Richard remained in England only a few months, and showed little gratitude toward his English subjects who had made such sacrifices for his release.
After the king's return to Normandy he continued to count on Hubert to raise money for the French wars. In the space of two years the archbishop is said to have raised the sum of 1,100,000 marks. He cannot however be accused of having adopted unlawful means to raise money. Consider- able sums were derived from the sale of charters, conceding certain municipal rights to the towns. He was also zealous in the administration of justice, and from the fines levied in the court much profit accrued to the crown. By his advice weights and measures were regulated and other laws against fraud passed. In 1195 he issued an order requiring every man above the age of fifteen to take an oath for the main- tenance of public peace before knights appointed for the purpose in every shire. From this custom afterwards origin- ated our Justices of the Peace. The archbishop's power was further increased by his appointment as legate to the apostolic see.6 This secured for him the supremacy over Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, to whose policy he was opposed. He had many enemies, however.
s Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1192.
6 Ralph de Diceto, Hist., II. , 125.
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In 1196 the London craftsmen, discontented with the system of taxation enforced by Hubert, rose in revolt under the leadership of William FitzOsbert, a factious demagogue. Hubert took prompt means to gain the citizens to his side and succeeded in persuading them to surrender to him hostages for the preservation of public peace. FitzOsbert finding himself deserted took refuge with his family in the church of St. Mary at Bow. Hubert ordered the church to be set on fire and FitzOsbert, attempting to escape, was captured and executed. His death created a reaction in his favour and the people reverenced him as a martyr. Much indignation was excited against the archbishop by his refusal to recognize the rights of sanctuary. His enemies appealed to Rome against him and Pope Innocent III. revived an ancient edict, forbidding clerics to hold secular offices. The pope also wrote to King Richard specially re- questing him to remove the archbishop of Canterbury from the justiciarship. Richard reluctantly obeyed, transferring the office from Hubert to Geoffrey Fitz-Peter.7 The arch- bishop afterwards joined Richard in Normandy where he remained until after the king's death.
Hubert supported the claim of John to the English throne in opposition to that of the rightful heir, Arthur of Brittany. He considered the safety of the kingdom in its unsettled state would be risked in the hands of a youthful sovereign, and up to that time he had probably had no opportunity of estimating John's real character.
Hubert crowned King John and his second wife Isabella, at Westminster, on May 27, 1199. On that occa- sion he made the famous speech in which the old English theory of elections to the throne of England was pro- claimed for the last time. One of John's first acts after his coronation was to appoint Archbishop Hubert his chancellor. This office Hubert accepted contrary to the advice of his friends and to the prohibition of the pope, and held it with distinction until his death. In virtue of his authority as chancellor he was able to restrain many of the excesses of the profligate king. John, though unable to dispense with his services, repaid them with hatred. On receiving news of
* Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1198.
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Hubert's death John is said to have exclaimed, " Now at last I am king of England!"
After the loss of Normandy Hubert joined certain of the royal counsellors who attempted to dissuade the king from attempting another hopeless expedition against the king of France. For this reason John accused the arch- bishop of secretly favouring the French king. Hubert was afterwards sent with other prelates to France to negotiate a treaty of peace, but the mission failed.
During the greater part of his pontificate Hubert was en- gaged in a dispute with Giraldus Cambrensis, Bishop-elect of St. David's. Hubert refused to sanction the election of Giraldus as he was determined that no Welshman should hold the bishopric. Giraldus journeyed to Rome to appeal to the pope, and also to request for his see metropolitan authority in Wales. This, however, he failed to obtain, and was afterwards accused of stirring up the Welsh to rebellion. His election to the see of St. David's was finally annulled, and he made profession of obedience to Archbishop Hubert.8
In spite of the opposition of his chapter Hubert began to rebuild the college at Lambeth which had been begun by his predecessor. Additional ground was obtained from the dean and chapter of Rochester and the chapel rose once more on its original site. To propitiate the monks of Christ Church, Hubert took an oath that their rights should not be infringed by the new foundation, and de- creed that the prior of the monastery should always be a prebendary of the church at Lambeth. But even this failed to satisfy them. They secretly despatched two of their number to Rome, and obtained from the pope a bull ordering the college at Lambeth to be demolished. Hubert pleaded in vain that his predecessor as lord of the manor of Lambeth had been granted full authority to build a collegiate church there. The pope refused to confirm the grant, and the canons having been dispossessed, the college was pulled down.9 From the time of Archbishop Hubert, however, Lambeth Palace has been the official residence of the archbishops of Canterbury.
8 Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pont., p. 412. » J. Cave Browne, Lambeth Palace, p. 5.
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In the midst of his multitudinous duties Hubert did not neglect the care of the Church. He founded a monas- tery at Dereham, his native place, and another at Wolver- hampton. He presented the living of Halstow to the church at Canterbury, devoting its revenues to the support of the cathedral library. He also obtained from King John permission to revive the ancient privileges of the archbishops to coin money at Canterbury. At his death he bequeathed many valuable treasures to the cathedral church.10
After the settlement of the dispute concerning Lambeth College Hubert and the monks appear to have been the best of friends. That the archbishop was a man of wide sym- pathies is proved by the influence he exercised over persons of all ranks. On the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, June 29, 1205, he went to Canterbury and celebrated mass in the cathedral with unusual pomp. A few days later, before setting out for Rochester, he appears to have had a premonition that his death was near. He summoned the chapter and asked the forgiveness of the monks for any wrong he had done them. He then solemnly admonished them to promote with zeal the welfare and usefulness of their church, and said he would shortly return to them on a visit " which would be longer than heretofore."11
His words were prophetic. On the following day he set out for Rochester, but on the way was attacked by a fever, and died after three days' illness at the village of Tenham on July 13, 1205. His body was conveyed to Canterbury and buried in the cathedral. A contemporary writer declares that Hubert was deficient in scholarship, and was too prone to listen to slander. But whatever his faults it is certain that he was a true patriot, a man of honest purpose, and of pure life.12
The family of the Butlers (Marquesses of Ormonde) trace descent from Theobald Walter, the brother of Archbishop Hubert, who accompanied Henry II. to Ireland. Theobald was created Chief Butler of Ireland, and the marquesses of Ormonde still claim this hereditary title.
10 Actus Pont., p. 412. " Ibid.
" Cf. Stubbs' Introd. to Epist. Cant., XC
I9I
42.— STEPHEN LANGTON, 1207 to 1228.
Kings of England : John, 1199 to 1216.
Henry III., 1216 to 1272.
Almost immediately after the death of Archbishop Hubert Walter, a party of the younger monks of Christ Church pro- ceeded to elect a primate of their own choice. Meeting secretly at midnight, they chose the sub-prior Reginald, and, thinking to outwit their elder brethren, hurried him off to Rome to have his election confirmed by the pope. On his way through France, Reginald, who was a vulgar, conceited little man, could not resist the assumption of archiepiscopal state, and in spite of a promise made to the monks to keep his election secret until it had been confirmed by the pope, he travelled with great pomp to Rome.
The news of the election thus reached King John, who in- dignantly refused to sanction it, and who lost no time in nominating to the archiepiscopal see a favourite of his own, John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich. A deputation of monks was then despatched by the king to Rome to inform the pope that Reginald's election had been uncanonical, and to apply for the pallium for John de Grey.1 The pontifical throne was then occupied by Innocent III., the greatest of mediaeval popes. After investigating the matter, he wisely re- refused to consecrate either of the nominees, and ordered the monks to proceed to a new election. Though the deputies despatched by John had promised to elect none but the bishop of Norwich, they were easily persuaded by the pope to choose Stephen Langton, an Englishman, who was then in Rome.2 As later events proved, no wiser choice could have been made.
Stephen was the son of an Englishman named Henry de Langton, and is believed to have been born at the village of Langton, near Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, though the evidence for this is uncertain. At an early age he was sent to study at
1 Canterbury Chronicle (Rolls series), p. LIV. 1 Ibid., p. LXI.
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the university of Paris. There he attained a reputation for learning which secured for him prebends in the cathedrals of Paris and York. It was probably during his residence as a professor at Paris that his most important literary works were produced. They consist chiefly of commentaries on the scriptures. A life of Richard I. was attributed to him, but has not been preserved. He was also the author of several Latin poems, including one on the seven days of the creation. A curious theological comment or moralization written by Langton on the stanzas of a popular French song " La Belle Aliz," is printed by Wright in his " Biographia Literaria " (Vol. II., p. 444). The division of the Bible into chapters is said to have been the work of Langton.
At the university of Paris, Stephen Langton made the acquaintance of young Lothair Conti, the son of an Italian count. When in 1198 Lothair, at the early age of thirty-seven, was called to occupy the supreme position in Christendom, assum- ing the title of Innocent III., he did not forget his brilliant English friend. Stephen was invited to Rome, where he lectured on canon law with conspicuous success, his lectures being attended by some of the greatest scholars in Europe, including the pope himself. In 1206 he was created cardinal priest of St. Chrysogonus. At the time of his elevation to the see of Canterbury Stephen Langton was probably the most distinguished churchman in Europe, next to the pope.
On hearing of Stephen's election the wrath of King John knew no bounds. He swore a terrible oath that the primate- elect should never set foot within the English dominions. He also addressed insolent letters to the pope informing him that the tribute from England for which the Apostolic see had long been indebted to John's predecessors would henceforth cease to be paid. But the pope, ignoring this threat, conse- crated Stephen Langton at Viterbo on June 17, 1207, and afterwards bestowed on him the pallium.3
As the monks of Christ Church had acknowledged Stephen, the king caused them to be banished from England, all except fourteen, who were infirm. They were replaced by monks from St. Augustine's, Rochester and Faversham. Henry Langton, the archbishop's father, escaped to St. Andrews, in
3 Ibid.
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Scotland, where he soon afterwards died.4 In 1208, as the king still refused to receive Stephen, the pope placed England under an interdict. Though John forced certain of the clergy to disregard the interdict many churches throughout the country were closed, and religious services ceased. This deprivation was felt bitterly by the English people, but the king remained indifferent to the suffering he caused. During this time Archbishop Stephen resided at the French monastery of Pontigny, which had formerly been the refuge of Becket.
In 1209 the king invited Stephen to visit him in England, and sent a safe conduct for three weeks addressed not to the archbishop of Canterbury, but to Cardinal Stephen Langton. To accept this designation would have been to acknowledge his election invalid, and Stephen consequently refused to proceed to England. A few months later, John yielded so far as to send another invitation addressed to the archbishop of Canterbury. Stephen then crossed to England, but the king refused to meet him in person, and the royal envoys failed to make satisfactory terms.5 So Stephen returned to France. For six years the struggle continued. Proposal after proposal was made by the pope in the endeavour to make peace between John and the archbishop ; letter followed letter ; embassy followed embassy ; but without definite result. At length in 1213 the pope issued a bull of excommunication against King John, and authorized Philip of France to proceed to England with an army to dethrone the disobedient monarch.
John still hoped to defend his kingdom by force of arms, but on learning that the barons of England were preparing to join Philip against him he suddenly gave way, weakly surrendering all and more than he had formerly refused. On May 13, 1213, he yielded up the crown of England to Pandulf, the papal legate, in the church of the Templars at Ewell, and swore that he held his kingdom only as the pope's vassal. He also promised tribute and complete submission to the pope in all things.
A few weeks later Stephen landed in England. The king met him at Porchester, in Hampshire, fell at his feet weeping, and implored his absolution. They proceeded together to
4 Ibid, p. LXIII. t ibid., pp. CVIII-CX.
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Winchester, and before entering the cathedral the archbishop solemnly released the king from excommunication. Stephen afterwards celebrated mass in Winchester Cathedral, and in the presence of a rejoicing multitude who had come thither to welcome him, gave the king the kiss of peace.6
The concord which now seemed to be restored was destined to be of short duration. The conflict between the king and the pope was succeeded by a still greater conflict between the king and the barons. Stephen had been only a few weeks in England when he sided with the barons against the king. At a meeting held at St. Paul's, London, in August, 1213, the archbishop advised the nobles to base their claims for redress on a charter of King Henry I., which he caused to be read. The barons then took a solemn oath to conquer or die in the defence of their liberties.7
John had demanded that the barons should accompany him on an expedition to Poitou, and on their refusal to do so he marched northward with an army to punish his dis- obedient vassals. Stephen followed him to Nottingham, and, as he refused to desist, threatened to excommunicate all who took part in the expedition. This compelled John to abandon his intention, and his army was disbanded.8
Though after the archbishop's arrival services had been resumed in the churches, the pope had not yet given his sanction for this. He therefore sent to England a legate, Nicholas, Bishop of Tusculum, with authority to withdraw the interdict. When this had been done, Nicholas, without consulting Stephen, proceeded to fill the vacant bishoprics and abbacies with King John's nominees, many of whom were unfitted for the sacred offices. Stephen appealed to the pope against these elections, with the result that Nicholas was recalled to Rome. The dispute had served, however, to arouse the pope's suspicions against Stephen.
It is uncertain what part Stephen took in drawing up the famous Magna Charta. The insertion of the first clause, guaranteeing the liberty of the Church, was almost certainly his work. He was present at the great historic meeting in the meadow of Runnymede on June 15, 1215, when as a
6 Roger of Wendover, Flowers of History, Bohn's edition, p. 274. * p. 276. 8 Ibid., p. 275.
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commissioner he negotiated with the barons on the king's behalf.
John's consent to the Charter appears to have been given only for the purpose of gaining time. Without delay he raised a mercenary army, and sent messages to the pope claiming his aid against the barons. To safeguard his person and also to ensure for himself papal support, John had previously taken the crusader's vow. In response to the king's appeal, Innocent issued a bull on August 24, 1215, declaring the Magna Charta null and void, on the assumption that it had been obtained by violence, and bidding the arch- bishop excommunicate the disturbers of the kingdom. In view of Innocent's well-known integrity it must be supposed that in acting thus he was ignorant of the king's real character. Langton received the pope's letters as he was preparing to start for Rome to attend the Fourth Lateran Council. He consented to a general issue of the sentence of excommunica- tion, but refused to enforce it until he had had an interview with the pope, whom he believed to have been misinformed as to the real state of affairs.9
For his disobedience Stephen was suspended by the pope's orders from his archiepiscopal functions. On reaching Rome, he was coldly received by Innocent III., who confirmed the sentence of suspension against him, and ordered him to remain in Italy until peace had been restored.
Stephen did not return to England until 1218. By that time both Innocent and John were dead, and peace had been temporarily restored by the accession of the boy-king, Henry III. During the last ten years of his life the archbishop remained in the peaceful occupation of his see, though he did not cease to take part in public affairs. In 1220 he obtained from Pope Honorius III. a promise that in his life-time no papal legate should be sent to England. This did not prevent the pope from despatching Otho, sub-deacon of the Roman Church, to collect money from the English clergy. But on a protest being made by the archbishop, Otho was recalled and the pope decreed that henceforth the office of legatus natus should be held by the archbishops of Canterbury.
In 1222, Stephen held an important synod at Osney, in
9 Ibid., p. 342.
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Oxfordshire, when fifty ecclesiastical constitutions were drawn up. These constitutions are still recognized as forming part of the canon law of the English Church.10 At the same synod a deacon who pretended to be Jesus Christ was condemned to death, and afterwards burnt at the stake. Stephen supported the justiciar Hubert de Burgh against the rebellious barons, who threatened to usurp the royal authority. His last public act was to obtain from Henry III. in 1225, a confirma- tion of the Magna Charta.
Stephen died at his manor at Slindon, in Sussex, on July 9, 1228, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral. A stone fixed in the wall of St. Michael's chapel is said to mark his tomb, but the tradition is of doubtful authenticity. His brother, Simon Langton, Archdeacon of Canterbury, who, in 1215, had been elected archbishop of York, but was rejected by King John, survived him twenty years. His extant works are very numerous, and consist chiefly of sermons and commentaries on the books of the Old Testament.
10 WiUrins' Concilia, Vol I., pp. 585-595.
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43— RICHARD WETHERSHED (or GRANT),
1229 to 1231. King of England : Henry III., 1216 to 1272.
On August 3, 1228, the chapter of Canterbury, having received the king's permission to elect a new archbishop, chose Walter of Eynsham, a monk of their church, and sent him to Rome to have his election confirmed by the pope. The king, on hearing of the choice made by the monks, declared that Walter was unfit for the office, and despatched messengers after him to Rome to bring against him the following accusations : (1) That he was a man useless to the Church and to the kingdom. (2) That his father had been hung for theft. (3) That he had seduced a nun, and had by her several children.
Pope Gregory IX., being unable to prove these charges against Walter, ordered him to submit to an examination in theology conducted by the cardinals. The unfortunate primate-elect appears to have been reduced to a condition of uncontrollable nervousness, and replied in the most irrelevant manner to the extraordinary questions put to him. When asked, " How Rachel had wept for her children ? " he replied " When she was first dead." At the close of the examination the cardinals declared that he had failed to satisfy the examiners, and the pope consequently pronounced him to be unfitted for the office of archbishop.1 Gregory IX. then wrote to the suffragans of Canterbury stating that with the approval of the deputation from the chapter then in Rome, and on the recommendation of Henry III., he annulled the election of Walter, and chose in his stead Richard of Wethershed, Chancellor of Lincoln.
Richard is believed to have been born in the village of Wetheringsett,in Sussex, but of his early life nothing is known.
1 Roger of Wendover, Flowers of History, Bohn's edition, 1228, 1229.
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The surname of Grant or Le Grand was given him from his stature, which Matthew Paris says was wonderfully great. The bishops of Rochester and Bath both claimed the right to consecrate the new archbishop, and it was finally agreed that the bishop of Rochester should consecrate him in the choir of Christ Church and the bishop of Bath, assisted by two suffragans, in the chapel of the infirmary. The ceremony took place on June 10, 1229, and on November 23, Richard received the pallium from Rome.2
In the following January King Henry III., who was con- stantly in debt, partly owing to the extravagance of his foreign friends, and partly on account of papal exactions, called a council at Westminster, and demanded a scutage of three marks from all laymen and ecclesiastics who held baronies. The demand was boldly opposed by Archbishop Richard and certain suffragan bishops, but the majority were in favour of granting it.3
Richard appears to have been jealous of the power wielded by the wise and able justiciary, Hubert de Burgh. On the death of Gilbert, Earl of Clare, the castle and town of Tonbridge were entrusted to Hubert de Burgh during the minority of the heir. Richard declared that the late earl had done homage for Tonbridge to the archbishops of Canterbury, and that the custody of the town and castle belonged by right to his see. The king replied that by the law of England the ward- ship of all castles held by tenants-in-chief belonged to the crown, but Richard, after excommunicating all the intruders on his property, set out for Rome to plead the rights of his Church.
Richard complained to the pope that King Henry gave undue weight to the counsels of Hubert de Burgh, thus slighting all the other nobles. He also accused Hubert of having married a relative of his former wife, and of unjustly detaining certain possessions of the Church at Canterbury. He further declared that many of the English bishops and clergy had accepted secular offices under the crown, to the neglect of their ecclesiastical duties. The pope promised that these wrongs should be righted without delay.4
On August 1, 1131, Richard set out on his homeward way,
2 Ibid. 3 Ibid., 1231. 4 Ibid.
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but two days later he died at the Franciscan monastery of St. Gemini in Umbria, between Todi and Narni. In the following year Hubert de Burgh was accused, without the slightest evidence, of having caused his death by poison.
Richard was buried at St. Gemini in his episcopal robes and jewels. Matthew Paris relates that certain men of the coun- try, who had beheld his ornaments with greedy eyes, opened his coffin to steal his ring and other valuables, but were un- able to pull it from his finger, so firmly did the dead hands hold it. So the robbers departed beating their breasts in alarm.
The following works were attributed to Archbishop Richard : "De Fide et Legibus"; "De Sacramentis " ; "De Universo Corporali et Spirituali."
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44— EDMUND RICH OF ABINGDON,
1234 to 1240. S. King of England : Henry III., 1216 to 1272.
Edmund Rich, the successor of Richard Grant in the see of Canterbury, was born at Abingdon in Berkshire, probably about the year 1175. He was the son of pious parents, Reinald and Mabel Rich, who, through their own exertions, had attained a modest fortune. Some years after the birth of Edmund, Reinald retired to the monastery of Emsham near Oxford, leaving his family of four sons and two daughters to the care of his wife. Mabel's piety took the form of severe asceticism, and she is said to have bribed her little son Edmund to fast on bread and water by the promise of toys. On all holidays, including Sundays, he sang to her the whole psalter before partaking of any food. At his own request she made for him a hair shirt similar to the one which she constantly wore.1
At an early age the boy was sent to study at Oxford, whence he proceeded to the university of Paris, accompanied by his brother Richard. Though in comfortable circumstances, Mabel gave her sons so little money that they were forced to beg for food on the way. A legend, preserved by his biographer, tells that one day when he was walking alone in the fields near Oxford the Christ-child appeared to him. In memory of what passed between him and Christ on that occasion, Edmund used every night to sign his forehead with the words "Jesus of Nazareth." For several years Edmund seems to have divided his time between the universities of Oxford and Paris, spending some months of every year at each. From Paris he was summoned to the deathbed of his mother, who blessed him, and committed to his charge his sisters, Margaret and Alice.2
1 Vita Beati Edmundi, by Bertrand de Pontigny, cap. 3.
2 Ibid., cap. 7.
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Edmund afterwards placed his sisters in the Benedictine nunnery of Catesby, in Northamptonshire, this being the only religious house which would receive them on the prin- ciple he approved, namely without dowries. Desiring to take a vow of chastity, he caused two betrothal rings to be made. One of these he solemnly placed on the finger of a statue of the Virgin in a church at Oxford. The other he wore himself until his death.
After completing his studies, Edmund became a teacher at Oxford and at Paris, where he lectured with great success. Many stories are told of his charity at this time. He refused to accept fees from poor students, and is said to have sold his small library that he might give the proceeds to those in need. During the illness of one of his scholars Edmund sat up with him nightly for five weeks, yet this did not prevent him from giving his usual lectures daily.
After he had given six years to secular teaching, his mother is said to have appeared to him in a vision, and commanded him to devote his whole time to divine things. He then turned to the study of theology, and became famous as a preacher of extraordinary eloquence.3 About the year 1220, he was appointed treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, to which office was attached a prebend in the cathedral of Calne. From these appointments he derived a sufficient income, but was so careless of his worldly goods, that he sometimes found himself reduced for six months in the year to seek refuge against poverty in a monastery. He found a home in the abbey of Stanley, near Chippenham, where the abbot, Stephen of Lexington, was his friend. While holding the office of treasurer he volunteered to preach the sixth crusade in Berks, Oxford, Gloucester and Worcester. So successful was his mission that he is said to have induced 60,000 persons to take the cross.
Edmund was residing at his benefice of Calne when news reached him of his election to the see of Canterbury. Pope Gregory IX., after rejecting no less than three prelates nominated in succession by the king and chapter, had at length recommended the election of Edmund Rich. He accepted the honour with the greatest reluctance, and was J Ibid., cap. 16.
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Edmund Rich of Abingdon
consecrated at Canterbury on April 2, 1234, by Roger, Bishop of London, assisted by eight suffragans and two prelates from Ireland. From the time of his elevation to the primacy he increased his austerities. He practised the severest abstinence, breaking his fast only once a day, and rarely permitting himself the luxury of a bed at night. How- ever worn and tired he might be from his incessant toils, he would rest on a hard bench or on the ground. In later life he seldom even lay down, but would snatch a brief sleep as he sat in his chair. From the frequency of his prayers, his knees are said to have become like those of St. James, callous as the knees of a camel.4
Even before his consecration Edmund had shown his sympathy with the national party, who were opposed to the king's foreign favourites. On April 9, he appeared before the king in company with certain barons and bishops, and threatened him with excommunication if he refused to dis- miss the foreigners from his court. Henry was forced to yield, and Peter de Roches, Peter de Rievaulx and the Poitevins were banished.
In 1234, Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, was murdered in Ireland, and letters were produced with the royal seal to prove that Henry had consented to his death. Henry pro- tested his innocence, and it is probable that the letters had been forged by his foreign friends. The archbishop, after sternly admonishing the king, joined the barons in consenting that the royal treasury should be replenished by a tax on all movables, as this seemed the only means of keeping the king out of the clutches of foreigners.5
In January, 1237, Edmund officiated at the marriage of King Henry with Eleanor of Provence, at Canterbury, and afterwards crowned the queen in London. In the same year a papal legate, the Cardinal-deacon Otho, was invited to England by King Henry, who hoped to use the papal authority to undermine the archbishop's power. The legate was received by the monks with great enthusiasm, and took precedence of the archbishop at all public functions. A council was held at St. Paul's, London, at which Otho
4 Ibid., cap. 26.
* Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, III., 128.
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read a letter from the pope, decreeing the abrogation of plur- alities except when held by a papal dispensation. As the clergy rightly suspected that this was only an excuse for extorting more money from them, the decree met with a storm of opposition.6 The legate, fearing violence to his person, suggested that the matter should be referred to the pope for further consideration.
Edmund's disagreement with the king was brought to a climax by his opposition to the marriage of Eleanor, the king's sister, with Simon de Montefort. After the murder of her first husband, Richard, Earl of Pembroke, Eleanor had taken a vow of chastity before the archbishop, and from this he refused to release her. Controversies also arose between the primate and the monks of Christ Church, whom he accused of gross immorality, and with the monks of Rochester as to the place where he should consecrate Robert Grosseteste, the famous bishop-elect of Lincoln. Edmund determined to visit Rome to confer with the pope concerning the many difficulties which beset him. He was coldly received, however, and in every case judgment is said to have been given by the pope against him. Shortly after his return to Canterbury, he excommunicated the rebellious monks, and placed Christ Church under an interdict. The monks refused to observe the interdict, and appealed to Rome against him.
Many bishoprics and abbacies were kept vacant at this time in order that the king might enjoy their revenues. On the advice of Richard de la Wych, Chancellor of Canterbury, Edmund wrote to the pope requesting that the archbishops might be authorized to fill all cathedral and abbey churches, which were kept vacant for more than six months.7 But he appealed in vain.
Weary of the perpetual demands for money made by the papal agents, he at length consented to give one-fifth of his income (800 marks), to the pope. His example was followed by the other bishops. But even this did not put an end to the extortions.8 In 1240 a papal letter arrived in England, addressed to the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops of
6 Matthew of Paris, Eng. Hist., Bohn's edition, L, 54. » Ibid., p. 264. 8 Ibid., p. 278.
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Lincoln and Salisbury, in which they were required to provide for three hundred Roman clergy out of the first vacant benefices.
The archbishop, seeing the English Church thus deprived of its liberties, became deeply depressed by his inability to mend matters, and determined to retire from his see. With a small retinue he sailed for France, and took up his abode at the monastery of Pontigny, where he lived as a simple monk. The summer heat brought on an attack of dysentery, which forced him to remove toSoissy. The monks, by whom he was greatly beloved, wept at his departure, but he promised that he would return to them by the feast of St. Edmund the King. At daybreak on November 16, 1240, he died at Soissy, and four days later, on the feast of St. Edmund, his remains were taken to Pontigny9 for burial.
So numerous were the miracles said to be wrought at his tomb that a demand soon arose for his canonization. This was at first opposed by the pope, by King Henry, and by Boniface, the successor of Edmund in the see of Canterbury. Several commissions were appointed to investigate the authenticity of the miracles at Pontigny, and in 1246 Pope Innocent IV. was compelled to permit the decree for Edmund's canonization to be issued at Lyons.10
His works include a treatise entitled " Speculum Ecclesiae," and a number of sermons in Latin and French. The guileless and ascetic character of Edmund Rich made a profound im- pression on his contemporaries. But he lacked the practica- bility and strength of purpose necessary to cope with the difficulties that beset him, and before which his gentle spirit finally quailed.
9 Vita Beati Edmundi, cap. 60.
10 Matthew of Paris, Eng. Hist., II , 196.
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45 — BONIFACE OF SAVOY, 1243 to 1270.
King of England : Henry III., 1216 to 1272.
The marriage of Henry III. with Eleanor of Provence had brought to England fresh swarms of foreigners, for whom the King was expected to provide. Thomas of Savoy, the grandfather of Eleanor, had a family of fifteen children, and the queen's numerous uncles clamoured for the most impor- tant offices in the English Church and State. Boniface, the eleventh child of Thomas, had been destined at an early age for an ecclesiastical career. As a boy he is said to have entered a Carthusian monastery, and about the year 1234 was elected by Pope Gregory IX. to the see of Belley, in the south of Burgundy. When in 1240 the archbishopric of Canterbury became vacant, the king's relatives agreed that the see would be an excellent provision for Boniface. To convince the monks of Canterbury of Boniface's fitness for the post, the king composed an elaborate treatise in which he lavished praise on the prelate whom he had never yet seen, setting forth his learning, piety and charity. The monks were thus induced to nominate him to the vacant see, though they had afterwards cause to regret their choice.1
Owing to the death of two popes in succession within a few months, it was not until 1243 that Boniface's election was confirmed by Innocent IV. The archbishop-elect, who belonged to a family distinguished for its beauty, was of tall stature and handsome figure. No greater contrast could have been possible than that which existed between the character of this warlike and worldly prelate and that of the meek and gentle Edmund, his predecessor.
On his arrival in England Boniface was welcomed by the worthy Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, who urged him to use his influence with the king for the preservation of peace in the Church. Boniface was anxious to conciliate the
1 Matthew Paris, Eng. Hist., Bohn's Edition, I., 335.
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Boniface of Savoy
bishops, whom he expected to unite with him in paying off the debt on the see of Canterbury, and promised Grosseteste his support. He accordingly persuaded King Henry to reject another of his uncles whom he had nominated to the see of Winchester, and to agree to the election of William de Raleigh, who had been nominated by the monks.2
Before setting out to attend the General Council of Lyons Boniface ordered all the woods belonging to his archbishopric to be cut down and sold. He also raised a considerable sum from the suffragans on the pretence of paying off the debt on his see. It soon became evident that he looked on the great office to which he had been chosen, simply as a means of raising money to be spent abroad.
On January 15, 1245, he was consecrated at Lyons by Pope Innocent IV. After the ceremony the pope granted him, for the term of seven years, the first year's revenues of all vacant churches subject to the jurisdiction of the see of Canter- bury. While the council sat, Philip, the brother of Boniface, who commanded the papal forces, appointed him captain of the pope's body-guard.3
During the next four years Boniface's military duties detained him abroad, and he did not return to England until 1249 » in which year he was enthroned at Canterbury. Learning that Bishop Grosseteste of Lincoln had made a visitation of the religious houses for the purpose of restoring discipline, Boniface determined to follow his example, though with a different purpose, namely, to increase his opportunities of exacting money by the imposition of fines. Beginning with his own monastery of Christ Church, on which he imposed heavy fines, to the great indignation of the monks, he proceeded to Faversham, Rochester, and thence to London.
In London he refused to furnish his palace of Lambeth, and took up his residence in a house belonging to the bishop of Chichester, standing on the site of what is now Lincoln's Inn. From this it was inferred that he did not intend to remain in England. When the archbishop visited St. Paul's, he was informed by the dean and chapter that the bishop of the diocese and not the metropolitan was their visitor. Boniface ordered the doors of the cathedral to be forced
2 Ibid., p. 489. 3 Ibid., II., 60.
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open, but was unable to obtain entrance to the chapter-house. He then excommunicated the dean, and all who had supported him.
On the next day, before setting out to visit the priory of St. Bartholomew, he considered it expedient to don armour beneath his archiepiscopal vestments. As he passed through the streets with his retinue, he was greeted by the jeers of the people. This goaded him to fury. At St. Bartholo- mew's he was received with the honour due to a metropolitan, and found the canons in their places in the church ; but the prior did not appear. Boniface angrily enquired why he had not been received in the chapter-house. The venerable sub-prior advanced to reply to him, but was immediately felled to the ground by the infuriated archbishop, who beat him unmercifully with his fists, and with horrible unmention- able oaths swore to kill him. A disgraceful scene ensued, the canons and attendants of Boniface exchanging blows freely, and in the scuffle the archbishop's vestments were torn, thus exposing his armour to the scorn of the onlookers.4
After the archbishop's departure all the canons who had not been disabled sought the king, bruised and bleeding as they were, to complain concerning the conduct of his relative, but Henry refused to receive them. Boniface retired to his manor at Harrow, and announced his intention of visiting St. Alban's monastery. But after an interview with the king, who was greatly distressed by what had occurred, he agreed to abandon this project. It was soon known to Boniface that there had been a gathering of his suffragans at Dunstable, and 4000 marks had been subscribed to enable them to resist the aggression of the primate. He acknowledged that he had been hasty, and having withdrawn many of his demands, suggested that the bishops should send proctors to the pope, who would examine the claims of both parties. He then returned to Savoy, whence he wrote letters to the suffragans and to the chapter promising to pay due regard henceforth to the privileges of the monasteries, and to release the dean and chapter of St. Paul's from excommunication.
On his return to England in 1252, Boniface was informed that one of his officials had been imprisoned and ill-treated
4 Ibid., II., 346.
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Boniface of Savoy
by Aylmer, Bishop-elect of Winchester, the half-brother of Henry III. The archbishop decided to bring the case for trial before the university of Oxford. This won for him popularity with the party opposed to the king, and the university court pronounced judgment in his favour.
At a council held at Westminster in May, 1253, King Henry III., pressed by the barons, took a most solemn oath to keep the Magna Charta.5 Boniface, who for his own interest had now sided with the national party, joined the other bishops in urging the king to regard the claims of his own country- men in filling important offices in Church and State. Henry replied with some irony that it was indeed his duty to favour worthy men of his own nation, and that if Boniface and others of his kindred cared to begin the reformations they suggested by resigning their sees he would soon fill the vacancies with men to whom they could take no exception.6 The archbishop, finding that he had lost the king's favour, soon returned to Savoy. In 1255, he proceeded to Italy, and having raised an army, released his brother Thomas, who for his tyranny had been imprisoned by the people of Turin.
At the " Mad Parliament " of 1258, Boniface co-operated with the rebellious barons. He is said to have been one of the council of twenty-four to whom the government of the kingdom was afterwards entrusted, and who were chosen partly by the king, and partly by the barons. The new form of government did not last long, owing to the quarrels of the barons among themselves. When war broke out Boniface took refuge on the continent, and having joined the party of Prince Edward, exerted himself to raise troops in the king's defence. In 1263, he received at Boulogne a papal legate, who had come to excommunicate the rebellious barons. As the barons refused to permit the legate to land in England, Boniface summoned a certain number of his suffragans to Boulogne and entrusted to them the letters of excommuni- tion. But at Dover the letters were seized, probably with the consent of the bishops themselves, and thrown into the sea.
After the restoration of peace, Boniface volunteered to join Prince Edward in the Crusade, but accompanied the
5 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1253.
6 Godwin, Cat. of the Bishops of Eng., p. 118.
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prince only as fax as Savoy. There he died on July 18 1270, at his castle of St. Helena, and was interred at Hautecombe, the burial-place of his family. Towards the end of his life he is said to have become as docile and conciliatory as he had previously been passionate and vindictive. He is praised by contemporary writers for having paid off the debt of 22,000 marks on his see, for having built a goodly hospital at Maidstone, and for having completed the stately hall at Canterbury begun by Archbishop Hubert Walter.7
The name of Savoy Street, Strand, remains to mark the site of a palace erected for Peter, a brother of Archbishop Boniface.
7 Ibid., p. 119.
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46. -ROBERT KILWARDBY, 1273 to 1278.
King of England : Edward I., 1272 to 1307.
Soon after the death of Boniface, the chapter of Canterbury, having obtained licence from the king to appoint a new arch- bishop, chose their prior, Adam de Chillenden. His appoint- ment was opposed by the king and his eldest son, Prince Edward, who desired the election of the chancellor, Robert Burnell. Adam set out for Rome to sue for the confirma- tion of his election,1 but was persuaded by Pope Gregory X. to resign his claims. The pope refused* to confirm the choice of the royal nominee, and chose for the vacant see on his own authority Robert Kilwardby, a Dominican friar.
Kilwardby was by birth an Englishman, but of his parent- age and early life nothing is known. He studied at the universities of Oxford and Paris, where he distinguished himself as a scholar and teacher, and later as the author of several grammatical and theological works of considerable repute. His residence in Paris had introduced him to the Dominicans, who, since the foundation of their order by St. Dominic early in the thirteenth century, had established them- selves at all the chief seats of learning in Europe. After joining the Dominican order at Oxford, Kilwardby devoted himself exclusively to the study of theology, in which subject he obtained a doctor's degree. In 1261, he was appointed provincial prior of his order in England.3
The elevation of a member of their order to the see of Canter- bury caused much satisfaction to the Black Friars. The pope granted to Kilwardby permission to be consecrated by any bishop whom he might choose. He accordingly selected William Button, the saintly bishop of Bath and Wells, who, assisted by twelve suffragans, performed the ceremony at Canterbury on February 26, 1273.
1 Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, 1270.
2 Tanner, Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, p. 455.
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The pope had promised Adam de Chillenden that the 3,000 marks which had been spent on his election should be refunded by the archbishop. To this arrangement Kilwardby demurred, and before paying the money instituted an enquiry into the life and morals of Adam. He then threatened to deprive the prior of his office unless the sum demanded was reduced by 1,300 marks, and to this Adam was forced to agree.3
In May, 1274, Archbishop Kilwardby, accompanied by many of his suffragans, attended the General Council convened by Pope Gregory X., at Lyons, for the purpose of uniting Christendom in a new Crusade. The famous Dominican, St. Thomas Aquinas, died while on his way to this council, and St. Bonaventure, the Francisian, who took a prominent part in the debates, died while the council was sitting. The assembled clergy agreed to grant a tenth part of their revenues for six years for the recovery of the Holy Land.
On August 19 of the same year, Kilwardby crowned King Edward I. and his queen at Westminster. The accession of this worthy prince caused great joy to the English people. For the first time since the Conquest, England was ruled by a monarch whose interests lay, not across the Channel, but in his own kingdom.
As a Dominican friar, Kilwardby's interests were chiefly theological, and he took little part in public affairs. He is recorded to have excommunicated Llewellyn of Wales for refusing to do homage to King Edward. The archbishop devoted himself to the interests of his order and to the visitation of his diocese. His earnest zeal to promote a reform of morals caused him to be well received at most churches whither he went. The canons of Osney, in Oxford- shire-, complained, however, that the sum demanded from them for procurations during his visit amounted to more than three times as much as that which had been paid to his pre- decessors.4 In 1276, he visited Oxford and condemned certain erroneous opinions in grammar, theology, and natural philo- sophy which were current in the university. With the con- sent of the authorities he decreed that masters who continued to teach these errors should be dismissed. As a friar Kilwardby
3 Godwin, Catal. of the Bishops of England, p. 119. * Register of John Peckham (Rolls Series), I. 42.
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Robert Kilwardby
supported the papal claims, but, nevertheless, succeeded in remaining on good terms with the king.
On March 12, 1278, Pope Nicholas III. took the extra- ordinary step of creating the archbishop of Canterbury cardinal-bishop of Portus and Santa Rufina. The revenue from this office was incomparably inferior to that derived from the see of Canterbury, but Kilwardby was obliged to accept it. Though the Dominicans pretended that additional honour had been paid to him by his elevation to the cardinalate, there is reason to suppose that the pope had been dissatisfied with his administration of the see of Canterbury. His accep- tance of the new office necessitated his resigning the arch- bishopric in order to reside in Rome. Before setting out he sold to the king all the crops and rents of his see for the following year, and took with him 5,000 marks in money, many valuable vestments and treasures, and all the register and judicial records belonging to the cathedral. Though his successor made repeated attempts to recover the registers he did not succeed. Consequently that of John Peckham, his successor, is the oldest of the Canterbury registers, now preserved at Lambeth.5
Kilwardby was an aged man at the time of his departure from England, and only lived a few months after reaching Italy. He died on September 11, 1279, and was buried in the Church of the Dominican monastery at Viterbo. The story that he died by poison has no evidence to support it. Many of his works are extant. Of these the most important are " De Tempore " ; " De Universali " ; " De Relatione " ; and " De Ortu Scientiarum." Matthew Paris states that the latter work, of which there are two manuscript copies in the Bodleian Library, was in his time considered a curious and useful book. No less than thirty-nine philosophical treatises are attributed to Kilwardby. He also divided the writings of St. Augustine into chapters, to each of which he added a commentary composed by himself.
s Martin's Preface to Register of John Peckham, p. XLI.
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47— JOHN PECKHAM, 1279 to ^9^-
King of England : Edward I., 1272 to 1307.
After the departure to Rome of Robert Kilwardby, the chapter of Canterbury, desiring to win the favour of King Edward, appointed to the vacant see the chancellor, Robert Burnell, who had been previously rejected by the pope. (Vide Robert Kilwardby.) But Burnell, who now held along with the chancellorship the bishopric of Bath and Wells, and was the chief adviser of the king, refused to accept the primacy, probably on the ground that it would have interfered with his duties as a statesman. Pope Nicholas III., on his own authority, then chose the Franciscan friar, John Peckham, who at that time occupied the position of lecturer in theology in the schools attached to the Vatican.
Peckham is believed to have been born in Sussex, but nothing is known of his parentage. He received his early education in the priory of Lewes, to which establishment he was after- wards a great benefactor. After studying for some years at Oxford, and at Paris, he became a tutor in the household of an Angevin nobleman. About the year 1250 he resigned his tutorship and took the Franciscan vows at Oxford. He then resumed his studies, devoting himself chiefly to theology, and took a doctor's degree at the university of Paris. There he came in contact with the Dominican St. Thomas Aquinas, and probably attended his lectures. He was present when the latter was examined by the masters of theology concerning his doctrine of the " unity of form."1 " We alone stood by him," Peckham afterwards wrote, " defending him to the best of our power, saving the truth."3
About the year 1275, Peckham was appointed ninth provin- cial minister of his order in England. This post he filled with great ability for two years, until he was summoned
1 G. Little, The Grey Friars in Oxford, p. 154.
2 Register of John Peckham (Rolls series) , p. 866.
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John Peckham
to Rome to lecture on theology. His lectures were attended by many of the cardinals, and by some of the greatest scholars in Europe. His audience are said to have risen to their feet and uncovered every time he entered the lecture hall.
The papal bull announcing his election to the see of Canter- bury was issued in January, 1279, an(i ne was consecrated by Pope Nicholas III. on March 12, six months before the death of Robert Kilwardby. On his departure for England, his official connection with the Franciscan order did not cease, for the pope appointed him protector of the privileges of the Friars Minor in England. In this capacity Peckham afterwards frequently used his authority to benefit the Fran- ciscans at the expense of the monks.3
One of his first acts after his arrival in England was to summon an ecclesiastical council at Reading, and to authorize the assembled clergy to excommunicate those who infringed in various ways the rights of the Church. At this council Peckham also issued statutes against the holding of livings in plurality. These proceedings offended King Edward, with whom the archbishop had had an interview at Amiens on his way to England, and from whom he had received a cordial welcome. The king forced the archbishop to with- draw all constitutions passed at the council of Reading, which prejudiced the royal prerogative.4 Shortly afterwards the king passed what is known as the Statute of Mortmain, forbidding the further acquisition of lands by religious bodies lest they should fall into the " dead hand " of the Church. This was a wise measure, for the nation was becom- ing impoverished through land being held by persons exempt from taxes or legal obligations. Though Edward continued to the end of his reign in full communion with the Catholic Church, he succeeded in a great measure in loosing the papal bonds in which his grandfather John had involved the kingdom. Before leaving Rome, Peckham had been forced to borrow money from the pope to defray the expenses of his journey, and of his enthronement at Canterbury. The pope lost no time in demanding the repayment of the loan, and as Arch- bishop Kilwardby had sold to the king a year's revenue of
» G. Little, The Grey Friars in Oxford, p. 155.
« Bartholomew Cotton, Hist. Anglicana (Rolls series), p. 158.
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the see, Peckham was for some time seriously embarrassed for want of money.
During the Welsh war, the archbishop went to Wales and attempted to mediate between the king and Prince Llewellyn, but his mission was unsuccessful. After the death of Llewellyn the archbishop took measures to bring the Welsh Church into closer conformity with the Church of England. He also spent much time in the visitation of his province, and in some instances the suffragans complained of the harsh manner in which the reform of various abuses was carried out by him or by his officials.5 His zeal for the Church caused him to form an exaggerated opinion of the rights of his office, and he was constantly engaged in controversies and litigations with the bishops and the monks. Dean Hook describes him as a self-important little man, pompous in his gait, and in his manner of expressing himself.
A dispute arose between the king and the archbishop con- cerning the right of the latter to visit the royal chapels. The pretensions of Peckham were resented by the king, who forbade him to visit the chapels without the royal sanction. He was accused of enmity towards the monks, who were at this time bitterly opposed to the friars. It is related of him that when provincial of his order, his humility prevented his taking advantage of the indulgence granted him to ride on a mule, and he consequently travelled long distances on foot. There is a story that once when he was praying before a crucifix, and complaining of the calumnies from which he suffered, the image spoke to him words of comfort in rhyming Latin.6 Some months before his death he sank into dotage, and the bishop of Hereford received licence to confer orders in his place. He died on December 8, 1292, and was buried in the north aisle of Canterbury Cathedral, where his tomb of Sussex marble, surmounted by a recumbent oak effigy, may be seen.
Dominus Nicholas Trivet sums up his character in these words : " He was a zealous promoter of the interests of his order, an excellent maker of songs, of pompous manners and speech, but of kind and thoroughly liberal heart."
s Johannes de Oxenedes, Chronica (Rolls series), p. 264.
6 Martin's Preface to Peckham 's Register (Rolls series), p. I^XI.
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John Peckham
Peckham was a voluminous writer in prose and verse ; nine- teen of his prose treatises and several poems are extant. Of the former the following are considered the more important : " Questiones de Vanitate Rerum Mundanarum " ; " Quod- libitum " ; " De Paupertate " ; " Questiones de Sacramento Eucharistiae" ; " De Sphaera " ; " Prospectiva." His poetry includes a semi-religious poem called " Philomela." As already related, the earliest registers of the see of Canter- bury were taken to Rome by Archbishop Kilwardby (q.v.), and were never recovered. Peckham's register, preserved at Lam- beth, is the earliest of the Canterbury registers now in England. It has been printed in the Rolls series, with a valuable intro- duction by Mr. C. T. Martin. The first portion contains Peckham's letters.
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16
48.— ROBERT WINCHELSEA, 1294 to 1313.
Kings of England : Edward I., 1272 to 1307. Edward II., 1307 to 1327.
Robert Winchelsea, who was probably the ablest prelate to occupy the see of Canterbury since the death of Stephen Langton, is said to have been born at Old Winchel- sea, in Kent. Of his parentage nothing is known. At the universities of Oxford and Paris he gained some reputation for scholarship, and was made a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral. He was also appointed rector of the university of Paris, and afterwards chancellor of Oxford. About the year 1283, having obtained the patronage of Richard de Gravesend, Bishop of London, he was made archdeacon of Essex, and prebendary of Oxgate in St. Paul's. These offices he held for ten years, during which time he became famous as a preacher of great eloquence.1 With the approval of King Edward I., Winchelsea was appointed to the see of Canterbury by the chapter of Christ Church on February 13, 1293. He immediately set out for Rome to have his election confirmed by the pope, but on his arrival found the apostolic see vacant through the death of Nicholas IV. For more than a year the cardinals were unable to agree as to the choice of a new pope, and Winchelsea, meantime, remained in Rome. His handsome figure and genial manners won for him many friends, who are said to have suggested to the cardinals that they could not do better than choose him for the papal chair.3 At length a holy hermit, named Peter Morrone was elected pope, and took the name of Celestine V. He was consecrated at Aquila, and there also on September 12, 1294, Robert Winchelsea received consecration from Gerard, Cardinal of Sabina and Aquila.
The archbishop returned to England on January 1, 1295, after an absence of nearly two years, having incurred enormous
1 Anglia Sacra, I., p. n. ■ Ibid., p.12.
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Robert Winchelsea
expense by his long sojourn in Rome. King Edward I., who was then in the marches of Wales, refused to invest Winchelsea with the temporalities of his see by proxy. The archbishop accordingly proceeded to Wales, and found Edward at Aberconway. When required to take the oath of homage he showed some hesitation, but at length declared that he took it in the same sense as his predecessors, the archbishops of Canterbury, had taken it, or ought to have taken it. The king was surprised at this proviso, but after a short pause said : " We restore to you the temporalities."3
The archbishop was enthroned at Canterbury on October 2,
1295, in the presence of Edward I., his son, Prince Edward, and the king's brother Edmund. Winchelsea practised charity to the poor on a magnificent scale, and protected the friars, at the expense of the monks. Every Sunday and Thurs- day he distributed 2,000 loaves to the poor.4 He was cheerful in the society of men, but seldom condescended to address women except in the confessional. His zeal as a churchman involved him in constant quarrels with the king, the suffragans and the monks.
King Edward's many wars forced him to demand heavy taxes from his subjects, and he determined that the clergy should contribute their share as well as the laity. The clergy appear fto have been willing to agree to this, but in
1296, Pope Boniface VIII. issued his famous bull, " Clericis laicos," in which he forbade the laity of whatsoever rank to tax the clergy. Laymen receiving such money were to be excommunicated, and clergy who submitted to such taxes were to be deposed.5
Edward I. refused to yield to the pope's threats, and at a parliament which met at Bury St. Edmunds in November, 1296, it was decreed that those who refused to contribute to the support of the temporal power should no longer enjoy its protection. This placed the clergy in a state of outlawry. Their possessions were seized, and they were subjected to violence of all kinds, against which the law refused to protect them.
3 William Somner, The Antiquities of Canterbury, p. 57.
* Ibid., p. 71.
s Henderson's Hist. Documents, pp. 432 to 434.
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Archbishop Winchelsea was determined to obey the pope's orders at all costs, and commanded the clergy to follow his example. At length, however, he was urged by the persecuted prelates to summon a synod, at which he declared that he left it to their conscience whether or not they should agree to the royal demands. For himself his conscience would not permit him to offer money for the king's protection, or on any other pretext. The majority of the clergy then agreed to give one-fifth of their revenues to the king.
The whole of the archbishop's property was seized by the king's orders, and he retired with a single chaplain to a country parsonage, where he lived for some months on the alms of the parishioners. His property remained in Edward's hands for over five months, and all who attempted to shelter him were threatened with the king's vengeance.6
In the summer of 1297, Edward I. set out with his army for Flanders. Before his departure a reconciliation took place between him and Winchelsea, whose lands were restored to him. The latter promised to appeal to the pope for leave to grant the king what was necessary for his wars. The primate was present at the affecting meeting outside Westminster Hall on July 14, when the king bade farewell to his people, and recommended his son to their care. Winchelsea and many others wept on hearing the king's speech.
In 1299, the Scottish Regency appealed to Pope Boniface VIII. to protect them against the claims of Edward I. to exer- cise feudal superiority over the country. Boniface declared that Scotland was a fief of the Roman see, and being conse- quently under his protection, the English king had no claim to suzerainty. Archbishop Winchelsea was entrusted with a papal letter forbidding Edward to further molest the Scots. The king was then in Scotland, and thither the archbishop proceeded in order to deliver the letter. An interesting account has been preserved of his hazardous journey north. The king received the pope's letter courteously, and soon afterwards withdrew from Scotland for the time being. The nobles, were, however, highly incensed by the pope's claim, and a reply was sent to him in their name, declaring that
6 Somner, Antiq. of Cant., p. 71.
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Robert Winchelsea
Scotland had never been a fief of the Roman see, and that from early times the Scottish kings had done homage for the kingdom to the kings of England.7 After the fall of Pope Boniface VIII. , the position of Archbishop Winchelsea became less secure. The Roman Church was now divided by the great schism, and for the next seventy years — a period known in the history of the papacy as that of the Babylonish Captivity — the papal court resided at Avignon in France. The French pope, Clement V., was desirous of keeping on good terms with King Edward, and even supported him against the archbishop.
The Earls of Hereford and Norfolk had headed a revolt of the people against Edward's oppressive taxation, and, during the king's absence abroad, Archbishop Winchelsea seems to have been suspected of plotting with these noblemen against the royal authority. His guilt does not appear to have been proved, however, and considerable obscurity exists as to the real cause of his disgrace.
About the close of the year 1305, Pope Clement V. was induced by King Edward to suspend the archbishop from all his ecclesiastical and temporal functions, and to summon him to appear at Avignon within two months. On receiving the papal mandate, Winchelsea hastened to the king's presence, and implored his mercy with tears. So abject was his humility at this interview that it was afterwards regarded as a proof of his guilt. Edward heaped reproaches on him, accusing him of treachery and ingratitude. He also assured him that never with the royal consent would he be permitted to return to England.8
The archbishop remained abroad until after the death of King Edward I., which occurred on July 7, 1307. One of the first acts of Edward II. was to recall him to England.9 The anxieties which he had endured had affected his health, and he was unable to return to England in time for the coronation of Edward II., who was crowned by the bishop of Winchester.
Winchelsea exercised considerable influence over the weak-minded and vicious King Edward II., whose excesses he occasionally succeeded in restraining. He also supported
1 cf. Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, III., 372. » Ibid. ' cf. Cal. of Papal Letters, Vol. II., p. 33.
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the barons against the royal favourite, Piers Gaveston, who was executed in 1312.
During the last years of his life, the archbishop took part in the suppression of the order of Knights Templars, which had been decreed by Pope Clement V. at the council of Vienna in 1311. This religious and military order had been founded in 1118, for the protection of pilgrims to the Holy Land. Many writers attribute the charges of immorality and sacrilege brought against the Templars to the avarice of Philip of France, who desired to seize their wealth. Philip had caused the Templars in France to be seized and imprisoned and under torture many had confessed to the horrible charges brought against them. A like fate overtook them in England.
During the greater part of his episcopate Winchelsea was involved in a quarrel with the monks of St. Augustine's, whom the pope supported against him. In 1300, Boniface VIII. issued an edict exempting the monastery from all episcopal jurisdiction.
Archbishop Winchelsea died at Otford on May 11, 1313, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral. Miracles are said to have been wrought at his tomb, and an ineffectual attempt was made to procure his canonization.
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49 —WALTER REYNOLDS, 1313 to 1327.
Kings of England : Edward II., 1307 to 1327. Edward III., 1327 to 1377.
Some months before the death of Archbishop Winchelsea, Pope Clement V., probably at the desire of Edward II., had issued a bull reserving to himself the right to appoint a new archbishop of Canterbury. The chapter of Christ Church suspecting, not without reason, that the king intended the archiepiscopal see for one of his unworthy favourites, hastened, on the death of Winchelsea, to appoint a primate of their own choice in the person of Thomas Cobham, Arch- deacon of Lewes, a prelate of illustrious birth and attain- ments who had previously been chancellor of Cambridge.1
The king lost no time, however, in persuading the pope to annul the election of Cobham, and to appoint his old tutor Walter Reynolds, Bishop of Worcester.
Walter Reynolds was the son of a Windsor baker, and is said to have received an imperfect education. The last statement is, however, open to doubt, since he was appointed by Edward I. as tutor to his son. The rectories of Wimbledon in Surrey and Sawbridge in Hertfordshire were granted to him in the life-time of Edward I.
The skill of Reynolds as an amateur actor is said to have first won the favour of the dissolute prince whose affections were more frequently bestowed on buffoons and actors than on persons of his own rank.2 He appointed Reynolds his treasurer, and keeper of his wardrobe, an office which could have been no sinecure, for the rector was expected to find means of replenishing the purse of the profligate prince, after his angry father had cut off supplies.
After the accession of the prince as Edward II., abundant
1 Anglia Sacra, I., 18.
2 cf. Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, III., 455.
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honours were lavished on Reynolds. He obtained a prebend in St. Paul's, the office of royal treasurer, and in October 13, 1308, was consecrated bishop of Worcester. Two years later the great seal was committed to his keeping. The election of Reynolds to the see of Canterbury was regarded with disfavour by all classes in England. It is probable that the clergy and barons would have openly rebelled against the king's choice, had it not immediately followed a reconcilia- tion between them and Edward, who required their help against the Scots.
For three months after his elevation to the primacy, Reynolds retained the office of chancellor, but resigned it in order to accompany Edward II. to Scotland.3 The king's defeat at Bannockburn was followed by another baronial revolt, and on more than one occasion Reynolds was employed as an intermediary in the attempts to effect a pacification between the king and the barons. Edward's attachment to a young noble named Hugh le Despenser, involved him in fresh trouble and disgrace. On this man and his aged father the king bestowed great estates and enormous wealth. The barons insisted that these favourites should be banished, but they were afterwards recalled. Archbishop Reynolds, as in duty bound, warmly supported the king against the barons. He convened an ecclesiastical synod at St. Paul's, and declared the sentence against the Despensers to be illegal.4 He also persuaded the clergy to grant to the king such subsidies as the necessity of the state demanded.
In his ecclesiastical policy, Archbishop Reynolds seems to have been actuated by a genuine desire for reform. He obtained from Pope Clement V. a series of eight bulls, granting him authority to exercise special privileges while engaged in the visitation of his provinces. These privileges were afterwards confirmed to him by John XXII., the successor of Clement. One of these bulls gave him authority to limit pluralities. Another prohibited the suffragans of Canterbury from holding visitations for three years in order that the metropolitan might conduct his visitations without impediment. A third privileged the archbishop to give an
3 Ibid.
* Chronicle of the Reigns of Ed. I. and Ed. II. (Rolls Series), I., 300.
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Walter Reynolds
indulgence for all crimes committed within a hundred days past to any persons who should show themselves penitent and confess to him in his visitation.5
The old controversy concerning the supremacy of Canter- bury over York was renewed at this time. William Melton, Archbishop of York, had been chosen royal treasurer by Edward II., an appointment which seems to have aroused the jealousy of Reynolds. In 1317 the archbishop of Canterbury placed London under an interdict because Archbishop Melton had been permitted to pass through the city unchallenged with his cross erect.6
The relations of Reynolds with King Edward had gradually become less friendly, and in 1324, a quarrel took place between them concerning the trial of Adam of Orlton, Bishop of Hereford. Adam had been accused of high treason and deposed from his see. Reynolds boldly defended Orlton against the king, and at the trial appeared to support him accompanied by the whole hierarchy of England and Wales. The archbishop afterwards succeeded in bringing about a reconciliation between Orlton and the king.
When the quarrel arose between Queen Isabella and the king, the archbishop seems, at first, to have hesitated which side to take. The anxiety which he endured for some time is said to have brought on a severe illness. After the deposition of the king, he fled to the country and lived for several weeks in retirement near Maidstone. On January 8, 1327, after making his submission to the queen, he preached at Westminster Hall, from the text " Vox populi, vox Dei," a sermon in which he justified the revolution.7 He afterwards crowned young Edward III. at Westminster on February 1.
The deposed king was murdered at Berkeley Castle, on September 21, 1327, and his old tutor survived him only a few weeks. The archbishop died at his manor of Mortlake on November 16, 1327, and was honourably buried in Canterbury Cathedral by John Stratford, Bishop of Winchester. It is said that none mourned him save the monks of Christ Church, whom he had befriended, and whose prior,
s Wilkins' Concilia, II., pp. 431 to 436.
6 Ibid, 281.
1 Chronicon de Lanercost, p. 258.
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Henry of Eastry, was his chief friend and adviser in his later years. On the monastery of Christ Church he bestowed many privileges, and gave the manor of Caldecot which belonged to his archbishopric, to the monks " pro solaciis eorundem."8
8 Anglia Sacra, I., p. 18.
226
50. SIMON MEOPHAM (OR MEPEHAM)
1328 to 1333.
King of England : Edward III., 1327 to 1377.
Archbishop Simon Mepeham, concerning whose early life little is known, derived his name from the village of Meopham in Kent. The Register of Archbishop John Peckham (q. v.), shows that towards the close of the thirteenth century at least five Meophams, brothers or relatives, were admitted to holy orders at different times. Though Simon is stated to have been poor in worldly goods, his family evidently possessed estates at Meopham. A document has been pre- served in which Simon, in conjunction with his brother-in-law Edward de la Dene, grants land in mortmain to the parish church of Meopham for the repose of the souls of his sister Joan and other relatives.1
After a course of study at Oxford, where he is said to have been a student of Merton College, Simon took the degree of doctor of theology. In the year 1297 he was ordained to the rectory of Tunstall in the diocese of Norwich, and prebends at Llandaff and Chichester were afterwards conferred on him. On the death of Archbishop Reynolds, the party of Queen Isabella and Lord Mortimer attempted to secure the primacy for a prelate attached to their own interests, but the chapter of Canterbury, supported by the constitutionalists, hastened to make a canonical election, their choice falling on the canon of Chichester.3
On January 6, 1328, King Edward III. gave his consent to the election of Simon, and shortly afterwards granted him a safe conduct for one year in order that he3 might proceed to the papal court at Avignon. John XXII. seems to have hesitated to confirm Mepeham's election, and we may infer that the pope was at this time uncertain of the strength of
* Col. of Pat. Rolls (1327-1330), p. 62.
1 Anglia Sacra, I. 48. 3 Ibid., p. 199.
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Queen Isabella's party. Letter after letter was written by the king and the nobles declaring that the see of Canterbury was suffering from the vacancy and urging the pope to consecrate Mepeham.4 At length on May 25, 1328, Simon was conse- crated in the church of the Dominicans at Avignon, by Peter, Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina. A fortnight later the pallium was bestowed on him. He did not return to England until Sept. 5, and on the 19th did homage to Edward III., at Lynn, in Norfolk, for the temporalities of his see.5
During Simon's absence abroad his brothers Edmund and Thomas had been occupied in engaging servants for his household, and so scrupulous did they show themselves in making choice only of pious persons that it was declared they were seeking angels rather than men {" angelos et non homines quaesierunt ad hoc opus").6 Soon after his return to England, Simon was summoned to London to the deathbed of his brother Edmund. Before leaving the city he preached in St. Paul's.
In the following January (1329), Simon held an ecclesias- tical council at St. Paul's, London, when a number of constitu- tions were passed. The strict observance of Good Friday as a day of rest was decreed, and a new festival, that of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, was instituted. In order that poor men might have freedom to bequeath their estates, it was decreed that no fees should be demanded for the execution of wills, when the value of the property amounted to less than one hundred shillings. At the same council, those who had taken part in the murder of Bishop Stapleton of Exeter, during the disturbances which followed the deposition of Edward II., were excommunicated.7
Simon Mepeham had no ability as a politician and took little part in secular affairs. But so great was the energy which he showed in the visitation of his province that he involved himself in constant quarrels with his suffragans. He began with the see of Rochester, of which the bishop, Haymo Heath, was accused of certain misdeeds, such as failing to preach in
4 Wilkins' Concilia, II., pp. 539 to 544.
s Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. (Rolls series), I. p. 341.
• Anglia Sacra, I. 368. » Wilkins' Concilia, II. pp. 552 to 554-
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Simon Meopham
his own diocese, leaving children unconfirmed, and of granting letters of dispensation for non-residence.8 It is pleasant to record that though Bishop Heath was severely censured, he afterwards became the firm friend of Mepeham and con- tinued so until his death.
At Exeter, the archbishop arrived with a splendid retinue, and escorted by eighty armed men, but found the cathedral doors locked and barred. The bishop, John Grandison, with whom Mepeham had previously had a dispute, determined to resist his visitation by force of arms. The archbishop was unable to obtain entrance to the cathedral, but remained for some days in the neighbourhood. As it was feared that a battle would take place between the armed followers of the prelates, the king sent messengers to Mepeham ordering him to desist from proceeding with his visitation, and the primate was forced to withdraw from the neighbourhood.9
A dispute soon afterwards arose between Mepeham and the monks of St. Augustine's concerning the right of jurisdiction over certain churches and chapels. The monks appealed to the pope, and Icherius of Concoreto, Canon of Salisbury, was appointed to decide the case. He cited Mepeham to appear before him, but the archbishop refused to obey the summons, and shortly afterwards retired to his manor of Slindon in Sussex.
On a certain day when the primate was confined to bed through illness, a deputation from the monks, headed by their proctor, Natendon, and the public notary, arrived at Slindon, for the purpose of serving a writ on him. His servants treated the deputation with scanty respect, and appear to have insulted the notary whose arm was broken in the scuffle. They also drenched the proctor with cold water.10
The indignant monks appealed to Pope John XXII. to redress this outrage, for which the archbishop was held re- sponsible. The suffragans of Canterbury generously united in defence of their primate. Letters from them are extant addressed to the pope, in which they declare that the Lord Simon had been known to some of them for ten and to others for twenty and even thirty years ; that he was a man of honest
8 Ibid., p. 556. 9 Anglia Sacra, I. p. 19.
10 Thorn's Chronica (Twysden's edition) p. 2040.
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conversation, compliant, gentle, humble and benevolent, illustrious for the innocency of his life, and of good reputation throughout the realm of England.11
Though the archbishop declared that he had had no know- ledge of the insults offered to the deputation, judgment was declared against him by the papal commissioners, and he was ordered to pay a heavy fine within sixty days on pain of excommunication. As he refused to submit, the sentence was duly pronounced against him. Sad at heart, and in failing health, he retired to his manor of Mayfield, in Sussex. He continued for some time, however, to exercise his archi- episcopal functions, and declared to his friend, Bishop Haymo Heath, that he was not troubled by the excommunication. He died on October 12, 1333, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral in the chapel of St. Peter.
Ibid., p. 2045.
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5i— JOHN DE STRATFORD, 1333 to 1348. King of England : Edward III., 1327 to 1377.
John de Stratford, who succeeded Archbishop Mepeham in the see of Canterbury, was born at Stratf ord-on-Avon , in Warwickshire, where he and his brother Robert owned pro- perty. His parents, Robert and Isabel, were apparently in easy circumstances, for they provided their son with an excellent education. Ralph Hatton de Stratford, Bishop of London, is believed to have been his nephew.
John took his degree as Doctor of Laws at Merton College, Oxford. As early as the year 1317, he appears to have occu- pied some official position, for twice in that year, and once in the next, he was summoned among certain legal persons to advise with the council on important matters which con- cerned the State. He was also summoned to parliament in the four following years, and, from the place in which his name occurs, it would seem that he was either an officer in the Exchequer or a clerk in the Chancery. By Archbishop Walter Reynolds he was appointed chief judge of the ecclesiastical Court of Arches, so called because it met in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow. Previous to this, he had apparently taken orders, for he held prebends in the cathedrals of Lincoln and York, and in 1319, was appointed archdeacon of Lincoln.1
From 1321 to 1323, he was engaged as an ambassador to the papal court of Avignon on business connected with Scotland. On April 12, 1323, his colleague, Reginald de Asser, Bishop of Winchester, died suddenly at Avignon, and it fell to the pope to elect a successor to the vacant see. King Edward II. wrote to John, urging him to use his influence with the pope for the election of Robert de Baldeck, a royal favourite. But the pope's choice fell on John himself, who was consecrated to
1 Ed. Foss, The Judges of England, Vol. III., p. 515.
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the see of Winchester by the cardinal of Albano on June 26, 1323.
On his return to England, Edward II., in great wrath at his acceptance of the bishopric, dismissed him from all his offices. For a whole year, the king refused to invest him with the temporalities of his see. At length Pope John XXII. inter- ceded on his behalf, and he was permitted to purchase the royal favour by a bond of 10,000 pounds.2 No part of this sum was, however, demanded from him during the reign of Edward II.
After the murder of the king, Stratford joined the party of Henry of Lancaster, and so incurred the enmity of Queen Isabella and Lord Mortimer. The latter demanded that he should now pay 1,000 pounds of the sum promised in the previous reign, and on his inability to pay more being proved, it was counselled that he should be put to death. Stratford only saved himself by going into hiding.3
Immediately after the execution of Mortimer, Stratford was recalled, and appointed chancellor by Edward III. He now became the young king's most trusted adviser. In April, 1331, he was chosen to accompany the king and Lord Montacute to France. They travelled in the disguise of merchants, for the professed purpose of visiting certain famous shrines. During his sojourn in France, Edward had a private interview with the French king.4
On the death of Simon Mepeham, Stratford was translated, at the king's desire, to the primacy on November 3, 1333. Early in the following year, he went abroad on the king's business, and, while in Ponthieu, received the pallium from the pope, at the hands of Bishop Haymo Heath of Rochester. A few months later, he resigned the great seal, but in June, 1335, it was restored to him, and retained by him for two years, until it was bestowed on his brother, Robert de Stratford, Bishop of Chichester. During that time he can have had little leisure for his ecclesiastical duties, for he was constantly employed on embassies to France, and other powers, and in presiding over the council during the king's absence abroad.
2 Blaneford's Chronicle (Rolls series), pp. 147 to 148.
s Anglia Sacra, I., 20.
4 W. Longman's Life and Times of Ed. III., II., 47.
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He is said to have crossed the Channel thirty-two times in the public service.5
In April, 1340, he was appointed chancellor for the third time, but in the following June resigned the seal on account of his increasing infirmities, and it was again entrusted to his brother, Bishop Robert. The power wielded by the arch- bishop as chief adviser to the king had roused the jealousy of a party among the nobles, who determined to effect his down- fall. Meantime, the king's French wars had emptied the exchequer, and Stratford was unable to meet the increased demands for money. The archbishop had, from the first, disapproved of the French war, and his enemies accused him of deliberately restricting the supplies. After the defeat at Tournay, the king's allies became pressing in their demands for money.
On November 30, 1340, Edward III. suddenly returned to England. His first act was to dismiss the archbishop's brother, Robert, from the chancellorship. He then ordered certain of the judges to be imprisoned and sent for the archbishop. Stratford, instead of obeying the summons, sought refuge with the monks of Canterbury, and declared that he would only submit to the judgment of his peers. Edward issued a document called the Libellus Famosus, in which he accused the archbishop of having defrauded him of the promised funds, of having thus caused the failure of his expe- dition, and of being responsible for all the disasters of the last eight years.
When the parliament met at Westminster, in April, Stratford presented himself with the other lords, but was refused admittance to the Painted Chamber, where the bishops were sitting. He forced his way in, however, and was at length permitted to take his seat. The lords supported his appeal to their jurisdiction, and the case was decided in his favour. A reconciliation then took place between him and the king, and at the next parliament, which met in April, 1343, the proceedings against him were withdrawn as being contrary to reason and truth.6
During the last years of his life, the archbishop was occupied chiefly with ecclesiastical affairs, and in the visitation of his
5 The Judges of England, III., 516. 6 Ibid.
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diocese. He was appointed head of the council left as advisers to the king's son Lionel, to whom the custody of the kingdom was entrusted during Edward's absence at the campaign of Crecy. Several interesting letters, addressed to him by Edward III. during this campaign, have been preserved.7
Archbishop Stratford died at Mayfield in Sussex on August 23, 1348, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral. His career proves him to have been a statesman of unusual ability. Though he was a better lawyer than an ecclesiastic, his genial character, charity to the poor, and liberality to the Church are acknowledged by all his biographers. He built and generously endowed a college for priests at his native town of Stratford-on-Avon. Many of his letters and some of his sermons have been preserved.
» Merimuth and Avebury, Chronicle (Rolls series), pp. 200, 201. 391 to 395-
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52.— THOMAS BRADWARDINE, 1349.
King of England : Edward III., 1327 to 1377.
Shortly after the death of Archbishop Stratford, the monks of Christ Church, thinking to anticipate the wishes of King Edward III., and without waiting for the conge d' elite, elected to the see of Canterbury Thomas Bradwardine, one of the greatest scholars of his age. The king, offended by the monks' presumption, and determined to show his authority, annulled the election of Bradwardine, whom he had intended to nominate, and chose in his stead, John of Ufford, Dean of Lincoln. This prelate was a distinguished statesman, who had rendered great service to the king, but at the time of his election to the see of Canterbury, he was aged and paralytic. Though he did homage to the king for the temporalities of his see in November, 1348, his consecration was unduly delayed, probably on account of the plague which then raged.
In the midst of the rejoicing which followed Edward's victories in France, a terrible pestilence known as the Black Death swept over Europe. Travelling westward from China, it reached the sea-port towns of Dorsetshire in 1348. This plague continued to rage in England for nearly two years, during which time about a third of the whole population are believed to have perished. Many monasteries were entirely depopulated. The aged Primate-elect, John of Ufford, was destined to be one of the many victims. He died of the pestilence at Tottenham, on May 20, 1349, without having received consecration.
All parties were now unanimous in choosing Bradwardine for the vacant see. Thomas, who is known in ecclesiastical history as the " Doctor Profundus," enjoyed at this time a European reputation for learning. He was born at Chichester about the year 1290, and is believed to have derived his surname from the village of Bradwardine, in Herefordshire, to which his family may have originally belonged. As a
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scholar of Merton College, Oxford, he won much distinction for his skill in mathematics, a science in which he is said to have had no equal. During his residence at the university he com- posed a number of mathematical treatises, which have been preserved.1
Through the patronage of Richard Bury, Bishop of Durham, who employed him, along with other Merton men, in the collec- tion and arrangement of his famous library, he was made chancellor of St. Paul's, to which office a prebend was attached. He was also made a non-residential canon of Lincoln Cathedral. On the recommendation of Archbishop Stratford and the Bishop of Durham, he was appointed one of the royal chap- lains. In this capacity he acted as confessor to Edward III. during the famous campaign of Crecy. So profound was the impression produced on the army by his piety that the soldiers declared their victories to be due as much to the chaplain's prayers as to King Edward's generalship.2
At the time of his election to the see of Canterbury, Brad- wardine was abroad. He proceeded to Avignon for his consecration, which took place on July 19, 1349. A few days previous to his arrival, the pope, who was at this time completely in the power of Edward III., is said to have declared that if the king nominated a jackass to the see of Canterbury he would be forced to consecrate him. In consequence of this speech, Hugo, Cardinal of Tudela, indulged in a little horseplay, during the festivities which followed the consecra- tion of Bradwardine. Dressed as a clown, he entered the hall riding on a jackass and humbly petitioned that he might be consecrated archbishop of Canterbury. Considering Bradwardine's high reputation for piety and scholarship* the joke was regarded as being in extremely bad taste, and was deeply resented by the other cardinals.3
On learning the extent to which the Black Death was ravaging the country, Bradwardine, like a true soldier, hastened to England. On August 19 he landed at Dover, and on the following day received the temporalities of his see from the king at Eltham. He then proceeded to London where he was received as a guest at a house at Lambeth, known as
' Henry Savile's Preface to De Causa Dei, (London, 161 8). * Anglia Sacra, I., 42. 3 Ibid., p. 43.
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La Place, belonging to the bishop of Rochester. On the morning after his arrival he was taken ill, and symptoms of plague soon developed. He died on August 26, 1349, after four days' illness.4 His body was conveyed to Canterbury and buried privately in the cathedral. His most famous work is a treatise in three books, entitled " De Causa Dei contra Pelagium et de Virtute causarum ad suas Mertonenses.' ' This work was originally delivered in the form of lectures to the students of Merton College. It is a folio of 876 pages, and was published in London in 1618, by Henry Savile, to whose preface we owe most of the information obtainable concerning the life of Bradwardine.
His other works are : — Astronomical Tables descriptive of the conjunctions and oppositions of the heavenly bodies ; " Tractatus de Proportionibus " ; " De Quadratura Circuli " ; " De Arithmetica Speculativa " ; " Ars Memorativa."
The following reference to Bradwardine in Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale," in a passage in which the author discusses the question of man's free will, shows that the archbishop's works had attained considerable reputation before the close of the fourteenth century.
"But I ne cannot boult it to the bren, As can the holy doctor, St. Austin. Or Boece, or the Bishop Bradwardyn."
« Henry Savile's Preface.
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53— SIMON ISLIP, 1349 t0 I366-
King of England : Edward III., 1327 to 1377.
In September, 1349, the chapter of Canterbury, at the request of King Edward III., elected to the vacant see Simon Islip, one of the royal chaplains and keeper of the privy seal. Pope Clement VI., desiring to show his authority, but not daring to set aside the appointment of the royal nominee, solemnly declared that he annulled the election made by the chapter, but that on his own authority he elected Simon Islip to the primacy.1
Simon is believed to have derived his surname from the village of Islip, on the Cherwell, in Oxfordshire. Nothing is known of his parentage, but mention occurs of several of his namesakes or kinsmen in ecclesiastical and other documents of this period. After graduating in canon and civil law at Merton College, Oxford, he obtained the patronage of Archbishop Stratford (q. v.) and of Henry Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln. Among the preferments held by him at different times were the archdeaconries of Canterbury and Stow, the rectories of Easton, near Stamford, and Horncastle, and prebends in the cathedrals of Lincoln, Lichfield and St. Paul's. He was also made dean of the Court of the Arches. About the year 1343, he attached himself to the royal service, and became one of the most trusted counsellers of Edward III. During the king's absence at the campaign of Crecy he was appointed one of the council left as advisers to the king's son Lionel, to whom the custody of the kingdom was entrusted (vide John de Stratford).
Simon was consecrated in St. Paul's, London, on December 20, 1349, by Ralph, Bishop of London, and received the pallium at Esher, on March 25, 1350, from the hands of the bishop of Winchester. As the plague still raged, the public entertainments customary at the enthronement of an arch-
1 Anglia Sacra, I., p. 43.
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bishop did not take place. Many people unjustly attributed this to the archbishop's well-known character for parsimony.
During Islip's primacy, the long-continued dispute concern- ing the claims of the archbishop of York was at length settled. It was agreed that the northern primate should be permitted to have his cross carried erect within the province of Canterbury on condition that he and his successors each paid to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury, within two months of the confirmation of their election, a golden image of an archbishop holding a cross, or a jewel of the value of forty pounds.2 This payment implied, without actually stating, the supremacy of Canterbury. The agreement was confirmed by King Edward III. and by Pope Clement VI.
Archbishop Islip showed great energy in promoting ecclesi- astical reform, and in the visitation of his province. In 1351, 1359, and 1362, he published three different series of ecclesiastical constitutions. In the first of these he decreed that clergy accused of misconduct should be treated with greater severity than had formerly been the case. He also insisted on the stricter keeping of Sunday, by prohibiting markets on that day, but wisely directed that business should not be suspended on the numerous saints' days which were observed at that period.3
His zeal brought him into conflict with his suffragans on several occasions, and Bishop Gynwell, of Lincoln, obtained a bull from Pope Clement VI., absolving him from obedience to the see of Canterbury. The archbishop appealed against this decree, and the pope, after investigating the case, with- drew the special privileges granted to the see of Lincoln.
Disputes also arose between Archbishop Islip and the Black Prince, whose arbitrary disposition rendered him unpopular among the clergy. Robert de Stretton, a blind and paralytic old man, had been nominated by the prince to the see of Coventry and Lichfield, but the archbishop refused to conse- crate him. The prince then appealed to the pope, who ordered Robert to be instituted in spite of the archbishop's opposition.4
2 Ibid., pp. 43 to 44.
« Wilkins' Concilia, III., p. 29.
* Anglia Sacra, I., 44.
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In 1350, Islip was present at the institution of the famous Order of the Garter by Edward III. The most important ecclesiastical enactments during this primacy were the passing of the two great statutes of " Provisors " and " Praemunire." By the first of these, which was passed by the parliament in 135 1, it was decreed that the pope should no longer have the right to present to English benefices. Persons accepting such " provision " of the pope were to be imprisoned. In 1353, the Statute of Praemunire was passed, forbidding appeals to the papal courts. Those who drew out of the realm any plea that pertained to the king's courts, were to appear before the royal justices to answer to the king for the contempt done to his jurisdiction. If they failed to do this, their estates were to be forfeited.
The Black Death had swept away more than half the clergy in England, and to supply their places many illiterate persons were admitted to holy orders. To remedy this state of matters, Archbishop Islip established a college at Oxford for the education of poor students who were natives of Canterbury. Permission was obtained from the king to endow it with the revenues of certain manors belonging to the arch- bishopric. Accommodation was provided for eleven fellows in addition to the warden and chaplain. As first warden, Islip appointed Dr. John Woodhall, but he appears to have been unfit for the post,5 and was driven out by the secular students who predominated. In his place a certain John Wyclif was appointed, who has been identified by some writers with the famous reformer, but the evidence for this is not con- clusive. After the death of Islip, his college was reserved exclusively for the education of monks from Christ Church, Canterbury. In the reign of Henry VIII., it was incorporated with Christ Church College, Oxford.
In January, 1363, Archbishop Islip was riding from Otford to Mayfield, when he fell from his horse, in a miry place, and got wet through. On reaching his destination, he fell asleep in his wet clothes. Awaking some hours later, he took his place at table, but could articulate only with difficulty, and it was soon discovered that he was suffering from a shock of
s Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, Vol. IV., p. 122.
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paralysis.6 He recovered the partial use of his speech, and, during the next two years, resumed his archiepiscopal functions. He died at Mayfield on April 26, 1366, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral. True to his principle of economy, he had left directions that his funeral should be conducted with as little expense as possible, and his wishes in this respect were carried out.
By his will, he bequeathed to the convent of Christ Church many rich vestments, valuable pieces of plate and 1,000 ewes, the number of which was never to be diminished, but the offspring and wool were to become the property of the prior and convent. In return for this bequest he required that a certain prayer should ever be offered for the repose of his soul, after the daily mass.7 He also conferred a permanent endowment on the Canterbury hospitals, and granted certain parsonages to the monks of Dover and Bilsington.
6 Anglia Sacra, I., 45.
7 Hist. MSS. Cotnm., 5th report, p. 436.
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54— SIMON LANGHAM, 1366 to 1368.
King of England: Edward III., 1327 to 1377.
On the death of Archbishop Islip, William of Edendon, Bishop of Winchester, was nominated by Edward III. to the vacant see, but he declined to accept it. The king then chose Simon Langham, Bishop of Ely, and Chancellor of England, one of the most distinguished statesmen of his time.
Concerning Langham's family nothing is known. He is believed to have been born at the village of Langham, in Rutlandshire, whence he derived his surname. About the year 1335, he became a monk at St. Peter's, Westminster, to which monastery he remained a generous friend to the end of his life.
In April, 1349, he was made prior, and a month later was chosen abbot in succession to Simon de Burcheston, who had died of the plague. This office he held with much credit for thirteen years, and succeeded in paying off all the debts of the monastery out of his own savings.1 His skilful management of the monastic revenues brought him to the notice of King Edward III., who appointed him treasurer of the kingdom.
In 1362, he was nominated to the bishoprics of London and Ely, and having rejected the former, was consecrated to the latter on March 20. In the following year, he was made chancellor of England.
The Pope, having confirmed his translation to the see of Canterbury, he received the pallium on November 4, 1366, at St. Stephen's, Westminster, from the hands of the bishop of Bath. Shortly afterwards he resigned the great seal in order to devote himself exclusively to his ecclesiastical duties. He undertook a visitation of his province, and exerted himself to abolish pluralities. He also succeeded in settling a dispute between the London clergy and their parishioners
1 Widm ore's Hist, of Westminster Abbey, p. 91.
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by fixing the rate of the tithe at a halfpenny in the pound.3 At the desire of the monks, he dismissed John Wyclif from the wardenship of the college founded by his predecessor at Oxford, and reinstated John Woodhall (vide Simon Islip). Two years after his translation to the see of Canterbury Archbishop Langham was residing at his favourite manor of Otford, when he received a letter from Pope Urban V. informing him that he was appointed cardinal-presbyter of St. Sixtus. King Edward III., who was greatly offended on hearing of Langham's elevation to the cardinalate, at once declared the see of Canterbury vacant, and took possession of the tem- poralities.3
Langham was forced to borrow money in order to pay for his journey to Avignon. He left England in February, 1369, and was received with much honour by the pope. Friendly relations were soon re-established between Langham and King Edward III., who realized the advantage of having so distinguished a friend at the papal court. Langham was permitted to retain certain preferments which he held in England, including the deanery of Lincoln, the archdeaconry and treasurership of Wells, and a prebend at York, the revenues of which amounted to 1,000 pounds yearly.
After the death of Urban V., Langham became the trusted friend and counsellor of Pope Gregory XL, who made him cardinal-bishop of Praeneste.4 In 1371, he was appointed along with the French Cardinal De Beauvais to mediate a peace between the kings of France and England. The embassy proved a failure, and Langham is said to have offended the pope by removing his cap in the presence of the king of England and, as a cardinal of the Roman Church, showing undue deference to his old master. Before leaving England Langham visited Canterbury and, with his customary generosity, presented a gold piece to each of the monks. So popular did he make himself, that on the death of Archbishop Whittlesey (q. v.) the chapter of Canterbury re-nominated him to the archbishopric,5 but Edward III. in great indignation nullified the election.
2 Ibid., p. 94. J Anglia Sacra, I., 47.
l Ed. Foss, The Judges of England, VoL III., p. 554.
s Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesice Anglicance, I., 19.
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When in the year 1375, arrangements were in progress for the removal of the papal court from Avignon to Rome, Langham, who earnestly desired to end his days in his old monastery at Westminster, begged leave from King Edward to return to England. This was granted to him, and he was preparing to set out for his native country when he died suddenly at Avignon from a stroke of paralysis on July 22, 1376. He was buried in the Carthusian monastery at Avignon, but three years later his remains were removed to Westminster Cathedral, and buried in St. Benet's chapel. His benefactions to Westminster are said to have amounted altogether to 10,000 pounds, a sum equivalent to twenty times as much at the present day.
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55— WILLIAM WHITTLESEY, 1368 to 1374.
King of England : Edward III., 1327 to 1377.
On the resignation of Simon Langham (q. v.) the government decided to fill his place by a discreet man of moderate capacity, who would abstain from taking part in politics. Such was William Whittlesey, Bishop of Worcester, who was accordingly nominated by the king, and elected by the chapter of Canterbury. His election was confirmed by a papal bull dated October 11, 1368.
Of Whittlesey's early life little is known. He is believed to have been born at the village of Whittlesea, in Cambridge- shire, whence he derived his surname. He owed his education and ecclesiastical preferments entirely to his uncle, Archbishop Simon Islip (q. v.). According to some accounts he studied at both Oxford and Cambridge, and, in 1349, was made " custos " of Peterhouse at the latter university. Among the preferments bestowed on him were the archdeaconry of Huntingdon, prebends at Lichfield, Chichester, Lincoln and Hastings, and the rectories of Croydon, and Cliff e near Rochester.1
About the year 1315, he was sent by the king on a mission to the papal court at Avignon, and shortly after his return was made dean of the Court of Arches by his uncle. Arch- bishop Islip, who was now in failing health, appointed Whittlesey his vicar-general, and in 1360, managed to secure his election to the see of Rochester. As the archbishop was too ill to proceed to Canterbury, he consecrated his nephew in the private chapel of his manor at Otford. Two years later, Whittlesey was translated through his uncle's influence to the see of Worcester.
Archbishop Whittlesey's enthronement at Canterbury on June 17, 1369, took place privately, owing to a renewed out- break of the plague. At the time of his elevation to the
* Anglia Sacra, I., 535.
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primacy he was well advanced in years, and soon became a confirmed invalid. The bishops of London, Worcester, and St. David's, received his authority to act for him by proxy. He lived chiefly at Otford, which had been the favourite residence of his uncle.
Owing to the prolonged wars of King Edward III., the nation was deeply in debt. The once valiant monarch had sunk into premature old age, and was much under the in- influence of evil counsellors. Heavy taxes were imposed on the clergy to meet the needs of the crown. When in 1373, another subsidy was demanded from all the beneficed clergy, Archbishop Whittlesey determined, ill as he was, to proceed to London to protest against the injustice. It was arranged that he should open the proceedings of the December Convocation by preaching in St. Paul's.
The old archbishop ascended the pulpit with difficulty and chose as his text "The truth shall make you free." He preached in Latin, but had scarcely introduced his subject when faintness overtook him, and he sank down insensible. He was carried from the cathedral and conveyed in his barge to Lambeth, whence he was never able to be removed.8 There he died on June 6, 1374, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, near his uncle's tomb. By his will he directed that his executors should spend what they thought desirable out of his estate for the repose of his soul, a commission which must have involved them in some perplexity. His library he bequeathed to Peterhouse, Cambridge, and the remainder of his estate to his poor relatives.3
1 Wilkins' Concilia, III., 97.
3 Cf. Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, IV., 221.
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56.— SIMON SUDBURY, 1375 to 1381.
Kings of England : Edward III., 1327 to 1377. Richard II., 1377 to 1399.
As already related, the chapter of Canterbury desired nothing better than to reappoint Cardinal Simon Langham (q. v.) to the archbishopric, on the death of Archbishop Whittlesey. The election of the cardinal was, however, nullified by both the king and the pope. Simon Sudbury, Bishop of London, appears to have owed his nomination to the party of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, to which he was attached.
Simon was the son of Nigel and Sarah Theobald, and was born at Sudbury in Suffolk. His parents appear to have occupied a good position, and possessed sufficient means to give their son an excellent education. After completing his studies at the University of Paris, where he took the degree of doctor of canon law, Simon attached himself to the papal service, and was made chaplain to Pope Innocent VI., and auditor of the papal palace at Avignon. In 1357, the pope employed him on an embassy to England, and shortly after- wards he was made chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral. In March, 1362, he was consecrated to the see of London, to which he had been appointed by a papal provision. His skill as a statesman caused him to be frequently employed by Edward III. on embassies to foreign powers, and he continued to act in this capacity after he became archbishop.1 A story is told of him which shows that he held opinions some- what in advance of his age. One day in the year 1370, at the time of a jubilee of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Sudbury met a crowd of pilgrims on their way to the famous shrine. The bishop sternly warned them that the plenary indulgences which they would obtain by their pilgrimage could avail them nothing without true repentance and amendment of life. His words caused much offence,
• Ed. Foss., The Judges of England, Vol. III., 98.
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and an old knight, Sir Thomas of Aldon in Kent, said angrily : " Wherefore, Lord Bishop, do you stir up the people against St. Thomas ? I foretell that you yourself will end your days by a death of shame."2
Sudbury's elevation to the primacy took place in May, 1375. Two months later, he accompanied the Duke of Lancaster and his suite to Bruges to attend a conference with the papal legate, at which the pope's claim to arrears of tribute from England was discussed. John Wyclif, the famous reformer, also accompanied the duke to this conference. While in Flanders, Sudbury received the pallium, and after his return to England was enthroned at Canterbury.
After the death of the Black Prince, on June 8, 1376, the power of Lancaster and his party increased. William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, who had been a trusted counsellor of the king and the Black Prince, was dismissed from office and impeached. When convocation met in February 1377, Archbishop Sudbury purposely omitted to send Wykeham a summons. This omission was deeply resented by the other clergy, and William Courtenay, Bishop of London, announced that the king would obtain no subsidy from the clergy until Wykeham was summoned to take his place among them. The archbishop, acting on instructions received from Lancaster, at first refused to give way, but was ultimately forced to send a summons to the bishop of Winchester.
King Edward III. died on June 11, 1377, and on July 16, Archbishop Sudbury crowned Richard II., then aged twelve.
In the spring of 1377, bulls arrived from Pope Gregory XL, addressed to the archbishop of Canterbury, to the bishop of London, and to the university of Oxford, demanding that enquiry should at once be made into the erroneous doctrines taught by John Wyclif, rector of Lutterworth, and severely censuring the English clergy for their lukewarmness in the matter. Sudbury and Courtenay then instituted a com- mission of enquiry to sit at Oxford, and Wyclif was summoned to appear at Lambeth Palace. The trial at Lambeth had scarcely commenced, however, when a message was received from the Princess of Wales forbidding the judges to proceed with the case. The citizens of London had meantime
2 Anglia Sacra, I., 49.
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assembled to defend Wyclif , and forced their way into Lambeth chapel. The reformer was dismissed with the admonition that he should refrain from spreading his heretical doctrines.
In June, 1380, Sudbury was appointed to succeed Richard Scrope as chancellor of England. While acting in this capacity he appears to have been held responsible for the third levy of the obnoxious poll-tax, in 1381. Discontent prevailed widely among the poorer classes in the eastern counties of England, and was much increased by the harangues of a Kentish priest named John Ball, who preached the equality of all men. Ball was thrice imprisoned by order of Archbishop Sudbury. When, in June, an army of nearly 100,000 ragged and des- perate peasants marched to London under the leadership of Wat Tyler, the archbishop and other ministers took refuge in the Tower along with the young king and his mother. On their way, the mob had stopped at Canterbury, and pillaged the archbishop's palace. They also broke into the prison at Maidstone, and released John Ball, who marched with them to London.
To appease the angry peasants, the king's advisers caused it to be known that the archbishop had resigned the chancellor- ship. He, however, joined with Robert de Hales, the treasurer, in advising the young king not to meet the rebels, whom he described as bare-legged ruffians. This so enraged them that they swore to have his head.
Early on the morning of June 14, the mob appeared before the Tower, and demanded access to the king. A message was sent that he would meet them at Mile End. Before setting out with his followers, he heard mass in the chapel of the Tower, Archbishop Sudbury officiating. After the departure of the king and his suite, the archbishop, who fully realized his danger, remained in the chapel engaged in prayer. The greater number of the peasants had flocked to Mile End to meet the king, but a detachment now broke into the Tower. " Rushing hither and thither," says an old chronicle, " they sought the archbishop with terrible noise and fury. At length, finding one of his servants, they charged him to bring them to his master, whom they named traitor. The servant, daring none other, brought them to the chapel where the archbishop was still engaged in prayer, not unknowing of their coming
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and purpose. ' You have come right, my sons,' said he, as he saw them enter. ' Here am I, your archbishop, neither a traitor nor a spoiler.' " They dragged him to Tower Hill, and prepared to execute him. After solemnly warning them that his death would bring an interdict on the whole country, he declared that he forgave his murderers and calmly sub- mitted to his fate. No executioner who knew his business could be found, and so barbarously was the act performed, that not until after eight strokes of the sword was the arch- bishop's head severed from his body.3 The head, after being paraded through the streets of London, was stuck on London Bridge. Six days later, when the insurrection had been quelled, the head and body were conveyed to Canterbury, and buried in the cathedral on the south side of the altar of St. Dunstan, where a monument was erected, which still exists. Miracles are said to have been wrought at the tomb of the murdered prelate. A slab of marble was also placed to his memory in the church of St. Gregory, in his native town of Sudbury.
While bishop of London, he had been a great benefactor to Sudbury, of which the parish church was purchased by him and his brother John. He rebuilt the west end of the church, and founded a college for secular priests on the site of his father's house. During his primacy, he caused the West Gate of Canterbury to be erected, and spent large sums on the reparation of the cathedral.4 But his work there was inter- rupted by his violent death.
3 Stow's Annals, p. 287.
4 Anglia Sacra, I. 49.,
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57— WILLIAM COURTENAY, 1381 to 1396.
King of England : Richard II., 1377 to 1399.
William Courtenay, who was elected to the see of Canterbury a few weeks after the murder of Sudbury, was the fourth son of Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon, and Margaret Bohun, daughter of Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford, by his wife Elizabeth, a daughter of Edward I. William was born in Exeter about the year 1342. After a course of study at Stapleton Hall, Oxford, where he took the degree of doctor of law, he was appointed chancellor of the university. Pre- bends at Exeter, Wells and York were also conferred on him, and in 1369, when only in his twenty-eighth year, he was made bishop of Hereford.
On the elevation of Bishop Sudbury to the primacy. Courtenay was translated to the see of London in 1375. He had previously attached himself to the party of the Black Prince and Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, and seems to have been genuinely desirous of upholding the rights of the national Church against royal or papal oppression. In 1373, he supported the clergy when they complained of their inability to grant the king a subsidy while burdened by papal taxation. Soon after his appointment to the see of London, he was chosen by the " Good Parliament," as one of the committee appointed to advise King Edward III. Pope Gregory XL had issued a bull against the Florentines who had endeavoured to dissuade the Romans from receiving him. To the great delight of the Londoners, who were jealous of the foreigners, Courtenay caused this bull to be published at St. Paul's Cross. The houses of the excommunicated Florentines, many of whom were wealthy merchants, were at once plundered by the Londoners. Courtenay was summoned before the Court of Chancery to answer for these illegal proceedings, and to withdraw certain statements which he had made at St. Paul's Cross. With some difficulty he
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received permission to do this by proxy. One of his officials mounted a pulpit, and declared that the bishop's words had been misunderstood.1
In 1378, when Pope Urban VI. was forced to create twenty- six new cardinals in one day to take the place of those who had deserted him for the antipope, he is said to have nomin- ated Courtenay among them. But the bishop respectfully declined the honour, which the position of Urban rendered specially precarious.
In February 1377, Courtenay summoned John Wyclif to appear in St. Paul's Cathedral to answer for his heretical doctrines. This summons seriously offended the Duke of Lancaster, whose defence of Wyclif seems to have been undertaken chiefly for party motives. Wyclif arrived, attended by the Duke of Lancaster, Lord Percy the Earl Marshal, and a band of armed followers. They made their way with difficulty to the Lady Chapel through the crowd of people who thronged the church. The Earl Marshal ordered his followers to force a way for him through the crowd, and for this was severely reproved by Courtenay. After they had assembled in the Lady Chapel angry words passed between Courtenay and Lancaster, who declared that he would drag the bishop out of the cathedral by the hair sooner than endure his insolence. The Londoners, who hated the duke, prepared to defend their bishop and the meeting broke up in confusion.2
In 1382, after the elevation of Courtenay to the primacy, the parliament declared that Wyclif's teaching was disturbing the peace of the realm, and the archbishop was again called upon to take measures against the reformer. Courtenay convened a provincial synod at the monastery of the Black Friars, in London. The proceedings were interrupted by an earthquake, which was supposed to betoken the divine wrath against Wyclif's heresy. His doctrine concerning the Holy Eucharist, and certain conclusions drawn from his writings, were condemned. Wyclif was banished from Oxford, but was allowed to retire to his rectory at Lutterworth. Courtenay continued to take active measures
1 Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, IV., 316.
2 Fasciculi Zizaniorum (Rolls series), p. 272.
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against the Lollards, as Wyclif's followers were called. Dr. Rygge, the chancellor of Oxford, who favoured the reformer's doctrine, was summoned to appear before the archbishop, and publicly abjured his opinions.3 Courtenay placed the town of Leicester under an interdict, until certain Lollards, who had taken refuge there, had been delivered up.4
In August, 1381, Archbishop Courtenay was made chancellor of England, and in the following November, opened parliament by a speech delivered in English. He resigned the Great Seal after holding it only a few months. In 1382, he commenced a systematic and conscientious visitation of his province. Having passed without opposition through Rochester, Chichester, Bath and Worcester, he reached Exeter. There the bishop, Thomas of Brentingham, opposed his proceedings, and was immediately suspended. The bishop appealed to Rome, upon which Courtenay ex- communicated him, and all who had supported him. While the dispute was in progress, certain of the bishop of Exeter's followers met a servant of the archbishop on his way to deliver a citation to their master to appear before the metropolitan. They seized the document, and forced the servant to eat it, seals, wax and all. The king, on hearing of this act of violence, refused to support the bishop of Exeter, who was consequently forced to make his submission to the archbishop and to withdraw his suit at Rome.5 The bishop of Salisbury was also excommunicated for opposing the visitation of his diocese.
Courtenay deeply regretted King Richard's extravagance and senseless oppression of his people. More than once he ventured to remonstrate, though to little purpose. On one occasion the archbishop was requested by the lords to reprove Richard for his evil conduct. The only result was to rouse the king to furious anger, and he would have undoubtedly struck the archbishop had he not been restrained by his uncle, Thomas of Woodstock. Adam of Usk states that Courtenay fled from London, disguised as a friar, and took refuge in his ancestral estates in Devonshire until the king's
3 Ibid,, p. 298. 4 Wilkins' Concilia, III., 157 to 158.
s Ibid., p. 183.
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wrath had subsided.6 Towards the close of his life, the primate attempted to act as mediator between the king and the adherents of his cousin, Henry of Lancaster.
Archbishop Courtenay died at Maidstone, in Kent, on July 31, 1396. He had left directions that he should be buried at Maidstone, but his body was conveyed with great pomp to Canterbury and buried in the cathedral near the tomb of the Black Prince, the king and many of the nobles being present at the funeral.
Courtenay was a generous benefactor to the Church. He caused the hospital built by Archbishop Boniface at Maid- stone to be pulled down, and a college for secular priests erected on the same site. At Meopham, he repaired the parish church, and caused almshouses to be erected. On the repairs of Christ Church, Canterbury, he spent 1,000 marks, and presented to the cathedral many ornaments of great value besides a number of books.
6 Thomas of Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, II., 128; Chronicle of Adam of Usk (Royal Soc.) p. 150.
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58.— THOMAS ARUNDEL, 1397 to 1414.
Kings of England : Richard II., 1377 to J399- Henry IV., 1399 to 141 3. Henry V., 141 3 to 1422.
By a papal bull dated September 25, 1396, Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of York, was presented to the see of Canterbury with the approval of the king. The primate-elect was the third son of Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, by Eleanor, his second wife, the fifth daughter of Henry Plantagenet, third Earl of Lancaster. The Fitzalans were descended from a Norman family, whose ancestors had come to England in the time of the Conqueror. Thomas was born about the year 1352, and was educated for the Church at Oxford. The influence of the Arundel family, to whom King Richard II. was frequently under pecuniary obligations, secured for him preferments at an early age. When scarcely twenty, he was made archdeacon of Taunton, and in the follow- ing year was consecrated bishop of Ely.
In 1386, after the dismissal of Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, from the chancellorship, the Great Seal was entrusted to the youthful bishop of Ely.1 On his appointment he received a patent from the king, granting him the manors of Hackney and Leyton near London, " forasmuch as he had no domains or villas belonging to his bishopric, where his household and horses could be entertained, while he was in the office of chancellor." The manor of Stebenhyth was also assigned to him at a later period.
Arundel seems to have attached himself to the party founded by the Duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle. His brother Richard, who had succeeded to the earldom of Arundel in 1376, was one of the eleven lords appointed to act as a council of regency. Many of the acts of this council were resented by the king, but certain of the nobles rose in arms,
1 Eulogium, Hayden's edition, III., 360.
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and Richard was forced to submit himself to the party whom he distrusted. Five of his favourite counsellors were im- peached, among them Alexander Neville, Archbishop of York. The immediate result of Neville's deprivation was the transla- tion of Thomas Arundel to the archbishopric of York in April, 1388. Soon after this, he resigned the chancellorship, but was re-appointed ini3o,i,2 and during the next five years took a prominent part in political affairs.
Arundel was the first English prelate to be translated from one metropolitan see to another. On February 10, 1397, he received the pallium as archbishop of Canterbury, from the hands of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester. One of Arundel's first acts on his elevation to Canterbury was to resign the Great Seal. He then commenced a visitation of his diocese, which he carried out in a thorough manner, visiting every church, either in person or through his com- missioners. The suffragans were in all cases forced to submit to his reforms.
Soon after Arundel's appointment to the see of Canterbury his troubles began. He appears to have been suspected of con- spiracy, with the Duke of Gloucester, the Earl of Warwick, and his brother, the Earl of Arundel, against the king. There is no real evidence, however, that such a conspiracy ever existed.
In 1389, the king, who was then nearly twenty-three, had insisted on dismissing the council of regency and taking the government into his own hands. For the next eight years he ruled wisely, but many writers suppose that he never abandoned the secret intention of taking revenge, when opportunity arose, on those who had injured him during his minority.
On July 10, 1397, Richard invited the Duke of Gloucester and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick to dine with him. Warwick alone dared to obey the summons, and after the banquet was arrested by the king's orders. Richard then marched to Essex, with an armed force, and arrested his uncle the Duke of Gloucester, who was sent to imprisonment at Calais, and soon afterwards murdered.
The king gave his oath to Archbishop Arundel that if he would invite his brother Richard to a meeting in London, the
2 Edward Foss, The Judges of England, III., 145.
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earl would be permitted to depart unharmed. The primate, trusting the king's word, invited Richard to visit him at Lambeth. The two brothers afterwards crossed in a barge to Westminster, and Earl Richard was admitted to the king's presence. Thomas waited till nightfall, but his brother did not return. He was then rowed back to Lambeth.3 The brothers never met again. The earl was soon afterwards condemned for treason, and executed on Tower Hill.
On September 30, 1397, the House of Commons, at the king's instigation, impeached Archbishop Arundel for high treason. The principal charge against him was that while holding the office of chancellor, eleven years previously, he had consented to restrict the royal authority, by placing it in the hands of the council of regency. This fact he could not deny. He was not permitted to defend himself, but was privately assured by the king that he would soon be reinstated in the royal favour.4 He was sentenced to exile, and was allowed six weeks to prepare for his departure from England. All his property was confiscated, and Roger Walden, Dean of York, was appointed to the see of Canterbury, by the king's orders.5
Arundel set out for Rome, where he was well received by Pope Boniface IX. The pope appointed him bishop of St. Andrews in Scotland — an empty title, for at that time Scotland adhered to the antipope.
Soon after Arundel's arrival in Rome, letters reached the pope from King Richard II., in which many charges were made against the archbishop. This determined the pope to refrain from supporting him further, and he retired to Florence. While there he entered into correspondence with Henry of Lancaster.
The archbishop was joined by his nephew and namesake, Thomas, Earl of Arundel, who was determined to avenge his father's death. In 1399, Arundel and his nephew joined Henry of Lancaster, with whom they crossed to England, and were present at the siege of Bristol. The archbishop is said to have had an interview with King Richard in Wales, and
3 Eulogium, p. 376. 4 Ibid., p. 376.
s Thomas of Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, Vol., II. p. 224.
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to have consoled him by promising that his life should be spared.
Arundel was present in Westminster Hall when Richard was made to read a proclamation resigning the crown and declaring himself unfit to reign. The archbishop then took Henry by the hand, and led him to the vacant throne. After Henry had taken his seat thereon, and been proclaimed king, the archbishop preached an eloquent sermon, from the text, " Vir dominabitur in populo."6 On October 13, 1399, he crowned Henry king of England.
Immediately after his return to England, Arundel had been reinstated in his offices of archbishop and chancellor — Roger Walden being regarded as a usurper. After holding the seal for ten days, he resigned it, probably from motives of policy. He was again appointed chancellor in 1407, and for the fifth time, in 1412.
During the remainder of his life, Arundel was distinguished chiefly for his zeal against the Lollards. In the second year of King Henry's reign, the statute " De haeretico com- burendo," for the burning of heretics, was passed. William Sautre, a parish priest at Lynn, was the first Englishman to be burned for heresy. He was condemned for the denial of tran- substantiation, and burnt in 1401. Nine years later, John Badby, a tailor of Evesham, was burned as a heretic in the presence of the Prince of Wales, the archbishop of Canterbury, and many nobles and prelates. The groans of the sufferer in his last agony were taken by the compassionate prince as a recantation, and he ordered the faggots to be pulled away. But the offer of life and a pension failed to move the dauntless Lollard. The cruel flames were rekindled, and so Badby perished.7
In the reign of Henry V., Sir John Oldcastle (Lord Cobham), who had served with distinction in the French wars, and been an intimate friend of the king's youth, was arrested on a charge of favouring the Lollards. Many of the persecuted preachers had been sheltered by him in his strong castle, of Cowley, near Rochester. He was condemned to death, but escaped from the Tower, where he had been confined. Three
6 Ibid., p. 237.
» Dean Spence, History of the Church of England, Vol. II., p. 332.
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years later — in 141 8 — he was again arrested, and burnt as a heretic.
In 1405, when it was proposed in parliament that the revenues of the clergy should be seized to supply the royal necessities, Arundel strenuously upheld the rights of the Church. The king, fearful of offending the clergy, supported the archbishop, and the project was abandoned.
Archbishop Arundel was one of the few who remained faithful to Henry IV. to the last. He died at his rectory of Hackington on February 19, 1414, of an inflammation in the throat. For some days before his death he was unable to take any nourishment. The Lollards declared it to be a judgment of God that he who had deprived the people of food for the soul should himself suffer for lack of food for the body. He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral.
While bishop of Ely, Arundel rebuilt the episcopal palace belonging to that see at Holborn. While archbishop of York, he spent a large sum in repairing the cathedral, to which he also presented many valuable ornaments. To Canterbury he was equally liberal, and among other gifts presented to the cathedral a peal of five bells.8
8 The Judges of England, III. 150.
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59— ROGER WALDEN, 1398 to 1399. King of England : Richard II., 1377 to 1399.
During the exile of Archbishop Arundel, Roger Walden, Dean of York, and Lord High Treasurer of England, was promoted to the see of Canterbury. Roger was a native of Saffron Walden in Essex, and is said by Adam of Usk to have been the son of a butcher. Of his early life nothing is known. In 1371, he was appointed to the benefice of St. Helier's in Jersey, and appears to have lived for some years in the Channel Islands, where he held some civil office.
Through the patronage of Hugh, Lord Percy, he was presented to the living of Kirkby Overblow, in Yorkshire, in 1374, but it is improbable that he ever resided there. From this time he was a considerable pluralist, though certain writers declare that up to the date of his consecration to the see of Canterbury he remained a layman.1 Among the livings held by him at different times were those of Fenny Drayton, near Market Harborough, in Leicestershire, Fordham near Colchester, and the rectory of St. Andrew's, Holborn. He was also appointed archdeacon of Winchester, dean of York, and held prebends in the cathedrals of London, Exeter, Lincoln, Salisbury and York.
Walden was apparently high in the royal favour, for the king appointed him captain of Marcke, near Calais, which post he held until 1391. He was one of the commissioners chosen to negotiate a truce with the court of Flanders and certain Flemish towns.2 He was also made high bailiff of Guisnes and treasurer of Calais, in which capacity he joined in a raid into French territory. About the year 1393, he was recalled to England, and made keeper of the castle of Porchester and secretary to King Richard II.
In 1395, Walden was appointed Lord High Treasurer of
Haydon's Eulogium (Rolls series), Vol. III., p. 377. * Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, Vol. III., p. 529.
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England. Immediately after the deposition of Arundel (q. v.), King Richard wrote to the pope, petitioning him to promote Roger Walden, described as a layman, to the see of Canterbury. On receipt of a bull from the pope, who according to one account believed Arundel to be dead, the king caused Walden to be consecrated by Robert Braybrook, Bishop of London. The ceremony took place on February 3, 1398.3 Walden's enthronement at Canterbury was conducted on a scale of great magnificence, the king himself being present.
On the occasion of the combat arranged to be held at Coventry between the Duke of Norfolk and Henry of Lancaster, in 1398, Richard arrived at the lists accompanied by many nobles and by Roger Walden, Archbishop of Canter- bury.4 As the duel was about to begin, the king put a stop to it, without giving any reason for doing so.
In the same year Richard is recorded to have visited the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury, under a strong body- guard of the men of Chester. The archbishop hospitably entertained the king and his escort, and afterwards returned with him to London. On their arrival, " they took all the jewels out of the Tower, with the stone bottle given by the Virgin to St. Thomas of Canterbury."
Walden is said to have been warned by a northern hermit to vacate the archbishopric, and to advise the king to restore the possessions of the disinherited lords. He refused to interfere, and advised the hermit to address himself to the king personally.5
No record has been preserved of Walden's ecclesiastical acts, his register having been destroyed after the return of Arundel, but he is said to have promulgated certain con- stitutions. On the return of Arundel to England, Walden hastened to secure all the property of the see of Canterbury. The plate, furniture, jewels and other valuables, he caused to be conveyed to Saltwood Castle. They were seized, however, by order of Henry of Lancaster, placed in six carts, and restored to Arundel, who was reinstated in his see.
3 Stubbs' Reg. Sac. Ang., p. 61.
* Chronique de la Traison et Mort de Ric. II. (Eng. Hist. Soc), p. 153.
s Eulogium, p. 380.
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Walden was placed under arrest, but at the request of Arch- bishop Arundel his life was spared. He had a step-mother living near the priory of St. Bartholomew, where he had built a chapel. The people of the new king left to mother and son neither robe nor plate, but cleared the house of every- thing it contained. The deposed primate then retired into obscurity, but in the following year was suspected of being concerned in a plot to dethrone Henry IV. He was, however, acquitted and set at liberty. According to some accounts he lived in great poverty for the next four years. In 1403, he is recorded to have received two barrels of wine from the king. Arundel appears to have treated him with the greatest consideration, and recommended him to the favour of the pope and of King Henry IV.
When the bishopric of London became vacant, the king agreed with some reluctance to appoint Walden, at Arundel's request. He was consecrated at Lambeth on June 29, 1405, and in the following year was installed in St. Paul's Cathedral by Thomas Chillenden, Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury. After the ceremony, the canons walked in procession along the close, wearing garlands of red roses.
Walden did not live long to enjoy his new dignity. He died at his country palace of Much Hadham, in Hertfordshire, on January 6, 1406. His body was conveyed to the chapel which he had built in the priory church of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, where it lay for some days. It was then removed, and buried in St. Paul's. Bishop Clifford, of Worcester, was present at the funeral, together with John Prophete, the keeper of the privy seal, and many others. Before the burial Prophete lifted the veil, and they gazed on the face of the dead bishop "which was fairer than wont, and looked like that of a man in a sleep."6
Archbishop Arundel gave orders for masses to be sung for the pious prelate, " not haughty in prosperity, patient in adversity." His character is praised by all contemporary writers. A General History, from the creation of the world, has been attributed to him, but is evidently of earlier date.
6 Wylie's Hist, of Eng. under Henry IV., Vol^III. p. 123.
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6o.— HENRY CHICHELE, 1414 to 1443.
Kings of England : Henry V., 141 3 to 1422. Henry VI., 1422 to 1461.
Less than a fortnight after the death of Archbishop Arundel the king nominated to the see of Canterbury Henry Chichele, Bishop of St. David's, a distinguished statesman, who had rendered many services to the crown. Henry was born at Higham Ferrars in Northamptonshire, about the year 1362. He was the son of a yeoman named Thomas Chichele, who had been at one time a draper, by his wife, Agnes, daughter of William Pyncheon, a gentleman entitled to bear arms.
There is a story that William of Wykeham, the celebrated bishop of Winchester, who at one period of his life had been archdeacon of Northampton, was on a visit to the castle in the neighbourhood of Higham Ferrars, when he met and conversed with a shepherd boy. The bishop was so pleased with the lad's intelligence that after causing enquiries to be made concerning his parentage, he resolved to educate him. The boy was Henry Chichele, who was indebted to the bishop of Winchester for his education at the two great foundations of that prelate, Winchester College, and New College, Oxford.1
In 1389, Chichele completed his studies at Oxford as bachelor of Civil Law, and afterwards took the degree of doctor. His skill as a lawyer soon attracted attention, and in 1396 he became an advocate in the Court of Arches. In the same year he took holy orders, and was presented to the rectory of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, by the prior and convent of St. John's, Colchester. About this period, he obtained the patronage of Richard Metford, Bishop of Salisbury, through whose influence he was appointed archdeacon of Dorset, with prebends in the churches of Salisbury, Abergwilly, and Lichfield. In 1402, he was made archdeacon of Salisbury and canon of Lincoln, and in 1404, chancellor of Salisbury with a 1 Arthur Duck, Life of Henry Chichele, 1699. 263
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living at Odiham in Hants. Other minor preferments were also lavished on him.
Chichele was first employed on state business in 1405, when, in company with Sir John Cheyne, he was sent on an embassy to Pope Innocent VII. From this time he was repeatedly employed on important embassies to France and Italy during the next thirty years. In 1407, while Chichele was employed as an ambassador to the papal court then at Siena, news reached him of the death of the bishop of St. David's. Chichele had obtained from the king the promise of this see, to which he was consecrated by the pope himself on June 17, 1408.
In the following year, he was chosen to accompany Bishop Robert Hallam, of Salisbury, to the famous council of Pisa, at which the two rival popes were deposed and Alexander V. elected. The only result of this council was that there were now three popes instead of two, for Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII. both refused to submit to the decree of their rebellious cardinals.
Immediately after the accession of Henry V., Chichele was employed on another embassy to France. He conducted the business entrusted to him with so much wisdom and sound judgment that he won the life-long confidence of the warrior- king to whose influence his nomination to the see of Canter- bury was due. He received the temporalities of the arch- bishopric on May 30, 1414, and the pallium on July 24, at the hands of the bishops of Winchester and Norwich.2
The royal counsellors, with whom the archbishop was in complete agreement, decided that the best means of diminish- ing the general discontent which prevailed throughout England would be to prosecute the war with France. They were also of the opinion that it would be well to employ the restless disposition of the young king on some difficult enter- prise, and Henry V. was therefore encouraged to revive the old claim of Edward III. to the crown of France. Archbishop Chichele obtained from the clergy a grant of two tenths for the war, and further replenished the state coffers by selling certain lands belonging to alien priories.
During the king's absence abroad, Chichele was appointed a member of the council chosen to assist the Duke of Bedford 2 Ibid., p. 40.
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Henry Chichele
in the government of the kingdom. He ordered all the clergy of Kent to bear arms lest the French should make a descent on the coast.3 On Henry's return to England after the brilliant victory of Agincourt the archbishop officiated at the thanks, giving services held at St. Paul's, Westminster, and Canterbury Cathedral. Chichele showed great energy in holding eccle- siastical synods, and in the visitation of his diocese. The statutes against heretics were enforced by him with the utmost vigour, and during his primacy a number of Lollards were condemned and burnt.4
During the campaign of 1418 the archbishop joined Henry V. in France, and was present at the siege and surrender of Rouen. He afterwards drew up the treaty made between Henry and the citizens of the conquered town. On February 26, 1421, he officiated at the coronation of the queen at Westminster.
As long as the warrior-king lived he supported the Church of England against papal encroachments. Chichele took advantage of the schism to annul all the papal immunities which had been secured within his province. By the Council of Constance, at which the archbishop of Canterbury was represented by proxy, the Great Schism was at length brought to an end. Pope Martin V., who now took his seat on the papal throne, was determined to assert his authority over the English Church. He accordingly demanded that the Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire (vide Simon Islip) should be annulled, but to this the English Parliament refused to consent.
Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, a legitimated son of John of Gaunt, was at this period the most powerful church- man in England, and the leader of a party opposed to the war. To strengthen his position against the archbishop Pope Martin V. proposed to make Beaufort a cardinal with the authority of legate a latere for life. This proposal was strongly opposed by Chichele, and Henry V. forbade Beaufort to accept the appointment.
By the death of King Henry V., which occurred in August, 1422, Archbishop Chichele lost his most faithful friend and supporter. The long minority of Henry VI. marks a period
3 Ibid., 69. < Wilkins' Concilia, III., passim.
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of decay in Church and State. The pope now re-asserted claims which the strong rule of Henry V. had kept in abey- ance. In 1423, he went so far as to censure Archbishop Chichele for having presumed, without the papal authority, to grant an indulgence to all who in that year should make a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury.
In 1426, Beaufort accepted the cardinalate and the legatine commission from the pope. To further humiliate the arch- bishop, Martin V. demanded that he should obtain the repeal of the statutes of Pro visors and Praemunire (vide Simon Islip). Many wrathful letters passed between Chichele and the pope who finally suspended the archbishop from the office of legate which belonged to his see. Chichele appealed from the pope to a future council, and was supported by the clergy and many of the English nobles.
The threats of the pope seem to have at length overcome the courage of the archbishop, who was now aged and feeble, and he vainly implored the House of Commons to agree to the papal demands. Chichele also attempted to mediate in the quarrel between Cardinal Beaufort and the Duke of Gloucester, but his efforts proved fruitless. After the death of Pope Martin V., the conflict was continued between his successor Eugenius IV. and Archbishop Chichele. John Kemp, the Archbishop of York, was created a cardinal by the pope, and insisted on taking precedence of Chichele on all public occasions. Chichele appealed to Rome against the pretensions of Kemp, but the case was decided against him by the pope.
Archbishop Chichele was a generous benefactor to the Church. At Lambeth he built the Water Tower, erroneously called the Lollards' Tower, completed in 1435. At his native village of Higham Ferrars he rebuilt the parish church, and founded a college for priests. At Canterbury he founded the cathedral library, furnishing it with a large collection of books, and also spent a considerable sum in adorning the cathedral. In 1435, he purchased land at Oxford on which he founded and built at his own expense his college of " All Souls." This he endowed with lands which he had purchased from the crown to the value of 1,000 pounds. Chichele had reached his eighty-first year when he went to Oxford to consecrate the
266
Henry Chichele
completed building. The aged primate was received with great enthusiasm, all Oxford going out to meet him.
In April of the same year he wrote to Pope Eugenius IV. begging permission to resign the archbishopric on account of his infirmities.6 Almost immediately after the despatch of this letter, his illness increased, and he died on 12 April, 1443, at the age of eighty-one. He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral^in a tomb which had been erected in his lifetime.
6 Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton (Rolls series), p. 145.
267
6i.— JOHN STAFFORD, 1443 to 1452.
King of England : Henry VI., 1422 to 1461.
In the letter addressed to the pope by Henry Chichele (q. v.) two days before his death, the aged archbishop, after begging permission to resign his office, concluded by asking that John, Bishop of Bath and Wells, might be appointed as his successor. " I can with a safe conscience," wrote Chichele, " recommend as my successor in this holy see my very dear brother John, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Chancellor of England. He is a spiritual father whose appointment will be in every way advantageous to the Church, if his varied excellence be taken into account. His merits must be well-known to your Holiness. If indeed, in addition to his high intellectual and moral qualifications, the nobility of his birth, the influence of his relations and his own almost boundless hospitality be taken into consideration, I am persuaded that it would be scarcely possible to select any one who in comparison with him can be found fit for the important office."1
This letter was accompanied by another addressed to the pope by Henry VI., in which the king commiserates the archbishop's infirmities, and begs that an annual pension may be allowed him out of the revenues of his see. The king also begs the pope to provide for the see as the archbishop had requested. Long before these letters reached Rome, Chichele was dead, and no opposition was offered to the translation of Stafford, either by the pope or by the chapter of Canterbury. He was appointed on May 13, 1443.
John Stafford was probably an illegitimate2 son of Sir Humphrey Stafford, of Southwick Court, North Bradley, Wilts, by one Emma of North Bradley, who afterwards became a nun in the priory of Holy Trinity at Canterbury. Emma died in 1446, and was buried in North Bradley Church, a
1 Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton (Rolls series), L, 145 to 147 (Hook's translation).
2 Col. of Papal Letters, Vol. VII., p. 252.
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John Stafford
handsome monument being erected to her by her son, the archbishop.
The illegitimacy of Stafford's birth is disputed by Foss and also by Dean Hook, who seems to have confused the archbishop's father with his half-brother Sir Humphrey Stafford "of the silver hand," Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, who was a legitimate son of Sir Humphrey of North Bradley by his first wife.3
John Stafford was educated at Oxford, where he graduated as doctor of civil law. On leaving the university he was made dean of the Court of Arches, archdeacon of Salisbury, and subsequently chancellor of the same diocese. In 1421, he was made keeper of the privy seal, to which office he was re-appointed on the accession of Henry VI., at a salary of twenty shillings a day. In the following year, he was made treasurer and dean of St. Martin's, London. In May, 1425, he was consecrated bishop of Bath and Wells, of which see he had been made dean two years previously. This preferment he owed to the influence of Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor, to whose party he had attached himself (vide Henry Chichele).
Beaufort was the representative of the papal interests in England, and of the party opposed to the French war, and as such was generally unpopular. In 1430, Stafford accom- panied the young king to France. Soon after his return, he was appointed chancellor in succession to John Kemp (q. v.) who had succeeded Beaufort. Stafford was the first to bear the title of Lord Chancellor, which he held uninterruptedly for eighteen years.4
After his elevation to the see of Canterbury, Stafford con- tinued to support the policy of Beaufort. On April 22, 1445, he officiated at the marriage of Henry VI. with Margaret of Anjou. To enable the king to pay the expenses of his marriage and coronation the archbishop lent him 1,000 marks. He cordially seconded the liberal intentions of the king at this time, and is said to have induced the parliament of 1445 to approve and confirm Henry's foundation of Eton College.
3 Cf. art. on John Stafford by C. L. Kingsford in Diet, of Nat. Biog. 1909.
« Anglia Sacra, I., 572.
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Though Stafford proved a better statesman than an arch- bishop, his ecclesiastical duties were not altogether neglected. Decrees which he published are extant forbidding the holding of fairs and markets in cemeteries on Sundays. At a con- vocation held in the second year of his primacy it was moved, probably at the archbishop's suggestion, that an act of parlia- ment should be obtained to prevent vexatious suits for the purpose of bringing clerics into the king's courts, in contra- vention of certain ecclesiastical rights and privileges.
By the death of Cardinal Beaufort, which occurred in 1447, a few weeks after that of his rival the Duke of Gloucester, Stafford lost his most powerful friend and patron. The French war was now prosecuted to the bitter end, until England had lost all her possessions in France except Calais. Too late, the English government learned that to have followed Beaufort's counsel of making peace while they might have done so with honour would have been the better policy.
In 1450, the Duke of Suffolk, who after the death of Gloucester had through the influence of Margaret of Anjou become chief minister, was banished and murdered at sea. Stafford, who for some reason that is not clear seems to have lost favour at court, now resigned the chancellorship. At the time of Jack Cade's rebellion, the archbishop is said to have accompanied his kinsman the Duke of Buckingham to Blackheath to confer with the rebels. The offer of a general pardon to all the insurgents, except Cade himself, who would lay down their arms, is said to have been made in the arch- bishop's name,5 but this statement is of doubtful authority.
During Stafford's primacy, Reginald Pecock, a Welshman, who was successively bishop of St. Asaph and of Chichester, first attracted attention by his doctrines. Pecock was a deter- mined adversary of the Lollards, and a vehement advocate of the Roman supremacy. On the other hand, he bitterly offended the mendicant orders by exposing the grave faults of their system. He forwarded a statement of his doctrines to Archbishop Stafford in a pamphlet known as " Abbreviato Reginaldi Pecock," but no active measures were taken against him until after Stafford's death.
The last public appearance of Archbishop Stafford was in
s Fabyan's Chronicle (ed. Ellis), p. 623.
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John Stafford
August, 1451, when he received the king and queen, who had come on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canter- bury. He died at Maidstone on May 25, 1452, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral in the Martyrdom, under a flat marble stone inlaid with brass.
271
62.— JOHN KEMP, 1452 to 1454.
King of England : Henry VI., 1422 to 1461.
At the time of Archbishop Stafford's death, the difficulties of the English government were already great. The hatred manifested towards Queen Margaret by a large section of the people increased the insecurity of King Henry's position. To choose an archbishop whom both sides could entirely trust was a matter of no little difficulty. After prolonged dis- cussion it was, at length, decided to translate to the see of Canterbury Cardinal Kemp, Archbishop of York, an able and distinguished statesman who had been attached to the peace party of the late Cardinal Beaufort.
John Kemp was the second son of Thomas Kemp, a Kentish landowner, by his wife Beatrice, daughter of Sir Thomas Lewknor. He was born about the year 1380, at his father's estate of Olanteigh in the parish of Wye, Kent. His elder brother, Roger, was the father of Thomas Kemp, who became bishop of London. John studied at Merton College, Oxford, where he took his degree in canon law, and afterwards practised in the ecclesiastical courts. He was one of the counsellors called by Archbishop Thomas Arundel (q. v.) to assist in the proceedings against Sir John Oldcastle for heresy in September, 1413.1 In the following year, having previously taken orders, he was made dean of the Court of Arches, and vicar-general to Archbishop Chichele. In 1416 he was admitted arch- deacon of Durham. Other preferments followed in rapid succession, and in 1419 he was consecrated bishop of Rochester. As Kemp's family had no influence at court, it is evident that he owed his preferments in Church and State to his own worth.
His skill as a lawyer caused him to be frequently employed on diplomatic missions by King Henry V., whom he accom- panied to Normandy in 1415. Henry afterwards made him
1 Edward Foss, The Judges of England, IV., 334.
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John Kemp
keeper of his privy seal and chancellor of the Duchy of Normandy, an office which he held until the king's death in 1422. In February, 1421, he was translated from Rochester to the see of Chichester, and in the following November was translated thence to London by a provision of Pope Martin V.
On the accession of Henry VI., Kemp resigned the chancel- lorship of Normandy, and was appointed a member of the young king's council. He continued to be employed on important diplomatic missions, and in 1426 succeeded Cardinal Beaufort as chancellor of England. His appoint- ment to the chancellorship took place on March 16, and on April 8, he was elected archbishop of York. He retained the great seal for the next six years, during which period he took a prominent part in public affairs.2 Kemp was undoubtedly a better statesman than an archbishop, and appears to have been very unpopular in Yorkshire, which he seldom visited. Among the tenants of Knaresborough Forest he roused bitter enmity by quartering on them three hundred mercenaries until they consented to pay him a disputed toll.
In 1431, Kemp was attacked by illness, and made his precarious health an excuse for retiring from the chancellorship in the following year. The enmity of the Duke of Gloucester, whose influence was then paramount, was probably the real reason for his retirement. He continued, however, to act as a member of the council, and joined Cardinal Beaufort in advising peace with France.
In 1435, a conference was held at Arras in France to negotiate terms of peace. Archbishop Kemp was appointed leader of the British embassy, and reached Arras with his companions on July 25. In August, Kemp opened the conference by a speech and took the lead in the negotiations until the arrival of Cardinal Beaufort in September. The conference proved a failure chiefly through the perfidy of the Duke of Burgundy on whom no reliance could be placed, though he was nominally an ally of the English. After prolonged discussions, the English ambassadors withdrew, and returned to England, angrily denouncing the treachery of Burgundy.3
In 1439, another conference was held near Calais, Cardinal
2 Ibid., p. 336.
3 Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, V. 190.
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Beaufort on the one side and the Duchess of Burgundy on the other being appointed mediators. During the sitting of this conference Kemp crossed twice to England to confer with the king concerning the proposed treaty. The French offered to make over Normandy to England as a fief, but the king replied that we should be content only with Normandy and Guienne in full sovereignty. Once more the negotiations proved ineffectual, and Archbishop Kemp, after a stormy passage, landed at Sandwich in a small boat on October 2, 1439. He immediately proceeded to London, where he joined Beaufort in vainly imploring the king to take further steps to end the French war.4
In the following December, Kemp was appointed cardinal- priest of Santa Balbina by Pope Eugenius IV. This honour the king persuaded him to accept in spite of the opposition of Archbishop Chichele (q. v.).5
After the disgrace and death of Suffolk in 1350 (vide John Stafford), Kemp was again appointed chancellor. Mean- time the weakness of King Henry's government became daily more apparent, and after the suppression of Cade's rebellion, the Duke of York was acknowledged heir to the throne, the king being still childless. Kemp now became the chief supporter of the king's party, to whose influence he owed his translation to the see of Canterbury. On September 24, 1452, he received the pallium (sent by Pope Nicholas V.) from the hands of his nephew, Thomas, Bishop of London. A few weeks later, the additional honour was conferred on him of being appointed cardinal-bishop of Santa Rufina by the pope.
At the time of his elevation to the archbishopric of Canter- bury, Kemp was seventy-two years of age, and his labours were well-nigh over. In August of the following year King Henry became seriously ill, and it was soon evident that his mind was deranged. In October the aged archbishop stood godfather to the king's infant son Edward. A deputation of merchants and citizens waited on the archbishop at Lambeth in January, 1455, to make certain complaints concerning Lord Bonville, who had taxed the ships and goods of
4 Ibid.
s Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton (Rolls series), I., 43 to 50.
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John Kemp
the Flemings. As the archbishop gave them no satisfactory answer, they cried aloud, " Justice, justice." On this the aged prelate was so dismayed that he had no word to say for fear.6
Before the civil war actually began Kemp was called to his rest. He died on March 22, 1454, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral on the south side of the choir. At Wye, his native place, Archbishop Kemp rebuilt the parish church, and also founded a college for secular priests, which he placed under the patronage of Battle Abbey. He restored the manor-house of Southwell, which belonged to the see of York, and repaired York Cathedral. To Oxford he is said to have given 500 marks for the completion of the divinity school.
The following barbarous lines on him, composed by his nephew Thomas, Bishop of London, are quoted by several writers :
" Bis primus, ter presul et bis cardine functus."
That Archbishop Kemp, after filling the highest offices in Church and State during the troubled years that preceded the civil war, should have descended to the grave with his character unblemished, speaks well for his integrity and capacity as a statesman. The king, on being informed of his death, said that one of the wisest lords in the land was dead.7
6 Paston Letters, I. 268. ■> Ibid, Vol I. p. 315.
275
63.— THOMAS BOURCHIER, 1454 to i486.
Kings of England : Henry VI., 1422 to 1461. Edward IV., 1461 to 1483. Edward V., 1483. Richard III., 1483 to 1485. Henry VII., 1485 to 1509.
The death of Archbishop Kemp increased the difficulties which beset the government. As soon as it became known that the primate had breathed his last, a committee of the Lords was appointed to wait on the king, then lying sick at Windsor, to learn his pleasure concerning the archbishopric and chancellorship, both rendered vacant by Kemp's death. On March 25, the committee reported to the whole House that they had been to wait on the king at Windsor, but had been thrice refused admittance, being told that His Majesty was sick. Two days later it was ascertained that the King was insane, and the Lords appointed the Duke of York protector of the kingdom. It was doubtless due to the duke's influence that on March 30 the Commons recommended the promotion of Thomas Bourchier, Bishop of Ely, to the see of Canterbury.
Among the leading families connected by marriage with the Duke of York were the Bourchiers, the half-brothers of the Duke of Buckingham. Anne, eldest daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of Edward III., had by her second husband, Edmund, Earl of Stafford, a son, Humphrey, created Duke of Buckingham in 1444. Her third husband was William Bourchier, created Earl of Ewe for his achievements in France under Henry V. By him she had four sons, Henry Viscount Bourchier, William, who became Lord Fitzwaryn by marriage, Thomas, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and John, afterwards Lord Berners. Of these, Viscount Bourchier married Isabella, the only sister of the Duke of York.1
1 Ramsey's Lancaster and York, Vol. II. p. 165.
276
Thomas Bourchier
Thomas Bourchier, the third son, was born about the year 1404, and was educated at Oxford, of which university he afterwards became chancellor. After taking holy orders his promotion was rapid, less on account of his abilities than of his relationship to the royal family. Among the preferments bestowed on him were the deanery of St. Martin's-le-Grand, London, prebends at Lichfield, Hastings and Lincoln, and the bishopric of Worcester, to which see he was consecrated in T433- Two years later he was elected bishop of Ely, but as the revenues of that see had been promised to Louis de Luxembourg, Archbishop of Rouen, Bourchier was not trans- lated to Ely until after the death of the latter in 1443. The monkish historian of Ely states that during his ten year's rule Bishop Bourchier never celebrated mass in their church except on the day of his installation, and that he heavily oppressed the prior and brethren by fines, and the tenants by imprisonment.2
His translation to the see of Canterbury took place on April 22, 1454. He appears to have gone through the formality of receiving the temporalities of his see from the king at Windsor, though the unfortunate monarch was probably unconscious of what was taking place in his chamber.3 In March of the following year Bourchier was appointed Lord Chancellor and received the Great Seal at Greenwich from the king himself, who had by that time recovered temporarily.
The tale of Archbishop Bourchier's primacy is the tale of that weary civil conflict known as the Wars of the Roses, which began in 1455 and lasted for thirty years. It was probably his close relationship with both sides which caused him to be accused of playing a double part. His half brother, the Duke of Buckingham, was an ardent royalist, while, as already stated, his own brother, Viscount Bourchier, was married to the sister of the Duke of York. The archbishop was not distinguished by great vigour of mind, but his modera- tion won for him the confidence of both parties, and the Lan- castrians, while knowing him to be a Yorkist, frequently employed him as a mediator. The double dealing of the Duke of York throughout the conflict must indeed have rendered
2 Anglia Sacra, I., 671.
3 Paston Letters, I., p. 303.
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it difficult for his partisans to play an honourable part. At the first battle of St. Alban's in 1455 the Yorkists were vic- torious, but for the next two years matters remained in an uncertain state. In October, 1456, the archbishop was called upon to resign the Great Seal, and at the same time his brother, Viscount Bourchier, was dismissed from the office of treasurer.4
These changes were undoubtedly due to the influence of Queen Margaret, who had found the Bourchiers lukewarm in her cause. The archbishop seems, however, to have been responsible in some measure for the hollow reconciliation which took place between the rival parties in the spring of 1458. A great procession to St. Paul's was held, the rival lords marching hand in hand and the king following with his crown on his head. Behind them came the Duke of York and the queen walking arm-in-arm. Before a year had passed they were all quarrelling again.
At a convocation of the clergy held at St. Paul's on July 3, 1360, the Yorkist leaders swore a solemn oath that they had no design against the king. Archbishop Bourchier, with five of his suffragans, then proceeded to Northampton to confer with the king concerning terms of peace. But the Yorkists acted with their usual insincerity. A week later the king was taken prisoner at the battle of Northampton, and conducted to London. Shortly afterwards, the Duke of York, who had taken up his abode in the royal palace, entered the House of Lords, and formally made his claim to the crown of England. Archbishop Bourchier who was present expressed disapproval of the duke's action, and withdrew from the house.5
At the battle of Wakefield, fought on December 30, 1460, the Duke of York was slain, but in the following year his son, the young Earl of March, was crowned king with the title of Edward IV. by Archbishop Bourchier. Four years later, on May 26, 1465, the primate crowned Edward's queen, Elizabeth Woodville.
At the request of Edward IV., Bourchier was created cardinal- priest of St. Cyriacus in Thermis by Pope Paul II. in 1467. He did not, however, receive the cardinal's hat until 1473.
4 Ibid., II., 381.
s Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, V., 268.
278
Thomas Bourchier
Throughout the reign of Edward IV. the archbishop continued to show devotion to the Yorkist cause. In 1471 he is said to have been instrumental in bringing about a reconciliation between King Edward and his brother, the Duke of Clarence, who had joined the Lancastrians.
In 1483, after the death of Edward IV., Archbishop Bour- chier was sent by Richard of Gloucester to the queen with the request that her second son might be allowed to keep his brother company in the Tower. The archbishop solemnly swore that he would answer with his life for the safety of the prince, and it is practically certain that he had no suspicion of Richard's evil designs. The unhappy mother yielded to the archbishop's request. She is said to have called the boy to her, given him one last hasty kiss, and then turning away burst into tears.
A few weeks later, on June 26, 1483, the archbishop crowned Richard III. at Westminster. By his popular reforms Richard had succeeded in winning to his side many who possessed characters less pliant than the archbishop. Yet for the primate's heartless desertion of the little princes, to whom he had taken an oath of allegiance after the death of Edward IV. there is little excuse. It was only after the murder of the princes in the tower that the he can have fully understood the real character of the usurper. Two months after the final triumph of Henry of Lancaster at Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485, he crowned the conqueror as King Henry VII. at Westminster.
The last act of the archbishop's eventful life was to officiate at the wedding of Henry of Lancaster with Elizabeth of York. This marriage, which united the white and red roses, brought peace at last to England. The aged archbishop lived but a few months longer. He died at his manor of Knole on April 6, 1486, at the age of eighty-two.
Of Archbishop Bourchier's ecclesiastical acts comparatively little is recorded. In 1460 he held an important synod in London, at which it was decided to appeal to parliament against the injustice to which the clergy were frequently exposed in the king's courts. At the convention of York in 1462, it was determined that the constitutions of the southern province should be incorporated with those of York ; thus
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at length uniting the churches of Canterbury and York by a common code of laws.6
In 1457, the famous scholar, Reginald Pecock, Bishop of Chichester (vide John Stafford), was cited to appear before a court under Archbishop Bourchier, and offered the choice between making a public abjuration of his errors or being delivered after degradation to the secular arm " as the food of fire and fuel for the burning." Moved by fear he withdrew the doctrines he had advocated, and was imprisoned in* the abbey of Thorney, in Cambridgeshire, where he died two years later.
An interesting document has recently been discovered by the Rev. Claude Jenkins, M.A., librarian of Lambeth Palace. It contains the roll of Archbishop Bourchier's household accounts from October 4 to 31, 1459 ? Many curious and interesting details are given relative to the prices of pro- visions at that time. A large quantity of fish of various kinds appears to have been consumed at the archbishop's table. Thirteen calves, fourteen oxen, ninety-two sheep and four pigs were consumed, apparently in addition to the usual allowance. The average number of the household during that time was between 130 and 140. The names of guests staying in the house are given, and include a papal legate. The rate of expenditure per annum is stated to have been 5723 pounds.
6 Ibid, p. 280.
280
64.— JOHN MORTON, i486 to 1500. King of England : Henry VII., 1485 to 1509.
John Morton, born about the year 1400, was the son of Richard Morton of Milbourne St. Andrew, Dorset, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Richard Turburville and Cecilia Beauchamp. Richard Morton belonged originally to a Nottinghamshire family, his father having been the first to settle in Dorset. The house in which John is said to have been born is still standing, and is situated on the Milbourne Styleham side of the river, which divides that hamlet from Milbourne St. Andrew. Until recently that portion of the village was ecclesiastically united to Bere Regis.1
John was the eldest of five sons and received his early education at Cerne Abbey, a Benedictine house near his home. He afterwards studied at Balliol College, Oxford, of which university he became vice-chancellor in 1446, and chancellor in 1494. He was also appointed principal of Peckwater Inn, Oxford, in 1453. After graduating as doctor of canon law, he commenced his public career as an ecclesiastical lawyer in the Court of Arches. This office brought him to the notice of Archbishop Bourchier, to whom he owed many of his prefer- ments in Church and State.2 These included the sub-deanery of Lincoln, the rectory of Blokesworth, near Bere Regis, which was probably a family living, the rectory of St. Dunstan's-in- the-West London (1472), prebends at Salisbury, Lincoln and St. Paul's, and the archdeaconries of Winchester and Chester
(1474).
During the civil wars Morton attached himself to the Lan- castrian side, and in 1456 was made chancellor to Prince Edward, the son of Henry VI. After the battle of Towton, Morton is believed to have accompanied King Henry and his family in their flight to Scotland. For his devotion to the
* R. I. Woodhouse, Life of John Morton, p. i. 2 Ibid., p. 48.
28l
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dethroned monarch he was attainted by Edward IV., and all his possessions confiscated. In 1462 he was among those who sailed with Queen Margaret from Bamborough to Sluys, in Flanders.3 where she arrived in an almost destitute con- dition, without change of raiment for herself or her attendants, and depending for her daily bread on the purse of De Breze. He remained for some time in her company with other Lan- castrians at St. Mihiel in Bar, living under the protection of the Duke of Burgundy.
Meanwhile, the Earl of Warwick laid schemes for placing the Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV., on the throne. The plot was discovered by King Edward, and Warwick was forced to escape with the duke to France. While there, he was persuaded by Louis XI. to become reconciled to Queen Margaret, and pledged himself to support the Lancastrians. The negotiations between Queen Margaret and the earl were conducted by Morton, who landed with Warwick at Dartmouth on September 13, 1470. Warwick who was soon joined by many of the nobles, despatched Morton with Sir John Fortescue to London, to prepare the citizens for his coming. During the short restoration of Henry VI. nothing is recorded of Morton. After the battle of Barnet in April, 1471, in which Warwick and his brother were slain, Morton hastened to join Queen Margaret, who on the very day of the battle had landed in England. She succeeded in raising an army from the western counties, but was defeated by Edward IV. at Tewkesbury on May 4. Her son, Prince Edward, now a youth of eighteen, was cruelly slain after the battle by Richard, Duke of Gloucester. A few days later, Henry VI. died in the Tower.
These tragic events having left no immediate successor of the House of Lancaster, Morton sued for a pardon, and obtained the reversal of his attainder in the following year. Edward IV. seems to have treated him with complete con- fidence, and in 1472 he was appointed Master of the Rolls. Two years later he was employed on an embassy to Nuys, in Germany, then under siege, to negotiate a treaty with the Duke of Burgundy against Louis XL of France.4
Edward IV. now revived the old claim to the French
3 William Wyrcester, Annates Rerum Anglicarum, II., 496. 1 Paston Letters, III. 123.
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John Morton
throne, and in the summer of 1475 set out for France with a large army. He was accompanied by Morton, who took an important part in drawing up the treaty with the French king. The wily Louis XI. beguiled Edward to a personal interview, and offered him and his nobles money to stop the invasion. Morton was one of those who received a considerable sum.5
On January 31, 1478, Morton was consecrated bishop of Ely, and resigned the mastership of the Rolls. He attended King Edward IV. on his deathbed, in 1483, and was appointed one of the executors of his will. On June 13, 1483, he was present at the council held by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, at Westminster, when the children of Edward IV. were declared to be bastards, and Richard's claim to the throne admitted. Richard courteously requested the bishop of Ely to send him some of the famous strawberries from his garden at Holborn, the London manor belonging to his see. The duke then retired from the council, but returned after an interval, and ordered the arrest of Morton and other Lancastrians who were known to be loyal adherents of the boy-king Edward V.6 Morton was imprisoned in the Tower, but was afterwards conveyed to Brecknock Castle, in Wales, where he remained under the guardianship of the Duke of Buckingham. Certain remarkable conversations which took place between Bucking- ham and his prisoner at Brecknock are recorded in the Chronicles of Grafton and Hall, the accounts given being evidently derived from the bishop himself. They prove that Morton showed much subtlety in leading the duke to open his mind concerning Richard. Buckingham finally declared that he was quite ready to join Morton and his friends in deposing the king. When the plot had been matured, Morton begged leave to go to Ely to raise funds, but Buckingham was un- willing to let him depart. While the duke still hesitated, Morton fled secretly by night in disguise. He proceeded to Ely, where he found money and friends, and thence crossed to Flanders. Buckingham's arrest and execution quickly followed.
s Ramsey's Lancaster and York, II. 413. 6 Ibid., p. 485.
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During his residence in Flanders, Morton entered into correspondence with Henry of Lancaster, to whom he rendered great service by informing him of Richard's projects against him. Lancaster was no sooner established on the throne as Henry VII. than he recalled Morton to England, and loaded him with favours. In October, i486 he was chosen to succeed Cardinal Bourchier as archbishop of Canterbury, and in the following March was appointed Lord Chancellor of England. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI., at Henry's request, made him cardinal of St. Anastasia.
His first efforts as archbishop were directed to the reforma- tion of the clergy. At a synod which he convened at St. Paul's in March, 1487, he severely rebuked the clergy of London for effeminately wearing long hair, and open coats, and for frequenting taverns.7
The avarice of Henry VII. caused the archbishop to be implicated in carrying out certain oppressive measures. To meet the expenses of the French war, Henry raised forced loans, which he called benevolences, from his subjects, and Morton as chancellor was employed in organizing their collection. In connection with these loans a witty saying of Morton has been preserved. " If," said he, " the persons applied to for benevolence live frugally, tell them that their parsimony must have enriched them, and that the king will therefore expect from them a liberal donation ; if their method of living on the contrary be extravagant, tell them that they can afford to give largely, since the proof of their opulence is evident from their expenditure." This dilemma from which there was no escape was called " Morton's Fork," or " Morton's Crutch."8
In 1489, he obtained from the pope a bull authorizing him to visit certain exempt monasteries. This enabled him to take vigorous measures against the monastery of St. Albans, where he insisted that a reformation of abuses should be effected within sixty days.
To both Ely and Canterbury, Morton was a liberal bene- factor, restoring their cathedrals and repairing their palaces. At Ely he caused the fens to be drained by a cut called
7 Edward Foss, The Judges of England, V., 62.
8 Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, V., 476.
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Morton's Leame, more than twelve miles long, from Peter- borough to Wisbech. The poor were not forgotten by him either in his lifetime or in his will, and both Oxford and Cambridge shared in his bounty. At Oxford he repaired the school of canon law and completed St. Mary's Church. He also founded five scholarships at St. John's College, Cam- bridge.9 While bishop of Ely, his chief recreation was the cultivation of his extensive gardens and orchards at Holbom. Morton took young Thomas More, afterwards the famous chancellor, into his household, and predicted for him a great career.
The history of Richard III. attributed to More is believed to have been first written in Latin by Archbishop Morton. Morton translated Cardinal Bonaventura's " Mirrour of the Blessed Life of Jesu," from the Latin. In his later years he became much broken by age and infirmities, and died of quartan ague after a long illness at his manor of Knole, in Kent, on September 13, 1500. He was buried in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, but the tomb cracked, exposing his bones, which were stolen, gradually disappearing one by one till only his skull remained. This was given by Archbishop Sheldon to his brother Ralph in 1670.
Morton is said to have been of middle stature, and in the prime of life his strength was prodigious. His countenance was such as to compel reverence, and while he allowed no undue familiarity, he was not difficult of approach. Thomas More, who knew him intimately, gives the highest praise to his intellectual and moral worth, and declares him to have been endowed with extraordinary natural gifts of memory and understanding.10
9 The Judges of England, V., 64.
ro R. I. Woodhouse, Life of John Morton, p. 98.
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65.— HENRY DEANE, 1501 to 1503.
King of England : Henry VII., 1485 to 1509.
Concerning the parentage and early life of Henry Deane nothing is known. The tradition that he belonged to the ancient family of Deane, who, since the reign of Henry I., had been settled at St. Briavel's Castle in the Forest of Dean, has not been authenticated ; nor has the statement of Foss that he was a Welshman sufficient evidence to support it. In a letter addressed by Deane, after he became primate, to the members of Oxford University he calls that university his " benignissima mater,"1 from which it is inferred that he was educated there.
The first authenticated fact concerning Deane is that in the reign of Edward IV. he became prior of LlanthoniaSecunda, near Gloucester, a cell of the priory of canons of St. Austin at Llanthony, in Monmouthshire. In 1481, Edward IV., on account of the incursions of the Welsh, united the two priories, making the cell at Gloucester the principal house. The right of patronage, with all the possessions of Llanthonia Prima, was granted to Henry Deane prior, for 300 marks, on condition that a native prior and four canons should be maintained in Monmouthshire.2
The prior of Llanthony is said to have been indebted for preferment to Archbishop Morton, who recommended him to King Henry VII. In September, 1495, he was appointed chancellor of Ireland, where the cause of the impostor Perkin Warbeck, who pretended to be a son of the Duke of Clarence, had been warmly espoused. The king now placed Ireland under the nominal government of his son Henry, Duke of York, with Sir Edward Poynings, as deputy,3 and a con-
1 Wood, Athena Oxon (ed. Bliss), p. 691.
2 Archceological Journal, Vol. XVIII. 256.
J Letters and Papers of Reigns of Richard III. and Henry VII. (Rolls series), II., 376.
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ciliatory policy was adopted. Through the energy of the deputy and chancellor, who is described as a man of great wit and diligence, the disaffected nobles were brought to obedience. Deane prevailed on the Irish parliament to pass the statute known as Poynings' Act, by which it was decreed that hence- forth no parliament should be held in Ireland until the pro- posed acts were approved in England. In the following June, Deane was constituted justiciary of Ireland in the absence of Poynings. The ability displayed by Deane in the conduct of Irish affairs was not overlooked by Henry VII., who in 1496 nominated him bishop of Bangor. While occupying this see, he was permitted to retain the priory of Llanthony in com- mendam. At that period the diocese of Bangor had fallen into a deplorable condition. Since the rebellion of Owen Glendower in the reign of Henry IV., the cathedral had been in ruins. The bishop had ceased to reside there, and the property of the see had been seized by the nobles.4
Bishop Deane addressed himself with great energy to remedy these evils, and to reclaim the ecclesiastical property of the see. The Isle of Seals, known as the Skerries, at the northern extremity of Anglesey, had at one time belonged to the see of Bangor, but had now passed by purchase into the hands of a certain Sir William Griffith, whose family claimed the ex- clusive right of the fisheries. On October 7, 1496, Bishop Deane, having determined to assert his rights, went with a well-armed party to the island, and concluded a good day's sport by the capture of twenty-eight large fish called " grampas." As the bishop and his party were leaving the island, they were met by the son of Sir William Griffith with a train of armed followers, who seized the fish. A battle ensued, in which the fish were recaptured by the bishop. After this victory he appears to have succeeded in establishing his claim to the fisheries of the island.5 Before his translation to the bishopric of Salisbury in 1499, Deane had recovered nearly all the property of the see. He refused to leave Bangor until he had received a guarantee that the reparation of the cathedral, which he had begun, would be continued by his successor.
« Parker's De Aniiq. Brit. Eccles., p. 301. 5 Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Cant., V., 511.
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Deane occupied the see of Salisbury little more than a year. During that time he received the Great Seal with the title of Lord Keeper, and was employed in negotiating the marriage of Princess Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII., with James IV. of Scotland.
On the death of Archbishop Morton, Thomas Langton, Bishop of Winchester, was elected to the see of Canterbury, but died of the plague before his translation could be effected. The king then requested the chapter of Canterbury to nominate Henry Deane, Bishop of Salisbury, to the vacant see. This was accordingly done, and his election was readily confirmed by Pope Alexander VI., by a bull dated May 26, 1501. The pope is said to have been specially willing at this time to oblige Henry VII., who in the previous year had per- mitted a papal envoy to collect tribute in England, on the pretence that the money was to be used for a crusade against the Turks.6
Deane was soon afterwards appointed papal legate, in order that he might have authority to visit the exempt monasteries. On November 14, 1501, he officiated with nine- teen bishops at the marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Aragon. A detailed account of the magnificent wedding ceremony and the festivities which followed has been pre- served.7
In the summer of 1502, the archbishop's health began to fail, and he resigned the Great Seal. He died at Lambeth on February 15, 1503. As he was never rich enough to be enthroned, his donations to various charitable objects reflect great credit on his character. He rebuilt a consider- able part of the episcopal manor at Otford, and repaired Rochester Bridge.
For his funeral expenses he left the sum of £500. Accord- ing to the directions in his will, his body was conveyed from Lambeth to Faversham in a barge, rowed by thirty-three sailors, dressed in black, and bearing each a lighted candle. At Faversham the coffin was placed on a funeral car, surmounted by an effigy of the archbishop arrayed in full pontificals.
6 Parker's De Antiq. Brit. Eccles., p. 302.
7 Letters and Papers of Reigns of Richard III. and Henry VII. (Rolls series), I. 411.
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Fifty torches blazed round the bier, and sixty gentlemen followed on horseback to Canterbury. On February 24, the funeral took place in Canterbury Cathedral. One of his executors was Thomas Wolsey, the future cardinal, who had been a chaplain in his household. The executors faithfully carried out the directions concerning his funeral, but dis- regarded many of his bequests and donations. His will, which is a curious document, has been preserved.8
8 ArchcBologicai Journal, VoL XVIII. p. 256.
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66.— WILLIAM WARHAM, 1503 to 1532.
Kings of England : Henry VII., 1485 to 1509. Henry VIII., 1509 to 1547.
The figure of the last primate of Canterbury to die under the old regime cannot fail to be a pathetic one. For well- nigh a thousand years, since the day when the illustrious monk sent by Gregory the Great had founded at Canter- bury the first English Church, its links with the Mother Church at Rome had remained unbroken. In spite of the injustice, tyranny and oppression long practised by the Roman see, in spite of the corruption and vice of the pontiffs of the middle ages, England as a whole had continued loyal to Rome. The great change which was now at hand was only part of a wide intellectual and political movement, the natural outcome of which many of our greatest churchmen were slow to discern. Those who, like Archbishop Warham, remained faithful to the old traditions could contemplate only with dismay the revolutionary hurricane which seemed about to sweep away the very bulwarks of the ancient faith. It is little wonder if, after a long, hopeless struggle against the forces which overwhelmed him, his courage at last failed him, and at the age of fourscore years he died broken- hearted.
William Warham was born about the year 1450, and was the son of Robert Warham, a gentleman of good family, settled at Malshanger, in the parish of Church Oakley, Hamp- shire. He was educated at Winchester, and at New College, Oxford, of which university he became a fellow, and in 1506 chancellor. On leaving the university he became an advocate in the Court of Arches, and in 1491 was sent with others by Henry VII. to a diet at Antwerp to settle certain disputes with the Hanse merchants.1 His eloquence and legal ability
1 Cat. of State Papers (Venetian), Vol. II., p. 271.
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ARCHBISHOP WARHAM.
(From the minting bv Holbein in Lambeth Palace.)
William Warham
caused him to be employed frequently on State affairs. He accompanied an embassy to Flanders to protest against the support given to the usurper Perkin Warbeck, and soon afterwards went to Spain to take part in the negotiations which preceded the marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Aragon. In 1494 he was appointed Master of the Rolls. Shortly before this he had taken holy orders, and was pre- ferred to livings in Herts and Cambridgeshire. In 1501 he was consecrated bishop of London, and on the death of Archbishop Deane was promoted to the see of Canterbury by a bull of Pope Julius II., dated November 29, 1503. Two years previous to this he had been made keeper of the Great Seal, a title which he exchanged for that of Lord Chan- cellor in 1504.
Warham's enthronement at Canterbury took place on March 9, 1504. The banquet which followed was sump- tuous beyond description, "all the archbishop's honours were drawn, depicted and delineated after a strange manner on gilded marchpane upon the banqueting dishes." Though Warham was famous for his hospitality, often entertaining as many as two hundred guests at his table, he lived himself very simply, and cared nothing for the amusements in which other prelates then frequently engaged. His favourite re- laxation was to sup with some group of scholarly visitors, enjoying their wit, and retorting with wit of his own. Scholars found a sure welcome under his hospitable roof, and his purse was ever open to relieve their wants. At Warham's palace at Lambeth, Erasmus, the famous scholar of Rotterdam, first met Colet and More, the leaders of that little band of English humanists known as the Oxford Reformers, who did much to prepare the way for the Reformation. To induce Erasmus to settle in England, Warham offered him a living in Kent, and repeatedly sent him gifts of money. It was to Archbishop Warham that Erasmus addressed the preface of his " St. Jerome." " From Warham none ever parted in sorrow," wrote the famous scholar, after his faithful friend had passed to his rest.
Yet, in spite of his marked ability and integrity, the humility of Warham frequently displayed itself in a weak surrender of his will to the tyranny of Henry VIII., and his chief
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minister, Cardinal Wolsey. In 1515 the Great Seal was re- signed by Warham, and bestowed on Wolsey. The arch- bishop had for some years earnestly desired to retire from public life and was only too glad to be released from the burden of office. His resignation at this time is said to have been partly due to his disapproval of the aid given by Henry to the Emperor against France and Venice.2 His private relations with Wolsey, from whom he frequently declared that he had received much kindness, continued friendly until the death of the cardinal. The same cannot be said, however, of their official relations. The dictatorial and overbearing character of the cardinal led him to interfere unduly with the arch- bishop's jurisdiction, but though Warham remonstrated on more than one occasion against the invasion of his rights, he usually ended by submitting to Wolsey. For his submission to the heavy taxation imposed by Wolsey on the clergy in order to meet the king's demands, Warham was called " an old fool."
In 1520, Warham accompanied Henry VIII. to France, and was present at the meeting with Francis I. at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He afterwards went with the king to Gravelines to meet the emperor.
Luther's doctrines had meantime penetrated to England, though as yet their acceptance was confined to the few. On May 13, 1521, Wolsey considered it advisable publicly to denounce these doctrines, and to burn certain of Luther's works. A procession of bishops, headed by Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop Warham, and ambassadors from the pope and emperor, proceeded to St. Paul's. Warham opened the proceedings by a laudatory oration in praise of the cardinal. The bishop of Rochester then preached a sermon condemning the doctrines of Friar Martin Luther, and concluded by reading a brief from the pope. The assembled prelates then proceeded to St. Paul's Cross, where a platform had been erected, from which they solemnly witnessed the lighting of a bonfire, in which the condemned books were consumed. The terrible anathemas pronounced on Luther by Wolsey during the conflagration profoundly impressed the Londoners. The ceremony lasted until after 2 p.m. The cardinal afterwards
• Ibid., p. 310.
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invited the ambassadors and bishops to dine with him, and a sumptuous banquet followed.3
In the business of Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Warham was not called upon to take any prominent part. He is said to have disapproved from the first of the papal dispensation, which had permitted the marriage to take place. In 1527 he assisted Wolsey in the secret inquiry concerning the validity of the marriage, and appears to have been deluded by the cardinal into believing that doubts had originated not with the king, but with the bishop of Tarbes. He was one of the counsellors nominated to support the queen's cause, but Catherine, on hearing of this, declared that he would be of little help to her, since he would advise nothing contrary to the king's wishes. This unfortunately appears to have been only too true.*
Warham wrote to the university of Oxford urging the divines to come to a speedy decision on the question of the divorce. He also signed the letter sent by the bishops of England to Clement VII., urging the pope to annul the king's marriage with Catherine. Henry afterwards proposed that the venerable archbishop should try the case himself, but the pope justly refused to agree to this, as Warham had already given his decision in the king's favour.
After the disgrace and death of Wolsey, the king, by right of the Statute of Praemunire, claimed from the clergy an enormous fine for having acquiesced in the authority con- ferred by the pope on Wolsey as cardinal-legate. Warham presided at the convocation of 1531 which voted 100,000 pounds to the king, in order to avoid the penalties which he declared had been incurred. Henry consented to accept this sum on the understanding that he was acknowledged by the clergy as " supreme Lord of the Church, and as much as Christ's law permits supreme Head."
Towards the close of his life Warham seems to have shown more independence. In February, 1532, he protested against all the acts that had been passed since 1329, against the papal authority, and the liberties of the Church. But the
3 Ibid., Vol III., p. 122.
♦ Cf . Art. on Archbishop Warham by James Gairdner in Diet, of Nat. Biog.
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final submission of the clergy to the king a few months later broke his heart. He was overtaken by his last illness while on a visit to his nephew, William, Archdeacon of Canterbury, at St. Stephen's, Hackington, near Canterbury. On learning that his end was near, he summoned his steward to his bed- side, and inquired what money remained in his coffers. He was told thirty pounds. " Satis viatici ad ccelum," he said.3 He died on August 22, 1532, and was buried in a small chapel built by himself in Canterbury Cathedral on the north side of the Martyrdom of St. Thomas. One of his last acts had been to commit to writing his solemn protestation against the statutes published by parliament in derogation of the Roman pontiff and the apostolic see, or in diminution of the rights, privileges, customs and liberties, which belonged to the Church of Canterbury.
" This weak exprobration," writes Dixon, " was the last instrument of an English primate who died legate of the apostolic see ; and when the hand that wrote it, stiff in death, but wearing still in funeral state the consecrated glove, in which it had often been raised to celebrate the great mystery of the Catholic faith, was pressing to the yet unburied breast of the writer the golden cross of Canterbury, the proud dominion of a thousand years was already gone for ever. The scene was clearing for the new actors."6
5 Hook, Lives of the Archbishops. Vol. VII., p. 420.
6 Hist, of the Church of England. Vol. I., p. 144.
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ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. (After the portrait by Holbein in Jesui College, Cambridge.)
67.— THOMAS CRANMER, 1533 to 1556.
Kings of England : Henry VIII., 1509 to 1547. Edward VI., 1547 to 1553. Mary I., 1553 to 1558.
Thomas Cranmer was born at Aslacton, in Nottinghamshire, on July 2, 1489. He was the second son of Thomas Cranmer (who belonged to an old family, originally of Lincoln- shire), by his wife, Anne Hatfield, daughter of Laurence Hatfield, of Willoughby. He received his early education, probably at a grammar school near his home, " from a mar- vellous severe and cruel schoolmaster, whose tyranny towards youth was such that he dulled the tender and fine wits of his scholars, till they commonly more hated and abhorred good literature than favoured and embraced the same."1
Thomas Cranmer the elder, who was a keen sportsman, caused his son to be instructed in all manly exercises. None could manage a pack of hounds or handle the long bow with more dexterity or the cross bow with a surer aim. In horse- manship he so excelled that even after he became archbishop he could ride the roughest horse in his stables. At the age of fourteen Thomas, who had by this time lost his father, was sent to Cambridge by his mother. About the year 15 n he took the degree of B.A. and was elected a fellow of Jesus College. Shortly afterwards he was forced to resign his fellowship on account of his marriage with Black Joan,2 who is said to have been niece to the landlady of the Dolphin Inn at Cambridge. His wife died in child-birth a year after his marriage, and he was immediately afterwards re-elected to his fellowship. It was probably the death of his wife which decided him to take holy orders, and about the year 1523 he graduated doctor of divinity. About this time he is said to have been elected a fellow of the college founded by Cardinal
1 Ralph Morice's Anecdotes of Archbishop Cranmer (Camden Soc.), P- 259.
* Cooper, Athena Cantab., I., 145.
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Wolsey at Oxford, but he declined to leave Cambridge, where he was soon afterwards appointed lecturer in divinity at Jesus College, and examiner in the same subject to the university.
In August 1529, an epidemic known as the sweating sickness broke out in Cambridge, in consequence of which the schools were closed, and the scholars dispersed. Cranmer with two of his pupils retired to the house of their father, Mr. Cressy, a gentleman of property, living at Waltham in Essex. Cranmer 's brief sojourn at Essex was destined to alter his career in an unexpected manner.
At this time the king happened to pass through Waltham, and two of his chief counsellors, Gardiner, the Secretary of State, afterwards bishop of Winchester, and Dr. Fox, Lord High Almoner, afterwards bishop of Hereford, were lodged in Mr. Cressy's house. There they met Cranmer, to whom they were well known, being both heads of colleges at Cam- bridge.3 The conversation naturally turned on the subject of the king's divorce, which was at this time agitating Europe. The legatine court which should have decided the business had just been dissolved, leaving the affair in its old un- certainty. Cranmer suggested that the opinions of all the universities in Europe should be sought on the legality of marriage with a deceased brother's wife. If the universities were unanimous in declaring such a marriage illegal, the case could be decided in the ordinary ecclesiastical courts without an appeal to the pope. Cranmer's suggestion was afterwards reported to Henry, who declared with an oath that he had " gotten the right sow by the ear." He was summoned by the king to Greenwich, and ordered to lay aside all his occu- pations in order to devote himself to the preparation of a treatise in favour of the divorce. He was meantime appointed chaplain to the Earl of Wiltshire, Anne Boleyn's father, in whose house at Durham Place, overlooking the Thames, he lived for several months. In January, 1530, he accompanied the Earl of Wiltshire andDr. Stokesley, Bishop-elect of London, on an embassy to the Emperor Charles V. He also visited Rome, where he was honourably received. Pope Clement VII . appointed him Grand Penitentiary of England, but refused to give any definite decision regarding the divorce.
3 Ibid., 146.
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Cranmer returned to England in 15 31, but was imme- diately afterwards despatched to Germany as an ambassador to the emperor. While in that country, he had a secret interview with John Frederick, Duke of Saxony, to whom he delivered letters for the German princes of the Protestant League, assuring them of King Henry's friendship. He also concluded a commercial treaty between England and the Low Countries.4 During his residence at Nuremberg, he formed an intimacy withOsiander, the famous Protestant reformer, whose niece Margaret he married.
On the death of Archbishop Warham in 1532, King Henry determined to promote Cranmer to the archbishopric of Canterbury. The election of a comparatively obscure cleric to the highest office in the Church excited considerable in- dignation among the suffragan bishops. Henry succeeded, however, in obtaining from Rome the necessary papal bulls for the confirmation of his election.
Cranmer was at Mantua, whither he had accompanied the emperor, when he received news of his promotion. He was reluctant to accept the high office, and sent letters to the king urging that his recent marriage disqualified him from holding the archbishopric. He then sent his wife to England, but delayed his own return for seven weeks in the vain hope that the king might change his purpose. But Henry had already determined to make use of the new primate to obtain the divorce.
On March 30, 1533, he was consecrated archbishop in the chapter-house of St. Stephen's College, Westminster, by the bishops of Lincoln, Exeter and St. Asaph. Before taking the usual oath of obedience to the see of Rome, he made a protestation declaring that by the oath he did not bind himself to anything contrary to the laws of God, the king's prerogative, or the statutes of the kingdom, nor did he tie himself from speaking his mind freely in matters relating to the reformation of religion or the government of the Church.
Before Cranmer's return to England, the king had privately married Anne Boleyn. Meantime the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Paris had pronounced in favour of the divorce, but those of Germany, influenced by the opinions of Luther,
« Ibid.
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declined to follow suit. In May, 1533, Queen Catherine, who was staying at Ampthill in Bedfordshire, was summoned before an ecclesiastical court at Dunstable, a place four miles distant. Refusing to appear, she was declared contumacious, and Archbishop Cranmer pronounced her marriage with the king null and void, and her daughter, the Princess Mary, illegitimate.
On June 1, Cranmer crowned Anne Boleyn with great pomp at Westminster. Anne drove to the cathedral in a white chariot drawn by palfreys in white damask. She was dressed in white tissue robes, her fair hair flowing loose over her shoulders, and her temples decorated with a coronet of gold and diamonds. " Three short years were yet to pass and again on a summer morning Queen Anne Boleyn was to leave the Tower of London, not radiant then with beauty on a gay errand of coronation, but a poor wandering ghost on a sad tragic errand, from which she would never more return." 5
On September 1, 1533, Cranmer stood godfather to Anne's child, the future Queen Elizabeth. On the committal of Anne to the Tower on May 2, 1536, Archbishop Cranmer visited her and afterwards interceded on her behalf with the king. But his feeble intercessions proved as fruitless as they had been a short time previously in the cases of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More. Fourteen days later Cranmer was induced to pronounce Anne's marriage with the king null and void. Her execution took place on May 19, and on the following day Cranmer granted a licence for the king's marriage with Jane Seymour.
On June 6, 1540, the archbishop married Henry to Anne of Cleves, whose divorce he pronounced six months later. In 1541 the painful duty devolved on him of conveying to King Henry the news of Catherine Howard's infidelity. For Cranmer's weak acquiescence to the king's will in these matrimonal scandals no excuse can be offered. He appears to have permitted himself to be used as a tool in the hands of the tyrannical monarch.
John Rogers, writing under the pseudonym of Matthew, had produced a Bible in English embodying the translations of
s Froude, Hist, of England, Vol. I., pp. 464 to 465.
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Tyndale and Coverdale. This version was approved by Cranmer, who believed it to be an entirely new one, and in 1538 he procured from the king an order that an English Bible should be placed in every parish church. The work of reforming the service books was taken in hand by the Convocation of Canterbury in 1542. An English version of the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments, and an English Litany written by Cranmer were produced.
In the dissolution of the religious houses which was carried out chiefly by Thomas Cromwell, the vicar-general, Cranmer took little part. In the autumn of 1538 the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury was destroyed by Henry's orders. The costly jewels and treasures belonging to the shrine filled twenty-six carts in which the spoil was conveyed to London. A letter has been preserved written to Cromwell by Archbishop Cranmer, dated August 18, 1538, in which he mentions his suspicion that the blood of St. Thomas exhibited at Christ Church, Canterbury, was " but a forged thing made of red ochre and such like matter."6
Most of the confiscated wealth was squandered by the king, with the exception of a small portion devoted to the creation of six new sees poorly endowed and to the establishment of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1541, the cathedral church at Canterbury underwent a change, the monastic foundation being replaced by a dean and chapter.
While denying the papal supremacy, Henry insisted on retaining all the doctrines of the Catholic Church. In 1539, Parliament passed the Act of the Six Articles for abolishing diversity of opinion. This act made the repudiation of the Catholic doctrines on the one hand and the acknowledgment of the pope's authority on the other crimes alike punishable with death. The denial of the doctrine of Transubstantiation was accounted heresy, and the marriage of priests was for- bidden. This obliged Cranmer to put away his wife, whom he had kept in seclusion since his elevation to the primacy. There is a story that in order to retain her company Cranmer carried her about in a chest, with holes bored in the top to admit the air. On one occasion a porter, when removing
6 Remains of Thomas Cranmer, Jenkyns' ed. Vol. I., p. 262.
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the chest, placed it upside down, and the lady had to make her presence known by her screams.7
Many so-called heretics of wholly opposite opinions were examined by Cranmer, and suffered death under the Act of the Six Articles. The archbishop had many enemies, chief among whom was Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, who was bitterly opposed to the changes which had been made. At his instigation the suffragans accused Cranmer of heresy, but he was protected by Henry VIII.8
In January 1547, Cranmer was summoned to the deathbed of the king, but when he arrived Henry was speechless. The archbishop, " speaking comfortable words," bent over the dying tyrant and begged for some sign of his faith in Christ. Henry made an effort to grasp Cranmer's hand, and expired. By his will he had elected sixteen of the chief men in England, among whom the archbishop was included, to govern the kingdom during the minority of his son Edward. But the chief power immediately passed into the hands of the young king's uncle, the Earl of Hereford, who was created Duke of Somerset and Protector of England. On February 20, Cranmer crowned Edward VI. at Westminster.
Though Cranmer had little share in the government during Edward's reign, he played a leading part in the ecclesiastical changes effected. The persecution of heretics continued. In I55°> J°an Bocher was burnt for heresy, and the archbishop is said to have persuaded the young king to sign the warrant for her execution.
Somerset, who belonged to the Lutheran party, gave orders that all the altars, pictures and images of saints should be removed from the churches. This was done in a manner which gave offence to many who from childhood had been accustomed to reverence the images as holy. In 1648, the Act of the Six Articles was repealed, thus per- mitting the marriage of the clergy, and Cranmer's wife returned from Germany. Two reformed Prayer Books were issued during Edward's reign, the first in 1548 and the second in 1552. The first, which was compiled in haste, owed much
* A. F. Pollard, Thomas Cranmer, p. 325.
8 Strype's Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, Vol. I., p. 185, cf. Shakespeare's Henry VIII., Act V.
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to the influence of German reformers ; the second bore evidence of a more national spirit.
In 1549, the first Act of Uniformity was passed, enforcing the use of the English Prayer Book for public worship. In- surrections immediately broke out in Devon and Cornwall. The rebels drew up a petition consisting of Fifteen Articles, in which they demanded the restoration of the Latin mass, the use of images and the restitution of the Act of the Six Articles. Archbishop Cranmer drew up a reply to the petition, in which he attempted to show the inconsistency of many of their demands. The insurrections were gradually quelled, chiefly through the energetic measures taken by the Earl of Warwick.
In 1552, the Forty-two Articles of religion, afterwards reduced to the well-known Thirty-nine, were compiled by Cranmer. He also undertook the codification of the canon law, which had been begun before the death of Henry VIII. Cranmer's " Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament " was first published in 1550. To this work Gardiner sent a reply from the Tower where he had been confined, and Cranmer was forced to prepare a more elaborate treatise to refute that of Gardiner.
After the execution of Somerset, the chief power passed to Warwick, who was created Earl of Northumberland. He belonged to the Protestant party, but his selfish and am- bitious character caused him to act entirely in his own interests. It was chiefly due to his influence that Edward VI. was induced to set aside the claims of his half-sister Mary to the crown, in order that a Protestant succession might be secured through Lady Jane Grey, Northumberland's daughter-in-law. In July 1553, Cranmer was summoned to the death-bed of the young king, who begged him to sign the document bequeathing the crown of England to Lady Jane Grey. Though as an executor of the will of Henry VIII. Cranmer had pledged himself to support Mary, he yielded with characteristic weakness to the dying king's urgent entreaties, thus committing himself to the cause of Lady Jane Grey.
After the failure of Northumberland's scheme, and the accession of Mary Tudor, Cranmer was summoned before the council, reprimanded for his disloyalty, and ordered to remain
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at Lambeth until the queen's pleasure was known. A com- mission was appointed to enquire into his acts, and he was ordered to appear at St. Paul's on August 27, bringing with him an inventory of his goods.
Meantime Thornden, Bishop of Dover, took upon himself to say the Latin mass at Canterbury Cathedral, though the laws against it had not yet been repealed. The rumour got abroad that he had done so by the archbishop's orders, and that Cranmer himself had offered to say mass before the queen. Cranmer at once prepared a written declaration in which he violently repudiated this slander, and concluded by offering to prove that the English Prayer Book and all the doctrines set up by the late king were purer and more scrip- tural than any that had been used in England for a thousand years. This rash declaration was made public without his knowledge, and on September 14, 1553, he was committed to the Tower, where Bishops Ridley and Latimer were already confined. In November, the archbishop was condemned for treason along with Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley. His life was spared, but the queen, who could not forgive him for the part he had taken in the divorce of her mother, Catherine of Aragon, had determined to commit him to trial for heresy. In March 1554, he was removed with Ridley and Latimer to Oxford, and was sentenced to be tried before a papal commission. The pope afterwards appointed Bishop Brooks, of Gloucester, to act for him. Cranmer wrote to the queen, expressing regretful surprise that his sovereign should desire him to be tried before a foreign tribunal. On receiving his letter, Mary ordered Cardinal Pole to reply to it.9
The trial did not commence until September, 1555. During the eighteen months which intervened, Cranmer was confined in the Bocardo prison at Oxford. Meantime the marriage of Mary with Philip of Spain was celebrated, and the terrible persecution of the Protestants began. Ridley and Latimer were brought to the stake on October 16, 1555. Cranmer was permitted to witness their death from the top of his prison tower.
The condemnation of Cranmer after his trial was a foregone
' Strype's Memorials, II.
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conclusion. The report of the trial was sent to Rome for confirmation, and in December Pope Paul IV. declared the archbishop to be excommunicated and deprived as a notorious heretic, and ordered him to be handed over to the secular power. A commission consisting of Bishops Bonner of London andThirlby of Ely were chosen to perform the ceremony of his degradation. He was first clothed in the vestments of a sub- deacon, deacon, priest, bishop and archbishop, all on the top of the other and all made of canvas and old clouts, with a mitre and pall of the same stuff. After Bonner had addressed him in insulting words, the bishops proceeded to strip him of the vestments one by one, declaring him degraded from each office in turn. A barber clipped his hair and the bishops scraped the tips of his fingers where he had been anointed. He was then degraded from the minor orders and dressed in the gown of a poor yeoman with a townsman's cap on his head. As Cranmer in this guise was led back to his prison, a com- passionate gentleman from Gloucester restored to him his own gown.10
The ceremony of his degradation took place on February 14, 1556. Soon afterwards his courage failed him, and he was induced to sign no less than six declarations, re- pudiating the doctrines of Luther and other reformers, acknowledging all the doctrines of the Roman Church, and the supremacy of the pope, and expressing deep regret for his past career. This did not save him, for Mary had from the first determined that he should die. March 21 was the day fixed for his execution. It had been arranged that a sermon should be preached at the stake by Dr. Cole, Provost of Eton, and that Cranmer should afterwards read his recantations to the assembled crowd. But the morning dawned wet , and Dr. Cole preached to a crowded congregation in St. Mary's Church. Cranmer was placed on a wooden platform by a pillar, where he could be seen by all. During the sermon, which lasted nearly two hours, Cranmer knelt in prayer, weeping abundantly. At the close he was called upon to read his recantations. He began by solemnly declaring that he believed all the articles of the Christian Faith, and all that was taught by Holy Scripture. He exhorted the people to love, charity, and
»° Foxe's Acts and Monuments, VIII., 80.
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almsgiving, " And now I come," said he, " to the great thing that so much troubleth my conscience, more than anything I ever did or said in my whole life ; and this is the setting abroad of a writing contrary to the truth which now here I renounce and refuse as things written with my hand contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, written for fear of death, and to save my life if it might be ; and that is all such bills and papers which I have written or signed with my hand since my degradation, wherein I have written many things untrue. And forasmuch as my hand offended, writing con- trary to my heart, my hand shall be first punished therefor, for when I come to the fire it shall be first burned. As for the pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy and anti-Christ, with all his false doctrine. As for the Sacrament, I believe as I have taught in my book against the bishop of Winchester, which my book teacheth so true a doctrine of the Sacra- ment that it shall stand at the last day before the judgment of God, when the papist doctrine contrary thereto shall be ashamed to show her face."
Murmurs of amazement arose on all sides, and Dr. Cole angrily ordered the bystanders to stop the heretic's mouth and take him away. He was hurried violently from the church to the place of execution, an iron chain was fixed round his body, binding him to the stake, and the fire kindled. As the fire mounted he was seen to hold his right hand in the flame, and kept it there steadfastly save that once he removed it to wipe his face. Often he was heard to repeat the words, " This unworthy hand." There he stayed till life departed, and died with extraordinary fortitude.
The many-sided character of Cranmer, the great archbishop of the Reformation, is one of the most perplexing with which history has to deal. For his weakness in pandering to the sensual passions of the tyrant, King Henry, it is impossible to exonerate him. Yet for his work as a scholar and theologian the Anglican Church owes him the deepest gratitude. He lived through one of the most difficult periods in the world's history. He possessed a temperament which was singularly timid, and which his long, solitary confinement tended further to enfeeble. There can be little doubt that the recantations were wrung from him by promises that his life would be
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spared. Yet his final act of courage proves beyond doubt that the cause for which he suffered was dear to his heart.
By his second wife, who survived him many years, Cranmer left a son and two daughters.
Cranmer's principal writings are: (i) A Book on Henry VIII. 's divorce, against marriage with a brother's widow. (2) Preface to the Bible 1540. (3) " A Short Instruction into Christian Religion " commonly called his " Catechism," translated from the Latin of Justus Jones. (4) A Preface to the Book of Common Prayer. (5) " Answer to the Devonshire Rebels " and aSermon on Rebellion. (6) "Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum." (7) "A Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament." (8) "An Answer unto a Crafty and Sophistical Cavillation devised by Stephen Gardiner," i.e., to Gardiner's reply to the preceding treatise. (9) "A Confutation of Unwritten Verities," an answer to a treatise of Dr. Richard Smith, maintaining that there were truths necessary to be believed which were not expressed in Scripture."
" James Gairdner, Art. on Archbishop Cranmer, Diet. Nat. Biog.
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68.— REGINALD POLE, 1556 to 1558. Queen of England : Mary I., 1553 to 1558.
Reginald Pole was born at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, in March 1500, and was the third son of Sir Reginald Pole, Knight of the Garter, and Mary, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV. At the age of seven he was sent to a grammar school founded by Colet, near the Carthusian monastery of Sheen, in Surrey, where he remained five years. He afterwards went to Magdalen College, Oxford, where the famous humanists Thomas Linacre and William Latimer were his tutors.
Henry VIII., who acknowledged Pole as a near kinsman, contributed generously towards his education. In 1513, Henry created Pole's widowed mother, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, and made her governess to the Princess Mary. From an early age Pole seems to have been intended for the Church, and while yet a layman in his teens benefices were bestowed on him. These included a prebend in Salisbury Cathedral, and the deanery of the collegiate church of Wim- borne in Dorset. Throughout his career he showed a preference for the studious life.
In 1521, he went at the king's expense1 to Padua to continue his studies. There he came in contact with many of the greatest scholars of the later Italian Renaissance, and formed friendships which influenced his life. He also corresponded with Erasmus and More. After vising Rome, Florence and Venice, he was recalled to England in 1527, and made dean of Exeter. The king determined to make use of his noble kinsman for his own ends, and despatched him to Paris to obtain the opinion of the university concerning the divorce. Though when the question was first raised Pole seems to have sided with the king, more careful consideration soon caused him to change his mind. The judgment pronounced in
1 Wood Athena Oxon., Vol. I., p. 279.
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CARDINAL POLE. (From the original painting by Titian )
Reginald Pole
Henry's favour by the university of Paris was due not to Pole, but to the influence of Francis I. After the death of Wolsey, Pole was offered the archbishopric of York, or the see of Winchester. He asked for a month to make up his mind, and finally had a stormy interview with the king at York Place, when he boldly denounced the divorce. Henry was so enraged, that several times during the interview he laid his land on his dagger.* The king, however, commanded him to put in writing his opinions concerning the divorce. Pole drew up a paper in which he condemned the reasoning of Henry's supporters, and ended by imploring the king to refrain from taking a step which would irretrievably defame his honour. After reading this the king is said to have wavered in his decision for some time.
In January 1532, Pole again obtained leave from the king to go abroad to study theology. He resided for some months at Avignon, but finding that the climate did not agree with him, he returned to Padua. Meantime Henry procured his divorce from Catherine and married Anne Boleyn. The Emperor Charles V., who was deeply indignant at the wrong done his aunt, Queen Catherine, is said at this time to have favoured her project of marrying the Princess Mary to Pole, and thus uniting the houses of Tudor and York with a view to deposing Henry. There is no evidence, however, that such a proposal was ever formally made to Pole himself, though he was informed that the emperor looked to him to redress the wrongs of the injured queen.
In 1535 King Henry, who still hoped to justify his actions with respect to the divorce, sent orders to Pole to draw up a treatise in reply to the two questions : (1) Is marriage with a deceased brother's wife permissible by divine law ? (2) Is papal supremacy a divine institution ? Pole's reply took a year to write. It was intended for the king's eye alone, but was published some years later under the little of " Pro Unitate Ecclesise." In spite of the gratitude which Pole owed to Henry for the many benefits conferred on him, he felt that it was now his duty before God to speak plainly, whatever might be the cost to himself and his family. The floodgates of his bitter scorn for the king were at last opened,
s Ibid., p. 283.
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and in this treatise he denounces Henry in the most violent language. " Thou hast cast thy kingdom into miserable commotions and made it the spectacle of the world," he wrote. " Thy butcheries and horrible executions have made England the slaughter-house of innocence. The holiest and most spotless men on earth have been slaughtered for new crimes in the most ghastly and unspeakable manner. . . In their bloody deaths no torment was spared them ; to religion no insult. All nations wept to hear of that fearful tragedy, and even now, after so long a time, when I write of it tears burst from my eyes. And thou art he that argues that the Pope cannot be the Vicar of Christ through moral depravity ! Worse art thou than Korah who rebelled against Aaron, worse than King Uzziah who usurped the priestly office, worse than Saul who slew the priest at Nob. Lucifer alone, who set himself against the Most High, may fitly be compared to thee."
All hope of a compromise between Henry and Reginald Pole was now at an end. The king, dissembling his wrath, invited Pole to England on the pretext of discussing the subject more fully, but he wisely refused the invitation. His eldest brother, Lord Montague, and his mother, the Countess of Salisbury, dreading the royal vengeance, denounced Reginald as a traitor. Shortly after this he was summoned to Rome by Pope Paul III., in order to take part in a commission for the reform of the Church and the Roman curia. Pole was received in Rome with much honour, and lodged in the Vatican. He now took deacon's orders, and on December 22, 1536, consented with some reluctance to accept the honour of being created cardinal of St. Mary in Cosmedin.
Early in the following year, the pope sent him as legate to Charles V. and Francis I., in the hope of persuading them to unite to depose Henry. The mission failed, for the Emperor and Francis mutually distrusted each other. On learning that Pole was in French territory, Henry sent messengers demanding his extradition. Though Francis I. refused to deliver the cardinal to Henry's vengeance, he ordered him to leave his dominions. Pole withdrew to Cambray, a neutral place, and thence to Li^ge, where he lived for three months under the protection of the cardinal-bishop. He was then
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advised to return to Italy through Germany, as Henry VIII. had hired emissaries to kidnap or assassinate him. Soon after his return to Rome, Pole accompanied Pope Paul III. to the meeting of Charles V. and Francis I. at Nice, and was presented by the pope to the Emperor at the request of the latter.3
In 1538, Paul III. published a bull in which he declared Henry VIII. of England to be deposed and excommunicated, and placed his kingdom under an interdict.
Towards the close of 1538, Pole undertook a mission to Spain to urge Charles V. to assist the pope in launching the bull of deposition against Henry. But his efforts were again fruit- less. Meantime Pole's brother, Lord Montague, had been beheaded on a charge of treason, and in 1539 an act of attainder was passed against the cardinal and his family. Two years later he received news of the execution of his aged mother, the Countess of Salisbury. When the news reached him, Pole told his secretary, Beccatelli, that he had received good tidings. " I am now the son of a martyr ; we have one more patron in heaven," he said.4
In the following August, Pole was appointed legate of the district known as the Patrimony of St. Peter, of which the capital is Viterbo. While there he was beloved for his mild rule, and when two Englishmen were arrested who confessed that'they had been sent to assassinate him, he refused to give orders for their execution, and was content to send them for a few days only to the galleys. At Viterbo many scholars gathered around him, and the questions raised by the Re- formation in Germany were freely discussed.
Pole's views with regard to the question of Justification by Faith were regarded by strict Catholics as heretical, and he was denounced to the Inquisition ; but no steps were taken against him until a later period. In 1543, he was one of the three papal legates sent to open the Council of Trent, but the meetings were suspended, owing to the small attendance. When the Council re-assembled in 1545, Pole was again appointed a legate. Certain writers declare that when Luther's doctrine of Justification by Faith was discussed, Pole pleaded illness as
8 Athena Oxon., I., 285
« Froude's Hist, of England, III., 286.
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an excuse to withdraw from the Council, lest he should be called on by the Catholic party to take part in an adverse decree. This statement has, however, no evidence to support it. When ill-health compelled Pole to withdraw to Padua, he remained in frequent communication with the Council. The draft of the decree on Justification was sent to him, and his amendments accepted. His view appears to have been that Justification is possible by a lively faith, which shows itself in good works.
On the accession of Edward VI., Cardinal Pole was excluded by name from the general pardon. He never- theless hastened to send messengers and letters to England, urging the government to treat with the apostolic see. Though his messengers were courteously received, no encouragement was given them, and Somerset's only reply was to send Pole a copy of the English Book of Common Prayer.
On the death of Pope Paul III., on November 10, 1549, Cardinal Pole was one of the candidates proposed for the papal chair. At one time he had a majority of two-thirds of the votes. Later this majority in his favour declined, and he willingly consented to the election of Cardinal Del Monte, who took the name of Julius III.
Among the fifteen demands made by the rebels of Devon and Cornwall in 1549 (vide Cranmer), the twelfth was that Cardinal Pole should be summoned to England and admitted to the king's council.
In the spring of 1553, Pole withdrew to a Benedictine monastery near Lake Garda, where he occupied himself in literary work. While there news reached him of the accession of Mary Tudor. Pope Julius III. immediately appointed him legate to England, and Pole wrote to the queen asking for permission to return to his native country. This Mary would have willingly granted, but the Emperor Charles V. fearing that Pole might place obstacles in the way of the queen's marriage to his son Philip, dissuaded her from granting the cardinal a safe con- duct.5 There were also other difficulties in the way of his return, for his attainder had not been reversed by parliament, nor was England yet ripe to receive a papal legate. As the
6 Col. of State Papers, Foreign (i553"58)» P- 34-
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English people were opposed to the Spanish match, it was proposed by certain politicians that Pole should come to England and marry Mary himself.
Another difficulty that arose to delay the reconciliation with Rome was the question of the restoration of Church property, which was now in secular hands. While these questions were being discussed, the pope despatched Cardinal Pole on a commission to establish friendly relations between Charles V., and Henry II. of France.
Shortly after the marriage of Philip and Mary, it was agreed by the pope that the question of the restoration of Church lands should remain in abeyance for the time being. The parliament of November 1554 reversed Pole's attainder, and two noblemen were sent to conduct him to England. On the morning of November 20, Pole, who for more than twenty years had been a wanderer and a fugitive from his native land, sailed from Calais in the royal yacht. He was welcomed at Dover by most of the nobility and clergy, and a great company of gentlemen from all parts of the kingdom. At Canterbury he was received with every demonstration of respect and affectionate regard. At Rochester, in deference to the royal command, he assumed the ancient pomp and in- signia of a papal legate, the cross, two silver pillars and two silver poleaxes being borne before him. Nothing could exceed the warmth of his reception in London by the queen and Philip.
On November 28, two days after his arrival in London, the two Houses were summoned to Whitehall and addressed by Pole in an impressive speech. His wanderings had left their mark, for though only fifty-four, he presented the appearance of a worn-out and prematurely aged man. He spoke in a low, weak voice, audible only to those near him, and concluded by stating that he held from the pope full powers of recon- ciliation, but the grace of the apostolic see was to be dependent upon the absolute revocation by parliament of all the anti-papal acts.
On the following day, the Houses, completely submissive to the will of the sovereign, sent a petition to Philip and Mary, begging that they would intercede with Pole for the removal of the interdict, and promising without delay to repeal all
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the anti-papal laws. On November 30, the members of both Houses again assembled at the palace, and kneeling with the king and queen before Cardinal Pole, received solemn absolu- tion from the sin of schism. The queen and many others sobbed aloud. The king, queen and parliament — the legate leading — then went into the chapel of the palace, where the Te Deum was sung, and Pole closed the scene with a benedic- tion from the altar.6 Pole now became Mary's most trusted counsellor in all spiritual matters.
On the death of Pope Julius III., Pole was again proposed as a candidate for the papacy, and Philip and Mary used every effort to secure his election, but without success. Immediately after the deprivation of Cranmer, Pole was elected to the see of Canterbury. Being still only in deacon's orders, he was ordained a priest on March 20, 1556, in the church of the Grey Friars, Greenwich. On the following day — that on which Cranmer was burnt — he celebrated his first mass, and on November 22, was consecrated archbishop, by Archbishop Heath, Bishop Bonner, and five other bishops.
After the death of Gardiner, Pole was elected chancellor of Cambridge University, and Oxford afterwards conferred on him the same honour. There is no evidence to prove that he was responsible for the terrible persecutions that have blackened Mary's reign. It is recorded that three penitent heretics obtained pardon on appealing to him as legate. Yet, as Hook points out, it is practically certain that for one word uttered by him the fires of Smithfield would have ceased to blaze. He entered on his work of reform with much wisdom and prudence. The clergy who had been ordained according to the old Catholic rite were absolved and reinstated, while those ordained by the new rite were regarded as laymen and dismissed, their orders being held invalid.
Soon after the accession of Pope Paul IV., who as Cardinal Caraffa had long been Pole's personal enemy, war broke out between Philip and the apostolic see. Pole was deprived of his legatine authority by a papal bull, dated June 14, 1557. The old charge of heresy was revived against him, and he was summoned to Rome.7
6 Froudes' Hist, of England. VI. 288.
7 Col. of State Papers, Foreign (i553-58)> PP- 3°7 *o 320.
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Philip and Mary wrote remonstrating with the pope, who relented sufficiently to permit Pole to retain the office of legatus natus which was attached to the primacy. On learning that a prison awaited her faithful counsellor if he proceeded to Rome, Mary forbade the messenger with the papal summons to land in England.
Pole died of double quartan ague at Lambeth on the evening of November 17, 1558. His royal mistress, Queen Mary, had passed away on the morning of the same day, and he lived long enough to hear the shouts which welcomed the accession of Queen Elizabeth. He died under the displeasure of the apostolic see, to the cause of which he had faithfully devoted his whole life. His deprivation of the legatine office, which he prized far above the dignity of archbishop, had weighed sorely on him and hastened his end. He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, near the spot where the shrine of St. Thomas once stood.
Cardinal Pole was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable figures of his age. Living in a corrupt time, and the adherent of a corrupt cause, he nevertheless succeeded in winning the respect of his opponents, many of whom write in praise of his true piety and disinterestedness. " Seldom has any life been animated by a more single-minded purpose," writes Gairdner. He was generous and charitable in the administration of his revenues, and had the gift of inspiring warm friendships.
Pole was described by his successor, Archbishop Parker, as a man " of spare body, of a fresh complexion, with rather a broad face, but with eyes which showed the gentleness of his disposition."
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69.— MATTHEW PARKER, 1559 to 1575.
Queen of England : Elizabeth, 1558 to 1603.
The success of Elizabeth's policy in the early part of her reign was in a large measure due to a wise selection of those whom she appointed to serve her in Church and State. It would indeed have been difficult to find among the clergy of England one more eminently fitted to steer the Church through the difficult period which followed the death of Mary Tudor than the prudent and moderate primate chosen to succeed Cardinal Pole.
Matthew Parker, the eldest surviving son of William Parker, a worsted weaver, and Alice Monins, his wife, was born at Norwich, in the parish of St. Saviour, on August 6, 1504. His father died about the year 1516, and his mother married a certain John Baker, who proved a kind stepfather to Matthew and his brothers. Matthew was sent to Cambridge, where he was educated partly at St. Mary's Hostel and partly at Corpus Christi College, graduating B.A. in 1525. In 1527, he was ordained priest, and in the following year was elected a fellow of his college. By devoting himself to the study of the Scriptures and of the works of the early fathers, he attained a high reputation for learning, and was one of the Cambridge students invited by Wolsey to become a fellow in his newly founded Cardinal College, (afterwards Christ Church), at Oxford.1 But Parker refused to leave Cambridge, where he had become associated with many of the leading reformers. He was celebrated as an eloquent preacher, and in 1533 was licensed by Archbishop Cranmer to preach in the southern provinces. Two years later, he was appointed chaplain to Anne Boleyn, and presented to the deanery of St. John the Baptist's College at Stoke-by-Clare, in Suffolk. This college had been originally founded as a cell of the famous monastery of Bee {vide Lanfranc),but was now a college for the education
' Cooper's Athena Cantab., Vol. II.
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of secular priests. Under the judicious government of Parker the college prospered greatly.3 In 1537, he was appointed chaplain to Henry VIII.
About the year 1539, Parker was denounced as a heretic to the Lord Chancellor Audley, by George Colet, and others of the town of Clare who charged him with having ridiculed the ceremonies of Easter and denied the holiness of the cross. The Lord Chancellor supported him, however, and dismissed the case as frivolous. His preferments included a prebend at Ely, the rectory of Ashdon,in Essex, to which he was presented by Stoke College, the rectory of Burlingham, in Norfolk, and the mastership of Corpus Christi College Cambridge, (1544). During his tenure of the latter office, he showed much energy and conscientiousness in the discharge of his duties. He caused a complete inventory to be taken of the goods of the college, instituted inspections every three years, restored order in the finances, and ordered his secretary, John Josselin, to prepare a history of the college.
In 1545, he was elected vice-chancellor of the university, and was soon afterwards severely censured by the chancellor Gardiner for permitting the students to perform a play " Pammachus," in which the old ecclesiastical system was derided.3 On the suppression of Stoke College, Parker received an annual pension equivalent to £400 in present currency. This enabled him to marry Margaret Harlestone, the daughter of a Norfolk squire, a lady to whom lie had long been attached. She proved an excellent and devoted wife.
During Rett's rebellion, Dr. Parker, who happened to be in Norfolk, ventured at the risk of his life to enter the rebels' camp to remonstate with them, but appears to have produced little effect on the leaders. He continued to enjoy the royal favour during the reign of Edward VI., by whom he was made dean of Lincoln.
Parker espoused the cause of Lady Jane Grey and enter- tained Northumberland to supper at Cambridge, when the Duke marched northward with his army. On the accession of Mary, Parker was deprived of all his preferments, and though he did not leave England, remained in hiding during the five years of her reign. He was frequently
1 Ibid. 3 Strype's Life of Parker, Vol. I. p. 37.
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forced to change his abode, lest he should be discovered, and denounced as a heretic. One night, when fleeing from those who sought his life, he fell from his horse, and sustained injuries from the effects of which he never wholly recovered.4
Shortly after the accession of Queen Elizabeth he was summoned to court by Cecil, but petitioned that he might receive some minor preferment only, and be permitted to continue his studies. On hearing that he was designed for the archbishopric of Canterbury, he earnestly pleaded his incapacity through ill-health and other deficiences as a reason for declining the office. But he pleaded in vain, for Eliazabeth required a moderate man of sound common-sense, and this she found in Matthew Parker.
His election took place in August 1559, but some difficulty arose in finding bishops willing and qualified to consecrate him. It was not until December 17 that the ceremony was per- formed at Lambeth by Barlow, Bishop-elect of Chichester, Scory, Bishop-elect of Hereford, Coverdale, late Bishop of Exeter, and Hodgkins, suffragan Bishop of Bedford. Parker afterwards caused a full account of his consecration to be drawn up and preserved. The story that he received an indecent consecration at the Nag's Head Tavern in Fleet Street appears to have been fabricated forty-five years later by a Jesuit writer.
Before the election of Parker, parliament had passed the Supremacy Act, which restored "to the crown the ancient jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiastical," and Elizabeth took the title not of Head but of Supreme Governor of the National Church. An Act of Uniformity was also passed requiring that the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI., in which several important alterations had been made, should be used, with the same form of service in every church.
Archbishop Parker's task was no easy one, for he was expected to steer the bark of the Church between the extremes of Calvinism on the one hand and Roman Catholicism on the other. Though he possessed little originality, he had a strong respect for law and order. Not the least of his difficulties arose through the queen herself, who was at this time feeling
• Ibid., p. 69.
3l6
Matthew Parker
her way and who adopted a policy of astute vacillation with regard to ecclesiastical matters. While she insisted on uni- formity in matters of ritual, she objected to definitions of doctrine. Parker took in hand the reform of the Church Calendar. He restored forty-eight minor festivals, known as the " Black Letter Days," which had been omitted in the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. He also reduced the Forty-two Articles of Religion to Thirty-nine, and required that all who were admitted to holy orders or as graduates of Oxford or Cambridge should subscribe to them.
An important work of Parker's primacy was the prepara- tion of a new English version of the Scriptures known as the Bishops' Bible. On this work, which occupied four years, he employed fourteen eminent scholars, of whom eight were bishops. The archbishop edited the whole, and was himself responsible for the translation of certain of the books in the Old and New Testament. Copies of the Bishops' Bible were placed in all the cathedral churches, but its great size and cost rendered it almost inaccessible to private individuals.
In 1566 Archbishop Parker issued a series of enactments known as the " Advertisements," the purpose of which was to put an end to diversity of ritual in public worship, and also to regulate the apparel of ecclesiastical persons. These decrees involved him in controversy with different parties, and deplorable disputes arose with regard to vestments, the use of the white surplice serving as a special bone of contention.
In February 1570, Pope Pius V. issued his famous bull Regnans in Excelsis, in which he excommunicated Queen Elizabeth and released all her subjects from their allegiance to her. This rendered loyalty to the pope treason to the queen, and the persecution of papists which followed was due not to religious but to political motives. After the massacre of St. Bartholomew in August 1572, Parker is said to have counselled the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, in whom many of the papist plots found their centre. Catholic bishops who had been deprived of their sees were frequently committed to Parker's custody, and were treated by him with much kindness and consideration.5
Archbishop Parker and his excellent wife were much givep
s Ibid., p. 71.
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to hospitality, and gave splendid entertainments to the citizens of Canterbury.6 More than once Queen Elizabeth visited them at Canterbury, and was royally entertained. The queen had a great dislike for clerical marriages. On one occasion when taking leave of the archbishop after she had been entertained by him, she turned to his wife and said, " Madam I may not call you, Mistress I am ashamed to call you, never- theless I thank you." Mrs. Parker died in 1570.
During the last three years of his life Parker's relations with the queen became less cordial owing to his failure to put down nonconformity. He also incurred the enmity of the Earl of Leicester, the queen's favourite. In March 1575, his health began to decline, and he died at Lambeth from an attack of the stone on May 17. He was buried in his private chapel at Lambeth. His monument was demolished in 1648 by order of Colonel Scott the regicide, and his remains were dug up and deposited under a dunghill. After the Restoration, Arch- bishop Sancroft caused them to be restored to their original resting place.7
Parker was the generous patron of scholars. He maintained at Lambeth an establishment of printers, transcribers and engravers. A large number of his letters, treatises and sermons are extant. His most important work, "De Antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae," gives an account of his predecessors from the time of St. Augustine, and concludes with a brief autobiography. His translation of the Psalms into English metre was the work of his Marian retirement. His historical research is exemplified in his editions of the chronicles of Asser, Walsingham, and the compiler known as Matthew of Westminster. Parker was a generous benefactor to the Church and to the university of Cambridge. He bequeathed to the library of Corpus Christi College a collec- tion of over fifty manuscripts of the highest historical value. The most interesting of these is said to be one of the volumes which Pope Gregory the Great sent from Rome, for the use of St. Augustine of Canterbury (q.v.).
At Cambridge, Parker caused to be constructed at his own expense the Regent's Walk, which led from the west end of Great St. Mary's Church to the schools and library. He
6 Ibid., Vol. II., p. 19. » Ibid., p. 435.
3i8
Matthew Parker
founded scholarships at Corpus Christi, Caius and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge, and made provision for the poor of Norwich, of Mattishall, the birthplace of his wife, and of Lambeth and Croydon. He also founded a grammar school at Rochdale, in Lancashire.8
He is described as a man of singularly modest demeanour, much given to study, meditation, prayer and religious exer- cises. The sobriety of his judgment and the purity of his morals rendered him well fitted to preside over the Church in that stormy period. Though unable to reduce the conflicting elements to rest, his wise policy did much to preserve the continuity of the English Church with the Catholic Church of antiquity.
8 Athena Cantab., Vol. II.
319
70.— EDMUND GRINDAL, 1576-1583.
Queen of England : Elizabeth, 1558 to 1603.
After the death of Archbishop Parker, the see of Canterbury remained vacant for nearly six months. Meantime the con- stant danger to Church and State from Popish plots had given rise to a Puritan reaction, which affected even the queen herself. The election to the archbishopric of Edmund Grindal, who was known to possess a strong Puritan bias, appears to have been due to the influence of Elizabeth's most trusted minister, Cecil.
Edmund, the son of William Grindal, a well-to-do farmer, was born about the year 1519, at Hensingham, in the parish of St. Bees, Cumberland. At an early age he became devoted to study. There is a story that one evening, when he was walking in the fields near his home, an arrow accidentally struck a book which he carried in his breast, and which was thus the means of preserving his life. Edwin Sandys, who afterwards succeeded Grindal in the sees of London and York, was a native of the same parish of St. Bees, and an intimate friend of Grindal's youth.1
Edmund proceeded in due course to Magdalen College, Cambridge, whence he removed to Christ's College, and ultimately to Pembroke Hall, where he graduated B.A. in 1538, M.A. in 1541, and B.D. in 1549. In 1541 he was elected a fellow of Pembroke Hall, and in 1549 became master of his college. By this time he had associated himself with the reformers, and in the latter year was selected out of the whole university as one of the four disputants against the doctrine of transubstantiation, at a public conference held before King Edward's commissioners. Shortly before this he had taken holy orders, and in 1550, became chaplain to Ridley, Bishop of London, who appointed him precentor at St. Paul's and a canon of Westminster. In the following year
1 Introd. to Remains of Edmund Grindal (Parker Soc).
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Edmund Grindal
he was chosen chaplain to King Edward VI., at a yearly salary of £40.
On the accession of Mary, Grindal fled to Germany, and for the next five years resided chiefly at Strasburg, also visiting Wasselheim, Speyer and Frankfort. In Germany he came in contact with many famous reformers, and attended the lectures of Peter Martyr, whose friendship greatly in- fluenced his later life. One of his employments during his exile, was to collect histories of the martyrs of Mary's reign. These he afterwards communicated to John Foxe, who incorporated them in his " Acts and Monuments." In 1554, when dissension broke out among the English reformers at Frankfort, Grindal proceeded thither, and strove to allay their disputes.3
On the accession of Elizabeth, Grindal returned to England, and was soon marked out for high preferment in the Church. On his nomination to the see of London in 1559, his misgivings with regard to the queen's use of crucifixes and certain cere- monies retained by Archbishop Parker caused him to hesitate to accept office. He wrote to Peter Martyr asking his advice, but Martyr advised him not to decline a bishopric on account of these scruples. He was accordingly consecrated at Lambeth in December 1559, but submitted only with the greatest reluctance to wear episcopal dress. As bishop of London, he was expected to suppress nonconformity with a strong hand, but his leanings towards Calvinism made the task more difficult. While subjecting the nonconformists to fines he admitted that he sympathized with their scruples, thus adopting an attitude which weakened his authority.
In 1561, St. Paul's Cathedral was partially destroyed by lightning. Bishop Grindal generously contributed the large sum of 1,200 pounds for its repair, and induced his clergy to lend their aid for the same purpose.3 As his position with regard to the nonconformists became increasingly difficult, Parker recommended his translation to the archbishopric of York, to which he was confirmed in 1570. There he found himself in his element, for he had to deal chiefly with Catholic recusants. Grindal organized a metropolitan visitation of his province, and laboured to suppress the popular superstitions
1 Ibid. * Strype's Life of Grindal, p. 93.
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and popish practices which still prevailed in the north. He succeeded in reducing considerably the number of papists in his province.
In January 1576, Grindal was translated to the see of Canterbury. Cecil had induced Elizabeth to consent to his appointment, for it was felt that the safety of the queen and her government would be best assured by securing the loyal support of the Puritan reformers.
Shortly after his promotion to Canterbury, Grindal had the misfortune to fall under the queen's displeasure. At that time the practice prevailed in many districts of holding " prophesy- ings " a name given to meetings of the clergy at which particular portions of the scriptures were explained and discussed. Grindal approved of these exercises, and drew up careful rules for their management. There can be little doubt that such meetings were frequently used to propagate non- conformity and discontent. Queen Elizabeth, to whom the " prophesyings " were peculiarly hateful, gave orders to Grindal that they should be stopped. She also declared that there were too many preachers in the country, and that two or three were sufficient for each county.*
Grindal addressed to the queen an able and eloquent letter, in which he humbly urged that the "prophesyings" were profitable to the Church, and that it was therefore expedient they should be continued. He strongly advised her to refer all disputes concerning ecclesiastical matters to bishops and divines, and declared that in matters of faith and religion it was not fitting that she should pronounce so resolutely and peremptorily as in civil matters. This letter greatly incensed the queen. In 1577, the archbishop was summoned before the lords in the Star Chamber, and refusing to submit, was suspended from the exercise of his episcopal functions. After six months he was again permitted to consecrate bishops, but his ecclesiastical jurisdiction was not restored. Meantime his duties were delegated to his vicar-generals. At the convocation which met at St. Paul's in June 1580, certain of the members were so affected by the disgrace of the primate, that they refused to enter on any business or to grant a subsidy till he was reinstated. The majority were too fearful of the
4 Introd. to Remains.
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Edmund Grindal
royal displeasue to adopt this suggestion, but it was unani- mously agreed to petition the queen for Grindal's reinstate- ment. The archbishop submitted a written declaration, in which he expressed his sorrow for having offended Her Majesty, and stated that his refusal to execute her commands was due to scruples of conscience only.
His suspension appears to have been entirely removed about the close of 1582, but he never recovered from his disgrace. Early in 1583, his health failed, and he was attacked by cataract in the eyes. He petitioned the queen for permission to resign the archbishopric, and arrangements were made for his doing so.5 Elizabeth offered the primacy toWhitgift, Bishop of Worcester, but he declined to accept it, as long as Grindal lived. A suitable pension was assigned to him and other matters settled with regard to his resignation, which, however, had not been actually tendered when he died at Croydon on July 6, 1583. He was buried in Croydon Church. Grindal had remained unmarried, but died poor, for his charities were boundless. He founded a grammar school at St. Bees, in Cumberland, and left funds for scholarships at Pembroke Hall, Magdalen and Christ's College, Cambridge, and for a fellowship at Queen's College, Oxford. He was also a generous benefactor to the poor, and a patron of musicians. His writings consist almost entirely of occasional pieces, special sermons, episcopal injunctions and letters. Most of these have been collected in the " Remains of Arch- bishop Grindal," edited by W. Nicholson for the Parker Society.
In the weakness and vacillation of his character, Grindal presents a striking contrast to his predecessor, Archbishop Parker. There are many evidences, however, of his sincere piety and disinterestedness, and to the latter quality the ineffectiveness of his primacy was chiefly due.
Edmund Spenser in his " Shepherd's Calendar " celebrates Grindal under the name of " Algrind."
s Strype's Life of Grindal, p. 411.
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7i.— JOHN WHITGIFT, 1583 to 1604.
Sovereigns of England : Elizabeth, 1558 to 1603. James I., 1603 to 1625.
John Whitgift, who was descended from an old Yorkshire family, was born at Great Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, about the year 1530. His grandfather, John Whitgift, had two sons, Henry and Robert, and a daughter, Isabel. Robert be- came abbot of the Augustinian monastery of Wellow, near Grimsby ; Isabel married Michael Shaller, the verger of St. Paul's Cathedral ; while Henry settled as a merchant at Grimsby, marrying Anne Dynewell, by whom he had six sons, the eldest being John, the future archbishop, and one daughter.1
On the advice of his uncle, the Abbot Robert, from whom he received his early education, John was sent to London, to the famous St. Anthony's school between Broad Street and Thread- needle Street. While attending this school he lodged with his aunt, a bigoted papist, who lived in St. Paul's Churchyard. The Abbot Robert had influenced his nephew in favour of the reformer's doctrines, and John refused to accompany his aunt to mass. A quarrel arose between them and resulted in John's being driven from his aunt's house. On parting with him, she declared that at first she thought she had received a saint into her house, but now perceived he was a devil.
John returned to his home at Great Grimsby, but in 1549 matriculated at Queen's College, Cambridge. In the following year he removed to Pembroke Hall, where Nicholas Ridley, afterwards Bishop of London, was Master, and where John Bradford, another famous reformer and martyr, was his first tutor. In 1555, Whitgift was chosen a fellow of Peterhouse, and in the following year took the degree of M.A., proceeding to that of B.D. in 1563, and D.D. in 1569. Dr. Perne, the Master of Peterhouse, showed Whitgift much kindness during
1 Rev. H. J. Clayton, Archbishop Whitgift, p. 11.
324
.,•/.->,-».-
ARCHBISHOP WHITGIFT.
John Whitgift
an illness, and, knowing his views, screened him from commis- sioners sent by Cardinal Pole to examine the University.
Shortly after the accession of Queen Elizabeth, Whitgift took holy orders, and was appointed chaplain to Dr. Cox, Bishop of Ely, a returned exile, who collated him to the rectory of Teversham, in Cambridgeshire. Whitgift's first sermon, preached at the church of Great St. Mary, Cambridge, from the text " I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," established his reputation as a preacher of great eloquence. He was appointed successively, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Master of Pembroke Hall, Master of Trinity College and Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge.
His fame as a preacher having reached the court, he was invited to preach before Queen Elizabeth, who was so favour- ably impressed that she called him her " Whitegift,"2 and immediately appointed him one of her chaplains. In 1570, he was elected vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, and in this capacity became involved in a controversy with the Puritan leader, Thomas Cartwright, whom he expelled from his fellowship at Trinity for preaching resistance to the Act of Uniformity. Cartwright retired to Germany, but returned in the following year, and presented to the House of Commons two addresses called " Admonitions to Parliament," both breathing a spirit of haughty defiance against episcopacy. Whitgift prepared able replies to the admonitions, but the controversy continued to rage for many years. Before his death, Whitgift became reconciled to his old opponent, and is said to have shown him much kindness.
In 1577, Whitgift was consecrated bishop of Worcester, by Archbishop Grindal assisted by the bishops of London, Winchester and Chichester. He was also nominated vice- president of the Marches of Wales during the absence of the president, Sir Henry Sidney, in Ireland. In the discharge of the duties connected with the latter office, he displayed remarkable energy.3
While bishop of Worcester he was specially popular among the gentry of the district, and succeeded in putting an end to a feud of long standing between Sir John Russell and Sir
2 Sir John Paul, Life of Whitgift, p. 25.
3 Cooper's Athena Cantab., II., 369.
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Henry Berkeley, two neighbouring magnates. The story is that Russell and Berkeley arrived in Worcester each at the head of a band of armed followers. It was expected that a battle would take place, but Bishop Whitgift ordered the leaders to be arrested and brought before him. For two hours he discussed with them the grounds of their quarrel, with the result that they left his house as friends. He appears to have shown great boldness at this time in admonishing Queen Elizabeth and her favourite Leicester, for misappro- priation of ecclesiastical revenues. He even warned the queen that her future safety depended on the security she gave to the property of the Church.
On August 14, 1583, he succeeded Grindal as arch- bishop of Canterbury. Elizabeth found in Whitgift a man after her own heart, for he delighted in gorgeous ceremonies and hated the Puritans. The fact that he was unmarried also won for him the favour of the queen, who was a strong advocate of the celibacy of the clergy. Like Elizabeth, he held episcopacy to be essential to the existence of the Church, and did not scruple to employ the harshest measures to enforce uniformity. One of his first acts after he became primate was to draw up a series of articles to which he required all clergy to subscribe before ordination, affirming the Royal Supremacy, the Act of Uniformity, and the Thirty-nine Articles. He also required certain of the clergy who had been already ordained to reply to twenty-four searching questions on pain of deprivation. An outcry was raised that the Inquisition was being introduced into England, and Whitgift was nicknamed the " Pope of Lambeth." Cecil (Lord Burleigh), and the Earl of Leicester, who sympathized with the Puritans, urged him to show greater moderation. He, however, insisted in resorting to the severest measures, and several nonconformists were executed.4
In 1586, Archbishop Whitgift was appointed a member of the privy council, and in the following year was offered the lord chancellorship, but declined it. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada the patriotic feeling aroused tended to strengthen Elizabeth's policy for establishing a national Church. The queen approved an act which decreed the
* Cat. of State Papers (1591-1594), 75 to 151.
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John Whitgift
punishment of those convicted of attending unauthorized places of worship. The feelings of many of the Puritans continued as bitter as ever, and about the year 1593 certain notorious tracts appeared under the name of Martin Marpre- late. In these lampoons coarse and indecent attacks were made on the queen and the primate, and on all holding prominent positions in Church or State. The chief aim of these writings was to heap ridicule on the episcopate. It is generally believed that the libels originated with a young Welshman named Penry, who was arrested and executed along with some of his accomplices. The tracts were published by means of a movable press, which the libellers carried with them from place to place.
In his latter years, Archbishop Whitgift seems to have been desirous of showing that he was in complete agreement with such portions of the Calvinistic doctrines as did not treat of ritual or discipline. He convened a meeting of the clergy at Lambeth, and drew up the celebrated " Lambeth Articles." They affirmed the doctrines of election and predestination, asserted that God has from eternity fore-ordained some to life, and hath reprobated others unto death, and that it is not in the power of every man to be saved. Both the queen and Lord Burghley strongly condemned the articles, which were accordingly suppressed. They were approved by the Puritans, who at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604 requested that they should be incorporated in the book of the Thirty-nine Articles ; the suggestion was, however, rejected.
It is related of Archbishop Whitgift that he delighted to travel in state with a great retinue, which was increased by the gentlemen and clergy of the country, so that he some- times rode into Canterbury and other towns with 1,000 horsemen.
Whitgift proved a true and firm friend to Hooker, the author of "Ecclesiastical Polity," and supported him against his opponent Travers, the leader of the Presbyterians. Hooker was presented by Whitgift to the living of Boscombe, near Salisbury.
At the time of the rebellion of Essex, Whitgift sent an armed retinue to protect the queen, and his men were the first to force their way into the house of the unfortunate
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earl on the occasion of his capture. The archbishop attended Elizabeth on her death bed, and was present when the great and lonely queen breathed her last at Richmond on March 24, 1603. He survived her barely a year. He crowned James I., and was present at the Hampton Court Conference in January 1604, but the chief conduct of it was in the hands of Bancroft, Bishop of London, who for some time had acted as deputy to the aged primate.5 In February Whitgift caught cold, while on a journey from Lambeth to Fulham in his barge, but a few days later repaired to Whitehall to dine with the king. While waiting in the council chamber he was suddenly struck down by paralysis, and was conveyed back to Lambeth in an unconscious condition.
King James visited him, sat for some time by his bedside, and assured him that he would pray earnestly for his recovery. Whitgift attempted to address the king in Latin, but could only articulate " Pro Ecclesia Dei" These words he repeated several times.6 He died on February 29, 1604, and was buried, as he had desired, in Croydon Church.
Whitgift is described as a man of middle stature, of grave countenance, of brown complexion, black hair and eyes ; he wore his beard neither long nor thick.7 He was a benefactor to Pembroke Hall and to Trinity College, Cambridge. He founded at Croydon a hospital or almshouse, which still exists, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, for the reception of at least thirty poor persons of both sexes, and so many more up to thirty-nine in all as the revenues might be sufficient to support. These he visited so frequently that he knew their names and dispositions, and called them his " brothers and sisters," Rooms were reserved in the hospital for the founder, who would sometimes make use of its quietness and peace, retiring thither for a few days at a time, and sharing the table of the inmates.8 To the almshouses was attached a school now known as the Whitgift Grammar School. This establishment was placed under a schoolmaster, who was required to be a parson, learned in the Greek and Latin tongue, and whose stipend was £20
5 Strype's Life of Whitgift, II., p. 519 and ff.
6 Sir. Geo. Paul's Life.
7 Ibid.
8 Rev. H. J. Clayton, Archbishop Whitgift, p. 131.
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a year. The hospital and chapel were dedicated on July 9 and 10, 1599.
A considerable number of Whitgift's works have been collected and printed by the Parker Society. They consist chiefly of controversial tracts, treatises and letters.
329
22
72.— RICHARD BANCROFT, 1604 to 1610.
King of England : James I., 1603 to 1625.
Richard, the son of John Bancroft, gentleman, and Mary Curwen, his wife, was born at Farn worth, in Lancashire, in the year 1544. His mother was the niece of Dr. Hugh Curwen, Archbishop of Dublin, at whose expense Richard received his education at Christ's College, Cambridge. After taking his degree of B.A., he migrated to Jesus College, where he con- tinued his studies, graduating M.A. in 1570. Soon after his ordination he became chaplain to Dr. Cox, Bishop of Ely, who collated him to the rectory of Teversham in Cambridgeshire. The eloquence of his sermons soon attracted attention, and he was appointed one of the preachers to the university of Cam- bridge. In 1580 he was admitted B.D., and D.D., in 1585. His preferments included the rectory of St. Andrew's Holborn, the treasureship of St. Paul's, the rectory of Cottingham in Northamptonshire and prebends in the cathedrals of St. Paul's, Westminster and Canterbury. During the later years of Elizabeth's reign he distinguished himself as a vigorous opponent of the Puritan party, and published several able treatises in disparagement of their views.
On February 9, 1589, Bancroft preached a sermon at St. Paul's Cross in which he maintained the superiority of the Episcopal order to that of the Presbyterian, and declared episcopacy to be of divine origin. This greatly offended the Scottish clergy, who threatened to appeal against him to the queen.1 In 1592 he became chaplain to Archbishop Whitgift, whose trusted supporter he remained until the death of the primate. Through Whitgift's influence he was elected to the see of London in 1597. Soon after his consecration, he spent 1 ,000 pounds on the repair of his palace at Fulham. In 1600 Elizabeth employed Bancroft with others on an embassy
1 Cooper's Athenoe Cantab., III., 28.
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Richard Bancroft
to Embden, to put an end to the disputes between the English and Danes, but the mission proved a failure.2
After the accession of James I., Bancroft took a prominent part in the Hampton Court Conference, acting as deputy to the aged primate. He zealously asserted the divine right of episcopacy, expressed himself with much venom against the Puritans, and gave way to violent outbursts of temper. James refused to grant any of the demands made by the Puritan party, and frequently reiterated his famous maxim, " No bishop ; no king." The conference had little result, except that it was agreed to prepare a new English version of the Bible, still known as the Authorised Version.
In October 1604, Bancroft was elected to the see of Canter- bury in succession to Archbishop Whitgift, and in the same year was sworn a privy councillor at Hampton Court.3 One of his first acts after his elevation to the primacy was to draw up a series of articles protesting against the interference of the civil judges in the ecclesiastical courts. The judges under the leadership of the famous Lord Coke maintained their cause against the bishops, declaring that the administration of law in the ecclesiastical courts was such that even in ecclesiastical matters many men preferred to have recourse to the king's courts.
After the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot the laws against Catholics were made more stringent. The archbishop is said to have gradually relaxed the severity of these laws, and was consequently accused of being a Papist. He encouraged discussions between the secular clergy and the Jesuits, and furnished some of the former with material to write against their adversaries. Towards the Puritans he showed no indulgence, and during his primacy nearly three hundred clergy were deprived of their livings.
In November 1606, Andrew Melville, the famous Scottish divine, was cited before the privy council for having in a Latin epigram reflected on the services in the chapel royal. After being addressed by Archbishop Bancroft, Melville took occa- sion to tell his mind plainly before the council. He imputed to the archbishop all the corruptions, superstitions, profana- tions of the Sabbath day, the imprisoning of faithful preachers,
2 Biog. Brit., I., 577. * Ibid.
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and other evils by which the Church had been vexed. Then taking Bancroft by the sleeves of his rochet, and shaking them violently, he called them " Romish rags and part of the Beast's mark." He further declared that he held the archbishop to be the chief enemy of all reformed Churches in Europe, and was grieved to the heart to see such a man have the king's ear, and sit so high in the honourable council of England.*
In April 1608, Bancroft was appointed chancellor of the university of Oxford. He soon afterwards instituted a scheme for the better maintenance of the clergy, but was forced to abandon it. A letter written by him to the clergy shortly before his death shows that he was most anxious to remedy existing abuses such as the holding of pluralities, and unnecessary luxury. He also attempted to further a scheme for building a college at Chelsea for the training of students who should answer all controversial writings against the Church of England.5 The idea had originated with Dr. Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, who had bequeathed lands and money to establish such an institution. But the Church did not take up the design cordially, and it was gradually abandoned.
Archbishop Bancroft died at Lambeth, after suffering excruciating torments from stone, on November 2, 1610. He was buried in Lambeth chapel. To Bancroft is due the institution of Lambeth Palace Library. He bequeathed to his successors, the archbishops, a valuable collection of books which were removed to Cambridge in the time of Cromwell, but were restored to Archbishop Sheldon in 1666. This collection afterwards become a permanent possession of the see of Canterbury. Bancroft's writings, which consist chiefly of controversial treatises, prove that he possessed considerable learning and ability.
■» Athena Cantab., III., 31. s Biog. Brit., I., 580.
332
73— GEORGE ABBOT, 1611 to 1633.
Kings of England : James I., 1603 to 1625.
Charles I., 1625 to 1649.
On the death of Archbishop Bancroft it was earnestly desired by the bishops of the province that Lancelot Andrewes, the saintly and beloved bishop of Ely, should be appointed to the see of Canterbury. But the king's choice fell on George Abbot, a much less eminent man, who had recently been translated from the see of Coventry and Lichfield to that of London, and who had apparently won the royal favour by his success in reconciling the Scots to the idea of episcopacy.
George Abbot was born at Guildford, in Surrey, on October 29, 1562, and was the son of Maurice Abbot, a clothworker, and his wife, Alice March. These worthy people had embraced Protestantism in the reign of Edward VI., and on this account had narrowly escaped the faggot under Mary. They had a family of six sons, of whom George was the second. The eldest, Robert, became bishop of Salisbury, and the youngest, Maurice, became Lord Mayor of London. The cottage in which the future archbishop was born was close by the bridge that crosses the river Wye, and remained standing until 1864. Shortly before George's birth his mother had a curious dream. She imagined she was told in her sleep that if she would eat a jack or pike the child she went with would prove a son and would rise to great honour. Not long afterwards, on taking a pail of water out of the river which ran by the house, she accidentally caught a jack and had thus an odd opportunity of fulfilling her dream. This story being noised abroad, certain persons of distinction offered to become sponsors for the child, and by means of their assistance George received an excellent education.1
From the grammar school at Guildford George proceeded, at the age of sixteen, to Balliol College, Oxford, and took the
' Biog. Brit., VoL I., p. 5.
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degree of B.A. in 1582, afterwards proceeding to those of M.A. in 1585, B.D. in 1593, and D.D. in 1597. In 1583 he was elected a probationer fellow of his college. After taking holy orders at the age of twenty-four, he was elected a preacher in the university, and soon gained a reputation for eloquence. His lectures on the Book of Jonah, which are extant, attracted crowds of hearers.2 About the year 1592, he became chaplain to Lord Buckhurst the famous Puritan leader.
From his parents 'Abbot had inherited a strong Puritan bias which showed itself throughout his career in a somewhat narrow and intolerant spirit. At Oxford he became known as a leader of the Calvinists. In 1597, he was appointed master of University College, and in 1600 vice-chancellor of the university. While holding this office he came into conflict with Laud, who was then one of the proctors of the university, and to whose views he was bitterly opposed. In 1611, when Laud was appointed president of St. John's College, Abbot vainly endeavoured to have the election cancelled.
In 1599, Abbot was installed dean of Winchester. He took part in the Hampton Court Conference, and was one of the divines appointed by James I. to prepare the authorized version of the Scriptures. Having been appointed chaplain to the Earl of Dunbar, Treasurer of Scotland, Abbot accompanied the earl to Scotland in 1609 to assist him in carrying out King James's project for the restoration of episcopacy in that country. Abbot seems to have found favour with the Scots, who perceived that his religious views differed little from their own. In 1610, bishops were consecrated to the sees of Glasgow, Brechin and Galloway.3
During his stay in Scotland Abbot was present at the trial and execution of George Sprot, a notary of Aymouth, who had been concerned in the Gowrie Conspiracy. Abbot afterwards published an account of the trial in which he took occasion to eulogize the character of James I. Though up to this time Abbot had had no experience in the charge of an ecclesiastical benefice, he was nominated by the king soon after his return from Scotland to the bishopric of Coventry and Lichfield, and was translated to that of London before he had sat one
2 Ibid. > W. H. Frere, The English Church, p. 367.
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month in the former see (January, 1610). On March 4, 1611, he was promoted to the see of Canterbury.
In spite of his Calvinistic views, Archbishop Abbot was at first in high favour at court. Henry Prince of Wales was favourably inclined to Puritanism, and the elevation of Abbot to the primacy is believed to have been partly due to his influence. The death of the prince in November, 1612, was a great blow to the Puritan party.
Like many of the best Puritans of his time, Abbot accepted episcopacy, and remained loyal to the Church of England. He showed great zeal in persecuting the nonconformists. In March, 1612, Bartholomew Legate, who was accused of having embraced the Arian heresy, was burnt to death at Smithfield. Abbot, supported by King James, had strongly urged his con- demnation on the judge. A month later, Edward Wightman, convicted of ten heresies of the very names of which he prob- ably was ignorant, was publicly burnt in the market-place at Lichfield.*
The marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine, which had been delayed owing to Prince Henry's death, was solemnized by the archbishop in February, 1613. During his stay in England the Elector had shown much favour to Abbot, and before returning to Germany gave him a present of plate to the value of £1,000. The archbishop's gratitude for the Elector's kindness was shown some months later, when he urged James I. to support the election of his son-in-law to the crown of Bohemia. Though Abbot opposed King James in the matter of the divorce of the profligate Lady Essex, he continued on good terms at court, and is said to have been the first to introduce George Villiers (afterwards Duke of Buckingham) to the royal favour. He persuaded James to exert his influence against Catholics abroad, and succeeded in effecting the dismissal from his office of Vorstius, a professor of theology at Leyden.
In 1618, King James issued a book of sports in which he authorized the people of England to engage in certain harmless games on Sundays. The declaration was ordered to be read in churches, but Abbot, stanch to the principles of his party, refused to read it in the parish church at Croydon, where he
* Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, Vol. X., p. 270.
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was then residing. Though the king winked at his refusal, from this time the archbishop gradually lost favour.5 By the death of Queen Anne, whom he attended on her last hours, Abbot lost a true friend.
In the summer of 1621 the archbishop made a tour through Hampshire for the benefit of his health, and was invited by Lord Zouche to shoot on his estate at Bramzil Park. On July 24, while hunting deer in the park, his Grace let fly an arrow from a cross-bow which accidentally struck a certain Peter Hawkins, one of Lord Zouche's keepers who had been warned to keep out of the way. The arrow pierced his right arm, severing an artery, and the unfortunate man bled to death in an hour.
Though the archbishop was in no way to blame, this sad accident threw him into a deep melancholy. Upon the widow of Hawkins he immediately bestowed on annuity of £20, which soon procured her another husband. For the rest of his life Abbot observed a monthly fast on Tuesday, the day of the fatal occurrence.6
The affair caused much talk, and the question arose whether the archbishop, by having blood on his hands, had not become disqualified to discharge the duties of his office. In contrast to the cruelty of some of Abbot's opponents King James showed much kindly feeling. His remark on hearing of the accident was : " An angel might have miscarried in this sort."
Four bishops, one of whom was Abbot's old enemy Laud, Bishop-elect of St. David's, were at that time waiting to be consecrated, and three of them refused to receive the rite from Abbot, " lest they might be attainted with the contagion of his scandal and uncanonical condition." Commissioners were appointed by the king to make full enquiry into the law of the case. They varied greatly in their judgment, but eventually agreed that the archbishop might receive restitution by the king. James accordingly issued a commission to eight bishops under the great seal authorizing them to declare the archbishop assoiled of all irregularity and capable of the full authority of a primate.7 Before the issue of this de- claration the four bishops-elect had been consecrated by
s Ibid., p. 274. 6 Biog. Brit., I., 9. » Ibid.
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suffragans delegated by Abbot. The incident cast a shadow over the remainder of his career. It is related that shortly before his death, when the archbishop was on his way to Croydon, his coach was stopped by a crowd of women assembled in the road. On his complaining of the delay some of them shouted, " You had best shoot an arrow at us."
Abbot boldly declared his disapproval of the marriage proposed between Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain, and like all loyal churchmen greatly rejoiced when the project was abandoned.
On the death of James, Archbishop Abbot crowned Charles I. in Westminster Abbey. The influence of the Duke of Buckingham, who was the friend of Laud, now became paramount. In spite of the gratitude which the duke owed his early patron, he lost no opportunity in showing animosity towards him.
In Lent, 1627, a sermon was preached by Dr. Sibthorpe, vicar of Brackley in Northamptonshire, to justify a loan which the king had demanded. The archbishop was required by Charles to license this sermon for publication, but refused to do so. He was consequently ordered to withdraw to his estate at Ford, near Canterbury, until the king's pleasure should be made known.8
On October 9, the king granted a commission to the bishops of London, Durham, Rochester, Oxford, Bath and Wells to execute archiepiscopal authority in the room of Abbot, the reason assigned being that he was unable to attend to his duties as primate. He was however, summoned to the parliament which met in 1628, and took an active part in the discussions concerning the " Petition of Rights," of which he heartily approved. In May 1630, Abbot, baptized the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II., but owing to the enmity of Buckingham and Laud, which he did much to foster by his bigoted Calvinism, he look little part in public affairs during the last years of his life. In 161 9 he had founded at Guildford, his native town, a hospital for the maintenance of a master, twelve brethren, and eight sisters. To this sanctuary he would often retire when oppressed by the cares of his office. He died at Croydon on August 4, 1633, at the
8 Gardiner's Hist, of England, VI. , 206.
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age of seventy-one, worn out by cares and infirmities. He was buried, as he had desired, in the chapel of our Lady in Trinity Church, Guildford, Surrey. Clarendon, who was his natural enemy, describes him as a man of morose manners and very sour aspect.
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ARCHBISHOP LAUD. {From the painting bv Van Dyrk.)
74-— WILLIAM LAUD, 1633 to 1645. King of England : Charles L, 1625 to 1649.
The tragic figure of " the little archbishop " dominates the whole of English Church history between 1625 and 1645. The sharp religious antagonisms of historians have rendered it customary to estimate Laud either as a great saint or a very bad man. Both views are obviously wrong.
William Laud was born at Reading on October 7, 1573, and was the only son of William Laud, a clothier. His mother, whose maiden name was Lucy Webb, was the widow of John Robinson, of Reading, and sister of Sir William Webb, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1591. After Laud rose to greatness the Puritans frequently derided his mercantile origin.
He received his early education at the grammar school of his native place, afterwards proceeding to St. John's College, Oxford, where he was elected a fellow in 1593. He was described at this time as a youth of diminutive stature and extraordinary precocity. His health was never good, and he was subject throughout his life to sudden attacks of illness.1 In 1594 he graduated B.A., afterwards proceeding to M.A. in 1598, and D.D. in 1608. In 1601, at the age of twenty-seven, he took priest's orders. The religious atmosphere of Oxford was then strongly Calvinistic, and the first period of Laud's ecclesiastical career was marked by conflicts with the university authorities. In a sermon preached by him shortly after his ordination, he main- tained the doctrine of the perpetual visibility of the Church of Christ from apostolic times. This sermon caused gieat offence to Abbot (q.v.), who was then master of University College, and vice-chancellor, and who from this time appears to have become Laud's bitterest enemy. Another sermon
' Laud's Diary, passim.
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which Laud preached in St. Mary's in 1606 brought on him a vehement attack from Dr. Airey, vice-chancellor and provost of Queen's College.2 Against the charge of popery brought against him Laud defended himself with great ability, and his enemies could discover no portion of the sermon which as members of the Church of England they could require him to retract. From time to time, however, the same accusation was persistently renewed against him until the close of his life. In his "Diary" he declares that at this time it was a heresy to be seen in his company, and a suspicion of heresy to salute him in the streets.
In 1603 he was appointed chaplain to the Earl of Devon, whom two years later he married to the divorced wife of Lord Rich. His consent to officiate at this marriage exposed him to the deserved reproaches of the Puritans, and he deeply repented having taken the false step. Though several country livings were presented to him in succession through the in- fluence of Dr. Neile, Bishop of Rochester, his preferment was slow. In April 1611, he was elected president of St. John's College, in spite of the strenuous opposition of Archbishop Abbot (q.v.) and others.3 In the following November he was appointed chaplain to James I., but it was not until five years later that the king preferred him to the deanery of Gloucester. Laud found that the cathedral services were performed in a negligent and irreverent manner. He caused the communion table which had been placed in the middle of the church, and which was frequently used as a hat-stand or writing table, to be placed at the east end and protected by a rail. This caused great offence to Dr. Miles Smith, the aged bishop of Gloucester, a strict Calvinist, who refused henceforth to enter the cathedral.
In 1621 Laud was consecrated bishop of St. David's. In the following year at the king's command he held a conference with the Jesuit Fisher, who had attempted to convert the Countess of Buckingham, mother of the duke. A full report of the conference, which was afterwards published by Laud, proves that he was fully determined to make no com- promise with Rome.4
2 Heylyn's Cyprianus Anglicus, p. 35.
3 Ibid., p. 34. * Laud's Diary, 1621, February 4.
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Almost immediately after the accession of Charles I. Laud obtained court favour through his friendship with Buckingham. The parliament of 1626 demanded that Buckingham should be dismissed. Laud not only took an active part in defend- ing the duke, but also supported the king's prerogative. He was rewarded a few months afterwards with the bishopric of Bath and Wells, and the deanery of the chapel royal. Two years later he was translated to the see of London. His conception of loyalty to the Church of England induced him to exert his whole energy in attempts to stamp out diversity of opinion by force. One of his first enterprises as bishop of London was to stop the predestination controversy. For this purpose he caused the Thirty-nine Articles to be reprinted with a declaration from the king at the head of them ordering that all curious search should be laid aside, and " these disputes be shut up in God's promises as they are generally set forth in Holy Scriptures, and in the general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England."5 This declaration caused great offence to the Puritans.
In April 1629, Laud was appointed chancellor of the university of Oxford and while holding his office effected important reforms. He founded chairs of Hebrew and Arabic, established a university press, and encouraged foreign students. To the Bodleian Library he presented many valuable manuscripts.
Laud has been severely blamed for the barbarous sentences pronounced at this time on libellers and nonconformists in the courts of the Star Chamber and High Commission. In 1630, Dr. Alexander Leighton, a Scotsman, who had written a violent treatise against episcopacy, and called the queen a ' daughter of Heth,' was sentenced to be publicly whipped in the pillory and to have his ears cropped and his nose slit. Similar punishment was inflicted on the lawyer Prynne for attacking the queen in his " Histrio-Mastix," a work written in con- demnation of stage players. Such inhuman mutilations, however, were customary at the time, and had not been invented by Laud.
After the murder of Buckingham in 1628, Laud and Went- worth (afterwards Earl of Strafford) became the king's chief
s Heylyn's Cypvianus Anglicus, p. 120.
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advisers in state matters. Both supported Charles in his policy of absolutism, and both lacked the foresight necessary to perceive the catastrophe to which such a policy must ultimately tend.
In September 1633, Laud succeeded Archbishop Abbot in the see of Canterbury. One of his first acts after his elevation to the primacy was to institute a metropolitan visitation of his province. His vicar-general, Sir Nathaniel Brent, visited the dioceses, noting every irregularity. In the removal of the communion tables to the east end of the churches Laud was supported by the majority of the clergy, Bishop Williams of Lincoln being his only opponent among the suffragans. Unfortunately Laud insisted farther in enforcing conformity in many unimportant details. The practice of bowing towards the east was made a bone of con- tention. Clergy who refused to conduct the services precisely as he desired were tried before the High Commission Court, and deprived of their livings.
Meantime the hostility of the Puritan party was increasing. To them there seemed no need for beauty or grace in God's house, and even in the repair and restoration of the cathedrals they saw only a move Romewards.6 Rumours were afloat that Laud had been offered a cardinal's hat, and strangely enough the offer is recorded in his "Diary." It appears to have been made on two occasions, but was promptly refused. As his loyalty to the Church of England was well known at the Vatican the offer was probably a trap laid for him by the Puritans.
In April 1633, Laud had been elected chancellor of the university of Dublin. With the help of Strafford, who had been made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Irish Church was induced to adopt uniformity of ritual. In Scotland the archbishop was less successful. Laud had visited Scotland in company with James I. in 1617, and had aroused much hostility by appearing in a white surplice at a funeral. In June 1633, he attended Charles at his Scottish coronation, solemnized at Edinburgh. Before leaving Scotland Charles ordered a new Prayer Book to be compiled by a committee of Scottish bishops, whom he directed
6 Cf. Dean Spence, Hist, of the English Church, Vol. IV., p. 63.
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to correspond with Laud on the subject. After some revision and correction, the Scottish liturgy was duly approved by the archbishop.
In July 1637, an attempt was made to read the new liturgy in the churches in Edinburgh. In the cathedral of St. Giles' the dean in his surplice had no sooner begun to read the prayers from his desk than a hideous noise was raised by the congregation, and the hapless dean assailed by a shower of sticks and stones. The bishop himself ascended the pulpit to remonstrate with the insurgents, but was quelled by Jenny Geddes, of famous memory, who launched a stool at his head. This attempt to force on the Scottish people a form of prayer which they disliked resulted in the abolition of episcopacy in Scotland. In the following year the Scots signed a National Covenant in which they bound themselves to support their own form of religion against all who attacked it.
After the dissolution of the Short Parliament, which refused to supply the king's wants, Strafford and Laud declared that Charles was free to supply them as he willed. Meantime the Scots ravaged the north of England, but Charles had no money to raise an army against them. There were riots in many places and an attack was made on the archbishop's palace at Lambeth. Though it was usual to dissolve the convocation along with the parliament, the king ordered that body to continue its sessions, in order to complete its grant of six subsidies already promised him. Seventeen canons were passed for the better government and peace of the Church. It was also decreed that an oath should be imposed on the clergy and laity binding them to oppose any alteration in the government of the Church by bishops, deans, arch- deacons, etc.7 This, which was afterwards contemptuously called " the et cetera oath," raised a storm of indignation among the Puritans.
The Long Parliament, the most famous in history, met on November 3, 1640. One of its first acts was to impeach Strafford and send him to the Tower. Convocation was voted down, and its canons declared to be without binding force on the clergy or the laity. A committee was appointed to enquire how far his Grace of Canterbury had been concerned
"> Cyprianus Anglicus, p. 118.
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in the recent proceedings of the convocation and in the treasonable design of subverting the religion and laws of his country. Sir Harbottle Grimstone, one of the members, declared that the archbishop was " the very sty of all that pestilential filth that had infested the government, and the source of all the miseries which the nation groaned under." Laud was committed to the custody of Maxwell, gentleman usher of the black rod, in whose house he remained for ten weeks.
On February 26, 1641, Prynne, Hampden and Maynard presented fourteen articles of impeachment against the archbishop at the bar of the House of Lords. The charges brought against him included those of endeavouring to sub- vert the constitution by introducing arbitrary powers of government without limitation or rule of law ; of settling justice in his own person under colour of his ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; of bringing in popish doctrines, opinions and ceremonies contrary to the articles of the Church and cruelly persecuting those who opposed them; of endeavouring to bereave the kingdom of the legislative power by alienating the king's mind from his parliaments. Upon these charges the Lords voted the removal of his Grace to the Tower, whither he was conveyed on March 1, amid the clamour and reviling of the populace.8
In the excitement occasioned by Strafford's trial Laud remained forgotten for the time being. The two prisoners in the Tower were not permitted to see each other. The night before his execution Strafford desired to have an interview with his old friend, but this was refused. On the morning of May 10 the earl was led out to die. He had requested that Laud would be at the window of his cell to give him his blessing as he passed.9 The old archbishop stretched out his shaking hands through the bars to bless him, and fell back fainting into the arms of his attendants, " Farewell, my lord, may God protect your innocency," said Strafford, and passed on his way calm and fearless.
During the first two years of the Civil War Laud was left to languish in the Tower. In May 1643, Prynne received
8 Laud's Diary, March 1, 1640. 4 Diary, May 12, 1640.
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an order from parliament to search the archbishop's private papers, and afterwards published a mutilated edition of his "Diary." If anything was required to prove the deep piety and blamelesnesss of Laud's private life, the "Diary" which had been written for no eye but his own to read should have done so. It contained many touching prayers for his enemies and for himself. But nothing could quench the malice of the Puritans. His trial did not begin until March 12, 1644. It continued for five months, during which the aged primate defended himself with extraordinary courage and ability. As it was found impossible to bring his conduct under a charge of high treason, the Commons resorted, as in the case of Strafford, to a bill of attainder. As later in the case of King Charles, the proceedings were marked by the entire absence of any respect for law or justice.
A full pardon, signed with the great seal of England, had been sent by Charles I. to the archbishop in April, 1643. This Laud produced after the death sentence had been pronounced, but it was rejected by the Commons. His petition that he might die by the sword instead of on the gallows, the usual penalty for treason, was granted only with reluctance.
January 10 was the day fixed for his execution. On the evening before he partook of a modest supper and then re- tired to rest. His sleep was sound and he did not wake until roused by his servants. On Tower Hill a vast multitude had assembled to see him die. Even at the scaffold he was treated with indignity by the Puritans. After reading a speech in which he acknowledged himself to have been a sinner, but solemnly protested his innocence of any offence deserving death, he presented the executioner with a piece of money and gave him the sign when to strike. Kneeling by the block, he gave utterance to the following touching prayer: " Lord, I am coming as fast as I can. I know I must pass through the shadow of death before I can come to Thee. But it is but umbra mortis, a mere shadow of death, a little darkness upon nature. But Thou by Thy merits and passion hast broken through the jaws of death. So, Lord, receive my soul, and have mercy upon me ; and bless this kingdom with peace and plenty, and with brotherly love and charity,
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that there may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them, for Jesus Christ, His sake, if it be Thy will."10 He then prayed silently awhile, no man hearing what he said. His last words were " Lord, receive my soul." This was the sign to the executioner to strike. The archbishop was in his seventy-second year at the time of his execution.
He was buried in the church of All Hallows, Barking, near the Tower. After the Restoration his remains were removed to the chapel of St. John's College, Oxford, and deposited beneath the altar.
The famous archbishop was of low stature, of a cheerful and ruddy countenance, of a sharp and piercing eye, clear judg- ment, and wondrous good memory. Laud was unmarried. He had a remarkable faith in dreams and omens ; many of his dreams are recorded in his " Diary." Among other pets he possessed a tortoise, the shell of which is still preserved at Lambeth. After living for 120 years it was killed by a gardener who accidentally overturned his wheelbarrow upon it.
Of Laud's purity of life, disinterestedness and courage there can be no question. His worst errors arose from a cer- tain narrowness of view; and he failed to see that the exercise of force weakened the authority of the Church in spiritual matters. In spite of his errors, English churchmen owe him boundless gratitude, for it is probable that had he not been raised up the Church would have at this time succumbed to Puritanism either by surrender or compromise. When the Church finally emerged from the troubles of the revolution the more important Laudian reforms were adopted without hesitation. But the triumph was only achieved by a total abandonment of his intolerant methods."
Laud's extant works consist of a volume of sermons pub- lished in 1651 ; " A Relation of the Conference with Fisher " (1624) ; his " Diary," and " A History of his Troubles and Trial," not published till 1695.
Cyprianus Anglicus, p. 55, Lib. 5.
Cf. S. R. Gardiner, Art. on Archbishop Laud in Diet, of Nat. Biog.
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ARCHBISHOP JUXON. (From an original portrait at St. John's College, Oxford.)
75-— WILLIAM JUXON, 1660 to 1663.
King of England : Charles II., 1660 to 1685.
A vacancy of fifteen years in the see of Canterbury followed the execution of Archbishop Laud. Out of 10,000 English clergy 7,000 had been deprived of their livings by the acts of the Commonwealth. At the Restoration many were in exile, others living in obscurity. Only nine bishops were alive. Out of these the aged Bishop Juxon was chosen without hesitation for the primacy. He was the closest link with memories which the royalists felt to be sacred,1 for he it was who had attended Charles I. at the scaffold.
William, the son of Richard Juxon, was born at Chichester in 1582. His father was receiver-general of the bishop of Chichester's estates. The family of Juxon resided in London, and were connected with the Company of Merchant Taylors. William received his early education at Merchant Taylors' School, whence he proceeded to St. John's College, Oxford, where, according to Wood, he was elected a fellow in 1598.3 He was at first intended for the bar, and with this in view took his degree of bachelor of Civil Law in 1603, afterwards study- ing at Gray's Inn. Before completing his legal studies, he decided unexpectedly to enter the Church, and commenced a divinity course. Shortly after his ordination in 1609, ne was presented by his college to the living of St. Giles, near Oxford, and in 1615 to that of Somerton in the same county.
Juxon succeeded Dr. Laud as president of St. John's College, and in 1626 was made vice-chancellor of the university. About the same time he received a prebend in Chichester Cathedral, and the deanery of Worcester. After the election of Laud as chancellor of Oxford, Juxon took an active part in assisting him to remodel the statutes of the university. In 1632, he was appointed on Laud's recommendation clerk
1 W. H. Hutton, The English Church, p. 182. 3 Athena Oxon., IV., 818.
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of his Majesty's closet. Juxon's principles at this period may be gathered from Laud's own statement that he urged this appointment in order to have near his Majesty one whom he could trust, if he himself grew sick or infirm.3 The same potent influence procured for Juxon the bishopric of Hereford in 1633, but before his consecration to that see he was elected to the bishopric of London, vacant by the promotion of Laud to the primacy. About the same time Juxon was made dean of the Chapel Royal, and in the following year Lord High Treasurer. This office had not been filled by a church- man since the reign of Henry VII., and Juxon's appointment gave great offence to the Puritans. Laud, however, alludes to it in his " Diary " with much satisfaction. " Now if the Church will not hold up itself, under God I can do no more," he writes. The personal virtues of the bishop were acknow- ledged on all sides, and the Puritans could find no fault with the strict honesty of his dealings. His kindly disposition caused him to be much beloved by the people of London, and con- temporary writers declare that he never made an enemy.4 In 1636 he was made lord of the admiralty, an office which he held until 1638, when the young Duke of York succeeded him as Lord High Admiral. At the trial of Strafford, Juxon was summoned as one of the witnesses, but declared he knew nothing concerning the purpose of the earl to bring an Irish army to England. Juxon opposed the bill of attainder brought against Strafford and besought the king to withhold his assent from the measure. Finding that his pleadings were vain, he resigned his civil office, and retired to Fulham. Repeated attempts were made by both parties in the state to engage the bishop on their side, but he refused to take any active part either in the schemes of Charles, or of the Parlia- mentary party. In 1643, he was forced to pay 500 pounds for the support of the Parliamentary army. In 1646 a pro- posal was made by the Scottish Presbyterians to restore Charles to the throne if he would support their form of worship. A private letter is extant, addressed by the king to Juxon, in which he asks the bishop if he may, with a safe conscience, give way to their demands. The reply signed by Juxon and
3 Ibid., p. 819.
* Cf. Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs, p. 94.
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Brian Duppa, Bishop of Salisbury, assures the king of the wisdom of the course suggested.5
At the treaty signed in the Isle of Wight, Juxon attended as one of the commissioners on the king's side, and was after- wards in close attendance on his majesty from the commence- ment of the trial to the last scene on the scaffold. During the last days of his life Charles desired to keep his mind clear, and excused himself from receiving even his friends. To Juxon, to whom he had frequently referred as " that good man," he turned for spiritual comfort in face of the last ordeal. On the morning of January 30, 1649, Charles spent an hour in private with the bishop. In the progress through the royal park, Juxon walked on the king's right. After his speech at the scaffold the king told the executioner that he would say a very short prayer, " and when I thrust out my
hands ." Turning to the bishop he said, " I have a good
cause and a gracious God on my side." " There is but one stage more," replied Juxon, " a stage turbulent and trouble- some, but it will carry you from earth to heaven." " I go," said the king, "from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can be — no disturbance in the world." The king took off his cloak and with it the insignia of the " George" which he delivered to Juxon, saying, "Remember."
When all was over the bishop with several lay lords accom- panied the royal remains to Windsor and was present at the burial in St. George's Chapel on February 7. It took place in the midst of a blinding snow storm. He was not permitted to read the burial service.6 Juxon afterwards returned to Fulham, whence he was summoned to appear before the High Court of Justice. His papers were searched and he was examined as to the meaning of the king's last word " Remember." His assertion was accepted that it had reference to the conveyance of the "George" to the Prince of Wales.
For the next ten years Juxon lived in peaceful retire- ment at his manor of Little Compton in Gloucestershire. There he had many friends among the neighbouring gentry, whom he often joined in hunting parties. At the Restora-
s W. H. Hutton, The English Church, pp. 135-138. 6 Life of Archbishop Juxon, W. H. March, p. 64.
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tion he was unanimously chosen for the primacy, in spite of his age and infirmities. On September 20, 1660, his election was confirmed in Henry VII 's Chapel, Westminster, in the presence of a rejoicing assembly of clergy and laity. Though greatly enfeebled by age, Juxon was able to take part in the coronation of Charles II. He was present at some of the meetings of the Savoy Conference for the restoration of the English Prayer Book, but though he was nominally the president, the chief conduct of affairs was in the hands of Sheldon, Bishop of London.
Archbishop Juxon died at Lambeth on June 4, 1663, aged eighty-one. He was buried in the chapel of St. John's College, Oxford, near the spot where the body of Laud was interred a few days later. Juxon had expressed a wish to be buried without pomp or display. His desire was disregarded, for a more ostentatious and elaborate funeral has scarcely ever been described. The hearse was drawn by six horses with escutcheons on their foreheads and backs, and attended by sixty horsemen; the mourners occupied fifteen coaches, thirteen of which were drawn by six horses.7
Juxon was unmarried. To the poor he was a generous benefactor. He augmented the stipends attached to the vicarages of his province, and spent nearly 15,000 pounds on repairs at Lambeth and Croydon. For the repair of St. Paul's Cathedral he left 2,000 pounds.
y Vernon Staley, Life and Times of Gilbert Sheldon, p.
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ARCHBISHOP SHELDON. (After the portrait by Lely in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford.)
76.— GILBERT SHELDON, 1663 to 1677.
King of England : Charles II., 1660 to 1685.
After a vacancy of little more than two months the king decided to nominate to the primacy Gilbert Sheldon, who was the fifth bishop of London in succession to be translated to the see of Canterbury.
Gilbert was born in a farm-house at Stanton, in Stafford- shire, on June 19, 1598. His Christian name was given him at baptism by Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, in whose house his father, Roger, was a menial servant, though of ancient family. At the age of fifteen, he was admitted a commoner to Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. three years later. In 1622, he was elected a fellow of All Souls, from which college he graduated B.D. in 1628 and D.D. in 1634. After his ordination he became domestic chaplain to Lord Coventry, Keeper of the Great Seal, who recommended him to Charles I . His early preferments included a prebend in Gloucester Cathedral, the rectories of Newington and Ickford in Bucks, the vicarage of Hackney in Middlesex, the wardenship of All Souls College, and a royal chaplaincy. He was also appointed clerk of his Majesty's closet.1 He attached himself to the party of Falkland and Hyde and was in attendance on the king at intervals during the civil wars ; Charles I. nomin- ated him to the wardenship of Savoy Hospital and the deanery of Westminster, but the war prevented his settlement in these offices. About this time he became one of the king's chief advisers. He was sent by Charles to attend his com- missioners at the signing of the treaty of Uxbridge, and incurred on that occasion the enmity of the parliamentary com- missioners by his vehement defence of the Church.2 Sheldon was in attendance on the king at Oxford in April 1646, when his Majesty drew up in writing a promise to give back to the
1 Le Neve, Lives of Protestant Bishops, p. 177. 1 Ibid.
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Church, should God restore him to the throne, all the crown lands and other property taken from abbeys and religious houses. A copy of this deed was preserved by Sheldon underground for thirteen years.3 The king's vow is dated fourteen days before he left Oxford for the last time to set out for Scotland.
In 1684, Sheldon was arrested and imprisoned at Oxford. After a few months he was released on taking an oath not to come within five miles of Oxford or the Isle of Wight, where King Charles was at that time confined. He retired to Shelstone in Derbyshire, where he lived in seclusion during the Commonwealth, and frequently sent sums of money to the exiled prince.
Shortly before the return of Charles II. to England, Sheldon was renominated to the wardenship of Savoy Hospital. At the Restoration his loyalty was rewarded by the deanery of the Chapel Royal and on October 28, 1660, he was conse- crated bishop of London. He presided at the conference which met at Savoy Hospital in April 1661 (vide Juxon), to consider the advisability of making certain alterations in the Book of Common Prayer in accordance with Pres- byterian views. The demands of the Presbyterians were, however, too extravagant to admit of a compromise, and the conference came to nothing. A careful revision was after- wards made of the Prayer Book, but no concession was made to the Puritan party.
In August 1662, a new Act of Uniformity came in force, and nearly 2,000 nonconformists were ejected from their benefices, university lectureships and public offices. Though Sheldon approved of this act, he is said to have occasionally protected nonconforming clergy. During the last years of Juxon's fife, Sheldon practically governed the Church, and was high in the favour of King Charles II. and and his chief minister, Lord Clarendon.4
On August n, 1663, Sheldon was nominated to succeed Archbishop Juxon in the see of Canterbury. One of his first acts was to make a verbal agreement with Clarendon that the clergy should henceforth cease to tax themselves in
3 Cf. Vernon Staley, Life and Times of Gilbert Sheldon, p. 42.
4 Ibid.
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Gilbert Sheldon
Convocation, and should in consequence exercise the right to vote as members of the House of Commons.5
In the early part of Charles's reign certain acts were passed which greatly embittered the Puritans. By the Conventicle Acts religious assemblies of more than four persons were made illegal. Informers against breakers of this law were to receive a share of the fines. The Five Mile Act made it penal for any nonconformist minister to come within five miles of any city or of any place where he had formerly ministered, unless he had taken an oath of allegiance to the king and to the Church of England. Archbishop Sheldon called on his clergy to enforce these infamous acts, which he declared were likely to pro- mote " the glory of God, the welfare of the Church and the praise of his Majesty and his government."
During the terrible plague which visited London in 1665, the archbishop continued at Lambeth exposed to the greatest danger, and by his extensive charities preserved the lives of many who would have otherwise perished. After the Great Fire of London he gave 2,000 pounds towards the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral.
On the banishment of Lord Clarendon in 1667, Sheldon was appointed chancellor of the university of Oxford, and acted as such, though he was never sworn in or installed. Charles II. frequently attempted to make use of the fellowships of All Souls' and other colleges to reward needy royalists. This infringement of the rights of the university was stoutly opposed by Sheldon.6 The archbishop's influence at court seems to have declined along with that of his friend Clarendon. He courageously rebuked the king for his shameless adultery, and refused him the sacrament. In 1667 Sheldon consequently lost the king's favour.
The last few years of his life, during which he suffered much from the infirmities of age, were spent chiefly at Croydon. He died at Lambeth on November 9, 1677, in his eightieth year. He was buried at Croydon, where a monument was afterwards erected to his memory by his nephew, Sir Joseph Sheldon (Lord Mayor of London in 1676). The famous Sheldonian theatre was erected at Oxford at the archbishop's
s W. H. Hutton's The English Church, p. 199. 6 Burrow's Worthies of All Souls, p. 239.
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expense, though he never visited the city after its completion. The building was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and cost 25,000 pounds. Sheldon was induced to undertake this work by his strong feeling against the profanation of St. Mary's Church by the annual Acts called "Commemorations" which had always been performed there.7 To the theatre was added the Sheldonian printing-house. Sheldon was a patron of men of letters and a prelate of undoubted piety. He is said to have offended the Puritans by declaring that honest deeds were of more value than pious words.
> Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, II, 39.
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ARCHBISHOP SANCROFT.
77-— WILLIAM SANCROFT, 1677 to 1691.
Kings of England : Charles II., 1660 to 1685. James II., 1685 to 1688.
William Sancroft or Sandcroft, the second son of Francis Sancroft, of Fressingfield, Suffolk, and Margaret, his wife, daughter of Thomas Bouchier, was born on January 30, 161 7. He received his early education at the grammar school of Bury St. Edmunds, where he showed proof of unusual abilities. At the age of sixteen he was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where his uncle, William Sancroft, was master, and graduated B.A. 1637, M.A. 1641 and B.D. 1648. The year in which he was elected to a fellowship is uncertain, but it was probably about 1642. T His proficiency in Greek, Latin and Hebrew obtained for him a readership in his college, and he retained his fellowship until 1651, when he was ejected for refusing to take the " Engagement " oath, by which a certain measure of freedom of worship was allowed to those who engaged to be faithful to the Commonwealth.
He then retired to Fressingfield, where he lived quietly for some years in his brother's house, engaged chiefly in literary work. During this period he published two treatises which attracted considerable attention. The first, " Fur Praedestin- atus," was a Latin dialogue between a Calvinistic preacher and a thief, and was intended to hold up the doctrines of Calvinism to ridicule. The other treatise, entitled " Modern Politics," was a satire on the fanaticism of the party in power.
In 1657, Sancroft left England with the intention of taking up his residence in Holland, but after visiting Amsterdam, the Hague and Utrecht, he was persuaded to accompany a friend to Italy. While in Rome news reached him of the Restoration. On his return to England he was made chaplain to John Cosin, Bishop of Durham, who made
1 Le Neve, Lives of Protestant Bishops, p. 197.
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him a prebendary of Durham, and rector of Houghton- le-Spring. In August 1662, he was appointed master of Emmanuel College, which he governed with great prudence and ability.2 Two years later he was appointed by the the king to the deanery of York, but had held this office only ten months when he was made dean of St. Paul's. After the Great Fire of London he eagerly promoted the design for building a new cathedral, and it was mainly through his exertions and bounty that the magnificent plan of Sir Christopher Wren was at last adopted. The first stone of the new building was laid under the superintendence of Dr. San- croft as dean. He visited the cathedral constantly while the work was in progress, and no materials were bought or accounts passed without his counsel. In 1668, he was appointed archdeacon of Canterbury, but refused the bishopric of Chester, being determined to devote himself entirely to the restoration of St. Paul's Cathedral.
On the death of Archbishop Sheldon, Sancroft was promoted to the primacy. James, Duke of York, is said to have recommended him to the king as being less rabid in his Protestantism than most of the prominent ecclesiastics of the day,3 but there never was any doubt of the sincerity of his attachment to the English Church. Dry den, in his " Absolom and Achitophel," describes him as
Zadok the priest whom, shunning power and place, His lowly mind advanced to David's grace.
He was consecrated at Westminster Abbey on January 27, 1678.
One of his first acts undertaken with the king's consent was to make an ineffectual effort to bring back the Duke of York from Roman Catholicism to the English Church. The archbishop visited Charles II. on his death bed, and admonished him with great freedom to repent of his evil life. On the evening before his death the king received the last sacraments from a Benedictine monk named John Huddleston, whom his brother James had secretly introduced into his bed- chamber, and died in communion with the Church of Rome.
Immediately after his accession James II. took an oath before the privy council to defend the liberties of the Church of England. On April 23, 1685, Archbishop Sancroft crowned
2 Ibid. 3 w. H. Hutton, The English Church, p. 209.
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William Sancroft
the new king according to the usual service, but the communion was not administered, owing to James being a Catholic. In spite of his promises, the king lost no time in granting extra- ordinary favours to Catholics, whom he appointed to all the chief offices in the state and the army. He re-established the High Commission Court, which was to consist of three bishops and four laymen. Sancroft on a plea of ill-health refused to act on this tribunal, and thus lost the king's favour.
In the spring of 1687 the king ordered the vice-chancellor of Cambridge University to be dismissed for refusing to confer the degree of M.A. on a Benedictine monk, though to do so would have been contrary to the statutes. Soon afterwards, when the president of Magdalen College, Oxford, died, James ordered the fellows to appoint Anthony Farmer, a Catholic of evil life, to the vacant headship. The fellows met and elected John Hough, a Protestant, for which act of disobedience they were all turned out of their college. The laws of the country were completely ignored, and many English clergy were de- prived of their benefices in order to make room for Romanists. These illegal acts aroused great alarm throughout the country, and many English clergy openly preached against the errors of Rome. Even Pope Innocent XI. wrote to the king urging him to be more cautious lest he should lose all by provoking a revolution. For attempting to remonstrate with James, Archbishop Sancroft was forbidden to appear at court.
In May 1688, James II. ordered his famous Declaration of Indulgence, which he had issued in the previous year, to be read from the pulpits. By this act all penal laws against nonconformists and Catholics were annulled and liberty of conscience declared. On the Friday preceding the Sunday on which this act was to be read in the churches, Archbishop Sancroft summoned the clergy in haste to Lambeth. A petition was drawn up expressing the fervent loyalty of the Church to the crown, but protesting against the order to read in God's house a declaration which was against the law. The petition was written in the archbishop's hand, and signed by himself and Bishops White of Peterborough, Lloyd of St. Asaph, Turner of Ely, Lake of Chichester, Ken of Bath and Wells, and Trelawny of Bristol. At ten o'clock at night the six bishops proceeded to the palace to request an interview
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with the king. The archbishop did not accompany them, as he was still forbidden to appear at court.
On reading the document, James expressed the greatest indignation. " I did not expect this from your Church," he said. " It is a standard of rebellion. Go back to your dioceses and see that I am obeyed. God has given me the dispensing power and I will maintain it." On the following Sunday out of 10,000 clergy only 200 read the declaration. In the churches where it was read the congregations protested against it by walking out.
The Chancellor Jeffreys, famous as the judge of the " Bloody Assize," advised James to summon Archbishop Sancroft and the six bishops before the Court of the King's Bench on a charge of seditious libel. On appearing they refused to commit themselves by answering incriminating questions, and were consequently committed to the Tower. The river banks were crowded with sympathizing spectators as the barge conveyed them down the Thames, and landed them at the Traitors' Gate. The guards asked their blessing as they entered and many earnest prayers were offered for their safety. Their prison was attended like the presence chamber of royalty. The trial began on June 29, and was witnessed by the chief nobility of England, including thirty-four temporal peers of the realm.
The trial lasted all day, and in the evening the jury were desired to retire to consider their verdict. They remained together in close consultation all night without fire or candle. About 3 a.m. they [were overheard to be engaged in loud and eager debate, but at six o'clock they sent a message to the chief justice that they were at last agreed.4
At ten o'clock the prelates were brought into court, and the jury pronounced a verdict of " Not Guilty." No sooner were the words uttered than shouts of joy resounded through the hall, and were taken up by the anxious crowd waiting outside. Bells were rung, bonfires were lit, and the people crowded into the churches to return thanks for the bishops' release.
On the very day of the bishops' acquittal a letter was sent to William of Orange signed by seven English nobles and gentleman inviting him to come with an army to protect the
4 George D'Oyle, Life of William Sancroft, Vol. L, p. 306.
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William Sancroft
religion and laws of England. When the infatuated monarch became aware of his danger, he sent for Archbishop Sancroft, and earnestly besought his advice how to regain the ground he had lost in the affections of his people. The primate counselled him to dissolve the High Commission Court, to reinstate the fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford, and to remove Romanists from the privy council. But it was too late.
On the king's departure from his capital Sancroft was the first to sign the address to William of Orange, praying him to summon a free Parliament. The primate favoured the project of declaring King James unfit to reign on account of his prin- ciples, and appointing the Prince of Orange custos regni to carry on the government in the king's name. On learning that William was determined to secure the crown for himself, Sancroft declined to take any share in the proceedings of parliament. He refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, declaring that while King James lived he would acknowledge no other sovereign. In February 1690, he was deposed from his ecclesiastical functions, along with five bishops and about four hundred clergy who had also re- fused to take the oath. These deprived churchmen are known in history as the Non-jurors.
Sancroft was permitted to remain at Lambeth for some months, but in June 1691 was cited to answer a writ of intru- sion. He failed to appear, and on June 23 quitted Lambeth. He withdrew to Fressingfield, his birthplace, where he spent the remainder of his days in a small house which he had caused to be built there. He continued to correspond with the Non- jurors, who declared that they alone represented the Church of England. In February 1692, Sancroft solemnly delegated his archiepiscopal authority to Lloyd, the deposed bishop of Norwich.5 Other Non-juring bishops were consecrated after Sancroft's death.
In 1689, the Toleration Act was passed, granting liberty to all dissenters to worship as they pleased.
On his deathbed Sancroft was visited by Henry Wharton, the historian, who had been one of his chaplains. To him he com- mitted his manuscripts and the " Remains of Archbishop Laud," which he had been engaged in editing. " You and I have gone
5 Lathbury, Hist, of the Non-jurors, p. 94.
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different ways," he said, " but I trust heaven's gates are wide enough to receive us both." He died on November 24, 1693, and was buried in Fressingfield churchyard. His principal works are " Fur Praedestinatus," 1651 ; " Modern Politics," 1562 ; three sermons 1654 : nineteen of his private letters addressed to Mr. North (afterwards Sir Henry North), appeared in 1757. He was a generous patron of scholars and delighted to collect information on points of antiquarian interest. Those who knew Sancroft best affirmed that he was a pious, humble and good Christian. His career abundantly proves that he was ready to sacrifice all worldly interests to what he believed to be his duty. His loyalty to the deposed monarch who had treated him so ill is a touching feature in his character.
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ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. (From the painting by Kntller in Lambeth Palaee.)
78.— JOHN TILLOTSON, 1691 to 1694.
Sovereigns of England : William III. and Mary II. (Mary to 1694) 1689 to 1702.
Shortly after the refusal of Archbishop Sancroft to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, the king decided to nominate to the primacy John Tillotson, Dean of St. Paul's. There is a story that Tillotson when dean of Canterbury won favour with William and Mary by an act of generosity. On their way to Holland soon after their marriage they stopped for a few days at Canterbury, where they are said to have been forced to borrow plate for their use at table. Dr. Tillotson, on hearing of this, immediately got together all his own plate and sent it, with a loyal message to the prince and princess by Monsieur Bentinck, who was in attendance on them.1 The details of this story are, however, open to doubt, and it is more probable that the dean's character for moderation and charity recommended him to William for promotion.
John Tillotson was descended from a Cheshire family of the name of Tilston, whose ancestor, Nicholas de Tilston, flourished in the reign of Edward III. His father, Robert Tillotson, was a wealthy clothier of Sowerby, in the parish of Halifax, York- shire, and a strict Calvinist. His mother, Mary, daughter of Thomas Dobson, gentleman of the same place, was a woman of excellent character, who, unfortunately became insane in middle age.3 John was born in October 1630, in a house known as Old Haugh End, in the chapelry of Sowerby. He is believed to have received his early education at the grammar school of Colne in Lancashire. At the age of seventeen he entered Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1650, and M.A. in 1654. In 1651 he was admitted to a fellowship. While at Cambridge, Tillotson was much influenced by the
1 Le Neve, Lives of Protestant Bishops, p. 229. 3 Birch, Life of Tillotson, p. 2.
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writings of Dr. William Chillingworth, the famous theologian, author of " The Religion of Protestants."3
After the year 1657, he was engaged as tutor to the son of Sir Edmund Prideaux, of Ford Abbey, Devon, who was attorney-general to Oliver Cromwell. How long he con- tinued in this position is uncertain. At the time of the Protector's death he was in London. The following incident is thus recorded by Burnet : " Tillotson told me that a week after Cromwell's death he, being by accident at Whitehall, and hearing there was to be a fast that day in the household, went out of curiosity into the presence chamber, where it was held. On the one side of the table Richard with the rest of Cromwell's family were placed and six of the preachers on the other side. There he heard a great deal of strange stuff, enough to disgust a man for ever of that enthusiastic boldness. God was, as it were, reproached for Cromwell's services, and challenged for taking him away so soon."4
Tillotson was at this time attached to the Presbyterian party, but after the Restoration submitted to the Act of Uniformity, and in 1663 was presented to the rectory of Keddington in Suffolk. In the following year he was appointed preacher at Lincoln's Inn, London, and soon afterwards became the Tuesday lecturer at the church of St. Laurence Jewry, where his friend Dr. John Wilkins was rector. In 1664, he married Elizabeth French, step-daughter of Dr. Wilkins, and niece of Oliver Cromwell.
His sermons attracted large congregations composed of many of the leading clergy and other persons of the highest rank, and were the means of bringing over many from Calvinism and popery to the Church of England. His attacks on popery were displeasing to Charles II., with whom he was never in great favour. In 1666 he proceeded D.D., and about this time published his " Rule of Faith," his first polemic against Roman Catholicism. In 1670, he was appointed dean of Canterbury, and soon after- wards received a prebend in St. Paul's. After the discovery of the Rye House Plot, Tillotson, along with Gilbert Burnet (afterwards Bishop of Salisbury), was sent to minister to Lord
j Ibid.
* History of my own Time (Clarendon Press edition) Part I., p. 147.
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John Tillotson
William Russell during his imprisonment, and attended him to the scaffold.
On the succession of William and Mary, Tillotson was at once admitted to a high degree of favour. In 1689 he was made dean of St. Paul's and clerk of the king's closet. On his nomination to the see of Canterbury he expressed great re- luctance to accept the high office, and several months passed before he could permit the appointment to be confirmed. He at length yielded to William's urgent entreaties, but begged that he might not be represented to the world as driving out Archbishop Sancroft. He was consecrated on Whitsunday, May 31, 1691, in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, by the bishops of Winchester, St. Asaph, Salisbury, Worcester, Bristol and Oxford. Four days later, he was admitted a privy counsellor.
Tillotson belonged to the party known as the Latitudinarians, so called because within certain limits they advocated con- siderable latitude in matters of belief and practice both for individuals and Churches. Their scheme of comprehension which was to include the nonconformists was rejected by Convocation, as it would have involved sweeping changes in the the Book of Common Prayer. The attitude adopted by Convocation in this matter was highly displeasing to the latitudinarian prelates, and during Tillotson's primacy, though Convocation continued to be summoned by writ, it was not allowed to meet for debate. While the Prayer Book was under examination Tillotson revised the collects, making them more suitable to the epistles and gospels of the day. This work he carried out with much elegance and purity of style.3
Tillotson did not long survive his elevation to the primacy. The death of his only surviving child, Mary, the wife of James Chad wick, in 1687 was a severe blow to him, and soon after- wards he had an apoplectic seizure, from which he only par- tially recovered. On Sunday, November 18, 1694, while officiating in Whitehall Church he was struck with paralysis, but remained in his place until the end of the service. He died at Lambeth on November 22 ; and was buried in the church of St. Laurence Jewry, his funeral sermon being preached by Bishop Burnet, of Salisbury. He died almost
s Le Neve, Lives of Prot. Bishops, p. 226.
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penniless, but the copyright of his sermons was afterwards sold for 2,500 guineas. A complete edition of his works in fourteen volumes appeared 1 695-1 701.
Archbishop Tillotson was of genial disposition, generous and hospitable. He made a practice of devoting one fifth of his income to charity. After his death William III. declared that he had never known a more honest man. Bishop Burnet wrote of him : " Tillotson was a man of a clear head and a sweet temper. He had the brightest thoughts and the most correct style of all our divines, and was esteemed the best preacher of the age." "His coun- tenance," says Birch, " was fair, and very amiable, his face round, his eyes vivid, and his air and aspect quick and in- genious, all which were the index of his excellent soul and spirit ; his hair was brown and bushy ; he was moderately tall, very slender and sparing in his youth, his constitution tender and frail to outward appearance. He became corpu- lent and fat when grown in age, which increased more and more as long as he lived."
In 1695, King William III. granted to Tillotson's widow, who survived him till 1702, a pension of £400, which was increased in 1698 to £6oo."6
6 Ibid., p. 229.
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79-— THOMAS TENISON, 1695 to 1715.
Sovereigns of England : William III. to 1702.
Anne, 1702 to 17 14. George I., 17 14 to 1727.
Thomas, son of the Rev. John Tenison, B.D., was born at Cottenham, in Cambridgeshire, on September 29, 1636. His mother, Mercy Tenison, was the eldest daughter of Thomas Dowsing, of Cottenham. The Rev. John Tenison, rector of Mundesley, in Norfolk, was ejected from his living during the civil wars for his fidelity to Charles I . After the Restoration he became rector of Bracon Ash, in Norfolk.1 His son Thomas received his early education at the free school at Norwich, whence at the age of seventeen he proceeded to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. After graduating B.A. in 1657, he decided to study medicine, being discouraged from entering the Church on account of the persecutions to which the epis- copal clergy were at that time subjected. On the eve of the Restoration, however, he was ordained privately at Richmond by Dr. Duppa, Bishop of Salisbury, and graduated M.A. in 1660, B.D. in 1667, and D.D. in 1680.
In 1662, he was admitted to a fellowship in his college, and in the year of the Great Plague (1665) was rector of St. Andrew's, Cambridge. While the pestilence raged he remained at his post, conscientiously performing the duties of his cure. Two years later, when he left Cambridge on being presented to the rectory of Holywell and Needingworth, in Huntingdonshire, his parishioners presented him with a handsome silver tankard as a token of their esteem and gratitude.3 About the year 1667 he married Anne, daughter of the Rev. Richard Love, D.D., Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Dean of Ely. During the next few years he devoted much of his time to literary work. His first work, " The Creed of Mr. Hobbes examined," was published in 1670. He appears to have held
' Misc. Geneal. et Heraldic, Vol. II., 3rd series. 2 LeNeve, Lives of Protestant Bishops, p. 236.
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his father's living at Bracon Ash for a short time, and in 1674 he became preacher at the church of St. Peter Mancroft, in Nor- wich. In 1680 he was presented by King Charles II. to the rectory of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London. This position brought him into contact with many of the most eminent men of his day. In July 1685, he attended the Duke of Monmouth in prison and at the scaffold.3
Tenison took the deepest personal interest in the welfare of his parishioners. He endowed a free school in his parish, and built near Leicester Square a handsome free library, which he furnished with many useful books.4 In the year of the Great Frost (1683), he distributed three hundred pounds to the poor out of his own purse. During the reign of James II., Tenison frequently preached against popery, and in 1687, engaged in a conference with Andrew Pulton, the head of the Jesuits who had settled at the Savoy. A report of this conference was afterwards published, and Tenison pre- pared a number of controversial tracts on the subject of the debate. He was one of the divines present at Lambeth when the petition of the seven bishops was drawn up (videSancro ft.)
Shortly after the accession of William and Mary, Dr. Tenison was nominated by the queen to the archdeaconry of London, and in 1692 was consecrated bishop of Lincoln. Some opposition was shown to his elevation to the episcopal bench, and it was represented to the queen that the doctor, in preach- ing a funeral sermon for Eleanor Gwynne, the mistress of Charles II., had spoken in praise of that poor woman. " I have heard as much," said her Majesty, coolly, "and it convinces me that the unhappy creature died penitent, other- wise the good doctor would not have spoken of her so charitably."'
About a fortnight after the death of Archbishop Tillotson, the king was pleased to nominate Tenison as his successor. His appointment was confirmed in January 1695.
One of his first duties after his nomination was to attend the death-bed of Queen Mary, who was taken ill with small- pox on December 21 , and died a week later. Tenison preached her funeral sermon, and is said to have been instrumental in
3 Ibid. 4 Evelyn's Diary, June 18, 1691 ; Feb. 4, 1694.
s Memoirs of Dr. Thomas Tenison, p. 20.
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bringing about a reconciliation between King William and his sister-in-law, the Princess Anne. He sternly reproved the king for his misconduct with Lady Villiers, and obtained from him a solemn promise to break off all connection with her. During the king's absences in Holland the archbishop acted as one of the justices of the kingdom.
Tenison took a deep interest in founding the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the object of which was to provide clergy for the colonies beyond the seas. The first meeting of this Society took place at Lambeth Palace on June 27, 1701. At his death the archbishop left £1,000 for the Society to provide two English bishops, one for the continent of Europe and the other for America.
In 1700, Convocation, which had not assembled for ten years, was permitted to meet, but a perverse and quarrelsome spirit was at once shown by the members. Those of the Lower House refused to recognize the authority of the archbishop to pro- rogue their sessions. The disputes continued on this and on other subjects when the Houses reassembled after the accession of Queen Anne.
Archbishop Tenison attended King William on his death- bed, and on April 23, 1702, crowned Queen Anne in West- minster Abbey. With her accession he lost favour at court. He voted against the Occasional Conformity Bill, and further offended the queen by the zeal he manifested for securing a Protestant succession. He even ventured to enter into correspondence with the Electress Sophia on this subject. In 1706, he was appointed one of the commissioners for the Act of Union with Scotland.
On October 20, 1714, Archbishop Tenison crowned King George I. When Tenison was presented to his Majesty, the king received him very favourably, and was afterwards pleased to say that he liked him well because the venerable man had spent an hour and a half in his company, and had not asked one favour for himself or his friends.6
During the last years of his life, Tenison was much afflicted with gout. He died on December 14, 1715, and was buried in the chancel of Lambeth parish church. His wife had predeceased him in 1714, and he left no issue.
6 Ibid., p. in.
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He built and endowed a charity school at Lambeth for the education of twelve poor girls. His will contains many curious bequests. To his successors the archbishops of Canterbury he left his great fire engine with the buckets kept at Lambeth. His barge he bequeathed to his bargemen after his executors had had the use of it for six months from the time of his decease.
He has been described as " a plain, good, heavy man, tall, with a fair complexion." James II. dubbed him " a dull man," and the epithet stuck to him. Swift declared that he was " a dull man, who had a horror of anything like levity in the clergy, especially of whist."7 Like his predecessor Tillotson (q.v.), he belonged to the latitudinarian party.
His works include " Baconiana " (1678) ; " A Discourse on Idolatry " ; and " The Difference between the Protestant and the Socinian Methodists."
Charles J. Abbey, The English Church, I., pp. 94, 95.
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8o.— WILLIAM WAKE, 1716 to 1737.
Kings of England : George I., 1714 to 1727. George II., 1727 to 1760.
William Wake was bom at Blandford, in Dorset, on January 26, 1657, and was the son of William Wake, of Shapwick, a gallant royalist who had fought in the civil wars. His family are said to have traced their descent from the famous Hereward the Wake who flourished in the time of William the Conqueror. William received his early education at Blandford Grammar School, whence he proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford, and graduated B.A. in 1676, M.A. in 1679, B.D. and D.D. in 1689. His father had desired him to enter business as a clothier, but he declined to comply with the parental wishes in this respect, and in 1681 received deacon's orders.
In the following year, after being ordained priest, be became chaplain to Richard Graham, Viscount Preston, who had been appointed ambassador to the French court. Wake accom- panied the viscount to France, and from this period dates his interest in the affairs of the Gallican Church. In Paris he came in contact with some of the most eminent scholars of the period, and was commissioned by Bishop Fell of Oxford to procure for him the collection of some valuable Greek manu- scripts of the New Testament. A copy of the celebrated Bishop Bossuet's " Exposition de laFoiCatholique" having come into his hands, he wrote a remarkably able answer to this work, entitled " Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England."1 His book offended James II., who on Wake's return to England opposed his appointment as preacher at Gray's Inn. He was nevertheless chosen, and became famous as a preacher of great eloquence.
In 1688, he married Etheldreda, third daughter and co- heiress of Sir William Hovel, Knight, of Hillington, in Norfolk.
1 Charles J. Abbey, The English Church, I., p. 96.
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By her he had a numerous family. After the accession of William and Mary he was made chaplain to the king, and deputy clerk of the royal closet. In 1693, he was presented to the rectory of St. James's, Piccadilly. Henceforth his rise was rapid. In 1703 he was made dean of Exeter, and on October 21, 1705, was consecrated bishop of Lincoln. This office he held for ten years during which time he took the deepest interest in the affairs of his see. He drew up a unique document entitled " Speculum Dioceseos," consisting of" occa- sional observations" on the various parishes of his large diocese, evidently the result of his own personal inspection of them. It includes an account of the chief families resident in each parish, and of the churches, schools and charitable institutions.2
In January 1716, Wake was promoted to the primacy. In the following year he formulated a scheme for uniting the English and Gallican Churches. The time was to some extent favourable for this, owing to the strife which had arisen between the Jesuits and the Jansenists. In 1713 Pope Clement XI. had issued his famous bull Unigenitus, con- demning the tenets of the Jansenists, which had spread widely in the Gallican Church. Archbishop Wake corresponded with Du Pin, the ecclesiastical historian, and with other eminent French divines. The project of union was seriously discussed by the theological faculty at the Sorbonne, but after the death of Du Pin in 1719 the negotiations were aban- doned. Wake was accused by certain writers of betraying the interests of the Church of England by this proposal. But there is abundant evidence that he contemplated no union except that which would involve the complete separation of France from Rome.3 He also corresponded with Jablouski, the leader of the Polish Lutherans, whom he earnestly ex- horted not to enter into any arrangement with the Church of Rome except on a footing of perfect equality. Wake also showed a deep interest in the welfare of other foreign Protestant Churches.
During this primacy a breach was created between the two Houses of Convocation by the Bangorian controversy.
1 Overton and Relton, The English Church, (18th century,) p. 23. s Mosheim's Eccles Hist., II., 365.
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Dr. Hoadley, Bishop of Bangor, had written a treatise which denied any divine right to ecclesiastical organizations. The Lower House called on the Upper House to condemn Dr. Hoadley's writings, and a violent controversy arose on the subject. The government looked on the action of the Lower House of Convocation as implying censure on the Whigs, to which party Hoadley belonged. In 1717, Convocation was consequently prorogued by a royal writ and never suffered again to meet for the despatch of business until the year 1852.
The Non-juring bishops {vide Sancroft) had for some time been in communication with the Eastern patriarchs, apparently with a view to strengthen their position by a rapprochement with the Eastern Church. The correspondence had com- menced in 1 716, the very year in which Wake was promoted to the see of Canterbury, and had continued at intervals for eight years before he had any knowledge of it. His chaplain, Thomas Payne, was the first to inform him of the proceedings of the Non-jurors. Wake then wrote to the patriarch of Jeru- salem a letter in which he exposed the schismatical position of the Non-juring clergy. It appears, however, that before the receipt of thisletter the Eastern Patriarchs had become aware, probably through the British Ambassador at Constantinople, of the position of the Non-jurors with whom they had been corresponding, under the erroneous impression that they repre- sented the whole of the Anglican communion. On finding that they were an insignificant and gradually diminishing fraction of the national Church, they hastened to break off the correspondence as courteously but as quickly as possible. Wake's letter, while disavowing in the name of the English Church all complicity in the proceedings of the Non-jurors, regards the existing relations of the Anglican and Eastern Churches as most intimate.4
Towards the close of his life, Archbishop Wake became so much disabled by age and infirmities that some part of the care of his Church was transferred to Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London. He died at Lambeth on January 24, 1737, and was buried at Croydon. He bequeathed his valuable collec- tion of coins and bis library of printed books and manuscripts, the whole valued at £10,000, to Christ Church College, Oxford.
« Geo. Williams, B.D., The Orthodox Eastern Church, p. xxviii.
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On the parishes with which he had been connected he bestowed many benefactions. Wake's character appears to present a strange compound of liberality and intolerance. Though he voted against certain measures in favour of the noncon- formists, in his correspondence and personal friendship with members of that body he showed much breadth of view. It has been suggested that his motive for advocating the inser- tion of the intolerant clauses of the " Occasional Conformity," " Schism " and " Quakers' " Bill was that he believed there to be no such differences between churchmen and noncon- formists as could justify the latter in standing apart.5 That he was a man of pacific spirit appears in all his correspondence, which extended to the leading men of every ecclesiastical community in Europe.
His principal works are : (i) " The State of the'Church of England in those Councils, Synods, Convocations, Conven- tions and other Public Assemblies historically deduced from the conversion of the Saxons to the Present Time," 1703. (2) " An English version of the Genuine Epistles of the Apostolic Fathers, St. Barnabas, St. Ignatius, St. Clement, St. Polycarp, The Shepherd of Hennas, with a Preliminary Discourse concern- ing the Use of those Fathers," 1693. (3) " Principles of the Christian Religion."
5 Charles J. Abbey, The English Church, Vol. I., p. 98.
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ARCHBISHOP POTTER.
8i.— JOHN POTTER, 1737 to 1747.
King of England : George II., 1727 to 1760.
On the death of Archbishop Wake it was generally expected that Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London, would succeed to the primacy. Owing to Wake's infirmities, Gibson had been virtually primate for six years. His claims were, however, overlooked in favour of a less eminent man, Bishop Potter, of Oxford, a protege of Queen Caroline.1
John, the son of Thomas Potter, linen draper, was born at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, in 1674. At the grammar school of his native town he made remarkable progress, especially in the study of Greek, and at the age of fourteen entered University College, Oxford, as a servitor. He graduated B.A. in 1692 ; and proceeded in due course to the degrees of M.A., B.D., D.D. At the age of nineteen he was advised by Dr. Charlett, master of University College, to undertake his first literary work. This was the editing of Plutarch's treatise De Audiendis Poetis, and the oration of Basil the Great, De Legendis Grcecorum , with various readings and notes. The work was published at the University Press, Oxford, in 1694, at the expense of Dr. Charlett, who used to present copies of it as New Year gifts to the young students of University College.2
In 1694, Potter was elected to a fellowship at Lincoln College. He was at this time engaged in editing the works of the Greek writer, Lycophron, of which he published a beautiful edition in 1697. In the same year he published the first volume of his " Archaeologia Graeca," or the Anti- quities of Greece. This work established his literary fame both at home and abroad.
In 1698, he took orders, and was presented to the rectory of Green's Norton in Northamptonshire. This he resigned in 1700, but subsequently held country livings in Kent, Bucks
1 Cf. Overton and Relton, The English Church, p. 95. 3 Wood, Athena Cantab., Vol. IV., p. 460.
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and Oxfordshire. From 1704 to 1707 he was domestic chaplain to Archbishop Tenison, an appointment which neces- sitated his residence at Lambeth.3 In 1707 he succeeded Dr. Jane as Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford. This position he is said to have owed to the influence of the Duke of Marl- borough. Soon after his return to Oxford he married a Miss Venner, who is said to have been the grand-daughter of Thomas Venner, the Fifth Monarchy man. Through the interest of the Duke of Marlborough he obtained the bishopric of Oxford, to which he was consecrated on May 15, 1715. While holding this see he was allowed to retain his divinity chair. On October n, 1727, he preached the coronation sermon for George II., on whose accession he obtained high favour at court, especially with Queen Caroline.
In February 1737, Dr. Potter was translated to the see of Canterbury. As archbishop he assumed a pontifical state, which laid him open to much censure, especially from those who were jealous of his promotion. His air of stiffness and importance offended many, though it was probably due less to any change of sentiment produced by his ad- vancement to the primacy than to his innumerable engage- ments which gave him less time for familiar conversation and social intercourse.4 He was accused of nepotism on account of having obtained from the crown three rectories and the deanery of Exeter for his son-in-law, the Rev. Jeremiah Miller, who held all these preferments till his death. He also provided most generously for his wife's relations.
Though a high churchman, Archbishop Potter was a Whig in politics. During his primacy the Methodist movement, under the leadership of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, caused a great religious revival throughout England. The archbishop showed much sympathy with the movement. " These gentlemen are irregular, but they have done much good, and I pray God to bless them," he once said. Wesley desired that his work should be supple- mentary to that of the Church of England, from which he had originally no wish to separate. One of his later sermons
3 Ibid., p. 461.
* Anderson's Preface to ArchcBologia Graca ; cf. Abbey's English Church, Vol. I., p. 384.
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urging attendance on the Church service concludes with these words : " Near fifty years ago, a great and good man, Dr. Potter, then Archbishop of Canterbury, gave me an advice for which I have ever since had occasion to bless God, ' If you desire to be extensively useful, do not spend your time and strength in contending for or against such things as are of a disputable nature, but in testifying against open notorious vice and in promoting real essential holiness.' "5
Archbishop Potter died at Lambeth on October 10, 1747, and was buried in the chancel of Croydon Church. Of his large family only two sons and three daughters survived him. He left his fortune to his second surviving son, Thomas, who was a barrister. His eldest son, John, Dean of Canterbury, had forfeited his favour by marrying a domestic servant.6
His principal works in addition to those already mentioned are his edition of " Clementis Alexandrini Opera " ; and his theological treatises, which were published in three volumes in 1753. A large number of his sermons and letters have been preserved.
s Overton and Relton, The English Church, pp. 92, 98. 6 Biog. Brit., Vol. V., p. 3417.
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82.— THOMAS HERRING, 1747 to 1757.
King of England : George II., 1727 to 1760.
Thomas Herring was bora in 1694 at Walsoken, in Norfolk, where his father, the Rev. John Herring, was rector. He was prepared for the university at Wisbech School in the Isle of Ely, and in June, 1710, matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge. After graduating B.A. in 1714, he removed to Corpus Christi College, where he obtained a fellowship. In due course he proceeded to the degrees of M.A., B.D. (1724) and D.D. (1728). Soon after taking orders (1717), he became a tutor at the university, and afterwards held successively the rectories of Shelford, Stow-cum-Qui and Trinity in Cambridge. He had meantime obtained a high reputation as a preacher. In 1722, Dr. Fleetwood, Bishop of Ely, made him his chaplain, and in the same year presented him to the rectories of Retten- den in Essex and Barley in Hertfordshire. In 1725 he was presented by the king to the rectory of All Hallows the Great, in London, which, however, he resigned before institution. In the following year the society of Lincoln's Inn chose him for their preacher. About the same time he was appointed a king's chaplain.1 In 1731, he was presented by Sir William Clayton to the rectory of Bletchingley, in Surrey, and in February 1732, by George II., to the deanery of Rochester. On January 15, 1738, he was consecrated bishop of Bangor, and continued to hold the deanery of Rochester in commendam. Herring made a visitation of his Welsh diocese, journeying long distances on horseback over the hills. His correspondence with his friend William Duncombe, in which he gives a charm- ing account of the Welsh scenery and people, has been pre- served. On November 3, 1738,2 he wrote : " We travelled slowly and commodiously and found Wales a country altogether as entertaining as it was new. The face of it is grand, and
1 Biog. Brit. (Supplement), p. 89.
2 Letters from Dr. Thomas Herring to William Duncombe, p. 40.
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bespeaks the magnificence of Nature, and enlarged my mind so much in the same manner as the stupendousness of the ocean does, that it was some time before I could be reconciled again to the level countries."
In April 1742, Herring was translated to the archiepiscopal see of York, and in April took possession of the palace at Bishopsthorpe, where he made many improvements and added a new clock to the turret. A friend of Mr. William Duncombe, writing from York in June 1744, states that there were carved in one of the bedchambers at Bishopsthorpe on each side of the chimney two cherubim, weeping bitterly. The story says that when the carver was asked how it entered into his head to represent them crying, his answer was that he appealed to the Te Deum for the propriety of what he had done.3
Herring was archbishop of York when the rebellion of 1745 broke out in Scotland. A meeting of the nobility, gentry and clergy of the neighbourhood was held at York Castle on September 24, 1745. Archbishop Herring addressed the assembly in an eloquent and spirited speech, calling on all to unite in the defence of their religion and country. He reminded them that the Pretender, if successful, would be supported by the forces of France and Spain," our old and inveterate enemies, savage and bloodthirsty as of yore." His speech had the desired effect, for £40,000 was immediately subscribed to provide means of defence. On the return of the Duke of Cumberland to York after the battle of Culloden, the archbishop, at the head of the dean, chapter and clergy, addressed him in a congratulatory speech.4 The extravagant eulogies which Herring bestowed on " Butcher Cumberland " on this occasion convey a somewhat unfavourable impression of his character, especially in view of the use which the duke had made of his victory.
The complete record of Herring's visitation of the diocese of York has been preserved in four folio volumes, and shows with what care he entered into the details of the parochial life in his province.
On the death of Archbishop Potter in 1747, Herring was
' Nichols' Literary Illustrations, Vol. Ill , p. 454. * Biog. Brit. Supplement, p. 90.
377
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translated to the see of Canterbury. He is generally supposed to have owed his promotion to the strong support given by him to the house of Hanover in 1745. His primacy seems to have been uneventful. He resided much at the archi- episcopal residence at Croydon, to which he was specially attached, and which he thoroughly repaired. In the summer of 1753 he was seized at Lambeth with a pleuritic fever, which nearly ended fatally. This illness so greatly impaired his health and spirits that, though on his retiring to Croydon he partly recovered, yet from that time he might rather be said to languish than to live. He declined as far as possible all public business, seeing little company but his relations and particular friends. Once indeed the Princess Dowager of Wales did him the honour of breakfasting with him, and was received and entertained with the unaffected courtesy for which his Grace was distinguished. He died at his Croydon house on March 13, 1757, and was buried in the parish church. He was unmarried. His sermons were published in one volume in 1763, and his letters in 1777. Herring was a hospitable and benevolent prelate, and was much beloved by the people of York. He possessed a cultivated mind, but was apparently more distinguished for political activity than for administrative power.
Dean Swift, whom Herring had offended, wrote of him in a contemptuous manner. " I should be very sorry," he says, "that any of the clergy should be so weak as to imitate a court chaplain in England who preached against the ' Beggars' Opera,' which probably will do more good than a thousand sermons of so stupid, so injudicious, and so prostitute a divine."3
s Quoted from No. 3 of the Intelligencer.
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83.— MATTHEW HUTTON, 1757 to 1758.
King of England : George II., 1727 to 1760,
Matthew Hutton was born at Marske, in Yorkshire, on January 3, 1693. His father, John Hutton, of Marske, was a descendant of Matthew Hutton, who was archbishop of York in the reign of Elizabeth. His mother was Dorothy, daughter of William Dyke, of Trant, in Sussex.
Matthew was sent to a school at Kirby Hill, near Richmond, kept by the Rev. Mr. Lloyd, of Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1704, Mr. Lloyd was appointed master of the free school at Ripon, whither Matthew Hutton accompanied him, and remained there under his tuition for six years. In June 171 0, he was admitted to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. three years later and M.A. in 1717. In July I7i7,he was elected a fellow of Christ's College, and was shortly afterwards ordained by Bishop Fleetwood of Ely. Hutton became chaplain to the Duke of Somerset, by whom he was presented to the rectory of Trowbridge, in Wilts, and, after proceeding D.D., to that of Spofforth, near Wetherby.in Yorkshire.1
In March 1732, Hutton married Mary, daughter of John Lutman, of Petworth, in Sussex, by whom he had two daughters. He was presented by Archbishop Blackburne to a prebend in the cathedral of York, and was soon afterwards made a royal chaplain. In the latter capacity he accompanied King George II. to Hanover in 1736.3 On his return he was pre- ferred to a prebend at Windsor, which he soon afterwards exchanged for one at Westminster.
Upon the translation of Bishop Herring to York, Hutton succeeded him in the see of Bangor, to which he was conse- crated at Lambeth Palace on November 13, 1743. Upon the removal of Herring to Canterbury, Hutton succeeded him at
1 Correspondence of Matthew Hutton (Surtees Society), p. 40. * Ibid.
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York. As he had followed Archbishop Herring in the other removes, so on the death of the latter, Hutton was translated to Canterbury, being confirmed to the primacy in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow on April 29, 1757. A dispute having arisen between his Grace and the executors of his predecessor on the subject of dilapidations at Lambeth Palace, he never had an opportunity of living there. During the summer he resided chiefly at Croydon, and when in town, at his own house in Duke Street, Westminster.3 He appears to have been a man of very liberal opinions, and inclined to the lati- tudinarian party, but his short primacy gave him little opportunity of effecting any notable reforms. Shortly after his promotion he was admitted a lord of his Majesty's privy council, and was also elected a governor of the Charter House, president of the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, and president of the S.P.G.
On the morning of March 18, 1758, he was seized with violent pain supposed to proceed from a rupture. Though every- thing possible was done to relieve his sufferings, he died the same evening. He was buried in Lambeth chapel, in a vault near the communion table.
Thomas Wray, his chaplain wrote of him : " He was an affectionate husband, a very tender-hearted parent and a kind master. How sincere he was in his professions of friend- ship those who were admitted to any degree of intimacy with him will declare. He was very ready in the despatch of business ; and as I fancy none of his predecessors excelled him in a graceful and majestic mien, few had a clearer head or could communicate their thoughts with more readiness or greater perspicacity. He had a very extensive knowledge of men and things, and his knowledge of books was very well digested. His being a little ad rem attentior, I attribute en- tirely to his having a family, as I have not heard that he ever discovered such a turn in his younger days."4
J Nichol's Lit. Illustr., Vol. III., p. 469. 4 Ibid, p. 473.
380
84.— THOMAS SECKER, 1758 to 1768.
Kings of England : George II., 1727 to 1760. George III., 1760 to 1820.
Thomas Secker was born in 1693 at the village of Sibthorpe, in the Vale of Belvoir, Nottinghamshire. His father, Thomas Secker the elder, a Protestant dissenter, was a pious and well- meaning man who owned a small paternal estate. His mother was a daughter of George Brough, of Shelton, in Nottingham- shire, a substantial gentleman farmer. Thomas received his early education at a school at Attercliffe, kept by Timothy Jollie, a dissenter. In 1710, he was sent to the dissenting academy of Samuel Jones, then at Gloucester, which was soon afterwards removed to Tewkesbury. The expenses of his education were partly defrayed by Dr. Isaac Watts, the famous hymn-writer. At the Tewkesbury Academy Thomas Seeker, Joseph Butler (afterwards bishop of Durham), and Samuel Chandler (afterwards the learned nonconformist divine), were fellow-pupils, and remained life-long friends.1
Both Secker and Butler were intended for the noncon- formist ministry, but the former became uncertain as to his views, and proceeded to Paris to study medicine. While abroad he continued to correspond with Butler, who had abandoned the idea of the nonconformist ministry, and determined to take orders in the Church of England. From Paris Secker proceeded to Leyden, where he met and formed a close intimacy with Martin Benson, afterwards bishop of Gloucester. In 1720, he returned to England, and through the influence of his friends, Benson, Butler and Dr. Samuel Clarke, he decided to take orders.
Shortly after his arrival in England, Secker was introduced by Butler to his friend Edward Talbot, son of William Talbot, Bishop of Oxford. A few months later, Edward Talbot died of smallpox. On his death-bed he commended his friends
' Introduction to the Works of Archbishop Secker, by Beilby Porteus.
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Butler and Seeker to his father's patronage, and the bishop afterwards provided for both. As it was necessary for Seeker to take a degree, he returned to Leyden, where he graduated as doctor of Physic, having heard that this would exempt him from certain examinations at Oxford.
On his return to England he entered Exeter College, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner, in April 1721. A year later he obtained the degree of B.A. without any difficulty, in conse- quence of the chancellor's recommendatory letter. In 1722, he was ordained by William Talbot, then bishop of Durham, who presented him to the living of Houghton-le-Spring. While in London, Seeker had been a frequent visitor at the house shared by Edward Talbot's widow and Catherine Benson, sister of Martin Benson. On October 28, 1725, he married Catherine Benson, to whom he had become deeply attached. At the earnest desire of Seeker and his wife, Mrs. Talbot and her young daughter consented to make their home with them.2
As rector of Houghton-le-Spring, where he was very popular with his country neighbours, Seeker spent the happiest years of his life. The dampness of the situation, however, seriously affected Mrs. Seeker's health, and in 1727, he was forced on that account to exchange the living for the rectory of Ryton, with a prebend at Durham. In July 1732, he was made a royal chaplain, and in the following August preached before Queen Caroline at the Chapel Royal, St. James's, during the king's absence abroad. Her Majesty afterwards sent for Seeker and expressed approval of his sermon ; at this interview he took the opportunity of recommending his friend Joseph Butler to the queen.3
In the following year Seeker was presented to the rectory of St. James's, Piccadilly, and in 1734 was nominated bishop of Bristol by the king. As the revenue attached to this see was small, he was permitted to retain the rectory of St. James's and the prebend at Durham. His " Lectures on the Church Catechism " delivered at this time to his parishioners at St. James's were very popular, and were afterwards published in two volumes.
Frederick, Prince of Wales, who since his quarrel with his
1 Ibid. 3 Ibid.
382 . .
Thomas Seeker
father had resided at Norfolk House in the parish of St. James's, attended divine service regularly at that church. Seeker baptized all his Highness's children except two. His influence with the prince being supposed greater than it actually was, he was employed by King George II. to bring about a reconciliation between him and his son. His attempts to do so having failed, he thereby incurred the king's dis- pleasure through no fault of his own. [After he became archbishop, Seeker was consulted much less frequently by the crown than any archbishop had been for many years. On one flagrant occasion his claims were ignored in such a manner that he was advised by his friends to show some resentment. He assured them that though " he had as sharp a sense of the indignity as any of them, he was unwilling to break altogether with the court, for then he was certain he could prevail in nothing ; he might now be able to carry some points for the good of the Church."4]
In 1737, Seeker was translated to the see of Oxford. In the House of Lords he manifested an earnest desire to support all measures which concerned the public good. In 1743, a bill was introduced to lower the duties on spirituous liquors. Seeker led the bishops in opposition to this bill, declaring that they " could not sacrifice for ways and means the health, the industry and the lives of the people." Later he supported a bill for making provision for the widows and children of ministers of the Established Church of Scotland. In 1753, he spoke on the side of moderation in the question of repealing the J e ws Naturalization Bill . In the following year he brought upon himself much wrath from nonconformists and New Englanders for urgently advocating the consecration of one or more bishops for America.5 While he was a kind friend to foreign Protestants, his precise temperament was greatly offended by the extravagance of the Methodists. He, how- ever, thoroughly appreciated the work they were doing, and in his charges frequently brought them before the clergy for example and instruction. In a charge to his clergy in 1750, Seeker deplored the dreary spectacle of neglect presented by the country churches throughout his diocese. For years
« Overton and Relton, The English Church, p. 123.
J Charles J. Abbey, The English Church, Vol. II., p. 46.
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only enough had been done to prevent them from falling into ruin. The floors were meanly paved, the walls dirty and patched, and the interior often damp, offensive and unwholesome.
While at Oxford Seeker occasionally visited Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, at Blenheim. He is said to have always spoken his mind to her openly, however much he differed from her, and in spite of her domineering temper she bore it for the most part patiently. She appointed him one of the executors of her will, and he officiated at her funeral in October,
1744.6
In the spring of 1748 Mrs. Seeker died, leaving no issue. During the frequent illnesses to which she was subject her husband had nursed her with the greatest care and tenderness. In 1750, Seeker was made dean of St. Paul's, in succession to his friend Butler, who had been chosen bishop of Durham. He then resigned the rectory of St. James's and the prebend at Durham.
On the death of Archbishop Hutton, in 1758, Seeker was promoted to the see of Canterbury. George II. had become reconciled to him shortly before his death, and the new arch- bishop was on friendly terms with George III., whom he had baptized, married and crowned. His weak health, however, prevented him from being much at court. His preaching, which was plain and practic al,attractedm any hearers . Bishop Porteus, his biographer, says that his sermons were much admired for their manly sense, useful directions, and frequent applications of Scripture. Bishop Hurd of Worcester, however, declared that there was sometimes an air of cant in his ex- pressions, derived no doubt from his early breeding and education. Horace Walpole, who detested him, said that his sermons were a kind of moral essays, but what they wanted of the gospel was made up by a tone of fanaticism which they still retained.7
As a bishop, Seeker commanded from his clergy respect rather than any warmer feeling. He was somewhat stiff, formal and precise in manner, and often seemed reserved and cold. Porteus states that this was often due to bodily pain
6 Beilby Porteus, Introduction to the Works of Archbishop Seeker.
7 Charles. J. Abbey, The English Church, II., 44.
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and depression, and that faults were hence laid to his charge which did not really belong to his character. His Grace was in person tall and comely. His house was hospitable, and his table plentiful, yet plain and simple. He was an excellent classical scholar, and so well-skilled in Hebrew that there were few books published in his time in the Hebrew language which were not sent to him for revision. He is also said to have revised the manuscript of Butler's " Analogy."
In the spring of 1768, he was seized with violent pain in the upper part of the thigh. This continued without relief until a few days before his death, when a strange accident befel him. As he was turning himself on his couch he broke his thigh bone. It was found impossible to set it, and after suffering great agony he died on August 3, 1768. After his death it was found that the thigh bone was quite carious, and that the excruciating pains he had long felt were due to the gradual corrosion of the bone by some acrimonious humour.8 He was buried as he had desired, without monument or epitaph, in the covered passage leading from a private door of Lambeth Palace to the north side of the church.
His printed works include : (1) Five charges delivered to his clergy as bishop of Oxford. (2) Three charges delivered as archbishop of Canterbury. (4) Instructions to candidates for ordination. (5) Thirty-nine lectures on the Church Catechism. (6) Numerous letters and pamphlets. His episcopal charges were on the whole, with respect to the views expressed, much in advance of those of the same period.
Nichols' Lit. Illust., Vol. III., p. 477.
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85.— FREDERICK CORNWALLIS, 1768 to 1783. King of England : George III., 1760 to 1820.
Frederick Cornwallis, the seventh son of Charles, fourth Lord Cornwallis, was the first primate of high birth since the days of Cardinal Pole. He was born on February 22, 171 3, and was twin brother of General Edward Cornwallis, whom, as a boy, he so much resembled that it was difficult to know the brothers apart. Frederick was educated at Eton, whence he proceeded to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow, graduating B.A. in 1736, and D.D. in 1748.1
While a student at Cambridge, he had a slight paralytic stroke, and never fully recovered the use of his right side, being thus obliged throughout his life to write with his left hand. After his ordination he was presented by his brother with two country livings in Norfolk and Suffolk. The influence of his family ensured for him rapid preferment, and before 1747 he was made a royal chaplain, a canon of Windsor, and a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral. In February 1750, he was consecrated bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. During the years he held this office he was much beloved and respected by the clergy of his diocese. In 1766, he was made dean of St. Paul's, and in August 1768, succeeded Archbishop Seeker in the see of Canterbury. His promotion was resented by many who did not consider him a man of sufficiently high mark to fill so eminent a position. He, however, possessed moderation with a general aptitude for winning popularity and esteem, and was elegant, courteous and essentially a man of the world.2 He was no sooner installed at Lambeth than he abolished the custom of having separate tables for the chaplains, and invited them to dine as his companions at his own board. This alteration of an ancient custom
1 Gentleman's Magazine, 1783, Vol. LIIL, p. 233. 1 Charles J. Abbey, The English Church, II., 205.
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Frederick Cornwallis
could not without considerable difficulty have come from one who was not himself of high birth.
In February 1759, Dr. Cornwallis had married Caroline, daughter of William Townshend, third son of Charles, second Viscount Townsend. She survived him until 181 1, but had no issue. At Lambeth Mrs. Cornwallis shone as a leader of society, eclipsing everybody by the splendour and magnificence of her equipages and entertainments. She gave several large balls and convivial routs at the Palace, and had drawn satirical observations from many quarters. Selina, Countess of Hunting- don, whose chief aim in life was to bring about a revival in religion among the upper classes, sought a private interview with the king on the subject of the routs, and George III. wrote to the archbishop the following severe reprimand : " I hold these levities and vain dissipations as utterly inexpedient, if not unlawful, to pass in a residence for many centuries devoted to divine studies, religious retirement and the extensive exercise of charity and benevolence — a place where so many of your predecessors have led their lives in such sanctity as has thrown lustre on the pure religion they professed and adorned. I trust you will suppress them immediately, so that I may not have occasion to show any further marks of my displeasure or to interpose in a different manner."3
In July 1778, his Grace, assisted by the bishop of Rochester, made a visitation of the eastern portion of his province, visit- ing Sittingbourne, Canterbury, Ashford, Ramsgate, Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romsey, Cranbrook and Maidstone. During his stay at Dover, at the London Tavern, the archbishop and his lady were much alarmed at midnight by the door of their chamber being burst open by a drunken English squire just arrived from France, who insisted on taking possession of their apartment, which his Grace for the sake of peace resigned. Next morning, when sober, the gentleman offered to make any submission, but his Grace refused to see him.4
Archbishop Cornwallis was a man of liberal views, and in the House of Lords always spoke warmly in favour of tolera- tion, towards both dissenters and Roman Catholics. Though his views changed at a later date, he was at one time much in
3 Overton and Relton, The English Church, p. 162.
4 Gentleman's Magazine, 1778, Vol. LVIIL, p. 73.
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favour of a revision of Church formularies. His biographer adds that he was very charitable, an earnest peacemaker, and kind and generous in his superintendence of the clergy.
He died at Lambeth Palace on March 19, 1783, after a few day's illness, and was buried in a vault under the com- munion table in Lambeth Church. He improved Lambeth Palace and added to the gallery many portraits of his pre- decessors.
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86.— JOHN MOORE, 1783 to 1805. King of England : George III., 1760 to 1820.
On the death of Archbishop Cornwallis, the king offered the primacy to Robert Lowth, Bishop of London, one of the most distinguished churchmen of his time, but he declined it on the plea of advanced age. It was then offered to Bishop Hurd, of Worcester, a brilliant scholar, but for " love of lettered ease " he also declined it. It is said that his Majesty then desired each of these prelates to recommend to him one of the bishops as the fittest in their judgment to fill the metropolitan chair, and they both, without any previous knowledge of each other's opinions, named Dr. Moore, Bishop of Bangor.
According to most of his biographers, John Moore was the son of a butcher of Gloucester. Recent investigation, how- ever, has shown that the elder Moore was more probably a respectable grazier.1 John was born at Gloucester in January 1730, and received his early education at the free school of his native city. There he obtained a scholarship for Pembroke College, Oxford, where he entered in 1745. Three years later he graduated B.A. and proceeded M.A. in 1751.
In spite of his undoubted talents, Moore, after taking orders, had no higher prospect than that of a country curacy, when a fortunate incident unexpectedly opened the way for his prefer- ment. Mr. Bliss, the Savilian professor of geometry and astronomer royal at Oxford, was in the habit of visiting the second Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim. On one of these occasions the duke requested Mr. Bliss to recommend a young man as private tutor to his younger sons, Lords Charles and Robert Spencer. While Bliss was endeavouring in vain to recollect a qualified person, young Moore happened to be strolling in the park. He was of the same college as the professor, who entertained for him a sincere respect and who immediately recommended him to the duke. Moore was accordingly summoned, and very readily accepted the post.
1 Charles J. Abbey, The English Church, II., 207.
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The pride of the duchess would not permit her son's tutor to dine in her presence, and Moore was accordingly obliged to to put up with a place at the second table. Strange to say, however, Moore made such rapid progress in the esteem and affection of the duchess, that in a short time she found herself unable to dine without him. When she became a widow she is said to have offered him her hand in marriage, but he prudently declined the honour, thereby winning the esteem of the family. So sensible was the duke of his honourable conduct, that he is said to have settled an annuity of £400 on him, and also procured for him valuable Church preferment.2 Moore received a prebend at Durham, a canonry at Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1771, after taking the degrees of B.D. and D.D., was made dean of Canterbury.
In February 1775, he was consecrated bishop of Bangor. His removal to Bangor occasioned the following witticism, entitled " A Word of Comfort from Bangor to Canterbury on the loss of her Dean " : —
" Cease, Canterbury, to deplore The loss of your accomplished Moore,
Repining at my gain, I soon may have most cause to mourn, To you he'll probably return,
With me will scarce remain." — Bangor,
which was thus answered :
" To me, you prophesy, our mitred Moore Revolving years may probably restore, And thus in vain attempt my tears to dry :
1 scarcely know my masters but by name, Triennial visits and the voice of fame,
For ah ! my palaces in ruins lie I " — Canterbury.3
This prophecy was fulfilled when on April 26, 1783, Moore was translated to the see of Canterbury. At the same time he became, in virtue of his office a lord of Trade and Plantations, president of the Corporation of
2 Public Characters, 1798-99, p. 276.
1 Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, VIII., p. 94.
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the Sons of the Clergy and of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, a trustee of the British Museum, a governor of the Charter House, visitor of All Soul's and Merton Colleges, Oxford, and a member of his Majesty's most honourable privy council. Archbishop Moore was a zealous supporter of Sunday schools and took a deep interest in all missionary enterprise. In 1787 he con- secrated two missionary bishops in Lambeth chapel, one for North America and the other for Nova Scotia. During his primacy the Church Missionary Society and the Religious Tract Society were founded (1799).
Moore is said to have exercised undue influence over King George III. during his periods of mental disorder. Abbey describes him as " a worthy religious-minded man of business- like habits, but in no way remarkable." In his prosperity he was not forgetful of his family, and he placed his aged father, who had failed in business, in a position of independence.
Moore married twice, his first wife being a daughter of Robert Wright, Chief Justice of South Carolina, and sister of Sir James Wright, resident at Vienna ; his second wife was Catherine, a very celebrated beauty, daughter of Sir Robert Eden, Bart., of West Auckland. By her he had a large family of children, of whom four sons survived him. He died at Lambeth Palace on January 18, 1805, and was buried in Lambeth Church.
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87.—CHARLES MANNERS-SUTTON, 1805 to 1828.
Kings of England : George III., 1760 to 1820. George IV., 1820 to 1830.
Charles Manners-Sutton, born on February 14, 1755, was the grandson of John, third Duke of Rutland, K.G., and fourth son of Lord George Manners-Sutton, who assumed the name of Sutton on inheriting the estates of his maternal grandfather. His mother was Diana, daughter of Thomas Chaplin, of Blankney, in Lincolnshire. He was educated at the Charter- house and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. In 1777, he graduated B.A. as fifteenth wrangler, his brother, Lord Thomas Manners-Sutton, being at the same time fifth wrangler.1 He proceeded M.A. in 1780 and D.D. in 1792. After taking orders he was presented by his brother to the family living of Averham-with-Kelham, in Northamptonshire, and by the Duke of Rutland to that of Whitwell in Derby- shire. The influence of his family secured him rapid prefer- ment. In 1791 he was appointed dean of Peterborough, and in the following year was consecrated bishop of Norwich. He then resigned his other preferments, but the deanery of Windsor was conferred on him in commendam. At Windsor he was brought into close intimacy with the royal family, with whom he and his wife, Mary, the daughter of Thomas Thoroton, of Screveton, Nottinghamshire, were great favourites.
On the death of Archbishop Moore it was expected that Bishop Tomline, of Lincoln, who had been Pitt's private tutor at Cambridge, would succeed to the see of Canterbury. But directly the news of Moore's death reached the king at Windsor, he drove down to the deanery, and calling the dean away from the dining table, where he was entertaining a party of friends, he took him by both hands and greeted him : " My Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, I wish you joy. No, not a
1 Annual Register, 1828, p. 248.
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Charles Manners-Sutton
word, go back to your friends." Next morning Pitt arrived at Windsor to urge the appointment of his friend Tomline on the king. " It can't be, it can't be," said the king, " I have already wished Manners-Sutton joy, and he must go to Canterbury."2
While bishop of Norwich, his lavish expenditure and the claims of a large family had involved him seriously in debt. But he was no sooner raised to the archbishopric than he satis- fied all the claims against him, and so carefully did he manage the revenues of his see that in his hands they were raised from £12,000 to £20,000 per annum. On his elevation he found an accumulation from the sale of the old archiepiscopal palace at Croydon. With this he purchased a new country palace at Addington, near Croydon.
Archbishop Manners-Sutton showed himself distinctly hostile to the claims of the Roman Catholics and opposed the motions brought forward in their favour in 1805. On several occasions, however, he supported bills in favour of the Pro- testant dissenters. He officiated at the coronation of George IV. and at the marriages of the Princess Charlotte, the Dukes of Clarence, Cumberland, Cambridge and Gloucester, and the Princess Elizabeth.
The primacy of Manners-Sutton was marked by a great revival of life and energy throughout the Church of England. For some years the evangelical party had prevailed, but the archbishop threw all the weight of his great influence on the side of the orthodox or High Church party. He chose for his chaplains men who were taking a leading part in the work of revival, namely, Christopher Wordsworth (brother of the poet), afterwards Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Richard Mant, afterwards Bishop of Down and Connor, Archdeacon Cambridge, and Dr. D'Oyly.3
On October 16, 1811, the archbishop took the chair at the first meeting of the National Society, founded for the purpose of establishing National Schools for the education of the children of the poor. A very great share in the success of the undertaking must be attributed to him. On February 6, 1 81 8, he presided at the first meeting of the Church Building
2 J. Cave-Browne, Lambeth Palace, p. 165.
' J. H. Overton, The English Church in the Nineteenth Century.
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Society, which had been founded to raise funds for repairing churches.
The archbishop never hesitated to speak in the House of Lords when ecclesiastical subjects formed the topic of debate, but he made a rule of abstaining from speech in questions of secular policy.* He was described as a man of mild but imposing presence ; his voice was full and tunable, his eloquence effective, his arguments weighty, his knowledge comprehensive and his judgment sound. He was of the most humane disposition, very munificent in his charities, very diligent in the discharge of his high dignity, and altogether exemplary in the relations of life as husband, father, brother and friend. To his clergy he was of easy access, ever ready to attend to their business and requests.
Archbishop Davidson says of him : " He was a man of ancient lineage and of stately presence, of sound, quiet judg- ment and straightforward religious life, but so far as the ordinary records of him show, with no specially hot enthu- siasms, and no obvious breadth of sympathy.5
For a considerable period during which Archbishop Manners- Sutton was at the head of the Church of England, his brother was Chancellor of Ireland, and his son Speaker of the House of Commons. He died at Lambeth Palace on July 21, 1828, and was buried in a family vault which had been constructed under Addington Church six months previously. His wife, by whom he had two sons and ten daughters, survived him. Henry Charles Manners-Sutton, fourth Viscount Canterbury, is descended from Charles, eldest son of Archbishop Manners- Sutton.
4 Annual Register, 1828, p. 249. s Five Archbishops, p. 8.
394
ARCHBISHOP HOWLEY.
88.— WILLIAM HOWLEY, 1828 to 1848.
Sovereigns of England : George IV., 1820 to 1830.
William IV., 1830 to 1837. Victoria, 1837 to 1901.
William Howley was born at Ropley, near Alresford, in Hampshire, on February 12, 1766, and was the only son of the Rev. William Howley, D.D., Vicar of Bishops Sutton and Ropley. He was educated at Winchester School, where he gained two prizes given by Lord Rivers for English verse. In 1783, he proceeded to New College, Oxford, where he was elected a fellow two years later, graduating B.A. in 1787, and M.A. in 1791. In 1794 he was elected a fellow of Win- chester College, and held successively the livings of Bishops Sutton, Andover and Bradford Peverell. In 1804 he was made a canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and proceeded to the degrees of B.D. and D.D. At Oxford, Howley was tutor to the Prince of Orange (afterwards King of Holland), and to the Marquis of Abercorn.1 In 1809 he was made Regius Pro- fessor of Divinity, and on October 10, 1813, was consecrated bishop of London at Lambeth Palace. Queen Charlotte, the consort of George III., though now upwards of seventy, had never witnessed the consecration of a bishop, and her Majesty, accompanied by two of the princesses, was present at the ceremony.
On the death of Archbishop Manners-Sutton, in 1828, Howley was nominated to the primacy by the Duke of Wellington, who was then Prime Minister. Many people declared that his elevation to Canterbury could be traced to the support he had given in 1820 to the Pains and Penalties Bill against Queen Caroline. At that time he had laid it down with much em- phasis that the king could do no wrong either morally or politically. This secured for him the support of that selfish sensualist George IV.2 Eight months after his translation to
1 Gentleman's Magazine, 1848, Vol. XXIX., Part I., p. 426.
2 Times, February 12, 1848.
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Canterbury, Howley voted against the Emancipation Bill of 1829, which restored to Roman Catholics the full rights and privileges of citizens. His conservative principles also caused him to oppose the Reform Bill of 1832, though later he acquiesced in the passing of this measure.
In 1831, Archbishop Howley crowned King William IV. He was on excellent terms with the royal family, and officiated at all the royal baptisms, weddings and funerals which took place during his primacy. In 1836, a Royal Commission was appointed to enquire into the exact conditions of the ecclesiastical revenues. It was found that while in some cases princely incomes were attached to certain sees, for others the stipend was miserably inadequate. The Commission abolished pluralities and fixed the income of sees, reducing considerably that of Canterbury.
William IV. died before daybreak on June 20, 1837, at Windsor Castle, and at five in the morning Archbishop Howley, accompanied by the Marquis of Conyingham, the Lord Chamberlain, arrived at Kensington Palace, where the Princess Victoria was then residing with her mother, to inform her of her accession. They had some difficulty in awaking the sleeping household, but were at length admitted to a waiting- room. The attendants of the princess were most unwilling to arouse her from sleep, and only consented to do so on learning that the archbishop and his companion had come on business of urgent importance. Victoria came to them in a loose white nightgown, a shawl thrown over her shoulders, and her hair hanging down. At the words, " Your Majesty," her eyes filled with tears, but she received the news of her accession with grave dignity. On June 28, 1838, Archbishop Howley crowned Queen Victoria in Westminster Abbey.
The Oxford movement, which, in its first stages, represented a natural re-action against the evangelicism that had long predominated in the Church, commenced shortly after Howley 's elevation to the primacy. Though he took little active part in the movement, he was in full sympathy with it, and was kept in touch with the great leaders Keble, Newman and Pusey by his chaplain and confidential friend, the Rev. Hugh James Rose. An address signed by 7,000 clergy was pre- sented to the primate expressing the determination to preserve
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William Howley
inviolate the doctrines, services and discipline of the Church of England. A lay address immediately followed signed by 230,000 heads of families. The archbishop received these addresses courteously and, speaking with caution, declared that he anticipated beneficial results from the public declarations of clergy and laity. The secessions to Rome which took place later were a severe blow to many loyal churchmen, but sufficed to cool much unhealthy ardour. The effect of the movement was too deep-seated to be permanently injured by these secessions. It had taught Englishmen to look on the Church of England as a great historic institution possess- ing unbroken continuance, and agreement in doctrine with the ancient Church.3
In 1 841 the King of Prussia offered to subscribe £15,000 towards a fund for supporting a bishop in Jerusalem, whose successors were to be nominated alternately by the crowns of England and Prussia. The offer was accepted, and in November Archbishop Howley consecrated a bishop for Jerusalem in Lambeth Palace. This roused great indignation among the leaders of the Oxford movement, who declared that Howley had ignored the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishop of the Eastern Church.
That this accusation was in a great measure unjust is proved by a letter addressed to the Eastern Patriarchs by Archbishop Howley, dated Lambeth, November 23, 1841, in which he says : "In order to prevent any misunderstanding in regard to this our purpose, we think it right to make known unto you that we have charged the said bishop our brother not to inter- meddle in any way with the jurisdiction of the prelates and other ecclesiastical dignitaries of the East, but to show them due reverence, and to be ready on all occasions and by all means in his power to promote a mutual interchange of respect, courtesy and kindness. . . Our hearty desire is to renew that amicable intercourse with the ancient churches of the East which has been suspended for ages, and which, if restored, may have the effect of putting an end to divisions which have brought the most grievous calamities on the Church of Christ."*
3 Dean Spence's Hist, of the Church of England, IV., 367. ■» Geo. William, B.D., The Orthodox Church of the East, p. xli.
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In 1847, Dr. Hampden, the Regius Prof essor of Divinity at Oxford, was nominated to the bishopric of Hereford. His appointment was violently opposed by many of the bishops on the ground that his writings were tinged with unorthodoxy, and also because he had shown sympathy with the dissenters. Archbishop Howley refrained from signing the memorial of the remonstrant bishops, and declined to pronounce any definite opinion on the matter. The appointment was con- firmed, but the controversy roused much bitter feeling. Howley died before the consecration of Hampden, which took place at Lambeth Palace on March 26, 1848, Archbishop Sumner officiating.
In addressing public assemblies Howley lacked both force and fluency. He possessed a very amiable temper, and a large fund of common sense. He took a deep interest in missionary enterprise, and in the work of the National Society for establishing Schools for the Poor (vide Charles Manners- Sutton). During his primacy, twelve new bishops were con- secrated for British colonies. He was a great builder and had excellent taste in architecture. At Lambeth Palace he erected at a cost of £60,000, half of which was paid out of his private income, the imposing wing which extends eastward from Cranmer's Tower. He also restored the chapel and converted the old dining-hall known as Juxon's Hall into a library.5 Though he wrote little himself, he was a remarkably competent judge of literary work, particularly in the domain of theology.6 His printed works consist chiefly of charges and sermons. He edited " Sonnets and Miscellaneous Poems " by Thomas Russell, Fellow of New College, Oxford.
Archbishop Howley died at Lambeth Palace on February 11 , 1848. Had he lived until the following day, he would have completed his eighty-second year. He was buried at Adding- ton, near Croydon. In 1805, ne had married Mary Frances, daughter of John Belli, of Southampton, by whom he had two sons and three daughters. Both his sons predeceased him. Mrs. Howley survived him until i860. Archbishop Davidson says of Howley : "He was a cultured scholar, a trained theologian, a clear thinker and a man of transparent
s J. Cave-Browne, Lambeth Palace, p. 167.
6 Overton's English Church in the Nineteenth Century, p. 179.
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William Howley
and irradiating piety of personal character. . . The personal devotion which he evoked on the part of all who were with him in his daily work was equalled in a really notable way by the impression of personal holiness which he left upon the minds of those with whom he came into more occasional touch. One of the foremost men in modern Scottish history, Dr. Chalmers, the great Presbyterian divine, founder of the Free Church of Scotland, has recorded the feeling with which he came from the presence of Archbishop Howley, after an evening spent with him at Lambeth, at a time of high and heated controversy. ' I could think of nothing,' he says, ' but the description given in the Book of Daniel of those " upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them." ' "7
7 Five Archbishops, pp. i-ii.
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8g.~ JOHN BIRD SUMNER, 1848 to 1862.
Queen of England: Victoria, 1837 to 1901.
John Bird Sumner was born on February 25, 1780, and was the eldest son of the Rev. Robert Sumner, vicar of Kenil- worth. He was educated at Eton College and at King's College, Cambridge, where he had a distinguished university career, and was elected a fellow in 1801. He graduated B.A. in 1803, afterwards proceeding to the degrees of M.A. (1807), and D.D. (1809). On leaving Cambridge, he became assistant master at Eton. After his ordination he resigned his fellowship, and married Marianne, daughter of George Robertson, of Edinburgh, a captain in the Royal Navy. In 1817, he was elected a fellow of Eton College, and was soon afterwards nominated to the rectory of Maple Durham, in Oxfordshire. At this period he devoted much time to literary work. His " Apostolical Preaching considered in an Examination of St. Paul's Epistles " was first published in 1815, and in the following year he wrote "A Treatise on the Records of the Creation and the Moral Attributes of the Creator." The latter work, which went through seven editions, obtained for him one of the Burnett prizes amounting to £400.x
His writings won the approval of Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham, who appointed him to a prebend in Durham Cathedral. In 1828 the Duke of Wellington nominated him to the bishopric of Chester. His younger brother, Charles Richard Sumner, who had been consecrated bishop of Llandaff in 1826, and translated to the see of Winchester in the following year, was one of his consecrators.
At Chester, where Sumner had two hundred and fifty-five parishes under his care, he worked nobly and indefatigably, building churches, founding schools, and doing all in his power to make the Church of England the church of the people. His
1 Times, September 8, 1862.
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John Bird Sumner
task was no easy one, for as a missionary bishop to new and overgrown populations he had to contend against wealthy indifference and obstinate heathenism. After twenty years' service in the manufacturing districts, Bishop Sumner was translated to the primacy on the death of Dr. Howleyin 1848. The Tories had raised him to the see of Chester, but it was the Whigs, under the leadership of Lord John Russell, who nominated him to the primacy.
At this time a violent dispute agitated the Anglican Church. In the spring of 1847, the Rev. George Cornelius Gorham, vicar of St. Just, in the diocese of Exeter, had been nominated by the Lord Chancellor to the benefice of Brampford Speke, in the same diocese. Gorham was a distinguished scholar and a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, but Dr. Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, refused to institute him on the ground that his views on baptismal regeneration were not in agreement with those of the Church of England. Much interest was excited in the case, and many pamphlets published. The evangelical party, who were believed to hold the same opinions as Mr. Gorham, were challenged to declare their position and to justify their loyalty to the Prayer Book. Gorham's case was referred to the Privy Council, and the judges declared that in their opinion his statements might be interpreted in a sense not contrary to the Prayer Book.
In this judgment the archbishops of Canterbury and York concurred. Many who did not agree with Gorham's views rejoiced in the result of the trial, for they saw that if the Anglican Church was to reflect fairly and freely the fullest truth it must be the home of more than one school of thought. Gorham took possession of his benefice, but the controversy continued to rage for some time.3 Bishop Phillpotts, who was described as the most advanced and militant high churchman of his age, addressed to Archbishop Sumner a violent letter which concluded with these words : " I do hereby solemnly protest before the Church of England, before the Holy Catholic Church, before Him who is its Divine Head, against your giving mission to exercise cure of souls within my diocese
1 A Popular Hist, of the Church of England, by William Boyd Carpenter, pp. 434-436.
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to a clergyman who proclaims himself to hold the opinions which Mr. Gorham holds. I protest that anyone who gives mission to him till he retract is a favourer and supporter of these heresies. I protest in conclusion that I cannot without sin, and by God's grace I will not, hold communion with him, be he who he may, who shall so abuse the high commission which he bears."3 This letter was printed and passed through twenty-one editions.
The revival of Convocation, which met for business for the first time for 135 years on November 12, 1852 (vide William Wake), was not a measure of the archbishop's personal choice. He had in fact opposed its revival from apprehension lest the meetings should lead to further disputes. He, however, threw himself with great zeal into the duties thus imposed on him. Though not an influential president, he had experience and much personal kindliness.
In i860, appeared the famous book entitled " Essays and Reviews." It contained seven papers, six of which were written by Anglican clergymen of position and ability. Though there was little said in the book which would excite much opposition to-day, it was alleged that the writers threw doubt on the genuineness of at least half the books in the Bible. Two of the writers, the Rev. H. B. Wilson, vicar of Great Houghton, and Rev. Dr. Rowland Williams, vicar of Broad Chalk, in the diocese of Salisbury, were selected for prosecution and were condemned by the Court of Arches. The Privy Council, to whom appeal was made, reversed this decision, but the majority of the bishops unhesitatingly condemned the book. A declaration was drawn up at Oxford signed by 11,000 Anglican clergy, and presented to Archbishop Sumner, maintaining without reserve or qualification the inspiration of the canonical Scriptures/ A few weeks later " Essays and Reviews " was condemned by both Houses of the Convocation of Canterbury.
Archbishop Sumner vehemently opposed the proposal for a revision of the liturgy, and voted against the bill for legalizing marriage with a deceased wife's sister. He died at Addington on September 6, 1862. It is recorded
» A Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Murray's edition, p. 90. « Dean Spence's Hist, of the Church of England, Vol. IV., pp. 421-423.
402
John Bird Sumner
that Bishop Phillpotts, on hearing that his aged opponent lay on his death-bed, sent him a kindly message, to which Sumner heartily responded. He was buried in Addington churchyard. He was survived by his wife, two sons and several daughters. Sumner was a finished scholar, and a fluent writer. Amiable, bright and sincere, he made few enemies. " He upheld with steady and sometimes courageous consistency the splendid evangelical principles of the best sort."5
His works in addition to those already mentioned include : (i) A series of sermons on the Christian Faith and Char- acter, 1821. (2) The Evidences of Christianity, 1824. (3) Christian Charity, its obligations and objects, 1841. Two books of sermons. He also wrote a series of expositions on the four Gospels, the Acts and the Epistles of the New Testa- ment published between 1831 and 1857, and contributed to the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " (Supplement 1824, Vol. vi.) an article on the Poor Laws. In this he showed a thorough knowledge of the subject.
5 Five Archbishops, by Archbishop Davidson, p. 11.
403
90.— CHARLES THOMAS LONGLEY, 1862 to 1868.
Queen of England : Victoria, 1837 to 190 1.
Charles Thomas Longley was born at Boley Hill, Rochester, on July 28, 1794. His father, John Longley, well known as a political writer, and author of the two tracts " On Trial DY Jury " and " The Complete Representation of the People," was for many years recorder of Rochester, and sat as one of the magistrates of the Thames Police Court.
After spending some years at a private school at Cheam, Surrey, Charles Longley was elected a king's scholar at Westminster. His name may still be seen carved with his own hand on one side of the oaken panels of the Westminster dormitory. In 1812, he proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1815, with First Class Honours in Classics, and M.A. in 1818. He was afterwards tutor and censor of his college, and served the university as proctor. He also acted as public examiner in the classical schools.1
In 1818, he took holy orders and was appointed curate at Cowley, near Oxford. The incumbent, Thomas Vowler Short, had been Longley's fellow pupil at Westminster. On Short's promotion to the see of St. Asaph, Longley succeeded him as incumbent of Cowley. In 1827, he was nominated a preacher at Whitehall, and rector of Tytherley, in Hampshire. Two years later he proceeded B.D. and D.D., and was soon afterwards called from his quiet country parsonage to be headmaster of Harrow School. While there he turned out some excellent scholars, and considerably raised the numbers. His career at Harrow would, however, have been more successful had he been gifted with greater strictness as a disciplinarian.2
In 1836 the new diocese of Ripon was founded in order to relieve the overgrown see of York from some portion of its increased responsibilities in the manufacturing
1 Times, October 29, 1868. 2 Ibid.
404
Charles Thomas Longley
districts. Lord Melbourne looked for a man of Liberal opinions, and yet one whose appointment to the episcopal bench would not be likely to offend the Tory and High Church clergy. He accordingly chose Longley, who, in 1831, had increased his chances of preferment by marrying Caroline Sophia, eldest child of the well-known reformer Sir Henry Brooke Parnell, afterwards Lord Congleton. On leaving Harrow the bishop-elect preached an affectionate farewell sermon, which was afterwards printed at the request of the boys to whom it was addressed.3
The dislike of William IV. for the Whig Party was well known. When Longley did homage to the king for the see of Ripon, he had no sooner risen from his knees after taking the solemn oath than William thus addressed him in a loud voice : "Bishop of Ripon, I charge you as you shall answer before Almighty God that you never by word or deed give
encouragement to those d d Whigs who would upset the
Church of England."
The Liberal party had opposed the bill for the erection of the see of Ripon, but Longley's firm and consistent conduct soon disarmed all opposition, and changed intended foes into fast and firm friends.
The diocese of Ripon presented a striking contrast to the scholarly atmosphere of Harrow and Oxford. The dense populations engaged in mining and manufacturing, the scattered hamlets, the hard-headed, hard-handed character of the people, were circumstances which rendered the work of the bishop peculiarly arduous and anxious.4 Longley laboured with cease- less energy, and caused many additional churches and schools to be erected, raising for this purpose the Diocesan Church Extension Fund.
A remarkable episode occurred during his episcopate in the north. The clergy of St. Saviour's, Leeds, had adopted a number of Romish practices to which the bishop was strongly opposed, and he refused to consecrate the church until altera- tions were made in the ritual. Although there was at first a formal compliance with his wishes, a system of evasion was subsequently adopted. Longley exhibited great firmness
3 Ibid.
4 F. Arnold, Our Bishops and Deans, Vol. I., p. 165.
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in the matter and insisted on obedience, but his worst fears were realized when the incumbent and four of the clergy of St. Saviour's went over to the Church of Rome.5
In Mrs. Gaskell's " Life of Charlotte Bronte " there is a letter from the gifted authoress in which she describes a visit paid by Bishop Longley to her father's modest parsonage at Haworth. " The bishop has been and gone," she writes. " He is certainly a most charming bishop, the most benignant gentleman that ever put on lawn sleeves, yet stately too and competent to check encroachments. It is all very well to talk of receiving a bishop without trouble, but you must pre- pare for him. The house was a good deal put out of its way as you may suppose. All passed, however, quietly, orderly and well. Martha waited very nicely, and I had a person to help her in the kitchen. Papa kept up too, fully as well as I expected, though I doubt whether he could have borne another day of it." Mrs. Gaskell adds, apparently from a communi- cation received from the bishop, that Dr. Longley was agree- ably impressed with the gentle unassuming manners of his hostess, and with the perfect propriety and consistency of the arrangements in the modest household.6
In 1856, Longley was nominated by Lord Palmerston to the see of Durham, and two years later to the archbishopric of York. On October 20, 1862, he was promoted to the see of Canterbury.
At this period the case of Dr. Colenso, Bishop of Natal, agitated the English Church. Colenso had published a work in which he declared that certain portions of the Pentateuch were of much later date than was commonly supposed, and that a number of ancient legends had been incorporated with the history. The bishop of Capetown, claiming to exercise metropolitan jurisdiction, had excommunicated and deposed Colenso on account of these opinions.7 Archbishop Longley was opposed to Colenso's teaching, and approved of his de- position, but abstained from taking any such part in the dispute as might bring him into conflict with the government.
In September 1867, the bishops of the Anglican communion
l Ibid. 6 Ibid., p. 163.
1 W. B. Carpenter, A Popular History of the Church of England, p. 436.
406
Charles Thomas Longley
in all parts of the world were invited to meet at Lambeth under the presidency of Archbishop Longley. At this first Pan- Anglican Congress seventy-six bishops assembled. Part of the business was the consideration of the case of Dr. Colenso, who was unanimously condemned. An important encyclical was drawn up in which the canonical scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were alluded to as the sure word of God, the firm belief in Christ's divinity was emphasized and the pretensions to universal rule over God's heritage asserted by the see of Rome were condemned.
Longley's earnest piety won for him the respect of all parties in the Church. His Grace was seized with bronchitis on September 13, 1868, while on his way back from Tyrol. He reached Addington, but his illness increased, and he anticipated the end almost from the first. Three days before his death, when speaking had become difficult to him, he said: "I commit my soul into the hands of my God and dear Saviour. I have had proofs enough of His love in the past, and I am well assured that whatever sufferings or trials are permitted to befall me are visitations of love." His last intelligible words were those of the " Gloria in Excelsis."8 He died on October 27, 1868, and was buried in Addington parish church. His wife had predeceased him in 1856. He was survived by three sons and a daughter. His published works consist chiefly of sermons and addresses.
8 Guardian, Oct 28. 1868.
407
9i.— ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL TAIT, 1869 to 1882.
Queen of England : Victoria, 1837 to 1901.
Archibald Campbell Tait, the first Scotsman to be pro- moted to the chair of St. Augustine, was born in Edinburgh on December 21, 1811. He was the youngest son of Crauford Tait, of Harviestoun, in Clackmannanshire, and Cumlodden, in Argyleshire, a gentleman who dissipated a modest fortune on unsuccessful agricultural pursuits. The mother of Archibald was Susan, fourth daughter of Sir Hay Campbell, some time Lord President of the Court of Session, the highest judicial office in Scotland. She died when her youngest son was barely three years old, leaving him to the care of his faithful nurse, Betty Morton, whose judicious training left an influence on his character throughout life. In 1821, the boy experienced his first great sorrow in the death of his favourite brother, Hay Campbell, at the age of twelve.
Archibald was educated at the Edinburgh High School, whence he proceeded to the recently founded Academy in the same city. There he distinguished himself in his second and third year by obtaining, in each case, the gold medal as " Dux " of the whole school, besides carrying off prizes innumerable in Latin, Greek, English and French. In October 1827, he matriculated as a student of Glasgow University, where he spent three years, living in lodgings near the college, and waited on by Betty Morton, who insisted on remaining with him throughout his Glasgow career.1 He devoted himself with great energy to his studies, rising at 4.30 a.m. and seldom working less than ten hours a day. His correspondence with his father shows that Crauford Tait took the deepest interest in every detail of his youngest son's education.
1 Life of Archbishop Tait, by R. T. Davidson and W. Benham, Vol. I., p. 26.
408
From a photograph by Elliott <i Fry.
ARCHBISHOP TAIT.
Archibald Campbell Tait
In 1830, Archibald was successful in winning a Snell Exhibi- tion for Balliol College, Oxford. His parents were Presby- terians, but he had never joined the communion of their Church, and soon after his arrival at Balliol he was confirmed by Bishop Bagot, of Oxford. In October 1833, he graduated B.A., with a first class in the Final Classical Schools, and in the following year was appointed a fellow and tutor of his college. His lectures on logic were much appreciated by the students. After proceeding M.A., he was ordained in 1836, and licensed to the curacy of Baldon, about five miles from Oxford. This in addition to his tutorship occupied all his energies. For five years he carried on the work at Baldon, with unremitting care, and in all the changes of his after life the recollection of the lessons learned there never passed away. " To the very close of his life he used to recount with a certain humorous pathos the quiet obstruction offered by the farmers to his Sunday school, the difficulties of a rustic congregation on a hot summer's day, and the petty quarrels, flirtations and ambitions of his village choir."2
During these years there were many changes among the fellows of his college, and before Tait had completed his twenty-sixth year he found himself the senior and most respon- sible of the four Balliol tutors. The " Tracts for the Times " were then in full circulation. In the spring of 1841 the name of Tait was brought before the world as one of the four tutors who wrote a public protest against the principles of inter- pretation of the Thirty-nine Articles laid down by J. H. Newman in his celebrated Tract XC3 In the same year Tait organized weekly classes in chapel for the college servants, for whom he seems to have felt an unusual sense of personal responsibility.
In July 1842, Tait was chosen to succeed Arnold as headmaster of Rugby. Though he was by no means a born schoolmaster, and possessed none of the genius of his famous predecessor, the school grew and prospered under his rule. Shortly after settling at Rugby, he became engaged to Catherine Spooner, daughter of Archdeacon Spooner, vicar of Elmdon, Warwickshire. They were married in the summer of 1843, and the union was one of singular happiness.
2 Ibid., p. 60. 3 Times, Dec. 4, 1882.
409
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The laborious schoolwork gradually told on Tait's health. In 1849 ne had a dangerous attack of rheumatic fever, from the constitutional effects of which he never entirely recovered. In the following year the state of his health decided him to accept an offer from the government of Lord John Russell of the deanery of Carlisle, a post which it was hoped would secure for him comparative leisure after his labours at Rugby.*
Tait entered with great zest into the work of his new office. It was largely due to his energy that Carlisle Cathedral was restored at a cost of about £15,000. He was at this time appointed a member of the Oxford University Commission, and took a prominent share in drawing up their report.
The last year of Tait's residence at Carlisle was saddened by a great bereavement. He was a frequent visitor in the homes of the poor, and when in the spring of 1856 scarlet fever in its most virulent form appeared in Carlisle, he is believed to have carried the infection to the deanery. Of his six little daughters, whose presence had brought radiance to his home, five died of this malady within a few weeks of each other. The sorrow-stricken parents, with their two remaining children, Crauford, a boy of seven, and an infant daughter six weeks old, spent the following summer at a house near Ullswater lent them by some friends. They were pre- paring to return to the desolate deanery, when Tait received a letter from the Prime Minister, Viscount Palmerston, offering him by command of Queen Victoria the see of London.
Many declared that Tait owed his promotion to the episcopal bench entirely to the queen's deep sympathy with him in his bereavement. But on no abler prelate could the choice have fallen. His fervent piety, manly courage and earnest desire to labour for the poor of London soon com- manded universal admiration. During the first months of his episcopate he scandalized many by his undignified and Methodist-like proceedings. We read of his addressing ship- loads of emigrants in the docks, Ragged School children in Golden Lane, omnibus drivers in their great yard at Islington, costermongers in Co vent Garden Market, railway porters
4 Ibid. 410
Archibald Campbell Tait
from the platform of a locomotive, and a colony of gypsies upon the common at Shepherd's Bush.5
In 1858, he inaugurated Sunday evening services for the people in Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, and the churches of North and East London. For the extension of such work, the London Diocesan Home Mission Fund was established.
The garden parties at Fulham at which the clergy of the whole diocese were wont to assemble were, thanks to Mrs. Tait, thoroughly friendly gatherings, where everyone was made to feel at ease and from which the spirit of humour was not excluded. At one of these parties an emu, which had been sent from Australia to the bishop, was turned out in the meadows to be inspected by the guests, but the cows resented the intrusion, and gave chase to the unfortunate bird. " Halloa !" exclaimed Dean Milman excitedly. "Here goes Colenso and all the bishops after him."6 (Vide Charles Thomas Longley.)
Tait had little sympathy with the extreme ritualists, whom he refused to take seriously. "With regard to ritualism," he once said, " the people of this country have no love for Popery — nor for anything that approaches Popery. I do not think there is the slightest danger of this country ever becoming Roman Catholic, or even of its adopting a semi-Romanism."7 When forced to take active measures against ritualists, it was invariably for the purpose of restoring peace. In 1858, he withdrew the licence of the Rev. Alfred Poole, curate of St. Paul's, Knights- bridge, who was accused by several parishioners of misusing his right to hear confessions.
In the summer of 1859, disgraceful scenes of disorder and buffoonery began at St. George's in the East, on account of certain ritualistic ceremonies introduced by the incumbent, the Rev. Bryan King. These disturbances continued for nearly a year. The police were introduced into the church, but were powerless to prevent the noises and interruptions with which the service was accompanied. King was finally
s Life of Archbishop Tait, I., 255.
6 Times, Dec. 4, 1882.
7 Quarterly Review, 1883, VoL CLV., p. 16.
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persuaded to go abroad for a year, and was afterwards trans- ferred by Bishop Tait to a country parish in the diocese of Salisbury. A new incumbent was found for St. George's, and the parishioners presented to Tait a memorial conveying to him their thanks for the restoration of peace.
In the House of Lords the sound judgment and strong common sense of Bishop Tait were soon recognized and his influence continued to increase almost to the close of his career. Mention has already been made of the controversy which commenced in i860 concerning " Essays and Reviews " (vide John Bird Sumner). Two of the essayists, Dr. Frederick Temple, headmaster of Rugby (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury), and the Rev. Professor Jowett, master of Balliol, were Tait's intimate friends. After the controversy began, Temple and Jowett both visited Tait at Fulham and appear to have gained the impression that to some extent at least he agreed with their views. When later he joined the other bishops in censuring the whole book, Jowett and Temple accused him of treachery, and it was long before confidence was restored between them. From the first, however, Tait seems to have drawn a marked distinction between the different essays, while he joined in the censure of the rash and harmful character of the volume regarded as a whole.8
In June 1863, Tait inaugurated the Bishop of London's Fund, which has since become a permanent institution for the purpose of strengthening and enlarging the diocesan work in all its branches. Through his efforts £100,000 was raised in the first year, and £92,000 more promised. He was also the founder of the Ladies' Diocesan Association, the scheme of which had been first suggested by Mrs. Tait. He took a deep interest in Anglican sisterhoods, but strongly dis- approved of vows being imposed on those who joined them. In 1865, he supported the bill for a modification of clerical subscription, proposing to limit the declaration to a simple promise to conform to the liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by law established. The bill was, however, rejected.
In July 1866, the bishop, who had been severely ill in the spring, was preparing to set out for his holiday, when Asiatic 8 Life of Archbishop Tait, L, 283. 412
Archibald Campbell Tait
cholera in a virulent form appeared in East London. Over- worked as he was, he decided to remain in town to take the lead in whatever measures were necessary to inspire confidence and organize relief. A letter from him in the Times elicited £3,000 for the sufferers within twenty-four hours. The whole amount subscribed was about £70,000. Mrs. Tait accompanied him in his visits to the hospitals and in- fected districts.9 She afterwards founded a Home at Fulham for the orphan girls of those who had died of the epidemic. The bishop left London in the autumn for his well-earned holiday, but the strain had been too great, and while staying with his brother at North Berwick he was suddenly seized with illness. For some weeks his life hung in the balance, but he gradually recovered strength.
In 1862, Tait had declined the offer of the archbishopric of York, preferring to remain in London. But when in October 1868 he received a letter from Mr. Disraeli, asking permission to nominate him to the see of Canterbury, he at once gave his consent, since the translation would not involve his removal from the metropolis. Queen Victoria's personal affection for Bishop Tait seems to have been again the chief influence in securing his promotion. Before his installation, which took place early in 1869, Parliament was dissolved, and the Liberal party, under the leadership of Mr. Gladstone, came into power. The first measure to which the new arch- bishop was called upon to give his consent was the disestab- lishment of the Irish Church . Recognizing that the principle of the Bill had been affirmed by the people in a General Election held on that express issue, he set to work to obtain such amend- ments as would secure the best possible terms for the disen- dowed Irish churches and clergy. When the controversy was over he received warm expressions of thanks from the queen, Mr. Gladstone and the Irish bishops.
His parliamentary duties were no sooner over for the session than he entered with great energy on the pastoral work of his province. But the labour involved again told on his health. In November 1869, he had a convulsive seizure of a most alarming kind, and for some time there was partial paralysis of his face, arm and left side. On his recovery he expressed 9 Ibid., p. 470. 413
A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
his readiness to resign, but was dissuaded from doing so by the queen. Taking advantage of an unrepealed act of Henry VIII., which provided for the appointment of suffragans to assist the diocesan bishops in work which was otherwise beyond their strength, it was decided that an assistant should be chosen to help him. Archdeacon Parry, who had been his pupil at Rugby and in later years his domestic chaplain and intimate friend, was accordingly consecrated bishop of Dover in Lambeth Palace chapel on March 25, 1870, and at once took upon his shoulders the main burden of the diocesan work.10 The winter of 1870-71 was spent by the archbishop on the Riviera, whence he returned in spring with renewed strength.
In 1871, painful disputes arose on the subject of the Athana- sian Creed. Soon after his return to England Tait summoned a meeting of bishops at Lambeth to consider the best policy to be adopted with regard to the controversy. He appears to have approved a suggestion to exclude the Athanasian Creed from the public services of the Church, and relegate it to a position similar to that of the Thirty-nine Articles at the end of the Prayer Book. Another suggestion made by the bishops was that the creed should retain its place, but that the damnatory clauses should be omitted. When the matter was debated in Convocation, Archbishop Tait declared his belief that there was not a soul in the room who took the damnatory clauses in their plain and literal sense. This statement was frequently brought up against him during the remainder of his life, and his enemies accused him of having expressed his deliberate contempt for the faith of the Church Catholic.
In May 1873, an agreement was arrived at by which it was declared that the creed of St. Athanasius does not make any addition to the faith as contained in Holy Scripture, and that the warnings it contains are to be understood no otherwise than the like warnings in Holy Scripture.
The Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874 was an attempt to settle disputes concerning ritual by the bishops of each diocese, who according to the original form of the bill were to preside over their own diocesan councils. The measure
10 Ibid II., 56.
414
Archibald Campbell Tait
which was largely altered during its passage through Parlia- ment proved a complete failure. The attempt to put down ritual by force only succeeded in deposing and imprisoning a number of well-meaning but unbalanced high church clergymen. Tait, in advocating the measure, had not foreseen these results, which he deeply deplored. When the Rev. A. H. Mackonochie, of St. Alban's, Holborn, was about to be deprived of his licence under this Act, Tait, then on his death- bed, took steps which resulted in an exchange of livings, thus removing him from the jurisdiction of the court. This action has been interpreted as a complete surrender to the ritualists of all that for which they had been contending. But it seems evident that the archbishop merely desired a truce until the whole question of ecclesiastical procedure should be re- considered." After his death the Act became practically a dead letter.
In August 1879, tne Rev. R. W. Enraght, vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, was condemned by Lord Penzance as Dean of Arches for certain alleged ritual irregularities ; one of these being the use of wafer-bread in the Holy Communion. A conse- crated wafer was abstracted by a communicant, and used as evidence in court. The archbishop was implored to rescue it by a number of high churchmen. This he did, strongly condemned the conduct of the persons who had abstracted it, and consumed the wafer in his own private chapel. The gratitude of churchmen for this relief to their feelings was expressed in no less than 231 memorials presented to the archbishop. Some of these were expressed in inflated and overstrained language, which pained and distressed him, and he was afterwards accused of being unable to comprehend the feelings with which devout Anglicans regard the consecrated elements.12
In 1878, the Rev. Crauford Tait, the archbishop's only son, died at the age of twenty-nine, and six months later he lost his devoted wife. From the shock caused by these bereave- ments he never wholly recovered.
In 1880 he warmly supported the Burial Act, by which nonconformists might be buried in parish churchyards with
" Quarterly Review, 1883, Vol. CLV., p. 33.
" G. W. E. Russell, The Household of Faith, p. 66.
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their own services. The spring of 1882 was spent by him on the Riviera by order of his physicians. His last public act was the confirmation of the two sons of the Prince of Wales.
Archbishop Tait died at Lambeth Palace on Advent Sunday, December 3, 1882, after an illness of about three months. His family, mindful of his wishes in this respect, refused the offer of a public funeral in Westminster Abbey, and he was buried in Addington churchyard. Of his nine children only three daughters survived him.
Among the many irrelevant charges brought against the great archbishop, that of being not only a Scotsman but more than half a Presbyterian is included. He was also accused of Erastianism, of vacillation in important crises, and of having no vocation for holy orders.13
Without attempting here to refute those charges, it is sufficient to quote the words of one who knew him very in- timately : " I can say without any element of uncertainty that the aim and purpose of that life in the years wherein I knew and shared it were on his part single and straightforward. He wanted, and he tried to let no changes and chances in social or political life, no advance in intellectual range, or in supposed intellectual grip, no honest parting from old moor- ings, no resetting, if it be honest, of the faith of boyhood, loosen a man's hold upon the deep down verities of the faith of the Gospel. He wanted, and he tried to preserve in all the concerns of faith and life the proportion of great things and small, the truths that matter much and the truths that matter comparatively comparatively little. He wanted, and he tried to bring the affairs of common life, political or social or industrial, under the dominance of a conscious deliberate trust in God as His love is revealed and explained to us in the Life and Words of Jesus Christ. He believed that to be possible. For himself he knew it to be true."14
Since the Reformation no primate has had so much in- fluence on Parliament and on the country generally as Arch- bishop Tait. In theological discussions he was always moderate and conciliatory, and his unfailing sense of humour did much to lighten the burden of every-day work. His
M Ibid. '+ Five Archbishops, by Archbishop Davidson, p. 17.
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Archibald Campbell Tait
charges are full of practical wisdom and deep Christian experience.
His writings include : " Lessons for School Life " (1850), " The Dangers and Safeguards of Modern Theology " (1861) ; " The Present Position of the Church of England," seven addresses (1872); "The Church of the Future," a charge (1880).
417
92.— EDWARD WHITE BENSON, 1883 to 1896.
Queen of England : Victoria, 1837 to 1901.
On the death of Archbishop Tait, Mr. Gladstone wished to offer the primacy to the Rev. R. W. Church, Dean of St. Paul's, but the dean's refusal in advance was so absolute that the offer was never definitely made. Dr. Harold Browne, Bishop of Winchester, whose long and distinguished career marked him out for special honour, would, as his published biography1 shows, have been nominated but for his advanced years and his enfeebled health. It was then decided to offer the primacy to Bishop Benson of Truro, who after some hesitation agreed to accept it.
Edward White Benson was born at 72, Lombard Street, Birmingham, on July 14, 1829. He was the eldest son of Edward White Benson, a chemical manufacturer of Bir- mingham, whose family was descended from a stock of York- shire dalesmen. The archbishop's grandfather, Captain White Benson, of the Sixth Warwickshire Regiment, had squandered a handsome fortune by reckless extravagance. His mother was Harriet Baker, a sister of Sir Thomas Baker, of Man- chester. She was left a widow in 1843, her husband's death having been hastened by his failure in business. The chemical works were closed, but her husband's partners gave her the house for life, and an annuity, on which she attempted to educate her six children.
At the age of eleven, Edward entered the Grammar School of King Edward VI. at Birmingham, where Dr. Prince Lee, afterwards bishop of Manchester, was headmaster. Lee inspired his pupils with the deepest reverence and affection, and Benson frequently declared that he owed all that was best in himself to the influence of that beloved master. Among Benson's fellow pupils were Brooke Foss Westcott and Joseph Barber Lightfoot, both of whom afterwards held successively
1 p. 456. Cf. Times, Dec. 21, 1882. 418
From a photograph by Ruttell & Son a.
ARCHBISHOP BENSON.
Edward White Benson
the bishopric of Durham. With Lightfoot, Benson formed a close friendship which continued through life.
At an early age Benson conceived a desire to take holy orders. In a small room which had been an office in his father's deserted factory he established an oratory. Here was a table rudely draped and stools for kneeling. Round the walls were hung rubbings of brasses taken by himself from the churches he had visited. On the table stood a plain wooden cross made by an old carpenter, and paid for out of the boy's scanty pocket money. His brothers and sisters were strictly forbidden to enter this sacred place, but as an additional precaution, and in case they disobeyed him, he arranged an ingenious trap which automatically both recorded and avenged the entrance of any intruding worshipper.2
In 1848, Benson was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a subsizar. Two years later his mother died suddenly a few hours after the death from typhus fever of her eldest daughter Harriet, whom she had nursed devotedly. As her annuity died with her, the children were left almost penniless. Through the kindness of friends, however, they were all provided for, and were enabled to continue their education. Benson was himself assisted by Mr. Francis Martin, the bursar, afterwards vice-master of Trinity College, a childless man of an intensely affectionate nature, who treated him for years as a favourite son.3
Benson graduated B.A. in 1852 as eighth in the classical tripos, and senior chancellor's medallist. In the following year he was ordained by his old master, Bishop Prince Lee, and was elected a fellow of his college. He soon afterwards accepted an assistant mastership at Rugby. There he resided in the house of his cousin, Mrs. Sidgwick, widow of the Rev. William Sidgwick, of Skipton, Yorkshire, whose daughter Mary he married in 1859. In tne same year he was elected first headmaster of Wellington College, Berkshire, which had been founded as a memorial of the great duke. Benson had been recommended to the Prince Consort for this post by Dr. Temple, headmaster of Rugby.
When Benson took possession at Wellington College, the
2 Life of Edward White Benson, by Arthur Christopher Benson, I., 24.
3 Ibid., p. 94.
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buildings were in an unfinished state, and chaos prevailed. Here for the first time he had an opportunity of proving his great genius as an organizer. Instead of making the institu- tion a charity school for the sons of officers as had been the original intention, Benson converted it into one of the great public schools of England. A beautiful chapel was built and the service arranged by him with extreme care. His name attracted what proved to be an exceptionally high class of assistant masters. On his recommendation, the governors provided the college with all the latest improvements, and appliances for physical training. He was a strict disciplinarian with the boys and with his colleagues, but this was a fault on the right side.
Benson remained at Wellington College till 1872, when on the invitation of Bishop Wordsworth, whose examining chaplain he had been for some years, he became a canon residentiary of Lincoln and chancellor of the cathedral. His work at Lincoln was extraordinarily successful. He had long felt that the clergy of the Established Church had need of a more thorough and systematic professional training for their duties. He accordingly established at Lincoln a theo- logical training college called the Schola Cancellarii, the chan- cellor being the officer of a cathedral who was nominally con- nected with education.4 He also established large night schools for working men in connection with the city missions, Bible classes and lectures for mechanics. At Lincoln he was in the front of every movement, social as well as ecclesiastical, and his popularity was such that to the end of his life his presence in that city was enough to draw crowds of working people.
In 1877, Benson was consecrated to the newly-erected see of Truro, in Cornwall. As no house was provided for the bishop, he took up his residence in the vicarage of Kenwyn, little more than a mile from Truro. He enlarged the house, built new stables, and called it " Lis Escop," the Cornish for Bishop's Court. His first task was to acquaint himself with every parish and every incumbent in his diocese. " He went off for long driving tours, staying at remote vicarages and old unknown country houses in still, wooded valleys, strangely < Times, Oct 12, 1896. 420
Edward White Benson
out-of-the-world places such as one can hardly imagine to exist in busy England. Many were the curious stories he brought back of sayings and doings of Christian people in these secluded regions. At one place the vicar's sister had been used to read the lessons in church in a deep bass voice. In another, several years before, the curate-in-charge had been chained to the altar rails while he read the service, as he had a harmless mania which made him suddenly flee from the church if his own activities were for an instant suspended, as for example by a response. The churchwarden, a farmer, kept the padlock key in his pocket till the service was safely over."5
Benson soon identified himself with every Cornish interest, and gained the sympathy not only of churchmen but of the great Wesleyan body in Cornwall. He was never tired of expressing his gratitude for the hearty manner in which he was received by all classes and all sects of Cornish- men. He laboured with great energy to organize the new diocese, and appointed twenty-four honorary canons, to each of whom special duties were assigned. An excellent divinity school similar to that at Lincoln was founded by him at Truro ; the old Grammar School was revived and a High School for girls instituted, to which he sent his own daughters. A most perceptible change was brought about by him in the church life of Cornwall. Scores of churches were restored, many new ones built, and chapels provided in remote districts. But the greater task to which he addressed himself was the building of Truro cathedral, for the founding of which he was mainly responsible. The foundation stone was laid on May 20, 1880, by the Prince of Wales as Duke of Cornwall. Seven years later Benson (then archbishop) was present at the consecration of the cathedral.
In the second year of Benson's episcopate at Truro he experienced a great bereavement by the death of his eldest son, Martin White Benson, who died of meningitis at Win- chester College at the age of seventeen. He was a boy endowed with singular gifts of thought and expression.
At the time of his nomination to the primacy Benson was fifty-three, and in the full vigour of manhood. His trans- s Life, I., 429. 421
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lation to Canterbury took place in January 1883. The appointment was unpopular with the Liberal party, for he was known to be a Tory, and was suspected of being a very high churchman.
An important event of his primacy was the trial of Dr. Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln, on a charge of having broken the ecclesiastical law by certain offences in regard to ritual. When called on by the Church Association in 1888 to act as judge in the case, Benson refused to do so until the jurisdiction of the archiepiscopal court had been fully acknowledged. After prolonged arguments the authority of this court was affirmed by the Privy Council.
The suit came on for trial in February 1890, and judgment was delivered at Lambeth Palace on November 21, the arch- bishop sitting with five bishops as assessors. In the interval between the trial and the passing of the judgment Benson had studied the case in all its bearings, and his judgment was a masterpiece for scholarship and legal lucidity. The judg- ment was substantially in Bishop King's favour, though each party was required to pay its own costs. The effect of the judgment was to legalize certain practices which had hither- to been regarded as unlawful. The archbishop decided :
(1) That the mixture of water with wine in the communion cup must not be performed as an actual part of divine service.
(2) That the eastward position is lawful if so managed as not to make the manual acts invisible. (3) That the A gnus Dei may be sung. (4) That lighted candles on the altar, if not lighted during the service, are permissible. (5) That the sign of the cross at the absolution and at the blessing was an innovation and must be discontinued. The archbishop's judgment was afterwards scrupulously obeyed by Bishop King, even when celebrating in his private chapel.6
At the time when the judgment was pronounced the archbishop was again under the shadow of a great sorrow, for his eldest daughter had died of diphtheria a few weeks previously.
It may be said that from 1886 until his death Benson never ceased to be at work on Church bills. A Bill for the Reform of Church Patronage, the Clergy Discipline Bill, the Free 6 Quarterly Review, Oct. 1897. 422
Edward White Benson
Education Bill of 1891, and the Tithe Act were among the more important of those for which he laboured. As a speaker he was less effective in the House of Lords than on the plat- form or in the pulpit, but his natural dignity and grace of manner helped him and he was always heard with respect. Under favourable circumstances he was a charming speaker, as, for instance, when addressing a crowd of working men, or at the meetings of the Diocesan Conference held every summer at Lambeth.7 Throughout his primacy he took a prominent part in opposing bills for the disestablishment of the Welsh Church, and it was largely due to his efforts that these bills were defeated. At the Rhyl conference in October 1891, he gave a memorable address on the subject, closing with these words : "I come from the steps of the chair of St. Augustine, your younger ally, to tell you that by the benediction of God we will not quietly see you disinherited."
On May 16, 1895, the archbishop presided at an enormous meeting in the Albert Hall, London, at which the Central Committee for Church Defence and Instruction was founded. He took a deep interest in Anglican sisterhoods, and in the higher education of women, and instituted weekly Bible classes for fashionable ladies at Lambeth Palace.
Benson laboured to promote missionary work, and was specially interested in a mission, of which he was practically the founder, to the Assyrian Christians. The Assyrian or East Syrian Christians represent the Church of the old Persian Empire, whose bishops were originally dependent on Antioch. They are subject both to Turkey and Persia. Though they are generally believed to be Nestorians, it is a moot point whether they hold the heresy usually attributed to that sect. Archbishops Howley and Tait had at different times sent missions to the Assyrian Christians to encourage them in preserving their existence as a national Church. Archbishop Benson, to whom they had applied for aid, despatched Mr. Athelstan Riley to Assyria on a mission of investigation in the autumn of 1884. Riley's experience confirmed all that had been said, namely that in the midst of poverty and ignorance, with temptations to apostasy and inducements to become proselytes to other
7 Ibid. 423
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Churches, the Assyrian Christians showed a desperate faithful- ness to the ancient Church of their nation. In 1885 the arch- bishop determined to refound the mission on a permanent basis, and sent out two priests with the object not of bringing over the Assyrian Christians to the Church of England or of altering their ancient traditions, but to encourage them in bettering their religious conditions, and to strengthen their ancient Church, which without some assistance must eventually succumb, though unwillingly, to the external organizations at work in its midst.8 Under Benson's successors the mission to the Assyrian Christians has con- siderably developed.
On April 20, 1895, The Times published a letter from Pope Leo XIII., in which he made an eloquent appeal to the English people to join in bringing about the union of Christendom. The tone of this letter raised hopes that the pope might be induced to recognise the validity of Anglican orders. In these hopes Archbishop Benson does not appear to have joined, and the sequel proved that his judgment had been correct. He was assured by certain Roman clergy that the pope was only waiting some expression of goodwill from himself before taking further steps in the matter. Benson declined, however, to enter into a correspondence with Rome. In September 1896, the pope issued a bull in which he proclaimed the absolute invalidity of Anglican orders.
Archbishop Benson visited Canterbury more frequently than any of his immediate predecessors. He possessed a master key which opened all the doors and gates of the cathedral, and sometimes when residing at Canterbury would steal away and shut himself up alone for a while in the place known as Becket's Crown, where is the marble chair of Augustine. It was in this contact with the church's sacred places, and through them with his predecessors and their government, that he examined his own work and formed plans for the future.9
In September 1896, the archbishop started with Mrs. Benson for a short tour in Ireland. He preached at the re-opening of
8 Benson's Life, Vol. II., p. 176.
' Quarterly Review, Oct. 1897, p. 320.
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Kildare Cathedral and elsewhere, receiving everywhere an enthusiastic welcome. On Saturday, October 10, he and Mrs. Benson returned to England and proceeded to Hawarden to spend the week-end with Mr. W. E. Gladstone, for whom he had a warm admiration. They reached Hawarden about 6 p.m. on the Saturday evening, the archbishop appearing to be in the best of health and spirits, full of his Irish tour, of which he spoke with great delight. On the Sunday morning he and Mrs. Benson ,were present at the eight o'clock celebration of the Holy Communion. After breakfast at Hawarden he walked to church with Mr. Henry Gladstone. The service had begun, and the absolution was being pro- nounced, when he suddenly fell forward unconscious. He was carried to the adjoining rectory, and died in a few minutes. When the sad news was broken to Mr. Gladstone, he was deeply affected and exclaimed : " He died as a soldier. It was a noble end to a noble life."
The funeral took place at Canterbury, Benson being the first archbishop since Pole to be buried in the cathedral. He was survived by his wife, his daughter Margaret, and three distinguished sons, namely, Arthur Christopher Benson, afterwards fellow and lecturer of Magdalene College, Cam- bridge, Edward Frederick Benson the novelist, and Robert Hugh Benson, now the Very Rev. Monsignor Benson, priest of the Catholic arch-diocese of Westminster, also well known as a novelist.
" Archbishop Benson was not only a good man," says one writer, " but a man of rare gifts, extraordinary charm of character and endowed with the strange power of making lives more vivid." His deepest desire for the Church of England was the renewal of her inner vitality.10 In manner he was courtly and dignified, and was thus eminently well fitted to play his part in great state ceremonials. His chief works are : (i) " Boy-Life " (sermons at Wellington College) 1874; (2) " Singleheart" (sermons at Lincoln), 1877; (3) " The Cathedral, its necessary place in the Life of the Church," 1878; (4) The "Seven Gifts" (addresses at his primary visitation of Canterbury diocese)), 1885 ; (5) " Christ and His Times" (at second visitation), 1889 ; (6) " Fishers of
10 Ibid.
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Men " (at third visitation), 1893 ; (7) " Living Theology and other Sermons," 1891. The following works were post- humously published : (1) " Cyprian, his Life, his Times, his Work," 1892 ; (2) " Prayers Public and Private," 1899 ; (3) " The Apocalypse " 1900."
Diet, of Nat. Biog.
426
r
.'*
From a pftotOflraM by Kus»eii it Sons.
ARCHBISHOP TEMPLE.
93-— FREDERICK TEMPLE, 1896 to 1902.
Sovereigns of England : Victoria, 1837 to 1901.
Edward VII., 1901 to 1910.
On the sudden death of Archbishop Benson in 1896, it was understood that the choice of a successor would probably be made from among three distinguished prelates : Dr. Creighton, Bishop of Peterborough, Dr. Randall Davidson, Bishop of Winchester, and Dr. Temple, Bishop of London. Dr. Creighton and Dr. Davidson were comparatively young men, while Dr. Temple was in his seventy-fifth year, and the primacy seemed a fitting reward for his long and faithful service.1 On him, therefore, the choice fell. On October 22, 1896, Lord Salisbury wrote to Dr. Temple stating that he was authorized by her Majesty to nominate him to the primacy, and on the following day the bishop wrote his acceptance.
Frederick Temple was the third son of Major Octavius Temple, sometime sub-inspector of militia, and was born on November 30, 1821, in Santa Maura, one of the Ionian Islands, where his father was then stationed. His grandfather was the Rev. W. J . Temple, vicar of St. Gluvias, near Penryn, Cornwall. In 1805, Major Temple married Dorcas, daughter of Richard Carveth, of Probus, near Truro, who traced his descent through the Le Despensers to Guy de Beauchamp, second Earl of Warwick. Frederick Temple was the thirteenth of fifteen children, of whom eight grew up.2
In 1830, when Frederick was nine years old, the family came to England, and Major Temple bought a farm at Axon, near Culmstock, in Devon; on which he taught his sons to work. After some time, it was found that the farm would not pay, and Major Temple applied to Government for employment. He was offered the governorship of Sierra Leone, which he accepted. In spite of his wife's reluctance,
' Times, Dec. 24, 1902.
2 Memoirs of Archbishop Temple, by Seven Friends, I., 3-16.
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he let the farm, but not the house, in which she remained, and set off to Sierra Leone, where he died eight months later.3 The Government granted his widow a pension of £100 a year for life, but she could not afford to send the boys to a boarding school, and for some years educated them herself. She was a woman of excellent judgment; and her youngest son Frederick never forgot the debt he owed her for his early training.
At the age of twelve, Frederick Temple was sent to Blundell's School, Tiverton, where he remained for five years, living in lodgings very economically. Of this school he always spoke with affection and gratitude. His progress was remarkable, and in 1838 he won a Blundell scholarship for Balliol College, Oxford, thus becoming independent. He never asked his mother for a penny again. A gift of £50 from an anonymous friend was of great assistance in enabling him to proceed to Oxford. These were the days of the " Tracts for the Times," and Temple was much interested in the theological discussions which arose out of them. He was a most diligent student, and in May 1842, graduated B.A., with a double-first in classics and mathematics. In the autumn of the same year he was elected a fellow of his college, and became lecturer in mathematics and logic.
In his undergraduate days, Temple was an ardent Tory. It was only gradually that his interests in the amelioration of the working-classes, and his belief that they could better their own condition, led him to join the Liberals. In 1845 he was made junior dean, and in the following year was ordained by Bishop Wilberforce, of Lincoln. Three years later he resigned his fellowship, and for the next ten years was attached to the department of the Committee of Council on Education : first as examiner in the office, then as principal of Kneller Hall, between Twickenham and Whitton, an institution for the training of masters for Poor Law Schools ; and lastly from 1855-57 as one 0I Her Majesty's inspectors of Training Schools. In 1857 he took the degrees of B.D. and D.D., and in November of that year was chosen to succed Dr. Goulburn in the headmastership of Rugby School.
Temple brought with him to Rugby his aged mother, to whose earlier struggles the success of her son had put an end.
1 Ibid., p. 24.
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The bond between mother and son was a very close one. A photograph of this period shows him standing by her side, and the look of tender affection on his face gives some idea of the real heart of the man.4 With his mother came also Janetta Octavia Temple, the youngest of his sisters, his senior by two years, who managed the household. The Rugby boys soon found that they had to do with a strong and humorous man, as fair and simple in method as he was penetrating in judgment.5 As a teacher he exercised great power. While making the school strong on the classical side he also instituted scholarships for science and built a laboratory. The mainspring of his influence lay in the chapel sermons. The men and boys who Sunday after Sunday listened with earnest attention to his short address, perhaps lasting only a quarter of an hour, felt that compressed into it was the force by which they were to live till the next Sunday came round. To a volume of sermons preached in Rugby School Chapel between 1858 and i860 he added the touching introductory note '• " To the boys of Rugby School and to their parents, this volume is affectionately inscribed by one who would gladly sacrifice every other aim if by doing so he could help any of his pupils to live in the spirit of the Bible and to love the Lord Jesus Christ." It was marvellous how he found time to do other things besides his school work. The mother who was too poor to hire a nurse to lift her sick son told how he came day after day as soon as he discovered her need to the Bilton Road, after his third lesson with the sixth, to do it for her.6 He also identified himself with the interests of the artisan class living in the neighbourhood of Rugby.
In i860, Dr. Temple's name came prominently before the public in connection with the volume called " Essays and Reviews " (vide Archbishop Tait) . It was the joint production of seven authors, the first essay being " On the Education of the World," by Frederick Temple, D.D., Headmaster, Rugby School, Chaplain in ordinary to the Queen. In the Quarterly Review of January 1861, Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford condemned the book in a vigorous denunciatory article.
• C.f. Times, Dec. 24th, 1902.
s Frederick Temple, by E. G. Sandfoid, Introd., p. xxiii.
6 Memoirs, I., 162, 216.
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This attracted attention to the essays, and for some time the storm of anger and clamour raged against them with portentous force. A document condemning the whole book was drawn up by Archbishop Longley (q. v.) and was signed by him and twenty-five of his suffragans, including Bishop Tait of London. As already related, Tait's action in the matter led to a breach in his friendship with Temple, and for some time an epistolary warfare was waged between them. Temple concluded his correspondence with Tait on the subject with these words : " You will keep your friends if you compel them to feel that in every crisis of life they must be on their guard against trusting you."
In July 1869, Temple declined Mr. Gladstone's offer of the deanery of Durham, but in the following October he accepted the bishopric of Exeter. His appointment caused consider- able dissatisfaction in certain quarters, and the controversy concerning " Essays and Reviews " was revived. He was urged by his friends to withdraw from publication the essay which he had contributed to the volume, but he refused to do so while the storm raged. Benson, then headmaster of Wellington, whose friendship for Temple remained unbroken throughout life wrote : " Those who censure the conge d? elite know not the man ; they know not the singleness of purpose, truth and patience ; they know not the courage and manliness of the life which they would divert from the service of the Church ; they know not, what is more, the power of inspiration, not short of genius, which he has for others." Pusey, on the other hand, declared that " the choice was the most frightful enormity ever perpetrated by a prime minister."
For some time it was doubtful whether the dean and chapter of Exeter would act on the conge tV elite. Ultimately of the twenty-three members entitled to vote, thirteen were found to be in favour of Temple, six against him, and four absented themselves. Though protests were made at the confirmation of his election in Bow Church, and also at his consecration in Westminster Abbey, the ceremony was allowed to proceed. Dean Stanley afterwards related that in anticipation of a disturbance he had posted close to the sacrarium two stalwart constables disguised as vergers.7 7 Times, Dec. 24, 1902. 430
Frederick Temple
Temple had declined to make concessions while a bishopric was hanging over his head, but after his consecration he with- drew his essay from future editions of " Essays and Reviews."
During his episcopate at Exeter, the suspicion and repugnance with which he was at first received were gradually changed into affection and absolute trust. Shortly after his installation a meeting of the Church Missionary Society was held at Exeter, but the bishop was not invited to be present. The prelimin- ary tea was proceeding when the assembly was dismayed to see him marching up the room with his characteristic slouch. The worthy lady collectors whispered their horror to each other ; one or two of the irreconcilable men muttered " Don't rise, don't rise," as the rest stood up to receive him, but in a few minutes the bishop was addressing the meeting from the chair, as the chairman had not arrived. He had not been invited, he said, but he had come because the cause was as dear to his heart as to theirs, and in spite of narrow means he had contributed to it since he was ten years old.8
Temple's childhood had been spent in Devonshire, and he had for its people a genuine sympathy and affection. During the twelve years he held the see of Exeter his marvellous physical strength enabled him to accomplish tasks before which many younger men would have quailed. He would frequently journey across bleak Dartmoor, with its rough roads, to conduct services for the convicts at Dartmoor Prison, some of whom he confirmed. As in London later, he organized the chapters of the rural deaneries and inspired the whole diocese with a sense of cohesion. It was largely due to his endeavours that the sub-division of the diocese was carried out, and the see of Truro erected (vide Archbishop Benson). In the Lent term of 1884, he was invited to give the Bampton Lectures at Oxford, and chose for his subject " The Relation between Religion and Science." Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning were among his hearers.
Temple's mother had died at Rugby in May 1866. Until 1873 the Palace at Exeter was presided over by his sister, but her health began to fail, and she was reluctantly obliged to leave her brother's home to reside wherever the conditions of climate were found most favourable.9 On August 24, 1876, 8 Ibid. 9 Memoirs, I., 518.
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at the age of fifty-five, Temple was married to Beatrice Blanche Lascelles, fifth daughter of William Saunders Sebright Lascelles, and Lady Caroline Georgiana Howard, daughter of George, sixth Earl of Carlisle. Many happy years followed this union. In the companionship of his sons the bishop renewed his youth, and would often share their games like a happy schoolboy.
Dr. Temple was a strong advocate of educational reform and of temperance. These subjects he made especially his own. On the passing of the Free Education Act of 1870 he succeeded in raising a large sum by means of voluntary con- tributions for the purpose of making the necessary improve- ments in the Church schools throughout his diocese. The question of secondary education also claimed a large share of his attention. His idea was to give opportunities for the poorest children to rise by means of scholarships, if their abilities permitted, from the elementary schools to the secondary, and thence to the universities. He was a member of the Royal Commission for Education and was mainly in- strumental in starting the scheme which afterwards developed into the Oxford and Cambridge Local Examinations.
" If ever mortal man lived to overcome obstacles, Dr. Temple was the man," says one writer ; " to attempt to thwart him in any way involved the risk of rousing within him greater determination to achieve the end in view." On one occasion, while Bishop of Exeter, he paid a visit to a certain country rectory. Absorbed in conversation, he had forgotten the flight of time, and to enable him to reach the station by the shortest route the curate was despatched as guide. Things were getting desperate when to the curate's mind a brook formed an insurmountable obstacle. He was anxiously searching for a narrow part convenient to their leaping capacity when, to his consternation, he beheld the bishop fording the stream with the water well-nigh up to his waist. He did it to good purpose too, for he just caught the train, which enabled him to fulfil his engagement at a meeting at Exeter the same evening.10
Before setting out on his last expedition to Egypt in 1884, General Gordon called on Bishop Temple and told him that 10 Archbishop Temple, by Charles H. Dant, p. 104. 432
Frederick Temple
it was his earnest wish to make the gospel known to the people who had come under his care. He therefore desired to have the bishop's authority to baptize any of those who should be willing to confess the faith of Christ. That authorization was gladly granted."
As a follower of Mr. Gladstone, Dr. Temple took an active part in speaking and writing in favour of the Education Act, of Mr. Forster, and the disestablishment of the Irish Church. His interest in temperance work caused him to be frequently called upon to address meetings on the subject in all parts of the country. On one occasion, at a temperance meeting held at Dover he described with a pathos which made many of his auditors catch their breadth, that he had resolved to become a total abstainer on hearing a piteous appeal in his own library at Exeter from a man who described himself as " that most degraded of all creatures a drunken clergy- man."
On February 25, 1885, Dr. Temple was nominated to succeed Dr. Jackson in the see of London. When he left Exeter, a memorial of regret at his departure was presented to him, signed by many of the clergy who had before protested against his appointment.12
The story of his London episcopate is one of incessant labours. Lord Salisbury, himself a hard worker, once declared that he was ashamed to talk of hard work in the presence of the bishop of London. In addition to his visitation charges he instituted the custom of addressing in turn the ruridecanal chapters. With the poor of London he was very popular. It was due to his generosity that an important enlargement was made to Bishop's Park, Fulham, and recreation ground of about twelve acres provided for the use of the public for ever. Later, when he became archbishop, he made over for a public recreation ground a field adjoining Lambeth Palace. At the time of the dockers' strike in the autumn of 1889, he returned suddenly to London from his holiday in North Wales in order to mediate in the dispute. During the Chartist riots Dr. Temple was sworn a special constable for service in London.
In October 1896, Temple was nominated by Lord Salisbury to the archbishopric of Canterbury. He was then seventy-five
11 Ibid., p. 128. ,2 Memoirs, I., p. 597.
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yeaxs of age, and his sight was failing, but he declared that he was good for at least six years' work. Strange to say, the date of his translation was December 22, 1896, and his cal- culation proved correct almost to a day. One of his first acts as primate was to sell the estate at Addington Park, near Croydon, which had been purchased by Archbishop Manners- Sutton. With part of the proceeds of the sale he bought a house in the precincts of Canterbury Cathedral, and converted it into an archiepiscopal residence.
During his short primacy it was his lot to be called upon to officiate at a Jubilee celebration, a royal funeral, and a coronation. On the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee in 1897, he was present on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral when the Queen's carriage drew up, and after pronouncing the benediction called for three cheers for her Majesty.
He officiated at Queen Victoria's funeral in 1901 in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and on August 7, 1902, crowned King Edward VII. in Westminster Abbey. It was feared that the archbishop's failing sight would incapacitate him for conducting the coronation service. But his indomitable courage carried him through the long and tedious ceremony.
After the ceremony, when the aged primate knelt to do homage to the crowned sovereign, the weakness of his legs made it difficult for him to rise again. The king himself, observing his difficulty, immediately put out his hand and assisted him to rise. " God bless you, sir, God be with you," said the archbishop.
On the Monday following the coronation (August 11), the king summoned the archbishop to an audience in Buckingham Palace, and conferred on him the Collar of the Victorian Order, which he desired him to wear on all suitable occasions.
Twice during his primacy Archbishop Temple visited Scotland. In May 1898, at the request of Dr. James Paton, of St. Paul's, Glasgow, the Convener of the Committee on Temperance, he went to Edinburgh, and addressed the General Assembly on that subject which had for so long been near his heart. Four years later, when he was within a few months of eighty years of age, he went to Perth, and took part in the dedication of the new Chapter House added to St. Ninian's Cathedral, in memory of Charles Wordsworth, for
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forty years bishop of the united dioceses of St. Andrews, Dunkeld and Dumblane.13
The fourth Lambeth Conference, which was attended by nearly two hundred bishops, met in the summer of 1897 under Temple's presidency. That year was the 1,300th anniversary of the landing of St. Augustine in England. On July 2, the arch- bishop and the members of the Conference proceeded by special train to Ebbs Fleet, to hold a solemn service at the traditional place of landing of St. Augustine and his band of forty monks in the year 597. Archbishop Temple proved an ideal president at the Lambeth gathering. His gracious hospitality was greatly appreciated by all those present.
The reply to the papal bull in which Leo XIII. had denied the validity of Anglican orders had been prepared by Archbishop Benson (q. v.) before his death and was issued in the names of Dr. Temple and Dr. Maclagan of York. In this document the archbishops solemnly re- pudiated the claims made by the Roman see. Archbishop Temple made two visitations of his province during his primacy, one in 1897 and the other in 1902. His charges to the clergy delivered on these occasions were afterwards printed. In 1900 he presided over the World's Temperance Congress in London.
On December 2, 1902, when delivering a speech on the Education Bill in the House of Lords, he was seized with sudden illness, and was taken back to Lambeth in a very feeble state. On December 11, he expressed a desire to receive the Holy Communion. It was administered to him by the arch- bishop of York, in the presence of the bishop of London (Dr. Winnington Ingram) the bishop of Winchester (Dr. Davidson) and the Rev. W. J. Conybeare, the archbishop's domestic chaplain. " After the administration the archbishop raised himself' in his chair and expressed his thanks to those who had joined with him ' at that great feast,' and his especial gratitude to his household for their service and their kindness in the past. Then he turned to the archbishop of York, and gave him his blessing, and next blessed the bishop of London. He motioned to the bishop of Winchester to come to him for the same purpose. But it was clear that the effort 1 Memoirs, p. II., 281. 435
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was becoming too great, and, as his last strength was due to his wife and sons, the rest then left the room."1* He died on the morning of December 23, and was buried in the Cloister Garth of Canterbury Cathedral. He was survived by his widow and two sons, Frederick Charles, born in 1879, appointed in 1908 district engineer under the Indian Govern- ment ; William, born 1881, fellow and tutor of Queen's College, Oxford, 1908-10, headmaster of Repton School, 1910.
Archbishop Temple's most obvious characteristic was a certain rugged simplicity, which was often mistaken for brusqueness and want of feeling. He did not hesitate to speak his mind to those with whom he disagreed. But those who knew him intimately were well aware that beneath a some- what forbidding exterior he hid a wealth of affection and tenderness. Benson described him as " the most tender- hearted, patient and enduring of men." His mind was strong and sensible rather than brilliant. " In early life," says another writer, "his views of the causes that were agitating men's minds were in advance of current notions. But as his long life passed onward he remained much what he had been in his prime. He added little to his stock of ideas, and on any question of moment it was usually possible to fore- cast what he would say. But to the last his immense power of work never forsook him."15 His chief works are " The Relation between Religion and Science " (Bampton Lectures, 1884) ; " On the Reservation of the Sacrament " (1900) ; and several volumes of sermons and episcopal charges.
K Ibid., II., p. 384. '5 Times, Dec. 24, 1902.
436
94-— RANDALL THOMAS DAVIDSON, 1903 to .
Kings of England : Edward VII., 1901 to 1910. George V., 1910 to .
Randall Thomas Davidson was born in Edinburgh on April 7, 1848, and is the eldest son of the late Mr. Henry Davidson, of Muir House, Edinburgh. His mother was Henrietta, third daughter of Mr. John Swinton, formerly an officer in the army, who in 1850 took the additional name of Campbell on succeeding his maternal aunt, Miss Mary Campbell, in the estates of Kimmerghane, Berwickshire.
He was educated at Harrow, where he was the pupil and subsequently the life-long friend of Westcott, afterwards bishop of Durham. During his last year at Harrow he was accidentally injured by a gunshot wound, which for some years and during the whole of his university career made him an invalid. From Harrow he proceeded to Trinity College, Oxford, but had to spend two winters in Italy, and finally broke down in the middle of his examination for his B.A. degree in the Honours School of Law and Modern History. He had to retire from the examination, but the examiners gave him a third class on the few papers he had done.1 He afterwards read for holy orders with Dr. Vaughan, Dean of Llandaff , and Master of the Temple, with whom he maintained a friendship until the death of the latter.
His intimacy with the Tait family dated from his school days, for Randall Davidson's father and Archibald Campbell Tait had been schoolfellows fifty years before, and had ever since remained friends. He was frequently a guest at Lambeth and Addington,2 and Crauford Tait, the archbishop's son, who was one year his junior, was among his most intimate friends at Oxford. The two joined a party in 1872 for a tent-journey in the East, visiting Egypt, the Arabian Desert
1 Guardian January 14, 1903 ; cf. Oxford Honours Lists, 1870. 1 Life of Archbishop Tait, Vol. II., p. 552.
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and Palestine. On March i, 1874, they were ordained deacons together in St. Mark's, Kennington, by Dr. Parry, Bishop of Dover, Archbishop Tait being prevented by illness from officiating.
Mr. Davidson was appointed to the curacy of Dartford, Kent, where he remained for three years and gained much valuable experience in parochial work. His first vicar at Dartford was Canon Bowlby (afterwards bishop of Coventry), who placed him in charge of a district containing large paper mills. During his curacy an epidemic of small- pox devastated the district, and the splendid work done by the clergy in nursing and attending the stricken attracted considerable notice. Mr. Davidson started Bible classes for the workpeople, which were well attended and proved very successful. The experience which he thus gained proved of the greatest value in his subsequent career. When dean of Windsor he conducted a Bible class for ladies, which had over a hundred members.3 In 1875 Mr. Davidson was ordained priest by Archbishop Tait, and in that year took the degree of M.A. In 1877, he succeeded Crauford Tait as the archbishop's secretary and domestic chaplain, and took up his residence at Lambeth. In the following year he married Miss Edith Murdoch Tait, the archbishop's second surviving daughter. The marriage took place in Lambeth chapel on November 12, 1878, the primate officiating. A few weeks later Mr. Davidson and his newly wedded wife were suddenly recalled from Florence by the death of Mrs. Tait {vide Archbishop Tait).
Of the period of his chaplaincy Dr. Davidson writes : " I can never forget the courteous consideration and kind- ness with which the archbishop helped and guided me in those early days when I must have been blundering even more than I knew. Intimate as the relation must necessarily be between private secretaries and their chiefs, I doubt whether in English public life any parallel could be found to the complete and unreserved confidence which Archbishop Tait used — quite deliberately — to repose in the man, whoever he might be, whom he had chosen for the time to be his chap- lain, his amanuensis and — no other word is possible — his 3 Guardian, January 14, 1903. 438
Randall Thomas Davidson
critic. . . In everything which concerned his public or official action, however confidential its plan, however personal its application, he not only permitted but peremptorily required on the part of his chaplain-secretary the fullest knowledge and the most frank criticism. . . He was always in the open air when possible, and many of the most important and careful letters I can remember had to be scribbled as best they might while we paced up and down the gravel walks at Lambeth or the little footpath along the Broadstairs cliffs. His scribe used to be reduced to sore straits on a windy day, and we came to the last straw when he insisted on my revising and annotating a series of visitation statistics upon sheets of flimsy foolscap while riding with him on horseback along the Thames Embankment. After the sorrows of 1878, when he became almost suddenly an old man, he took to dictating to me the letters of supreme im- portance only, and contented himself with briefest directions for the rest. "4
The confidence which Tait thus reposed in his chaplain led to the latter's acquiring a knowledge of the affairs of the primacy which was afterwards to prove invaluable to him. The correspondence concerning the ritual controversy was almost entirely in Mr. Davidson's hands. His correspondence with the Rev. Sidney Faithorne Green, vicar of Miles Platting, Yorkshire, who was committed to prison for contempt of court on March 19, 1881, is published in the " Life of Archbishop Tait." The final negotia- tions with the Rev. A. H. Mackonochie (vide Archbishop Tait), which came to a crisis when Tait was on his death-bed, were conducted chiefly by his chaplain, acting on behalf of the primate.
An able article by Mr. Davidson on "The Authorisation of the English Bible " appeared in Macmillan's Magazine for October, 1881, and was warmly praised by Bishop Lightfoot of Durham, who had appointed him his examining chaplain. In the following year Mr. Davidson was also appointed one of the six preachers of Canterbury Cathedral, and honorary chaplain to Queen Victoria.5
* Life of Archbishop Tait, Vol. II., p. 555. 5 Guardian, January 14, 1903.
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Archbishop Tait's death did not sever Mr. Davidson's connection with the primacy, for he continued to remain for a time at Lambeth as domestic chaplain to Archbishop Benson. Mr. A. C. Benson thus writes of him : " When my father came to Lambeth Mr. Davidson with great generosity consented to stay as chaplain, and remained in that capacity until he was appointed dean of Windsor. Though their natures were very dissimilar, they became united by the most intimate and devoted friendship. The present bishop of Winchester had been brought up in a very different school of Church feeling ; he had been influenced under the auspices of his father-in-law in the direction of sagacious statesmanship and of individual and national rather than ecclesiastical church- manship. His knowledge of public men, of the work of organization, of Church legislation, of ecclesiastical move- ments, was of inestimable value to my father ; moreover, he was intimately acquainted with the personnel of the Church, and had the whole of the intricate business of which the primate is the centre at his fingers' ends. While he was dean of Windsor my father consulted him on almost every momentous point or difficult crisis. He did not always follow his advice, though he had the utmost respect for the bishop's unique power of foreseeing contingencies ; when Dean Davidson became bishop of Rochester, and when he succeeded to the ancient see of Winchester, the intimate relations still con- tinued, though naturally the bishop had less time at his disposal. It is not possible to estimate the debt which my father owed him or the affection with which he regarded him."6 That Mr. Davidson should have been the trusted coun- sellor of men of such totally different characters and views as Tait and Benson is a proof of his wide sympathies, as well as of his singular capacity for ecclesiastical statecraft. His mastery of detail is acknowledged by all those who work with him to be amazing and is quite unsuspected by the many people who admire him for his thorough grasp of big state problems.
Queen Victoria's friendship for the Tait family had frequently
brought Mr. Davidson into connection with her Majesty. On
the death of Dr. Wellesley, in 1883, Mr. Davidson was appointed
6 Life of Benson, L, 585.
440
Randall Thomas Davidson
to succeed him as dean of Windsor. In the following year Dean Davidson received the honorary degree of D.D. from the University of St. Andrews, and in 1885 was appointed select preacher at Cambridge.
As dean of Windsor he soon gained, and enjoyed until the end of her life, the confidence and esteem of Queen Victoria. When the court was at Windsor there was constant communi- cation between the sovereign and the dean, and he could seldom leave the borough without saying where he was to be found, as at any moment a message might summon him to her presence, and he would find himself expected to offer suggestions or supply information on any conceivable matter.7 To these royal claims were added frequent appeals for his advice from Lambeth. Throughout the Lincoln trial he was constantly consulted by Archbishop Benson, and was actually present at many of the sittings.8
While dean of Windsor, he made his mark as an able speaker in the Canterbury Lower House of Convocation. In October, 1890, Dr. Davidson was nominated by Lord Salisbury to succeed Dr. Thorold in the see of Rochester. The Pall Mall Gazette having referred to the appointment as a " royal job," Lord Halifax chivalrously wrote a letter to that journal showing how ungenerous was the criticism, and pointing out that the dean was giving up a position which had everything to recommend it for an overburdened diocese and for hard work among the masses of South and East London.9 Dr. Davidson was consecrated in West- minster Abbey on April 25, 1891, by Archbishop Benson assisted by the bishops of London, Winchester, Lichfield, Ely, Carlisle, Southwell, Ripon, Colombo, Minnesota and Bishops Campbell and Barry, the sermon being preached by his old Harrow headmaster, Dr. Montagu Butler.
After the consecration an interesting ceremony took place in the Jerusalem Chamber. A large number of those who had read for their ordination under Dean Vaughan had subscribed for a gift for Dr. Davidson, the first of their number to be consecrated to an English bishopric. The gift took the form of a large silver-gilt flagon, for use in the bishop's
7 Times, Jan. 9, 1903. 8 Ibid.
• Guardian^ Jan. 14, 1903.
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A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
private chapel, the rest of the sacred vessels being given by other friends.10
The bishop realized the importance of the work in the South London portion of his diocese and took a small house in the Kennington Park Road, instead of residing like his predecessors in a country house. His responsibilities weighed on him heavily from the first, and there were constant demands for his presence in different parts of the diocese. Within a week of his consecration he was attacked with serious gastric trouble, and it was at one time doubtful if he would recover. He was ordered to give up work for three months, and thought of resigning his see, but was dissuaded from this by his friends. For some years afterwards he was subject at intervals to similar attacks of illness. He did excellent work, however, in the diocese of Rochester, and his relations with clergy and laity were most cordial.
On the death of Dr. Thorold, in 1895, Bishop Davidson was translated to the see of Winchester, and became ex officio prelate of the most noble Order of the Garter. Shortly after his translation to Winchester he was called on to take action in the case of Father Dolling of St. Agatha's, Landport, who had erected in his church an altar for masses for the dead. The bishop had the courage to insist on his admonitions being obeyed, though the result was the withdrawal of Father Dolling from the diocese, where he was greatly beloved. Bishop Davidson was frequently consulted about ritual difficulties, and in his charge of 1899 he dealt with private confession. While showing that the Church of England was positive and clear on the value of private con- fession for grave and exceptional need, he made it equally plain that it must remain so limited if the clergy were not to run the risk of weakening the very characters they longed to strengthen and uphold.11 He had previously expressed his conviction that the wisest human counsellor was he who led the sinner to need human counsel less.
Throughout his episcopate at Winchester, Dr. Davidson
remained the confidential adviser of his sovereign. He was
in attendance on the queen during her last illness, and
was present at her death. The advanced age of Archbishop
10 Ibid. " Ibid.
442
Randall Thomas Davidson
Temple made it necessary for Dr. Davidson to take the leading part in the arrangements for the coronation of King Edward VII. For his services on that occasion the king afterwards conferred on him the insignia of a Knight Com- mander of the Victorian Order.
In January, 1903, Dr. Davidson was nominated by Mr. Balfour to succeed Archbishop Temple in the see of Canter- bury. His promotion had long been anticipated, and had the choice lain with the suffragans there is little doubt that he would have been chosen by them unanimously. Probably no prelate ever came to the chair of St. Augustine better qualified by experience for the work which lay before him.
Since his appointment to the episcopal bench, he had taken the deepest interest in social questions, and was on intimate terms with the leading men on both sides of political life, in the Lords and in the Commons. Among the measures for which he had worked before his elevation to the primacy were the Act for Infant Life Protection, bills for Prison Reform, for the Early Closing of Shops, and for securing Seats for Shop Assistants. He had also taken a leading part in temperance legislation, and in 1900 introduced three short bills into the House of Lords : (1) For the reform of licensing procedure ; (2) for dealing with inebriates ; and (3) for dealing with the bona fide traveller question.
The archbishop was a strong supporter of Mr. Asquith's attempted Licensing Bill of 1908. On April 28, 1908, at the forty-sixth annual meeting of the Church of England Temperance Society held at Lambeth Palace, after referring to various aspects of the society's work, he said : " I am bound to say that the more I regard it the more clearly convinced do I feel that the larger principles upon which the Bill is based are principles that are right and just. The main principle is, I presume, that by such processes as may be required to effect it, the state shall, or the people of England shall, for that is the same thing, regain and hold the controlling power over a trade which stands in some respects apart from all other trades as to its possible effects upon national well-being in the lives of the men and women of England." In November 1908, the archbishop voted with
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the Government in favour of the Licensing Bill, and against Lord Lansdowne's successful amendment.
In 1904, Dr. Davidson accepted the invitation of the Episcopal Church in the United States to be present at the General Convention in Boston in October of that year. In the course of his American tour he preached at Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and many other places, receiving everywhere a hearty welcome. When addressing the Canada Club at Toronto on September 5, he said : " When I was a little boy I was taught English grammar from a little book which I have never since seen. It had as a frontispiece a picture of a rather fantastic little lad riding on a white pony, and under the picture were two lines : —
' Let syntax be your constant guide, So shall you on a pony ride.'
I confess that in those days I did not clearly see the con- nection between syntax and horsemanship, but I have since come to believe that the poet, whoever he was, was right, and that genuine pains taken to do rightly the immediate thing will fit us best for whatever may come afterwards, however different it be."12 Before his return to England, the universities of Toronto and Columbia (New York) both conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. The sermons preached by Dr. Davidson in America were afterwards published under the title of " The Christian Opportunity."
On February 26, 1910, the archbishops of Canterbury and York issued their first appeal to the Church and people of England on behalf of Western Canada. To deal with the needs of the Church in that great country a council was formed, of which the Archbishops of Canterbury, York and Rupert's Land are the Presidents. The purpose for which a fund is required is to supplement the efforts of the Canadian Church and to fill up what is lacking in its power to help at this crisis in the Canadian West. A second appeal was issued from the archbishops in January, 1911, and a third in March, 1913. The response, though less than had been hoped for, was con- siderable. Up to Easter 1913, £78,000 had been received. Forty-two clergy, thirty laymen and four women workers '- The Christian Opportunity.
444
Randall Thomas Davidson
have been sent out ; £23,000 have been spent in subsidizing the societies already at work in Canada, and mission centres have been established at Edmonton, Regina in southern Alberta, and elsewhere. Archbishop Davidson has encouraged and supported the work by every means in his power. He also takes the deepest interest in the progress of the Assyrian Mission (vide Archbishop Benson).
The archbishop has organized a scheme whereby women may be trained as qualified teachers in theology. The Diploma of Student in Theology (S. Th.) is conferred by him at his dis- cretion upon such candidates as are found to satisfy the test of (a) systematic study, and (b) proficiency as shown by examination or otherwise. Those who desire to make Church teaching their special work may receive in addition to the Diploma, a Licence to teach theology, which is granted by the archbishop at his discretion. A Roll is kept of the holders of the Licence and an annual record of their work. The standard of examination for the Archbishop's Diploma is approximately that of the Honours Schools of Theology at Oxford and Cambridge. All reports of the examinations are submitted to the archbishop himself, and considered by him with a view to deciding on whom Diplomas should be conferred. The first Diplomas were conferred by him in 1906. They are now conferred once a year at a service held in Lambeth Palace Chapel.
In June 1908, the Pan-Anglican Congress was held, and was immediately followed by the fifth Lambeth Conference, at which Archbishop Davidson presided. In 1889, Dr. Davidson had edited a volume published by the S.P.C.K., giving the official reports and resolutions together with the sermons preached at the Lambeth Conferences of 1867, 1878 and 1888. His report of the Conference of 1897 was afterwards published separately. The ability and thoroughness with which he has dealt with these intricate reports has been generally recognized.
After the Lambeth Conference of 1908 the archbishop and Mrs. Davidson went to Switzerland for a much needed holiday. They were accompanied by Dr. Francis Paget, Bishop of Oxford, between whom and Archbishop Davidson a close friendship existed. Paget's admiration for the arch-
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A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
bishop was frequently expressed in his letters. On May 7, 1907, he wrote : " I have been in London all this week for Convocation, staying with the archbishop. It's always a sort of moral seaside to me to be with him ; he bears his great load so gallantly, with so ready a heart for tenderness and sympathy, and so clear and steady a head, and so single a will, I can't be thankful enough for his friendship."13
Archbishop Davidson ministered to King Edward VII. on his deathbed and was with him when he died. On May 20, 1910, he officiated, along with the archbishop of York, the bishops of Winchester and Oxford and the dean of Windsor, at the funeral of King Edward VII. in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
On June 22, 1911, he anointed and crowned King George V. in Westminster Abbey, afterwards doing homage to his sovereign, according to custom, in the manner of his famous predecessors since the time of the Conquest.. " The enthronement being completed," says the Times, "the ceremony of the homage, feudal in its origin, was then performed. The nobles and prelates gathered round the king on the throne. The archbishop knelt for a moment on the first step before the throne, and then ascending and kneeling on the highest step, made the homage for the lords spiritual in these words : ' I, Randall, Archbishop of Canter- bury, will be faithful and true, and faith and truth will I bear unto you, our Sovereign Lord and your heirs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British Dominions beyond the seas, Defenders of the Faith and Emperors of India. And I will do, and truly acknowledge the service of the lands which I claim to hold of you as in right of the Church, so help me God.' Rising to his feet, the archbishop then kissed the king on the left cheek."1*
Shortly after the coronation, King George V. conferred on the archbishop the Royal Victorian Chain. His Grace is one of the Lords of the Privy Council ; Visitor of All Souls, Merton and Keble Colleges, Oxford ; of King's College, London, of Marlborough College, of Dulwich College, of St. Augustine's
'•' Life of Bishop Francis Paget, p. 286. M Times, June 23, 191 1.
446
Randall Thomas Davidson
College, Canterbury, and with the bishop of London of Harrow School. He is also a Governor of Harrow and of Wellington College, of Holloway College, and of the Charterhouse. He is President of the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, President of the S.P.C.K. and of the S.P.G., of the National Society and of the Incorporated Church Building Society, and a Principal Trustee of the British Museum. In addition to the honorary degrees already mentioned which have been conferred on him, he is an LL.D. of Cambridge University, a D.C.L. of Oxford University, a D.D. of Aberdeen University, and an LL.D. of Edinburgh University. In 1903 he was elected an honorary fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.15
Archbishop Davidson, like all his predecessors, since 1811, is President of the National Society for the Promotion of the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Church of England. He has held that position during a period of exceptional difficulty, for the Government since the end of 1905 has been openly opposed to denominational instruction as part of the nation's system of education. The present primate has, throughout this period, exhibited a keen and anxious appreciation of the magnitude of the issues involved Burdened, as he is, with vast and varied responsibilities, he has unsparingly devoted time and strength to the treatment of the changing phases of the Education Question and the Duties of the Church in connection therewith. There was a time, in 1908, when the archbishop and most of his episcopal colleagues were disposed to favour the acceptance of a Bill framed by Mr. Runciman which would have had the effect of terminating the existence, as such, of very large numbers of Church Schools in the country districts, but would in return have enacted the general establishment of facilities for denomi- national instruction in schools maintained by public funds. The great majority of Church educationists, and the National Society as a body, were, however, very strongly opposed to the Runciman Bill, and the Government withdrew it as in- viting concessions which, from their point of view, it was not worth while making except as part of a settlement by consent.
Dr. Davidson, notwithstanding the difference of opinion which has been mentioned, continued to give his powerful »5 Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1913.
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A Chronicle of the Archbishops of Canterbury
co-operation to the National Society's work in the most effective fashion. With his entire sympathy, the Society, besides helping Church School Managers to meet the demands of the Board of Education in regard to the improvement of their buildings, spent money freely on enabling them to carry to a successful issue litigation under- taken in order to secure from the Law Courts authoritative declarations in support of the claim of denominational schools to be treated, administratively, under the Education Act of 1902, on a basis of perfect equality with the schools provided by the local education authorities.
Both privately and in many public speeches, the Arch- bishop has given strenuous and most valuable support to the Society's appeals for the largely increased funds required to enable it to discharge in the fullest and worthiest manner the services just mentioned to Church Schools, and the duty of helping the Church Training Colleges, to which he attaches the greatest importance, through a time of difficulty and anxiety. The National Society has also had the heartiest support from his Grace in its endeavours to develop public opinion in the direction of a permanent settlement of the Education Question on the basis of the right of parents to determine the character of the religious instruction to be received by their children in the schools to which they are obliged to send them.16
Dr. Davidson's principal published works are : " The Lambeth Conferences " (second edition, 1896) ; " The Christian Opportunity " (1904) ; " Captains and Comrades of the Faith " (1911) ; "The Character and Call of the Church of England " (1912) ; a number of sermons and charges. He is also the joint author of " The Life of Archbishop Tait" (1891).
16 From information kindly supplied by Mr. Talbot Baines, Secretary to the National Society.
448
LIST OF PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED
Historia Monasterii S. Augustini Cantuariensis, by Thomas of Elmham.
Edited by Charles Hardwick, M.A. Rolls Series. (London, 1858.) De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, Willelmi Malmesbiriensis Monachi.
Libri quinque, edited by N. E. S. A. Hamilton. Rolls Series.
(London, 1870). Memorials of Saint Dunstan, edited from various manuscripts by
William Stubbs. Rolls Series. (London, 1874). Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury,
edited by J. C. Robertson, M.A. 7 vols. Rolls Series. (London,
1875)- The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, edited from the manu- scripts by William Stubbs, D.D. 2 vols. Rolls Series. (London,
1879). Registrum epistolarum Fratris Johannis Peckham, edited by Charles T.
Martin, B.A. 3 vols. Rolls Series. (London, 1882). Historia Ecclesiae Dunhelmensis, Simeonis Monachi, edited by Thomas
Arnold, M.A. Rolls Series. (London, 1882). Eadmeri Historia Novorum in Anglia, edited by Martin Rule, M.A.
Rolls Series. (London, 1884.) De Gestis Regum Anglorum Willelmi Malmesbiriensis Monachi, Libri
quinque. 2 vols., edited by William Stubbs, D.D. Rolls Series.
(London, 1887.) Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, Johannis M. Kemble. 6 vols.
English Hist. Soc. (London, 1839.) Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, edited by David Wilkins.
4 vols. (London, 1737.) Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and
Ireland, edited after Spelman and Wilkins by Haddan and
Stubbs. 3 vols. (Oxford, 1869.) Anglia Sacra, edited by Henry Wharton. 2 vols. (London, 1691). Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, translated by T. Forester. Bonn's
edition. (London, 1854). History of the English, by Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon. Trans- lated by T. Forester. Bohn's edition. (London, 1853). Annals of Roger of Hoveden. Bohn's edition. 2 vols. (London,
1853O Flowers of History, Roger of Wendover. Bohn's edition. 2 vols.
(London, 1349.)
449
List of Principal Works Consulted
Ecclesiastical History of England, by Bede. Sellar's trans. (London
1907.) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Bohn's edition. (London, 1847.) Monasticon Anglicanum, by Sir William Dugdale. 8 vols. (London,
1846.) Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, T. Tanner. (London, 1748.) Biographia Britannica, second edition by A. Kippis. 5 vols. (London,
1 778-1 793.) Calendars of State Papers. Rolls Series. (London, 1867, etc.) Chronica. G. Thorn. Twysden's edition. (London, 1852.) Biographia Britannica Literaria, by Thomas Wright. 2 vols. (Lon- don, 1842, 1846.) Athenae Oxoniensis, by Anthony a Wood. Edited by P. Bliss. (Ox- ford, 1848.) Athenae Cantabrigiensis, by C. H. and T. Cooper. (Cambridge, 1858
to 1913.) The Judges of England, by E. Foss. 9 vols. (London, 1848 to 1864.) Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, edited by E. F. Hender- son. London, 1892.) Dictionary of Christian Biography during First Eight Centuries, edited
by Smith and Wace. 4 vols. (London, 1882.) Cyprianus Anglicus, by Peter Heylyn. (London, 1668). fol. The Autobiography of Dr. William Laud. A compilation from his Diary.
(Oxford, 1839.) The Antiquities of Canterbury, by William Somner. (London, 1640.) A Catalogue of the Bishops of England, by Francis Godwin. (London,
1601.) Lives of the Protestant Bishops of the Church [of England since the
Reformation, by John Le Neve. (London, 1720.) Worthies of All Souls. Montagu Burrows. (Oxford, 1874.) Historical Memorials of Canterbury, by A. P. Stanley, Dean of West- minster. (London, 1904.) History of England, by J. A. Froude. 12 vols. (London, 1870-75.) The Conquest of England. John Richard Green. (London, 1883.) The Making of England. John Richard Green. (London, 1897.) History of the Norman Conquest of England, E. A. Freeman. 6 vols.
(Oxford, 1867-79.) Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, J. Nichols.
8 vols. (London, 1817-1858.) Memorials of Thomas Cranmer. J. Strype. 2 vols. (Oxford, 1812.) Lives of Archbishops Grindal, Parker and Whitgift. J. Strype. 7 vols.
(Oxford, 1821, 1822.) Student's History of England. S. R. Gardiner. (London, 1892.)
450
List of Principal Works Consulted
History of his own Time. G.Burnet. 6 vols. (Oxford, 1823.) Diary and Correspondence of J. Evelyn. Edited by W. Bray. 4 vols.
(London, 1850-52.) Paston Letters (1422-1509), edited by J. Gairdner. 4 vols. (London,
1891-1908.) Chapters of Early Church History. William Bright. Second Edition.
(Oxford, 1888.) The Gentleman's Magazine. The Annual Register. Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, W. F. Hook. 12 vols. (London,
1860-76.) Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney
Lee. Reissue. (London, 1908, etc.) History of the Church of England. R. W. Dixon. 6 vols. (London,
1878-1902.) The English Church in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. W. H. Frere.
(London, 1904.) The English Church and its Bishops. Charles J. Abbey. 2 vols.
(London, 1887.) The English Church. W. H. Hutton. (London, 1903.) The English Church from the accession of George I. to the end of the
Eighteenth Century, J. H. Overton and F. Relton. (London, 1906.) The English Church in the Nineteenth Century. J. H. Overton.
(London, 1894.) The Church of England : a History for the People. H. D. M. Spence,
afterwards Spence-Jones, Dean of Gloucester. 4 vols. (London,
1904-5.) Lambeth Palace and its Associations. J. Cave Browne. (Edinburgh
1883.)
4Si
INDEX
Abbot, George, 333-338 ; fatal
. shooting accident, 336.
A Becket, Thomas, see Thomas a Becket,
Aberconway, 219.
Abercorn, Marquis of, 395.
Abergwilly, 263.
Abingdon, 101, 105, 107, 120, 129, 201.
Acle or Oakley, 67.
Acre, 185.
Adam de Chillenden, 211, 212.
Adam of Orlton, Bishop of Here- ford, 225.
Addington, 393, 394, 398, 402, 403, 407, 416, 434, 437.
Adela, Countess of Blois, 146.
Adela, Queen of Henry I., 153.
" Advertisements " of Parker, 317.
Agapetus II., Pope, 86.
Agatho, Pope, 40.
Agilbert, 31, 34, 37.
Agincourt, 265.
Agnus Dei, at Communion, 422.
Aidan, 30.
Airey, Dr., 340.
Aix, 11.
Albano, Cardinal of, 232.
Alberic, Bishop of Ostria, 159.
Albinus, Abbot, 48, 49.
Alcuin, 64, 65.
Aldfrid, King of Northumbria, 43, 44.
Aldhelm, Abbot of Glastonbury, 45.
Aldon, Sir Thomas of, 248.
Aldred, Archbishop of York, 127.
Aldwin, Bishop of Lichfield, 47.
Aldwulf, Bishop of Rochester, 47.
Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, 158.
Alexander I., King of Scotland, 153.
Alexander II., Pope, 128, 132, 133.
Alexander III., Pope, 171, 175, 178, 180.
Alexander V., Pope, 264.
Alexander VI., Pope, 147, 284, 288.
Alfred, brother of Edward the Con- fessor, 122.
Alfred the Great, 75-79.
Alfric, see Elfric.
Alfric, Alderman, 103.
Algar, or Ethelgar, 10 1, 102.
Aller, 76.
Allingham, 180.
All Souls, Oxford, 266.
Alpheah, see Elphege.
Alresford, 395.
Alwig, Bishop of Lindsey, 48.
Amesbury, 106.
Amiens, 215.
Ampthill, 298.
Anagni, 178.
" Analogy," Butler's, 385.
Anastatius IV., Pope, 163.
Andover, no, 395.
Andrewes, Lancelot, Bishop of Ely,
333- Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 44, 72, 78,
106, in, 118. Anlaf the Dane, 94. Anne Boleyn, 296, 297, 298, 307,
3*4-
Anne of Cleves, 298.
Anne, Queen, 367.
Anselm of Bee, 113, 132, 139-148,
155; canonization, 147. Anselm of Milan, 132. Anselm of St. Sabas, 151. Antwerp, 290. Aosta, 139. Appeals to Papal Courts, forbidden,
240. Aquila, 218. Archbishops, appointment by
Kings, 116; ditto and papal
rights, 125 ; privileges of, 59, 60. Arches, Court of, 231, 238, 245,
263, 269, 272, 281, 290, 402. Armada, Spanish, 326. Arnold, Headmaster of Rugby, 409. Arnold, Matthew, 431. Arnulf, Count of Flanders, 96. Arras, 273. Arthur, King, 89. Arthur of Brittany, 189. Arthur, son of Henry VII., 288,
291.
45^
Index
Articles of Religion, 301, 317, 326, 341, 409.
Arundel, Earl of, 256, 257.
Arundel, Thomas, 255-259 ; trans- lation from York, 256 ; impeach- ment, 257, 261, 272.
Ashdon, 315.
Ashford, 387.
Asiatic cholera, in London, 413.
Aslacton, 295.
Asquith, Mr. , 443.
Assandun, 124.
Asser, 74, 75, 78, 318.
Assyrian Christians, Missions to
423, 445- Asterius, Bishop of Genoa, 31. Astran, council of, 73. Athanasian Creed, disputes on, 414. Athelhard, see Ethelheard. Athelm, 81.
Athelm, protector of Odo, 84, 85. Athelney, 76. Athelred, see Ethelred. Athelstan, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 89, 91. Attercliffe, 381. Audley, Lord Chancellor, 315. Augustine, St., 9-16, 5°i 5i» 53.
66, 86 ; mission of, 11-12 ;
ordained Bishop of the English,
13 ; writings of, 213, 318 ;
commemoration of, 435. Aust (Augustine's oak), 14. Avalonia (Glastonbury), 89. Averham-with-Kelham, 392. Avignon, 221, 227, 228, 231, 236,
243, 244, 245, 247, 307. Avranches, 130, 139. Axon, 427. Aylmer, half-brother of Henry III.,
209.
Baccancelde, council of, 44.
Badam (or Habam), council of, 114.
Badby, John, burned for heresy, 258.
Bagot, Bishop, 409.
Baker, Harriet, 418.
Baker, John, stepfather of Arch- bishop Parker, 314.
Baker, Sir Thomas, 418.
Baldon, 409.
Baldwin, 181-185 ; dispute with the Pope, 183 ; crusade, 184-185.
Balfour, Mr., 443.
Ball, John, 249.
Bamborough, 282.
Bampton Lectures, 431.
Bancroft, Richard, 328, 330-332. Bangor, 287, 376, 379, 390. Bangorian controversy, 370. Bangor Iscoed, 15. Bannockburn, 224. Bapchild (Baccancelde), 44. Baptismal regeneration, dispute
concerning, 401. Baptism of Saxons at Canterbury,
13-
Barfleur, 178.
Bari, council of, 145.
Barking, 346.
Barley, 376.
Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, 316.
Barnet, battle of, 282.
Barons' revolt against John, 195, against Henry III., 209.
Barrington, Shute, Bishop of Dur- ham, 400.
Bartholomew, Bishop of Exeter,i8i.
Bath, 108, 178, 199, 253.
Bath and Wells, 211, 214, 268, 341.
Battle Abbey, 143, 275.
Bayeux Tapestry, 127.
Beauchamp, Cecilia, 281.
Beauchamp, Guy de, 2nd earl of Warwick, 427.
Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Win- chester and Cardinal, 265, 266, 269, 270, 272, 273, 274.
Bee, 131, 132, 136, 140, 141, 159,
I77» 314-
Beckett, Gilbert, 165.
Bede, 48, 49 (and references).
Bedford, Duke of, brother of Henry V., 264.
Beggars' Opera, 378.
Belley, Burgundy, 206.
Belli, John, 398.
Benedict Biscop, 37, 38, 41, 42.
Benedict VIII., Pope, 114, 116.
Benedict IX., Pope, 119.
Benedict X., Pope, 126.
Benedict XIII., Pope, 264.
Benedictines, 86, 87, 94, 96, 97, 101, 131, 138, 281.
Benefices, Pope and presentation to English, 240.
Benevento, 151.
Benevolences, 284.
Benson, A. C, 425, 440.
Benson, E. F., 425.
Benson, Edward White, 418-426, 430, 440, 441.
Benson, Martin, Bishop of Glou- cester, 381.
453
Index
Benson, R. H., 425. Beornwulf, King of Mercia, 67. Beorwald, Abbot of Glastonbury,
46. Beranger of Tours, 132. Bere Regis, 281. Berkeley Castle, 225. Berkeley, Sir Henry, 326. Bernard of Clairvaux, 161, 162. Berners, Lord, 276. Bertha, Queen, 10, 12. Bertha, wife of Ranulf de Glanville,
186. Bethlehem, 187. Bible, division into chapters, 193;
in English, 298, 299 ; in parish
churches, 299 ; Bishops', 317 ;
Authorized Version, 331, 334. Bilsington, 241. Birinus, 30-32. Birmingham, 418. Bishops, Suffragan, 414. Bishops Sutton, 395. Bishopsthorpe, 377. Black Death, 235, 236, 238, 240,
245-
Black Friars, 211, 252.
Blackheath, 270.
Black Joan, wife of Cranmer, 295.
Black Prince, 239, 248, 251.
Blandford, 369.
Bletchingley, 376.
Bliss, Professor, 389.
Blokesworth, 281.
Bocher, Joan, burnt for heresy, 300.
Bodleian Library, 154, 213, 341.
Boernhelm, Bishop, 98.
Bohun, Humphrey, Earl of Here- ford, 251.
Bohun, Margaret, 251.
Bonaventura, Cardinal, 285.
Boniface of Savoy, 205 ; dispute with St. Paul's, 207, 206-210 ; violence of, 208.
Boniface, Bishop, 45, 50, 53, 54.
Boniface IV., Pope, 22.
Boniface V., Pope, 23, 25, 26.
Boniface VIII., Pope, 219, 220, 221, 222.
Boniface IX., Pope, 257.
Bonner, Bishop of London, 303, 312.
Bonneville, 131.
Bonville, Lord, 274.
Boscombe, 327.
Boston, America, 444.
Bosworth Field, battle of, 27y.
Boulogne, 209.
Bourchier, Thomas, 276-280 ;
created Cardinal, 278 ; household
accounts, 280. Bourchier, Viscount, 276, 277. Bow Church, 430. Bowlby, Dr., Bishop of Coventry,
438. Bracon Ash, 365, 366. Bradford, John, 324. Bradford Peverall, 395. Bradwardine, Thomas, 235-237. Brampford Speke, 401. Braybrooke, Robert, Bishop of
London, 261. Brechin, 334. Brecknock, 182, 283. Bredon, 47. Bregwin, 56-58. Bretwalda, 10, 69. Brihtwald, 43-46. Bristol, siege of, 257, 382. Broad Chalk, 402. Broadstairs, 439. BrontS, Charlotte, 406. Brooks, Bishop of Gloucester, 302. Browne, Dr. Harold, Bishop of
Winchester, 418. Browning, Robert, 431. Bruges, 248.
Brunanburh, battle of 85. Buckhurst, Lord, Puritan Leader,
334- Buckingham, Duke of, 276, 277,
283. Burghley, see Cecil. Burgundy, Duke of, 273, 282. Burial Act, 415. Burlingham, 315. Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop of Salis- bury, 362, 363. Burning of a monk, 197. Bury, Richard, Bishop of Durham,
236. Bury St. Edmunds, 219, 355. Butler, Dr. Montagu, 441. Butler, Joseph, Bishop of Durham,
381, 382, 384. Butler, Marquesses of Ormonde,
191. Butler's Analogy, 385. Button, William, Bishop of Bath
and Wells, 211. Byrthelm, Bishop of Wells, 96.
Cade, Jack, 270, 274.
Caedwalla, King of West Saxons, 46.
454
Index
Caen, 133.
Calais, 256, 260, 270, 273.
Caldecot, 226.
Calixtus II., Pope, 152, 156.
Calne, 202; council and miracle
at, 98. Calvinism, 316, 321, 327, 334, 337,
339, 355, 362-
Cambray, 308.
Cambridge, 223, 245, 246, 285, 295, 296, 312, 314, 315, 318, 320, 323, 324, 325, 328, 330, 332,
355, 357, 365, 376, 379, 392, 400, 419.
Cambridge, Archdeacon, 393.
Campbell, Hay, 408.
Campbell, John, 437.
Campbell, Sir Hay, 408.
Canada, work in, 444.
Candles, lighted on altar, 422.
Canonical Scriptures, 402, 407.
Canon Law, 197, 301.
Canterbury, 99, 135, 203, 250, 311, 318, 387, 424 ; Augustine at, 12 ; fire at, 23 ; captured by Danes, in.
Canterbury Cathedral of Christ- church, 54, 57, 69, 86, 119, 120, 182, 190, 199, 207,, 211, 216, 226, 241, 254, 259 265, 284, 330, 424, 434, 436 ; building of, 13 ; fire at, 178 ; library, 104 ; burnt by Danes, 112 ; rebuilt, 134 ; consecrated, 157 ; monks banished by John, 193 ; monks excommunicated, 204 ; regis- ters of, 213 ; monastic founda- tion reorganised, 299.
Canterbury, Primacy of, 23, 26, 29, 43, 44, 48, 50, 65, 134, 147, 151, 156, 157, 179, 188, 225, 239, 279.
Canterbury, Viscount, 394.
Cardinal-bishop, appointment of Archbishop as, 213.
Carlisle, 410 ; earl of, 432.
Caroline, Queen of George II., 373, 374, 382.
Caroline, Queen of George IV., 395.
Cartwright, Thomas, Puritan leader, 325.
Carveth, Richard, 427.
Catesby, Northants, 202.
Catherine Howard, 298.
Catherine of Aragon, 291, 293, 298, 302, 307.
Catholic claims, 393, 396.
Catholics, laws against, 331. Cealchyth ( ? Chelsea) councils at,
61,68. Cecil, Elizabeth's minister, 316, 320,
322, 326, 327. Cedd, Bishop of London, 33. Celestine V., Pope, 218. Ceolnoth, 72-74. Ceolwulf, King of Mercia, 67. Ceolwulf, King of Northumbria, 47. Cerne Abbey, 281. Chad, 36, 38, 39, 41. Chalmers, Dr., 399. Cham part (or Robert), 121-123. Chandler, Samuel, nonconformist
divine, 381. Charibert, King of Paris, 10. Charlemagne, 60, 63, 64, 67, 76. Charles I., 337, 34I"349- Charles II., 35<>350» 362, 366. Charles V., Emperor, 296, 297, 307,
308, 309, 310. Charlett, Dr., 373. Charlotte, Queen of George III.,
395- Charter of Henry I., 195. Chartist Riots, 433. Chartres, Cathedral of, 117. Chaucer, 237. Cheam, 404. Cheddar, 92. Chelsea, 61, 68, 332. Chester, 179, 281, 356, 400. Cheyne, Sir John, 264. Chich, 155.
Chichele, Henry, 263-267, 274. Chichester, 207, 227, 235, 245, 253,
273, 347- Chillenden, Thomas, prior of
Christ Church Canterbury, 262. Chillingworth, Dr. William, 362. Chinon, 184. Chippenham, 202. Cholsey, 105.
Christendom, Union of 424. Church Association, 422. Church Building Society, 393. Church Calendar, reform of, 317. Church, Dean, 418. Church Defence and Instruction,
Central Committee of, 423. Church, first Christian in Britain,
89. Church, Henry VIII 's claim to be
Head of, 293. Church Missionary Society, 391,
431-
455
Index
Church, National, 251, 316, 326.
Church Oakley, 290.
Church of England Temperance
Society, 443. Church Patronage Bill, 422. Civil War, 344. Clarence, brother of Edward IV.,
282, 306. Clarendon, Constitutions of, 169,
170, 171, 172. Clarendon, Lord, 338, 352, 353. Clarke, Dr. Samuel, 381. Clement, Anti-Pope, 142, 143. Clement V., Pope, 221-224. Clement VI., Pope, 238; over-ruling
Archbishop, 239. Clement VII., Pope, 293, 296. Clement XI., Pope, 370. Clergy Discipline Bill, 422. Clerical subscription, 412. Clerics and secular offices, 189, 199. "Clericis Laicos," Bull of Pope
Boniface VIII., 219. Cliffe, 245.
Clifford, Bishop of Worcester, 262. Clovesho, 39, 53, 63, 65. Cluny, 96. Cnut, 107, 114, 117. Cobham, Lord, 258, 259. Coin, pagan priest, 26. Coinage, Archbishops' rights of, 60,
67, 83, 191. Coke, Lord, 331. Cole, Dr., Provost of Eton, 303. Colenso, Dr., Bishop of Natal, 406,
407, 411. Colet, 291, 306, 315. Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne,
34-
Columbia University of New York,
444. Columban, Abbot, 18. Columban, refractory monk of
St. Augustine's, 135. Communion Table, position of,
340» 342-
Conference of Augustine and Welsh bishops, 14, 15.
Confession, 114, 225, 411, 442.
Confiscation of Church Property by Henry II., 172.
Congleton, Lord, 405.
Consecrated wafer used as evi- dence, 415.
Constance, Council of, 265.
Constans II., Emperor, 37.
Conventicle Acts, 353.
Convocation, 270, 278, 293, 322,
343. 363, 367, 37°, 4°2> 4*4-
Conybeare, Rev. W. J., 435.
Conyngham, Marquis of, 396.
Corbeil, 155 (see William deCorbeil).
Corfe Castle, 99.
Cornwallis, Frederick, 386-388.
Cornwallis, General, 386.
Cornwallis, Mrs., and entertain- ments, 387.
Coronation, Archbishop's privi- lege, 153.
Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, 380, 390.
Cottenham, 365.
Cottingham, 330.
Council of English Church, first, 38.
Courtenay Hugh, Earl of Devon,
251- Courtenay, William, 248, 251-254. Coventry, 116, 261, 386. Coverdale, 316. Cowley, 258, 404. Cox, Dr., Bishop of Ely, 325, 330. Cranbrook, 387. Cranmer, Thomas, 295-305, 314 ;
charged with treason and heresy,
302 ; excommunication of, 303 ;
recantation, 303 ; martyrdom,
304- Crecy, 234, 236, 238. Crediton, 95.
Creighton, Dr., Bishop of Peter- borough, 427. Cromwell, Oliver, 362. Cromwell, Thomas, 299. Cross, sign of the, 422. Croydon, 245, 319, 323, 328, 335,
337, 350, 353, 37i» 375, 378, 380,
393- Crusades, 184, 185, 186, 202, 209,
212, 288. Culmstock Devon, 427. Cumberland, Duke of, victor of
Culloden, 377. Cumlodden, 408.
Curate chained to altar rails, 421. Curia Regis, 186. Curwen, Dr. Hugh, Archbishop of
Dublin, 330. Cuthbert, 50, 52-55. Cuthred, viceroy in Kent, 67. Cwenthritha, 69. Cynegils, King of Wessex, 31. Cynewulf , King of Wessex, 59. Cynsthryth, mother of Dunstan,
90.
456
Index
Dagan, Bishop, 18.
Daraianus, Bishop of Rochester, 33.
Danegeld, 104.
Danes, in England, 61, 73, 75, 76,
86, 94, 97, 103, 108-119. Daniel, Bishop of Winchester, 46,
47- Danish Bishoprics, Englishmen in,
117. Dartford, 438. Dartmoor, 431. Dartmouth, 282. David, King of Scotland, 156. Davidson, Randall, 394, 398, 427,
437-447- Deane, Henry, 286-289 ; dispute
with nobles, 287. Dean, first mention of, 72. De Beauvais, Cardinal, 243. De Broc family, 174. Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, 402. Declaration of Indulgence, 357. Deerhurst, monastery of, 108. De Morville, Hugh, 174. Dereham, 191. De Tracy, William, 174. Deusdedit, 32-35.
Devil and St. Dunstan, legend of, 92. Devon, Earl of, 340. Dinooth, Abbot, 15. Diplomas in Theology granted to
Women, 445. Disestablishment, Irish, 413, 433 ;
Welsh, 423. Disraeli, Mr., 413. Dissenters, 381, 387, 393, 398 (See
also Nonconformity). Divorce, 39. Dockers' strike, 433. Dolling, Father, 442. Domesday Book, 141. Dorchester, 31. Dover, 144, 209, 236, 241, 311, 387,
433-
Down and Connor, 393.
D'Oyly, Dr., 393.
Dudley, Lord Guildford, 302.
Dun, Abbot, 48.
Dunbar, Earl of, 334.
Duncombe, William, 376, 377.
Dunstable, 208, 298.
Dunstan, 81, 86, 87, 89-103, 109, 125 ; banished, 95 ; restored, 96 ; canonized, 100.
Dunwich, 30.
Duppa, Brian, Bishop of Salis- bury, 349, 365.
Durham, 150, 155, 272, 356, 382, 390, 400, 406, 419, 430.
Eadbald, King of Kent, 19-20, 31. Eadbert, King of Kent, 43, 47, 49,
Eadbert Pren, King of Kent, 63, 64.
Eadgifu, 94.
Eadmer, 141, 153.
Eadsige, or Eadsine, 1 19-120.
Eanbald, Archbishop of York, 65.
Eanwulf, 47.
Earconbert, King of Kent, 28.
Early closing of shops, 443.
Easter, controversy concerning 14,
15. 18, 34, 39, 45- Eastern Church, 371, 397. Easton, 238. Eastry, 69.
Eastward position, 422. Ebbs Fleet, 435. Ebroin of Aries, 37. Ecclesiastical laws, Athelstan's code
of, 83, ; Odo's 87. Ecclesiastical Courts, 270, 331 ;
Henry II. and Becket, 168-170. Eden, Sir Robert, 391. Edgar, 89, 95, 96, 97. 98, 109. Edgar Atheling, 127. Edgitha, Queen of Edward the
Confessor, 122, 128. Edinburgh, 342, 408, 434, 437. Edith, Queen of Henry II., 146. Edith, sister of Athelstan, 82. Edmonton, Canada, 445. Edmund the King, St., 205. Edmund I., 84, 86, 89, 92-94. Edmund Ironside, 114, 115. Edmund, King of East Anglia, 74. Edmund Rich of Abingdon, 201-
205 ; canonization, 205. Edred, 84, 86, 89, 91, 94. Education of the poor, 393, 432,
433- Edward de la Dene, 227. Edward the Confessor, 119, 121,
122, 124, 126. Edward the Elder, 78, 79, 81, 82. Edward the Martyr, 89, 98. Edward I., 211-221. Edward II., 221, 223-225. Edward III., 225, 227-228, 264. Edward IV., 278, 282, 283. Edward V., 283. Edward VI., 295, 300-301, 310,
315. 32i- Edward VII., 421, 434, 443, 446.
457
30
Index
Edward, son of Henry VI., 274, 281,
282. Edwin, Earl, 127. Edwin, King of Northumbria, 26,
29. Edwy, 84, 87, 89, 95 ; divorce, 96. Egbert, Archbishop of York, 48, 50,
75, 59- Egbert, King of Kent, 36, 37. Egbert, King of Wessex, 67, 72,
73- Egfert, King of Mercia, 63. Egfrid, King of Northumbria, 36,
39, 40, 41. Eglaf, in.
Eleanor, Queen of Henry II., 187. Eleanor, Queen of Henry III., 203,
206. Eleanor, sister of Henry III., 204. Elector Palatine, 335. Elf mar, traitor, in. Elf red, rival to Athelstan, 82. Elfric the grammarian, 104, 105. Elfric, 105-107. Elfric, monk of St. Augustine's,
121, 122. Elfsin, 96.
Elgifu, wife of Edwy, 87, 95, 96. Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I.,
251.
Elizabeth of York, 279.
Elizabeth, Queen, 298, 313, 314- 328 ; excommunicated, 317.
Elmdon, 409.
Elmham, 124, 125.
Elphege, 91, 108-113 ; taken pris- oner and murdered, 112, 113.
Elphere, 98.
Elstan (see Lyving.)
Ely, 128, 129, 242, 255, 276, 277, 283, 284, 285.
Emancipation Bill (Catholic), 396.
Emma, Queen, 117, 118, 124.
Emsham, 201.
Endowments of the Church, 73.
English in Church services, 299.
Enham, council of, no.
Enraght, Rev. R. W., 415.
Episcopacy, 321, 326, 327, 330, 333,
334, 34i, 343- Erasmus, 291, 306. Ermenberga, mother of Anselm,
139- Ernulf, Bishop of Rochester, 150. Esher, 238. Essays and Reviews, 402, 412, 429,
430, 43i-
Essex, earl of, 327.
Established Church of Scotland, 383.
Estrefeld, 44.
Ethandune, battle of, 76.
Ethelbald, King of Mercia, 47, 34,
61. Ethelbald, King of Wessex, 72. Ethelbert, King of Kent, 10, 12,
13, 14, 18, 19, 22. Ethelbert II., King of Kent, 48, 56. Ethelbert, King of Wessex, 72. Ethelburga, 26. Etheldreda, 39.
Ethelfrith, Bishop of Elmham, 50. Ethelgar, 94, 101-102. Ethelgifu, 95. Ethelgiva, patroness of Dunstan,
92. Ethelheard or Athelhard, 63-65. Ethelmaer, 124. Ethelnoth or Egelnodus, 72, 116-
118. Ethelred or Athelred, 75-77. Ethelred, alderman, 109. Ethelred, King of Mercia, 36, 41,
43. 46. Ethelred I., King of Wessex, 72, 75. Ethelred II., the Unready, 89, 98,
99, 101, 103, 108, 114, 115. Ethelric, Bishop of Selsey, 118. Ethelward, alderman, 103. Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester,
97, [OX, 109. Ethelwulf, King of Wessex, 70, 72,
73-
Eton College, foundation of, 269, 400.
Eugenius III., Pope, 162.
Eugenius IV., Pope, 266, 274.
Evangelical party, 393, 40 1.
Eustace, son of Stephen, 163.
Evesham monastery, founding of, 46.
Ewe, Earl of, 276.
Ewell, 194.
Excommunication, of England, 79 ; of Stigand, 125 ; of bishops by Becket, 173 ; of William of Eynsford, 168 ; of De Broc family by Becket, 174 ; of John, 194 ; of monks of Canterbury, 204 ; of Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, 208 ; of murderers, 228 ; of Archbishop Simon Meopham, 230 ; of Bishop of Salisbury, 253 ; of Cranmer, 303 ; of Henry VIII., 309]; of Elizabeth, 317.
458
Index
Exeter, 181, 228, 229, 251, 253, 260, 306, 370, 401, 430, 431, 433.
Faricius of Abingdon, 149.
Falkland, 351.
Farmer Antony, 357.
Farn worth, 330.
Fasting, 114.
Faversham, 193, 207, 288.
Felix, 30.
Felixstowe, 30.
Fenny Drayton, 260.
Feologeld (or Theologild), 71.
Fire of London, 353, 356.
Fisher the Jesuit, 340.
Fitzalan, Richard, Earl of Arundel,
255-
Fitzherbert, William, Archbishop of York, consecrated by Henry II., 160.
FitzOsbert, William, demagogue, 189.
Fitzurse, Reginald, 174.
Fitzwaryn, Lord, 276.
Five Mile Act, 353.
Flambard, Ralph, Bishop of Dur- ham, 155.
Fleetwood, Dr., Bishop of Ely,
376, 379-
Fleury, 86, 88.
Florence, 257, 306.
Florentines, Bull against, 251.
Folkestone, 119.
Ford, 181, 337.
Fordham, 260.
Formosus, Pope, 79.
Forster, Mr., 433.
Fortescue, Sir John, 282.
Forthere, Bishop of Sherborne, 46.
Fox, Dr., Lord High Almoner, 296.
Foxe, John, 321.
Francis I. of France, 292, 307, 308, 3°9-
Franciscan Friars, 214, 215.
Frankfort, 321 ; Council of, 63.
Frederick of Suabia, 185.
Frederick Prince of Wales, son of George II., 382.
Free Education Bill, 423.
French, Elizabeth, niece of Crom- well, 362.
Fressingfield, 355, 359, 360.
Freteval, 172.
Frithegode, 87, 88.
Frithonas (see Deusdedit), 32.
Frome, 95.
Fulham, 330, 348, 411, 412, 413, 433-
Galloway, 334.
Gardiner, Secretary of State and
Bishop of Winchester, 296, 300,
301, 312. Garter, Order of the, 240. Gaskell, Mrs. 406. Gaveston, Piers, 222. Geddes, Jenny, 343. Gelasius II., Pope, 152. Geoffrey, half brother to Richard I.,
Archbishop of York, 186. Geoffrey Fitz Peter, 189. George, Bishop of Ostria, 60. George I., 367. George II., 373-384- George III. 384-393- George IV. 393"395- George V., 446-448. Gerard, Cardinal, 218. Gerunt, Prince of Cornwall, 45. Gervase of Canterbury, 183. Gibson, Dr., Bishop of London, 371,
373. Gilbert, Earl of Clare, 199. Giraldus Cambrensis, 182 ; dispute
with Archbishop Hubert Walter,
190. Gladstone, Mr. 413, 418, 425, 430,
433- Glasgow, 334, 408, 434. Glastonbury, 43, 89, 92, 93, 94, 95,
99, 101, 104, 114, 116. Glendower, Owen, rebellion of, 287. Gloucester, 142, 155, 286, 340,
35L 389-
Gloucester, Duke of, uncle to Richard II., 255, 256.
Godfrey, Duke of Louvain, 153.
Godwin, Archbishop of Lyons, 43.
Godwine, Earl of Wessex, 119, 120, 121, 122, 125.
Good Friday observance, 228.
Good Parliament, 251.
Gordon, General 432.
Gorham, Rev. George Cornelius, 401.
Goulburn, Dr., 428.
Gowrie, Conspiracy, 334.
Graham, Richard, Viscount Pres- ton, 369.
Grandison, John, Bishop of Exeter, dispute with Archbishop, 229.
Grateley, 83.
459
Index
Great Houghton, 402.
Green, Rev. S. R, 439.
Green's Norton, 373.
Greenwich, 112, 277, 296, 312.
Gregory, Anti-pope, 156.
Gregory the Great, Pope election, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 28, 53, 86, 318.
Gregory II., Pope, 49.
Gregory III., Pope, 47, 50, 52.
Gregory VII., Pope (Hildebrand), 136, 146.
Gregory IX., Pope, 198, 202, 206.
Gregory X., Pope, 211, 212.
Gregory XI., Pope, 243, 248, 251.
Gregory XII., Pope, 264.
Grey, Lady Jane, 301, 302, 315.
Griffith, Sir William, 287.
Grimbald, 78.
Grim, Edward, defender of a Becket, 175.
Grimkytell, 124.
Grimsby, Great, 324.
Grimstone, Sir Harbottle, 344.
Grindal, Edmund, 320-323.
Guildford, 333, 337, 338.
Guisnes, 260.
Gundulf , Bishop of Rochester, 1 50.
Gundulf, father of Anselm, 139.
Gunpowder Plot, 331.
Guthrum the Dane, 76.
Gynwell, Bishop of Lincoln, ab- solved from obedience to Arch- bishop of Canterbury by Pope, 239-
Habam, council of, 114.
Hackington, 182, 184, 259, 294.
Hackney, 255, 351.
Hadrian, abbot, 36, 37, 38, 41, 56.
Hadrian I., Pope, 60, 61.
Hadrian II., Pope, 75.
Halifax, Lord, 441.
Hallam, Robert, Bishop of Salis- bury, 264.
Hailing, 180.
Halstow, 191.
Hampden, 344.
Hampden, Dr., Bishop of Here- ford, 398.
Hampton Court Conference, 327, 328, 331, 334.
Hanbald, father of Lanfranc, 130.
Harlestone, Margaret, wife of Arch- bishop Parker, 315.
Harold I., 116, 118, 119.
Harold II., 124, 126, 127.
Harrow, 208, 404, 405, 437.
Harthacnut, 117, 119.
Harviestoun, 408.
Hastings, 143, 245, 277; battle of, 127.
Hatfield, Herts, council of, 40.
Hatfield, Yorks, battle of, 29.
Hautecombe, 210.
Hawarden, 425.
Haworth, 406.
Haymo Heath, Bishop of Roches- ter, 228, 232.
Heath, Archbishop, 312.
Heathen temples, 22.
Hedda, Bishop, 46.
Heming, in.
Henry, Bishop of Winchester, 159, 160, 168.
Henry Burghersh, Bishop of Lin- coln, 238.
Henry Langton, father of Stephen, 192.
Henry of Eastry, 226.
Henry of Lancaster, 232 ; ditto,
- cousin of Richard II., 254.
Henry I., 139, 145, 149, 150, 151, ^s, *53» *55 '• reconciled with Anselm, 146.
Henry II., 159, 163-184.
Henry, son of Henry II., 177, 178, 180 ; coronation of, 173.
Henry III., 192, 196, 199, 204-209; foreign favourites, 203.
Henry IV., 257, 258, 261.
Henry V., 264, 265, 272.
Henry VI., 265-278, 281, 282.
Henry VII., 147, 279, 284, 290.
Henry VIII., 286, 291-309 315 ; divorce, 293, 296, 306 ; excom- municated, 309.
Henry II., of France, 311.
Henry, son of James I., 335.
Herbert of Boseham, 173.
Hereford, 50, 52, 179, 348.
Hereford, Earl of, revolt, 221.
Heretics (see also Lollards), burn- ing of, 258.
Herewald, Bishop of Sherborne, 50.
Hereward, 128, 369.
Herluin, founder of Bee, 131-133, 140.
Herring, Thomas, 376-378.
Hertford, council of, 38, 39.
Hewald, 45.
Hexham, 45.
Higbert, 61, 63, 64.
Higham, 59.
460
Index
Higham Ferrars, 263, 266.
High Commission Court, 341, 342 ;
re-established, 357. High Church Party, 393, 401. Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 33. Hildebrand, 130, 136. Hingwar, the Dane, 84. Hlotheri, King of Kent, 43. Hoadley, Dr., Bishop of Bangor,
37i-
Hodgkins, suffragan Bishop of Bedford, 316.
Hoerstan, father of Dunstan, 81, 90.
Holborn, 259, 283, 285.
Holy Isle, 30.
Holy Trinity, Bordesley, 415.
Holywell, 365.
Honorius, 28-31.
Honorius I., Pope, 28.
Honorius II., Pope, 157.
Honorius III., Pope, 196.
Hooker, Bishop, 327.
Horncastle, 238.
Hough, John, 357.
Houghton-le-Spring, 356, 382.
Howard, Lady Caroline Georgiana, 432.
Howley, William, 395-399, 423.
Hrotwari, Abbess, 51.
Hubert de Burgh, Justiciar, 197, 199.
Huddleston, John, 356.
Hugh, Abbot of St. Augustine's, 158.
Hugh, Count of Paris, 82.
Hugh, Earl of Chester, 141.
Hugh le Despenser, 224, 427.
Hugo, Cardinal of Tudela, horse- play of, 236.
Huntingdon, 245.
Huntingdon, Countess of, 387.
Hurd, Bishop, 384, 389.
Hutton, Matthew, 379-380.
Hyde, 351.
Hythe, 387.
Icherius of Concoreto, canon of
Salisbury, 229. Ickford, 351. Images removed from churches,
300. Immaculate Conception, festival of,
228. Ina, King of Wessex, 43, 46, 93. Infant Life Protection Act, 443. Ingram, Dr. Winnington, Bishop
of London, 435. Ingwald, Bishop of London, 47.
Innocent II., Pope, 160, Innocent III., Pope, 189, 192, 193,
196. Innocent IV., Pope, 205-207. Innocent VI., Pope, 247. Innocent VII., Pope, 264. Innocent XL, Pope, 357. Interdict, England under, 194 ;
London under, 225 ; Leicester
under, 253. Investiture, 136, 146, 147, 149, 152. Iona, monastery of, 30. Ionian Islands, 427. Irish Church, Disestablishment of,
413. 433- Irmingburga, Queen of Northum-
bria, 40. Isabella, wife of Edward II., 225,
227, 232. Isabella, Wife of John, 189. Ithamar, first English Bishop, 31,
32.
Jackson, Dr., Bishop of London,
433- Jaenbert (or Lambert), 57, 59-62. James, deacon, 29. James I., 328-337. James II., 356-359, 366, 368, 369. James IV. of Scotland, 288. Jansenists, 370. Jane Seymour, 298. Jarrow, 42.
Jefferys, Chancellor, 358. Jenkins, Rev. Claude, 280. Jeremias, 158, 160, 162. Jerusalem, Bishopric of, 397. Jesuits and Jansenists, 370. Jews, Naturalisation of, 383. Joanna, daughter of Henry II., 179. John, Abbot, 40. John, Archbishop of Aries, 37. John, Dean of Canterbury, 150, 152. John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich,
192. John de Stratford, 225, 231-234,
238. John Frederick, Duke of Saxony,
297. John of Crema, Cardinal, 156. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,
247, 248, 252. John of Salisbury, 161. John of Ufford, Dean of Lincoln,
235. John, King, 184, 186-196 ; con- spiracy against Richard, 188 ;
461
Index
quarrel with Pope, 193-194 ;
submission, 194, 215. John X., Pope, 81, 82. John XII., Pope, 96. John XV., Pope, 103. John XVIII., Pope, no. John XXII., Pope, 224, 227, 229,
232. Joseph of Arimathaea, 89. Jowett, Professor, 412. Julius, II., Pope, 291. Julius III., Pope, 310, 312. Jumidges, 121, 123. Justices of the Peace, 188. Justification by Faith, 309, 310. Justus, first Bishop of Rochester,
14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25-27. Juxon, William, 347-350.
Keble, 396.
Keddington, 362.
Kemp, John, Archbishop of York,
266, 269, 272-275. Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells,
357- Kenilworth, 400. Kenulf, King of Mercia, 63-69. Kenwyn, 420. Kett, rebellion of, 315. Kildare, 425.
Kilwardby, Robert, 211-213. Kimmerghane, Berwickshire, 437. Kineberht, Bishop of Winchester,
65. King, Dr. Edward, Bishop of
Lincoln, 422. King, Rev. Bryan, 411. Kingston, 79, 81, 82; Council of,
73- Kirkby Overblow, 260. Knaresborough Forest, 273. Kneller Hall, 428. Knights Templars, suppression of,
222. Knole, 279, 285. Kynsey, Archbishop of York, 126.
Ladies' Diocesan Association, 412.
Lake, Bishop of Chichester, 357.
Lambert, monk, 58.
Lambert (or Jaenbert), 59-62.
Lambeth, 184, 190, 207, 213, 236, 246, 248, 249, 262, 266, 274, 280, 288, 302, 313, 316, 318, 321, 332, 343> 350, 353, 357. 363, 367, 368, 371, 375, 378, 385, 388, 391,
394, 398, 416, 422, 423, 433, 435, 437. 438, 439-
" Lambeth Articles," 327.
Lanfranc, 88, 113, 130-138, 140 ; reforms of, 135.
Langham, Simon, 242-244, 247 ; appointed cardinal, 243.
Langton, Simon, 197.
Langton, Stephen, 192-197 ; exile and return, 194 ; suspension by Pope, 196.
Langton, Thomas, 288.
Lansdowne, Lord, 444.
Lateran Council, fourth, 196.
Latimer, Bishop, 302.
Latimer, William, 306.
Latitudinarians, 363, 368, 380.
Laud, William, 334, 336, 337, 339- 346, 347, 348 ; trial and execu- tion, 345.
Laurentius, 17-20.
Le Breton, Richard, 174.
Lee, Dr. Prince, Bishop of Man- chester, 418, 419.
Leeds, 405.
Legate, Bartholomew, burned for heresy, 335.
Legatine authority and bishops, 157, 159, 160, 162, 188, 196, 265.
Leicester, Earl of, 318, 326.
Leicester, placed under interdict,
253-
Leighton, Dr. Alexander, 341.
Lenten fast, 31.
Leo III., Pope, 64, 65, 67, 68.
Leo IX., Pope, 123.
Leo XIII., Pope, 424, 435.
Leofa, slayer of King Edmund, 94.
Leofric, Abbot, 106.
Lewes, 214.
Lewknor, Sir Thomas, 272.
Leyden, 335, 381, 382.
Leyton, 255.
" Libellus Famosus," 233.
Licensing Bill, 443, 444.
Lichfield, 60, 65, 238, 245, 263, 277, 335, 386.
Liege, 308.
Lightfoot, Joseph Barber, 418, 439.
Limanee, 48.
Linacre, Thomas, 306.
Lincoln, 28, 31, 179, 198, 204, 205, 218, 231, 236, 238, 243, 245, 260, 263, 277, 281, 315, 366, 370, 386, 420, 428 ; battle of, 161.
Lincoln judgment, 422, 441.
Lincoln's Inn, 207, 362, 376.
462
Index
Lindisfarne, 30.
Lionel, son of Edward L, 234, 238.
Little Compton, 349.
Liturgy, proposed revision of, 402.
Llandaff, 75, 227, 400.
Llanthony, 286.
Llewellyn, of Wales, 212, 216.
Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, 357.
Lollards, 253, 258, 259.
" Lollards' Tower," Lambeth, 266.
London, see of, 14, 19, 22, 61, 121,
122, 207, 242, 247, 260, 272, 321,
341, 348, 352, 410, 430, 433;
Bishop's Fund, 412. London, councils of, 68, 134, 147,
159, 163, 279. London, 121, 207, 311 ; seized by
Danes, 73 ; attack on, 109; Tyler's
insurrection, 249-250. Long Parliament, 343. Longley, Charles Thomas, 404-407,
430. Lord Chancellor, first use of title,
269. Lothair Conti, afterwards Innocent
HI., 193. Lothair, King of Kent, 36. Louis d'Outremer, 85. Louis VII. of France, 171, 178. Louis XI. of France, 282. Lowth, Robert, Bishop of London,
389- Lucius II., Pope, 162. Luidhard, 10, 11. Lullus, 54, 56. Luther, Martin, works burnt in
London, 292. Lutterworth, 252. Lyminge, 29, 52. Lynn, 228, 258. Lyons, 205, 207, 212. Lyving (or Elstan), 114-115.
Mackonochie, Rev. A. H., 415, 439.
Maclagan, Dr., 435.
Mad Parliament, 209.
Magna Charta, 195 ; declared null and void by Pope, 196 ; con- firmed, 197, 209.
Maidstone, 210, 225, 249, 254, 271,
387. Maldon, battle, of, 103. Mailing, 73. Manchester, 418.
Manners-Sutton, Charles, 392-394. Mant, Richard, 393. Mantua, 297.
Maple Durham, 400.
Marcke, 260.
Margaret, Countess of Salisbury,
306, 308, 309.
Margaret, daughter of Henry VII.,
288. Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry
VI., 269, 270, 272, 278, 282. Margaret, St., Queen of Scotland,
138. Marlborough, Duke of, 374 ;
duchess of, 384 ; second duke,
389. Marriage, 88 ; of clergy, 147, 299,
300, 318 (see also Benedictines
and secular clergy). Marske, 379. Martin, Francis, 419. " Martin Marprelate " tracts, 327. Martin V., Pope, 265, 273. Martyr, Peter, 321. Mary I., Queen, 295, 298, 301, 306,
307, 310-313, 315, 321. Mary II., see William III., 366. Mary, Queen of Scots, 317. Massacre, of St. Brice's day, 108 ;
of St. Bartholomew, 317. Masses for the dead, 442. Matilda, daughter of Henry I., 157,
160, 161. Matilda, wife of William I. , 132, 133. Mattishall, 319. Maurilius, Archbishop of Rouen,
140. Maxwell, usher, 344. Mayfield, 230, 234, 240, 241. Maynard, 344.
" Meditations " of Anselm, 148. Melbourne, Lord, 405. Mellitus, 14, 16, 18-24. Melton, William, Archbishop of
York, 225. Melville, Andrew, 331. Mendicant orders, 270. Mentz, 54. Meopham or Mepeham, Simon, 227-
230 ; excommunication of, by
pope, 230. Merton Abbey, 158. Merton College Oxford, 227, 231 ,
236, 237, 238. Merton Priory, 165. Metford, Richard, Bishop of Salis- bury, 263. Methodist movement, 374, 383. Milbourne St. Andrew, 281. Mile End, 249.
463
Index
Miles Platting, 439.
Miller, Rev. Jeremiah, 374.
Milman, Dean, 411.
Miracles, 15, 216, 222 ; of Odo, 85,
86 ; of Dunstan, 98 ; Becket,
175 ; St, Edmund, 205. Missionary College of St. Augustine.
13-
Monasteries, 182, 284 ; dissolution of, 299.
Monins, Alice, 314.
Monmouth, Duke of, 366.
Montacute, Lord, 232.
Montague, Lord, 308, 309.
Moore, John, 389-391.
Morcar, Earl, 127.
More, Sir Thomas, 285, 291, 298, 306.
Morrone, Peter, 218.
Mortimer, Lord, 227, 232.
Mortlake, 225.
Mortmain, Statute of, 215.
Morton, Betty, 408.
Morton, John, 281-285 ; cardinal, 284.
Morton's Leame, 285.
Much Hadham, 262.
Murder of Edward the Martyr, 99 ; of Thomas a Becket, 175 ; of Edward II., 225 ; of Bishop Stapleton, 228 ; of Simon Sud- bury, 250.
Narni, 200.
Natendon, Proctor of St. Augus-
tines, 229. National Covenant, 343. National Society, 393, 398. Nazareth, 187. Nestorian, 423. Neville, Alexander, Archbishop of
York, 256. Newington, 351. Newman, 396, 409. New Minster, Winchester, 80, 101. Nice, 309. Nicholas, Bishop of Tusculum,
legate, 195. Nicholas II., Pope, 133. Nicholas III., Pope, 213, 214, 215. Nicholas IV., Pope, 218. Nicholas V., Pope, 274. Nonconformity, 318, 321, 322, 326,
335, 34i, 352, 353, 357, 363, 372,
383, 393, 415- Non-jurors, 359, 371. Norfolk, Duke of, 261.
Norfolk, Earl of, revolt, 221.
Norreys, Roger, 184.
Normandy, William II., expedition
to, 143 ; loss of, 190. Northampton, 263 ; battle of, 278. Northampton Castle, council at,
170. North Berwick, 413. North Bradley, 268. Northumberland, Earl of, 301, 315. Northumbrians, conversion of, 26. Norwich, 264, 314, 319, 365, 366,
392. Nothelm, 49-51. Nottingham, 195. Nuys, 282.
Oakley (or Acle), 67.
Odbert, Abbot, 102.
Odiham, 264.
Odo, 84-88, 96.
Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, 137.
Offa, King of Mercia, 47, 59, 60, 61,
63, 65. Olaf of Norway, 109, no. Oldcastle, Sir John, condemned for
heresy, 258, 272 ; burned, 259. Onestrefield, 44. Orange Prince of (afterwards King
of Holland), 395. Orders, Anglican and the Pope,
424, 435- Ormonde, Marquesses of, 191. Osbern, 56. Osbern, biographer of St. Elphege,
"3- Osiander of Nuremberg, 297. Osney, 212; synod of, 196. Osred, King of Northumbria, 43,
44, 45- Oswald, Archbishop of York, 86, 97. Oswald, King of Northumbria, 29,
30-
Oswy, King of Northumbria, 32, 36.
Otford, 222, 243, 245, 246, 288.
Otho, sub-deacon of Roman Church, 196, 203.
Otto I., of Germany, 92.
Outlawry of clergy, 219.
Oxford, 161, 201, 202, 209, 211, 212, 214, 218, 227, 231, 236, 240, 245, 248, 252, 255, 263, 269, 272, 275, 277, 281, 285, 286, 290, 293, 302, 306, 312, 323, 332, 339, 34i, 346, 347, 35o, 352, 353, 357, 369, 373, 374, 382, 383, 389, 390, 391,
464
Index
395, 402, 404, 428, 437 ; All Soul's College founded, 266. Oxford Movement, 396, 397.
Padua, 306, 307, 310.
Paget, Dr. Francis, 445.
Pains and Penalties Bill, 395.
Palmerston, Lord, 406, 410.
Pan- Anglican Congress, 407, 445.
Pandulf, Papal Legate, 194.
Papacy, Night of, 82.
Papal authority in England, 148, 151, 163, 190, 199, 203, 204, 213, 215, 224, 239, 240, 261, 265, 266, 288, 293, 294, 297, 307, 311, 407, 435 ; supremacy denied by Henry VIII., 299.
Paris, 180, 193, 201, 202, 209, 211, 214, 218, 247, 307, 381.
Parnell, Sir Henry Brooke, 405.
Parochial system, 42.
Parker, Matthew, 314-319, 321 ; denounced for heresy, 315.
Parliament, submission to pope, 312.
Parry, Dr., Bishop of Dover, 414, 438.
Pascal II., Pope, 146, 151.
Paton, Dr., 434.
Paul, Abbot of St. Albans, 130.
Paul I., Pope, 56, 59.
Paul III., Pope, 308, 309, 310.
Paul IV., Pope, 303, 312.
Paulinus, 21, 26, 28, 29.
Pavia, 116, 130.
Peada, 33.
Peche, Richard, Bishop of Lich- field, 164.
Peckham, John, 214-217.
Peckwater Inn, Oxford, 281.
Pecock, Reginald, Bishop of St. Asaph, and Chichester, 270, recantation of errors, 280.
Pelagius II., Pope, 10.
Pembroke, Earl of, 203.
Penance of Henry II. at Becket's tomb, 175.
Penda, King of Mercia, 29, 30.
Penitanham, 44.
"Penitential" of Theodore, 42.
Penry (" Martin Marprelate "), 327.
Penryn, 427.
Pentateuch, date of, 406.
Percy, Lord, Earl Marshall, 252.
Percy, Hugh, Lord, 260.
Perne, Dr., 324.
Perth, 434.
Peterborough, 33, 285, 392.
Peter, Cardinal, Bishop of Pales-
trina, 228. Peter de Rievaulx, 203. Peter de Roches, 203. Peterhouse, Cambridge, 245, 246,
324- Peter of Savoy, 210. Peter's Pence, 117, 136. Petition of Rights, 337. Petworth, 379. Philip, brother of Boniface of
Savoy, 207. Philip of France, 184, 194, 222. Philip of Spain, 302, 310, 312, 313. Philpotts, Dr., Bishop of Exeter,
401, 403. Pilgrims to the shrine of St.
Thomas, 247. Pipewell, council at, 186. Pisa, council of, 264. Pitt, 392, 393. Pius V., Pope, 317. Plague of London, 353, 365. Plantagenet, Henry, 3rd Earl of
Lancaster, 255. Plegmund, 78-80. Plegmundham, or Plemstol, 78. Pluralities, forbidden, 204, 215,
242, 260, 332, 396; limited, 224. Pole, Cardinal, 302, 306-313 325,
425 ; denunciation of Henry
VIII., 308. Poll-tax, 249. Ponthieu, 232. Pontigny, Becketat, 172 ; Langton
at, 194 ; Edmund Rich at, 205. Poole, Rev. Alfred, licence with- drawn, 411. Poor Laws, 403. Porchester, 194, 260. Porteous, Bishop, 384. Potter, John, 373-375- Poynings, Sir Edward, 286 ; Poyn-
ings' Act, 287. Praemunire, Statute of, 240, 265,
266, 293. Prayer Book, 300, 301, 302, 310,
317, 342. 352, 363, 401, 414- Predestination, 327, 341, 355. Presbyterians, 327, 330, 348, 409. Prison Reform, 443. Priests, marriage of, 299. Privilege of Withred, 44, 53. Probus, near Truro, 427. Prophesyings, 322.
465
Index
Prophete, John, Keeper of Privy
Seal, 262. Protestant League, 297. Protestants, persecution of, 302. Provisors, Statute of, 240, 265, 266. Prynne, 341, 344. Public Worship Regulation Act,
414. Pulton, Andrew, 366. Puritanism, 320, 322, 325, 326,
327, 33o, 33i, 335, 34i, 345, 346,
353- Pusey, 396, 430. Pyncheon, William, 263.
Ralph d'Escures, 149-154. Ramsbury, 85, 103, 105. Ramsgate, 387. Ransom of Richard I., 187. Ranulf, Chancellor to Henry I., 155. Ranulf de Glanville, 183-186. Reading, council at, 215, 339. Rebellion in Devon and Cornwall,
301, 310. Rebellion of 1745, 377. Reculver, 13, 43, 68, 69. Redwald, King of East Anglia, 26. Reformation, 290, 291, 297, 324. Reform Bill, 396. Regina, Canada, 445. Reginald de Asser, Bishop of
Winchester, 231. Reginald Fitz-Jocelin, 178, 187. Reginald, Sub-prior of Canterbury,
192. Register, Peckham's, 217, 227. Religious Tract Society, 391. Remigius, Bishop of Lincoln, 134. Repton, 436. Rettenden, 376.
Reynolds, Walter, 223-226, 231. Rheims, council at, 152, 162. Rhyl, 423. Rich, Mabel, 201. Rich, Reinhard, 201. Rich, Lord, marriage of divorced
wife of, 340. Richard, 177-180 ; dispute with
Roger of York, 179 ; with Roger
of St. Augustine's, 179. Richard I., 184-189. Richard II., 247-261. Richard III., 279, 282, 283. Richard de Belmeis, Bishop of
London, 155. Richard de Gravesend, Bishop of
London, 218.
Richard de la Wych, 204.
Richard Marshall, Earl of Pem- broke, 203.
Ridley, Bishop, 302, 320, 324.
Riley, Athelstan, 423.
Ripon, 86, 87, 379, 404.
Ritualism, 411, 414, 415, 439, 442.
Robert or Champart, 121-123, 125.
Robert, Abbot of Bee, 177.
Robert, Bishop of London, 185.
Robert Burnell, 211, 214.
Robert de Baldeck, 231.
Robert de Belleme, Earl of Shrews- bury, 150.
Robert de Hales, 249.
Robert de Stratford, Bishop of Chichester, 232, 233.
Robert de Stretton, 239.
Robert Grosseteste, 204, 206, 207.
Robert, son of the Conqueror, 133, 142, 146.
Robertson, George, 400.
Robert I. of Paris, 82.
Rochdale, 319.
Rochester, 14, 25, 126, 180, 184, 190, 191, 193, 199, 204, 207, 228, 245, 253, 273, 288, 311, 376, 404, 441.
Rochester Castle, 158.
Rockingham Castle, council at, 143.
Roger, Abbot-elect of St. Augus- tine's, 179.
Roger, Archbishop of York, 173, 174, 179. 180.
Roger Pont l'Eveque, Archdeacon, 166.
Rogers, John, 298.
Romanus, Bishop of Rochester, 26.
Rome, union of English church with, 135, 148, 151, 157.
Rome, council at, 146.
Rome, pilgrimages to, 46.
Romney, 387.
Ropley, 395.
Rose, Rev. Hugh James, 396.
Roses, Wars of the, 277-279.
Rotterdam, 291.
Rouen, 133, 140, 141, 152, 160.
Royal Supremacy, 326.
Rufinianus, Abbot, 21.
Rugby, 409, 414, 419, 428, 429,
43i- Runnymede, 195. Russell, Lord William, 363. Russell, Lord John, 401, 410. Russell, Sir John, 325. Russell, Thomas, 398.
466
Index
Rutland, Duke of, 392.
Rye House Plot, 362.
Rygge. Dr., supporter of Wyclif,
253- Ryton, 382.
Sabert, King of Essex, 14, 19. Sacrament, Cranmer's declaration
on, 304. Saffron Walden, 260. St. Agatha's, Landport, 442. St. Albans, 105, 106, 208 ; battle
of, 278. St. Alban's, Holborn, 415. St. Andrew, Rome, 9, 10. St. Andrew's, Holborn, 260, 330. St. Andrew's, Rochester, 25. St. Andrews, Scotland, 193, 257.
441- St. Anselm (see also Anselm of
Bee), 183. St. Asaph, 404. St. Augustine of Hippo, relic of,
116.
St. Augustine's Monastery, 13, 23,
54, 120, 135, 179, 180, 193, 222,
229 ; disputes as to burial of
archbishops, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 62.
St. Austin, 286.
St. Bartholomew, 208 ; massacre,
317-
St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, 262.
St. Bees, 320, 323.
St. Benet's Chapel, Westminster, 244.
St. Blaise, relics brought to Can- terbury, 80.
St. Bonaventure, 212.
St. Briavel's Castle, 286.
St. Cuthbert, 155. ,
St. Cyriacus, 278.
St. David's, 75, 190, 263, 340.
St. Dominic, 211.
St. Dunstan's in the West, 281.
St. Gemini, 200.
St. George's in the East, disturb- ances at, 411, 412.
St. Giles, Edinburgh, 343.
St. Gluvias, Cornwall, 427.
St. Heliers, Jersey, 260.
St. James's, Piccadilly, 370, 382.
St. John's, Colchester, 263.
St. John's'College, 334, 340, 347.
St. Jumieges, 121.
St. Just, 401.
St. Laurence Jewry, 363.
St. Mark's, Kermington, 438.
St. Martin, Canterbury, 12, 119.
St. Martin, Dover, 158, 177.
St. Martin's le Grand, London, 277.
St. Martin's, London, 269, 366.
St. Mary-at-Bow, 189.
St. Mary-le-Bow, 231, 363, 380.
St. Michael's Chapel, Canterbury, 197.
St. Mihiel in Bar, 282.
St. Ninian's Cathedral, Perth, 434.
St. Osyth, 155.
St. Patrick the younger, 90.
St. Paul's Cross, 251.
St. Paul's, Kensington, 411.
St. Paul's, London, 22, 50, 195, 203, 207, 218, 224, 236, 238, 265, 278, 281, 284, 320, 330, 350, 362, 363, 386 ; struck by lightning, 321 ; rebuilding, 353, 356.
St. Peter's, Westminster, 242.
St. Saviour's, Leeds, 405.
St. Peter and St. Paul, Canterbury, 13, 16, 18, 20, 24.
St. Stephen's, Caen, 130.
St. Stephen's, Canterbury, 182.
St. Stephen's, Walbrook, 263.
St. Stephen's, Westminster, 242.
St. Thomas Aquinas, 212, 214.
St. Thomas of Canterbury (see also Thomas a Becket), 176, 178, 183, 247, 248, 261, 266.
Saints Days, observance of, 53, 54,
239-
Saladin, 157.
Salisbury, 85, 186, 202, 205, 247, 260, 263, 269, 281, 285, 306, 402, 412 ; bishop of, excommunicated,
253- Salisbury, Lord, 427, 433, 441. Saltwood Castle, 261. Sancroft, William, 318, 355-360. Sanctuary, right of, 189. Sandwich, in, 171, 173, 274, 387. Sandys, Edwin, 320. Santa Balbina, 274. Santa Rufina, 274. Sautre, William, burned, 258. Savoy Conference, 350, 352. Savoy Street, 210. Sawbridge, 223. Saxon Chronicle, 72, 78 (and
references). Schism, the great, 221, 265. School, St. Augustine's, 41. Scory, Bishop of Hereford, 316. Scotland as fief of Roman see, 220,
467
Index
Scotland, Free Church of, 399.
Scott, Colonel, the Regicide, 318.
Screveton, 392.
Scrope, Richard, Chancellor, 249.
Scutage, 167, 199.
Secessions to Rome, 397, 406.
Seeker, Thomas, 381-385.
Secular clergy (see also Bene- dictines), 53, 72,75, 98, ioi, 104, 106, 134, 158, 182, 183, 315, 331.
Seez, 149.
Seffrid, Bishop of Chichester, 152.
Seffrid of Escures, 149.
Selsey, 61, 101, 124, 126.
Senlis, 10.
Sens, 171. 172.
Sergius I., Pope, 43, 45, 46.
Sergius III., Pope, 80.
Shaftesbury, 118.
Sheen, 306.
Sheldford, 69.
Sheldon, Gilbert, 285, 332, 350,
351-354- Sheldonian Theatre, 353-354. Shelford, 376. Shelstone, 352. Shelton, 381. Sherborne, 46, 61. Shop Assistants, Seats for, 443. Short, Thomas Vowler, Bishop of
St. Asaph, 404. Shrewsbury, Robert de Belleme,
Earl of, 150. Shrine of Dunstan, 100 ; of Becket,
176, 271 ; destruction of, 299. Sibthorpe, 381. Sibthorpe, Dr., 337. Sidgwick, Mary, 419. Sidgwick, Rev. William, 419. Siena, 264.
Sigebert, King of East Anglia, 30. Sigeric (or Siric), 103-104. Sigfrid, Bishop of Selsey, 48. Silvester, Abbot of St. Augustine's,
162. Simon de Burcheston, 242. Simon de Montefort, 204. Simon Islip, 238-241, 245. Singing in English churches, 29. Sisterhoods, Anglican, 412, 423. Sittingbourne, 387. Siward, Bishop of Ijpsala, 120. Six Articles, Act of, 299, 300. Skerries, The, 287. Skipton, 419. Slindon, Sussex, 197, 229. Sluys, 282.
Smith, Dr. Miles, Bishop of
Gloucester, 340. Smithfield, 312, 335. Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, 367. 380. 391. Soissy, 205. Somerset, Duke of, Protector, 300,
301, 310. Somerton, 347. Sorbonne, 370. Southampton, 109, 398. South Minster, 68, 69. Southwell, 275. Sowerby, 361. Spearhafoc, Abbot of Abingdon,
122. Spenser, Edmund, 323, Spooner, Archdeacon, 409. Spooner Catherine, 409. Spofforth, 379. Sports, Book of, 335. Stafford, John, 268-271. Stafford, Sir Humphrey, 268. Stanley, abbey of, 202. Stanley, Dean, 430, Stanton, 351. Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter,
murder of, 228. Stapleton Hall, Oxford, 251. Star Chamber, 322, 341. Stebenhyth, 255. Stephen, King, 155, 157, 159, 160.
163, 164. Stephen of Lexington, 202. Stephen VI., Pope, 80. Stigand, last Anglo-Saxon arch- bishop, 124-129 ; deposition,
128 ; wealth of, 129. Stoke-by-Clare, 314. Stourton, Castle, 306. Stow, 238. Stow-cum-Qui, 376. Strafford, Earl of, 341, 342, 343,
344. 348.
Stratford, John, Bishop of Winches- ter, 225 (see also John de Strat- ford).
Stratford-on-Avon, 231, 234.
Sudbury, 250.
Sudbury, Simon, 247-250, 251.
Suffolk, Duke of, murdered, 270, 274.
Sumner, John Bird, 398, 400-403.
Sunday, observance of, 239.
Sunday Schools, 391.
Supremacy, Act of, 316.
Surplice, use of, 317.
468
Index
Sutcliffe, Dr., Dean of Exeter, 332.
Sweyn, King of Denmark, 108, 109 ; King of England, 114.
Swift, Dean, on Archbishop Her- ring, 378-
Swinton, John, 437.
Swithin, St., Bishop of Winchester,
74- Synod of Clovesho, 53.
Tait, Archibald Campbell, 408-417,
423, 430, 437, 438. Tait, Rev. Craufurd, 415, 437. Tait, Miss Edith Murdoch, 438. Talbot, William, Bishop of Oxford,
381, 382. Tamworth, Danish victory at, 94. Tarbes, bishop of, 293. Tarsus, 36. Tatwin, 47-48. Taunton, 255.
Taxes on clergy, 219, 246, 259, 292. Temperance, 383, 432, 434, 435,
443-
Temple, Frederick, 412, 419, 427- 436, 442.
Temple, Frederick Charles, 436.
Temple, Major Octavius, 427.
Temple, Rev. W. J., 427.
Temple, William, 436.
Tenham, 191.
Tenison, Thomas, 365-368, 374.
Teversham, 325, 330.
Tewkesbury, 108 ; battle of, 282.
Thanet, 12, 33, 73.
Theobald, 159-164, 177.
Theobald of Blois, 185.
Theodore, 36-42, 56.
Theologild (see Feologeld).
Theophylact, Bishop of Todi, 60.
Thietmar, Archbishop of Merse- burg, 113.
Thirlby, Bishop of Ely, 303.
Thomas, Archbishop of York, 133.
Thomas a Becket, 100, 161, 164, 165-176 ; impeachment and flight, 171 ; return from exile, 173 ; martyrdom and canoniza- tion, 175.
Thomas Cobham, Archdeacon of Lewes, 223.
Thomas of Brentingham, Bishop of Exeter, 253.
Thomas of Elmham, 21, 25, 42, 51, 53-
Thomas of Savoy, 206 ; ditto, brother of Boniface, 209.
Thomas of Woodstock, 253. Thornden, Bishop of Dover, 302. Thorold, Dr., 441, 442. Thoroton, Thomas, 392. Throne, theory of election to, 189. Thrum, 113.
Thurkill, Earl, in, 112, 113. Thurstan, Archbishop of York, 151,
152, 155, 156, 157. Tillotson, John, 361-364. Tithe Act, 423. Tithes, 73, 83, 243, Tiverton, 428.
Tobias, Bishop of Rochester, 44. Todi, 200. --Toleration Act, 359. Tomb of Dunstan, opened, 100. Tomline, Bishop of Lincoln, 392. Tonbridge, 199. Toronto, 444. Tottenham, 235. Toulouse, expedition to, 167. Tournay, battle of, 233. Tours, 65.
Towton, battle of, 281. Tracts for the Times, 409, 428. Transubstantiation, 258, 299, 320 ;
defended by Lanfranc, 132. Travers, Presbyterian leader, 327. Trelawney, Bishop of Bristol, 357. Trent, Council of, 309. Trial of Pope Formosus after death,
80. Trial of Seven Bishops, 358. Tribute paid to Danes, 103. Tribute to Popes refused, 193. Trinity College, Cambridge, 299. Trinity, feast of, 168. Trowbridge, 379. Truro, 418, 420, 421, 431. Tuda, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 34. Tunstall, 227. Turburville, Richard, 281. Turin, 209.
Turner, Bishop of Ely, 357. Tyndale, 299. Tyrrel, Sir Walter, 145. Tytherley, 404.
Uguccione, Cardinal, 179. Ulf, Bishop of Dorchester, 123. •Uniformity, Act of, 301, ; ditto,
316, 325, 326; ditto, 352. Urban II., Pope, 142, 143, 144, 145. Urban V., Pope, 243. Urban VI., Pope, 252. Uxbridge, treaty of, 351.
469
Index
Vatican, 214.
Vaughan, Dr., Dean of Llandaff,
437. 44i-
Venice, 306.
Venner, Thomas, Fifth Monarchy man, 374.
Vicarius of Mantua, 161.
Victoria, Queen, 396-434. 439, 44°, 441, 442.
Vienna, council of, 222.
Villiers, George, Duke of Bucking- ham, 335, 337, 341.
Violent treatment of archbishop of York, 179 ; of sub-prior of St. Bartholomew's, 208.
Virgilius, Archbishop of Aries, 13.
Vitalian, Pope, 34, 35, 36, 37.
Viterbo, 193, 213, 309.
Vorstius, Professor, 335.
Wakefield, 333 ; battle of, 278.
Wake, William, 369-372.
Walden, Roger, 257, 258, 260-262 ; arrest and deposition, 262.
Wales, marches of, 325 ; pastoral visitation of, 184.
Wallingford, 127 ; treaty of, 163.
Walpole, Horace, 384.
Walsoken, 376.
Walstod, Bishop, 52.
Waltham, 296.
Waltham Abbey, 126.
Walton-on-Naze, 122.
Walter, Bishop of Albano, 144.
Walter, Bishop of Rochester, 164, 168.
Walter de Constance, 188.
Walter of Eynsham, 198.
Walter, Hervey, 186.
Walter, Prior of Canterbury, 163.
Walter, Hubert, 185, 186-191, 210.
Walter, Theobald, brother of Arch- bishop Hubert Walter, 191.
Warbeck, Perkin, 286, 291.
Warham, William, 100, 290-294.
Warwick, Earl of, 256 ; ditto (the King maker), 282 ; ditto, Edward VI. 's reign, 301.
Water mixed with wine in Com- munion, 422.
Watts, Dr. 381.
Wat Tyler, 249.
Wearmouth, 42.
Webb, Sir William, 339.
Wedmore, Treaty of, 76.
Wellesley, Dr., 440.
Wellington, College, 419.
Wellington, Duke of, 395, 400.
Wells, 211, 214, 243, 251.
Welsh Church, 216.
Wernherd, 69.
Wesleyans in Cornwall, 421.
Wesley, Charles, 374.
Wesley, John, 374.
Wessex, 14, 31, 39.
Westcott, Brooke Foss, 418, 437.
West Dereham, 186, 191.
West Gate, Canterbury, 250.
Westminster Abbey, 126, 265, 320,
330, 379. 430. Westminster, 298, 380, 404 ; councils
at, 156, 178, 179, 199, 209, 233. Westminster Hail, 220. Wetheringsett, Sussex, 198. Wethershed (or Grant), Richard,
198-200. Wharton, Henry, 359. Wherwell Abbey, 122. Whitby, synod of, 33, 38. White, Bishop of Peterborough,
357- Whitefield, George, 374. Whitgift, John, 323, 324-329, 330. Whittlesea, 245.
Whittlesey, William, 243, 245-246. Whitwell, 392.
Wigbert, Bishop of Sherborne, 68. Wighard, 34, 35. Wighed, 60. Wightman, Edward, burned for
heresy, 335. Wilberforce, Bishop, 428, 429. Wilbrord, 45. Wilfrid, Bishop of Northumbria,
33, 34. 36, 38, 39, 4°, 44, 45, 87. Wilfrid II. of York, 87. Wilkins, Dr. John, 362. William de Corbeil, 155-158. William de Raleigh, 207. William de Sens, 178. William, Duke of Normandy, 122,
123, 127, 132. William, The Conqueror, 127, 128 ;
Ditto and the Pope, 136, 137. William of Edendon, Bishop of
Winchester, 242. William of Eynsf ord, excommunica- tion of, 168. William of Wykeham, Bishop of
Winchester, 248, 251, 256, 263. William Rufus, 130, 137, 139, 155 ;
quarrels with Anselm, 143-145. William III., 358-367, 37°- William IV., 396, 405.
470
Index
Williams, Rev. Dr. Rowland, 402. Wilson, Rev. H. B., 402. Wilton, Abbey, 98. Wiltshire, Earl of, (Anne Boleyn's
father), 296. Wimbledon, 223. Wimborne, 306. Winchelsea, Robert, 218-222. Winchelsea, Old, 218. Winchester, 31, 46, 91, 95, 119, 124,
125, 129, 145, 160, 161, 195, 207,
209, 231, 260, 263, 264, 281, 290,
395, 400, 421, 435, 442 ; councils
at, 98, 128, 179. Windsor, 149, 153, 157, 223, 277,
349, 379, 386, 392, 393, 438, 441- Wisbech, 285, 376. Witan and Christianity, 26. Withington, 51. Withred, King of Kent, 43. Wolsey, Thomas, 289, 292, 296, 314. Wolverhampton, 191. Woodhall, Dr. John, 240, 243. Woodstock, 168. Worcester, 125, 179, 182, 224, 245,
253, 277, 325, 326, 347. Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln,
420. Wordsworth, Christopher, 393.
Wordsworth, Charles, Bishop, 434.
Wray, Thomas, 380.
Wren, Sir Christopher, 354, 356.
Wright, Robert, 391.
Wulfere, brother of Dunstan, 94, 95.
Wulfhelm, 81, 82-83, 86.
Wulfhere, King of Mercia, 33, 36.
Wulfred, 67-70.
Wulfstan, Archbishop of York,
94, no, 116. Wulfstan, Bishop, 106, 126. Wyclif, John (?the Reformer), 240,
243- Wyclif, John, the Reformer, 248,
252. Wydo, Abbot, 135. Wye, 272, 275.
York, 23, 193, 197, 231, 243, 251, 255, 259, 260, 273, 275,
356, 377, 379. 4°4. 4°6 : con- vention of, 279; payment to St. Thomas's shrine, 239 (see also Canterbury, Primacy of). York, Richard, Duke of, 274, 276, 277, 278.
Zachray, Pope, 53. Zouche, Lord, 336.
HEADLEY BROTHERS, PRINTfcRS BISHOPSGATE, E.C. ; AND A8.1FOKD, KENT.
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