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Richard De Bury (1287—1345)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

This résumé of some of the problems connected with the life of Richard de Bury is complementary to three noteworthy articles by Father Ghellinck in the Révue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique for 1922-3, in which he used the Philobiblon and an abundance of other literary and record sources to place the Bishop in his setting as the greatest bibliophile of medieval Europe. That admirable contribution to the history of literature and manuscripts still leaves room, however, for some remarks on the history of Bury's life, as civil servant, diplomat, and patron of letters; and this will involve a discussion of his Liber Epistolaris.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1937

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References

page 135 note 1 I am indebted to Mr. R. L. Atkinson and Mrs. Margaret Sharp for help at a number of points in the preparation of this paper.

page 135 note 2 Pp. xi–xlv.

page 136 note 1 Too late, alas, to alter his page-headings !

page 136 note 2 For what follows see The Birth of a Chronicle” in the Bodleian Quarterly Record, Vol. VII, no. 80, pp. 325–8.Google Scholar

page 137 note 1 As Chambre's reminiscences occupy only three pages in the Scriptores tres and I shall have occasion to refer to them frequently, no further reference will be given.

page 137 note 2 Nicholl's, Leicestershire, IV, 392, gives a not very helpful account of the family. A Sir John de Aungerville occurs as knight of the Shire for Leicestershire in 1307 and 1312: see further Knights of Edward I (Harleian Soc).Google Scholar

page 137 note 3 The only allusion to this is in Bod. Lib. MS. Ashmole 794, fol. 45 (cf. E.H.R. (1933), p. 438, note 5), in a letter of c. 1332.Google Scholar

page 137 note 4 Philobiblon, cap. viii. The myth that he was ever a monk at Durham must come, I think, from the confusion made in the Cardigan MS. of Murimuth between Bury and Robert de Graystanes.

page 138 note 1 Lib. ep., fol. 23v. Langton was in prison 1308–12, when he again became Treasurer, and Winchilsea died in 1313.

page 138 note 2 Ormerod, , Cheshire, I, p. Iv.Google Scholar

page 138 note 3 Chester Plea Roll (Chester 29), 30, m. 17.

page 138 note 4 Brown, , Chester Chamberlain's Accounts, p. 89.Google Scholar

page 138 note 5 He accounted as Chamberlain for the year Michaelmas 1322 (K.R.M.R., no. 106, m. 130d) and is called late chamberlain on 18 July, 1324 (Chester Recognisance Roll, 13, m. 2). The Recognisance Roll for 1323-4 is lost.

page 138 note 6 Chapters, III, 26.Google Scholar

page 138 note 7 E.H.R. (1933), pp. 431–43. “Edward of Windsor and Bermondsey Priory.”Google Scholar

page 139 note 1 C.Cl.R, (1333–7). p. 267.Google Scholar

page 139 note 2 Assumptus ad instruendum Edwardum de Wyndesor. Chambre definitely says postmodum ordinatus est principalis receptor patris ejusdum in Wasconia.

page 139 note 3 Chapters, III, 25, and note 2.Google Scholar

page 139 note 4 Speculum, VI (1931), p. 374: “Learning and Literature in the English Civil Service in the fourteenth century.”Google Scholar

page 139 note 5 Thomas, pp. xii–xiii, implies that Bury was thus occupied before 1320.

page 140 note 1 Cf. “English Monastic Letter-Books,” by Pantin, W. A., in Historical Essays in Honour of James Tait, p. 201.Google Scholar

page 141 note 1 The Cursus in England, in Oxford Essays in Meditæval History presented to H. E. Salter (1934), pp. 8491.Google Scholar An additional piece of evidence of some value is that Henry of Avranches (for whom see The Shorter Latin Poems …, ed. Russell, J. C. and Heironimus, J. P., Cambridge, Mass., 1935),Google Scholar “The King's Versifier” (Close Rolls, 1242-7, p. 270), says, in the mid-thirteenth century that he tried to teach the English dictamen.

page 141 note 2 The volume is incomplete and my search for the missing portions has so far been fruitless.

page 141 note 3 Reg. Pal. Dun. (Rolls Series), IV, p. xxvi.Google Scholar

page 142 note 1 On fol. 203v, “de Johanne de Paynel de quaterno.”

page 142 note 2 On fol. 218. Opposite a letter to Clement V from Edward I, who is excusing himself for not going on crusade: “exemplar Thome de Brayton.” This occurs naturally enough at the beginning of a Chancery section. If exemplar is used technically this would probably mean that Brayton had the official draft. Brayton was a King's clerk and canon of Glasgow in 1319 (C.P.R., 1317-21, p. 380), and before 1327 had acquired six rectories (C.P.R., 1321-4 and 1324-7). He was ambassador to France in 1329 (et Mirot, Déprez, Les Ambassades, p. 44,Google Scholar no. IX ; cf. ibid., 191, no. 4), an admiral of the Fleet in 1338 (ibid., 203), and clerk of the Parliament 1340-6 (E.H.R., July, 1932, pp. 378, 381). See also Wilkinson, B., The Chancery under Edward III, pp. 154–5.Google Scholar

page 143 note 1 “For reasons which satisfy myself but which would be difficult to explain in a few words, I am of opinion that this name [Petrus de Loro] should be Petrus de Vineis, chancellor to the Emperor Frederick II, to whom a work of a similar nature, though of a different title, is attributed” (op. cit., IV, p. xc, note 3).Google Scholar

page 143 note 2 For Faba's work see the leaf given in facsimile in Exempla Scripturarum, fasc, ii.

page 143 note 3 There are two places called Loro in Italy. One is Loro Ciuffena, 16 miles north-west of Arezzo; the other is Loro Piceno in Macerata province south of Ancona.

page 143 note 4 “Preponente loqui,” “Assurgo” (fol. 197v), “In tanto cetu … surgens cognosco me” (fol. 108). The difference between the table of contents and the arenge themselves perhaps point to a second recension in which certain items were changed to suit another taste.

page 143 note 5 For another instance see Wilmart, A., “L' ‘Ars arengandi’ de Jacques deDinant,” in Analecta Reginensia, Vatican City, 1933, pp. 113–51.Google Scholar

page 144 note 1 C.P.R. (1330–4), p. 383, being a pardon of accounts as Constable, dated 30 Dec, 1332, and ibid. (1327–30), p. 505, for the same and for Chester, dated 29 March, 1330. Dr. Hubert Hall suggests to me that Bury may have waylaid some of the revenues in process of auditing between the Controller and the Constable (See Selden Soc, Law Merchant, Vol. II, pp. xxxv-vi, 93–6, 150–1).Google Scholar

page 144 note 2 Chambre is, however, wrong in saying that Richard was Constable under Edward II. It was, nominally at any rate, usual for the Duke to appoint his Constables.

page 144 note 3 Chapters, III, 26.Google Scholar

page 144 note 4 Ibid., V, 5–7. The dates are conjectural. See P.R.O., Var. Accts., 383/II.

page 145 note 1 Wilkinson, B., The Chancery under Edward III, p. 15.Google Scholar

page 145 note 2 Some years ago Miss Clarke brought to my notice some Ancient Petitions with endorsements relating to Richard de Bury. Since that time Mr. R. L. Atkinson has discovered others, so that we now have a group of twenty-three. Their numbers are: 1941, 2004, 2234, 2375, 2444, 2481, 2779, 2885, 2990, 3129, 3529, 4013, 4015, 4579, 5658, 6534, 7065, 7558, 7566, 7606, 7667, 7750, 13388. These are all endorsed “Coram Rege,” which implies, according to Maitland, that they went before the king or a full meeting of the Council, and with a note that this petition is to be delivered to Sir Richard de Bury, who will show it to the King and learn his will. As more than half of them refer to Edward II as already dead, and as Bury is not yet called bishop of Durham, the date should be 1327–1333. They may perhaps have been presented in the York parliament of Dec–Jan. 1332–3. The bulk of this group refers to long service by the petitioner with the king and his father (and sometimes Edward I) in Scotland and elsewhere, and this is a matter with which Bury as Privy Seal might be expected to deal. This date is made probable by A.P. 2 779. which, as Mr. Atkinson tells me, is from Adam Lanark (who is unknown), and mentions the recent appointment of Henry Miles as porter of York Castle. ”This was made 16 Dec, 1332, and revoked 26 Jan., 1333 (C.P.R., pp. 378, 382)Google Scholar. He was re-appointed 22 Oct., 1334 (ibid., 1334–8, p. 36), but that date seems to be excluded by the fact that in 1334 de Bury would presumably have been called bishop of Durham.”

page 145 note 3 Crump dates this Sept., 1329, E.H.R., XXVI, 331–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarWilkinson, , The Chancery under Edw. III, p. 99, does not give a date, but seems to suggest 1328.Google Scholar

page 146 note 1 I attempt a provisional list of these preferments in Appendix, I.

page 146 note 2 He is described as R. de B., rector of S., in a letter mentioned above.

page 147 note 1 Cal. Pap. Lett., II, 294.Google Scholar

page 147 note 2 C.P.R. (1331–3), p. 81.Google Scholar

page 147 note 3 The account of his expenses is in P.R.O., Var., Accts., 310/40.

page 147 note 4 Cal. Pap. Lett., II, 500.Google Scholar But as he is styled canon of York and Anthony Pessagne, Kt., is his colleague, there can be no reasonable doubt of identity. The embassy is alluded to in Foed., II, ii, 827 (25 Oct., 1331).Google Scholar

page 147 note 5 The acknowledgment is dated 1 July.

page 147 note 6 They also asked about the Crusade.

page 147 note 7 Tout, , Chapters, III, 67.Google Scholar

page 148 note 1 Déprez, , Les Priliminaires, p. 74Google Scholar, note 1. Apparently connected with the proposed expedition is the power, soon withdrawn, to these two ambassadors to borrow 50,000 marks in the King's name (Tout, , Chapters III, 7, note 2).Google Scholar See also C.P.R. (1330–4), p. 122.Google Scholar

page 148 note 2 Loc. cit.

page 148 note 3 Masters–Lamb, , C. C. C. C., p. 16.Google ScholarC.P.R. (1330–4), p. 291.Google Scholar

page 148 note 4 C.Cl.R. (1330–3), p. 518.Google Scholar Melton's register (under Feb. 12) records a loan of 50 marks to Dan Richard de Bury, Canon of York (Raine, , Fasti Ebor., pp. 420–1).Google Scholar In 1335 Bury received a pardon of all his debts to the King (C.P.R. (1334–8). 109).Google Scholar

page 148 note 5 Tout, , Chapters, V, 5,Google ScholarDeprez, , Les préliminaires …, 94,Google Scholar note 2, and C.P.R. (1330–4), pp. 408, 409, 421, all relate to this mission.Google Scholar

page 148 note 6 Epp. fam., III, i. “Quamvis saepe litteris interpellates exspecta– tioni meae non aliter quam obstinato silentio satisfecit.”Google Scholar

page 148 note 7 Thomas, , Philobiblon, p. xvGoogle Scholar, puts this meeting in the first visit. Tatham, , Francesco Petrarch, I, pp. 313 ff., puts it in 1333. This account contains, however, a number of inaccuracies.Google Scholar

page 149 note 1 Cal. Pap. Lett., II, 341–2, without date.Google Scholar

page 149 note 2 Ibid., II, 332. Thomas also got the rectory of Sawbridgeworth when Bury became Dean of Wells in 1333. He remained in England as one of his brother's attorneys (C.P.R. (1334–8), p. 303)Google Scholar, but died before 26 April, 1339 (Reg. Pal. Dun., III, 232).Google Scholar

page 149 note 3 It cost him 9,000 florins at 35. 4d. a florin, plus 5 servitia consueta (Richard D'Aungerville of Bury (Surtees Soc, 1910), ed. by the Dean of Durham, p. 9).Google Scholar

page 149 note 4 C.P.R.; Reg. Pal. Dun., IV, 179.Google Scholar

page 149 note 5 Chambre.

page 150 note 1 Chambre.

page 150 note 2 Foed., II, ii, 909. Bury gave up the Seal on 6 June, 1335.Google Scholar

page 150 note 3 25 Aug. 1333, Cal. Pap. Lett., II, p. 392.Google ScholarTout, (Chapters, V, 7) regards this as merely “a plausible excuse for absence from his Deanery.”Google Scholar

page 150 note 4 Murimuth, (R. S.), p. 171.Google Scholar

page 151 note 1 Foed., II, ii, 892;Google ScholarC.P.R. (1334–8), p. 66.Google Scholar

page 151 note 2 Hist. MSS. Comm., 6th Rep., App., p. 548 (Merton College Archives).Google Scholar

page 151 note 3 C.P.R. (1334–8). P.301.Google Scholar

page 151 note 4 C.Cl.R. (1333–7), 596, 622, 628, and (1337–9), p. 514. The account of Richard's expenses are in P.R.O., Var. Acct., 311/22 (6 July–29 Sept., 1336).Google Scholar

page 152 note 1 In 1341 he was sent to Rome as Bury's proctor (Reg. Pal. Dun., III, p. 360).Google Scholar

page 152 note 2 C.P.R. (1334–8), p. 304.Google Scholar He was probably younger than Richard, as in 1335 he received a respite from knighthood for two years (118). He also accompanied the Bishop in 1338 (C.Cl.R., 1337–9, p. 616)Google Scholar. By 1344 he had become a knight, and on the 30th of September in that year, when Bury no doubt realized that he had not long to live, was given a pension of £10 a year (Reg. Pal. Dun., III, p. 374).Google Scholar

page 152 note 3 Foed., II, ii, 944.Google Scholar

page 152 note 4 Ibid., 963, 979, 1000.

page 152 note 5 C.P.R. (1338–40), pp. 101, 190.Google Scholar

page 152 note 6 C.P.R. (1338–40), pp. 194.Google Scholar

page 152 note 7 Ibid., p. 196.

page 152 note 8 (1860) 118 ff., from the wardrobe accounts.

page 153 note 1 C.P.R. (1338–40), pp. 371–2, 383, 394. He with the Archbishop and Cardinals had left the court some time before. The King went to Malines and they to Arras, according to Murimuth (p. 85).Google Scholar

page 153 note 2 P.R.O., Var. Acct., 311/36. He was, however, allowed only £1,341 4s. IId. (C.Cl.R., 1339–41, p. 358).Google Scholar

page 153 note 3 Rich. D'Aung. of Bury, pp. 134–7.Google Scholar

page 153 note 4 C.P.R. (1338–40), pp. 507, 516 and (1340–3), p. 28Google Scholar: cf. C.CI.R. (1339–41), pp. 582. 597.Google Scholar

page 153 note 6 Foed., II, ii, 1122, 1171, 1175, p. There was a commission to France, probably revoked, in the next year (, 1156, 1158, cf. Philobiblon, ed. Thomas, p. xxii).Google ScholarIbid.

page 153 note 6 C.P.R. (1338–40), pp. 482, 486; (1340–3) PP. 87, 253Google Scholar; C.Cl.R. (1339–41). PP. 431. 488; (1341–3) PP. 18, 21.Google Scholar

page 153 note 7 Murimuth, , p. 120.Google Scholar

page 153 note 8 C.P.R. (1340–3). P. 328; (1343–5). PP. 67,88.Google Scholar

page 154 note 1 C.Cl.R. (1340–3). p. 585; (1343–6) p. 172.Google Scholar

page 154 note 2 Examples of this administrative activity in 1640–2 are in Rot. Scot., I. PP. 592, 603, 621 (diplomatic negotiations), 596, 601, 602, 606, 607, 608 (movement and payment of troops). In similar mandates of 1643 Bury is not named. He appears again once in Aug. 1344 (p. 652), either through a Chancery error, or perhaps because he had temporarily recovered.Google Scholar

page 154 note 3 This is well expressed in Foed., II, i, 506.Google Scholar

page 154 note 4 Lists of ordinations have survived for Bury's pontificate, and show that he was active only in 1336 and 1341–2 (Reg. Pal. Dun., III, III, 115, 123, 172). The same source shows that the bishop of Carlisle or the bishop of Corbaria frequently acted for him in the earlier period, and Richard, bishop of Bisaccia, in 1341–5.Google Scholar

page 154 note 5 Nevertheless, the visitation of Whitby in 1366 revealed that the moral condition of Durham Priory had long been bad. I am indebted to Dr. Hubert Hall for bringing this to my notice: see Pantin, W. A., Chapters of the English Black Monks, 1215–1540 (Camden Soc, 1937), Vol. III, pp. 277309.Google Scholar

page 154 note 6 Ibid., II, ii, 1191.

page 154 note 7 Murimuth, , p. 171.Google Scholar

page 155 note 1 His remains, discovered in modern times, show that he was over 6 feet tall. For the circumstances of his death and burial, see Rich. D'Aung. of Bury, pp. xlii–xlvii.Google Scholar

page 156 note 1 Nicholls, , Leicestershire, II, i, App. 104. (The fifteenth-century Leicester Abbey library catalogue.)Google Scholar

page 156 note 2 Philobiblon, ed. Thomas, , cap. vi, pp. 51–2.Google ScholarAnstey, , Mun. Acad., i, 207–8.Google Scholar

page 156 note 3 Thomas à Kempis took a whole chapter from Bury, as did Matthäus Hummel for a speech at the opening ceremony of the University of Frei burg in 1460. See Axel Nelson's works cited below, p. 34, note 2.

page 156 note 4 There have been English, German, French, Italian, American, and Norwegian editions.

page 156 note 5 One minor point, though obvious, does not seem to have drawn any comment: the colophon of even the best manuscripts must be interpolated. The quondam episcopi is not consistent with the nostro manerio, etc.

page 156 note 6 Murimuth, , p. 171.Google Scholar

page 156 note 7 Thomas, , Philobiblon, p. xiiiGoogle Scholar, citing Dibdin, , Bibliomania, pp. 118–19.Google Scholar

page 157 note 1 There were a number of Doctors in the fourteenth–century Civil Service, but if they had fulfilled the requirements of the Oxford curriculum as known from fifteenth–century sources, they must have spent about twelve years at the University before embarking upon an official career. Starting as mere boys at Oxford, scholars could gain European fame before they were 30 in the Middle Ages, but if they were going to be King's Clerks they might have to be content with a reputation acquired in middle age. Civil Servants were 40 or 50 before they reached the top.

page 157 note 2 Little, A. G., Studies in English Franciscan History, pp. 216–18.Google Scholar

page 157 note 3 Ibid., 213 ff.

page 158 note 1 MS. New Coll., ccxlii; Vat. lat. 2153, fol. 1. B.M., MS. Burney 304, fol. I.

page 158 note 2 Philobiblon, ed. Thomas, , pp. 98, 108.Google Scholar

page 159 note 1 For the Cursus as a weapon of textual criticism, see Toynbee, , The Bearing of the Cursus on the Text of Dante's De vulgari eloquentia. The best edition of the Philobiblon is now that of Axel Nelson (Stockholm, 1922), whose work has not been superseded by Dr. M. J. Husung's German edition (Weimar, 1931). For both, see Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, vols. 27 (1920), p. 105; 39 (1922), p. 381; 40 (1923), P. 29; 45 (1929), P. 69; and especially 49 (1932), p. 86.Google Scholar

page 159 note 2 Lapsley, G. T., The County Palatine of Durham (Harvard Historical Series, vol. viii, 1900), p. 329.Google Scholar Cf. ibid., 145–6, for Bury's council in 1345, consisting of thirteen persons: “steward, chancellor, five justices, sheriff of Durham, one of the coroners, one cleric, and two tenants–in–chief”– though there were eleven barons of the Palatinate. The chancellor was also Receiver, and Constable of Durham Castle (see Reg. Pal. Dun., Rolls Series, III, pp. 208 ff., for a considerable fragment of Bury's Register).Google Scholar

page 159 note 3 Further instances of Bury's great administrative activity after 1338 are given in Rich. D'Aung. of Bury, pp. xxvii ff.Google Scholar

page 160 note 1 There can be no doubt that Bury was a great book-collector. There is the evidence of Chambre, Iste summe delectabatur in multitudine librorum, Murimuth's grudging admission licet idem episcopus fuisset mediocriter literatus, volens tamen magnus clericus reputari, recollegit sibi librorum numerum infinitum, tarn de dono quam ex accomodato a diversis monasteriis et ex empto, adeo quod quinque magne carectae non sufficiebant pro ipsius vectura librorum (p. 171), and the clear statement of Petrarch.

page 160 note 2 Powicke, F. M., The Medieval Books of Merton College, Oxford, 1931, P. 25.Google Scholar

page 161 note 1 Chaplain to Bury in 1335 (D.N.B.). M.A, before 1323. On the French mission 1338. Died 1349.

page 161 note 2 Bury got Burley pardoned of all trespasses of vert and venison in Dec. 1336 (C.P.R., 1334–8. P. 341).

page 161 note 3 I give their names in Appendix for convenience.

page 161 note 4 Cal. Pap. Lett., III, 137–8.Google Scholar

page 162 note 1 Atton is expressly identified for us as canon of Lincoln. He occurs in the surviving records in 1342–4, and played an important part in the visitation of Durham priory (Rich. D'Aung. of Bury, p. 148, and see the Index thereto). Atton was juris utriusque professor (ibid., 151).

page 162 note 2 Workman, , Wyclif, i, 75Google Scholar; C.P.R. (1338–40), pp. 347, 416, 423. For the statutes, see Reg. Pal. Dun., III, pp. 381406, 582–98.Google Scholar

page 162 note 3 Three St. Albans MSS.—Royal MSS. 8G I and 13D IV and Bod. Lib. MS. Laud. misc. 363—are known to have belonged to Bury.

page 162 note 4 Some useful references are given in Rashdall, , The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, ed. by Powicke, and Emden, , vol. iii, pp. 186–7.Google Scholar

page 163 note 1 P. 171.

page 163 note 2 C.P.R. (1343–6). P. 455.

page 163 note 3 Ibid., p. 515.

page 163 note 1 Fellow of Merton.

page 165 note 1 See Rich. D'Aungerville of Bury (Surtees Soc), pp. 246–9, 258, but these references are not mentioned in the Introduction. This book contains not only a fragment of Richard de Bury's register but a fine collection of documents drawn from all sources relating to Bury's pontificate. Of these an inadequate use was made in the Introduction and notes. On p. 244, where Bury receives from the Pope the right of creating four notaries, we are told that “the office of tabellio was that of Town Clerk.”