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Archbishop Pecham, Thomas Bek and St. David's

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

William Greenway
Affiliation:
History Tutor, University College of Swansea

Extract

In his Ford lectures of 1955, Professor Cheney remarked that ‘Stubbs saw the church history of Richard I's reign as the record of a few great disputes at law’. One of the most notorious of these concerned the status of St. David's, whose bishop-elect, Gerald of Wales, spared no effort to acquire for his see the position of metropolitan in a separate Welsh province. It is to his lively, though partisan, account of his endeavours that we are indebted for much of our information regarding the Church in Wales at the close of the twelfth century.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1960

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References

page 152 note 1 Cheney, C. R., From Becket to Langion, Manchester 1956, 31.Google Scholar

page 152 note 2 Gerald, of course, never obtained confirmation, either papal or royal, of his election by the chapter of St. David's.

page 152 note 3 Davies, J. Conway, Episcopal Acts and Cognate Documents relating to Welsh Dioceses (Historical Soc. of the Church in Wales, 19461948), i. 190208, 249.Google Scholar

page 152 note 4 Ibid., i. 208–32.

page 152 note 5 Welsh Records in Paris, ed. Matthews, T., Carmarthen 1910, 52–4.Google Scholar

page 153 note 1 Jones, W. B. and Freeman, E. A., The History and Antiquities of St. David's, London 1856, 299.Google Scholar

page 153 note 2 Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed. Haddan, A. W. and Stubbs, W., Oxford 1869, i. 528.Google Scholar

page 153 note 3 Bevan, W. L., St. David's, London 1888, 129.Google Scholar

page 153 note 4 J. Conway Davies, Episcopal Acts, ii. 605, 606.

page 153 note 5 See Douie, D. L., Archbishop Pecham, Oxford 1952, 266–7Google Scholar, and Powicke, F. M., The Thirteenth Century, Oxford 1953, 435.Google Scholar It is noteworthy that both these writers discuss Bek's protest in their chapters on Welsh affairs, not in their surveys of the English Church in the late thirteenth century.

page 153 note 6 There are accounts of Bek's career in Emden, A. B., A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, Oxford 19571959, i. 153Google Scholar, Dictionary of National Biography and Dictionnaire d'histoire el de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. Baudrillart, A., Vogt, A., Rouziès, V., Paris 1912–.Google Scholar I have given separate references only for details additional to those supplied by Emden.

page 153 note 7 Fraser, C. M., A History of Antony Bek, Oxford 1957, 4.Google Scholar

page 154 note 1 For these, see A. B. Emden, Biographical Register, i. 152–4.

page 154 note 2 F. M. Powicke, The Thirteenth Century, 486–7.

page 154 note 3 Brodrick, G. C., Memorials of Merton College (Oxford Historical Soc., 1885), 182, 302.Google Scholar

page 154 note 4 Tout, T. F., Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England, Manchester 19201933, ii. 14.Google Scholar

page 154 note 5 It is possible that Bek was archdeacon of Dorset as early as 1273. See Calendar of Ancient Correspondence concerning Wales, ed. Edwards, J. G., Cardiff 1935, 41.Google Scholar

page 154 note 6 Tout (op. cit., vi. 26) gives the date as November 1280, but it is clear from Cal. Patent Rolls 1272–81, 425 that Bek was still keeper in the following February.

page 154 note 7 Reg. Cantilupe, ed. Griffiths, R. G. and Capes, W. W. (Canterbury and York Soc., 1907); 284–5Google Scholar; Snappe's Formulary, ed. Salter, H. E. (Oxford Hist. Soc., 1924), 7Google Scholar; Cal. Close Rolls 1272–9, 566; The Great Chartulary of Glastonbury Abbey, ed. Watkin, A. (Somerset Record Soc., 19471956), i. 109–10.Google Scholar

page 154 note 8 Tout does not include Bek in his list of treasurers.

page 155 note 1 Tout, op. cit., i. 266–7.

page 155 note 2 Cal. Pat. Rolls 1272–81, 173.

page 155 note 3 Reg. Bronescombe, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, F. C., London and Exeter 1889, 88Google Scholar; C. M. Fraser, A History of Antony Bek, 137.

page 155 note 4 The Magnum Registrum Album of Lichfield Cathedral, ed. Savage, H. E. (William Salt Archaeological Society, 1926), 119–22Google Scholar; Cal. Close Rolls 1279–88, 42; Reg. Cantilupe, 284–5.

page 155 note 5 For other noted royal clerks who obtained high ecclesiastical office during the reign of Edward I, see Hartridge, R. A. R., ‘Edward I's Exercise of the Right of Presentation to Benefices as shown by the Patent Rolls’, Cambridge Historical Journal, II. no. 2 (19261928), 172–3.Google Scholar

page 155 note 6 Cal. Pat. Rolls 1272–81, 368.

page 155 note 7 Ibid., 370, 372.

page 155 note 8 The previous five bishops of St. David's had all been Welsh by birth or association.

page 156 note 1 Brut Y Tywysogyon: Red Book of Hergest Version, ed. Jones, T., Cardiff 1955, 269Google Scholar; Peniarth MS. so Version, ed. Jones, T., Cardiff 1952, 120.Google Scholar This was the enthronement, not the consecration as is stated in the Brut.

page 156 note 2 Cal. Chancery Rolls, Various, 1272–1326, ii. Welsh Rolls, 188.

page 156 note 3 I am indebted to Professor Glanmor Williams for drawing my attention to the stormy relations between Llywelyn and the bishops of Bangor and St. Asaph.

page 156 note 4 Councils, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, i. 571.

page 156 note 5 Cal. of Ancient Correspondence concerning Wales, 66.

page 157 note 1 Councils, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, i. 571.

page 157 note 2 Ibid., i. 575.

page 157 note 3 Churchill, I. J., Canterbury Administration, London 1933, i. 298.Google Scholar

page 157 note 4 Councils, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, i. 576–9; Historical MSS. Commission, Fifth Report, 459.

page 157 note 5 This was, of course, Gerald of Wales.

page 157 note 6 Bek had been consecrated by Pecham at Lincoln in October 1280, a week after the translation of the body of St. Hugh of Lincoln to its new shrine in the Angel Choir of the cathedral. The cost of both ceremonies was defrayed by the new bishop. See Registrum Epistolarum Johannis Peckham, ed. C. T. Martin (Rolls Series, 1882–5), i. 392i; Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops, ed. J. Raine (Rolls Series, 1879–94), ii. 407; Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Series, 1864–9), iv. 286.

page 158 note 1 D. L. Douie, Archbishop Pecham, 266.

page 158 note 2 Councils, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, i. 528.

page 158 note 3 British Museum Harl. MS. 6280, fols. 10r–10v.

page 158 note 4 Ibid., fols. 9r–10r.

page 158 note 5 Ibid., fols. 53r–54v; The Black Book of St. David's, ed. Bund, J. Willis (Cymmrodorion. Record Series, 1902), 15.Google Scholar

page 158 note 6 British Museum Harl. MS. 6280, fols. 89r–91r, 50v–52v. Printed in Dugdale, W., Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. Caley, J. etc., London 18171830, vi. pt. 3, 1332–3, 1475.Google Scholar The collegiate church at Abergwili was originally founded at Llangadock, being transferred to Abergwili c. 1287–90.

page 158 note 7 This was a reference to one of the more famous incidents in the life of St. David.

page 158 note 8 Lost causes may have had a peculiar attraction for Bek. In the summer of 1290, he took the cross after Pecham had preached the crusade in England. Perhaps a similar impulse moved him to defend the rights of St. David's.

page 159 note 1 D. L. Douie, Archbishop Pecham, 206–7.

page 159 note 2 Reg. Giffard, ed. Bund, J. Willis (Worcs. Hist. Soc., 18991902), ii. 225–6.Google Scholar

page 159 note 3 Douie, op. cit., 219.

page 159 note 4 Ibid., 219.

page 159 note 5 Ibid., 106.

page 159 note 6 Ibid., 161.

page 159 note 7 Ibid., 161.

page 159 note 8 Ibid., 196; Reg. Swinfield, ed. Capes, W. W. (Cant, and York Soc., 1909), 44.Google Scholar

page 160 note 1 Douie, op. cit., 272; Rosalind Hill, Oliver Sutton (Lincoln Minster Pamphlets no. 4, 1950), 29–31.

page 160 note 2 Douie, op. cit., 223.

page 160 note 3 Amides Cambriae, ed. J. Williams (Rolls Series, 1860), 106.

page 160 note 4 Douie, op. cit., 132, 206.

page 160 note 5 Ibid., 161, 168; Moorman, J. R. H., Church Life in England in the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge 1946, 399.Google Scholar

page 160 note 6 Douie, op. cit., 210.

page 160 note 7 Ibid., 215.

page 160 note 8 Ibid., 111–12.

page 160 note 9 F. M. Powicke, The Thirteenth Century, 459–60, 471–80, 485–6.

page note 10 Douie, op. cit., 95.

page 161 note 1 J. Conway Davies, Episcopal Acts, ii. 595.

page 161 note 2 Ibid., ii. 595–6.

page 161 note 3 Douie, op. cit., 259–60; Powicke, op. cit., 434–5.

page 161 note 4 Gibbs, M. and Lang, J., Bishops and Reform, 1215–72, Oxford 1934, 6, n. 3.Google Scholar See also Ullmann, W., ‘The Disputed Election of Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely’, Cambridge Historical Journal, (1949), IX. 259–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 161 note 5 Douie, op. cit., 95.

page 161 note 6 Ibid., 95; Gibbs and Lang, op. cit., 40.

page 161 note 7 Douie, op. cit., 96.

page 161 note 8 Ibid., 109.

page 161 note 9 Ibid., 218.

page 162 note 1 Douie, op. cit., 34.

page 162 note 2 Ibid., 35.

page 162 note 3 Councils, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, i. 566.

page 163 note 1 Cheney, C. R., Episcopal Visitation of Monasteries in the Thirteenth Century, Manchester 1931. 143.Google Scholar

page 163 note 2 C. R. Cheney, From Becket to Langton, 140.

page 163 note 3 Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, ed. Brewer, J., etc. (Rolls Series, 18611891), I. 77Google Scholar; vi. 104–5, 110.

page 163 note 4 I. J. Churchill, Canterbury Administration, i. 291.

page 163 note 5 Reg. Epistolarum Johannis Peckham, iii. 782–4, 786–7, 794–7, 800–5, 810–11.

page 163 note 6 I wish to thank Professor Glanmor Williams and Dr. D. G. Walker for their invaluable advice and criticism in the preparation of this article.