Biography of Archbishop William Greenfield -1315

Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. In the same year, Archbishop Thomas of York died in the month of September, namely, on the ninth day before the Kalends of October [23rd September 1304], and was buried at Southwell [Map] on the sixth day before the Kalends of October [26th September 1304]. He was succeeded by Master William de Greenfield, elected on the Friday before the feast of Saint Nicholas [4th December 1304], and confirmed at Lyon by Pope Clement XII in the following year. King Edward troubled Archbishop Thomas in a new way. Although custom had it that, because of the baronies which archbishops and bishops held from him, the king had custody of them during vacancies, and could grant the prebends and churches belonging to those baronies if they fell vacant in that time, still, the pope was accustomed to grant the prebends and dignities that fell vacant because of the confirmation and consecration of bishops-elect in the Roman Curia. So it happened that the pope granted the prebend of Stillingfleet of Archbishop Thomas. The archbishop had also obtained from the Curia the right, upon his return, to give the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre in York Minster to whomever he wished; and he gave it to one James Segrave. But the king, moved by counsel from I know not whom, began to claim such vacancies for himself, and granted it instead to one of his clerks, John Busse. He sent letters to the archbishop ordering him to admit Busse and give him corporal possession. The archbishop replied that the matter had been dealt with by the pope, and that he neither could nor should do anything. The king immediately had him summoned before his justices, to answer for contempt by a writ Quare non admisit ["Why he did not admit [him]"]. There was no one in the king's council, nor any of the lawyers, who could or dared to defend him; and so the archbishop himself, in his own person, like one of the common people, bareheaded before all the people, made his answer, for the courtiers did not love him. When he would not change his answer, but repeated that it was an act of the pope, they declared him undefended, and seized his barony into the king's hand. He went away sorrowful, and sorrow was followed by illness, and illness by death. When he was dead, the king carried out the same procedure against the dean and chapter. But they, fearing the king's harshness, because he intended to seize all their temporalities, placated him in part, and admitted the said clerk to the same chapel, putting the prebend, as a favour to the king, into suspension.

Eodem anno obiit Thomas archiepiscopus Eborum, mense Septembri scilicet nono kalendas Octobris, et sepultus est apud Sutwell, sexto kalendas Octobris. Cui successit magister Willelmus de Grenefelde, die Veneris ante William festum Sancti Nicholai electus, et Lugduno a papa Clemente XII confirmatus in sequenti anno. Dominus rex inquietavit archiepiscopum Thomam novo modo; licet consuetudo se habeat sic, quod dominus rex, ratione baroniarum quas tenent de eo archiepiscopi et episcopi, habeat custodias earundem tempore vacationis, et præbendas et ecclesias ad advocationes earundem spectantes vacantes medio tempore conferat; tamen præbendas et dignitates per confirmationem et consecrationem electorum in curia Romana vacantes, dominus papa conferre consuevit; tical affairs. et sic contulit præbendam istius Thomæ de Styvelington. Ipse etiam archiepiscopus impetravit in curia, quod capellam Sancti Sepulchri in ecclesia Eborum conferre posset in reditu suo cui vellet, et dedit eam cuidam Jacobo Segrave. Modo dominus rex, nescio quo ductus consilio, cœpit vendicare taliter vacantes, et eam" contulit cuidam clerico suo Johanni Busse, misitque literas suas domino archiepiscopo ut eum admitteret, et in possessionem duceret corporalem. Qui respondit, hoc esse factum domini papæ, nec se posse quicquam facere seu debere; statimque rex eum vocari fecit coram justitiariis suis de contemptu responsurus per breve, Quare non admisit. Nec fuit aliquis de consilio suo seu aliquis narratorum omnium qui posset vel auderet respondere pro eo; immo ipsemet in propria persona, quasi unus de populo et coram omni populo, discooperto capite respondebat, non enim eum amabant curiales. Cumque nollet suum mutare responsum, sed factum domini papæ iterabat, pronunciaverunt eum indefensum, et baroniam suam in manum domini regis seisierunt. Recessitque tristis, et tristitia successit infirmitas, et infirmitati mors extrema sociatur. Quo mortuo, fecit dominus rex eundem processum contra decanum et capitulum. At illi timentes sævitiam regis, eo quod dominus rex omnia temporalia sua seisisse voluerat, placaverunt eum in parte, et prædictum clericum admiserunt ad capellam eandem, ponentes præbendam ex gratia regis in suspenso.

Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. In the year of our Lord 1311, Antony, Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Jerusalem, fell ill at Eltham at the beginning of Lent, at the close of the tenth year [of Edward II's reign]. He died and was honourably buried in his church at Durham on the morrow of the feast of the apostles Philip and James [3rd May 1311], which that year fell on a Sunday, in the fifth year of his patriarchate and the twenty-eighth of his consecration as bishop. He was succeeded by Richard de Kellaw, chosen from among the chapter of the same church of Durham, elected on the Friday before Palm Sunday, and consecrated on Pentecost in the cathedral church of York by Archbishop William. The said archbishop himself carried out the burial office for the aforesaid Antony, Bishop of Durham and Patriarch, on the Sunday mentioned above, and on the morrow of the Invention of the Holy Cross visited the chapter of Durham in peace and without any opposition, preaching in full chapter on the text: "Ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." On the very next day he visited the archdeaconry of Durham, that is, the whole clergy, in the church of St Nicholas, and on the following Saturday he visited Darlington¹. And thus he managed matters cautiously and arranged them well, so that before the bishop-elect of Durham was confirmed, he [the archbishop] had carried out his visitation without disturbance, something which for many years past had always been opposed.

Anno Domini MCCCXI Anthonius Dunolmensis episcopus et patriarcha Jerosolimitanus, apud Eltham, in principio Quadragesimæ, in finem anni decimi, infirmatus decubuit; sepultusque est honorifice in ecclesia sua Dunolmensi in crastino apostolorum Philippi et Jacobi, quæ erat dies Dominica, anno patriarchatus sui quinto, et consecrationis episcopatus sui vicesimo octavo. Cui successit Ricardus Election of de Kellaw, de gremio ejusdem ecclesiæ Dunolmensis electus die Veneris proxima ante Dominicam Palmarum, die Pentecostes in ecclesia cathedrali Eborum per Willelmum archiepiscopum consecratus. Qui quidem archiepiscopus officium sepulturæ prædicti Anthonii Dunolmensis episcopi et patriarchæ personaliter fecit die Dominica supradicta, et crastino Inventionis Sanctæ Crucis capitulum Dunolmense pacifice et absque aliqua contradictione visitavit, prædicaVisitation of vitque in pleno capitulo, et erat suum thema: Saturday, "Eratis aliquando sicut oves errantes, nunc autem May conversi estis ad pastorem et episcopum animarum vestrarum. Die vero sequente proximo visitavit archidiaconatum Dunolmensem, totum scilicet clerum, in ecclesia Sancti Nicholai, et die sabbati proximo sequente visitavit Dernyngton; et sic caute fecit et bene ordinavit, quod antequam confirmaretur electus Dunolmensis habuit suam pacificam visitationem, quæ a multis retroactis temporibus fuerat contradicta.

Note 1. Darlington, in the county of Durham, a college of St. Cuthbert, founded by Hugh Pudsey. Durham.