The English Church in the Middle AgesHunt, William
History
The English Church in the Middle Ages
Hunt, William
Church history -- Middle Ages, 600-1500; Great Britain -- Church history
Simon Islip, Bradwardine's successor, endeavoured to remedy ecclesiastical
abuses. He founded Canterbury Hall at Oxford, to enable the clergy to
receive a better education, and published some excellent constitutions in
convocation. Clerical offenders claimed by the Church from the secular
courts, and committed to the custody of the bishops, were often kept in
comfort; they sometimes escaped from their prisons, and sometimes were
released without good cause. This was no longer to be; and imprisonment
was to be made a real punishment. The archbishop also decreed that
chaplains who were engaged to perform commemorative masses should, if
required, be bound to do parochial work at a fixed stipend of one mark
beyond their ordinary pay, which he fixed at five marks. A long-standing
dispute between the sees of Canterbury and York as to the right of the
northern metropolitan to carry his cross erect in the southern province
was at last settled by an agreement between Islip and John Thoresby,
archbishop of York. When the king and the parliament checked the papal
aggressions Islip abstained from interference; for, while he could not
quarrel with the papacy, he would not uphold it against the will of the
nation. While, however, he was prudent and moderate in temper, he did not
shrink from speaking plainly on behalf of good government, and wrote a
strong remonstrance to the king about the oppression of the people by the
royal purveyors. On Islip's death Simon Langham, bishop of Ely, was raised
to the primacy. He was chancellor when he was translated, but did not hold
the office long afterwards. By the command of Pope Urban V. he instituted
an inquiry into cases of plurality, and found that some clerks held as
many as twenty benefices by provisions, with license to add to their
number. After he had held the archbishopric two years, Urban made him a
cardinal. The king was displeased at this, and seized his temporalities.
Langham resigned the see and went to Avignon, and was succeeded at
Canterbury by his kinsman, William Whittlesey, who took little part in the
affairs either of Church or State, for he soon fell into ill health.
[Sidenote: The Church and the Papacy, 1327-1371.]
[Sidenote: Reservations and provisions.]
[Sidenote: Resisted by the king and parliament.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account