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On the Promotion of English University Clerks during the Later Middle Ages1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

E. F. Jacob
Affiliation:
Chichele Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford

Extract

The subject of these remarks, the sequel to a recent paper, was suggested by an investigation undertaken some years ago into the work of the Commissions of Reform at the Council of Constance. It is not my purpose now to disentangle and attribute to their rightful authors the recommendations made there, but merely to recall the fact that the main problem before these Commissions, when they projected the reform of the Roman Curia, was whether the papal collation of benefices in its full Avignonese development should continue, or whether collation should be restored to the ordinaries. A question of such magnitude was capable of dividing not only the ‘nations’ assembled at Constance, but actually the elements constituting a single national delegation. The reasons for such a division are instructive, for they bear directly on the position of the University graduate.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1950

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References

page 172 note 2 English University Clerks in the later Middle Ages: the Problem of Maintenance’, Bull. John Rylands Lib, vol. 29, no. 2 (Feb. 1946)Google Scholar.

page 172 note 3 Ed. Firnhaber, Archiv für Oesterreichischer Geschichtsforschung, xv, 62.

page 172 note 4 ‘Volente natione Italica ut omnes collationes remanerent apud Papam sicut hucusque ab editione Sexti et Clementinarum, quibus consentiebant Anglici, salvis tamen observationibus sui regni, et Hyspani similiter’: ibid., loc. cit.

page 173 note 1 ibid., xv. 29.

page 173 note 2 A. Mercati, Raccolta di Concordate su materie ccclesiastiche trà la Santa Sede e It autorità civili, pp. 159–60.

page 173 note 3 Particularly on exemptions and on dispensations, both matters dealt with in the English Concordat: The Register of Henry Chichele, ed. Jacob., iv. 194–6.

page 174 note 1 Acta Concilii Constanciensis, ed. H. Finke, ii. 208.

page 174 note 2 A.Duck.,Vita Henrici Chichele, p.43.

page 174 note 3 H. von der Hardt, Magnum Oecumenicum Constantiense Concilium, v. 97.

page 174 note 4 de Lépervanche, P., ‘The Personnel of the English Delegation to the Council of Constance’ (Manchester University M.A. dissertation, 1943), pp. 6773Google Scholar.

page 174 note 5 S.T.P.: defended at Constance the cause of Oxford against Salamanca and took a successful part in the disputes with Spain: J. C. Brodrick, Memorials of Merlon College, p. 159. For his bequests of books to Merton, cf Sir F. M. Powicke, The Medieval Books of Merton College, p. 194. It was under his Wardenship (1421–37) that the chapel was completed. He died in office.

page 174 note 6 S.T.P. Also a Merton man, a former bursar of his College (1389–90), later Chancellor and among the University graduates who went to the Council of Pisa: Brodrick, p. 219. At Constance he represented the northern province: Reg. Bowet, i. fo. 317.

page 174 note 7 S.T.P. Provost of Oriel, 1415–17: G. C. Richards and C. L. Shadwell, Oriel College Registers, p. 17.

page 174 note 8 S.T.B. Rector of Stockport; Archdeacon of Stafford; Canon of York and Salisbury; an administrator of Robert Hallum's will (Reg. Chichele, ii. 128–9; iv, 248 Cal. Papal Lett., vi. 58–9, 360). For his activity at Constance: Hardt, op. cit., iv. 276; Cerretanus in Acta Concilii Constanciensis, ed. Finke, ii. 244.

page 174 note 9 D.Can.L. Hardt, op. cit., iv. 335, 457. A member of the Commission appointed by Abp. Arundel 23 June, 1411, to administer to all members of Oxford University an oath to avoid Wycliffite errors: he was also on a committee appointed by the University to superintend the sale of loan-chest cautions, 12 March, 1412. I owe these particulars to the kindness of Principal A. B. Emden.

page 174 note 10 D.Can.L. Hardt, iv. 457, 750. Ulrich von Richental, Chronik des Constanzer Concils, 1414 bis 1418, ed. M. R. Buck, p. 186; Acta, ed. Finke, ii. 505; iii. 379f.; 496–509 (the negotiations at Perpignan in 1416). An important Oxford jurist whose career deserves detailed study.

page 174 note 11 D.Can.L. Benedictine monk of Bordeaux (‘sacrista monasterii S. Crucis Burdegalensis’, Acta, iii. 583). Prominent in the judicial work, of the Council: Hardt, iv. 1015, 1148, 1175 f.

page 174 note 12 LL.D. Precentor of York, representing northern province: Reg. Bowet, i. fo. 317; Richental, ed. Buck, pp. 186–7; Hardt, v. 24. A Cambridge man.

page 174 note 13 D.Can.L. Reg. Chichele, ii. 433–4, 639. The Register of John Swqyne, Archbishop of Armagh, ed. D. A. Chart, p. 34; Richental, p. 187.

page 175 note 1 Visitations of Religious Houses in the diocese of Lincoln, ed. A. Hamilton Thompson (Line. Rec. Soc), i. xiii–xvi; A. Clark, Lincoln College, pp. 1–6.

page 175 note 2 H. E. Salter, Essays in History presented to Reginald Lane Poole, pp. 430–1; Epistulae Academicae, ed. Anstey, i. 156.

page 175 note 3 J. H. Wylie, History of England under Henry IV, i. 413, for contemporary estimates: cf. G. G. Goulton, ‘Student Numbers at Medieval Oxford’, History, xx (1935), 324–7.

page 175 note 4 Poems of John Audelay, ed. E. K. Whiting (E.E.T.S., 184), p. 30. The Rev. J. S. Flitcroft kindly supplied this reference.

page 175 note 5 Flattery.

page 175 note 6 Refuse.

page 175 note 7 Hoccleeve's Works, ed. F. J. Furnivall, iii. 189.

page 176 note 1 Loci e libro veritatum, ed. Thorold Rogers, pp. 195–201.

page 176 note 2 The benefice was Kirk Deighton, dioc. of York, which he accepted from Sir Robert Roos, but shortly afterwards resigned. The statement that he had never been offered any benefice is, from his own account in ibid., p. 195, untrue, as he had the prebend of Combe Decima, dioc. Bath and Wells, from 1448 to his death. He was further elected rector of St. Peter's, Cornhill, but resigned, 1444–5; he also rejected the Chancellorship of York: Pronger, W. A., ‘Thomas Gascoigne’, Eng. Hist. Rev, liii (1938), 615–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 176 note 3 Victor Martin, Les Origines de Gallicanisme, i. 288.

page 176 note 4 Martin, op. cit., i. 289.

page 176 note 5 La France et le Grand Schisme d'Occident, iii. 306–7.

page 176 note 6 Opera Omnia (Leyden, 1655), Epistulae, p. 54; cf. Barradough, G., ‘Un document inéclit sur la soustraction d'obedience de 1398’, Rev. Hist. Eccl, xxx (1934), 101–15Google Scholar.

page 177 note 1 É. Perroy, L'Angleterre el le Grand Schisme d'Occident, pp. 305 f.

page 177 note 2 Rot. Pad., iii. 285, 301, 478.

page 177 note 3 Reg. Chichele, iii. 50.

page 177 note 4 I have analysed three rotuli from the University of Cambridge, 1370, 1389 and 1399 in Petitions for Benefices from English Universities during the Great Schism’, Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc, 4th ser., xxvii (1945), 41 fGoogle Scholar., a paper based on the notes and transcripts of the late Dr A. H. Lloyd and Miss Lloyd.

page 177 note 5 Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc, 4th ser., xxvii. 44.

page 178 note 1 Cal. Papal Petitions, i. 545.

page 178 note 2 e.g. ibid., i. 493–5, 528–9.

page 178 note 3 Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., 4th ser., xxvii. 43.

page 178 note 4 Haller, Johannes, ‘England and Rome under Martin V’, Quellen and Forschungen aus italienischen Archival und Bibliotheken, viii. 2, 249–88Google Scholar; Jacob, Reg. Chichele, i. xliv–ix.

page 178 note 5 Texts in Haller, Piero da Monte, ein Gelehrter und papstlicker Beamier des 15 Jahrhunderts: seine Briefsammlung (1941), pp. 208–10; cf. Cal. Papal Lett., viii. 233.

page 179 note 1 Haller, op. cit., p. 218.

page 179 note 2 ‘Litteras tue fraternitatis plenas devotionis et fidei ea charitate qua decuit accepimus, quibus inter cetera significas te plurimum in Domino gavisum fuisse, quod quondam Basiliense concilium ad civitatem Ferrariensem transtulimus, et eo maiori leticia aftecta fuit tua fraternitas, quo spes erat indubia nos ad dictam civitatem pro icumenico concilio ibidem celebrando profecturos esse: Haller, op. cit., p. 213. The letter is an important one, since it replies to Chichele's protest, first uttered in Convocation, against the appointment of the Archbishop of Rouen, Louis of Luxembourg, as administrator of the see of Ely. For this commendam, cf. A. Hamilton Thompson, The English Clergy and their Organization in the Later Middle Ages, p. 22, and Reg. Chichele, iii. 265.

page 179 note 2 Wilkins, Concilia, iii. 245.

page 179 note 3 Rotuli Parliamentorum, iii. 459.

page 180 note 1 Reg. Stafford, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, p. 311; Reg. R. Rede (ed. Deedes), i. 72–3.

page 180 note 2 Foedcra (Hague ed.), iv. i. 59 (25 Nov. 1403).

page 180 note 3 Rot. Pad., iv. 81–2.

page 180 note 4 Reg. Chichele, i. clv–clvii.

page 181 note 1 Reg. Mascall (Cant, and York Soc), p. 176.

page 181 note 2 ibid., p. 179.

page 181 note 3 He was treasurer of the royal household 1401–13.

page 181 note 4 Reg. Chichele, i. 130–320, passim: in the sede vacante administration of the diocese of Lincoln, June 1424–Jan. 1426, eleven graduates were instituted, four presented by religious houses, one by the Archbishop ratione visitacionis and one by him on a devolution (Reg. Chichele, i. 324, 326); in the diocese of Norwich, 1425–6 (Reg. Chichele, iii. 469–85), the proportion was four graduates to thirty-three non-graduates; and in the diocese of Chichester, 1429–30 (ibid., 485–90), two to twenty-four.

page 182 note 1 Reg. Bubwith. (Som. Record Soc), ii. 409–65. The general average for Bubwith's pontificate (1409–20) is three a year.

page 182 note 2 ’The Constitutions for the Promotion of Graduates, 1417–38’ (Manchester Univ. M.A. dissertation), p. 158. The statistics for Bath and Exeter are taken from this work.

page 182 note 3 Epistulae Academical, ed. Anstey, i. 1–2.

page 182 note 4 A. Hamilton Thompson, The English Clergy, p. 109; cf. Floyer, J. K., English Church Endowments (1917), p. 91Google Scholar.

page 183 note 1 Reg. Sudbury (Cant, and York Soc, ii. 148–82); cf. Canon Jenkins' analysis of the London returns in ibid., ii. xxxvi–xli. The great majority of these clerks ‘were either qualified in law or engaged in its study’: K. Edwards, The English Cathedrals in the Middle Ages, p. 88.

page 183 note 2 Cambridge University Registry ‘Livings’, No. 1; cf. Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., 4th ser., xxvii(945), 46.

page 183 note 3 By contrast with the time of Bishop Simon of Ghent (1297–1315) who collated a number of distinguished theologians to Salisbury Chapter: Edwards, op. cit., p. 89.

page 184 note 1 The Great Seal, p. 275 and n. 2. He was one of the Masters of Chancery.

page 184 note 2 Catalogue of an Exhibition of Treaties at the Public Record Office, Introd. (by Sir Hilary Jenkinson), p. 13.

page 184 note 3 Foedera (Hague ed.), iv. 2, 40.

page 184 note 4 ibid., p. 42.

page 184 note 5 Morgan and Hovingham, ibid., pp. 79, 80, 81; Morgan and Holme, ibid., pp. 98, 106; for Morgan's diplomatic activity, cf. Reg. Chichele, ii. 665. Lenz (Konigs Sigismunds und Heinrich V von England) calk him ‘perhaps the most skilled diplomatist of Henry V’, p. 141. Holme had been a Scholar of King's Hall, Cambridge, was constantly employed, 1399–1414, on diplomatic missions and is termed the king's secretary in 1412: cf. Reg. Chichele, ii. 659, and Joyce Otway-Ruthven, The King's Secretary, pp. 167–8. He became Warden of King's Hall on 3 October 1417, and appears to have died in 1424.

page 184 note 6 Foedera, iv. 2, 185, 194.

page 184 note 7 Les Ambassades Anglaises pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans, 1327–1450’, Bibl. École des Chartes, lix–lxi (18981900)Google Scholar, passim.

page 185 note 1 Reg. Chichele, ii. 652, for biography.

page 185 note 2 Cal. Papal Letters, iv. 345; v. 68 (which shows him to have been a licentiate in Canon law at Bologna), 90.

page 185 note 3 Reg. Chichele, i. 262.

page 185 note 4 ibid., i. 246.

page 186 note 5 ibid., i. 167–8.

page 186 note 6 ibid., i. 305.

page 186 note 7 ibid., i. 298.