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popes, John I., Nicholas III., and Martin IV., as treasurer and collector of the Peter-pence in England as well as in Ireland, which made him be unfavourably noticed by Bale and others. He died suddenly while in London, which Bale attributes to a divine judgment, and was buried in a monastery of Predicants or Dominicans. He published the following works:-Concordantiæ Magna Anglicana; Sermones ad Utrumque Statum; and Disceptationes Scholasticæ.

John de Saundford.

CONSECRATED A. D. 1286.-DIED a. D. 1297.

JOHN DE SAUNDFORD, brother to Fulk, the former archbishop of Dublin, was elected to the vacant see immediately on the death of Derlington, but found some difficulty in obtaining the pope's sanction to his appointment. He was, however, at length consecrated in Dublin, 1286. Ware states him to have been "a learned and eminently prudent man," and to have been in great favour with Edward I., who not only appointed him lord-justice in Ireland, with a salary of £500 per annum, but sent him along with the bishop of Durham on an embassy to Adolphus of Nassau, newly elected emperor, for the purpose of inducing him and several other German princes to join Edward in a league for the recovery of Guienne, which Philip the Fair had by a very unworthy stratagem obtained possession of some time before. It is stated that Edward promised to furnish one hundred thousand pounds to the emperor, with other large sums to the princes; but however this may be, the archbishop acquitted himself to the satisfaction of all parties in his portion of the negotiation, but did not live to see its termination. He died very suddenly on his return to England; and his body was, according to the request of the canons of St Patrick, taken to Ireland, and buried in his brother's tomb in that church. It is difficult to fix the exact year of his death, as there are discrepancies in the statements made upon the subject; but as the embassy to the emperor took place in 1297, and as Ware states on the authority of Westminster, that he was "seized with a grievous malady," which carried him off immediately on his return, the inference is that it must have been in that year

Simon of Kilkenny.

SUCCEEDED A.D. 1258.-DIED A. D. 1272.

SIMON, canon of Kildare, was born in Kilkenny, and was elected to the bishopric of Kildare, October, 1258. He died at Kildare (according to a chronicle of the Dominicans), in April, 1272. The see was vacant for some years after the death of this prelate.

Jicholas Cusack.

SUCCEEDED A.D. 1273,—died a. d. 1299.

A CONTEST took place between the members of the chapter, after the death of Simon, half of them being firmly devoted to William, treasurer of the church, and the other half electing Stephen, dean of Kildare, to the vacant see. They referred their dispute to pope Nicholas II, (or III) who settled it by nullifying both elections, and appointing Nicholas Cusack, a Franciscan friar, to the bishopric, on the 29th of November, 1279. He was not, however, restored to the temporalities for about two years. He was joined in the commission with Thomas St Leger, bishop of Meath, in 1292, to collect a tenth granted by the pope to the king for the relief of the Holy Land; and the sheriffs were ordered to aid them in making this collection. Ware's English Annals mention, that when (in 1294) the castle of Kildare was taken, the rolls and tallies burnt, and the whole county devastated by the English and Irish troops, that the bishop's property was supposed to have been involved in the general wreck. He continued to hold the bishopric of Kildare for twenty years after the pope's nomination, and died 1299. He was buried in his own church.

Walter le Veele.

SUCCEEDED A. d. 1299.-DIED A. d. 1332.

Walter le VEELE, chancellor of Kildare, was nominated to the bishopric, and Edward I. confirmed the election. He was conse- * crated in St Patrick's church, in the year 1300, and held the bishopric for upwards of thirty-two years. In the year 1310, a parliament was held at Kildare. He died November 1332, and was buried in his own church.

Richard Hulot.

SUCCEEDED A. D. 1334.-DIED A. D. 1352.

THE see of Kildare was for some time vacant, when at length Richard Hulot, or Houlet, was elected bishop, and obtained restitution of the temporalities. He died on the 24th of June 1352.

William de Hothum.

DIED A. D. 1298.

WILLIAM DE HOTHUM, (called by some authorities Odo,) was appointed to the archbishopric of Dublin in 1297. He had been pre

viously ambassador to the pope, from Edward the first, and was held in such high estimation for his diplomatic talents, that he was selected immediately after his consecration as the organ of communication between Edward and Philip IV. of France; and conducted his embassy with such skill and discretion, that, aided by the intervention and influence of the king of Sicily and the earl of Savoy, he succeeded in establishing a truce between France and England, which lasted for two years, and was of great importance to Edward in the prosecution of his Scotch wars. He was the person selected to convey the articles of the treaty to Boniface, who acted as umpire between the two monarchs; and on his return homewards through Burgundy, he was attacked with severe illness at Dijon, where he died on the 27th of August, 1298. His body was removed to England, where it was buried in a Dominican monastery. His learning, sound judgment, and integrity are testified by many writers, though Bale, with his usual animosity, accuses him of having won the favour of Boniface by large sums of gold. He at the same time admits that he was highly esteemed as a person "of a great spirit, acute parts, and one who had a singular dexterity in conciliating to himself the favour of men." He was the author of several works on Divinity.

Richard de Ferings.

DIED A. D. 1306.

On the death of William de Hothum, there was a contest between Christ's church and that of St Patrick's, as to the nomination of an archbishop of Dublin—the former selecting Adam de Balsham their prior, and the latter Thomas de Chatsworth, dean of St Patrick's, and also chief-justice of the King's Bench, to the vacant see; to which he had been on a former occasion elected by the king and clergy, but was set aside by the authority of the pope. Neither of these elections, however, at this time pleased the king; and an interval occurring, the pope asserted his title to nominate, and appointed Richard de Ferings, who had been for a long period archdeacon of Canterbury, and who was consecrated in 1299. This prelate made a large conveyance of church lands to Theobald Fitz-Walter, butler of Ireland, with the sanction of the chapters of the Holy Trinity and St Patrick's. He also, says Ware, "took a great deal of pains to reconcile the differences between the two cathedrals, the heads of which composition are in the register of Alan (archbishop of Dublin), whereof these are the chief:—“ That the archbishops of Dublin should be consecrated and enthroned in Christ's church; that each church should be called cathedral and metropolitan; that Christ's church as being the greater, the mother and elder church, should take place in all church rights and concerns; that the cross, mitre, and ring of the archbishop, wherever he should die, be deposited in Christ's church; and that the body of every archbishop that died for the future be buried in either church, by turns, unless he disposed of it otherwise by his will." These articles were written and agreed to in 1300; and after having thus established peace

in his diocese, he went to England, and subsequently to the continent, where he remained for many years. He at length determined on returning to Ireland, but was attacked with a sudden illness in the course of his journey, of which he died the 18th of October, 1306.

Alexander de Bicknor.

SUCCEEDED A. D. 1317.-DIED A. D. 1349.

NOTWITHSTANDING the articles of agreement formally entered into between the two cathedral churches of Dublin, and confirmed by the seal of each chapter, with a penalty annexed to their infringement, the usual contests commenced on the death of archbishop Lech, respecting the appointment of a successor: one party declared for Walter Thornbury, chanter of St Patrick's and chancellor of Ireland; while the other nominated Alexander de Bicknor, or Bignor, the descendant of a distinguished English family, and treasurer of Ireland. Walter, thinking to secure his election at once, took shipping for France, where the pope then resided, but was overtaken by a violent storm, and he with the entire of the crew and passengers, amounting to 150 persons, perished. Alexander was accordingly elected without opposition, but his consecration was delayed in consequence of his personal services being required by the king. He was sent by Edward II. along with Raymond Subirani, and Andrew Sapiti, to transact some business of importance, relative to his foreign dominions with the cardinals attending on the pope, at Avignon; to twenty-four of whom the king wrote special letters.* He was three years afterwards consecrated in this place, July 22d, 1317, by Nicholas de Prato, cardinal of Ostium. Edward who appears to have held him in high estimation, appointed him lord-justice of Ireland, in 1318, and he arrived there on the 9th of October, in the joint character of archbishop, and governor of the kingdom, and was received both by the clergy and people with great demonstrations of joy. He had been previously directed by pope John XXII., to excommunicate Robert Bruce and his brother Edward, with all their followers, unless restitution was made for their destructive and sacrilegious ravages throughout the kingdom. He attended several parliaments in England, was present in the palace of Westminster when the bishop of Winchester surrendered the great seal, and was also a party with the king in the treaty made with the earl of Lancaster.

In 1320, he founded or rather renewed the university founded by his predecessor John Lech, and procured a confirmation of it from Pope John XXII. It had doctors of divinity, a doctor of the canon law, and a chancellor, besides inferior officers. There were public lectures established, and at a later period a divinity lecture by Edward III.; but from want of proper aid for the maintenance of the scholars it gradually declined, though Ware says, "there remained some footsteps of an academy in the time of Edward VII." Accord

*Dalton's Archbishops.

ing to the same writer, Bicknor was sent ambassador to France by the English parliament in 1323, along with Edmund de Woodstock, earl of Kent, younger brother of Edward II.; but this embassy proved unsuccessful. He was also afterwards joined in a commission with the same earl, to reform the government of Acquitaine, but ultimately fell under the king's heavy displeasure for consenting to the surrender of the town and castle of La Royalle, in that duchy, to the French. He was one of the accusers of Hugh de Spencer, which so irritated the king that he wrote a letter to the pope, entreating that he might be banished from his kingdom, and that another might be appointed to the see. The application of this weak and vindictive monarch was however disregarded at Rome; and we find him again taking his place among the prelates and barons of England in 1326, when prince Edward was appointed guardian of the kingdom. The king, however, found means to punish the archbishop by seizing on the revenues of his see, on the pretence of arrears being due to him from the time of Bicknor having been treasurer of Ireland; this money was appropriated to the expenses of his army. The archbishop took a strong and creditable part against Ledred, bishop of Ossory, who prosecuted several persons accused of heresy. These persons boldly seized. Ledred, and kept him in confinement until they were enabled to escape beyond his jurisdiction, and seek the protection of Bicknor. He not only saved them from all further persecution, but when Ledred sought to appeal to Rome, he took means to prevent his journey thither; and when he ultimately succeeded in leaving Ireland, Edward's power arrested him in France, and he was there detained an exile for nine years. During this period, the archbishop exerted his power as metropolitan, and seized on the profits and jurisdiction of the diocese of Ossory. In 1331, Edward III. wrote to the pope to counteract the impressions likely to be made by the representations of Ledred against Bicknor; but his interference does not appear to have been very effectual, for the pope suspended his power over the diocese of Ossory immediately after his holding a visitation there, and the interdict continued in force during the remainder of Bicknor's life. Edward granted him a royal license in 1336, for annexing additional lands to the see, to the amount of £200 yearly.

In the following year he had a contest with David O'Hiraghty, archbishop of Armagh, who was summoned to attend a parliament in Dublin, held by Sir John Charleton, lord-justice of Ireland; when as Ware states, O'Hiraghty "made procession in St Mary's near Dublin, but was hindered by the archbishop of Dublin and clergy, because he would have the cross carried before him, which they would not permit," and this contest was carried on with more or less violence during the remainder of Bicknor's life. In 1348, the king appears to have taken part with Bicknor, as he wrote to cardinal Audomar, urging his being exempted from any subjection to Armagh; while in the year following he seems to have favoured the pretensions of Richard Fitz-Ralph, who, by asserting that he had royal authority, triumphantly entered Dublin with the cross borne erect before him. Ware, however, thinks this assertion false, and that he had received no permission from Edward on the subject; and this opinion seems confirmed by the lord-justice

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