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The Benefice as Property: an Aspect of Anglo-papal Relations during the Pontificate of Martin V, 1417–31

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Margaret Harvey*
Affiliation:
Durham University

Extract

In the reign of Pope Martin V relations between the papacy and the English Crown were dominated by the struggle of the papacy to obtain the repeal of the Statutes against Provisors. The outlines of the story are well known, and recently Dr Davies has filled in the political details, particularly concerning bishoprics: Martin V, having tried from the outset of his pontificate to persuade the Crown to repeal die Statutes, finally lost patience and, in 1427, suspended the Archbishop of Canterbury as legatus natus until Chichele pleaded the papal case before Council and Parliament.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1987

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References

1 Some of the research for this paper was made possible by grants from the Brirish Academy and the Research Fund of the University of Durham.

2 Davies, R. G., ‘Martin V and the English Episcopate’, EHR 92 (1977), pp. 30944 Google Scholar.

3 See below.

4 Oxford Bodleian MS Ashmole 789, fols 225v-6v. See below for other examples.

5 Partner, P., The Papal State under Martin V (London, 1958), pp. 423, 45 Google Scholar.

6 Partner, P., ‘Papal Financial Policy in the Renaissance and Counter-Reformarion’, PP 88 (1980), pp. 1762, esp. 1721 Google Scholar; Partner, P., ‘The Budget of the Roman Church in the Renaissance Period’, in Italian Renaissance Studies. A Tribute to the Late Cecilia M. Ady (London, 1960), pp. 25678, esp. pp. 259, 262 Google Scholar; Haller, J., Concilium Basiliense. Studien und Quellen zur Geschichtedes Councils von Basel, 8 vols (Basel, 1896-1936) 1, p. 168 Google Scholar.

7 Chambers, D. S., ‘The Economic Predicament of Renaissance Cardinals’, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3 (1966), pp. 289313 Google Scholar for all that follows about cardinals.

8 The letters to Nicolo Nicoli reveal Poggio’s attitude, for instance, Poggio Bracciolini, Lettere, ed. H. Harth, 2 vols so far (Florence, 1984) 1, ep. 9, lines 50–9.

9 CPL 8, p. 263.

10 The Statutes of the Realm, 10 vols (London, 1810–28) i, pp. 316–18.

11 Storey, R. L., ‘Clergy and the Common Law in the Reign of Henry IV, in Medieval Legal Records. Edited in Memory of C. A. F. Meetings, ed. Hunnisett, R. F. and Post, J. B. (London, 1978), pp. 342408 Google Scholar, gives some examples.

12 Lunt, W. E., Financial Relations of the Papacy with England, 1327–1534. Studies in Anglo-papal relations during the Middle Ages, 2 (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), pp. 4301 Google Scholar and my own checking.

13 Hay, D., The Church in Italy in the Fifteenth Century (Cambridge, 1977), p. 10 Google Scholar.

14 I discuss this in detail in a forthcoming article ‘Henry V and Martin V, AHP (1987).

15 My views differ slightly from those of Davies pp. 339–40, 342, and G. Holmes, ‘Cardinal Beaufort and the Crusade against the Hussites’, EHR 88 (1973), pp. 721–50, esp. 731–2. See also Lunt, p. 424; BL MS Cotton Cleop C. IV, fols 169r-v, 174r-v.

16 Haller, J., Papsttum und Kirchenreform. Vier Kapitel zur Geschichte des ausgehenden Mittelalters, 2nd edn unrevised (Berlin, 1966), p. 473, n. 2 Google Scholar. The MS is Vatican Library Lat. 4136, fol. 177v. The daring is fixed by a reference fol. 178v to the lapse last April of the current arrangements for benefices, and fol. 178v to the forthcoming Council of Siena. This refers to the Concordat of Constance which was valid for five years and therefore lapsed in 1423.

17 Harvey, M., Solutions to the Schism. A study of some English attitudes 1378–1409 = Kirchengeschichteliche Quellen undStudien, 12 (St Ottilien, 1983), pp. 99100 Google Scholar.

18 Valois, N., Histoire de la Pragmatique Sanction de Bourges sous Charles VII (Paris, 1906), pp. 1678 Google Scholar, quoting from BN MS Lat. 8577, fol. 17r.

19 Scholz, R., ‘Eine humanistische Schilderung der Kurie aus dem Jahr 1438QFIAB 16 (1914), pp. 10853 Google Scholar, includes an edition; Baron, H., ‘Franciscan Poverty and Civic Wealth in Humanistic Thought’, Speculum, 13 (1938), pp. 137 Google Scholar discusses Lapo at pp. 29–30; D’Amico, J. F., Renaissance Humanism in Papal Rome. Humanists and Churchmen on the Eve of the Reformation (Baltimore, 1983), pp. 11718 Google Scholar.

20 Quoted Lunt, p. 424 from Wilkins, 3, p. 473.

21 BL. MS. Cotton Cleop C. IV fols 174r-v.

22 BL. MS. Cleop C. IV fols 169r-v and quoted Holmes, p. 732, n. 1 as well as, not so accurately, by The Register of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1414–43, ed. E. F. Jacob, 4 vols, CYS 42, 45, 46, 47 (Oxford, 1937–47), 1, p. xlvi, n. 14.

23 Official Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton, ed. G. Williams, 2 vols, RS 56 (1872) 2, p. 251; Holmes, p. 732.

24 On Ireland, A. Cosgrove, Late Medieval Ireland, 1370–1541 (Dublin, 1981), pp. 32–5. I would like to thank my colleague Dr Robin Frame for help in this area.

25 John Langdon said he owed his life to the ministrations of Branda’s physician at Constance, Canterbury College, Oxford, 3, ed. W. A. Pantin, OHS, ns, 8 (Oxford, 1950), pp. 78–80.

26 CPL 7, p. 157.

27 CPR, Henry V1416–1422 (London, 1910–11), p. 149; Calendar of Signet Letters of Henry IV and Henry V (1399–1422), ed.J. L. Kirby (London, 1978), no 826, printed in full in AnAnthologyof Chancery English, ed. J. H. Fisher, M. Richardson, and J. L. Fisher (Knoxville, Tennessee, 1984), p. 20, with name wrongly transcribed as Bolton. See also article as n. 14 above.

28 Letters of Margaret of Anjou, ed. C. Monro, CSer 86(1863), pp. 13–14; CPL 7, p. 157.

29 CPL 7, pp. 153, 157; Le Neve, Hereford, p. 2.

30 CPR, 1416–22, p. 365; PRO E28/34/71; Storey, ‘Clergy and Common Law’, p. 346.

31 See article n. 14 above for grant to him in June 1420 of Lisieux, originally intended by Henry V for another candidate.

32 CPL 7, pp. 201, 205.

33 Foedera, 4, iv, p. 91 (10, p. 282); H. Nicolas, Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, 7 vols (Record Commission, 1834–7) 3, pp. 76–7; PRO E28/41/37 and 38.

34 Davies, pp. 320–32 for the English end. For other favours involved see MS Cotton Cleop C. IV fol. 170v and Allmand, C., ‘The Relations between the English Government, the Higher Clergy and Papacy in Normandy 1417–50’ (Oxford, D.Phil, 1962), p. 35 Google Scholar. I am most grateful to Dr Allmand for allowing me to use his thesis and for helpful advice.

35 The Register of John Swayne, Archbishop of Armagh, ed. D. A. Chart (Belfast, 1935), pp. 105–6 gives a garbled letter which probably concerns it.

36 Partner, Martin V, p. 72.

37 Chichele, I, pp. xlv, 239–42.

38 CPR, Henry IV 1405–8, p. 260; Le Neve, Monastic Cathedrals, p. 8.

39 Official Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton, ed. G. Williams, 2 vols, RS 56 (1872) 1, pp. 284–5.

40 Vatican MS Chigi Lat. D. VII 101, fol. 6V; K. A. Fink, ‘Die politische Korrespondenz Martins V nach den Brevenregistern’, QFIAB 26 (1935–6), n. 212.

41 Valois, Pragmatique, p. xxix.

42 Davies, p. 331; Foedera, 4, iv, pp. 119–20 (10 col. 354).

43 Rotuli Parliamentorum et Petitiones et Placita in Parliament, 7 vols (London, 1783–1832) 4, pp. 304–5; Lunt, p. 424. When Prospero was involved in the Colonna revolt in 1433 Chichele claimed back the benefice. A complicated case followed: A. Zellfelder, England und das Basler Konzil (Berlin, 1913), pp. 120–9, with documents in appendix.

44 Rotuli Parliamentorum as n. 43 above.

45 I discuss this fully in my article, see n. 14 above.

46 PRO E404/39/339; Ferguson, J., English Diplomacy (Oxford, 1972), p. 123 Google Scholar.

47 Haller, Concilium Basiliense, 1, p. 176. Date of return PRO as n. 46 above.

48 Lunt, pp. 693–713, esp. pp. 711–12. For Simon’s career as a whole see W. Brandmüller, ‘Simon de Lellis de Teramo, ein konsistorial Advokat auf den Konzilien von Konstanz und Basel’, Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum, 12 (1980), pp. 229–68.

49 Le Neye, Lincoln, p. 54. See Brandmüller, p. 234, nn. 36–40 for all his benefices.

50 Le Neve, Salisbury, p. 29.

51 CPL 7, p. 286; for Cordon also Emden (O), 1, pp. 486–7.

52 CPL 7, p. 285; Vatican MS Chigi D. VII 101, fol. 52v.

53 Kemp letter, MS Cotton Cleop C. IV fols 156r-7v; Le Neve, London, p. 26.

54 Fink, Korrespondenz, n. 231.

55 Poggio to Nicoli, 3 October 1421, Lettere, I, ep. 13 lines 37–9.

56 Droxford from Beaufort. The documents are in E. Walser, Poggius Florentinus (Leipzig/Berlin, 1014), pp.333–4.

57 Walser, pp. 334–5.

58 Walser, p. 336; the full details in A. Mercati, ‘Dall’ Archivio Vaticano’, Studi eTesti, 157 (1951), pp. 17–19; Brandmüller, pp. 237–8, 244–6.

59 Bekynton, i, pp. 279–80. This suggests that he thought that Bedford would welcome a papal decision against Humfrey.

60 Bekynton, 1, p. 282.

61 CPL 7, p. 35; Chichele, 1, pp. xlv-xlvii; Davies, p. 339.

62 Foedera, 4, iv, p. 143 (10 col. 415); Nicolas, 3, p. 339.

63 Le Neve, Northern Province, p. 34; Bath and Wells, p. 23; J. Haller, Piero da Monte. Eingelehrte und papstlicher Beamier des 15 Jahrhunderts. Bibliothek des deutschen historischen Instituts in Rom, 19 (Rome, 1941), p. 42, n. 94; M. Monaco, Il ‘De Officio Collectoris in Regno Angliae’, di Pietro Griffi da Pisa. Uomini e Dottrine, 19 (Rome, 1973), pp. 312–13; Hennessy, G., Novum Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiaìe Londinense (London, 1898), p. 410 Google Scholar.

64 Le Neve, Northern Province, pp. 61, 65; CPL 8, p. 235.

65 See article as n. 14 above.

66 Valois, Pragmatique, p. xxvii and Pièces, nos 15, 16; Journal de Clement de Fauquembergue, Greffier du Parlement de Paris 1417–1435, ed. A. Tuetey, 3 vols, Société de l’Histoire de France, 112, 113, 114 (Paris, 1903–15), p. 197.

67 MS Cotton Cleop C. IV fols 170r-1v.

68 Valois, Pragmatique, as n. 66 above.

69 Fauquembergue, pp. 198, 199, 200–5, 209, 215–16, 230–1, 272–3, and Valois as n. 68 above.

70 CPL 8, p. 359; CPR, Henry VI, 1429–36, p. 107; Le Neve, Lincoln, p. 11.

71 Above n. 43.

72 Above n. 15.

73 Le Neve, Chichester, p. 19.

74 Petitiones quoad reformationem ecclesiae militantis, ed. H. von der Hardt, in Magnum Oecumenicum Constancientie Concilium, 4 vols (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1700) 1, cols 1126–71.

75 Storey, R. L., Thomas Langley and the Bishopric of Durham (London, 1961), p. 181 Google Scholar.

76 Hardt 1.col. 1159.

77 For interesting remarks on the development of this attitude see Murray, A., Reason and Society in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1978), pp. 31782 Google Scholar.