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THE REGISTER OF
ADAM DE ORLETON
BISHOP OF HEREFORD
(A.D., 1317-1327).

TRANSCRIBED AND EDITED
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE

REV. A. T. BANNISTER, VICAR of EWYAS HAROLD.

hereford:
1907.

WILSON AND PHILLIPS, PRINTERS, EIGN STREET.

PREFACE.

THE Editor wishes to acknowledge with grateful thanks the assistance which he has received from Miss K. S. Martin in transcribing the Register; from Miss F. L. MacLeod, who has compiled the Index; and from Canon Capes, General Editor of the Cantilupe Society's publications, whose kind help and advice have been constantly sought and freely given. To Canon Capes is mainly owing whatever degree of accuracy has been reached in the text of the Register. He has generously bestowed more time and thought upon another's work than most men devote to their own.

INTRODUCTION.

"The man's life in the letters of the man".
- A. Tennyson.

Of the earlier years of Adam de Orleton [1] practically nothing is known. Leland [2] giving a list of the Bishops of Hereford, names all the others, even St. Thomas Cantilupe, without note or comment: after the name of Orleton alone he adds the definite statement natus in Hereforde. Now Leland lived two centuries after Orleton, and is quite often wrong in his facts : but no assertion of Leland's can be entirely neglected, since he had access to sources of information now lost. When, therefore, he goes out of his way, as it were, to make the statement that Orleton was born in Hereford, we cannot lightly set it aside. As against this assertion of Leland's, however, it may be urged that, throughout a long life, Orleton was the devoted friend and adherent of Roger Mortimer, For Mortimer, when alive, he suffered much, both in material wealth and in reputation. And after Mortimer's death, when no one had a good word for the fallen favourite, Orleton seems to have cherished his memory, and long years afterwards was at least in full sympathy with the attack on one of those who had plotted the death of his friend, What more natural than to suppose that this devotion was, in part, at any rate, the ex- pression of territorial loyalty to the Lord on whose Manor of Orleton [3] he had been born, as he certainly took his name from

[1] Stubbs always writes Orlton; but Orleton is alike the ancient and the modern spelling of the word. The future Bishop is first mentioned, as far as I know, in the Worcester Diocesan Register, sede vacante, f. 17a, where he appears as Orletone. In the Hereford Registers (the first mention is Swinfeld Reg., f. 171) he is always Orletone. And the name of the village is still spelt Orleton. I have, therefore, retained this spelling throughout.
[2] Itin. vili, 38. Fuller (Worthies, II, 74) and Godwin (Catalogue of Bishops) follow Leland in this statement. In an anonymous MS. quoted by Leland (Col. I, 722) the Bishop is called Adam de Hereford: - "Anno D. 1317, Joan. 22 pont. Ro. dedit episcopatum Herefordie Magistro Ade de Hereford."
[3] Orleton - the Alreton of the Red Book of the Exchequer - has been shewn, by Mr. J. Horace Round, to be the Auretone of Domesday, about two miles from the spot where Richard, son of Scrob, some eighteen years before the Norman Conquest, had built one of the earliest Castles in England. In the 13th century the Manor seems to have been held from the Mortimers by a family bearing the name of Wake. It is valued, 34 Ed. III, at sixty pounds.

ii Introduction.

it ? The presumptive evidence, however, of the name itself is not of much value, A hundred years earlier it would have been most unlikely that a man born in an important town should take his name from a comparatively insignificant hamlet, But surnames [1] in the modern sense of the word, were certainly coming into common use towards the end of the 13th century, And there would seem to be some evidence that a family, taking its name from the Mortimer Manor of Orleton, was already settled in Hereford in the middle of the 13th century. It is, however, not until the early years of the 14th century that the name begins commonly to occur in the records of Hereford. For friends and relatives began then to receive a helping hand from their successful kinsman, and we soon find Richard, Reginald, Thomas, Henry, John, and William de Orleton holding leading positions in the town. [2]

These considerations stated, we must leave open the question whether Adam de Orleton was born at Orleton, or in Hereford itself - whether Leland's statement is literally correct, or whether, perhaps, it is to be taken in a general sense, as implying that Adam de Orleton was Bishop in his native county or diocese. It is highly probable, in any case, from his close connection with the Mortimers, and his life-long devotion to their house, that one of the Mortimer family [3] was the boy's patron in early years, If born in Hereford, the young Adam would have obtained the rudiments of learning in the school attached to the Cathedral, Thence, with some assistance from his patron, he would pass to Oxford, and, later on, to Paris or Orleans. We may hope that the help of Mortimer, and his own shrewdness and ability, saved the young scholar from the necessity of joining those bands of needy students who used to go in procession through the streets of Paris, crying "Pain por Dien aus escoliers".

But all this, though highly probable, is based on mere conjecture. What we know for certain is that, in the year 1307, Orleton is officially styled utriusque juris peritus [4] - well versed in -

[1] The custom of using surnames seems to have begun about the middle of the 11th century: but it made its way so gradually that, even at the close of the 12th century, it had not spread beyond the ranks of the higher nobility. During the next hundred years the people, as a whole, slowly adopted the use of family names.
[2] A certain Nicholas de Orleton, also, is pardoned, on Oct. 16th, 1301, for the death of Robert Dale, of Kilpeck. But of him nothing more is heard.
[3] Presumably Edmund, the seventh Lord of Wigmore, father of Roger IV, Queen Isabella's favourite, and our Bishop's life-long friend.
[4] Rymer, Foed, (ed. 1818) II, 20.

Early years. iii

Civil and in Canon Law, This, of necessity, implies a University education: but it probably also implies that he had not yet received the degree of Doctor - which, in Canon Law at any rate, he certainly had obtained three years later. For, in 1310, John Drokensford, Bishop of Bath and Wells, writes of him as professor juris canonici [1], and again, in 1312, in a letter of the King's, he is styled juris canonici professor. [2] "A cette epoque", says Verlagne, [3] "un docteur en theologie, en medicine, en droit, quittait rarement les bancs avant d'avoir atteint trente ans". We are justified, then, in concluding that in 1310, or even in 1307, Orleton was at least thirty years old. He would, therefore, have been born in or before 1277, probably some years earlier than that date, since he must have had some experience of official life and work before being sent, in 1307, on his first mission to the Pope. [4] Be that as it may, in 1301, when we first meet with his name, Master Adam de Orleton was one of the clerks of Robert of Gloucester, Chancellor of Hereford. [5] In May of this year, when only a sub-deacon, [6] he is instituted to the Rectory of Wotton-juxta-Wyngeswode, in the gift of the Abbot and Convent of St. Augustine, of Bristol. [7] In or before 1307 Orleton became one of the King's Clerks, In that day, the road to promotion lay through the service of the Crown. The clergy, being the educated class, were useful as lawyers, administrators, and diplomatists, and their wages could be paid, without expense to the king, by means of Church preferment, This, of necessity, produced a type of ecclesiastic such as we find, under the Plantagenet kings, holding many of the highest offices in the Church: able administrators, shrewd men of the world, secular-minded rather than saintly, and not always perhaps overscrupulous - indistinguishable, in short, in matters of morals and conscience, from the lay Barons with whom they lived and worked, And of this type Adam de Orleton was perhaps the most dis- tinguished example.

When King Edward I. died (July 7, 1307) Orleton was at once singled out by the new government as a capable man for

[1] Drokensford Reg. f. 33a.
[2] Rymer, Foed. II, 162. Cf. Robert of Oraystanes (Angl. Sac. 1) p. 261.
[3] Jean XX't. p. 27.
[4] Adam de Murimouth (Rolls ed.) p. 172. chronicling Orleton's death (July 18th, 1345) says that he was then senex et plenus dierum.
[5] Worcester Reg., sede vacante, f. 17a.
[6] He obtained a licence next year (6 Kal. Ap. 1302) to be presented to deacon's orders by any Bishop in the Province of Canterbury, since the See of Worcester was then vacant.
[7] Giffard, Reg., f. 464.

iv Introduction.

delicate diplomatic work, He must, then, already have proved himself as tactful, prudent, and business-like, as he was hereafter shown to be strong, resourceful, and indomitable of purpose. Even in these early days, Orleton was no favourite with Edward II. Brainless and pleasure-loving clerics such as his relative, Louis de Beaumont, or his tutor, Walter Reynolds, were more to the taste of the young King. But Edward had at least sense enough to recognise that the man who went to represent him at the Papal Curia must know a little Latin, and have some acquaintance with the subtleties of diplomacy. Hence he kept his favourites with himself at home, while Adam de Orleton, with his friend and colleague, Adam de Murimouth, and others of like stamp, were employed almost continuously at the Papal Court. Orleton's first commission is dated Dec. 12, 1307, [1] when he receives letters of commendation to the Pope, with the object of promoting the Canonization of Bishop Cantilupe. Clement V, [2] Pope "par la grace de Dien et de Philippe-le-bel", had not yet adopted Avignon as his place of residence, but was leading "cette vie errante, vagabonde, et inquiete, qui caracterise ce juif-errant couronne" [3]. Orleton found him, early in 1308, at Poictiers, practically a captive of Philippe- le-bel. The English King, on April 15, 1308, writes to thank the Pope for the kind reception [4] he had given to the young diplomat, ut intelleximus intervenientium affatibus nuntiorum. [5]

From this time onwards, until his appointment to the Bishopric of Hereford in 1317, Orleton spent much of his time at the Court of the Pope, travelling back to England once or twice each year. He seems to have been paid by the King - somewhat irregularly - at the rate of 200 marks a year, [6] besides the ecclesiastical

[1] Rymer, Foed. II, i, 20.
[2] Clement had been elected Pope in 1305, and was enthroned at Lyons, on Nov. 14 in the same year, the first Pope to be crowned out of Italy.
[3] Andre, "La papaute a Avignon", p. 38.
[4] Throughout his reign Clement V was friendly to Edward II, who - though he was then only Prince of Wales, and deeply in debt - had sent him, on his election as Pope, the most magnificent and costly presents. He steadily appointed the King's favourites to Bishoprics, and completed his subservience in 1313, by promoting the worthless Reynolds to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, annulling the election of Thomas Cobham by the Chapter. It was asserted, however, that this business cost Edward 32,000 marks in bribery.
[5] Rymer, Foed. II, i, 49.
[6] On AprIl 24, 1312, we find the King granting the custody of the lands of John de Grey, of Rotherfeld, in Duston, co. Northampton, a minor, to Adam de Orleton "until he is satisfied in the sum of 100 marks which the King is indebted to him for his wages for half-a-year". Orleton, on Dec. 10, makes this over to William de Ayremynne, King's clerk (afterwards Bishop of Norwich) who, for 60 marks paid into the treasury, obtains an extension of the custody for ten years.

Orleton in Avignon. v

preferment which he obtained. We can trace his journeyings to and fro in Rymer, and in the Patent and Close Rolls of these years. In March, 1309, Walter Reynolds, then Bishop of Worcester, goes with him on his return to the Papal Court, which Clement at length (on the Octave of Epiphany, 1309) had definitely located at Avignon.

When Reynolds and Orleton arrived, a few months after the Pope had taken up his residence there, Avignon was a small and unimportant town, which, hitherto, had only been inhabited by a few fishermen and sailors. But the stream of gold which now began to pour into it soon transformed it into a city of palaces and churches, rivalling in magnificence even the Rome of the Renaissance. The vast fortress-palace of the Popes - "la plus belle et la plus forte maison du monde", as Froissart calls it - on which, from 1336 onwards, Benedict XII and his successors spent the fortune amassed by John XXII, was not yet erected. But the Cathedral, Notre Dame des Doms, had already been re-built; and the convents and churches were even now springing up, which, by the incessant ringing of their bells, caused Rabelais, two centuries later, to give to Avignon the name of "isle sonnante".

Much of the year 1310 was spent by Orleton at Avignon, though in March, and again in September, he was in England. In this year he obtained preferment to a Canonry at Wells. He procured from the Pope, before returning to England in March, a letter of provision, collating him to the "next stall in Wells, not bursal". On receiving this letter, Bishop Drokensford, on March 29, admitted him in canonicum, quantum in se fuit, and on the same day writes enjoining the Dean and Chapter to install him quantum ad eos pertinet. No stall was vacant, however, before September; and Orleton, until that date, held the Canonry without a Prebend. On September 2nd, Drokensford, from his house at Greenwich, writes to the Dean of Wells [1] that he has admitted Adam de Orleton (here first styled professor juris canonici) to the Prebend of Wandestre, and instructs the Dean to induct him. This was done within the month.

In July, 1311, Orleton, at Avignon, is arranging with the Cardinals for suitable quarters to be assigned to the English envoys at the Council of Vienne, which was to meet on Oct. 1. [2] In the

[1] Reg. f. 33a.
[2] Rymer. Foed. II. a 132.

vi Introduction.

autumn, the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London, attended by Otto de Grandison and another knight, came to Avignon, on business connected with the Scotch troubles; and Orleton, by this time Canon also of Hereford, [1] receives letters of credence with them, dated October 10, 1311. [2] During this mission Orleton is made Papal Chaplain, [3] and returns to England as the bearer of the Pope's letter, urging the King in the matter of Scotland. He reached Edward, at Westminster, on December 16, [4] and seems to have remained in England for the next four months, returning to Avignon in April, 1312 - taking with him, this time, letters of strong personal recommendation from the King to the Pope's Confessor, to his Chamberlain, and to five other Cardinals, as well as a special letter to the Pope himself. [5] At the close of the year, Orleton is once again in England, where he seems to have remained until early in 1314. On Friday, the morrow of Ascension Day, 1313, we find him, with Richard de Bello, Archdeacon of Bucks and Canon of Hereford (author also of the "Mappa Mundi"), attending as proxy for Bishop Swinfield, disabled by reason of illness [6] at a provincial Council [7] held in the chapter-house of St. Paul's. [8] In this same year the controversy between the Friars and the University of Oxford, which began in 1311 by the appeal of the Friars to the Pope, complaining of certain acts of oppression on the part of the University, was submitted to arbitration, and Gilbert de Middleton, one of the four arbitrators, appointed Orleton to be his proctor in the case. [9]

[1] The following heading occurs on f. 171 of the Swinfield Register: Prebenda collata Magistro Ade de Orletone. But the entry has been carefully erased, the first word Memo only being left. The entry preceding this is dated 8 Id. Feb., 1310. We may, therefore, conclude that it was in 1310 that Orleton obtained the Hereford Prebend.
[2] Rymer, Foed. II, i. 145.
[3] This was a purely honorary office, which, however, conferred certain privileges, and was much sought after. Walter Disse, towards the end of the century, was empowered to sell for Pope Urban VI fifty appointments to this office.
[4] Rymer, Foed. II. i, 152.
[5] Rymer, Foed. II, 1, 162.
[6] Bishop Swinfield, vir jocundus in verbis et egregius predicator (Walsing, Hist. Ans. I, 24), was a stay-at-home prelate, who made his weak health an excuse for non- attendance at parliaments and councils. He was, however, an excellent Bishop, administering both the temporal and spiritual affairs of the Diocese with zeal and success, and tactfully settling the many disputes into which St. Thomas - hot-headed in spite of his holiness - had plunged the See.
[7] Swinf. Reg. f. 186.
[8] It is perhaps worth noting that, in this year 1313, Francesco Petrarca - then a boy nine years old - entered Avignon for the first time. Since the elder Petrarch was a lawyer who did business for the Pope, it is just possible that the boy may have met Orleton, even in these early days. They would almost certainly have known each other later on, though having, of course, little in common.
[9] Collectanea, Oxf. Hist. Soc., II. 266.

Orleton's preferments. vii

On March 4, 1314, Orleton, "going to the Court of Rome on business enjoined him", appoints as his attorneys, until Michaelmas, Richard de Bykerton and Reginald de Orleton. [1] On April 20, soon after Orleton's arrival in Avignon, Clement V. died [2] and, within a month, twenty-three Cardinals came together at Carpentras to elect his successor. Two months were passed in disputes, intrigues, and violent recriminations: until, on July 23, the nephew of the dead Pope, with his men-at-arms, broke up the Conclave by force. It is highly probable that Orleton, who was "at the Court of Rome" all this summer, was present at this Conclave, where he may possibly have met Dante and other Italian exiles. Two years of trouble and discord followed. But even through these years of strife the business of state had, somehow, to be got through: and Orleton spent most of the year 1315 at Avignon, returning to England in the autumn, but setting out again to the Papal Court immediately after Christmas. [3]

During these years of absence at the Papal Court Orleton retained, of course, his English preferments. Rector of Wotton, Canon of Hereford and of Wells, he was now also Rector of Acle, in the Diocese of Norwich, to. which was soon added the Rectory of Hanwell, in Oxfordshire. It must be remembered that no discredit attached to him as a pluralist. Grosseteste, it is true, had, more especially in the last three years of his life (1250-1253), protested vigorously against the Papal Provisions - the root out of which the system grew - and had definitely given as the ground of his opposition the fact that non quaerebant nisi temporalia. But, though this bold protest from the foremost Bishop of his day had compelled the Pope (in the Bull issued Nov. 3, 1253, about a month after Grosseteste's death) to recognise the principle for which Grosseteste had contended, yet in practice the system remained unchanged. Even saintly men like Thomas Cobham - "the good parson", consecrated with Orleton at Avignon - could hold, as he did, four livings and three canonries, while he was at the same time Precentor, Sub-Dean, and Archdeacon in different dioceses

[1] This is probably the same Reginald de Orleton who. on Feb. 23. 1302, was pardoned by the King for the death of Simon de Lastres. In Nov., 1314, Adam de Odeon is again in England for a few weeks, and returns to Avignon in company with Adam de Murimouth.
[2] Octo annis et amplius Papa Clemens quintus universalem rexit ecclesiam, sed quicquid profuit homini evasit memoriam. Auct. Malmes. (Rolls series), 142.
[3] His safe-conduct, until Michaelmas of 1313, is dated Dec. 26. 1315.

viii Introduction.

It was usual to obtain from the Pope, on payment of a small fee, a dispensation permitting this irregularity. Orleton's dispensation (dated 16 Kal. Dec., 1316) allows him to retain all his preferments on payment "before next Easter" of the first- fruits of Acle.

At last, in August, 1316, the Cardinals, reassembled at Lyons, elected as Pope Jacques Dense, Cardinal Bishop of Porto, and, before that, of Avignon. In the latter capacity, as Bishop of Avignon, he had been practically Secretary of State to the previous Pope, his unique knowledge of civil and canon law rendering his decision final on all legal points. He made his solemn entry into Avignon, as Pope John XXII, on Oct. 2. This appointment made an immense difference in Orleton's position and prospects, for the new Pope had known and valued Orleton since 1310. Able and energetic himself, he had at once recognised the energy and ability of the young English diplomat. And now, on his accession to the Papacy, he appointed Orleton to the office of auditor in curia. [1] The rapacity, the unblushing simony, and the open immorality of the Avignon Popes, in their splendid vassalage to France, had not yet become a bye-word in Europe. It was later in the century that the English Parliament branded the Papal Court as "la peccherouse cite d'Avenon." John XXII, the active and tireless old man, who, elected Pope when 72 years old, aspired for 18 years to rule Europe from his throne in Avignon, was not, as Clement V. had been, the miserable slave of the French King, tortured by the ever-present reproaches of his conscience. He was austere and narrow-minded, it may be - rapacious also and grasping, though not for himself. He was profoundly convinced that the temporal power throughout the world belonged, by right divine, to the Roman Pontiff. With him the appropriation of benefices by reservation or provision [2] was not, as some have asserted, a sordid scheme for making money, but part of his well-organised plan for reversing the humiliation of the Papacy at Anagni, and winning for it the sovereignty of the world. If he had had to deal with Philippe-le-bel, a man as able and unscrupulous as himself, he might have failed. But Philippe had followed Clement to the grave within a few months, leaving

[1] I.e. one of the twelve Judges of the Supreme Court of Justice in the Roman system. For the appointment see Robert of Graystanes, 761.
[2] John XXII carried this long-established practice of the Popes to an extreme which led him, in Hallam's words, to "reserve to himself all the Bishoprics of Christendom".

Orleton in Avignon. ix

his three sons—cursed, as was universally believed, with barrenness and incapacity, by the curse of the dying Templars - to follow one another on the throne in miserable and inglorious sovereignty. John XXII, ruling them, and France through them, and alternately indulging and snubbing the feeble English King, was free to devote his best energies to the task of humbling the Emperor - a task, however, which he left still unaccomplished at his death.

It was soon recognised in England that Orleton was a special favourite with the new Pope, and the list of applicants to him to use his influence on their behalf is a long one. In the early part of the year 1317 he seems to have been continuously occupied in obtaining grants. The King writes to him on Dec. 25, 1316, [1] urging him to do everything possible to secure the success of a mission he is sending to the Pope in the spring - the Bishops of Norwich and Ely, with the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Badlesmere, were the envoys. Their business was threefold - to obtain a grant of the Holy Land Tenth for the King, to secure absolution for Edward from his oath to observe the Ordinances [2] and, in the matter of the cess, to satisfy the Pope, who, in a mandate issued on Nov. 18, 1316, had demanded the arrears for twenty-six years. They obtained the Tenth, but failed to secure for the King absolution from his oath. As to the cess, Pembroke and Badlesmere, on April 1, paid 1,000 marks for the year 1317, and "in the chamber of Cardinal de Pel, and in the presence of Adam de Orleton", swore, on behalf of the King, to pay the arrears, in four yearly instalments. Within a fortnight of this date, Orleton is instrumental in procuring no less than twelve Papal letters of provision to various preferments in England. Of these, we need only mention, as relating to our diocese, a Canonry of Hereford [3] assigned to John de Bruneshope, one of Pembroke's clerks; a Canonry of Chichester to James de Berkeley (another of Pembroke's clerks, who was already Canon of Exeter, Wells, Hereford, St.

[1] Rymer, Foed. II. i, 305.
[2] It will, of course, be remembered that, within three years of his coming to the throne, Edward's utter incapacity for ruling had caused the Barons to draw up a set of Ordinances for reforming the Government, and even the King's household. Edward, though he complained that he was treated like an idiot (sicut providetur fatuo, Auct. Malmes. 174), nevertheless accepted and swore to obey these Ordinances, on Oct. 5, 1311.
[3] Said to be worth "ten pounds of Tours". Another Hereford Prebend is returned at £27. Orleton's Canonry in Wells is worth 8 marks, and Richard de Bello's Hereford Prebend is valued at no more than six shillings.

x Introduction.

David's, and Bosham); and a Canonry of "Brobbiart" [1] for Baldwin de Wycteney. Mindful of his own relations also, Orleton secures a Canonry of St. Mary's, Darlington, for John de Orleton, already Rector of Aishoby, in the diocese of Carlisle, and of Tidrinton, in that of Worcester.

Meanwhile, at home in England, Richard Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford, had died, on March 15, 1317. The King at once wrote to the Pope, asking him to appoint Thomas de Charleton to the vacant See. But the Pope, wishing to have a strong and capable man, personally devoted to himself, among the English Bishops, gave Orleton the preferment, the deed of appointment being signed on May 15. Concurrent letters were sent, on the same day, to the Chapter of Hereford, to the clergy and people of the Diocese, to the vassals of the Bishopric, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and to the King. Fearing that this might happen - for Edward had already heard that Orleton was high in favour with the new Pope - the King writes, on May 6th, a more urgent letter, strongly pressing the claims of Charleton, and warning the Pope that if, quod absit, he promoted Orleton to the Bishopric, illud, quibusdam de causis quas ad presens subticemus, nobis grave videretur, nec illud possemus pro honore nostro quomodolibet tolerare. [2] This letter he sent to Avignon by the hand of John de Hildesle. On May 9 he writes also to the Dean and Chapter of Hereford, asking them to proceed at once to the election of the new Bishop, with private letters to the Canons individually, urging them to procure Charleton's election. It would seem, however, that the Chapter, already aware of the new Pope's policy of reservation, did not proceed to an election.

As well as the letter to the Pope, John de Hildesle carried with him to Avignon a letter from the King to Orleton himself, forbidding him to accept the Bishopric. In this letter the King says: Ob aliquas certas causas, quas ad presens subticemus de vobis presertim isto tempore nullatenus confidimus: and further, of Orleton's promotion to the Bishopric, si ita fieret, juri corone nostre regie derogaretur. Finally he commands him, if by chance promotion to the said Bishopric should be offered him, not to give his consent "as he values his own peace and advancement, and that of his friends". [3]

[1] Bromyard.
[2] Rymer, Foed. II, 328.
[3] Rymer, Foed. II, I. 328.

Orleton made Bishop of Hereford. xi

Before this letter could reach Avignon, [1] Orleton, though scarcely yet convalescent from a severe illness which, in April, had interrupted his work, had been consecrated, on May 22, by Nicholas Albertini, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. Thomas Cobham, the elect of Worcester, was consecrated with him. Since Avignon in summer, sine vento venenosa, was not considered good for one in his state of health, he was allowed to leave the Papal Court at once, without even taking the oath of fealty to the Pope. [2] Before leaving, however, he managed to secure, of the five preferments he was vacating, two for members of his family. Thomas de Orleton obtained the Rectory of Acle, [3] and John de Orleton, already Canon of Hereford, secured the Prebend of Wells. Wotton went to a foreign Cardinal, Bertrand, of St. Mary's in Aquiro.

Reaching England before the end of June, Orleton, on the 30th, made his profession of obedience to the Archbishop, coram magno altari in ecclesia Cantuariensi cum processione solemn in primo adventu suo, and on July 2, at Lambeth, he received the spiritualia of the See at the hands of the Archbishop. The King, who was already accustomed to have his requests ignored by the new Pope, soon forgave the infringement of the "rights of the crown". Moreover, since Orleton was now probably the ablest of English diplomatists, and was known to be a special favourite with John XXII, his services could scarcely be dispensed with. So Edward accepted the situation, and allowed him to receive the temporalities, at Nottingham, on July 24. [4] The enthronement at Hereford did not take place until Oct. 1, the Sunday after Michaelmas Day.

When Orleton returned to England as Bishop of Hereford, the condition of the country was lamentable in the extreme. Nine years before, soon after Edward's accession, Walter Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, friend to the King though he was, and fated in the end to die for him, had written to a foreign Cardinal, Pessima sunt tempora in Anglia his diebus, et multi timent deteriora in

[1] From a comparison of the dates of the various letters which were continually passing to and fro, it would seem that the journey from England to Avignon took from 17 to 20 days.
[2] The dispensation for this irregularity was not granted until 19 Kal. Feb., 1320.
[3] The Letter of Provision is dated 6 Id. June, after the new Bishop had left Avignon.
[4] On the same day a mandate is issued to Robert Broun, guardian of the Bishopric, to hand over the temporalities of the See.

xii Introduction.

futuris. [1] His forebodings were only too true: things had indeed gone from bad to worse. For some years before 1317, the government - so far as there was any government - had been practically in the hands of Edward's jealous cousin, Thomas of Lancaster, [2] a cruel, treacherous, and violent man, only less incompetent than Edward himself. Lancaster's every action was determined by personal aims and personal grievances ; and his selfish, short-sighted policy was as great a misfortune to the country as the obstinate folly of the King. [3] In the summer of 1317, the long-standing differences between Edward and his powerful kinsman had brought about a state of almost open war. Each had gathered together a strong force, and for months they lay watching each other, ready to fight at any moment. On the King's side were only incompetent fools, such as the Archbishop, [4] or greedy and insolent favourites like the Despensers. Lancaster, had he been an abler and more patriotic man, could have formed a strong popular party - the party of freedom, inheriting the great traditions of Simon de Montfort. Being what he was, a parody rather than a follower of the great Earl, he had only the adventitious support of the Marcher Lords, Humphrey Bohun, John Giffard, and the Mortimers, who had their own reasons, at times, for going against the King. [5] Between the two factions stood a middle party - Pembroke, who was perhaps personally loyal to his kinsman the King, and still cherished resentment against Lancaster for the dishonour done to his word by the execution, in 1312, of Gaveston, though he had Pembroke's pledge of safe-conduct ; Badlesmere, a bitter personal enemy of Earl Thomas; and D'Amory, who sought only to secure, against Despenser's greed, his succession to the Gloucester honours. These three, in the November of this year, bound themselves by an indenture to an alliance for gaining supreme influence in the Royal Council, as against Lancaster and the Despensers alike.

Adam de Orleton favoured none of these parties. He had two loyalties, and to these he was true through life, in spite of

[1] Reg. Stap. (ed. Hingeston-Randolph), p. 12.
[2] He was the son of the great Lord Edmund of Lancaster, brother of Edward I, and Lord of the Three Castles. To this day several of the roadside inns in the neighbourhood of Grosmont are called "The Lancaster Arms".
[3] The Malmesbury writer (p. 245) charges Lancaster also with high treason; alleging that, in 1919, he was bribed by the Scotch with £40,000, to allow their army to escape back to Scotland.
[4] Homo quasi illiteratus, et, secundum judicium hominum, tam ration vite quam scientie omni gradu dignitatis indignus. Chron. Lanercost, 222.
[5] In 1318, however, Roger Mortimer, of Wigmore, seems to have attached himself loosely to Pembroke's party. It was the seizure of Gower by the younger Despenser which, as we shall see, drove him to side with Lancaster, thus bringing about the war of 1322.

Orleton's attitude towards the King. xiii

much obloquy and suffering - to John XXII, his friend and patron on the Papal throne, and to Roger Mortimer, the son and successor of that Lord of Wigmore, who had been the patron of his youth. To Edward, from the first, he neither felt nor owed any gratitude. He had, it is true, been employed by the King, but only because he was quite one of the ablest men in a reign not rich in talent. But a friend to the King he had never been, and it is to his credit that this is so. For, of the clergy, the chosen friends of Edward - rex illiterates as he was - were such as Hugh of Eversden, the Abbot of St. Albans, who parum nactus de Latino nihil plus timuit quam Latinam linguam; or Louis de Beaumont, who, reading, in the Ordination Service, I Cor. 12, and stumbling over in enigmate, was heard to mutter "Par Saynt Louis il ne fu pas curtays qui cent parole icy escrit"; [1] or Walter Reynolds - not the unattractive Reynolds of later years, so pitifully weak and foolish, but the youthful Reynolds, who won the Prince's favour by his aptitude for private theatricals. [2] It speaks well for Orleton that his preferment came to him from the Pope, not from the King, who, says the Bridlington writer, [3] indignos et ineptos ad gradus ecclesiasticos promovit, qui postea angustiis non affuerunt. Orleton, therefore, had not to feel, like Stratford, that he had obtained his See by an act of gross treachery - had not even to feel, as Becket, 150 years earlier had felt, that, in accepting a Bishopric, he had changed masters. For his master from the first, as Edward's letters frankly recognise, had been the Pope.

Orleton had received the temporalities on July 24, and four days afterwards he is summoned to send his service to the muster at Newcastle-on-Tyne against the Scots. About the same time a royal brief is forwarded to him, demanding payment of the tenth, which, at Orleton's request, the Pope had granted to the King in the early part of the year. On Aug. 1, the Bishop is again called upon for this payment, "as the King greatly needs money". [4] The Papal envoys in England, Cardinals Gaucelin and Luke de Flisco,

[1] Louis de Beaumont's preferment to the Bishopric of Durham, in 1318, cost the royal families of England and France, to both of which he was related, vast sums in bribery.
[2] In ludis theatralibus principatum tenuit, et kr hoc regis favorem obtinuit. Auct. Malmes., 142.
[3] Brid. (Rolls series), 91.
[4] He owed, among other debts, £3035 12s, 01/2d. to certain "merchant vintners of the Duchy of Aquitaine", for enormous quantities of wine, and they, pressing for payment, received a grant from this tenth, which the Pope had trustfully given on the understanding "that the said King wishes to follow in his father's footsteps and come to the rescue of the Holy Land".

xiv Introduction.

also wrote asking for procurations. The Dean and Chapter wrote to the Bishop to protest against collecting these imposts. Orleton writes in reply that the claims are legal, and must be paid, adding that he will shortly come to the diocese, when he will help them in the matter. [1] In this, the Bishop's first important letter, as in all which follow, we can read the character of the man: clear, direct, and business-like, he knows what he means, and says it, without ambiguity, and without verbosity - in striking contrast to the involved and tortuous phraseology of some of his correspondents - notably the Archbishop - who, in sentences all but interminable, seem to lose what purpose they had, and reach at length an end, with next to nothing said.

It is not clear why the Bishop, after receiving the temporalities on July 24, delayed so long at Thame before proceeding to his diocese. About the middle of September, however, he set out, by way of Evesham, for his Herefordshire manor of Sugwas, which he reached on the 18th; the enthronization took place on Sunday, Oct. 1; and, after spending the rest of the month at Sugwas, on diocesan business of various interest and importance, the Bishop went to London, ob causam rationabilem - what the exact business was we are left to conjecture - leaving Richard Vernon, his "official", as Vicar-general. Returning to the Marches towards the end of January, 1318, Orleton set about a systematic visitation of the diocese, beginning with the Forest Deanery. Before the end of February, however, the visitation work was interrupted by another journey to London, this time to resist an act of spoliation. In the episcopal manor of Lydbury North were three little vills, Muleton, Chastroke, and Aston, which long ago, in 1263, had been claimed by the Constable of Montgomery as part of that Honour, [2] and for a time had been alienated from the Bishopric. They had been recovered and held by Bishop Swinfield; but, on his death, Hugh de Audeley had seized the three villa, and "does not permit the eschaetor or his sub-eschaetor in those parts to intermeddle with the said vills". An inquisition proved that they belonged to the Bishopric, and, on March 1, Orleton obtains from the King, at Westminster, an order to Hugh D'Audeley "not to intermeddle

[1] On Feb. 3 of next year £900 was sent to the King, and a further sum of £80 on May 4.
[2] See Capes, Introduction to Cant. Reg., p. xxvii.

The Papal Constitution. xv

with" the vills. [1] For these and other needful expenses, the Bishop is compelled to borrow, on this visit to London, £18 13s. 9d. from John de Bureford, £20 from Galfrid Heieham, and £20 from his tenant of Montalt, Hamo de Chigwell.

Scarcely had the Bishop resumed the interrupted visitation, when he is again summoned to London - this time for a meeting of the Bishops, to consider the state of things brought about in the English Church by the Papal Constitution. By this the new Pope had ordered pluralists to vacate all their benefices save one: and each Diocesan was required to make a return of the names and value of these benefices. In consequence of the stringency of the Constitution, many parishes were left without curates, "the service of God is everywhere neglected, no hospitality of any kind is kept up, and the devotion of the lay-people to the Church is growing utterly lukewarm, or vanishing altogether". So the Bishops of the Southern Province complain in a joint letter which, on May 30, they address to the Pope, praying him to "make provision for these English churches thus widowed". Orleton signed the letter with the other Bishops [2] although, with his usual energy, he seems to have been quite prepared himself to arrange for filling the vacancies which had occurred in his diocese. [3]

On June 16, the Bishop (with Sir John Abel and Master Richard Burton, clerk) is commissioned by the King to proceed to the French Court, and perform on Edward's behalf the homage due to the new French King for the Duchy of Aquitaine. Owing to some informality in their commission Philip postponed receiving the homage; and the envoys, arranging to be back with new credentials before Sept. 8, returned [4] to the English King at Nottingham, just in time for Orleton to take his part in the agreement

[1] How the matter ended is uncertain. It would seem that D'Audeley did not obey this mandate; for an undated memorandum in the Close Rolls - evidently later than this order - states that Orleton appointed Roger de Walynton and William Body "to prosecute and defend in chancery the matter of the detinue of certain lands of the Bishop by Hugh D'Audeley the elder. Constable of Montgomery". But, in 1322, the Bishop and D'Audeley are working harmoniously together in opposition to the Despensers.
[2] The letter is signed by all the Bishops of the Province except three - the See of Rochester was vacant, and the Bishops of St. Asaph and Llandaff were abroad.
[3] Thus on Dec. 18, the Bishop removed the Rector of Kington, as a pluralist, notified the Earl of Hereford, as patron, and called on him at once to appoint a new Rector.
[4] A document in the Register is dated on June 29 from Rue in Ponthieu, on this return journey.

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