Henry Chichele
Encyclopedia
Henry Chichele (c.
1364 – 12 April 1443), English archbishop
, founder of All Souls College, Oxford
, was born at Higham Ferrers
, Northamptonshire
, in 1363 or 1364. Chicheley told Pope Eugene IV
, in 1443, in asking leave to retire from the archbishopric, that he was in his eightieth year.
as a suitor in the mayor's court, and in 1381–1382, and again in 1384–1385, was mayor
: in fact, for a dozen years he and Henry Barton, schoolmaster of Higham Ferrers grammar school, and one Richard Brabazon, filled the mayoralty in turns.
His occupation does not appear; but his eldest son, William, is on the earliest extant list (1383) of the Grocers' Company, London
. On 9 June 1405 Chichele was admitted, in succession to his father, to a burgage in Higham Ferrers. His mother, Agnes Pincheon, is said to have been of gentle birth. There is therefore no foundation in fact for the account (copied into the Dictionary of National Biography
from a local historian, J Cole, Wellingborough, 1838) that Henry Chichele, as a poor ploughboy "eating his scanty meal off his mother's lap", was picked up by William of Wykeham
. Certainly this story was unknown to Arthur Duck
, Fellow
of All Souls, who wrote Chichele's life in 1617. Rather it would appear to be an oft-employed method of illustrating the rise of a successful individual, thus perpetuating their historical importance. Similar instances of this are evident in the recounting of the lives of Dick Whittington
, Wolsey and Gresham
.
The first recorded appearance of Chichele himself is at New College, Oxford
, as Checheley, eighth among the undergraduate fellows, in July 1387, in the earliest extant hall-book, which contains weekly lists of those dining in Hall. It is clear from Chichele's position in the list, with eleven fellows and eight scholars, or probationer fellows, below him, that this entry does not mark his first appearance in the college, which had been going on since 1375 at least, and was chartered in 1379. He must have come from Winchester College
in one of the earliest batches of scholars from that college, the sole feeder of New College, not from St John Baptist College, Winchester, as guessed by Dr William Hunt in the Dict. Nat. Biog. (and repeated in Charles Grant Robertson
's History of All Souls College) to cover the mistaken supposition that St Mary's College
was not founded till 1393. St Mary's College was in fact formally founded in 1382, and the school had been going on since 1373 (AF Leach, History of Winchester College), while no such college as St John's College
at Winchester ever existed.
Chichele appears in the Hall-books of New College up to the year 1392/93, when he was a B.A. and was absent for ten weeks from about 6 December to 6 March, presumably for the purpose of his ordination as a sub-deacon, which was performed by the bishop of Derry, acting as suffragan to the bishop of London
. He was then already beneficed, receiving a royal ratification of his estate as parson of Llanvarchell in the diocese of St Asaph
on 20 March 1391/92 (Cat. Pat. Rolls). In the Hall-book, marked 1393/94, but really for 1394/95, Chicheley's name does not appear. He had then left Oxford and gone up to London to practise as an advocate in the principal ecclesiastical court, the Court of Arches. His rise was rapid. Already on 8 February 1395/96 he was, on a commission with several knights and clerks to hear an appeal in a case of John Molton, Esquire v. John Shawe, citizen of London, from Sir John Cheyne. kt., sitting for the constable of England in a court of chivalry
.
Like other ecclesiastical lawyers and civil servants of the day; he was paid with ecclesiastical preferments. On 13 April 1396 he obtained ratification of the parsonage of St Stephens, Walbrook, presented on 30 March by the abbot of Colchester
, no doubt through his brother Robert, who restored the church and increased its endowment. In 1397 he was made archdeacon of Dorset by Richard Mitford
, bishop of Salisbury
, but litigation was still going on about it in the papal court until 27 June 1399, when the pope extinguished the suit, imposing perpetual silence on Nicholas Bubwith
, master of the rolls, his opponent. In the first year of Henry IV
Chicheley was parson of Sherston
, Wiltshire
, and prebendary
of Nantgwyly in the college of Abergwilly
, Wales
; on 23 February 1401/2, now called doctor of laws, he was pardoned for bringing in, and allowed to use, a bull of the pope providing to him the chancellorship of Salisbury Cathedral
, and canonries in the nuns' churches of Shaftesbury and Wilton in that diocese
; and on 9 January 1402/3 he was archdeacon of Salisbury.
. On 7 May 1404, Pope Boniface IX
provided him to a prebend at Lincoln, notwithstanding he already held prebends at Salisbury
, Lichfield
, St Martins-le-Grand and Abergwyly, and the living of Brington
. On 9 January 1405 he found time to attend a court at Higham Ferrers and be admitted to a burgage there. In July 1405 Chicheley began a diplomatic career by a mission to the new Roman Pope Innocent VII
, who was professing his desire to end the schism
in the papacy by resignation, if his French rival at Avignon
would do likewise. Next year, on 5 October 1406, he was sent with Sir John Cheyne to Paris
to arrange a lasting peace and the marriage of Prince Henry with the French princess Marie, which was frustrated by her becoming a nun at Poissy
next year.
In 1406 renewed efforts were made to stop the schism, and Chichele was one of the envoys sent to the new Pope Gregory XII
. Here he utilized his opportunities. On 31 August 1407 Guy Mone
(he is always so spelt and not Mohun, and was probably from one of the Hampshire Meons; there was a John Mone of Havant admitted a Winchester scholar in 1397), bishop of St David's, died, and on 12 October 1407 Chichele was by the pope provided to the bishopric of St David's
. Another bull the same day gave him the right to hold all his benfices with the bishopric. He was consecrated on 17 June 1408.
At Siena
in July 1408 he and Sir John Cheyne, as English envoys, were received by Gregory XII with special honor, and Bishop Repingdon of Lincoln, ex-Wycliffite, was one of the new batch of cardinals created on 18 September 1408, most of Gregory's cardinals having deserted him. These, together with Benedict's revolting cardinals, summoned a general council at Pisa
. In November 1408 Chichele was back at Westminster, when Henry IV received the cardinal archbishop of Bordeaux and determined to support the cardlinals at Pisa against both popes. In January 1409 Chichele was named with Bishop Hallum of Salisbury and the prior of Canterbury to represent the Southern Convocation at the council, which opened on 25 March 1409, arriving on 24 April. Obedience was withdrawn from both the existing popes, and on 26 June a new pope elected instead of them.
Chichele and the other envoys were received on their return as saviours of the world; though the result was summed up by a contemporary as trischism instead of schism, and the Church as giving three husbands instead of two. Chichele now became the subject of a leading case, the court of kings bench deciding, after arguments reheard in three successive terms, that he could not hold his previous benefices with the bishopric, and that, spite of the maxim Papa potest omnia, a papal bull could not supersede the law of the land (Year-book ii. H. iv. 37, 59, 79). Accordingly he had to resign livings and canonries wholesale (28 April 1410). As, however, he had obtained a bull (20 August 1409) enabling him to appoint his successors to the vacated preferments, including his nephew William, though still an undergraduate and not in orders, to the chancellorship of Salisbury, and a prebend at Lichfield
, he did not go empty away. In May 1410 he went again on an embassy to France; on 11 September 1411 he headed a mission to discuss Henry V's marriage with a daughter of the duke of Burgundy
; and he was again there in November.
In the interval Chichele found time to visit his diocese for the first time and be enthroned at St Davids on 11 May 1411. He was with the English force under the earl of Arundel
which accompanied the duke of Burgundy to Paris in October 1411 and there defeated the Armagnacs, an exploit which revealed to England the weakness of the French. On 30 November 1411 Chichele, with two other bishops and three earls and the prince of Wales, knelt to the king to receive public thanks for their administration. That he was in high favor with Henry V is shown by his being sent with the earl of Warwick
to France in July 1413 to conclude peace. Immediately after the death of Archbishop Arundel
he was nominated by the king to the archbishopric, elected on 4 March, translated by papal bull
on 28 April, and received the pall without going to Rome for it on 24 July.
These dates are important as they help to save Chichele from the charge, versified by Shakespeare
(Henry V
. act 1. sc. 2) from Hall's Chronicle, of having tempted Henry V into the conquest of France for the sake of diverting parliament from the disendowment of the Church. There is no contemporary authority for the charge, which seems to appear first in Redman's rhetorical history of Henry V, written in 1540 with an eye to the political situation at that time, As a matter of fact, the parliament at Leicester
, in which the speeches were supposed to have been made, began on 30 April 1414 before Chichele was archbishop. The rolls of parliament
show that he was not present in the parliament at all. Moreover parliament was so far from pressing disendowment that on the petition of the House of Commons
it passed a savage act against the heresies commonly called Lollardry which aimed at the destruction of the king and all temporal estates, making Lollards felons and ordering every justice of the peace to hunt down their schools, conventicles, congregations and confederacies.
and diplomat
ist. He was present at the siege of Rouen
, and the king committed to him personally the negotiations for the surrender of the city in January 1419 and for the marriage of Katherine. He crowned Katherine at Westminster (20 February 1421), and on 6 December baptized her child Henry VI
. He was of course a persecutor of heretics. No one could have attained or kept the position of archbishop at the time without being so. So he presided at the trial of John Claydon, Skinner and citizen of London, who after five years imprisonment at various times had made public abjuration before the late archbishop, Arundel, but now was found in possession of a book in English called The Lanterne of Light, which contained the heinous heresy
that the principal cause of the persecution of Christians was the illegal retention by priests of the goods of this world, and that archbishops and bishops were the special seats of Antichrist
.
As a relapsed heretic
, he was left to the secular arm by Chichele. On 1 July 1416 Chichele directed a half-yearly inquisition by archdeacons to hunt out heretics. On 12 February 1420 proceedings were begun before him against William Taylor, priest, who had been for fourteen years excommunicated for heresy, and was now degraded and burnt
for saying that prayers ought not to be addressed to saints, but only to God. A striking contrast was exhibited in October 1424, when a Stamford friar, John Russell, who had preached that any religious potest concuinbere cum muliere and not mortally sin, was sentenced only to retract his doctrine.
Further persecutions of a whole batch of Lollards took place in 1428. The records of convocation in Chichele's time are a curious mixture of persecutions for heresy, which largely consisted in attacks on clerical endowments, with negotiations with the ministers of the crown for the object of cutting down to the lowest level the clerical contributions to the public revenues in respect of their endowments. Chichele was tenacious of the privileges of his see, and this involved him in a constant struggle with Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester
. In 1418, while Henry V
was alive, he successfully protested against Beaufort's being made a cardinal and legate a latere to supersede the legatine jurisdiction of Canterbury
. But during the regency, after Henry VI's accession, Beaufort was successful, and in 1426 became cardinal and legate.
. The struggle between them has been represented as one of a patriotic archbishop resisting the encroachments of the papacy on the Church of England. In point of fact it was almost wholly personal, and was rather an incident in the rivalry between the duke of Gloucester and his half-brother, Cardinal Beaufort, than one involving any principle. Chichele, by appointing a jubilee to be held at Canterbury in 1420, after the manner of the Jubilee ordained by the Popes, threatened to divert the profits from pilgrim
s from Rome to Canterbury. A ferocious letter from the pope to the papal nuncios, on 19 March 1423, denounced the proceeding as calculated to ensnare simple souls and extort, from them a profane reward, thereby setting up themselves against the apostolic see and the Roman pontiff, to whom alone so great a faculty has been granted by God (Cat. Pap. Reg. vii. 12). Chichele also incurred the papal wrath by opposing the system of papal provision which diverted patronage from English to Italian hands, but the immediate occasion was to prevent the introduction of the bulls making Beaufort a cardinal. Chichele had been careful enough to obtain Papal provisions for himself, his pluralities, his bishopric and archbishopric.
' between the upper choir and the choir ambulatory adjacent to the north-east transept. The neighbouring gateway from the transept into the choir is known as the 'Chichele Gate'. His elaborate and colourful tomb, built many years before his death, depicts his naked corpse on the lower level, whilst on the upper level he is depicted resplendent in archiepiscopal vesture, his palms together in prayer. "I was pauper-born," reads the inscription on his tomb, "then to primate raised. Now I am cut down and served up for worms. Behold my grave."
Circa
Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
1364 – 12 April 1443), English archbishop
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, founder of All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford
The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
, was born at Higham Ferrers
Higham Ferrers
Higham Ferrers is a market town in the Nene Valley in East Northamptonshire, England, close to the Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire borders. It forms a single urban area with Rushden to the south and has an estimated population of 6,086...
, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, in 1363 or 1364. Chicheley told Pope Eugene IV
Pope Eugene IV
Pope Eugene IV , born Gabriele Condulmer, was pope from March 3, 1431, to his death.-Biography:He was born in Venice to a rich merchant family, a Correr on his mother's side. Condulmer entered the Order of Saint Augustine at the monastery of St. George in his native city...
, in 1443, in asking leave to retire from the archbishopric, that he was in his eightieth year.
Early career
He was the third and youngest son of Thomas Chicheley, who appears in 1368 in still extant town records of Higham FerrersHigham Ferrers
Higham Ferrers is a market town in the Nene Valley in East Northamptonshire, England, close to the Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire borders. It forms a single urban area with Rushden to the south and has an estimated population of 6,086...
as a suitor in the mayor's court, and in 1381–1382, and again in 1384–1385, was mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
: in fact, for a dozen years he and Henry Barton, schoolmaster of Higham Ferrers grammar school, and one Richard Brabazon, filled the mayoralty in turns.
His occupation does not appear; but his eldest son, William, is on the earliest extant list (1383) of the Grocers' Company, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. On 9 June 1405 Chichele was admitted, in succession to his father, to a burgage in Higham Ferrers. His mother, Agnes Pincheon, is said to have been of gentle birth. There is therefore no foundation in fact for the account (copied into the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
from a local historian, J Cole, Wellingborough, 1838) that Henry Chichele, as a poor ploughboy "eating his scanty meal off his mother's lap", was picked up by William of Wykeham
William of Wykeham
William of Wykeham was Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of England, founder of Winchester College, New College, Oxford, New College School, Oxford, and builder of a large part of Windsor Castle.-Life:...
. Certainly this story was unknown to Arthur Duck
Arthur Duck
Arthur Duck, LL.D., was an English lawyer and Member of Parliament.-Life:Born at Heavitree in Devon in 1580, the younger son of Richard Duck of Heavitree, by his wife, Joanna, and younger brother of Nicholas Duck, he was educated at Exeter College and Hart Hall, Oxford , and elected a fellow of...
, Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of All Souls, who wrote Chichele's life in 1617. Rather it would appear to be an oft-employed method of illustrating the rise of a successful individual, thus perpetuating their historical importance. Similar instances of this are evident in the recounting of the lives of Dick Whittington
Richard Whittington
Sir Richard Whittington was a medieval merchant and politician, and the real-life inspiration for the pantomime character Dick Whittington. Sir Richard Whittington was four times Lord Mayor of London, a Member of Parliament and a sheriff of London...
, Wolsey and Gresham
Thomas Gresham
Sir Thomas Gresham was an English merchant and financier who worked for King Edward VI of England and for Edward's half-sisters, Queens Mary I and Elizabeth I.-Family and childhood:...
.
The first recorded appearance of Chichele himself is at New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
, as Checheley, eighth among the undergraduate fellows, in July 1387, in the earliest extant hall-book, which contains weekly lists of those dining in Hall. It is clear from Chichele's position in the list, with eleven fellows and eight scholars, or probationer fellows, below him, that this entry does not mark his first appearance in the college, which had been going on since 1375 at least, and was chartered in 1379. He must have come from Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
in one of the earliest batches of scholars from that college, the sole feeder of New College, not from St John Baptist College, Winchester, as guessed by Dr William Hunt in the Dict. Nat. Biog. (and repeated in Charles Grant Robertson
Charles Grant Robertson
Sir Charles Grant Robertson CVO , was a British academic historian. He was a Fellow of All Soul's College, Oxford and Vice-chancellor of the University of Birmingham.-Biography:...
's History of All Souls College) to cover the mistaken supposition that St Mary's College
St Mary's College, Oxford
St Mary's College was a former college in Oxford, England. It is not to be confused with the two other colleges also named "St. Mary's", more commonly known as Oriel College and New College....
was not founded till 1393. St Mary's College was in fact formally founded in 1382, and the school had been going on since 1373 (AF Leach, History of Winchester College), while no such college as St John's College
St John's College, Oxford
__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
at Winchester ever existed.
Chichele appears in the Hall-books of New College up to the year 1392/93, when he was a B.A. and was absent for ten weeks from about 6 December to 6 March, presumably for the purpose of his ordination as a sub-deacon, which was performed by the bishop of Derry, acting as suffragan to the bishop of London
Bishop of London
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
. He was then already beneficed, receiving a royal ratification of his estate as parson of Llanvarchell in the diocese of St Asaph
Diocese of St Asaph
The Diocese of Saint Asaph is a diocese in north-east Wales, named after Saint Asaph, its second bishop.-Geography:The Anglican Diocese of St Asaph in the north-east corner of Wales stretches from the borders of Chester in the east, to the Conwy valley in the west, to Bala in the south-west, and...
on 20 March 1391/92 (Cat. Pat. Rolls). In the Hall-book, marked 1393/94, but really for 1394/95, Chicheley's name does not appear. He had then left Oxford and gone up to London to practise as an advocate in the principal ecclesiastical court, the Court of Arches. His rise was rapid. Already on 8 February 1395/96 he was, on a commission with several knights and clerks to hear an appeal in a case of John Molton, Esquire v. John Shawe, citizen of London, from Sir John Cheyne. kt., sitting for the constable of England in a court of chivalry
Chivalry
Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...
.
Like other ecclesiastical lawyers and civil servants of the day; he was paid with ecclesiastical preferments. On 13 April 1396 he obtained ratification of the parsonage of St Stephens, Walbrook, presented on 30 March by the abbot of Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
, no doubt through his brother Robert, who restored the church and increased its endowment. In 1397 he was made archdeacon of Dorset by Richard Mitford
Richard Mitford
Richard Mitford was an English bishop of Chichester from 17 November 1389, and consecrated on 10 April 1390 and then bishop of Salisbury. He was translated to the see of Salisbury on 25 October 1395....
, bishop of Salisbury
Bishop of Salisbury
The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset...
, but litigation was still going on about it in the papal court until 27 June 1399, when the pope extinguished the suit, imposing perpetual silence on Nicholas Bubwith
Nicholas Bubwith
Nicholas Bubwith was a Bishop of London, Bishop of Salisbury and Bishop of Bath and Wells as well as Lord Privy Seal and Lord High Treasurer.Bubwith was Lord Privy Seal from 2 March 1405 to 4 October 1406...
, master of the rolls, his opponent. In the first year of Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
Chicheley was parson of Sherston
Sherston, Wiltshire
Sherston is a village approximately 5 miles to the west of Malmesbury in the English county of Wiltshire. The population in 2001 was 1418 .- History :...
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, and prebendary
Prebendary
A prebendary is a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. Prebendaries have a role in the administration of the cathedral...
of Nantgwyly in the college of Abergwilly
Abergwili
Abergwili is a village in Carmarthenshire, West Wales, lying near to the junction of River Towy and River Gwili.- Bishop's Palace :It is known for its Bishop's Palace, home to the Bishop of St David's since 1542, when Bishop William Barlow transferred his palace from St David's to Abergwili,...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
; on 23 February 1401/2, now called doctor of laws, he was pardoned for bringing in, and allowed to use, a bull of the pope providing to him the chancellorship of Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture....
, and canonries in the nuns' churches of Shaftesbury and Wilton in that diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
; and on 9 January 1402/3 he was archdeacon of Salisbury.
Entry into royal service: elevation to Canterbury
This year Chichele's brother Robert was senior sheriff of LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. On 7 May 1404, Pope Boniface IX
Pope Boniface IX
Pope Boniface IX , born Piero Tomacelli, was the second Roman Pope of the Western Schism from November 2, 1389, until October 1, 1404...
provided him to a prebend at Lincoln, notwithstanding he already held prebends at Salisbury
Salisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
, Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
, St Martins-le-Grand and Abergwyly, and the living of Brington
Brington
Brington is a civil parish in the Daventry district of the county of Northamptonshire in England. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish population was 482 people.It contains three villages:*Great Brington*Little Brington*Nobottle-Notable people:...
. On 9 January 1405 he found time to attend a court at Higham Ferrers and be admitted to a burgage there. In July 1405 Chicheley began a diplomatic career by a mission to the new Roman Pope Innocent VII
Pope Innocent VII
Pope Innocent VII , born Cosimo de' Migliorati, was briefly Pope at Rome, from 1404 to his death, during the Western Schism while there was a rival Pope, antipope Benedict XIII , at Avignon.Migliorati was born to a simple family of Sulmona in the Abruzzi...
, who was professing his desire to end the schism
Schism (religion)
A schism , from Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization or movement religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a break of communion between two sections of Christianity that were previously a single body, or to a division within...
in the papacy by resignation, if his French rival at Avignon
Avignon
Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...
would do likewise. Next year, on 5 October 1406, he was sent with Sir John Cheyne to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to arrange a lasting peace and the marriage of Prince Henry with the French princess Marie, which was frustrated by her becoming a nun at Poissy
Poissy
Poissy is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center.In 1561 it was the site of a fruitless Catholic-Huguenot conference, the Colloquy at Poissy...
next year.
In 1406 renewed efforts were made to stop the schism, and Chichele was one of the envoys sent to the new Pope Gregory XII
Pope Gregory XII
Pope Gregory XII , born Angelo Correr or Corraro, Pope from 1406 to 1415, succeeded Pope Innocent VII on 30 November 1406....
. Here he utilized his opportunities. On 31 August 1407 Guy Mone
Guy Mone
Guy Mone was an English royal administrator and bishop.He was bishop of St David's from 1397 to his death. He held the offices of Lord High Treasurer and Keeper of the Privy Seal towards the end of the reign of Richard II of England, and was one of Richard's supporters.-External links:*...
(he is always so spelt and not Mohun, and was probably from one of the Hampshire Meons; there was a John Mone of Havant admitted a Winchester scholar in 1397), bishop of St David's, died, and on 12 October 1407 Chichele was by the pope provided to the bishopric of St David's
Bishop of St David's
The Bishop of St David's is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of St David's.The succession of bishops stretches back to Saint David who in the 6th century established his seat in what is today the city of St David's in Pembrokeshire, founding St David's Cathedral. The current Bishop of St...
. Another bull the same day gave him the right to hold all his benfices with the bishopric. He was consecrated on 17 June 1408.
At Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
in July 1408 he and Sir John Cheyne, as English envoys, were received by Gregory XII with special honor, and Bishop Repingdon of Lincoln, ex-Wycliffite, was one of the new batch of cardinals created on 18 September 1408, most of Gregory's cardinals having deserted him. These, together with Benedict's revolting cardinals, summoned a general council at Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
. In November 1408 Chichele was back at Westminster, when Henry IV received the cardinal archbishop of Bordeaux and determined to support the cardlinals at Pisa against both popes. In January 1409 Chichele was named with Bishop Hallum of Salisbury and the prior of Canterbury to represent the Southern Convocation at the council, which opened on 25 March 1409, arriving on 24 April. Obedience was withdrawn from both the existing popes, and on 26 June a new pope elected instead of them.
Chichele and the other envoys were received on their return as saviours of the world; though the result was summed up by a contemporary as trischism instead of schism, and the Church as giving three husbands instead of two. Chichele now became the subject of a leading case, the court of kings bench deciding, after arguments reheard in three successive terms, that he could not hold his previous benefices with the bishopric, and that, spite of the maxim Papa potest omnia, a papal bull could not supersede the law of the land (Year-book ii. H. iv. 37, 59, 79). Accordingly he had to resign livings and canonries wholesale (28 April 1410). As, however, he had obtained a bull (20 August 1409) enabling him to appoint his successors to the vacated preferments, including his nephew William, though still an undergraduate and not in orders, to the chancellorship of Salisbury, and a prebend at Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
, he did not go empty away. In May 1410 he went again on an embassy to France; on 11 September 1411 he headed a mission to discuss Henry V's marriage with a daughter of the duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy was a title borne by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, a small portion of traditional lands of Burgundians west of river Saône which in 843 was allotted to Charles the Bald's kingdom of West Franks...
; and he was again there in November.
In the interval Chichele found time to visit his diocese for the first time and be enthroned at St Davids on 11 May 1411. He was with the English force under the earl of Arundel
Earl of Arundel
The title Earl of Arundel is the oldest extant Earldom and perhaps the oldest extant title in the Peerage of England. It is currently held by the Duke of Norfolk, and is used by his heir apparent as a courtesy title. It was created in 1138 for the Norman baron Sir William d'Aubigny...
which accompanied the duke of Burgundy to Paris in October 1411 and there defeated the Armagnacs, an exploit which revealed to England the weakness of the French. On 30 November 1411 Chichele, with two other bishops and three earls and the prince of Wales, knelt to the king to receive public thanks for their administration. That he was in high favor with Henry V is shown by his being sent with the earl of Warwick
Earl of Warwick
Earl of Warwick is a title that has been created four times in British history and is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the British Isles.-1088 creation:...
to France in July 1413 to conclude peace. Immediately after the death of Archbishop Arundel
Thomas Arundel
Thomas Arundel was Archbishop of Canterbury in 1397 and from 1399 until his death, an outspoken opponent of the Lollards.-Family background:...
he was nominated by the king to the archbishopric, elected on 4 March, translated by papal bull
Papal bull
A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....
on 28 April, and received the pall without going to Rome for it on 24 July.
These dates are important as they help to save Chichele from the charge, versified by Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
(Henry V
Henry V (play)
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...
. act 1. sc. 2) from Hall's Chronicle, of having tempted Henry V into the conquest of France for the sake of diverting parliament from the disendowment of the Church. There is no contemporary authority for the charge, which seems to appear first in Redman's rhetorical history of Henry V, written in 1540 with an eye to the political situation at that time, As a matter of fact, the parliament at Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, in which the speeches were supposed to have been made, began on 30 April 1414 before Chichele was archbishop. The rolls of parliament
Rolls of Parliament
The Rolls of Parliament were the official records of the English Parliament and the subsequent Parliament of the United Kingdom. They recorded meetings of Parliament and Acts of Parliament....
show that he was not present in the parliament at all. Moreover parliament was so far from pressing disendowment that on the petition of the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
it passed a savage act against the heresies commonly called Lollardry which aimed at the destruction of the king and all temporal estates, making Lollards felons and ordering every justice of the peace to hunt down their schools, conventicles, congregations and confederacies.
The archbishop as statesman
In his capacity of archbishop, Chichele remained what he had always been chiefly, the lawyerLawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
ist. He was present at the siege of Rouen
Siege of Rouen
At the time of the Siege of Rouen , the city had a population of 70,000, making it one of the leading cities in France, and its capture crucial to the Normandy campaign during the Hundred Years' War....
, and the king committed to him personally the negotiations for the surrender of the city in January 1419 and for the marriage of Katherine. He crowned Katherine at Westminster (20 February 1421), and on 6 December baptized her child Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
. He was of course a persecutor of heretics. No one could have attained or kept the position of archbishop at the time without being so. So he presided at the trial of John Claydon, Skinner and citizen of London, who after five years imprisonment at various times had made public abjuration before the late archbishop, Arundel, but now was found in possession of a book in English called The Lanterne of Light, which contained the heinous heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
that the principal cause of the persecution of Christians was the illegal retention by priests of the goods of this world, and that archbishops and bishops were the special seats of Antichrist
Antichrist
The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
.
As a relapsed heretic
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
, he was left to the secular arm by Chichele. On 1 July 1416 Chichele directed a half-yearly inquisition by archdeacons to hunt out heretics. On 12 February 1420 proceedings were begun before him against William Taylor, priest, who had been for fourteen years excommunicated for heresy, and was now degraded and burnt
Execution by burning
Death by burning is death brought about by combustion. As a form of capital punishment, burning has a long history as a method in crimes such as treason, heresy, and witchcraft....
for saying that prayers ought not to be addressed to saints, but only to God. A striking contrast was exhibited in October 1424, when a Stamford friar, John Russell, who had preached that any religious potest concuinbere cum muliere and not mortally sin, was sentenced only to retract his doctrine.
Further persecutions of a whole batch of Lollards took place in 1428. The records of convocation in Chichele's time are a curious mixture of persecutions for heresy, which largely consisted in attacks on clerical endowments, with negotiations with the ministers of the crown for the object of cutting down to the lowest level the clerical contributions to the public revenues in respect of their endowments. Chichele was tenacious of the privileges of his see, and this involved him in a constant struggle with Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...
. In 1418, while Henry V
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....
was alive, he successfully protested against Beaufort's being made a cardinal and legate a latere to supersede the legatine jurisdiction of Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
. But during the regency, after Henry VI's accession, Beaufort was successful, and in 1426 became cardinal and legate.
Relations with the papacy
This brought Chichele into collision with Martin VPope Martin V
Pope Martin V , born Odo Colonna, was Pope from 1417 to 1431. His election effectively ended the Western Schism .-Biography:...
. The struggle between them has been represented as one of a patriotic archbishop resisting the encroachments of the papacy on the Church of England. In point of fact it was almost wholly personal, and was rather an incident in the rivalry between the duke of Gloucester and his half-brother, Cardinal Beaufort, than one involving any principle. Chichele, by appointing a jubilee to be held at Canterbury in 1420, after the manner of the Jubilee ordained by the Popes, threatened to divert the profits from pilgrim
Pilgrim
A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...
s from Rome to Canterbury. A ferocious letter from the pope to the papal nuncios, on 19 March 1423, denounced the proceeding as calculated to ensnare simple souls and extort, from them a profane reward, thereby setting up themselves against the apostolic see and the Roman pontiff, to whom alone so great a faculty has been granted by God (Cat. Pap. Reg. vii. 12). Chichele also incurred the papal wrath by opposing the system of papal provision which diverted patronage from English to Italian hands, but the immediate occasion was to prevent the introduction of the bulls making Beaufort a cardinal. Chichele had been careful enough to obtain Papal provisions for himself, his pluralities, his bishopric and archbishopric.
Death
Chichele died on 12 April 1443. He is buried in Canterbury Cathedral, in a 'cadaver tombCadaver tomb
A cadaver tomb or transi is a church monument or tomb featuring an effigy in the macabre form of a decomposing corpse. The topos was particularly characteristic of the later Middle Ages....
' between the upper choir and the choir ambulatory adjacent to the north-east transept. The neighbouring gateway from the transept into the choir is known as the 'Chichele Gate'. His elaborate and colourful tomb, built many years before his death, depicts his naked corpse on the lower level, whilst on the upper level he is depicted resplendent in archiepiscopal vesture, his palms together in prayer. "I was pauper-born," reads the inscription on his tomb, "then to primate raised. Now I am cut down and served up for worms. Behold my grave."