Life

He was a monk of St Augustine's, Canterbury. On 19 April 1387 he was sent as proctor to secure the papal confirmation for the election of a new abbot

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

. Detained for eight days at Orwell

Orwell

Orwell can refer to:*The writer George Orwell and the derived phrase Orwellian*The River Orwell in Suffolk, England*Orwell High School in Suffolk, England*The village of Orwell, Cambridgeshire, England...

, he did not land till 5 May. He reached Lucca

Lucca

Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...

 on 11 June, and then had to follow the pope from Lucca to Perugia

Perugia

Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....

 and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, for more than a year. He gives a detailed negative account of the Papal Curia, with a table of charges incurred by the monastery during the vacancy. He failed to secure the confirmation, and the abbot had to come in person.

While in Italy Thorne recovered for his monastery the possession of the rectory of Littleborne, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, the patronage of which had passed to the monastery of St. Mary de Monte Mirteto of the order of Flora in the diocese of Velletri, where only two monks resided. He concluded his business in January 1390, and started home on the 20th. On his arrival he hurried to meet the king Richard II

Richard II of England

Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...

 at Langley

Langley

Langley is often used as a metonym in U.S. government and military parlance to refer to the Central Intelligence Agency, whose headquarters is located in Langley, Virginia.Langley may also refer to:-Persons:...

 on 5 April.

Works

His history covers the abbots of St. Augustine's, extending from the foundation to 1397. The first part to 1228 was largely taken from the work of Thomas Sprott. The work was printed by Roger Twysden in his Decem Scriptores, 1652.