Thomas Lisle

Thomas Lisle (also de Lisle ) OP (* around 1298; † June 23, 1361 in Avignon ) was an English religious. From 1345 he was Bishop of Ely . After a bitter legal battle with the king, he fled into exile.

Origin and advancement as a clergyman

Thomas Lisle was probably from Kent . Possibly he was related to a Thomas Lisle (also Thomas de Insula ) who was a customs officer in Sandwich in 1292 . His nephews Thomas , Robert and William Michel came from the area of ​​the Archdiocese of Canterbury . The coat of arms he chose as bishop could indicate a relationship to the Lisle family from Hampshire. Since the 16th century it has been suggested that Lisle studied at the University of Cambridge . There he is said to have entered the Dominican settlement and obtained the degree of doctor of theology . In fact, Lisle was later a notable sponsor of the university, but it is now considered doubtful whether he even studied. It is certain that he was ordained a priest on December 18, 1322 as a member of the Dominican convent of Winchester by Bishop Rigaud de Asserio . By 1340 at the latest he was promoted to prior of the convent.

Service as a royal diplomat

In 1340 Lisle was together with other ambassadors on behalf of King Edward III. traveled to Avignon to obtain papal dispensation on the marriage of Hugh Despenser and Elizabeth Montagu, daughter of the Earl of Salisbury . The dispensation was granted on April 27, 1341. As early as March 1341, the king had instructed his envoys to prevent the confirmation of the election of William Zouche as Archbishop of York. Instead, they should try to get the Pope to appoint William Kilsby, the royal secretary, to be archbishop. In addition, they should complain to the Pope about the wrongdoing of Archbishop John Stratford of Canterbury, with whom the king was in dispute.

Appointment as bishop

After the unexpected death of Bishop Simon Montagu of Ely in 1345, the monks of the cathedral priory elected their prior Alan Walsingham as their new bishop. At this point Lisle was still or again with the Curia in Avignon. There he was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Ely on July 15 and consecrated bishop on July 24. To cover the costs of his stay in Avignon, he was allowed to take out a loan of 12,000 florins , which he was allowed to repay through donations from his diocese. On September 9, 1345, he was in Canterbury, where he vowed obedience to Archbishop Stratford. The next day the king gave him the diocesan temporalities . On November 27th he was enthroned in Ely Cathedral .

Activity as bishop

Activity as a clergyman

According to his register of documents , Lisle was a diligent clergyman as a bishop. With the exception of 1349, when he worked abroad, he carried out all ordinations and numerous other official acts in his diocese himself. In 1346 he made a visitation of the cathedral priory, and by 1347 he made visitations in seven other monasteries. Although there is no evidence that Lisle made visitations in the parishes of his diocese, Lisle consecrated thirteen parish churches and the high altars of six other churches by 1352. In 1349 Lisle received papal permission to use the income of the parish church of Leverington , which amounted to about £ 85 a year, for the episcopal household. This happened because the bishop kept his land holdings as a crown fief, with the risk that they could be confiscated. The administration of the possessions was made more difficult by the fact that Pope Clement VI. Although Cardinal Gaillard de la Mothe had appointed Archdeacon of Ely, there were two other applicants for the office. One of them practically held the office, but he was publicly accused of adultery and fornication. The name of this clergyman was not mentioned, but he was accused of not exercising his office according to canon law . This led to a conflict with the king, who had confiscated the archdeacon's income and forbade the bishop to interfere in the matter. Lisle went against the king's actions, but nothing is known about the further course of the conflict.

The Lisle sponsored Peterhouse in Cambridge

Responding to the Black Death and promoting Cambridge University

As a result of the Black Death , at least 81 clergymen died in the diocese of Ely between the beginning of April 1349 and the end of January 1350, while from 1345 to the end of 1348 just fourteen clergymen had died. Before March 1349 Lisle himself was in Avignon, but before his departure he had appointed five vicars general on October 1, 1348 . However, the mortality from the plague was so great that Lisle appointed three more vicars general from Avignon on April 9, 1349. To do this, he suspended the rule that two clergymen had to be present for certain spiritual acts. By the end of 1350 Lisle had returned to Ely. On January 1, 1352 he confirmed the re-establishment of the Hall of the Annunciation by Bishop William Bateman of Norwich on the episcopal estate in Hatfield , from which the Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge emerged. On February 3, 1353, Lisle approved the establishment of another college in Cambridge under the name Guild of Corpus Christi . During his absence on November 23, 1349, his vicar general John Hoo had confirmed the foundation of Pembroke College in Cambridge. Allegedly, Lisle donated the estates of West Wratting and Swaffham to Prior Peterhouse in Cambridge in 1358 without the consent of Ely Cathedral Priory .

Conflict, Exile and Death

According to one chronicler, Lisle was considered a good pastor and excellent preacher. However, he could also be a strict judge, although he often addressed divine grace in his sermons. His entourage was large and the meals in his household were considered generous. His relationship with the prior and the monks of the cathedral priory was at times strained after he had banned the mining of gravel and clay on episcopal property for repair work on Ely Cathedral. Since several court commissions were active in the diocese, Lisle apparently also enforced his interests by force. There were complaints about him at the beginning of his term of office, but initially Lisle had a good relationship with King Edward III. In 1346 he announced a fortnightly indulgence for prayers for the safe return of the king from his campaign in France . In 1351 he gave the rights and income to the rectorates of Whaddon and Caxton to the newly built royal church St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle . In August 1354 he sealed the king's request to Pope Innocent VI. in which the king asked the Pope to act as a mediator in the war with France .

In the summer of 1354 there was a riot at Colne, near Somersham in Huntingdonshire . Following the complaint from landlady Blanche of Lancaster , two judicial commissions were set up to investigate the incident. The bishop has now been charged with encroaching on the Blanche of Lancaster estates, and the case should be tried in the Court of King's Bench . This proceeding was initially neglected, but the Second Judicial Commission found the bishop guilty, among others, and held him responsible for £ 900 damage. That judgment was then upheld by Judge William de Shareshull at the hearing in the Court of King's Bench. At first it was unclear whether Lisle could be sentenced for his status as a clergyman, but Shareshull and the other judges eventually declared it legal. This forced Lisle to pay the fine. Lisle now claimed that the judges had ruled in favor of Blanche of Lancaster because she was a relative of the king. With this, Lisle turned the king against her. In the summer of 1355 he was charged again, this time on charges of inciting the murder of a Blanche of Lancaster henchman. After the fact he is said to have given refuge to the murderers. In view of these accusations, Lisle wanted to flee abroad, but the king forbade his departure. Instead, he invited him to the parliament , where the bishop had to answer in November 1355. During Parliament, the king was so angry at Lisle's behavior that he decided the case himself, found Lisle guilty and demanded the confiscation of the diocese of Ely. This legally dubious course of action was not carried out because a coroner was now indicting Lisle in the Court of King's Bench. A jury then investigated the case and convicted Lisle in 1356 of complicity in the murder of the henchman. Because of his status as a clergyman, Lisle has now been handed over to Archbishop Simon Islip for punishment. The archbishop advised Lisle to submit to the king, which Lisle refused. Lisle had previously unsuccessfully requested a hearing from the peers to plead his innocence. This was denied him, although it is unclear whether he was already a convicted clergyman or whether the archbishop feared the further course of the proceedings and therefore prevented a further hearing. Lisle then fled to the papal court in Avignon in November 1356 . On November 18, the diocese's temporalities were confiscated, which were then leased in February 1357 to John Wesenham , a merchant from Lynn , for 3740 marks annually. This amount was reduced to 3,000 marks in the following years, which Wesenham had to pay to the wardrobe , which also administered the king's assets. Wesenham retained the administration of the temporalia until Lisle's death in 1361.

Lisle then continued the bitter quarrel with the king from Avignon. The Archdeacon of Richmond , Henry Walton , was now to appear before the Curia. When Walton did not appear, a papal court distributed him under threat of excommunication to pay a fine of 10,000 marks. At Lisle's insistence, Pope Clement VI ordered then three of the judges who sentenced Lisle, including Shareshull, the Coroner, and other officials involved in the case, went to Avignon. When they did not appear, the Pope excommunicated them and assigned the authority to Bishop John Gynwell of Lincoln. Archbishop Islip was sharply reprimanded by the Pope for his behavior in the dispute. Lisle died in Avignon, possibly from another outbreak of the plague. He was buried in the church of Sainte-Praxède , the church of the Dominican settlement. In his will he bequeathed several books to Peterhouse in Cambridge. He bequeathed his vestments and his measuring utensils to the Ely Cathedral Priory.

The Sainte-Praxède monastery in Avignon, in whose chapel Lisle was buried after his death. Photography from 2013.

rating

As a bishop, like other bishops, notably Adam Orleton and John Stratford, Lisle was at odds with the government over alleged violence. However, because of their spiritual immunity, they were protected from secular jurisdiction. Lisle's biographer, an unnamed monk from Ely, defended him to protect the diocese's reputation and instead blamed the accusers. According to recent research, however, it is possible that Lisle pursued his interests in East Anglia, like other nobles in his day, with the use of force. Lisle's followers did not shy away from arson, kidnapping, extortion and even murder. These followers included several of Lisle's relatives, most notably his brother John and Lisle's nephew, assisted by servants from the episcopal estates. Lisle's involvement in these crimes is supported by the numerous violent incidents in his diocese and his refusal to renounce his relatives who were involved in the incidents. Perhaps Lisle tried criminally to finance his lavish lifestyle, which ultimately led to his failure.

literature

• John Aberth: Criminal churchmen in the age of Edward III. The case of Bishop Thomas de Lisle . Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania 1996. ISBN 0-271-01543-8
• John Aberth: The black death in the diocese of Ely. The evidence of the bishop's register. In: Journal of Medieval History, 21 (1995), pp. 275-287
• CR Cheney: The punishment of felonous clerks. In: English Historical Review, 51 (1936), pp. 215-36

Web links

• Roy Martin Haines: Lisle, Thomas (c. 1298-1361). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John Aberth: Criminal churchmen in the age of Edward III. The case of Bishop Thomas de Lisle . Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania 1996. ISBN 0-271-01543-8 , p. 203

predecessor	Office	successor
Simon Montagu	Bishop of Ely 1345-1361	Simon Langham