Illustrative Documents: Letter of John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1280

Registrum Statutorum et Consuetudinum Ecclesiae Cathedralis Sancti Pauli Londiniensis. Originally published by Nichols and Sons, London, 1873.

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'Illustrative Documents: Letter of John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1280', in Registrum Statutorum et Consuetudinum Ecclesiae Cathedralis Sancti Pauli Londiniensis, ed. W Sparrow Simpson( London, 1873), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/st-pauls-register/pp386-387 [accessed 23 November 2024].

'Illustrative Documents: Letter of John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1280', in Registrum Statutorum et Consuetudinum Ecclesiae Cathedralis Sancti Pauli Londiniensis. Edited by W Sparrow Simpson( London, 1873), British History Online, accessed November 23, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/st-pauls-register/pp386-387.

"Illustrative Documents: Letter of John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1280". Registrum Statutorum et Consuetudinum Ecclesiae Cathedralis Sancti Pauli Londiniensis. Ed. W Sparrow Simpson(London, 1873), , British History Online. Web. 23 November 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/st-pauls-register/pp386-387.

VI. EPISTOLA JOHANNIS PECKHAM, (fn. 1) ARCHIEPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS, AD FULCONEM LOVEL, (fn. 2) ELECTUM LONDINENSEM. (fn. 3).

Frater Johannes etc. Venerande discrecionis viro, sibique in Christo Karissimo Domino ffulconi Lovel, Archidiacono Colcestrie, salutem et sinceram in Domino caritatem. Exhibitis nobis nuper literis vestris de credencia per manus discreti viri Stephani de Codenore, socii vestri, ipse nobis circa hoc vestrum beneplacitum taliter explicans intimavit, quod vos nostra sollicitudine dirigi petitis, per quam viam possitis honestius a London eleccionis negocio penitus expediri. Nos autem non sine cordis amaritudine hoe audito, pro eo quod ipsi Ecclesie per vos divinitus credebamus esse prospectum, putantes vos habiles ad majora, si aliquid nos latens canonicum non obsistat, deliberacione (fn. 4) previa taliter duximus respondendum: quod quia post renunciacionem publicam a vobis factam jus eleccionis facte taliter expiravit, ut sine novo consensu Capituli nequeat convalescere, vos, si in renunciacionis proposito funditus remanetis, sine more dispendio convocatis fratribus aliisque personis solempnibus in Capitulo resignacionem vestram solempniter iteretis, protestantes eisdem, quod propter debilitatem corporis et alia consciencie dictamina non intenditis eleccioni de vobis facte aliquatenus inherere, malentes in statu humili tutius consistere quam in sublimi districcius judicari: Ecce karissime, in cordis amaritudine, ut premisimus, vobis ad propositum respondemus, qui speravimus in vobis columpnam nobilem Ecclesie fideliter repperisse. Sed si odium laboris aut pusillanimitas forsitan vos retrahat a sancte vocacionis honore, non solum fratri defuncto, cujus remittis sponsam ducere, derogatis, verum eciam discalceati, vobis opprobrium secundum Mosaice legis arbitrium timere poteritis imminere. Ecce karissime, absenti ut possumus respondemus, qui si vestra gaudereus presencia possemus forsitan exauditis variis circumstanciis consilium multipliciter variare. Valete in Christo et Virgine Gloriosa. Datum apud Eccleshal vj Idus Aprilis [consecrationis nostræ Anno Secundo]. (fn. 5)

Footnotes

  • 1. John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, consecrated by the Pope himself 6 March 1279, died 8 December, 1292.
  • 2. John de Chishul, Bishop of London, died 8 Feb. 1279-80: on the 18th Feb. a licence to elect a successor was issued, and Fulk Lovel, Archdeacon of Colchester, was elected to the Bishopric, but declined consecration, "ob debilitatem corporis et alia conscientiæ dictamina." Le Neve's Fasti.
  • 3. Printed from the original entry in the Archiepiscopal Register at Lambeth. (Register Peckham, fo. 169 b.) Henry Wharton prints this letter in his Historia de Episcopis et Decanis London: Appendix, Art. IV., but with several verbal omissions; leaving out the whole clause "Ecce Karissime, absenti .... Gloriosa." The letter is also found in the notes to Le Neve's Fasti (edit. T. Duffus Hardy, II. 287, 288), but the same omissions occur as in Wharton's Historia, from which work it was probably transcribed into the Fasti.
  • 4. Deliberatione previa, so Wharton; but in original the reading is delacionem previam.
  • 5. The words in brackets are added by Wharton.
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