Regesta 291: 1378-1379

Calendar of Papal Registers Relating To Great Britain and Ireland: Volume 4, 1362-1404. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1902.

This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.

'Regesta 291: 1378-1379', in Calendar of Papal Registers Relating To Great Britain and Ireland: Volume 4, 1362-1404, (London, 1902) pp. 228-237. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-papal-registers/brit-ie/vol4/pp228-237 [accessed 26 April 2024]

In this section

Regesta, Vol. CCXCI. (fn. 1)

1 Clement VII. Anti-Pope.

De Curia.

1378.
15 Kal. Jan.
Fondi.
(f. 26.)
To John bishop of Palestrina, papal nuncio. Appointing him nuncio to the king and queen (sic) of France and the provinces lands subject thereto: with faculty to compel by ecclesiastical censure, without appeal, any soever who oppose or rebel.
[Marginal note in Rubrice, q[uaternus] iii. The reference is to Avignon Reg. No. 220 (Clem. VII. vol. xvi. the last of An. 1), f. 47 seq. where at the end of the third quaternion is the note: Script[us] est in pergameno.]
Ibid.
(f. 26d.)
To all the faithful in Christ. Recounting the circumstances whereby on the death of pope Gregory XI. at Rome, in March last, the cardinals, the present pope being one of their number, entered the conclave, and were, by the violence of the officers of the city and the terrible uproar of the people, compelled to intrude into the holy apostolic see a certain Bartholomew, then archbishop of Bari, who, being blinded by ambition, presumes to call himself pope [Urban VI.]; wherefore, lest such deeds and excesses should not be known, the pope is sending to the realm of France John bishop of Palestrina, commends him to all the faithful, and warns, exhorts, and commands them to show him due obedience and reverence. Otherwise the pope will ratify sentences of the cardinal against those who oppose or rebel.
Ibid.
(f. 28.)
To John cardinal bishop of Palestrina, and Guy cardinal priest of St. Cross in Jerusalem, papal nuncios. Power to treat for a lasting peace and concord between Charles king of France and Richard king of England and their adherents; to confirm the same by ecclesiastical censure and any other penalties whatsoever, and to relax oaths, leagues, confederations, pacts, and conventions which may stand in the way. [There follow forty-eight faculties etc. committed to cardinal John for his mission to France, for the rubrice of nineteen of which see N. Valois, La France et le Grand Schisme, I. 129. similar for the most part to those below conferred on cardinal Guy.]
Ibid.
(f. 41d.)
To Guy cardinal priest of St. Cross in Jerusalem. Appointing him nuncio to the kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, to Flanders, and to the [cities and] dioceses of Liége, Utrecht, Cambray, and Tournay; as above, f. 26, mutatis mutandis.
Ibid.
(f. 42.)
To all the faithful in Christ. As above, f. 26d, mutatis mutandis.
Ibid.
(f. 43.)
To prelates and clergy, secular and regular, throughout the realms [of England, Ireland, and Scotland] expressed in the pope's letters. Mandate to provide Guy cardinal of St. Cross in Jerusalem, during his mission, with 50 gold florins of the camera a day, each worth 10 silver Tournois. [See f. 45d.]
Ibid.
(f. 43d.)
To Guy cardinal priest of St. Cross in Jerusalem, papal nuncio. Faculty to constrain by ecclesiastical censures those guilty of sacrilege, to absolve those who have thereby incurred sentence of excommunication, and to dispense those who have similarly incurred irregularity.
Ibid. To the same. Power to treat of peace and truces between any persons whatsoever, secular or ecclesiastical, of the parts to which he is sent.
Ibid.
(f. 44.)
To the same. Power to exact, proceeding by ecclesiastical censure, without appeal, and invoking if necessary the aid of the secular arm, from the archbishops of Arles, Aix, Embrun, and Vienne, and their suffragans, and from other prelates and clergy, secular and regular, of those provinces, the same sum, as daily procuration, which he is empowered to exact within the limits of his nunciature (f. 43).
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to grant the office of notary to a hundred persons, even if married or in priest's or in other holy orders: enclosing the usual form of oath to be taken.
Ibid.
(f. 44d.)
To the same. Power to enquire into and punish excesses of religious, exempt or not exempt, of whatsoever order.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to convoke prelates and clergy, secular and regular, and to enjoin and impose upon them whatsoever may be expedient in the prosecution of his mission.
Ibid.
(f. 45.)
To the same. Mandate to cause to be observed by ecclesiastical censure, without appeal, the present pope's late modification, of which annotation is made below (cujus tenorem inferius annotari fecimus) respecting the moveables reserved by the pope to the apostolic see of deceased prelates (as above, Reg. cclxxx, f. 39d.). It has come to the pope's hearing that some collectors and sub-collectors in the parts to which the nuncio has been deputed, exceeding the limits of their office in the recovery of the said moveables, and in contempt of the said modification, extort from the compositions which they often make in respect of such moveables and other things, a proportion in the shilling (caput solidi), namely a penny in the shilling upon the amount agreed upon, and at the time of payment two gold florins per cent. not for the camera, but rather for themselves; and that they allow to be received by their notaries (tabelliones), not without suspicion of a share in the gains (co[mmun]ionis lucrorum) for each instrument drawn up (instrumentis compositis) and acquittance (absolutione), both five and six, and sometimes eight gold florins and other immoderate fees (salaria), levying and compelling payment thereof.
Ibid.
(f. 45d.)
To the same. Faculty to exact, during his mission to the realms [of England, Ireland, and Scotland] expressed in the pope's letters, from prelates and other clergy within the limits thereof, secular and regular, as his daily procuration, the sum of 50 gold florins of the camera, each worth 10 silver Tournois. [See f. 43.]
Ibid. To the same. Indult to celebrate and cause to be celebrated divine offices in places under an interdict, solemnly and aloud (alta voce), with open doors and ringing of bells, provided that those present were not the cause of the interdict, and that the interdict be not a special one.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to absolve slayers and mutilators of wives, parents, brothers, and sisters.
Ibid.
(f. 46.)
To the same. Power to coerce by ecclesiastical censure or by any other penalties religious of any order soever, mendicants or not mendicants, exempt or not exempt, who shall presume to say or do anything in their preachings or sermons whereby the business of his mission may be hundred or delayed.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty during his mission to hear and terminate whatsoever causes, both civil and criminal, shall be brought before him or his court.
Ibid. To the same. Power to cause churches and cemeteries in his nunciature to be consecrated by catholic archbishops and bishops in communion with the apostolic see, and to be reconciled by fit priests, the water having been first blessed by a catholic bishop; without derogation to the statute [Decretal. Greg. ix. iii. 40, 9], which requires such reconciliation to be done by bishops only.
Ibid. To the same. Power to compel satisfaction to be given by those, of whatsoever dignity or rank, even pontifical, who capture or despoil persons going to or departing from him and his court.
Ibid.
(f. 46d.)
To the same. Faculty to constrain by ecclesiastical censure, with the aid, if necessary, of the secular arm, such persons, as above who hinder by counsel, help, or favour, the business entrusted to him.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to enjoy in all things the same power which is used by legates a latere. [Cf. Varin, Arch. admin de la ville de Reims, III. 498.]
Ibid.
(f. 47.)
To the same. Power to treat as above, f. 28.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to summon general or special councils, and to convoke thereto, generally and specially, prelates and other clergy, secular and regular.
Ibid.
(f. 47d.)
To the same. Faculty to proceed against and deprive inquisitors of heresy who have extorted money or other things.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to confirm, ratify, and approve whatsoever concords, conventions, pacts, and ordinances, made with the late king Edward by Giles Sancii Munionis, D.C.L. provost of Valencia, by mandate of Gregory XI. bear upon the provision of benefices of the realm of England which fall within the royal rights belonging for the time being to king Richard (cadentium in Regaliis pro tempore occurrentibus).
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to absolve, dispense, and rehabilitate clerks of his nunciature who, when included in the greater excommunication, have received orders, even priest's orders, or benefices from excommunicated bishops, and have ministered in the same, even in places under an interdict.
Ibid.
(f. 48.)
To the same. Faculty to cause fit persons of either sex to be received as canons or canonesses, monks or nuns, friars or sisters, in metropolitan, cathedral, and other regular churches, monasteries, [and] priories of any order soever, provided that where there be a fixed number therein it be incomplete.
Ibid.
(f. 48d.)
To the same. Faculty to dispense ecclesiastical persons within his nunciature on account of defect of age to receive and hold, after completing their twentieth year, a dignity or personatus without cure of souls.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to dispense slayers and depredators of pilgrims.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to grant indults for three years to choose a confessor.
Ibid. To the same. Grant (concedimus) to give relaxation of one year and forty days of enjoined penance to penitents who shall be present at mass and other divine offices celebrated by himself or pontifically celebrated in his presence; if the king for queen, their sons or daughters, or any one of them be present, the relaxation shall be for two years and eighty days.
Ibid.
(f. 49.)
To the same. Faculty to dispense women, howsoever illegitimately born, to make their profession in an approved order to dispense those who have already made their profession to take the sacred veil, and to hold any offices and honour soever the dignity of abbess excluded; and to dispense five of such women to be elected and appointed even to the dignity of abbess.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to absolve from excommunication a hundred clerks who, when excommunicate, have accepted and held benefices, with or without cure of souls, even elective dignities major with cure of souls in cathedral churches, and principal dignities in collegiate churches; also a hundred others who have accepted such from excommunicated persons; and to grant restitution to their benefices, with rehabilitation and fresh collation when necessary.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to make a declaration with respect to oaths, as to which it is doubted whether they be lawful or not; to remit them when declared unlawful, and to relax and remit pacts and confederations, fortified by oath, which appear to him to be unlawful and opposed to peace and justice.
Ibid.
(f. 49d.)
Faculty to make provision of any benefices whatsoever within the limits of his nunciature, secular and regular, with or without cure, void and to be void, even canonries and prebends, dignities, personatus, or offices in cathedral churches, even if their collation has by the statutes of the [Fourth General] Lateran Council lapsed to the pope, and even if they be specially or generally reserved to the pope, or if they be void by the obtaining possession of any benefices soever by papal collation, or be void in any other way; provided that the values do not exceed—if taxed, 20 and 15 pounds petits tournois, with or without cure respectively, according to the taxation of the tenth; if not taxed, 30 and 2 respectively, according to the common estimate. One such benefice is to given to a single person, even if such person hold one, two three, or more benefices; or, holding one or two only, hold also a canonry, by papal provision, with expectation of a prebend, dignity, personatus, administration, or office, or have otherwise expectation of one or two benefices. The pope wills that if he to whom the nuncio shall make provision of one or more of such benefices, hold one, two three, or more benefices, or hold two only together with a canonry, by papal provision, with expectation of a prebend, dignity, personutus, administration, or office, or together with similar expectation of one or two other benefices, such papal graces shall become ipso facto null and void, and of the first-named one, two, three, or more benefices, one shall be resigned for each obtained by virtue of these presents.
Ibid.
(f. 50.)
To the same. Faculty to absolve and to dispense on account of irregularity contracted, if any, all persons, ecclesiastical and secular, of his nunciature who have adhered, adhere, or shall adhere to the wicked man Bartholomew, sometime archbishop of Bari, or have obtained, or shall obtain (impetraverint) from him benefices, letters, or graces, thereby or otherwise participating in the sentences or penalties inflicted on him.
Ibid.
(f. 50d.)
To the same. Authority for himself, and those of his household whom he shall send, to participate with the excommunicated Florentines in divine officers and other forbidden cases: with licence for members of his household whom he shall approve to have dealings (communicandi) therewith even in matters of trade (mercimoniis).
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to absolve from excommunication and other sentences, and to dispense on account of irregularity incurred, if any, ecclesiastics within his nunciature, religious and secular (the words seculares et regulares, which were first written, are cancelled), who have ministered when not ordained.
Ibid.
(f. 51.)
To the same. Faculty to cause apt and able scholars to receive the tonsure (clericali caractere insigniri), and fit persons to be promoted to all holy orders, by a catholic bishop of his choice.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to grant to members of his household, once only, in the article of death, indulgence of plenary remission of sins.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to allow clerks within his nunciature, studying in any lawful faculties whatsoever in universities, to receive for five years the fruits of their benefices during absence.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to make composition (componendi) with usurers with respect to uncertain usuries, provided that those to whom payment or restitution is due be unknown or cannot be found; and to absolve such usurers, after satisfaction made, from excommunication or other sentences incurred. Such sums as he shall receive by way of composition the pope intends to apply to the defence of the rights, lands, and goods of the Roman church, and the nuncio is, as quickly as he can, to certify thereof the officers of the camera.
Ibid.
(f. 51d.)
To the same. Faculty to use in behalf of members of his household, when without the limits of his nunciature, the same indulgences and graces which have been granted in their favour when within the same.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to confirm to members of his household collations and provisions of any benefices whatsoever made by papal authority.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to dispense members of his household and other ecclesiastical persons within his nunciature who hold dignities or benefices with cure of souls or other benefices requiring priest's orders, so that, provided they become subdeacon within a year, they need not be ordained priest for seven years.
Ibid.
(f. 52.)
To the same. Faculty to surrogate fit persons to those members of his household who die when litigating in the Roman court with respect to any benefices whatsoever, even if they die in the said court. Such persons shall be established in the same rights with respect to such benefices which were possessed by the said members of his household at the time of their death.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to absolve those who have incurred sentences of excommunication under processes made by the popes on Holy Thursday against whosoever act contrary to the tenor of the same.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to make enquiry concerning any ecclesiastical persons soever, religious and secular, of any dignity and rank, even the pontifical, exempt and not exempt, even of the mendicant orders, who, pretending that Bartholomew sometime archbishop of Bari is pope, obey, adhere to, and favour him, receive his letters and mandates, and assail the pope with words of contumely and opprobrium; to cite them, and, if they be found guilty, and persist in their rebellion, to take, arrest, imprison, punish, and correct them, and otherwise execute due justice upon them.
Ibid.
(f. 53.)
To the same. Faculty to absolve from excommunication and to dispense on account of irregularity, if any, two hundred persons within his nunciature who have been promoted to priest's or other orders per saltum, provided that they were so promoted by catholic bishops and that they afterwards tool the orders omitted.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to absolve from excommunication or other penalties promulgated by processes of the present pope or his predecessors, by heresy inquisitors, or by other papal delegates or sub-delegates, against adherents of heretics and of rebels against the pope, his predecessors, and the Roman church.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to employ all faculties, graces, and letters conferred upon him by divers letters of the pope respecting dispensations for matrimony, grants of the office of notary, and collations of benefices, in going to and returning from his nunciature, provided that he do not employ them within the limits of the nunciatures of other cardinals whom the pope is sending this day to other realms.
Ibid.
(f. 53d.)
To the same. Faculty to absolve from excommunication incurred, if any, and to dispense on account of irregularity, a hundred persons who have received orders from excommunicated bishops and those who have received orders from other bishops than their own, without licence from their own bishops, have ministered therein, and have before or after such ordination obtained from such bishops collations of benefices.
Ibid. To the same. Faculty to make provision of benefices, as above, f. 49d, as far as the words “expectation of one or two benefices.” The pope wills that if a person who receives such benefice from the nuncio already hold three or more other benefices he shall resign one of them; and that if a person hold two benefices and a canonry, by papal provision, with expectation of a prebend, dignity, personatus, administration, or office, or hold two benefices with similar expectation of one or two others, such papal graces shall become ipso facto null and void.
Ibid.
(f. 54.)
To the same. Faculty to receive resignations of any benefices whatsoever within his nunciature, and to make provision of them, one to a single person, according to the faculty above, f. 49d.
Ibid.
(f. 54d.)
To the same. Faculty to deprive of their benefices those ecclesiastics, secular and regular, of his nunciature, who adhere and persist in adhering to Bartholomew sometime archbishop of Bari, and to make provision thereof to fit persons. The pope wills, as above, f. 53d.
Ibid.
(f. 55d.)
To the same. Faculty to receive and cause to be received ten [dignities, personatus, offices, or administrations (the omission is supplied from the Rubrice,)] in ten cathedral, even metropolitan, churches, and other ten (alias decem) in as many monasteries or other places of whatsoever order within the limits of his nunciature.
Ibid. To the same. Power to absolve clerks and laymen, and their satellites, who have laid sacrilegious hands on churches, monasteries, benefices, and ecclesiastics; and in the case of clerks to dispense them on account of consequent irregularity, if any.
Ibid.
(f. 56.)
To the same. Faculty—in extension of the faculty (f. 50) to absolve and dispense ecclesiastics, secular and regular, who have had provision of benefices from the wicked man the son (alumpnus) of perpetual malediction, Bartholomew sometime archbishop of Bari—to make provision anew of the same benefices to the same persons, upon their return to the obedience of the pope and the Roman church and their being absolved and dispensed.
Ibid.
(f. 56d.)
To the same. Faculty to reserve in ten regular cathedral or metropolitan churches, and in ten monasteries or other places of any order whatsoever, dignities, personatus, administrations, or offices, with or without cure of souls, one in each of such churches and monasteries; and to make provision thereof to twenty persons of his choice, even if such person hold a benefice or office and have expectation of another. Of the persons who by these presents obtain a dignity, personatus, administration, or office, those who already hold a benefice or office shall resign the same; and in the case of those who have expectation of such benefice or office, the grace under which they expect shall become null and void.
1378.
Ibid.
(f. 57d.)
To the same. Faculty to make provision to fit persons of his choice of all and singular benefices, secular and regular, with or without cure, of any members of his household whatsoever—even though they be papal chaplains or abbreviators or writers of apostolic letters, or otherwise officers of the apostolic see—which are void or shall become void during his mission.
Ibid.
(f. 58.)
To the same. Appointing him nuncio, as above, f. 41d.

De Indultis, Privilegiis Et Dispensationibus.

1379.
6 Kal. Aug.
Avignon.
(f. 65d.)
To David, abbot, and the convent of Holyrood, Edinburgh. Indult, on petition also of king Robert, for him and his successors to freely use the mitre, ring, and other pontifical insignia; likewise to give solemn benediction in the monastery (whose abbots are by custom the king's principal chaplains), in priories subject thereto, and in parish and other churches belonging in common or severally to the said abbot and convent, although not subject pleno jure, provided that no bishop or papal legate be present.
13 Kal. April.
Fondi.
(f. 112.)
To the bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow. Mandate to summon Robert de Clakkston, Benedictine prior of Goldingham, in the diocese of St. Andrews, and others concerned, and to inform themselves touching the crimes of sacrilege, robbery, homicide, rapine, and devastation, of which the prior is accused, and his felonies against king Robert, whose ancestors founded and built the priory, and endowed it with a barony. If the facts be as stated, they are to deprive and remove the prior.
17 Kal. Oct.
Avignon.
(f. 157.)
Appropriation to the Augustinian abbot and convent of St. Mary's, Cambuskyneth, of the vicarage of Clacmanan, in the diocese of St. Andrews, value 10 marks, of their patronage, the rectory of which is already appropriated to them. Gregory XI. reserved all vicarages and other benefices with or without cure void through provisions made by him of archdeaconries, dignities, personatus, offices, and other benefices soever; after which the said vicarage became void through the promotion by that pope of Maurice de Strathern to the archdeaconry of Dunblane [See Cal. Pet. i. 556, 559], and had not yet been disposed of by Gregory when he died. The present pope confirmed the reservation of such benefices reserved by his predecessor and not disposed of. Afterwards the petition of the said abbot and convent stated that their monastery had suffered from constant wars, their chalices, books, and other altar ornaments and other goods having been stolen, and their bell-tower struck by lighting, whereby the choir is greatly ruined. They are to depute one of their canons, or a fit priest, to serve the vicarage. [See Reg. ccxcii, f. 244.]
Kal. Oct.
Avignon.
(f. 199d.)
Relaxation of a year and forty days of enjoined penance to penitents who give alms to the church of the Augustinian monastery of St. Catherine, Catdruym Omany, in the diocese of Clonfert. The pope [as above, Reg. cclxxxiv. f. 105d], strictly forbids these present letters to be sent by collectors; if this be attempted, they are invalid. [Cal. Pet. i. 542.]
7 Kal. Nov.
Avignon.
(f. 218d.)
To the bishop of Glasgow. Mandate to inform himself touching the petition of the Augustinian abbot and convent of Combuskyneth for a renewal of the appropriation formerly made to them by William bishop of St. Andrews, in consideration of the calamities recounted above (f. 157), of the church of Kinnoull of their patronage in his diocese, possession of which they obtained on the death of the rector, Brice de Kreyc and held for two years or thereabouts, after which a question arose, between them and Andrew de Tribrine, priest of the same diocese, who asserted that he had papal provision of the said church. On the cause being heard (ventilata) before a papal auditor, and a definitive sentence being obtained by Andrew against the abbot and convent, against which they made no appeal, he despoiled them of their possession of the church, which he still holds. If the bishop find the facts to be as stated, and if he find expedient, he is to procure the appropriation anew of the church to the abbey and convent without requiring the licence of the diocesan, or of any other, to take effect on the voidance of the church by the resignation or death of Andrew, a vicar's portion being assigned. [Cal. Pet. i. 539.]

Footnotes

  • 1. Vols. 288, 289, 290, belong to the Avignon series.