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INTRODUCTION
Fifty years have elapsed since Cardinal Gasquet in his essay, ' A Forgotten
English Preacher ', 1 called attention to the important sermons of Thomas Brinton
or de Brynton, one time Benedictine monk of Norwich and bishop of Rochester
from 1373 until 1389, and expressed regret that these sermons had not been published.
Interest in this ' forgotten preacher' has been revived by Professor G. R. Owst,
who in his monumental works on the sermon literature of medieval England 2 has
discussed at considerable length the sermons of Bishop Brinton and pointed out
their historical and literary importance. A man who was no respector of persons,
he adopted at the beginning of his episcopacy the motto ' Veritas liberabit ',3 and
from that time until about 1383, when illness and the infirmities consequent upon
old age forced him to become inactive, he fulfilled the command of Saint Paul to
' preach the word : be instant in season, out of season ; reprove, entreat, rebuke in
all patience and doctrine'. At a time when, if we may believe his testimony, the
voice of a bishop was seldom heard, he preached frequently both in his own diocese
and at London, admonishing the prelates in their conclaves, rebuking the king and
magnates, and urging penance and reformation of life to all classes, rich and poor
alike.
(i) Thomas Brinton
Of the early life of Thomas Brinton comparatively few facts have come to light.
He was born perhaps about 1320,4 and presumably at Brinton, a parish belonging
to the manor of Thornage, situated about twenty-five miles north-west of Norwich
and subject to the bishop of Norwich as its overlord until the 27th year of Henry VIII
(1536) when it was given to Sir William Butt, 5 the king's physician. Extant records
of Thornage among the Bacon papers at the University of Chicago reveal a typical
manorial community of the fourteenth century. If we may judge from the names
of the people mentioned in Thomas Brinton's will,6 he was of humble extraction.
1
F. A. Gasquet, The Old English Bible and Other Essays (London, 1897), p. 67.
2
G. R. Owst, Preaching in Medieval England (Cambridge, 1926) ; Literature and Pulpit
in Medieval
8
England (Cambridge, 1923).
4
Sermon 108 (p. 497).
In Sermon 15 (p. 59) he refers to the election of John Sheppey as prior of Rochester
(4 Dec. 1380) as ' gratum tempore vite mee '. In Sermon 108 (p. 497) of c. 1383 he says, ' Sencio
me solito
6
debiliorem et infirmum.'
F. Blomefield, History of Norfolk, ix.. 370.
• See Appendix.
ix
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His family name is unknown, but among the ' consanguinei' to whom he left legacies
are such people as Ralph Mercer of London, Richard Maynard of London, Christina
Maynard ' senior', Thomas Curteys, clerk, John Charyngton, clerk, and Matilda
Pynsware. The last of these, whose relationship to Thomas Brinton is not evident,
was fined vid. in 1373 in the court of the manor of Thornage, for brewing and selling
beer contrary to the assize 1 ; nothing at all is known of the others.
It is likely that at an early age Thomas Brinton entered the Benedictine order
at the priory of Holy Trinity, Norwich, and attended the school attached to the
monastery. This priory was strong in religious discipline and fostered scholarship
in the monks. The obedientiary rolls of the monastery show that practically every
year monks were sent to study at one or the other of the great English universities.
During the years immediately following the Black Death, a time when both religion
and scholarship had fallen into a great decline, the Norwich priory was remarkable
for its regularity in sending monks to Oxford and Cambridge.2
The monks, moreover, enjoyed the advantages of an unusually fine library. The
extraordinary literary opportunities which the Norwich priory provided are attested
by the number of manuscripts which the late Dr. M. R. James in his catalogue of
the manuscripts of the libraries of England has identified as formerly belonging
to this priory.3 Ninety-eight of the one hundred and nine manuscripts listed
by Dr. James are of the fourteenth century or earlier, and include works of
widely diverse character such as Regimen Principum of Egidius Colonnus, a copy
of Liber Animalium of Aristotle, the Canones of Avicenna and a Hebrew diction-
ary.
The two greatest contributors to the library were Simon Bozoun, prior of the
monastery from 1344 until 1352, and Adam Easton, 4 a distinguished confrere of
Thomas Brinton. The catalogue of the thirty-one books possessed by Simon
Bozoun, which are recorded in his copy of the Polychronicon now in the British
Museum (Royal MS. 14 C. xiii)? shows that he was a man of considerable catholicity
in his choice of reading; his library included a wide range of works in theology,
canon law, and history, a Summa Predicantium6 and a copy of the Koran. Like
Bozoun, Adam Easton was a bibliophile. In 1363-4, when he was a student at
Oxford, he had a large collection of books; in the rolls of the Pittancer of the
monastery is the record: ' In expensis Ade de Eston versus Oxoniam et circa
1
Roll for the Manor of Thornage. 46 Ed. I l l (verso), Bacon Papers. Martin Ryerson
Collection,
2
University of Chicago.
Obedientiary Rolls of the Cathedral Priory of Norwich ; 348, Chamberlain, 1 Laurence,
1351-2 ; 44, Camera, 2-3 Laurence, 1352-3 ; 349, Chamberlain, 3 Laurence, 1354-5 ; 45, Camera,
5 Laurence, 1356-7 ; 46, Camera, 3 Nicholas de Hoo, 1359-60 ; 47, Camera, 5 Nicholas de Hoo,
1360—1 ; 243, Sacrist, 7-8 Nicholas de 1363—4.
3
H. C. Beeching, ' The Library of the Cathedral Church of Norwich with an appendix of
Priory
4
MSS. now in English libraries ', Norwich Archeology, xix, 72 ff.
5
For an account of the life of Adam Easton see Dictionary of National Biography, v. 334.
8
Beeching, op. cit., photostat illustration inserted between pp. 72 and 73.
If this is the Summa Predicantium of the Dominican John Bromyard, a work from which
Thomas Brinton derived exempla and ideas which he used in his sermons, the date for this
composition must be placed early in the fourteenth century, though J. Th. Welter, L'Exemplum
dans la litterature religieuse et didactique du moyen age (Paris, 1927), p. 77, has dated it as 1360-68.
See also G. R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England, p. 224.
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cariacionem librorum eiusdem Cxiiis. iiiid.'* He was an eminent scholar and is
credited with the authorship of seventeen books, among them a Latin version of
the Hebrew Bible. Among the volumes which he left to Norwich, Dr. James assigns
to him a Hebrew Dictionary (MS. St. John's, 218) which he is said to have
compiled.2
Having received his early training in such an environment of learning and in
the companionship of men like Simon Bozoun and Adam Easton, Thomas Brinton
because of his marked ability was selected to be educated at both Cambridge and
Oxford. In 1350 William Bateman, bishop of Norwich, founded at Cambridge,
Trinity Hall, formerly a hostel belonging to the monks of Ely. He intended that
the new college be called the ' College of the Scholars of the Holy Trinity of Norwich '.
He himself was proficient in canon and civil law, and established the new foundation
for students of canon and civil law and for such alone, in order to recruit men learned
in these subjects to fill the ranks depleted by the Black Death. 3 The priory of
Norwich, probably supporting the new college of Bishop Bateman, sent monks to
Cambridge in 1352-3 and 1356-7.4 The sermons of Brinton show his great interest
in canon l a w 5 ; moreover, since he received a degree of canon law,6 although not at
Cambridge, it is reasonable to assume that he was one of the scholars whom the
priory sent to Cambridge.7 Of his sojourn at Cambridge Brinton has left an
interesting record in a sermon twenty years later. Preaching to a congregation at
1
Obedientiary Rolls of the Cathedral Priory of Norwich, 1056, Comm. and Pittancer, 7 Nicholas
de Hoo. When he died, a cardinal, on 13 September 1397, he bequeathed his books to Norwich
Priory. They came from Rome in six barrels (Beeching, op. cit., p. 72). If we may judge from
the highest number under the press marks of those whose books came into the possession of the
priory, Easton had at least 228 books (ibid., p. 79).
2
The compilation of a Hebrew dictionary by Adam Easton, and the possession of a copy
of the Koran by Simon Bozoun presumably reflect the influence of the study of Greek, Hebrew,
Arabic, and Chaldaic, which was commanded by Pope Clement V as a result of the Council of
Vienne (1311-12). According to a decree issued in 1320 by Henry Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln,
the Council had ordered that at Oxford, Paris, Bologna, and Salamanca should be ' viri Catholici
sufficientem habentes Hebraicae, Graecae, Arabicae, Caldae linguarum notitiam. Duo videlicet
uniusque linguae periti, qui scolas regnant inibi, et libros de linguis ipsis fideliter transferant
in latinam et alias singulas ipsas . . . ut sic instructi et edocti, in lingua huiusmodi fructum
speratum possent Deo auctore producere fidem propagare salubriter in populos Infideles.' This
decree announces that, according to a decision of the prelates at a council of the province of
Canterbury, a tax is being levied ' pro stipendiis cuiusdam conversi Catholici nunc docentis
Oxoniae linguam Hebraicam atque Graecam ' (Bodleian Library : MS. Twyne 2, fo. 18 v.).
3
H. Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, ed. F. M. Powicke and A. B.
Emden4
(Oxford, 1936), iii. 309.
Obedientiary Rolls of the Cathedral Priory of Norwich, 44, Camera, 2-3 Laurence 1352-3 ;
45, Camera,
6
5 Laurence, 1356-7.
The Catalogue of Royal and Kings' MSS. in the British Museum ascribes to Thomas Brinton
the fragment
6
of a canon law lecture to be found in Royal MS. 9 E viii, fo. 169.
In the bull of his appointment to the see of Rochester, Brinton is described as ' decretorum
doctorem
7
' (Reg. Aven. igo, fo. 21 r.).
The earliest record which we have of Thomas Brinton as a monk occurs in an obedientiary
roll of the Camera, where under the heading, Expensae forinsecus, is the item of a payment of
two shillings in 1352—3 to a certain John Flemming from the account of Thomas de Brinton,
who was evidently absent from the priory (Obedientiary Rolls of the Cathedral Priory of Norwich,
44, Camera, 2-3 Laurence, 1352-3). It is possible that at this time he was one of the monks
whom the priory sent to Cambridge.
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Rochester on Ash Wednesday, 1373, he narrated a tragic incident which happened
' tempore studui Cantabrigie '-1
Later, in company with Adam Easton, he studied at Gloucester College, the
principal Benedictine foundation at Oxford. In 1363-4 Roger Thurston, sacrist
of the cathedral priory at Norwich, paid ' pro inceptione domini Ade de Estone et
domini Thome de Brynton XXX sol \ 2 While they were there, they were reckoned
the leading Benedictine scholars at Oxford.3 The scholars at Gloucester College
were evidently given considerable training in preaching, for the synods of the order
repeatedly ordained that those monks who were sent to Oxford that they might be
able to preach when they returned to their monasteries should have practice in the
college at Oxford.4 In 1356 both Thomas Brinton and Adam Easton came home
to Norwich to preach, Brinton to give the sermon on Good Friday, and Easton
on the vigil of the feast of the Assumption.5 Thomas Brinton's sojourn at Oxford
must have contributed much to the scholarly content of his sermons. From his
long association with Adam Easton he may have gained his interest in Hebrew and
learned the derivations of the Hebrew names which occur occasionally in his sermons.
Another distinguished Benedictine who was at Oxford with Brinton was
Uhtred Bolden,6 and both Brinton and Bolden while they were in residence at
Oxford must have known John Wyclif, scholar and later Master of Balliol, whom
they both afterwards vigorously opposed.
The outstanding ability of Thomas Brinton was recognized in ecclesiastical
circles outside England. Even before he incepted at Oxford in 1364 and received
the degree of Doctor Decretorum at Oxford, he was appointed a papal penitentiary
by Urban V. On 31 December 1362 Urban V named eighteen penitentiaries, among
whom were ' Thomas de Anglia ' and ' Nicolaus Loliehon ',7 doubtless the Thomas
de Brynthon ' and ' Nicholas Lebrehon' to whom in December 1366 the dean of
1
Sermon 32 (p. 134).
2
Obedientiary Rolls of the Cathedral Priory of Norwich, 244, Sacrist, 7—8 Nicholas de Hoo,
1363-4-
3
Documents Illustrating the Activities of the General and Provincial Chapters of the English
Black4 Monks, (1215—1540), iii (Camden Society, Third Series, liv, 1937), PP- 28-9.
6
Victoria County History of Oxford, ii. 71.
Obedientiary Rolls of the Priory of Norwich, 1055. Comm. et pitancer, 4 Laurence, 1355-6.
' In expensis domini Thome de Brintone in veniendo domum ad predicandum die parascevi et
redeundo v s. iiii d. In expensis domini Ade de Estone in veniendo domum ad predicandum
in vigilia Assumptionis Beate Marie iiii s. viii d.' In a Letter Book of the Priors of Worcester,
which covers the first three quarters of the fourteenth century, there is a record which may
or may not refer to the early preaching activities of Thomas Brinton. The bishop of Worcester
writes to the prior : ' We sent in your absence for T. de B. to come to us for the purpose of preaching
on Monday in the monastery of O. on the occasion of our Visitation there. Pray excuse his
absence as he is upon an errand of piety. He shall return as soon as he has discharged it '
{Liber Ecclesiae Wigorniensis, ed. Rev. J. Harvey Bloom : Worcestershire Historical Society
(Oxford,
6
1912), p. 37).
Uhtred Bolden was at Oxford from 1347 until 1367. He incepted in 1357. (Documents
Illustrating the Activities of the General and Provincial Chapters of the English Black Monks
(1215-1540),
7
iii. 278.)
E. Goeller, Die papstliche Pb'nitentiarie von ihrem Ursprung bis zu ihrer Umgestalung unter
Pius V, i (Rome, 1907), 134.
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St. Agricolus at Avignon and the sacristans of Narbonne and Bourges were com-
missioned to pay two florins a day. 1 It is possible, indeed, that Brinton was a
penitentiary during the reign of the preceding pope, for on 25 May 1353 Innocent
VI had named eighteen penitentiaries 2 among whom was a ' Thomas de Anglia'
who may have been the same ' Thomas de Anglia' appointed by Urban V in
1362.
Both Innocent VI and Urban V were vigorous reformers. Innocent VI
(1352-62) succeeded Clement VI, a distinguished preacher and learned theologian,
whose pontificate had been characterized by nepotism and by the extravagance of
his court. Innocent VI banished luxury from his court and imposed restrictions
upon the cardinals. Ruling that preferment should rest upon merit, not upon
nobility of birth, he did away with pluralities. His successor, Urban V (1362-70),
continued the work of reform. Early in his life he became a Benedictine monk, and
even as pope he wore the Benedictine habit. In an age of corruption he stood for
purity and integrity in the Church, both in ecclesiastical institutions and in the
private life of churchmen. He was likewise a patron of learning. He founded
universities at Cracow and Vienna, and made extensive contributions to Bologna and
Montpellier.
If Brinton was in Avignon with Innocent VI, he was doubtless sympathetic
with the pope's movement for ecclesiastical reform. Since Urban V, shortly after
the beginning of his reign, made Brinton one of his penitentiaries, the Norwich
Benedictine evidently belonged to the group who deplored the abuses existing in the
Church and supported Urban in his efforts to enforce ecclesiastical discipline. From
his life at the papal court Brinton gained an intimate knowledge of ecclesiastical
corruption and was imbued until the end of his life with zeal to reform the Church
from within and the desire to improve the intellectual and spiritual life, both of the
hierarchy and the lower clergy.
Because of Brinton's position as penitentiary, the abbot of St. Albans, President
of the Council of the English Benedictines, appointed him, on 31 January 1364,
proctor of the English Black Monks at the Court of Rome. 3 Since he was a peniten-
tiary, he probably accompanied Urban V to Rome in 1368 when the pope transferred
the papal court from Avignon, and remained in Rome until 1373 with the successor
of Urban, Gregory XI. While he was in Rome, Brinton saw the need of establishing
there a hospice for English pilgrims and travellers, and later, when he became bishop,
he was associated with Sir John Hawkwood and others in establishing a hospice,
which was the foundation of the present English college.4
While Brinton was at the papal court he became famous as a preacher and left
a volume of sermons, ' sermones coram pontifice Romano factos', which are men-
tioned by Bale.8 It is presumably to these that Ziegelbauer alludes in his com-
mentary on the works of eminent Benedictines : ' Romam enim honorifice vocatus a
1 2
3
Calendar of Papal Registers, iv. 25. Goeller, op. cit., i. 133.
Documents Illustrating the A ctivities of the General and Provincial Chapters of the English
Black4 Monks (1215-1540), iii. 52.
Cardinal F. A. Gasquet, A History of the Venerable English College in Rome (London, 1920),
p. 30.
5
J. Bale, Index Britanniae Scriptorum, ed. R. L. Poole and M. Bateson (Oxford, 1902),
P- 433-
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Summo Pontifice, frequentes coram eo Conciones habuit sermone Latino.1 This
volume apparently has been lost.
On 31 January 1372 Gregory XI, because of the testimony which he had received
of Brinton's religious zeal, purity of life, honesty, and prudence in spiritual affairs,
appointed2 him to the bishopric of Rochester in the place of Thomas Trillek recently
deceased. The monks of the Rochester priory had elected to the bishopric the
prior, John Hartlepe, but his election was set aside. Seven years later, on 4 December
1380, Thomas Brinton, in a sermon to his Benedictine brethren in the priory at
Rochester, observed : ' I have this comparatively small and poor church not by
money or prayer,3 not by letters nor my own importunity, but solely from God and
the Lord Pope.' He was consecrated bishop on 20 March 1373 and received his
temporalities from the archbishop of Canterbury on 8 April.4 On 21 October of
that year Edward III having received his fealty, assigned to him his temporalities
in a letter patent in which he departed from the usual formula to express his personal
affection for the new bishop : ' Nos de gratia nostra speciali, et ob affectionem quam
ad Personam praefati Episcopi gerimus et habemus, dedimus eidem episcopo omnia
exitus et proncia de maneria, terris et tenementis, etc.' 5 This cordiality, which
betokens more than passing acquaintance, gives rise to the conjecture that perhaps
Thomas Brinton had accompanied to England the Benedictine Cardinal, Simon
Langham, who was appointed by Gregory XI in 1372 to mediate between France
and England in the interests of peace, and that he gained the favour of the king at
that time.
According to Benedictine tradition, Bishop Brinton was preacher of the court
of Edward III and Richard II, and confessor to Richard II.6 The Chancery and
Exchequer rolls, however, reveal among the rare payments for sermons no payments
to him for sermons delivered ' coram rege '. However, the rolls of Edward III and
Richard II show that Dominican confessors came regularly four times a year to the
court to hear confessions ; when fees and robes were distributed to the king's house-
hold, they received black and white material for their cappas and habits. It may
well be that the Benedictine bishop rendered spiritual service not recorded in the
form of Chancery and Exchequer rolls.
As a prelate, Bishop Brinton took an active part in the political and religious
life of England. When he came to England in 1373, Edward III had begun to
retire to a life of inactivity in his favourite manors, and to become more deeply
enmeshed in his liaison with Alice Perrers. Most of the matters which came to the
immediate attention of the king were brought through the influence of Alice Perrers,
who was supported by John of Gaunt. The two political parties were the Court
or aristocratic party headed by John of Gaunt, and the Church or clerical party,
who had, or believed they had, the support of the Black Prince. The great religious
1
M. Ziegelbauer, Historia ret literariae ordinis S. Benedicts, iv (Augsburg, 1754), 159.
2
Reg. Aven. igo, fo. 21 r. (Vatican Library): ' de religionis zelo, vite munditia, honestate,
morum spiritualium prudentia, et temporalium circunspectione, aliisque virtutum meritis apud
nos laudabilia
3
testimonia perhibentur '.4
5
Sermon 15 (p. 59). 6
T. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i (London, 1691), 379.
T. Rymer, Foedera, vii. 47. Ziegelbauer, op. cit., i. 346.
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issue, which was also political, was the age-old controversy regarding the limits of
the civil dominion of the Church, a controversy in which Gaunt and the Court party
had as their protagonist John Wyclif, who from the time he published his Determinatio
de Dominio, probably early in 1375,1 until his condemnation by the Council at
Blackfriars, in 1382, enunciated in his sermons and writings, doctrines, which, if
followed to their logical conclusions, would lead to the disendowment of the Church
by the State.
Bishop Brinton allied himself to the Church party and to the Black Prince,
for whose character and achievements he had great admiration. Among the bishops
and higher clergy Brinton apparently was the only one who upon all occasions had
the courage to speak his convictions, and to urge the others, the majority of whom
whether because they were fearful of losing their benefices did not dare to offer
opposition, or whether busy with the duties of the Chancery and Exchequer, were
not aware of the dangers which threatened.
He was prominent in parliament from 1376 until 1380. According to the writer
of Chronicon Anglie, when the Commons urged that a committee of lords be nominated
with whom they might confer, Thomas Brinton, bishop of Rochester, was one of the
four bishops whom they requested.2 The other three were William Courtenay,
bishop of London, Henry Despenser, bishop of Norwich, and Thomas Appleby,
bishop of Carlyle. The Rolls of Parliament, however, whose testimony Professor
Tout says is to be preferred, substitutes for Brinton, Bishop Houghton of St. David's.
In the official account of the Good Parliament of 1376 Bishop Brinton is listed
among the ' Hearers of Petitions' for Gascony and other lands beyond the sea.
In the Parliament which met 27 January 1377, he was one of the prelates who
remonstrated against the taxes imposed upon the clergy and quarrelled with John
of Gaunt, who at the time of the Good Parliament had seized the temporalities of
William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, banished him from the Court, and
refused to summon him to parliament. 3 The bishops succeeded in reserving for the
convocation the consideration of the grant from the clergy, and also started an
agitation against the duke, the result of which was of considerable moment to him.
In the following Parliament, October 1377, Brinton was again one of the ' triers
of Petitions of England, Wales and Scotland '.* When the Commons petitioned
for a committee of prelates and lords to confer with them, he was one of those named
to meet with them. 5 In the Parliaments of 1378-9 and 1380, he was named again as
one of the ' triers of Petitions of Gascony and other lands beyond the sea \ 6 His
importance is also shown by the fact of his appointment in 1379 a n < i x^0 a s o n e °*
those empowered to inquire into the state of the king's household.7 Moreover, when
in 1381, at the petition of the Commons, a committee was appointed to examine
in privy council the state and government of the kingdom, he was a member of that
commission.8
In addition to his activities as a member of Parliament, Bishop Brinton went
1
2
B. L. Manning, ' Wyclif ', Camb. Med. Hist., vii. 489.
8
Chronicon Anglie (Rolls Series), p. 69.
Anonimalle Chronicle (ed. 5
V. H. Galbraith, 6 Manchester, 1927), p. 100.
* Rot. Parl., iii. 4. Ibid., iii.8 5. Ibid., iii. 34 r., 57 r., 72 V., 89 r.
' Ibid., iii. 57 r. and 73 V. Ibid., iii. 101 r.
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in the spring of 1380 on an embassy to Calais to negotiate for peace with France.
The other members of the embassy were Sir John Cobham, Robert Ashton, Brian
Stapleton, and Walter Skirlawe. They left England shortly after 9 April 1380.*
On 23 April they sent a message to John, duke of Lancaster, by a certain ' Henry
Messag' nuntius ', 2 and the reply was brought back to Calais to the bishop of
Rochester, Sir John Cobham, Robert Ashton, Brian Stapleton, and Walter Skirlawe
by John Butt, messenger.3 What was the outcome of this embassy for peace there
is no evidence to show. However, whether Bishop Brinton was compelled to give
up his place because of ill health or the infirmities of old age, or because he was not
successful, he was succeeded by John Gilbert, bishop of Hereford, who apparently
continued the negotiations in 1381, 1382 and 1383.
In 1381 the bishop of Rochester was a member of the commission who tried the
rebels of the Peasants' Revolt in Kent. 4 This insurrection was an event of immediate
consequence to him, for Kent was one of the centres of greatest violence. On 8 June
Rochester Castle was surprised and attacked by the rebels, who released the prisoners
and forced the governor of the castle, Sir John Newton, to accompany them. They
sent him as their messenger to the king and held his family as hostages to assure
the fulfilment of his mission. On 10 June the insurgents in London seized Arch-
bishop Sudbury and put him to death on Tower Hill. Of how great moment to
Bishop Brinton were the religious consequences of the revolt of the people and of
the murder of the archbishop, his sermons preached at this time bear witness.
In May 1382 he was present at the famous council held at Blackfriars, when the
conclusions of John Wyclif were officially condemned, and he was one of those who
assented to the condemnation.5 During the Convocation of Canterbury, which
met at Oxford in November 1382, he was one of the six members of the Convocation
who were commissioned by the king to settle a dispute between the university and
the prior of St. Frideswide's regarding certain rights, privileges, and immunities about
which there had for a long time been litigation between the prior and the chancellor
of the university. 6
From 1382 until he died in 1389 he was inactive most of the time. Every year,
according to the entries in the register of John Sheppey, prior of the cathedral
monastery of Rochester, the bishop commissioned the prior to take his place at the
1
E403/478, memb. 17. 3 Rich. 11, Easter : ' Die Lune, IX die Aprilis. Venerabili patri
Episcopo Roffensis uni deputatorum Regis misso versus partes exteriores pro tractatu pacis inter
dominum Regem et adversarium suum Francie ibidem tenend'. In denariis sibi liberatis per
manus proprios super vadis suis per breve de privato sigillo inter mandata de hoc termino inter
nomina diversorum . . . C. li.'
1
E403/478 : ' Henrico Messag' nuntio misso versus partes Hertford' cum litteris venerabilis
Patris Episcopi Roucest' et aliorum existentium apud Cales super tractatu pacis monstrandis
Johanni Duci Lancastrie. In denariis sibi liberatis pro vadis suis vis. viiid.'
3
E403/407, memb. 3. April 26 : ' Iohanni Butt, nuntio misso versus Cales cum una littera
de privato sigillo directo Episcopo Roffens', Iohanni domino de Cobbeham, Roberto Asshton,
Briano de Stapelton' et magistro Waltero Skirlawe, deputatis Regis assignatis de tractando ibidem
de pace inter dominum Regem et adversarium suum Francie eisdem deputatis liberand' ex parte
consilii Regis. In denariis sibi liberatis pro vadis suis xxvi s. viiii d.'
4
Calendar of Patent Rolls. Richard II (1381-85), p. 248.
5
Fasc. Zizaniorum (Rolls Series), p. 286.
• Mediaeval Archives of the University of Oxford (ed. H. E. Salter, Oxford Historical Society,
Oxford, 1920), i. 219.
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ceremonies of Holy Thursday and gave as his excuse ' corporis valitudinis adversa ' .
In February 1384, when Richard II made a pilgrimage to Canterbury, he stopped
at Rochester on his return journey to London and gave an offering to the high altar
in the cathedral.2 This visit may have been only a matter of convenience, but if,
as Benedictine tradition affirms, Bishop Brinton were the confessor of Richard II,
the king may have taken this opportunity to show his personal regard for the aged
and ailing bishop.
It is worth noting that throughout the period of his episcopate, Brinton had
maintained his connection with his own home in Norfolk. In 1374 we find him called
upon to act as arbitrator for an amicable settlement of the will of John Andrew,
draper,3 mayor of London in 1367-8 ; whose daughter Katherine and her husband,
John Dany, had begun litigation against the executors, John, Andrew, and William
Vine.4 The two families of Andrew and Dany came originally from the manor of
Thornage, to which the parish of Brinton belonged ; the extant manor rolls for the
reigns of Edward III and Richard II contain several references to them. 5 Several
members of Brinton's household came also from Norfolk. John Blickling, his chief
steward, mentioned in his will, was presumably from Blickling; his clerk and kinsman,
John Charyngton, came from the village of Charington, part of the manor of
Thornage ; and from Thornage came also another clerk, John Playford, whose
family name occurs frequently in the manor rolls. His scribe was a clerk of Norwich,
Bartholomew Warren, publicus apostolica auctoritate notarius '. 6 Brinton's affec-
tion for the places and people associated with his early life in Norfolk is further attested
by bequests in his will: one hundred shillings to the parish church in Brinton ; ten
pounds to the prior and convent of the cathedral church of Norwich.
He spent his last days at his manor of Trottescleve, where on 30 April 1389 he made
his will, a document, which in comparison with the wills of other prelates of his
time, shows that he was a man of very small possessions. Besides bequests to
' consanguinei' and friends, every monk of the priory of Rochester, a number of
1
2
MS. Cotton Faustina C. V, fos. 9 v., 17 r., 19 r., 23 r., 31 r., etc.
E101/401/2, fo. 37 : ' I n oblacionibus domini Regis factis in ecclesia Christi cantuarie ad
magnum altare in adventu sui ibidem xvi die flebr. vi d. viii d. In consimilibus oblacionibus
domini Regis factis ad fferetrum sancti Thome in eadem ecclesia eodem die vi s. viii d. In
consimilibus oblacionibus factis ad capud sancti Thome in eadem ecclesia eodem die vi s. viii d.
In consimilibus oblacionibus factis ad punctum gladii in eadem ecclesia eodem die iii s. iiii d. In
consimilibus oblacionibus factis ad ymaginem beate marie undercroft in eadem ecclesia eodem
die vi s. viii d. In oblacionibus domini Regis factis ad missam de Requiem celebratam ad altare
ante fferetrum sancti Thome in eadem ecclesia pro anima domini principis patris sui eodem die
vi s. viii d. In consimilibus oblacionibus domini Regis factis ad missam beati Thome martiris
in eadem ecclesia eodem die iiiis. In oblacionibus domini Regis factis in locis predictis in
recessu suo de ibidem xx die fiebr. videlicet ad fferetrum sancti Thome vi s. viii d., ad caput sancti
Thome vi s. viii d., ad ymaginem beate marie undercroft vi s. viii d., in toto xx s. In oblacionibus
domini Regis factis ad fferetrum sancti Augustini apud Cantuar. oedem die vi s. viii d. In
oblacionibus domini Regis factis ad magnum altare in ecclesia Cath. de Rouchestre in adventu
sui ibidem xxiiii die ffebr. vis. viiid.'
3
4
Calendar of Wills, ed. R. R. Sharpe, i (London, 1889), 102.
5
Letter Book H of the City of London, fo. 20 r. (Guildhall, London).
Thornage Manor Rolls. Bacon Papers, Martin Ryerson Collection, University of Chicago.
8
Deed of grant to Cobham College, dated 31 March 1389 and witnessed by Bartholomew
Warren (St. Paul's Cathedral Library, MS. A 41, 1478).
b
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religious houses in his diocese, and each and every servant in his household including
the ' pageto de coquina et stabulario', he left one hundred shillings to the Friars
Preachers in London and the bequests to the parish church of Brinton and the
Cathedral priory at Norwich just referred to. He named as his executors John
Charyngton, a clerk, one of his ' consanguinei', and John Buckling, his steward.
He appointed as their supervisor John de Cobbam, earl of Kent, with whom he had
often been associated in government affairs during the years when he was active
in parliament. 1 He died a few days later, on 4 May,2 and was buried in his cathedral
at Rochester, where the remains of his brass may be seen in the north aisle to-day.3
His arms—argent, a cross quarter-pierced azure—appear on the canopy of the sedilia
situated south of the altar in the cathedral.
(«) The Sermons
As soon as he was established at Rochester, Bishop Brinton began his work of
preaching, which he considered one of the duties essential to the apostolate of a
bishop. In his will he left to the cathedral at Rochester the book of the notes of his
sermons 4 written in Latin, which were assembled in manuscript either by himself,
his scribe, or one of the monks. This collection of sermons is probably t h e ' Sermones
Solemnes ' listed by Bale 5 among the manuscripts belonging to Norwich. Whether
the British Museum manuscript, Hurley 3760, apparently the only volume of his
sermons in existence, is the Norwich manuscript mentioned by Bale, or the
volume bequeathed to Rochester Cathedral, can at present be only a matter for
conjecture.
MS. Harley 3760, a volume of 323 folios, written in fourteenth-century
courthand, contains 103 sermons, the majority of which were preached between
I
373. when Thomas Brinton assumed the bishopric at Rochester, and 1383, when
he became inactive. The first three sermons of the manuscript are missing, and
Sermon 4, with which the volume begins, is incomplete. The conclusion of Sermon 4
and the greater part of Sermon 5 are lacking, four leaves (fos. 14-17 inclusive, old
numbering) having been lost. One leaf of Sermon 58 (fo. 171, old numbering) and
four of Sermon 61 (fos. 160-3 inclusive, old numbering) are also wanting.
Through the sermon rubrics and internal evidence furnished by references to
persons or events, many of the sermons may be dated and assigned to a definite
occasion. Most of the sermons were delivered in his cathedral church at Rochester 6 ;
some were given at St. Paul's in London.7 Several years on the feast of St. Mary
Magdalen, 22 July, he preached at the celebration of the patronal feast of the College
of Saint Mary the Virgin and Saint Mary Magdalen,8 a chantry established in 1362
1 2
3
See Appendix. Higden, Polychronicon, viii. 211.
W. J. Hardy, ' The Indents of the Despoiled Brasses in Rochester Cathedral', Home
Counties
4
Magazine, v. 294—300. 5
6
' Item lego ecclesie Cathedrali Roffen' librum sermonum meorum.' Op. dt., p. 433.
Sermon 23, Ad Clerum in Visitacione apud Roffam ; Sermon 32, In Die Cinerum, apud
Roffam ; Sermon 47, Apud Roffam in Celebracionem Ordinacionis ; Sermon 94, In Eleccione
Roffense ; etc.
'8 Sermons 12, 28, 108, Apud Sanctum Paulum.
Sermons 42, 60, 77, 83, 90, 101, all of which bear the rubric De Sancta Maria Magdalena,
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