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HENRY CHICHELEY (1364-1443)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 128 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HENRY See also:CHICHELEY (1364-1443)  , See also:English See also:archbishop, founder of All Souls See also:College, See also:Oxford, was See also:born at Higham See also:Ferrers, See also:Northamptonshire, in 1363 or 1364 . See also:Chicheley told the See also:pope in 1443, in asking leave to retire from the archbishopric, that he was in his eightieth See also:year . He was the third and youngest son of See also:Thomas Chicheley, who appears in 1368 in still extant See also:town records of Higham Ferrers as a suitor in the See also:mayor's See also:court, and in 1381-1382, and again in 1384-1385, was mayor: in fact, for a dozen years he and See also:Henry See also:Barton, school See also:master of Higham Ferrers See also:grammar school, and one See also:Richard Brabazon, filled the mayoralty in turns . His occupation does not appear; but his eldest son, See also:William, is on the earliest extant See also:list (1373) of the Grocers' See also:Company, See also:London . On the 9th of See also:June 1405 Chicheley was admitted, in See also:succession to his See also:father, to a See also:burgage in Higham Ferrers . His See also:mother, See also:Agnes Pincheon, is said to have been of See also:gentle See also:birth . There is therefore no See also:foundation in fact for the See also:silly See also:story (copied into the See also:Diet . Nat . Biog. from a See also:local historian,, 1 The words "founded by See also:John D . See also:Rockefeller " follow the See also:title of the university on all its letterheads and See also:official documents . Mr Rockefeller would not allow his name to be a See also:part of the title, nor has he permitted the designation of any See also:building by his name . See also:President Harper was selected by him to organize the university, and it was his will that the president and two-thirds of the trustees should be " always " See also:Baptists .

President Harper more than once stated most categorically that contrary to prevalent beliefs no donor of funds to the university " has ever (1902) by a single word or See also:

act indicated his dissatisfaction with the instruction given to students in the university, or with the public expression of See also:opinion made by any officer of the university "; and certainly so far as the public See also:press reveals, no other university of the See also:country has had so many professors who have in various lines, including See also:economics; expressed See also:radical views in public . J . See also:Cole, See also:Wellingborough, 1838) that Henry Chicheley was picked up by William of Wykeham .when he was a poor ploughboy " eating his scanty See also:meal off his mother's See also:lap," whatever that means . The story was unknown to See also:Arthur See also:Duck, See also:fellow of All Souls, who wrote Chicheley's See also:life in 1617 . It is only the usual See also:attempt, as in the cases of See also:Whittington, See also:Wolsey and See also:Gresham, to exaggerate the rise of a successful See also:man . The first recorded See also:appearance of Henry Chicheley himself is at New College, Oxford, as Checheley, eighth among the undergraduate See also:fellows, in See also:July 1387, in the earliest extant See also:hall-See also:book, which contains weekly lists of those dining in Hall . It is clear from Chicheley's position in the list, with eleven fellows and eight scholars, or probationer-fellows, below him, that this entry does not See also:mark his first appearance in the college, which had been going on since 1375 at least, and was chartered in 1379 . He must have come from See also:Winchester College in one of the earliest batches of scholars from that college, the See also:sole feeder of New College, not from St John Baptist College, Winchester, as guessed by Dr William See also:Hunt in the Diet . Nat . Biog . (and repeated in Mr See also:Grant See also:Robertson's See also:History of All Souls College) to See also:cover the mistaken supposition that St See also:Mary's College was not founded till 1393 . St Mary's College was in fact formally founded in 1382, and the school had been going on since 1373 (A .

F . Leach, History of Winchester College), while no such college as St John's College at Winchester ever existed . Chicheley appears in the, Hall-books of New College up to the year 1392/93, when he was a B.A. and was absent for ten See also:

weeks from about the 6th of See also:December to the 6th of See also:March, presumably for the purpose of his ordination as a sub-See also:deacon, which was performed by the See also:bishop of Derry, acting as See also:suffragan to the bishop of London . He was then already beneficed, receiving a royal ratification of his See also:estate as See also:parson of Llanvarchell in the See also:diocese of St See also:Asaph on the loth of March 1391/92 (Cal . Pat . Rolls) . In the Hall-book, marked 1393/94, but really for 1394/95, Chicheley's name does not appear . He had then See also:left Oxford and gone up to London to practise as an See also:advocate in the See also:principal ecclesiastical court, the court of See also:arches . His rise was rapid . Already on the 8th of See also:February 1395/96 he was,on a See also:commission with several knights and clerks to hear an See also:appeal in a See also:case of John Melton, See also:Esquire v . John Shawe, See also:citizen of London, from See also:Sir John See also:Cheyne, kt., sitting for the See also:constable of See also:England in a court of See also:chivalry . Like other ecclesiastical lawyers and See also:civil servants of the See also:day; he was paid with ecclesiastical preferments .

On the 13th of See also:

April 1396 he obtained ratification of the parson-See also:age of St See also:Stephen's, Walbrook, presented on the 3oth of March by the See also:abbot of See also:Colchester, no doubt through his See also:brother See also:Robert, who restored the See also:church and increased its endowment . In 1397 he was made See also:archdeacon of See also:Dorset by Richard See also:Mitford, bishop of See also:Salisbury, but litigation was still going on about it in the papal court till the 27th of June 1399, when the pope extinguished the suit, imposing perpetual silence on See also:Nicholas Bubwith, master of the rolls, his opponent . In the first year of Henry IV . Chicheley was parson of Sherston, See also:Wiltshire, and See also:prebendary of Nantgwyly in the college of Abergwilly, See also:North See also:Wales; on the 23rd of February 1401/2, now called See also:doctor of See also:laws, he was pardoned for bringing in, and allowed to use, a See also:bull of the pope providing " him to the chancellorship of Salisbury See also:cathedral, and canonries in the nuns' churches of See also:Shaftesbury and See also:Wilton in that diocese; and on the 9th of See also:January 1402/3 he was archdeacon of Salisbury . This year his brother Robert was See also:senior See also:sheriff of London . On the 7th of May 1404, Pope See also:Boniface IX. provided him to a prebend at See also:Lincoln, notwithstanding he already held prebends at Salisbury, See also:Lichfield, St See also:Martin's-le-See also:Grand and Abergwyly, and the living of Brington . On the 9th of January 1405 he found See also:time to attend a court at Higham Ferrers and be admitted to a burgage there . In July 1405 Chicheley began a See also:diplomatic career by a See also:mission to the new See also:Roman pope See also:Innocent VII., who was professing his See also:desire to end the See also:schism in the papacy by resignation, if his See also:French See also:rival at See also:Avignon would do likewise . Next year, on the 5th of See also:October 1406, he was sent with Sir John Cheyne to See also:Paris to arrange a lasting See also:peace and the See also:marriage of See also:Prince Henry with the French princess See also:Marie, which was frustrated by her becoming a See also:nun at See also:Poissy next year . In 1406 renewed efforts were made to stop the schism, and Chicheley was one of the envoys sent to the new pope See also:Gregory XII . Here he utilized his opportunities . On the 31St of See also:August 1407 See also:Guy Mone (he is always so spelt and not See also:Mohun, and was probably from one of the See also:Hampshire Meons; there was a John Mone of See also:Havant admitted a Winchester See also:scholar in 1397), bishop of St See also:David's, died, and on the 12th of October 1407 Chicheley was by the pope provided to the bishopric of St David's .

Another bull the same day gave him the right to hold all his benefices with the bishopric . At See also:

Siena in July 1408 he and Sir John Cheyne, as English envoys, were received by Gregory XII. with See also:special See also:honour, and Bishop Repingdon of Lincoln, ex-Wyclif lte, was one of the new batch of cardinals created on the 18th of See also:September 1408, most of Gregory's cardinals having deserted him . These, together with See also:Benedict's revolting cardinals, summoned a See also:general See also:council at See also:Pisa . In See also:November 1408 Chicheley was back at See also:Westminster, when Henry IV. received the See also:cardinal archbishop of See also:Bordeaux and determined to support the cardinals at Pisg against both popes . In January 1409 Chicheley was named with Bishop Hallum of Salisbury • and the See also:prior of See also:Canterbury to represent the See also:Southern See also:Convocation at the council, which opened on the 25th of March 1409, arriving on the 24th of April . Obedience was withdrawn from both the existing popes, and on the 26th of June a new pope elected instead of them . Chicheley and the other envoys were received on their return as saviours of .the See also:world; though the result was summed up by a contemporary as trischism instead of schism, and the Church as giving three husbands instead of two . Chicheley now became the subject of a leading case, the court of See also:king's See also:bench deciding, after arguments reheard in three successive terms, that he could not hold his previous benefices with the bishopric, and that, spite of the See also:maxim Papa potest omnia, a papal bull could not supersede the See also:law of the See also:land (Year-book ii . H. iv . 37, 59, 79) . Accordingly he had to resign livings and canonries wholesale (April 28, 1410) . As, however, he had obtained a bull (August 20, .

1409) enabling him to appoint his successors to the vacated preferments, including his See also:

nephew William, though still an undergraduate and not in orders, to the chancellorship of Salisbury, and a prebend at Lichfield, he did not go empty away . In May 1410 he went again on an See also:embassy to See also:France; on the 11th of September 1411 he headed a mission to discuss Henry V.'s marriage with a daughter of the See also:duke of See also:Burgundy; and he was again there in November . In the See also:interval Chicheley found time to visit his diocese for the first time and be enthroned at St David's on the 11th of May 1411 . He was with the English force under the See also:earl of See also:Arundel which accompanied the duke of Burgundy to Paris in October 1411 and there defeated the Armagnacs, an exploit which revealed to England the weakness of the French . On the 3oth of November 1411 Chicheley, with two other bishops and three earls and the_prince of Wales, knelt to the king to receive public thanks for their See also:administration . That he was in high favour with Henry V. is shown by his being sent with the earl of See also:Warwick to France in July 1413 to conclude peace . Immediately after the See also:death of archbishop 'Arundel he was nominated by the king to the archbishopric, elected on the 4th of March, translated by papal bull on the 28th of April, and received the See also:pall without going to See also:Rome for it on the 24th of July . These See also:dates are important as they help to See also:save Chicheley from the See also:charge, versified by See also:Shakespeare (Henry V. act i. sc . 2) from Hall's See also:Chronicle, of having tempted Henry V. into the See also:conquest of France for the See also:sake of diverting See also:parliament from the disendowment of the Church . There is no contemporary authority for the charge ,which seems to appear first in Redman's rhetorical history of Henry V., written in 1540 with an See also:eye to the See also:political situation at that time . As a See also:matter of fact, the parliament at See also:Leicester, in which the speeches were supposed to have been made, began on the 3oth of April 1414 before Chicheley was archbishop . The rolls of parliament show that he was not See also:present in the parliament at all .

Phoenix-squares

Moreover parliament was so See also:

fat Fe-ern pressing disendowment that on the See also:petition ofthe See also:Commons it passed a See also:savage act against the heresies " commonly called Lollardry" which aimed at the destruction of the king and all temporal estates," making See also:Lollards felons and ordering every See also:justice of the peace to hunt down their See also:schools, eonventicles, congregations and confederacies . - In his capacity of archbishop, Chicheley remained what he had always been chiefly, the lawyer and diplomatist . He was present at the See also:siege of See also:Rouen, and the king committed to him personally the negotiations for- the surrender of the See also:city in January 1419 and for the marriage of Katherine . He crowned Katherine at Westminster (2oth,,February 1421), and on the 6th of December baptized her See also:child Henry VI . He was of course a persecutor of heretics . No. one could have attained or kept the position of archbishop at the time without being so . So he presided at the trial of John Claydon, See also:Skinner and citizen of London, who after five years' imprisgnment at various times had made public See also:abjuration before the See also:late archbishop, Arundel, but now was found in See also:possession of a book in English called The Lanterne of See also:Light, which contained the heinous See also:heresy that the principal cause of the persecution of Christians was the illegal retention by priests of the goods of this world, and that archbishops and bishops were the special seats of See also:antichrist . As a relapsed heretic, he was " left to the See also:secular See also:arm " by Chicheley . On the '1st of July 1416 Chicheley directed a See also:half-yearly See also:inquisition by archdeacons to hunt out heretics . On the 12th of February 1420 proceedings were begun before him against William See also:Taylor, See also:priest, who had been for fourteen years excommunicated for heresy, and was now degraded and burnt for saying that prayers ought not to be addressed to See also:saints, but only to See also:God . A striking contrast was exhibited in October 1424, when, a See also:Stamford See also:friar, John See also:Russell, who had preached that any religious potest concumbere cum muliere and not mortally See also:sin, was sentenced only to retract his See also:doctrine . Further persecutions of a whole batch of Lollards took See also:place in 1428 .

The records of convocation in Chicheley's time are a curious mixture of persecutions for heresy, which largely consisted in attacks on clerical endowments, with negotiations with the ministers of the See also:

crown for the See also:object of cutting down to the lowest level the clerical contributions to the public revenues in respect of their endowments . Chicheley was tenacious of the privileges of his see, and this involved him in a See also:constant struggle with Henry See also:Beaufort, bishop of Winchester . In 1418, while Henry V. was alive, he successfully protested against Beaufort's being made a cardinal and See also:legate a la'tere to supersede the legatine See also:jurisdiction of Canterbury . But during the regency, after Henry VI.'s See also:accession, Beaufort was successful, and in 1426 became cardinal and legate . This brought Chicheley into collision with Martin V . The struggle between them has been represented as one of a patriotic archbishop resisting the encroachments of the papacy on the Church of England . In point of fact it was almost wholly See also:personal, and was rather an incident in the rivalry between the duke of See also:Gloucester and his half-brother, Cardinal Beaufort, than one involving any principle . Chicheley, by appointing a See also:jubilee to be held at Canterbury in 1420, "after the manner of the jubilee ordained by the Popes," threatened to divert the profits from pilgrims from Rome to Canterbury . A ferocious See also:letter from the pope to the papal nuncios, on the 19th of March 1423, denounced the proceeding as calculated " to en-snare See also:simple souls and extort, from them a profane See also:reward, thereby setting up themselves against the apostolic see and the Roman pontiff, to whom alone so See also:great a See also:faculty has been granted by God " (Cal . Pap . Reg. vii . 12) .

Chicheley also incurred the papal wrath by opposing the See also:

system of papal See also:provision which diverted patronage from English to See also:Italian hands, but the immediate occasion was to prevent the introduction of the bulls making Beaufort a cardinal . Chicheley had been careful enough to obtain " Papal provisions " for himself, his pluralities, his bishopric and archbishopric . But, after all, it is not as archbishop or statesman, persecutor, papalist or antipapalist that Chicheley is remembered, but for his educational See also:foundations . He endowed a hutch, i.e. See also:chest or See also:loan-fund for poor scholars at New College, and another for the university of Oxford at large . He founded no less than three colleges, two at Oxford, one at Higham Ferrers, while there is See also:reason to believe that he suggested and inspired the foundation of See also:Eton and of King's College . His first college at Oxford, in perishing, gave birth to St John's College, which now holds its site . This was St See also:Bernard's College, founded by Chicheley under See also:licence in See also:mortmain in 1437 for Cistercian monks, on the See also:model of Gloucester Hall and See also:Durham College for the southern and See also:northern See also:Benedictines . Nothing more than a site and building was required by way of endowment, as the See also:young monks, who were sent there to study under a provisor, were supported by the houses of the See also:order to which they belonged . The site was five acres, and the building is described in the letters patent " as a fitting and See also:noble college See also:mansion in honour of the most glorious Virgin Mary and St Bernard in Northgates See also:Street outside the Northgate of Oxford." It was suppressed with the Cistercian abbeys in 1539, and granted on the 11th of December 1546 to See also:Christ Church, Oxford, who sold it to Sir Thomas Pope in 1553 for St John's College . The college at Higham Ferrers was a much earlier See also:design . On the and of May 1422 Henry V., in right of the duchy of See also:Lancaster, " See also:hearing that Chicheley inflamed by the pious fervour of devotion intended to enlarge divine service and other See also:works of piety at Higham Ferrers, in See also:consideration of his fruitful services, often See also:crossing the seas, yielding to no toils, dangers or expenses ' . . especially in the conclusion of the present final peace with our dearest father the king of France," granted for 300 marks (£zoo) licence to found, on three acres at Higham Ferrers, a perpetual college of eight chaplains and four clerks, of whom one was to See also:teach grammar and the other See also:song .

. . and six choristers to pray for himself and wife and for Henry IV. and his wife Mary . . . and to acquire the See also:

alien priory of Merseye in See also: