Of Archbishops of Canterbury, the parentage of William of Corbeuil is not known; the inference is that it was humble. Thomas Becket was the son of a London citizen; Richard, of humble parents; Baldwin, of humble parents at Exeter; Richard Grant, parentage unknown; Edmund Rich, son of a merchant at Abingdon; Richard Kilwardby, a Dominican friar of unknown parentage; Robert Winchelsey, probably of humble birth; Walter Reynolds, the son of a baker at Windsor; Chichele, a shepherd-boy, picked up and educated by William of Wykham; Cranmer’s people were small squires in Notts. And so in other sees. Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, the great Justiciar of Henry I., was the son of a poor Norman priest; Thomas of Rotherham, Archbishop of York, was of obscure parentage; Richard of Wych, the saintly Bishop of Chichester, was the son of a decayed farmer at Droitwich, and for several years worked on the land like a labourer; the famous Grostete was of a poor family at Stradbroke, Suffolk; Thomas of Beckington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, is said to have been the son of a weaver; John of Sheppey was taken up and educated by Hamo, Bishop of Rochester, and succeeded his benefactor in the see.
[131] By 9 Ed. II. c. 8, clerks in the king’s service were declared not bound to residence on their benefice.
[132] The custom might sometimes be misleading. Thus, a priest in the diocese of Bath and Wells with the high-sounding name of Richard de Burgh, was a villein of the bishop who had given him freedom and holy orders.
[133] See notice of the college founded by Archbishop Thomas of Rotherham, [p. 517].
[134] The universal ignorance of the Greek language at that time made the great works of the Eastern Church a sealed book to the scholars of the West.
[135] At the Council of Trent, nearly three hundred years after his death, the “Summa” was placed on the secretary’s desk beside the Holy Scriptures, as containing the orthodox solution of all theological questions.
[136] Wesley published an edition of it.
[137] Peter Lombard’s “Text-book.”
[138] “Norfolk Archæology,” vol. iv. p. 342.
[139] “Lincoln,” p. 194. S.P.C.K.