Aspects of Kentish Local History

from the administration of spiritualities and temporalities; he awaited the formal citation to the Curia to answer the charges brought against him by Edward I; it was delivered to him at Dover on May 18th and the next day he took ship for France to find the Pope at Bordeaux.
   Edward I knew of the suspension, probably before the Archbishop. He espoused the cause of Simon of Faversham in a letter to Clement V dated April 12th. "Master Simon," he pleaded, "who is distinguished for learning and virtue, fears to be vexed and disquieted by reason of a papal provision for a clerk much inferior in merits and goodness."¹ On May 24th Master Simon received a royal letter of protection to go to the Curia and defend his claim to Reculver against Walter of Maidstone who became Bishop of Worcester in 1313. Simon died at the Curia before July 19th.²
   After his death both Clement V and Edward I claimed the presentation to Reculver. The King assumed that during the Archbishop's suspension it was his right, as in a vacancy of the see, to administer the temporalities and to fill vacant benefices. On August 23rd he rewarded his physician, Master Nicholas of Tingwick, with the rectory of Reculver.³ Clement V claimed the administration of temporalities and spiritualities and had already taken steps to secure them by appointing commissaries on April 20th.⁴ The Pope prevailed over the King; on September 11th Edward yielded his claim

but petitioned Clement V to allow Nicholas of Tingwick to hold Reculver with his other benefice of Coleshill in Berkshire.⁵ He pleaded that he owed his recovery from a long illness next under God, to his beloved physician, and he knew of no one in his kingdom more skilled and fit to look after his health than Master Nicholas and he had the utmost confidence in him.
Master Nicholas was an Oxford scholar in priest's orders, who had leave of absence from the Bishop of Salisbury from 1302 to 1308 to study theology and canon law at the university.⁶ In 1301 he had presented a priest to serve the cure of souls at Coleshill in his absence, and had to make provision for him from the fruits of that benefice which were assessed only at £16.
   The papal administrators refused to admit Master Nicholas to Reculver; they were probably aware that Clement V had already provided Bernard de Bovisvilla to the rectory on the ground that Simon of Faversham had died at the Curia.⁷ On October 20th Edward I
   ¹ Calendar of Letters Close 1302-7, p. 434; Calendar of Letters Patent 1301-7, p. 438.
   ²  C. P. I., II, p. 22.
   ³  Calendar of Letters Patent 1301-7, p. 461.
   ⁴  W. Stubbs, Historical Introductions to the Rolls Series, pp. 493-5.
   ⁵ Rymer, Foedera, I, 1005, 1006.
   ⁶ Register of Simon of Gaunt, II, pp. 848, 858, 871.
   ⁷ C. P. L., II, p. 38.