Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

I must not omit to mention what several historians have thought fit to record of this archbishop, that he was a most eminent example of an unspotted chastity; for, falling into very bad state of health, he was told by his physicians, I suppose on account of his gross habit of body, that if he would use the company of woman, he need not doubt of his recovery; otherways nothing was to be looked for but inevitable death. The prelate rejected the prescript, and chose rather to die than to pollute his high and sacred calling with so foul and heinous an offence. (Whether so easy a remedy would be rejected and Archbishop Lancelot Blackburne after this manner die a kind of a martyr to celibacy, and show such an uncommon contempt for carnal affection?)

Comment

Comment

The clarification of the original asterisks comes from Samuel Pegge:

The asterisks in Drake’s Eboracum, p. 416, are intended for Archbishop Lancelot Blackburne; intimating that his Grace would never have died a martyr to his chastity. But quære, whether Mr. Drake was a proper person to make this observation (Pegge 1818).

Malcolm Redfellow suggests that Drake resented Blackburne’s refusal to subscribe to Eboracum.

Who is Drake’s source? Hugh the Chanter aka Sottovagina in his Historia ecclesiae Eboracensis (History of the Church of York) simply says that Thomas was not known to have had sex with a woman (Hugh the Chanter 1990).

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Original

Thomas the second of that name and chaplain to king Henry I. succeeded. He was nephew to the former Thomas, son unto Sampson bishop of Worcester, and brother to Richard bishop of Bayeux. He is said to have been a very corpulent man, and but young in years when he was elected bishop. Yet he was of such good parts and proficiency in learning, that he was called from the provostship of Beverley to the see of London, then vacant by the death of Mauritius; and had just accepted of it, when York falling too he was translated to that see; and consecrated June 26, an. 1109. Like his predecessors he was very unwilling to bow the knee to Canterbury, though often summoned by archbishop Anselm to that purpofe, which he as often excused. Anselm at length falling sick, and perceiving his end to draw nigh, wrote unto all the bishops in England commanding them not to consecrate Thomas before he had made his profession, on pain of excommunication and the censures of the church. The curse of father Anselm, on this occasion, is so remarkable that I have transcribed great part of it from Eadmer; and the reader will find it under this note (y). Anselm dying, the king commanded the bishop of Worcester, whose son our elect was, to consecrate him, but the bishop refused it and said, he would not do a thing whereby he might incur father Anselm’s curse for any worldly profit or preferment. But in the end Thomas being perswaded to yield, (z) as others had done before him, he had consecration June 27, 1108. by the then bishop of London; making his profession with this clause, saving his obedience to the pope and king, and the right of his church of York.

This prelate constituted two new prebends in his church; of which Weighton is supposed to be one. He placed canons at Hexam; he gave several parcels of land to the college of Southwell, and purchased from the king the like privileges and liberties for them, which the prebendaries of York, Beverley and Ripon enjoyed. He sat but a little above five years, for he died February 16, anno 1114, and was buried in his cathedral church at York next to his uncle.

I must not omit to mention what several historians have thought fit to record of this archbishop, that he was a most eminent example of an unspotted chastity; for, falling into very bad state of health, he was told by his physicians, I suppose on account of his gross habit of body, that if he would use the company of woman, he need not doubt of his recovery; otherways nothing was to be looked for but inevitable death. The prelate rejected the prescript, and chose rather to die than to pollute his high and sacred calling with so foul and heinous an offence (a).

Whether so easy a remedy would be rejected ************** after this manner die a kind of a martyr to celibacy, and shew such an uncommon contempt for carnal affection?

516 words.

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• Anselm of Canterbury (1) ·
• Archbishop of Canterbury (4) ·
• Archbishop of York (18) ·
• Beverley Minster (7) ·
• Canterbury–York dispute (1) ·
• Chastity (4) ·
• Francis Drake (antiquary) (1) ·
• Henry I of England (3) ·
• History of the Church of York (1) ·
• Hugh the Chanter (1) ·
• Lancelot Blackburne (2) ·
• Medicine (8) ·
• Obesity (5) ·
• Provost of Beverley Minster (1) ·
• Richard de Belmeis I (1) ·
• Samson (bishop of Worcester) (1) ·
• Samuel Pegge (1) ·
• Sex (12) ·
• Sexual intercourse (6) ·
• Thomas II of York (2) ·
• Thomas of Bayeux (2) ·
• 📌York (164) ·

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