A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices/Bere, Richard
Admitted 7 July, 1520.
This was the last but one of the mitred abbots of the great Benedictine House of Glastonbury before its dissolution. His presence on the list of members seems in this day somewhat of an incongruity; but testifies to the ancient comprehensiveness and eclecticism of the Inns of Court. He was a man of learning and enlightenment, and a friend of Erasmus. He was an architect, and added the chapel of King Edgar to the Abbey, and also lodgings for the secular priests. He also built almshouses, still existing in Glastonbury, and the Manor House of Sharpham, in after times the birth-place of the novelist Fielding (q.v.). He entertained Henry VII. at the Abbey on his expedition against Perkin Warbeck in 1497, and in 1503 was sent to Rome to congratulate Pius III. on his elevation to the papacy. On his return he built the chapels of Our Lady of Loretto and of the Holy Sepulchre in his church. In 1508 he engaged in a controversy with Archbishop Warham respecting the relics of St. Dunstan, which remained unsettled at his death, 20 Jan. 1524.