1920 WYCLIFFE'S CANONRY AT LINCOLN 565 immediate purpose the precise date is not important. What we want is a terminus ad quern, say July 1377, for the date of Wycliffe's disappointment, for which the papal letter^ gives us a terminus a quo, namely December 1373. The passage from the De civili Dominio, iii. 17, is as follows : Dominns papa dedit michi prebendam in ecclesia Lyncolniensi et, facta soUicitudine ad colligendum sibi primes fructus quadraginta quinque librarum, contulit uni iuveni transmarino eandem prebendam per viam reservacionis abdite, non facta inquisitione de inhabilitate persona mee nee facta instancia ex parte mea pro huiusmodi dispensacione ; . . . Nee dubium, si dominus papa potest committere alienigene ydiote sine hoc quod ministret in suo beneficio secundum aUquid officium clericale, pote- statem et officium spoUandi clericos non convictos ex inhabilitate officii, etc. On 4 March 1375 (in extension of a former mandate issued in May 1374) instructions were given by the pope to the bishop of Bologna to dispense a certain Philip de Thornbury on account of illegitimacy to hold one, two, or three benefices, one of which might be a dignity or prebend in a cathedral church.^ In February 1378 this same Thornbury was rehabilitated on account of his having accepted under a mandate of provision from Gregory XI a canonry at Lincoln and the prebend of Caistor without being dispensed on account of his illegitimacy. These, we are informed, he still held and had held since their voidance by Henry de Ingleby's death .^ Not very long before Caistor had been valued at 68 marks .^ We do not know when Ingleby died, but as other preferment held by him was filled on 28 November 1375 he probably died before the autumn. Moreover, it would seem that Caistor must have fallen vacant after 4 March 1375 or, if it fell vacant before, was not yet filled at this date. Now Philip de Thornbury was the illegitimate son of Sir John de Thornbury, an English leader of mercenaries then in the pope's service, and a priest of the diocese of Modena {transmarinus, alienigena) ; he was young {iuvenis) and still a student (ydiota : though this description does some injustice to Thornbury's ability and standing, it would be good enough for a controversial statement) . He had apparently a general, not a special reservation (per viam reservacionis abditae — a general reservation, such as Thornbury's seems to have been, took precedence of a special reservation, such as Wycliffe's), and if he were given a prebend he was not to be required to reside {sine hoc quod ministret, etc.). The description given by Wycliffe of his successful rival tallies so closely with the description of Thornbury as given in the ' Calendar of Papal Letters, iv. 193. 2 Ibid. iv. 194, 210. • Ibid. p. 227.
- In September 1366, Calendar of Papal Petitions, i, 535. This agrees with the
xlv librae in the passage from the De civili Dominio, iii, quoted above.
