Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/203

Fitzralph the friars were confirmed in their privileges. This last fact is not disputed ; the friars gained their point (cf., Hist. Anglic. i. 285, ed. H. T. Riley) : but whether they succeeded in obtaining Fitzralph's condemnation is more than doubtful. Hermann Corner {in, ''Corp. Hist. Med. Ævi'', iii. 1097) goes so far as to say that he was arrested at Avignon and there perished miserably. But Wadding himself admits in his margin that he died 're infecta,' and the common account as that he died in peace at an advanced age before any formal decision upon his propositions had been reached (, ''Pontif. Rom. Gall. Hist''. p. 131, Paris, 1632). It is significant that some time before this a subsidy had been levied upon the clergy of the diocese of Lincoln, where he had formerly been chancellor, to contribute towards his expenses during his stay at the papal court (''Reg. Gynewell''. ap. , 284 note c), and Wycliffe implies that a collection of a more general kind was made for his support (''Fascic. Zizan''. p. 284 ; Trialogus, iv. 36, p. 375, ed. G. V. Lechler) ; while a Benedictine chronicler asserts roundly, under the year 1368, that it was in consequence of the default of the English clergy and the abundant resources of the friars that the latter received a confirmation of their privileges, 'adhuc pendente lite' (''Chron. Angl''. p. 38 ;, ''Hist. Anglic''. i. 285). The date of Fitzralph's death was probably 16 Nov. 1360 (, ''De Præsul. Hib''. p. 21 ;, ''Fast. Eccl. Hib''. iii. 15) ; but the 'Chronicon Angliæ,' p. 48, and, among modern writers, Bale (l. c.) give the day as that of St. Edmund the king or 20 Nov. The former date, '16 Kal. Dec.,' has been sometimes misread as 16 Dec. (''Ann. Hib''. an. 1360, p. 393 ;, viii. 129), and Wadding hesitates whether the year was 1360 or 1359, the latter year being given by Leland (''Comm. de Scriptt. Brit''. p. 373). That Fitzralph's death took place at Avignon may be accepted as certain. The discordant account is in fact obviously derived from the statement in Camden's edition of the 'Annales Hiberniæ' (Britannia, p. 830, ed. 1607) that he died 'in Hannonia,' which was pointed out by Ware (l. c.) two hundred and fifty years ago as a mistake for 'Avinione' (see, introduction to the ''Chart. of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin'', ii. pp. cxviii, cxix, where he prints 'Aviniona'). Hannonia then becomes localised in 'Montes Hannoniæ' or Mons in Hainault, and Wadding (l. c. p. 129) conjectures that his death took place in the course of his homeward journey. In this identification of the place he is followed by Mansi (note to. Ann. vii. 33). About ten years after Fitzralph's death his bones are said to have been taken by Stephen de Valle, bishop of Meath (1369-1379), and removed to the church of St. Nicholas at Dundalk ; but some doubted whether the bones were his or another's (''Ann. Hib''. l. c. ;, p. 21). The monument was still shown in the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Ussher wrote to Camden (30 Oct. 1606) that it 'was not long ago by the rude soldiers defaced' (, Epist. p. 86, 1691). However this may be, the statement that miracles were wrought at the tomb in which his remains were laid rests upon early testimony. The first continuator of Higden, whose manuscript is of the first part of the fifteenth century, asserts of the year 1377 that 'about this time God, declaring the righteousness wrought by master Richard whiles that he lived on the earth, that that might be fulfilled in him which is said in the psalm, "The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance," through the merits of the same Richard worketh daily at his tomb at Dundalk in Ireland many and great miracles, whereat it is said that the friars are ill-pleased' (Polychron. viii. 392, ed. J. R. Lumby ; ''Chron. Angl''. p. 400). A like statement occurs in the 'Chronicon Angliæ' (an. 1360, p. 48). In consequence of these miracles Ware says that Boniface IX caused a commission, consisting of John Colton, archbishop of Armagh, and Richard Yong, abbot of Osney, and elect of Bangor (therefore between 1400 and 1404), to inquire into his claims to canonisation ; but the inquiry led to no positive action in the matter. Still, popular usage seems to have placed its own interpretation upon the miracles, and as late as the seventeenth century a Roman catholic priest, Paul Harris, speaks of Fitzralph as 'called . . . by the inhabitants of this countrey S. Richard of Dundalke' (Admonition to the Fryars of Ireland, pp. 15, 34, 1634). Ussher had used almost the same words in his letter already quoted. Wood states that there was an effigy of Fitzralph in Lichfield Cathedral, but it had been destroyed before the time at which he wrote (Fasti Oxon. p. 21). Besides his chief works already enume- rated Fitzralph was the author of a number of minor tracts in the mendicant controversy (among them a reply to Conway), sermons (one collection entitled 'De Laudibus Mariæ Avenioni'), 'Lectura Sententiarum,' 'Quæstiones Sententiarum,' 'Lectura Theologiæ,' 'De Statu universalis Ecclesiæ,' 'De Peccato Ignorantiæ,' 'De Vafritiis Judæorum,' 'Dialogus de Rebus ad S. Scripturam pertinentibus,' 'Vita S. Manchini Abbatis,' and 'Epistolæ ad Diversos,' most of which are still