Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/184

Marlborough Additional Notes towards a further Elucidation of the Apocalyptick Visions, by way of Appendix to Six Small Tracts,' 1734, 8vo.

 MARLBOROUGH, Dukes of. [See, first , 1660-1722; , third , 1708-1758; , fourth , 1739-1817; , seventh , 1822-1883.]  MARLBOROUGH, SARAH, (1660-1744). [See under, first .]  MARLBOROUGH,. [See Ley, James, first Earl, 1550-1629; Let, James, third Earl, 1018-1665.]  MARLBOROUGH, HENRY (fl. 1420), annalist. [See .]  MARLEBERGE, THOMAS (d. 1236), abbot of Evesham, was probably, as his name suggests, a native of Marlborough. He had a uterine brother (Chronicon Abbatiæ de Evesham, ed. Macray, p. 232), and appears to have been educated at Paris. Richard Poore, afterwards bishop of Salisbury, was, he tells us, his fellow-pupil under Stephen Langton (ib. p. 232), who lectured in that university (ib. p. xxi). He also speaks of three clerks of Archbishop Hubert, J. de Tynemouth, S. de Suuelle (sic), and Honorius, as 'magistri mei in scholis' (ib. p. 126). He was learned in canon and civil law, taught at Oxford, and his biographer adds at Exeter also, but the likeness between the words 'Oxoniam' and ' Exoniam ' may have led to a confusion (ib. p. xxi, note). Marleberge did not become a monk of Evesham till 1199 or 1200 (ib. p. 264), but as he says that he had personal knowledge of Adam, abbot of Evesnam, who died in 1 191, he probably underwent a long novitiate. When he entered the monastery he brought with him a considerable number of books on canon and civil law and medicine, a book of Democritus, three works of Cicero, a Lucan and a Juvenal, with many volumes of theological and grammatical notes. Hostility to the abbot, Roger Norreys, who succeeded Abbot Adam, and was according to Marleberge notoriously profligate, seems to have-delayed his promotion. But when in 1202 Maugere or Malgere [q. v.], bishop of Worcester, on the plea that the abbot s conduct needed examination, formally visited the abbey, which claimed to be an exempt monastery (i.e. subject to the pope, and free from diocesan control), Marleberge acted as spokesman of a committee of twelve monks who were appointed to explain to the bishop the grounds of their resistance to the visitation. The bishop replied by suspending all the monks for contumacy, and excommunicated them. There upon Archbishop Hubert, at Marleberge's request, hM an inquiry respecting the bishop's claim at London, but the result was indecisive, and the matter was referred to the papal delegates, the abbots of Malmesbury, Abingdon, and Eynsham. As they were not impartial judges of episcopal rights, this step forced the bishop to appeal to Rome.

Meanwhile the monks continued to suffer at the hands of their abbot, who farmed out lands without the consent of the convent. In 1203 Marleberge went to conciliate the king and archbishop, whose interests had suffered by the abbot's treatment of the property. He was refused an interview with John, and met with contumely in the king's court, but after he had explained to the archbishop the real state of affairs, Hubert, as papal legate and legitimate visitor of the abbey, held a visitation, but refused to give sentence on the evidence before him, and ordered the abbot and convent to elect arbitrators. The archbishop's death rendered the visitation abortive, but it was decided that the monk? had gone beyond their rights in trying to recover lands alienated by the abbot, and Marleberge, with three others, was banished for a fortnight from the house. He was recalled to carry on the case against the Bishop of Worcester. Marleberge pleaded the case in the presence of the papal commissioners, 1204-5. Their judgment gave the bishop temporary possession of the right to visit the monastery, but no right to visit the churches of the vale of Evesham, which the monastery protested were included in its papal privileges. Before formal judgment was delivered Marleberge hastened to Rome to get an early interview with the pope, Innocent III, but the pope evinced little interest.

The abbot arrived at Rome in March 1205, and Marleberge, who had spent the interval at Piacenzaand Pavia, met him there, although they were still personally very hostile to one another. On 19 April 1205 Marleberge retired to Bologna, where he spent six months attending daily lectures on canon and civil law, on the advice of Cardinal Hugulini, afterwards bishop of Ostia. In October 1205, when the abbot had returned to England, Marleberge pleaded the abbey's cause at 