Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/166

 Thomas (Rolls Ser.); Gesta Henrici Quinti (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Elmham's Vita Henrici Quinti, ed. Hearne; Monstrelet's Chroniques (Pantheon Litteraire); Chron. du Religieux de S. Denys (Documents Inédits sur l'Hist. de France); Incerti auctoris Chronicon, ed. Giles; Davies's English Chronicle (Camd. Soc.); Chronicle of London (1827); Page's Siege of Rouen in Collections of a London Citizen (Camd. Soc. 1876); Nicolas's Proceedings and Ordinances of Privy Council; Rymer's Fœdera; Wylie's History of England under Henrv IV; Ramsay's Lancaster and York.] 

THOMAS (d. 1100), archbishop of York, a native of Bayeux, was a son of Osbert, a priest (Gesta Pontificum, p. 66) of noble family (, col. 303), and Muriel (Liber Vitæ Dunelm. pp. 139-40), and was a brother of Samson (d. 1112) [q. v.], bishop of Worcester. He and Samson were two of the clerks that Odo (d. 1097) [q. v.], bishop of Bayeux, took into his household and sent to various cities for education, paying their expenses (, p. 665). Having acquired learning in France, Thomas went to Germany and studied in the schools there; then, after returning to Normandy, he went to Spain, where he acquired much that he could not have learnt elsewhere, evidently from Saracen teachers. On his return to Bayeux Odo was pleased with his character and attainments, treated him as a friend, and made him treasurer of his cathedral church. His reputation as a scholar was widespread. He accompanied Odo to England, and was made one of the Conqueror's chaplains, an office that implied much secretarial work.

At a council held at "Windsor at Whitsuntide 1070 William appointed him to the see of York, vacant by the death of Archbishop Aldred [q. v.] In common with Walkelin [q. v.], his fellow-chaplain, appointed at the same time to the see of Winchester, he is described as wise, polished, gentle, and loving and fearing God from the bottom of his heart (ib. p. 516). His consecration was delayed because, according to the York historian, Ethelwine, bishop of Durham, having fled, there were no suffragans of York to consecrate him, and the see of Canterbury had not yet been filled by the consecration of Lanfranc [q. v.] (, apud Historians of York, ii. 357). He might, however, have received the rite, as Walkelin did, at once from the legate, Ermenfrid, who was then in England; but it is probable that the king caused the delay, intending that he should be consecrated by Lanfranc (, Norman Conquest, iv. 344-5). After Lanfranc's consecration in August, Thomas applied to him. Lanfranc demanded a profession of obedience, and when Thomas, acting on the advice of others, refused to make it, Lanfranc declined to consecrate him. Thomas complained to the king, who thought that the claim to the profession was unreasonable. A few days later, however, Laufranc went to court, and convinced the king that his demand was just [see under ]. As a way out of the difficulty William ordered Thomas to return to Canterbury and make a written profession to Lanfranc personally, not to his successors in the see, for he wished the question as to the right; of the see of Canterbury to be decided in a synod of bishops according to what had been the custom. Thomas was unwilling to give way, and, it is said, was only brought to do so by a threat of banishment. He finally did as he was bidden, though the Yoork writer says that he made only a verbal profession, and received consecration (Gesta Pontificum, pp. 39, 40; ). Both the archbishops went to Rome for their palls in 1071. Alexander II decided against the validity of the election to York, because Thomas was the son of a priest, and took away his ring and staff; but on Lanfranc's intercession relented, and it is said that Thomas received his ring and staff again from Lanfranc's hands. He laid the claims of his see before the pope, pleading that Gregory the Great had ordained that Canterbury and York should be of equal dignity, and that the bishops of Dorchester, Worcester, and Lichfield were rightfully suffragans of York. Alexander ordered that the matter should be decided in England by the judgment of a council of bishops and abbots of the whole kingdom. The archbishops returned to England, visiting Gislebert, bishop of Evreux, on their way. According to the pope's command, the case was decided at Windsor [see under ] at Whitsuntide 1072, in an assembly of prelates, in the presence of the king, the queen, and the legate. The perpetual superiority of the see of Canterbury was declared, the Humber was to be the boundary between the two provinces, all north of that river to the furthest part of Scotland being in the province of York, while south of it the archbishop of York was to have no jurisdiction, being left, so far as England was concerned, with a single suffragan, the bishop of Durham. By the king's command, and in the presence of the court, Thomas made full profession of obedience to Lanfranc and his successors (, i. 23-6, 302-5;, Gesta Regum, iii. ccc. 294, 302; , ii. 306).