was charged with a mission to the papal court to plead for the consecration of Bishop Reginald; but the mission was frustrated by the opposition of the young king who would not let it proceed.[1] Some two years later we have a charter of K. Henry II [May 1175–June 1176] which records that Thomas archdeacon of Wells had renounced his right, real or supposed, over ten churches belonging to the abbey of Glastonbury, and that henceforward the archdeacons of Wells were to hold the church of South Brent as a prebend in the church of Wells.[2] It is interesting to find him again as Thomas Agnellus archdeacon of Wells, the writer of a eulogistic homily on the death of the young King Henry († 11 June 1183), part of which is printed in the appendix to the Rolls Series edition of Ralph of Coggeshall.[3]
We have still to deal with a mysterious Thomas de Erlegh, who appears now as archdeacon of Wells and now as archdeacon of Bath. We find him (1) attesting William de Malreward's grant of the church of Tiverton to the nuns of Kingston St Michael:[4] the witnesses are Thomas de Erlega archdeacon of Wells, Richard archdeacon of Bath, and Ubert precentor of Wells—an attestation which points to the period 1175-84: (2) attesting Alexander de Pirou's grant to Athelney; witnessed by Reginald bishop of Bath, Thomas de Erleghe archdeacon of Bath, and Master Walter prior of Buckland.[5] Walter was prior of the canons of Buckland who were finally suppressed in 1186. (3) In a Bruton charter Bishop Reginald's confirmation of the church of Perreton[6] is notified by him to his ' very dear kinsman Thomas de Erlega, his archdeacon '. K. Henry's gift of this church is dated by Maxwell-Lyte at the end of 1181 or the
- ↑ Arnulfi Episiolae (ed. Giles), no. 85, p. 238.
- ↑ R. i. 25, printed in Hearne, Ad. of Dom. i. 229. The attestation is 'T. Roberto cancellario', &c. Ralph de Warneville is doubtless meant, who was chancellor from May 1173 till he became bishop of Lisieux in 1182. He is miscalled 'Robert de Warnevilla' in a chartulary of S. Georges cited by Delisle, Mém. sur les charles de Hen. II, p. 21. In each case the scribe has wrongly expanded an original 'R'.
The date of the charter is arrived at thus: Bishop Reginald was consecrated in June 1174: K. Henry returned to England in May 1175: the churches of Pilton and S. Brent were confirmed to the dean and chapter of Wells by Alexander III on 15 July 1176.
- ↑ The 'Historia Norwegiae', a brief sketch of the introduction of Christianity into Norway by an anonymous writer of the end of the twelfth century, is dedicated to Agnellus. See Monum. Historica Norvegiae (ed. Gustav Storm, 1880), p. 72: 'Tu igitur, o Agnelle, iure didascalico mi praelate, utcunque alii ferant haec mea scripta legentes non rhetorico lepore polita, immo scrupulosis barbarismis implicita, gratanter ut decet amicum accipito.' It is held that the person here addressed is Thomas Agnellus archdeacon of Wells: cf. Eng. Hist. Rev., Apr. 1921, p. 304.
- ↑ Monasticon, iv. 400.
- ↑ Ath. 33.
- ↑ Br. 146.
