Welsh Journals

B. Thomas Saint's Career as a Churchman and Canon Lawyer Under this heading are included all the non-hagiographical material which Ussher extracted from Thomas Saint's manuscript. These are: No. 2 Saint's oration concerning the Acts of Praemunire No. 3 Saint's reply to Robert Gaguin's invectives against the English No. 7 Saint's exhortation to his students at Deep Hall, Oxford No. 10 Saint's epitaph on Robert Tully, bishop of St. Davids No. 11 Saint's intercession when plague was raging throughout the borders of St. Davids, September 13, 1503 No. 15 Saint's verse letter to Edward Vaughan, bishop of St. Davids, and also the following miscellaneous item: No. 16 Two lines of Saint's poem praising Eagle Well, Carmarthen. Saint's oration concerning the Acts of Praemunire (2) Ussher has preserved the opening of Thomas Saint's oration in the general convocation held in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, in the presence of Henry, archbishop of Canterbury, and the order of the entire clergy, concerning the royal prohibition and praemunire. Since it has been decreed and established by a general and wholesome council, we must believe that this has been made through the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit, etc. Henry Deane was archbishop of Canterbury from 1501 to 1503 but no such meeting of convocation during his time is recorded in Wilkins's Concilia/1 During the course of the 14th. century, various acts were passed by the English Parliament designed to define the limits of papal authority within the realm. One of the main concerns was the theory of papal plenitudo potestatis by which the pope claimed the right to provide to English beneficies, so depriving founders and benefactors of their right of presentation. In 1351 and 1390 the 'Statutes of Provisors' were passed which imposed penalties on those who recoursed to papal provisions. Cecily Davies72 argues that the passing of the 'Statute of Provisors' of 1351 by the English Parliament and its subsequent execution is to be appreciated in the context of the vacillating fortunes of England in the Hundred Years War. The initiative for its passing came not from the king but from parliament. Edward III had always been able to maintain his rights of patronage and had continued to enforce his claim to presentation to vacancies which had been overlooked by his predecessors. In this, he could count upon the support of the royal courts which had the cognizance of cases concerning advowson, and from which could be issued writs of prohibition against the disturbance of royal presentees. However, in the war with France the