William
Toli and the Constantinople patriarch
and
the letter issued a month before time
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
Sometime
between 1342 and 1345 William Toli from Dunmow, Essex, in the diocese of London
went overseas to fight for the Byzantine Empire against the Ottoman Turks.[1] William
Toli was of humble origins yet still he went to fight in the Smyrna Crusade led
by Henry, Patriarch of Constantinople.[2]
This
patriarch of Constantinople was the Latin patriarch of the city, established
following the Fourth Crusade capture of Constantinople in 1204. Henry de Asti
was elected patriarch in 1339. Henry was also known as bishop of Negroponte.[3]
In
1342 Patriarch Henry was commissioned by Pope Clement VII to lead a crusade
against the Turkish controlled city of Smyrna. On 28th October 1344
the city of Smyrna fell and Henry established his headquarters there.
On 17th
January 1345 Patriarch Henry decided to celebrate a victory mass in a former
church that was located between the Christian and Turkish lines. The patriarch
was advised against it but he went ahead. While at mass the Turkish leader Umar
attacked and in the ensuing battle Patriarch Henry was killed.[4] In
his own account William Toli claimed that he was severely wounded in the battle
of the Smyrna church when the patriarch was killed.[5] It
is also possible that William Toli may have received his wounds in the battle
fought when the Crusaders were trapped between the harbour walls and the
Turkish cavalry.[6]
Whatever the circumstances William Toli suffered these wounds for the rest of
his life.[7]
Dunmow in Essex by Paul Farmer
Reward for services
As a reward for his
services on crusade William Toli received papal letters assigning him a benefice
in the gift of the abbot and convent of St. Osyth's. The abbey of St. Osyth’s
was one of the largest monasteries in Essex from which county William Toli came
from. This assignment was annulled in 16 Kal January 1345 (that note of the
date) when William Toli got a new papal mandate.[8]
But before the annulment William Toli was also got an assignment of a poor
clerk’s benefice in the gift of Barlinch Priory.[9] The
Priory of St. Nicholas at Barlinch was a small Augustinian house in the parish
of Brompton Regis in Somerset. Humphrey de
Umbiri was prior in the 1340s (he resigned in 1347).[10] On
his way back to England William Toli lost at sea the papal letters assigning
him a benefice in the gift of Barlinch Priory.[11]
But was it Barlinch or
the St. Osyth provision that he lost. The petition letter says it was the abbey
of Orlyche which the editor of the Papal
Registers thought was Barlinch priory but there seems to be doubt about
this interpretation.[12] The
issued papal letter of 1345 said it was the St. Osyth abbey provision that was
annulled.[13]
It seems therefore that William Toli received only one reward for hi services
on crusade and that was the benefice in the gift of St. Osyth abbey with W.H. Bliss
misreading Osyth as Orlyche.
Ancient Smyrna by Georges Jansoone
Return
to England
After the battle of
Smyrna in 1345 William Toli returned to England still suffering from his war
wounds. Therefore sometime before 16 Kal January 1345 William Toli petitioned
the Pope for a benefice in the Diocese of London. This was granted for the
amount of 25 marks with cure of souls and 15 marks without.[14] In
16 Kal January 1345 William Toli got new papal letters giving him a reservation
of a benefice in the gift of the Bishop of London to the value of 25 marks with
cure of souls, or 15 marks without. To help William Toli get a benefice a concurrent
mandate was issued to Francis Orsini, treasurer of York and papal notary, along
with the abbot of Tiltey, and another named cleric.[15]
Getting
a papal letter
The death of Patriarch
Henry and the papal letters given to William Toli all seem to happen in
mid-January 1345. Yet the process of getting a papal letter takes some time
longer than a few days.
The first step in
securing a papal letter for a benefice or other religious office was filing a petition
to the Pope in Avignon (the Popes lived at Avignon in France from 1309 to 1376).
This was done in person or by proxy. At Avignon the Referendary was the first
to examine the petition and make sure it was written in the proper manner. Next
the petition went to the Datary to receive a date stamp after which it went to
the Registry of Supplications. Here the petitioner paid a fee to have the
petition registered within three days.
Next the petitioner
went to the Vice-Chancellor in the Chancery, where another fee was paid to have
the letter of grace recorded in the books. An Abbreviator in the Chancery then
wrote out the papal letter granting the petition in precise words agreed with
the petitioner. If a reservation of a benefice was desired, as in the case of
William Toli, then two letters were made; one for the petitioner and another
for three nominated executors.
After the letter was
noted in the Chancery records the petitioner went to the Rescribendarius and the Computista
where another fee was charged to write up the papal letters proper and more
money to the scriptor who did the actual writing. The Rescribendary dated the
letters and applied any notarial marks and signed it. Yet this was not the end
of the process. Now another Abbreviator was needed to recheck all the wording
of the papal letter against the petition and the various records made during
the process. The letter then went to the Bullator
who affix the type of bulla needed on
the letter in return for a fee. The letter then went to the office of the
Lateran Registers where it was registered within three days on payment of
another fee along with a tax set by the Rescribendary. After all this the
petitioner finally got his papal letter.[16]
The Pope's Palace at Avignon
William
Toli’s papal letters before the event
William Toli would have
gone through this process of the getting a papal letter of provision at least
twice but it would have still taken a week or two at any time. Yet it appears
that William Toli received his final papal letter on 16 Kal January 1345 before
the battle of Smyrna and the death of Patriarch Henry occurred. This is because
16 Kal January 1345 is not actually in January 1345 but is the papal way of
dating documents. In the normal calendar used the world over 16 Kal January
1345 is 17th December 1344, a full month before the death of
Patriarch Henry. We also have the story in William’s petition to the Pope that
he lost the assignment to St. Osyth abbey while at sea on his way back to
England.
The battle of Smyrna
happened on 14th or 17th January 1345 and possibly a few
days afterwards in mopping up operations. The evacuated crusaders would first
be taken by ship to Greece and later via the same ship or another be
transported back to Italy or southern France from where the crusaders would
make their own way home. If William Toli left Smyrna in January 1345 and got
back to France he would then possibly have travelled to Avignon in southern
France to meet the papal officials and get a new benefice provision to replace
the lost on of St. Osyth. All of this would have taken time and it would be
February or March 1345 before the business at Avignon would be completed. Why then
was the papal letter of provision back dated to the 17th December
1344, a month before everything happened?
Maybe W.H. Bliss made
another misreading of the faded fourteenth century handwriting and took 16 Kal
January 1346 to be 16 Kal January 1345 as 5 and 6 are not too dissimilar from
each other. Many of the other letters surrounding the William Toli letter in
the Papal Registers are dated sometime in 1346.[17] If
so then the papal letter of provision of a benefice in the diocese of London
was issued on 17th December 1345 which would give William Toli
enough time to get back to Europe and recover from his wounds such that he was
able to get the money together to petition for the new provision to replace the
lost one of St. Osyth. Otherwise William Toli was an exceptional person who
could see the future and so got a papal letter a month before he needed it. Maybe
some other documents will surface in the future to work out better the story of
William Toli in 1345 and his relationship with Patriarch Henry and the Papal
Court but for the moment we will leave it there.
Bibliography
Bliss, W.H. (ed.), Calendar of entries in the Papal Registers
relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Petitions to the Pope (London, 1896),
Vol. 1, A.D. 1342-1419
Bliss, W.H. & Johnson, C. (eds.),
Calendar of entries in the Papal
Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1897), Vol. 3,
1342-1362
Guard, T., Chivalry, Kingship and Crusade: The English Experience in the
Fourteenth Century (Woodbridge, 2013)
Haren, M.J. (ed.), Calendar of entries in the Papal Registers
relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. XV, Innocent VIII: Lateran
Registers 1484-1492 (Dublin, 1978)
Weaver, Rev. F.W., ‘Barlinch
Priory’, in the Somersetshire
Archaeological and Natural History Society: Proceedings, 1908, Vol. 54, pp.
79-106
==================
End of post
=================
[1] Bliss,
W.H. (ed.), Calendar of entries in the
Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Petitions to the Pope (London,
1896), Vol. 1, A.D. 1342-1419, p. 90
[2]
Guard, T., Chivalry, Kingship and
Crusade: The English Experience in the Fourteenth Century (Woodbridge,
2013), p. 119
[3] www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Patriarch_of_Constantinople#List_of_Latin_Patriarchs_of_Constantinople
accessed on 10th April 2013
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_of_Asti
accessed on 26th August 2017; Tresor de
Chronologie, p. 2199 says that Patriarch Henry was killed on 14th
January 1345
[5] Bliss,
W.H. & Johnson, C. (eds.), Calendar
of entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland
(London, 1897), Vol. 3, 1342-1362, p. 186
[6]
Guard, Chivalry, Kingship and Crusade:
The English Experience in the Fourteenth Century, p. 36
[7]
Guard, Chivalry, Kingship and Crusade:
The English Experience in the Fourteenth Century, p. 119
[8] Bliss
& Johnson (eds.), Calendar of entries
in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 3,
1342-1419, p. 186
[9] Bliss
(ed.), Calendar of entries in the Papal
Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Petitions to the Pope,
Vol. 1, A.D. 1342-1419, p. 90
[11] Bliss
& Johnson (eds.), Calendar of entries
in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 3,
1342-1419, p. 186
[12]
Weaver, Rev. F.W., ‘Barlinch Priory’, in the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society: Proceedings,
1908, Vol. 54, pp. 79-106, at p. 84
[13] Bliss
& Johnson (eds.), Calendar of entries
in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 3,
1342-1419, p. 186
[14] Bliss
(ed.), Calendar of entries in the Papal
Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Petitions to the Pope,
Vol. 1, A.D. 1342-1419, p. 90
[15] Bliss
& Johnson (eds.), Calendar of entries
in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 3,
1342-1362, p. 186
[16]
Haren, M.J. (ed.), Calendar of entries in
the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. XV, Innocent
VIII: Lateran Registers 1484-1492 (Dublin, 1978), pp. xv, xvi, xvii, xviii
[17] Bliss
& Johnson (eds.), Calendar of entries
in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 3,
1342-1419, p. 186
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