Arundel, Thomas

Arundel, Thomas archbishop of Canterbury, was second son of Robert Fitz-Alan, earl of Arundel and Warren, and was born at Arundel Castle in 1353. His powerful family connections gave him early promotion: at 20 he was archdeacon of Taunton, and in 1374 the pope nominated him to the vacant see of Ely, the king and the monks of Ely having, at the same time, respectively nominated two others; but Arundel was consecrated without dispute. In 1388 he was removed to the see of York, and was the first archbishop of that see who was translated to Canterbury, which was the case in 1396. Very shortly after Arundel was forced into banishment by Richard II, as an accomplice of his brother, the earl of Arundel (executed as a partisan of the duke of Gloucester), and Roger Walden was put into the chair of Canterbury, and acted as archbishop for about two years. (Johnson, Eccl. Canons, ii, A.D. 1398.) The archbishop, in the mean time, went to Rome, and afterward to Cologne. He figured largely ill the political intrigues by which Richard was deposed, and on the accession of Henry IV, 1399, he was restored to his see. He was a great persecutor of the Wickliffites, and in 1408 he published, in convocation at Oxford, "Ten Constitutions against the Lollards." He established in that year an inquisition for heresy at Oxford, and put in force the statute de hceretico comburendo (2 Hen. IV, ch. xv), and prohibited the circtlatien of the English Scriptures. He built the tower called the "Arundel Tower," and gave to the cathedral of Canterbury a chime of bells, known as "ArundeFs ring," and was a great benefactor in many ways to the cathedral establishments. He died February 20th, 1414.-Collier, Eccl. Hist. of England, iii, 213-301.