Fitz-ralph, Richard

Fitz-Ralph, Richard an Irish prelate, is supposed to have been born in Devonshire. He was educated at Oxford, and in 1347 was created archbishop of Armagh. He was a strenuous opponent of the mendicant orders; and being in London at a time when a warm contest was carried on between the friars and secular clergy, about preaching, hearing confessions, etc., he delivered several sermons, in which he laid down nine conclusions against the mendicants. Upon complaint made by the latter to the pope, Richard was ordered to appear at Avignon, which he did, and well defended his views, Miracles were attributed to him after his decease, in 1360, and a fruitless application for his canonization was made to Boniface IX. He wrote, Sermones ad Crucen Londciniensem (1356): — Adversus Errores Amenorum (Paris, 1612): — Defensio Curatoruun adversus Fratres Mendicantes, etc. (Paris, 1496): — De Ladibus S. Deipare. Bayle says that he translated the New Test. into Irish.