From Manx Soc vol IV,VII & IX

ANTHONY BEEK, BISHOP OF DURHAM. A.D. 1283.

 

 

ANTHONY BEEK was elected bishop of Durham A.D. 1283; he was a great man, and, after the king, second to none in the kingdom in costly habit and military power, giving great assistance to the king in war, and by prudent counsel. Sometimes in the Scottish war he had of his own family twenty six standard-bearers, and usually one hundred and forty knights of his own adherents.

The king being incensed against Anthony, bishop of Durham, because he had not kept the agreement he had entered upon with Richard, prior of Durham, through the mediation of the king, took from him the castle of Bernard with its appurtenances, and bestowed it upon the earl of Warwick, Hert and Hertnesse upon Robert de Clifford, Kewerston upon Galfrido de Hertilpole, which the bishop held the gift of John de Baliol, Robert de Bruce, and Christopher de Seton. The king likewise took from him Werke in Tyndale, Penrith, and the church of Symondburne.

This Anthony appropriated to the church of Durham the manor of Evenwood and a sum of money the gift of John Hatmsard. Likewise the manor of Auckland with the chapel and vaults which he had most sumptuously built. The castle of Somerton near Lincoln, and the manor of Eltham near London, which he curiously constructed, he gave the first to the king, and the second afterwards to the queen. The Island of Man, the gift of the king, he held to the close of his life.

Anthony, bishop of Durham, died at Waltham, and was buried in the church of Durham, A.D. 1310, contrary to the custom of his predecessors, in the front of the church to the north side. For before him, out of reverence to the body of St. Cuthbert, no corpse was permitted to approach the church of Durham.

DE ANTONIO BEEK,1 DUNELMENSIS EPISCOPUS.

MONASTICON ANGLICANUM,

ANTONIUS BEEK electus est episcopus Dunelmensis A.D. 1283, vir magnanimus, post regem nulli in regne, in appa- ratu gestu et potentia militari secundus ; in gaerra regi potenter assistens, et in consiliis providus. Aliquando in gaerra Scotie habuit de sua familia XXVI. vexillarios et communiter de sua secta CXL. milites.

Provocatus rex contra Antonium episcopus Dunelmensis, eo quod pactum inter ipsum et priorem Dunelmensis Ricardum, rege mediante initum non observaret, et ex allis causis castrum Bernardi cum pertinenciis ab eo abstulit, et comiti de Warwyke contulit; Hert et Hertnesse, Roberto de Clifford; Kewerston, Galfrido de Hertllpole, que episcopus habuit ex forisfactura Johannis de Baliolo, Roberti de Brus, et Christopheri de Seton. Abstulit ei etiam rex Werke in Tyndale, Penreth, et ecclesiam de Symondburne.

Iste Anthonius appropriavit ecclesie Dunelmensi manerium de Evenwood, data summa pecunie Johanni Haunsard. Manerium de Aueland cum capella et cameris sumptuosissime construxit. Castrum de Somerton juxta Lincolniam, et manerium de Eltham, juxta Londor, curiosissime edificavit, sed primum regi et secun dum regine postea contulit. Insulam de Man, ex dono domini regis, usque ad termlnum vite habuit.

Mortuus est Anthonius episcopus Dunelmensis apud Waltham, et sepultus est in ecclesia Dunelmensi anno Domixii 1310, contra morem predecessorum suorum in fronte ecclesie, ad aquilonalem partem. Ante illum euim, ob reverentiam corporis St. Cuthberti, non est permissum corpus mortuum ingredi ecclesiam Dunelmensem.

1 Sic,


 

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