Thomas Brinton was a medieval

Bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was foun ...

. Brinton was nominated on 31 January 1373 and consecrated on 6 February 1373. He died on 4 May 1389.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 267 A certain sermon of his, catalogued as Sermon 69 in collections of his work, was preached in 1376 during the meeting of the

Good Parliament The Good Parliament is the name traditionally given to the English Parliament of 1376. Sitting in London from April 28 to July 10, it was the longest Parliament up until that time. It took place during a time when the English court was perceived ...

. He mentions an imagined parliament of rats and mice (referring to the fable of belling the cat), and this image is generally considered to have inspired the similar image in the prologue of

Piers Plowman ''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative v ...

.Dodd, Gwilym. ''A parliament full of rats? Piers Plowman and the Good Parliament of 1376.'' Historical Research 79:203, 2006.

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* Bishops of Rochester 14th-century English Roman Catholic bishops 1389 deaths Year of birth unknown {{England-bishop-stub