William Thorne ( fl. 1397) was an English

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

historian.

Life

He was a monk of St Augustine's, Canterbury. On 19 April 1387 he was sent as proctor to secure the papal confirmation for the election of a new

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

. Detained for eight days at

Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...

, he did not land till 5 May. He reached

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one ...

on 11 June, and then had to follow the pope from Lucca to

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, for more than a year. He gives a detailed negative account of the Papal Curia, with a table of charges incurred by the monastery during the vacancy. He failed to secure the confirmation, and the abbot had to come in person. While in Italy Thorne recovered for his monastery the possession of the rectory of

Littleborne Littlebourne is a village and civil parish east of Canterbury in Kent, South East England. History The significant Howletts Anglo-Saxon cemetery is in the parish. It is regarded as " Jutish"; finds are in the British Museum and elsewhere, and i ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, the patronage of which had passed to the monastery of St. Mary de Monte Mirteto of the order of Flora in the

diocese of Velletri In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

, where only two monks resided. He concluded his business in January 1390, and started home on the 20th. On his arrival he hurried to meet the king Richard II at Langley on 5 April.

Works

His history covers the abbots of St. Augustine's, extending from the foundation to 1397. The first part to 1228 was largely taken from the work of Thomas Sprott. The work was printed by

Roger Twysden Sir Roger Twysden, 2nd Baronet (21 August 1597 – 27 June 1672), of Roydon Hall near East Peckham in Kent, was an English historian and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1625 and 1640. Life Twysden was the son ...

in his ''Decem Scriptores'', 1652.

References

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorne, William English Benedictines English chroniclers 14th-century English historians