Benedict Nichols, also spelt Nicholls (died 25 June 1433), was a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

and

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, successively a

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

of Salisbury Cathedral, and

Bishop of Bangor The Bishop of Bangor is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Bangor. The see is based in the city of Bangor where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Cathedral Church of Saint Deiniol. The ''Report of the Commissioners appointed ...

and

Bishop of St David's The Bishop of St Davids is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of St Davids. The succession of bishops stretches back to Saint David who in the 6th century established his seat in what is today the city of St Davids in Pembrokeshire, ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. He took part in the trial of

Sir John Oldcastle ''Sir John Oldcastle'' is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-/15th-century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr. Publication The play was originally p ...

in 1413 and in 1415 was with

King Henry V Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hu ...

at the capture of

Harfleur Harfleur () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It was the principal seaport in north-western France for six centuries, until Le Havre was built about five kilometres (three miles) downstrea ...

Life

Nichols is recorded as holding the benefice of Conington, in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

,George William Manby, ''The history and antiquities of the Parish of Saint David, South-Wales''
p. 146
/ref> and immediately before becoming a bishop was

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

Stalbridge Stalbridge () is a small town and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated in the Blackmore Vale, near the border with Somerset. In the 2011 census the civil parish—which includes the hamlets of Stalbridge Weston, and Thornhill—had 1,160 ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

and a

of Salisbury Cathedral in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

.Sir John Edward Lloyd, ''Owen Glendower: Owen Glyn Dŵr'' (1931), p. 134: "On May 1st, 1408, at Lucca, Gregory XII was induced to relieve Lewis, bishop of Bangor, although absent (and, incidentally, unheard) from his obligation to his see, and to provide to the vacancy Benedict Nicholls, a canon of Salisbury and rector of Stalbridge in Dorsetshire. Immediately on receipt of the bull, Nicholls obtained from the crown a grant of the..." Nichols's first major chance of preferment came with the collapse of the

Glyndŵr Rising The Welsh Revolt (also called the Glyndŵr Rising or Last War of Independence) ( cy, Rhyfel Glyndŵr) or ( cy, Gwrthryfel Glyndŵr) was a Welsh rebellion in Wales led by Owain Glyndŵr against the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ag ...

against the English in

, led by Owain Glyndŵr. King Henry IV was anxious to replace Lewis Byford, a supporter of Glyndŵr, as Bishop of Bangor, and John Trevor, a brother-in-law of Glyndŵr's, as Bishop of St Asaph. On 1 May 1408, at

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 ...

Pope Gregory XII Pope Gregory XII ( la, Gregorius XII; it, Gregorio XII; – 18 October 1417), born Angelo Corraro, Corario," or Correr, was head of the Catholic Church from 30 November 1406 to 4 July 1415. Reigning during the Western Schism, he was oppos ...

was persuaded to relieve Bishop Lewis Byford from his obligation to his see, even though Byford had not been heard, and to provide Nichols to the vacancy. Nichols was consecrated on 12 August 1408, and by October 1409, with the English forces having strengthened their hold on Wales, it was possible for him to be

enthroned Enthroned is a Belgian black metal band formed in Charleroi. It is one of the premier acts of the Belgian black metal scene. History The band was founded in 1993 by drummer Cernunnos. He soon recruited guitarist Tsebaoth and a vocalist from g ...

at Bangor Cathedral. On 25 September 1413 Nichols was present at the trial for

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

, leader of the

Lollards Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic ...

, by an ecclesiastical court. One writer later noted that Nichols "acquired dishonorable celebrity in the early period of the reformation, from being one of the bishops who assisted the archbishop of Canterbury in the condemnation of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, for heresy". Early in 1415,

Henry Beaufort Cardinal Henry Beaufort (c. 1375 – 11 April 1447), Bishop of Winchester, was an English prelate and statesman who held the offices of Bishop of Lincoln (1398) then Bishop of Winchester (1404) and was from 1426 a Cardinal of the Church of Ro ...

, Bishop of Winchester, commissioned Nichols to lay the foundation stone for

Sheen Priory Sheen Priory (ancient spelling: Shene, Shean, etc.) in Sheen, now Richmond, London, was a Carthusian monastery founded in 1414 within the royal manor of Sheen, on the south bank of the Thames, upstream and approximately 9 miles southwest of th ...

. In September 1415, Nichols was in the service of

at the capture of

, serving as Chaplain of the King's retinue, when on the instructions of the king he was placed in charge of a group of hostages. He told them He was translated to

St David's St Davids or St David's ( cy, Tyddewi, , "David's house”) is a city and a community (named St Davids and the Cathedral Close) with a cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Alun. It is the resting place of Saint David, W ...

on 15 December 1417, the Pope's bull to effect this being dated "xviii Cal. Januar.", made the profession of obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury on 12 February 1417/18, and received possession of the temporalities there on 1 June 1418. He was succeeded at Bangor by William Barrow, who had previously served as Chancellor of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. In 1431, Nichols confirmed that the

vicars choral A lay clerk, also known as a lay vicar, song man or a vicar choral, is a professional adult singer in an Anglican cathedral and often Roman Catholic Cathedrals in the UK, or (occasionally) collegiate choir in Britain and Ireland. The vicars chora ...

of St David's Cathedral were to sit and stand in the

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

in accordance with the

Sarum Use The Use of Sarum (or Use of Salisbury, also known as the Sarum Rite) is the Latin liturgical rite developed at Salisbury Cathedral and used from the late eleventh century until the English Reformation. It is largely identical to the Roman rite ...

. He died in office at St David's on 25 June 1433,William Basil Jones, Edward Augustus Freeman, ''The history and antiquities of Saint David's'' (1856)
p. 307
/ref> leaving a Will dated 4 June 1433 which was proved on 14 August, and was entombed in the cathedral, where the whereabouts of his tomb is now unknown. It has been suggested that one of the defaced monuments in the south

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

may be his.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, Benedict 1433 deaths Bishops of Bangor Bishops of St Davids 15th-century English Roman Catholic bishops Year of birth unknown Burials at St Davids Cathedral

Life

See also

Notes