Thomas Chillenden
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Thomas Chillenden (died 15 August 1411) was
Prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
of
Christ Church Priory Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the Ch ...
, Canterbury from 1391 to 1410. Under him, from 1391 to 1400, the Cathedral-Priory church's nave was rebuilt in the
Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...
style of
English Gothic architecture English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...
.


Life


Early life

His family (and hence its surname) probably originated in the Kentish village of
Chillenden Chillenden is a village in east Kent, England, between Canterbury and Deal, and is in the civil parish of Goodnestone. In the ''Domesday Book'' of 1086, Chillenden was recorded as 'Cilledene'. The parish in 1800 was made up of , containing three ...
, though his parents are unknown. After becoming a monk at
Christ Church Priory Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the Ch ...
, he studied for a bachelorship in
canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...
at
Canterbury College, Oxford Canterbury College, Oxford (1311–1540), was a University of Oxford college, owned and run by Christ Church Priory, Canterbury. Shortly after the dissolution of the monasteries, the college's hall, chapel and other buildings were surrendered ...
, from 1365 to 1378, before going to Rome to study the same subject at the papal curia. There he became Doctor of Canon Law, in 1383 or earlier, put together an index to the fourth book of the
Decretals Decretals ( la, litterae decretales) are letters of a pope that formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church.McGurk. ''Dictionary of Medieval Terms''. p. 10 They are generally given in answer to consultations but are sometimes ...
of
Gregory IX Pope Gregory IX ( la, Gregorius IX; born Ugolino di Conti; c. 1145 or before 1170 – 22 August 1241) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 March 1227 until his death in 1241. He is known for issuing the '' Decre ...
(Repertorium quarti libri decretalium), wrote a commentary to the Regulae juris (Longleat, MS 35, fols. 187–206), and lectured on the fourth book of the
Clementines A clementine (''Citrus × clementina'') is a tangor, a citrus fruit hybrid between a willowleaf mandarin orange ( ''C.'' × ''deliciosa'') and a sweet orange (''C. × sinensis''), named in honor of Clément Rodier, a French missionary who fir ...
(‘Reportata on the Clementines’). In 1383 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 ...
was involved in a dispute with
St Frideswide's Priory St Frideswide's Priory was established as a priory of Augustinian canons regular, in 1122. The priory was established by Gwymund, chaplain to Henry I of England. Among its most illustrious priors were the writers Robert of Cricklade and Phi ...
, and Chillenden served as the former's proctor.


As prior

Chillenden's election as prior came after some time as one of the Priory's treasurers. As prior, Chillenden also tried to hold onto partial control of the monasteries's finances, subsuming his role of treasurer into his office of prior. All the monastery's income from, for example, its oblations and manors thus passed through his office, with him allocating a sufficient allowance to meet the expenditure of each obedientary (e.g. cellarer, sacrist). In addition, with the monastery - in the wake of the
Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
- veering between leasing out and directly managing its East Kent manors and leasing them out, he ceased direct management (then true of many, but not all, its manors) and reformed the leasing system, with rents being paid in fixed quantities of stock and grain rather than in money. However, he did not bring so sudden an end to the priory's estates being directly managed as RAL Smith maintains. Whilst Chillenden was prior, twenty-four books on canon law and another eleven on civil law were added to the monastery library. One of these was probably the ''Repertorium sexti libri decretalium'' - it was previously attributed to Chillenden himself, but was actually written by a monk called John. With this financial control, within a year of election Chillenden had restarted the rebuilding of the nave (paused since
Simon Sudbury Simon Sudbury ( – 14 June 1381) was Bishop of London from 1361 to 1375, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1375 until his death, and in the last year of his life Lord Chancellor of England. He met a violent death during the Peasants' Revolt in 1 ...
's murder in 1381). Chillenden also initiated a policy of investment and new construction by the priory. This occurred both in urban areas like Southwark, London (where it bought houses and shops previously belonging to a Robert Little, and built new ones) and Canterbury (creating new buildings in Burgate and Stourstreet, along with a huge new inn called The Chequers, and purchasing a new inn called The Crown), in the priory's rural manors (with new granaries, stables, fulling mills, watermills and barns being built, often with roof tiles, rare at this period), and in the priory itself (with the chapter house restored, a new 903 lb silver-gilt table-altar purchased, and the prior's chapel and residence - among other buildings - extensively improved). A century after Chillenden's death, he was called by John Leland "the greatest builder’ among the priors".John Leland's Itinerary, 248 As the last prior of Canterbury to attend parliament, Chillenden was summoned to Richard II's 1399 council at Oxford to advise the king on the papal schism, and at another time appointed by Richard as a commissioner in the inquiry on goods belonging to merchants from Gueldres then resident in England. He represented both Christ Church Priory and the English crown at the 1409
Council of Pisa The Council of Pisa was a controversial ecumenical council of the Catholic Church held in 1409. It attempted to end the Western Schism by deposing Benedict XIII (Avignon) and Gregory XII (Rome) for schism and manifest heresy. The College of C ...
, though five years earlier
405 __NOTOC__ Year 405 ( CDV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stilicho and Anthemius (or, less frequently, year 1158 ''Ab ...
he had refused to accept the role of
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 ...
, to which he had been elected.


References

*Canterbury Cathedral Archives, registers C, G, S; prior's roll 2; Literary MS C14 *‘Ornamenta ecclesiae … tempore Thomae Chyllynden prioris’, Literae Cantuarienses: the letter books of the monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, ed. J. B. Sheppard, 3, Rolls Series, 85 (1889), 112–23 * *
John Le Neve John Le Neve (1679–1741) was an English antiquary, known for his '' Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ'' ("Feasts of the Anglican Church"), a work of English church biography which has been published in many subsequent editions. Origins He was born on 2 ...
, ''Fasti ecclesiae Anglicanae'', ed. H. P. F. King, J. M. Horn, and B. Jones, 12 vols.(1962–7), 1300–1541, onastic cathedrals


External links


Dictionary of National Biography entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chillenden, Thomas People from Dover District Priors of Canterbury 1411 deaths English Christian monks 14th-century English people 15th-century English people Alumni of Canterbury College, Oxford Year of birth unknown