Nicholas Farnham (or Nicholas of Farnham; died 1257) was a medieval

Bishop of Durham The bishop of Durham is head of the diocese of Durham in the province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Paul Butler was the most recent bishop of Durham u ...

. Farnham was probably a native of

Farnham, Surrey Farnham is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the administrative counties of England, county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the ...

. He studied at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

before moving on to study at Paris and

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

. At Paris he first studied theology, but later moved to medicine.Franklin "Farnham, Nicholas of" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' He taught at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

as a teacher of medicine before moving to England.Moorman ''Church Life in England'' p. 163 He was at Paris when the riots of 1229 drove many teachers out of Paris. Farnham came to England because of King Henry III's offers of teaching chairs at Oxford to those displaced by the riots. Farnham was a royal physicianGreenway
Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300: Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces): Durham: Bishops
''Ferruolo "Quid dant artes nisi luctum?" ''History of Education Quarterly'' p. 11 before he became confessor to the king and queen in 1237. In 1239, the

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

of Coventry elected him

Bishop of Coventry The Bishop of Coventry is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Coventry in the Province of Canterbury. In the Middle Ages, the Bishop of Coventry was a title used by the bishops known today as the Bishop of Lichf ...

, but Farnham refused the office. He was elected to the see of Durham on 2 January 1241 and at first he wanted to decline the office, but

Robert Grosseteste Robert Grosseteste ( ; ; 8 or 9 October 1253), also known as Robert Greathead or Robert of Lincoln, was an Kingdom of England, English statesman, scholasticism, scholastic philosopher, theologian, scientist and Bishop of Lincoln. He was born of ...

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of Nort ...

persuaded him to accept. Farnham was consecrated as bishop on either 26 May or 9 June 1241.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 241 While bishop, Farnham continued to work for the king. In 1241 he was mediating with King

Alexander II of Scotland Alexander II ( Medieval Gaelic: '; Modern Gaelic: '; nicknamed "the Peaceful" by modern historians; 24 August 1198 – 6 July 1249) was King of Alba (Scotland) from 1214 until his death. He concluded the Treaty of York (1237) which defined t ...

, and in 1242 he was involved in the negotiations over the marriage of King Henry's daughter

Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...

to the future

Alexander III of Scotland Alexander III (; Modern Gaelic: ; 4 September 1241 – 19 March 1286) was King of Alba (Scotland) from 1249 until his death. He concluded the Treaty of Perth, by which Scotland acquired sovereignty over the Western Isles and the Isle of Man. ...

. As a bishop, he became embroiled in a dispute with a dependency of St Alban's Priory, which was finally settled in 1248 in the priory's favour. The set of constitutions, or laws, he issued for the clergy of his diocese were heavily based on his predecessor's constitutions as well as Grosseteste's for Lincoln. Farnham was often ill. In 1244, he almost died, and had to go to the south of England where he received a miraculous cure from drinking water which had had bristles from the beard of Saint Edmund of Abingdon soaked in it. Once more in 1248, his health declined, and it was this illness that caused Farnham to seek a licence to resign his see from the pope. He resigned on 2 February 1249 and died in 1257. On his resignation, he had three manors assigned to him for his support,Moorman ''Church Life in England'' p. 183 and it was at one of these, Stockton in County Durham, that he died, possibly on 31 July, which was the date his death was commemorated at Durham. He was buried in

Durham Cathedral Durham Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Durham, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Durham and is the Mother Church#Cathedral, mother church of the diocese of Durham. It also contains the ...

Citations

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Farnham, Nicholas Bishops of Durham 13th-century English Roman Catholic bishops 1257 deaths Alumni of the University of Oxford People from Farnham Year of birth unknown