Simon Mepeham (or Meopham or Mepham; died 1333) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1328 to 1333.

Early life

Mepeham was educated at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

between the years 1290 and 1296 at

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ...

where he devoted himself to the study of theology. He was ordained priest on 21 September 1297 in Canterbury Cathedral by Archbishop

Robert Winchelsey Robert Winchelsey (or Winchelsea; c. 1245 – 11 May 1313) was an English Catholic theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury. He studied at the universities of Paris and Oxford, and later taught at both. Influenced by Thomas Aquinas, he was a sc ...

, who gave Simon the rectory of Tunstall in Kent. Mepeham became a

prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of t ...

Llandaff Llandaff (; cy, Llandaf ; from 'church' and '' Taf'') is a district, community and coterminous electoral ward in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It was incorporated into the city in 1922. It is the seat of the Bishop of Llandaff, whose ...

in 1295 and soon afterwards a canon of

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but took no interest or part in public affairs.

Archbishop of Canterbury

Mepeham was the candidate of the

Earl of Lancaster The title of Earl of Lancaster was created in the Peerage of England in 1267. It was succeeded by the title Duke of Lancaster in 1351, which expired in 1361. (The most recent creation of the ducal title merged with the Crown in 1413.) King Henry ...

against the candidate supported by Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer.Weir ''Queen Isabella'' p. 306 Elected to the Archbishopric of Canterbury on 11 December 1327, Simon Mepeham was consecrated on 5 June 1328, and received the

temporalities Temporalities or temporal goods are the secular properties and possessions of the church. The term is most often used to describe those properties (a ''Stift'' in German or ''sticht'' in Dutch) that were used to support a bishop or other religious ...

of the

see of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

on 19 September 1328.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 233 That winter, he supported a rebellion against the rule of Roger Mortimer that was led by the Earl of Lancaster and supported by the

Earl of Norfolk Earl of Norfolk is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. Created in 1070, the first major dynasty to hold the title was the 12th and 13th century Bigod family, and it then was later held by the Mowbrays, who ...

Earl of Kent The peerage title Earl of Kent has been created eight times in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In fiction, the Earl of Kent is also known as a prominent supporting character in William Shakespeare's traged ...

and others.Powell ''House of Lords in the Middle Ages'' p. 302 Archbishop Mepeham's register is lostHaines "An Innocent Abroad" ''English Historical Review'' pp. 555–596 and as a result what we know of his governance of his see is gleaned from the chroniclers William Thorne and William Dene. Mepeham was considered to be a "man of no great ability and with scanty knowledge of ecclesiastical tradition and propriety, and the maintenance of the rights of his See caused disputes on every side."
Chronicles of Wingham
' accessed April 2010

Dispute and excommunication

Mepeham became involved in a dispute about the juridical rights of churches that had been appropriated by

St Augustine's Abbey St Augustine's Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Canterbury, Kent, England. The abbey was founded in 598 and functioned as a monastery until its dissolution in 1538 during the English Reformation. After the abbey's dissolution, it underwent ...

. The monks made an appeal against the Archbishop, and a

Papal nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...

and canon of

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, Icherius de Concareto, was appointed to mediate. Mepeham was cited to give evidence before him, but refused to attend. The

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

s of Canterbury were in support of Mepeham, but his refusal to submit to the judicial process of the Church led to his excommunication by Pope

John XXII Pope John XXII ( la, Ioannes PP. XXII; 1244 – 4 December 1334), born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), was head of the Catholic Church from 7 August 1316 to his death in December 1334. He was the second and longest-reigning Avignon Pope, elected b ...

in 1333.Carpenter ''Cantuar'' pp. 89–90 Concoreto had issued an order suspending Mepham from presiding at Divine Services on 22 January 1333 with the condition that should the Archbishop continue to refuse to resist the will of the Pope and court he was to be excommunicated 30 days later.Haines ''Archbishop Simon Mepham 1328-1333: A Boy Among Men'' Mepeham's excommunication was posthumously rescinded, allowing him to be buried in Canterbury Cathedral.

Death and afterward

Mepeham died on 12 October 1333. He is buried in a tomb made of black marble located beneath the entrance arch to the Chapel of St. Anselm in Canterbury Cathedral.

Citations

References

* * * * * Powell, J. Enoch and Keith Wallis ''The House of Lords in the Middle Ages: A History of the English House of Lords to 1540'' London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1968 * Weir, Alison ''Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery and Murder in Medieval England'' New York: Ballantine 2005

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mepeham, Simon Simon Mepeham 14th-century English Roman Catholic archbishops 1333 deaths Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Year of birth unknown Burials at Canterbury Cathedral