Thomas Le Reve
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Thomas le Reve (died
1394 Year 1394 ( MCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * February 28 – Richard II of England grants Geoffrey Chaucer 20 pounds a year for life, for h ...
) was the first
Bishop of Waterford and Lismore The Bishop of Waterford and Lismore is an episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Waterford and town of Lismore in Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1838, and is still used by the Roman Catholic Church. Hi ...
following the unification of the two sees in
1363 Year 1363 ( MCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * April 9 – Haakon VI of Norway marries Margaret I of Denmark. * August – The Revolt of Saint Titus, against t ...
, and was also
Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, commonly known as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was the highest ranking judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 until the end of 1800, it was also the hi ...
. He was a strong-minded and combative individual, who was not afraid to clash with his ecclesiastical superiors.


Life

Little is known of his early life, but a reference to his "great age" at death suggests that he was born in the early years of the fourteenth century. His name is believed to be an early form of Reeves, which later became common in Ireland. He had at least one brother Walter, who was also 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 deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
. He was
prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Catholic Church, Catholic or Anglicanism , Anglican clergy, a form of canon (priest) , canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in part ...
of the
Diocese of Killaloe The Diocese of Killaloe ( ) may refer either to a Roman Catholic or a Church of Ireland (Anglican) diocese, in Ireland. Roman Catholic diocese The Diocese of Killaloe is the second largest Roman Catholic diocese in Ireland. It comprises the ...
and then of the Diocese of Lismore, and a
canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...
of Lismore Cathedral. He was also
Archdeacon of Cashel The Archdeacon of Cashel was a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Diocese of Cashel which later became a post shared with Emly Emly or Emlybeg () is a village in County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a civil parish in the ...
for a time.


Bishop

He became Bishop of Lismore in 1358. In 1363
Pope Urban V Pope Urban V (; 1310 – 19 December 1370), born Guillaume de Grimoard, was head of the Catholic Church from 28 September 1362 until his death, in December 1370 and was also a member of the Order of Saint Benedict. He was the only Avignon pope ...
united the sees of Lismore and Waterford with le Reve as the first bishop of the united see.Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol.1 p. 85 The union had been decreed as early as 1327 by Pope
John XXII Pope John 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 by the Conclave of ...
; it was to take effect on the death of whichever bishop predeceased the other, but for reasons which are unclear the union did not take place on the death of John Leynagh (or Launaught), le Reve's predecessor as Bishop of Lismore, in 1354. It may well be that le Reve used his influence to ensure that he, not Roger Cradock, the
Bishop of Waterford The Bishop of Waterford was a medieval prelate, governing the Diocese of Waterford from its creation in the 11th century until it was absorbed into the new Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore in the 14th century. After the creation of ...
, who should have succeeded to the united see on Leynagh's death, would be the first bishop. Although King
Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...
ordered that 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 diocese be delivered to Cradock, this was not done; and four years later, when Cradock was translated to the see of Landaff, le Reve was confirmed as bishop of the united see without a formal election. He spent part of 1363 at the
Papal The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...
Court in
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, where he sought a number of benefits for himself and the clergy of his dioceses, but few of them were granted.


Lord Chancellor

He was briefly Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1367–8. Few records of his tenure in the office survive, but he was accused of improper conduct in using the
Great Seal of Ireland The Great Seal of Ireland was the Seal (emblem), seal used until 1922 by the Dublin Castle administration to authenticate important state documents in Ireland, in the same manner as the Great Seal of the Realm in England. The Great Seal of Irela ...
to retrospectively appoint his own candidates to certain offices, in particular his clumsy attempts to present his brother Walter to a church living in
County Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...
, which was overruled by the King personally. This may have been the reason for his removal from office. A brief power struggle developed between Le Reve's friends at Court and those of his rival for the office, Thomas de Burley, Prior of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, who had the advantage of long experience in the office, having already been Lord Chancellor in 1359–64. Burley emerged as the victor in the struggle. Le Reve attended the Irish Parliament held at
Kilkenny Kilkenny ( , meaning 'church of Cainnech of Aghaboe, Cainnech'). is a city in County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region and in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinst ...
in 1367, which passed the celebrated
Statutes of Kilkenny The Statutes of Kilkenny were a series of thirty-five acts enacted by the Parliament of Ireland at Kilkenny in 1366, aiming to curb the decline of the Hiberno-Norman Lordship of Ireland. Background to the statutes By the middle decades of the ...
, an attempt to enforce a rigid legal and cultural separation between the Old Irish and the
Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...
. Le Reve gave his full support to the Statutes. He was also present at the Parliament of 1371, where he quarrelled with both the
Lord Treasurer of Ireland The Lord High Treasurer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland, and chief financial officer of the Kingdom of Ireland. The designation ''High'' was added in 1695. After the Acts of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom of Great Brit ...
, Stephen de Valle (or Wall),
Bishop of Limerick The Bishop of Limerick is an Episcopal polity, episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Limerick in the Province of Munster, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic Church it still continues as a sepa ...
, and the
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the K ...
, Sir
William de Windsor Sir William de Windsor, Baron Windsor (–1384) was an English administrator who served as King's Lieutenant in Ireland. Origins William was the son of Sir Alexander de Windsor of Grayrigg, Westmorland, and of Elizabeth (died August 1349), ...
. Relations with Windsor remained bad throughout the latter's tenure in office; it has been suggested that Windsor took his revenge in the Parliament of 1375, where Le Reve was assigned the notoriously unpopular task of collecting taxes. He remained a member of the
Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...
and, despite his advancing age, he attended its meetings occasionally.


Quarrel with Archbishop of Cashel

Perhaps our best insight into le Reve's character comes from the glimpse we get of him in the written account of the visitation of Philip de Torrington,
Archbishop of Cashel The Archbishop of Cashel () was an archiepiscopal title which took its name after the town of Cashel, County Tipperary in Ireland. Following the Reformation, there had been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church ...
, in 1374. Le Reve emerges from this account as a formidable and quarrelsome individual, as indeed was Torrington. We have only Torrington's side of the story, which may not be entirely objective; but that le Reve could be quarrelsome is clear from his clashes with Windsor and Bishop de Valle. According to Torrington, le Reve resisted the visitation by armed force, and, although already an old man by medieval standards, he physically assaulted the Archbishop. He then looked on with approval as the
Archdeacon of Cashel The Archdeacon of Cashel was a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Diocese of Cashel which later became a post shared with Emly Emly or Emlybeg () is a village in County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a civil parish in the ...
, who has accompanied Torrington, was attacked and seriously wounded by armed men in le Reve's retinue. Surprisingly little seems to have come of the episode. Torrington
excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...
le Reve, but this drastic step had no obvious effect on le Reve's career. In 1377, while in England, Torrington attempted to persuade the Government there to take action against the bishop, but again nothing seems to have come of it, and when Torrington died in 1380 le Reve was still in possession of his see.


Death

Despite his age he was still active in his See in 1391, when he obtained the appointment of a new
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 ...
of
Kilmeadan Kilmeaden or Kilmeadan () is a village in County Waterford, Ireland. It is west of the centre of Waterford city on the R680 road. The village is in a civil parish of the same name. Kilmeaden townland is nearby the village, at Old Kilmeaden. ...
.''Patent Roll 15 Richard II'' He died at an advanced age in September 1394.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reve, Thomas le Bishops of Waterford and Lismore Lord chancellors of Ireland 1394 deaths Year of birth unknown 14th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland Bishops of Lismore, Ireland