Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

24S ARCHBISHOP KILWARDBY.
Thomas Cantilupe. Where all were dear they were
dearest. He supported two, and often pleaded the
cause of others with his rich relations.
The death of Archbishop Boniface in 1270 was
followed by a long vacancy. Almost the last act of
Henry III. concerned the nomination of his successor
at Canterbury. The Pope, at Henry's desire,
made the appointment, and his choice fell upon
Kobert Kilwardby, a Dominican friar of brilliant reputation
(1272). The king died shortly afterwards,
and a regency was formed, pending the return of
Prince Edward from the Holy Land. He did not
arrive in England till the summer of 1274, when he
was crowned by the new Archbishop.
It was Kilwardby's privilege to be the early friend
and confessor of Thomas Cantilupe, and in 1275 his
consecrator to the see of Hereford. Kilwardby and
his successor, Peckham, both holy men, used a very
different measure to the Bishop of Hereford. The
career of the Dominican as Primate was shortened
by design of the Pope, who promoted him to~ the
Cardinalate with the intention of using his talents
out of England, viz., for the conversion of the Tar-
tars. Death overtook him at Viterbo, where Pope
Nicolas III. was holding his court (1279).1
Many trials fell to the share of St. Thomas. The
strangest of all was his disagreement with the great
Franciscan Archbishop Peckham, who succeeded
Kilwardby, and was also a Papal nomination. The
*
1 Fr. Raymund Palmer, Provincials of the Friar Preachers, p. 6.