16 - Letter from Archbishop John Peckham to Robert Malet Asking for Protection for the Friars of Babwell, 22 November 1289 [Martin (ed.), Registrume Pistolarum (1885), vol. 3, pp. 96 – 9 (no. 702)]

Summary

Brother John by the forbearance of God priest of Canterbury to his dear friend and spiritual son the Lord Robert Malet, greeting, grace and benediction. Sire, I received your letter on St Cecilia's Day, and I understood well by your letters that you have no desire to harm the friars; and you command me that you desire to hear good news of the king. I have sent my messages to him; and know, sire, that I have sent Sir Nicholas de Knouuile to Master Renaud de Wrauden, and a courier, and I have not yet had any answer, since I know for certain the king takes counsel, and he will deal humbly in the matter. What I desire to hear more, for the king's honour and for yours, is that I do not act on behalf of Thomas Weylond. For know that the same Thomas, when I heard him, then as I wrote on another occasion, is a subdeacon, but is not a bigamist; he had, after he was a subdeacon, betrayed two gentlewomen, one after the other, not marrying either woman, nor was he able to suffer death as a judgement. And know, on the contrary, that he cherishes such a sentence, since it suits him to go to Rome to be absolved. Sire, I beseech you again that you have mercy on the friars, since they were never so ill-treated in Christendom than when they were at your hands – all this being against your will, as I believe. Accordingly, sire, I do not believe that they have done anything against the crown or the king. For to the crown belong not only cruelty and the execution of justice, but even more pity and mercy. By which holy church, by the king's will, preserves wrongdoers by sanctuary, by orders, and by habit of religion. Thus it happens in the North, where murderers after their wrongdoing turn themselves towards the great Cistercian abbeys and are saved. Sire, God have you in his protection. This letter was written on St Cecilia's Day at Fulham, in the year of the Incarnation twelve hundred and eighty-nine.