3 - Jobs for the Boys?

Summary

Exactly why lay patrons valued their patronage rights so much is revealed when we look at the clergy who held livings in their gift, and exploring the connections they had with those who had presented them. It is not possible to explain the reasons for every presentation made by a magnate to a benefice, but a number of very clear interest groups emerge. In examining the records relating to these groups, we are able to see the complexity of the relationships involved, for prominent clerks tended not to rely on just one patron for advancement. Having looked at the qualifications of clergy from the point of view of the Church, we need now to look at the considerations that prompted magnates to advance them.

In the first place they had their relatives. It is well known that noble families put their members into the Church as a way of providing them with a livelihood without drawing on the resources of the family estates. In 1282 Edward I wrote to the pope about Aymer de Valence, then a younger son of William de Valence, who was making a career in the church. The king's letter said that it was usual for magnates' younger sons to hold a plurality of benefices. That the king should openly say so to the pope begs two questions: whether it was in fact ‘usual’ and whether the Church tolerated pluralism on the part of noble clerks.