Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jorz, Walter
JORZ or JORSE, WALTER (fl. 1306), archbishop of Armagh, was a Dominican of Oxford. Like Thomas Jorz [q. v.], his brother, he is doubtfully said to have been a disciple of Albertus Magnus, and a fellow-student with Thomas Aquinas. He was authorised to hear confessions in the diocese of Lincoln in 1300, and appears to have been confessor to Edward I. In 1306 Jorse was in Italy, and was there consecrated archbishop of Armagh by Pope Clement V. Edward I regarded the Italian consecration as an acknowledgment on Jorz's part of the pope's right to exercise greater authority over the Church of England than he approved. Jorz was fined for his action, and much delay ensued before he was admitted to his see. Pope Clement V wrote to the clergy of Armagh recommending submission to Jorz in 1307. Jorz became involved in a controversy concerning the jurisdiction which archbishops of Armagh endeavoured to assert in the province of Dublin. He resigned the see in 1307, and is stated to have been buried at Genoa. A second brother, Roland, was promoted by the pope to the see of Armagh in 1311, and resigned the office on 20 March 1321. Walter Jorz is said to have written ‘Promptuarium Theologiæ,’ ‘De Peccatis in genere,’ ‘Quæstiones Variæ,’ ‘Theologiæ Summa,’ and ‘De Peccato originali,’ but none of these works are known to be extant.
[Ware's De Scriptoribus Hiberniæ, 1639, and De Præsulibus Hiberniæ, 1665; Quétif's Scriptores Ordinis Prædicatorum, 1719; Hibernia Dominicana, 1762; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 444; A. Theiner's Vetera Monumenta, 1854; Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hib. iii. 14.]