Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rushook, Thomas
RUSHOOK, THOMAS (fl. 1388), bishop of Chichester, was a Dominican friar, and in 1373 became provincial of his order in England. In June 1378, together with others of the officials of the English province, he was deposed in a general council of the order at Carcassonne. Rushook appealed to the pope, and the English friars were prohibited by the king from impeding him in the execution of his office or prosecution of his appeal. Eventually, on 25 Aug. 1379, after a hearing of the case by the Cardinal Nicholas Carracciolo, Rushook was restored to his office by order of Urban VI (Thomas de Burgo, Hib. Dominicana, pp. 52–8; Cal. Pat. Rolls, Richard II, i. 310). Previously to 5 May 1379 Rushook had been appointed confessor to the young king, Richard II (ib. i. 342). On 6 Oct. 1380 he received a grant for life of the office of chirographer of the common bench, but the appointment was reversed as made under a misapprehension (ib. i. 559, 583). He resigned his office as provincial on becoming archdeacon of St. Asaph in June 1382. In January 1383 he was appointed bishop of Llandaff, and was consecrated by Archbishop Courtenay at the church of the Dominicans, London, on 3 May (Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. p. 59). On 16 Oct. 1385 he was translated to Chichester. Rushook identified himself in politics with Richard's policy, and was one of those who attested the opinion of the judges against the commission of reform on 25 Aug. 1387. As a consequence he was attacked in the parliament of 1388. In January he had been compelled to abjure the court, but was present in the subsequent parliament, and on 6 March was attacked so fiercely by the commons that had not the clergy stood by him he would have lost his life. He was impeached for treason before the prelates, and on 5 May found guilty, and his goods were forfeited. The temporalities of the see were consequently taken into the king's hands, and Rushook himself was sentenced to be banished to Ireland, where he was to reside at Cork (Malverne, ap. Higden, ix. 101, 116, 151, 156–7, 170; Rolls of Parliament, iii. 241, 244). Not long afterwards he was translated by the pope to the see of Kilmore or Triburna, but in 1389 he had as yet received no profits from this see, and his friends petitioned the king to make some provision for his sustenance. He was in consequence granted 40l. a year (ib. iii. 274). Rushook held the see of Kilmore for only a very short time, and is said to have died of grief and been buried at Seale in Kent. Gower, in his ‘Tripartite Chronicle’ (ap. Wright, Political Poems, i. 421, Rolls Ser.), describes Rushook as
Mollis confessor blandus scelerisque professor,
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Cujus nigredo fœdat loca regia credo.
Hic fuit obliquus latitans procerum inimicus.
[Walsingham's Historia Anglicana, ii. 172, Cont. Eulog. Historiarum, iii. 366, Malverne's Continuation of Higden (these three in Rolls Ser.); Thomas de Burgo's Hibernia Dominicana, pp. 52–8, 60, 405; Ware's Works relating to Ireland, i. 228, ed. Harris; English Historical Review, viii. 523; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. i. 243, ii. 247; Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hibern. iii. 155; other authorities quoted.]