Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Geoffrey (d.1235?)
GEOFFREY (d. 1235?), prior of Coventry, was a monk of Coventry elected prior in 1216. In Wharton's 'Anglia Sacra' (i. 464) the exact date is given as 17 July, but it must have been earlier, for the royal assent was granted to his election, and the sheriff of Leicester was ordered to give him seizin on 8 July (Lit. Claus. 18 Joh. p. 276). In 1223, on the death of William of Cornhill [q. v.], a quarrel arose between the monks of Coventry and canons of Lichfield about the election of a new bishop. Both parties petitioned the king for leave to elect, Geoffrey appearing as proctor for his own church. Leave was granted in ambiguous terms 'to those who were accustomed and ought to elect;' the monks thereupon chose Geoffrey, and presented him to Stephen Langton for confirmation. The archbishop refused, and after hearing the canons quashed the election; this sentence was on appeal confirmed by Pope Honorius III, who with the assent of all parties appointed Alexander de Stavenby bishop in 1224. In 1232 Geoffrey resisted the visitation of Bishop Alexander, on the ground that he was not bound to accept a visitor not of his own order; he was suspended, and went to Rome, where the case was decided against him. In 1234 he was engaged in a quarrel with the abbot of St. Augustine's, Bristol. He is the author of a chronicle quoted in Dugdale's 'Antiquities of Warwick' (pp. 100, 105) as by an approved writer. The royal assent to the election of his successor was given on 19 Sept. 1235 (Pat. 19 Hen. Ill, cited in Monasticon, iii. 183).
[Annales Monastici, 'Tewkesbury' and 'Dunstable; 'Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 437-8; Dugdale's Antiq. Warwick.]