Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Greenfield, William of
GREENFIELD, WILLIAM of (d. 1315), archbishop of York and chancellor, was of good family and a kinsman of Archbishop Walter Giffard [q. v.] of York, and of Bishop Godfrey Giffard [q. v.] of Worcester. The statement that he was born in Cornwall (Fuller, Worthies, ed. 1811, i. 212) is probably due to a confusion of him with the Grenvilles. A more probable conjecture connects him with a hamlet which bears his name in Lincolnshire (Raine, Fasti Eboracenses, p. 361). He was educated at Oxford, and in 1269 Archbishop Giffard ordered his bailiff at Churchdown, near Gloucester, 'to pay to Roger the miller of Oxford twenty shillings, for our kinsman William of Greenfield while he is studying there, because it would be difficult for us to send the money to him on account of the perils of the ways' (ib. p. 311, from 'Reg. Giffard'). Greenfield also studied at Paris (Raine, Papers from Northern Registers, p. 193). He became a doctor of civil and canon law (Trivét, Annales, p. 404, Engl. Hist. Soc.) He was made by Archbishop Giffard prebendary of Southwell in 1269, and in 1272 exchanged that preferment for a prebend of Ripon. Before 1287 he was prebendary of York. He was in 1299 prebendary of St. Paul's and dean of Chichester, parson of Blockley between 1291 and 1294, rector of Stratford-on-Avon in 1294, and also chancellor of the diocese of Durham (Raine, p. 362). His stall at Ripon was for a time sequestrated, on account of non-residence, for he was mainly busied on affairs of state as a clerk and counsellor of Edward I (Fœdera, i. 741). In 1290 he was one of a legation of three sent to Rome to treat about the grant to Edward of the crusading tenth. In 1291 he was, with Henry of Lacy, earl of Lincoln, sent to Tarascon, to be present at the treaty made between Charles king of Sicily and Alfonso of Aragon (ib. i. 744). Next year he was present during the great inquest on the Scottish succession at Norham (ib. i. 767). His name appears among the clerks in the council summoned to parliaments between 1295 and 1302 (Parl. Writs, i. 644). In 1296 he was one of the numerous deputation sent to Cambray to treat for a truce with France before the two cardinals sent by Boniface VIII to mediate (Fœdera, i. 834). In 1302 he was also one of the royal proctors to treat for a peace with the French (ib. i. 940). On 30 Sept. 1302 Greenfield received the custody of the great seal as chancellor at St. Radegund's, near Dover, and during his absence on his French embassy Adam of Osgodby, master of the. rolls, acted as his substitute (Foss, from Rot. Claus. 30 and 31 Edw. I).
On 4 Dec. 1304 Greenfield was elected archbishop of York, in succession to Thomas of Corbridge [q. v.] His election received the royal assent on 24 Dec., and on 29 Dec. he resigned the chancellorship. On leaving for the papal court to receive consecration and the pallium, Greenfield was strongly commended to the pope and cardinals by the king, who speaks of his 'wisdom in council, industry, literary knowledge, and usefulness to the state' (Fœdera, i. 968); but the troubles resulting from the death of Benedict X delayed his business, and it was not until 30 Jan. 1306 that he obtained consecration as bishop from Clement V himself at Lyons (T. Stubbs, in Raine, Historians of the Church of York, ii. 413; Adam Murimuth, p. 7, Engl. Hist. Soc.; Walter Hemingburgh, ii. 233, Engl. Hist. Soc.) Bishop Baldock [q. v.] of London was consecrated at the same time.
Greenfield at once returned to England, and defiantly bore his cross erect before him as he passed through London ('Ann. London.' in Stubbs, Chronicles of Edward I and Edward II, i. 144). He was not molested by Archbishop Winchelsey, but he owed this favour to the special intercession of King Edward (Wilkin's, Concilia, ii. 284). It was not till 31 March that Greenfield received the temporalities of his see, and then only by purchasing the favour of an influential noble. This expense, his payments to the crown, and especially his long and expensive residence abroad without enjoying his official income, caused him to be terribly crippled by debts for many years. He got the greedy papal curia to postpone for a year the payment of what he owed to it (Raine, Northern Registers, pp. 179-81). But he was forced to raise the money from the company of the Bellardi of Lucca; and to free himself from the Italian usurers he exacted aids from the clergy, and borrowed freely from nearly every church dignitary of the north.
The Scotch wars caused the frequent residence of the court at York, and enhanced the political importance of the archbishop. In July 1307 he acted as regent jointly with Walter Langton [q. v.], bishop of Lichfield, Edward's favourite minister, who had just shown his friendship for Greenfield by the large loan of five hundred marks. Edward II on his accession obtained from the pope a commission authorising Greenfield to crown him in the absence of Winchelsey; but the latter, regaining papal favour, caused it to be revoked and appointed his own agents ('Ann. Paul.' in Stubbs, Chronicles of Edward I and Edward II, i. 260). Greenfield was a good deal occupied with the Scotch war, entertaining the king after his flight from Bannockburn, and being next year excused from parliament because he was occupied in defending the marches from Bruce and his followers. In 1314 and 1315 he summoned councils at York, in which the great ecclesiastical and temporal magnates to the north assembled to 'provide for the safety of the kingdom' (Raine, Northern Registers, pp. 235, 245). He in vain employed ecclesiastical censures against the rebellious Bishop of Glasgow, and supported the Bishop of Whithorn in his English exile for fidelity to York and King Edward. He also inspired Dominican friars to preach against the Scots (ib. p. 238).
When Clement V attacked the Templars he appointed Greenfield a member of the commission to examine the charges brought against the English members of the order (1309). He showed some activity but little zeal in discharging this unpleasant office, and declined to act at all within the southern province. In 1310 and 1311 he held provincial councils, in the former collecting evidence, and in the latter sentencing those reputed to be guilty. But the worst sentence he imposed was penance within a monastery. He soon released the Templars from the excommunication which they had incurred, and showed his sympathy for them by sending them food and other help. Yet in April 1312 he was present at the council of Vienne, where the order was condemned and dissolved. The king had in the previous July directed Greenfield to stay at home and go to parliament, but in October granted him letters of safe-conduct for the journey beyond sea. At Vienne Greenfield 'was treated with special distinction by Clement V, and was seated nearest to the pope after the cardinals and the Archbishop of Trier.
The energy and activity of Greenfield as a bishop are clearly illustrated by the copious extracts from his extant registers quoted by Canon Raine. The Scotch wars had made his see very disorderly, but he showed great zeal in putting down crimes and
irregularities, correcting the misconduct of his own household, attacking non-residence, and visiting the monasteries. In 1311 he visited Durham, during the vacancy between the episcopates of Bek and Kellawe. He quarrelled with Archbishop Reynolds on the question of the southern primate bearing his cross erect within the northern province, and in 1314 he very unwillingly acquiesced in the Archbishop of Canterbury exercising this mark of power in York city itself (Trokelowe, p. 88, Rolls Ser.) In 1306 he promulgated at Ripon a series of constitutions, the same, with additions, as those issued in 1289 by his old friend Gilbert of St. Lifard [see Gilbert] bishop of Chichester (Wilkins, Concilia, ii. 169-72, 285, prints them in full). He also published in 1311 certain statutes reforming the procedure of his consistory courts and regulating the functions of the officials and proctors practising there (ib. ii. 409-15), He urged strongly the canonisation of Grosseteste.
Greenfield died at Cawood on 6 Dec. 1315, and was buried in the eastern side of the north transept of York minster, under a monument which, though much defaced and injured, is still of considerable grandeur. His nephew, William of Greenfield, became an adherent of Thomas of Lancaster.
[Raine's Fasti Eboracenses, pp. 361-97, collects practically all that is known about Greenfield, including a great deal from his manuscript Register, large extracts from which are given in Raine's Papers from the Northern Registers (Rolls Ser.); Thomas Stubbs's Life of Greenfield, in Twysden's Decem Scriptores c. 1729-30, and now republished in Raine's Historians of the Church of York, ii. 413-15 (Rolls Ser.); Stubbs's Chronicles of Edward I and Edward II (Rolls Ser.); Murimuth, Trivet, and Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Parl. Writs; Wilkins's Concilia, vol. ii.; Rymer's Fœdera, vols. i. and ii. Record edit. Foss's Judges of England, iii. 96-7, is hardly so full as usual.]