Bek, in trust for an illegitimate son until he came of age. Stung by some disrespectful words of the lad, which were reported to him, Bek broke his trust, and sold the barony of Alnwick to Henry Percy in 1309, thereby increasing the importance of the Percy house which afterwards became so powerful. Bek died at Eltham on 3 March 1310-11, and was buried in the cathedral of Durham. He was the first to whom this honour had been granted; though, out of reverence to St. Cuthbert, his body was not permitted to enter by the door, but through an opening made in the wall.
Bek was a man of great liberality, and spent much money on building. He made the churches of Chester-le-Street and Lanchester into collegiate churches, and endowed a dean and seven prebends at each. He founded the priory of Alvingham in Lincolnshire, and built the castle of Somerton, near Lincoln. He converted the manor-house of Auckland into a castle. He built the castle of Eltham, and gave it to the queen, while he similarly gave Somerton to the king. In all points he is one of the most characteristic figures of his time.
{{smaller block[The chief authority for Bek's life is Robert de Graystanes, De Statu Ecclesiæ Dunelmensis, published in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, and more accurately edited by Raine for the Surtees Society, 1839. Besides this are scattered mentions in Walsingham's and Hemingford's chronicles, and in the documents in Rymer's Fœdera and Prynne's Brevia Parliamentaria, vol. iii. Much about his quarrel with John Romanus, archbishop of York, is in the Rolls of Parliament. Of modern writers the fullest account is given by Hutchinson, History of Durham, i. 228-58; also by Low, Diocesan History of Durham.]}}
BEK, ANTONY II (1279–1343), bishop of Norwich, was born on 5 Aug. 1279, and was the second of the three sons of Walter Bek of Luceby, constable of Lincoln Castle, who died leaving his sons minors on 25 Aug. 1291. He was educated at Oxford, and, like his younger brother, Thomas [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Lincoln, took holy orders, and from his influential connections both in church and state he speedily obtained lucrative preferment. During the episcopate of Bishop John of Dalderby he was appointed to the prebendal stall of Ketton in the cathedral of Lincoln, which he exchanged in 1313 for that of Thorngate, which he again resigned on his receiving the chancellorship of the cathedral, together with the stall of North Kelsey, on 4 Sept. 1316 (Le Neve, Fasti, ii. 92, 157, 196, 222). While chancellor he exchanged the residence formerly attached to his office to the north-west of the minster, for one on the east side of the close, to which he made large additions, and in which the chancellors still reside. On the death of Bishop Dalderby, the dean, Henry of Mansfield, who had been the first choice of the chapter, declining the office, he was chosen to fill the vacant see 'per viam scrutinii,' 3 Feb. 1320. The royal assent to his election was given on 20 Feb. The pope, however, John XXI (or XXII), asserted that he had already provided' for the see, and annulled the election, appointing Henry of Burghersh (Le Neve, ii. 13). In 1329 he became dean of Lincoln (ib. 32). His arbitrary temper soon involved him in disputes with his chapter. The dean appealed to the pope, and, without waiting for the royal license, resorted to Avignon to urge the matter in person. He here ingratiated himself with the pope, who made him his chaplain, and a clerk of the Roman curia. At the beginning of 1335 he was summoned by Edward III, then at Newcastle-on-Tyne, to meet him at Nottingham on the ensuing mid-Lent Sunday to treat of divers difficult and urgent matters, setting aside all other engagements (Harl. MS. 3720, p. 10). On the death of Bishop Ayreminne of Norwich (1336), he again repaired to Avignon, and secured the vacant see, to which he was consecrated on 30 March 1337, when he had nearly completed his seventy-second year, being forced upon an unwilling church 'reluctantibus monachis' by a papal bull. On the death of Bishop Ayreminne, the monks of Norwich had elected one of their own body, Thomas of Hemenhall, but the election was set aside by Benedict XI, as Bek's own election had been previously quashed by John XXI on the same ground, viz. a previous appointment by provision.' Hemenhall's personal remonstrance to the pope himself at Avignon was to no purpose, as far as the see of Norwich was concerned. He was, however, induced to resign all claim to the see, and in reward for his compliance was appointed by the pope to the bishopric of Worcester, vacant by the promotion of Simon Montacute to Ely (Rymer, Fœdera, ii. ii. 957, 1060; Le Neve, ii. 464). The remonstrances of Edward III proved equally fruitless with those of the bishop-elect and of his electors, the statute of 'provisions' proving no sufficient barrier against papal usurpation. Bek's episcopate lasted little more than seven years, nearly the whole of which were spent in lawsuits and quarrels, in which his aggressive disposition, arbitrary temper, and aristocratic haughtiness involved him. He commenced his episcopate by suing his predecessor's exe-
