KILWARDBY, ROBERT (d. 1279), archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal-bishop of Porto, was an Englishman by birth, though nothing is known of his family and origin, except that a namesake, Robert Kilwardby, resigned in 1283 the living of All Saints, Gracechurch Street, London (Peckham, Register, iii. 1018, Rolls Ser.) He studied at the university of Paris, and probably also at Oxford. At Paris he taught for several years as a master of arts, and became especially distinguished as a teacher and writer on grammar and logic (Trivet, p. 278, Engl. Hist. Soc.) It is to this portion of his life that his important grammatical and his thirty-nine philosophical treatises must be assigned. Kilwardby finally abandoned his secular career and entered the order of St. Dominic. He now devoted himself exclusively to theology, and especially to the study of the scriptures, St. Augustine, and others of the fathers. He was famous for dividing nearly all St. Augustine's works into chapters, and prefixing to each a short analysis of its contents (ib. p. 278). Among his pupils in theology was Thomas of Cantelupe [q. v.], the future bishop of Hereford (ib. p. 306).
In 1261 Kilwardby was chosen provincial prior of the Dominicans in England, and discharged the duties of that post with great success for eleven years. In 1271 he was present at the general chapter of his order at Montpellier, and was described as a ‘great master of theology.’ In 1272 the general chapter at Florence relieved him of his office, but in the same year the English province again appointed him prior.
The archbishopric of Canterbury had been vacant since the death of Boniface of Savoy in 1270, as the monks of Canterbury insisted on the election of their prior, Adam of Chillenden, and Edward, the king's son, was eager for the appointment of Robert Burnell [q. v.] Adam went to Rome to press his claims, but Gregory X at last persuaded him to resign them, and appointed of his own authority the provincial of the Dominicans. Kilwardby's appointment was on 11 Oct. 1272. He received the spiritualities of his see from Bishop Bronescombe of Exeter on 11 Dec., and the temporalities three days later (Winchester Annals in Annales Monastici, ii. 112–113). But he had already, on 21 Nov., joined with Gilbert of Gloucester and other magnates in recognising Edward I as king on the day after Henry III's funeral, and in appointing a regency to act until the new king's return from the East (Trivet, p. 283). He also successfully intervened in the strife between the Bishop of Norwich and his townsmen, and procured a relaxation of the interdict pronounced against that city (Cotton, p. 150). The pope having granted Kilwardby a license to be consecrated by any catholic bishop, he chose the saintly William Button II [q. v.], bishop of Bath and Wells, to perform that office. He was consecrated on 26 Feb. 1273 at Canterbury. Besides the Bishop of Bath, twelve other suffragans of Canterbury took part in the ceremony. Yet it was not until 8 May that Kilwardby received the pallium at Teynham (Winchester Annals, ii. 115), and his enthronement only took place in September. At the pope's request he compensated Adam Chillenden for his expenses incurred in his bootless journey to Rome (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 429).
Kilwardby was the first Mendicant advanced to a great post in the English church. His interests remained exclusively theological and ecclesiastical, and he took little part in political affairs, remaining on good terms with Edward I, whom he crowned along with Queen Eleanor on 19 Aug. 1274. He joined with his suffragans in 1276 in exhorting Llewelyn of Wales to perform his feudal duties to Edward, sending his favourite clerk, William Middleton, archdeacon of Canterbury, on a special mission to the Lord of Snowdon (Fœdera, i. 535–6). On Llewelyn refusing to accept his mediation, Kilwardby excommunicated him in February 1277 (ib. i. 541).
Kilwardby devoted himself with some energy to the systematic visitation of his diocese and province. After holding a convocation in London, and making an agreement with the chapter of St. Paul's as to jurisdiction during the vacancies of the see of London (Wilkins, Concilia, ii. 26–7), he held in December 1273 a visitation at Worcester (Annals of Worcester in Ann. Mon. iv. 465). But in the summer of 1274 he attended the council of Lyons, upholding during its sessions the papal power in its strongest forms (cf. Baluze, Histoire de la Maison d'Auvergne, ii. 113–14). Returning to England Kilwardby again busied himself with visitations. In November 1274 he visited the diocese of Winchester, being received on 26 Nov. on his arrival by the bishop, Nicholas of Ely [q. v.], and subsequently holding visitations of the neighbouring monasteries. He kept Christmas at the bishop's manor of Bitterne, near Southampton (Winchester Annals in Ann. Mon. ii. 118). In 1276 he made a prolonged visitation of the vast diocese of Lincoln. His zeal for monastic rigour was shown by his expulsion of some disorderly monks from Bardney Abbey, Lincolnshire; but the canons of Osney, whom he visited on 7 March,
