Islip, Simon

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Islip, Simon (d. 1366). Archbishop of Canterbury. Born near Oxford and a fellow of Merton, Islip was an ecclesiastical lawyer who became the bishop of Lincoln's vicar-general, archdeacon of Canterbury (1343), and dean of Arches. As Edward III's keeper of the privy seal, he was sent on embassies abroad or acted as adviser to regents in the king's absence. Elected archbishop (1349) at the king's request and consecrated at St Paul's, he was at odds with the monks of Canterbury for not being consecrated there. During his primacy he agreed to the archbishop of York carrying his cross in the southern province and the statutes of Provisors and Praemunire were passed. To improve the standards of clergy after the Black Death, he founded (1361) at Oxford a mixed college for monks and seculars, a bold experiment, which Wolsey absorbed into Cardinal College (later Christ Church).

Revd Dr William M. Marshall