Ipswich Whitefriars was the medieval religious house of Carmelite friars (under a prior) which formerly stood near the centre of the town of Ipswich, the county town of Suffolk, UK.W. Page (Ed.), 'Carmelite friars: Ipswich', A History of the County of Suffolk Volume 2 (1975), pp. 130-131. at British History Online It was the last of the three principal mendicant communities to be founded in Ipswich, the first being the Ipswich Greyfriars (Franciscans), under Tibetot family patronage before 1236, and the second the Ipswich Blackfriars (Dominicans) founded by King Henry III in 1263. The house of the Carmelite Order of White Friars was established in c. 1278–79. In its heyday it was the home of many eminent scholars, supplied several Provincial superiors of the Order in England, and was repeatedly host to the provincial chapters of the Order.
All three houses were dissolved or suppressed in 1538, the Greyfriars in April and the other two in November. The Whitefriars stood south of the Ipswich Buttermarket street and mainly to the west of St Stephen's Lane, but nothing now remains visible above ground. The site was partly exposed by diggings in c. 1898, observed by Nina Layard,N. F. Layard, 'Recent discoveries on the site of the Carmelite Convent of Ipswich,' Proc. Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, 10 Part 2 (1899), pp. 183-88 (Suffolk Institute). Also N.F. Layard, 'Original researches on the sites of religious houses of Ipswich: with plan of excavation', Archaeological Journal LVI (1899), p.232-8 (archaeology data service). and very extensively excavated during the 1980s by the Suffolk County Council archaeologists.R. Malster, A History of Ipswich (Phillimore, Chichester 2000), 46.For burials excavated at the site, see S. Mays, 1991, The Burials from the Whitefriars Friary Site, Buttermarket, Ipswich, Suffolk. English Heritage, Ancient Monuments Laboratory Unpublished Report, No. 17/91. Of the three vanished friaries, the Greyfriars is now particularly notable for its distinguished patrons, the Blackfriars for knowledge of its buildings and the later public, charitable and educational purposes associated with them, and the Whitefriars for the rich story of its ecclesiastical and scholarly inmates. They were also noted for their production of books employing people in such trades as limners (illuminators of manuscripts), scriveners (copyists), bookbinders, leather curriers and quill pen makers.
Foundation and site The foundation is attributed by William Dugdale to Sir Thomas de Loudham (but by John Speed to Lord Bardesley, Sir Jeffrey Hadley and Sir Robert Norton) and to the date 1279.V. B. Redstone, 'The Carmelites of Ipswich', Proc. Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, 10 Part 2 (1899), pp. 189-195 (Suffolk Institute). The founding was simultaneous with the Carmelite house at Winchester (1278), closely following a Carmelite provincial chapter held at Norwich.Benedict Zimmerman, 'The White Friars at Ipswich,' Proc. Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, 10 Part 2 (1899), pp. 196-204 (Suffolk Institute). King Edward I visited Ipswich in 1277, and passed the Mortmain Act 1279 (7 Edw. 1) which gave many benefits to the Carmelites.Redstone 1899, 189-90. The Order did not recognise the principle of filiation, so that Ipswich was not a daughter-house of Norwich, but looked only to the authority of the General and Provincial chapters. However, the first members of the new community were probably chosen from among those of Norwich.Zimmerman 1899, 196.
The site chosen was in the centre of the town, in an area south of the Buttermarket street and north of Old Foundry Road, at first to the east of St Stephen's Lane and afterwards over much of the area from St Stephen's Lane westward toward Queen Street.Layard 1899: Redstone 1899, 190-192. This block corresponds roughly to the area occupied by the modern Ipswich Buttermarket shopping centre, erected c.1990.K. Wade, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Ipswich' in D. Dymond and E. Martin (Eds), An Historical Atlas of Suffolk (1988). The Whitefriars lay on land of St Nicholas and St Lawrence parishes, though the Priory Gate (known as 'Stonehams') was in St Stephen's parish.Redstone 1899, 192. During the Buttermarket excavations of 1987, the plundered footings of the Carmelite church were identified (beneath the site of the Buttermarket centre frontage), aligned at right-angles to St Stephen's Lane and with its east front overlooking the lower part of the lane.Malster 2000, 46.
St Stephen's Lane formed part of an ancient street leading north through Ipswich from a ford of the river Orwell, but its function as a northward route out of town had been curtailed since the building of the town ramparts during the 10th century.K. Wade, 'Gipeswic – East Anglia's First Economic Capital 600-1066', in N. P. Salmon and R. Malster (Eds), Ipswich from The First To The Third Millennium (Ipswich Society 2001), 1-6 and Map p. x. (A rubble-built wall running along the west side of this road, north and south, thought to be part of the Whitefriars perimeter wall, was seen during excavations in 1899.Layard 1899.) The Carmelites obtained the right to enclose a town lane 150 yards long in January 1297 (when King Edward was again in Ipswich), and further purchases of land or alienations for the enlargement of the dwelling-house, were made to them c.1316, 1329 and 1332:Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward II: 1313–1317 (HMSO 1898), p. 202 ("1341" misprint for "1314"); Edward III: 1327–1330 (HMSO 1891), p. 365; 1330–1334 (HMSO 1893), p. 340 (Internet Archive). a final enlargement was made by a purchase for 100 marks by Prior John Reppes in 1396.Redstone 1899, 190-192.
Early Provincials The Ipswich house rapidly became involved in the leading affairs of the English province. An early Prior, Richard de Yllea (i.e. Monks Eleigh), had joined the Order after the death of his wife, and had received his own son Thomas into the Order.Zimmerman 1899, 197-198. (Thomas became a very devout follower of the rule, took degrees at Cambridge, and wrote books on philosophy, theology and the Apocalypse.Zimmerman 1899, 199.) Following the death of a provincial superior, a chapter was held at Ipswich in 1300, at which the then Ipswich Prior, William Ludlyngton (a native of Lincoln, who had studied at Oxford), was elected the new Provincial. Three years later, at a General chapter at Narbonne, the General superior Gerard of Boulogne announced his intention to split the English province by creating a separate Irish province. Ludlyngton, Thomas de Yllea and many others opposed him, but after a Papal intervention and a great chapter at London in 1305, Ludlyngton was forced to resign and was sent to Paris "to fast and to read Divinity", and Thomas de Yllea similarly was sent to Bruges as a lecturer.
John Berkhamstead, a former Prior of Ipswich, was elected Provincial in 1312,Zimmerman 1899, 198. and served until 1323."Appendix 3: List of English Provincials", to R. Copsey, 'The Administration of the Medieval English Carmelite Province', in M.J.P. Robson and J. Röhrkasten (eds), Franciscan Organisation in the Mendicant Context: Formal and Informal Structures of the Friars' Lives and Ministry in the Middle Ages (LIT Verlag, Münster 2010), pp. 94-96, at p. 95 (Google). John Polested, a friar of Ipswich from his youth who afterwards studied at Oxford, became Vicar-General under the General Petrus de Casa (1330–1339) and Provincial from 1335 until his death in 1341: the author of more than twenty scholarly works, he was buried at York.Zimmerman 1899, 200: Redstone 1899, 193. John Kynyngham, another member of the Ipswich community, was elected Provincial of England and Ireland in a chapter at Yarmouth in 1393, and held it until his death in 1399. He was the confessor of John of Gaunt (and a witness to his will), and at Oxford frequently disputed with John Wycliffe. He wrote a disputative book against Wycliffe,I.C. Levy, 'Defining the responsibility of the late medieval theologian: the debate between John Kynyngham and John Wyclif', Carmelus XLIX (2002), 5-29. and commentaries, treatises, sermons and 13 books on metaphysics.Zimmerman 1899, 202; Redstone 1899, 194.A. Hudson, 'Kenningham [Kynyngham], John (d. 1399), Carmelite friar and theologian', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP 2004). Friar Nicholas Kenton received his early education at Ipswich Whitefriars, before studying at Cambridge. He became renowned as historian, poet, philosopher, theologian and orator, and became chancellor of the University of Cambridge for 1445. He was elected Provincial of the Carmelite Order in 1444 and held it until his resignation in 1456.Notes on Kenton's life, and reference to sources, are found in Francis Peck, Academia Tertia Anglicana: or, the Antiquarian Annals of Stanford in Lincoln, Rutland and Northampton Shires (Author & James Bettenham, London 1727), Book XIV: Henry VI, Paragraphs VI p. 10; XIV, pp. 18, 20; and XXVI, p. 44 (Google). He was the author of many books including a Life of Saint Cyril of Constantinople, a Carmelite saint.Zimmerman 1899, 203. He died in 1468.R. Copsey, 'Kenton, Nicholas (d. 1468), Carmelite', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP 2004), online 2008 revision.
Ipswich Carmelite worthies Sir Thomas de Loudham, the supposed founder, was buried in the monastery church.Zimmerman 1899, 204. John Paschal, of a noble Suffolk family,C.L. Kingsford, 'Pascal, John', Old D.N.B. (1885–1900), Vol. 43. entered the Order at Ipswich and studied there before taking A.B. at Cambridge in 1333. Famed for his learning, speaking and volumes of over 150 sermons, he became Bishop of Scutari (1344) and Bishop of Llandaff (1347–1361).Zimmerman 1899, 200-201. Friar John, a native of Bury St Edmunds, author of many commentaries on the scriptures, lived at Ipswich Whitefriars and died there soon after 1350.Zimmerman 1899, 200. Friar Richard Lavyngham of Suffolk (fl. 1380)C.L. Kingsford, 'Lavenham, Richard', Old D.N.B. (1885–1900), Vol. 32.P.V. Spade, 'Lavenham [Lavyngham], Richard (fl. 1399–c. 1403), prior of the Carmelite convent, London, philosopher, and theologian', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP 2004). took the habit at the Ipswich Whitefriars. He later proceeded to Oxford where he became an extremely scholarly philosopher and theologian, devoted to bringing heretics back to orthodoxy by force of argument. He was famous for his lectures, covering the entire course of study, the texts of which are contained in more than 90 volumes. His Middle English treatise on the seven deadly sinsJ.P.W.M. van Zutphen (ed.), A Litil Tretys on the Seven Deadly Sins by Richard Lavynham (Institutum Carmelitanum 1956). contains his accusations against the views of the Wycliffite John Purvey,J.P. Hornbeck, What is a Lollard? Dissent and Belief in Late Medieval England (O.U.P. 2010), p. 127. and is a carefully organized work.J. Bergström-Allen, '"For Edifycacyon of Many Saules", The production of Carmelite vernacular writings in late medieval England', Lecture given at Université de Fribourg, Switzerland, 9 June 2004 (pdf at Carmelite.org, at pp. 7-13). His works included one on the origin of the Carmelite Order. He became Carmelite Prior at Bristol. Some authors claim that he was slain with Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1381.Redstone 1899, 194:Zimmerman 1899, 201-202. John Balsham (c. 1357–1425), formerly Bishop of Argyll, died and was buried here. John Barmyngham, elected Prior c. 1440, died in 1448. He held doctorates from Oxford and Paris, and was considered one of the finest scholars of his time. There was a second John Barmyngham (friar), probably a relative, who died in 1458.Zimmerman 1899, 202-203. Thomas Lavenham (or Lavyngham), an Ipswich Carmelite author of a Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, became one of the first fellows of All Souls College, Oxford in 1447.Redstone 1899, 194.
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