{{Short description|Archbishop, university administrator}} {{EngvarB|date=November 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} [[File:Archbishop_FitzRalph_writing_at_his_desk.png|thumb|right|Archbishop FitzRalph writing at his ''scriptorium''. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. MS 180, fol. 1r. By permission of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.]] '''Richard FitzRalph''' (also '''Fitz Ralph'''; c. 1300 – 16 December 1360) was a scholastic philosopher, theologian, and Norman Irish Archbishop of Armagh during the 14th century. His thought exerted a significant influence on John Wycliffe's.<ref name="burns">{{cite book |last1=Burns |first1=J. H. |title=The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought C.350-c.1450 |date=May 1988 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781139055390 |pages=644–649}}</ref>
==Life== FitzRalph was born into a well-off burgess family of Anglo-Norman/Hiberno-Norman descent in Dundalk, Ireland. He is noted as an ex-fellow and teacher of Balliol College, at the University of Oxford in 1325 (which is the earliest known record of him).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyireland.com/medieval-history-pre-1500/the-sorcery-trial-of-alice-kyteler-by-bernadette-williams/|title = The Sorcery Trial of Alice kyteler by Bernadette Williams|date = 24 January 2013}}</ref> By 1331, he was a Regent master in Theology, and soon after was made Vice-Chancellor of the university; this was an almost unparalleled achievement for someone still in his early thirties, let alone an Irishman (although John Prince, in his "Worthies of Devon" makes the case for him being a Devonian and member of the Shillingford family.<ref>{{cite book|last=Prince|first=John|author-link=John Prince (Totnes) |title=Danmonii orientales illustres or The Worthies of Devon|url=https://archive.org/stream/danmoniioriental00prin#page/n5/mode/2up |publisher=Rees and Curtis|edition=new|year=1810|access-date=11 July 2012|pages=364}}</ref>
As Vice-Chancellor, FitzRalph was faced with the crisis caused by the famous secession of masters and students to found a university at Stamford in Lincolnshire, and it is thought that this issue may have caused his first visit to the Papal Court at Avignon in 1334. He returned to England the following year having been appointed Dean of Lichfield — ''"notwithstanding that he has canonries and prebends of Crediton and Bosham, and has had provision made for him of the Chancellorship of Lincoln and the canonries and prebends of Armagh and Exeter, all of which he is to resign"''. In 1337 he was again compelled to visit Avignon, where he remained until 1344. On 31 July 1346, he was consecrated Archbishop of Armagh. In both of these positions, he was revered as a thoughtful and competent administrator.
From 1344, FitzRalph began to keep an account in diary form of his sermons. The shorter, less consequential ones were summarised, while the longer, more learned theological sermons were written in full. This was especially true for those he preached at Avignon. Both forms were written in Latin, and show his love of learning, shared by friends such as Richard of Bury. He is also believed to have sent many of his priests to study at Oxford to further their learning. His writings include his thoughts on infinity, predestination and free will. Like his fellow Irishmen Henry Crumpe and Dr. John Whitehead he was involved in a controversy with the Franciscan friars. He also clashed with the Archbishop of Dublin, John de St Paul, as they continued the century-old controversy over which of them had the right to claim the Primacy of Ireland.
The texts demonstrate that FitzRalph was pre-occupied with social problems in Ireland – twenty-nine sermons were given in Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin and various places in Meath to churchmen (whom he criticised for their laxity of vocation), merchants (whom he attacked for wasteful extravagances and underhanded trading practises) and the general population, among whom he was very popular as a preacher. At a time of often hostile racial relations between the colonists and natives, he took an honourable stand in denouncing discrimination against the Gaelic Irish. At times severe, this was balanced by his very fair and serious approach as pastor of his flock, be they English, Anglo-Irish, or Gaelic.
He undertook a third visit to Avignon from 1349 to 1351, where he is believed to have participated in the negotiations between the Armenian Apostolic Church and Pope Clement VI. His report on the Black Death is the first firm evidence of its arrival in Ireland. From his return to Ireland in 1351 he became involved in what eventually became a very personal and bitter attack on various orders of mendicant friars. He wished to have their privileges withdrawn in regard to the act of confession, preaching, and other acts as they were undermining his secular clergy. As a result, he undertook a fourth visit to Avignon in 1357 to discuss the matter with Pope Innocent VI. He died there on 16 December 1360. In 1370, his remains were interred at St Nicholas's Church, Dundalk, where his memory was venerated for several centuries and miracles were reported in connection to him.
It is possible that FitzRalph was Chancellor of Oxford University in 1360.<ref name="hibbert">{{cite book | title=The Encyclopaedia of Oxford | publisher=Macmillan | chapter=Appendix 5: Chancellors of the University |year=1988 |pages=521–522 | isbn=0-333-39917-X | editor-last=Hibbert | editor-first=Christopher |editor-link=Christopher Hibbert}}</ref>
==Writings== * Lectura on the Sentences * Summa de Quaestionibus Armenorum * Commentary on the Physics (lost)
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== * ''"Latin Learning and Literature in Ireland, 1169–1500"'', A.B. Scott, in ''"A New History of Ireland"'', volume one, 2005. * [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06086c.htm Biography], ''[http://www.newadvent.org/ New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia]''.
==External links== *{{cite SEP |url-id=fitzralph |title=Richard FitzRalph|last=Dunne |first=Michael}} * [http://www.fitzralph.com/ The FitzRalph Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019082712/http://www.fitzralph.com/ |date=19 October 2019 }} working towards furthering the study of and improving the public awareness of Richard of Dundalk. * [http://theology.unl.edu/theo.fitz_intro.html Introduction to De Pauperie Salvatoris Books I-VII, 14th Century Oxford Theology Online] * [http://www.oxforddnb.com/templates/article.jsp?articleid=9627&back= Biography in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] * [http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/ArchbishopRichardFitzRalph.php Biography in A Compendium of Irish Biography (1878)] * [http://www.rte.ie/radio1/speakingillofthedead/1105259.html Speaking Ill of the Dead] — a less than flattering overview of Fitzralph's career by the lexicographer Professor Terence Dolan (RTÉ MP3 audio of a program broadcast in September 2006)
{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box | title=Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford | years=1333–1336 | before=Richard Kamshale | after=John de Ayllesbury }} {{succession box |title=Chancellor of the University of Oxford |years=1360 |before=John de Hotham |after=Nicholas de Aston }} {{s-rel|ca}} {{succession box |title=Archbishop of Armagh |years=1346–1360 |before=David Mág Oireachtaigh |after=Milo Sweetman }} {{s-end}}
{{Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford}} {{Deans of Lichfield}} {{Medieval Archbishops of Armagh}} {{Hiberno-Latin post-1169}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzralph, Richard}} Category:1300 births Category:1360 deaths Category:People from Dundalk Category:Irish expatriates in France Category:Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:14th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Ireland Category:Archbishops of Armagh Category:Scholastic philosophers Category:14th-century writers in Latin Category:14th-century Irish writers Category:Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford Category:Vice-chancellors of the University of Oxford Category:Chancellors of the University of Oxford Category:Deans of Lichfield Category:Irish people of Norman descent Category:Christian clergy from County Louth