{{short description|Irish bishop}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=December 2020}} thumb | right | Historical map of Ireland '''Thomas le Reve''' (died 1394) was the first Bishop of Waterford and Lismore following the unification of the two sees in 1363, and was also Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He was a strong-minded and combative individual, who was not afraid to clash with his ecclesiastical superiors.
==Life== Little is known of his early life, but a reference to his "great age" at death suggests that he was born in the early years of the fourteenth century. His name is believed to be an early form of Reeves, which later became common in Ireland. He had at least one brother Walter, who was also a priest. He was prebendary of the Diocese of Killaloe and then of the Diocese of Lismore, and a canon of Lismore Cathedral. He was also Archdeacon of Cashel for a time.
===Bishop===
He became Bishop of Lismore in 1358. In 1363 Pope Urban V united the sees of Lismore and Waterford with le Reve as the first bishop of the united see.<ref name=Ball>Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol.1 p. 85</ref> The union had been decreed as early as 1327 by Pope John XXII; it was to take effect on the death of whichever bishop predeceased the other, but for reasons which are unclear the union did not take place on the death of John Leynagh (or Launaught), le Reve's predecessor as Bishop of Lismore, in 1354. It may well be that le Reve used his influence to ensure that he, not Roger Cradock, the Bishop of Waterford, who should have succeeded to the united see on Leynagh's death, would be the first bishop. Although King Edward III ordered that the temporalities of the diocese be delivered to Cradock, this was not done; and four years later, when Cradock was translated to the see of Landaff, le Reve was confirmed as bishop of the united see without a formal election.<ref>''Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Edward III (1361-1364) p''.400</ref>
He spent part of 1363 at the Papal Court in Avignon, where he sought a number of benefits for himself and the clergy of his dioceses, but few of them were granted.<ref>Bliss ''Calendar of Papal Registers'' Vol.1 1342-1419 pp. 438–9</ref>
===Lord Chancellor===
He was briefly Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1367–8.<ref name =Ball/> Few records of his tenure in the office survive, but he was accused of improper conduct in using the Great Seal of Ireland to retrospectively appoint his own candidates to certain offices, in particular his clumsy attempts to present his brother Walter to a church living in County Meath, which was overruled by the King personally. This may have been the reason for his removal from office.<ref name =Ball/> A brief power struggle developed between Le Reve's friends at Court and those of his rival for the office, Thomas de Burley, Prior of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, who had the advantage of long experience in the office, having already been Lord Chancellor in 1359–64. Burley emerged as the victor in the struggle.<ref>''Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Edward III (1362-1370)'' p.123</ref>
Le Reve attended the Irish Parliament held at Kilkenny in 1367, which passed the celebrated Statutes of Kilkenny, an attempt to enforce a rigid legal and cultural separation between the Old Irish and the Anglo-Irish. Le Reve gave his full support to the Statutes.<ref>Gilbert, Sir John ''History of the Viceroys of Ireland'' Dublin 1865 pp. 224–7</ref> He was also present at the Parliament of 1371, where he quarrelled with both the Lord Treasurer of Ireland, Stephen de Valle (or Wall), Bishop of Limerick, and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Sir William de Windsor. Relations with Windsor remained bad throughout the latter's tenure in office; it has been suggested that Windsor took his revenge in the Parliament of 1375, where Le Reve was assigned the notoriously unpopular task of collecting taxes.<ref>Richardson, H.G and Sayles, G.O. ''Parliaments and Councils of Medieval Ireland'' Dublin (Stationery Office) 1947 Vol.1 p65</ref>
He remained a member of the Privy Council of Ireland and, despite his advancing age, he attended its meetings occasionally.<ref>Richardson and Sayles Vol.1 p. xiv</ref>
===Quarrel with Archbishop of Cashel=== Perhaps our best insight into le Reve's character comes from the glimpse we get of him in the written account of the visitation of Philip de Torrington, Archbishop of Cashel, in 1374. Le Reve emerges from this account as a formidable and quarrelsome individual, as indeed was Torrington. We have only Torrington's side of the story, which may not be entirely objective;<ref name=Logan>{{cite journal |editor1-last=Logan |editor1-first=F. Donald |title=The Visitation of the Archbishop of Cashel to Waterford and Limerick, 1374-5 |journal=Archivium Hibernicum |date=1977 |volume=34 |pages=50–55 |doi=10.2307/25487420}}</ref> but that le Reve could be quarrelsome is clear from his clashes with Windsor and Bishop de Valle.
According to Torrington, le Reve resisted the visitation by armed force, and, although already an old man by medieval standards, he physically assaulted the Archbishop. He then looked on with approval as the Archdeacon of Cashel, who has accompanied Torrington, was attacked and seriously wounded by armed men in le Reve's retinue.<ref name =Logan/>
Surprisingly little seems to have come of the episode. Torrington excommunicated le Reve, but this drastic step had no obvious effect on le Reve's career. In 1377, while in England, Torrington attempted to persuade the Government there to take action against the bishop, but again nothing seems to have come of it,<ref name =Logan/> and when Torrington died in 1380 le Reve was still in possession of his see.
==Death== Despite his age he was still active in his See in 1391, when he obtained the appointment of a new parish priest of Kilmeadan.<ref>''Patent Roll 15 Richard II''</ref> He died at an advanced age in September 1394.<ref name=Ball/>
==References== {{reflist}} {{Pre-Reformation Bishops of Waterford and Lismore}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Reve, Thomas le}} Category:Bishops of Waterford and Lismore Category:Lord chancellors of Ireland Category:1394 deaths Category:Year of birth unknown Category:14th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland Category:Bishops of Lismore, Ireland