It was not, however, until June 1300 that Ferings received from the crown the temporalities of his see, after renunciation of all the words in the bull of appointment which were prejudicial to the royal authority.[7]
Ferings spent little of his time in Ireland. His conciliatory temper led him to several attempts to make peace with disappointed candidates and angry chapters. Even before his consecration, he had appointed his old rival, Thomas de Chaddesworth, his
Vicar General, though he subsequently feared lest the infirmities of age made him unfit for the post (he had been in the service of the Crown since about 1260, and was probably by now well over seventy), and urged the canons of St. Patrick's and Chaddesworth himself to recommend a fit substitute if he were incapable of acting.[8]
In 1300 he succeeded in persuading the canons of St. Patrick's and the monks of Christ Church to agree to a 'final and full concord,’ which, while recognising that both churches were of metropolitical and cathedral rank, gave Christ Church, as the elder foundation, a certain honorary precedence. The arrangement became permanent. (The composition is printed in Mason's 'St. Patrick's,’ App. vi.) It was perhaps to conciliate the wounded pride of St. Patrick's that he continued to make Chaddesworth his vicar-general during his frequent absences abroad. In 1303 he also endowed St. Patrick's with the new prebends of Stagonil and Tipperkevin, the latter of which supported two prebendaries, and in 1304 he exempted the prebendal churches from the visitations of Dean and Archdeacon (Mason, St. Patrick's, App. iii. sec. vi.). In the same year, he also confirmed the arrangements of his predecessors in reference to St. Patrick's (Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. pt. v. p. 217).
In 1302 he resigned to Edmund Butler the
English parliament in his capacity of archbishop of Dublin.[10] There are other precedents for this somewhat unusual course. His absence from Ireland was so far recognised by the king that he gave Ferings special permission to have the revenues of his see sent to England for his support,[11] and in letters of protection granted to him Edward speaks of his being in England 'by the king's order'.[12] During his archbishopric the great valuation of the Irish churches was gradually taken.[13] He died on 17 October 1306.[14]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Ferings, Richard de". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
