Saint Thomas de Cantilupe

Thomas de Cantilupe (c. 1218 – 25 August 1282; also spelled Cantelow, Cantelou, Canteloupe, Latinised to de Cantilupo) was Lord Chancellor of England and Bishop of Hereford. He was canonised in 1320 by Pope John XXII. He has been noted as "an inveterate enemy of the Jews", and his demands that they be expelled from England were cited in the evidence presented for his canonization. Thomas was the third son of William II de Cantilupe (died 1251) (anciently Cantelow, Cantelou, Canteloupe, etc, Latinised to de Cantilupo), 2nd feudal baron of Eaton Bray in Bedfordshire, who was steward of the household to King Henry III (as his father William I de Cantilupe (died 1239) had been to Henry's father King John). Thomas's mother was Millicent (or Maud) de Gournai (died 1260), a daughter of Hugh de Gournai and widow of Amaury VI of Montfort-Évreux (died 1213), Earl of Gloucester. He was born at Hambleden in Buckinghamshire, a manor belonging to his mother's first husband but awarded to her during her lifetime as her dowry. Thomas's uncle was Walter de Cantilupe (died 1266), Bishop of Worcester. Cantilupe was educated at Oxford, Paris and Orléans, and was a teacher of canon law at the University of Oxford, where he became Chancellor in 1261. During the Second Barons' War, Cantilupe favoured Simon de Montfort and the baronial party. He represented the barons before King Louis IX of France at Amiens in 1264. On 25 February 1264, when he was Archdeacon of Stafford, Cantilupe was made Lord Chancellor of England, but was deprived of the office after de Montfort's death at the Battle of Evesham, and lived abroad for a while. Following his return to England, he was again appointed Chancellor of Oxford University, where he lectured on theology and held several ecclesiastical appointments. In 1274 Cantilupe attended the Second Council of Lyons and on 14 June 1275 he was appointed Bishop of Hereford, being consecrated on 8 September 1275.