Philip Repington

Philip Repington

( Also Repyngdon).

Cardinal-priest of the title of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, Bishop of Lincoln (1404-1419); died early in 1424. The place and date of his birth are uncertain, but he was educated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford, and became an Augustinian canon of St. Mary de Pre, Leicester. In his early life he was infected with Wyclifism, and was suspended at the Council of Blackfriars, 12 June, 1382, being excommunicated at Canterbury on 1 July. Recanting his heretical views, he was restored to the communion of the Church during the autumn of the same year. In 1394 he became abbot of his monastery, and was Chancellor of the University of Oxford for the years 1397, 1400, 1401 and 1402. On the accession of Henry IV he became confessor and chaplain to the king, with whom he lived in great intimacy, and on 19 Nov., 1404, he was appointed Bishop Of Lincoln by papal provision, being consecrated on 29 March following. Pope Gregory XII created him a cardinal in Sept., 1408, but as the Council of Pisa on 5 June, 1409, deposed Gregory and annulled all his acts since May, 1408, Repington's cardinate was invalidated until the Council of Constance, when he was reinstated. In 1419 Cardinal Repington resigned his bishopric, probably for court reasons, and this resignation was accepted by the pope on 21 November. The date of his death is unknown, but it occurred before 1 August, 1424, when his will was proved. His "Sermons on the Gospels" are extant in several manuscripts in Oxford, Cambridge, and British Museum.

EDWIN BURTON