Aungerville, RICHARD

Aungerville, RICHARD, Bishop of Durham, is known as Richard de Bury, from his birthplace, Bury St Edmunds. He was born in 1281, studied with distinction at Oxford, became a Benedictine monk at Durham, and was made tutor to Edward of Windsor, afterwards Edward III., by whom in after-years numerous honours were bestowed upon him. In 1333 he was appointed Dean of Wells, and in the same year was made Bishop of Durham by the pope at the king's request, despite the fact of the monks having elected their sub-prior, Robert de Graystanes. After holding the office of high chancellor for a year, he resigned it in 1335 to act as the king's ambassador in Paris, Hainault, and Germany. In 1337 he was employed as a commissioner for the affairs of Scotland, and in 1342 he arranged a truce with the Scottish king. He died in 1345. Richard administered the affairs of his diocese with ability, as appears from his chancery rolls, which are the earliest preserved in the archives of Durham. An admirable ecclesiastic, he was kind and charitable to the poor. But he is chiefly known as a scholar and patron of learning, and he used his high offices of state to gratify his passion for discovering manuscripts and collecting books. His principal work, Philobiblon, was intended to serve as a handbook to the library which he founded in connection with Durham College at Oxford (afterwards suppressed). It gives an interesting account of how he collected his library, describes the state of learning in England and France, and closes with an explanation of the rules for the management of his library, which were founded on those adopted for the library of the Sorbonne. He had wide literary sympathies, commended the study of the poets, and provided his library with Greek and Hebrew grammars as a means of correcting the prevailing ignorance of these languages. At the dissolution of the monasteries, the books of his library went partly to the Bodleian, partly to Balliol College, and partly to the purchaser of Durham College.