One aspect of the character of Walter Reynolds, archbishop of Canterbury 1314–1327, was darkened by three contemporary chroniclers whose words have been accepted with little question by some historians of more modern times—his supposed illiteracy. The question is this: Did Edward II choose a primate for all England who was seriously defective in learning? Even if literacy in medieval usage meant strictly a knowledge of Latin, was Reynolds illiterate?This notion comes to us originally from the three chronicles most hostile to Reynolds: 1) the Flores Historiarum: ‘vir siquidem laicus et in tantum illiteratus ut nomen proprium declinare penitus ignorabat’; 2) the Vita Edwardi Secundi: ‘simplex clericus et minus competenter litteratus’; and 3) the chronicle of Lanercost: ‘homo quasi illiteratus, et, secundum judicium humanum, tam ratione vitae quam scientiae omni gradu dignitatis indignus.’
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