John de St Paul

[4] They may have had a family connection to the Counts of Saint-Pol, since Marie de St Pol, Countess of Pembroke, often employed John as her attorney.

[1] He was appointed a clerk in the English Chancery in around 1318, and became rector of Ashby David in Lincoln in 1329, the first of numerous clerical benefices he was to receive, of which the most important was Archdeacon of Cornwall.

[1] In 1340 King Edward III, while engaged in the Siege of Tournai, received numerous complaints of acts of corruption and maladministration committed by his officials.

[1] He returned to England with great speed, and dismissed most of the officials accused, including St Paul, who was imprisoned and deprived of the Mastership of the Rolls.

[1] After a personal plea for clemency on his behalf by the Archbishop of Canterbury, John de Stratford, St Paul was released from custody, but he was not restored to the Mastership of the Rolls, although he was allowed to hold the lesser office of Master in Chancery.

He held a Synod in Dublin in 1351, which dealt with a wide range of issues, including the proper observance of Good Friday, the banning of secret marriages, and the ritual of genuflection.

[8] In 1361 he was summoned to a Great Council in Dublin: although he was a strong supporter of English rule in Ireland, he urged a policy of moderation and an end to the bitter divisions of the past decade within the government itself.