Ferings was an official of the archdiocese of Canterbury, in which capacity he won the friendship of Archbishop John Peckham.
[3] Next year Peckham made him Archdeacon of Canterbury, and in 1284 gave him the rectory of Tunstall, near Sittingbourne, Kent, to be held in commendam with the archdeaconry.
Both were accordingly summoned to answer for contempt of court, and the temporalities of Christ Church were for a time seized by King Edward I.
His consecration was probably abroad, as it is not noticed by the English authorities, though the date is given as 1299 in the 'Annals of Ireland' published with the 'Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin'.
[6] It was not, however, until June 1300 that Ferings received from the crown the temporalities of his see, after renunciation of all the words in the bull of appointment which were prejudicial to the royal authority.
His conciliatory temper led him to several attempts to make peace with disappointed candidates and angry chapters.
Even before his consecration, he had appointed his old rival, Thomas de Chaddesworth, his Vicar General, though he subsequently feared lest the infirmities of age made him unfit for the post (he had been in the service of the Crown since about 1260, and was probably by now well over seventy), and urged the canons of St. Patrick's and Chaddesworth himself to recommend a fit substitute if he were incapable of acting.
It was perhaps to conciliate the wounded pride of St. Patrick's that he continued to make Chaddesworth his vicar-general during his frequent absences abroad.