Kilwardby was the first member of a mendicant order to attain a high ecclesiastical office in the English Church.

[3] He was named provincial prior of the Dominicans for England in 1261,[4] and in October 1272 Pope Gregory X appointed him as Archbishop of Canterbury to end a dispute over the election.

[5] Kilwardby crowned Edward I and his wife Eleanor as king and queen of England in August 1274, but otherwise took little part in politics.

A critical edition of De orto scientiarum was published by Albert G. Judy, for The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in 1976.

Kilwardby was also the author of a summary of the writings of the Church Fathers, arranged alphabetically, Tabulae super Originalia Patrum, edited by Daniel A. Callus (Bruges: De Tempel, 1948).