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Robert Winchelsey
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Robert Winchelsey

archbishop of Canterbury
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History

Robert Winchelsey (died 1313, Otford, Kent, Eng.) was an archbishop of Canterbury who was a champion of clerical privilege and a leading opponent of kings Edward I and Edward II of England. Winchelsey became chancellor of Oxford University by 1288, and in 1293 he was elected archbishop of Canterbury. He clashed with Edward I by publishing Pope Boniface VIII’s bull Clericis Laicos (1296) forbidding the clergy to pay taxes to lay rulers. Edward, who desperately...

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