Cylchgronau Cymru

William Fresney, O.P.. Archbishop of Rages (Edessa), 1263-1290. BY The Rev. WALTER GUMBLEY, O.P. This prelate is said by some to have been the nephew of Friar Gilbert de Fresnoy or Fresney, who in 1221 was despatched to England by St. Dominic, to found the Order there; he became first Provincial and first Prior of Oxford, the earliest foundation of the English province. There is no proof of this relationship, except the resemblance of name, which is the more striking as both were members of the same order. Friar William laboured as a missionary in the East for some years, in company with many other Friar Preachers, some his own countrymen, e.g., Geoffrey, who in 1268 became bishop of Hebron and Vicar of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.2 Fresney appears at the Roman Court, 1263, receiving that year episcopal consecration from the hands of the 1 Quétif and Echard. Scripts Ord. Frum Praedicatorun," I. 216 2 Ibid, I 262-283, and Eubel Hierarchia Cath. Medü Aevi, p 288 (edition 1898).