f Edward Prince of Wales,
afterwards the third king of that name; and to Richard de Bury "may be
traced the love for literature and the arts displayed by his pupil when
on the throne. He was rewarded with the lucrative appointment of
treasurer of Gascony."[175]

When Edward, the prince of Wales, was sent to Paris to assume the
dominion of Guienne, which the king had resigned in his favor, he was
accompanied by queen Isabella, his mother, whose criminal frailty, and
afterwards conspiracy, with Mortimer, aroused the just indignation of her
royal husband; and commenced those civil dissensions which rendered the
reign of Edward II. so disastrous and turbulent. It was during these
commotions that Richard de Bury became a zealous partizan of the queen,
to whom he fled, and ventured to supply her pecuniary necessities from
the royal revenues; for this, however, he was surrounded with imminent
danger; for the king, instituting an inquiry into these proceedings,
attempted his capture, which he narrowly escaped by secreting himself in
the belfry of the convent of Brothers Minor at Paris.[176]

When the "most invincible and most magnificent king" Edward III. was
firmly seated upon the throne, dignity and power was lavishly bestowed on
this early bibliomaniac. In an almost incredible space of time he was
appointed cofferer to the king, treasurer of the wardrobe, archdeacon of
Northampton, prebendary of Lincoln, Sarum, Litchfield, and shortly
afterwards keeper of the privy seal, which office he held for five years.
During this time he twice undertook a visit to Italy, on a mission to the
supreme pontiff, John XXII., who not only entertained him with honor and
distinction, but appointed him chaplain to his principal chapel, and gave
him a bull, nominating him to the first vacant see in England.

He acquired whilst there an honor which reflected more credit than even
the smiles of his holiness--the brightest of the Italian poets, Petrarch
of never dying fame--bestowed upon him his acquaintance and lasting
friendship. De Bury entered Avignon for the first time in the same year
that Petrarch took up his residence there, in the house of Colonna,
bishop of Lombes: two such enlightened scholars and indefatigable book
collectors, sojourning in the same city, soon formed an intimacy.[177]
How interesting must their friendly meetings have been, and how
delightful the hours spent in Petrarch's library, which was one of great
extent and rarit