Honorius of Kent

Honorius of Kent (sometimes known as Honorius Magister; died after 1210) was a medieval English Archdeacon of Richmond and canon lawyer.

Early career Honorius was given the title of magister, signifying that he had a university education. By 1192, he was teaching at Oxford, and in that year, he pleaded a case before the papal legates John of Cornwall and Robert of Melun at Oxford. Honorius, along with John of Tynemouth and Simon of Southwell, and perhaps Nicholas de Aquila, are the first known teachers of canon law at Oxford.

Service to Geoffrey and Hubert Walter Honorius was a clerk for Geoffrey, the Archbishop of York, serving Geoffrey from 1195, and held an unidentified prebend in the diocese of York. In 1198, Honorius was appointed Archdeacon of Richmond by Geoffrey, but King Richard I of England appointed Roger de Sancto Edmundo instead. Honorius was then expelled from office, but appealed to the papacy and eventually secured recognition of his tenure of office in 1202.

Royal service and death After Walter's death in 1205, Honorius was employed by King John as one of the king's proctors at Rome during the controversy over the election to succeed Walter at Canterbury. He died sometime after 1210.

Writings As a canonist, Honorius was the author of a treatise entitled Summa decretalium quaestionum, which exists in six He also did glosses on Gratian's Decretum. He is also credited with another work, De iure canonico tractaturus, but this attribution is not secure. This last work survives in only one manuscript copy.