No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Deposition of Abbot Ernis of Saint- Victor: A New Letter?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2009
Extract
The letter Benedictus Deus, which forms the basis of this study, was first printed by J. A. Giles in his 1845 edition of the letters of Thomas Becket, and the Abbé Migne later reproduced it in the same context in Patrologia Latina, without comment. Neither ventured identification of the author or recipients, although some connexion with the Becket controversy must have been presumed, since they included the text with his correspondence. In fact, it has no connexion with Thomas Becket, despite its inclusion in one of the large manuscript collections of Becket correspondence assembled in the late twelfth century. It was neither written nor received by any of the participants, nor is it concerned with the matters at issue in the controversy. It concerns the removal of the unnamed superior of a religious house, and the circumstances of its composition are obscure. The heading and protocol are damaged, and although the author's name can be clearly read as Frater R., and the recipients' initials as G. and R., the address is incomplete, and there are no internal clues to date and context.
- Type
- Notes and Documents
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994
References
DGHE = Dictionnaire d' historie et de géographie ecclésiastiques, Paris 1912-; DNB = Dictionary of national biography; GC = Callia christiana nova; JL = P.Jaffé, Regesta pontificum Romanorum ad annum 1198, ed. W. wattebach, S. Loewenfeld, F. Kaltenbrunner and P. Ewald, Leipzig 1885–8; NCE = New Catholic encyclopedia; PU England = Papsturkunden in England, ed. W. Holtzmann, Berlin 1930, 1935–6, Göttingen 1952; PU Frankreich = Papsturkunden in Frankreich, ns; RS = Rolls Series.
1 Epislolae Sancli Thomae Canluariensis…, ed. Giles, J. A., 2 vols, Oxford 1845Google Scholar, no. 374; PL cxc. 707–9, no. 374.
2 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 937, fos 4O5r–6r, no. 300. For this manuscript and its place in the textual tradition of the Becket letters, see Duggan, Anne J., Thomas Becket: a textual history of his letters, Oxford 1980, 12, 74–81Google Scholar.
3 Annals of Tewkesbury, in Annales monastici, ed. Luard, H. R., 5 vols (RS xxxvi, 1864–1869), i. 51Google Scholar; ‘deposito Ada’; cf. The heads of religious houses. England and Wales, 940–1216, ed. Knowles, D., Brooke, C. N. L. and M, V. C.. London, Cambridge 1972, 71Google Scholar.
4 Ibid. 36, 122, 125. Three surviving papal mandates ordered him to make profession to Thomas Becket, but all were ineffective: Cum olim (Sens, 14 Nov. 1164: PU England, ii. 31 o, no. 118); Antecessorum nostrorum (10 July 1165: Materials for the history of Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, ed. Robertson, J. C. and Sheppard, j. B., 7 vols [RS lxvii, 1875–1985], v. 195–6, no. 102)Google Scholar; Quoniam benedictio (7 May 1166/7: PU England, ii. 313, no. 122).
5 Heads of houses, 49.
6 For the judges' report to Pope Alexander in in 1173–4, drafted by John of Salisbury, see The letters of John of Salisbury, II: The later letters (1163–1180), ed. Millor, W. J. and Brooke, C. N. L., Oxford 1979, 786–95Google Scholar, no. 322.
7 The chronicle of Hugh Candidus, a monk of Peterborough, ed. Mellows, W. T., Oxford 1949, 131–2Google Scholar; Gesla regis Henrici secundi Benedicti abbatis, ed. Stubbs, W., 2 vols (RS xlix, 1867), i. 106Google Scholar; ‘Dominus vero rex praedictum abbatem implacitaverat et odio habebat, pro eo quod ipse receptaveret Radulfum de Waltervilla, fratrem suum, qui fuit cum inimicis regis apud Huntendonam’; cf. ibid. 166; Heads of houses, 60. I wish to thank Katherine Christensen for generous information about the depositions of Clarembald and William de Waterville. For her discussion of monastic deposition, see ‘Abbot Samson's brethren: Benedictine monastic leadership in later twelfth-century England’, unpubl. PhD diss. Berkeley, 1989 (available in microform through University Microfilms)Google Scholar, ch. ii. For Clarembald and William, see pp. 79–88.
8 The letter refers to possible pressure from the ‘oppressor's’ relatives, but Ernis's family connexions are unknown, save for a married sister, G., who sent him a present of a white bearskin, an ivory altar-piece, and two knives decorated with silver, and warned him against her husband's relatives, who were planning to descend on him ‘like hungry dogs’, seeking food wherever they can find it! She asked him to send her cinnamon and cloves, and a countersign, which would identify those whom she would send in the future: PL cxcvi. 1387, no. 11. Abbot Laurence of Westminster (c. 1158–73), however, described as ‘genere Normannus’ by John Flete, the fifteenth-century historian of Westminster (The history of Westminster Abbey, ed.Robinson, J. Armitage, Cambridge 1909, 91)Google Scholar, claimed Ernis as a relative(GC vii. 667; Bonnard, F., Histoire de I'abbaye royale et de I'ordre des chanoines réguliers de St Victor de Paris, Paris 1904–1907, i. 55Google Scholar; PL cxcvi. 1385, no. 7), and four knights, perhaps brothers, called FitzErnise (‘filii Ernise’), occur in contemporary Norman records. Eudo FitzErnise witnessed a royal charter, in favour of the great Norman monastery of Bec-Hellouin at Rouen in June–July 1171, in which his name immediately follows that of Richard du Humez, the constable of Normandy; Eudo, William, Robert, and Oliver FitzErnise are listed among the rebels against Henry 11 in 1173–4; Eudo and Robert FitzErnise occur among Henry II's prisoners at Falaise in 1174; and Oliver FitzErnise was assaulted in 1183, when he was carrying a message from Henry 11 to his son, Geoffrey, then in revolt against his father. For these details, see Eyton, R. W., Court, household, and itinerary of King Henry II, London 1878, 157–8Google Scholar, 172 n. 6, 186, 251. Eudo FitzErnise also held 1 ½ knights fees in England (from William FitzAlan and Countess Matilda, wife of Earl Roger de Clare: The Red Book of the Exchequer, ed. Hall, H. [RS ic, 1896], i. 272, 406Google Scholar; the same Eudo was pardoned scutage of 20 s. in 1190–1: ibid. i. 78). If Ernis was related to such a numerous and obstreperous Norman family, some apprehension on the part of the brethren at Saint-Victor would be understandable, and his own forceful personality would be more easily explained. The identity of the FitzErnises has not been established, but Ordericus Vitalis recorded the entry of Roger, son of Erneis of Coulonces (Erneisi de Coluncis filius) into the monastery of Saint-Evroul some time after the Norman Conquest of England (Orderic also calls him Roger of Warenne, no doubt to emphasise his relationship with William de Warenne). Roger heads the list of three young noblemen who left the household of Hugh of Avranches, earl of Chester to seek admission to the Norman monastery under Abbot Mainer (1066–89), an d he is described as nephew of William de Warenne, earl of Surrey. His family were benefactors of Saint-évroul: The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. Chibnall, M., Oxford 1969–1980, iii. 118Google Scholar, 119 n. 4, 226, 228–31. His brother, Richard of Coulonces, died in 1125, having had a family of eleven sons and four daughters: ibid. 230–3.
9 Founded by William of Champeaux in 1108, the great Augustinian monastery of Saint-Victor had been endowed by Louis vi, who made it a royal abbey, and its second abbot, Gilduin, transformed it into a renowned centre for the most advanced biblical and theological scholarship of the twelfth century, adorned by such luminaries as Hugh (d. 1141), Richard (d. 1173), Andrew, later abbot ofWigmore (d. 1175), and Peter Comestor (d. c. 1179): Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 1–275Google Scholar; Châtillon, J., ‘De Guillaume de Champeaux à Thomas Gallus’, Revue du moyen âge latin viii (Strasbourg 1952), 139–62, 247–72Google Scholar; ‘Les écoles de Chartres et de Saint-Victor’, Settimane di studio del centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo xix (Spoleto 1972), 795–839Google Scholar; ‘Canonici regolari di San Vittore’, Dizionario degli islituti di perfezione, ii, Rome 1975, 124–34Google Scholar; and NCE xii. 954a–5a; Bautier, R.H., ‘Les origines et les premiers développements de I'abbaye Saint-Victor de Paris’, in L'Abbaye parisienne de Saint-Victor au moyen âge, ed. Longere, J., Paris-Turnhout 1991, 23–52Google Scholar. For the latest summary of the Ernis affair, see PU Frankreich, VIII: Diözese Paris, I: Urkunden und Briefsammlungen der Abteien Sainte-Geneviève und Saint-Victor, ed. Lohrmann, D., Gottingen 1989, 49–50Google Scholar, 287–9, no 108, 290–9 nos 110–15; idem, ‘Ernis, abbè de Saint-Victor (1161–1172). Rapports avec Rome, affaires financiéres’, in L'Abbaye parisienne de Saint-Victor, 181–93. Cf. n 11 below.
10 PU Frankreich, viii. 287–9, no. 108 (for a French translation see Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 231–2)Google Scholar; PU Frankreich, VII: Nordliche Ile-de-France und Vermandois, ed. Lohrmann, D., Göttingen 1976, 132, no. 7Google Scholar; idem, ‘Petrus von s. Grisogonus und St. Viktor in Paris. Zur Vorgeschichte eines Legaten Alexanders m. in Frankreich’, in DEVS QUI MVTAT TEM-PORA: Menschen und Institutionen im Wandel des Mittelalters, Festschrift für Alfons Becker, ed. Hehl, E.D., Seibert, H. and Staab, F., Sigmaringen 1987, 266Google Scholar. The visitors were two highly important ecclesiastics. William aux Blanchesmains, son of count Theobald iv of Champagne, brother of Queen Adela and hence brother-in-law of Louis vii and uncle of Prince Philip, the later Philip 11, had been bishop-elect of Chartres since 1165, and archbishop of Sens from 22 Dec. 1167. He held both until 8 Aug. 1176, when he was translated to the archbishopric of Reims. In 1179 Pope Alexander III created him cardinal priest of S.Sabina; he died on 7 Sept. 1202: Brixius, J. M., Die Mitglieder des Kardinalkollegiums von 1130–1181, Berlin 1912, 67, 128Google Scholar; Ganzer, K., Die Entwicklung des auswärtigen Kardinalatsim hohen Mittelalter, Tubingen, 1963, 125–9Google Scholar; Williams, J. R., ‘William of the White Hands and men of letters’, Anniversary essays by the students of Charles Homer Haskins, Boston-New York 1929, 365–87Google Scholar. The renowned Abbot Odo of Ourscamp was a late and distinguished recruit to the Cistercian order, having been chancellor of Notre Dame in Paris and Master of the cathedral school, before his entry into the monastery of Ourscamp in 1165, where he was elected abbot in 1167. He resigned the abbacy in 1170 (with some reluctance), on his promotion to the cardinal bishopric of Tusculum (Frascati), and died after 1171: GC ix. 1130; PU Frankrekh, vii. 131–4, 388–90, no. 118, 403–5, no. 132, 412–14, nos 137–9; Leclercq, J., ‘Lettres d'Odon d'Ourscamp, cardinal cistercien’, Studia Anselmiana xxxvii (1957), 145–57Google Scholar. The choice of such visitors was no doubt carefully weighed in the light of Saint-Victor's reputation and its close links with the Capetian monarchy.
11 The career of Ernis, who was fourth abbot of Saint-Victor from 1161 until his enforced abdication in 1172, is something of a puzzle. Louis vn addressed him as friend and chose him as one of the godfathers of the future Philip 11 in 1165, and he was present at a settlement reached in the king's presence as late as 1169 (PL cxcvi. 1379–83, nos 1–2; Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, ed. Brial, M., Paris 1878, xv. 879Google Scholar n. b); but charges of arrogance, extravagance, and indiscipline began to be made against him from c. 1163: GC vii. 667–8, whence PL cxcvi. 1373–6; cf. ibid, xiv–xv, xxvii–xxviii, 1381–8; Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 213–45Google Scholar; Delhaye, P., ‘Ervise ou Ernis de Saint-Victor’, DHGE xv. 825–8Google Scholar. It was to prevent a recurrence of Ernis's despotism that the revised Liber Ordinis included a section on the self-discipline and moderation required of an abbot of Saint-Victor (Liber Ordinis Sancti Victoris Parisiensis, ed. Jocqué, L. and Milis, L., Turnhout 1984, pp. viii–xi, 21–5, esp. p. 24Google Scholar; ‘Possessionesecclesiaeseu aliaquaelibet uendere uel mutare uel abalienare sine assensu et consilio capituli ei non licebit. Ad usum suum nichil proprium retinere debet, sed si qua forte eum expendere uel dare specialiter oportuerit, de communi accipiat et camerarius de expensa eius, sicut de aliis expensis, rationem reddet’). His nationality is uncertain. Though often called English, the account of his withdrawal (with Brother Roger, later abbot of Eu in Normandy: nn. 34, 43 below) from Shobdon Priory on the grounds of his unfamiliarity with English language and customs suggests otherwise. Abbot Gilduin of Saint-Victor had sent Ernis and Roger to help establish the newly-founded priory of Shobdon in Herefordshire in 1131x1135, but both requested recall to Paris, and were restored to ‘their abbey’ c. 1143–4, ‘Dont l’ abbe [Gilduin] per conseil de tot lor chapitre elust ii, cet a saver Roger et Ernys, des queus Roger fut fet apres abbe de Owense [Eu], et Ernys abbe de seinct Victor… Puys apres esteyent les chanoines mut dolentz pur departire del eveske [Robert of Bethune, bishop of Hereford, 1131–48: cf. The letters and charters of Gilbert Foliot, ed. Morey, A. and Brooke, C. N. L., Cambridge 1967, 56Google Scholar; DNB xliii. 364–5] de lor compaynie, et ensement trop mournes pur ceo que eus furent mut loyns de lor abbey, si manderent al abbé Gildwyn de seinct Victor, em priantz qu'il vousist mander autres en lor lyu qui sussent parler et entendre langage d'Engletere, et qui sussent la maner des Englez, et ke eus pussent retorner a lor abbey… Et l'abbe graunta lor request, et manda illeoques iii. freres neez et norriz en Engletere. Et quant eus vindrent a Schobbedon, si furent mut honestement receus, et ileok plantez, et les autres s'en departirent d'ileoke a lor abbey: Dickinson, J. C. and Rickets, P. T., ‘The Anglo-Norman chronicle of Wigmore Abbey’, Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club xxxix (1969), 424Google Scholar; SirDugdale, William, Monasticon Anglicanum, rev. Caley, J., Ellis, H. and Bandinel, B., 6 vols in 8,London 1817–1830Google Scholar, repr., 1846, vi/i (vii) 344–5; cf. Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 213–15Google Scholar. For Shobdon and its descendant, Wigmore Abbey, see Knowles, David and Hadcock, R. Neville, Medieval religious houses in England and Wales, London 1971, 179Google Scholar. During the Becket controversy, John of Salisbury twice employed his good offices: in May 1166, to approach Henry 11 on behalf of Richard, son of Master Geoffrey of St Edmund, and in July of the same year, to write an admonitory letter (with Prior Richard) to Bishop Robert de Melun of Hereford, urging him to support his archbishop: John of Salisbury, ii. 76–7, 162–3 (mentioning Prior Richard); cf. Materials for… Thomas Becket, v. 456–8Google Scholar, no. 220).
12 PU Frankreich, viii. 49. For an excellent discussion of the Ernis crisis and its aftermath (which appeared after this article was presented for publication), see Teske, G., Die Briefsammlungen des 12. Jahrhunderts in St. Viktor/Paris: Entstehung, Überlieferung und Bedentung für die Geschichte der Abtei, Bonn 1993, 271–318Google Scholar.
13 Brother Peter of Rome (not to be confused with Master Peter Ithier, cardinal priest of S. Crisogono): Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 206–7Google Scholar; Lohrmann, , ‘Petrus von S. Grisogonus’, 263–5Google Scholar. For his letter congratulating Ernis on his election as abbot in 1161, see Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 210–11Google Scholar; for his continuing contact with Ernis, see PU Frankreich, viii. 269–73, nos 93–5; for his intervention in the abbatial crisis in 1165 (with the text of his letter), see Lohrmann, , ‘Petrus von S. Grisogonus’, 265–7Google Scholar.
14 PU Frankreich, viii. 283–5, nos 105–6.
15 Successively cardinal priest of SS. Sergio e Bacco 1150–8, cardinal priest of S. Anastasia 1158–83 ( Brixius, , Die Mitglieder, 55–6, 110–11)Google Scholar. There is no doubt about his interest in the Victorine order, but his own status is doubtful. The seventeenth-century Victorine historian, Jean de Thoulouse, named him as one of the Victorine cardinals; Bonnard, (Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 173) challenged that identificationGoogle Scholar; Classen, P. (Studium und Gesellschaft itn Mittelalter, ed. Fried, J., Stuttgart 1983, 141–2)Google Scholar considered it likely but unproven; but Lohrmann has argued against it (‘Petrus von S. Grisogonus’; ‘Nicht Victoriner’, PU Frankreich, viii. 48). For his continuing links with Saint-Victor and attempts to recruit canons for his house at S. Pietro ad Aram in Naples, see ibid. 311–15, nos 125–6, 317–18, no. 129 ( = PL cxcvi. 1389–90, nos 4–5, 1394–5, no. 11) cf. Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 204–5Google Scholar.
16 Cf. PU Frankreich, viii. 285–6, no. 107, where Anselm, writing from the stews of Benevento (‘A febribus Beneventanis, que aut citissime interficiunt aut adeo molestant, ut uexationis earum respectu sit remedium mors’) complained bitterly of his continuing ‘exile’ for the sake of one (Ernis), who put his financial interests above his honour. See also n. 19 below.
17 Cf. his letter postponing his visitation for a while and assuring Ernis that he would come ‘in spiritu lenitatis et mansuetudinis, quamcitius dabitur nobis oportunitas, ferentes nobiscum non verbera patris, sed verba matris’: Brial, , Recueil des historiens, xv. 899Google Scholar, no. 293; cf. Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 235Google Scholar and n. 2 (Bonnard links William's letter with the second visitation rather than with the first). See now PU Frankreich, viii. 290–1, no. 110.
18 Veterorum scriptorum et monumentorum historicorum, dogmaticorum, moralium amplissima collectio, ed. Marténe, E. and Durand, U., Paris 1724–1733Google Scholar, repr. New York 1968, vi. 264, whence PL cc. 675, no. 730; JL 11792; PU Frankreich, viii. 291–2, no. in. For a French translation, correcting Marténe/Migne's mistaken reading of ‘Robert’ for ‘Richard’ and ‘Venetiis’ for ‘Verulis’, see Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 232–3Google Scholar.
19 Frater O. (perhaps Osbert, abbot of Eu), for example, wrote to Frater A. (perhaps Anselm), urging him to press Abbot Odo of Ourscamp, Prior Richard and three other named brethren, to admonish Abbot Ernis, when he came back to the monastery. If he does not change his ways, O. wrote, he will be useless and unable to preserve the good name of the holy church of St-Victor: PU Frankreich, viii. 293–4, no. 112.
20 Amplissima collectio, vi. 250– 1; P L cc. 771–2, no. 853; Brial, Recueil des historiens, xv. 898–9, no. 291; J L 11974; PU Frankreich, viii. 294–6, no. 113. For a French translation of part of the letter, see Bonnard, , Histoire de l'abbaye, i. 233Google Scholar. The elevation of Abbot Odo of Ourscamp to the cardinalate in 1170 (see n. 10 above) necessitated the appointment of a suitable religious replacement, and the Premonstratensian Abbot Dodo of Le Val-Secret was chosen to participate in the reform: Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 233Google Scholar n. 1; cf. GC ix. 497. Dodo was wrongly called Nicholas by the seventeenth-century Victorine historian Jean de Thoulouse (whence PL cxcvi. xv), but Bonnard and GC correctly identified him as Dodo. I must thank Professor Ludwig Falkenstein and Professor Dietrich Lohrmann for valuable information on this point. The second new judge was, like Archbishop William, a man of authority and substance, and high in the favour of the French king at this time. Stephen [étienne] de La Chapelle, formerly canon of Sens and Paris, and chanter of Meaux, was bishop of Meaux from 1162 to 1171 and archbishop of Bourges from Oct. 1 1 71 to before 11 Nov. 11 72, when he retired in ill-health to Saint-Victor, where he died on 12 Jan. 1173: GC viii. 1615–16; ii. 54–5; vii. 670 (which mistakenly dates his death January u8i/2);cf. Falkenstein, L., ‘Etienne de La Chapelle als Vertrauter Ludwigs VII. und Delegat Alexanders III’, Archivum Historiae Pontificiae xxvi (1988), 375–92Google Scholar, esp. pp. 378–9 and n. 12, 389, 391 and n. 88; idem, ‘Pontificalis maturitas vel modestia sacerdotalis? Alexander m. und Heinrich von Frankreich in den Jahren 1170–1172’, ibid, xxii (1984), 79–80, 85. His two brothers (Adam and Gautier) were chamberlains of Louis vn, and Stephen himself was at the height of his political influence during the Saint-Victor crisis; moreover, he was also an experienced and trusted agent of Pope Alexander. For his participation in this case see ibid. xxvi. 388, 390. Dodo occurs as abbot of Le Val-Secret between 1166 and 1175: Backmund, N., Monasticon Praemonstratense, ii, Straubing 1952, 536Google Scholar.
21 Amplissima collectio, vi. 251–2; PL cc. 772–3, no. 854; Brial, , Recueil des historiens, xv. 899Google Scholar, no. 292; JL 11 975; PU Frankreich, viii. 296–7, no. 114. For a French translation see Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 234Google Scholar.
22 Amplissima collectio, vi. 249–50, whence P L cc. 773–4, no. 855; Brial, , Recueil des historiens, xv. 897Google Scholar, no. 290; J L 11 976; PU Frankreich, viii. 297–9, no. 115. For a French translation see Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 234–5Google Scholar.
23 See now Falkenstein, , ‘Etienne de La Chapelle’, 388Google Scholar n. 69; PU Frankreich, viii. 294–5.
24 Amplissima collectio, vi. 254–5, whence PL cc. 876–7, no. 997 (where the cardinals are wrongly named Alexander and Theodoric); JL 12 149; PU Frankreich, viii. 301–2, no. 118; cf. Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 236Google Scholar. Cardinals Albert (of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, 1158–87, the later Pope Gregory vm, 21 OcL–17 Dec. 1187) and Theodwin (of S. Vitale 1166–79, later cardinal bishop of Porto 1179–86) were discharging the very important mission which culminated with the Avranches agreement with King Henry 11 in May 1172. They had reached France in Oct. 1171, and remained there until Easter 1172, while Henry 11 conducted a highly important expedition to Ireland, and were therefore at hand when the Saint-Victor process reached its critical point: Tillmann, H., Die pdpstlichen Legaten in England, Bonn 1926, 68–72Google Scholar. Albert was an Augustinian canon regular, and his presence therefore particularly appropriate: Brixius, , Die Mitglieder, 57–8, 112–13Google Scholar; Ohnsorge, W., Die Legaten Alexanders III im ersten Jahrzehnt seines Pontificals (1159–1169), Berlin 1928, 59Google Scholar; Zenker, B., Die Mitglieder des Kardinalkollegiums von 1130 bis 1159, PhD diss. Wiirzburg 1964, 125–9Google Scholar; for Theodwin, see Brixius, , Die Mitglieder, 66, 126, 135, 140Google Scholar.
25 Amplissima collectio, vi. 255, whence P L cc. 877, no. 998; J L 12 150; PU Frankreich, viii. 302–3, no. 119. For a French translation of part of the letter see Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 236Google Scholar.
26 PU Frankreich, viii. 303–6. nos 120–1. For further light on Guérin's early years and the restoration of canonical order according to the statutes see ibid. 308–10, nos 123–4.
27 For the cardinals' letter summoning him to St-Victor see PU Frankreich, viii. 300–1, no. 117. He presided over the abbey's fortunes with distinction for twenty years, until his death in 1192/3: DHGE xxii 684–6, correctingGC vii. 669–71; cf. PL cxcvi. 1375–8, 1387–98. There is an unsubstantiated suggestion that he had been appointed abbot of Sainte-Genevieve in 1164, whence he resigned and retired to the abbey of Notre-Dame de la Chage at Meaux (GC vii. 716), but although his residence at N.D. de la Chage can be confirmed from the obit lists, his abbacy at Sainte-Genevieve remains extremely uncertain. According to Chatillon and Tulloch (Sermons et opuscules, xliv–v: see n. 28 below), Richard of Saint-Victor composed his treatise Super exiit edictum on the occasion of Guerin's election as abbot of Saint-Victor.
28 Richard was sub-prior of Saint-Victor from 1159, and prior from 1162 until his death in 1173. For his life and works see PL cxcvi. ix–xxxi, 1–1366, and Richard of Saint-Victor, Sermons et opuscules spirituels inédits, ed Châtillon, J. and Tulloch, W.J., Bruges 1951Google Scholar. Cf. Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 101–9Google Scholar; Dumeige, G., Richard de Saint-Victor et I'idée chrétienne de I'amour, Paris 1952Google Scholar; NCE xii. 482–4; Smalley, B., The Becket conflict and the schools, Oxford 1973, 55–6Google Scholar; Luscombe, D. E., The School of Peter Abelard, Cambridge 1969, 299–307CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Châtillon, J., ‘Thomas Becket et les Victorins’, in Foreville, R. (ed.), Thomas Becket: actes du colloque international de Sédières, 19–24 Août 1973, Paris 1975, 89–101Google Scholar, esp. pp. 90–1; idem, Trois opuscules spirituels de Richard de Saint-Victor: textes inedits accompagne's d'etudes critiques et de notes, Paris 1986.
29 Amplissima collectio, vi. 252, Inveteratis in via (the cardinals are wrongly named Alexander and Theodoric); PU Frankreich, viii. 306–7, no. 122. For French translation see Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 238–9Google Scholar. For their letter to the new Abbot Guérin see Amplissima colleclio, vi. 253 (where the cardinals are again wrongly named Alexander and Theodoric), whence PL exevi. 1387–9, no. 1; Bonnard's, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 236Google Scholar.
30 P L ccix. 826, no. 12; PU Frankreich, viii. 331–3, no. 139 (Dec. 1173–Ma y 1174). Author and recipient are reversed in Bonnard's French translation: Histoire de I'abbaye, i– 239.
31 Eskil, the reforming archbishop of Lund (1138–77; d. 1181), had been exiled by King Waldemar of Denmark from 1161 to c. 1167 for his support of Alexander m against the wishes of the king: DHGE xv. 884–5; Seegrün, W., Das Papsttum und Skandinavien, Neumilnster 1967, 171–9Google Scholar; NCE v. 542a–b; McGuire, B. P., The Cistercians in Denmark, Kalamazoo 1982, 44–60, 63–74Google Scholar. During that time he left two deposits of money and valuables in the safe-keeping of Ernis, which he sent his clerk Osbert to recover: Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 239–40Google Scholar. One, of 300 silver marks, was found to have been exchanged for pewter; the other, of 70 silver marks, was spirited away. Despite three requests to Ernis (ibid. i. 239–40) and an emotional appeal to Louis VII to redeem the honour of France (Veri amoris: Brial, , Recueil des historiens, xvi. 158Google Scholar, no. 471), the money was not found, and Eskil brought claims for restitution against the new Abbot Guerin and the abbey. This ‘grauis ilia et odibilis querimonia’ (PU Frankreich, viii. 324–6, no. 134; cf. Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 241–2)Google Scholar created a grave scandal. Alexander 111 attempted arbitration, urging Guerin and the canons to repay whatever part of the money had been used for communal purposes, while at the same time commanding Archbishop William of Sens and Bishop Maurice of Paris to seize the miscreant and keep him in close confinement, until he repaid all that he had stolen, and appointing Bishop Matthew of Troyes (1169–80) and Bishop Theobald of Amiens (1169–1204) as judges delegate to arrange an amicable settlement or try the case if it came to law: PU Frankreich, viii. 326–8, nos 135–6, 330–1, no. 138. The outcome of the dispute is unknown, but some accommodation seems to have been reached, since Eskil left 100 marks to Saint-Victor in his will. For the papal and other letters relating to the crisis, now arranged in the correct order for the first time, see ibid. viii. 3' 7–33) nos 129–39. Bonnard's view that the dispute between Lund and Saint-Victor was continued into the pontificate of Absalon, Eskil's equally renowned successor, was based on a mistaken dating of Grauis ilia (ibid. viii. 324–6, no. 134), which Bonnard (Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 241–2) thought was addressed to Absalon instead of Eskil. See also Lohrmann, , ‘Ernis’, 190–2Google Scholar.
32 PU Frankreich, viii. 307.
33 See n. 76 below.
34 Eu had been founded by Richard 11 of Normandy in 1002 as a collegiate church in the castle of Eu, but moved outside the castle in 1119, where it adopted the Rule of St Augustine and associated itself with Arrouaise; in 1148, however, it was colonised by Victorines, led by Roger, who occurs as abbot of Notre-Dame d'Eu from 1148: DHGE xv. 1303;GC id. 295. For his enforced resignation and retirement to St-Victor, see n. 42 below.
35 Heads of houses, 155 and n. 2.
36 GC vii. 658–65.
37 PL cxcvi. 1383, no. 3; 1386–7, no. 10: cf. Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 155–8, 155 n. 3, 222Google Scholar; PUFrankreich, viii. 269–72, nos 93, 94. See also Dickinson, j. C., ‘English regular canons and the continent in the twelfth century’, TRHS 5th ser. i (1951)) 71–89Google Scholar.
38 Duggan, , Textual history, 252, no. 300Google Scholar.
39 Materials…for Thomas Becket, vi. 529–30, no. 471 (P L cxcvi. 1226, no. 2 = P L cc. 1443–4, no. 86: Sanctis uiris); cf. Duggan, , Textual history, 216, 250, no. 334, 302Google Scholar.
40 Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, 225 n. 3Google Scholar; Chatillon, , ‘Thoma s Becket’, 93–5 and n. 17Google Scholar.
41 BL, MS Egerton 3031, fos 47v–8r (18 Oct. 1175); Luffield Charters, i, no. 31 (8 Apr. 1176); cf. Heads of houses, 155 an d n. 2.
42 See Cardinal Peter de Bono's letter urging Abbot Ernis and the canons of St-Victor to receive him honourably and help him pay the expenses of his visit to the papal Curia: PU Frankreich, viii. 282–3, no. 104.
43 Molinier, A., Obituaires de la province de Sens, I. i, 592Google Scholar. It is possible that he was also the Roger who accompanied the young Ernis on the mission to found Shobdon Priory, c. 1131–5: see n. 11 above.
44 The letter survives in MSS of the Becket correspondence: BL, MS Cotton Claudius B. ii, iv. 30; Lambeth Palace Library, MS 136, no. 333; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 937, fo. 43gr–v; Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 295, iv. 25; Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS lat. 1220, iv. 25. All surviving copies lack the protocol and transmit variants of the mistaken form discussed here.
45 See nn. 16, 19 above.
46 No. 145; cf. Materials…for Thomas Becket, v. 64–5, no. 39. Peter d e Mizo, cardinal deacon of S. Eustachio 1158–1165/66, cardinal priest of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, 1166–74, d. 14 September 1174: Brixius, , Die Mitglieder, 59, 116 n. 143Google Scholar.
47 FitzStephen, William, Materials…for Thomas Becket, iii. 14Google Scholar.
48 Ibid. iii. 37 (P L cxc. 124): ‘Proxim e supra cilicium habui t habitu m monachalem, quoniam monachorum erat abbas Cantuariensium; supremo, canonicalem, ut clericis conformaretur’; Herbert, of Bosham, Materials…for Thomas Becket, iii, 196–7 (PL cxc. 1096): ‘Unde et nonnulli eum ob similitudinem vestium suspiciati sunt fuisse, sicut vulgo dicitur, regularem canonicum, cum sola devotione, quod et omnium vere fidelium commune est, canonicus fuerit, sed professione nequaquam’; cfGoogle Scholar. William, of Canterbury, Materials…for Thomas Becket, i. 10Google Scholar; ‘exteriori clericum exhiberet, interiori monachum occultaret’.
49 FitzStephen, William, Materials…for Thomas Becket, iii. 21Google Scholar; cf. 147.
50 Cf. The Book of Saint Gilbert, ed. Foreville, R. and Keir, G., Oxford 1987, 346–7Google Scholar, no. 1(Materials..for Thomas Becket, v. 259–60, no. 149). Gilbertines had assisted Becket's flight from Northampton in October 1164, to the extent of giving him lodging in their houses (Sempringham, Holland Marsh, Haverholme, Chicksand), the service of their brethren (Robert de Cave and Scaiman, lay brothers, the latter from St Catherine's, Lincoln; Gilbert of Chicksand, canon and chaplain), and money: Anon, . I, Materials…for Thomas Becket, iv. 53–5Google Scholar; Herbert, of Bosham, Materials…for Thomas Becket, iii. 323–5Google Scholar; cf. Barlow, F., Thomas Becket, London 1986, 115Google Scholar, 301 n. 59 (naming Robert and Scaiman only); The Book of Saint Gilbert, pp. xxiii, xxxv.
51 Cf. Chatillon, ‘Thomas Becket’ (n. 28 above).
52 Smalley, B., ‘Andrew of St. Victor, abbot of Wigmore: a twelfth-century Hebraist’, Recherches de théologie ancienne el mediévale x (1938), 368Google Scholar; ‘A commentary on the Hebraica by Herber t of Bosham’, ibid, xviii (1951), 64–5; The Becket conflict and the schools, Oxford 1973, 135–6Google Scholar; and The study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, Oxford 1983, 186–95, 365–6Google Scholar.
53 Idem, ‘Andrew of St. Victor’, 368; ‘Commentary on the Hebraica’, 42–3 n. 49.
54 Materials…for Thomas Becket, v. 456–8, no. 220; vi. 529–30, no. 471: cf. Chatillon, , ‘Thomas Becket’, 90–5Google Scholar.
55 Dickinson, J. C., The origins of the Austin Canons and their introduction into England, London 1950, 285Google Scholar; ‘Sanctus Thomas archiepiscopus mense septembre in octabis san cti Augustini fecit sermonem in capitulo sancti Victoris Parisius in conventu fratrum, cuius fuit exordium hoc “in pace factus est locus eius”’; cf. Chatillon, , ‘Thomas Becket’, 95–6Google Scholar.
56 Ibid. 96.
57 An unidentified recent recruit to Saint-Victor asked his relative in England to secure authentic relics of the glorious martyr, ‘superest ut flagrantissimi desiderii mei tibi carissimo meo secreta revelem, quatenus si quo modo sedulitate tua interveniente de sacris gloriosi Christi martyris Thomae reliquiis aliquam particulam habere possem.… Erit enim mihi thesaurus pretiosus super aurum et topasium dilectus’: Amplissima colleclio, vi. 247–8; cf. Bonnard, , Histoire de I'abbaye, i. 226 n. 1; ii. 289Google Scholar; Châtillon, , ‘Thomas Becket’, 96–7Google Scholar.
58 Cf. Absalon, of St.Victor, Sermo xliv, PL ccxi. 253Google Scholar; Châtillon, , ‘Thomas Becket’, 97 n. 39Google Scholar.
59 Lesnes (1178): Medieval religious houses, 164.
60 Dublin (1177; Victorine, from 1192) an d Stafford (1175). See The register of the abbey of St. Thomas, Dublin, ed. Gilbert, J. T. (RS xciv, London 1880), p. xiGoogle Scholar; Gwynne, A. and Hadcock, R. Neville, Medieval religious houses Ireland, London 1970, 154, 172–3Google Scholar; A history of the county of Stafford, ed. Greenslade, M. W., Oxford 1970, iii. 260–1Google Scholar.
61 Beauchief (1173/6), Hagnab y (1175–6), an d Langdo n (1189): Medieval religious houses, 186, 189; cf. Petersohn, J., Der sd¨liche Ostseeraum im kirchlich-politischen Kräftespiel des Reichs, Polens und Dänemarks vom 10. bis 13. Jahrhundert, Cologne–Vienna 1979, 136 n. 5gGoogle Scholar.
62 Orme, M., ‘A reconstruction of Robert of Cricklade's Vita et Miracula S. Thomae’, Analecta Bollandiana lxxxiv (1966), 379–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
63 Duggan, , Textual history, 95–8Google Scholar.
64 Ibid. 53. Fo. 128V bears the now scarcely-visible inscription, ‘Ex merton’.
65 Omont, H., ‘Anciens catalogues des bibliotheques anglaises’, Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen ix (1892), 217Google Scholar, no. 273, ‘Vit a sancti Thome. Magnu m volumen; no. 275, Hug o de sacrotis et passio S. Thome in uno volumine’ (I owe this reference to Miss Sarah Noble, who is working on the formation of the medieval library of Llanthony Secunda).
66 BL, MS Cotton Claudius B.ii. Mr Michael Gullick has recently demonstrated that this fine MS was produced not at Canterbury, as generally believed (cf. Duggan, , Textual history, 100)Google Scholar, but at Cirencester, where it was copied from the first recension of Alan's collection by Master Walter of Cirencester and an assistant: ‘A twelfth-century manuscript of the letters of Thomas Becket’, English Manuscript Studies 1100–1700, ii (1990), 1–31Google Scholar.
67 Bodl. Lib. MS Bodley 937, fos 4O5r–6r, no. 300; cf. Epistolae Sancti Thomae Cantuariensis no. 374 (whence P L cxc. 707—9, no. 374).
68 The inscription is damaged, but G. and R. can be read, and the extensions Guarino and Ricardo, respectively abbot-elect and prior of Saint-Victor, can be plausibly suggested: see nn. 27–8 above.
69 Richard of Warwick, abbot of St Augustine's, Bristol: see n. 35 above.
70 Isaiah xi. 2, ‘et requiescat super eum spiritus Domini/spiritus sapientiae et intellectus/spiritus consilii et fortitudinis/spiritus scientiae et pietatis’. Scriptural quotations and allusions are taken from the Vulgate text( Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatum versionem, ed. Weber, Robert OSB, 2nd corrected edn, Stuttgart 1975)Google Scholar, which is set out per cola el commata, without punctuation; capitals are used only for the nomina sacra and proper names; quotations from the Psalms are collated with the Septuagint text. Where the names or divisions of the English Authorized Version (King James) differ from those of the Latin Vulgate, they are given in brackets (cf.King James Bible).
71 Cf. Ephes. i. 3, ‘Benedictus Deus et Pater Domini nostri Iesu Christi/qui benedixit nos in omni benedictione spirituali in caelestibus in Christo’ Psalm cvi (cvii).10, ‘sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis vinctos in mendicitate et ferro’.
72 Cf. Psalm xxix (xxx). 12 (11), ‘convertisti planctum meum in gaudiu m mihi/conscidisti saccum meum et circumdedisti me laetitia’.
73 Psalm lxxix (lxxx). 6 (5), ‘cibabis nos pane lacrimarum/et potum dabis nobis in lacrimis in mensura’ Ezek, . xxiii. 33Google Scholar, ‘ebrietate et dolore repleberis/calice maeroris et tristitiae/calice sororis tuae Samariae’.
74 Psalm cxxi (cxxii). 1, ‘Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi/in domum Domini ibimus’.
75 Luke i. 46–7, ‘Magnificat anima mea Dominum/et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo’.
76 Cor. v. 3, ‘ego quidem absens corpore/praesens autem spiritu/iam iudicavi ut praesens eum qui sic operatus est’. This apparently trite scriptural text is particularly telling in the circumstances of this letter. It alludes to the exclusion of a fornicator from the Christian community, and continues (ibid. v. 4–5), ‘in nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi/congregatis vobis et meo spiritu cum virtute Domini Iesu/tradere huiusmodi Satanae in interitum carnis/ut spiritus salvus sit in Die Domini Iesu’.
77 Creba iamdudum and Iamdudum ad nos: see nn. 20–1 above.
78 Archbishop William of Sens, Bishop Stephen of Meaux and Abbot Dodo of Le Val-Secret, supported in the final stages of the process by Cardinals Albert and Theodwin: nn. 10, 20–1, 23–4 above.
79 See nn. 11, 31 above.
80 That is, an authentic inheritor of the blessing received from God and passed to Isaac, Jacob and their descendants, heirs of God's promise to Abraham: in Christian terms, a promise of spiritual authority and fruitfulness. Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, was father of twelve sons (of whom Joseph was the greatest), ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen. xii. 2–3; xxv. 26–34; xxix. 32–5); Ephraim and Manasseh were sons of Joseph and grandsons of Jacob (Gen. xlviii. 8–20; cf. Josh, xvii 1 –18). Although younger, Ephraim received Jacob's blessing, just as Jacob himself, the younger brother of Esau, had received his father Isaac's blessing (Gen. xxvii), and with it the promise of numerous descendants (Gen. xlviii. 14, 19, ‘qui [Jacob] extendens manum dexteram posuit super caput Ephraim iunioris fratris… qui rennuens ait scio fili mi scio/et iste quidem erit in populos et multiplicabitur/sed frater eius iunior maior illo erit/et semen illius crescet in gentes’). The ‘young’ Guérin, young certainly in comparison to the long-experienced Ernis, whom he has just replaced, is thus set in the ancient tradition of spiritual inheritance, where the younger was often the recipient of God's favour, in preference to the elder.
81 After correction. The original scribe first wrote inte, corrected (in darker ink) to uite. I am very grateful to Professor Albinia de la Mare for kindly confirming this reading for me. 81 Either Iamdudum ad nos (n. 21 above) or another, lost mandate.
82 1 Cor. xvi. 13, ‘State in fide/viriliter agite et confortamini’; Deut. xxxi. 6, ‘viriliter agite et confortamini/nolite timere nee paveatis a conspectu eorum/quia Dominus Deus tuus ipse est ductor tuus/ et non dimittet nee derelinquet te’; 1 Par. xix. 13; xxii. 13; xxviii. 20; 2 Par. xxxii. 7; Psalm xxvi (xxvii). 14; xxx (xxxi). 25 (24); 1 Mace. ii. 64.
83 Matt. x. 16, ‘Ecce ego mitto vos sicut oves in medio luporum/estote ergo prudentes sicut serpentes/et simplices sicut columbae’.
84 That is, letters dimissory from judges expounding to the pope (or other superior judge) the details of the case appealed to his presence, copies of which would be presented when the appeal was heard in the papal Curia (or other appellate court). For a contemporary definition, see the note inserted in the margin of the earliest surviving copy of Alan of Tewkesbury's edition of the Becket letters (BL, MS Cotton Claudius B. ii, fo. i45ra), ‘Apostoli sunt dimissorie quas petere debet qui apellat(sic) ab eo a quo appellatur ad eum ad quem appellatur, cui indulgetur secundum canones ad eas petendas spatium triginta dierum’ cf. the definition given by Bencivenna of Siena (attributed to Pillius): ‘Apostoli autem dicuntur et appellantur literae dimissoriae, et mittuntur ad eum, qui de appellatione cogniturus est’: Pillius, , Tancredus, , Gratia, , Libri de iudiciorum ordine, ed. Bergmann, F. C., Göttingen 1842Google Scholar, photo, repr. Aalen, 1965, 81.