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Viri religiosi and the York election dispute1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Derek Baker
Derek Baker*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Extract

Any discussion of the conciliar assemblies and decisions of the Church is likely to consider things from the centre—to enumerate those present, to distinguish the issues, arguments, and protagonists, and to emphasize the final decisions. Perhaps, indeed, to over-emphasize them, for there is a tendency to assume that what was decreed at Rome was rapidly implemented in the provinces. Often, of course, this was the case, and the speed with which the decisions of the Third Lateran Council were disseminated is striking testimony to the ability of the twelfth-century Papacy to publicize its policies. The Papacy developed rapidly, however, in the middle years of the twelfth century, and it is dangerous to assume that what was true of the pontificate of Alexander III can also be applied to that of Innocent II. It may therefore be useful to look closely at a major provincial dispute from the first half of the twelfth century, and to attempt to determine how decisively regional practice was affected by papal decrees in one particular instance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 7: Councils and Assemblies , 1971 , pp. 87 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1971

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Footnotes

1

I am indebted to Professor C. N. L. Brooke and Professor W. Ullmann for help and advice in the preparation of this paper.

References

Page No 87 Note 2 Narratio [de Fundationis Fontanis Monasterii], ed. Walbran, J. R., The Memorials of Fountains Abbey, Surtees Society, XLII (Durham 1862), 1, 8 Google Scholar.

Page No 88 Note 1 John of Hexham, [ed. Raine, J., The Priory of Hexham], Surtees Society, XLIV (1865), 131 Google Scholar.

Page No 88 Note 2 Cf.[Donald], , Nicholl, , [Thurstan, Archbishop of York (1114-1140)] (York 1964), 41–74 Google Scholar.

Page No 88 Note 3 Nicholl, 239-247; [C, R. H.] Davis, , [King Stephen] (London 1967), 99 ffGoogle Scholar; Scammell, [G. V.], [Hugh du Puiset, Bishop of Durham] (Cambridge 1956), 7–21 Google Scholar; Hill, B. D., English Cistercian Monasteries and their Patrons in the Twelfth Century (Chicago/London 1968), 15–41, 119-22Google Scholar. This last work, however, needs to be used with caution.

Page No 88 Note 4 15 August 1114.

Page No 88 Note 5 Knowles, [D.], [The Monastic Order in England] (Cambridge 1940), 172–190, 227-66Google Scholar; Dickinson, J. C., The Origins of the Austin Canons and their Introduction into England (London 1950), 91–162 Google Scholar.

Page No 88 Note 6 The participation of Abbot Richard I of Fountains in the legation of Alberic of Ostia in 1138 as assessor for the northern province exemplifies this: Knowles, 253-4.

Page No 89 Note 1 (Cap. XXVIII) ‘Obeuntibus sane episcopis, quoniam ultra tres menses vacare ecclesias prohibent patrum sanctiones sub anathema interdicimus, ne canonici de sede episcopali ab electione episcoporum excludant religiosos viros, sed eorum Consilio honesta et idonea persona in episcopum eligatur. Quod si exclusis eisdem religiosis electio fuerat celebrata; quod absque eorum assensu et convenientia factum fuerit, irritum habeatur et vacuum.’ Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio, ed. Mansi, J. (Paris 1757-98), xxi, 523 Google Scholar. Cf. Das Register Gregors VII, ed. Caspar, E., Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epistolae Selectae, 11 (Berlin 1955), VII, 14aGoogle Scholar, cap. 6, 482: De electione pontificum (7 March 1080). This laid down that ‘clerus et populus remota omni seculari ambitione timore atque gratia apostolice sedis vel metropolitani sui consensu pastorem sibi secundum Deum eligat’, and is the preliminary to Lateran II, cap. XXVIII.

These decrees, of course, were no guarantee, as the York election itself shows, that the electors would choose an ‘honesta et idonea persona’. See also Ullmann, W., The Growth of Papal Government (London 1955), 298-9Google Scholar; Conventionum Oectimenicorum Decreta (2nd ed., Vienna 1962), 179, n. 3.

Page No 89 Note 2 Cf. Scammell, 6.

Page No 89 Note 3 Nicholl, 240-1.

Page No 90 Note 1 Knowles, [David], [‘The Case of St.] William of York’, C[ambridge] H[istorical] J[ournal], v, 2 (Cambridge 1936), 162-77, 212-14Google Scholar. See also Talbot, C. H., ‘New Documents in the Case of St. William of York’, CHJ, x, 1 (1950), 1–15 Google Scholar; Morey, [A.], [‘ Canonist Evidence in the Case of St. William of York’], CHJ, x, 3 (1952), 352-3Google Scholar.

Page No 90 Note 2 Cf.Saltman, [A.], [Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury] (London 1956), 90 Google Scholar.

Page No 90 Note 3 Narratio, 70-2.

Page No 90 Note 4 ‘Clerici Eboracenses secundum desideria cordis sui varia et vaga sententia circumacti fuerant toto anno super electione facienda’, quoted Knowles, ‘William of York’, 165, n. 9. Cf. Narratio, 78-9.

Page No 91 Note 1 Cf. Knowles, ‘William of York’, 165; [Daniel, Walter, Life of] Ailred, ed. Powicke, F. M. (Edinburgh 1950), xliv Google Scholar.

Page No 91 Note 2 The sequence of events is not absolutely clear here, see Knowles, ‘William of York’, 165.

Page No 91 Note 3 ‘persuadente legato Henrico Wintoniae’, John of Hexham, 133.

Page No 91 Note 4 Ailred, lxxi-lxxv.

Page No 91 Note 5 Cf. Ailred, xliv; Knowles, ‘William of York’, 165.

Page No 92 Note 1 Cf. Ailred, lxxiv-lxxv.

Page No 92 Note 2 Cf. Davis, 4.

Page No 92 Note 3 Cf. Knowles, 285-93.

Page No 92 Note 4 Cf. Knowles, 285-93.

Page No 92 Note 5 It is possible that the outline career here given represents two Henry de Sullys rather than one. There is no doubt that the candidate for the see of York had been appointed abbot of Fécamp in 1140, and his abbacy seems to have ended in 1187, possibly on his death—his obit is recorded on 10 January in the obituary of St Benigne, Dijon. If this is so, then it was another Cluniac Henry de Sully who, according to the annals of Bermondsey, became prior in 1186, abbot of Glastonbury in 1189, bishop of Worcester in 1194 (6 January) and died in 1195 (24 October). The annals of Bermondsey are, of course, notoriously confused and inaccurate, but the existence of this deutero-Henry de Sully is sufficiently attested by the records of Glastonbury and Worcester to be above suspicion. It would certainly be a remarkable coincidence if there were two Cluniacs of the same name, both connected to the English royal house, the one making his appearance in England as the other vanished from the scene in Normandy; and if the move from Fécamp to Bermondsey seems remarkable, it is as well to notice that five priors of Bermondsey were appointed to great black monk houses between 1157 and 1189. Without further detailed investigation it seems best to retain a single Henry de Sully until the hypothesis is proved untenable.

Cf. Scammell, 6, n. 4; Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. Dugdale, W. (ed. Caley, J., Ellis, H., Bandinel, B., 6 vols in 8, London 1817-30), 1, 1, p. 5 Google Scholar; 1, 2, p. 573; v, p. 91; Graham, Rose, English Ecclesiastical Studies (London 1929), 91–124 Google Scholar; [Morey, Adrian and Brooke, C. N. L., The Letters and Charters of Gilbert] Foliot (Cambridge 1967) 109, n. 2 Google Scholar.

Page No 93 Note 1 Knowles, , ‘William of York’, 165, n. 10 Google Scholar.

Page No 95 Note 1 Narratio, 6-29; Baker, L. G. D., ‘The Foundation of Fountains Abbey’, Northern History, iv (Leeds 1969)Google ScholarPubMed.

Page No 95 Note 2 Scammell, 9.

Page No 95 Note 3 [C. T.] Clay, [York Minster] Fasti, 1, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series, cxxiii (Wakefield 1958), 22.

Page No 96 Note 1 Clay, , Fasti, 1, 1 Google Scholar.

Page No 96 Note 2 Clay, , Fasti, 1, 12 Google Scholar.

Page No 96 Note 3 E[arly] Yorkshire] C[harters], ed. Farrer, W. and Clay, C. T. (12 vols., Edinburgh/Wakefield 1914-65), 11, no. 936, p. 275 Google Scholar.

Page No 96 Note 4 John of Hexham, 133.

Page No 96 Note 5 Knowles, , William of York, 166, 168 Google Scholar.

Page No 96 Note 6 John of Hexham, 133.

Page No 96 Note 7 Cf. Saltman, 91.

Page No 96 Note 8 Narratio, 80.

Page No 97 Note 1 For Robert Biseth see Knowles, “William of York’ 166; Nicholl, 241-2. For Athelwold see Knowles, loc. cit., 173; Nicholl, 245.

Page No 97 Note 2 Clay, , Fasti, 11 (1959), v–ix Google Scholar.

Page No 97 Note 3 ‘Fuerunt autem qui reclamaverunt personae graves et religiosi, abbates, priores, archidiaconi, et decani...’ Narratio, 79.

Page No 97 Note 4 Scammell, 10.

Page No 97 Note 5 Narratio, 109-10.

Page No 97 Note 6 The present writer has a paper in preparation on the canonization of St William of York.

Page No 97 Note 7 Scammell, 8.

Page No 98 Note 1 8 June 1154.

Page No 98 Note 2 Cf. Knowles, William of York, 166 ff. 175-7, 213-14Google ScholarPubMed; Nicholl, 244-5; Clay, Fasti, 1, 46; Morey, 352-3; Foliot, Ep. 127, pp. 164-5; The Letters of John of Salisbury, I: The Early Letters, ed. and trans. Millor, W. J. and Butler, H. E., revised C. N. L. Brooke (Edinburgh 1955), no. 16, pp. 261-2Google Scholar.

Page No 98 Note 3 Cf. Nicholl, 43-4 and references there given.

Page No 99 Note 1 For example, Nicholas de Trailli, canon of York and holder of the prebend of Strensall, who was one of the four sons of Aubreye, the second sister of Walter Espec. In c. 1180 he described to Ranulf de Glanville the method of electing the last prior of Kirkham, whom, on behalf of his uncle Walter Espec, together with the canons, he had presented to the archbishop and had instituted at the archbishop’s request. It is interesting to notice his association with Hugh Murdac, canon of York and possibly nephew of Archbishop Henry Murdac, as a witness to two grants in the period 1150-3. Cf.Clay, , Fasti, 11, 20-1, 70-1Google Scholar.

Page No 99 Note 2 See, for example, Scammell, 6-12; Nicholl, 240-2; Knowles, 254; Knowles, ‘William of York’, 165.

Page No 99 Note 3 Though it should be noted that St Bernard had corresponded with Thurstan about his wish to resign his see: Nicholl, 233-4.

Page No 100 Note 1 Knowles, 255.

Page No 100 Note 2 See above, p. 98 n. 3 and the referencest here given. Geoffrey Murdac witnessed Archbishop Thurstan’s charter to Beverley (1115-28) at the head of a distinguished list of witnesses, and appeared as a benefactor of St Mary’s, York, in Henry II’s confirmation of 1156-7: see EYC, 1, 91, 272; 1, 358. Henry Murdac appears as itinerant justice in 1189, Ralph Murdac as constable of Nottingham castle at about the same time. Nicholas Murdac appears in a grant to Fountains c. 1170-80, in other grants and as canon of Ripon c. 1200: see Narratio, 101, 199, 255. See other references to the family in EYC, and in particular EYC, 11, 406. For Archbishop Henry see the outline career in Foliot, 541.