William de Corbeil

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William de Corbeil
Archbishop of Canterbury
Enthroned unknown
Ended November 21, 1136
Predecessor Ralph d'Escures
Successor Theobald of Bec
Consecration February 18, 1123
Born circa 1070
Died November 21, 1136
Buried Canterbury Cathedral
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William de Corbeil or William of Corbeil (c. 1070– 1136) was a medieval archbishop of Canterbury. Educated as a theologian, he served the bishops of Durham and London before becoming a canon. He was elected as a compromise to the see of Canterbury in 1123, succeeding Ralph d'Escures who had employed William as a chaplain. William was the first canon to become archbishop in England.

William was soon involved in a dispute over primacy with Thurstan, archbishop of York, and he also concerned himself with the morals of the clergy. He was known as a builder, having built the keep of Rochester Castle in England. At the end of his life, William was instrumental in the selection of Count Stephen of Boulogne as king of England instead of the Empress Matilda, daughter of King Henry I of England.

Contents

[edit] Early life

William de Corbeil was born probably at Corbeil on the Seine possibly around 1070,[1] and was educated at Laon, where he taught for a while.[2] His teacher at Laon was Anselm of Laon, the noted scholastic and teacher of theology.[3] He had two brothers, Ranulf and Helgot, but nothing else is known about his parents or upbringing.[1]

He joined the service of Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham and also Richard de Beaumis bishop of London; but then entered the Augustinian order at Holy Trinity Priory in Aldgate.[1] Later he became prior of the Augustinian priory at St Osyth in Essex.[4][5][6] He was a clerk of Ralph d'Escures, Archbishop of Canterbury, and went with Ralph to Rome in 1117 when Ralph was disputing with Thurstan the Archbishop of York over the primacy of the see of Canterbury.[7]

[edit] Archbishop of Canterbury

After the death of Ralph d'Escures in October of 1122, King Henry I decided to allow a free election, and the new primate was chosen by the leading men of the realm, both ecclesiastical and secular.[8] The monks of the cathedral chapter and the bishops of the kingdom disagreed on who should be elected; with the bishops insisting on the election of a non-monk, and the monks insisting that they alone had the right to elect the archbishop and that the new archbishop must be a monk. However, only two bishops in either England or Normandy at this time were monks (Ernulf Bishop of Rochester and Serlo Bishop of Séez), and no monk other than Anselm of Canterbury, Ernulf, and Ralph d'Escures had been elected to an English or Norman see since 1091, so recent precedent favored the bishops.[7] King Henry sided with the bishops, and told the monks they could elect their choice from a short list selected by the bishops. The list unsurprisingly contained no monks.[9]

Henry I from a 13th century manuscript of Matthew Paris
Henry I from a 13th century manuscript of Matthew Paris

On February 4, 1123,[10] William was chosen from among four candidates to the see of Canterbury, but the other three candidates names are not known.[7] William refused to concede that Thurstan, archbishop of York, was independent of the see of Canterbury, which led Thurstan to refuse to consecrate William. Instead, the ceremony was performed by William's own suffragan bishops on February 18, 1123.[9][10] William was the first Augustinian consecrated Archbishop in England, a striking break with tradition that had favored monks in the see of Canterbury.[11] As such, he caused some trepidation in the monks of the Canterbury chapter, who were "alarmed at the appointment, since he was a clerk," clerk here meaning a non-monastic clergy-member.[12]

Traveling to Rome for his pallium, the symbol of his authority as an archbishop, William discovered that Thurstan had already arrived and had presented his side to Pope Callixtus II. There were four objections against William's election, first that he was elected in the king's court, second that the chapter of Canterbury had been coerced and was unwilling, third that his consecration was unlawful because it was not performed by Thurstan, and fourth that a monk should be elected to the see of Canterbury, which had been founded by Saint Augustine of Canterbury, a monk.[7] However, King Henry I and of the emperor Henry IV, King Henry I's son-in-law managed to persuade the pope to side with William, with the proviso that William swear to obey "all things that the Pope imposed upon him."[9][13] It was at the same time that the Pope decided against Canterbury in the primacy dispute with York, when the forged documents that the Canterbury monks presented as evidence were dismissed as forgeries.[7] William then returned to England, and was enthroned at Canterbury on July 22, 1123.[1]

The archbishop's next opponent was the papal legate of the new Pope Honorius II, Cardinal John of Crema, who was now in England.[13] William had to return to Rome, where Honorius appointed him papal legate in England and Scotland in 1126.[6] In ecclesiastical matters, William called legatine councils in 1125, 1127 and 1129 all at Winchester. The one in 1125 met under the direction of John of Crema, and prohibited simony, purchase of the sacraments, and the inheritance of clerical benefices. In 1127 the council condemned the purchase of benefices or the entry to clerical orders or of entry to religious houses. Lastly, in 1129 the clergy were once more admonished to live a celibate life and to put aside their wives.[14] The festival of the Conception was also allowed at one of these councils.[15] William also seems to have been somewhat eclipsed in ecclesiastical administration and appointments by Roger of Salisbury, Bishop of Salisbury and King Henry's primary advisor.[16] However, William reformed the nunnery of Minster-in-Sheppey, and put a college of regular canons at the church of St. Gregory's, in Canterbury.[1]

Map of Medieval Rochester, showing the tower that William built. From E. A. Freeman's The Reign of William Rufus 1882
Map of Medieval Rochester, showing the tower that William built. From E. A. Freeman's The Reign of William Rufus 1882

[edit] William an architect

William designed the keep of Rochester Castle,[17] which at 115 feet (35 m) is the tallest Norman-built keep in England. It is still intact, although it no longer has a roof or floors. The work at Rochester was built within the stone curtain walls that Gundulf of Rochester had erected in the late eleventh century. William built a stone keep within the walls for King Henry. The keep was not only designed for defence, but also had comfortable living quarters, which were probably intended for the use of the archbishops when they visited Rochester.[18] In 1127, the custody of Rochester Castle was granted to William and his successors as archbishop by King Henry, including the right to fortify the place as the archbishops wished, and the right to garrison the castle with their own men.[19] He also built a new church at Dover which he planned to staff with canons from Merton Priory, but the plan was interrupted by William's death, and the church instead was staffed from St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. William also finished the building of the Canterbury Cathedral, which was dedicated in May 1130.[1]

[edit] The death of King Henry and the coronation of King Stephen

The archbishop swore to Henry I that he would support Henry's daughter Matilda's claim to the English throne, but after Henry's death William crowned Stephen king instead.[5] The archbishop was persuaded to do so by Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester and Stephen's brother, and it was this persuasion that lead to Stephen's crowning on December 22, 1135.[20][21] Roger of Salisbury also was party to the consultations, and both bishops persuaded the archbishop that the oath had been imposed wrongly by Henry, and that in any event, the dying king had released the barons and the bishops from the oath. The royal steward, Hugh Bigod swore that he had been present at the deathbed, and had heard the king say that he released the oath.[22] William did not long outlive Henry, as he died at Canterbury on November 21, 1136.[10] William was buried in the north transept of Canterbury Cathedral.[1]

Contemporaries were grudging in their praise, and William's reputation suffered after the ascension of Matilda's son Henry II of England to the throne. William of Malmesbury said that William was a courteous and sober man, with little of the flamboyant lifestyle of the more "modern" bishops. The Gesta Stephani author claimed that he was avaricious, and hoarded money. None of the chroniclers, however, doubted his piety, even when they named him a perjurer and a traitor for his coronation of Stephen.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Barlow, Frank, "Corbeil, William de (d. 1136)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004 Online Edition accessed November 8, 2007
  2. ^ Hollister, C. Warren Henry I ed. by Amanda Clark Frost New Haven:Yale University Press 2001 ISBN 0-300-08858-2 p. 23
  3. ^ Hollister, C. Warren Henry I ed. by Amanda Clark Frost New Haven:Yale University Press 2001 ISBN 0-300-08858-2 p. 432
  4. ^ Knowles, David; London, Vera C. M.; Brooke, Christopher (2001). The Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales, 940-1216, Second Edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 183. ISBN 0-521-80452-3. 
  5. ^ a b Barlow, Frank The English Church 1066-1154 London:Longman 1979 ISBN 0-582-50236-5 p. 85
  6. ^ a b Barlow, Frank The English Church 1066-1154 London:Longman 1979 ISBN 0-582-50236-5 p. 44-45
  7. ^ a b c d e Bethell, D. L. "English Black Monks and Episcopal Elections in the 1120s" English Historical Review Vol. 84 No. CCCXXXIII (333) October 1969
  8. ^ Cantor, Norman F. Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England 1089-1135 Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press 1958 p. 282
  9. ^ a b c Hollister, C. Warren Henry I ed. by Amanda Clark Frost New Haven:Yale University Press 2001 ISBN 0-300-08858-2 p. 288-289
  10. ^ a b c Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology, Third Edition, revised, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 232. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. 
  11. ^ Knowles, Dom David The Monastic Order in England: From the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council Second Edition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1976 reprint ISBN 0-521-05479-6 p. 175
  12. ^ quoted in Bartlett, Robert England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075-1225 Oxford:Clarendon Press 2000 ISBN 0-19-822741-8 p. 399
  13. ^ a b quoted in Cantor, Norman F. Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England 1089-1135 Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press 1958 p. 312-313
  14. ^ Cantor, Norman F. Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England 1089-1135 Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press 1958 p. 275-276
  15. ^ Barlow, Frank The English Church 1066-1154 London:Longman 1979 ISBN 0-582-50236-5 p. 195
  16. ^ Cantor, Norman F. Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England 1089-1135 Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press 1958 p. 299
  17. ^ Bartlett, Robert England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075-1225 Oxford:Clarendon Press 2000 ISBN 0-19-822741-8 p. 277
  18. ^ Platt, Colin The Castle in Medieval England & Wales reprint New York:Barnes & Noble Books 1996 ISBN 0-76070-054-0 p. 23-24
  19. ^ DuBoulay, F. R. H. The Lordship of Canterbury: An Essay on Medieval Society New York: Barnes & Noble 1966 p. 80
  20. ^ Huscroft, Richard Ruling England 1042-1217 London: Pearson Longman 2005 ISBN 0-582-84882-2 p. 72
  21. ^ Hollister, C. Warren Henry I ed. by Amanda Clark Frost New Haven:Yale University Press 2001 ISBN 0-300-08858-2 p. 478-479
  22. ^ Crouch, David The Normans: The History of the Dynasty London:Hambledon Continuum 2007 ISBN 1-85285-595-9 p. 247

[edit] Further reading

  • Alexander, Alexandri monachi Cantuariensis liber ex dictis Beati Anselmi: miracula ed. R. W. Southern and F. S. Schmitt, Memorials of St Anselm (1969), 266–8
  • Anstruther, R. editor Epistolae Herberti de Losinga, Osberti de Clara, et Edmeri (1846)
  • Bethell, D. "William of Corbeil and the Canterbury–York dispute" Journal of Ecclesiastical History volume 19 (1968), p. 145–59
  • Foreville, R. L'église et la royauté en Angleterre sous Henri II Plantagenet, 1154–1189 (Paris, 1943)
  • Gervase of Canterbury, The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols., Rolls Series, 73 (1879–80)
  • Henry of Huntingdon Historia Anglorum edited by D. E. Greenway, Oxford Medieval Texts (1996)
  • Hook, W. F. Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury (1860?1884)
  • Hugh the Chanter The history of the church of York, 1066–1127, edited and translated C. Johnson, Revised edition revised by M. Brett, C. N. L. Brooke, and M. Winterbottom, OMT (1990)
  • John of Worcester Chronicles
  • Migne, J.-P. ed., Patrologia Latina, 217 vols. (1844–55), 977
  • Potter, K. R. and R. H. C. Davis, editors, Gesta Stephani, Oxford Medieval Texts (1976)
  • Stephens, W. R. W. History of the English Church (1901)
  • Symeon of Durham Opera
  • Whitelock, D.; M. Brett, and C. N. L. Brooke, editors, Councils and synods with other documents relating to the English church, 871–1204 Volume 2 (1981)
  • William of Malmesbury Monachi de gestis pontificum Anglorum libri quinque edited by N. E. S. A. Hamilton, Rolls Series, 52 (1870)

[edit] External links

Roman Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Ralph d'Escures		 Archbishop of Canterbury
1123–1136		 Succeeded by
Theobald of Bec
(in 1139)


v • d • e
List of Archbishops of Canterbury
pre-Reformation

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post-Reformation (Anglican)
Persondata
NAME Corbeil, William de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES William of Corbeil
SHORT DESCRIPTION Prior of St. Osyth; Archbishop of Canterbury
DATE OF BIRTH c. 1070
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1136
PLACE OF DEATH Canterbury