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I. New Documents in the Case of Saint William of York

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

C. H. Talbot
C. H. Talbot
Affiliation:
Warburg Institute
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Extract

In the course of a survey of manuscripts, undertaken for the forthcoming edition of Saint Bernard's works, the writer had the good fortune to find in Paris a series of unedited letters dealing with the problem of the disputed election of York. A rapid examination showed that whilst they threw no additional light on the main point at issue in this controversy, namely, on the truth of the accusations laid by his opponents against William of York, they certainly illuminated other aspects of the question, which hitherto had not been quite clear. They showed, for instance, the cause of the failure of the first legation to Rome in the early part of 1142, who were the main supporters at the Roman Curia of the opposing party, the dangers run by the Cistercians and Augustinians in presenting their case, and several other details of a like nature. Above all, the letters strongly confirmed all the conclusions reached by Professor Knowles in his article describing all the stages of this rather involved affair. Apart, therefore, from the inherent interest which a series of letters of this kind undoubtedly possesses, the decision to print them here seems, in view of the confirmation they provide, to need no further justification.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , 1950 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1950

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References

1 A full, though not completely accurate, description of the MS. Arsenal 268 will be found in Cat. des MSS. des Bibliothèques Publiques de France, Paris, iv: Bibl. de l'Arsendl, 1 (Paris 1885), 156–7. The volume, bound in the eighteenth century, contains two manuscripts, the first part belonging to the twelfth, the second to the fifteenth century. There is an ex-libris both on the inside cover and on the first page of the text showing that it came from St Martin-des-Champs, and that it was no. 27 of the library there. The title of the letter from Alberic, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, Ad contradictores Domini Willelmi, seems to suggest that the letters were copied in a milieu favourable to William.

2 ‘The Case of Saint William of York’, in Cambridge Historical Journal, v, 2 (1936), 162–77, 212–14.

3 Epist. 346: ‘…ille de quo saepenumero scripsimussanctitati vestrae.’

4 Epist. 346.

5 Epist. 347. The words of Epist. 346, solus iste evasit, etc., presumably mean that William had set out for the Curia first.

6 Letters 1–4 of the present series. These are intimately connected with Saint Bernard's letter 347.

7 Saint Bernard had written to these same persons on other occasions: cf. Epist. 219, 230, 231, 232, 331. Imar, Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum, also appears here and entered the dispute in 1144. He, too, was a Cluniac.

8 Knowles, op. cit. p. 213, referring to the letter printed by Huffer.

9 Hinc ego confidens de vestra nichilominus dileccione.

10 Non sacelli multiplicentur sed caritas dilatetur.

11 Knowles, op. cit. p. 171.

12 Historia Regum (ed. T. Arnold, Rolls Series), 11, 311.

13 ‘Tandem datum est praeceptum ut in dominica tertia quadragesimae sequenti anno super quaestione hac et qui affuerant et qui abfuerant illuc concurrerent.’

14 Walter Daniel, Vita Ailredi, in Powicke, Ailred of Rievaulx and His Biographer, p. 89.

15 ‘Quamvis enim vera sint quae dicuntur, non tamen iudici credenda sunt nisi quae certis indiciis et iudiciario ordine demonstrantur.’

16 ‘Si rex. si potentes Anglie in vos consurgunt, quid vobis nocere poterunt? Si oves, si armenta, si tunicas vobis auferunt, quid vobis amplius dampnum inferent?.…Si contumelias affecti de Anglis exterminati fueritis, veritatis confessores efficiamini. Si occidamini, martirum coronam assequimini.’

17 Epist. 236: ‘Si non miseremini magnis et religiosis monasteriis, quibus omnino sub incubatore illo destructio imminet. … Ante, ni fallor, eligent fugere quam dare manus morti et exsulare prius quam vesci idolathytis.…’ Cf. Epist. 360.

18 Historia Regum, ii, 311.

19 According to Widdrington, Sir Thomas, Analecta Eboracensia, ed. Caine, (1897), p. 227Google Scholar, King Stephen changed the name from St Peter's to St Leonard's when he built a church and dedicated it to St Leonard. A Registraum Hospitalis Eboracensis is to be found in B. M. Cotton MS. Nero D III, 1, and a chartulary among the Rawlinson MSS.

20 Farrer, Early Yorkshire Charters, vi, 80. King Stephen took him under his protection ‘donee archiepiscopus in ecclesia Sancti Petri consecraretur’. Ibid. i, 144–5, given at Winchester 1141–7; ibid, v, 63, 65 (nos. 157, 158), shortly before 1148; ibid, iii, 437, between 1154 and 1160; ibid, iii, 397, dated 1155–65. Cf. also Cartularium Abbatiae de Rievalle (ed. Atkinson, Surtees Soc. vol. 83), p. 34.

21 Letters 7, 8 below.

22 Epist. 235: ‘Dicat forte aliquis quia non est datum iudicium, non fuisse convictum. Ego dico et confessum. Nam qui ut iudicium evaderet ultro elegit ad testimonium Willelmi decani confugere, illo sibi deficiente, quid nisi iudicio suo a causa decidit, ore proprio condemnatus?’

23 These letters were most probably entrusted to Richard of Fountains, who on his return from the Curia visited Clairvaux to report on the events at Rome and to obtain, if possible, Saint Bernard's consent to his resignation (Mem. Fount, p. 75). Since Richard reached home on 23 May 1143, the letters must have been written shortly before that date.

24 Letter 12 below.

25 Letter 13 below.

26 Gerard Caccianemici, Canon Regular, created Cardinal-Priest by Honorius II, 1124; elected Pope 12 March 1144 and took the name of Lucius II; died 15 February 1145.

27 Guido di Castello, created cardinal 1128; succeeded Innocent II 25 September 1143 under name of Celestine II; died 8 March 1144.

28 Abbot of Vezelay, 1130–31; created cardinal 1136; died 1148.

29 A Cistercian, created cardinal 1140; died 1144.

30 A canon of the Lateran, Abbot of Sts Nicholas and Primitivus; created cardinal by Paschal II, 1116; elected Pope 14 February 1130; died 24 September 1143.

31 Introit of the third Sunday in Lent.

32 Gregorius Magnus, Lib. Dialogorum, ii, 1.

33 I tentatively identify this lady with Sybil, daughter of Foulques of Anjou, second wife of Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders.

34 Henry of Blois, Abbot of Glastonbury, c. 1126; consecrated 17 November 1129; appointed legate, 1 March 1139; died 1171.

35 Robert of Bethune, prior of Llanthony; consecrated 28 June 1131; died 16 April 1148 at Rheims during the Council convened to judge Gilbert de la Porrée.

36 Born 1097? died 1154.

37 This is the closing paragraph of Epist. 235. It is missing from Mabillion's text.