Gerard (archbishop of York)

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Gerard

Archbishop of York

Appointed December 1100

Term ended 21 May 1108

Predecessor Thomas of Bayeux

Successor Thomas II of York

Orders

Consecration 8 June 1096

by Anselm

Personal details

Died 21 May 1108

Southwell

Buried York Minster

Parents Osbert and Anna

Bishop of Hereford
Previous post
Archdeacon of Rouen

Lord Chancellor of England

Lord Chancellor

In office
 1085–1092

Monarch William I

William II

Preceded by Maurice

Succeeded by Robert Bloet

Gerard (died 21 May 1108) was Archbishop of York between 1100 and 1108 and Lord

Chancellor of England from 1085 until 1092. A Norman, he was a member of the
cathedral clergy at Rouen before becoming a royal clerk under King William I of
England and subsequently his son King William II Rufus. Gerard was appointed Lord
Chancellor by William I, and he continued in that office under Rufus, who rewarded him
with the Bishopric of Hereford in 1096. Gerard may have been with the king's hunting
party when William II was killed, as he is known to have witnessed the first charter
issued by the new king, Henry I of England, within days of William's death.
Soon after Henry's coronation Gerard was appointed to the recently vacant see of York,
and became embroiled in the long-running dispute between York and the see of
Canterbury concerning which archbishopric had primacy over England. Gerard
managed to secure papal recognition of York's claim to jurisdiction over the church
in Scotland, but he was forced to agree to a compromise with his counterpart at
Canterbury, Anselm, over Canterbury's claims to authority over York, although it was
not binding on his successors. In the Investiture Controversy between the king and the
papacy over the right to appoint bishops, Gerard worked on reconciling the claims of the
two parties; the controversy was finally resolved in 1107.
Gerard was a patron of learning, to the extent that he urged at least one of his clergy to
study Hebrew, a language not commonly studied at that time. He himself was a student
of astrology, which led to suggestions that he was a magician and a sorcerer. Partly
because of such rumours, and his unpopular attempts to reform his cathedral clergy,
Gerard was denied a burial inside York Minster after his sudden death in 1108. His
successor as archbishop subsequently had Gerard's remains moved into the cathedral
church from their initial resting place beside the cathedral porch.

Contents

 1Early life and career

 2Bishop of Hereford
 3Archbishop
 4Death and legacy
 5Notes
 6Citations
 7References
 8Further reading
Early life and career[edit]
Gerard was the nephew of Walkelin, Bishop of Winchester, and Simon, Abbot of Ely.
[1]
 His parents were Osbert and Anna,[2] and his brother Peter was also a royal clerk.
[3]
 The places and times of his birth and upbringing are unknown; he is documented
as cantor of Rouen Cathedral,[4] and precentor of the same cathedral, although the dates
of his appointments to either office are unrecorded. [4] By 1091 he had
become archdeacon of Rouen.[4] He served in the royal chancery under successive
kings of England, William I and William II. [4]

Bishop of Hereford[edit]

Gerard undertook missions to Pope Urban II, seen here preaching the First Crusade in an illustration from
the Grand Chronicle of France, a work from about 1455.

Gerard was appointed Lord Chancellor of England in 1085, [5] and was present at William
I's deathbed in 1087.[6] He continued as Chancellor to William Rufus until 1092; what
precipitated his loss of office is unclear.[7] He retained the king's trust, for Rufus
employed him in 1095 along with William Warelwast on a diplomatic mission to
Pope Urban II regarding Archbishop Anselm receiving the pallium, the sign of an
archbishop's authority. Rufus offered to recognise Urban as pope rather than
the antipope Clement III in return for Anselm's deposition and the delivery of Anselm's
pallium into Rufus' custody,[a] to dispose of as he saw fit. The mission departed for Rome
in February 1095 and returned by Whitsun with a papal
legate, Walter the Cardinal Bishop of Albano, who had Anselm's pallium. The legate
secured Rufus' recognition of Urban, but subsequently refused to consider Anselm's
deposition. Rufus resigned himself to Anselm's position as archbishop, and at the king's
court at Windsor he consented to Anselm being given the pallium. [9]
Although not yet ordained, Gerard was rewarded with the Bishopric of Hereford, [4] and
he was consecrated by Archbishop Anselm on 8 June 1096;[10] his ordination as
a deacon and priest had taken place the previous day.[2][11] He assisted at the
consecration of St Paul's Cathedral in London on 9 June 1096.[4] He may have been a
member of the hunting party in the New Forest on 2 August 1100 when Rufus was
killed, as he witnessed King Henry I's coronation charter – now known as the Charter of
Liberties – three days later at Winchester, close by the New Forest. [12] Gerard was
present at Henry's coronation that same day, along with Maurice, Bishop of London.
Henry was probably crowned by Maurice, but the medieval chronicler Walter Map states
that Gerard crowned Henry in return for a promise of the first vacant archbishopric.
[13]
 Gerard may have assisted Maurice in the coronation ceremony. [14]

Archbishop[edit]
Gerard became Archbishop of York in December 1100. [15] No source mentions him
being invested by the king, but as Anselm urged Pope Paschal II to give Gerard his
pallium, which he would have been unlikely to do if Gerard had been invested by Henry,
that possibility seems remote.[16] At Whitsun in 1101 King Henry I, with Anselm's support,
deprived Ranulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham, of the lands of the see of Durham,
because Ranulf had defected to Henry's elder brother Robert Curthose, who also
claimed the English throne. Gerard then deposed Ranulf from his bishopric. [17] Soon after
his translation to York, Gerard began a long dispute with Anselm, claiming equal
primacy with the Archbishop of Canterbury and refusing to make a profession of
canonical obedience to Anselm, part of the long Canterbury–York dispute. At the
1102 Council of Westminster, Gerard reportedly kicked over the smaller chair provided
for him as Archbishop of York, and refused to be seated until he was provided with one
as large as Anselm's.[18] He travelled to Rome in 1102 to receive his pallium from the
pope,[1] to whom he presented the king's side against Anselm in the controversy
surrounding investitures.[19] The pope decided against the king, but Gerard and two other
bishops reported that the pope had assured them that the various papal decrees
against the lay investiture of bishops would not be enforced. Their claim was denied by
Anselm's representatives and the pope, [2][20] who excommunicated Gerard until he
recanted.[21]

Thirteenth-century manuscript illustration of Henry I

Gerard secured papal recognition of York's metropolitan see for the Scots.[b] He

subsequently consecrated Roger as Bishop of Orkney, but refused to
consecrate Thurgot to the see of St Andrews because Thurgot would not recognise the
primacy of York. Gerard gave generously to the monasteries of his diocese; the
medieval chronicler Hugh the Chantor stated that Thomas II, Gerard's successor,
accused Gerard of having dissipated the diocese's endowment. [2] King Olaf I of Man and
the Isles wrote to "G", Archbishop of York, asking for the consecration of "our bishop" by
York, but it does not appear to have taken place under Gerard or his successor. [23][c]
During the first four years of Henry's reign Gerard was one of the king's chief advisors,
along with Robert of Meulan, Count of Meulan in Normandy and later Earl of Leicester.
Gerard was one of Henry's greatest supporters among the bishops during
the Investiture Crisis.[24] In 1101 Gerard witnessed a treaty between Henry and Robert,
the Count of Flanders, which sought as far as possible to distance Robert from any
future conflict between Henry and his elder brother Robert Curthose, or between Henry
and King Philip I of France.[25] After Gerard's return from Rome he restored Ranulf
Flambard to the see of Durham.[2] In 1102 Anselm refused to consecrate three bishops,
two of whom had received investiture from the king; Gerard offered to consecrate them
instead, but all except one refused.[26] From 1105 onwards Gerard slowly began to
embrace the papal position on investiture of bishops, which opposed laymen investing
bishops with the symbols of episcopal authority. As part of his change of position,
Gerard withdrew from court to care for his diocese. Towards the end of 1105 Gerard
attempted to join Bohemond of Antioch, who was assembling a crusading force in
France, but it appears that King Henry prevented Gerard's departure. [24] In 1106 Gerard
wrote to Bohemond that he was still preparing to go on crusade, but he never did. [27] At
about the same time, Gerard was working to find a mutually acceptable resolution to the
Investiture Crisis, writing a number of letters and other works supporting Anselm's and
the pope's position. By 1107 King Henry and Anselm had reached an agreement
settling the dispute.[24]
Gerard agreed to a compromise on the matter of obedience to Anselm. King Henry
proposed that Anselm accept a witnessed oath from Gerard that he would remain
bound by the profession he made to Anselm on his consecration as Bishop of Hereford.
Gerard made this oath at the Council of Westminster in 1107. It was a victory for
Canterbury, but not a complete one, as Gerard avoided making a written profession,
and it was specific to Gerard, not to his office. [28] Gerard continued to oppose Anselm's
attempts to assert Canterbury's primacy, but the two were reconciled before Gerard's
death.[2]
Gerard also had an uneasy relationship with his cathedral chapter,[29] after attempting to
reform his cathedral clergy by forcing them to give up their wives and concubines and
become ordained priests.[2][d] He wrote to Anselm in 1103 complaining of the
intransigence of his clergy and envying Anselm's better relations with Canterbury's
chapter, which was composed of monks instead of the secular canons who made up
York Minster's chapter. In this correspondence, Gerard complained that some of the
York canons refused to be ordained as priests, thereby hoping to avoid taking the vow
of celibacy. He also accused them of accepting prebends but refusing to live or work at
the cathedral, and of focusing on a narrow legal definition of celibacy without actually
being celibate. The canons' argument was that they were only required not to maintain
women in their own houses, but they were not forbidden to visit or entertain women in
houses belonging to others.[29] It was not only Gerard who complained about the
relationship between himself and his canons; the latter accused Gerard of
impoverishing York by making gifts of lands to others. [32]

Death and legacy[edit]

Gerard was an associate of the anonymous author of the Quadripartitus and the Leges
Henrici Primi, two 12th-century law books. The medieval chronicler William of
Malmesbury charged Gerard with immorality, avarice and the practice of magic. [2]
[33]
 Gerard encouraged at least one of his clergy to study Hebrew, a language not
normally studied at the time.[34] Some chroniclers considered his ownership of a
Hebrew psalter to be disturbing, seeing it as a sign of heresy or secret Judaism. Among
the sins that Malmesbury imputed to him was the study of Julius Firmicus Maternus, a
late Roman astrologer, every morning, which to Malmesbury meant that Gerard was a
sorcerer.[35] Malmesbury further claimed that Gerard was "lewd and lustful". [2] In Gerard's
favour, Anselm regarded him as learned and highly intelligent. [24] Some verses
composed by Gerard survive in unpublished form, now in the British Library manuscript
collection[36] as part of manuscript Cotton Titus D.xxiv.[37][e] A collection of his letters
circulated in the mid-12th century, part of a bequest made to Bec Abbey in 1164
by Philip de Harcourt, the Bishop of Bayeux, but it is now lost.[36]
Gerard died suddenly on 21 May 1108,[15] at Southwell,[1] on his way to London to attend
a council. His body was found in an orchard, next to a book of "curious arts", [35] his copy
of Julius Firmicus.[2] His canons refused to allow his burial within his cathedral, [33] but their
hostility probably owed more to Gerard's attempts to reform their lifestyle than to his
alleged interest in sorcery. Gerard was at first buried beside the porch at York Minster,
but his successor, Thomas, moved the remains inside the cathedral church. [2]

Notes[edit]
1. ^ An anti-pope is a clergyman elected alongside an already elected
pope, usually because of a contested election. The period from 1059
to 1179 was a period when there were numerous antipopes; in 75 of
those 120 years there were at least two claimants to the papal throne.
[8]

2. ^ Paschal II's letter to the Scottish bishops is the earliest known papal
letter to Scotland.[22]
3. ^ Olaf had been in exile in England and is likely to have met Gerard
there.[23]
4. ^ Priestly celibacy was not enforced with any rigour until the 12th
century; most clergy of the 11th century would have been sons of
priests.[30] Nor was it required that all cathedral clergy be ordained
priests, they could have only taken vows for one of the lower orders of
the clergy, such as the subdeaconate or deaconate.[31]
5. ^ This collection was made about 1200 at Rufford
Abbey in Nottinghamshire.[38] and includes five poems by Gerard, all on
folio 61 of the manuscript.[39]

Citations[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:      Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300:
a b c

Volume 6: York: Archbishops

2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k Burton "Gerard" Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
3. ^ Barlow William Rufus p. 409
4. ^ Jump up to:            Barrow Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300:
a b c d e f

Volume 8: Hereford: Bishops

5. ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 83
6. ^ Douglas William the Conqueror p. 359
7. ^ Barlow William Rufus p. 96
8. ^ Southern Western Society and the Church p. 155
9. ^ Vaughn Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan pp. 186–189
10. ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 250
11. ^ Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 378
12. ^ Barlow William Rufus p. 420
13. ^ Cantor Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture pp. 135–136
14. ^ Green Henry I p. 43
15. ^ Jump up to:a b Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 281
16. ^ Vaughn Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan p. 222 footnote 36
17. ^ Hollister Henry I pp. 135–136
18. ^ Barlow English Church 1066–1154 p. 43
19. ^ Vaughn Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan p. 239
20. ^ Barlow English Church 1066–1154 pp. 299–300
21. ^ Barlow English Church 1066–1154 p. 301
22. ^ Broun "Church of St. Andrews" Kings, Clerics and Chronicles in
Scotland p. 113
23. ^ Jump up to:a b Watt "Bishops of the Isles" Innes Review pp. 110–111
24. ^ Jump up to:        Cantor Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture pp. 238–
a b c d

249
25. ^ Green Henry I pp. 61–62
26. ^ Cantor Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture pp. 166–167
27. ^ Nicholl Thurstan p. 26
28. ^ Vaughn Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan pp. 334–336
29. ^ Jump up to:a b Nicholl Thurstan pp. 43–44
30. ^ Hamilton Religion in the Medieval West p. 40
31. ^ Hamilton Religion in the Medieval West p. 34
32. ^ Nicholl Thurstan p. 114
33. ^ Jump up to:a b Barlow English Church 1066–1154 p. 72
34. ^ Barlow English Church 1066–1154 p. 247
35. ^ Jump up to:a b Barlow English Church 1066–1154 p. 259
36. ^ Jump up to:a b Sharpe Handlist of Latin Writers pp. 137–138
37. ^ Staff "Full Description: Cotton Titus D.xxiv" Manuscripts Catalogue
38. ^ Mozley "Collection of Mediaeval Latin Verse" Medium Aevum p. 1
39. ^ Mozley "Collection of Mediaeval Latin Verse" Medium Aevum pp. 8–
9
References[edit]
 Barlow, Frank  (1979). The English Church 1066–1154: A History of the
Anglo-Norman Church. New York: Longman.  ISBN  0-582-50236-5.
 Barlow, Frank  (1983). William Rufus. Berkeley: University of California
Press. ISBN 0-520-04936-5.
 Barrow, J. S. (2002). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 8:
Hereford: Bishops. Institute of Historical Research. Archived from the
original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 26 October2007.
 Bartlett, Robert C. (2000).  England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings:
1075–1225. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.  ISBN  0-19-822741-8.
 Broun, Dauvit (2000). "The Church of St Andrews and its Foundation
Legend in the Twelfth Century: Recovering the Full Text of Version A of the
Foundation Legend". In Taylor, Simon (ed.). Kings, Clerics and Chronicles
in Scotland, 500–1297: Essays in Honour of Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson on
the Occasion of her Ninetieth Birthday. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-
85182-516-9.
 Burton, Janet (2004). "Gerard (d. 1108)". Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography. Oxford University Press.  doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10547.
Retrieved 5 April 2008. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
 Cantor, Norman F.  (1958). Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in
England 1089–1135. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press. OCLC  2179163.
 Douglas, David C. (1964).  William the Conqueror: The Norman Impact
Upon England. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press. OCLC  399137.
 Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of
British Chronology  (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
 Green, Judith A. (2006).  Henry I: King of England and Duke of Normandy.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.  ISBN  978-0-521-74452-2.
 Greenway, Diana E. (1999). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300:
Volume 6: York: Archbishops. Institute of Historical Research. Archived
from  the original on 7 June 2007. Retrieved 5 April2008.
 Hamilton, Bernard (2003).  Religion in the Medieval West  (Second ed.).
London: Arnold.  ISBN  0-340-80839-X.
 Hollister, C. Warren  (2001). Frost, Amanda Clark (ed.). Henry I. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press.  ISBN  0-300-08858-2.
 Mozley, J. H. (1942). "The Collection of Mediaeval Latin Verse in MS
Cotton Titus D.xxiv". Medium Aevum. 11: 1–
45.  doi:10.2307/43626228.  JSTOR  43626228.
 Nicholl, Donald (1964). Thurstan: Archbishop of York (1114–1140). York,
UK: Stonegate Press. OCLC  871673.
 Sharpe, Richard (2001).  Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and
Ireland Before 1540. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin.  1 (2001
revised ed.). Belgium: Brepols.  ISBN  2-503-50575-9.
 Southern, R. W.  (1970). Western Society and the Church in the Middle
Ages. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-020503-9.
 Staff.  "Full Description: Cotton Titus D.xxiv".  Manuscripts Catalogue.
British Library. Archived from the original  on 21 October 2012.
Retrieved 15 July  2011.
 Vaughn, Sally N. (1987).  Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan: The
Innocence of the Dove and the Wisdom of the Serpent. Berkeley:
University of California Press.  ISBN  0-520-05674-4.
  Watt, D. E. R.  (Autumn 1994). "Bishops in the Isles before 1203:
Bibliography and Biographical Lists".  The Innes Review. XLV (2): 99–
119.  doi:10.3366/inr.1994.45.2.99.

Further reading[edit]
 Galbraith, V. H. (January 1931). "Girard the Chancellor".  The English
Historical Review.  46  (181): 77–
79.  doi:10.1093/ehr/XLVI.CLXXXI.77. JSTOR 553307.

Political offices

Preceded by Lord Chancellor Succeeded by

Maurice 1085–1092 Robert Bloet

Catholic Church titles

Preceded by
Bishop of Hereford Succeeded by
Robert the
1096–1100 Roger
Lotharingian

Preceded by Archbishop of York Succeeded by

Thomas of Bayeux 1100–1108 Thomas II of York

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English Lord Chancellors under the House of Normandy (1066–1135)

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Bishops and Archbishops of York

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Bishops of Hereford

Categories: 
  Lord Chancellors
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