Baldwin of Exeter

Baldwin of Exeter. Statue on the facade of Canterbury Cathedral

Baldwin von Exeter ( English Baldwin of Exeter or Baldwin of Forde ) SOCist (* around 1125 in Exeter , † November 19, 1190 before Acre ) was an English clergyman. From 1180 to 1184 he was Bishop of Worcester , then he was Archbishop of Canterbury .

Origin and education

Baldwin was from Exeter. He was believed to be the son of the clergyman Hugh d'Eu , Archdeacon of Totnes , and of an unknown mother. His mother entered a monastery as a nun after he was born. Since Baldwin later ordered her a copy of Elisabeth von Schönau's visions , she must have had a certain education. After Baldwin had probably attended school in Exeter, he studied law in Bologna , where Uberto Crivelli , who later became Pope Urban III. was one of his teachers. Presumably he also studied theology afterwards, but not in Bologna, but possibly in Laon .

Advancement as a clergyman

Pope Eugene III appointed 1150 or 1151 . Baldwin as the teacher of one of his nephews. Before 1155 he returned to England and entered the service of Robert of Chichester , Bishop of Exeter , as a clerk . After the death of his father, Bishop Bartholomew of Exeter appointed him on May 23, 1162 as his successor Archdeacon of Totnes. He held this office until about 1170. During the conflict between King Henry II and Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury, Baldwin probably sympathized with the archbishop who had been driven into exile, as letters from John of Salisbury show. The worsening conflict finally burdened Baldwin so much that he resigned his office as archdeacon and entered the Cistercian monastery of Forde as a monk . There he was soon elected abbot. In 1173 Baldwin took part in the General Chapter of the Cistercian Order in Cîteaux , where he had confidential talks with Alexandre de Cologne , the abbot of Cîteaux. These conversations were probably about peace negotiations between King Henry II and his sons, which Abbot Alexandre was to conduct on behalf of the Pope. Baldwin was also soon able to serve the Pope repeatedly, who appointed him in England as a commissioned judge in church disputes. Baldwin was able to acquire a good reputation with several bishops and other prelates.

Baldwin also distinguished himself as the author of theological treatises in which he was strongly influenced by the teachings of Augustine . He dedicated the longest of his works, De sacramento altaris , to his former patron, Bishop Bartholomew. In this treatise, Baldwin compares the Christian Eucharist with the Jewish Passover . He wrote another book on faith, and the existence of at least five other works is documented, even if these writings have not survived. In addition, 22 sermons from him have been preserved in which he appeals to the faithful following the example of Bernard von Clairvaux . Apparently, his works were still circulating in England in the 15th century, and two of his sermons were printed in Cambridge in 1521 .

Bishop of Worcester

When Cardinal Pietro da Pavia visited England in 1178 , he recommended Pope Alexander III. Baldwin as a possible cardinal. This then supported the election of Baldwin as bishop of the diocese of Worcester in 1180 . On August 10th, Baldwin was ordained bishop. Baldwin also continued to serve the Pope as a judge as bishop. A Master New Year's Eve probably collected numerous papal decretals , which became known as the Worcester Collection . Baldwin himself received a sermon from this period that he wrote for the new priory of Waltham .

Archbishop of Canterbury

Election as archbishop

On July 22, 1184, a criminal was to be executed in front of the city of Worcester by order of the king. Since that day was a Sunday and also the day of remembrance of Mary Magdalene , Baldwin intervened to postpone the execution. The king did not resent this recklessness, but proposed him as a candidate for the vacant Archdiocese of Canterbury . Negotiations about the election of Baldwin with the bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury and with the monks of the cathedral priory of Canterbury dragged on until mid-December before Baldwin was elected archbishop. After he had also received the papal pallium , he was enthroned as Archbishop on May 19, 1185 in Canterbury .

Acting as archbishop

The documents received, which Baldwin had issued as archbishop, prove that he was actively involved in the administration of the archdiocese and the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury. In a moving letter to the assembly of Cistercian abbots in Cîteaux, he regretted that his duties as archbishop prevented him from living as a humble monk.

Conflict with the cathedral priory

A year after his election as archbishop, however, a protracted dispute began between Baldwin and the monks of his cathedral priory in December 1185. Baldwin tried to get property and income back under his control, which his predecessor Richard of Dover had left to the monks. In 1186 this dispute turned into a serious rift when the Pope gave Baldwin permission to build a new collegiate monastery in Hackington , not far from Canterbury, and to equip it with goods. Baldwin claimed to be fulfilling the wish of his famous predecessors Anselm and Thomas Becket. He wanted to dedicate the church to the canonized Thomas Becket, whose patronage had so far only a few churches. Ultimately, Baldwin probably wanted to replace the cathedral priory, occupied by monks of the Benedictine order , whose offices he could not assign to deserving officials, with an easier-to-manage cathedral chapter occupied by secular canons . According to the monks, Baldwin wanted to create 60 or 70 canon positions in Hackington.

The monks could not agree to this plan, especially since Baldwin was allowed to use half of the donations made by pilgrims at the shrine of St. Thomas to finance the construction . They feared that this loss of income from worshiping their saint would mark the beginning of their descent into poverty and insignificance. The long-running conflict is described in detail in the chronicle of the monk Gervase of Canterbury ; more than 550 letters have been preserved which the monk Reginald had collected and which the monks wrote not only to the Curia and the English clergy, but also to the Roman had sent the German emperor, the French king, to numerous cardinals and bishops as well as to numerous abbots. Since after the death of Lucius III. At the end of 1185 several popes succeeded one another in quick succession, but the monks did not receive any quick support from the curia . The monks of Canterbury even turned to the Cistercian abbots of Cîteaux and Clairvaux and to the General Chapter of the Cistercian Order and asked for support against the plans of their archbishop. The monks presented themselves as heirs and keepers of the memory of Thomas Becket. They did not mention that Becket himself had a rather tense relationship with the cathedral priory during his lifetime. As a Cistercian committed to poverty, Baldwin had hardly developed any friendly relations with the Benedictine monks of the rich cathedral priory, since he had hardly spent a long time in Canterbury, especially at the beginning of his term in office.

Baldwin's insistence on his plan could be interpreted as stubbornness, on the other hand he was an experienced administrator familiar with canon law, so there could have been good reasons for his behavior. He must have believed that canon law supported his action and that he had the Pope as well as the King on his side. The resistance of the monks, their audition in Rome and the frequent change of popes meant that Baldwin could not implement his plan. For his part, he tried to speed up the process, increasingly relying on the support of the king. Since January 1188 he had had the monks arrested in their monastery, with which the relationship to one another had reached its lowest point.

Baldwin (second person from right). Stained glass in Canterbury Cathedral

Crusade plans and legacy for Wales

In March 1185, Baldwin had taken a vow of crusade. At this time, however, because of the dispute within the English royal family and the conflict with France over the French possessions, it was very unlikely that a crusade would be undertaken from England to the Holy Land . On December 17 or 18, 1185, Pope Urban III appointed him. as papal legate for Wales , confirming the primacy of Canterbury over the Welsh dioceses. However, Baldwin did not travel to the Welsh border until June 1187. There he briefly crossed the border to the Welsh principalities, so that he could formally claim to have performed his office. From the beginning of March to mid-April 1188, however, he undertook an extensive journey through the Welsh principalities, about which his companion Gerald of Wales wrote an extensive report. This trip through Wales was probably the longest visit by an archbishop to Wales to date. The chronicler Gervase of Canterbury therefore accused Baldwin of wanting to be as far away from Canterbury as possible because of the dispute with the monks of his cathedral priory. But since the political relationship between England and France had improved, there was now the possibility that a crusade could be undertaken from England. Therefore, during his journey, Baldwin preached everywhere for participation in a crusade to the Holy Land. These sermons were translated into Welsh and, according to Gerald of Wales, 3,000 Welsh people took crusade vows. During his journey he showed remarkable perseverance for a man his age. He also urged his companions to go on foot, as he did, to prepare them for the long journey during a crusade to Jerusalem. In addition , Baldwin celebrated holy masses in the cathedrals of the Welsh dioceses of Saint David’s , St Asaph , Bangor and Llandaff , making his claim as legate and metropolitan public. A little later, after he had returned to England from Wales, Baldwin crossed over to Normandy to reconcile the old King Henry II with his sons. Ultimately, this was unsuccessful and he did not return to England until the end of July 1189, after the king's death.

Participation in the Third Crusade

The new King Richard I was finally able to persuade Baldwin in November 1189 to end the dispute with his cathedral priory with a compromise. Baldwin had to give up the planned construction of the church in Hackington, but was allowed to build a collegiate church in Lambeth . Due to his planned participation in the Third Crusade , Baldwin agreed to the compromise. In March 1190 he left England with a handsome retinue of about 20 knights and about 50 sergeants . He was accompanied by Bishop Hubert Walter of Salisbury, his own nephew Joseph and Abbot Robert von Forde. They traveled through France to Marseille , which they reached in early August 1190. After a five-week voyage, they reached Tire . King Richard, however, had not yet reached the Holy Land, so Baldwin and the other English crusaders who had already reached Palestine joined the Christian army that was besieging the Muslim-occupied Acre . Baldwin arrived at Acre before October 12, but the catastrophic hygienic conditions there led to diseases and epidemics among the besiegers. Five weeks later, Baldwin probably died of one of these epidemics. Baldwin bequeathed numerous vestments to the Canterbury Cathedral Priory, but despite this generous inheritance, he remained poorly remembered in Canterbury.

rating

Baldwin was obviously a deeply religious man whose religious writings were widely circulated during the Middle Ages and translated into numerous languages. Of the medieval Archbishops of Canterbury, only the writings of Anselm of Canterbury were more widely known. Also his former teacher Pope Urban III. had got to know Baldwin as a deeply religious monk. According to his judgment, however, he was not able to cope with the increasing demands of his successive offices, so that he called him a negligent archbishop. The chronicler Gervase of Canterbury, who was himself a monk of the cathedral priory, described Baldwin as "a greater enemy of Christianity than Saladin ". Even if Balduin's relationship with his cathedral priory was shattered and mistakes such as promoting the unworthy Roger Norreys († 1223), who rose from the prior of the cathedral priory to the abbot of Evesham Abbey , were the judgments of Urban III. and unfairly by Gervase of Canterbury.

Hubert Walter, who became Archbishop of Canterbury after him, tried to build the collegiate monastery in Lambeth, but he too failed because of the resistance of the monks of the cathedral priory.

Works

• Spiritual tractates . Translated by David N. Bell. Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo 1986, ISBN 0-87907-438-8 .
• The commendation of faith . Translated by Jane Patricia Freeland and David N. Bell. Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo 2000, ISBN 0-87907-759-X .

literature

• F. Aveling: Baldwin of Canterbury . In: The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company, New York 1907.
• Christopher Holdsworth: Baldwin of Forde, Cistercian and archbishop of Canterbury. In: Friends of Lambeth Palace Library: Annual Report. 1989, pp. 13-31.

Web links

• Baldwin von Ford in the Biographia Cisterciensis
• Christopher Holdsworth: Baldwin (c.1125-1190). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John Gillingham: Richard I . Yale University Press, New Haven 1999, ISBN 0-300-07912-5 , pp. 119-120.
2. ↑ Christopher Holdsworth: Baldwin (c.1125-1190). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

predecessor	Office	successor
Roger	Bishop of Worcester 1180–1184	William of Northolt
Richard of Dover	Archbishop of Canterbury 1184–1190	Reginald Fitz Jocelin