Christopher Bainbridge

Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge

Christopher Bainbridge (* 1462 or 1463 in Hilton , Westmorland , † July 14, 1514 in Rome ) was an English cardinal . From 1508 to 1514 he was Archbishop of York .

Family and education

Bainbridge was born to Reginald Bainbridge and Isobel Langton, the oldest of six children. The paternal family roots can be traced back to Bainbridge in North Yorkshire . On his mother's side, Bainbridge was a nephew of Thomas Langton , who held several episcopal offices. His uncle provided Bainbridge's education and professional advancement. He received an indult as early as 1479 without being ordained. In 1486 he was named a Magister . A little later he made his way to Italy and came via Ferrara first to Bologna , where he received his doctorate on October 24, 1492 as Doctor of Civil Law . He later also earned the title of Doctor of Canon Law .

Professional background

Due to his good family relationships, Bainbridge was already on October 26, 1478 a job as a pastor at St. Leonard's Church in Eastcheap in London . After receiving his doctorate in 1492, Bainbridge traveled on to Rome , where he stayed between 1492 and 1494. In January 1493 he got a job as chamberlain at the English hospitium there . On his return he was appointed in 1496 Provost of Queen's College of Oxford University ordered. In 1497 he was led by Henry VII as chamberlain . Between 1498 and 1499 he worked as a judge on the Court of Requests . On November 13, 1504 he assumed the post of Master of the Rolls and was admitted to the Lincoln's Inn on January 20, 1505 . Bainbridge rose relatively quickly within the English Church. So he was raised to the office of Dean of York on December 21, 1503 . Thanks to his good relations with the royal family, he received the same position in St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle on November 28, 1505 . He was finally named Bishop of Durham on August 27, 1507, ordained bishop on December 12, and then rose to Archbishop of York on September 22, 1508. After Henry VIII's accession to the throne , Bainbridge was appointed ambassador of the English royal family to Pope Julius II. After his arrival in Rome on November 24, 1509, he saw it as his main task to take the Pope for England and against France . He only partially succeeded in this. In addition to his diplomatic duties, he again headed the English hospice and took part in proceedings before the Roman Rota as a defense attorney . As a member of the papal army, Bainbridge also took part in an attack on Ferarra on March 22, 1511 and was involved in the unsuccessful defense of Bologna in May of the same year. Despite this failure, he was appointed governor of Vetralla in October 1511 and cardinal priest of Santa Prassede in Rome on December 22, 1511 . In June of the following year the Pope also made him Prior of the Reggio Emilia Cathedral . In the election of the Pope in March 1513 , Bainbridge was entitled to vote. He cast his vote for Fabrizio del Carretto and received two votes himself in the first ballot. He also took part in the fifth Lateran Council .

Patronage

Unlike in the Renaissance period, Bainbridge was relatively little active as a patron of art and culture, despite his prominent position in the Curia and the financial resources that resulted from it. It is true that between 1512 and 1514 he paid for the publication of verses by Pasquino . But he was more interested in education. In his will he bequeathed part of his fortune to Queen's College and there are indications that he wanted to found his own school with the rest of his fortune.

Death and aftermath

The circumstances of Bainbridge's death remain unclear to this day. After he died under mysterious circumstances on July 14, 1514, his servant Silvestro Gigli was suspected of having poisoned him. Richard Pace and John Clerk helped to clarify the situation . Both had accompanied Bainbridge from England. He later confessed to the crime, but only under severe torture. The burial took place in the chapel of the English hospice, which today belongs to the papal English college . The marble tombstone has been preserved to this day. In contrast, the property and money that Bainbridge had accumulated in Rome largely disappeared. All that remains is an archiepiscopal missal , which is now in the possession of the Cambridge University Library , and two candle extinguishers with the Henry VIII coat of arms and which are now in the British Museum .

literature

• DS Chambers: Bainbridge, Christopher (1462 / 3-1514). 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 January 2008, accessed May 21, 2014.

Web links

Commons : Christopher Bainbridge  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Wikisource: Christopher Bainbridge  - Dictionary of National Biography (English)

• Christopher Bainbridge. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website, English)
• Entry for Christopher Bainbridge on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Entry on Bainbridge in the Catholic Encyclopedia

predecessor	Office	successor
William Barnes	Master of the Rolls 1504-1508	John Yonge
William Senhouse	Bishop of Durham 1507-1508	Thomas Ruthall
Thomas Savage	Archbishop of York 1508–1514	Thomas Wolsey