Edmund of Abingdon

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Coat of arms of Edmund Rich as Archbishop of Canterbury

Edmund of Abingdon (also Edmund Rich or Edmund of Canterbury ) (* around 1174 in Abingdon , † November 16, 1240 in Soisy-Bouy ), was an English university professor and clergyman. He is one of the earliest professors known by name at Oxford University . As the first master's degree at the university, he was promoted to bishop and became Archbishop of Canterbury . He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church .

origin

Edmund was the eldest son of Reginald, called Rich ( English for the rich ) and his wife Mabel of Abingdon. It is not known what his father's occupation was; he may have been a wool or cloth dealer. He owned a house in Abingdon which Edmund later donated to St John the Baptist Hospital in Oxford . Edmund had at least three younger brothers, Robert also became a clergyman, and two sisters, Margaret and Alice, whom Edmund placed in the care of the Catesby Nunnery in Northamptonshire after his parents died . The nickname Rich is not documented as a family name in any medieval source, instead Edmund and his brother are named after their place of birth. Edmund's father probably died early, so the children were raised by their devout mother. Probably influenced by this upbringing, Edmund decided to become a minister.

School, study and teaching in Oxford

Edmund first attended a grammar school in Oxford. As adolescents, he and his brother Robert were sent to Paris, where they attended lectures in the liberal arts at the university that was then emerging . After his return to England, Edmund taught at Oxford for six years from around 1200, possibly earlier. According to his student, the future Dominican Robert Bacon , Edmund was the first lecturer to teach sophistic refutations and the logic of Aristotle at Oxford . Walter de Gray was one of his other students .

At an unknown time, Edmund left Oxford again to study theology in Paris. After earning a doctorate in theology , he lived at least a year in the Augustinian Priory of Merton , Surrey , before returning to Oxford as a lecturer. The reason for his stay in Merton was possibly the closure of the university between 1209 and 1214 because of a dispute with the city of Oxford. In Paris, Edmund is said to have owned a benefit to finance his studies ; he received another one after 1214 from his former student Walter de Gray, who had meanwhile become Archbishop of York.

Edmund of Abingdon. Bronze statue from 2007 in front of the St Edmund Hall, named after him, in Oxford

Canons at Salisbury

Between January and August 1222, Bishop Richard Poore of Salisbury appointed him Chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral . For this office he left Oxford and stayed in Salisbury until 1233 . It is possible that he taught there at the prestigious cathedral school . He was reluctant to perform the duties of his office as Chancellor, and he was just as reluctant to take part in the meetings of the cathedral chapter. Instead, he preferred to devote himself to his duties as a clergyman. Even as a lecturer at Oxford, he is said to have lived simply and ascetically. During his time in Salisbury, he was known as an enthusiastic preacher who himself was strictly celibate and was generous to the poor. In doing so, he was so generous that he often had to rely on the charity of his former student Stephen of Lexington , the abbot of Stanley's Cistercian Abbey, for a living . Probably around 1226 or 1227 he was one of the preachers who were commissioned by Pope Honorius III. to preach a crusade in Oxford and parts of western England. Edmund often withdrew temporarily to Merton Priory or Reading Abbey , where he then lived as a simple monk, or devoted himself to his parish in Calne , where he held the office of rector . In Calne at the end of September 1333 met him a delegation of the monks of the cathedral chapter of Canterbury, who informed him that he had been elected Archbishop of Canterbury. Only after a long period of reflection did he reluctantly accept this office.

Archbishop of Canterbury

Election as archbishop

The office of Archbishop had been vacant since Richard Grant's death in August 1231 , and Edmund was the fourth candidate to be elected new Archbishop by the Cathedral Chapter. The elections of the other three candidates, Chancellor Ralph de Neville , John of Sittingbourne , prior of Christ Church in Canterbury, and Master John Blund , a scholar from Chichester, were all on the advice of Archdeacon Simon Langton of Pope Gregory IX. has been rejected. Langton, who had traveled to Rome himself, had proposed Edmund as the new archbishop to the Pope, whereupon the monks of the cathedral chapter elected Edmund as the new archbishop on September 20, 1233 by order of the Pope. On October 10th, King Henry III voted . the election, and on February 3, 1234, a delegation of the monks of Canterbury on behalf of Edmund in Rome received the pallium . On April 2, 1234, Edmund was ordained Archbishop by Bishop Roger Niger of London in Canterbury Cathedral in the presence of the King and numerous English bishops.

As Archbishop, Edmund was devoted to pastoral care and Church reform, continuing the work of Archbishop Stephen Langton . In order to carry out the other duties of his office, he surrounded himself with educated priests and teachers, among them his representative Nicholas of Burford , Thomas of Freckenham , who had already served Langton, the canon and builder Elias of Dereham of Salisbury, Geoffrey of Ferring , the later Dean of St Paul's Cathedral , later Bishop Richard de Wyche , who became its chancellor, and his brother Robert of Abingdon. Edmund turned the rectorate of Wingham , Kent, to his brother , and Robert served as one of his principal counselors during his tenure and as a pastoral agent during Edmund's absence.

Edmund of Abingdon (left) reconciles Gilbert Marshal and King Henry III. Illumination from the 13th century

Ending Richard Marshal's Rebellion

When Edmund became archbishop, England was in a serious political crisis. The longtime justiciar Hubert de Burgh was overthrown in 1232. In its place came a government dominated by the Bishop of Winchester, Peter des Roches . Their tyrannical decisions led to a revolt by some barons, which was led by Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and which escalated into a civil war , which was mainly fought in the Welsh Marches . Edmund, who had not yet been ordained archbishop, did everything possible to defuse the situation. His envoys brokered a truce between the king and the rebels, which was signed on March 6, 1234 at Brockton , Shropshire . After his ordination, Edmund put the king under such pressure that he dismissed the unpopular government of des Roches and Peter des Rivallis . From May to July Edmund himself traveled to the Marches and convinced the rebels to accept the king's offer of peace. The Earl of Pembroke had died in April 1234 as a result of his injuries sustained in battle. Edmund was able to convince the king not to confiscate the possessions of Pembroke because of the rebellion, but to hand it over to his brother Gilbert Marshal and to pronounce a general amnesty for the rebels. He himself escorted Gilbert Marshal and Hubert de Burgh as well as other rebels to Gloucester to see the king, where the king pardoned them. This successful and peaceful settlement of the civil war brought Edmund a high reputation.

Conflicts with other bishops and the royal judiciary

Even while he was successfully campaigning for the end of the civil war, Edmund was obviously planning a visit to parts of his ecclesiastical province . Such visitations to improve spiritual discipline were still unusual in England at that time and often aroused fierce opposition. On May 8, 1237, Edmund was empowered by the Pope to impose ecclesiastical sanctions on prelates and monasteries who resisted his visitations, but the records are too sketchy to identify these unnamed prelates. Evidently, Edmund planned a visit to the cathedral chapter of Worcester in July 1236 and a visit to the monasteries in London in 1239, which provoked opposition from Bishop Roger Niger of London.

Edmund tried, as archbishop, to separate the spiritual jurisdiction from the royal jurisdiction. An important dispute was the different treatment of illegitimate offspring. The church claimed sole jurisdiction over marriage law, and Pope Alexander III. had stipulated for canon law that an illegitimate child was legitimized by the marriage of the parents. This was rejected by the royal courts as this rule would have far-reaching consequences for the inheritance of property. In 1234 the king promised the archbishop that the royal judges would turn to the bishops about the illegality of children, but this did not solve the problem of subsequent legitimation. Bishop Robert Grosseteste of Lincoln urged Edmund to raise the issue again at a royal council meeting in Merton. The magnates present , however, resolutely refused to adapt traditional common law inheritance law to church law on this point .

Edmund was partially relieved of political responsibility when the papal legate Oddone di Tonengo, sent to England at the royal request, arrived in England in July 1237. Edmund, along with his suffragan bishops, presented the legate with a list of ecclesiastical complaints the king should deal with, including the lack of demarcation between royal and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The bishops accused the royal judges of reducing the church's income from patronage and the church tithing through arbitrary interference and thereby disregarding the decisions of church courts. Chronicler Matthew Paris reported that the legate would restrict Edmund's office as archbishop, but this claim is obviously false, as the legate was known to have been trusted by Edmund. Although the legacy took precedence over the archbishop and therefore presided over a meeting of the English prelates in London in November 1237, the resolutions of this meeting clearly show the handwriting of Edmund. The assembly then decided to set up a permanent ecclesiastical court to enforce canon law.

From 1235 Edmund was in dispute with the cathedral chapter of Rochester, which had elected Richard Wendene Bishop of Rochester without his consent , although the Archbishop of Canterbury had the right of patronage and thus the right to propose a new bishop. Accordingly, Edmund refused to consecrate Wendene. In addition, he was upset with Eleanor of England , a sister of the king. After the death of her first husband, she had taken a vow of chastity in Edmund's presence. At the beginning of 1238 she had secretly married Simon de Montfort , but Edmund denied the validity of this marriage because of her vow. As a metropolitan , Edmund was required to visit Rome at least every three years. He was therefore preparing a trip to Rome, and on this occasion he also wanted to submit the controversial election of Rochester and the validity of the marriage of the royal sister to the papal curia in Rome for a decision. At the end of December 1237 he left England. In Rome, the Curia decided in favor of Bishop Wendene and the marriage of Eleanor of England, so that Edmund returned to England in August 1238 without success.

Conflict with Canterbury Cathedral Chapter and death

After his return from Rome Edmund wanted to revive a project that two of his predecessors had already tried, namely the establishment of a collegiate foundation for the Archdiocese of Canterbury. Maidstone was chosen as the site of the monastery, and Elias of Dereham designed the church. 50 charities should be set up for the supply, which should be made available from the archbishop's property. This project met with fierce opposition from the Canterbury Cathedral Chapter, which feared losing parts of its property and, most importantly, its archbishopric suffrage. Even a transfer of the bishopric to Maidstone was feared. After the cathedral chapter's complaint to the papal curia was unsuccessful, the monks turned to the king. In fact, in November 1239, the king put a stop to construction at Maidstone. The conflict between the archbishop and his cathedral chapter was exacerbated by the dispute over who to fill the offices of the cathedral monastery. Edmund claimed this right for himself. During his absence in Rome, the papal legate Oddone had deposed the prior of the chapter for forging a privilege, and upon his return Edmund also deposed the deputy prior. The monks did not recognize this decision and in January 1239 they elected a new prior without the consent of Edmund. The archbishop excommunicated those responsible and interdicts at the cathedral monastery , but the dispute was not resolved.

On August 9, 1240, Pope Gregory IX called. a general council for Easter 1241. Edmund then left for Rome at the end of the autumn of 1240 to both attend the council and to reach a decision in the dispute with the cathedral chapter. He was accompanied by his chancellor, his chaplain and other members of his household. In mid-October they reached the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny , where Edmund fell ill. He and his entourage turned back, but by the time he reached the village of Soisy he was too weak to travel on. He died in the small Augustinian priory there. The abbot of Pontigny had his body brought to Pontigny and buried there with general approval.

The abbey church of Pontigny where Edmund was buried

Aftermath

Edmund left behind only a few but remarkable writings. His main work is the treatise ecclesie speculum , which especially in Anglo-Norman translation as Le merure de Seinte eglise became known. The original Latin script is an introduction to life as a clergyman. The translation was widespread in the 13th and 14th centuries, as shown by the relatively large number of surviving manuscripts. The work was evidently significantly influenced by the teachings of Gregory the Great , but above all by Hugo von St. Viktor . In addition to a single sermon, a commentary on the psalms to which Edmund is attributed has been preserved in other writings.

There are many legends about Edmund of Abingdon. Among other things, he is said to have met the Christ Child outside of Oxford as a teenager, and as a teenager he is said to have taken a vow of chastity. According to Robert Bacon, Edmund donated his salary as a university teacher to build a chapel in his home town. As a young university professor, he began to sleep only a few hours fully clothed and to spend the rest of the night in prayer, and he is said to have made his decision to return to Paris and study theology when his late mother had appeared to him in a dream . When he preached for a crusade in the open fields in Oxford, Gloucester , Worcester , Leominster, and Hereford in 1226 or 1227 , the rain clouds are said to have been miraculously driven away. The claim that Edmund voluntarily went into exile before his death is unfounded, however, and was believed to have been made by his chaplain, Eustace of Faversham , to promote his canonization .

The General Chapter of the Cistercians took the initiative in 1241 to promote Edmund's canonization. This was supported by Oxford University from the following year, then by several English monasteries, and finally by the prelates of England and France. On April 23, 1244, Pope Innocent IV commissioned a commission to investigate Edmund's life. This commission recommended the canonization, which took place on December 16, 1246 by the Pope in the cathedral of Lyon . The following summer Edmund's body was in the presence of the French King Louis IX. and numerous French nobles and prelates reburied in a new shrine in Pontigny. The files of the canonization process were preserved in Sens and formed the basis for six interwoven life stories of Edmund, which were written over the next ten years after his death. His name day is November 16 . King Henry III visited his grave in Pontigny in 1254; it was the destination of numerous pilgrims from England until the stream of pilgrims subsided at the end of the 13th century. 1253 in Dover , the St Edmund's Chapel consecrated by Edmund of Abingdon were St Edmund Hall , Oxford and the St Edmund's College in Cambridge named. In 1852 the Edmundites , a Catholic religious order named after Edmund of Abingdon, were founded.

literature

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Commons : Edmund Rich  - collection of images, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Richard Grant Archbishop of Canterbury
1233-1240 		Boniface of Savoy
personal data
SURNAME Edmund of Abingdon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Edmund Rich; Edmund of Canterbury
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English university professor and clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH around 1174
PLACE OF BIRTH Abingdon
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1240
Place of death Soisy-Bouy