Eustace (Ely)

The Galilee porch of Ely Cathedral, originally built under Eustace

Eustace († February 3, 1215 in Reading ) was an English Lord Chancellor and Bishop of the Diocese of Ely .

origin

Eustace probably came from Normandy or another part of France. He studied in Paris with Giraldus Cambrensis , with whom he remained lifelong friends. He was considered well versed in both theology and law.

Career as a clergyman

Eustace is first mentioned in 1177 as an official of Robert Foliot , Bishop of Hereford. At least until 1186 he stayed in Hereford , where he became a canon . Before 1190 he was pastor of Withcall in Lincolnshire . He then entered the service of the Crown as a civil servant, where he was Deputy Chancellor before April 20, 1194 when he sealed a document in Winchester . After that he was a permanent part of King Richard's retinue in Normandy. There he served as keeper of the seals and as a representative of Chancellor William Longchamp , who was also Bishop of Ely . The king rewarded him with numerous benefices for his services . Before May 5, 1194, he had become Dean of Salisbury , followed in 1196 by the offices of Dean of Richmond and Treasurer of York Minster .

Chancellor of England and promotion to bishop

After Chancellor William Longchamp died on January 31, 1197, Eustace was elected Bishop of Ely on August 10, 1197 in Vaudreuil in Normandy as his successor. He then traveled to Germany as King Richard's envoy, where a meeting of the German princes took place on February 22, 1198 because of the German controversy for the throne . Only after his return to England was Eustace consecrated bishop on March 8, 1198 in St Katherine's Chapel in Westminster by Archbishop Hubert Walter . Between May 18 and 22, 1198, Eustace was appointed new chancellor. Eustace served as a judge at Westminster in October and November 1198, but this is the only time he is mentioned as a royal judge. Then he was back in the retinue of King Richard, who sent him to the French King Philip II in January 1199 to announce the end of the existing armistice.

Bishop of Ely

Loss of Chancellorship

After the death of Richard the Lionheart in April 1199, his successor Johann Ohneland appointed Archbishop Hubert Walter as the new Chancellor on May 27, 1199. Despite his loss of office, Eustace had not fallen out of favor. He took part in the coronation of John, who on August 23, 1199 confirmed the privileges of the Diocese of Ely. In 1200 Eustace was part of the King's retinue in Normandy, and on November 21, 1200 he was in Lincoln , where the Scottish King William paid homage to the English King. During the Franco-English War , he traveled to vain negotiations with the French king in 1202 and 1204.

Commissioner of the Pope

Although Eustace continued to appear regularly at the royal court in the next few years, he increasingly took up his office as bishop. In the next few years he often served Pope Innocent III. who entrusted him as judge in spiritual disputes. From 1199 to 1200 he mediated a bitter dispute between Archbishop Hubert Walter and the monks of the Cathedral Priory of Canterbury , when the Archbishop wanted to found a collegiate church in Lambeth . From 1200 to 1201 he mediated between Bishop Savaric of Bath and the monks of Glastonbury Abbey . From 1200 to 1201 Eustace operated the canonization of Gilbert of Sempringham , and in 1203 the Pope commissioned him to investigate the miracles in Worcester ascribed to Wulfstan . In 1203 and again in 1206 he had to mediate in a dispute between the Abbot of Evesham , the monks of the monastery and Bishop Mauger of Worcester . Another dispute in which he became embroiled was the controversial election of Hugh of Northwold as Abbot of Bury St Edmunds . His correspondence with the Pope proves his draft for the decretals Pastoralis officii diligentia , later published by Innocent , which later became part of canon law .

Act as a bishop

As bishop, Eustace issued a decree according to which he was entitled to tithe of the lambs born in his diocese . This ordinance is one of the oldest surviving statutes of an English bishop. Presumably he had the church of St Mary in Ely rebuilt, for this purpose the Galilee porch with the western main portal of the cathedral of Ely was built during his tenure , which was later changed significantly. Eustace was praised by contemporary chroniclers as a learned and important bishop.

The church of St Mary in Ely, newly built under Bishop Eustace

Role during the interdict

In 1207 there was a dispute between King John and Pope Innocent over the election of a new Archbishop of Canterbury. The king refused to recognize Stephen Langton's election as archbishop. After Langton was consecrated by the Pope on June 17, 1207, the king had the monks of Canterbury Cathedral Priory expelled. The Pope then commissioned Eustace and the Bishops William de Ste Mère-Église of London and Mauger of Worcester to negotiate with the Pope. All three bishops were former royal officials and familiar with the king, but the negotiations were fruitless. Thereupon the three bishops announced on March 23, 1208 the imposition of the interdict over England and then fled abroad. The king now had the church property confiscated. The Pope then put further pressure on the King, for which Eustace, who had remained in the Pope's service, traveled several times to England for unsuccessful negotiations. In November 1209 he was in Arras when the excommunication of the king was announced there. At the end of 1212, Eustace traveled with Archbishop Langton and Bishop William from London to Rome, where they reported to the Pope about the suppression of the Church in England by the King.

Return to England

On May 15, 1213, King John bowed to papal pressure, especially as he feared a rebellion by his nobility and a French invasion. In Dover he submitted to the papal envoy, whereupon Eustace was able to return to England. On July 20th he was in Winchester , where the king's excommunication was lifted, and on October 3rd he was in London when the king swore allegiance to the Pope. The king had to agree to pay 100,000 marks to the papal legate Nikolaus von Tusculum , Archbishop Langton and Eustace as the first reparation for the damage suffered by the church during the interdict . Eustace's loss of income has only been estimated at between £ 750 and £ 1050. At a council chaired by the papal legate in St Paul's Cathedral in London, Eustace was finally allowed to announce the repeal of the interdict on July 2, 1214. Until his death, Eustace then played an important role in the negotiations between the king and the aristocratic opposition. The king tried to win him over by giving him the patronage of Thorney Abbey in Cambridgeshire on January 15, 1215 .

After his death, Eustace was buried in Ely Cathedral. He left several vestments, a golden chalice and other measuring utensils and a golden cross with a relic of the Holy Cross on the cathedral . Until his death, he remained a major supporter of the Saint Victor Abbey near Paris.

Web links

• Dorothy M. Owen: Eustace (d. 1215). 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
Wilhelm of Longchamp	Lord Chancellor of England 1197–1199	Hubert Walter
Wilhelm of Longchamp	Bishop of Ely 1197–1215	Robert of York