Giles of Bridport

Depiction of Giles of Bridport on his funerary monument

Giles of Bridport († December 13, 1262 ) was an English clergyman. From 1256 he was Bishop of Salisbury .

Ascent to bishop

Giles was from Bridport , Dorset , where he got his nickname. Before 1238 he became Archdeacon of Berkshire . As an archdeacon, he studied at Oxford in 1252 , possibly having previously studied in Paris. 1253 he was appointed Dean of Wells Cathedral selected. In 1256 he was elected Bishop of Salisbury , whereas King Henry III. raised no objection. His episcopal ordination was delayed, however, because in June 1256 he traveled to Rome with Richard de Crokesley , the abbot of Westminster Abbey . There they negotiated on behalf of the king over the debts that the king owed to the pope because of the Sicilian adventure . The Pope gave Giles the right to receive the income from his previous offices as bishop. The return trip to England was difficult due to the tense situation between England and France, but in early 1257 Giles reached England again. There he was ordained bishop on March 11, 1257 by Archbishop Boniface of Canterbury and by the Bishops Walter de Cantilupe of Worcester, Walter of Suffield of Norwich and William Button of Bath.

The funerary monument of Giles of Bridport in Salisbury Cathedral

Bishop of Salisbury

When there was a nobility revolt against King Heinrich III in the spring of 1258. came, Giles was elected to the new 24-member State Council in 1258. However, the conflict between the barons and the king could not be resolved. In 1261 the king asked that Giles mediate in the dispute. Despite the political turmoil leading up to the Second Barons' War , Giles did not neglect his duties as bishop. One of his first acts as a bishop was to commission a lead roof for the new Salisbury Cathedral . On September 30, 1258, the cathedral was solemnly consecrated, attended by King Henry III, Queen Eleonore and numerous bishops. Giles supported reform of the Church and issued a number of diocesan statutes. With these he tried to strengthen the authority of the church and above all the spiritual and legal leadership role of the bishop. In 1262 he claimed the right to visit the cathedral, which was rejected by the cathedral chapter. The canons referred to the statutes issued by Bishop Osmund von Sées , according to which only the dean of the cathedral had the right to visit. Given this opposition, Giles withdrew his claim on October 4, 1262. In Salisbury he founded de Vaux College in 1262. In this school, two chaplains, under the supervision of a canon of the cathedral chapter, were to teach theology and the liberal arts to 20 poor students . This means that de Vaux College, which was dissolved in 1542, was founded even before the oldest colleges in Oxford . Giles was buried in Salisbury Cathedral, where his magnificent 13th century funerary memorial has been preserved.

literature

• JMJ Fletcher: Bishop Giles of Bridport, 1257-62. In: The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine , 46 (1932-34), pp. 625-636
• Flora Lewis: Giles de Bridport and the Abingdon Apocalypse . In: WM Ormrod: England in the thirteenth century: proceedings of the 1984 Harlaxton Symposium . Boydell, Woodbridge 1986. ISBN 0-85115-445-X , pp. 107-119 ·
• Marion E. Roberts: The tomb of Giles de Bridport in Salisbury Cathedral . In: Art Bulletin , 65 (1983), pp. 559-586

Web links

• Philippa Hoskin: Bridport, Giles of (d. 1262). 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. ^ Wiltshire Council: Salisbury - De Vaux College, Salisbury. Retrieved November 14, 2016 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
William of York	Bishop of Salisbury 1256–1262	Walter de la Wyle