Herbert Poor

Herbert Poor (also Herbert Pauper ) († uncertain: January 7, 1217 ) was an English clergyman. From 1194 he was Bishop of Salisbury .

origin

Herbert Poor was most likely an illegitimate son of Richard of Ilchester , a royal official who became Bishop of Winchester in 1173. His younger brother was Richard Poor , who succeeded Herbert as bishop. A relationship of Herbert with Roger Le Poer , a son of Bishop Roger of Salisbury is considered unlikely.

Career as a clergyman

Herbert Poor was probably employed in the royal treasury by his father Richard, for which he received a benefice at Lincoln Cathedral in 1167 . Most likely he was the Herbert mentioned in 1174 and 1175 as Archdeacon of Norwich . To do this, Poor must also have become archdeacon of Northampton . Within three months, Richard of Dover , Archbishop of Canterbury, appointed three Archdeacons of Canterbury in 1175. Savaric , probably the first he appointed, soon swapped that office with the office of Archdeacon of Northampton held by Poor. After 1175, Poor is named as the only Archdeacon of Canterbury. As archdeacon he enthroned Walter de Coutances as Bishop of Lincoln on December 11, 1183 . In July 1184, King Henry II sent him to the monks of Canterbury Cathedral Priory to prepare for the election of a new archbishop. From 1185 to 1188, Poor administered the vacant Diocese of Salisbury . For his services he received other benefices in Salisbury , Wells and Lincoln. In May 1186 he was elected bishop by the Lincoln Cathedral Chapter, but the king refused the election. Shortly thereafter, the majority of the Salisbury Poor cathedral chapter elected the new bishop. This election was accepted by the king on September 14, 1186, but a minority of canons complained to Pope Urban III. about the choice that Poor was an illegitimate son. The election was then declared invalid. On September 29, 1186 Poor had to enthrone his rival Hugo as Bishop of Lincoln as archdeacon . According to Roger von Hoveden , in May 1193 Poor complained in vain to the Pope about the election of Hubert Walter , the previous Bishop of Salisbury, as Archbishop of Canterbury, since at the time of the election King Richard was in captivity and none of the English bishops at the Had participated in the election. In 1194, however, the cathedral chapter of Salisbury re-elected Poor unchallenged to succeed Hubert Walter as bishop. Hubert Walter as archbishop confirmed the election on April 29, 1194. With the election as bishop Poor resigned from his other spiritual offices. Since he had previously only been ordained a deacon , he was ordained a priest on June 4th and bishop on June 5th in St Katherine's Chapel in Westminster by Hubert Walter. On June 12, 1194 he was enthroned in Salisbury Cathedral.

Bishop under King Richard I.

Between 1190 and 1197, Poor served occasionally as one of the Justice of the bench at Westminster. On June 16, 1196 he was in Rouen with Archbishop Walter de Coutances, who had previously fallen out with King Richard. In December 1197, Archbishop Hubert Walter, who was also the royal justiciar , asked the English bishops at a council meeting in Oxford to provide the king with another 300 knights for the war in Normandy . Poor and Bishop Hugo von Lincoln rejected this request, which led to a scandal. The angry king had Poor's goods confiscated and asked him to come to him in Normandy in February 1198. Only after paying a large fine did the king pardon him so that he could return to England on June 8th.

Bishop under King Johann Ohneland

After King Richard's death, Poor took part in the coronation of his brother Johann Ohneland as king on May 27, 1199 . In September and October 1199 and in May and early June 1200, Poor was part of the King's entourage in Normandy. On September 19, 1200, he took part in the church council that Archbishop Hubert Walter had called to Westminster. Probably around this time he was serving as the Pope's agent in an attempt to reconcile Archbishop Geoffrey of York with the monks of his cathedral priory. On November 22nd, 1200, Poor was in Lincoln, where the Scottish King William I paid homage to John Ohneland for his English possessions. On December 14, 1201, the king called him to Normandy. Before June 1202 he returned to England.

In 1204 and 1205 Poor again witnessed several documents from the king. He apparently had a good relationship with Johann Ohneland, because in January 1205 the king gave him ten barrels of wine. After the election of Stephen Langton as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, a serious conflict between the King and Pope Innocent III. had come, the Pope imposed the interdict on England in 1208 . As a result, Poor's possessions were also confiscated by the king. Several English bishops went into exile, but after Poor had probably offered the king 500 marks , he received his goods back on April 10th. Apparently, Poor stayed in England until the Pope excommunicated the king in November 1209 . Then Poor went into exile with other bishops.

Exile in Scotland

While most of the bishops fled to France, Poor went to Scotland with Gilbert de Glanville , Bishop of Rochester. Poor had been in contact with Glanville several times in the past few months. Both bishops were commissioned by the Pope in January 1209 to supervise the transfer of the Wittum to Berengaria of Navarre , King Richard's widow, by John Ohneland. In July 1209 they had probably accompanied Johann Ohneland on his successful campaign against King William I of Scotland. Apparently they had stayed in northern England afterwards before going to Scotland in November 1209 with the tolerance of the English king. As a result, Poor lived in Kelso, Scotland . When Johann Ohneland delayed the return of the lands to his sister-in-law Berengaria, Poor and Bishop Gilbert imposed an interdict over the possessions in May 1210 by order of the Pope. In 1212 the papal legate Pandulf instructed the two bishops to release the Scots from their oath of allegiance to Johann Ohneland. It has not been proven whether Poor complied with this request and actively participated in the church sanctions against Johann Ohneland. Several months before Johann Ohneland was subjugated to the papal legate, the king had Poor's confiscated temporalities handed over to his administrator on December 13, 1212 . After the submission of the king on May 15, Poor received the goods officially back on July 18, 1213, after which Poor returned to England.

In the following dispute between the king and the aristocratic opposition, in the recognition of the Magna Carta and the First War of the Barons , Poor apparently no longer played a role. He died in early January 1217 and was buried in Wilton .

Others

According to a document that Poor issued in June 1202, his household as bishop probably included four masters , four chaplains as well as two administrators, a cellar master, an official, a cook and a stable master. As a bishop, he planned to found a new city and a new cathedral instead of the inhospitable Old Sarum three kilometers south. The turmoil during the reign of Johann Ohneland, however, prevented the implementation of this plan, which was then implemented by his brother Richard, who succeeded him as bishop.

Web links

• CL Kingsford, BR Kemp: Poor, Herbert (d. 1217). 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
Hubert Walter	Bishop of Salisbury 1194–1217	Richard Poore