Reginald Fitz Jocelin

Reginald fitz Jocelin (also Reginald FitzJocelin , Reginald Italus or Reginald Lombardus ) (* around 1140, † December 25, 1191 in Dogmersfield , Hampshire ) was an English prelate . He was Bishop of Bath from 1174 and was elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 1191 . However, he died within a month of his election before he could be installed as archbishop.

origin

Reginald was the illegitimate son of Bishop Jocelin de Bohun of Salisbury. He was related to Earl Robert of Gloucester and Savaric FitzGeldewin , who in turn was the Roman-German Emperor Henry VI. referred to as relatives. His mother was probably a member of the Maurienne family , the family of the Counts of Savoy. Reginald grew up in Italy, which is why he was nicknamed Italus and Lombardus .

Rise as a clergyman in the service of the king

Studied in Paris

Before 1161 Reginald was made Archdeacon of Wiltshire by his father, Bishop Jocelin . Probably in 1162 he entered the service of Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury, and from 1163 to 1164 he attended a school in Paris , where he was taught by Pope Alexander III. Bishop Hugues de Champfleury von Soissons, who was also chancellor of the French king, was recommended. During his stay in France, the French King Louis VII left him with the income of the Church of Saint Exuperius in Corbeil , and Ludwig's son, King Philip II, confirmed the long-lasting friendship between Reginald and his father when he elected Reginald as archbishop in 1191 advocated. Reginald, however, left Paris without having obtained a master's degree .

Envoy of the King of England and election as bishop

Around 1167 Reginald entered the service of the English King Henry II , whom he served loyally from then on. This led to a break with Thomas Becket, who had fallen out with the king and was living in exile in France. The king sent Reginald three times, from 1167 to 1168, 1169 and again from 1169 to 1170, as his chief envoy to the papal curia . There he represented the king in a dispute with Becket. Reginald negotiated in August 1169 with the papal ambassadors, Nuncio Vivian and Nuncio Gratian . After Becket was assassinated in late 1170, Reginald traveled again to Rome as royal envoy in early 1171. The king rewarded his services by having him elected bishop of the diocese of Bath , which had been vacant for several years, in 1173 . The young fellow-king Heinrich rejected Reginald's election, but also that of four other bishops. He disapproved of Reginald's illegitimate birth and his violations of canonical rules . Together with the elected Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard of Dover , Reginald then traveled to Rome to defend himself against the allegations. According to the chronicler Walter Map , Reginald was confirmed as bishop only by bribery, but the chronicler Radulfus de Diceto reports that Reginald swore that he was not involved in Becket's murder and that he was born before his father was ordained a priest. He was then ordained bishop on June 23, 1174 by Archbishop Richard of Canterbury and Archbishop Peter von Tarentaise in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne . He then traveled back to Normandy with Archbishop Richard , where they met King Henry II in Barfleur on August 8, 1174 . On November 24th, Reginald was enthroned in Bath .

Relationship with Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket had considered Reginald a turning neck after her break. However, according to Petrus von Blois , Reginald sincerely wished for a reconciliation with Becket. However, this was prevented by his entourage and especially by his father, whom Becket had deposed and interdict . After Becket's death, Reginald is said to have repented of misjudging the martyr . After his return from Italy he consecrated a church of St Thomas the Martyr in Saint Lô in Normandy in 1174 , and on his recommendation, Queen Margaret of Sicily , the mother of King Henry II's future son-in-law William II of Sicily , received a pendant in 1176 with a relic of Becket.

Act as a bishop

As a bishop, Reginald was initially primarily political. He attended a council meeting at Westminster in May 1175 and the royal council meeting at Woodstock in July . At Easter 1176 he was present at the royal court in Winchester . In March 1177 he attended the royal council in Westminster, while in September he confirmed a royal charter in Rouen , Normandy. Possibly immediately afterwards he was one of the English ambassadors who negotiated the Treaty of Ivry with the French King Louis VII , although he was not one of the witnesses to this treaty. In 1178 he belonged to the joint mission of the English and French churches, which under Pietro da Pavia , cardinal priest of San Crisogono, tried to convert the Cathars in Toulouse . At Christmas 1178 he was back at the royal court in Winchester, but in March 1179 he took part in the third Lateran Council in Rome. On his return trip he convinced Hugo von Avalon to accept the Carthusian monastery established by Henry II in Witham in Somerset as part of the atonement for the murder of Thomas Becket. In the 1180s he only occasionally took part in royal council meetings and court days because he was apparently more concerned with the administration of his diocese. Only in 1186 did he attend council meetings at both Oxford and Woodstock.

Reginald was an avid hawk hunter , who received the right from King Richard I to hunt with dogs in Somerset. Nevertheless, Reginald took care of his duties as bishop, especially from 1180 onwards. With 122 documents and records, more documents have survived from him than from any other 12th century Bishop of Bath. Most of the documents, namely 73, date from 1180 onwards. They prove that Reginald performed his office conscientiously. He regulated the relationship between monasteries and lay priests in favor of the latter by granting them a sufficient income. As a commissioned papal judge, he enforced compliance with canon law. In Bath he founded St John's Hospital in 1180 , and in Wells he began building the nave of what would become the cathedral , the construction of which he arranged for. He raised Glastonbury Abbey to archdeaconate and included the abbot of the monastery in the cathedral chapter of Wells, confirmed the status of the city of Wells as a Burghus and regulated its boundaries. In the dispute between Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury and the monks of Kathedralpriorats of Canterbury, he supported the position of the monks, the establishment of a Baldwin St Stephen and St Thomas the Martyr consecrated Collegiate in Hackington rejected.

Election as Archbishop of Canterbury and death

After the death of Heinrich II. In 1189, his son Richard became the new king. At the time, Reginald was one of the longest serving English bishops, but was only around 50 years old. His illegitimate but noble birth and his experience made him a candidate for even higher tasks under the new king. At Richard's coronation on September 3, 1189, he had a prominent position, as he was allowed to move into the church on the king's left. On September 15, 1189, he attended a council meeting at Pipewell , and he was probably the Reginaldus Italus , who in vain offered the king £ 4,000 for the office of chancellor . At the direction of the king, he supported the appointment of his rival William de Longchamp as papal legate to England. However, after Richard left for the crusade , Reginald Longchamp's opponent supported Geoffrey of York . When the news of Archbishop Baldwin's death in the Holy Land reached England, Reginald's good relations with the Canterbury Cathedral Priory paid off. Against Richard's candidate Gugliemo , Archbishop of Monreale , the monks elected Reginald on November 27, 1191 as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. This election was rejected by Walter de Coutances , the new royal justiciar , but before a decision could be made, Reginald suffered a debilitating stroke on December 24 , of which he died the next day. Previously he had arranged the election of his relative Savaric as the new Bishop of Bath. On his deathbed he had wished to die as a monk of Canterbury Cathedral Priory, after which Walter of Bath , the prior of Bath Abbey , had accepted him as a monk. He was buried in Bath Abbey on December 29, 1191. Although he was not installed as archbishop, the cathedral priory remembered him as its archbishop.

Web links

• Charles Duggan: Reginald fitz Jocelin (c.1140–1191). 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
vacant	Bishop of Bath and Wells 1174–1191	Savaric Fitz Money win
Baldwin of Exeter	Archbishop of Canterbury 1191 (Elekt)	Hubert Walter