Richard Poore

Statue of Richard Poore at Salisbury Cathedral

Richard Poore (also Poor , Poor or Poer , Latinized Ricardus Pauper , also called Ric (h) ardus Anglicus ; † April 15, 1237 in Tarrant Keyneston ) was an English prelate . From 1215 he was Bishop of Chichester , from 1217 Bishop of Salisbury . During the minority of King Henry III. he was one of the leading members of the government, but above all he was known as a church reformer. In 1228 he became Bishop of Durham .

Origin and education

Richard Poore was an illegitimate son of Richard of Ilchester , who was sometimes called Le Poer . The name of Richard's mother and also when he was born is not known. Richard may have been born around 1150. He had a brother, Herbert Poor , who also became a clergyman and in 1194 became Bishop of Salisbury . Her father was a royal official and judge from 1156 at the latest until he became Bishop of Winchester in 1173 . Richard received a spiritual training and studied at the University of Paris , where Stephen Langton , the future Archbishop of Canterbury , was one of his teachers. Chronicler Matthew Paris later praised Poore as a man of both unparalleled piety and high education. Poores father died in 1173, leaving his sons estates in Winchester , Hampshire and London.

Career as a clergyman during the reign of Johann Ohneland

Supported by his relatives, Poore quickly rose to high ecclesiastical offices in spite of his illegitimate birth at the latest from the 1190s. After his brother Herbert became Bishop of Salisbury in 1194, Richard soon became archdeacon of Dorset and in 1197 Dean of Salisbury. He also kept two benefices in Salisbury. In January 1206 he received a papal dispensation for his origin and his accumulation of offices . In 1204 he was also one of the candidates for the vacant Diocese of Winchester, but at the request of King John Ohneland, his confidante Peter des Roches was elected bishop. As an opponent of the king, Richard went into exile in France after the imposition of the interdict over England in 1208. He taught theology in Paris before returning to England after the interdict was repealed in 1213. The interdict left several English bishoprics vacant , but as a student of Langton, Richard did not have the confidence of the king and the pope, who had become an ally of the king through the transfer of England to him as a fief. The king and the pope wanted, as bishops for the vacant dioceses, above all candidates who would support the king's policy. Although Richard had been elected bishop by the cathedral priory of the rich diocese of Durham in 1213 , under pressure from the Pope he again had to renounce the election in favor of a candidate for the king, John de Gray . Instead he was elected Bishop of Chichester in early 1215 and was ordained bishop in Reading on January 25, 1215 .

Coat of arms of Richard Poore as Bishop of Chichester when the Magna Carta was sealed in 1215

Bishop of Chichester

Shortly after Poores election, the barons rebelled against the king in England, which first led to the recognition of the Magna Carta and then to the First Barons' War. Richard was one of the witnesses of the king's recognition of the Magna Carta, but during the Civil War he first took part in the fourth Lateran Council in Rome in November 1215 and ultimately supported the king on his return. Shortly before his death in October 1216, the king appointed him one of his executors. Poore did not take part in the coronation of Johann's underage son Heinrich III. in Gloucester . A month later, however, he testified in Bristol the recognition of the Magna Carta by the regent William Marshal and the papal legate Guala Bicchieri .

Bishop of Salisbury

Election to bishop

After the death of his brother Herbert, Legate Guala arranged on May 9, 1217 that Poore should take over the administration of his diocese of Salisbury . Shortly thereafter, Poore was also formally elected by the Cathedral Chapter as the new Bishop of Salisbury. A little later the election was confirmed by the king and on June 27th the temporalities were handed over to him.

Government supporters

In August 1217 Poore was present with the Bishops Jocelin of Wells and Peter des Roches at the Battle of Sandwich , in which a French fleet that was supposed to bring reinforcements to England was decisively defeated. This battle decided the war of the barons in favor of the royal party. The bishops are said to have given absolution to the fallen who fought for the freedom of England . From 1218 to 1219 Poore served as a traveling judge in Oxfordshire , Berkshire, and Hampshire. In the following years Poore continued to serve the underage king, for whom a regency council led the government. When Peter des Roches, Earl Ranulf of Chester and Falkes de Bréauté lost their influence on the Regency Council in 1223 , the Justiciar Hubert de Burgh , Jocelin of Wells and Poore became leaders of the new government with the approval of Archbishop Stephen Langton. These four men were responsible for the expulsion of Bréauté and numerous other barons who had refused in 1223 to recognize the authority of the young king. This was from Pope Honorius III. was confirmed that he was able to control the government and that the barons should return the royal castles to him. In 1224 Poore replaced Peter des Roches as administrator of Winchester, Portchester and Southampton . At the end of 1224 Poore and his colleagues reached a reconciliation with their opponents, presumably trying to prevent the Pope from appointing a new papal legate for England. In 1225 Poore was authorized to appoint one of the two Treasury officials responsible for collecting the tax on the fifteenth . When he became Bishop of Durham in 1228, Poore retired from government and the royal court. When Peter des Roches returned to England in 1232 and Hubert de Burgh was overthrown, Poore and Jocelin of Wells had to answer for their role in the elevation of the Fifteenth in 1225 in December 1232. He and Jocelin were once again active in the treasury until February 1234, before they withdrew from the government because of conflicts with Peter des Roches, who was overthrown a little later.

Bishop Richard Poore, along with the Bishops of Bath and Winchester, assisted the English fleet during the Battle of Sandwich

Acting as a church reformer

Poore was not only politically active, but also a committed and reform-oriented clergyman. Even before his election as bishop he had during his time in Salisbury, the Institutes of Bishop Osmund accomplish that describes the duties and privileges of the offices of the Cathedral Chapter of Salisbury. Presumably he also wrote the ordinal , a handbook for celebrating church services. Around 1210 Poore wrote the Consuetudinarium , a supplement and a commentary on the institute and the ordinale. The Ordinale and the Consuetudinarium together formed a guide for the Sarum Usus . This form of worship was adopted by several other English dioceses and was therefore widespread in England in the 13th century. The Sarum custom had an influence on the further organization of the services for a long time. As a student of Stephen Langton, Poore also emphasized the importance of repentance and confession . In France, he urged Robert of Flamborough , who lived as a canon in Paris , to write his Liber poenitentialis , one of the first penalties . As a participant in the Fourth Lateran Council, Poore played an essential role in spreading the church reforms decided on at this council in England.

In addition, Poore acquired a good reputation as a judge in church disputes. In 1214 he was commissioned by the Pope to decide the right of the Prior of Dunstable to participate in the election of the Abbot of Bury St Edmunds . As Bishop of Chichester he was to resolve conflicts in the Diocese of Salisbury, and as Bishop of Salisbury he had to resolve numerous disputes within the Diocese. He also worked as a judge outside the diocese, for example in the conflict between the Convent of Coventry and the Cathedral Priory of Lichfield over the right to elect the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry .

Served as Bishop of Salisbury

As Bishop of Salisbury, Poore, like many other prelates of the time, campaigned for church reform. In doing so, Poore proved not only to be an educated theologian and committed pastor, but also a capable administrator. In 1219 he issued detailed rules for Abingdon Abbey , and between 1217 and 1219 he issued what is believed to be the first diocesan statute in England. These rules, which were later expanded upon, emphasize the importance of repentance, but also regulated the formation and conduct of clergy. They served as a model for the statutes of numerous other English dioceses including the Archdiocese of Canterbury and York. For this purpose Poore ordered a registration of the ecclesiastical possessions, with which he laid the basis for the division of the possessions into that of the bishop and that of the cathedral chapter.

Construction of Salisbury Cathedral begins

After his brother Herbert had planned to move the bishopric, Poore received from Pope Honorius III in 1217 . permission to move the bishopric and to build a new cathedral in Salisbury in place of the small and cramped cathedral of Old Sarum three kilometers south . He was able to lay the foundation stone for this building on April 28, 1220. Poore was the driving force behind the construction of the church, which differs significantly from other cathedrals of the time, such as Lincoln Cathedral, due to its relative simplicity . The floor plan corresponded to the requirements that the Sarum custom made for processions. The decoration of the Lady Chapel was also determined by the Sarum custom. The cathedral is considered a major work of the Early English Style . The eastern part of the cathedral was consecrated in 1225, and construction was completed in 1266, less than thirty years after Poore's death.

Salisbury Cathedral begun by Poore

Promotion of the veneration of saints

In 1218 Poore was present at the transfer of the relics of St. Wulfstan at Worcester Cathedral and in 1220 at the transfer of the relics of St. Thomas at Canterbury Cathedral . In the secret examination of the bones of St. Thomas, he was the only bishop allowed to support his former teacher Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Two other canons from Salisbury were involved in the transfer of the bones of St. Thomas, of whom Elias of Dereham probably designed the shrine for the saint. Inspired by these models, Poore began promoting the worship of local saints in Salisbury. In 1226 he had the tombs of Osmund von Sées, Roger and Jocelin de Bohun , the first three bishops of Salisbury, moved from Old Sarum to the new cathedral. In July 1228 he applied to Pope Gregory IX. the canonization of Osmund, the first Bishop of Salisbury. The grave of Osmund subsequently became the target of popular veneration, but despite Poore's efforts, the official canonization took place after more than 200 years in 1457.

Bishop of Durham

On May 9, 1228 Poore was re-elected Bishop of Durham. In Durham, after Richard Marsh's death in 1226, no election of a new bishop had been confirmed. Marsh had been deeply at odds with Durham over the bishop's claim to be able to visit Durham Cathedral Priory. As between 1220 and 1223, the monks of the cathedral priory appealed to the Pope again in 1226. Poore was therefore elected by a delegation from the cathedral priory at the papal court. Already on May 14, 1228 the election was confirmed by Pope Gregory IX. On July 22, 1228, Poore was given the temporalities of the wealthy Diocese of Durham, and on September 4, 1228 he was enthroned in Durham Cathedral . Almost immediately after arriving in Durham, Poore tried to resolve the conflict with the cathedral priory. In 1228 he drafted an agreement called Le Convenit , in which he granted the monks the free choice of their prior and numerous other rights and privileges. In contrast, he renewed the bishops' right to visit. This agreement was accepted by the monks. Although it had been written in great detail and even regulated contentious issues such as the rights to stranded ships or access to water sources on episcopal land, it was still unable to resolve all issues. The agreement remained the basis for the claims of the monks against the bishops of Durham until the dissolution of the cathedral priory in the 16th century. So although the disputes between monks and bishops continued, Poore was able to resolve other issues such as the competing claims of the Cathedral Priory and the Archdeacon of Durham for patronage rights to several churches. In addition, Poore proved to be a committed and conscientious pastor as Bishop of Durham. Following the example of his statutes of Salisbury, he issued expanded statutes for the Diocese of Durham. For Durham Cathedral he had plans drawn up for the Chapel of Nine Altars , which closes the cathedral choir to the east. The chapel was not built until after Poores death from 1242, but its architecture was clearly influenced by Salisbury Cathedral. As an ecclesiastical judge, he and the royal judge William Raleigh arbitrated a dispute between Bishop Jocelin of Bath and Wells and the knights Thomas Maudut and Nicholas Avenel over the right to a benefice at Wells Cathedral in 1235 . In 1237 he was again witness to the confirmation of the Magna Carta by the king. Poore died on the episcopal estate of Tarrant Keyneston in Dorset . It is sometimes said that he was buried in Durham or Salisbury, but it is believed that he was buried in the churchyard of Tarrant Keyneston or in the Tarrant Cistercian Abbey he founded, as he wished .

literature

• Brian Kemp: God's and the king's good servant: Richard Poore, bishop of Salisbury, 1217-28 . In: Peritia, 12 (1998), pp. 359-378
• Herbert Edward Douglas Blakiston: Poor, Richard , in: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume XLVI . Macmillan, Smith, Elder & Co., London and New York 1896, pp. 106-109.
• Johann Friedrich von Schulte: The history of the sources and literature of Canon law from Gratian to the present. 3 volumes. Enke, Stuttgart 1875–1880, Volume 1, p. 183 - ( digital copy) - reprint The Lawbook Exchange, Union (New Jersey) 2000, 2nd edition, ibid. 2008.

Web links

• Sophie Ambler: Richard Poore, Bishop of Chichester (Magna Carta 800th)
• Philippa Hoskin: Poor, Richard (d. 1237). 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. ^ John T. Appleby: Johann "Ohneland". King of England . Riederer, Stuttgart 1965, p. 188
2. ^ Richard W. Pfaff: The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-80847-7 , p. 377
3. ^ Wilfried Hartmann, Kenneth Pennington: The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140-1234, from Gratian to the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX. The Catholic University of America Press, Washington 2009, ISBN 978-0-8132-1491-7 , p. 355

predecessor	Office	successor
Nicholas de Aquila	Bishop of Chichester 1215-1217	Ralph de Warham
Herbert Poor	Bishop of Salisbury 1217-1228	Robert of Bingham
William Scot	Bishop of Durham 1228–1237	Thomas de Melsonby