Roger (worcester)

Roger (* around 1134; † August 9, 1179 in the Marmoutier Monastery ) was an Anglo- Norman clergyman. From 1163 he was Bishop of Worcester . He is considered one of the most respected bishops during the reign of King Henry II.

Origin and promotion to bishop

Roger was the youngest son of Earl Robert of Gloucester , an illegitimate son of King Henry I , and his wife Mabel. The year of birth of Robert has not been recorded, but he was almost as old as his cousin Heinrich Plantagenet, born in 1133, who later became King Henry II, who grew up with Roger's father from around 1142 to 1144. As a younger son, Roger was earmarked for a spiritual career at an early age. As a youth he attended a school in Paris, where Robert de Melun , who later became Bishop of Hereford, was one of his teachers. His contacts to the Abbey of St. Victor probably also came from Roger's time in Paris . Under the influence of his father, he was elected Bishop of the Diocese of Worcester in March 1163 . In May he attended the Council of Tours , but was not ordained bishop until August 23, 1164. The reason for this was probably that he had only then reached the minimum age of 30 years required by canon law .

Bishop of Worcester

Role in the king's conflict with Thomas Becket

The beginning of Roger's term of office was marked by the conflict between King Henry II and Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury, who had fallen out over the question of the competent jurisdiction for crimes committed by clergy. Although Roger did not shy away from any other conflict and was related to the king, he did not clearly take sides in the long, bitter conflict. A case from his diocese is said to have led to a break between the king and the archbishop when, on instructions from Becker, Roger refused to turn a cleric accused of murder over to the royal judges. In January 1164, Roger took part in the royal council assembly, during which the bishops recognized the so-called Constitutions of Clarendon and thus the legal sovereignty of the king. In October 1164 he took part in the council meeting in Northampton , where he cautiously spoke out against a resignation of Becket. After Becket had then fled into French exile, Roger belonged to the royal embassy, ​​which because of the conflict in Sens with Pope Alexander III. negotiated. Apparently he was now one of the critics of Becker, although he was only present at the negotiations in silence and did not speak. Only after his return from France was he enthroned as Bishop of Worcester on February 2, 1165 .

In April 1166, the Pope informed Bishop Roger that he had appointed Becket as papal legate . This meant that the bishops were even more obliged to obey Becket and had to appear before him if he so wished. Together with his former teacher, Bishop Robert de Melun of Hereford, Roger was to inform the bishops of the neighboring dioceses and Bishop Gilbert Foliot of London about the appointment of Becket. At the end of 1166, Roger and Robert de Melun informed the king that they wanted to travel to France because Becket requested it. The king then made sure that they could not leave England, and allegedly there was even a risk that he would consider Roger a traitor because of his contact with Becket.

Exile in France between 1167 and 1172

In November 1167, Roger was one of the prelates who took part in the fruitless negotiations with the papal ambassadors at Argentan in Normandy for the king . Then Becket ordered him to come. Apparently Roger stayed in France outside the sphere of influence of Henry II. He lived in the monastery of Marmoutier near Tours , where he had allegedly retired for spiritual studies. When he asked the Pope whether he should return to his English diocese, the latter replied that he would then be forced by the King to accept the Constitutions of Clarendon, which were illegal for the Church. Roger then stayed in France. Despite this voluntary exile, Henry II did not have Roger's possessions confiscated during his absence. Apparently, however, Roger could not dispose of his income from England, as he had to borrow large sums of money and lived in relatively modest circumstances. Occasionally he went to see the king when he was visiting his French possessions. He once aroused the king's anger when he tried to avoid contact with Heinrich's excommunicated courtiers. The angry king wanted to order Roger to leave his kingdom. However, his advisers advised against it. They advised the king that Roger was loyal to the king as part of his office as bishop. To drive him out would be unjust and would have driven him further on the side of Becket. In addition, the Pope would have had reason to impose further sanctions on the king.

In March 1170, Heinrich II prepared the coronation of his eldest son Heinrich the Younger as co-king . The coronation was to be made by Archbishop Roger of York , although Becket was entitled to this privilege as Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry II personally ordered Roger, who was still in France, to attend the coronation. Roger wanted to obey this order, although Archbishop Becket and the Pope had forbidden him in writing to attend the coronation. Thereupon he was prevented from crossing to England by followers of Becket. The King then accused him of treason, insulted him as unworthy of being a son of Earl Robert of Gloucester and threatened to confiscate his income. Roger reacted violently to these allegations. He replied to the king that the coronation of young Heinrich as co-king was illegal and a violation of God's order. Heinrich himself is ungrateful to Earl Robert's sons. He offered Heinrich to confiscate the property of his diocese, but then he would have other goods in addition to the property of the Archdiocese of Canterbury and other church property, which he held illegally. This would endanger the salvation of his soul. This confrontation, however, did not prejudice the peaceful negotiations between the king's envoys and those of Becket. After the ambassadors were able to reach a compromise, Roger was the only English bishop in July 1170 to witness the personal reconciliation between King Henry II and Archbishop Becket in Fréteval . When Becket then returned to England, Roger stayed in France. There he was murdered by royal knights at the end of December 1170. When he found out about this act, Roger immediately went to the papal court with other ambassadors from the king and with three bishops from Normandy to excuse the act and to avert sanctions against the king. However, they did not arrive in Rome until other royal ambassadors had already negotiated. Thereupon Roger returned to England. At the beginning of August 1171 he and King Henry II visited their cousin Bishop Heinrich von Blois in Winchester , shortly before he died. Presumably he then returned to Normandy. In August 1172 he accompanied young Heinrich on his crossing to England, when he traveled to Winchester for his renewed coronation as co-king.

Service as papal judge

Upon his return to England, Roger often served as a commissioned papal judge in church disputes. Papal letters and decrees on questions of canon law were collected and reproduced in his household. After Gerald of Wales designated Pope Alexander III. Roger and Bishop Bartholomew of Exeter as the most important English bishops, which is why he entrusted them with hearings on ecclesiastical issues. Apparently, Roger was indeed the leading papal judge in England, often entrusted with cases that other papal judges did not want to decide. Apparently Roger asked that he be exonerated in this responsible work, but the Pope himself asked him in a letter to continue serving as a judge in order to exercise justice regardless of the status of those concerned. Through Roger's services, the Pope gained considerable influence over the English Church, because clergymen could turn directly to the Pope, who then commissioned Roger to investigate the case.

Serving as the Bishop of Worcester

Probably shortly after his enthronement as bishop in 1165, Roger had a list of the estates of the bishops of Worcester drawn up. An incomplete copy of it has been preserved in the 18th century Red Book of Worcester . However, due to his services as a judge and his involvement in the dispute between the king and Archbishop Becket, Roger had little time to look after his diocese. A treatise that the monk Senatus from Worcester wrote for Rogers gives an insight into his interest in practically applied theology. This Senatus treatise on absolution and penance picks up on an issue that was discussed in schools in Paris and other schools at the time. Little is known about Roger's other activities in his diocese. Presumably in 1165 he had heretics arrested who had come to his diocese from other regions. He later ordered an examination of a crucifix in a parish church that had been credited with miracles. On behalf of the Pope, he also tried to implement church reforms. This included the abolition of the marriage of priests, the inheritance of benefices and the installation of priests' sons in other church offices. He also tried to prevent the exploitation of vicars who were appointed as parish priests for the monasteries, which had the right of patronage . He tried to enforce that their appointment was not made annually, but for a longer term. To this end, the vicars should receive a fixed share of the income of their parish church. Roger was able to successfully enforce his episcopal sovereignty against Great Malvern Priory . The St Oswald's Priory but in Gloucester remained under despite his best efforts as a royal chapel of the Archbishop of York. In 1175 a tower of Worcester Cathedral under construction is said to have collapsed during a service with Roger . In the midst of the falling chaos, Roger is said to have remained unmoved at the altar and prayed.

After 1172, Roger rarely stayed at the royal court. In July 1174 and May 1175 he is mentioned in the entourage of Henry II, on the latter occasion he also took part in a spiritual council convened by Archbishop Richard of Canterbury . At this meeting it was decided to abolish the marriage of clergymen and the inheritance of benefices, as Roger had been striving for since 1164 on the basis of an order from the Pope. In March 1176, Roger attended the church council in Westminster at which Archbishop Roger of York questioned the primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Because of the tumult that ensued, the meeting was broken off. King Henry II was very angry about the conduct of Richard of Canterbury, although Roger was able to soften his anger by joking at Archbishop Roger's expense. Together with Bishop Bartholomew of Exeter, the king sent him to the discredited Amesbury Abbey in Wiltshire in early 1177 . The bishops deposed the abbess, whose behavior was considered scandalous, and distributed the nuns of the monastery to other English monasteries. This cleared the way to subordinate the Amesbury Fontevrault Monastery , the family monastery of the royal family in France. At Christmas 1178 Roger was once more at the royal court in Winchester. From there he traveled to France with Archbishop Richard of Canterbury in February 1179 to travel on to Rome, where they wanted to take part in the Third Lateran Council . However, neither of the two bishops reached Rome. Archbishop Richard broke off the trip in Paris and returned to England. Roger fell ill in France and died a few months later in the Marmoutier monastery near Tour. He may have died of an epidemic that also killed Bishop Gilles I du Perche of Evreux and Roger I de Bailleul , the abbot of Le Bec monastery . Contrary to the wishes of King Henry II, the monks of Marmoutier had Roger buried in their monastery, as it was allegedly the wish of Roger.

Together with his brother Earl William of Gloucester , Roger founded Keynsham Priory in the winter of 1166 to 1167 , which was donated in memory of Williams' son Robert , who died as a teenager . Roger himself donated the income of the rich Church of Keynsham to the monastery , which he had been able to dispose of since before his election as bishop.

Contemporary rating

All of Roger's contemporaries were positive about Roger. Gerald of Wales counted him among the six best English bishops of his time, as he prevented nepotism , was a just and wise judge and also showed courage. Archbishop Becket noted that Roger, despite his high birth, despised wealth, and Abbot Adam of Evesham, who often served as a judge with Roger, reports that Roger was constantly surrounded by relics. The chronicler Nigel of Canterbury calls him an honorable exception among the bishops chosen by the king from among his officials.

literature

• Mary Gwendolen Cheney: Roger, bishop of Worcester, 1164-1179. Clarendon, Oxford 1980, ISBN 0-19-821879-6

Web links

• MG Cheney: Roger (c.1134-1179). 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
Alfred	Bishop of Worcester 1163–1179	Baldwin of Exeter