Simon of Apulia

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Simon of Apulia († September 9, 1223 ) was a clergyman from Italy who became bishop of the English diocese of Exeter . After Archbishop Anselm , he was the first Italian to return to the office of bishop in England.

Origin and education

The exact origin of Simon of Apulia is unknown. He came from southern Italy, although it is not certain whether he came from Apulia , after which it was named. His seal showed Nicholas of Myra , who was particularly revered in Bari . His education is unknown, but he was a lawyer and may have earned a master's degree .

Dean of York

Before 1186 Simon came to York , where he held a benefice . By 1190 at the latest he became Chancellor of the Archdiocese of York and at the end of 1193 Dean of York Minster . The circumstances were confusing. Archbishop Geoffrey initially wanted to get his half-brother Peter the office of dean. Because of the resistance in the cathedral chapter , he then named Simon, who probably had previously served him as an official. However, Simon did not want to give up his office as chancellor , whereupon Geoffrey named Philip of Poitou as dean. Under Geoffrey, the cathedral chapter could for the first time elect the dean who had previously been appointed by the archbishop or the king. It now elected Simon as dean, who then traveled to Rome to receive confirmation of the election from the Pope. Pope Celestine III appointed him on May 17, 1194 as dean. For a fee of 1000 Marks , Simon also received confirmation from King Richard I. Probably to avoid the angry Geoffrey, Simon did not return to York until February 1195. When Geoffrey was suspended from his office from 1195 to 1196 , Simon took over the administration of the Archdiocese of York. In the next few years there were numerous conflicts between Simon as dean and Geoffrey as archbishop. Even an attempt at reconciliation in 1200 did not bring lasting peace between the two. In 1201, Simon apparently claimed the office of provost of Beverley Minster in vain .

Bishop of Exeter

Election to bishop

Simon remained Dean of York until he became Bishop of the Diocese of Exeter in 1214 . His predecessor as bishop, Henry Marshal , had died in October 1206. Due to the dispute between King Johann Ohneland and Pope Innocent III. , in which the latter imposed the interdict on England and excommunicated the king, the diocese of Exeter, like other English bishoprics, remained vacant for several years . The Cathedral Chapter of Exeter had elected Henry of London , Archdeacon of Stafford , bishop in 1209 at the Pope's request to elect a bishop. The election remained without consequences and Henry could not take office. After the submission of the king and the repeal of the interdict, both the king, the pope and the papal envoy Pandulf called on the cathedral chapter in April 1214 to elect Simon as the new bishop. Simon was ordained bishop by Archbishop Langton on October 5 in Canterbury . A little later, Simon set out for Rome to take part in the fourth Lateran Council .

Role in pacifying Devon after the Barons' War

Before October 28, 1216, Simon returned to England when he was at the coronation of Henry III. attended in Gloucester . In England, during Simon's absence, the first war of the barons against the king broke out and ended in September 1217. However, the consequences of the civil war significantly shaped the beginning of Simon's tenure as bishop. In January 1218 there was a dispute over the occupation of the sheriff's office of Devon , whereupon the regent William Marshal and the papal legate Guala Bicchieri came to Exeter in February . They installed Robert de Courtenay, Lord of Okehampton, as sheriff of Devon, but the region remained unsettled. Simon apparently had a good relationship with Peter des Roches , the tutor of the underage king, who was also a member of the Regency Council. In 1220 he supported the restoration of royal authority in South West England when he led a delegation from Cornwall who offered the Privy Council 500 marks to replace the previous sheriff of Cornwall, Henry Fitz Count, with another member of the Cornish gentry . The Regency Council itself considered fitz Count to be rebellious and had already tried to oust him. In view of the pressure from the local gentry, Fitz Count resigned from his office, for which he received 500 marks as compensation.

The Lady Chapel of Exeter Cathedral where Simon of Apulia was buried

Other activity as a bishop

There is little evidence of Simon's further activity as a bishop. Only two original documents and ten copies of documents have survived from his term of office. No documents are dated and only two have witnessed the exhibition. However, there is evidence of a Mr. John under him as the first official of the Diocese of Exeter. Probably Simon set the boundaries of the parishes within Exeter in 1222, and Simon , his eponymous nephew, was Archdeacon of Cornwall from 1218 to 1221. Simon of Apulia continued the rebuilding of Exeter Cathedral and left it a generous donation of chasubles and liturgical implements . He was buried in the Cathedral's Lady Chapel .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marie Lovatt: Geoffrey (1151? –1212). 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
  2. Christopher Robert Cheney: Pope Innocent III and England. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-7772-7623-5 , p. 163
  3. Nicholas Vincent: Peter des Roches. An alien in English politics, 1205-1238. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2002. ISBN 0-521-52215-3 , p. 96
  4. ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III. University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 215
predecessor Office successor
Henry Marshal Bishop of Exeter
1214-1223
William Briwere