Thomas de Cantilupe

Coat of arms of Thomas de Cantilupe as Bishop of Hereford

Thomas de Cantilupe (also St Thomas of Hereford or Thomas von Hereford ) (* around 1220 in Hambleden , Buckinghamshire , † August 25, 1282 in Ferentium , Italy) was an English Lord Chancellor and Bishop of the English diocese of Hereford . He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church .

origin

Thomas de Cantilupe was the third son of the English nobleman William II de Cantilupe and his wife Millicent, a daughter of Hugo de Gournay from Normandy . Both his father and grandfather, William I de Cantilupe , had served as stewards of the household of the English kings. Thomas had six or seven siblings, including four brothers. His eldest brother William became the heir of his father's estates, the second brother Hugh became a clergyman and eventually Archdeacon of Gloucester , while the two younger brothers John and Nicholas apparently became knights.

Youth, studies and academic career

Thomas was born on his father's estate in Hambleden , Buckinghamshire. He was likely to be put into a ministry early on and came under the tutelage of his uncle Walter de Cantilupe , who became Bishop of Worcester in 1236. Around 1237 Thomas was probably studying in Oxford . At the beginning of the 1240s he studied the fine arts with his brother Hugh in Paris . They lived in a stately property that even the French King Louis IX. visited. Hugh and Thomas both attended the first council of Lyons in 1245 , where Thomas was appointed papal chaplain by Pope Innocent IV . To this end, the Pope granted him a dispensation that allowed him to hold several benefices and offices side by side. After completing his master's degree in Paris, Thomas studied with Guido de Guinis in Orléans , whose teaching was more practical than theoretical. Back in Paris, Thomas studied canon law . At that time he no longer lived with his brother. Around 1255 he returned to Oxford, where he completed his studies in canon law and received a doctorate. In 1261 he was elected chancellor of the university. Not only his services but also the favor of King Heinrich III contributed to this. and his relationship with Bishop Walter de Cantilupe. During his tenure, Thomas already showed his characteristics that became characteristic of him: very conscious of his own authority, he was convinced that students had to be clear that they were in a subordinate position. Even so, his administration of the university was considered conscientious and impartial.

Role in the war of the barons

Probably through his uncle Walter de Cantilupe, Thomas was increasingly involved in the political crisis in England, since part of the nobility under the leadership of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester against the rule of Henry III. rebelled. Numerous clergy supported Montfort because he was apparently a defender of ecclesiastical rights. Walter de Cantilupe was a close friend of Simon de Montfort, and Thomas was a relative of Peter de Montfort , who, however, was not related to Simon de Montfort. Peter de Montfort also supported the aristocratic opposition and had been friends with Thomas' brother William, who had already died. Cantilupe traveled to Amiens as a representative of the aristocratic opposition in December 1263 , where the French King Louis IX. should make an award on the concerns of the rebel barons. Cantilupe drafted the three letters of the barons in which they explained their point of view to the French king. When the French king rejected the concerns of the barons in the Mise of Amiens in January 1264 , an open war between the barons and the king broke out in England . In May 1264, Simon de Montfort was able to defeat the king at the Battle of Lewes and take over the government in England. In February 1265 Thomas de Cantilupe was appointed Lord Chancellor by the Council of State and the compliant King . From February 25 to May 7, Cantilupe carried the royal seal, following instructions from Montfort, the nine-member Council of State and the King. During his short term of office, Cantilupe also took care of detailed questions with his typical sense of responsibility. At the beginning of March, for example, he objected to a letter drawn up by the Council of State and described himself as the author of four of the six documents he had issued, and not the king, as was usual up to now. After his release, the administration quickly reverted to the previous approach. Why he stopped exercising his office after May 7, but still held the title of Lord Chancellor, is uncertain. The flight of the heir to the throne, Lord Eduard, from Montfort's custody, his unsuccessful campaign to the west of England and the decisive defeat at Evesham on August 4th ended Montfort's rule.

Exile and renewed academic activity

Cantilupe left England after the Battle of Evesham. Although the king pardoned him in February 1266, he stayed abroad for several years. He studied theology in Paris, where his later opponent John Pecham was also studying and teaching from 1270. In Paris, Cantilupe studied the letters of the Apostles and the Apocalypse . There is no information about how he behaved to the debate that was then being held between Dominicans and Franciscans about the teachings of Thomas Aquinas , or what general views he had on the theological issues that were topical at the time. Around 1272 Cantilupe returned to Oxford, where he became a doctor of theology in June 1273 , thanks to the Dominican Robert Kilwardby , who had recently been ordained Archbishop of Canterbury . Pecham had also returned to Oxford around this time and served as the Franciscan lecturer between 1271 and 1275. Cantilupe was again Chancellor of the university. He played an important role in January 1274 in resolving a violent conflict between students from northern England, the Northernes , and students from southern England, the Southerners .

Spiritual career and election as Bishop of Hereford

Cantilupe, however, was no longer interested in the theoretical questions and challenges of canon law and theology, but looked for a practical task. In May 1274 he attended the Second Council of Lyon with his nephew William de Cantilupe , where he was again appointed papal chaplain. By this time he had already received several benefices, including the office of archdeacon of Stafford , precentor and canon in York , canon in London and holder of various pastoral offices. This accumulation of offices had made him prosperous. When he was not visiting his parish, he lived in London. In 1274 he received a benefice in Preston near Hereford by Bishop John le Breton . When he died the next year, the Canons of Hereford elected according to John le Breton's request on June 15, 1275 Cantilupe as the new Bishop of Hereford. On June 26, 1275, he received the temporalities and on September 8, he was ordained bishop by Archbishop Kilwardby.

Act as a bishop

Cantilupe also protected his rights and privileges as Bishop of Hereford. With good intentions, he had a list of his documents and documents drawn up, which was later neglected again. Nevertheless, the oldest surviving documents and documents of the Diocese of Hereford come from his tenure. Cantilupe, he was a hardworking administrator, who frequently toured his diocese and carried out visitations in both monasteries and parishes to improve pastoral care. Since he insisted on his privileges as bishop, this led to conflicts with clergy and monks on several occasions, especially since the exact boundaries of the diocese were not yet defined everywhere in his time. Both clergymen and some secular gentlemen therefore viewed him as an intruder. Among other things, he got into quarrel with Bishop Anian II of St Asaph and with Bishop Richard of Carew of St David's, but also with the Welsh Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and with Gilbert de Clare, 3rd Earl of Gloucester . In addition to his spiritual duties, Cantilupe also remained politically active and was a member of Edward I's Privy Council .

Conflict with John Pecham

Cantilupe had the most violent conflict of his tenure as bishop with John Pecham , who had become Archbishop of Canterbury in 1279. Pecham claimed the position of papal legate and metropolitan for himself , in doing so he succeeded in intimidating numerous suffragan bishops . When Pecham claimed the right to decide on the use of land gifts and foundations that were not within the territory of a diocese and opened the Court of Canterbury, the Court of Arches in London, to lawsuits from other dioceses, many bishops felt uneasy , as this restricted their own legal position. Cantilupe stayed in Normandy from 1280 to 1281, but his representative, Master Robert of Gloucester , turned to the Pope on his behalf and bore the brunt of the heated argument with the Archbishop. When Cantilupe returned to England at the end of 1281, the dispute was far from resolved. In February 1282, Pecham imposed church sentences on Cantilupe that amounted to excommunication . Cantilupe disregarded this and traveled to Italy to see Pope Martin IV . In June 1282 he met the Pope in Orvieto , where he discussed the dispute with him in a friendly atmosphere. When the Pope moved on to Montefiascone , Cantilupe followed him. There he brought his complaints about Pecham to the papal cardinals in July. Then he fell ill and died, provided with an absolution from the Pope, in his quarters in the Ferentium, about 10 km from Montefiascone .

Cardinal Girolamo, who was a member of the Franciscan Order and later Pope Nicholas IV , held his memorial mass and funeral oration. His flesh and entrails were buried in the monastery of San Severo outside Orvieto, and his bones were transferred to England by John de Clare , a member of his household. When Pecham learned of the death of his opponent, he traveled to the diocese of Hereford in October 1282, where he tried, apparently out of revenge, to strengthen his control over the diocese. He sentenced Cantilupes representative Robert of Gloucester to a fine and a humiliating penance. He continued to regard his dead opponent as excommunicated and did not allow Cantilupe's bones to be buried in Hereford Cathedral. Also when Pecham was presented with a certificate on December 3, 1282, which had been issued on September 5 in Orvieto and which testified that Cantilupe had confessed and received absolution before his death and that he had thus not died as an excommunicated person, ignored he this. Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall , defended Cantilupe from Pecham and had his heart buried in the Ashridge Abbey , which he donated , so that Pecham finally allowed Cantilupe's bones to be buried in the cathedral in January 1283.

Canonization and devotion

In early 1283, cantiloupe was buried under a slab in Hereford Cathedral. In April 1287, Cantilupes successor Richard Swinfield had Cantilup's bones reburied and reburied under a shrine-like superstructure in the north transept. Swinfield became an ardent advocate and canonization of cantiloupe. A first miracle at Cantilupe's tomb was reported on Easter Monday, and over 400 other miracles were reported by 1312, adding to the reputation of Cantilupe's holiness. That number was only surpassed in medieval England by the 700 miracles attributed to Thomas Becket . However, Swinfield's efforts were initially unsuccessful. A commission authorized by Pope Clement V confirmed in 1307 that the church sentences imposed on Cantilupe in 1282 were not excommunication because the archbishop had not properly proclaimed them and that Cantilupe had died as a member of the church. To this end, the Pope ordered an investigation into the life of cantiloupe, the result of which was also published in 1307. Both the kings Edward I and his son Edward II promoted the canonization of Cantilupes together with numerous prelates and magnates, so that this on April 17, 1320 by Pope John XXII. was officially canonized. Before Osmund von Sées, he was the last Englishman to be officially canonized before the Reformation.

The shrine in Hereford Cathedral that held Cantilupes' bones from 1287 to 1349

His feast day was set for October 2nd for reasons that were not entirely clear; it was said to be the day the bones were buried. For the saint, a new shrine was built at the east end of the cathedral, in which the bones of Cantilupes on October 25, 1349 in the presence of Edward III. were reburied. At the end of the 14th century Cantilupes became less popular. During the Reformation, the shrine was removed in 1538 as a symbol of the papacy. The bones of Cantilupes were kept by local Catholics until the 17th century, but after that there are only gaps in their traces. It is said that parts of his remains are to be kept in Belmont Abbey in Herefordshire, Stonyhurst College and Downside Abbey . In Hereford Cathedral is his empty burial shrine, in which the bones were between 1287 and 1349.

personality

Apart from official letters, no letters, sermons or other writings have survived from Thomas de Cantilupe. Had it not been for his canonization of 1307, little would be known about Cantilupe's personality. When he was canonized, 43 witnesses vouched for Cantilupe's sacred lifestyle, according to which he was reserved and extremely reserved, and very humble at the same time. However, these reports also provide little reliable information about him. He is said to have had a noticeable, long nose, a healthy complexion and full hair and a gray-red beard. He was aware of his aristocratic origins and his rank as a bishop and avoided any form of frivolity. As a clergyman, he devoted himself less to current theological topics than to questions that he considered worthy of himself.

literature

• Edwin Burton:  St. Thomas of Hereford . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 14, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1912.
• Ronald C. Finucane: The changing fortunes of a curative shrine. St Thomas Cantilupe. In: Miracles and pilgrims. Rowman and Littlefield, Totowa 1977, ISBN 0874718317 , pp. 173-188.
• Meryl Jancey: St Thomas Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford: essays in his honor. Friends of Hereford Cathedral, Hereford 1982, ISBN 0-904642-04-6 .
• PH Daly: The attitude of the English Franciscans to St Thomas Cantilupe. In: Franziskanische Studien, 66 (1984), pp. 251-264.

Web links

Commons : Thomas de Cantilupe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• RC Finucane: Cantilupe, Thomas de [St Thomas of Hereford] (c.1220-1282). 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
• Thomas Cantelupe in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heiligenlexikon.de: Thomas von Hereford. Retrieved March 22, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Hereford Cathedral: Pilgrimage at Hereford Cathedral. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on March 22, 2016 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
John of Chishall	Lord Chancellor of England 1265	Ralph Sandwich
John le Breton	Bishop of Hereford 1275–1282	Richard Swinfield