Walter Durdent

Walter Durdent († December 7, 1159 in Coventry ) was an English clergyman. From 1149 he was Bishop of the Diocese of Coventry .

Prior of Canterbury

Walter Durdent is first mentioned as an official in the service of Theobald von Bec , who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1138. His last name translated means hard tooth , which was probably not a euphemism for his hardness. Archbishop Theobald put him in charge of overseeing the monks of the Canterbury Cathedral Priory . Although they had elected Jeremiah, a monk of the cathedral priory , as the new prior in 1143 , Theobald installed Durdent as the new prior , even against the opposition of the papal legate Heinrich von Blois . As prior, Durdent took sole control of the cathedral priory's possessions. Despite the tense relationship with the monks, the chronicler Gervasius of Canterbury praised him at the end of the 12th century as an exceptionally pious and theologically educated prior. On the other hand, his predecessor, the prior, who was also called Walter, was particularly inept in stewardship of the cathedral priory proven.

Elected Bishop of Coventry

At the end of 1148, news reached England that Roger de Clinton , Bishop of Coventry, had died in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade . The search for a successor was of considerable political importance. England was politically divided by the long war of succession to the throne, known as anarchy . King Stephen of Blois had just succeeded in subjugating Ranulph de Gernon, 2nd Earl of Chester , while Archbishop Theobald was increasingly gaining independence from the king. In addition, there have long been tensions between the Cathedral Priory of Canterbury on the one hand and the Cathedral Priory of Coventry and the canons of the Cathedral Chapters of Chester and Lichfield , who were allowed to elect the Bishop of Coventry. Archbishop Theobald then called the monks from Coventry to Leicester , where they elected Walter Durdent as the new bishop at the insistence of Archbishop Walter Durdent. Against this choice put the canons of Lichfield and Chester with Pope Eugene III. Objection because their rights were not taken into account in the election. However, in the spring or summer of 1249, Lawrence, the prior of Coventry, traveled to Rome. There he achieved that the objections of the canons were rejected. This recognized the election of Durdent, who was consecrated and enthroned bishop on October 2, 1149 in Coventry by Archbishop Theobald and the Bishops Robert de Sigillo of London, Walter of Rochester and Galfrid of Llandaff .

Bishop of Coventry

As bishop Durdent claimed land and income that the cathedral priory also claimed. This led to a dispute with Prior Lawrence. In the late summer of 1151 Durdent traveled with Lawrence to Rome, where Pope Eugene III. brokered a compromise on February 14, 1152. To this end, the Pope confirmed the seat of the diocese in Coventry. Presumably Durdent returned to England in time to attend the church council meeting in December 1152, at which the English bishops refused to crown Eustace , the son of King Stephen, as his successor. Durdent remained officially neutral until the end of the Civil War, but secretly supported the heir to the throne Henry Plantagenet and Earl Ranulf of Chester. Presumably he was with Earl Ranulf when he died in December 1153. Henry Plantagenet rewarded Durdent for his support several times with gifts, especially after he became King of England in 1154 as Henry II. Although the king still referred to Durdent as a close friend in early 1154, Durdent apparently no longer played a major role during Henry's reign.

From Durdents term of office about 36 documents and files have been preserved that prove his work as a bishop. Especially after the war of succession to the throne in 1153, Durdent served several times as a judge in church disputes, including on behalf of the Pope. The facts of one dispute were so complex that he turned to Bishop Gilbert Foliot of Hereford for advice. After his death in 1159 he was buried in Coventry.

Web links

• MJ Franklin: Durdent, Walter (d. 1159). 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
Roger de Clinton	Bishop of Coventry 1149–1159	Richard Peche