Walter Reynolds

Walter Reynolds (also Heyne or Heyerne ) († November 16, 1327 in Mortlake ) was an English clergyman. He was one of the most important supporters of the English King Edward II and served as royal treasurer from 1307 to 1310 and as royal chancellor from 1310 to 1313 . From 1308 he was Bishop of Worcester , from 1313 Archbishop of Canterbury . This made him the only English bishop who changed his diocese during the reign of Edward II. Compared to the restless terms of office of his predecessor Winchelsey and his successor Mepham , his term of office was a comparatively peaceful period for the English Church and for its relationship with the papal curia . When Edward II was overthrown, Reynolds initially hesitated, but eventually he openly supported Edward III. and thus played a major role in the success of the coup.

Origin and ascent in the service of the heir to the throne

Walter Reynolds was reportedly the son of a baker named Reginald of Windsor , and in fact Reynolds had ties to Windsor as a bishop. Why he is also called Heyne or Heyerne in two chronicles is unclear. Reynolds grew up in the court of King Edward I on. He apparently did not attend university before entering the king's service as a chaplain and official. At court he won the trust of the heir to the throne Eduard and also became a close friend of his favorite Piers Gaveston . Before 1297, Reynolds served as buyer of the heir apparent's household before becoming Keeper of the Heir apparent's wardrobe in 1301 . In 1302 or 1303 he was designated as one of the three most important advisors to the heir to the throne. In October 1304 he accompanied him to France, where Eduard paid homage to King Philip IV of France for the Duchy of Aquitaine in Amiens . Reynolds was part of the heir to the throne in Scotland when he succeeded his late father in July 1307 as King of England. On August 22, 1307, the new King appointed Reynolds to replace the disgraced Walter Langton as royal treasurer .

For his services Reynolds have already been assigned numerous pastoral positions by Edward I, in which he was represented by parish vicars . These included Wimbledon in Surrey , Ingram in Northumberland , Horsmonden in Kent , Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire and Snitterley in Norfolk . In addition, Reynolds received a benefice at London's St Paul's Cathedral and the management of St Leonard's Hospital in York . In 1306 he became provost of Beverley Minster . In order to be able to lead these numerous benefices, he probably received a papal dispensation on February 7, 1306 .

Bishop of Worcester

The king wanted Reynolds to be bishop of the next English diocese to become vacant . But only after long negotiations did Pope Clement V allow Reynolds to become Bishop of the Diocese of Worcester , which had been vacant since September 1307, in 1308 . Reynolds was ordained bishop in Canterbury by Archbishop Robert Winchelsey in the presence of the king on October 13, 1308 . In the spring of 1309, Reynolds led an English embassy to the papal court in Avignon together with Bishop John Salmon of Norwich and Adam Orleton of Hereford . They got the Pope to invalidate Piers Gaveston's exile. The Pope was evidently aware of Reynolds' position as a favorite of the king, because in 1309 he commissioned him to convey his displeasure to the king about the numerous complaints from English clergy who complained about the suppression by the king. 1309 commissioned the pope Reynolds, along with the specially sent to England Nuncio Guillaume tests the tithe to rise for the Pope.

Reynolds as Royal Chancellor

On July 6, 1310, the King dismissed Reynolds as Treasurer and appointed him instead to succeed John Langton , who was dismissed on May 11, as Chancellor . In this office Reynolds made little appearance. He had already exercised the office of treasurer only occasionally, and just as rarely did he seal documents with the great seal as chancellor. In the conflict between the king and a powerful aristocratic opposition, he clearly represented the position of the king. Reynolds was one of the English bishops who were to take part in the Council of Vienne , which began in 1311 , but the king excused his participation to the Pope, since his service in England was indispensable for the crown. In November 1312 Reynolds was one of the godparents of the heir to the throne Eduard . After the crisis caused by the assassination of Gaveston, he is the only bishop named who sealed the agreement between the barons and the king on December 20, 1312.

Archbishop of Canterbury

Appointment as archbishop

On April 27, 1313, Pope Clement V issued a bull in which he claimed the right to appoint the next Archbishop of Canterbury for himself. Archbishop Winchelsey, who had been ill for several months, died on May 11th, and the monks of Canterbury Cathedral Priory, concerned about their right to elect an archbishop, immediately after Winchelsey's funeral elected Thomas Cobham , with whom they had previously been in close contact, the new archbishop. King Edward II, who had already started negotiations with the Pope to have his confidante Reynolds appointed as the new Archbishop, appealed against this election. However, it has not been established whether he paid the Pope money for this, as some chroniclers claim. On October 1, 1313, the Pope canceled the election of Cobham and instead appointed Reynolds as the new archbishop. On January 3, 1314, the temporalities were given to Reynolds and on February 17, 1314 he was enthroned in Canterbury in the presence of the king and numerous other bishops and magnates .

The Pope not only appointed Reynolds archbishop, but also granted him several privileges. He did not have to travel to the Curia in Avignon to receive the pallium and was only to appear in person to the Pope within five years. This period was later extended to seven years. To this end, he was allowed to be represented by deputies in his diocese for a longer period of time. On April 3, 1314, Reynolds resigned from the office of Keeper of the Seal , but still remained responsible for the safekeeping of the large seal. Presumably in April, too, he resigned from his position as Chancellor, although he was previously no longer designated as Chancellor for a while, as he was not confirmed by the parliaments according to the provisions of the Ordinances . Reynolds, however, remained an influential member of the Privy Council and mostly defended the king's policies against his opponents. The king thanked him with numerous gifts, including the administration of lands, guardianship administrations, the granting of market rights for places in his possessions and the waiver of fees that he or his vassals should pay.

Acting as archbishop

Personally, Reynolds was apparently a devout Christian. He owned a cross relic and made donations to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury and St Mary of Walsingham . As Archbishop of Canterbury, he ran a large household that included 97 officials. Of these, 38 had a master's completed a university degree, and of these, 38 resulted in nine a PhD. Pope Clement V had allowed Reynolds on January 13, 1314, to assign 30 canon positions in the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury on behalf of the Pope, even if this resulted in an accumulation of offices among individual clergymen. Reynolds provided members of his own household with at least 22 of these positions. Thanks to this papal support, Reynolds had considerable influence in many cathedral chapters and collegiate foundations, and he did not hesitate to implement this influence in favor of his politics through letters and sharp references. Reynolds had a number of visitations carried out not only in his diocese but also in his ecclesiastical province , some of which he carried out himself despite his frequent absence in the service of the king. He also had an extensive library with quite demanding works. However, the so-called Provincial Constitutions of 1322 , spiritual rules for the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury, which earlier historians such as David Wilkins († 1745) had attributed to him, probably did not come from him .

As with John XXII. When a new Pope was elected in August 1316, he tried, with the help of Reynolds, to obtain the long overdue payments of St. Peter's pence and other taxes to the Curia from the English Church . Reynolds tried to implement these unpopular demands of the Pope whenever possible. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Reynolds thereby strengthened the central power of the Pope. On the other hand, Reynolds, who himself had held numerous clerical offices at the same time, knew how to reinterpret individual parts of the papal Constitution Execrabilis , which was issued in 1316 against the accumulation of clerical offices , and to use them to his own advantage. He energetically countered the old claim of the Archbishops of York to have a cross carried forward as a sign of their status as a metropolitan within the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury . He stubbornly denied Archbishop William Melton of York this right, but he was able to assert himself against having a cross carried before him in the ecclesiastical province of York . It was only when the king intervened in 1325 in Melton’s favor that he had to allow Melton to carry the cross when visiting the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury at the invitation of the king.

Reynolds was benevolent and generous with the monks of Canterbury Cathedral Priory. He apparently trusted the Prior Henry Eastry completely . Eastry apparently had a harmonious relationship with Reynolds, while he had arguments with Reynolds' predecessor and his successor. Reynolds also showed favors to individual monks. He encouraged them to take up university studies and took individual, studied monks into his household. A few months before his death, Reynolds gave the monks the property of Calcott near Canterbury, which had previously belonged to the Archbishops of Canterbury themselves.

Initial collaboration with King Edward II.

In contrast to his predecessor Winchelsey, who had uncompromisingly insisted on upholding the rights of the Church towards the king and sympathizing with the opposition barons, Reynolds often tried to convince the reluctant clergy to pay taxes to the king. In doing so, he supported the king's policy, especially the war against Scotland and the suppression of the opposition to the nobility. The clergymen in particular protested against this policy, while Reynolds was apparently able to convince a number of prelates to support the king financially. Reynolds thereby changed the political line of the English Church, which had traditionally insisted on managing its wealth itself and voting on its policies in purely church meetings. While Winchelsey had been among the leaders of the aristocratic opposition to the king and had played a significant role in the establishment of the ordinances , Reynolds tried to reconcile the king and Thomas of Lancaster , the leader of the aristocratic opposition. Especially in 1318 he contributed together with other bishops to the fact that with the Treaty of Leake a temporary reconciliation between the king and Lancaster could be negotiated.

Increasing conflicts with the king

After Reynolds worked closely with the Crown early in his tenure as the primate of the English bishops, a serious conflict arose with the king in the late 1310s. According to an instruction from Pope John XXII. He transferred the possessions of the dissolved Knights Templar to the Order of St. John , which he continued despite a prohibition by Edward II and the threat to confiscate his property, which was also presented during the parliament of 1320. The open conflict finally broke out in 1324, when the increasingly tyrannical king Adam Orleton arrested the Bishop of Hereford as a traitor because he vigorously defended his patron Roger Mortimer . Reynolds and all of the other bishops declared that Orleton was under their protection, and the king had to hand over the rebellious bishop to them.

Role in the fall of Edward II.

When Queen Isabelle , who had fled into exile, landed in England with Roger Mortimer and an army in September 1326 to overthrow the king, Reynolds initially acted neutral on the advice of Prior Eastry. He secretly sent large sums of money to the Queen, but unlike other bishops, he stayed at Lambeth Palace near London. On September 30, 1326, he had an older papal bull proclaimed in St Paul's Cathedral in London . In this, Scottish invaders were excommunicated to England , but since Reynolds did not mention the date of the bull, the text sounded as if the new invaders, the followers of Mortimer and Isabelle, were being excommunicated. When the citizens of the City of London rebelled against the rule of Edward II on October 15, 1326 and Walter de Stapledon , the Bishop of Exeter, was murdered on the same day, Reynolds fled to Kent . He did not join the magnates who appointed the young heir to the throne Edward as regent in Bristol on October 26th . It was not until December 7th, when it became apparent that the coup was successful, that Reynolds left Maidstone and submitted to Queen Isabelle. During the parliament on January 7, 1327, which decided on the removal of Edward II, Reynolds initially remained cautious. Prior Eastry advised him urgently that he and the other bishops should not oppose the removal of the king. On January 8, 1327, when the young Edward was publicly presented as regent in Westminster Hall , Reynolds then preached according to the sentence vox populi vox Dei , with which he justified the overthrow of Edward II and apparently recommended that an embassy be sent to the overthrown king, to give up his loyalty to him. On February 1, 1327 he finally crowned his godchild Edward in Westminster Abbey as the new king.

Funerary monument to Walter Reynolds in Canterbury Cathedral

death

Reynolds also belonged under Edward III. the Privy Council, but quickly lost influence. Together with his suffragan bishops , he repeated the request to canonize his predecessor Winchelsey and Thomas of Lancaster . On March 22, 1327 he consecrated James Berkeley as the new Bishop of Exeter, after which he increasingly withdrew. After his death he was on 27 November 1327 in the choir of Canterbury Cathedral buried. When he died, his personal possessions comprised nine chests with robes, jewelry, books and documents. Although Reynolds had drawn up a will on November 11, 1327, the intended recipients received almost nothing, since he had had considerable debts to the king on his death.

rating

Because of his initial support for the unpopular Edward II, but also because of his attitude in the overthrow of the king, Reynolds was already viewed critically by medieval chroniclers. The Benedictine Robert of Reading , the alleged author of the Flores Historiarum , saw him extremely negatively, which was mainly due to the fact that he had approved the taxation of the monasteries by the king. Other chroniclers such as the chronicler of Bridlington and that of Meaux as well as the author of the Vita Edwardi secundi suspected that the king would have bought Reynolds' appointment as archbishop from the Pope. Other medieval chroniclers such as Adam Murimuth or Ralph Hidgen, on the other hand, cannot say anything negative about him, and John Trokelowe, and especially Thomas Walsingham, praised Reynold's attempts to pacify England.

The historians of the 19th century, especially William Stubbs , but also TF Tout, rated Reynolds negatively. In the 20th century it was rated more differently by Conway Davies , Maude Clarke , Kathleen Edwards and May McKisack . According to current research, Reynolds is rated far less negatively. As archbishop at a politically difficult time he tried not to work against but with the king. He hoped to achieve more through harmony and stability than by insisting on claims that he himself could not represent. He wanted to pacify the empire, which is why he acted opportunistically rather than principled. When he ultimately supported the overthrow of Edward II, he did indeed act unscrupulously, but after careful consideration and supported by advice from his confidante, the Prior Eastry. It was problematic for him that the conflicts during the reign of Edward II were less conflicts about clear political principles, but were primarily determined by personal interests. Despite his personal limitations and although he ultimately contributed to the overthrow of the king, both Edward II and Pope Clement V had benefited from Reynolds' appointment as archbishop.

literature

• J. Robert Wright: The church and the English crown, 1305-1334: a study based on the register of Archbishop Walter Reynolds . Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies, Toronto 2000, ISBN 1-4593-2899-X .
• JH Denton: Walter Reynolds and ecclesiastical politics, 1313-1316: a postscript to Councils and synods II. In: Christopher NL Brooke: Church and government in the middle ages: essays presented to CR Cheney on his seventieth birthday . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1976, ISBN 0-521-21172-7 , pp. 247-274.

Web links

• J. Robert Wright: Reynolds, Walter (d.1327). 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. ↑ Jeffrey H. Denton: Canterbury archiepiscopal appointments: the case of Walter Reynolds. In: Journal of Medieval History. 1, 1975, p. 325.
2. ^ J. Robert Wright: The supposed illiteracy of Archbishop Walter Reynolds. In: GJ Cuming: The church and academic learning. Papers read at the sixth summer meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society . Brill, Leiden 1969, p. 66.
3. ↑ Alison Weir: Isabella. She-Wolf of France, Queen of England . Pimlico, London 2006, ISBN 0-7126-4194-7 , p. 229.
4. ^ J. Robert Wright: The testament or last will of Archbishop Walter Reynolds of Canterbury, 1327. In: Mediaeval Studies. 47, 1985, pp. 445-473.
5. ^ J. Robert Wright: Reynolds, Walter (d. 1327). 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
Walter Langton	Lord High Treasurer 1307-1310	John sandal
William Gainsborough	Bishop of Worcester 1308-1313	Walter Maidstone
John Langton	Lord Chancellor of England 1310-1313	John sandal
Robert Winchelsey	Archbishop of Canterbury 1313-1327	Simon Mepeham