Walter of Merton

Walter of Merton. Illustration from the 19th century

Walter of Merton (also Walter of Basingstoke ) (* around 1205, † October 27, 1277 in Saleby ) was an English clergyman. He served as royal chancellor from 1261 to 1263 and from 1272 before becoming Bishop of Rochester in 1274 . In Oxford he founded Merton College .

Origin and education

Walter of Merton was the only son of William Cook (also le Kuk or le Keu ) and his wife Christina Fitzace . His parents lived in Basingstoke , Hampshire , the place after the young Walter was first named. His mother came from a family farmer from Basingstoke, and his father was probably related through his mother to Richard Herriard , a royal judge and civil servant under Kings Richard I and John Ohneland . Walter's father died around 1245, his mother in 1238. Walter inherited a small property from his mother, and he received additional property from his relatives. Walter had seven sisters, and throughout his life he not only looked after his parents' memory, but also looked after his sisters and their children. Apparently he was raised by Augustinian canons from Merton , Surrey , although it is not certain that he spent his youth in Merton Priory himself. He was not a very gifted student, but he did acquire a thorough understanding of the application of common law . He remained grateful to the priory and later expressly requested that the college he founded be named after Merton.

Promotion as a civil servant

Despite his upbringing, Walter did not enter the priory as a regular canon . Nevertheless, he remained connected to Merton, for which he attested several documents in the early 1230s. In 1233 he received income from a benefice of the priory, but it was not until 1236 that the Franciscan Adam Marsh recommended that he be ordained a subdeacon . Apparently Merton was serving in the Diocese of Lincoln , possibly Oxford , at this time . In 1236 King Heinrich III. a parliament in Merton Priory, which he also attended frequently. Apparently, it was around this time that Walter of Merton was enlisted in the Royal Chancellery . In 1238 he received royal endorsement of his mother's inheritance on favorable terms, and there is evidence that in 1240 he was in the service of the king when he was supposed to oversee the administration of royal estates in Essex , Kent , Hertfordshire and Middlesex . Merton also served four years in the service of Nicholas Farnham , Bishop of Durham. He also served as King Henry III's doctor, where he probably got to know Merton and took him into his service. For his service to Farnham, Merton apparently received benefices at Sedgefield and Staindrop in County Durham and at Haltwhistle in Northumberland . Merton received further benefices at Benningbrough in Yorkshire , Branston in Lincolnshire and Potton in Bedfordshire . From 1247 Merton returned to the royal chancellery, and from 1255 he received regular favors from the king. When Chancellor Henry of Wingham fell ill in 1258, Merton served as Keeper of the Great Seal , and from 1259 he served regularly as Wingham's representative, for which he received a benefice from the King at St Paul's Cathedral in London and another in Exeter . He later received two benefices in Salisbury , one in Lincoln and the office of Archdeacon of Bath .

Role in the war of the barons

Against the policy of King Heinrich III. An aristocratic opposition had formed from 1258, which demanded numerous reforms and in 1260, as the successor of Wingham, enforced the appointment of Nicholas of Ely as Chancellor. As a simple clergyman without noble relatives, Merton remained a clear partisan of the king, which is why he was out of the question as chancellor for the aristocratic opposition. However, when the king regained power in the summer of 1261, he appointed Merton as the new chancellor in July. In view of the as yet undecided power struggle between the king and the aristocratic opposition, Merton was aware of how uncertain his position was. As early as 1240, Merton founded St John's Hospital in Basingstoke , which was dedicated to the memory of his parents. To do this, he had purposefully built up a property in Surrey. Merton was able to convince the king in 1262 to recognize the hospital as a royal foundation. He wanted to transfer his estates Malden , Chessington and Farleigh to Merton Priory on the condition that students would be supported from the proceeds. For this transfer, he requested confirmation from his liege lord Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Gloucester , who, however, died unexpectedly in July 1262. His heir Gilbert de Clare was not allowed to confirm this transfer because he was still officially a minor. When in June 1263 the rebellious barons under the leadership of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester won back the government, Merton had to resign as Chancellor again in favor of Nicholas of Ely. His estates were looted by supporters of the rebels, and the next year the young Gilbert de Clare, who was aiding the rebels at the time, confiscated the estates of Merton, Surrey. Merton remained a supporter of the king, whom he accompanied to France in January 1264, where during the Mise of Amiens he defended the king's position before the French King Louis IX. explained. Then it came to the open Second War of the barons against the king, which initially ended victorious for the rebellious aristocratic opposition. Merton accepted the reign of Simon de Montfort and got his possessions back.

Originally founded by Merton as a collegiate church, St John's in Malden

Merton College founded

Instead of donating the goods to Merton Priory again, Merton founded his own collegiate foundation in Malden in August 1264 , to which he transferred the goods from Malden and Farleigh. Although Merton had apparently not attended university himself, he determined that the income from his foundation should support 20 students at Oxford University or another university. First of all, Merton's own relatives were to be promoted, then primarily students from the Diocese of Winchester . His foundation should be directed by a warden . Although the Bishop of Winchester had the right to make a visitation , the actual control of the pen was incumbent on the students themselves. This novel regulation served as a model for numerous other foundations of university colleges. For the students, Merton first bought housing in Bull Hall in Oxford. After 1265 he was able to acquire the church of St John the Baptist and other property in Oxford for his foundation , which he made available to the students. There was also the estate of Holywell near Oxford, which Merton College acquired extensive property in the north and northeast of the city. After the victory of the royal party at the Battle of Evesham in August 1265, which decided the war of the barons, Merton was not restored to the office of chancellor, but remained high in the king's favor. In 1270 he issued new rules for his college and determined that sick members of the monastery were allowed to live in St John's Hospital in Basingstoke, which he founded. At Oxford the College Warden was given a house on St John's Street, and by 1274 the monastery itself was entirely moved to Oxford. A large hall was built for the foundation, while the church, now repurposed as St John and St Mary, was rebuilt to serve as both the college chapel and the parish church. Merton donated the proceeds from six other churches and seven other goods to the college. He was able to convince Earl Edmund of Lancaster to donate the rectorate of Embleton in Northumberland to its founding .

The Chapel of Merton College, Oxford

Renewed service as Chancellor, Bishop of Rochester, and death

After the death of Heinrich III. In 1272 Merton again took over the office of chancellor and the leadership of the grand seal until the heir to the throne Eduard returned to England from his crusade in 1274 . In July 1274 Merton was finally elected bishop of the Diocese of Rochester . In August 1274 he re-issued new rules for Merton College, and in the spring and summer of 1277 he visited Oxford and Durham one last time. He is believed to have died in Saleby , Lincolnshire , after having had an accident while crossing a ford . He was buried in the north transept of Rochester Cathedral. His tomb was destroyed during the Reformation , but renewed in 1598 on the initiative of Sir Henry Savile . It was restored in 1852. In 1598 a chalice was removed from his grave, which is in Oxford.

literature

• Geoffrey H. Martin, John RL Highfield: A history of Merton College, Oxford . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1997, ISBN 0-19-920183-8

Web links

• GH Martin: Merton, Walter of (c.1205-1277). 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
Nicholas of Ely	Lord Chancellor 1261-1263	Nicholas of Ely
Richard Middleton	Lord Chancellor 1272–1274	Robert Burnell
Lawrence of St Martin	Bishop of Rochester 1274–1277	John Bradfield