William Briwere

William Briwere (also William Brewer , William Bruere or William de Briwere ; † November 24, 1244 ) was bishop of the English diocese of Exeter from 1223 until his death .

Origin and career as a clergyman

William Briwere was a nephew of William Brewer of the same name , an influential official who was able to build up an extensive estate in south-west England during the reign of King John Ohneland . Otherwise nothing is known about his family origins and his education. As a protege of his uncle Brewer was during the vacancy after the death of Bishop Henry Marshal of Exeter in 1208 pastor of the Church of Braunton and Precentor of Exeter Cathedral . When, after the death of Bishop Simon in September 1223, his uncle became administrator of the diocese on behalf of the king, he quickly moved the cathedral chapter to consecrate Briwere as the new bishop. On April 21, 1224 Briwere was ordained bishop together with Ralph de Neville of Chichester and Walter Mauclerk of Carlisle by Archbishop Stephen Langton in St Katherine's Chapel in Westminster . His elevation to this office was supported by Hubert de Burgh , who probably intended William's uncle to be on his political side, and despite Briwere's inadequate training and the circumstances of his election, this was not perceived as scandalous at the time.

Crusade with Peter des Roches

Shortly after his consecration, King Heinrich III commissioned him . , Plympton Castle , a stronghold of the rebellious Falkes de Breauté to occupy. Briwere was ready to take the castle by storm, but his troops refused. As a result, the castle was not conquered until after a 15-day siege by Robert de Courtenay , the sheriff of Devon .

By expanding the self-government of the cathedral chapter, Briwere was able to gain more personal freedom for himself, so that in the summer of 1227 he went on a crusade to the Holy Land . For this purpose his deceased uncle had given him 4,000 marks that had been deposited with the Knights Templar in Acre. Together with his friend, Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, he traveled to Italy, from where they set sail from Brindisi in August 1227 . They had an army contingent with them, although it is unclear whether this consisted of Englishmen or mercenaries recruited on the European mainland. In August 1227 they set sail from Brindisi. In the Holy Land, both bishops became influential advisors to Emperor Frederick II , who arrived in the Holy Land on his crusade in 1228. Pope Gregory IX had forbidden to support the emperor, who was excommunicated at the time, but both bishops ignored the papal order and worked closely with Frederick and his agents. The cruising emperor particularly appreciated the financial resources brought by the bishops. In February 1229, the two bishops testified to a treaty between the emperor and the sultan of Cairo, according to which Jerusalem was peacefully returned to the Christians, the so-called Peace of Jaffa . Briwere then visited Jerusalem in March 1229. How soon he then returned to England is unclear. Some historians assume that he was back in England as early as 1229. However, he probably traveled back with des Roches, where they made stays in Italy and France.

Diplomat in the service of the king

Not until April 1231 is Brewer mentioned again in England. King Henry III commissioned him several times with diplomatic missions. In 1234 he should try together with des Roches to a peace treaty with the French King Louis IX. to negotiate, and in 1235 he accompanied Isabella , a sister of the English king, to her marriage to Emperor Friedrich II in Worms . At the beginning of 1236 he again negotiated a peace treaty with France. In January 1241 he crossed together with the papal legate Oddone , who was on the way to the unsuccessful council of Pope Gregory IX. to Rome was the English Channel. He reached Pontigny before March 24, 1241 . Henry III. thanked Briwere several times with gifts of game and timber from the royal woods.

Act as a bishop

Briwere took office in 1224 at a time of change. The minority of Heinrich III. was drawing to a close, and the young king reaffirmed the privileges of the Church and the nobility set out in the Magna Carta . The cathedral chapter, arguably dissatisfied with the outdated structures of the diocese, presumably made reform a condition of Briwere's election. Within two years, Brewer created the offices of elected dean and chancellor of the cathedral chapter, for which he also donated income. At the expense of the episcopal income, he also increased the income of the other offices and the cathedral choir. Briwere promised not to sell or give away any real estate or church rights without the consent of the dean and the cathedral chapter. At a diocese synod he issued the first comprehensive statutes of his diocese, which were drawn up on the model of the Diocese of Salisbury . He approved the construction of a chapter house and began building a new bishop's palace. With the support of the king, he set up a hunting park near Faringdon , for which he received stags from the king. He granted a charter to the Boroughs Crediton and Penryn , which he founded .

Personally, Brewer was undoubtedly a believer. He venerated the Virgin Mary, for whom he founded a hermitage near Crediton . He promoted monasteries in his diocese and allowed the Dominicans to settle in his diocese. He bequeathed his numerous liturgical vestments to the Exeter Cathedral Treasury.

As an old man, Briwere wanted to resign. On December 15, 1244, Pope Innocent IV ordered Bishop William Raleigh of Winchester to accept Briwere's resignation. At that point, however, Briwere had already died. The chronicler Matthew Paris praised him for his good character, his noble parentage and for his skills.

literature

• Fryde, EB, Greenway, DE; Porter, S .; Roy, I .: Handbook of British Chronology , Third Edition, revised. Edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996, ISBN 0-521-56350-X .
• Christopher Tyerman: England and the Crusades: 1095-1588 . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1996, ISBN 0-226-82013-0 .
• Christopher Tyerman: God's War: A New History of the Crusades . Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN 0-674-02387-0 .
• Nicholas Vincent: Peter des Roches: An Alien in English Politics 1205-1238 , reprint. Edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002, ISBN 0-521-52215-3 .

Web links

• Frank Barlow: Brewer, William (d. 1244). 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. ↑ Fred A. Cazel, Jr: Neville, Ralph de (d. 1244). 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. ↑ Vincent: Peter des Roches , pp. 230–232
3. ^ The History of Plympton St Maurice. Retrieved June 20, 2016 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Tyerman: God's War , pp. 744-745
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Tyerman: England and the Crusades , pp. 99-101
6. ↑ Vincent: Peter des Roches p. 234

predecessor	Office	successor
Simon of Apulia	Bishop of Exeter 1223-1244	Richard Blund