William de Ste Barbe

William de Ste Barbe (also Sancta Barbara ) (* around 1080; † November 13, 1152 ) was an Anglo-Norman clergyman. From 1143 he was Bishop of Durham .

Origin and advancement as a clergyman

The origin of William de Ste Barbe is unclear. He probably came from Saint-Barbe-en-Auge near Mézidon in Normandy . In the 1120s he came to York as a civil servant and canon in the wake of Archbishop Thurstan . Around 1135 he became dean of York Minster .

Role in the dispute over the election of Archbishop Fitzherbert and promotion to Bishop of Durham

As Dean of York, Ste Barbe was responsible in June 1141 for William Fitzherbert being elected as the new archbishop after the death of Thurstan. However, numerous reform-minded prelates in the ecclesiastical province of York rejected the election of Fitzherbert because it was made under pressure from King Stephen and because they considered the candidate unsuitable. In March 1143, Pope Innocent II ruled that the validity of the election depended on Ste Barbe swearing that the electoral process had complied with canon law .

The background to this conflict was the English War of Succession, the so-called anarchy between King Stephen and his cousin Matilda . King David I of Scotland supported Matilda and had already occupied England north of the Tyne . As early as 1139, David of Scotland had forced King Stephen to recognize his son Henry as Earl of Northumbria . King Stephan then tried to occupy the northern English dioceses with his supporters and thus increase his influence. When Bishop Geoffrey Rufus of Durham died on May 6, 1141 , the Scots tried to have the Scottish Chancellor William Cumin elected as the new bishop. Cumin immediately occupied Durham Castle and the diocese possessions. However, there was sustained opposition to Cumin as bishop, notably from Prior Roger of Durham and from Archdeacon Ranulf, a nephew of former Bishop Ranulf Flambard . They convinced Pope Innocent II to insist on a free election of bishops and to admonish King David not to support Cumin any longer. The monks of Durham Cathedral Priory moved to York, where they elected William de Ste Barbe as their new bishop on March 14, 1143. This was absent from the election because he took part in the council convened by the papal legate Heinrich von Blois in London, at which Cumin was excommunicated . Ste Barbe was ordained a bishop in Winchester Cathedral on June 20, 1143 , before moving to Durham in August. However, this was still occupied by cumin. First he was granted refuge by Roger de Conyers , the constable of the diocese at Bishopton, northeast of Darlington . He then moved to St Giles Church in Durham, but, faced with Cumin's military superiority, moved to Bishopton and then to fortified Thornley, southeast of Durham, before finally moving to Lindisfarne . In view of this power struggle, his absence at the consecration of Fitzherbert at the end of September 1143 was excused. Only after Ste Barbe had won the support of Earl Henry and other barons, he could move into Durham and be enthroned on October 18, 1144 by Archbishop Fitzherbert . Due to these circumstances, Ste Barbe did not come to southern England and took the oath required by Pope Innocent II before the papal legate about the legality of the election of Fitzherbert. This was then in February 1146 by Pope Eugene III. suspended as archbishop .

Bishop of Durham

Ste Barbe's tenure was marked by civil war-related unrest. Politically largely powerless, he was dependent on the tolerance of the Scots, who continued to control the region. When a new archbishop was to be elected after the removal of Archbishop Fitzherbert on July 24, 1147 in Richmond , Ste Barbe did not vote for the royal candidate Hilary , but for Henry Murdac , leader of the reformist forces and abbot of Fountains Abbey . Earl William of York, as a supporter of the king, devastated the properties of his opponents, including those of Ste Barbe. Therefore, Ste Barbe could not participate in the council of Reims in 1148 , which is why he was led by Pope Eugene III. was suspended. Archbishop Murdac managed to have the suspension lifted.

Ste Barbe supported the reformist Cistercians of Newminster and the Augustinians of Guisborough Priory , which led to a conflict with his own cathedral priory . Nevertheless, Ste Barbe was considered a mild, educated and wise bishop who, among other things, was able to settle a conflict between his prior and the archdeacon of Durham over their priority. 17 documents have been received from his term of office.

Web links

• HS Offler, Henry Summerson: Ste Barbe, William de (c.1080-1152). 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

literature

• A. Young: The bishopric of Durham in Stephen's reign . In: David Rollason, Margaret Harvey, Michael Prestwich: Anglo-Norman Durham . Boydell, Woodham 1994, ISBN 0-85115-390-9 , pp. 353-368 ·

predecessor	Office	successor
William Cumin (elect)	Bishop of Durham 1143–1152	Hugh de Puiset