Robert Winchelsey

Robert Winchelsey (also Robert of Winchelsea ) (* around 1240, † May 11, 1313 in Otford ) was an English clergyman. From 1293 he was Archbishop of Canterbury . Until his death he defended the privileges of the church and thus became an opponent of the policies of Kings Edward I and Edward II.

Origin and education

Winchelsey probably grew up in Old Winchelsea , Sussex , but either came from Pevensey , Sussex, according to the chronicler of Hagnaby, or from River , Kent, after William Thorne . Little is known of his family except that he had a brother named Henry Winchelsey and a nephew, John Winchelsey , who also became a clergyman. Winchelsey may have attended school in Canterbury , then studied fine arts in Paris, where he received a master's degree . Before July 1267 he became head of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at the University of Paris . A few years later he studied theology at Oxford, where he graduated with a doctorate in theology .

Activity as a university lecturer

After completing his studies, Winchelsea was Chancellor of Oxford University in the 1280s . In the late 1280s he was Regius at Oxford, and in the early 1290s he taught theology at the Cathedral School of St Paul's Cathedral in London. As a secular clergyman , he was not embroiled in the bitter doctrinal dispute between the Dominicans and Franciscans that was being fought at Oxford. Of his writings, two Quodlibeta and thirteen Quaestiones , which he taught at Oxford and at St Paul's, have survived. One of his main concerns was to study the philosophical foundations of understanding the Trinity . In doing so, he built on the teaching of Thomas Aquinas . According to his interpretation, the three hypostases can be distinguished from one another by their relationships, but not by their origin. In April 1272 he had already received the rectorate of Wood Eaton in Oxfordshire as the first benefice to provide for him. He was before June 1276 a canon at the cathedral of Lincoln and in August 1288 he became archdeacon of Essex .

Archbishop of Canterbury

Election as archbishop

After the death of Archbishop John Pecham on December 8, 1292, a new archbishop was quickly elected. Contrary to the practice of previous elections, neither the king nor the Pope intervened in the election, and on February 13, 1293 Winchelsey was elected as the undisputed candidate by the monks of the Canterbury Cathedral Priory. Even so, the election was not recognized immediately. Winchelsey left England on April 1, 1293 to travel to the Curia in Rome and to have his election confirmed by the Pope. This confirmation was delayed for over a year, as the papacy was still vacant after the death of Nicholas IV . Only the new Pope Celestine V confirmed Winchelsey's appointment after his election in July 1294 and consecrated him as bishop on September 12, 1294 in Aquila . Because of the beginning of the Franco-English war Winchelsey could not travel back to England through France, but had to take the route through Germany. From the Netherlands he reached Yarmouth on January 1, 1295 . From there he immediately traveled to Wales, where King Edward I put down a rebellion . He reached the king in Conwy , where he swore allegiance to him on February 2, 1295 with the express reference that this only applied to his feudal estates. Thereupon the temporalities were handed over to him on February 4th . He made it clear, however, that he was only a liege lord for the king. On March 18, 1295, he entered Canterbury, where he was enthroned on October 2, 1295 in the presence of the king, the heir to the throne Edward and numerous magnates and other bishops . Winchelsey had been treated so well by the papal curia during his long wait in Italy that Canterbury believed that the Pope wanted to elevate him to cardinal . Although he maintained close contacts with the Curia, Winchelsey's interests as archbishop and primate were primarily in England. Even before Winchelsey could reach the English king in Wales, Pope Celestine V had resigned in Rome and Boniface VIII was crowned as his successor. Winchelsey worked closely with and obediently served the new Pope.

Beginning of the conflict with Edward I.

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Winchelsey had to defend the interests, rights and privileges of the Church of England against the Crown. Shortly after his election there was a first dispute with Edward I, as Winchelsey criticized the filling of parish posts that had been made by the royal administration during the vacancy of the archbishopric before his election as archbishop. Controversial cases included the parishes of Sevenoaks , Reculver, and Pagham . While Winchelsey had to accept the appointment of the royal clerk Thomas de Capella as pastor of Sevenoaks despite his resistance , after a long dispute he was able to get his own candidate against John Langton , the royal chancellor, as rector of the rich parish of Reculver in 1300 . In Pagham, too, Winchelsey was able to push through his candidate against the claims of the influential Theobald de Bar after a seven-year dispute . However, the archbishop's right to occupy clerical offices was often undermined by royal orders in order to provide deserving royal officials with clerical income. Their unsuitability for their ministry was a fundamental issue for Winchelsey. He criticized the fact that royal officials often failed to exercise their ecclesiastical offices and often refused to obey his orders. Despite the archbishop's energetic attempts to uphold canon law, the influence of the crown on the church increased noticeably in Winchelsey’s time. On the other hand, there were few officials who actually abused their ministry. Senior officials who Winchelsey particularly criticized included the royal judge Ralph de Hengham , the Baron of the Exchequer Peter of Leicester, and John of Caen and Peter Dene .

At the same time the archbishop tried to curb the special privileges of the royal free chapels . These were often secular canon pens whose benefits were often held by royal officials. These offices also only served to support them. However, as their own royal churches, these monasteries were not subject to episcopal supervision. In order to retain the right to fill these charities, the crown defended the exempt status of these churches with the consent of the popes and often also with that of the diocesan bishops . Winchelsey, on the other hand, began a lengthy legal battle over the status of the collegiate churches of St Oswald's in Gloucester , St Martin's-le-Grand in London, and St Mary's in Hastings . This and the other conflicts led to the archbishop's rapid alienation from the crown. As a result, there was also a clear division of the English prelates into critics of the crown and a group who loyally supported the crown.

Dispute over the taxation of the clergy by the king

Increasing demands for money from the king

The cost of the Franco-English War from 1294 and the suppression of the rebellion in Wales had exhausted royal finances. Therefore Edward I took extremely drastic measures against the church. He confiscated the proceeds of the tithing granted by the Pope on the income of the church, which was actually intended for a new crusade of the king. To do this, he had the value of the treasures that were in the churches and monasteries in England determined and introduced a high tax on the export of wool, which particularly affected many monasteries. In addition, in 1295 he levied an extraordinarily high tax on the clergy, which comprised half of their church income. Unlike his predecessor Archbishop Pecham, Winchelsey initially calmly accepted this high burden himself in order not to further burden the relationship with the crown. In July 1295 he convened his first council of the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury , at which he presented himself as an advocate of ecclesiastical rights. In the autumn of 1295 the political crisis worsened when the king led a campaign against Scotland , which had allied with France. Although Winchelsey was fully aware of the critical situation of the empire, during the Model Parliament in November 1295 he firmly refused a renewed tax on a third or a quarter of the income of the clergy and was only willing to pay a tithing. He had the full approval of the other representatives of the clergy in Parliament for this attitude. Contrary to what he had expected, the king was faced with an oppositional clergy led by a strong leader.

The bull Clericis laicos

Winchelsey informed Pope Boniface VIII about the king's renewed monetary claims. The Pope wanted a quick end to the war between England and France, and when the French clergy, who were financially troubled by the French king, asked the Pope for support, he issued the Bull Clericis laicos in February 1296 . In it he resolutely confirmed that the clergy could only be taxed with the consent of the Pope. The Pope's peace efforts initially delayed the publication of the bull's contents , which Winchelsey confirms in his opposition to a new tax. When the English King Edward I demanded further financial support from Parliament, which met in Bury St Edmunds in November 1296 , for a new campaign against France, the representatives of the Canterbury Province refused to give their consent. After extensive debate, they decided, under Winchelsey's leadership, not to discuss the decision on the king's claim any further until an ecclesiastical council in January 1297. Winchelsey's insistence on the independent administration of the church's finances led the king to ally himself with the barons, who believed that the clergy also had to help defend the empire. In doing so, the king tried to politically isolate the archbishop.

The crisis of 1297

The King's Tax Plans

Winchelsey now ordered the publication of the papal bull. His aim was peace with France and he demanded that the rights of the Church as described in the Magna Carta be restored. During the council, which met in London's St Paul's Cathedral in January 1297 , he was able to convince the clergy to completely refuse any further financial support for the king's wars. The council decided that the king should turn to the Pope, who would have to approve taxation of the church. Should he tax the income of the clergy without the permission of the Pope, this would result in the excommunication which would be proclaimed in all churches of the ecclesiastical province. Winchelsey did not pass this threat on to the king because he was aware of the danger the clergy posed with this uncompromising attitude. He had the unanimous support of the representatives of the lower clergy and also that of many prelates in his ecclesiastical province, who complained that the king had not given the church any further privileges despite the previous financial support. Walter Langton , Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield and John de Pontoise , Bishop of Winchester, on the other hand, supported the king's attitude as officials. The clergy of the northern ecclesiastical province of York had also agreed to financial support from the king in view of the Scottish raids, so Winchelsey was looking for a compromise on the question of taxation.

Failure of resistance to taxation of the clergy

In view of his financial hardship, however, the king began to enforce his claim to taxation of the clergy by force. He threatened the clergy that, in view of the lack of financial support from the church, he could no longer protect it through the law and on February 12, 1297 ordered the confiscation of the temporalities. Should the clergy pronounce the highest church punishment, excommunication, against him, he would in return impose the highest secular punishment, ostracism . He promised the clergy that they would return to the king's protection and return their possessions if they paid a fee of the fifth part of their income. If they were ostracized, he threatened them with high fines. The horrified contemporary chroniclers complained about the enslavement of the English Church, but in February and March 1297 many clergy gave in to the pressure and paid the requested sums to the king. Winchelsey himself, however, continued to oppose the king, whereupon he confiscated Canterbury Cathedral and barred it. The archbishop's goods and possessions were also confiscated. In the face of this pressure, the archbishop was also forced to continue negotiating with the king. He set out to meet the King during Salisbury Parliament. However, since royal officials confiscated his horses on the way, he had to walk the route. Nevertheless he reached Salisbury, but the interview with the king was futile. Thereupon he convened another council of his ecclesiastical province in London for March 24th. On this he showed himself with a few followers determined to continue to oppose the king's demands. He had to accept, however, that in view of the confiscation of their properties, many clergymen had paid a fine equivalent to the king's tax demand. Therefore Winchelsey allowed the remaining clergy to decide for themselves whether or not to give in to the king's demands. In doing so, he continued to refuse his official consent to taxation of the church and did not pay any taxes on his own income, but the king now also came to meet the archbishop and waived further measures against him. The latter had now lost the support of a large part of his barons because of his tax demands and was in an extremely difficult situation. In view of the open opposition of his magnates, he gave Winchelsey his temporalia back on July 11th. Three days later, on July 14th, when the oath of allegiance to the heir to the throne Eduard came to a public reconciliation between the archbishop and the king. Winchelsey had thus managed to preserve the unity of the English Church. His supporters hailed him as the victor over the persecution of the English Church.

Worsening of the crisis and confirmation of the Confirmatio cartarum

But Winchelsey had turned down the opportunity to ally himself with the magnates against the king. This led to the fact that some of the rebellious barons again submitted to the king. The two powerful magnates Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford and Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk , on the other hand, continued their resistance to the king's policies. Winchelsey tried unsuccessfully to mediate with other bishops in the conflict. When the king wanted to levy a new tax on the clergy at the beginning of August, it became apparent that the reconciliation between him and the archbishop was fragile. Winchelsey called a council of his ecclesiastical province to London on August 10th for the third time this year. At that meeting, the clergy relentlessly refused to pay a tax without the consent of the Pope. Winchelsey then announced that on September 1, those who misappropriated church property would be excommunicated. He had not openly allied himself with the rebellious barons, but supported their resistance against the king. He finally set out on the planned campaign to Flanders on August 24, although the conflict with part of the magnates and the church remained unsolved. A dramatic confrontation erupted in Canterbury Cathedral on September 1, 1297 when Hugh of Yarmouth , a royal lawyer, entered the cathedral during a service. He interrupted Winchelsey’s sermon, announced that the king would appeal to the Pope about the archbishop’s defamation, and forbade the clergy to excommunicate the king, his officials or any other representative. As a result, large parts of England were on the verge of turmoil in the face of growing opposition to tax collection. The Scottish victory in the Battle of Stirling on September 11th strengthened the critics who had advised against a campaign to Flanders. At the same time it was now evident that the Regency Council, which ruled for the King who was staying in Flanders, needed further financial support. The government was ready to make concessions. Winchelsey played a leading role in the Parliament that met in London in early October and sought a peaceful settlement. The government not only upheld the Magna Carta and the Forest Charter , but also made other concessions. This expanded version of the Magna Carta was called Confirmatio cartarum . Although it did not meet every requirement made by the Archbishop in detail, taxation was ultimately approved in principle. The King confirmed this agreement on November 5th in Ghent . Since the Pope in his bull etsi de statu , announced in July 1297, had under urgent circumstances agreed to taxation of the clergy without the consent of the pope, the prelates of the Canterbury ecclesiastical province approved a tithing on the income of the clergy under certain conditions in a fourth council at the end of November. Ultimately, it was Winchelsey's dedicated and patient resistance in particular that had compelled the king to make concessions. The bishops were able to keep the upper hand over the king on the question of taxing the clergy until the end of Edward I's reign. The king did not forget, however, the humiliation he had suffered and that the Archbishop of Canterbury had allied himself with the rebellious barons shortly before the campaign in Flanders.

Further activity as archbishop

In the next few years Winchelsey devoted himself particularly to his spiritual duties as a clergyman. He made strict visitations in the dioceses of Rochester , Chichester , Worcester , London , Norwich, and Winchester . He uncovered numerous cases in which beneficiaries did not exercise their offices. There were also many royal officials among them. In addition, he took care of the administration of the archbishop's property. In 1299 he assisted the king in peace negotiations with France, and on September 10, 1299, in Canterbury Cathedral, he led the king's marriage to Margaret of France , the sister of the French king. A little later, however, Winchelsey's relations with the king were strained again. On the orders of Pope Boniface VIII, he traveled to Sweetheart Abbey in Scotland in July and August 1300 . There he handed over the bull Scimus Fili , in which the Pope claimed supremacy over Scotland, to the king, who was leading a campaign there in Scotland . It is unclear whether Winchelsey supported this claim, but this claim did not improve Winchelsey's relationship with the king. From 1300 to 1303 he strongly resisted the attempt of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury to be exempt from the archbishop's supervision. The abbey had received such confirmation from the Pope and was supported in its claims by the king, but ultimately Winchelsey was able to prevail. Relations between the king and the barons and prelates remained extremely tense, particularly up to the Lincoln Parliament in 1301, but also afterwards. Winchelsey, too, was reluctant to meet the king's demands and insisted on observing the Confirmatio cartarum. The king tried, however, to circumvent the terms of this agreement by, for example, using church property or confiscating it for their purposes.

Deposition and exile

After a peace was made with France in May 1303 and after rule over Scotland had been secured by a successful campaign against Scotland, Edward I turned again against the archbishop, whom he considered to be his most bitter domestic opponent. He had Winchelsey's measures taken against the royal own churches and to the detriment of royal officials carefully examined. When a new Pope, Clement V, was elected on June 5, 1305, who had previously been an official of the King in Gascony, he was able to take revenge on Winchelsey. The king asked the Pope to release him from the oath he had taken to comply with the Confirmatio Cartarum, while accusing the Archbishop of a conspiracy against him. Winchelsey was now completely isolated. Of the English bishops, only Antony Bek of Durham stood up for him openly. The Pope complied with the king's requests and on February 12, 1306, suspended Winchelsey from his office. He called him to the papal court, where serious accusations were made against him. The administration of the Archdiocese of Canterbury was entrusted by the Pope to his confidante Guillaume Teste and Guillaume Gérard de Sor . One day after Winchelsey had received the Pope's letter, he left Dover for France on May 19, 1306. During the first ten months of his exile he stayed near the Pope at Bordeaux , after which he followed the Pope to the vicinity of Poitiers . During this time Winchelsey behaved calmly and patiently while there was no trial of the politically motivated charges against him. He was advised to pay a voluntary fine to the Pope, but Winchelsey believed that the payment was wrong and would not end the dispute. When Edward I died in July 1307, his son and successor Edward II called Winchelsey back to England. In his exile, however, he became so ill that he was bedridden. Therefore, he commissioned Bishop Henry Woodlock of Winchester to perform the coronation of Edward II. It was only after his recovery that he entered Canterbury in triumph on March 24, 1308.

Reinstatement and relations with Edward II.

When Winchelsey returned to England, the political situation had fundamentally changed. The Pope continued to support the crown, while the young Edward II acted insecure. Winchelsey was now an elderly, ailing man and remained rather inactive as a Church spiritual leader. He made only a few trips and also made no more visitations. Although he no longer took action against the officials of the king, who were provided for by spiritual benefices, he was still concerned about the preservation of ecclesiastical privileges. He continued to oppose direct taxation of the clergy and continued to complain about attacks by royal judges against clergy. The king, however, was faced with growing opposition from his barons. Although Winchelsey no longer took over the leadership of this opposition, but in the summer of 1308 he announced the banishment of the royal favorite Piers Gaveston . When he was recalled by the king in the spring of 1309, Winchelsey was openly angry. To this end, the king had his officials elect Walter Reynolds as Bishop of Worcester, Walter de Stapledon as Bishop of Exeter and John Droxford as Bishop of Bath and Wells. The angry Winchelsey now openly supported the aristocratic opposition led by Thomas of Lancaster , and his spiritual support strengthened the work of the Lords Ordainers , who were to work out a program of reform for the government. In this reform program, announced in 1311, the Ordinances , which were based on the observance of the Magna Carta, Winchelsey had high hopes. However, when the king openly disregarded the ordinances in 1312, Winchelsey became politically active again. At a meeting of prelates and magnates convened by him in March 1312 in London, Winchelsey excommunicated Gaveston, who had again returned from exile, according to the ordinances. This apparently encouraged the barons to forcibly resolve the dispute over Gaveston, who was eventually captured and, after a short trial, executed. Winchelsey held a council of his ecclesiastical province in the spring of 1312, at which he achieved that most bishops supported the observance of the ordinances. However, the violent assassination of Gaveston split the aristocratic opposition so that the king was able to regain his power. Winchelsey withdrew, disappointed. In autumn 1312 he visited London again to negotiate with the papal nuncios that the Pope had sent to England to support the king. In December he traveled to his Otford estate near Sevenoaks , where he stayed until his death. On May 23, 1313 he was buried in Canterbury Cathedral. At the request of the king, Pope Clement V appointed his confidante Walter Reynolds as his successor.

personality

According to an anonymous description probably made by a monk of Canterbury Cathedral Priory in the third quarter of the fourteenth century, Winchelsey was handsome, kind, well mannered, and clever as a young man. As he got older, he became corpulent, but kept healthy complexion and remained affable and humorous. Personally pious, he lived chastely, was charitable, and repented. No doubt he had a solid character. Despite the serious conflict with Edward I, there is no evidence that there was any personal enmity between him and the king. His determination and severity made him feared rather than loved. When he personally reprimanded the abbot of Osney Abbey in 1297 , he is said to have suffered a fatal heart attack. Close friends, whom he could distance himself from if necessary, included Bishop Antony Bek of Durham, Bishop John Monmouth of Llandaff, and Bishop Simon Ghent of Salisbury.

Aftermath and evaluation

Many clergymen saw in Winchelsey a saint who was persecuted by the state during their lifetime. Between 1319 and 1327 his canonization was sought, for which there were numerous testimonies of his piety and reports of miracles. However, these efforts were clearly politically motivated, as they were intended to serve as a sign against the authoritarian rule of King Edward II. Thomas of Lancaster was initially an important advocate for his canonization, but he was executed in 1322 after his failed rebellion against the king. Both King Edward II and the papal curia , however, were opponents of Winchelsey's policies and did not support the canonization. Ultimately, Winchelsey's reputation faded and he remained known in the late Middle Ages only as a conscientious clergyman who had cared for the priests and decorated the church. After the reform, his grave monument was destroyed between 1540 and 1572. The Anglican clergyman John Joscelyn wrote the first biography after the Reformation in the 16th century, but portrayed Winchelsey as a supporter of the popes rather negatively. This image shaped the view of Winchelsey until William Stubbs reevaluated Winchelsey as a fighter in the constitutional dispute with the kings in the 19th century. Stubb's contemporary William Capes , on the other hand, saw him more as a representative of the papacy, which had placed itself in the foreground. Rose Graham published until 1956 the list of Winchelseys documents, through which his life could be reevaluated. She saw Winchelsey as a conscientious ecclesiastical administrator, while Michael Prestwich described him as a stubborn and uncompromising advocate of ecclesiastical interests towards Edward I. Like Richard Swinfield , Oliver Sutton , Ralph Walpole, and others , Winchelsey was among the learned ministers who rose to bishops, according to Jeffrey H. Denton . In contrast to the religious who became bishops, they attached great importance to pastoral care in their dioceses, but also to the preservation of the rights of the clergy. Their education, however, set them apart from the crown's clergymen, who, like Robert Burnell and John Langton, rose to be bishops as a reward for their service. As a conservative clergyman, Winchelsey believed that the wealth of the church was a prerequisite for the welfare of the empire. The government should respect the independent position of the clergy who were responsible for the education and the salvation of the population. Although he could well serve as a mediator and did not act maliciously or underhandedly, he proved unable to compromise with the crown. Although he initially successfully fought attacks on church rights, after 1297 remained largely unsuccessful politically. He did not recognize that the time of church-centered politics had passed. This becomes clear when he was deposed by Pope Clement V for supporting the policies of Pope Boniface VIII.

literature

• Jeffrey H. Denton: Robert Winchelsey and the crown, 1294-1313: a study in the defense of ecclesiastical liberty , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002, ISBN 0-521-89397-6
• AJC Smith: Some aspects of the scholastic career of Archbishop Winchelsey , In: Dominican Studies , 6 (1953), pp. 101-126
• Rose Graham: Archbishop Winchelsey: from his election to his enthronement . In: Church Quarterly Review , 148 (1949), pp. 161-175
• CR Cheney: So-called statutes of John Pecham and Robert Winchelsey for the province of Canterbury . In: Journal of Ecclesiastical History , 12 (1961), pp. 14-34 ·

Web links

• JH Denton: Winchelsey, Robert (c.1240-1313). 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. ^ Kathleen Edwards: The social origins and provenance of the English bishops during the reign of Edward II . In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 9 (1959), p. 67.
2. ^ ^{A b} Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California Press, Berkeley 1988. ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 413.
3. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California Press, Berkeley 1988. ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 415.
4. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California Press, Berkeley 1988. ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 540.

predecessor	Office	successor
John Pecham	Archbishop of Canterbury 1293-1313	Walter Reynolds