Nigel (bishop of Ely)
Nigel | |
---|---|
Adelelm | |
Succeeded by | Richard fitzNeal |
In office c. 1126–c. 1133 | |
Monarch | Henry I |
Preceded by | None |
Succeeded by | Adelelm |
Nigel[a] (c. 1100 – 1169) was an Anglo-Norman clergyman and administrator who served as Bishop of Ely from 1133 to 1169. He came from an ecclesiastical family; his uncle Roger of Salisbury was a bishop and government minister for King Henry I, and other relatives also held offices in the English Church and government. Nigel owed his advancement to his uncle, as did Nigel's probable brother Alexander, who like Nigel was advanced to episcopal status. Nigel was educated on the continent before becoming a royal administrator. He served as Treasurer of England under King Henry, before being appointed to the see, or bishopric, of Ely in 1133. His tenure was marked by conflicts with the monks of his cathedral chapter, who believed that Nigel kept income for himself that should properly have gone to them.
Following the accession in 1135 of Henry's successor, King
Background and early life
Nigel's date of birth is uncertain, but it is likely to have been some time around 1100.
Nigel's uncle Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, saw to Nigel's education[9] at the school of Laon in France,[10] where he probably studied mathematics under[11] Anselm of Laon.[1] It is likely that his father was Roger's brother Humphrey.[12] Other students at Laon included William de Corbeil, later Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert de Bethune, who became Bishop of Hereford, Geoffrey le Breton, future Archbishop of Rouen, and other men subsequently to hold bishoprics in the Anglo-Norman dominions.[13]
When he took vows as a cleric is unrecorded,
Under Henry I
Nigel first became Treasurer in the reign of Henry I,[19] and seems to have held that office from around 1126.[20][21][22] He was already a receiver, or auditor and administrator, in the treasury of Normandy,[23][24] and he served as treasurer for both realms,[22][25] moving with the king and court between England and Normandy.[23] The date of his appointment is unclear, as until he became a bishop, royal charters listed him as "nephew of the bishop" (Roger of Salisbury) rather than by any office he held. In 1131, though, he was listed in a papal letter as "Nigel, the treasurer", which securely establishes that he held the office at that date.[1]
In 1133, Roger of Salisbury secured the bishopric of Ely for Nigel. Ely had been without a bishop since 1131; after the two-year vacancy, King Henry made the appointment because he was settling outstanding business before leaving England to return to Normandy. At this time Henry also appointed
Ely had until 1109 been an independent monastery, but its last abbot, Richard, had proposed to the king a plan by which the abbey would become a bishopric, presumably with the abbot himself as bishop. Richard died before the proposal could be put into operation, but in 1109, the custodian of the vacant abbey secured permission to make the change, and became the first Bishop of Ely. However, the administrative changes needed to make the abbey into a bishopric took longer, and were still unresolved at the time of Nigel's appointment.[31] Regardless, Nigel was constantly at court, as shown by his appearance 31 times as a witness to charters during the last ten years of Henry I's reign.[22] This left little time for administration of his diocese, and Nigel appointed a married clergyman, Ranulf of Salisbury, to administer the diocese. Ranulf seems to have tyrannized the monks of the cathedral chapter, and Nigel appears to have done little to protect his monks from abuse.[32]
Later, during the early years of Stephen's reign, Nigel claimed to have uncovered a plot led by Ranulf to assassinate Normans. The exact nature of the conspiracy is obscure, and it is unclear what prompted it.[33] The medieval chronicler Orderic Vitalis claimed that Ranulf planned to kill all the Normans in the government and hand the country over to the Scots. After the discovery of the plot, Ranulf fled the country and Nigel made peace with the monks of his cathedral chapter.[1]
Another source of conflict with his monks was the desire of the cathedral chapter to enjoy the same "liberty" as a corporate body that the bishops did in the diocese.[34] This liberty was a group of rights that the abbey had originally held, and had transferred to the bishop when the abbey became a bishopric. The rights included sake and soke, or the right to command dues from the land, and the right to levy tolls. They also included the right to hold courts dealing with theft.[35] Around 1135, Nigel conceded this point to the monks.[34] Although he restored some of the lands that had been taken from the monks by Ranulf, the Liber Eliensis (the house chronicle of the monks of Ely) continued to decry his administration of the diocese and the lands of the cathedral chapter, alleging that "he kept back for himself some properties of the church which he wanted, and very good ones they were". The chronicle contains a number of complaints that Nigel oppressed the monks or despoiled them.[36]
Stephen's early reign
Following King Henry's death in 1135, the succession was disputed between the king's nephews –
After Stephen's accession, Nigel was at first retained as treasurer, but the king came to suspect him and his family of secretly supporting Matilda.
Arrest of the bishops
In 1139 supporters of Roger and his family brawled in public with some men who supported Alan of Brittany.[41] The brawl may have been provoked by the Beaumonts, for Alan was often associated with them.[48][49] At a court held at Oxford in June 1139, Stephen required Roger of Salisbury, Alexander of Lincoln, and Nigel to surrender their castles as a consequence of the brawl. When Roger and his family delayed, the king ordered their arrest.[41] Nigel managed to escape arrest by fleeing to the castle of Devizes, and the king followed and began a siege.[50] The king threatened to hang Roger in front of the castle unless it capitulated, and Nigel, under pressure from Roger's wife, surrendered the castle after the siege had lasted three days. All three bishops then submitted and surrendered their secular offices and castles. They were, however, allowed to retain their dioceses.[43][44][e] Nigel surrendered Newark Castle and Sleaford Castle,[47] both of which had been constructed by Alexander.[51] Stephen promptly gave Newark to Robert, Earl of Leicester, who was in turn excommunicated by Alexander of Lincoln.[52]
Stephen's brother, Henry of Blois, who was Bishop of Winchester and papal legate in England,[39] called an ecclesiastical council at Winchester on 29 August 1139, and summoned the king to answer charges that he had unlawfully arrested clergy. The king refused to attend, and sent a representative instead. After meeting for a few days, the council was dismissed on 1 September without deciding anything except to appeal to the pope.[53] In the end, the appeal never reached Rome.[54] Part of the problem confronting the assembled bishops was that Stephen had not expelled Roger's family from their ecclesiastical offices, merely their secular ones. Stephen's representatives argued that the bishops had given up their castles and money voluntarily to avoid secular charges. The defence taken by the king was not novel; it had been used before by William I and William II against Odo of Bayeux and William de St-Calais, respectively.[55]
Traditionally, the arrest of the bishops has been seen as a turning point in Stephen's reign, and the event that turned the ecclesiastical hierarchy against him. Recent historians have held a lively debate on the issue; a few still hold to the traditional interpretation,[56][57] but most have decided that reactions in the English church were more ambivalent.[58][59][60] One modern historian, David Crouch, believes that the arrest of the bishops signalled the beginnings of the Anarchy, not because of any alienation of the church, but through court politics, where Stephen showed himself incapable of manipulating the factions of his court.[45] The ascendency of the Beaumonts was marked by the placement of one of their protégés, Philip de Harcourt, as Chancellor.[43]
Roger died in December 1139 while in the king's custody.
Stephen's later reign
In 1143 Nigel became involved in a quarrel with the powerful Henry of Blois. Charges of depriving a priest of a church, giving church property to laymen, and encouraging sedition were brought against Nigel, and he was forced to go to Rome to defend himself, only reaching there in 1144. He did not return to his diocese until 1145.
By 1147, Nigel was again witnessing Stephen's charters, and in 1153 or 1154 he was named in a grant of lands to St Radegund's Priory in Cambridge.[1] He assisted with the consecration of Hilary of Chichester as Bishop of Chichester in August 1147.[71] He took part in shire courts in both Norfolk and Suffolk in 1150,[23] and continued to assist with episcopal consecrations throughout the remainder of Stephen's reign.[72] No records exist of him being involved with treasury affairs during this time. His witnessing of charters is sparse, and almost always in company with other bishops; this suggests that he was at court only for councils or other similar events.[73] Nigel was a witness to Stephen's charter that left England to Matilda's son, Henry of Anjou. When Henry succeeded Stephen, Nigel was present at the coronation.[1]
Return to the Exchequer
After the accession of Henry II, Nigel was summoned to reorganize the Exchequer,
The pipe roll for 1155–1156 has several entries which declare that Nigel was making decisions about monetary affairs and issuing writs, but later pipe rolls do not contain any such entries.
Nigel also served as a royal justice under Henry II. Although his relations with the government had improved, his relations with the monks of his cathedral chapter, which had never been good, continued to be marked by quarrels. In 1156 the English Pope
Death and legacy
Nigel died on 30 May 1169.[28] In either 1164 or in 1166, or possibly both, he had been struck by paralysis, and after this he seems to have withdrawn from active affairs. He took little part in the disputes between the king and Thomas Becket,[1] although he did agree with his fellow bishops who opposed the king's attempt to reduce clerical benefits.[2] He may have been buried at Ely, where a 12th-century marble slab possibly marks his tomb.[1][f]
Nigel was a
Nigel was active in draining
When ... Nigel ... needed to raise money in order to repair his own political fortunes, he stripped down, sold, or used as security, a quite astounding number of Ely's monastic treasures. These numbered Crucifixes of gold and silver from the
Anglo-Saxon past, and they included an alb with gold-embroidered apparels, given by St Æthelwold, and a chasuble, given by King Edgar, which was almost all of gold. A gold and bejewelled textile covering ... was sold to the Bishop of Lincoln, Alexander, who took it with him to Rome as a gift of particular splendour. It is a biting commentary on attitudes of the Anglo-Norman episcopy to Anglo-Saxon art, that it was left to the pope to point out that such an artistic heirloom should never have left Ely in the first place and to order its return.[98]
Most historians have seen Nigel as an administrator, not a religious bishop. The historian David Knowles wrote that Nigel "had devoted all his energies and abilities to matters purely secular; in the department of financial administration he was supreme, and more than any other man he helped to ensure the continuity and development of the excellent administrative practice initiated under Henry I".[2] The historian W. L. Warren said that "Stephen probably paid dearly for the dismissal of Bishop Roger of Salisbury and Bishop Nigel of Ely, for the expertise of the exchequer was lodged in their expertise."[99] Whatever Nigel's administrative talent, his ecclesiastical abilities are generally held to be low; the Gesta Stephani says both he and Alexander were "men who loved display and were rash in their reckless presumption ... disregarding the holy and simple manner of life that befits a Christian priest they devoted themselves so utterly to warfare and the vanities of this world that whenever they attended court by appointment they ... aroused general astonishment on account of the extraordinary concourse of knights by which they were surrounded on every side."[100]
Notes
- ^ Sometimes known as Nigel Poor or Nigel of Ely
- ^ Adelelm was either the son or the nephew of Roger of Salisbury.[23]
- ^ Whether or not Nigel continued to hold office until 1136, it is clear that Adelelm was not put into office until 1136.[29]
- ^ Henry I had more than 20 illegitimate children.[38]
- ^ Adelelm also lost his office of Treasurer, and no further Treasurer was appointed until 1158 or 1159.[29]
- ^ This slab, which is decorated with an image of the archangel Michael, was found in another church in Ely in 1829 and is now in the north choir aisle of Ely Cathedral. The fact that it was found outside the cathedral does not preclude it having once been there, as the cathedral's tombs and monuments underwent two large regroupings, once in the late 17th century and again in the middle 18th century.[88]
- ^ The modern biographer of Roger of Salisbury states that Richard was born before Nigel's consecration, although he gives no source for this information.[12]
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Hudson "Nigel" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ a b c d Knowles Episcopal Colleagues pp. 9–12
- ^ Brett English Church p. 110 footnote 4
- ^ Spear "Norman Empire" Journal of British Studies p. 6
- ^ Huscroft Ruling England pp. 15–19
- ^ Huscroft Ruling England pp. 64–65
- ^ Hollister Henry I pp. 47–49
- ^ Huscroft Ruling England pp. 65–70
- ^ Cantor Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture p. 298
- ^ Cantor Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture p. 293 footnote 122
- ^ a b Barlow English Church p. 88
- ^ a b c d Kealey Roger of Salisbury p. 24
- ^ Hollister Henry I p. 432
- ^ Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces): Bishops: Ely
- ^ Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 4: Salisbury: Archdeacons of Salisbury
- ^ a b Kealey Roger of Salisbury pp. 274–275
- ^ Kealey Roger of Salisbury p. 49 footnote 74
- ^ Keats-Rohan Domesday Descendants pp. 828–829
- ^ a b Barlow English Church p. 79
- ^ a b Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 103
- ^ Green Government of England p. 263
- ^ a b c d Hollister "Origins of the English Treasury" English Historical Review p. 271
- ^ a b c d e f Karn "Nigel" Historical Research p. 302
- ^ Coredon Dictionary p. 235
- ^ a b Chibnall Anglo-Norman England p. 125
- ^ Hollister Henry I p. 464
- ^ Kealey Roger of Salisbury pp. 144–145
- ^ a b Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 244
- ^ a b Hollister "Origins of the English Treasury" English Historical Review p. 272
- ^ Lyon Constitutional and Legal History p. 112
- ^ Miller Abbey and Bishopric of Ely pp. 75–76
- ^ Kealey Roger of Salisbury p. 144
- ^ Kealey Roger of Salisbury pp. 167–168
- ^ a b Miller Abbey and Bishopric of Ely pp. 199–200
- ^ Miller Abbey and Bishopric of Ely pp. 26–27
- ^ Fairweather Liber Eliensis pp. 366–367
- ^ Huscroft Ruling England pp. 71–73
- ^ Hollister Henry I p. 41
- ^ a b c Barlow English Church p. 95
- ^ a b Huscroft Ruling England p. 73
- ^ a b c d Yoshitake "Arrest of the Bishops" Journal of Medieval History' p. 98
- ^ Crouch Reign of King Stephen pp. 93–97
- ^ a b c Davis King Stephen pp. 28–30
- ^ a b Callahan "Arrest of the Bishops" Haskins Society Journal p. 98
- ^ a b Crouch Beaumont Twins pp. 43–44
- ^ Kealey Roger of Salisbury p. 186
- ^ a b Chibnall Empress Matilda p. 79
- ^ Crouch Beaumont Twins p. 44
- ^ Crouch Reign of King Stephen p. 61
- ^ Crouch Reign of King Stephen p. 96
- ^ Pettifer English Castles pp. 148 & 201
- ^ Crouch Beaumont Twins p. 45
- ^ Yoshitake "Arrest of the Bishops" Journal of Medieval History p. 99
- ^ Yoshitake "Arrest of the Bishops" Journal of Medieval History p. 103
- ^ Callahan "Arrest of the Bishops" Haskins Society Journal pp. 99–101
- ^ Loyn English Church pp. 126–127
- ^ Callahan "Arrest of the Bishops" Haskins Society Journal pp. 97–106
- ^ Yoshitake "Arrest of the Bishops" Journal of Medieval History pp. 97–108
- ^ Matthew King Stephen pp. 84–85, 91–93
- ^ Crouch Reign of King Stephen pp. 97–100
- ^ a b c Crouch Reign of King Stephen p. 115
- ^ Davis King Stephen p. 41
- ^ Davis King Stephen p. 52
- ^ Huscroft Ruling England p. 74
- ^ Davis King Stephen pp. 77–78
- ^ Saltman Theobald p. 20
- ^ Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings pp. 49–50
- ^ Knowles Monastic Order pp. 270–271
- ^ Fairweather Liber Eliensis pp. 400–401
- ^ Fairweather Liber Eliensis pp. 411–412
- ^ Saltman Theobald pp. 100–101
- ^ Saltman Theobald pp. 104, 107, 119, 123
- ^ Karn "Nigel" Historical Research pp. 302–303
- ^ a b Warren Henry II p. 266
- ^ Karn "Nigel" Historical Research pp. 300–301
- ^ Richard and Sayles Governance of Mediaeval England p. 167
- ^ Huscroft Ruling England p. 155
- ^ Matthew King Stephen pp. 218–219
- ^ Richardson and Sayles Governance of Mediaeval England pp. 262–263
- ^ Karn "Nigel" Historical Research p. 304
- ^ Crouch Beaumont Twins p. 91
- ^ Karn "Nigel" Historical Research p. 305
- ^ Karn "Nigel" Historical Research p. 310
- ^ Chrimes Introduction to the Administrative History p. 51
- ^ Richardson and Sayles Governance of Mediaeval England p. 150
- ^ Saltman Theobald p. 150
- ^ Richardson and Sayles Governance of Mediaeval England pp. 87–88
- ^ Sayers "Once 'Proud Prelate'" Journal of the British Archaeological Association p. 67
- ^ Poole Domesday Book to Magna Carta p. 183
- ^ Green Government of England p. 185
- ^ Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 391
- ^ Barlow Feudal Kingdom of England p. 267
- ^ Crouch Reign of King Stephen p. 94 footnote 26
- ^ Miller Abbey and Bishopric of Ely p. 157
- ^ Miller Abbey and Bishopric of Ely pp. 167–169
- ^ Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 349
- ^ Matthew King Stephen pp. 136–137
- ^ Dodwell Anglo-Saxon Art pp. 220–221
- ^ Warren Governance of Norman and Angevin England p. 99
- ^ Quoted in Hudson "Nigel" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
References
- ISBN 0-582-50236-5.
- ISBN 0-582-49504-0.
- ISBN 0-19-822741-8.
- Brett, M. (1975). The English Church under Henry I. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821861-3.
- Callahan, Thomas Jr. (1993). "The Arrest of the Bishops at Stephen's Court: A Reassessment". In Patterson, Robert B. (ed.). Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval History. Vol. 4. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell. pp. 97–108. ISBN 0-85115-333-X.
- Cantorm Norman F. (1958). Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England 1089–1135. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- ISBN 0-631-15439-6.
- ISBN 0-631-19028-7.
- Chrimes, S. B. (1966). An Introduction to the Administrative History of Mediaeval England (Third ed.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. OCLC 270094959.
- Coredon, Christopher (2007). A Dictionary of Medieval Terms & Phrases (Reprint ed.). Woodbridge, UK: D. S. Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-138-8.
- ISBN 978-0-521-09013-1.
- ISBN 0-582-22657-0.
- ISBN 0-582-04000-0.
- Dodwell, C.R. (1982). Anglo-Saxon Art, A New Perspective. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0926-X.
- Fairweather, Janet, ed. (2005). Liber Eliensis. Fairweather, Janet (trans.). Woodbridge, UK: Boydell. ISBN 978-1-84383-015-3.
- Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Revised Third ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
- ISBN 0-521-37586-X.
- Greenway, Diana E. (1991). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 4: Salisbury: Archdeacons of Salisbury. Institute of Historical Research. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
- Greenway, Diana E. (1971). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces): Bishops: Ely. Institute of Historical Research. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 30 December 2008.
- ISBN 0-300-08858-2.
- JSTOR 567061.
- required)
- Huscroft, Richard (2005). Ruling England 1042–1217. London: Pearson/Longman. ISBN 0-582-84882-2.
- Karn, Nicholas (August 2007). "Nigel, Bishop of Ely, and the Restoration of the Exchequer after the 'Anarchy' of King Stephen's Reign". Historical Research. 80 (209): 299–314. .
- Kealey, Edward J. (1972). Roger of Salisbury, Viceroy of England. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-01985-7.
- ISBN 0-85115-863-3.
- OCLC 2742571.
- ISBN 0-521-05479-6.
- ISBN 0-582-30303-6.
- Lyon, Bryce Dale (1980). A Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England (Second ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-95132-4.
- Matthew, Donald (2002). King Stephen. London: Hambledon & London. ISBN 1-85285-514-2.
- OCLC 3008323.
- Pettifer, Adrian (1995). English Castles: A Guide by Counties. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell. ISBN 0-85115-782-3.
- ISBN 0-19-821707-2.
- Richardson, H. G.; OCLC 504298.
- Saltman, Avrom (1956). Theobald: Archbishop of Canterbury. London: Athlone Press. OCLC 385687.
- Sayers, Jane (2009). "A Once Proud Prelate: An Unidentified Episcopal Monument in Ely Cathedral". Journal of the British Archaeological Association. 162: 67–87. S2CID 192184394.
- Spear, David S. (Spring 1982). "The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy, 1066-1204". S2CID 153511298.
- ISBN 0-7131-6378-X.
- ISBN 0-520-03494-5.
- Yoshitake, Kenji (1988). "The Arrest of the Bishops in 1139 and its Consequences". .
Further reading
- JSTOR 547367.