Gerard la Pucelle
| Gerard la Pucelle | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Coventry | |
| Diocese | Diocese of Coventry |
| Appointed | January 1183 |
| Reign ended | 1184 (death) |
| Predecessor | Richard Peche |
| Successor | Hugh Nonant |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1117 |
| Died | 13 January 1184 Coventry |
| Denomination | Catholic |
Gerard la Pucelle (c. 1117 – 13 January 1184) was a peripatetic Anglo-French scholar of canon law, clerk, and Bishop of Coventry.
Contents |
[edit] Life
Gerard was possibly born in England, taught canon law[1] at the University of Paris in the 1150s, when the study of the discipline of the Church was first differentiated from theology, spurred by the collections of church decretals that began with the Decretum Gratiani assembled by a monk at the University of Bologna. Among his surviving texts are glosses on the Decretum manuscripts to be found among the manuscripts of Durham Cathedral[2] and glosses in the Summa Lipsiensis[3] marked with the siglum 'Magister G. Coventris Episcopus' ("Doctor G. Bishop of Coventry"), and occasionally in the Summa Parisiensis,[4] and elsewhere. Gerard added to the standard collection from which he taught. Among his pupils were Lucas of Hungary, Ralph Niger, master Richard, a certain Gervase who retired to Durham, and the English scholar Walter Map.[5]
Gerard was a member of Thomas Becket's entourage, his extended familia,[6] and a close friend of John of Salisbury.[7] After Becket went into exile, Gerard taught for a while in Paris before he undertook a mission to the Empire[8] in 1165/66 even though Frederick Barbarossa was under a ban of excommunication.[9] In 1168 Gerard returned to England and took the oath of fealty to Henry II, which Becket had rejected.[10] With papal permission and that of Louis VII of France he was permitted to reside—and doubtless teach— in Cologne, which was one of the most important centers of canon law scholarship in the 1160s and 1170s.
From about 1174 he was once again in England, serving as a principal clerk to Becket's successor as Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard of Dover. He was also with Peter of Blois for a time in Rome, where he represented Archbishop Richard before the Curia. In 1179, Gerard attended the Third Lateran Council as the archbishop's representative. From there, he may have returned to Cologne to teach for a bit, but by 1181 Gerard had returned to England.[9]
Perhaps already a canon,[citation needed] in January 1183, he was appointed Bishop of Coventry,[11][12] which made him the vassal of Henry II of England,[13] but he died the following year on 13 January 1184[11] at Coventry. Some suspected that Gerard was poisoned. He was buried in Coventry Cathedral.[9]
[edit] Notes
- ^ leges et decreta according to John of Salisbury
- ^ MS C.III.1 marked with the siglum 'Ger.'
- ^ The collection of decretals with commentary, as used in Leipzig
- ^ The decretals and commentaries collected at the University of Paris.
- ^ Knowles The Monastic Order in England p. 674 footnote 3
- ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 78
- ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 135
- ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 127
- ^ a b c Donahue "Pucelle, Gerard (d. 1184)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 176
- ^ a b Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 253
- ^ The diocese was combined with that of Lichfield, 1121–1188.
- ^ Throughout the latter part of the twelfth and early part of the thirteenth century, the bishop owed the service of fifteen knights, according to Victoria County History: Warwick, vol 2 (1908) (on-line)
[edit] References
- Barlow, Frank (1986). Thomas Becket. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07175-1.
- Donahue, Charles (2004). "Pucelle, Gerard (d. 1184)" (subscription or UK public library membership required). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49666. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49666. Retrieved 14 January 2008.
- Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
- 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Coventry', A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 2 (1908), pp. 52-9 Date accessed: 13 May 2006.
- Knowles, David (1976). The Monastic Order in England: A History of its Development from the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 940–1216 (Second reprint ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-05479-6.
[edit] Further reading
- Brundage, J. (1995). Medieval Canon Law. London: Longman. p. 211. ISBN 0-582-09356-2.
- S. Kuttner and E. Rathbone, "Anglo-Norman canonists of the twelfth century" Traditio 7 1949–51 p. 279–358
- Pennington, Dr. Ken "d.-glosses, appear in a strata of Bolognese glosses composed during the 1180s" Bibliography.
- Weiler, Dr. Bjorn review of Joseph P. Huffman, Family, Commerce and Religion in London and Cologne: Anglo-German Immigrants, c.1000-c.1300 (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and Joseph P. Huffman's response (on-line)
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Richard Peche |
Bishop of Coventry 1183–1184 |
Succeeded by Hugh Nonant |
