Baldwin of Forde

Baldwin of Forde
Archbishop of Canterbury
Statue of Baldwin of Forde from the exterior of Canterbury Cathedral
Province	Canterbury
Diocese	Diocese of Canterbury
See	Archbishop of Canterbury
Appointed	December 1184
Term ended	19 November 1190
Predecessor	Richard of Dover
Successor	Reginald fitzJocelin
Other post(s)	Archdeacon of Totnes Bishop of Worcester
Orders
Consecration	c. 1180
Personal details
Born	Baldwin
Died	19 November 1190
Parents	Hugh d'Eu

Baldwin of Forde (sometimes just Baldwin or Baldwin of Ford; c. 1125 – 19 November 1190) was Archbishop of Canterbury between 1185 and 1190. The son of a clergyman, he studied both canon law and theology at Bologna and was tutor to Pope Eugene III's nephew before returning to England to serve successive bishops of Exeter. After becoming a Cistercian monk, he was named abbot of his monastery before being elected to the episcopate at Worcester. Before becoming a bishop, he wrote theological works and sermons, some of which survive.

Baldwin impressed King Henry II of England while bishop, and the king insisted that Baldwin become archbishop. While archbishop, Baldwin quarrelled with his cathedral clergy over the founding of a church, which led to the imprisonment of the clergy in their cloister for over a year. He also spent some time in Wales with Gerald of Wales, preaching and raising money for the Third Crusade. After the coronation of King Richard I of England, Baldwin was sent ahead by the king to the Holy Land, and became embroiled in the politics of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Baldwin died in the Holy Land while participating in the Crusade. His dispute with his clergy led one chronicler to characterize him as worse for Christianity than Saladin.

Early life

Forde Abbey, where Baldwin was abbot before becoming Bishop of Worcester

Baldwin was born in Exeter around 1125, the son of Hugh d'Eu, who was Archdeacon of Totnes and a woman whose name is unknown; his mother, however, later became a nun. Gervase of Canterbury's story that Baldwin was of humble background has been shown by modern scholarship to stem from bias on Gervase's part. Possibly he studied at Bologna in the 1150s with the future Pope Urban III. Robert Warelwast, who was Bishop of Exeter from 1138 to 1155, is said to have sent Baldwin to Italy to study law. Baldwin was also said to have taught at Exeter, although this is not substantiated by any contemporary record. In 1150 or 1151 Pope Eugene III appointed Baldwin tutor to Eugene's nephew. By 1155, however, Baldwin seems to have returned to England where he joined the household of Robert of Chichester, Bishop of Exeter.

Baldwin attracted the attention of Bartholomew Iscanus, Bishop of Exeter who made him archdeacon at Totnes about 1161, after his father's death. Baldwin was known as a canon lawyer during his holding of Totnes. In 1167, Baldwin received a letter from John of Salisbury, who complained about Bartholomew's conduct during the Becket controversy. He accused Bartholomew of not supporting Thomas Becket properly, urging Baldwin to influence the bishop to increase this support and to avoid signing any appeal by the English bishops against Becket. Other letters from John dealt with rumours about Roger, the Bishop of Worcester, who John had heard was speaking badly of Becket. John's purpose in relaying the rumours seems to have been to have Baldwin pass along a warning from Becket to Roger about his behaviour; John was a supporter of Becket's during the latter's exile. In 1169, Baldwin was once more peripherally involved in the Becket dispute, when he objected to Becket's excommunication of a number of noblemen and clergy for opposition to Becket's cause. Baldwin's objection was not so much to them being excommunicated as to the fact no warning had been given that such an action was contemplated.

Baldwin then became a monk and then abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Forde about 1170. He was well known as a canonist, and he often acted as a judge-delegate for the papacy, hearing cases that had reached the Roman Curia and been remanded back to local experts for decision. In 1166, Baldwin was the addressee of a work by John of Salisbury Expectiatione longa, which was one of the tracts written during the Becket controversy. It was probably at this time that Baldwin wrote one of his works, De sacramento altaris. In 1175 he served with his old bishop Bartholomew as joint papal judges in a dispute between Malmesbury Abbey and Josceline de Bohon, the Bishop of Salisbury. In 1178 he was recommended to Pope Alexander as a possible candidate for a cardinalship, but this never occurred.

Bishop of Worcester

Baldwin became Bishop of Worcester on 10 August 1180. While at Worcester, Baldwin impressed King Henry II by intervening in a secular case, to prevent a hanging on a Sunday. Although the medieval writer Walter Map said that Baldwin was determined to continue writing even after his election to the bishopric, none of Baldwin's writings can be dated to his time as bishop except for one sermon.

Archbishop of Canterbury

Baldwin was translated from the see of Worcester to the see of Canterbury in December 1184, after Henry II let it be known that he would only accept Baldwin at Canterbury. The monks put forward three candidates from within Christ Church Priory: Odo, who had been prior of Christ Church and was then Abbot of Battle Abbey, Peter de Leia, a Cluniac prior of Wenlock Priory and later Bishop of St David's, and Theobald, Abbot of Cluny, but none of them found favour with the English bishops. Instead, the prelates selected the king's choice, Baldwin. The selection of Baldwin took place only after a dispute between the cathedral chapter of Canterbury and the suffragan bishops of Canterbury, both of which claimed the right to elect the new archbishop.

Baldwin received his pallium from Pope Lucius III along with Lucius' approval of his translation. Baldwin was named a papal legate in 1185, although his authority was limited to his own archdiocese and it did not extend into the Archdiocese of York. During his time as archbishop there was a dispute with the monks of Christ Church Priory in Canterbury, who resented Baldwin's attempts to impose stricter control over them, and who disputed the legitimacy of Baldwin's election. For his part, Baldwin did not approve of the luxurious and pampered life that the monks of Christ Church lived, and felt that they profited too much from the cult of Thomas Becket.

Escalation of the dispute

The dispute escalated when Baldwin deprived the monks of some of the revenues of their monastic estates. After that, Baldwin then proposed to establish a church dedicated to Becket in Canterbury itself, staffed by secular, not monastic, clergy. The monks of the cathedral chapter saw this proposed foundation as the first step in an attempt to change the see of Canterbury from a monastic cathedral chapter, a peculiarity of the English Church, to the more normal pattern of secular clergy. It is not clear if Baldwin himself intended such a plan, but it was definitely a plot by some of the other backers of the proposed church, among whom were the king and many other English bishops. Baldwin sought the advice of Hugh, the Bishop of Lincoln, who advised Baldwin to abandon the plan as it would only cause distress to all parties. The controversy was long and involved and, at one point, the monks were imprisoned within their own buildings for a year and a half, from January 1188 to August 1189. This led to the suspension of the liturgy in the cathedral. Eventually all the prominent ecclesiastics and monastic houses of Europe were forced into choosing sides in the dispute. In October 1189, as an attempt to gain control, Baldwin appointed Roger Norreys as the chapter's prior, an appointment that was widely acknowledged as putting a useless individual into the office. His plan for financing the church involved soliciting contributions from donors by promising a one-third reduction in penances for annual donations.

Service to King Henry

In 1188 King Henry II of England called for a tithe to support the Third Crusade, following the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187. The tithe was later ascribed to King Richard I, who became notorious for his pre-Crusade fundraising (including his remark about selling London to the highest bidder) although the amount collected (about 1 denarius per adult person) was far outstripped by forced contributions from the Jewish "servi camerae" in England. It was popularly known as the "Saladin tithe" and was the most extensive tax ever collected in England up to that point. Due to it being a tithe rather than a secular tax, it was collected by dioceses rather than by shires. Baldwin especially was blamed for its harshness, although in February, along with his advisor Peter of Blois, he was in Normandy with the king.

Baldwin took the cross along with King Henry and many others in January 1188, or when he began his preaching campaign on 11 February 1188 to drum up support for the Crusade. In April 1188, Baldwin was in Wales on his tour, and was forcing his servants and followers to exercise on foot up and down hills in preparation for the journey to the Holy Land. He spent most of 1188 in Wales, preaching the crusade, accompanied by the chronicler Gerald of Wales. Gerald claimed about 3000 recruits for the crusade from his and Baldwin's efforts in Wales, although the chronicler also claimed that it was mainly undertaken by Baldwin in order to avoid the dispute with the Canterbury monks.

A side effect of Baldwin's tour of Wales was the implied assertion of royal authority in a section of Henry's domains that had always been somewhat fractious. Baldwin was also asserting his ecclesiastical authority over the Welsh bishops, especially when he made a point of celebrating mass at all the Welsh cathedrals. He was the first archbishop of Canterbury to celebrate mass at St Asaph's Cathedral during this tour. Baldwin excommunicated the one Welsh prince who refused appear before the archbishop and take the cross, Owain Cyfeiliog.

Baldwin was with Henry before his death, unsuccessfully taking part in efforts to negotiate with Prince Richard. After Henry's death, Richard sought and obtained absolution for the sin of disobedience to his father from both Baldwin and Walter de Coutances, Archbishop of Rouen. Baldwin, along with Coutances, was with Richard on 20 July 1189 at Rouen when the king was invested with the Duchy of Normandy. Baldwin crowned Richard at Westminster Abbey on 13 September 1189 in the first English coronation for which a detailed description survives.

Under Richard

After the death of Henry II, and the accession of Richard as king, the monks of Christ Church Priory petitioned Richard to intercede in the long-running dispute between them and the archbishop. In November 1189, Richard and the whole court, including the Queen-Mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, traveled to Canterbury to attempt to end the controversy before the papacy become involved. Richard finally settled the dispute by persuading Baldwin to abandon the church project and to dismiss Norreys. Soon after this, Richard left England and Baldwin declared that he was going to found the proposed church at Lambeth, and then join Richard on Crusade. Both Richard and Baldwin agreed to appoint Norreys to Evesham Abbey, as the previous abbot of Evesham, Adam of Evesham had recently died. This appointment eventually led, after the death of Baldwin, to the infamous Case of Evesham. In August 1189 Baldwin objected to the marriage of Prince John, later King John, to Isabel of Gloucester, on the grounds of consanguinity. John promised to obtain a papal dispensation, but never did so. Baldwin laid John's lands under interdict, but it was lifted by a papal legate who declared the marriage legal. Richard also restored to the archbishops of Canterbury the right to have a mint, with three moneyers to staff the operation.

Third Crusade

Richard I and Saladin fighting on the Third Crusade. Baldwin accompanied Richard on the Crusade and died there.

In April 1190 Baldwin left England with Richard on the Third Crusade. Baldwin led the English advance guard, leaving Marseilles ahead of Richard along with Hubert Walter and Ranulf de Glanvill sailing to Syria directly on 5 August 1190. Baldwin delegated the administration of his spiritualities and temporalities to Gilbert Glanvill, the Bishop of Rochester, but entrusted any metropolitan authority to Richard FitzNeal, the Bishop of London. The custom of giving the archiepiscopal authority to London had originated in Archbishop Lanfranc's time. Baldwin continued to conduct some ecclesiastical business however, dealing with the suspended Hugh Nonant, the Bishop of Coventry. Baldwin had suspended Nonant in March 1190 for holding secular office as sheriff, but Baldwin wrote to FitzNigel after his departure that Nonant had agreed to relinquish his secular offices.

Baldwin and his group arrived at Tyre on 16 September 1190. Richard did not arrive in Syria until 1191. It is unclear exactly why they were sent ahead of the king; perhaps it was to look out for the king's interests while Richard took a more leisurely route, or perhaps to rid the king's entourage of a family grouping around Glanvill that the king did not trust. Baldwin was not a member or close associate of the Glanvill faction, so most likely he was sent ahead to look after the king's interests, whatever the reasons for the inclusion of his companions. Another concern may have been to get help to the Kingdom of Jerusalem as quickly as possible after learning of the death of Frederick Barbarossa's death on the way to the Holy Land.

When Baldwin arrived at Acre on 12 October 1190, the city was under siege by the Frankish forces led by King Guy of Lusignan and Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem, who in turn were being besieged by Saladin. Soon after Baldwin's arrival, there was a succession crisis in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Sibylla, a first cousin of Henry II, and her two young daughters, all died in July, leaving Guy without a legal claim as he had held the kingship through his wife. The heiress of the kingdom was Sibylla's half-sister Isabella; she was already married to Humphrey IV of Toron, but he was loyal to Guy and seems to have had no ambition to be king. A more promising candidate for the throne was Conrad of Montferrat, uncle of the last undisputed king, Baldwin V. Conrad had saved the kingdom from destruction by leading the successful defence of Tyre, and had the support of Isabella's mother Maria Comnena and stepfather Balian of Ibelin. Maria and Balian abducted Isabella from Humphrey, and compelled her to seek an annulment, so that she could be married to Conrad and enable him to claim the kingship. Since her marriage to Humphrey had been arranged by her half-brother Baldwin IV of Jerusalem when she was eleven, having been betrothed to him when she was eight, they argued that she had not been able to give proper consent.

Baldwin supported Guy's claim, but Ubaldo Archbishop of Pisa, Philip of Dreux, Bishop of Beauvais, and Eraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem supported Conrad. Isabella and Humphrey's marriage was forcibly annulled. Baldwin, already ailing, attempted to excommunicate everyone involved in the annulment, but he died on 19 November 1190. He wrote his will shortly before his death, and died surrounded by his followers on the crusade. After his death, Hubert Walter took over the leadership of the English forces, and also became Baldwin's executor. From Baldwin's funds, Walter paid the wages of some soldiers and knights and distributed the rest of the money to the poor.

Writings and studies

Baldwin wrote a work on the De sacramento altaris, his longest surviving work. This was on the eucharist and on the passover, in 12 manuscripts. It also includes a discussion of martyrdom that reads much like a vindication of Becket's status as a martyr. It was first printed in 1662, and has recently been edited and published in the series Sorces Chrétiennes, as volumes 93 and 94, in 1963. Others works include twenty-two sermons, and a work on faith. The work on faith, the De commendatione fidei, only survives in two manuscripts, although another five are known to have existed. One of the missing manuscripts survived until at least the mid 1600s, as it formed the basis of the first printed edition of De commendatione fidei in 1662. The modern critical edition of De commendatione was published, along with the sermons, in 1991 as Balduini de Forda Opera: Sermones, De Commendatione Fidei. with the De commendatione fidei translated into English in 2000. The sermons were also first published in 1662, and the modern edition includes two more (titled de obedientia and de sancta cruce) that were not originally published in 1662. It appears that originally there were 33 sermons, with the others now lost. The sermons survive in 12 manuscripts, although only 5 are collections of substantial numbers of the works. None of the surviving manuscripts has a complete collection of the 22 sermons. Baldwin was known for his preaching ability, and was considered a famous preacher.

Besides these works, Baldwin also collaborated with Bartholomew Iscanus on a Liber penitentialis, which is jointly ascribed to the both of them in a Lambeth Palace manuscript, MS 235. Another work is often attributed to Baldwin, the Ad laudem Bartholomaei Exoniensis episcopi de coloribus rhetoricis, which survives in three manuscripts and a fragment of a fourth. A number of other works are known to have been authored by Baldwin, but do not survive. These include Carmen devotionis, which was seen by John Bale at Glastonbury Abbey in the 16th century. Other lost works were a commentary on the biblical books of Samuel and Kings, De sectis haereticis which existed at Christ Church Priory in the 13th century, and De orthodoxis fidei dogmatibus, which was seen by John Leland at Christ Church in the 16th century. Some letters of Baldwin's also existed, although they never appear to have circulated as a collection. One letter of his is mentioned in a Rievaulx Abbey catalogue, and Leland mentions others in his works.

Besides Baldwin's own writings, there is a decretal collection known as the Collectio Wigorniensis, still extant in manuscript (MS) form. It now resides in the British Library as Royal MS 10.A.ii. This collection may have belonged to Baldwin. It was probably compiled at Worcester Cathedral prior to December 1184, when Baldwin went to Canterbury, and besides a basic collection of Pope Alexander III's decretals it includes a number of letters from the papacy addressed to Baldwin as Bishop of Worcester and as Archbishop of Canterbury. Although the main contents were not exceptional, the compiler of the work numbered the books and capitula into which the work was divided, a new innovation that allowed for much more efficient use of the collection. It is likely that the compiler was one of Baldwin's clerks, and that this testified to Baldwin's continuing interest in canon law. The manuscript itself was likely owned either by Baldwin himself or a member of his household.

The historian Frank Barlow, stated that Baldwin was "one of the greatest English decretalists". His work was more influential in his inspiration and support for the development of decretal collections, rather than in terms of the actual influence of his judicial decisions themselves. Besides the decretal collections, another group of writings connected with Baldwin was the correspondence relating to his dispute with the Christ Church monks. The documents relating to this dispute, which dragged on into the archbishopric of Hubert Walter, are published in one whole volume of the Rolls Series, and this volume was edited by Stubbs.

Legacy

Baldwin's long-running dispute with his cathedral chapter caused the chronicler Gervase of Canterbury to regard the archbishop as "a greater enemy to Christianity than Saladin." Another contemporary, Gerald of Wales, praised Baldwin as "distinguished for his learning and religion", but also claimed that he was gloomy and nervous. Herbert of Bosham dedicated his History of Thomas, a story of Thomas Becket, to the archbishop in the late 1180s. When news of Baldwin's death reached England in 1191, he was succeeded briefly by Reginald fitzJocelin, Bishop of Bath and Wells; Reginald soon died and the seat remained vacant until 1193 when Hubert Walter, Bishop of Salisbury and a fellow crusader with Baldwin, was elected archbishop. The historian A. L. Poole called Baldwin a "distinguished scholar and deeply religious man, [but] was injudicious and too austere to be a good leader." Baldwin was also known as a theologian, as well as being a canon lawyer. His clerk, Joseph of Exeter, who was also Baldwin's nephew, accompanied him on the crusade, and wrote two works after Joseph's return: Antiocheis, an epic poem about King Richard on crusade, and De Bello Trojano, a rewriting of the Trojan War.

References

• Barlow, Frank (2004). "Warelwast, Robert de (d. 1155)" ((subscription or UK public library membership required)). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (revised May 2007 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/94377. Retrieved 8 April 2008. {{cite encyclopedia}}: External link in |format= (help)
• Barlow, Frank (1986). Thomas Becket. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07175-1.
• Bartlett, Robert C. (2000). England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075–1225. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-822741-8.
• Bell, David N. (1991). "Introduction". Baldvini de Forda Opera: Sermones de Commendatione Fidei. Corpus Christianorum. Turnholt, Belgium: Brepols. OCLC 185471591.
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• Cheney, C. R. (1956). From Becket to Langton: English Church Government 1170–1213 (Reprint ed.). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Cheney, Mary G. (1980). Roger, Bishop of Worcester 1164–1179: An English Bishop of the Age of Becket. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-821879-6.
• Duggan, Charles (1965). "From the Conquest to the Death of John". In Lawrence, C. H. (ed.). The English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages (1999 Reprint ed.). Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing. pp. 63–116. ISBN 0-7509-1947-7.
• Duggan, Charles (1963). Twelfth-century Decretal Collections and their Importance in English History. London: Athlone Press. OCLC 188968.
• Franklin, M. J. (2004). "Nonant, Hugh de (d. 1198)" ((subscription or UK public library membership required)). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20245. Retrieved 14 January 2008. {{cite encyclopedia}}: External link in |format= (help)
• Freeland, Jane Patricia; Bell, David N. (2000). "Introduction". Baldwin of Forde: The Commendation of Faith. Cistercian Fathers Series. Vol. 65. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications. ISBN 9780879077594.
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• Greenway, Diana E. (1971). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces): Worcester: Bishops. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 3 November 2007.
• Holdsworth, Christopher (2004). "Baldwin (c.1125–1190)" ((subscription or UK public library membership required)). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1164. Retrieved 8 November 2007. {{cite encyclopedia}}: External link in |format= (help)
• Knowles, Dom David (1951). The Episcopal Colleagues of Archbishop Thomas Becket. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 2742571.
• 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.
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• Little, Lester K. (1983). Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9247-5.
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• Poole, Austin Lane (1955). From Domesday Book to Magna Carta, 1087–1216 (Second ed.). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-821707-2.
• Powell, J. Enoch (1968). The House of Lords in the Middle Ages: A History of the English House of Lords to 1540. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. OCLC 463626. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Robinson, I. S. (1990). The Papacy 1073–1198: Continuity and Innovation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-31922-6.
• Sharpe, Richard (2001). Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland Before 1540. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin. Vol. 1 (2001 revised ed.). Belgium: Brepols. ISBN 2-503-50575-9.
• Smalley, Beryl (1973). The Becket Conflict and the Schools: A Study of Intellectuals in Politics. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0-87471-172-X.
• Southern, R. W. (1985). "Peter of Blois and the Third Crusade". In Mayr-Harting, Henry and R. I. Moore (ed.). Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. H. C. Davis. London: Hambledon Press. pp. 207–218. ISBN 0-907628-68-0.
• Turner, Ralph V.; Heiser, Richard R. (2000). The Reign of Richard Lionheart: Ruler of the Angevin Empire 1189–1199. The Medieval World. Harlow, UK: Longman. ISBN 0-582-25660-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Tyerman, Christopher (1988). England and the Crusades, 1095–1588. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-82013-0.
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• Warren, W. L. (1973). Henry II. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03494-5.
• Young, Charles R. (1968). Hubert Walter: Lord of Canterbury and Lord of England. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. OCLC 443445.

Further reading

• Bell, D. (1984). "The corpus of the work of Baldwin of Ford". Citeaux. 35: 215–234.
• Duggan (1961). "The Trinity Collection of Decretals and the Early Worcester Family". Traditio. XVII: 506–526.