Thurstan
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Thurstan, or Turstin (d. February 6, 1140) was an Archbishop of York (1114 - 1140). He was the son of a certain Anger, or Auger, prebendary of St Paul's, London, and a brother of Audoen (d. 1139), Bishop of Evreux.
He himself was a prebendary of St Paul's, and was also a clerk in the service of William II and then of Henry I, who secured his election as archbishop of York in August 1114.
He now entered upon the great controversy which occupied him during a large part of his subsequent life and made him for several years an exile from England. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Ralph d'Escures, refused to consecrate him unless he made a profession of obedience to the southern see; this Thurstan refused and asked the king for permission to go to Rome to consult Pope Paschal II. Henry I declined to allow him to make the journey, while Paschal declared against Archbishop Ralph. At the Council of Salisbury in 1116 the English king ordered Thurstan to submit, but instead he resigned his archbishopric, although this did not take effect.
The new pope, Gelasius II, and also his successor, Calixtus II, espoused the cause of the stubborn archbishop, and in October 1119, in spite of promises made to Henry I, he was consecrated by Calixtus at Reims. Enraged at this, the king refused to allow him to enter England, and he remained for some time in the company of the pope. At length, however, his friends succeeded in reconciling him with Henry, and, after serving the king in Normandy, he was recalled to England, which he entered early in 1121.
One of the main weaknesses of the Archbishopric of York was its lack of suffragans. Thurstan managed to secure the resurrection of the Bishopric of Whithorn. It is possible that he did a deal with Fergus of Galloway in order to secure more suffragans, whilst also enhancing the prestige of the Galwegian kingdom. The first bishop was the native Galwegian - Gilla Aldan. This provoked the wrath of Wimund, Bishop of the Isles, who was the loser; but the new Bishopric survived, and York had a new suffragan. The latter was vital, because previously York did not have enough suffragans to be assured of independent Archiepiscopal status, which left the See vulnerable to the designs of Canterbury
Refusing to recognize the new archbishop of Canterbury, William de Corbeil, as his superior, Thurstan took no part in his consecration, and on two occasions both archbishops carried their complaints in person to Rome. In 1138 he made a truce at Roxburgh between England and Scotland, and took an active part in gathering together the army which defeated the Scots at the Battle of the Standard in August 1138. Early in 1140 he entered the order of the Cluniacs at Pontefract and here he died on February 6, 1140. Thurstan was generous to the churches of his diocese and was the founder of several religious houses.
[edit] References
- His life in the Fasti eboracenses, edited by James Raine (1863).
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
| Religious Posts | ||
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| Preceded by: Thomas II of York |
Archbishop of York 1119–1140 |
Succeeded by: William I FitzHerbert |
