Bartholomew Iscanus

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Bartholomew Iscanus
Denomination Catholic
Senior posting
See Diocese of Exeter
Title Bishop of Exeter
Period in office 1161–1184
Predecessor Robert of Chichester
Successor John the Chanter
Religious career
Previous post Archdeacon of Exeter
Personal
Date of death December 15, 1184

Bartholomew Iscanus or Bartholomew of Exeter was a medieval Bishop of Exeter.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Bartholomew was a native of Normandy, and was probably born in Millières, a village in the Cotentin near Lessay and Périers.[1] He was a clerk of Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury before becoming Archdeacon of Exeter in 1155.[2] He was a correspondent of John of Salisbury,[3] as he and John had been clerk's for Theobald along with Thomas Becket.[2] After Becket's murder, John took refuge with Bartholomew until he was elected bishop of Chartres in 1176.[4] Contemporaries considered Bartholomew an excellent theologian and canon lawyer.[5] In 1159, Bartholomew took part in a synod held at London to decide between the rival claims of Pope Alexander III and Pope Victor IV.[6]

[edit] Election to Exeter

After the death of Robert of Chichester, the see of Exeter was vacant for a year before a local Gloucestershire family urged King Henry II of England to put forward one of their members as a candidate for the see. Henry did suggest the family member, Henry fitzHarding, to the cathedral chapter, but Archbishop Theobald objected that fitz Harding was unqualified. Instead, Theobald suggested Bartholomew, and eventually the king was persuaded and Bartholomew was elected.[5] He was consecrated bishop after April 18, 1161,[7] at Canterbury Cathedral by Walter, the Bishop of Rochester.[8] Theobald had wished to consecrate Bartholomew before Theobald died, but could not because the king was abroad in Normandy and the bishop-elect had to swear fealty to the king before he could be consecrated.[9] After his consecration, Bartholomew gave the archdeaconry of Exeter to the disappointed royal candidate.[1]

[edit] Time as bishop

During the dispute between King Henry and Thomas Becket, Bartholomew refused to cooperate with either side, which caused Becket to scold him as a bad friend.[10] At the start of the dispute, Bartholomew was sent with a royal deputation to Sens to ask the pope to send papal legates to England to settle the quarrel. Thereafter, he avoided being drawn into the controversy, until 1170.[1] When Roger of York coronated Henry the Young King in 1170, Bartholomew was said to be present.[11] In September 1170, Pope Alexander III suspended Bartholomew from office for attending the coronation, along with a number of other bishops.[12] Shortly after a settlement of the dispute was reached in 1172, Henry wrote to Bartholomew saying that "I shall abolish all new customs introduced in my reign against the churches of my land (which I consider to be few or none)",[13] which signaled Henry's intentions of mostly ignoring the settlement.[14] Bartholomew was restored to his office before December 21, 1171, when he helped restore Canterbury Cathedral to use for religious ceremonies.[1]

Early in his episcopate, Bartholomew attended Alexander III's council at Tours in 1163, along with a number of other English bishops.[1] Bartholomew often acted as a judge-delegate for the papacy in cases that had been appealed to Rome.[15] At some point in his career, he wrote a Penitentiale, or penitenial, which true to his canon lawyer training, quotes canon law extensively.[16] Alexander described Bartholomew, in company with Richard of Dover, another leading papal judge, as the "twin lights illuminating the English Church".[17] In his diocese, Bartholomew is known to have visited the parishes, conducting a visitation to inquire into the management or mismanagement of church affairs.[18]

[edit] Death and legacy

He died on December 15, 1184.[7] He was buried in Exeter Cathedral[1] A relief in Exeter has been indentified as possibly Bartholomew's effigy for his tomb.[19] The historian Austin Lane Poole said of him that he "kept out as much as possible out of secular politics, and used [his] learning and practical abilities whole-heartedly for the welfare of the church."[20] During his bishopric, he advanced the career of Baldwin of Exeter, as it was Bartholomew who made Baldwin archdeacon.[21] He had two nephews, Jordan and Harold, who were part of his household while he was at Exeter.[1]

Besides his penitential, he also wrote works on the doctrines of free will and predestination, entitled either De libero arbitrio or De fatalitate et fato, a collection of over a hundred sermons, and a work against Jews, entitled Dialogus contra Judaeos. So far, only the penitential has been printed.[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Barlow "Bartholomew (d. 1184)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  2. ^ a b Barlow Thomas Becket p. 31
  3. ^ Warren Henry II p. 435 footnote 1
  4. ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 262
  5. ^ a b Warren Henry II p. 436-437
  6. ^ Knowles Episcopal Colleagues p. 28
  7. ^ a b Fryde Handbook of British Chronology p. 246
  8. ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 64
  9. ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 71
  10. ^ Warren Henry II p. 550
  11. ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 206-207
  12. ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 216
  13. ^ Quoted in Barber Henry Plantagenet p. 163
  14. ^ Barber Henry Plantagenet p. 163
  15. ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 90
  16. ^ Brooke English Church and the Papacy p. 111-112
  17. ^ Quoted in Duggan "From the Conquest to the Death of John" The English Church & The Papacy p. 113
  18. ^ Cheney From Becket to Langton p. 167
  19. ^ Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 599
  20. ^ Poole Domesday Book to Magna Carta p. 222
  21. ^ Knowles Monastic Order p. 317

[edit] References

  • Barber, Richard (1993). Henry Plantagenet 1133-1189. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-56619-363-X. 
  • Barlow, Frank (2004). "Bartholomew (d. 1184)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved on 2008-04-11. 
  • Barlow, Frank (1986). Thomas Becket. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07175-1. 
  • Bartlett, Robert C. (2000). England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075-1225. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-822741-8. 
  • Brooke, Z. N. (1989). The English Church & the Papacy: From the Conquest to the Reign of John, Revised Edition, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36687-9. 
  • Cheney, C. R. (1956). From Becket to Langton: English Church Government 1170-1213, Reprint edition, Manchester: Manchester University Press. 
  • Duggan, Charles (1965). "From the Conquest to the Death of John". The English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages (Reprint edition 1999). Sutton Publishing. p. 63-116. ISBN 0-7509-1947-7. 
  • Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology, Third Edition, revised, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. 
  • Knowles, Dom David (1951). The Episcopal Colleagues of Archbishop Thomas Becket. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
  • 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 Edition, reprint, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-05479-6. 
  • Poole, Austin Lane (1955). From Domesday Book to Magna Carta, 1087-1216, Second Edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-821707-2. 
  • Warren, W. L. (1973). Henry II. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03494-5. 

[edit] Further reading

  • Morey, A. (1937). Bartholomew of Exeter: Bishop and Canonist, A Study in the Twelfth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

[edit] External links

Roman Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Robert of Chichester		 Bishop of Exeter
1161–1184		 Succeeded by
John the Chanter
Persondata
NAME Iscanus, Bartholomew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Bishop of Exeter
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 1184
PLACE OF DEATH
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