Hilary of Chichester

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Hilary of Chichester
Denomination Catholic
Senior posting
See Diocese of Chichester
Title Bishop of Chichester
Period in office 1146–1169
Predecessor Seffrid I
Successor John of Greenford
Religious career
Previous post Dean of Christchurch
Personal
Date of birth circa 1110
Date of death 1169

Hilary (c. 1110–1169) was a medieval Bishop of Chichester in England. He studied canon law and worked for the papacy as a papal clerk. After unsuccessfully being nominated to become archbishop of York, the pope compensated Hilary for his loss by promoting Hilary to the see of Chichester in 1146. Hilary spent many years engaged in a struggle with Battle Abbey over the bishop's attempts to inspect the abbey. During the course of the conflict, Hilary clashed with Thomas Becket, who at the time was chancellor to King Henry II of England. Known for providing for his clergy and as a canon lawyer, Hilary also worked to have Edward the Confessor canonized as a saint.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Hilary was probably born around 1110, and was probably of low birth, but nothing is known of his ancestry. He had a brother who was a canon of Salisbury Cathedral, and they both may have come from that area.[1] Hilary served as a clerk for Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester as well as Dean of Christchurch in Twynham, Hampshire. He was educated as a canon lawyer, and was an advocate in Rome in 1144,[2] where he served in the papal chancery in 1146,[3] and some of his coworkers were Robert Pullen, John of Salisbury, and Nicholas Breakspear (who later became Pope Adrian IV).[4] Unsuccessfully nominated as a candidate for the archbishopric of York against Henry Murdac in 1146, the pope chose to compensate Hilary by appointing him to Chichester.[5] His candidacy to York had been supported by Hugh de Puiset, then treasurer of York and later bishop of Durham, and Robert of Ghent, who was Dean of York and Lord Chancellor of England,[6] as well as by King Stephen of England.[1] He was nominated to the see of Chichester by Pope Eugenius III in 1146,[2] and consecrated on August 3, 1147.[7]

[edit] Stephen's reign

King Stephen by an unknown artist in the 1620s
King Stephen by an unknown artist in the 1620s

King Stephen sent Hilary to attend the Council of Rheims in 1148 along with Robert de Bethune bishop of Hereford and William de Turbeville bishop of Norwich. The archbishop of Canterbury, Theobald of Bec also attended, even though he had been forbidden to attend by the king.[8] Hilary attempted to excuse the king's attempt to exclude Theobald to the council, for which Stephen later named Hilary a queen's chaplain.[1] Soon after the council, Robert de Bethune died and Gilbert Foliot was elected to the see of Hereford, possibly at the direction of the pope. Theobald was in exile in Flanders because he had defied the king, so the pope ordered Robert de Sigello bishop of London, Josceline de Bohon bishop of Salisbury and Hilary to go to Flanders to help Theobald consecrate Gilbert. However, the three bishops were unwilling to do so, and told the pope that because Gilbert had not received the royal assent nor had sworn fealty to Stephen, they would not consecrate him. Theobald then consecrated Gilbert with the help of some continental bishops.[9]

[edit] Struggle with Battle Abbey

The ruins of Battle Abbey
The ruins of Battle Abbey

For many years, Hilary struggled with the abbot of Battle Abbey over the exemption that Battle claimed from the oversight of the bishop of Chichester, in whose diocese Battle was located.[10] Battle had never received a papal exemption, and instead relied on its status as a royal foundation by King William I of England and its status as an eigenkirche, or proprietary church of the king.[11] Hilary obtained from both Pope Eugenius III and Pope Hadrian IV orders for the abbot to obey the bishop, but in 1157, the then Abbot of Battle, Walter de Lucy, who was the brother of Richard de Luci the Chief Justiciar, brought the case before King Henry II of England at a council held at Colchester.[10] The foundation charter of William I and the confirmation by King Henry I of England, who was Henry II's grandfather, were produced by the abbot, and were admitted as genuine. Both documents freed the abbey from ecclesiastical oversight, and Henry II had at his coronation confirmed all his grandfather's charters.[11] However, Hilary argued that only a papal privilege could exempt a monastery from episcopal oversight, and that Battle had no such privilege. Henry was not impressed by this argument, for it impinged on his royal rights.[10] Thomas Becket, then Henry's chancellor, was one of the main opponents of Hilary at this council.[12] Eventually, the case was decided by persuading Hilary to renounce any episcopal claims on the abbey. The biographer of Henry II, the historian W. L. Warren, suggests that Hilary was pressured to bring the case against Battle Abbey by his cathedral chapter, and that Hilary did not pursue the case vigorously.[11]

[edit] Henry II's reign

Hilary held the office of sheriff of Sussex in 1155,[13] and then again in 1160 through 1162. It was very unusual for a bishop to hold the post of sheriff, and was a measure of the trust that King Henry II had in Hilary.[1] Hilary was well known as a canon lawyer, and often was employed by the papacy as a judge-delegate, hearing cases that had been appealed to Rome, and then sent back to the country of origin by the papacy for trial.[14] He also served as a royal justice in 1156.[1] He created the offices of treasurer and chancellor of the diocese of Chichester, in order to regulate and improve the finances of the cathedral chapter and the diocese.[15] He also was involved in the canonization of Edward the Confessor, writing a letter to Pope Alexander III in favor of Edward's sainthood, and was present at the announcement of the canonization in 1161.[1]

The martyrdom of Thomas Becket, from a stained glass window in Canterbury Cathedral. Hilary was an opponent of Becket's
The martyrdom of Thomas Becket, from a stained glass window in Canterbury Cathedral. Hilary was an opponent of Becket's

In May of 1162, Hilary was part of the deputation sent to the monks of Christ Church Priory by King Henry II to secure the election of Thomas Becket as the next Archbishop of Canterbury.[16] The next year in 1163 at a council held at Westminster, as part of the king's growing quarrel with Becket over criminal clerks, Henry attempted to get all the English bishops to swear to uphold the old customs of England. All the bishops but Hilary swore, with the reservation that the customs were not in conflict with canon law. Hilary, however, added no qualifiers. It may have been that Hilary remembered who had opposed his case against Battle Abbey, and thus refused to support the archbishop's party.[1][12] Henry in late autumn of 1163 sent Hilary on an embassy to Becket to try to persuade the archbishop to compromise with the king, but Becket refused to do so.[14] Hilary also took part in the king's embassy in 1164 to Pope Alexander III and King Louis VII of France which attempted to persuade the pope and the king of France to favor King Henry instead of Becket, and to keep Becket from finding a haven in France while the archbishop was in exile.[17]

[edit] Death and legacy

Hilary died in July of 1169, probably on July 13.[7] The historian David Knowles described Hilary as "an extremely quick-witted, efficient, self-confident, voluble, somewhat shallow man, fully acquainted with the new canon law but not prepared to abide by principles to the end. His talents were great but he used them as an opportunist."[18] In Hilary's favor, he was heavily involved in providing livings for the vicars who resided at the parish churches and performed the actual cure of souls in his diocese. He was also a benefactor of libraries, and worked hard to get back lands of his church that had been lost in the years of the anarchy. He also promoted clerical reform in his diocese, working to change many of the churches that had chapters of secular clergy into churches with chapters of Augustinian canons.[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Mayr-Harting "Hilary (c.1110–1169)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online Edition accessed November 25, 2007
  2. ^ a b British History Online Bishops of Chichester accessed on October 20, 2007
  3. ^ Duggan "From the Conquest to the Death of John" in Lawrence The English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages p. 86
  4. ^ Poole Domesday Book to Magna Carta p. 195
  5. ^ Barlow The English Church p. 98-99
  6. ^ Appleby The Troubled Reign of King Stephen p. 163-164
  7. ^ a b Fryde Handbook of British Chronology p. 238
  8. ^ Barlow The English Church p. 112
  9. ^ Appleby The Troubled Reign of King Stephen p. 169-170
  10. ^ a b c Knowles The Monastic Order in England p. 589
  11. ^ a b c Warren Henry II p. 429-432
  12. ^ a b Powell The House of Lords p. 79 and footnote 45
  13. ^ Poole Domesday Book to Magna Carta p. 222 footnote 3
  14. ^ a b Warren Henry II p. 472
  15. ^ Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 390
  16. ^ Powell The House of Lords p. 78
  17. ^ Barlow Thomas Becket p. 119
  18. ^ quoted in Mayr-Harting "Hilary (c.1110–1169)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online Edition accessed November 25, 2007

[edit] References

  • Appleby, John T. (1995). The Troubled Reign of King Stephen 1135-1154. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-56619-848-8. 
  • Barlow, Frank (1979). The English Church 1066-1154: A History of the Anglo-Norman Church. New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-50236-5. 
  • 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. 
  • British History Online Bishops of Chichester accessed on October 20, 2007
  • 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, 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. 
  • Mayr-Harting, Henry "Hilary (c.1110–1169)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004 Online Edition accessed November 25, 2007
  • Poole, Austin Lane (1955). From Domesday Book to Magna Carta, 1087-1216, Second Edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-821707-2. 
  • Powell, J. Enoch; Wallis, Keith (1968). The House of Lords in the Middle Ages: A History of the English House of Lords to 1540. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 
  • Warren, W. L. (1973). Henry II. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03494-5. 
Roman Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Seffrid I		 Bishop of Chichester
1146–1169		 Succeeded by
John of Greenford
Persondata
NAME Hilary of Chichester
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Bishop of Chichester
DATE OF BIRTH c 1110
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH July 1169
PLACE OF DEATH