Leofric (bishop)

Leofric
Bishop of Exeter
Province Canterbury
Diocese Exeter
Appointed 1050
Reign ended 1072
Successor Osbern FitzOsbern
Orders
Consecration 10 April 1046
Personal details
Born before 1016
Died 10 or 11 February 1072
Buried Exeter Cathedral crypt
Nationality English
Denomination Roman Catholic
Previous post Bishop of Cornwall and Crediton (1046–1050)

Leofric (before 1016–1072) was a medieval Bishop of Exeter.

Contents

Early life

Little is known about Leofric, as his cathedral town was not a centre of historical writing, and he took little part in events outside his diocese. This led to little notice being taken of his life and activities, with only a few charters originating in his household and one listing of gifts to his diocese. No official acts from his episcopate have survived, and there is just a brief death notice in the Leofric Missal,[1] although no notice of his death occurs in the contemporary Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He occurs as a witness to royal charters.[2]

Leofric was probably born in Cornwall, and his parents probably were English.[3] Because canon law required that a bishop be 30 years old when consecrated, it is likely that Leofric was born before 1016.[1] The medieval chronicler Florence of Worcester referred to him as a Brytonicus, which presumably meant that he was a native of Cornwall.[4] He had a brother, Ordmaer, who acted as his steward and administered the family estates.[5] Leofric was educated in Lotharingia,[6] and may have been brought up abroad also.[7] It is possible that Leofric went into exile either in 1013 when Sweyn Forkbeard, the king of Denmark invaded England or in 1016, when Sweyn's son Cnut became king of England.[8] His education may have taken place at the church of St Stephen's in Toul,[5] where the future Pope Leo IX was a canon from 1017 to 1024 and bishop after 1027.[8]

Service to Edward the Confessor

Leofric became King Edward the Confessor's chaplain while Edward was still in exile on the continent,[3] although how or when exactly the two met is unknown.[9] The historian Frank Barlow speculates that it may have been at Bruges in 1039.[4] When Edward returned to England at the invitation of King Harthacnut, Edward's half-brother, Leofric accompanied him, witnessing charters during Harthacnut's lifetime along with Herman who later became Bishop of Sherborne.[10] Leofric remained a close supporter and friend of Edward for the king's entire life.[11] In 1044, Edward granted him lands at Dawlish in Devon.[12]

Although a 12th-century monastic chronicler at Worcester called Leofric Edward's chancellor, this is not correct, as Edward had no chancellor at this time.[13] Historians are divided on whether or not Edward ever had an official that could be called a chancellor,[14] but they are agreed that Leofric did not hold such an office.[15]

Bishop

When Bishop Lyfing died in 1046, the king made Leofric Bishop of Cornwall and Crediton.[16][17] The two sees united by Lyfing became the see of Exeter when in 1050 Bishop Leofric moved his episcopal seat from Crediton to Exeter.[16] The move of the see received the support of Pope Leo IX,[18] and dates from 1051.[19] Although Leofric had been a royal clerk before he became bishop, after his elevation he managed to avoid entanglement in the various disputes taking place between the king and Godwin, Earl of Wessex. Instead he spent his energies on the administration of his diocese, but remained on good terms with the king.[5] Leofric's penitential, the Leofric Missal, still survives, and it includes a prayer for a childless king, which probably referred to King Edward.[11]

The abbey church of St. Peter's at Exeter became Leofric's cathedral[20] and he was enthroned as Bishop of Exeter there on St. Peter's Day in 1050 with King Edward in attendance.[21] Leofric replaced the monks with canons.[20] The new community was given the Rule of Chrodegang by Leofric,[22] which rule Leofric had probably learned in Lotharingia before his return to England.[13] Leofric moved the seat of his see because Crediton was too poor and rural, and Exeter was a city and had protective walls and an abandoned church that could be used as the new cathedral.[17] Leofric claimed that he found his diocese lacking in episcopal vestments and the other items required for church services, and his surviving list of gifts to the church noted that he gave vestments, crosses, chalices, censers, alter coverings, and other furnishings to the cathedral.[23]

After the move to Exeter, Leofric worked to increase the endowment of the diocese, and especially the cathedral library.[5] He still remained on good terms with the king, for he was present at Edward's Christmas court in 1065 that saw the consecration of Edward's Westminster Abbey church at Westminster.[24] No evidence survives that Leofric was employed by the king in any diplomatic missions, nor does Leofric appear to have attended any papal councils or synods.[2] He was a supporter of the cult of Leo IX, who was proclaimed a saint after his death.[25]

Leofric survived William the Conqueror's 1068 siege of Exeter unscathed,[5] although there is no evidence that he was present in the city during the siege. Whether Leofric had originally supported King Harold against William or if he supported William from the start is unclear. The fact that he survived William's purge of the native English bishops in 1070 is evidence that he must not have been too outspoken against William.[2] Leofric remained bishop until he died on 10 February or 11 February 1072.[26] He was buried in the crypt of his cathedral. When the cathedral was rebuilt, his remains were moved to the new church, but the location of the tomb has been lost. The current tomb only dates from 1568 and does not mark Leofric's resting spot.[5] During his bishopric, his cathedral library was the fourth largest in England, and was an important scriptorium.[3] He gave an important manuscript of Old English poetry, the Exeter Book, to the cathedral library in 1072.[27] Along with the Exeter Book, he also gave 57 other manuscripts and books to the cathedral upon his death.[28] Besides the Exeter Book and the Leofric Missal, Leofric's own copy of the Rule of Chrodegang also survives, although it is no longer at Exeter. Now it is at Cambridge University, where it is Corpus Christi College MS 191.[29]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Barlow "Leofric" Norman Conquest p. 113
  2. ^ a b c Barlow "Leofric" Norman Conquest p. 117
  3. ^ a b c Hindley Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 239
  4. ^ a b Barlow English Church 1000–1066 pp. 83–84
  5. ^ a b c d e f Barlow "Leofric (d. 1072)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  6. ^ Barlow Feudal Kingdom of England p. 34
  7. ^ Huscroft Ruling England p. 50
  8. ^ a b Barlow "Leofric" Norman Conquest p. 114
  9. ^ Barlow Edward the Confessor p. 50
  10. ^ Barlow Edward the Confessor p. 53
  11. ^ a b Barlow Edward the Confessor p. 82
  12. ^ Powell House of Lords p. 3
  13. ^ a b Barlow "Leofric" Norman Conquest pp. 115–116
  14. ^ Stafford Unification and Conquest pp. 148–149
  15. ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology pp. 82–83
  16. ^ a b Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 215
  17. ^ a b Barlow English Church 1000–1066 pp. 213–215
  18. ^ Barlow Feudal Kingdom of England p. 32
  19. ^ Walker Harold p. 25
  20. ^ a b Knowles Heads of Religious Houses p. 48
  21. ^ Barlow Edward the Confessor p. 106
  22. ^ Blair Church in Anglo-Saxon Society p. 361 footnote 331 and p. 362
  23. ^ Barlow "Leofric" Norman Conquest pp. 124–125
  24. ^ Barlow Edward the Confessor pp. 244–245
  25. ^ Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 307
  26. ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 246
  27. ^ Fletcher Bloodfeud p. 11
  28. ^ Dodwell Anglo-Saxon Art p. 224
  29. ^ Barlow "Leofric" Norman Conquest p. 122

References

  • Barlow, Frank (1970). Edward the Confessor. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-01671-8. 
  • Barlow, Frank (1979). The English Church 1000–1066: A History of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church (Second ed.). New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49049-9. 
  • Barlow, Frank (1988). The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042–1216 (Fourth ed.). New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49504-0. 
  • Barlow, Frank (2004). "Leofric (d. 1072)" (Subscription or UK public library membership required). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16471. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16471. Retrieved 8 April 2008. 
  • Barlow, Frank (1983). "Leofric and his Times". The Norman Conquest and Beyond. London: Hambledon Press. pp. 113–127. ISBN 0-907628-19-2. 
  • Blair, John P. (2005). The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-921117-5. 
  • Dodwell, C. R. (1985). Anglo-Saxon Art: A New Perspective (Cornell University Press 1985 ed.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9300-5. 
  • Fletcher, R. A. (2003). Bloodfeud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516136-X. 
  • 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. 
  • Hindley, Geoffrey (2006). A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The Beginnings of the English Nation. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-78671-738-5. 
  • Huscroft, Huscroft (2005). Ruling England 1042–1217. London: Pearson/Longman. ISBN 0-582-84882-2. 
  • 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. 
  • Stafford, Pauline (1989). Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. London: Edward Arnold. ISBN 0-7131-6532-4. 
  • Walker, Ian (2000). Harold the Last Anglo-Saxon King. Gloucestershire, UK: Wrens Park. ISBN 0-905-778-464. 

External links

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Lyfing of Winchester		 Bishop of Cornwall and Crediton
1046–1050		 moved to Exeter
New title
moved from Cornwall and Crediton
 Bishop of Exeter
1050–1072		 Succeeded by
Osbern FitzOsbern