Roger of Worcester

Roger
Bishop of Worcester
Church	Catholic
See	Diocese of Worcester
In office	1163–1179
Predecessor	Alured
Successor	Baldwin
Orders
Ordination	23 August 1163
Consecration	23 August 1163 by Thomas Becket
Personal details
Died	9 August 1179 Tours

Roger of Worcester (died 9 or 10 August 1179) was Bishop of Worcester from 1164 to 1179. He had a major role in the controversy between Henry II of England, who was Roger's cousin, and Archbishop Thomas Becket.^[1]

Life

Roger's father was Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester.^[2] His illegitimate half-brother Richard was Bishop of Bayeux from 1135 to 1142.^[3] Roger was a younger son and he was educated with the future king, Henry II, afterwards ordained priest, and consecrated Bishop of Worcester by Thomas Becket, on 23 August 1163.^[4] He adhered loyally to Thomas, and though one of the bishops sent to the pope to carry the king's appeal against the archbishop, he took no active part in the embassy, nor did he join the appeal made by the bishops against the archbishop in 1166, thus arousing the enmity of the king.

When Thomas desired Roger to join him in his exile, Roger went without leave in 1167, Henry having refused him permission. He boldly reproached the king when they met at Falaise in 1170, and a reconciliation followed. After the martyrdom of St. Thomas, England was threatened with an interdict, but Roger interceded with the pope and was thereafter highly esteemed in England and at Rome. Pope Alexander III, who frequently employed him as delegate in ecclesiastical causes, spoke of him and Bartholomew Iscanus Bishop of Exeter, as "the two great lights of the English Church".

Roger died on 9 August 1179^[4] or on 10 August. His death was commemorated on 9 August.^[2]

Notes

↑ Cheney Roger, Bishop of Worcester
↑ 2.0 2.1 British History Online Bishops of Worcester accessed on 3 November 2007
↑ Spear "Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy" Journal of British Studies p. 5
↑ 4.0 4.1 Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 278

References

British History Online Bishops of Worcester accessed on 3 November 2007
Cheney, Mary G. Roger, Bishop of Worcester 1164–1179 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980
Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
Spear, David S. "The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy, 1066–1204" The Journal of British Studies Volume XXI Number 2 Spring 1982 p. 1-10

External links

Catholic Encyclopedia: Roger of Worcester

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Alured	Bishop of Winchester 1163–1179	Succeeded by Baldwin

Bishops of Worcester

Early Medieval	Bosel Oftfor Egwin of Evesham Wilfrith (I) Milred Waermund Tilhere Heathured Denebeorht Heahbeorht Ealhhun Werferth Æthelhun Wilfrith (II) Koenwald St Dunstan St Oswald Ealdwulf

High Medieval	Wulfstan (I) Leofsige Beorhtheah Lyfing Ælfric Puttoc Lyfing Ealdred St Wulfstan (II) Samson Theulf Simon John de Pageham Alured Roger Baldwin of Forde William of Northall Robert FitzRalph Henry de Sully John of Coutances Mauger Randulf of Evesham Walter de Gray Sylvester William de Blois Walter de Cantilupe Nicholas of Ely Godfrey Giffard

Late Medieval	John St German William Gainsborough Walter Reynolds Walter Maidstone Thomas Cobham Wulstan Bransford Adam Orleton Simon Montacute Thomas Hemenhale Wulstan Bransford John of Thoresby Reginald Brian John Barnet William Whittlesey William Lenn Walter Lyghe Henry Wakefield Robert Tideman of Winchcombe Richard Clifford Thomas Peverel Philip Morgan Thomas Polton Thomas Brunce Thomas Bourchier John Carpenter ("Bishop of Worcester and Westbury") John Alcock Robert Morton Giovanni de' Gigli

Early modern	Silvestro de' Gigli Girolamo Ghinucci Hugh Latimer John Bell Nicholas Heath John Hooper Nicholas Heath Richard Pate Edwin Sandys Nicholas Bullingham John Whitgift Edmund Freke Richard Fletcher Thomas Bilson Gervase Babington Henry Parry John Thornborough John Prideaux George Morley John Gauden John Earle Robert Skinner Walter Blandford James Fleetwood William Thomas Edward Stillingfleet William Lloyd John Hough Isaac Maddox James Johnson Brownlow North Richard Hurd

Late modern	Folliott Cornewall Robert Carr Henry Pepys Henry Philpott John Perowne Charles Gore Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs Ernest Pearce Arthur Perowne William Wilson Cash Mervyn Charles-Edwards Robin Woods Philip Goodrich Peter Selby John Inge

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.