Product Code Database
Thurstan or Turstin of Bayeux ( – 6 February 1140) was a medieval Archbishop of York, the son of a priest. He served kings William II and Henry I of England before his election to the see of York in 1114. Once elected, his consecration was delayed for five years while he fought attempts by the Archbishop of Canterbury to assert primacy over York. Eventually, he was consecrated by the pope instead and allowed to return to England. While archbishop, he secured two new Suffragan bishop bishops for his province. When Henry I died, Thurstan supported Henry's nephew Stephen of Blois as king. Thurstan also defended the northern part of England from invasion by the Scots, taking a leading part in organising the English forces at the Battle of the Standard (1138). Shortly before his death, Thurstan resigned from his see and took the habit of a Cluny Abbey monk.
Early in his career, Thurstan held the prebendary of The Sokens in the diocese of London,Greenway "Prebendaries: Consumpta-per-Mare" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300: Volume 1: St. Paul's, London and served both William Rufus and Henry I as a royal clerk.Greenway "Archbishops" British History Online Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300: Volume 6: York At some point in Thurstan's early career, he visited Cluny, where he vowed to become a Cluniac monk later in his life. Thurstan also served Henry as almoner,Barlow English Church p. 83 and it was Henry who obtained Thurstan's election as Archbishop of York in August 1114.Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 281 He was ordained a deacon in December 1114 and ordained a priest on 6 June 1115 by Ranulf Flambard, who was Bishop of Durham.Mason "Flambard, Ranulf" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Over the next three years, the new popes, Gelasius II and Calixtus II, championed Thurstan's case, and on 19 October 1119 he was consecrated by Calixtus at Reims.Hollister Henry I pp. 269–273 Calixtus had earlier promised Henry that he would not consecrate Thurstan without the king's permission, which had still not been granted. Enraged at this, the king refused to allow the newly consecrated archbishop to enter England, and Thurstan remained for some time on the continent in the company of the pope. While he was travelling with the pope, he also visited Adela of Blois, King Henry's sister, who was also Thurstan's spiritual daughter. At about this same time, Calixtus issued two bulls in Thurstan's favor: one released York from Canterbury's supremacy forever, and the other demanded the king allow Thurstan to return to York. The pope threatened an interdict on England as a punishment if the papal bull was not obeyed. At length, Thurstan's friends, including Adela, succeeded in reconciling him with Henry, and he rejoined the king in Normandy. At Easter 1120, he escorted Adela to the monastery of Marcigny, where she retired from active secular affairs.LoPrete "Anglo-Norman Card" Albion p. 588 He was recalled to England in early 1121.
Thurstan refused to accept that the new Archbishop of Canterbury, William de Corbeil, was his superior, and did not help with William's consecration. The dispute between the two continued, and both archbishops carried their complaints in person to Rome twice. In 1126, Pope Honorius II ruled in favour of York.Duggan "From the Conquest to the Death of John" English Church and the Papacy p. 98 The pope based his decision on the fact that Canterbury's supporting documents had been forged.Poole Domesday to Magna Carta p. 184
Thurstan supported King Stephen after Henry I's death in 1135, and appeared at Stephen's first court at Easter held at Westminster.Powell and Wallis House of Lords p. 64 Thurstan negotiated a truce at Roxburgh in 1138 between England and Scotland. It was Thurstan who mustered the army which defeated the Scots at the Battle of the Standard on 22 August 1138 near Northallerton.Barlow Feudal Kingdom p. 211Huscroft Ruling England p. 73 Thurstan did not take direct part in the battle., but he created the standard that gave the battle its name, by putting a ship's mast in a cart and hanging the banners of Saint Peter of York, Saint John of Beverley, and Saint Wilfrid of Ripon on the mast. The Scots had invaded, attempting to aid the Empress Matilda, the daughter of Henry I and Stephen's rival for the throne.Davis King Stephen pp. 36–37 On 21 January 1140 Thurstan resigned his see and entered the order of the Cluniacs at Pontefract and he died there on 6 February 1140. He was buried in the church at Pontefract.
Thurstan is described by the historian Edmund King as "a bishop like no other. Thurstan and the baronage of Yorkshire had been partners in a common enterprise, their security in this world and their salvation in the next, and to all aspects of his role he had shown a complete commitment." His death occurred during The Anarchy of the civil war between Stephen and Empress Matilda and led to a breakdown in order.King, King Stephen, p. 126
Thurstan's nephew was Osbert de Bayeux, who became an archdeacon at York, and in 1154 was accused of the murder of William of York, one of Thurstan's successors at York.Greenway "Archdeacons: Richmond" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 6: York
Archbishop
One of the main weaknesses of the see of York was its lack of suffragan bishops.Rose "Cumbrian Society" Studies in Church History p. 124 Thurstan managed to secure the resurrection of the Diocese of Galloway, or Whithorn, in 1125. It is possible that he compromised with Fergus of Galloway, who was the lord or sub-king of Galloway, in what is now Scotland. In this Thurstan secured another suffragan, and Fergus gained a bishop in his lordship, where previously ecclesiastical matters in his subkingdom had been handled by Scottish bishops. The first bishop was the Galwegian Gaelic – Gille Aldan. This provoked the wrath of Wimund, who had previously had jurisdiction over Galloway; but the new bishopric survived, and York had a new suffragan, an important step in the battle between York and Canterbury over the primacy, which was mainly a battle over the prestige of their respective sees. The number of bishops subject to either archbishop was an important factor in the reputation of each.Barlow English Church pp. 40–41 In 1133, Thurstan, who had received papal permission to found an entirely new diocese, consecrated Æthelwold as the first bishop of the new see of Carlisle.
Saint
In 2024 evidence emerged that Thurstan had been acclaimed as a saint: his name was found, associated with a feast day of 6 February, in an ancient catalogue of saints' days at Pontefract Priory. At the time the pope's approval was not needed for sainthood; the monks at Pontefract exhumed his body two years after his death and, finding it well-preserved, acclaimed him as a saint. This detail was lost in the destruction of monasteries' possessions during the Reformation.Tapper "'Unambiguous proof'" The Guardian
Legacy
Thurstan gave land to many of the churches of his diocese and founded several religious houses. He founded the first Abbey in Yorkshire when he founded St Clement's between 1125 and 1133.Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 438 He obtained for Whitby Abbey a papal privilege of protection as well as giving his privilege to the abbey.Dawtry "Benedictine Revival" Studies in Church History 18 p. 91 He also helped found the Cistercians Fountains Abbey, by giving the site to monks who had been expelled from the Abbey of St. Mary's, York.Burton Monastic and Religious Orders p. 70 Thurstan helped the hermitess Christina of Markyate at several points in her career, and tried to persuade her to become the first prioress of his foundation of St. Clement's.Barlow English Church p. 203 He was a patron to the Augustinian Hexham Abbey, founded by his predecessor at York, as well as helping the foundation of Bridlington Priory, another Augustinian house.Burton Monastic and Religious Orders p. 48 He was a sincere reformer and opposed to the election of unfit men to the episcopacy. When Pope Innocent II asked Thurstan's opinion on the elevation of Anselm of St Saba, who was Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds, to become Bishop of London, Thurstan replied, "If we consider his life and reputation, it would be much more fitting to remove him from his abbacy than to promote him to be bishop of London."Appleby Troubled Reign pp. 106–107 Anselm was not confirmed as bishop.
Notes
Citations
(1996). 052156350X, Cambridge University Press. 052156350X
Further reading
|
|
