Thurstan

Thurstan, or Turstin (c. 1070–February 6, 1140) was a medieval Archbishop of York. The son of a priest, he served King William II of England and King 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 authority over York. Eventually, he was consecrated by the pope and allowed to return to England. While archbishop, he secured two new suffragan bishops for his province. When King 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 organizing the English forces at the Battle of the Standard. Shortly before his death, Thurstan resigned from his see and took the habit of a Cluniac monk.

Early life

Early in his career, Thurstan held the prebendary of Consumpta in the diocese of London,^[5] and served both King William II and King Henry I as a royal clerk.^[6] At some point in Thurstan's early career, he visited Cluny, where he vowed to become a Cluniac monk later in his life.^[4] Thurstan also served Henry as almoner,^[7] and it was Henry who obtained Thurstan's election as archbishop of York in August 1114.^[8] He was ordained a deacon in December of 1114 and ordained a priest on June 6, 1115^[6] by Ranulf Flambard, who was Bishop of Durham.^[9]

Controversy and exile

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Ralph d'Escures, refused to consecrate Thurstan unless the archbishop-elect made a profession of obedience to the southern see. Thurstan refused to do this^[10] and asked the king for permission to go to Rome to consult Pope Paschal II. Henry I refused to allow him to make the journey, but even without a personal appeal from Thurstan, Paschal decided against Canterbury. At the Council of Salisbury in 1116 the English king ordered Thurstan to submit to Canterbury, but instead Thurstan publicly resigned the archibishopric.^[11] On his way to the Council, Thurstan had received letters from Paschall II that supported York, and commanded that he should be consecrated without a profession. Similar letters had gone to Ralph d'Escures from the pope, ordering Ralph, as Archbishop of Canterbury, to consecrate Thurstan. After the news of the letters became public, nothing happened about Thurstan's resignation, and he continued to be considered the archbishop-elect.^[2]

Over the next three years, the new popes, Gelasius II and Calixtus II, championed Thurstan's case, and on October 19, 1119 he was consecrated by Calixtus at Reims.^[12]^[6] Calixtus had earlier promised Henry that he would not consecrate Thurstan without the king's permission, which had still not been granted.^[12] 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.^[10] While he was traveling 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 that 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.^[12] At length, Thurstan's friends, including Adela, succeeded in reconciling him with Henry, and he rejoined the king in Normandy. He was recalled to England in early 1121.^[11]

Archbishop

One of the main weaknesses of the see of York was its lack of suffragan bishops. Thurstan managed to secure the resurrection of the Diocese of Galloway in the . It is possible that he compromised with Fergus of Galloway, who was the lord or sub-king of Galloway, in what is now Scotland. 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 native Galwegian - Gilla Aldan.^[4] This provoked the wrath of Wimund, Bishop of the Isles, who had previously had jurisdiction over Galloway; but the new bishopric survived, and York had a new suffragan. The latter was 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.^[13] 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.^[4]

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 favor of York.^[14] The pope based his decision on the fact that Canterbury's supporting documents had been forged.^[15]

Thurstan supported King Stephen after Henry I's death in 1135, and appeared at Stephen's first court at Easter held at Westminster.^[16] 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 August 22, 1138 near Northallerton, Yorkshire.^[17]^[18] 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.^[19] On January 21, 1140 Thurstan resigned his see and entered the order of the Cluniacs at Pontefract^[6] and he died there on February 6, 1140.^[8] He was buried in the church at Pontefract.^[4]

Legacy

Thurstan gave land to many of the churches of his diocese and founded several religious houses. He founded the first nunnery in Yorkshire when he founded St Clement's between 1125 and 1133.^[20] He also helped found the Cistercian Abbey of Fountains,^[6] by giving the site to monks who had been expelled from the Abbey of St. Mary's, York.^[21] 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.^[22] He was a patron to the Augustinian Hexham Priory, founded by his predecessor at York, as well as helping the foundation of Bridlington Priory, another Augustinian house.^[23] He was a sincere reformer, and opposed to the election of unfit men to the episocpacy. 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."^[24] Anselm was not confirmed as bishop.^[24]

Notes

^ British History Online Prebendary of Cantlers accessed on September 14, 2007
^ ^a ^b Hollister Henry I p. 242-244
^ Spear "The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy" Journal of British Studies p. 5
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Burton "Thurstan (c.1070–1140)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online Edition accessed November 11, 2007
^ British History Online Prebendary of Consumpta accessed on September 14, 2007
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e British History Online Archbishops of York accessed on September 14, 2007
^ Barlow, Frank, The English Church 1066-1154 p. 83
^ ^a ^b Fryde Handbook of British Chronology p. 281
^ Mason "Flambard, Ranulf (c.1060–1128)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
^ ^a ^b Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 394
^ ^a ^b Cantor Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture p. 305-309
^ ^a ^b ^c Hollister Henry I p. 269-273
^ Barlo The English Church 1066-1154 p. 40-41
^ Duggan "From the Conquest to the Death of John" in Lawrence The English Church & the Papacy in the Middle Ages p. 98
^ Poole Domesday to Magna Carta p. 184
^ Powell The House of Lords p. 64
^ Barlow The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042-1216 p. 211
^ Huscroft Ruling England 1042-1217 p. 73
^ Davis King Stephen p. 36-37
^ Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 438
^ Burton Monastic and Religious Orders p. 70
^ Barlow The English Church 1066-1154 p. 203
^ Burton Monastic and Religious Orders p. 48
^ ^a ^b Appleby The Troubled Reign of King Stephen p. 106-107

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 (1988). The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042-1216, Fourth Edition, New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49504-0.
Bartlett, Robert C. (2000). England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075-1225. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-822741-8.
British History Online Archbishops of York accessed on September 14, 2007
British History Online Prebendary of Cantlers accessed on September 14, 2007
British History Online Prebendary of Consumpta accessed on September 14, 2007
Burton, Janet (1994). Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain: 1000-1300, Cambridge Medieval Textbooks. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37797-8.
Burton, Janet "Thurstan (c.1070–1140)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/27411, accessed November 11, 2007
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Duggan, Charles "From the Conquest to the Death of John" in Lawrence, C. H. ed. The English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages Stroud: Sutton Publishing reprint 1999 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.
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Lawrence, C. H. ed. The English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages Stroud: Sutton Publishing reprint 1999 ISBN 0-7509-1947-7
Mason, J. F. A. "Flambard, Ranulf (c.1060–1128)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press 2004 Online Edition accessed January 21, 2008
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.
Richardson, H. G.; Sayles, G. O. (1963). The Governance of Mediaeval England. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Spear, David S. (1982). "The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy, 1066-1204" (fee required). Journal of British Studies XXI (2): 1–10. doi:10.1086/385787. Retrieved on 2008-01-28.

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