Editing Ralph d'Escures

{{Short description|Archbishop of Canterbury from 1114 to 1122}}
{{bots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| name = Ralph d'Escures
| archbishop_of = [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]
| appointed = 26 April 1114
| ended = 20 October 1122
| predecessor = [[Anselm of Canterbury]]
| successor = [[William de Corbeil]]
| consecration = 9 August 1108
| other_post = [[Bishop of Rochester]]
| death_date = 20 October 1122
| death_place = [[Canterbury]]
| buried = [[Canterbury Cathedral]]
| parents = Seffrid d'Escures<br /> Rascendis
}}

'''Ralph d'Escures''' (also known as Radulf<ref>Eadmer. ''Eadmer’s History of Recent Events in England = Historia Novorum in Anglia''. Translated by Geoffrey Bosanquet. London: Cresset Press, 1964.</ref>) (died 20 October 1122) was a medieval [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Sées|abbot of Séez]], [[bishop of Rochester]], and then [[archbishop of Canterbury]]. He studied at the school at the [[Abbey of Bec]]. In 1079 he entered the [[abbey]] of [[Séez Abbey|St Martin]] at Séez and became [[abbot]] there in 1091. He was a friend of both Archbishop [[Anselm of Canterbury]] and Bishop [[Gundulf of Rochester]], whose [[Diocese|see]], or bishopric, he took over on Gundulf's death.

Ralph was not chosen archbishop of Canterbury by the chapter of Canterbury alone. His election involved an assembly of the lords and bishops meeting with King [[Henry I of England]]. Ralph then received his [[pallium]] from Pope [[Paschal II]], rather than travelling to Rome to retrieve it. As archbishop, Ralph was very assertive of the rights of the [[Archbishop of Canterbury|see of Canterbury]] and of the liberties of the English church. He claimed authority in Wales and Scotland. Ralph also quarrelled for a time with [[Pope Paschal II]].

Ralph suffered a stroke on 11 July 1119 and was left partially paralysed and unable to speak clearly from that time until his death on 20 October 1122. A surviving English translation of a sermon delivered by Ralph is preserved in a manuscript in the British Library. The sermon survives in some fifty Latin manuscripts.

==Early life==
[[File:AbbayeduBec-arbres.jpg|alt=View of a stone tower and wooden buildings behind an open field|thumb|Abbey of Bec, where Ralph entered monastic life]]
Ralph was the son of Seffrid d'Escures and his first wife Rascendis,<ref name=DNB>Brett "Escures, Ralph d' " ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref> and a half brother of [[Seffrid I]],<ref name=DNB/><ref name=BHOChich>Greenway ''Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 5: Chichester: Bishops''</ref> [[Bishop of Chichester]] from 1125 to 1145.<ref name=Heads51>Knowles, et al. ''Heads of Religious Houses'' pp. 51,250</ref> The surname of de Turbine, by which he is sometimes known in older scholarship, is only attested in the fourteenth century and possibly resulted from confusion with [[William de Corbeil]], Ralph's successor at Canterbury.<ref name=DNB/> Ralph studied at the school at the Abbey of Bec<ref name=Cantor176>Cantor ''Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture'' p. 176</ref> before entering the abbey of St Martin at Séez in 1079.<ref name=Vaughn61/> St. Martin was a house founded by the [[Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury|Montgomery]] and [[William I Talvas|Bellême]] families, and was still under their lordship.<ref name=Vaughn109>Vaughn ''Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan'' p. 109</ref> He became abbot of the house in 1091, and his election was attended by [[Anselm of Canterbury|Anselm, abbot of Bec]].<ref name=Vaughn61>Vaughn ''Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan'' p. 61</ref>

==Time in England==
Soon afterwards Ralph paid a visit to England, perhaps to visit [[Shrewsbury Abbey]], which was a daughter house of Séez.<ref name=DNB/> He may have been involved in mediating the surrender of [[Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury|Robert of Bellême]] at [[Shrewsbury]] in 1102, for some chroniclers state that it was Ralph who delivered the keys of the castle to King Henry I of England.<ref name=HenryI163>Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 163</ref> In 1103, he took refuge in England from the demands of Robert of Bellême for [[Homage (medieval)|homage]]. Ralph declined to do homage because Pope [[Urban II]] had ordered that no clergy could do homage to the laity.<ref name=Vaughn24>Vaughn ''Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan'' pp. 24–25</ref> Robert was also demanding heavy taxes, and Ralph fled with [[Serlo, Bishop of Sees|Serlo]], [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Sées|Bishop of Séez]], who was also subjected to Robert's demands.<ref name=HenryI181>Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 181</ref> He passed his time in England with his friends Saint Anselm and Gundulf the Bishop of Rochester.<ref name=Barlow82>Barlow ''English Church'' p. 82</ref> He attended the [[Translation (relics)|translation]] of [[Cuthbert of Lindisfarne|Saint Cuthbert]]'s remains at [[Durham, England|Durham]], where he was one of examiners of the body, and declared the saint's remains uncorrupt. In 1106, he visited Anselm at the Abbey of Bec, but probably did not try to assert himself at Séez. After Anselm was elected to the see of Canterbury, Ralph appears to have become part of the archbishop's household.<ref name=DNB/>

In June 1108, Ralph succeeded Gundulf as Bishop of Rochester, having been nominated by Gundulf before his death.<ref name=BHORoch>Greenway "Rochester: Bishops" ''Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300'': Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces)</ref> Ralph was consecrated on 9 August 1108.<ref name=Handbook267>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 267</ref> He was at Anselm's deathbed in April 1109,<ref name=DNB/> and, afterwards, Ralph acted as administrator of the see of Canterbury<ref name=Powell57>Powell and Wallis ''House of Lords'' p. 57</ref> until 26 April 1114, when he was chosen Archbishop at [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]].<ref name=Handbook232>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 232</ref> The king had wanted his doctor, [[Faritius|Faricus]], who was an Italian and [[Abbot of Abingdon]], but the nobles and the bishops objected to anyone but a [[Normans|Norman]] being appointed.<ref name=Barlow82/> The bishops also desired someone who was not a monk, or at least not one who was so close to Henry.<ref name=Monastic181>Knowles ''Monastic Order'' p. 181</ref> As a compromise, Ralph was chosen, rather than the [[secular clergy]] that the bishops favoured.<ref name=Monastic628>Knowles ''Monastic Order'' p. 628</ref> Although Ralph was a monk and had not served as a royal clerk, he was also a bishop, which seems to have reconciled the other bishops to his selection.<ref name=Cantor33>Cantor ''Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture'' p. 33</ref>

==Archbishop of Canterbury==
It is noteworthy that, while Ralph was not chosen by the chapter of Canterbury alone, his election involved an assembly of the magnates and bishops meeting with the king. He was not selected solely by the king, nor solely by the bishops or chapter.<ref name=Cantor281>Cantor ''Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture'' p. 281</ref> Ralph received his pallium from the pope, rather than travelling to Rome to retrieve it.<ref name=Barlow38>Barlow ''English Church 1066–1154'' p. 38</ref> However, It was only with difficulty that Pope Paschal II was persuaded to grant the pallium, as the papacy was attempting to reassert papal jurisdiction over the English Church. It was [[Anselm of St Saba]] who brought the pallium to England, along with letters from Paschal complaining that the English Church was translating bishops from see to see without papal permission, that [[papal legate|legates]] from the papacy were being refused entry to England and that the king was allowing no appeals to be made to the pope over ecclesiastical issues.<ref name=HenryI240>Hollister ''Henry I'' pp. 240–243</ref> In 1116 the pope even demanded the payment of [[Peter's Pence]], a payment direct to the papacy of a penny from every household in England. Ralph, when he took the pallium, professed "fidelity and canonical obedience" to the pope, but did not submit to the papal demands and, in fact, supported King Henry in opposing the pope's demands.<ref name=Cantor301>Cantor ''Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture'' pp. 301–308</ref>

As archbishop Ralph championed the rights of the see of Canterbury and the English church.<ref name=Barlow83>Barlow ''English Church'' p. 83</ref> He claimed authority in Wales and Scotland, writing to the pope that "the church of Canterbury has not ceased to provide pastoral care for the whole of Britain and Ireland, both as a benevolence and from its rights of primacy."<ref name=Bartlett92>Quoted in Bartlett ''England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings'' p. 92</ref> He advised the [[bishop of Llandaff]] that a new [[Llandaff Cathedral]] should be built and granted an [[indulgence]] to contributors.<ref name=HenryI395>Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 395</ref> He even refused to consecrate [[Thurstan]] as [[Archbishop of York]] because Thurstan would not profess obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury,<ref name=Vaughn357>Vaughn ''Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan'' pp. 357–359</ref> part of the [[Canterbury-York dispute]].<ref name=Church39>Barlow ''English Church'' pp. 39–44</ref> At first, Ralph depended only on the king to demand Thurstan to submit, but later he appealed to the popes to force Thurstan to obey.<ref name=Cantor301/> His refusal brought him into a dispute with the papacy, for Pope Paschal II supported Thurstan. Ralph visited Rome in 1117, but was unable to obtain an interview with Paschal as the pope had fled the city in front of an invading [[Holy Roman Empire|imperial]] army.<ref name=Cantor301/> Ralph had taken ill with an ulcer on his face during the trip to Rome and, for a time, it was feared that he would die. He recovered enough to continue on to Rome, however, although it was a fruitless trip.<ref name=DNB/> Despite instructions from Paschal's successors, [[Pope Gelasius II|Gelasius II]] and [[Pope Callixtus II|Calixtus II]], the archbishop continued to refuse to consecrate Thurstan, and Thurstan was still unconsecrated when Ralph died.<ref name=Vaughn362>Vaughn ''Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan'' p. 362</ref> Thurstan was eventually consecrated at [[Reims|Rheims]] by Pope Calixtus II in May 1119, although the issue of primacy remained unresolved.<ref name=DNB/>

Although he feuded with York over the primacy, it appears clear that Ralph considered the [[Investiture Controversy|Investiture Crisis]] settled in England for, in 1117 while visiting Rome, he took a neutral position as regards the issues between the Pope and the Emperor.<ref name=Cantor275>Cantor ''Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture'' pp. 275–276</ref> In 1115, however, he refused to consecrate [[Bernard, Bishop of St David's|Bernard]] as [[Bishop of St David's]] in the royal chapel, although [[Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester|Robert of Meulan]], the king's chief counsellor, advocated that the consecration must take place in the royal chapel according to ancient custom. The king did not insist and Ralph won the confrontation.<ref name=Cantor281/> He was also involved in ecclesiastical affairs in Normandy, as he attended the provincial synod, or Council of Rouen, held in 1118.<ref name=Spear3>Spear "Norman Empire" ''Journal of British Studies'' p. 3</ref>

==Final years and legacy==
Ralph suffered a stroke on 11 July 1119, as he was removing his vestments after celebrating Mass. From then until his death, Ralph was partially paralysed and unable to speak clearly.<ref name=BlackMonks673>Bethell "English Black Monks" ''English Historical Review'' p. 673</ref> He was still involved in decision making and, in 1120, he agreed to King [[Alexander I of Scotland]]'s suggestion that [[Eadmer]] become the next [[Archbishop of St Andrews|Bishop of St Andrew's]].<ref name=DNB/> Ralph was one of the lords consulted about the remarriage of Henry I to [[Adeliza of Leuven]] at London in 1121.<ref name=Powell58>Powell and Wallis ''House of Lords'' p. 58</ref> He also successfully asserted his right to celebrate the king's new marriage, over attempts by [[Roger of Salisbury]] to officiate instead.<ref name=Cantor299>Cantor ''Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture'' p. 299</ref> Due to the damage from the stroke, Ralph was unable to perform the ceremony but, when Roger made an attempt to do so, Ralph successfully insisted on choosing the officiant and [[William Giffard]] the [[Bishop of Winchester]] performed the marriage.<ref name=HenryI280>Hollister ''Henry I'' pp. 280–281</ref> Ralph died on 20 October 1122,<ref name=Handbook232/> at Canterbury. He was buried in the nave of Canterbury Cathedral on 23 October 1122.<ref name=DNB/> His nephew, [[John I, Bishop of Rochester|John]], was a clerk under Ralph, and later Ralph appointed him [[List of Archdeacons of Canterbury|Archdeacon of Canterbury]]. After Ralph's death, John was elected to the see of Rochester.<ref name=BHORoch/><ref name=BHOArchDCant>Greenway "Archdeacons: Canterbury" ''Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300'': Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces)</ref>

Ralph was regarded as a "witty, easygoing" man.<ref name=HenryI235>Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 235</ref> The struggle with York, however, along with his illnesses and the effects of the stroke, turned Ralph in his last years into a quarrelsome person.<ref name=HenryI280/> [[Orderic Vitalis]] said that he was well educated and well loved by people. Even [[William of Malmesbury]], no lover of ecclesiastics and always ready to find fault with them, could only find fault with him for his occasional lapses into unbecoming frivolity.<ref name=DNB/>

Ralph wrote a sermon for the feast of the [[Assumption of Mary|Assumption of the Virgin]] and it survives in some fifty [[Latin]] manuscripts, probably because it was thought to have been written by Anselm of Canterbury,<ref name=DNB/> until shown to be Ralph's in 1927.<ref name=Homily172>Treharne "Life of English" ''Writers of the Reign of Henry II'' pp. 172–173</ref> A surviving English translation of the sermon is also preserved in the manuscript [[British Library]], [[Cotton Vespasian]] D. xiv.<ref name=Bartlett494>Bartlett ''England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings'' p. 494</ref> The Latin version, which Ralph was a translation of his originally spoken French version, has been edited and published in 1997.<ref name=Homily172/> Ralph also had the monks of [[Canterbury Cathedral|Christ Church, Canterbury]] search for documents relating to the privileges of Canterbury and had those documents copied into a manuscript which still survives, BM [[MS Cotton Cleopatra]] E.<ref name=Cantor301/> His seal is one of the first to take the usual form for bishop's seals, with Ralph standing, in full vestments including a [[mitre]], and performing a benediction with his right hand while holding his [[crosier]] in his left. The seal took the form of a pointed oval.<ref name=Seals>Harvey and McGuinness ''Guide to British Medieval Seals'' pp. 64–65</ref>

==Citations==
{{Reflist|40em}}

==References==
{{refbegin|colwidth=60em}}
* {{cite book |author=Barlow, Frank |title=The English Church 1066–1154: A History of the Anglo-Norman Church |author-link=Frank Barlow (historian)|publisher=Longman |location=New York |year=1979|isbn=0-582-50236-5 }}
* {{cite book |author=Bartlett, Robert C. |author-link=Robert Bartlett (historian)|title=England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075–1225 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford, UK |year=2000 |isbn=0-19-822741-8 }}
* {{cite journal |author= Bethell, D. L. |title= English Black Monks and Episcopal Elections in the 1120s   |date=October 1969   |journal= [[The English Historical Review]] |volume=84 |issue=333 |pages=673–694|doi=10.1093/ehr/LXXXIV.CCCXXXIII.673 |jstor= 563416 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia | author=Brett, Martin |title=Escures, Ralph d' (c.1068–1122) | encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23047 |access-date=7 November 2007 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/23047 }} {{ODNBsub}}
* {{cite book |author=Cantor, Norman F.|author-link= Norman Cantor|title= Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England 1089–1135 |year= 1958|publisher= Princeton University Press |location= Princeton, NJ |oclc= 2179163 }}
* {{cite book |author1=Fryde, E. B. |author2=Greenway, D. E. |author3=Porter, S. |author4=Roy, I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology|edition=Third revised |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1996 |isbn=0-521-56350-X }}
* {{cite book |author=Greenway, Diana E. |section=Archdeacons: Canterbury |title= Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300|volume=2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces)|section-url= http://british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=33855 |year=1971 |publisher= Institute of Historical Research|access-date=11 April 2008 }}
* {{cite book |author=Greenway, Diana E. |section=Rochester: Bishops |title= Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300|volume=2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces)|section-url= http://british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=33873  |year=1971 |publisher= Institute of Historical Research|access-date=11 April 2008 }}
* {{cite book |author=Greenway, Diana E. |section=Bishops |title= Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300|volume=5: Chichester|section-url= http://british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=34293  |year=1996 |publisher= Institute of Historical Research|access-date=11 April 2008 }}
* {{cite book |author1=Harvey, P. D. A. |author2=McGuinness, Andrew |title=A Guide to British Medieval Seals |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |year=1996 |isbn=0-8020-0867-4}}
* {{cite book |author=Hollister, C. Warren |author-link=C. Warren Hollister |editor=Frost, Amanda Clark |title=Henry I |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, CT |year=2001  |isbn=0-300-08858-2 }}
* {{cite book |author1=Knowles, David |author-link1=David Knowles (scholar)|author2=London, Vera C. M. |author3-link=Christopher N. L. Brooke|author3=Brooke, Christopher |title=The Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales, 940–1216|edition=Second |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK|year=2001  |isbn=0-521-80452-3 }}
* {{cite book |author=Knowles, David |title=The Monastic Order in England: A History of its Development from the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 940–1216|author-link=David Knowles (scholar) |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1976 |edition= Second reprint |isbn=0-521-05479-6 }}
* {{cite book |author1= Powell, J. Enoch |author-link1= Enoch Powell |author2=Wallis, Keith|title= The House of Lords in the Middle Ages: A History of the English House of Lords to 1540 |year=1968 |publisher= Weidenfeld and Nicolson |location=London|oclc= 263296875  }}
* {{cite journal |author= Spear, David S.  |title= The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy, 1066–1204 |date=Spring 1982  |journal= [[Journal of British Studies]] |volume= XXI |issue=2 |pages=1–10  |doi= 10.1086/385787 |jstor= 175531 |s2cid= 153511298 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author=Treharne, Elaine |title=The Life of English in the Mid-Twelfth Century: Ralph d'Escures's Homily on the Virgin Mary |encyclopedia=Writers of the Reign of Henry II: Twelve Essays |date=2008 |editor=Kennedy, Ruth |editor2=Meecham-Jones, Simon |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |pages=169–186|isbn=978-1-4039-6644-5}}
* {{cite book |author=Vaughn, Sally N. |title=Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan: The Innocence of the Dove and the Wisdom of the Serpent |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, CA |year=1987 |isbn=0-520-05674-4 }}
{{refend}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef | before=[[Gundulf of Rochester|Gundulf]] }}
{{s-ttl| title=[[Bishop of Rochester]] | years=1108–1114}}
{{s-aft| after=[[Ernulf]] }}
{{s-bef | before=[[Anselm of Canterbury]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Archbishop of Canterbury]] | years=1114–1122}}
{{s-aft| after=[[William de Corbeil]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{Bishops of Rochester}}
{{Archbishops of Canterbury}}
{{Authority control}}

{{good article}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Escures, Ralph d}}
[[Category:11th-century births]]
[[Category:1122 deaths]]
[[Category:Anglo-Normans]]
[[Category:Archbishops of Canterbury]]
[[Category:Bishops of Rochester]]
[[Category:French abbots]]
[[Category:People from Orne]]
[[Category:12th-century English Roman Catholic archbishops]]
[[Category:Anglo-Norman Benedictines]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Place of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Burials at Canterbury Cathedral]]
[[Category:12th-century English Roman Catholic bishops]]