England under the Angevin Kings, Volumes I and II

CHAPTER VII.

THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 1136–1149

The Empress Matilda’s 1148 departure brought exhaustion, not peace. All Henry I’s work was undone: law, authority, order swept away. Only the Church survived intact. For Stephen’s first seven years, its pilot was Henry of Winchester, a Cluniac monk raised from Glastonbury abbot to Winchester bishop in 1129, who received a legatine commission in 1139, becoming de facto national leader after Roger of Salisbury’s fall. He deposed both Stephen and Matilda when each broke their Church compact, belonging to neither faction. Norman-tempered but rash, he clung to a fading Cluniac ideal against rising Cistercian reformers. His legatine authority over Archbishop Theobald created institutional tension; he secured a papal pall from Innocent II in 1142 to elevate Winchester to a metropolitan see, but the scheme failed.

The English Church experienced a revival led by new orders. Cistercians, inspired by S. Bernard, spread rapidly: William of Newburgh noted more houses founded in Stephen’s reign than in the entire previous century. Augustinian canons ran the best schools and staffed hospitals like S. Giles Cripplegate, S. Bartholomew Smithfield, and S. Katharine’s (founded by Queen Matilda in 1148). Gilbert of Sempringham founded the Gilbertine order, blending Augustinian and Cistercian rules. Templars and Hospitallers established priories, their warrior-monks a militant sign.

Cistercian influence peaked when abbot Eugene III became Pope in 1145 under Bernard’s sway. Bernard’s first cause was the Second Crusade, preached at Vézelay in 1146; though royal and imperial armies were crushed, a spontaneous fleet from Dartmouth in May 1147 won a documented exploit proving English common people still possessed courage. Touching at Oporto, they answered Alfonso of Portugal’s appeal and besieged Lisbon with him; after four months the city fell, and the English contingent, resisting spoils, made over the future capital of Portugal to its Christian sovereign—a triumph of discipline over greed.

Cistercians also defended the English Church’s constitutional rights. They opposed the 1141 appointment of William Fitz-Herbert as archbishop of York, seeing it as overriding Canterbury’s primacy. Bernard pressed Celestine II to strip Henry of his legation and transfer it to Theobald, which happened in 1143. When William of York was consecrated by Henry in 1143, Eugene III suspended him, and at a Paris council in 1147 deposed him entirely, after William’s supporters raided Fountains Abbey in a failed attempt to capture Henry Murdac. The York chapter elected Murdac, a Cistercian from Clairvaux, consecrated by Eugene.

Stephen refused Murdac entry; York’s citizens shut their gates. Murdac laid the city under interdict and excommunicated Hugh of Puiset. The conflict escalated in 1148 when Eugene summoned all English bishops to Reims. Stephen forbade Theobald from attending, but the archbishop fled in a small fishing boat with two companions, including young clerk Thomas Becket. The Pope presented Theobald as having “swum rather than sailed,” suspended absent bishops including Henry of Winchester, and threatened Stephen with excommunication. Theobald won Stephen a three-month respite, but on his return Stephen banished him, seized Canterbury’s temporalities, and ruled tyrannically. Theobald withdrew to St Omer, aided by Queen Matilda and William of Ypres.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey Plantagenet challenged Stephen to submit his crown claim to papal judgment; Stephen counter-challenged for Normandy. Geoffrey ceded Normandy to 16-year-old Henry in 1148, declaring his son would pursue the claim himself. At the papal court, Gilbert Foliot was appointed vicar of Hereford after its bishop’s death during the Reims council, styling himself ‘G. gratiâ Dei abbas, et Herefordiensis ecclesiæ mandato Domini Papæ vicarius.’ Consecrated bishop of Hereford by Theobald at St. Omer with the young duke of Normandy’s consent, on condition he do homage for temporalities to Henry, not Stephen, Foliot broke the promise immediately, signaling Church support for the Angevin claim. Theobald returned, reconciled with Stephen, the interdict was lifted, and all suspended bishops except Henry of Winchester were restored. Henry traveled to Rome, won absolution from Lucius II but not restoration of his legatine powers, and returned to his Hospital of the Holy Cross in Winchester.