> Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 11:46:17 GMT
> Subject: Re: (Fwd) wives of clerics
> From: Bill East <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
> At 12:46 01/06/98 GMT0BST, you wrote:
> >
> > For
> >example, there is a nice charter in the PRO which discloses the fact
> >that Gerald of Wales' nephew, Gerald de Barri the younger, archdeacon
> >of Brecon in succession to his uncle, had three children by the
> >sister of a rural dean. We know the name of the rural dean and his
> >brothers, but we don't know their sister's name.
> >What intrigues me is at what point in time people began to think it
> >was disreputable for women to be married to clerics (in higher
> >orders, that is - clerics in lower orders could get married). I think
> >Christopher Brooke thinks this process happened in the middle of the
> >twelfth century, but I wonder if in many social milieux it mightn't
> >have been a bit later?
> >
> >Julia Barrow
> >
> >
> >Thank you. When Gerald returned from Paris in 1172, he became an agent in
> Wales for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Finding that the Archdeacon of
> Brecon was married - hardly an unusual state of affairs - Gerald informed on
> him, and was rewarded with his job. When personal interests were not at
> stake, Gerald was
> however an enthusiastic supporter of clerical marriage, agreeing with Peter
> Manducator that the enforcement of clerical celibacy was the greatest triumph
> that the Devil had ever won over the Church [Opera, ed. Brewer, Rolls Series,
> vol. II pp. 187-88]
>
>
> >
>
>
It's better than that - Gerald knew he could force, Jordan, the
archdeacon of Brecon out of office because the latter had lost his
political support in Wales - the bit about him being married was
just a convenient excuse. Meanwhile Gerald's uncle, Bishop David of
St Davids, was the father of at least four children. Admittedly they
were grown up by 1174/1175 which is when Gerald pushed out Jordan,
and perhaps David's wife had died by then too, but since David had
been a canon of St Davids before becoming bishop he is yet another
example of a married cleric. It's also another case of an unnamed
clerical wife.
Julia Barrow
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