Married bishops in the twelfth century

Someone raised the issue of the prevalence of episcopal marriage in the
twelfth century, a subject on which I once did some research.  I humbly
offer some of the fruits of that research:

"It must be appreciated that in the twelfth century the episcopate was
a small and highly inbred body.  There were in England two archbishops
and fifteen bishops;  the same number of bishops, in fact, as earls, so
that the episcopate could always be filled with the younger brothers of
earls.  For that matter, the king often had enough sons, legitimate and
illegitimate, to replenish the entire episcopate from his own loins,
should the need arise . . ."

[Footnote here:  "Although Henry I was father of at least twenty-one
children, only two were born in lawful wedlock" - Austin Lane Poole,
'From Domesday Book to Magna Carta 1087-1216' (Oxford History of
England, vol. III), 2nd edition 1955, p. 131.  Geoffrey, illegitimate
son of Henry II, became archbishop of York.]

"Alexander, the bishop of Lincoln . . . was the nephew of Roger, bishop
of Salisbury and right-hand man of Henry I . . . Other nephews of Roger
were Roger Pauper (actually his son:  the term 'nephew' covered a
multitude of sins in the twelfth century), who was chancellor of
England, and Nigel, who became bishop of Ely and also treasurer of
England.  Alexander's brother David became archdeacon of Buckingham
(which was in the diocese of Lincoln, Alexander's diocese), and his
nephew William became archdeacon of Northampton (also in the diocese of
Lincoln).  Nigel tried to get his son Richard Fitzneale appointed
bishop of Lincoln on the death of Robert de Chesney;  Henry II however
had his own candidate, Hugh of witham, but Richard Fitzneale was later
consoled with the see of London on the death of Gilbert Foliot (he also
became treasurer of England).

"Roger of Salisbury's son, roger the chancellor, had the cognomen
'Pauper' or 'Le Poor';  so did two sons of Richard of Ilchester, whom
Gilbert Foliot called kinsman.  There may have been a family connexion
(Dr Stubbs thought so) though there are other explanations of the name,
which incidentally was shared by a brother of Waleran of Meulan. 
Richard of Ilchester became bishop of Winchester in 1174;  his elder
son Herbert became bishop of Salisbury, and his younger son Richard
became bishop in turn of Chichester, Salisbury, and Durham.

"Royal blood flowed abundantly in episcopal veins.  King Stephen's
brother, Henry of Blois, was bishop of Winchester (before Stephen
became king);  Robert of Gloucester, who was himself an illegitimage
son of Henry I, had a son Roger who became bishop of Worcester, and
Godfrey, illegitimate son of Henry II, became archbishop of York.

"There was nothing unusual in married bishops.

	'The great Roger of Salisbury . . . lived openly with his mistress,
Matilda of Ramsbury, while his nephew, Bishop Nigel of Ely, was a
married man, the father of richard Fitz Neal, and scandalized the
strict churchmen by putting in a married clerk as sacrist in his own
cathedral;  even the conduct of the papal legate who presided over the
council of 125 was not above suspicion.'  [Poole, p. 183]

"In defence of these married bishops it ought to be said that the lower
orders did not set them a good example.  Clerical celibacy has never
been popular in England.  At the time of the Conquest,

' . . . clerical marriage was so common that a general condemnation of
the practice would have meant a challenge to english social custom
which, for the sake of peace, Lanfranc was anxious to avoid . . .' [Sir
Frank Stenton, Anglo Saxon England, 2nd ed. 1955, 659-660.]

and so, despite Lanfranc's efforts, it remained thoughout the
Anglo-Norman period.  A good source for the subject is John of Ford's
life of St Wulfric [ed. Dom Maurice Bell, Somerset Record Society, vol.
xlvii, 1933], written in the early 1180's, Wulfric having lived in
Stephen's reign.  In this text we learn of a priest called Segar, who
had four sons, three of them monks, the fourth a lay-brother, at Ford. 
One of them, Richard, was Wulfric's scribe:  'habuitque idem filium
religionis pariter et ministerii sui heredem usque in diem hanc.' 
Brictric, the parish priest of Haslebury, where Wulfric lived, had a
wife Godida (a good a pious lady who made vestments for the church) and
a son Osbern, who became parish priest after his father.  John of Ford
nowhere indicates disapprobation of such arrangements, nor does he
suggest that hey were unusual or noteworthy."

Oriens.

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