Hugh de Wells
Encyclopedia
Hugh of Wells was a medieval Bishop of Lincoln
. He began his career in the diocese of Bath, where he served two successive bishops, before joining royal service under King John of England
. He served in the royal administration until 1209, when he was elected to the see
, or bishopric, of Lincoln. When John was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III
in November 1209, Hugh went into exile in France, where he remained until 1213.
When he returned to England, he continued to serve both John and John's son King Henry III
, but spent most of his time in his diocese. He introduced new administrative methods into the diocese, as well as working to improve the educational and financial well-being of his clergy and to secure the canonization
of his predecessor Hugh of Avalon as a saint in 1220. Although the medieval writer Matthew Paris
accused Hugh of being opposed to monastic houses and monks, there is little evidence of the bishop being biased, and after his death on 7 February 1235 parts of his estate were left to religious houses, including nunneries.
, Bishop of Bath. Hugh's year of birth is unknown, but he was probably an old man at his death in 1235. The fact that he never left his residence from March 1233 until his death implies that he was impaired from old age. He first appears as a witness on documents of Reginald fitzJocelin, the Bishop of Bath in the late 1180s. After fitzJocelin's death in 1191, Hugh continued in the service of the next bishop, Savaric FitzGeldewin
. By the end of the 1190s, Hugh was a canon
of Wells Cathedral
. Although Hugh's brother Jocelin was given the title of magister, implying that he attended a university, Hugh is never called magister, making it unlikely that he ever received much schooling.
Hugh was a keeper of the king's seal, serving as deputy to Simon of Wells
, the Archdeacon of Wells who was Keeper of the Great Seal from around 1199 to 1204. Simon was also a relative of Hugh's, and seems to have helped secure positions for both Hugh and Jocelin in the royal administration. Hugh was a royal clerk in the chancery
, the royal secretariat, and was named Archdeacon of Wells sometime before 25 April 1204. He held prebends in the diocese of Lincoln
and diocese of London
as well. His service in the chancery would have involved him in Hubert Walter
's administrative innovations during his term as Chancellor
.
Besides his episcopal appointments, Hugh was rewarded with two manors in Somerset and the right to collect taxes and fines in two hundreds in Somerset. He also served as the royal custodian of the diocese of Lincoln while the see was vacant between 1200 and 1203, collecting the revenues of the see, most of which went to the king while a see was without a bishop. In 1205 and 1206, Hugh was royal custodian for the diocese of Bath, which was similarly vacant.
to elect a new bishop, as Lincoln had again been without a bishop since 1206. During the summer of 1209, Hugh, along with his brother, was one of the councilors of King John urging the king to settle with Pope Innocent III before the pope excommunicated the king. However, negotiations with papal representatives got nowhere, and the king was excommunicated on 8 November 1209. Hugh and his brother Jocelin had continued to support King John until this, two years after many of their fellow bishops had deserted the king, but by late in the year, Hugh left the king's service and went into exile.
The election, meanwhile, had arroused papal suspicions of undue royal influence, and Innocent sent Stephen Langton
, the exiled Archbishop of Canterbury
to investigate Hugh and the circumstances of his election. Langton was also to investigate rumours that Hugh was not celibate, and had two daughters. The results of the investigation must have been satisfactory, as Hugh was consecrated on 20 December 1209 at Melun
. The consecration was performed by Langton. Hugh was in exile in France until he returned to England on 16 July 1213. His only known activity while in exile was the writing of a will, which was dated November 1212 and was drawn up at St Martin de Garenne, near Paris.
Hugh attended the papal Fourth Lateran Council held in 1215 in Rome, along with a number of other English bishops, and both English archbishops. Soon after his return from the council, Hugh served as a royal judge, serving as one of the justices of the eyre
for Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire in 1218 and 1219. In 1226 he was once more a royal justice. Later, he was employed by King Henry III as an ambassador, helping negotiate with King Louis VIII of France
over the status of Normandy and Poitou. Hugh also worked to secure the canonization
of his predecessor Hugh of Avalon as a saint, which occurred in 1220.
, Hugh ordered that all those in their dioceses refrain from contact with Jews. This decree, however, was countermanded by a royal decree to the county sheriffs in the affected dioceses ordering them to imprison any residents who refused to interact with Jews. Besides these activities, Hugh was active in his diocese, including supervising the various monastic houses within it. In 1227, a visitation to Eynsham Abbey
resulted in Hugh deposing the abbot. Although the 12th chronicler Matthew Paris accused Hugh of being biased against monks and nuns, and even called him the "untiring persecutor of monks, the hammer of canons, nuns and all the religious", there is little evidence that Hugh singled out monks for persecution. One reason for Paris' dislike of the bishop may have been the fact that the chronicler's own abbey of St Alban's had to compromise with Hugh over two legal disputes, dealing with the right to appoint to various benefices.
Hugh once was credited with creating 300 new vicarages within the diocese, largely on the basis of his surviving documents dealing with this, known as the Liber Antiquus. Further research has shown that a number of the vicarages he was once assumed to have founded were instead earlier foundations that Hugh either augmented or reassessed. Hugh also worked to improve the educational level of this clergy, even refusing to allow some candidates to benefices to be installed because of their lack of education. The bishop also worked to improve the conditions of the poorer clergy in his diocese, attempting to ensure that all the clergy in his diocese had enough to live on. Previously, it was thought that Hugh had sent out a set of articles of inquiry to his diocesan clergy, but these articles are now shown to have been produced by Hugh's successor, Robert Grosseteste
.
In the administration of his diocese, Hugh introduced new methods of recording documents. This system was modeled on that which Hubert Walter had introduced into the chancery, with separate registers for each archdeaconry, and registers, or rolls, for charters and memoranda, much like the Charter Roll
or Memoranda Roll of the royal chancery. He also undertook a survey of the endowments of the vicarages within his diocese.
Hugh supported the building campaign of Salisbury Cathedral
, ordering that money be collected throughout his diocese. Likewise, he ordered similar collections for Daventry Priory, Sulby Abbey and parish churches in his diocese. Not only churches benefited from these sorts of collections, as the bishop offered indulgence
s to those who helped build bridges at Brampton, Rockingham, and Aynho.
, in the north aisle. In 1233 he had written a new will, which mentions his brother and a niece named Agatha. He left bequests to his family, his household, Lincoln Cathedral, and a number of monasteries in his diocese. What was left after the specific legacies was to be divided between poor religious houses, such as the Barrow Gurney Nunnery
, students and teachers at Oxford University, Jewish converts and the poor on the episcopal manors.
Hugh's register of ordinations still survives, and is in the Lincoln cathedral archives. Parts of this were published by Alfred Gibbons in 1888, and others in 1904 by the Canterbury and York Society. These records give not only the name of the person receiving a benefice
, but what the clerical status of each new benefice holder was.
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
. He began his career in the diocese of Bath, where he served two successive bishops, before joining royal service under King John of England
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
. He served in the royal administration until 1209, when he was elected to the see
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
, or bishopric, of Lincoln. When John was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni....
in November 1209, Hugh went into exile in France, where he remained until 1213.
When he returned to England, he continued to serve both John and John's son King Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
, but spent most of his time in his diocese. He introduced new administrative methods into the diocese, as well as working to improve the educational and financial well-being of his clergy and to secure the canonization
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
of his predecessor Hugh of Avalon as a saint in 1220. Although the medieval writer Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris was a Benedictine monk, English chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, based at St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire...
accused Hugh of being opposed to monastic houses and monks, there is little evidence of the bishop being biased, and after his death on 7 February 1235 parts of his estate were left to religious houses, including nunneries.
Early life
Hugh was the son of Edward of Wells and elder brother of Jocelin of WellsJocelin of Wells
Jocelin of Wells, also known as Jocelinus Thoteman or Jocelin Troteman, was a medieval Bishop of Bath and Wells. He was the brother of Hugh de Wells, who became Bishop of Lincoln. Jocelin became a canon of Wells Cathedral before 1200, and was elected bishop in 1206...
, Bishop of Bath. Hugh's year of birth is unknown, but he was probably an old man at his death in 1235. The fact that he never left his residence from March 1233 until his death implies that he was impaired from old age. He first appears as a witness on documents of Reginald fitzJocelin, the Bishop of Bath in the late 1180s. After fitzJocelin's death in 1191, Hugh continued in the service of the next bishop, Savaric FitzGeldewin
Savaric FitzGeldewin
Savaric fitzGeldewin was an Englishman who became Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury in England. Related to his predecessor as well as to the German Emperor Henry VI, he was elected bishop on the urging of his predecessor, who urged his election on the cathedral chapter of Bath...
. By the end of the 1190s, Hugh was a canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
of Wells Cathedral
Wells Cathedral
Wells Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, who lives at the adjacent Bishop's Palace....
. Although Hugh's brother Jocelin was given the title of magister, implying that he attended a university, Hugh is never called magister, making it unlikely that he ever received much schooling.
Hugh was a keeper of the king's seal, serving as deputy to Simon of Wells
Simon of Wells
Simon of Wells was a medieval Bishop of Chichester.-Life:...
, the Archdeacon of Wells who was Keeper of the Great Seal from around 1199 to 1204. Simon was also a relative of Hugh's, and seems to have helped secure positions for both Hugh and Jocelin in the royal administration. Hugh was a royal clerk in the chancery
Chancery (medieval office)
Chancery is a general term for a medieval writing office, responsible for the production of official documents. The title of chancellor, for the head of the office, came to be held by important ministers in a number of states, and remains the title of the heads of government in modern Germany,...
, the royal secretariat, and was named Archdeacon of Wells sometime before 25 April 1204. He held prebends in the diocese of Lincoln
Diocese of Lincoln
The Diocese of Lincoln forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire.- History :...
and diocese of London
Diocese of London
The Anglican Diocese of London forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England.Historically the diocese covered a large area north of the Thames and bordered the dioceses of Norwich and Lincoln to the north and west. The present diocese covers and 17 London boroughs, covering most of Greater...
as well. His service in the chancery would have involved him in Hubert Walter
Hubert Walter
Hubert Walter was an influential royal adviser in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries in the positions of Chief Justiciar of England, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor. As chancellor, Walter began the keeping of the Charter Roll, a record of all charters issued by the...
's administrative innovations during his term as Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
.
Besides his episcopal appointments, Hugh was rewarded with two manors in Somerset and the right to collect taxes and fines in two hundreds in Somerset. He also served as the royal custodian of the diocese of Lincoln while the see was vacant between 1200 and 1203, collecting the revenues of the see, most of which went to the king while a see was without a bishop. In 1205 and 1206, Hugh was royal custodian for the diocese of Bath, which was similarly vacant.
Bishop of Lincoln
Hugh was elected to the see of Lincoln about 14 April 1209, after a papal command to the cathedral chapterCathedral chapter
In accordance with canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese in his stead. These councils are made up of canons and dignitaries; in the Roman Catholic church their...
to elect a new bishop, as Lincoln had again been without a bishop since 1206. During the summer of 1209, Hugh, along with his brother, was one of the councilors of King John urging the king to settle with Pope Innocent III before the pope excommunicated the king. However, negotiations with papal representatives got nowhere, and the king was excommunicated on 8 November 1209. Hugh and his brother Jocelin had continued to support King John until this, two years after many of their fellow bishops had deserted the king, but by late in the year, Hugh left the king's service and went into exile.
The election, meanwhile, had arroused papal suspicions of undue royal influence, and Innocent sent Stephen Langton
Stephen Langton
Stephen Langton was Archbishop of Canterbury between 1207 and his death in 1228 and was a central figure in the dispute between King John of England and Pope Innocent III, which ultimately led to the issuing of Magna Carta in 1215...
, the exiled Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
to investigate Hugh and the circumstances of his election. Langton was also to investigate rumours that Hugh was not celibate, and had two daughters. The results of the investigation must have been satisfactory, as Hugh was consecrated on 20 December 1209 at Melun
Melun
Melun is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Located in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, Melun is the capital of the department, as the seat of an arrondissement...
. The consecration was performed by Langton. Hugh was in exile in France until he returned to England on 16 July 1213. His only known activity while in exile was the writing of a will, which was dated November 1212 and was drawn up at St Martin de Garenne, near Paris.
Hugh attended the papal Fourth Lateran Council held in 1215 in Rome, along with a number of other English bishops, and both English archbishops. Soon after his return from the council, Hugh served as a royal judge, serving as one of the justices of the eyre
Eyre (legal term)
An Eyre or Iter was the name of a circuit traveled by an itinerant justice in medieval England, or the circuit court he presided over , or the right of the king to visit and inspect the holdings of any vassal...
for Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire in 1218 and 1219. In 1226 he was once more a royal justice. Later, he was employed by King Henry III as an ambassador, helping negotiate with King Louis VIII of France
Louis VIII of France
Louis VIII the Lion reigned as King of France from 1223 to 1226. He was a member of the House of Capet. Louis VIII was born in Paris, France, the son of Philip II Augustus and Isabelle of Hainaut. He was also Count of Artois, inheriting the county from his mother, from 1190–1226...
over the status of Normandy and Poitou. Hugh also worked to secure the canonization
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
of his predecessor Hugh of Avalon as a saint, which occurred in 1220.
Diocesan affairs
In 1222, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of NorwichBishop of Norwich
The Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers most of the County of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. The see is in the City of Norwich where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided...
, Hugh ordered that all those in their dioceses refrain from contact with Jews. This decree, however, was countermanded by a royal decree to the county sheriffs in the affected dioceses ordering them to imprison any residents who refused to interact with Jews. Besides these activities, Hugh was active in his diocese, including supervising the various monastic houses within it. In 1227, a visitation to Eynsham Abbey
Eynsham Abbey
Eynsham Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in England between 1005 and 1538. King Æthelred allowed Æthelmær the Stout to found the abbey in 1005. There is some evidence that the abbey was built on the site of an earlier minster, probably founded in the 7th or 8th...
resulted in Hugh deposing the abbot. Although the 12th chronicler Matthew Paris accused Hugh of being biased against monks and nuns, and even called him the "untiring persecutor of monks, the hammer of canons, nuns and all the religious", there is little evidence that Hugh singled out monks for persecution. One reason for Paris' dislike of the bishop may have been the fact that the chronicler's own abbey of St Alban's had to compromise with Hugh over two legal disputes, dealing with the right to appoint to various benefices.
Hugh once was credited with creating 300 new vicarages within the diocese, largely on the basis of his surviving documents dealing with this, known as the Liber Antiquus. Further research has shown that a number of the vicarages he was once assumed to have founded were instead earlier foundations that Hugh either augmented or reassessed. Hugh also worked to improve the educational level of this clergy, even refusing to allow some candidates to benefices to be installed because of their lack of education. The bishop also worked to improve the conditions of the poorer clergy in his diocese, attempting to ensure that all the clergy in his diocese had enough to live on. Previously, it was thought that Hugh had sent out a set of articles of inquiry to his diocesan clergy, but these articles are now shown to have been produced by Hugh's successor, Robert Grosseteste
Robert Grosseteste
Robert Grosseteste or Grossetete was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian and Bishop of Lincoln. He was born of humble parents at Stradbroke in Suffolk. A.C...
.
In the administration of his diocese, Hugh introduced new methods of recording documents. This system was modeled on that which Hubert Walter had introduced into the chancery, with separate registers for each archdeaconry, and registers, or rolls, for charters and memoranda, much like the Charter Roll
Charter Roll
The Charter Roll is the administrative record created by the medieval office of the chancery that recorded all the charters issued by that office. In the medieval Kingdom of England, the first Charter Roll was started in 1199 under the Chancellorship of Hubert Walter...
or Memoranda Roll of the royal chancery. He also undertook a survey of the endowments of the vicarages within his diocese.
Hugh supported the building campaign of Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture....
, ordering that money be collected throughout his diocese. Likewise, he ordered similar collections for Daventry Priory, Sulby Abbey and parish churches in his diocese. Not only churches benefited from these sorts of collections, as the bishop offered indulgence
Indulgence
In Catholic theology, an indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the Catholic Church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution...
s to those who helped build bridges at Brampton, Rockingham, and Aynho.
Death and legacy
Hugh died on 7 February 1235, at his episcopal residence at Stow Park. He was buried on 10 February 1235 in Lincoln CathedralLincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral is a historic Anglican cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. It was reputedly the tallest building in the world for 249 years . The central spire collapsed in 1549 and was not rebuilt...
, in the north aisle. In 1233 he had written a new will, which mentions his brother and a niece named Agatha. He left bequests to his family, his household, Lincoln Cathedral, and a number of monasteries in his diocese. What was left after the specific legacies was to be divided between poor religious houses, such as the Barrow Gurney Nunnery
Barrow Gurney Nunnery
Barrow Gurney Nunnery was established around 1200 in Barrow Gurney Somerset, England.The Benedictine nunnery was founded by one of the Fitz-Hardinges , and in 1212, was left 10 marks in the will of Hugh de Wells. The nunnery also received a pension on the church of Twerton by the time of the...
, students and teachers at Oxford University, Jewish converts and the poor on the episcopal manors.
Hugh's register of ordinations still survives, and is in the Lincoln cathedral archives. Parts of this were published by Alfred Gibbons in 1888, and others in 1904 by the Canterbury and York Society. These records give not only the name of the person receiving a benefice
Benefice
A benefice is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The term is now almost obsolete.-Church of England:...
, but what the clerical status of each new benefice holder was.