Peter of Blois (; French: Pierre de Blois; ) was a French cleric, theologian, poet and diplomat. He is particularly noted for his corpus of Latin letters.
Early life and education
thumb|Baldwin of Forde, Peter's tutor and friend, as depicted on the exterior of Canterbury Cathedral.
Peter of Blois was born about 1130. Earlier opinion tended to place the date later in the 1130s, He studied under Bernard Silvestris, who, he later recalled, urged him to “take up in truth not fables, but history” and made him memorise the letters of Hildebert, a former Archbishop of Tours. It has been thought Peter also studied under the English philosopher and theologian John of Salisbury, but this is now generally discounted.
Peter then studied Roman law at the University of Bologna, a centre for legal studies. Here he was tutored by Baldwin of Forde, a future Archbishop of Canterbury, and both studied under Umberto Crivelli, the future Pope Urban III.
Around 1155 Peter went to study theology in Paris, remaining there for about 11 years.
The Sicilian adventure
thumb|left|Peter's pupil, William II, depicted offering [[Monreale Cathedral to the Virgin Mary.]]
In 1166 the regent of Sicily, Margaret of Navarre, a relative of the Counts of Perche, wrote to her relatives in France, particularly Rotrou, the Archbishop of Rouen, to ask for help during the minority of her son, William II. However, when in 1183 Henry the Young King died during the revolt against his father, Peter wrote to Eleanor a letter of reasoned consolation.
Peter was a well-connected controversialist and propagandist for Henry II. He wrote in praise of him to continental contacts, like Walter Ophamil, now Archbishop of Palermo, defending him against the charge that he had deliberately instigated the murder of Thomas Becket. In introducing the subject of Becket's death, Peter mentioned in passing his own clerical order: in verbo Domini et in ordine diaconi vobis dico – “in the Word of God and the order of deacon I speak to you.” At some stage in his education, he had been ordained a deacon and he seems to have avoided ordination to the priesthood.
In 1176 Peter was appointed Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Canterbury, the chief record keeper and Latin secretary, serving Richard of Dover. Probably in the same year, he was appointed Archdeacon of Bath,
Peter was in Rome in 1179 and there displayed the improvidence which was to become an important feature of his later life. His failure to repay a debt caused Pope Alexander III to write to the Archbishop on behalf of the creditor. This was a cause célèbre sufficient for inclusion in a compendium of canon law issued in 1234 by Pope Gregory IX. Richard of Dover died in 1184 and, after some delay, the king succeeded in getting Baldwin of Forde, Peter's friend and tutor from his Bologna days, installed as Archbishop of Canterbury. He confirmed Peter in his position as letter writer but also made him his chief legal adviser.
The Canterbury Cathedral chapter controversy
Baldwin soon created a legal storm that was to engulf Peter, threatening his career. He was determined to reform the diocese thoroughly, making it function more efficiently as a base for his position as one of the chief magnates of the realm. He saw the chapter of Canterbury Cathedral as a major obstacle. Like most cathedral establishments, it had consisted of secular clergy until the Norman Conquest, after which it was reconstituted as a community of Benedictine monks, known variously as the Priory of the Holy Trinity or Christchurch. However, the monks of the chapter were soon complaining to his successor, Urban III, that his reforms were going too far and succeeded in getting the Pope to order restoration of some of the confiscated churches. Urban initially welcomed some aspects of Baldwin's overarching plan to move the chapter to Hackington, north of Canterbury, and to build a second base for the diocese at Lambeth, directly facing the centres of secular power in London and Westminster. However, the plan unfolded to include the replacement of the monastic chapter with a new episcopal staff, consisting of colleges of secular clergy at Hackington and Lambeth.
Seeing their influence and wealth slipping from their grasp, the Canterbury monks appealed to both the king and to Rome. Baldwin suspended the prior in December 1186 and the monks immediately began a letter-writing campaign to mobilise bishops, archbishops, even Philip II of France, in their cause. Peter of Blois was despatched to the papal court at Verona to counter the chapter's arguments, which were presented by a skilled Roman lawyer called Pillius. Peter arrived at Verona a few days later to find the Pope had adjourned the case until 10 April, giving Peter no chance to plead formally while a further series of decrees was issued in the monks' favour. However, Peter was no more successful in open court, suffering a continuing series of defeats. On 9 May the Pope ordered Archbishop Baldwin to cease building his new church at Hackington, abolished the fraternity he had established to staff and support it, and expressed surprise that he had so far resisted restoration of the situation to that prevailing before the appeal. Peter remained at Verona, arguing the case, until October, and then followed the papal court to Ferrara. Provocative behaviour back home did not help Peter. Baldwin continued to build his church in defiance of the Pope but with the king's support, although he did move the site some distance to the west, hurriedly putting up a wooden chapel in St Dunstan's parish. In August he seized the chapter's manors, suspending and even excommunicating its members as he saw fit.
On 3 October, having reached Ferrara, the Pope raised the stakes by ordering Baldwin actually to demolish his new headquarters, to desecrate the site and to suspend its clergy, to restore all members of the existing chapter to office and to refrain from further actions against them while the case continued. He was given 30 days to comply. R. W. Southern alleges that Peter made a last, personal appeal to his old teacher while riding from Verona to Ferrara, and that the Pope was so incensed by the attempt to circumvent legal procedure that he died the following day of a heart attack. Peter's own later account of Urban's death has him taken ill while changing horses, shortly after Peter had approached him, but also mentions he contracted dysentery on the journey from Verona – an entirely plausible cause of death. The new pope moved the court to Pisa on its way towards Rome. He seems to have been less sympathetic to the Cathedral chapter while Honorius, like Peter, remained at the papal court, as he had been ordered to return there by the chapter. However, on 26 January 1188, Clement made a final decision on the matter, which he communicated in a letter to Baldwin. He rebuked the archbishop for his lack of moderation, which tended to undermine the dignity of his office, and for his disobedience, before repeating all of Urban's demands: the new collegiate church was forbidden and the previous situation was to be restored. Baldwin continued his vindictive campaign against the monks, who were imprisoned in their own priory at the cathedral until August 1189,
Later years
On crusade
thumb|King Richard I's Great Seal of 1189. Exhibited in History Museum of Vendee.
After Henry's death in 1189, Peter seems to have dropped out of favour – a claim that probably met with incredulity. He also continued to exercise considerable influence over other leading churchmen.
Matters eased slightly after Richard's death and both his influence and material fortunes seem to have revived in the early years of John's reign. He was appointed Archdeacon of London by 1202. However, despite still holding a number of potentially lucrative posts, he seems always to have been in financial difficulties. He protested in a letter to Innocent III some time around 1200 that his income from his archdiaconate barely met his basic expenses.
The Wolverhampton college affair
Although he had probably been dean of Wolverhampton for some time, very likely since the reign of Henry II, – presumably the Sheriff of Staffordshire – who was, he complained, trampling on the church's ancient privileges and oppressing the townspeople. This is fairly reliably datable, as Longchamp's ascendancy was short-lived, and he was forced to flee the country in 1191. denouncing his behaviour in strong terms and commending the virtue of apostolic poverty – ironically, in view of his own notorious pluralism.
Peter resigned as dean around 1202, and explained the situation in a letter to Innocent III. He claimed that the church was subject only to the archbishop and the king, under the Pope: later deans were to seek freedom from the archbishop too, with some success. Peter had already put forward the plan to Hubert Walter and won his and John's support for it. Walter dissolved the college and, with Papal approval, John handed over the deanery and prebends to him in January 1203, in preparation for the new venture. He was the author of a number of controversial works of varying lengths.
At some time in the 1190s, for example, he wrote Against the Perfidy of the Jews (), which Peter commended in a preface to a Bishop of Worcester, probably John of Coutances. A strongly anti-Jewish work, it is largely a marshalling of arguments, ostensibly from Scripture, in favour of the Doctrine of the Trinity and other specifically Christian teachings, intended as a handbook of argumentation. However, he held out no hope of conversion: "Their hour is not yet come, but He has blinded them till the time when the heathen are converted." Commenting on the Passion of Christ, he denounced the Jews as "persisting in their malice".
Against the Perfidy of the Jews influenced official texts. Its "clamour … is adopted in Papal Bulls, in sermons, monastic chronicles and many other texts …A common vocabulary of speaking about the Jew is developed … just as the period creates a long-lasting stereotype of the Jew".
Family
Peter's brother was William of Blois, another poet, who is sometimes confused with William de Blois, the Bishop of Lincoln. A sister, Christiana of Blois, was a nun, whom Peter encouraged in her vocation.
References
Bibliography
- Bréhier, Louis René.
- Ferrante, Joan (editor) (2014). Epistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters, Columbia University, accessed 23 September 2014.
- Cotts, John D. (2009). The Clerical Dilemma: Peter of Blois and Literate Culture in the Twelfth Century. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.
- Giles, I.A. (1847). Petri Blesensis Bathoniensis archidiaconi opera omnia : nunc primum in Anglia ope codicum manuscriptorum editionumque optimarum, Oxford. The standard collection of the works of Peter of Blois in Latin, in four volumes, available on-line at Internet Archive, accessed 23 September 2014.
:*Volume I: Epistolae
:*Volume II: Epistolae &c.
:*Volume III: Opuscula
:*Volume IV: Sermones &c.
- Halsall, Paul (editor) (2011). Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University, accessed 23 September 2014.
- Marx, A. (2014): Die Passio Raginaldi von Petrus von Blois: Märtyrertum, Emotionalität und Eschatologie, University of Vienna.
- Robinson, J. A. (1921). "Peter of Blois" in Somerset Historical Essays
- Stubbs, William (1865). Epistolae cantuarienses: the letters of the prior and convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, from A.D. 1187 to A.D. 1199, accessed 29 September 2014 at Internet Archive.