William de St-Calais (died 2 January 1096) was a medieval Norman monk, abbot of the abbey of Saint-Vincent in Le Mans in Maine, who was nominated by King William I of England as Bishop of Durham in 1080. During his term as bishop, St-Calais replaced the canons of his cathedral chapter with monks, and began the construction of Durham Cathedral. In addition to his ecclesiastical duties, he served as a commissioner for the Domesday Book of 1086. He was also a councillor and advisor to both King William I and his son, King William II, known as William Rufus. Following William Rufus' accession to the throne in 1087, St-Calais is considered by scholars to have been the new king's chief advisor.
When the king's uncle, Odo of Bayeux, raised a rebellion against the king in 1088, St-Calais was implicated in the revolt. William Rufus laid siege to St-Calais in the bishop's stronghold of Durham, and later put him on trial for treason. A contemporary record of this trial, the De Iniusta Vexacione Willelmi Episcopi Primi, is the earliest surviving detailed contemporary report of an English state-trial. Imprisoned briefly, St-Calais was allowed to go into exile after his castle at Durham was surrendered to the king. He went to Normandy, where he became a leading advisor to Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, the elder brother of William Rufus. By 1091, St-Calais had returned to England and regained royal favour.
In England, St-Calais once more became a leading advisor to the king. In 1093, he negotiated with Anselm, Abbot of Bec, concerning Anselm's becoming Archbishop of Canterbury; in 1095, it was St-Calais who prosecuted the royal case against Anselm after he had become archbishop. During his bishopric, St-Calais stocked the cathedral library with books, especially canon law texts. He was also active in defending the north of England against Scots raids. Before his death, he had made his peace with Anselm, who blessed and consoled St-Calais on his deathbed.
Early life
St-Calais was a Norman, and a native of Bayeux; he may have been a member of one of its clerical dynasties. His mother's name, Ascelina or Anselma, is given in Durham's records; his father, whose name is unknown, became a monk at the monastery of Saint-Calais in Maine, and may previously have been a knight. Although St-Calais is generally referred to as Saint Calais or St-Calais, the main source of information about his life, the monastic chronicle of Symeon of Durham, does not call him such.
St-Calais studied under Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the half-brother of the future William I of England, who was then Duke of Normandy. Other bishops educated at Bayeux around this time included Archbishop Thomas of York and Samson, Bishop of Worcester. Symeon of Durham considered St-Calais to be well-educated in classical literature and the scriptures; at some point St-Calais also acquired a knowledge of canon law.
William the Conqueror nominated him to the see of Durham on 9 November 1080, and he was duly consecrated on either 27 December 1080 or 3 January 1081. His elevation may have been a reward for diplomatic services he rendered to the king in France, or to help secure the see from further disorder following the death of the previous bishop, Walcher, during a feud. However, it was most likely in recognition of his administrative ability. Symeon of Durham stated that St-Calais was chosen as a bishop for this reason, describing him as "very well versed in sacred and secular learning, very conscientious in matters of divine and worldly business, and so remarkable for good conduct that he had no equal amongst his contemporaries".
Early ecclesiastical affairs
The chronicler Symeon of Durham asserted that when St-Calais was consecrated bishop by Archbishop Thomas of York, he managed to avoid professing obedience to the archbishop, which, if true, would have freed St-Calais from interference in his diocese. After his appointment, St-Calais decided to replace his cathedral chapter of secular clergy with monks, and consulted the king and Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury, before going to Rome to receive permission from Pope Gregory VII. These consultations, and the conditions within his diocese, may have kept St-Calais from visiting Durham until some time after his elevation. In 1083 he expelled the married clergy from the cathedral, and moved a small community of monks from Bede's old monastery at Jarrow to Durham, to form the new chapter. This community had been founded at Jarrow by Reinfrid, a Norman ex-knight and monk of Evesham Abbey, and Eadwine, an English monk from Winchcombe Abbey. After the community had settled in Durham, St-Calais named Eadwine as prior, and arranged for lands to be set aside to support the monks. After demolishing an Anglo-Saxon church, he and Prior Turgot of Durham laid the foundation stone on 11 August 1093 for what would later become Durham Cathedral.
St-Calais also gave a set of constitutions to the cathedral chapter, modeled on Lanfranc's rule for Canterbury. Symeon of Durham said that the bishop acted towards the monks of his chapter as a "loving father", and that the monks fully returned the sentiment. St-Calais is said to have researched the pre-Norman Conquest customs of the cathedral exhaustively, before re-establishing monks in the cathedral. He imposed the Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc on the community, instead of the older Regularis Concordia.
Work for William the Conqueror
During William the Conqueror's reign, St-Calais was a frequent witness on charters. While it is often difficult to determine who was considered most important on a charter's witness list, placement near the top usually indicates that the signatory was considered important. Almost always during the Conqueror's reign, St-Calais is listed right below the royal family and the archbishops. After the king's imprisonment of Odo of Bayeux, Pope Gregory VII complained to him. The pope was also concerned about the king's refusal to allow the delivery of papal letters to the English bishops unless royal permission was secured. To placate the pope, the king dispatched St-Calais to Rome, possibly with Lanfranc, to explain to the pope the reasons for imprisoning Odo. St-Calais also served as a commissioner in the south-western part of England for the Domesday Book, which aimed to survey the whole of England and record who owned the lands. Some historians, including David Bates, have argued that St-Calais was the driving force behind the organization of the entire Domesday survey, although other candidates have been put forward, including Samson, Bishop of Worcester, before he became bishop. Pierre Chaplais, who argues for St-Calais being the main organizer of the survey, argues the bishop's exile in 1088 interrupted work on the Little Domesday Book, a subproject of the survey which was left uncompleted.
Rebellion
thumb|left|300px|The keep of [[Durham Castle, where St-Calais shut himself up in 1088|alt=A stone three-story building with small windows on a grassy hill]]
Soon after the accession of William Rufus, St-Calais became one of the king's most trusted lieutenants, along with the recently released Odo of Bayeux. Later chroniclers often referred to the position that St-Calais held as justiciar, although the formal office did not yet exist. Around Easter 1088, Odo of Bayeux and many of the nobles revolted against the king and tried to place the king's elder brother Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, on the throne. After the king had set off with St-Calais and some troops to counter Odo in Kent, St-Calais suddenly deserted, shutting himself in Durham Castle. He and Odo had never been close, and despite the fact that St-Calais was educated at Bayeux, there is no evidence that Odo helped St-Calais's career. but St-Calais continued to hold out in Durham, at first claiming he had never actually rebelled. When the king's army arrived, St-Calais agreed to come out, but only after receiving a safe conduct that would allow him to attend a trial while his men continued to hold the castle. St-Calais's actions suggest that he did rebel, whatever his claims to the contrary and affirmations of his innocence in northern chronicles. before which the king seized his lands. At the trial, St-Calais held that as a bishop he could not be tried in a secular court and refused to answer the accusations. Lanfranc presented the king's case, declaring that the confiscated lands had been held as fiefs, and thus St-Calais could be tried as a vassal, not as a bishop. St-Calais objected and continued to refuse to answer the allegations. After numerous conferences and discussions, the court held that St-Calais could be tried as a vassal in a feudal court. St-Calais then asked for an appeal to Rome, which was rejected by the king and the judges. Those judging the case held that because St-Calais never answered the formal accusation, and because he appealed to Rome, his fief, or lands, was forfeit. Although St-Calais claimed to be defending the rights of clergy to be tried in clerical courts and to appeal to Rome, his fellow bishops believed otherwise. Unlike the later case of Thomas Becket, St-Calais received little sympathy from his fellow bishops. Most of the bishops and barons who judged the case seem to have felt that the appeal to Rome was made to avoid having to answer an accusation that St-Calais knew was true. The final judgement was only reached after the king lost his temper and exclaimed: "Believe me, bishop, you're not going back to Durham, and your men aren't going to stay at Durham, and you're not going to go free, until you release the castle." The extant De Iniusta Vexacione Willelmi Episcopi Primi, or Of the Unjust Persecution of the Bishop William I, details the trial of St-Calais before the king.
Return to favour
After the court adjourned, St-Calais was held as a prisoner at Wilton Abbey until his followers in Durham relinquished the castle. Pope Urban II did write to the king in 1089 requesting that St-Calais be restored to his see, but nothing came of it. In Normandy, St-Calais quickly became one of Duke Robert's principal advisors and his chief administrator. On 14 November 1091 he regained the favour of William Rufus, and was restored to his see. Duke Robert had persuaded the king to allow Bishop William's return,
St-Calais returned to Durham on 11 September 1091, with a large sum of money and gifts for his church. Thereafter, he remained in the king's favour. In fact, in 1093, his lands were restored without the need to perform feudal services. It was St-Calais, along with Robert, Count of Meulan, who negotiated with Anselm, the abbot of Bec, in 1093 over the conditions under which Anselm would allow himself to be elected Archbishop of Canterbury.
St-Calais managed the king's case against Anselm at Rockingham in 1095, when Anselm wished to go to receive his pallium from Pope Urban II. At that time St-Calais opposed Anselm's attempt to appeal to Rome over the issue, and steadfastly maintained the king's position against Anselm, Later, when the king was negotiating with Walter of Albano, the papal legate sent by Urban to convey the pallium to Anselm and to secure the king's recognition of Urban as pope,