The castles and abbeys of England; Vol. 2 of 2: from the national records, early chronicles, and other standard authorsBeattie, William
History
The castles and abbeys of England; Vol. 2 of 2: from the national records, early chronicles, and other standard authors
Beattie, William
Abbeys -- England; Castles -- England
* * * * *
<g>Baldwin</g>, the Bishop above named, was a native of Exeter, where he
received, what was considered in those days, a liberal education; and in
the early part of his life discharged the functions of a grammar-school
in that city. After taking holy orders he was made Archdeacon of Exeter;
but soon quitting the duties of that office, he took the habit of the
Cistercian Order in the Monastery of Ford, in Devonshire, of which, in a
few years afterwards, he was elected Abbot. He was next promoted to the
episcopal dignity, and on the 10th of August, 1180, consecrated Bishop
of Worcester. On the death of Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, four
years later, he was translated to that see--though not without
difficulty, from his being the first of the Cistercian Order in England
who had ever been promoted to the archiepiscopal dignity. He was
enthroned at Canterbury, May the 19th, 1185, and the same day received
the bull from Pope Lucius III., whose successor, Urban III., appointed
him to the office of Legate for the diocese of Canterbury. Soon after
his installation, he began to build a church and monastery at
Hackington, near Canterbury, in honour of “St. Thomas à Becket,” for the
reception of secular priests; but, being violently opposed by the monks
of Canterbury supported by the Pope’s authority, he was compelled to
abandon his undertaking.
On the third of September, 1190, he solemnly performed the ceremony of
crowning <g>King Richard</g> the First--Cœur-de-Lion--in the palace of
Westminster. The same year, the King having given the see of York to his
natural brother, Geoffrey, Bishop of Lincoln, <g>Baldwin</g> took occasion to
assert the pre-eminence of the see of Canterbury, forbidding the Bishops
to receive consecration from any other than the Archbishop himself.
The next year, designing to follow King Richard into the Holy Land, he
made the “Itinerarium” into Wales already alluded to; visited the Abbey
of <g>Llanthony</g>, which he described in the words already quoted; said mass
pontifically in all the cathedral churches, and persuaded many of the
Welsh to quit their homes and take part in the crusade. After completing
this progress, he returned to Canterbury; and then, embarking at Dover
with the Bishop of Salisbury, sailed for the Holy Land, where he joined
the King’s army in Syria. Shortly after his arrival, however, he was
seized with a mortal distemper, and died at the siege of Acre, or
Ptolemais, where he was buried with all the solemnity due to a great
luminary of the church.[354]
<g>Descent.</g>--At the period of the dissolution of monasteries, Llanthony
Abbey was given to Richard, or Nicholas Arnold; then sold to Auditor
Harley, and remained in the Oxford family, until sold again to Colonel
(afterwards Sir Mark) Wood, of Persefield, near Chepstow; from whom it
passed to the present owner, WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR, Esq.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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