Temporal relations of the bishopric of Le Mans.
Howel consecrated at Rouen. April 21, 1085. outward appearance, but at the heart. William examined further into Howel's life and conversation, and presently gave him the temporal investiture of the bishopric.[1] At the same time a congé d'élire went to Le Mans, which led to Howel's "pure and simple" election by the Chapter.[2] A point both of canon and of feudal law turned up. The old dispute between the Norman Duke and the Angevin Count about the advowson of the bishopric had never been settled; the Peace of Blanchelande was silent on that point. Legally there can be no doubt that the true temporal superior of the Bishop of Le Mans was neither Fulk nor William, but their common, if forgotten, lord King Philip.[3] But, whoever might be his temporal lord, no one doubted that the Bishop of Le Mans was a suffragan, and the suffragan highest in rank, of the Archbishop of Tours.[4] Yet, as things stood, as Tours was in the dominions of Fulk, a subject of William who went to that metropolis for consecration might have been called on to enter into some engagement inconsistent with his Norman loyalty. By a commission therefore from Archbishop Ralph of Tours, Howel received consecration at
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 531 C. "Ei curam et seculare jus Cœnomanensis episcopatus commisit" I have elsewhere spoken of this kind of document in England (N. C. vol. ii. p. 588). Only it would seem that in England the King either acted wholly of himself or else confirmed an election already made by the Chapter. Here the Chapter, as in later times, elects on the King's recommendation.
- ↑ Ib. "Decretum regis clero insinuatum est, et præfati clerici bonæ vitæ testimonium ab his qui noverunt ventilatum est. Pro tam pura et simplici electione devota laus a fidelibus Deo reddita est, et electus pastor ad caulas ovium suarum ab episcopis et reliquis fidelibus, quibus hoc a rege jussum fuerat, honorifice perductus est." The regale, or rather ducale, comes out strongly in these matters, as it always does in Normandy.
- ↑ See N. C. vol. iii. p. 194.
- ↑ Vet. An. 290. "Celeberrimum est enim Cenomannensis ecclesiæ præsulem post Turonensem archiepiscopum totius Turonensis diœceseos obtinere primatum." Diœcesis here stands for province, as parochia constantly stands for diocese.
