Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gerard (d.1108)
GERARD or GIRARD (d. 1108), archbishop of York, was the nephew of Walkelin, bishop of Winchester, and his brother Simeon, abbot of Ely, and therefore, possibly, a distant kinsman of the Conqueror. He was precentor of the cathedral of Rouen (Rob. de Monte, ed. Stevenson, p. 680), and afterwards a clerk of William Rufus's chapel and chancery. William despatched him in 1095, in company with William of Warelwast, afterwards bishop of Exeter, to the papal court on a secret and delicate mission in connection with the dispute between the king and Anselm. The alleged object of their embassage was to investigate the claims of the two rival popes. Its real purpose was to acknowledge Urban, if in return he would consent to send William a pallium for him to bestow on the Archbishop of Canterbury, neither Anselm nor any other person being named, and would also confer on the king some kind of legatine authority. Gerard and Warelwast met Urban probably at Cremona. The result of their negotiation was the mission to the king of a papal legate, Cardinal William of Albano, with whom they returned by the middle of May, the pallium being secretly in the legate's custody (Eadmer, Hist. Novorum, p. 68). A year later (1096) Gerard, though not yet even in deacon's orders, was rewarded with the bishopric of Hereford for his successful intrigue. Anselm, then staying with his friend Gundulf at his manor of Lambeth, ordained Gerard deacon and priest the same day, and consecrated him the following day, 8 June 1096 (ib. p. 74). He was present at the consecration of Gloucester Abbey, 15 July 1100 (Sym. Dunelm. p. 225). The story told by Walter Map (De Nugis Curial. p. 224), that Gerard crowned Henry I (5 Aug. 1100) and received from him the promise of the first vacant archbishopric, that Henry repented, and that Gerard held him to his word, may safely be rejected. Anselm being absent from England, and Thomas, archbishop of York, lying on his deathbed, Maurice, bishop of London, was the prelate who crowned Henry. Gerard was present, for his name appears as one of the witnesses to Henry's famous charter of issued liberties, on the day of his coronation; but though the Oseney ‘Chronicle’ supports Map's story (Annal. Monast. iv. 14), the part he took in the ceremony must have been merely secondary (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. ii. 117, 554; Wendover, Chron. ii. 164). Orderic states that Edith, better known as Matilda, Henry's queen, was crowned by Gerard (Ord. Vit. 784 A), but other authorities, with greater probability, assign both the marriage and the ‘hallowing to queen’ to Anselm. A week later the death of Archbishop Thomas, 18 Nov., placed the northern primacy at Henry's disposal, and he without delay conferred it on Gerard. A conflict between the two primatial authorities once more broke out. Anselm, as primate of all England, demanded Gerard's profession. Gerard claimed exemption as a brother primate. It was essential, however, that Gerard should obtain the pallium from Rome, and for this purpose letters from Anselm substantiating his claim were necessary. On applying for them, he was told that he must either make his profession at once or promise to make it on his return. Gerard evasively replied that ‘when he came back he would do all that could be justly demanded of him.’ Anselm professed himself satisfied, and furnished Gerard with the necessary letters to Pope Paschal (Anselmi, Epist. lib. iii. ep. 48). Gerard also carried one from Henry himself.
The dispute about investiture was then running high. The decision was to be submitted to the pope. Each party was to be represented. Anselm sent two monks, Henry three prelates, of whom the new archbishop was the chief, the other two being Robert of Chester (i.e. Lichfield) and Herbert de Losinga of Norwich, both men of very questionable respectability (Church, Essays, p. 205). Gerard, clever and unscrupulous, with much reputation for learning, pleaded his royal master's cause with so much ability, that he was openly complimented by Paschal and the whole curia. The pallium was conferred on him, and he and his companions returned bearing sealed letters to Anselm and the king. Both missives refused the king's demands and peremptorily required him to submit to the papal see. But Gerard and his companions asserted that the pope had secretly assured them that so long as Henry acted as a good king, the decrees about investitures would not be enforced. Anselm's deputies denied any such assurance. The solemn word of Gerard and his episcopal companions, however, was held to outweigh the testimony of two ‘paltry monks.’ Paschal when appealed to repudiated in the most solemn terms the alleged understanding, and placed Gerard and the other bishops under sentence of excommunication until they had confessed their crime and made satisfaction (Eadmer, pp. 132, 140, 145, 151; cf. Anselmi Epist. lib. iii. ep. 131).
Eventually the required profession of canonical obedience to Anselm was made by Gerard, though so tardily that more than one letter was despatched by Paschal before it was rendered. The last of these, dated 12 Dec. 1102, arrived after the profession had been made, and remained unopened and unread (Anselmi Epist. iii. 131; Eadmer, p. 173; Anglia Sacra, ii. 170). Although Thomas Stubbs, eager for the privileges of the see of York, vehemently repudiates the story (Twysden, p. 1710 B), we may safely accept the well-authenticated statement that Gerard laid his hand upon that of Anselm, with the promise that he would exhibit the same obedience he had paid him when bishop of Hereford (Eadmer, p. 187; Flor. Wig. ii. 56; Gervas. Cantuar. ii. 375; Sym. Dunelm ii. 239; Hoveden, i. 164). Gerard, however, continued to assert the co-ordinate dignity of the two primatial sees, and at the important council held at Westminster, September 1102 (if we may credit the tale told by Thomas Stubbs), indignantly kicked over the lower seat which had been prepared for him with a curse, ‘in the vulgar tongue, on the head of the author of such an indignity,’ and refused to take his place except on a level with his brother primate (Twysden, ib.)
The next year Gerard again came into open collision with Anselm. Three bishops were awaiting consecration, William Giffard [q. v.] to Winchester, the famous Roger [q. v.] to Salisbury, and Reinhelm [q. v.] to Hereford. On Anselm's refusal to consecrate the latter two as having received investiture from the king, Henry commanded Gerard to perform the rite. Gerard consented. Reinhelm, shrinking from so gross an infringement of the rights of Canterbury, refused to accept consecration at Gerard's hands. Giffard, who had already received investiture from Anselm, appeared on the day of consecration in St. Paul's Cathedral, but when the ceremony had begun he interrupted the service, and openly repudiated Gerard's pretensions. The assistant bishops thought it prudent to proceed no further, and the assembly broke up in confusion. Roger, who stood awaiting consecration, left the cathedral as he entered it, a simple priest (Eadmer, p. 69; Flor. Wig. p. 1103; Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. ii. 122; Hist. Angl. i. 191). During Anselm's three years of exile Gerard devoted himself to re-establishing discipline in his vast diocese, not yet recovered from the Conqueror's devastations. Gerard's conduct displeased Paschal, who in an objurgatory letter took him severely to task for the support he had given to the king against the primate. The indulgence of the holy see had been heavily taxed and would not be extended much longer (Anselmi Epist. lib. iv. ep. 38). Although any confidential intercourse between Anselm and Gerard would seem to have been rendered impossible by the decided line each took in the dispute regarding investiture, their correspondence is not wanting in dignified courtesy. Before it was recognised that Anselm's return was indispensable to the English church, letters had passed between them practically effecting a reconciliation. Gerard, with the bishops of Lichfield, Norwich, and others, addressed a moving letter to Anselm entreating him to return at once as the only means of remedying the miseries under which the church was labouring (ib. lib. iii. ep. 121). On Anselm's return and the great settlement of the investiture dispute, the reconciliation seems to have been completed, and Gerard was the first of the six assistant prelates at the long-deferred episcopal consecration at Canterbury, 11 Aug. 1107, when no fewer than five bishops received the archiepiscopal blessing (Gervase, ii. 376; Eadmer, iv. 77; Will. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pont. p. 117; Sym. Dunelm. ii. 239). Gerard died 21 May 1108, at his palace at Southwell, when on his way to a council held in London to enforce clerical celibacy. He had been suffering from a slight indisposition. After dinner he went to walk in the garden attached to the palace, and after a little time lay down to sleep on a sunny bank, requesting his chaplains to leave him alone for a while. On their return he was dead. Under the cushion which had been his pillow was found a book by Julius Firmicus, a writer on judicial astrology, a science to which the archbishop was much devoted. His enemies interpreted his death, without the rites of the church, as a divine judgment for his addiction to magical and forbidden arts. Gerard had failed to secure the affections of the clergy or the people of his diocese. The funeral cortège was very scantily attended on its route, and on its entry into York it was not, as was customary, received in pomp by the citizens and the clergy, but by noisy boys who pelted the bier with stones. As the archbishop had departed without the last sacraments, the canons refused him interment within the walls of his cathedral, barely allowing him a turfed grave outside its doors. From this ignominious resting-place his body was transferred to the cathedral by his successor, Archbishop Thomas II. That Gerard was a learned man, an eloquent orator, and an able politician, there is no question. Thomas Stubbs says that he had few superiors in knowledge and eloquence, and William of Newburgh styles him clever and learned, epithets which are confirmed by William of Malmesbury. But he is charged by these authorities with covetousness and a licentious life, to which popular rumour added the practice of magical arts. Canon Raine says: ‘Gerard was a reformer and a successful politician, and in both these characters he would be sure to create enemies.’ Our chief knowledge of him is from ecclesiastical historians, from whom an unprejudiced verdict on one who so vigorously supported the regal against the pontifical power is hardly to be looked for. Two of Gerard's letters appear among those of Anselm (lib. iii. ep. 121, iv. ep. 39). Some Latin verses of no high poetical merit are preserved in a manuscript of the Cottonian collection (Titus D. xxiv. 3). He enriched the cathedral of York with five churches which were granted him by Henry I, one of which, Laughton, was constituted a prebend.
[Raine's Fasti Eboracenses, containing references to all original authorities; Eadmer, Hist. Nov. (Rolls Ser.); Gervase of Canterbury, Chron. ed. Stubbs (Rolls Ser.); William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pont. (Rolls Ser.); Hoveden, Chron. ed. Stubbs (Rolls Ser.); Florence of Worcester, Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Symeon of Durham (Rolls Ser.)]