Surrendering his claim to the archbishopric he sailed for Syria, and died soon afterwards in Jerusalem. Of all who had come with Stephen from France two only, according to Peter of Blois, returned in safety from 'poisonous Sicily'.
Peter as we learn from his letters had succeeded Walter as the young king's instructor (Ep. 66), and held that office for a year. His learning and ability gained him a position of importance in the court, where he acted as official sealer (sigillarius, Ep. 131 ). He tells us that his influence in state affairs aroused so much envy that repeated attempts were made to detach him from the court, and that he refused offers of two bishoprics and of the archbishopric of Naples.[1]
At the moment of Stephen's flight Peter was sick. He was sheltered and cared for by Romuald, the archbishop of Salerno; and on his recovery the archbishop and Richard Palmer, the bishop-elect of Syracuse, urged him by the king's desire to remain at the chancery (in sigilli officio). He insisted, however, on returning to France; and, as the journey through Calabria was too hazardous, the king gave him a Genoese vessel which had been captured by Sicilian pirates. The crew were bound by solemn oaths of fidelity, and Peter set sail with a company of about forty persons: he was becalmed, and took more than a month on his voyage; but he reached Genoa safely and was well received, especially by persons of note who had seen him in what he calls his palatial grandeur in Sicily (Ep. 90).
This account of his return he writes to his brother William, who seems to have followed him to Sicily, and who had become the abbot of Matina in Calabria.[2] In the same letter (or, according to some manuscripts, another written soon after) he urges his brother to refuse the pope's grant of the mitre and other episcopal ornaments,
- ↑ Epp. 72, 131: there is a slight discrepancy between the two letters.
- ↑ The name of the abbey is given in the MSS, both in Ep. 90 and in Ep. 93, as Malinensis, Malhinensis, or Malunensis. Busaeus conjectured Maniacensis, and was followed by Goussainville: but this has no manuscript evidence. Maniacensis is accepted by Chalandon, Histoire de la domination normande en Italie el en Sicile (1907), ii. 321, who unfortunately supposed that Malinensis was the conjectural emendation. He argues that Mattina in Calabria is out of the question, because according to Janauschek (Origines Cistercienses, 1877, i. 179) that abbey was only founded in 1180. But Janauschek says that it was founded by Robert Guiscard in 1066 for Benedictines, and was transferred to the Cistercians in 1180.
Peter never actually states that his brother's abbey was in Sicily, though he congratulates him on getting away from Sicily alive. No doubt William was in touch with the Sicilian court: he had been defrauded, apparently in 1168, of the bishopric of Catana by John de Agello who perished in the earthquake at that place on 4 Feb. 1169.
