Gerard (archbishop of York)
Gerard was Lord Chancellor of England from 1085 until 1092. A Norman, he was a member of the cathedral clergy at Rouen. He served in the royal chancery under successive kings of England, William I and William II. He became embroiled in the dispute between York and the see of Canterbury.
About Gerard (archbishop of York) in brief
Gerard was Lord Chancellor of England from 1085 until 1092. A Norman, he was a member of the cathedral clergy at Rouen. He served in the royal chancery under successive kings of England, William I and William II. He became embroiled in the dispute between York and the see of Canterbury concerning which archbishopric had primacy over England. Gerard was denied a burial inside York Minster after his sudden death in 1108. He was a patron of learning, to the extent that he urged at least one of his clergy to study Hebrew, a language not commonly studied at that time. Gerard may have assisted Maurice in the coronation of Henry I in return for a promise of the first vacant see of York. He may have been with the king’s hunting party when William II was killed, as he is known to have witnessed the first charter issued by the new king, Henry I of England. Although not yet ordained, Gerard was rewarded with the Bishopric of Hereford, and he was consecrated by Archbishop Anselm on 8 June 1096. The places and times of his birth and upbringing are unknown; he is documented as cantor of Rouen Cathedral, and precentor of the same cathedral, although the dates of his appointments to either office are unrecorded.
No source mentions him being invested by the king, but the medieval chronicler Walter Map states that Gerard was probably crowned by Maurice, but it seems unlikely he would have been invested by him. Gerard became Archbishop of York in December 1100, and was buried in the cathedral church of York on 2 August 1100. He continued as Chancellor to William Rufus until his death in 1092; what precipitated his loss of office is unclear. In the Investiture Controversy between the king and the papacy over the right to appoint bishops, Gerard worked on reconciling the claims of the two parties; the controversy was finally resolved in 1107. He also assisted at the consecration of St Paul’s Cathedral in London on 9 June 1095, and witnessed King Henry’s coronation as well as the Charter of the New Forest three days later. In 1095 he was employed on a diplomatic mission to Pope Urban II regarding Archbishop Anselsm receiving the pallium, the sign of an archbishop’s authority. He offered to recognise Urban as pope rather than the antipope Clement III, but Urban refused to consider his offer. In February 1095 the mission departed for Rome with a papal legate, Walter the Cardinal Bishop of Albano.
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