Gerard la Pucelle

Infobox bishopbiog
name =Gerard la Pucelle


religion =Catholic
See =Diocese of Coventry
Title = Bishop of Coventry
Period = 1183–1184
Predecessor = Richard Peche
Successor =Hugh Nonant
ordination =
bishops =
post =
date of birth = c 1117
place of birth =
date of death =13 January 1184
place of death =Coventry

Gerard la Pucelle was an Anglo-French scholar of canon law, clerk, and Bishop of Coventry.

Life

Gerard (Girard) La Pucelle (c. 1115/1120 – 1184) was an Anglo-French scholar, possibly born in England, who taught canon law ["leges et decreta" according to John of Salisbury.] at the University of Paris in the 1150s, when the study of the discipline of the Church was first differentiated from theology, spurred by the collections of church decretals that began with the "Decretum Gratiani" assembled by a monk at the University of Bologna. Among his surviving texts are glosses on the Decretum Manuscripts, among the manuscripts of Durham Cathedral [MS C.III.1 marked with the siglum 'Ger.' (Pennington)] and, in the "Summa Lipsiensis" [The collection of decretals with commentary, as used in Leipzig] marked with the siglum 'Magister G. Coventris Episcopus' ("Doctor G. Bishop of Coventry"), and occasionally in the "Summa Parisiensis", [The decretals and commentaries collected at the University of Paris.] and elsewhere (See Pennington). Gerard added to the standard collection from which he taught. Among his pupils were Lucas of Hungary, Ralph Niger, master Richard, a certain Gervase who retired to Durham, and the English scholar Walter Map (Pennington).Knowles "The Monastic Order in England" p. 674 footnote 3]

Gerard was a member of Thomas Becket's entourage, his extended "familia",Barlow "Thomas Becket" p. 78] and a close friend of John of Salisbury.Barlow "Thomas Becket" p. 135] After Becket went into exile, Gerard taught for a while in Paris before he undertook a mission to the EmpireBarlow "Thomas Becket" p. 127] in 1165/66 even though Frederick Barbarossa was under a ban of excommunication.Donahue "Pucelle, Gerard (d. 1184)" "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography"] In 1168 Gerard returned to England and took the oath of fealty to Henry II which Becket had rejected.Barlow "Thomas Becket" p. 176] With papal permission and that of Louis VII of France he was permitted to reside—and doubtless teach— in Cologne, which was one of the most important centers of canon law scholarship in the 1160s and 1170s.

From about 1174 he was once again in England, serving as a principal clerk to Becket's successor as Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Richard of Dover. He was also with Peter of Blois for a time in Rome, where he represented Richard of Dover at the curia. In 1179, Gerard attended the Third Lateran Council as the archbishop's representative. From there, he may have returned to Colonge to teach for a bit, but by 1181 Gerard had returned to England.

Perhaps already a canon,Fact|date=February 2008 in January 1183, he was appointed Bishop of Coventry (later known as Coventry and Lichfield),Fryde "Handbook of British Chronology" p. 253] [The two dioceses were combined, 1121–1188.] which made him the vassal of Henry II of England, [Throughout the latter part of the twelfth and early part of the thirteenth century, the bishop owed the service of fifteen knights, according to "Victoria County History: Warwick," vol 2 (1908) {http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=36487 (on-line] )] but he died the following year on 13 January 1184 at Coventry. Some suspected that Gerard was poisoned. He was buried in Coventry Cathedral.

ee also

*Mathieu d'Angers
*Anselm of Paris

Notes

References

*Barlow, Frank "Thomas Becket" Berkeley, CA:University of California Press 1986 ISBN 0-520-07175-1
*"Catholic Encyclopedia" "Paris, University of"
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=34284 'Dignitaries & canons whose prebends are unidentified: Canons for whom no prebend assigned', "Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300": volume 4: Salisbury (1991)] , pp. 118-38. Date accessed: 13 May 2006. Apparently already a canon, though his prebendary, whether of Canterbury or Coventry, is unidentified.
*Donahue Charles jun., "Pucelle, Gerard (d. 1184)" "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49666 Online Edition] accessed 14 January 2008
*cite book |author=Fryde, E. B. |coauthors=Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology|edition=Third Edition, revised |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=1996 |isbn=0-521-56350-X
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=36487 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Coventry', "A History of the County of Warwick": Volume 2 (1908), pp. 52-9] Date accessed: 13 May 2006.
*Knowles, Dom David "The Monastic Order in England: From the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council" Second Edition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1976 reprint ISBN 0-521-05479-6
* [http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/1140d-h.htm Pennington, Dr. Ken "d.-glosses, appear in a strata of Bolognese glosses composed during the 1180s"] Bibliography.
*Weiler, Dr. Bjorn review of Joseph P. Huffman, "Family, Commerce and Religion in London and Cologne: Anglo-German Immigrants, c.1000-c.1300" (Cambridge University Press, 1998) ( [http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/weiler.html on-line] )

Further reading

*S. Kuttner and E. Rathbone, "Anglo-Norman canonists of the twelfth century" "Traditio" 7 1949–51 p. 279–358

Persondata
NAME= La Pucelle, Gerard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Gerard Pucelle; Girard la Pucelle
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Bishop of Coventry
DATE OF BIRTH=c. 1117
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH=13 January 1184
PLACE OF DEATH=