Peter of Blois (; French: Pierre de Blois; ) was a French cleric, theologian, poet and diplomat. He is particularly noted for his corpus of Latin letters.
Early life and education
Peter of Blois was born about 1130. Earlier opinion tended to place the date later in the 1130s, but an earlier date is now considered more likely. His family were minor nobility of Breton origin.
After an early visit to Paris, Peter received his literary education at the school attached to Tours Cathedral in the early 1140s probably accompanied and mentored by an older namesake and relative, Pierre de Blois. He studied under Bernard Silvestris, who, he later recalled, urged him to “take up in truth not fables, but history”Giles, letter 101, vol. 1, p.317 and made him memorise the letters of Hildebert, a former Archbishop of Tours. It has been thought Peter also studied under the English philosopher and theologian John of Salisbury, but this is now generally discounted.
Peter then studied Roman law at the University of Bologna, a centre for legal studies. Here he was tutored by Baldwin of Forde, a future Archbishop of Canterbury, and both studied under Umberto Crivelli, the future Pope Urban III. Peter was much more strongly attracted to the rhetorical and literary aspects of the subject than to jurisprudence: as he wrote later, “sporting with its glorious verbal trappings and charming, fanciful oratorical urbanity, attracted me powerfully and intoxicated my mind.”Giles, letter 26, vol. 1, p.95
Around 1155 Peter went to study theology in Paris, remaining there for about 11 years. Few details of his studies are extant. It appears that he supported himself during his advanced studies by taking students of his own, including two sons of Josceline de Bohon, a long-serving Bishop of Salisbury.
It was probably during his student years that he composed a number of Latin sequences after the manner of the Goliards, some of which were preserved in the Carmina Burana collection. He also wrote Vacillantis trutine libramine.William Doremus Paden - Medieval lyric: genres in historical context - Page 112 2000 - "Peter of Blois, "Vacillantis trutine," ed. Peter Dronke, The Medieval Poet and His World (Rome: Storia e Letteratura, 1984), 298-300. la Vacillantis trutine libramine mens suspensa fluctuat et estuat, in tumultus anxios dum se vertit et bipertit ..."
The Sicilian adventure
In 1166 the regent of Sicily, Margaret of Navarre, a relative of the Counts of Perche, wrote to her relatives in France, particularly Rotrou, the Archbishop of Rouen, to ask for help during the minority of her son, William II. Peter of Blois and his brother Guillaume arrived in Sicily in September of that year, as part of a French party of 37 that included Stephen du Perche and Walter of the Mill. Peter became tutor to the young king, guardian of the royal seal and a key adviser to Queen Margaret, while Guillaume was appointed abbot of a monastery near Maletto. However, the French clique around the regency proved unpopular with the Sicilian nobility. A revolt against French domination forced Stephen to resign the chancellorship and the Archbishopric of Palermo in 1169. Peter left the island to seek opportunities elsewhere, sailing initially to Genoa and then travelling back to France.
There his connection with Archbishop Rotrou proved useful, drawing him into a letter-writing campaign focussed on Henry II of England's conflict with Thomas Becket. This brought him back into contact with Reginald Fitz Jocelin, his former pupil from his days in Paris, who was now Henry's chief agent in the dispute. When Reginald was made Bishop of Bath in 1173, his role in the Becket affair made papal approval problematic and Peter's letters on his behalf proved helpful in rallying support.
Angevin service
Diplomat and apologist Around 1173, Peter went to England to take up a post as chief letter-writer for Richard of Dover, Becket's successor as Archbishop. He also entered the service of Henry II, acting as a diplomat in his negotiations with Louis VII of France and the Papacy. His arrival in England approximately coincided with the rupture of the ruling family and the eruption of civil strife all over the Angevin Empire, carefully fomented by the French monarchy. Peter wrote an open letter to the queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, to "deplore publicly and regretfully that, while you are a most prudent woman, you have left your husband."M. Markowski (introduction and translation). Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine: An Attempt to Chastise Her, at Internet History Sourcebooks ProjectGiles, Volume 2, p.93 However, when in 1183 Henry the Young King died during the revolt against his father, Peter wrote to Eleanor a letter of reasoned consolation.A letter from Peter of Blois , at Epistolae Giles, Volume 2, p.113-6
Peter was a well-connected controversialist and propagandist for Henry II. He wrote in praise of him to continental contacts, like Walter Ophamil, now Archbishop of Palermo, defending him against the charge that he had deliberately instigated the murder of Thomas Becket.Scott McLetchie (translator). Peter of Blois: Description of Henry II, at Internet History Sourcebooks ProjectGiles, Volume 1, p.192-7 In introducing the subject of Becket's death, Peter mentioned in passing his own clerical order: in verbo Domini et in ordine diaconi vobis dico – “in the Word of God and the order of deacon I speak to you.”Giles, Volume 1, p.196 At some stage in his education, he had been ordained a deacon and he seems to have avoided ordination to the priesthood.
In 1176 Peter was appointed Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Canterbury, the chief record keeper and Latin secretary, serving Richard of Dover. Probably in the same year, he was appointed Archdeacon of Bath, a position he held until his death. It was probably in Henry's reign that he was appointed Dean of the College of Wolverhampton, which he found corrupt.
Peter was in Rome in 1179 and there displayed the improvidence which was to become an important feature of his later life. His failure to repay a debt caused Pope Alexander III to write to the Archbishop on behalf of the creditor. This was a cause célèbre sufficient for inclusion in a compendium of canon law issued in 1234 by Pope Gregory IX.Decretalium Gregorii papae IX compilationis liber III Titulus XXII:De fideiussoribus, Capitulum III at Bibliotheca Augustana, accessed 29 September 2014 Richard of Dover died in 1184 and, after some delay, the king succeeded in getting Baldwin of Forde, Peter's friend and tutor from his Bologna days, installed as Archbishop of Canterbury. He confirmed Peter in his position as letter writer but also made him his chief legal adviser.
The Canterbury Cathedral chapter controversy Baldwin soon created a legal storm that was to engulf Peter, threatening his career. He was determined to reform the diocese thoroughly, making it function more efficiently as a base for his position as one of the chief magnates of the realm. He saw the chapter of Canterbury Cathedral as a major obstacle. Like most cathedral establishments, it had consisted of secular clergy until the Norman Conquest, after which it was reconstituted as a community of Benedictine monks, known variously as the Priory of the Holy Trinity or Christchurch. The mutual antagonism was sharpened by the rivalry between their respective monastic orders, as Baldwin was a Cistercian. He began by recovering diocesan property which his predecessor had alienated to the priory in order to support the pilgrim traffic, centred on the shrine of Thomas Becket, as well as confiscating the xenia, or Easter offerings – a process which was authorised by Pope Lucius III.Stubbs, p.4 However, the monks of the chapter were soon complaining to his successor, Urban III, that his reforms were going too far and succeeded in getting the Pope to order restoration of some of the confiscated churches. Urban initially welcomed some aspects of Baldwin's overarching plan to move the chapter to Hackington, north of Canterbury, and to build a second base for the diocese at Lambeth, directly facing the centres of secular power in London and Westminster.Stubbs, p.cxxii However, the plan unfolded to include the replacement of the monastic chapter with a new episcopal staff, consisting of colleges of secular clergy at Hackington and Lambeth.
Seeing their influence and wealth slipping from their grasp, the Canterbury monks appealed to both the king and to Rome. Baldwin suspended the prior in December 1186 and the monks immediately began a letter-writing campaign to mobilise bishops, archbishops, even Philip II of France, in their cause. Peter of Blois was despatched to the papal court at Verona to counter the chapter's arguments, which were presented by a skilled Roman lawyer called Pillius. As Urban was his old law teacher, he could be expected to have at least insight, and probably influence. However, his enjoyment of Roman law had always been aesthetic rather than technical.
On 1 March 1187, before Peter's arrival, the Pope ordered Baldwin to lift the suspension of Prior Honorius, who had already reached Verona.Stubbs, p.23 Peter arrived at Verona a few days later to find the Pope had adjourned the case until 10 April, giving Peter no chance to plead formally while a further series of decrees was issued in the monks' favour. However, Peter was no more successful in open court, suffering a continuing series of defeats. On 9 May the Pope ordered Archbishop Baldwin to cease building his new church at Hackington, abolished the fraternity he had established to staff and support it, and expressed surprise that he had so far resisted restoration of the situation to that prevailing before the appeal.Stubbs, p.34-6 Peter remained at Verona, arguing the case, until October, and then followed the papal court to Ferrara. Provocative behaviour back home did not help Peter. Baldwin continued to build his church in defiance of the Pope but with the king's support,Stubbs, p.54 although he did move the site some distance to the west, hurriedly putting up a wooden chapel in St Dunstan's parish. In August he seized the chapter's manors, suspending and even excommunicating its members as he saw fit.Stubbs, p.78
On 3 October, having reached Ferrara, the Pope raised the stakes by ordering Baldwin actually to demolish his new headquarters, to desecrate the site and to suspend its clergy, to restore all members of the existing chapter to office and to refrain from further actions against them while the case continued. He was given 30 days to comply.Stubbs, p.101-2 R. W. Southern alleges that Peter made a last, personal appeal to his old teacher while riding from Verona to Ferrara, and that the Pope was so incensed by the attempt to circumvent legal procedure that he died the following day of a heart attack. Kingsford's account is much less dramatic, without the foreshortened time scheme. The Pope's letter from Ferrara seems to have preceded his death by some weeks: he died on 19 October and was buried on the 20th, while Pope Gregory VIII was elected on 21 October, as Honorius reported to his monks.Stubbs, p.106 Peter's own later account of Urban's death has him taken ill while changing horses, shortly after Peter had approached him, but also mentions he contracted dysentery on the journey from VeronaStubbs, p.556 – an entirely plausible cause of death. The new pope moved the court to Pisa on its way towards Rome. He seems to have been less sympathetic to the Cathedral chapter but made no further decisions before he died at Pisa in December and was succeeded by Pope Clement III.