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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2016
Born at Bridlington in 1136, William of Newburgh was educated at Newburgh, an Augustinian priory a few miles north of York, where he became a canon. William probably lived at Newburgh for the rest of his life, for the only instance of him travelling outside Yorkshire is one visit he paid to Fínchale. He died between summer 1199 and autumn 1201, leaving three extant writings. This outline of his life is based on John Gorman’s introduction to the only writing by William which has received a modern critical edition, his commentary on the Song of Songs. William’s other writings are sermons, and the Historia rerum Anglicarum (hereafter History). Yorkshire Cistercian patronage envelopes two of the works. The commentary on the Song of Songs is dedicated to Roger, Abbot of Byland, while the History is prefaced by a dedicatory letter to Ernald, Abbot of Rievaulx (1189-99), which states that Ernald had requested the work.
I am very grateful to Christopher Brooke, Barrie Dobson, Richard Fletcher, Beverly Kienzle, and Sarah Rees Jones for their comments and help.
1 William of Newburgh’s Explanatio Sacri Epithalamii in Matrem Sponsi, ed. J. G Gorman, Spicilegium Friburgense, 6 (Fribourg, 1960), pp. 4-17; pp. 18-35 on William’s writings. Accounts of William as chronicler and historian include Taylor, J., Medieval Historical Writing in Yorkshire (York, 1961), pp. 10–12Google Scholar; Gransden, A., Historical Writing in England c.550-c.1307 (London, 1974), pp. 263–8Google Scholar; and Partner, N. F., Serious Entertainments. The Writing of History in Twelfth-Century England (Chicago and London, 1977), pp. 51–140.Google Scholar
2 William of Newburgh, Historia rerum Anglicarum, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I, ed. R. Howlett, 4 vols, RS, 82 (1884-9), 1-2, translated by Stevenson, J., Church Historians of England, 5 vols (London, 1853-8), 4, part 2, pp. 397–672.Google Scholar
3 Historia, ii, 13, ed. Howlett, 1, pp. 131-4. The passage is also edited in D. Whitelock, M. Brett, and C. N. L. Brooke, eds, Councils and Synods with other Documents Relating to the English Church, I, A. D. 871-1204, 2 parts (Oxford, 1981), part 2, pp. 923-5 (see introduction and notes on pp. 920-1) [hereafter Councils and Synods], and in part in MGH Scriptores, 27 (1885), pp. 231-2. Among English translations are Stevenson, Church Historians, pp. 460-1; EHD, 2, 1042-1189, ed. D. C. Douglas and G. W. Greenaway, 2nd edn (London and New York, 1981), pp. 355-7; Wakefield, W. L. and Evans, A. P., eds, Heresies of the High Middle Ages (New York, 1969), pp. 245–7Google Scholar (with considerable annotation). See the discussions in Schmidt, C., Histoire et doctrine de la secte des Cathares ou Albigeois, 2 vols (Paris and Geneva, 1848-9), i, pp. 97–8Google Scholar; Borst, A., Die Katharer, Schriften der MGH, 12 (Stuttgart, 1953), pp. 93–4 and 94, n. 18Google Scholar; Maisonneuve, H., Études sur les origines de l’inquisition, 2nd edn (Paris, 1960), pp. 114–15Google Scholar; Russell, J. B., Dissent and Reform in the Early Middle Ages (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 1965), pp. 224–7 and 309–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar, nn. 79-80; Duvernoy, J., L’Histoire des cathares (Toulouse, 1979), pp. 112, 149Google Scholar; Hirpert, H.-E., ‘Die Insel der Gläubigen? Über die verspätcte Ankunft der Inquisition im regnum Angliæ ’, in Segl, P., ed., Die Anfänge der Inquisition im Mittelalter (Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, 1993), pp. 253–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar. One remarkable imaginative recreation of the episode is to be found in the picture drawn by the Quaker historian Edward Backhouse (1808-79), which shows the German Cathars dying in the winter snow outside Oxford. It is reproduced in Backhouse, E. and Tylor, C., Witnesses for Christ and Memorials of Church Life, 2 vols (London, 1887), 2, facing p. 481.Google Scholar
4 Magna vita sancti Hugonis, iv, 13, ed. D. L. Douie and H. Farmer, 2 vols (London, etc., 1961), 2, pp. 65-6.
5 De nugis curialium, i, 30, ed. M. R. James, revised C. N. L. Brooke and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1983), pp. 118-22.
6 Flores historiarum, ed. H. G. Hewlett, 3 vols, RS, 84 (1886-9), 1. p. 118; 2, pp. 87-93, 252, 271-3; 3, pp. 74-5.
7 Chronica majora, ed. H. R Luard, 7 vols, RS, 57 (1872-83), 2, pp. 310, 555-7, 566-8; 3, pp. 57. 78-9, 105-6, 110-11, 267, 361, 375, 520; 4, pp. 63, 226-7, 231, 271-2, 434; 5, pp. 4, 23. 195. 357-8. Historia Anglorum, ed. F. Madden, 3 vols, RS, 44 (1866-9), 1. pp. 340, 412; 2, pp. 143-4, 239-40; 3, p. 94 and (Matthew’s Abbreviatio) pp. 254, 318.
8 Annales monastici, ed. H. R. Luard, 5 vols, RS, 36 (1864-9), 1, pp. 32, 49; 2, pp. 61, 266; 3, pp. 19, 55, 61, 74, 75, 79-80, 100-1; MGH Scriptores, 27 (1885), p. 431.
9 De principi; instructione, i, 17, ed. G. F. Warner, RS, 21 (1891), 8, p. 70.
10 Chronica majora, 3, p. 375; 4, p. 63; 5, p. 195; and passage cited in n. 11 below.
11 Chronica majora, 4, pp. 271-2. The authenticity of the letter is discussed in P. Segl, Ketzer in Österreich. Untersuchungen über Häresie una Inquisition im Herzogtum Österreich im 13. una beginnenden 14. Jahrhundert (Paderborn, Munich, Vienna, and Zurich, 1984), pp. 76-111.
12 Ralph of Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum, ed. J. Stevenson, RS, 66 (1875), p. 122.
13 Gemma ecclesiastica, i, 11, ed. J. S. Brewer, RS, 21 (1862), 2, pp. 40-1.
14 Annales monastici, 2, p. 61; ‘Matthew of Westminster’, Flores historiarum, ed. H. R. Luard, 3 vols, RS, 95 (1890), 2, p. 94. See also n. 49 below.
15 Chronica majora, 3, pp. 361, 520.
16 Gesta regis Henrici secundi, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols, RS, 49 (1867), 1, pp. 198-220; Chronica, ed. W. Stubbs, 4 vols, RS, 51 (1868-71), 2, pp. 105-17, 150-66. See D. Corner, ‘The Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi and Chronica of Roger, Parson of Howden’, BIHR, 56 (1983), pp. 126-44.
17 Partner, Serious Entertainments, pp. 83-4.
18 Rievaulx’s catalogue is edited in D. N. Bell, ed., The Libraries of the Cistercians, Cilbertines and Premonstratensians, Corpus of Medieval British Library Catalogues, 3 (London, 1992), pp. 90-120; see p. 89 for its date.
19 Bell, Libraries of the Cistercians, pp. 117-18, nos 187-212.
20 Ibid., pp. 90, 101, nos 2, 77-8.
21 On such lists of heresies see Nickson, M. A. E., ‘The “Pseudo-Reinerius” treatise, the final stage of a thirteenth century work from the diocese of Passau’, Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge, 34 (1967), pp. 255–314, at 284–5Google Scholar, and Patschovsky, A., Der Passauer Anonymus. Ein Sammelwerk der Ketzer, fuden. Antichrist aus der Mitte des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Schriften der MGH, 22 (Stuttgart, 1968), pp. 98–100.Google Scholar
22 Bell, Libraries of the Cistercians, p. 105, no. 104.
23 Ibid., pp. 94, 102, 116, nos 32, 85, 179a.
24 Bernard, St, Opera omnia, ed. Leclercq, J., Talbot, C. H. and Rochais, H. M., 8 vols (Rome, 1957-77), 1, pp. x–xi, xxxiii, xxxv, xxxvi.Google Scholar
25 Ibid., 2, pp. 172-88. See Kienzle, B. M., ‘Tending the Lord’s Vineyard: Cistercians, rhetoric and heresy, 1143-1229. Part 1: Bernard of Clairvaux, the 1143 sermons and the 1145 preaching mission’, Heresis, 25 (1995), pp. 29–61, at pp. 39–44.Google Scholar
26 Duggan, C., Twelfth-Century Decretal Collections and Their Importance in English History (London, 1963), pp. 80–1, 80, n. 1, 85, 90, 91, 91, n. 2, 93Google Scholar. On the Tours canons see also Somerville, R., Pope Alexander lu and the Council of Tours (1163) (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1977), pp. 39–40, 44, 50Google Scholar (on the canon on heresy entering the Compilatio Prima); Councils and Synods, pp. 845-7, 847, n. 6. On the Lateran canons see Councils and Synods, pp. 1011-14.
27 Somerville, Council of Tours, pp. 14, 23; Councils and Synods, p. 1012.
28 Morey, A. and Brooke, C. N. L., Gilbert Foliot and his Letters (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 241–3Google Scholar; letters 157-8, in The Letters and Charters of Gilbert Foliot, ed. A. Morey and C. N. L. Brooke (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 208-10.
29 Ailred of Rievaulx, De anima, i, 59-60, Opera omnia, 1, Opera ascetica, ed. A. Hoste and C. H. Talbot, CChr. CM, 1 (1971), pp. 703-4.
30 A copy of De anima remained in Rievaulx’s library: Bell, Libraries of the Cistercians, p. 97, no. 45.
31 Beverly Kienzle is preparing a book on Cistercian preaching against heresy. In addition to the article cited in n. 25 above, see her ‘Henry of Clairvaux and the 1178 and 1181 Mission’, Heresis, 28 (1997), pp. 1-24, and ‘Hélinand de Froidmont et la prédication cistercienne dans le Midi (1145-1225)’, Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 32 (1997), pp. 37-67.
32 Dialogus miraculorum, iii, 16-17, v. 18-25, vii, 23, ed. J. Strange, 2 vols (Cologne, Bonn, and Brussels, 1851), 1, pp. 132-4, 296-309; 2, pp. 31-2.
33 See the later discussion in this paper about the word which ‘prevented’ translates (precavit) and whether William really intended a success story.
34 On the name Publicani, see Borst, Katharer, p. 247, 247, n. 1, and Wakefield and Evans, eds, Heresies of the High Middle Ages, p. 723, n. 3. On the Paulicians, see now J. Hamilton and B. Hamilton, eds, Christian Dualist Heresies in the Byzantine World c. 650-c. 1450 (Manchester, 1998), pp. 5-25.
35 Chartulary of Rievaulx, ed. J. G Atkinson, SS, 83 (1889), p. 374: ‘in… partibus Toletanis’ (instead of Tolosanis’). Christopher Brooke has pointed out to me the possibility of mistranscription by the modern editor rather than the medieval scribe.
36 Sermon lxv, 8, Opera omnia, 2, p. 177, lines 15-16.
37 Ralph of Coggeshall also applies rusticani to the Cathars, Chronicon Anglicanum, p. 124; as a Cistercian he will have been a reader of St Bernard.
38 Gorman, William of Newburgh’s Explanatio, p. 22.
39 Knowles, M. D., The Episcopal Colleagues of Thomas Becket (Cambridge, 1951), pp. 22, 26–30, 39Google Scholar; Smalley, B., The Becket Conflict and the Schools. A Study of Intellectuals in Politics (Oxford, 1973), passim.Google Scholar
40 Hamilton, B., ‘Wisdom from the East: the reception by the Cathars of Eastern dualist texts’, in Biller, Peter and Hudson, Anne, eds, Heresy and Literacy, 1000-1530 (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 38–60Google Scholar. This is the starting-point for another statement of the priority of northern Cathars, in my The Northern Cathars and higher learning’, in P. Biller and R. B. Dobson, eds, The Medieval Church: Universities, Heresy, and the Religious Life. Essays in Honour of Gordon Leff SCH.S, 11 (forthcoming).
41 Borst, Katharer, p. 94, n. 18; Russell, Dissent and Reform, p. 310, n. 81; Brooke, C. N. L., assisted by Keir, G., London 800-1216: the Shaping of a City (London, 1975), pp. 267–8.Google Scholar
42 Robinson, J. A., Somerset Historical Essays (London, 1921), p. 107.Google Scholar
43 Letter 77, The Later Letters of Peter of Blois, ed. E. Revell, Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi, 13 (Oxford, 1993), p. 326. On the letters see also Southern, R. W., ‘Peter of Blois: a Twelfth Century Humanist?’, in his Medieval Humanism (Oxford, 1970), pp. 105–32Google Scholar; Wahlgren, L., The Letter Collections of Peter of Blois: Studies in the Manuscript Tradition (Goteberg, 1993)Google Scholar, and Southern’s, R. W. review of this, ‘Towards an edition of Peter of Blois’s letter collection’, EHR, 110 (1995), pp. 925–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
44 PL 207, col. 740.
45 Letter 113, PL 207, cols. 340-1.
46 Southern, ‘Peter of Blois’, p. 132 (group III). In her Letter Collections of Peter of Blois, Wahlgren disputes Southern’s dating, in particular his use of the latest-dated letters of a group to suggest the date of formation of the group in question.
47 Schmidt, C., Histoire et doctrine de la secte des Cathares ou Albigeois, 2 vols (Paris and Geneva, 1848-9), 1, pp. 98–9Google Scholar; Lea, H. C., A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, 3 vols, rev. edn (London and New York, 1906), 1, p. 114Google Scholar. Among recent historians the passage has been taken seriously by Duvemoy, Histoire des cathares, p. 150.
48 Robinson, Somerset Historical Essays, pp. 130-1.
49 Chronica, 2, p. 273.
50 Cronica maiorum et vicecomitum Londoniarum, ed. T. Staplcton, Camden Society, 34 (1846), p. 3. See Borst, Katharer, p. 103 and n. 20.
51 MGH Scriptores, 27 (1885), p. 357; this was noticed by Borst, Katharer, p. 103, n. 20.
52 Haskins, C. H., ‘Robert le Bougre and the beginnings of the Inquisition in Northern France’, in his Studies in Medieval Culture (Cambridge, MA, 1929), pp. 193–224, at p. 219.Google Scholar
53 Richardson, H. G., ‘Heresy and the lay power under Richard II’, EHR, 51 (1936), pp. 1–28, at p. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Clase Rolls of the Reign of Henry III, III, A.D. 1233-1237 (London, 1908), p. 358.
54 Powicke, F. M. and Cheney, C. R., eds, Councils and Synods with other Documents Relating to the English Church, II, A. D. 1205-1313, 2 parts (Oxford, 1964), part 1, p. 371Google Scholar; see p. 364 for the suggestion of Easter 1239 as the date.
