Bernard was the first Norman

bishop of St David's The Bishop of St Davids is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of St Davids. The succession of bishops stretches back to Saint David who in the 6th century established his seat in what is today the city of St Davids in Pembrokeshire, ...

(1115–1148). Originally an erudite layman serving as chancellor to Queen Matilda, he was abruptly appointed the bishop of St. David's on 18 September 1115, when King Henry I (Matilda's husband) summoned the chapter of St. David's to London, and persuaded them to choose Bernard as next bishop (the previous bishop having died that year).'' Dictionary of Welsh Biography'', John Edward Lloyd, London, 1959, entry for ''Bernard (died 1148), bishop of S. Davids'' Immediately, Bernard was sent to the Church of St. Mary Overie and made a priest, that same day; the following day he was made a bishop, in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

. At that time, the lands of the bishop were a quasi-sovereign territory, a status confirmed that year by Henry I when Bernard, after acknowledging Henry as suzerain of the bishop's realm, was given a charter by the king which designated the lands –

Dewisland 250px, The cantref of Pebidiog in ancient Dyfed The Hundred of Dewisland (often written "Dewsland") was a hundred in northwest Pembrokeshire, Wales. Formerly the pre- Norman cantref of Pebidiog, it included the city and the peninsula of St Davids ...

– as a

Marcher Lord A Marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales. A Marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in ...

ship.Judgement in ''Crown Estate Commissioners v (1) Mark Andrew Tudor Roberts (2) Trelleck Estate Ltd: ChD'' (Mr Justice Lewison), 13 June 2008 Bernard was thus the head of the judicial system in Dewisland, could mint coinage, levy tax, raise an army, and declare war on other marcher lords, without falling foul of the king. Furthermore, Bernard disputed the authority of the archbishop of Canterbury over him, arguing that he himself was the metropolitan of Wales; he was the last bishop to dispute the primacy of the

see of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...

. Bernard founded

Whitland Abbey Whitland Abbey ( cy, Abaty Hendy-gwyn ar Daf or simply ; Latin, ''Albalanda'') was a country house and Cistercian abbey in the parish of Llangan, in what was the hundred of Narbeth, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The town which grew up nearby is now n ...

.Burton ''Monastic and Religious Orders'' p. 229

Notes

References

* Bishops of St Davids 12th-century English Roman Catholic bishops 1148 deaths {{Wales-bio-stub