Ralph of Domfront (or Radulph, la, Radulfus; died c. 1146) was the
archbishop of Mamistra and second
Latin patriarch of Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes (; grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου, ''Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou'', Learned ; also Syrian Antioch) grc-koi, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου; or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπ ...
(as Ralph I) from 1135 until 1140.
William of Tyre
William of Tyre ( la, Willelmus Tyrensis; 113029 September 1186) was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I, the Englishman, a former ...
describes him as "a military man, very magnificent and generous, a great favourite of the common people and with those of knightly birth."
Early life and election
Born near the fortress of
Domfront in southern
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, exactly at the Lande Fricotine in
La Baroche sous Lucé where Ralph received his early education in the military arts by the de Luci family ( this family give
Richard of Luci). He eventually took holy orders and was consecrated archbishop of
Mamistra
Mopsuestia and Mopsuhestia ( grc, Μοψουεστία and Μόψου ἑστία, Mopsou(h)estia and Μόψου ''Mopsou'' and Μόψου πόλις and Μόψος; Byzantine Greek: ''Mamista'', ''Manistra'', ''Mampsista''; Arabic: ''al-Maṣṣ ...
. The records of this church are few and Ralph only appears as archbishop in two documents late in the pontificate of his predecessor at Antioch,
Bernard of Valence Bernard of Valence (died 1135) was the Latin Patriarch of Antioch from 1100 to 1135.
Originally from Valence, Bernard was part of the army of Raymond of Saint-Gilles and attended the Battle of Harran, and Battle of Sarmada with Roger of Salerno ...
, the first Latin patriarch. William of Tyre, who wrote a chronicle of the Latin East, was a child when he met Ralph, but he wrote a description of his appearance and character:
The lord Ralph was a tall, handsome man. He squinted a little, but not excessively. He was not very well-educated, but was a fluent speaker and a cheerful companion and had good manners. Because he was very generous he gained the favour of the knights and of the burgesses. He was not good at keeping agreements and promises which he had made, and would say first one thing and then another. His was a complex character, cunning, cautious and discerning. . . He was called arrogant and conceited and this was true.
Bernard died in the late summer of 1135. The reigning
Princess of Antioch was
Constance, a child of seven, and so the incumbent bishops of the principality gathered uncanonically in Antioch to choose Bernard's successor. While they were meeting, the people of Antioch chose Ralph, who happened to be in the city although he was not attending the council. Although William of Tyre presents Ralph's election as the spontaneous action of the people, it was probably orchestrated by Ralph and some of his Norman compatriots. The
king's bailiff,
Rainald I Masoir, and the party that favored a marriage between Constance and
Raymond of Poitiers
Raymond of Poitiers (c. 1105–29 June 1149) was Prince of Antioch from 1136 to 1149. He was the younger son of William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, and his wife Philippa, Countess of Toulouse, born in the very year that his father the Duke began hi ...
have often been suspected by historians. At this enthronement, Ralph took Bernard's ''
pallium
The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropol ...
'' from the altar and put it on. He explicitly rejected the supremacy of the
Pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
, saying that both Rome and Antioch were "the see of Peter and Antioch was the firstborn."
Pope Innocent II took no action against Ralph out of fear that the latter would choose to recognise the
Antipope Anacletus II instead.
Marriage of Constance and Raymond
In the winter of 1135–36, Ralph supported the regency of Constance's mother,
Alice. He could not, however, support her attempt at an alliance with the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
, since the
Treaty of Devol
The Treaty of Devol ( el, συνθήκη της Δεαβόλεως) was an agreement made in 1108 between Bohemond I of Antioch and Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, in the wake of the First Crusade. It is named after the Byzantine fortress of ...
of 1108 forbade the patriarch of Antioch from being a non-Greek Christian and the Byzantines would not recognise him as legitimate. When Raymond of Poitiers arrived before Antioch, Ralph forced him to sign an agreement whereby he would do homage to Ralph for the principality and in turn Ralph would marry him to Constance. Ralph then convinced Alice that Raymond was to marry her, whereupon she allowed him to enter Antioch and the patriarch married him to Constance. Alice then left the city, now under the control of Raymond and Ralph. Ralph's precedent for making the prince do homage to him as patriarch was the case of the first prince,
Bohemond I, who in 1099 did homage to the papal legate,
Dagobert of Pisa
Dagobert (or Daibert or Daimbert) (died 1105) was the first Archbishop of Pisa_and_the_second_Latin_Patriarch_of_Jerusalem.html" ;"title="717, Pisan and on 31 July 1725 [1726, Pisan
A special assembly (''conventus'') was held in P ... and the seco ...
. According to William of Tyre, the power-sharing arrangement in Antioch did not succeed:
the lord patriarch in his customary way behaved more arrogantly, believing himself superiro to the lord prince, and he was, indeed, deceived; for the prince thought it most shameul that he had exacted an oath of fealty from him and ... began to behave hostilely towards him and, dispensing with the oath he had taken, allied with his enemies.
Only open war with the Byzantine empire, whose efforts at alliance with Alice had been ruined by Ralph and Raymond's joint action, prevented the situation from devolving into civil war.
Conflict with Byzantium
In the spring of 1137, the Byzantine emperor John II Comnenus attacked Prince Leo I, Prince of Armenia, Leo I of Cilicia, defeated him and in the summer invaded Antioch. In August, Raymond did homage to the emperor. Ralph, knowing how the emperor had expelled the Latin churchmen from Cilicia, appealed to Innocent II for help. Raymond responded by putting him in prison and, according to a Muslim source,
Ibn al-Qalanisi
Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamzah ibn al-Asad ibn al-Qalānisī ( ar, ابو يعلى حمزة ابن الاسد ابن القلانسي; c. 1071 – 18 March 1160) was an Arab politician and chronicler in 12th-century Damascus.
Biography
Abu Ya‘la ('fathe ...
, plundering his house. In March 1138 Innocent published an encyclical directed at Latin Christians serving in the Byzantine army, threatening them with damnation if they participated in an attack on Antioch.
In May 1138, John II returned to Antioch, where Ralph, released from prison, presided over the ceremony in the cathedral that marked the end of the Byzantine campaign. His change of fortune was probably the result of the papal encyclical, since John required Innocent's assistance in building up an anti-Sicilian alliance. Before John left, Count
Joscelin II of Edessa
Joscelin II of Edessa (died 1159) was the fourth and last ruling count of Edessa. He was son of his predecessor Joscelin I of Edessa and Beatrice, daughter of Constantine I of Armenia.
Biography
In 1122, Joscelin I was captured by Belek Ghazi ...
incited a riot of Franks in the city, but full warfare between Frank and Byzantine was avoided.
Dispute over revenues
Early in his episcopate, Ralph entered into conflict with an archdeacon named Lambert and another canon, Arnulf, over the apportionment of revenues. Ralph accused them both of conspiring to kill him, removed them from their benefices and imprisoned them. William of Tyre contrasts Lambert, "a learned man of upright life with little or no experience in worldly affairs", with Arnulf, "learned and worldly-wise", who was a nobleman from
Calabria with connexions to the king of Sicily. After Raymond's marriage to Constance, he released the imprisoned priests. In the summer of 1138 he encouraged them to appeal to Rome and forced Ralph to go also and defend himself. When Ralph landed at
Brindisi, he was immediately arrested by men sent by King
Roger II of Sicily, and placed in the custody of Arnulf's family while awaiting a summons. In the end he was able to convince Roger that he was at odds with Raymond—Roger's real enemy—and allowed to go on to Rome.
At Rome, Ralph received the ''pallium'' from Innocent II. The consistory found the evidence insufficient to proceed and sent a legate to Antioch to resolve the dispute. On his return journey, Ralph visited the Sicilian court and was accompanied by a Sicilian fleet on his return to Antioch in the fall of 1138. Raymond refused him entry and he had to stay in one of the monasteries on the
Black Mountain outside Antioch. Joscelin of Edessa, who had started the riot in Antioch after Raymond and the emperor made peace, then invited Ralph to
Edessa, where he spent the winter of 1138–39. In the spring, Raymond invited Ralph back, and the latter returned accompanied by the three archbishops of the county of Edessa. The papal legate, the archbishop
Peter
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a sur ...
, arrived soon after, but on 25 May, before reaching Antioch, he died at
Acre. With the death of the legate and the victory of Roger II over Innocent II at the
battle of Mignano on 22 July the balance of power had swung in Ralph's favour. Lambert made his peace and was re-instated, but Arnulf returned to Rome to seek a new legate. In the fall, Innocent appointed
Alberic of Ostia to hear the case.
Deposition
Although Ralph was permitted to stay in Antioch while awaiting the arrival of Alberic, it appears that Raymond was exercising some of the juridical authority of the patriarchate contrary to canon law. In February 1140, the prince and the Antiochene ''Haut Cour'' (high court) heard a claim launched by the prior and seneschal of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre on some property which had been held by the monastery of Saint Paul's in Antioch since the
First Crusade
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic r ...
. Abbot Robert disputed the jurisdiction of the court, which found in favour of the Sepulchre.
Alberic arrived in the East in June 1140. After accompanying Raymond on the summer military campaign, he summoned all the bishops of the patriarchates of Antioch and
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
to a synod at Antioch on 30 November. The meeting lasted until 2 December and was attended by the patriarch of Jerusalem, the archbishops of
Apamea
Apamea or Apameia ( grc, Απάμεια) is the name of several Hellenistic cities in western Asia, after Apama, the Sogdian wife of Seleucus I Nicator, several of which are also former bishoprics and Catholic titular see.
Places called Apamea in ...
,
Caesarea,
Cyrrhus
Cyrrhus (; el, Κύρρος ''Kyrrhos'') is a city in ancient Syria founded by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals. Other names for the city include Coricium, Corice, Hagioupolis, Nebi Huri ( ar, نبي هوري), and Khoros ...
,
Hierapolis,
Nazareth,
Tarsus and
Tyre, and the bishops of
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
,
Bethlehem
Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...
,
Jabala
)
, settlement_type = City
, motto =
, image_skyline = Jableh Collage.jpg
, imagesize = 250px
, image_caption = General view of city and port • Roman Amphitheater• A ...
,
Latakia and
Sidon
Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...
. The clergy of the
County of Tripoli
The County of Tripoli (1102–1289) was the last of the Crusader states. It was founded in the Levant in the modern-day region of Tripoli, northern Lebanon and parts of western Syria which supported an indigenous population of Christians, ...
did not show, probably forbidden by their count, and only the Edessan archbishops (Hierapolis and Cyrrhus) and that of Apamea sided with Ralph.
Ralph was charged with an uncanonical election,
simony and
fornication. He refused to attend the synod, and Archbishop
Serlo of Apamea questioned its authority to proceed in the absence of the defendant, perhaps on the grounds that he had not been duly summoned. Serlo was deposed and defrocked for his audacity. The people of Antioch, according to William of Tyre, supported the patriarch and would have expelled the legate had they not feared the Raymond's power. After his deposition, Ralph was placed in irons and incarcerated in the monastery of Saint Symeon on the Black Mountain.
Escape and death
According to William of Tyre, Ralph eventually escaped his prison and made his way to Rome. There he appealed his deposition (probably to
Lucius II
Pope Lucius II (died 15 February 1145), born Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1144 to his death in 1145. His pontificate was notable for the unrest in Rome associated wi ...
) and was re-instated as patriarch. As he was preparing to return, he was poisoned. These events probably occurred around 1144. Bishop
Otto of Freising
Otto of Freising ( la, Otto Frisingensis; c. 1114 – 22 September 1158) was a German churchman of the Cistercian order and chronicled at least two texts which carries valuable information on the political history of his own time. He was Otto I ...
records how, when he visited Rome in 1145, he met the bishop of Jabala,
Hugh, a long-time opponent of Ralph's, who was there to complain about the patriarch. Since the only patriarch about whom Hugh would have had a complaint is Ralph, it is likely that he was in Rome to protest the latter's re-instatement.
Ralph's death must have occurred by 1149, when his successor,
Aimery of Limoges, who had exercised the patriarchate since at least 1143, was finally recognised as the legal patriarch. Summing up Ralph's life, William of Tyre remarks, "He was like
Marius: he experienced in his own life the extremes of good and ill fortune."
Notes
Sources
*
*
{{authority control
1140s deaths
Latin Patriarchs of Antioch
Year of birth unknown
12th-century Normans