Gervase of Blois was the

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in England between 1138 and around 1157. Historically, Gervase has a bad reputation for mismanaging the abbey, although modern historians have re-evaluated his performance as abbot.

Biography

Gervase of Blois was the illegitimate son of King Stephen and his mistress, Damette. His father ensured that he was appointed as the

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

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in the second half of 1138; the abbey would have hoped to receive additional royal funding as a result. Gervase was very young to be appointed abbot, but despite this probably attended the

Second Lateran Council The Second Council of the Lateran was the tenth ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church. It was convened by Pope Innocent II in April 1139 and attended by close to a thousand clerics. Its immediate task was to neutralise the after-e ...

the following year. Working with the Prior

Osbert of Clare Osbert of Clare (died in or after 1158) was a monk, elected prior of Westminster Abbey and briefly abbot. He was a prolific writer of letters, a hagiographer and a forger of charters. Life Osbert was born towards the end of the eleventh century a ...

, Gervase unsuccessfully attempted to have

King Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æthe ...

canonized; the abbey held the remains of the king which would have brought in valuable pilgrims had he been canonised. Pope Innocent II ordered Gervase to reform the estate management of the abbey; historians have disagreed over the years about whether the Pope was referring to long-standing issues of malpractice, or ones that had appeared during his term of office.

Pope Eugene III Pope Eugene III ( la, Eugenius III; c. 1080 – 8 July 1153), born Bernardo Pignatelli, or possibly Paganelli, called Bernardo da Pisa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1145 to his death in 1153. He ...

appears to have thought Gervase a reasonable abbot, granting the abbey privileges in the 1140s, and Gervase got on well with his fellow senior clergy. In 1154, however, Stephen died, being replaced by his former rival, King Henry II, putting Gervase's position at risk. Gervase was accused by Henry of mishandling the abbey's estates and he was dismissed from post in 1157, albeit without trial, dying shortly afterwards. He was replaced by Master Laurence from

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

, a supporter of the new king.Barlow, p.277.

Notes

Bibliography

* Barlow, Frank. (1970)
Edward the Confessor.
' Berkeley: University of California Press. * Mason, Emma. (1996)
Westminster Abbey and its people, c.1050-c.1216.
' Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Blois, Gervase of Abbots of Westminster Anglo-Normans 12th-century English people 12th-century Christian monks Illegitimate children of English monarchs Children of Stephen, King of England Sons of kings