   #copyright

Jocelin

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500 and
before (including Roman Britain); Religious figures and leaders

                                                          CAPTION: Jocelin

                        Denomination                 Roman Catholic Church
                                      Senior posting
                                 See                    Diocese of Glasgow
                               Title                     Bishop of Glasgow
                    Period in office                        1174/ 5 — 1199
                         Predecessor                            Enguerrand
                           Successor                      Hugh de Roxburgh
                                     Religious career
                 Priestly ordination                                  Monk
                 Previous bishoprics                                  None
                       Previous post                      Abbot of Melrose
                                         Personal
                       Date of birth                                 1130s
                      Place of birth   Scottish Borders or Northumberland.
                      Place of death               Melrose, March 17, 1199

   Jocelin or Jocelyn († 1199) was a 12th century Cistercian monk and
   cleric from the Scottish Borders region, who became the fourth Abbot of
   Melrose and the fifth known 12th century Bishop of Glasgow. He was
   probably born in the 1130s, and in his teenage years became a monk of
   Melrose Abbey. He rose in the service of Abbot Waltheof, and by the
   time of the short abbacy of Waltheof's successor Abbot William, Jocelin
   had become prior. Then in 1170 Jocelin himself became abbot, a position
   he held for four years. Jocelin was responsible for promoting the cult
   of the emerging Saint Waltheof, and in this had the support of
   Enguerrand, bishop of Glasgow.

   His Glasgow connections and political profile were already
   well-established enough that in 1174 Jocelin succeeded Enguerrand as
   Glasgow's bishop. It was during the episcopate that Jocelin made his
   mark on history. As bishop of Glasgow, he was a royal official. In this
   capacity he travelled abroad on several occasions, and performed the
   marriage ceremony between King William the Lion and Ermengarde de
   Beaumont, later baptizing their son, the future King Alexander II.
   Among other things, he has been credited by modern historians as "the
   founder of the burgh of Glasgow and initiator of the Glasgow fair", as
   well as being one of the greatest literary patrons in medieval
   Scotland, continuing his hagiographical patronage by commissioning a
   new Norman-style Life of St Kentigen.

Early life

   Jocelin and his family came from the south-east of Scotland. Neither
   the name of his father or mother are known, but he had two known
   brothers, with the names Helia and Henry, and a cousin, also called
   Helia. The names suggest that his family were of French, or at least
   Anglo-Norman origin, rather than being Scots or native Anglo-Saxons. It
   is unlikely that he would have thought of himself as "Scottish". For
   Jocelin's contemporary and fellow native of the Borders, Adam of
   Dryburgh, this part of Britain was still firmly regarded as terra
   Anglorum (the "Land of the English"), although it was located inside
   the regnum Scottorum (the "Kingdom of the Scots"). This, however, would
   be no obstacle to Jocelin; his Anglo-French cultural background was in
   fact probably necessary for the patronage of the King of Scots. As
   Walter of Coventry wrote of King William's era, "the modern kings of
   Scotland count themselves as Frenchmen, in race, manners, language and
   culture; they keep only Frenchmen in their household and following, and
   have reduced the Scots to utter servitude."

   Jocelin's year of birth, like that of almost every character from this
   period, is unknown to modern historians. However, it is known that he
   entered as a novice monk in Melrose Abbey during the abbacy of Waltheof
   (ab. 1148- 59), and from documentary evidence it seems likely that
   Jocelin entered Melrose about 50 years before his death in 1199. As the
   rules of the Cistercian order prevented entry as a novice before the
   age of 15, it is likely that he was born around the year 1134. Little
   is known about Jocelin's early life or his early career as a Melrose
   monk. He obviously successfully completed his one-year noviciate, the
   year in which a prospective monk was introduced to monasticism and
   judged fit or unfit for admittance. We know that Abbot Waltheof
   (Waldef) thought highly of him and granted him many responsibilities.
   After the death of Abbot Waltheof, his successor, Abbot William,
   refused to encourage the rumours which had quickly been spreading about
   Waltheof's saintliness. Abbot William attempted to silence such
   rumours, and shelter his monks from the intrusiveness of would-be
   pilgrims. However, William was unable to get the better of Waltheof's
   emerging cult, and his actions had alienated him from the brethren. As
   a result, in April 1170, William resigned the abbacy. Jocelin was by
   this stage the Prior of Melrose, that is, the second in command at the
   monastery, and thus William's most likely replacement.

Abbot of Melrose

   The modern ruins of Melrose Abbey. Melrose was the senior Cistercian
   house in Scotland, and the wealthiest "Scottish" monastery in the
   period.
   Enlarge
   The modern ruins of Melrose Abbey. Melrose was the senior Cistercian
   house in Scotland, and the wealthiest "Scottish" monastery in the
   period.

   So it was that Prior Jocelin became abbot on April 22, 1170. Jocelin
   embraced the cult without hesitation. Under the year of Jocelin's
   accession, it was reported in the Chronicle of Melrose that:

     The tomb of our pious father, sir Waltheof, the second abbot of
     Melrose, was opened by Enguerrand, of good memory, the bishop of
     Glasgow, and by four abbots called in for this purpose; and his body
     was found entire, and his vestments intact, in the twelfth year from
     his death, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of June [22 May].
     And after the holy celebration of mass, the same bishop, and the
     abbots whose number we have mentioned above, placed over the remains
     of his most holy body a new stone of polished marble. And there was
     great gladness; those who were present exclaiming together, and
     saying that truly this was a man of God ...

   Promoting saints was something Jocelin would repeat at Glasgow, where
   he would commission a hagiography of Saint Kentigern, the saint most
   venerated by the Celts of the diocese of Glasgow. It is no coincidence
   that Jocelin of Furness, the who wrote the Life of St. Waltheof, was
   the same man later commissioned to write the Life of St. Kentigern.

   This kind of literary patronage started while Jocelin was abbot of
   Melrose. A.A.M. Duncan has shown that it was probably Jocelin who first
   commissioned the writing of the Chronicle of Melrose. Duncan argues
   that Jocelin commissioned the entries dealing with the period between
   731 and 1170, putting the writing in the hands of a monk named Reinald.
   This chronicle is one of the few extant chronicles from Scotland in
   this period.

   After Jocelin's election to the prestigious bishopric of Glasgow in
   1174, Jocelin would continue exerting influence on his home monastery.
   Jocelin brought one of his monks from the abbey, a man called Michael,
   who acted as Jocelin's chaplain while bishop of Glasgow. He did not
   resign his position as abbot until after his consecration in 1175.
   Jocelin consecrated his successors as abbot, and continued to spend a
   lot of time there. Moreover, he used his position as bishop to offer
   the monastery patronage and protection.

Bishop of Glasgow

   The seal or signet of Jocelin, Bishop of Glasgow.
   Enlarge
   The seal or signet of Jocelin, Bishop of Glasgow.

   Jocelin was "promoted" to Bishop of Glasgow after the death of his
   friend Bishop Enguerrand, being elected on May 23, 1174. The election,
   like many other Scottish episcopal elections of the period, was done in
   the presence of the king, William the Lion, at Perth, near Scone, the
   chief residence of Scotland's kings. The election was probably done by
   compromissarii, meaning that the general chapter of the bishopric of
   Glasgow had selected a small group to which they delegated the power of
   election. Pope Alexander III was later told that Jocelin was elected by
   the dean and chapter of the see. The Chronicle of Melrose states that
   he was elected "by demand of the clergy, and of the people; and with
   the consent of the king himself", perhaps indicating that the decision
   had already been made by the Glasgow clergy before the formal election
   at Perth. The election was certainly an achievement. Cistercian bishops
   were rare in Great Britain, and Jocelin was only the second Cistercian
   to ascend to a Scottish bishopric. Jocelin was required to go to France
   to obtain permission from the General Chapter of the Cistercian order
   at Cîteaux to resign the abbacy. Pope Alexander III had already
   sanctioned his consecration, and gave permission for the consecration
   to occur without forcing Jocelin to travel to Rome. Conveniently, it
   was at Cîteaux that, sometime before March 15 1175, Jocelin was
   consecrated by the Papal legate Eskil, Archbishop of Lund and Primate
   of Denmark.

   Jocelin had returned to the Kingdom of Scotland by April 10, and it is
   known that on May 23 he had consecrated a monk named Laurence as his
   successor at Melrose. Jocelin was soon faced with a political challenge
   to the independence of his church. The challenge came from the English
   church, and was not new, but had lain dormant for some decades.
   However, later in the summer King William was captured and taken into
   English custody after being caught underprotected during a siege at
   Alnwick. King Henry II of England forced William to sign the Treaty of
   Falaise, a treaty which made William Henry's vassal and sanctioned the
   subordination of the kingdom's bishoprics to the English church.
   Jocelin however was not going to submit to either the Archbishop of
   York or even the Archbishop of Canterbury. Jocelin managed to obtain a
   Papal Bull which declared the see of Glasgow to be a "special daughter"
   of the Roman Patriarchate. Jocelin does not seem to have been
   interested in the other "Scottish" sees, merely to maintain his own
   episcopal independence. Moreover, Jocelin was able to get this Bull
   confirmed by Pope Alexander's successor Pope Lucius III.

   Jocelin had obtained this confirmation while at Rome in late 1181 and
   early 1182. Jocelin had been sent there by King William, along with
   abbots of Melrose, Dunfermline and Kelso and the prior of Inchcolm, in
   order to appeal to the Pope regarding his stance in a struggle over the
   Bishopric of St Andrews and the sentence of excommunication and
   interdict the Pope had placed over the king and kingdom. The dispute
   concerned the election to the bishopric of John the Scot, which had
   been opposed by the king, who organized the election of his own
   candidate, Hugh. The mission was successful. The Pope lifted the
   interdict, absolved the king and appointed two legates to investigate
   the issue of the St Andrews succession. The Pope even sent the king a
   Golden Rose, an item usually given to the Prefect of Rome. The issue of
   the succession, however, did not go away. In 1186, Jocelin, along with
   the abbots of Melrose, Dunfermline and Newbattle, excommunicated Hugh
   on the instructions of Pope Lucius. Hugh travelled to Rome in 1188, and
   obtained absolution, but he died of the pestilence in that city a few
   days later, thus allowing the issue to be resolved.
   The seal of William I, or Guillaume le Lion as he became known. His
   title among the native Scots was probably Uilleam Garbh (i.e. "William
   the Rough").
   Enlarge
   The seal of William I, or Guillaume le Lion as he became known. His
   title among the native Scots was probably Uilleam Garbh (i.e. "William
   the Rough").

   It is certainly obvious that Jocelin was one of the most respected
   figures in the kingdom. In this era, the Pope appointed Jocelin
   Judge-delegate (of the Papacy) more times than any other cleric in the
   kingdom. As a bishop and an ex-abbot, various bishoprics and
   monasteries called him in to mediate disputes, as evidenced by his
   frequent appearance as a witness in dispute settlements, such as the
   dispute between Arbroath Abbey and the Bishopric of St Andrews, and a
   dispute between Jedburgh Abbey and Dryburgh Abbey. Jocelin had the
   respect of the secular elite too. He witnessed 24 royal charters, and
   40 non-royal charters, including charters issued by David, Earl of
   Huntingdon (the brother of King William), Donnchadh, Earl of Carrick,
   and Alan Fitzwalter, High Steward of Scotland. Jocelin had been with
   King William when he visited the English court in 1186, and again
   accompanied the king to England when the king travelled to Woodstock
   near Oxford to marry Ermengarde de Beaumont on September 5th, 1186. The
   marriage was blessed by Bishop Jocelin in the their chamber, and it was
   to Jocelin's escort that King William entrusted her for the journey to
   Scotland. When a son was born to William and Ermengarde, the future
   King Alexander II, it was Jocelin who performed the baptism. In April
   1194, Jocelin again travelled to England in the king's company, as
   William was visiting King Richard I. Jocelin's support of, and intimacy
   with, the king would be the key to earning his patronage, thus making
   possible the legacy that Jocelin would leave to Glasgow.

Glasgow legacy

   Glasgow Cathedral today. Although most of the building is much later,
   the modern cathedral shares the same site as the Jocelin's late 12th
   century structure.
   Enlarge
   Glasgow Cathedral today. Although most of the building is much later,
   the modern cathedral shares the same site as the Jocelin's late 12th
   century structure.
   The is a 19th century depiction of the some columns in the crypt of
   Glasgow Cathedral; it is one of the few structures to have survived
   from Jocelin's era.
   Enlarge
   The is a 19th century depiction of the some columns in the crypt of
   Glasgow Cathedral; it is one of the few structures to have survived
   from Jocelin's era.

   Jocelin successfully promoted the interests of the settlement and
   church of Glasgow, perhaps more than any other bishop. Jocelin
   commissioned his namesake Jocelin of Furness, the same man who had
   written the Life of St. Waltheof, to write a Life of St. Kentigern, a
   task all the more necessary because, after 1159, the Papacy claimed the
   right to canonize saints. Kentigern, or Mungo as he is popularly known,
   was the saint traditionally associated with the see of Glasgow, and his
   status therefore reflected on Glasgow as a church and cult-centre.
   There had already been a cathedral at Glasgow before Jocelin's
   episcopate, and the idea that the ecclesiastical establishment before
   Jocelin was simply a small church with a larger Gaelic or British
   monastic establishment has been discredited by scholars. Jocelin did,
   though, expand the cathedral and eventually began the work of
   rebuilding it after its destruction in a fire. As the Chronicle of
   Melrose reports for 1181, Jocelin "gloriously enlarged the church of St
   Kentigern". However, this would come to nothing, as some time between
   the year 1189 and 1195, there was a fire at the cathedral, and Jocelin
   had to commission another rebuilding effort. The new cathedral was
   dedicated, according to the Chronicle of Melrose, on July 6, 1197. It
   was built in the Romanesque manner, and although little survives of it
   today, it is thought to have been influenced by the cathedral of Lund,
   the archbishop of which had consecrated Jocelin as bishop.

   However, Jocelin left a still greater legacy to the city of Glasgow. At
   some point between the years 1175 and 1178, Jocelin obtained from King
   William a grant of burghal status for the settlement of Glasgow, with a
   market every Thursday. The grant of a market was the first ever
   official grant of a weekly market to a burgh. Moreover, between 1189
   and 1195, King William granted the burgh an annual fair, a fair still
   in existence today, increasing Glasgow's status as an important
   settlement. As well as new revenues for the bishop, the rights entailed
   by Glasgow's new burghal status and market privileges brought new
   settlers to the settlement, one of the first of whom was one Ranulf de
   Haddington, a former burghess of Haddington. The new settlement was
   laid out (probably under the influence of the burgh of Haddington)
   around Glasgow Cross, down the hill from the cathedral and old fort of
   Glasgow, but above the flood level of the River Clyde.

Death

   Jocelin may have retired to Melrose, where his career had begun, to
   die. Jocelin certainly did die at Melrose, on St Patrick's Day, i.e.
   March 17, 1199. He was buried in the monks' choir of Melrose Abbey
   Church. Hugh de Roxburgh, Chancellor of Scotland, was elected as
   Jocelin's replacement.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelin"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
