Gerard II (bishop of Cambrai)

Gerard II (ca. 1020 – 11×12 August 1092) was the thirty-third bishop of Cambrai from 1076 and the last who was also bishop of Arras. His episcopacy coincided with the beginning of the Investiture Controversy between emperors and popes.

Gerard was probably descended from the lords of Lessines, and was related to both of his predecessors, Lietbert and Gerard I.[1] He was "German in language in culture", as his Germanic name indicates, and his diocese lay on the Germano-Romance frontier.[1]

Gerard was canonically elected after the death of Lietbert on 22×23 June 1076. As was the custom for bishops of Cambrai, he went to receive investiture with the symbols of his office from the Emperor Henry IV in July. He was likewise invested with secular authority in the county of the Cambrésis. Unfortunately for him, in February 1075 the Council of Rome had condemned the investiture of bishops by laymen and in February 1076 Pope Gregory VII had excommunicated the emperor. When Gerard went to his metropolitan, Archbishop Manasses I of Reims, to receive consecration, he was refused.[1]

In the spring of 1077 Gerard travelled to Rome to plead his case to Pope Gregory, claiming that he was unaware that his investiture was irregular. Gregory ordered his legate, Hugh of Die, to call a regional council at Autun to decide the case. The council concluded in September with a threat to depose bishops who consecrated clergy invested by laymen. Since Manasses had not attended, Hugh suspended him and himself consecrated Gerard, who swore to uphold the Gregorian reforms.[1]

During Gerard's absence an urban revolt broke out in Cambrai. The citizens formed a commune and bound themselves by an oath not to readmit the bishop. With the help of Count Baldwin II of Hainaut, Gerard suppressed the revolt and executed the leaders.[1] He also had to contend with the encroachments of the castellan of Cambrai, Hugh I of Oisy. With the help of Count Robert I of Flanders, he succeeded in exiling Hugh to England between about 1086 and 1090.[1]

Although many of the priests of the cathedral chapter were kinsmen of Gerard, they were also guilty of simony and nicolaitism and strongly resisted the bishop's efforts to promote the Gregorian reform in his diocese. Nevertheless, in 1080 Gerard was appointed by the pope to a council to judge Manasses of Reims and in 1081 he was given administrative control over the contested diocese of Thérouanne. He restored the cathedral of Notre Dame and the hospital of Saint Julien in Cambrai, and helped found the abbeys of Anchin (1079) and Affligem (1086). He also revised the charters of his diocese to unencumber ecclesiastical benefices from personal obligations.[1]

Gerard also dealt with the heretic Ramihrd, who is only mentioned by name in the Chronicon sancti Andreae castri Cameracesii (Chronicle of Saint-André du Cateau), written by an anonymous monk around 1133. An account of Gerard's episcopacy was recorded in the Gesta Gerardi secundi episcopi (Deeds of Bishop Gerard the Second) by one of the continuators of the Gesta episcoporum Cameracensium.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Irven M. Resnick, "Odo of Cambrai and the Investiture Crisis in the Early Twelfth Century", Viator 28 (1997), 84–85.

Further reading

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