The Dilemma of Arnulf of Lisieux: New Ideas versus Old Ideals

Description

Arnulf, bishop of Lisieux from 1141 to 1181, was a significant figure in the twelfth-century renaissance. He held a prominent position among the advisors of Henry II of England, implemented the reforms of Bernard of Clairvaux, and became a confidante of Pope Alexander III. He participated in the Second Crusade, served as an ambassador for Louis VII, acted as a papal judge-delegate and as chief justiciar for Normandy, built one of the first Gothic cathedrals in northern France, and wielded his influence during civil wars and the Becket controversy. Throughout his life, Arnulf observed a paradigm constructed in his early years—an assumption that the primary duty of a bishop was to serve both church and king. Arnulf’s strict adherence to the ideals of his youth frequently made him unpopular with contemporaries. He forced unwanted reforms on recalcitrant abbots and lectured popes and kings alike on their failures to conform to his preconceived standards. He made a life-long enemy of John of Salisbury and alienated both sides during the Becket controversy. Only in his last days did this bishop with the temperament of a monk realize that the ideals to which he was committed were incompatible with the new ideas taking root around him. This book investigates the sources and consequences of Arnulf’s paradigm. Evidence comes from Arnulf’s correspondence, from charters and court decisions, and from the cathedral at Lisieux, into which Arnulf carved a statement about the world as he thought it should be. Arnulf’s discontents reveal a palimpsest beneath the surface of the twelfth-century renaissance: the ideals that suffered but refused to disappear when new ideas supplanted the old.