Robert of Cricklade

Robert of Cricklade
Died after 1174, before 1180
Resting place probably St Frideswide's Priory in Oxford
Occupation Augustinian canon, prior, writer
Nationality English
Period Angevin
Genre religious writings

Robert of Cricklade (died after 1174, before 1180) was a medieval English writer and prior of St Frideswide's Priory in Oxford. He was a native of Cricklade and taught before becoming a cleric. He wrote a number of theological works as well as a lost biography of Thomas Becket, the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury.

Life

Robert was from Cricklade in Wiltshire, and was of Anglo-Saxon descent.[1] At some point he taught in the schools, where he was called "master" for his learning.[2] He became an Augustinian canon at Cirencester Abbey before becoming prior of the priory of St Frideswide in Oxford,[3] an office he occupied from sometime before the end of 1139, when he is first securely attested in the office,[4] until after 1174, his last appearance as prior.[3] In 1158 he went to Rome, extending his travels to Sicily and Paris on the same trip. Another trip was to Scotland in the 1160s. Possibly he also travelled to Rome in 1141 and Paris in 1147, but these trips are not securely attested. Although earlier historians claimed that he was chancellor of Oxford, this office did not yet exist during Robert's lifetime. There were students at Oxford in his lifetime, though his precise role in local teaching is unclear.[5]

Writings

Robert was the author of a number of works, most of which survive in one or more manuscripts, but some of which are lost. A commentary on the Psalms is also attributed to him, preserved in a single manuscript,[6] but this is more likely the work of Robert of Bridlington.[7]

De connubio Iacob

On the Marriage of Jacob was written while Robert was at Cirencester. It is an allegorical treatment of the Jacob story from the Bible, written after 1137 and before Robert's move to Oxford in 1138/9.[8] He mentions Bernard of Clairvaux and William of Malmesbury as major influences on his writing.[9] It survives in five manuscripts:

Defloratio historie naturalis Plinii

The Anthology of Pliny's Natural History is an epitome of Pliny the Elder's Natural History dedicated to King Henry II of England.[10] It is of some importance in the transmission of Pliny's ideas to medieval Europe,[10] although it has been shown to be less important as a witness to Pliny's text than once thought.[11]

The book appears to have originally been composed in the 1130s, perhaps as a text for his students, and only later dedicated it to King Henry.[12] It has been printed in a critical edition.[13]

The work survives in five manuscripts:

Homilie super Ezechielem

The Homilies on Ezechiel are a series of 42 homilies on the Book of Ezekiel and were written about 1172.[1] They are a continuation of the homilies on Ezekiel by Gregory the Great. The work survives in two manuscripts:

Letter to Benedict of Peterborough

Benedict of Peterborough quotes in his Miracula S. Thome Cantuariensis a letter to him from Robert, giving an account of of his healing from a serious illness, for which he credits the intercession of Thomas Becket. Another canon in Oxford, also named Robert, was similarly healed. The accounts printed as part of the Rolls Series.[14]

Speculum fidei

The Mirror of Faith was a theological work that mainly collected texts from the Old and New Testament discussing basic theological concepts, dedicated to Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester.[15] It is best known for Robert's refutation of the views of Peter Lombard's theology.[2] It survives in one manuscript:

Vita et miracula sancte Thome Cantuariensis

Robert wrote his Life and Miracles of St Thomas of Canterbury around 1173 to 1174.[16] Though lost, it is one of the main sources for an Icelandic saga on Becket entitled Thómas saga Erkibyskups, which survives in a copy dating from the first half of the 14th century.[17] This saga preserves a number of otherwise unknown details about Becket's life and remains one of the main sources for Becket studies.[18] Robert's life also was a source for the work of Benet of St Albans, another biographer of Becket.[19] A modern historian partially reconstructed Robert's biography from these sources.[20] A major source for Robert's work on Becket was the writings of John of Salisbury. A modern biographer of Becket, Frank Barlow, speculates that Robert's biography was lost because it favoured the king's side of the story, rather than Becket's.[19]

Vita sancte Frideswide

A Life of St Frideswide, on Frithuswith, the patron of Robert's priory in Oxford, has been shown to have been written by Robert, and has been critically edited.[21] It is a revision of another earlier work. It survives in three manuscripts:

Death and legacy

Robert died after 1174, and was probably buried in his priory.[1] His successor was Philip of Oxford, who was in office by 1180.[22] Besides his theological works, Robert also searched throughout England for Hebrew texts of the works of Josephus,[1] according to Gerald of Wales, who claimed that Robert had a knowledge of the Hebrew language.[23]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Duggan "Cricklade, Robert of" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  2. 1 2 Hunt "English Learning" Transactions of the Royal Historical Society pp. 31–33
  3. 1 2 Knowles, et al. Heads of Religious Houses p. 180
  4. ↑ Knowles, et al. Heads of Religious Houses p. 284
  5. ↑ Excerpts from Robert's works on learning and a brief commentary is found in Collectanea, second series. Oxford Historical Society. Montagu Burrows (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1890. pp. 160–165.
  6. ↑ Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud misc. 454.
  7. ↑ Sharpe, Richard (1997). Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland Before 1540. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin. 1. Belgium: Brepols. ISBN 2-503-50575-9.
  8. ↑ William of Malmesbury. Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Rodney M. Thomson, Michael Winterbottom (eds.). Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. 2015. p. xv. ISBN 978-1-78327-016-3.
  9. ↑ Dunning, Andrew (11 July 2016). "Robert of Cricklade: Why I Write". Medieval Manuscripts Blog. British Library. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  10. 1 2 Thomson "England and the Twelfth-Century Renaissance" Past & Present p. 13
  11. ↑ Texts and transmission: a survey of the Latin classics. L.D. Reynolds, Peter K. Marshall (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1983. pp. 313–14, 375. ISBN 0-19-814456-3.
  12. ↑ Woolfson "John Claymond, Pliny the Elder" English Historical Review p. 886
  13. ↑ Roberti Crikeladensis Defloratio naturalis historie Plinii secundi. Lateinische Sprache und Literatur des Mittelalters. Bodo Näf (ed.). Bern: Lang. 2002. ISBN 3-906770-29-X. The prologue is also printed in van Houts, Elisabeth (2006). "Les femmes dans le royaume Plantagenêt: gendre, politique et nature". In Martin Aurell, Noël-Yves Tonnerre (eds.). Plantagenêts et Capétiens: confrontations et héritages. Histoires de famille. La parenté au Moyen Âge. Turnhout: Brepols. pp. 95–112. doi:10.1484/M.HIFA-EB.3.603. ISBN 978-2-503-53781-8.
  14. ↑ Materials for the history of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Rolls Series. 67/2. James Craigie Robertson (ed.). London: Longman. 1876. pp. 96–101.
  15. ↑ Robert of Cricklade, Speculum fidei, prologue: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 380, fol. 2r.
  16. ↑ Staunton "Introduction" Lives of Thomas Becket p. 5n3
  17. ↑ Magnússon, Eiríkr (1883). Thómas saga erkibyskups: a life of Archbishop Thomas Becket, in Icelandic, with English translation, notes and glossary. London: Longmans.
  18. ↑ Staunton "Introduction" Lives of Thomas Becket p. 11
  19. 1 2 Barlow Thomas Becket pp. 6–7
  20. ↑ Orme, M. (1966). "A Reconstruction of Robert of Cricklade's Vita et Miracula S. Thomae Cantuariensis". Analecta Bollandiana. 84: 379–398.
  21. ↑ Blair, John (1987). "Saint Frideswide Reconsidered" (PDF). Oxoniensia. 52: 71–127.
  22. ↑ Philip of Oxford, De miraculis sancte Frideswide 1, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 177, fols 1v–2r. Partially quoted by Blair (1987), p. 118.
  23. ↑ Loewe "Medieval Christian Hebraists" Transactions p. 237 and footnote 9

References

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