Gilbert Foliot

Gilbert Foliot (c. 1110 – 18 February 1187) was a medieval English monk and prelate, successively Abbot of Gloucester, Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of London. A number of his relatives were ecclesiastics, and around the age of 20 he became a monk at Cluny Abbey in France. After holding two posts as prior in the Cluniac order, he was named abbot of Gloucester Abbey in 1139, a career advance helped by the influence of his kinsman Miles of Gloucester. Although he recognized Stephen as king, he may have sympathized with the Empress Matilda's claim to the throne. When her forces captured Stephen, Gilbert became one of her supporters. Even after the king's release, Foliot continued to write letters in Matilda's cause. As abbot, he acquired new lands for Gloucester, and may have helped fabricate some charters — legal deeds attesting property ownership — to gain advantage in a dispute with the archbishops of York.

In 1148, Foliot accompanied Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, to a papal council at Reims. During his time there he was appointed to the bishopric of Hereford by Pope Eugene III. Despite promising the Council of Reims he would not do so, when he returned to England he swore fealty to King Stephen. This temporarily disturbed his relationship with Henry of Anjou, Matilda's son, who eventually became King Henry II of England. When Theobald died in 1160, most people assumed that Foliot would replace him, but the king instead forwarded his Chancellor, Thomas Becket. Foliot later claimed to have opposed Becket's appointment, and supported Henry during his dispute with Thomas. Foliot was translated, or moved, to the see of London in 1163, perhaps as consolation for not receiving Canterbury.

In the great dispute between the king and Becket, Foliot was reviled by Becket and his supporters. Foliot was sent by the king on a number of diplomatic missions related to the Becket dispute, and he wrote a number of letters against Becket that circulated widely in Europe. Foliot was excommunicated twice by Becket, the second excommunication precipitating Becket's martyrdom. For a short period following Becket's death, the papacy kept Foliot excommunicate, but soon thereafter he was absolved and allowed to resume his episcopal functions. Besides his role in the Becket controversy, Foliot was often employed by the king as a royal judge, and was an active administrator and bishop in his different dioceses. He wrote numerous letters, and a number were collected after his death. He also wrote sermons and biblical commentaries, but only two of those works are extant.

Early life

Pope Innocent II from a mosaic in Rome

Foliot was probably the son of Robert Foliot, steward to David, earl of Huntingdon and heir to the Scottish throne; and Robert's wife Agnes, sister of Robert de Chesney who was Bishop of Lincoln. Whatever his parentage, Robert de Chesney was his uncle. Another uncle, Reginald, was a monk of Gloucester Abbey and abbot of Evesham Abbey. More relatives were Robert Foliot, a later Bishop of Hereford, who may have been from a branch of the family from Oxford, and a cousin, Miles of Gloucester. Gilbert himself referred to Richard of Ilchester, later bishop of Winchester, as a kinsman. Yet more relatives were two earlier bishops of London, Richard de Beaumis and Richard de Beaumis II, and another uncle was William de Chesney, who was a partisan of Stephen's and a leading layman in Oxfordshire.

Born about 1110, Foliot became a monk of Cluny, probably about 1130. He became prior of Cluny Abbey, then was named prior of Abbeville, a Cluniac house. There are some indications that he studied law at Bologna at some point. He may have studied under Robert Pullen, the English theologian, either at Oxford or Exeter. He also acquired a knowledge of rhetoric as well as the liberal arts.

Foliot was present at the Second Lateran Council, called by Pope Innocent II, which opened on 4 April 1139, and among other matters, heard an appeal from the Empress Matilda over her claim to the English throne. Matilda was the daughter, and only surviving legitimate child of King Henry I of England, but when her father died in late 1135, her cousin, Stephen, who was the son of Henry's sister, took the throne of England. By 1139, Matilda had gathered supporters and was contesting Stephen's right to the throne.

Foliot wrote an account of the proceedings involving Matilda and Stephen in a letter to one of Matilda's supporters around 1143. The Council took no action on Matilda's claim, and the papacy continued to accept Stephen as king, but nothing was decided against Matilda's claim either. The pope ordered the English Church to make no changes to the status quo. The main discussion at the council, according to Foliot's letter, was over whether Matilda's parents' marriage was legitimate, and thus whether she was Henry's legitimate heiress. Matilda's mother, Edith-Matilda, had been educated at a convent, and there had been some confusion over whether Edith-Matilda had taken vows before she was married to Henry I. At the time of the council, the issue attracted some concern, although eventually the fact that Anselm of Canterbury had performed the marriage swayed most people to the belief that the marriage was valid. Foliot seems to have had some qualms about the validity of the marriage in 1139, but before he wrote the letter in 1143, he had come to believe that Matilda was the legitimate heiress, and thus supporting the Angevin, another name for Matilda's, cause.

Abbot

Matilda's seal

In 1139 Foliot was elected abbot of Gloucester, with his blessing by the diocesan bishop taking place on 11 June 1139. The appointment had been pushed through by Foliot's relative, Miles of Gloucester, who was now the Earl of Hereford. Foliot was well connected at court in other respects, for his probable father had been steward to David I, before David became King of Scotland. David was the uncle of both the Empress and Stephen's wife. With his elevation to abbot, Foliot recognized Stephen as king, although he seems to have been a supporter of Matilda previously.

King Stephen was captured by Matilda's forces on 2 February 1141, and Matilda called a council at Westminster to gather support for her assuming the throne. Foliot attended the council and was one of her main supporters in the following months as the Angevin cause tried to place her on the throne.

It was during his time as abbot that Foliot's letter discussing the Second Council of the Lateran's deliberations on Matilda's cause was written to Brien FitzCount, one of Matilda's earliest supporters. FitzCount had written first to Foliot, in a letter now lost, setting forth his reasons for supporting Matilda. Foliot's reply set forth a defense of Matilda's claim to the throne. He also wrote that Stephen had "dishonored the episcopate" with his behavior in 1139, when the king arrested Roger of Salisbury, the bishop of Salisbury, and Roger's nephew, Alexander, who was bishop of Lincoln, as well as attempting to arrest another of Roger's nephews, Nigel, who was Bishop of Ely. After the arrest, Stephen forced the bishops to surrender their castles and secular governmental offices. Most historians see Foliot's letter as firmly supporting Matilda's cause, although one recent biographer of King Stephen, Donald Matthew, claims that Foliot's support was lukewarm at best, and mainly because his abbey was located in a stronghold of Matilda's. In support, Matthew points out that Gloucester Abbey owed no military service in a feudal levy, which allowed him to avoid choosing sides irrevocably. Matthew also points out that after 1141, Foliot is a signatory to just one of Matilda's charters. Foliot also addressed Robert of Gloucester's defense of Matilda's rights, and buttressed it with arguments of his own. Robert had argued that the Bible supported female succession, and quoted from Numbers, chapter 36, which allowed women to inherit, but prohibited them marrying outside their tribe. Foliot, in his reply to this argument, claimed that Robert had actually used Numbers, chapter 27, which had no restrictions on the marriage of heiresses.

While abbot, and afterward, he was a friend of Ailred of Rievaulx, the medieval saint and writer, who dedicated a book of sermons to Foliot. Another friend and ally from his abbacy was Theobald of Bec, the archbishop of Canterbury, who during Stephen's reign was attempting to unite the English Church under his leadership. Foliot helped Theobald by forming a communication link to the Empress' side.

Foliot took an interest in the Dorset monastery of Cerne Abbey, which in 1145 received the prior of Gloucester abbey, Bernard, as abbot. Bernard was an active reformer, and Foliot supported Bernard's efforts. The monks objected to the new abbot, and drove him out of the monastery. Both abbot and monks appealed to the papacy, which supported the abbot. Although the empress wrote to Gilbert, and interceded on the behalf of the monks, Foliot pointed out that he was unable to disobey a papal command.

While abbot, Foliot supervised the acquisition of a dependent priory in the city of Hereford for the monastery. Most of the abbey buildings predate Foliot's time as abbot, and there is no sure evidence of any buildings he added to the monastery. During his abbacy, a dispute that had dragged on between Gloucester and the archdiocese of York over some manors was finally settled in Gloucester's favour. This was done with a group of forged charters that Foliot may have helped create. Forging charters was a common practice in English monasteries of the time.

Bishop of Hereford

In early 1148, Foliot accompanied Theobald of Bec to the Council of Reims, even though the archbishop had been forbidden to attend by King Stephen. Presumably, he was with Theobald when the archbishop used a small fishing boat to escape from England and reach the continent. Robert de Bethune, the bishop of Hereford, died at the Council of Reims, and Foliot was nominated by Pope Eugene III to fill the see of Hereford, which was held by the Angevin cause. Theobald was behind the appointment, having urged it on the pope. It appears likely that before his consecration Foliot gave assurances that he would not swear fealty to Stephen. He was consecrated bishop of Hereford on 5 September 1148 at Saint-Omer by Archbishop Theobald. The other English bishops present at Reims, Hilary of Chichester and Josceline de Bohon, refused to help with the consecration, as they claimed it was against the customs of England for a bishop to be consecrated outside England. Another cause of concern for the bishops was that Stephen's right to a say in the election had been infringed by the pope. After his consecration, Foliot swore fealty to Henry of Anjou, the son of the Empress and the new head of the Angevin party.

After his return to England, though, he swore fealty to Stephen, even though this angered the Angevin party. Theobald managed to secure peace between Foliot and the Angevins, saying that Foliot could not refuse to swear homage "to the prince approved by the papacy". Foliot also attempted to hold Hereford in plurality, or at the same time, with the abbey of Gloucester, but the monks of Gloucester would not allow this. Rather than accept a situation like that of Henry of Blois, who held the diocese of Winchester as well as being Abbot of Glastonbury, the monks of Gloucester held an election three weeks after Foliot's selection as bishop, and chose their prior as the new abbot.

Foliot was a supporter of his uncle Robert de Chesney's nomination to become bishop of Lincoln, lobbying the pope on Robert's behalf, and maintaining a long correspondence with Robert after his elevation. The letters to this uncle are full of warm sentiments, more than would be expected of a dutiful correspondence. Other episcopal correspondents and friends of Foliot's included Roger de Pont L'Evêque, the Archbishop of York, Josceline de Bohon, the bishop of Salisbury, and William de Turbeville, the bishop of Norwich who was not a regular correspondent until after Foliot was translated to London.

During the later part of Stephen's reign, Foliot was active in judicial affairs, including a 1150 case involving sanctuary and his kinsman Roger, the Earl of Hereford, which ended up in the court of Archbishop Theobald. His involvement in legal affairs led him in 1153 to employ a clerk who specialized in Roman law.

After the ascension of Henry of Anjou as King Henry II of England in 1154, it was Foliot who persuaded his kinsman, the Earl of Hereford, to submit to the new king's demand that he return custody of certain royal castles to the king. When Theobald died in 1160, most observers believed that Foliot was the leading candidate to become archbishop of Canterbury. Traditionally, the see of Canterbury had been held by a monk, at least since the replacement of Stigand by Lanfranc in 1070. Although Foliot was a Cluniac monk, they were still a subset of the Benedictine Order and thus the cathedral chapter at Canterbury, which was Benedictine but not Cluniac, would have had no objections to him on that score. Although Foliot denied that he ever lobbied for the office, both John of Salisbury and Thomas Becket apparently believed that Foliot desired it.

Bishop of London

Engraving from Old St. Paul's Cathedral by William Benham, 1902

Foliot was Becket's rival for the archbishopric of Canterbury, and opposed Becket on the grounds that Becket was too worldly to be the archbishop. Foliot was the only bishop or magnate known to have opposed the king's choice of Becket. When the newly-elected archbishop was presented to the court before his consecration, Foliot remarked that the king had performed a miracle in turning a layman and a knight into an archbishop. Soon after Becket's consecration as archbishop, the king wrote to the pope to ask permission to make Foliot the royal confessor. This may have been a conciliatory move to appease Foliot after the loss of Canterbury or it may have been that the king and archbishop already were having differences of opinion and the king wished Foliot to be a counter-weight to Becket's influence.

After Becket's election as archbishop, Foliot was nominated to the see of London, to which he was translated on 6 March 1163. His nomination had been put forward by the king, who wrote to the pope stating that Foliot would be more available as an adviser and confessor if he was in London, rather than in Hereford on the Welsh Marches. Becket wrote to Foliot urging him to accept the translation. His transfer was confirmed by Pope Alexander III on 19 March 1163 and he was enthroned at London on 28 April 1163. Papal confirmation was required because the movement of bishops from one see to another was still frowned on at this time. The medieval chronicler Ralph de Diceto, who was a canon at London, states that the cathedral chapter at St Paul's Cathedral, London, the cathedral of the London diocese, approved of Foliot's selection. Becket was unable to attend Foliot's enthronement. Foliot did not make a profession of obedience to the archbishop, arguing that he had already sworn an oath to Canterbury when he became bishop of Hereford and thus no further oath was required. The issue was sent to the papacy, and the pope refused to be pinned down to an answer. Foliot then attempted to make London independent of Canterbury by reviving the old plan of Pope Gregory I for an archbishopric at London. Foliot proposed either to have London raised to an archdiocese along with Canterbury, or to have London replace Canterbury as the archiepiscopal seat for the southern province. Foliot supported Becket, however, in Becket's attempt to prevent the archbishop of York from having his archiepiscopal cross borne in procession before him, when he was in the province of Canterbury.

By 1166, Foliot had been presented with a petition for annulment of the marriage of Aubrey de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, and Agnes of Essex. On the couple's third appearance before the bishop in his episcopal court on 9 May 1166, Countess Agnes appealed to the pope to affirm the validity of her marriage. The bishop of London enclosed her appeal in his own surviving letter setting out the salient features of the case. While the case was under papal consideration, Foliot reprimanded the earl for his actions regarding his wife, reminding him that, until the pope had ruled otherwise, Agnes was to be considered his wife in bed and board. His warnings appear to have fallen on deaf ears for, when Pope Alexander III wrote the bishop regarding reports of the countess's mistreatment by her husband and required Foliot to threaten the earl with excommunication, he also chastised the bishop for his handling of the case.

Henry's conflict with Becket

In July 1163, the king and Becket began to quarrel, at first over financial matters, then over the matter of the marriage of Henry's younger brother to an heiress, which Becket forbade. The true spark to the quarrel was the matter of clergy who committed crimes, as the king wished to have them prosecuted by secular courts, and the archbishop refused to allow this, arguing that all clergy must be tried in church courts, even if the crime was non-ecclesiastical. At the council of Westminster called by King Henry II of England in October 1163 to deal with the issue, Foliot at first sided with the other bishops, who supported Becket's position opposing the king. However, after the council was dismissed, Foliot became the leader of those bishops who changed sides to support the king. In December, Becket capitulated to the king.

In January 1164 the king summoned a council at Clarendon, where the bishops were asked to approve the Constitutions of Clarendon which proposed restrictions on the powers of the Church and limits to papal authority in England. Becket refused, and this led to the great dispute between king and archbishop, into which Foliot and his fellow-bishops were inevitably drawn. When Becket appeared before the court with his archiepiscopal cross borne before him, a studied insult to the king, Foliot told the archbishop that "If the king were to brandish his sword, as you now brandish yours, what hope can there be of peace between you?" The king refused to see Becket, and negotiations between the two camps soon revealed that Becket had ordered the bishops to refuse to pass judgement on him and threatened them with suspension from ecclesiastical office if they did so. Becket also threatened to appeal the case to the papacy. Both of these actions by the archbishop broke the Constitutions of Clarendon. During the subsequent back and forth between the bishops and the king, as well as the bishops and the archbishop, another bishop asked Gilbert to attempt to persuade Becket to cease his behavior. Foliot replied that Becket "was always a fool and always will be".

After the bishops refused to pass judgment, the barons attempted to do so, but Becket refused to hear the court and left the council, without the king's permission. Soon afterward, Foliot, along with Hilary of Chichester, went to Becket and suggested a compromise, which Becket refused. After this last attempt at a settlement, Becket went into exile, arriving in Flanders on 2 November 1164. Foliot was sent, along with Roger, the archbishop of York, Hilary of Chichester, Bartholomew Iscanus, the bishop of Exeter, Roger of Worcester, the bishop of Worcester, William d'Aubigny, the Earl of Arundel, and a group of royal clerks, to Thierry the Count of Flanders, Louis VII the King of France and Pope Alexander III in an attempt to prevent the archbishop from being given refuge. Louis of France, however, gave refuge to the archbishop, but Foliot's delegation met with more success at the papal court; although they did not manage to get a decision favouring the king, neither did the pope side with the archbishop.

Becket's exile

During Becket's exile, it was Foliot who collected and sent to Rome Peter's Pence, the annual payment from England to the papacy. Foliot observed during the conflict that it was not a theological or moral dispute, merely one over church government. During Becket's exile, the king confiscated the archbishop's estates, and also confiscated the benefices of the clerks who had followed Becket into exile. Foliot was made custodian of those benefices in the diocese of Canterbury. Becket blamed both Foliot and Roger of York for the confiscations, but evidence appears to show that the confiscations were Henry's decision, and that Foliot, at least, was a conscientious custodian who made sure that little profit went to the king, and most of the revenues from the benefices went to religious purposes.

In early summer 1165, Pope Alexander III wrote twice to Foliot, ordering him to intercede with the king and protest the royal injunction against appeals to the papacy. Foliot replied that the king respected the pope, heard his protests carefully, and that the archbishop had not been expelled, but had left of his own accord. Foliot wrote that the king had said Becket was free to return at any time, but would still have to answer to the charges he had faced at Northampton. Foliot then advised the pope not to impose any sentences of excommunication and to be patient and continue to negotiate. In 1166, Foliot accused Becket of simony, or the purchase of church offices, basing this on the alleged purchase Becket had made of the chancellorship, although there is no evidence that Becket bought the office. By 1166, the king had made Foliot the head of the English church, in fact if not in law. The king and Foliot got along well, and it is probably Foliot's influence that kept the king from more violent measures against Becket.

On 10 June 1166, Becket excommunicated a number of his opponents, some specifically by name, as well as any who opposed his cause. Henry's response was to order the English bishops to appeal to the pope, which they did at a council that Foliot organized and led in London on 24 June. The appeal was written by Foliot, and a separate letter from the bishops, also written by Foliot, was sent to the archbishop. The bishops rested their case on the fact that those excommunicated had not been warned or allowed to defend themselves. They pointed out to the pope that the king had not escalated the conflict and had behaved reasonably to the last papal overtures in the summer of 1165. Becket replied to these moves with a letter written to Foliot that was full of resentment and reproaches. Foliot's reply to this, a letter that is usually titled Multiplicem nobis, set forth his view of Becket's abilities as archbishop as well as giving reasons why Becket was wrong. He then suggested that the archbishop compromise and exercise some humility in order to reach his goals. By the end of 1166, Foliot managed to resign his custody of the confiscated Canterbury benefices, something he had been attempting to do for some time. This removed one source of conflict between Foliot and Becket.

In November 1167 Foliot was summoned to Normandy, also ruled by Henry II, to meet with papal legates and the king. Also summoned were Roger of York, Hilary of Chichester, and Roger of Worcester. After some discussion and argument, Henry appears to have agreed that the legates could judge both the king's case against Becket as well as the bishops' case. Henry also offered a compromise on the subject of the Constitutions of Clarendon, that the legates accepted. However, when the legates met with Becket on 18 November, it quickly became apparent that Becket would not accept negotiations with the king nor accept the legates as judges of either case against him. As the legates had no mandate to compel Becket to accept themselves as judges, the negotiations came to an end with the king and bishops still appealing to the papacy.

On 13 April 1169, Becket excommunicated Foliot, along with Hugh, Earl of Norfolk, Josceline of Salisbury, and seven royal officials. Becket did this even though none of them had been warned, and despite the fact that the pope had asked that Becket not make any such sentences until after a pending embassy to King Henry had ended. Becket also warned a number of other people that unless they made amends to him, they too would be excommunicated on 29 May, which was Ascension Day. In his excommunication, Becket called Foliot "that wolf in sheep's clothing". Although Foliot tried to enlist the help of his fellow bishops in an appeal, they were less than helpful. Foliot then prepared to appeal his sentence to the pope in person, and traveled to Normandy in late June or early July, where he met the king, but proceeded no further towards Rome, as the papacy was attempting once more to secure a negotiated settlement. In late August and early September, serious negotiations between the king and the archbishop took place, but nothing came of them in the end.

Foliot then proceeded to Rome, but at Milan he received word that his envoy at the papal court had secured the right for him to be absolved by the archbishop of Rouen, Rotrou. Foliot then returned to Rouen, where he was absolved on 5 April and reinstated in his see on 1 May. The only requirement of this absolution was that Foliot accept a penance to be imposed by the pope.

Death of Becket and aftermath

Death of Becket, from a near contemporary source

On 14 June 1170, the son of Henry, Henry the Young King, was crowned king of England by the archbishop of York, which infringed on the right of Becket as archbishop of Canterbury to crown English monarchs. Although there is no definitive proof that Foliot assisted in the coronation, it appears likely that he did so. The coronation drove the pope to allow Becket to lay an interdict on England as punishment, and the threat of an interdict drove Henry to negotiate with Becket in July 1170. Becket and the king came to terms on 22 July 1170, allowing the archbishop to return to England, which he did in early December. However, shortly before he landed in England, he excommunicated Roger of York, Josceline of Salisbury, and Foliot. One possible reason for the excommunications was that the three ecclesiastics had electors from the various vacant bishoprics with them, and were escorting those electors to the king on the continent in order to reward a number of royal clerks with the long vacant bishoprics. Included among those royal clerks were some of Becket's most bitter foes during his exile. Although Becket offered to absolve Josceline and Foliot, he refused to do so for Roger, arguing that the only person who could absolve an archbishop was the pope. Roger then persuaded the other two to appeal to the king, who was in Normandy. When they did so, the royal anger at the timing of the excommunications was such that it led to Henry uttering a quotation often attributed to him "Will no one rid me of the turbulent priest". This inspired four knights to set off from the king's court in Normandy to Canterbury, where on 29 December 1170, they murdered Becket.

After Becket's murder, the sentences of excommunication imposed by Becket were confirmed as well as the suspension from ecclesiastical office. The pope, in confirming these sentences, referred to Roger of York, Foliot, and Josceline of Salisbury, as the "Gilbertine trinity". The excommunication was absolved for Foliot on 1 August 1171, but he remained suspended from office. He secured his restoration to office on 1 May 1172, after clearing himself of any involvement in Becket's murder. The king performed a public act of penance on 12 July 1174 at Canterbury, when he publicly confessed his sins, and then allowed each bishop present, including Foliot, to give him five blows from a rod, then each of the 80 monks of Canterbury cathedral gave the king three blows. The king then offered gifts to Becket's shrine and spent a vigil at Becket's tomb.

Up until 1163, Foliot and Becket seem to have gotten along well, but after that date Foliot never got along with Becket. Becket returned the sentiment, and in 1167 Becket accused Foliot with: "your aim has all along been to effect the downfall of the Church and ourself". After the pope absolved Foliot's excommunication in early 1170, Becket exclaimed to a cardinal that "Satan is unloosed for the destruction of the Church". A modern biographer of Becket, the historian Frank Barlow, feels that one reason for Becket's change of behavior after his election as archbishop was due to his need to "out-bishop" the other bishops and prevent Foliot from making any more jibes about Becket's inadequacies as an ecclesiastic.

Foliot was mainly a force for moderation in the quarrel between the king and the archbishop, both urging moderation on Becket as well as moderating the king's attempts to impose the Constitutions more rigorously. Foliot's rhetoric against the archbishop was pointed and effective. Foliot also developed the novel legal filing of ad cautelam, which was an appeal to the papacy against any future action by the archbishop. Although Foliot's tactic of ad cautelam was ridiculed by his opponents, the papacy did not challenge the technique.

Foliot did more than quarrel with Becket during his time as bishop. He served for many years as a papal judge-delegate, especially in his later years. He was active in both of his dioceses in supporting his cathedral chapters and other religious houses of the dioceses. He kept in constant contact with his archdeacons and deans about the administration of the dioceses.

Writings

Foliot was well known as a letter writer, and his letters were later collected as a book. The main manuscript for this collection is now held by the Bodleian Library, and its modern editors argue that it originated in Foliot's own writing office. About 250 to 300 letters of his still exist, which, combined with his surviving charters, gives a total of almost 500 items. They have been printed in a modern edition edited by Adrian Morey and Christopher N. L. Brooke, and published by the Cambridge University Press in 1967, under the title of The Letters and Charters of Gilbert Foliot. Some of the letters have appeared in volumes five through eight of Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, from the Rolls Series, published from 1875–1885. Older editions appeared in the Patres ecclesiae Anglicanae series from the 1840s, and in Migne's Patrologica from 1854. The letters cover most of the period of Foliot's public life, and are one of the main sources for the history of this time period. The historian David Knowles said of them that "owing to its wealth of personal and local detail is of the greatest value for the church historian". From his letters a picture emerges of an active bishop and ecclesiastical leader, who supported the Gregorian church reforms, but did not meddle in politics beyond that of the church.

He also wrote a number of sermons and commentaries on the bible, of which only the ones on the Song of Songs and the Paternoster still survive. About 60 of his acta, or decisions, as bishop of Hereford still survive, and from his time at London a further 150 or so are extant.

Death and legacy

Foliot died on 18 February 1187. The medieval chronicler Walter Map praised him as "a man most accomplished in the three languages, Latin, French and English, and eloquent and clear in each of them". The modern historian Frank Barlow says of him that "It was probably because he was so self-righteous that it could be suggested that his behavior was sometimes devious." He went blind at some point in the 1180s, but continued to work on his biblical writings.

He sent his nephew, Richard Foliot, and another clerk of his household to Bologna to study law in the 1160s, part of the growing movement to study Roman law in England. During his time at both dioceses he did much to promote his relatives, and all of the archdeacons he appointed while at London were either nephews or other relatives. A member of his household at Hereford was the scholar Roger of Hereford, who dedicated his computus, or treatise on calculating dates, to Foliot.

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• Knowles, David, London, Vera C. M.; Brooke, Christopher: The Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales, 940–1216. Second Auflage. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2001, ISBN 0-521-80452-3. 
• Matthew, Donald: King Stephen. Hambledon & London, London 2002, ISBN 1-85285-514-2. 
• Moreton, Jennifer: Before Grosseteste: Roger of Hereford and Calendar Reform in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century England. In: Isis. 86. Jahrgang, 1995, S. 562–586, doi:10.1086/357318. 
• Vorlage:Cite encyclopedia
• Poole, Austin Lane: From Domesday Book to Magna Carta, 1087–1216. Second Auflage. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1955, ISBN 0-19-821707-2. 
• Turner, Ralph V.: Roman Law in England Before the Time of Bracton. In: Journal of British Studies. 15. Jahrgang, Nr. 1, S. 1–25, doi:10.1086/385676. 
• Warren, W. L.: Henry II. University of California Press, Berkeley 1973, ISBN 0-520-03494-5. 

Further reading

• Foliot, Gilbert, edited by Dom Adrian Morey and C. N. L. Brooke: Gilbert Foliot and His Letters (= Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: New Series). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 2008, ISBN 0-521-07288-3. 
• Hunt, William: The English Bishops at the Lateran Council of 1139. In: The English Historical Review. 38. Jahrgang, Nr. 152, Oktober 1923, S. 557–560 (jstor.org [FEE REQUIRED]).