Waltheof of Melrose

Waltheof^[a] (c. 1095–1159) was a 12th-century English abbot and saint. He was the son of Simon I of St Liz, 1st Earl of Northampton and Maud, 2nd Countess of Huntingdon, thus stepson to David I of Scotland, and the grandson of Waltheof, Earl of Northampton.^[1]

Waltheof
Abbot of Melrose
Installed	1148
Term ended	1159
Predecessor	Richard
Successor	William
Personal details
Born	c. 1095 probably Huntingdon or Northamptonshire
Died	(1159-08-03)3 August 1159 (aged c. 64) Melrose
Buried	Melrose Abbey
Parents	Simon I of St Liz, 1st Earl of Northampton Maud, 2nd Countess of Huntingdon
Sainthood
Feast day	3 August
Patronage	Melrose Abbey, Northamptonshire

Whether as a result of being a younger son in the world of Norman succession laws, or being personally unsuited to court life, Waltheof chose a career in the church.^[2] Between 1128 and 1131 he entered Nostell Priory to become an Augustinian canon. His noble connections enabled him to rise quickly, and by 1139 he was Prior of Kirkham, North Yorkshire. Upon the death of Thurstan, Archbishop of York, in 1140, Waltheof was nominated to be his successor.^[3] His candidacy was supported by William of Aumale, the Earl of York.^[4] Stephen, probably sensing his links to David and hence to the Empress Matilda were too strong,^[5] rejected the nomination.^[6] William of Aumale withdrew his support after Waltheof refused to promise to give the earl the ecclesiastical manor of Sherburn-in-Elmet in the West Riding of Yorkshire.^[4] William fitz Herbert was instead chosen by Stephen. Waltheof featured prominently among those opposing William's provision,^[7] but by 1143 he had given up and become a Cistercian monk, first at Wardon Abbey and then at Rievaulx Abbey.^[8] In 1148 he was elected to the abbacy of Melrose, a daughter house of Rievaulx. Waltheof remained in this position for the remainder of his life, even though he was offered the bishopric of St Andrews in early 1159, which he declined.^[9] He died at Melrose Abbey on 3 August 1159.^[1][10]

Following the death of Waltheof, his successor as Abbot of Melrose, Abbot William, refused to encourage the rumours that were spreading regarding Waltheof's saintliness. Abbot William attempted to silence these rumours, and prevent the intrusiveness of would-be pilgrims. However, William was unable to get the better of Waltheof's emerging cult, and his actions alienated him from his brethren. As a result, in April 1170, William resigned the abbacy.^[11] In William's place, Jocelin, the prior of Melrose, became abbot. Jocelin had no such scruples and embraced the cult without hesitation. In the entry for the year of Jocelin's accession, the Chronicle of Melrose reads:

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.^[12]

Later, as bishop of Glasgow, Jocelin continued the promotion of sainthood and commissioned 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, who wrote the Life of St. Waltheof, was the same man later commissioned to write the Life of St. Kentigern. Jocelin's actions ensured Waltheof's posthumous de facto sainthood; and the need of Melrose Abbey to have its own saint's cult ensured the cult's longevity.

Notes

1. Also Waldef or Waldeve

Citations

1. Barlow The English Church 1066–1154 p. 208-210
2. Baker, Derek (1975). "Legend and reality: the case of Waldef of Melrose". Church Society and Politics: Studies in Church History. 12: 74-5.
3. Barlow The English Church 1066–1154 p. 96
4. Dalton "William Earl of York" Haskins Society Journal pp. 162–163
5. Baker, Derek (2004). "Waldef [Waltheof] (c. 1095–1159)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). OUP. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28647. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 18 November 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
6. British History Online Archbishops of York accessed on 14 September 2007
7. Appleby The Troubled Reign of King Stephen p. 120
8. Baker, 'Legend and reality', 76.
9. Dowden, John (1912). Thomson, J. Maitland (ed.). The Bishops of Scotland. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Son. p. 6.
10. For this paragraph, see Derek Baker, "Waldef (c. 1095–1159)", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 28 Nov 2006
11. For the account of Abbot William and the cult of Waltheof, see Richard Fawcetts and Richard Oram, Melrose Abbey, (Stroud, 2004), pp. 23–4.
12. Chronicle of Melrose, s.a. 1171, trans. A.O. Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922), vol. ii, pp. 274–5; translation slightly modernized in Fawcetts and Oram, Melrose Abbey, p. 23; this entry was written after the year for which it was written, sometime after the death on 22 February 1174, of Enguerrand, Bishop of Glasgow.

References

• Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922), vol. ii
• Appleby, John T. The Troubled Reign of King Stephen 1135–1154 New York:Barnes & Noble 1969 reprint 1995 ISBN 1-56619-848-8
• Baker, Derek, "Waldef (c. 1095–1159)", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 28 Nov 2006
• Barlow, Frank The English Church 1066–1154 London:Longman 1979 ISBN 0-582-50236-5
• British History Online Archbishops of York accessed on 14 September 2007
• Dalton, Paul (1990). "William Earl of York and Royal Authority in Yorkshire in the Reign of Stephen". In Robert B. Patterson (ed.). Haskins Society Journal. Vol. 2. London: Hambledon Press. pp. 155–165. ISBN 1-85285-059-0.
• Fawcetts, Richard and Oram, Richard, Melrose Abbey, (Stroud, 2004)