Peter of Blois

[2] He studied under Bernard Silvestris, who, he later recalled, urged him to “take up in truth not fables, but history”[3] and made him memorise the letters of Hildebert, a former Archbishop of Tours.

It appears that he supported himself during his advanced studies by taking students of his own, including two sons of Josceline de Bohon, a long-serving Bishop of Salisbury.

[2] Peter of Blois and his brother Guillaume arrived in Sicily in September of that year, as part of a French party of 37 that included Stephen du Perche and Walter of the Mill.

Peter became tutor to the young king, guardian of the royal seal and a key adviser to Queen Margaret,[4] while Guillaume was appointed abbot of a monastery near Maletto.

His arrival in England approximately coincided with the rupture of the ruling family and the eruption of civil strife all over the Angevin Empire, carefully fomented by the French monarchy.

Peter wrote an open letter to the queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, to "deplore publicly and regretfully that, while you are a most prudent woman, you have left your husband.

He wrote in praise of him to continental contacts, like Walter Ophamil, now Archbishop of Palermo, defending him against the charge that he had deliberately instigated the murder of Thomas Becket.

[15] Richard of Dover died in 1184 and, after some delay, the king succeeded in getting Baldwin of Forde, Peter's friend and tutor from his Bologna days, installed as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Like most cathedral establishments, it had consisted of secular clergy until the Norman Conquest, after which it was reconstituted as a community of Benedictine monks, known variously as the Priory of the Holy Trinity or Christchurch.

He began by recovering diocesan property which his predecessor had alienated to the priory in order to support the pilgrim traffic, centred on the shrine of Thomas Becket, as well as confiscating the xenia, or Easter offerings – a process which was authorised by Pope Lucius III.

Urban initially welcomed some aspects of Baldwin's overarching plan to move the chapter to Hackington, north of Canterbury, and to build a second base for the diocese at Lambeth, directly facing the centres of secular power in London and Westminster.

Baldwin suspended the prior in December 1186 and the monks immediately began a letter-writing campaign to mobilise bishops, archbishops, even Philip II of France, in their cause.

Peter of Blois was despatched to the papal court at Verona to counter the chapter's arguments, which were presented by a skilled Roman lawyer called Pillius.

On 9 May the Pope ordered Archbishop Baldwin to cease building his new church at Hackington, abolished the fraternity he had established to staff and support it, and expressed surprise that he had so far resisted restoration of the situation to that prevailing before the appeal.

Baldwin continued to build his church in defiance of the Pope but with the king's support,[21] although he did move the site some distance to the west, hurriedly putting up a wooden chapel in St Dunstan's parish.

[22] On 3 October, having reached Ferrara, the Pope raised the stakes by ordering Baldwin actually to demolish his new headquarters, to desecrate the site and to suspend its clergy, to restore all members of the existing chapter to office and to refrain from further actions against them while the case continued.

[23] R. W. Southern alleges that Peter made a last, personal appeal to his old teacher while riding from Verona to Ferrara, and that the Pope was so incensed by the attempt to circumvent legal procedure that he died the following day of a heart attack.

Baldwin used the breathing space to renew his campaign of suspension and excommunication against his opponents,[26] while Honorius, like Peter, remained at the papal court, as he had been ordered to return there by the chapter.

[27] He rebuked the archbishop for his lack of moderation, which tended to undermine the dignity of his office, and for his disobedience, before repeating all of Urban's demands: the new collegiate church was forbidden and the previous situation was to be restored.

Baldwin continued his vindictive campaign against the monks, who were imprisoned in their own priory at the cathedral until August 1189,[16] a month after the death of Henry II, when Richard I imposed a resolution.

[31] Although he had probably been dean of Wolverhampton for some time, very likely since the reign of Henry II,[14] the oldest extant evidence of his interest in the collegiate church dates from about 1190.

He wrote to William Longchamp, the Chancellor of England and Bishop of Ely to denounce the “tyranny of the Viscount of Stafford”[32] – presumably the Sheriff of Staffordshire – who was, he complained, trampling on the church's ancient privileges and oppressing the townspeople.

Peter wrote directly to Robert,[33] denouncing his behaviour in strong terms and commending the virtue of apostolic poverty – ironically, in view of his own notorious pluralism.

However, with the death of Hubert Walter in 1205, the entire project lapsed and John appointed as dean Henry, son of Geoffrey Fitz Peter, 1st Earl of Essex.

At some time in the 1190s, for example, he wrote Against the Perfidy of the Jews (Latin: Contra perfidiam Judaeorum), which Peter commended in a preface to a Bishop of Worcester, probably John of Coutances.