Hubert Walter - Ecclesiastical Affairs and Resignation

Ecclesiastical Affairs and Resignation

Walter held a legateship from Pope Celestine III from 1195 to 1198, which enabled him to act with the pope's delegated authority within the English Church. Walter actively investigated ecclesiastical misconduct, and deposed several abbots, including Robert of Thorney Abbey in 1195 and an abbot of St Mary's in the province of the Archbishop of York. At the monastic cathedral of Worcester, he disciplined the monks between the death of Henry de Sully and the election of John of Coutances, as was his right as the archbishop of the province. In his own diocese, he granted markets and fairs to towns, was granted the privilege of minting coins at Shrewsbury, and worked to recover lands and manors that had been lost to the archdiocese.

Walter revived the scheme of his predecessor, Baldwin of Forde, to found a church in Canterbury that would be secular and not monastic. He promised that the new foundation's canons would not be allowed to vote in archiepiscopal elections nor would the body of Saint Thomas Becket ever be moved to the new church, but the monks of his cathedral chapter were suspicious and appealed to the papacy. The dispute from the time of Baldwin of Forde flared up again, with the papacy supporting the monks and the king supporting the archbishop. Finally, Pope Innocent III ruled for the monks and ordered Walter to destroy what had been built.

The archbishop held ecclesiastical councils, including one at York in 1195 that legislated that the clergy should collect their tithes in full, "...without any reduction." Another council was held at London in 1200 to legislate the size and composition of clerical retinues, and also ruled that the clergy, when saying Mass, should speak clearly and not speed up or slow down their speech. At the request of the papacy, Walter also led inquiries into the canonizations of Gilbert of Sempringham and Wulfstan of Worcester. Walter refused to acquiesce in the election of Gerald of Wales to the see of St David's in Wales and opposed the efforts of Gerald and others to elevate St David's to an archbishopric.

In the later part of Richard's reign, the pressures mounted on Walter. Conflicts between his ecclesiastical duties and his government duties made him the target of criticism from both sides. A dispute in December 1197, over Richard's demand that the magnates of England provide 300 knights to serve in France, led to renewed grumbling among the clergy and barons. Richard was also dissatisfied with the results of the carucage in 1198, so Walter resigned his position of chief justiciar on 11 July of that year. Walter may have resigned willingly, as he had talked of resigning his secular duties since 1194. Some medieval sources, however, stated that he was forced out of office by the king.