Alexander of Lincoln - Bishop

Bishop

Alexander was nominated to the see of Lincoln in April 1123 and was consecrated bishop on 22 July 1123, at a ceremony held in Canterbury. He owed his appointment to his uncle's influence with King Henry I; the Peterborough version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle noted that Alexander's elevation to the episcopate was done entirely for the love of Roger.

During his time as bishop Alexander secured the submission of St Albans Abbey to his diocese and founded a number of monasteries, including Haverholme Priory (a Gilbertine house), Dorchester on Thames (an Arrouaisian Order house), Louth Park, and Thame; Louth was one of the first Cistercian houses founded in England, and Dorchester was the refoundation of a former collegiate church. During Alexander's episcopate 13 Cistercian abbeys and seven nunneries were founded in his diocese. Alexander himself consecrated the church at Markyate used by the medieval mystic Christina of Markyate and her nuns, and it was he who consecrated her as a hermit at St Albans Abbey. Alexander also founded a hospital for lepers at Newark-on-Trent.

Although Alexander was a frequent witness to royal charters and documents, there is no evidence that he held an official government position after his appointment as bishop, unlike his relatives Roger and Nigel. Nevertheless, Alexander subsequently appears to have become a regular presence at the royal court. He frequently attested royal charters after 1123, and probably acted as a royal justice in Lincolnshire and the town of Lincoln. He also held the royal castles at Newark, Sleaford and Banbury, and gave confirmations of grants to the church at Godstow.

Alexander was probably at the 1125 church council held at Westminster by the papal legate John of Crema, and shortly afterwards accompanied the legate on his journey back to Rome. He was still in Rome in 1126, and may have helped to obtain a papal confirmation of his uncle's possession of Malmesbury Abbey, Abbotsbury Abbey, and Horton. At some point during his episcopate, an eighth archdeaconry was established in his diocese, for the West Riding area of Lindsey. Besides these reorganizations, Alexander had a number of clerics in his personal household, including Gilbert of Sempringham, who later founded the Gilbertine order. Other members of the bishop's household were Ralph Gubion, who became abbot of St Albans, and an Italian Bible scholar named Guido or Wido, who taught that subject while serving Alexander.

Alexander presided over the organization of his diocese into prebends to support the cathedral clergy; he established at least one new prebend and augmented two others. He also attended the church councils in 1127 and 1129 that were convened by William de Corbeil, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Later, during 1133 and 1134, he and the archbishop quarrelled, but the exact nature of their dispute is unknown. William and Alexander travelled to Normandy in 1134 to seek out King Henry to settle their dispute.