Hilary of Chichester - Struggle With Battle Abbey

Struggle With Battle Abbey

Hilary struggled with the abbot of Battle Abbey for many years over the exemption claimed by the abbey from the oversight of the Bishop of Chichester, in whose diocese it was located. The abbey had never received a papal exemption, but relied instead on its royal foundation by King William I of England, and its status as an eigenkirche, or proprietary church of the king. Under King Stephen, the abbey's claims prevailed, but after Stephen's death Hilary excommunicated the abbot, who appealed to the papacy. The appeal backfired however, as Hilary obtained from both Pope Eugenius III and Pope Hadrian IV orders for the abbot to obey the bishop. In 1157, the then Abbot of Battle, Walter de Lucy, brother of Richard de Luci the Chief Justiciar, took the case before King Henry II, at a council held at Colchester.

At the council, Walter de Lucy produced William I's foundation charter and the confirmation by King Henry I of England, Henry II's grandfather. Both documents were admitted as genuine, and as freeing the abbey from ecclesiastical oversight, as Henry II had at his coronation confirmed all his grandfather's charters. Modern scholarship has shown, however, that at least one of the documents had been recently forged, shortly before 1155. Hilary argued that only a papal privilege could exempt a monastery from episcopal oversight, and that the abbey had no such privilege. Hilary argued that no king could grant such an exemption, unless they had a licence from the papacy. Henry was unimpressed by this argument, for it impinged on his royal prerogative. Thomas Becket, then Henry's chancellor but later to be famous for his dispute with Henry over ecclesiastical privileges, was one of Hilary's chief opponents at this council. Eventually, the case was decided by persuading Hilary to renounce any episcopal claims on the abbey.

Henry II's biographer, the historian W. L. Warren, suggests that Hilary was pressed to bring the case against Battle Abbey by his cathedral chapter, and that Hilary did not pursue the case vigorously. The historian Henry Mayr-Harting, sees the case against the abbey as the lone exception in Hilary's long career of support for the royal position against the papacy, and argues that the only reason Hilary opposed the king in this respect was that it was Hilary's own rights as a diocesan bishop that were being flouted. Mayr-Harting also suggests that Theobald of Bec was supporting Hilary's efforts to assert Chichester's rights.

The historian Nicholas Vincent argues that the entire basis of this account, which ultimately rests on the Chronicle of Battle Abbey, is part of the forgeries produced by the Battle monks. He argues that the only documentary evidence detailing course of the legal battle besides the Chronicle is a forged charter of Henry II to the abbey and a letter of Theobald's that itself may be forged, as it repeats the story of the Chronicle almost word for word. Vincent's point is that although there was no doubt a dispute between Hilary and the abbey over a claimed exemption, as evidenced by a 1170 letter of Becket's referring to some sort of settlement between the monks and the bishop, the actual account in the Chronicle is untrustworthy. Unfortunately, the 1170 letter does not give any details of the dispute, merely stating that the bishop was "forced to make public peace with the abbot".