Christopher Bainbridge | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal,Archbishop of York Primate of England | |
 | |
| Province | York |
| Diocese | York |
| Appointed | 22 September 1508 |
| Term ended | 14 July 1514 |
| Predecessor | Thomas Savage |
| Successor | Thomas Wolsey |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 12 December 1507 (Bishop) |
| Created cardinal | 10 March 1511 byJulius II |
| Rank | Cardinal priest ofSanti Marcellino e Pietro (1511) Cardinal priest ofSanta Prassede (1511–1514) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1462/1464 |
| Died | 14 July 1514 (aged approximately 48/50) |
| Buried | Chapel of St Thomas of Canterbury at theEnglish hospice, Rome |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Christopher Bainbridge (c. 1462/1464 – 14 July 1514) was an Englishcardinal. Of Westmorland origins, he was a nephew of BishopThomas Langton of Winchester, represented the continuation of Langton's influence and teaching and succeeded him in many of his appointments such as provost of The Queen's College in theUniversity of Oxford. Towards the end of the reign of KingHenry VII, he was successivelyMaster of the Rolls, aPrivy Counsellor,Dean of Windsor andBishop of Durham. BecomingArchbishop of York and therefore Primate of England in 1508, he was sent as procurator of KingHenry VIII to the papal court ofPope Julius II, where he was active in the diplomatic affairs leading to Henry's war against France and took part in the election of Julius's successor,Pope Leo X.[1] He was murdered by poisoning in Italy in 1514 and was succeeded as Archbishop of York byThomas Wolsey.[2][3]
Christopher Bainbridge was born inHilton,Westmorland (then in the parish of St Michael Bongate, inAppleby),[4] to an established local family with roots inBainbridge, North Yorkshire. He was said to have been fifty years old at his death and must therefore have been born about 1464. A son of Reginald Bainbridge and Isobel Langton,[5] he was a nephew and protégé ofThomas Langton of Appleby,Bishop of Winchester, a relationship formative in his ecclesiastical career.[6][7] Hilton is due east of Appleby, on the eastern margin of theVale of Eden where it rises into thePennines.
It is supposed that Christopher received part of his education atThe Queen's College, Oxford, although there is no surviving record of this. His uncle Langton had been a student of the college, and returned to it in 1487 as Provost, a post to which Bainbridge himself succeeded.[8] He also studied law at Ferrara and Bologna. He was granted anindult in 1479 which allowed him to hold churchbenefices while still unordained and under the age of 16, and another in 1482 that allowed him to hold more than one benefice concurrently. His cousin Robert Langton "the pilgrim" (died 1524) was educated at Queen's College Oxford and there proceeded D.C.L. in 1501.[9][10][11]
The appointment of Thomas Langton to thesee of Salisbury left a vacancy for Bainbridge's presentation to the church ofPembridge, Herefordshire on 28 April 1485.[12] He held the prebend of South Grantham (Lincolnshire) in the Salisbury diocese until February 1485/86,[13] when he exchanged it for that ofChardstock, Dorset,[14] and two months later received the prebend ofHorton, Dorset, which he held until 1508.[15] He was described as magister, or scientist, by 1486.
In the early 1490s he was named a chamberlain of the English Hospice in Rome and rented one of its houses. AtBologna he was admittedDCL in 1492; he was in Rome between 1492 and 1494. Having received the prebend ofNorth Kelsey, Lincolnshire (in Lincoln cathedral) in 1495/96, which he held until 1500,[16] he succeeded Thomas Langton asProvost ofQueen's College in 1496.[8][17] Langton was elected Archbishop of Canterbury but died in January 1500/01 before he could be installed. His will appointed Christopher Bainbridge one of his executors, and Bainbridge was one of three who swore to administer at probate in 1501.[18] He may therefore have participated in the establishment of Langton's tomb and chantry[19] in the chapel of StBirinus at Winchester Cathedral,[20] and was certainly involved in setting up his chantry in Bongate, Appleby.
By 1497 he had become chaplain to kingHenry VII, and in 1501 was namedarchdeacon of Surrey in thediocese of Winchester.[13][21] Having been presented to the prebend ofStrensall,North Riding of Yorkshire, in the cathedral of York[22] in September 1503,[13] in December of that year he becamedean of York. He was appointedMaster of the Rolls in 1504, and was incorporated atLincoln's Inn on 20 January 1505: in the same year, being admitted to thePrivy Council, he becameDean ofSt. George's Chapel, Windsor. He was appointedBishop of Durham on 27 August 1507.[7]
Bainbridge wastranslated to York on 22 September 1508 (a sign of the favour he enjoyed at court), where his kinsman Dr Henry Machell, Doctor of both Laws in the University of Cambridge,[23][24] became Commissary[25] (holding the prebend ofNorth Newbald[26]), and Robert Langton his Treasurer (with the prebend ofWeighton[27]):[28] both of them were admitted to theYork Guild of Corpus Christi in 1510.[29] Bainbridge attended the coronation of KingHenry VIII on 23 June 1509, and on 24 September Henry appointed him to be his personal Orator, Procurator, Agent, Factor, Negotiator and Special Nuncio to theRoman Curia ofPope Julius II.[7][30] In this mission, which occupied the remainder of his life,[31][32] Bainbridge took with him a train includingRichard Pace, who had studied in Oxford and in Padua as a protégé of Thomas Langton's, and held Bainbridge in great admiration.[33]
Just at this time Julius had taken alarm at the invasion of Italy byLouis XII of France, and the support of England was therefore of great importance. It is said that Bainbridge, who was to support the cause of the Venetians, sent letters urging Henry to intervene against France, to provide a pretext to close the war in Italy and reignite it in France.[34] The French historian Aubéry accuses Bainbridge of cunning and artifice, and of mixing his personal ambition to become a cardinal with the interests of his royal master.[2] Julius left Rome to relieveBologna, and was nearly taken prisoner in the war. A group of pro-French cardinals summoned a council in opposition to him atPisa, which Julius opposed by calling another council at Rome, theFifth Lateran Council,[35] in the course of which he created (in March 1511) several new Cardinals, of whom Bainbridge was one, with the title of "Cardinal of St. Praxed's" orSanta Prassede.[36]
Aubéry repeats what was said byParide de' Grassi in hisLife of Julius II concerning two occasions on which Bainbridge acted surprisingly while in Rome. On the first occasion, while he was still only Archbishop of York, he was required to make a speech of thanks before the Pope and theSacred College, when the pope had bestowed upon King Henry theGolden Rose, a special token of Papal affection. Bainbridge had hardly begun his speech when he suddenly said nothing more by way of thanks or explanation, and left the conclave amidst much confusion.[2]
A very similar thing happened a few days after his promotion as Cardinal, when it fell to him to pay a ceremonial visit to the Dean of the Sacred College and to make a speech of thanks and acknowledgement on behalf of himself and all the others who had been appointed Cardinals. De' Grassi, the Master of Ceremonies, had instructed him to make his speech under four simple points, first to magnify the dignity of Cardinal, second to lessen the merits of himself and his fellows, third to extol the beneficence of the Pope, and to conclude with thanks and the submission of their humble service. He went clean against these instructions and again cut his speech short.[2] Bainbridge no doubt remembered that in accepting the sees of Durham and of York, he had renounced everything prejudicial to the king in the papal bulls, and had given his fealty to the king.[38]
Bainbridge was immediately sent with an army to lay siege toFerrara, but the creation of theHoly League relieved the papacy of some pressure by involving Spain against the French forces. In recognition of England's part in this formation Pope Julius granted the spiritual and temporal command of the castle and domain ofVetralla to Bainbridge (as representing the English crown) in 1511, and in 1512 the Cardinal had a marble sculpture incorporating his own arms and the English royal arms installed upon the grand stair of thepalazzo comunale of Vetralla.[39][40] Pope Julius II was succeeded on his death byPope Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici), who was elected with the support of the della Rovere cardinals. Bainbridge took part in the1513 papal conclave, where at the first scrutiny he himself received two votes, and gave his own vote toFabrizio del Carretto, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller.[41]
Pope Leo was initially willing to grant the title ofChristianissimus Rex (Most Christian King) to Henry, after Francis had automatically forfeited the title by waging war on the Pope. Bainbridge's letter of September 1513 to King Henry concerning this, and the accompanying communication from CardinalMarco Vigerio della Rovere,Bishop of Senigallia andBishop of Palestrina,[42] survive and provide a sample of his diplomatic style.[43] However, Henry's making peace with France in 1514 probably ended these hopes.[36]
Bainbridge obtained other Italian benefices, both atVicenza and in the administration of San Giovanni Battista atTreviso: and by bull of 29 November 1513 he becameCardinal protector of the Cistercian Order.[44] He andMatthäus Schiner,Bishop of Sion, had held out against Pope Leo's decision to rehabilitate the schismatic churchmen of theCouncil of Pisa (1511), the colleagues ofCardinal Federico Sanseverino andBernardino López de Carvajal, and refused to attend the ceremony of their readmission.[45]
TheLiber Pontificalis of Archbishop Bainbridge, which is the latest surviving example of the Old English rite, and contains musical notation, was edited for the Surtees Society.[46]
Bainbridge died on 14 July 1514, having been poisoned by a priest, Rinaldo de Modena, who acted as his steward or bursar, in revenge for a blow which the cardinal, a man of violent temper, had given him.[47] (Diarmaid MacCulloch mentions the rumour that the two men may have been lovers.[48]) Rinaldo was imprisoned and confessed to the crime. He also implicatedSilvester de Giglis, thenBishop of Worcester, as the instigator of the plot. De Giglis was the resident English ambassador at Rome, and regarded Bainbridge as a threat to his position: he also had sufficient power and influence to make Rinaldo retract his confession and have him killed in prison.[36]Richard Pace andJohn Clerk, the cardinal's executors, were eager to prosecute De Giglis, but he maintained that the priest was a madman whom he had dismissed from his own service some years before in England, and his defence was accepted as sufficient.[36]
Bainbridge left two wills, one of them (on his becoming Archbishop) in English dated 21 September 1509, which is kept in the muniments of Queen's College,[49] and one in Latin. Correspondence of Richard Pace with Thomas Wolsey concerning the late Cardinal's affairs survives.[50] According to it, Richard Pace was the principal executor for the Cardinal's affairs in Italy, assisted by William Burbank, and both were associated with John Wythers in the administration of the Cardinal's estate in England, but Wythers had no part in the Italian estate.
Bainbridge was buried in the chapel of St Thomas of Canterbury at the English hospice in Rome, which later became theVenerable English College. His tomb is there represented by a white marble monument with a full-length recumbent effigy supported by two lions.[7] The Latin epitaph reads:
"Christophoro Archiepiscopo Eboracensi S. Praxedis Presbytero Cardinali Angliae A Ivlio II Pontifice Maximo Ob Egregiam Operam S.R. Ecclesiae Præstitam Dvm Svi Regni Legatvs Esset Assvmpto Qvam Mox Domi Et Foris Castris Pontificiis Præfectvs Tvtatvs Est."[2]
(In Memory of Christopher, Archbishop of York, and Cardinal Priest of St. Praxede; created by Pope Julius II, for the eminent services done by him to the Holy Roman Church, during his embassy from his own nation, and afterwards defending the same, both at home and abroad, as Legate of the Papal army.)
The effigy is likely to have formed the basis of the painted portrait of Bainbridge at The Queen's College, Oxford, which was made as an idealised representation during the 19th century by G. Francisi and is not a genuine Renaissance portrait.[17]
The Vetralla monument provides a contemporary display of the quartering arms of Cardinal Bainbridge by showing (for Bainbridge), 1 & 4:Azure, two battle axes in pale argent, on a chief or two mullets gules pierced of the field, and (for ?[51]), 2 & 3:Argent a squirrel sejant gules. These arms also appear on the British Museum candle-snuffer attributed to Bainbridge, in both cases surmounted by the cardinal's hat. The arms are also displayed inRipon Minster.
Bainbridge left "Baldington" Manor (Toot Baldon), Oxfordshire to Queen's College, making provision for achantry to be maintained by the college for himself and for Thomas Langton, and for the souls of their parents, in the church of St Michael in Bongate atAppleby. This was effectively the re-foundation of a chantry established by Thomas Langton at Bongate, intended to continue for 100 years, the maintenance of which Langton entrusted to his sister and brother-in-law, Roland and Elizabeth Machell (the Machell family had their seat atCrackenthorpe, in the same parish). Langton's executors, among them John Wythers and Christopher Bainbridge, used the surplus of his estate to purchase the manor of Helton Bacon, or Beacon (so-named for the beacon of Hilton Fell).[52] The settlements of Hilton and Langton, now inMurton, were both formerly in St Michael Bongate.[53] The manor was acquired in twomoieties, each of which included lands and houses in Bongate. One moiety, to which a dwelling called Bongate Hall and many acres of meadow and pasture belonged, was sold by the executors to Roland Machell on trust that he would apply the rents and revenues to the chantry; and similarly the other moiety was in the hands of Christopher Bainbridge (whose parents were still living at Hilton), for the same uses.
At Bainbridge's death in 1514; the Langton chantry at Bongate was effectively incorporated with his own, and endowed with his bequest of Toot Baldon, to be managed by Queen's College. Roland Machell was still living,[54] but died around 1520, when the Bongate Hall moiety passed into the hands of his son and heir Edmond Machell. The other Hilton moiety, in the tenure of Reginald Bainbridge, came into the hands of Thomas Bainbridge, Christopher's brother. Langton's executor John Wythers continued to seek redress for the revenues and arrearages from both parts of the manor,[55] and sold the Hilton moiety in 1524 to the Revd Edward Hilton ofBletchingdon in Oxfordshire, who made a conveyance to John Pantre, Provost (1515–1541) of Queen's College.[56] Edmond Machell also died, 2 February 1521/22, holding the Bongate Hall moiety, though Thomas Bainbridge also held those deeds. Edmond's widow Alice remarried to Nicholas Rudd and claimed the moiety for herself and as the inheritance of her son John Machell,[57] who at the age of 18 in November 1527 was found by Edmond Machell'sinquisition post mortem, then held, to be his father's heir.[58] Cardinal Wolsey ordered Rudd to accept the decision of theDuke of Richmond's council in this matter, but in November 1527 Rudd had ignored three summonses and was believed to have gone to London.[59]
The records of Queen's College show that the Bongate chantry under the Bainbridge endowment remained active until theDissolution, and pensions were still being paid to proxies into the 1570s. Robert Langton established the free school at Bongate.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Christopher Bainbridge".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Geoffrey Blithe | Dean of York 1503–1505 | Succeeded by James Harrington |
| Preceded by | Dean of Windsor 1505–1507 | Succeeded by Thomas Hobbes |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Durham 1507–1508 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Archbishop of York 1508–1514 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
