Osmund | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Salisbury | |
 | |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Diocese | Salisbury |
| Appointed | 1078 |
| Term ended | 3 or 4 December 1099 |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | c. 3 June 1078 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Seez, Normandy |
| Died | 3 or 4 December 1099 Salisbury |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 16 July, 4 December |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Church of England |
| Canonized | 1 January 1457 by Callixtus III |
| Patronage | insanity, mental illness, mentally ill people, paralysed people, paralysis, ruptures, toothache |
| Lord Chancellor | |
| In office 1070–1078 | |
| Monarch | William I |
| Preceded by | Herfast |
| Succeeded by | Maurice |
| Shrines | Salisbury Cathedral |
Osmund[a] (died 3 December 1099), Count ofSées, was aNormannoble andclergyman. Following theNorman conquest of England, he served asLord Chancellor (c. 1070–1078) and as the secondbishop of Salisbury, orOld Sarum.
Osmund, a native ofNormandy, accompaniedWilliam, Duke of Normandy to England, and was made Chancellor of the realm about 1070.[1] He was employed in many civil transactions and was engaged as one of the Chief Commissioners for drawing up theDomesday Book.
Osmund becamebishop of Salisbury by authority ofPope Gregory VII,[2] and was consecrated byArchbishopLanfranc around 3 June 1078.[3] His diocese comprised thecounties ofDorset,Wiltshire, andBerkshire, having absorbed the former bishoprics ofSherborne andRamsbury under its incumbentHerman at the1075 Council of London. In hisActs of the English Bishops,William of Malmesbury[4] describes medieval Salisbury as a fortress rather than a city, placed on a high hill, surrounded by a massive wall.Peter of Blois later referred to the castle and church as"theark of God shut up in the temple ofBaal."
Henry I's biographerC. Warren Hollister[5] suggests the possibility that Osmund was in part responsible for Henry's education; Henry was consistently in the bishop's company during his formative years, around 1080 to 1086.
In 1086 Osmund was present at theGreat Gemot held atOld Sarum when theDomesday Book was accepted and the great landowners swore fealty to the sovereign.[6]
Osmund died on the night of 3 December 1099,[3] and was succeeded, after the see had been vacant for eight years, byRoger of Salisbury, a statesman and counsellor ofHenry I. His remains were buried at Old Sarum, translated toNew Salisbury on 23 July 1457, and deposited in theLady Chapel, where his sumptuous shrine was destroyed underHenry VIII. A flat slab with the simple inscriptionMXCIX has lain in various parts of the cathedral. In 1644 it was in the middle of the Lady Chapel. It is now under the easternmost arch on the south side.
Osmund's work was threefold — first, the building of thecathedral at Old Sarum, which was consecrated on 5 April 1092.[2]
Second was the constitution of acathedral body. This was framed on the usualNorman model, withdean,precentor,chancellor, andtreasurer, whose duties were exactly defined, some thirty-twocanons, asubdean, andsuccentor. All save the last two were bound to a residence. These canons were"secular", each living in his own house. Their duties were to be special companions and advisers of the bishop, to carry out with fitting solemnity the full round of liturgical services and to do missionary work in the surrounding districts. There was formed a school for clergy of which the chancellor was the head. The cathedral was thoroughly constituted"the Mother Church" of the diocese. Osmund's canons were renowned for their musical talent and their zeal for learning, and had great influence on the foundation of other cathedral bodies.[2]
Third was the formation of the "Sarum Use". Osmund made selections of the practices he saw around him and arranged the offices and services. He initiated some revisions to the extant Celtic-Anglo-Saxon rite and the local adaptations of the Roman rite, drawing on both Norman andAnglo-Saxon traditions. Given the similarities between the liturgy in Rouen and that of Sarum, it appears that the liturgical practices ofRouen in northernFrance likely inspired the Sarumliturgical books.[7] Intended primarily for his own diocese, the Ordinal of Osmund, regulating the Divine Office, Mass, and Calendar, was used, within a hundred years, almost throughout England, Wales, and Ireland, and was introduced into Scotland about 1250.
The"Register of St. Osmund" is a collection of documents without any chronological arrangement, gathered together after his time, divided roughly into two parts: the"Consuetudinary" (Rolls Series, 1–185, and in Rock, vol. III, 1–110), styled"De Officiis Ecclesiasticis", and a series of documents and charters, all more or less bearing on the construction of the cathedral at Old Sarum, the foundation of the cathedral body, the treasures belonging to it, and the history of dependent churches. The existing"Consuetudinary" was taken from an older copy, re-arranged with additions and modifications and ready probably when Richard Poore consecrated the cathedral at New Salisbury in 1225. A copy, almost verbatim the same as this, was taken from the older book for the use of St. Patrick's, Dublin, which was erected into a cathedral and modelled on the church at Sarum byHenry de Loundres who was bishop from 1213 to 1228.[8]
William of Malmesbury[9] in summing up Osmund's character says he was "so eminent for chastity that common fame would itself blush to speak otherwise than truthfully concerning his virtue. Stern he might appear to penitents, but not more severe to them than to himself. Free from ambition, he neither imprudently wasted his own substance, nor sought the wealth of others".
Osmund gathered together a good library for his canons. A late-medieval source notes, somewhat disdainfully, that even as a bishop he would scribe, illuminate and bind books himself; by that period this was eccentric behaviour, but it was not so in 11th-century England.[10] At one time Osmund thoughtArchbishop Anselm too unyielding and needlessly scrupulous in thedispute concerning investitures and in 1095 at theCouncil of Rockingham favoured the king. But after theLateran Council in 1099, he boldly sided with the archbishop and the beautiful anecdote is related, showing his simple sincerity, how when Anselm was on his way toWindsor, Osmund knelt before him and received his forgiveness. He had a great reverence forSt. Aldhelm who 300 years before asBishop of Sherborne had been Osmund's predecessor. He officiated at the saint's translation to a more fitting shrine atMalmesbury and helped Lanfranc to obtain hiscanonization. Abbot Warin gave him a bone of the left arm of St. Aldhelm which he kept at Sarum wheremiracles were wrought. In 1228 the Bishop of Sarum and the canons applied toGregory IX for Osmund's canonization but not until some 200 years afterwards on 1 January 1457, was thebull issued byCallistus III.[11] In 1472 a specialindulgence was granted bySixtus IV for a visit to his cathedral on hisfestival and a convocation held inSt. Paul's in 1481 fixed 4 December as the day to commemorate him. A house atBishop Wordsworth's School is named for him. He is commemorated by a statue inniche 178 on the west front ofSalisbury Cathedral.
Osmund's canonization took almost 230 years,[12] with papal proceedings that started in 1228 not concluding until 1457.[13]
Osmund isremembered in theChurch of England with acommemoration on16 July.[14]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Osmund".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Lord Chancellor 1070–1078 | Succeeded by |
| Catholic Church titles | ||
| Preceded by | Bishop of Salisbury 1078–1099 | Succeeded by |
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