William Warelwast

William Warelwast (Sometimes known as William de Warelwast.) Several medieval chroniclers hostile to Warelwast, including Eadmer, claim that he was illiterate,

Warelwast may have been a clerk for King William I of England, as a confirmation charter from the time of King Stephen (reigned 1135–1154) records that a grant of churches in Exeter was given to Warelwast by "Willelmus, avus meus", or "William, my grandfather/ancestor";

Royal clerk under King William II The first reliable mentions of Warelwast occur early in the reign of King William II, when Warelwast appears as authorizing writs for the king. As well as being a royal clerk, Warelwast acted as a judge in a legal case between St Florent Abbey in Saumur and Fécamp Abbey, heard before King William II some time between 1094 and 1099 at Foucarmont.

Warelwast served as the king's envoy to Pope Urban II in 1095, when the king sought to have the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm of Canterbury, removed from office. He visited the pope with another royal clerk, Gerard, with orders to recognize Urban as pope in return for Anselm's deposition, at least according to Eadmer, an Anselm partisan. Eadmer claimed that the ambassadors were supposed to acquire a pallium, the symbol of an archbishop's authority, for the king to give to his new choice as archbishop. But although the king may have instructed his envoys to attempt to secure these objects, he was probably willing to negotiate and to settle for less. The two clerks returned with a papal legate, Walter of Albano, who accepted the king's recognition of Urban but refused to allow Anselm's deposition. The king did nevertheless manage to secure recognition of his royal rights in the church, and a concession that no papal legates or communications would be sent without his approval. It may well be that the king always regarded Anselm's deposition as unlikely. In addition to his ambassadorial duties, Warelwast acted as a royal justice under King William; the records of one case have survived.

Shortly before Anselm went into exile in 1097, Warelwast searched his baggage, probably looking for communications to the pope, either from Anselm or other English bishops, rather than for valuables, and in particular for any letters of complaint. Warelwast was the king's envoy at Rome when during his exile Anselm petitioned to have the king excommunicated, which according to Eadmer, who was also present, Warelwast succeeded in preventing by bribing the pope and papal officials. The king had sent Warelwast to Urban at Christmas 1098, with his reply to a letter the pope had written ordering the restoration of Anselm's estates. King Henry continued to use Warelwast as an ambassador, sending him to Rome in 1101 to bring back Pope Paschal II's reply to a letter written by Henry immediately after his accession. Henry was seeking a reconciliation with the papacy, and confirmed to the pope the rights and obedience which his father had rendered, but he also requested the same rights within the Church as his father had enjoyed, chiefly the lay investiture of bishops and the granting of the symbols of episcopal authority by laymen. Paschal declined to grant Henry those rights.

It was Warelwast who told Anselm in 1103 that the king would not permit his return to England. In 1106 Warelwast was the king's negotiator in the discussions that led to the settlement of the Investiture Controversy in England. The king ultimately lost little, relinquishing the right to give the actual symbols of episcopal authority to a newly elected bishop in return for continuing to receive homage from the bishops. Early in 1106 Warelwast was sent to Bec Abbey, where Anselm was residing in exile, to inform him of the settlement and deliver to the archbishop the king's invitation to return to England. In May 1107 Warelwast acted as the king's envoy at Paschal's council at Troyes, where Paschal was attempting to secure support for Bohemond of Antioch's proposed campaign against Byzantium. Warelwast probably relayed to the pope the news that King Henry would make no contribution to Bohemond's efforts.

Henry had reserved the episcopal see of Exeter for Warelwast since the death of Osbern FitzOsbern in 1103, but the controversy over investiture meant that his election and consecration were not possible before a settlement was reached. Instead the king gave Warelwast the office of Archdeacon of Exeter after Osbern's death. He was elected Bishop of Exeter, and was consecrated on 11 August 1107, by Anselm at the royal palace of Westminster. Other bishops consecrated at the same time included William Giffard to Winchester, Roger of Salisbury to Salisbury, Reynelm to Hereford, and Urban to Llandaff. The mass consecration signalled the end of the investiture crisis in England.

After his consecration, Warelwast continued to serve the king, often appearing on documents or in accounts of the royal court. The bishop served the king as a messenger, once more carrying messages to Anselm in 1108. He also served as a royal judge, hearing a case at Tamworth in 1114 and another at Westbourne the same year. He was with the king in Normandy in 1111, 1113, and 1118, and may have been in Normandy more frequently. During Henry's reign Warelwast was a witness to 20 of the king's charters.

In 1115 Henry sent Warelwast back to Rome to negotiate with Paschal, who was angry that the king was prohibiting papal legates in England, not allowing clerics to appeal to the papal court, and was failing to secure papal sanction for church councils or the translation of bishops. Warelwast was unable to change the pope's mind, but he did manage to prevent sanctions against the king. Henry also employed Warelwast as a papal envoy during the Canterbury–York disputes over the primacy in the English Church, with visits in 1119, 1120, and possibly also in 1116. as well as the Council of Rouen in 1118, a provincial synod for Normandy. In his diocese of Exeter he began the construction of a new cathedral in about 1114; it was consecrated in 1133. The existing two towers in the transepts date from that period. In addition he founded a house of regular canons at Bodmin. (The churches are St Petrock's in Bodmin, St Stephen's in Launceston, St Stephen's in Perranzabuloe, St Stephen's in Probus, the church in Plympton, the church in Braunston, St Stephen's in Exeter, and the church in Colyton.) It was not until late in his bishopric that the diocese was split into multiple archdeaconries, which appears to have happened in 1133. Warelwast instituted the two offices of treasurer and precentor for the cathedral chapter, William of Malmesbury felt that during Warelwast's episcopate the cathedral chapter relaxed its communal living, which previously had been strong. It is likely that during Warelwast's episcopate the canons of the cathedral chapter quit living in a communal dormitory.

Warelwast went blind in his later years, starting in about 1120, The Annales Plymptonienses records that Robert of Bath, the Bishop of Bath, gave Warelwast his last rites on 26 September 1137, and records that the dying bishop was made a member of the collegiate church at Plympton. Warelwast's nephew Robert Warelwast succeeded as bishop at Exeter in 1138; Robert had been appointed archdeacon of Exeter by his uncle.

The historian C. Warren Hollister described William Warelwast as a "canny and devoted royal servant".