Gilbert of Sempringham
Gilbert of Sempringham (c.1083–1189), founder of the Gilbertine Order. His father was a Norman knight, Jocelin; his mother was Anglo-Saxon. Gilbert suffered physical deformity from birth, which made him unfit for knightly pursuits. He became a cleric, studied in France, and was named a Master. On returning home he started a school for both boys and girls; he also received from his father the churches of Sempringham and West Torrington (Lincs.), built on his own demesne. As he was still not a priest, he appointed a vicar for the church services, lived in poverty in the vicarage, and by teaching and example made his parish a model of devout and temperate behaviour. Robert Bloet, bishop of Lincoln, made Gilbert his household clerk in 1122. Bloet, formerly chancellor and later justiciar, died the next year, but Gilbert stayed on in the court of his successor Alexander, living as a devout but unordained pluralist, who devoted his revenues of West Torrington entirely to the poor. Alexander ordained him priest, offered him a rich archdeaconry, which Gilbert refused, and allowed him to return to his parish before 1131. By this time his father had died, and Gilbert was squire as well as parson of Sempringham.
Among his parishioners was a group of seven devout young women, who lived under his direction in a house he had built for them adjacent to the church. Gilbert's rule for them was based on the Rule of St. Benedict, with the usual emphasis on seclusion and the virtues of the cloister. By the advice of the Cistercian William, first abbot of Rievaulx, Gilbert added some lay sisters to their community. Little by little the Order spread: to safeguard and develop their possessions, regular labour was needed, which was provided by the third element in the Order, lay brothers. With their rapid growth it became clear that stable, experienced government was needed: in 1147 Gilbert went to Cíteaux hoping to persuade the general chapter to rule his Order through English Cistercian abbots. But Eugenius III was present in chapter; the Savignac Order was aggregated to the Cistercian, and the Chapter refused Gilbert's request. Instead Bernard helped him draw up the Institutes of the Order of Sempringham, of which Eugenius made him Master. To help him with the direction, Gilbert added canons to his institute, modelling the whole thing on Fontevrault; but the canons followed the Rule of St. Augustine and the lay brothers that of Cíteaux. But the nuns always formed the backbone of the Order; the men both governed them and ministered to their needs, temporal and spiritual. As Master, Gilbert continued his austere way of life, travelling frequently from house to house (mainly in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire). He would work at copying manuscripts, making furniture, or building.
In 1164 the Gilbertines incurred Henry II's displeasure because they had helped Thomas of Canterbury escape to the Continent after the council at Northampton (1163). Thomas had eluded the king's officers, dressed as a Sempringham lay brother; he went north to their houses in the Lincolnshire Fens before doubling back on his tracks south to Kent. Gilbert made no secret of his support for Becket; although summoned to the king's presence to answer for his conduct, he obtained pardon and immunity for himself and his Order. This, however, was later disturbed by internal dissensions. Gilbert, at the age of nearly ninety, was faced by a rebellion of the lay brothers, whose main grievances were that there was too much work and not enough food. They were led by two skilled craftsmen among their number, who slandered Gilbert, obtained funds and support from magnates in church and state, and went to Rome. Gilbert, however, was upheld by the papacy and received back the rebels; the lay brothers' food and dress were somewhat improved. He delegated much of the government because of increasing age to Roger of Malton; on 4 February 1189 he died, blind but unbowed in spirit, at Sempringham, where he was buried.
He had built thirteen monasteries, of which nine were double monasteries, the other four for canons only. The aggregate of personnel was about 1, 500. He also founded orphanages and leper-hospitals. Contemporary chroniclers highly praised both Gilbert and his nuns. His cult was spontaneous and immediate: he was canonized by Innocent III at Anagni in 1202. Hubert Walter ordered the English bishops to celebrate his feast. His name was added to the calendar on the wall of the Roman church of the Four Crowned Martyrs soon afterwards. His Order remained in existence until the Reformation, the only one founded by an Englishman, which, although inspired largely by continental movements, never made an overseas foundation. Feast: 4 February.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- AA.SS. Feb. I (1658), 567–73, N.L.A., i. 470–2; M.O., pp. 205–7; R. Graham, St. Gilbert of Sempringham and The Gilbertines (1901); D. Knowles, ‘The Revolt of the Lay Brothers of Sempringham,’ E.H.R., I (1935), 465–87; R. Foreville, Un procès de canonisation à l'aube du xiiive siècle. Le livre de saint Gilbert de Sempringham (1943); id., The Book of St. Gilbert (1986); J. J. Munro, John Capgrave's Lives of Saint Augustine and Saint Gilbert of Sempringham (E.E.T.S., 1910); B. Golding, St. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Order of Sempringham (1995)
