CONCERNING ST. WILLIAM, BISHOP OF POITIERS IN GAUL.
IN THE YEAR 1197.
CommentaryWilliam, Bishop of Poitiers in Gaul (Saint)
[1] Henri-Louis Chasteignier de la Rochepozay, a man illustrious by birth and excellent in learning, governed the Bishopric of Poitiers from the year 1612 of this century until the year 1651. sacred veneration in the Litanies of Poitiers Among other monuments of his genius, he published in the year 1640 Exercitationes on various books of the Bible in a vast volume, to the end of which he appended the Litanies of Poitiers, compiled, arranged, and illustrated with notes by himself, concerning the Saints who ennobled the region of Poitou by birth or residence. He had the same Litanies reprinted in a fourth, enlarged edition in the year 1642, in which among nine Bishops of Poitiers the last to be invoked is St. William, the most recent of them, appellation of Saint whom Besly testifies in his commentaries on the Bishops of Poitiers was enrolled among the Saints on account of the holiness of his life. Antoine de Monchiace, Demochares, and Jean Chenu also honor him with the title of Saint in their Catalogues of the Bishops of Poitiers. Claude Robert adds that he is venerated as a Saint in the monastery of St. Cyprian, in which his body is preserved. Constantinus Ghinius enrolled him in the Birthdays of the Holy Canons Regular on the 29th of July with these words: "At Poitiers, St. William III, the 64th Bishop of the same city, who after the course of this life departed holily and devoutly in the Lord in the year 1195." But it will appear below that he died two years later, and indeed on the 29th of March, as is clear from the Martyrology of St. Hilary de la Celle in the city of Poitiers, where he lived as a Canon Regular, where Besly asserts it reads thus: "On the fourth day before the Kalends of April, died William Tempery of holy memory, Bishop and our Canon."
[2] the surname Tempery Moreover, the surname Tempery (in the words of Chasteignier) is found to be not assumed but hereditary, from two charters of the monastery of Nouaille, one of which precedes the year 1126. For in these, Garnerius Tempery separately, and Petrus Tempery and Helias Tempery jointly, subscribed among the witnesses. This William Tempery, therefore, the third of that name, from being a Canon Regular in the Abbey of St. Hilary de la Celle at Poitiers, he is made Bishop in the year 1184 as is stated in the Calendar, was provided for the Bishopric in the year 1184. This is established from a donation of William, Viscount of Chateauherault, for the church of St. Germain-des-Pres, in which it is written that he was "then the elected Bishop of the See of Poitiers." So write the Sainte-Marthe brothers in their Gallia Christiana. The words in the subscription of the said charter are given thus by Besly: "In the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1184, Philip being King of the French, Lucius III being Roman Pontiff, William Tempery being then Bishop-elect of the See of Poitiers." From these it appears that Pope Lucius addressed to him a decretal letter, given at Verona on the third of the Ides of March, for the correction of the Abbot of St. Cyprian; which seems to have been done in the year 1185, in which Lucius died on the 25th of November. In the same year the following charter was written, and published by Chasteignier from the archive of charters of the monastery of Absie, in these words: "Let it be known to all present and future that I, Theobald, son of Theobald Chabot, for the salvation of my soul and those of my parents, have granted as alms to God and to the monks of St. Mary of Absie, in the presence of their Abbot Rainerius, all the alms that they hold in the estate of Massignac and in all that plain from my father and from my grandfather Siebrandus... These I granted to them at Ulmes, in the house of Grotellus, he champions the immunity of the Church in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1185, with Richard, son of Henry, King of England, manfully holding the Duchy of all Aquitaine, and with the Lord William, Bishop, governing the Church of Poitiers and manfully suffering persecution for the rights of the same Church." So reads that source. Something similar done by him for the Religious of the Most Holy Trinity is indicated by the Sainte-Marthe brothers from another document, in which at the year 1191 he is called William the Strong; and they add: "He, laboring diligently in defending the immunities and domains of the Church, in the year of Christ 1191 compelled Otto, son of the Duke of Saxony, a feudatory of his Church for the lordships of Civray, Ile-Jourdain, and Le Dorat, to do feudal homage."
[3] Roger of Hoveden in the latter part of his Annals under the year 1197, page 771, in the section on Richard I, has the following: he dies in the year 1197 "In the same year Bishop William of Poitiers died, and although his life seemed very reprehensible, yet after his death he was illustrious in miracles." That he died in the said year 1197 is read in the cartulary of St. Hilary, and that in the following year the pontifical chair was vacant after the happy death of Lord William Tempery, he is buried in the church of St. Cyprian whose memory is in benediction. So writes Besly. He lies in the basilica of St. Cyprian at Poitiers beside Isembert II, Bishop, in the chapel of Blessed Mary near the high altar, as the Sainte-Marthe brothers note from the codex of Walter. Bishop Chasteignier adds he is invoked against hemorrhage that many
very many persons afflicted by a flow of blood, having undertaken a pilgrimage to his monument according to age-old custom, undoubtedly obtain a cure; and for this use he published this prayer: "Deign, Lord, mercifully to hear, as you are wont, the vows of your people, while, taught by experience, they implore the intercession of Blessed William, Bishop of Poitiers, for the restraining of flows of blood."