Manasses I

Who is Manasses I?

Manasses I, known as Manasses de Gournay, was the Archbishop of Reims, and thus primate of France, from c. 1069 to his deposition on 27 December 1080.

Manasses was indisputably of noble lineage, maybe even a son of the female line descended from Hugh Capet, King of France. He was a simple cleric before he succeeded Gervase of Chateau-du-Loir as archbishop. He was known to be enterprising and liberal and was addressed in a letter by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, as "one of the columns of the church". He presided over one of the most intellectually and artistically vibrant episcopal courts of northern Europe. Pope Gregory VII entrusted Manasses with several delicate missions, but the bishop's character was not held in esteem by his former colleagues, the lower clergy. Among them, he was reputed to be tyrannical, violent, corrupt, impatient, insolent, and disregarding of ecclesiastical regulations. His language gave some cause to doubt his piety. According to Guibert of Nogent, writing in his memoirs thirty-five years later in 1115, Manasses was reported to have said that "the archbishop of Reims would be a fine thing, if one were not obligated to sing the Mass!"