Dear Bill,<\/p>\n
I am not going to try and hide my disappointment.\u00a0 You know as well as I do that you can\u2019t believe everything you hear.\u00a0 So for you to go and spread those unfounded, diabolical rumors about your bishop is positively noxious (I\u2019m your uncle; I can be honest).\u00a0 The true Christian believes only the good he hears, and only the evil he sees.\u00a0 Maybe the tragic example of today\u2019s saint will help drive this lesson home.<\/p>\n
William FitzHerbet was born to nobility in medieval England, but early on showed more interest in God\u2019s Kingdom than worldly politics, and pursued the clerical path.\u00a0 He was trustworthy, intelligent, humble, and hardworking, and as a result, soon after his ordination he was elected Treasurer of the Metropolitan See in York (northern England).\u00a0 He won the confidence of the archbishop of the time (Thurston), with whom he worked closely, and after Thurston retired, William was elected to succeed him as archbishop.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, some other important leaders of the city (and the Church) had been hoping that the renowned Cistercian Abbot Henry Murdac would succeed as bishop.\u00a0 So put out were they by the election of William that some started spreading rumors about his incompetence.\u00a0 Not only did they say he had finagled the election through his aristocratic connections, but they began falsely accusing him of a whole assortment of lurid sexual escapades.\u00a0 The case went to Rome, and Pope Innocent cleared him, but before the pallium (the cloth necklace that links metropolitan archbishops with the Pope, bestowed by the Holy Father himself) could arrive, Innocent died, and Eugene III, a Cistercian, was elected to the Holy See.\u00a0 Eugene withdrew the pallium.<\/p>\n
William was forced to go to Rome to plead his innocence, but ended up being deposed anyway.\u00a0 (It didn\u2019t help that some of his defenders rioted and burned down the nearby Cistercian Abbey in protest of the calumnies).\u00a0 After the humiliating drama he retired to reside with a friend who was bishop of Winchester, where he spent seven years in prayer, reflection and penance.<\/p>\n
Pope Anastasius IV finally recalled him to his post, and he returned to York amid an enthusiastic crowd of the faithful.\u00a0 (They actually thronged the bridge leading into the city in order to welcome home their exiled prelate, but the bridge couldn\u2019t hold them; it collapsed.\u00a0 St William immediately prayed to the Lord and made the sign of the cross over the river \u2013 miraculously, no one lost their life.)\u00a0 His tenure as an active Archbishop was cut short by a fever, however, and he died before his first anniversary in the See (some say he was poisoned by his still bitter enemies).<\/p>\n
So much misery and injustice \u2013 all caused by the spreading of lies.\u00a0 Far be it from one of my nephews to ever be on the guilty side of such an unchristian exchange, whether as instigator or promulgator.\u00a0 Humph.<\/p>\n
Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Bill, I am not going to try and hide my disappointment.\u00a0 You know as well as I do that you can\u2019t believe everything you hear.\u00a0 So for you to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n