Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/370

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[The letters and works of Peter the Venerable, Peter of Poitiers, Robert de Ketene, and Hermann the Sclave are quoted from Migne's Cursus Patrologiæ, clxxxix. 354–1076, from Melanchthon's edition of Robert's Koran, &c. pp. 1–250, and from Selden MS. sup. 31 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The ‘De Judiciis Astrorum’ is quoted from Ashmolean MS. 369, f. 81 a 1, also in the Bodleian. Jourdain's Traductions Latines d'Aristote (ed. 1843); T. Wright's Biographia Britannica Literaria, vol. ii.; Le Clerc's Hist. de la Médecine Arabe, vols. i. ii.; Steinschneider's Die hebräischen Uebersetzungen des Mittelalters (Berlin, 1893); Steinschneider's Zum Speculum des Albertus Magnus (Albert); Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vols. xviii. xxiv. xxv.; Rudolph of Bruges's translation of Ptolemy's Planisphere, ed. Valderus, 1536; La Bigne's Bibliotheca Maxima veterum Patrum (Lyons), vol. xxii.; Martene and Durand's Veterum Scriptorum Ampl. Collectio, ix. pp. 1120–84 (Paris, 1733); Coxe's Cat. of MSS. of Oxford Colleges; Macray's Cat. of Digby MSS.; Black's Cat. of Ashmolean MSS.; Fabricius, Biblioth. Latina (ed. Florence, 1858), iii. 407; Montfaucon's Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum; Cat. des MSS. du Bibliothèque du Roi (Paris, 1744), iii. 413–14, 445–6, iv. 449–50; Cat. of Cotton. MSS. p. 614; Brit. Mus. Cat. under ‘Koran;’ Bodleian Cat. under ‘Coran;’ Leland; Bale; Pits; Cave; Tanner; Brunet's Manuel; Cotton. MS. App. vi.; Oudin's Scriptores Ecclesiastici; Albert of Trois-Fontaines ap. Pertz, xxiii.; Manget's Bibliotheca Chemica (Geneva, 1702), vol. i.; Lenglet-Dufresnoy's Hist. de la Philos. Hermétique, i. 97.]

T. A. A.

ROBERT Pullen, Pullus, or le Poule (d. 1147?), cardinal. [See Pullen.]


ROBERT de Bethune (d. 1148), bishop of Hereford, was a native of Bethune in Artois, and a man of noble family (R. de Torigni, p. 121; Monast. Angl. vi. 131; Anglia Sacra, ii. 299). He was educated under his brother Gunfrid, a teacher of repute. Eventually he himself became a teacher, but would take no payment from the poor, and from the rich only what they were pleased to give. After a time he renounced profane learning in order to devote himself to theology, and studied under Anselm of Laon and William of Champeaux. After his studies were over, Robert refused to expound in public assemblies or to take fees for lecturing, but gathered a few companions about him in religious houses. He determined to enter a religious order, and, after consulting an abbot, Richard, decided to join the lately established house of Augustinian canons at Llanthony in Monmouthshire. There he was received by Ernisius, the first prior, and soon won a high reputation for piety. About 1121, after the death of Hugh de Lacy, Robert was sent to superintend the buildings at Weobley, and worked on them with his own hands as a mason. At last he fell ill, and was recalled to Llanthony. Not long after Ernisius died, and Robert, much against his will, was chosen to succeed him (ib. ii. 299–302). Under Robert's rule Llanthony became a model house, and won the favourable notice of Roger of Salisbury (Gir. Cambr. vi. 39; John of Hexham, ii. 284). In 1129 Pain Fitzjohn [q. v.] and Miles of Gloucester [see Gloucester, Miles de, Earl of Hereford], the constable, recommended him to Henry to be made bishop of Hereford. Henry warmly agreed, and so did William of Corbeuil, the archbishop. William, however, reminded the king that Robert had a little previously evaded the king's wish to make him an archbishop, and urged that they should proceed cautiously. Robert, on hearing of what was intended, induced his diocesan, Urban, bishop of Llandaff, to refuse him absolution from his present office. So the matter was delayed for a year, until Pope Innocent ordered Urban and Robert to give way. Robert then accepted the bishopric (Anglia Sacra, ii. 304–5).

Robert was consecrated by William of Canterbury at Oxford on 28 June 1131 (Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. p. 27). As bishop he was not less successful than as prior. When the canons of Llanthony were hard pressed by the Welsh, Robert gave them shelter in his own palace at Hereford, and also bestowed on them lands at Frome and Prestbury. After two years he induced Miles of Gloucester to found the second Llanthony in Gloucestershire. The new priory was consecrated by Robert in 1136 (Anglia Sacra, ii. 312; Monast. Angl. vi. 132). In the same year the bishop was present in the council at Oxford when Stephen granted his second charter, to which Robert was one of the witnesses. During the troubles of Stephen's reign Robert did what he could to maintain peace and remedy the evils of anarchy; he consecrated many chapels ‘as a protection for the poor and having respect to the warlike troubles of the times’ (Eyton, i. 37, 207). In 1138, owing to the warfare at Hereford, Robert was spoiled of his house and possessions, and had to leave the city; but he would not abandon his see, and sojourned for a while in various monasteries and castles in his diocese (Anglia Sacra, ii. 313). In September 1138 he accompanied the legate Alberic to Hexham and on his mission to Carlisle to endeavour to appease the Scottish war (Richard of Hexham, pp. 169–70). Soon after he returned to Hereford, where he repaired and