Alexander of Lincoln was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln, a member of an important administrative and ecclesiastical family. He was the nephew of Roger of Salisbury, a Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England under King Henry I, and he was also related to Nigel, Bishop of Ely. Unlike his relatives, he held no office in the government before his appointment as Bishop of Lincoln in 1123. Alexander became a frequent visitor to King Henry's court after his elevation to the episcopate, often witnessing royal documents, and he served as a royal justice in Lincolnshire. Although Alexander was known for his ostentatious and luxurious lifestyle, he founded a number of religious houses in his diocese and was an active builder and literary patron. He also attended church councils and reorganized his diocese by increasing the number of archdeaconries and setting up prebends to support his cathedral clergy. Under Henry's successor, King Stephen, Alexander was caught up in the fall from favour of his family, and was imprisoned together with his uncle Roger in 1139. He subsequently briefly supported Stephen's rival, Matilda, but by the late 1140s Alexander was once again working with Stephen. He spent much of the late 1140s at the papal court in Rome, but died in England in early 1148. Alexander was the patron of medieval chroniclers Henry of Huntingdon and Geoffrey of Monmouth, and also served as an ecclesiastical patron of the medieval hermit Christina of Markyate and Gilbert of Sempringham, founder of the Gilbertines.
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1559:
During a jousting match, Gabriel Montgomery of the Garde Écossaise mortally wounded King Henry II of France , piercing him in the eye with his lance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_II_of_France
1860:
Seven months after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, several prominent British scientists and philosophers participated in an evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum in Oxford, England. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Oxford_evolution_debate
1971:
The Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft suffered an uncontrolled decompression during reentry, killing cosmonauts Vladislav Volkov, Georgiy Dobrovolskiy and Viktor Patsayev—the only human deaths to occur in space. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_11
1987:
The Royal Canadian Mint introduced the Canadian one-dollar coin, commonly known as the Loonie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loonie
2007:
In an attempted terrorist attack, a car loaded with propane canisters was driven into the terminal of Scotland's Glasgow International Airport and set ablaze. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Glasgow_International_Airport_attack
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
aggiornamento (n): A bringing up to date, modernisation; specifically, that carried out on the Roman Catholic Church by the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aggiornamento
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Before the five senses were opened, and earlier than any beginning
They waited, ready, for all those who would call themselves mortals,
So that they might praise, as I do, life, that is, happiness. --Czesław Miłosz http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82aw_Mi%C5%82osz
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