Evremar

Ehremar or Ebramar or Evremar was Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1102 to 1105 or 1107, and then Archbishop of Caesarea.

Ehremar taking the True Cross to Antioch from William of Tyre's Histoire d'Outremer, in the care of the British Museum

Ehremar was a priest from Thérouanne in France who in old age went east with the First Crusade. In 1102 Dagobert of Pisa was deposed as Patriarch by the papal legate, Cardinal Robert of Paris, on charges of misconduct brought by the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin I. When the legate asked for a candidate to be the new patriarch, the Palestinian bishops suggested Ehremar, who was known for his piety and charity. Baldwin was happy to accept the appointment as he knew that Ehremar, unlike Dagobert, would not set the claims of the church against his power as king.[1]

In 1104, Baldwin accepted the surrender of Acre on a promise that the Moslem residents would be allowed to leave safely with their property, but Genoese sailors ignored the promise and murdered and robbed them. Baldwin was furious and would have attacked the Genoese but Ehremar patched up a reconciliation. Shortly afterwards, he came to assist with the conquest of Jaffa at Baldwin's request with the True Cross to encourage the troops, and one hundred and fifty men he had recruited.[2]

In the same year Dagobert went to Rome to appeal against his deposition, and Pope Paschal II reinstated him. When Ehremar heard about this, he went to Rome, but he arrived to find his rival had died. Paschal was then inclined to re-appoint Ehremar, but king Baldwin had become dissatisfied with him, considering him inefficient. Baldwin sent Arnulf of Chocques, who had himself been displaced as patriarch in favour of Dagobert in 1099, to oppose Ehremar. Paschal sent Ghibbelin of Arles, Archbishop of Arles, to Jerusalem as legate to decide the matter. Ghibbelin found that Ehremar was unfitted for the position and declared it vacant, and Baldwin then proposed Ghibbelin himself as patriarch. He accepted and Ehremar was compensated with the Archbishopric of Caesarea.[3]

In 1119 he again blessed troops before battle with the True Cross.[4] He was a signatory to the canons agreed by the Council of Nablus in 1120, and in 1123 he was a signatory to the Pactum Warmundi, a treaty of alliance between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Republic of Venice. His date of death is not known.

The Catholic Encyclopedia describes Ehremar as an "anti-patriarch" as his appointment was not ratified by the pope.[5]

References

1. Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, Volume II, The Kingdom of Jerusalem, Cambridge University Press, 1952, pp. 83-84
2. Runciman, op. cit., pp. 88-89
3. Runciman, op. cit., pp. 84-85. The date of these events is unclear. According to Runciman, Dagobert went to Rome in 1105, but did not die until 1107 and Ehremar's replacement by Ghibbelin took place in spring 1108, but Patricia Skinner corrected the date of Dagobert's death to 1105. Patricia Skinner, From Pisa to the Patriarchate: Chapters in the Life of (Arch)bishop Daibert in Patricia Skinner ed, Challenging the Boundaries of Medieval History: The Legacy of Timothy Reuter, Brepols, 2009, pp. 164-167 ISBN 978-2-503-52359-0
4. Runciman, op. cit., 148,153
5. Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic Church in Jerusalem