EDMUND, SAINT [EDMVND RICH] (c. I I 7 24o) . English saint and archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Abingdon, near Oxford. His father was a merchant who retired, with his wife's consent, to the monastery of Eynsham, leaving in her hands the education of their family. Edmund began his education in a gram mar school at Oxford, and at the age of twelve took a vow of per petual chastity in the Virgin's church at Oxford. After graduating at Paris, for six years he lectured in the liberal arts, partly in Paris and partly in Oxford where he was the first to lecture on Aristotle. He then returned to Paris for his theological studies. He again lectured at Oxford on theology until C. 1222 when he accepted the treasurership of Salisbury cathedral. Little is known of his life for the next ten years. But he attracted the notice of the Roman court, and was appointed in 1227 to preach the cru sade in England.
In 1233 he was elected archbishop of Canterbury at the express suggestion of Gregory IX., after the monks of Canterbury had in vain suggested three other candidates for the pope's approval. Edmund at once leaped into prominence by the outspoken manner in which he rebuked the king for following the advice of foreign favourites. In common with the baronial opposition he treated Henry III. as responsible for the tragic fate of Richard Marshal, earl of Pembroke, and threatened the king with excommunication. The king bowed before the storm, dismissed the foreign counsel lors, made peace with Marshal's adherents, and was publicly recon ciled with the barons. But it was with the object of emancipating himself from Edmund's control that the king asked the pope to send him a legate (1236). On the arrival of Cardinal Otho (1237) the archbishop found himself thwarted at every point. The mar riage between Simon de Montfort and the Princess Eleanor, which Edmund had pronounced invalid, was ratified at Rome upon ap peal. The king and legate upheld the monks of Canterbury in their opposition to the archbishop's authority. On all public occasions the legate took precedence of the archbishop. By the advice of his suffragans Edmund laid a protest before the king, and excommunicated in general terms all who had infringed the liberties of Canterbury. These measures led to no result, and after the papal encroachments of 1240, when the English clergy were required to pay a subsidy of a fifth for the war against Frederick II., and simultaneously three hundred Romans were "provided" with English benefices in return for their political services to the Holy See, Edmund withdrew to Pontigny. The state of his health drove him later to Soissy (near Provins), where he died on Nov. 16, 1240.
His canonization was at once demanded by his admirers, and only delayed (till 1247) through the opposition of Henry III. Edmund is one of the most saintly and attractive figures of the English church. As archbishop he showed no great capacity, but the purity of his motives and the loftiness of his ideals commanded universal respect. It was his misfortune to be placed at the head of the national hierarchy in a crisis for which he had not been prepared by practical experience.