Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Losinga, Robert
LOSINGA or DE LOTHARINGIA, ROBERT (d. 1095), bishop of Hereford, like his predecessor, Walter, and other prelates both immediately before and subsequent to the Conquest, was a native of Lotharingia, or the Southern Netherlands. Herbert de Losinga [q. v.] was doubtless a relative. Robert is spoken of as one of the most distinguished scholars and men of science of his day—‘omnium liberalium artium peritissimus’ (Will. Malm. Gesta Pontif. p. 301)—a theologian, a lawyer, a mathematician, especially skilled in astronomy and astrology, and presiding with great credit over several schools in his native land (Bale, Script. Brit. cent. xiii. No. 13). He was the author of several astronomical works, and gained much fame by his abridgment (‘defloratio’) of the chronological tables and dissertations in the ‘Chronicle’ of Marianus Scotus, according to William of Malmesbury (Gesta Pontif. p. 300), ‘the abridgment was much more valuable than the huge and diffuse original.’ Having crossed to England he became one of the royal clerks, and secured the intimate friendship of Wulfstan [q. v.], the holy bishop of Worcester, whose chosen companion and confidant he continued to the end of their joint lives. By Wulfstan he was ordained to the priesthood (Sym. Dunelm. ii. 208; Flor. Wig. ii. 13), and on the shameful death of Bishop Walter was appointed by William to the see of Hereford, and was consecrated by Lanfranc at Canterbury on 29 Dec. 1079. Robert, like the Norman bishops generally, at once set about the rebuilding of his cathedral, which had been burnt in the Welsh inroad of 1056. According to William of Malmesbury (Gesta Pontif. p. 300), he took Charles the Great's circular church of Aachen as his model. If so, his work must have been entirely demolished by his successors, as the existing cathedral differs in no way from the ordinary type of Norman minsters. In May 1092 Robert was summoned by Rufus, with the other English bishops, to the consecration of Lincoln Cathedral; but, it is said, his astrological knowledge warning him that the ceremony would not take place on the day named, he stayed at home, and was spared the lost labour caused by the death of the founder, Remigius, three days before the appointed time (ib. p. 313). While at Hereford Robert paid Wulfstan frequent visits at Worcester. When, at Whitsuntide 1094, Wulfstan fell ill, he sent for Robert, made his confession to him, and submitted to the penitential discipline of the scourge. At the beginning of 1095 Robert visited him again, accompanied by the abbots of Gloucester and Tewkesbury, and once more received his confession. Wulfstan's death took place on 18 Jan., and the story went that he had appeared in vision to Robert, bidding him come to him without delay if he desired to see him once more alive. Being then engaged on the king's business ‘in curia regis,’ Robert had to procure his leave before starting. While on the journey he had at Cricklade a second vision, telling him that he was too late, and charging him to come to perform his funeral, adding that he would not be long after him, and giving as confirmation of his words that Robert would, on his arrival, be offered as a present a cloak lined with wool. Robert buried his friend, and on receiving the foretold gift was seized with a sudden trembling, and, summoning the Worcester monks to the chapter-house, related the vision and went home, ‘his mind filled with a holy fear’ (ib.) Another version of the vision represents Wulfstan as sharply chiding him for negligence and sloth, and bidding him to set earnestly about amending his own life and that of his flock if he wished to meet him in the other world (ib. pp. 288, 300–3; Flor. Wig. ii. 37; Sym. Dunelm. ii. 225; Vit. Wlstan. p. 267; Matt. Paris, ii. 43). Two months after Wulfstan's death Robert attended the council at Rockingham, and joined with the bishops who, at the bidding of Rufus, forswore their allegiance to Anselm. This act of disloyalty to his ecclesiastical chief appears to have weighed heavily on the old man's conscience; and when Anselm, after an interview with the king at Windsor at Whitsuntide, started for Canterbury to take the pall from the altar, Losinga and his brother bishop, Osmund of Salisbury, met him on the way, declared their penitence, and received absolution from him in a small wayside church (Eadmer, Hist. Nov. ed. Paris, 1721, ii. 45; Will. Malm. ib. p. 95). Losinga died on 26 June 1095, and was buried in his cathedral.
Florence calls Losinga ‘vir magnæ religionis,’ and the biographer of Wulfstan praises him for uniting confidence in the affairs of the world with purity of life (p. 268). A laudatory epitaph in Latin elegiacs, written by Godfrey, prior of Winchester, is given by Hardy (Descriptive Catalogue, ii. 76). The following works are ascribed to him by Bale: ‘Deflorationes Marianæ;’ ‘Sermones per annum;’ ‘De Sacramentis Ecclesiæ;’ ‘De Stellarum Motibus;’ ‘De Lunari Computo;’ ‘Mathematicæ Tabulæ, atque alia.’
[The authorities cited; Hoveden, i. 133, 147, 150; Godwin, De Præsul. ii. 60; Wright's Biogr. Brit. Literaria, ii. 18, 20; Hook's Life of Wulfstan, Archæological Journal, xx. 9; Freeman's Norman Conquest, iv. 379, 422, and William Rufus, i. 312, 479, 480, 533, 535; Bale's Script.]