Latin patriarch of Jerusalem (1118-1128) during the reign of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem.
Nothing is known about Warmund’s early career apart from his origins in northern France. Baldwin II nominated him as patriarch shortly after his own accession in spring 1118. Together, Warmund and Baldwin II summoned the Council of Nablus (1120), which promulgated the first canons consciously designed to meet the needs of the Latin Church in Palestine. During the king’s captivity in 1123-1124, Warmund negotiated a treaty with the republic of Venice (the Pactum Warmundi) that added a wealthy port to the kingdom through a successful joint siege of Tyre (mod. Sour, Lebanon). Warmund did little to further church organization, but he was not above exploiting his spiritual position, particularly his control over the True Cross, to intervene in political and military issues.
In 1120, Warmund initially refused to carry the relic on a campaign to the north because he and many magnates disapproved of the king’s regency of Antioch and consequent absences from the kingdom. Warmund rarely allowed Baldwin II to carry the cross into battle after this incident, although the patriarch took it to the siege of Tyre and allowed royal regents access to it during the king’s captivity.
-Deborah Gerish
Bibliography
Gerish, Deborah, “The True Cross and the Kings of Jerusalem,” Haskins Society Journal 8 (1996), 137-155. Hamilton, Bernard, The Latin Church in the Crusader States: The Secular Church (London: Variorum, 1980).
Mayer, Hans Eberhard, Bistumer, Kloster und Stifte im Konigreich Jerusalem (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1977).
-, “The Concordat of Nablus,” Journal of Ecclesiastical
History 33 (1982), 531-543.
World History
