Geoffrey Ridel

Geoffrey Ridel, archdeacon of Canterbury. Given the epithet The Archdiabolus. appointed by Henry to this post after Becket was forced to resign it, after his elevation to archbishop in 1163. Later became bishop of Ely.

An especial favorite of Henry II's, in 1162, following Becket's resignation from his post as Chancellor Becket having been elevated to Archbishop, Geoffrey Ridel was appointed by Henry II to become his acting chancellor. Perhaps to spite Becket he also made him archdeacon of Canterbury, early in 1163, as at the king's direct insistence, Becket had been forced to resign that post too. Both these offices Ridel held until his "election" as bishop of Ely in 1173.

On April 13 1169, Palm Sunday, Becket was at Clairvaux. There he announced, in addition to formally excommunicating Gilbert Foliot the Bishop of London, that he intended to excommunicate Geoffrey Ridel and Richard of Ilchester on Ascension Day as well

This he certified in a letter to the clergy of London

Saint Thomas ; John Allen Giles (1846). Epistolae Sancti Thomae Cantuariensis. 

Epistolae Sancti Thomae Cantuariensis, Volume 1 - Epistola CXXXVII: Apud Whittaker et socios. pp. 298–.

CTB 195

MTB 488

https://archive.org/stream/materialsforhist06robe#page/558/mode/1up 

Vestram latere non debet prudentiam

Chretien Lupus(1728). Epistolae et vita D. Thomae martyris et Archi-episcopi Cantuariensis  Epistola XLIII: prostant apud Jo. Baptistam Albritium q. Hieron. et Sebastianum Coleti. pp. 265–.

James Craigie Robertson. Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Volume 3 William Fitzstephen  Cambridge University Press. pp. 130–. ISBN 978-1-108-04927-6.

He was excommunicated by Becket on Ascension day 1169.

Ridel was temporarily released from this sentence by the papal nuncios Vivian and Gratian at Bur-le-Roi on 1 September 1169.

Paul de Rapin-Thoyras; Thomas Rymer; Jean Le Clerc; Stephen Whatley, Michael Van der Gucht (1727). Acta regia  Volume 4 Mr Rymer's Foedera  Letter Henry II to Pope Alexander 1169: Printed for J. and J. Knapton. pp. 350–.

Richard Barber (2003). Henry Plantagenet. Boydell Press. pp. 137–. ISBN 978-0-85115-993-5.

The sentence was reimposed by Becket in October 1169, however, following the failure of the negotiations for Becket's reconciliation with Henry II, which was attributed in part to Ridel's malign influence.

References

Geoffrey Ridel (bishop of Ely) - Wikipedia,

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ridel,_Geoffrey_(d.1189)_(DNB00)

Geoffrey Ridel

Ridel, Geoffrey (d. 1189), administrator and bishop of Ely

Oxford DNB

http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101023618/Geoffrey-Ridel

Edward Foss (1870). Biographia juridica. A biographical dictionary of the judges of England from the Conquest. Murray. pp. 559–.

Nicholas Karn (2005). English Episcopal Acta 31, Ely 1109-1197. Geoffrey Ridel: OUP/British Academy. p. lxxix. ISBN 978-0-19-726335-8.