John of Tours

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John of Tours
Denomination Catholic
Senior posting
See Diocese of Bath and Wells
Title Bishop of Bath and Wells
Period in office 1088-1122
Predecessor Gisa
Successor Godfrey
Religious career
Previous post royal chaplain
Personal
Place of birth Tours
Date of death December 1122

John of Tours (or John de Villula) (d. 1122) was a Norman Bishop of Wells who moved the diocese seat to Bath.

Contents

[edit] Life

A native of Tours,[1] he was a Norman-French physician[2] to King William I of England, being present at his deathbed in 1087.[3] William of Malmesbury called him "a very skilled doctor, not in theoretical knowledge, but in practice."[4] He had been a priest of Tours before becoming doctor to King William.[5]

He was appointed Bishop of Wells in 1088 by William Rufus, and consecrated in July.[6] Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury consecrated him at Canterbury.[2] There he bought Bath Abbey's grounds, from the king,[7] as well as the city of Bath itself. Whether John paid Rufus for the town or whether he was given the town as alms by the king is unclear.[5] The abbey had recently lost it's abbot Alfsige, and was according to Domesday Book the owner of large estates in and near the town. It would have been the wealth of the abbey that attracted John to take over the monastery.[8] In 1090 he transferred the bishopric to Bath abbey,[6][9] and proceeded to build and reform in his diocese. He also developed Bath as a spa,[10] and founded a hospital for lepers.[11] In 1102, John secured from King Henry the right to hold fairs at Bath on the feast day of the cathedral's patron saint, Saint Peter.[8] William of Malmesbury portrays the moving of the episcopal seat as motivated by a desire for the lands of the abbey, but it was part of a pattern at the time of moving cathedral seats from small villages to larger towns.[5]

John rebuilt the monastic church at Bath, which had been damaged during one of Robert de Mowbray's rebellions. As rebuilt, it was only surpassed in size by the cathedrals at Ely, Norwich and Winchester. The present Bath Cathedral is not the building that John built, and occupies only a fraction of the space that John's building encompassed.[12] He also reformed the administration of his diocese, setting up archdeacons and organizing a court for hearing court cases.[13] In 1092 he helped with the consecration of Salisbury Cathedral, and in 1094 performed the same service for Battle Abbey.[14]

He was one of the bishops that sided with William Rufus against Anselm of Canterbury at the king's Whitsun council in 1097.[15] John attended Anselm's reforming Council of London in 1102, which debated and passed decrees to reform the clergy.[14] During the reign of King Henry I at the height of the Investiture crisis with Anselm, John along with Robert Bloet Bishop of Lincoln consecrated abbots who had been invested in office by the king.[16] John's canons of Wells disliked him because he reduced their income and destroyed some of their buildings as part of the movement to Bath. He gave much of the revenues of Wells to his brother Hildebert, who served as his steward.[5]

He died in December of 1122[6] and was buried at Bath in the cathedral there.[17] The name "de Villula" first appears in 1691, and is not a contemporary name.[17] It resulted from a misreading of John's name in his episcopal profession. Under John, the monks of Bath became known for their scholarship, although he himself was not particularly noted for learning.[5] William of Malmsebury claimed he was generous and affable, although the chronicler acknowledged that the bishop treated the canons of Wells abominably. At first he treated the monks at Bath with contempt and confiscated much of the lands of the abbey for his own use, but later he came to esteem the monks and in 1106 he restored their lands to them.[12]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Cantor Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture p. 36
  2. ^ a b Smith "John of Tours" Downside Review p. 132-133
  3. ^ Barlow, Frank, William Rufus p.45.
  4. ^ quoted in Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 589
  5. ^ a b c d e Ramsey "Tours, John of (d. 1122)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online Edition accessed November 15, 2007
  6. ^ a b c Fryde Handbook of British Chronology p. 227
  7. ^ Barlow William Rufus p.182.
  8. ^ a b Smith "John of Tours" Downside Review p. 134-135
  9. ^ Huscroft Ruling England p. 128
  10. ^ Bath History accessed on August 22, 2007
  11. ^ Bath Past: Caring for the Outcast accessed on August 22, 2007
  12. ^ a b Smith "John of Tours" Downside Review p. 136-137
  13. ^ Smith "John of Tours" Downside Review p. 138-139
  14. ^ a b Smith "John of Tours" Downside Review p. 140-141
  15. ^ Vaughn Anselm of Bec and Rober of Meulan p. 201
  16. ^ Vaughn Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan p. 248-249
  17. ^ a b British History Online Bishops of Bath accessed on September 23, 2007

[edit] References

  • Barlow, Frank William Rufus Berkeley: University of California Press 1983 ISBN 0-520-04936-5
  • Bartlett, Robert England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075-1225 Oxford:Clarendon Press 2000 ISBN 0-19-822741-8
  • British History Online Bishops of Bath accessed on September 23, 2007
  • Cantor, Norman F. Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England 1089-1135 Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press 1958
  • Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology, Third Edition, revised, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. 
  • Huscroft, Richard Ruling England 1042-1217 London: Pearson Longman 2005 ISBN 0-582-84882-2
  • Ramsey, Frances "Tours, John of (d. 1122)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004 Online Edition accessed November 15, 2007
  • Smith, R. A. L. "John of Tours, Bishop of Bath 1088-1122" Downside Review vol. 70 1942 p. 132-141
  • Vaughn, Sally N. Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan Berkeley:University of California Press 1987 ISBN 0-520-05674-4

[edit] External links

Roman Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Gisa		 Bishop of Wells
1088–1122		 Succeeded by
Godfrey
Persondata
NAME John of Tours
ALTERNATIVE NAMES John de Villula
SHORT DESCRIPTION
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH 1122
PLACE OF DEATH