Jean Bellesmains

Seal of Jean de Bellesmains as Archbishop of Lyon

Jean Bellesmains (also Jean aux Belles Mains , John Belmeis or John of Canterbury ) (* around 1120 in Canterbury , † around 1204) was a clergyman from England. From 1162 to 1182 he was bishop of Poitiers in southwestern France and from 1182 to 1193 Archbishop of Lyon .

Origin and youth

Jean Bellesmains came from Canterbury, England . His nickname Bellesmains ( German  just hands ) was a nickname often used in the 12th century. Because of this nickname, he was mistakenly mistaken for a member of the Anglo-Norman family Belmeis . However, his family were tenants of properties owned by the Archbishops of Canterbury. He owed his rise above all to the talents he showed as a student. Even after his death, he was hailed as the most talented student ever to go to Canterbury schools.

Advancement as a clergyman

Apparently as a young man, Jean entered the service of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury before 1146 . There he soon worked with numerous clergymen and made influential friends, including Thomas Becket and Roger de Pont l'Évêque . Jean, Becket and Pont l'Évêque are said to have promoted each other later.

In the service of Archbishop Theobald, Jean made two firm principles his own: the authority of the Pope had to be recognized, and secular and spiritual jurisdiction should be strictly separated. Around 1150 John traveled to Italy on behalf of the Archbishop, where he was probably Pope Eugene III. met. In 1152 he tried in vain to get Jean to become archdeacon of Middlesex , but instead received another benefice . Pope Anastasius IV appointed him Treasurer of York Minster in 1153 , shortly before Jean's friend Roger de Pont l'Évêque became Archbishop of York. This made Jean an important link between the Archbishop of York and the Archbishop of Canterbury. As an influential clergyman, he attested numerous documents from then on. Jean supported the young King Henry II politically . In 1157 he served the abbot of Battle Abbey and the royal justiciar Richard de Luci as counselor in a dispute with Bishop Hilary of Chichester. On the other hand, in 1158 he rejected the king's jurisdiction over the deceitful Dean of Scarborough . With that he had taken a clear position on this question, which over the next few years put a heavy burden on the relationship between church and state in England. When there was a papal schism in 1159 , Jean and Archbishop Roger clearly supported Pope Alexander III. , which was also supported by King Heinrich II. After the King had Thomas Becket elected as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Jean was one of the clergymen who Becket sent to Montpellier to receive his pallium there and bring it to him in England. The king was thus convinced of Jean's loyalty and promoted the election of Jean as bishop of the Diocese of Poitiers . The king expected that Jean would become a pillar of his power in the duchy of Aquitaine , which was disputed between him and the French king . In September 1162 John was taken over by Pope Alexander III. consecrated bishop in Déols . At the Council of Tours in 1163 he took the oath of allegiance to Bertrand de Montault , the Archbishop of Bordeaux .

Bishop of Poitiers

Role in the conflict between Archbishop Becket and King Henry II.

The relationship between Jean and Henry II was initially strained by the conflict between the king and Archbishop Becket. In this conflict, Jean stood on Becket's side and supported his position in the jurisdiction of clergy. When Jean urged the Pope in 1163 to give Becket more support, the king regarded this as a rebellion. This certainly led to the fact that Jean withdrew from the negotiations between the king and the pope before June 1164 and left them to Guichard , the abbot of the Pontigny monastery . When Becket fled to Pontigny at the end of 1164, Jean also toyed with the idea of ​​going into exile there. The disgruntled king tried to further restrict the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Poitiers, which Jean saw as an encroachment on the rights and freedom of the Church. In 1166, John of Salisbury heard rumors that Bishop Jean had been poisoned, and Bishop Arnulf of Lisieux also feared for Jean's personal safety. During the Aquitaine Rebellion of 1168, Jean presumably supported the royal commander, Patrick of Salisbury . Probably with this he had won back the favor of the king before January 1169. During the negotiations with the rebels in Montmirail , the king urged him to stand up for him with Becket. Jean complied with this request, but overestimated the king's willingness to accommodate Becket. When Becket negotiated again with the king, these talks quickly failed. Thereupon Jean was sharply criticized by Becket and by John of Salisbury. Even if he was present in Fréteval in 1170 , he no longer played a role in the negotiations there. Although Jean remained friends with Becket, he was no longer uncritical towards the archbishop.

When Becket was murdered by the king's knights in late 1170, Jean quickly became an ardent supporter of the veneration of Becket as a martyr and saint. He testified to two miracles that were supposed to have happened at the intercession of Becket. Becket was canonized as early as February 1173 . Pope Alexander III appointed Jean legate of the Holy See in 1174 , and during an elaborate pilgrimage to Canterbury, Jean exchanged a kiss of peace with the penitent king.

Further work as Bishop of Poitiers

After Becket's death, Jean's relationship with King Henry II had improved further. In June 1172 he took part in the inauguration of the king's son Richard as Duke of Aquitaine at the request of the king . During the rebellion of the King's Sons from 1173 to 1174, he again loyally supported the king. In 1176 he was a leader in the defense against the invasion of Count Wilhelm VI. involved in Angoulême in south-west France. Jean was often part of the king's entourage, and in 1177 he witnessed the king's purchase of La Marche . As Bishop of Poitiers, Jean had a good relationship with the Archbishop of Bordeaux, and he was also popular with the clergy of the diocese. He was often called on as a mediator in local noble feuds . He tried his best to protect church property from looting, for example Rouillé , which was visited by Hugo von Lusignan , or Angles , which was harassed by the young Duke Richard.

In 1178, Count Raymond V of Toulouse turned to Pope Alexander III to ask for support against the Cathar influence, which was expanding in his county . The Pope appointed Jean to the commission that preached in Toulouse under the direction of Cardinal Pietro da Pavia . The embassy achieved little, but Jean's eloquence made a positive impression. To this end, he took part in the Third Lateran Council in Rome in 1179 .

Archbishop of Lyon

Elected Archbishop of Lyon

Pope Lucius III wanted to elevate Jean to Archbishop of Narbonne in 1182 . Before he could be installed in this office, the cathedral chapter of Lyon had also elected John archbishop. The cathedral chapter of the Archdiocese of Lyon , which still belonged to the Kingdom of Arelat and thus to the Roman-German Empire, tried to prevent an imperial candidate as the new archbishop. The late Archbishop, the former Abbot Guichard von Pontigny, had often praised Jean. In 1183 Jean was enthroned as Archbishop .

Spiritual work as archbishop

As Archbishop, Jean asserted the primacy of the Archbishop of Lyon over the Archbishops of Rouen , Reims and Sens . When the French King Philip II claimed royal administration during a vacancy in the Autun diocese , Jean managed to get the otherwise uncompromising king to justify himself to him. Thereafter, his precedence as archbishop was no longer contested during his tenure. One of his first measures as archbishop was the expulsion of Petrus Valdes and his supporters from Lyon. They had broken their promise made at the Third Lateran Council that they would only preach with the permission of the clergy. Valdes and his followers, the poor men from Lyons , now went through the country preaching their doctrine against the church. With his cathedral chapter, however, Jean worked well together. In 1185 he issued new diocesan statutes, which regulated both canonical and liturgical questions. He converted the Lady Chapel of Fourvière into a well-equipped collegiate monastery . Under him the floor of the apse of the cathedral of Lyon was laid .

Political activity and resignation from office

Politically, Jean found himself in a more difficult position as Archbishop. In 1157, Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa handed over control of the city of Lyon to the then Archbishop Heraclius von Montboissier , a loyal supporter of the Emperor, together with the cathedral chapter. In 1184 Jean traveled to Verona to have this privilege renewed by the emperor. At the same time he tried to get the French king to confirm the treaty of 1173, according to which the archbishop owned the former possessions of the Counts of Forez . With this, Jean succeeded in further securing the secular rule of the archbishops, which contradicted his own conviction that the spiritual and secular rule should be separated. As a secular ruler, Jean now had to build castles, take action against muggers and destroy the bases of robber knights. He usually entrusted these tasks and the punishment of wrongdoers to his seneschal . Nevertheless, his worldly tasks burdened him so that in 1193 he became Pope Celestine III. asked to be released from office due to poor health. The Pope reluctantly agreed to this request in April 1193.

Next life

Jean received a generous pension from his diocese, and an annual mass should be read for his salvation. After he made another pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Beckets in Canterbury in 1194 , he retired to Clairvaux monastery . There Bishop Hugo von Lincoln found him meditating. His meditations on the Psalms moved Jean so that he turned to his questions to Pope Innocent III. turned. He wrote back several times, the last time in December 1203. Jean probably died shortly afterwards. His feast day in Lyon is April 24th.

literature

• Ph. Pouzet: L'Anglais Jean, dit Bellesmains (1122-1204?), Évêque de Poitiers, puis archevêque de Lyon (1162-1182, 1182-1193) . M. Camus et Carnet, Lyon 1927.
• Charles Duggan: Bishop John and Archdeacon Richard of Poitiers: their roles in the Becket dispute. In: Raymonde Foreville: Thomas Becket. Actes du colloque international de Sédières, 19-24 août 1973. Beauchesne, Paris 1975, pp. 72-83.

Web links

• Jean Dunbabin: Canterbury, John of (c.1120-1204?). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

predecessor	Office	successor
Laurent	Bishop of Poitiers 1162–1182	William III. Tempier
Guichard	Archbishop of Lyon 1182–1193	Renaud II of Forez