John de Coutances

John de Coutances († September 24 or 25, 1198 ) was an Anglo-Norman clergyman who was Bishop of Worcester from 1196 .

Origin and career as a clergyman

John de Coutances came from an Anglo-Norman family that included several influential clergymen. His uncle was Walter de Coutances , who was Archbishop of Rouen from 1184 and also temporarily served as royal justiciar of England. John is first mentioned in 1182 as a treasurer of the Diocese of Lisieux . Perhaps even then his uncle Walter was promoting his career. When his uncle became Bishop of Lincoln in 1183 , John soon became archdeacon of Oxford . There he employed a representative while he was still attending a school, possibly in Oxford. At the instigation of his uncle, he became dean of Rouen in 1188 . His other offices included the rectorate of Abbots Ripton in Cambridgeshire and that of Sutton Plymouth in Devon , which had previously been a benefice of his uncle. Apparently he received all of his offices through patronage from his uncle. On September 3, 1189, he attended the coronation of Richard the Lionheart in Westminster Abbey in the wake of his uncle . Probably before June 25, 1196, Courtances was elected Bishop of Worcester in Normandy , because on this day King Richard, who was verifiably resident in Normandy , granted him the right to hold a weekly market in Stratford upon Avon in the Diocese of Worcester to hold. On October 20, 1196, Courtances was ordained bishop by Archbishop Hubert Walter in the Cistercian Abbey of Stratford Langthorne in Essex.

Bishop of Worcester

Courtances spent most of the year 1197 in Normandy. There he negotiated with his uncle and with Eustace , elected Bishop of Ely, in the dispute between his uncle and King Richard over the building of Château Gaillard , which was built on his territory without his uncle's consent. Coutances was regarded as a respected, devout clergyman, but little is known about his brief tenure as bishop. Under him the development of the episcopal estate of Stratford upon Avon began to a borough . During his tenure, the efforts began Wulfstan , one of his predecessors as bishop, canonize . Allegedly, in September 1198, Coutances is said to have reburied Wulfstan's body in a secret nightly ceremony in a new shrine in front of the high altar. Just 15 days later, Coutances died while Wulfstan was canonized in 1203. Coutances was likely buried in Worcester Cathedral.

Web links

• Philippa Hoskin: Coutances, John de (d. 1198). 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
Henry de Sully	Bishop of Worcester 1196–1198	Mauger