John of Oxford

John of Oxford († June 2, 1200 ) was an English clergyman. As a loyal royal official, he played a leading role in King Henry II's conflict with Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury. From 1175 he was Bishop of Norwich .

Royal official in conflict with Thomas Becket

John of Oxford was a son of Henry of Oxford († 1164), who was Sheriff of Oxfordshire for many years until 1154 . John also became a royal official and witnessed numerous documents from King Henry II in England as well as in the French parts of the Angevin Empire . Before 1160, he received the offices of rector of the churches of St Peter's-in-the-East and St Mary's for his services in Oxford as well as the office of Dean of Oxford as sinecures . Together with other officials, he probably drafted the Constitutions of Clarendon . After the dispute between the king and Archbishop Becket escalated and Becket fled into exile, John was first sent to the papal court with other officials in February 1164 to represent the king's point of view. Compared to the Queen Mother Matilda , he took the view that Becket opposed the king less for religious reasons, but wanted to pursue his secular goals above all. In the spring of 1165, John was part of the delegation that negotiated the marriage of the king's daughter Mathilde with the German duke Heinrich the Lion . In May he took part in the court conference of Würzburg, where he allegedly swore to the German princes that Heinrich II. The antipope Paschal III. would support him if the German princes against Thomas Becket and Pope Alexander III. would support. John later denied this, but he was now only referred to as an Iurator , an oath-oather , by Becket's followers . Against Becket's resistance and the ban of Alexander III. John received the office of Dean of Salisbury for his services in 1165 . Thereupon he was named as the first opponent of Beckets, who were excommunicated by him on Pentecost, June 12, 1166 in Vézelay . Although this ecclesiastical punishment was confirmed by the Pope, John continued to serve as the king's ambassador and traveled again to the papal court. To the displeasure of Becket's followers, John received the Pope's absolution in November 1166 . In early 1167 he returned to England, where he called a meeting of the leading English clergy to announce the orders of the King and Pope. However, the announced reconciliation between the king and archbishop was delayed. John continued to serve as royal envoy and mediator for the next three years. In August 1169 he supported Henry II in his negotiations with the papal legates in Cathedral Front . Then he traveled again to the papal court in Benevento . When a settlement between Heinrich and Becket was finally reached in Fréteval , John accompanied the archbishop back to England in November 1170. He was able to avoid an incident in Sandwich where Gervase of Cornhill , the sheriff of Kent, tried to stop the archbishop. Becket then traveled on to Canterbury , where he was murdered in late 1170.

Further service as diplomat and judge

After the murder of Becket, John initially no longer served as royal envoy. In 1176 he traveled again as an envoy to Sicily, where he concluded negotiations for the marriage of the king's daughter Johanna with King Wilhelm II . In 1185 he traveled to Flanders to mediate in a conflict between the French King Philip II and Count Philip of Flanders . Several times he took part in important council meetings in England, including in March 1177, when Henry II in a dispute between the kings Sancho VI. mediated by Navarre and Alfonso VIII of Castile . In May 1177 he was there when the king in Geddington made an agreement with several Welsh princes. He attested to about 60 royal documents between 1176 and 1189. Almost all of these were exhibited in England, which is why it is assumed that during this time he rarely accompanied the king to the French possessions of the Angevin Empire. Instead, John now served as royal judge. In April 1179 he was named one of the three chief judges in England, along with Bishops Geoffrey Ridel of Ely and Richard of Winchester . As a bishop, he assumed a high secular office. This combination of secular and ecclesiastical offices had been bitterly opposed by Archbishop Becket in the 1160s, while Becket's successor Richard of Dover endorsed it. In addition to overseeing the jurisdiction of the counties, John served frequently as a judge in Westminster . After the death of Henry II in 1189, he also served his son and successor Richard I. At the end of 1189, John was often part of the king's entourage, and in February 1190 he traveled to Normandy, where the king tried to find a compromise in the dispute between the two Justiciaren William de Longchamp and Hugh de Puiset , who were to take over the reign of England during his absence. John had previously taken a crusade vow and joined the King-led Third Crusade . In Italy, however, he achieved that Pope Clement III. rescinded his crusade vows. John returned to England, where he attended the council meeting at Westminster in October 1191, during which William de Longchamp was deposed as justiciar. He then served as a judge again until 1195. Politically, however, it had lost a lot of its importance because the king was presumably angry about his aborted crusade. After Richard's death in April 1199, John took part in the coronation of his brother Johann Ohneland in May .

Bishop of Norwich

Working as a church lawyer

In December 1175 John was elected Bishop of Norwich at the request of Henry II. Although he had previously been a loyal royal official and continued to serve as a royal envoy and judge, as a bishop he was not only obedient to royal orders. When he excommunicated the Earl of Arundel because of a dispute over property rights in Lynn , he was sharply reprimanded by the king. As bishop, John made sure that canon law was spread and applied in England, which was a major concern of Pope Alexander III. was. In 1179 he took part in the Third Lateran Council in Rome, and from 1176 he served at least eight times as a commissioned papal judge in ecclesiastical disputes. He asked the Pope three times for decisions on how canon law should be interpreted in individual cases. These decisions were included in the Church Law Book Liber Extra , published in 1234 .

Act as a bishop

More than 160 documents have been preserved from his time as bishop, proving that John, despite his work as a royal judge and diplomat, conscientiously administered his diocese. In addition to confirmations from parishes and offices, these documents also contain numerous other regulations for the parishes in his diocese. It is noteworthy that in 57 documented cases he left the income of parishes to monasteries in his diocese, making sure that pastoral care was guaranteed in the parishes. Especially after his retirement from court at the beginning of the 1190s, he evidently took care of the implementation of church reforms in his large diocese.

Conflict with cathedral priory

His time as bishop was overshadowed by the protracted conflict with the cathedral priory of Norwich . Like several other bishops of his time, he considered such a cathedral priory formed by monks to be outdated. Instead, he wanted a cathedral chapter formed by canons that would enable bishops to endow their officials with well-endowed benefices . The monks of his cathedral priory complained about him because he was putting them at a disadvantage financially. He would have wrongly distributed the rights to parishes that the cathedral priory had granted and forbade them to complain about them. He would have arbitrarily intervened in monastic self-government several times. In disputes, Pope Celestine III decided. 1194 and Pope Innocent III. 1200 in favor of the Cathedral Priory. Only John's successor as bishop, John de Gray , achieved a better relationship with the monks again.

John was on good terms with the philosopher Daniel of Morley , who wrote his work Philosophia at John's request .

rating

John of Oxford was a clergyman, but for many years he served the English kings primarily as a judge and diplomat. As a royal official, he was often hostile to the supporters of Becket. As a bishop, he incurred the wrath of his cathedral priory and did not shy away from confrontation with the government. Like Gilbert Foliot and Hubert Walter , he was among those bishops who believed that working with the crown would best serve the interests of the Church.

Web links

• Christopher Harper-Bill: Oxford, John of (d. 1200). 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
William Turbe	Bishop of Norwich 1175–1200	John de Gray