John of Tours - Bishop of Bath

Bishop of Bath

John was appointed Bishop of Wells in 1088 by King William II "Rufus", the son and successor to William I. The bishop's consecration was in July, at Canterbury by Archbishop Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He probably owed his appointment to the king's desire to honour his father's physician.

Shortly after his consecration, John bought Bath Abbey's grounds from the king, as well as the city of Bath itself. Whether John paid Rufus for the town or whether he was given the town as a gift by the king is unclear. The abbey had recently lost its 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. By acquiring the town of Bath, John also acquired the mint that was in the town. In 1090 he transferred the seat, or administration, of the bishopric to Bath Abbey, probably as an attempt to increase the revenues of his see. Bath was a rich abbey, and Wells had always been a poor diocese. By taking over the abbey, John increased his episcopal revenues. 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. When John moved his episcopal seat, he also took over the abbey of Bath as his cathedral chapter, turning his diocese into a bishopric served by monks instead of the canons located at Wells that had previously served the diocese.

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. He also reformed the administration of his diocese, setting up archdeacons and organizing a court for hearing ecclesiastical cases. His efforts to reform his diocese led to his cathedral chapter's complaining of their treatment, which John seems to have ignored. At Wells, he was accused of destroying the community of canons there, which had been created by his predecessor.

In 1092 he helped with the consecration of Salisbury Cathedral, and in 1094 performed the same service for Battle Abbey. After the accession of King Henry I of England, John received a confirmation of the grant of the city of Bath, paying 500 pounds of silver for the verification. 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. He gave an extensive library to the cathedral at Bath, and eventually the monks there became reconciled to him. John, however, continued to hold most of the old abbey's manors himself, rather than using them for the support of the monks.