Savaric of Bath
SAVARIC OF BATH
Bishop of bath and Glastonbury; date and place of birth unknown; d. Civita Vecchia, 1205. He was a conjoint archdeacon of Canterbury (1175–80), then treasurer of Sarum (Salisbury) and archdeacon of Northampton. While on the crusade with King Richard I he obtained, through his influence with the king, the bishopric of Bath, and was consecrated at Rome in 1192, after having first been ordained. He negotiated with Emperor Henry VI the release of King Richard from captivity and used his position to obtain the king's permission for the annexation of the Abbey of glastonbury to the bishopric of Bath. The monks of Glastonbury resisted Savaric for seven years but failed to obtain a reversal of papal decrees uniting Glastonbury and Bath as one cathedral church. Savaric died while on a visit to Rome in 1205.
Bibliography: w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 vol. (London 1885–1900) 17:840–843. Glastonbury Abbey, The Great Chartulary of Glastonbury, ed. a. watkin 3 v. (Frome, Eng. 1947–57). d. knowles, The Religious Orders in England, 3 vol. (Cambridge, Eng. 1948–60) v.1–2.
[f. courtney]