JOHN DE GRANDISSON

Bishop of Exeter; b. Ashperton, Herefordshire, England, 1292; d. Chudleigh, Devon, July 16, 1369. He was studying civil law, probably at Oxford, by c. 1306. Between 1313 and 1317 he studied theology at Paris under Jacques Fournier, later Pope benedict xii. By 1322 he was a papal chaplain. He returned to Oxford for study in 1326–27, the year that he became bishop of exeter by papal provision. A diligent diocesan, he finished the reconstruction of the nave of his cathedral and built St. Radegunde's Chapel, where he is buried. He founded the College of Ottery St. Mary in 1337. Concerned over the effect of papal provision in England, he informed Pope clement vi in 1342 that at the council of the Province of Canterbury held in London "no small wonder arose at the burdensome and hitherto unknown multitude of apostolic provisions." In 1349 the Bishop presented his views concerning provision to King Edward III. He composed a Legenda de sanctis and a life of Thomas becket, copies of which are in Exeter Cathedral Library, and in 1337 compiled an Ordinale for the regulation of services performed in his cathedral. He willed his large library to his cathedral church, the collegiate churches of Ottery, Crediton, and Bosham, the Black Friars of Exeter, and Exeter College.

Bibliography: f. c. hingeston–randolph, ed., Register of John de Grandisson …, 3 v. (Exeter 1894–99). j. n. dalton, ed., Ordinale, 2 v. Henry Bradshaw Society (London 1891—) 37, 38;1909). w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography From the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 v. (London 1885–1900) 8:371–372. w.a. pantin, The English Church in the 14th Century (Cambridge, Eng. 1955). a. b. emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 v. (Oxford 1957–59) 2:800–801.

[v. mudroch]