a trusted royal official and earned the powerful patron-
age of King Henry II. He served the king in the judi-
ciary, the chamber, and as a negotiator on a number
of important diplomatic missions. He acquired dea-
con’s orders and in 1166 was appointed to the arch-
deaconry of Bath. He remained loyal to the king during
the dispute with the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas
Becket, a loyalty that resulted in his excommunica-
tion by the archbishop. After Henry II had weathered
the Becket controversy, he set about rewarding those
clerks who had remained faithful to him. When the
strategically vital see of Dublin became vacant on the
death of Lorcán Ua Tuathail (Laurence O’Toole) in
1180, the king secured the election of his trusted ser-
vant, John Cumin.
Cumin was consecrated archbishop by Pope
Lucius III at the papal court in Velletri in February
1182, and then returned to join the royal court. His
first securely recorded visit to his diocese was in the
autumn of 1184, when he was dispatched to Ireland
to prepare for the Lord John’s imminent visit. He
remained in Ireland after John’s return to England to
hold a provincial council in Dublin early in 1186, but
soon returned to England, where he remained until
after the death of Henry II in 1189 and the coronation
of Richard I the following year. The death of his
patron has been seen as marking a watershed in
Cumin’s career—the point at which he diverted his
energies away from royal politics and toward eccle-
siastical administration. He returned to his diocese
and maintained more or less constant residence until
- The realignment of his priorities had repercus-
sions, and he became embroiled in a dispute with the
Irish chief governor, Hamo de Valognes, over the
temporalities of his see. This resulted in his exile
from Dublin for a period of nine years. In 1205, King
John, faced with the threat of papal excommunication
and interdict, agreed to restore the archbishop’s full
liberties and temporal possessions, and John Cumin
returned to Dublin. The remaining six years of his
episcopate passed without apparent incident, and he
died in October, 1212, at an advanced age.
While it is clear that John Cumin’s qualifications for
office were of a decidedly secular nature, he sought at
the outset of his episcopacy to combine his involvement
with the royal court with an active ministry. His willing-
ness to address the particular problems of the Irish
church can be seen in the nature of the legislation
approved by the provincial council that he summoned to
meet in Dublin in 1186. The canons promulgated by
the council are believed to be largely Cumin’s own
work, and they displayed a particular concern with the
proper administration of the sacraments. This was also
the subject of the opening sermon of the council,
preached by the archbishop himself. Furthermore, the
archbishop legislated to enforce clerical celibacy and
regularize marriage practices, and in many ways allied
himself with the aims of the native reform party in Ire-
land.
Cumin asserted on a number of occasions that his
church was in dire need of reform and that the people
he was sent to govern were in need of instruction and
civilizing. His stated aim in 1192, when he raised the
church of St. Patrick’s to collegiate status and insti-
tuted a group of thirteen clerks to serve there, was to
improve the educational status of the people of his
diocese. It is not clear whether the archbishop intended
that St. Patrick’s be elevated to cathedral status, his
later absence from his diocese making it difficult to
assess his motives. He made no provision for officials
in the college, but did grant the canons similar liberties
and privileges to those enjoyed by the secular canons
of Salisbury cathedral.
From the beginning of his episcopate, Cumin was
concerned with the consolidation and defining of the
temporal possessions of the Dublin diocese. These
were extensive, and after the amalgamation with the
diocese of Glendalough they included the manors of
St. Sepulchre, Swords, Finglas, Clondalkin, Tallaght,
Shankill, Ballymore, and Castlekevin, along with the
land of Coillacht—an extensive wooded area extending
from the upper Dodder to Tallaght. The archbishop exer-
cised jurisdiction in these manors through his seneschals
and bailiffs. Cumin was keen to exploit the commercial
potential of his possessions. In 1193, he established an
annual eight-day fair at Swords at the feast of St. Colum
Cille, and at some date before 1199 he was granted a
Saturday market at Ballymore, County Wicklow.
The archbishop was generous with gifts of lands and
tithes, and in his benefactions he showed a particular
favor for houses of nuns. He founded the priory of Grace
Dieu, County Dublin, transferring nuns from nearby
Lusk. He endowed the convent with several churches,
including the valuable church of St. Audoen inside the
walls of Dublin. He also granted a carucate of land to
the nuns of Timolin, County Kildare. He was similarly
generous to members of his own family, and used his
position and power to assist the careers and fortunes of
his three nephews—Gilbert and Walter Cumin and
Geoffrey de Marisco.
It was while defending his temporal possessions
that the archbishop fell foul of the justiciar Hamo de
Valognes. The initial cause of the dispute is unclear,
but appears to have concerned the nature of royal forest
rights in lands newly acquired by the Dublin church.
John Cumin excommunicated Valognes and several of
his retinue, and in 1197 left for England, having placed
Dublin under interdict. It is obvious that Cumin did
not have the same standing with Henry II’s sons as he
had had with that monarch, as he spent several yearsCUMIN, JOHN (d. 1212)