seeking redress from first Richard and then John. His
cause was championed by Pope Innocent III, who
eventually brokered a settlement by which the arch-
bishop was restored to his full liberties and temporal
possessions. Cumin’s biographers have noted the irony
that, given his stance some decades earlier during the
Becket dispute, he should find himself, like Becket,
exiled from his church and dependent on Rome for help.
Giraldus Cambrensis appears to make a direct reference
to Cumin’s exile from Dublin when he remarks that the
archbishop would have made outstanding improvements
to the condition of his church had he not been prevented
by the secular powers from so doing.
John Cumin played a large part in introducing the
principal elements of Anglo-Norman ecclesiastical
administration into the Dublin province. However, he
appears to have approached the task with a certain
amount of circumspection, and in many of his actions
displayed a willingness to interact with Irish ecclesi-
astics. His diplomatic skill, honed as an advocate for
Henry II, was fully manifest in 1192 in his establish-
ment of the secular college of St. Patrick’s, an action
that might have been expected to arouse both the fears
of the existing cathedral chapter at the priory of Holy
Trinity (Christ Church) and the hostility of the Irish. Yet,
when the new college was consecrated on St. Patrick’s
Day, the ecclesiastical procession set out from Holy
Trinity and was led by the two most senior Irish eccle-
siastics, Archbishops Mattheus of Cashel and Eugenius
of Armagh.
John Cumin held the archbishopric of Dublin for
thirty-one years. When he died in 1212, “old and full
of days” according to the annalist of St. Mary’s Abbey,
Dublin, he was laid to rest in the church of Holy Trinity.
MARGARET MURPHYReferences and Further Reading
Gwynn, Aubrey. “Archbishop John Cumin.” Reportorium
Novum1 (1955–1956): 285–310.
MacShamhrain, Ailbhe. “The Emergence of the Metropolitan
See: Dublin, 1111–1216.” In History of the Catholic Diocese
of Dublin, edited by James Kelly and Dáire Keogh, 51–71.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000.
Murphy, Margaret. “Balancingthe Concerns of Church and
State: The Archbishops of Dublin, 1181–1228.” In Colony
and Frontier in Medieval Ireland: Essays Presented to
J.F. L ydon, edited by Terry Barry, Robin Frame, and
Katharine Simms, 41–56. London: The Hambledon Press,
1995.
Murphy, Margaret. “Archbishops and Anglicisation: Dublin,
1181–1271.” In History of the Catholic Diocese of Dublin,
edited by James Kelly and Dáire Keogh, 72–91. Dublin: Four
Courts Press, 2000.
Sheehy, Maurice. When the Normans Came to Ireland, 2nd ed.
Cork: Mercier Press, 1998.
Watt, John. The Church in Medieval Ireland, 2nd ed. Dublin:
University College Dublin Press, 1998.See alsoChief Governors; Christ Church Cathedral,
Dublin; Giraldus Cambrensis; Glendalough;
Henry II; Henry of London; John; Nuns;
Ua Tuathail, St. Lorcán; St. Patrick’s CathedralCUMIN, JOHN (d. 1212)