John of Caithness (
Medieval Gaelic: ''Eoin'';
Norse: ''Jon'';
Latin: ''Iohannes'') is the second known
bishop of Caithness
The Bishop of Caithness was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Caithness, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. The first referenced bishop of Caithness was Aindréas, a Gael who appears in sources between 1146 and 1151 as bishop. Ai ...
, based then at
Halkirk
Halkirk ( gd, Hàcraig) is a village on the River Thurso in Caithness, in the Highland council area of Scotland. From Halkirk the B874 road runs towards Thurso in the north and towards Georgemas in the east. The village is within the parish o ...
. He witnessed various
charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
s in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
between the years 1187 and 1199.
Biography
Bishop John is best known for his
mutilation, carried out at
Scrabster Castle by
Harald Maddadsson, in which the bishop lost his
tongue
The tongue is a muscular organ (anatomy), organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive system, digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surfa ...
and
eyes. The bishop suffered this fate by refusing to collect
Peter's Pence
Peter's Pence (or ''Denarii Sancti Petri'' and "Alms of St Peter") are donations or payments made directly to the Holy See of the Catholic Church. The practice began under the Saxons in England and spread through Europe. Both before and after the ...
, a tax of 1/10 of the income of every freeman. This tax was encouraged by the
Papacy
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
, and had a strong history in the Scandinavian world. His predecessor
Aindréas had allowed it, but John stood up for the complaints of the peasantry. John certainly survived the attack, although Earl Harald and the people of the Earldom suffered the consequences, as
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 J ...
and King
William of Scotland
William the Lion, sometimes styled William I and also known by the nickname Garbh, "the Rough"''Uilleam Garbh''; e.g. Annals of Ulster, s.a. 1214.6; Annals of Loch Cé, s.a. 1213.10. ( 1142 – 4 December 1214), reigned as King of Scots from 11 ...
brought down their wrath on the province.
John's successor
Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
appears in the records for the first time in 1213.
See also
References
*
Crawford, Barbara Elizabeth, "Peter's Pence in Scotland", in G.W.S. Barrow (ed.), ''The Scottish Tradition: Essays in Honour of Ronald Gordon Cant'', (Edinburgh, 1974), pp. 14–22
*
Dowden, John, ''The Bishops of Scotland'', ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)
* Ross-Harper, Ian, ''Notable Bishops and Ministers of Dornoch Cathedral'', (Historylinks Museum, Dornoch)
12th-century births
13th-century deaths
Bishops of Caithness
12th-century Scottish Roman Catholic bishops
13th-century Scottish Roman Catholic bishops
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