Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/John of Exeter
JOHN (d. 1268), called of Exeter, and also John Gervays, bishop of Winchester, was a native of Exeter, and presumably son of a man called Gervase. He appears as chancellor of York in 1254 and oorain in 1258, and in the latter year also held the prebend of Fenton in the same church (Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 163, 183). When after the death of Bishop Aymer there was a disputed election to the see of Winchester, the two rivals being Andrew of London, prior of Winchester, and William of Taunton, abbot of Middelton, the pope quashed both elections and collated John to the vacant see. One authority states that, although it was commonly believed that John owed his elevation to his great learning, he in truth obtained it by bribing the pontifical vice-chancellor with six thousand marks, on hearing of which the pope exacted a like sum for himself (Cont. Gervase, ii. 218, and Chron. Dover in MS. Cott. Julius D. v.) John was consecrated by the pope at Rome on 10 Sept. 1262, and at once set out for England; on the way he had an interview with Henry III, whom he advised to return to England and depend on his own resources—a possible proof that John was already a supporter of the popular cause. He arrived in England early in October, made his profession of obedience to Archbishop Boniface, and had the temporalities restored on 18 Oct. On 13 Oct. he had said mass at Westminster at the king's request (Wykes, iv. 132),
John's first act after his enthronement on 25 Dec. was to imprison Prior Andrew at Hyde Abbey; the prior afterwards escaped, and continued to trouble the bishops of Winchester for some years (Ann. Mon. iv. 465). John was present at the consecration of Henry of Sandwich as bishop of London on 27 May 1263. In the spring of 1264 he came forward as one of the baronial prelates, and was one of the negotiators for the barons at Brackley in March (Ann. Lond. in Chron. Edward I and II, i. 61, Rolls Ser,) He was one of the bishops who were cited in May by the legate Guy Foulquois (afterwards Clement IV) to appear before him at Boulogne; at first they refused to obey, and when they went in October were suspected of conniving at the destruction of the legate's letter by the citizens of Dover. At the same time he had been appointed with Walter de Cantelupe [q. v.] and Peter de Montfort to conduct the negotiations with Louis IX. After the fall of Simon de Montfort, John of Exeter, like the other bishops on his side, was summoned before the legate Ottobuoni in March 1266, and suspended from his bishopric till he had made explanation to the pope. He went to Rome, where he died on 20 Jan. 1268. He was buried at Viterbo. Tanner says that the 'Constitutiones 'printed in Wilkins's 'Concilia,' ii. 293, are wrongly ascribed to John in Gresham MS. 438. There is a letter from him to Henry III regretting that he cannot be with him at Canterbury on Christmas day 1262 (Fœdera, i. 423). John is sometimes called John of Oxford, from a confusion between Exon and Oxon; the surname Gernsey, sometimes assigned to him, appears to be a corruption of Gerways.
[Annalas Monastici. Conntinuation of Gervase of Canterbury, Flores Historiarum, and Rishanger's Chronicle in the Rolls Series; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. 313, s.v. 'Gervais;' Leland's Collect. ii. 341; Cassan's Lives of the Bishops of Winchester, i. 173; Godwin, De Præsulibus, pp. 221-2, ed. Richardson.]