Canterbury Cathedral began life as cathedral for its city, diocese and archdiocese, headed by the
Archbishop of Canterbury and run by a
dean. However, when the cathedral was re-formed as a monastic institution (known as Christ Church
Priory) as well as a cathedral, a
Prior was put in charge of the monastery (with the Archbishop effectively acting as abbot). When in 1539 the monastery was
dissolved and reverted to being solely a cathedral, the prior's duties reverted to a
dean, the first of whom was
Nicholas Wotton.[1]
^
abA full list of the priors and deans of Canterbury is given in A History of Canterbury Cathedral, ed. P. Collinson, N. Ramsay, M. Sparks. (OUP 1995, revised edition 2002), page 565.
^Quarreled with
Theobald, the archbishop, ending in Jeremiah's resignation on papal orders
^He witnessed the murder of
Thomas Becket in 1170. His next role was as Abbot of
Peterborough Abbey, and he took some contact relics of Becket with him to that abbey.
^Went to
Verona in person to plead the case of the monastery against archbishop
Baldwin, but died abroad.
^Baldwin's appointee, unsuitable for the role and resented by the monks
^Appointed by Baldwin in exchange for backing down in the dispute, but forced to resign by the monks soon after Baldwin's departure for the crusade
^Opposed by a faction of monks who accused him of oppressive rule and mismanagement; eventually resigned to join the Cistercian abbey at
Beaulieu; priory temporarily taken into king's hands, but returned on protests by the monks.
^Quarrels with his monks; advised archbishops
Reynolds (a comparatively young man) and
Mepeham
^Advised archbishop Mepeham, but archbishop
Stratford was more independent and the prior's good relations with the archbishop were again lost.