Jean Beleth
French liturgist and theologian
Jean Beleth (Latin: Joannes Belethus; fl. 1135–1182) was a twelfth-century French liturgist and theologian. He is thought to have been rector in a Paris theological college. That he was possibly of English origin was a hypothesis discussed by John Pits, and supported by Thomas Tanner; but is no longer taken seriously.
Life
Beleth is recorded at Tiron in 1135, studying at Chartres around that time, probably teaching theology in Paris, and recorded in 1182 at Amiens.
Works
His Summa de Ecclesiasticis Officiis is a manual and now a source for the Christian liturgy of his time; it was later printed (Rationale divinorum officiorum), and has been dated to 1162.
Jean Belet de Vigny
The 19th-century editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica claimed that Jean Belet de Vigny (fl. 14th century) edited many important works including the edition and translation into French of the hagiography known as the Legenda Sanctorum (Golden Legend). Considering that one of the original authors of the hagiography most frequently named is one "Johannes Beleth", it is more likely that the 14th-century first French edition was a translation from a version of the Golden Legend written by Beleth.
References
Citations
Bibliography
Douteil, Herbert, ed. (1976), Johannis Beleth Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis.
The public source identifies “Jean Beleth” as french liturgist and theologian. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jean, Beleth and French.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 11, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3170679. VIAF identifies the subject as 24637109. The Library of Congress control number is nr94041672. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1135, 1182, 1162 and 1976.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jean Beleth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.