Jens Grand

Who was Jens Grand?

Dr. Jens Grand, the Firebug was a Danish archbishop of Lund, titular Archbishop of Riga and Terra Mariana, and Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, known as the central figure of the second ecclesiastical struggle in Denmark in the late 13th century. He was an outstanding jurist of canon law.

Grand was the son of Torbern Hvide, an officer at the Danish royal court, and of Cæcilie Skjalmsdatter, a sister of Peder Bang, Bishop of Roskilde. Bang and Cæcilie were also members of the Hvide clan, which came into conflict with the Danish throne through Stig Andersen Hvide's regicide of King Eric V Klipping in 1286. Grand studied at the University of Paris and received a degree as a doctor of canon law. About 1280 he gained a prebend as canon of the Roskilde Cathedral and in 1283 he advanced to the post of cathedral provost. Possibly Grand was an accomplice of the regicide. Maybe his donation of twelve prebendaries to the Roskilde Cathedral, which Pope Nicholas IV confirmed in 1288, is to be understood as an atonement for that sin. On 27 July, the same year, Ingvar Bishop of Roskilde granted Grand the castle of Selsø Slot.