Jean Beleth (Latin: Joannes Belethus; fl.

[1] 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.

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.

[3] The 19th-century editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica claimed that Jean Belet de Vigny (fl.

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.