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Cornell University Library 
 BX4666 .C56 
 
 Four Somerset bishops, 1136-1 2" 'f°. m d 
 
 3 1924 029 418 237 
 
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The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029418237 
 
ONE SHILLING 
 
 AND 
 
 SIXPENCE 
 NET. 
 
 four 
 Somerset Bishops 
 
 U36— J242. 
 
 BY 
 
 The Rev. C. M. CHURCH, M.A., F.S.A. 
 
 Sub-Dean and Canon Residentiary of Wells. 
 
 HanDon : 
 
 T. BURLEIGH, 155, VICTORIA STREET, S.W. 
 
 TAUNTON : BARNICOTT ft PBARCB. 
 1909. 
 
FOUR 
 SOMERSET BISHOPS 
 
 II36-1242 
 
 FROM 
 
 DOCUMENTS IN POSSESSION OF THE DEAN AND CHAPTER 
 
 OF WELLS 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. C. M. CHURCH, M.A., F.S.A., 
 
 Sub-Dean and Canon Residentiary of Wells 
 
 Blon&on : 
 
 T. BURLEIGH, 155, VICTORIA STREET, S.W. 
 
 Taunton : BARNICOTT AND PEARCE. 
 
 1909 
 
h.^laTa (oZ/ 
 
 BAKNICOTT AND PEARCK 
 PRINTERS 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 These chapters, part of a larger work on the "Early 
 History of the Church of Wells," were based origin- 
 ally on Mr. Freeman's Lectures on the Cathedral 
 Church, and also inspired by his desire that evidences 
 of the earlier history there "locked up in manuscript" 
 in the registers of the Dean and Chapter, which he 
 had not seen, should one day be published. They 
 have formed the subject of lectures and books since 
 that time, and are now republished in this year of 
 thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the See, 
 with the hope of making those evidences more gener- 
 ally accessible, and of leading to further research. 
 
 June, 1909. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Bishop Robert, a. d. 1 136-1166 ... ... 1 
 
 II. ,, Reginald, a.d. 1174-1191 ... 21 
 
 III. ,, Savaric, a.d. 1192-1205 ... 51 
 
 IV. ,, JOSCELIN, A.D. I206-I242 ... 77 
 
FOUR SOMERSET BISHOPS, 
 
 1136— 1242. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Bishop Robert, a.d. 1136-1166. 
 
 According to a "strong and consistent tradition " missionary 
 priests were settled at Wells in the newly conquered Saxon 
 land between the Mendip hills and the moorland, early in the 
 eighth century. 
 
 Sherborne had been made the seat of the bishop of these 
 western lands, and Aldhelm was consecrated first bishop in 
 705. He died in missionary labours in 709, in the little 
 wooden church of Doulting, which stands on the Mendip 
 watershed, looking down through its western valley to the 
 Severn sea. Aldhelm's counsel had led Ine to refound the old 
 religious house at Glastonbury, at the head of the marshes of 
 the Brue. He probably also planted this frontier station at 
 Wells for the vale and fen country of the Axe. 
 
 Here rose up the first Saxon church of St. Andrew, by the 
 side of the springs of water which "gush out like a river" 
 from the limestone rock, and soon became known as " the 
 great fountain of St. Andrew." 
 
 • Two hundred years later, when, under Edward son of 
 Alfred, Wessex was recovering from the harrying of the 
 Danes, the West Saxon Bishopric was again subdivided, and 
 the church of Wells, then served by a company or " college " 
 of priests, became the spiritual centre of the surrounding 
 country, and the seat of the bishop of Somerset. The priests, 
 living under the rule of the bishop, and dependent upon him 
 for their maintenance, became the " canons of St. Andrew." 
 Perhaps at this time the old church of St. Andrew was made 
 
2 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 more worthy to be the seat of the bishop. Perhaps it was at 
 this time of deliverance from the Danish terror that another 
 church was founded in the growing town, and dedicated in 
 the name of St. Cuthbert, the patron saint of Alfred. A deep 
 devotion was solemnly inculcated from father to son, for 
 several generations of the house of Alfred, towards St. 
 Cuthbert. 
 
 During the tenth century the revival of discipline and 
 learning was going on under the successors of Alfred. 
 Glastonbury was the chief scene of monastic and educational 
 reform under Dunstan and Ethelwold, and the stream of 
 endowment flowed strongly thither. 
 
 The Benedictine monks of Glastonbury could look without 
 jealousy from their Tor upon the little church of Wells in the 
 distant shadow of the hills, almost encircled by their own 
 possessions, served by a few secular canons under the rule of 
 a bishop who was sometimes chosen from their own house. 
 
 But in the eleventh century, under Giso, 1061-1088, the 
 foreign bishop from Lorraine, contemporary with Edward the 
 Confessor and living over the Norman Conquest, contem- 
 porary also with the decline of Glastonbury under unthrifty 
 abbots, the possessions of the see grew by royal endowments 
 and episcopal gifts, and the number of the canons increased. 
 
 In the Wells chapter library are copies of charters already 
 published and well known, of local endowments of the see in 
 the time of Giso. There is the original charter dated from 
 Rome, April 25, 1061, given by pope Nicolas II to Giso 
 after his consecration, confirming to him and his successors 
 all that pertained to the see at present, all that he should 
 acquire in the future. 
 
 There are copies of charters, from king Edward, with 
 grants of Chew and Wedmore, and of Milverton and Mark 
 from the lady Editha, in 1062, and the charter recapitulating 
 all the possessions of the see in 1065. There are the grants 
 in 1066, from William as king, to " St. Andrew the Apostle" 
 of thirty hides at Banwell, and of Winsham " for the use of 
 the canons of Wells," and of the church of Wedmore by 
 Matilda, William's queen, at Giso's frequent solicitation, in 
 
 In 1086, two years before Giso's death, the great Domesday 
 Survey had been made. A review of the land of the Bishop 
 enables us to see the result of Giso's diplomacy, and to 
 estimate the possessions of the see at that time. It then 
 included more than one twelfth of the shire, was measured at 
 
Robert, 1136 — 1166. 3 
 
 280 hides, or about 50,000 acres, and valued at ^333 10s., 
 with thirty-seven free tenants and an adult population of 854. 
 It was the second ecclesiastical estate in extent and value, and 
 next after the abbey of Glastonbury, which had a hidage of 
 442, a population of 1390, and a revenue of /"460 8s. 8d. 
 
 The bishop had fifty hides as his own demesne at Wells, on 
 which the canons of St. Andrew were his tenants, with four- 
 teen hides assigned for their support ; they also held eight- 
 and-a-half hides at Litton, and four hides at Wanstrow. 
 These canons were the staff of the church, the ministers of 
 the bishop, his counsellors, — but his tenants at will — under 
 Benthelius the archdeacon, as the bishop's officer, and Isaac 
 the " provost," the steward. In complete dependence upon 
 the bishop, their position and services in the church were 
 entirely subservient to the character and policy of the bishop 
 of the time. 
 
 We have two notable instances of the precarious position 
 and tenure of the canons in the times of Giso and his 
 successor. 
 
 Giso, coming from Lorraine where the semi-monastic rule 
 of cathedral life for secular canons had been established, found 
 a small and humble church at Wells, a few canons there, four 
 or five, without any conventual house, without refectory or 
 cloister, or the necessary ecclesiastical buildings. He intro- 
 duced the much stricter discipline of his own country, built 
 cloister, refectory and dormitory for the canons, and obliged 
 them to live together as a celibate brotherhood. 1 A provost, 
 elected out of their own body, had charge over the property 
 and internal management of the brotherhood. 
 
 Giso was one of the bishops who consecrated Lanfranc in 
 1070. He was at the synod of London in 1075 when it was 
 decreed that the seats of bishops should be transferred from 
 villages to cities, and among others that of Wells to Bath, 
 and he must have forecast the great change and uprooting of 
 his "family" and college at Wells which this would cause. 
 
 But the move was delayed until after his death. When in 
 1088 John of Tours, the successor in the see, obtained from 
 William II the grant of the abbey of Bath, the seat of the 
 bishop was transferred to Bath, Wells lost the preeminence 
 which it had held for two hundred years and became as one of 
 the manors of the see, but retaining a collegiate church. 
 
 1. Historiola " De primordiis Episcopatus Somersetensis," in Camden Soc. 
 Publications, p. 22 : — " regulariter et religiose cohabitare." 
 
4 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 " Andrew gave place to Peter, the elder brother to the 
 younger.'' 
 
 With this removal of the bishop and the loss of title and 
 dignity to the see, a great change came over the position of 
 the canons of St. Andrew. Bishop John broke up the 
 ecclesiastical establishment which Giso had built up. He 
 destroyed alike the conventual buildings and the canonical 
 discipline, and the canons once more lived in houses in the 
 town. 1 
 
 Their lands were farmed out to Hildebert his brother, the 
 provost or steward, with a rent-charge upon them of sixty 
 shillings to each canon, ten in number. The provost devised 
 them by will as private property, subject only to rent-charge 
 to John the archdeacon, his son, and he to his brother 
 Reginald, the precentor. 
 
 After the death of bishop John, Godfrey, his successor, 
 tried in vain to recover the lands from John the archdeacon, 
 but the hand of Roger, bishop of Salisbury, the chancellor, 
 then prevailed against him with the king, and at his death he 
 left to his successor the church and canons suffering grievous- 
 ly from the exactions which their subjection to the provost 
 had brought upon them. 
 
 Robert of Lewes succeeded to the see in 1136. 
 
 With Robert a new stage in the history begins. 
 
 Like Osmund at Sarum, and Remigius at Lincoln at the 
 close of the eleventh century, so Robert in the twelfth century 
 is the second founder of the cathedral church at Wells. He 
 founded the constitution of the chapter ; he was either the 
 restorer of the old Church or the first builder of the new ; 
 and by granting the first charter of freedom, as overlord, to 
 the burghers of his town, he was the first maker of Wells as 
 a borough. 
 
 We can glean comparatively little from contemporary 
 notices of his personal life. He was of a Fleming family, but 
 born in England a monk of the Cluniac order and of the 
 Cluniac house of St. Pancras, founded by William de Warenne 
 earl of Surrey, in 1091, at Lewes in Sussex. He owed his 
 first appointment as prior of St. Swithin, Winchester, to 
 Henry of Blois, himself a monk of Cluni, the brother of king 
 Stephen, who, as abbot of Glastonbury from 1123 to his 
 death in 1171, and bishop of Winchester from 11 29, afterwards 
 
 i. Hisloriola, p. 22. It is not said that he built a house for himself on the 
 ground : this addition only appears in the fifteenth century writer and Godwin. 
 
Robert, 1136 — 1166. 5 
 
 papal legate from 1 139 to 1143, was the prime minister and 
 most powerful man in the kingdom during the troubled reign 
 of Stephen. 
 
 Robert, after having been employed by abbot Henry at 
 Glastonbury on some temporary commission, was elected in 
 1 136 bishop of Bath, and confirmed in the temporalities of 
 the see, by Stephen, at Westminster, in the Easter feast. 
 
 The full text of his appointment to the see is given in a 
 charter, which illustrates trie relations of the king towards 
 the church, and the procedure in the appointment of bishops 
 at this time. 
 
 King Stephen, rex Anglorum, addressing the archbishop 
 and the great men of the realm, makes grant of the tempor- 
 alities of the see to " Robert bishop of Bath " by canonical 
 election, and confirmation by royal and popular approval, and 
 the king confirms to the bishop all grants which former kings 
 have made to former bishops. 
 
 The charter is attested in public audience at Westminster 
 during the Easter solemnities, and subscribed by the three 
 archbishops, of Canterbury, York, and Rouen, and others, 
 and Robert was consecrated by his friend and patron Henry 
 of Winchester. This was the first appointment Stephen had 
 made. He had landed from Boulogne in the December 
 before with little following, and had obtained the support of 
 London and Winchester, where his brother the bishop had 
 induced bishop Roger of Salisbury, the justiciar, to make 
 over to him the royal treasure. Thus strengthened, he return- 
 ed to London for formal election and coronation. He had 
 been crowned, not without misgivings, by archbishop William 
 on St. Stephen's day, 1 135-6, in the presence of the two 
 bishops of Winchester and Salisbury. 
 
 A council of clergy was held in April at London, in which 
 they had petitioned Stephen to defend the liberties of the 
 church, and to give effect to her counsels and decrees. 
 Either at his coronation or at this council Stephen had given 
 a short charter in which he confirmed generally the laws and 
 liberties of the kingdom, and promised to respect the canonical 
 election of bishops, and to fill up vacant sees without un- 
 necessary delay. There was therefore good reason that the 
 ancient form of precedent should be carefully set out, and 
 attested in this first charter of the first bishop's appointment 
 in Stephen's reign. 
 
 Henry of Blois was not yet papal legate, and there is no 
 mention of papal confirmation of Stephen's appointment. 
 
6 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 Though we know little of Robert's personal life, it is 
 evident that the Cluniac monk must have been a man of 
 vigour and sagacity to obtain the recognition of the politic 
 statesman bishop Henry. 
 
 His after life showed his power of administration in those 
 difficult times. In the first part of his life as bishop his 
 connection with bishop Henry attached hirn to the side of 
 Stephen, and in his zeal for 'the king's cause he nearly lost his 
 life in the faction fights between Bath and Bristol in 1138. 
 
 His diocese was one scene of that unparalleled lawlessness 
 which contemporary chroniclers have painted so graphically 
 during the reign of Stephen. 
 
 In those years 1138-1 139 Stephen was at Bath and besieging 
 Bristol. From there he turned aside to blockade the castle 
 of the Lovel family at Castle Cary, which he forced to 
 surrender. He then marched across the Mendip hills against 
 William Fitzjohn of Harpetre. The castle of Harpetre was 
 taken by surprise and burnt. The bishop's own lands suffered 
 from this predatory baron who stretched forth his hands across 
 the Mendips and " unjustly took from bishop Robert the fee 
 of Dinre" (Dinder) which was not restored during his episco- 
 pate. Another insurgent, William of Mohun, lord of Dunster, 
 from his inaccessible castle on the shore of the Severn sea, 
 sallied out " to ravage all that region with fire and sword, and 
 turned a region of peace into discord and rebellion, mourning 
 and woe." " The realm was rent in two ; some lords inclining 
 to the king, some to the empress. Neither of them could 
 exact command or enforce discipline ; both allowed to their 
 supporters every sort of licence for fear of losing them. In 
 every province numbers of castles had sprung up, and there 
 were as many tyrants as there were lords of castles, and they 
 fought among themselves with deadly hatred. They spoiled 
 the fairest regions with fire and rapine, and destroyed almost 
 all the provision of bread. Many bishops took arms, joined 
 with the barons, fought in battle, divided the spoil, built 
 castles, oppressed the people, and public fame branded especi- 
 ally the bishops of Winchester, Lincoln, and Chester." 
 
 In the centre of this endless agitation bishop Robert was 
 quietly working out the new constitution and the new fabric 
 of his church at Wells, which, as a house built upon the rock, 
 was to stand the storms of many generations. 
 
 The charters of Robert's time are few, but each of them 
 has important bearing upon the history of the church of 
 Wells. They are as landmarks and starting points, giving a 
 
Robert, 1136— 1166. 7 
 
 direction to the course of later government and the progress 
 of events. 
 
 This first charter belongs to the year 1136, the date of his 
 own consecration. He set himself at once to the recovery of 
 Wells from the state of humiliation under which it had been 
 left by the rule of bishop John of Tours. 
 
 The charter is the first draft of the constitution ; it is incom- 
 plete, but it is virtually the incorporation of the Chapter. 
 
 He says he had acted in. council with the archbishops, 
 bishops, and chief persons of the Church. The charter was 
 drawn up in the presence of bishop Henry of Winchester, 
 and afterwards-confirmed by the two archbishops, William de 
 Corbeil, of Canterbury, and Thurstan de Bayeux, of York, 
 and by the bishops Roger of Sarum, William of Exeter, and 
 Simon of Worcester. 
 
 The date of the charter is fixed conclusively by the signa- 
 tures of archbishop William, and William Warelwast bishop 
 of Exeter, both of whom died in n 36. 
 
 In this first draft of the constitution he was applying to 
 Wells principles worked out by Norman bishops in the 
 English cathedral churches at the end of the previous century, 
 but he was prompted immediately by sympathy with the 
 pressing wants of his church and clergy. 
 
 He found the church " suffering intolerably from the oppres- 
 sion of the provostship." The ministrant body were suffering 
 from the claims of the provost, who doled out to them a bare 
 subsistence from the lands which had been bequeathed to the 
 church for their maintenance. Powerless for united action in 
 the absence or negligence of the bishop, they were as chap- 
 lains or curates of the bishop and stipendiaries of the provost. 
 
 His aim was to constitute a self-governing community, with 
 a spiritual head and officers, who should have their share in 
 the home government of the church, with freehold endow- 
 ments separate and distinct from the lands of the bishop, 
 secured alike from misappropriation by the bishop or his 
 officers as of late, and from the grasp of the crown when the 
 temporalities passed to the crown on a vacancy of the see. 
 
 Accordingly he instituted a dean, an officer of dignity and 
 authority to preside and rule the canons, invested " with the 
 like dignities and privileges and authority as in other well 
 ordered churches." And lest the office should suffer from the 
 like usurpation, the office was endowed with its own lands 
 which secured independence and dignity. 
 
 The deanship is the only office here instituted and the 
 
8 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 framework of the constitution is now imperfectly sketched 
 out ; but bishop Robert had before him the models of other 
 cathedral churches where the capitular system was at work, 
 and to these Wells was gradually assimilated. 
 
 "The Norman bishops," Mr. H. Bradshaw says, 1 "had 
 brought with them into England a form of government for 
 the cathedral churches which they had followed in their own 
 churches of Rouen and Bayeux, whereby the canons obtained 
 a separate and independent position, and the home govern- 
 ment of the church became vested in them as a body, the 
 Chapter." 
 
 In the previous generation, about the same time at York 
 and Lincoln in 1090, and at Salisbury in 109 1, that form of 
 constitution was instituted for the government of these 
 cathedral churches which became the pattern for all secular 
 chapters subsequently erected. About the same time, " short- 
 ly before n 50, the bishop of Lincoln, Robert de Chesney, 
 had been persuaded on his accession to the see to bestow upon 
 his chapter the fullest privileges which had been accorded to 
 the chapter of Salisbury by their founder, and this example 
 was followed by other bishops both in England and Scotland." 
 The churches were put under the government of officers 
 appointed by the bishop, with definite offices and duties and 
 separate possessions attached to the offices ; and with them 
 was a body of canons, with the dean at the head of all, 
 appointed at first by the bishop, but soon elected by them- 
 selves. 
 
 Each of the officers had a distinct sphere of duty. The 
 dean was president of the chapter and judge in all causes and 
 matters relating to the chapter ; the duty of the precentor, 
 the next in importance " in days when the science of worship 
 was so serious a matter," was to rule the choir, to lead the 
 chanting, to admit and instruct the choir. The chancellor, 
 called also the archischola had both educational and legal 
 work — head of the cathedral school, corrector of the ordinal 
 and service books, keeper of the seal, secretary and legal 
 adviser of the chapter. All ornaments and furniture of the 
 church and the ordering of ceremonial was in the hands of 
 the treasurer. Subdean and succentor were assistants re- 
 spectively of dean and precentor. 
 
 All these offices are found existing very early in the church 
 of Wells, some, in Robert's time, as dean, precentor, treasurer, 
 
 1. Lincoln Cathedral Statutes, ed. Bradshaw and Wordsworth, pp. 30, 36. 
 
Robert, 1136— 1166. 9 
 
 subdean, and two archdeacons of Bath and Wells, and all, in 
 the next episcopate of bishop Reginald. The description of 
 these offices is contained in the earliest draft of statutes. The 
 "ancient statutes" which stand at the head of the successive 
 codes of dated statutes, themselves undated, are a declaration 
 of the " ancient customs of the church when first committed 
 to writing." These statutes supplement this first draft of the 
 charter, and show the next stage in the growth of the consti- 
 tution. 
 
 The division of the lands of the bishop, and the endowment 
 of the dean and the canons with separate estates, was the 
 second part in this charter. 
 
 The office of the dean was endowed with the manor of 
 Wedmoreland including Mark and Mudgeley, the island block 
 between the marshes of the Axe and the Brue. He was 
 rector of the churches of Wedmore and Wookey, but charged 
 to support four prebends with 100 shillings each a year out of 
 his estate of Wedmore. The manor of Litton also supplied a 
 prebend which was attached to the deanship. 
 
 The manor of Biddisham was set apart to supply a fund 
 for the support of the fabric and furniture of the church of 
 Wells, and it was the titular prebend of St. Andrew. Only 
 one virgate of its land was reserved to suoport a vicar choral 
 at Wells. 
 
 Dulcot with Chilcot, Wormestor (Wormister), Wanstrow^ 
 Bromley or Bromfield in the Quantocks, each formed a 
 prebend. 
 
 Out of Winsham five prebends were made. 
 
 The manor of Combe St. Nicholas was given for life to 
 Reginald the precentor, in compensation for his cession of the 
 tenure of the estates received through his uncle the arch- 
 deacon from the late bishop John, of whom a kindly mention 
 is here made. But after his death, prebends for the support 
 of five canons were to be formed out of the manor. All these 
 manors had formed part of the endowments of the see as held 
 by bishop Giso. 
 
 Robert now made grants of two more prebends from later 
 endowments, viz. : Yatton, and Huish in Brent Marsh with 
 the church of Compton. 
 
 Two more prebends were made by the grant of king 
 Stephen of the churches of North Curry and Perreton. 
 
 Altogether twenty-four prebends were made in bishop 
 Robert's time out of the lands of the see now transferred, and 
 made the freehold of the canons. 
 
io Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 The charter, so far treats only of the division of the lands 
 into prebends assigned to individual canons ; it says nothing 
 of the common property, the communa, as specifically vested 
 in the corporation. But at the same time Robert confirmed 
 to the canons the grants assigned by his predecessors for 
 special purposes, e.g., half a hide of land in North Wootton 
 with which Giso (1061-1088) had endowed the chapel of the 
 Blessed Virgin, and half a hide with which bishop Godfrey 
 had endowed the rectory of St. Cuthbert, in Wells, at the 
 dedication of this church by him (1123-1135), after recon- 
 struction of the old Saxon church. Later documents contain 
 the evidence that during his episcopate bishop Robert made 
 over the church of St. Cuthbert to the canons, as part of 
 their common property. Other special endowments were 
 made expressly to the common fund of the canons during 
 bishop Robert's time, by grants of lay lands in the diocese, 
 which, though not enumerated now, appear in the confirma- 
 tion of the possessions of the see in the early part of the next 
 episcopate (1176). 
 
 One specific grant is made for the daily sustenance of the 
 canons, of a tenth of the wine, or of the vineyards, of the 
 bishop, and a charge upon the tithes of the bishop to provide 
 the canons with the allowance of bread. The vineyards are 
 not specified ; Glastonbury had vineyards at Meare, Pilton, 
 and Pamborough. 
 
 This charter, made in the first year of the episcopate, could 
 only represent the purpose of the bishop and the first outline 
 of his plans. The partition of the lands and the endowment 
 of the canons could only be carried out in the course of after 
 years, as the lands came into the bishop's possession after 
 alienation. 
 
 Early in bishop Robert's time Reginald the precentor had 
 surrendered his hereditary tenure. But it was long before the 
 bishop came into quiet possession of all the lands which he 
 had held. The right of surrender was disputed by the 
 nephews of Reginald in the king's court, and it was only at 
 the close of Robert's life that their claims to the lands of 
 Winsham, Mudgeley with Mark and a virgate of Biddisham, 
 and Wanstrow, were compromised, at a cost of seventy marcs, 
 and they made public renunciation of all pretensions. 1 
 
 Again, in the charter of 1136 Robert made a grant of 
 
 ,A H J S l° ri f a ' 26 l- 2 l'« R - 'lA 36 - ?• m > f - J 5- Among the witnesses are 
 Richard the dean, which fixes the date after 1160. 
 
Robert, 1136— 1166. 11 
 
 Huish in Brent to the canons, but it was not until 1159 that 
 he was able to execute his purpose. Huish was a member of 
 the manor of Banwell, which remained for some time in lay 
 hands, after Banwell had been restored to the see by William 
 at the Conquest. 
 
 The recovery of Huish, and the conveyance of it to the 
 church, are made the subject of a deed of great formality. 1 
 
 In a charter addressed to Theobald the archbishop, the 
 bishops, and the whole diocese, he names the laylords by 
 whom the lands had been held in succession during his episco- 
 pate and his purpose obstructed, and now, fearing lest the 
 manor of Huish should be lost to the church he publicly 
 declares that it is made for ever a prebend in the church of 
 Wells, that thereby " the number of the canons there serving 
 God may be increased, and the praises of God may sound 
 forth more joyously." It is remarkable that a synod of the 
 diocese seems to have been called to attest this deed, which 
 is dated with great precision of year and month, and epact 
 and indiction, in the fifth year of Henry " the younger " and 
 in the twenty-third year of the episcopate, 11 59. Peter, 
 prior, and the convent of Bath, Ivo, dean, and " the convent " 
 of Wells, the abbots of Muchelney and Athelney, Robert 
 prior of the monks of Glastonbury, the priors of Montacute, 
 Taunton, and Bruton, archdeacons Robert of Wells and 
 Thomas of Bath, and many others attest the deed. 
 
 There are some other charters in the registers which supple- 
 ment the first charter of ordination, and which represent rules 
 probably instituted by Robert. One for instance regulated 
 the succession of the prebends for the year after death, that 
 on the vacancy of a prebend, two parts of the revenues were 
 assigned to the common fund of the canons, who were bound 
 to maintain the obituary services for the deceased during the 
 year after death, and the third part belonged to the estate of 
 the late canon. Each canon was bound to pay tithes to the 
 parish church near to which his prebend was situated ; he 
 was in no wise to diminish the value of the prebend, but to 
 leave it stocked as he had received it. 
 
 The daily recitation of the psalter by the members of the 
 chapter, formed part of the consuetudinary introduced by the 
 Norman bishops in the twelfth century elsewhere, and it is 
 ordered in the earliest draft of statutes, "(the ancient statutes)," 
 at Wells. This usage can be traced to very early times in 
 
 1. R. i, f. 26. " Carta ecclesiae de Hiwys in Brent marisco." 
 
12 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 the ordinances of the churches of Lincoln and Salisbury, as 
 of Wells. 
 
 "The earliest recorded statute to be found at Lincoln is one 
 concerning the division of the psalter for daily recitation : it 
 is an ordinance based upon the " ancient institutes," of the 
 church, and drawn up by the dean and chapter, and confirmed 
 by St. Hugh, bishop, 1 186-1200. " 1 
 
 An order likewise of the church of Wells directs that " the 
 whole psalter shall be said daily for the brethren and bene- 
 factors of the church of Wells, and two masses each week 
 shall be celebrated for living and dead. 
 
 Together with the institution of prebends, the existence of 
 the vicars choral seems to be coeval with the earliest establish- 
 ment of the constitution, though not part of the constitution, 
 but an offshoot from it. It was a natural result from the en- 
 dowment of the canons with prebendal estates. 
 
 We have seen that in the charter of 11 36 it was ordered 
 that the prebend of Biddisham should provide a vicar in the 
 church of Wells, for whom a special endowment of land was 
 set apart, one virgate. 
 
 The custom grew up very soon that every prebendary who 
 undertook to reside in part, and to claim any share in the 
 common fund, was bound to provide a substitute in his 
 absence, " his vicar " subject to the dean's approval, and 
 under the authority of the dean and chapter. There is no 
 mention of vicars in the ancient institutes, but they were 
 engrafted into the cathedral system before the end of the 
 twelfth century. 
 
 Such was the first outline of the capitular constitution of 
 the church of Wells in the twelfth century. From henceforth 
 gradually the canons of the cathedral church became a distinct 
 corporation, with a head in the person of the dean, at first 
 appointed by the bishop, soon afterwards chosen, by the 
 canons. All the canons and dignitaries were appointed by 
 the bishop. But whereas hitherto the bishop had been the 
 head of his canons, as an abbot was the head of his monks, 
 now by degrees the chapter became a separate body, with 
 interests and possessions of its own, distinct from those of the 
 bishop — a corporate body, entitled the " Dean and Chapter," 
 to whom was committed the home government of the cathedral 
 church. Each member of the chapter became a separate 
 
 1. H. Bradshaw in Lincoln Cathedral Statutes, p. 37. 
 
Robert, 1136 — 1166. 13 
 
 corporation sole, distinct alike from the bishop, and his brother 
 canons, in the possession of a prebend as his freehold. 1 
 
 When the " dean and chapter " of Wells had been consti- 
 tuted, the relations of the two chapters of Bath and Wells 
 required careful readjustment. 
 
 Since the transfer of the see to Bath, there had been 
 doubtless a change in the mode of election of the bishop. 
 The canons of Wells had lost the position which they had 
 held from the earliest times, and probably the formal election 
 of bishops Godfrey and Robert had been exercised by the 
 monks of Bath alone. 
 
 Either experience, or forecast of strife between the two 
 bodies must have moved Robert soon to make provisions for 
 settling the relations of the canons and the monks. We find 
 that the constitutional relation of the two sees was laid down 
 during his episcopate and confirmed by papal confirmation. 
 A charter of Hadrian IV, in 1157, formally recognised Bath 
 as the bishop's seat, sanctioned Robert's title as bishop of 
 Bath, and confirmed him in all the possessions of the see. 
 
 Another papal charter by the next pope, Alexander III 
 (1 159-81) confirms the title and recites these articles of 
 arrangement made for the harmonious relations of the two 
 chapters. 
 
 (a). The two churches of Bath and Wells to be equally 
 seats of the bishop. 
 
 (b). The bishop to be elected by representatives of the two 
 chapters. 
 
 (c). The prior of Bath to notify the election to the arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. 
 
 (d). The bishop to be enthroned in both churches, and 
 first in the church of Bath. 
 
 These terms, acted on in the election of Reginald the 
 successor to bishop Robert, received the formal sanction of 
 the Roman court in the year after his election, 11 76 — at the 
 request of the dean and chapter. But there was no change 
 or addition to the title of the bishop "of Bath" at this time, 
 and not for many years later. No bishop was called "of 
 Bath and Wells " before bishop Roger in 1244. 
 
 This sketch of bishop Robert's constitution for his church, 
 may be closed in the words of Henry Bradshaw, which also 
 are a prelude to the future history of the chapter. 
 
 " The capitulum or chapter had originally been the body of 
 
 i. Freeman, Cathedral Church, pp. 49, 65. 
 
14 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 clerici most nearly connected with the bishop's see, and form- 
 ing as such the bishop's immediate council. 
 
 " But by the latter part of the eleventh century this body 
 had begun in many ways to develop a substantive existence of 
 its own. The need of an organisation for the management of 
 the mother church of the diocese, whether from the import- 
 ance of that church, or from the necessarily frequent absence 
 of the bishop, led to the creation of a systematic form of 
 home government ; and, in order to create and foster a due 
 sense of responsibility, it became a matter of good policy for 
 the bishops to confer very great powers and privileges upon 
 the body to which this home government was entrusted." 1 
 
 While Robert was building up the framework of the con- 
 stitution, he was also rebuilding in some degree the fabrics 
 both at Bath and Wells. 
 
 It is a remarkable instance of the fragmentary and incom- 
 plete character of these materials of history that such an 
 event as the reconstruction and consecration of the cathedral 
 church should be almost unnoticed in the contemporary 
 records at Wells. 
 
 The earliest writer on the origin of the see, who was con- 
 temporary with bishop Reginald, states that at Bath " he 
 (Robert) built at a great expense the church of the blessed 
 Peter, a chapter house and cloister, dormitory, refectory, and 
 infirmary." He adds " the church of Wells was also built 
 by his counsel and help,"' 2 and afterwards dedicated with a 
 solemnity which made it memorable. 
 
 He dilates on the consecration of the church in the presence 
 of three bishops, Jocelin of Sarum, Simon of Worcester, and 
 Robert of Hereford. 
 
 The death of Robert de Bethune, bishop of Hereford, on 
 April 16, 1 148, fixes the date of consecration to the early part 
 of that year. As if in fresh recollection of the event, the 
 writer tells how the consecration was marked by the grant 
 from the bishops present, of one hundred days of remission of 
 penance to all who should keep the anniversary of that day by 
 coming to the church. 
 
 The only evidences which the Wells charters supply as to 
 the fabric in bishop Robert's time are (a) his own confirmation 
 in the first year of his episcopate, 1136, of the grant from 
 
 1. H. Bradshaw, in Lincoln Cathedral Statutes, p. 31. 
 
 2. Historiola, p. 24. " De primordiis episcopatus Somersetensis." Camden 
 Soc. Publications. 
 
Robert, 1136— 1166. 15 
 
 bishop Giso to the endowment of the chapel of the Blessed 
 Mary of half a hide in Wotton, 1 and (b) the enumeration 
 among the chapter property in 1246 of an endowment of the 
 church made by bishop Robert at the dedication of the ' old 
 church ' 2 from the lands of Dultingcote. 
 
 It may be that he did no more at Wells than restore in the 
 style of his own time, the chapel which bishop Giso had 
 endowed and bishop John had left to dilapidation. 
 
 As the consecration of this building took place in the twelfth 
 year of his episcopate there remained eighteen years more 
 for the greater work at Bath. 
 
 This is all we are told of Robert as a builder of the church 
 of Wells in the earlier charters. 
 
 There is just enough to lead us to look for evidence in the 
 architectural features of the fabric which may correspond 
 with the date of this consecration of some part of it, in 1148. 
 This date, at least, must be the starting point for all enquiries 
 into the architectural history of the present church. 
 
 The church which Robert was rebuilding was the Saxon or 
 " Romanesque " church of Wells, in which Dudoc and Giso 
 were buried, each in their places on either side of the high 
 altar. Mr. Freeman would have us conceive of this "the old 
 church of St. Andrew " as built in the old Romanesque 
 " style of England which prevailed before the great improve- 
 ments of Norman Romanesque were introduced in the eleventh 
 century, — small, and low, and plain, with massive round 
 arches and small round-headed windows, with one or more 
 tall, slender, unbuttressed towers, imitating the bell towers of 
 Italy." 8 It was such a church which Robert was now re- 
 building at Wells. 
 
 But in the church of Bath which he is said to have partly 
 rebuilt or finished he must have had before him a more 
 finished example of that " later variety of Romanesque which 
 had been imported into England under Edward the Confessor, 
 from Normandy, and which is called the Norman style," in 
 which John of Tours had been building. 
 
 If we know little of the construction of the fabric by 
 bishop Robert, we have evidences in his charters that he was 
 active not only in building, but in furnishing his restored 
 
 R. 1, f. 31. 
 
 R. 3, f- 4- 
 
 Freeman, Cathedral Church, p. 24. 
 
16 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 church, and in promoting due order and reverence of worship 
 therein. 
 
 The one charter in which allusion is made by Robert to his 
 dedication of the church contains a grant of lands at Dulcot 
 and Chilcot, of half a hide and half a virgate to one who had 
 been long engaged in some way in his service, Ralph Martire. 
 
 These lands were charged with the perpetual obligation of 
 providing three lights, one of three pounds weight, and two of 
 two pounds each, for the high altar on the vigil of the festival 
 of St. Andrew. 1 
 
 This grant was confirmed by bishop Roger in 1246. 2 
 
 Another charter has a double interest. In it the bishop 
 appears both as chief pastor and ordinary in his cathedral 
 church, and also as lord of the manor granting a charter of 
 freedom from tolls to his burghers of the town. 
 
 The preamble recites that whereas the noise and disorder 
 of markets held in the church and the vestibule of the church 
 bring dishonour to God, disturbance to the ministering priests, 
 and hindrance to worshippers, lest the church should become 
 a den of merchandise, the bishop orders that henceforth, 
 markets on the eves and festivals of the Invention of Holy 
 Cross (May 3), of St. Calixtus (October 14), and of St. 
 Andrew (November 30), shall no longer be held near the 
 church, but in the broad places of the town. 
 
 We realize the scene suggested — the stalls and booths in 
 the square in front, against the doors, and on the steps, within 
 the porches, or in the nave itself of the church ; market 
 people standing and chaffering around the doors, coming with 
 baskets and goods into the church, kneeling before shrines 
 and altars. Such was the scene at the west door, and in the 
 nave of the old church, and on the ground outside. 
 
 As God's minister careful for the reverence due to His 
 house of prayer, he removed the markets from the west front 
 of the church to the square of the town. At the same time, 
 as an act of grace from the lord of the manor, he made a 
 grant to the burghers of his town that the tolls due to his 
 officers at those markets should be remitted for ever. 
 
 This charter, made before n 60, is attested by Ivo the dean, 
 
 1. R. i, f. 46 ; iii, f. 292. Hyginus, the precentor (this may be a mistake by 
 the later copyist for Reginaldus), two archdeacons, Robert of Wells, Thomas of 
 Bath, Robert subdean, William the treasurer, John the provost, Peter prior of 
 Bath, William prior of Bruton, are among the witnesses attesting this grant. 
 Ivo the dean, and others, confirm it. 
 
 2. R. iii, f. 4. 
 
Robert, 1136 — 1166. 17 
 
 Reginald the precentor, Robert and Thomas archdeacons, 
 Ralph Martire and others. It is one in that series of local 
 municipal charters whereby the boroughs of England grew 
 up into independent self-government. 1 
 
 The charter fixed the time at which these free markets 
 should be held, and an interesting question arises why these 
 festivals should have been chosen. 
 
 The festival of St. Andrew was of course kept with special 
 ceremonial as the feast of the patron saint. The other two 
 days may have been chosen as the great markets of spring 
 and autumn. But there may have been other historical 
 reasons why the other two festivals were days of special ob- 
 servance in the church of Wells. 
 
 Leodgaresburgh, afterwards Montacute in Somerset, had 
 been the scene of the " Invention," the discovery, in the days 
 of Cnut, of a relic of the Holy Cross which had been trans- 
 ported by oxen taking their straight way as by divine 
 monition, like the kine of Bethshemesh, until they came to 
 "Waltham in Essex. There in later days earl Harold had 
 raised over the sacred relic the great church of secular canons, 
 rival of St. Peter's Westminster, which was consecrated in 
 the presence of Edward and the great men of the land, among 
 whom bishop Giso was present, on Holy Cross day, 1060. 
 
 The cross of Waltham, once the cross of Leodgaresburgh, 
 became the special object of the devotion of Harold's life — 
 the rallying cry of the men who fought around his standard 
 on the fatal day of battle, which was the day of St. Calixtus, 
 October 14. 
 
 Could it be that an altar of the Holy Cross had been raised 
 in the old church in memory of the " Invention of the Holy 
 Cross" of Leodgaresburgh and endowed in the church of St. 
 Andrew in Wells by earl Harold himself, in Giso's time ? 
 
 Nor again can we forget that it was on the day of St. 
 Calixtus, the third of these days of observance, that after- 
 wards Harold fell in battle and William the Norman won the 
 kingdom. The bishop at that time was Giso the foreigner, 
 whose sympathies and hopes would rather be with the con- 
 queror than with Harold. Could Giso have dedicated an 
 altar in the name of this saint, as a courtly compliment to a 
 powerful patron, or in gratitude for lands recovered and 
 endowments given ? 
 
 Whatever may have been the reason for the selection of 
 
 1. Charters No. 5 ; cf. R. iii, 245-6. 
 
i8 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 these festivals or for their original institution, we know that 
 there were three altars with these dedications in the church in 
 bishop Robert's time. And we may suppose they would be 
 perpetuated in the greater church which succeeded. 
 
 The escheator's accounts in the chapter archives contain 
 evidences that the offerings made at these markets were paid, 
 and formed part of the revenues of the church through 
 succeeding ages, until all record of them ceases in the years 
 of general confiscation in the sixteenth century. 1 
 
 Two charters of Henry II in Robert's episcopate mark the 
 recognition by the crown of freehold rights of the bishop and 
 of the dean, as lords in their respective estates ; the one a 
 grant to Robert to enclose his parks throughout the county, 
 thereby securing his freedom from the usurpations of the 
 king's officers of the forests,' 2 and about the same time Ivo, 
 the dean obtained a charter of " free warren " on his lands at 
 Wedmore" which gave him like immunity in his manor. 
 
 Ivo, the first dean, was succeeded by Richard of Spakeston 
 (Spaxton on the Quantocks) in 1160, and he survived the 
 bishop and the interregnum of eight years which followed 
 Robert's death in 1166. 
 
 Through these thirty years of national strife and of disputed 
 succession to the throne, Robert was mostly engaged in these 
 works of home administration, but at times he was also taking 
 part in the public affairs of church and state. 
 
 In 1 141 he was with bishop Henry at Winchester, at the 
 public reception of the empress Matilda, after Stephen had 
 been taken prisoner at the battle of Lincoln ; when many of 
 the bishops, headed by Henry of Winchester and Bernard of 
 St. David's, shifted for the time their allegiance from Stephen 
 to the empress.' 1 « 
 
 In 1 153 he assisted as witness to the compact made be- 
 tween Stephen and the young duke Henry of Anjou, and he 
 was present at Henry's coronation at Westminster, December 
 19, 1 154. In October of that year he had been one of the 
 consecrators at Westminster of Roger de Pont l'Eveque arch- 
 deacon of Canterbury to the archbishopric of York. 
 
 In 1 1 62 he was one of the fourteen bishops present at 
 Canterbury at the consecration of Thomas the chancellor to 
 
 1. Escheatory Rolls, passim until A.D. 1544. Hist. MSS. Report, p. 284. 
 
 2. R. i, f. 15. 
 3- R. i, t- 58. 
 
 4. Will. Malmb., ii, 188. 
 
Robert, 1136 — 1166. 19 
 
 the archbishopric of Canterbury, and he witnessed the first 
 stages of the great quarrel between Henry and his archbishop. 
 
 In the midst of these public acts, it is pleasant to find him 
 also engaged in a work of pastoral visitation in his diocese. 
 In contrast to the lives of worldly bishops and savage barons 
 with which the chronicles abound in these stormy times, the 
 memory of at least one saintly life has been rescued by con- 
 temporaries from total oblivion. 
 
 A memoir of St. Ulfric, a Somerset hermit, one of the 
 English stock, is preserved in the pages of Matthew Paris the 
 monk of St. Albans, and of Gervase of Canterbury. Priest 
 at Compton Martin, his birthplace and home, afterwards 
 hermit in a cell near the church at Haselbury 1 wearing a shirt 
 of sackclothj and over it a long coat of chain armour which, 
 in keeping with the character of the times, a friendly knight 
 had given him, Ulfric fought out twenty-seven years of lonely 
 spiritual conflict, the wonder and awe of the neighbourhood 
 for his ascetic life. His fame for visions brought, as is said, 
 at one time Henry I and his queen, at another, the boy Henry 
 of Anjou, to visit him in his cell to hear things to come. 
 Humble of spirit and kindly of speech to those who sought 
 him, echoes of heavenly harmonies were wont to resound 
 behind the closed lattice of his cell. Bishop Robert visited 
 him there, was present with him at his deathbed, and buried 
 him in his cell, from whence his body was moved afterwards 
 to the church of Haselbury, where the fame of miracles 
 worked at his tomb in " St. Ulfric's aisle " kept alive his 
 memory. 
 
 Bishop Robert died in 1166, August 31, in the thirtieth year 
 of his episcopate, and he was buried before the high altar of 
 the church of Bath. 
 
 The first part of his episcopate belonged to the times of 
 anarchy in Stephen's reign, 1136-1154 ; the last twelve years 
 coincided with the beginning of the constitutional settlement 
 and literary activity of Henry IPs reign. 
 
 He who sketched out the draft of the constitution of the 
 chapter of his church in 11 36, lived to work out its details for 
 thirty years. He was one of the active spirits of the twelfth 
 century, who steadily but quietly leavened the world for good 
 amidst the turbulence and wickedness around. He lived in 
 the middle of the twelfth century, at a time in which there 
 
 1. Haselbury Plucknett, near Crewkerne. The rectory was a prebend in the 
 church of Wells. 
 
20 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 was a great preparation for the outburst of intellectual and 
 political life in the thirteenth century. Friend of Henry of 
 Blois, his survivor, " who concentrated about him all that 
 remained of the enlightenment and refinement of English and 
 Norman society," and of archbishop Theobald, "who pre- 
 served and handed on the traditions of Bee and of Canter- 
 bury, which had gathered round Lanfranc and Anselm," he 
 was contemporary also with the lawyers of the court of 
 Henry, and the younger literary men who formed ' the school 
 of St. Thomas,' such as John of Salisbury, Ralph de Diceto 
 afterwards dean of St. Paul's, and Reginald "the Italian," 
 son of bishop Jocelin of Sarum, the intelligent traveller and 
 diplomatist, who after eight years of vacancy in the see was 
 his successor as bishop of Bath. 1 
 
 I. Bishop Stubbs' Lectures on Medieval and Modern History, Lect. vi, vii. 
 He draws out an estimate of the debt that the thirteenth century owed to the 
 twelfth. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Bishop Reginald, a.d. 1174-1191. 
 
 I venture to think that bishop Reginald Fitzjocelin deserves 
 a place of higher honour in the history of the diocese, and of 
 the fabric of the church of Wells, than has hitherto been 
 accorded to him. 
 
 His memory has been obscured by the traditionary fame of 
 bishop Robert as the " author," and of bishop Joscelin as the 
 " finisher," of the church of Wells ; and the importance of 
 his episcopate as a connecting link in the work of these two 
 master-builders has been comparatively overlooked. The 
 only authorities followed for the history of his episcopate 
 have been the works of the Canon of Wells, and bishop 
 Godwin. But Wharton, in his notes to the text of his author, 
 comments on the scanty notice of bishop Reginald ; and 
 Archer, our local chronicler, complains of the unworthy treat- 
 ment bishop Reginald had received from Godwin, also a canon 
 of his own cathedral church. 
 
 Bishop Reginald Fitzjocelin de Bohun, and bishop Savaric, 
 his kinsman and successor, were the two last in the succession 
 of foreign bishops who held the see of Somerset from the 
 time of Edward the Confessor. Reginald was of the family 
 of de Bohun, of the Cotentin, the north-west corner of 
 Normandy, where two villages — St. George and St. Andre de 
 Bohun, near Carentan, in a district of plain and canal like 
 Sedgmoor — still mark the cradle of the family. Richard de 
 Bohun, bishop of Coutances, 1151 — 1179, was his uncle ; his 
 father was Joscelin de Bohun, bishop of Sarum, 1142 — 1184. 
 
 Another member of the family, Engelger de Bohun, is 
 mentioned as one of Henry II's evil counsellors who incited 
 
22 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 Henry against Becket, when at Argentan he uttered the 
 hasty words which led to the murder of the archbishop. 1 
 
 Into this family married Savaric Fitzchana, son of Ralph, 
 the lord of Beaumont and St. Suzanne, and of Chana his 
 wife, daughter of Geldewin, a Dane, lord of Saumur. He 
 himself was made lord of Midhurst, in Sussex, by Henry I. 
 
 His son, Savaric FitzSavaric, inherited the lands of de 
 Bohun ; but, dying childless, he was succeeded in his 
 inheritance by his nephew Franco de Bohun, son of 
 Geldewin FitzSavaric and his wife Estrangia. Savaric, 
 bishop of Bath, 1192, in succession to his cousin, Reginald 
 Fitzjocelin de Bohun, was younger brother of Franco de 
 Bohun. 3 
 
 Reginald Fitzjocelin was born about 1140, before his father, 
 the bishop of Sarum, had been admitted to the priesthood, 
 yet so shortly before, that the question could be raised as an 
 objection to his consecration to the episcopate in after years. 
 Sufficient testimony was at that time brought forward to 
 satisfy and to remove objections. Either as born of Italian 
 blood, or from early residence in Italy, he bore the name of 
 " the Lombard" or " the Italian." The schools of Lombardy, 
 Pavia, Bologna, Padua, whence had come to Normandy, 
 Lanfranc and Anselm, were famous. The towns of Lombardy 
 were asserting their independence of the emperor at this 
 time, and Henry's wide-reaching continental policy, and the 
 foreign marriages of his sons, were bringing Englishmen into 
 close relations with Italians and Germans, as well as with 
 French. 3 
 
 Herbert of Bosham, in his life of St. Thomas, names 
 " Reginald the Lumbard" among those attached to the arch- 
 bishop in his earlier days abroad. Though he laments his 
 defection afterwards, in the time of the archbishop's quarrel 
 with Henry, he describes him at this time as a young man, 
 high-spirited, intelligent, prudent beyond his years in council, 
 
 1. W. FitzStephen, in Materials for History of Becket, vol. iii, p. 129, (Rolls 
 Series), " Engelger de Bohun," gave the counsel, "Let him be crucified." Cf. 
 Register of St. Osmund, i, f. 206 (Rolls Series). 
 
 2. Bishop Stubbs in Gentleman's Magazine, Nov., 1863, and Preface to Epp. 
 Cantuarienses, p. lxxxvi, note, has supplied materials for genealogies of bishops 
 Reginald and Savaric. 
 
 3. On Henry's relations with Italy, France, Germany, v. Stubbs' Pref. to 
 Benedict of Peterborough, ii, p. xxxi. On Italian affairs of interest in England 
 at this time, v. Stubbs 1 Pref, to R. Howden, ii, p. xcii. 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 23 
 
 active and able. 1 From the letter of Peter of Blois, arch- 
 deacon of Bath, to Reginald, when archdeacon of Sarum, we 
 know that he combined a keen love of hawking with attention 
 to business. 2 These qualities would have been likely to have 
 brought the young ecclesiastic into favour with the chancellor 
 in his earlier days. 
 
 In 1 158 Becket, then chancellor, was sent on an embassy to 
 Paris, with a large suite and much pomp, to arrange the 
 betrothal of Henry's eldest son, then a boy of seven, to 
 Margaret, daughter of Louis VII. The marriage compact 
 was finally completed, not without a quarrel and a recon- 
 ciliation between the two kings, in 1160.'' Perhaps Reginald 
 joined Becket about this time, and, as Becket's friend, passed 
 into favour at the French court. In 1164, he received from 
 Louis VII of France a piece of court preferment, succeeding 
 therein the king's brother Philip as abbot of St. Exuperius in 
 Corbsil. The deed of gift, of which the original is extant 
 among the chapter documents of Wells, entitles him "arch- 
 deacon of Sarum," and recites that the preferment was due 
 . both to his own merits and also to the solicitations of his 
 friends. 
 
 The year of his appointment to the abbey of St. Exuperius 
 was the year of the archbishop's quarrel with the king. 
 
 On January 25, 1164, trie Council of Clarendon was held, 
 and, after the meeting at Northampton, Becket withdrew from 
 England to Pontigny. Bishop Joscelin of Sarum, father of 
 Reginald, had been the leader and spokesman of the bishops 
 in the vain attempt to mediate between the king and the arch- 
 bishop, and to conciliate the archbishop after the scene at 
 Northampton. He and Gilbert Ffolliot, bishop of London, 
 became thenceforth the objects of Becket's violent hostility, 
 and he excommunicated the two bishops, together with John 
 of Oxford, dean of Sarum, and others of his opponents, from 
 Vezelay, on Whitsun Day, 1166. In this quarrel Reginald 
 took his father's side, and withdrew from Becket's party. 
 
 1. Herbert of Bosham names some Lombards among the " eruditi " of 
 Becket's followers, together with Keginaldus Lumbardus ; Lumbardus of Pia- 
 cenza, afterwards archbishop of BeDeventum, Becket's teacher in canon law; 
 Humbert Crivelli, of Milan, afterwards archbishop of Milan, and pope Urban 
 HI in 1185, and others. Materials for Life of Becket, iii, p. 524. 
 
 2. Peter of Blois, Ep. 61. He reminds him when archdeacon of Sarum, 
 " curam non avium sed ovium suscepisti," and warns him of the danger, " si 
 non oves avibus antefertis." 
 
 3. R. de Diceto, vol. i, p. 302 (Rolls Series), an. 1158. They were betrothed 
 1 160, p. 304. 
 
24 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 Peter of Blois about this time intercedes for Reginald with 
 one of Becket's court, and defends him for having left the 
 archbishop in duty to his father, whom the archbishop had 
 denounced. But Reginald had now taken the king's side. 
 His education, ability, foreign experiences, and conciliatory 
 temperament soon made him one of the most acceptable of 
 Henry's diplomatists at the court of Rome, where the quarrel 
 between two violent and headstrong men was mainly fought 
 out. 
 
 In 1 167 he was at Rome with John of Oxford, dean of 
 Sarum, and Clarembald, abbot of St. Augustine's, when they 
 obtained from pope Alexander the prohibition to the arch- 
 bishop against publishing his censures pending the attempt at 
 reconciliation. 1 He was there again in 1169, and accompanied 
 to England the legates Gratian and Vivian, who were sent 
 to effect the reconciliation; 2 and he then incurred Becket's 
 violent abuse for his activity and influence at Rome on the 
 occasion/ 1 
 
 In 1 170, June 14, Roger, archbishop of York, together with 
 the bishops of London, Sarum, Durham, and Rochester, 
 crowned the young king Henry in Westminster abbey. The 
 anger of the archbishop and primate blazed out afresh at this 
 violation of the prerogative of the see of Canterbury. A 
 formal reconciliation was effected with the king for a time ; 
 but at the close of this year the six years' struggle between 
 king and archbishop reached its tragic end when the arch- 
 bishop was struck down by his murderers, the four knights 4 of 
 the court, in the transept of Canterbury cathedral church, 
 December 29, 11 70. 
 
 Reaction in favour of the cause of " the martyr " at once 
 set in. Henry, shocked at the outrage and sacrilege, and 
 alarmed at the consequences to his kingdom and to himself, 
 sent at once an embassy to Rome, of men selected as 
 " acceptable to the court of Rome, and well able to plead the 
 king's cause," of whom Reginald, archdeacon of Sarum was 
 one. The letter to the king reports the result of the mission — 
 they had arrived on Palm Sunday, and had been treated with 
 little respect by the cardinals and denied audience by the 
 
 1. W. FitzStephen, in Materials for Life of Becket, iii, 99 (Rolls Series). 
 
 2. lb. vi, 565 (Rolls Series). 
 
 3. lb. vii, 59 (Rolls Series). 
 
 4. Three of the four knights held lands in Somerset : Reginald Fitzurse — 
 Richard Breto — William de Traci. 
 
Reginald, 1174— 1191. 25 
 
 pope who was at Frascati ; the king's name was execrated ; 
 Maundy Thursday, the day of public absolution or excom- 
 munication by the pope, was approaching; Henry's excom- 
 munication and the interdict of the kingdom of England was 
 threatened. With the greatest difficulty they obtained sus- 
 pension of the interdict, and it had been averted by their 
 pledging themselves that the king would stand to judgment 
 and submit to sentence from the pope. So the interdict was 
 averted ; but the excommunication of the murderers and of 
 all concerned was proclaimed. The legates were sent to 
 England or Normandy to receive Henry's submission. The 
 king's purgation and penance at Avranches followed in the 
 next year (May 21, 1172); the canonization of St. Thomas, 
 ordered by the pope, was proclaimed on Ash Wednesday, 1173, 
 and December 29 was set apart as the festival of St. Thomas 
 of Canterbury. 1 
 
 According to one of the conditions required from Henry by 
 the papal legates, Henry now proceeded to fill up the English 
 sees which he had kept vacant during his quarrel with Becket. 
 
 Reginald Fitzjocelin was nominated to the see of Bath, 
 which had been vacant more than eight years, since bishop 
 Robert's death in 1166. He was duly elected by the two 
 chapters, the prior and convent of Bath and the dean and 
 canons of Wells 2 in conformity with bishop Robert's provision ; 
 and his election was confirmed at the Council of Westminster, 
 in April, 1173. At the same time the sees of Winchester, 
 Ely, Hereford, Chichester, and Lincoln were filled up ; and 
 Richard, prior of Dover, the late archbishop's chaplain, was 
 nominated to the archbishopric of Canterbury. 
 
 But the young king Henry, under the influence of his 
 father-in-law Louis of France, protested against the nomina- 
 tion of bishops in England without his consent, and lodged 
 an appeal against their consecration at Rome. Reginald was 
 selected to accompany the archbishop-elect to Rome to obtain 
 the pope's confirmation. They started in the autumn of 1173. 
 There were tedious delays and diplomacy with the Roman 
 chancellery ; but at last Richard was consecrated archbishop 
 by the pope at Anagni, on Low Sunday, April 7, 11 74, and 
 received the pall and his appointment as legate. 
 
 1. Bull for the canonization of St. Thomas, dated March 13, 1173. R. de 
 Diceto, i, 369. 
 
 2. The act of pope Alexander, reciting and confirming the joint action of the 
 two chapters, is contained in charter 40. 
 
26 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 The consecration of Reginald and the other bishops-elect 
 was deferred under various pretexts until the return to 
 England. 1 
 
 Soon after, they left Rome on their homeward journey — one 
 which has many points of interest for us. The travellers 
 crossed the passes of Mont Cenis, and stopped for a time at 
 St. Jean de Maurienne, in the territory of the count of Savoy. 
 
 It was at this wayside station, on the old road between 
 France and Italy, that Reginald, notwithstanding the delays 
 interposed at Rome, was consecrated bishop of Bath. 
 
 The chronicles do not tell us the causes which brought 
 about his consecration. We are left to infer them from con- 
 curring circumstances, by which this distant Alpine district 
 was being brought into close connection with England, and 
 with our own diocese in particular. 
 
 Henry had been negotiating in 1173 a marriage, for political 
 purposes, between his son John and the eldest daughter of 
 Umbert, count of Maurienne. Early death in that year saved 
 her from this fate. • 
 
 In the terms of the marriage settlement, by which certain 
 places commanding the passes of the mountains would have 
 been secured to Henry, Reginald archdeacon of Sarum had 
 been named as one of the arbitrators on the king's side, in 
 case of any change being made in the terms. Some business 
 arising out of these settlements, and the closing of the 
 arrangements, may have caused Reginald's delay at this time 
 at St. Jean de Maurienne. 2 
 
 The presence of Reginald in these parts was opportune for 
 another purpose which Henry had in view at this moment. 
 
 Henry had undertaken to found three religious houses in 
 England, in partial performance of his penance for the 
 violence of his words against Becket. He had enlarged and 
 reconstructed the religious foundations at Ambresbury and 
 Waltham, and changed the religious orders of the inmates; 
 and he was now planting the first house of the Carthusian 
 
 1. Howden, ii, 59, Reginaldi Epist. ad regem, May 5, 1174. He says, "My 
 own consecration and that of the others are deferred. Our lord the pope has 
 determined to settle nothing until reconciliation between you and your son shall 
 be brought to pass." Rym. Fad. i, 31. 
 
 2. R. Howden, ii, 41, 45. Cf. Benedict, who gives the document. By the 
 settlements the passes of Mont Cenis, and four castles commanding them, would 
 have been secured to Henry and put into his hands. In November of the same 
 year Frederick Barbarossa entered Italy through the Mont Cenis passes, burnt 
 Susa, and besieged Alexandria, lately built by (he Lombard League. Vide 
 Stubbs's Pre/, to Benedict, p. xvi, on Henry's projects. 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 27 
 
 order in England. The site which he had given was at 
 Witham, on the borders of the royal forest of Selwood, in the 
 diocese of Bath. Henry was seeking a prior for the new 
 house from the parent house of the order, the Great Chart- 
 reuse in the "desert of St. Bruno," near Grenoble. 
 
 One of the envoys of the count of Savoy had told him of 
 the fame of brother Hugh of Avalon. " Such a man as would 
 not only ensure success to his new foundation, but would fill 
 the whole church with the beauty of his holiness." 1 
 
 The Great Chartreuse was within easy reach of St. Jean de 
 Maurienne, and letters were sent to the archbishop and to 
 Reginald, to use all endeavours to induce Hugh to come to 
 England, to take charge of the Carthusian colony at Witham. 
 
 The bishop-elect of the diocese in which it was planted was 
 the fit person to invite Hugh in Henry's name, and doubtless 
 it was felt that he would speak with more effect if he were the 
 consecrated bishop. So, with this end in view, as we may 
 conjecture, objections at Rome were overcome, and Reginald's 
 consecration was hastened. 
 
 Reginald was required to purge himself by oath of any 
 complicity in the murder of St. Thomas. Testimony suffi- 
 cient was given to establish the legitimacy of his birth. He 
 was consecrated by archbishop Richard and the archbishop 
 Peter of Tarentaise, in the church of St. John at Maurienne 
 on the vigil of St. John the Baptist, June 23, 1174. 
 
 Then, as bishop of Bath, in company with the bishop of 
 Grenoble, he journeyed to the house of the order in the 
 "Eremo" or desert of St. Bruno, enclosed under the pines 
 and crags of the Grand Som and between the torrents of the 
 Guier " Mort," and the Guier " Vif," entering it probably 
 Grenoble on its south-east side, by Sappey and St. Pierre de 
 Chartreuse. 
 
 Hugh of Avalon, with much reluctance, and only by order 
 of his bishop, undertook as his mission the charge of the new 
 priory in England ; and it was the first act of Reginald's 
 episcopate to obtain for England and to plant in his own 
 diocese of Somerset, Hugh of Witham, known afterwards to 
 the whole church as St. Hugh of Lincoln. 
 
 Then the archbishop and bishop Reginald continued their 
 journey to meet Henry in Normandy. 
 
 In the first days of August they were at St. Lo in the 
 diocese of his uncle the bishop of Coutances, and in his own 
 
 1. Vide Vita S. Hugonis, p. 54. (Rolls Series). Cf. Preface, p. xxi. 
 
28 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 country of the Cotentin, and on the fifth of August, 1174, he 
 consecrated the church of St. Thomas at St. Lo, dedicated to 
 the memory of his old master, now the newly-canonized St 
 Thomas the Martyr. 
 
 This church, probably the earliest consecrated to the martyr 
 canonized only the year before, and consecrated by the bishop 
 who had been active against him, son of a bishop whom he had 
 excommunicated, is a monument of the sudden revulsion of 
 feeling which his murder had caused. It is still standing, 
 though long since desecrated ; containing architectural signs 
 of the period of its consecration in the flat semi-Norman 
 buttresses on the outside, in the massive round columns of 
 the nave, and the apsidal end with six pointed arches resting 
 on the Norman columns. 
 
 On August 8 they met Henry on the shore at Barfleur 
 just arrived from England after an eventful month. On 
 July 8 he had landed at Southampton from Normandy. He 
 had gone through his three days' humiliating penance at the 
 tomb of St. Thomas at Canterbury : he had crushed rebellion 
 in the midland of England ; and, with the king of Scots his 
 prisoner, he had now landed at Barfleur, within the month. 
 
 From thence the archbishop and Reginald crossed to 
 England. The archbishop arrived at Canterbury on Septem- 
 ber 4, to become a witness of the fire which broke out on the 
 next day September 5, 11 74 in his cathedral church, and burnt 
 the choir to ashes. On October 6 Reginald assisted at the 
 consecration at Canterbury of the bishops of Winchester, Ely 
 Hereford, and Chichester, and there made his profession of 
 obedience to the primate. On November 24 he was enthroned 
 with much solemnity by the primate in person, who was then 
 making a visitation of his province as " legate of the apostolic 
 see," in his own church. 
 
 It would be interesting to know whether Bath or Wells — 
 the church of St. Peter, or the church of St. Andrew — was 
 the scene. Ralph de Diceto says the presence of the legate 
 made the event of the enthronisation especially memorable ; 
 but he does not name the place of the enthronisation. 
 
 Bath had been the chief seat of the bishop, from whence 
 the title was derived since bishop John's time, eighty years 
 ago. Bishop Robert had done much in reasserting the 
 equality of Wells with Bath, but Bath was still recognised by 
 the pope, Adrian IV, in 1157, as the sedes praesulea. The 
 fair conclusion we are forced to draw is, that the legate on 
 this occasion made Bath as the chief seat of the bishop the 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 29 
 
 scene of the enthronisation in person, though, no doubt, the 
 bishop was enthroned in both his churches, and perhaps by 
 the legate also, in Wells. 
 
 In the earlier years of his episcopate, bishop Reginald 
 appears as one of Henry's counsellors in the chief national 
 councils of the reign. 
 
 He was present at the Council of Westminster in 1175, at 
 which acts were passed to repress clerical scandals. At the 
 Council of London, in n 77, he was one of the signatories to 
 the award in which Henry adjudicated on the rival claims of 
 the kings of Navarre and Castille. In 1178, he was of a joint 
 commission, appointed at the request of the count of Toulouse 
 by Henry and Louis VII of France to inquire into the hereti- 
 cal teaching of the sect of the Cathari, who were established 
 in formidable numbers in the country round Toulouse and 
 Albi, and became afterwards known under the name of the 
 Albigenses. Bishop Reginald had for his colleagues on this 
 occasion Peter the papal legate, the archbishops of Bourges 
 and Narbonne, the bishop of Poitiers, and the abbot of 
 Clairvaux. They held their court of inquiry at Toulouse, 
 and reported in condemnation of the heretical teaching of the 
 sectaries. In the next year Reginald was one of four English 
 bishops 1 sent as representatives to the Lateran council, sum- 
 moned by Alexander III, March 1179, at which, among other 
 acts of historical importance, the Albigenses sectaries were 
 condemned and excommunicated. He returned from the 
 council with a deed of confirmation from the pope, his friend 
 Alexander III, dated March 4, 1 179, confirming the rights and 
 possessions of the see. 
 
 During the, next ten years of Henry's reign he does not 
 appear much in public affairs. On the death of his friend 
 archbishop Richard, in 1184, he strongly supported the king's 
 nomination of Baldwin bishop of Worcester to the primacy, 
 against the claims of the convent of Christchurch to have the 
 sole appointment, and afterwards he was influential in concili- 
 ating the monks to accept Baldwin. In the dispute which 
 followed between the archbishop and his monks he was 
 appointed one of the pope's commissioners in 1187. After 
 Baldwin's death these events led on to his nomination to the 
 vacant primacy in the last year of his life. 
 
 During these years of his episcopate, 1174-1191, bishop 
 
 1 . The other bishops at the Lateran Council were Hugh bishop of Durham ; 
 John of Oxford, bishop of Norwich ; Robert Ffolliott, bishop of Hereford. 
 
30 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 Reginald was doing good work in his diocese, and they were 
 years of diocesan life and progress. 
 
 Church building was going on around him and under his 
 eye at Bath, at Glastonbury, at Witham, and in other religious 
 houses in the diocese, and gifts and endowments were being 
 made to the cathedral church of St. Andrew in Wells. It 
 was his policy to carry on bishop Robert's work and con- 
 stitution at Wells, to make Wells the headquarters and centre 
 of the diocese, and to give it a fabric and a ministrant body 
 worthy of the dignity of the cathedral church of the diocese. 
 Probably he resided at Wells : there is no evidence that he 
 ever resided at Bath. Yet Bath was not neglected. The 
 hospital of St. John Baptist, by which the sick and poor of 
 the city had the benefit of the hot waters, was founded by 
 him in 1180, and endowed with lands and tenements in Bath 
 and its neighbourhood, and with a tithe of hay from his 
 demesne lands. It was put under the control and manage- 
 ment of prior Walter and the convent of Bath, who also gave 
 their endowments. 
 
 Walter the prior, a man of learning and holy life, was a 
 contemporary and friend of bishop Reginald, and he was with 
 him in his last hours, when dying at Dogmersfield. 
 
 The register of the priory of Bath contains a list of gifts 
 made by the bishop to the convent, of lands and churches, of 
 ornaments and vestments, of a statue of St. Peter, and also, 
 strange to read, of the body of St. Euphemia, virgin and 
 martyr. He also enriched their library with many books. 
 
 At Witham, between 1180 and 1186, prior Hugh was at 
 work laying the foundations of his Charterhouse, with a small 
 band of French monks, meanly lodged, and endeavouring to 
 support themselves under severe and ascetic discipline, in the 
 desert of Witham. The chapel of the Fratry, some remains 
 of which in the transitional-Norman style are to be seen still 
 in the parish church, and the necessary buildings for thirteen 
 monks and about the same number of lay brethren, were 
 finished, and the discipline of the house was organised before 
 prior Hugh was called to be bishop of Lincoln in 1186. 
 
 The house became the home of those who sought a severer 
 discipline amidst the growing laxity of other monastic houses. 
 Walter, prior of Bath, and Robert, prior of St. Swithun's, 
 were two of those who entered the house late in life. Some- 
 times it was found too severe a life for those who had entered 
 it without counting the cost. Walter left it again before his 
 death. It was the home of retreat year by year for St. Huo-h 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 31 
 
 when he came from Lincoln to take up again the simple life 
 of a monk in his cell at Witham. 
 
 The bishop, who had been the instrument to bring Hugh of 
 Avalon to England, continued to support his work in the 
 diocese. The king's charter was granted at Marlborough. 
 A chapel had stood in the " Eremo," the desert of Witham on 
 the outskirts of Selwood forest, belonging to the priory of 
 Bruton. The king gave to Bruton the rectory of South 
 Petherton in exchange, and exchanges of land in North Curry 
 were made with the Witham owners. 
 
 The house was dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin 
 and St. John Baptist. The king granted lands which after- 
 wards became the parish of Witham, and lands on Mendip 
 for a cell of the Charterhouse near Cheddar. The house was 
 exempted from all ecclesiastical visitations and imposts ; from 
 all claims of sheriffs and officers of the forest. Bishop 
 Reginald on his part granted exemption from tithes and dues 
 to the Charterhouse in the parish of Cheddar. 1 
 
 Other religious houses were growing up at the time in the 
 diocese. 
 
 The abbey of St. Mary at Glastonbury, the great rival 
 ecclesiastical power which had hitherto overshadowed the 
 church of Wells, separated from it by six miles of moorland, 
 was soon about to go through a period of disaster and humili- 
 ation. 
 
 But under bishop Reginald's episcopate there were friendly 
 negotiations and territorial exchanges and mutual concessions. 
 
 Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester, who ruled the abbey 
 for more than forty years, 1125-1171, had lately died. Robert 
 prior of Winchester succeeded. By an arrangement with 
 abbot Robert, the church of Pilton was ceded to the bishop 
 to form two prebends in the cathedral church, of which the 
 abbot held one, without obligation of residence, but bound to 
 pay three marcs to a vicar. The canon appointed by the 
 bishop to the second prebend received ten marcs from Pilton. 
 The abbot thus became a member of the bishop's chapter, 
 and the Glastonbury writers deplore the advantage obtained 
 over the abbey by this arrangement, whereby the bishop 
 received the acknowledgment of jurisdiction from the abbot, 
 as one of the canons of his cathedral church. 
 
 1. Henry's grant is recited in a confirmation to the prior and consent of 
 Witham by Innocent IV, in 1246, in which the boundaries of the land are set 
 out. Vatican Transcripts in the British Museum. Add. MS. 15355, vol. v, ff. 
 374-381. 
 
32 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 At the same time, to put an end to a long-standing contro- 
 versy between the abbey and the church of Wells, the bishop 
 granted the abbot a separate territorial jurisdiction, to be held 
 by a special officer (the abbot's archdeacon) over the churches 
 which were in the twelve hides of Glastonbury. 1 The church 
 of South Brent, which had belonged to Glastonbury, was 
 ceded to the archdeacon of Wells for impropriation, in lieu of 
 his jurisdiction over seven churches of the Glastonbury arch- 
 deaconry which the archdeacon of Wells had claimed, and it 
 has ever since remained impropriated to the archdeaconry of 
 Wells, and in its patronage. The church of Huish near 
 Langport was also annexed to the archdeaconry of Wells by 
 bishop Reginald.' 2 
 
 Great building work had been going on at Glastonbury 
 under bishop Henry of Elois — the builder of St. Cross near 
 Winchester, founder of Romsey abbey, and refounder of 
 Taunton priory. Abbot Robert carried on the work until his 
 death in 1178. Then the abbey was held by the king, and 
 put into commission to Peter de Marci, a Cluniac monk, as 
 administrator of the revenues during the vacancy. While 
 the abbey was in the king's hands, on St. Urban's day, 
 May 25, 1 184, a fire destroyed the whole of the abbey build- 
 ings of Henry de Blois, and only a new chamber which had 
 been built by abbot Robert, with its chapel and the great 
 bell-tower, remained. 3 
 
 Henry, grieved at the loss sustained by the church while 
 the abbey was in his hands, undertook to rebuild the church, 
 and committed the work to Ralph Fitzstephen, the chancellor, 
 to spend all the available resources of the convent on the 
 fabric. A charter was given by Henry, December, 1184, in 
 which he made himself and his heirs responsible for the fitting 
 restoration. The work was of national interest, the revenues 
 of vacant benefices were applied to the work, and a charge 
 was laid upon certain churches in support. Ralph Fitz- 
 stephen is described as munificent in his gifts, and the royal 
 treasury supplied what was required. A great store of relics 
 of saints and worthies buried at Glastonbury was now dis- 
 
 1 . The abbey had claimed exemption for the churches of the twelve hides 
 from all local jurisdiction, secular and spiritual, under a pretended charter of 
 king Ine, but confirmed by sovereigns and archbishops as a real grant. 
 
 The exempt jurisdiction was now conceded, and the jurisdiction of the abbot 
 over the churches made equal to a separate and exempt archdeaconry. 
 
 2. Reginald's grant ; in Adam of Domerham, ii, 345. 
 
 3. Adam of Domerham, ii, 333. 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 33 
 
 played ; and the timely discovery or invention about this time 
 of the bonfes of Arthur and his queen, and the publication of 
 the Arthurian legend, helped to draw a large concourse of 
 pilgrims, and brought much gain of money to the abbey. 
 
 So rapidly grew the work, that in the second or third year 
 after the fire, "on St. Barnabas day," 1187, bishop Reginald 
 dedicated the new church of St. Mary on the spot where the 
 old church, the " vetusta ecclesia," had stood. At the same 
 time the foundations were laid and the building commenced, 
 of " the great church," major ecclesia, 400 feet in length and 
 80 feet in breadth. But with the death of Henry, in 1189, 
 the works were stopped. " King Richard's mind was more 
 directed to military affairs than to the building which was 
 begun, so the work was stopped because there was no one to 
 pay the workmen." 1 Soon after began the great war with 
 Wells under bishop Savaric and continued under bishop 
 Joscelin until 1219, in which the revenues of the abbey were 
 consumed by litigation at Rome. No building was carried 
 on again until 1235 ; and the century had passed before the 
 next consecration of the church then only partially built, on 
 the day of St. Thomas the Martyr, 1303. 2 
 
 So far we have followed out bishop Reginald's history, as it 
 is connected with the general history of the time, and described 
 in the chronicles of Henry the Second's reign. 
 
 But we turn to our own local documents, and to the history 
 lurking in the unprinted manuscripts at Wells, to learn more 
 particularly what was going on at Wells during bishop 
 Reginald's episcopate. 
 
 Wells was the bishop's seat all through the time until his 
 translation to Canterbury in the last days of his life. 
 
 The charters of his time show his care to tread in the foot- 
 steps of his predecessor, and to carry on bishop Robert's 
 policy at Wells : (a) by confirming and increasing the 
 privileges of the town ; (b) by adding to the number of the 
 prebends, and increasing the permanent endowment of the 
 stalls ; (c) by provision for the building of the fabric of the 
 church. 
 
 The municipal history of Wells is ancient and interesting. 
 Its early charters are of especial value, as showing the 
 relation of the town to the bishop, and the growth of the 
 town around the cathedral church. 
 
 1. Adam of Domerham, ii, 341. 
 
 2. John of Glastonbury, i, 255. 
 
34 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 Two charters to the city by bishop Reginald stand at the 
 head of these contemporary records, and are of general as 
 well as local interest. 
 
 Early in his episcopate, certainly before 1180, as the names 
 of the attesting witnesses show, bishop Reginald gave two 
 charters to the town. 
 
 In the first of these he recites the charter of bishop Robert ; 
 and, desiring to follow the footsteps of his venerable pre- 
 decessor, and at the request of the burgesses, he confirms 
 with further grants their privileges then conferred. 
 
 Bishop Robert, as we have seen, had granted to the citizens 
 freedom from tolls on three festival times in the year, viz., on 
 the eves and festivals of the Invention of the Holy Cross, St. 
 Calixtus, and St. Andrew. 
 
 Bishop Reginald, in his confirmation of this charter, granted 
 three additional days, viz., the morrow of each of these 
 festivals. He also granted to the burgesses one moiety of the 
 profits arising from the hiring of stalls, which belonged to him 
 as lord. 
 
 In the second charter, referring again to the example and 
 the charter of his predecessor, he grants that the town of 
 Wells shall be a free borough ; that everyone dwelling within 
 its limits and possessing a messuage in the name of a burgage 
 should have freedom of dwelling, going, and coming ; also of 
 mortgaging, selling, and granting their houses, except to 
 religious purposes. He reserves to the bishop the payment of 
 twelve pence a year out of every house in the borough ; for- 
 bids sale of raw skins, or hides, within the limits of the borough ; 
 grants authority to hold a court for settlement of disputes and 
 for civil and criminal trials, (except in cases where deadly 
 wounds or injuries for life had been inflicted), without any fee 
 to the bishop's justices. He reserves to the bishop right of 
 appeal, and right to interfere or revise the sentence of the 
 burgesses if they failed to do justice. 
 
 These charters, two of a series of municipal charters begin- 
 ning with bishop Robert, confirmed and amplified by bishop 
 Reginald and afterwards by bishop Savaric the lords of the 
 manor of Wells, and confirmed by king John, 1202, illustrate 
 the peculiar position and character of Wells as the ecclesiasti- 
 cal city growing up around the church, which Mr. Freeman 
 lias described so fully in his history of the cathedral church 
 and elsewhere : " Wells stands alone among the cities of 
 England proper as a city, which exists only in and through its 
 cathedral church, whose whole history is that of its cathedral 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 35 
 
 church. Like other cities, it has its municipal history ; but 
 its municipal history is simply an appendage to its ecclesiasti- 
 cal history : the franchises of the borough were simply held 
 as grants from the bishop." 
 
 They have a further and subsidiary interest as setting out 
 before us the names and designations of the representatives of 
 the ecclesiastical corporation, of the townspeople and their 
 trades, of the owners of land in the neighbourhood, the 
 names of the farms and villages, contemporary with these 
 bishops of the twelfth century. 
 
 Bishop Reginald gathers round him the officers and canons 
 of his cathedral church, the landlords and the burgesses and 
 townsfolk, to witness to the charter which, as lord of the 
 manor, he freely bestows upon them. At the same time, as 
 their lord, he reserves to the bishop the right of administering 
 justice and reviewing the sentences of the town magistrates. 
 
 In the first of these charters given before 1166, occur the 
 names of some of the first officers of the newly constituted 
 chapter, as witnesses to bishop Robert's charter : Ivo the 
 dean ; Reginald the precentor, nephew of the late bishop John 
 of Tours ; and archdeacons Robert and Thomas. 
 
 In bishop Reginald's charter, between 1174-T180, there are 
 the names of the second generation of officers of the cathedral 
 chapter: there is another dean, Richard of Spaxton, 1160- 
 1180; another precentor, Hildebert or Albert, 1174-1185; 
 another archdeacon, Richard of Bath, with title of local juris- 
 diction ; William the treasurer ; Robert the sub-dean : there 
 are the canons Ralph of Lechlade, afterwards archdeacon of 
 Bath, and dean 1216-1220; William canon of Haselbury ; 
 and Peter of Winchester, afterwards chancellor, 1185. 
 
 In both charters of bishop Reginald we meet with the first 
 mention of a name which was to be more known and honoured 
 than any in the history of Wells, Joscelin, then chaplain, the 
 future bishop. 
 
 A large number of names, representing the neighbouring 
 landowners and the townsfolk of Wells, sign on this memor- 
 able occasion in the early life of the city, when canons and 
 clerks, burgesses and tenants, were called together by the 
 bishop, their lord, to receive this first deed of city incorpor- 
 ation. 
 
 We gather from other charters in the Wells registers, and 
 the attestations to documents belonging to bishop Reginald's 
 time, the names of some more of his contemporaries in the 
 diocese and in the chapter. 
 
36 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 The names appear, nomina tantuin for the most part, of the 
 several dignitaries — dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, the 
 three archdeacons of Wells, Bath, and Taunton, subdean, 
 succentor. Two deans were living through his episcopate : 
 Richard of Spaxton, from 1160 to 1 1 80 ; Alexander, from 1180 
 until the third year of bishop Joscelin, 1209. 
 
 Two archdeacons, Thomas of Wells, and Peter of Blois, 
 archdeacon of Bath, appear in the history of the time as 
 taking part in public events beyond the diocese. 
 
 Thomas Agnellus, archdeacon of Wells, is identified as the 
 preacher of the funeral sermon on the death of the young 
 king Henry, in 1183, which bishop Stubbs quotes, as showing 
 that the son was looked upon as a champion of the older party 
 against the reforming tendencies of the father. 
 
 Peter of Blois, archdeacon of Bath, 1175-1190, is the learned 
 rhetorician and theologian and letter writer and literary 
 adventurer, who was known to all the leading men of the day, 
 an active political agent in Henry's court, and at the Roman 
 Curia — of Henry against Becket — of Baldwin against the 
 monks of Canterbury, but changing sides after Baldwin's 
 death. In his letters, he appears as archdeacon of Bath 
 before Reginald's appointment to the bishopric ; he anticipates 
 Reginald's preferment, and warns him of the responsibilities : 
 he defended Reginald for taking the side of his father in the 
 quarrel with Becket. In after years he complained to 
 Reginald as bishop, of his severity in enforcing discipline 
 upon his deputy in the archdeaconry for nonpayment of a 
 debt. His name does not once appear in the Wells charters, 
 but in 1192 he was archdeacon of London, and died about 
 1200. 
 
 William of St. Faith, a witness to bishop Robert's charter 
 before 1166, was precentor in 1187. In that year the pre- 
 centor of Wells and the archdeacon of Bath were at Rome 
 working on Baldwin's side against the monks of Canterbury, 
 while their bishop was the pope's commissary in England, and 
 supporting the monks against Baldwin. 
 
 The latter part of the twelfth century, and the strong reign 
 of Henry II, following the lawlessness and anarchy of 
 Stephen's reign, was marked by an outburst of zeal and 
 liberality towards the church and objects of religious vener- 
 ation. 
 
 It was a time of foundation and endowment of monastic 
 houses, and of prebends for secular canons in cathedral 
 churches. 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 37 
 
 The registers of the chapter of Wells contain many deeds 
 of gifts of land and churches from clergy and laity made to 
 the church of Wells during bishop Reginald's time. These 
 gifts were employed by the bishop in council with his chapter, 
 in augmenting the common fund of the chapter, or in endow- 
 ing prebends, or in the maintenance of the fabric. 
 
 The funds given to the cathedral church were divided into a 
 common fund for the support of the resident officers of the 
 chapter, and for the foundation of prebends. 
 
 These deeds of gift were confirmed by bishop and chapter, 
 by king and pope, to secure their permanent validity. Charters 
 of confirmation of the rights and possessions of the see occur 
 frequently at this time, and serve as compendious summaries 
 of the gradual growth of the property of the see during bishop 
 Reginald's episcopate. 
 
 They also show incidentally the state of insecurity as to 
 rights of property, and the care taken by the bishop to obtain 
 the highest legal sanction for the rights and possessions of his 
 cathedral church. 
 
 The two charters most valuable, as illustrating the history 
 of the diocese at this time, are the charters (1) of pope 
 Alexander in 1179, and (2) of king Richard I, in 1189, two 
 years before bishop Reginald's death. 
 
 1. The charter of pope Alexander III, brought back by 
 bishop Reginald from Rome after his attendance at the 
 Lateran Council in 1179, is very full in recapitulation of all 
 the possessions and rights of the see, and also of the bishop's 
 jurisdiction and relation to the great religious houses in his 
 diocese. The bishop has the power of removing the prior of 
 Bath for sufficient reasons, after consultation with the chapter, 
 " or other religious men : " no church or oratory may be 
 erected in the diocese without the bishop's sanction : his 
 rights of authority and jurisdiction over religious houses and 
 churches within the diocese are generally but vaguely defined, 
 with reservation of appeal to the pontifical legate or the 
 Roman court : he has authority to compel attendance at his 
 synod of abbots and priors : none are to officiate in the diocese 
 without his permission : if any monks, or other religious men, 
 clerks or laymen, present themselves or are presented to 
 benefices without the bishop's consent, he may remove them. 
 
 2. The charter of Richard I in the first year of his reign, 
 on the eve of setting out for the Holy Land, November 26, 
 1 189, presents a summary of the gifts which had been made 
 to the church during bishop Reginald's episcopate of fifteen 
 
38 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 years, by which sixteen prebends were founded in the cathe- 
 dral church, and other grants and privileges were bestowed. 
 
 Additional privileges of a special character were also granted 
 by the crown at this time : (a) the right of keeping hounds, 
 which his predecessors in the see held, but with fuller 
 privileges of hunting through the whole of Somerset, roe and 
 fallow deer only excepted. This was a privilege which, in 
 mitigation of the extreme rigour of the forest laws, as enforced 
 by Henry I, must have been a great boon to the bishops and 
 their officers, and which, from his earlier sporting tastes, 
 bishop Reginald would have been fully able to appreciate. 
 Richard conferred also at this time, (b) the more important 
 and permanent benefit to the see of rights of mining for lead 
 throughout all the bishop's lands, and probably in connection 
 with this, (c) the power to create a borough, and hold market 
 in his land at Radclive, described as also portus de Radeclive, 
 in the manor of Compton Episcopi near Axbridge — perhaps 
 a " hithe," or wharf, at the head of the tideway on the Axe, 
 for the exportation of the lead ore of Mendip. 1 
 
 But the list in Richard's charter of confirmation does not 
 exhaust the grants made to the church at this time. In the 
 border country of the west of Somerset were the family lands 
 of three of the knights who had struck down Becket in his 
 cathedral church at Canterbury. The Tracy family had given 
 Bovey in Devonshire to the church. Simon Brito, or le Bret, 
 of Samford Bret, now gave the church of St. Decuman on 
 the headland overlooking the western channel for a prebend 
 in the church of St. Andrew in Wells, and Robert Fitzurse, 
 of Willeton in the same beautiful valley under the Quantock 
 hills as Samford Bret, endowed St. Decuman's with twenty 
 acres of land, and gave land to a manse for a chaplain to 
 serve a chapel at Willeton in the parish of St. Decuman. 
 
 In the same district, on the borders of Exmoor, William de 
 Romara, earl of Lincoln, founder of Cleeve abbey in 1188, 
 gave the church of Old Cleeve to bishop Reginald ; and the 
 church of Wynesford on the Upper Exe, a few miles above 
 the Augustinian priory of Barlynch, was given by the lady 
 Alicia de Roges. 
 
 These documents show how the constitution and property 
 of the church of Wells were built up at this time, under 
 bishop Reginald's rule. 
 
 1. Ratciiffe in Stuckey's map, on the Axe, which is navigable so far— Ratley 
 in Greenwood's map, in Compton ; it is Ripley in Ordnance map. R, iii f. 2 66, 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 39 
 
 Between the year after- his return from the Lateran Council 
 in 1179 and Henry's death in 1189, bishop Reginald does not 
 appear much in public affairs. 
 
 These quiet years of his episcopate had formed an important 
 period in the history of the diocese. Henry II, his old master, 
 who had trusted and employed him on important occasions, 
 died at Chinon on the Loire, July 6, 1189. 
 
 A time of restless excitement, of foreign adventure and 
 political struggles at home, followed upon Richard's accession. 
 Reginald, as one of the friends and counsellors of Henry, 
 took a leading part in the first events of his son's reign. 
 
 He appears to have been drawn away from his diocese into 
 the political and ecclesiastical intrigues of the court. 
 
 Whether justly or not, he incurs the suspicion of having 
 aimed at the chancellorship, and of secretly intriguing for the 
 , primacy. 
 
 On September 3, 1189, he assisted at the coronation of 
 Richard at Westminster. It was a scene of unusual pomp. 
 In the coronation procession to and from the church, and to 
 and from the altar, Hugh bishop of Durham on the right, and 
 Reginald bishop of Bath on the left hand, walked by the side 
 of Richard 1 and a silken canopy over the King was borne 
 between them. The company of earls, barons, knights, 
 clergy and laity followed in long procession. After Richard 
 had made the coronation oaths, he was anointed and crowned 
 by archbishop Baldwin, the archbishops of Dublin, Rouen, 
 and Treves assisting, and enthroned by the two bishops of 
 Durham and Bath. 
 
 After this, Reginald was at the council of Pipewell abbey, 
 on September 15, when the appointments to the chief offices 
 and vacant bishoprics were made by Richard. The see of Ely 
 and the chancellorship were then given to William Longchamp. 
 
 Richard, intent upon an immediate start for the Holy Land, 
 was selling the offices of state, and making conveyances of 
 crown lands and castles and towns to the highest bidders. 
 All who could were buying rights and privileges, offices and 
 benefices ; " not only to the confirmation of their own, but to 
 the usurpation of their neighbours' rights." 2 
 
 1. It was a mark of honour to the see, and perhaps also in this case to the man. 
 Brompton, writing at the close of the thirteenth century (f. 1158-9) says, "this 
 privilege is claimed by the two bishops to-day." Savaric, as bishop of Bath, 
 took this same place at the coronation of John. 
 
 2. Vide Howden, vol. iii, 29, for a list of some of the state offices sold by the 
 king at this time. 
 
40 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 It is assumed, on a statement of Richard of Devizes, that 
 Reginald made a high bid of ^4000 for the chancellorship, 
 which Richard gave to William Longchamp, though he paid 
 for it ^1000 less. 1 Only such men as St. Hugh of Lincoln 
 or as St. Anselm, could pass through kings' courts and papal 
 chancelleries without taint, or suspicion at least, of worldli- 
 ness and corruption. Whether Reginald was tempted to 
 offer a high price for the chancellorship or not is doubtful. 
 But it is certain that at this time Reginald was employing 
 his money for the benefit of the diocese in buying from the 
 king confirmations of all the possessions and privileges of the 
 see, and the grant of the manor of North Curry, a costly 
 purchase, which he made over to the canons of his cathedral 
 church. 
 
 Reginald was a man who mixed in the world, but he does 
 not seem to have been covetous or personally ambitious as. 
 compared with his contemporaries, such as Hugh Pudsey of 
 Durham, Hugh Nonant of Coventry, and the chancellor 
 Longchamp. He appears to have been pushed forward into 
 prominent positions, and employed by others as a counsellor 
 and an arbitrator trusted by both sides, rather than a self- 
 seeking intriguer for high places. In 1191 he was twice em- 
 ployed as one of the arbitrators in the quarrel between the 
 chancellor Longchamp and earl John at the pacification of 
 Winchester, April 25 ; and again, between the chancellor and 
 the rebellious sheriff of Lincoln, Gerard de Camville, July 28. 
 He was one of those who opposed the chancellor for his high- 
 handed treatment of Geoffrey ; but he took no prominent 
 part in his trial and humiliation in October, 1191. 
 
 It was probably his unaggressive and conciliatory line of 
 conduct which led to his election to the vacant primacy, 
 rather than any secret intrigues on his part. 
 
 A struggle had been going on since 1187 between arch- 
 bishop Baldwin and his chapter, the prior and monks of the 
 cathedral church at Canterbury. 
 
 Reginald had been forward in supporting Baldwin as the 
 king's nominee, and in conciliating the monks to accept him 
 in 1 184. But now, when it may reasonably have appeared 
 
 1. R. of Devizes. De rebus gestis Ricardi, p. 9, § 10, ed. Stevenson. 
 Bishop Stubbs and others assume that bishop Reginald is the person here so 
 named. 
 
 At the same time Hugh, bishop of Durham, paid for the office of justiciar 
 1 000 marcs ; for the earldom of Northumberland, 2,000 ; and 600 for the manor 
 of Sedbergh. 
 
Reginald, 1 174— 1 191. 41 
 
 that the archbishop was using his authority arbitrarily, he did 
 not shrink from opposition to the king, and from taking the 
 unpopular side of the convent. St. Hugh of Lincoln was on 
 the same side afterwards. 1 
 
 The immediate subject of dispute was the foundation by 
 the archbishop out of some of the funds of the cathedral 
 chapter, of a college and church of secular canons at Hack- 
 ington near Canterbury. The project gave much offence to 
 the monks who thought they saw in it, what was probably the 
 intention, a desire to supplant them in their position as 
 metropolitan chapter, and to substitute a body of secular 
 canons (out of their revenue) who would be more amenable to 
 the primate. 
 
 They naturally resisted what in their view must have ap- 
 peared an act of usurpation and arbitrary authority on the 
 part of their abbot, the archbishop. 
 
 The king supported the archbishop ; the courtiers, for the 
 most part, went with him. The convent appealed to the pope. 
 The pope Urban III in October 1187, took up the cause of 
 the convent, and appointed a commission, consisting of 
 Reginald bishop of Bath, Seffred bishop of Chichester, and 
 the abbots of Feversham and Reading, ordering them to 
 destroy the building. 
 
 With the death of Urban III in 1187, proceedings were 
 suspended. Henry died in July 1189. A new reign began in 
 England. The quarrel was arranged for a time, and arch- 
 bishop Baldwin went on the Crusade with Richard. 
 
 Baldwin's death at Acre was known in England in March 
 1191. 
 
 The monks used the opportunity of the vacancy in the see 
 to overthrow the scheme of the late archbishop, and to secure 
 to themselves the election of his successor. 
 
 In May 1191, pope Celestine III issued his mandate per- 
 emptorily to bishop Reginald and the commissioners, to 
 execute the order for the destruction of the new buildings at 
 Hackington, and on July 21 they were levelled to the ground. 
 
 The monks had succeeded in one of their objects. 
 
 They were now eager to secure the election of the arch- 
 
 1. Vide Stubbs, Pref. to the Epistolae Cantuarienses, p. liii for the history of 
 this controversy; and letters to and from Hugh bishop of Lincoln in the 
 collection. Also letters of Peter of Blois. Ep. cxxxv, ccclv. Vide Vita S. 
 Hugenis, p. 134-5. At this same time two of the chapter of Wells were Bald- 
 win's agents at Rome, Peter of Blois archdeacon of Bath, and William of St. 
 Faith precentor of Wells. 
 
4 2 
 
 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 bishop. Reginald is charged with secretly intriguing for the 
 primacy ; but there is no evidence that he sought the office, or 
 took any steps to obtain it. 
 
 It was likely that his support of the convent, his position as 
 pope's commissioner, and his execution of the pope's orders, 
 should have won him the favour of the monks. He certainly 
 had an active but self-interested agent in his cause in Savaric, 
 his kinsman, who had some mysterious influence with the 
 emperor, Henry VI, and with the king of France, Philip, son 
 of Louis VII, the patron of Reginald in early life. If Savaric 
 was intriguing for Reginald, he certainly was intriguing also for 
 himself, and for the reversion of Reginald's bishopric of Bath. 
 
 Under his influence, the emperor wrote in November. 1191, 
 to recommend the convent to take the advice of Savaric, 
 " our dear kinsman," in the choice of their archbishop. At 
 the same time, Philip of France recommended Reginald as 
 the friend of his father, who had given him the abbey of St. 
 Exuperius in 1164, and as strongly supported by Savaric, 
 " our faithful friend." 
 
 The king's justiciars had appointed December 3 for a meet- 
 ing of council to elect. "But before the day, the monks, 
 anticipating the meeting, held a chapter on November 27, to 
 assert their claim and to nominate their candidate. 
 
 The prior tried to sound the archbishop of Rouen, the chief 
 justiciar, as to the person who would be accepted by the king. 
 The archbishop, as Gervase hints, intended the monks to 
 choose himself; if so, he must have failed to make himself 
 intelligible, or to have convinced the prior of his merits. 
 " Would the bishop of Bath be admissible ? " The arch- 
 bishop did not say " yes," but the monks interpreted his looks 
 as favourable. " We elect," cried the prior, " the bishop of 
 Bath." The monks re-echoed the nomination, and laying 
 violent hands on Reginald, thrust him, protesting, imploring, 
 struggling, into the archbishop's chair. 
 
 The archbishop of Rouen protested in the king's name ; 
 the members of the council threatened further proceedings ; 
 but the monks supported their right to elect. Reginald re- 
 asserted his unwillingness, but acquiesced in the election, and 
 announced his intention of awaiting the pope's confirmation, 
 with the words : " anxious, unwilling I consent, or thankfully 
 withdraw." 
 
 But all that had been done was made void by Reginald's 
 death within a month of the election. 
 
 He was on his way to or from his diocese, when he was 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 43 
 
 seized with paralysis at his manor of Dogmersfield on Christ- 
 mas Eve. 
 
 The prior of Christchurch was sent for. The archbishop, 
 anticipating his death, ordered him to bring the monk's habit, 
 that he might die as a member of the brotherhood. His last 
 words were, " God willeth not that I should be your arch- 
 bishop. But I desire to be a monk, and one with you. 
 Farewell, and pray for me without ceasing, as one of the 
 brotherhood." 
 
 He died on St. Stephen's day. The body was taken to 
 Bath, and buried before the high altar on the day of St. 
 Thomas the Martyr, December 29. 
 
 Peter of Blois, no longer now archdeacon of Bath, speaks 
 of him as magni nominis umbra, and marks — perhaps with 
 malicious humour — the curious coincidence that his days of 
 death and burial were the feasts of the two saints to whom 
 the church was dedicated, which he had been instrumental in 
 destroying. " It was as if St. Stephen had killed him, and 
 St. Thomas had buried him." But Richard of Devizes, to 
 whom bishop Stubbs gives the character of " an ill-natured 
 historian, who never misses an opportunity of speaking ill," 
 is witness to his love for his church of Bath, and the love of 
 the diocese for him, and has condensed in two lines of a 
 homely epitaph, in which he plays upon his name, a high 
 testimony to his character. 
 
 Reginald rightly named, himself and his flock ruled well ; 
 How ? What he taught he did ; there is no more to tell.i 
 
 Reginald's life is connected with interesting scenes and 
 important events in the great reign of Henry II. As a states- 
 man, he was one of the foremost in the second rank of able 
 men whom Henry gathered round himself. 
 
 As a bishop, though he was of another type from the ascetic 
 and unworldly St. Hugh, yet he rose far above the selfish arid 
 worldly bishops of his time who were the scorn of Henry. 
 
 Reginald had no opportunity of showing whether he was 
 capable of ruling the church of England as primate in those 
 troubled times. We may think it was happier for him and 
 for his reputation, that he had not to undergo the trial. But 
 at least Wells has reason to honour him as one of her chief 
 benefactors, not only in ecclesiastical, but in civil history ; 
 
 1. R. of Devizes, p. 46 § 58. 
 
 Dum Reginaldus erat bene seque suosque regebat — 
 Nemo plus quaerat — quioquid docuit faciebat. 
 
44 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 zealous and liberal, and wise in government, and a worthy 
 successor of bishop Robert. 
 
 It has been generally assumed by later writers, who have 
 followed the Canon of Wells and Godwin as the original 
 authorities on the history of the fabric, that we have no 
 documentary evidence of bishop Reginald's work on the fabric 
 of his own cathedral church. 
 
 The Canon of Wells, as quoted in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, 
 and bishop Godwin say nothing of any building works 
 between the times of bishop Robert and bishop Joscelin. 
 
 Mr. Freeman and Professor Willis, 1 in lectures on the 
 church of Wells, pass from bishop Robert to bishop Joscelin, 
 as the next prelate who comes architecturally on the scene. 
 
 But we have additional evidences contained in the chapter 
 registers at Wells, which are of earlier authority than the 
 Canon of Wells and Godwin, and which in some measure 
 supply the blank in the history of the fabric. Professor 
 Willis had access to these registers for his lectures on Wells ; 
 and he says, that he " drew from these records many par- 
 ticulars of dates and facts hitherto unknown in relation to the 
 progress of the building in the fourteenth and subsequent 
 centuries." 
 
 But, unfortunately, his researches did not extend to the 
 earlier records bearing on this first portion of the history of 
 the fabric. 
 
 The first document quoted from his own observation is 
 dated 1286. He exhorts members of the chapter, who have 
 the opportunity, to pursue further inquiries into the cathedral 
 registers. A few of the results may be put forward from 
 these early documents. 
 
 While bishop Reginald was receiving and applying bene- 
 factions to the church from the clergy and laity of the diocese, 
 he on his own part was making liberal provision by his own 
 acts, both for the augmentation of the common fund of the 
 canons, and also for the maintenance and progress of the 
 fabric of the church. 
 
 Early in his episcopate he had made over to the canons the 
 " Barton " or home farm, which was the property of the 
 bishop, free of the annual rent of twelve marks which they 
 had hitherto paid for it. 
 
 " We have given to God, and to St. Andrew, and to the 
 canons there devotedly serving God, their barton, free from 
 
 1. Somerset Arcliceological Proceedings, vol. xii, part i, p. 17. 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. . 45 
 
 all service, and expressly from the rent of twelve marks, 
 
 which they were wont to pay to us yearly." 
 
 He had also given to the common fund of the chapter the 
 
 tenths of all mill dues on his manor of Wells. 
 
 These benefactions to the income of the canons, given in 
 
 perpetuity for himself and his successors, were accompanied 
 
 with another gift for his own lifetime to the fabric fund of the 
 
 church. 
 
 In a deed done in chapter very early in his episcopate, in 
 
 the presence of the dean Richard of Spaxton, William of St. 
 
 Faith the precentor, Thomas archdeacon of Wells, and 
 
 " almost all the canons of the church," he made over to the 
 chapter, specially for the uses of the fabric, all the fruits 
 accruing from vacant benefices throughout the diocese, until 
 the work shall be finished. 
 
 This grant is conveyed in a charter which is often quoted 
 in the later history. It recites in the preamble the duty 
 incumbent on the rulers of the church, and his own continual 
 solicitude, that God shall not be dishonoured by the squalor 
 of His house. So, with the assent of the archdeacons and in 
 full council with his chapter, he had set himself to discharge 
 this duty incumbent upon him of providing a fund out of the 
 episcopal revenue from the fruits of benefices during the time 
 they were vacant, which should be entirely applied during his 
 lifetime towards the building of the cathedral church, until, by 
 the help of God, the whole work shall be brought to an end. 1 
 
 1. "The vacant benefice reverted to the diocesan both in spirituals and 
 temporals. He was the guardian of both, bound to provide for the spiritual 
 care of the flock, and also for the revenues chargeable with that care. 
 
 " This custom or rather common law was one of the survivals of the earlier 
 condition of the Church, when the endowments of a diocese were a diocesan 
 fund, administered by the bishop and synod, and applied to the support of a 
 diocesan corps of clergy. 
 
 ' ' These fruits formed a regular part of episcopal revenue administered by a 
 sequestrator-general, until the Act of Henry VIII which, in order to secure 
 payment of his first-fruits from the incoming incumbent, gave to the incumbent 
 the fruits during vacancy — leaving to the bishop only the duty of husbanding 
 those fruits by a sequestrator, and providing therefrom for the spiritual duties." 
 — Note by Bishop Hobhouse. 
 
 Bishop Joscelin in 1216, after consultation withidean Leonius and the chapter, 
 granted to the communa two-thirds of the revenues of vacant benefices, K. i, f. 59. 
 
 Bishop Roger in 1246 claimed all the vacant benefices ; but the chapter 
 appealed to the grant made to them by bishop Reginald, and the bishop with- 
 drew his claim upon examination of the charters. The chapter then made a 
 free gift to him of the two-thirds (saving to the archdeacon the third part) in 
 consideration of the debts of the bishopric. But they gave this only for the 
 bishop's life, and their act was not to bind future times. R. i, f. 64. So in after 
 times bishop Byttonand bishop Drokensford made the same claim and received 
 the same answer. 
 
46 « Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 Other grants follow, which have a special interest as un- 
 published evidence bearing upon the history of the fabric. 
 
 Several of contemporary documents bear witness that some 
 building was going on in the church at the time, and that 
 grants were being made for the completion of the work. The 
 dates of these early documents are not expressly given ; they 
 can only be ascertained by internal evidence and the names of 
 attesting witnesses. 
 
 There are three grants of churches neighbouring to one 
 another in the district of Castle Cary, made probably by 
 members of the same family the Lovels of Cary, either 
 attested by witnesses who were contemporaries with bishop 
 Reginald, or confirmed by Reginald himself. 
 
 (a.) Robert de Kari, lord of Lovinton, gives to God and St. 
 Andrew the advowson of the church of Lovinton, with one 
 hide of 160 acres of land, and a messuage near the church. 1 
 
 This deed is confirmed by bishop Reginald. 2 
 
 (b.) Nicolas de Barewe," in ruri-decanal chapter at Cary, 
 " considering the good conversation of the Canons of Wells, 
 and the fair structure of its rising church " gives up his life 
 interest in the temporalities of this same church of Lovinton 
 for an annual pension of two shillings. 4 
 
 (c.) Alured de Ponson grants the neighbouring church of 
 South Barrow, on my land, to God and St. Andrew, to the 
 communa of Wells, and to Reginald bishop of Bath. 5 
 
 Among the witnesses are Thomas, archdeacon of Wells, 
 Robert de Geldeford archdeacon, Alexander subdean of Wells, 
 etc. 
 
 These deeds follow one another in the register, as if in the 
 mind of the clerk who copied them, they had connection of 
 time and place. 
 
 The attestations to these charters fix their dates to the time 
 of Reginald. 
 
 A special interest attaches to the charter of Nicolas of 
 Barrow for the insight which it gives, though but a glimpse, 
 into the state of the cathedral chapter at this time. 
 
 The motives which prompted the grant of the church of 
 Barrow, perhaps of others, was a desire to support in their 
 
 1. R. i, f. 38, cxxx ; iii, f. 4. 
 
 2. R. iii, f. 61. 
 
 3. North Barrow, the next parish to Lovinton. R. i, f. 38. — Cf. R. i, f. 61. 
 
 4. R. i, f. 38. 
 
 5. R. i, ff. 35, 61. 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 47 
 
 work the canons who bore a good reputation in the diocese, 
 and to promote the building of the church, which was now 
 rising in beauty. He makes his grant " in consideration of 
 the right conversation of the canons of Wells and the admir- 
 able structure of the rising church." 
 
 These terms in the preamble of a formal document have 
 some meaning. They give an interest to the bare names of 
 canons which occur as signatories to these documents of the 
 time, they imply that there was attention to duty and devotion 
 in dean Alexander and the archdeacons and canons, Robert 
 of Guildford, Ralph of Lechlade, William of Martock, and 
 doubtless Joscelin the chaplain, which commanded the respect 
 of their brethren of the ruridecanal chapter of Cary. 
 
 And also at this time the church of St. Andrew was rising 
 and becoming an object of interest and admiration to the 
 clergy and laity of the diocese, so that when Nicolas of 
 Barrow and Michael of Aldford and Ralph of Yarlington 
 came up to Wells they would contrast their own little village 
 churches with the proportions and architectural beauty of the 
 buildings rising at Wells, and report that their cathedral 
 church was becoming " exceeding magnifical," and a praise in 
 the diocese. 
 
 Again there is another charter which tells more definitely of 
 new buildings at Wells, and of the restoration of older work 
 at this time. 
 
 Martin of Carscumbe, presumably Croscombe, near Wells, 
 makes a grant of three silver marcs towards "the construction 
 of the new work, of the church of St. Andrew in Wells," and 
 another two marcs "to the repairs of the chapel of St. Mary 
 there." 
 
 The deed is attested by an unknown witness, Baldwin the 
 chaplain. But it is dated with a precision which fixes it to 
 certain years — " in the second year after the coronation of the 
 lord the king at Winchester." 
 
 Two years are possible. Winchester was the scene of 
 royal coronation twice during the last part of the twelfth 
 century. 
 
 At Whitsuntide 11 70, the young Henry, eldest son of 
 Henry II (sometimes called rex junior, sometimes "Henricus 
 III ") 1 had been crowned at Westminster, without his wife 
 
 1. Richard of Devizes, De rebus gesiis Ricardi I, p. 5, § 3. Ricardus Alius 
 regis Henrici secundi, frater regis Henrici tertii." " Henry, son of King Henry 
 the Second, is frequently styled Henry the Third in the early chronicles and 
 contemporaneous State Papers. He died in 1 183." 
 
48 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 Margaret of France, by Roger archbishop of York. That 
 act had brought down upon Henry the wrath of Thomas of 
 Canterbury for the violation of the privileges of his see, and 
 of the king of France for the slight offered to his daughter. 
 He was crowned a second time, with his queen, in St. 
 Swithun's, Winchester, on August 27, 1172. 
 
 If we might take our date as the second year from this 
 coronation, and assign 11 74 to this charter, it would fall in the 
 first year of Reginald's episcopate, and it would be the earliest 
 evidence of any architectural work succeeding Robert's con- 
 secration of the church in 1148. But it is improbable that 
 the young Henry, though crowned and called rex junior and 
 Henricus tertius in contemporary documents, would have been 
 called dominus rex during the lifetime of his father. 
 
 There was another coronation at Winchester in twenty-four 
 years. Richard I who had been crowned in state at West- 
 minster on his accession on September 3, 1189, was crowned 
 a second time after his return to England, as it were " to wipe 
 out the stain of his captivity and his foreign homage," on 
 April 17, 1194, at Winchester. The year 1196 would then be 
 the second year after the coronation, the fourth year of 
 Savaric's episcopate. 
 
 In either case the document is evidence that new building 
 was going on in the church at Wells in the latter part of the 
 twelfth century, either by Reginald in succession to Robert, 
 or by Savaric in succession to Reginald ; and that there was 
 then a chapel of St. Mary which required and was undergoing 
 repair. 
 
 We cannot trace any other documentary reference to the 
 " new work " in Savaric's time. But we have some clue to an 
 earlier chapel, which may be the chapel of St. Mary now 
 under repair. 
 
 In the great charter of bishop Robert of the date of 11 36, 
 there is mention of " the chapel of the Blessed Mary," which 
 bishop Gyso endowed with land in Wotton. 
 
 It may be that Gyso built this chapel at the time when he 
 was building the cloister and refectory for his canons, on the 
 ground south of the church, where we know a " chapel of St. 
 Mary near the cloister" was standing afterwards, and is 
 mentioned repeatedly in later documents. 
 
 This chapel may have been spared when bishop John pulled 
 down the canonical buildings of his predecessor and restored 
 by bishop Robert. 
 
 We now see that these documents, relating to the years 
 
Reginald, 1174 — 1191. 49 
 
 between 1174-1196, bear witness that building was going on at 
 Wells in the latter part of the twelfth century, and in 
 Reginald's episcopate. 
 
 There are no fabric rolls of that date, but the charters of 
 gifts and endowments for the sustentation of the fabric and 
 for the completion of work going on, and the acts of confirm- 
 ation by bishop and chapter contradict the inferences drawn 
 from the language of the Canon of Wells and Godwin, that 
 nothing was done between Robert's and Joscelin's time. 
 
 It is antecedently improbable that Reginald should have 
 left the fabric of his own cathedral church to fall into ruins, 
 or to remain neglected during seventeen years of an active 
 episcopate. It was, as we see, a time of activity and progress 
 in the diocese. The bishop was carrying on Robert's work, 
 " following the footsteps of his predecessors, and led by their 
 example." 
 
 He was a vigorous man, a Norman, and might be supposed 
 to have had that love of building which distinguished the race." 
 He was high in favour with the kings Henry and Richard and 
 John his brother. He had travelled much, and must have 
 seen or known of new buildings rising abroad and at home — 
 in his uncle's diocese of Coutances : and at Canterbury, where 
 the rebuilding after the fire of 11 74 was going on throughout 
 his episcopate : in his own diocese — at Bath, where he was the 
 restorer of two churches, the founder and builder of the 
 hospital — at Witham, where St. Hugh was building his first 
 church, and preparing for his greater architectural work at 
 Lincoln — at Glastonbury, where buildings of national interest 
 were rising between 1184 and 1193, under Norman workmen, 
 and where he was the consecrator of the first completed part, 
 the chapel of St. Mary. 
 
 There would have been sufficient to kindle the ambition of 
 an active ruler to keep up and to beautify the church of 
 Wells, one of the seats of his diocese, which his predecessor 
 had begun to rebuild. 
 
 We know now from these documents, and from his own 
 words, that the building of the church was the subject of his 
 care and solicitude. We know that he was promoting the 
 building by a large gift to the fabric fund for his lifetime ; 
 that the work was being carried on, and the church was rising 
 and becoming a goodly structure in the land ; and that new 
 works and repairs of old building were being planned or 
 carried out, to which offerings were made in his time and in 
 the first years of his successor's episcopate. 
 
50 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 If it still remains doubtful what part, if any, of the building 
 of the present church can be assigned to bishop Robert, it is 
 absolutely certain that he was the founder of the Constitution 
 and Chapter of the church. The documents in the possession 
 of the dean and chapter which supply evidences unknown to 
 the later writers, Wharton and Godwin, have now made it 
 equally certain that bishop Reginald was the chief, if not the 
 first builder of the north porch, the eastern nave and transepts 
 and the three western arches of the choir — and that in that 
 section of the building we have architectural features which 
 Professor Willis has said, " bear a character unlike any early 
 English building," and "belong to an earlier style characterised 
 as a transitional Norman," an improved Norman, "worked with 
 considerable lightness and richness, but distinguished from 
 the Early English by greater massiveness and severity." 
 
 Reginald, the bishop who consecrated the Norman building 
 now remaining in the church of Glastonbury, built in his own 
 style in his church of Wells, in which he was the precursor 
 of the Early English work which appears under bishop Joscelin 
 his successor, fifty years later. 
 
 And now the last writer on the history of Gothic architec- 
 ture can boldly say : 
 
 " The first complete Gothic of England commences not 
 with the choir of Lincoln but of Wells, as begun by Reginald 
 FitzBohun, who was bishop from 1174 to 1191. 
 
 " It was in the West, first apparently at Wells, that every 
 arch was pointed and the semi-circular arch was exterminated. 
 It was in the West of England that the art of Gothic vaulting 
 was first mastered." 1 
 
 1. Gothic Architecture in England, Francis Bond, p. 103. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Savaric, Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury, 
 a.d. 1192-1205. 
 
 " Savaric is a person whose career if it could be explored 
 would be very interesting." So wrote bp. Stubbs in 1865. * 
 The history of Savaric is yet to be written. 
 
 Some knowledge of his episcopate is necessary for the con- 
 sideration of the question whether any part of the fabric of 
 the church was his work. 
 
 His worldly and eccentric career is a strange interlude 
 between the decorous and beneficent episcopates of his pre- 
 decessors and that of bishop Joscelin his successor. As a 
 citizen of the world he exercised remarkable influence for his 
 personal ends with the chief personages of his time at home 
 and abroad — popes, emperor, and kings. He was one of the 
 diploTnatic agents at the court of Henry VI emperor of the 
 Romans, in the European questions raised by the captivity of 
 Richard. 
 
 At home, his annexation to the see of Bath of the abbey of 
 Glastonbury by a circuitous and bold intrigue forms one of the 
 ecclesiastical events which throw light on the relations of 
 Church and State at the time just preceding the Great 
 Charter. 
 
 He was connected with the families of Savaric of Le Mans, 
 and Bohun of the Norman G6tentin. His elder brother 
 Franco de Bohun held the estates of Savaric Fitz-savaric his 
 
 1. Vide Epistola Cantuarienses, Pref. and Notes, p. lxxxvii, by bp. Stubbs. 
 Also Gentleman's Magazine, November, 1863, p. 621. These notes supply 
 material for the pedigree of the families of Savaric and Bohun. 
 
 Scanty notes of a paper by the late J. R. Green are to be read in the Somerset 
 Archaological Society's Proceedings for 1863. 
 
52 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 uncle, who had married into the Bohun family and was first 
 lord of Midhurst in Sussex, in the time of Henry I. The two 
 brother bishops, Joscelin de Bohun, 1 bishop of Sarum, 1142— 
 1 184, and Richard de Bohun, dean of Bayeux and bishop of 
 Coutances, 1151 — 1179, were his uncles, and Reginald Fitz 
 Joscelin, his immediate predecessor as Bishop of Bath, was his 
 cousin. 
 
 Through his mother, as is supposed a Burgundian, 2 he was 
 a kinsman of the emperor Henry VI. Names of the Bohun 
 family appear in the registers of Reginald's and Savaric's time 
 and among the canons of Wells. 8 
 
 Savaric's first public appearance is ominous of his masterful 
 character and turbulent career. 
 
 In the patent rolls for Surrey of the year 1172 he is named 
 as heavily fined, £i£> 3s. 4d. for striving to wrest a bow from 
 the king's foresters. 4 Notwithstanding, in 11 75 he was arch- 
 deacon of Canterbury, appointed at Westminster by arch- 
 bishop Richard. 5 He was treasurer of the church of Sarum 
 in 1 180, where his uncle was bishop. 6 He signs as archdeacon 
 of Northampton in a document in the Wells registers of a 
 date later than 1180, attesting a grant of the church of 
 Carenton (Carhampton), in West Somerset, to bishop 
 Reginald. 7 
 
 On this occasion the only other signatory is one " Dalmatius 
 Seneschallus Lugdunensis," an unknown name suggestive of 
 Savaric's Burgundian connection. The confirmation of this 
 grant by bishop Reginald is attested by Savaric and by 
 Alexander dean of Wells and others. 
 
 As archdeacon of Northampton he came under the - dis- 
 pleasure of king Henry, and his conduct is matter of com- 
 plaint to the pope. In June 1186 the king's clerks bring 
 
 1. Pedigree of Savaric, and Bohun family. 
 
 2. Bp. Stubbs, vide Pref, Epp. Cantuar. p. lxxxvii. Howden, 3, 197. 
 
 3. Franco de Bohun attests a charter of Bishop Reginald to Glastonbury — 
 John de Bohun was canon at Wells in Savaric's time. There is some reason for 
 thinking Alexander the dean 1180 — 1209 was a Bohun. Roger de Bohun was 
 canon in Savaric's time, and nephew of the dean. 
 
 4. " Savaricus clericus debet xxvi libras et iii solidos et iv denarios pro arcu 
 quam voluit auferre ministris Regis in foresta." Mag. Rot. 18 Hen. II. Rot. 
 106, Surreia : quoted by Stubbs. 
 
 5. Le Neve, Fasti, i, p. 38. Ralph de Diceto, i, f. 403. (Rolls Series). 
 
 6. Jones, Fasti of the Church of Sarum. V. Osmund Reg. i, 268-299, 312. 
 
 7. Reg. i, f. 24. 
 
Savaric, 1192 — 1205. 53 
 
 letters from Urban to intercede for Savaric, but with orders to 
 sequestrate his archdeaconry for the j)ayment of his debts. 1 
 
 Though in disgrace with Henry he rose quickly into favour 
 with Richard when king, probably through the influence of 
 Reginald. He was one of the crowd of ecclesiastics and 
 courtiers who started with Richard for the Holy Land, 2 and 
 he was with him at Messina in February 1191. There, by 
 some mysterious means, this disgraced archdeacon who could 
 not pay his debts, and was not yet in priest's orders, obtained 
 private letters from Richard ordering the king's justiciar to 
 sanction in the king's name his appointment to any bishopric to 
 which he might be elected. 8 
 
 These letters were sent to his cousin Reginald. Savaric 
 then betook himself to Rome, where he was already very well 
 known, as the centre from whence he could best work out his 
 schemes. 4 
 
 The see of Canterbury was now vacant by the death of 
 archbishop Baldwin at Acre in November, 1190. Savaric, in 
 1 191, was using his influence with the emperor Henry and 
 Philip Augustus of France to obtain letters from them to the 
 convent of Canterbury, 5 recommending Reginald for the 
 archbishopric. Reginald, who had other recommendations as 
 a steady supporter of the convent in the quarrel with arch- 
 bishop Baldwin, was elected Nov. 27, 1191, but he did not 
 survive his election more than a month, and the see was again 
 vacant. Savaric, while interceding for Reginald, had been 
 working to acquire for himself the reversion of the see of 
 Bath. Reginald, before his death, showed the king's letters 
 to Walter, prior of Bath, and obtained from the convent the 
 nomination of Savaric as bishop. The election rested with 
 the two chapters, the canons of Wells, as well as the monks of 
 Bath, but Walter, archbishop of Rouen, the king's justiciar, 
 without waiting for the assent of the Wells chapter, and in 
 spite of their protests, gave forthwith the king's assent to 
 
 1. Benedict, i, p. 356. Ralph de Diceto, ii, p. 105. (Rolls Series). 
 
 2. He was " Cruce signatus " when archdeacon of Northampton. Abbrevi- 
 ate Placitorum, p. 38. 
 
 3. Richard of Devizes, p. 28. Ed. Stevenson. Richard was at Messina from 
 Sept. 23, 1190, to March 30, 1191. 
 
 4. " Ipse vero Romam concessit sicut qui fuerat Romanis notissimus." 
 
 5. Epp. Cantuar. ccclxxxi, November 1191. The emperor urges the convent 
 to take the advice of Savaric, " our dear cousin and your good friend." 
 
 Ep. ccclxxxii. Philip recommends Reginald as his father's friend, " et 
 propter commendation em a Savarico amico et fideli nostro." 
 
54 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 Savaric's election. 1 Savaric, at Rome, obtained the confirm- 
 ation of pope Celestine, and after some delay was by his order 
 ordained priest at St. John Lateran on Sept. 19, and con- 
 secrated bishop of Bath the next day, Sept. 20, 1192. 
 
 Savaric had thus attained the bishopric through his in- 
 fluence with Richard and his friends in high place. He now 
 made his kinsman, the emperor of the Romans, Henry VI, 
 the means of coercing Richard to advance still further his 
 interests. 
 
 In the winter of 1192, Richard, returning from Palestine, 
 and tempest-tossed in the Adriatic, was wrecked on the low 
 shore between Venice and Aquileia. 
 
 After romantic adventures and escapes, which formed the 
 subject of troubadour lays, he was made prisoner near Vienna, 
 in the territory of his enemy, the duke of Austria, Dec. 12, 
 and after confinement at Dtirrenstein on the Danube, he was 
 delivered up to the emperor Henry 2 at the price of 60,000 
 crowns, and about March 23-30 brought to Speyer. 
 
 Throughout the whole of 1193, and to Feb. 1194, Richard 
 was a prisoner in the hands of Henry, who was basely making 
 terms at the same time with Richard for his release, and with 
 his enemies his brother John and Philip of France, for his 
 retention. 
 
 News of Richard's captivity had reached England in 
 February 1193. A council was summoned by Walter arch- 
 bishop of Rouen, the justiciar, to meet at Oxford on Feb. 28 
 to deliberate on measures to be taken to obtain the king's 
 release. Savaric was there named as a fit agent to negotiate 
 with the emperor as being a kinsman of the emperor and then 
 abroad, and a mission was sent from England to confer with 
 the king, and to arrange the terms of release. 
 
 During 1193 Savaric was present at interviews which took 
 place between the emperor and the king. At Worms in June 
 1 193, where Savaric and William bishop of Ely were present, 
 terms were finally arranged. The ransom was 100,000 marcs, 
 and 50,000 more were to be paid as perquisite to the duke of 
 Austria. Walter of Rouen, Savaric, and others, were ulti- 
 
 1. Richard of Devizes, p. 46. " Walterus prior et suus sine clero (sc. 
 Wellensi) conventus elegerunt sibi in futurum episcopum Savaricum, et licet 
 clerus reniteretur obtinuerunt. 
 
 R. i, f. 93. " Canonicis irrequisitis et reclamantibus. 
 
 2. Henry VI, Emperor of the Romans, 1190 — 1197, " son and successor of 
 Barbarossa, inherited all his father's harshness with none of his father's 
 generosity." Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, p. 205. 
 
Savaric, 1192 — 1205. 55 
 
 mately made hostages for payment of the ransom, bound not 
 to leave Germany without the knowledge of the emperor. 
 But it was not until after a protest from the princes of 
 Germany at Henry's ignoble detention of his captive after 
 promise of release that Richard was finally released at Mainz 
 on February 2, 1194 1 
 
 After a captivity of one year six weeks and three days 
 Richard was again in England. 
 
 On April 17, 11 94, he was crowned a second time at Win- 
 chester, "to wipe off the ignominy of his captivity." But the 
 burden of taxation for his ransom lay heavily on the kingdom. 
 
 While Savaric was taking part in negotiations for Richard's 
 release he was not unmindful of his own interests. He is said 
 by the Glastonbury writers to have had power with the 
 emperor to make the king's release in some way conditional 
 on his acceptance of clauses suggested to the emperor by 
 Savaric, in which he pressed his own advancement. Accord- 
 ing to Richard's own statement, as reported by Adam of 
 Domerham, he had extorted from Richard the exchange of 
 Bath city for the abbey of Glastonbury, and the union of the 
 abbey to the see of Bath, so that the jurisdiction and rights 
 of an abbot should be vested in him, with the title of bishop 
 of Bath and Glastonbury. 
 
 There was no vacancy in the abbacy at the time, but this 
 immediate difficulty was overcome. 
 
 The abbot was Henry, of Sully on the Loire, (Henricus de 
 Soliaco), nephew of Henry of Blois, kinsman of Richard, and 
 appointed by him in 11 89. Orders were sent to him by 
 Richard to join him at Hagenau, in Alsace, in April, 11 93 s 
 
 He there learnt from Richard himself that he was beholden 
 to cede in exchange the abbey to Savaric, the kinsman of the 
 emperor, that he must resign the abbey, and should be pro- 
 vided for by the vacant see of Worcester. The abbot entered 
 into Savaric's plans and made his arrangements accordingly. 
 
 At this same time Savaric was aiming at a higher prize. 
 
 1. Vide Howden, 3, 194-231, for notices of Richard's captivity under the 
 emperor Henry. The stations and dates of his imprisonment were — 
 
 Speyer, March 21-30. 1193. 
 Treifels in Rhenish Bavaria. 
 Hagenau in Alsace, April — May. 
 Worms, May 28 — June 30. 
 Speyer, December and Christmas. 
 Mainz, February, 1194. 
 
 2. Vide Adam of Domerham, ii, 355. 
 
56 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 The archbishopric of Canterbury which he had sought to 
 obtain for Reginald he now sought for himself. 
 
 Two letters from Richard following one another from 
 Worms, in May 28 and June 8, represent Richard's ignomini- 
 ous position and Savaric's pretensions. 
 
 On May 28 Richard wrote to the convent of Canterbury on 
 behalf of Savaric. 
 
 On June 8 he wrote to Eleanor the queen mother to secure 
 the election to Canterbury of Hubert Walter bishop of 
 Salisbury, and to credit no letters in favour of Savaric, or 
 any other candidate. He is forced, he says, during his cap- 
 tivity to write in favour of persons whom he does not wish to 
 be promoted — " pro quibusdam supplicare quos nullatenus 
 promoveri vellemus." 1 
 
 Hubert was appointed soon after in 1193, and Savaric pro- 
 ceeded to mature his plans for Glastonbury. He obtained 
 letters from the king and William bishop of Ely (Eongchamp) 
 to pope Celestine, asking for papal sanction to the union of 
 the bishoprics and the abbacy as the only means of putting a 
 stop to the chronic state of discord between bishop and monks. 
 Abbot Henry had returned to Glastonbury about Michaelmas, 
 and, having made his arrangements without revealing the 
 secret treaty, he left the abbey at Advent, and was consecrated 
 at Canterbury bishop of Worcester, December 12, 1193. 2 
 Then for the first time did the convent learn that their abbot 
 had betrayed them into the hands of their enemies, and that 
 they had passed under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Bath 
 as their abbot. 
 
 Adam of Domerham relates that Savaric was then at Bath 
 and sent for Harold, the prior, and announced to his surprise, 
 " I am your abbot." 8 
 
 The action of claiming possession of the abbey in the king's 
 name, and inducting the bishop by his proxy, was carried out 
 
 1. Vide Epp. Cantuar. 402, 403. 
 
 2. Vide Adam of Domerham, 356-7. The betrayal of the abbey has con- 
 demned the memory of abbot Henry to infamy in the Glastonbury history, not- 
 withstanding that he obtained for the abbot from pope Celestine the privileges 
 of the mitre and ring, and of blessing the vestments. The " Inquisition of the 
 manors of Glastonbury Abbey," Liber Henrici de Soliaco, — the terrier of the 
 abbey in 1189, — was made in his time. 
 
 3. It is not likely that Savaric, named as a hostage for the payment of the 
 ransom, was in England at this time. He was at Mainz at the time of Richard's 
 release, which took place on Feb. 2, 1194. 
 
Savaric, 1192 — 1205. 57 
 
 by Savaric's agents, selected from the chapter of Wells. 1 On 
 the part of the abbey a solemn protest from prior and convent 
 addressed to the pope was laid upon the altar of St. Andrew 
 in the Church of Wells. 
 
 Bath city at the same time was seized in the king's name. 
 
 This bold invasion of the independence of the great and 
 most ancient abbey which until the last forty years had held 
 the primacy among the abbeys of England, 2 though effected 
 by a surprise, was not submitted to without a severe struggle. 
 War between Wells and Glastonbury ensued for the next 
 twenty-five years, until 1219 — fought out under the two 
 episcopates of Savaric and Joscelin. Richard and John, with 
 the popes Celestine, Innocent III, and Honorius, were 
 engaged in the struggle. 
 
 The attempt to restrain the excessive power of the religious 
 houses was being made about the same time at Canterbury, 
 under the archbishops Baldwin and Hubert, and at Coventry, 
 under bishop Hugh Nonant. But Savaric's audacity and 
 strength of will carried him through his struggle with more 
 success than either of his brethren, and he transmitted to his 
 successor the title of bishop of Bath and Glastonbury, with a 
 fourth part of the revenue and a large portion of the manors 
 of the abbey. 
 
 The Glastonbury writers are naturally vehement in their 
 complaints of the rapacity and cruelty of the invader and 
 oppressor, and the public opinion of churchmen was generally 
 against him. But the example of the archbishops Baldwin 
 and Hubert, and of bishop Hugh of Lincoln, 3 and the support 
 
 1. Ralph of Lechlade, a well-known name in the chapter registers, afterwards 
 (in 1217-20) dean, in bishop Joscelin's time, is named as proctor. 
 
 2. St. Alban's was made the primal abbey under pope Adrian IV (Nicolas 
 Breakspear) who had been a monk of St. Alban's in 1154. 
 
 3. It is instructive to compare how at the same time another and a very 
 different man was fighting a like battle with the king, and with what different 
 weapons he gained his cause. 
 
 St. Hugh of Lincoln in 1 197 pressed his claim to the right of patronship {jus 
 patronatus) based upon ancient precedent, to the vacant abbey of Eynsham, 
 which had been disputed by the king's ministers. 
 
 Hugh's friends tried to dissuade him from entering into a hopeless conflict 
 with the king : but he stoutly prosecuted his suit, and by the oath of twenty-four 
 credible witnesses, cleric and lay, gained his cause in the king's court. Vita. S. 
 Hugonis, iv, 8, p. 188, ed. Dimock. 
 
 The custody of the abbey during vacancy was restored to him, the right of 
 confirming the abbot, and full jurisdiction over the convent. At a conference of 
 abbots and other religious of the neighbourhood at Eynsham, the elected of the 
 convent is presented to the bishop, and his benediction is given at Lincoln. At 
 the feast which he gave afterwards it was the subject of rejoicing that like the 
 Good Shepherd he had gathered into one flock sheep that were of another fold, 
 and had united in federal union under one headship church and abbacy. 
 
58 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 which Savaric received from his successor, bishop Joscelin and 
 the chapter of Wells, show that there were good men who 
 saw the importance of checking the exorbitant pretensions to 
 independence of the overgrown monasteries in the diocese. 
 Savaric's attempts to bring the other religious houses of his 
 diocese into closer relation to the cathedral church are a sign 
 that he had a policy which was reasonable and consistent, 
 though it is probable that his leading motives in the annex- 
 ation of Glastonbury were greed and ambition, his acts were 
 violent and tyrannical, and he certainly showed nothing of the 
 spirit of a reformer. 
 
 The struggle illustrates the unsettled state of the relations 
 between Church and State at this time, the growth of papal 
 interference, and the inconsistent and selfish policy of the 
 Roman Curia, which soon provoked the national assertion of 
 independence of papal interference in the election of bishops 
 and abbots in the Great Charter of 1215. 
 
 There are three stages in the history of the struggle during 
 Savaric's life, according to the Glastonbury historian — 
 
 (a.) During Richard's time the wolf was kept out of 
 
 the fold for five years, 1194-1199. 
 (b.) As soon as John succeeded, the wolf sprang into 
 
 the fold to devour and to lay waste, 1 199-1202. 
 (c.) He was checked by the strong arm of the pope, 
 Innocent III, 1202-1205. 
 
 Savaric had been inducted under Richard's grant, then 
 abroad and in captivity. But Richard, on his return to 
 England, resenting Savaric's power over him in Germany, 
 repudiated his concession as a fraudulent exchange forced 
 upon him when not a free agent. He received the appeal of 
 the convent, and refused to acknowledge Savaric as abbot, 
 and put the abbey under the charge of William of Ste. Mere 
 l'Eglise, his prothonotary, afterwards bishop of London. 
 This was probably in the autumn of 1194. 1 
 
 Pope and king were at war. Celestine issued his sanction 
 of the union of Bath and Glastonbury in the Lent of 1195, 
 and a second and stronger mandate to the archbishop followed 
 Richard's action in 1196 or 1197, ordering him to put Savaric 
 in possession. Archbishop Hubert, who secretly supported 
 
 1. The dates in Adam of Doraerham are confused ; but he definitely assigns 
 this act to the first autumn after Henry of Sully's consecration to Worcester 
 which took place December, 1193 Ste. Mere l'Eglise is a village in the 
 Cotentin near Carentan. William, bishop of London, is more generally called 
 William of St. Marychurch, but cf. Stubbs, Episcopal Succession, anno 1199 
 
Savaric, 1192— 1205. 59 
 
 the convent, and had delayed execution of the papal letters, 
 now ordered Alexander dean of Wells, and others of the 
 chapter, to read the pope's letters, inhibiting the convent from 
 electing another abbot, and ordering obedience to Savaric. 
 
 The king's officers retired. The abbey was put under the 
 authority of Savaric in October, 1197, by archiepiscopal and 
 papal mandate. 
 
 Pope Celestine III died January 8, 1198. 
 
 Richard answered Celestine's mandate by writing to the 
 new pope, Innocent III, in favour of the convent, by taking 
 the abbey into his own hands as lord, and giving the monks 
 permission to elect their own abbot. William Pica (" con- 
 versione novicius sed medicinae professor ") was elected abbot, 
 and approved by the king's justiciar, November 25, 1198. 
 
 Savaric made the next move. From the manor of Mells he 
 issued his excommunication against William as rival abbot, 
 and laid an interdict upon the convent. 
 
 The convent stood out for a time. Abbot William ruled 
 from St. Nicholas' day, December 12, 1198, to the Purification, 
 February 2, 1199 ; but his attempt to enforce discipline amidst 
 the conflict of authority and factions in the house, united all 
 parties against him, and he left Glastonbury to carry the 
 appeal of the monks before the king in Normandy, and before 
 Pope Innocent at Rome. The convent submitted and prayed 
 for remission of the interdict. By the archbishop's authority 
 the abbots of Sherborne and Abbotsbury withdrew the inter : 
 diet about Easter, 11 99 ; and, a few days after, the abbots of 
 Malmesbury and Evesham, and the precentor of Wells, as the 
 bishop's representative, received the submission of the monks 
 to Savaric's authority. Such was the state of things when 
 Richard's death took place, April 6, 1199. 
 
 We see the unsettled state of relations between pope and 
 king in this period of the struggle. 
 
 Papal mandates, illegal by the Constitutions of Clarendon, 
 are published and executed by the archbishop. 
 
 The king acts in defiance of them — the bishop excommuni- 
 cates those who act on Richard's authority — the monastery 
 appeals to both king and pope against the bishop. There is 
 a diversity of treatment by the papal court of the two cases 
 of Canterbury and Glastonbury. In the former case, the 
 pope supported the monks against their archbishop. In the 
 case of Glastonbury the pope sends mandates in favour of 
 the bishop against the monks. Richard is so far consistent, 
 after having repudiated his engagement made to Savaric 
 
60 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 when a prisoner, that in the year 1198 he forbade the execution 
 of papal mandates alike at Canterbury in favour of the monks 1 
 and at Glastonbury in favour of Savaric. 
 
 It is not easy to trace Savaric's movements through his 
 wandering life. 
 
 From the time when he left England with Richard for the 
 Holy Land in December n 89 he was probably absent from 
 England until 1197. 
 
 Since 1194 he had held office as chancellor of Burgundy, or 
 " the kingdom of Aries," 2 under the emperor Henry VI ; and 
 he carried on his contest for the abbey through his agents at 
 Rome and by letters to England. 
 
 In 1 1 97 he was sent to England by the emperor, then at 
 Messina, struck with compunction and in fear of death, to 
 release Richard from submission made to him when in cap- 
 tivity, and to offer restitution in money or lands for the ransom 
 exacted from him. 8 
 
 Savaric might possibly have used this mission as a means 
 of conciliating Richard to support him in his hold of Glaston- 
 bury. But while Savaric was on the journey the emperor 
 died, and the opportunity was lost. We then trace Savaric 
 with Richard at Rouen on October 16, 1197, where he attested 
 the concord made between Richard and the archbishop of 
 Rouen after a quarrel about the castle of Roche Andely, 4 and 
 his arrival in England will have coincided with the execution 
 of the papal mandate for his induction into the abbey. 
 
 The abbey was now cowed into submission ; but Savaric 
 seems to have been restrained from taking possession or from 
 further aggression — perhaps by his late interview with Richard, 
 in Normandy. 
 
 His friend Celestine died soon after, and a very different 
 pope, Innocent III, succeeded. The monks, supported by 
 the king, were carrying their appeal to him. 
 
 During 1198 Savaric was in England, probably for part of 
 
 1. Cf. Epp. Caniuar. — Richard's Letters, June 14, 15, 1198, Pre/, p. cxi. 
 
 2. " Regnum Arelatense," including Provence, Dauphine, the southern part 
 of Savoy, and the country between the Saone and the Jura. Bryce, Holy 
 Roman Empire, p. 448, 
 
 3. Howden says, that Richard when in captivity, " consilio matris suae 
 deposuit se de regno Angliae et tradidii illud imperatori Henrico sexto sicut 
 universorum domino." But as he was invested at the same time with the 
 kingdom of Aries by Henry VI, his homage may have been for that fief only 
 Vide Bryce, p. 187. 
 
 4. Howden, 4, 30. Ralph de Diceto, ii, f. 156. 
 
Savaric, 1192 — 1205. 61 
 
 the time in his diocese, where some undated charters to the 
 church of Wells and confirmation of his predecessor's grants, 
 in the Wells registers, may belong to this year. 
 
 In October of this year — n 98 — Savaric was one of a com- 
 mission to arrange Richard's quarrel with archbishop Geoffrey 
 of York, and on the archbishop's appeal to Rome the com- 
 missioners were ordered to Rome to conduct Richard's case 
 there. 1 
 
 Savaric had also his own business to transact at Rome. 
 He had just excommunicated the abbot elected by the convent 
 of Glastonbury under Richard's authority, and put an inter- 
 dict upon the abbey for disobeying the pope's mandate. It 
 was now necessary for him to obtain Innocent's confirmation 
 of his act, and to carry on his own case against the agents of 
 the convent in the Roman Curia. 
 
 He was there through the winter of 1 198-9, when the news 
 of Richard's death on April 6, 1199, brought him back at once 
 to England to take immediate advantage of John's accession, 
 and to try a shorter method, by influence and by bribes, to 
 obtain from him possession of the abbey which Richard had 
 persistently denied him. 2 
 
 Savaric found John a ready instrument for his purpose. He 
 obtained at once an order to the archbishop Hubert for his 
 public installation as abbot at Glastonbury, and Hubert issued 
 a commission to the archbishop of Arragon and the archdeacon 
 of Canterbury to enthrone him. 
 
 Savaric was present at John's coronation at Westminster 
 on Ascension Day 1199. According to the ceremonial ob- 
 served on Richard's coronation, the bishops of Durham and 
 of Bath, walking on the right and left hand of John, conducted 
 him from the throne to the altar to receive the crown, and 
 back again to his throne. 
 
 Then Savaric lost no time in asserting himself. On Whit- 
 sunday, June 8, Savaric appeared in person at Glastonbury, 
 attended by the dean Alexander, the precentor of Wells 
 William of St. Faith, 3 and other secular clergy and soldiery. 
 The doors of the abbey were found closed, and were forced 
 open : the cloisters of the church were empty and the monks, 
 
 1. Howden, 4, 66. 
 
 2. " Tamprecequampretioejuscomparansgratiam." Adam of Domerham , 
 382 
 
 3. He appears in the Canterbury Letters as one of the agents of the arch- 
 bishop Baldwin at Rome against the convent of Canterbury. 
 
62 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 all but eight, refused to appear. The sacristy was broken 
 open, and the secular clergy in the vestments of the monks 
 formed the procession of installation. The monks were then 
 shut up in the infirmary, and soldiers took post in the cloisters 
 through the day and night. Next day the monks were 
 summoned to the chapter-house, where some were publicly 
 beaten, threats, promises, cajolery were used with others, and 
 at last the signatures of fifty in number were extorted to a 
 deed addressed to the pope, by which they acknowledged 
 Savaric as their abbot, and promised obedience. The names 
 of the commissioners and of witnesses present attested the 
 deed, it was sealed with the convent seal, and then the great 
 seal of the abbey was given up to Savaric. 
 
 Savaric was now in full possession. The wolf had sprung 
 in upon the fold, and he entered in to devour and to lay waste. 
 
 Deputations went from the convent to Rome to lay their 
 case before the pope. 
 
 Martin de Summa, 1 powerful in money and in friends at 
 Rome, was their chief champion, going backwards and for- 
 wards throughout the struggle at great personal risks on the 
 journey. Savaric's unscrupulous agents waylaid, robbed, and 
 imprisoned the monks. 
 
 Eustace Comyn, afterwards prior and a great benefactor to 
 the abbey, and John of Cossington, are names of the most 
 active agents. William Pica was there now until his death, 
 not without a suspicion of poison, in the next year. 
 
 Savaric was attending on the king in Normandy in the 
 summer of 1199. 2 He was probably again at Rome during 
 the winter, pleading against the Glastonbury deputation, and 
 he left his agents at Wells to carry on the work of crushing 
 the rebellious spirit of the monks and forcing them to with- 
 draw their agents at Rome. A piteous tale was sent from the 
 abbey to the brethren at Rome of Savaric's outrages and the 
 sufferings of the monks. Innocent was moved to tears by it, 
 as the brethren report in their answer, and promised that he 
 would protect them. A letter from Innocent of later date 
 (August 28, 1 202) 8 relates the complaints which reached him 
 
 1. His brother was a Milanese, miles potentissimus. — Vide Royal Letters, 
 Henry III, 2, 512, and he is called " subdiaconus noster " by pope Innocent. 
 — Adam of Domerham, 419. 
 
 2. He attests documents from July 1 to September 7 at different places in 
 Normandy. 
 
 3. Adam of Domerham, p. 406. 
 
Savaric, 1192 — 1205. 63 
 
 at the time and which roused his indignation against Savaric. 
 The gates of the abbey were closed night and day for a year 
 and more, so that no person, no letter, should pass in or out. 
 Refractory monks were punished, one by the loss of his 
 corrody or pension ; another was beaten in Savaric's presence, 
 so that he died from his injuries ; others were injured for life 
 by hardships endured. The pope complained that his own 
 letters, received by Savaric in Flanders, had been treated as 
 forgeries and disregarded, and his messengers stopped and 
 robbed. On the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, after 
 Savaric's installation, the prior had called to his aid some of 
 the canons from Wells, among whom was Joscelin, afterwards 
 bishop, 1 who, entering in with some lay people, made a violent 
 assault upon five of the leaders of the rebellion, whom they 
 dragged even from the altar, and carried them off in carts to 
 Wells. There they were imprisoned for eight days, suffering 
 hunger and thirst, insults and mockings, and then were dis- 
 persed among other religious houses in the country. 
 
 Innocent through this time was trying to arrange matters so 
 as to save the credit of the Holy See, and do justice between 
 the parties. He was shocked by Savaric's violence and 
 defiance ; he was hampered by Celestine's policy of concession ; 
 so he confirmed Celestine's mandate for Savaric's induction, 
 and he annulled William Pica's election ; but he inhibited 
 Savaric from acts of excommunication, of vengeance and 
 spoliation, and he appointed a commission to arbitrate and 
 make award between Savaric and the convent. 
 
 The commission consisted of Eustace, bishop of Ely ; 
 Sampson, abbot of St. Edmund's ; and Godfrey, prior of Holy 
 Trinity, Canterbury. They received their mandate in June, 
 
 1 20 1 ; but, either thwarted or bribed by Savaric, they did not 
 proceed to business until, forced by a second mandate from 
 Innocent, they held their sitting at St. Alban's, on September 8, 
 
 1202 ; and made their award, which was confirmed by the 
 pope, September 23, 1202. 
 
 This award was the basis of a concordat which lasted for 
 the remainder of Savaric's episcopate. 
 
 The ordinance of pope Innocent, based upon the report of 
 the commissioners, 2 is of general historical interest as an 
 
 1. The names occur again of William the precentor, Thomas of Dinant sub- 
 dean, John de Bohun, and Joscelin, afterwards bishop. 
 
 2. The report is printed in Adam of Domerham, pp 410-425, and a duplicate 
 MS. copy is among the Wells chapter documents. 
 
64 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 example of the Roman jurisdiction overriding the action of 
 the civil court. It also exhibits the internal economy of one 
 of the largest and the most ancient of the abbeys of England. 
 It contains a lengthy recital of the previous stages of the con- 
 troversy ; comments severely on Savaric's attempt to forestall 
 the settlement by an arrangement in the king's court which is 
 now set aside ; gives details of local interest touching the 
 income and property of the house, and the number of the 
 monks ; and sketches out a scheme for a division of the 
 revenues, and the government of the monastery, "after the 
 pattern of other well-constituted cathedral churches in which 
 are colleges of monks." The award was to be final ; if the 
 bishop did not accept it within three months the convent 
 should be restored to its former condition, and the monks 
 should be at liberty to elect their own abbot. 
 
 It appeared from the testimony of the older monks that the 
 number in the house had ranged from seventy to eighty, 
 besides twenty-three of the body who held hereditary offices : 
 " hereditario jure constitutos." 1 The nett divisible income 
 after providing for these, and for the necessary wants of the 
 house, such as hospitality, the support of the poor, and fabric 
 repairs, was estimated at ^800 per annum. Besides this were 
 the altar oblatjons, which were set apart for the new buildings 
 of the church. The abbey was a barony of the Crown, bound 
 to the service of forty knights. 
 
 The scheme of the commissioners on which the papal award 
 in the ordinance was made, estimated the number of monks at 
 sixty, with a nett divisible income of /*8oo : it provided — 
 
 (a.) That to the bishop as abbot should belong ten of 
 the manors with the patronage of all the churches 
 on the ten manors, in order to yield him a fourth 
 part of the revenue 2 — the abbot's house within the 
 precincts of the abbey 3 — and Meare in the Glaston- 
 bury xii hides ; 
 
 1. Vide Liber de Soliaco, notes to p. 10. The offices of porter, master baker, 
 cook, and butcher, were hereditary (some from Dunstan's time), and occasion- 
 ally descended to females who acted by deputy, e.g., the office of pincerna, 
 1 'butler, ' ' who distributed wine to the guests, was held by a daughter of a former 
 pincerna. This office, and some others held hereditario jure, were afterwards 
 bought up by the abbey. Vide Adam of Domerham, p. 531. 
 
 2. The manors of Pucklechurch, Wynescomb, Badbury in Wilts, Essebury 
 (Ashbury in Berks), Buckland, Lyme, Blackford, East Brent, Berges (Berrow), 
 Cranmore. 
 
 3. " Ut habeat episcopus domos juxta capellam beatae mariae quae fuerunt 
 abbatum, cum clausura sua per murum qui extenditiir a lardario usque ad 
 angulum praedictae capellae ; et ut fiat porta ejus versus forum Glastoniense." 
 
Savaric, 1192— 1205. 65 
 
 <{b). The bishop should be answerable for a proportion- 
 ate share of the knight's service to the Crown- 
 should bear his share of the debts of the convent, 
 and should make restitution or compensation for 
 lands alienated, for patronage unjustly exercised, 
 for injuries to monks ejected or persecuted during 
 the late troubles -, 1 
 (c). The appointment and deposal of the higher officers, 
 prior, sacrist, chamberlain, cellarer, should belong 
 to the bishop ; 
 (d.) The bishop should have canonical jurisdiction 
 over the prior and the convent. 
 In the internal government it was provided there should be 
 a common purse in charge of four treasurers elected by the 
 convent. The seal of the abbey was to be kept under four 
 keys, of which the prior and two brethren elected by the con- 
 vent and a fourth appointed by the bishop should be holders. 
 No deeds should be signed otherwise than in chapter, in 
 presence of the brotherhood. 
 
 This ordinance was accepted by both bishop and convent. 
 Hostilities now ceased for the remainder of Savaric's life — 
 both parties seem to have fulfilled their parts of the arrange- 
 ment. Adam of Domerham has no further complaint to bring 
 against Savaric — " he even showed himself gentle to all — he 
 began to make many gifts, and he promised more." In com- 
 pensation, he offered, and they accepted, the exchange of the 
 manors of Kingston and Christian Malford for East Brent 
 and Berrow. He voluntarily ceded the manor of Lyme, 
 which had been the hereditary possession of the cook. 
 
 Savaric might well be content. He had won in a struggle 
 of nine years. Having obtained the enforced concession of 
 Richard, and pope Celestine's support, he had held to his 
 claim against the open opposition of the king, the secret 
 antagonism of archbishop Hubert, and the weight of adverse 
 public opinion. John he had probably bribed. He had ob- 
 tained terms from even Innocent III. 
 
 Peter of Blois, in writing to him, had represented to him 
 the general opinion that he was striving for an impossibility 
 in seeking to bring under one mitre bishopric and abbey, and 
 
 1. Martinus de Sumraa, "our subdeacon," is expressly mentioned as one 
 who had suffered. His services to the convent and their ingratitude to him 
 afterwards are the subject of complaint to Henry III in 1223 from the Podesta 
 and the commune of Milan. Royal Letters, Henry III 2, 215. 
 
66 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 that he need not be ashamed to fail in a contest in which no 
 bishop could succeed. 
 
 The protests and appeals to Rome from all sides immediate- 
 ly after his death in favour of the abbey witness alike to the 
 displeasure with which his policy was viewed, and to the 
 extraordinary influence and tenacity of purpose by which 
 Savaric had triumphed. 
 
 But the pacification of 1202 was obtained at the cost of 
 much diplomacy and much money, in which both Savaric and 
 the convent must have grievously suffered. 
 
 The revenues of the see must have been lavished among 
 the lawyers and officials of the Roman chancellery. Savaric's 
 debts were the subjects of epigrams at Rome, and we have 
 evidence that they followed his successor in the see. A letter 
 from the agents of the convent at Rome in the year preceding 
 the award throws some light upon the expenses of the liti- 
 gation to them — " the convent must pay their debts at Rome 
 before they obtain their award — their agents had made them- 
 selves liable for a loan of 900 marcs, due to the money-lenders 
 of Troyes " ; the pope himself writes to the convent that 
 their agents had incurred debts to the amount of 750 marcs, 
 which must be paid to the Roman money-lenders before they 
 can be allowed to depart. Martin de Summa and the brethren 
 intimate to the convent that the pope himself will expect to 
 be remunerated for his services to them. 1 
 
 Savaric did not appear at Glastonbury at this time. He 
 preferred the court of John to either of his bishop's seats, or 
 to ruling over recalcitrant monks at Glastonbury. In the 
 summer of 1199 he was with John in Normandy, during July, 
 August, and September; then we lose sight of him. At one 
 time he is in Flanders, where he refuses to receive the pope's 
 letters, or treats them as forgeries. 2 At another time Innocent 
 mentions having seen him and received complaints from him 
 at Rome of losses to the see during his predecessor's time. 3 
 He was at Rome probably in the winter of 1199. 
 
 During the spring and summer of 1200 John was in Nor- 
 mandy and Aquitaine, where, after his divorce, a second 
 marriage was arranged with Isabella of Angouleme, and he 
 
 1. He says, " Summus pontifex pro ecclesiae nostrae impensis beneficiis 
 remunerari voluerit et sub episcopo nihil recipere curaverit." Adam of 
 Domerham, pp. 399, 404. There is another readiDg, "ab episcopo." These 
 words have an ambiguous meaning. 
 
 2. Adam of Domerham, p. 406. 
 
 3. R. 3, f. 262. 
 
Savaric, 1192 — 1205. 67 
 
 returned for coronation at Westminster on October 8, 1200. 
 Savaric was probably there, as he was certainly in England 
 in October, and he was one of John's court at Lincoln on two 
 memorable occasions in November. 1 
 
 On Wednesday, November 22, William the Lion king of 
 Scotland did homage to John, and Savaric was one of the 
 attesting witnesses. On the Friday, the 24th, he assisted at 
 the burial of Hugh bishop of Lincoln. During that autumn 
 Hugh had paid his last visit to the homes of his youth in 
 Burgundy, the family home at Avalon, and the Great Charter- 
 house from whence he had come so reluctantly to Witham. 
 He had been taken ill on return to England, and died in his 
 house in " the old Temple near London," on November ij? 
 Thence his body was brought down by stages and arrived at 
 Lincoln on the afternoon of Thursday, November 23. There, 
 unexpectedly to themselves, a large and profligate court were 
 called upon to pay the world's last show of homage to the 
 holy and humble of heart. The king of England, the king 
 of Scotland, the archbishops of Canterbury, Dublin, and 
 Ragusa, fourteen bishops, a crowd of abbots, clergy, and 
 barons met the procession outside the city. 3 The body was 
 attended by the king and barons up the steep hill to the church 
 porch : there it was received by the bishops and clergy and 
 borne to its resting-place for the night before the high altar of 
 the church. The next day, Friday, 24, St. Hugh was laid 
 according to his last injunctions before the altar of the newly- 
 finished chapel of St. John the Baptist, in the north transept 
 of the choir. 4 
 
 Reginald of Bath had been instrumental in bringing Hugh 
 of Burgundy from his cell at the Great Charterhouse to 
 Witham, and had helped and honoured Hugh in his work 
 until he was removed to Lincoln. Now Savaric, Reginald's 
 successor, connected also with Burgundy by birth and office, 
 helped to bear St. Hugh the bishop to his grave at Lincoln. 
 
 This is the last appearance of Savaric in public life, as far 
 as we can trace. 
 
 1. He can be traced at Gildeford, October n, Leddibria (Ledbury), November 
 6, Upton 7, Feckenham 9, Lincoln 21-24, Geytenton 28. 
 
 2. Vita S. Hugonis, p-33i, " Proprium diversorium quod secus Londonias 
 apud vetus Teraplum possidebat. ' ' 
 
 3. Vita S. Hugonis, p. 370. 
 
 4. Vita S. Hugonis, p. 377, " Sepultus est sicut ipse nobis praeceperat secus 
 parietem non procul ab altare Sancti Johannis Baptistae — a boreali ipsius aecKs 
 
68 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 We must glance at the sequel of the quarrel with Glaston- 
 bury after Savaric's death. 
 
 The controversy, which had been set at rest for a time in 
 1202, broke out afresh immediately on Savaric's death in 1205. 
 No sooner had he passed away than memorials were presented 
 to the pope from all sides, praying for the restoration of the 
 abbey to its former status. John was moved to write to 
 Innocent, and to encourage petitions 1 throughout the kingdom 
 in favour of the abbey, before the see was filled up. 
 
 In a short time, general petitions from the barons, from the 
 bishops, abbots, and priors of England, from the churches of 
 Norwich, Worcester, Sarum, from Abbotsbury and Muchelney, 
 even from Bath and Wells, poured in, representing the evils 
 which had ensued from the proceedings of Savaric, the scandal 
 to the church, the sufferings of the monks, the poor, and the 
 stranger, from the lack of means for alms and hospitality ; and 
 praying for the dissolution of the union between the see and 
 the convent. 
 
 The monks of Bath compare the harmony and prosperity of 
 the see and of the abbey under Reginald with the discord 
 caused by Savaric's policy, which, carried out without their 
 assent, had generated quarrels, and tended to the impoverish- 
 ment of the abbey and the sufferings of the poor and the 
 stranger. 
 
 The canons of Wells, of whom Joscelin was one, deplore 
 their disappointment with the fruits of Savaric's policy. 
 They had hoped great things would result, but their church 
 and the convent have alike greatly suffered. 
 
 The church of Worcester refers to the three persecutions of 
 regulars in their time — at Canterbury, at Coventry, and at 
 Glastonbury. Innocent had upheld the cause of the monks 
 at the two former, they pray Innocent not to desert Glaston- 
 bury. 
 
 The monks of Muchelney, looking up to Glastonbury as 
 their patron and protector, contrast the former glory of the 
 house with its present shame, and derision and poverty. 
 " What was the need that there should be three cathedral 
 seats in so narrow a diocese, with expense and loss of social 
 and religious unity ? " 
 
 The church of Sarum laments the weakening of discipline 
 and the loss of hospitality to the poor and stranger. 
 
 1. For these letters, vide Adam of Domerham, pp. 425, 437. John was at 
 Glastonbury September 3, at Wells September 5, 1205. 
 
Savaric, 1192 — 1205. 69 
 
 They all pray for the "reformation" of the great and ancient 
 Benedictine house, and its restoration to former independence. 
 
 Innocent, unwilling to revoke so soon his own act and the 
 concessions of his predecessor, yet evidently moved by the 
 strength and unanimity of these petitions, could only evade a 
 decision by declining to make any change during the vacancy 
 of the see, and by giving permission to the convent to 
 prosecute their appeal when the bishop was appointed. 
 
 In the decretals of Gregory IX, the answer of Innocent to 
 the petition for a dissolution of the union is made the pre- 
 cedent on which a general canon of the church is based, that 
 "during the vacancy of a see nothing shall be changed." 1 
 
 After a few months, in May, 1206, Joscelin of Wells 
 succeeded to the see. He had been one of Savaric's agents in 
 the union, and whatever may have been the opinion of the 
 chapter, tie, personally, was unwilling that a policy carried 
 out at such a cost should at once be abandoned without bear- 
 ing some fruit. The disappointment of the monks vented 
 itself in bitter invectives against Joscelin, as the successor of 
 Savaric in greed and guilt no less than in the see, and in com- 
 plaints and appeals to Rome. War was again renewed, but 
 Joscelin retained his hold on Glastonbury, and Innocent 
 supported him. Innocent died in 12 16. It was not until 
 Honorius had succeeded Innocent that the court of Rome 
 could decently reverse its policy. Honorius advised Joscelin 
 to conciliate — terms were proposed by him, and finally arranged 
 in a pacification at Shaftesbury, the octave of St. John the 
 Evangelist, 1218. The abbey obtained their freedom to elect 
 their own abbot, and the union was dissolved, but the cession 
 of four of their manors was the price they paid for independ- 
 ence. 2 
 
 Joscelin retained the position of patron, intermediate between 
 the Crown and the abbey, and therewith the patron's right of 
 guarding the temporalities during vacancy, of granting conge 
 d'elire, of confirmation of election, and of restoration of the 
 temporalities, as well as the diocesan rights of benediction and 
 of visitation. He was the holder of the fief immediately 
 under the Crown, whereby he became responsible for the 
 knights' service from the abbey to the Crown. 
 
 1. Gregorii Decretalia, lib. iii, tit. ix, c. i. " Ne sede vacante aliquid 
 innovetur." 
 
 2. Decree of Dissolution of Union, by Honorius III, May 17, 1218. R. iii, ff. 
 263-265. 
 
70 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 William was elected abbot by the convent on the day of St. 
 Grimbald, 1219, and was presented to the bishop. On the 
 vigil of the translation of St. Benedict, July 11, 12 19, Joscelin 
 as patron admitted and confirmed the abbot whom the convent 
 had elected. 
 
 On the next day as diocesan he gave him the benediction. 
 
 On the morrow of St. Laurence, August 11, the bishop 
 came to Glastonbury, and caused the seal of the convent to 
 be put to the deed of concord. 
 
 " And so the monastery of Glastonbury, which had been 
 deprived of the dignity of an abbey for twenty-six years, was 
 restored through pope Honorius, although not altogether, yet 
 to the former state of being under the government of its own 
 abbot." 1 
 
 There is no doubt it was a rude and sacrilegious hand which 
 had seized upon the abbey, and succeeded in a bold invasion 
 of the independence and exemption from jurisdiction of the 
 great religious aristocracy, who had lived in security under 
 the protection of royal charters and traditional reputation for 
 sanctity. 
 
 But in justice to Savaric we must remember that the 
 Glastonbury historians are scarcely less severe in their 
 strictures afterwards upon Joscelin, the model bishop, for not 
 surrendering the abbey. The aim was good, and some good 
 result was obtained. 
 
 It was well to put a check upon the growing wealth and 
 exorbitant pretensions to independence of the abbey, and to 
 bring it into relation with the cathedral church. 
 
 Reginald had attempted to bring the abbot into the chapter 
 of his church, and had given the direction which Savaric 
 followed out with some degree of consistent policy towards 
 the other religious houses in the diocese, and Joscelin was 
 unwilling to relax the hold which Savaric obtained until terms 
 were made which secured some degree of subordination on the 
 part of the abbey. The patronatus of the abbey, which 
 Joscelin at last secured to the bishop, placed the bishop as 
 patron of Glastonbury, instead of the Crown, saved the abbey 
 from the long vacancies which often took place under the 
 Norman and Angevin kings, and gave some authority to the 
 bishop in the appointment, and some right of visitation and 
 jurisdiction. Later bishops reaped the benefit of Savaric's 
 violent invasion. 
 
 1. So Adam of Domerham, pp. 469-475, and John of Glastonbury, i, 208. 
 But they still complain that the "jus patronatus " remained with the bishop. 
 
Savaric, 1192 — 1205. 71 
 
 Three years more remained before his death in 1205. 
 
 In this time we may bring together a notice of his relations 
 with the rest of his diocese. 
 
 The register of the priory of Bath contains a scanty record 
 of his gifts to the convent. The churches of Chew, and 
 Weston, and Compton Dando, 1 are impropriated — two copes 
 are given to the church. When the treasuries of all churches 
 were being emptied to pay king Richard's ransom, Savaric 
 had redeemed from pawn their vestments, crosses, and chalices 
 /("ne conflarentur acquietavit)." 2 
 
 The monks of Bath deserved well of him for their hasty 
 .zeal in electing him. 
 
 The chapter of Wells, notwithstanding their protest and 
 opposition to his election, had stood by him and been his 
 active agents in the struggle with Glastonbury. They received 
 more. 
 
 His acts in the latter part of his life seem intended to make 
 return to them ; to secure their privileges and rights, and to 
 increase their endowments by a few additional grants. 
 
 The only charters which bear date belong to the years 1201 
 and 1203. The registers record* confirmation of bishop 
 Reginald's grant of the manors of Combe and of North 
 ■Curry, of the church of Carhampton, and of the tithes of all 
 mills on his manors. Additional grants are made of the 
 -churches of Lydeard, of Pilton, and of the valuable manor of 
 Wiveliscombe, given in commendation of " the true and 
 laudable service of the canons, and with the desire to in- 
 crease their insufficient endowments, and to remunerate their 
 labours." 3 
 
 Three more prebends were added, and at the same time 
 
 ■ important arrangements were made with other religious houses 
 
 in the diocese — the church of Sutton was made a prebend and 
 
 attached to the abbacy of Athelney, and Ilminster to that of 
 
 Muchelney. 4 In the same way the abbot of Bee in Normandy 
 
 1. " Comptona Fulconis de Alneto" — Dando in Somerset. Dawnay in 
 Wilts is the family name. 
 
 2. Vide Reg. Prioratus Bathon. in Lincoln's Inn Library. 
 
 3. R. i, f. 59. Cf. iii, f. 371. " Attendentes quam honeste et laudabiliter in 
 ecclesia Wellensi Domino serviatur, communam eorum tenuem nimis etinsuffi- 
 cientem invenimus," i, f. 37, i, f. 23. 
 
 4. This charter bears a date, " Actum apud Welles in praesentia yenerabilis 
 domini et patris Savarici in pleno capitulo ipsius ecclesiae anno 1201 in crastino 
 .beati Andreae apostoli." 
 
 R. i, f. 42, 49. 
 
 R. iii, f. 384. Sutton, R. i, f. 24, R. iii, f. 369. 
 
72 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 after some controversy with Savaric held the church of Cleeve 
 as his prebend in the church of Wells. These three abbots 
 henceforth held stalls as non-resident canons in the church 
 and chapter of Wells, and each supported a vicar, to whom 
 they paid stipends to perform their duties. 1 A federal union 
 with mutual share of privileges and prayers after death was 
 established between the cathedral body and these brother- 
 hoods. There is herein the appearance of a general policy of 
 gathering the heads of the monasteries into the council of the 
 bishop, and making the cathedral church the centre of the 
 diocese. 
 
 Savaric appears to have been at Wells for the last time in 
 1203. By an act in chapter, dated the octave of St. Michael 
 1203, he exempted the prebends from the jurisdiction of the. 
 archdeacons. 2 
 
 Another act, following next in the register, seems to indicate 
 that the violent aggression of Savaric on the possessions of 
 Glastonbury had been followed by invasion of the rights of 
 the Wells chapter. Savaric, the invader of Glastonbury, in 
 his turn now inveighs with indignation at the wickedness of 
 some lay people who " at the instigation of the devil" had not 
 feared to invade the possessions of the church of Wells, and! 
 he solemnly gives power to the chapter of Wells, in his. 
 absence, of excommunicating all such offenders. 
 
 The words of this charter anticipate an immediate and 
 continued absence from his see, on account of urgent and 
 distracting affairs requiring his presence in distant lands : 
 " quia nos exigentibus negotiis interdum ad multa distrahimur, 
 et praeter voluntatem nostram in locis remotioribus demoramur 
 .... concessimus (ut non expectata praesentia nostria) 
 liberam licentiam excommunicationis in eos sententiam pro- 
 mulgandi." 
 
 This charter of 1203 is the last notice in point of time of 
 his presence at Wells. With these words, so characteristic 
 of his erratic life and imperious disposition, he takes his leave 
 of his see, bequeathing to the chapter of his cathedral church 
 this power of excommunication as their weapon of defence 
 against their enemies. 
 
 So Savaric, the " malleus monachorum," disappears from 
 our sight. We know nothing of his last years, 1204-5, except 
 
 1. R. iii, f, 381. The abbot of Bee paid 4 marcs yearly. Cf. Diceto, i, 16, 
 
 2. R. i, f. 28. 
 
Savaric, 1192 — 1205. 73 
 
 his death in a foreign land at " Scienes la Vielle " l (either 
 Siena or Civita Vecchia) on August 8, 1205, and his burial at 
 Bath. 2 
 
 There is no mention in the registers of any gifts made by 
 Savaric towards the fabric of the church of Wells, or of work 
 done by him. 
 
 Considering his long absence from the diocese, the heavy 
 charges upon the revenues of the see in payment of Richard's 
 ransom, and the expenses incurred at Rome by his litigation, 
 it is not likely that Savaric should have been a builder of the 
 church. 
 
 One charter there is, quoted in the foregoing chapter, the 
 date of which has been assigned with probability to the year 
 1196, which contains a gift towards "the new work," and 
 " the reparation of the chapel of the blessed Virgin." At 
 that date, as we have seen, Savaric was abroad acting as 
 chancellor of Burgundy to the emperor Henry. It is very 
 doubtful whether he had been in his diocese since his con- 
 secration. If work was then going on, it is probable that the 
 dean and canons were carrying out bishop Reginald's design. 
 But the ransom of Richard, the prodigality of Savaric, and 
 the troubles of his episcopate, would have crippled also the 
 resources of the canons of Wells ; and all building, both at 
 Glastonbury and at Wells, was most probably suspended 
 while the litigation was going on. 
 
 The weighty condemnation of Savaric's government followed 
 quickly upon his death in the memorials to the papal see 
 which have been quoted. 
 
 The lighter satire upon his life, by the wits of the Roman 
 chancellery where he was so well known, appears in a gloss to 
 that same canon in the decretals of Gregory IX, by which, as 
 has been said, pope Innocent's decision in the Glastonbury 
 appeal became a ruling precedent in canon law. 3 
 
 Two sayings then current about him at Rome strike at his 
 extravagance and debts, and at his restless and unsettled life. 
 
 His debts were so notorious, yet his English credit, it would 
 appear, so good, that " one could make his prayer that he 
 
 1. So Wharton, A . S. i, 563. Senes la Vieille = Civita Vecchia, Glossary to 
 Benedict, ii, 114. Howd. iii, 40. Senes la Vieille, = Siena, idem ii, 229. 
 Howd. iv, 25. 
 
 2. Godwin, p. 442, ed. Richardson. 
 
 3. Gregory's Decretals, iii, tit. ix, c. 1. " De illo episcop o nomine Savarico 
 dixit quidam alius, ' Domine me pone creditorum in legione, id est in societate 
 multcrum creditorum quos moriens reliquit episcopus.' " 
 
74 
 
 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 might have shares among the creditors of Savaric, whose 
 name was legion." 
 
 One bill of Savaric's foreign debts still remains to us among 
 the documents at Wells — a power of attorney granted by 
 Speronus de Campomoldo, of Placentia, to Rufinus Molinarius 
 to demand 87J marcs from the bishop of Bath and Glaston- 
 bury, for which the late bishop Savaric had given security. 
 This document, dated Monday, March 9, eighth indiction, 
 a.d., 1219, in the "major ecclesia of Placentia," must have 
 been presented to Joscelin soon after he had resigned the 
 abbey. 1 
 
 The other epigram on his wandering life Godwin has pub- 
 lished as if it were the epitaph on his tomb at Bath. 
 
 ' ' Hospes erat mundo per mundum semper eundo 
 Sic suprema dies fit sibi prima quies." 
 
 " Through the world travelling, all the world's guest, 
 His last day of life was his first day of rest," 2 
 
 Savaric has hitherto only appeared as the ambitious and 
 worldly prelate grasping at power. There are acts of his later 
 episcopate which represent him in a different light, as seeking 
 to make his peace with the world. 
 
 He was the first of the bishops of Wells who gave definite 
 expression to that peculiar form of religious worship which 
 was beginning to occupy such a disproportionate place in the 
 services of the church, the cultus of the Blessed Virgin. He 
 instituted a daily mass in the church of Wells in honour of 
 the Blessed Virgin. 8 
 
 He gives the first example of the fashion which became so 
 common in the church of Wells, as everywhere, of making 
 endowments to obtain intercessory prayers from the living for 
 the dead, and so providing by requiem masses, obits, and 
 chantries, for a perpetual memorial of the donors. 
 
 He instituted a daily mass for his predecessors in the see, 
 the benefactors to the church, and the faithful departed, with 
 a payment of ^10 a-year to the chaplain. By another charter 4 
 
 1. Charter 24. 
 
 2. Godwin de praesulibus, Lat. Ed. 1616. " Bathoniae sepultus cum 
 epitaphio." He omits " the epitaph " in the English edition. 
 
 I take the opportunity of adding the admirable translation given to me by my 
 friend and colleague, chancellor Bernard, whose help, in many ways I thank- 
 fully acknowledge. ' 
 
 3. R. i> t. 46. 
 
 4. R. i, f. 23, in dors. 
 
Savaric, 1192 — 1205. 75 
 
 he made over to the canons the church of Pilton, charged 
 with the payment to two priests who were to celebrate daily 
 for his soul and for his predecessors ; and on his obit, or 
 anniversary day, one hundred' poor were to be fed, and dis- 
 tribution to be made to all who were present on the occasion. 
 
 We may read between the lines of this legal document the 
 act of repentance and the would-be acts of expiation and 
 atonement, according to the view of the worn-out man of the 
 world and the popular theology of the time. 
 
 In spite of much that must have offended Joscelin in the 
 character and ways of Savaric, he appears to have found some 
 good in him, for which he could in some way support his 
 policy and follow his footsteps in his own episcopate. 
 
 One of bishop Joscelin's first acts was to institute, or con- 
 firm by a fresh ordinance, that the service of the Blessed 
 Virgin should be daily sung in the church of Wells, 1 and that 
 a requiem should be sung daily for bishop Savaric and all 
 benefactors of the church 'in the chapel of St. Martin, near 
 the font ' — that chapel in the eastern aisle of the south transept, 
 near to which still stands the ancient font, the only relic of the 
 Norman or pre-Norman church. 
 
 In 1535 the sum of £6 8s. ^d. was still paid, according to 
 bishop Joscelin's ordinance, for a daily mass, " missa de 
 requiem jam vulgariter nuncupata ' Martyn's masse,' " on 
 behalf of the souls of bishop Savaric, his successors, and all 
 benefactors of the church. 2 
 
 There is yet another charter of great local importance, as 
 one of the series of charters by which the civil liberties of 
 the borough of Wells were gradually enlarged by the con- 
 cessions of its lords, the bishops of the see. 
 
 Savaric, following in the steps of Reginald, confirms to the 
 citizens the earlier charters granting the freedom from tolls 
 on markets held within the borough on certain days, and the 
 right of the borough magistrates of trying causes not specially 
 reserved for the courts of the lord. 
 
 One more fair-day was appointed by Savaric, the annivers- 
 ary of the dedication of the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr 
 at the entrance to the town on the Glastonbury road, viz., the 
 morrow of the festival of St. John the Baptist. This charter 
 has a peculiar interest topographically, inasmuch as the 
 
 1. R. iii, 127, a D. 1206, three priests, thirteen vicars to celebrate in turn. 
 
 2. Wells MS. Ledger D. i. 30. St. Martin's chapel has been used for long 
 years as the " Canons' Vestry." 
 
76 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 boundaries of the borough are marked out by lines which are 
 still traceable as nearly conterminous with the limits of the 
 municipal borough of Wells of the present time. 1 
 
 Following upon the charter of bishop Savaric is the first 
 royal charter given to the borough of Wells, obtained through 
 Savaric's favour with king John, who himself was a frequent 
 visitor in Somerset, and to Wells and Glastonbury. 2 It con- 
 firms the previous charters of the bishops, and adds another 
 fair-day by royal authority, viz., an eight days' fair on the 
 " Translation of St. Andrew," May 7. 
 
 It is pleasant to take leave of Savaric with the recollection 
 that, whatever may have been his failings and shortcomings, 
 his offences and scandals as a bishop, however little he may 
 have added to the fabric of the church, he has taken his place 
 in the civil history of Wells as one of " the first three " who, 
 with Robert and Reginald, gave the start and direction to the 
 growth and progress of the civil liberties of our borough of 
 Wells. 
 
 1. This charter, and that of king John are carefully preserved among the city 
 records in the town hall of Wells, and have been kindly lent to me by the 
 Mayor and Council. 
 
 2. Vide King John's Itinerary. He was at Wells and Glastonbury, 1204, 
 June 15, 17; 1205, Sept. 3, 5 ; 1207, Sept. 13; 1208, March 3, 4. Archaeologia, 
 vol. xxii, pp. 138-9. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 Bishop Joscelin, a.d. 1206-1242. 
 
 Reginald and Savaric, bishops of Bath at the end of the 
 twelfth century, were succeeded by Joscelin of Wells, 1206- 
 1242. 
 
 In Joscelin we have the instance unique in the roll of the 
 bishops of this see of a native, a " son of the soil," rising 
 through all the grades and offices of the church to the 
 bishopric, living at Wells through the greater part of a long 
 and beneficent life, dying there, and buried among his own 
 people. 
 
 There can be no doubt from the documents before us that, 
 as Godwin truly says, " he was not only English, but of Wells 
 also — wholly Wells." 
 
 The name Troteman was probably the Saxon name of the 
 family which was afterward lost in the territorial name of the 
 father Edward de Welles, after he had acquired lands and 
 houses in and about Wells. 1 These he left to his sons, who 
 
 1. The family of bishop Joscelin can be traced in the documents of the time, 
 e.g. — Charter 9. 
 
 Certificate by bishop Rainaud, that Walter Pistor of Bath had sold land at 
 Lanferley, to Edward de Welles and to Hugh his heir for five marcs of silver. 
 
 The original grant made to Walter by the late bishop Robert had been burnt, 
 and the fee is surrendered at the Hundred Court. 
 
 Witnesses : Ralph of Lechlade, archdeacon of Bath ; Richard, archdeacon of 
 Coutances ; Robert of Geldeford ; Robert of St. Lo (de Sancto Laudo) ; 
 Josceline, chaplain; John of St. Lo; Godfrid the Frenchman, and others. 
 Bishop Reginald was keeping up his connection with his uncle's diocese of 
 Coutances. 
 
 Charter 10. Inspeximus of grant by Ralph de Wilton of all his land in Wells 
 to Edward de Welles for ten shillings annually, and a present of fifty shillings, 
 and to Wimarc his wife a gold brooch, and sixpence each to two of his sons. 
 Witness to the original grant : Ralph of Lechlade ; Alexander, subdean ; Robert 
 Fitzpane, sheriff of Sumerset. Witness to the Inspeximus ; William of 
 
78 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 are described in the documents by no other names than 
 "Hugh, son of Edward,'- "Hugh the heir," "Hugh of 
 Wells," and " Joscelin, his brother." The family rose under 
 bishop Reginald's favour, probably from small beginnings, for 
 Hugh when bishop of Lincoln in after years did not forget in 
 his will " his poor relations at Pilton and about Wells." We 
 may suppose the two brothers growing up on their father's 
 land at Lancherley, about two miles south-west of Wells, 
 attached to the household of the bishop, showing early abilities 
 which qualified them to become by degrees leading judges, 
 counsellors, statesmen, and bishops of their day, acquiring by 
 office and legal practice, and by favour of king and bishop, 
 riches and honours, grants of land and preferments in church 
 and state. 
 
 Hugh, the elder, became archdeacon of Wells under Savaric ; 
 was made Chancellor of England by king John, and was one 
 of the custodians, for the crown, of the vacant see after 
 Savaric's death, and bishop of Lincoln in 1209. 
 
 The register of the priory of Bath shows that Joscelin was 
 early in the service of the convent, and owed his first prefer- 
 ment to the prior, as also doubtless to the influence of his 
 elder brother, then archdeacon. 
 
 There are two charters from prior Robert (1 198-1223) to 
 Joscelin of Wells, attested by Hugh the archdeacon, the one 
 granting Joscelin one hundred shillings a year until such time 
 as he shall be provided with a benefice, the other granting to 
 Jocelin his clerk, clerico suo, the church of Dogmersfield, 
 saving twenty shillings in the name of pension to the said 
 prior and convent. 1 
 
 Joscelin appears in many Wells charters as chaplain to 
 
 Welesley; Alexander, subdean ; Joscelin, chaplain; Peter de Winton, Mathias 
 de Winton, and others. 
 
 In other documents we find the names of Sarum dignitaries ; e.g., R. i, f. 36. 
 
 Agreement between bishop Reginald and William son of Richard of Melbury 
 (Mauleberg) about seven acres near the wood of Wokiole, and a meadow of five 
 acres near Poulesham, is witnessed by representatives of the Wells and Salisbury 
 chapters ; bishop Joscelin of Sarum ; Walter, the precentor of Sarum ; Thomas 
 archdeacon of Wells; Baldwin, chancellor of Sarum; Ralph of Lechlade ; 
 Robert of Geldeford ; Jocelin, chaplain ; Stephen of Tor, canon of Wells, and 
 others. 
 
 In another document, Charter 13, among the witnesses occur the names of 
 Edward of Wells, Hugh son of Edward, Joscelin his brother, together with 
 Alexander the dean, Thomas the subdean, William of Dinr (Dinder), William 
 of Weleslia. 
 
 1. Registrum Prioratus Bathonia, Lincoln's Inn MS., part ii, p. 15, edited by 
 Rev. W. Hunt for Somerset Record Society. 
 
Joscelin, 1206 — 1242. 79 
 
 bishop Reginald and canon of Wells. He was also one of the 
 judges in the King's Court before he was made bishop of Bath 
 in 1206. 
 
 Hugh, heir and possessor of his father's lands about Wells, 
 and receiving grants of manors from king John, which he 
 made over afterwards to his brother Joscelin for the use of the 
 church, divided his great wealth between Wells and his 
 adopted Lincoln. Joscelin gave all he had received to Wells, 
 the place "he loved so well," in which "he had been nourished 
 from his infancy," where, as his fellow-canons attest before his 
 election, " he had lived in all good conscience before them all 
 his life hitherto." 
 
 Thus the two brothers, in a spirit of local patriotism and 
 pious devotion which will compare with that of Florentine 
 citizens and builders of Italian towns, became the makers of 
 their native town. 
 
 The chapter registers give in very full detail the process of 
 his election — a notable instance of free and unanimous election 
 by the two chapters according to the rule followed in Reginald's 
 case, but departed from in the hurried election of Savaric. 
 
 The letters of the two chapters bear highest testimony to 
 Joscelin's character and especial fitness. 
 
 The Wells canons, in their letter to pope Innocent IV give 
 a piteous account of the state of their church on Savaric's 
 death ; " deprived so long of the comfort of a ruler, tossed 
 with storms and exposed to various oppressions and perils, by 
 which both the property and the persons of the canons have 
 greatly suffered," and they pray for the confirmation of the 
 election of Joscelin so singularly fitted by his character and 
 knowledge of affairs for the office of their bishop. 
 
 The instruments of his separate election by the two chapters 
 of Bath and Wells are among the chapter manuscripts. 
 They witness to his connection with the church of Wells 
 from his earliest years, and his irreproachable character. We 
 are familiar with his attestation to documents in Reginald's 
 time, and he appears as a contemporary with Alexander the 
 dean between n 80 and 1209. 1 
 
 King John who was in person at Wells and Glastonbury in 
 the month after Savaric's death, was made to know the 
 unanimous choice of Joscelin, and wrote letters to the pope 
 praying for speedy confirmation of the election. 
 
 1. See the document and signatures in Part ii, under year 1205-6. The 
 instrument of his election by the chapter of Bath with signatures of the monks 
 is preserved among the Wells Charters; Charter Nos. 45, 46. 
 
80 Four Somerset Bishops'. 
 
 His personal friends among the bishops, and at last all the 
 bishops of the southern province, wrote letters testimonial to 
 the pope praying for Joscelin's consecration. 
 
 It took place in the abbey church of St. Mary, Reading, 
 May 12, 1206. 
 
 One discordant voice, while all men spoke well of him, arose 
 from the monks of Glastonbury. Their hopes of independence 
 must have been raised to trie highest pitch by the strong 
 petitions which were laid before John, even from the chapters 
 of Bath and of Wells, as well as from other churches within 
 and without the diocese, praying for the reformation of the 
 abbey and restoration to former state of exemption from the 
 jurisdiction of the bishop, by which even the king had been 
 moved to join in prayer to the pope that these petitions should 
 be favourably received. But they knew Joscelin as an active 
 agent in carrying out Savaric's policy, and they had little hope 
 of obtaining from him freedom from the concordat established 
 in 1202. There is no sign that the monks were ever consulted 
 as a chapter in the nomination of the bishop. 
 
 In the bitterness of their disappointment at Joscelin's 
 election they pronounced him a fit successor of Savaric, not 
 only in office, but in greed and guile. For several years 
 political troubles, and the confiscation by the king of the 
 property both of see and convent, were sufficient to put off all 
 settlement of the controversy. There were also strong reasons 
 urging Joscelin to keep hold of Glastonbury for a time at 
 least, such as the desire of compensation to the see for debts 
 incurred by Savaric in the contest with the abbey, which could 
 be refunded out of the abbey revenues, and generally his 
 sense of the need of restraint of the evils growing out of the 
 independence of the abbey. 
 
 Joscelin, before Runnymede, had stood by the king, with 
 Peter de Roches, Hubert de Burgh, and Marshall earl of 
 Pembroke ; and king John, notwithstanding a letter to the 
 pope in favour of the abbey, throughout supported Joscelin, 
 and in several deeds forbade the dissolution of the union 
 without his sanction. 1 So Joscelin was biding his time, and 
 making his terms, and, probably in anticipation of surrender 
 of the abbey, he obtained in 1215 from king John, as the 
 monks alleged by purchase, the patronship or protectorate 
 (jus patronatus) of the abbey. With this he obtained the 
 rights which had belonged to the crown, of custody of the 
 
 1. Royal Letters, Henry III (Rolls Series). Ed, Shirley. Pref. xviii. 
 
Joseelin, 1206 — 1242. 81 
 
 abbey during vacancy, of granting the coivge d'elire, arid con- 
 firming "the election of the abbot, and he' was enabled to 
 exercise more freely his jurisdiction in the visitation of the 
 monastery. 
 
 But when, under the pontificate of Honorius, the papal 
 court took up the cause of the abbey, Joseelin withdrew from 
 Glastonbury, having secured these ends in some measure, and 
 intent on making Wells his home, and the centre of the 
 diocese. 
 
 Joscelin's episcopate admits of two main divisions in time— 
 (a) from 1206 to 1219— (b) from 1220 to 1242. 
 
 In the first he laid out his plans and entered on his work, 
 occupied and harassed by the political troubles in the kingdom 
 and by the quarrel with Glastonbury. The local records say 
 comparatively little of these years. 
 
 Soon after his consecration he was swept into the current 
 of civil strife. Though a friend and favourite of king John he 
 accepted the suzerainty of the pope as a check to the king's 
 wayward tyranny : he obeyed the pope's order to publish the 
 interdict, and then fled the kingdom in 1208. 
 
 He was abroad about five years. We can trace him in the 
 neighbourhood of Bourdeaux in the year 121 1. He may also 
 have been in Spain. Eleanor daughter of Henry II, and 
 sister of John, was married to Alfonso, king of Castile, and he 
 may have visited her. The traveller is shown among the 
 archives of the cathedral of Siguenza a contemporary account 
 of the murder of St. Thomas, given to the church by an 
 English bishop Joseelin, about this time. 
 
 Joined by his brother Hugh he remained in exile until the 
 bishops were admitted to peace by the king in 121 3. He was 
 by the side of the archbishop, Stephen Langton, when the 
 great charter was forced from John in 1215. Then came the 
 civil war and the death of both king John and of pope 
 Innocent in 1216. 
 
 Joseelin was at the coronation of the young king Henry III 
 by the legate Gualo at Gloucester, October 28, 1216, and he 
 it was who administered the oath to the king. 
 
 With the new pope Honorius III, the controversy with 
 Glastonbury took a new turn. Honorius advised pacification, 
 and finally the union between the see and the convent was 
 dissolved by Honorius, May 17, 1219. 
 
 Joseelin, giving up the abbacy and the title of " bishop of 
 Bath and Glastonbury" retained the rights of patron and 
 possession of four of the manors of the convent. 
 
82 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 It is clear that in the first years of his episcopate he had 
 planned and set on foot much of his work at Wells, and that 
 he had matured during exile arrangements for reform of offices 
 in the cathedral church. 
 
 About 1 220 he had settled himself down at Wells for the 
 remainder of his time. 
 
 The year 1220 is marked as a memorable year in England 
 in ecclesiastical matters. 
 
 The register of the church of Salisbury commemorates 
 three events of the year : 
 
 (a.) The foundations of the new church of Salisbury 
 
 were laid April 28th ; 
 (b.) At Pentecost the young king Henry III was 
 
 crowned a second time at Westminster ; 
 (c.) The translation of Saint Thomas of Canterbury, on 
 July 7, was kept as a national festival with extra- 
 ordinary pomp. 
 
 The Wells registers mark the commencement of a new era 
 of computation. The years are dated from the " Translation 
 of St. Thomas." 
 
 It was also the year of the canonization of Saint Hugh of 
 Lincoln, on February 17. 
 
 Henceforward Joscelin devoted himself to the work of 
 perfecting the cathedral system at Wells. The undisguised 
 jealousy and hostility of the great Benedictine houses at 
 Bath and Glastonbury made it important to build up Wells 
 as the centre of the diocese, to unite more closely the diocese 
 with the cathedral church, and to give greater strength and 
 dignity to the chapter of secular canons. 
 
 It is significant that the first act in the register under the 
 year 1220 was the synod of the diocese at Bath, at which the 
 question arose as to the right of precedency of the prior of 
 Bath or the dean of Wells on the right hand of the bishop. 
 It was decided in favour of the prior, but with the expressed 
 proviso that the church of Wells shall not suffer thereby any 
 loss of jurisdiction or authority. 
 
 Interest and illustration is thrown upon Joscelin's work by 
 consideration of what was going on at Salisbury at the same 
 time. 
 
 There also two brothers, Herbert and Richard Poore, 
 bishops in succession from 1194 to 1228, were working 
 together for the rebuilding of their church, and for the im- 
 provement and due ordering of the cathedral body. In 1214 
 important cathedral statutes were embodied in the document 
 
Joscelin, 1206— 1242. 83 
 
 called by them the " nova constitutio," in which, among other 
 things, acts relating to the residence of the canons, the 
 apportionment of the fruits of a prebend on vacancies, the 
 visitation of prebends by the dean, the dress and demeanour 
 of clerks in choir, and the condition of the vicars choral, were 
 passed. 
 
 In 1220 the foundations of the new church of Salisbury 
 were laid, and in 1225 the building of the east end was so far 
 advanced that the high altar to the Holy Trinity, and the 
 altars in the east ends of the north and south aisles to St. 
 Peter and St. Stephen, were consecrated, and on the next day, 
 the feast of St. Michael, the bishop entered the new basilica, 
 and therein solemnly celebrated the divine offices. Joscelin 
 was present on this occasion at Salisbury. 
 
 Joscelin had inherited the constitution of his church from 
 his predecessors, Reginald and Robert. He had been observ- 
 ing the work, and sharing in councils, and taking part in the 
 duties of the church under bishop Reginald from his youth, and 
 now, as soon as he was free to give himself up to the diocese, 
 he carried out plans of ritual, of building, and of organisation 
 which had doubtless been long maturing and prepared. 
 
 By one of his first acts, early in 1207, he had instituted and 
 endowed the daily mass to the Blessed Virgin, to be celebrated 
 with increased devotion by three priests and ten vicars. He 
 still further endowed this service at the altar of the Blessed 
 Virgin in 1215, and again in 1239. 
 
 His elder brother Hugh was a zealous co-operator in his 
 plans for building and re-organising. 
 
 An early draft of the will of Hugh of Wells in the year 
 1 21 1, when in exile with Joscelin, shows that thoughts and 
 plans for their church and town were at that time in the mind 
 of the two brothers. 
 
 Hugh therein devises 300 marcs towards the fabric of the 
 church of Wells, and an equal sum to the church of Lincoln; 
 a larger sum (500 marcs) to a hospital to be built at Wells, and 
 other sums to the communa of the canons, and to the vicars. 
 
 The hospital 1 afterwards built, and dedicated to St, John 
 
 1. "A customary appanage to a bishop's headquarters, which Wells hitherto 
 had lacked. I cannot think that the primary and permanent object of the 
 Hospital of St. John was other than that of similar institutions found, I believe, 
 in every cathedral city, viz., the discharge of Christian hospitality to the way- 
 farer who from risk of disease and certainty of filth could not be relieved at the 
 bishop's gate. The reception of cruce signati was a temporary yielding to a 
 temporary demand, and lasted only one generation." Note by bishop Hob- 
 house. 
 
84 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 the Baptist, was intended for the poor and wayfarers, but with 
 special intention at first for those who had been in the crusade, 
 or were pledged to it (the cruce signati), those who had taken 
 upon themselves the cross, or had returned from the Crusades. 
 It was in the course of erection in 1221, and then received 
 from bishop Joscelin its constitution and a grant of cemetery 
 and bells and chapel, which the chapter confirmed. 
 
 In 1207 we may conjecture that he had begun the palace on 
 the south side of the church. We have evidence that the 
 park on that side of the city was in course of formation. In 
 that year Joscelin obtained two charters from king John. 
 
 (a.) The first charter, dated from Harpetre, September 16, 
 
 in the ninth year of the reign, 1207, gave Joscelin 
 
 licence to impark land at the south side of the town 
 
 of Wells, and all those woods being and growing on 
 
 the south side of the town, with all the liberties and 
 
 privileges belonging to parks, taking thence what 
 
 timber he wanted for his own use, and to divert the 
 
 way which runs through the wood in the middle of it. 
 
 (6.) The other, dated November in the same year, from 
 
 Marlborough, supplements this licence by granting 
 
 leave to include two roads in the park: [a) one 
 
 road running across the park under Tor Hill towards 
 
 Dultingcote, which he diverted to its present line ; 
 
 (b) another through Keward towards Coxley. He 
 
 was to give up land equivalent outside the park for 
 
 the public road. 
 
 These localities mentioned can be clearly identified. The 
 
 charters give the right of closing roads at the two borders of 
 
 the park, east and west, and through the midway, and establish 
 
 the complete privacy of the bishop's demesne. 
 
 (c.) About 1221 the park was more widely extended by 
 exchanges of land at Stobery and Beril and Horring- 
 ton with the lord of the Glastonbury manor of Down- 
 head, Walter de Dovvnhead, for five acres of meadow 
 in the valley on the south, and towards Keward. 
 The Close Rolls show that at this time Joscelin was receiving 
 charters giving him licence to cut timber and to stock his 
 park with deer from the king's forests of Cheddar and Selwood, 
 and that he was bringing into cultivation land on Mendip, and 
 getting lead and making iron out of the ore which he had per- 
 mission to dig. 
 
 In 1224 (8 Hen. Ill) he had licence from the king to bring 
 wood from Cheddar forest "to repair his house at Wokey." 
 
Joscelin, 1206 — 1242. 85 
 
 So that to this time the works upon the palace, and the 
 chapel of the palace, and the manor-house, with its chapel at 
 Wookey, ascribed to him by the canon of Wells, may with 
 probability be assigned. 
 
 The dignities and offices of the church had been constituted 
 before his time, and here, as at Salisbury, the vicars choral 
 had been in existence as part of the ministrant body of the 
 cathedral church. 
 
 It is apparent that his aim was to reconstitute all these 
 offices, and to give greater definiteness to duties, and fuller 
 endowments to all who served the church. 
 
 The records tell that when in foreign parts, in exile between 
 1208 and 1 2 1 3, he had designed the remodelling of the dignities 
 of dean, precentor, and chancellor. 
 
 After his return he made, in 1216, additional and very 
 precise ordinances for the election of the dean. 
 
 In 1 22 1 a very full and special ordinance is made with 
 regard to the treasurer's office, containing — 
 
 (a.) A change of its endowment from Evercreech rectory 
 
 to that of Martock. 
 (6.) A precise description of the duties of that office, so 
 necessary for the newly-arranged ceremonial of the 
 rising fabric. 
 
 Later in his time, in 1237, a change was made in the older 
 arrangement between the dean and the sub-dean, by which the 
 prebend of the sub-dean was transferred to Wookey, and the 
 dean took the church of Wedmore. At the same time con- 
 flicting relations between the offices of the dean and sub-dean 
 formed the subject of new regulations. 
 
 Houses were provided for the canons resident, by the 
 purchase and gift of individual members of the chapter and 
 others, and the formation of the " Liberty" began. 
 
 The positions of these lands and houses so granted are 
 marked out with much precision on the north side of the 
 church, in relation to the present cathedral green and the 
 entrance to the church, the " Great Porch," on the north side 
 of the church. 
 
 The north side of the church was the quarter where mostly 
 the houses for the dean and dignitaries of the church were 
 placed, and the portions of ground described now gradually 
 extended northwards and adjoined land which bore the name 
 of " Muntoria " or " Muntorey." Here, afterwards, a college 
 of chantry priests was established by bishop Erghum in 1400, 
 and the name became in later times Mont Roy. 
 
86 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 These houses, purchased by individuals and given to the 
 church and the bishop for the perpetual residence of canons, 
 were freed by the bishop from all " secular exactions," town 
 dues or borough jurisdiction, and formed the northern quarter 
 of the " Liberty " in the precincts of the cathedral church. 
 The growth of the Liberty 1 is traceable in the records of 
 1207, 1219, 1228, 1234, 1236. 
 
 The existence of schools in Joscelin's times deserves a more 
 particular notice. In 1236 by a deed of some solemnity 
 Thomas Lock, son of Adam Lock, (bishop Joscelin's master 
 builder presumably), with the written consent, by charter, of 
 his mother and his father's executors, makes over lands in 
 " La Mountereye " to the chaplain of the bishop and he to the 
 church of St. Andrew, and to the chancellor, for the use and 
 endowment of schools. The master of the schools is to have 
 a house, and he is to keep the buildings in order, and they are 
 to be inspected once a year by the chancellor and other canons. 
 The master and scholars are to be present at the anniversary 
 services for Roger the chaplain, and to pray for his soul ; and 
 every Wednesday and Friday the scholars are to sing an 
 antiphon in honour of the Blessed Virgin at the school. 
 These schools in the Muntorey are named in later records as 
 " grammar schools " different from the school of the choristers. 
 The " house of the choristers " was on the west of the cloister. 
 
 A charter of the date of 12 13 may imply the earlier exist- 
 ence of schools under Joscelin's supervision at that time. 
 
 The number of prebends left by Reginald at thirty-five, and 
 increased under Savaric by the three assigned to the abbots of 
 Bee, Muchelney and Athelney, was now under Joscelin raised 
 to fifty or more by the division of the large manor of Combe 
 into fifteen prebends, and the addition of Wiveliscombe and 
 others. 
 
 The vicars choral not yet incorporated, but supported for 
 the most part by their several masters among the canons 
 whose places they served, and by a charge laid on the 
 prebends as stall wages, now received regular "quotidians" 
 or grants of daily supplies of bread, which were increased 
 and changed into money-payments in the last years of 
 Joscelin's life. 
 
 1 . " Liberty, ' ' a privileged area freed from some liabilities ; in this case from 
 those of the borough and parish. A lane called "Canons' Walk" ran from 
 opposite the north porch of the church to the North Liberty nearly opposite the 
 " Canons' Barn," and on the west side of the present Vicars' Close. 
 
Joscelin, 1206— 1242. 87 
 
 The formation of perpetual vicarages was carefully enforced 
 by Joscelin, requiring a fixed charge and a division of tithes to 
 be made by those holding the rectories, to whom the churches 
 were impropriated. 
 
 It had been throughout an object to him of great solicitude 
 to augment the common fund of the chapter. 
 
 In the last years of his life, he made gifts to the chapter of 
 the manors of Cheddar, North Curry, and WinscOmbe, and 
 the advowsons of Congresbury, Mudford, Lydeard, Wins- 
 combe, and St. Cuthbert's of Wells. By substituting money 
 for the quotidians of bread to all members of the ministrant 
 body in the church, and increasing the scale of payments, 
 conditional on the fulfilment of allotted periods of residence, 
 he left a permanent legacy to the church and established a 
 claim to the gratitude of succeeding generations. 
 
 So far in all this, it is to be observed that Joscelin was not 
 the creator of the constitution, or of the order and gradation 
 of the several offices of the church. But he was re-organis- 
 ing, reforming, and expanding the system under which he had 
 grown up, with statesmanlike purpose and wise adaptation to 
 the needs of the time. And he gave such a fresh spirit and 
 life to the church, and so left the impress of his master-hand 
 by the finishing strokes to the work of his predecessors, that 
 his name is connected with the whole ordering and constitution 
 of the church of Wells of the thirteenth century. 
 
 The question arises what was the style of the bishop in 
 Joscelin's time ? 
 
 Joscelin of Wells has generally been styled by later writers, 
 " bishop of Bath and Wells : " 1 they have followed therein the 
 printed books of Godwin and Wharton. 
 
 But Archer, in his Chronicon, writing about 1726, from our 
 early documents exposes the mistakes by which Godwin had 
 misled others. He says : " The canon of Wells, and Godwin, 
 and even Wharton himself, are not clear on this subject, for 
 not one of the bishops is styled of ' Bath and Wells ' from 
 the first translation of the see by John of Tours until the year 
 1244. Then first of all the bishops, Roger who succeeded 
 Joscelin, took his title from both the churches ; but all the 
 others held the title of bishop of Bath alone, with the 
 exception of Savaric, who, after he had procured the union of 
 the abbey of Glastonbury to the see of Bath, called himself 
 ' of Bath and Glastonbury.' " 
 
 1. As an exception v. p. 49 of the Diocesan History of Bath and Wells, 
 S.P.C.K. 1885, and the Genealogist, July and October, 1885. 
 
88 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 Joscelin never took the title of Bath and Wells. One can 
 only suppose that he was unwilling to incur the jealousy of 
 the Bath chapter. He inherited from his predecessor Savaric 
 the title of " Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury," but he did 
 not use it consistently. Sometimes his name appears in deeds 
 and attestations with this double title, sometimes with that of 
 " Bath " alone, but never with the title of " Bath and Wells." 
 
 It is manifest that Bath, the mother church since 1091 — the 
 seat of the ancient abbey — the important city, — was most 
 jealous of the rising ascendancy of Wells, under Robert, 
 Reginald, and Joscelin. Joscelin made Wells to be in reality 
 the chief seat of the bishop, and when forced to drop the title 
 of " Glastonbury," he had expressed to the pope Honorius a 
 desire to have compensation for that loss by being permitted 
 to add " Wells " to his style ; yet he never did assume it ; and 
 in his own documents and seal he calls himself to the last 
 ' bishop of Bath.' 
 
 The prerogative of Bath was formally acknowledged at a 
 diocesan synod held at Bath in 1220, when the right of pre- 
 cedence was in question, and the prior of Bath was adjudged 
 the seat at the right hand of the bishop, rather than the dean 
 of Wells. Bath obtained precedence in form and title ; but, 
 notwithstanding, the ascendancy of Wells was being estab- 
 lished, to the annoyance of the Bath chapter. The chapter 
 of Bath made a bold attempt to establish their supremacy, to 
 the exclusion of Wells, in the election of Joscelin's successor. 
 Their diplomacy at the Roman Court, which involved them in 
 ruinous expense, obtained a confirmation of their election, and 
 an empty acknowledgment of priority of title, but the enforce- 
 ment by order of Innocent IV that the full title of Bath and 
 Wells should henceforth be inscribed on the seal of bishop 
 Roger and his successors. 1 
 
 Original documents now enable us to fix certain historical 
 landmarks of time within which the fabric of the church was 
 built, down to the end of bishop Joscelin's life. 
 
 They speak of the church under the two titles, the " old '" 
 and the "great" church. 
 
 Some portion of the "old " church was rebuilt and conse- 
 crated by bishop Robert in or before 1148 2 ; within the- 
 time contemporary with bishop Roger of Salisbury, the 
 builder of Malmesbury, and with Henry of Blois abbot, and 
 
 1. Pope Innocent's Letter, Lyons, May 12. 1245. Vide Letters in Vatican 
 Transcripts in British Museum, Add. MSS. 15353, vol. v, p. 235. Cf. R. i, ff 
 93-96. 
 
 2. i, f. in ; iii, f, 4. 
 
Joscelin, 1206 — 1242. 89 
 
 builder at Glastonbury, bishop of Winchester, and builder 
 of St. Cross. 
 
 Bishop Reginald was the chief builder of the "great" church 
 between 1174 and 1191, while William of Sens, and William 
 the Englishman were building at Canterbury, and while the. 
 rebuilding of Glastonbury after the fire of 1184 was going on. 
 
 Between the years 1206 — 1242 bishop Joscelin repaired,, 
 enlarged, completed, and consecrated the "great" church; 
 while, at the same time, the neighbouring church of Salisbury 
 was rising from its new foundation in 1220, and his brother 
 Hugh was at work on the church of Lincoln. 
 
 There could have been little building going on at Wells at 
 the beginning of Joscelin's episcopate. The political troubles,, 
 the interdict upon the kingdom, and Joscelin's exile from 1208 
 to 1 2 13 when the revenues of the see were seized by the 
 crown, the struggle with Glastonbury until 1219, were causes 
 sufficient to check any building upon the church. Not until 
 after Joscelin's return from exile in 1213, not until after the 
 final concord had been made with Glastonbury, August ir v 
 
 1219, could Joscelin have begun the completion of works left un- 
 finished more than twenty years before, and the repair of older 
 parts which were suffering from longer periods of dilapidation. 
 
 When we search for documentary evidence of building 
 during Joscelin's episcopate, we are disappointed at finding so 
 little. One charter belonging to the years 121 7 — 1220, shows 
 that some work was going on at least within those dates. 
 
 When Ralph of Lechlade was dean under Joscelin, 1217- 
 
 1220, Alexander a canon gave for his life the produce of the 
 arable land of the rectorial glebe at Henstridge, half his 
 meadow in Ridgehill and pasture adjacent, and one silver 
 marc from the altarage of Henstridge, to dean Ralph and the 
 chapter of St. Andrew in Wells for the fabric of the church,. 
 " that the fabric might rise the quicker, by my help.' He 
 gives this in lieu of the sum assessed upon his prebend by the- 
 chapter ; and it is to be paid quarterly into the hands of the 
 canons who had charge of the fabric. 1 
 
 We gather from this charter that an assessment had been- 
 levied upon the canons for the fabric at this time, that Joscelin 
 had begun to rebuild, and that voluntary offerings over and 
 above the assessment were being made, in this instance at 
 least, to promote and hasten the work. 2 
 
 1. R. i, f. 21 ; iii, f, 383. 
 
 2. The levy of one fifth by Joscelin is referred to as a precedent in 1248- 
 R. i, f. 69. 
 
go Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 Beyond this charter we have very little documentary 
 evidence about the fabric in Joscelin's time until the year 1239. 
 
 Outside our documents there are other evidences of building 
 operations. The Close Rolls of Henry IIP contain grants to 
 the fabric in 1220, of sixty large oaks from the forest of 
 Cheddar ; in 1224, of one penny a day remitted from the rent 
 of Congresbury manor, " for the work at the Church of 
 Wells ; " in 1225, of five marcs annually for twelve years ; in 
 1226, of thirty oaks " for the fabric of the church of Wells ; " 
 and of smaller wood to repair the bishop's house at Wookey. 
 
 We can understand how the work taken up after 12 19 
 would go on and increase under favouring circumstances. 
 After the composition with Glastonbury in 1219 the see was 
 enriched by the ceded manors of the abbey. Bishop Hugh 
 of Lincoln, brother of bishop Joscelin, was making gifts of 
 manors and advowsons to the see, and perhaps other gifts, 
 such as that of Alexander of Henstridge, were enriching the 
 see, which had been poor and impoverished between 1196 
 and 12 19; and Joscelin was enabled to bring to completion 
 his work of twenty years by consecration in 1239, and then to 
 go on to augment the endowments of the church. 
 
 There had been so much built and renewed by Reginald 
 and by Joscelin since the consecration by Robert, in 1148, 
 that reconsecration was necessary ; and it was enforced by 
 the orders of the papal legate, according to which several 
 other churches were consecrated about the same time. 
 
 The state of dilapidation and partial ruin in which Joscelin 
 says he found the church might well have been the effects of 
 some twenty or thirty years of neglect of an unfinished build- 
 ing, in such times, under the wasteful episcopate of Savaric, 
 the confiscation of king John, the civil war, the intolerable 
 exactions of papal legates, and the local quarrels with the 
 great rival power at Glastonbury going on to 1218-19. 
 
 The bishop mentions the consecration of the church of 
 Wells twice, in the introduction and preamble to two charters 
 given to the church about this time. In the year 1239, in a 
 charter confirming to the chapter the manor and church of 
 Winscombe, given "on the morrow of St. Romanus," he 
 thus states the fact of the consecration of the Church on the 
 day oi St. Romanus "in the month of November" in the vear 
 1239, in honour of St. Andrew. 
 
 In the next charter, three years later, his words record that 
 
 1. Rot. Lit. Claus-. pp. 425, 583, 595. 
 
Joscelin, 1206^1242. 91 
 
 having done his work as builder upon the fabric, he was now 
 bent upon increasing the endowment of the ministrant body. 
 
 In the last year of his life (1242) he increased the 
 " quotidians," the daily apportionment of the common fund 
 of the canons, and made ampler provision for the maintenance 
 of every member of the cathedral staff. 
 
 This charter is sealed by the bishop, and the dean John 
 Saracenus. 
 
 One more document completes the contemporary history of 
 the fabric at the death of Joscelin. It implies that the 
 buildings were completed according to Joscelin's plans at his 
 death. 
 
 Joscelin died November 19, 1242. 
 
 No arrangements had hitherto been carried out for the 
 burial ground outside the church ; but now, when the building 
 on the west and south sides was completed, the ground was 
 laid out around the newly-consecrated building by a statute of 
 chapter passed on July 9, 1243, during the vacancy of the see, 
 probably in accordance with Joscelin's provision and ordinance. 1 
 
 This charter gives evidence that the church was considered 
 finished at the time of Joscelin's death, so that the ground on 
 the west and south could be laid out for burial ground. The 
 door of the newly-constructed west front opened out on the 
 burial ground, kept inviolate from markets since bishop 
 Robert's order a century before, and now become the lay 
 burial ground. The south-west portal led out to the cloister 
 girt about with walls, and to the burial ground of the canons. 
 East of the eastern walk of the cloister was a chapel of St. 
 Mary and the burial ground of the vicars. 
 
 The church of the time of Joscelin was finished. 
 
 It had been the work of the earlier builder to raise the 
 stately porch at the northern side of the church, the great 
 " Porch of the Canons " magna porta canonicorum, opposite 
 the houses of the canons which clustered on that side of the 
 church. 
 
 It was Joscelin's work to raise the southern doors, rich 
 with Early English tracery leading into the cloisters and the 
 cemetery which was the last resting place of the canons, and 
 leading outward to the palace ground on which he was build- 
 ing. 
 
 These contemporary documents supply links in the chain of 
 the history of the fabric which have hitherto been wanting. 
 
 1. R. i, f. 64, in dors. 
 
92 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 They place in due relation the several workers in the great 
 fabric. They enable us to correct the traditions of later 
 writers, who ascribed all the work to Joscelin as the one great 
 builder and benefactor. 
 
 Judgments have been swayed by deference to the supposed 
 authority of the printed statements of the Canon of Wells 
 writing in the fifteenth century, and Godwin in the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 It is time that we were set free from subjection to those 
 authorities, as if they were original and decisive on this period 
 of the architectural history of the church. 
 
 Under certain variations in detail the language of these two 
 authorities is decisive that in their view there was no building 
 going on at Wells in the time between Robert and Joscelin ; 
 and that Joscelin pulled down and rebuilt the west end and 
 the greatest part of the church. 
 
 These statements representing the later tradition of the 
 fifteenth century are opposed to both documentary and archi- 
 tectural evidence. 
 
 They have not been received without weighty protest even 
 by those who have accepted the writers as original authorities 
 from whom there was no appeal. 1 
 
 Britton, writing in 1847, and another writer in 1861 com- 
 ment on the difficulty of reconciling with the architectural 
 evidence, " the only known authority for the history of the 
 cathedral (viz. the so-called canon of Wells) which, assigning 
 nothing of the existing church to Robert or Reginald, attri- 
 butes everything to Joscelin. The latter says : " If internal 
 evidence were with history or tradition I would not complain : 
 but it is dead against it." 2 
 
 It is evident that the church bears unmistakable signs of 
 two very different styles of building, in the west front and in 
 the nave and eastern part. The west front is built in the 
 fully-developed Early English style in which Salisbury, Ely, 
 and Lincoln are built. Mr. Freeman expresses the general 
 judgment that Joscelin was the builder of the west front. 3 
 
 The church which Joscelin consecrated is generally under- 
 stood to take in the west front, the nave, north porch, 
 transepts, and the three western arches of the eastern limb. 
 
 1. Britton, Architectural History of Wells, p. 88. 
 
 2. Wells Cathedral, Murray, 1861. Note part iii, attributed to Mr. Sharpe. 
 
 3. Cathedral Church of Wells, pp. 74-76. Prof. Willis in Somerset A rchao- 
 logical Proceedings, vol. xii, part i, p. 18. 
 
Joscelin, 1206 — 1242. 93 
 
 It takes in the three towers up to the point where they rise 
 above the roof of the church. 
 
 Mr. Freeman says, " The west front within and without 
 differs widely in its architectural detail from the arcades of the 
 nave and transepts." .... Again he says of the style 
 of the nave, " It has a good deal of the earlier Romanesque 
 leaven hanging about it ; its mouldings and the clustering of 
 its pillars are much less free ; the abaci or tops of the capitals 
 are square or octagonal instead of round ; it makes no use of 
 detached shafts, often of marble, which are so abundantly 
 found in the west front." 
 
 Professor Willis tells us that the west front is of later date 
 than the nave, and the western part of the nave is later than 
 the eastern part, the choir, and the north porch ; and he enters 
 into detail in his description of differences and breaks in the 
 ., building. In his lecture at Wells, conducting his audience 
 from east to west in the order of the building, he drew their 
 attention to breaks and stoppages in the work, and signs of 
 differences of construction, which must occur in a building 
 which, in the vicissitudes of centuries, has experienced repairs 
 by different hands. But a general uniformity, broken by 
 regular diversity, is observable in the nave. 
 
 If then the west front is of later date than the nave, and it 
 is the work of Joscelin, finished in 1239, to whom shall we 
 ascribe the rest of the church, which is " unlike any Early 
 English building, and belongs to a style on the whole fifty 
 years earlier ? " 
 
 With this transitional architecture before us in the north 
 porch and nave, and these documents which speak of build- 
 ings going on in the twelfth century, may we not claim that in 
 the nave of Wells we have a remarkable example of transi- 
 tional architecture intervening between the Norman and the 
 Early English styles ? 
 
 And if there is one point in the nave where it is allowable 
 to conjecture that the great break between Reginald's and 
 Joscelin's work may have taken place, it will be in the part 
 westward of the north porch, where the three last arches of 
 the nave run on to the west front. 
 
 Here, Professor Willis remarks, the masonry improves : 
 here the forms of sculptured foliage are more free and 
 natural, more characteristic of the later workmen : here 
 he considers that we have the work of a later date. 
 Here we may conjecture that Reginald's work stopped : 
 here was the new work suspended in n 96, when troubles 
 
94 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 threatened the church under Savaric, when the war with 
 Glastonbury began. Here may have been for the next three 
 and twenty years, between 1196-1219, the gaping chasm 
 between the unfinished nave and some older front, which, from 
 its age, was showing signs of decay and was ready to fall. 
 
 What if Joscelin, after 1219, began to build at the west end,, 
 raising up the new work in the rich Early English style of the 
 period, rivalling his brother's work at Lincoln, and surpass- 
 ing, by the west front and its glorious screen of tabernacle 
 work and statuary, any other church of the time ? What if 
 he then joined it on to the unfinished nave of Reginald,, 
 building up the three western arcades of the nave in the 
 earlier style of his predecessor, and uniting here, in one 
 glorious whole, his own new work with the work of Reginald? 
 
 It would have been a noble architectural achievement for 
 the last twenty years of a troubled episcopate. 
 
 If he did this and no more than this, it would not be difficult 
 to imagine how the tradition would have grown that he was 
 the builder of the whole church. We can understand how 
 after- generations, who immediately inherited the benefits of 
 Joscelin's wise legislation and generous benefactions, should 
 have cherished the memory of the latest builder, as though he 
 were the one and only builder, of the church of the thirteenth 
 century. 
 
 He was of Wells : he, as chaplain and canon and bishop, 
 had grown up, and lived, and died, and was buried, among his 
 own people: his grave, and memorial tomb, was with them in 
 their church, honoured the more as it was the tomb of the 
 first bishop buried at Wells since the seat of the bishop had 
 been transferred to Bath one hundred and fifty years before. 
 Each generation had before their eyes that part of the church 
 which was Joscelin's undoubted work, gradually rising under 
 the hands of successive builders to the height of its western 
 towers, looking over the burial place of the dead and the 
 homes of the living. Generation after generation saw the 
 deeply recessed niches, the six hundred tabernacles gradually 
 filled with sculptured imagery, telling the whole tale of earth 
 and heaven, of man's fall and resurrection, of the Lord's 
 advent in mercy and in judgment, and of the long roll of 
 saints and worthies of the race of their own land. 
 
 It might well be that by the time of bishop Bubwith, when 
 the Canon of Wells wrote, more than a century and a half 
 after Joscelin's death, the tradition had taken root that Joscelin 
 of Wells, who had raised the western front, had been also the 
 
Joscelin, 1206 — 1242. 95 
 
 architect of the whole church, and that as builder, legislator 
 and benefactpr, "there had been none like before him, neither 
 after him had any risen like unto him." 1 
 
 But now with these contemporary documents before us, we 
 put in a plea that justice should be done to Robert and to 
 Reginald, who have gone before, as builders of the church. 
 
 " Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona." Joscelin was last and 
 greatest, but Reginald ought to hold the second place of 
 honour between Robert the "author" and Joscelin the 
 "finisher," — "the first three" master builders of fabric and 
 constitution of our holy and beautiful house of St. Andrew in 
 Wells. 
 
 Obscure and doubtful are the earlier stages of the archi- 
 tectural history of our church, as of so many of the other 
 great churches which were raised up about this time through- 
 out the land. Few and scanty are the records preserved in 
 contemporary registers. As in the ancient temple at Jerusalem 
 no sound of tool was heard while it was in building — noise- 
 lessly the fabric rose into being — so our church has grown up 
 in silence; no portion of the building or sculptures can be 
 assigned with certainty to any one known architect. 
 
 We may think we can trace in our local documents the 
 names of one or two of those employed in the work at Wells 
 and elsewhere about this same time. Families of masons 
 (cementarii) at Wells, of the names of Lock, father and son, 
 and Noreis, 2 Norreys, and one Deodatus (fit name for some 
 cunning stone worker in the service of the sanctuary) are 
 found in connection with members of the chapter of Wells, 
 and with other workmen of different occupations at both 
 Wells and Glastonbury; John Faber, John the goldsmith, and 
 David the dyer (tinctor), and Simon the colourist (pictor). 
 A member of a family of the name of Buneton was established 
 in Glastonbury in 1249, and afterwards in Edward II's time 
 called "de Buneton," "the sculptor"; they were then possessed 
 of lands and houses at Glastonbury, and gave name to a street 
 in Glastonbury called after their own name, 3 Buneton Street. 
 Another name also is now found at Wells, famous throughout 
 England for his architectural works, Elias de Derham — known 
 at Salisbury as canon, rector ecclesice and architect between 
 1220 and 1229 — known at Canterbury as one of the "incom- 
 
 1. Canon of Wells, in Wharton, A.S. 564. 
 
 2. Gaufridus de Noiers was the name of St. Hugh's architect at Lincoln, 
 
 3. "In vico qui vocatur Boneton in villa Glaston." 
 
96 Four Somerset Bishops. 
 
 parable artificers" of the new shrine of St. Thomas in 1220— 
 and at Winchester as master of the works in the King's Hall, 
 1230-6. He appears at Wells as an early friend of the 
 brothers Hugh and Joscelin, and their companion in exile — 
 he is named co-executor with Joscelin of the first draft of 
 bishop Hugh's will in 1212 — in 1236 he is seneschal or steward 
 of Joscelin at Wells, and as such attests the conveyance of 
 houses by the family of the masons Lock, which formed the 
 first church school of Wells. Matthew Paris records his 
 death in 1245. 1 Others of the name at least are among the 
 canons. 
 
 But, beyond these shadowy names, we know nothing 
 certainly of the actual builders who planned or executed " this 
 immense and glorious work of high intelligence " — who raised 
 the towers to their first stages — who spread the branching 
 roof of the nave — who designed or carved the canopies 
 and niches, tabernacles of life-like statuary, spirantia signa, 
 in that noble gallery of early Christian art displayed on 
 the breadth of the west front, which Flaxman described as 
 " the earliest specimen of such magnificent and varied 
 sculpture united in a series of sacred history that is to be 
 found in western Europe," and which in their decay, after six 
 centuries of existence, still 1 aise the admiration and mysterious 
 wonder of each passing generation alike of the beholder and 
 the artist.' 2 
 
 Joscelin was living in a period of continuous growth and 
 new development : he was unfolding and extending the system 
 which he inherited : he was working on the fabric as he 
 worked on the constitution of the church, repairing, rebuilding 
 what was dilapidated or unfinished in the earlier building, 
 adding largely new and beautiful work. He left the church 
 sufficiently completed for the ritual of his time in fabric and 
 interior arrangement and endowment, as he left the ministrant 
 body of the church enlarged and all but complete in number, 
 more richly endowed, with offices more defined and re-organ- 
 ised, and working with more efficiency. 
 
 Within these years of troublous times, during the lawless 
 tyranny of John and the weak misrule of Henry, and the 
 arrogance and intolerable exactions of papal legates, Joscelin 
 
 1. Chron. Majora, iv, 418. (Rolls Series). 
 
 2. Flaxman Lectures on Sculpture, London, 1829; Imagery of Wells Cathe- 
 dral Church, W. H. St. John Hope and W. H. Lethaby, 1904. 
 
Joscelin, 1206 — 1242. 97 
 
 was quietly working for the good of the church of God in his 
 own home, as restorer, builder, legislator, reformer. 
 
 He has left to his native city a church equal at least in 
 architectural grace and interest to any of the rivals of its day 
 at home or abroad, and surpassing all in the design and 
 execution of the sculptures of its matchless West Front. 
 
 Drawn from the wells of some diviner spring, 
 Rose — like a fountain leaping in the sun — 
 His thoughts high heavenward, ere his work begun, 
 
 Great Joscelin, — who made his day-dreams ring 
 
 With harmonies before unheard, and wing 
 
 Their flight in voiceless words, and deeds undone 
 Till he had shaped his yearning thoughts in stone, 
 
 And then, God-guided, taught the dumb to sing : 
 
 Apostles, prophets, saints, and martyrs rise, 
 Angels, archangels, with their silent song, 
 
 Tier above tier before our wondering eyes, 
 
 Who thro' unwearying years their strains prolong : — 
 
 And o'er the passing crowd they yet shall raise 
 
 Their great " Te Deum " to the end of days. 
 
 Godfrey Thriug. 
 
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 Civil War in Dorset, The, 1648-1660. 
 
 By A. R. Baylty, B.A. Oxon., F>R.Jtht:.S. ios. od. net. 
 
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