Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford Part 10

781, Esne.

793, Cedmand (doubtful).

796, Edulf.

798, Uttel.

803, Wulfheard.

824, Beonna.

825, Eadulf (doubtful).

833, Cedda.

836, Eadulf.

838, Cuthwulf.

866, Deorlaf.

868, Ethelbert.

888, Cynemund.

895, Athelstane I.

901, Edgar.

930, Tidhelm.

935, Wulfhelm.

941, Elfric.

966, Ethelwolf.

1016, Athelstane II.: he rebuilt the cathedral "from the foundations";(9) but also saw it destroyed in a raid of the Welsh and Irish under Elfgar.

1056, Leofgar, slain in a fight with the Welsh.

*Walter of Lorraine*, A.D. 1061-1079. The diocese had been administered for the last four years by the Bishop of Worcester, when Queen Edith's chaplain, a foreigner by birth, Walter of Lorraine, was appointed. Beyond a probably satirical reference by William of Malmsbury, all that is known of Walter is an account of a discreditable death.

*Robert de Losinga*, A.D. 1079-1095. A man of much learning and ability.

During his episcopate, according to William of Malmsbury, the cathedral was rebuilt after the pattern of Charlemagne's church at Aix-la-Chapelle.

In his time also Walter de Lacy built the Church of St. Peter at Hereford.

He was a keen man of business, and it has been suggested that he was open to bribery, but this accusation is hardly compatible with his intimate companionship with the high-minded Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, the date of whose death, January 19, 1095, is included in the calendar of the Hereford Service-Book.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.]

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

*Gerard*, A.D. 1096-1101. Three days after the body of William Rufus had been brought from the forest to Winchester by Purkiss, the charcoal burner, Gerard, who was the Bishop of Winchester's nephew, a.s.sisted at the coronation of Henry I., for which service it was said he was promised the first vacant archiepiscopal see. The King tried to evade the bargain a few years later by promising to increase the Hereford income to the value of that at York, but Gerard carried the day and obtained his promotion.

*Reynelm*, A.D. 1107-1115, Chancellor to Queen Matilda; he resigned his appointment as soon as it was conferred, on account of the King's quarrel with Anselm on the question of invest.i.ture, was banished for six years, and was only consecrated in 1107. He is said to have been the founder of the hospital of St. Ethelbert, and continued the work in the Cathedral begun by Robert de Losinga. He regulated the establishment of prebendaries and canons living under a rule.

*Geoffrey de Clive*, A.D. 1115-1119. During the latter years of this episcopate, a question of jurisdiction over the districts of Ergyng and Ewias, which had begun in the previous century, was revived between the Bishop of Llandaff and the Bishops of Hereford and St. David's.

*Richard de Capella*, A.D. 1120-1127, King's chaplain and keeper of the Great Seal under the Chancellor. He helped to build at Hereford a bridge over the Wye.

During his episcopate the Royal Charter was granted for the annual holding of a three days' fair (increased to nine days later) commencing on the evening of the 19th of May, called St. Ethelbert's Day.

Nine-tenths of the profits of this fair went to the Bishop and the rest to the Canons of the Cathedral. The bishop's bailiff held a court within the palace precincts, with pillory and stocks. The bishop also had a gaol for the incarceration of offenders against his rights during fair-time.

Tolls were levied at each gate of the city. The suspension of civic authority during fair-time was for centuries a source of frequent quarrels. As late as the eighteenth century a ballad-singer was punished by the bishop's officers.

The wreck of the "White Ship" occurred during this episcopate (Nov. 25th, 1120), and one of the victims was Geoffrey, Archdeacon of Hereford.

*Robert de Bethune*, A.D. 1131-1148, had become prior of his monastery at his native place of Bethune, in French Flanders, and thence had gone to Llanthony, a priory in a glen of the Hatteral Hills in the disputed district of Ewias.

When later on the country was torn and despoiled with the bitter struggle for the Crown, Bishop Robert, who was a personal friend of Henry, Bishop of Winchester, the King's brother, sided with Stephen.

Hereford was seized near the beginning of the campaign by Geoffrey de Talebot, and held by him for four or five weeks for the Empress Matilda.

It was then captured by Stephen, and the victory celebrated in the cathedral on Whitsunday (A.D. 1138), when the King attended ma.s.s wearing his crown, and seated, it is said, in the old chair described in an earlier chapter.

In 1139, the Empress's army again attacked Hereford, and seizing the cathedral, drove out the clergy, fortified it, and used it as a vantage ground from which to attack the castle. The tower was used as a platform, from which missiles were thrown, and the nave as a stable; while a trench and rampart was carried across the graveyard.

Bishop Robert was present at Winchester when the Empress was accepted there by the clergy, and returned thence to Hereford to purify the cathedral. He died at Chalons of a disease contracted while attending a council of Pope Eugenius III.

The Pope decided that his body should be taken to Hereford, and it was enclosed in the hide of an ox for the journey. Both at Canterbury and at London were great demonstrations of grief, which were again repeated at Ross, and on a still larger scale at Hereford. Bishop Robert was undoubtedly a great man, and his reputation for fine character, bravery, and ability was well deserved.

*Gilbert Foliot*, A.D. 1148-1163, the next Bishop, had been consecrated as Abbot of St. Peter's, Gloucester, by Bishop Robert, with whom he had contracted an early friendship as far back as 1139.

On the death of Bishop Robert, he was consecrated at St. Omer. He a.s.sisted at the consecration of Becket at Canterbury, and the next year was transferred to the See of London. He was followed by *Robert of Maledon*, A.D. 1163-1168, said to have been remarkably wise.

Amongst his pupils he numbered John of Salisbury. He attended the council of Clarendon, A.D. 1162, and in 1164 was present at the meeting at Northampton between Becket and the King.

Such was the fury and importance of the Becket controversy that even distant Hereford was entangled with it. Two Hereford Bishops took part in the quarrel, and it was through this that the see continued vacant for six years after Bishop Robert's death.

Notwithstanding the rigorous order of Henry VIII., A.D. 1538, for the destruction of all images and pictures of Bishop Becket, there still existed in the cathedral, till late in the seventeenth century, a wall painting of the Archbishop, and even yet in the north-east transept there remains a figure of him in one of the windows in good preservation. The enamelled cha.s.se or reliquary, with scenes of Becket's murder and entombment, and its dark but doubtful stain, has already been described among the treasures of the cathedral.

Some four miles from Hereford is yet another memorial still remaining in a well-preserved window of painted gla.s.s at Credenhill, a part of which represents the murdered Becket. Lastly, the festival of the translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury, July 7, is still included in the cathedral calendar.

*Robert Foliot*, A.D. 1174-1186, had been a friend of Becket's, and may have had some share in his education.

*William de Vere*, A.D. 1186-1199, removed the apsidal termination at the east end of the cathedral, and is said to have erected chapels, since replaced by the Lady Chapel and its vestibule.

*Giles de Braose*, A.D. 1200-1215, a stubborn opponent of King John.

*Hugh de Mapenor*, A.D. 1216-1219, received his appointment by the influence of the papal legate, who, after King John's submission, claimed the right of nomination to all vacant sees and benefices.

*Hugh Foliot*, A.D. 1219-1234, founded the Hospital of St. Katherine at Ledbury, in which still hangs a portrait of him, painted from an older picture. A tooth of St. Ethelbert was presented to the cathedral during his episcopacy. He endowed the Chapels of St. Mary Magdalene and St.

Katherine, in the ancient building adjoining the Bishop's palace, destroyed in the eighteenth century.

*Ralph de Maydenstan*, A.D. 1234-1239, presented to the see a house in Fish Street Hill, London, as a residence for the bishops when in the metropolis. He also made various gifts to the cathedral, the chapter, and the college of vicars choral. This Bishop was one of the commissioners to settle the marriage of Henry III. with Eleanor of Provence.

*Peter of Savoy (Aquablanca)*, A.D. 1240-1268, a native of Aqua Bella, near Chambery, whose appointment was an instance of the preference Henry III. showed for foreigners. One of the most unpopular men in England; he was hand in glove with the weak-minded, waxen-hearted King in schemes for money getting.

Bishop Aquablanca probably built the graceful north-west transept of the cathedral, containing the shrine under which lie the remains of his nephew, a Dean of Hereford, together with his own, except the heart. This was carried, as he had requested it should be, to the church he had founded in his native place.

*John de Breton*, or Bruton, A.D. 1268-1275.

*Thomas de Cantilupe*, A.D. 1275-1282. Born A.D. 1220, he showed, as a child, unusual religious zeal, was educated at Oxford and Paris, and for some years filled the office of Chancellor of England at the choice of the barons. This post he lost on the death of Simon de Montfort. When he was elected by the Chapter of Hereford to fill the episcopal chair on De Breton's death he was only persuaded to accept it with difficulty.

Bishop Cantilupe was renowned for his extreme piety and devotional habits.

In a dispute concerning the chace of Colwall, near Malvern Forest, from which was derived the Bishop's supply of game, he maintained successfully the episcopal rights. He was also triumphant in a more important quarrel with the Welsh King Llewellyn about the wrongful appropriation of three manors.

When Lord Clifford was in trouble for plundering his cattle and maltreating his tenants, Bishop Cantilupe inflicted personal chastis.e.m.e.nt upon him with a rod in the cathedral. The clergy no less than laymen did he subdue, appealing when necessary to the Pope.