174 Bishops of Old Sarum. 
them from Old Sarum. Mr. Planché remarks ! that the letters on 
it correspond in form with those on the seal of William the Conqueror, 
and others of the eleventh century, and that sepulchral effigies are 
not found much before the middle of the twelfth, so that the appro- 
priation is probable enough. The slab, which for many years lay in 
the north aisle, has recently been removed to the centre of the Lady 
Chapel, the place where Osmund’s remains were deposited when 
brought from Old Sarum for re-interment in 1225,the year when that 
portion of the present Cathedral, (all that was then built,) was “ hal- 
lowed” by Bishop Richard Poore, 
Roger, 1107—1139. 
For some years after Osmund’s decease there was no bishop con- 
secrated for Sarum. This was owing in part to the grasping avarice 
of the Red King, who purposely left the bishoprics unfilled that he 
might appropriate their revenues to his own use. It is said that he 
was advised to adopt this course by no less a personage than Ralph 
Flambard, who held the see of Durham from 1099 till 1133. On 
the day that Rufus fell by the chance arrow in the New Forest, he 
held in his own hands, by confiscation or otherwise, the archbishopric 
of Canterbury, the bishoprics of Winchester and Salisbury, and no 
less than eleven abbacies. 
As soon as Henry I. came to the throne, an appeal was made to 
him to fill up the vacant sees. To the bishopric of Winchester he 
nominated William Giffard. Sarum he gave to his chancellor Roger, 
originally a poor priest of Caen, “of a contemptible and base be- 
ginning,” ? who at first pleased Henry, it is said, by the speed with 
which he got through his mass, and who had followed him through 
his adverse fortunes. Hereford was given to another Roger—the 
superintendent or clerk of his larder—who however died shortly 
after his nomination, when, in his place, was named Reinhelm, a 
clerk of the Royal Chapel. The king now called on Anselm to 
1 Journal of Archeol. Assoc.; xv., 129. 
? Dean Pierce, in his Defence of the King’s Sovereign right, p. 42. 
