176 Bishops of Old Sarum. 
builders, who left behind them, some on the whole a good, others 
on the whole a bad memory in their dioceses, but none of whom 
could lay claim to the character of saints.” ' 
At last all difficulties being overcome by the compromise that the 
prelates should do homage to the king, whilst he should surrender 
his right to invest them with the “ ring and staff,’ Roger, together 
with four others, was consecrated at Canterbury in August, 1107. 
Roger, in addition to the see of Sarum, held the high office of 
Chancellor and Justiciar, the latter office implying that the chief 
administration of the kingdom was in his hands. In truth, under 
him the office of Justiciar became more distinct. He is called 
“ secundus a Rege,’ i.e., “ second after the King.” In fact the whole 
system of administration, which was brought to perfection in Henry’s 
reign, was chiefly his work. The exchequer was organised by him, 
and the well-known “ Dialogus de Scaccario ” was, if I mistake not, 
the work of Nigel, Bishop of Ely, who was in blood a grandson, or 
at all events, a great nephew of his. 
Of course the great blot on Roger’s character was his conduct in 
the matter of the succession to the crown. Robert of Gloucester 
distinctly states that Roger perjured himself ; and Roger de Hoveden, 
in affirming the same, mentions as an act of retributive justice the 
fact, that the very man whom, in defiance of his oath twice sworn, 
he had crowned, was the cause of his ruin. At the great council 
held in 1126, Roger together with others, swore fealty to the Em- 
press Matilda and distinctly accepted her as “ Lady over England 
and Normandy,” and the succession was confirmed by renewed oaths 
in 1131; and yet three or four years afterwards he was one of the 
three bishops who helped to crown Stephen as king. He excused 
himself by alleging that the oath taken was on the condition that 
the future Lady of England should not marry without the consent 
of the great council, and that he was absolved from that oath, when 
Matilda married, as a second husband, Geoffrey son of FPulk of 
Anjou. But certainly he would have stood on far higher ground, if 
like Theobald the archbishop he had remained true to his first oath, 
even though like Theobald he had been exiled for his fidelity. 
1 Freeman’s ‘‘ Norman Conquest,’’ vy. 216. 
