Potterne in the Fourteenth Century. 261 



prelate were more dunce or dwarf, more unlearned or unhandsome.' 

 However he had plenty of money, and that compensated no doubt 

 for many defects both mental and personal. And he spent his money 

 liberally on the various churches of his diocese. Neither was he 

 afraid of asserting his rights — it is quite a romantic chapter in his 

 episcopate, the way in which he recovered Sherborne after it had 

 been lost for more than two hundred years to his see.* 



Very shortly after his appointment Bishop Wyville obtained what 

 is called " licentia crenellandi ; " leave, that is, to crenellate, or fortify 

 with strong walls his mansions at Sariun, Woodford, Poterne, and 

 other places, together with one at Fleet Street, London. Few people, 

 I suppose, when they turn up Salisbury Court in Fleet Street, are 

 aware of the name being a traditionary remembrance of the Bishop's 

 ''crenellated mansion '^ on the banks of the Thames. 



The renewed licence to "crenellate his mansions," granted to 

 Bishop Erghum, in 1375, seems to imply that his predecessor had 

 not quite finished his work. We know little of this Bishop save 

 that he was a foreigner appointed by the Pope. His Holiness, for 

 some reason or other, quietly set aside the claims of John de Wormen- 

 hale, a Canon o£ Sarum, who had not only been elected by the 

 Chapter, but approved by the King. As a natural consequence. 

 Bishop Erghum had differences with his Chapter. He appointed a 

 namesake, John Erghum, whom we may without uncharitableness 

 presume to have been a kinsman, to the living of Potterne. The 

 entries in the Bishop's registers are indeed suggestive of a little 



' Fuller's authority was from the Chronicles. Thus the author of the Chron- 

 icon Anglise, 1328—88 (Rolls Edit.), says '<Hoc anno (1330) obiit Rogerus 

 Mortivaus, Epis. Sar., cui sucoesait Robertus Wyville per provisioneni,virutique 

 competenter illiteratus et minime personatus, quern si Papa cognovisset nun- 

 quam, ut creditur, ad tantum apicem promovisset." Adam Murimuth and 

 Walsingham make similar statements. 



* See the whole account, and also an engraving of the monumental brass re- 

 cording the recovery of the Castle at Sherborne, in Kite's Wiltshire Brasses, 

 pp. 14 — 18. Bishop Wyville died at Sherborne, but his remains were interred 

 in Salisbury Cathedral "in the midst of the choir." In 1684, this portion of 

 the building having been newly-paved with chequered marble, the slab con- 

 taining his brass was removed to the eastern tiansept where it is still to be 

 seen. 



VOL. XVI. — NO. XLVIII. S 



