68 PAPERS, ETC. 
bishop Robert, in due performance of his sacred 
calling, set himself to {le task of settling the dis- 
putes which had been carried on for some years 
between the monks of Bath and those of Wells, and 
also, arranging the manner in which the bishops 
of the see should for the future be elected and 
styled. In doing so, we find he was the first who 
appointed a Dean at Wells. After this the old 
chronicler tells us, he dedicated the church of 
Wells, Joceline of Sarum, Simon of Worcester, 
Robert of Hereford, being present ;* and the build- 
ing which was in ruins he admirably repaired. 
That bishop Robert’s reparations were in the Nor- 
man style, I have little doubt. Some say he re- 
built the church at Bath; others, that he only 
finished what his predecessor, John de Villula, had 
begun. The few early portions which remain in 
Bath Abbey, are completely Norman, and totally 
unlike any to be found in Wells. The on)y por- 
tions of Wells at all likely to have been built by 
bishop Robert, are parts of the North Porch, and 
perhaps the Crypt. I have mentioned the fact of 
his having been the first to appoint a Dean, in 
order that I might give as fair a probability as 
possible to the idea that he did build the crypt 
and a chapter house over it. But the crypt, 
* Dedicavit ecclesiam Wellensem, Joceline Sarum, Simon Wigorn, 
Rob. Hereford presentibus; multasque ruinas eccl& destructionem ejus 
in locis pluribus comminentes egregie reparavit,—Can. Well, Lib. Alb. 
Ang. Sac. 
