340 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



the whole of the chancel ; to the neatness and decency of which 

 he always paid the most exact attention. 



On September 25, 1784, Christopher Taylor, B. D. was in- 

 ducted into the vicarage of Selborne. 



LETTER VII. 



I SHALL now proceed to the Priory, which is undoubtedly the 

 most interesting part of our history. 



The Priory of Selborne was founded by Peter de la Roche, or 

 de Rupibus,* one of those accomplished foreigners that resorted 

 to the court of king John, where they were usually caressed, and 

 met with a more favourable reception than ought, in prudence, 

 to have been shown by any monarch to strangers. This adven- 

 turer was a Poictevin by birth, had been bred to arms in his 

 youth, and distinguished by knighthood. Historians all agree 

 not to speak very favourably of this remarkable man ; they allow 

 that he was possessed of courage and fine abilities, but then they 

 charge him with arbitrary principles, and violent conduct. By 

 his insinuating manners he soon rose high in the favour of John ; 

 and in 1205, early in the reign of that prince, was appointed 

 bishop of Winchester. In 1214 he became lord chief justiciary 

 of England, the first magistrate in the state, and a kind of vice- 

 roy, on whom depended all the civil affairs in the kingdom. 

 After the death of John, and during the minority of his son 

 Henry, this prelate took upon him the entire management of the 

 realm, and was soon appointed protector of the king and king- 

 dom. 



The barons saw with indignation a stranger possessed of all 

 the power and influence, to part of which they thought they had 

 a claim ; they therefore entered into an association against him, 

 and determined to wrest some of that authority from him which 

 he had so unreasonably usurped. The bishop discerned the 

 storm at a distance ; and, prudently resolving to give way to that 

 torrent of envy which he knew not how to withstand, withdrew 

 quietly to the Holy Land, where he resided some time. 



At this juncture a very small part of Palestine remained in the 

 hands of the Christians : they had been by Saladin dispossessed 



* See Godwin de Prx<mUbu Anglia. Folio. London. 1743, p. 217. 



