A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



Raleigh having his election thus ratified by Innocent III. came down to 

 Winchester to take possession, but the king insisted on the mayor 

 closing the city gates and refusing him admission. The bishop re- 

 taliated by laying an interdict on the cathedral and other churches, and 

 excommunicated all the officials, lay and cleric, who had any part in 

 denying him access to the city. The king rejoined by sending letters to 

 the clergy threatening them with the loss of their benefices if they 

 obeyed their diocesan. They listened however to the spiritual rather 

 than the temporal power, left the city and closed the churches. The 

 bishop crossed the seas ; but in 1244 the king relented, William of 

 Raleigh returned, all his opponents submitted, the interdict was removed, 

 and Henry, in token of reconciliation, dined at the bishop's table. 



On William's death in 1250, the rapacious Henry put forward 

 another Poitevin, his half-brother Aymer of Valence, for election. 

 Aymer, who was a younger son of Isabel, King John's widow, by her 

 second husband Hugh le Brun, Count of La Marche, already possessed 

 through the king's pressure the income of four rich livings, as well as 

 innumerable pensions from other benefices. He was only in acolyte's 

 orders, was not of canonical age for consecration, possessed neither 

 learning nor character, and knew not the English tongue. At first the 

 monks of St. Swithun resisted, but the king appeared in person in their 

 chapter house, thrust himself into the abbot's or bishop's seat, and thence 

 addressed them with stern threats intermingled with blandishments. 

 The unhappy monks at last gave way, subject to papal dispensation. 

 The dispensation was soon granted, and not only so, but the pope 

 permitted this high-born intruder to retain all the revenues he had 

 drained from the Church of England prior to his election as bishop. 

 Matthew Paris said : ' It is believed that there was not one great 

 church in England from the breasts of which he did not suck the milk.' 

 These were sorry days for the Church in Hampshire. The timorous 

 monks had betrayed their trust by being cajoled into electing a youthful 

 prodigal as nominal bishop, the only redeeming point being that the 

 blasphemy of a consecration of Aymer was never performed in England. 

 They suffered severely for their cowardice, as Aymer greatly oppressed 

 the monks from time to time, subjecting them to inconceivable indigni- 

 ties, and filling their house with the riff-raff of the continent. Win- 

 chester's miserable plight was reflected in many other parts of the 

 country, and at last in 1258 came the Parliament of Oxford, which made 

 short work with the foreign intruder. Aymer's brother fled to his castle 

 of Wolvesey, dreading the wrath of Earl Simon. The barons attacked 

 the castle and drove Aymer from the kingdom, stripping him of his 

 possessions. A worse and more deservedly hated man never left the 

 walls of Winchester. Expelled from France, Aymer reached Rome and 

 actually obtained consecration at the hands of Pope Alexander IV. in 

 May, 1260. Setting out to return to this country he was taken ill at 

 Pans, where he died on December 4 to the unmistakable joy and relief 

 of the English. 



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