ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



rightly describes as ' their agent, the unprincipled Orlton,' ' by pro- 

 moting him to Worcester in 1327, and through papal favour he was 

 translated to Winchester in 1333. 



A most striking incident happened on 2 April, 1333, in the 

 cathedral church of St. Swithun, when a solemn protest was made 

 against Orlton's translation, coram populo, and in Orlton's own presence, by 

 one John Pritchare. The bishop was charged by his accuser with 

 implication in the murders (in 1326) of Walter Stapleton, Bishop of 

 Exeter, and of Robert Baldock, the chancellor, whom it was also alleged 

 he had imprisoned and tortured. He was further charged with treason 

 to the late king, inasmuch as he had preached to Oxford University that 

 Edward II. was an immoral tyrant, and that he carried a dagger in one 

 of his boots to kill Queen Isabel, and had said that if he had nothing 

 else he would kill her with his teeth (dentibus strangularef) . The bishop 

 answered that Baldock was a traitor, and after being condemned by a 

 secular judge had been handed over to his custody as a criminous clerk, 

 but that the people of London broke open his prison and put him in the 

 city gaol ; that he had called Despencer immoral, and not Edward II. ; 

 and that what he had said about the late king and his queen was by 

 order of Edward III. and his mother and at the request of the council. 

 Edward III. had, on 23 March, instructed the sheriff of Hampshire, Sir 

 John de Scures, that Orlton having obtained the bishopric by papal pro- 

 vision was to be proceeded against, and meanwhile was not to be obeyed 

 as bishop. The bishop had to set out for Rome, whence he wrote to the 

 Prior of St. Swithun to implore his aid. It was not until late in 1334 

 that the temporalities were restored, and the bishop made his peace 

 with his predecessor in the see of Winchester, the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury. 2 



Orlton's was an uneventful episcopate of twelve years. His registers 

 have no very special interest. They contain however a copy of the 

 ordination of Maldon vicarage in 1279 by Bishop Ely, which is of 

 value, as the earliest extant registers do not begin till 1282. Soon after 

 his appointment to Winchester, namely in November, 1334, the bishop 

 visited all the religious houses of Hampshire which were subject to his 

 jurisdiction, and the text of the sermon that he preached to the inmates 

 in each chapter house is entered in the first of his registers. 



Bishop Orlton suffered from blindness during the latter part of his 

 life. He died on 18 July, 1345, and Edward III. at last succeeded in 

 overcoming opposition to his appointment to the bishopric of William 

 Edendon his treasurer, who was at that time master of St. Cross. Bishop 

 Edendon was not consecrated till 14 May, 1346. His well deserved 

 fame as a great and generous church builder is elsewhere described. 

 The age of demonstrative chivalry had reached its zenith just at the 

 time of the new bishop's consecration. Edward III., in instituting the 

 Order of the Garter, showed his regard for Edendon by appointing him 



1 Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury, x. 9. 



* Chartulary of St. Swithun's, Nos. 233-44, 2 ^- 



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