ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



his death reverence for his memory, behef in his sanctity, or gratitude for his 

 large-hearted generosity, led to the report that miracles were wrought at his 

 tomb. He is the only bishop of the see the tradition of whose saintly life 

 has been handed down to posterity as his chief characteristic. A seeker after 

 God, who kept himself aloof from the political strife of his time — not strong 

 enough to be a leader perhaps, but one whose exemplary life was his best 

 legacy to posterity. 



Since the death of Pandulf three bishops of Norwich had succeeded one 

 another who had all been Norfolk men. The see was kept vacant for a time, 

 when another of the great lawyers was elected to the vacancy, who can 

 scarcely have been an ' episcopally minded prelate.' This was Simon de 

 Wauton or Walton, consecrated at Canterbury lo March, 1258. He is said 

 by Dugdale to have been born at Walton d'Eiville in Warwickshire,^ and if, 

 indeed, he was one of King John's chaplains in 1205,'' and about that time 

 was enjoying two other pieces of preferment, he must have been far advanced 

 in life when he received his bishopric, and some years over eighty when he 

 died. He was an eminent lawyer, and was apparently chief justice of the 

 Common Pleas at the time of his election to Norwich, but nevertheless held 

 several pieces of preferment, which he was allowed by the pope to retain 

 together with his bishopric. In the dreadful famine from which the poor 

 suffered so cruelly in the first year of Bishop Simon's episcopate, we hear 

 nothing about any efforts on his part to relieve their distress. History has 

 little or nothing to tell which is to his credit. He died 2 January, 1266, 

 and was buried in Bishop Suffield's Lady Chapel. 



Once more King Henry had to assent to the election of a bishop of 

 Norwich. The kingdom was in a pitiful state ; the battle of Evesham, 

 4 August, 1265, had to all appearance crushed the hopes of the popular party 

 and left it without a leader, but desperate men are apt to be troublesome, and 

 up and down the land there was much lawlessness. It was no time for 

 keeping bishoprics vacant, and making more enemies, so the monks of 

 Norwich were permitted to proceed to an election, and on 23 January, 



1266, just three weeks after the death of Simon de Walton, they chose as his 

 successor their own prior, Roger de Scarning. 



A Norfolk man again, and born, as his name implies, at a village 

 adjoining the town of East Dereham, he had been a monk at Norwich for 

 many years, and prior of the monastery since 1257.' 



He was consecrated on 4 April, 1266, at St. Paul's, by the archbishop of 

 Ragusa (in Media).* During the rest of that year East Anglia suffered miserably 

 from the war that was raging. Bury St. Edmunds, Lynn, Ely, Norwich were 

 pillaged by one side or the other. On 19 December Norwich was actually 

 sacked and immense booty carried away by the rebels.^ It was not till July, 



1267, that Prince Edward succeeded in bringing the struggle to an end. 

 Meanwhile, in October, 1265, another papal legate appeared in England. 



It was twenty-eight years since any regular plenipotentiary legate had been 

 seen in England.* He had left a very bad name behind him for the extortion 



' Dugdale, Antiiji. of Warwickshire, i, 576. ' Foss, Judges, who gives his authorities for the statement. 



' Barth. de Cotton, De Rege Edwardo I (Rolls Ser.), 137. 



' Reg. Sacr. Angl. 63. ' Blomefield, op. cit. iii, 53. 



' On the significance of these missions see Stubbs, Constitutional Hist, of Engl, iii, 703. 



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