General History of Bath. 39 



by ^Ifsig are extant ; and he was a member of the " Pious 

 League," founded by St. Wulstan. The league was primarily 

 religious, and had for its object the strict observance of the 

 Monastic rule ; but whilst it enjoined obedience to St. John, 

 St. Mary, St. Benedict, and to the respective Bishops, it 

 ordered likewise loyalty to their "world lord King William 

 and to Matilda the lady." 



Bath was a royal borough : its ownership was in the King, 

 and there was. no such inducement therefore to interfere 

 with it as there would have been had there been an English 

 over-lord to be an object of spoil. It may be assumed, then 

 that neither in the ecclesiastical nor civil ojder was there 

 any very sudden change in Bath itself. Geoffrey, Bishop of 

 Coutances, received, however, large grants of land in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, and the lords of St. Lo settled 

 at the little village hard by, which still bears their name 

 " Newton St. Lo." 



In 1087 died William the King, Gisa the Bishop, and 

 ^Elfsig the Abbot, and almost ijnmediately a great change 

 came over Bath. It was brought about by the quarrels of 

 the Normans themselves. Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and 

 Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances, who had respectively fought 

 and prayed at the battle of Senlac, rose in arms against 

 Rufus on behalf of his brother Robert. Geoffrey, sallying 

 from Bristol, burnt and sacked Bath. The English city 

 and the English monastery sank into ashes, and upon their 

 site Norman buildings were to arise. 



John de Villula, upon whom the restoration was to 

 depend, was a native of Tours, and was at once chaplain 

 and physician to William Rufus. He had amassed a great 

 fortune by the practice of physic, and was attracted to Bath, 

 by what he had heard of the medicinal fame of its waters. 



