4° General History of Bath. 



When, therefore, the King was victorious over the rebel- 

 lious Bishops, John obtained the appointment to the See 

 ■of Somerset, which had been located at Wells. This was 

 .in 1088. Now, several years before, it had been decided to 

 remove the English Sees from villages into towns, and, as a 

 part of this system, John removed the See of Somerset from 

 Wells to Bath. 



John was not at all popular amongst the Canons of Wells, 

 ■or the Monks of Bath, and, indeed, receives hard usage at 

 the hands of the English chroniclers. They accuse him of 

 being a quack, and of moving his See from motives of 

 vanity. But in Bath, at all events, we must keep his 

 :memory green. 



In logo he obtained from the King a grant of the Abbey 

 •of Bath, " ad Somersetensis episcopatus augmentationem" 

 From this time the Bishop of the Diocese became the 

 Abbot : to him belonged the Abbatial powers of visita- 

 tion ; and the Prior, who, in fact, governed the monastery, 

 'did so, in theory at all events, as the alter ego of the Bishop, 

 to whom, as to his Abbot, he vowed obedience. The next 

 •step was to become owner of the site of the ruined city, and 

 this was effected by another Charter of William Rufus, 

 which unfortunately is undated. The new Bishop re-built 

 both the Abbey and its church, and also the city. The 

 ■church was, in point of size at all events, a magnificent 

 :structure, far exceeding the dimensions of the present build- 

 ing, and the works were so costly as to exhaust the Bishop's 

 means. Accordingly, finding that the Monks, who detested 

 him as a foreigner and innovator, had little sympathy with 

 his schemes, he seized their lands, doled out to them a 

 meagre allowance of food, and applied the surplus revenues 

 in his building works. 



