216 



Edingdon Monastery . 



see of Winchester. The Papal bull confirming the appointment is 

 dated at Avignon, 9th December, 1345. 1 



On Friday in Easter Week following he appears as Lord Treasurer 

 of England amongst the grandees present in the Archbishop's 

 chamber at Lambeth, to receive the homage of Edward the Third's 

 son-in-law, John de Montford, Duke of Brittany. 3 When the King 

 was projecting one of his expeditions to France, he appointed his 

 son Lionel to be guardian of the realm ; Bishop Edingdon and the 

 othet chief officers of State to be his advisers. The Treasurer's 

 principal business was to raise money for the enterprise : a difficult 

 operation, in which one of his predecessors — Archbishop Stratford — 

 had been very unsuccessful ; the King's extravagance baffling the 

 utmost exertions of his financiers. " During Bishop Edington's 

 management of that office," says Fuller, 3 " he caused new coins, 

 unknown before, to be made, groats and half groats, both readier 

 for change and fitter for charity. But the worst was [" imminuto 

 nonnihil j?ondere"~\ the weight somewhat abated. If any say 

 that this was an unepiscopal act, know he did it not as Bishop but 

 as Lord Treasurer, the King, his master, having all the profit thereby. 

 Yea, succeeding Princes following this pattern have subdiminished 

 their coin ever since. Hence it is that our Nobility cannot maintain 

 the port of their ancestors with the same revenues ; because so many 

 pounds are not so many pounds, though the same in noise and 

 number, not the same in intrinsical valuation." The diminution of 

 weight whilst the value was increased was a plausible but dangerous 

 experiment, which is said to have deranged the price of commodities 

 for a long time afterwards. 



Bishop Edingdon, like his successor, Wykeham, whom he or- 

 dained, was a great builder. An able judge in these matters pro- 

 nounced that the Church at Middleton Cheney was built in his 

 time, and a late rector of that parish, the Venerable Archdeacon 

 Churton, used to please himself with thinking that the beautiful 

 east window and curious porch of his Church were early specimens 



1 Fcedera, p. 64. 



2 Fcedera, p. 38. 



3 Worthies of Wilts. 



