Herbert Poore, 1194—1217. 



219 



in Dorset, the birth-place of Richard Poore, there are places of the 

 name of Poor-stock and Poor-tow — some of the oldest possessions of 

 the see or cathedral of Sarum — as well as Ckil-home and Child- 

 Okeford. 



Herbert Poore would seem to have been a Canon of Sarum, for 

 we are told by Ralph de Diceto, 1 that, in the year 1194, the Canons 

 of Sarum having' at the time no Dean, unanimously elected as their 

 Bishop, " fratrem suum et concanonicum/' Herbert Archdeacon of 

 Canterbury. At that time he was only in Deacon's orders. On 

 the Day of Pentecost (April 29th), 1194, he was ordained a Priest, 

 and seven days afterwards, on Trinity Sunday, was consecrated a 

 Bishop by Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury, his predecessor in 

 the see of Sarum, in the Chapel of St. Catharine, Westminster. 

 He was enthroned at Sarum on June 13th in the same year. 



The spiritual heritage to which Herbert Poore succeeded was indeed 

 one of trouble and anxieity. For perhaps twelve years previously 

 there had been practically no Bishop at Sarum. Moreover England 

 and the Church were alike impoverished by the enormous sums 

 exacted for the king's ransom : as Wendover tells us, " all Bishops, 

 Priests, Earls, Barons, and Abbots and Priors had to contribute one 

 fourth of their incomes towards this purpose ; and moreover were 

 forced to give their gold and silver vessels, even their sacred chalices, 

 for this work of piety. No Church, no order, no rank, or sex, but 

 was compelled to aid in releasing* the King/' And when King* 

 Richard returned to his kingdom, a week or two only before the 

 consecration of Herbert Poore, his first work was to hurry off 

 to Nottingham, for the purpose of punishing those who had joined 

 his brother, the Earl John, in rebellion against him. Then came 

 the formal excommunication of the Earl John and of all who had 

 been his abettors or advisers. 2 More exactions followed on the 

 demand of the King; not only did he require two shillings to be 

 paid from every carucate of land, but every man was to render him 

 the third part of a knight's service, according as each fee would 



1 Imag. Historiarum sub anno 1194, in TVisden's " Decern Seriptores." 

 2 Rog. de Hoveden, II., 313, 317. 



