220 



Bishops of Old Sarum. 



boar. Even the monks of the Cistercian order, who by special 

 privilege could claim exemption, were commanded to give him, in 

 aid of his expedition to Normandy, all their wool for the current 

 year. Never was there a gloomier prospect than that which opened 

 on the episcopate o£ Herbert Poore. 



In the year 1198, four years after his consecration, Eustace 

 Dean of Sarum, was advanced to the bishopric of Ely. Her- 

 bert Poore was then most fortunate in the election of his own 

 brother (f rater germanus), Richard Poore, to the vacant deanry. 

 Most probably he was for some little time previously a Canon of 

 the Cathedral. Without all doubt, from the time of his election 

 as Dean, the two brothers worked earnestly together for the re- 

 moval of the cathedral from Old Sarum to a more convenient site. 

 An inscription, copied by Leland from the Lady Chapel, states 

 distinctly that it was in the time of Richard I. that a commencement 

 was made. How far that King, who is said to have favoured the 

 undertaking, 1 gave more than fair words, we are not able to say. 

 He certainly appears rather as the exactor of benefits for himself 

 from the Church, than as in any sense its benefactor. On one 

 notable occasion indeed, in this same year of which we are speaking, 

 we find our Bishop boldly resisting the royal oppression. In the 

 great council of the nation assembled at Oxford, Archbishop Hubert 

 announced a demand of the King that the barons should furnish 

 him with a force of three hundred knights to be paid each of them 

 three shillings a day. Two of the Bishops, Hugh — afterwards 

 canonized as St. Hugh — of Lincoln, who represented at the time the 

 religious party in England and the old school of liberty for which St. 

 Anselm and Thomas Becket had contended, and Herbert of Salisbury, 

 who, it may be, represented the old traditions of the Exchequer, 

 resisted the grant on the ground that, whilst as loyal subjects they 

 were bound to do faithful service to their king within his realm, 

 they were not bound to contribute either men or money for 



1 William de Wanda says distinctly — "illustri Rege Anglorum suum ad id 

 assensum et favorem liberaliter impendente." Reg. Osmund (Wilkins' Concil. i„ 

 551). 



