Herbert Poore, 1194—1217. 



221 



undertakings beyond the sea. Whatever may have been the real 

 grounds of opposition, the occurrence itself is a land-mark in English, 

 constitutional history. It may be placed on a par with Thomas a 

 Becket's opposition to Henry II. at Woodstock, but it is the first 

 clear case of the refusal of a money grant demanded directly by the 

 crown, and so a most valuable precedent for future times. 1 



It was a terrible penalty however that Bishop Herbert paid for 

 his independent stand against the King. The royal command went 

 forth that the possessions of the two Bishops should be confiscated. 

 The saintly character of Hugh of Lincoln seems to have been a pro- 

 tection to him — no man dared meddle with Hugh, his anathema was 

 dreaded as death. The sentence however was executed on Herbert 

 Poore ; he had, after many vexatious oppressions, to buy back his 

 own possessions with a large sum of money. 2 



King Richard died in 1199. The accession of John to the 

 throne gave at the first a faint hope of the cessation of some 

 of those troubles which all along had oppressed the Bishop 

 and Church of Sarum. Together with the Archbishop of Canterbury 

 and other Bishops, and many Earls and Barons, Herbert Poore went 

 to meet King John, and assisted at his coronation in the church 

 of St. Peter, Westminster. 



He also acted from time to time as one of the King's Justices 

 at Westminster, and early in the year 1200 we find him engaged 

 in the good work of reconciling Geoffrey Archbishop of York, 

 with the Dean and Chapter of his Cathedral. Serious differ- 

 ences had long prevailed at York ; they were hardly indeed to be 

 wondered at when we remember how Geoffrey, who was an illegi- 

 timate son of Henry II. and so half-brother to Richard I., had been 

 forced upon them as Archbishop even before he was in holy orders, 

 how he held the temporalities of the see for some years without 

 consecration at all, and with what recklessness he bestowed prebends 



1 See Freeman's Norman Conquest, v., 695, and Magna Vit., S. Hug. (Rolls 

 Series), p. 248. 



2 Magn. Vit;, S. Hug., p. 251. Of Bishop Herbert Poore it is said " Post 

 vexationes et plurimas contumelias vix tandem maxima jpecunice summa pac^in 

 et possessiones suas redemit." 



