RieAard Poore, 1217—1229. 



225 



Richard Poore. 



Dean, 1198—1215. 

 Bishop, 1217—1229. 



The successor of Herbert Poore in the see of Sarum was his 

 brother ( frater germ amis) Richard Poore. He was a native of 

 Tarrant (Crawford), in Dorset. He was, we may fairly presume,, 

 a Canon of the Cathedral, since the office of Dean, to which he was 

 elected in 1198, could only be held by one who had been previously 

 a member of the cathedral body. In 1215 he was consecrated as 

 Bishop of Chichester by Archbishop Stephen Langton. His epis- 

 copate there was but a brief one, for in less than two years he was 

 recalled to his much-loved Sarum. He left his mark however at 

 Chichester, for whilst there he obtained for that see the patronage 

 of the Church of Hove, and founded in his Cathedral the prebend 

 of Hove, afterwards divided into two, viz., Hove Villa, and Hove 

 Ecclesia. He is also said to have purchased Amport in Hants, and 

 to have given it to the same Cathedral. 1 



William de Wanda, in the account of the building of the new 

 Cathedral which he has left us in what is commonly now termed the 

 " Register of S. Osmund/'' though more correctly designated the 

 (< Old Register/'' (vetus registrum) , gives us a few touches, from which 

 we glean sufficiently well the different characters of the two brothers. 2 

 Thus of the former he speaks as a " far-seeing man and strenuous 

 in temporal matters'" (vir providus et in temporalibus strenuus) ; 

 whilst of the other, as "most quiet and peace-loving" (quietissimus 

 et pacificus) . And without all doubt, during the time that Richard 



1 See Stephens' " See of Chichester," p. 73. 

 2 Bishop Herbert Poore was evidently no great favourite with William de 

 Wanda, afterwards Dean. Thus he says of him [Reg. Osmund], "Licet vir 

 esset dives et assiduus, manum, quam ad fortia mittere proposuerat, sub axilla 

 reposuit, nec earn ad os ulterius applicare studuit, ut opere compleret quod ore 

 promisit : " and again, in words which seem to mean more than he quite likes to 

 express plainly, " Utrum idem Episcopus vir sanguineus fuerit, et ob hoc domum 

 Domini oedificare non licuerit, an in hoc suo successori, viro quidem quietissimo 

 et pacifico, divinitus delatum fuerit, nescio. Deus scit." — Wilkins' Concil, i., 552. 



