234 



BisJ/ops of Old 8 arum. 



William de Wanda gives us rather a graphic account of the diffi- 

 culty the Bishop experienced in obtaining- the services of such 

 t( preachers/' or, rather , et seekers of alms" (immo magis elemostjnarum 

 petitores) in the various dioceses of England. He first applied to 

 the " Vicars/' and asked them to volunteer for such a good work, 

 and they gave their assent. But on the morrow they changed their 

 minds, and, notwithstanding the Bishop's earnest words, declined to 

 undertake the office. 1 He then turned to the Canons of his church, 

 and with " sighs and even tears'" besought them, for the love of God, 

 to take upon them this high office and privilege. Even amongst them 

 there were not a few who excused themselves on various grounds, 

 and the good Precentor, who writes the narrative and was himself 

 one of the volunteers, is careful to explain that those who went on 

 this errand did so at the cost of no small personal sacrifices : — " in- 

 stante Nativitate Domini, relictis propriis domiciliis et quae sibi 

 paraverunt ad dies festos, peregre profecti sunt, unusquisque ad 

 regionem sibi deputatam." 



We are not told, as far as I know, the result of their efforts. 

 Enough success however seems to have been secured to justify 

 further steps. For on the Feast of St. Vitalis (28th April), in the 

 year 1220, the foundations of the new church were laid. It was a 

 solemn function proposed by the good Bishop, at which he had hoped 

 for the presence of many of the chief people of the realm. But the 

 King and his nobles were on the borders of Wales making a treaty 

 with the Welsh. Still, though few earls or barons were present, the 

 common people flocked in from all parts. And on the day appointed, 

 after secret prayer, and solemn invocation of the grace of the Holy 

 Spirit, the Bishop, bare-headed and bare-footed, walked slowly, ac- 

 companied by the Canons of his church, singing the litany, to the 

 place of foundation. There, after an address to the assembled people, 

 five stones were laid by the Bishop — the first for the Pope, Honorius 

 III. ; a second for Stephen Laugton, Archbishop of Canterbury and 



1 William de Wanda is very severe on the Vicars who thus changed their 

 minds : " In crastino, vel pravorum consilio, vel instinctu diabolico, quod prius 

 annuerant penitus renuerunt, nec unus ex omnibus eis inventus est, qui in se 

 onus istud ob ecclesise suae honorem susciperet." Reg. Osmund. 



