236 



Bishops of Old Sarum. 



Within three months of the solemn inauguration of his under- 

 taking, on the Festival of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin 

 (August 15th, 1220), another Chapter was held, the Bishop being 

 present as himself a Canon, at which it was enacted, for the greater 

 security of the performance of the work, in the event of any Canon o£ 

 the Church failing to pay what he had promised to the fabric-fund, that, 

 next after fifteen days from the term elapsed, some one should be 

 sent, on the part of the Bishop and Chapter, to raise what was due 

 from the corn found on the prebend, and, so long as the said Proctor 

 of the Chapter should remain there for the purpose, he was to 

 be maintained with all necessaries by the goods of the said prebend. 

 And if the prebend of any Canon failing in the payment of what 

 was proposed were in any other diocese, such Canon should be de- 

 nounced to his own Bishop, by the letters of the Chapter, for his 

 contumacy, and be suspended from entering the church, or from 

 celebration of divine service, or excommunicated, as the Chapter 

 might think fit. 



At the close of this general convocation of the Canons, which 

 commenced on the morrow of the Feast of the Assumption, and 

 lasted for three days, Adam the Dean went to Sunning where he 

 arrived on the octave of the Assumption (August 22nd, 1220), for 

 the purpose no doubt of visiting the prebendal estates, and enquiring, 

 as was his duty, into various matters connected with the performance 

 of divine service there. He was suddenly taken ill and died within 

 two days, namely, on the eve of the Feast of St. Bartholomew, 

 August 24th. His body was brought for interment to Sarum. 



The narrative of William de Wanda, who was elected Dean at a 

 Chapter held on Sunday next after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross 

 (September 14th), and who gives us a very interesting account of 

 the way in which he was chosen by the votes of the Canons — the 

 Bishop, as De Wanda takes especial care to tell us, being himself 

 present as a Canon (Dominus autem Episcopus qui et Canonicus est), 1 

 and, as it would appear, promoting his success — here has a break 

 in it for some five years, and proceeds to describe the solemn 



1 Reg. Osmund. Wilk. Concilia, i., 556. 



