Richard Poore, 1217—1229. 



237 



consecration, in 1225, of such portion of the Cathedral as was then 

 completed, comprising probably very little if any more than what 

 we now call the Lady Chapel. 



During those five years however both Bishop and Dean were 

 exerting themselves strenuously for their cathedral, and, according 

 to Matthew Paris, they succeeded in enlisting the help and sym- 

 pathies of many others. 1 He gives us what he calls an "elegant" 

 distich in memory of it, which it is not easy to translate : — 



" Rex largitur opes, fert Proesul opem, lapicidse 

 Dant operani ; tribus his, est opus ut stet opus." 



It will be well to gather up from documents and incidental notices 

 relating to those five years (1220 — 1225) some glimpses of Bishop 

 Richard Poore and his fellow-workers. 



First of all, I may say that it was a noble band that he had 

 gathered around him. To his Dean, who threw his whole soul into 

 the work, we are indebted for a full account of the proceedings. 

 There is an entry in the account of the election of Robert Bingham 

 as the successor of Richard Poore which seems to imply, that, had it 

 not been for the accident of his birth, William de Wanda himself 

 might have been Bishop of Sarum. The Register which goes by 

 the name of S. Osmund is far more accurately to be described as his, 

 or — as I have once at least seen it called — that of Richard Poore. 

 Then as Precentor in those days there was Roger of Sarum, holding at 

 that time annexed to his stall the prebend of Teynton Regis, 2 soon 

 afterwards judged worthy of advancement to the see of Bath and 

 Wells. 3 Then there was Henry de Bishopeston, a man of real 



1 The words of Matthew Paris, " Chronica Majora," iii., 391 (Rolls Edition), 

 are as follows : " Ad quod opus promovendum, non tantum Episcopus, immo Rex, 

 et cum eo multi magnates manum porrexerunt adjutricem. Unde quidam ait satis 

 eleganter. 'Rex largitur opes,' &c." The lines are really from a poem entitled 

 " De translatione veteris ecclesise Sarisburiensis et constructione novae," by Henry 

 of Avranches, a kind of court poet to Henry III. See Warton's Hist, of English 

 Poetry, hi., 189. In the poem (which is in MS. Cantab Univ. Lib., Dd. 11. 78) 

 the words are : "Rex igitur det opes, Prsesul det opem, Lapicidae," &c. 



2 See Oliver's History of the Bishops of Exeter, p. 415. 



1 See Freeman's History of the Church of Wells, p. 106. 



