214 The Churches of Devizes. 



This prelate, whose parentage seems to have been obscure, first o 



occurs to notice as the priest of a small church near Caen, in Nor- t 



mandy, into which Prince Henry (brother to William Rufus, and c 



afterwards King Henry I.) happening to enter, whilst on a military n 



expedition, was so much pleased at the celerity with which Mass a 

 was performed, that his soldiers persuaded him to allow the rapid 

 officiator to attend the camp as a proper chaplain for the army. 



Being endowed with great natural talents, Roger so far ingratiated ii 



himself with his patron that he was intrusted with the sole manage- ft 



ment of his household, and upon Henry's ascending the throne x 



(a.d. 1100), was immediately appointed chancellor, loaded with I a: 



lands, churches, prebends, and abbeys, nominated in 1102 to the k 



vacant See of Sarum, and finally raised to the high office of Justi- l : d. 



ciary of England. 1 h 



He appears to have been the best architect of his day, and is oi 



distinguished by some of our chroniclers as "the great builder of t 



Churches and Castles." In addition to the Castle of Sarum which oi 



he repaired and strengthened, he also erected others at Devizes fcj 

 and Sherborne, and commenced one at Malmesbury. 



His principal work, however, would seem to have been the gj 



Castle of Devizes, which is described as " one of the most sump- a 



tuous and stately edifices in England." p 



From the contiguity and probable connection of the Church j ta 



a 



1 An account of the life of this prelate will "be found in Dodsworth's History 

 of Salisbury Cathedral, p. 20. It will here be sufficient to remark that as his 

 early life was an example of singular prosperity, so was the remainder marked 

 by a series of reverses. Stripped of his castles, and of the treasures which he had * 

 during a series of years accumulated in them, by the succeeding monarch (King t; 

 Stephen, of whose claim to the crown Roger had been a powerful opponent), he 1 

 at last sunk under his disappointment, and dying a.d. 1139, was interred in his 

 Cathedral of Old Sarum ; but his body was removed to that of New Sarum, shortly 4 

 after its erection, a.d. 1226. 



Underneath an arch, on the north side of the nave, are two ancient monu- jg 

 mental slabs, each bearing the effigy of a bishop. These have been ascribed to q 

 this prelate, and his successor Joceline, whose body was at the same time trans- jm 

 ferred to the Cathedral of New Sarum. 



