340 ANTiaUITIES OF SELBORNe/ 
the whole of the chancel ; to the neatness and decency of which 
he always paid the most exact attention. 
On September 25, 1784, Christopher Taylor, B. D. was in- 
ducted into the vicarage of Selborne. 
LETTER VIL 
I SHALL, now proceed to the Priory, which is undoubtedly the 
most interesting part of our history. 
The Priory of Selborne was founded by Peter de la Roche, or 
de Rupibus,* one of those accomplished foreigners that resorted 
to the court of king John, where they were usually caressed, and 
met with a more favourable reception than ought, in prudence, 
to have been shown by any monarch to strangers. This adven- 
turer was a Poictevin by birth, had been bred to arms in his 
youth, and distinguished by knighthood. Historians all agree 
not to speak very favourably of this remarkable man ; they allow 
that he was possessed of courage and fine abilities, but then they 
charge him with arbitrary principles, and violent conduct. By 
his insinuating manners he soon rose high in the favour of John ; 
and in 1205, early in the reign of that prince, was appointed 
bishop of Winchester. In 1214 he became lord chief justiciary 
of England, the first magistrate in the state, and a kind of vice- 
roy, on whom depended all the civil aflfairs in the kingdom. 
After the death of John, and during the minority of his son 
Henry, this prelate took upon him the entire management of the 
realm, and was soon appointed protector of the king and king- 
dom. 
The barons saw with indignation a stranger possessed of all 
the power and influence, to part of which they thought they had 
a claim ; they therefore entered into an association against him, 
and determined to wrest some of that authority from him which 
he had so unreasonably usurped. The bishop discerned the 
storm at a distance ; and, prudently resolving to give way to that 
torrent of envy which he knew not how to withstand, withdrew 
quietly to the Holy Land, where he resided some time. 
At this juncture a very small part of Palestine remained in the 
hands of the Christians : they had been by Saladin dispossessed 
* See Godwin de Praesulibus Anglia. Folio. London. 1743, p. 217. 
