Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/190

Death of Scotland of Saint Augustine's and Ælfsige of Bath.

Death of Bishop Gisa. 1088.

The bishopric of Somerset granted to John of Tours.

He removes the see to Bath. then remain vacant three years, we may set that down as the beginning of the evil practice.^[1] About the same time died Scotland Abbot of Saint Augustine's, and the English Ælfsige, who still kept the abbey of Bath. Not long after died Ælfsige's diocesan, the Lotharingian Gisa, who had striven so hard to bring in the Lotharingian discipline among his canons of Wells.^[2] The bishopric of the Sumorsætan was thus among the first sees which fell to the disposal of William the Red, and his disposal of it led to one of the most marked changes in its history. The bishopric was given to John, called de Villula, a physician of Tours, one of the men of eminence whom the discerning patronage of William the Great had brought from lands alike beyond his island realm and beyond his continental duchy. John was a trusty counsellor of the Red King, employed by him in many affairs, and withal a zealous encourager of learning.^[3] But he had little regard to the traditions and feelings of Englishmen, least of all to those of the canons of Wells. Like Hermann, Remigius, and other bishops of his time, he carried out the policy of transferring episcopal sees to the chief towns of their dioceses. But the way in which he carried out his scheme, if not

• [Footnote: in Florence they seem to have died before him. The Life of Lanfranc

at the end of the Chronicles records the consecrations and benediction of all the three prelates with whom we are concerned, Geoffrey, Guy, and John, in 1088; "Cantuariæ, in sede metropoli, examinavit atque sacravit." Cf. Gervase, X Scriptt. 1654.]

1. See Stephens' Memorials of Chichester, p. 47.
2. See N. C. vol. ii. p. 459.
3. Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 195 draws a curious picture of him; "Erat medicus probatissimus, non scientia sed usu, ut fama, nescio an vera, dispersit. Litteratorum contubernio gaudens, ut eorum societate aliquid sibi laudis ascisceret; salsioris tamen in obloquentes dicacitatis quam gradus ejus interesse deberet." He had just before described him as "natione Turonicus, professione medicus, qui non minimum quæstum illo conflaverat artificio." The local writer in the Historiola (21) calls him "vir prudens et providus."