Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/373

Thomas of York claims the jurisdiction of Lindesey.

Remigius wins over the King. Remigius had built his church as belonging to his own diocese.^[1] This does not seem to have been by virtue of the claim that the whole diocese of Dorchester came within his metropolitan jurisdiction.^[2] The argument was that Lindesey, won for the Christian faith by Paullinus, won for the Northumbrian realm by Ecgfrith, was part of the diocesan jurisdiction of the Bishop of York. And, whatever the truth of the case might be, the warmest of all admirers of Remigius goes some way to strengthen the doctrine of Thomas, when he speaks of Lindesey almost as a conquered land won by the prowess of Remigius from the Northumbrian enemy.^[3] The time was not one for doubtful disputations. Remigius, saint as he is pictured to us, knew how to use those baser arguments which were convincing above all others in the days of the Red King. His original appointment in the days of the Conqueror had not been altogether beyond suspicion;^[4] and it was now whispered that it was by the help of a bribe that he won the zealous adhesion of William Rufus to his cause. Rufus was at least impartial; he was clearly ready to give a fair day's work for a fair day's wages, and what he would do for a Jew he would also do for a bishop. Allin episcopum Dorkecestrensem."]

1. See N. C. vol. iv. p. 369.
2. See N. C. vol. iv. p. 355.
3. Giraldus, Vit. Rem. ch. iv. "Operam erga regem et archiepiscopum, excambium Eboracensi pro Lindeseia donantes, prudenter effectui, Deo cooperante mancipavit. Et sic Lindeseiam terramque totam inter Widhemam scilicet Lincolniæ fluvium et Humbriam diocesi suæ provinciæque Cantuariensi viriliter adjecit." This is Giraldus' improvement on the local record copied by John of Schalby (Giraldus, vii. 194); "Datis per regem prædictum Eboracensi archiepiscopo in excambium possessionibus, totam Lyndesyam suæ diocesi et provinciæ Cantuariensi conjunxit." It must be remembered that a bishopric of Lindesey had once been set up by the Northumbrian Ecgfrith. See Bæda, iv. 12.
4. See N. C. vol. iv. pp. 90, 354. This seems to be delicately referred to in the record copied by John of Schalby (Giraldus, vii. 193); "Remigius natione Normannus ac monachus Fiscanensis, qui ob certam causam venerat cum eodem [Willielmo rege