Death of William Bishop of Thetford. 1091.
Herbert Losinga.
Prior of Fécamp.
Abbot of Ramsey. 1087.
He buys the see of Thetford. year was one of the usual kind, as far as the motive of the appointment went, though the person to whom the bishopric was given or sold was not one of the class who in this reign commonly profited by such transactions. Bishop William of Thetford, the successor of the unlearned Herfast,[1] died in the year of negotiations, the year of the peace with Robert and the peace with Malcolm.[2] His bishopric was not long kept vacant; before the end of the year the church of Thetford had a new pastor, and one who plays no small part in local history. This was the famous Herbert Losinga,[3] who, if we may trust such accounts of him as we have, made so bad a beginning and so good an ending. Norman by birth, an immediate countryman of the Conqueror, as sprung from the land of Hiesmes, a man of learning and evident energy, he became a monk of Fécamp and prior of that great house.[4] Early in the reign of Rufus or in the last days of the Conqueror, he was raised to the abbey of Ramsey, when the long and varied life of Æthelsige came to an end.[5] He now, on Bishop William's death, at once bought for himself the see of Thetford for one thousand pounds.[6] Before the end of the year he was consecrated by Archbishop Thomas of York, making his profession to a future Archbishop of Canterbury.[7] At the same
- ↑ See N. C. vol. ii. p. 666.
- ↑ On the chronology, see Appendix X.
- ↑ I have already sketched his career, N. C. vol. iv. p. 420.
- ↑ So says Bartholomew Cotton, in his History of the Norwich Bishops; Hist. Angl., ed. Luard, p. 389; "Hic prius fuit prior Fiscanni, postea abbas Ramesseye, et pater suus Robertus abbas Wintoniæ. Hic Herbertus in pago Oxymensi natus, Fiscanni monachus, post ejusdem loci prioratum strenue administratum, translatus in Angliam a rege Willelmo, qui secundus ex Normannis obtinuit imperium, Ramesseye abbatis jure prælatus est."
- ↑ See N. C. vol. iv. pp. 36, 747.
- ↑ See Appendix X.
- ↑ See Appendix X.
