a bishop, but as a chancellor a chancellor!" The ensnared had neither the firmness nor the opportunity to resist; the hostages are given, and at the term assigned the castles are given up for the restoring of the hostages. William, bishop of Worcester, who succeeded next to Baldwin, went the way of all flesh.
Sect. 16. The lord bishop of Winchester, at length recovering in Neustria, and also desiring to receive back the things taken from him, recrossed with all the speed he could, and found the chancellor besieging the castle of Gloucester. Whose arrival being known, the chancellor goes forth to meet him as he comes, and having heartily embraced and kissed him, says, "You have come at a most desirable time, dear friend! are we to prosecute the siege or desist?" To whom the bishop replies, "If you desire peace, lay down arms." He, quick of apprehension, perceived the force of the words, and commanded the heralds to sound the retreat; he also restored to the bishop his patrimony without dispute, but that only. All the others, who had crossed the sea against the chancellor, profited less than nothing. William, legate of the Apostolic See, held a council at Westminster, in which, lest there should be nothing done to be reported of him hereafter, he sentenced all religion to be expelled from Coventry cathedral, and prebendary clerks to be substituted in place of the monks.
Sect. 17. William, the wonderful bishop of Ely, chancellor of the king, justiciary of the kingdom, of threefold charge and threefold title, that he might use both hands as the right, and that the sword of Peter might succour the sword of the ruler, took upon himself the office of legate of all England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, which he obtained from the pope at the instance of the king, who would not otherwise set out, by Reginald, bishop of Bath. Therefore successful in every office which he craved, he passed to and fro through the kingdom with the rapidity of a flash of lightning.
The King of Darkness, that old incendiary, having added fresh fuel, fanned the ancient spark between the church of Salisbury and the monastery of Malmesbury into renewed flames. The abbot is roused not now to make the profession of pontiff but to disavow the very title of the bishop as well as his crosier. Royal letters to the chancellor were obtained,
