the king. `if he does not cut them down to three, which is all I have at my own table' (Gir. Cambr. i. 52). Probably Richard did not carry his reforms so far as this, for when he died the monks set down in their annals that `Bishop Richard, of good memory, departed hence unto the Lord' (Ann. Mon. ii. 63). Giraldus Cambrensis describes him `a man of more natural sense than scholarship, and more clever in worldly business than versed in the liberal arts' (Gir. Cambr. vii. 70). John of Salisbury, Bartholomew of Exeter, Ralph de Diceto, the Canterbury monks, and the Waverley annalist (Ann. Mon. ii. 245-246) praise his liberality in almsgiving, and the last-named writer adds that he `erected in his bishopric some admirable buildings, which recall his name from generation to generation.' Bishop Milner's conjecture (Hist. Winchester, ii. 202-3) that one of these was the hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, near Winchester, is ingenious, but rests on no positive evidence. Richard was a benefactor to his predecessor's foundation of St. Cross. By an exchange with the knights of St. John, who had charge of this hospital, he took upon himself the responsibility for its maintenance and administration, and doubled the number of poor men who were daily fed there. The deed of exchange (Harl. Chart. 43, I. 38) is interesting as being witnessed (at Dover on 10 April 1185) by King Henry and by the Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem, and as having the autograph signature of Bishop Richard and A fine impression of his seal.
[Gesta Abbatum S. Allani, Materials for History of Becket, Thomas Saga, Ralph de Diceto, Gervase of Canterbury, Gesta Henrici, Annales Monastici, Giraldus Cambrensis, Memorials of St. Edmunds (all in Rolls Ser.); Letters of John of Salisbuiy and Gilbert Foliot, ed. Giles (Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ); Pipe Rolls, 2-4 Hen. II, Record Commission, 5-17 Hen. II, and Feet of Fines (Pipe Roll Soc.); Madox's History of Exchequer and Formulare Anglicanum; Dialogus de Scaccario in Stubbs's Select Charters; Eyton's Itinerary of Henry II; Cassan's Lives of Bishops of Winchester; Magnum Rotulum Scaccarii Normanniæ (Soc. Antiq.) The Harleian Charter 43 I. 38 is exhibited in the British Museum, and printed in Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, iii. 176-7.]
RICHARD (fl. 1190), called the Premonstratensian, was abbot of an unknown English house of that order (Bale, Scriptt, Illustr. Brit … Cat. p. 232). About 1180 he seems to have left England, visited Cologne, and spent some time in writing at the abbey of Arnsberg (Oudin, Comment. de Scriptt. Eccles. ii. 1521). Here, about 1183, he is said to have written his `Life of St. Ursula,' containing a history of the passion of the eleven thousand virgins (ib. 1522). This is extant in Capgrave's `Nova Legenda Angliæ' (f. 316, ed. 1516), and was published in Cologne by Crombach in two volumes in 1667. Some theological treatises attributed to Richard are still extant, such as the `De Canone Missæ,' called also `De Officiis Missæ,' in Corpus Christi College Library, Cambridge, and in the Bodleian Library. The `Carmen de Expositione Missæ' in University College, Oxford, is more probably attributed to Hildebert, called Cenomanensis (cf. Leyser, Hist. Poet. Med. Æv. p. 50, ed. 1721, and elsewhere). Richard is also said to have written `De Computo Ecclesiastico,' but Hardy does not seem correct (Descript. Cat. of MSS. iii. 222, Rolls Ser.) when he follows Tanner (Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 627) in attributing to him a chronicle from 1064 to so late a date as 1284.
[See, in addition to authorities cited in the text, Pits's Illustr. Angl. Script, i. 255-6; Fabricius's Bibl. Lat. Med. Æt. vi. 83; Chevalier's Répertoire des Sources Hist. du Moyen Age, i. 1944; Wright's Biogr.Brit. Lit. ii. 471.]
RICHARD of Devizes (fl. 1191), chronicler, apparently a native of Devizes, Wiltshire, was a monk of the Benedictine house of St. Swithun's, Winchester, in the time of prior Robert. He wrote a chronicle of the deeds of Richard I, and sent it to Robert with a prologue in the form of a letter. This `Chronicon de rebus gestis Ricardi primi' extends from the accession of Richard I to Oct. 1192, when he was making arrangements previous to his departure from Palestine. It is of great value, for Richard was an acute observer, and is amusing, for he was given to sarcasm. He speaks severely of the arrogance of William Longchamp [q. v.], and accuses Walter, archbishop of Rouen, of deceit; makes a curious allusion to the infidelities of Eleanor, the king's mother, to her first husband, Louis VII of France, and inserts a long and quaintly told story of a boy said to have been slain by the Jews of Winchester, in the course of which he says something characteristic of each of several of the principal cities of England. He quotes Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, and makes a parade of learning. The speeches that he puts into the mouths of his characters must in some cases be his own composition.
This work, commonly referred to as the 'Gesta Ricardi,' exists in C. C. C. Cambr. MS. 339 and Cott. MS. Dom. A. xiii.; it has been printed and edited by Stevenson
