Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/246

 up all claim on Lisieux ( iv. 274; cf. pp. 116–17).

Rannulf was at times in England during this period, and was at Durham when the relics of St. Cuthbert and Bede were translated (August 1104). He was sceptical as to the discovery till the great day of the ceremony—perhaps till the arrival of Alexander of Scotland—when he preached a sermon to the people ( Auct. i. 252, 258, 260; cf. Hist. Reg. ii. 236;, ii. 53). He took part in Anselm's great consecration of Roger of Salisbury, and the four other bishops at Canterbury (11 Aug. 1107) (, Hist. Nov. p. 187). Next year he fruitlessly proposed to consecrate Thurgod to St. Andrews in Scotland, on the plea that Thomas, the new archbishop of York, could not legally perform the ceremony (ib. pp. 198–9). At the council of Northampton (1109) Henry confirmed Rannulf's claims against the men of Northumberland (Script. Tres, App. p. xxxii). Ten years later Henry sent him to the council of Rheims with orders to forbid the consecration of Thurstan to the archbishopric of York (19 Oct. 1119); but he arrived too late (, i. 173–4). In 1127 he set out to attend the great ecclesiastical council at Westminster (13–16 May), but was forced to turn back through sickness, and in the same or the next year assisted his suffragan bishop of the Orkneys, Radulph, and Archbishop Thurstan in consecrating King Alexander's nominee to St. Andrews (Cont. of ii. 86, 89; with which cf., p. 247).

The concluding years of Rannulf's life were spent in architectural works. He completed to the very roof the nave of the cathedral, begun by his predecessor, William of St. Carilef [q. v.] He was a strenuous defender of the liberties of his see, and according to Surtees the charter is still extant in which Henry confers on him the privileges of his county palatine (, i. xx). He was never, however, able to recover Carlisle and Teviotdale, which had been severed from his see in the days of his exile; and we are told that King Henry's hatred caused William II's charter to be destroyed (Cont. Hist. Dun. Eccles. i. 139–40). He renewed the walls of Durham, and guarded against a fire by removing all the mean dwellings that were huddled between the cathedral and the castle. He threw a stone bridge across the Wear, and founded a great castle (Norham) on the Tweed to guard against the incursions of the Scotch. His restless activity, says his biographer, was impatient of ease, and he ‘passed from one work to another, reckoning nothing finished unless he had some new project ready.’ Two years before his death his health began to fail. As the dog-days drew on he took to his bed (1128). The fear of death made him distribute his money to the poor, and even induced him to pay his debts. The king, however, reclaimed all this wasted money after the bishop's decease. A month before his death he had himself borne into the church, bemoaned his evil doings, placed his ring upon the altar as a sign of restitution, and even attached his golden ring to the charter of his penitence (ib. pp. 139–41; cf., p. xx, note 9). He died on 5 Sept. 1128 ({{sc|Simeon of Durham}, Hist. Reg. ii. 283; cf., ii. 91; Anglo-Saxon Chron. ii. 225).

In earlier life Rannulf was of a comely figure ( iii. 310); but in later years he became full-bodied, and Orderic gives a curious account of the difficulties he had in escaping from the Tower (iv. 109). He was generous to the poor (Cont. Hist. Dun. Eccles. i. 140), and munificent to his own friends ( iii. 310; cf. Cont. Hist. Dun. Eccles. i. 135–40). Besides the Thomas mentioned above Rannulf had at least two other children: Elias, a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral, and Radnulf, the patron of St. Godric (, vi. 1273; Vita Sti Godrici, c. xx.), in whom Rannulf himself took an interest. Foss adds a brother, Geoffrey, ‘whose daughter is mentioned in the Great Roll of Henry I’ (, i. 66; but cf. Pipe Roll, p. 79, where the entry is merely ‘Fratris episcopi’). Rannulf's charters are sometimes signed by his nephews, Osbern (to whom he gave Bishop Middleton manors) and ‘Raulf,’ or Rannulf. For his other nephews, &c., see Surtees, p. xx and App. pp. cxxv–vi.

Both Dr. Stubbs and Mr. Freeman consider Rannulf to have introduced into England the most oppressive forms of military tenure; and he is ‘distinctly charged with being the author of certain new and evil customs with regard to spiritual holdings’ (, v. 377–8). Under William I, on a prelate's death, his immediate ecclesiastical superior, whether bishop or archbishop, became guardian of the ecclesiastical estates. But under Rannulf's rule the king claimed the wardship, and kept office vacant until he had sold it for money ( iii. 313). Thus under Rannulf's influence the theory arose that all land on its owner's death lapsed back to the supreme landowner, the king, and had to be ‘redeemed’ by the next heir; the old English heriot was transformed into the ‘relief;’ and there came into prominence those almost equally annoying feudal incidents as to marriage, wardship, and right of