Page:Somerset Historical Essays.djvu/121

 to the building of the new chapter- house at Rouen; and a letter written to Walter of Coutances, who succeeded to the archbishopric in 1185, shews that he had farmed out his prebend, but had got nothing for it in the five past years (Ep. 142).

On 8 August 1176 the great scholar John of Salisbury was consecrated to the bishopric of Chartres. We have already mentioned two letters written to him by Peter: one during the exile of Archbishop Thomas, and another in 1178 describing his visit to the Roman court. If Ep. 223 ('to the elect of Chartres') was written to John, as seems almost certain, it follows that Peter had never met him until his appointment was made known, and that then he had hastened to see him. After speaking of the need of such a bishop to restore the broken fortunes of the church of Chartres,. he begs him to 'give his voice the voice of power', and to claim 'him, not half but whole, for the service of the glorious Virgin. But the bishop's first favour was shown to another Peter of Blois, whom our Peter describes as his double as well as his namesake (Ep. 114). Peter praises the bishop for thus caring for the clergy of Blois (clerus Blesensis), who as a body have been scattered and proscribed: he must not however forget something else which he had promised, and which is Peter's own secret: 'You will give your voice the voice of power,' he says again; 'there will be no Yea and Nay with you.' He adds that his archbishop had bidden him write a memorial of the blessed Thomas; but happily he had found that John of Salisbury had done it. It appears that this other Peter of Blois was chancellor of Chartres under Bishop John. Two letters of our Peter are written to him: in one (Ep. 72) he asks him to correct his work De praestigiis fortunae, in which he has recorded the deeds of K. Henry II: his brother William has indeed gone over part of it, but he wishes a severer critic: the other (Ep. 76) is a denunciation of his wasting his gifts upon profane letters, when he ought to devote himself entirely to theology. In this connexion it is interesting to note that Peter the chancellor of Chartres is recorded to have written a commentary on the Psalms.

The re-foundation of the dean and chapter of S. Sauveur at Blois is the subject of another letter which belongs to this period (Ep. 78). This was the work of a knight named Geoffrey, undertaken under the auspices of Bishop John. Peter indeed speaks of himself as 'first among the first' in the restoration: but this perhaps only means that he had urged it upon the new bishop. In a curious letter (Ep. 70), which he may afterwards have regretted, Peter protests