Page:Somerset Historical Essays.djvu/134

 to you, Friend, go up higher, and adorned you with the bishop's mitre.'

It is not easy to see what the bishop of London's concern in the matter was. But we may note that, when the bishopric was vacant before Richard fitz Neal's appointment in 1189, the Pipe Roll shows a payment to Peter of Blois of forty shillings, 'which he was wont to receive annually out of the bishop's camera'. This suggests that he had already at this point some kind of connexion with the diocese of London which placed him under obligation to the bishop.

In the end Peter gave way and was ordained to the priesthood; whether while he was still archdeacon of Bath, we cannot say: but a letter (Ep. 139), which appears indeed to have been sent to more than one monastery, asks the prayers of the abbot and canons of Keynsham on the occasion, and this abbey was within the archdeaconry of Bath. It is possible that his ordination may have been occasioned by his appointment to the deanery of Wolverhampton, of which we shall speak presently.

But to return. Archbishop Baldwin died at Acre on 19 November 1190. The death of K. Henry, now followed by the death of the archbishop, left Peter somewhat stranded. He describes the desolation which he experienced at this time in a letter written in 1197 to Odo de Sully the new bishop of Paris, whom he had known as a boy in that city and had met again as a young man at the Roman court in October 1187: 'K. Henry II, your cousin, first drew me to England. His death depressed me so greatly that at one time I should have said farewell to England altogether, but for the kindness of the bishop of Worcester and the bishop of Durham and his archdeacons' (Epp. 126 f.). Henry de Sully, bishop of Worcester, was Odo's brother, and Hugh de Puiset, bishop of Durham, was his cousin; one of the archdeacons referred to was Richard de Puiset, probably another cousin. We do not know what connexion Peter had with any of these, and the reference to them may be little more than complimentary: but no doubt Peter's circumstances were changed for the worse by the loss of his patrons.

The new king was all for the Crusade. Crowned on 3 September 1189, he left England on 11 December, not to return till March 1194. Peter tells us that he himself left England with the king (Ep. 87); but it is probable that he soon returned. About this time he had got the deanery of Wolverhampton, a royal peculiar. Every one was getting appointments from the king, who sold everything to raise money for the Crusade. But the bigger things cost much,