Page:Somerset Historical Essays.djvu/147

 the issue of the writ concerning his executors. Peter left to the church of St Paul a morse, silver-gilt with precious stones, and certain vestments: they are traceable in the inventories as late as 1295. A copy of his Epistles was bequeathed to the same church by Ralph Baldock, bishop of London, who died in 1313.

It will be well in conclusion, to give a brief review of Peter's career, as the result of the investigation which has been here attempted. Born at Blois about the year 1135, he was educated at Chartres and then passed to the university of Paris. Presently he went to Bologna for the study of law, but soon returned to Paris to devote himself to theology. He presently attached himself to Archbishop Rotrou, soon after the translation of that prelate to Rouen in 1165. At his instance he joined the band of Frenchmen whom Stephen, son of the count of Perche, took to the Sicilian court in response to the appeal of Margaret the queen- mother. Here he remained for a year, probably from the early summer of 1167 to the early summer of 1168, acting as instructor of the young king, William II, and as official sealer in the royal chancery. More than one bishopric was offered to him with a view, as he believed, of removing him from the court. When at length the jealousy of the Norman Sicilians against the Frenchmen drove Stephen to retire to Palestine, Peter returned to France by way of Genoa. He now renewed his connexion with his friend Reginald archdeacon of Salisbury, the future bishop of Bath, who had recently incurred the displeasure of the exiled archbishop. After the murder of Becket at the end of 1170, we hear no more of Peter until he reappears in the service of Archbishop Rotrou in 1173 and the following year. He probably came to England in the year 1175, when K. Henry returned with the young king, his son, to whom he had now become reconciled. He obtained the office of chancellor of Richard the new archbishop of Canterbury; and he went to the Roman court in the autumn of 1177 to plead the archbishop's cause against the abbot -elect of St Augustine's. The position of the pope, Alexander III, had been at last secured by the peace of Venice, 1 August 1177, and in the following March he returned in triumph to Rome. Peter left Rome in July 1178, but he was there again at the time of the Lateran Council in March 1179.

Since his return from Sicily Peter had been constantly hoping for