Page:The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon.djvu/31

 TO ALEXANDER BISHOP OP LINCOLN Alexander de Blois was preferred to the see of Lincoln by Henry I. 1123, on the recommendation of his uncle Roger, bishop of Salisbury, the king's powerful and trusted minister. After Henry's death, the two bishops were suspected of secretly favoring the cause of his right heirs against the usurper, and Stephen, taking umbrage at their erecting strong castles on their estates, caused them to be suddenly arrested and severely treated. The bishops were thus compelled to surrender their fortresses, including the stately castle of Newark, which Bishop Alexander had erected. They severely resented this harsh treatment, though Bishop Alexander was afterwards apparently reconciled to Stephen's government, and took a distinguished part in public affairs, as he had also done in the latter part of Henry's reign. His biographers state that he was justiciary of all England and Papal Legate, but it would appear that what Huntingdon says of the uncle, the Bishop of Salisbury, has been inadvertently applied to the nephew. Alexander de Blois went twice to Rome where he displayed so much munificence, that at that court he was called "The Magnificent." He also visited his friend Pope Eugenius IX. in France in the month of August, 1147, and died the following year, of a fever caught during his journey from the extraordinary heat of the summer. He was buried in the cathedral at Lincoln, which having been injured or destroyed by fire, he had restored to more than its former magnificence. His general munificence was great, and, according to the usage of the times, the episcopal establishment was splendid and sumptuous, and he was more engaged in civil affairs than befitted his ecclesiastical functions. But Henry of Huntingdon informs us that he was an excellent bishop, and much beloved and revered by his clergy and people. See his character drawn by our historian, pp. 284, 285, and 316. It is copied implicitly by Roger de Hoveden. That the bishop did not neglect the culture of literature may be inferred from his suggestions to our author, which were the basis of the following History..

As the pursuit of learning in all its branches affords, according to my way of thinking, the sweetest earthly mitigation of trouble and consolation in grief, so I consider that precedence must be assigned to History, as both the most delightful of studies and the one which is invested with the noblest and brightest prerogatives. Indeed, there is nothing in this world more excellent than accurately to investigate