Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/190

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then remain vacant three years, we may set that down as the beginning of the evil practice. About the same time died Scotland Abbot of Saint Augustine's, and the English Ælfsige, who still kept the abbey of Bath. Not long after died Ælfsige's diocesan, the Lotharingian Gisa, who had striven so hard to bring in the Lotharingian discipline among his canons of Wells. The bishopric of the Sumorsætan was thus among the first sees which fell to the disposal of William the Red, and his disposal of it led to one of the most marked changes in its history. The bishopric was given to John, called de Villula, a physician of Tours, one of the men of eminence whom the discerning patronage of William the Great had brought from lands alike beyond his island realm and beyond his continental duchy. John was a trusty counsellor of the Red King, employed by him in many affairs, and withal a zealous encourager of learning. But he had little regard to the traditions and feelings of Englishmen, least of all to those of the canons of Wells. Like Hermann, Remigius, and other bishops of his time, he carried out the policy of transferring episcopal sees to the chief towns of their dioceses. But the way in which he carried out his scheme, if not

at the end of the Chronicles records the consecrations and benediction of all the three prelates with whom we are concerned, Geoffrey, Guy, and John, in 1088; "Cantuariæ, in sede metropoli, examinavit atque sacravit." Cf. Gervase, X Scriptt. 1654.]
 * [Footnote: in Florence they seem to have died before him. The Life of Lanfranc