Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/392

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the Bishop of London is wrongly given, and that Flambard had really been in the service of one of Maurice's predecessors, of Hugh of Orival or of the more famous William. His reason for leaving his episcopal patron is said to have been that a deanery which he held was taken from him, a story which oddly connects itself with another, according to which he was at one time dean or other head of the canons of Twinham—better known as Christchurch—in Hampshire. The story, true or false, like the earlier life of Thomas of London, illustrates the way in which the highest ecclesiastical preferments short of bishoprics and abbeys were held by these clerical servants of kings and bishops. Clerical they often were only in the widest sense; they were sometimes merely tonsured, and they seldom took priest's orders till they were themselves promoted to bishoprics. Randolf Flambard however was a priest; he could therefore discharge the duties of his deanery in person, if he ever troubled himself to go near it. Otherwise there was very little of the churchman, or indeed of the Christian, about the future Bishop of Durham and builder of Saint Cuthberht's nave. At all events it was wholly by his personal qualities, such as they were, that Randolf Flambard made his way to the highest places in Church and State. In his day the Church supplied the readiest opening for the service of the State, and service to the State was again rewarded by all but the highest honours of the Church.

The man who was practically to rule England had at least little advantage on the score of birth. He is set