Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/605

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brother of Archbishop Thomas of York. The influence of the Northern Primate may perhaps be seen in the appointment of his kinsman to a see so closely connected with his own. Samson was one of the school of learned men with whom Odo—it was his one redeeming merit—had filled his church of Bayeux. He was as yet only in deacon's orders, and he was possibly married, at least he is said to have been the father of the second archbishop Thomas of York. He seems to have been one of those prelates, who, without any claim to special saintship, went through their course at least decently. He was bountiful to all; to the monks of Worcester he did no harm—some harm seems to have been looked for from a secular—beyond suppressing their dependent monastery of Westbury. Of the new Bishop of Hereford we know more. He was that Gerard who had helped to bring Cardinal Walter to England, one of the King's clerks, not even in deacon's orders, and a thorough time-server. We cannot help*