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 A HISTORY OF LONDON for one perpetual vicar appears in the 12th-century visitations for St. Mary- Magdalene Old Fish Street, who is answerable for his own pension, and about 1 1 80 Christchurch Canterbury appointed John, a nephew of St. Thomas, as their perpetual vicar in the church of St. Mary Bothaw.^" Little can be gathered from the visitations with regard to the numbers of clergy employed in each church. It appears likely that St. Benet and St. Peter Paul's Wharf were both served by the same priest, Ralf. In several instances the inventory is said to have been made by two clerks, but in all cases except those of St. Helen's and St. Mary Aldermanbury the second priest seems to have been the incumbent of a neighbouring church. Gilbert Foliot died in February 1187, after an episcopate of twenty- four years, and the see remained vacant for nearly three years. In his last days Henry II intended to fill the vacancy, but died in July 11 89 without doing so, and on 15 September Richard Fitz Neal was appointed at a council held at Pipewell. He was one of the great administrative ecclesiastics of the reign of Henry II, and had held the positions of Dean of Lincoln, Arch- deacon of Ely, and Royal Treasurer. His chief fame is as a statesman and man of letters, but he nevertheless filled his episcopal position well. His invariable policy of defending the rights of his order and the Church against all aggression was foreshadowed by his addition ' saving my order and ecclesiastical justice ' ^*' to the oath of allegiance made to Richard I in 1 191, and in the same year he championed the cause of the suffragans of Canterbury against the monks of Christchurch.^" In 11 92 he defended the rights of Canterbury against those of York in a case more nearly touching London. Geoffrey Archbishop of York on a visit to London had his cross borne erect before him as he went from the New Temple, where he was staying, to Westminster, and Richard suspended the divine offices and bell-ringing at the Temple until the archbishop ceased so to violate the rights of the primate.^'" That no personal feeling caused his action is shown by the fact that the year before Richard had been one of the foremost of those who forced William Longchamp to release Geoffrey, then elect of York, whom he had imprisoned on his landing in England, and had received him with a solemn procession in St. Paul's. '^^ Richard died in 1 198 ; he is described by one annalist as a most charitable and merciful man of unsurpassed liberality, whose every word seemed to distil sweetness.^'^ In the reign of John both London and its bishop, William de St. Mere I'Eglise, took the side of the barons, though the bishop tried to befriend the king, and frequently appears in the character of intermediary and peace- maker. During his episcopate London was three times placed under an interdict. The first was imposed in 1206 because the Archbishop of York once more insisted on having his cross borne before him in London. ^^' The second was the long general interdict from 1208 to 12 14, during which London with its many churches and convents must have presented a most unfamiliar and dismal aspect. The bishop was one of those who declared the interdict on behalf of the pope and immediately afterwards left England, '" Lit. Cant. (Rolls Ser.), "i, 357- '" R. de Diceto, 0/>. Hiit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 99. '» Ibid. 103-7. "° Gcsta Hen. 11 and Ric. I (Rolls Ser.), ii, 238. "' R. de Diceto, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 97. ^^^ Ann. Men. JVinton. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 70. '" Jn. de Oxenedes, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 119. 184