Francis Blomefield

“ And now, the King being exceedingly desirous to have the laws in general strictly executed, and justice faithfully administered to all men, tried all orders of men in his nation, by making them justices: and finding his design not answered, hoped to find among the clergy such as would not be corrupted by bribes, nor for fear or friendship, swerve from just judgment, and therefore he made the Bishops of Norwich, Ely, and Winchester, principal justices of his realm. ”

“ Giles, and all the saints; and ordered his body to be buried before the high altar of the new chapel of the blessed Virgin by him founded at the east end of the cathedral, at which altar he founded a monk daily to celebrate mass for his soul, and each monk having done so for a week, should enter his name in a book kept for that purpose, that all the monks might do it week after week in their several turns, for which service he gave the convent 100 marks, on further condition that they kept his anniversary for ever, and allowed 20s. ”

“ It is plain that both King and Pope sometimes had shares in the taxes raised on the subjects, though the Pope would never allow the King's share to be of right, but only lent; for on the King's agreeing that Pandulf, as legate to the Pope, should levy a twentieth part of the value of the clergy's benefices, it appears he lent the King, for so doing, 2700 marks out of it.
It is no wonder to find many Italians at this time preferred to benefices in this diocese, the Bishop himself being of that nation. ”

“ In 1564, he was made canon of Westminster, and about the same time archdeacon of Canterbury; the next year he became canon of Windsor; and on the 10th of April, 1570, was installed dean of Rochester, in the place of Walter Phillips, the first dean, deceased: on Sept. 18, in the following year, he was made dean of Salisbury, upon the promotion of William Bradbridge to the see of Exeter; but before he was settled in this deanery, he was made Bishop of Rochester, to which he was consecrated March 9, 1571; being, as Archbishop Parker says, a serious, learned, and pious man. ”

“ Being a person of excellent learning, great virtue, pious conversation, graceful personage, and above all, of uncommon eloquence, he so gained the affections of mankind, that he was universally esteemed, but particularly by the King, who employed him in the most intimate affairs of state. ”

“ He gave also to William de Calthorp, brother to the said Walter, all his armour, the fine standing cup, and his emerald ring; and for the many kindnesses and services done him, commanded him also, every year, to feed 100 poor people on the Assumption day, for his soul; and give a poor person a dinner every day in the year, and cause a mass to be celebrated every week for his soul, by his own chaplain in his private chapel. ”

“ His episcopal seal is oblong; in the midst, under the entrance of the church, is a representation of the Trinity; the Father sits on his throne, holding our Saviour on the cross, with a dove in his bosom; on the right hand stands the prior, with a book in one hand, and the pastoral staff, which he used on principal holidays to bear before the Bishop to the high altar, in the other; opposite to him is a monk in his habit; at top is the Virgin sitting on a throne with our Saviour in one hand, and a sceptre in the other ”

“ Girard, the sixth prior, and his convent, with the consent of the then bishop, granted to Richard de Snaringes all the land that Thomas Fitz-Ralf held of them in Norwich, and the land of Stoches (or Stoke) which he the said Richard had surrendered to the prior, to be held of the church by the yearly payment of 13 pints of wine by the Norwich measure, on the anniversary of Bishop Herbert; and 20s. at each synod, on condition that every heir should pay a mark of silver for relief, and swear fealty to the church of Norwich. ”

“ WILLIAM DE RALEIGH, Ralee, Rayley, Radley, or Rawleigh, a favourite chaplain of the King, prebendary of Kentish town, Prebend in St. Paul's, Treasurer of the church of Exeter, and Prebendary of Litchfield, who contrary to the knowledge of the monks, was just before elected Bishop of Chester; upon which the King gave him his option, and he accordingly chose the see of Norwich, and was consecrated thereto by Edmund Archbishop of Canterbury, in St Paul's at London, Sept. 25; and not long after, the monks of Winchester chose him for their Bishop ”

“ However, be his character as it will, it is plain his good works were many; and all agree, that in his riper years he much bewailed his youthful follies, and blotted out their guilt, by the multitude of his future virtues; for having been a patron of simony, he became a particular enemy to it, always professing with St. Jerom, that the errours we commit when we are young, we must amend when we are old. So that he bears the character of a true penitent, and indeed the preamble of his foundation charter makes it sufficiently appear to be so. ”

“ But was it not often so in all ages? are not men of much worth often neglected, and others far their inferiours greatly advanced? when was that golden age, when merit and learning only, was a step to preferment? or when was it, that they, who had much interest and great friends, ever missed of their wished for success? and so it was with this prelate; who, by means of his great interest with the leading men of that age, got all he could desire. ”

“ The county of York, and the country adjacent, having received inestimable damage by the Scots, William de Melton Archbishop of York, John Hotham Bishop of Ely, and Treasurer, the Abbot of St.. Mary's at York, Sir William Ayremin, priest, Chancellor of England, the Dean of York; the Abbot of Selbie, and Sir John Pabenham, assembled together an army of 8000, to repress the violence of the enemy; this army consisted of clerks, monks, canons, and other spiritual men of the church, with citizens, and husbandmen, and such other unhapt people for the warrs. ”

“ Bateman Bishop of Norwich was condemned by the King to pay for so doing. Immediately after the monks introduction, the Bishop began to build the church of St. Edmund the King and Martyr, in the very same place where Sigebert heretofore had built his monastery, in which he lived in the time of Bishop Felix; the charge of building the church was paid in the following manner; when the people of Norfolk and Suffolk fled to St. Edmund as their patron, from the cruelty of Swain the Dane, that saint killed the Dane, and delivered his country ”

“ Before he left Rome, understanding that the repairs of the cathedral, much defaced by fire in 1463, were not finished by his predecessor, he obtained of the Pope an indulgence to last for ever, towards repairing and adorning the church, by which there was granted to all that came yearly to the cathedral on Trinity Sunday, and Lady day, and offered there, 12 years and 40 days pardon; which had its desired effect, for the sacrist annually accounted for the offerings received by Bishop Goldwell's indulgence. ”

“ In 1207, he gave the King one palfrey for letters patents for all the liberties of Magna Carta to be allowed amply to his church; and another, to have duplicates of the charter which he had obtained for his town of Lyn; for it was owing to this Bishop that Lyn ever had a charter, as the original charter of King John, now in the custody of that corporation, testifies. The whole of its liberties before that time being in the Bishop; and consequently he, as well as the King, was obliged to grant them a charter also, or else the King's had not been valid against his successours ”

“ When the Bishop of Ely requested this restoration of the King, Michael de la Pole Earl of Suffolk, then Lord Chancellor, being much offended, brake out in these words; "What is that, my Lord, which you ask of the King? seems it to you a small matter for him to part with that Bishop's temporalities, when they yield to his coffers above one thousand pounds by year? little need hath the King of such counsellors, or of such friends, as advise him to acts so greatly to his hinderance." Whereunto the Bishop of Ely, not less truly, then freely, replied ”

“ Felix, Bishop and Confessor; Capgrave, in his Life, tells us, that he was a man every way learned, and what he daily taught, he carefully practised by his holy conversation, and charitable good works; he was consecrated by Honorius Archbishop of Canterbury, and having governed his see seventeen years, died the 8th of March, (on which day his festival is celebrated,) in the year 647, and was buried at Dunwich in a church of his own foundation ”

“ For the fervent love that he always bore to the pure and sincere religion of God, for the defence of which, he was not only content to forsake his native country, relations, friends and acquaintance, but also to loose his worldly goods, and hazard even life itself. ”

“ WILLIAM BATEMAN, commonly called William de Norwico, or William of Norwich, from the place of his birth, was son of William Bateman of Norwich, and Margery his wife: who was no less than eleven limes one of the bailiffs, between 1301, and 1326, in which year he served in parliament as burgess for the city: be was a considerable owner both in Norfolk and Suffolk, and was lord of a freetenement or manor in Titshall. Sir Bartholomew Bateman of Flixton, Knt. was his eldest son, and heir to his brother the Bishop, as well as his father ”

“ So great an adversary was he also to the then begun reformation, that he obstinately opposed it to the utmost of his power, and though he had by his solemn oath openly renounced the Pope's supremacy, in order to keep his bishoprick, yet he secretly held a correspondence with the court of Rome, of which he was accused to the King, and convicted, and being committed to the Marshalsea, was kept prisoner there a long time; so that his own sufferings may a little palliate his vices, by showing his sincerity in religion, though erroneous ”

“ Edward the Confessor, in the first year of his reign, came to Bury, and then gave Mildenhall manor to that monastery; soon after which, Stigand his chaplain was made Bishop of the Eastangles, to whom they granted the said manor for life, and he held it all the time he was bishop, and after be was Archbishop of Canterbury ”

“ JOHN OVERALL, born at Hadleigh in Suffolk, was first student, and then fellow of Trinity college in Cambridge, doctor and regius professor of divinity in that University, being then master of Catherine Hall, a man of great reading, accounted one of the most learned controversial divines of those days. ”

“ At his death, he left the church of Swetford in Oxfordshire, with the chapel of Senewell, which he had of the grant of Henry de Oylly, to the Austin canons of Osney in that county, which gift the said Henry confirmed.
He persuaded King John to found the gild of the Holy Trinity at Lyn, the brethren of which were bound under the penalty of a gallon of wine, to have mass celebrated every Trinity Sunday in St. Margaret's church, for the souls of the said King and Bishop. ”

“ Mary's chapel, at the head of Bishop Suffield. He bare for his arms,
Erm. on a canton arg. a chevron gul.
His seal is oblong, having his own effigies holding his crosier, between two monks, and is thus circumscribed,
† WILLIELMUS: DEI: GRA: NORWICENSIS: EPS:
He raised the family of the Middletons, lords of the manor of Middleton-Hall in Mendham in Suffolk, of which family was Richard de Middleton, a monk of Norwich, who in 1424 was rector of Marsham in Norfolk, and had the Pope's dispensation to hold any benefice that he could get, with cure of souls, although he was a monk. ”

“ The general council of Constance being called to remedy this schism, he was sent with Richard Earl of Warwick, the Bishops of London, Salisbury, Bath, Litchfield, and Hereford, the Abbot of Westminster, the Prior of Worcester, and the Abbot and Dean of York, with divers other doctors and learned men, besides knights and esquires, to the number of 800 horses, so well equipped both men and horses, that all nations marvelled to see such an honourable company, come from a country so far distant ”

“ Goad, the Archbishop's chaplain, being first arrived in his stead. The States presented him at his going away, with a golden medal, as a mark of their high esteem of him for his learning, which he had showed in his Latin sermon, and other performances in the synod. With the change of air he soon recovered his health, and lived long after, always retaining such a veneration for that synod, that when Mr. John Goodwin, the Arminian, charged the synodists with suffering themselves to be bound by an oath, at or before the admission thereto, to vote down the Remonstrants and their doctrines ”

“ H. Huntingdon says, he was deposed for his cruelty; and others acknowledge they know not wherefore: the Norwich Annals saying only that he retired from Norwich in 1145; the truth was, he was not reconciled to the King, for joining with the Earl of Norfolk, who revolted from him; for which reason, he entered the abbey of Fountains in Yorkshire, and there continued to his death, which happened Oct. 12, 1149; according to Cotton; and was interred in his own cathedral, but in what part is not known, there being no memorial now remaining. ”