A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.
Gerard, A.D. 1096-1101. Three days after the body of William Rufus had been brought from the forest to Winchester by Purkiss, the charcoal burner, Gerard, who was the Bishop of Winchester's nephew, assisted at the coronation of Henry I., for which service it was said he was promised the first vacant archiepiscopal see. The King tried to evade the bargain a few years later by promising to increase the Hereford income to the value of that at York, but Gerard carried the day and obtained his promotion.
Reynelm, A.D. 1107-1115, Chancellor to Queen Matilda; he resigned his appointment as soon as it was conferred, on account of the King's quarrel with Anselm on the question of investiture, was banished for six years, and was only consecrated in 1107. He is said to have been the founder of the hospital of St. Ethelbert, and continued the work in the Cathedral begun by Robert de Losinga. He regulated the establishment of prebendaries and canons living under a rule.
Geoffrey de Clive, A.D. 1115-1119. During the latter years of this episcopate, a question of jurisdiction over the districts of Ergyng and Ewias, which had begun in the previous century, was revived between the Bishop of Llandaff and the Bishops of Hereford and St. David's.
Richard de Capella, A.D. 1120-1127, King's chaplain and keeper of the Great Seal under the Chancellor. He helped to build at Hereford a bridge over the Wye.
During his episcopate the Royal Charter was granted for the annual holding of a three days' fair (increased to nine days later) commencing on the evening of the 19th of May, called St. Ethelbert's Day.
Nine-tenths of the profits of this fair went to the Bishop and the rest to the Canons of the Cathedral. The bishop's bailiff held a court within the palace precincts, with pillory and stocks. The bishop also had a gaol for the incarceration of offenders against his rights during fair-time.
Tolls were levied at each gate of the city. The suspension of civic authority during fair-time was for centuries a source of frequent quarrels. As late as the eighteenth century a ballad-singer was punished by the bishop's officers.
The wreck of the "White Ship" occurred during this episcopate (Nov. 25th, 1120), and one of the victims was Geoffrey, Archdeacon of Hereford.
Robert de Bethune, A.D. 1131-1148, had become prior of his monastery at his native place of Bethune, in French Flanders, and thence had gone to Llanthony, a priory in a glen of the Hatteral Hills in the disputed district of Ewias.