The King, who had sought refuge in Wales, was captured at Neath Abbey, and the great seal taken from him by Bishop Adam Orleton, while the Chancellor, Hugh Despenser, was conveyed[pg 013] to Hereford, where he was crowned with nettles and dressed in a shirt upon which was written passages from Psalm lii. beginning, "Why boastest thou thyself, thou tyrant: that thou canst do mischief." Amid the howlings of a great multitude who mocked his name by shrieking "Hue!" he was finally hanged on a gallows 50 feet high and then quartered. Among the prisoners were two wearing holy orders, and these the Bishop of Hereford claimed as his perquisite.
A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.
Bishop Adam, wary, unscrupulous, but at the same time vigorous and of unusual ability, played a great part in politics to the end of the wretched King's life. Some historians still believe that he recommended the murder; he certainly supported the deposition in Parliament, and went to Kenilworth as one of the commissioners to force the King's resignation. If thus interested in secular politics, he was no less watchful and vigilant in the affairs of his bishopric and the cathedral.
The great central tower, destined centuries later to be a source of such anxiety and a problem of such difficulty to the[pg 014] restorer, was even at this early date showing signs of dilapidation, and Bishop Orleton obtained from Pope John XXII. a grant of the great tithes of Shenyngfeld (Swinfield) and Swalefeld (Swallowfield) in Berkshire, in answer to the following petition:—"That they, being desirous of rebuilding a portion of the fabric of the Church of Hereford, had caused much super-structure of sumptuous work to be built, to the adornment of the House of God, upon an ancient foundation; which in the judgment of masons or architects, who were considered skilful in their art, was thought to be firm and sound, at the cost of 20,000 marcs sterling and more, and that on account of the weakness of the aforesaid foundation, the building, which was placed upon it now, threatened such ruin, that by a similar judgment no other remedy could be applied short of an entire renovation of the fabric from the foundation,—which, on account of the expenses incurred in prosecution of the canonisation of Thomas de Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, of blessed memory, they were unable to undertake." The "sumptuous work" alluded to was evidently the central tower and the north transept; which latter had been built, as mentioned before, for the remains and shrine of Bishop Cantilupe.
When Mr. R. Biddulph Phillips, some sixty years ago, was examining the confused and unsorted mass of charters and grants in the possession of the cathedral, he found a parchment (which bore the two beautiful episcopal seals of Bishop Roger le Poer of Sarum and Bishop Adam de Orleton of Hereford) that acknowledged and confirmed this grant of tithes to the sustentation of the fabric of the cathedral, which still forms the backbone of the fabric fund. In 1328 Bishop Orleton was translated to Worcester.
During the ensuing war with France, the church walls echoed with prayers for the King's success, and, while the war-cloud still darkened the political sky, orisons louder and more heartfelt filled the cathedral. It is said that when the "Black Death" reached Hereford in 1349, to retard its progress in the city the shrine of St. Thomas de Cantilupe was carried in procession.
About this time, and possibly not unconnected with the calamity of this terrible plague, Bishop Trilleck issued a mandate prohibiting the performance of "theatrical plays and interludes" in churches as "contrary to the practice of religion." The exact character of these performances is doubtful, and the[pg 015] prohibition may have referred to some kind of secular mumming. The mystery play survived long after Bishop Trilleck's time in an annual pageant exhibited in the cathedral on Corpus Christi Day, to assist in which some of the city guilds were obliged by the rules of their incorporation.
The quarrels between the townspeople and the Bishop about his rights of jurisdiction continued with more or less frequency. It must certainly have been irritating to good Bishop Trilleck "gratus, prudens, pius" as the mutilated inscription on his effigy describes him, when one William Corbet forced his way into the palace, carried away the porter bodily, shut him in the city gaol, and took away the keys of the palace.
On the second visitation of the "Black Death," 1361-2, it is said that the city market was removed from Hereford to a place about a mile on the west of the town, still marked by a cross called the "White Cross" bearing the arms of Bishop Charleton.