Archbishop Anselm had refused to acknowledge that the king had the right to exercise a suzerainty over the Church, and declined to consent to lay investitures. An embassy was sent to Rome, and Herbert, who went there a second time about 1116, represented the king. It, however, was in no way satisfactory; the Pope did not want to offend the king, and he wished to retain to himself the right of investiture, so, while congratulating the Archbishop's representatives, he sympathised also with those of the king. The exertion told on Herbert, and at Placentia, on the return journey, he fell sick, and stopped there until he became sufficiently convalescent to journey by short and easy stages to his own cathedral city. He lived to complete much important business, but his days of administration were drawing to a close. He had been Prior of Fécamp, Abbot of Ramsey, Sewer to William Rufus, had governed the East Anglian bishopric first from the episcopal see at Thetford, had transferred it to Norwich, and founded the Cathedral Priory, and if this were not sufficient, he founded and endowed many other churches and monasteries in the East Country. His repentance had been sincere, and in one of his letters he refers to "my past life, which, alas! is darkened by many foul sins." Dean Goulburn credits him with a third journey to Rome, and says that it was at Placentia, on the outward journey, that he contracted so grievous a sickness that he "lay ten successive days without taking food and without uttering a word"; in fact, never reaching Rome, but waiting for and rejoining his brother ambassadors on their return. This journey was undertaken with the view of adjusting the differences that had arisen between the new Primates, Ralph and Thurston. The embassy was not successful, the Pope declining to commit himself to any but the most general statements.
One of the last public acts of Herbert's life was to attend the funeral of Queen Matilda on May-day, 1118. He died on the 22nd of July 1119 in the twenty-seventh year of his episcopate, and was buried before the high altar of his cathedral church.
Eborard (1121-1145), who succeeded Herbert, a son by second marriage of Roger de Montgomery, first Earl of Arundel, was consecrated in 1121.
During his episcopate Eborard had parted with the towns of Blickling and Cressingham, which pertained to his see, to two of the more powerful barons, in the hope of securing the rest of the episcopal property, and possibly with the idea of regaining possession of the same when the troubled times should have passed.
He was deposed in 1145, and it may possibly be that he had favoured the cause of Maude in the civil wars of the period, and that it was Stephen who compelled him to relinquish his see and spend the rest of his life in exile. He had in 1139 laid the foundation of an abbey at Fontenay, in the south of France, and thither he repaired. He died in 1149.
His successor, William de Turbe (1146-1174), was elected to the see, and in the year 1146 was consecrated at Canterbury by Archbishop Theobald.
In 1168, Becket had written to De Turbe from Vezelay, a town on the borders of Burgundy and Nivernois, and ordered him, by the Pope's authority, to publicly excommunicate Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk. He had robbed the Priory of Pentnay, in Norfolk, of some of its possessions. De Turbe obeyed, notwithstanding the fact that the king had sent officers to prohibit him from so doing. An absolution was obtained from the Pope, but the king was so far incensed that De Turbe considered it advisable to rest in sanctuary at Norwich until the following year, 1169, when he received the royal pardon.
Bishop William de Turbe died 17th January 1174, and was buried in the cathedral choir, on the left side of the founder.