History of the Cathedral Church of Wells / As Illustrating the History of the Cathedral Churches of the Old Foundation

by Edward A. Freeman

[54] I have discussed this in full in my History of the Norman Conquest, ii. 571, Ed. 2.

[55] When a Bishop is to be elected by the Chapter, two quite distinct documents are sent; there is first the congé d'élire, which recognizes the undoubted right of the Chapter to elect and gives them full leave to elect, only with a little good advice as to the sort of person to be chosen. With this, as a kind of after-thought, comes the letter missive or letter recommendatory, recommending a particular person for election.

[56] The names of the early Bishops, of whom but little is recorded, will be found in the Canon of Wells, Anglia Sacra, i. 556, and Godwin's Catalogue of English Bishops, 290.

[57] He was "natione Saxo," says his successor Gisa in the Historiola de Primordiis Episcopatûs Somersetensis. See Norman Conquest, ii. 583.

[58] See Godwin, p. 291.

[59] Anglia Sacra, i. 559.

[60] See Historiola, 15-18; Mr. J. R. Green in the Transactions of the Somersetshire Archæological and Natural History Society, 1863-4, p. 148; and Norman Conquest, ii. 674.

[61] For examples see Norman Conquest, ii. 549.

[62] See the writ, the only writ of Harold's which is preserved, in Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus, iv. 305.