[A.D. 1200-1212] Mauger, Archdeacon of Evreux, and physician of Richard I. His election had been declared void by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the score of his illegitimacy. But Mauger proceeded to Rome; and the Pope, Innocent III., “videns elegantiam tanti viri,” confirmed his election, “et illud pulchrum Decretale pro eo composuit quod sic incipit ‘Innotuit[115].’” It was during Mauger’s episcopate that St. Wulfstan was canonized. (See Pt. I. §§ I. and VII.) He was one of the bishops who, in 1208, pronounced the Interdict and the excommunication of King John; and, with the others, took refuge in France; where he died (1212) in the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny, the same which gave a refuge to Becket and to Stephen Langton, and in which Edmund Rich, the sainted Archbishop of Canterbury, afterwards (1240) died. The death of Bishop Mauger occurred before the reconciliation of England with the Papacy.
[A.D. 1214, translated to York 1215.] Walter de Gray, was appointed to the see of Worcester after the removal of the Interdict. He had been King John’s Chancellor.
[A.D. 1216-1218.] Silvester of Evesham, Prior of Worcester. He interred King John; and shortly before his death he dedicated the Norman church, which had been restored, and translated the relics of St. Wulfstan. (Pt. I. § I.; and ante, Wulfstan.)
[A.D. 1218-1236.] William de Blois, Archdeacon of Buckingham, was intruded by the Legate Guala, in spite of the protests of the monks, who afterwards consented to receive him. The eastern portion of the existing Cathedral was built during his episcopate. (Pt. I. § XIV.)
[A.D. 1237-1266.] Walter Cantilupe, son of William, Lord Cantilupe; uncle of the sainted Bishop of Hereford. He was ordained deacon by the Pope at Viterbo, April 4; priest, April 18; and consecrated bishop, May 3,—in the same year, 1237. Bishop Walter was one of the most vigorous defenders of English liberty during great part of the reign of Henry III., when “England was held by successive Popes as a province of the Papal territory[116].” In 1237, the year of his consecration, he opposed the Cardinal Legate, Otho, at a council in St. Paul’s; and nearly twenty years afterwards, in 1255, made an equally firm stand against another Legate, Rustand, who had demanded an enormous subsidy from the clergy—nominally for the Holy Land, but really for the Pope and the King. Bishop Cantilupe declared he would rather be hanged on a gibbet than consent to such an extortion. He was one of the firmest adherents to the party of Simon de Montfort; and it was this Bishop who absolved the whole army of the Barons as it lay at Fletching, on the morning of the battle of Lewes;—bidding them fight boldly, and with as much certainty of salvation as if they were fighting in a crusade. With the other bishops who had espoused this cause, Cantilupe was excommunicated by the Pope; and was only reconciled and absolved on his deathbed. He died at his manor of Blocklewe, Feb. 12, 1265, and was interred before the high altar of his cathedral. His coffin-lid, with effigy, is now in the retro-choir, (Pt. I. § XVI.); and the coffin containing, in all probability, his remains was discovered during the late restoration. (Pt. I. § XVI.)
[A.D. 1266, trans. to Winchester 1268.] Nicholas, Archdeacon of Ely; Chancellor of England 1260, 1261; and again, 1263.
[A.D. 1268-1301.] Godfrey Giffard, Archdeacon of Wells; Chancellor of England 1267-1269. He was the brother of Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York; and was related to the King, Henry III. Bishop Giffard, in the year of his consecration, obtained a licence to build (ædificare) the castle of Hartlebury—which has ever since been the principal palace of the bishops of Worcester. The tomb of Bishop Giffard remains in the south choir-aisle. (Pt. I. § XIII.) He had constructed a tomb for himself, in his lifetime, “prope magnum altare, supra B. Oswaldi feretrum,” and had disturbed the remains of Bishop John of Coutances in preparing it: but Archbishop Winchelsea ordered the bones of Bishop John to be replaced in their old position; and Bishop Giffard’s were removed to the place they now occupy. According to Wharton, the Romanists after the Reformation took Bishop Giffard’s tomb and effigy for those of St. Wulfstan; and used to visit it “magna cum religione” on St. Wulfstan’s Day, Jan. 19[117].
[A.D. 1302-1307.] William de Gainsborough, a Franciscan of Oxford; intruded by the Pope.
[A.D. 1308, translated to Canterbury 1313.] Walter Reynolds. (See Canterbury, Pt. II.)
[A.D. 1313-1317.] Walter Maidstone.