which have long disappeared, he erected the sedilia and the choir screen. In Oxford he was the founder of Stapeldon's Inn, (now Exeter College,) and of Hart Hall, which stood on the north side of Broad-street. In London, Bishop Stapeldon built " a very fair house" without Temple Bar, for the use of himself and his successors; afterwards bought by Queen Elizabeth's Earl of Essex, and known as Essex House. The Bishop early became one of Edward II.'s privy counsellors, and in 1320 was created Lord High Treasurer. In 1325 he was attached to the embassy which accompanied Queen Isabella to the court of her brother, Charles of France, who was planning to deprive Edward II. of his French dominions. A treaty, to which Edward agreed, was concluded, and Bishop Stapeldon returned to England. The Queen, asserting her fear of the Spensers, the favourites of her husband, remained in France, attended by "her gentle Mortimer;" and after war had been declared between the two countries, she landed on the Suffolk coast, supported by a body of 2,000 troops from Hainault. She was immediately joined by the great body of discontented nobles, and advanced at once to London. The King fled to Bristol, leaving the city of London in charge of the Bishop of Exeter, who accordingly demanded the keys of the city from the Mayor. But the citizens rose on the Queen's side, attacked the Bishop as he was riding through the streets, dragged him from the church of St. Paul, where he had taken refuge, and hurrying him to the "great cross in Chepe," there beheaded him, together with certain other knights (Oct. 15, 1326). The body of the Bishop was at first flung aside irreverently, but afterwards, for the sake of concealment, was buried in the sand, on the river side, near his own palace. Six months later it was removed, by the Queen's command, to his cathedral at Exeter, where it was interred with great magnificence. His tomb remains on the north side of the choir. A diligent search after the murderers of Bishop Stapeldon

-1369.]

Bishops Stapeldon to Grandisson.

243

was ordered in a synod held in London in 1329, under Simon Mepham, Archbishop of Canterbury; and such of them as could be discovered were tried and executed accordingly.

[March A.D. 1326-7-June 1327.] JAMES BERKELEY, of the noble house of Berkeley, succeeded through the interest of Queen Isabella. He died at Yarcombe in Devon, and was buried on the south side of the choir of Exeter cathedral. He was canon of this cathedral before his elevation to the see. [A.D. 1327-1369.] JOHN GRANDISSON was by far the most magnificent prelate who ever filled the see of Exeter, which he occupied during the most brilliant period of English chivalry and of the English Church. His father, descended from the ancient house of the Grandissons, Dukes of Burgundy, had come into England with Henry, Earl of Lancaster, and had married Sybilla, daughter and heiress of John Tregos, Lord of Ewias, near Hereford. In that neighbourhood the future bishop was born, and early became a good scholar, "very grave, wise, and politick." When very young he was attached to the Papal Court, and was especially favoured by Pope John XXII., for whom he acted as nuncio at the courts "of all the mightiest princes of Christendom." On the death of Bishop Berkeley, John Godley, a Canon of Exeter, was chosen as his successor by the Chapter. This election, however, was not confirmed by the Pope, and Grandisson, who was then at the Papal Court, was consecrated Bishop of Exeter, (either on the nomination of the young King Edward III., or on that of John XXII. himself,) in the Dominican Church at Avignon, October 18, 1327. He presided over his diocese, firmly and liberally, for more than forty years, being, says Hoker, "altogether given in doing some good things." He at once proceeded with the works at the cathedral; dedicated the high altar, December 18, 1328; completed the nave about the year 1350; and dying in

1369, was interred in the chantry of St. Radegund, formed in the western wall of the cathedral. Having purchased the church and manor of St. Mary Ottery from the Chapter of Rouen, (to which body they had been given by the Confessor,) he founded there a collegiate establishment of forty members, greatly adding to and improving the old church, which should be compared throughout with his work at the cathedral. Monuments, with effigies, for Sir Otho de Grandisson, brother of the Bishop, and his wife, remain in the church at Ottery. On his manor of Bishops Teignton he built "a very fair house," which he left for the use of his successors, but "did impropriate unto the parsonage of Radway, to the intent that they might have where to lay their head, if their temporalities should at any time be seized by the King." It was during Grandisson's episcopate that the Black Prince twice visited Exeter; first after landing at Plymouth with the captive King of France, and later, when he returned sick to England with his wife and son, afterwards Richard II. In 1343, Grandisson was sent as ambassador from the King to Pope Clement VI., when "he did his message with much wisdom." He vigorously defended the rights of his own diocese; and when Archbishop Mepham attempted to enforce a personal visitation, Bishop Grandisson met him at the west door of the cathedral with a body of armed attendants, between whom and the Archbishop's followers a contest would have taken place, had it not been arranged that the dispute should be referred to the Pope. "This affront," says Fuller, "did half break Mepham's heart, and the Pope siding with the Bishop of Exeter, did break the other half." He died soon after his return to Kent. Notwithstanding "his great and chargeable buildings," and other works, Bishop Grandisson died very wealthy. His riches are said to have been accumulated by means of his personal economies. "His diet," says Hoker, was frugal, his receipts great, his expences no more than necessary. . . . . He sequestrated from himself,

-1419.]

Bishops Grandisson to Ketterich.

245

and out of his house, the troop of many men and horses, retaining and keeping no more than to serve his reasonable estate." His death occurred on St. Swithun's Day, 1369. [A.D. 1370-1394.] THOMAS BRANTYNGHAM, Edward III.'s Treasurer in Picardy, and more than once Lord High Treasurer of England, continued to contest the right of the Archbishops of Canterbury to a personal visitation of his diocese, but without the success of his predecessor. During the contest some of Bishop Brantyngham's servants fell upon the Archbishop's mandatory, Thomas Hill, in the town of Topsham, about six miles from Exeter, and having ransacked his bags, found in them a writ, to which the archiepiscopal seal was attached, summoning the Bishop himself before his metropolitan, Archbishop Courtenay. After much ill-usage, Brantyngham's men compelled the unhappy mandatory to swallow both the writ and its waxen seal; a proceeding which, however gratifying for the moment, eventually proved anything but advantageous to the cause of the Bishop. The King withdrew his protection. Brantyngham abandoned his appeal to Rome, and finally made full submission to Archbishop Courtenay, whose right of visitation was henceforth duly recognised. The cloisters, and some other parts of the cathedral, were completed by this bishop, whose chantry, which has disappeared, was on the north side of the nave.

[A.D. 1395-1419.] EDMUND STAFFORD [Plate XIV.]. brother of Ralph Lord Stafford, (created Earl of Stafford by Edward III.,) twice Lord Chancellor and Keeper of the Great Seal,-"quondam profundus legum doctor reputatus," as the inscription on his monument ran,-enlarged, and was a liberal benefactor to, Stapledon's Inn at Oxford, to which he gave its present name, Exeter College. His fine monument remains on the north side of the Lady-chapel. A.D. 1419.] JOHN KETTERICH was translated from the diocese of Lichfield to that of Exeter, over which he presided, however, for not more than a month before his death,

which occurred at Florence, where his alabaster tomb, with effigy, exists in the church of Sta. Croce. There is a model of it in the chapter library at Exeter.

[A.D. 1420-1455.] EDMUND LACEY, in spite of much contention with the city of Exeter on account of the liberties of his cathedral, died in snch an odour of sanctity, that numerous miracles were said to have taken place at his tomb, to which "the common people" resorted much in pilgrimage. It remains on the north side of the choir. Lacey was the only one of the Bishops of Exeter to whom any reputation of unusual sanctity attached after death. During his episcopate, Henry VI. was entertained for eight days (July, 1451,) in his palace at Exeter, and held a "gaol delivery" in the Bishop's hall. Two men were condemned, but were released on the remonstrances of the Bishop and clergy, who protested against the King's exercise of temporal authority within the sanctuary of the Church. The Liber Pontificalis of Bishop Lacey, an interesting and important MS., still preserved among the treasures of his cathedral, was edited and published by Ralph Barnes, Esq., (Roberts, Exeter,) in 1847.

[A.D. 1458-1465.] GEORGE NEVILLE (elected and confirmed 1455, but not consecrated until 1458,) was one of those Englishmen of noble houses by whom the high places of the Church were at this time, for the most part, filled; partly, it would seem, (and especially in the case of the primacy,) as a result of the deliberate determination of the Pope and the Crown to band together the Church and the nobles "against the spiritual and civil democracy, on one side of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, on the other of the extreme followers of Wycliffe." Neville is a striking representative of the feudal Churchman. When only fourteen years old, "the nobility of his descent" induced the Pope, Nicholas V., to grant him a dispensation for holding a canonry in the church of Salisbury, together with one in k Milman's Latin Christianity, vi. 392.