Bells Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Exeter | Page 6

and money to the cathedral work, he found opportunity to build and endow Harts Hall, Stapledon Inn--now Exeter College--Oxford, and the "very fair" Essex House in London. In 1320 he was created Lord High Treasurer by Edward II., and later in the same year received from his sovereign the power of holding pleas of "hue and cry" in the lands, tenements, and fees of the bishopric in the county of Cornwall. The neglected condition of many of the parish churches in his diocese distressed him, and almost his last public appearance in the west of England was at Lawhitton, where he spoke severely on this matter to his Dean and Chapter, and bade them see to it that in future there should be no good cause of complaint. In the autumn of 1324 he set out for France, accompanying the young Prince Edward, who was about to do homage to the French king for the duchies of Aquitaine and Poitou. But his "irreproachable integrity" made him unpopular, and his life was threatened. On his return to England he saw that a crisis was at hand, and almost immediately after his arrival Queen Eleanor landed on the coast of Suffolk. Edward II., in a brief moment of wisdom, assigned to the faithful bishop the government of London and retreated to Bristol. But it was too late to effect a reconciliation or prevent a catastrophe. With a firm hand Stapledon endeavoured to restore order and quiet, and promulgated a decree by which all rebels were excommunicated. But the citizens, wisely perhaps, sided with the conquerors, and the bishop died a martyr to duty. The story is well told in the French chronicles quoted by Dr. Oliver. "The Bishop of Exeter, riding towards his inn or hotel, in Eldeanes-lane for dinner, encountered the mob, and, hearing them shout Traitor, he rode rapidly to St. Paul's for sanctuary, but was unhorsed, taken to Cheapside, stripped and beheaded. About the hour of vespers, the same day, October 15th, the choir of St. Paul's took up the headless body of the prelate and conveyed it to St. Paul's, but, on being informed that he died under sentence, the body was brought to St. Clement's beyond the Temple, but was ejected; so that the naked corpse, with a rag given by the charity of a woman, was laid on the spot called 'Le Lawles Cherche,' and without any grave, lay there with those of his two esquires, without office of priest or clerk. His house was attacked, the gates burned, quantities of jewels and plate plundered."
In another account of his death it is stated that his head was "fixed on a long pole by way of trophy, that it might be to all beholders a lasting memorial of his attempted crime." There was a personal reason why the bishop was unpopular among the citizens, for "he procured that the justices in eyre should sit in London; on which occasion, because the citizens had committed various offences, they were heavily punished by the loss of their liberties, by pecuniary mulcts, and by bodily chastisment, as they deserved." But the queen caused his body to be rescued from the "hepe of rubische," and it was removed to Exeter, where it lies on the north side of the choir. He left behind him large sums of money and plate, a valuable library and, unique item, ninety-one rings. He was certainly one of the greatest prelates in English history, and though he may have been, as his detractors asserted, "fumische and without pite," he was revered in his diocese, and left an example of courage and honesty to succeeding generations. His executors, animated by a wish to do what he would have desired, distributed ￡210 8s. 8d. in charities, and gave considerable sums to other worthy objects. And the Abbot of Hartland caused the 15th of October to be solemnly observed, out of gratitude for the late bishop's bounty, and decreed that on that day "for all future times 'XIII. pauperes in aula abbatis, pro ipsius anima, pascantur.'"
To follow so redoubtable a prelate as Stapledon must have been an extremely difficult task. But Grandisson, who was appointed after Berkeley's short episcopate ended, has sometimes been called the most magnificent prelate who ever filled the see. He was nominated directly by the pope, and consecrated by his holiness at Avignon. His chief glory is that he allowed the splendour of the see in no wise to diminish, and he kept up the Stapledon traditions of princely hospitality and well-doing. His reputation of "grave, wise, and politick" seems to have been fairly earned. As a descendant of the great ducal house of Burgundy, he had lived much with princes and held the position of nuncio "at the courts of all the mightiest princes