Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seffrid
SEFFRID, SEFRID, SEINFRID, or SAFRED II (d. 1204), bishop of Chichester, was archdeacon of Chichester when, in 1178, he was made dean of that church. He was consecrated bishop of Chichester on 16 Nov. 1180. He was on the side of the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, in their quarrel with Archbishop Baldwin, and was employed by Urban III and the king in connection with the dispute in 1187 and 1188. In 1187 a large part of his cathedral church, built by Bishop Ralph Luffa, and consecrated in 1108, was destroyed by a fire which probably began on the roof. He used all means at his command to repair the damage. The triforium suffered little, but the clerestory had to be rebuilt; stone vaulting was substituted for the wooden roofs of the nave and aisles, the eastern limb was almost wholly rebuilt and much lengthened, the chapels on the eastern sides of the transepts were added, and pointed single-light windows took the place of the Norman windows in nave and choir (Stephens). The church was dedicated in September 1199, but the rebuilding was not finished in Seffrid's lifetime. Seffrid is said also to have rebuilt the bishop's palace. In 1189 he was present at the coronation of Richard I, and at the great council at Pipewell. He strongly condemned the outrage inflicted by the chancellor on Geoffrey (d. 1212) [q. v.], archbishop of York, in 1191, and wrote to the monks of Canterbury declaring that he was ready to take part in avenging such an insult to the whole church. He was ordered by the king, then in captivity, to come to him in Germany in 1193 in company with the chancellor (Rog. Hov. iii. 212). He was present at the new coronation of Richard on 17 April 1194, and at the coronation of John on 27 May 1199. In September 1200 he was too ill to attend the archbishop's synod at Westminster. He died on 17 March 1204. With the consent of the dean and chapter of Chichester he made statutes for the canons and vicars of the cathedral, which strengthened the independence of the chapter, and he regulated the residence of the canons and the duties of the dignitaries of the church. He founded a hospital for lepers half a mile to the east of Chichester, and another farther off in the same direction.
[Stephens's Mem. of S. Saxon See, pp. 65–9, 321; Gervase of Cant. i. 295, 385, 412, 491, Epp. Cantuar. pp. 57, 151, 167, 345, Gesta Henrici II de (B. Abbas), ii. 28, Rog. Hov. ii. 254, iii. 15, 212, 247, iv. 90, R. de Diceto, ii. 169, Ann. Winton, ii. 73, 79, and Wav. pp. 242, 252, 256, ap. Ann. Monast. (these six Rolls Ser.); Godwin, De Præsulibus, p. 503, ed. Richardson.]