BISHOPS.
��545
��1161 Richard Peche, archdeacon of Coventry^ and son of his ! Hen. II. predecessor Robert Peche, was consecrated bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1161. He died 6th Oct. 1182?^. 1183 Gerard, surnamed Puella or La Pucelle, canon of 9 Hen. II. ^alhhury"'^^ and clerk to Richard archhishop of Canter- bury, was elected in Jan. 1 182-3, ^^^1 consecrated
��and yet it is certain that bishop Walter's successor Richard was consecrated by the bishop of Ro- chester in the ])resence of arch- bishop Theobald, (Gerv. 1381. Diceto, 532,) then in his last illness, and who was carried into his chapel to witness the cere- mony. As therefore between 7th Dec. 1 160 and i8th April 1161 there can hardly have been time for all these transactions, the next probable date for Walter Durdent's death is 7th Dec. 1 159; which, as regards circum- stantial evidence, is, as far as I have seen, unobjectionable. In other words, that is the nearest approach to the hitherto received date which circumstances will warrant. But in aid of circum- stantial evidence comes that of the Norman Chronicle, which, calling him " Cistrensis episco- pus," (Chron. Norm. 996,) places his death and that of Robert bi- shop of Exeter in 1158. I need not here enter into the proofs that the year of the Norman Chronicle at this period is a year too early; i. e. that the year printed in one part of the mar- gin 1 158 and in another 1185, is really the year 1159, and was so intended by the writer of the Chronicle. The Annals of Win- ton (Angl. Sacra, pars i. 300.) give the date of bishop Walter's death correctly, viz. 1159, but
VOL. I. 4 A
��that of Robert of Exeter 1160.
I have lost the reference for my statement that Walter Dur- dent died at Rome. I have made a long search for it in every probable direction, and in vain. Possibly, therefore, my original note to that effect, made some years since, is a mistake, and that fact must be excluded. The probability that Walter Durdent predeceased the consecration of his successor by sixteen rather than four months, must be esti- mated therefore according to the ordinary delays which attended such successions at this period of history. I find no established case of so short a vacancy as four months, though probably Henry II. 's appetite for vacancies did not develope itself till after arch- bishop Theobald's death.
* Annal. Eccl. S. Werburgge Cestrensis. (Angl. Sacra.) Hove- den, fol. 354 ^, asserts that he died in 1183. He is said to have taken the religious habit in the priory of St. Thomas, near Staf- ford, some time before his death.
^^ Habebat Ricardus archiepi- scopus duos commensales cleri- cos, juris peritos, veritatis tamen et justae justitiae semulos M. Ge- rardum de Pucella et Petrum Blesensem. Hii duo inter omnes mundi tunctemporisaestimaban- tur, nee immerito, eloquentiores. Thorn, col. 182 1.
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