him post-haste (duplomate utens).' He adds what must be meant for humour, if it is not a misreading: 'Bene valeant magni rustici nostri, magister G. et archidiaconus Baiocensis.' These were two clerks of the archbishop's household, Gerard la Pucelle, who had been with Peter at Rome;[1] and Waleran, who on 9 Oct. 1182 was elected to the see of Rochester. This letter was written probably at the end of June 1182: in its opening clause Peter styles himself archdeacon of Bath; and, though we often have to set aside this title as a later addition to the original letters, there is good reason for maintaining its genuineness here.
We must go outside the printed editions and even the manuscripts of his letters to settle the date at which Peter of Blois became archdeacon of Bath. The earliest occurrence of his name in any charter which can be approximately dated is his attestation of the grant by Richard de Camville of the church of Hengstridge for a prebend of Wells. This grant can be dated with practical certainty between March and May 1176, and it was confirmed at the same time by Archbishop Richard. Both the grant and the confirmation are attested by ' Master Peter of Blois '.[2] This is enough to throw serious doubt on the common assertion that he was archdeacon of Bath in 1175. There are at least three other charters known to us which he attests without the title of archdeacon,[3] and they may all be placed before 1182. In the letter of Alexander III, to which we have already referred, he is spoken of as 'Master Peter of Blois' on 3 April 1178; so too in the letter of Lucius III. who was elected pope on 1 September 1181.
The first evidence of his having become archdeacon of Bath is perhaps to be found in a charter by which Archbishop Richard
- ↑ Gerard was consecrated to Coventry, 25 Sept. 1183, but died 13 Jan. 1184.
- ↑ Wells, Liber Albus ( = Reg. i), ff. 21, 22 b. The grant cannot be earlier than 12 Oct. 1175, as it is attested by Adam bishop of St Asaph; nor later than the end of May 1176, when Richard de Camville left England for Sicily, whence he did not return. As there are seven episcopal witnesses, it may have been made at the council held under the legate Hugh on 14 March, or, with yet more likelihood at the king's council at Westminster on 25 May, when the legate was present and when Richard de Camville was appointed as one of the envoys to conduct the princess Joan to the Sicilian court. The Wells chartulary also contains (f. 22) a confirmation of the grant by 'Hugo Petri Leonis, cardinal deacon of St Angelo and papal legate'.
- ↑ These are (1) a charter of Abp. Richard to the abbey of St Bertin at St Omer, dated in 1179-82 by Dr. Round, Doc. in France, p. 488; (2) a charter of William de St John, attested by the same archbishop, and dated by Dr. Round in 1174–5 (but on the ground that about the latter year Peter became archdeacon of Bath: Ancient Charters, pp. 71 f.); (3) a charter of Abp. Richard in regard to land at Harrow (Westminster 'Domesday', f. 52 b).
