ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY his death reverence for his memory, behef in his sanctity, or gratitude for his large-hearted generosity, led to the report that miracles were wrought at his tomb. He is the only bishop of the see the tradition of whose saintly life has been handed down to posterity as his chief characteristic. A seeker after God, who kept himself aloof from the political strife of his time — not strong enough to be a leader perhaps, but one whose exemplary life was his best legacy to posterity. Since the death of Pandulf three bishops of Norwich had succeeded one another who had all been Norfolk men. The see was kept vacant for a time, when another of the great lawyers was elected to the vacancy, who can scarcely have been an ' episcopally minded prelate.' This was Simon de Wauton or Walton, consecrated at Canterbury lo March, 1258. He is said by Dugdale to have been born at Walton d'Eiville in Warwickshire,^ and if, indeed, he was one of King John's chaplains in 1205, and about that time was enjoying two other pieces of preferment, he must have been far advanced in life when he received his bishopric, and some years over eighty when he died. He was an eminent lawyer, and was apparently chief justice of the Common Pleas at the time of his election to Norwich, but nevertheless held several pieces of preferment, which he was allowed by the pope to retain together with his bishopric. In the dreadful famine from which the poor suffered so cruelly in the first year of Bishop Simon's episcopate, we hear nothing about any efforts on his part to relieve their distress. History has little or nothing to tell which is to his credit. He died 2 January, 1266, and was buried in Bishop Suffield's Lady Chapel. Once more King Henry had to assent to the election of a bishop of Norwich. The kingdom was in a pitiful state ; the battle of Evesham, 4 August, 1265, had to all appearance crushed the hopes of the popular party and left it without a leader, but desperate men are apt to be troublesome, and up and down the land there was much lawlessness. It was no time for keeping bishoprics vacant, and making more enemies, so the monks of Norwich were permitted to proceed to an election, and on 23 January, 1266, just three weeks after the death of Simon de Walton, they chose as his successor their own prior, Roger de Scarning. A Norfolk man again, and born, as his name implies, at a village adjoining the town of East Dereham, he had been a monk at Norwich for many years, and prior of the monastery since 1257.' He was consecrated on 4 April, 1266, at St. Paul's, by the archbishop of Ragusa (in Media).* During the rest of that year East Anglia suffered miserably from the war that was raging. Bury St. Edmunds, Lynn, Ely, Norwich were pillaged by one side or the other. On 19 December Norwich was actually sacked and immense booty carried away by the rebels.^ It was not till July, 1267, that Prince Edward succeeded in bringing the struggle to an end. Meanwhile, in October, 1265, another papal legate appeared in England. It was twenty-eight years since any regular plenipotentiary legate had been seen in England.* He had left a very bad name behind him for the extortion ' Dugdale, Antiiji. of Warwickshire, i, 576. ' Foss, Judges, who gives his authorities for the statement. ' Barth. de Cotton, De Rege Edwardo I (Rolls Ser.), 137. ' Reg. Sacr. Angl. 63. ' Blomefield, op. cit. iii, 53. ' On the significance of these missions see Stubbs, Constitutional Hist, of Engl, iii, 703. 231
