with a receipt in it for the large sum of 1,500 marks of silver, then paid by Bury into the papal treasury.

Before his installation, Edward made him Treasurer of England first, and then Lord High Chancellor. This great office was conferred on him on the 26th Sept., 1334.* He did not long hold the seals; for in the next year he hands them back again to the King.†

Edward had ordered him to resign the seals that he might have him free to undertake more of that diplomatic work in which he had already shown himself to be an adept. All diplomatic work spells compromise, and Richard, with his peaceful and flexible character, his handsome person and dignified state, was well-fitted for such work. Nor did Edward hesitate to lay still more burdens on his old tutor's shoulders, one task following another. Thrice he had to go to Paris; he lets us know that he felt the charm and beauty of that fascinating city; he calls it the "Paradisus Orbis Parisius." In the eighth chapter of the Philobiblon we find a glowing account of his love for Paris: "Blessed God in Sion! with what a flood of joy my heart rejoices, when I have the chance of staying a while in Paris, Paradise of the world! Our sojourn there seemed short, for the vast love we had for that city. In Paris there are pleasant libraries, sweeter than thyme; there are green paths of books of every sort; there, too, are the meads of Academe, full of life; there are the Peripatetics of Athens, the hilltops of Parnassus, the porches of the Stoics. When

at Paris we threw open our treasure-chests, untied pursestrings, scattered money joyfully, as we rescued from sand and mud inestimable books. 'It is naught,' says the buyer-yet see how good and pleasant it is to gather

* Claus. viii, Edward III, m. 10. Yet on the 20th Sept., 1334, the King by letter makes a commission to inquire into the turbulence of Oxford, and places on it the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, the Bishop of Norwich, and Richard of Bury, whom he styles R., Bishop of Durham, the Chancellor " (see Rymer, Foedera, iv, 622).

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† So recorded under 9 Edward III (1335).

the magnates of the north, with a multitude of the religious and a countless crowd of the common folk.

Bury was not long permitted to stay quietly in his new home. Just before he became bishop, in 1330 and 1333, Edward had sent him as his ambassador to the Pope at Avignon. For the 1330 mission he had been accredited by an autograph letter from the King, and in 1333, Edward had also addressed the papal nephews with language of great trust and affection towards his envoy : "Unicum igitur secretarium nostrum carissimum Magistrum Ricardum de Bury."*

m were

In these embassages he took the papal court by so gallant was he with a brilliant suite; behi ranged twenty clerks and thirty squires, all wearing his uniform; and the effect of this splendour may be seen in the bull issued by Pope John XXH in 1333, together

venerabilis patris domini Thomae Oxoniae (sic) [should be Exoniae] Episcopi [sc. Th. Sutton] nobis dimissores porrigentem et subdiaconum duximus ordinandum, has literas patentes concedentes eidem in testimonium praemissorum. Datum etc.

And a record of the intention of Edward III to heap preferments on Bury's shoulders is a document in the Lib. Epist. R. de B., f. 1,043v (or 206v).

Suo desiderato patri et domino reverendo domino R[obert Winchelsey] Ut quis Dei gratia totins Angliae primato (sic), W[alter Langton] ejusdem permis- beneficiorum permittetur sione Coventriae et Lichfeldiae ecclesiarum minister, salutem et obedientiae pluralitate debitum cum reverentia ac honore. Dum omnium beneficiorum exilitatem gaudere. domini R. de B. clerici domini nostri Regis et nostri attente conspicimus, pensantes quod propter obsequia regia quibus insistit non modica oporteat ipsum subire overe [onera] expensarum, quodque duntaxat beneficia ecclesiastica quae optinet summam xx1 marcarum vel circiter vix attingunt, et ipsum coram vobis super beneficiorum ipsorum pluralitate ex officio impetitum, prae compassionis affectu compatimur, arbitrantes Deo placabili nec a sanctorum patrum traditionibus alienum ipsum in tam exilibus beneficiis gratiose dimittere pacificum et quietum, et praecipue cum si quid recepimus alias, ipsum dimisistis a vestro officio super istis. Hinc et quod vestram reverendam paternitatem omni affectu quo possumus ex corde duximus requirendum, quatinus ejusdem clerici devotionis promptitudinem, favorem regiam nostramque instantiam considerantes, ac propter haec et alia quae eundem clericum gratiae dignum reddunt, plena benevolentia prosequentes eundem ei in suo negotio quod in auditorio vestro tractatur sperati favoris et optatae gratiae impendere dignemini complementum, ut idem clericus per nos se juvari laetetur, et nos, qui totaliter vester sumus in his quae cordi vestro votiva fuerint fortius astringamur. Ad regimen ecclesiae suae sanctae altissimus vos conservet. Datum, etc.

* Rymer, Foedera, a. 1333 (ii, 854).

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made a "concordat," as if between two great powers, between the other northern counties and the Palatinate of Durham. "If felons," it runs, "or other scoundrels should take refuge from Northumberland, York, Cumberland, or Westmorland, within the franchise of the bishopric, they shall be handed over at once to the sheriffs, etc., of their respective counties, and similarly. vice versa with the ruffians from the Durham Palatinate."

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In 1338 a protection is granted to Stratford Archbishop of Canterbury and Bury, to go over seas, at the instant request of certain Cardinals, who had come from Avignon to the King's Court." The records clearly show that this was a tossing kind of time. Powers to treat with the French King were granted, then revoked, then granted again. Men were fencing and playing before a great war. And Bury, with all his goodwill for peace, and influence over the King, could do nothing to stay the sword. We know how eagerly he desired a quiet time for England and for himself-war with France always meant trouble with Scotland; and that trouble fell heaviest on his Palatinate. His attitude towards war gleams honourably through his instructions to the Prior and Convent of Durham in 1340.* It shows his grave anxiety, and the relief provided by the destruction of the French fleet at Sluys.†

In 1338 we also find an interesting Release granted by Edward III of his claim on the valuable living of Symondsburn. This he did in accordance with a vow he had made before a battle with the Scots. Yet this transfer was to be dependent on the establishment by Bury of "quandam domum de quodam priore et duodecim monachis de capitulo ecclesiae Dunolmensis, super placeam prioris et Conventus Dunelmensis in suburbio villae Oxoniae ad studendum in universitate ibidem fieri faciant ad * This Litera ad deprecandum pro Rege is reprinted in this volume from Surtees, xxi, p. 10.

† In 1340 we find in the Rolls that £1,341 48. 11d. were to be paid to Bishop Bury to defray the costs of his embassy to France.

sumptus nostros." The King, though the Oxford College was not then made in solid sort, granted to Bury the power to authorise the Prior and Convent to have the advowson of Symondsburn.

We now (3rd July, 1340) find Bury complaining of the exactions of Rome. In a letter to Pope Clement, to whom he was still attached by being, as he calls himself, "vester devotus orator," he he declares that through constant procurations there is scarcely a living in his Diocese that is worth more than the sum laid down "ad quam per libertatem Sedis Apostolicae mandatur in forma communi pauperibus clericis provideri.”

Immediately after this Bury, with other men of note, was charged by the King to deal with the northern counties, for their aid against the impending invasion of the Scots. Finally, for the last five years of his life, he was able to be at home in his palatine bishopric. For this space of time, in spite of Scottish threats, he enjoyed a fairly quiet life. Home affairs occupy him; thus, in 1340, he has trouble with some men of the Robin Hood kind who poached in his privileges; there exists an order from the King of this year that the Bishop should have his rights as to whales and sturgeons cast ashore on his coast; these actually are said to be worth £3,000! The King's documents mention these jetsam rights as to fish, and also tell us that the deer in his forests, the trees, hares, rabbits, partridges, had been shamefully taken by poachers at this time. Signs these that the Bishop's absence on the King's affairs had weakened the discipline of the borderland; poaching and affrays with his bailiffs were far too common. One of the most curious of these difficulties, which shows us how much a firm hand was needed in these parts, can be seen in 1340 in the case of William l'Escheker, who had been sent by the Cathedral Monastery to the Cell of Coldingham, in Berwickshire. This person was afterwards guilty of great enormities; he was imprisoned

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by reason of his extravagance, and the wasting of the goods of the house," and for other offences against the Order; and specially because he had wounded to death Brother Robert of Kellawe, "his fellow-monk and comrade." They had him in gaol, but he was bold and clever; he broke out successfully, and no more is heard of him.

In this year, 1340, we find that Bury was joined with Gilbert of Umfraville, Earl of "Angos" (Angus), Henry of Percy, Ralph of Neville, and Wilfred le Scrop, as a commission to make the terms for a "final peace" with the Scots. There seem to have been but poor results from their efforts.

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The administration of justice sometimes went on in a way of its own: thus on one occasion, at Bradbury, in Durham County, Reginald and Emma his daughter were sitting by their fire and came to a quarrel, litigaverunt ad invicem per verba," and as the daughter had the shrewder tongue, Reginald grew angry, and "wishing to chastise her" threw at her his stick, which was shod with iron at the foot, and hit her on the head with it, whereat she lay abed three days and then died. Reginald was had up to the Bishop's Court, and pleaded that he had not done it with thought of murder, "non per feloniam aut excogitatam malitiam," and therefore prayed for mercy. So Bury, as there was no distinction between murder and manslaughter in these times, freely pardoned him, and he escaped altogether unpunished.

Yet in spite of these dark incidents, we have evidence that he cared about the religious welfare of his great Palatinate. Thus, in 1343 or 1344, we find Hutchinson (Durham, vol. iii, p. 62) telling us that "Though a grant was made to hold a market on Friday (at Sedgefield), a custom prevailed of exposing merchandise on the Sabbath day, which, being complained of by John of