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Lincoln to be their bishop instead of Hugh of Wells. Just about this time a new archbishop of Canterbury had been elected. The intrigues and delays over his appointment show that this was no more than any other a halcyon time when the Church enjoyed perfect liberty of action, and was free from State interference in the election of her chief bishops. Edmund of Abingdon, the new archbishop, was a man exceedingly fit in many ways for his high post, but he was not strong enough in character to face all the difficulties by which he was beset. No sooner was he elected, than the monks of Canterbury began to quarrel with him, and things were so disturbed that Grosseteste was not consecrated at Canterbury, but at Reading. He was nearly sixty years old when he became Bishop of Lincoln. The pathetic interest of his episcopate lies in seeing how impossible it was in those days for an honest man to do his plain duty without being involved in constant difficulties. Grosseteste had a vast diocese to administer, consisting as it then did of the present sees of Lincoln, Peterborough, Oxford and part of Ely. Its enormous size arose from the fact that it represented the old kingdom of Mercia. Disorders and abuses were everywhere prevalent. They were mainly connected with questions concerning the right of presentation to livings, and the treatment of ecclesiastical benefices as simply of so much money value. Grosseteste steadfastly refused to institute improper or illiterate persons, and wrote indignantly to the patrons who nominated such men. He directed his archdeacons to put down all games that led to drinking bouts and bloodshed, and particularly to put