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Hugh
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Hugh

dred vicarages were thus established in the diocese of Lincoln before 1218, when the 'Liber Antiquus de Ordinationibus Vicariarum' was drawn up; and the work was energetically prosecuted by Hugh to the end of his life. The historians of the day, themselves usually members of conventual establishments, bitterly denounced Hugh's praiseworthy policy. He is styled by Matthew Paris 'monachorum persecutor; canonicorum, sanctimonialium et omnium malleus religiosorum' (Matt. Paris, Chron.Maj. iii. 306; Hist. Angl. ii. 375).

Hugh consecrated the church of Dunstable 18 Oct. 1213, and held a visitation there in 1220 in person, and again by his official, Grosseteste, then archdeacon of Lincoln, in 1233 (Annals of Dunstable, iii. 42, 57, 132). He also made a visitation of his whole diocese, issuing articles of inquiry to be made by his archdeacons, which present an interesting picture of the state of the church at that period (Wilkins, Concilia, i. 627-8). When an anchoress at Leicester professed to live without food, Hugh at first refused all credence to the tale, but having had her watched for a fortnight, and there being no evidence of her having taken any sustenance, he accepted the story (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. iii. 101). He sat on a commission, together with archbishop Langton and his brother Josceline of Wells, and others, in Worcester chapter-house, 3 Oct. 1224, to settle differences between the bishop and the convent (Annals of Worcester, iv. 416). In 1225 he witnessed the confirmation of Magna Charta (Annals of Burton, i. 231). He was among the first to recognise the commanding genius of Grosseteste, and was one of his earliest patrons. Grosseteste in his 'Letters' speaks of himself as Hugh's `alter ille,' with whom there was `one heart and one mind' (Grosseteste, Epistolæ, p. 136). Hugh refused Grosseteste permission to undertake a pilgrimage in 1231-2, on account of the risks he would run of falling into the hands of the Romans (ib. pp. xxxv., 22). He treated the Jews of his diocese with great sternness, joining with Archbishop Langton in 1223 in a prohibition to Christians, under pain of excommunication, to sell victuals to them—an order speedily reversed by the royal authority. The king's clemency had also to be extended to prisoners in the bishop's prisons (Rot. Lit. Claus. pp. 541, 563, 567). He zealously cooperated with his brother Josceline in the building and reorganisation of the cathedral of Wells, and joined with him in the foundation of the hospital of St. John the Baptist at that city (19 Feb.1220-21). The nave of his own cathedral at Lincoln was in building during his episcopate; he founded the chantry-chapel of St. Peter, in the south arm of the eastern transept, and the 'Metrical Life of St. Hugh' suggests that he completed the chapter-house. By his will he bequeathed one hundred marks to the fabric, and all the hewn timber throughout his episcopal estates, to be redeemed by his successor (Grosseteste) for fifty marks if he thought good. He built the kitchen and completed the hall begun by St. Hugh at the episcopal palace at Lincoln, towards which the king granted him forty trunks of trees from Sherwood Forest (Rot. Lit. Claus. p. 606); and also a hall at Thame, and a manor-house at Buckden, which subsequently became the sole episcopal palace. His later will, which contains many interesting particulars, dated at Stow Park 1 June 1233, is printed in the Rolls edition of 'Giraldus Cambrensis' (vol. vii. Appendix G, pp. 223-30), and ably commented on by Mr. Freeman (ib. pp. xc-xcv). He died 7 Feb. 1234-5, and was buried in the north choir aisle of his cathedral.

[Martirologium of John of Schalby, Girald. Camb. vii. 203, xc. xcv.; Matt. Paris's Chron. Maj. ii. 526, 528, 542, 550, 589, iii. 32-4, 101, 306; Hist. Angl. ii. 120, 139, 225, 227, 235, 375; Wendover, iii. 302, iv. 33, 35; Grosseteste's Letters, xxxv. 22, 136, 196; Rymer's Fœdera, i. 142, 146, 151; Annales Monastici, i. 231, iii. 37, 42, 57, 132, iv. 397; Canon Perry's Biography, ap. Lib. Antiq. Hug. de Wells (ed. by A. Gibbons).]

E. V.

HUGH (1246?–1255), called Hugh of Lincoln, Saint, was son of a woman of Lincoln named Beatrice. It is said that after having been missing from his home for some days, he was found dead in a well belonging to the house of a Jew named Copin, about 29 June (Matt. Paris), or more probably on 28 Aug. 1255 (Annals of Burton). The neighbours believed that he had been crucified by the Jews of the city, who were under the rule of a rabbi named Peytivin the Great, and it is asserted that his body bore the marks of crucifixion. In its full form the story is that Copin enticed the boy, who was eight or nine years of age, into his house when at play with his companions, that the Jews tortured him during ten days, keeping up his strength by feeding him well, or, according to another version, that they almost starved him for twenty-six days, and sent meanwhile to the other Jewries in England to gather the Jews together. Many are said to have assembled, and on 26 Aug. the boy is stated to have been tried before a man acting the part of Pilate, to have been scourged, crowned with thorns, and crucified in mockery of the death and passion of Jesus Christ. The Jews accounted for the presence of so many