suspended his vice-archdeacon. This he had done in spite of the fact that at the Lateran council in 1179 Peter had obtained a privilege to the effect that no archbishop or bishop should excommunicate or suspend either him or his, save after conviction or confession of the offence. He goes on to say that the paltry arrear of twenty shillings, which was the ground of the bishop's action, was but a pretext: for he had already arranged for its payment with Ernald of Bath and Azo of Potterne.[1] It is likely, however, that the bishop was not so capricious and vexatious as Peter tries to make him appear. It is at any rate interesting to note that twenty shillings was the archdiaconal due which John Cumin had persistently withheld for six years when the bishopric was in the king's hands:[2] so that here again Peter may have been treading in the footsteps of his predecessor.
We may conveniently notice at this point a letter which belongs to a later period (Ep. 123: 1191-8), in which Peter refuses to comply with the desire expressed by Richard fitz Neal, the bishop of London, that he should take priest's orders. He declares with much emphasis and at considerable length that it is his high conception of the demands of the priesthood that holds him back. But he also vigorously insists, pleading many and great authorities, that it is more fitting that an archdeacon should have only the status of a deacon. In the Roman church he had seen many men of distinction who never passed beyond the diaconate: the pope himself (Celestine III, 1191-8) had more than once told him that he had served as a deacon sixty-five years, before he was called to the pontificate. Peter might have instanced Thomas of Canterbury and John Cumin of Dublin as archdeacons of his own day who never sought the priesthood until they had been elected archbishops. But he had a nearer example in Richard fitz Neal himself, the famous treasurer of England, who had written the 'Dialogue on the Exchequer', and whose public services had been rewarded by the archdeaconry of Ely and the deanery of Lincoln. 'No man', says Peter in his florid manner, 'taketh to himself the honour, save he that is called of God, as Aaron: and it may be that you would still be among the Levites and not among the sons of Aaron, had not the Lord said
- ↑ That this letter was written not more than two years after Peter entered on Iris archdeaconry is rendered probable by its reference to the recent preferment of Azo of Potterne: for about 1184 Azo became archdeacon of Salisbury. Master Ernald of Bath is mentioned in the Evesham Chronicle (Rolls Ser., p. 150) as the bishop of Worcester's proctor at the Roman court in his contest with the monks in 1205.
- ↑ Pipe Rolls, 1167-8 and following years: see above, p. 96.
