death, the new canon was persecuted and reduced to penury by the relatives, who claimed the patrimony of Christ as a hereditary possession. Peter had tried in vain to reform them and had at last resigned the deanery into the archbishop's hands, imploring him to change the foundation with the king's consent into a monastery of Cistercians. These in fact have already been introduced and are marking out the sites of monastic buildings. Peter prays for the pope's blessing on the new project.
Once again Peter was to be disappointed. K. John's grant of Wolverhampton to Hubert Walter bears date 28 July 1204; and in the following year he granted timber and other necessaries for the new building. But Hubert Walter died 13 July 1207: the scheme was buried in his grave, and on 5 August the king appointed a new dean in the person of Henry, son of Geoffrey fitz Peter the powerful justiciar.
The last stage of Peter's career is his ten are of the archdeaconry of London. His appointment to this office has been seriously misdated. Le Neve places it in 1192, supposing him to be the 'P., archdeacon of London', who occurs in connexion with a statute made in that year by Ralph de Diceto the dean. This date is accepted by Stubbs, who comments somewhat unkindly on the fact that Ralph de Diceto never alludes in his history to this learned and ambitious member of his chapter.[1] But we have clear evidence that Peter of Blois was still archdeacon of Bath in 1193 (Lift. Cant. iii. 379), and also in 1202, when he was appointed by the pope to investigate, in conjunction with Abbot Samson of Bury and the dean of Lincoln, the cause of Geoffrey of Perche, archdeacon of Northumberland.[2]
It is difficult indeed not to think that he was still archdeacon of Bath at the time of Jocelin's election to that see. Bishop Savary had died in Italy on 8 August 3205. The process of electing his successor dragged on through the closing months of that year, and was not completed until March 1206. At some point in the proceedings the chapter of Wells wrote to the pope informing him that they had chosen Jocelin, and asking for his confirmation. Among the attestations of this letter we find ' Ego P. archidiaconus Bathoniensis There is no other archdeacon of Bath about this period whose name begins with this letter:[3] so that unless strong evidence
- ↑ Pref. to R. de Diceto, I, lxxix.
- ↑ Migne, P. L. 214 (i. 1170).
- ↑ Church, Early Hist. of the Ch. of Wells, p. 204. Canon Church suggests that Peter of Chichester, who was afterwards dean, may be intended: but there is no other reason for supposing that he was ever archdeacon of Bath.
