Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln: A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval EnglandMarson, Charles L. (Charles Latimer)
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Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln: A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval England
Marson, Charles L. (Charles Latimer)
Hugh, of Lincoln, Saint, 1140-1200
which ought to groan and does not much, but rather talks of the laws and
usage of England being with the king. But the noble Thomas has withstood
him, and is banished and beggared and his kith and kin with him. The
holy man is harboured by our good Cistercian brothers of Pontigny, where
he makes hay and reaps and see visions. He is hounded thence. These
things ignite wars, and thereout come conferences. Thomas will not
compromise, and even Louis fretfully docks his alimony and sends him
dish in hand to beg; but he, great soul, is instant in excommunication,
whereafter come renewed brawls, fresh (depraved) articles. Even the
king's son is crowned by Roger of York, "an execration, not a
consecration." At last (woeful day!) Thomas goes home still cursing, and
gets his sacred head split open, and thus wins the day, and has immense
glory and sympathy, which tames the fierce anti-anarchist king. He, too,
kneels to our lord Alexander, and swears to go crusading in three years'
time, meanwhile paying Templars to do it for him. All this comes out in
driblets after Nones, and brings us to 1171 A.D., brother Hugh being
aged about one and thirty. When the old monk died Hugh was given another
old man to wait upon--Peter, the Archbishop of Tarentaise, who came
there often for retreat and study. This renowned old man had been a
friend of St. Bernard, and was a great stickler and miracle worker for
Alexander III., and he was a delegate to make peace between Henry and
Louis, when he died in 1174. Hugh found his quotations, compiled any
_catena_ he wished to make, retrieved saintly instances, washed his
feet, walked with him, and sat with him on a seat between two large fir
trees, which seat "miraculously grew no higher, as the trees grew." In
this manner Hugh knew and was known of the outside world, for Archbishop
Peter was a man of large following and acquaintance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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