[93] John of Oxford was rewarded for this service by the deanery of Salisbury, vacant by the promotion of the dean to the bishopric of Bayeux. Joscelin, Bishop of Salisbury, notwithstanding the papal prohibition that no election should take place in the absence of some of the canons, chose the safer course of obedience to the King's mandate. This act of Joscelin was deeply resented by Becket. John of Oxford's usurpation of the deanery was one of the causes assigned for his excommunication at Vezelay. See also, on the loyal but somewhat unscrupulous proceedings of John of Oxford, the letter (hereafter referred to) of Nicholas de Monte Rotomagensi. It describes the attempt of John of Oxford to prepossess the Empress Matilda against Becket. It likewise betrays again the double-dealing of the Bishop of Lisieux, outwardly for the King, secretly a partisan and adviser of Becket. On the whole, it shows the moderation and good sense of the empress, who disapproved of some of the Constitutions, and especially of their being written, but speaks strongly of the abuses in the Church. Nicholas admires her skillfulness in defending her son.--Giles, iv. 187. Bouquet, 226. [94] "Præcepit enim publicè et _compulit_ per vicos, per castella, per civitates ab homine sene usque ab puerum duodenum beati Petri successorem Alexandrum abjurare." William of Canterbury alone of Becket's biographers (Giles, ii. p. 19) asserts this, but it is unanswerably confirmed by Becket's Letter 78, iii. p. 192. [95] The letter in Giles (vi. 279) is rather perplexing. It is placed by Bouquet, agreeing with Baronius, in 1166; by Von Raumer (Geschichte der Hohenstauffen, ii. p. 192) in 1165, before the Diet of Wurtzburg. This cannot be right, as the letter implies that Alexander was in Rome, where he arrived not before Nov. 1165. The embassy, though it seems that the Emperor granted the safe-conduct, did not take place, at least as regards some of the ambassadors. [96] "Itaque per biennium ferme stetit." So writes Roger of Pontigny. It is difficult to make out so long a time.--p. 154. [97] Herbert de Bosham.--p. 226. [98] Jer. i. 10. [99] "Suavissimas literas, supplicationem solam, correptionem vero nullam vel _modicam_ continentes."--De Bosham. [100] Urbane by disposition as by name.--Ibid. [101] Giles, iii. 365. Bouquet, p. 243. [102] "Quin potius dura propinantes, dura pro duris, immo multo plus duriora prioribus, reportaverunt."--De Bosham.