There is little doubt that while at Rome arrangements were completed for the transfer of the see, but most probably only in accordance with a previous determination of the Council of London, A.D. 1075, when it had been decreed that all bishoprics should be removed from villages to the chief town of the county. Historians have bestowed upon this bishop the title of the “Kyndling Match of Simony,” but the sin was far too common in that age for him to deserve so distinctive an appellation; and chroniclers, quite as veritable and much more charitable, have given sketches of his character, that prove him to have been an amiable, accomplished, and pious man, of great refinement, and possessing a remarkable love of the young, and a cheerfulness and playfulness of manner in intercourse with them, that rarely is an attribute of any but a benevolent mind. We must not, however, linger upon the personal history of the founder. Associated with him in the ceremony of laying the foundation, we find the name of the great feudal lord of the castle, Roger Bigod, and most of the nobility and barons of the district, one of whom, Herbert de Rye, was a devoté from the Holy Land. The first stone was laid by Herbert, the second by De Rye, the other barons placing their several stones, and contributing in money to the work. The church, as left by Herbert, consisted of the whole choir, the lower part of which, now remaining, is the original building, though much concealed by modern screenwork; the roofs and upper part are of later date. Eborard, the successor of Herbert, built the nave, not then raised to the present height, but terminating at the line distinctly traceable below the clerestory windows. The Catholic cathedral, or Catholic architecture, so miscalled _Gothic_, is the pride and glory of the middle ages. The spirit of the times, of fervent aspiration towards heaven, speaks in it more, perhaps, than in the purer models of more ancient works. Architecture was then the language through which thoughts found expression, speaking to the eye, the mind, the heart, and imagination. Kings, clergy, nobility, people, all contributed towards these structures. Painting, sculpture, music, found a place in them, and flourished under the auspices of religion. “The Anglo-Norman cathedrals were perhaps as much distinguished,” says Hallam, “above other works of man, as the more splendid edifices of later date;” and they have their peculiar effect, although perhaps not rivalling those of Westminster, Wells, Lincoln, or York.