Aldhelm
Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, Latin poet and scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the son of Kenten, of the royal house of Wessex, he was not, as his early biographer Faritius asserts, the brother of King Ine. After his death he was venerated as his feast day being the day of his death, 25 May. Aldhelm received his first education in the school of the Irish scholar and monk Máeldub, who had settled in the British stronghold of Bladon on the site of the town called Mailduberi, Meldunesburg, etc. and Malmesbury, after him. In 668, Pope Vitalian sent Theodore of Tarsus to be Archbishop of Canterbury. At the same time the North African scholar Hadrian became abbot of St Augustine's at Canterbury. Aldhelm was one of his disciples, for he addresses him as the'venerable preceptor of my rude childhood.' He must have been thirty years of age when he began to study with Hadrian. His studies included Roman law, astrology, the art of reckoning and the difficulties of the calendar.
He learned, according to the doubtful statements of both Greek and Hebrew. He introduces many Latinized Greek words into his works. Ill health compelled Aldhelm to leave Canterbury and he returned to Malmesbury Abbey, where he was a monk under Máeldub for fourteen years, dating from 661 and including the period of his studies with Hadrian; when Máeldub died, Aldhelm was appointed in 675, according to a charter of doubtful authenticity cited by William of Malmesbury, by Leuthere, Bishop of Winchester, to succeed to the direction of the monastery, of which he became the first abbot. Aldhelm introduced the Benedictine rule and secured the right of the election of the abbot by the monks themselves; the community at Malmesbury increased, Aldhelm was able to found two other monasteries as centres of learning, at Frome, at Somerset and at Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. The little church of St Lawrence at Bradford on Avon dates back to his time, may safely be regarded as his. At Malmesbury he built a new church to replace Máeldub's modest building, obtained considerable grants of land for the monastery.
Aldhelm's fame as a scholar spread to other countries. Artwil, the son of an Irish king, submitted his writings for Aldhelm's approval, Cellanus, an Irish monk from Peronne, was one of his correspondents. Aldhelm was the first Anglo-Saxon, so far as we know, to write in Latin verse, his letter to Acircius is a treatise on Latin prosody for the use of his countrymen. In this work he included 101 riddles in Latin hexameters; each of them is a complete picture, one of them runs to 83 lines. That Aldhelm's merits as a scholar were early recognised in his own country is shown by the encomium of Bede, who speaks of him as a wonder of erudition, his fame reached Italy, at the request of Pope Sergius I he paid a visit to Rome, of which, there is no notice in his extant writings. On his return, bringing with him privileges for his monastery and a magnificent altar, he received a popular ovation. Aldhelm was deputed by a synod of the church in Wessex to remonstrate with the Britons of Dumnonia on the Easter controversy.
British Christians followed a unique system of calculation for the date of Easter and bore a distinctive tonsure. Aldhelm wrote a long and rather acrimonious letter to king Geraint of Dumnonia achieving ultimate agreement with Rome. In 705, or earlier, Hædde, Bishop of Winchester and the diocese was divided into two parts. Sherborne was the new see, of which Aldhelm became the first bishop around 705, he wished to resign the abbey of Malmesbury which he had governed for thirty years, but yielding to the remonstrances of the monks he continued to direct it until his death. He was now an old man; the cathedral church which he built at Sherborne, though replaced by a Norman church, is described by William of Malmesbury. In his capacity as bishop, he displayed a great deal of energy; this included going into public places where he would sing hymns and passages from the gospels interspersed with bits of clowning to draw attention to his message. Aldhelm was on his rounds in his diocese when he died at the church in Doulting village in 709, the Church of St Aldhelm and St Aldhelm's Well in the village are dedicated to him.
The body was taken to Malmesbury, crosses were set up by his friend, Bishop of Worcester, at the various stopping-places. He was buried in the church of St Michael at Malmesbury Abbey, his biographers relate miracles due to his sanctity worked at his shrine. The cape in Dorset known as St Alban's Head is more properly called St. Aldhelm's Head in his honour. Aldhelm was revered as a saint with his feast day being celebrated on 25 May, his relics were translated in 980 by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is commemorated by a statue in niche 124 of the West Front of Salisbury Cathedral. There is a statue in Sherborne Abbey of Aldhelm, created in 2004 by Marzia Colonna. Aldhelm's flag may be flown in his celebration; the flag, a white cross on a red background, is a colour reversed version of England's St. George flag. Aldhelm wrote in elaborate and difficult Latin, known as hermeneutic style; this verborum garrulitas shows the influence of Irish models and became England's dominant Lat
Saint
A saint is a person, recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness or likeness or closeness to God. However, the use of the term "saint" depends on the denomination. In Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Lutheran doctrine, all of their faithful deceased in Heaven are considered to be saints, but some are considered worthy of greater honor or emulation. While the English word saint originated in Christianity, historians of religion now use the appellation "in a more general way to refer to the state of special holiness that many religions attribute to certain people", with the Jewish tzadik, the Islamic walī, the Hindu rishi or Sikh guru, the Buddhist arhat or bodhisattva being referred to as saints. Depending on the religion, saints are recognized either by official ecclesiastical declaration, as in the Catholic faith, or by popular acclamation; the English word "saint" comes from the Latin "sanctus". The word translated in Greek is "ἅγιος", which means "holy"; the word ἅγιος appears 229 times in the Greek New Testament, its English translation 60 times in the corresponding text of the King James Version of the Bible.
The word sanctus was a technical one in ancient Roman religion, but due to its "globalized" use in Christianity the modern word "saint" in English and its equivalent in Romance languages is now used as a translation of comparable terms for persons "worthy of veneration for their holiness or sanctity" in other religions. Many religions use similar concepts to venerate persons worthy of some honor. Author John A. Coleman S. J. of the Graduate Theological Union, California wrote that saints across various cultures and religions have the following family resemblances: exemplary model extraordinary teacher wonder worker or source of benevolent power intercessor a life refusing material attachments or comforts possession of a special and revelatory relation to the holy. The anthropologist Lawrence Babb in an article about Sathya Sai Baba asks the question "Who is a saint?", responds by saying that in the symbolic infrastructure of some religions, there is the image of a certain extraordinary spiritual king's "miraculous powers", to whom a certain moral presence is attributed.
These saintly figures, he asserts, are "the focal points of spiritual force-fields". They exert "powerful attractive influence on followers but touch the inner lives of others in transforming ways as well". According to the Catholic Church, a "saint" is anyone in Heaven, whether recognized on Earth or not, who form the "great cloud of witnesses"; these "may include our own mothers, grandmothers or other loved ones" who may have not always lived perfect lives but "amid their faults and failings they kept moving forward and proved pleasing to the Lord". The title "Saint" denotes a person, formally canonized, authoritatively declared a saint, by the Church as holder of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, is therefore believed to be in Heaven by the grace of God. There are many persons that the Church believes to be in Heaven who have not been formally canonized and who are otherwise titled "saints" because of the fame of their holiness. Sometimes the word "saint" denotes living Christians. In his book Saint of the Day, editor Leonard Foley, OFM says this: the " surrender to God's love was so generous an approach to the total surrender of Jesus that the Church recognizes them as heroes and heroines worthy to be held up for our inspiration.
They remind us that the Church is holy, can never stop being holy and is called to show the holiness of God by living the life of Christ."The Catholic Church teaches that it does not "make" or "create" saints, but rather recognizes them. Proofs of heroicity required in the process of beatification will serve to illustrate in detail the general principles exposed above upon proof of their "holiness" or likeness to God. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church Chapter 2, Article 1, 61, "The patriarchs and certain other Old Testament figures have been and always will be honored as saints in all the church's liturgical traditions." On 3 January 993, Pope John XV became the first pope to proclaim a person a "saint" from outside the diocese of Rome: on the petition of the German ruler, he had canonized Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg. Before that time, the popular "cults", or venerations, of saints had been local and spontaneous and were confirmed by the local bishop. Pope John XVIII subsequently permitted a cult of five Polish martyrs.
Pope Benedict VIII declared the Armenian hermit Symeon to be a saint, but it was not until the pontificate of Pope Innocent III that the Popes reserved to themselves the exclusive authority to canonize saints, so that local bishops needed the confirmation of the Pope. Walter of Pontoise was the last person in Western Europe to be canonized by an authority other than the Pope: Hugh de Boves, the Archbishop of Rouen, canonized him in 1153. Thenceforth a decree of Pope Alexander III in 1170 reserved the prerogative of canonization to the Pope, insofar as the Latin Church was concerned. One source claims that "there are over 10,000 named saints and beatified people from history, the Roman Martyrology and Orthodox sources, but no definitive head count". Alban Butler published Lives of the Saints including a total of 1,486 saints; the latest revision of this book, edited by the Jesuit Herbert Thurston and the British author Donald Attwater, contains the lives of 2,565 saints. Monsign
Henry de Sully (died 1189)
Henry de Sully was a medieval Abbot of Fécamp and Bishop-designate of Salisbury and Archbishop-elect of York. Henry was the son of William, count of Chartres the eldest brother of King Stephen of England and Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester. Henry's mother was William's wife Agnes, attached to the household of Adela of Blois, William's mother. Although William was the eldest son of Adela and her husband Stephen II, Count of Blois, he was passed over for the comital title and his younger brother Theobald became Count of Champagne on their father's death. Henry became a Cluniac monk, was nominated in March 1140 by Henry of Blois to be Bishop of Salisbury, but the nomination was quashed; as compensation, Henry of Blois named Henry de Sully the abbot of Fécamp Abbey in Normandy. In 1140, after his grandmother's death, Henry was nominated to become Archbishop of York, but his election was again quashed this time by Pope Innocent II because Henry wished to hold both the abbacy of Fécamp along with the archbishopric.
Henry died at Fécamp in 1189
Salisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, with a population of 40,302, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Ebble and Bourne. The city is 20 miles from Southampton and 30 miles from Bath. Salisbury is near the edge of Salisbury Plain. Salisbury Cathedral was north of the city at Old Sarum. Following the cathedral's relocation, a settlement grew up around it which received a city charter in 1227 as New Sarum, which continued to be its official name until 2009 when Salisbury City Council was established. Salisbury railway station is an interchange between the West of England Main Line and the Wessex Main Line. Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is 8 miles northwest of Salisbury; the name Salisbury, first recorded around the year 900 as Searoburg, is a partial translation of the Roman Celtic name Sorviodūnum. The Brittonic suffix -dūnon, meaning "fortress", was replaced by its Old English equivalent -burg; the first part of the name is of obscure origin. The form "Sarum" is a Latinization of a medieval abbreviation for Middle English Sarisberie.
The two names for the city and Sarum, are humorously alluded to in a 1928 limerick from Punch: The ambiguous pronunciation was used in the following limerick: Salisbury appeared in the Welsh Chronicle of the Britons as Caer-Caradog, Caer-Gradawc and Caer-Wallawg. Cair-Caratauc, one of the 28 British cities listed in the History of the Britons, has been identified with Salisbury; the hilltop at Old Sarum lies near the Neolithic sites of Stonehenge and Avebury and shows some signs of early settlement. It commanded a salient between the River Bourne and the Hampshire Avon, near a crossroads of several early trade-routes. During the Iron Age, sometime between 600 and 300 BC, a hillfort was constructed around it; the Romans left it in the hands of an allied tribe. At the time of the Saxon invasions, Old Sarum fell to King Cynric of Wessex in 552. Preferring settlements in bottomland, such as nearby Wilton, the Saxons ignored Old Sarum until the Viking invasions led King Alfred to restore its fortifications.
Along with Wilton, however, it was abandoned by its residents to be sacked and burned by the Dano-Norwegian king Sweyn Forkbeard in 1003. It subsequently became the site of Wilton's mint. Following the Norman invasion of 1066, a motte-and-bailey castle was constructed by 1070; the castle was held directly by the Norman kings. In 1075 the Council of London established Herman as the first bishop of Salisbury, uniting his former sees of Sherborne and Ramsbury into a single diocese which covered the counties of Dorset and Berkshire. In 1055, Herman had planned to move his seat to Malmesbury. Herman and his successor, Saint Osmund, began the construction of the first Salisbury cathedral, though neither lived to see its completion in 1092. Osmund served as Lord Chancellor of England; the cathedral was consecrated on 5 April 1092 but suffered extensive damage in a storm, traditionally said to have occurred only five days later. Bishop Roger was a close ally of Henry I: he served as viceroy during the king's absence in Normandy and directed, along with his extended family, the royal administration and exchequer.
He refurbished and expanded Old Sarum's cathedral in the 1110s and began work on a royal palace during the 1130s, prior to his arrest by Henry's successor, Stephen. After this arrest, the castle at Old Sarum was allowed to fall into disrepair, but the sheriff and castellan continued to administer the area under the king's authority. Bishop Hubert Walter was instrumental in the negotiations with Saladin during the Third Crusade, but he spent little time in his diocese prior to his elevation to archbishop of Canterbury; the brothers Herbert and Richard Poore succeeded him and began planning the relocation of the cathedral into the valley immediately. Their plans were approved by King Richard I but delayed: Herbert was first forced into exile in Normandy in the 1190s by the hostility of his archbishop Walter and again to Scotland in the 1210s owing to royal hostility following the papal interdiction against King John; the secular authorities were incensed, according to tradition, owing to some of the clerics debauching the castellan's female relations.
In the end, the clerics were refused permission to reenter the city walls following their rogations and processions. This caused Peter of Blois to describe the church as "a captive within the walls of the citadel like the ark of God in the profane house of Baal", he advocated Let us descend into the plain! There are rich fields and fertile valleys abounding in the fruits of the earth and watered by the living stream. There is a seat for the Virgin Patroness of our church, his successor and brother Richard Poore moved the cathedral to a new town on his estate at Veteres Sarisberias in 1220. The site was at "Myrifield", a meadow near the confluence of the River Nadder and the Hampshire Avon, it was first known as "New Sarum" or New Saresbyri. The town was laid out on a grid. Work on the new cathedral building, the present Salisbury Cathedral, began in 1221
Herbert Poore
Herbert Poore or Poor was a medieval English clergyman who held the post of Bishop of Salisbury during the reigns of Richard I and John. Poore was the son of Richard of Ilchester known as Richard Toclive, who served as Bishop of Winchester, he was the brother of Richard Poore. He may have served under his father in the exchequer but is first recorded as an archdeacon of Canterbury in 1175, he was one of a trio in the office but, in 1180, Archbishop Richard reversed himself and left Herbert the sole archdeacon for the area. At some point, he became a canon of Lincoln and Salisbury, entitling him to their prebends. In his capacity as archdeacon of Canterbury, Herbert enthroned Walter de Coutances as bishop of Lincoln on 11 December 1183. In July the next year, he was one of the men charged by Henry II to instruct the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, to elect his favorite Bishop Baldwin of Worcester as Richard's successor. From 1185 to 1188, he directed the income of the vacant see of Salisbury and, in May 1186, the chapter at Lincoln elected him to succeed Walter as their bishop.
The king refused his consent. The chapter at Salisbury elected him to succeed Joscelin as the Bishop of Salisbury; the king assented on 14 September 1186 but the minority appealed to the pope owing to Herbert's birth to his father's concubine. On 29 September 1186 he officiated the enthronement of Hugh as bishop of Lincoln and, in May 1193, he appealed to the pope against Hubert Walter's elevation as archbishop of Canterbury, as the king was in captivity and the bishops had not been present at his election. Instead, Celestine presented Hubert with his pallium, the symbol of his new office, he was enthroned at Canterbury on 7 November; the canons of Salisbury unanimously elected Herbert as Hubert's successor around 5 May 1194, the archbishop confirmed the result on 29 April. Herbert was only in deacon's orders at the time, he was enthroned at Salisbury on 13 June. In December 1197, Herbert joined St Hugh of Lincoln in denying the king 300 knights for a year's service in his French wars. By the king's orders, all of Herbert's English lands were seized, until he left to visit Richard in Normandy.
He was permitted to return to England with his title in June upon payment of a large fine. It was Herbert's idea to move the see from Old Sarum to the Salisbury Plain and he received permission from Richard to that effect, but the plan had to be abandoned after King John came to the throne, it was left to Herbert's brother and successor, Richard, to carry it out decades founding modern Salisbury in the process. Bishop Herbert attended King John's coronation on 27 May 1199. On 19 September 1200, he served as a papal delegate at the reconciliation of Archbishop Geoffrey and the chapter of York at Westminster and, on 22 November, he was present when the king of Scotland paid homage to John at Lincoln, he was summoned to John in Normandy on 14 December 1201. He received six tuns of wine on 2 January 1205. In 1207, the dispute over the appointment of the new archbishop of Canterbury caused Herbert and Bishop Gilbert of Rochester to flee to Scotland. By 27 May 1208, Herbert appears to have returned to Ramsbury but, the next year, Pope Innocent III wrote to him concerning John's failure to pay Richard's widow Berengaria her pension and directed him, along with Bishop Gilbert, to publish the interdict against John.
The king was excommunicated and Herbert again fled to Scotland. In 1212, he and Bishop Gilbert were instructed to release them from their oaths of allegiance to John. In May 1213, John capitulated. Herbert died in 1217. Sources variously place the date on February 6 or May 9 while it was commemorated at Salisbury on 7 January, he was not buried at Wilton. British History Online Archdeacons of Canterbury accessed on 30 October 2007 British History Online Bishops of Salisbury accessed on 30 October 2007 British History Online Deans of Salisbury accessed on 30 October 2007 Fryde, E. B.. Handbook of British Chronology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X
Saint Osmund
Osmund, Count of Sées, was a Norman noble and clergyman. Following the Norman conquest of England, he served as Lord Chancellor and as the second bishop of Salisbury, or Old Sarum. Osmund, a native of Normandy, accompanied William the Conqueror to England, was made Chancellor of the realm about 1070, he was employed in many civil transactions and was engaged as one of the Chief Commissioners for drawing up the Domesday Book. Some late sources state he was created Earl of Dorset at the same time, but he did not refer to himself with that title. Osmund became bishop of Salisbury by authority of Gregory VII, was consecrated by Archbishop Lanfranc around 3 June 1078, his diocese comprised the counties of Dorset and Berkshire, having absorbed the former bishoprics of Sherborne and Ramsbury under its incumbent Herman at the 1075 Council of London. In his Acts of the English Bishops, William of Malmesbury describes medieval Salisbury as a fortress rather than a city, placed on a high hill, surrounded by a massive wall.
Peter of Blois referred to the castle and church as "the ark of God shut up in the temple of Baal." Henry I's biographer C. Warren Hollister suggests the possibility that Osmund was in part responsible for Henry's education. In 1086 Osmund was present at the Great Gemot held at Old Sarum when the Domesday Book was accepted and the great landowners swore fealty to the sovereign. Osmund died in the night of 3 December 1099, was succeeded, after the see had been vacant for eight years, by Roger of Salisbury, a statesman and counsellor of Henry I, his remains were buried at Old Sarum, translated to New Salisbury on 23 July 1457, deposited in the Lady Chapel, where his sumptuous shrine was destroyed under Henry VIII. A flat slab with the simple inscription MXCIX has lain in various parts of the cathedral. In 1644 it was in the middle of the Lady Chapel, it is now under the easternmost arch on the south side. Osmund's work was threefold — first, the building of the cathedral at Old Sarum, consecrated on 5 April 1092.
Five days afterwards a thunderstorm destroyed the roof and damaged the whole fabric. Second was the constitution of a cathedral body; this was framed on the usual Norman model, with dean, precentor and treasurer, whose duties were defined, some thirty-two canons, a subdean, succentor. All save the last two were bound to residence; these canons were "secular," each living in his own house. Their duties were to be special companions and advisers of the bishop, to carry out with fitting solemnity the full round of liturgical services and to do missionary work in the surrounding districts. There was formed a school for clergy; the cathedral was constituted "the Mother Church" of the diocese, "a city set on a hill". Osmund's canons were renowned for their musical talent and their zeal for learning, had great influence on the foundation of other cathedral bodies. Third was the formation of the "Sarum Use." In Osmund's day there were many other "Uses" and other customs peculiar to local churches, the number was increased by the influx of Normans under William.
Osmund invented or introduced little himself, though the Sarum rite had some peculiarities distinct from that of other churches. He made selections of the practices he arranged the offices and services. Intended for his own diocese, the Ordinal of Osmund, regulating the Divine Office and Calendar, was used, within a hundred years throughout England and Ireland, was introduced into Scotland about 1250; the unifying influence of the Norman Conquest made its spread more easy. It held general approval until in Mary's reign so many clergy obtained particular licences from Cardinal Pole to say the Roman Breviary that this became universally received; the "Register of St. Osmund" is a collection of documents without any chronological arrangement, gathered together after his time, divided into two parts: the "Consuetudinary", styled "De Officiis Ecclesiasticis", a series of documents and charters, all more or less bearing on the construction of the cathedral at Old Sarum, the foundation of the cathedral body, the treasures belonging to it, the history of dependent churches.
The existing "Consuetudinary" was taken from an older copy, re-arranged with additions and modifications and ready when Richard Poore consecrated the cathedral at New Salisbury in 1225. A copy verbatim the same as this, was taken from the older book for the use of St. Patrick's, erected into a cathedral and modelled on the church at Sarum by Henry de Loundres, bishop from 1213–28. William of Malmesbury in summing up Osmund's character says he was "so eminent for chastity that common fame would itself blush to speak otherwise than truthfully concerning his virtue. Stern he might not more severe to them than to himself. Free from ambition, he neither imprudently wasted his own substance, nor sought the wealth of others". Osmund gathered together a good library for his canons. A late-medieval source notes, somewhat disdainfully, that as a bishop he would scribe and bind books himself. At one time Osmund thought Archbishop Anselm too unyielding and needlessly scrupulous in the dispute concerning investitures and in 1095 at the Council of Rockingham favoured the king.
But after the Lateran Council in 1099, he boldly sided with the archbishop and the beau
Richard Poore
Richard Poore or Poor was a medieval English clergyman best known for his role in the establishment of modern Salisbury and its cathedral at their present location, away from the fortress at Old Sarum. Poore was the son of Richard of Ilchester known as Richard Toclive, who served as Bishop of Winchester, he was the brother of Herbert Poore, who served as bishop of Salisbury from 1194 to 1217. Richard studied under Stephen Langton at Paris. Richard Poore became Dean of Salisbury in 1197, unsuccessfully was nominated to the see of Winchester in 1205 and attained the see of Durham in 1213, his election to Durham was disallowed by Pope Innocent III before it was made public because the pope knew that King John wished for the translation of his advisor John de Gray from the see of Norwich to Durham. During the interdict on England during King John's reign, Richard returned to Paris to teach until the interdict was lifted, it was during these years before Poore held an episcopal office that he completed Osmund's Institutio, as well as his own works the Ordinale and the Consuetudinarium.
The Institutio detailed the duties of the cathedral clergy at Salisbury, along with their rights. The Ordinale covered the liturgy, how the various specialised services interacted with the basic divine service; the last work, the Consuetudinarium, gave the customs of Salisbury itself. Both the Consuetudinarium and the Ordinale were guides to the Sarum Rite, the usual form of liturgy in thirteenth century England. While he was dean, he encouraged Robert of Flamborough to write a penitential. Poore was Bishop of Chichester in 1215, being elected about 7 January and consecrated on 25 January at Reading, he attended the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. He served as one of the executors of King John's estate. Poore's brother, Herbert Poore, died in 1217, Richard succeeded to his position as Bishop of Salisbury by 27 June, he owed his move to the see of Salisbury to Cardinal Guala Bicchieri. It was during this time that he oversaw and helped plan the construction of the new Salisbury Cathedral as a replacement for the old cathedral at Old Sarum.
He laid out the town of Salisbury in 1219, to allow the workers building the cathedral a less cramped town than the old garrison town at Old Sarum. The cathedral, was not dedicated until 1258, it was while Poore was at Salisbury that he issued his Statutes of Durham, which derived their name from the fact that he reissued them after being moved to the see of Durham. These statutes were influential on many other episcopal legislation, he welcomed the first Franciscan friars to Salisbury around 1225. He served as a royal justice in 1218 and 1219. In 1223, with the fall from power of Peter des Roches bishop of Winchester, Ranulph earl of Chester, Falkes de Breauté, Richard helped Hubert de Burgh take over the government, along with Stephen Langton and Jocelin of Wells bishop of Bath and Wells; the four men worked together to govern England for the next five years. While Poore was at Salisbury, he took part in the translation of St Wulfstan's in 1218, in the translation of Saint Thomas Becket's relics in 1220.
At the event, he was the only other bishop besides Stephen Langton to examine Becket's body. Richard petitioned Pope Gregory IX to have the first bishop of Salisbury, Osmund de Sees canonized, but was unsuccessful. Osmund was made a saint in 1457. Poore was translated to the see of Durham on 14 May 1228. With his move to Durham, he withdrew from royal service, although he was back in service when Peter des Roches returned to power in late 1232 and early 1233. At Durham, he inherited a quarrel between the bishop and the cathedral chapter that involved the election of the prior and the right of the bishop to undertake visitations of the priory; the quarrel had begun under Richard Marsh, had led to appeals to the papal curia from the monks. Soon after coming to Durham, Richard issued a set of detailed constitutions that governed many of the relations between the bishop, the prior, the cathedral chapter, the basis of church government in Durham until the Dissolution of the monasteries under King Henry VIII of England.
In 1220, while Poore was bishop of Salisbury, he ordered his clergy to instruct a few children so that the children might in turn teach the rest of the children in basic church doctrine and prayers. He had the clergy preach every Sunday that children should not be left alone in a house with a fire or water. During his time in Salisbury, he promoted the education of boys by endowing some schoolmasters with benefices provided they did not charge for instruction. In 1237, Richard established a retirement house for the old and infirm clergy of the diocese of Durham. Richard was an opponent of pluralism, the holding of more than one benefice at the same time, he not only held that a clerk receiving a new benefice should give up the old one, but that if the clerk protested about the loss, he should lose both benefices. He decreed that the clergy should not be involved in "worldly business". Poore House at Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury is named in honour of his legacy to Salisbury schools. Poore died on 15 April 1237 at the manor of Tarrant Keyneston in Dorset.
His tomb was claimed for both Durham and Salisbury, but most he was buried in the church at Tarrant Keyneston, what he had wished. He is commemorated with a statue in niche 170 on the west front of Salisbury Cathedral
