50
RIDDELLS OF NORMANDY AND ARDNAMURCHAN.
Chapel of St. Catherine, in Westminster, that he had in no way, know-
ingly, been accessory to the murder of the archbishop, an accusation not
unnaturally made against him, from the active part he was known to have
taken in the king's proceedings. He was then solemnly enthroned, but
his consecration did not take place, the See of Canterbury being vacant,
until October, 1174.
On the retirement of Richard de Luci, in 1179, Bishop Galfridus was
appointed, with the Bishops of Winchester and Norwich, to fill the office
of Chief Justiciary, and on the division of the kingdom by the Council
of Windsor into four judicial circuits, these prelates were respectively
placed at the head of three of them. They were superseded the following
year, but Galfridus appears to have acted subsequently in court, as he was
one of the justices before whom a fine was levied in 1182. In the roll of
Richard I, his pleas are recorded as a justice itinerant in no less than five
counties. As, however, he died Aug. 21, 1189, in the interval between
the death of King Henry and the coronation of King Richard, which
took place within thirteen days of Galfridus' death, that monarch, finding
that he had died intestate, appropriated to the expense of the ceremony
the treasures he found in his coffers, amounting to three thousand and
sixty silver marks, and two hundred and five golden ones, no very vast ac-
cumulation after ruling so rich a diocese for nearly fifteen years. He had,
however, devoted a large sum during his life to the improvement of his
cathedral and the erection of the two towers from the foundation. The
cognomen, superbus, which he acquired, is stated to have been given from
the arrogance of his disposition and his want of affability. The his-
tory of Ely relates that his tomb was violated, and that his successor,
William de Longchamp, on the day of his enthronization, ascended the
pulpit, and with the other bishops present, excommunicated all those who
had committed the sacrilege, or consented thereto. During his term of
office he repaired St. Etheldreda's shrine, and added different vestments
and ornaments to those in use; he gave to the church five rich copes of red
silk, bound with gold lace and adorned with golden flowers, one of the
copes having a circle of precious stones set in silver, an abbe starred with
gold, a mitre, and a noble altar cloth. He also redeemed many ornaments
which had been forfeited by his predecessor, and granted and confirmed
by charter the sum of one hundred marks to be annually paid to the
Sacrist from the treasury, to provide a wax taper to be kept burning
constantly before the high altar in the church forever; and two marks aris-
ing from lands in Somersham and Stokings, toward finding provision for
the convent, and for an allowance of rye and good beer to be made on
two days in the year. He had been nominated one of the executors of
King Henry's will, which bears date at Waltham, A. D. 1182. The king
dying abroad, in July, 1189, he went down (with many other bishops) to
Winchester in great state, to await the arrival of the new king, and while
there he was taken ill and died a few days after. His body was conveyed
thence to Ely* and interred in the cathedral church. Whether he was
* The monastery of Ely was founded by Etheldreda, daughter of Anna, King of ・
the East Angles. Her first design was to build the cathedral at Craterdune, about
a mile distant from the present city, where Ethelbert, King of the East Angles, is
said to have founded a monastery, which was destroyed by the army of Penda, King
of Mercia. From the Saxon Chronicles I learn that Etheldreda began her building
at Ely in the year 673, and the year following was consecrated abbess of her own
foundation. She was born about the year 630, at Ixning, in the western part of
