became
Chancellor of the University of Oxford, then of the diocese of
Canterbury. Having withdrawn again to France, he was ordained priest
at Orleans, and then worked as vicar at Deal, from which post he was
called upon to occupy again his earlier office at Canterbury. Then
came his appointment to Chichester. The canons had elected Robert
Passelew, but the archbishop objected. Henry III., having supported
the first nominee, disputed Richard's election. Meanwhile the king
appropriated the temporalities for two years. Richard appealed to
Innocent IV., who confirmed the appointment and consecrated Richard at
Lyons in 1245. This did not end the difference, for on the new
bishop's return he was obliged to accept the hospitality of his
clergy, the king being still hostile. But he did not allow these
difficulties to interfere with his attention to episcopal duty, for he
walked throughout the diocese, organising and teaching as he went. In
his leisure he followed the pursuits of his youth, and spent his spare
time in farming and gardening. He was an excellent man, whose peculiar
sanctity rests largely upon his having succeeded in doing the duties
some of his predecessors had disregarded, and for a generosity which
outran his income. Accepting that law which the papacy had added to
those of Christianity, he treated the married clergy with the severity
his sense of duty and obedience urged, for he deprived them of their
benefices, and their wives were denied the offices of the Church both
before and after death. Any bequests to them by their husbands, he
declared, should be confiscated, and the funds derived by this means
devoted to the needs of the cathedral building Rather inconsistently
he taught the beneficed clergy that they should use hospitality and
charity; but like another Malachi, he reminded men that to withhold
the tithe of their increase from the Church made them robbers not of
the clergy, but of their Creator. He instituted the fund afterwards
known as "S. Richard's Pence." It was a system by which regular
offerings should be made for the completion and maintenance of the
cathedral fabric. And, characteristically, he obtained the support of
the archbishop and seven other prelates in their approval of his wish
that they should "recommend visits and offerings to Chichester, for
the repair and completion of the cathedral." This is another evidence
of the great extent of those building operations that were in progress