rold took possession of them.

GISA (1060-1088), a Belgian from Lorraine, found his see in a sad
condition: the church was mean, its revenues small, and its four or
five canons were forced, he says, to beg their bread. He at once set
to work to increase the revenues; and from Edward the Confessor, from
his queen, Edith, then from Harold, and afterwards from William the
Conqueror, he obtained various estates for the support of his canons.

He also changed the way of living of the canons, and built a cloister,
dormitory, and refectory, thereby forcing them to live a common life,
much as if they were monks--an unpopular innovation which was
supported by the appointment in the foreign fashion of a provost to be
chief officer, the canons choosing for this post one Isaac of Wells.

JOHN DE VILLULA, _Bishop of Bath_ (1088-1122), a rich physician of
Tours. He put an end to the semi-monastic discipline of Gisa by
pulling down his community buildings and erecting a private house of
his own on the site. And he removed the see of Somersetshire from
Wells to the Abbey of Bath.

GODFREY (1123-1135).

ROBERT OF LEWES (1136-1166), the second founder of the cathedral; he
made the constitution of the chapter, he rebuilt the old Saxon church,
and he started Wells as a borough by the grant of its first charter of
freedom. Of a Fleming family, though born in England, he was a monk
from the Cluniac house of St. Pancras at Lewes; and to another and
more famous Cluniac monk, Bishop Henry of Winchester, King Stephen's
brother, he owed his advancement. In the very year of his consecration
he began the recovery of Wells from the low estate in which John de
Villula and his rapacious relatives had left it. He restored their
property to the canons, and, in order to secure it, he divided it off
from the property of the see by a charter of incorporation. He
assisted at Henry II.'s coronation in 1154, and at the consecration of
Thomas a Becket in 1162.

Bishop Robert arranged the quarrel with Bath by settling that Bath
should take precedence of Wells, but that the bishop should have his
throne in both churches, and be elected by the two chapters
conjointly.

By the charter which incorporated the chapter of Wells, Robert also
settled portions of the estate, or prebends, on the twenty-two canons,
and founded the offices of dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer,
sub-dean, provost, and sub-chanter, all of which, except the two last,
still exist.