e. The king readily consented, and the church
of St. Mary and St. Peter was given to the bishop as his cathedral
church. The event was clearly regarded as of considerable importance,
for at his installation Edward the Confessor "supported his right arm
and Queen Eadgytha his left." Archbishops, bishops, and nobles also
assisted at the ceremony. Leofric proved a hard-working and wise
prelate, and gave generously of lands and moneys to his church. He had
found it but poorly furnished, the wardrobe only containing "one
worthless priest's dress." He also remembered it in his will, and the
great "Liber Exoniensis" was his gift.

But if the history of the see has its birth with Leofric, the story of
the cathedral begins with the appointment in 1107 of Warelwast as
bishop. This noteworthy man was a nephew of the Conqueror and chaplain
to both William II and Henry I. Inheriting to the full the Norman
passion for building, he pulled down the Saxon edifice and began to
erect a great Norman cathedral in its stead. The transeptal towers
attest the magnificence of his scheme. There is nothing quite like them
anywhere else, though at Barcelona and Chalons-sur-Marne may be seen
something similar. But they suffice to stamp him as an architect of
exceptional genius. He laboured zealously in other matters, founding at
Plympton a wealthy Augustinian priory; he also represented the king at
Rome in his famous quarrel with Anselm. It is said that he became blind
and died, an old man, at his priory of Plympton.

The next important date to notice is 1194, when Henry Marshall, brother
of Walter Earl Marshall, was made bishop. For two years the episcopal
throne had remained empty, the king being absent from England in the
Holy Land. But with the appointment of Marshall a most important stage
is reached. King John gave to the see the tithes of the tin in
Devonshire and Cornwall. This must have largely increased the episcopal
income, for Marshall quickly set about completing the work Warelwast had
begun a hundred years before. To this end he granted the emoluments of
St. Erth's Church, near Hayle, Cornwall, to be used towards defraying
the cost of repairs. He also called upon each householder to show his
interest in the work by subscribing, at Pentecost, an alms of "unum
obolum ad minim." For the sufficient remuneration of the choral vicars
he made over to them the church of St. Swithun in Woodbury, "with all
its appurtenances."

To Marshall we