ging the litany;
then the litany being ended and a sermon first made to the people,
the bishop laid the first stone for our Lord the Pope Honorius, and
the second for the Lord Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury and
Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, at that time with our Lord the King
in the Marches of Wales; then he added to the new fabric a third stone
for himself; William Longespee, Earl of Sarum, who was then present,
laid the fourth stone, and Elaide[3] Vitri, Countess of Sarum, the
wife of the said earl, a woman truly pious and worthy because she was
filled with the fear of the Lord, laid the fifth. After her certain
noblemen, each of them added a stone; then the dean, the chantor, the
chancellor, the archdeacons and canons of the church of Sarum who were
present did the same, amidst the acclamations of multitudes of the
people weeping for joy and contributing thereto their alms with a
ready mind according to the ability which God had given them. But in
process of time the nobility being returned from Wales, several of
them came thither, and laid a stone, binding themselves to some
special contribution for the whole seven years following."

Another account, differing from the more generally accepted version
just quoted, says that: Pendulph, the Pope's legate, in 1216 laid the
first five stones; the first for the Pope, the second for the King,
the third for the Earl of Salisbury, the fourth for the countess, and
the fifth for the bishop. This statement is wrong in date, for Bishop
Poore was not translated to the see of Sarum until the year 1217. In
the charter of Henry I. the first stone is mentioned as having been
laid by the king, _i.e._, in his name.

"On the 15th of August, 1220, at a general chapter when the bishop was
present, it was provided that if any canon of the church failed paying
what he had promised to the fabric for seven years, that next after
fifteen days from the term elapsed, some one should be sent on the
part of the bishop and chapter to raise what was due from the corn
found on the prebend, and so long as he should remain there for that
purpose he should be maintained with all necessaries by the goods of
the said prebend. But if the prebend or any person failing in the
payment of what was promised be in any other bishopric than Sarum,
such canon should be denounced to that bishop by the letter of the
bishop and chapter for his contumacy, either to be suspended from
entering the churc