try round to honour both Church
and State on this occasion. The great procession, gorgeous with
embroidered cope and many a rich vestment, with episcopal staff and
crozier both of prior and abbot carried aloft, must have formed an
imposing spectacle as it filed up the long nave of the cathedral,
thronged, doubtless, to overflowing by many citizens--for unusual
interest would be evinced by Winchester in this enthronement of one
long known to them, now Chancellor of England and certainly, next
to the King and Archbishop, the greatest man in the country."

As bishop, Wykeham found plenty to do, apart from his ecclesiastical
duties, in repairing his various palaces, and in housing the
predecessors of his Winchester scholars in a house on St. Giles's Hill,
until such time as he could give them fitting buildings and a chapel of
their own. But before Wykeham could see his schemes take an
architectural form, he was to suffer the loss of royal favour owing to
the death of the Black Prince and the rise into power of his enemy, John
of Gaunt. The bishop was charged with the misappropriation of a small
sum of money, and, judgment being given against him, the temporalities
of the see of Winchester were seized, and he was forbidden to come
within twenty miles of the Court. He retired to Waverley Abbey, of which
some picturesque ruins remain, near Farnham; and although on the King's
jubilee pardon was granted to all offenders, a special exception was
made in the case of "Sire William de Wykeham".

[Illustration: WYKEHAM'S CHANTRY]

This was more than the heads of the Church could stand, especially as
the original charge was an unjust one; so at the ensuing meeting of
Convocation, Courtenay, then Bishop of London, declared boldly that
unless their favourite bishop was reinstated in office, no money would
be forthcoming from the clergy. In less than a month the pressing need
of funds caused the King to send a messenger to Waverley and beg Wykeham
to return to his house at Southwark. This was the first step, which,
however, did not mean an immediate return to the temporalities, as these
had been settled on the youthful heir apparent, Richard; but the people
took up Wykeham's cause, and on June 18, 1377, in the presence of the
little Richard, his uncle, and the King's council, Wykeham promised to
fit out three galleys for sea, in return for the temporalities of
Winchester. Two days later Edward II