s, and the sum mentioned was paid into
the royal treasury; but the bishop found that he had attained his end at
a cost other than he had reckoned on; public opinion in those days was
quite as powerful a force as it is now, though the channels along which
its force could be felt and its strength find expression were limited.
Indignation was rife, and monkish versifiers and chroniclers protested
in lines more or less uncomplimentary, and more or less forcible, their
loathing of such sin of simony.

Now it is probable that, in expiation of this transgression, Herbert
came to build Norwich Cathedral. It is certain that he almost at once
repented. In after years, in his letters, he says, "I entered on mine
office disgracefully, but by the help of God's grace I shall pass out of
it with credit."

In Dean Goulburn's admirable monograph on the cathedral many of
Herbert's letters are given, and these alone would go to stamp him as a
wonderful man. His conscience was awakened by the popular outcry against
his sin of simony, he plunged into his new duties at Thetford with
ardour in the vain hope of distraction, but failed to find that
consolation he had hoped to; and so about 1093 he determined on a visit
to Rome to tender his resignation and confess his sin to Pope Urban. He
journeyed to Rome and was kindly received, and the absolution he desired
readily granted. The Pope was glad to see an English bishop come to him
for advice, and in granting him absolution he strengthened considerably
his claim to be regarded as head of the English Church.

This lengthy preamble may seem somewhat unjustifiable, but if we are to
study any building aright, and if we are to interpret in any measure its
meaning and symbolism, it cannot wholly be done on any line of abstract
aestheticism or archaeological instinct, however intuitive it may be:
we must in some measure think of the builders of old times and of the
influences which with them produced its inception and have left it to
come down the ages to us.

It is interesting to note that Herbert's early French training
influenced him in the planning of the beautiful eastern termination to
his cathedral, and the grand sweep of the procession path. Similar
apsidal terminations, of slightly later date, once existed at Ely, and
still remain in a modified form at Peterborough.

The old tribunal arrangement of presbyters' seats with the central
bishop's throne facing west, which was part of Herbert'