Roman foundations, and mark the
limits of the Roman town.

Of the South Saxon cathedral church at Selsey we know almost nothing.
It seems to have been established as a Benedictine house under an
abbot who was also bishop, but later the monks were replaced by secular
canons. Then when in 1075 the See was removed from Selsey to Chichester
the old church dedicated in honour of St Peter, which stood upon the
site of the present cathedral, was used as the cathedral church, and
the Benedictine nuns, to whom it then belonged were dispossessed in
favour of the canons. This, however, did not last long; by 1091 a new
Norman church, the work of Bishop Ralph, whose great stone coffin
stands in the Lady Chapel, had been built upon this site and dedicated
in honour of the Blessed Trinity, the old church being commemorated in
the nave, which still was used as the parochial church of St Peter
Major. This new building, however, was soon so badly damaged by fire
that it was necessary to rebuild it--this in 1114; but a like fate
befell it in 1187, and again the church was restored, this time by
Bishop Seffrid. Then in the thirteenth century came Bishop Richard. He
was consecrated in 1245, and ruled the diocese for eight years. This
man was a saint, and in 1261 he was canonised. Thus Chichester got a
shrine of its own, which became exceedingly famous and attracted vast
crowds of pilgrims, and thus indirectly brought so much money to the
church that great works, such as the transformed Lady Chapel, and the
many chapels which the Cathedral boasts, were able to be undertaken.

St Richard of Chichester was not a Sussex man; he was born about 1197,
at Droitwich in Worcestershire, and thus gets his name Richard de
Wyche. His father, a man well-to-do, died, however, when Richard was
very young, and he being only a younger son fell into poverty. We find
him, according to his fifteenth-century biographer, labouring on his
brother's land, and to such good purpose, it is said, that he quite re-
established his family, and withal such love was there between the
brothers that the elder would have resigned all his estates in favour
of the younger. But Richard would not consent, preferring to go as a
poor scholar to Oxford, where, we learn, that he lived in the utmost
poverty sharing indeed a tunic and a hooded gown with two companions,
so that the three could only attend lectures in turn. At Oxford he
seems chiefly to have devoted himself to the study