e had done that
they never heard the like; and he often repeated, "The evildoing is
mine, truly, solely, and wholely. The good, if there is any, is not so.
It is mixed with evil; it is everywhere gross with it. So it is neither
truly nor purely good." The Sacrament was brought him at nine o'clock
the next day, and he flung himself from his bed, clad in his hair shirt
and cowl, with naked feet, knelt, worshipped, and prayed long before it,
recalling the infinite benefits of the Saviour to the children of men,
commending his sinfulness to Christ's mercy, asking for help to the end
and imploring with tears never to be left. Then he was houselled and
anointed. He said, "Now let our doctors and our diseases meet, as far as
may be. In our heart there will be less trouble about them both. I have
committed myself to Him, received Him, shall hold Him, stick to Him, to
whom it is good to stick, Whom to hold is blessed. If a man receives
Him and commits himself to Him he is strong and safe." He was then told
to make his will, and said it was a tiresome new custom, for all he had
was not his, but belonged to the church he ruled; but lest the civil
officer should take all, he made his will. "If any temporal goods should
remain after my death in the bishopric, now here all which I seem to
possess I hand over to the Lord Jesus Christ, to be bestowed upon the
poor." The executors were the dean and the two archdeacons. After this
simple but not surprising will he called for his stole and anathematized
all who should knavishly keep back, or violently carry off, any of his
goods, or otherwise frustrate his executors.

He grew worse. He confessed daily the lightest thought or word of
impatience against his nurses. He was much in prayer, and he had the
offices said at the right times however ill he was. He sang with the
psalm-singers while he could. If they read or sang carelessly or
hurriedly, he chastened them with a terrible voice and insisted upon
clear pronunciation and perfect time. He made every one stand and sit by
turns, so that while one set were resting the other were reverencing the
divine and angelic presences. He had always been punctilious about the
times of prayer and used always to withdraw from the bench to say his
offices when they were due.

King John came in one day, but the bishop, who could sit up for his
food, neither rose nor sat to greet him. The king said that he and his
friends would do all they could for him. T