ecame an ideal character even under his direction. There is an
interregnum not only in Lincoln but in Exeter Diocese between Bishop
Bartholomew and John the Chaunter, 1184-1186; one in Worcester between
the translation of Baldwin and William de Northale, 1184-1186; and a bad
one in York after the death of Roger, 1181, before King Richard
appointed his half-brother Geoffrey aforementioned, who was not
consecrated until August, 1191. But Hugh's chief work at Witham was in
his building, his spiritual and intellectual influence upon the men he
came to know, in the direction of personal and social holiness: and,
above all, he was mastering the ways and works of England so
sympathetically that he was able to take a place afterwards as no longer
a Burgundian but a thorough son of the nation and the church. One
instance may be given of his teaching and its wholesome outlook. He
lived in an age of miracles, when these things were demanded with an
insatiable appetite and supplied in a competitive plenty which seems
equally inexhaustible, almost as bewildering to our age as our deep
thirst for bad sermons and quack medicines will be to generations which
have outgrown our superstitions. St. Hugh had drunk so deeply and
utterly and with all his mind of the gravity and the humility which was
traditional from the holy authors of the Carthusian Order, that "there
was nothing he seemed to wonder at or to wish to copy less than the
marvels of miracles. Still, when these were read or known in connection
with holy men, he would speak of them gently and very highly respect
them. He would speak of them, I say, as commending of those who showed
them forth, and giving proof to those who marvelled at such things, for
to him the great miracle of the saints was their sanctity, and this by
itself was enough for guidance. The heartfelt sense of his Creator,
which never failed him, and the overwhelming and fathomless number of
His mighty works, were for him the one and all-pervading miracle." If we
remember that Adam, his biographer, wrote these words not for us, but
for his miracle-mongering contemporaries, they will seem very strong
indeed. He goes on to say that all the same, whether Hugh knew it or
not, God worked many miracles through him, as none of his intimates
could doubt, and we could rather have wished that he had left the
saint's opinion intact, for it breathes a lofty atmosphere of bright
piety, and is above the controversies of our lower