ted a whole cluster of quasi-conventual buildings, but we are not
told that he found it necessary to rebuild the church, although he
complained that he found it mean and its revenues small. Indeed, the
fact that Giso was buried under an arch in the wall on the north side
of the high altar, as his predecessor Duduc had been buried on the
south side, shows that he had not rebuilt the church.

On Giso's death, John de Villula at once swept away his buildings, and
set up a bishop's house on their site. John, however, made Bath his
cathedral church, and suffered the church of Wells to fall into the
decay from which it was rescued by the first "Maker of Wells," Bishop
Robert of Lewes.

The active episcopate of Robert of Lewes (1136-66) was as important an
era in the history of the church as in that of the chapter. In spite
of the anarchy of Stephen's reign, Robert set steadily to work; and,
while the neighbouring barons were battering each other's castles, the
bishop reared the first great cathedral church of Wells. How much of
the old Saxon building he left we cannot tell; but it was in a ruinous
condition, and he may have pulled it completely down, or he may have
left one part for later builders to deal with. In 1148 his new Norman
church was consecrated, a massive round-arched building, its nave
perhaps as large as the present one, and its choir under the tower
with a small presbytery beyond. This date may be taken as the
beginning of the present cathedral; for all the succeeding
reconstructions followed the lines of Bishop Robert's church. Yet the
Norman work has disappeared almost as completely as the Saxon, and the
font is the only object which can be claimed as undoubtedly
Romanesque. Of distinctly Norman mouldings there are none in the
church, and only a few fragments in other places. Seldom has one of
those strong Norman buildings so utterly vanished from sight. But many
stones dressed in the Norman fashion can still be traced by the expert
in the eastern part of the church (p. 74), having been no doubt used
up again by the later workmen; and there may be masses of undisturbed
masonry hidden in the walls.

Bishop Robert, as we know from one of his charters, did something also
for the order of his church. Mammon had gradually encroached upon the
sacred precincts, and the markets had come to be held in the
"vestibule," and in the church itself; the busy hum of the buyers and
sellers marred the quiet of God's house,