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YORK.
CHAPTER XI.
Much interesting matter as regards the state of the
diocese and the work of its ruler is presented by the
history of Walter de Gray, who comes next in succession
to Geoffry, and was assuredly one of the most
distinguished prelates who ever occupied the archiepiscopal
throne of York. He was a man of high
connections, and early in life obtained many ecclesiastical
preferments through the favour of King
John. In 1 2 13 we find him made bishop of Worcester.
In 1 2 1 5 John gave permission to the chapter
of York to proceed to an election, with a strong hint
that it would be acceptable to him if the bishop of
Worcester were appointed. They preferred Simon
de Langton, brother of the famous Archbishop of
Canterbury, but the pope, at the king's instigation,
rejected him. Gray was then suggested, and on him
the pope bestowed the pall, but it is said that the
assent of the supreme pontiff was not procured without
a payment of the prodigious sum of ;^io,ooo.
Gray held many offices of state. He was a chancellor
under John, whose interests he seems always
to have consulted. In the great controversy with the
barons as to the granting of the Great Charter, he was
on the side of the king, though it does not appear
that he offered any active opposition to the demand
made for that great constitutional compact with the