Note 169 — TINTERNE ABBEY. (continued 2)

It appears, however, that the books so carefully transcribed in the monasteries were seldom understood, or even perused, by the higher clergy; for it is told that Lewis Beaumont, bishop of Durham, 1317, understood not a word of either Latin or English. In reading the bull of his appointment to that see—which he had been taught to spell for several days before—he stumbled upon the word metropolitice, which he in vain endeavoured to pronounce; and, having hammered over it a considerable time, at last cried out in his mother tongue, “Soit pour dite! Par Seynt Lowys, il ne fu pas curteis qui ceste parole ici escrit.”—Robert de Greystanes. Anglia Sacra, 1. 761., as quoted by Craik, 1. 137.