Flambard

Wide the Wear winds its course,
Past Durholme on both sides,
Young Flambard on a chestnut horse
Through the woodland rides.

He sees the vision glorious:
The might of stone on stone!
May Durholme's tower victorious
For Flambard's sins atone!

Profuse and profligate, contemptuous of all,
Roguish and greedy, handsome, full of guile,
Vulgar in religion, broad and strong and tall,
Flambard's fortitude and fame waxes all the while!
Known for prodigality, wanting in morality,
Not given to frugality,of dubious legality,
All praise to Flambard, Bishop Prince,
Mainspring of iniquity!

Great Durholme's robust transepts rise
Astride the soaring choir.
Beneath the pallid northern skies
The walls mount ever higher.

Across the Wear a bridge is flung,
The masons' chisels ringing.
Down the nave the vaults are slung
The choir fills with singing.

Profuse and profligate, contemptuous of all,
Roguish and greedy, handsome, full of guile,
Vulgar in religion, broad and strong and tall,
Flambard's fortitude and fame waxes all the while!
Known for prodigality, wanting in morality,
Not given to frugality,of dubious legality,
All praise to Flambard, Bishop Prince,
Mainspring of iniquity!

Flambard feeds his architects
On venison and boar,
The city's walls he now erects
For archers by the score.

Along the high peninsula
The oxen haul the stone,
All critics snide or insular
By Flambard overthrown.

Profuse and profligate, contemptuous of all,
Roguish and greedy, handsome, full of guile,
Vulgar in religion, broad and strong and tall,
Flambard's fortitude and fame waxes all the while!
Known for prodigality, wanting in morality,
Not given to frugality,of dubious legality,
All praise to Flambard, Bishop Prince,
Mainspring of iniquity!

Cuthbert's body incorrupt:
Enshrined in marble cold
A score of jewellers now construct
Reliquaries of gold.

Wond'rous images and jewels
Bedeck the abbey's walls
Still the schemes of prudes and fools
Shrewd Flambard oft forestalls.

Profuse and profligate, contemptuous of all,
Roguish and greedy, handsome, full of guile,
Vulgar in religion, broad and strong and tall,
Flambard's fortitude and fame waxes all the while!
Known for prodigality, wanting in morality,
Not given to frugality,of dubious legality,
All praise to Flambard, Bishop Prince,
Mainspring of iniquity!

The sceptics are confounded -
The abbey's all but built
And Cuthbert's tomb surrounded
By crusts of stones and gilt.

The pilgrims hasten to adore
And seek St. Cuthbert's will.
They bring their silver coins galore
And Flambard's coffers fill.

Profuse and profligate, contemptuous of all,
Roguish and greedy, handsome, full of guile,
Vulgar in religion, broad and strong and tall,
Flambard's fortitude and fame waxes all the while!
Known for prodigality, wanting in morality,
Not given to frugality,of dubious legality,
All praise to Flambard, Bishop Prince,
Mainspring of iniquity!

Flambard dies, his goods endowed:
Griffins adorn his cope
Two more sewn with peacocks proud,
A silver censer from the Pope,

Tapestries in richest hue,
Silken, every stitch,
And crosses made of lapis blue
Flambard's church enrich.

Profuse and profligate, contemptuous of all,
Roguish and greedy, handsome, full of guile,
Vulgar in religion, broad and strong and tall,
Flambard's fortitude and fame waxes all the while!
Known for prodigality, wanting in morality,
Not given to frugality,of dubious legality,
All praise to Flambard, Bishop Prince,
Mainspring of iniquity!

Now his seals are broken all
On Cuthbert's tomb they lie,
Proof that all the mighty fall,
And all the great must die.

Yet Flambard's voice will never rest
Though he is dust and bone,
"I built this church! My name's impressed
On Durholme's every stone!"

Profuse and profligate, contemptuous of all,
Roguish and greedy, handsome, full of guile,
Vulgar in religion, broad and strong and tall,
Flambard's fortitude and fame waxes all the while!
Known for prodigality, wanting in morality,
Not given to frugality,of dubious legality,
All praise to Flambard, Bishop Prince,
Mainspring of iniquity!

"...an able, greedy and attractive rogue,
"the mainspring of the king's iniquity",
a man profuse and profligate, contemptuous of all,
openly irreligious, weak in learning -
"but a more agreeable wit, a more skilful courtier, a more subtle lawyer,
a more magnificent prelate was not in the kingdom."
...he may have been irreligious, but, under his pontificate,
and thanks largely to his bounding energy and prodigality,
the greatest religious building in England was practically completed.
He may have been a rogue, but he was also able and kind,
and the Palatinate prospered under his rule.
It has been said that the city of Durham owed more to him than to any other bishop.
He may have been greedy and robbed the monks as well as many other people.
And yet their Prior praised him highly after his death."

Sir Timothy Eden "Durham" Vol. 1 p.71