In this work King Henry I. assisted him generously;
gave him stone, and commanded that all material brought up the River
Fleet for the cathedral should be free from toll; gave him moreover
all the fish caught within the cathedral neighbourhood, and a tithe
of all the venison taken in the County of Essex. These last boons may
have arisen from the economical and abstemious life which the bishop
lived, in order to devote his income to the cathedral building.
Belmeis also gave a site for St. Paul's School; but though he, like
his predecessor, occupied the see for twenty years, he did not see the
completion of the cathedral. He seems to have been embittered because
he failed in attaining what his soul longed for--the removal of the
Primatial chair from Canterbury to London. Anselm, not unreasonably,
pronounced the attempt an audacious act of usurpation. Belmeis's
health broke down. He was attacked with creeping paralysis, and sadly
withdrew himself from active work, devoting himself to the foundation
of the monastery of St. Osyth, in Essex. There, after lingering four
years, he died, and there he lies buried.
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