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St. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, was born at Avalon in Burgundy in about 1135. Hugh was a Carthusian monk and when Henry II founded a monastery of that Order at Witham in Somerset he sent for him to take charge of it. Hugh refused to go to Witham until Henry agreed to find accommodation and to compensate those who had been turned out of their homes to make room for the monastery.
This was typical of Hugh's attitude to the rather overbearing King - good temper and firmness. He was able to soothe the King with a joke, often at the King's expense. He calmed the rage of Richard I with a kiss and yet still refused to pay taxes to finance the King's war in France.
In 1186 Hugh became Bishop of Lincoln, which was the largest diocese in England. He was faced with rebuilding the cathedral which had been severely damaged by an earthquake and also had to reorganise the administration of the diocese which had, for almost twenty years, been without a resident Bishop. Following the death of Robert Chesney in 1166 there had been a vacancy until Geoffrey, the King's illegitimate son, was appointed in 1173. He spent little time in the diocese and resigned in 1182. Walter of Coustances was elected Bishop in 1183 but was transferred to Rouen in the following year and there was a vacancy until Hugh's appointment.
Hugh was easily aroused to anger, particularly when he found injustice in any form and he stood up alone before rioting mobs incensed against the Jews. Although Hugh was no respecter of persons he himself was regarded highly and when he died at Lincoln's Inn in London on 16 November 1200 the coffin was met on the outskirts of Lincoln by the Kings of England and Scotland, three archbishops, numerous bishops, abbots and nobles. King John was one of those who helped carry the coffin to its resting place in Hugh's Cathedral. Hugh was canonised in 1220.
From Lincolnshire People. FURTHER READING: Farmer, D. H. Saint Hugh of Lincoln (1985)