returned to England, December 1st, 1170, after a hollow reconciliation
with the King, he was asked to remove his sentence of excommunication
on Foliot and the Bishops of Salisbury and York, who had, as he held,
usurped his authority. He refused, unless they made acknowledgment
of their errors. The sequel we know. The King's hasty exclamation on
hearing of this brought about the Archbishop's murder on the 29th
of the same month. During the excommunication, Foliot seems to have
behaved wisely and well. He refused to accept it as valid, but
stayed away from the cathedral to avoid giving offence to sensitive
consciences. After Becket's murder, he declared his innocence of
any share in it, and the Bishop of Nevers removed the sentence of
excommunication.

It was at this period that the Deanery was occupied by the first
man of letters it had yet possessed, Ralph de Diceto. His name is
a puzzle; no one has as yet ascertained the place from which it is
taken. Very probably he was of foreign birth. When Belmeis was made
Bishop of London in 1152, Diceto succeeded him as Archdeacon of
Middlesex. His learning was great, and his chronicles (which have been
edited by Bishop Stubbs) are of great historical value. In the Becket
quarrel Diceto was loyal to Foliot, but he also remained friendly with
Becket. In 1180, he became Dean of St. Paul's. Here he displayed great
and most valuable energy; made a survey of the capitular property
(printed by the Camden Society under the editorship of Archdeacon
Hale), collected many books, which he presented to the Chapter,
built a Deanery House, and established a "fratery," or guild for the
ministration to the spiritual and bodily wants of the sick and poor.
He died in 1202. He wrote against the strict views concerning the
celibacy of the clergy promulgated by Pope Gregory VII., and declared
that the doctrine and the actual practice made a great scandal to