St Richard of Chichester was not a Sussex man; he was born about 1197,
at Droitwich in Worcestershire, and thus gets his name Richard de
Wyche. His father, a man well-to-do, died, however, when Richard was
very young, and he being only a younger son fell into poverty. We find
him, according to his fifteenth-century biographer, labouring on his
brother's land, and to such good purpose, it is said, that he quite re-
established his family, and withal such love was there between the
brothers that the elder would have resigned all his estates in favour
of the younger. But Richard would not consent, preferring to go as a
poor scholar to Oxford, where, we learn, that he lived in the utmost
poverty sharing indeed a tunic and a hooded gown with two companions,
so that the three could only attend lectures in turn. At Oxford he
seems chiefly to have devoted himself to the study of Logic, and for
this purpose he presently went to Paris, returning, however, to Oxford
to take his degree. Thence once more he set out, this time to study
Canon Law at Bologna, where he not only won a great reputation, but was
appointed a public professor of that faculty.
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