Life

He was a canon

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

 of Salisbury before he was Dean of Salisbury

Dean of Salisbury

The Dean of Salisbury is the Head of the Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral in the Church of England. The current Dean is The Very Revd June Osborne, who was installed in 2004.-Selected office-holders:*Walter 1102*Osbert 1105*Robert 1111*Serlo 1122...

 by 17 January 1258. He was also a papal chaplain. He had a dispensation

Dispensation (Catholic Church)

In the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, a dispensation is the suspension by competent authority of general rules of law in particular cases...

 for his election to the bishopric due to his illegitimacy. He was elected to the see of Salisbury about 6 March 1271 and consecrated on 13 May 1274. He died on 24 April 1284. Before his death, he became blind, and a coadjutor was appointed to the see on 12 February 1282. He may have been related to an archdeacon

Archdeacon

An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...

of Salisbury, Thomas de Wickhampton.