Foliot, Robert

Foliot, Robert cousin of bishop Gilbert Foliot, was a native of Devonshire. According to Bale (De Script oribus Brit. cent. 3, No. 8), he lived for a long time in France, where he got the surname of Robertus Melodunensis (Robert of Melun). He was first tutor to Becket, by whose favor he succeeded his kinsman in the see of Hereford. He wrote several books, of which that on The Sacrament of the Old Law is the most remarkable. According to bishop Godwin (Lives of the Bishops) Robert, de Melun (also bishop of Hereford) was a distinct person from Robert Foliot, and the latter was advanced bishop after the death of Becket; He is also called the archdeacon of Oxford. He died in 1186. See Fuller, Worthies of England (ed. Nuttall), 1:404.