Brought up as a Jesuit at Douai, Herbert Croft returned to the Anglican church under the influence of Bishop Morton of Durham. Ordained deacon and priest in 1638, he became dean of Hereford at the height of the Civil War in 1644. When the city was taken by Colonel Birch’s Roundheads, he preached bravely from the pulpit against sacrilege and wanton destruction – his pulpit still stands in the cathedral and a roundel showing the scene appears on the west front. During the Commonwealth, he was dispossessed but returned as bishop of Hereford at the Restoration of Charles II. He was a man of great piety, conscientious in his duties. A contemporary correspondent wrote that ‘the bishop hath won the hearts of all sorts of people, and yesterday at least five hundred persons came to be confirmed to their great joy and comfort’. He was generous – providing a weekly dole at the palace gate for 60 poor people. Although brought up a Roman Catholic, he dealt harshly with the Jesuit College at Cwm in the south of the diocese, confiscating its library – which is still in the possession of the cathedral. At the same time, he worked tirelessly to heal divisions among the Protestant churches and to encourage the return of nonconformists to the established church. His tomb-slab in the southeast transept is alongside that of his dean, George Benson. Engraved hands are joined,across the black slabs -a great symbol of friendship, with the inscription, ‘In vita coniuncti, in morte non divisi’ – ‘united in life, not divided by death’