Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T21:06:44.730Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Sulcard of Westminster: ‘Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Bernhard W. Scholz*
Affiliation:
Seton Hall University South Orange, New Jersey

Extract

Sulcard, a monk of Westminster in the eleventh century, is the author of the first history of his monastery, the unprinted Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii. In this brief tract he describes the foundation of Westminster in the days, as he claims, of King Æthelberht of Kent, and the patronage and endowment extended by various benefactors, notably Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury and King Edward the Confessor. Sulcard also records the marvellous dedication of Westminster by St. Peter, patron of the church, and two other miracles worked in Westminster by the prince of the apostles. Another chapter is devoted to King Æthelred II and Alfred the Ætheling. It has nothing to do with Westminster and was obviously inserted to bridge the gap in the history of the monastery between the reigns of Kings Edgar and Edward the Confessor. It does, however, contain some information on Æthelred's siege of Rochester in 986 and a brief reference bearing on the question whether Edward or Alfred was the elder of Æthelred's two sons by Emma. The purpose of this paper is to examine the content of Sulcard's Prologus and to print for the first time the entire text.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For Sulcard and Vitalis see Pearce, E. H., The Monks of Westminster (Notes and Documents Relating to Westminster Abbey 5; Cambridge, England 1916) 40; for Sulcard also, Hardy, T.D., Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland (Rolls Series 1862-71) I ii. 644-5; II 31; Dictionary of National Biography and, for a list of earlier references to Sulcard, Chevalier, U., Répertoire des sources historiques du Moyen Age: Bio-Bibliographie (Paris 1905-07) s. v. ‘Sulcard’; The History of Westminster Abbey by John Flete ed. Robinson, J.A. (Notes and Documents 2; Cambridge 1909) 3-11, 31, 34, 40-43, 77, 83, 84. There are some comments on Sulcard in Histoire littéraire de la France 8 (Paris 1747) 138-40, whose authors derive their material essentially from Pits, John, Relationum historicarum de rebus anglicis tomus I (Paris 1619) 188.Google Scholar

2 For Sulcard's reference to Canterbury see below p. 81. He uses phrases such as primatus approbate religionis, metropolis Cantuariensis, regium caput and principatus in Britannica ecclesia. Although Sulcard does not assert the primacy of Canterbury over the whole English church, his language is remarkably close to the claims made in the forgeries of Christ Church, Canterbury; see Brooke, C.N.L., ‘The Canterbury Forgeries and their Author,’ Downside Review 79 (1951) 228–29; Scholz, B. W., ‘Two Forged Charters from the Abbey of Westminster and their Relationship with St. Denis’, English Historical Review [= EHR] 76 (1961) 473.Google Scholar

3 The letters concerned with Vitalis are in PL 147.463-65.Google Scholar

4 Goscelin of St. Bertin, Liber de miraculis S. Augustini, AS May VI 401.Google Scholar

5 Knowles, D., The Monastic Order in England (Cambridge, England 1950) 580; PL 147 463.Google Scholar

6 For examples see MGH, Scriptores 15.2.960–1125.Google Scholar

7 Wattenbach, W., Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter: Deutsche Kaiserzeit ed. Holtzmann, R. (Tübingen 1948) I 558–59.Google Scholar

8 Below p. 80.Google Scholar

9 ‘Sed cum in hoc quoque beati Petri honorem intenditis’; below p. 81.Google Scholar

10 The only comparable monographs on individual monasteries in England are perhaps the histories of Wearmouth and Jarrow by Bede and an anonymous author; Venerabilis Baedae Opera historica, ed. Plummer, C. (Oxford 1896) I 365404.Google Scholar

11 Polheim, K., Die lateinische Reimprosa (Berlin 1925); Wallach, L., ‘Berthold of Zwiefalten's Chronicle,’ Traditio 13 (1957) 164-66. From the latter article I have profited much for the present chapter.Google Scholar

12 Heningham, E. K., ‘The Genuineness of the Vita Æduuardi Regis,’ Speculum 21 (1946) 453–54; below p. 69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 MS British Museum Cotton Vespasian B XX foll. 204r-204v ; Flete's History of Westminster 57; Historia translationis S. Augustini, PL 155.20.Google Scholar

14 Kemble, J. M., Codex diplomaticus aevi Saxonici [= CD] (London 1839-48) no. 824. Below p. 91 n. 4.Google Scholar

15 William of Malmesbury, De gestis pontificum Anglorum ed. Hamilton, N. E. S. A. (Rolls Series 1870) 141, 178. Robinson considers William's account as ‘quite independent’ (Flete's History of Westminster 7-8).Google Scholar

16 ‘La vie de S. Édouard le Confesseur par Osbert de Clare’ ed. Bloch, M., Analecta Bollandiana 41 (1923) 8386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Ungedruckte anglo-normannische Geschichtsquellen ed. Liebermann, F. (Strassburg and London 1879) 17 n. 1; ‘La vie par Osbert’ 9192.Google Scholar

18 Flete's History of Westminster 40-43; Camden, William, Britain tr. Holland, Philémon (London 1610) 428–29.Google Scholar

19 Bede, , Historia ecclesiastica 1.33, 2.3 [= HE] (Baedae Opera historica I 70, 85). For the early history of Westminster see the works listed in Chevalier, U., Répertoire des sources historiques du Moyen Age: Topo-Bibliographie (Montbéliard 1894-1903) II 3343–44; Widmore, R., An Enquiry into the Time of the First Foundation of Westminster Abbey (London 1743) 1-12; Dugdale, W., Monasticon Anglicanum ed. Caley, J., Ellis, H., Bandinel, B. (London 1817-30) I 265-67; Besant, W., Westminster (New York and London 1895) c. 1; Flete's History of Westminster 2-11; The Victoria History of London , ed. Page, W. (London 1909) I 433-35; Harmer, F. E., Anglo-Saxon Writs (Manchester 1952) 286-89.Google Scholar

20 Birch, W. de G., Cartularium Saxonicum [= CS] (London 1885-93) I 116–18 (no. 82).Google Scholar

21 Gesta pontificum 141, 178; Flete's History of Westminster 7-8.Google Scholar

22 The Crawford Collection of Early Charters and Documents ed. Napier, A.S. and Stevenson, W. H. (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Medieval and Modern Series 7; Oxford 1895) 13; Bede, HE 2.3; Flete's History of Westminster 9.Google Scholar

23 The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury ed. Stubbs, W. (Rolls Series 1879-80) II 3940. The name Sabert appears also in the later manuscript of the Prologus; in the earlier manuscript Sabert is interlined in a later hand; see also Monasticon Anglicanum I 265 n. i.Google Scholar

24 Westlake, H. F., Westminster Abbey (London 1923) I 12; Besant, , Westminster 9-20.Google Scholar

25 Bede, , HE 5.19; Levison, W., England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (Oxford 1946) 38; Victoria History of London I 434.Google Scholar

26 Kemble, , CD no. 149; Birch, CS nos. 245, 1048; Crawford Charters 90 n. 1; Harmer, , AS Writs 501.Google Scholar

27 Levison, , England and the Continent 30.Google Scholar

28 Monasticon Anglicanum I 266–67; Victoria History of London I 434; Flete's History of Westminster 78. On Ordbriht and the charter of 785 see Harmer, , AS Writs 568-69, 499-501, 313-15.Google Scholar

29 Birch, , CS nos. 1050, 1351; Crawford Charters 13.90 n. 1.Google Scholar

30 Lethaby, W. R., Westminster Abbey and the King's Craftsmen (London 1906) 9596; The Chronicle of Æthelweard , ed. Campbell, A. (Medieval Texts; London and New York 1962) 49, 65; Kemble, CD no. 698 (for Ælfwic, abbot of Westminster).Google Scholar

31 Knowles, , Monastic Order 31, 4850; Harmer, , AS Writs 579; Gesta pontificum 178; Vita Sancti Dunstani in Memorials of Saint Dunstan ed. Stubbs, W. (Rolls Series 1874) 304; de Diceto, Radulf, Opera historica (Rolls Series 1876) I 150.Google Scholar

32 Harmer, , AS Writs 579; ‘The Life of Saint Wulsin of Sherborne by Goscelin’ ed. Talbot, C. H., Revue Bénédictine 69 (1959) 7576; Barlow, F. The English Church 1000-1066: A Constitutional History (Hamden, Conn. 1963) 64-5, 222-24.Google Scholar

33 Memorials of St. Dunstan 246–47.Google Scholar

34 Cf. EHR 76 (1961) 471–72.Google Scholar

35 Powicke, F. M. and Fryde, E. B., Handbook of British Chronology (Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks No. 2; 2nd. ed. London 1961) 210.Google Scholar

36 Crawford Charters no. xii; Birch, CS nos. 1050, 1351, 1290, 1263, 1048; Crawford Charters 90 n. 1. Dunstan gave Edgar 120 gold solidi or 120 bezants according to CS nos. 1048 and 1263.Google Scholar

37 Crawford Charters 22, 122–23 (no. ix); Whitelock, D., Anglo-Saxon Wills (Cambridge, England 1930) 30–32, 133-35 (no. xiii); Harmer, , AS Writs 287; Thorpe, B., Diplomatarium Anglicum aevi Saxonici (London 1865) 296-98; Gelling, M., ‘The Boundaries of the Westminster Charters,’ London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Transactions, New Series 11 (1953) 101-04.Google Scholar

38 Gesta pontificum 141.Google Scholar

39 Harmer, , AS Writs nos. 73-106; Freeman, E. A., The History of the Norman Conquest of England (rev. Am. ed. Oxford and New York 1873-79) II 333–43.Google Scholar

40 Vita Ædwardi Regis qui apud Westmonasteriam requiescit ed. and trans. Barlow, F. (London and Edinburgh 1962) 4445.Google Scholar

41 William of Malmesbury, De gestis regum Anglorum ed. Stubbs, W. (Rolls Series 1887-89) I 221. For early Fnglish pilgrimages to Rome see Levison, , England and the Continent 36-44, and H. Leclercq s. v. ‘Pèlerinage à Rome,’ DACL 14.i [1939] 58-61.Google Scholar

42 Southern, R. W., The Making of the Middle Ages (New Haven 1953) 95; The Letters of Osbert of Clare ed. Williamson, E. W. (London 1929) 197.Google Scholar

43 Kemble, , CD nos. 824, 825; ‘La vie par Osbert’ 7782, 87-91; discussed by the editor 46-52; Vita Ædwardi Regis 45 n. 1; see above n. 14.Google Scholar

44 JL 4257, 4462.Google Scholar

45 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle C (s. a. 1049), E (s. a. 1047); Plummer, C., Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel (Oxford 1892-99) II 233; Bloch, , ‘La vie par Osbert’ 47-49; Holtzmann, W., Papsturkunden in England I, Abhandlungen der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen N. F. 25 (1930) 218.Google Scholar

46 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle E (s. a. 1046), D (s. a. 1050); Goscelin of St. Bertin, Historia translationis S. Augustini, PL 155.31-32.Google Scholar

47 Vita Ædwardi Regis 34-35, 34 nn. 3 and 5, 35 n. 3; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle D E (s. a. 1061); Plummer, , Two Chronicles II 249.Google Scholar

48 Kemble, , CD no. 825; Gesta pontificum 251; Historiola de primordiis episcopatus Somersetensis , in Ecclesiastical Documents ed. Hunter, J. (Camden Society 1840) 16, 35. The letter with which the second embassy allegedly returned (JL 4462) is in its introductory formula identical with a genuine letter of Pope Leo III to King Cenwulf of Mercia (MGH Epistolae 2.187-89), a document that was also used by the forgers of Christ Church, Canterbury (Southern, R. W., ‘The Canterbury Forgeries,’ EHR 73 [1958] 216).Google Scholar

49 Westlake, , Westminster Abbey I 13: ‘The new church was begun probably within two or three years of Edward's accession to the throne, for there is record of a gift thereto of land and a wharf in London from Ulf the port sheriff and his wife in 1043 or the following year.’ The document is in MS Westminster Domesday fol. 506. Cf. also R. Widmore's opinion of Edward's vow as quoted in Dugdale, , Monasticon Anglicanum I 267.Google Scholar

50 Vita Ædwardi Regis 6181, 112; above, n. 12.Google Scholar

51 ‘La vie par Osbert’ 1744.Google Scholar

52 Southern, R. W., ‘The First Life of Edward the Confessor,’ EHR 58 (1943) 387; Vita Ædwardi Regis 113; Heningham, , ‘Genuineness of the Vita Æduuardi’ (above, n. 12) 442 n. 96.Google Scholar

53 Böhmer, H., Kirche und Staat in England und in der Normandie (Leipzig 1899) 122 n. 2; Knowles, , Monastic Order 118-19.Google Scholar

54 Flele's History of Westminster 211; Monasticon Anglicanum I 265-66; Victoria History of London I 433-34; Bloch, , ‘La vie par Osbert’ 46 n. 1; Matter, H., Englische Gründungssagen von Geoffrey of Monmouth bis zur Renaissance (Anglistische Forschungen, ed. Hoops, J., 58; Heidelberg 1922) 355. Occasionally we hear of a double dedication to SS. Peter and Paul; see Holtzmann, , Papsturkunden in England I no. 12; JL 8878 (PL 180.1116); Levison, , England and the Continent 35.Google Scholar

55 Günter, H., Psychologie der Legende (Freiburg 1949) 239, and Die christliche Legende des Abendlandes (Heidelberg 1910) 131.Google Scholar

56 Schwartz, G. and Abegg, E., ‘Das Kloster San Michele della Chiusa und seine Geschichtsschreibung,’ Neues Archiv 45 (1924) 245; Liebman, Ch. Jr., ‘La Consécracion légendaire de la Basilique de Saint-Denis’, Le Moyen Age 3e série 6 (1935) 252-64; Memorials of Saint Dunstan 7; Günter, , Psychologie der Legende 104.Google Scholar

57 Flete's History of Westminster 8, 9, 11; Customary of the Benedictine Monasteries of Saint Augustine, Canterbury, and Saint Peter, Westminster ed. Thomson, E. M. II (HBS 28; 1904) 103.Google Scholar

58 Missale ad usum ecclesiae Westmonasteriensis ed. Legg, J. W. (HBS 1, 5, 12; 1891-96) III 1406-7, 1392; I xxii; English Benedictine Kalendars after A. D. 1100 ed. Wormald, F. (HBS 77, 81; 1939-46) II 70.Google Scholar

59 Holtzmann, , Papsturkunden in England I nos. 12, 13. In MS Westminster Domesday fol. 389v there is another indulgence issued to the abbey under Abbot Herbert (1121-35) by the cardinal-priest and legate John. It is identical with Holtzmann's no. 13, with the exception of the clause extending the indulgence to St. Peter's Chains.Google Scholar

60 Liber de miraculis S. Augustini, AS May VI 398; Libellus contra inanes sancte uirginis Mildrethe usurpatores, MS British Museum Cotton Vespasian B XX fol. 264r; Textus translationis et institutionis monasterii B. Mildrethe, ibid. foll. 185v-186r (all written c. 1094; see Vita Ædwardi Regis 110).Google Scholar

61 Stenton, F. M., Anglo-Saxon England (2nd ed. Oxford 1947) 369; below p. 89.Google Scholar

62 ‘Her se cyning fordyde þet biscop rice æt Hrofeceastre’; Plummer, , Two Chronicles I 125, II 171.Google Scholar

63 ‘Dum ergo quodam tempore praefatus rex Athelredus propter quasdam dissensiones civitatem obsideret Rofensem, et facta capiendi illam difficultate, patrimonium beati apostoli devastando invaderet’; Memorials of Saint Dunstan 117 (all later references to Osbern are to this page); ‘Rex Anglorum Ægelredus, propter quasdam dissensiones, civitatem Hrofi obsedit, et visa capiendi illam difficultate, iratus discessit, et terras Sancti Andreae Apostoli devastavit’; Florentii Wigorniensis monachi chronicon ex chronicis ed. Thorpe, B. (English Historical Society 1848-49) I 148.Google Scholar

64 ‘Surrexerat inter regem et episcopum Rofensem simultas, incertum qua de causa. Quocirca contra civitatem exercitum duxit’; Vita Sancti Dunstani in Memorials of Saint Dunstan 310; Gesta Regum I 186–87.Google Scholar

65 Freeman, , Norman Conquest I 180.Google Scholar

66 Kemble, , CD nos. 657, 700; for comments see Whitelock, D., Anglo-Saxon Wills 131, and Robertson, A. J., Anglo-Saxon Charters (2nd ed. Cambridge, England 1956) 365, 355, 352. Stenton, F. M., The Latin Charters of the Anglo-Saxon Period (Oxford 1955) 74-75.Google Scholar

67 Dictionary of National Biography, s. v. ‘Ethelred’; Freeman, , Norman Conquest I 180 n. 1; Ashdown, M., English and Norse Documents Relating to the Reign of Ethelred the Unready (Cambridge, England 1930) 92. This conclusion seems to be based on such phrases of the charter as rapinae praedatio, flagitium, or sancti loci praedo. Google Scholar

68 Sulcard was attracted to the present story because the incident embroiled Æthelred with Archbishop Dunstan. Dunstan, as the reader of his hagiographers knows, applied his remarkable gift of prophecy repeatedly and with considerable vehemence against the wickedness of King Æthelred (Memorials of Saint Dunstan 115, 215, 309, 320). The siege of Rochester wrung another prediction from the saint. According to Osbern of Canterbury, the first to relate the story, Dunstan told Æthelred through several messengers to give up the siege and to refrain from further havoc, lest he experience the power of the apostle. Yet he earned nothing but contempt from the king, who put an end to his violence only when Dunstan sent him a hundred pounds of silver. Whereupon the archbishop was prompted to foretell that after his death such evils would come over Æthelred, because he had preferred money to God, silver to the apostle, and his greed to Dunstan's will, as the English had not seen since they began to rule their island. Sulcard gives the same story in a slightly different form. His is probably the older version since Osbern's Vita Sancti Dunstani was written between 1080 and 1093 (Memorials of Saint Dunstan xxxi). According to Sulcard, the bishop of Rochester informed Dunstan of Æthelred's attack. Dunstan pointed out to the king that he had unjustly given the lands of St. Andrew to his man and that he had not acted in the manner of a king when he burnt his kingdom. As the archbishop had no success with his reproaches and the king became ever more enraged, Dunstan prophesied: ‘Since you have failed to show reverence to Andrew, the holy apostle, and since you did not shrink from burning his church and your kingdom, given to you by God, you will not lack fire and bloodshed as long as you live’ (below p. 89).Google Scholar

69 Freeman, , Norman Conquest I 516, 327.Google Scholar

70 Plummer, , Two Chronicles II 214 n. 2; here most of the early evidence is listed.Google Scholar

71 Stenton, , Anglo-Saxon England 415.Google Scholar

72 Grierson, P., ‘The Relations between England and Flanders before the Norman Conquest,’ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society Fourth Series 23 (London 1941) 95 n. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

73 Encomium Emmae Reginae ed. Campbell, A. (Camden Third Series 72; London 1949) xlii, lxiv n. 3; see also de Poitiers, Guillaume, Histoire de Guillaume le Conquérant ed. Foreville, R. (Paris 1952) 5 n. 3.Google Scholar

74 Handbook of British Chronology 29.Google Scholar

75 Orderici Vitalis Historia Ecclesiastica ed. Le Prévost, A. (Société de l'Histoire de France 1838-55) III 224.Google Scholar

76 Encomium Emmae Reginae 42; Lestorie des Engles solum la translacion Maistre Geffrei Gaimar ed. Hardy, T. D. and Martin, C. T. (Rolls Series 1888-89) line 4786.Google Scholar

77 Gesta Regum I 229; Liber monasterii de Hyda ed. Edwards, E. (Rolls Series 1866) 287; Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum ed. Arnold, T. (Rolls Series 1879) 191. Later examples: Chronicon abbatiae Rameseiensis ed. Macray, W. D. (Rolls Series 1886) 155; Annales monasterii de Wintonia, in Annales Monastici ed. Luard, H. R. (Rolls Series 1864-69) II 19; Paris, Matthew, Chronica Majora ed. Luard, H. R. (Rolls Series 1872-83) I 511. For Edward's hagiographers see ‘La vie par Osbert’ 70; Ailred of Rievaulx, Vita S. Edwardi regis et confessoris, PL 195.741; La Vie d'Edouard 'e Confesseur ed. Södergård, Ö. (Upsala 1948) 113-14; La Estoire de seint Ædward le Rei in Lives of Edward the Confessor ed. Luard, H. R. (Rolls Scries 1858) 37. This view has found its way into the Cambridge Mediaeval History III 389.Google Scholar

78 Cf. R. Foreville's comment (loc. cit.): ‘Guillaume de Poitiers, en insistant sur la priorité de l'expédition d'Édouard, paraît bien le tenir pour l'aîné.’ On the murder of Alfred see Freeman, , Norman Conquest I 327–35, 512-18; Plummer, , Two Chronicles II 211-15; Campbell, , Encomium Emmae Reginae lxiv lxvii. Sulcard blames only the Danes for the murder of the ætheling (‘insidiis Danorum inhoneste peremptus’); similar to the Vita Ædwardi Regis Godwin is not implicated. This also agrees with the interpretation of the event in the Prima carta Edwardi and the Tertia carta Edwardi which Freeman adduced to substantiate his case for the innocence of Godwin (Kemble, CD IV 173, 181; Freeman, , Norman Conquest I 517-18; Plummer, , Two Chronicles II 213 n. 1). Sulcard's dependence on the Vita and that of the forger on Sulcard has been pointed out.Google Scholar

79 ‘La vie par Osbert’ 71. A similar sentiment is expressed in Thegani vita Hludowici (MGH. Scriptores 2.591): ‘Erat enim optimus filiorum eius, sicut ab exordio mundi frequenter iunior frater seniorem fratrem meritis praecedebat.’ Thegan notes as examples Abel, Isaac, Jacob and David.Google Scholar

80 Henry of Huntingdon 191; Freeman, , Norman Conquest I 517.Google Scholar

81 Robinson, J. A. and James, M. R., The Manuscripts of Westminster Abbey (Notes and Documents 1; Cambridge 1909) 98101; Davis, G. R. C., Mediaeval Chartularies of Great Britain (London 1958) nos. 1011, 1012.Google Scholar

82 Flete's History of Westminster 4043, 31-32. Bloch printed the passage from ‘Tandem vero pietas’ on (below p. 90).Google Scholar

page 80 note 1 Sulcard's letter of dedication contains the customary topoi of this type of medieval literature; cf. Simon, Gertrud, ‘Untersuchungen zur Topik der Widmungsbriefe mittelalterlicher Geschichtsschreiber bis zum Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts, , Archiv für Diplomatik 4 (1958) 52119; 5-6 (1959-60) 73-153.Google Scholar

page 80 note 2 Similar introductions appear for example in Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium and Ratperti casus S. Galli (MGH Scriptores 2.271.61) or Historia fundationis monasterii S. Viti martyris (Chronicon Gladbacense), written at the beginning of the twelfth century: ‘Scribere vero proposuimus monasterium illud Gladebacense revelatione divina constructum, qualiter quotiesque sit, invidia instigante, destructum et inhabitantes cum abbatibus pulsi atque transmigrati, donec demum in miserendi tempore, sanctissimo patrono nostro Vito interveniente, licet non in pristinum statum, utcunque tamen reformatum atque stabilitum est’ (MGH, Scriptores 4.75).Google Scholar

page 80 note 3 2 Cor. 3.2-3 Google Scholar

page 80 note 4 Sap. 10.21; the rest of the sentence is reminiscent of Col. 4.3.Google Scholar

page 82 note 1 Folcard of St. Bertin in his Vita S. Joannis Beverlacensis (shortly before 1066) begins his story with a similar chapter; cf. PL 147.1167.Google Scholar

page 82 note 2 Rom. 4.17.Google Scholar

page 82 note 3 cf. Rom. 10.18 Google Scholar

page 85 note 1 The same motifs of fishing on Sunday, the threat of punishment, and the catching of enormous fish occur in Folcard of St. Bertin, Miracula S. Bertini, PL 147.1097-99.Google Scholar

page 85 note 2 Offa's charter for Westminster (Birch, CS no. 245) mentions only Aldenham, Hertfordshire; see Gover, J. E. B., Mawer, Allen and Stenton, F. M., The Place-Names of Hertfordshire (English Place-Name Society 15; 1938) 5960. Blakenham, Northamptonshire, occurs in Magna carta Dunstani (CS no. 1050), Magna carta Edgari (Crawford Charters no. 12) and a shorter version of the latter document (CS no. 1351).Google Scholar

page 85 note 3 On the schola Saxonum see Levison, , England and the Continent 4041. Its nature was frequently misunderstood, and its foundation was falsely ascribed to various kings (Liebermann, F., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen [Halle 1898-1916] II ii 609). William of Malmesbury says that Offa of Mercia was believed to have instituted it (Gesta Regum I 109).Google Scholar

page 86 note 1 Siclus, originally a Hebrew gold or silver coin, appears in several German and Anglo-Saxon texts (see Du Cange, siclus') and was equal to two silver denarii. For the earlier history of siclus see article ‘Siglos’ in Wörterbuch der Münzkunde ed. Freiherr von Schrötter, F. (Berlin, Leipzig 1930). I see no reference to this coin in such works as Brooke, G. C., English Coins (2nd ed. London 1950) or Anglo-Saxon Coins ed. Dolley, R. H. M. (Studies Presented to Sir Frank Stenton; London 1961).Google Scholar

page 86 note 2 This could be a paraphrase of Westminster's Magna carta Dunstani (Birch, CS no. 1050) or of a very similar charter; see my note mentioned above in EHR 76 (1961) 471-72. A similar paraphrase of a Canterbury charter is in Goscelin's Historia translationis S. Augustini, AS May VI 426 (Levison, , England and the Continent 200). It may be noteworthy that the Magna carta Dunstani does not mention the consecration by St. Peter. Instead there is a reference to the church of Westminster “quae manibus angelicis consecrata dinoscitur.” Google Scholar

page 86 note 3 Dunstan was commended to the court of Athelstan shortly after 925 and he became a priest before the death of Athelstan in 939. The other six kings under whom he flourished were Edmund, Eadred, Eadwig, Edgar, Edward the Martyr, and Æthelred. Dunstan died on May 19, 988.Google Scholar

page 88 note 1 For the feasts of St. Peter see above p. 73.Google Scholar

page 88 note 2 cf. 1 Cor. 10.3 Google Scholar

page 88 note 1 Edgar died in 975. Sulcard omits Edward the Martyr (975-78) murdered at Corfe. Æthelred succeeded his stepbrother Edward in 978. Æthelred's first wife was an Anglo-Saxon lady by the name of Ælfgifu, who gave him seven sons and three daughters. By Emma Æthelred had two sons, Edward and Alfred, and a daughter, Godgifu, who married first Drogo, count of Mantes, and then Eustace, count of Boulogne.Google Scholar

page 88 note 2 The bishopric of Rochester was ravaged in 986; Dunstan died in 988. The Danish invasion had begun within two years of Æthelred's accession, i. e. in 980. It subsided after 982. There was a landing in Somerset in 988, and the invasion became formidable with the arrival of the Norwegians under King Olaf Tryggvason in 991. In 1013 Æthelred fled to Normandy, to the court of his brother-in-law Richard, duke of Normandy. Swein Forkbeard was recognized as king in the same year but died in February 1014. Æthelred was asked to return; he died in 1016. Edward and Alfred left England with Æthelred. Alfred returned in 1036 and was killed; Edward came back in 1041 on the invitation of Harthacnut and succeeded to the throne in 1042.Google Scholar

page 90 note 1 cf. Ps. 101.18 Google Scholar

page 90 note 2 Ps. 101.14 Google Scholar

page 90 note 3 Edward is compared to Solomon by several other writers; cf. Vita Ædwardi Regis 3, 12; Goscelin of St. Bertin, Textus translationis et institutionis monasterii B. Mildrethae, MS B. M. Cotton Vespasian B XX fol. 177v (“Quo salomonica pace regnante”); Prima carta Edwardi (Kemble, CD no. 824); Heremanni miracula S. Eadmundi (Ungedruckte anglo-normannische Geschichtsquellen 239); Turgot, , Vita S. Margaretae (Vitae antiquae sanctorum ed. Pinkerton, J. [London 1789] 331).Google Scholar

page 90 note 4 The phrase ‘ne tanto hostilitate’ appears in the Prima carta Edwardi (Kemble CD no. 824).Google Scholar

page 90 note 5 For the description of the church see Vita Ædwardi Regis 44-46 and notes. Sulcard, echoes the description of the Vita but is briefer.Google Scholar

page 90 note 6 Is. 45.7 Google Scholar

page 90 note 7 Edward fell sick on Christmas Eve; he withdrew from the activities of the dedication on the day after Christmas. The church was consecrated on December 28 (Vita Ædwardi Regis 73, 72 n. 3); Edward died apparently on January 5 (Harmer, , AS Writs 560; Vita Ædwardi Regis 80 n. 2) and was buried on January 6.Google Scholar