NICOLAS YIELDS TO THE THREATS OF TOSTIG.

459

of truth with it than the other more courtly version. At CHAP. X. any rate, whether the voice of Tostig was the voice of entreaty or the voice of threatening, to his voice the Pope at last yielded. Ealdred was restored to his Archbishoprick and invested with the pallium, on the single condition of his resigning the see of Worcester. The losses which the Earl and the Bishops had undergone at the hands of the robbers were made good to them out of the Papal treasury,2 and they set forth again on their journey homeward. They must have come back through France, as Burchard died on the way at Rheims. He was there buried in the churchyard of the Abbey of Saint Remigius, a house which his father Elfgar enriched for his sake.3 Ealdred, Tostig, and the rest came back, honoured and rejoicing, to England.

of the prac

pilgrimage.

invades

But in this, as in so many other cases, we see the Ill effects evil effects which followed on this passion for pilgrimages, tice of at least among Kings and Earls and other rulers of men. It was with a true wisdom that the Witan of England had hindered the proposed pilgrimage of Eadward. None but Malcolm the great Cnut could leave his realm with impunity and Northumcould keep distant nations in subjection by the mere terror of his name. We have seen what evils were undoubtedly absence of Tostig. brought upon Normandy by the pilgrimage of Robert; we 1061. have seen what lesser evils were probably brought upon England by the pilgrimage of Harold. So now the absence of her Earl, even on so pious a work, brought no good to

flexerunt." This follows a good hearty English denunciation, of which I have given the substance in the text. To the same effect in the Life of Wulfstan, ii. 250.

1 Such is William of Malmesbury's account. The Biographer, in his rhetoric, leaves out the condition.

2 Vita Eadw. 412. "Ducem consolatus est caritativâ allocutione, allatis insuper magis xeniis ex beati Petri largitate."

3 See Appendix BB.

See above, p. 116.

berland

during the

CHAP. X. Northumberland.

1062.

the See of

No doubt the times must have seemed specially secure both at home and abroad, when two of the great Earls of England could venture to leave the Kingdom at the same time, and when Northumberland could be deprived of the care at once of her temporal and of her spiritual chief. Her only dangerous neighbour was bound to Tostig by the closest of artificial ties. But so tempting an opportunity for a raid overcame any scruples which either gratitude or the tie of sworn brotherhood might have suggested to the mind of Malcolm. The King of Scots entered Northumberland; he cruelly ravaged the country, and did not even show reverence to Saint Cuthberht by sparing his holy isle of Lindisfarn.1 We have no further details. Neither do we hear whether Tostig took any sort of vengeance for this seemingly quite unprovoked injury. We hear nothing more of Scottish affairs during the remaining years of the reign of Eadward.

of

It always marks a season of comparative quiet when our attention is chiefly occupied by ecclesiastical affairs. During four whole years Malcolm's raid into Northhumberland is the only political or military event which we have to record. We now enter on the last year Vacancy of this time of quiet. In the year following the pilgrimWorcester. age of Tostig, Ealdred having at last resigned the see of Worcester, a successor had to be chosen. England was at that moment blessed or cursed with visitors of a kind who, to say the least, did not in those days often reach her Papal shores, namely Legates from the Roman See. Pope Legates in England. Nicolas died soon after the visit of Ealdred and Tostig, and was succeeded by Alexander the Second, a name after

Lent, 1062.

1 Sim. Dun. Gest. Regg. 1061. "Interim Rex Scottorum Malcolmus sui conjuncti fratris, scilicet Comitis Tostii, comitatum ferociter depopulatus est, violatâ pace sancti Cuthberti in Lindisfarnensi insulâ."

MALCOLM RAVAGES NORTHUMBERLAND.

461

wards to become only too well known in English history. CHAP. X. By commission from this Pontiff, Ermenfrid, Bishop of Sitten, and a nameless colleague, came to England early in

the

It is clear that their errand was in some way year. connected with the appointment to the see of Worcester, besides any other matters with which they may have been charged for the enlightenment of the King's private conscience or for the forwarding of his foundation at Westminster.1 Possibly their personal presence was thought necessary in order to ensure the surrender by Ealdred of a Bishoprick to which he clave with special affection.2 At any rate it was Ealdred who received the Legates, who conducted them on their journey through a great part of England, and who at last quartered them at Worcester, under the care of Wulfstan, the holy Prior of that church. There they were to remain through Lent, waiting for the Easter Gemót, in which the King and his Witan were to decide on all the matters which had brought them to England. With regard to the succession to this Ealdred see of Worcester, Ealdred was for a while doubtful between between two candidates. One was Ethelwig, now Abbot of Eves- Ethelwig ham, who had so long acted as his deputy in the adminis- Wulfstan. tration of the Hwiccian diocese.5 This Prelate is described

1 Vita Wlst. 250. Ealdred is to resign Worcester, and a good successor is to be chosen; "Hujus igitur conditionis arbitros, et quædam alia ecclesiastica negotia in Angliâ expedituros, Cardinales adductos Archiepiscopus Regi exhibuit." Florence (1062) calls them "legatos sedis apostolicæ . . . Armenfredum scilicet, Sedunensem Episcopum, et alium, qui a Domino Papâ Alexandro pro responsis ecclesiasticis ad Regem Anglorum Eadwardum missi. Wigorniæ . degebant." I quote the fuller Life by William of Malmesbury as "Vita Wlstani," and the shorter one by Heming by

name.

2 Vita Wlst. 250. "Adeò illum amor Wigornia devinxerat."

* Florence mentions their sojourn at Worcester, and their admiration of Wulfstan; the Life makes them actually his guests.

' Fl. Wig. “Exspectantes responsum suæ legationis usque ad curiam regalem proximi Pascha." So the Life, but less clearly.

5 See above, pp. 372, 436.

doubtful

and

СНАР. Х.

as a man of noble birth and of consummate prudence in all matters human, some add in matters divine also.1 One part at least of his character was not belied by his actions. We shall find that he lived in high favour equally under Eadward, Harold, and William, and died in full possession of his Abbey eleven years after the Conquest.2 He was not unnaturally anxious to succeed to the full possession of a see which he had so long administered, and with whose affairs he must have been thoroughly conversant. Ealdred himself doubted for a while whether the see would be more safely entrusted to the worldly wisdom of Æthelwig or to the simple piety of Wulfstan the Prior.* WULFSTAN Wulfstan, the friend of Harold, was a man now of about [Prior and] Bishop of fifty years of age. He was the son of Æthelstan, a Thegn Worcester. of Warwickshire, and his wife Wulfgifu, and he must have Sept. 8, 1062been born among the horrors of the later years of Ethelred. Jan. 18, Brought up, not as a monk, but as a secular student, in Born about the Abbey of Peterborough, he made great proficiency in the learning of the time under a master whose name Ervenius seems to imply a foreign origin. His parents,

1095.

1012.

His life and character.

5

6

1 Vita Wlst. 251. "Maximæ quantùm ad sæculum prudentiæ, quantùm ad religionem non minimæ " But the Evesham historian (p. 87) calls him "honestis moribus valde probatum, tam generis nobilitate quàm divinâ lege ac sæculari prudentiâ plurimum valentem.",

2 Hist. Evesh. pp. 88, 89.

3 Vit. Wlst. 251. 66 tibus."

Quamvis Ethelwius sollicitè anniteretur par

Erant

Ib. "Aldredus, pro pacto quod fecerat Apostolico, nonnullo tempore fluctaverat animo; utrum ad episcopatum eligeret Ethelwii perspicacem industriam in sæculo, an Wlstani simplicem religionem in Deo. enim illi viri Wigornensis diœcesis diverso respectu præstantissimi.” 5 Flor. Wig. 1062. "Anno ætatis suæ plus quinquagesimo." Æthelstan in the Life, Eatstan according to Florence.

7 Vita Wlst. 244. Ervenius was a skilful illuminator, and wrote a Sacramentary for King Cnut and a Psalter for the Lady Emma. Cnut (249) gave both the books to the Emperor Conrad; his son Henry the Third gave them to Ealdred, who brought them back from Köln and gave them to Wulfstan. Emma had another Psalter whose adventures in Normandy we have already come across. See above, p. 233.

NICOLAS YIELDS TO THE THREATS OF TOSTIG.

459

truth with it than the other more courtly version. At CHAP. X. ay rate, whether the voice of Tostig was the voice of atreaty or the voice of threatening, to his voice the Pope t last yielded. Ealdred was restored to his Archbishopick and invested with the pallium, on the single condition f his resigning the see of Worcester. The losses which he Earl and the Bishops had undergone at the hands of he robbers were made good to them out of the Papal reasury,2 and they set forth again on their journey homeward. They must have come back through France, as Burchard died on the way at Rheims. He was there buried in the churchyard of the Abbey of Saint Remigius, a house which his father Elfgar enriched for his sake.3 Ealdred, Tostig, and the rest came back, honoured and rejoicing, to England.

of the prac

invades

But in this, as in so many other cases, we see the Ill effects evil effects which followed on this passion for pilgrimages, tice of at least among Kings and Earls and other rulers of men. pilgrimage. It was with a true wisdom that the Witan of England had hindered the proposed pilgrimage of Eadward. None but Malcolm the great Cnut could leave his realm with impunity and Northumcould keep distant nations in subjection by the mere terror during the of his name. We have seen what evils were undoubtedly absence of Tostig. brought upon Normandy by the pilgrimage of Robert; we 1061. have seen what lesser evils were probably brought upon England by the pilgrimage of Harold. So now the absence of her Earl, even on so pious a work, brought no good to

flexerunt." This follows a good hearty English denunciation, of which I have given the substance in the text. To the same effect in the Life of Wulfstan, ii. 250.

1 Such is William of Malmesbury's account. The Biographer, in his rhetoric, leaves out the condition.

2 Vita Eadw. 412. "Ducem consolatus est caritativâ allocutione, allatis insuper magis xeniis ex beati Petri largitate."

3 See Appendix BB.

See above, p. 116.

berland