EADWARD'S CHURCH. 509 seemingly surrounded at its angles by smaller turrets, and CHAP. x. crowned by a cupola of wood and lead. The transepts projected north and south; to the west stretched the long nave, with its two ranges of arches, resting seemingly on tall columnar piers, like those of Jumièges, Gloucester, and Tewkesbury. Two smaller towers, for the reception of the bells, were designed as the finish of the building to the west. On the erection of this vast and stately fabric, and on the other objects of his foundation, Eadward had for many years spent the tenth part of his royal revenues. The monastic buildings had been finished for some years; the monks with their Abbot Eadwine3 were already in possession of their house and its endowments. The minster was meanwhile rising, and it was Eadward's The church wish to interfere as little as possible with the worship 1065. which had still to be celebrated in the old building. The new church was therefore begun at some distance to the east of its doomed predecessor, which was doubtless not wholly demolished till the new one was completed.+ In the foundation and endowment of the monastery the 1 So says the French Life (2295), which, on such a subject, may be trusted; "En miliu dresce une tur, E deus en frunt del Occident But, as the Tapestry does not show these towers, they were probably carried up at a later time, as often happened. 2 Vita Eadw. 417. "Præcepit deinde ex decimis omnium redituum suorum initiari opus nobilis ædificii." So Cod. Dipl. iv. 176. “Decimari præcepi omnem substantiam meam, tam in auro et argento, quàm in pecudibus et omni genere possessionum." 3 Cod. Dipl. iv. 179. So the writs in iv. 190, 228. I presume that he succeeded Wulfnoth in 1049. The Charter in Cod. Dipl. 176 says, "Destruens veterem, novam à fundamentis basilicam construxi." The Biographer explains the gradual process (418); "Hæc autem multiplicitas tam vasti operis tanto spatio ab oriente ordita est veteris templi, ne scilicet interim inibi commorantes fratres vacarent a servitio Christi, ut etiam aliqua pars spatiosè subiret interjaciendi vestibuli." The Biographer, always hard to understand, is specially so in his architectural description. finished. CHAP. X. King found helpers among his subjects, the fallen Earl of the Northumbrians being among their number.1 But the building of the church seems to have been wholly Eadward's own personal work. At last the work of so many years was brought to perfection. The time employed on the building was indeed shorter than that bestowed on many other of our great churches, which their own Prelates had to rear out of their own resources. But hére a King was pressing on the work with all his might, a King who, when he had once completed the great object of his life, was ready to depart in peace. After fourteen years from the receipt of the Papal dispensation the building was finished from the apse to the western front. By the time of the Midwinter festival of the year one thousand and sixty-five the new minster of Saint Peter stood ready for the great ceremony of its consecration. Legends. So great a work, raised under such circumstances, could hardly fail to become surrounded by an atmosphere of legend. It was not every church that was founded either by a King or by a canonized saint. Fewer still among churches were founded by a King who was at once a canonized saint, the last of an ancient dynasty, and one whose memory was embalmed in the national recollection as the representative of the times before the evil days of foreign domination. In his life-time, or at most within a few years after his death, Eadward was already deemed to be a worker of miracles.2 For his dreams, visions, and prophecies he was renowned to his last moment. One 1 The charter in Cod. Dipl. iv. 177 mentions Leofcild, Æthelric, Wulfwig, of several of them are mentioned in various writs; Leofcild in iv. 214; Ælf- 2 See the Life, pp. 428 et seqq., and Appendix B. The story tells us how the holy King, with his pious friends CHAP. x. Leofric and Godgifu, was hearing mass in the elder minster of Saint Peter; how the King was deep in devotion; how he and the Earl-Godgifu is no longer spoken of-saw the form of the divine Child in the hands of the ministering priest; how Eadward bade his friend keep his secret till after his death; how Leofric confided it only to a holy monk at Worcester, who revealed it to no man till Leofric and Eadward were both no more.1 Another tale sets the King before us in all the Imperial pomp of the Easter festival; he goes with crown and sceptre from the church -in this case doubtless the Old Minster of Winchesterto the royal banquetting-hall. Heedless of the feast, absorbed in his own meditations, the King is seen to smile. Afterwards, in his private chamber, Earl Harold, a Bishop, and an Abbot, venture to ask him the reason of his serene and pious mirth. His thoughts had been far away from the royal hall of Winchester; he had seen the Seven Sleepers of Ephesos; they had turned from the right side to the left, an omen which presaged that some evil was coming upon the earth. The matter was deemed worthy of a special embassy to the Imperial Court of Constantinople, but the ambassadors took their commission, not from the King but from the three dignified subjects who had shared his confidence. Earl Harold sent a Thegn, the Bishop a clerk, the Abbot a monk. The three made their way to the New Rome and told the tale to the reigning Emperor. By his orders the tomb of the holy Sleepers at Ephesos was opened; the vision of the English King was proved to be true; and his prophetic powers were soon exalted by the general misfortunes of mankind, by the failure of the royal line of England and by the conquests of the Infidel Turks at the expense of Eastern Æthelred, 389. Was this holy man the inclusus Wulfsige? CHAP. X. Christendom. One more tale will bring us back directly Legend of to the current of our story. The King was present at the the ring. dedication of the church of Saint John at Clavering.3 A beggar asks alms of his sovereign in the name of the patron of the newly-hallowed temple, the Apostle whom Eadward reverenced next after his special patron Saint Peter. The King has neither silver nor gold about him; he cannot find his almoner for the press, he gives the poor man the only gift that he can give at the moment, the costly ring on his finger. The beggar returns thanks and vanishes. That very day, two English pilgrims are benighted in a wilderness of the Holy Land. A band of bright youths appears, attending an old man before whom two tapers are borne as in the service of the Church. He asks the pilgrims from what land they come, and of what King they are subjects. They are Englishmen, subjects of the good King Eadward. For the love of good King Eadward he guides them to a city and an hostelry, where they find abundant entertainment. In the morning he reveals himself to them as John the Apostle and Evangelist; he gives them the ring to bear to the King of the English, with the message that, as the reward of his good 1 Æthelred, 396. “Ipso ad regnum cœleste translato, cuncta terrarum regna commota sunt. Syria paganis subjecta, destructa monasteria, dirutæ à fundamentis ecclesiæ, plena funeribus omnia, morte principum Græcorum, Romanorum, Francorum, Anglorum, et regna cætera perturbata." As regards the "Princeps Romanorum," the hagiographer is wide of his mark, for Henry the Fourth survived the Confessor forty years. 2 See the story in the De Inventione, p. 22. Æthelred, 397. The Waltham writer lets us incidentally into the fact that London, York, Winchester, and Lincoln were then counted the four chief cities of England. In the great dispute over the quarters of Dafydd in 1283 (Ann. Waverley, 400 ed. Luard), the order was ruled to be London, Winchester, York, Bristol (others say Chester), with Northampton as the fifth. 3 Æthelred, writing in Yorkshire, mentions vaguely a church of Saint John; the East-Saxon writer fixes it at Clavering. See Professor Stubbs' note, p. 24. "Postea" says Ethelred, but "eodem die," according to Roger of Howden, Scriptt. p. Bed. 256. MIDWINTER GEMÓT. 513 and chaste life, he should within six months be with him- CHAP. X. self in Paradise. The message is delivered; the King's alms and prayers and fastings are redoubled; but one thing specially occupies his mind, the longing to see the new minster of Saint Peter hallowed before he dies. tion of The time was at last come. The great ceremony had Consecrabeen preceded by a lesser one of the same kind. The Lady Ead yth's Eadryth's Eadgyth-was it as an atonement for the blood of Gos- church at Wilton. patric?-had rebuilt the church of nuns at Wilton, the 1065. church of her sainted namesake the daughter of Eadgar.1 The fabric had hitherto been of wood,2 but the Lady now reared a stone minster, pressing on the work with unusual haste, in pious rivalry with her husband. The new building was hallowed by Hermann, the Bishop of the diocese, just before the Northumbrian revolt. That revolt was now over, and the land was once more quiet; the work of the King's life was finished; the time of the Christmas Festival drew nigh. This year the Midwinter Gemót was not Midwinter gathered, as in former years, at Gloucester, but the Witan Westof all England were specially called to the King's Court minster. 1065-1066. at Westminster, to be present at the hallowing of the new church of Saint Peter. The Assembly met; the King's Vita Eadw. 418. "Ejus æquivoca sancta Ædgith, de cujus progenie idem Rex Edwardus descenderat." The Biographer could hardly have thought that Eadward was a lineal descendant of this virgin saint, his own aunt. But in his rhetoric "progenies," or any other word, may mean anything. On the power of Saint Eadgyth to rebuke blasphemers, see vol. i. p. 484. 2 Vita Eadw. u. s. "6 Lignea tamen adhuc illic ecclesia stabat." 3 Ib. "Regio opere lapideum monasterium inchoat, ferventiùsque instans operarios maturat. Contendunt hinc Rex, illinc Reginâ, contentione Deo gratâ, in invicem quoque non injocundâ." • Ib. 421. "Actâ ergo hujus ecclesiæ consecratione . .. anno Domini millesimo sexagesimo quinto ad justitium totius patriæ, hæc regni subsequuta est perturbatio." Fl. Wig. 1065. "In nativitate Domini curiam suam, ut potuit, Lundoniæ tenuit." Æthel. 398. "Appropinquabat dies. . . in quo Anglorum tota nobilitas ad Regis curiam debuit convenire, et Regi more suo sceptris. Gemót at |