VACANCY OF THE SEE OF WORCESTER.

459

doubtful

and

through Lent, waiting for the Easter Gemót, in which the CHAP, X. King and his Witan were to decide on all the matters which had brought them to England. With regard to Ealdred the succession to his see of Worcester, Ealdred was for a between while doubtful between two candidates. One was Ethel- Ethelwig wig, now Abbot of Evesham, who had so long acted as his Wulfstan. deputy in the administration of the Hwiccian diocese.2 This Prelate is described as a man of noble birth and of consummate prudence in all matters human, perhaps in matters divine also.3 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. 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.5 Ealdred himself doubted for a while whether the see would be more safely entrusted to the worldly wisdom of Ethelwig or to the simple piety of Wulfstan the Prior. Wulfstan, the friend of Harold, WULFSTAN was now about fifty years of age." Æthelstan, a Thegn of Warwickshire, and his wife Wulf- Worcester.

8

He was the son of

1077.

[Prior and] Bishop of

Sept. 8,

gifu, and he must have been born among the horrors of 1062

regalem proximi Pascha." So the Life, but less clearly.

2 See above, pp. 371, 437.

3 Vita Wlst. 251.

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

* Hist. Evesh. pp. 88, 89.

5 Vita Wlst. 251.

"Quamvis Ethelwius sollicite anniteretur partibus." • 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. Erant enim illi viri Wigornensis dioecesis diverso respectu præstantissimi."

7 Flor. Wig. 1062. "Anno ætatis suæ plus quinquagesimo."

8 Æthelstan in the Life, Eatstan according to Florence.

1095.

His life and

CHAP. X. the later years of Ethelred. Brought up, not as a monk, Jan. 18, but as a lay student, in the Abbey of Peterborough, he Born about made great proficiency in the learning of the time under 1012. a master whose name Ervenius seems to imply a foreign character. origin.1 His parents, as they grew old, took monastic vows by mutual consent, but Wulfstan for some while lived as a layman, distinguished for his success in bodily exercises as well as for his virtuous and pious demeanour. His chastity especially was preserved unsullied under unusually severe trials.2 At last, when he still could not have been 1033-1038. above twenty-six years old, he received ordination as a presbyter at the hands of Brihtheah, Bishop of Worcester. This was somewhat against his own will, as he shrank from the responsibilities of the priesthood. The friendly Prelate vainly pressed on him a good secular living in the neighbourhood of the city. But the determination of Wulfstan was fixed, and Brihtheah had soon to admit him as a monk of the cathedral monastery, where, after a while, he was promoted by Ealdred to the rank of Prior. Here he distin

3

1 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. 231.

2 The story is given at length in the Life, p. 245.

3 Brihtheah was Bishop from 1033 to 1038 (Chronn. Wig. 1033, Ab. 1038). This fixes the date of Wulfstan's ordination and profession. Brihtheah was one of the embassy which took Gunhild to Germany (Heming, Cart. 267). He had a brother Ethelwig, who enlarged the presbytery of Saint Peter's Church in Worcester (Ib. 342).

4 Vita Wlst. 246. "Obtulit ei plusquam semel Antistes ecclesiam suburbanam, cujus opulenti reditus ad quotidianam stipem satis superque sufficerent."

5 Ib. 247. "Præpositus, ut tunc, Prior, ut nunc dicitur, monachorum constitutus." "Prior et pater congregationis," says Florence, adding "ab Aldredo episcopo ponitur." It will be remembered that in a cathedral monastery the Bishop was Abbot; the Prior therefore was the immediate head of the society.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF WULFSTAN.

461

CHAP. X.

guished himself by every monastic perfection; he was eminent as a preacher, and it is still more interesting to read of his habit of going through the country to baptize the children of the poor, to whom-so our monastic informants tell us-the greedy secular clergy refused the first sacrament except on payment of a fee.1 The virtues of Wulfstan attracted the notice of many of the great men of the realm. The famous Godgifu, the wife of Leofric, was his devoted admirer. But the same virtues gained him a still nobler and more powerful votary; he became, as we have seen, the special friend of Earl Harold.3 Ealdred now hesitated between Wulfstan and Ethelwig as his successor at Worcester. The King, we are told, was determined that the see should be filled by a canonical election, which however of course did not exclude the right of the Witan to confirm or to reject the choice of the ecclesiastical electors. The Papal Legates soon discerned the virtues of Wulfstan, and became eager on his behalf. They spent their Lent in successful efforts to secure his election, especially in exhortations to the clergy and people of Worcester. Presently the choice of the local body came Wulfstan before the Witan of the realm for confirmation. The Legates Bishop. appeared before the Gemót; the diplomacy of the time doubtless required that their business with the King should not be decided without the national approval. The succession to the see of Worcester came on among the other

1 Vita Wlst. 248. "Jam enim venalitas ex infernalibus umbris emerserat, ut nec illud gratis presbyteri præberent infantibus sacramentum, si non infarcirent parentes marsupium." Adam of Bremen (iv. 30) brings the same charge against the Norwegian and Danish clergy; but he allows it to be their only fault, and attributes it to the unwillingness of the "barbarians" to pay tithe.

2 Heming, Vita Wlst. Angl. Sacr. i. 541. “Venerabilis interea Comitissa Godgiva, famâ bonitatis ejus auditâ, totis illum cœpit diligere visceribus, et diversis hujus sæculi subvenire necessitatibus." See Appendix E. 3 Will. Malms. Vita Wlst. 248. See above, p. 41.

See Appendix I.

elected

His election ap

the Witan.

Easter, 1062.

CHAP. X. business of the Assembly, and the Legates themselves took on them to speak on behalf of the holy Prior.1 Not proved by a voice was raised in opposition; every speaker bore his testimony to the incomparable merits of Wulfstan. Both Archbishops, Stigand and Ealdred, spoke in his favour; so did Ælfgar, the Earl of the province, and Wulfstan's personal friend Earl Harold.2 The approval of the Gemót was unanimous. The only difficulty was to be found in the unwillingness of Wulfstan himself to take upon him the cares and responsibilities of the episcopal office. As soon as the vote was given, messengers were sent to ride at full speed to Worcester, and to bring the Prior in person before the Assembly. Wulfstan obeyed the summons, but, amid general shouts of dissent, he pleaded his unfitness for the vacant office.3 He declared, even with an oath, that he would rather lose his head than become a Bishop.1 His scruples were at last shaken by the Legates and the Archbishops, who pleaded the duty of obedience to the Holy See, and finally by the exhortations and reproofs of a holy anchorite named Wulfsige, who had been for forty years removed from the society of men.5 But the process

1 Vita Wlst. 251. "Ad Curiam reversi, dum Wigornensis Episcopi ventilaretur electio, nomen ejus tulerunt in medium." It must have been a wholesome thing for Roman Cardinals to come face to face with an Assembly in whose proceedings order and freedom had already learned to kiss one another.

2 Ib.

"Adstipulabantur votis Cardinalium Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis et Eboracensis, ille favore, iste testimonio [I suppose this means that Ealdred spoke from his own knowledge, and Stigand from the report of others], ambo judicio. Accedebant laudibus etiam Comites Haraldus et Elgarus, par insigne fortitudinis, non ita religionis."

3 Ib. "Sanctus ergo ad Curiam exhibitus jubetur suscipere donum Episcopatûs [the King's writ?]. Contra ille niti, et se honori tanto imparem cunctis reclamantibus clamitare."

FL. Wig. 1062. "Illo obstinatissime renuente, seque indignum acclamante et cum sacramento etiam affirmante se multo libentius decollationi quam tam altæ ordinationi succumbere velle."

"Frustra Cardinales cum Archiepiscopis trivissent operam, nisi refugienti prætendissent Papæ obedientiam." So says the Life, p. 251, and

WULFSTAN CHOSEN BISHOP OF WORCESTER.

463

makes

of persuasion in the mind of Wulfstan was evidently a long CHAP. X. one. The formalities of his ecclesiastical confirmation and of the final rite of consecration were not completed till the month of September. One is half disappointed to read that he refused the ministrations of Stigand, and sought for consecration at the hands of Ealdred. A direct Roman influence, embodied in the persons of Roman Legates, had doubtless taught Wulfstan that Stigand was a schismatic. Ermenfrid and his colleague seem even to have been the bearers of a formal decree of suspension against the Archbishop. Wulfstan however drew a distinction, which the Wulfstan facts of the case amply bore out. Stigand, whether canonical canonically appointed or not, was, in law and in fact, Arch- profession to Stigand, bishop of Canterbury. The Bishop-elect therefore did not but is consecrated by scruple to make his profession of canonical obedience to Ealdred. him. He did not scruple thus far to recognize the legal primacy of an Archbishop appointed by the King and Witan of England. It was only the sacramental rite of consecration which he sought at the hands of a Primate whose canonical position was open to no cavil. For this Wulfstan he went to the newly-appointed Metropolitan of North- crated by humberland, and was consecrated by him at York. Ealdred Ealdred. had however to declare, perhaps before the assembled 1062. Witan,2 that he claimed no authority, ecclesiastical or temporal, over the Bishop of Worcester, either on the ground

the argument is one which would doubtless be used, though one may doubt whether Stigand was specially eloquent on behalf of the Papal claims. But the matter was clearly not settled at once in the Easter Gemót. Florence witnesses to the final persuasion wrought by the "inclusus" Wulfsige, who, after his long solitude, was not likely to be among the assembled Witan. (We shall hear of Wulfsige again.) The dates also prove the delay. Florence tells us that the canonical confirmation was on August 29th, the consecration on September 8th.

1 See Appendix CC.

2 Fl. Wig. 1062. "Coram Rege et regni optimatibus." Or, as Florence, when he speaks of the Witan, is rather fond of using popular language, this may mean some smaller Council.

is conse

Sept. 8,