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CHAP. X. the first place to those lands of kindred Teutonic speech where ecclesiastical discipline was said to be most strictly administered. As Elfred had brought over Grimbald and John the Old-Saxon, so now Harold brought over Adelhard, a native of Lüttich who had studied at Utrecht, to be the head of the educational department of his foundation, and to be his general adviser in the whole work. He came over to England, he became a Canon and Lecturer at Waltham, and, using his genuine Teutonic liberty, he handed on his office to his son.

Harold a friend of

The truth is, as we have already seen several indications, the secular that Harold, so far from being an ordinary founder of a clergy. monastery, was a deliberate and enlightened patron of the secular clergy. He is described in the foundation-charter Long con of his College as their special and active friend. The

tinuance

of the

struggle between regulars

and se

culars.

old struggle which had been going on from the days of Dunstan was going on still, and it went on long after. Harold, like the elder Eadward in his foundation at Winchester, like Ethelstan in his foundation at Milton, preferred the seculars, the more practically useful class, the class less removed from ordinary human and national feelings. In his eyes even a married priest was not a monster of vice. To make such a choice in the monastic reign of Eadward, when the King on his throne was well nigh himself a monk, was worthy of Harold's lofty and independent spirit; it was another proof of his steady and clear-sighted patriotism. In truth, of the two great foundations of this reign, Earl Harold's College at Waltham stands in distinct opposition, almost in distinct rivalry, to King Eadward's Abbey at Westminster. And it is not unlikely that Harold's preference for the secular clergy may have had some share in bringing upon him the obloquy which he undergoes at the hands of so many ecclesiastical writers. It was not only the perjurer, the

1 See above, p. 373.

2 See Appendix PP.

HAROLD A FRIEND OF THE SECULAR CLERGY.

443

Waltham

character.

usurper, but the man whose hand was closed against the CHAP. X. monk and open to the married priest, who won the hatred of Norman and monastic writers. With the coming of the Normans the monks finally triumphed. Monasticism, in one form or another, was triumphant for some ages. Harold's own foundation was perverted from his original design; his secular priests were driven out to make room for those whom the fashion of the age looked on as holier than they. At last the tide turned; men of piety and munificence learned that the monks had got enough, and from the fourteenth century onwards, the bounty of founders again took the same direction which it had taken under Æthelstan and Harold. Colleges, educational and otherwise, in the Universities and out of them, again arose alongside of those monastic institutions which had now thoroughly fallen from their first love. In short, the foundation of Waltham, Witness of instead of being simply slurred over as a monastic founda- to Harold's tion of the ordinary kind, well deserves to be dwelt upon, both as marking an æra in our ecclesiastical history and also as bearing the most speaking witness to the real character of its illustrious founder. The care and thoughtfulness, as well as the munificence, displayed in every detail of the institution, the zeal for the advancement of learning as well as for mere ecclesiastical splendour, the liberal patronage of even foreign merit, all unite to throw a deep interest round Earl Harold's minster, and they would of themselves be enough to win him a high place among the worthies of England. No wonder then that this noble foundation became in a peculiar manner identified with its founder; no wonder that it was to Waltham that he went for prayer and meditation in the great crisis of his life, that it was at Waltham that his body found its last resting-place, that at Waltham his memory still lived, fresh and cherished, while elsewhere calumny had fixed itself upon his glorious name. No wonder too that the

CHAP. X. local relic became a centre of national reverence; that the object of Harold's devotion became the badge and rallyingpoint of English national life; that the "Holy Rood"the Holy Rood of Waltham-became the battle-cry of England, the shout which urged her sons to victory at Stamfordbridge, and which still rose to heaven, as long as an English arm had life, in that last battle where England and her King were overthrown.

The church

conse

crated, May 3, 1060,

by Cyne sige, Archbishop of

York.

At what time the foundation of Waltham was begun is not recorded, but the church was finished and consecrated in the year 1060, the ceremony being performed on the appropriate day of the Invention of the Cross. The minster was hallowed in the presence of King Eadward and the Lady Eadgyth, and of most of the chief men of the land, clerical and lay. But the chief actor in that day's rite was neither the Bishop of the diocese nor the Metropolitan of the province. As Wulfstan had been brought from York to consecrate Cnut's minster on Assandun, so this time also a Northern Primate came to consecrate Harold's minster at Waltham. Stigand was now again in all orthodox eyes an usurper and a schismatic.2 Either this feeling had extended itself to the mind of Harold himself, or else he found it prudent to yield to the prejudices of others. Stigand was not called upon to officiate at the hallowing of his friend's great creation. It is not likely that William, the Bishop of the diocese, was excluded on account of his Norman birth, as we find no traces of any such jealousy of him at other times. The occasion was doubtless looked on as one of such dignity as to call for the ministrations of a Prelate of the highest rank. The new minster of Waltham, with its pillars fresh from the mason's hand, and its altars

1 See vol. i. p. 423.

The Waltham writer (De Inv. c. 16) goes so far as to say that Cynesige officiated "quia tunc vacabat sedes Cantuaria." See Appendix CC.

CONSECRATION OF WALTHAM MINSTER.

445

blazing with the gorgeous gifts of its founder, was hallowed CHAP. X. in all due form by Cynesige, Archbishop of York.

firmation

The church was thus completed and consecrated; but The ConHarold seems to have taken two years longer fully to Charter. arrange the details of his foundation, and to settle the 1062. exact extent of the lands which were to form its endow

ment.

At the end of that time the royal charter which has been already quoted confirmed all the gifts and arrangements of the founder.

2

Arch

The Prelate who had played the most important part Death of in the great ceremony at Waltham did not long survive bishop Cynesige. that event. Shortly before the close of the year Arch- Dec. 22, bishop Cynesige died at York, and was buried at Peter- 1060. borough.1 We read that his successor was appointed on Christmas-day. Now the appointment would regularly be made in the Witenagemót, and the Witenagemót would, according to the custom of this reign, be holding its Christmas sitting at Gloucester. Such speed would have been impossible if the Witan had not been actually in session when the vacancy occurred. The absence of Cynesige is of course explained by his mortal illness. But his successor was on the spot, and he was no doubt on the alert to take care of his own interests. Ealdred, the Bishop Ealdred of the diocese in which the Assembly was held, was raised him. to the metropolitan see which had been so often held Dec. 25, together with that of Worcester. Indeed, Ealdred himself, who had not scrupled to hold three Bishopricks at once, for a while followed the vicious example of his predecessors and retained the two sees in plurality. His successor in the see of Worcester was not appointed till two years later.

1 Chronn. Wig. and Petrib. 1060; Flor. Wig. 1060; Hugo Candidus (Sparke, 45). This last writer is loud in Cynesige's praise, and records his gifts to Peterborough, which the Lady Eadgyth took away.

2 Fl. Wig. 1060. See Appendix I.

succeeds

1060.

Gisa Bishop of Wells.

CHAP. X. But the church of Hereford, which Ealdred had administered for the last four years, now received a pastor of its Walter, own. That Bishoprick was given to Walter, a LotharinBishop of Hereford. gian by birth, and a Chaplain of the Lady Eadgyth.1 1060-1079. Either in this year or very early in the next died Duduc, the Saxon Bishop of Somersetshire, who had sat at Wells ever since the days of Cnut. His see was given to another Lotharingian, Gisa, a Chaplain of the King. And we may 1060-1088. possibly see a third Lotharingian Prelate in Baldwin, Abbot of Saint Eadmund's, who seems to have been a special personal favourite of the King. These appointments, taken in connexion with Harold's own appointment of Adelhard in his College at Waltham, must be carefully noticed. The influence of Harold, and with it the close connexion between England and Northern Germany, is now at its height.

Dispute between

Gisa. 1061-1066.

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3

From one however of the Prelates now appointed the great Earl hardly met with the gratitude which he deserved. The story is one of the best illustrations of the way in which stories grow. Duduc, the late Bishop of the Harold and Sumorsætas, had received from King Cnut certain estates as his private property, among which, strangely enough, we find reckoned the Abbey of Gloucester. Duduc is said to have made over these estates to his own church, and it is further said that the grant was made with the assent of King Eadward. Besides the lands, he had various moveable treasures which also he bequeathed to his church on his death-bed. But on the death of Duduc, Earl Harold took possession of all. The new Bishop, looking on this as a wrong done to his see, rebuked the Earl both privately and

1 See Appendix L.

2 In 1060, according to the Worcester Chronicle and Florence; in 1061, according to the Peterborough Chronicle.

3 See Appendix L.

On the dispute between Harold and Gisa, see Appendix QQ.

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