venerable Abbot Hedda, and all his monks, and all the lay-brethren [comprimoti] were massacred; and Brother Turgar was warned by his master Earl Sidroc never anywhere to cross the path of Earl Hubba. Every altar was uprooted [suffossa] every monument broken in pieces, the great library of holy books burnt, the plenteous store of monastic papers scattered to the winds; the precious relics [pignora] of the holy virgins Kineburgh, Kinswith, and Tibba,1 trodden under foot; the walls utterly overthrown; the buildings burnt up, church and all, blazing with a bright flame for five whole days after. § 15. Then on the fourth day the Host drew together, with spoil beyond tale from all the country round, and set off towards Huntingdon. The two Sidroc Earls, at the crossing of the rivers, ever came last, to guard the rear [caudam] of the whole army. Now all their host had passed over the river Nene safely; but as they were themselves crossing they had the bad luck to lose two carts, laden with untold wealth and plenishing, which sank in a deep eddy of the stream to the left of the stone bridge, so that horses and all were drowned before they could be got out. And while the whole household of Earl Sidroc the younger was busied in drawing out these same carts, and in transferring the spoil to other waggons and carriages, Brother Turgar slipped away and fled to the neighbouring forest. All night did he walk, and, with the earliest dawn, came into Crowland. There he found his fellow monks, who had got back from Thorney the day before, and were hard at work putting out the fires which still had the mastery in many of the ruins of the monastery. § 16. And when they saw him safe and sound they were somewhat comforted; but on hearing from him where their Abbot and the other Superiors and Brethren lay slain, and how all the sepulchres of the Saints were broken down, and all the monuments, and all their holy books and all the sacred bodies burnt up, all were stricken with grief unspeakable; and long was the lamentation and mourning that was made. Satiated at length with weeping they turned again to putting out the conflagration. And when they raised the ruins of the church roof about the High Altar, they found the body of their venerable father and abbot Theodore, beheaded, stripped, half-burnt, and bruised and crushed into the earth by the fallen timbers. This was on the eighth day after his murder, and a little away from the spot where he was slaughtered. And the other ministers, who fell with him, found they in like manner, crushed into the ground by the weight of the beams—all save Wulfric the taper-bearer. 17. But not all at once. For the bodies of some of the Brethren were not found till half a year after their martyrdom, and not in the places where they were slain. For Dom Paulinus and Dom Herbert, very 1 Kineburgh and Kinswith were sisters of Wulfhere, the first Christian King of Mercia. Tibba is usually identified with St. Ebba of Coldingham, but more probably was a local saint. old men, and decrepit, whose hands were cut off and themselves tortured to death in the Choir, were found, after diligent search, not there but in the Chapterhouse. In like manner Dom Grimketyl and Dom Egmund, both some hundred years old, who had been thrust through with swords in the Cloister, were found in the Parlour [locutorium]. And the rest too, both children and old men, were sought for in divers places, even as Brother Turgar told just how each had been slain; and at last were all found, with many a doleful plaint and many a tear, save Wulfric only. And Dom Brickstan, once the Precentor of the monastery, a most skilful musician and poet, who was amongst the survivors, wrote on the ashes of Crowland that Lament, which is so well known, and begins thus : 'Desolate how dost thou sit, who late wast Queen among Houses ; [Quomodo sola sedes, dudum regina domorum § 18. Now when the monastery, after long and hard work, was cleared out, and cleansed, so far as was then possible, from filth and ashes, they took counsel on choosing them a Pastor; and when the election was held, the venerable Father Godric, though much against his will, was made Abbot. To him came that venerable old man Toretus, the Prior of Thorney, and his Subprior, Dom Tissa, both anchorites of the utmost sanctity. And devoutly they prayed him that he would deign to take with him certain Brethren and come to Peterborough, and give, of his charity, Christian burial to the bodies of their Abbot and the other Brethren, which yet remained unburied and exposed to beasts and birds. The Abbot gave heed unto their prayer, and with many of the brethren (amongst them Brother Turgar) came unto Peterborough, where all the Brethren of Thorney met him. And with much labour the bodies of all the monks of that monastery were got together, 84 by tale, and buried in one wide grave in the midst of the Abbey cemetery, over against what was once the East End of the Church. This was on St. Cecilia's day [November 22]. $ 19. And over the body of the Abbot, as he lay amid his children, he placed a three-sided stone, three feet high, and three long, and one broad, bearing carved likenesses of the Abbot, and his monks standing around him. And this stone, in memory of the ruined abbey, bade he thenceforward be called Medehampstead. And once in every year, while he lived, did he visit it; and, pitching his tent above the stone, said Mass for two days with instant devotion for the souls of those there buried. 20. Through the midst of that cemetery there ran the King's highway [via regia]; and this stone was on the right thereof, as one comes up from the aforesaid stone bridge towards Holland; and on the left stood a stone cross bearing a carven image of the Saviour; which our Abbot Godric then set there, to the intent that travellers who passed by might be mindful of that holy Abbey, and pray to the Lord for the souls of the Faithful who lay in that cemetery. § 21. Meanwhile the Heathen harried the whole district, even unto Cambridge, and gave to the flames the far-famed Abbey of nuns in the island of Ely, after cruelly slaying all they found therein, both maidens and men, and sharing amongst their savage hordes the cattle and the untold wealth brought in thither for safety from all the country round. ... [Here follows a short notice of the fall of East Anglia and the death of St. Edmund; also of the invasion of Wessex and the Battle of Ashdown.] § 22. Meanwhile Burghred, King of Mercia was engaged with the Britons, who were harrying the West of his realm by raid after raid. But when he heard of the cruel mischief the Danes had wrought him in the East, then came he soon to London, and gathered a mighty host, and passing through the eastern part of his kingdom, seized for his privy purse the whole Isle of Ely . . . and all the lands of Peterborough Abbey. And the outlying portions he gave to his mercenaries. And so did he with the lands of the Abbey of St. Pega at Peakirk, and even those of St. Guthlac at Crowland; some gave he to his mercenaries, and some confiscated he for himself. ... And passing with his army into Lindesey, he did the like with the wide tract lately belonging to Bardney Abbey. . ... ... § 23. [The death of Ethelred is here mentioned, and the accession of Alfred,] the youngest brother, who had erst gone to Rome with his father, and was there anointed by Pope Leo. ... For nine years on end warred he against the Danes . . . and at length was brought to such a strait that he fled to a certain islet in Somerset. Here was he once left alone at home (having sent forth his whole household to fish in the neighbouring fens), engaged (as was ever his wont) either in holy reading, or in recording deeds of fame or the annals of his forefathers, when he heard a poor man knocking at the door and asking aid for God's pity. Then called he to his mother, who was then staying with him and chanced to be at hand, and bade her go to the cellar, and, for Christ's love, get something for this poor Christian soul. And when she went about to do this bidding, she found in the cellar but one loaf, and told him that was not nearly enough for his own household on their return from fishing. But when the King heard this, devoutly thanked he God, and bade the half be at once given to Christ's poor; adding: 'Blessed be the Lord in His gifts. He is able, if He will, to multiply this half loaf without measure ; for, when He would, he could feed with five loaves and two fishes five thousand men.' . . [The vision of St. Cuthbert follows, with the story of Alfred, as a minstrel, spying on the Danes; the victory of Ethandune; and the baptism of Guthrum, 'to whom the King, as his Godfather, gave East 1 Le., his wife's mother (see Asser, § 32). His own mother had been dead for years. Anglia, that is, Norfolk.' Next we read of the destruction by the Danes of the Abbey of Repton, 'that far-famed burial-place of all the Kings of Mercia'; and of the exile and death of Burghred.] § 24. Him there followed in the kingship one of his thanes, Ceolwulf set up by the Danes, of English blood, but impious as any savage. For he had sworn to the Danes that he would truly pay such tribute as they laid on him, and would give up quiet and peaceable possession of the kingdom whensoever they demanded it. Therefore all about the land did he flay the few surviving rustics, swallow up the tradesmen, oppress widows and orphans, and torture in divers manners the religious, if perchance they knew of treasure. .. Even on the venerable Abbot Godric of Crowland and his miserable brethren did he lay a tax of £1,000, and all but brought the monastery to nothing. . . . For the Abbot, unable to support his monks, dispersed most of them abroad, to their relatives and other friends of the Abbey; and the few who abode with him dragged on their lives in the utmost need. Then were all the chalices of the Abbey, save three, and all the silver vessels (save the Crucibolum of King Withlaf), and the other precious jewels [jocalia] either melted down into money or sold for money. And even so, scarce did it stay the ravenous glut of this petty kinglet Ceolwulf. He, however, at the last was deposed by his Danish masters (who herein for once did justice), and stripped stark naked, thus coming to a wretched end. 1 § 25. [Alfred's defensive measures are next spoken of, his rule of life, and his literary work. After this we read of his political system, with its Hundreds, etc.; ' and the chief officers of the provinces, who were of old called Lord-Lieutenants [vicedomini], he made into two, namely Judges (whom we call Justices), and Sheriffs, who still bear that name.' The threefold division of his household is said to be, 'after the wit of David and Solomon.' His final victories of 894 are barely touched upon.] Thus King Alfred the Alms-doer, who ever set his feet in all good ways, died, and was buried at Winchester.' 1 King of Mercia, 826. What his crucible can have been is quite unknown. The word is connected not with cross but crock. T XIII. 'THE BOOK OF HYDE.' HIS book is a conglomerate of materials of various dates, put together in its present form probably towards the end of the fourteenth century, by some monk of Hyde Abbey (founded by Alfred). Some of these materials, e.g., the letter of Fulco, Archbishop of Rheims, to Alfred, may well be genuine; and the floating traditions of the House concerning its Founder, here given, are interesting. The work begins with the Saxon conquest of Britain, and ends with the death of Edward the Elder. No ancient MS. is known, nor has it ever been printed in full; but copious extracts are given by Griffith in his 'Annals of the Anglican Church' (1663); and a translation may be found in The Church Historians of England.' The extracts here given are as follows: SECTION 1. Of King Ethelwulf the Monk. 3. Of Ethelwulf and Alfred at Rome. 5. Of St. Modwenna. 6. Of King Alfred. 8. How Alfred sent for Grimbald. 9. What Archbishop Fulco wrote to Alfred SECTION 13. How Grimbald came to England, and of his discourse. 16. Of Alfred's schools. 17. Of his laws. 18. Of his valiancy. 20. Of his death and burial. |