Edward the Confessor

ON ST. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, KING OF ENGLAND.

Year of Christ 1066.

Edward, King of England, Confessor (S.) By St. Aelred.

§ I. The public veneration of St. Edward: his deeds.

[1] The memory of St. Edward, King and Confessor of England, is celebrated in the Roman Martyrology on the Nones of January, and Baronius attests in the Notes The sanctity of St. Edward. that there exist in the Vatican Library letters of Innocent IV, Roman Pontiff, concerning the celebration of his feast day. Molanus also mentions St. Edward on this day, as do the Cologne Carthusians in the Additions to Usuard, Galesinius, the English Martyrology, the German Martyrology, and the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum. In this last, however, he is mentioned again on January 19. Perhaps on that day his body was elevated from the earth, in the thirty-sixth year after his death, as is stated in the Life, chapter 11. For the primary Translation, Translation. which was made under Henry II, is celebrated on October 13, as we shall say below.

[2] The Life of St. Edward was written by St. Aelred or Ealred (of whom we shall treat on January 12) in two books, By whom the Life was written. the beginning of which is said to be: It was the concern of many of the ancients. He also wrote the same Life in verse, addressed to Laurence, Abbot of Westminster: Since I am compelled to obey you, Laurence. Likewise on the miracles of St. Edward: Removed from human affairs. So Molanus, Pitseus, and others. The Life, however, formerly edited by John Capgrave and afterward by Surius, which we also shall give, is commonly attributed to St. Aelred by Surius, Galesinius, Vossius, and others, as also in the manuscript of Rouge-Cloitre. Osbert of Clare, Prior of Westminster, also wrote the Life of St. Edward, having been freed from a most grievous quartan fever through his aid, as Harpsfield attests. William Camden, when describing the County of Wiltshire, cites the following from the Life of St. Edward the Confessor: While St. Edward was planning the monastery of Blessed Peter at Westminster, his wife Editha at Wilton, where she had been raised, began a stone monastery in place of the wooden church by royal munificence, pursuing the King's devotion with her own. Whether these words were taken from Osbert or from another author, I do not know.

[3] Other very numerous writers also proclaim the praises of St. Edward: Other eulogists. the contemporary author in the Encomium of Queen Emma, William of Poitiers in the deeds of Duke William, William of Jumieges in the History of Normandy, Ordericus Vitalis in the Ecclesiastical History, Abbot Ingulph of Crowland, the monk Eadmer, William of Malmesbury, Florence of Worcester, Henry of Huntingdon, Matthew of Westminster, Roger of Howden, Ranulph of Chester, Matthew Paris, Nicholas Harpsfield, Polydore Virgil, and the rest who have published commentaries on Norman and English affairs -- so that it is remarkable that no single person has pursued all his deeds with his pen. For Ealred touched upon almost only those things that attested to his piety and holiness of life, if indeed the Life that survives was written by Ealred.

§ II. The gentleness and fortitude of Edward.

[4] It is worthwhile to select a few things from other sources for the commendation of St. Edward which were passed over by the author of the Life.

Edward was, Peaceful character. says Polydore Virgil (English History, Book 8), of a mild disposition, by no means shrewd, and especially abhorrent of wars and slaughter, to such a degree that even while in exile he used to say that he would rather live a private life forever than recover the kingdom through the slaughter of men.

[5] William of Malmesbury, in Book 2 of the Deeds of the Kings of England, treats at length of the deeds of St. Edward, though occasionally somewhat unfair to him and to his wife Editha. He praises Edward's gentleness in these terms: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1042, St. Edward, son of Ethelred, received the kingdom and remained in it for not quite twenty-four years; a man not well suited for command on account of the simplicity of his character, but devoted to God and therefore directed by him. Felicity. Indeed, during his reign there was no domestic tumult that was not quickly suppressed, no foreign war; all things at home and abroad were quiet, all things tranquil -- which is all the more astonishing because he conducted himself so gently that he did not know how to injure even the lowliest of men with a word. Remarkable gentleness. For once when he had gone hunting and a certain peasant had confused the stationary drivers by whom the deer are urged into the nets, he, roused by his noble anger, said: By God and His Mother, I will do you as much harm if I can. A noble spirit, which did not remember that he was King in such matters, nor thought that he could harm a man of so lowly a condition. Authority. Meanwhile, reverence for him among his household was intense, and dread of him among foreigners was great. For God indeed fostered his simplicity, so that he could be feared who did not know how to be angry.

[6] Concerning his military valor, the same Malmesbury, when speaking of the war waged between Edward and Godwin and his sons, has the following: Diligence in wars. Nor did that crisis find the King idle, since he himself slept aboard ship and kept watch for the movements of the pirates, carefully fulfilling by counsel what he could not accomplish by force in his old age. That he was indeed energetic and magnanimous whenever wars threatened, Florence of Worcester, William of Poitiers, and others demonstrate.

§ III. The justice and Laws of St. Edward.

[7] Nicholas Harpsfield, Century 2, chapter 3, relates among other things the following about Edward: Raised from exile to such great eminence and glory, he was so far from becoming more haughty in spirit that he rather cast himself down afterward to all humility Humility. and lowliness of mind. And the more the splendor of all things provoked him to pride, the more he humbled himself.

[8] Justice. To this was joined the companionship of all other virtues. He governed law and judgment with the highest justice and equity, from which he was not deflected by favor for any poor man or rich man or powerful person; he was far removed from anger, gluttony, and other vices of that grosser kind. He was inclined toward God and all divine things with wondrous piety. And just as he showed himself in some way equal to his household and agreeable and welcome to the people, so he showed himself humble before the priests of God. Monasteries that had fallen into ruin by the injury of time and by the incursions and depredations of the Danes, he either restored or erected new ones from the ground. His countenance and speech were certainly an index of all piety. His countenance, pleasant and agreeable, breathed a certain holiness. His speech, always seasoned with the utmost gravity and with the narration of heavenly things, The quality of his speech. at one time instructing with salutary doctrine, at another refreshing the wretched and afflicted with pleasant consolation, at another soothing with kind words, at another being grave and terrifying with royal majesty as the occasion demanded. But among all things, two qualities stood out in him: namely, an unceasing and attentive care for the poor, orphans, and widows, and for perpetual chastity. Liberality. Indeed, he was so far from the practice of heaping up riches by fair means or foul (which is now almost the common disease of princes) that he almost sinned in the other direction, by lavishness and dissipation.

[9] The same author continues shortly afterward: Edward brought the commonwealth to such a state of felicity that it, which for so many years had been dangerously tossed about like a ship in monstrous winds, was securely and calmly governed while he sat at the helm of the state and held the tiller, and utterly came to rest in him as in a certain harbor -- so much so, indeed, that the pious King obtained that ancient name of Solomon, that is, the Peacemaker. Then those salutary laws (which are commonly called the Laws of St. Edward) exerted their force and strength, The Laws of Edgar, why called the Laws of St. Edward. and established the commonwealth in the highest peace and tranquility. These were not first promulgated by him, but by his grandfather Edgar. Edward recalled them to use for the commonwealth after they had lapsed for sixty-eight years during those harsh Danish times, and from that time they borrowed their name from him; William I afterward ratified and confirmed them.

[10] They are partly concerned with the regulation of civil affairs and partly of ecclesiastical affairs, and contain generally the same provisions that the enactments of earlier kings -- Ine, Alfred, Athelstan, and others -- embrace; except that, among other things, the provision against those who exact usury and interest seems to be our Edward's own: His own sanction against usurers. by which it was provided that persons of this kind should forfeit all their property, and furthermore be treated as exiles. O salutary and holy provision and precaution! But never at any time, and especially in our own today and in our England in particular, where immoderate usury devours and absorbs everything, so necessary.

[11] The Laws of St. Edward were dear to the people. The antiquation and abolition of these laws by the succeeding Norman kings often stirred up many serious disturbances and tumults in England; and no speech of kings was ever more pleasing to the English people than that of those who, as happened to some, whether for the sake of enticing and binding the people more closely to themselves, or for the sake of extricating themselves from present danger, promised to restore those Laws to use.

§ IV. Edward, on the advice of wicked men, despoils his mother Emma of her possessions.

[12] When Godwin, Earl of Kent, Godwin's machination against Emma. had been of the highest authority under Kings Canute, Harold, and Hardicanute, but saw that his mother Emma was in equal or even greater favor with the last of these, since ambition is always impatient of a partner, he set about overthrowing her from her position of dignity; fearing perhaps also that the counsels of a most holy and most prudent mother might prevail more with Edward, a pious and religious king, than his own wiles; since she had so charmed even Canute, who was otherwise fierce and accustomed to wars, that he both cultivated religion piously and adorned and enriched sacred places munificently. There was added the consciousness of the crime committed against Alfred, Edward's brother. For although he had somehow appeased Hardicanute, who was still young and perhaps willingly deceived by feigned credulity so as meanwhile to secure his own position, he rightly had reason to fear that his mother might some day bring this to Edward's mind.

[13] But lest the accusation of his mother should seem suspicious to the King, he chose as accomplices in his new crime those to whom he knew the King gave the greatest trust, and drew them too by some art into the fraud -- namely Leofric, Earl of Hereford, and Siward, Earl of Northumbria. With these he persuaded the King to strip his mother of everything. Edward obeyed those who made wicked suggestions, being of a simple mind. Therefore in the year of Christ 1043, the first of his reign, fourteen days before the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, Edward takes everything from his mother Emma. says Florence of Worcester, the King hastened with the Earls Leofric, Godwin, and Siward from the city of Gloucester to Winchester unexpectedly; and, as they had counseled him, he took from his mother whatever she had of value in gold, silver, gems, precious stones, and other things; either because, before he was made King or afterward, she had given him less than he wished and had been very harsh to him. Nevertheless, he commanded that the necessities of life be ministered to her sufficiently, and ordered her to remain there in peace. William of Malmesbury relates the same, and thus commemorates the crimes alleged against Emma by her rivals:

She had long laughed at her son's straitened years, The crimes alleged against Emma;

never giving anything of her own; out of an inherited hatred, as it were, of a parent for her child. (For there had been grave dissensions between Ethelred, Edward's father, and his mother Emma.) For she had both loved Canute more while he was alive and praised him more when dead. Moreover, she had stuffed her purses with treasure gathered from every source, forgetful of the poor, to whom she would not allow a single coin to be given lest it diminish the total. And so what she had unjustly accumulated was not unjustly taken away, that it might profit the advantage of the destitute and suffice for the royal treasury. So those men alleged. Yet I find, says the author, that she was a holy woman and had spent her treasures on the adornments of the church at Winchester, and perhaps of other churches.

[14] Also of unchastity. Godwin's fury did not stop here. He leveled against her a charge of violated chastity; he drew to his side, as parties to the accusation, the very Normans who had come with Edward, from whom Emma could especially hope for help or whom Godwin himself might suspect of being willing to offer it to her. They, being for the most part men of upright life, rose up as severe avengers. But, as we shall presently say, God opportunely came to her aid. That Godwin was the chief contriver of all these machinations, Polydore Virgil and others have reported. The English generally attribute the whole crime to the ambition of Bishop Robert, who was both Emma's bitterest adversary here and afterward Godwin's. The occasion for fabricating or suspecting the charge was seized from the fact that she frequently visited Alfwin (called Advinus by Polydore, Alfwin by the Worcester chronicler), Bishop of Winchester, both because he was closely related to her by blood, as Harpsfield says, and so that by his presence and counsel she might more easily ward off the troubles of widowhood -- especially since she had been most wickedly despoiled of her property and the authority she should have had with her son the King.

§ V. Emma clears herself of the charge by ordeal.

[15] It will not be out of place, to use Harpsfield's words, at least for the fuller information of the reader, to preface some remarks about those methods of purgation which, besides duelling, were commonly employed both in England and elsewhere in these and later times, although afterward condemned by the Church, and indeed many centuries earlier by our first apostle Gregory. Ordeal: purgation by hot iron or water. This purgation is called ordeal in Saxon, and was twofold: one by hot iron, the other by water. The accused either carried the hot iron in his hands for a distance of nine feet, or walked barefoot across it when spread on the pavement of the church, nine feet wide. Into the water, either boiling or bubbling hot, they plunged the hands, or into cold water the whole body of the accused, in the strong conviction of all (which the outcome of events often confirmed) that the guilty, those conscious of their fault, would be made notable by some conspicuous calamity and injury, while those innocent of the crime would be free from any sense of punishment as well -- just as we know happened of old with the water of jealousy among the Jews.

[16] A three-day fast and Mass preceded. And by a prior fast of three days, during which the accused abstained from all other food and drink except bread, salt, water, and herbs, the person against whom the charge was brought purified himself. Then Mass was celebrated, at which the accused was present; and meanwhile the iron was heated. The priest also employed many ceremonies and prayers, by which he asked God that the truth of the matter, which was hidden, might come to light. The accused were then brought, in the presence of the ministers of both the King and the Bishop, who carefully watched to see that everything was accurately carried out according to the prescribed and established formula of purgation, to the place designated for the purgation.

[17] But it is better to hear an earlier author about Emma, Ranulph of Chester, who writes thus in Book 6, chapter 23: The King also honored Godwin, betrothed his daughter Editha, and did not publicly or completely disgrace his own mother. Yet on Godwin's advice he took all her precious possessions from his mother, either because she had been too harsh to him before he received the kingdom, or because she had been less eager for it to be conferred upon him. He also summoned from Normandy certain persons who had previously benefited him, in order to reward them; among whom he caused a certain Robert, a monk of Jumieges, to be made first Bishop of London, then Archbishop of Canterbury. On the advice of this man, the simple King himself, who never acted wrongly except when led by another's counsel, so far acquiesced Emma is thrown into prison. as to outlaw his father-in-law Godwin with his sons, to deprive his own mother of all her property on account of her familiarity with the Bishop of Winchester and to shut her up in the monastery of Wherwell, and also to imprison Bishop Alfwin.

[18] She offers the purgation of hot iron. Emma, being kept under rather lax guard, wrote to the Bishops of England in whom she trusted, saying that she was more tormented by the disgrace of the Bishop of Winchester than by her own shame; that she was prepared to vindicate herself by the judgment of God and the trial of hot iron, and to prove that the Bishop had been unjustly defamed. The Bishops, assembling, would have persuaded the King to grant her request, had not Robert of Canterbury opposed them: Robert accuses her: How, he said, do you dare defend that beast, not a woman, who defamed her own son the King, and called her wanton lover the Lord's anointed? But if this woman wishes to clear the Bishop, who will clear her, who is said to have consented to the death of her son Alfred and to have procured poison for Edward? But I judge that she had authority beyond the condition of her sex. If nevertheless for her own part she crosses nine paces, and for the Bishop five continuous paces, over nine heated plowshares with bare feet and full steps unharmed, he prescribes the manner of purgation. let her go free from this prosecution.

[19] The place for the trial is immediately fixed; and the King and the other nobles, except Robert alone, assembled. But on the preceding night, the woman, praying at the tomb of St. Swithun of Winchester, was comforted. On the following day, with her eyes veiled, she passed unharmed over the heated plowshares. She crosses the heated plowshares unharmed. Then the King groaned and begged forgiveness and received the discipline from both the Bishop and his mother; and he also restored the offerings that had been taken from them. The Queen then gave St. Swithun nine manors, and the Bishop likewise nine manors, in addition to those nine plowshares over which Emma had passed. Robert fled out of England.

[20] Polydore Virgil relates the same, as does Nicholas Harpsfield; but the latter expounds the conclusion of the whole affair somewhat differently, as follows: On the next day, after the appointed ceremonies had been performed, In what dress and manner she did this. led by two weeping Bishops who enclosed her on either side, covered in common dress, her feet and legs bared to the very knee, she was led through those nine burning plowshares placed in the church of St. Swithun, in the sight of the people; and she, with her eyes always raised to heaven and never deflected downward to the pavement, wholly intent on prayer and committing her cause to God as Susanna had once done, led by them, passed over them after nine paces. Among the people, meanwhile anxious about the outcome, everything was full of weeping and mournful wailing; the one voice of all was that anxiously imploring the help of God and Swithun. And now the Bishops were proceeding out of the church, when she said: When shall we reach the plowshares? They, overcome with tears, told her that she had trodden upon and passed over all those plowshares and had splendidly satisfied both her own conscience and everyone's expectation. Then she looked back, and for the first time saw those plowshares, and understood that she had completed her purgation. She then gave the most ample thanks to God and Swithun. The people, when they understood what had happened, began to exult with wondrous joy and to raise wondrous cries for the greatness of their astonishment and delight.

[21] She went straight, in the same attire, to the King her son, to place before his eyes sure proofs of her innocence. The King begs pardon and submits to penance. The King therefore cast himself down at his mother's feet, humbly begging pardon for having allowed his innocent mother to be so harassed and exposed to such great infamy. Then she said: Natural and maternal feelings easily wring pardon from me; but think again and again how you may make satisfaction to Bishop Alfwin. The Bishop was then summoned, from whom the King carefully begged forgiveness for his excessive credulity and readily obtained it; this he expiated by a few and light strokes of the rod, administered by the Bishops to his bare body while his mother wept. Soon everything of which the mother and Bishop had been despoiled was returned to them. Robert, meanwhile intent on the outcome of the affair and fearing that, if the Queen's innocence were publicly attested, it would bring him great disgrace and loss, withdrew to Kent; and soon, when that celebrated outcome was widely reported, he crossed the sea and, as some prefer to believe, never afterward returned to England. So far Harpsfield.

[21] It does not seem that Robert entirely departed from England, or else he afterward returned; for five years later, in the year 1050, as the Westminster and Worcester chroniclers and others relate, he obtained the Archbishopric of Canterbury. Moreover, those nine plowshares, as Harpsfield reports, were buried in the earth in the cloister of the monastery at Winchester. We shall give the Life of St. Swithun, or Swithin, on July 2.

LIFE BY SAINT EALRED.

Edward, King of England, Confessor (S.) BHL Number: 2424

By St. Ealred.

CHAPTER I.

The parents of St. Edward, his birth, and prognostics of his kingdom and holiness.

[1] Being about to commit to writing the life of the glorious and God-beloved King Edward, let us take our beginning from the words of the most blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles; Even the wealthy can be holy. who, marveling at the calling of the centurion, says: In truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he who fears God and works righteousness is acceptable to him. Acts 10:34-35. For in every nation, order, rank, and dignity the Lord knows who are his, and has mercy on whom he wills, and bestows mercy on whomsoever it pleases him. For neither does poverty of itself confer, nor do riches take away, holiness; neither does obscurity make one perfect, nor does renown make one reprobate; nor does freedom close, nor does servitude open, Paradise. The first Patriarch Abraham is described as both wealthy and perfect, whose admirable faith and obedience -- Joseph, appointed lord of Egypt by the king, provided the whole world with an example of chastity. What holy Job was like in his riches, the taking away of them proved, since bodily disease, the temptation of his wife, and the reproach of friends made him still more illustrious with conspicuous patience. King David, than whom no one was richer but no one holier; than whom none was more exalted but none more humble -- was both buried among innumerable treasures and reckoned among the friends of God as more beloved than all others. Let no one therefore marvel if our Edward is called both King and saint, whom we see both poor amid riches and sober amid delights, humble in purple, and a despiser of the world beneath a golden crown.

[2] For when King Ethelred had begotten a son Edmund, surnamed Ironside, by the daughter of Earl Thoret, and Alfred by Queen Emma, Edward's parents. Blessed Edward, still enclosed in his mother's womb, was preferred to both, by the working of Him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, who rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever he wills. For a great assembly of nobles and bishops was convened before the King, and since fierce signs of the coming calamity had already appeared, a deliberation was held among them concerning the state of the kingdom. Some judged Edmund should be preferred, on account of the unconquerable strength of his body; others thought it safer that Alfred be advanced, on account of the valor of the Normans. But He who has foreknowledge of all future things, foreseeing the very brief life of the first and the untimely death of the second, turned the votes of all toward the boy not yet born. He was still enclosed in the womb and the boy was chosen as King; unborn, he was preferred to those already born; and he whom the earth had not yet received was designated lord of the earth. The nobles joyfully swore an oath of fealty to one whose very birth was still uncertain.

[3] Shortly after the birth of St. Edward, when barbarians burst into England He is carried to Normandy. and laid waste the greater part of the island with slaughter and fire, the Queen with her sons was transported to Normandy. He lived in his ancestral home among boys as a boy, yet free from the vices in which that age is usually entangled. He was chaste in body, He lives a holy life there. sparing in speech, simple in behavior, and pure in affection. He found it sweet to frequent the Church, to apply himself more often to prayers, to attend the sacred solemnities of the Mass, to devote himself to visiting monasteries, and to join to himself in friendship those monks whom he knew to be the most holy.

[4] Meanwhile, the hostile sword raged in England; everything was filled with slaughter and plunder; The Danes lay waste to England. everywhere lamentation, outcry, and desolation. Churches were burned, monasteries laid waste, priests driven from their sees, and hiding in deserted places, bewailing their common misery. Among them, the venerable Brithwald, Bishop of Winchester, entered the monastery of Glastonbury in grief and sorrow and devoted himself to prayers and psalms. When he once poured forth prayers and tears for the liberation of the kingdom and the people, St. Brithwald, while praying, sees Edward anointed by St. Peter. bursting forth as it were in these words, he said: And you, Lord, how long? How long do you turn away your face? Do you forget our need and our tribulation? They have slain your saints, they have destroyed your altars, and there is none to redeem, none to save. I know, Lord, I know that all the things you have done to us, you have done in true judgment; but will God reject forever and not again be favorable? Shall there be, O Lord my God, an end to these wonders? Or will your sword rage against us forever, and will you strike unto annihilation? At last, exhausted amid prayers and tears, a gentle sleep overtook him; and he saw in a dream Blessed Peter standing in a high place, and before him Edward, of distinguished countenance and comely form, clothed in royal insignia. When the Apostle had consecrated and anointed him as King with his own hands, he added instructions for salvation, and especially commending the celibate life, revealed how many years he would reign.

[5] The Bishop, amazed at the novelty of so great a miracle, asked the Saint to reveal to him the mystery of this vision. Moreover, he demanded an apostolic oracle concerning the state of the kingdom and the end of the pressing danger. Then, gazing with a serene countenance upon the one who gazed at him, he said: The kingdom, O Bishop, is the Lord's, and he will rule among the sons of men. He himself transfers kingdoms and changes empires, and because of the sins of the people causes a hypocrite to reign. St. Peter reveals future things to him. Your people have sinned a great sin against the Lord, and he has delivered them into the hands of the nations, and those who hate them have lorded it over them. But God will not forget to show mercy, nor will he in his anger withhold his mercies. For it shall come to pass, when you have slept with your fathers, that the Lord will visit his people and will bring about the redemption of his people. For he will choose for himself a man after his own heart, who will do all his will, who with my help, having obtained the kingdom of the English, will put an end to the Danish fury. For he will be acceptable to God, agreeable to men, terrible to enemies, lovable to citizens, useful to the Church, and will conclude a praiseworthy life with a holy end. That all these things were fulfilled in Blessed Edward, the outcome of events confirmed. When the Bishop inquired about the posterity of Edward, St. Peter replied: The kingdom of the English The kingdom of the English is the kingdom of God. is the kingdom of God. After this man He will provide a King according to his own pleasure.

Ethelred, also called Etheldred, Egelred, etc., was the son of Edgar and Aelfrith. He was crowned in 978 and died in 1016. He married a daughter of a certain duke in 981. Edmund, called Ironside for his bodily and spiritual strength, was the grandfather of St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland. Emma, also called Imma or Elfgiua, was married to Ethelred in 1002, daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy. Alfred, Edward's brother, was killed by the treachery of Godwin. In August 1013, Ethelred sent his wife and children to Normandy. Brithwald's life will be given on January 22. Glastonbury was the most noble and ancient monastery in Somerset.

CHAPTER II.

Edward becomes King: he flourishes in virtues.

[6] The storm of spirit still stood, and its waves were raised high, and to the external evils was added civil discord, so that no one knew to whom to entrust the secrets of his mind. The island was full of traitors; nowhere was faith safe, nowhere love without suspicion, nor speech without dissimulation. Canute becomes King. At last civil treachery and the cunning of the enemy advanced so far that, with King Ethelred dead, a great part of the island, having renounced the legitimate heirs, gave their hand to Canute, who had invaded the kingdom; Edmund and Alfred are killed. and, with the most unconquerable King Edmund slain, they even sent his sons, still in their cradles, to the barbarians to be killed. Finally, Alfred, Edward's brother, having crossed over into England, was put to death by enemies and citizens alike with unheard-of cruelty.

[7] Edward vows to visit St. Peter's tomb when his kingdom is restored: Then Edward, destitute of all human help, lived as an exile from his country, his kingdom, and his honor: he feared the plots of the wicked and greatly dreaded being betrayed by his own people or bought by enemies for death. Having found a salutary counsel, he prostrated himself before God, continuing in these words: Behold, Lord, there is no help for me in myself, and my necessities have withdrawn from me; my friends and my neighbors have drawn near and stood against me. My father, after many labors, has departed from human affairs; the cruelty of traitors has swallowed up my brothers; my nephews have been driven into exile; my mother has been given in marriage to our rival. Thus I am left alone, and they seek my life. But unto you, Lord, am I left, a poor man; you will be a helper to the fatherless. You once preserved Edwin, exposed to death, in a wondrous way both for life and for the kingdom. You, through the sign of the Cross, made St. Oswald, that glory of England, from an exile a holy King stronger than all his enemies. If therefore you will be with me, and will keep me, and will bring me back to the kingdom of my father, you will ever be my God, and Blessed Peter the Apostle my patron; whose most sacred relics in the city of Rome I promise to visit, with your consent, your guidance, and your accompaniment. From then on, made more robust in faith, more eager in hope, he waited and waited for the Lord.

[8] When King Canute was removed from human affairs, and his sons were snatched away by untimely death, the English, freed from the Danish yoke, elected Edward as King and had him consecrated and anointed with the greatest honor. He becomes King. Then the priests shone with wisdom and holiness, the monasteries flourished with all religious observance, the clergy acted in their office, and the people stood in their station. The very earth seemed more fertile, the air more wholesome, and the waves of the sea more peaceful. Kings and princes, struck with astonishment at so great a change of affairs, were pleased to enter into a treaty with so great a King, to form friendships, and to arrange peace. He makes treaties with various princes. Only Denmark, still breathing and panting for slaughter, threatened the destruction of the English. In all these things the blessed man was not puffed up with human glory, but, setting before himself this form of living, he showed himself equal to his household, humble before the priests, agreeable to the people, compassionate toward the wretched, and generous to the poor. With him there was no respect of persons; but he judged the poor with justice and argued with equity on behalf of the meek of the earth; and he was the father of orphans and the judge of widows. He flourishes in every virtue. If anything was asked, he granted it; if anything was taken, he kept silent. No one ever saw him either puffed up with pride, or wild with anger, or dishonored by gluttony. For beyond the human measure he was a despiser of money, appearing neither sadder at its loss nor more cheerful at its acquisition.

[9] Once when the King was lying in his bed for the sake of rest, the Chamberlain approached the chest in which the royal treasury was kept, and having placed inside what he wished, forgetting to close it, went out. A remarkable despiser of money. A certain person noticed this, and approaching the chest, hid a considerable sum of money in his bosom and went away. Returning a second time, while the King watched, he repeated the crime. When he attempted it a third time, the King, perceiving in spirit that the keeper of the treasury was approaching, said: You are acting rashly, man; if you take my advice, take what you have and flee; for if Hugolinus comes (for this was the Chamberlain's name), he will not leave you a single coin. The man fled, and had scarcely set foot outside when, behold, the King's minister returned; and finding the treasury depleted, was shaken with fear and trembling; the anguish of his heart and the fury of his mind were betrayed by his cries and sighs. The King rose, and as if not knowing what had happened, inquired about the cause of this disturbance. When he had learned it, he said: Be quiet; perhaps the one who took it needed it more than we. Let him have it; what remains is enough for us.

* Canute, or Cnuto the Dane, son of Sweyn, became King of part of England after the death of Ethelred; the rest adhered to Edmund. There was fierce war with him, then peace and friendship. On the night of St. Andrew's Day in the same year, Eadric, or Edric, Duke of the Mercians, treacherously arranged Edmund's murder; for which reason he himself was slain by Canute, whose favor he had sought to win by parricide.

** Canute sent Eadwin (or Eadwi; Edmund according to the Worcester chronicle) and Edward, or Eduard, the sons of Edmund, to the King of the Swedes to be killed. The latter, abhorring the crime, sent them to Solomon, King of Hungary, to be raised. The elder died there; the other married Agatha as his wife and had children, of whom more elsewhere.

* Alfred, after the death of Canute, came to England with a great company of Normans in the year 1036. But through the treachery of Godwin, most were barbarously disemboweled or otherwise slain; Alfred's eyes were torn out; then he was ignominiously banished to the monastery of Ely, where he died shortly after. The panegyrist of Emma, cited in chapter 1, relates that he was made illustrious by miracles after death and calls him a Martyr.

** In the year 1018, Canute sought and obtained Emma, the widow of Ethelred, as his wife from her brother Richard. Thus the Norman renounced the guardianship of his nephews Edward and Alfred, so as to secure his own interests through this new alliance.

* Concerning St. Edwin, miraculously preserved at King Redwald's court, we shall treat on October 12, in his life.

The life of St. Oswald will be given on August 5.

* Canute died on November 12 in the year 1035.

** The first was Harold, born of the concubine Aelgifu, who despoiled Emma of her treasures and expelled her. She then came to Flanders. When Harold died in the year 1040, Harthacanute, son of Canute and Emma, became King of England; he died on June 8 in the year 1042.

* Edward was raised to the kingship in the year 1043, on Easter day, the third day before the Nones of April, says Ranulph of Chester, at Westminster, or at Winchester according to some (indeed according to most). Edward III, therefore (the same writer continues), raised to the kingship, wrote such a charter, which is still preserved at Westminster, that whenever he himself, or any successor, should wear the royal diadem at Westminster, Winchester, or Worcester, on that day the Precentor of the place should receive from the royal treasury 81 marks, the Convent 100 simnels, and one measure of wine. I judge simnels to be fine wheaten loaves.

Among these was Harold, King of Norway, concerning whom the Worcester chronicle records under the year 1048.

** Other writers also call it Dacia, because they believed the Danes drew their origin from the Daci or Dahi, peoples of Scythia. See Joannes Isacius Pontanus in his Chorographic Description of Denmark.

CHAPTER III.

He preserves virginity with his wife. He divinely learns of an enemy's death.

[10] The nobles of the land, however, anxious about the succession, approached the King about taking a wife. The King was amazed, fearing for his treasure, which, hidden in a vessel of clay, could easily be dissolved by heat. But what was he to do? If he stubbornly resisted, he feared lest the sweet secret of his resolution be betrayed; He reluctantly marries Edith. if he gave assent to those who urged him, he dreaded shipwreck of his chastity. At length, judging it safer to yield to those who pressed him importunately, he commended his chastity to the Lord in words such as these: Good Jesus, your mercy once preserved the three youths unharmed amid the Chaldean flames. Through you, Joseph, leaving his cloak in the hands of the harlot, escaped with the title of chastity. The admirable constancy of Susanna triumphed by your power over the impure elders. The chastity of holy Judith could neither be harmed nor tempted by Holofernes. Behold, I am your servant and the son of your handmaid, such as I am a lover of you and of your only Mother: help me, Lord, that I may so receive the sacrament of marriage that I incur no peril to my chastity. The King therefore giving his consent to the will of the nobles, married the daughter of Godwin. Now Godwin was a man of great wealth, but of singular cunning, a betrayer of kings and kingdom, who, skilled in deception and accustomed to dissemble anything, easily inclined the people to assent to any faction. But as * a thorn produces a rose, so Godwin begot Edith.

Edith's virtues. Christ prepared her for his beloved Edward, inspiring in her from infancy itself a love of chastity, a hatred of vices, and an affection for virtue. She was accustomed, by reading or working with her hands, to avoid lasciviousness by fleeing idleness, and to shun the conversations of young men. When they came together, therefore, the King and Queen made a pact to preserve chastity, and deemed that no other witness than God need be called to this covenant. She became a wife in mind, not in flesh; he a husband in mind, not in deed. Between them conjugal affection persisted without the conjugal act, and the embraces of chaste love without the deflowering of virginity. They preserve their virginity. 3 Kings 1. He was loved but not corrupted; she was loved but not touched; and like a new Abishag, she warmed the King with love but did not dissolve him with lust; she soothed him with service but did not soften him with desires.

[11] He divinely learns of the death of his enemy. For on a certain day of Pentecost, when the King was present at the divine mysteries, at the hour of the elevation of the Body of Christ the King suddenly became more cheerful in countenance, more elevated in his eyes, and broke into a slight laugh, though preserving his royal gravity. Those who were present began to wonder, and not without reason, since they knew this had happened to him contrary to his custom. When the solemnities of the Mass were completed, those standing by urgently asked that the cause of his laughter be explained. He, as one of marvelous simplicity, simply confessed everything to those who simply asked, saying: * The Danes have agreed with their King to repeat their ancient crime and to disturb the peace which the favorable divinity has bestowed upon us. Indeed, in the punishment with which the Lord has chastised us, ignorant of the justice of God and extolling their own strength, they said: Our hand is exalted, and the Lord has not done all these things. Because God, angered at our fathers, delivered us into the power of the Danes, they attributed this to their own strength and thought the same thing could easily be done again now, not knowing that he who strikes also heals, he who kills also gives life, and he who leads down to the grave also leads back. Therefore the King of Dacia, having gathered his army together, commanded ships to be prepared on this day, with the winds blowing favorably. Already the ships were to be committed to the sails, and the sails to the winds; and the wicked King, unable as it were to contain himself on account of excessive pride, while trying to board a ship from a skiff, slipped his foot between the two, fell into the sea, and immediately the abyss surrounded him and the deep covered his head; and thus by his death he freed both peoples, namely of the Danes and the English, equally from sin and peril. And I hope in the Lord my God and in his most sweet Mother that in my time their efforts will have no effect. These are the things which I learned by the revelation of Christ, and I saw and laughed and rejoiced; for the Lord has made laughter for me, and whoever hears will laugh with me. The time and hour were noted; messengers were sent to Dacia; and all the things which had been divinely announced to the most blessed King were found to have been true and to have occurred at the same hour.

* Matthew of Westminster, year 1044: King Edward, in the protection of his kingdom, married the daughter of the most powerful Earl Godwin, named Edith. Huntingdon writes the same. William of Malmesbury says that Edward, before he became King, had pledged friendship to Godwin, honors to his sons, and marriage to his daughter.

** Ingulph of Crowland recites the same praise of Edith, extolling her piety, chastity, beauty, modesty, learning, and other virtues, and finally saying: in nothing savoring the barbarity of her father or brothers.

* The Danish Annals do not mention these things. It is established that Magnus, King of Norway and Denmark, wished to invade England, as Westminster records under the year 1045. But when Sweyn declared war on him, he was forced to desist. Adam, book 3, chapter 12, writes that St. Edward offered tribute to Sweyn lest he invade England with his assembled fleet.

CHAPTER IV.

The Pope relaxes his vow of a Roman pilgrimage.

[12] He desires to go to Rome to fulfill his vow. As prosperity succeeded, the King, by no means forgetful of his vow, reflecting on how great things the Lord had done for him -- who enriched the poor, exalted the humble, and crowned the inglorious -- prepared to fulfill his vows, prepared supplies, prepared gifts. Having called together the nobles of the kingdom, he discussed with them the state of the kingdom and his pilgrimage, saying: It has not escaped us how, when barbarians burst upon our inheritance, we became a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those who surround us. For some were slain, others put to flight, others crushed under the yoke of shameful servitude, and they left scarcely any honor, scarcely any glory to our race. At last, when my father died, my brothers were killed, my nephews driven into exile, and fortune in all things favored our enemies, it seemed to me indeed that no hope remained. But I, believing against hope and committing myself entirely to the mercy of my Lord, vowed my pilgrimage to the thresholds of the holy Apostles, and thereafter committed myself to divine protection and disposition. And he looked upon my prayer and did not despise my plea, and took away my reproach and restored me to the kingdom of my father. Moreover, he heaped up wealth with glory, adorned me with heavenly gifts. He himself subdued the rebels without blood, overthrew enemies, and composed all our affairs with a certain lovable peace. Far be it from us that we be found ungrateful for his so many and so great benefits; rather, freed from the hand of our enemies, let us serve him in justice and truth, and do what the Prophet says: Vow and render unto the Lord your God. Psalm 75:12. Determine therefore with me how the kingdom of the English may stand while I am on pilgrimage: by what law, what peace, what justice, what judge all things are to be arranged; who shall oversee the camps, cities, private and public affairs. But God will be the one guardian and protector of all, and the peace he has given, he himself will preserve, going forth with us and remaining with us; who shall both guard you and bring me back.

[13] Then all cried out together to the King that they should not be abandoned, should not be exposed to swords, The nobles object; he consults the Pontiff. that the fatherland should not be betrayed to enemies, nor so many dangers admitted for one, as they considered, good. Then the King, feeling himself pressed by their voices and prayers, long wavered in his mind, because he considered it perilous to postpone his vow and inhuman not to yield to the prayers and tears of so many. At last, deferring the pilgrimage, he waited until, supported by Apostolic counsel, he might either redeem or fulfill his vow.

[14] At length the Supreme Pontiff, having considered and carefully examined the foregoing, transmitted to the King a letter containing the following: * Leo, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved son Edward, King of the English, greeting and the Apostolic benediction. Since we have learned that your will is laudable and pleasing to God, we give thanks to him through whom kings reign and princes decree what is just. But because the Lord is near in every place to all who call upon him in truth, and the holy Apostles, united with their head, are one spirit and equally hear pious prayers; and because it is certain that the English realm would be endangered by your departure, you who restrain its seditious movements with the bridle of justice: by the authority of God and the holy Apostles, we absolve you from the sin of that vow for which you fear God's displeasure, and from all your negligences and iniquities, using that power which the Lord granted to us in Blessed Peter, saying: Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven. Matthew 16:19. Then we command you, under the name of holy obedience and penance, that the expenses which you had prepared for this journey, Here he dispenses from the vow and enjoins other pious works. you distribute to the poor, and that you either establish a new monastery of monks in honor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, or repair and enlarge an old one, and provide sufficient victuals for the brethren from your revenues; so that while they ceaselessly praise God therein, both glory may increase for the Saints and indulgence for you. Whatever you shall confer upon that place, or has been conferred, or shall be conferred, we command by Apostolic authority to be ratified, and that it always be a habitation of monks, and be subject to no lay person except the King; and whatever privileges you wish to establish there pertaining to the honor of God, we grant and confirm with the most robust authority, and in the end we condemn the violators thereof with eternal malediction.

[15.] The dispensation is confirmed by St. Peter and revealed to a certain hermit. A heavenly oracle concurred with the King's envoys and the Pontiff's letters. For there was in England a certain man beloved of God and men, who, enclosed for many years in a subterranean cave, was already near the end through the rewards of his merits. To this man the Apostle Peter, appearing in a vision of the night, said: King Edward, anxious about the vow by which he had bound himself while still in exile, and also about the peace of the kingdom and the needs of the poor, believed the Roman Church should be consulted about all these things. Let him know, therefore, that he is released from this obligation by my authority, and that he has received from the Supreme Pontiff the mandate concerning the building of a monastery in honor of my name. Let him therefore without hesitation trust the Apostolic letters, obey the commands, and acquiesce in the counsels. For the word has gone forth from me, whom he once chose as his patron, companion on the way, and bestower of grace. Now there is a place in the western part of London chosen by me, beloved to me, which I once consecrated with my own hands, ennobled with my presence, and also made illustrious with divine miracles: ** Thorney is the name of the place, which once, on account of the sins of the people, delivered over to the power of barbarians, became poorest from rich, humble from lofty, contemptible from noble. Let the King, at my command, take this place to be restored, exalted with buildings, and enlarged with possessions as a habitation for monks. There shall be nothing there but the house of God and the gate of heaven. There a ladder is to be erected, by which descending and ascending angels shall carry up the prayers and vows of men and bring down grace. From there I will open the gates of paradise to those ascending, so that by the office which my Lord and Savior enjoined upon me, I may both absolve the bound and receive the absolved, and the gate of the heavenly fatherland, which sin had closed to them, I may open to those justified. But you, committing to writing all the things you have heard and learned from me, send them to the King, so that with the gift of God doubled, he may be both more secure about the absolution, more devout in the execution of the command, and more zealous in love and service of me. Having said these things, the light vanished with the speaker. And so the old man wrote down all that he had heard and sent it to the King. At the same hour, the Pope's rescript having been read, the letters of the blessed old man were recited. Then the King, joyful and eager, distributed to the poor the money he had prepared for the pilgrimage and built a monastery.

* This is St. Leo IX, who held the See from the year 1049 to 1054. We shall give his life on April 19.

** That place, called Thorney from its thorns, situated on the west side, is Westminster and its monastery. William Camden describes the place excellently in his account of the Trinovantes.

CHAPTER V.

Westminster is built and dedicated by St. Peter.

[16] At the time when King Ethelbert, who reigned in Kent, received the sacraments of the faith through the preaching of Blessed Augustine, his nephew * Sebert, who ruled the East Angles, likewise received the faith through the same Bishop's evangelization. He in London, which was considered the capital of his kingdom, built a church of * Blessed Paul within the walls and honored it with episcopal dignity, appointing Mellitus as Bishop. Westminster built by St. Augustine. But outside the walls, in the western part, he founded a distinguished monastery in honor of Blessed Peter and endowed it with many possessions. Now on the night preceding the dedication of this church, to a certain fisherman of the Thames River, which flows past the same monastery, Blessed Peter appeared on the farther bank in the garb of a pilgrim, and having promised a reward, both asked and obtained to be ferried across by him. Disembarking from the boat, * he entered the church while the fisherman watched. And behold, suddenly a heavenly light flashed forth and, illuminating everything with a marvelous splendor, turned night into day. With the Apostle came a multitude of citizens of heaven entering, a celestial melody resounded, and the fragrance of an indescribable perfume filled the nostrils.

[17] Dedicated by St. Peter. When all the solemnities pertaining to the dedication of a church had been performed, the excellent fisher of men returned to the fisherman of fish. Finding him terrified by the flash of divine light and almost beside himself, he restored the man to himself and reason to his mind with gentle consolation. Both entering the boat together, the fisherman Peter said: Have you no food? And he said: [Happiness conferred on the fisherman and his posterity: but they must not fish on Sundays.] Stupefied by the flooding of unwonted light and held back by waiting for you, I caught nothing, but securely awaited the reward promised by you. To this the Apostle said: Cast now your nets for a catch. The fisherman obeyed the one commanding, and immediately a very great multitude of fish filled the net. All were fish of the same kind, except one pike of extraordinary size. When these had been drawn to the bank, the Apostle said: This fish, which surpasses the rest in price and size, deliver on my behalf to Bishop Mellitus. For your nautical hire, take the rest. You will abound in this kind for your lifetime, and your descendants for a long time after you; only do not dare to fish again on the Lord's Day. I am Peter who speaks to you, who with my fellow citizens have dedicated the basilica built in my name, and have anticipated the episcopal blessing with the authority of my sanctification. Tell the Bishop, therefore, what you have seen and heard, and signs impressed on the walls will bear testimony to your words. Let him therefore refrain from the dedication; let him supply what we omitted -- the most sacred mysteries of the Lord's Body and Blood; and instructing the people with a sermon, let him make known to all that I will frequently visit this place, that here I will be present to the vows and prayers of the faithful; and to those living soberly, piously, and justly in this age, I will open the gate of heaven. Having said these things, he immediately vanished from his sight.

In the morning, when Bishop Mellitus was proceeding to dedicate the church, the fisherman met him with the fish and revealed all that had been commanded him. The Bishop was amazed, and opening the doors of the church, he saw the pavement marked with the inscription of both alphabets, the wall anointed with the oil of sanctification in twelve places, Ceremonies of dedication. the remains of twelve candles adhering to twelve crosses, and everything still moist as if from a recent sprinkling. Seeing this, the Bishop together with the people blessed God and gave him thanks. The entire succession of that fisherman bears witness to the miracle, for as each had received from his father, so he offered to Blessed Peter and those who served him the tithes of all the profit which that art thenceforth earned for him. One man, however, who once dared to commit fraud, He who does not pay tithes is punished. was immediately deprived of the benefit of his art until, having confessed his fault, he both restored what had been taken and promised correction.

* The life of St. Ethelbert will be given on February 24.

** Kent, or Cantium, is a province of England nearest to Flanders.

** St. Augustine, Apostle of the English, is venerated on May 26.

** Sebert was not King of the East Angles but of the East Saxons, son of Sledd by Ricula, sister of St. Ethelbert.

* London is the metropolis of England, one of the chief cities of the world.

William Camden describes this most noble temple in his account of the Trinovantes.

* St. Mellitus is venerated on April 24.

** The Thames is the most famous river of England, its tide rising 60 Italian miles from its mouth. The Isis, commonly called Ouse, having received the Tame, forms it; whence the name is derived.

* Ordericus Vitalis, book 3 of his Ecclesiastical History, mentions this consecration by St. Peter.

So Surius. Capgrave has "esicius." Bede also, book 1 of his History of England, chapter 1. And indeed pike and eel especially abound there. I judge it to be the same fish which Pliny, book 9, chapter 15, calls esox. Servius also, and Sulpicius, Dialogue 3, on the life of St. Martin, no. 13: At the first cast the deacon drew out an enormous pike with a very small net. Some interpret this as salmon, others perhaps more correctly as pike, and they hold that Pliny formed the Latin word from the German een snoeck.

CHAPTER VI.

Privileges conferred on Westminster by the Pope.

[19] When St. Edward had learned these things from the accounts and writings of the ancients, his spirit burned to exalt that monastery still higher with buildings, possessions, and dignities, and he sent envoys to Rome for the privileges of that place and other matters, bearing the following letter to the Pope: To the Supreme Father of the universal Church, a Nicholas, Edward by the grace of God King of the English, due subjection and obedience. Edward's letter to Pope Nicholas II. We glorify God, because he has care for his chosen Church, since in the place of a b good predecessor he has established you as an excellent successor. Wherefore we judge it right to sharpen and prove all our good actions before you, as upon a solid rock, and to have your knowledge and fellowship in good; so that you may renew and augment for us those donations and privileges which we obtained from your predecessor, namely that what he had enjoined upon us under the name of obedience and penance, on account of the vow which I had vowed to go to Rome, and for the remission of all my sins, to build a monastery of monks in honor of the Apostle Peter, you ratify, and confirm, renew, and decree the privileges of the possessions and dignities of that place. I c also for my part augment and confirm the donations and customary payments of money which St. Peter has in England; Peter's Pence in England. and I send those collected monies to you with royal gifts, that you may pray for me and for the peace of my kingdom, and institute a continuous and solemn commemoration of the entire English nation before the bodies of the holy Apostles.

[20] Nicholas's reply. The Pope wrote back to him in this manner: Nicholas, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the most glorious and most pious, and most worthy of every honor, and especially our son Edward, King of the English: every manner of visitation, honeyed greeting, and the Apostolic benediction. We render thanks to Almighty God, who has adorned and graced your most prudent excellency in all things, in having love toward Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and with us, and in consenting to all Apostolic decrees. We therefore transmit letters to your nobility and through them give you the fellowship of the holy Apostles and our own, praying the mercy of him who is Lord of all and alone King over all, that he himself may make you a partaker of all our good works, if there be any before God, and establish us as brethren and partners in his love for all time more abundantly, and assign you no lesser a share of our service in his kingdom than we desire to come to ourselves. We will also henceforth be assiduous in praying for you without doubt, that God himself may subdue the enemies and foes who wish to rise against you, and confirm you on your paternal throne and in your proper inheritance, and that Blessed Peter may be your guardian and helper in every tribulation. We therefore renew and confirm and augment for you your privileges, namely that you be absolved from that vow which you feared, and from all other sins and iniquities, by the authority of him who willed me, though unworthy, to preside over his holy Church.

[21] He confirms the privileges of Westminster. Furthermore, to that place which you have undertaken to build and improve under the name of holy penance, since, as it is reported, it first received its consecration from Blessed Peter, whose Vicars we are, though unworthy, and since it has been from ancient times a royal seat, by the authority of God and the holy Apostles and of this Roman See and our own, we grant, permit, and most firmly confirm that it be in perpetuity a place of royal establishment and a repository of royal insignia, and a perpetual habitation of monks, who shall be subject to absolutely no person except the King, and shall have the power according to the Rule of St. Benedict to elect from among themselves by succession suitable abbots, nor shall any external person be introduced by force, except one whom the harmonious congregation shall have previously chosen.

[22] He exempts it from the jurisdiction of the Bishop. We also absolve that place from all episcopal service and dominion, so that no Bishop may enter there to ordain or command anything except at the petition and consent of the Abbot and monks. And the same place shall have a free precinct, that is, an enclosure and cemetery for the dead around it, without any episcopal or other regard or exaction; and all things pertaining to the liberty and exaltation of that place for the honor of God, which can accrue through our authority, we grant with a cheerful and most ready will. Moreover, the possessions which ancient kings, or any other persons, and you yourselves and your barons have conferred upon that place, and the charters which have been made concerning them, we confirm by divine and our own authority, and decree them to be ratified and stable; and the violators, invaders, diminishers, dispersers, or even sellers thereof, we condemn with eternal malediction along with Judas the betrayer, so that they may have no part in the blessed resurrection, but know that they are to be judged by Blessed Peter the Apostle, when he shall sit with his fellow apostles judging the twelve tribes of Israel. He makes the King Advocate and Protector of the Churches of England. To you and your successors as Kings we commit the advocacy and protection of that same place and of all the Churches of all England, so that in our stead, with the counsel of bishops and abbots, you may establish everywhere what is just, knowing that for this you will receive a worthy reward from him whose kingdom and rule shall neither cease nor be diminished forever.

a Nicholas II, elected Pontiff in the year 1058, but not consecrated until the following year; he died in the year 1061.

b This was Stephen X, called IX by others, who died at Florence on March 29 in the year 1058; on which day we shall treat of him more fully.

c Concerning this tribute customarily paid to the Apostolic See, Baronius treats in many places in the Annals. William of Malmesbury, On the Deeds of the Kings of England, book 1, chapter 2, treating of the testament of King Ethelwulf of the West Saxons, says: He commanded that forever to the end of the age, a poor person be clothed and fed for every tenth hide of all his inheritance, and that three hundred marks of gold be sent to Rome each year, of which one hundred be spent for Blessed Peter, one hundred for Blessed Paul for lights, and one hundred for the Pontiff for gifts. And shortly before, he writes thus of the same most pious king: Having triumphed over the enemy, he turned to the worship of God and granted a tenth of all the hides within his kingdom to the servants of Christ, free from all duties and absolved from all disturbances. But how slight is this his glory? He went to Rome with his kingdom in order, and there offered the tribute which England still pays to St. Peter before Pope Leo IV, who had also previously received his son Alfred, sent to him, with honor and anointed him King. There, therefore, having stayed a full year, he excellently repaired the English School, which (as is reported) had been first established by Offa, King of the Mercians, and had burned down the previous year.

CHAPTER VII.

Edward relieves his subjects of tribute: he cures various persons miraculously.

[23] St. Edward, moreover, with royal liberality remitted that most burdensome a tribute, Edward remits a heavy tribute to his subjects. which in his father's time was paid to the Danish fleet and afterward was brought into the royal treasury, and absolved England from this insupportable burden in perpetuity. b For when that collected money was brought before him, he saw the devil sitting upon the heap and playing, and he commanded that it be exacted no more.

[24] When the King was once staying in the palace near the church of Blessed Peter, there came a certain c wretched man, Irish by birth, deprived of the use of both feet; for the sinews in the hollow of his knees had contracted and twisted his legs backward to the posterior parts of his body, his heels clung to his buttocks, and the joints of his feet, sunken into the flesh, had perverted his entire body from the loins downward. With his hands stretched to the ground and boards placed beneath them, he crept along, and made a burden to himself, he dragged himself behind himself. Seeing the King's chamberlain, he said to him: Hugolin, will you not look upon me, nor have pity, nor will my great calamity move you? And he said: What do you wish me to do? The poor man said: Six times I have visited the thresholds of the Apostles, creeping as you see, [He carries the sick man to the church on his shoulders and thus restores him to health.] and I have not yet merited health. Yet the Prince of the Apostles has not denied it to me, but deferred it, wishing to have Edward, whom he knows to be devoted to him in all things, as his partner in this miracle. For from the Apostle himself I received the command to approach the King, that he might carry me, borne upon his sacred back, to his church which is near the palace, and if he does this, I shall receive the complete health of my limbs. When these things were reported to the King, he gave thanks to God, and the sick man quickly approached. The King, like that spiritual strong ass, lying down between the borders, put his shoulders under the burden. Genesis 49:14. From the shoulder of so great a Prince hangs the poor man full of filth, with squalid hands and scaly arms embracing that royal breast and neck. Meanwhile, some of those standing by laughed, others jested that the King had been tricked by the poor man, others judged the simplicity of the just man to be foolishness. When therefore the King had proceeded a little way, suddenly the sinews were stretched, the bones were set right, the withered flesh regained its warmth, the joints emerged from the flesh, the feet were loosed from the buttocks. The man extended his legs, the knee now being flexible, and as blood and pus flowed forth, the royal garment was adorned rather than defiled. Then all cried out that it was enough, that the sick man was healed, and the burden should be set down on account of the filth of the sores. But he, mindful of the command he had received, passed by the songs of the Sirens with stopped ears, and entering the church, before the holy altar he returned to God and Blessed Peter the offering he had brought, and he sent him away whole. Having received provisions for the journey from the King, he set out for Rome to give thanks to God and St. Peter.

[25] Christ blesses the King. In the monastery of Blessed Peter, before the altar of the Holy Trinity, the holy King was on a certain occasion attending the solemnities of the Mass with d Earl Leofric. And behold, Christ Jesus, beautiful in form above the sons of men, appearing bodily on the altar, visible to the eyes of both, extended his sacred right hand over the King and, blessing him, traced the sign of the holy Cross. The King, with bowed head, adored the presence of the divine majesty. The Earl, not knowing what was happening in the King's mind and wishing the King to share in so great a vision, began to try to approach him. But the King, understanding what was revolving in the Earl's mind, said: Stand, Leofric, stand; what you see, I see also. After the Mass the King said to the Earl: By the majesty of him whom we have seen, my Leofric, I adjure you that as long as we both live, this matter not be made public, lest either the wind of pride, on account of the favor of the people, strike us to our destruction, or the jealousy of the faithless detract from the credibility of our words.

[26] e Beneath a certain woman's jaws, swellings like glands had grown up, Edward heals a sick woman by washing. which, disfiguring her whole face with a hideous tumor, had turned the blood into pus as the humors beneath the skin putrefied; from this worms were bred that exhaled a most foul odor. She was at last commanded in a dream to go to the palace and to hope for a remedy from the King's hands; if she were washed, touched, and signed by them, she would receive health through his merits. When she came to the King and set forth the oracle, he neither avoided the filth nor shrank from the stench; but handling the swollen places with his hands, and washing them with water, he impressed the sign of the holy Cross. And immediately the skin broke open, and worms gushed forth with pus; the swelling subsided and all pain departed.

[27] [Various blind persons receive sight through water in which he has washed his hands, or by his touch.] A certain blind man was taught by an oracle that he would obtain the sight he had lost through the merits of the holy King, if he bathed his face in the water with which the King washed his hands. When the chamberlain reported this to the King, the latter was greatly astonished and indignant, declaring the man deluded by phantoms, that nothing of the sort should be expected from a sinner; this was the power of the Apostles, and no credence should be given to dreams. He washed his hands in water and proceeded to the church. The chamberlain, however, gave the blind man the water that had been received in the basin, and washing his eyes and face with it, he forthwith merited to receive his sight. A certain f citizen of Lincoln, struck with blindness, coming to the King's palace and washing his face and eyes with the water from the washing of his hands, immediately the longed-for light succeeded the long darkness. A certain blind man, advised to approach the King and receive sight from him, told the chamberlain, and the latter revealed the matter to the King. To whom the King said: Let him come. g Who am I that I should be saddened and not rather rejoice, if by my hands, though unworthy, the divine mercy has conferred the promised benefit upon that man? The man was called, and touched and signed by the King, and from both eyes blood flowed abundantly between his hands, cleared the pupils, and removed the swelling of the eyelids. And that man said: I see you, my Lord King, and your face is like the face of an angel standing before me. On another occasion, two blind men together with one one-eyed man, bathed in the water from the washing of the Saint's hands, merited to receive their sight.

a The sum was 36,000 pounds, as Hoveden reports.

b Hoveden relates this somewhat differently in these words: On a certain day it happened that the aforesaid King of the English, Edward, entered his treasury, the Queen and Earl Harold escorting him, to see the great sum of money which the Queen and Earl Harold, without the King's knowledge, had collected for the King's use (namely, from each county of all England, four pence from every hide of land) so that the King might thereby purchase cloth before Christmas for the use of his soldiers and servants. When the King had entered his treasury, accompanied by the Queen and Earl Harold, he saw the devil sitting upon those coins and said to him: What are you doing here? The demon replied: I am guarding my money here. And the King said to him: I conjure you by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to tell me why that money is yours. And the demon replied: Because it has been unjustly acquired from the substance of the poor. But those who accompanied him stood astonished, hearing them speaking indeed, but seeing no one except the King alone. And the King said to them: Return these coins to those from whom they were taken. And they did as the King commanded. Ingulph writes concerning the same abolished tribute under the year 1051: When the land did not yield its fruits with the usual fertility, but famine devoured many of its inhabitants, to such an extent that from the scarcity of grain and want of bread many thousands of men were dying, the most pious King Edward, moved with compassion for the people, remitted in perpetuity for all England the most burdensome tribute called Danegeld. Some report that the most holy King, when his chamberlains had brought the collected Danegeld into the King's chamber and had brought him to see the heap of so great a treasure, shrank in horror at the first sight, protesting that he had seen a demon dancing upon the heap of money and exulting with excessive joy. Whence he ordered it immediately restored to its former possessors and did not wish to retain so much as one iota from so fierce an exaction; indeed, he remitted it in perpetuity, namely in the thirty-eighth year since the time when Sweyn, King of the Danes, in the reign of King Ethelred his father, had commanded it to be paid annually to his army.

c Nicholas Harpsfield calls this man Gillemichel. Roger of Hoveden relates the whole miracle somewhat differently in these words: On a certain solemn day, when the aforesaid King of the English, Edward, was crowned in London and was clad in royal garments and was proceeding from his hall toward the monastery, accompanied by a throng of nobles, archbishops, bishops, clergy, and people, a certain leprous man, covered with sores, sat in the way by which the King was to pass; and those who went before rebuked him to be silent, wishing to remove him from there. The King said to them: Let him sit there. And when the King had come near to him, the leper said to him: I conjure you by the living God that you carry me upon your shoulders to the church. And immediately the King, bowing his head, commanded the leper to be placed upon his neck. And it was done. And when the King proceeded, he prayed to the Lord that he himself would restore health to that leper; and his prayer was heard, and the leper was made well from that hour, praising and blessing the Lord.

d Leofric died in the year 1057. English writers celebrate the remarkable zeal and liberality of himself and his wife Godiva in adorning sacred places.

e William of Malmesbury narrates this miracle thus: A young woman, having a husband of equal birth but lacking the fruit of marriage, had contracted a foul ailment as humors ran riot around her neck, hideous with protruding glands. Commanded in a dream to seek the King's washing, she entered the Court. The King himself, personally fulfilling the work of piety, touched the woman's neck with his fingers dipped in water. A joyful healing attended the medicinal right hand; the deadly scab was dissolved, so that with worms flowing out along with pus, all that noxious swelling receded. But because the gaping of the ulcers was foul and wide, he ordered her sustained at courtly expense until she was fully healed; but before a week had passed, the fair skin returned with scars so sealed over that you could discern nothing of the former disease; after a year she also bore twins, augmenting the miracle of Edward's holiness. Those who knew his inner life closely report that he had often calmed this disease while in Normandy. Whence in our time certain people promote a false idea, asserting that the cure of this disease flowed not from holiness but from the heredity of royal descent. Harpsfield, however, testifies that St. Edward transmitted to his successors as Kings of England the admirable gift of healing the scrofulous.

f Lincoln is a chief city of Lincolnshire in England.

g William of Malmesbury narrates this thus: And that you may know the man's perfect virtue, especially in this power, I will add something for your wonder. A certain Wulfwin, surnamed Spillecorn, son of Wulmar of Nutgareshale, cutting wood one day in the forest of Bruneswald, having indulged in sleep after long labor, lost his sight for seventeen years, the blood having, as I believe, coagulated around his eyes. When these years had passed, taught in a dream, he went around eighty-seven churches, begging a cure for his blindness from the Saints. Finally coming to the King's Court, he wore the threshold of the chamber long in vain, against the opposition of the chamberlains. But the importunate knocker persisted, until he was admitted with difficulty at the King's own command. For the King, hearing the dream, had innocently replied: By my Lady St. Mary, I shall be very grateful if God wishes through me to show mercy to a wretch. And so, although he dared claim nothing about miracles, compelled by his ministers, he laid his hand upon the blind man with water. Immediately, as blood streamed freely from his eyes, the healed man raised a joyful cry: I see you, King! I see you, King! Thus restored to sight, he presided over the royal palace at Windsor for many years (for there he had been cured), surpassing the healer's years in the longevity of his life. Windsor, or Windleshora, is a most pleasant royal town in the province of Berkshire, given by St. Edward to the Abbot of Westminster, but redeemed by William I. Camden describes it in his account of the Atrebates. There the Order of the Garter was instituted.

CHAPTER VIII.

He foresees what will befall his father-in-law Godwin and his sons.

[28] He foretells the future. The King was once sitting at table, and at his side was a Earl Godwin. Two sons of his, still boys, b Harold and c Tostig, playing before them, when one of them rose against the other more bitterly than the sweetness of play demanded, they turned play into a fight. And behold, Harold, rushing more violently upon his brother, thrust both hands into his hair, and having thrown him down, would have suffocated him by his superior strength had he not been quickly rescued. Then the King, turning to the Duke, said: Do you see nothing in these boys, O Godwin, other than a simple game or children's fight? And he said: Nothing else, my Lord. Then the King said: My mind tells me something far different, and through this battle it is revealed to me what will become of these boys. For when they have passed their childhood years and each has grown to manhood, at last jealousy will burn them both against one another. And first they will seem to play, as it were, with private scheming and plots; in the end, the stronger will proscribe the weaker, will overthrow him when he rebels, and the earlier one's death will shortly be expiated by the calamity of the other. That all these things were fulfilled is proved by the testimony of all England. For Tostig was driven out by Harold; then, when Harold succeeded Edward as King shortly after, Tostig was overthrown together with the d King of Norway, and nearly their entire army was destroyed. e In the same year, Harold himself, stripped of the kingdom of England, either died miserably or, as some think, escaped, preserved only for penance.

[29] f When Godwin was sitting beside the King at table, one of the servants, striking his foot rather hard against some obstacle, nearly fell. But another, walking with steady step, raised him again to his position, having suffered no injury. While many spoke among themselves about this incident and expressed gratitude that one foot had come to the aid of the other, The proud Earl Godwin, betrayer and perjurer, is punished by God. the Earl interjected as if in jest: So it is, a brother helping a brother, and one coming to the aid of another in need. And the King said to the Duke: This my brother would have done for me, if Godwin had permitted it. At this word Godwin was alarmed and, bearing a sorrowful countenance, said: I know, O King, I know: your mind still accuses me of your brother's death, and you think those should not be disbelieved who call me either his betrayer or yours. But let God, who is conscious of all secrets, judge, and let him so cause this morsel which I hold in my hand to pass through my throat and preserve me unharmed, as I am guilty of neither treachery against you nor conscious of your brother's death. And when the blessed man had blessed the morsel by signing it with his hand, the wretched man, putting it into his mouth, drew it to the middle of his throat. He tried to draw it inward but could not; he tried to expel it, but it stuck more firmly. Immediately the passages by which breath was drawn were blocked, his eyes rolled, his arms stiffened. The King, watching him die wretchedly and perceiving that divine vengeance had proceeded against him, addressed those standing by, saying: Drag out that dog. And it was done. This Godwin, abusing the King's simplicity, did many things in the kingdom against justice and God. He drove out nearly all the King's kinsmen and friends whom he had brought from Normandy by his fraud, deceit, and scheming, believing that everything would proceed according to his wishes if the King, stripped of friends, would use only his counsels. But the King, dissembling all things, devoted himself to divine services, Edward predicted this. and predicted to many that God's vengeance would come upon him. Sometimes he did not conceal this even from Godwin himself.

a This father-in-law of Edward was Earl of Kent.

b Others write Harold.

c Henry of Huntingdon relates his most savage cruelty under the twenty-second year of Edward and reports that in that year, at the royal hall at Windsor, he seized Harold by the hair while Harold was pouring wine for the King. The cause of the hatred was that although Tostig was the elder, the King loved Harold more than him. Then indeed Edward predicted that their destruction was approaching. Tostig had married Judith, daughter of Baldwin the Insular, Count of Flanders.

d Harold the Hard or the Evil, brother of St. Olaf.

e On October 14 in the year 1066, Harold was defeated and slain by William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy.

f Hoveden says that in the year 1053, on the second day of Easter, at Winchester, while sitting at the King's table, he was struck by a sudden illness, fell mute in his very seat, was carried by his sons Harold, Tostig, and Gyrth into the King's chamber, and died on the fifth day thereafter, the seventeenth day before the Kalends of May. The Worcester chronicle has the same. Ingulph of Crowland says he was choked by a morsel. Eadmer says he died a wretched death, as befitting an enemy of the Church of Canterbury. Malmesbury speaks ambiguously.

CHAPTER IX.

He sees the Seven Holy Sleepers turn over: he is warned of his death by St. John the Evangelist.

[30] He sees in spirit the Seven Sleepers turn on their side. On the day of the Lord's Resurrection, when the King was sitting at table, he withdrew into himself more closely than usual, and placing God before his eyes, he reckoned all these worldly things as dung. And behold, suddenly his countenance was more serene than usual, and an interior joy loosened his lips into a smile; then again, resuming his usual gravity, he wore a more somber face. Those who stood by marveled, yet no one dared to ask him what had happened. When at last the tables were removed, Duke Harold followed the King to the bedchamber, along with one Bishop and one Abbot, and together they questioned the King on this matter. Then he said: The more each person withdraws from vain things, the more closely he will adhere to true things. For behold, I, amid bountiful cups, rich dishes, and the splendor of gleaming metal, remembered the Lord my God and poured out my soul within myself; and with the bosom of my mind enlarged, the interior eye, flooded with spiritual light, extended its rays with marvelous swiftness all the way to that city of Ephesus and, proceeding even to Mount a Celion, beheld the features of the countenances of the b Seven Holy Sleepers resting in their cave, as well as the size of their limbs and the quality of their clothing, with the most manifest distinctness. While I contemplated these things with a luminous heart, interior joy manifesting itself in laughter, suddenly, as I watched, turning from the right side, upon which they had c rested for many years, to the left side by divine power, they signified by this change of their sides a dreadful omen for mortals. For henceforth nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be pestilences, famines, and great earthquakes in various places. For in these d seventy years (for so long they will rest upon their left side) the Lord will visit the iniquity of his people, Thence he prophesies evils coming upon the Church. delivering them into the hands of the nations, so that those who hate them may lord it over them. For the enemies of Christ's name will rise up against Christians, servants will rebel against masters, kings will plot against kings and princes against princes, and in all the ends of the earth the sword that avenges the injury of Christ will rage. And the King set forth to them their life, names, passion, and the manner of their dormition. When they heard these things, having taken counsel, in order to provide proof for posterity, the Duke sent a soldier, the Bishop a cleric, and the Abbot a monk, with the King's letters, to the e Emperor of Constantinople to examine the truth of the account. Finding all things true, they returned safely to the King.

[31] Devoted to St. John the Evangelist: St. Edward denied nothing to anyone who asked in the name of St. John the Evangelist; for after the Prince of the Apostles, he loved him most dearly. Whence it happened that a certain pilgrim, in the absence of the Chamberlain, importunately begged an alms from the King in the name of St. John the Evangelist. To him the King, having nothing else at hand, gave a precious ring. It happened f after this that he gave him a ring in the garb of a pilgrim that two Englishmen set out for Jerusalem to adore the Savior's sepulcher. On a certain day, turning aside from the public road, they followed byways everywhere, and as the sun set, dark night came on. And when they did not know what to do or where to turn, a certain venerable old man appeared to them, who led them back to a city. Having been received as guests, a table was prepared; and having been most sumptuously refreshed, they gave their limbs to rest. In the morning, when they had gone out of the city, The Saint sends it back and warns the King of his death. the old man said: Brothers, do not doubt that you will return to your homeland with the greatest prosperity; for God will make your journey prosperous, and I, out of love for your King, will fix my eyes upon you in every way. For I am the Apostle of Christ, John, who embrace your King with the greatest love on account of the merit of his chastity. Carry back, therefore, this g ring which he gave to me when I appeared in the garb of a pilgrim, announcing to him that the day of his death is at hand, and within six months I will visit him, that he may follow the Lamb with me wherever he goes. Having said these things, he vanished; and they, returning safely to their homeland, related to the King in order all that they had seen and heard.

a The Greek manuscript has Χείλαιον. Malmesbury and our own Rader, Aula Sancta chapter 13, have Celium.

b We shall treat of them on July 27.

c Malmesbury says two hundred years; others, as Rader reports, six hundred, that is, from the time of Theodosius the Younger.

d Malmesbury says seventy-four, and briefly enumerates the remarkable events of those years.

e Malmesbury calls him Manichet. Rader judges it to have been Constantine Monomachus, who died in the year 1054.

f Hoveden says that St. John appeared to the pilgrim on the same day, and that the latter arrived in England on the same day and returned the ring to the King; the truth of the miracle was learned long afterward from his companions when they returned.

g Polydore testifies, book 8, that this ring was preserved for a very long time with great veneration in the church of Westminster, because it was beneficial for numb limbs and was effective against epilepsy when touched by those who were afflicted by such diseases. Hence arose the custom that the Kings of England afterward used to consecrate rings on Good Friday with much ceremony, and those who wear them are never at all afflicted by these diseases. Harpsfield narrates the same, Century 2, chapter 4.

CHAPTER X.

He foresees and predicts the calamities impending over the realm.

[32] When the King was detained by a grave illness, he lay nearly lifeless for almost two days in a rapture of mind. At length, as if waking from a heavy sleep, he opened his eyes and sat up, and taking up his discourse, said: He foresees the calamities threatening England. When as a youth I was an exile in Normandy, the friendship of good men was always pleasing to me, and those who seemed the best in sacred Religion were the most familiar to me above all others. Among them, two monks had bound themselves to me with a special love through the honesty of their way of life, the holiness of their conduct, the sweetness of their manners, and the affability of their words. I visited them most frequently. How sweet were their words to my taste! These men, translated to heaven many years ago, I saw just now standing before me in a dream, reporting to me by God's command what will happen to my nation after my death.

[33.] Especially on account of the sins of priests and princes. They say the wickedness of the English is complete, and consummated iniquity provokes wrath and hastens vengeance. The priests have violated the covenant of the Lord; with defiled breast and polluted hands they handle holy things. And these, not shepherds but hirelings, expose the sheep to wolves and do not protect them; they seek milk and wool, not the sheep, so that death may devour both shepherds and sheep thrust down to hell. But the princes of the land are also faithless, companions of thieves, plunderers of the fatherland, for whom neither God is a fear nor law an honor, for whom truth is a burden, justice a contempt, and cruelty a delight. And so neither do the prelates maintain justice nor do the subjects keep discipline. And behold, the Lord will brandish his sword; he has bent his bow and made it ready. He will henceforth show this people wrath and indignation, and moreover, assaults by evil angels, to whom they have been delivered, to be punished by fire and sword together in one year and one day. But I, grieving and sighing over the calamity threatened to my people, said: O you who are privy to the secrets of heaven, if they turn and do penance, will God not forgive and leave a blessing behind him? Certainly penance suspended the sentence pronounced by God's mouth upon the Ninevites; it also deferred the vengeance due to the most impious Ahab. Jonah 2:10; 3 Kings 21:29. I will therefore urge my people to repent of the past and take care for the future; and perhaps God will have mercy, so as not to bring upon them this great evil; but he who has prepared to punish the wayward may receive with his accustomed piety those who are converted.

[34] His subjects will not be corrected by his warnings. By no means, they said, shall this be; for the heart of this people is hardened, and their eyes are blinded and their ears are heavy, so that they neither hear one who corrects them, nor understand one who admonishes, nor are terrified by threats, nor moved by benefits. While their words increased my anxiety, I said: Will God be angry forever, and will he not again be favorable? When, then, shall joy succeed so many sorrows, or what consolation shall temper so many adversities? What remedy is to be hoped for in these evils, so that just as the coming correction terrifies and saddens from that side, so from this side some promise of divine mercy may offer a little solace? An obscure sign of divine clemency toward the people. To this the Saints proposed to me the following riddle: Let any green tree, cut from its trunk, be separated from its own root by a distance of three furlongs. When, with no human hand forcing it, no necessity urging it, it has returned to its trunk and received itself back into its ancient root, and having resumed its sap has again flourished and borne fruit, then some solace in this tribulation and a remedy for the adversity which we have foretold may be hoped for. Having said these things, they returned to heaven, and I was restored to you. Sitting by him as he related the vision were the Queen, Robert, keeper of the sacred palace, Duke Harold, and a Stigand, who ascended his father's bed The punishment of the impious Stigand. and defiled his couch, seizing the see of Canterbury while Archbishop b Robert still lived; for this c he was suspended by the Supreme Pontiff, and shortly after he burst open and his bowels poured out. This man hardened his heart at the voice of the narrator, was neither terrified by the oracle nor gave credence to the prophet; but rather, murmuring that the King, worn out by old age, was raving, he preferred to laugh than to weep. But the others, who were of sounder mind, wept copiously and sighed, for they were not unaware that nothing was being done by either priests or princes differently from what the King himself had said.

[35] Explanation of the sign of clemency proposed to Edward in the vision. Some say that the King put forward the aforementioned parable as an impossibility, especially those who lamented that the entire English nobility had so perished that from that nation scarcely a king, bishop, abbot, or any prince was to be seen in England. But I am of another mind, considering that the most holy man d Dunstan had both predicted the same calamity and nevertheless promised consolation. It may therefore be expounded not unfittingly as follows: This tree signifies the kingdom of the English, beautiful in glory, rich in delights and wealth, exalted by the excellence of royal dignity. The root from which all this honor proceeded was the royal seed, which descended from e Alfred, who had been the first of the English to be anointed and consecrated as King by the Supreme Pontiff, in a direct line of succession down to St. Edward. The tree was cut from the trunk when the kingdom, divided from the royal lineage, was transferred to another seed. This separation was made to a distance of three furlongs, because in the times of three kings there was no common bond between the new and the ancient royal seed. For Harold succeeded Edward, William succeeded Harold, f William the Younger succeeded the first William. The tree returned to its root when King g Henry, into whom all the glory of the realm was transferred, with no necessity compelling him, no hope of gain urging him, but from a love infused into him, married h Matilda, the great-granddaughter of Edward, as his wife, joining the royal seed of Normans and English, and through the conjugal act making one from two. The tree indeed flourished when from both seeds the Empress i Matilda proceeded. Then truly it bore fruit when from her k Henry arose, who, like a cornerstone, united both peoples. England now certainly has from the English race a King, and from the same nation bishops and abbots, princes and soldiers, begotten from the union of both seeds. But if this exposition displeases anyone, let him either expound it otherwise or await another time when these things may be fulfilled.

a This Stigand, an ambitious and avaricious man, seized the see of Canterbury when Robert went to Rome; but under King William he ended his life at Winchester in chains.

b He was made Bishop of London from Abbot of Jumieges, and then, as stated above, Archbishop of Canterbury.

c Alexander II in the year 1070 sent as Legates to England Hermenfrid, Bishop of Sion, and John and Peter, Cardinal Priests, who at a Council held at Winchester degraded Stigand: first, because he had invaded the archbishopric while Robert was alive; second, because he had at the same time retained the bishopric of Winchester; third, because he had received the pallium from the antipope Benedict. Hoveden and Baronius at the same year, numbers 11 and 12.

d We shall give the life of St. Dunstan on May 19.

e He was taken to Rome at the age of five by his father Ethelwulf in the year 854, as Westminster writes (others say it happened earlier; Baronius places it in the following year), to be instructed by Leo IV in morals and religion; and he was finally crowned King by the Pontiff at his father's wish. In the year 871 he succeeded his brother Ethelred in the kingdom of the West Saxons, and finally in the year 886 he obtained the monarchy of England and held it until the year 900.

f William I died in the year 1087 on September 9. His younger son William Rufus was crowned King of England at Westminster on Sunday, September 27, by Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury. In the year 1100 he died miserably, a sacrilegious man.

g Henry I, brother of William II, was crowned King of England at Westminster on August 5 in the year 1100, by Maurice, Bishop of London. He died in the year 1135 on December 2.

h Matilda was the daughter of St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, daughter of Edward Etheling, son of Edmund Ironside, brother of St. Edward. We shall treat of her on August 7.

i Matilda, daughter of Henry I and Matilda, was betrothed at the age of five to Emperor Henry IV in the year 1107. After his death in the year 1125, she returned to her father and in the year 1127 married Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, to whom in the year 1132 she bore Henry II.

k Henry, son of Geoffrey and the Empress Matilda, was anointed King of England at Westminster on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of January, on the Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord, in the year 1154. He died in the year 1189 on July 6.

CHAPTER XI.

After death he is made illustrious by miracles. Harold reigns.

[36] Edward orders his death to be made known at once. The King, knowing that his hour to pass from this world was approaching, ordered his passing to be proclaimed immediately in the surrounding area, lest by delaying knowledge of his death, the assistance of prayers also be deferred. And so, old and full of days and good works, he migrated to the Lord. He dies. He died in the year of the Lord one thousand and sixty-six, having reigned twenty-three years, six months, and twenty-seven days, on the day before the Nones of January; a and with him the entire happiness of the English likewise fell; liberty perished; all vigor was extinguished.

[37] A cripple is healed at his tomb: A certain cripple, coming to his tomb, with devout tears and prayers sought the health of his limbs. And behold, a hidden force suddenly stretched the sinews, twisted the legs and feet back to their natural position, and as the joints were pulled from the flesh, blood flowed forth; and gradually, as the sap was restored, the bones, formerly dry, received their original strength.

[38] likewise six blind men. Six blind men also, following one one-eyed man, hastening to the King's tomb, while one was led by another and one guiding eye provided direction for seven men, presented their misery to the Saint with tears, begged for help, and implored the aid of the most holy King against the tedium of their long darkness. Without delay, they merited to receive sight and the clarity of their eyes through the merits and prayers of the Blessed one.

[39] Harold seizes the kingdom. Meanwhile, Harold, son of Godwin, usurping a kingdom owed to him neither by right nor by nature, accelerated by the b violation of the pact with Duke William and the breach of faith the evil which the Lord had prepared for the English according to the holy King's oracle. Moreover, so that with his forces weakened he might more easily be conquered by those enemies he had unjustly provoked, He is attacked in war by the Norwegians and his brother Tostig. God raised up enemies for him from the north, namely c Harold, King of Norway, and his own brother Tostig, whom he himself had expelled from England, and who in the time of King Edward d was in exile in Flanders. These, hastening with a great fleet through the e Humber f to York, having engaged the army of the Northumbrians in battle and gained the victory, inflicted a great slaughter upon those who opposed them. When these things were reported to Harold, he gathered a great army from all the borders of England.

[40] With the help of St. Edward he defeats them. Then St. Edward appeared to a certain Alexi, Abbot of g Ramsey, a religious man, saying: Go and tell Harold to attack confidently the men who invade the borders of this kingdom against right and law. For I will be the leader and protector of the army, since I cannot be lacking to the justice of this nation. Through me he will carry off the triumph over the enemy on this occasion. And lest he detract from the credibility of your words, reveal to him the secret of his heart, so that when you have told him things which he was revolving in his mind with no one knowing, he may ascribe them not to your invention but to my promise. For last night, while he was tormented by a pain in the thigh, although the pressing trouble afflicted him greatly, he nevertheless kept silent, reckoning to himself that if he made his ailment public, it would be a cause of contempt to his own men and ridicule to his enemies. But since he has recovered from that affliction, let him, trusting in my help, undertake a just war against the barbarians and deliver his people from the impending danger. When the Abbot had revealed this to Harold, made bolder by the heavenly promise, he advanced with a strong force and met the enemy at h Stamford Bridge. The battle was joined, and both leaders were overthrown, namely the King of Norway and Harold's brother Tostig, and nearly their entire army was destroyed.

[41] The body of St. Edward remained long incorrupt. In the thirty-sixth year after the death of St. Edward, when his body was raised from the earth, it was found whole, incorrupt, and flexible, with fresh garments. Seeing this, the i Bishop of Rochester, kindled by the desire of devotion, attempted to pull out a single hair and keep it for himself; but it, adhering more firmly, frustrated the Bishop's intention and desire. A certain woman, working on the feast of St. Edward, was stricken with paralysis, He shines with miracles. was led to the tomb of the Saint, and rejoiced that she had recovered her former health. Three men afflicted with quartan fever, having visited the Saint's sarcophagus, were cured as in an instant.

a Thursday, Indiction IV.

b Harold had entered this pact with William and confirmed it by oath upon the relics of the Saints, when he came to him in Normandy to recover his brother Wulnoth and his nephew Hakon, who were held there as hostages given by Godwin when he was reconciled with Edward. Eadmer, book 1 of the Novorum, narrates this. William of Poitiers says that Edward had designated William as his successor, with the consent of the nobles, and that those hostages had been given for this reason; then Harold was sent to confirm the pact by oath. Ingulph relates the same.

c This brother of St. Olaf, of whom we shall treat on July 29, bore the cognomen Hardrada.

d He was expelled from England for his enormous crimes, by order of St. Edward himself, as Westminster reports under the year 1065, and Huntingdon.

e Commonly called the Humber, Ptolemy's Abus. Camden thinks both words are derived from Aber, which in British signifies the mouth of a river. It is a famous estuary in the province of York, from which the region to the north is called Northan-humbria and Northumbria.

f The second city of all England, archiepiscopal, of ancient name, which Camden derives from the river Ure, on which it lies, as if Ad Urum, "at the Ure."

g Ramsey, that is Ram's Island, a once-famous abbey in Huntingdonshire.

h Ingulph calls it Staunfordbridge, the Worcester chronicle Stanfordebrigge. It is a place in the territory of York, also called Battle Bridge, as if Bridge of Battle, because there, at a bridge over the river Derwent, not far from the ruins of the ancient town of Derwentio, this battle between the two Harolds was fought, on the seventh day before the Kalends of October, on a Monday.

i Rochester, formerly Durobriva or Durovae, a celebrated city in Kent on the river Medway, which with a double mouth below it discharges into the estuary of the Thames, commonly called the Medway.

ON THE TRANSLATION OF ST. EDWARD.

Edward, King of England, Confessor (St.) BHL Number: 2427

By an Anonymous author.

Year 1173, October 13.

Section I. The solemn commemoration of his Translation.

[1] The Translation of St. Edward is celebrated on October 13 in the very ancient Martyrology, manuscript, of the Professed House of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp, which bears the name of Bede, The feast of the Translation of St. Edward. in the German Martyrology, the Cologne Martyrology, and the English Martyrology; in the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum; and in the Additions to Usuard by the Carthusians of Cologne. He is venerated on this day by the sacred Order of Preachers, with no mention of the Translation; for their Martyrology reads thus: In England, St. Edward the King, distinguished for the virtue of chastity and the grace of miracles. Three lessons. Franciscus Maurolycus: In London in England, of Edward, most holy King of the English. Petrus Galesinius: In England, St. Edward the King, most illustrious for miracles and holiness. In the Rouen Missal also it is not specified whether his dies natalis or his Translation is observed on that day; but in the Salisbury Breviary, on January 5, only a commemoration of St. Edward is made, while on October 13 the Translation is celebrated with a Double feast.

[2] Prayers for St. Edward. In the same Breviary these two prayers for St. Edward are recited: O God, who crowned Blessed King Edward, your Confessor, with the glory of eternity; grant us, we beseech you, so to venerate him on earth that we may be able to reign with him in heaven. Through, etc. The other: O God, who showed your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to the glorious King Edward in visible form; grant, we beseech you, that by his merits and prayers we may deserve to attain the eternal vision of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Who lives with you, etc.

[3] Canonization procured. When innumerable miracles were wrought at the tomb of St. Edward, William I the King adorned it with a casket gleaming with gold and silver. The body was at length raised from the ground in the thirty-sixth year after death. Thereafter it began to be urged upon the Roman Pontiff that solemn honors be decreed to him. This was granted chiefly through the prayers of Henry II, King of England, by Pope Alexander III, who in the year of Christ 1161, the second of his pontificate, on the seventh day before the Ides of February, in a Bull issued at Anagni, ordered that he thenceforth be held in the number of the holy Confessors and venerated. Baronius recites it under that year, number 1.

[4] Translation. The Translation of the sacred body was, however, somewhat delayed until the King returned from Normandy to England, so that he too might be present at the solemnity. At length, in the year 1163, the King of the English, Henry, says Matthew Paris, having arranged matters in the territories beyond the sea as he wished, returned to England. And a few lines later: In the same year the body of the holy King and Confessor Edward was translated at Westminster by Blessed Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the presence of King Henry, who had brought this about. Matthew of Westminster, year 1164: The church of Reading was dedicated, and the body of St. Edward was translated from the ground into a shrine by Blessed Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury. Surius published the history of this Translation, but lacking its beginning; we were nowhere able to find it complete, and therefore give it here as published by him.

Section II. Bull of the canonization of St. Edward.

[5] The devotion of the English toward the Apostolic See. Alexander, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the venerable brothers, the Archbishops, Bishops, and beloved sons, the Abbots, Priors, and other Prelates of the Churches established throughout England, greeting and the Apostolic benediction.

Diligently considering the constancy of devotion and the firmness of faith which you show toward your mother the most holy Roman Church, we are brought to this resolution of will, that we love you as most dear brothers and special sons of the Church with sincere charity in the Lord, honor you the more earnestly, and admit your petitions, insofar as we are able with God, with a willing spirit.

[6] Canonization of saints customarily granted in Councils. From this, assuredly, regarding the petition which both our most dear son in Christ, Henry, illustrious King of the English, and you yourselves have most urgently presented to us, concerning the canonizing of Edward, once glorious King of the English, and his inscription in the catalogue of Saints: having held a careful deliberation with our brethren, having examined the book of miracles which, while he lived in mortal flesh and after he was taken from the present age, almighty God through his mercy declared; having also seen the letters of our predecessor, a Pope Innocent of pious memory, and having received your testimonies thereon; although a matter so arduous and sublime is not usually granted except in solemn Councils;

[7] Nevertheless, by the common counsel of our brethren, in accordance with the wish and desire of our aforesaid son the King and of yourselves, we have determined that the body of this Confessor be so glorified and honored with due praises on earth, just as the Lord through his grace has glorified the same Confessor in heaven. Whence, that he be henceforth numbered among the holy Confessors who merited to obtain this very thing from God through signs and virtues.

[8] Since, therefore, it befits the prudence of your honesty to piously venerate and study with every effort to honor him whom your devotion has requested by Apostolic authority to be venerated and honored, we admonish and exhort your entire body by Apostolic writings in the Lord, that you henceforth strive to honor him with due services, so that by his intercessions before the strict judge you may merit to obtain pardon and find a glorious reward in eternal beatitude. Given at b Anagni, on the seventh day before the Ides of February.

a Innocent II held the See from February 17, 1130, until September 24, 1143.

b Anagni is a city of Latium, capital of the Hernici, famous when the Roman Republic flourished and also in more recent centuries under the Roman Pontiffs; now half in ruins, as Leander testifies.

Section III. The revelation of his body.

[9] When the envoys returned from the Apostolic See, the a aforementioned Abbot, having convened venerable persons, both bishops and abbots, in the church of Westminster, first had the letters of Apostolic authority concerning the canonization of the blessed King read before all; and thus, with all applauding, assenting, Mass for St. Edward. and praising God with a loud voice, a Mass was solemnly celebrated for the glorious Confessor of the Lord, which Mass the Lord Pope had first caused to be honorably sung in the Roman Church by one of the Cardinals, as was fitting. But because the King, for pressing reasons, was still occupied in the regions across the sea, in accordance with his command and desire, the b revelation of the sacred body was deferred until his return and reserved for him.

[10] After nearly two years had passed, with the c King having now returned from Normandy to England, the Abbot, desiring to bring the undertaking he had begun to completion and to place that sacred body, which had long lain hidden in the ground, in a more eminent and honorable location, held a secret and careful discussion with the King about celebrating the translation of the blessed King, requesting that he apply the hand of due consummation to the good beginning, especially since he had received from his command that the King's presence was to be awaited for this undertaking. A day appointed for the elevation of the body. The King agreed to the just request and appointed a fixed day, as seemed convenient to both.

[11] Meanwhile, having taken counsel from more prudent men, the Abbot decided first to inspect the remains of the blessed body in greater secrecy, so that he might proceed more expeditiously to the solemn revelation. But because he knew this work to be holy and worthy, fearing his own unworthiness, he approached once and again and made the attempt; but each time his mind, conscious of its own infirmity, pulled back the trembling hand with a sort of pious hesitation. But as fear grew, Private opening of the sarcophagus and preparation for it. so did devotion; and as devotion grew, confidence attended with love, which often casts out fear. Made more confident from this very fear and less timid, he watched for a time when he could opportunely deal with so secret a matter. And so, on a certain night, after the brethren had returned to their beds following the matins vigils, with the doors of the church closed and lay servants excluded, the Abbot remained alone in the church with the Prior and certain brethren selected for this purpose, who by the Abbot's command had more devoutly prepared themselves by fasting and prayers for undertaking so holy a work.

[12.] The body and garments of the long-deceased, incorrupt. All having been vested in white garments and with bare feet, and having first offered prayer and chanted a litany with psalms before the altar, the Abbot proceeded to the tomb with the Prior and two brethren, while the rest remained before the altar in tears and prayer. When they had lifted the stone that had been placed over the sarcophagus, bringing lamps closer, they beheld a man lying in gilded vestments, shod with purple stockings and precious shoes, his head and face covered with a round miter, interwoven with gold in quite elaborate work; his beard also snow-white and long, slightly curling, lying decently in proper order upon his breast. The brethren who had remained in prayer before the altar were then called and admitted to so desirable a spectacle, and there was great joy with thanksgiving among them. But the ardent spirit of devotion did not yet rest, nor was the burning desire to inspect, handle, and more thoroughly examine that precious treasure, which they gratefully acknowledged they had already seen in large part, satisfied. Therefore, applying their hands with due devotion and reverence, they examined the garments, the head covering, tunic, and stockings with a sort of pious inquiry, testing whether they had perhaps, as reason dictated and nature demanded, admitted any corruption. And behold, they found all of them to have retained their original integrity; yet they noticed that the color and beauty of them were somewhat dimmed, partly from the long contact with the stone, partly from the dust and mortar that had fallen inside during the opening of the sarcophagus; yet, removing this as best they could with a linen cloth, they were easily able to discern the material, workmanship, and color. Then, placing their hands beneath it with reverence and fear, some at the head, others at the feet, some at the shoulders and through the middle, they lifted that glorious body and, wrapping it over a spread-out tapestry in a precious silk cloth, they enclosed it in a wooden chest prepared for this purpose, leaving within everything that had been found with him, except a golden ring which had been found on the King's finger, which the Abbot retained out of devotion and quite prudently decided to preserve for this memorial.

a Hence it is apparent that this narrative is incomplete, since the beginning is missing, in which mention would have been made of this Abbot, of Westminster, as I suppose.

b Perhaps "re-elevation," as Surius notes.

c In the year 1163, as we stated in section 1.

Section IV. Translation, October 13.

[13] The sacred relics are transferred. When the day appointed by the King for celebrating the Translation arrived, with all things prepared that seemed necessary for so great an occasion, he came to the church with a great retinue of nobles and illustrious men, and first had the chest in which that precious treasure was contained opened; and with the Archbishop of Canterbury and very many Bishops present, as well as Abbots and other venerable persons, he saw with his eyes the present majesty of that royal person and touched it with his hands, The King himself carries them on his shoulders. as far as fear and reverence permitted, and was glad that all was as it had first been reported to him by the Abbot. A procession was then made, as the solemnity of the day required, and the precious body of the incorrupt virgin was carried with the greatest reverence through the cloister of the monastery on the King's shoulders and by the hands of the chief nobles of the entire realm. That illustrious lamp was placed upon the candlestick in the house of the Lord, so that those who enter might see its light and be illuminated by it. And so that distinguished vessel of chastity and dwelling of all virtue was honorably placed by royal hands in a precious shrine which the illustrious King, his kinsman, the valiant conqueror of the English, William, had caused to be made of gold and silver, while all praised with joyful voice and blessed God, who is always glorious in his Saints and wonderful in all his works.

[14] Which Bishops were present, etc. This Translation was celebrated in the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand one hundred and sixty-three, on the third day before the Ides of October, a Sunday, by the most excellent King of the English, Henry, with these venerable men present: a Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury; b Gilbert, Bishop of London; c Henry, Bishop of Winchester; d Nigel, Bishop of Ely; e Robert, Bishop of Lincoln; f William, Bishop of Norwich; g Jocelin, Bishop of Salisbury; h Walter, Bishop of Rochester; i Hilary, Bishop of Chichester; k Bartholomew, Bishop of Exeter; l Richard, Bishop of Chester; m Godfrey, Bishop of St. Asaph; and from Normandy the Bishops n Arnulph of Lisieux, o Rotrou of Evreux, p Achard of Avranches; the Abbots Hugh of q St. Edmund's, Robert of r St. Alban's, Roger of s Reading, Gregory of t Malmesbury; also the Earls u Robert of Leicester, Hugh, Earl of Nottingham, Geoffrey, Earl x of Essex, y William, Earl of Arundel, z Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, aa Patrick, Earl of Salisbury, bb William, Earl of Aumale, cc Richard, Earl of Pembroke; and an innumerable multitude of nobles, soldiers, and others of various rank and office: the most holy Pope Alexander III, author and bestower of this benefit alike, governing the summit of the Supreme Pontificate in the fourth year of the same Pope, with the most pious and glorious King Henry II of the English reigning in the ninth year of his reign, presiding and most carefully overseeing this work, together with the aforementioned reverend Father Laurence of that same place.

a This is St. Thomas the Martyr, whose life we shall give on December 29.

b This is Gilbert Foliot, who stubbornly defended King Henry against St. Thomas.

c He was nephew of Henry I through his sister, brother of King Stephen.

d Nigel was the second Bishop of Ely, created in the year 1133 on the fifth day before the Kalends of June, consecrated on the Kalends of October of the same year; he died in the year 1169, on the third day before the Kalends of June, on a Friday, tossed by great tragedies which are recounted at length in the manuscript Chronicle of Ely.

e Robert de Chesney is recorded as the fourth bishop after the see was transferred from Dorchester to Lincoln, in the times of Kings Stephen and Henry II.

f William Turbe, a Norman, the third Bishop of Norwich, distinguished himself in opposing the endeavors of Henry II. He is said to have held the see from the year 1151 to 1175.

g He is called Jocelin by others; he died in the year 1184.

h He is said to have been the brother of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury and to have died in the year 1177, having held the see for twenty-five years.

i He too was an adversary of St. Thomas, as can be seen in Baronius under the year 1164, number 21, and elsewhere.

k He was created Bishop in the year 1161 and died in 1184, a man of outstanding erudition.

l Others make him Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, since those three sees were once united. He died in the year 1182, having held the see for twenty years.

m Some wish this to be Geoffrey of Monmouth, also called Arthur. Concerning the city of St. Asaph, we shall treat at the life of St. Asaph on May 1.

n Claude Robert in Gallia Christiana calls him Arnulph.

o Claude Robert has Rotrocus, Rotrodus, Roricus. Robert de Monte mentions him under the year 1157.

p The same Claude Robert mentions him.

q St. Edmund's Bury, commonly Edmondsbury and contracted Bury, was one of the most beautiful monasteries in the whole world, in Suffolk. Camden describes it in his account of the Iceni, and we on November 20, at the life of St. Edmund.

r Concerning the monastery, town, and most splendid church of St. Alban, Camden treats in his account of the Catuvellauni, and we at the life of St. Alban on June 22.

s Reading, a noble monastery built by Henry I and endowed with ample revenues; it is now an elegant and wealthy town, the chief of Berkshire, on the river Kennet, which flows into the Thames 500 paces beyond. Camden treats it in his account of the Atrebates.

t A noble monastery in Wiltshire, so called from the Scot Maildulph. More will be said about it in the life of St. Aldhelm on May 25.

u This is Robert, surnamed the Hunchback, who, having taken up arms for the rebel son against Henry II, was defeated and captured in the year 1173, shortly after Leicester, the chief town of that county, had been miserably afflicted by the royalists.

x Essex, a broad and wealthy region, named after the East Saxons.

y This is William de Albini, who, having married Adeliza of Brabant, the widow of King Henry I, adhered most steadfastly to the Empress Matilda; or perhaps his son, likewise called William.

z He was a natural son of Henry I, granted the earldom of Cornwall by Henry II.

aa He was the son of Walter and Sibyl de Chaworth, and the first Earl of Salisbury; he was killed in the year 1169 while returning from Compostela.

bb Stephen, Lord of Aumale in Normandy, his nephew through a uterine sister, was made Earl of Aumale by William I, and his descendants retained that title in England. Surius had "de Albamara," incorrectly.

cc Richard Strongbow, of the Clare family, Earl of Pembroke, conqueror of Ireland.