This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online.
It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.
Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the publisher to a library and finally to you.
Usage guidelines
Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:
+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes.
+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.
+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.
+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.
About Google Book Search
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web
at|http : //books . google . com/
7^^9ti ^3
REKUM BlU'lAJNiN'lCAlUJM MKJJll M\i SCIIIITORKS,
on
CHRONICLES AND MEMORIALS 01? GREAT BRITAIN
AND IRELAND
DUBIITO
THE MIDDLE AGES^ /J.
U 115221.
I
\
\
i
THE CH&ONICLES AND MEMORIALS
OF
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
I'lJBLlSJlED BY THE AUTIJOliriV Ol' HER MAJESTi's TKKAljLKV, tI«iT)KU rilE niKECTlON (>K THE MASTER OY THE KOI.LS
On the 26th of January 1857, the Master ol' the Rolls submitted to the Treasury a proposal for the pu])licatio3i of materials for the History of this Country from the Invasion of the Romans to the rei<?n of Henry VITI.
The Master of the Rolls suggested that these materials should be selected for publication under competent editors without reference to periodical or chronological arrangement, without mutilation or abridgment, prefer- ence being given, in the first instance, to such materials as were most scarce and valuable.
He proposed that each chronicle or historical docu- ment to be edited should be treated in the same way as if the editor were engaged on an Editio Princeps ; and for this purpose the most correct text should be formed from an accurate collation of the best MSS.
To render the work more generally useful, the Master of the Rolls suggested that the editor should give an account of the MSS. employed by him, of their age and their peculiarities ; that he should add to the w^ork a brief account of the life and times of the author, and any remarks necessary to explain the chronology ; but no other note or comment was to be allowed, except what might be necessary to establish the correctness of the text.
a 2
4
Tlie works to be published in octavo, separately, as tliey were fiaisbed ; tbe whole responsibility of the task resting upon the editors, who were to be chosen by the ilaster of the K;olls with the sanction of the Treasury.
The Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury, after a careful consideration of the subject, expressed their opinion in a Ti(.*asury Minute, dated February 9, 1867, that the plan recommended by the Master of the Rolls '*wa8 well calculated for the accomplishment of this important national object, in an effectual and satisfactory manner, within a re^^onable time, and provided proper attention be paid to economy, in making the detailed arrangements, without unnecessary expense."
They expressed their approbation of the proposal that each Chronicle and historical document should be edited in such a manner as to represent with all possible correct- uoss the text of each writer, derived from a collation of the best MSS.,and that no notes should be added, except sucrli as were illustrative of the various readings. They suggested, however, that the preface to each work should contain, in addition to the particulars proposed by the Master of the Rolls, a biographical account of the author, so far as authentic materials existed for that purpose, and an estimate of his historical credibility and value.
Holls House,
December 18o7-
rh>: 'y.: A.i.J^/-S5^.^^^^''^p-
<o
CHRONIC ON
A ]^ ]^ A T I N. W A M l] 8 E 1 E N S T S ,
r
A S^C. X. USQUE AD AN. CIRCITER 1200: IN QUATUOR PARTIBUS.
PARTES I., II., III., ITERUM POST TH. GALE, EX CHARTULARIO IN ARCHIVIS
REGNI SERYATO,
PARS IV. NUNC PRIMUM EX ALUS CODICIBUS,
EDIT.*:.
(■/■' ■ ','_ CUR A
W. DUNN MACEAY, A.M.,
SOC. ANTIQQ. LOND, SOCII.
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF HER MAJESTY'S TREASURY. UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS.
LONDON: LONGMAN «fe CO., Patebnosteb Row ; TRt« BNER A CO., Ludgate Hill :
ALSO BY
PARKER & CO., OXFORD; and MACMILLAN & CO., CAMBRIDGE ;
A. & C. BLACK, and DOUGLAS AND FOCLIS, EDINBURGH;
AND A. THOM & CO., LIMITED, DUBLIN.
1886.
HARVARD COLLEfiE LIBRARY
i'""' O y J/ ' / KC"2. harvard COLLEfiE
?•< /M^'^*^^^' -^^^^ OCT 4 l&:
Printed by
Etbb and Spottiswoodb. her Majesty's Printois.
For Her Majesty's Stationery Orficc.
GONTE^NTS.
Pftge. PkEFACE : —
Appendix to Preface :
i. Additional collations of Charters at Ramsey
Abbey ------ hii
ii. Goscelini Miracula S. Ivonis - - - lix
. iii. Fragment of a Catalogue of the Abbey Library Ixxxv
Ghronicon : —
Prfflfatio ------
Pars, sive tela, I. -
II. - - . -
III. - - - ,
— _ IV. - - - -
Narratio de Abbate Gualtero, temp. R. Stephani
1
7
46
109
181
325
Appendix : —
i. Catalogns Abbatum, e Chartul. Scacc. - - 339
ii. e cod. Cotton. Yesp. A. xviii. 347
iii. 13e Abbate Simone Eye, ex eodem cod. - - 349
iv. De Abbate Rob. Nassyngton, ex eodem cod. - 353
V. Catalogus Librorum in Bibliotheca Abbalia) - 356
vi. Epistolio Abbatis Job. de Sautre - - 368
vii. Epistolas Abbatis Simonis Eye - - - 412
Glossary ------- 421
Index - . • - ,- - . - 431
.i!
.V
PREFACE.
s
(
PR E F A C E.
While in the general chronicles of the kingdom we find -the records of the conquest of race by race, and the establishment of an individual sovereignty, in the chronicles of the- earliest religious houses we trace •continually, tm. the other hand, the record of the gradual consolidation of the several races in one people, the spread of civilization, as well an of religion, from tiommon centres, the establishment of law and custom, and the formation of liationjtl life. It is almost a truism tO' say that it is from the jside lights thrown on the general- history by biographies and hagiographies, fey -charters of foundation and gift, by ecclesiastical decrees as well as civil, that we can often best under- Btand how through the rnidst of wars and wastings the English nation in its earliest days grew on and grew up;- Because the- centre of unity in the religious life was maintained, therefore the national life waxed eltrohg: •
And; although the great abbey of Ramsey stood in point of time very low down in the long list of Saxon mdtiasteries, the share which its narrative contributes to thi& work of illustration, especially for the days of Danish 6ccupation, is by no* means the least. The abbfey rise» in a time when the worst of the iiivasions of the heathen Northmen are past, but, being fixed in that: East; Anglia where, only some century before, Ely and.Medeshamstede.had. been burned by them, and the whoIe.proYince laid waste by their inroads, .there was 'the same work* now to be renewed afresh, which had
Vlll PREFACE.
been begun aforetime^ of enlightenment and civilization. And they who chose their solitary homes in the districts of marsh and fen, till then undrained, untilled, unin- habited, or (as at Evesham and at the Thomeys of Cambridgeshire and Middlesex) in places overgrown with brushwood and briar, were not at least chargeable with great greed of gain or gross indulgence of self-pleasing.^ The speeches which are often put in the mouths of founders and benefactors are not, of course, any more than those which are found in Livy and the like, to be taken as historical ; but nevertheless in that of Oswald to Ailwin which is given so fully, as "by our own reporter," in the twenty-second (or, as in the margin, eighteenth), chapter of the ensuing narrative, we may see a true statement of the objects which must have been had in view in the foundation of many a religious house on a site remote from the noise of tumultuous times. There, where men have renounced the world and its cares, says the archbishop, "the air becomes " salubrious, the fruits of the earth are gathered in " abundance, famines and pestilences disappear, the " State is duly governed, prisons are opened and cap- " tives set free, those wrecked at sea are relieved, the " sick are healed, and the weak find means for their " convalescence." We can easily understand how amidst a people sorely wasted by their fellow-men, ignorant, unskilful, half or wholly heathen, the mar- vellous results that came from skill in draining and embanking and tillage, from the study and practice of medicine, from the teaching and practice of the prin- ciples of justice and right, and of charity to the suffering and the weak, seemed to be, as Oswald is made to represent them, the directly miraculous outpouring at first hand of a blessing from on high.
^ Nor even with regard only to personal security in their isolation, as said infra, p. xvi.
PUEFACK.
IX
The Ramsey story as here printed appears in this its complete shape for the first time. It is divided into foui' parts, called in the first and third parts, in the artificial phraseology which the writer too often, after the fashion of his time, aficcts, '* webs " {telce) spun with the " spindle " (liciatorio) of a pen. Of these the fourth together with the preface to the first, have not pre- viously been printed. But before noting what portions have appeared in print and where, it will be most in order to describe the manuscript sources from which the contents of the volume have been drawn.
I. For the primary authority for the text of the first three parts, and of the narrative of abbot Walter's abbacy which is attached as a kind of supplement to the fourth part, the chartulaiy of the abbey which is preserved in the Public Record Oftice has been adopted. This is designated in the notes as " A." It is a MS. of (as concerns our portion) the early part of the 14th ' century, and the chronicle occupies S, 103-1326. For fuller details respecting this volume it is only necessary to refer to the edition of the rest of its contents which, under the editorial care of Mr. Hart and Rev. Ponsonby Lyons, is included in this series.^
An earlier MS., which belongs to the close of the^ 13th century, is referred to in the notes as "B." This is a very important MS. ; it is the only one which con- tains the fourth part complete, and it is also one which has been frequently used. It is now Rawlinson MS. B. 333, in the Bodleian Library. Its earliest known owner after the Dissolution was Sir Henry Spelman, who quotes
1 The name of Ramsey, whether in sabstantival or adjectival form, is irritten in the Exchequer MS. always in a contracted way, and the extensions are taken from the Bod-
leian copy. The former MS. is quoted by Dodsworth, as being in his time in the Kemembrancer's Office in the Exchequer, in vol. bf.vi. of his MS. Collections, p. 124.
X PBEFACK.
it and refers to it in his GloaaaHv/m Archctiologicu/m in frequent instances, some of which will be found noted in the glossary to this volume. In the notes to pp. 200-5, I have printed his collations and remarks upon the charter granted by William I,; and alterations made in a few words in St. Oswald's farewell address (which are pointed out in notes on p: 99) give occasion for the following curious memorandum, inserted by Spelman at the end of the volume: — ^**Apr. IG C 1638: '' Md. that one Adams and an other, beinge the bailifib ** of St. Need's, came to me this morning as from my " L. Privy Scale and Sir Thomas Cotton to see this my " booke of Ramsey, and the said Adatns had the " perusinge of it in the presence of his companion an ' hower or twoo by themselues in the parlor here at a " bye table, and when they were gone, I found the blott, " rasuro and new writinge thereuppon (as it appeareth ** fol. 13, col. 1), the yncke beinge very fresh and scarsly ** dry. H. Spel. Witnesse, Edward Drake and Edward " Swanton." The cause of the "rasure and new writinge " appears only to have been that the luckless readers spilt their ink, and, in anxious fear as to the consequences of their misadventure, erased the blotted words, and then filled up the spaces with ingenious fancy readings of their own. A hundred years aft.er Spelman the MS. was in the possession of Walter Clavell, of the Inner Temple, F.R.S., and in the catalogue of his library, which was sold in London by auction in March and April 1738, it appears on p. 83 as no. 22 of the MSS. in folio ; ** Registrum monasterii de Ramsey, *' in 2)&rgam" It was then bought by Dr. Richard Raw- linson (as appears from his own interleaved copy of Clavell's catalogue, now in the Bodleian Library) for the sum of li. 148.
The volume is a folio, written in double columns, and contains for the Ramsey chronicle portion 58 leaves, but
PREFACE. XI
altogether 66 leaves.^ The initial letter U represents a ram and an ewe facing each other on opposite sides of a tree, in allusion to one of the suggested derivations of the place-name. Between folios 51 and 52 (p. 314 of the printed text) there is a gap which unfortunately comes at a very interesting point, viz., at the com- mencement of a charter of the second Geoffrey Man- deville, earl of Essex, 'which contained a grant to the abbey in expiation of the misdeeds of his father. It seems that the two middle leaves of ojio of the gather- ings (which are irregular in number) are here lost, and as no other MS. amongst those described below contains this portion of the text, the loss cannot be supplied from any other as yet known source. The loss occurred before the MS. came to Spelman's hands, since the pagination and numbering of the sections, which apparently are his, go on consecutively. That the MS. is, so far as regards the first part at least, only a copy of one of earlier date, is shown by the curious error on p. 95 in reading caiiaa for taviy and still more evidently by the strange omission, without any break in transcription, of a long passage at pp. 104-106. And that, again, the fourth part is work of a later date may very safely be infened from the apocryphal addition in it of Ailwin's dying prophecy., found at p. 107. It is with the charter of William I. that this fourth part really commences ; all that precedes, from p. 181, being only (with the excep- tion of K. Edgar's charter) an abridgment of the most noticeable portion of the pre-Norman narrative ; and that tins abridgment was compiled to provide a series of lo^tions, to be read it may be presumed in the refectory, appears from three references to Itearers and readers. In chapter 23 (xxi.) at the beginning of part ii., p. 47, instead of the "prsesenti hujus operis distinctioni " of
' It IK fully described at coU. I li, Eawlhison, by the editor of this 601-3, part i. of the Catal. Codd. \ volume, printed at Oxford in 1862.
XU PREFACE.
the unabridged text, we have *' praesenti lectioni ; *' in chap. 40 (xxxv.), p. 70, Edgar's charter is inserted with the prefatory words "quod privilegium non inutile *^ duximus huic inserere lectioni;" and in chap. 80 (xc), p. 146, for " Videris, lector," we have " Videris, " o lector vel lectionis auditor hujus."^
This MS., as well as that in the Exchequer, was used by the indefatigable collector, Dodsworth. In vol. Ixviii. (f. 41) of his MSS. he extracts the genealogy of Ail win from the MS. " penes H. Spelman ; " and other notes, of the Bolebech charters, &c., made in Dec. 1633, are to be found in vols, cxiii., f, 686, and cxlL, f. 1216. The use made of it by Richard James is noticed further on.
A third MS. is a transcript of Spclman's copy, which was made for Sir Roger Twysden. It came to the hands of Richaixl Gough, and ought, it would seem, to have been sent to the Bodleian Library after his death with his topographical collections, in accordance with his will. It was, however, sold by auction with his miscellaneous books in 1810 ; it is numbered 4,196 in the catalogue, ]). 193, 19th day, 27 Apr., and was bought by Richard Heber for 16s. 6d, In Heber*s sale catalogue it appears in part xi., 1836, p. 50, as No. 489 of the MSS., and was then sold to Sir Thos. Phillipps for 19?. 198., and is still in the Phillipps' library at Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, numbered 8,130. It extends to the end of the episcopal license about the church of Warboys (p. 302), and has there this note, " Hucusque examinat'
^ On the last leaf in the volume is t lowing is the return of gold and the following note, by a hand of the | silver plate seized by the Com- middle of the 16th century :-^''Sta- [ missioners at the Dissolution, as " tus redditus ahbatiae de Kamesia | contained in the account-roll drawn *' alebat sexaginta monachos. Coi- ' up by Sir John Williams for «* nobium recipiebat annuatim sep- ; Edw. VI., which is now in the " tem millia librarum, unde ablata ■ Bodleian Library : — " liamcsayt «* triamilliaperThoniamWolseium, I "viz., in goldc plate xvi unc, in ** cardinalem, cum cruce de auro et '* gilte plate M.M. 13, and in whit« «« argento intcstimabili." The fol- plate cclxiii. ot:*
PREFACE. xiii
" cum membranaceo codice D. Henrici Spelman per me " Roger Twysden," followed by a list of the abbots.
Another seventeenth centuiy transcript (referred to in the notes of readings as MS. C.^) is preserved in the library of Jesus College, Oxford, No. Ixxviii., among the MSS. of Father Augustine Baker.* In the old Gaial, MSS, AnglicB of 1 697 it is described as being vol. 8 of Lord Herbert of Cherbury's collection;?, transcribed from the original in the Cottonian coUection. There is no evidence of the truth of either of these statements. Certainly no copy of our Chronicle appears ever to have existed in the Cotton Library ; and the only reason for calling this MS. one of Lord Herbert's appears to be that Baker's books follow in the college numeration immediately upon some of his. The MS, at one time belonged to Antony k Wood, who has written his name as " -^osco " on both covers. How and when it came .to Jesus College is not known. It was evidently transcribed from the Spelman MS., since the references* given in the margin to the folios of the original coincide with it. For some unex- plained reason, however, it omits chaps. 113-117, and 384-402, thus passing over, in the case of the latter omissioa, the place where the loss of the Mandeville charter occurs.' From this copy some extracts were made by Wood, which are in a volume of his collections in the Bodleian Library- numbered 18 D., at ff. 121-7, although they are there said to be from "Liber ■ * coenobii de Eamsey in bib. CottonianaJ' The extracts reach to chap. 360, and comprehend also a large number of abstracts of charters in English. There is no doubt
> In the note on p. 304 " D." is a mistake for " C."
3 The book is noted as having been in the possession " monasterii <' S. Lanientii . de Dei Castodia* ** congregationis Anglicans ; e li- * bris K. P. Aug. Baker." The house called de Dei Custodia (»
Dieu-le-gard, now Dieulouard), in the department of Meuse, formerly Lorraine, was given to the English Benedictines in 1606, and ' here Baker passed a portion of his life as prior.
» The charter of Hen. VI. follows as in Spelman's MS.
U R 5221. b
xiv PBEFACK
that the original source i8 Spelman's MS. ; for after an extract of Alfilda's grant (chap. 35) these words follow, " After the said gift doth immediately follow this writing " in the said book, Vir quidem d4/ve8 Godricus,'^ &c., which are the initial words of the next chapter in that MS., but not in the Exchequer copy. And at the end is the note of the abbey-revenue and of "^olsey*s " appropria- tions " which occurs in Spelman's MS., as noted abova
A fifth MS. is amongst those (no. 862) which were purchased &om the Ashbumham collection by the nation in 1883 for the British Museum. This was formerly in the Stowe library, being amongst the MSS. which were bought by the Marq. of Buckingham from the library of Thomas Astle, Keeper of the Records, after Astle's death in Dec. 1803, and which, on the Stowe sale, were bought by the late Earl of Ashbumham in 1849. It is most legibly written, within ruled red lines, in imitation of print, on 126 leaves of good vellum ; and probably be- longs to the middle of the seventeenth century. In former notices it has been erroneously said to be of the fifteenth century. It extends to the end of 'the charter of Will. Conq. of 29 Dec. 1077, which is followed only by the long charter of Hen. VI., and the " Narratio Galterii." The numbering of the chapters agrees with that in B., and in various places in which I have tested it with reference to discrepant readings it is found often to agree with the text of B. Possibly therefore ^^e may have here another tran- script firom Spelman's much used copy. At p. 55, how- ever, for the words " pluris reputans pauciores," there is the new reading of "plures reputans pauciores." It is sometimes referred to in the notes as D. The volume contains also Gervase of Tilbury's " Dialogus de Scacca- " rio," and the following short miscellanea : —
1. Notes, and a bull of Greg. V., about Peter-pence.
2. Title of a " taxatio " of ecclesiastical goods.
3. Notes about the Carmelite monastery at Aylesford;
from 1240 to 1417
PBXFACS. XV
Finally, there is in the Public Record OflBice a tran- script of the Bodleian MS. made for Mr. Petrie, formerly Deputy Keeper* of the Records, probably with a view to publication in his MomiTneifUa Hietorice BritarmicB. It is in two parts, numbered 68, 1, 2, containing 129 leaves ; a third part contains copies of charters from Cotton MS. Vespasian E. II. By the use of this, which was kindly allowed me, I have in one or two instances been enabled to gain correct readings of contracted names.
Harleian MSS. 311 (ff. 163-9 b.) and 312 (fE 37-47 b.) contain extracts made by Sir Simonds D'Ewes in Oct. 1634 from Spelman's MS. In these he copies (strange to say) Mandeville's charter, no. 393, exactly as it ap- pears in that MS. now, apparently detecting no imper- fection or inconsistency in the conclusion !
Richard James, of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who died in 1638, made large collections relative to ecclesiastical afiS^irs in England from aU the MS, chronicles which came in his way. These collections are now in the Bodleian Library. And in vol. xxviii. there are many extracts, extending from p. 166 to p. 190, from our Spelman MS. James's extracts were all made with the controversial view of exhibiting the abuses which prevailed before the Reformation, and to many of his quotations he appends marginal notes to point his moral It is worth while to quote these.
Chap. 5. Oftbe descent of K. Edgar. Note, "Cleros sibi erigit in
Beges spnrioB potins
quam legitimos hisre-
des."
10. Of the accession of K. " Clerus proditorie sub-
Edmnnd. ^ituit illegitimos he-
redes in regnnm." 32. Of the gift of drinking ''Monacbomm bibesia
cnpB by the Lady Ethel- in memorias benefac*
giva. torum."
b 2
XVI
PREFACE.
Chap.
46. Of a laW'Buifc abont land at Slepe.
54. Of tho gifts of the Lady
Alfvrara. Of the gift by Goda the
priest of his church of
Holywell. On Oswald's approval of
the site aa secnre from
hostile attacks. 75. Of ^theric*s bargain with
a drunken Dane.
55.
58
103.
Njote, ** Monachi quo jure, qua*
que injuria, terras sibi
oorradunt." "Monachi expilant un-
dique." " Presbyter habet patro-
natum ecclesice busb.*'*
** Monachi ad tutamen
ig uliginosis locis ool-
locati." " MalsB artes quibus
monachi prssdia sibi
comparamnt." " Monachi ad so prsadia
rapiunt quo jure, qua-
que injuria."
Of Abbot Alfwin's obtain- ing disputed lands by large payments to the King and Queen. 219. Of the King's grant of the hundred of Hursting. stone. 243. Of a grant by Abbot Regi- nald on the condition that the grantee hold the abbey harmless against all claims on the part of the Grown. For some of the later deeds in the last part I have had the advantage, by the great courtesy of Edward Fellowes, Esq., the present owner of Ramsey Abbey, of collating the originals, which are still preserved in that gentleman's charter- room.^ To these my attention was
" Abbates omnem ssscu-
larem authoritatem ad
se contrahunt.*' "Monachi large ocndu-
cunt defensores erga
Begem.'*
* James is certainly right in re- garding this instance of a parish priest possessing the patronage of his own church as note-worthy. The case occurs in the tenth cen- tury. The conclusion would seem to be that Goda built and endowed the church himself.
' Not only parchment deeds bnt all the surviving remainp of the
abbey-buildings are now well cared for. The half-ruined ivy-olad noble gateway still gives admit- tance to the old abbatiai demesne ; the modern mansion preserves in its basement many an arched roof and doorway ; and the monumental figure of the founder Ailwin occu- pies a conspicuous and honourable place in the corridor.
t<
PREFACE.
XVll
first called by meeting with the following interesting passage in vol. cxliii. of Thomas Hearne's MS. diary, in the Bodleian Library, at pp. 146-8, under date of 15 Dec 1734 :—
•' On Thursday, Nov. 28 last, Mr. John Jones, Curat " of Abbat's Ripton, attended Dr. Knight to Eamsey, to " see what remains there were of the old writings and " records formerly belonging to the abbey there. Upon " their admission into the room where they are kept " (an upper garret), they were both unexpectedly sur- '' prized at so great a sight as there was of them, " far exceeding anything they imagined before their " entrance. There may be, speaking within compass, '* as much as will fill a moderate cart, tho' not a cart- " load. They consist mostly of grants and donations ** made lo the abbey (most or all upon parchment) with " several rent-rolls, some few terriers, &c, but a great ^' many (to Mr. Jones at least) not very legible, others " gnawed in great measure by rats and mice, which '' formerly haunted the place, tho' they are now pretty " well secured. Most of the grants have large seals appen- " dant to them, and pretty entire and legible, others broke '* and shattered. They lie all confused, and it would, in '' the opinion of Dr. Knight and Mr. Jones, take up, at " least, a month's time to view and inspect every one of " them distinctly, tho' they imagine, after all, that there " will not be a great deal very usefull to be picked out of " them. Nor is the perusal of any one of them to be had " out of the manor-house, where they are kept, without " the special leave (if that is at all to be had) of the Gent. '* that owns the estate and them.^ 'Twas his steward, " or bayliiF, who lives in the house, that favoured them
^ The owner in 1734 was one Smith, who had been man-Bcryant to a danghter of Colonel Silas Titus, (who had bought the estate from the Cromwell family); and to whom she
had bequeathed it in 1732. Smith sold it in 1786 or 7 to Mr. Coulson Fellowes, great-grandfather of the present possessor.
XVlll
PREFACE.
*^ with the sight of them. Dr. Knight talks of going " thither again, in the spring and wanner days of the " year, in order to view the things more distinctly, and '* to see if there is anything that can be of service to " Mr. Fr. Peck of Leicestershire who wrote to him about •* them, Mr. Peck having, it seems, a design of publish- " ing the Monasticon with additions and corrections, " &;c. He also intends to publish (in his Desiderata " Curiosa) those memorials of the life of Mr. N. Ferrar, " which Mr. Jones f oimerly mentioned to me, and com- " municated an extract out of. Mr. Jones hath them *' now (so he writes in his letter of November 30 last) " by him, from the owner, to convey to him. Dr. Knight *' having acquainted him with the purport of them."^
Upon inquiry as to the present state of these records, I was most kindly invited to visit the abbey, and per- sonally examine such as feU within tbo period of the Chronicle. Before my visit I had received through the courtesy of the Rev. W. M. Noble, B.A., curate of the parish, collations of seven charters, which are noted in the printed text.^ My visit was paid after nearly the whole text of the chronicle was printed off, and I then found seven more originals, of two of which (Nos. 394, 395) the collation is given in the text, and of the others the readings are given in a table subjoined to this pre£BM», together with some additions to those formerly supplied, which my personal examination enabled me to
^ Mr. Jones is mentioned amongst those to whom thanks for help are given in the preface to the second Tol. (puhlished in 17S5) of the Desiderata Curiosa; and at the end of that vol. a fourth yoI. of the Monasticon is announced as being nearly ready for the press. Samuel Knight, D.D., archd. of Berks and prebendary of Ely, who was the author of the Life of Colet, died 9 Dec. 1746.
' Of these charters, as well as of various others, mention is made in a smaU history of ** Bamsey Abbey» « its rise and fiill," by Bey. John Wise, M.A., the vicar of Ramsey, and by Mr. Noble (published in 1881), in which much use is made of the remaining records, and for knowledge of which I am indebted to Mr. Fellowes.
PBEFACE.
XIX
make. These fourteen charters range in date from a charter of Henry I. about 1112, to one of Henry II., between 1155-62.^ The mere statement of this is of itself enough to show how rich the charter-chests at Ramsey are. And it may weU be possible that a thorough search among the boxes of abbey-accounts of cellarers and bailiffs, rent-rolls, court-rolls, and the
^ There are three charters of Bich. I. ; one (releasing the abhey from all tolls) dated at Westm. 6 Oct, probably in his first year, as he was at Westmmster then on that day; another dated at Tours ("Turron.") on 24 June, an. 1 (1190); and a third dated at Andely (*• Rupem AndeL") 1 8 Nov. an. 10 (1198). The first and third have fragments of black and red seals respectively. Of the grant by King Stephen of the manor of Ripton, mentioned in archbp. Theobald's charter at p. 307, a copy by John GuiUim, the herald, is contained in a volume of his heraldic collections in the Bodleian Library, Kawlinson MS. B., cii. f. 98. Guillim does not note where the orig^lal was preserved. His copy runs as follows : — " S., Rex Anglise, <* archiepiscopis, episcopis, abbati- '* bus, comitibus, justiciariis, bar- ** onibus, vice-comitibus, ministris, ** et onmibtts fidelibus suis Francis ** et Anglis totins Anglise, salutem. ** Sciatis me dedisse et concessisse « in perpetuam eleemosinam Deo ** et ecclesiffi sancti Benedicti de *< Rameseia et monachis ibidem " Deo servientibus^ pro anima ** Regis Henrici, et pro salute mea *' et uxoris mess et infantum meo- " mm, et pro incolumitate totius " regni mei, manerium meum do- ^ minicnm de Rippetona, cum om-
« nibus suis pertinentiis. Quare '* volo et firmiter praecipio quod "bene et in pace et quiete et " libere et honorifice teneant, in *' bosco et in piano, [in] pratis et " pascuis, in via et semitis, infra " burgum et extra, in aquis et " stagnis, et in omnibus locis et *' rebus onmibus, cum soco (^$ic) et " saca, et toll.' et levis [levandis?], '' et in&ngenetlieof, et cum omni- '' bus libertatibus et quietanciis et " consuetadinibus cum quibus iUud *< manerium melius tenui dum in << manu mea esset. Testibus, M. '* Regina, et R[ogero] Sarum epi- " scopo, et A[lexandro] episcopo " Line, et R[oberto] episcopo <'Exon., et H. episcopo Ely [en]." The H. in this last came must be a mistake for N. For Hervey, bishop of Ely died in 1131, and was suc- ceeded in 1183 by Nigel; Roger, bishop of Salisbury, died Dec. 4, 1139; and Robert Chichester was appointed bishop of Exeter in April 1138 ; the date, therefore,of the grant must be 1188-9, and consequently 1139 is probably also the date of archbishop Theobald's confirmation in our text. An tytspextmiu of Edgar's foundation charter, by Hen. IV., v., or VI., is copied by Sir Rich St. Gkorge, Norroy, without any at- testations or date to show to what reign it belongs, in Bodl. MS. Raw- linion B. oiii. f. 11^ b.
XX
PR£FAC£.
like, might bring to light a few more deeds falling within the compass of this volume ; although some years ago' the collection was examined and to a con- siderable extent sorted by Mr. Harrod, a well-known antiquary of Norfolk.
In following the Exchequer MS. for the text of the first three parts of the chronicle, all variations in readings which are there found are noted, including evident mistakes and mis-spellings, but mistakes found in B. have not been noticed, except that sometimes peculiarities in spelling have l)een pointed out, in order to show more particularly the agreement between that MS. and the text printed by Mabillon. But in part iv., for which B. is the authority, all variations in that MS. are noted, and the spelling of proper names follows the various inconsistent forms which are in some instances met with.
II. There has not been hitherto any complete edition of the text of this Chronicle. The first three parts, ex- tending from p. 7 to p. 180 of the present volume, were printed by Thomas Gale at pp. 385-462 of the first volume of his valuable collection of "Historiae Brit., " Saxon., Anglo-Danic®, Scriptores XV." fol. Oxon, 1691. He derived his text from the Exchequer MS., but, singularly enough, omitted the preface. The fourth part he says was " multum mihi qusesita et multum desiderata." He knew from Spelman's use of it in his Glossary that it was in existence, but could not trace the "codicem fugitivum." There are many misprints and misreadings in his edition, some of which seriously affect the sense.^
1 The following are the most noticeable : —
p. 23, end of chap, z., " yolens " for •' nolens" J whereby Oswaild is
represented as wiDingljr spreading his own reputation for sanctity.
p. 86, *« Diyino timore " for ** nimiQ timore *'.
PREFACE.
XXI
Chapters viii.-lxii., from p. 21 to p. 107, have also been printed by Mabillon, as containing a life of St. Oswald, at pp. 735-760 of "Acta Sanctorum ord. S. " Benedicti; ssec. V.," fol. Par. 1685. He describes his text as being taken '^e MS. Chronico Bamesiensi, a '' confratribus nostris Anglicanis Patribus Benedictinis " nobis communicato." Very probably the copy was made from Augustine Baker's transcript, for the peculiar readings generally agree with those found in MS. B. which Baker copied, and this may be taken as the rule where no divergence is specified in the notes in this volume. The varieties (of which most are found between pp. 91-107) can generally be accounted for as misread- ings of the MS. or conjectural emendations ; and there is only one which appears to be a positively distinct reading from another source. It occurs at p. 94, where for " utile videtur " Mabillon reads *' condecens est." His forms for the spelling of English proper names have not been noticed, because he has frequently dealt with those names in the ordinary foreign way of disregarding our insular ideas of orthography, and has transliterated them out of their familiar shapes.
In the 29th report of the Deputy Keeper of the Records printed in 1868, English abstracts may be found (at pp. 18, 19, 27-8, 37-8, and 44-5) of the charters of Edgar, Edw. Conf., Will I., and Will. II.
III. The writer of the Chronicle has throughout pre- served his anonymity, as one who wrote for the honour and welfare of the house to which he belonged, not for his own praise, nor even to preserve his own memory in the place which he loved. But, apart from the actual
p. 91, *' asiensu lemel ** for ** accessn senilis ".
p. 92, "Hand ergo" for "Hanc "ergo".
p. 114, "sanctum Jyonem" for ** fanstom omen **,
p. 155, « potu " for " pastu ".
p. 176, <'Ramesiam" for «* Ro- « mam."
XXU PREFACE.
story of ihe original foundation of the abbej, and the life of St. Oswald as connected therewith, the book is^ after all, little more than in its earlier part an abstract, and in its later a register, of grants and legal docnments. Nor does it really profess to be more ; its own title is but this, "Liber bene&ctorum ecclesiiB RamesiensiB/' The motive and occasion for the work were furnished by the wasting and pillage which had in the robber-days of Stephen afflicted Ramsey alike with the whole country. For when these days were past it was a natural thought to gather (as the Preface says) into one volume all that tradition could tell of the early history and all that could be collected of the ancient records, and so to secure the charters and grants which had then so narrowly escaped destruction from future loss by any like calamity. It was probably about the middle of the reign of Henry II. that the compilation was made ; the latest event noticed is the death of the second Gteoffirey Mandeville, earl of Essex, which occurred in 1167> and we may therefore safely place the date of our Chronicle about 1170. That its commencement was not until some time after the death of abbot Walter in 1160 is shown by the application to him in the Preface of the words " pisa recordationis." It therefore stands amongst the earliest of monastic his- tories. Ely, Durham, Rochester, and Glastonbury are the chief (if 'Uot the only) houses that had found an earlier '' vates sacer " on any full scale, although by the end of that century or the beginning of the next the historiographer was found in every monastic "scrip- torium," and his work necessarily found its place in some measure in every chartulary and leiger-book. The authorities on which our writer bases his early narrative are described as threefold. Firstly, as he teUs us, there are documents of extreme antiquity preserved in the abbey-archives, which contained grants of lands by Saxon kings to various persons, and by others to the abbey (pp. 4, 13, 49, 199, &c.) ; secondly, for the sue-
PREFACE.
XZlll
cession of the Saxon kings there is reference to national chronicles (p. 13) ^ ; and, thirdly, we are told that the oral traditions of the old fathers of the house supplied what was lacking in written records (pp. 4, 9, 157).
The first of these sources, the charters, speak for them- selves ; but it is much to be deplored that the compiler thought it needful, with much difficulty and painful labour as he tells us (which might well have been spared), to translate all the Saxon originals which were then extant "ex Anglica barbarie" (pp. 65, 176), and was not satisfied merely to prefix in Latin his own de- scription of contents in those '' annotations of rubrics '' of whidi he specially makes mention. Many of the Saxon charters had, however, he says, already perished through age or been lost through carelessness; but the grants whidi they conveyed were to be found specified and confirmed in the general confirmation charter of king Edgar. The writer's mention of seals ("the inverse ^ representations of figures ") as the invention of later times, that needed additional securities against the growing craft of days growing in evil, is curious ; and he twice notices the fact that it is on charters of Edward the Confessor that the impression of the royal image first appears.^
1 At p. 157 there is also a re- ference to ''chronica," but it is only to thdr silence as to the caose of bishop iSlfifard's leprosj.
'There are sereral instances of repetitions of charters, which ap- pear to show carelessness or for- getfnlness on the part of the com- piler. At p. 229 Hen. I. confirms a grant by Gilbert FitzGuj, and at p. 279 confirms the same grant as a qnit-claim; in the latter docu- ment the place-name BsUm is cor- rected to Siowe, At p. 271 two transcripts of one charter follow
each other continuously ; the second copy, however, giving a much longer list of witnesses. The grant of a fair at St. Ives by Hen. I. is given at p. 221,and,again, professedly as an abstract C'brere"), at p. 265; but here the witnesses' names only in part coincide. A grant byHelewis de Bolebech is repeated without variation at pp. 317, 320. That transcribers were not scrupulous as to verbal and nominal accuracy is shown from the collations of those originals which are preserved at Ramsey. The charter of Hen. IL or
XXIV
PREFACE.
The chronicles which formed the second source of information appear simply to have supplied names and facts, not any actual part of the narrative. Bede is once referred to for the history of St. Felix; and it may have been from William of Malmesbury that the two lines from a poem on K. JSthelatan are derived, which are quoted at p. 14; a poem which, as MaJmesbuiy (who cites it more largely) tells us, was written in the king's praise while he was yet living.^ The " fastorum series " which supplied the descent of the Saxon kings may designate the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which had found copyists and continuators near at hand at Peter- borough. The life of St. Oswald is so largely made up of reported conversations and speeches, that its sources can hardly be looked for except in tradition, and in the writer's own sense of the fitness of things. The life written by an anonymous contemporaxy, who was also a monk of Ramsey, which is preserved in Cotton MS., Nero, E. 1, and which recounts the history of the founda- tion of the abbey, and the co-operation therein of earl Ail win and the archbishop, if it were used at all by our writer can only have been used as suggesting matter for amplification.^
Richard I. at p. 299 must be either a forgery or a specially careless tran- script, most probably the latter. For the one witness, liichard of Foic- tiers, died while bishop of Winches- ter, before the accession of Rich. I. 1 1 do not myself see on what grounds Sir T. Duffas Hardy based his remark that, in the general his- tory, many of Malmesbury's *'ex- ** pressions are adopted." Cat. of MaUriaU, &c., I., ii., 683. Bat as that distinguished scholar, to whose labours historical students are so greatly indebted, and to whose memory I venture to offer my hum- ble tribute, was himself an editor of
Malmesbury, it may well be that he had noted peculiarities of expression which others not familiar with that historian might overlook.
' This life has been printed by Rev. J. Raiae, pp. 899-47.5, vol. i. of his Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops, pub- lished in the Rolls series, 1879. Its writer was at Ramsey at the time of Oswald's last visit and of the founder's death, llie form which he gives of the archbishop's parting blessing runs thus : " Consociet '* Dominus pariter nos in Faradiso." (c/. p. 101 infra). In the first ccnversatiou with Ailwin respecting
PREFACE.
XXV
Mr. T. Arno.d has remarked in his preface to the Historia Anglorwm of Henry of Huntingdon (1879, p. Ivii) that "a connection may be traced between " Huntingdon's chronicle and that of Ramsey," e.g, in " the use of the remarkable phrase 'caede despecta'^ " in the narratives when describing the battle of Assing- '^ don, and in their agreement respecting the banquet " at York after the battle of Stanford-bridge ; but to " decide positively which writer borrowed from the " other would require a closer examination of the Hist " Samee. than I have been able to give it/* Nearly contemporary as the two writers were, there can be no doubt that the archdeacon was the earlier^ and that from him were derived the few passages in which the two texts resemble each other. The story of Geofirey de Mandeville's outrages, which forms the curiously uncon- nected supplement to the Chronicle, is a stoiy written by one who lived in the generation succeeding, and who had his inforniation from those who were eye-witnesses and sufferers. And one of the eye-witnesses of the miracle of distillation of blood from the abbey-walls (which he says was " omnibus intueri volentibus visu et tactu manifestum,") was Henry of Huntingdon. For the archdeacon tells us that he himself saw the blood
the proposed foundation, Oswald is represented as at first offering to buy the site, in order to carry out his own pre-conoeired plan. This conversation ii reported very briefly ; and Ailtrin's dying exhortations are much shorter and simpler than in our text But the actual death- scene itself is the same in this nar- rative with that in Qoscelin's Life of Ivo and with that in our text, and may be accepted therefore as historical; the singing of Psalms, the threefold repetition of the lant words *'Omnis spiritus laudet Do- *' minnm," and then the signing
with the cross with the right hand and the closing of the eyelids with the left. The derivation of the name Ramsey is given as from ramus and insula ^ the woody island.
1 Other wordr, the frequent use of which is a feature in our Chroni- cle, are dispendium, arrideo, fu- nicularis, irriguus, votixms; and copia, copia Regis, in tbe sense of "audience." The construction of sentences is sometimes very awk- ward ; one special instance is afforded in the last sentence on I p. 115.
XXVI
PREFACE.
issuing from the walls (book viii., § 22).^ Was it an exudation from some iron-stone, which may then for the first time have attracted notice ?'
lY. In proceeding to mention some of the more noticeable points in the chronicle, I must at once put aside the task of weaving a connected summary of the whole history from the " tdcB " of our narrator, as being alike beyond the scope and the limits of this preface. And I must also leave to others to point out the genea- logical illustrations which the charters furnish for many of the earliest Norman settlers and their im- mediate descendants. But I have endeavoured to make the index of names as useful for this purpose as possible.
The first chapter of the history graphically describes the characteristics of the site of the abbey, set in the midst of the wateiy fen, accessible only on one side by an artificial causeway, and surrounded by ash and alder woods ; but exhibiting, at the time when that chapter was written, in the reclaimed arable land, rich in autumn with golden harvests, and in the green pasture meadows, bright in summer with many a wild-flower, the result of two centurieij' patient labour and skill on the part of the monastic settlers. Of the great size of the ash-trees, then for the most part cut down, we are told that the roof of the church, composed of beams which they
^ It is mentioiied also by William of Newbaiy, book L cbap. 11.
2 Mandeville'B ill-doings and ill
end are thus noted by Langtoft : —
'< The abbay of Bameseie bi nygbt
" he robbed it, " The tresore bare aweie vith
<' hand thei myght on hit. *< Abbote and prioar and monke
" thei did out chace, *^ Of holy kirke a tome to theft
** thei mad it place.
" GeflGrey of Maondeyile to fell
'< wrooh he wonh, *' The deyelle gald him his while,
« with an arowe on him slouh. ** The gode bisshop of Chestre
<< corsed this ilk Qeffray, *<Hi8 lif out of this estre in
" onrsyng went away." (▼oL L, p. 128).
PREFACE.
XXVll
afforded, gave ample proof.^ And from hence, too, with a happy mixture of tongues, the derivation of the name of Ramsey as being ramorum insula seems to have vied in popularity with the conjecture which, from the name, first imagined a story of a precedent ram, caught there among the branches by its horns, and then from the postu- lated ram worked back to the name.*
But no sooner was this woody islet in the fens in- habited than it drew at once light and leamiug from the great Benedictine abbey of JFleury on the Loire, and became known abroad, and celebrated in verse, as one of the English schools. For thither, to Fleury, turned bishop Oswald (who had himself, as well as the first prior, Qermanus, been a monk there but some ten or twelve years before) for aid in the development of Ailwin's foundation, and brought over to teach the new schools at Ramsey a well-known scholar, Abbo, one steeped (as we are told) in all the lore of the seven liberal arts. And Abbo for his English scholars (amongst whom were boys from their earliest yeai-s*) wrote a treatise, " De Grammaticalibus " ; and in a metrical prologue thus apostrophized the place, testing in his verses with many q. hard word his scholars' knowledge alike of language and astronomy : —
*^ O Ramesiga cohors, amplis quae daudere stagnis,
'' Furior obrizo niteris esse Deo!
'' Vasta palus, piscosa nimis, sua dyndima pandit,
'' T7t nova sint eremi claustra reperta tibi.
'' Nam qu^ corviferse consurgit proditor HydrsB
" Insula silvoso gurgite pulchra nitet.
" Et qudp splendentis se mergunt lora Bootis
'' Pons est inde suis pervius Angligenis.
1 Of this descriptiye chapter there Is a translation in Dagdale's Hist, of Embanking,
* Mr. Isaac Taylor tells ns that the first syllable in the name eomes
from the GaeUc word " mimne," a marsh iWcrda and Places, 1873, p. 237). s « uiin sensum et annosy" p. 112.
XXVlU
PREFACE.
" Qua cynosura poli fixum regit undique gyrum,
" Anguillosa palus nescit habere modum.
'' TJnde refert umbras vaga lux Phoebea sinistras
" Terra patet, nuUo ooniinuata vado.
'' Hue me Borte dedi, igaotis ignotus alumnis,
'' Quos, Benedicte pater, jure tuere para&"^
It was on his return to Ramsey, after a visit to Dunstan at Canterbury, that, as we are told, Abbo wrote at the request of the brethren his Vita, or Pasdo, jS. Edmundi ; that Edmund, king of the East- Angles, who had one l^undred years before been martyred at no great distance, viz., at Hoxne in Suffolk, by the' Danes^ on his refusing to renounce Christianity.* To Fleury Abbo afterwards returned, and became abbot there, and died in 1004 by the "blow of an assassin, being umrdered by an enraged monk while engaged in the i-eformation of a monastery in Qascony, in some such way as abbot iEthelstan of Ramsey was murdered in the year 1043.
How speedily and with continuous increment (not altogether unearned) the abbey grew rich in lands, by the willing gifts of those who valued its work and that work's results, is the main subject which our chronicler had in his view, and most of his illustrations
» Printed, " ex MS. cod. Pelefe- '' riano," in MabiUon's Annale* Ord. S, Bened., Par. 1707, ToLir., p. 688. The verses are found also in the anonymous Life of Oswald, printed by Mr. Raine in vol. !. of his Hittoriaru of York (pp. 431-2), where the last line runs thus : —
** Quos Christus semper salvet, " honoret, amet.'* The same Life contains two curious sets of acrostic verses addressed by Abbo to archbishop Dunstan.
' In the preface to the Life, which is printed in Surius' Ada Sane-
tomm, Abbo says that he heard Dunstan relate, with tears in his eyes, the history of Edmund's death as he had heard it, when a young man, from the lips of a decrepit old man* who related it in a very simple way to king iEthelstan, and who said that he was attending Edmund as his armour-bearer on the yery day of his martyrdom. This pre- face is printed also, wich collations of three Bodleian MSS., in the Bishop of Chester's MemariaU of Saint Dunstan, 1874, pp. 378-80.
'
PREFACE.
XXIX
of life, and manners, and political relations are only un- intentionally afforded in connection therewith. But it was not left to willing charity aloue to help the abbey because of the abbey's worth ; he would seem to have been judged by his fellows to bo the worthiest abbot who could best by"" astuteness and any art prove himself the cleverest man of business in adding field to field. The churlishness of the second • abbot, Wulfsige, in grudging provisions for the hungry soldiers of the Alder- man Brihtnothy when they sailed by Ramsey on their way to fight in the common defence against the Danes, is condemned not so much for its own Nabalism as for its shortsightedness, in that it left room for the more politic neighbours at Ely, by a little wise present outlay, to gain large future gifts of lands which otherwise would have come to Ramsey. Bishop iEtheric readily buys Therfield from a Dane, who (not without cause) thought himself in danger of his life, as a foreigner of a conquering race, from his English neighbours and labourers,^ and so in his panic was eager to find a pur- chaser for his estate^ and quit the land where he was an alien, and where for his defence his house was nightly guarded; and there may be some significance in the chronicler's professed ignorance of the amount of money which purchased it (p. 142). True, that in a second and
* There is a curious uncertainty at p. 141, in MS. A., as to one of the words overheard in the conver- sation of the Dane's treacherous watchers; they say that his life ought to be freely ^ven up ** Bri- ** tonibus," but there could hardly have been Wci<* settled in Hertford- shire ; and therefore the reading of other MSS., " latronibus," is no doubt the correct one. And in MS. A. itself the word "Britonibus" U R5221.
has been erased, and "latronibns" interlined by another hand. Gale in his text has printed both words, and this apparent reference to *« Welsh robbers in Huntingdonshire " (read Hertfordshire) has conpequently been noticed by Prof. Freeman in his Norman Conquest, ii., 429. But an incursion of Welsh into that county forms the subject of one of the miracles of St. Ive, infra, p. Izxii.
C
xxz
PREFACE.
similar case, .^Siheric is described as '' prodigus vena- " Hum venator''; but in a third case, we find him taking a drunken Dane strictly at his word, a word uttered as a mere jest over his cups at night, and holding him to it in spite of his protests when morning brought soberness, and so buying Ellington for fifty marks. To King Edward the Confessor abbot Alfmn gives twenty marks, and to his Queen five marks, to befriend him in a law-suit, which he saw he was likely to lose, brought by a disappointed heir ; and the King and Queen take the bribes, and the case is settled according to bis wish.^ But relics also were a source of enrichment as well as lands. Soon after the foundation Ailwin brought from his village of Wakering in Essex the bones of two young Kentish princes ^thelbert and ^thelred, grandsons of Egbald, King of Kent, who had been murdered in the year 664 at Eastry in Kent, by Thunur, a chief minister at the court of K. Egbert, who had succeeded to the throne of Kent in spite of the right of these his cousins. But the murder was revealed, and the sanctity of the princes attested, by a bright light from heaven which shone over the place where their bodies were hidden, beneath the very throne of the King ; and so with honour they were carried over (as it seems) into Essex, and buried beneath the high altar at Wakering, and then three cen- turies later were transferred to Ramsey.^
^ At p. 49 we find archbishop Odo Bocepting a gift of ^Yt hides of land as a reward for his good offices in obtaining a marriage license from King Edred.
' Simeon of Durham begins his History of the Kings with a long account of the Passio of these princes, and of some miracles worked after their death. Bnt this appears to be no part of Simeon's
own work, but an addition by a Hexham writer (Sir T. D. Hardy's Catal. of Materials, ii., 175; Mr. Arnold's pref. to toI. iL of Sjfmeoms Opera, 1885). The connection of the Kentish princes with religious houses of the north is not explained by anything in their history. A narrative of their Passio by Gos- celin is in the same Bodl. MS. with his life of St Ivo.
PREFACE.
XXXI
Next, in the lifetime of the founder, a cross made from the wood of the True Cross was given by a muni- ficent benefactor, iEthelstan Mannessone.
And the third accession of relics came but few years later. Ailwin is said to have prophesied when dying that when ten years had been completed from the day of his burial his monastery should gain a new patron never to be taken away. And so on the 24th April, 1002,* there was found at Slepe by a peasant, as he ploughed, a buried chest, which was revealed by visions to contain the bones of the Persian archbishop St. Ivo, who was supposed in the course of world-wide wander- ings to have reached the British shores about the beginning of the seventh century. It was but a few years after this discovery, viz., in 1020, that abbot With- man (whose real name was, as it seems, Andrew, and who may possibly have gained his surname of White- Tnan from being an unusually light-skinned and fair- haired Saxon) ^ went on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, travelling also in other lauds ; and then in Greece he heard so much of the fame of the saint whose bones had found their last resting-place at Bamsey, that on his return he wrote the saint's history. And this history,
^ This is the date of the year according to onr text, which dls- tinctlj states, twice over, that it -was '* decennio completo." Florence of Wore, and Goscelin (infra) assign the ''invention" to A.D. 1101.
3 His name has been Graecized into the form of Leucander by Le- land and others. He was, we are told, " Teutonicns natione," and, as being a German, had so mach natural roughness or yiolence of disposition (''animi feritate") as greatly deteriorated from his merits in other respects. His harshness to
the monks caused an episcopal visi* tation of the monastery by his diocesan JKthene (the story of which is well told in chap. Izxvi.), and, in conseqnenee, his own Yolontar^ exile. But in his suc- cessor's time the bishop found cause to visit again and severely censure both abbot and monks for erring in the opposite extreme, that of laxity (p. 139). And as bishop ^theric exercised his episcopal control in these instances, so, we are told, he preserved his diocesan rights over the places which he gave to the abbey (p. 121). c 2
XXXll PREFACE,
Goscelin, first a monk of St. Bertin in Artois (St. Omer's), then of Ramsey, and lastly of Canterbury abridged, and, as be says, " elegantiorem aliquanto red- " didit," at the request of his abbot and convent ; and then dedicated it to the abbot, Herbert the Lotharingian, who became abbot in 1087, and bishop of Thetford in 1091 : dates which thus closely determine the time at which Goscelin wrote his book. It is from this Life that we gain the full account of the translation of Ivo to Bamsey, as well as learn the meaning of the reference in our text (p. 64) to an irreverent mock which ridiculed the saint as a cobbler, a mock which by itself is un- intelUgible.
For thus the story runs. When the finder of the coffin in the fields at Slepe told of the treasure and its dream-revealed value to the steward, or bailiff, of the abbey-farm there, who was no less a person than JSdnoth, grandson of Earl Alfwold (the brother of Ail- win), and his wife Alfilda ( — ^to secure whose admi&sion as a monk his grandmother had given Bithom to the abbey — ), iEdnoth laughed the poor ploughman to scorn, and said, ** Would you have us translate the vile ashes " of some cobbler or other, and celebrate them as holy ? " On the same night the saint, who had already severely chastised the peasant, appears to iSdnoth in great wrath, and cries, '* Wake up ! I whom you sneered at as a " cobbler have brought you some lasting boots. Put " them on, and ride home in them, in memory of me." Thereupon he awoke, and found that such a cruel pain (rheumatic gout ?) had seized him fi:*om the feet to the thighs, that he could neither stand nor walk, and so perforce, he did ride home, and told his tale at the monastery alike by physical pain and by audible voice. And everybody else, while very sorry for poor >£dnoth, thanked God with great joy. And then, on a bright and beautiful day, with a great procession, they brought the relics of Ivo, and of his two companions, which were
PREFACE.
XXXUl
also f ound» to the abbey ; there were the monks in their albs with purple stoles, with the cross carried before them, and gold-adorned Gospels, and shrines of saints, and lighted candles, and incense, with hymns and cymbals and bells, and all that devotion could devise ; while the whole country-side flocked around. And then the abbot JSdnoth precented the Te Deuvi ; and a white dove hovered over while the throng passed upon their way.
And for fifteen years poor bailiff ^Ednoth remained a cripple ; but at last, seven days before his death, the good saint appeared as a comforter, and told him that a happy death was near ; and his words were verified.^
Up to this point, and a little farther, Goscelin's Life of Tvo is printed, "ex MS. Anglicano," in the Acta Sane- torwm for June, voL ii., pp. 288-92 ; where the narrative breaks off abruptly, the copy that was furnished to the Bollandists being imperfect. But the whole is found in a very fine Bodleian MS. (Bodl. 285), of the early part of the ] 3th century, which contains a valuable collection of hagiographies. Here the Life, written by two hands, extends in double columns from fol. 99 b. to fol. Ill, and contains in the latter part a collection of stories of
^ The text of our Chronicle says that (as mentioned above) this JEdnoth was, '<as many conjec- <Uared" (another MS. says, "as '' we have learned from many ") the grandson of earl Alfwold. Gos- celin says that he was ennobled by having archbishop Oswald for his uncle, and the archbishop's nephew Oswald, a monk of Flenry and other French abbeys and then of Bamsey, fbr his cousin. It does not appear how the two statements may coincide. The last-named Oswald was one of the four bell- breaking lads, who all became dis- tinguished, and who all by large
gifts made in after life ample amends for the accidental mischief of their youth. He was a poet, writing, as Goscelin and our chronicle tell us, a certain << liber '* versificus." A copy of this was given to the abbey library by Robert dc Daventre (see p. 859), but it would seem from the mention of Oswald's book at p. 160 that there may have been an earlier MS., possibly the original, preserved in the abbey-archives. Leland calls Oswald a monk of Worcester y and he has in consequence been so styled in the index to this volume ; but this appears to be a mistake.
XXXIV
PREFACE.
miracles. As these all relate to the earlier period of our Chronicle, and supply interesting particulars both of places and persons, I print them as an appendix to this preface.
Fourthly, among the many gifts with which bishop iEtheric of Dorchester made amends for the bell-breaking exploit of his youth, was the acquirement of the bones of St. Felix of Burgundy, the first bishop of the East- Angles, who died in 647. Buried first at Dunwich, where his see had been fixed, he had afterwards been translated to Soham in Cambridgeshire, being carried thither, further inland, away from the continual peril on the sea-coast of the ravages of the northern vikings, by a little band of monks, who thus changed the place of their settlement. But there, nevertheless, the pirates came and wasted ; and then for long years the church lay in ruins, and the relics of the saint were unhonoured, till iEtheric gained the consent of King Canute (for Soham was a royal manor) to the removal of the neglected treasure to Ramsey. And so by boat went abbot ^thelstan, with a company of brethren, across the waters of the fens, and along the Ouse, and, in spite of resistance on the part of the people of the place, dug up the bones and carried them off, singing psalms of joy. But why should Huntingdonshire rob Cam- bridgeshire of its saint? Ely was near at hand, and forth to the rescue sailed the monks of Ely in far larger numbers, not singing now the sweet hymns .which had stayed King Canute to hearken. But just as the opposing vessels drew near each other a sudden thick marsh-fog arose, which so at once clouded the hitherto bright day that the rival parties passed each other in the dark, and the Ramsey spoilers reached their home safely.^ But
1 The chronicler is honestly care- ful to warn his readers that the testimony to this miracle depended only upon a Taiying tradition; it
was one, however, of less unlikely occurrence than most of those to which tradition witnessed.
PREFACE.
XXXV
they were only by this their act repaying in their own coin the monks of Ely for a like robbery a few years before. As from the battle-field of Assandun in 1016 the men of Ramsey were bringing back the body of their first abbot, bishop iEdnoth, to be buried as he desired in the home of his childhood, they stopped to rest at night within the sheltering walls of Ely, and, slept soundly, and as they thought safely ; but in the morning the body which they should have watched was gone, and their hospitable hosts told them frankly that they had takfen it, and meant to keep it, because ^dnoth was their bishop, and they had right to him. And their soft answer, we are told, turned away wrath, but chiefly, it seems, because it came in its softness from the lips of the stronger party, whom it was useless to resist.!
Lastly, when in 1044 bishop iElfward of London, stricken with leprosy, and refused entrance into his own abbey of Evesham, comes to Ramsey to die in the place where he had been shorn a monk, he brings with him many a precious gift of ecclesiastical vestment and ornament, but, beat of all, the jaw-bone of St. Egwin of Worcester (which Egwin's own foundation of Evesham thus lost), and the cowl which covered the head of St. .^Iphege of Canterbury when cloven thirty-two years before by the Danish battle-axe, and which still bore the stains of the martyr's blood.
Often as the eastern counties had been ravaged by the Danes, the monarchs of Danish race nevertheless
1 This story is shortly told also hj the Ely chronicler, hut he adds the interesting particular that the secret remoral of the martyr's hody while resting in the ahhey was effected through its guardians heing made drunk hy the '*holy man'' uS!lfgar,hishop of Elmham, who had retired from his see to Ely, Liber
JEliensis, lih. ii., cap. 71, 1848, p. 189. Prof. Freeman has oyerlooked this passage when, in referring to a subsequent one in § 79, he says iffist, of Conq., I 392), "It is *' rather odd that the Ely historian *< mentions neither the miracles nor " the burial of Eadnoth."
XXXVl
PREFACE.
seem to have won popularity in them, or, at least, grateful records in the chronicles of the abbeys of the district by liberal dealing with the lands which they had seized. As the historian of the Norman conquest has said,^ " Cnut's personal tastes seem to have led him " to the great religious houses of the fen country." At Ramsey he began to build a chui'ch dedicated to the Blessed Trinity, of which the crypt was remaining in the abbey burial-ground in the time of Hen. I. ; and there too, with a mistaken munificence, he proposed to establish a house of nuns; an idea which, as the chronicler wisely remarks, was providentially not carried out.2 To him the title of "rex Christianissimus *' was well given (p. 125) ; a title given also half a century before to Edgar (p. 48), and a century later to Hen. I. (p. 318). Even Hardicanute is praised for charity towards those in need, but the praise is discreetly qualified by reference to his mother Emma as suggesting and inspiring it.
There is much of interest in the description of the building of the abbey-church, as well as in that of the rebuilding of the principal tower, which fell almost as soon as built, through over-hasty construction or faulti- ness in the foundation. The reredos overlaid with silver plates, and gemmed with jewels, which Ailwin gave, and the organ with its copper pipes, on which he expended the great sum of thirty pounds, afford indicatioiis of the wealth, the liberality, and the taste, which inspired the whole wort And the fidl of
1 Freeman, i. 487.
2 Some form of monastic life for women did, howeyer, exist at Bam- sej in connection with the abbey ; probably that of anchoresses. Edyna, the wife of Alfred le Lollere (^the singer ?) gave land ** quando monacha apnd Ramesiam
" devcnit" (p. 809). Or can this only mean that she was admitted to share in the prayers and masses of the abbey, as we read at p. 288 of the wife of Dren de Hastings, who was received into ** societatem " beneficii " ?
PREFACE.
XXXVU
the tower, if it were from the insecurity of the founda- tion ( — as is most probable; for "scamped" masons' work does not seem to have been a fault with Saxon builders any more than with Norman, although, as the chronicler says, there may have been some "im- " providentia csBmentariorum " — ), speaks of the diffi- culties which the marshy soil must have presented to the builders ; while the fact that at once, in this earliest work, there was a crypt beneath the church, wherein , was the altar of St. Gregory, tells also that the diggers digged deep, and sought at least to lay their foundations welh It was about the year 1122 that a new Norman church took the place of the Saxon one ; and for the timber and stone that were needed for it the abbot had to invoke ro3ral aid to secure him in or against litigation (pp. 225, 229). While this work was in progress we meet with a grant attested by the masons and carpenters who were engaged upon it, at the new altar of the Holy Trinity, the altar for the morning mass.^
A series of documents such as this volume presents necessarily affords many illustrations of legal customs. Of the earliest mode^of giving seisin we have an example in the presenting on the altar four turfe with the grass growing on them (p. 75) ; while of the custom of either surrendering or giving seisin "per baculum," or "cum virga," we have four examples in the reign of Hen. I. (pp. 246, 248, 249, 258). In one of these instances, the chronicler notes that the staff was still preserved in his time. In one case we find the handsel was "cum
1 A cbapel of 8t. Peter is men- tioned in the miracles of St. Ive, printed at the end of this preface ; and there was also a chapel of St. Andrew. In 1382 a monk, Roger de Raundes, in the latter chapel executed a deed renouncing his place in the abbey, " volens ob
** frugem melioris Titae, ac'aliis cau- ** sis leg^timis me ad hoc moventi- " bus, ad arctiorem religionem me '< transferre." Madoz*s Fomadare Angltcanum, p. 15. Other docu- ments relating to Ramsey niay be found in Madox at pp. 79, 134, 224, 843.
XXXVUl
PREFACE.
cultello " (p. 241). The offering was often made upon the high altar or on the altar of St. Benedict (pp. 241, 246, 254, 284) ; and in one case it is with an oath taken upon the Four Gospels, which were brought into the chapter-house for the purpose (p. 243). The Anglo- Saxon term "heregeat" is explained in Latin by the Norman copyist (p. Ill); while "Twelfhende" and "Twihende"^ (p. 95) are left uninterpreted, which would seem to show that at the end of the twelfth century these words had not gone altogether out of use, or, at least, of remembrance. Stipulation is made in one grant for the non-removal from the land of the straw, &c. of the crops (p. 270). Grants with reserva- tions of life interests are not infrequent (pp. 59, 60, 83) ; and provision is made in one case for the due payment of a marriage portion to the daughter of a late tenant whose mother had married again (p. 236). Triple indentures are twiee mentioned ; Wlfgiva, wife of the Founder, executes one (p. 57), of which one part remains with the donor, another with bishop ^thelstan, and a third with the monks ; and in the reign of Edw. Conf. (p. 172) the several parts of another are kept with the relics of saints in the King's chapel and by the two parties to the deed. In the disposition made by one of the first benefactors of the abbey, ^thelstan Mannessone,^ of his estates, there is an example of the manumission of bondmen, which in its form is curiously significant ; thirteen out of thirty were chosen by lot (why this was the number does not appear), and these were then set at a place where four roads met (p. 59), to choose their own path in life. In a later example (p. 174) half of the bondmen on an estate are said to
1 " JSor/ and CeorW* MS. note by Sir F. Palgrave in his copy of Gale's text, now in my. possession.
s Of this liberal donor there is
notice of an obit, or "year's day," being held on the anniversary of his death.
PREFACE.
XXXIX
have been freed, but there is no mention of any par- ticular form followed in the manumission. In the tenth century we have for silver-weight the standard of the hustings' court of London (p. 68) ; in the twelfth, for com we have the measure of Bedford (p. 246). Of great county-courts held in Norfolk there are two notable instances. The first is one held at Flitcham in the time of William Rufus, by the King's writ, of the men of three hundreds and a half, to determine a dispute about lands at Holm. The place of meeting was (to quote the description given in Blomefield's Hist of Norfolk, edit. 1808, vol. viii, p. 419), " The remarkable hill, or
'* tumulus, called Flicceham Burch,
"... about a nule above the town of Flitcham, in " the hundred of Freebridge citra Lenne, on the west " side of the way leading from that town to Shambome, " being a square piece of ground about an acre, ditched " about with an old large ditch, about 8 miles from '' Holm, where the lands lay which were then claimed " by the abbot of Ramsey" And the other was one much larger, a gathering of the men of nine hundreds, at Outwell, in the time of Hen. I., to inquire into the right of the abbot of Ramsey to flotsam and jetsam ("wrec," "schipbriche et seupwarp") at Brancaste'r. Canute had given Brancaster to the abbey, with all that appertained to it, so fully that there was nothing on land or water, on marshy or plain ground, that was not included.! And men came to testify that twice in older days the right of the abbot to whales (**crassi pisces") driven on shore had been established before the sheriff
1 It is canons tliat no charter of Canute's is given to this effect. The Till of Brancaster was originally bestowed on the abbejby the lady Wlfgiva, and the oldest express royal grant of wreckage, &c. is by ^w. Conf,, whoso grant is com-
finned by the sabsequent kings. Can the king's name be a mistake ? Singularly enough there was a tenant of abbey-land at Brancaster named Canute in, apparently, the time of Will. II. (p. 286).
xl
PREFACE.
at Kentford, by virtue of this grant. And consequently the men of the nine hundreds now determined that abbot Reginald was entitled to a cask of wine which had come ashore as wreckage ; and the abbot gave the cask, with general approval, to the priests of the country round, that they might sing masses in token that no one hereafter could raise any question as to Brancaster and its belongings.
Two charters of William Rufus deal with the military service due from the abbey; one (p. 212) quit-claims abbot Aldwin from the service of ten knights on festi- vals, and substitutes the obligation to furnish hence- forward (as, it is said, his predecessors had done) three knights to perform service on the north of the Thames the other {ihid.) dispenses with the service of all the men belonging. to the abbey with regard to an expedition against Scotland. Of the first of these bishop Stubbs remarks (Const. HiaL of Engl 1874, i. 263) that it affords ** a proof that the lands of that house had not " yet been divided into knights' fees,"
By a writ of Hen. I. it is ordered that not a single house or man be allowed to be in the " isle " of Ramsey except under the abbot's authority (p. 278).
V. In the Appendix to the volume I have printed, in the first place, two lists of abbots, which bring the history of the abbey down in short abstract to 1471, with some special particulars of the lives and acts of two of them.^
Next, I have printed the Catalogue of the library, from the original roll, a document of the 14th century, preserved in an imperfect state among the Cottonian
^ The mention, at p. 848, of the consecFation of the chnrch of St. lye's in 1238 shows that the letter of directions relative to consecration sent hy Grosseteste to ahhot Ralph
in that year, which is printed at p. 191 of his Epistola (1861), relates to' that chnrch, and not, as the editor of that volume naturaUy supposed, to Ramsey.
PTIEFACE. xli
MSS ; and in tlie Appendix to this Preface I have added a fragment of another copy of the catalogue which I discovered to exist in Lambeth library only while the Preface was at press. Tanner in his account of Gregory of Huntingdon, in his BibL Brit., quotes a list of Gre- gory's gifts to the abbey library from one of Wharton's MSS. at Lambeth, and by the kind help of Mr. Ker- shaw (to which I am much indebted) I was enabled to find that the volume cited is now numbered 585, and that the fragment (which consists of two folio vellum leaves, written in the early part of the 14th century in double columns) is one described in Todd's printed catalogue as *' Pars catalogi antiqui codicum '' cujusdam ecclesiae collegiatae." The fragment does not supply the portion missing in the Cotton list, and is not continuous in itself, but it affords some variations and corrections ; especially it shows that the unintel- ligible entry of " Liber lymey " (p. 365) owes its difficulty chiefly to the partial obliteratioi^ of the initial T, and that the Timceus of Plato is the book which is thus disguised. The MS. is later in date than the Cotton roll, since it adds some books under several donors' names to those which are recorded in the latter.
All that gives us insight into the contents of mediaeval libraries, and specially the libraries of the Benedictine monasteries which were the great storehouses of litera- ture and learning, is of value. And although in what we now possess of this catalogue, of» which we cannot tell how much may be wanting at its beginning, there is not very much to excite our curiosity, there are nevertheless some special features which well deserve notice among the more than 600 volumes ^ of which the titles are preserved. In the book entitled " Liber bene- " factorum hujus ecclesiss " (p. 360) we may probably see the original from which the Spelmau MS. of the
' Besides about 170 service-books.
xlii
PREFACE.
chronicle was copied, if not that MS. itself. We find many Bibles ('' Bibliotheca "), including two copies in Hebrew, as well as a Hebrew Psalter, and two in French, with part of a third. Of Hebrew books the library pos- sessed altogether some sixteen or seventeen, chiefly by the gifts of Robert de Dodford, a monk, and Gregory of Huntingdon, prior, who both lived in the third and last quarters of the thirteenth century. The eastern counties were, we know, frequented by Jews, from the facilities of intercourse thence with other countries, and hence it was that Ramsey became enriched with books which to most libraries were unknown.^ Of miscellaneous French books (" in Romanis ") there are a treatise on diet, Donatus, and two copies of the Rule of St. Bene- dict. The following is a list of the English writers mentioned^ in addition to some well-known scholastic and theological authors (Grosseteste, Hales, Langton, &c.), whose works were found everywhere : —
Bede, [369 ?] 360. . Croyland, Robert de, p. 366.
Fishacre, Richard, ihid.
Fountains, Geoffrey of, 366.
Gamlingay, Richard de, 366.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 362,
H., the prior, 368.
Haliwell, Ralph de, 363.
^ Prior Gregory is said to haTe bought books from the Jews of Hantingdon and Stamford at the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Bngland ; and from the books thus collected Laurence Holbeach, a monk of the abbey, is also said to have compiled a Hebrew dic- tionary about A.D. 1410. Leiand tells us that John Young, another monk (who was afterwards master of Pembroke Hall, Caiubridge, and
who died in 1579), told him that he saved these books from destruction at the time of the Dissolution; while Robert Wakefield, who was made professor of Hebrew at Ox- ford by Hen. VIII., is said to have then "appropriated'' Holbeaeh's dictionary. The abbey of Bury St Bdmund's also possessed some He- brew books ; one of these is now in the Bodleian library.
PREFACE.
xliii
Haspal [or Aapald], Geoffrey (?), 867.
Henton, Simon de, 363.
Kent, John of, 362, 364.
Lilford, Walter de, 367.^
Malmesbury, William of, 361.
Merley, William de, 861. . (Entered as W. de Monti-
bibs in the Lambeth fragment.) Nicholas, a disciple of St. Alban, ibid, Nicholas, abbot (Quappelode, of Reading ?), 360. Oswald, 359 (see swpra, p. xxxiii). Warwick, Thomas de, 361.2 Worcester, Richard of, 364.
Most likely in the " Henriciis versificator," whose "Pros»" are mentioned at p. 365, we may recognise the historian Henry of Huntingdon ; but if so, the writ- ings included under his " proses " are probably his miscellaneous pieces apart from his History.* The romance of Guy of Warwick is entered at p. 365.
Latin poets are fairly represented in Virgil, Terence, Martial^ Ovid, Lucan, Prudentius, J^c. ; but Horace was the &vourite, there being three copies.
The " Liber Organicus " of brother William de Chilt- ham is a book of which the loss may specially be
» Prior of St Ive*8, himself a liberal donor. His obit is given in the calendar in Cotton MS. Galba E. X.: 7 Feb. "0[biit] frater Wal- ** terns de Lillef.', monachus hnjns ** loci, et magister in theologia."
> The Greek grammar to which Warwick's name is attached at this place is probably not the *' Oreecis' ** mns " which occurs so often, and which I have, on the same page, suggested may be the book of Ebrardns Bethuniensis so titled. It would seem that elementary Greek was flurly well studied. Three^reek psalters are mentioned.
* The term "prossB" can hardly be used here in the liturgical sense of ** sequences." That Henry was for a long time a member of the abbey appears to be implied in the following passage in one of his " prosse *' : — " Quid memorem Al- ** winum dominum meum, abbatem ** Rameseise, "it successorem ejus *' Bemardum,et postea Reinaldum, ** yirum callidum, aed inclementem, *' nunc Waltemm, virum elegan- "tem?" Epist, de corUemptu natndi, § 17 ; in Mr. Arnold's edit, of the Htf^, 1879, p. 817.
xliv
PREFACE.
regretted, if, as its title seems to intimate, it contained the organ accompaniment for the church-services. One other musical work, in two volumes, " Musica Naturalis/' is mentioned at p. 360.
The list of books mentioned by Leland as having been seen by him in the library is as follows : —
'' Epistola Boberti [Grosseteste] Lincolniensis contra '' appropriationes beneficiorum.
'' Dumbleton super totam philosophiam naturalem.
" [Radulphus] Armacanus de potestate spiritualL
" Wallensis de poenitentia.
" Idem de quatuor virtutibus cardinalibus.
" Idem de cognitione verse vitaa.
" Idem de visitatione infirmorum.
" Summa de casibus magistri Joannis de Cantia [p. 362].
" Practica Gilberti Anglici.
" Itinerarium Antonini."'
Collectanea, vol. iii. p. 147.
The MSS. scattered through various libraries in Eng- land, which once belonged to the abbey or to members of the foundation, would, if they could be all reckoned up, considerably add to the list printed in this volume. The following notes of a few may be of interest ; —
In the British Museum : —
Royal MS. 8 B. xi. Rich, de Sancto Victore in Psalterium. 12th cent, or early 13th. " Liber •' monasterii Rameseye.*'
^ Leland adds the epitaph which he found on Ailwin's tomh : " Hie " requiescit Ail v inns, inclyti regis " Edgari cognatus, totins Angliie ** AldermAnnus, ethnjus sacri cceno- " biit miraculose fundator." The ** portentous title ** here given of ** totiuB AngliiB Aldermannus " is said by Freeman to be "hardly
'' credible," but that " it has its " parallels in the title of Dux " Francorvm borne by the con- " temporary lords of Paris, and " that of Dux Anglorum given by " the Bayeux tapestry to Harold " when Earl of the West-Saxons." Norman Canq., i. 622.
PKEFACE,
xlv
Royal MS. 5 D. x. S. August, Dionysius Areop. Seneca, &c. " Liber Simonis abbatis Rameseye."
Royal MS. 7. 0. 1. De oculo morali : diseta salu- tis ; de venenis ; and 20 other tracts. 14th cent. " Liber donpni (sic) Willelmi de Ketirringge " monachi Rameseye."
Royal MS. 14. C. iv. Haytoni Flores Hist. Orient. ; de viribus animae ; Epistt. Petri Blesensis. " Liber '' monasterii de Ramsey ex procuratione domini " Jo. Wardeboys, sacrae theologise bachilarii."
Royal MS. 14. 0. ix. Higden's Polychronicon. " Liber Jo. Wardeboys, bachilarii theologiaa et " abbatis." At f. 8 6. is a copy of eleven Latin vei'ses forming the epitaph on Wardeboys' tomb ; no doubt on a brass, as the lines are given which were "in armis supra," "ad os," and "ad pedes." In the Bodleian Library there are these : —
Bodl. 833. Eufrastica Will, de Burgo. 13th cent. " Liber monasterii de Rames."
Bodl. 851. Mapes de nugis curialium; Bumelli speculum ; Piers Plowman ; &c. End of 14th cent. "Iste liber constat fratri Johanni de " Wellis, monacjio Rameseye.'* ^
> This 18 a very interesting MS., alike from its contents and from its owner. John de Wells, D.D., was one of the opponents of Wicli£fc at Oxford; he assented to his con- demnation there in 1381, and was a memher of the council of Landon in the following year for the same object. Some arguments of his with regard to religious orders are in the Fasciculi Zizaniorvm, edited by Dr. Shirley in 1858, pp. 239-41. His ownership of the Bodleian MS. (the contcntii of which show that he read the popular literature U R 5221.
on the other side) is evidenced by a beantifiil specimen of ornamental penmanship on a fly-leaf. A chained lion is represented sitting on a rock (of this the meaning is not clear), with a well into which a stream of water is flowing ; on the other side there is St. Christopher with his sacred burden fording the stream ; on a large tablet above the stream, in white scrolled letters, is the word " ^^'c)lis," forming with rubric£ted words on the scrolls the inscription sriven above. A frag- ment of the accounts of a bailiff
d
xlvi
PBEFACE.
Tanner 110. Some English devout poems of the 16th cent, have at the end a note that ^Hhys * booke pertenyth to dane Bolande Sentyvys, " monasteiyall monke off the monastery off « Ramsay."
A printed book in the Gongh collection, Expoaitio hymnorum sec. uavmi Sarum, printed at Paris in 1502, had for its owner a monk of Bamsey named Robert Lincoln.
In the University Library at Cambridge there is one MS., Hh. vi. 11, which contains miscellaneous tracts, and which is mentioned in the note on p. 36S.^
quod Dodiss- thorp."
are pasted on the cover. On a fly- leaf among many scnhhled Latin couplets are the following ; — " Salve, Tyrel, salve I salveris,
" episcope calve ! "Est tna vel cujus? mea non,
<< eed pauperis hu jus." " Allea, vina, venus,!
" pulvis, ventus, fa- I
'< ba, fiimus, |^
** Ista nocent oculis, |
** Bed vigilare ma- I
"gU J
* The reference is there mis- printed Hh. vi. 6. The volume contains an early English metrical version of the Lord's Prayer, which is printed in Reliquitt Antiquce, i. 169, and some interesting me- moranda connected with Ramsey. On f . 2* b. is the following note of a scene in the barons' war : — **' Anno gratife m.cclx, sexto, anno " r.r.H. fil. reg. Job. l*»., tempore " Hugonis abbatis, de Sulegrave, '< anno xii., indict, iz., sexto kal. ** Aprilis, venit dompnus Nicholaus '* de Segrave apud villam Ramesye, ** scilicet feria iiij', cum cc**» et . equis et cum totidem yiris
** armatis, et ibidem pemoctavit. *' Et in crastino supervenit Bex " cum quingentis viris loricatis, et *' preedictam villam igne, fumo et " ferro depopulaverunt, sed per " merita sanctarum reliqaiarnm ** nuUos de monachis, neqae de ** villa, neque de baronibus, periit, " excepto uno valetto qui fuit ex ** parte baronum, qui stolte se in " marisco demersit ; nee aliquis '* prsedictorum captus, exceptis uno " milite et uno clerico, qui f uemnt « capti et ducd apud Cantebrig., et " postea deliberati." On f. 1 b. ; on Christmas Day, 1276, '4ntravi- *' mus primo in novum refectorium, " quod fuit in constructione per x. *' annos et amplius." The price paid by abbot W. de Gomcestre for the manors of Barnwell, &c. in that year, is said to have been the great sum of 2,500 marks (see pp. 844, 848). In 1277 archbishop Rob. " Chul- " uardby " held a visitation of the abbey (f. 70), and in 1280 archbp. Feckham enjoined the observance of the statutes of the Greneral Chap« ter of the order {J. 1* b).
PREFACK xlvii
A MS. of lives of abbots, saints, &c., formerly "de ^' studio domini abbatis," is now among the MSS. in tiie possession of the Marquis of Bute.
In the muniment room at Ramsey there appears to be only one small fragment from the old library. It consists of two vellum leaves of a French poem, treating of matters of natural philosophy, its contents being a chapter on the "ciel cristalin," and on the empyreal heaven above. Can it be a remnant of the book entitled on p. 356, " De coelo et mundo " ?
The third division of the appendix contains a con- tmuation of the history of the abbey, from 1285 to 1332, in two series of abbots' letters, from two frag- mentary copy-books, the one in the Bodleian (Ashmole, 1524), and the other in the British Museum (Cotton, Vesp. A. xviii.). Both MSS. are very carelessly and badly written, and are in many places difficult to be read. In the case of the letters of abbot Sawtry, no regard has been paid by the transcriber to date or con- nection, and the letters are consequently in his MS. a mere confused jumble. It has been endeavoured to bring them here into chronological order, but it was not until they were in print that that order could be entirely discovered ; and it will be found that several therefore are still misplaced.
Such letter-books of monastic houses have rarely been preserved, and they are valuable for their illustrations alike of monastic life and of the general history of the nation. In abbot Sawtry's letters we find that the monks of Faversham were dispersed among other houses in 1275 on account of the poverty of their own abbey ;^ we have a copy of the royal notification of
1 Fifteen years before, in Aug. 1260, a monk had been sent eyen from St. Swithin's at Winchester to Bamsey, by Hen. III., for a like
reason; Prynne's Becords, ii. 975. And in 1302 there is another im- portation from Kent (p. 376).
d 2
Ixviii
PREFACE.
Queen Elennor's death in 1 290 ; frequent letters from Edw. I. and Queen Margaret about provision to be made by the abbey for members of their household, with reiterated remonstrances from the unwilling monks ; ^ the monks, probably about 1298, reiiise to be bound *' pro liberatione dom. J. de Sanct-o Johanne " ;^ in ISOl the abbot is complimented by being invited to be god- father to a coming royal infant (Edmund of Woodstock) ; archbishop Winchelsey borrows the abbot's horse, but does not like it: the abbot endeavours to mediate on behalf of his brother abbot of Bardney, who is in trouble with his diocesan;' there are disputes with Ely and Derham and St. Edmund^s Bury, and troubles about payment of taxes.^ A pestilence at Croyland, unnoticed apparently in any history of the abbey, had carried off thirteen monks in Rfbeen days, and the brethren at Eamsey are besought to lift up their voice in prayer for the remnant that are left. Within the abbey itself there
' Another example of similar impoiition by the same King is foand in Cotton MS. Vesp. A. xviii. f. 185 b. A corrody was granted to Reginald, the KingN janitor, in Jane 1306. In 1332 the abbey gaioed exemption from one of these royal corrodies by a long and costly suit at law (p. 852).
' The " liberatio " would seem to mean most probably security for the ransom of Sir John de St. John, and not equipment or main- tenanoe. fie was seneschal of Gas- cony, and was taken prisoner there by the French in 1297 (Chron. Walt, de Hemingburgh, 1849, vol. ii., p. 76). He was afterwards) commander of the English army in Scotland, and died at Lochmaben in 1302 {Chronicles of Edw, /. ^• //., 1882, vol. i., p. 128). The marginal dato, tVerofore, at p. .388,
of "1303** ought probably to be altered to 1297 or 1298.
3 Bob. de Wayncflete, abbot of Bardney, was in this year, 1303, deposed by the bishop of Lincoln, but was restored by the court of Canterbury. But in 1307 he was again dcpotsed, having nearly ruined the abbey by waste, diminished the divine services, &c. ; however, ten years afterwards, being old and decrepit, liberal provision was made for him by the succeeding bishop.
** The case of the money levied ostensibl}' by the Pope for the Holy Land, but taken by the King for his war in Spain, which is the matter to which the almost unintelligible letter of the abbot of Westminster, at p. 400, relates, belongs to the year 1290. See Walsingham's Gesta ahbaium S. Albani, edited hvMr. Uilev. 1867, ii. 29.
PKEFACE. Xlix
was trouble ; abbot Sawtry was extravagant, as one was tempted to be who entertained kings and queens and great lords, and he so burdened the house with his debts that the monks at last, in order we may suppose to stop him by the fear of exposing himself and .the whole abbey to public reproach and shame, have recourse to the strange threat of ceasing to sing the divine service unless he secures them against their being involved in his liabilities. And he quiets them by assigning over the whole profits of two of his manors until his debts are paid, and makes provision for a better commemoration of himself after his death than otherwise might have been anticipated.
From abbot Eye's letters we find that he had built himself a lodging at Oxford, adjoining the Benedictine monastery, which involved some dispute about boundaries. The account given of him at pp. 349-53 informs us that he was accused to the King by the towns-people of Ramsey (with whom there was a dispute about the market and some rights of common) in 1326 as being a partizan of Hugh Despenser ; but eight years afterwards he celebrates mass and preaches before the King, by command, at Rock- ingham. During the great dearth (which commenced in 1314, after great floods, and lasted till 1318), the price of com at Ramsey in lSl7 was 248. per quarter ; three years before it was 7s. per quarter at Oxford, and in 1324 it was 68. Sd} But in 1318, immediately on the cessation of the dearth through an abundant harvest, the fall in price was far greater ; wheat fell from 40d the bushel (=268. Sd. per quarter) to Qdr
VII. With regard to the later history of the abbey it may be of interest to notice briefly some of the registers and records which are to be found in various collections.
» Lloyd's Prices of Com in O^v \ ed. bj bp. Stiibbs, 1 883, toI. ii. ford, 1880, p. 15. I p. 238.
» Chronicles of Edw. I. j* //.,
I PREFACE.
Cotton MS. Galba E. x., a volume in which various York and other registers are collected together, contains many interesting documents respecting Kamsey. A calendar, itself written in the 13th century, has the following notes, made by various hands at various times: —
7 Feb. 0[biit] frater Walt, de Lillef. (See p. xliii.
8upra), 28 Feb. 0[biit] frater J. BurwelL 20 Apr. 0[bitus] Johannis Beke, senioris, anno Do- mini M.CCCC.XXIIL 22 Sept. Dedicatio ecclesise llamesisB. 12 Oct. Obitus Thomae Botyrwyk, abbatis de Ra- mesia, anno Domini m.cccc.xtx., et anno suo xxuiio. 25 Oct. Frater Johannes Tychemersche abbas electus fuit anno 1419.
Obiit dominus R. Bemel, episcopus Bat. et cancellarius AnglisB. 12 Nov. Stallacio domini Johannis abbatis, litera dominicalis A., anno 1419.
There are many accounts of rents and expenses (some of which are printed in the Monasticon) and sales of farm produce, which afford various particulars as to prices (for com, wool, lard, honey, butter, cheese, beans, &c. ; lambs, Id, each ; hens, six a penny ; eggs, 28. per thousand) ; the orders regulating the food and clothing of the monks and their servants ; a catalogue of tenants with their holdings, temp. Hen. II. and John ; &c.^ The rents assigned for the " camera " of the abbot in the time of Robert II. (i.e., Rob. of Reading, who died in 1207) are said to amount to the enormous sum of 413!., " absque feria sancti Yvonis et absque auxiliis." In the account of abbot Walter and his sufferings given in our Chronicle there is bitter and evidently personal reference to charges made against him in some written
> The S»xou names of the tenants form an interesting list
PBEFACE. li
record (which is styled a " lying page "), by a monk, of alienations and waste of abbey property. And here in this Cotton MS. we seem to have the very particulars to which our writer refers; for at ff. 16b., l7b., there is a minute record of abbot Walter's ill-doing, as follows : —
"HsDO Bunt quEB Waltems abbas dedit de abbatia contra '* voluntatem conventuB." To his Bister's son Ralph one vir- gate at Therefeld, and '* ad Bradenach duo nemora extirpavit, '' de quoram nno fecit idem Eadnlphus xxiiii. acras, de altero *' XTi. ; et fecit eum franoum de terra patris sui qam fuerat ad " forcam et flagellnm, ut redderet inde per annum quatuor ** solidoa pro virgata prcefata et dnobus nemoribus cum terra ** patris sui."
Gifts of land to Matthew, and William son of Sterling. " Ceteri homines de eadem villa habent de dominio plus- *' quam ducentaa acras quea fuerunt in dominio quando Wal- *' terns abbas recepit abbatiam."
Gifts to three other nephews, Michael, Geoffrey, and Bicher, and to his cousins Balph and Hugh. ''Ad Hoctone Bogero " hostiario unam hidam quEB fuit Humfridi, hesredibus re- ** clamantibus et flagellatW* (I)
This list of alienations of land occupies three columns and a half. Then follows (f. 17 b) ;—
"HsBO sunt ornamenta quaa dedit W. contra voluntatem " oonventus. Septem casulas aur[ifrisi6. P] defor. Quatuor- *' decim cappas aurif[r]isio bene paratas. Tres albas aurum '* (sic) inferius paratas, et octo albas aurif[r]i8io inter scapulas *' paratas, et novem inter scapulas pallio paratas. xvi. amit. " [tas] auro venuste paratas. xl. amitt[as] cum pallio paratas, " et duas stolas cum manipulis ornatissime auro cuptas (sic) " et quinque inferiores auro paratas. Tria cingula ornatis- '* sime auro cum baltheis quatuor. Novem calices argenti " intus et exterius deauratos, et duas ampullas argenti dean- *^ ratas, et unum pallium de altari auro paratum, et tria " pallia ad altare et de serico. Unum Teztum^ cum auro et " lapidibus, et duo cum auro et argento. Unam Majestatem' *' cum auro et gemmis. Unam imaginem sancti Benedicti " cum auro et gemmis. Imaginem sancti Jphannis Evange- " listaB cum auro et gemmis. Imaginem sa^hcti Yvonis cum
^ The book of the Gospels. I word is also used to signify a figure
2 Most probably a crucifix. The | of God the. Father in glory.
lii
PREFACE.
'' auro et argento. vil. filaoteria* magna et ponderoBa de ** auro et argonto. iii. foretra cum auro et argonto. ' Unam '' turriculam mngni ponderis, et unnm parrum ferctrum cum '* argento. ii. cruces dc argento. ii. turribula argentea de- *' aurata, unum dc quinque marcis et aliud de yiginti solidis. " Unam naviculam argenteam, et iii. oortinas et im. sorria
*' do urso [ ]. Unam imaglnem sanctaB Marias de
" auro ot argento » de opere Radulpbi Bacristad. Unam ampul- '* lam argenti, et unam patenam, et unam ciffam, et duos *' bacinos. de XL. solidis, et unnm turribulum de v. marcis. '* Dc feretro sancti Yvonis. Ymaginem sanoti Salvatoris, ** ' Super aspidem et basilliscum ambulabis/ magnam et '' ponderosam v. marcarum. Ymaginem sanctas Mariaa, v. ** marcarum. Ymagines sancti Jobannis Erangelistaa, Mat- " tboDi, Marci, Lucae, ot xii. apostolorum, omnes argenteas, ** Unum ferctrum quod pondcravit xii. marcas argenti, unum '* calicom qui ponderavit ui. marcas, et unam justam ad mo- *' dum galli, quam dcdit SibiUa mater comitissas Grloecest.,' *' qnaQ ponderavit vii. marcas, et ii. altaria argentea, et unum '* baculum argenti. De missali altaris rasit omnes Uteros " aureas."
Walter's successor appears to have been in some measure as ready to part with the abbey property for his own profit and that of his relations, and as violent in his dealings, as Walter himself, for the record of alienation (a plain-spoken record not often met with in monastic registers) proceeds thus :—
** Ista 8unt de tempore WiUelmi dbhatis.
" In Eiptona regis dedit idem abbas Bicardo nepoti suo, *' filio seneschalli, terram Durandi, quam Durandus idem, simul ** cum cartis q^as babebat ex donatione Henrici regis senio- '' ris de prasfata terra, dedit ecclesias sancti Benedicti Bame- " 80183 cum corpore suo in perpetuum. Apud Bramchestre " Ycudidit Herberto praaposito unam virgatam terrae, expulsis ** duobus filiis cujusdam hominis defuncti quibus haareditas '* pertinuit, pro XL. marcis. Idem monacbis de Saltreia con- '* cessit facere fossam unam in marisco de dominico ecclesisB,
» Reliquaries.
- Qu., Isabel de Clare, daughter of Rich. Strongbow, and wife of Will. Marshal, earl of Pembroke,
whose daughter Isabel was wife of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester ?
1
PUEFACE.
liii
** videlicet de abbatia SaltreisQ asque ad Wittlesmare. Apud " Craaofeld dedit seneachallo fratri suo unam carn[c]atam *' tcrrae quae fuit cajaadam militis, qnem fecit opprimere vio- '* lentor et injuste. Apad Thercfeld maritavit neptam saam '* Badalpho militi, ratam habens et faciens donationem terra- *' rum de dominio qaam fecerit WalteruB abbas patri presdicti *' Badolphi de Therefeld. Item ad villam de Walton quam ** debuit in jus ecclesisB antiquum, defancto milite qui eam * * injuste tenuerat, revocare, fecit f ratrem suum prasdicti militis *' conjugem siipul accipere cum villa."
The rents were, in many instances, paid in kind, the vills supplying fortnightly the corn, barley, and malt, required for the bread and beer. Three quarters of corn were assigned weekly for the monks' bread, each quarter making five " treias Ramesise," and each " treia " being valued at 12d ; and 500 of the villagers' loaves were allowed weekly for the servants, at half a mark per thousand. For the beer, twelve "mittaj" of barley and six "mittse" of malt, each "mitta'' containing one " treia " and one " ringa " ; ^ the malt being valued at lid. the " mitta,*' and the barley at 8d.
Cotton MS. Otho B. xiv. contains exemplifications of the charters of Edgar and Edw. Conf .^ And Vesp. E. II.
* The measure called a " trey " or *' treia " does not appear to be noticed in printed glossaries. The " ringa " is said by Rogers {HtsL of Agric. I., 168) to be a Hunting- donshire measure equal to half a quarter ; if so, the " mitta " cannot have been equal to ten bushels as supposed by Kelham in his Gloss., but nearer six.
' In Otho D. viii., one of the half- bnmed MSS , which has been ren- dered partially legible,and which con- tains Yarious interesting historical fragments, there occurs at f. 256 b. the following curious account of a visit paid by King Henry III. to the abbey. The King had been visiting churches in London in disguise as
a stranger, and had enriched them with gifts of whatever necessaries were wanting: — '^Bameseyam vero ** secundo suo divertens adventu, '' cum coram majori altari orandi " gratia quasi noctis crepusculo cor- " pus Dominicum pixide cupreo vi- ** deret reconditum, monachis qui>' " busdam sibi astantibus in hsec " verba prorupit : * Cum prsesens ** * monasterium cxcellenter ab an- " * tiquo dotatum sit, cur corpus " * Dominicum omnibus fidelibus " * adorandum tarn vili metallo re- " * conditis ? * Cujus prajs . . . " cum quidam sibi astantium mona- " chornm [sajcristise paupertatem " plenius allega[ret], * Non patie- " * tur,' inqutdj majestas . . .
Uv
PREFACE.
contains a transcript made by Robert Dodford (one of the Hebraists of the abbey, and a donor to the library) of the chartulary as existing in his time.
Harl. 445 (formerly among Peter Le Neve's MSS.) has a register of the fines (" gersums8 ") paid by tenants from 21 Rich. II. to 85 Hen. VI.
Among the Phillipps MSS. at Cheltenham (No. 3,971) is a register, of the early part of the fourteenth century, consisting of 127 leaves in folio, but ending imperfectly, which was foimerly in Craven Ord's possession, and was bought by Sir Thomas Phillipps in 1829. It contains copies of papal bulls and royal charters, with inquisi- tions, pleas at law, &c. chiefly in the time of Edw. L, but reaching from the end of Henry III. to the ninth year of Edw. II. A writ of 26th May, 18 Edw. I., ordering the production in the Exchequer of all the royal charters from 18 Hen. III. which were alleged to con- tain grants of fines and amerciaments, &&, for the pur- pose of proving whether such grants were really con- tained therein, is described in the table of contents as " Breve pesdmum de ostensione cartarum sub foris- " factura."
At Stow-Bardolph Hall, in Norfolk, is a register,^ which contains court-rolls, writs, and other documents, extending apparently from the time of Edw. II. to 1495,
** regia taDtum monasterium in " adontndo Dominico corpore tantsa " yilitati de csetero subjacere.' Jus- << sit itaquc prsedictus Rex xiiii. ^ marcas de thesauro suo in cras- ** tino conventoi sine dilatione per* <' solTi, pneeipieDS enppam unam '< fieri, licet non tantas majestati <* . • • honori Dei quovia ordine ** condignam, argenteam Tidelicet ** sed deauratam, in pondas pne- <* dicti metalli ad minus equa lance '< ponderantem fieri, quam pro- ** posuit idem Rex Rameseyensi al- « tari in propria persona processa
" temporifl optnlisse ; quod quidem *' -vas, sculptura magistral! aurifra- ** brice (nc) decoratnm, Dominici « corporis et saDguinis recondi- '* tionem plenius cemitur hactenns '' deserrire.'' On the next page is an account of the King's going to Worcester cathedral to see the body of his father. King John, where a monk ''capud defimcti quodam " Testis operti genere quod yulgo " eoyfe dicitur apponit."
^ See 8rd Rep. Hist. IfSS. Comm., p. 251.
PREFACE. Iv
but bound up in great confusion. At ff. 97b-8 is a list of abbots, with dates, from ^dnoth to John Stowe, 1436, continued to John Wardeboys the second. Occa- sional notes are added. Of Stowe it is said, " Resigna- " vit (ut supponitur) anno viij. Ed. iiij." On f. 74 are the petition for leave to elect and the congh d'eUre, on the death of abbot Tychemersshe, who died 14 Aug, 1464, which are dated respectively 15 and 18 Aug. ; and the King's assent to the election of John Croyland, B.D., which is dated at Woodstock, 28 Aug. A note about some lands at Waletone at f. 68, in the time of Hen. VI., is subscribed, "Sic continetur in quadam " cedula inventa in camera fratris Johannis Lavenham " post obitum suum."
In Hearne's Appendix to Thomas Sprotfs Chronica, 1719, at pp. 169-220, he prints fragments from a regis- ter, containing notes of boundaries, of churches belong- ing to the abbey, pleas at law, &c. He describes them as being taken from " a strange old defaced MS. in the " hands of Mr. John Murray." There is no mention of such a MS. in Murray's sale-catalogue, which was printed in 1749 as the " Catalogue of an entire library
" of curious and uncommon books belonging
*' to a gentleman lately deceased, to be sold by auction " May 8, at the Rose tavern. Temple Bar, by Charles " Corbett." It is likely that Murray gave the MS. (as he gave many others) to Heame, but it has not been met with among such of the antiquary's collections as are among the Rawlinson MSS. in the Bodleian Library.
To the Principal and FeUows of Jesus College, Oxford, I render my thanks for the use which they freely gave
Ivi PREFACE.
gave me of Aug. Baker's MS. To the Rev. Edward Everard Blencowe, Vicar of Stow-Bardolph, I am greatly indebtetl for the kindness with which he, as honorary custodian of the muniments at Stow-Bardolph Hall, enabled me, while enjoying his hospitality, to examine the register there preserved; and to Rev. John E. A. Fenwick for facilities in consulting the MSS. at Thirle- stane House, Cheltenham. To Dr. E. Maunde Thomp- son my thanks are due for kind Replies to queries concerning the Cotton MS. of the catalogue of the abbey library ; and to R Sims, Esq., for help in tiunscription.
Ducklington Rectory, Oxfordshire,
March, 1886.
Ivii
APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
APPENDIX I.
Additional CoIiLationb of Original Chabteks prbszrvxd at Bamset. [Pref. p, xviii.]
|
Chap. |
M8.B, |
Original, |
|
215, p. 223. |
de Eli. |
de Heli. |
|
Tancharville. |
Tancherwille. |
|
|
Glonecestre. |
Gloucestria. |
|
|
BigCod]. |
Bigot. |
|
|
Abelun. |
Albene. |
|
|
2^ofe2, for "perfect" |
||
|
read " nearly perfect." |
||
|
216, p. 224. |
cnm soca. |
et BOca. |
|
Bchiris |
sciris. |
|
|
dele brackets at the word |
l^desnper." |
|
|
Abeni le Bretoun. |
Anbeni le Bretnn. |
|
|
Tancherville. |
Tancerville. |
|
|
219, p. 226. |
hnndrednm de Hyrs- |
hundretum de Hers- |
|
tingestan. |
tingestane. The name Barnesia is written in full. |
|
|
337, p. 286. |
abbas. |
abas. |
|
archidiacono. |
dech. |
|
|
Oxenford. |
Oxenefot. |
|
|
356, p. 293. |
abbathiam. Errata : protegas, read protegatis Danf^ont, rea4 Danfront. |
abbatiam. |
|
362, p. 297. |
Ramesia. |
Bamesi. |
|
DuTi8[taple]. |
Danestapl'. |
|
|
371, p. 301. |
No variation. |
Iviii APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
Ghap. M8. B. Original.
381, p. 307. TheodbaldnB. Tedbaldns.
Bamesia. Bamiseift
(numbered " XV.").
394, p. 315. This was at first imperfectly collated. On per- sonal examination I found that the passage
** reddet annnatim ^libere revertetur" runs
thus, with strange difference, in the origi- nal: ''earn in omnibus tam versus archiepi- " scopum quam versus episcopum et archidia- " connm adquietabit, reddendo memorato " elemosinario Bam. ad duos terminos pen- '* sionem annuam xl. solidorum, medietatem ** scilicet ad festum 8. Michaelis et medieta- " tem ad Pasoha."
40i, p. 322. Hunted[unejschire. Huntedonescire.
Bamesia. Bameseia.
Waltone. Waltona.
Bolebech. Bolebec
soca. socha.
infangenetheof. infangenethef.
Thoma. Toma.
LeicestrisB. Legrecestriss.
lix
APPENDIX II.
GtoSGELINI MlBlCULA S. ItONIS.
[Bodl. MS. 285, ff. 102-111.]
[Pref. p. rxxiiL]
Mnlier leprosa, nlcerosa, prumlenta, et velnt ericins spinosis a woman pimctionibns hispida, post sanctorom orbe pererrato qusesita f^^^j^ patarocinia, ad salutiferam sancti Yvonis monmnentum venit; unda diyinitus exandante se perlnit, atqae, instantia eyange- licsD molierifl qaam fide sna salyam factam Salvator com- probavit, non multo post lepram deposnit, cutemet camem mundam induit, et cum integra salute recedens, omnibus Dei magnalia in sancto suo promulgayit.
Fama tantss novitatis Hnntedunensem provinciam et fre- quentes populos attrazit, quod de sancti mausoleo lucida unda non solum emergeret, yerum etiam aBgrotos lavacro vel potu sanaret. Qnis indo yel sanus yel languidus non gaude- bat plenum vasculum tam salubris liquoris domum referre, languidus pro sanitate, sanus pro benedictione P Leprosus quoque puer, fide illius dioentis, ''Domine, si vis potes me and a boy. " mundare/' hue accedens ipsa aqua se abluit, non tantum septies ut Naaman sub Helyseo sed, si modo oporteat, plus- quam septuagies septies; perseveravit ut perseverantia yin- ceret, secundum illud indefessi luctatoris, '* Non dimittam te, " nisi benedixeris mihi/' et, " Oculi nostri semper ad Do- '' minum Deum nostrum, donee misereatur nostri." '*Quis '* unquam speravit in Domino et confusus est?" Quis perse- yerayit illi pulsans, et non admissus est? Incumbentem itaque diyin® medioin» salus refoyit diyina; adolescentia qusB deformitate inborruerat ulcerosa, sancti Yyonis gratia resti- tuitur, sanitate pleua, yigore et pulcbritudine florida.
Inyitante abbate Ednotbo beato Yyoni sodisque suis memo- The church ratam ecclesiam dedicavit celeberrime antistes Siwardus^ vi^ Jj^i^^ted qui cum fratre Wlfredo Bamesensis coenobii per alta pericula by bishop maris et nationum gentilium Cbristi miles comprobatus fue- °^^^'°* rat. Qui pariter multis persecutionibus et opprobriis inyicti, gentem petitam lucrati sxmt salyatori, et tandem^ gladiatore
Ix MIRACUTA H. IVONIS.
dcHciontc, in Augliam rovorsi sunt. Uic coram multitadine
mim^healed. P^P^^^ °^ dedicationem confluentis, oculos sibi csbcub instan-
' tins abluit dc divino riyulo sancti Yvouis, yelnt evangelicns
csBCUs de Syloe natatoriU; nee diu morata, tenebrosis orbibns
dies illuxit, noctem repalit, caalam et mundam purgatis visi-
bns reddidit, popnlam admirantem in landes Christi accendit,
pater Ednothns hymnum ''Te Deum landamns" onm scis
Bthelfloda, personuit. His al mi finis tripudiis intererat cnm coBtn nobilinm
refliiofthe mclita niatrona Eitbelnedis, oratiombus, jojuniis, aliisqne pie«
iSst?Ne!^'t, ^^^^ actibus venerabilis, quas ctiam ccBnobium Enolyeebiriad
present at bonorifice condidit, et magnifice ditavit. His qnoqne qu»
cration. sibi memorabilis beros, cgregias elemosinator et deyotns Dei
cnltor, Etbelricns pnetenderat addidit.
A blind ^}io quoque tempore mulicr ab aquilonari parte, din csBca,
healed. deducta ad bnnc locnm sancti Yyonis requietionis antiqnie, ad fontem susb aqnaa, ad stillicidium snso miser icordiaa, fre- quenti ocnlomm ablntione et perseyeranti fide memit lumen recipere, rednctaqiic est propriis yisibus qnsB alienis adye- nerat manibns.
of Ui'^nMs Tcrtius item cascus noscitur et prsadicatur apnd enndem cured. Incitemm Sanctas Trinitatis respcctu illuminatus.
^haoth Ip^ qnoqne reyerentissimns abbas Ednotbns sancti yirtntes
curjd of the q^j^g i^ f^]\[^ yidit in seipso expertus sensit. Venit ad pn»- dium memoratsB inyentionis; ibi arctissima podagra constrin- gitur, tota nocte insomni dolore cmciatur, ut qnem medicnm imploret doceatnr. Kespirans ergo fiducia beati patris Yyonis, oratorio quod ipsi construxerat inyehitur ministrorun^ bracbiis, et cum oratione ac fide layit sBgrum pedem ex ipsa salutifera unda, sicque post tristem noctem reluxit ci cum plena sospi- tate dies Ifctissiraa.
andofca- Item alio tempore inyilatum ad regem Etbeldredum, gutta ^^"^' pessima totnm inyadit, omnibusque artubus dominata ipsum
pasne eloquium abstulit, quum, ecce I memor inyentarum cum sancto Yyone fibularum, quas apud se seryabat, intinxit in aquam quam ipse benedixerat. Qua perfusis scapulis, stimu- lator et inquietator dolor fugit, et aager requieyit, somnoque refectus incolumis surrexit, lastusque Dominum in sancto sno benedixit.
S^k^lf In celeberrimo praBterea coenobio quod &usto nomine Burog
borSoKh nominatur, secundum beec prsBConia, " Gloriosa dicta sunt de te
named «« ciyitas Dei," et ** Ciyitas supra montem posita,*' et '* Mag- Oda
MIRACULA S. IVONIS. 1x1
" nu8 Dominns in civitate Dei nostri, in monte saucto ejus," non in mnnte terrena mole et oongerie prominenti, sod in illo qui in montibus Sanctis obtinet principatum ; cui dixit Mons montium, ** Tu es Petrus, et super banc petram asdifioabo " ecclesiam meam." Hoc quippe monasterium, ut prosequa- mur memoratu dignum, ab ezordio AnglicsB Christianitatis a clarissimo abbato SaxuHb favure regio fundatum, et a rege Wlfero aliisque successoribus prsocellentissime ditatum, Bo- nianis quoque et regalibus privilegiis nobilitatum, beatissimus Wintoniaa prcBsul Ethelwoldus miseratus, diverso bellorum turbine distractum, studuit quantum potuit in antiquum refor- roare statum, quteqae suis diebus nequivit bonis successoribus supplenda votis benedictionis dereliquit. Habuitque haac con- Abbot cio rectorcs et propagatores, ut decebat, industries, qualis bidiop o?*^" erat Adulfus proficiens in Eboracensem arcbipraBSulem, et York. Kenelmns, flos litteralis disciplinae, torrens eloquentise, retbor abbot Anglorum, decus et norma rerum divinarum et ssBCularium, xenuin ^^ procedens in Wentanum ponti6catum. Successit pari sagaci- bishop oV tate abbas Elfsinus, sub quo magnus totius congregationis " ^ * affectus et dolor, frater dictus Odo, sacerdos officio, sedulus obsequio, ad mortem languebat punctionis morbo. Lugubris erat mortis cxpectatio, fuuesta pium contubernium operuerat caligo, fit pro languido trepida omnium deprecatio ; cum, ecce ! occurrit memorise per aquam beati Tvonis frequentata salva- tio. Continuo transnavigatnr illo, duodccim miliariorum An- glicorum intorstitio. Dant Bamesenses fratres compatientia precum subsidia, dant petitaB aquae beneficia, quam sancti membra sacra verant lota. He versus bajulus medelsB, inyenit SBgrotum jam eztensum terrae, ultimo anhelitu in exitum ago- nizantem, contubemalem turbam flebilibus cum precibus cir- cumstantem. Eztemplo rero rapiunt, et prae ^lortuis ejus labiis instillant sanctum liquorem ; et. Domino sanctos suos glorificantc,^ Bubito quasi revivisccnte spiritu oculos aperuit, receptoquo vitaa sensu ab humo se levari expetiit, atque cla- mavit, "Ubi, quaaso, est episcopus qui astititP" Cunctis negantibus, **Ego vero," ait, **vidi hie modo virum episcopa- " liter infulatum qui me tetigit, ot in latus aliud rcclinavit, " ventremque et ilia medica pertrectans manu concussit, et " ecce! me dolor lethifer reliquit." His auditis, omnium corda a tristi desperatione simul resuscitata, magna exulta- tione, in sancto Tvone Domini glorificabant magnalia. Turn aeger sentiens in se vim supernaa medelas, vasculum vitalis gustus rapit, et astringit osculis et utrisque manibus, ac, velut
1 *< Dominum ^glorificantem," M8.
U B5221. A
Ixii MIRACULA S. IVONIS.
ipsam Titam a fuga comprehenderit, toils detinet nisibtiB, at- que pro nectare ebibit ojnni sitiente ayidius. Et quid mnltaP Salate ingressa, panels diebas redintegrator sains pristlna. Benedictus Deus per omnia!
Apinez* Vemm his snbnectnntnr quaa forte majora videantnr. Vlr
fjii^the ^ ^&o vicinia loonples et fidelis, Godricns yocabnlo, qnnm ttJMfttof affines et amicos soUenni ascivisset convivio, qnnm parietea daughter, pictis anlseis candescerent, tecta et pavimenta frondibns yire- had^swal^ i*ent, fnlcra tapetis, mensse epnlis, et plena domns discnmben- M)m^l»«ad ^^^^ pnrpnreis vel anreis cnltibns exnltaret, filia ipsins, pnella ' Immpta, nbi inter epulantes buccellam panis ore eliquefacta deglutire parat, yelnt piscis hamo capta est. Acns enim tetro casn de ancillnla sinn illapsa, involnta atqne incocta erat pani confecto, qnsB guttnri inhsasit virgineo, nt nihil dffimonicis insidiis intemptatum abit, nihil tntabile est qnod Dominns non cnstodlerlt. Erat acerba et miserabilis Incta, qnnm nee eyomere nee introrsns trahere impingentem aenlenm yaleret. Fngit genamm rosa, eandida exsangnis pallor ocenpat ora» hebetata aele moribnnda fatiscnnt Inmlna. YitsB aditnm ob« sedit mncro inextricabilis, mors stabat in jannis. Tollnntnr anxii gemitns et langnida snsplria, altosqne clamores alta ex- torqnet angnstia. Pater lamentabilis hno se promplt, mater, miseram se clamitans qn® in hnnc diem servata sit, accnrrit. Anfertnr mensa tnnc exosa, eonyiyia yertnntnr in lamenta, obmutnit cithara, et omnis mnsioa in Inotnm eonyersa. Inten- tie epularum recnmbit in exitinm. Pater dupliei eonftinditnr moBStitia, et pro eariBsimaa natas intemioiosa poena et pro in- yitatomm amicomm offensa lastitia. Genitrix dnlcem sobolem nlnis ampledj, aeclinare peetori, ora et gnttnra mann matema permuleere, atqne eontribnlata trepidam consolari yeUe. At yirgo, interne yexata stimnlo, ub fnnns eomponitnr leetnlo, jam illi formidatnr quod Christianomm est egressuras animaa disenssio. 0 nihil fragilins humana fortitndine, nihil extln- gnibilias homine! Bes tain minima qnam magna inenssit vitas discrimina! Sie seiniphes et cnlices domnemnt Phara- onicam ^gyptnm, et idem Ohristlano sasenlo snbyertemnt in- finites enrrus et eqnites regis Persamm. Sed quid mnlta querela remoramur tua, sancte patrone, suffragiaP Inter hadc itaque pericula rememorante quodam de unda saneti Yyonis medentissima, transmisso yolucri equlte, affertur in eelerrime sacrata potiuncnla. 0 Dominum yirtutum, Cui nihil est irre- mediabile, Qui dncit ad inferos et reducit, ae dolorem lucrum gaudii faeit! Bepente ubi yirgo divinum liquorem hausit, ferrum liqnefaetum est, et eradicatum de imo gutture asoen*
MIRACULA S. IVONIS. Ixili
dit, quod ilia ore receptmn sanguinolcntnm expnit. Qanm vero quasi a mortnis resuscitatam yidissent, tanta fleyere ez- ultatione quanta prius Inxerant msBStitudine, omnesque Domi- num in sancto suo collaudabant digna admiratione. Nee multo post Gonvivio redditur sanissima, facie rosea, et majori foenore ounctis redit suspensa Isstitia. Quo jubilo tunc pote- rant exclamare, '' 0 sancte Yvo, summe Dei sacricola, quis tua " digne efferet praaoonia, qui fernun contra undam deorsum " trahentem et propellentem emergere ao liquescere fecistiP" Benedicat Dominum glorias gloria tua in saaculal
De se nihilominus exponit hujus textus prsecentor grayissima The writer se contortum et podogra et chiragra ad hujus clementissimi co^of patris confugisse prsesidia, yoyisse salutis gratia terdcnas J^nJu" ^d missas totidemque psalteria, sicque, solutis morbi compedibns feet, and of et manicis, successisse gaudia sospitatis. Fostea quoque spi- JlJhe!^* culato dentium tormento confixum, fatetur insomni nocte anxia suspiria eructuasse, psalmidicas preces, quiete ofiensa et poena rebellante, tegre ruminasse, donee ad signum noctumaliuni laudum sancto remediatori Yyoni se ingesserit, factaque ibi oratione, ex aqua sancti, lotis artubus, sanctificata tertio sibi OS et dentes intinxerit, jamque inter cborizantes socios intentee fidei dolor cesserit, moxque, sospitate cxultans, sancti yirtutem prssdicayerit.
Quidam ex fratribus Bamesiensis coenobii quod beatus Yyo wivard* a corporali prsasentia signorum attestatione coUustrat, Wluardusg^^ nomine, subita oculorum atque faciei yirolenta inflatione yisum cured o/ poenitus amiserat. Qui quum humano non posset illuminari ®'^"'*®^ coUirio, diyino se deyote commisit medicamento. Bogayit namque ex prsedicti patroni mausolei layacro ocnlos sibi atque faciem tumescentem aspergi. Quo quum aspergeretur, omnis mox liyidi yultus inflatio, yenenosi sanie fluenti ex ooulis decurrente, detnmnit, lumenque cum prioris formaa decore recipere meruit.
Quidam Goyentreyensis coenobii monachus, Fatricius nomine, Patrick, a iter f^ens, dum equum cui insidebat juyenili leyitate hue coTentrF,
illncque discurrendo agitaret, repente cum eodem ita oormit ^»'*? ^, ^ n ^' -, .*.... ^Tx J • fractured
ut confractis humens quasi exanimis jaceret. Itaque ad proxi- shoulder- mum yicum deportatus, quum diu exensis et sine voce decu- ^**®*' bnisset, tandem, recepto spiritu,** recordans signorum quad per beatum diyinitns Yyonem gesta pridem audierat, quibus yale- bat yerbis ex sepulchri ejus layacro afferri, corpusque suum collisum perfundi, rogayit. Quod quum factum fuisset, ita
e 2
Ixiv MIRACULA S. IVONIS.
statim convaluit ac hi nihil liosionis in corpore habnisset, atque o vestigio Ramesiam, sauatori buo gratias aetnms, pro- ficiscitur. Quod et singnlis aunis anniversaria sauationis earn die facere consnevit.
Kome Reyelationnm quoquo et Tisionam aliqoa sabjungpiiitiir.
BiBle^'Me, Qnodam vespere Slepenses aliique contigai mricolsB qunm coe-
vdiileBt Q^yi^ Qi pocula in noctem jocundins prodncunt, snbito clarissi-
at night, a mnm jubar ratilo coelo accipinnt ; egressiqne ad tantnm pro-
oJS^the**** digium, conspicantur falgidas aurea) lucia colamnas a tumnlo
tomb of St. beati Yvonis sociorumque ejus aathera pcnetrantes, et i«mm .
liisappeara confinia late irradianteR. Unde clara acie Bdes nostra animad-
r^roochf vertat sanctorum pictas loca snm requietionis qnanto Dei nntn
respiciat, quanta gratia cineribus resurrecturis in gloria coelum
faveat. Dnm ergo inhiant adhuc superno lumini, quidam praa-
sumptiori temeritate ad ipsum locum Inois concurrunt, sed eis
supervenientibuB tanquam lux tenebris disparuit. Sic nee
Herodes videre meruit signa Domini, qu89 magis mirari voluit
qnam venerari.
SI. Iveap- Plurimis etiam ipse benignus pater se revclavit. Unde JJJJJJ^^^ quidam rusticus do Bluntesham abbati Ednotho hoc retulit, nt Bluntt- quod sibi soapc apparere et yideri dignatus sit, et quod pri- teUahimhe dem, assueta gratia visus, hsBC sibi dixerit, *'Ego sum Yvo {j*"*.^®" ** episcopus. Jam evoluti sunt circiter quingenti anni ex quo about 600 " in loco Slepensis monumenti requievi." His ergo auditis, ^**"' iVatres curiosi, revolutis chronicis, inveniunt annum quingen-
tesimum octogesimum fiiisse DomiuicsB Incamationis quo tem- pore caslicus flos Gregorius papa floruit, qui Augustinum, matutinum sidus Anglorum, sedentibus in tenebris direxit. Unde circa hsBC tempera beatus Yyo migrasse ad Dominum censetur, quern licet, ut plerosque sanctos, tamdiu celaverit longanimis Dominus, tandem majori gloria declaravit, de ccalo potius quam ox hominibus.
AnumkGt XJnus quoquc fratrum in Bamcsi, vocabulo Oswius,* quum
iminSf^' infirmitatis corporeae occasione torpesceret a salute animas,
Oswy.ui |;ali admonitum se referebat visione. **In apostolico,'' inquit,
s\?Iveina^ ** superni janitoris oratorio, juxta ipsum ostium quo traositur
vision, seen „ j^ cborum, vidi prasfulgidum hierarchara, agnoscibiliter
Peter'g «< Yvonem, sublimi solio principaliter prsecellentem. Yestigiis
neglisenM '' ejus bini hinc inde assidebant tanquam discipult, et hi ful-
Ai)pareDtly altered by another hand to " Oswinua."
M!RACILA S. IVONJS. Ixv
** gore conspicni; ad hornm quoqae pedes frequentes et bono- *" {>™|^*«8 ** rabiles viri, qni praBsidenti patri fixis obtutibus erant in- peafc the ** tenti. More adeo sinodali videbantnr gradata sedilia, suis ''^*^** ordinibus et subselliis distincta. Qaumque nou auderetn ncc valerem in ipsnm primatem respicere pras tanto splendore, " ille haBrentem blanda compellat allocntione. * Quare,' inqnit, '* ' frater mi, tempus acceptabile et diem salntis tarn segni " 'inertia deperdis?' Eis auditis, quasi jadiciali sententia " addictus contiemni, ac divorsis cogitationibns angebar animi, " quid facerem, an me subducerem, an intervcntn assidentinm '* yeniam flagitarem. Terrebat et luminis majestate, et digna " inter dignos proprias indignitatis redargpitione. Et quamvis •* sermones ejus super oleum essent molliti, jacula tamen ** erant reatus mci. Turn ille prosequutus, ' Soigne,' ait, * quo *• ' primum vel secundum ^ia^ ^^ terminetur?.' Profitente me " bigus distinctionis esse sciolum, ' Quomodo,' ait, ' ita te " * subjecisti socordisB, ut non vel iino die ad primum fiat, et '* * secundo ad aliud, et inde ulterius pcrveniad, quatinus per *' ' totidom dies quot sunt bujusmodi terminationes psalteriuni " * compleas ? Nam ego dum adbuc mole premerer corpo- '* ' rali, non ecssi human 8q imbecillitati quin omni die lotum " ' psalterium persolverem in bolocaustuin Domini.' Hcec '* visa et audita trepido cordi moo altius incussa, altum som- '* num mibi rupere, qnas fideles fratres gratantissime percipi- '* cntcs a mc, tanti patris benevolentiam ot vigilautiam circa " snorum salutem nragnopero glorificavcrc." Hie autem ad comprobationem hujus yisionis et intelligentiam tanti docto- ris convenit animadverti, quod quidam tcstantur psaltenum apud HebrsBOs in quinque distinctiones dividi, et singulas in psalmis ubi nos canimus f>at fiut finiri, ultimam tantcm iu Onmis spiritus laxidet Bominvm concludi ; hoc est, primam in quadragesimnm, secundam in septuagesimum primum, tertiam in octogesimum octavum,^ quartam in centesimum quintum, quintam in centesimum quinqaagesimum, id est, ultimum paalmnm.
Quidam de proximo yico curvus et dis tortus erat ut quad- a cripple rupes cuobus scabellulis prsenitendo incederet. Hie quum in ©n airSure loco inventionis beati oxorasset Yvonis, erigitur, sanatur, ac cured, bipes efficitur. Cui fratres ibidem in obsequio sancti comma- nentes multis postea diebus stipem cotidianam prffibuerunt. Kt quia fratrum mentioncm feci, operaa pretium reor ad
* Altered from " nonum."
Ixvi
MIRACULA 8. IVONIS.
exemplnm aliis qnoddam pietatis opas quod saapefatas patronoa ergo qnendam ipsoram gessit ezplicare.
An indevout Idem antem frater qunm monacboram Bamesiensium coetni monk. who . ^ • j. . . . . i ^ j .j-
omitted BOGiassct, in exordio conyersionis snsB circa Bni salutem desidia
th78hTiiK) torpens, beato Yvoni bonorem et revere ntiam quam deberet r'noiriodb ^®^ deceret exbiboro neglexit. Sao pins enim ante Banctum order of ihe corpus ejus tranBiens, nee genicnlari ncc etiam vcl leviter vhion!" ^ conquiniscorc curabat. Quadam igitur nocte vidit per somniam bcatum Yvonem in oratorio quasi in sublimi solio praDsidentcm, sacordotali amictn decentissime redimitam, duosque pro^claros viroB bine et inde sibi assidentes. Cui coram astanti, ct de- fix is in terram obtutibus, pr89 nimio timore eoB aspicere non prajsumenti, sanctus Yvo dixit, *' Cur, frater, torpenti inertia ** animaa tusB salutem negligisP Quare et mibi debitam revo- ** rentiam minime impendis P '' Ec ostendens ei locellum re- quietionis suaa, adjecit dicens, '* Quemnam ibi requiesccro ** putas P 'Numquid quamUbet personam vilissimamP Quare " torva cervice coram me traosiens non saltern respicere dig- ** narisP An ignoras te meis suffragiis indigereP Cur ergo *' mo despectui babes P" Et tremens ac stupens respondit, " Miserere mei, domine mi carissime, miserere I Amodo enim ** et tui sanctissimam reverentiam et mem salutis curam omui " studio me habiturum promitto." Cui sanctus, ''Beue," in- quit, " facies. Yerum ut commissa corrigantur, et corrigenda " denuo non committantur, flagellorum correctionem nunc V hal»es sustinere." Et prsecepit alteri sibi assidend eum cxuere, et virga percutere. Quumque ter percussisset eum, alius intercessit dicens, " Sufficit jam ; parcatur ei." Et par- cens ei beatus Yvo sobrie et juste et pie deinceps vivere, et in Bui obsequio sicnt promiserat devotum existere, commonuit. Qui statim evigilans, ita se verberatum doluit, atque virgas plagas in dorso suo palpans sensit, ac si visibiliter virgis cor- poralibuB caBSUs fuisset. Quod quum fratribus retulisset, ab- jecta scgnitie, et proprias salutis curiosiores et Deo sanctoque Yvoni devotiores efficiuntur. Sicque fit ut qunm unus corri- pitur multi omendentur.
Cure of a deaf and dumb boy, who came from Nor- way with the same monk.
Idem frater quendam apud se puerum ex multo tempore surdum babebat, quem oppido diligcbat. Ipsum namque de patraa sua, scilicet Norwegia, secum adduxcrat, sibique in filiiim adoptavci-at. Cujus infortunio non minus quam si ipse hoc i)ateretur coudolens, pro auditu ipsius bcati Yvonirf auras jugi Biippiicatione pulsare nou desiit. Quadam igitur die inter languenips in atrio raonasterii procumbentes, sanctique Yvonis
MIRACULA S. rVONIS. Ixvii
opem prflBStolantes, subito et idem paer in terrain cecidit. Et qnom aliqnamdiu quasi Bopdratus jacnisset, atqne sanies ex anribns deflnzisset, recepto auditu sospes surrexit.
Inenarrabile est quotiens et quibus vel viris vel feminis Prequency sese gloriosns pater Yvo Claris visionibus ostenderit, qnam Snoes**"' rutila facie, qnam perspicaci oculoram fulmine, illuxerit, ut of St. Ive. pro sui afiectione inopes alero postulaverit, qnam salubriter abstinentils, psalmodiis, precibus,* invigilare docuerit ; nnde apparet dum in corpore degnit, qnam pins in caBteros, qnam disirictns in se, extiterit semper.
Nonnnlli etiam affirmant, qncd ipse, censors coslestinm, vi- Said tohave sus sit et locntus in colnmbaa specie. Neque hoc de tanta sancti and to have puritate videre debet incredibile, in quo requievit gratia de- JK foj^^of scendentis super Christum columbaB, quum et plerumque & dove, sanctorum animad vissa legantur in columjsa specie egredi de corpore.
Tot yisionum arcbana exteriora aUestantur miracula. Ado- ^ young lescens de Yenetia, consularis dignitatis ex patre et matre, ac pc^dan, cognationo illustrissima, diabolico instinotu sororem grayidam Juitowi cum fcetu peremit. 0 immanem parentum dolorem ! Non jus sister, poterant filiam ulcisci in filium, et pro oculo extincto eruere ^omthe relictum, ac pro uno lumine dispendium subire duorum. Alii- ISf^^^^he gat episcopus reum ferreis nexibus ; a scapulis ad renes ferro l»d been constringitur ; venter et brachia ferro accingnntur ; et ita, whUe the traditus Satanae in interitum carnis ac salutem spiritus, per wafbdnl* aBstus et frigora, in labore et aBrumna mundi pervagatur *^^« ?» St. climata. Post longa cxilia, post multimoda discrimina, post [Jan^is]?^ innumera sanctorum perlustrata habitacula, tandem transnavi- gayit in Britanniam ad Anglicorum sanctorum suffragia. Apud Sanctum Dionisium Parisius unum quidem vinculum decidit, csstera beati Yvonis absolutioni retenta sunt. Hie domum ad sancti patris Benedict! veniens coenobium, usque ad mortis elangnit periculum, sancto medico, ut credimns, id Qgente quatinus per infirmitatis fornacem mundaretur a crimine, sicque corporali donarotur sospitate et absolutione. Sic Dominus paralytico castigate prius peccata dimisit, et mox sanato, "Telle grabatum tuum et ambula," dixit. In sol- lennitato ergo sancti Mauri, qui est forma et imago beati pa- tris Benedicti, vespere, quum aUemantibus hj^mnum sanctse Dei Genitricis hie versus, "Et misericordia ejus a progenie in '* progenies " concinerctur, orans vinculatus ad tumbam sancti Yvonis repente iuvisibili virtute corripitur, totus a terra leva- tur, terraque citius deponitur. Enmpuntur ferrea ligamina,
Ixviii MIRACULA S. IVOKIS.
non quo clavis erant nodata, scd qno habebantur solidiora. Vincala ipsa, longins exonssa, vix inveniebantur. Laos Do- mino, in canticis et tintinnabulia, cuncti^ne Inminaribus ac- censis, alte resonat in Toce exultationia ! Miracalum dedicatur beato Yvoni rectissime, sancto Benedicto cnm omnibus Sanctis ei favente. Adolescens itaqno libertate ct sanitate exultans integra, qua submissione se sancto libcratori suo devoverit, qnas gratias abbati ct fratribus refuderit, maxime quod SBgit)- tantom tanta bcnignitate refoverint, qnam leetus, abbate eum digniH cultibus donante, repatriaverit, non hie sermo evolvere sufBcit.
Three Tres item ex eodem patre et matre germani Saxoncs, da3-
who^Ml' monict'^ incitamentis contra se ipsos intestina arma ferentes,
murdered patrem intercurrentero, patrem pacis sequestrum, horrendum their Tuner \, . ▼ i . .■»■»• „ . • .•
inBaxony, dictu, interemerunt. Inde ventres et brachia ferro astncti
ciimiiMi"fiLre P^^t nuiltos BBStus et hiemes multosqne terrarum ambitus in
relcM^, Ansrliam sunt appulsi. Quartus etiam reus, ex eadcm re- from their , ° . ,. . ., , . • x ^ • x-
chains, two gione, et dins nexibus nu conjunctus erat et peregrmatione.
two at Bun- ^^ ^^^ ^^8° prior et junior fratripn in Elyc apud gloriosam «<^* yirgincm Etheldritham, medius et quartus apud beatum Yvonem
in Samesie, eruptis yinculis, sunt absoluti, unde omnes col-
laudant nomeu Domini.
AIM one Yenit quoque ad hujus sancti patrocinia qaidam [ex] urbe
oc^e^f^- celeberrima Golonia, ferens similiter arctissima ferri ligamina, teredfrom qui, dudum inter Italica et Alpina juga deficiens prsB labore, whiJea** hanc vocem quadam nocte audivit de supema pietate, "Libe- be^ffsu^ " "^^^"^ *^ ^'^ poena, sed alibi quam in hac terrae plaga." on the feast Hic ergo liberatus, dissilientibus ferri circulis apud salutife- nnnclation. rum Yvonem, veridicam certe probavit promissionem. In Annunciatione quippe Dominica, hymnisantibus fratribus bunc Tersiculum,
*' Sit laus Deo Patri, Summo Ghristo decus, Spiritni Sancto honor, Trinus Unus," apud ipsum sanctum, ut dictum est, homo est resolutus.
A crippled Item, adolescentnlns Hamtunensis, ex utero matris debilis
HraijMMre, manibus ac pedibus, propinquis subvehentibus apud regem
who had martyrem in Scaftieberga manibus tantum directus est et
healed at curatus, apud sanctum vero Yvonem, de csBtero ei relictus,
if k?nif°*^ suis gressibus est redintegratos. Qui dum psallentibus fratri-
gdwardat bus rosolutis nervis extenderetur, visus est illi vir iimotas Shaftesbury, ^ , ... ,. .^ . . , . , ° ..
is com- spectabili dignitate, qui eum ad se trahere et a genibus
MIRACUrJl S. IVONIS. Ixix
GorYafcam studebab dirigero, qnum interim clamor impatientis jj^^^ testabatar acerbitatem doloris. Deinde stans super pedes et that of St. recte progrediens, jamque qnod cognationem snam per se re-Jj^^^J^^ petero posset gratias agens, omnes in divinas excitavit laudes. B*inaeya»B Yemm qaiim parasset qnadam nocte ut mercennarins recepta conyentione discedere, ant discendl gratiam quad ei forte in- tentabatur effagere, ecce! post vesperam cai interfuit, intole- rabili correptns langaore, CGepit assiduis clamoribus monasterii septa replore. Qanrnqne id fratres suis imputantes peccatis pro eo freqaentins sternerentur in oratione, illico fagatis an- goribns puer recepit sanitatem, ibidemqne, jam sancto servi- tnrus, snsoepit emditorem.
Item, clericorum cnjnsdam dextras manns digitomm me- Cure of a dius, veneno letifero tnmuerat. Quumque manns et brachium SlSd ^d tabido grassantis tnmore veneni in dies grossescerent, letaliu™. intolerabilis metn doloris angi coepit. Consilio tandem sain- bri inito, ad beati corpus Yvonis veniens, sese in oratione prostravit. Et qnum aliquamdin orasset, salatifersa opertorio tamb» mannm inroluit, eademqne bora, mirum dictn, et a dolore et a tamore illo sanissimns surrexit.
Qnidam nxorem snam quia cnlpis exigentibns csBoitatem in- gight cnrrerat, dato repndio, contra evangelicnm mandatnm di- ^JUf^^^ * miserat. Qnaa mnlta qnaqne versnm limina sanctornm spe man. who recnperandoe salutis adiit, veto et jnramento se obligans non divorced for Be ultra ad proprium maritnm reversnram, nee cuiquam alteri JlJg****'**' yiro nnqnam nnptnram, si ei divina miseratio lumen reddere dignaretnr. Et jam octo circiter annos plurima sanctorum loca pro sui sospitate lustrando compleverat, qnum se curari nondum potnisse gemebat. Et hoc fortasse diyina providentia cnravit, ut quod caateri sancti denegarent beatus Yto majori Inude concederet. Hujus magna Dei pietas miserata dolores, exoptata diu sibi lumina clara redonat. Itaque noctuma reyelatione ad yillam Slepensem, in beati ibidem Yvonis domo illuminanda, pergere jubetur. Quo qnum divino monitu pro- fecta fuisset, effusis precibus mox lumina prisca meretur. Et nunc eam sera lux magis IsBtificat quam prius diuturaa coeci- tas contristaret. Dilata namque vota Isetius accipiuntur, et laboriose adepta carius possidentur. Illuminaba autem nuUo ducente cum ingenti gaudio proficiscitur, quso prius alterius ducatu dolore nimio gradiebatur. Et sicut devoverat, in yiduitate quoad yixit Deo deyota permansit.
Nee ergo temporis non longe prsBteriii gesta et scripta mul- A young torum adhuc celebrantur recenti memoria, sed nunc addimus Jowoidhof
Ixx MIBACULA S. IVONIS.
^j^t?!^ presentia siffna, velut indice dicito monstrabilia. In Stan-
■till liriiuf. f . • «! i. • • Ai ij
foraffeotiiig tona, vico proximo Slep», erat javeniB Alwoldns nomine, qm cripple in adhuc oredituT finperesse. Is pridem cnm devota plebe in mockerrof ipsam villam Slope ad beati YvoniB Bigniferosam tnmbam puuished oonflaente yenit, non salatem qnierere sed fide liter quaarentes incurable ii^deliter deridere. Non intelligebat stultas qaia Dens non curvature, irridetnr, sed ipse potins qui irridere delectatnr. Imponit vivam gallinam sacro altari, non gratia oblationis sed stadio rasticaa garmlitatis, quasi praesessuram ibi foyendis oyis. Qui stans in sinistra tibia, dexti'um crus goniculando reflezit in femora, sicque clamayit proteryitate jocularia, '^Heus tu, " Yyo sancte, yidesne ut contractus feror debilitate P Cur " non in rectos gressus restituit meP" Ita garriendo, quum yoUct tibiam et pedem in statum suum deponere, atque, ad excutiendum cachiunum populi, dicere, "Eoce! yidetis mira- " culum, quomodo me reparayit sanctus istoP'* consonantis- simo Dei judicio ficta debilitas facta est ei efficacissima ; sic enim uti inflexerat perpetuo mansit rigido genu curyatus in terga. Tum yero yera experientia credidit, et yera necessi- tate cum insito gemitu flagitayit quod antea dissimulayerat, quatinus eum sancti Dei yirtus jam probatissima in pristi- num yigorem restituat. Sed quid pluraP Ssepe hunc sanc- tum remediatorem et Slope et Bamesi reyisit, yerum amis- sam incolumitatem nunquam impetrare meruit, quatinus perpetuo disceret ac doceret exemplo summos Dei amicos Bumma colendos reyerentia, non ludibrio. Magna tamen huic misericordta collata est, quando audaoter proyocando Domi- num non subito efiulminatus, excisus, yel ad inferos detrao- tus est, sed temporali correptione seryatus est perhenni indulgentisd.
A monk of Quidam Helyensis coenobii monachus, cujusdam cui prsdfuit
jt^sed^na jnxis monasterii yillsB rusticis arare, triturare, siye caBteris
work-day to operibus insistere, praecepit, qua die singulis annis ad mcmo-
viliaffers pay nam beatorum Yyonis sociorumque ejus, yidelicet Slepensom
viSuo**""** ecclesiam, cum hostiis et munerihus venire consueyerant. Cui
8leTO.and prcsbvter eorum respondens, " Domine,** inquit, **hac in die derided the f, . "^ . ^. '^ • i. i x • • • 'x x >
saint, is " yicanei nostin omnes, sicut et caDtcri m circuitu nostrtlm
finished in '* ruricoloB, beati Yyonis sociorumque ejus apud Deum snffra-
a vision. " gia pro sui suorumque incolumitate, pro pace et fecundi-
" tate terraa, annnatim yotis et oblationibus requirere solent.
*' Eogant ergo opus sibi injunctum in diem alterum differri."
Qui. ad instar Pharaonis filios Israelis ab operibus duris
laxare et de terra sua ut Deo suo immolarent exire renuentis,
indignatus respondit, " Quis est iste Yvo, et ubi domus ejus,
" qaem talibus exeniis honorare studetisP Quisnam sit ignore,
** et rusticos ab operibus suis vacare, et ad ipsum pergere.
MIRACtJLA S. IVONIS. Ixxi
" neqnaqaam sino." Sed sanctns Yvo injur Lam sai suoram* que devotorum more sno hand innltam dimisit. Nam qtmm prsBfatos negator suns per yillam Slepensem, inventione sano- tomm illnstrem, casn taransiret, veniens ante ecclesiam ipsins beati Yvonis sociornmqae ejus honori dedicatam, somno gravi depressns, secnm itinerantibus dixit, "Nimium soporatns, " donee requiescam nltra equitare non possnm." Et desccn- dens eqno, secns yiam, humi snb divo, cffiteris ezpectantibos, obdormivit ; yiditque in somnis astafe sibi yimm statnra pro- cemm, canis decoratnm, facie splendidom, Teste niyeiim, zonam in mann tenentem, sibique dicentem, *' Tnne mo nosti P" Gni tremefacto quom enm se ignorare respondisset, ait, "Ego " 8am Yvo qnem nuper te nescire dixisti, et ad me veuire " Yolentibus yetnisti. Qnisnam sim, et nbi maneam, tibi modo " notificaturus adveni." Et ostendens ei eminus ecclesiam, " Ecce," inquit, " domus mea, ct locus habitationis meas." Zonam quoque quam in mann tenebat dedit ei, dicens, "lata *' zona prsdcingere ; et mei notitiam hoc signo amodo memo- '' riter retine." Et prsBcingens earn abiit. Qai mox ezperge- factns, grayiter snspirans, seque qnasi ferreo yinculo arctissimo ciroumligatum sentions, cuncta qn89 dormions yiderat comiti- bus sois exposuit. Quorom officio magna cam difficaltate quo se prius iturum proposuerat ad vicum usque perductns, in lecto coUocatar. Interius enim yitalium incisione torquebatur, ex- terius yero quam zona sanoti operuerat came in putredinem defluente, yenenosa tabid® cutis inflatione rexabatur. Quumqae hujascemodi cruoiatu yitam finire timeret, conyocatis ad se amicis suis atque propinquis, quia in sanctum Yyonem pec- cayerat tali poena merito se mulctari confitetur, et quid facto opus sit diligenter requirit, ut sanaretur. Consulunt itaque yotis et moneribus iram sancti placandam atque pecuniam in pauperum alimoniam erogandam; insuper et cereum admo- dum grandem faciendum, et ad sancti Yyonis basilicam pro salute ejus transmittendum. Quod quum factum fuisset, pris- tinam incolumitatem paulatim conyalescendo recepit, atque^ sanus effectus, beati Yyonis quem pridem despexorat limina gratias relaturns deyote adiit, eumque deinceps, signo memora- bili prsecognitum, timori atque amori non mcdiocriter habuit.
Abbas quidam transmarinus, quum secus locum inyentionis A monk in sanctorum iter faceret, fama signorum per eosdem inibi ges- a forei^ ^ iorum prsemonitus, patrocinia oorum supplicaturus ad eccle- J-jJ^^giJ^fL siam divertit. Dehi ex aqua fontis beati Yvoiiis ipso in loco is scan- ubi quondam sanctum corpus ejus jacuerat cmanantiB, atque the abbot's salubrem febricitantibus haustum prsebentis, et ipse gustayit, thi^JjJJJr^of
Ixxii MIHACUIJl S. IVONIS,
Si. ive'a CGBptoque itinere perrexit. Quod unus monachorum ejus, in-
aioonh^*' digne ferens et yanitati depntans, dicebat non decere pruden-
*****nt**f hia ^^ ^^ religioBum virnm i-asticomm fatuitati vel superBtitioni
blasphemy, favere, qui, geutili errore decepti, latices colere, et quorum-
libet mortuorum ossa, quibusdam phantasticis daBmonum pro-
digiis seducti, quasi sanctorum reliquias Tenerari multotiens
probarentur. Nondum verba finierat quum subito tanta infir-
mitate corripitur, ut yix tandem aliquando quo teudebant,
scilicet Bamesiam, pervdhire valeret. Ubi nimia asgritudine
meritam blasphemisB suae poenam luens, post multas preces
ante beati corpus Yvonis eflusas, quia fortassis ignoranter
deliquerat, sanitati demum restituitur.
A master Servus quidam, ob perpetratam culpam domini sui furi-
servant * bundi immoderata ezpayescens yerbera, ad sancti Yvonis
iTd^i^d^^ced <5^"^^8^^ subsldia. Cui dominus ejus, simulata pace, pecca-
toretarn turn quidem sed non ex corde dimisit. Nam iram in pectore
wSwfcuaiy of servans, non multo post , falso objecto crimine, diris eum
St. Ive, vcrbcribus furori suo satisfaciens ctecidit, at que inter verbera recovere ,,.,., .* » -.^ . i • .
from a exprobando ei dicebat, Ista pro Yvonc patere; vel si potes
nmifonly on " niodo ad ipsum confuge ! " Quod quum dixisset, ipsa hora
floiidinff tho gravi infirmitate percussus in lectum decidit. Qui quum jam
freed from de vita desperasset, accito ad se eodem puero veniam postu-
v^^^ lavit. Indutumque atque donatum proprio suo amictu cum
him. pacavit, et ad beatum Yvonem pro indulgenlia supplicenda
destinavit. Quem quum pro oo orassct, protinus ex infirmitate
convaluit, ncc deinceps puero, libertati donate, quicquam in-
juriaa aut molestisB inferre prsBSumpsit, sed et beatum Ivo-
nem, virtutem atque potentiam ejus in se ipso expcrtus, ex
illo tempore timere ac venerari studuit.
Atrcopof Tempore quodam quum fera et indomita gens Britonum plunderers, provinciam Hunteduncnsem usquequaque discurrendo depopu- pro^«^dly laretur, ooloni Slepenses res suas in ecolesiam saucti Yvonis, ravage ' sibi eas commendantes, contulerunt. Quod quum prsBdicte Smsh^^ gentis lupina rapacitas oognovisset, truculentis animis illuc and carry off nsque properantes, foribus ecclesiss confractis, cuncta illic de- thegoodnof .^ . / tt 4. • • -j-i. • /.
the people of posita asportarunt. Unus autem eorum aspiciens, vidit mfra
w^stOT^ ecclesiam bin as campanas de trabibus pendere. Et concupi- in the soens eas, ascendit ut ipsas sibi tolleret. Quumque jam manus
(meoftjicw ad deponendum eas mitteret, subito coUapsus in terram de- by a*fail*in* oidit. et, coUisis omnibus membris, expiravit. Quod videntes attempting cseteri, timore nimio pert«rriti ne tale quid eis contingerct, church bells sanctitatem loci intelligentes, Deoque et sancti Yvoni honorem
MIUACQLA S. IVONIS. Ixxiii
dcforentes. cuucta quaa supoibc rapuerant huiniliter reporta- ^^Jf^JT^J^j^ runt. Sic nimirum quondam Heliodorus pupillorum et vidn- wBat they amm in templo Domini deposita anferre temptavit, sed ea, diyino verbere coercitns, intactA dereliquit. Ille graviter ver- beratns, Onia snmmo sacerdote intercedente, vitaB redditur; istx) Brito, crimine rapinie et saorilegii exigeute, neci traditur, justoque judicio Dei majorem cnlpam major vindicta Bnbse- qnitnr. Ille namqne alienigena ex gentibus, divinaB legis ignaniB, domini sui jnssis obtemperans ignoranter dereliquit ; iste nominctenus OhriBlianus, nullo hominum jubcnte vel co- gente, scienter peccayit. TTtrisqne tamen eadem extitit causa, quamris jure poena diversa.
Seniorem liamcsensem noTimus, bonorabilem et amabilem Anhonoure omnibus, cujus nomen ob reyerentiam reticemus. Arcbano ofthe^oS^ Dei examine et emendatorio verbere, traditus est ad tempus *J^ *f g^. SatbansB. Secundam diem Natalis Domini decorabat palma Ive's shrine prothomartyris Stepbani : sBger ille positus in cella infirmo- SJiIdneM. on rum, circa vesperam furere, horribilcs rictus agere, dentibus l^®®* ^^ frendere, morsu preesentes invadere. Accurrunt omnes tur- bati ; vis erat ingens bospltis ioimici ; vix ilium yiri supera- bant viginti, nee suffecerat tot manibus unum corpus, non in unum rebellem praa valebant tot mauus. Tandem utcunque vin- citur, et, astringentibus palmis gerua in globum, cum vecte vincitur. Fraires miserati dolium cum aqua beuedicunt, ip- sumque imponunt. Crevit furor host is, aquam sacratam magis quam flammam abhorrentis. Suspendunt ejus cervici cuncta sacrorum pbilacteria, et augeri potius quam domari poterat bostilis vesania majoresque hiatus et impetus jacfcabat indig- natio dsBmonica. Non cnim ibi poterat homo liberari, ut appareret ipsius remedii potestatem traditam beato Yvoni. Tandem, consilio fratrum, defertur in ecclesiam ad patrocinia sanctorum. Quumquo per oratorium sanctaB Dei Genitricis tenderent ad chorum, ille vexatus personare ccepit hoc carmen natalicium, ''Benedictus qui vonit in nomine Domioi; Deus ** Dominus et illuxit nobis." Vox una accurrentis et condo- lesccntis plebicolsB concrepuit, *' 0 sanctissimi prsBsides bujus " sacri ccenobii, succu trite angustiis famuli vestri, nee patia- " mini ei ultra inimicum dominari." Itaque sicut vinctus erat sistitur fraternis ulnis coram salufcifero monumento beati Yvonis. Ubi vero festinus edituus defensorium lintheum sancto superpositum abstulit, et pretiosius pallium sollenniter apparuit, continue mente et salute reddita SBger clamavit, " Video et agnosco te, sanctissime pater Yvo, et nunc te '* deprecor sensu sano quatinus plenam sospitatem mihi
Ixxiv MIRACULA S. IV0NI8.
" effioiat sancta tua intercessio." Haso rationabiliter protes- tantem, et tranqaillo animo persistentem, fratres repente boI* vero ab extoriori ligamine, cum ingenti omniam alacritate. Qui abBoluttis orans devote, et cuncta agens sensate, certius dedit indicium liberationis suaa. Quia ibi tunc poterat a Dei laudibus cessare, ubi tarn subita tranquillitas facta est ab inimica tempestate P Per totam eoclesiam tox laudis resona- bat et gratiarum actio, benedicentium Dominum in sancto 8U0 Yvone, et coUaudantium in hymnis eb cymbalis excelsa jubilatione. Sic itaque, festiTissimi patris gratia, serenior reddita est de hac perturbatione Natalia Domini lastitia.
A lad who Juvenem quondam suorum deTotio parentum regulari fra-
brou^^to trum conyersationi sociandum abbati Bamesiensi commendaTc-
by^w ^^ rat. Qui austeriorem monacbic» vita3 normam abborrens, in
narmts partes transmarinas, yidelicet Elandriam, undo pridem a scbolis
in^Fiwd^, regressus fuerat, aufugere conatus est. Quod dum moliretur,
attempts to die quadam in horto ecolesiaB yicino solus deambulans repente
butifl ' eum spiritus nequam invasit, atque hue illucque discurrentem
byiTvirion exagitavit, donee domum quandam horto forte contiguam
of doTib, farendo intraret. Domus autem familia repentinam ejus insa- and cured of . , . .i..5l . . « x •
subfleqnent mam cum moerore admirans, magna ibidem vi si fortassis
I^^J^^f*^ eum furia relictura fuisset detinuit. Circa mediam yero ferme
water mixed noctem quum jam melius habere coapisset, duos ad se tetros
withsorap- . . ^ » .. . j. 5 . J« /^_. j ,
ingB flrom hommes yenire conspexit, qui dicunt ei, * Quia de loco isto
B^ir?^^' '* fugere yoluisti, ad hoc yenimus, ut te nobiscum ad infemi
" claustra rapiamus." Quo audito concitus surgit, apertisque
foribus domus, ad monasterium, ssBpius " Kyri-eleyson " cla-
mitando, ocius ayolat. Cujus yocibus exciti fratres, eum com-
prehendi et in hospitium infirmorum usque in mane custodi-
endum deduci jusserunt. Maae autem facto, iterum yexatur.
Jubent ergo fratres presbytemm accersiri, et super eum pro
furore sedando exorcismum recitari. Sed exorcismus nihil
proficere potuit, quia quanti beatus Yyo meriti ftiisset yirtus
diyina ostendere yoluit. Yidit itaque patiens juyenis quandam
sibi quasi beati Yyonis personam astare, atque super se stigma
crucis depingere, sibique salutem futurum promittere. Quod
quum ore furioso prsasentibus fratribus proclamasset, eum ad
prsedicti patroni tumbam salutiferam usque perduount, ubi,
preoibus pro eo fusis, atque ex sepulchri rasura aquas immixta
poculo sibi dato, aliquantulum furore sopito quieyit. Dein
fugato dsamone, same menti simul et integro corpori redditus
surgit. Sicque castigatus, locum sanctum cui patema dona-
tione alligatus fuerat se nunquam relictumm promisit, atque
fratrum congregationi, susoepto religionis habitn, se sooiayit.
MIRACULA S. TVONIS. Ixxv
Safcis etiam plura his freqnentaiitur miracula ad ipsius A fright sancti patrocinia, multaque credentes ezperiuntur benefioia. seen reach- Saape videtur palam per coelum ingens tractus luminis, vide- ^^y licet, a Bamesensi basilica usque in Slepense monumentum, to Blepe. quod hino aseurgit, illio recumbit. Supersunt quoque fideles ^*i/^jL^*™' animad quad ipsum ooelicum ducem nostrum testantur se clare seenTn the conspezisse, cum plurima albatorum caterva, utrumque locum "^^^- suum siderea via revisisse, ipso splendidiori omatu praemi* cante. Flerumque nihilominus cernitur in die dara, magna cleri populique sequentis circa Slepense oratorium processio Frequent candidata, et candelabra, et tburibula, et cruces, et vexilla g^^®*'***"* radiantia attoUuntur numerosa, quad omnia celebratissimi church at Yvonis summa declarant merita. Cujus veneratores et sup- ®^' plices consortes illi faciat, Qui sanctos sues gloria et honore coronat, et est super omnia Trinus et Unus Deus in aetema saacula. Amen.
Bwplioitmt miractda vel virtiitea sancti Yvonis archiepiscqpi et confessoris,
Ha9C qui descripsit devotus quique rescripsit, Yvo sacer, de te, placeat Dominoque tibique.
QudUter sacrcB reUquim sodorum sancti Yvonis archiepiscopi tridMano cdebraio jejuniOf regnante rege Henrico, ad ecdesiam vnventionis eorum guinto idus Augusti a fraMbus BamesicB reoehebantwr, et guot tunc ibidem sanahantur,
Apud praadium quoque quod Bamesensis ecclesiad juris est, Slepe Yocitatum, ubi quondam sanctorum Yvonis sociorumque ejus corpora, ipsius beati Yvonis gloriosa revelatione inventa, et Bamesiam cum digno honore a fratribus translata sunt, crebra diversorum debilium signa sanitatnm divinitus perpe- trantur. Quidam etiam ejusdem villad coloni noctibus multis cboruscae lucis radium ab ipso loco usque in Bamesiam ex- tensum, aliquando in ooelum usque erectum, manifeste se vidisse testantur. Villa autem ipsa non longe a Bamesia, sed quasi st.\yo'8^ ^ septem millibus passuum disparatur. Igitur quorundam viro- JJJ*^^'^ rum illustrium hortatu atque consultu fratribus Bamesiensibus ferred from placuit, trium beati Yvonis sociorum inseparabiliter lateri ejus S(^^o olim adhadrentium reliquias, in theca argentea decenter sinxul Jj^^^ *^° reconditas, ad ejusdem praadii eoclesiam in honore eomm con- there, structam referrL Kam et ipsa ecclesia ob roverentiam sanc- torum honoratior atque celebrior haberetur, et a populis un-
Ixxvi
MIRACULA S. IVONIS.
Thin re- translation 19 dWinely approved by various miracles, includiiiR the healing of fifteen persons on the very df^.
dique difTusifl pr(rsontium intercessiono patronomm afllacntius atque devotiuR frequentaretur : adjicientee etiam judtum vi- deri, nt maf^ster majorem locum translationis, diacipnli yero minorcm locellum inventionis, sua praBsentia honestarent. Yerum ne temeraria prflsaamptione diyinse dispositioni con- traire, et Banctoram oxcellentiee vel venerationi derogare vidcrentur, yigiliis et orationibus ac triduano jejanio yolun- tatem eomm bac de re consulere deoreyemnt. Quod dnm ageretnr, paella quffidam a sinbtra parte corporis semipara- litica in somnis accepil apud memoriam beatonun Yyonis sociommque ejus sc esse sanandam. Qu89 qouin illo adyenis- set, et aliquantisper in oratione procubuisset, somnii sui effectnm in conspectu fratram consecuta est. Cujus indicio signi laBtiores et fidentiores effecti, jejuniis et orationibus peractis, cum laudibus et bymnis atque honore congruo arcbam sauctam cosies ti manna refertam ad prsBfatam ecclesiam quinto idus August! transtulerunt, deputatis ibidem fratribus quorum yigilanti soUertia coslestis custodiretur thesaurus, atque diyi- num officium die noctuque deyote perficeretur. lit autem diyiua dementia piam actionem et sinceram deyotionem eomm se approbasse, et sanctorum suorum prsecelsa merita quatinus sibi essent accepta eyidenter ostenderet, qua die biec ageban- tur, ter quinos diyersis infirmitatibus debilitates homines sanitati restituit, atque ezinde in codem loco sanctorum suo- rum interventu opem misericordia) suaB poscentibus conferre non desistit. Mulier yero qusBdam, cum casteris hsc sacra pignora sequeus, prolem infirmam gestabat manibus. Hanc, in sancci patris fidens ope, dum humi deposuisseti Faluti mox redditur. Non multis namque post hsBO emensis diebus, qui- dam yir octo ferme annis excsecatus, lumen oculorum ibidem recipere meruit.
A ffirl, who lost her wits, voice, hearing, and sight, on hearing a Kndden burst of music in a wood where she was gathering ituts, is cured as Hoon as she comes in siprht of the church.
Alio quoque tempore dum qusadam juyencula in luco quo- dam cum fratre suo nucibus coUigendis insisterit, repente circa se quasi multitudinem musicalium diyersis instrumento- rum sonis perstrepentium andiyit. Quibus phantasticis daamo- num yocibus attonita ct amens effecta, propriam yocem, audi- tum simul et visum amisit. Quam ubi frater ejus paululum ante ab ea digressus ita miserabiliter alteratam inyenit, domum gemebunduB rednzit. Quae postca quum ex parentum yoto ad locum reliquiarum sancti Yyonis beatorumque sociorum ejus duceretur, prospicientes ecclesiam a longe, ex compassione aiunt illi ducentes eam, " Bcce ecclesia ad quam te, Dei ** miseratione, sanctorum ejus intercessione, sanandam duel-
MIRACULA S. IVONIS. Ixxvii
'' mua I TJtinam et earn modo videre et nos audire valeres ! " Quae mox respondeils, ** Video," inquit, *' et audio atque " sanum sapio, Deoque et Sanctis ejus pro redintegratione " pristinsB incolumitatis mess gratias ago.*' Qui ejus tain oelerem sospitatem admirantes, Dominumque oum ingenti ezultatione coUaudantes, ad locum usque siout devoverant ocius pergunt. Ibique ad sanctorum pignora yotis et gra- tiarum actionibus persolutis ad propria laBtabundi repedarunt.
Alia quaadam muliercula membris omnibus in modum a defonned sphssraa conglobatis ita deformis erat ut multo similior mon- J^^tl* stro quam homini yideretur. Nam manus et brachia pectus ened. prsdmebant, coxsb et genua ventrem sufiboabant, crura cum talis natibus inhsrebant. Hse quum in loco requietionis sanctorum diu volutando orasset, singula membra propriis locis atque officiis ad integrum restituta sunt.
( Henrici regis Anglisd quidam primatum, nomine et acta Vngaa Paganus, cognomento Peverel, duas sancti Benedioti Bamesi- ^^ in ensis coenobii villas cssca ambitione illectus, usarpare sibi °^ ^ ^^ sacrilega invasione conatus est, falso affirmans tam heeredi- deayoun to tario jure quam regia donatione, ipsarum se justa possessione abbey of dominari debere. At fratres, contra, multorum attestationem v^STffi^*^' yeracium asserebant, eas jam olim plurimorum successione king's regum absque ullius unquam contradiotione sive impugnatione cide axSnat ab ecclesia Bamesiensi liberrime possessas fuisse, injustumque ^^ daim.* cunctis yel leviter doctis videri tot ssBCulis quiete habitas nova He and his nunc et inaudita calumnia fore linquendas. Sed mens prava jjl^ilra" *'* insatiabilis ayaritisB, veneno semel inebriata, aut yix aut nun- fifo^ their quam sitire desistit aliena. Frssdic^us namque Faganus regies loses a* potestati ut sues faveret iniquitati importunis precibus sugge- JSJhJs rere non cessabat. Yerum regius animus ad iniquitatem, steward's mazime ad sacrilegii rapinam seu rerum ecclesiasticarum grievously, diminutionem, ob timorem Dei sanctorumque ejus reyerentiam fleet! non potuit, quin potius justo examine causas utrobique yentilari prsDcepit. Interim yero frtfctres causam suam cum rebus divines protectioni, et sanctorum Benedicti atque Yvonis patrocinio, devotis precibus committunt. Yenit dies prssfixus in qua abbas Bernardus cum aliquautis fratribus multique utrarumqne partium prudentes, nobiles, ac praepotentes, ad
^ The writ issued by King Heury I. OQ the decision of the judges against Peverel is printed at p. 221 of the U B 5221.
Chronicle. The two villages which he claimed were Stowe and Gretton.
IxTViii MIBACULA S. IVONIS.
TiUam Slepensem in cimiterio beati YvoniB oonvenituit. Sed et jadioiaria potestatis Tui periti atque diserii ad dgudicandam et definiendam de qua agebatur cansam a latere Regis iliac dirignntor. Quid plura? Post multas adversariomm tergi- Tersationes, post controrersias, fratrum qnoque luoulenta as- sertione, testinm idoneoram afBrmatione, litteramm quoque praBdecesBomm regam attestatione, perspicna cognita a jadici- bns Toritate, dt^ina (sanctomm Benedicti atque Yvonis inter- yentu) gratia cooperante, supramemoratas villas Bamesiensis ecolesiao juris atque ditionis esse equitatis censura deocanunt. Quod audientes adyersarii conAisi discedunt. Abbas autem cum fratribus monasterium ezMlaratus repetiit. Et ut iniqui- tas eorum ob castigationem aliorum yerius patesceret, diyioa indicio fuere miracula. Nam ipsa die priusquam ad hospitium Buum PaganuB peryeniret, equus cui insidebat, pedibns col- lapsis, non sine lassione sessoris ter in terram corruit, atque de manu ejus accipiter quern tenuerat ezcussus silyam nun- quam reyersurus celeri yolatu petiit. Equus quoque presbyteri sui seoum comitantis pede lapso corruit, atque confractis cer- yicibus, presbytero tamen illseso, yitalem flatum amisit. Dapi- fer etiam ipsius, yocabulo* B>obertus, quia plus casteris, quasi domino suo fidelissimus, nequitias su» assensum atque auzilium pr»buerat, majori yindictas merito sucoubuit. Denique bra- chium ejus dextrum ab ulna sursum usque in pectus et sca- pulas in tantum tam intollerabili dolore intumuit, ut propria coxa grossius effectum, neque cibum neque somnum capere, neque os aliquando ab ejulatu et stridore borribili cohibere posset. Quumque tam miserabili cruciatu mortis periculum timeret, ad beati Yyonis Slepensem occlesiam, ubi nuper deliquerat et ob boc higusmodi poenam incurrerat, carro yehente portari se fecit. In qua basilica quum aliquantis diebus et noctibus yeniam gemitibus atque suspiriis miseran- dis postulando excubasset, diyina miseratione, sancti Yvonis intercessione, respectus, tandem aliquantulum meliorari, cibo paullatim refici, somno releyari, atque brachium detumescere ccepit. Et quum jam per se incedere posset, eximii patris Benedicti Bamesiense coonobium, atque beati Yyonis ibidem salutiferum sepulcbrum, gratias pro sui sospitate acturus, atque in quos peccaverat fratribus reoonciliaturus, petere com- modum duxit. Quo quum deyotus adyenisset, atque ab ab- bate Bernardo et a fratribus in capitulo yeniam reatus sui. postulasset et impetrassat, eum ad beati tumbam Yyonis usque perducunt. IJbi quum pro eo et cum. eo exorassent et gratias egissent, atque ipse seipsum beato Yyoni seryum sempitemum dedisset, ad propria tam mente quam corpore sanatum com gandio remittunt.
MIRACULA S. IVONIS. Ixxix
Qassdam materfamilias qaum ad secanda prata, saomm A woman stipata comitatu satellitum, devenisseti, sola paullo secrebius haymaking, progressa, sopore eubito irmente, qnalem ante ezperta non Jj^iiSwl^^ fuerat, gelida infelicitis sibi stravit in herba. Qanmqne altius a snak^ obdormisset, pater mendaoii, artifex doli, totius caput ne- Jr drinkin? qnitisd, cnjus interest summopere religionem evertere, innocen- g^^^^™ tiam oppngnare, in earn zabnlas sagittam contorsit virolentam. well. Sed qnod perditissimns ille nequiter disponebat ad frandem, latS on'the misericorditer benignissimns Deus ad sni nominis sanctique ^*j™g[iy ^' Yvonis convertit laudem; qnoqne moliebatur interitum, eo, vel i nolens, prssdicti archiprsBsnlis ampliavit titnlum. O nova res, sed plena fide, nostris ante ssdcnlis inaudita ! Qnnm igitur nt dictnm est somno sepulta mnliercnla jaceret, faoili coluber allapsu eorpulentus quidem per oris hiatum quiescentis irrepsit in alTum: nee ante destitit, quam ejus intestina spirulis circumsepsit vipereis. Solus qui per serpentem primam olim generis bumani fefellerat parentem, nunc etiam per colubrum animam conabatur interficere innocentem. Qui enim snpemeo felicitatis, non ultra illuc reversurus, corruit domicilio, infestus est omnibus quos eandem novit jure possessuros bsareditario. Semel enim a facie Dei projectus vult alios secum in interi- tum deveriire. Sed misericordiarum Pater et totius consola- tionis Deus, sperantes in se digno nunquam destituens auxilio, hunc diaboli dolum suo ipsius confodit obelo. Tanto denique mulier expergefacta infortunio, quid sibi accidisset e'TCstigio deprehendit. Igitur yultu, gestu ac voce dolorem insinuans, coelum clamoribus implet. Yestimenta dirumpit, crinem dis- traint, arat unguibus ora, atque sibi manibus mortem con- sciscere ten tat. Nunc procumbit humi, nunc, Baccbanti simillima, quo poterat cursu circumdat berbida prata. Quo visu. falcarii, stupore perculsi, ad eam gressu pemici conten- dunt, falces gestant secum in manibus, quasi vindicaturi heram quam latenti autumabant oppressam adulterio. Yerum eos fefeUit opinio. Quumque mulier advertisset accurrentes, anticipavit eos, lacrimis sic fata obortis, " Miseremini," inquit, *' mei, miseremini, saltem yos amici mei, et date arma quibus " inteream. Namque ts^det animam meam vitsB me®, qusB " profecto mibi omni est morte infelicior." Ad quam vema- culi qui jam propter astabant, " Quidnam," inquiunti "babes, " OdominaP Quisnam est sermo iste quem locuta esP Undo " tam inopinata tujB floridaB juventutis dejectioP Ut quid " feminei deooris capillorum tam crebra evulsio P Quis deni- ** que vultum turbavit serenum P " Quibus quum miserabile rei determinasset eyentum, magno ejulatu ad propriam reductA est domum. Goncurrunt parentes et amici. Sed qui ad
f 2
Ixxx
MIRACULA S. IVONIS.
leniendam dolorom convenorant. ut fieri solet, dolorem do* lori cumulabant. Assistant ct medici, lucri causa non pamm soUiciti ; qui post multa conamina, post longa tentamina, confusi abscedant et inglorii. Itaqne mulier, omni homano destituta solatio, aniversis de ejus salute desperatis, confidit, bene memor, sanctorum se posse sanari subsidio. Nee mora; ad Igoriosissimum m arty rem Edmundum, cujus, ut fama lo- quitur, fuit parocbia, cum voto deducitur, nee exauditur, quippe cujus redditio sanitatis alteri absque invidia reserra- batur. Erat illis diebus propter crebra miracula beati Yvonis fama celeberrima. Q^am ut infirma accepit, prorsus se illius commendat patrocinio, atque ad Slepensem ecclesiam in honore ipsius dedicatam, comitatu domestico, baud impigra decurrit. Ubi biduo vel triduo jejuniis, vigiliis et oratione transacta» aquam de fonticulo beatissimi confessoris summa cum devotione gustavit. Et factum est. Quum latice sancto interni meatus sensim perfusi maderent, motns est anguis Bolito acrius. Qui cum intus requiem non inyenisset, ante ipsum sacrosanctum altare, in oculis piultorum qui tunc aiderant, Dominum sanctumque YYonem pro muliere de- precantium, scilicet borrendum spectaculum, viyus eyomitur. Sicque matrona post paululum incolumitato restituta conya- luit, quasi nunquam illius vel altorius morbi discrimina passa fuisset. Ad nos, fratrcs carissimi, bujus tanti cognitio mira- culi, non quorumlibet relatione perlata est, sed eorum qui mulierem noverunt colloquio, colubrumque sicut retulimus conspexerunt eTomitum; quorum quidam monacbi, alii laici erant fidelissimi. Sonant ergo tintinnabula, resonat laudibus hymnidicis basilica, atque exindo populosior infirmorum muU titudo celebrius sacratissimi prssulis Yvonis f^uentant li- mina, per quem Dominus dignatus est tam insolita, tam inaudita, exbibere magnalia. Cui est honor et gloria per SBterna s»culorum ssecula. Amen.
The pan- lytic Hon of II French Knrdener ac Buckden ia healed while hifl father praja in thH rhurch at Slepe.
Advena quidam in villa cui yocabulum est Buggedene, natione transmarinus, opere hortolanus, ope permodicus, cum familia parva morabatur. Habebat autem filium tenerrime dilectum, paternaa artis satis samulum, bene industrium, sed paral3rticum. Cujus nimirum faciem paralysis admodum in- grata eo deturpaverat, ut oculis dissidentibus, naso recurve, labris oppansis, ore ad aurem sine intercapedine fere reflexo, miserabile visentibus prsBberet spectaculum. Pater vero super filii curatione non parum soUicitus, pauca qusa habebat vel perquirere poterat in medicis, omnia nequicquam, diffundebat, de quo dici potest non incongrue illud quod de quodam
&ij.
MIRACULA S. IVONIS. Ixxxi
paupere legitnr, " Nihil habuit Oodrus, tamen illud perdidit " infelix, totum nihil." Una igitur Babbatonun ad rua qnod- dam quod vulgo Slepe appel^tnr, utiliter eirans, nescius cum filio devenit. Bus quidem modicum sed beati Yvonis mag- nificentia, et miraculorum frequentia ubique fere teirarum nomjnatissimum, a supradicta villa quasi quinque miliariis disparatum. Quo quum perventum fuisset, fama de sancto percepta, ad ejusdem mox baailicam cum puero suo orandi gratia convolavit. Igitur, velut evangelicus ille publicanus, vultu in terram demisso, fixis humi oculis, genas lacrimis ubertim perfusus, gratissimum Deo in ara cordis adolevit holocaustum. Qui quum diutius in oratione perstitisset, Deum- que pro filio sanctumque Yvonem poposcisset, demum con- surgens, filium quem paulo ante adduxerat paraljticum, pro- culdubio per beati Yvonis merita, recipere meruit sanissimum. Quo pater conspecto, IsBtus plaudit manibus atque more ex- ultans Gbllico, mirabilem Deum in Sanctis suis voce benedicit publico. Denique gratiarum actione beato Yvoni magno animi affectu relata, revertitur IsBlissimus cujus adventus extiterat tristissimus.
Qusedam femina Dorobernensis, gravissima vi febrium cor- a woman, repta, post multa tentamina quibus id genus morbi in aliis^J^^J^ . solet levari, post sanctorum qui ibidem coluntur pretiosissi- terbwy, at morum nequaquam postulata auxilia, de salute prorsus est miles away, desperata. Nee mirum; quca divino ac humano destituta |J^JJ'{^* videbatur subsidio. Sed, Cui nihil est impossibile, Deus alias cnrei by recuperandam mirabiliter differebat sanitatem. Una enimthewelL noctium quum in stratu suo utcunque quiesceret, in somnis est per visum admonita quatinus Huntadunensem debeat adire provinciam, ibidem scilicet, ad piissimi confessoris et episcopi Yvonis memoriam, inopinatam qua suspirabat re- sumptura incolumitatem. Mira res ! Lutea quum primum aurora rubescere ccepit, Phoebus et asquorea placidum caput extulit unda, nihil morata mulier, sumptis secum vies neces- sariis, salutis avida, coepit ire quo nesciebat. Et cut heri et nudiustertius prsB infirmitate ad contiguum pergere tugn- rinm negabatur, ad tanti laborem itineris promptissima faci- litate succingitur. Enimvero locus quo mittebatur a Doro- hernia vicies septenis mili[ari]bus, aut eo amplius, dissidet, atque mulier neque Huntadunam viderat, sanctique memoriam ignorabat. Yemntomen Qui olim Abacuc prophetam advisitan- dum in lacum leonum sanctum Danielem in impetu spiritus sui per capillum Babiloniam transvexit lacumque demon- stravit, idem Ipse, quod fatendum est, banc de qua sermo protrahitiir ad loqa preefata calle direoto femiuam destinavit.
Ixxxii MIBACULA S. IVONia
Neqoe enim hominiB est via Ejus. Sed onjns semitam dirigU Deas, mmqnam impingit peB illins, Bicut Bcriptma eet, ^^^' " Semita qnidem jnsti recta eat, via impiorum perversa."
Igitur per oompendinm itinere confecto, Ipso nimiram pr»- duce Quo prsemonente faerat aggressam, quad voverat vota persolvit. Quumqae ad beati Yvonis mansoleTim vigilasset noctem non amplinB anam, ex ejusdem sancti fonte aqiiani gastavit Moxqae sanitate firmiter recepta, cum gaudio re- pedavit ad propria.
A knight Fait qnoque miles unos in his partibas, Slepensi villnlas
Biepe^uuf mansione satis convicaneas, fcbriam adeo grassatione conscis-
irith d^Lffl- ''^ ^* mortem millies qnam vivere prssoptaret. Oui qusBCun-
cultypre- que medendi causa fiebant, in contrarium verti videbantor.
seek the^ Igitur de salute desperans, sui curam coepit negligenter agere,
S^is crv^ • fortunsB fidei sese onmino committens. Quumque febrium
in a vision acritudine arctissime quateretur, unum infelicius sibi accidisse
theimage of querebatur infortunium ; videlicet, quod tarn inerti valitudine,
?nealte*^f ^^ ©nim cognomine inter milites febris censeri solet, oppe-
the church tere oogeretur. Quicunque enim penes illos hujusce morbi
Mmand funiculis innodatur, quasi de inertia judicatur. Gonfluebat
strips him autem ad visitandum enm amicorum innumera multitude.
armour. Yeruntamon cui prsoter spem omnis erat vitas promissio, cu-
jusque sola mors hssrebat desidcrio, jam nallo fere valuit
allevari solatio. ABsistebat ei etiam quidam de commilitonibus
suis quem familiarius inter reliquos diligebat. Is ergo, caateris
euntibus et redeuntibus, solus rei eventum immotus operieba-
tur. Atqui, nullo in eo mortis signo quum diu observaaset
conspecto, fidenter illi vitam cum salute pollicetur si modo
ad omnimodomm miraculorum patratorem reverentissimum,
scilicet Yvonem, cum votiva oblatione supplicaturus proficisci
adquieverit. Id fieri, mente quidem infirmus ut corpore, toto
miles renisu negavit. Humane quippe destitutus auxilio, sub-
veniri sibi posse cujuspiam diffitebatur antidote. Qui tamen
ad postremum victus, salubri adquievit consilio. Itaque ex
continenti duo pariter profecti, ad basilicam pra^sulis conve-
nerunt. Ubi vero vota solvuntur, febricitans jUe inter oran-
dum propt-er altare obdormivit. Nee mora. Paulo durius evi-
gilat, brachia exerit, capitiumque (cappa enim induebatur)
ad se firmius constringit, vocem quoque terribilem emittit.
•*Unde," inquit, " tanfca injuria? Ut quid tollere nitcris quod
*' tuum non est?" Quem insanum aastimans, blando con-
sordalis suscepit alloquo. Ad quem ille, "Nequaquam, ut
** reputas, nequaquam insanio, qui me, Deo gratias, summe
" praedicandi, summe venerandi, antistitis Yvonis medicamine,
" ab ea qua gravabar inquietudine liberatum cognosce. Sed
MIRACULA S. IVONIS. Ixxxiii
** nnde mihi qnom formidas commotio tarn dira eyenerit, panels, " adyerto, retezam. Qnum ad obsecrandum Denm Beryumque " Bniim sanctum Yyonem, quo mihi de iiifirmitate remedium ** praestaretur, prostratns humi decubuissem, repente mihi in- *' canto sopor lentus irrepsit. Visumque mihi est per som- " nium oommilitones meos militiam agere cum mercenaria *' militam manu non modica. Gum quibus et ipse habitu ^* equestri militabam. Pes ferro tegebatur, casside caput operie- ** batur; corpus reliquum trilix lorica muniebat; de latere ** pugione suspense, parmam leva regebat. His igitur tutus *' prsBsidiis, in me crebrius irruentem inimicum despiciebam, " Fostremo autem yeniens ad me, siout yisione yidebam, *' sacratissimi Yyonis iconia, ilia yidelicet quam super altare " illud stare conspicares, uno impetu arma mea dejecit, trili- ** cem loricam coUo contorsit, frustra reniti conantem yerbere '^ corripuit. Yenmtamen ego adhuc hostiles payitans iusidias, *' non intelligens quid mecum ageretur» querens de iiguria, *' quern audisti clamorem emisi. Quum yero de occipite meo " loricam iconia tulisset, proculdubio omnem a me pariter '' per beati Yyonis merita, quod fatendum est, medendi satis ** perita tulit infirmitatem." Sit igitur nomen Domini bene- dictum in saacula, qui talem tantamque beato Yyoni contulit gratiam, ut per suam suo nomini dicatam iooniam tarn inopinatam queat restituere sospitatem. Amen.
Hand huic dissimile aliud contigisse miraculum, quod silen- A monk of tio prsBteritum obliterari nefas putayimus. Quidam igitur ^^1*^ Bamesise monachus, Slepensis archisterii priori prsBpositus, ^^^^ yi magna febrium correptus, jam ferme anni quadram decur- J^^^ft^ rerat infirmus. Qui quum uniyersa quae yel noyerat yel fever after audierat iUi miserisB prof ecisse yel profutura nequicquam^ p^p. some delay, tentasset medicamina, ad diyinum se contulit ex integro flagitandum subsidinm. Adyertens autem in ore peocatoris laudem non esse speciosam, tardiusque auditum qui rogaturus accedit indignus, per quem facilius quod ayet obtineat inter- cessorem qusarit. Strenuum arcessit, sanctissimum Yyonem patronum admittit. Hunc itaque solito arctius multarum nee- tare precum perstillat, lacrimarum torrente irrorat, forti jeju- niorum robore soUicitat, yidelicet inquiens, " Qui peregrinis '* ot adyenis in memento, in iotu oculi, optatum consuesti " largiri remedium, mihi quoque immerito sed domestico de* ** sideratam digneris conferre incolumitatem. An certe igno- '' tis per te a Deo postulata influit sanitas, eo celerius quo de
* id est, friutra/' interlined.
Ixxxiv MIRACULA S. IVONIS.
** longe yenientes orationibus inoambtmt doTotins, per qaos *' sacri tui noxniniB fama per mandi climata portata orebrescit " uberiuB ; nobis vero inqnilinis tamen e vicino, male desi- *' dibus, juBtiBsime noBtra differtnr ad oorreptionem postola- '* tioP Nnnc ergo, amice Dei carisBime, peccata nostra pa-' " rumquiddiBsimula, pro nobis Christo fnnde grata precamina, *' ut per te qnam non meremnr percepta gratia, Trini Dei ao '* Simplicis collandemus magnalia, nomenque tnum in Ipsnm' ** celebremtLS in seocula."
[The narratiye ends here, abruptly, without giving further particulars of the miracle it professes to relate.
The inference appears to be that the monk, a somewhat un- deserving one, was at length cured, but only after long delay.
Immediately on this miracle follows the Life of St. Margaret, with the rubricated title, ''Incipit Passio sanctiB Margarete '• virginis."]
CATALOGUE OF THE LIBRARY. IxXXV
APPENDIX III
F&AGMENT OF A CATALOGUE OF THE AbBET LiBEABY.
[Lambeth MS. 686, p. 661.J
[Pref., p. xli.]
♦ • ♦ * * [Libri WilL de Cioestria, p. 360.] Thobias vers.
InterpretationeB Hebrsdoram nomiivam. Qoidam sermones.
Qaomodo Pib^tuB natuB sifc et occisus. Quomodo Judas Scarioth ortos sit.
xm. qnatemi, oontinentes, scilicet, Parabolas , SalomoniSi Eoclesiasten, Oantica Oantioomm, libruin Sapientiad, Eoclesiasticnm. Ptecianus Magnns.
m. qoatemi, oontinentes m. libros artis dialecticsB. Mnsica Natoralis, in m. volnminibus. Snmma Jobannis Beiet de ecolesiasticis ofBoiis. YHi. qoatemi, continentes qnasdam sententias Deoretoram. Liber cujns est principinm, ** Gnm multa snnt concordantia disoordantinm canonnm."
BcherH de WarewiUeh. [Boberti de Glintone, p. 361.]
Principinm Maroi EvangelistsB glosati. GrrsBcismas fere, et qnidam sermones. Principinm Doctrinalis.
Libri Thofnm de Overe. [p. 361.]
Ezpositiones in libro[Bp] Begnm.
Qaasdam distinctiones.
Qnidam sermones.
AsBumptio 8anct88 Marin, in Gk^llico.
IxXXVi CATALOGUE OF THE UBRABT.
Ltbri JohcmrUs de Orendone^ [p* 361.]
Pastorale Gregorii. De ecolesiasticiB officiis.
Liber MichaeUe. [tft.] Presciannfl constmctns.
Ltbri JohcoMM de Norfolchia, \%b.] Qaidam sennoiieB, et OompotnB.
Liber Eicardi de Northfoleh. [i&.] Do clauBtro animsB.
Ltbri Lvcm Cantoris, [ib.Ji
ConBiliarium Cantoris.
QnsBdam compilationes W. de MontibuB, et qnaadam Eran-
gelia. Orationos ot Meditationes Anselmi. EpistolsB Nicholai discipuli sancti Albani. Liber Fapieo.
Fsalterinm glosatnm, cum xn. abusiyis. Interrogationes et responsiones sanctomm patrum.
Ltbri gloeaU,
[The same as at p. 367, except that of St. John's Gospel there are these entries :—'] Johannes glosatns.
Item Joohannes glos. Bob. de Noreis. (Inierlimd hy (mother hand) Item glo. Joh. Nnrs.
Ltbri Oregorii priorie de Bameeey,
[The same as at p. 865, except that the list ends thus :-:-] Liber Timei, et breves sententisd super libros Natnrales.
Liber de offilo et mnndo. Liber [de] Metaphjsica, Liber
Phisicorum, in i. vol. Natnralis Philosophia, et Sompnium Cypionis, et de Sensa
et Sensato, cum aliis ix. libris. Begula S. Benedicti cum aliis im. libris in i. vol. [cf. first
entries at p. 356].
1
CATALOGUE OP THE LIBRABT. Ixxxvii
Libri Mraici Boberti de JDodeford, [p. 366.] Liber JoBuaB. Liber Jndicmn. Quatuor libri Begnm. Liber Jeremiad. Liber Ezecbielis. Liber Osesd. Liber Joelis. Liber Axaos. Liber AbdesB. Liber Jonas. Liber Mioheas. Liber Kanm. Liber Abacuc. Liber SophoniaB. Liber. Agehj. Liber Zacharias. Liber Malachias. Isti continentnr in i. yoL
Libri Ebraici glosati. Liber JosuaB. Liber Judicum. Liber Samuelis. Liber Ezechiolis. Liber Jeremias. Liber Isaiaa. Liber Oseaa. Liber Amos. Liber Abdiaa. Liber Jonas. Liber MicheaB. Liber Naum. Liber Abacuc. Liber SophoniaB. Liber Zachariaa. Liber MalachiaB. Canticom Canticorum. Liber Enth. Liber Threnorum. Psalterinm. Liber Farabolarum. Liber Danielis. Liber Job.
Liber Faralipomenon. Et omnes isti libri continentnr in i. alio yolnxnine.
•"V^^Ty^
Ixxxviii
CATALOGUE OF THE LIBRARY.
[p.66S.] De eisdem Becnndum Innucentinm iii.
Meditationes Ailredi RieTallensis abbatis.
Meditationes B[emardi] de aotiva et contempb^tiva vita.
Item meditationes ejosdem [altered to cnjoBdam].
Salutatio beataa MarisB, com memoria Dominion Passionis.^
FoBnaB infernales. secnndum Banctorum Patriarcbarum (etc;
cUtered to secundum Cantorem PariBiaoensem]. De eisdem, secundum magistrum B. de Leycestrc. De mercede justorum, secundum enndem. De poena ot vita etema semper babendis prsB ocnlis. Tractatus de vii. noctibus. De timore.
De decimis et oblationibuB. De contemptu mundi narratio. De tribus modis adorandi in eoolesia. De inebriantibus alios. De oratione.
De utilitate et laude spiritualium cantioorum. De impedientibuB orationi.) De lacrimis.
De brevitate vitsd buman». De fragilitate conditionis bumanas. De contemptu mundanorum. De divitiis. De paupertate.
De vUits et mrtutibue [in red ink, like the heading* of namee\
Qusadam concordantisB W. de Montibus.
Qu89dam ooncordanti» B. grossi cap. [Grosseteste] de con- temptu mundi.
De confessione et posnitentia.
De arte confessionis secundum B. grossum cap. [Grosse- teste], et multsB compilationes simuL
Corrogationes Promotbei.
S[tepbanu8 Langton] archiepiscopus de vera poenitentia.
Quatuor Evangelistsa simuL
lAhri Nicholai quondam ahboHs.
Sermones sancti Bemardi.*
De fide et spe sermones quidam simuL
[p. 358.]
1 At p. 358 Bernard's name is
. omitted and " ejus " substituted, by
which mistake both these **9er.
•< mones ** and the
which Ibllow are made to appear as
works of abbot Nicholas.
CATALOatJE OF THE LIBRAUT.
1 XX XIX
Da afTcctibus &nim[e CenomaBnensiB.
Vita aanctfla MariBB Egiptiacoa Toreificata [Hildeberti
Cenom.]. Canon misate vemfioata. Terbuni abbroviatum abbatis do Eadinge.*
L^yri Alani sacrkicB. [p. 358.]
Anrora^
JoBibua [altered to Jasephns] Tobias W* de Montibua.
Fassto S. Thomra Martyr is,
Tita Saticti Qutlaci,
Vita David regis Scotiro [Ailredl Rievallensia].
Genealo^a ejus [»e. Ailrodij usque ad Bastard um.
AmalariuB.
Fractica Eartbolomffli^
InhH FhUippi de Riptone. [p. 359.]
EzQcbiel glosatruB.
QuBedain gloasm super Pailterinni.
HildeuninuB auper Johanncm.
Aurora [in red inh]^
Josepbus TersificatoB.
Tobias versifioatus [Btntch out].
Yita E^anotce Katerinff) [versiiicftta adde^^
Vita sanct© Afrese versifioata iHruck out],
Summa W, de Montibas [veraificata added].
Lamontatioaed Jaremiea.
Sermonea quidam, ct Liber Trnpnonmi glosatus
Qunjdara aumtna W. de Montibus,
ConeoTdantiae W. de Montibua.
Lam&ntationea Jeremiee i§truck outj'
Quidam bormonea.
Florea Seneca.
ArHmetica.
I The NamC! mist^e ie^ madcs bere OS in tbe other liet^ of troasferriug part of the title of the entry to the end^ and so aEiFtignlng the ^' Verhurn
" abhreTiatum '* to n vrrong aothor It Hecnia to ^how that thiii Mut in chiefly a direct copy from the other MS,
m CATALOGUE OF THE LIBRARY.
X/ihri Eoberti ds Davmire. [p. 359. But the list U bere
considerablj etUiirged.]
BibliotecA.
Unum ex Qnatuor, ^
Psdterium glosatum^
Breviarium Sententiarnm P, LiiinbaTtli,
Summa J. Be let do ocaleaiasticia offiaiis,
D© Trinitato.
Johamics glosatas*
QflffiStiones W. TomenstB.
X, qiuitcmi de all is qnosstionibna at sortnouiUus.
Summa Decretorum,
ExpoBitio nomiRuni HebrsQommj et super Job.
Sioonlma fioucti Ii^odori (He)*
Vita sancti Symeonia.
Be^ulB. sancti Auguatinl,
Augustinua quod uihil sit gloria raundi,
Ambroaius de conflicto virfcutunx et Titiorana*
Scrrao Augustiai ad poanitontes,
Interrogatioues et reBpoasioucH do Tntiitate,
De ordiuo judiciario, et Promotbeus, in i^ voL
Seutexitiaruia [correeidd to Sciutillarium] dc diYersia Toln-
minibus. Etilogium contra dampnafeonim errorum («tc). Yiaio cujnsdam monochi de Kyneabam. Aji&metica* Meditationea.
De arte institntioDJB {j^eomeirkm added]* Glo9EB secundum Boicium de canBoIationeii Libri Almagesti. Wymondna- Kpistola AuguBtiui [corrected to Auselmi] ad Urbanum papam
bona. Cur DeuB homo, De prooeBaione Spiritus Sancti* Begula Tempi ariornm. Liber Osuualdi veraificatoria* , Dirotheua Prud^itii* SedoliuB.
AUelmua de Icmde virgmwn {m red inlc].
Cato gloBStniB,
Enigmata Aldelml et quedam alia.
CATALOGUE OP THE LTBRAHT. XCl
{Be spiritii auperhicB [in red inli],
PasBio Sergi et Bachi.
yitfl* Gregorii B'aKazoiii.
Yita aaucti EemigiL
Vita aancti Maurilii [<wi<fetr|,
Tita aancti Felicia veraificata.
Liber Abbonis super qnoadam Evangel la,
[Aiiselmi eive Honorii Augostodun.] Elucidarinm,
Yita aancti AnMelini.
ScLatillarium in ii, volaminibus-
Effrem,
Yita sBucti Almis.
LAri AJquw.i ^ [m red inJs]* Sediiliua. -*
Prtidentitifl. Enigmata Aldehni*
[Y* BedB&] Yita aancti Guthbei^tl (bic) versificata. Libor Oatonis, Yersus Proaperi, Be dnodeeim abusionibng, Albinas de yirtutibuB* Liber qui yocatur Fenijf. Yita sancti Basilii Capadocii.
^ Thia cntiy agpplLt^ the uam^ im»Esiug at p* 3S9«
E R R A T A.
Page.
65, h 3 from bottom, '* quidera " read " quidam/'
72, n. 7, '* Eipedifc " read '' Ehpetit" 112, 1. b from bottom, ** Quod carat," &o., add ref. "Ovid.
Heroid. Ep, iv, 89." 116. marg.p " 1006 '' read " 1008." 130, delen. 1.
160, u. 2, '* mortal i tat LB " recui '* momlitfltiB." 186, 1, 15, *' berewieis " reatl " borewicis/' 2O0, last Hoe, 'Homlandu " rtiad " teinlanda.**
210, last line but one, " B[ogero] " read *' E[oberto]/'
211, 1. 17, "dBpifero* Per ipsum [Begem]" read " dapifero, per ipaum/'
2U, last line, - Cwicia," read " Twic[anrnU]/' 221, marg.. 'miO" mui " 1114.** 237, 1, 21, ** Eonernmnus '* read ''Eouerwinus," 239, h 3 from bottom, '* dapifer," nml '* dapif^ori] " 248, 1. 13, d^h comma after '* reeordato/' 254, 1. 19, "Auaoolmua" r<?ai "AnBoelmiis." *^72, 1. 11, " Sausellc" rtvirf *' Laiiaelle." „ marg.. '' 1134-54 " read " 1134^3/' 276, marg., " 1133-^ " read '* 1134." 28e, marg., d€i('**n77l' 1180?"^ 205, marg., '' 1155-63*^ nW '* 1135-43."
301J. 2, " Eogcri filio Rcmfr/S-wid '' Rogero- filio Eemfr[edi]," 304, 1. 13, '^ Eogero *' re^id ** Rogero."
307, raarg., " 1U6-54" read '' 1139?*'
308, n. 3, " cited , . . as D," read '* cited . , . as C." 321, 1.3,'^ W[llIclmuB; " reud " W>ltenii]."
344, L 14, *' et omnibus '^ read " omnibus."
365, 1. 5 from bottom, ' ' I jmey " %^ead " Tymoy ." (Bee p. xli.>
369, marg., **Botiiface YII. " read '' Boniface VIII."
370, 1. 10, *' lub " mistake in th^ JfSf./or '* jua."
374, raarg., '* Biihop Oxford" road **Bi!*hop Orford." 388, marg., " 1303." Sec Fivfiict^, p. Ixviii., n. 2. 416, marg., " [i:33;3] " read '' [1334],"
> The attejiting witiie*M*, Kichard flrcbduation of l^oictitri^, became bUbop of WinchcjUT in IITS- He iippears nlfio u< attestitig thu ohwUMr on pp. S99-30(J, bat which is evidently «m eic^dinglv cnr-
mpt traiucnpt, wtdd^ ip tlie nimc of the king V ho grants na well tua ia th&t of the witueM. Bui in the CA0C of the charier at p. 2B6 we have the t(!xC of the original document. ' '* llogeru!*," MS.
[HISTORIA RAMESlENSIS,
SIVE]
LIBER BENEFACTORUM ECCLESIyE RAMESlENSIS.
B5221. Wt. 19804.
INCIPIT LIBER BENEPACTORUM BOOLBSI^ RAMESIENSIS.^
Prcefatio aequentU opei'ia,
TJniversis universalis sanctse matris ecclesiae filiis in quorum manus libellus iste devenerit, Ramesensis ovilis' ccenobii * pusillus grex felici cursu sBtemitatis bravium adipisci. Variam conditionis humanse vicis- situdinem querule retractans sapientissimus Salomo,^ " Qeneratio," inquit, "prseterit et generatio advenit, Eccles.i. 4. " terra vero in setemum stat," ut, videlicet, ilia tan- dem comiptum reeipiat quod corruptis civibus* cor- ruptibile dinoscitur edidisse. Siquidem, prseter solos non maircescentas virtutum fructus, mors omnia finite Isetitise tristitiam, copi^B inopiam, voluptati atigustiam, saluti 89gritudinem, vitffi mortem suecedere ipsis quo- tidianis humansd mutabilitatis motibus experimur* Quoniam itaque aliis decedentibus ad requiem alii vicissim succedunt nascentea ad laborem, necesse est a prsesentibus prsesentia cum iis quae prseterita* [sunt] Utteris ad notitiam posterorum commendari. Sic equidem omnis origo rei et ipsorum quoque primordia temporum scripturse indicio tam prsedeCessorum nostrorum quam nostrse in quos fines saBCuIorum devenerunt notitiee claruere, quamquam legamus plerosque perfectorum* vel ex visione noctuma vel ex divina^ allocutione manifesta tam prseterita quam futura didicisse. Sed
1 tit. om. B. « om. C.
* Salomon, B. 0. ^ sinibns, B. C.
* praeterire, A. B. 8 perfectiorum, B, C. 7 divinaj, B. C.
A 2
4
non omnibas expedit semulari quod paucis Dominus speciali munere legitur contulLsse. In diebus igitur nubis et caliginis, Stephano rege Anglici principatus inonarchiam tenente, et pice recordationis abbate Wal- tero ecclesiam nostram secundum dierum illorum ma- litiam et turbati aeris inclementiam strenue guber- nante, eandem ecclesiam tam de invasione hostili quam de quorundam dissensioae familiar! multimoda, sicut ex sequentibus lectori constabit, adversitas pro- fligavit Cujus dispersionis, quae rerum fere omnium dissipationem secuta est, nos, utcunque collectae reli- quise, et^ nubilosa tandem caligine per clementiam divinam in serenitatem conversa, cartarum nostrarum privilegiorum quoque et cyrographorum cedulas,* de antiquitatis strue recoUectas, omnes in volumen unom, (quae Anglice scriptae fuerant in Latinum ydioma con- versas,^) ad cautelam futurorum et legentium notitiam censuimus congerendas. In quo simul opere situm loci nostri et fundatorum ipsius devotionem, et firmam illam ac spectabilem ad quam post tertiam re-edifica- tionem ecclesia quae nunc cemitur surrexit structuram, qua et regum liberalitas enitescit, archiepiscoporum et episcoporum (quorum quidam ibi a puero educati postmodum ad summi honoris fastigium attigerunt) beneficentia coUaudatur, et caoterorum benefactorum nostrorum opera et soUicitudo cum cementariorum laudabili artificio spectantibus apparet,* studuimus commendare. Quum autem nobis non multa facundise et minora scientiae suppetant argumenta, ea quae vel in vetustissimis codicibus et cedulis* reperimus vel a senioribus nostris relata didicimus non cot[h]umata3 eloquentiae nodosis sententiis intricamus, nee, ut vi- dentes non videant et audientes non intelligant, ver-
» ora. B. C.
- Bcedulas, B. C. oni. x). \j.
• conversup, B. * scedis, B. C.
'* qua et regum .... apparet"] n. B. C.
om. B. C.
borum phaJeris referenda palliamus. Universitatem ergo vestram quicunque prsesentia legitis aut auditis oramus intensius^ et rogamus^ ut agoita pnesentis opusculi inspectione ecclesiae nostiee jura, etsi con- servare minime valetis, continua tamen prece a Do- mino ea integra conservari, eorura quoque coUatoribus aetemsB retributionis prsemia conferri, et noa nihilomi- nus a suspectis semel ex parte animadverBionis peri- culis supema defensione protegi, semper obtineatis, et communiri.
Eosplicit Prcefatio.
1 attentius, B. C.
3 Universitatem .... rogamus'] inserted in marg., B.
[ HI8T0RIA RAME8IENSIS, 8IVE
LIBER BENEFACTORUM ECCLESI^ RAMESIENSIS. ]
(2.)i [Cap. I.]
De ditu InsvlcB qucB Bamesia dicitiir.
Cum 2 igitur in orientali angulo territorii Hunten- dunensis, quem Use fluvii alveus terminis coangustat mariscorum, memorata insula sita est, palustrium in- sularum juxta quantitatem sui pulcherrima est. Quae quia apud plerosque sui commendatione jam nititur, stUi nostri officio non indiget commendari. Attamen ne adjacentem materiam omnino intactam prsBtergre- diamur, locum ilium a parte occidentali (nam alias palustria loca humanis gressibus hand pervia longius prsetenduntur) a tellure solidiori duobus fere balistsa jactibus interjacentes luteae salebrse^ dirimunt. Qui locus olim segni tantummodo amne naves serena ad- vectas aura placido jocundi marginis excipiens gre- mio, nunc, gravi labore et sumptu, lignorum arenas pariter et lapidum congerie lutosa obstructa abysso, via publica vel* calle solido in eadem parte pedibus aditur. Hsec autem insula, duobus ferme millibus in longum extensa, egena latitudine paulo strictior habe-
* For iSacility of reference tiie nmnbers given to the chapters in Gale's edition are retained. They are those in Roman numerals in the margin. The numbers in Arabic figures are those attached by Spel-
man to the divisions in his MS., as referred to in his Gloss. ArchceoL
« cm. B.
* salubrse, A. B.
** via . . . vel] om. B.
8 HISTOUIA
tur. Qu£e tarn alneto quidem quam aanindineto cum virore calami et junci^ pulchre in girum coronata, multo aniequam inhabitaretur, arborum genere potis- Bimum autem abundanti iota vcstiebatur omo. Quae cujus prooeritatis fuerit et quantitatis ex trabium et tignorum quorundam ad tectum ecclesias exinde assumptorum inspectione i)oterit quilibet edoceri. Nunc vero longiore temporis tractu nemorihus ex parte demolitis, terra ubere gleba* arabilis cernitur, et opima fructibus et frugibas jocunda, ortis consitaj pascuis opulenta, nonnuUis adhuc arboribus nemoi-osa, et pratorum gratia vemo tempore spectantibus* ar- ridente velut depicta floribus, tota insula vario colo- ratur colore. Ambitur pneterea Lsdem locus paludibus anguillosis, maris late patentibus, et stagnis multimodi generis piscium et avium natatilium nutritivis. E quibus maris una est Ramesmere, de nomine insube dicta, quse, caeteras adjacentes aquas pulchritudine et fertilitate superexcellens, ab ea parte qua major in- sulsB silva densior habetur, arenosam ipsius oram,* in loco qui dicitur Mereham, pulchre allambens, delec- tabile videntibus spectaculum prsebet In cujus vastis gurgitibus laxatis tam sagenis quam alterius generis retibus, immissis quoque inescatis hamis cum caeteris artis piscatorite instrumentis, admirandae magnitudinis lucei, qui ab incolis HaJcedea^ nuncupantur, persaepe extrahuntur ; et tam diebus quam noctibus indesi- nenter ibi laborat aquatilium industria venatorum. Semper ibi multiplex aquatici generis capitur foetus, semper quod capiatur abundat. Haec de situ insulae et adjacentibus aquis ad notitiam ignorantium ex- arata sufiiciant. Nunc de nominis ratione aliqua breviter subjungamus.
* janccii A. B. » glebiB, A. B. s et, add. A.
* horam, A.
^ Hakedufl, B. C.
RAMEStENSIS.
(3-) [II.]
De etyniologia nominis et triplici ratione,
Igitur Romesia congrue satis dici potest a duobus DerivatioD nominibus Anglicis, rarHj quod est aries, et eie, quod i from^a insulam sonat, ut inde composito nomine Ramesia r*'™ ^o»n<l quasi "insula arietis" nominetur. Siquidem antiqui hujus loci patres junioribus suis, quorum relatione et nos sibi relata didicimus, referre solebant in eadem insula olim, priusquam^ ab ullo inhabitaretur homine vel domestico animali, arietem inter silvestres feras carpentem gramina repertum, qui, ut putatur, limosis^ locis et humentibus^ aliqua* parte insulee vel gelu hiemali obduratis, vel jestivi solis longo forte calore arentibus, relicto alicubi grege suo, illuc errabundus deveniens, eisdem iterum locis in huinorem et molli- tiem solitam resolutis, tortis ac recurvis de naturae artificio comibus armatus heremita remanere compul- sus, sempiternum loco nomen temporalis inhabitator reliquit. Ut autem hoc dictum similium casuum quo- dam coniirinemus exemplo, Augustudunum in finibus BurgundisB nominatissimam urbem a duobus hoedis, qui in initio fundandas civitatis omnium pecudum domesticarum soli ibi inventi sunt, alio nomine Eduam usque hodic constat esse nominatam. Possumus et U. or from aliter nomen ipsum de auctoritate veterum a ramia^^^^^^^ interpretari, quasi " insulam ramorum," ob copiam, thickly videlicet, arborum quae, ut supra taxatum est, anti- ^***^^^* quitus ibi habebatur, sicut restantes adhuc reliquiae testantur. Ex divina autem, ut credimus, Providentia tale loco inditum est nomen, quae ab exordio nascen- tis mundi a Sanctis viris et religiosis banc providit*
1 postqnam, A. > simuJ, add. B. 3 humantibus, A.
^ ex aliqaa, B. * prsBvidit, B.
10
HISTORU
et prtedcivit inhabitandum, qui proculdubio de oleastro
sterili mundanae conversationis securi divinaB voca-
Rom.xi.i7. tioms abecissi, veraB olivae Christo, tanquam boni rami
socii intimBB pinguedinis effecti, solius gratiae insitione^
adhaBrentes, diversos virtutum et bonorum actuum
ill. or from fructus velut virentia folia protulerunt Jam vero ut
the* than- iRterpretationem ipsius nominia aptius ad mysticum
der'of holy intellectum reducamus, congrue dici potest a Ba/messe,
urbo quondam* opulentissima, in extremis, ut vult Ysi-
][8id.mlib. (jQj^g^ NiliacaB regionis sita finibus, quam filiis Israel
C9p. i. divino monitu ab cisdem locis post diutumam durae'
servitutis calamitatem demigrantibus primam legimus
praebuisse mansionem. Harnesses quoque "Commotio"
vel "Tonitruum" interpretatur. Recte igitur huic
loco hoc congruit nomen, quia demorantes in eo viri
sancti psalmodies vel lectionis divinae sonitu quasi
terrore tonitrui a malis compescuntur, et cum Ezechiele
propheta vocem commotionis magnaa post se frequenter
audiunt, dum per exhortationis verbum ad pceniten-
tiam concuss! in lacrimas et gemitum plerumque erum-
pimt. De hujusmodi commotiono per prophetam alium
^ab. iii. 6, dicituT, " Pedes ejus steterunt et mota est terra ; " quia,
ut ait Gregorius, cum veritatis vestigia in mente au-
dientium figuntur, ipsa mens in sui consideratione
turbata commovetur.* Congrue ergo Ramesia "com-
" motio " vel " tonitruum " dicitur, quandoquidem pec-
catores quilibet in ea ad servitium Dei de subdole
blandienti et male pacato mundi amore conversi, ex
contritione commoti et conteriti, sua acta condem*
nantes, in moerore poenitentias salubriter perturbantur.
Haec triplici jam ratione de ipsius etymologia nominis
breviter perstrinximus, siquid rectius super hoc aut
utilius dici potest tuo, O lector, arbitrio relinquentes,
Ezek. iii. 12.
Septuag,
^ incisione, B.
2 quodam, A.
' dirae, B.
* " quia cum yeritas in corde
** figitur, mentis immohilitas agita- " tnr.** Moral, in Job, lib. xi. cap. 10.
BAMESIENSIS. 11
duiomodo omnimodis tuje cohstet prudenti88 honestum esse de incertis honesta sastimare, et in re ambigua, de qua nulla invenitur auctoritas majorum, in meliorem semper partem deflect! debere aestimationem.
(4.) tin.]
De gmiealogict Aylwini jEldermanni}
Jam vero quia propositse narationis id deposcit Parentage utilitas, ad incliti quondam ducis uEthelwpni],^ advo- *'[^^*^^"^' cati nostril genus declarandum articulos cum calamoofEast convertamus. Hoc siquidem et studii ipsius nobis ^^^^^' adauget materiam, et inchoati operis provectum prse- parat et proventum.* Fuit in diebus iEthelstani, totius olim Anglise basilei, quidam Orientalium Anglorum dux, regise dignitatis consors et nominis, ab atavis regibus prseclara ingenuse successionis linea transfusus, cui innataa devotio liberalitatis apud conterminales multam gratiam comparavit, apud hostes patri83 non- nullam virtus bellica invidiam generavit. Qui, quia et nobiKtate naturse et opum affluentia terrenarum et prudentia seculari celebri jBstimatione reddebatur in- signis, prsecipue vero quia ipsi regi adeo officiosa wat ejus impensa sedulitas ut ad arbitrium ipsius cuncta regni negotia tractarentur, iccirco ab universis " iEthel- His father " stan Halfkyng/'* quod est "semirex," dicebatur. f,*"^ Is, cum in fortioris adolescentise robur devenisset, obking." amorem sobolis procreandae uxorem sibi quandam, Alf- wen nomine, tam generositate natalium quam non il- lepidae speciei gratia thoro suo congruentem, maritali dotavit connubio. Haec postea inclitum regem -^dga- His mother rum, tenerum adhuc in cunis puenmi, sedulitate ^?"® **^ matema nutrivit et educavit. Qui postmodum debito Edgar.
> Ailwini aldermaimi, B. | ^ Hoc . . . proventwii] om. B.
» Ailwini, B. | * Halfkineg, B. and in Add.
12 HTSTORIA
sibi haereditaria sorte totius Angliaj regimine suscepto, nutricis suae acceptis beneficiis non ingratus, viUam de Westona eidem regali munificontia largitns est, quam filius ejuH Alderraannus postea, matre necessitudine naturae e medio sublata, Raraesensi eeclesi«? in per- petuam eleemosynam pro ejus anima condonavit. Hac igitur praefato viro nupta et fecundata, quatuor filio- Psai. ixxx. rum distincto naseendi ordine, " ad flumen usque et ixxix. 12^ " mare " se extendens, pulchra genninavit propago. Nam cum in gratiam omnium adolescerent et favorem, usque ad remotiores patriae fines multae causae celebrem juvenibus notitiam contulere, eorumque mores ingenuoa ultro tarn prudentiae quam benignitatis nobilitavit ac- cessus. Qui naturae fnedere copulati solo sectandae justitiae zelo pulchre sibi sine invidia contendebant. Primus iEthclwoldus, secundus Alfwoldus, tertius Atbelsinus,^ quartus iEthelwynus^ dicebatur. Quorum ultimas, etsi eum natura ' statuisset novissimum, disci- plinatae tamen moralitatis pretio supra caeteros virtu- tis multimode mercabatur prioratum. Horum pater, His father prsenominatus dux Ethelstanus,* cum jam multum sui
became a ^ . . ., ..,.,, .i..
monk at tempoiis in openbus pus et virtutum exercitus con- Giaston- summasset, sagaci providentia mundum ante deludens quam deluderetur a mundo, monachus factus Glastoniae prioris naevos tetatis maturiori expiavit conversatione. Tandemque pnedictos novellos fecundae vitis quatuor palmites in sortis suae haereditariae et morum succes- sione relinquens, ibidem vitoe et ^ finem sortitus est et sepulchrum. Perseveravit autem vir iste Christianissi- mus ab Ethelstano^ rege piissimo usque ad nepotem ipsius ex fratre Edmundo^ illustrem regem Edgarum,® He lived quatuor scilicet regum tempora complens. Fidejubent
A.D. 925-
960, as ^
ancient
charters i iEthelsius, B.
2 ^dwinus, B. ; Ailwinus, B. in Add.
3 ortn, add. B.
* ^thclstanus, B.
« et vit«, B. • JEthelstano, B.
7 Eadmundo, B.
8 ^Mganun, B.
RAMESIENSIS. 13
sermonis nostri veritatem quaedam in archivis ecclesise in the nostroQ repertas vetustissirase scedulae, eorundem r^gum JJ^ ^^^^^ noiuina et quibusdam personis factas ab eisdem terrarum testify, donationes continentes ; quse donationes etiam ab ipsis personis postmodum ecclesiie nostrae in perpetuam eleemosynam cum earundem scedularum muniinento sunt collataj, in quanim singulis vir ille inter alios nobiles earundem donationum testis invenitur ascrip- tus.
(5-) tlV.]
De prosapia incliti regis jEdgari, va cvbjus diebue ecclesia nostra fvmdata est
Quia vero praedicti illustris regis iEdgari tempore Deacent of ecclesia nostra primse constructionis suae initium sump- -^jL^^ sit, et, magna libertate ipsius illustrata beneficio, vali- turo quoque in aevum ejusdem munita est privilegio, operas pretium arbitrati sumus de supradictorum regum genere successivo pauca inserere, lectoribus quatinus,^ scilicet, nosae cupientibus per quos meatus memoratus rex Edgarus aviti ^ sanguinis praeclaram traxerit venam evidenter innotescat, et omnis ante lectoris faciein, si qua emerserit, difficultas complanetur. Igitur, sicut testatur fastorum series vel chronicorum, jam dictus pacificus rex iEthelstanus incliti illius Alfredi regis, AnglicaruiQ legum conditoris, ex filio Edwardo,^ qui ei successit in regnum, nepos fuit; ejusdem autem Ed- wardi^ quinque filiorum, quos de diversis tulerat uxo- ribus, primogenitus extitit, alto quidem patris profusus sanguine, sed, ut fertur, non aeque nobilis, exceptus gremio concubinae. Tamen quia notam banc, quam malorum invidia proponebat, elegantis gratia speciei et
^ UcL quat.'] lectioni. Qui I ^ ^dwardo, 6. cujus, B. * I * iEdwardi, B.
* -ffidgarus a viri, B. 1
14
mSTORIA
A.D. 924. virtuasBB mentis ^ industria palliavit, potissimum autem quia fratcr ejus Eswaldus* patris Edwardi' de legi- tiroa conjuge filius, patrem decedentem dta morte se- cutus est, principatum adeptus, et ab Athelmo* archi- episcopo Dorobemensi consecratus,* multa gloria et nobilitate tempora sua venustavit et regnum. Cujus laudem versificus quidam inetrico commendans carmine, inter csetera ait,
Magnus iSthelstanus patriae decus, orbita recti, Illustris probitas de vero nescia flecti.^
Tantae quidem strenuitatis et providentisB ^ erat ut opinionem suam usque ad Europam dilatatam et no- men intra nativi soli terminos non sineret contineri, unde factum est ut exteri reges et principes sorores ejus, quas pater indotatas reliquerat, per internuncios nobiles xeniis et muneribus onustos in conjugium sibi dari postularent^ et acciperent, quatinus^ compago copulsB genialis perpetuaa inter eos amicitiaa et pads^^ foedus contineret.
[V.] (6.)
Quod'^^ Smictvs Odo ad Dorohemensis EcdesicB Archiepwcopaium lyromovetv/r,
Interea Wlfelmo, prsBdicti domini Dorobemensis
Athelmi^^ successore, natursB munere functo, vir cele-
A.D. 934. berrimaB opinionis et sanctitatis plurimse Odo unanimi
pointS" **^ ^®S^ quam totius cleri voto et assensu ad geren-
archbishop of Canter- bury.
> om. B.
2 Elwardus, B.
8 -S^dwardi, B.
* ^thebno, B.
* consecratuT, A.
6 Quoted by Will, of Malmesbury as part of a long extract from an unknown poem, Gesta Return, ii. §138.
B.
7 prudcntias, B. ^ postularunt, A. * quavis, B.
10 vel, add. A.
11 Quomodo . .
w -ffithelmi, B.
promotns est.
RAMESIENSIS. 15
dam ejusdem ecclesiaa sollicitudinem decemitur promo- a.d. 934. vendus. Hie vero, qui nondum^ monachici habitus accepisset amictum^ sine cujus schemate nullum ante sua tempora eandem sedem impune didicerat conscendisse, ne vel sanctorum patrum sententiae refragari vel contra antiquam ipsius ecclesisa dignitatem temere venire vi- deretur, non minorem offensam, torporem inobedientise, quam zeluin ambitionis contrahere sciens, utrique de- sperationis periculo hoc modo obviavit. Transito ocius Odo ad- mari Floriacense coenobium, quod in Galliis j^xta^Jf^^^* Ligeris alveum situm est, adiit, ubi eo, quem longoFi«i«7 ante* tempore moribus et vita praetulerat, habitu reli- cept^g^he gionis accepto, celeriter repatrians, sumpta archipraesu- archMs- latus insignia omni vitae suae tempore sacris operibus ^ et virtutum mentis uberius insignivit. Cujus sancti- tatem comperiens rex iEthektanus ejus ssapius delecta- batur alloquiis et consiliis adquievit.
(7.) [VI.]
Miraculvmi quod per eundem Scmctvm Odoneni Dominus operatv^ est,
Quodam ergo dierum contra Analafum, quendam A.D. 9S8. Barbarorum ducem strenuissimum, qui hostUi u^va-gj^^^f sione partem jam Angliae turbaverat, exercitum ducens, burgh, virum sanctum in comitatu habuit, ipsius meritis eventum belli ^ prosperum sibi fieri posse confisus. Igitur hostibus castra regis sub caeca nocte callide invadentibus, facta strictius partium congressione, dum se mutuis ictibus dilaniant, dum stridores lituorum fierent et fremitus armorum, forte regius ensis e vagina
* necdum, B. i » bellara. B.
^ aatem, B. |
16 HISTORIA
lapsus adversariis quidem incrementum audaciae, ipsi vero rogi et Ruis plurimum formidinis, importavit Quo cognito vir beatus oravit et vaginae regis vacuae alius divinitus missus^ est ensis, quo ad nutum viri JEthei- I^ei educto populatorcs palantes ca?si sunt, et de eis Stan's mi- inopinata ceieritate triumphatum. In argumentum
raculously t , -. ^. , . • i • -j • • xi.
given divmsB bomtatis et regiae victonse idem ensis in tne- B word pre- ^amis rccrum ut fertur, usque hodie reservatur. Sancti
served in . * .
ihc royal Oswoldi, Eboraccnsis ai*chipra&sulis, gratia, de quo m- treanury. {^^1X18 plurima relatu digna referemus, hujus sancti Odo uncle viri, quia ejus patruus fuit, mentionem huic operi of arch- censuimus ingerendam, occasionem de pnedieto regis Oswald, triumpho aucupati.^ Nunc ad idem' unde digressi sumus revertamur.
[VII.] (8.)
OhitiLS incUti regis ^thelstani,
A.D. 941. Reliquos ergo regis iEthelstani triumphos et virtutem bellicaui, qua cunctis liostibus patriae formidini fuit, quia alionim Uteris legentibus luce clarius innotescit, nostris apicibus non indiget illustrari. Tandem igitur, dum adhuc tanti pretii tela ordiretur, fatalis incom- modi imniaturo succisa est accessu. Post xvi. circiter
K'"g, annos suscepti principatus ecclesiam Malmesbyriensem *
iKthelstan .. ^ / \., , ., . -^ ,.
buried at cum opibus et pnediis pluribus exuviarum regahum Maimes- nobilitavit sepultura.*^
bury. *
* immissiif, B.
2 aucupari, B.